YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY HISTORY OF THE PLOTS III GRIMES OF THE GREAT CONSPIRACY TO OVERTHROW LIBERTY IN AMERICA. COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME. By JOHN SMITH DYE. NEW YORK: ZTPTTBr-iISIEIIEID IE3"5r THE J^TJTJEZiOFL No. 100 Bkoadwat. 1866. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by JOHN SMITH DTE, In tbe Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. IE3 IFL IE IF" .A. O El'- It is the object of the author to give, in a small compass, a complete history of tbe political crimes originating with African Slavery, and perpetrated by its friends, during the last century, in America. We think it necessary, for the good of future generations, to show bow these men resorted to the most atrocious means to defeat the nation's will, and control the Government; and all these failing, how they rose in open rebellion, determined to destroy the power they could no longer control. We deem it useless to speak here of the assassination of three of our most illustrious Presidents, all of whom were swept aside like cobwebs when they stood in the way of tbe conspirator's unholy designs. Thus all the chief magistrates elected, since the foundation of the Government, in opposition to the slave interests, in some form or other, became victims of assassination. We have given the history of these foul deeds in detail ; and the evidence furnished will enable the reader to judge under- standingly, and correctly. We have thought proper to throw out a few hints about State Sovereignty under the head of Origin and History of the American Union, and Historical Sketches of Crvri, Wars in other Countries. Also a detailed account of IV PREFACE^ all important events and battles from the outbreak of the rebel lion to its overthrow, showing that the sword, and the sword alone, conquered peace. Slavery, the cause of our strife, must be wiped out ; as the object'; of the rebellion was to extend and perpetuate it; and retain the black man in hopeless bondage. The rebellion failed ; and all its hopes and expectations must perish with its fall. The slaves, by the logic of events, should now become as free as their masters. But as the latter sought to destroy the Federal Government when they ceased to control it, so they now seek by various devices to bring about a condition of things calculated to produce a war of races. They want the civilized world to justify them in their mischievous designs in defying the General Gov ernment behind their old fortification,' the rights of the States, where they are now enacting unequal laws, determined to retain all the substance, while they acknowledge that the form of slavery has become extinct. They design to use the black as an instrument to curtail the liberty of the white. But they will learn that there is no safety for their own freedom, except through justice and equal laws to the former. JOHN SMITH DYE. INDEX, Page Adams, John 45 Arming Slaves 142 American Union — Its Origin and History 146 Army of the Potomac, its commander and battles, previous to Gen. Grant. . . 116 Assassins, Trial of 310 Assassinations of Distinguished Persons in other Countries 35 1 Bill of Rights 5 Bill Repealing Missouri Compromise 59 Brown, John 67 " " Changes His Base ]01 Buchanan, President — Attempt to Assassinate Him 90 Charleston — Its Fall 244 Chicago Convention and Platform, McClellan, &c 129 Committee to Draft Declaration of Independence 4 Convention in Philadelphia 7 Calhoun, John C 15 His Vision ., 23 His Last Speech 55 Detesting the Union , 121 Emancipation Proclamation 136 Fillmore, Millard — His Accession to Office, and His Hush-up-Policy 55 Fugitive Slave Law 56 First Gun at Fort Sumter 106 Grant — His Personal and Military History, Complete 251 In Mexico 252 Frederickstown, Belmont, Fort Donaldson, Pittsburgh Landing, Corinth, Memphis, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Wilderness, Cold Harbor Gaines' Mills, Cedar Creek, Petersburg and Richmond 255 Harrison, President — Why, and How he was Assassinated 36 History of Great Civil Wars Jefferson, Thomas 4 Jackson, President — Attempt to Assassinate Him 27 Kansas — Slavery Outrages, Action of the House of Representatives, Orders of the Governor, Federal Dragoons brought into the Field, Indig nation Meeting at Lecompton, its Legislation 61 vi INDEX. Page Lincoln, Life of 296 " Re-election 135 Madison, James 10 Nullifiers— Their Real Designs .' . . . 21 Peace by Diplomacy 185 Polk, President — Takes His Seat, Situation of Parties. .' 47 Pierce, President, desires to acquire Cuba. ¦ • • • ^6 Plot to Assassinate President Lincoln — The Conspirators 113 Sherman and His Great Campaigns, Complete 204 Slavery, Enemies of — Strengthened by Provision in Constitution, Denounced in Original Draft of the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Sale, Acts for Abolition of, Opinions of our First Presidents, Above Compromise, Outrages in Kansas; Slaveholders Become Rampant and Commence War on Civilization, Why Slavehold ers Detested the Union 121 Secret Societies 62 State "Rights Doctrine, President Jackson On 18 Tyler, President, succeeds Harrison,. His Unpopularity, His Cabinet entirely from Slave States, elected President df Peace Convention 41 Taylor, President, Suppresses Cuban Invasion, Resolve to take His Life, His Assassination 54 To the American People — The Rights of the North and the Rights of the South, the Rights of the White, and Rights of the Black Man —What should be done 357 Virginia Legislature 189 Washington, George i 12 Webster, Daniel — Reply to Calhoun 25 Wilmot Proviso 49 Walker, Gen. Wm 87 Wilmington— Its Capture 248 MR. LINCOLN'S FAVORITE POEM; This was written by William Knox, a young Scotchman, a contemporary of Walter Scott, who died quite young, leaving this production as a monument to his youthful and gifted mind. His remarks on the Declaration of Independence, and fondness for this poem, display the goodness of Mr. Lincoln's heart. Oh ! why should the spirit of mortal be proud 1 — Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, Be scattered around, and together be laid ; And the young and the old, and the low and the high, Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie. The infant a mother attended and loved ; The mother, that infant's affection who proved The husband, that mother and infant who blest,— Each, all, are away to their dwelling of rest. [The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye, Shone beauty and pleasure — her triumphs are by ; And the memory of those who loved her and praised, Are alike from the minds of the living erased."] The hand of the king, that the sceptre hath borne, The brow of the priest, that the mitre hath worn, The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave, Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap, The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep, The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread, Have faded away like the grass that we tread. [The saint, who enjoyed the communion of heaven, The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven, The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.] So the multitude goes — like the flower or the weed, That withers away to let others succeed ; So the multitudes come — even those we behold, To repeat every tale that has often been told : For we are the same our fathers have been ; We see the same sights our fathers have seen ; We drink the same stream, we view the same sun, And run the same course our fathers have run. The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think ; From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink I To the life we are clinging, they also would cling — But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing. They loved — but the story we can not unfold ; They scorned — but the heart of the haughty is cold ; They grieved — but no wail from their slumber will come ; They joyed — but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. They died — ay, they died — we things that are now, That walk on the turf that lies over their brow, And make in their dwelling a transient abode. Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road. Tea! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain Are mingled together in sunshine and rain ; And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. Tis the wink of an eye, — 'tis the draught of a breath ; From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud : — Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? THE FATHEES THE EEVOLUTION. THEIR DEVOTION TO FREEDOM. • On the fifteenth day of May, 1776, the birds had returned with the season, and were making forest and grove resound with their songs. The beautiful spring flowers had matured in all their loveliness, and climbing on their tiny leaves the Honey Bee sweetly sung out that winter was gone. Although nature was smiling, the Colonies were sad. The tyranny of England had kindled a feeling of revenge in their minds, which soon cast the political elements back into chaos. It was on the above mentioned dajr, that John Adams, as Chair man of a Committee, presented a resolution in Congress, which was adopted, recommending to the respected assemblage and convention of the United Colonies, the establishment of a gov ernment suited to the exigency of the times. This resolu tion gained favor with the public, and on the seventeenth day of June following, Richard Henry Lee moved, and John Ad ams seconded the resolution, declaring that "these United Col onies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States ; and that all political connection between them and Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." After daily de liberations on these resolutions for over a month, on the sec ond of July they were unanimously adopted by Congress ; and on the same day it appointed Thomas Jefferson, John 1 4 THE FATHERS OF Adams, Benjamin Feanklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston a Committee to draft "a Declaration of Inde pendence." Although Mr. Adams was rocked in the cradle of liberty, Mr. Jefferson was unanimously known is, her champion ; and on him was the honor conferred of drafting the Declaration. He did it; and, after some amendments, it was solemnly adopted in the city of Philadelphia, on the glorious and ever memora ble Fourth of July, 1776. After being read, the great bell on the hall began, as if by magic, to ring, reverberating the great and immortal, truths just promulgated. Its loud notes thundered dismay to the minds of tyrants, but kindled hope in the breasts of the people. ¦* The enemy having a large naval force in our harbors, sava ges on our frontiers, treason in our camps, spies in our cities, gold in their coffers, and gibbets in their eye — the fawning sycophant, the man who wanted peace in his day, the go- between threatening and promising ; and last, the cowardly sympathizer with the hated foe — all these to other men would have appeared unsurmountable obstacles. But in the face of all — God bless them— they boldly stepped forward, deter mined to be free, leaving themselves no alternative but " lib erty or death." They had the sagacity to determine the right, and the cour age to maintain it. While others were wavering, they were firm ; they could neither be courted, intimidated nor bribed ; the wealth of the Indies would have been to them as dust. No royal standard could have induced them to forsake the standard of liberty. In the darkest hour a halo bf glory surrounded them — a secret self-sustaining influence, which dispelled all gloom. They gathered from the never changing laws of human nature, that mankind, without regard to race, condition, country, clime or color, desired and deserved every where to be free. Thus, " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness " are enun ciated in the Declaration of Independence as the inherent rights of man ; " and to secure these rights governments are THE REVOLUTION. 5 instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed." Here Mr. Jefferson not only sets forth and enumerated the rights, but he positively asserts that to secure them is the chief object of governments. He discards the idea of gov erning by '' divine, right," and shows that governments should be created, not against, but by the will and consent of the governed. The power to rule is. always lodged with the peo ple, and put in motion by. the will of the majority. This was the, foundation laid down in the Bill of Rights ; and wherever it has been steadily adhered to, liberty has been protected, life has been secure, property well guarded, and unbounded prosperity has everywhere been the reward, to such a degree, that it has no parallel in the history of man kind. God, in his infinite wisdom, decreed that the man who wrote the Declaration, and the man who advocated it, were the last living witnesses of its adoption by the American Congress, and the latest, survivors of those who subscribed it on the Fourth of July. Charles Carroll, being absent on a secret mission on the fourth, subscribed it afterwards. On the anniversary of the fiftieth year from the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted, they both departed this life. When the sun of the glorious Jubilee shone in un clouded and meridian splendor, during the very hour on which, fifty years before, the Declaration was read by him and adopted by Congress, Thomas Jefferson died, exulting that that was the day and the hour. Just as the sun was saluting with his parting rays the same glorious day, and during the very hour on which, fifty years before, the Declaration of In dependence was read from the State House to the citizens of Philadelphia, John Adams expired, exclaiming, " It is a great and glorious day ;" and while giving utterance to the last word he departed. These great men always understood the design and end of government to be freedom, and security. And however our eyes may be beguiled with show, or our ears deceived by sound; however prejudice may warp our judgments, or interest darken 6 THE FATHERS OF our understandings, the simple voice of nature and reason will say it is right. They had no model in Grecian or Roman history to build from ; but took as their guide the desire of all men to be free. Liberty was the chief corner-stone ; they claimed it as a gift from the Almighty, coupled with humanity, equality and justice." With such a natural, stable, and solid founda tion, it shadowed forth the noblest effort of human wisdom. It was under the foregoing principles that the war of the Revolution was commenced, and 60 triumphantly brought to its close. It was the departure from those principles, when the organic law of the general government was formed, that induced the great and good Lafayette to remark, " That he would never have drawn his sword in the cause of America if he had thought that thereby he was founding a land of slavery." Among the enemies of slavery could be counted Washing ton, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Sherman, Livingston, Patrick Henry, Madison, Hancock, Morris, St. Clair, the Randolphs — John and Thomas. Add to the. above the rest of the signers of the Declaration, backed up by the great document itself. We defy and challenge the world to show one single patriot of the Revolution who was in favor of Slavery, or advocated its extension. Some desired its gradual extinction, but not one can be named who spoke in favor of its remaining as a permanent Institution. Well may the poet exclaim : " The tender ties of parent, husband, frierjd, All bonds of nature, all in slavery end. All other sorrows virtue may endure, And find submission more than half a cure, But slavery, virtue dreads it as her grave. Patience is meanness in a slave. Now is the dawning of a better day. Come, snap the chain the moment when you may. Nature imprints upon whate'er we see, That has a heart and life in it, be tree." THE REVOLUTION. WHAT SLAVERY DID FOR THE CONSTITUTION. The War of the Revolution having been brought to a suc cessful termination, the Colonies began to feel the need of " a more perfect union." Surrounded as they were by savage tribes, self-defence and the general welfare demanded some thing more for their protection. Thus, in 1787, a Convention as sembled in Philadelphia and laid the foundations of our Na tional Government. Notwithstanding the Revolution had been fought and won on the doctrine of equal rights, yet, when the colonies formed a national compact, they set aside the principles on which their liberties had been gained. The 3d clause of Section 2d, article 1st, relating to repre sentatives and taxes. Capital in general is subject to taxa tion ; but capital invested in slaves is, in addition, allowed rep resentation. " The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand." This excludes Indians not taxed, but negro slaves are counted as three to five. The practical operation of this clause in the Constitution is, that ten white men owning 50,000 slaves would be allowed one Representative in the lower branch of Congress ; while ten who had invested a similar amount of capital, or ten times the amount in lands or merchandise would have nothing to say ex cept one vote each. They would just lack 29,990 more white persons to be entitled to a representative. Their capital in vested in real estate and merchandise might be taxed, but to be represented also, they would have to invest it in negro slaves. ' In a speech delivered in the Tremont Temple, Boston, Mass., by Robert Toombs of Georgia, Jan. 24th, 1856, he said of the above clause : " This provision strengthens slavery by giving the existing slave holding states many more representatives in Congress than they would have if slaves were considered only as property. Twenty Representatives in Congress hold their seats to-day by virtue of this clause." ' Section IX, article 1st, as it reads in the Constitution : " The migration or importation of such persons as any of the 8 THE FATHERS OF States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may. be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person," This section recognized the slave trade for a period of twenty years, or until 1808. Mr. Martin, of Maryland, one of the dele gates, proposed to amend that clause, so as to prohibit the slave trade. For, said he, it is inconsistent-with the principles of the Revolution.. But Mr. Rutledge, of South Carolina, immediately jumped to his feet and remarked,, that the true question was, whether the Southern States shall or shall not be parties to the. Union. Pinkney, of the same State, remarked that South Carolina would never accept the Constitution if it prohibited the slave-trade. After which Mr. Rutledge remarked, if the convention think that North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia will ever agree to be parties, unless their right to im port slaves be untouched, the expectation is vain. The article, was. so altered as to allow the importation of slaves until 1800, but this was too short a time. Pinkney, of South Carolina, moved to strike out 1800 and insert 1808, and the motion was carried. In the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, the slave trade, is denounced as piratical warfare. These denunciations were struck out of the Declaration of Independ ence in compliance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, wished to continue it. — Writings of Thos. Jefferson. In the Sputh Carolina Convention, Judge Pendleton ob served that only three states, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, allowed the importation of negroes. Their reason for so doing was that during the last war they lost vast numbers of them, which loss they wished to supply. It was notorious that the postponement of immediate abo lition (of the slave trade) was indispensible to secure the adoption of the Constitution. It was a necessary sacrifice to THE REVOLUTION. 9 the prejudices and interests of a portion of the Southern States.— Zd Story Com. Con. 1828, 1829. Mr. Morris, of Pennsylvania, thought it would avoid am biguity by making the clause read thus : " The importation of slaves into North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia shall not be prohibited." He wished it to be known that that part of the Constitution toas a compact with those States. The 2d section of article IV. of the Constitution reads thus : " No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof escaping into another shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such ser vice or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due." This was inserted in the Constitution by the same influence. Butler and Pink ney, of South Carolina, moved to require fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like criminals. Why the word slave was left out of the Constitution. The Northern delegates, owing to their peculiar scruples on the subject of slavery, did not choose to have the word slave men tioned.— 4 Ell, Deb. 175. Story says that it was agreed that slaves should be repre sented under the milder appellation of " other persons," not as free persons, but only in proportion of three-fifths. The clause was in substance borrowed from that passed by the Continen tal Congress on the 18th of April, 1783. — 2d Story Com. 641. The 15th clause of the 8th section of the 1st article of the Constitution, provides for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, sxtvpr ess. insurrections, and repel inva sions. Gov. Livingston of N.J. , from the General Committee, reported this clause as it stands in the Constitution. Madison, Randolph, and other patriots kept the words ser vant and slave from being inserted in that instrument, and substituted in their stead service and person. The South has always viewed the above phrases as mean ing slaves and slavery • while the North has soothed its abo lition conscience by boasting that the word slave or slavery is not mentioned in the Constitution. All admit that that : in- 10 THE FATHERS OF strument did not create slavery, for it existed, as an inher itance from Great Britain, long before the Revolution. For over one hundred and fifty years slaves had been held by the Colonists, and if the Constitution had set a limit to the traffic on land, as it did on the sea, we should not have had the pres ent rebellion. Thus the Union, through the Constitution, was bound up with the sinews and cemented with the blood of the African slave. The anti-democratic feature of the Federal Constitution was always viewed by the patriots of the Revolution with a jealous eye. James Madison, in a letter to Edmund Randolph, dated New York, April 8th, 1787, remarks : " It is also already seen by many, and must by degrees be seen by all, that unless the Union be organized efficiently on republican principles, innovations of a much more objectionable form may be ob truded, or, in the most favorable event, the partition of the empire into rival and hostile confederacies wiM ensue." opinions and policy of the presidents and congress » from 1789 to 1820. In the preceeding pages we have given a concise account of the organization of our Government, with hints on the character, opinions and designs of the managers and actors in the war of Independence. We now purpose to admit what they did, explain what they should have done, and did not, and give a truthful account of the consequences that followed. In governments they denied and repudiated the dogma of ruling by " divine right ;" abolished titles of nobility and en tailment of estates, evils that originated with despots, and shave been continued only for the benefit of the craft. They Tejected those assumed rights as antagonistic to Republican ^Governments. But, while they did this, they left it in the Tpower of the States to retain the most dreadful foe of human ity that had reached their time. Thus the sin of omission be came with them downright transgression. The recognition { iby the Government of the unnatural traffic in human flesh and THE REVOLUTION. 11 blood, permitting States to retain laws sustaining the buying and selling, and dooming to perpetual bondage its laboring poor, has proved a national disgrace, and is now the damning scourge that threatens our disolution. To show the reader the terms by which a slave is held and transferred, we copy, verbatim, a Bill of Sale, a South Carolina relic of the rebellion : SLAVE BILL OF SALE. "Bill of Sale. " Know all men by these presents, that I, W. S. Whaley, for and in consideration of the sum of six hundred dollars to me in hand paid, at and before the sealing and delivery of these presents by Wm. M. Murry the acceptor thereof, I do hereby acknowledge to have bargained and sold, and by these presents do bargain and sell, and deliver to the said Wm. M. Murray, a negro woman, named Harriet, warranted sound, to have and to hold the said wench Harriet, with her future issue and in crease, unto the said Wm. M. Murray, his executors, adminis trators and assigns, to his and their only purpose, use and be hoof, forever ; and I, the said W. S. Whaley, my executors and administrators, the said bargained premises unto the said Wm. M. Murray, his executors and administrators and assigns, from and against all persons shall and will warrant and forev er defend by these presents. " In witness thereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, dated at Charleston on the fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty, and in the sixty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America. W. S. WHALEY. [Seal.J " Signed, sealed and delivered, in the presence of " THOMAS S. GADDEN." This traffic in human flesh is an unpardonable sin against human nature. It has been our great national sin against the Holy Ghost, which can be forgiven neither in this life nor the life that is to come. 12 THE FATHERS OF Now as governments have no future existence, their sins must be punished here. And as war is one of the most effec tual means the Almighty takes to chastise a guilty nation, he has sent it on us in its most malignant form. Not a war against a foreign. power, but a war among ourselves — a national sui cide. Truly our scourge cap only be surpassed by our crimes. No question of sufficient magnitude could have ever been in troduced to unite the people of one section against the other in battle array, except this very question of slavery. We shall now give a few thoughts on the policy of the ear ly Fathers ; and the reader can rely upon its being a correct history in every particular. When quotations and dates are given, they are from the best authorities and can never be con troverted. Of, the reasoning and suggestions the world will determine for itself. General Washington's election, as the first President of the United States, took place in 1789. His re-election in 1793. He gathered around him as his chief advisers, such men as Thomas Jefferson and Edmund Randolph for Cabinet officers, men who were and are well known to have been dia metrically opposed to slavery in every form. John Adams, who was elected in 1797, called to his Cabinet Timothy Pickering, Oliver Wolcott, James McHenry, Joseph Habersham and Charles Lee. All had previously been mem bers of Washington's Cabinet. Thomas Jefferson, elected Nov. 1801, and re-elected in 1805, chose for his chief Cabinet officer James Madison, and held Joseph Habersham and Benjamin Stoddert. Joseph Haber sham had been Post-Master- General under both President Washington and John Adams. He occupied the same posi tion in Jefferson's Cabinet. Benjamin Stoddert had served as Secretary of the Navy under Adams, and was so continued by Jefferson. James Madison, elected first in 1809, and re-elected in 1813, brought in James Monroe as his chief Cabinet adviser; and when Monne was elected in 1817, he made John Quincey Adams Secretary of State. During these several Adminis- THE REVOLUTION. 13 trations, Congress passed no less than four slave trade acts. The first is the act of 1807. The second is the act of 1818. The third is the act of 1819. Its first section of the last authorizes the President to employ armed vessels of the United States to enforce the acts of Con gress prohibiting the slave trade. The fourth is the act of 1820, making the slave trade piracy. The great blow given to slavery by the Declaration of In dependence, caused Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, in 1780, to pass acts for its abolition. New York followed in 1799, by gradual emancipation, to be completed in 1827. New Jersey passed an act in 1784 to gradually emancipate, to be completed in 1820. Rhode Island, in 1784. Connecticutin 1797. New Hampshire abolished slavery in her constitution. "Vermont jdid the same, and was admitted into the Union March 4th, 1791. The North West Territory was made free under the Ordinance of 1787. Maine came into the Union with a free Constitution March 3d, 1820. Thus for a period of 28 years the General Government was managed by men opposed to slavery. In fact nearly all civil ized nations, at that time, were arrayed against it. An act in Great Britain, in 1807, made the slave trade unlawful. Den mark refused to admit African slaves in her Colonies after 1804. The Congress of Vienna, in 1815, pronounced for the abolition of the trade. France abolished it in 1817. So did Spain ; the acts to take effect after 1820. Portugal abolished it in 1818. HEAR THEIR OPINIONS OF SLAVERY : In a letter to Robert Morris, dated Mount Vernon, April 12, 1786, Washington says : " I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it. But there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished ; and that is by legislative authority, and this, as far as my suf frage will go, shall never be wanting." John Adams, one of the Committee who assisted in drawing 14 THE FATHERS OF up the Declaration of Independence ; the man whom Thomas Jefferson called the column of Congress, the pillar of support of the Declaration of Independence, and its ablest advocate and defender, agreed with Washington. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to a friend, dated July 31, 1814, remarks : " What an incomprehensible machine is man, who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow-man a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose." " We must wait with patience the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that a way is preparing for the deliver ance of these our brethren, when the measure of their tears shall be full. When their groans shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a God of Justice will awaken to their distress. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that this people shaU be free." James Madison, in speaking against the slave trade, said : " It is to be hoped that by expressing a national disapproba tion of the trade we may destroy it, and save our country from reproaches, and our posterity from the imbecility ever attendant on a country filled with slaves." Furthermore, he said, " It is wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there can be property in man." James Monroe, in a speech in the Virginia Convention, said : "We have found that this evil has preyed upon the very vitals of the Union, and has been prejudicial to all the States in which it has existed." John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States, ap pointed 26th September, 1789, during Washington's Admin istration, in a letter to the Hon. Elias Boudinot, dated Novem- v ber 17th, 1819, says : " Little can be added to what has been said and written on the subject of slavery. I concur in the opinion that it ought not to be introduced nor permitted in any of the new States, and that it ought to be gradually di minished and finally abolished in all of them." THE REVOLUTION. 15 Our entire volume might be filled up with extracts from these great men's writings and speeches. From 1789 until 1817, a period of twenty-eight years, so distasteful were the slave sentiments of South Carolina statesmen, that through eight successive presidential terms not one of its leading men ever held a seat in the Gabinet of any of the Presidents, save and except Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the Navy under Mad ison, in 1809 ; and we have the best of evidence that he was a man of liberal views, or he would not have been chosen for one of the Cabinet officers. SATAN ENTERED PARADISE. It was on the 8th day of October, 1817, that the Devil en tered Paradise. John C. Calhoun, then young, with princi ples little understood, was chosen by James Monroe as his Secretary of War. Up to this time no question had arisen in the councils of the General Government that threatened any serious disturbance. In 1819 and 1820 Missouri, formed out of the Louisiana purchase, organized with a slave Constitution, and knocked at the door of the Union for admission. This was the first time since the adoption of the Federal Consti tution that slavery presented itself in a political aspect. There was a peculiar clause in the Missouri Constitution, not only establishing slavery, but also forbidding any legislative interference with it. This was something uncommon in State constitutions, and the doctrine of placing any State institu tions above and beyond the reach of legislative authority was received by many as dangerous. Many other objections were made, but finally the controversy settled down on the single question of slavery : Has a State a right to have slavery if she chooses ? In this controversy the excitement ran very high ; sharp words were used by both disputants ; and a division of the Union was threatened on the line of slavery. Finally the ex citing controversy was brought to a close by a Compromise, which generally leaves both disputants dissatisfied. As a sample of how little use a compromise is to either j" 16 THE FATHERS OF party, I will relate the following of our worthy President : When the Pacific Railroad question was up before Congress, friends of the New York and Erie Railroad called npon Pres ident Lincoln and desired him to use his influence to have Congressadopt the broad guage, so that the Erie Railroad could run their cars through to California. Mr. Lincoln remarked that friends of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad had called on him the week before, requesting his influence in favor of a narrow guage. Says he, "If I was to grant your request they would be dissatisfied, so, gentlemen, I think the best thing I can do is to compromise, making it a little wider than the track of the Central, and not quite so wide as the Erie." Missouri, with slavery in her Constitution, was admitted ; but the opponents of slavery secured, as an offset, the aboli tion of slavery in all the remaining province of Louisiana north and west of the State of Missouri, and north of the parallel of 36 degrees 30 minutes. Our treaty, wherein Spain ceded us Florida, and the Gen eral Government ceded Texas to Spain, (this territorial trade having taken place in 1819, and taking the two treaties to gether,) very nearly extinguished slave territory in the United States. Except the diagram marked out for Arkansas, and a few Indian reserves, it cut off all below 36 deg. 30 min., the Missouri Compromise cutting off all that vast expanse of Louisiana north of 36 deg. 30 min. This Treaty gave, first to Spain, second to Mexico, all the slave territory south of the aforesaid line. Coming into the possession of Mexico, it be came free. Now add the Ordinance of 1787, ceding the Northwest Territory to the General Government, in all of which slavery and involuntary servitude, except for crime, was forever excluded. By this all the country east of the Mississippi, above the Ohio, and out to the Great Lakes, was made free. And the Missouri Compromise extinguished it north and west of the State of Missouri, and north of the parallel of 36 deg. 30 min., except, as before stated, the dia gram of Arkansas and a few Indian reserves. Thus the reader can see that in 1820 Arkansas and Florida THE REVOLUTION. 17 was the only slave territory belonging to the General Govern ment. The increase of slave States was stopped. And all the vast expanse from the Mississippi river, Lake Michigan, Rocky Mountains, and Oregon, by action of the General Gov ernment, was all made free territory, and with the consent and support of Southern men then in Congress, and approved by their constituents at home, who were, almost to a man, then opposed to the further extension of slavery. The excitement ereated by the discussion of the Missouri Compromise had been allayed, and all was calm again. Mr. Monroe's term of office was about expiring. Andrew Jack son for President, and John C. Calhoun for Vice President, both slave holders. In opposition to them was Adams for President, and4 Clay for Vice President. Yet nothing was said in the campaign to arouse the feelings of either section concerning slavery. Jackson, Adams, Clay and Crawford, were all candidates for the Presidency in this campaign of 1825. Jackson received 99 electoral votes ; Adams 84 ; Crawford 41 ; and Clay 37. Neither of the persons voted for having received a majority of the votes, it devolved Upon the House of Representatives to choose from the three highest on the list of those voted for by the electors for President ; which three were Andrew Jackson, John Q. Adams, and Wm. Craw ford. The votes of thirteen States were given for Adams ; the votes of seven States for Jackson ; and the votes of four States for Crawford. John Quincey Adams having received a ma jority of the votes of all the States of the Union was duly elected President of the United States, commencing the 4th of March, 1825. John C. Calhoun, who had run on the ticket with Jackson, received 182 electoral votes, which elected him Vice President. Mr. Adams was a candidate for re-election in 1829, with Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, for Vice President, both from the free States. Jackson and Calhoun, both slave hold ers, were the opposition ; yet nothing to arouse the feelings concerning slavery was said by either party. The only ques tion of importance before the voters, was the right of the peo- 18 THE FATHERS OF pie to govern themselves. This issue was brought forward on account of the previous election going to the House, and it was openly charged that intrigue and corruption were the leading features of it. Jackson received 178 electoral votes, Adams only 83. Calhoun did not receive as many as Jackson. The falling off was in Georgia, where Mr. Crawford charged home on him his connection with the Aaron Burr Plot. In the second year of his Vice Presidency, Calhoun and his South Carolina friends, seeing that the action of the Federal Government had been almost unanimous in favor of freedom ; the vast territories, even those that had been acquired from France and Spain, being nearly all made free, they perceived that slavery was hemmed in, and without an outlet it would soon become a burden rather than a profit. At this time Calhoun's friends started a paper in Washing ton City, called the United States Telegraph. In this paper he commenced to advocate the State Rights' doctrine. He was very violent for the scheme which he and his slave-holding friends had set on foot, for nothing less than a dissolution of the Union. This was to be accomplished through the doctrine of State Rights. Getting that poison well infused into the Democratic party, backed up by so formidable an element, the State of South Carolina could quietly retire from the Union. To give his ideas more force, Calhoun called a meeting on the evening, of the 13th of April. This was Jefferson's birth day. His object was to use that great man's name as god-father for his new political heresy, Jefferson having died on the 4th of July, 1826, and this meeting was in 1830. It was Calhoun's design to put words into Jefferson's mouth that he never ut tered. But the news got spread about, and a large gathering was present ; among the rest, President Jackson, who had got an inkling of what was to be. Jackson was called upon to act as President of the meeting. After the 24 regular toasts were delivered, eulogizing the great Jefferson, some one in the assembly called for a volunteer toast from the President. This toast not only proved Jackson's far-seeing statesman- | ship, but also his devoted patriotism. He rose fromhis seat, THE REVOLUTION. 19 all eyes upon him. In an instant the excitement and bustle of the crowd was hushed into the stillness of death. Without pencil or paper, he did not read anything before prepared, but spoke directly from his heart : " Our Federal Union. It must be preserved." What a storm of applause followed ! Jackson did not say it ought, or it should, but " It must be preserved." These were words spoken in the right place and at the right time, and the American citizen does not live, without his mind is rotten with treason, but will say Amen to the senti ment, and tell it to his children and their children's children, to be repeated in all coming time. The general joy and good feeling that had been kindled by the President's happy hit, was interrupted by some friend of Calhoun's, who got on a seat and loudly called for a toast from him. After quiet was restored, Calhoun read the following : " The Union next to our liberties the most dear. May we all remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of the States, and distributing equally the benefits and burdens of the Union." The snake now came stealthily from the grass. The Union was put second to our liberties, when it was the only thing that gave us liberty. The rights of the States was then lug ged inand placed paramount to the Union, when any man of judgment knows that if the Union was dissolved all the rights remaining to the States would be the right of force, to fight and use each other up — always preparing for war, en gaged in war, or suing for peace. This would be the legacy left to the States if the Union was gone. As we before remarked. Jefferson was to- be made god father to this State Rights heresy. This doctrine of state rights was, and is yet, that a State has a right to annul an act of Congress, and resist by force, if need be, its execution. The Virginia Resolutions of '98-99 were so warped and miscon strued by Calhoun, as to favor the above heresy. Mr. Madi son, their author, still lived on his farm ; and inletters to Mr. Maguire and Everett, and in his daily intercourse with his fel low citizens, denounced the use that was being made of his 20 THE FATHERS OF resolutions. Mr. Madison's interpretation of their meaning, was that they sustained and advised only constitutional means of redress, while those of Calhoun counseled violence and revolution. Instead, says Madison, of Virginia counseling nul lification doctrine, the occasion was viewed as a proper one for exemplifying its devotion to public order, and acqui escence in laws which it deemed unconstitutional, while those laws were not repealed — meaning the alien and sedition laws. Calhoun had also dragged the Kentucky Resolutions of '99 into the support of his heresy, claiming Thos. Jefferson as their author. Thus the celebration of his birth-day— although Jef ferson was not the author. The resolutions were passed at the same time as those of Virginia, and contemplating the same grievance ; yet all the remedies they proposed were pointed out in the Federal Constitution. Both sets of resolu tions contemplated only Constitutional remedies. But " nulli fication," says Madison, " inserts deadly poison in the institu tion we had labored to construct." Mr. Madison also under stood Mr. Jefferson's views, which were likewise being mis represented. December, 18, 1831, Madison, in answer to a letter from Mr. Townsend, of South Carolina, remarks : " You ask whether Mr. Jefferson was really the author of the Kentucky resolutions, wherein the word ' nullify ' is used, (though not in the sense of South Carolina nullification.) The inference is that he was not. That Mr. Jefferson ever asserted a right of a single State to resist the execution of an act of Congress, is counteracted by nothing known to be said or done by him." We have now proved that the Virginia Resolutions contem plated only Constitutional means of redress ; also, that those of Kentucky were harmless, being similar to those of Virgin ia. That James Madison while living repudiated the State Rights heresy, and vindicated the views of Thomas Jefferson, who was then dead, by proving that he held the doctrine that it was not necessary to find a right to coerce in the Federal articles, that being inherent in the very nature of a compact. Having proved by their own testimony that Madison and Jef- THE REVOLUTION. 21 ferson were both opposed to the heresy of State Bights, and that they both claimed for the General Government the right to exercise its authority and power to overcome resistance; Therefore this heresy did not originate with either the author of the Declaration of Independence, or the author of the Consti tution of the United States ; but with the champion of the slave power, in the person of John C. Calhoun of South Car- olinia. We have now arrived at the point to show the real designs of the nullifiers. Men seldom act without motives, either in an individual capacity or collectively. When the motives are evil, and not likely to be seconded by the public, an ardent de sire for success compels the manager or managers to substi tute other reasons more in harmony with the feelings of the people whom they aim to deceive. Although slavery yet lingered, (would to God it had died) no one was bold enough to pray for its recovery, and nearly all would have rejoiced over its death. Southern men had by their votes in Congress shut it out of all the Territories of the United States. Many of the organized states had, and were abolishing it. The General Government was counted as its enemy. The moral and political sentiment of the entire na tion was set against it. Against such a heavy sea of pub lic and Legislative opinion, few men in any age would have stepped forward as its champion. South Carolina, the only State in the Union, except Mississippi, that has more slaves within its borders than free white cit izens, furnished the man. He would have come from Missis sippi, but for the reason that it had only a surplus of 14,160 slaves, while South Carolina could boast of 110,421 surplus above her white population. Thus the demon, with all the venom of eternal hate, came right from the very throne of the slave power. John C. Calhoun was his name. After surveying the situation, he began to mature the plan of attack. The will of the people was known, to be against the wishes of him and his friends. Nothing was left for him but to throw himself back on the rights of the States. This 22 THE FATHERS OF was admirable, but the object was first to unite the people of South Carolina— second, that being done, all the slave States, like ripe fruit, would fall into the lap of Nullification. Presuming that a State had an inherent right to secede, the nextiihing was to convince the people of the South that it was their interest to do so. And for this purpose he used the Tariff. The South, being an agricultural region, was easily convinced that a high tariff on foreign imports was injurious to them. He next undertook to explain to the South that these high duties were placed on specific articles, and was done, as special favor, to protect local interests. Thus he said to the people of the South, You are being taxed to support Northern manufacturers. And it was on this popular issue he planted his nullification flag, and gathered around it his friends and dupes. The throne of the slave power, located in South Car olina, was his backer, and the slaveholders throughout the South, who loved slavery better than they did the Union, were his friends, and his dupes were such of the Democrats from the free States as had become alarmed for the safety of the party, and made a close alliance, by agreeing to drop the good old democratic doctrine of the rights of man, founded in human naturej and advocated by the apostle of democracy, Thomas Jefferson. These men threw all such rights to the wind, and greedily seized the great instrument of the slave power, State Bights. This new bastard democracy meant the right to de stroy, peaceably or by force, (when ready,) the Federal Union. It was thought necessary, in, order to get this matter fairly before the nation, to call a Convention. So the 24th day of November, 1832, was set as the time, and Columbia, South Carolina, as the place of meeting. This was the first open renouncement that had ever been made in any State against the General Government. And here it is proper to give Calhoun's Vision, or dream, as he some times called it, and the origin qf the spot cm the back qf his hand : It was on the Sabbath, late in the month of October, 1832, Calhoun, after a chat with his friends, retired to his room, re solved to pen the article, or forge the wedge, that was to THE REVOLUTION. 23 divide the Union of the States. With treason in his heart, and treachery in his soul, all alone he sat down at his table and commenced to write the Ordinance of Nullification, or ar ticle cf dissolution. THE VISION. "While sitting at the table," says Calhoun, "having taken the precaution to lock my door, to prevent the possibility of being annoyed, I thought I heard it softly open. I was then en gaged in writing the ordinance to be read at the meeting to be held at Columbia, South Carolina, the next month. My back was towards the door, and being engaged in deep thought, I did not turn round again. A noise struck my ear like the agitation of flowing robes. I looked around, and be* hold a tall figure stood erect. A death-like fluttering seized my heart ; my nerves gave way ; my sinews became weak and soft like flesh ; my entire frame became unstrung, and trembled, as by instinct, for its own preservation. " When these awful sensations had passed over me, I rallied as though frightened from the effects of a dream. On open ing my eyes, behold an officer, wearing the uniform of the Continental army standing by my table, and, as it were, his eyes fixed upon my manuscript. He gradually raised his eyes from the paper, and looked earnestly into mine. I re turned the gaze as well as I could. We remained motionless for thirty seconds, when all at once I felt a chilly sensation of awe pass through me. I spoke, without effort, these words, and I never shall forget them : It is the features qf the im mortal Washington; thou hast come from the realms cf the dead. For what hast thou come, 0, hero of the Revolution ? " He spoke, in a firm, clear voice : ' John Caldwell Calhoun, desist. South Carolina produced one of the greatest martyrs to liberty, in the person of Hayne, and let it not be written on her history that she also gave birth to the blackest traitor recorded in the annals of time. Look only to an everlasting union of the States. In union there will be peace ; in union there will be prosperity ; in union there will be happiness ; 24 THE FATHERS OF in union there will be liberty. Dissolution is political anni hilation ; it would be death.' "Finishing these remarks, he caught .hold of my right hand, and pressed his thumb hard on its back, and remarking, 'Across the articles of dissolution, stretched the skeleton of Hayne, and on the back of your hand will a black spot be visible through the remainder of your life.' " Calhoun has told this to several of his friends, and always remarking he could not tell whether it was a vision or a dream. In after years, when he would become worked up to great mental excitement in his debates on the right of seces sion or nullification, he invariably fell to rubbing the black spot on his hand, as though it annoyed him. If the black spot had appeared on Calhoun's head, instead of his hand, it could easily be accounted for on the ground that he was the first victim to that awful Southern scourge, " nigger on the brain." But we are rather inclined to think that his was only a severe case of a previous malady known as " plantation grip." Calhoun sent down his ordinance to South Carolina ; and on the appointed day, in November, the nullifiers assembled at Columbia, and raised the banner of Secession. The chief griev ance set forth was the Tariff, which they alleged was passed to protect manufacturers of the North at the expense of the South. The most remarkable thing they stated in the or dinance was, that they intended to maintain their resolve to withdraw from the Union at airy hazard, even to the force of arms. This ordinance was signed by over one hundred of the wealthiest slaveholders in the State of South Carolina, and returned to Calhoun. The Tariff was, as we before stated, only adopted as a means to raise the popular outcry. The Tariff could easily have been changed by changing Congress ; therefore there was no cause for secession on that ground. But we will now prove by incontestable evidence where the real trouble was. About this time Calhoun delivered a speech in the Senate. It was after his Vice Presidency had expired, some time in 1833. He remarked : " The contest THE REVOLUTION. 25 will in fact be a contest between power and liberty, and such he considered the present contest between South Caro lina and the General Government— a contest in which the * weaker section, with peculiar labor, productions and situation, has at stake all that is dear to freemen." One man in the Senate and one in the House had sagacity enough to see the black pmn in tlve, fence. Daniel Webster, in answer to Calhoun, said : " Sir, the world will scarcely believe that this whole controversy, and all the desperate means which its support requires, has no other foundation than a difference of opinion between a ma jority of the people of South Carolina on the one side, and a vast majority of the people of the United States on the other. The world will not credit the fact. We who hear and see it can ourselves hardly yet believe it." John Q. Adams was the member in the House. He said : " In opposion to the compromise of Mr. Clay, no victim is necessary, and yet you propose to bind us hand and foot, to pour out our blood upon the altar, to appease the unnatural discontent of the South — a discontent having deeper root than the Tariff, and will continue when that is forgotten." If Mr. Adams had put on the mantle of Jeremiah, or Isaiah, he could not have surpassed in prophetic accuracy, or wise discrimination, the above last paragraph. Mr. Benton says, in his Thirty Years, that the remarks of Calhoun had the appearance of laying an anchor to the windward for a new agitation on a new subject after the Tariff was dead. President Jackson, in his message to Congress, in 1 832-33, puts the hollow cheat of State Rights to rest : " The right of a people of a single State to absolve themselves at will, and without the consent of the other States, from their most sol emn obligations, and hazard the liberties and happiness of millions comprising this nation, cannot be acknowledged. Such authority is believe^ to be wholly repugnant, both to the principles upon which the General Government is consti tuted, and the objects which it is expressly formed to obtain." 26 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF This was a bomb into the camp of the nullifiers, and gave them to understand what they must expect if they still per sisted in their treasonable designs. Jackson held to the Union without any ifs or buts. A favorite remark of his, in conver sation with friends, was , that no sectionalinterest or sectional discontent shouldever be allowed to weaken the bonds or break up the Federal Union. When Calhoun saw these unconditional Union sentiments in Jackson's.message, he knew it was a salvo from the peace maker, shot only across the bow, as a warning to heave to. He knew well that the next discharge would be a broadside that would shiver his piratical craft to atoms. So Captain Calhoun, with his brig South Carolina, and ordinance, rounded to, and continued under the guns of the frigate Constitution, Commodore Andrew Jackson, commander, until Mr. Clay, under the instruction of one of the Commodore's aids, Mr. Clayton, prepared articles of capitulation, which the piratical captain of the South Carolina readily signed, acknowledging the power of the Constitution and nationality of her flag. As we before mentioned that Calhoun had control of a newspaper published in Washington, here is an extract from a speech delivered by the Hon. Isaac Hill, of New Hamp shire, as to its character : " For the last five years it has been laboring to produce a Northern and Southern party, to fan the flame of national prejudice, to open wider the breach, drive harder in the wedge which shall divide the North from the South." Thus the reader can see that the slave power used every effort to create sectional hate and divide the Union years be fore either Thompson, Tappan or Garrison came into the field. Thus the storm originated in the most densely slave pop ulated region of the South. When it reached the Ship of State, the political elements became agitated, darkness cov ered the southern horizon, while black darkness hovered round the masts of the great ship as it rocked to and fro in the vortex of contending elements. The storm and the sea appeared in desperate conflict which should secure the TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 27 mighty prize, freighted as it was with the accumulated treas ure and precious lives of twenty millions of people, whose hopes of happiness were all concentrated there. Old masters with different hopes, looked on from afar — some hoping that she might sink and be lost in the storm — others shedding tears at her distress, and praying that she might survive, when all at once the elements became calm, the mist dis appeared, and revealed to the wondering millions the great ship in all her majestic pride. Commodore Jacksfcn had subdued the storm, brought order out of confusion, and kindled hopes in the hearts of his coun trymen. Would to God we had them now. Thus ended the first effort of the slave power to destroy the Union. It failed, but did not abandon the enterprise ; the darker the prospect, the more desperate grew its friends. AN ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT JACKSON — NEW THREATS OF DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION. The slave power having been defeated in its first attempt to destroy the Federal Union by the sagacity and courage of Andrew Jackson, withdrew to its den of infamy to devise new and desperate schemes for the future. It feared as well as hated the man who defeated nullification. Calhoun himself became more embittered by reflection, and was frequently heard to say that Jackson was a tyrant and despot, and better men than he had been hung. In fact, it was no uncommon thing at that time to hear threats against the President's life. The corrupting influence of the moneyed power of the United States Bank joined hands with the slave power, although from very different motives. Both would have been delighted to have heard of Jackson's assassination. But the plot to over throw republican institutions was far more attrocious. In the presence of a crime of such magnitude all other crimes grow pale. Thus Calhoun had a soul ever ready to betray human nature, with a heart as black as night. About this time, 30th of January, 1835, while- the President with a few members of his Cabinet were in attendance at the 28 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF funeral of Mr. Waren R. Davis, a Member of Congress from South Carolina, who had just died at Washington, and the fu neral ceremonies were being conducted in the Hall of Repre sentatives, where all had congregated, when the ceremonies were over, and the procession had just reached the foot of the steps at the eastern portico, President Jackson, accompanied by Mr. Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Dicker- son, Secretary of the Navy, on coming out of the door, at that moment a man stepped from the . crowd into the open space in front of the President, and at a distance of about eight paces, drew a pistol from beneath his cloak — aiming at the heart of the President, attempted to fire. The cap exploded without igniting the powder in the barrel. He immediately drew from beneath his cloak another, which he had held ready cocked in his left hand, and pointing as before, this cap also exploded without firing the powder in the barrel. At this moment the President rushed at him with uplifted cane ; -the traitor shrunk back, and Lieutenant Gedney, of the navy, knocked him down. He was secured by the bystanders and taken before Justice Cranch, who committed him in default of bail. His name proved to be Richard Lawrence, an English man by birth, and a house-painter by trade. The pistols were examined and found loaded. Caps were put on them, and both fired without fail, the balls going through inch boards thirty feet distant. The friends of the President felt it to be a grateful interpo sition of the Almighty. All looked upon his escape as miracu lous, having its origin in the all-wise providence of God. The conduct of the assassin excited and surprised every one. The boldness of the undertaking in broad daylight, and in a public gathering, was all weighed and turned over. The great precaution of the assassin in providing two pistols, fear ing one might fail, was argued as evidence of a deep laid plot. Various were the surmises, and finally some one sug gested that he must be insane. At this suggestion the Mar shal of the District of Columbia called a council of physicians to examine and report. Drs. Caussin and Sewell were the TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 29 men selected. They made the examination, and concluded not to give any official opinion, but to make their report on ques tions as they put them, and the answers as he gave them. We give a few of the questions and answers to show the leading features of his mind. Q. Did any one advise you to shoot General Jackson ? A. I don't like to say. Q. Have you ever been in Congress, and heard the mem bers making speeches ? A. Yes. Q. How did you like the speeches of Calhoun, Clay and Webster ? A. I liked them well. Q. Who would you like to see President ? A. Either Calhoun, Clay or Webster. Q. Are you friendly to General Jackson ? A. No. Q. Why not? A. Because he is a tyrant. We have given enough of this report to show that this man, whether deranged or not, had strong prejudices against Jackson, and a high opinion of his most bitter enemies ; using the word tyrant, a phrase Calhoun was always applying to Jackson. His admiration for Calhoun was supposed by many to be caused by an affinity of interest, or an accidental union of feelings of revenge against a common foe. Whether this man was induced to attempt to murder the President by listening to his defamer making speeches in the Senate, the greatest of which was Calhoun, or whether he was secretly hired to assassinate him, God alone can deter mine. There is no doubt but the death of Jackson would have been received by Calhoun as the tocsin of victory. Add to this his deep and long seated revenge, and you have two very strong motives in a bad man's heart to commit crime. Either Lawrence's intellect was weak, and the storm created by the slave power drove him to attempt the crime, or he was se- 30 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF . cretly hired by its friends to do it. Either one would fasten the guilt direct or remote on the President's defamers, the principal of which was John C. Calhoun. We can not dismiss the history of those thrilling events, without giving an extract from Jackson's Farewell Address. As putting down the attempted disolution of the Union was one of the greatest achievements of his Administration, he still saw that a new effort would be made. He says : " What have you to gain by division and dissolution ? Delude not your selves with the belief that a breach once made may be after wards repaired. If the Union is once severed, the line of sep aration will grow wider, and the controversies that are now debated and settled in the halls of legislation, will be tried on fields of battle, and determined by the sword. Neither should you deceive yourselves with the hope that the line of separa tion would be the permanent one, and that nothing but har mony and concord would be found in the new associations formed on the disolution of the Union." These solemn warnings Jackson left to the nation, just be fore quitting office and returning to his home to die. The storm created by the slave power during Jackson's Ad ministration, had become lulled to a calm. Arkansas and Michigan had both been admitted into the Union during his term of office. No slave territory now remained to be formed into slave states except Florida. Martin Van Buren was inaugurated President on the 4th df March, 1837, and during his term of office nothing very ex citing took place concerning slavery. Its friends were evi dently recruiting from the Waterloo defeat given them by Jackson, but had not yet determined on the mode of another attack. In 1839, the Hon. Wm. Slade of Vermont, a member of the Lower House of Congress, presented petitions from his con stituents, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. This brought down the ire of several Southern members. Among them, Wise of Virginia, endeavored to prevent Slade from speaking by enforcing parlimentary rules, TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 31 alleging that he was out of order. Finally, after repeated ef forts, a vote was carried to adjourn, sixty-three members vot ing against it. Here, Mr. Campbell of South Carolina, jumped on a chair, and requested all members from slave holding states to go at once into the District Committee Room, where a meeting was being organized. Rhett of South Carolina, wrote to the Charleston Mercury, declaring that the Constitution had failed to protect the South in her rights, and advised a dissolution of the Union, and pro posed that two persons from each slave state should meet and report on the best means peaceably to dissolve the Union. Although six years had Hardly passed away since the nullifi cation defeat, another attempt was now made on a larger scale. Mr. Patter of Virginia, became the pacifier in this contro versy, and the ire of South Carolina simmered down. The threatened dissolution of the Union on the line of slavery, made so soon after the defeat of the effort of South Carolina, convinced the thinking men of all parties at the North that nullification was not dead, but sleepeth. About this time, 1838-9, Mr. Clay made a speech in the Senate against agitating the slavery question. His very speech was agitation, for he could not help but know that any kind of agitation was death to slavery. To speak in its favor is an insult to a savage, and much more to a civilized man, who weighs the actions of men and governments in the scale of justice. To speak against it, drags the hideous outlaw and criminal from his dark abode into tbe light,twho, to be hated, needs only to be seen. It was in that speech Clay made his famous attack on Daniel O'Connell, the Irish liberator. The latter had made some remarks against slavery in the British House of Commons. Mr. Clay, referring to that, remarked : " that he regarded his speech as the ravings of a plunderer of his own country, and the vilifier of a foreign and kindred people." Tne political horizon about this time looked rather hazy, although there was no appearance of an immediate storm. The politicians were now beginning to urge the claims of party 32 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF favorites whom they wish to become presidential candidates. Two financial crises had occurred — one at the commence ment, the other at the close of Mr. Van Buren's administra tion. The banks in the different States had become so crip pled by the crisis, that they joined the friends of the United States Bank, and both charged Mr. Van Buren and the Demo cratic party, with being the authors of all the financial distress. The Democrats re-nominated Martin Van Buren, with Rich ard Mv Johnston as Vice President, for a second term ; while the Whigs re-nominated their old candidates who ran in 1836, William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, and John Tyler, of Vir ginia, for Vice President. Thus trie presidential aspirants for the election of 1840 were brought into the field. The banks, as before stated, made common cause with the Whig party, and gave their undivided support to secure the election of Harrison and Tyler. Financial ruin was every where evident ; the political element was charged with na tional discontent ; the people themselves had resolved upon a change. Add to this state of things, the millions of money thrown into the canvass by the discontented banks — it made this the most exciting election ever witnessed. When the campaign fairly opened,, the pressure became such that everything gave way. The mechanics forsook their workshops, the farmers their plows, to join the electioneering cavalcades that were every where to be met moving on to conventions. The thorough fares were crowded with processions made up from all pro fessions and trades. Mounted on long coupled wagons could be seen on his seat the shoemaker, with his awl and last, at work at his shoe ; the tailor down on his bench, plying his needle and thread, with his goose by his side ; the sadler at work at his tree ; the harness-maker at his trace ; the tinsmith at' his kettle ; and the blacksmith, with his leather apron, tongs and sledge, at work on his anvil ; the farmers, not to be outdone, were there with their threshing-floors and help, threshing grain with their old Indian flails ; the "pio neer and his log hut, with latch-strings outside, and, a dog and gun in position within ; men in companies of fifty, strip- TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 33 ped to the waist, with Indian costumes, having long black hair hanging down to the waist, with quivers, tomahawks, scalping-knives, and bow, all painted and mounted on horse back, going through the various evolutions of Indian warriors advancing to battle ; add to this their hideous yell, accompanied with the ring of the anvil and sound of the flail, the sweet music of the band, and still sweeter voice of lovely women, joining in the loud chorus — " We'll just take a cup of hard cider, And drink to old Tippecanoe." Never was there such a popular uprising of the people. At Dayton, Ohio, a convention was held one month before the presidential election. The old hero of Tippecanoe was there. The crowd, measured by the acre, by competent engineers, showed one hundred thousand people. A flag-pole and flag on top of a house was the sign for free lunch within. Eight hundred poles of that kind were counted. Men. of all ages and conditions in life mingled together as brethren in a com mon cause. Old grandmothers, with tottering steps, sup ported by buckeye canes ; women with children in their arms ; young misses and boys jostling about as the great crowd swayed to and fro. The election over, Harrison got two hundred and thirty- four electoral votes. Van Buren only sixty. Thus ended one of the greatest political excitements, termi nating peacefully, that ever occurred in any country. The people had triumphed in electiug a man of their choice. The day of political intrigue was now inaugurated. In 1838, during Van Buren's administration, Mr. Preston, of South Carolina, had proposed the annexation of Texas. In his speech on that occasion he remarked : " The treaty, Mr. President, of 1319 was a great oversight on the part of the Southern States. We went into it blindly. I must say the great importance of Florida, to which the public mind was strongly awakened at that time, by peculiar circumstances, 34 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF led us precipitately into a measure by which we threw away a gem that would have bought ten Floridas." Another remark in Mr. Preston's speech is worthy of no tice. Speaking of the boundary of 1819, he said, " It places a foreign nation on the rear of our Mississippi settlements, and brings it within a stone's throw of the great outlet which discharges the commerce of the Union." Although Mr. Van Buren and the slave power had made ' friends, and South Carolina gave him the first electoral vote she had given to any President for twelve years, although there was strong evidence of an understanding, neither Mr. Preston's speech, nor the strong arm of Executive will, could convince the Senate that while Texas was at war with Mex ico the proper time for annexation had come. By annexing, Texas, we annexed war. And a motion to lay the proposition on the table prevailed by a vote of 24 to 14. The annexation of Texas now became the great scheme of the slave power. Originating as it did in South Carolina, it came into the national councils with the smell of treason. Be tween 1820 and 1830 nearly three hundred families from the various slave States, mostly from Louisiana, had received permission from Spain, while Spanish authority was still maintained in Mexico, to settle in that fertile region, under the express condition that they shpuld submit to the laws of the country. In the meantime Mexico separated from Spain, and immediately passed laws abolishing slavery in her domin ions, and also prohibiting it in all future time. This the new ¦settlers in Texas did not relish. Backed up by the slave power of the Southern States, a great number of lawless adventurers from the border slave States went over into Texas, hatched a conspiracy, and organized rebellion against Mexico, and, with a population of less than twenty thousand, declared themselves free. Thus war between Texas and Mexico was commenced. There was no more slave territory belonging to the United States, ejccept Florida. Mexico had abolished slavery, and ( passed laws prohibiting it forever. The growth of the slave WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, NINTH PRESIDENT OP THE UNITED STATES. ASSASSINATED BY POISON, MARCH 27th— DIED APRIL jJth, 1841. (Engraved for the History of the Plots and Crimes.) TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 35 power demanded more room. The General Government had no territory except that in which slavery was prohibited by positive enactment. By surveying the situation, the slave holders and nullifiers of South Carolina discovered Texas. Thus Mr. Preston's effort, under Van Buren's Administration, to annex ; also, his remarks about a foreign nation being placed in the rear of our Mississippi settlement, had a double mean ing : first, they were foreign because it belonged to Mexico ; second, it was foreign to the Mississippi settlement because they were slave, and Mexico had declared Texas free. Thus the greedy slave power, with an appetite not to be ap peased, stood watching its chosen victim with the one absorb ing thought — how can I secure it. It was at this interesting moment that General Harrison came to Washington to assume his duties as Chief Magistrate of the nation. Although born in a slave state, still, like Jefferson, he was opposed to slavery. As soon as he got cleverly warm in his seat, he was visited by J. C. Calhoun of South Carolina, Messrs. Gilmore and Up shur of Virginia, and two others, whose names we have forgot ten. These five men had the interest of slavery committed to their care, and the object of their visit to the President was to ascertain his views about annexing Texas. This interview took place in the President's reception room. After passing the usual compliments of the day, Calhoun became the spokes man. He said : " General, the subject of annexation, I believe, like a mo tion to adjourn, is always in order. The object of our visit is to ascertain your views concerning the annexation of Texas." To which General Harrison made the following reply : that he had not given the subject that attention it deserved ; there fore he could not speak positively as to what policy he would pursue. But he could say this much — if Texas had her in dependence acknowledgd by Mexico, then, under certain con ditions, he would favor annexation. This was about all that passed on that subject at that in terview, and the Southern gentlemen retired. They did not even ask the General what these conditions were. He had 36 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF said sufficient to satisfy them that he was not the man to carry out their plot, with such men as Webster and Ewing in his Cabinet. Their success was next to impossible. Then for the next best thing; They had staked all their hopes on get ting back Texas. The South was perishing for the want of more slave territory, and the defeat of Van Buren by Harri son was now about to prevent their success. They immediately went to see John Tyler at his own home in Virginia, and after explaining every thing to him, he agreed to the great necessity of securing Texas at once, and at all hazards ; but I am powerless, says Tyler. I will leave the management of the matter with3rou. If I should ever become President I would exert the entire influence of that office to accomplish the object. This wasjoyful news. They had found the right man, and only one thing was wanting' to get him in the right place. President Harrison was near seventy years old, and a little would suffice to put him aside. He had already lived to a good old age, and received many honors. " He can not, in the course of nature, live but a short time longer. He is sur rounded by a bad set of men who will do all they can to de feat our darling annexation scheme. We can not get rid of them without we first get rid of the old man himself. They determined rather than be defeated to murder the President." On the 17th of March the Chief Magistrate issued a Proc lamation convening Congress in extraordinary session for the 31st of May ensuing. He was enjoying his usual good health. " Thus," says Mr. Benton, " President Harrison did not live to meet the Congress which he had thus convoked. Short as the time was that he had fixed for its meeting, his own time on earth was still shorter. In the last days of March he was taken ill. On the 4th day of April he was dead. There was no failure of health or strength to indicate such an event, or to excite apprehensions that he icould not go through his term with the vigor lie had commenced it. His attack was sudden and evi dently fatal from the commencement." — Benton's Thirty Years, Vol. II, 210. Mr. Benton evidently intended the above remarks to con- TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 37 vey to posterity that General Harrison did not die of natural disease — no failure of health or strength existed — but some thing sudden and fatal. He did not die of Apoplexy ; that is a disease. But arsenic would produce a sudden effect, and it would also be fatal from the commencement. This is the chief weapon of the medical assassin. Oxalic acid, prucic acid, or salts of strychnine, would be almost instant death, and would give but little advantage for escape to the murderer. Therefore his was not a case of acute poisoning, when death takes place almost instantaneously, but of chronic, where the patient dies slowly. He lived about six days after he re ceived the drug. By referring to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. XXV, 1841, it will be seen, that his case was at first con sidered complicated Pneumonia, but terminated in gastro in testinal irritation or inflammation, resulting in death in a little over four days from the time of the attack. The circum stances which surrounded the illness of President Harrison were such as to preclude all apprehensions of his physicians of any but natural causes for his sickness ; yet let us con sider how similar are the symptoms of certain poisons, and the causes of natural disease, or disease from poisons that the best physicians maj' commit an error in their diagnosis, and not only fail to suspect the existence of poisons, but even prescribe and administer the established remedies, which only augment the difficulty, and, render the action of these poisons certainly fatal, as will be seen by referring to Taylor on Poisons, page 107 : " To the practitioner the diag nosis of a case of poisoning is of great importance, as by mistaking the symptoms produced by a poison for those aris ing from natural disease, he "may omit to employ the reme dial measures which have been found efficacious in counter acting its effects, and thus lead to the certain death of a patient." Again, the same author, on the same page, says that if poi sons are taken in large doses, and the person is in health, " the symptoms appear suddenly." Again, on the same page : 38 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF " It is very true that these powerful agents, given at inter vals in small doses, do not cause those striking symptoms upon which a practitioner commonly relies as evidence of poisoning. They may then produce disorder, but of so slight a nature as scarcely to excite suspicion. In fact, under these circumstances, the symptoms often so closely resemble those of disease, that an experienced practitioner may be easily mistaken respecting their origin, especially when no circum stances exist to create the least suspicion of criminality on the part of relatives and others around the patient. Arsenic given in small doses, at long intervals, has thus occasioned symptoms resembling those which depend on chronic disease of the stomach. After repeated attacks and recoveries, sus picion may be completely disarmed. Among several cases of this kind which have been referred to me for investigation, was one in which it was alleged that a farmer, in one of the midland counties, had been poisoned two years before by his housekeeper, who was a respectable person, and most atten tive to him as a nurse during his illness. He had been at tacked at intervals with vomiting and other signs of disorder of the stomach about three months before his death, but re covered under medical treatment. About eight days before his death the symptoms recurred with greater violence than ever, and he sank under them. They were referred to ulcer ation of the stomach, so closely did they resemble those of disease. As there was no suspicion of poison, the body was not examined ; and nothing would have been known respect ing the real cause of death, but for a statement made two years afterwards, by the housekeeper, that she had on two occasions administered to her master small doses of arsenic, and the last, probably from its being larger than the first, had occasioned death. In the case of Reg. v. Wooler (Dur ham Winter Assizes, 1855), it was proved that the deceased had been laboring under symptoms of poisoning by arsenic, for a period of about six weeks before her death. The symp toms showed that she must have received the poison at dif ferent periods in small doses. At first they were referred to TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 39 disease. It was, however, their continuance and their occa sional violent recurrence in spite of treatment, that induced a suspicion of poisoning, which was confirmed by a chemical examination of the urine, and subsequently of the body." From the foregoing quotations it will be seen how natural it was for any .physician to have been mistaken in the case ; and supposing this to be true, it is very evident that the rem edies used in the case, being what Dr. Taylor calls irritants, such as mercury and antimony, and capable of augmenting the difficulty and adding to a condition already established, the cause of which not being suspected could only be followed by the fatal -result. On page 109, the same author says : " A diseased state of the body may render a person compar atively unsusceptible of the actions of some poisons, while in other instances it may increase their action and render them fatal in small doses." Again, on the same page, he says : " In certain diseased states of the system, there is an increased susceptibility to the action of poison, or what is termed intol erance of certain drugs. Ordinary medicinal doses may in such cases exert a poisonous action. Thus, in persons who- have a tendency to apoplexy, a small dose of opium may act more quickly and prove fatal. In one laboring under inflam mation of the stomach or bowels, there would be an increased! susceptibility of the action of arsenic, or other irritants." Supposing the fatal agent used to have been arsenic,. the use of mercury and antimony in his case certainly wouldicome- under the last considerations, " irritants," and cause* au ihr- crease of the difficulty, and transfer the disease to the stomach and bowels. The whole class of symptoms of active diseases of the stomach and bowels, are closely allied to diseases pro duced by poisons of this class ; and in almost every instance may be mistaken, as quoted above, for natural diseases. Such was the fact in the case of General Harrison ; and under circumstances that would entirely exempt his physicians from blame or censure for any failure in diagnosis, or the administration of irritants in the treatment ; suchi remedies being according to standard authority in his supposed disease ^ 40 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF while they are never recommended when poisons of the same kind are already in the system. As this case changed so much from the beginning, it is almost certain that the irritants used in the case fully developed the effect of the arsenic which he had taken, and resulted as above stated. Dr. Taylor, on page 123, says : " The diseases, the symp toms of which resemble those produced by irritant poisons, are cholera, gastritis, enteritis, gastro-enteritis, peritonitis, perforation of the stomach or intestines, strangulated hernia, colic, and hsematemesis." He further adds, page 125 : " Gas tritis, Enteritis, Gastro-enteritis, Peritonitis. — These diseases do not commonly occur without some, obvious cause ; in deed, the two first, in the acute form, must be regarded as the direct results of irritant poisoning. Thus arsenic and other irritants, when they prove fatal, commonly give rise to inflam mation of the stomach and bowels. In all cases in which these diseases present themselves, the object of a practitioner is, there fore, to determine the cause of the inflammation, whether it be due to natural disease, or the action of an irritant poison." With these facts, and the quoted authority, can any one doubt that General Harrison was poisoned, and also that his physicians overlooked the true nature of the malady. The attending physicians, Drs. May and Miller, supposed he died of billious pleurisy. His death occurred at half past 12 o'clock at night, Saturday, April 3d, 1841. About noon it was supposed he was getting better, but at 3 o'clock the symp toms became more violent, and at sundown his entire Cabinet Officers were informed that the symptoms were such that it was evident he must die. All this time John Tyler was absent, at home on his farm in Virginia. Fletcher Webster, Chief Clerk in the State De partment, was immediately dispatched to Virginia, to inform Tyler of the event ; and on th 4th, the following official an nouncement was made : " Cist of Washington, April 4th, 1841. " An all wise Providence having suddenly removed from traitors in congress. 41 this life, William Henry Harrison, late President of the Uni ted States, we have thought it our duty, in the recess of Con gress, and in the absence of the Vice President from the seat of Government, to make this afflicting bereavement known to the country, by this declaration under our hands. " He died at the President's House, in this city, 4th day of April, A. D., 1841, at thirty minutes before 1 o'clock in the morning. The people of the United States, overwhelmed, like ourselves, by an event so unexpected, and so melancholy, will derive consolation from knowing that bis death was calm and resigned, as his life has been patriotic, useful, and dis tinguished ; and that the last utterance of his lips expressed a fervent desire for the. perpetuity of the Constitution and the preservation of its true principles. In death, as well as in life, the happiness of his country was uppermost in his thoughts. [Signed,] "DANIEL WEBSTER, Secretary tf State. "THOMAS EWING, Secretary of the Treas. "JOHN BELL, Secretary of War. "J. J. CRITTENDEN, Attorney General. "FRANCIS GRANGER, Post-Master General." On the 9th of April, Tyler issued an address to the people. Among other things, he said : " That for the first time in our history, the person elected to the Vice Presidency of the United States, by the happening of a contingency provided in the Constitution, has had devolved upon him the Presidential pffice." (He must have felt keenly the sense of guilt that he deserved, and would receive the reproach of his countrymen when he penned the following sentence.) The spirit of faction, which is directly opposed to the spirit of lofty patriotism, may find it the occasion for assaults upon, my Administration." Thomas Benton remarks : " Little did he think when he wrote the above sentence, that within three short months, within less time than a Commercial Bill of Exchange has to run, the great party which had elected him, and the Cabinet Officers should be united in that assault, and should lead the van of public outcry against him." 42 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF Betraying and deceiving friends, formed the leading traits of his character. By this course he became extremely unpopu lar. The number of Cabinent Officers appointed by Presi dents holding only one term, run thus : John Adams, 12 ; John Quincey Adams 7 ; Van Buren 10 ; Polk 9 ; Fillmore 11 ; Pierce 7 : Buchanan 8 ; John Tyler 21. This outnum bered any of the two-term Presidents. Jackson, during the stormy times of both his Administrations, only had 19. If Ty ler had served two terms at the same ratio, he would have had 42. Thus ends the account of the campaign and election ; also of the mysterious and sudden death of President Harrison. We now propose to show more fully the motives that induced his murder, by following up the assassins in the future devel opment of their plot. We mentioned in the preceding pages that five Southern men had visited the President shortly after he took his seat. We gave the names of three — Calhoun, Gilmore and Upshur — the latter two from Virginia. There were two others in company, but their names have slipped our memory. These gentlemen, after having the conversation with President Har rison, went directly to Richmond, Va., and from there to the Vice President John Tyler's house. They there addressed him, as a Southern man, and wanted to get his views on the annexation of Texas. We do not pretend to give the precise words of their two days' entertainment ; only to demonstrate to the world that political intrigue and secret assassination were unanimously agreed upon, and afterwards successfully carried out. Harrison was to be secretly put out of the way, so that John Tyler would become the Constitutional President. To reward those who dyed their hands in his innocent blood, Tyler sol emnly agreed to betray the party that elected him, and for ever turn his back on its men and its measures ; and call, as his Cabinet advisers, the identical men who, by foul murder, had placed him in the Presidential Chair. It was not the traitors in congress. 43 Democratic Party that Tyler had made an alliance with, but it was with the milliners and secessionists ; men who, in the interests of slavery, had secretly sworn to devote their whole lives to accomplish the destruction of the Federal Union. The Whig Party very soon discovered that Tyler had turned his back on its policy; and on the 11th day of September, 1841, Senator Dixon of Rhode Island, and Jeremiah Morrow of Ohio, both venerable with age, were appointed Presidents of a meeting held by the Whig Members of Congress. They issued what they termed a manifesto, renouncing said John Tyler. We copy the following : " That he might be able to divert the policy of his Admin istration into a channel which should lead to new political combinations, and accomplish results which must overthrow the present division of parties in the country, and finally pro duce a state of things which those who elected him, at least, never contemplated." • Again : "He has violently separated him self from those by whose exertions and suffrages he was elected to that office, through which he reached his present exalted situation. The existence of this unnatural relation is as extra ordinary as the announcement of it is painful and mortifying." On the same day of the manifesto, his Cabinet officers, all except Webster, resigned. He waited a short time to en deavor to effect a union of the Whig Party, by which he said he meant the Whig President, Whig Congress, and whig Peo ple. But Mr. Webster's stay was short. This was what Tyler had been wishing for weeks — we mean the breaking up of the Cabinet. It gave him a chance to form a new one. He feels his way carefully, and only at the first selection brings in two of the secret cabal, as Henry Clay termed it — Alexander P. Upshur and Thomas W. Gil- more, Virginians. Both of these men had visited him at his house in Virginia, before General Harrison was poisoned. Thus Tyler was fulfilling his part of the contract with fidelity. Webster having remained longer than he was wanted as Sec retary of State, had to be removed. Abruptness would have carried suspicion. Therefore, says Mr. Benton, a middle 44 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF course was adopted, the same which had been practiced with others in 1841 — that of compelling a resignation. Mr. Tyler became reserved and indifferent to him. Mr. Gilmore and Mr. Upshur, with whom he had few affinities, took but little pains to conceal their distaste for him. It was evident to him, when the Cabinet met, that he was one too many. Reserve and distrust were visible both in the President and the Vir ginia part of his Cabinet. Mr. Webster felt it, and mentioned it to some of his friends. They advised him to resign. He did so, and the resignation was accepted with alacrity, which showed it was waited for. Mr. Upshur took his place, and quickly the Texas negotiation became official, though still private ; and in the appointment and immediate opening of Texas negotiation stood confessed the true reason for getting rid of Mr. Webster. — 2d vol. Benton, 30 yrs. pp. 562. As we before stated, the object of the conspiracy, which terminated in the murder of President Harrison, was to se cure the annexation of Texas as an outlet for slavery. The crime they had committed was so horrible, that the revenge of Almighty God soon overtook them. Oh the 28th of Feb ruary, 1844, a very large gun on board of the Princeton was to be fired as an experiment. Many persons went on board to witness it, among whom were the two Cabinet officers, Mr. Gil- more and Mr. Upshur. The vessel had proceeded down the Potomac below the Tomb of Washington, and at 4 o'clock in the evening, when returning, it was determined to fire the gun once more. Lieutenant Hunt having charge, the guests were feasting at the table, when the word came that the gun was to be fired again. They all rushed out to see. President Tyler also being on board, was called back by some one, while his Cabinet favorites walked, as it were, right into the jaws of death. The great gun exploded, killing only five persons out of the great number. Among the five were Gilmore and Upshur. Tyler was saved from the same fate by being called back to the other end of the vessel. Kennon, Marcey, and Mr. Gardener of New York, (who would have been father-in- law to John Tyler,) were the other three killed. TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 45 Sufficient of God's displeasure, one would suppose, had been witnessed to induce this bad man to stop. But no ; the very prince of NuUifiers, the deadly foe of the National Govern ment and peace of the country — the sworn enemy of Free dom, and champion of Slavery — the secret mover of the at tempted assassination of President Jackson, and poisoning of President Harrison — John C. Calhoun, was chosen Secretary of State, and John Y. Mason of Virginia, Secretary of the Navy ! Tyler's Cabinet was now gathered entirely from the slave States, except William Wilkins of Pennsylvania. He had what the South called a reliable Cabinet ; one that would go all lengths, and stop at nothing, to execute swiftly the will of the slave power. The ultimate object of the plot, of which the poisoning of General Harrison only served as a means to carry out, re mained yet to be accomplished. The scheme was hatched in South Carolina during Van Buren's term of office ; and was the idea of getting more slave territory, through the annexa tion of Texas. These bad men now pursued that object with a step as sure as time. A meeting was called in May, 1844, at Ashby, Barnwell district, South Carolina. The following is a part of the fourth resolution passed at that meeting : " That the alternative be presented to the free States, either to admit Texas into the Union, or to peaceably and calmly ar range the terms of a dissolution of the Union.". At another meeting, at Beaufort, same State, and about the same time, one of the resolutions was as follows : " If Texas is not annexed, we solemnly announce to the world, that we will dissolve this Union sooner than abandon Texas. In the Williamsburg district, same State, another meeting was held. One resolution says : " We hold it to be better, and more to the interest of the South and southern portion of this Confederacy, to be out of the Union with Texas, than in it without her." The reader can see by the foregoing extracts the dispo sition of the slaveholders of South Carolina. " Texas, or dis union I" was the cry. The slave power had, by the foul deed 46 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF of murder, got control of the National Government ; a slave- holding President ; a slaveholding Cabinet, except one. It only remained for South Carolina, by threats of disunion, to control Congress. Thus the bill to annex Texas to the Union, while she was still at war with Mexico, was forced upon Con gress by the slave power. The bill passed the House by 23 majority, but would have been defeated in the Senate if it had not been for the treachery of Calhoun and John Tyler. Five votes were secured by fraud. Thus speaks Mr. Benton, (who was himself in favor of an nexation, but not by fraud :) " He, the then Secretary of State, the present Senator from South Carolina, to whom I address myself, did it on Sunday, the second day of March ; that day which preceded the last day of his authority ; and on that day, sacred to peace, the Council sat that acted on the resolution ; and in the darkness of a night howling with storm and bat tling with the elements, as if heaven frowned on the audacious act, the fatal messenger was sent off who carried the selected resolutions to Texas. The exit of the Secretary from office, and the start of the messenger from Washington should be remembered together." Texas was admitted, and all the consequences of admission were incurred : war — the state of war — was established. With force did Benton remark, " As Helen was the cause of the Trojan, a.nd Antony the cause of the Roman civil war, and Lord North made the war of the Revolution, just so certainly is John C. Calhoun the author of the present war between the United States and Mexico." What could be expected of an Administration that secured its power by foul treachery and secret murder. Tyler betrays the party who elected him. Having dyed his hands in inno cent blood, he could not bear the company of the dead man's friends ; even the principles that his victim had labored so many long years to carry out, he threw aside and tram pled with disdain under his unholy and blood-stained feet. The annals of the world might be searched in vain for such a- villain. The man on whose popularity he had been exalted TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 47 to high position, he reached up to, and stabbed. Well might Henry Clay say, speaking of Tyler : " That he contemplated the death of General Harrison with mingled emotions of grief, of patriotism, and gratitude — above all, of gratitude !" He betrayed his party and country, and at last human na ture — by practising a cheat on a mighty nation, bringing on a useless and bloody war, for the sole and only purpose of ex tending human slavery. War existed between the United States and Mexico, brought about by the foul administration of- John Tyler, in an nexing Texas. Hensy Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen," in favor of a protective Tariff, were the Whig candidates ; and James K. Polk and George M. Dallas were the Demo cratic, and successful candidates. They went in favor of the annexation of Texas, and recei.ved 170 electoral votes, while Mr. Clay got 105. Eight slave States gave their electoral . votes to Polk, and five in favor of Mr. Clay. James K. Polk, the newly elected President, came to Wash ington and took his seat on the 4th of March, 1845. The chief business of his administration was to recognize the war, and prosecute it with vigor to a successful termination. Al though originating and existing in the preceding administra tion, it was not declared by act of Congress until the 13th of May, 1846. And it was not until the beginning of February, 1848, that it was brought to a close. The terms of the treaty of peace, as made by Mr. Trist, the plenipotentiary of the United States, with the Mexican Government, included New Mexico and Upper California, with the Lower Rio Grande, from its mouth to El Paso, taken as the boundary of Texas. These were the acquisitions, for which the United States agreed to pay to Mexico fifteen mil lions of dollars, in five instalments, annually after the first. The claims of American citizens against Mexico were to be assumed by the United States, limited to three and a quarter millions of dollars.* Thus terminated the war with Mexico, * The use of this money laid the foundation of the once vast fortune of Cor coran, the well-known banker, traitor, and fugitive. 48 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF the great outlay of treasure by the General Government, with the immense loss of life, including many of its best citizens. Eighteen millions and a quarter was no small sum. Jeffer son only paid fifteen millions for Louisiana ; and all the fore going territory could have been acquired from Mexico in treating her respectfully for boundaries for even less than fifteen millions. Add to that the expense of a two year's war, and altogether it amounts to over $200,000,000. Thus ended the annexation scheme. As it was hatched to get more slave territory, commenced by individual assas sination, and ending in war, it was pursued from the begin ning with a villainy which crime alone can excite. We must now take a view of the situation of parties. The slave and free States were now equal in number, and it was impossible to get one lone State admitted, as that would give a majority to one or other of the parties ; but by coupling two together, which had previously been done with Arkansas and Michigan, when one was slave and the other free, they went in with a " rush." This worked so well before, that it was thought that, like bears in couples agree, Florida and Iowa would make a good pair, since they represented the two great principles of state. If they had been both black, or unfortunately both white, all would have been in vain. But when these was one of each color, they were admitted out of kindness, as lovers together. By this double process it kept the slave and free States always equal in number : but the annexation of Texas had brought in a large amount of new territory. The slave power now began to get uneasy, fearing, legislatively, that it would not be able to run slavery into it. It was power that was needed. Like the bachelor who married a widow who had already buried five husbands, when they were about to retire to bed the first night, Mr. Shuttlecock (for that was his name) remarked, " My dear, I have always made it a rule in life, just before retiring to bed, to return thanks to the Giver of all good." " Oh ! how delighted I am," says his new wife, " it puts me so much in TRAITORS IN C0NGRES8. 49 mind of my first love ; Mr. Rogers, my first husband, always did thi3." Both kneeling by the bedside, Mr. Shuttlecock commenced, " 0, Lord, I adore thee to-night in a new capac ity ; I need now thine assistance more than ever before ; please guide and direct — " " Stop, stop 1 my dear," cries his ex perienced bride, tapping him on the shoulder, " I can do that ; pray for strength ; strength is what you need most." It was strength, although of a different kind, that the slave power wanted. The question with Calhoun was, where to get power to put slavery into the new territories.. It was claimed that they were free under Mexico, and came into the Federal Govern ment free. But Calhoun, needing strength, claimed that the American Constitution overrode and annulled all laws of Mexico inconsistent with it. " Grant that," said his oppo nents, " but where is the authority in the Federal Constitu tion to carry slavery anywhere ?" Mr. Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, now stepped in and intro duced what has since gone by the name of the Wilmot Pro viso : " That no part cf tlie territory to be acquired should be open to the introduction qf slavery." Thus commenced the agitation, on the power of Congress to legisla,te about slaver}7. It was claimed that slavery had rights above Congress, and above the Federal Constitution also. The excitement on this vexed question began to spread, and the slave power again began to rally its forces. The term of President Polk was about drawing to a close, and it was doubtful whether slavery could be carried into New Mexico or California. The Southern members began to hold nightly meetings in Washington, the result of which was a kind of Southern declaration of independence, setting forth that " Their grievances were greater against the United States Government than our ancestors' were against Great Britain." It was not only claimed, in this new declaration of independ ence, that slavery was to be prohibited in part of the newly acquired territory, but it was boldly set forth that the Gen eral Government was going to abolish slavery in all the 50 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF States, and bring on a conflict between the blacks and whites of the South, which might result in the whites becoming slaves. This declaration was signed by forty Southern members of Congress ; and, to cap the climax, Mississippi and South Car olina (the only two States that have more slaves than white inhabitants) passed acts in their General Assemblies. calling. for a Southern Convention to arrange a new government, to be called the United States South. The presidential election now began to take up the attention of all. The Democratic party had nominated, at Baltimore, Lewis Cass, of Michigan, for President, and Wm. 0. Butler, of Kentucky, as Vice President. This was in. May, 1848. Yancey, of Alabama, endeavored to "introduce into the Demo cratic creed : " That the doctrine of non-intervention with the rights of property of any portion of this Confederation, be it in States or Territories, by any others than the parties interested in them, is the true republican doctrine recognized by this party. Rejected ; 246 against, 36 for. This makes Yancey the real author of the doctrine of squatter sovereignty. In June the Whig Convention met in Philadelphia, and nominated Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, for President, and Millard Fillmore, of New York, for Vice President. Taylor had the military prestige of Buena Vista, Monterey, Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, which proved too heavy metal for the Democratic candidate. Martin Van Buren, who had been called tlve Northern man with Southern principles, now accepted the nomination of a third party as a candidate for the Presidency, with Charles Francis Adams as Vice President. The principles of this party were, that the General Government should abolish slavery where it had the power, prohibit its extension, and let it alone in the States where it existed ; thus the term Free Soilers. The election over, it soon became known that Taylor had carried seven free and eight slave States — 163 elec toral votes. Cass carried eight free and seven slave States — 127 electoral votes. Van Buren and his party got none. ZACHARY TAYLOR, TWELFTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. ASSASSINATED BY POISON JULY 4th— DIED ON THE 9th, 1850. (EngraYed for the History of the Plots and Crimes.) TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 51 President Polk's administration, ended with a new threat to dissolve the Union, the old Bug-a-boo of the slave power. Af ter getting Texas, they now wished to dissolve Polk, like Jackson, loved the Union, and never countenanced anything in his administration that threatened its overthrow. He was exemplary in private life, and in public, only aimed at the good of his country. At every Presidential election the contest with the slave power became more bitter. Like the miser, its greed in creased with its gain ; getting much, it demanded more. Eight years before, it had dyed its hands in the blood of the lamented Harrison, and saturated its garments on the gory fields of Buena Vista, Palo Alto and Monterey. Besting yet restless through President Polk's administration, it now re appears with all its accumulated pomp, and like the Roman oxen, ribboned and garlanded for the sacrifice. President Taylor surveyed the situation, and suggested proper remedies to defeat the blood-thirsty foe of the Federal Union. About his first official act was to suppress the Cuban invasion, a darling scheme of the slaveholders to secure that Island at the hazard of a war with Spain. After President Taylor had written his first and only annual message, Calhoun, mortified at the defeat of the Cuban expedition, made a visit to the Department of State, and requested the President to say nothing in his forthcoming message about the. Union. But this bad man had little influence over old " Rough and Ready," for after his visit the following remarkable passage was added : " But attachment to the Union of the States should be habitually fostered in every American heart. For more than half a century, during* which kingdoms and empires have fallen, this Union has stood unshaken. The patriots who formed it have long since descended to the grave, yet still it remains, the proudest monument of their memory, and the object of affection and admiration of every one worthy to bear the American name. In my judgment its dissolution would be the greatest of calamities ; and to avert that should be the steady aim of every American. Upon its preserva- 52 DESPERATE SCHEMES OF tion must depend our own happiness, and that of countless generations to come. Whatever dangers may threaten it, 2" \ shall stand by it, and maintain it in its integrity to the full'ex- ' tent of the obligations imposed, and power conferred, upon me by the Constitution." The slave power had now determined to prevent the ad mission of California into the Union as a State. It had the requisite population, and had formed a Constitution forbidding slavery ; and President Taylor, in his message, recommended that it be admitted. Utah andNjew Mexico he recommended, without mixing the slavery question with their territorial governments, to be left to ripen into States, and then settle that question for themselves in their State Constitutions. The slave power had put a scheme on foot in Texas, by which that State claimed half of New Mexico, a province settled two hundred years before Texan independence. It wanted to settle this boundary by force of arms from Texas. But here the President was determined that the political and judicial authority of the United States should settle the boundary. The wrath of the slave holders now increased against him. Having before defeated their fillibustering scheme against Cu ba, recommending the admission of California with a Constitu tion prohibiting slavery, and advising the dropping of the slave ry question concerning New Mexico and Utah, and refusing to recognize the forged claims of the Texan slave holders to half of New Mexico ; and to the foregoing his pitting himself against Calhoun, in adding to his Message the above ex tract, after the arch-traitor had requested that all mention of the Union should be excluded from it, the slave power had now sufficient reason to count him as an enemy, and his histo ry gave them to understand that he never surrendered. Those having slavery politically committed to their care, had long, before sworn that no person should ever occupy the Presiden tial Chair that opposed their schemes in the interest of slave ry. They resolved to take his life. To show the bitterness of the slave power, we make an ex tract from Calhoun's speech, delivered after his visit to Presi- TRAITORS IN CONGRESS. 53 dent Taylor, and after the Annual Message of the latter ap peared : " It (the Union) can not then be saved by eulogies on it. However splendid or numerous the cry of Union, Union, the glorious Union, it can no more prevent disunion than the cry of Health, health, glorious health, on the part of the physician, can save a patient from dying, who is lying dangerously ill." It was generally understood at Washington that the free soil wing of the Whig Party had the ear of President Tay lor, and that Millard Fillmore had but little voice or influence. — See Ormsby's History of the Whig Party, pp. 312. This the slave power understood, and they determined to serve him as they had previously served General Harrison ; and only awaited a favorable opportunity to carry out their hellish intent. The celebration of the 4th of July was near at hand ; and it was resolved to take advantage of that day, and give him the fatal drug. Being well planned, he received it at the right time, and with the same medical accurcy as did Gen. Harrison. The political magazine was purposely charged with the rest less element of slavery. This was done to prepare a way for the President's death, that it might pass unnoticed in the m'dledges tlw Independence qf America, The flames of discontent began to increase after the mas sacre of the 5th of March, 1770. The tea was thrown over board in Boston harbor, December 16th, 1773 ; on the 3.1st of March, 1774, the Boston Port Bill was passed ; on September 4th, of the same year, the Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia ; onthe 19th of April, 1775, the battle of Lex ington was fought — American loss, 84 ; British, 245 ; May 10 th, the Provincials took Ticonderoga. 150 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE The colonies had not yet chosen a Commander-in-chief, and it was while in session in Philadelphia, on June 15th, 1775, • that George Washington was nominated, by Thomas Johnson, of Maryland, and was unanimously chosen. Washington owed his appointment to the New England delegation, headed by John Adams. — Statesman's Manual, vol. I, page 55. Four days after his appointment Washington received his Commission, and on the 20th of June he left Philadelphia to join the Continental army, at Cambridge, near Boston, Mass. The battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17th, 1775, was fought be fore Washington arrived in Massachusetts. Prescott was the American commander ; his loss was 453. British commanded by Howe, loss 1054. On July 2d, Washington arrived at Cam bridge, and took command of the army. All the foregoing engagements were fought before his arrival. General Mont gomery was master of Montreal, and Col. Arnold was organ izing, at Newburyport, a company of one thousand men to march on Quebec. Among his band of patriots were many bold and daring men, one of the most conspicuous of whom was Aaron Burr, a lad of great promise, not yet twenty years of age. He came from Litchfield, Connecticut, where he had for a short time been reading law, with Mr. Tappin Reeve. On the 20th of September, 1775, Col. Arnold, with eleven hundred men, started from Newburyport on the intended ex pedition. In a few days this army was beyond the outposts of Civilization, and struggling through the great wilderness on its way to Quebec. For thirty-two days they saw no trace of a human being. Starvation came, and they were forced to live upon dogs, reptiles, and even devoured the leather of their shoes and cartridge-boxes. After marching 600 miles through a lonely wilderness, and losing one-half of his army, just fifty days after leaving Newburyport, Col. Ar nold arrived in sight of the heights of Quebec. Young Burr was selected by his commander to communicate the news of his arrival to General Montgomery, at Montreal — distance 120 miles. Knowing that the French were not satisfied with Eng lish rule, Burr exhibited great tact in assuming the garb of a AMERICAN UNION. 151 young Catholic Priest. In this manner, with his knowledge of Latin, he was enabled to deceive priests and people. He was conducted by his guide from one religious family to an other. At Three Rivers suspicion became aroused, and the guide, fearing the consequences, refused to proceed. Burr was concealed for three days in a convent at Three Rivers, at the end of which time the guide, without further trouble, conducted him to Montreal. The gallant Irishman, Mont gomery, was so delighted with Burr that he placed him on his staff, as general's aid-de-camp, with the rank of captain. It was now the month of November, and the ground was cov ered with snow; yet Montgomery set out with 300 men, him self at their head, and reached Arnold's camp, before Quebec, in the early part of December. On the 20th of the month all was ready, and on the 31st, amid the chilling ice and northeasterly snow storm, which served to drive even animals created for these climes to their accustomed retreats, leaving the patriotic band unprotected in the dead of night, to brave the dreadful weather. Just before the day dawned Montgomery, with Burr at his side, moved to the attack. As the column began to move Montgomery cried, " Push on, brave boys, Quebec is ours!" The column advanced up to within forty paces of the block house. At first, the British troops, mostly composed of sailors and militia, fled in terror from the guns. The Ameri can army, not understanding how matters stood, was slow to move, when a sailor, to discover the reason, ventured back. He saw through the port holes of the block house the ad vancing party, and turned to run. Before leaving, his dusky form stood trembling, as if chained by demons to the spot to wait till fate came up. He fired the grape-charged 12-pound cannon, and the great Montgomery fell, who, with two of his aids and an orderly sergeant, never again saw the light of the sun. The column, aware of the loss, halted and wavered. Burr made an effort to rally the men, but the enemy opened fire, and it could not be done. A panic seized them, and they sought safety in flight. Stretched on the ground, in his 152^ ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE showy shroud, lay the majestic form of Montgomery. Burr seized and shouldered up his glorious load, and, ainid snow knee deep, ran with it down the gorge — the enemy, in hot- pursuit. The weight was too great, and little Burr was com pelled to drop his' priceless treasure in the snow. The American force remained in Canada, annoying the gar rison at Q'uebec till the spring of 1776, when they had to retire before the new army under Burgoyne. In the mean time, on the 17th of March, the British evacuated Boston. General Washington had gathered about 20,000 men, and on the 2d of March commenced a heavy cannonading on the British lines. General Howe had made arrangements in Feb ruary to evacuate. His army was about 10,000 strong, with about 1,000 Tories. In seventy-eight' ships and transports they sailed for Halifax. General Washington, fearing Howe had sailed for New York, immediately directed the army to march. The Legislature of Massachusetts, and the Continen tal Congress, both congratulated Washington on the glorious termination of the siege of Boston. The military operations thus far had been in favor of the colonies, yet no definite mould had been prepared in which to cast the new government ; and it was not until the 4th day of July, 1776, that the foundation Was laid for the great Re public. The struggle of arms was still progressing. The bat tle of Flatbush, L. I., was fought August 12th, 1776 ; British, Howe, loss 400; American, Putnam and SulliVan, 2,000. White Plains, October 28th, 1776; American, Washington', 300 to 400; British, Howe, 300 to 400. Trenton, December 25th, 1776.; American, Washington, 9; British, Rahl, 1000. Princeton, Jan. 3d, 1777 ; American, Washington, 100 ; Brit ish, Mawhood, 40d. Bennington, Aug. 16th, 1777 ; American', Stark, 100 ; British, Bauta and Breihan, 600. Brabdywine, Sept. 11th, 1777 ; British, Howe, 500 ; American, Washingt'oii, 1,000. Germantowri, Qct. 4th, 1777 ; British, Howe, 600 ; American, Washington, 1,200. StiUibater, October 17th, 1777 ; American, Gates, 350 ; British, Buigoyne, 600, and 5,752 men £ AMERICAN UNION. 153 surrendered. Monmouth, June 25th, 1778 ; American, Wash ington, 230 ; British, Clinton, 400; Rhode Island,, Aug. 29th, 1778 ; American, Sullivan, 21-1 ; British, Pigott, 260. Briar Creek, March 30th, 1779 ; British, Prevost, 16 i American, Ash, 300. Stony Point, July 15th, 1779 ; American, Wayne, 100 ; British, 600. Camden, August 16, 1780 ; British, Corn wallis, 375 ; American, Gates, 720. Cowpens. Jan. 17th, 1781 ; American, Morgan, 72 ; British, Tarleton, 800. Guilford Court House, March 15th, 1781 ; American, Greene, 400 ; British,. Cornwallis, 523. Eutaw Springs, September 8th, 1781 ; Amer ican, Greene, 555 ; British, Stewart, 1,000. The war was brought to a close by the surrender, at York- town, of Cornwallis, and 7,073 British soldiers, to Gen. Wash ington, October 19th, 1781. * Benedict Arnold, who organized the force and conducted the campaign against Quebec, planned the capture of Ticon- deroga, and entered the fort side by side with Ethan Allen. Brave when in command of the fleet on the lakes, and at Behemi's Heights, Oct. 7th, 1777, in front of his column, cheered and urged on his men, receiving a severe wound in his leg. He married a Miss Shippen, of Philadelphia, allied by kindred with royalty, and a great pet of the British offi cers. No doubt his connection with this woman proved his ruin ; but she stuck to him through every adversity, and shared with him the fate of his treason and disgrace. At West Point, with Andre and Sir Henry Clinton, he consummated his infamy, and published a letter in New York, advising the people to return to their loyalty to the British Grown. He was born in Norwich, Connecticut, Jan. 3d, 1740, and died, an outcast,in London, June 14th, 1801, in the 61st year of his age* The expense of the Revolution, estimated in specie, was $135,193,702 90. The paper money, called Continental, was first issued in 1775 ; and in 1777 it began to depreciate in value. Its decline was rapid. In six years, from 1775 to 1781,$362,547,037 05 had been issued. Its discount for specie, Jan. 1st, 1777, was only five per cent ; one year from that date, 210 per cent ; Jan. 1778 it reached 534; in 1779, '2,493 ; Jan. 1st, 1780, 7,300. 154 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE In February, 1781, it took $7,500 in Continental money to pur-. chase $100 in specie ; and in March it was worthless. Provisional Articles of peace were signed in Paris, Nov. 30, 1782, by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Lusecnes, on the part of the United States, and Mr. Fitz Herbert and Mr. Oswald, on the part of Great Britain; The definite Treaty was signed September 30tb, 1783 ; after which it was officially proclaimed by Congress, and announced by Washington to the army, October 18, 1783, wherein was declared the Independence of the United States. It was first acknowledged by France ; then by Holland, on the 19th of April, 1782 ; by Sweden, Feb. 5th, 1782 ; by Denmark, Feb. 25th, 1782 ; by Spain, March 24th, same year ; by Russia in July, 1783 ; and Prussia in 1785. The entire population of the thirteen Colonies, in 1790, was 3,043,000. During the .trying times of the Revolution, and in order to assist in achieving American Independence, Articles of Confederation were adopted at Philadelphia in 1778. This League adopted United States of America as the style of the Confederacy. It was simply a Union for defence ; as the 2d Article asserts that each State retains its sovereignty : not a new government, but an agreement between old ones for gen eral protection against foreign powers. They took the model from the Batavian and Helvetic Confederacies. It lasted only ten years, and served as a temporary preservation of society ; but the wise saw that it could not be durable. Witnout suffi cient power for self-protection, foreign powers looiced upon it with contempt. The disputes of the States, and bitter wrang ling in their sovereign capacity about what was to be done with the Crown Lands, caused them' to view the League with a jealous eye. Maryland refused to sign the Articles of Con federation until March 1st, 1781, four years and four months after Congress had declared their adoption was essential to union, liberty, and safety. Benjamin Franklin saw, better than any other man at the time, the incohesiveness of rival sov ereignties. They had already caused combinations preventing the collection of taxes, refusing protection to commerce, pro- AMERICAN UNION. 155 claiming disunion, and threatening insurrection. From 1643 to 1778 all efforts of the Colonies to continue united, after the dangers calling them together had passed, were ineffectual ; and this last effort at harmonizing rival sovereignties, under the Articles of Confederation, after less than ten years of pre carious existence, sickened and died of the same malady. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay saw the defects. Washington himself was pained to see that .after the sacrifices he and his gallant army had made on the many bloody battle-fields, through a seven years' war, to gain independence, his country, which had emblazoned on its victorious banner the sacred rights of human nature, was now engaged in quarreling over supposed rights of petty sovereignties, and refusing to do justice to the surviving patriots of the Revolution. The Revolution ary period, which should date from the 5th of November, 1770, lasted to the first of the same month, 1781. The League, which terminated March 4, 1789, was now to be followed by the formation of a National Government. The Union itself was in the agonies of death. To remedy the evils that were every day accumulating, a Convention was called to meet at Annapolis, Md., in Septem ber, 1786. Five States only sent delegates. They adjourned to meet delegates from all the States, in Philadelphia, on the second Monday of May, 1787. State sovereignty had already denied and shoved aside the truths of the Declaration of Independence, and broken the bond of Union established in 1778. The corpse was there, but its spirit had fled. The address adopted by the Annapolis Convention, and addressed to the Legislatures of the different States, represented in the Convention, spoke of the dangers which threatened them, as follows : " They are, however, of a nature so serious, as, in the view of your Commissioners, renders the situation of the United States delicate and critical, calling for an exertion of the united virtue and wisdom of all the members of the Confederacy." The Convention assembling at Philadelphia was itself the creation of State sovereignty, appointed by the Legis- 156 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE latures of the different States. They did not emanate from the people, but from the same source as did the members that formed the League of 1778 ; and many of the members wanted to substitute for the Constitution the old Articles of Confed eration, with additional power to Congress. Some of the delegates were determined that the new gov ernment should, like the Declaration of Independence, emanate directly from the people, and that State sovereignty, that had proved the death of all previous Unions, should not form the basis of this now about to be established. Washington was chosen president, and the Convention continued in session about four months. Thus the Federalists, to get rid of State sovereignty, and establish a strong government, set forth in the preamble to tbe Constitution, that " We, the people qf the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure do mestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States qf America. The Anti-Federalists and States' Rights party contended that the preamble should read : " We, the States of New Jer sey, Virgima, South Ca-rolma, &c, in order to form a more per fect Union," &c. Judicial Constructions. — " The Constitution of the United States was ordained and established, not by the United States in their sovereign capacity, but, as the preamble declares, by the people of the United States." — History and Analysis of the Constitution, by Towle, page 39. The Federalists gained a great point in announcing that the instrument had been made by the people for the States. Their opponents wanted it understood that it was made by the States for the people. But, notwithstanding the important position gained by the Federalists in the start, every step of advance was hotly con tested by their opponents, who forced a compromise. The result was that many of the existing evils served as materials, AMERICAN UNION. 157 which, when placed together, destroyed the beauty and dura bility of the structure. Being the creature of compromise, its existence could not survive the material from which it was made. Dates of its Ratification by the Thirteen Old -States. Delaware, Dee. 7, 1787 ; Pennsylvania, Dec. 12, 1787 ; New Jersey, Dec. 18, 1787 ; Georgia, Jan. 2, 1788 ; Connecticut, Jan. 9. 1788; Massachusetts, Feb. 6, 1788 ; Maryland, April 28, 1788 ; South Carolina, May 23, 1788 ; New Hampshire, June 21, 1788 ; Virginia, June 26, 1788 ; New York, July 26, 1788 ; North Carolina, Nov. 21, 1789 ; Rhode -Island, May 29, 1790. Aaron Burr predicted, at the time, that it would not last fifty years. In after tim3s he said, " I was mistaken ; it will eventually last longer than that. But I was mistaken only in point of time ; the crash will come, but not quite so soon as I thought." — Parton's Life of Burr, page 172. Burr, whatever faults he had, was clear ^headed. :" It lasted just twenty-four years longer than he first predicted. It ceased to preserve the peace of the country in 1861, and was shut out from performing its functions over more than half of the national domain for the term of four years. The Nation has preserved, by the sword, all its organic virtues, while its anti-republican features must forever remain blotted out by the blood shed to preserve it. While the Federal party, headed by Washington, Hamilton, and Madison, celebrated its -adoption with joy, the other party (Anti-Federals) viewed it as a calamity. A Federal procession in Providence, Rhode Island, was stopped and compelled to omit all reference to the Constitution in its celebrating pro gramme. In Albany, N. Y., the Constitution was publicly burned in the streets. In Poughkeepsie, Greenleaf 's Political Register was destroyed by a mob because it opposed the Con stitution and vilified its supporters. Charges of bribery and fraud were everywhere heard, "with threats of an immediate dissolution of the Union. Disputes about territorial jurisdic- 158 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE tion, and boundaries between the States, and between them and the United States, formed a leading element of discord, and helped to bring about the wretched condition of the country. This question, that had done so much to make disaffection under the League, was happily settled by ceding all the Ter ritories belonging to the several States to the General Gov ernment, and is known as the Ordinance of 1787. It was passed two months and four days before the adoption of the Constitution. Thirteen sovereignties, with an organized militia, and all the paraphernalia of independent authority, like jealous women, are always on the alert. The right to hold slaves was left to the States. The. right to give capital thus invested in human flesh and blood a repre sentation in Congress, while that invested in lands, tenements, and merchandize, was denied the same advantage, proved to be the deadly weapon which our fathers left in the temple. It has long been in dispute ; and at last was seized by the conspirators, and used with such desperation to destroy the mighty fabric, the American Union. Thomas Jefferson was ambassador to France from 1785 to 1789, and did not assist in forming the Constitution. Wash ington was selected by the State Legislatures as a candidate for President, and John Adams as a candidate for Vice Presi dent, both strong Federalists. Only ten States participated in the Presidential election. New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island did not ratify the Constitution in time to vote for President in 1789. Seven candidates ran, but received but little support. Washington and Adams were triumphantly elected. The seat of government was at this time in the city of New York ; old Federal Hall, corner of Nassau jind Wall streets, where the Treasury building now stands, was the place of meeting. On the 30th of April, 1789, Washington was sworn in by Robert R. Livingston, who, at the close of the ceremony, exclaimed aloud, " Long live George Washington, President of the United States. This harmless declaration AMERICAN UNION. 159 was caught up by the Anti-Federalists, and construed to inti mate a desire on the part of the Federalists to make Washing ton King. During his first term the Constitution, that had been so lately opposed, was growing in favor, and the Anti-Federal party becoming unpopular. They had become odious as Anti- Federalists, and, at the election of 1793, called themselves Re publicans. They had strong affinities towards the French Revolutionists, as the change in their name indicated. Hamilton, who was an able man and a strong Federalist, was represented to have a high opinion of the British system, or what Burke called the British Constitution. This supposed affinity of leading Federalists with British institutions told hard against the party, and Washington's second term was a stormy one. Old opponents of the Federal party, by denounc ing it as the party of monarchy, had acquired considerable strength under their new name. Washington issued two proclamations in August and September, 1794, to warn the whisky insurrectionists of Western Pennsylvania (Washington and Allegheny counties.) This arrayed against him the whisky boys generally, aud it was with difficulty that many of the most important measures of the administration were carried. The average annual expense of his administration was $1,986,588. The seat of government was now in Philar delphia. Adams, the Federalist, was elected as Washington's suc cessor in 1797, but with only three majority over Jefferson, the Republican, who became the Vice President. Mr. Adams, though absent when the Constitution was made, and first see ing it in a foreign country, said : " It was not then, nor has it been since, any objection, in my mind, that the Executive and Sen ate were not more permanent." — Inaugural Address, March 4, 1797. During his administration there were precautionary measures taken to meet a French war. The alien and sedition laws were passed by Congress in the summer of 1798. The alien law empowered the President to order aliens who were supposed to be in conspiracy against the United States to de- 160 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE part from its territories. The sedition law, it was claimed, restricted the liberty of speech and the press. With these unpopular measures, and disaffection among his Cabinet offi cers, Hamilton came out against him, and threw his influence in favor of Pinckney. This, with other unfortunate combina tions, secured his defeat for a second term. Bradford's History remarks : " By the prudent and pacific, yet firm , and decided measures of the Federal Government for twelve years, the character of the: United, States had he- come highly respectable among the greatest statesmen of s Eu rope. Its policy exhibited a .happy union of energy and .mag nanimity, and it was respected alike for its wisdom, and power. The nation was placed in a commanding attitude of defence, while liberty, peace, and improvement were everywhere wit nessed within its jurisdiction. Public credit had been fully established, and able and faithful men had been selected for public ; agents — men whose patriotism had been proved by eight years service devoted to their country's welfare." The Republican party, which had so dreaded centralization and monarchy, became tired of the old system of State Legis latures indicating Presidential candidates. They snatched this small perquisite, and introduced, in Philadelphia, in 1800, the aristocratic system of -nominating Presidential candidates by Congressional caucus. 37 Representatives and 9 Senators thus met and nominated Jefferson for President and Aaron Burr for Vice President. Thus the party that so much dreaded Federal power and centralization was the first to use it to dic tate to the States Presidential candidates. The election re sulted in favor of the caucus nomination. Jefferson and Burr had each 73 electoral votes. Adams, the Federalist candidate, had only 65, and was beaten. The House of Representatives continued to ballot from February 11th to the 17th (six days) to determine whether Jefferson or Burr should be President. This bold attempt by a party in the House of Representatives to counteract and resist the clearly expressed will of the peo ple led to the adoption, of this amendment : " The time for the meeting of the electors is the first Wednesday in December, AMERICAN UNION. 161 and the time for counting the votes is the second Wednesday in February."— 1 Stat 239. Many of the Federalists went over to the support of Burr, believing that more might be expected in that direction than from Jefferson. Burr would have secured the election with out any effort on his part, if it had not been for Hamilton op posing him. He might have secured it, even against Hamil ton's influence, if he had went into the contest himself, but he remained at Albany all the time during the balloting, and there does not remain any evidence that he ever solicited a single vote. He was charged with intriguing to secure the votes of New Jersey, Vermont, and Rhode Island. Matthew Lyon declared that John Brown, of Rhode Island, Urged him to vote for Colonel Burr, using these words : " What is it you want, Colonel Lyon ? Is it office ? Is it money ? Say what you want, and you shall have it." But Judge Cooper, in a let? ter to Mr. Morris, February 12, declares s "• Had Burr done anything for himself, he would long ere this have been Presi-. dent."— Parton's Life qf Burr, p. 289. i Colonel Burr, on the 16th of December, 1800, addressed a letter to Gen. S. Smith, of Baltimore, then a member of the House of Representatives, in which he disclaimed all compe tition with Jefferson : " As to my friends," he says, " they would dishonor my views and insult my feelings by a suspicion that I would submit to be instrumental in counteracting the rules and expectations of the United States." — Statesman's Manual, page 313. It was Jefferson's enemies, and not Aaron Burr that tried to defeat the will of the nation. The National Government had now been moved from Phil adelphia to Washington. In 1796 there had sprung up in the West and South-west a party which favored separation of that Territory from the Union. Among the most prominent mem bers was Gen. Wilkinson, the Commander-in-chief of the United States army, and Daniel Clark, a very wealthy mer chant of New Orleans, and father of Mrs. Gaines. He had amassed a large fortune, for which his daughter has sd long 11 162 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE contended in the courts. When Jefferson came into office he was in the 58th year of his age. His election had been se cured by bitter party strife. There were, at this period, pub lished in the United States, about 180 newspapers, controlled mostly by aliens. The reaction in the tone of the press against Mr. Adams, on account of the alien and sedition laws, was like an avalanche. Most of the officers of the General Government had received their appointment from Washington. Mr. Adams removed scarcely any during his term of office. Mr. Jefferson began his administration under these peculiar circumstances, and commenced to turn out Federalists and put Republicans in their places. This soon had the effect of making speedy con versions of Federal office-holders, who suddenly became Re publicans for the sake of office. In 1795, Spain had granted the right to the United States of making New Orleans a place of deposit for three years, with an agreement to renew in 1802. The Spanish Intendant declared, by proclamation, that the right no longer existed. This caused a furore of excitement in the Western States, and along the valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries. Congress was beset with petitions of grievances. The ex citement was brought to its full height in December, 1802, when Jefferson, in his annual message, first communicated to Congress that Spain had ceded Louisiana to France. A pecu liar combination of circumstances surrounded this Louisiana question. Few of the statesmen at that time thought it politic to enlarge the area of the national domain. It was the need of a free outlet to our commerce that influenced the adminis tration. Livingston, our Minister at Paris, advised the seizure of New Orleans by force, as he thought it could never be ac quired by treaty. Napoleon Bonaparte was then Consul of France, and his country was about embarking in a war with England. It was made known to him that if this arrangement of ceding New Orleans was not carried out, the United States would be forced to make an alliance with Great Britain. When this AMERICAN UNION. 163 was understood, Napoleon ordered the Marquis de Marbois to negotiate with the American Minister. They, who were only negotiating for New Orleans and its surroundings, and the right to navigate the river, were surprised when the Mar quis de Marbois told them he was ready to treat for Louisiana. The Treaty was concluded April 30, 1803, and signed by the Ministers, Mr. Livingston and Mr. Monroe, on the part of the United States, and the Marquis de Marbois on the part of France, four days afterwards. The price paid by the Ameri can Government was $15,000,000. Napoleon remarked : " This accession of territory strengthens forever tlve power of the United States, and I have just given to England a maritime rival that will sooner or later humble her pride." The area of the country ceded was estimated to ex ceed a million square miles. The inhabitants were mostly In dians, except about 90,000 French and their descendants, Spanish, English, Germans, and Americans, owning about 40,- 000 slaves. Hostilities between England and France com menced on the 22d of May, 1803. On that very day Bonaparte, without waiting for the United States, ratified the Louisiana Treaty. Captains Lewis and Clarke were sent on an expedition to the new Territories. On the 14th of May, 1804, they left the banks of the Mississippi. The party consisted of about thirty persons, and were absent two years and three months. The excitement attending Jefferson's first election was sought as a pretext to amend the Constitution, so as to desig nate which person was voted for as President, and which as Vice President. The Federal party opposed it, alleging that the Constitution contemplated that two persons equally qual ified for the office of Chief Magistrate should be voted for. But the amendment was agreed to by the votes of two-thirds of the members of Congress, and was ratified by the Legis latures of three-fourths of the States. Massachusetts, Dela ware and Connecticut disapproved of the change. It forms the 12th Article of the amendments to the Constitution. Aaron Burr, Vice President, who had produced so much ex. 164 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE citement at the outset of Jefferson's administration, had been goaded into a quarrel by Alexander Hamilton. Burr was not a vicious man, but his antagonist was unscrupulous in the means he used to defeat an adversary. Burr sent a challenge to Hamilton. It was accepted ; and the duel was fought July 11, 1804, on the heights of Weehawken, New Jersey. Ham ilton fell at the first fire. From this day forward, vituperation and calumny followed the name of Aaron Burr. Jefferson's first term being very popular with the people, he was re-nominated for a second term. Vice President Burr, having lost the confidence of the Republican leaders, was shoved aside, and George Clinton, of New York, was placed on the ticket. Pinckney, of South Carolina, for President, and Rufus King, of New York, for Vice President, were the Federal candidates. The people sustained Jefferson's admin istration, and he was triumphantly re-elected. The caucus system, that had been introduced by the Republican leaders for nominating candidates for President and Vice President, was now used by them to control Congress. The most important measures had previously been agreed upon by the Republican members in private caucus, before they came be fore that body. An effort was made by Jefferson, in the latter part of his first term, and the commencement of his second, in 1805, to purchase Florida from Spain, but it did not succeed. Efforts were renewed in 1817, and finally car ried to a successful termination on February 19, 1821. It was in the latter half of the year 1805, that Aaron Burr, chagrined at the bad treatment he had received at the hands of Federal and Republican politicians, which had now been renewed with great effect on account of his duel with Hamil ton, charged the monopolizing of all the Federal offices by the politicians of Virginia and New England. His enemies charged him with creating sectional feeling, and said this was seized on by Burr and his associates as a pretext for forming a great- Southwestern confederacy or kingdom. Burr arrived jto New Orleans on the 25th of June, 1805, sixty-seven days from the time he left Philadelphia. General AMERICAN UNION. 105 Wilkinson had given him a letter to Mr. Clark, who had al ready made a voyage to Vera Cruz, Mexico, to spy out the land. Burr remained in New Orleans about three weeks, ar ranging with Mr. Clark. He left there in July, and on the 6th of August reached Nashville, Tennessee, and domiciled one week with Andrew Jackson. The feeling against the Spanish was very great, and adven turers from Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Georgia, and the Car- olinas, were all to be enriched by the plunder of Spanish countries west of the Mississippi river This glittering bribe, his enemies said, was held out as an inducement for the West ern States to separate from the Union. New Orleans, they said, was to be the seat of government or empire. Burr purchased 400,000 acres of land on the banks of the Washita river, a branch of the Red river, for $40,000, although he never paid but $5,000. This was to furnish a place of re- dezvous for all the chosen spirits engaged in the enterprise to assemble and fortify. Another rendezvous was at Blenner- hasset's Island, on the Ohio, a few miles below Marietta. This island was named after its occupant, an Irish gentleman, who, with a good-natured wife, had made a home in this romantic spot. About 500, in all, knew of Burr's plans, and this island became a rendezvous for many of the adventurers, until they eat Blennerhasset out of house and home. Burr's plans were for Blennerhasset to get what men he could together, and float down the Ohio in boats building for the purpose at Ma rietta, while he and his Tennessee friends would descend the Cumberland. But as the time approached Burr was not sus tained (perhaps betrayed is the better word) by his leading associates. Wilkinson forsook him, and sent Lieutenant Smith with a message to President Jefferson. He left camp, at New Orleans, October 21, 1806, and delivered the despatches to the President, in Washington, on the 25th of November, and on the 27th Jefferson issued his proclamation, which created intense excitement. Burr's name was not mentioned in the proclamation. It merely announced that an unlawful enter prise was on foot in the Western States, and warned all per sons to withdraw from it immediately. 166 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE Burr's cypher letter to Gen. Wilkinson, and General Eaton's testimony, is what convinced the people of the United States that Aaron Burr was a traitor. After his arrest, in Mississippi Territory, the Grand Jury acquitted him, remarking that Aaron Burr had not been guilty of any crime. He was re arrested in Alabama, and brought to Richmond, Virginia, in May, 1807, when he was again put on trial, which lasted sev eral days. Jefferson, always believing that Burr attempted to cheat him out of the election of 1800, was anxious to have him convicted, but Burr, with his able counsel, so managed his case that Judge Marshall charged the Jury in such a way that they rendered their verdict : " We, of the Jury, say Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty, under tire indictment, by any evi dence submitted to us. We therefore find him not guilty." Although Burr was not convicted, he suffered the odium of a traitor even until the day of his death. He had fought with great bravery to achieve American Independence, and, in his early days, was the most promising statesman of his time. His great abilities were dreaded by the leaders of both par ties, and the unfortunate circumstances oceurring in the bal loting for President organized the entire Republican party, headed by tbe administration, against him. The fatal duel with Hamilton (although the practice was not then unpopular) united the Federalists to complete his political ruin. Disap pointed and defeated, he became disgusted with what he con sidered ingratitude on the part of his country. He conceived the idea of revolutionizing Spanish America, and establishing a new government over Mexico. His enemies (and they were legion) said monarchy was to be the form ; while his intimate friends (they were few but ardent) declared he contemplated conquest and ultimate union of Mexico with the United States. Burr saw that annexation was only a question of time, and his calculations, then so novel and startling, have, through the annexation of Louisiana, Florida, Texas, New Mexico and Cal ifornia, now passed into history. Who of us, in 1865, are so blind as not to discern the destiny of Mexico ? Maximillian may be very clever, and the Mexican people may have much AMERICAN UNION. 167 to learn ; but neither his ability nor their ignorance can stand against the expansion of our free institutions. His visionary throne (although backed up by some of the monarchies of the old world) will disappear like a shadow at noonday. For the fates have decreed that wherever American blood is shed that soil becomes sacred to liberty. Pah Alto, Buena Vista, Vera Cruz, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, Contreras, Churu- busco, Molino del Rey, Chepultepec, Puebla, and Cerro Gordo are places sacred to the people of the United States. There sleeps beneath their sod thousands of our countrymen, who, while living, fought to uphold our flag, and their bones now lie neglected in a foreign soiL Fidelity to American ideas, respect to the brave, our duty to ourselves and poster ity, and sympathy for the down-trodden Mexicans, all demand that no monarchical institutions shall be allowed to exist and expand on American soil, nor any tyrannical emblem float over the sanctified graves of our kindred. Aaron Burr was a statesman. He wanted sea-room. He did not believe in the idea df the United States embracing only a small strip of land in the centre of the American con tinent. He did not, like some others, dread the growth of the country, but was ever ready to enlarge its boundaries. His effort, in 1775, in company with the gallant Irishman Mont gomery, to advance towards the north pole, though defeated at Quebec, gives an idea of his intentions when he turned to wards the tropics. " There is no evidence that Burr meant to sever the West ern States from the Union, or desired to do so, nor that he in tended to seize New Orleans or any property in it. His pre liminary object was Texas ; his ultimate object was the throne of Mexico." — Parton's Life qf Burr, page 354. The best and strongest evidence of Burr's innocence is the. fact that Andrew Jackson was his intimate friend. He went all the way to Richmond during Burr's trial, and, in the pub lic streets, made speeches before thousands, vindicating him and denouncing President Jefferson for interfering with the expedition. Jackson was not a traitor ; neither did he ever 168 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE countenance disunion in any shape. " Burr and Jackson' were always good friends. In a letter, dated Nov. 20, 1815, to Gov. Alston, Burr urges him to use his influence to break up the cau cus system by making a respectable nomination in the person of Andrew Jackson, instead of Monroe." — Statesman's Manual, Vol. I, page 476. These remarks have been continued at some length to give' the reader the true outlines of the history of the Burr expe dition. He was a man that had ideas in advance of his time, (he also had faults.) But if he lived at the present day he would see most of the country he sought to acquire now be longing to the Federal Union. He would also have the pleas ure of witnessing Canada, which he and the gallant Mont gomery endeavored to rescue from Great Britain, forming a Confederacy on its hook and taking the management of its affairs into its own hands, which is a preliminary step in the right direction. He would have seen the great civil strife, which grew out of the imperfections of the Constitution, which he predicted would not la*st much beyond fifty j'ears. But he would also have seen, what he did not foresee nor pre dict — the triumphant vindication of the Union. The embargo act was a favorite measure of Jefferson's ad ministration. It caused great distress in the country, and greatly weakened the Republican party. It was in the period of greatest distress that the Presidential election came on. Virginia was in the field with two candidates, Madison and Monroe. The Congressional caucus decided in Madison's favor by 80 majority. Clinton, who had been Vice President in Jefferson's last term, was chosen by the caucus for tho same position under Madison. It is needless to say this ticket was elected. The theory of States' Rights, which had been so much talked of before the Republicans got control of the Fed- .eral Government, was almost forgotten. They occupied the Federal forts, and there was no party left to man the States' Rights artillery, whose batteries the Constitution had left to be used against itself by the disaffected minority. In after years they became the den and hiding place for every vile ism AMERICAN UNION. 169 that contemplated war against the authority of the Federal Government. State Rights was the prelude to raise the hue and cry against every measure adopted by the Government for de fence. First against the whisky tax, by Pennsylvania ; then against the Embargo Act and the war of 1812, by the Hartford Conventionists ; then against the tariff, by South Carolina ; then against the fugitive slave law, by many of the Northern States ; and then against freedom by the slave States com bined ; and finally it was given in great triumph by the assas sin, as justifying the murder of Mr. Lincoln — sic semper ty- rannis, the motto of the State of Virginia. He was a stickler for State Rights. By it he claimed the right, and, for slavery's sake, assassinated the President. Madison was not in favor of State Rights, as the extracts given from his letters, in another part of this book, abund antly prove. He was put forward as the strongest man Vir ginia had, as the politicians of that State had an understanding. There was no excitement about State Rights during his first election. Our foreign relations was the all-absorbing ques tion. The result of Jefferson's foreign policy was ruining the country. On the 1st of March, 1809, Congress passed the Non-Intercourse Act, and on the 15th of the same month re pealed the Embargo Act as to all nations except England and France, between whom and the United States no trade was permitted. The Massachusetts Legislature, in January, 1809, in a report on the state of the country at the end of Jefferson's adminis tration, says : "Our agriculture is discouraged ; the fisheries abandoned ; navigation forbidden ; our commerce at home re strained, if not annihilated ; our commerce abroad cut off ; our navy sold, dismantled, or degraded to the service of cutters or gun-boats ; the revenue extinguished ; the course of justice interrupted ; and the nation weakened by internal animosities and divisions, at the moment when it is unnecessarily and im- providently exposed to a war with Great Britain, France, and Spain." 170 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE The foregoing is a true picture of the condition of the coun try and the administration of the first State Rights President. Russell, in his researches of the Life of Jefferson, remarks : " Let us suppose that Mr. Jefferson had been chosen to carry into practice the first experiment of the Federal Government instead of Washington, and that he had applied his system of. State Rights and popular interference to the new machine which the Federal Convention had just placed in the hands of the Executive. Is it not self-evident that, for want of vigor and energy, the Constitution would have crumbled to pieces in his hands, and left him in possession only of the fragments of the .old Confederacy." Madison was a Federalist, and advocated the adoption of the Constitution ; and his great ability carried it through the Virginia Convention by 11 majority — for its adoption, 89 ; against it, 78. It soon became evident that our foreign relations were in a condition to demand immediate attention. Jefferson had re duced the army and navy, and almost left the nation power less for defence. The administration of Madison increased the army from 3,000 to 20,000 men, and Congress also passed' an act authorizing the President to receive the service of 50,000 volunteers. Madison was not desirous of having a war during his administration, but was actually forced into it. He thought a declaration of war at a time when the Govern ment had been stripped of all its armor, was impolitic. Mr. Monroe was the only one of his Cabinet officers with a mili tary turn of mind. One John Henry, a native of Ireland, had been employed by Sir Jonas H. Craig, Governor of Canada, to visit Boston and arrange for a dissolution of the Union with some of the Federalists of New England. He could find no one that sym pathized with his mission, and returned to Canada in 1811. In February, 1812, he disclosed the secret to Madison, and re ceived a reward of $50,000. The declaration of war against Great Britain was approved by Mr. Madison, June 18th, 1812. Members of Congress. from AMERICAN UNION. 171 the South and West carried the war measure against the will and consent of the Northern States. Of 79 members of the House who voted for war, 46 resided south, and 33 north of the Delaware. Of the 19 Senators who voted for war, 14 resided south, and 5 north of the Delaware. On the 18th of May, 1812, Madison was renominated by the vote of 82 members of Congress. Money matters were now stringent, and all the banks had suspended except a few in New England. War was unpopular, and taxation was dreaded. The invasion of Canada commenced in 1812, and the last im portant action of the war was fought Jan. 8, 1815 — Gen. Jack son's victory over the British Gen. Packenham, at New Or leans. This battle was fought after peace was signed at Ghent, December 24, 1814. Very little was accomplished by the war, except a marked respect since shown by the British Government to the rights of our seamen. The Hartford Convention assembled in Hartford, Connecti cut, Dec. 15, 1814, and sat twenty days. This Convention met to express the sentiments of the anti-war party of New Eng land. The following is part of the report made by them at the time : " In cases of deliberate, dangerous, and palpable impositions of the Constitution, affecting the sovereignty of a State and the liberties of the people, it is not only the right but tlie duty of each State to interpose its authority for their protec tion in the manner best calculated to secure that end.. When emer gencies occur which are either beyond the reach of judicial tribunals or too pressing to admit of delay incident to their forms, States which have no common umpire must be their own judges and execute their own decisions." The true cause of grievance against the administration was, that it had withheld all supplies for the maintenance of the militia for the year 1814, both in Massachusetts and Connecti cut, and thus forced upon these States the burden of support ing the troops employed for defending their coasts from inva sion and their towns from being sacked. The number of del egates at this Convention was 26. The Legislatures of Mas sachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island sent delegates. In 172 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE Vermont and New Hampshire the delegates received their appointments from local conventions. No one of the members of this Convention would ever admit that a dissolution of the Union was contemplated, but contended that it was simply to bring about a remedy for burdens too grievous to be borne. That the entire section had much to endure during the war of 1812, no one acquainted with the history of those times will deny ; but they counseled resistance to Federal authority under the plea of State Rights. Although itwas not in the form of an article of dissolution or ordinance of secession, yet all must admit that it had the smell of treason. Under the names of Republican and Democrat this party stigmatized the Hartford Conventionists as traitors, and now come round and say they were right. Pollard, in his 1st volume, page 59, Southern History of the War, speaking of this Convention, says : " This is the doc trine which the South had always held from the beginning, and for which she is now pouring out her blood and treasure." By hitching the slave interest on to the State Rights heresy, they inaugurated war against the General Government. The Federal, afterwards the Whig, then the Republican, and lastly" the Union party, have ever kept in view the idea that "we, the people of the United States," made the Federal Govern ment, and are bound to sustain it against State Rights, slavery and rebellion. The loss of life resulting from the war of 1812 may be set down at about 30,000 men ; and the total expenditure of the United States during the contest was about $100,000,000. It lasted about three years. The Americans, on the ocean and lakes, had captured about 56 British ships of war, mounting. 886 cannon, and 2,360 merchant vessels, mounting 8,000 guns, of which 345 were ships, 610 brigs, 520 schooners, 135 sloops, and 750 vessels of various classes taken by the Americans and retaken by the British ; making altogether 2,416 vessels, with their specie and cargoes, and about 30,000 prisoners of war. The British captures were less — 1,407 merchant ves sels, and 20,961 American seamen prisoners of war. AMERICAN UNION. 173 Near the latter end of the war, on the 24th of August, 1814, Washington City was captured by the British and the Capitol burned. This war was brewing during Jefferson's last term. It commenced during Madison's first, and was brought to an end towards the close of his second term. Mr. Monroe was nominated by the Virginia influence. The Congressional caucus was held March 16, 1816. Monroe got 65 votes in the caucus, and Wm. H. Crawford, of Georgia, 54. Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, got 85 votes for Vice President on the same ticket. Madison was Federal in his views as regards the power con ferred on the National Government. When the discussion arose about the power of the General Government to annul State laws wherein Congress deemed them improper, Madison remarked, "that he could not but regard an indefinite power to negative legislative acts of the States as absolutely neces sary' to a perfect system." — Analysis qf Constitution, page 134. Monroe was an Anti-Federalist, and opposed the adoption of the Federal Constitution, in 1787, in the Virginia Legisla ture, while Madison, Marshall, Randolph, and Pendleton, de fended and voted for it. Madison's administration terminated on the 3d of March, 1817, and Monroe was inaugurated the following day. About the first thing he did, after selecting his Cabinet officers, was to take a tour round the Atlantic coast to inspect the forts, and arrange for perfecting proper means of defence from invasion. The result of the war of 1812 had fully established the importance of this movement. He left Washington the 31st of May, 1817, and was gone about three months. Although Mr. Monroe was understood to be a Republican, yet, strange to say, he called as his Cabinet officers men of the Federal stamp. John Q. Adams, Crawford, Crownin shield, and Wirt, were all of the same views as Alexander Hamilton in regard to the powers of the National Government. In his first term an act was passed, at the recommendation of the President, granting a pension to revolutionary soldiers, of whom about 13,000 were yet living; also an act respecting 174 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE the flag of the United States, fixing the number of stripes, alternate red and white, at thirteen, and directed that the Union be represented by stars equal to the number of States, white in a blue field. The Florida war commenced in his first term, and was only brought to a close August 14, 1843. It originated on account of a desire on the part of the slaveholders to drive out the Seminole Indians, who, they de clared, were harboring runaway slaves, and means were re sorted to and excuses framed to bring about a collision. Everything appeared to work well with his administration until Feb. 28, 1820, when Missouri asked admission into the Union with its peculiar slave Constitution. This question was continued until the 28th of February, 1821, and the act ad mitting it was passed and signed by Monroe on the 2d of March, same year. The workings of the Federal Government up to this time had embraced almost all political questions. But when the slavery question began to agitate Congress, the doctrine of State Rights was now claimed to be of prominent importance. It was evident to every statesman that when these two questions became linked together, presenting an undivided front, they would destroy the peace of the country. Having been renominated by the caucus, Monroe was re elected, in 1820, almost unanimously. He was a half-and-half party man ; he opposed in a great measure the policy marked out by Jefferson, and could not, after his election, be claimed as the embodiment of Republican ideas. The power is granted to Congress by the Constitution " to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the fore going powers." This clause has been a source of contention ever since the formation of the Government. Monroe, in his Internal Improvement message, May 4, 1822, treats the sub ject at great length, and aims at the conclusion that the object of granting these powers was to leave nothing to implication. He also held that these powers were inherent in the very na ture of the compact, and would have existed substantially if the grant had not been made. Most of his Cabinet officers j were Federal, and when he became President, although previ- AMERICAN UNION. 175 ously a strong Republican, he inclined so much towards the Federalists' views of the Constitution that his old political associates called him a no-party man. In his seventh annual message, Dec. 2, 1823, he remarks : " But, in regard to these continents, circumstances are eminent ly and conspicuously different. It is impossible that the Allied Powers should extend their political system to any portion qf either continent without endangering our peace and happiness." This idea was first promulgated by him, and has since been known as the Monroe Doctrine. The efforts of Aaron Burr's friends to secure for him the office of President, when they well knew that the people had chosen Jefferson for that exalted position, put a quietus on electing the Vice President as the successor. Before that, Adams, the Vice President under Washington, was chosen to succeed him, and Jefferson, Vice President under Adams, fol lowed. The Vice Presidency, up to this time, was looked upon as a kind of school to fit a man for the higher station of Chief Magistrate. But the excitement attending the election of 1800 prevented the election of any Vies President to the Presidency for the period of 36 years, when Martin Van Bu ren, who had been Vice President under Jackson, was chosen to succeed him. John Tyler and Millard Fillmore became Presidents after the assassinations of Harrison and Taylor ; and our present Chief Magistrate, Andrew Johnson, holds his position in consequence of the assassination of President . Lincoln. The election of 1825 going to the House produced a reaction in favor of Jackson, who entirely broke up the Congressional caucus system of nominating Presidential candidates. He was placed in the field early by his own State in 1829. This com pletely destroyed the caucus system. He was again nominated by the Legislatures of Pennsylvania and New York, and was re-elected. Tlie Convention system was first introduced at Baltimore, in September, 1831. It originated out of the Anti-Mason ex citement in Western New York. One William Morgan, a na- 176 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OP THE tive of Virginia, then residing in Batavia, New York, had pub lished what was supposed to reveal the three first degrees of Masonry. He suddenly disappeared, and. his supposed death was charged against the Masonic Order, but no evidence has ever been adduced to establish the truth of the charge. Even if the Lodge of which he was a member had made way with him (of which there is no evidence) it could not be charged on the Order. Mr. Clay was then the opponent of Jackson. The Conven tion would have liked to have had him as their candidate, but Clay being a Mason, his nomination was out of the question. After adopting a platform, the Convention nominated Wm. Wirt, of Maryland, as a candidate for President, and Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, as Vice President. At this Presi dential election, the party names underwent a change. Re publicans changed to Democrat and Federalists to Whig. The party that had nominated Wirt called - themselves the National Republican party, and carried the State of Vermont. The Whigs met in December, of the same year, (1831,) at the same place, and nominated Clay for President, and John Ser geant, of Pennsylvania, for VicePresident. These two parties, with their candidates, led the opposition, and the most they expected was again to throw the election into the House. The State of New Hampshire sent out a call for a National Convention to nominate a candidate for Vice President. Cal houn had a quarrel'with Jackson, and the Democracy assem bled in force May 21, 1832, in Baltimore. Martin Van Buren was chosen by 203 out of 283 members present. The Convention system has been kept up by both parties ever since, the Democratic party adopting the two-thirds rule in nominating, which has been the means of slaughtering nearly all its best statesmen for twenty years. The Native American and Abolition parties also both resorted to the Con vention system to bring their candidates into the field. The slavery controversy having now become the all-absorbing ques tion before the country, we refer the reader; for further par ticulars concerning candidates, to another part of' this work. AMERICAN UNION. 177 We close this part of our subject by giving the following electoral vote of all the Presidential contests, from Washing ton to Lincoln, together with the annual expenditures of each administration. ( George Washington, Virginia 69 1789 -| John Adams, Massachusetts 34 ( Scattering 35 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $1,986,588. I George Washington, Virginia 132 1793 ¦< John Adams, Massachusetts 77 ( George Clinton, New York.... 50 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $1,986,588. John Adams, Massachusetts 71 Thomas Jefferson, Virginia 68 1797 - Thomas Pinckney, South Carolina 59 Aaron Burr, New York 30 Scattering 48 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $5,287,088. f Thomas Jefferson, Virginia 73 i nm J J°nn Adams, Massachusetts 65 1801 1 Aaron Burr, New York 73 [ Charles C. PincSney, South Carolina 64 The vote for Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr being equal, the House of Representatives proceeded on Wednesday, February 11, 1801, to the choice of a President of the United States. On the first ballot eight States voted for Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, six States voted for Aaron Burr, of New York, and the votes of two States were divided. The balloting continued until Tuesday, 17th Feb. 1801, when on the thirty-sixth ballot the votes of ten States were given for Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, the votes of four States-for Aaron Burr, of New York, and the votes of two States in blank, and Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia was elected. Aaron Burr, as Vice President, took the oath of office, and entered upon Ms duties on the 4th of March, 1801. Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $5,142,598. 1805 j Thomas Jefferson, Virginia 162 Pres. ( Charles C. Pinckney, South Carolina 14 „ -p J George Clinton, New York 162 V. ires. ^ Rufag Kin& New T(jrk 14 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $5,142,598. 1809 j James Madison, Virginia 122 Pres. ( Charles C. Pinckney, South Carolina 47 •p- „ J George Clinton, New York 113 V. ±res. ^ Rufus j^ New Yorfc 47 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $18,085,617. 178 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE 1813 j James Madison, Virginia 128 Pres. \ De Witt Clinton, New York 89 Elbridge Gerry, Massachusetts 131 Jared Ingersoll, Pennsylvania. 86 V. Pres Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $18,085,617; 1817 J James Monroe, Virginia; 183 Pres. ( Rufus King, New York 34 V. Pres. Daniel D. Tompkins, New York 183 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $13,045,431. 1821 . Pres. James Monroe, Virginia 231 V. Pres. Daniel D. Tompkins, New York 218 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $13,045,431. 1825 Pres. V. Pres. Andrew Jackson, Tennessee 99 John Q. Adams, Massachusetts 84 Wm. H. Crawford, Georgia 41 Henry Clay; Kentucky 37 John C. Calhoun, South Carolina 182 Nathan Sanford, New York , 30 Votes in the ( Adams ; 13 Mouse of < Jackson 7 Representatives. (Crawford 4 For Vice President, . Henry Clay, of Kentucky, received two. Neither of the persons voted for as President having received a majority of the votes, it derived upon the House of Representatives to choose a President from the three highest on the list of those voted for by the elec tors for President, which three were, Andrew Jaekson, John Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford. The votes of thirteen States were given for John Quincy Adams ; the votes of seven States for Andrew Jackson, and the votes of four States for Williani H. Craw-ford. John Quincy Adams, having received a majority of the- votes of all the States of this Union, was duly elected President of the -.United States for four years; to commence on the 4th of March, 1825. Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $12,625,478.. 1829 j Andrew Jackson, Tennessee 178 Pres. | John Q. Adams, Massachusetts 83 i John C. Calhoun, South Carolina, ' 171 V. Pres. •< Richard Rush, Pennsylvania 83 ( William Smith, South Carolina 7 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public: debt, $18,068,301. 18.33 . ( Andrew Jackson, Tennessee 219 Pres. | Henry. Clay, Kentucky 49 Martin Van Buren, New York 189 John Sergeant, Pennsylvania 49 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $18,068,301. V. Pres. AMERICAN UNION. 179 1S37 J Martin Van Buren, New York 170 Pres. \ Wm. H. Harrison, Ohio 73 i R. M. Johnson, Kentucky > 147 Francis Gaanger, New York 77 V. Pres. Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $28,047,173, 1841 j Wm. H. Harrison, Ohio 234 Pres. 1 Martin Van Buren, New York 60 V Pres \ John Tyler' Vu'Smia 234 ( R. M. Johnson, Kentucky 48 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $23,541,238. 1845 (James K. Polk, Tennessee 170 Pres. | Henry Clay, Kentucky 105 V Pres -1 George M. Dallas, Pennsylvania 170 ( T. Frelinghuysen, New Jersey 105 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $36,681,101. 1849 ( Zachary Taylor, Louisiana 163 Pres. 1 Lewis Cass, Michigan 127 V p,m j MillardFillmore, New York., 163 v- -rres. j Wm Q Butler, Kentucky 127 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, while Taylor lived, $31,074,347. Fillmore, his successor, increased it to $44,805,721. 1853 j Franklin Pierce, New Hampshire 254 Pres. 1 Winfield Scott, New York 42 v -p ] William R. King, Alabama 254 V • ires. | Wm A Graham) North Caroiina .- 42 Average annual expenditure, exclusive of public debt, $55,872,028. 1857 ( James Buchanan, Pennsylvania 174 < John C. Fremont, California 113 nea- ( Millard Fillmore, New York 8 1 J. C. Breckinridge, Kentucky 174 V. Pres. < Wm. L. Dayton, New Jersey 113 ( Andrew J. Donelson, Tennessee 8 Expenditure for year ending June 31, 1858 $82,062,186 74 " " " " " 1859 83,678,643 92 " " " " " 1860 77,055,125 65 " " " " " 1861 85,387,313 08 . Total $328,183,269 39 The public debt on the 7th of March, 1861, was $76,159,667, consisting of $59,696,956 funded debt, and $16,462,711 treasury notes outstanding. (Abraham Lincoln, Rlinois 180 Stephen A. Douglas, Illinois 12 John C. Breckinridge, Kentucky 72 John Bell, Tennessee 39 180 ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN UNION. Popular Vote in 1860. Lincoln \ 1,864,104 Douglas 992,359 Breckinridge 669,273 Fusion (Dem.') 563,741 Bell 588,814 Expenditure for year ending June 30, 1862 570,841,700 25 " " " " 1863 895,796,630 65 " " " " " 1864 1,298,144,656 00 Do Estimated " " " " 1865 1,409,082,455 84 Total .$4,173,865,442 74 1864 j Abraham Lincoln, Illinois 230 Pres. ( George B. McClellan, New Jersey 21 Popular Vote in 1864. Lincoln 2,223,035 McClellan 1,811,754 The public debt on the 1st of July, 1865, is estimated to amount to $2,223,364,677 81, if the amounts to be raised correspond with the estimates. HISTOE Y OF GREAT CIVIL WARS. HOW THEY ENDED. The Peloponnesian war which began four hundred and thirty-two years B. C, lasted twenty-seven years. This war was brought on by the rivalry of the Grecian states — state sovereignty or autonomy. Pericles wanted union, but his efforts to form a great nation from rival sovereignties proved a failure. Sparta and Athens held slaves. The latter over 400,000, to 60,000 persons. The former Sparta was the South Carolina of Greece during the progress of the war; she, fearing insur rection among the slaves, offered liberty to all that would join the army. 2,000 came up to accept the boon, and the oli garchs had them secretly led away and massacred. By. this fiendish treachery they were enabled to get rid of an ele ment that might produce discord at home. It is curious to contrast the numbers engaged in our war with those engaged in the great wars of the past : " We select two decisive battles. One of these was fought in the harbor of Syracuse. In an expedition against Sicily, Athens had strained every nerve and equipped a magnificent fleet and army. They sailed out of the Piraeus with sound of trumpets, pasans, and libations of wine from gold and silver cups. This great army consisted of five thousand heavy armed infantry. It was reinforced by another of about the same number. When gathered at Syracuse they numbered in all — heavy armed infantry, natives of the island, and slaves who were light-armed and only employed as skirmishers — 182 HISTORY OF GREAT CIVIL WARS. twent}' thousand men. This, in the language of Thucydides, made her power appear' stupendous,' and her resources ' be yond calculation.' " The final and decisive battle was that of Aigospotami, when Athens lost her fleet, and nearly her whole army was surprised and taken prisoners. The numbers engaged in bit- tie are, not told ; but the number of prisoners, who were native Athenians, is recorded as three thousand, which seems to have made up the bulk of her army in the last decisive engage ment." NOW AND THEN. As to the numbers engaged, the little state of Massachusetts has furnished more men in our present struggle than fought on both sides in the great English rebellion. It has sent more men into the field than Julius Csesar commanded to gain the empire of the world ; more than all the troops of Hellas put together in the long struggle that rent her in pieces, when her sun went down in blood. The state of New York has equipped more soldiers than all the troops of Cassar and Pom pey put together, though drawn from every province, from the Euphrates to the pillars of Hercules. The whole army of Cromwell would only serve as skirmishers, or as a detail for a " raid" from the army of Grant or Sherman. His great military fame was gained by managing twenty-five thousand men ; and its marches and evolutions were within an area less extensive than the state of Virginia." THE ENGLISH REBELLION. "The great civil war of England, known as ' the Great Re bellion,' was also a conflict between the oligarchs and the com mons ; called the Cavaliers and the Roundheads ; more appro priately, the King and his Parliament. It divided England horizontally— the king and the lords and the bishops on one ride, the commons on the other ; and it decided the question forever, whether constitutional government was a possible boon to the English race. " The war opened in 1642, and continued seven years. It HISTORY OF GREAT CIVIL WARS. 183 would probably have been finished in half that time, but for the hesitancy and half measures of Essex, the first parlia mentary general. The first conflict of Edgehill has its exact parallel in Antietam. Itwas a drawn battle: both parties laying all night on their arms ; but, in the morning, Hampden came up with four thousand fresh men. Julius Caesar would have followed up quickly the former day's work, and, with blow upon blow, finished the royalists and the war. Instead of this, the armies ' looked at each other,' dreaded to renew the fight, and drew off, each by itself, much to the chagrin and disgust of Hampden. Five thousand were left slain upon the field — slain to no purpose, as nothing was decided. So things went on, till Oliver Cromwell came with his ' ironside regiment,' and, at the decisive battle of Naseby, dashed upon the king's forces, and shivered them in pieces. " We may smile, on reading over these great battles, at the numbers engaged. They varied from twenty to twenty-five thousand men on each side, never exceeding the latter num ber. The battle of Marston Moor was the most obstinately contested, between ' the most numerous armies that were engaged during the course of these wars ;' and in that battle, as Hume laments, fifty thousand British troops were led to mutual slaughter. Such was the price paid ; the end achieved was free government for the English race everywhere." Wars unskillfully waged are the bloodiest of all. Cassar, in a three years' war between the Cassareans and Pompeians, lost fewer men than McClellan did in a single campaign on the Peninsula. Indeed, it is said, more lives have been lost in our present war than the great civil wars of Greece, Rome and England put together ; and this might have been avoided had the North been a military people. THE EFFECT OF INTERVENTION. " It is well to look into the gulf of ruin from which our present civil war has saved us. Resolving the Union into thirty-six state sovereignties would place us exactly where the Greek Autonomies were placed in their struggle of twenty- 184 HISTORY OF GREAT CIVIL WARS. seven years. It means mutual slaughter and final collapse, until some stronger third power comes in and adjusts the bleeding fragments. Persia finally 'intervened' in favor of Sparta : and her hateful despotism was pressed down upon all the States of Hellas and her lovely islands. Thebes finally rebelled against it, led on by the great EpamiDondas ; and a second series of civil wars brought on a more complete ex haustion, and a more deadly collapse. Philip of Macedon next ' intervened,' and crushed them still lower into the dust, amid the dying thunders of Demosthenes, and the fading glories of the Grecian name. Next Rome ' intervened' and conquered Mace donia ; and both Macedonia and Hellas went down together under her iron heel. Next the Turk ' intervened ;' and Rome, in all her Eastern empire, involving Greece with her ancient states and beautiful isles, was eclipsed in a more baleful despo tism and in heathen night. Such are the last results of auto nomy — dismemberment, mutual hate and slaughter, national extinction and death. So the lovliest form of ancient civiliza tion, in a democracy just rising to the glories of empire, was sacrificed to the insane notion of petty ' state sovereignty ;' and when we now ask, Where is Hellas ? we are only answered by poets, who sing her elegy : "Ask the Paynim slave, Who treads all tearless on her hallowed graves ; Invoke tho spirits of the past, and shed The voice of your strong bidding on the dead ! Lo, from a thousand crumbling tombs they rise— The great of old, the powerful and the wise ! And a sad tale, which none but they can tell, Falls on the mournful silence like a knell. Then mark yon lonely pilgrim bsnd and weep Above the mound where genius lies in sleep. And is this all ? Alas! we turn in vain, And, turning, meet the self-same waste again— The same drear wilderness of stern decay ; Its former pride, the phantom of a day ; A song of summer birds within a bower , ) A dream of beauty traced upon a flower ; A lute whose master chord has ceased to sound ; A morning star struck darkling to the ground." PEACE BY DIPLOMACY. 185 DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS TO BRING ABOUT PEACE BEFORE AND DURING THE FIGHT. — MR. LINCOLN AT RICHMOND. Ever since war was determined on by the South efforts have been made by individuals on both sides to bring about peace by diplomacy. Before Buchanan's administration ex pired South Carolina sent delegates to Washington to arrange for a peaceable dissolution pf the Union. On the 5th of March, 1861, John Forsythe, Martin J. Crawford, and A. B. Roman, were sent by the Confederate authorities. They proposed a peaceable dissolution of the Union, and a division of its effects. Then came, in after times, Sanders, Thompson, Tucker and Clay, of Canada plotting assassination fame. From the North, by permission, went Col. Jaques, and his colleague, and had a talk with the rebel chiefs in Richmond. Then Horace Greeley met Clay, Thompson, and Sanders, at Niagara Falls. The above seekers were unable to find peace, but Mr. Greeley thought it not so difficult to attain as was generally thought. In January, 1865, Francis P. Blair, of Washington, and Gen. Singleton, of Illinois, by permission, made a visit to Richmond, and induced Jeff Davis to renew his efforts for peace through diplomacy. Vice President A. H. Stephens, Judge Campbell, and R. M. T. Hunter, were chosen by him, and sent to confer with President Lincoln. The meeting was arranged, and took place on board the Uni ted States transport River Queen, in Hampton Roads, Va., February 3, 1865. The rebel- Commissioners demanded an armistice, as a preliminary measure. This President Lincoln refused to grant. Secretary Seward, who was at the conference with Presi dent Lincoln, in a letter to Mr. Adams, our British Minister, dated Feb. 9, 1865, remarks : " The Richmond party were then informed that Congress had, on the 21st ult., adopted by a constitutional majority a joint resolution submitting to the several States the proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union, and that there is every reason to believe that it will be accepted by three-fourths of the States, so as to be- 186 PEACE BY DIPLOMACY. come a part of the national organic law. The conference came to an end by mutual acquiescence, without producing an agree ment of views upon the several matters discussed, or any of them. Nevertheless, it is perhaps of some importance that we have been able to submit our opinions and views directly to prominent insurgents, and to hear them in answer in a cour teous and not unfriendly manner. * The following is1 the rebel version, as given by A. H. Ste phens : Davis sent for his Vice President, and informed him of.tiie purport of Blair's mission. Stephens advised that Davis him self should go to meet President Lincoln, and Generals Grant and Lee should be the only persons even to know of the meet ing or be present at the interview. Davis refused to adopt this plan, and appointed three Commissioners to go in his place. He instructed them not to enter into any agreement whatever without his rank as President was first recognized. During the conference, while this point was being discussed, Hunter received a settler from Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Hunter made a long reply, insisting that the recogni tion of Davis's power to make a treaty was the first and in dispensable step to peace, and referring to the correspondence between King Charles the First aud his Parliament, as a relia ble precedent of a constitutional ruler treating with rebels. Mr. Lincoln's face then wore that indescribable expression which generally preceded his hardest hits, and he remarked . 4 Upon questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is posted in such things, and I don't propose to be bright. My only distinct recollection of the matter is, that,' •Charles lost his head." That settled Mr. Hunter for a while. After this Mr.. Lincoln's manner became earnest, and he gave the Commissioners to understand that nothing short of unconditional restoration of the Union could for a moment be ¦entertained, and said the time might come when they (the rebels) would not be considered as an erring people invited hack to citizenship, but would be looked upon as enemies to be exterminated or ruined. PEACE BY DIPLOMACY. 187 A. H. Stephens (so says the Augusta Chronicle, June 7, 1865) states that President Lincoln, at the conference, offered to pay to the South, for the loss of her slaves, $400,000,000 in gold. He says this offer was suppressed in making the report, but was reported to Davis confidentially, as the Commission ers believed it would damage Mr. Lincoln, and perhaps prevent him in future from renewing the same liberal offer. Judge Campbell, in his report, says he was satisfied with Mr. Lincoln's ultimatum, and was ready to acquiesce. Several day^ after their return to Richmond, he says Hunter became convinced of the hopelessness of looking or fighting for any thing better, and sided with him. Stephens at first thought a longer delay might result more favorable to the South, but on the eve of his departure for Georgia (which took place the day before the meeting at the African Church) he also acqui esced with the other Commissioners. After the capture of Richmond Judge Campbell remained in the place, and expressed a desire to Generals Weitzel and Shepley to see President Lincoln, whom he had learned was coming to the city. When Mr. Lincoln arrived the Generals communicated this to him, and he immediately sent for Camp bell, who met him at Weitzel's headquarters in the old Jeff. Davis mansion. Campbell expressed a great desire for peace, and insisted that Virginia should be taken back into the Un- ion, which would serve as a stepping stone for the other Southern States. He argued that if the Virginia Legislature was called together they would vote the State back at once. He submitted many plans to Mr. Lincoln — among others, that Of assembling the leading men of Virginia at Richmond. Mr. Lincoln then stated to Campbell that it had been his inten tion to return back to City Point immediately, but at his re quest he would stay until the next day. In the meantime Campbell went in search of some leading men, but could only succeed in finding a Mr. Gustavus A. Meyers, a former mer chant of the city. The next day the interview was held in the cabin of the Malvern, on board of which the President had retained his quarters. 188 PEACE BY DIPLOMACY. The New York Herald, of July 9, 1865, gives tbe following account of the proceedings, upon the arrival of Campbell and Meyers, in the presence of Gen. Weitzel : " After the ordinary greetings, Mr. Lincoln drew from the breast-pocket of his coat a folded document in his own hand writing, covering parts of two pages of foolscap paper, with out date or signature. He said that that paper contained his finality to the South. If the South desired peace, they could have it on the terms therein set forth, but on no other. He then proceeded to read the document, of which the following is an abstract : Three things are essential to peace : First. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the States. Second. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message to Congress and in preceding docu ments. Third. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the Govern ment All propositions coming from those in hostility to the Gov ernment, and not inconsistent with the foregoing, will be re spectfully considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. Beyond the indispensable terms any reasonable conditions will be entertained. The remission of confiscations was left within the- power of the Executive. Confiscations will be enforced if tho war is continued, but will be remitted to the people of any State which shall now promptly and in good faith withdraw its troops and other support from further resistance to the Gov ernment. This has no reference to rights of property in slaves. Mr. Lincoln then re-read the paper, commenting at length on each paragraph and sentence, in order to make his meaning clear and distinct. The paper was then handed to the South ern representatives. THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE. 189 THE QUESTION OF PARDONS. Mr. Lincoln remarked that the question of pardons was not mentioned in the paper. The pardoning power, he said, was vested wholly and unreservedly with himself. He could not force pardons upon anybody. Jeff. Davis had said that he would not accept a pardon from him (Mr. Lincoln). What was not worth asking for was not worth receiving. " But most any body can have most anything they choose to ask for." mr. Lincoln's plan for reassembling the Virginia legislature. After some general conversation, Mr. Lincoln, doubtless re ferring to the proposition of the previous evening, said : "I have been considering apian for reassembling the Vir ginia Legislature. I deem it of the greatest importance that the same organization which has been casting the influence and support of the State to the rebels should bring the State back into the Union. If I can work it out in my mind I will let you know." In justice to General Weitzel, whom'the public has charged with transcending his authority in permittiug the call for the assembling of the Virginia Legislature to be made, this point is important. The proposition that had been made to Mr. Lincoln was to convene the public and leading statesmen of Virginia^ without reference to their official station, and to settle with them the terms and mode of reorganization, and to obtain their aid in composing and tranquilizing the people. On the following day the President addressed a note to General Weit zel from City Point authorizing him to permit the convening of the Legislature, and directing that the note be shown to Judge Campbell. On that authority the call for the recon vening of the Legislature was prepared and submitted to Gen eral Shepley for approval. General Shepley made some alter ations in its wording and then permitted it to be printed. 190 THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE. THE REVOCATION OF THE ORDER. In the meantime the late President returned to Washington, where, it would seem, the action had was made the topic of discussion in the Cabinet, by the advice of which body, and because of revelations hereinafter detailed, the President was led to revoke the action. He thereupon addressed a note to General Weitzel directing that the permission for the reasem- bling of the Virginia Legislature be revoked and all the papers that had passed in the premises be withdrawn. This note en tered somewhat at length into the reasons .that induced the Executive to adopt this course. Simultaneously with the re ception of this note by General Weitzel, Major General. E- 0. C. Ord, Commander of the Department of Virginia, arrived at Richmond, having previously been absent with one of his corps, co-operating with the Army of the Potomac in pursuit of Lee. His arrival here operated to relieve General Weitzel of the, supreme command he had then been exercising, and the latter was sent to Petersburg with his corps. Because of the coin cidence of these events it was generally stated in the Northern papers that General Weitzel was relieved because of having transcended his authority, in permitting the call to issue for the assembling of tne Legislature. From the above it will be seen how unjust was this imputation. It is unfortunate that. considerations of national policy forbid the publication in full, of the late President's final note to General. Weitzel on this, subject, which fully exonerates that officer from all blame or censure in the matter. It is however most probable, as stated on eminent authority, that Mr. Lincoln, in the honesty of his intentions and the frank ness of, his heart, permitted himself to be entrapped where he considered everything to be fairandhonorable. It will.be rem embered that the proposition had been made to him to assemble. " the public and leading statesmen of Virginia, without; refer ence to their official station." This proposition, was intended and understood to mean the assembling qfthe people compos-, ing the State Legislature, though not as an official body. Mr. THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE. 191 Lincoln, in referring to it, spoke of the " Virginia Legislature,'' doubtless meaning thereby the unofficial body that had been spoken of to him ; and when he sanctioned the reassembling of that body, he did not intend that the old rebel Legislature should be called together as a recognized political orginaization, which wasattempted under the sanction gathered from his note. When he saw the literal interpretation that had been put upon his language by Campbell and others, he made haste to revoke the whole proceedings and recall all papers that had passed. It will be readily apprehended how deep was the plot thus working against the late President. Had " Extra" Billy Smith and his Legislature been permitted to come back and exer cise their functions as executive and legislative authorities of the State, it would have amounted to a recognition of those authorities, by which recognition would also have been impli ed not only the disavowal and repudiation of Governor Pier- point and his government, hut also the government of West Virginia, and, indeed, the whole State organization of West Vir ginia ; for the old Richmond Virginia State government has never recognized the division of tbe State, and was composed of delegates from the counties now included in the State of West Virginia, as well as the other counties of Virginia proper. If Mr. Lincoln's ideas may be deduced from the arguments that had been presented tc him, and upon which his action was based, his design was to permit Extra Billy Smith's Legis. latere to assemble in Richmond as a body of citizens, which, being looked upon in the South as the ligitimate government of the State, would have influence with the citizens of the State who were absent, and probably exert some influence over the other States. It was distinctly understood that if permitted to assemble this body would pass a bill declaring null and void all acts previously passed in hostility to the United States, and also recalling all troops of the State absent with the South ern armies. Under the popular Southern theory of State rights such action would have compelled respect and obedience, and would at least have withdrawn the State from the insurrection. It was also understood that immediately on taking this action 192 THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE. the Legislature would dissolve, its members resign, and the whole government give way to such other legal organization as might be substituted. It will be remembered that all this occured previous to Lee's surrender, and when it was of great importance that the Virginia troops should be withdrawn from the rebel armies. Undoubtedly the desire to thus seriously weaken the rebel cause had great weight in determining the course pursued by Mr. Lincoln, while the seeming sincerity and honesty of the advocates of the course wholly shut from his view the tricky scheme involved. But the first step of the intriguers in misconstruing the mean ing of the President and presuming upon a sanction to call to gether the Legislature of the State defeated all their projects. While an honest man is inclined to believe everybody else honest, a single deviation from integrity will arouse his fullest indignation and operate to forever destroy all confidence. So in this instance, Mr. Lincoln, when he saw the trick, quickly applied the remedy, by revoking the sanction given and with drawing every scrap of writing that had passed. He could have no further conferences with such men. Such was the final effort of the lamented President to restore peace to the country. Fortunately the valor of our noble troops rendered other efforts unnecessary, and the war was terminated, not by negotiation or compromise, but by the stern decision of that arbitrament — the sword — to which the South had first appealed. MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN, U. S. A. . (Engraved for tho History of tho Plots and Crimps.) GENERAL SHERMAN AND HIS GREAT OAiMPAiaiSrS, INCLUDING HIS HOLIDAY MARCHES . THROUGH GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS. Wm. Tecumseh Sherman is of English descent ; his ancestors, Puritans, left Dedham, England, in 1634. Arriving in America, the family settled in Connecticut. Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who died in 1783, was of that family. Taylor Sherman, for many years judge ia Connecticut, died iu 1815-, leaving a widow and three children, Charles R., Daniel, and Betsy. Charles R. married Mary Hoyt in 1810, and settled at Lancaster, now the county seat of Fairfield county, Ohio. Here he commenced the practice of law, and was finally elected Judge of the Superior Court in 1823. After serving in that capa city for near six years, he was suddenly attacked with cholera while on the bench in the discharge of his ofiicial duties. He died in June, 1829, leaving a widow with eleven children. Wm. Tecumseh was born February 8th, 1820, and was named by his father, Tecumseh, in honor of the Indian chief of that name, who was killed, October 5th, 1813, at the battle of the Thames. At the age of nine years his mother gave him in charge of Thomas Ewing, a lawyer re siding in Lancaster. Mr. Ewing was for many years a Whig politician of the Henry Clay school. After the Presidential election of 1840, he was chosen by Harrison, March 5th, 1841, Secretary of the Treasury. When young Sherman was about 16 years of age, Mr. Ewing having at his dis posal the appointment of a military cadet for West Point, seeing the boy was developing talent for that kind of life, conferred it upon him. He, graduated fifth in his class at that institution in June 1840, and was cre ated 2d Lieutenant in the 3d V. S. Artillery, and sent to take part in the Florida War. Although peace was not made with the Indians of 13 194 GENERAL SHERMAN AND that region until August 14th, 1843, 'yet he was . made 1st Lieu tenant in November, 1841, and sent to Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island in Charleston Harbor. After remaining there some time he was sent to California in 1846 as a Frontier Guard, and continued there until the close of the Mexican war ; here he was promoted to a Captaincy. He now became Captain Sherman, and in 1850, after his return from California, married Miss Ellen B. Ewing, daughter of his benefactor. He was after this connected with the Commissary Department of the Army, but in 1853 he resigned his commission, and retired to private life. , Mr. Lucas, of St. Louis, Mo. was now about to establish a banking- house in San Francisco under the name of Lucas, Turner & Co. He gave the management of this house to Captain Sherman, in the capacity of bank er, miner, and lawyer. He made and lost a large fortune in California. He returned from the Pacific coast and purchased a 160 acre farm near Topeka, Kansas, in 1857. While there he went into partnership with Hugh Ewing, Thomas Ewing, jr., and Daniel McCook, his two brother- in-laws, and McCook. Their law office was at Leavenworth, and the style of the firm was Ewing, Sherman & McCook. Having little taste for the legal profession, he was in 1860 offered, and accepted, at a yearly sal ary of $5000 the Presidency of the Military School of Louisiana, situated at Alexandria, a town on. Red River, about 350 miles above New Orleans. When he ascertained Louisiana was preparing to secede from the Union to join the rebellion, he sent the following patriotic letter to its governor : January 18th, 1861. Gov. Thomas 0. Mooke, Baton Rouge, La : Sir, As I occupy a quasi military position under this State, I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such position when Louisiana was a State in the Union, and when the motto of the seminary was inserted in marble over the main door, By the liberality of the general Government qf the United States. The Union Esto Perpetua. Recent events foreshadow a great change, and it becomes all men to choose. If Louisiana withdraws from the Federal Union I prefer to maintain my allegiance to the old Con stitution as long as a fragment of it survives ; and my longer stay here would be wrong in every sense of the word. In that event I beg you will send or appoint some authorized agent to take charge of the arms and munitions of war here, belonging to the State, or direct me what dis position should be made of them. And, furthermore, as President of the Board of Supervisors, I beg you to take immediate steps to relieve me, as Superintendent, the moment the State determines to secede, for on no earthly account will I do any act or think any thought hostile to or in defiance of the old Government of the United States. With great respect, I (Signed) W. T. Sherman. HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 195 This letter was written only eight days before the State passed the ordinance of secession. His resignation was accepted, and his patriotic devotion left him without employment. He went immediately to St. Louis, Mo., where he was engaged by Mr. Lucas, his old banking friend, at a yearly salary of $2000 to act as superintendent of a city railroad. Duty to his Government had caused him to make the pecuniary sacrifice of $3000 a year before engaging in anything hostile against it. Patriotism afterwards induced him to offer his services and life, if need be, to put dowji its enemies. He repaired to Washington and offered his services to aid in putting down treason and traitors. General McDowell gave him a Colonelcy of the 13th Regular U. S. Infantry, dated May 14th, 1861. He was on the 3d of August same year promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers, and sent into Kentucky to assist Anderson, of Sumter fame, who then had command of that Department. In Novem ber, 1862, with too many troops to be sacrificed, and too few to com mence offensive operations, he requested Secretary Cameron who was then on a visit to his headquarters to send him more men. Cameron enquired of him how many troops he thought it would take to commence the offen sive. Sherman then explained to him the difficulty of marching into Tennessee by divergent Unes — one to Nashville and the other to East Tennessee — with forces largely outnumbered by the Rebel armies con fronting him. On one of these lines he had 4,300 men to meet an oppos ing force of 18,000. When asked by Secretary Cameron how many men were needed for the present campaign, he (Sherman) replied, " Sixty thousand ; and before you can reduce the South to subjugation you must have 200,000." To this then apparently exorbitant demand the Secretary refused to comply ; and Sherman asked to be relieved, which Cameron did, and sent General Buell to take charge, Sherman now went to Benton Barracks near St, Louis, Mo, Here, sitting in the old Planter's House with Culluni, the plan of the first cam paign of Tennessee -was canvassed and decided on. Sherman, in a speech to the people of St. Louis, says : ' ' General Halleck is the author of that first beginning, and I give him credit for it with pleasure, [Cheers.] Laying down his pencil upon the map, he said, ' There is the line and we must take it.' The capture of the forts on the Tennessee river by the troops led by Grant followed. [Cheers.] These were the grand strategetic features of that first move ment, and it succeeded perfectly." " General Halleck' s plan went further — not to stop at his first hne, which ran through Columbus, Bowling Green, crossing the river at Henry and Donelson, but to push on to the second line, which ran through Mem phis and Charleston ; but troubles intervened at Nashville, and delays 196 GENERAL SHERMAN AND followed ; opposition to the last movement was made, and I myself was brought an actor on the scene." General Grant was now preparing to move on Fort Donelson, and Sher man was entrusted with superintending the forwarding of reinforcements and supplies, being stationed at Paducah, Kentucky. After the capture of Fort Donelson, he was put in command of the 5th Division of Grant's army. And under the lead of General C. F. Smith he ascended the Tennessee; river to Pittsburg Landing. Here and At Shiloh, the 6th and 7th of April, 1862, his coolness and bravery on the field has seldom been surpassed, having, had four horses shot under him. Ho could be seen everywhere in the thickest of the fight with face black ened with powder and besmeared with blood. Wounded himself, his daring in these battles will compare with Saladin, or equal Arabia's mad prophet through the bloody conflicts of Eastern war. With eyes full pf smoldering fire, when every one around him was excited, he was calm and collected. He looked the perfection of everything human. The in carnation ideal of the God of War. "In person, " says Major Nicholson, his aide-de-camp, " he is nearly six feet in height, with a wiry, muscular, and not ungraceful frame. His age is only forty-seven years, but his face is furrowed with deep linos, indicating care and profound thought. With surprising rapidity, how ever, these strong lines disappear when he talks with children and women. His eyes are of a dark brown color, and sharp and quick in expression. His forehead is broad and fair, sloping gently at the top of the head, which is covered with thick and light brown hair, closely trimmed. His beard and moustache, of a sandy hue, are also closely cut. Hi3 consti tution is iron. Exposure to cold, rain, or burning heat seems to produce no effect upon his powers of endurance and strength. Under the most harassing conditions I have never seen him exhibit symptoms of fatigue. In the field he retires early, but at midnight he may be found pacing in front of his tent. He falls asleep as easily and quickly as a little child — by the roadside, upon the wet ground, on the hard floor, or when a battle rages near him. No circumstance of time or place seems to affect him. His mien is never clumsy or common place ; and when mounted upon re view he appears in every way the great Soldier that he is." General Halleck in his dispatch to the War Department says : " It is the unanimous opinion here that Sherman saved the fate of the day on the 6th, and contributed largely to the glorious victory of the 7th." The Union forces engaged in these battles numbered 38,000 men. Sherman says : " Grant was there, and others of us, all young at that time, and unknown men, but our enemy was old, and Sidney Johnston, whom all the officers remembered as a power among the old officers, high above Grant, myself, or anybody else, led the enemy on that battle-field, and I almost wonder his great Campaigns. 197 how we conquered. But as I remarked, it was a contest for manhood — man to man — soldier to soldier. We fought, and we held our ground, and therefore accounted ourselves victorious." At General Halleck's suggestion Sherman was again promoted to the rank of Major General of Volunteers, dated May 1st, 1862. Corinth, the junction of the Mobile, Ohio, Charleston and Memphis railroads, was a very important position, and the rebel authorities sent Beauregard to defend it. Although Sherman was yet in subordinate command, his division was in the advance ; and on the 17th, 21st, and 27th of May met the rebels on the road near Corinth and fought some desperate battles. His command was first inside the rebel intrenchments at Corinth on May 28th, and on the morning of the 29th the rebels evacuated and fired the town. Sherman was ordered to advance on Holly Springs, Miss., to take pos session and destroy the railroad running1 from Jackson, Tennessee, to New Orleans. After burning long stretches of trestle-work on the Missis sippi Central Railroad, he entered and took possession of Holly Springs June 20th. July 11th, 1862, General Halleck was ordered to Washington to the high position of Generalissimo. He re-organized the army, and placed General Grant in command of the department of West Tennessee. Mem phis had surrendered June 6th ; but the region was much infested with guerillas and contraband traders. General Grant sent Sherman to take command of this important position. He was here placed in com mand of the 15th army eorps ; and eventually ordered to sail for Friars Point, eighteen miles below Helena, Arkansas, to be in position to coop erate with the main body of the troops against Vicksburg under General Grant, who wer3 in the vicinity of the Tallahatchie River. In his order issued for the march, Sherman showed no mercy to speculators. The fleet consisted of one hundred arid twenty-seven steamers, besides gun boats. The General's headquarters with his staff was on board the Forest Queen. On the 24th of December, 1862, the fleet was at Milhken's Bend. On Christmas day the advance moved up the Vazoo River, about three miles above that portion of the stream called Old River. This was the position of the right. The left extended to within three miles of Haine'a Bluff. Sherman says: "After the Tallahatchie hne was carried,Vicksburg was the next point. I went with a small and hastily collected force, and repeatedly endeavored to make a lodgment on the bluff between Vicks burg and Haine's Bluffs, while General Grant moved with his main army so as to place himself on the high plateau behind Vicksburg." The hank of the Tazoo is about thirty feet high at the above place, covered with an undergrowth of willows, briers, thorns, vines, and live oaks twined together. It was a difficult place to land troops, and it was dark before 198 GENERAL SHERMAN AND all the troops got ashore. Advancing from this position the right wing of the army of the Tennessee reached Vicksburg on Saturday morning, December 27th. Colonel Murphy, whom General Grant had commanded to hold Holly Springs, to prevent a raid on his rear, had cowardly sur rendered the post and prevented Grant from meeting Sherman at the ap pointed time and place. The line of battle was formed and Sherman or dered a charge to be made on the enemy's works which could be seen on the hillside. In the first charge these hardy Western boys had driven the rebels over a mile from their original position. The surrender of Holly Springs was yet unknown to General Sherman, and he was expect ing to hear the roar of General Grant's artillery every moment. Sher man remarks : " On the very day I had agreed to be there I was there. I waited anxiously for a co-operating force inland and below us, but they did not come ; and after I had made the assault I learned that the depot at Holly Springs had been broken up, and that General Grant had sent me word not to attempt it. But it was too late. Nevertheless, although we were unable to carry it at first, there were other things to be done." The attack was renewed again on Monday, but without success. The strong natural position of the enemy, with their well-chosen and strongly built fortifications, and his immense force, were obstacles that could not be overcome. If Sherman's men gained any advantage the tide was im mediately turned against them by overwhelming numbers. General's Morgan, Steel, Thayer and Blair's divisions, with Hoffman's and Griffin's batteries drove the rebels from their rifle-pits, but it was found impos sible to hold them in the charge up the hill. The Union army lost heavily ; General Blair had 1,825 men in his brigade ; his loss was 642 killed, wounded, and captured. The dead were buried under a Bag of truce, and General Sherman or dered his troops to re-embark. Aboutthis time General McClernand ar rived at the scene of action. He ranked General Sherman about one month in the date of his commission. He immediately ordered the with drawal of the vessels from the Yazoo back again into the Mississippi river, and changed the title of the Army of Tennessee to Army of the Mississippi. General Sherman announces the change in command in an order on hoard of the Forest Queen, dated at Milliken's Bend, January 4th, 1863. He says : " Ours was but part of a combined movement in which others were to assist. We were on time ; unforeseen contingencies must have delayed the others. A new commander is now here to lead you. He is chosen by the President of the United States, who is charged by the Constitution to maintain and defend it, and he has the undoubted right to select his own agents. I know that all good officers and sol diers will give him the same hearty support and. cheerful obedience they have heretofore given me." HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 199 On the morning of the 9th, the fleet with all on board, moved up the Mississippi. The White Cloud and City of Memphis carried the wounded and sick. Arkansas Post, lying nearly north of Vicksburg, was the object of the expedition. On January 11th, 1863, by the combined forces of General McClernand and Admiral Porter, the works were stormed, and the place captured at one o'clock. Over 7,000 prisoners with all their stores, animals, and munitions of war were taken. General McClernand in changing the name of the army divided it into two eorps. One commanded by General G. W. Morgan, and the other by General Sherman. The latter, although superseded, and somewhat chagrined at his previous unsuccess, contributed largely with his corps to secure the capture of the Post. Sherman having command of the 15th corps, was sent with it by Gen eral Grant to make a feigned attack on Haine's Bluff on the Yazoo River. Grant remarks : " Sherman, I want you to move upon Haines' Bluff to enable me to pass to the next fort below — Grand Gulf. ' ' This move was made to prevent the rebel commander at Vicksburg from sending troops to the assistance of Grand Gulf. With ten steamers, Sherman again moved his men, April 29th, from Milliken's Bend up the Yazoo to Chickasaw Bayou, and from there with Admiral Porter and his gun-boats the next day the entire force pushed forward to the port. Porter opened the bom bardment and continued it four hours. He then retired, and Sherman in full view of the rebels commenced landing his troops. After all had got ashore, the naval force again advanced and renewed the bombardment. The rebels now rallied all their available strength to resist an assault which they momentarily expected. The Ruse was a success. Sherman says : " I did make the feint on Haines's Bluff, and by that means Grant ran the blockade easily to Grand Gulf, and made a lodgment down there, and got his army up on the high plateau in the rear of Vicksburgif while the people north were beguiled into the belief that Sherman was again repulsed. But we did not repose confidence in everybody. Then fol lowed the movement on Jackson, and the 4th of July placed us in posses sion of that great stronghold, Vicksburg ; and then, as Mr. Lincoln said, ' the Mississippi went unvexed to the sea.' " General Sherman with his force went from here to Young's Point, and then to Hard Times on the Mississippi, distance about four miles from Grand Gulf. His column reached Hard Times on the morning of May 6th, and on the same even ing commenced crossing the ferry to join General Grant. On the 12th of May, Sherman and McClernand's forces fought the reb- els at Fourteen Mile Creek, while General McPherson defeated a strong force at Raymond. From these points all three commanders advanGod on and drove the rebel General Johnston out of Jackson, Mississippi. McPherson and McClernand turned their troops and marched on Bolton, 200 GENERAL SHERMAN AND leaving Sherman at Jackson from which point, by order of General Grant May 16th, he was instructed to make a forced march of twenty miles and join the main force at Dalton. Sherman continued his march to Bridgeport, and reached there by noon the' next day. From this point, May 18th, before dawn, he commenced his advance on Vicksburg. General Grant says of Sherman's late movement : "His demonstration at Haine's Bluff in April to hold the enemy about Vicks burg while the army was securing a foothold east of the Mississippi ; his rapid marches to join the army afterwards ; his management at Jack son, Mississippi, in the first attack ; his almost unequaled march from Jack son to Bridgeport, and the passage of the Black River ; his securing Walnut Hills on the 18th of May, attests, his great merit as a soldier." The position gained by Sherman on the 11th, was of great value in making the attack on Vicksburg. The place being too strong to be car ried by assault, that mode was abandoned, and the place had to he ap proached by a protracted siege, resulting in its capture July 4th, 1863. All this time General Johnston, with a large rebel force, had been threatening General Grant's rear. He immediately sent a message to Sherman that he must whip Johnston fifteen miles from here. Johnston fell back upou Jackson. Sherman was now, put in command of all the troops that was designated to look after Johnston, and the day fixed by General Grant to commence the grand assault on Vicksburg was July the 6th. Pemberton having surrendered on the 4th, left Sherman free to move on the 6th against Johnston, who was preparing to make a stand at Jackson. On the 11th of July, Sherman's soldiers discovered secreted in an old building, Jeff. Davis's library and private correspondence. Among the latter were found letters of sympathy, encouragement and justification from many Northern traitors. A gold-headed cane bearing the inscrip tion : To Jefferson Davis, from Franklin Pierce. These trophies were found by a foraging party in the country a few miles from Jackson, where Jeff, had stored them away for safety. On the 13th, midst a heavy fog, Johnston made an attack on Sherman's defences, but was repulsed. On the morning of the 16th, the rebel bands were discoursing rebel airs on their works in face of our troops. On the next morning it was discovered that Johnston had sneaked out, leaving the town of Jackson in ruins. The 15th army corps now occu pied, about twenty miles along the Big Black River, for the purpose of preventing raids from the enemy. Many of the Union soldiers died while in this unhealthy region, amidst the sultry air and poisonous vapors. While encamped here Mrs. Sherman and family came from their Western home to enjoy for a short time the society of their protector. In this sxkly region ihs child that bore hia father's name contracted a fever and HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 201 died in Memphis on their return home. He was a promising boy, born in San Francisco, California, June 8th, 1854, and died in Memphis, Tennes see, October 3d, 1863. A monument was erected by the 13th Regimei.t of Regular United States Infantry, over his remains. This was the regiment that General McDowell gave Sherman command of in the capacity of Colonel, in 1861. General Rosecrans, who had command of the Army of the Cumberland, was struggling to hold the region between Vicksburg and Charleston and at the battle of Chickamauga, 19th and 20th September, had been unsuc cessful in his encounter with Bragg, and retreated to Chattanooga. From Memphis to Chattanooga the distance is about 309 miles, and the Memphis and Charleston railroad connect them. Between the two places the Tennessee and Elk rivers cross the country, many of whose bridges were destroyed by the rebels. General Grant had been put in command of the departments of the Ohio , of the Cumberland, and of the Tennessee. General Thomas had succeeded Rosecrans in the Department of the Cumberland. General Grant arrived at Chattanooga October 23d, 1863. Although the rebels had assembled at Salem and Tuscumbia to prevent Sherman making a juncture with Rose crans. At Colliersville and Cane Creek battles were fought, after which General Sherman organized atluka his new command, and on the its of- November, with his army, crossed the Tennessee and passed on towards Elk river, here he was forced to take a circuitous route along the stream byway of Fayetteville, marking out the route for the different divisions of his army, he hastened on to Bridgeport, and telegraphed General Grant the position of his force, and on the loth day of November leaving his army at Bridgeport, he arrived at Chattanooga at the headquarters of General Grant. On the 23d, three divisions unobservedly had obtained a position be hind the hills opposite the mouth of the Chickamauga. The next morn ing was darkened by a drizzling rain and fog. Before day the pontoon bridge 300 feet long was commenced, and before three o'clock P.M. 8000 troops were on the other side at the foot of Missionary Ridge. From this position they began to ascend the hill, completely surprising the en emy. The entire hills were studded with rebel works, towering to the very clouds. So perfectly secure did Bragg feel, that he sent Long- street's entire corps to engage Burnsids at Knoxville. On the 24th, says Grant, the whole northern extremity of Missionary Ridge to near the Tun nel was in Sherman's possession. On the morning of the 25th he was again in the saddle. General Coarse was to have the advance, and just about sunrise his bugle sounded, forward. Sherman's force was left on the outer spur of Missionary Ridge, with his right abreast of the Tunnel. His position served to draw the enemy's fire from the assaulting parties 202 GENERAL SHERMAN AND on the hill. At 10 A.M. the fight raged furiously. General Coarse was severely wounded. Two brigades of reinforcements were sent up, but they became so crowded that they were compelled to fall away to the west of the hill. A heavy force of the enemy now emerged from under cover of the thick undergrowth on the right and rear of the supporting columns, which forced them to fall back in some confusion to the lower edge of the field, where they formed in good order. General Coarse, Col onel Loomis, and General M. L. Smith still held the attacking column proper up at the crest. General Grant says they held their position, al though advanced to the very rifle-pits, without wavering, when the two reserved brigades fell back. Sherman says, the enemy made a show of pursuit, but was caught in the flank by a well-directed fire of one brig ade, and forced to seek cover behind the hill. Sherman was attacking the mostnorthern and vital point of the enemy's position. His stores were at Chickamauga, directly in Sherman's rear, which kept them uneasy for their safety. On this account the enemy moved a large force to dislodge him. Sherman says column after column was streaming towards me. Grant kept his eye fixed on this key-point and sent a division to aid, but Sherman sent back word he could hold with his present force. Hooker had swept gallantly round the enemy's left. When Grant saw the main ¦ effort of the enemy was directed against Sherman's centre, or Missionary Ridge, he ordered General Thomas to strike their left flank. He broke in the centre of the long line. They turned, but too late ; while Thomas swept everything before him, from ridge to ridge. Bragg was over whelmingly defeated, and his routed demoralized force driven down into the vallies of Georgia. This was on the 25th of November. The victory of Chattanooga was made complete. General Sherman at four o'clock, on the morning of the 26th, with part of General Howard's eleventh corps was in pursuit. They came up to the enemy's rear, and a fight was commenced which lasted till darkness closed in. On 27th, all the armies of Hooker and Thomas sharing in the pursuit, marching and fighting. Sherman now sent Howard to destroy the railroad between Dalton and Cleveland. This cut the communication between Bragg and Longstreet, and turned the flank of the enemy who were now engaging Hooker at Ringgold. The enemy had now been driven from this part of Tennessee. Sherman entered Ringgold and met Genera] Grant, who ordered him to leisurely return with his army back to Chattanooga. The next day Sherman tore up the railroad between Graysville and Ringgold to the Georgia State-line ; and General Grant consented that Sherman might make a circuitous route north, as far as theHiawassee. This was in the latter part of November. Burnside, who was at Knoxville, sent Grant an urgent appeal for relief, stating that he could only hold out until December 3d. Grant had aheady ordered HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 203 Granger to push on to the relief of Burnside, but the emergency was such that a more energetic commander was needed to save Knoxville from be ing captured by Longstreet. Grant gave this expedition in charge of Sherman, including the troops under Granger's command. Burnside had about 12000 men in the mountain town of Knoxville, which was about 84 miles distant, and relief must come to them in three days. At daylight the army passed the Hiawassee and marched to Athens, fifteen miles on the 2d day of December. They reached London, 26 miles distant. Here they had a fight with the rebel General Vaughn, who they found strongly posted, building earthworks, with artillery. When Howard's infantry arrived, it was night, and before morning Vaughn had run three locomo tives and forty-eight cars into the Tennessee river, and evacuated the position, leaving four guns and a large quantity of provisions. Sherman now sent word to Colonel Long, cavalry commander, that Burnside must know in 24 hours of his approach. It was yet a distance of 40 miles to Knoxville. At daylight the cavahy was off; and the 15th corps was turned from Philadelphia to Morgentown ; but here the Tennessee was too deep to ford, and General Wilson constructed a bridge made partly from the houses of the late village of Morgentown, and by dark, December 4th, the bridge was down, and the troops crossing. Long's cavalry had reached Knoxville on the night of the 3d, and on the morning of the 5th Sherman received word from Burnside that all was well. On the same evening a staff officer from Burnside rode up to announce that Longstreet had raised the siege. Itwas in the early part of 1864 General Sherman planned a new and im portant expedition, the object was nothing less than the capture of Mo bile, Alabama. In maturing his plans he discovered, by verging a little from a direct line his army would pass through the richest corn and cotton fields of the .South, which were known to be swarming with slaves. By taking this course he would not only give the enemy a severe blow at one of his important points of subsistence, but he would be enabled to get between Johnston's army and Mobile, so as to assist Commodore Farra- gut in its capture, by hurling his legions against it from the land side. Having matured his plans, by his orders portions of the 16th and 17th ar my corps, commanded respectfully by Hurlburt and the gallant McPher son, left Vicksburg February 3d. General W. S. Smith who was also to take part, was to leave Memphis, Tennessee; with 8000 cavahy two days before and was commanded to join Sherman about 150 miles from Vicks burg, at Meridian. After crossing the Big Black River and moving along by Champion Hills and Clinton, Sherman was met at Jackson by Hurlburt and McPherson, who had taken different roules. Parts of his army were here united. And some resistance was offered by the rebels, at Line Creek ; skirmishing took place, but the enemy fell back, while Sherman pushed 204 GENERAL SHERMAN AND on, taking the towns of Quitman and Enterprise, reaching the Big Chunky River and Meridian, February 13th. It was at this place and time General Smith from Memphis, with 8000 cavalry, was commanded to join General Sherman, but instead of doing so he had only left Memphis that day, February 13th, and instead of get ting 8000, he only had procured 3000 cavalry. With this small force" he was 13 days behind time, and 200 miles distant away. This failure com pelled Sherman to abandon further prosecution of the Mobile part of the enterprise ; and after tearing up the Mississippi Central Railroad from Jackson to Meridian, and destroying the rebel machine shop, then in full blast at the latter place, and dispersing the rebel force stationed there, he thought it hazardous to go further Without cavalry and returned. Although all was not accomplished anticipated at the outset, on account of General Smith's failure, yet glorious results were achieved in liberating about 8000 slaves, who followed the army on its return, like the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, taking with them the costly vehicles and luxu ries of their terror-stricken masters, who fled at Sherman's approach. Four thousand rebel prisoners, thousands of horses, mules, and cattle were brought away, and over $2,000,000 worth of rebel property de stroyed. The expedition returned to Vicksburg with trifling loss ; (while Sherman went to New Orleans on the gunboat Diana) having been absent about a month. While at Meridian, February 13th, Sherman con gratulated his troops in these words : " The General commanding conveys his congratulations and thanks to the officers and men composing this command for the most successful ac complishment of one of the great problems of the War. Meridian the great railway centre- of the southwest is now in our possession, and by industry and hard work can be rendered useless to the enemy, and deprive him of the chief source of supply to his armies. Secrecy in plan and rapidity of execution accomplish the best results of war ; and the General com manding assures all that by followig their leaders fearlessly and with confidence, they will in time reap the reward so dear to us all — a peace that will never again be disturbed in our country by a discontented mi nority." While Sherman's men were resting from the " big raid," as he called his Meridian expedition, the President, in accordance with a law previ ously passed by Congress, creating the office of Lieutenant-General, con ferred the honor of it upon Major-General Grant. This order dated March 12th, 1864. First— At his own request, relieved General Halleck, and assigned Gen eral Grant to the command of the armies of the United States ; headquar ters of the army in Washington. Grant's headquarters in the field. Second — General Halleck is made Chief of Staff of the army under the HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 205 direction of the Secretary of War and the Lieutenant-General command ing, whose orders Halleck was also to respect and obey. Third, — Assigned the command of the military division of the Missis sippi to Major-General W. T. Sherman, composed of the Department of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas. Fourth — gave command of the department and army of the Tennessee to Major-General J. B. McPherson. General Sherman had now under his command about the 1st of May, 1864 : Army of the Cumberland. — Gen. Thomas commanding. Infantry, 54,568 ArtiUery, 2,377 Cavalry 3,828 Total 60,773 Guns, ...... 130 Army qf the Tennessee. — Maj. Gen. McPherson commanding. Infantry, 22,437 Artillery, 1,404 Cavalry, 624 Total 24,465 Guns, 96 Army of the Ohio. — Maj. Gen. Schqfield commanding. Infantry, 11,183 ArtUlery, 679 Cavalry, 1,679 Total, 13,541 Guns, 28 The entire force numbered 98,779 troops, and 254 guns. On May 6th the armies were located as foUows : That of the Cumber land at or near Ringgold, Georgia ; that of the Tennessee at Gordon's MiU on the Chickamauga ; and that of the Ohio near Red Clay on the. Georgia line near Dalton. This town is situated on the railroad between Chattanooja and Atlanta with Ringgold to the northwest. GENERAL SHERMAN ASSUMES COMMAND OF THE ARMY OP THE MISSISSIPPI. Thus stood the forces when Sherman took command, and around him stood Generals McPherson, Hooker, Hurlburt, Thomas, Logan, Sqhofield and Howard. Sherman having been foiled in his designs on Mabilet by. 206 GENERAL SHERMAN AND the failure of General Smith to cooperate, now that he was invested with supreme command, at first contemplated an advance on Richmond by way of Lynchburg, Virginia, making Knoxville, in East Tennessee, his base. Every military man could see that Lynchburg was the key to the rebel position of the East. But Sherman saw that with 100,000 men it would be impossible to protect his long line of supplies, most of which came from LouisyiUe, Kentucky, and at the same time protect Middle Tennessee from invasion. Longstreet, the rebel commander, who had been wintering his army in East Tennessee, hearing General Schofield was making preparations to move on Knoxville, and believing it only the ad vance of Sherman's entire force, withdrew from East Tennessee before the campaigning season commenced. Sherman, therefore, gave up the contemplated Richmond enterprise ; and as this left Johnston in command of the only large rebel army in the southwest, he resolved to pursue him into Georgia. The grand advance in pursuit of Johnston commenced about the 7th of May. He was strongly fortified at Buzzard Roost, with his outpost extending to Tunnel Hill. General Thomas drove the rebels from this place on the 7th, and on the 11th, under the entire rebel fire, occupied Buzzard Roost. The former is a narrow gorge or pass in the Chatoogato Mountains, flanked on one side by Rocky Faced Ridge (not unlike the Palisades of the Hudson River) , and on the other by the greater but less percipitous elevation called John's Mountain. This gorge was com manded on the Dalton side by an ampitheater of hiUs, which, as well as Rocfcy Face and John's Mountain, was crowned with batteries, lined with infantry, and terraced by sharp shooters. The only pass through the mountain was the railroad and wagon road, and Johnston had dammed a neighboring mountain stream and conveyed it into the gorge so that the water over the wagon and railroad track was from eight to ten feet deep. In addition, piles were driven down filling the defile, which made an additional barrier. It was so strong a position, that the rebels felt perfectly secure, as they believed it unassailable. Fighting had commenced at Tunnel Hill, and after two days reconnoissance and sharp skirmishing, proved to General Sherman that an attack in front would be attended with too great a waste of life, he resolved that the pass must be turned, in looking about how to do it, he discovered a pass about fifteen miles to the southwest called Snake Creek Gap. Rising on one side is Rocky Face, with its flint sides, on the other, Oak Knob. The deep dark forests concealed the movements of the troops under General Morgan, and others kept the rebels in constant dread of an assault. A corporal of Company I, sixteenth Illinois, broke from the line (so J says General Morgan,) and under cover of projecting ledges, got up HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 207 i within twenty eet of a squad of rebels on the summit. Taking shelter from the sharpshooters, he called out : " I say rebs, don't you want to hear Old Abe's Amnesty Proclamation read?" Yes, was the unanimous cry, give us the ape's Proclamation. " Attention!" commanded the corporal, and in a loud clear voice he read it; when he arrived at that part where the negro was referred to, the rebs cried out, none of your d — d abolitionism, look out for rocks. which they began to shower down over his hiding place. Do you want to hear it again cried the corporal ; not to-day you bloody yank, now crawl down, and we wont shoot, was the response. General Howard, in an elevated position on Rocky Face Ridge, seeing a squad of rebels upon a projecting ledge below. In the absence of hand grenades, the General, tired of gazing at them, lit the fuses of a few shells and dropped them down into the center of the group. The flank movement had now commenced in earnest, led on by Gene ral McPherson with the 15th and 16th corps, and Garrard's division of cavalry, supported by General Thomas with the 14th and 20th corps, whUe General Howard and Schofield, with the 4th and 23d corps, and Stoneman's division of cavahy amused the enemy in front. Suddenly General Johnston discovering that his strong position had been flanked, and his means of communication in danger of being cut off, abandoned this Gibraltar of the South, and fell back upon Ressaca. This town is situated in GordonT!ounty, Georgia, on the north bank of the Coosawattee River which flows southwest, changing its name to the Oostalantee, and joins Etowah at Rome, the two forming the Coosa, whieh joins the Tallapoosa, forms the Alabama, and flows into the Gulf of Mobile. Ressaca is due south, about fifty-six miles by railroad from Chattanooga, and eighty-two miles by rail from Atlanta. The pursuit continued, and for three days the sound of battle could be heard among the hiUs, until Sherman on the 15th and 16th of May defeat ed the rebels, capturing six trains going south for supplies ; 1200 prison ers and eight guns, and a large quantity of stores. The rebels in their retreat from Ressaca destroyed the railroad bridge on the Western and Atlanta Railroad, 600 feet long. From this position Johnston again fell back, directly pursued by Gene- _ral Thomas, while McPherson and Schofield took different routes. The conflict raging both by night and by day, the darkest hours of midnight frequently lit up by the flame of the guns. Over mountain and stream the brave Union army bore down on the retreating rebels. When near DaUas, while the troops were engaged in slumber, they were awakened by melodious notes of Old Hundred, given forth by one of the brigade bands ; soldiers employed in preparing their meals listened for a mo- 208 GENERAL SHERMAN AND ment, when aU at once the bands of brigade after brigade struck in and made the hills resound with the music ; when they ceased to reverber ate, five thousand voices were raised in praise of God from whom all bless ings flow. After breakfast the soldiers of many hard fought battles broke camp and fell into line. General Thomas' troops, with the fearless Hooker in advance, was sweeping towards Dallas, when the enemy crossed their path. The action of New Hope Church came off here. General Stoneman captured from the Third Texas Cavalry a black flag uith a skelelon figured upon il, together with death's head and cross bones. This Texas company is said to have carried this flag from the first. Our boys after this took no prisoners from the Third Texas cavalry. General McPherson's corps did the principal part of the fighting at DaUas. The loss of the rebels amounted to about 5,500 kUled, wounded and prisoners. The month of May had closed1 with the battle at Dallas. The troops had been pressing hard down on the rebel force, fighting and marching from Chattanooga, now about one hundred miles. Itwas a her culean task ; but the glorious army of the Union kept unbroken ranks. A battle was fought on the 21st of June. It is not our province to give aU tho skirmishes in the running fight, but only such as appeared directly fruitful of results. The battle of the 21st revealed the outposts of John ston's new and strong position at Lost Mountain, Pine HiU, and Kenesaw Mountain. Here he was found intrenched on these bold p;aks connected together by a line of ridges and his lines closely circumscribed by ours. No place were they more than a musket shot apart. This strong posi* tion was only twenty-six miles north of Atlanta, Johnston's right rested on Kenesaw Mountain, on the railroad, four miles north of Marietta ; his left on Lost Mountain, some six miles west of Kenesaw. Between these two formidable ridges his forces had been graduaUy forced back from a triangle with the apex towards us, until his line was a faint crescent, his center still being slightly advanced right, left, and center their po sition was closely invested. Our troops shed parallel after parallel, un til the country in tho rear was furrowed with rifle-pits and abatis and scared with a labyrinth of roads. To add to our difficulties, this region was completely covered with primitive forests, and as incredible as it seems, after two days' skirmishing, we developed the enemy's position. A country robbed of its substance by its self-styled defenders, unable to, even feed its non-combatants who depended upon the Union army for food which had to be carried through a hostile country over a distance, of two hundred miles, on a single-track railroad. This was the situation when the mighty task of dislodging Johnston's rebel army from its last strong position was undertaken. An officer writing from the spot re marks : " The ridge in front of Kenesaw commences about Wallace's House on the Burnt Hickory and Marietta road, and extends thence across HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 209 the railroad behind Noonday Creek about two miles in an east-by-north direction. Lost Mountain and Kenesaw are about eleven hundred feet high ; Pine HiU and Brushy Hill about four hundred feet high, and the ridges everywhere about one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet, or about the same as, and, in fact, not very dissimilar to Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga. The enemy was strongly intrenched behind log barri cades, protected by earth thrown against them, with a ditch, formidable abatis, and in many places a, chevaux-de -frise of sharpened fence-rails besides. Their intrenchments were well protected by thick traverses, and at frequent intervals arranged with emplacements and embrasures for field-guns. The thickness of this parapet was generally six to eight feet at top on the infantry Une, and from twelve to fifteen feet thick at the top, where field-guns were posted, or where fire from our artillery was anticipated. . The amount of digging and intrenching that Johnston's army had done is almost incredible. General Sherman's tactics resulted in wresting Lost Mountain, Pine Hill, the ridge in front of Kenesaw, and Brushy Hill from the enemy, and forcing back his two wings, Kenesaw Mountain operating as a sort of hinge, until his left was behind Olley's Creek, and his right behind the stream which flows between the houses named on the map as McAffe and Wiley Roberts. Kenesaw Mountain then became the projecting fortress of the defensive Une, the wings be ing turned backward from it. It is a rocky eminence, rather precipi tous, thickly wooded, and crowned with batteries. " Our respective Unes were about eight or nine miles in length, from six hundred to seven hundred yards distant from each other, and strong ly intrenched. Skirmishing went on incessantly, and artillery duels oc curred two or three times daily. The enemy at different times made some dozen or more assaults, sometimes getting within fifty. yards of our intrenchments, but were always repulsed, and generaUy with heavy loss to them. To gain certain positions, we opened a heavy artiUery fire upon their whole line, pressed their two flanks heavily, and made as saults in two places upon their centre. The assaults were unsuccessful ; but the Twenty- third Corps, upon their extreme right, gained important advantages of position." Wrote another: "We fancy out here that the over-expectant loyal pubhc are disappointed at the seemingly slow progress of our cause in this department. It is only necessary to state that the immense amount of supplies required for an army of this size, to be transported a dis tance of over two hundred miles through the enemy's country, with a single-track railroad, is a gigantic undertaking. As for subsisting upon the country ,that is out of the question, the inhabitants themselves de pending upon the charity of the ' ruthless invaders' for daily sustenance. Forage, ordnance stores, and commissary supplies, must aU flow through 14 210 GENERAL SHERMAN AND this single artery with lightning rapidity, if we would replenish these stores as fast as exhausted. Nothing but the most thorough organiza tion and complete system, with great eneTgy in the various departments, could ever have prevented our troops from suffering for the want of food and clothing. Tho public can never appreciate the innumerable natural obstacles that have embarassed the operations of this unflinching army. The truly loyal do not demand any such explanations as these, for with such leaders as Grant and Sherman, apprehension is groundless ; but of late the Copperhead press, not content with misrepresenting and belit tling General Grant's victorious advance toward the rebel capital, sneer at General Sherman's generalship, and insinuate already, in the face of brilliant successes achieved, that the ' On to Atlanta' movement is a failure. " Standing upon the martial-crowned top of Pine Mountain, amid the fluttering of those peculiar flags used by the Signal Corps, we learned that from this eminence were transmitted, in those mysterious signals, all the movements of the enemy, and such operations of our army as were necessary. In front of you stands the defiant, frowning Kenesaw, with its thick woods concealing the rebel batteries from view that line its steep sides, while five or six miles west of Kenesaw, Lost Mountain lifts its sugar-loaf crest to the sky, solitary and alone, looming up against the gorgeously-tinted clouds that deck the heavens. Just before you, look ing south, can be discerned the suberbs of Marietta, with the Georgia Military Institute standing out prominently in the picture. Gazing down the steep declivity into the thickly- wooded vales which lie at the spec tator's feet, a magnificent panorama of natural beauty is unfurled. So close are the lines of the contending armies, that the dense volumes of smoke from their camp fires roU up united, but hang in portentous clouds over friend and foe. " While wrapt in silent admiration, mixed with a deep sense of awe at the wild and romantic scene before me, the bands encamped in the valley which encircles the base of the mountain, struck up the ' John 'Brown' or ' Glory Hallelujah Chorus,' the echoes of which vibrated, re echoed, and, finally, as the sun's departing rays began to fade from the horizon, its pathetic notes died away, or mingled with the rattle of mus ketry which flashed along our skirmish line. I can never forget the pe culiar impression photographed upon my mind by the swelling of this •historical anthem of Freedom's first battle, as it grandly sailed over Pine Mountain. My reverie was soon disturbed by the sudden roar of many batteries belching out their savage peals with fearful rapidity from both sides, and for several minutes quite an artillery duel was indulged in, interspersed with short rolls of musketry. It was curious to watch the rebel guns, as the smoke lazily curled from the cannon's mouth, while . the solid shot whizzed, and shells shrieked over our breastworks." HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 211 " Among tho incidents of this part of the great campaign was a dress parade of the rebels on the top of Kenesaw Mountain. Our lines were so near, that the display was distinctly visible and audible. Below the regiment, whose bayonets gleamed in the rays of the setting sun, were the bristling rifle-pits. A courier suddenly dashed up to the adjutant, and handed him a despatch from General Johnston, announcing that General Sherman had brought his army so far south, that his line of supphes was longer than he could hold ; that he was too far from his base — just where their commanding general wished to get him ; that a part of their army would hold the railroad, thirty miles north of the Etowah ; and that the great railroad bridge at AUatoona had been com pletely destroyed ; that in a few days Sherman would be out of suppUes, because he could bring no more trains through by the railroad. They were urged to maintain a bold front, and in a few days the Yankees would be forced to retreat. Breathless silence evinces the attention which every word of the order receives, as the adjutant reads. Cheers are about to be given, when, hark ! loud whistles from Sherman's cars, at Big Shanty, interrupt them. The number of whistles increase. AUa toona, Ackworth, and Big Shanty depots resound with them. Supplies have arrived. The effect can easily be imagined. The illustration was so apt, the commentary so appropriate, that it was appreciated, at the jnstant. ' BuUy for the base of supplies ! ' ' Bully for the long line ! ' ' Three cheers for the big bridge ! ' ' Here's your Yankee cars ! ' ' There's Sherman's rations !' Bedlam was loose along their line for a short time. ' ' There was a tree in front of General Herron's division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, to which was given the name of fatal tree. Seven soldiers in succession, who hid behind it to shoot, were killed. Then a board was put onthe tree, on which was chalked 'dangerous.' The rebels soon shot this sign to pieces, when a sergeant took his position there, and in less than two minutes two Minnie balls pierced his body, making the eighth victim of rebel bullets — a tragical item in war's dread work. THE BATLLE OF KENESAW MOUNTAIN. General Hooker was on the right and front, while General Howard was on the left and front. June 14th a heavy cannonading commenced ; the fire of the artillery could be heard for miles. Bishop General Polk, one of the main stays in the rebel army feU in the early part of this engage ment. On the same night the rebels abandoned Pine Mountain. The gallant Thomas and Schofield immediately advanced, and soon found the foe strongly intrenched along a ridge of rocky hills, running from Kene saw to Lost Mountain. General McPherson crowded the rebel lines on the left, and on the 17th, just as General Sherman was about to order a 212 GENERAL SHERMAN AND charge the enemy deserted his breastworks that connected Lost with Kenesaw Mountain. < Onwaid the victorious troops pursued until among the Kenesaw peaks they discovered the front lines of the enemy, the outer lines having fallen back to cover Marietta and the railroad to the Chattahoochie. General Hooker led the charge against this rebel strong hold. New York and Illinois regiments, here together, freely shed their patriotic blood on this mountain top. The 27th Illinois regiment suffered severely. Michael Delariey, its color-bearer, in advance of his regiment, after being wounded, leaped on the enemy's breastworks, holding aloft the starry banner of his country. While thus standing on the enemy's works, two rebels approached him on each side and thrust their bayo nets into his already wounded body. While thus mortaUy wounded, he clasped the flag to his breast and bore it back in safety to his comrades, where he soon after bled to death. On the night of July 2d, General McPherson threw his army in a position to threaten Nickajack Creek and Turner's Ferry across Chattahoochie. On the morning of the 3d, Kene saw was abandoned : our skirmishers could be seen on the mountain top. General Thomas' whole line was then moved forward to the railroad and turned south in pursuit of the retreating enemy. Marietta was entered at half past eight, A. M., just as the enemy's cavalry evacuated the place. Johnston had thrown up intrenchments across the road at Smyrna, camp-meeting ground, five miles from Marietta, but from this strong position again falls back. On the 4th of July the entire line of the enemy's pits were captured. The next morning he had abandoned Nickajack Creek and Turner's Ferry. General Sherman now moved his army to the Chattahoochie, General Thomas's left flank resting on it, near Price's'Ferry ; General McPherson's right at the mouth of Nickajack ; and General Schofield in the reserve, while the enemy lay behind a line of unusual strength, covering the rail road and pontoon bridges, and beyond the Chattahoochie. From the heights on the banks of this stream could be seen the forests that surround Atlanta ; the spires of the churches and public buildings that adorned the great city are distinctly visible. On the 4th, the curiosity was so great to see Atlanta, many of the soldiers straggled from their regiments and climbed the hill-sides to get a glimpse at the promised place. On the 10th, Sherman held possession of the country north and west of the river. The rebel army was intrenched on the heights overlooking the valley of Peach Tree Creek, his right beyond the Augusta road to the east, and his left well toward Turner's Ferry on the Chattahoochie ; general distance from Atlanta about four miles. The Richmond authori ties bocoming disgusted with General Johnston's habitual retreating which he had continued from Dalton ; believing his policy created dis trust in tbe rebel cause, Jeff Davis removed him, and appointed General HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 213 Hood to take command. Johnston's poUcy had been to intrench and await attack; but Hood now determined to inaugurate different tactics, that of attack, which he boldly commenced on Sherman's left wing, but every effort of the new general proved unavailing, as Sherman continued not only to advance, but to close in upon Atlanta ; his line, on July 22d, formed a. general circle of about two miles radius. Hood who had found that Sherman could not be driven back, began to occupy a line of finished redoubts which had been prepared for more than a year, covering all the roads leading into Atlanta. Sherman remarks: " We found him also busy in connecting these redoubts with curtains strength ened by rifle trenches, abatis, and chevaux-de-frise." ' ' General McPherson, who had advanced from Decatur, continued to follow substantiaUy the railroad, with the Fifteenth Corps, General Lo gan; the Seventeenth, General Blair, on its left; and the Sixteenth, General Dodge, on its right ; but as the general advance of all the armies contracted the circle, the Sixteenth Corps, General Dodge, was thrown out of line by the Fifteenth connecting on the right with General Scho field near the Howard House. General McPherson, the night before, had gained a hill to the south and east of the railroad, where the Seven teenth Corps had, after a severe fight, driven the enemy, and it gave him a most commanding position, within easy view of the very heart of the city. He had thrown out working parties to it, and was making preparations to occupy it in strength with batteries. The Sixteenth Corps, General Dodge, was ordered from right to left to occupy this position and make it a strong general left flank. General Dodge was moving by a diagonal path, or wagon track, leading from the Decatur road in the direction of General Blair's left flank. General McPherson remained with me until near noon, when some reports reaching us that indicated a movement of the enemy on that flank, he mounted and rode away with his staff. I must here also state that the day before I had detached General Garrard's cavahy to go to Covington, on the Augusta road, forty-two miles east of Atlanta, and from that point to send detach ments to break the two important bridges across the YeUow and Ulco- fauhatchee Rivers, tributaries of Ocmulgee, and General McPherson had also left his wagon train at Decatur under a guard of three regime-ts, commanded by Colonel, now General Sprague. Soon after General Mc Pherson left me at the Howard House, as before described, I heard the sounds of musketry to our left rear — at first mere pattering shots, but soon they grew in volume, accompanied with artiUery, and about the same time the sound of guns was heard in the direction of Decatur. No doubt could long be entertained of the enemy's plan of action, which was to throw a superior force on our left flank, while he held us with his forts in front, the only question being as to the amount of force he 214 GENERAL SHERMAN AND could employ at that point. I hastily transmitted orders to all points of our centre and right to press forward, and to give full employment to all the enemy in his lines, and for General Schofield to hold as large a force in reserve as possible, awaiting developments. Not more than half an hour after General McPherson had left me, viz., about 12)£ p. m. of the 22d, his adjutant-general, Lieutenant-Colonel Clark, rode up and reported that General McPherson was either dead, or a prisoner ; that he had ridden from me to General Dodge's column, moving as heretofore de scribed, and had sent off nearly all his staff and oderlies on various er rands, and himself had passed into a narrow path or road that led to the left and rear of General Giles A. Smith's division, which was General Blair's extreme left ; that a few minutes after he had entered the woods a sharp voUey was heard in that direction, and his horse had come out riderless, having two wounds. The suddenness of this terrible calamity would have overwhelmed me with grief, but the living demanded my whole thoughts. I instantly despatched a staff officer to General John A. Lo gan, commanding the Fifteenth Corps, to tell him what had happened ; that he must assume command of the Army of the Tennessee, and hold stubbornly the ground already chosen. " But among the dead was Major-General McPherson, whose body was recovered and brought to me in the heat of battle, and I had it sent, in charge of his personal staff, back to Marietta, on its way to his northern home. He was a noble youth, of striking personal appearance, of the highest professional capacity, and with a heart abounding in kindness, that drew to him the affections of all men. His sudden death devolved the command of the Army of the Tennessee on the no less brave and gaUant General Logan, who nobly sustained his reputation and that of his veteran army, and avenged the death of his comrade and commander." General Sherman in a letter (dated ih the field near Atlanta, July 30th, 1864) to a Massachusetts State Agent, who had written him from Chattanooga, enquiring where in the rebel states would be the best to organize colored troops ? Sherman sarcastically advises him that it would be a waste of time and money to open rendezvous in Northern Georgia, as he has not seen an able bodied man white or black, that was not in the Union or rebel armies. But advised him to start recruiting depots at Macon, Georgia, and Columbus Miss. ; Salem, Montgomery, and Mobile, Alabama ; and Columbus, MilledgeviUe, and Savannah Georgia ; the above places were, at the date of Sherman writing, all under rebel rule. He says: " You speak of the impression going abroad that I am opposed to the organization of colored regiments. My opinions are usually very posi tive, and there is no reason why you should not know them. Though entertaining profound reverence for our Congress, I do doubt their wis dom in the passage of this law : HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 215 " 1st. Because civiUan agents about an army are a nuisance. " 2d. The duty of citizens to fight for their country is too sacred a one to be peddled off by buying 'up the refuse of other States. " 3d. It is unjust to the brave soldiers and volunteers who are fighting, as those who compose this army do, to place them on a par with the class of recruits you are after. " 4th. The negro is in a transition state, and is not the equal of the white man. " 5th. He is liberated from his bondage by the act of war ; and the armies in the field are entitled to all his assistance and labor and fighting in addition to the proper quotas of the States. " 6th. This bidding and bantering for recruits, white and black, has delayed the reenforcement of our armies at the times when such reen forcements would have enabled us to make our successes permanent. " 7th. The law is an experiment which, pending war, is unwise and unsafe, and has delayed the universal draft, which I firmly beheve wiU become necessary to overcome the wide-spread resistance offered us ; and I also beheve the universal draft will be wise and beneficial ; for under the providence of God it wiU separate the sheep from the goats, and demonstrate what citizens wiU fight for their country, and whatwiU only talk. " No one will infer from this that I am not a friend to the negro, as weU as the white race. I contend that the treason and rebellion of the master freed the slave, and the armies I have commanded have con ducted to safe points more negroes than those of any general officer in the army ; but I prefer negroes for pioneers, teamsters, cooks, and servants ; others gradually to experiment in the art of the soldier, begin ning with the duties of local garrisons, such as we had at Memphis, Vicksburg, Natchez, NashvUle, and Chattanooga ; but I would not draw on the poor race for too large a proportion of its active, athletic young men, for some must remain to seek new homes and provide for the old and young, the feeble and helpless. These are some of my peculiar notions, but I assure you they are shared by a large proportion of our fighting men. ' ' Headley remarks : " The honesty, directness, and philanthrophy of these views, wiU command respect from those who opposed them, and would raise an army of emancipated slaves. With him it was not con tempt of the negro, but the scorn of a timid, easy pohcy by the North, whUe exactly the opposite course was taken by the South." General Sherman having ordered from Chattanooga four rifled-cannon, whose calibre was 4^£ inches, on August 10th the work of destruction commenced. Night and day these new messengers of peace continued to throw their globes of fire into the very heart of Atlanta, kindling con- 216 GENERAL SHERMAN AND flagration on every side. This was the strongest position that could bo found: tb impede and check Sherman's, march to the sea. Johnston was considered unequal to the task of its defence. Thus Hood, being fool hardy, and reckless of human life, was chosen to command. General Stoneman, having gone on a cavalry raid to tear up the Macon railroad, being suddenly captured, the rebel General Wheeler appeared before Dalton. Approaching the town which was being, held by a garri son of 400 men under Colonel Seibold, Wheeler demanded its surrender, which was refused : Seibold alleging he was placed there to hold, and not to surrer.der the place. General Steadman arrived with sufficient force from Chattanooga in time to prevent the little garrison from being captured, and the rebels were forced to retreat. Sherman now gave orders that the sick and all surplus- wagons and en cumbrances of every kind should be sent back to the intrenched position near the river Bridge. This reduced the number of wagons to 3000, and ambulances to 1000 ; and on the night of August 25th the army of the Tennessee moved to the West Point railroad with orders to spend one day in destroying it. General Howard moved on to the right towards ,Jones- boro. General Thomas had the centre, whose goal was Conch's, on the Decator and Fayettville road. General Schofield had the extreme left. General Hood observing Sherman sending his long wagon train to the rear, thought it an indication of a retreat, and began to grow merry. By this strategy Sherman divided the rebel forces at Jonesboro and Atlanta, placing the Union army like a wedge between them. " During the night of the 28th, the rest of the army being well under way, the Twenty-Third Corps withdrew and followed the general move ment toward the Macon road ; General Schofield timing his movements. with the corps further on the left, which had the longer arc of the circle to traverse. The general line of march for the Twenty-Third corps was toward the junction of the two railroads at East Point, the Third division, under General Cox, holding the advance, and with the Second Division, ' under General HascaU, occasionaUy erecting temporary works to guard against threatened attacks from the enemy, who were on the alert against this demonstration. On the 31st, these two divisions effected a junction with General Stanley, of the Fourth Corps. General Hascall's division wf your forces until each has notice of a failure to agree. Thus a basis of action may be had. I undertake to abide by the same 236 GENERAL SHERMAN AND terms and conditions as were made by Generals Grant and Lee at Appo mattox Court-house, of the 9th instant, relative to the two armies ; and fur thermore, to obtain from General Grant an order to suspend the movements of any troops from the direction of Virginia. General Stoneman is under my command, and my orders will suspend any devastation or destruction contemplated by him. I wUl add that I really desire to save the people of North Carolina the damage they would sustain by the march of this army through the central or western parts of the State. I am, with respect, your obedient servant, W. T. SHERMAN, Major General. "By the 15th, though the rains were incessant, and roads almost impracti cable, Major General Slocum had the Fourteenth corps, Brevet Major Gen eral Davis commanding, near Martha's Vineyard, with a pontoon bridge laid across Cape Fear river at Avon's Ferry ; with the Twentieth corps, Ma jor General Mower commanding, in support ; and Major General Howard had the Fifteenth and Seventeenth corps stretched out on the roads toward Pittsborough, while General KUpatrick held Durham's Station and Capitol Hill University. Johnston's army was retreating rapidly on the roads from Hillsborough to Greensborough, he himself at Greensborough." An agreement was made to meet Johnston at noon on the 17th, provided the position of the troops remained statu quo. The railroad to Raleigh, twelve miles long, had to be completed by Colonel Wright, together with two bridges, and Sherman considered that advantage would be on his side by delay. The meeting took place as appointed, and the following agree ment was entered into : It will be seen that Sherman refused to recognize any such authority as the Confederate States. Treating with Johnston and Breckinridge as insurgent generals, at the same time the conditions agreed on were understood to have been approved by Jeff. Davis himself. memorandum. Memorandum or basis of agreement made this 18th day of April, A. D., 1865, near Durham's Station, and in the State of North Carolina, by and be tween General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army, and Major General William T. Sherman, commanding the army of the Uni ted States in North Carolina, both present : First — The contending armies now in the field to maintain their statu quo until notice is given by the commanding general of either army to its oppo nent, aud reasonable time — say 48 hours — allowed. Second — The Confederate armies now in existence to be disbanded and conducted to their several State capitals ; there to deposit their arms and public property in the State arsenal, and each officer and man to execute and file an agreement to cease from acts of war and abide the action of both MEETING IN FRONT OF BENNETT'S HOITRE BETWEEN GENERALS SHERMAN AND JOHNSTON, PRIOR TO THE LATTER'S SURRENDER APRIL 26th, 1865. (Engraved for the History of the PlotB and Crimea.) HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 23T State and Federal authorities. The number of arms and munitions of war to be reported to the Chief of Ordnance at Washington city, subject to fu ture action of the Congress of the United States, and in the meantime to be used solely to maintain peace and order within the borders of the States re spectively. Third— The recognition by the Executive of the United States of the sev eral State Governments, on their ofiicers and Legislatures taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, and where conflicting State Governments have resulted from the war, the legitimacy of, all shaU be submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States. Fourth — The re-establishment of all Federal Courts in the several States with powers as denned by the Constitution and laws of Congress. Fifth — The people and inhabitants of all States to be guaranteed, so far as the Executive can, their pohtical rights and franchises, as well as their rights of person and property, as denned by the Constitution of the United States and of States respectively. Sixth. — The Executive authority of the Government of the United States not to disturb any of the people by reason of the late war, so long as they Uve in peace and quiet, abstain from acts of armed hostility, and obey laws in existence at any place of their residence. Seventh. — In general terms, war to cease, a general amnesty, so far as the Executive power of the United States can. command, or on condition of dis bandment of the Confederate armies, and the distribution of arms, and re sumption of peaceful pursuits by ofiicers and men as hitherto composing the said armies. Not being fully empowered by our respective principals to fulfill these terms, we individually and officially pledge ourselves to promptly ob tain necessary authority, and to carry out the above programme. W. T. SHERMAN, Major general, Commanding the Army of the United States in North Carolina. J. E. JOHNSTON, General, Commanding Confederate States Army iu North Carolina. About one hour after Sherman and his staff left Raleigh, to meet John ston at Durham's Station, the news was received of the assassination of Lin coln. A courier was immediately despatched after Sheruun, and he re ceived the news of the President's death while in conference with Johnston, and before the above agreement was signed. Of the cowardly assassination of Mr. Lincoln, he says : " The news of President Lincoln's assassination, on the 14th of April (wrongly reported to me by telegraph as having occurred on the 11th), reached me on the 17th, and was announced to my command on the same day, in Field Orders No. 56. I was duly informed with its horrible atrocity and probable effects ou the country. But when the property and interests of millions stUl Uving 238 GENERAL SHERMAN AND were involved, I saw no good reason why to change my course, but thought rather to manifest real respect for his memory by following, after his death, that policy which, if living, I felt certain he would have approved, or at least not rejected with disdain." The bitter feeling created by the assassination of President Lincoln, with other very weighty objections, were such as tocause the new Presi dent and his advisers to refuse to ratify the Memoranda or negotiations with Johnston. General .Sherman's idea was, that Johnston had itinhis power to escape with his army through Charlotte, North CaroUna, and thus indefinitely prolong the war. He says : " Up to that hour I had never received one word of instruction, advice, or counsel, as to the plan or policy of the Government, looking to a restoration of peace on the part of the Rebel States of the South. Whenever asked for an opinion on the points in volved, I had always avoided the subject." He first offered the same terms to Johnston that Lee received from General Grant. But when he met Johnston again, Sherman says : " He satisfied me then of his power to disband the rebel armies in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, as weU as those in his immediate command, viz. : North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The points on which he expressed espeoial solici tude were, lest their States were to be dismembered and denied repre sentation in Congress, or any separate political existence whatever ; and the absolute disarming his men would leave the South powerless and ex posed to depredation by wicked bands of assassins and robbers. The President's (Lincoln) Message of 1864 ; his Amnesty Proclamation ; General Grant's terms to General Lee, substantially extending the bene fit of that Proclamation to all ofiicers below the rank of colonel; the invitation to the Virginia Legislature to re-assemble in Richmond, by General Weitzel, with the supposed approval of Mr. Lincoln and General Grant, then on the spot ; a firm behef that I had been fighting to reestab lish the Constitution of the United States ; and last, but not least, the general and universal desire to close a war any longer without organized resistance, were the leading facts that induced me to pen the ' memoran dum' of April 18, signed by myself and General Johnston." On the receipt at the war office of the memorandum of negotiations entered into between Generals Sherman and Johnston, the articles were submitted to a Cabinet Meeting on the same evening, April 21st, and disapproved ; and General Grant dispatched immediately to the field of action. He arrived at Sherman's head-quarters on the 24th; and imme diately informed General Sherman that his memorandum had been re jected, and ordered that he should give Johnston forty-eight hours notice, and resume hostilities at the end of that time. Sherman says in his .1 report: " General Grant had orders from the President to direct military HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 239 movements, and I explained to him the exact position of the troops, and he approved of it mott emphatically ; but he did not reUeve me, or ex press a wish to assume command. ' ' All things were in readiness, when, on the evening of the 25th, I received another letter from General Johnston asking another interview to renew negotiations. General Grant not only approved, but urged me to accept, and I appointed a meeting at our former place at noon of the 26th, Jhe very hour fixed for the renewal of hostilities. General John ston was delayed by an accident to his train, but at two p. m. arrived. " We then consulted, concluded and signed the final terms of capitula tion. These were taken by me back to Raleigh, submitted to General Grant, and met his immediate approval and signature. General Johnston was not even aware of the presence of General Grant at Raleigh at the time. There was surrendered to us the second great army of the so- called Confederacy ; and though undue importance has been given to the so-caUed negotiations which preceded it, and a rebuke and public dis favor cast on me whoUy unwarranted by the facts, I rejoice in saying, that it was accomplished without further ruin and devastation to the country ; without the loss of a single Ufe to those gallant men who had foUowed me from the Mississippi to the Atlantic ; and without subject ing brave men to the ungracious task of pursuing a fleeing foe that did not want to fight. As for myself, I know my motives, and chaUenge the instance during the last four years, when an armed and defiant foe stood before me, that I did not go in for a fight, and I would blush for shame if I had ever insulted or struck a fallen foe. ' ' The instant the terms of surrender were approved by General Grant, I made my orders, No. 65, assigning to each of my subordinate command ers his share of the work, and, with General Grant's approval, made Special Orders No. 66, putting in motion my old army, no longer required in Carolina, northward for Richmond. General Grant left Raleigh at 9 a. m. of the 27th ; and I glory in the fact that during his three days stay with me, I did not detect in his language or manner one particle pf abate ment in the confidence, respect and affection that have existed between us throughout all the various events of the past war ; and though we have honestly differed in other cases as well as this, stiU we respect each other's honest convictions. I still adhere to my then opinions, that by a few general concessions, 'glittering generalities,' all of which in the end must and wUl be conceded to the organized States of the South, this day there would not be an armed battalion opposed to us within the broad area of the dominions of the United States. Robbers and assassins must, in any event, result from the disbandment of large armies ; but even these should be, and can be, taken care of by" the local civil authorities, without being made a charge on the National Treasury. 240 GENERAL SHERMAN AND "On the evening of the 28th, having concluded all business requiring my personal attention at Raleigh, and having conferred with every army com mander, and delegated to him the authority necessary for his future action', I dispatched my head-quarters wagons by land, along with the seventeenth corps, the officer in charge of General Webster, to Alexandria, Va., and in person, accompanied only by my personal staff, hastened to Savannah to direct matters in the interior of South Carolina and Georgia." Johnston's army was divided into three grand corps commanded by Gene ral's Hardee, Stewart, and Stephen D. Lee. The great body at the time of its surrender was about eighty miles from Raleigh, near Greensborough, the camps extended along the railroad above and below the town, forming a line of about fifteen miles in extent, and in all numbered about twenty thousand men. The details of the capitulation were left to be carried out by Major General Schofield, who appointed Major General Hartsuff in spector-general of the twenty-third corps, who, with Majors Lord, Walcott, Letcher, and Captain Lyons proceeded to the front. They were received at the head-quarters of the rebel general with marked courtesy. One hundred and fifty pieces of artillery, with caissons complete, together with horses and harness, and thousands of small arms, were surrendered. At Raleigh speech- makings and torch light processions were indulged in by the victorious army. The Tenth Iowa Regiment, preceded by a fine band of music, visited General Howard's headquarters and gave cheers for him and the prospect of peace. The final terms granted to Johnston, and which he was forced to accept, were liberal in the extreme, and are an additional proof of tho magnanimity of the loyal people of tho Union. The vanquished forces of Johnston were allowed to retain all their horses excepting alone the artillery horses, all their wagons, and five per cent, of their small arms. The commissioned officers were allowed to retain their side arms, horses and baggage. Five per cent, of the small arms were distributed among the enlisted men to protect them on their way home. The settling of the details of the capitulation, required several days. On the 1st of May all was finished. On the 2d, General Schofield, accompanied by Colonels Wherry and Twining of his staff, took a special train for Greensborough ; they arrived there at noon. General Schofield visited Gener al Johnston and spent the afternoon with him. Among the general officers surrendered by Johnston are the following : Lieutenant Generals W. J. Hardee, Stewart, and Stephen D. Lee ; Major Generals D. H. Hill, and Wm. Bate ; Brigadier Generals J. H. Sharp, Hen derson, J. B. Palmer, Capers, Govan, Colquitt, Shelly, Featherston, Lowry and Logan of the cavalry; The unpretending wayside cottage, owned and occupied by Mr. Bennet, HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 241 where Sherman and Johnston met to arrange the terms of surrender, suffered at the hands of relic gatherers. The table on which the memoranda were written has been cut to fragments, and is in the hands of soldiers. The house is being carried off piece meal. After the cottage, the fence and trees will go, and in due time there will be an excavation to mark the spot where the disappearing Bennet cottage stood. General Howard's army left for the North on the morning of May 3d, and Slocum's left the next day for Richmond, Va. General Paine's division of colored troops were sent back to Goldsboro, North Carolina. Howard's corps went by way of Louisburgh, Warrenton, Laurenceville, and Peters- burgh to Richmond. Slocum kept to the left of Howard's corps, going by way of Oxford, Baydton, and Nottoway Courthouse on to Richmond. They had orders to be at Richmond so as to be ready to. resume the march by the middle of May. GENERAL SHERMAN'S ORDER. Headquarters Military Division ot the Mississippi, | In the Field, Raleigh, April 17, 1865. j Special Field Obdee, No. 56.— The General commanding announces, with pain and sorrow, that on the evening of the 11th inst., at the Theatre in Washington City, his Excellency the President of the United States, Mr. Lincoln, was assassinated by one who uttered the State motto of Virginia. At the same time the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward, while suffering from a broken arm, was also stabbed by another murderer in his own house,, but stiU survives, and his son was wounded, supposed fatally. It is beUeved by persons capable of judging that other high officers were designed to share the same fate. Thus it seems that our enemy, despairing of meeting us in manly warfare, begins to resort to the assassin's tools. Your General does not wish you to infer that this is universal ; for he knows that the great mass of the Confederate Army would scorn to sanction such acts, but he believes it the legitimate consequence of rebellion against right ful authority. We have met every phase which this war has assumed, and must now be prepared for it in its last and worst shape, that of assassins and guerrillas ; but woe unto the people who seek to expend.their wild pas sions in such a manner, for there is but one dread result. By order of Major General W. T. SHERMAN, L. M. Dayton Major, and Assistant Adjutant General. On the 24th of May, Sherman's army passed in reyieWibefore the Presi dent of the United States, in Washington, with banners proudly flying, ranks in close and-magnificent array, under the eye of their beloved chief, and amid the thundering plaudits of countless thousands of enthusiastic 16 242 GENERAL SHERMAN AND spectators. This was a glorious day for the nation ! a proud day for the Army of the Mississippi. GENERAL SHERMAN'S FAREWELL. Headquarters, Middle Division of the Mississippi, in the Field, ) Washington, D. C, May 30th, 1865. j The General Commanding announces to the Armies of the Tennessee and Georgia, that the time has come for us to .part. Our work is done, and armed enemies no longer defy us. Some of you will be retained in service until further orders. And now that we are about to separate, to mingle with the civil world, it becomes a pleasing duty to recaU to mind the situation 'of national affairs when, but little more than a year ago, we were gathered about the twining cliffs of Lookout Mountain, and all the future was wrapped in doubt and uncertainty. Three armies had come together from distant fields, with separate histories, yet bound by one common cause — the union of our country and the perpetuation of the gov ernment of our inheritance. There is no need to recaU to your memories Tunnell Hill, with its Rocky Face Mountain, andBuzzard Roost Gap ,with the ugly forts of Dalton behind. We were in earnest, and paused not for danger and difficulty, but dashed through Snake Creek Gap, and feU on Ressacca, then on to Etowah, to Dallas, Kenesaw ; and the heats of summer found us on the banks of the Chattahoochee, far from home and dependent on a single road for supplies. Again we were not to be held back by any obstacle, and crossed over and fought four heavy battles for the possession of the citadel of Atlanta. That was the crisis of our history. A doubt still clouded our future ; but we solved ihe problem, and, destroying Atlanta, struck boldly across the State of Georgia, secured all the main arteries of life to our enemy, and Christmas found us at Savannah. Wait ing there only long enough to fill our wagons, we again began a march, •which for peril, labor and results, will compare with any ever made by •an organized army. The pods of the Savannah, the swamps of the Com- bahee and Edisto, the high hills and rocks of the Santee, the flat quag mires of the Pedee and Cape Fear Rivers, were all passed in midwinter, with its floods and rains, in the face of an accumulating enemy ; and after the battles of Averysboro and Bentensville, we once more came out of the wilderness to meetonr friends at Goldsboro. Even then we paused only long enough to get new clothing, and to reload our wagons, and again pushed on to Raleigh, and beyond, until we met our enemy, sueing for peace instead of war, and offering to submit to the injured laws of his .and our country. As long as that enemy was defiant, nor mountains nor rivers, nor swamps nor hunger, nor cold had checked us ; but when he i who had fought us hard and persistently offered submission, your General HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. 243 thought it wrong to pursue him further, and negotiations foUowed which resulted, as you all know, in his surrender. How far the operations of the army have contributed to the overthrow of the confederacy, of the peace which dawns on us, must be judged by others, and not by us. But that you have done aU that men could do, has been admitted by those in authority ; and we have a right to join in the universal joy that fills our land because the war is over, and our government stands vindicated be fore the world by the joint action of the volunteer armies of the United States. To such as remain in the military service, your General need only re mind you that the successes of the past are due to hard work and disci pline, and that the same work and discipline are equally important in the future. To such as go home, he will only say, that our favored country is so grand, so extensive, so diversified in climate, soil and productions, that every man may surely find a home and occupation suited to his tastes ; and none should yield to the natural impotence sure to result from our past life of excitement and adventure. Tou will be invited to seek new adventure abroad ; but do not yield to the temptation, for it wiU lead only to death and disappointment. Tour General now bids you all fareweU, with the full belief that, as in war you have been good soldiers, so in peace you will make good citi zens ; and if, unfortunately, new war should arise in our country, Sher man's army wiU be the first to buckle on the old armor and come forth to defend and maintain the government of our inheritance and choice. By Order of Major-General W. T. SHERMAN. L. M. Dayton, Assistant-Adjutant-General. The country owes a lasting debt of gratitude to General Sherman and bis brave army. Different opinions wiU exist as to the wisdom of the poUcy adopted in his memorandum with General Johnston, but all agree it emanated from pure motives. Sympathy for a brave, misguided, fallen foe, with the misery and destitution everywhere to be met, caused the brave heart of the great soldier to melt with pity. This, with the high and holy desire to estabUsh peace from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, were his motives, and who is there that wiU say they were bad. THE FALL OF CHARLESTON, S. C. The bold advance of Sherman's great army into the heari of South Carolina compelled the rebel General Hardee to evacuate -Charleston- As soon as the rebel general learned that Sherman had destroyed two of the principal railroads, and was preparing to tare up the Florence, the last one leading into the city, whUe thus meditating on 'his position, the lightning conveyed the intelligence to hhn of the capture of Columbia ! Hardee now became panic-stricken, and the evacuation of this treasona ble den commenced. Although the army of Sherman was over one hun dred and twenty-five miles off, yet Charleston was flanked, and no longer tenable in a military point of view. Admiral Dahlgreen, and General Gilmore, who had been long watching their opportunity now began to discover the effects of a fire on the flank. Pleasanton was dis covered to be secretly withdrawing, and retreating over the road by Christ's Church. The garrison on James Island, and the rebel troopB in the city, began to retreat by the North Eastern Rail Road. Witnessing this, Colonel Bennett commanding the 21st U. S. colored troops on Mor is Island, dispatched Major Hennessey of the 52d Pennsylvania Volun teers, with a few men in a small boat, to ascertain if Fort Sumter was evac uated. Hardly had this gallant officer with his brave men time to reach and enter its battlements, when to the astonishment of thousands the Star Spangled Banner was unfurled, and floated in triumph over its battered walls. The sight of the flag was sufficient to create demonstra tions of joy, and it was hailed by all on ship, and shore. Lieutenant Colonel Bennett, Major Hennessey, and Lieutenant Bar of the 52d Pennsyl vania started with a few colored troops for the city, leaving orders for others to follow. The approach of a Yankee boat was a strange sight at the Charleston wharf. Thousands of blacks, and a great number of whites were standing on the shore when it came up. Colonel Bennett was the first to land, and was immediately followed by the others in the boat. To their as tonishment the blacks seized their hands and kissed them with delight, crying " Glory Hallelujah 1 dis is de army ob de Lord ! we watched for you dis four long year, we's happy now I" The officers and men were surprised to see many whites in this den of traitors who appeared to hail with delight the sight of old glory. Charles Macbeth, then mayor, THE PALL OP CHARLESTON. 245 surrendered the eity to Lieutenant A. G. Bennett. It had been previous ly fired by the retreating rebels, in several places, and 6ome of the rebel cavalry yet lingered around the suburbs to prevent the firemen and de serters (who were secreted in houses) from extinguishing the flames. They soon fled, when the Union troops began to march up Murry street. Here as at the landing, the blacks were wUd with deUght, every where hailing the Union officers and men as their deliverers ; and when the soldiers struck up the John Brown song, it filled the eyes of the blacks. with tears, and their hearts with joy to hear the boys sing : John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave, While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save, But though he lost his life, in struggling for the slave, His soul is marching on, Chorus — Glory, Glory, Hallelujah ! Glory, Glory, Hallelujah ! Glory, Glory, Hallelujah ! His soul is marching on. John Brown was a hero undaunted, true and brave, And Kansas knew his valor when he foughther rights to save ; And now, though the grass grows green above his grave, His soul is marching on. Glory, &c He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men so true, And he frightened old Virgihny till she trembled through and through ; They hung him for a traitor, themselves a traitor ere w, Bat his soul is marc hing on. Glory, &e. John Brown was Johu the Baptist, of Christ we are to see, Christ who of the bondmen shall the Liberator be, And soon throughout the sunny South the slaves shall all be free. For his soul is marching on. Glory, &c The confliet that he heralded, he looks from. Heaven to view, On the army of the Union, with his flag red, white, and blue. And Heaven shall ring with anthems, o'er the deed they mean to do, For his soul is marching on. Glory, &c Ye soldiers of Freedom, then strike, while strike ye may, The death-stroke of oppression, in a better time and way, For the dawn of old John Brown, has brightened into day, And his soul is marching on. Glory, &e. The rebels had laid a train to the arsenal, and it was saved front being fired by the timely arrival of the Union troops-. The firemen came out when the rebel troops had all left, and with the assistance of Union sol diers subdued the flames ; but not until foursquares, a number of houses, 246 THE FALL OF CHARLESTON. and about 2,000 bales of cotton were destroyed. The Wilmington Depot of the North Eastern railroad, had been made a storehouse for large quantities of powder and cartridges. This was fired about eight o'clock on Saturday morning : the explosion was terrific, shaking the city to its foundations. About 150 men women and children were killed, and over 200 wounded by the explosion. The moans of the dying sufferers were heart-rending ; beyond the aid of their surviving friends who gathered around, only to hear their voices growing weaker and weaker, until hushed in silence, the spirits leaving their mortal prisons, were gathered to their Maker. THE RHETTS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. It is important that posterity should know something of the history of this family; as one of them, Barnwell Rhett, owned and published the Charleston Mercury, and had the unenviable distinction of hoisting in Broad street, over the office of that infamous sheet, the first rebel bastard flag ever seen in the United States. The sire of this treacherous family's original name was Smith, He was a native of the north of Ireland, and in religion, a catholic. Arriving in America, he immediately changed his name to Rhett, and in order more effectually to disguise himself, denied his religion and became a prot estant. From him sprang all the people of the name of Rhett, now living in South Carolina. Some say he changed his name to elude pursuit ; others that it was done to inherit property by fraud ; one thing is sure, — it was done, and it is right that it should be known everywhere. FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY GUNS TAKEN — DESPATCH FROM GEN. GILLMORE. "Headquarters Dep't qfthe South, \ Charleston, S. C, February 26, 1865. j "Lieut.-Gen. U. .8. Grant, and Maj.-Gen. H. W. Halleck, Chief of Staff, Washington : " An inspection of the rebel defences of Charleston shows, that we have taken over four hundred and fifty (450) pieces of ordinance, being more than double what I first reported. The lot includes 8 and 10 inch Columbiads, a great many 32 and 42-pounder rifles, some 7 inch Brooke rifles, and many pieces of foreign make. " We also captured eight locomotives, and a great number of passenger and platform cars, all in good condition. " Deserters report that the last of Hardee's army was to have crossed the Santee River yesterday, bound for Charlotte, N. C, and it was feared that Sherman had already intercepted their march. " It is reported, on simUiar authority, that the last of Hood's army, twelve THE PALL OP CHARLESTON. 247 thousand strong, passed through Augusta last Sunday, the 19th, on the way to Beauregard. " Georgetown has been evacuated by the enemy, and is now in our pos session. ' ' Deserters are coming in constantly. We have oyer four hundred already. " Q. A Gillhore, Major-General Commanding." sketch of the city. The city of Charleston, the oldest in rebellion (having entered upon its in glorious career of treason on the 20th of December, 1860, with the seces sion of the State, and inaugurated the war by firing on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861), is also one of the oldest in the United States, having been found ed in 1672. Its population was recruited some years afterwards by Hugue not refugees who emigrated from France, and settled in pretty considerable numbers in South Carolina. It was not till 1783 that it was incorporated as a city. Fifty-two years previously, in 1731, it contained six hundred houses and five churches, #nd a thriving business was done in its port. Du ring the Revolutionary war the possession of the harbor of Charleston was the object of more than one British expedition. A garrison of four hundred on Sullivan's Island, under the command of Colonel Moultrie, achieved great distinction by the repulse, on June 28, 1776, of a British squadron of nine ships-of- war. Onthe 12th of May, 1780, the city was surrendered to Sir Henry Clinton by General Lincoln, the corporation and principal citizens refusing to co-operate in its defence, and offering to acknowledge the sovreign- ty of Great Britain. The British held it till May, 1782. It is also the largest city in the State. It is built on a peninsula, or tongue of land, between the Ashley and Cooper rivers, which unite below the town, and form a spacious harbor, communicating with the ocean at Sullivan's Is land, seven miles distant. Both harbor and city somewhat resemble New York and its bay, in miniature. There is, however, this striking difference : that the portion of Charleston called the Battery, and corresponding to our Battery and to State Street, is the most fashionable part of the city. The city is regularly built, and extends nearly two mUes in length, and a mjila and a half in breadth. Some of the streets are from sixty to seventy feet broad, and some are narrow-^for instance, King street, the Broadway of Charleston. The streets run mostly parallel to each other, running across from river to river, and intersected longitudinally nearly at right angles. They are shaded with beautiful trees. Several of the houses are embower-, ed in a profusion of foUage and flowers, Many of the dwellings have piazzas and are ornamented with vines and creepers, whUe the gardens attached tq them bloom with the orange, the peach, and other trees und shrubs in gre^ variety. 24o" CAPTURE" OF THE CITY OP WILMINGTON. The'city has, of course, suffered much in appearance from the ravages of war. The shells which have been almost daily thrown into the city from onrforts on Morris Tsiand, have much injured theloWer part of the city. A correspondent of the South Carolina Advocate thus describes the desolation.' of the city-. "Passing through the lower wards' of the city you would: be particularly struck with the sad desolation. The elegant mansions and fa miliar thoroughfares, once rejoicing in wealth and refinement, and the theatre of busy life — the well known and fondly cherished churches — some of them ancient landmarks — where large assemblages were wont to bow at holy altars, and spacious halls that once blazed with light and rung with festal songs, — are all deserted, sombre and cheerless ; and this is enhanced by the forbidding aspect1 of that vast district of the city which was laid in ashes three years ago, and which remaines in unmolested ruins as the monument of Charleston's long and dreary pause in the grand march' of improvement. Here you perceive her humiliation." It appears that her humiliation was in reserve for the day when her valiant fire-eating sons should abandon her without a fight. — New Yorh Herald. CAPTURE OF THE CITY OF WILMINGTON, N. C. The fall of Columbia the Capital of South Carolina, and Charleston the chief commercial city of that state was foUowed by that of Wilmington, which had become the chief port of entry and rendezvous for Enghsh blockade runners, and British rebel-privateers-^ General Sehofield who had been so successful in several engagements in Tennesse, had com mand of the army ; and Rear Admiral Porter of th© navy. On the day Sherman captured Columbia, and Hardee evacuated Charleston, Schofield commented marching from Smithfield on Wilmington. General Butler and Admiral Porter had on the 24th and 25th of December Made an effort to capture Fort Fisher, commanding the entrance to the harbor ; but from some strange misunderstanding about time, failed. Two months had been spent in preparing for this important movement, but- General Scho* field and Admiral Porter now had determined on its capture. Schofield with the land forces, occupied both sides of the Cape Fear River in his approach to the city. The left flank was under the direction of General Terry, that of the right under General Cox, while the navy un der Porter was carefully feehng its way up the channel, bombarding" and shelling- fortifications, and removing torpedoes, while thus advancing. On the night of the 20th of February, the rebels drew ont into the stream over two hundred torpedoes, and floated them down the river to' meet the' fle'et. In the encounter several of the vessels Were injured, but this" did not check the! advance. Fort Anderson had, on the 19th, been captured' by the laud forces, and the rebel troops were pressed up to Eagle Island; CAPtUHE OP THE CITY OF WILMINGTON. 249 when on the 21st theUhidn forces, under General Cox, came in sight of the city. The same night the Union troops took possession of the raU- way leading to Charleston, and General Casement pushed his pickets down the river bank directly opposite the city. Cox's troops approach ed through a swamp; and finally crossed the Brunswick River in flat- boats, found at, or near the crossing. General Terry on the left flank was steadily advancing. The rebels, though entrenched, fled before Ames's and Payne's divisions. Fort St. Phillip- was evacuated on the night of the 21st, and the rebel General Bragg, who was entrusted with the defence cf the city, evacuated it the same night. On the morning of the 22d, Washington's birthday, while flags were everywhere to be seen floating onthe buildings in token of surrender, at precisely nine o'clock General Terry, with his command, entered the city, and received its surrender from John Dawson. Major Clement's, and Cox's divisions soon followed. The negroes were eveiywhere jubilant. Their friendship here as weU as at all other points, showed them constant and true, will with delight when first meeting, and weeping when parting with the Union army. About 700 prisoners and 30 cannon, with cotton and stores, were captured with the city. Camp Lamb — rebels* have mild names for prisons ! This was located about one mile from the city, and there yet remained about 400 Union prisoners starving and neglected, blackened with pine smoke, without blankets or shoes, almost nude, delirious, hair matted, and eyes glossy, gnashing their teeth, and clenching their hands, — many had forgotton their own names. They had not had a mouthful to eat for three days, when the Union soldiers gave them bread. They raised their brows to Heaven as in devotion ; then again, looking at the gift as though puzzled to deter mine from where it came, or what to do with it. A black woman (God bless her) was the only person administering to their grief. She was there as an angel gently smoothing their passage to the grave. Oh, these rebel prison pens ! these inquisitions of the South ! tongue can not utter, nor pen describe, the crimes of their keepers, or the suf ferings of their inmates. Ex-rebel Senator Foote, who was a member of the committee appoint ed by the rebel senate to examine into the treatment of Union prisoners and reports of starvation, asserts that the investigations showed, that it was decided in Cabinet meetings to reduce the rations served out to the prisoners, so as to weaken and destroy their constitutions, that when ex changed they would forever be useless again to serve as soldiers. Foote desired to report these facts to the rebel senate, but the balance of the committee overruled him and had them suppressed. D. J. A. Davis of Chicago, a prominent physician, states that a rebel surgeon, who had for four years occupied the position of Assistant Med- 250 CAPTURE OP THE CITY OP WILMINGTON. ical Director of the army of Northern Virginia, told him that Union pris oners in the Rebel hospitals had been vacinated with venereal matter, and that this accounted for the frightful sores of the bodies of so many of them. North Carolina furnished one hundred and ten thousand men for the rebel army. Not more than ten thousand of this vast number held slaves or had any interest in the dying institution. The rebel leaders always distrusted their fidelity to the cause of treason. They had an idea that the non-slaveholding whites of the old North State were instinctively loyal to the Federal union for being thus suspected. Regiments from the state were always placed by rebel commanders in front of battle, and its soldiers were the first to fall. The Ruffin's, the Steel's, Caldwell, Bur ton, Craig, and Clingman ; the Johnson's, the' Edward's, Asa Briggs, and Bragg; the Rodger's, the Saunder's, John W. Ellis, T. B. Vance, and Wm. A. Graham ; the Spurrill's, Dr. Holt, Avery, John M. Moorhead, &c. These and other hardened slave-holders carried the state out of the Union by fraud, and should be allowed no part in the future history and glory of this country. Clothed in garments stained with blood, and drenched in the tears of North Carolina's widows and orphans, their names should no longer be mentioned side by side with even Benedict Arnold's. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. U. 8. A. (Engrared tor the History of the Plots and Crimes.) LIEUTENANT GENERAL GRANT. HIS EARLY HISTORY. SERVICES ZEST MEXICO AND HIS MIGHTY ACHIEVEMENTS IN OVERTHROWING THE GREAT SLAVEHOLDERS' REBELLION AGAINST THE AMERICAN UNION. In the early part of the sixteenth century two brothers emigrated from Scotland to America. — one settled in Connecticut, and the other in New Jer sey. From the one who had chosen Connecticut as his home, sprang the family of which Gen. Ulysses Simpson Grant is a descendant. It appears that some of the descendants of this Connecticut brother wandered off into Pennsylvania. Jesse R. Grant, the father of the illustrious chief, was born in Westmorland county, of that State. In 1794, Jesse R. Grant moved from Pennsylvania into Ohio, and was engaged in carrying on a tannery. John Simpson, heretofore residing in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, in 1818, with his family, moved to Clearmont county, Ohio. Miss Hannah, daughter of Mr. John Simpson, having for some months received the attention of the tanner, in June 1821, consented to become Mrs. Jesse R. Grant. While thus newly married, they settled at Point Pleasant, about twenty- five nules above Cincinnati, Ohio. Here, on the seventh day of April, 1822, U. S. Grant was born. From here, Mr. Grant, with his family, moved to Georgetown, the capital of Brown county, Ohio, and it was in this place that young Ulysses began to receive the rudiments of his early education. His intellect, like most great minds, was slow to develop ; he was remarkable for his perseverance, but otherwise he was not considered bright. On one occasion his teacher had given him a task to perform, in mas tering which he experienced more than usual difficulty. A schoolmate, noticing his trouble, remarked : "You can't master that task." The per severing lad replied that he did not know the meaning of the word " can't," and would refer to the dictionary, and ascertain its signification. Not find- 252 LIEUTENANT GENERAL GRANT. ing it in the book he referred the matter to the teacher, who explained the origin of the word, and was so much pleased with the pupil's action in the case, that he related the anecdote to the entire school, and impressed upon them the importance of accomplishing whatever they might undertake, and always to remember that there/is no such woti! as can't. The boy, even at that early age; had a great reverence for Washington. While at school at Georgetown, a cousin of his, whose parents had settled in Canada, and entertained strong distaste for everything American — even Washmgton was the butt of ridicule. John, for that was his cousin's name, was in Ohio going to the same school, having imbibed these Anti- American notions from his parents, began to speak. disrespectfuUy of Washington. Ulysses finally got tired of listening to that kind of slang, and gave John a severe thrashing. His mother, being a Christian woman, was about to chastise her son for whipping his cousin,, but his father took a very different view of the matter, remarking, " A boy that will fight for the honor and integrity of the name of Washington, will, in the future, make a brave and useful man," and prevented the chastisement. This little incident created a patriotic pride and hope in the father's heart. Although unseen and unappreciated by the outside world, yet to him the bow of promise and distinction seemed encirchhg his youthful head. From this time forward the hopeful parent was determined to procure a West Point military education for his son. For this purpose he applied to Senator Morris ; but this senator had parted with his right to recommend a cadet. Representative Thomas L. Hamer was then applied to, and through his influence U. S. Grant, then hv his seventeenth year, entered the West Point school July 1st, 1839. While in the fourth class he became the sub ject of jest and sport to those who had passed the same ordeal. These youths, who had been poking thefr fun at him, were in a higher class. While on parade one day, the thing ran so high that young Grant had a set-to with the captaihj whipping him. He then turned to the Lieutenant, and enquired if he wanted to continue the sport. "Yes," says the lieutenant, " I am ready." It took young Grant, who then had his hand in at that kind of work, but a short time to drub the lieutenant. After he had finished the good work, Grant stepped out in front of the company and said: "I ask peace, and, if necessary, will fight the company, one by one, to gain it." From being the subject of sport, he from thistime on became the object of admiration ; being always known afterwards as " Company Grant." In 1840 he advanced into the third class,; ranking as corporal in the cadet battalion. In 1841 he entered the second class, ranking as sergeant, and in 1842 he en tered the first; becoming a commissioned officer of the academy. On the 13th of June, 1843, he graduated number twenty-one in a class of thirty- nine. In July, 1843, he entered the United States Army as a brevet second SERVICED IN MEXICO. 253 lieutenant of infantry. He now became a member of the fourth regiment of regular infantry, stationed at Jefferson barracks, Missouri. He was ordered, in the summer of 1844, to repair to Nachitoches, Louis iana, to form part of the command then orgiinizing under Gen. Taylor, in anticipation of trouble with Mexico. In 1845 he was ordered to Corpus Christi, Mexico, and on September 30th, was made second lieutenant of the seventh infanty. His old comrades joined him in a request to the War De partment, that he should be permitted to remain with his old friends of the fourth. The request was granted by the war department, and he received a second lieutenant's commission in the fourth regiment regular infantry. In the Mexican war, in the battles of Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Palma, he behaved with great bravery. At Monterey and Vera Cruz he also dis tinguished himself for gaUant conduct. At the battle of Molino del Rey he was promoted to first lieutenant. At Chepultepec, Major Francis Lee, com manding the fourth infantry, remarks, "Lieutenant Grant behaved with dis tinguished gallantry on the 13th and 14th." Col. John Garland, command ing the first brigade, in his report of the battle of Chepultepec, speaks in the highest terms : " Lieutenant Grant of the fourth infantry acquitted himself most nobly upon several occasions under my own observation." General Worth also in his report of September 16th, 1847, bears the same testimony. Lieutenant Grant was again promoted for gal lantry ; his commission, brevet of captain, dated September 13th, 1847, the same day the battle of Chepultepec was fought. Soon after his re turn from Mexico he married Miss Julia Dent, a daughter of Frederick Dent, and a lady of refinement. Mr. Dent resided atGravois, near St. Louis, Missouri. In 1852 the fourth was ordered to the Pacific ; their headquarters to be at Fort Dallas, Oregon Territory. In August 1853, he was promoted to the rank of captain, being then in the interior of Cali- fornia, about 400 miles from the coast. July 31st, 1854, he resigned his commission in the service, and took up his residence with his father-in-law near St. Louis ; a portion of his time was here employed as a coUector and real estate agent, and dealer in wood. A writer says of him : " General Grant occupied a little farm to the southwest of St. Louis, whence he was in the habit of cutting the wood and drawing it to Caron- delet, and selling it in the market there. Many of his wood purchasers are now caUing to mind that they had a cord of wood delivered in person by the great General Grant. When he came into the wood market, he was usually dressed in an old felt hat, with a blouse coat, and his pant3 tucked in the tops of his boots. In truth, he bore the appearance of a sturdy, honest woodsman. This was his winter's work. In the summer he turned a collector of debts ; but for this he was not qualified. He had a noble and truthful soul ; so when he was told that the debtor had no 254 LIEUTENANT GENERAL GRANT. money, he believed him, and would not trouble the debtor again. One of the leading merchants of St. Louis mentioned this circumstance to me. From aU I can learn of his history here, he was honest, truthful, inde fatigable — always at work at something ; but he did not possess the knack of making money. He was honorable, for he always repaid bor rowed money. His habits of life were hardy, inexpensive, and simple." He now, in 1859, removed to Galena, Illinois, where his father, Jesse R. Grant, then a man of sixty-five years of ago, was engaged in the leather trade. Ulysses became partner in the business with his father. It was here in Galena, thus occupied in the peaceful pursuits of civil life, that Ulysses Simpson Grant in 1861 resided, when the storm of the rebeUion burst with all ita fury. When Sumter had been fired upon, Grant believing the Government required his services, raised a company in Galena, and proceeded at once with it to Springfield, Illinois. Governor Yates was commencing to organ ize troops for the aid of the General Government, and he was ready to procure the assistance of a West-pointer, giving him a position as aid on his staff. After several months of arduous duty in this position, Grant requested the Governor to give him an appointment in one of the three years regiments then being organized. In the middle of June he resigned his position as mustering officer, and was appointed Colonel of the 21st Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, organized at Mattoon in that state. From here he removed his camp to Caseyville, and after drilling his regiment about four weeks, he was ordered to Missouri to guard the Hanibal and Hudson railroad in the north part of the state. He was here made acting brigadier general, and placed in command of all the troops in the district known as North Missouri. In August, his regiment was ordered to Pilot Knob, then to Feonton, then to Marble Creek. It was while Grant was shifting from position to position with his regiment, that the Gov ernment made the hapy hit of appointing him brigadier general of volun teers, rank and commission dating from 17th of May, 1861 . About thirty- one distinguished military men received appointments to similar posi tions at the same time. Among those appointed at that time were Will iam T. Sherman, and Cox of Ohio, Hooker of California, McClearnand of Rlinois, Franz Siegel of Missouri, S. R. Curtis of Iowa, Heintzleman and Franklin of Pennsylvania, John W. Phelps of Vermont, and over twenty other illustrious names. Some have fallen in battle nobly leading on their divisions, while many of them yet hold positions high in the confi dence of the Government. Soon after General Grant was appointed, he was placed in command of the district composed of Southeast Missouri, and Southern Illinois, headquarters at Cairo, located at the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers. i From this position, with only two Illinois regiments, four pieces of BATTLES OF FREDERICKTOWN AND BELMONT. 255 artillery, and two gunboats, by a strategic movement on the 6th of Sep tember 1861, he advanced up to the mouth of the Tennessee river, and occupied Paducah ; he sent on the same day the gunboat Conestoga up the Tennessee river, capturing three rebel steamers ; and on the 25th of the same month, by the same sagacity and foresight, Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland was captured, and both rivers blockaded. This was the first development of military abUity, coupled with success, made • in the West. From Cairo General Grant sent out expeditions in different directions. About the middle of October 1861, Colonel Plummer, commanding the 11th Missouri Volunteers, went towards Cape Girardeau in pursuit of Jeff. Thompson, who was reported to be at Fredricktown ; here a little beyond the town, the rebels were found drawn up inline of battle. With the assistance of Colonel Carlins; Plummer fought the battle of Frederick- town, defeating the rebels, capturing one piece of artillery, and a num ber of prisoners. Cairo now became an important position. The expedition against Bel mont and Columbus was followed up early in November 1861. At the battle of Belmont, General Grant had his horse shot under him ; he was amid all the scenes of danger, riding from point to point, cheering on his men. The bravery displayed by aU on that occasion, wiU be seen by the foUowing, read to the troops on their return to Cairo : "Head-quarters, District S. E. Mo. " Cairo, November 8th, 1861. ' ' The General commanding this military district returns his thanks to the troops under his command at the battle of Belmont on yesterday. ' ' It has been his fortune to have been in all the battles fought in Mexi co by Generals Scott and Taylor, save Buena Vista, and he never saw one more hotly contested or where troops behaved with more gallantry. " Such courage wiU insure victory wherever our flag may be borne and protected by such a class of men. " To the brave who feU, the sympathy of the country is due, and will be manifested in a manner unmistakable. "U. S.Grant, " Brigadier- General Commanding." On the 20th of December, 1861, General Grant was appointed by Gen eral HaUeck, who was in charge of the department of the Missouri, to take charge of that district, with new and extended lines, then known as the "District of Cairo." General McClernand with about five thousand men, under the convoy of the gunboats Essex and St. Louis, with a supply of five days cooked 256 LIEUTENANT GENERAL GRANT. rations, steamed down the Mississippi. Three rebel gunboats. made an attack on the Union convoys, but after an hour's engagement were forced to retire behind the batteries at Columbus, about eight miles below Cairo. Generals Paine,, and C. F. Smith were_also on the march to. ascertain ex actly the enemy's position and numbers. After a week's absence each commander returned. to bisi former post. , The time had now come for an advance into iiome of the strongholds of the enemy. Fort Henry on :the Tennessee river, near the boundary Une between that state and -Kentucky, the expedition arriving near the mouth, on the 5th of February, 1862, General Grant issued his order directing his. mode- of attack. Towards noon of the 6th, the troops commenced, according to instruc tions, their, advance upon the works. After a little aver an haul's engage ment the enemy lowered his colors aad surrendered to Flag Officer Foote, who soon after passed the captured fortifications, including General Lloyd Tilghman, and its guns, to General Grant. ¦Fort Donaldson, a very strong rebel position on the Cumberland river, was General Grant's next move ; and on the 11th of February, he issued an- order, having sent back. to Cairo for some reinforcements. On the 12th, General McClernand, C. F.Smith, and Lew Wallace, with their troops commenced the advance. At noon on that day the enemy's pick ets were driven in. The next day, the 13th, was occupied principally by getting into -position and waiting for the gunboats to arrive from Cairo with reinforcements. The gunboats had an important part to play in ¦making the assault; at two o'clock on the afternoon of the 14th, the gunboats and reinforcements having arrived, the Carondelet had been attacking the Fort for about two hours on the 13th, but was compeUed to withdraw for repairs. Six of the, arrived vessels now moved up the river, receiving the fire of the lower batteries of the enemy. At seven minutes to three on the 14th, the St. Louis opened lire, and kept it up with great spirit until about half past four o'clock. The irondads ¦ took up position within three hundred yards, and silenced the water bat teries, and drove the rebel gunners from their posts, a shot having en tered .the pilot, house of the St. Louis and shattered her wheel, other vessels having received severe damage — Flag Officer Foote ordered the squadron to drop down the river. On the morning of the 15th, the right -ofthe Union line near the river below .the Fort was furiously attacked by ,the rebels. The Eighth and Forty-first lUinois Regiments were the most exposed, and maintained their position with great bravery, until the rebels were reinforced at this point, when two of our hatteries were also attacked and saptured. The 18th, 29th,. 30th, and 31st Illinois were quickly brought up ; -when a desperate struggle ensued. The Union troops recovered aU except three of the captured pieces. At length, CAPTURE OF FORT DONALDSON. 257 overpowered by numbers, the Union forces were forced to fallback. The eneihy grew bold at his seeming success. The Union regiments under Colonel Cruft, and Colonel Wallace's brigade came up, but the en emy was so elated with his expeeted victory, that he made a deff- perate charge which caused the Union troops to give way for the mo ment, although at another point of attack the enemy Were being di-iven in. General Grant saw the position here, and hastened to meet it. Gen eral Smith was ordered to assault the left of the line, and carry the posi tion at aU hazards, while vigorous preparations were made to renew the contest oh the right, and recover the ground lost in the morning. Gener al Smith ordered tiie Third brigade bf his division, embracing the 7th, 50th, and 42d Illinois ^ the 12th Iowa, and 13th Missouri, to move against one portion of the enemy's Unes, while with the Fourth brigade, embra cing the -2d, 7th, and 14th Iowa, and 25th Indiana Regiments, led on by him in person against another part of the works. The 2d Iowa led, fol lowed by the 52d Indiana, while the sharpshooters Were deployed on either flank as skirmishers. In this position the column moved on with out firing a gun, carrying the position at the point of the bayonet. This great Union sueeess gave the troops new eourag'e along the entire lines. Soon after the Fifth brigade, the 8th Missouri, and 11th Indiana, were thrown by Colonel Smith against the enemy's position oh the extreme right of the line from where the Union troops had been driven in the morning. Colonel Cruft was moved to his support ; the assault was made in two columns, and the hill was carried by storm. This was the position on the evening 'of the 15th. On the morning of the l'6th, the enemy displayed a white Hag, proposing to surrender the Fort — but the rebel S. B. Buckher requested an armistice of twelve hours to agree on the terms of capitulation. General Grant's reply was: "No terms other than an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works. ' ' U. &. Grant. Buckner acceeded to the terms, and the capture of Fort Donaldson was made complete. Union loss in the engagement was 446 kiUed, 1735 wound ed, and 150 prisoners. Rebel loss 231 kiUed, 1700 wounded, and nearly 14,000 prisoners, including Buckner, 48 cannon, and 17 heavy guns ; 20,000stand of arms, 3000 horses, and any quantity of commissary stores. The next day two regiments of Tennessee troops, ignorant of itB eapture-, were permitted to march into the fort, making in aU about 16,000 prison-- ers. This is the largest number of prisoners of war up to this date ever taken on this continent. General Grant was now again promoted— to the rank of MajorGeheral of Volunteer*, Ms commission dating Fefthtoiy 16th, 18fi2, the day of the surrender of Fort Donaldson. 17 258 LIEUTENANT GENERAL GRANT. General HaUeck at this time issuedan order creating the new district of West Tennessee, embracing the country between the Tennessee and Mississippi' rivers to the Mississippi State line and Cairo. ' On the 17th February, 1862, General Grant issued his order taking command. After the occupation of Nashville by General Nelson on February 24th, General Grant moved his headquarters to Fort Henry where he spent some days in fitting out another expedition. Although great and important events had just taken place on the Tennes&ee and Cumberland, yet a mightier was at'hand. The capture of the two strong outposts, Henry and Donaldson, on the border, served to rouse and call the more desperate and confident foe from his hiding-place in the interior. General Beauregard had as sembled a strong rebel force at Corinth, 92 miles east of Memphis at the junction of the Mobile and Ohio, and Memphis and Charleston railroads. General Johnston who was at Murfreesboro, immediately started for Cor*- inth and joined Beauregard. On April the 1st, here was assembled the strongest foroe; the South had yet gathered on any battle-field. The South dreaded an invasion from the Union army victorious, and then resting in West Tennessee, and to prevent it, gathered an army of near 60,000 men, under the command of Albert Sidney Johnston. Johnston drew to his assistance such men as Beauregard, Polk, Bragg, Hardee, Crittenden, and Breckenridge. With such an array of rebel comman ders, urged on by the desperate emergency of the occasion, being sent there to prevent the invasion of the cotton States and to meet this great array of ability and strength, Major General Grant had about 38,000 anen, with McClearnand, W. H. S. WaUace, Lewis Wallace, Hurlburt, W. T. Sherman, as division commanders, and the gunboats Tyler, Cap tain Gwin, and Lexington, Captain Shirk commanding. This was the .status on the third of April. Johnston had postponed the attack until the fith, waiting till the arrival of additional reinforcements. General Buell's forces had been ordered from Nashville to assist the Union army, and were hastening up, but before they arrived, Johnston at six o'clock on the morning of the 6th of April, pushed his advanced guard up to the 25th Missouri regiment, under Prentiss. They supposing the advance to be the enemy's pickets, commenced to drive them back. The rebels being ready, soon advanced in great force against the left wing, pouring the grape and cannister and sheU into the Union camp. The boys soon organized and commenced to return the compliment, when the rebel force beoame directed against the left centre, Sherman's division driving the men back from their camps. The rebels now with a fresh force opened fire on the left wing, under General McClearnand. The fire was returned with great bravery and deadly effect by both artillery and infantry along the whole line — a distance of about four miles. | General Hurlburt's division was thrown forward to support the centre, BATTLE OF CORINTH. 259 when a desperate conflict ensued. The rebels were driven back with terrible slaughter, when they ralhed and in turn drove our men back. The contest raged fearfully, the rebel commanders hurling their forces at one time against the extreme left, then against the right, and then with renewed ferocity against the centre. Major Taylor's Chicago artillery raked the rebels down by scores, but the smoke no sooner cleared away than the breach would be again fiUed. Late in the afternoon the rebels saw General Buell approaching with 18,000 fresh troops. He was yet on the opposite side of the Tennessee river, and they knew their chances of success were extremely doubtful if his troops effected a crossing. General Wallace was only about six miles down the river at Camp Landing ; although the boats were sent to bring him and his com mand up, yet he had not arrived at five o'clock. The rebel commanders comprehending the position, made a furious attack on the left wing, driving it back so as to occupy over two-thirds of its camp, and were fighting with a dreadful degree of confidence in driving the Union army ¦ back into the river. At the same time they were heavily engaging our right. In the meantime General Buell's forces were on the opposite bank of the river anxious to take part in the struggle ; but the principal part of the transport boats having been sent to Savannah there was no means at his command by which he could cross the river during that day's en gagement. General Grant, with his staff who had been recklessly riding along the lines during the entire day amid the unceasing storm of buUets, grape, and sheU, now late in the evening rode from right to left urging the men to stand firm until reinforcement could be got across the river. Just be fore night closed in, a general cannonading was opened upon the enemy upon our whole hne. Such a roar of artillery had then never been heard on this continent. As the evening grew dark the reply of the rebels be came less frequent. The gunboats Lexington and Tyler had been raining shell on the rebel hordes. This last effort was too much, for them to stand, and about dark their firing had nearly ceased. Thus ended the conflict on the evening of the 6th. The rebels had spent their fury in order to destroy Grant's army before the reinforcements under Generals BueU and WaUace which they knew were coming and already now ad vancing, could arrive. But they failed to accomplish it. At hah past two o'clock General Johnston commander-in-chief of the rebel army, while leading a charge, was mortaUy wounded. He was hit with a musket ball on the calf of the right leg ; believing it only a flesh wound he continued in the saddle, giving orders until he became ex hausted from the loss of blood. Fainting; with extended arms, he was caught by the rebel Governor Harris as he fell from his horse, and amid the roar of artiUery and excitement of battle breathed his last. News of 2(50 LIEUTENANT GENERAL GRANT. his death was kept from the rebel army during the entire day. John ston was a grjtctuate of West Point in 1820 ; was ih the Black Hawk war i left the United States army in 1836 and entigrated to Texas, arriving shortly after the battle of San Jacinto, and entered the Texan aririy as a private; but was sbon pronibted to succeed General Fblix Houston in the chief command, after which Houston and him fought a duel, Johnston being wounded, fie was then appbinted Secretary of War, and in 1839 led an expedition against the Cherokees, fighting the battle of the Neches, was . an ardent advocate bf annexation of Texas to the United Stated ih 1846. He took the field as commander of the Volunteer Texas Rifle Regiment; under General Taylor, against Mexico, after which he conducted the military expedition sent to Salt Lake in 1857: He had command of the Military District of Utah when the rebellion commenced. He was six feet high, strongly and powerfully framed, of Scotch lineage, naturally fair complexion, and was sixty years old when he died. Loss of the Con federates in the two days battle was, killed, 1,728 ; wounded, 8,012 ; missing, 959. Night closed the day's combat, and both armies rested from their aw ful work of death and carnage: The Union forces rested bh th'eif arms in the position they held when darkness set in. During Sunday night the reinforcements of BueU and Wallace were taken to important positions on the battle ground-, General BueU himself having arrived on the opposite side Of the river on the evening of the 6th. At daylight on the morning of the 7th General Grant beeathe the as saulting party. General Nelson's division bf Buell's army occupied the advance on the left wing. Advancing, they opened a galling fire, the rebels falling back. At the same time Major General Wallace with hiB division opened bh the right, and the fire soon became general along the tvhoie line. Generals MbClerhand, Sherman, Hurlburt, with their troop's jaded from the previons days hard fighting, maiiitained throughout the second day's conflict the same vigor and unyielding braveirj'. The hopes of the rebel Commanders the previous day (that of destroy ing Grant's army before Blibll and Wallace arrived) had how proved de lusive, afid they "entered the conflict on the morning of the 7th with re venge deepened from disappointment ; with this feeling they urged their nien on right up into the jaws of death. At every appearance of success on the right, when they were making a last desperate effort tO flank the Union army, they cheered like savages ; but instead of flanking us on the right, about 11 o'clock iii the day', General Nelsoh flanked them on the left, and captured their batteries of artillery. They agaih rallied oh the left ahd 'made another desperate effort, but reinforcement from Generals Wood and Thomas came \t> Buell'is aid, and CAPTURE OF MEMPHIS. 261 he again commenced to drive the enemy. About, three o'clock in the afternoon General Grant rode to the left, where he had ordered fresh regi ments, finding the rebels wavering, sent a portion of his bodyguard to the head of each of five regiments, then ordered a charge across the field, himself leading and far in the advance brandishing his sword, waved, them on to the crowning victory, the cannon balls falling like hail around him. His men followed with a shout that rose above the roar and din of artillery, the rebels fleeing in dismay as from a destroying avalanche, and never made another stand. By five o'clock the entire rebel army was in full retreat to Corinth, with our army in hot pursuit. Some have supposed that Grant's battle-ground was not well chosen, with the Tennessee river in his rear. General BueU said to him, " Sup pose you had been whipped, you had transports only sufficient to cross over about 10,000 men." " Well," says the great chieftain, " if I had been whipped, that would have been, abundant for all that would have been left of us." * From the 8th to the 13th of April, the army under command of General Halleck, continued to pursue the enemy to Monterey, Pea Ridge, Putdy, arriving within a few miles of Corinth where Beauregard had retreated and concentrated his forces to make another stand. The Union army was now reorganizing, and General Grant placed second in command. The army of the Tennessee (right) under General Grant ; the army of the Mississippi (left) under General Pope ; and the army of the Ohio (centre) under General BueU. Abput this time an effort was made by rival mili tary aspirants, and their satellites, to bring General Grant info disrepute by criticizing his military capacity and charging him with dissipation ; but a timely exposure of their malicious designs, by the Hon. E. B-Wash- burne, of Illinois, in an able speech delivered in the United States House of Representatives May 2d, 1862, checkmated their game. On the 27th Sherman, Thomas, BueU, and Pope, under the special direction of Gen eral Grant made a reconnoisance within gunshot of the rebel works at Corinth. While General Grant was preparing for a siege, Beauregard on the 30th evacuated the place, retreating by way of Baldwin and Tupelo. WhUe Beauregard was retreating from Corinth, Memphis on the Missis sippi river was captured, and four gunhoats sunk. ThiSjjvas the result of a naval engagement in front of the place on the 6th day of June. New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Memphis were now all in the posses sion of the Federal forces. On the 17th of July, 1862, General Halleck took leave of his army pre paratory to assuming a more exalted position. The department was now subdivided, and under the command of different generals. The depart ment of West Tennessee was assigned to General Grant, with Corinth as his headquarters. Very little was done in a mihtary way except a f THE ASSASSINS. 345 to greet with his presence, with the words still lingering, upon bis lips which he had uttered with uncovered head and uplifted hand before God and his coun try, wben on the 4th oflast March, he took again the oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, declaring that he entered upon the duties of his great office, " with malice toward none, with charity for all." In a moment more, strengthened by the knowledge that his co-conspirators were all at their posts, seven at least of them present in the citv, two of them, Mudd and Ar nold, at their appointed places, watching for his coming, this hired assassin moves stealthily through the door, the fastenings of which had been removed to facilitate his entrance, fires upon bis victim, and the martyr spirit of Abraham Lincoln ascends to God. Treason has done his worst ; nor steel, nor poison, Malice, domestic, foreign levy, nothing Can touch him further. At the same hour, when these accused and their co-conspirators in Richmond and Canada, by the hand of John Wilke3 Booth inflicted this mortal wound which deprived the Republic of its defender, and filled this land from ocean to ocean with a strange, great sorrow, Payne, a very demon in human form, with the words of falsehood upon his lips, that he was the bearer of a message from the physician of the venerable Secretary of State, sweeps by his servant, en counters his son, who protests that the assassin shall not disturb his father, prostrate on a bed of sickness, and receives for answer the assassin's blow from the revolver in his hand, repeated again and again, rushes into the room, is en countered by Major Seward inflicts wound after wound upon him with his mur derous knife, is encountered by Hansell and Robinson, each of whom he also wounds, springs upon the defenseless and feeble Secretary of State, stabs first on one side of his throat, then ou the other, again in the face, and is only pre vented from literally hacking out his life by the persistence and courage of the attendant Robinson. He turns to flee, and his giant arm and murderous hand for a moment paralyzed by the consciousness of guilt, he drops his weapon of death, one in the hou3e, the other at the door, where they were taken up, and. are here now to bear witness against him. He attempts escape on the horse which Booth and Mudd had procured of Gardner, with what success has already been stated. . Atzeroth, near midnight, returns to the stable of Naylor the horse which he had procured for this work of murder, having been interrupted in the execution of the part assigned him at the Kirkwood House by the timely coming of citizens to the defence of the Vice-President, and creeps into the Pensylvania House at 2 o'clock in the morning with another of the conspirators, yet unknown. There he re mained until & o'clock, when he left, found his way to Georgetown, pawned one of his revolvers, now in Court, and fled northward into Maryland. He is traced to Montgomery county, to the house of Mr. Metz, on the Sunday succeeding the murder, where, as is proved by the testimony of three witnesses, he said that if the man that was to follow General Grant had followed him, it was likely that Grant was shot. To one of these witnesses (Mr. Laynian) he said he did not think Grant had been killed ; or if he had been killed hewas killed by a man who got on the cars at the same time that Grant did ; thus disclosing most clearly that one of his co-conspirators was assigned the task of killing and murder ing General Grant; and that Atzeroth knew that General Grant had left the city of Washington, a fact which is not disputed, onthe Eriday evening of the murder,-. by the evening train. Thus this intended victim of the conspiracy escaped* for that night, thp knives and revolvers of Atzerothj and O'Laughlin, and Payne, and: Harold, and Booth, and John H. Surratt, and, perchance, Harper and Caldwell, and twenty others who were then here lying in wait for his life. In the meantime, Booth and Harold, taking the route before agreed upon, make directly after the assassination for the Anaoostia bridge. Booth crosses first, gives his name, passesthe guard, and is speedily followed by Haroldr They make their way directly to Surrattsville, where Harold calls to Lloyd, "Bring out those 346 TRIAL OP THE ASSASSINS. things," showing that there had been communication between them and Mrs. Surratt after her return. Both the carbines being in readiness, according to Mary E. Surratt's directions, both were brought out. They took but one ; Booth de clined to carry the other, saying, that his limb was broken. They then declared that they had murdered the President and the Secretary of State. They then made their way directly to the house of the prisoner Mudd, assured of safety and security. They arrived early in the morning before day, and no man knows "at what hour they left. Harold rode towards' Bryantown with Mudd about three o'clock that afternoon, in the vicinity of which place he parted with him, remain ing in the swamp, and was afterward seen returning the same afternoon in the di rection of Mudd's house ; about which time, a Uttle before sundown, Mudd re- ' turned from Bryantown towards his home. This village at the time Mudd was in it was thronged with soldiers in pursuit of the murderers of the President, and although jreat care has been taken by the de fence to deny that any one said in the presence of Dr. Mudd, either there or else where on that day, who had committed the crime, yet it is in evidence by two witnesses whose truthfulness no man questions, that upon Mudd's return to his own house, that afternoon, he stated that Booth was the murderer of the Presi dent, and Boyle the murderer of Secretary Seward, but took care to make the further remark, that Booth had brothers, and he did not know which of them had done the act. When did Dr. Mudd learn that Booth had brothers ? And what is still more pertinent to this inquiry, from whom did he learn that either John Wilkes Booth or any of his brothers had murdered the President? It is clear that Booth remained in his house until some time in the afternoon of Saturday ; that Harold left the house alone, as one of the witnesses states, being seen to pass the window ; that he alone of these two assassins was in the company of Dr. Mudd on his way to Bryantown. It does not appear when Harold returned to Mudd's house. It is a confession of Dr. Mudd himself, proven by one of the witnesses, that Booth left his house on crutches, and went in the direction of the swamp. How long he remained there, and what became of the horses which Booth and Harold rode to his house, and which were put into his stable, are facts nowhere disclosed by the evidence. The owners testify that they have never seen the horses since. The accused give no explanation of the matter, and when Harold and Booth were captured they had not these horses in their possession. How comes it that on Mudd's return from Bryantown, on the evening of Saturday, in his conver sation with Mr. Hardy and Mr. Farrell, the witnesses before referred to, he gave the name of Booth as the murderer of the President and that of Boyle as the mur derer of Secretary Seward and his son, and carefully avoided intimating to either that Booth had come to his house early that day and had remained there until the afternoon; that he left him in his house and had furnished, him with a razor with which Booth attempted to disguise himself by shaving off his moustache ? How comes it, also, that, upon being asked by those two witnesses whether the Booth who killed the President was the one who had been there last fall, he answered that he did not know whether it was that man or one of his brothers, but he under stood he had some brothers, and added, that if it was the Booth who was there last fall, he knew that one, but concealed the fact that this man had been at his house on that day and was then at his house, and had attempted, in his presence, to disguise his person ? He was sorry, very sorry, that the thing had occurred, but not so sorry as to be willing to give any edvidence to these two neighbors, who were manifestly honest and upright men, that the murderer had been harbored in his house all day, and was probably at that moment, as his own subsequent confession shows, lying con cealed in his house or near by, subject to his call. This is the man who undertakes to show by his own declaration, offered in evidence against my protest, of what he said afterward, on Sunday afternoon, the 16th, to his kinsman, Dr. George D. Mudd to whom he then stated that the assassination of the President was a most damn able act, a conclusion in which most men will agree with him, and to establish which his testimony was not needed. But it is to be remarked that this accused TRIAL OP THE ASSASSINS. 347 did not intimate that the man whom he knew the evening before was the mur derer had found refuge in his house, had disguised his person, and sought conceal ment in the swamp upon the crutches which he had provided for him. Why did he conceal this fact from his kinsman ? After the church sen-ices were over, however, in another conversation on their way home, he did tell Dr. George Mudd that two suspicious persons had been at his house, who had come there a Uttle before daybreak on Saturday morning ; that one of them had a broken leg, which he bandaged ; that they seemed to be laboring under more excitement than probably would result from the injury; that they got something to eat at his house ; that they said they came from Bryantown, and inquired the way to Parson Wilmer's ; that while at his house one of them called for a razor and shaved himself. The witness says : " I do not remember whether he said that this party shaved off his whiskers or moustache, hut he altered somewhat or probably materi ally his features. " Finally, the prisoner, Dr. Mudd, told this witness that he, in company with the younger of the two men went down the road toward Bryantown in search of a vehicle to take the wounded man away from his house. How comes it that he concealed in his conversation the fact proved that he went with Harold towards Bryantown, and left Harold outside of the town ? How comes it that in this second conversation, on Sunday, insisted upon here with such pertinacity as evidence for the defence, but which had never been called for by the prosecution, he concealed from his kinsman the fact which he had disclosed the day before to Hardy and Farrcll, that it was Booth who assassinated the President, and the fact which is now disclosed by his other confessions given in evidence for the prosecution, that it was Booth whom he had sheltered, concealed in his house, and aided to his hiding place in the swamp? He volunteers as evidence his further statement, however, to this witness, that on Sunday evening ho requested the witness to state to the military authorities that two suspicious persons had been at his house, and see if anything could be made of it. He did not tell the witness what became of Harold and where he parted with him on the way to Bryantown. How comes it that when he was in Bryantown, on the Saturday evening before, when he knew that Booth was then at his house, and that Booth was the murderei of the President, he did not himself state it to the military authorities then in that village, as he well knew ? It is difficult to see what kindled his suspicions on Sun day, if none were in his mind on Saturday, when he was in possession of the fact that Booth had murdered the President, and was then secreting and disguising himself in the prisoner's own house. His conversation with Gardner on the same Sunday at the church is also intro duced here, to relieve him from the overwhelming evidences of his guilt. He communicates nothing to Gardner of the fact that Booth had been in his house ; nothing of the fact that he knew the day before that Booth had murdered the President ; nothing of the fact that Booth had disguised or attempted to disguise himself; nothing of the fact that he had gone with Booth's associate, Harold, in search of a vehicle, the more speedUy to expedite their flight ; nothing of the fact that Booth had found concealment in the woods and swamp near his house, upon the crutches which he had furnished him. He contents himself with merely stating "that we ought to raise immediately a home guard to hunt up all suspicious per sons passing through our section of country, and arrest them, for there were two suspicious persons at my house yesterday morning." It would have looked more like aiding justice and arresting felons if he had put in execution his project of a home guard on Saturday, and made it effective by the arrest of the man then in his house who had lodged with him last fall ; with whom he had gone to purchase one of the very horses employed in his flight af ter the assassination ; whom he had visited last winter in Washington, and to whom he had pointed out the very route by which he had escaped by way of his house ; whom he had again visited on the 3d of last March, preparatory to the commission of this great crime ; and who he knew, when he sheltered and con cealed him in the woods on Saturday, was not merely a suspicious person, but was, in fact, the murderer and assassin of Abraham Lincoln. While I deem it my duty 3$8r TRIAL OP THE ASSASSINS. to say here, as I said before, when these declarations, uttered by the accused on Sunday, the 16th,: to Gardner and George D. Mudd, were attempted to be; offered on the part of the accused, that' they are in no sense evidence, and by the law were wholly inadmissible, yet I state it as my conviction, that, being upon the re cord upon motion of the accused : himself, so far as these declarations to Gardner and George D. Mudd go, they are additional indications of the guilt of the accused, in this, that they are manifestly suppressions of truth and suggestions of falsehood and deception ; they are but tho utterances and confessions of guilt. To Lieutenant Lovett, Joshua Lloyd and Simon Gavican, who, in the pursuit of the murderer, visited his house on the 18th of April; the Tuesday after the mur der, he denied positively, upon inquiry, that two men had passed his house, or find come to his house on the morning after the assassination. Two of these witnesses swear positively to his having made the denial and the other says he hesitated to answer the question he put to him ; all of them agree that heafterwards admitted that two men had been there; one of whom had a broken limb, which he had set ; and when asked by this witness who that man was, he said he did not know ; that the man was a stranger to him, and that the two had been there but a short time. Lloyd asked him if he had ever seen any of the parties, Booth, . Harold and Sur ratt; he said that he had never seen them, while it is positively proved that he was acquainted with John H. Surratt; who had been in his house ; that he knew Booth, and had introduced Booth to Sutfratt last winter. Afterwards, on Friday, the 21st, he admitted to Lloyd that he had been introduced to Booth last fall, and that this man who came to his house on Saturday, the 15th, remained there from about four o'clock in the morning until about four in the afternoon ; that one of them left his house on horseback, and the other walking. In the first conversation he denied ever having seen these men. Colonel Wells also testifies that, in his conversation with Dr. Mudd on Friday, the 21st, the prisoner said that he had gone to Bryantown, or near Bryantown, to 6ee some friends on Saturday, and that as he came back to his own house he saw the person he afterwards supposed- to be Harold passing to the left of his house to wards the barn, but that he did not see the other person at all after he left him in his own house, about one o'clock. If this statement bo true; how did Dr. Mudd see the same person leave his house on crutches ? He further stated to this wit ness that he returned to his own house about four o'clock in the afternoon ; that he did not know this wounded man ; said he could not recognize him from the pho tograph which is of record here, but admitted that he had met Booth some time in November, when he had some conversation with him about lands and horses; that Booth had remained with him that night in November, and on tho next day had purchased a horse. He said he had not again seen Booth from tho tiino of the introduction in November up to his arrival at his house on the Saturday morning after the assassination. Is not this aconfession that he did see- John Wilkes Booth on that morning at his house, and knew it was Booth? If he did not know him, how came he to make this statement to the witness " that he had not seen Booth after November prior to his arrival there on the Saturday morning ?" He had said before to the same witness he did not know the wounded man. He said further to Colonel Wells, that when he went up stairs after their arrival, he noticed that the person he supposed to be Booth, had shaved off his moustache. It is not inferrable from this declaration that he then supposed him to be Booth ? Yet he declared the same afternoon, and while Booth was in his own house, that Booth was the murderer of the President. One of the most remarkable statements made to this witness by the prisoner was that he heard for the first time on Sunday morning, or late, in the evening of Saturday, that the President had been murder- ed. From whom did he hear it? The witness (Colonel Wells) volunteered his " impression " that Dr. iMudd had said he had heard it after the person had left his house. If the " impression " of the witness thus volunteered is to be taken as evi dence, and the counsel for the accused, judging! from their manner, seem to think it ought to be, let this question be answered, how could Dr. Mudd have made that impression upon any body truthfully, when it is proved by Farrell and Hardy that TRIAL OP THE ASSASSINS. 349 on his return from Bryantown, on Saturday afternoon, he not only stated that the President, Mr. Seward and his son had been assassinated, but that Boyle had as sassinated Mr. Seward, and Booth had assassinated the President ? Add to this the fact that he said to this witness that ho left his own house at one o'clock, and when he returned the men were gone ; yet it is in evidence, by his own declara tions, that Booth left his house at four o'clock on crutches, and he must have been there to have seen it, or he could not have known the fact. Mr. Williams testified that he was at Mudd's house on Tuesday, the 18th of April, when he said that strangers had not been that way, and also declared that he heard, for the first time, of the assassination of the President on Sunday morning, at church ; afterwards, on Friday, the 21st, Mr. Williams asked him concerning the men who had been at his house, one of whom had a broken limb, and he con fessed they had been there. Upon being asked if they were Booth and Harold, he said they were not; that he knew Booth. I think it is fair to conclude that he did know Booth, when we consider the testimony of Weichman, of Norton, of Evans, and all the testimony jnst referred to, wherein he declares, himself, that he not only knew him, but that he had lodged with him, and that he had himself gone% with him when he purchased his horse from Gardener last fall, for the very pur pose of aiding the flight of himself or, some of his confederates. All these circumstances taken together, which, as we have seen upon high au thority, are stronger as evidence of guilt than even- direct testimony, leave no further room for argument, and no rational doubt that Doctor Samuel A. Mudd was as certainly in this conspiracy as were Booth and Harold, whom be sheltered and entertained ; receiving them under cover of darkness on the morning after the assassination, concealin them throughout that day from the hand of offrnded justice and aiding them by every endeavor, to pursue their way successfully to their co-con spirator, Arnold, at Fortress Monroe, and in which direction he fled until over taken and slain. We next find Harold and his confederate, Booth, after their departure from the house of Mudd, across the Potomac, in the neighborhood of Port Conway, on Monday the 24th of April, conveyed in a wagon. There Harold, in order to ob tain the aid of Capt. Jett, Buggies and Bainbridge, of the confederate army, said to Jett, "We are the assassinators of the President ; " that this was his brother with him, who, with himself, belonged to A. P. Hill's Corps ; that his brother had been wounded at Petersburg ; that their names were Boyd. He requested Jett and his rebel companions to take them out of the lines. After this, Booth joined these parties, was placed on Ruggles' horse, and crossed the Rappahannock river. They then proceeded to- the house of Garrett, in the neighborhood of Port Roy al, and nearly midway between Washington City and Fortress Monroe, where they were to have joined Arnold. Before these 'Rebel guides and guards parted with them, Harold confessed that they were traveling under assumed names ; that his own name was Harold, and that the name of the wounded man was John Wilkes Booth, "who had killed the President." The Rebels left Booth at Gar rett's where Harold revisited him from time to time, until they were -captured. At two o'clock on Wednesday morning, the 26th, a party of United States officers and soldiers surrounded Garrett's barn, -Where Booth and Harold lay concealed, and de manded their surrender. Booth cursed Harold, caRijng him a coward, and hade him go, when Harold came out and surrendered himself, was taken into custody, and is now brought into Court. The barn -was then set on fire, when Booth sprang to his feet, amid the flames that were kindling about him, carbine in hand, and approached the door, seeking, by the flashing light of the fire, to find some new victim for his murderous hand, when he was shot^ as he deserved to be, by Sergeant Corbett^ in order tcsave his comrades from -wounds or death by the haiids of this desperate assassin. Upon his person was found the following bill of ex- " No! 1492. The Ontario Bank, Montreal Branch Exchange for £51 12s. lOd. Montreal, 27th October, 1864. Sixty days after sight of this first of exchange, second arid third of the same tenor and date, pay to the order of J. Wilkes -Booth 350 TRIAL OP THE ASSASSINS. .£61 12s. lOd. sterling, value received, and charge to the account of this office. H. Stanus,- manager. To Messrs. Glynn, Mills & Co., London." Thus fell, by the hands of one of the defenders of the Republic, this hired assas sin, who, for a price, murdered Abraham Lincoln, bearing upon his person, as this hill of exchange testifies, additional evidence of the fact that he had undertaken, in aid of rebellion, this work of assination by the hands of himself and his confede rates, for such sum as the accredited agents of Jefferson Davis might pay him or them, out of the funds of the Confederacy, which, as in evidence, they had in "any amount" in Canada for the purpose of rewarding conspirators, spies, poison ers and assassins, who might take service under their false commissions, and do the work of the incendiary and the murderer upon the lawful representatives of the American people, to whom had been entrusted the care of the Repubhc, the main tenance of the Constitution and the execution of the laws. The Court will remember that it is in the testimony of Merritt, and Montgome ry, and Conover, that Thompson, and Sanders, and Clay, and Cleary, made their boasts that they had money in Canada for this very purpose. Nor is it to be over looked or forgotten that the officers of the Ontario Bank at Montreal testify that " during the current year of this conspiracy and assassination Jacob Thompson had on deposit in that bank the sum of six hundred and forty-nine thousand dollars, and that these deposits to the credit of Jacob Thompson, accrued from the nego tiations of bills of exchange drawn by the Secretary ot the Treasury of the so-called Confederate States on Fraser, Trenholm & Co. , of Liverpool, who were known to be the financial agents of the Confederate States. With an undrawn deposit in this bank of four hundred and fifty-five dollars, which has remained to his credit since October last, and with an unpaid bill of exchange drawn by the same bank upon London, in his possession and found upon his person, Booth ends his guilty career in this work of conspiracy and blood in April, 1865, as he began it in Octo ber, 1864, in combination with Jefferson Davis, Jacob Thompson, George N. San ders, Clement C. Clay, William C. Cleary, Beverly Tucker and other co-conspira tors, making use of the money of the Rebel Confederation to aid in the execution and in the flight, bearing at tho moment of his death upon his person their money, part of the price which they paid for his great crime, to aid him in its consumma tion, and secure him afterwards from arrest and the just penalty which by the law of God and the law of man is denounced against treasonable conspiracy and murder. By all the testimony in the case, it is, in my judgment, made as clear as any transaction can be shown by human testimony, that John Wilkes Booth and John H. Surratt, and the several accused, David E. Harold, George A. Atzeroth, Lewis Payne, Michael O'Loughlin, Edward Spangler, Samuel Arnold, Mary E. Surratt, and Samuel A. Mudd, did, with the intent to aid the existing rebellion and to subvert the Constitution and laws of the United States, in the month of October last, and thereafter, combine, confederate and conspire with Jefferson Davis, George N. Sanders, Beverly Tucker, Jacob Thompson, William C. Cleary, Clement C. Clay, George Harper, George Young, and others unknown, to kill and murder, within the military department of Washington, and within the in trenched fortifications and military lines thereof, Abraham Lincoln, then Presi dent of the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy there of ; Andrew Johnson, Vice-President of the United States, William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Ulysses S. Grant, Lieutenant-General in command of the armies of the United States ; and that Jefferson Davis, the chief of this rebel lion, was the instigator and procurer, through his accredited agents ih Canada, of the treasonable conspiracy. It is also submitted to the Court that it is clearly established by the testimo ny that John Wilkes Booth in pursuance of this conspiracy, so entered into by him and the accused, did, on the night of the 14th of April, 1865, within the military department of Washington, and the intrenched fortifications and mili tary lines thereof, and with the intent laid, inflict a mortal wound upon Abra-< ham Lincoln, then President and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States, whereof he died j that in pursuance of the same conspiracy TRIAL OF THE ASSASSINS. 351 and within the said department and intrenched lines, Lewis Payne assaulted, with intent to kill and murder, William H. Seward, then Secretary of State of the United States ; that Gearge A. Atzeroth , in pursuance of the Same conspir acy, and within the said department, laid in wait, with intent to kill and mur der Andrew Johnson, then Vice-President of the United States ; that Michael O'Laughlin, within said department, and in pursuance of said conspiracy, laid in wait to kill and murder Ulysses S. Grant, then in command of the armies of the United States ; and that Mary E. Surratt, David E. Harold, Samuel Arnold, Samuel A. Mudd, and Edward Spangler, did encourage, aid and abet the com mission of said several acts in the prosecution of said conspiracy. If this treasonable conspiracy has not been wholly executed ; if the several executive officers of the United States and the commander of its armies, to kill and murder whom the said several accused thus confederated and conspired, have not each and all fallen by the hands of these conspirators, thereby leaving the people of the United States without a President, or Vice-President ; without a Secretary of State, who alone is clothed with authority by the law to call an election to fill the vacancy, should any arise, in the offices of President and Vice-President, and without a lawful commander of the armies of the Republic, it is only because the conspirators were deterred by the vigilance and fidelity of the executive officers, whose lives were mercifully protected on that night of murder by the care of the Infinite Being, who has thus far saved the Republic and crowned its arms with victory. ' If this conspiracy was thus entered into by the accused ; if John Wilkes Booth dhjkill and murder Abraham Lincoln in pursuance thereof; if Lewis Payne did in pursuance of said conspiracy, assault with intent to kill and murder William H. Seward, as stated : and if the several parties accused did commit the several acts alleged against them in the prosecution of said conspiracy, then it is the law that all the parties to that conspiracy, whether present at the time of its ex ecution or not, whether on trial before this Court or not, are alike guilty of the several acts done by each in the execution of the common design. What these conspirators did in the execution of this conspiracy by the hand of one of their co-conspirators, they did themselves ; his act, done in the prosecution of the common design, was the act of ail the parties to the treasonable combination, because done in execution and furtherance of their guilty and treasonable agreement. As we have seen, this is the rule, whether all the conspirators are indicted or not ; whether they are all on trial or not. " It is not material what the na ture of the indictment is, provided the offence involve a conspiracy. Upon in dictment for murder, for instance, if it appears that others, together with the prisoner, conspired to perpetrate the crime, the act of one done in pursuance of that intention, would be evidence against the rest." (I Whar., 70B.) To the same effect are the words of Chief Justice Marshall^ before cited, that whoever leagued iu a general conspiracy, performed any part, however minute, or how ever remote from the scene of action, are guilty as principals. In this treason able conspiracy, to aid the existing armed rebellion, by murdering the execu tive officers of the United States and the commander of its armies, all the par ties to it must be held as principals, and the act of one, in prosecution of the common design, the act of all. I leave the decision of this dread issue with the Court, to which alone it be longs. It is for you to say, upon your oaths, whether the accused are guilty. I am not conscious that in this argumentlhave made any erroneous statement of the evidence, or drawn any erroneous conclusions ; yetl pray the Court, out of tender regard and jealous care for the right of the accused, to see that no error of mine, if any there be, shall work them harm. The past services of the members of this honorable Court give assurance that, without fear, favor, or affection, they will discharge with fidelity the duty enjoined upon them by their oaths. Whatever else may befall, I trust in God that in this, as in every other American Court, the rights of the whole people will be respected, and that the Republic in this, its supreme hour of trial, will be true to itself and 352 GLANCES AT ASSASSINATIONS just to all — ready to protect the rights of the humblest, to redress every wrong, to avenge every crime, to vindicate the majesty of law, and to maintain in violate the Constitution— whether it be secretly or openly assailed by hosts, armed with gold, or armed with steel. JOHN A. BINGHAM, Special Judge Advocate. President Johnson's Approval. And Whereas, The President of the United States has approved the foregoing sentences in the following order, to wit : — Executive Mansion, July 5, 1865. — The foregoing sentences in the Gases of David E. Harold, G. A. Atzeroth, Lewis Payne, and Mary E. Surratt, be carried into execution by the proper military authority, under the direction ef the Sec retary of War, on the 7th day of July, 1865, between the hours of 10 o'clock A. M. and 2 o'clock P. M. of that day. (Signed) Andrew Johnson, President. J Therefore you are "hereby commanded to cause the foregoing sentences in the cases of David E. Harold, G. A. Atzeroth, Lewis Payne, and Mary E. Surratt, to be duly executed, in accordance with the President's order. By command of the President of the United States. E. D. Towusend, Assistant Adjutant-General. Dr. Mudd, Arnold, and O'Laughlin, are to be imprisoned for life, and Span gler for six years, all at hard labor, in tbe Dry Tortugas. Thus ended the career of one of the noblest of earth. His name in all future time will make the advocates of slavery and oppression blush, and furnish a bulwark behind which the friends of freedom can forever dwell secure. Endeared to the American people by his patriotic devotion to his country while living, he has, by the hand of the cowardly assassin, become doubly sanctified by his untimely death. No one in the long list of names in the world's great history, except Jesus, will ever eclipse him. Darius, Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, were great ; but their greatness was not the result of goodness, and will never compare with the mighty achievements of a Washington, who, by seven long years of gigantic strife, wrested a continent from the grasp of despots ; or a Lincoln, who thrqugh fire and blood has preserved it undivided for his ciwintryrnjen, and in justice to mankind has made it forever free. Glances at Assassinations of Distinguished Persons in other Coun tries : Especially op those Wielding Political Power. Anxious as men are to win power, how few of those who win it, do not afterwards exclaim with the English king — ' ' uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." How few monarchs, and mighty men of the earth have slept as sound after their elevation, as they did before ! The solu tion of the question is found in the fact, that assassination or violent death in some form for such individuals, seems to be the rule, and not the ex- OP DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 353 ception. Greatness in public life, whether achieved or inherited, i3 a dangerous thing. To give even a faint idea to the unlettered man of the host of distin guished persons who have been murdered while sitting in seats of power , ¦would be difficult — but to convince the mass of mankind, not only of the number of such victims, but of the endless plots, conspiracies, and ma chinery by which this vast army of the illustrious have been hurried to their tombs, would be an utter impossibility. The best historians even, do not know, and never have, of but a small part of the number of the men and women in high stations who have been foully killed, by slow or quick poison, the dagger, the bullet, drowning, starvation, suffocation, long imprisonment, confinement in private mad-houses, buried alive, the rope, the cord, the bowstring, hurled from precipices, frightened to death — and God knows how many hundred other modes by which the souls of men have by assassination been forced out of this world with all its light, and love, and beauty, into the dark, and drear unknown ! Among public assassinations, perhaps the two most illustrious are Casar and Lincoln, performed by individuals as instruments of deep con. spiracies. Among public assassinations performed by State governments — and their name is legion — we find Jesus of Nazareth and half a million of his disciples the most sacred of all, stretching through the ages, like a vast , serpent line, black with all crime, and fringed with murder blood. There wag Anne Boleyn, and Lady Jane Gray, and Mary Queen of Scots, and Maria Antoinette. There was John of Prague, and Huss, and Wickliffe, — Charles the II. — Louis XVI. — and all that line. But tlie great roll would consist in secret assassinations. Most of the chief Rulers of great empires have been dispatched in secret. Nearly all the emperors of the old dynasties of Egypt and Asia and Rome died by the hands of assassins. So of Russia and other great states. It is a curious fact, however, that so large a number of the victims of assassin conspiracy have been good men. Attempts to kill tyrants have generally failed— they have been safe ; for bad men like tyrants because tyrants are their friends, and bad men do not kill them. Tyrants are not exposed to murder from good men, because good men are not assas sins. Good men had rather suffer a while longer and wait for the retri bution which God is sure, sooner or later, to meet out to the wrong doers of the earth. If anything like a, full record of the annals of assassination should be written, it would fill a library. We select only a few striking cases, and they are all political murders. — murders for empire — for power. Napoleon Bonaparte had no child by Josephine, his first wife, and for this reason he discarded her and married Maria Louisa, an Austrian 354 GLANCES AT ASSASSINATIONS Bourbon Princess — the greatest mistake of his life. By this union, a son was born who was proclaimed "king of Rome." "Napo leon II". On the fall of his father, and his banishment to St. He lena, Austria claimed the custody of this boy ; and he was transferred to Vienna, where he was kept as an instrument of State, to be used for ' political purposes. He was the first legitimate heir to the throne of Napoleon if the Bonapartes were again to rule Prance : — and having the royal blood of the Austrian House in his veins, he also shared in that imperial inheritance ; so he could be kept a tenant at the will of Austria ; and he was. He could live as long as needed — he could die in a second when necessary — or he could live a lingering death by being made an imbecile. The latter was his fate. When Europe sunk back to its re pose, and the " Holy Alliance" had settled the map of empires, kingdoms, and principalities, and all the ships of state were sailing in clear water, the time came to get rid of this heir to the throne of Napoleon, for he was no longer needed. It then became a question only of how to dispatch him. Austria could perpetrate any crime : — but in the case of this young man, who had en- . deared himself to all the court, and all his attendants, violence was not resorted to ; it was not necessary. But he must be got rid of. How 1 They could kill him with luxury — murder him with perfumes, as Sultans and other Oriental lovers get rid of rejected mistresses. They could not make him drink himself to death, and so they invoked other fascinations. Fanny Essler had just enchant ed the European world. She was sent for. The king of Rome's doom was sealed. He died the death of an Oriental satrap. His bier was a toed of roses — a fate worthy of Sardinipalus. Thus came this imperial son of the great Napoleon to his doom. But his cousin Louis Napoleon avenged his death on the field of Solferino — and Austria will yet pay still dearer for her crime. The Napoleon dy nasty still lives— the Bourbons are dj'ing. The first belong to the present at least — the latter to the past. It is hardly necessary to give any recital of the murder of the young princes in the Tower of London. We remember from our. childhood this heartless tragedy. We turn to look for a moment at a few illustra tions in point, with which common readers may be less familiar. Assassination prevailed to a dreadful extent during the Middle Ages, ¦especially in Italy, The standard of honor and morality in that country, ¦and even in Rome itself, the capital of Christendom, was lower than it was in the most' degenerate days of the later Caasars. Private murders were more frequently resorted to, especially among Princes, and the up per classes. The history of the Borgia family is crimsoned with blood on every. OP DISTINGUISHED PERSONS. 355 page. Pope Alexander VI., the father of the infamous Csesar Borgia, re sorted to assassination whenever it suited his ambitious purposes ; and the record of no barbarian Prince is more horrible and revolting than the history of this ambitious and heartless Pontiff. But the crimes of his son exceeded, if possible, those of his father in then- atrocity, enormity and extent. This chiefest villain of all the ages, being the son of a Pope who was supreme lord and sovereign of Rome and vicegerant of God Almighty, was clothed with great authority, made rich by robbery, and could perpetrate any crime with impunity. He was made a cardinal ; the Duchy of Valentino was stolen from its right ful owner and given to Borgia who had already inaugurated a series of the most frightful crimes ever written in the history of a single indi vidual. His ambition was to become king of Italy, which at that time would, with the all powerful alliance and sanction of the Church of Rome, render the king of Italy the most powerful sovereign of Europe. With his eye fixed on such a throne Borgia hesitated at no crime. He first plotted and secured the death of several of the richest cardinals and noblemen of Rome and thus enriched himself. He then made open war upon neighboring princes — defeating their armies in the field, and im prisoning and murdering their masters. When he could not get them into his hands, he employed their confidential friends and attendants to mur- . der them in their castles. But as this could not always be done, he re sorted to a final plot by which he could get rid of them ail at once. He proposed a convention for agreeing on the terms of a general and perma nent pe^ce. The rival princes all met Csesar Borgia at one ofljis cas tles at the appointed time, when they were foully assassinated in a few moments. His assassinations were endless. His means and instruments exceeded in number, forms, and subtleties, all knowledge or comprehen sion. He had only to will the death of any person in Italy, or any part of Europe, and that man, or woman, or child, died. Poison in wines, in all kinds of food, in clothing, in flowers and perfumes, in letters, in pres ents, in the atmosphere where one breath drawn was instant death. — In stiletos, hidden springs of poisoned steel which in grasping a hand in fused the deadly poison : — in violent murder — in any of the countless forms in which the subtle genius of chemists, artists, and diplomatists could be used by the superior, infernal genius of that prince of all assas sins — Cesar Borgia. attempted political assassinations since 1850. From the Un-ita Caloluu. ' ' Queen Victoria can count four attempts on her life. On June 28, 1850, she received a violent blow with a stick from one Robert Pate, a retired lieutenant of the Tenth Hussars. 356 GLANCES AT ASSASSINATIONS. " In May, 1850, the late King of Prussia receivSd, as he was mounting a railway carriage, a shot from a holster pistol of large bore in the fore arm ; the assassin, Sefelage, of Wetzlow, cried out as he fired, ' Liberty for ever. ' The life of the present King of Prussia was in danger at Ba den, on the morning of July 14-, 1861. Two pistol shots were fired at him by Oscar Becker, a law student of Lejpsic, The regicide declared that he wished to kill the King because he was not capable of effecting the unity of Germany. % " On February 18, 18q3, at Vienna, Francis Joseph I. was struck with a knife in the nape of the neck. The murderer's name was Libeny, of Albe, in Hungary, aged 20, resident at Vienna, and a tailor by trade. " On March 20, 1854, Ferdinand Charles III. Duke of Parma, returning from an excursion, was hustled by an individual who at the same time stabbed hirudin the abdomen, left the poignard in the wound, and subse quently escaped. The Duke expired in cruel torture at the end of twenty- three hours. " On May 28, 1856, as Queen Isabella was passing in her carriage along the Rue de l'Arsenal at Madrid', a young man, named Raymond Fuentes drew|t pistol from his p.ocket, and would have discharged it at her head had not his arm been caught, and his weapon taken from him by an agent of the police. " On December 8, 1856, whilst Ferdinand II. was reviewing his troops at Naples, a soldier, named Agesiras Mil mo struck him with his bayonet, and, at a later period, Garibaldi honored the memory of the regicide. " In October, 1852, when Napoleon III., who was on the eve of becom ing Emperor was at Marseilles, there had been prepared an infernal ma chine, formed by two hundred and fifty gun-barrels charged with fifteen hundred balls, intended to go off all at once against the Prince and his cortege. But the attempt was not carried out. July 5, 1853, a fresh at tempt was made to assassinate him as he was going to the Opera Comique. Twelve Frenchmen were "arrested as being concerned in the conspiracy. On April 28, 1855, Jean Liverani fired two shots at the Emperor in the Grande avenue of the Champs Blysees. In 1857, Thibaldi, Bartolotti and Grilli came from England to Paris to assassinate the Emperor, but were discovered, arrested, tried and punished. On January 14, 1858, Orsini, Gomes, Pieri and Rudio, threw their murderous shells at the Emperor of the French and shed the blood of a great number of honest citizens in Paris. On December 24, 1863, Greco, Trabucco, Imperatore and Sca- glioni, who had come over from London, with the intention of killing the French Emperor, were arrested ih Paris. " In September 18, 1862, the Queen of Greece, directing public affairs during the king's absence, was returning from a ride on horseback, when she was fired at without effect, near the palace, by Aristide Donsios, a student, aged nineteen years. " In 1858 an attempt was made on the life of Victor Emmanuel II. , and Count Cavour gave an account of it in the sitting of April 16." ANDREW JOHNSON, SEVENTEENTH PRESIDENT OE THE UNITED STATES. BOEN AT RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA. DECEMBER 29th, 1808. Engraved for the History of the Plots and CrimcR. TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. Remember our country can only become weak when it re fuses to do right. Let justice be done to the people who, during long years of rebellion in the rebel territory alone, amidst unfaithfulness and foul treachery remained loyal and true, scorning the treason of their traitorous masters, and re fusing to participate in their country's ruin : on countless bloody battle fields sharing bravery and danger with the -white race, aiding to secure victory by freely pouring out their blood to vindicate the national authority, and uphold the honor of its flag. While swift to pardon the national enemies, let it not be said of those in authority that they are ungrate ful to its most devoted friends. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY, AND OATH OF LOYALTY FOB MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. We take it for granted the Constitutional Amendment Abolishing Slavery, will be ratified by twenty-eight States ; already twenty-four have recorded their votes in the afnrmitive, as follows : RATIFICATIONS. Illinois, Feb. I, 1865. East Virginia, Feb. 9, 1865, Rhode Island, Feb. 2, 1865. Indiana, Feb. 13, 1865. Maryland, Feb. 3, 1865. Nevada, Feb. 16, 1865. Massachusetts, Feb. 3, 1865. Louisiana, Feb. 17, 1865. New York, Feb. 3, 1865. Missouri, Feb. 24, 1865. Pennsylvania, Feb. 3, 1865. Wisconsin, Feb. 24, 1865. West Virginia, Feb. 3, 1865. Vermont, March 9, 1865. Michigan, Feb. 4, 1865. Tennessee, April 5, 1865. Maine, Feb. 7, 1865. Arkansas, April — j 1865. Ohio, Feb. 8, 1865. Connecticut, May 4, 1865. Kansas, Feb. 8, 1865. Iowa, June 30, 1865. Minnesota, Feb. 8, 1865. New Hampshire, June 30, 1865. REJECTIONS. Delaware, Feb. 8, 1865. New" Jersey, March 1, 1865. Kentucky, Feb. 23. 1865. We expect to see not only the number required by the Constitution, but we beheve all the States will endorse and ratify it. 358 CONCLUSION'. The Difficuly to Southern Members of Congress. — In July, 1863, a law was passed by Congress requiring the following oath of " every per son elected or appointed to any office of honor or emolument, civil, mili tary or naval, or any other department of the public service, except the President of the United States," to wit: I solemnly swear that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United f tates since I have been a citizen thereof, that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility thereto ; that I have neither sought or accepted, nor attempted to exercise the func tions of any office whatever under any authority or pretended authority in hostility to the United States ; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, power or constitution within the United States hostile or inimical thereto ; and I do further swear that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, &c. This is the oath demanded from the members of the last Congress, and which the members of the new Congress will likely be compelled to take. In matters concerning ourselves, pur kindred, our dear friends and our. neighbors, it is consoling, it is sweet to feel we have in all things done right. But how much more the responsibility when milhons of the human family have confided in the judgment, and placed in the hands of one man the sacred trust of preserving their live's, their liberties and their earthly all. Every President has this great boon in his keeping ; it is a responsible position, a holy trust ; he, who through wisdom and pure motives acts justly to all, will receive the heartfelt gratitude of the pres ent and coming generations, and when the evening of life gathers softly round his dying bed, how happy to know and feel that he has done all things well "Only actions of the just Smell sweet in life, And blossom in the dust." President Johnson has the most difficult task to perform of any Presi dent since the origin of the government. He can only succeed by the aid of divine providence. The war is over, to be sure, but the discord ant political elements remain to be harmonized. In this condition justice only will secure harmony. Every side of the reconstruction question ap pears to be surrounded with difficulty. On the one side you are met by downright injustice, backed by ignorance, and supported by prejudice against color. .The treacherous ex-slaveholder could never permit the freedman to exercise the right of suffrage. He has not only got this feeling himself, but he has imparted it in a great measure to his poor white neighbor, whom slavery has degraded and impoverished. This then shows the feelings of nearly all the white race living in the'South concerning the negroes. CONCLUSION. 359 When the white masters owned them, interest prompted kindness and care ; but now, when the negro has his freedom, he is looked upon as taking a step iu the direction of rivaling the master in his right to vote. The poor white man who is ignorant of nearly everything, except hatred to the negro, now sees in him a new rival in political rights. Some of these unreasonable and unjust prejudices will have to be thrown aside, or new troubles will rise in the future that will prove dis astrous to the peace and well being of the South, and the Country. The northern people have been votiDg against the negro for over eighty years ; of course the slaves were not allowed to vote directly, but indirectly. The South, under the three-fifth clause of the Constitution, according to the last census, would be entitled to a slave representation of about 2,400,000 persons, that is, 4,000,000 of blacks have the same legal rep resentative strength as if 2,400,000 white citizens were added to its pop ulation, the South being entitled to eighty-four representatives, ; eigh teen of their number hold their office by virtue of the negro population, guaranteed by the three-fifth clause in the Constitution. As we before said, the negroes did not vote direclly, but for President and members of the lower house of Congress, eighty white votes in the slave States being equivalent to one hundred in the free States. Suppose there were no blacks in the Southern States, who would agree to a system of political juggling that would strip the people of the free States of their manhood by counting every eighty southern votes as equivalent to every one hundred in the Northern States. This is the political coat of mail the Constitution furnished to the slave oligarchy for over three-quarters of a century. Feehng more than secure in the aforesaid political attitude, they became arrogant and domineering, and in the attempt to rid themselves of their connection with free insti tutions, lost the twenty per cent, advantage given them by the injustice of the Constitution. And now, after four years of devastating war, inaugurated by their own ignorance and folly, they come out of the bloody contest minus their political superfluities. Every citizen of the free States should recollect this, and demaod that under no pretext will this unjust advantage ever again be acquiesced in, no matter how fine the politicians may attempt to play it in reconstruc tion of the rebel States. It must be exposed and defeated. One hundred votes in the North must be equivalent to one hundred votes in the South. Justice to the voters in all the States require this to be done. Men having such political advantages showered on their unworthy heads under the government before the war, being defeated in batt'e by the superior ability of the federal commanders, and daring bravery and cour age of the men, will now resort to intrigue with honied tongues, unmean ing oaths and fair promises : they will endeavor to again wriggle them- 360 CONCLUSION. selves into position, so as to control elections and infuse deadly poison into every just and humane principle which, in reaping the fruits of vic tory, the wise and good adopt as a means to cement the Union and se cure its perpetuity. The man who pays tax, be he black or white, must be allowed the right of suffrage, or his excuse for rebelling against in justice is the same as our revolutionary fathers had against Great Britain. If the rebel States are left to themselves to reorganize, the leaders of the late rebellion will become masters of the field. It is safe to count them as eighty in every hundred of the white population. They hate every white man that holds Union sentiments, and every negro because the Union made him free. The reader can now observe some of the difficulties that lie in the way of harmonizing the new relations created by the war in the South. The disappointed, defeated and disgraced rebels will do all in their power to prevent a good feeling between the loyal whites and freedmen of the South. There is one way to arrange this troublesome question. Let loyalists, black and white, who fought and saved the country by pouring out their blood, now act together and keep down treason and crush out the vin dictive injustice that takes the place of slavery. It is safe to say that one half the vuting population of the South have fallen in battle, gone to Mexico or Europe, or become disqualified to vote by the proclamation of the President. From what is left take twenty per cent, as Loyal, add to them the loyal freedman's vote and you have suffi cient to overcome by constitutional means the votes. of the disloyal ene mies of the Federal Government. Those at the helm of state must make sure' that its friends, not enemies, get control of the reconstructing rebel States. Here is one trouble that will arise from not allowing the freed men to vote, . The Constitution of the United States bases representation on the whole number of free population ; this is as it should be, it is repub lican. Suppose the 4,000,000 slaves now made free in the Southern States are denied the right to vote for the Government, they poured out their blood to save. Then the whites of the South would be allowed by the Constitution to use these 4,000,000 of freedmen as a representative basis and vote on the strength of their numbers for President and representa tives. Now the Constitution gave the whites of the South during slave ry, the advantage of counting the blacks by the three fifth rule. The slaves being now free, if they are not allowed to vote, either a few loyal or purjured disloyal whites, or both combined, have the Con stitutional right to vote for them. Will the people of the United States suffer this after-birth of slavery to be dragged into the new order, to per petuate power when the three-fifth rule has become obsolete ? Under this state of things the new order would increase, instead of diminish the po- CONCLUSION. 361 litical power of the white population. Under the slave system they sent eighteen members to Congress by virtue of the three-fifth clause. Now that all the slaves must soon become free, 1,600,000 over the three-fifths will have to be added to the basis of federal representation ; instead of eighteen white men holding seats in Congress as representatives of the slave population we have to add ten more by virtue of the slaves all becom ing free ; then twenty-eight members of Congress would be entitled to seats in the House of Representatives by virtue of the freedmen. If they are not allowed to vote, the strength of their numbers is added to the white population ; and the new order of things where the South had only eighty-four representatives, now gives them ninety-four. If the freedmen of the South are allowed to vote, then the Constitution has ful filled its promise ; that is to see that the form of government in each State is republican ; each vote given in the South will have the same power as each vote cast in the North. If this course is not adopted, all the political power kept from the negro on account qf his color is gained by the Southern white. An unjust law may deny the freedmen a right to vote ; but Southern politicians can not do without counting them as a basis of representation, they will be eager to transfer into the new condition, the dregs of the old, in order to hold an increased political power by virtue of the new status of the negro. Either the negro must be allowed to vote, or the white man must be de nied the right to vote for him ; to do the latter, the Constitution will have to be changed, and the principle of basing representation on the whole number of free persons discarded. To abandon this, we remove the very foundation of free government. Are the people of the United States prepared for this, because it is distasteful to the ex-slaveholders and a few political demagogues to allow the negro the right of suffrage ? The South itself would loose political power if this was carried out : instead of ninety-four representatives she is enti tled to by counting the negro population, she would if they were left out, be entitled to only sixty-six. Thus we see, however distasteful negro voting may be, self interest will compel them to grant their just political rights. The people of this great country will never abandon the principles of republican government to pander to the pre judices of ex-slaveholders, traitors, and demagogues. Neither will they allow the people of the South the privilege of voting by virtue of its ne gro population, except the privilege is extended to the negroes them selves. To enter into any of these base and ungrateful schemes to dis franchise the freedmen, the Government turns its back on about the only loyal population in its southern territory, and this on account of their color; by abandoning these loyal citizens, it fosters revolution and gathers to its embrace a banditti of poisoners and assassins, who unscrupulous in means 362 CONCLUSION. would use the ingratitude of the Federal Government as an argument with the negro , and by promising him his political rights, under different circum stances, might at some future day, with his assistance make another effort to achieve their independence. The Southern States are not allowed to go on under their old constitutions, but are compelled to make new ones ; they must be republican in form, recognizing the abolition of slavery. But we ask how can a constitution be republican in the true seDse and meaning of the term if it denies- the right to vote to a majority of its citi zens. Such are the constitutions of South Carolina and Mississippi, where the freedmen outnumber the white population ; would this be republican in form ? we think not. But counting freedmen as a basis of representa tion, you give to the South Carolina and Mississippi rebels more political power than they had when slavery was in full blast. But if you reduce the voting population to the loyal whites, the whole thing becomes a farce. The political power exercised by the very few loyal whites, would excel any thing before known. Such a preponderous and unjust grant of pohtical power in voting, and reconstructing the organic laws of the rebel States can not be allowed — the people of the North will not permit it to be done. If the freedmen of the South are to be counted as a basis of rep resentation, where is the political knave in the North that will go before the country and advocate the right of rebels to vote for them ; no, the freedmen must be counted out, or allowed to do their own voting. That they can not be counted out without destroying the fundamental princi ples of the Federal Government we have before shown. This question now comes' before the nation in the same form as emancipation. By it the. Government secured the aid of the slave, and the sympathetic prayers of all Christian countries rose in our behalf like incense to the throne oi God, and in his own good time Jehovah smiled, and our success was complete. The power of the Federal Government is now so imposing that it can, without-fear, afford to be just. As to the question what to do with the negro, we can say the Saviour of men answered this question over 1800 years ago — " Do even unto them as you would wish them in all things to do unto you." The peace and future safety of our country can only be preserved by directing our political course more in harmony with the Declaration of Independence, and gathering the fruits of victory, we can continue in the unobstructed channel of eternal justice. This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and gov ernment of the people, by the people, for the people, and shall not per ish from the earth. — Lincoln's Speech at Gettysburgh, Nov. 19, 1863. The country will accept his opinion on manhood suffrage. His letter to Governor Hahn of Louisiana is of interest, and while it gives important advice, revealing his desires, expectation and intentions towards the col- CONCLUSION. 363 ored people, it also has the ring of prophecy. We place it here for the benefit of the people of the whole country. " Executive Mansion. ) Washington, March 13, 1864. j Hon. Michael Hahn: My Dear Sir : I congratulate you on having fixed your name in histo ry as the first free-State Governor of Louisiana. Now you are about to have a convention, which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest, for your private consideration, whether some of the colored people may not be let in, as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not to the public, but to you alone. Truly yours, A. LINCOLN. ANOTHER IMPORTANT LETTER. The following extract is from the late President Lincoln's letter to Gen. Wadsworth, who fell in the battle of the Wilderness. It shows that Mr. Lincoln desired the bestowal of the elective franchise upon the blacks, and was, also, at an early day, in favor of granting uni versal amnesty to the South. His wishes, in this particular, the American people can not afford to disregard. Congress should exact the right of suffrage for the blacks, then universal amnesty should be extended to the rebels. This certainly was Mr. Lincoln's plan, and whose intentions all parties should observe. The following is the extract referred to, in which Mr. Lincoln says : " You desire to know, in the event of complete success in the field — the same being followed by a loyal and cheerful submission on the part of the South — if universal amnesty should not be accompanied with uni versal suffrage. " Now, since you know my private inclinations as to what terms should be granted to the South, in the contingency mentioned, I will here add, that if our success should thus be realized, followed- by suGh desired re sults, I can not see, if universal amnesty is granted, how, under the cir cumstances, I can avoid exacting in return universal suffrage, or, suf frage on the basis of intelligence and military service. " How to better the condition of the colored race has long been a study which has attracted my serious and careful attention ; hence I think I am clear and decided as to what course I shall pursue in the premises, regard ing it a religious duty, as the nation's guardian of these people, who have so heroical v vindicated their manhood on the battle field, where, in 864 CONCLUSION. assisting to save the life of the republic, they have demonstrated in blood their right to the ballot, which is but the humane protection of the flag they have so fearlessly defended." President Johnson is determined to make the passage of the constitu tional amendment abolishing slavery, and the repudiation of all debts contracted in aid or by authority of the rebellion prominent features in his administration. Although slavery received its death wound by the Proclamation of Freedom, yet it requires the amendment to complete its legal extinction on American soil. We know not what may be in store for the black race in America ; but let the people so act that hereafter it can never be said that their personal freedom, or a fair competition in the race for life, were denied them. Give them fair play; they and their friends ask no more, and will accept no less. Then, whatever may be their future history, America will have done her duty; Washington gave us Independance ; Lincoln will ever stand in his tory as the liberator of the American slave. The extension of the right of suffrage to the Freedmen will form another important epoch in our country's history. By securing this right, President Johnson becomes the founder of equal and impartial justice to all American citizens. This wise measure will give full scope to his honest and patriotic heart, and forever fix his name in history as the worthy successor of the lamented Lincoln. We have thus passed over the road which the nation has traveled from its birth— beginning with the adoption of the Federal Constitution, where we find the origin not only of all our prosperity, but of all our domestic troubles. We have traced the growth of the slave power, which under the shield of that Constitution, ruled the republic exclusively for slavery until slavery was overthrown ; and we have shown how imperative it was that slavery and the slave power should die, in order that liberty and the republic might live. We have developed the secret plots and con spiracies of the champions of human bondage, who, like despots every where, to achieve success, resorted to the foulest crimes. And we have, finally, given a history of the great war, in whose oceans of blood the accursed system of slavery and its leaders have sunk forever. We have been forced to pass through some of the darkest scenes in our country's history, painful though it has been. But though the clouds were black, they were to the hopeful eye tinged with light; and now that the nation has started on a new course of empire and freedom, we leave to coming historians to record its impartial justice to all its children, and future influence over the destinies of the human race. LETTER FROM PROFESSOR ROBERT GRANT, Who accompanied Comodore Perry's Squadron at the close of the Mexican war. and at his direction made a Scientific investigation of the Climate, Soil, and Pro ducts of Central America. Baltimore, Oct. 23d, 1865. Dear Sm, I congratulate you upon the success of your work, entitled History qf the Plots and Grimes qfthe Great Conspiracy to Overthrow Liberty in America, showing the barbaric animus which actuated those Southern conspirators, who inaugurated the great American rebellion in favor of Monarchy, based upon the indiscriminate sla very of the labor of the country. My purpose in writing to you, at this time, is, to offer my positive evidence, in corroboration of the facts you have established in your work, showing that Presi dents Harrison and Taylor were poisoned by those demons in human form, who inoculated and " fired the southern heart," with their traitorous teachings. It so occurred, in the conducting of my business, as a mechanical engineer, that I became a temporary resident in Washington, at the time of President Harrison's death, and also at the moment of President Taylors death. At the time of Presi dent Harrison's death, I was consulted in reference to the use of galvanism, in the last stages of his disease, inasmuch as I had made some improvements in electro- magneto machines adapted to medical uses, and as it had been suggested by some medical gentlemen, that electro-chemical baths, would be serviceable in eliminating poisons from the human system in extreme cases. The baths were not used, as far as I know, by the medical gentlemen having the immediate case of the President, but I do know that the symptoms were ad mitted by several medical attendants on that occasion at the White House, to re quire the most energetic treatment for poison. I recollect perfectly well that a diagnosis of the case was advanced, referring the symptoms to the presence of lead, in some form, either as an oxide or an acetate, as accounting for the peculiar character of the disease which resulted in the death of President Harrison. The subsequent poisoning of President Taylor, and the attempt to poison Presi dent Buchanan fatally, has satisfied me that lead, either in the whole or mingled with arsenic, was the immediate means of these cold blooded assassinations. Referring to the suggestions of medical .gentlemen in Washington in making a diagnosis of the case of President Harrison, and referring the symptoms to the presence of poison, I feel it to be necessary to state, that these explanations were advanced with extreme caution. Honorable gentlemen were adverse to counte nance an expression of public conviction, which would degrade our national char acter, and stigmatize us as a race of poisoners, more atrocious and cruel than the political banditti who hovered like a fiendish incubus over the darkest night of crushed Italy. The hydra body of slavery had not, at that time, fully developed its gnashing jaws, and philanthropists were only intent on nipping off, and rubbing down with gentle etnolients the crop of hissing heads, which were budding out all over its hideous carcass. Therefore it was, that peace-loving men hushed with trembling fear, any public expression of this horrid conviction. The poisoning of President Taylor, the particulars of which I am personally con versant with, so far as an immediate investigation of the symptoms are concerned, was doubtless effected by " the same kind of drug as was given to President Harri son" as you correctly state in your work. The principal physicians who attended President Harrison, were those who attended President Taylor. The result was the same 1 PROP. ROBERT GRANT'S LETTER. On the 4th of July 1850, President Taylor attended the inauguration of the Washington Monument, and after sitting out the speeches and ceremonies of the occasion, returned to the White House between 4 and 5 o'clock, p. m. One of the attendants of the White House stated to me at that time, " that immediately after arriving home, President Taylor partook of a dish of cold boiled cabbage, of which he was very fond. Soon after he was taken with severe vomiting, which continued until his death." The matter thrown from President Taylor's stomach, as did that in the case of President Harrison, showed every appearance of poison, according to the best concurring evidence which I could obtain on the spot at the time of his death. Was a secret assassin near the person of President Taylor during, these terrible four days, manipulating him according to the southern programme, so successfully accomplished in the previous case of President Harrison ? Was an assassin located in the presidential household, one who made himself acquainted with the Presi dent's tastes and habits, and who kneWjhow to cook cabbage f Did a specimen of that infernal element haunt the National Hotel, and at the bidding of the southern conspirators poison nearly every northern boarder, at the same time with President Buchanan, to cover up the crime? A close personal observation of all these events has satisfied me that this was the case. As the priests of the Indian Thuggs have their sworn assassins ; as the Italian banditti havetheir hired murderers, so did the treacherous conspirators of the South spew out their poisoners and diject their heartless cut-throats throughout the North, ready to enact any foul crime in the interest of slavery ! Pioneers of the bottomless pit, cutting away the Abatis of freedom, clearing the way for a concerted charge on the temple of liberty, by the demons of hell ! Who these conspirators were, the history of this foul rebellion has principally unmasked ; still the entire attrocities of their fives can not now be fully compre hended by the public,, were it possible at this moment to gather the compendious details of their treachery and crimes. Neither is it necessary immediately to un mask the full complicity with these traitors, maintained by their affiliating sup porters, the cognate copperheads, the gelatinous hypocrites and knaves of the North who have given aid and comfort to the enemies of God and their countiy. But " time proves all things, " and just so unrelentingly will "the slow un moving fin ger of scorn" be " pointed at" these men; just so surely will retribution finally overtake them, as that God and Justice are one ! I am impelled to these utter ances of seemingly harsh expletives — to utter adjectives unusual in polite literature, from the vivid sense and knowledge I possess, that these men have committed crimes so satanically wicked that no language, but that constructed to represent the syampathies of hell, can give tongue to the terrible reality! I do not desire to elaborate this subject, and I can not explain systematically a tithe of what I know, affirming the correctness of your book, without dilating upon the question to the exclusion of more pressing business. One incident, however, I shall go so far as to describe, which may, perhaps, throw some light upon the machinations of one of the principal characters in this drama, and which has not hitherto been made public. In the spring of 1848, I was in Washington on official business, having but re cently returned from the Gulf of Mexico, where I had been attached to Commo dore Perry's squadron, during the latter part of the Mexican war. While under Commodore Perry's command, I had, by his direction, made a scries of scientific explorations, in various parts of the peninsula of Yucatan, and through the Usuma- centi river, in Central America. The results of my labors were recorded in the form of a report, accompanied with illustrative maps, drawings, and various speci mens, both animal and mineral, representing the productions of the country. When I arrived in Washington, I was given to understand that this report had been ordered in accordance with the desire of- Hon. John C. Calhoun, and I was directed to attend at his house with it in F Street. I paid my respects to Mr. Cal houn, and at his request deposited a copy of my report with Mr. Burt, Mr. Cal houn's son-in-law, for perusal. This incident occurred on or about the 15th of June 1818. In a few days after Hon. Mr. Burt called upon me and invited me PROF. ROBERT GRANT'S LETTER. to take tea with Mr. Calhoun at his house. On my arrival I soon discovered that this social family " tea" was most emphatically a -'plant," or in other words, through the magic influence of this aristocratic southern family teaparty I wa3 expected lo be impressed with the propriety of altering my report, or of allowing Hon. John C. Calhoun to alter it so as to convert its purely scientific record into arguments advo cating the introduction of slavery into the valley of the Usumacenti river and Cen tral America. • I did not beheve in slavery ; I never could endorse it in any shape ; ana I frankly told Mr. Calhoun so; although I at the same time admitted that I believed, as I do now, most emphatically, that the negro race are not of the genus homo with the white man, and that, as a race, in a state of slavery, he is the worst enemy the white man has to encounter on earth, as he invariably barbarizes the white man when associated with him in this condition, by a process indosmos and ezosmos of mentalities, and physically by the nursing of the .vhite man's child by the negro " mama's" as practiced at the South — the negro nutrition controling the natural idiocyncracies of the white child — the normal condition of the negro being barbaric ' and wild, to which condition he will immediately revert, when freed from the in fluence of the white man, and that every attempt to associate the dark races with the white races, since the earliest dawn of monumental history, has hitherto re sulted and inevitably will result in the debasement of both races — and that no white race has fallen or gone down in the scale of civilization, except through the futile attempt to engraft some dark race upon its progressive life — and that the great error of the South was the attempt to innoculate its civilized progress with the negro element, as a permanent basis of enslaved labor — and that, if this course was con tinued, it would result in the ruin of the South, or the destruction of the negro. This idea I had also elaborated in my report, which had been previously examined by Mr. Calhoun. All that I said on that occasion appeared to have no effect upon Mr. Calhoun ; he listened for the moment and incidentally remarked that my antecedent record was a sufficient guarantee for my final action in this matter ; and went on to propose that I should omit that portion of my report, showing the incompatibility of the negro with civilization, and that the whole should be made to show the vast ad vantage which would result from the immediate introduction of negro slavery into those fertile valleys which drain the eastern water-shed of the mountains in Central America. The result of our conversation was, that I gleaned from Mr. Calhoun the substance of his intentions, to finally press slavery into all the grain-growing States and Territories of the North, for the purpose of affording breeding grounds, or a kind of Africa, producing slaves for the more fertile cotton and sugar planting regions south, until the pressure, north and south, should have absorbed the entire continents of North and South America in^an immense slaveholding nation. Mr. Calhoun unreservedly presented this vision to me because I had, as he re marked, referring to my antecedents two years previously, with his knowledge and approbation, given a series of public lectures in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, showing the marked distinction between the dark and white races, and proving the incompatibility of the dark races of mankind with a high state of human progress, in common with the wild Fauna and Flora of the inferior types; and which lectures, the events of this war have crowned almost with the fight of history. Mr. Calhoun doubtless was impressed with the belief, as I find most persons now are, on the first presentation of my theory, "that the transition from this doctrine to a coincidence with slavery, was but a step. True, it is but a step — but that step is from the sublime to the ridiculous ! ! The simple fact is, that whatever the negro may be, God made him so, for his own good purpose, and no man has a right to make a slave of him ! If he does so, the negro carries his own vengeance with him into that slavery, which, by association, eventually bar barizes the white man. In view of such inducements, as the final carrying out of this great slave nation ality might offer, Mr. Calhoun gave me to understand, as a present consideration, if I would lend my report to the interest of slavery, that the whole should be pub- lished as a Congressional Document, that I should be paid the extraordinary ex penses which I had been subjected to, in making explorations and collecting speci mens, and in compiling my report. That I should be continued in my position in the navy, at an increased salary, that I should he detailed to make scientific ex plorations among the wild races of Africa, which I then anxiously desired to ac complish. At the same time, Mr. Calhoun gave me to understand, that "if I did not so prostitute my report to the interest of slavery, that I should not be paid a cent for my trouble in getting it up. That I would lose my situation in the navy, with all the flattering inducements held out to me, and that I should be debarred hereafter from all Government countenance and support in my efforts to introduce the Calcium light for light-house purposes. This was the substance of Mr. Calhoun's conference with me. It was not direct ly, or plainly stated by him in the aggregate, but he left me te draw inferences as to the result of my action, in reference to the report; still I could not mistake his meaning. He was very gen lemanly in his manner, and his conversational and persuasive powers were of the highest order; at the same time there was a lordly, dogmatic air, which he used, seeming to desire to compel me to accept the fiat of his will. With all this, my pride was finally roused. My Scotch nature would not submit to be made the tool of an imperious aristocrat. The insult, of being re quested to sell my highest convictions, for a mess of pottage, was more than I had bargained for; and without deigning further explanation, i flatly refused his offer, and taking up my manuscript, remarked, that it ' ' was already paid for ; that it was worth to me all that it cost, and that I intended to keep it until such times, as with God's blessing mankind should come to their senses, which event, I hoped and believed, would occur in my day, if not in his. " (Now, thank God ! in my day mankind are coming to their senses.) I then retired from the presence of the great autocrat, and I have never seen him since ; but I have felt him. Shortly after I was informed that my services were no longer required in the navy. I was re fused all compensation for my report, and during Mr. Calhoun's life I could do nothing witli my light-house improvements ; and even after his death the shadow of that unrelen:ing old man stood in my path in a hundred different forms, until the breaking out of the rebellion. I have now, however, reason to believe that his ghost is laid, and forever, with his great prototype, the Satanic spirit of slavery ! I am glad, my dear sir, that you have unmasked the fiendish origin, and mon archical tendencies of human bondage. As the pioneer, in disclosing the deep hidden atrocities of ninety years of the slave-power, you deserve the heartfelt gratitude of every man and woman worthy to bear the American name. Yours ever, ROBERT GRANT. John Smith Dye, Esq., author of History of the Plots and Crimes of the Great Conspiracy to Overthroio Liberty in America. No. 100 Broadway, (opposite Trinity Church), New York. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 01335 5293