Mr. Gardner was re-elected in 1855 by the momentum of the party, although it had fallen into discredit which would have led to its ruin in the face of a vigorous opposition. The Whig Party had disappeared and the Republican Party had not reached a period when it could command its forces. In 1856 the Know Nothing Party was yielding to the Republican Party and Governor Gardner was accepted for a third term.

In the year 1854 I made a trip to the Adirondack woods and mountains. The party was organized by Francis W. Bird, and it consisted of Mr. Bird, Henry W. Pierce, D. W. Alvord, a Mr. Hoyt and myself. We left our homes about the 20th of June and were absent about twenty days. We entered the woods from Amsterdam, N. Y. From that place we travelled by a wagon to Lake Pleasant, about fifty-four miles. We remained there two or three days at a hotel kept by a man named John C. Holmes, or rather by his wife, while Holmes retailed old stories to the few guests. The chief topic was the large trout caught in the lake and when and by whom. The ten largest of the season caught in Lake Pleasant and Round Lake weighed in the aggregate 154-1/2 pounds. A Mrs. Peters from New York was the champion; her prize having weighed something over 16 pounds.

We started for the woods on a Thursday taking with us eight guides, a donkey and a considerable quantity of provisions. As the protection was insufficient, the bread, salt, pepper, etc., were soon ruined. The salt pork was saved. At the end of three or four days we sent the donkey and three men back to Lake Pleasant. On this trip I had my first and indeed my only experience in sleeping on the ground. At the small lakes we found the hunters' camps, which were made by erecting poles and covering the scanty frame with the bark of cedar trees.

Saturday night we divided our force as the camp at the lake where we intended to stop was too small for the accommodation of our whole party. Consequently some of the guides went on about four miles to a lake where there was another camp of larger size. Hoyt was the enthusiast of the party, and it was his ambition to kill a deer, although the inhumane act was prohibited at that season of the year.

Our leading guide was called Aaron Burr Sturgis. Thursday evening Hoyt insisted upon going out deer hunting upon the lake. Burr took charge of him. Hoyt had a shot, but missed the deer. Friday evening the effort was renewed with the same result. Burr insisted that the game was in sight at a reasonable distance, and that Hoyt was a victim of the disease known as buck fever. When Saturday evening came there was a public sentiment in favor of changing the hunter as the party were becoming weary of salt pork and trout. Burr fixed upon me, and warmly advocated my selection. Hoyt was warm in advocacy of his own claim. Burr's partiality for me was due to the circumstance that at Lake Pleasant I had sent a buck-shot fifteen rods straight to the mark. Hoyt was finally driven from the field, his only consolation being my promise that I would fire but once, and whether successful or not, I would return to the camp.

The hunter's boat was a narrow, long, flat-bottomed craft, capable of carrying two persons if they were sober and careful. I took my place in the bow of the boat, behind and rather under the jack. I rested upon my knees, holding my gun in such a position that I could use it at short notice. While we were crossing the lake to the feeding ground, Burr gave me my instructions. He said that when I saw the deer in the light from the jack, he would look as though he were cut out of white paper. Such proved to be the fact. The light upon the deer gave him the appearance of being white as the background was black. He appeared in profile only. Next Burr said I must not fire until he gave me orders, as I could not judge of the distance.

After a time the light fell upon a deer. He raised his head and gazed upon the light. Burr moved with the boat without making a ripple and finally he held the boat with his oar and ordered me to fire. This I did, and the deer ran for the shore, Burr pushed his boat to the quag, took the jack, and followed the track. At the distance of about fifteen rods he found the deer unable to move. Burr applied his knife to the throat of the animal, and then dragged him to the boat and we lifted him in. As Burr turned the boat he said, "Did you her the deer whistle on the other side of the lake when you fired?" I said no. Burr said they whistled and he was going over to see if we couldn't get a shot. I referred to my promise to Hoyt, which Burr answered with an oath of disapproval. As I saw no reason for getting another deer I was disgusted with the new movement, and neglected to re-load the empty barrel. When we reached the other side, we could hear deer moving in the water among the tall grass, but we could not see them. After a time I became interested in the undertaking, and I raised myself upon my feet for the purpose of looking over the tall grass. At once I was seen by a deer, and he made for the shore without delay. In the excitement of the moment I discharged my remaining barrel. The deer stopped suddenly, raised his tail, and whistled. I thought that I had shot him, and that he would soon fall into the water. I said to Burr, "How am I to get that deer?" Burr said, "I don't know; you haven't hit him yet." The deer stood for a minute within good range and fully exposed. Luckily I had only an empty gun, or otherwise I might have killed a deer for which we had no use—for which there could have been no excuse. The whistle of the animal was a note of exultation and a notice that he was unharmed. Had he been wounded he would have run without waiting to explain his condition. This was the only success in deer hunting by any of the party. Hoyt went out several times, to return a disappointed man.

I spent the larger part of a night upon Louis Lake with a Canadian Frenchman, of whom the rumor was, as I learned afterwards, that he was a refugee charged with the murder of a woman. While one might not choose such a person for a guide upon a forest lake and in the night time, yet criminals of that sort are very often safer companions than many reckless persons not yet guilty of any great crime. Murders committed under the influence of passion do not lead to other murders by the same parties. On the Sunday following we arrived at a small lake where the camp was too limited for the accommodation of the entire party and those who had remained proceeded to join their companions. The day was rainy and when we reached our destination, we found that one end of the camp had been destroyed by fire and that the part standing furnished only inadequate room for the small party already occupying it. The building of a new and much larger camp was the work of the entire party. For a bed we cut great quantities of hemlock boughs and after shaking the water from them we laid them upon the ground and in our blankets we lay down with our feet to a rousing fire which extended along the entire front of the camp not less than twenty feet. None of the party suffered from the experience.

At that time fishing for brook trout was not an art. On one occasion I waded into the rapids of Racket River where the water was about two feet deep, and as often as my hook struck the water, I would get a bite. The fish were of uniform size and weighed about one pound each. We had equally good fishing upon the streams which connect the Eckford Lakes. At Racket Lake a controversy arose about the route to be taken. Alvord and Hoyt had a plan which Bird did not approve. Pierce and myself took no part in the debate; we had accepted Bird as leader and we chose to follow him.

We were quartered in a log house that had been built for the use of some railway surveyors, but it was then occupied by a man who went by the name of Wood. It was rumored that he was a refugee from Lowell, Mass. He had lost both legs to the knees by freezing, and he walked upon the stumps with considerable speed. He was able to walk to the settlement at Lake Pleasant, a distance of thirty-eight miles. He had a wife and one daughter, who were as ignorant as barbarians. After a warm and almost bitter debate between Hoyt and Bird, a separation was resolved upon. Hoyt and Alvord went northward and we resolved to return by the way of Indian and Louis Lakes to Lake Pleasant. Bird had incurred some expenses for our outfit, and Hoyt in his excitement resolved to pay his share at once. He had no money nor was there any money of consequence in the party. In this condition of affairs Hoyt exclaimed, "Who will give me the money for a check on the Greenfield Bank?"

Bird, Pierce, and myself, with three guides, turned our faces toward the Eckford Lakes and Mt. Emmons. From Eckford we made our way to Indian Lake. The day was warm and rainy in showers. The guides were ignorant of the route, having never passed over it, and the distance was estimated at twenty miles. We started in the morning in good spirits and confident of getting through to Forbes' Clearing on Indian Lake. We followed a road made by the lumbermen and about noon we crossed an upper branch of the Hudson and came upon a small dwelling where an Irishman and a boy were grinding an ax.

They were protected from flies and mosquitoes by a dull fire of chips and leaves called a smudge. We asked for dinner and the way to Indian Lake. They could not give us a dinner nor say definitely how we were to get to Indian Lake. The man said there was another house farther along where we might get something to eat, and he would follow in a short time and go with us to the lake. We soon reached the second dwelling where we found a woman and children; the husband having gone to the settlement for supplies. She gave us some ham and corn bread, to which we added tea from our own stock. When we were approaching the house, we saw a deer making for the thick forest. This was the only deer that I saw after my trip on the lake with Burr. When our meal was over, we followed the Irishman into the thick wood where there was no path, and where our way was often blocked by fallen trees. Many times in the course of an hour we heard the noise caused by the fall of a tree, and once when winding our way by the steep side of a mountain, we saved ourselves by fleeing towards the lake. The tree was a huge yellow birch and it was so much decayed that it was broken into thousands of pieces, trunk as well as branches.

When we began our trip, Pierce was unwell and the tramp of this day quite overcame him. He often sat down upon fallen trees, and deplored his folly in going into the woods. He amused us by his bids, offering first five dollars and then from time to time advancing his offer to anyone who would set him down at old John C.'s. When we came in sight of the lake we raised the sum of fifty cents for our guide and dismissed him. We then proceeded up the lake, keeping ourselves within sight of it for the most part. At about sunset we reached an opening where a small stream entered the lake. Pierce sat down upon the ground and announced that he would not walk another step that night. In that condition of affairs we sent guides forward with such luggage as they could take, and with directions to return with a boat as soon as they reached Forbes' Clearing. During twilight we saw a boat coming down the lake. The boatman proved to be James Sturgis with a small boat designed to carry two persons. We were four, and when we were seated the water was within an inch of the top of the gunwale. I told Sturgis to keep near the shore. In doing so he ran upon the limb of a fallen tree. The boat careened on one side and then the other, dipping water. At last we got off and after an hour's rowing, we reached the clearing, where we got a supper and the privilege of sleeping on the floor of the log house.

The next morning we obtained the use of a large flat-bottomed scow and paddled ourselves up the river which flows into the Indian Lake from Louis Lake. The distance was about nine miles and through an intervale from half a mile to two miles in width. This valley was studded with huge trees at such a distance from each other that it might well be called a park, and when in a state of nature it must have been not only beautiful, but magnificent. The curse of civilization was upon it, however. For lumbering purposes a dam had then been built across the outlet of Indian Lake, and the intervale had been overflowed until all the trees were dead. The grass was rich and we were told that it was a favorite feeding ground of the deer.

At Louis Lake I made an excuse to visit Burr Sturgis' mother who lived with her husband on the opposite side of the lake from our camp. I asked Burr to take me across that I might get from his mother some corn cakes. We found Mrs. Sturgis to be a woman about forty-five years of age with some of the freshness of youth in her appearance, and in conversation quite above her surroundings. She had had a large family of children all born in the woods. The rumor among the guides was that she was from Connecticut. There were rumors about all the inhabitants of the woods, but of authentic history there was but little. The imagination might sketch the history of Mrs. Sturgis.

NOTE.—Burr Sturgis and James Sturgis were brothers.

XXI ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 1855—AND THE EVENTS PRECEDING THE WAR

In the month of August 1855, the Republican Party of Massachusetts was organized, and under the head of those who signed the call, a convention was held at Worcester, the eighteenth day of September, of that year. In Mr. Webster's time the Whig Party had been divided into two parts, known as Conscience Whigs and Cotton Whigs. The Conscience Whigs had become Free-soilers, and the Cotton Whigs upheld the flag of the party in the belief that trade would follow the flag. The death of Mr. Webster and the election of General Pierce ended the Whig Party in the State. In 1855 the Democratic Party was a nerveless organization, and without hope, except as the leaders looked to the supremacy of the party in the country as a guaranty of office-holding to the few who were in the ascendency in the commonwealth. In one short year of power the Know Nothing Party had destroyed its influence in the State. Thus was the way prepared for a new and formidable organization, destined to succeed under the declaration that slavery was not to be extended to the territories of the Union.

The first meeting of the men who led the organization of the Republican Party was held at the United States Hotel. By adjournment the second meeting was held at Chapman Hall. At this meeting a committee of twenty-seven persons was chosen, of which the Honorable Samuel Hoar was chairman. He had been a Whig of the Federalist school, he was a lawyer of eminence, ranking all but the few greatest leaders of the bar, he had had a career of useful public service, and he enjoyed the respect and the confidence of the commonwealth. His associates were Homer Bartlett, Charles Francis Adams, George S. Boutwell, Stephen C. Phillips, George Bliss, H. L. Dawes, John Brooks, Charles Allen, Moses Kimball, R. H. Dana, Jr., Marcus Morton, Jr., William H. Wood, W. S. Breckinridge, James H. Mitchell, George Grennell, D. W. Alvord, Increase Sumner, William Clark, Charles W. Slack, Thomas D. Elliot, Samuel Bowles, William Brigham, Ivers Phillips, George Cogswell of Bradford, John H. Shaw. At this date, June 12, 1900, three of the signers are living: H. L. Dawes, George Cogswell, and the writer of this volume. A very exact account of the proceedings of the Chapman Hall meeting may be found in the Boston Journal under the dates of August 16, 17, 22, 23, and 30.

Mr. Franklin Dexter, a son of Samuel Dexter, was named upon the committee. Mr. Dexter declined the appointment, and in a letter which is printed in the Journal under one of the dates named, he gave his reasons. The one controlling reason was the fear that the persons engaged in the movement would go too far and involve the country in troubles and evils greater than those which the nation was then experiencing. To these considerations, Mr. Winthrop, in a private interview, added objections of a personal nature.

A supplementary call, signed by more than a hundred citizens, including Senator Wilson, was subjoined to the call of the committee. The impetus which the Know Nothing Party had received in the election of 1854 was sufficient to secure the re-election of Governor Gardner over Julius Rockwell, the first candidate of the Republican Party in the State. In 1856 Governor Gardner was elected as the candidate of the Republican Party. Since the year 1856 the Republican Party has given direction to the policy of the State.

In 1858 my friends made an effort to secure my nomination for the United States House of Representatives. I was indifferent to the movement, although I did not decline to be considered for the nomination. Some of my best friends urged me to remain where I was, and my opponents were certain that no one else could perform the duties in a manner so acceptable. At the Convention I received sixty- three votes, and my opponent, Charles R. Train, received sixty-six votes. Train was declared the nominee, and as such he was elected. After the Convention was over, some person of an inquiring turn of mind found that if every portion of the district had been represented the total vote could not have exceeded one hundred and eighteen. This discovery led to some crimination, each party charging the other with fraud.

When in 1860 notices were posted in the town of Concord calling upon the Republicans to meet in caucus, to choose delegates to the State Convention, Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson called at the office of George M. Brooks, who was an active supporter of Mr. Train, and said:

"I see there is to be a caucus to choose delegates to the Convention, and I have called to make an inquiry about it, as Mr. Boutwell was cheated out of his nomination two years ago."

Mr. Brooks said in reply:

"This caucus is for delegates to the State Convention. The District Convention has not been called. But we thought the cheating was on the other side."

"Ah!" said Mr. Emerson. "I see that you are not for Mr. Boutwell. Do you know of anybody in the village who is for Mr. Boutwell?"

Mr. Brooks did not give him the information, and he went away. When the evening came for the district caucus, the leading men who managed the caucuses usually, went to the hall, and to their surprise they found the transcendentalists in force, surrounded by a deep fringe of farmers from all parts of the town. The meeting was organized. Four delegates were to be chosen. Upon the nomination of candidates the names were placed upon a sheet of paper, and then the citizens passed around and each one marked against four names. The friends of Train secured the lead, in making nominations, and my friend followed with four names. When this ceremony was over, Mr. Emerson rose and said:

"The first four names on that paper are for Mr. Train. The second four names are for Mr. Boutwell. We are for Mr. Boutwell, and our friends will be careful not to vote for the first four names, but to vote for the second four names."

Mr. Emerson's policy prevailed, and as far as I know, this was his only appearance in Concord politics. In that year I had a majority of the delegates to the convention, but I attended, withdrew my name, and nominated Mr. Train for election. When I was elected in 1862, Mr. Emerson gave me his support and during my term I received many letters from him in approval of my course, which to many others seemed extreme and unwise. My acquaintance with Mr. Emerson was never intimate, but it was always friendly and I rest in the belief that he so wished our relations to continue. It began in the Forties, when he honored me with his presence at the Concord Lyceum, where, for a period, I had an opportunity to speak. It was my better fortune to hear Mr. Emerson speak on many occasions. He was not an orator in a popular sense, but he had the capacity to make his auditors anxious to hear what he would say in his next sentence, which, not infrequently, was far removed from the preceding sentence.

In April, 1859, I presided at a dinner in honor of Jefferson. In the speech that I then made, I predicted the Rebellion, although at that time there were but few who expected an event more serious than a political struggle. I then said:

"The great issue with slavery is upon us. We cannot escape it. The policy of men may have precipitated the contest; but, from the first, it was inevitable. The result is not doubtful. The labor, the business, the wealth, the learning, the civilization, of the whole country, South as well as North, will ultimately be found on the side of freedom. The power of the North is not in injustice. We are bound to be just; we can afford to be generous. Concede to our brethren of the South every constitutional right without murmuring and without complaint. Under the Constitution and in the Union every difficulty will disappear, every obstacle will be overcome. But, rendering justice to others, let us secure justice for ourselves; and we of the North, not they of the South, shall be held responsible, if the slave- trade upon the high seas is openly pursued or covertly permitted, if new territory is consigned to slavery, or if the gigantic powers of this government are longer perverted to the support of an institution dangerous to the welfare of the people and hostile to the perpetuity of the Union."

A letter from Abraham Lincoln was read at the Jefferson dinner. As Mr. Lincoln's letter has more value, manifestly, in the year 1901, than it appeared to have in the year 1859, I reprint the important parts of that communication:

"Bearing in mind that about seventy years ago two great political parties were first formed in this country—that Jefferson was the head of one of them, and Boston the headquarters of the other, it is both curious and interesting that those supposed to descend politically from the party opposed to Jefferson should now be celebrating his birthday, in their own original seat of empire, while those claiming political descent from him have nearly ceased to breathe his name everywhere. But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid are true; but nevertheless he would fail, utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms.

"The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society. And yet they are denied and evaded, with no small show of success. One dashingly calls them 'evident lies.' And others insidiously argue that they apply only to 'superior races.'

"These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and effect—the supplanting the principles of free government, and restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They are the vanguard—the sappers and miners of returning despotism. We must repulse them, or they will subjugate us. This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God cannot long retain it. All honor to Jefferson—to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day and in all coming days, it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression."

In the canvass of 1860 I made a speech at Cambridge in reply to a speech made in Faneuil Hall by Mr. Yancey. I again gave my opinion that war was impending. I then saw that the preliminary incidental conspiracy was in the Democratic Party, by which the party was to be divided, and by which the Republican Party was assured of success. Had the government been continued in the hands of the Democrats there could have been no pretext for rebellion. The first necessary step in the movement was the destruction of the Democratic Party. That step was taken, and thus the way was opened for the election of Mr. Lincoln. The secession of the States, beginning with South Carolina, was a recognition of the legitimacy of the Government, of which Mr. Lincoln became the head. This recognition was consummated beyond question, when Vice-President Breckinridge announced the election of Mr. Lincoln, in February, 1861.

The interests of the seceding States would have been promoted as the measures of the incoming administration would have been retarded, if the members from those States could have retained their seats in Congress. It is probably that in the excitement of the time, the States gave no thought to the question whether it would be wise to allow their members to remain in the old Congress, and there thwart the administration in its efforts to raise men and money. However that may have been, when the Southern members left their seats they surrendered to the Republican Party that absolute power by which in the end the Rebellion was suppressed. Upon the theory of many Democrats and of some Republicans, that the seceding States were never out of the Union, they might have kept a representation in Congress while the States themselves were carrying on a war for the destruction of the old Government. Happily for the country the logic of events was mightier than the logic of the schools. The larger number of men who went out haughtily in 1860 and 1861 never returned.

In 1861 I was invited to deliver an address at Charlestown, Mass., on the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. I said nothing of that battle, for my thoughts were directed too exclusively to the prospect of war in the near future, to allow me to deal with the past except for the purpose of warning or encouragement. That address gave great offence to Democrats generally, and it led many Republicans to denounce me as unwise, and to declare that my counsels were dangerous. Governor Andrew, who had just taken his seat as Governor, accepted the view that I expressed, as did his privy counsellor, Frank W. Bird, although they had disagreed with me in the National Convention, of June, 1860. They were the earnest supporters of Mr. Seward, I was opposed to his nomination, and as I would not pledge myself to his support, I barely escaped defeat at the State Convention, which elected the delegates at large to the Chicago Convention.

In my address at Charlestown, I made these remarks, which gave no inconsiderable offence:

"In this juncture of affairs, we anxiously ask, what more remains to be done? I infer, from what I see and hear, that most of my countrymen believe that the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency is to be declared in the customary way, and that he is to be inaugurated at Washington on the 4th of March next. The intentions of men are hidden from our view; but the necessities of the seceders we can appreciate, and the logic of events we can comprehend. It is a necessity of the South to prevent the inauguration of Lincoln. If he is inaugurated at Washington on the 4th of March, the cause of the secessionists is lost for ever. In all their proceedings, they have been wise and logical, thus far; and I assume that resistance to the inauguration of Lincoln is a part of their well-laid scheme. No man can now tell whether this scheme will be abandoned, whether it will be tried and fail, or whether it will be tried with success. I believe it will be tried.

"True, the administration has put itself on the side of order; the city is alarmed for its existence, knowing full well that if it is given up to the military or the mob, and the representatives of eighteen free States are, for a single hour only, fugitives from the capital of the country, its re-occupation will be upon terms less agreeable to the inhabitants of the District and the neighboring States. The possession of Washington does, in a considerable degree, control the future of this country. Believing, as I do, in the stern purpose of these men; knowing, also, that Maryland and Virginia command on the instant the presence of large bodies of volunteers,—I deem it only an act of common prudence, for the free States, without menaces, without threats, with solemn and official declarations even that no offensive movement will be undertaken, to organize, and put upon a war footing, a force of one hundred thousand men, who may be moved at any moment when desired by the authorities of the country.

"What, then, will be our position? The way ought to be open for the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln; but there are those who demand a compromise as a step necessary and preliminary to that event. I do not now speak of the demand made upon States, in their sovereign capacity, to repeal certain laws, concerning personal liberty, alleged to be unconstitutional. . . .

"The compromises of which I speak are the various propositions, which proceed upon the idea that the election by the people of a President of the Republic, in constitutional ways and by constitutional means only, shall not be consummated by his peaceful inauguration, unless the character of the government is fundamentally changed previously, or pledges given that such changes shall be permitted. I see no great evidence that these demands are to be acceded to; but I see that the demands themselves attack the fundamental principles of republican liberty. If disappointed men, be they few or many, be they conspirators and traitors, or misguided zealots merely, can interpret their will, and arrest or divert or contravene the public judgment, constitutionally expressed, then our government is no longer one of laws, but a government of men."

XXII AS SECRETARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF EDUCATION

In the early autumn of 1855 the Board of Education elected me to the office of secretary of the board. The position was offered to Mr. George B. Emerson, who declined to accept it for the reason that he was unwilling to perform the necessary labor. My predecessor was Barnas Sears, who resigned to accept the presidency of Brown University. I made no effort to secure the appointment; indeed, I was doubtful as to the wisdom of accepting it. I had been a member of the board for several years, and I had had a limited acquaintance with Mr. Mann during his term of office. Mr. Mann had had a brilliant career. He entered upon his duties at a time when the public schools of Massachusetts were in a low condition, and under his administration there had been a revival of interest, whose force is felt, I imagine, to this day. He attacked the customs and ridiculed the prejudices of the people, made war upon the practice of corporal punishment, engaged in a controversy with the Boston schoolmasters, and in the end he either achieved a victory whenever a stand was made against him, or he laid the foundation of ultimate success.

Dr. Sears was a man of peace. He was a carefully educated scholar and progressive in his ideas, but he relied upon quiet labor and carefully prepared arguments. He was at the head of the school system for the long period of thirteen years, and in that time great progress was made. He supplemented Mr. Mann by a steady and sturdy effort to establish permanently the reforms which Mr. Mann had inaugurated. One obnoxious relic of the ancient ways remained—the district system. In 1840 Governor Morton had called the school districts of the State, "Little Democracies." They were in fact little nurseries of selfishness and intrigue. In the selection of teachers, in the erection and repairs of school houses, and even in the business of furnishing the firewood, there were little intrigues and arrangements by which interested parties secured the appointment of a son or daughter to the place of teacher, or a contract for wood or work. The election of the committee not infrequently turned upon the interest of some influential citizens.

The great evil was the inefficiency of the teachers. Even in cases where the committeeman was left free to act, he was usually incapable of forming a safe opinion as to the quality of teachers. To be sure the examination and approval of candidates were left to the superintending committee, but most frequently the examination was deferred to a time only one or two days prior to the day when the school was to be commenced and the committee would too often yield to the temptation to keep the candidate even though the qualifications were unsatisfactory. The contest with the district system fell upon me, and during my administration the system was abolished. The end was not accomplished without vigorous opposition.

The citizens of the town of Mansfield took the field and under a memorial to the Legislature they appeared before the Committee on Education. The hearings were public in the hall of the House of Representatives. They made personal attacks upon me—among other things alleging that my traveling expenses were greater than the law allowed. This charge was met successfully by an opinion that had been given by Attorney-General Clifford. I changed the defence to an attack upon the promoters of the movement, and they retreated after a contest of several days; one of the party admitting that they were wrong in their views and wrong in their actions. For the most part, they were well intentioned persons, but not informed, or rather they were misinformed upon the subject of education. They were unimportant in numbers, but for a time they strewed the State with handbills, placards and newspaper articles. They illustrated one half of the fable of the frog and the ox.

In my five years of service I made more than three hundred addresses upon educational topics. In that service I visited most of the cities and towns, met the citizens individually and in masses, visited the factories and shops, and thus I became well acquainted with the habits of the people, their industries and modes of life. In each year I held twelve teachers' institutes and each institute continued five days in session. A portion of each day was given to criticisms, during which time the teachers of the institute and the lecturers were freely criticised by cards sent to the chair without the names of the critics. Hence there was the greatest freedom, and no one on the platform was allowed to escape. It is an unusual thing to find a speaker, even of the highest culture, who can speak an hour without violating the rules of pronunciation, or showing himself negligent in some important particular. The teachers of the teachers gained daily by these critical exercises.

Among the lecturers and teachers were some men of admitted eminence. Agassiz was with me about two years as lecturer in Natural History. His skill in drawing upon the blackboard while he went on with his oral explanation was a constant marvel. He was not a miser in matter of knowledge more than in money. Of his vast stores of knowledge he gave freely to all. Any member of a class could get from him all that he knew upon any topic in his department. When he was ignorant he never hesitated to say: "I don't know." He was very chary of conjectures in science. Indeed, I cannot recall an instance of that sort. He chose to investigate and to wait. In all his ways he was artless. He was a well built man with a massive head and an intelligent face. His presence inspired confidence.

Associated with him by nativity and ties of friendship, was Professor Guyot. Professor Guyot taught physical geography, and previous to 1855 he had wrought a change in public opinion in regard to the method of introducing the science to children. All the then recent text-books omitted physical geography, or reserved it for a brief chapter at the close of the work. Guyot changed the course of study. His motto was this: "We must first consider this earth as one grand individual." On this foundation he built his system. Morse, the father of the inventor of the system of telegraphic communication, was the author of a geography published in the eighteenth century, and he commenced with physical geography. His successors, Cummings, Worcester, and others abandoned that scientific arrangement and introduced the learners to political and descriptive geography. Moreover, their teaching of physical geography was devoted to definitions to be learned by rote. Many of the text-books in use in the schools were framed upon similar erroneous ideas. The first sentence in Murray's Grammar was a definition of the science, and was in fact, the conclusion deduced from a full knowledge of the subject.

George B. Emerson, who was one of our teachers, gave a great impetus to the art of teaching grammar. He discarded books, and beginning with an object, as a bell or an orange, he would give a child at the age of twelve years a very good knowledge of the science in six lessons of an hour each. Dr. Lowell Mason was a teacher in the institutes during my entire period of service, although he offered to retire on account of age. He was an excellent teacher, and in the art practically, perhaps, the best of all. Professor William Russell was the teacher of elocution. His recitations were good, as were his criticisms on language, but as a teacher, he had not a high rank. After the retirement of Professor Agassiz, I employed Sanborn Tenney, a young man of great industry and enthusiasm. He had in him the promise of a great career in natural science, but he died prematurely in the State of Michigan while upon a lecturing tour. From first to last I had the benefit of a good corps of teachers with a single exception. In drawing I inherited from Dr. Sears a young man of English parentage. His statements were so extraordinary often, that I lost confidence in him. One day he wandered from his subject and indulged himself in denunciations of the English aristocracy. He closed with this remark: "Although I belong to the haristocracy, I 'ate 'em!" At the end of the autumn term, I dismissed him.

During my service as Secretary, I made the acquaintance of several persons whom I should not otherwise have known. Among them were President Hopkins of Williams College, President Hitchcock of Amherst College, and President Felton of Harvard College. Hopkins might properly be termed a wise man. He resembled President Walker who for several years presided over Harvard. Felton was a genial man, of sufficient learning for his office, and exceedingly popular with the students and with the public. It was during his administration that I was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, through his influence, and the influence of the professors at the College.

I resigned the office of Secretary, January 1, 1861, with the purpose of resuming the practice of law. During my term of office, I prepared five annual reports, the last of which, the twenty-fourth in the Series, was devoted to an analysis of the school laws with a history of the educational and reformatory institutions of the State. I also published a volume of educational papers, which had a considerable sale, especially in the State of Ohio, where a copy was ordered for each school library.

XXIII PHI BETA KAPPA ADDRESS AT CAMBRIDGE

About ten days before the 18th of June, 1861, Judge Hoar called at my office and invited me to deliver the Phi Beta Kappa oration at Cambridge on the 18th of the month. Although I had but little time for preparation, I accepted the invitation upon the understanding, or rather upon his request, that I was to deal with the questions then agitating the country. Among my hearers was the venerable Josiah Quincy, formerly President of the College. My address was so radical that the timid condemned it, and even Republican papers deprecated the violence of my language—they then living in the delusion that concessions, mild words and attitudes of humility could save the Union. Mr. Quincy was not of those. He gave to my address unqualified support, and I had no doubt that the majority of my audience sympathized with my views. There were, however, copperheads, and peace-men at any price, and gradually there appeared a more troublesome class of men who professed to be for the prosecution of the war, but criticized and condemned all the means employed. They were the hypocrites in politics—a class of men who affect virtue, and who tolerate and protect vice in government.

My address was called "The Conspiracy—Its Purpose and Power," and as far as I know, it was the first time that emancipation was demanded publicly, as a means of ending the war and saving the nation. The demand was made in a qualified form, but I renewed it in the December following in an address that I delivered before the Emancipation League. This address gave rise to similar or even to severer criticisms from the same classes. They were never a majority in Massachusetts, but they had sufficient power to impair the strength of the state, and in 1862 under the style of the People's Party, they endangered the election of Governor Andrew.

These criticisms made no impression upon me, for my confidence was unbounded that emancipation was inevitable and I was willing to wait for an improved public opinion.

I quote a portion of my remarks at Cambridge, which gave rise to criticism in some quarters, and provoked hostility among those whose sympathies were with the South:

"The settlers at Jamestown and Plymouth did not merely found towns or counties or colonies, or States even; they also founded a great nation, and upon the idea of its unity.

"Their colonial charters extended from sea to sea. Their origin, their language, their laws, their civilization, their ideas, and now their history, constitute us one nation. In the geological structure of this continent, Nature seems to have prepared it for the occupation of a single people. I cannot doubt, then, that continental unity is the great, the supreme law of our public life.

"A division such as is sought and demanded by those who carry on this war would do violence to our traditions, to our history, to those ideas that our people South and North have entertained for more than two centuries, and to the laws of Nature herself. An agreement such as is desired by the discontented would only intensify our alienations, embitter the strife, and protract the war upon subordinate and insignificant issues. Separation does not settle one difficulty at present existing in the country; while it furnishes occasion, and necessity even, for other controversies and wars, as long as the line of division remains.

"Nor can we doubt, that when, by division, you abandon the Union, acknowledge the Constitution to be a failure, the contest would be carried on regardless of State sovereignty, and finally end in the subjugation of all to one idea, and one system in government. Whatever may stand or fall, whatever may survive or perish, the region between the Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains, between the great lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, is destined to be and to continue under one form of government. . . ."

I advanced a step further in December, as will be seen from the extracts from my speech on Emancipation:

"I say, then, it is a necessity that this war be closed speedily. By blockade it cannot be; by battle it may be; but we risk the result upon the uncertainty whether the great general of this continent is with them or with us. I come, then, to emancipation. Not first,—although I shall not hesitate to say, before I close, that as a matter of justice to the slave, there should be emancipation,—but not first do I ask my countrymen to proclaim emancipation to the slaves in justice to them, but as a matter of necessity to ourselves; for, unless it be by accident, we are not to come out of this contest as one nation, except by emancipation. And first, emancipation in South Carolina. Not confiscation of the property of rebels; that is inadequate longer to meet the emergency. It might have done in March or April or May, or possibly in July; but, in December, or January of the coming year, confiscation of the property of the rebels is inadequate to meet the exigency in which the country is placed. You must, if you do anything, proclaim at the head of the armies of the republic, on the soil of South Carolina, FREEDOM,—and then enforce the proclamation as far and fast as you have an opportunity; and you will have opportunity more speedily then than you will if you attempt to invade South Carolina without emancipating her slaves. Unsettle the foundations of society in South Carolina; do you hear the rumbling? Not we, not we, are responsible for what happens in South Carolina between the slaves and their masters. Our business is to save the Union; to re-establish the authority of the Union over the rebels in South Carolina; and, if between the masters and their slaves collisions arise, the responsibility is upon those masters who, forgetting their allegiance to the Government, lent themselves to this foul conspiracy, and thus have been involved in ruin. As a warning, let South Carolina be the first of the States of the Republic in which emancipation to the enslaved is proclaimed."

I left home for Washington on the Monday following the Sunday when the first battle of Bull Run was fought. When near New Haven, the conductor brought me a copy of a press despatch which gave an account of the engagement and indicated or stated that the rebels had been successful. On the seat behind me were two men who expressed their gratification to each other, when they read the despatch over my shoulder. When I had a fair view of them, I formed the opinion that they were Southern men returning South to take part in the conflict. It is difficult to comprehend the control which the States' Rights doctrine had over the Southern mind. In my conversations with General Scott the influence which the course pursued by Virginia exercised over him was apparent. Those conversations left upon me the impression that he had debated with himself as to the course he ought to pursue. Attachment to Virginia was the sole excuse which Lee offered in his letter to his sister which contained a declaration that there was no just cause for secession.

In July, 1861, Washington was comparatively defenceless. Mr. Lincoln was calm, but I met others who were quite hopeless of the result.

My speech upon Emancipation in December, 1861, led to a request from the publishers of the Continental Magazine for an article upon the subject. It appeared in February, 1862, and in that article I set forth the necessity of immediate emancipation as a war measure, and by virtue of the war power, under the title, "Our Danger, and Its Cause." Rapid changes were then taking place in public opinion, and in Massachusetts the tide was strong in favor of vigorous action. It was arrested temporarily in the summer of 1862, by the untoward events of the war, and the "People's Party" became formidable for a brief season.

One of the peculiar circumstance of the contest was the acceptance by General Devens of the post of candidate for Governor by the People's Party. General Devens was then in the army, and with considerable experience he had shown the qualities of a good soldier. But he was not a Republican. In other days he had been a Webster Whig, and as marshal of the district of Massachusetts he had charge officially of the return of the negro Sims to slavery.

This act had brought down upon him criticisms, quite like maledictions, from the Anti-Slavery Party. By these criticisms he had been embittered, and although he was hearty in support of the war, he had not then reached a point in his experience when he could realize that the only efficient way of supporting the war was to support the Republican Party.

At a later period he identified himself with the Republican Party, and as a Republican he filled with honor a place upon the bench of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and upon the election of President Hayes, he was made Attorney-General of the United States. That office he filled with tact, urbanity, and reasonable ability. He belonged to a class of orators of which Massachusetts has furnished a considerable number—Mr. Everett was the chief. His disciples or followers included Hillard, Burlingame, Bullock, Devens, Long, and some others of lesser note. The style of these men was attractive, sometimes ornate, but lacking in the force which leaves an indelible impression upon the hearer.

XXIV THE PEACE CONVENTION OF 1861

In the month of January, 1861, the State of Virginia invited the States to send delegates to a congress or convention to be held in the city of Washington. The call implied that the Union was a confederation of States as distinguished from an independent and supreme and sovereign government, set up and maintained by the people of the whole country, except as the States were made the servants of the nation for certain specified purposes. There was hesitation on the part of Massachusetts, and some of the States of the North declined to respond to the call. After delay, Governor Andrew appointed John Z. Goodrich, Charles Allen, George S. Boutwell, T. P. Chandler, F. B. Crowninshield, J. M. Forbes, and Richard P. Waters as commissioners to the convention.

The meeting was held on the 6th of February in Willard's Hall, in the city of Washington. The door upon the street was closed, and the delegates were admitted from Willard's Hotel through a side door, cut for the purpose. The entrance was guarded by a messenger, and only members were admitted. There were no reporters, but Mr. Chittenden, of Vermont, made notes from which he prepared a volume that was published, but not until several years after the congress had ceased to exist. A few of the members furnished him with reports of their speeches, but not always in the language used at the time of delivery. My memory of what was said by Mr. Chase and Mr. Frelinghuysen did not correspond with the Chittenden Report. As the Convention had been in session several days when the Massachusetts delegation appeared, we were assigned to seats that were remote from the chair.

The convention was composed of three classes of men. Secessionists, led by John Tyler, the president of the convention, Seddon of Virginia, and Davis and Ruffin of North Carolina; border State men from Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Kentucky, who had faith in differing degrees that the Union might be saved, and war averted; and radical men who had no faith that anything could be done by which the Union could be saved, except through war. Soon after my arrival in Washington, I called on a Sunday upon Mr. Seddon. We had a free conversation. He said:

"It is of no use for us to attempt to deceive each other. You have one form of civilization, and we have another. You think yours is the best for you, and we think that ours is the best for us. But our culture is exhausting, and we must have new lands. One part of your people say that Congress shall exclude slavery from the territories, and another set of men say that it will be excluded by natural laws. Under either theory, somebody must go, and if we can't go with our slaves, we must go without them and our country will be given up to the negroes."

With the system of slavery, and in the absence of knowledge of the value of manufactured fertilizers, this was not an unreasonable view. Looking forward a hundred years and assuming the continued existence of slavery, there was no conclusive solution of the problem presented by Mr. Seddon. But he did not seem to consider that he was warring against nature as well as against the Union in his attempt to extend the area of slavery. His efforts, had they been successful, could only have postponed the crisis for a period not definite, but surely not of long duration. When the Confederacy was formed, Mr. Seddon became Secretary of War, and when the war was over, I recognized his friendship by securing the removal of his disabilities under the Fourteenth Amendment. Of the Secessionists, Mr. Seddon was the leading man upon the floor of the convention. It was manifest that he did not wish to secure the return of the seceded States. On one point he was anxious, and he did not attempt to disguise his purpose. He sought to secure from the convention, or if not from the convention, from the delegates from the Republican States, an assurance that in no event should there be war. One of the errors, indeed, the greatest error, was the failure of the Northern delegates to assert that in no event should the Union be dissolved except through the success of the South in arms. As far as I remember, this was not asserted by any one except myself.

Many expressed their fear of war and urged the convention to agree to some plan of settlement as the only means of averting war. Mr. Stockton, of New Jersey, went so far as to assert that in case of war the North would raise a regiment to aid the South as often as one was raised to assail it. Mr. Chase's remarks on the floor of the convention indicated a disposition to allow the South to go without resistance on our part, and in a conversation that I had with him as we walked one evening on Pennsylvania Avenue, toward Georgetown, he said:

"The thing to be done is to let the South go."

The interest of the convention centred upon the Committee of Thirteen, of which Mr. Guthrie was chairman. While the Committee of Thirteen was considering what should be done, Mr. John Z. Goodrich said that he had called upon Mr. Seward, and that Mr. Seward expressed a wish to see me. I had not the personal acquaintance of Mr. Seward, and Mr. Goodrich offered to take me to Mr. Seward's house. We called in the evening. His conversation and bearing were different from the conversation and bearing of most of the public men of the time. He spoke as though the subject of conversation was the chance of a client and the means of bringing him safely out of his perils. He spoke of the speech he had made in the Senate and said:

"My speech occupies the mind of the South for the present: then the proceedings of the Peace Congress will attract attention, and by and by we shall have the President's inaugural which will probably have a good influence."

He did not assume the probability of war. Before we left he asked me whether I had seen a certain number of the Richmond Enquirer. I said that I had not. He sent for it, and gave it to me with the request that I should return it after reading the leading editorial. The editorial was upon Mr. Seward, and it was written upon the theory that he was engaged in a scheme for delaying definite action in Virginia and the other States of the South, until the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, when he would use both whip and spur. From the conversation and the editorial I inferred that he intended to have me understand that such was his purpose. It is possible he may have thought that war could be averted by dilatory proceedings.

When the report of the Committee of Thirteen was made, the border State men had high hopes that the country, both North and South, would accept its recommendations. In truth, there was no ground for believing that the Secessionists or the anti-slavery Republicans, would accept the propositions. The recommendations were more offensive to the North than the original constitution, with all the compromise legislation, considered together.

I think that there were five speeches made in support of the resolutions before a speech was made in opposition, and it fell to me to make that speech. One morning there was a conference between the Massachusetts delegation, which was composed of radical men only, and the radical members of the New York delegation, at which it was agreed that a speech should be made in opposition, and that Massachusetts should lead. The duty was put upon me, accompanied with the suggestion that I should speak that day. I had not made any preparation, but during the time that I had occupied a seat in the convention, my conviction had been strengthened that it was impossible to adopt a plan that would be acceptable to the contending parties, and consequently that any scheme of compromise that could be framed would result in a renewal of the controversy, under circumstances less favorable to the North. At that moment the government was in the hands of men who were incapable of decisive action. While we could not count upon active measures against secession on the part of Mr. Buchanan, on the other hand, the country had ample assurance that he would do nothing in aid of the unlawful proceeding. That he had declared in his message of December, 1860. Beyond that, we had a right to assume that Mr. Lincoln would maintain the Union by force. Hence, I resolved to say that no scheme would be accepted by us which did not contain an abandonment of the doctrine of secession, an acknowledgment of the legality of Mr. Lincoln's election, and a declaration that it was the duty of the whole body of citizens to render obedience to the Government. I very well knew that these terms would be rejected with scorn, as I well knew that any other terms would be rejected. Conspirators are never disposed to make terms with the party or person against whom their conspiracy is aimed, until the conspiracy has failed. Hence it was that those who humbled themselves in the dust were treated with contumely, even more offensive than the invectives which the conspirators showered upon the heads of those who neither proffered nor accepted terms of compromise.

Mr. Chittenden's report is accurate in respect to the views that I presented, but it is incomplete, as I spoke about an hour. When I began to speak, I advanced slowly up the aisle until I could look into the faces of the Virginia delegation, who occupied the settee next to the president's desk. Mr. William C. Rives was one of the Virginia delegation, a Union man, who sympathized with the border State men, and hoped by some concession to avert war. When I said that if the South persisted in secession, "the South would march its armies to the Great Lakes, or we should march ours to the Gulf of Mexico," the tears came into his eyes. My remark that the North abhorred the institution of slavery, wounded the Southern men sorely. They were not indignant, but grieved rather. At any rate, such was their aspect, and for many days the remark was repeated or referred to with the hope, apparently, of inducing me to retract or qualify it. I allowed it to stand as a truth which they might well accept.

When the day came for the final vote upon the first resolution relating to slavery as reported by the Committee of Thirteen, a meeting of the New York delegation was called in consequence of the engagement of David Dudley Field to argue a case in the Supreme Court. Mr. Field was one of the six Republican members, and associated with them were five Democrats and Conservatives.

As each State had one vote, his absence would set New York out of the contest unless the Democrats would agree that Mr. Field's vote should be counted in his absence. This proposition the Democrats refused to accept, and they gave notice that the vote of New York would be lost unless Mr. Field remained and voted. Mr. Field left, and the vote of the State was lost. There were twenty-one States represented, including Kansas, which was in a territorial condition when the convention assembled, and the Territorial Governor had sent a Conservative, Mr. Thomas Ewing, Jr. His father was a member from Ohio. When the State government of Kansas was organized, the Governor delegated a Republican. Both were allowed seats, although manifestly, Mr. Ewing should have retired.

When the vote was declared, it appeared that eight States had voted in the affirmative, and eleven States in the negative. The border State men were sorely disappointed, and some of them wept like children. The result they must have anticipated, but they had been wrought to a high condition of nervous excitement, due in part to the circumstance that they were unable to discuss the business of the convention in public. The disagreeable silence which followed the announcement of the vote, was broken by Mr. Francis Granger, who counseled calmness and deliberation, and finally, he appealed to the States of the majority to move a reconsideration. This was done by the State of Illinois, through Mr. Turner, who made the motion. The next day the resolution was adopted by a vote of nine to eight. Upon this question the Missouri delegation refused to vote, under the lead, it was said, of General Doniphan, who denounced the resolutions as not satisfactory to either side. Doniphan was a large, muscular man, who acquired some fame in the Mexican war as the leader of a cavalry expedition to California, of which nothing was heard for about six months.

The reconsideration was attributed to the interference of Mr. Lincoln or of his recognized friends.

When the convention was about to adjourn, President Tyler made a speech in which he thrice invoked the blessing of Heaven upon the doings of the convention, and from that act he went to Richmond, and in less than three days he was an avowed and recognized leader in secession. Indeed, it was understood in the convention that Mr. Seddon was his representative on the floor. The doings of the Congress were endorsed by Maryland, but in the National Congress, and in the States North and South they were neglected utterly. The result which Mr. Seward anticipated was not realized by the country.

After the arrival of Mr. Lincoln the Massachusetts delegation called upon him to recommend the selection of Mr. Chase for the Treasury Department in preference to General Cameron, and to say that the capitalists of the East would have more confidence in the former than in the latter. Mr. Lincoln did not say what his purposes were, but he made this remark:

"From what I hear, I think Mr. Chase is about one hundred and fifty to any other man's hundred."

On the Saturday next but one, preceding the 4th of March, we called upon Mr. Buchanan at about eleven o'clock in the morning. He said that he should prefer to see us in the evening. In the evening we found him alone. He at once commenced conversation, which he continued with but slight interruptions on our part. His chief thought seemed to be to avert bloodshed during his administration. Next, he thought he had been wronged by both sections. Said he:

"When I rebuked the North for their personal-liberty bills, the South applauded; but when I condemned the secession movement, then they turned against me."

He referred to the Charleston Mercury as having been very unjust, and then putting his feet together, and with his head on one shoulder, he said:

"I am like a man on a narrow isthmus, without a friend on either side."

Within a few days of this interview, we called upon General Cass, who was then living in a house that is now annexed to the Arlington Hotel. He had retired from the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan, and he had regained something of his standing in the North, but he had been so long the advocate of compromises and the servant of the slave power, that he was unable to place himself in line with the movement that was destined to destroy slavery. The slave power had more vitality than slavery itself; and after a third of a century its poison still disturbs the politics of the country. The call was made in the forenoon. General Cass sat at a small, plain table, engaged in writing. He was in a large room, from which the furniture, including the carpets, had been removed. He said that he had been kept in Washington by the illness of his daughter, and that upon her improvement he should leave for Michigan. He was dressed in a much worn suit of black—his shirt had seen more than one day's service—he had not been shaved recently, and his russet-colored wig was on awry. The room had an aspect of desolation, and General Cass appeared like a man to whom life had nothing of interest. As soon as the ceremony of introduction was over, he commenced walking and talking, while the tears ran down his wan and worn cheeks. He gave us an account of his early life, of his residence in Virginia, and then he said:

"I crossed the Ohio with only a dollar in my pocket. I went to Michigan. I was four times Governor of the Territory, and on more than one occasion I was confirmed by the Senate without a single dissenting vote. I have been a Senator, and Minister to France; and I am going home to Michigan to die. If I wanted the office of constable, there isn't a town in the State that would elect me."

He reminded me of Cardinal Wolsey, rather than of the Senator, Minister to France, and Secretary of the Department of State that he had been. He spoke of his course in politics, the substance of which was that he had always opposed secession and nullification, although he had maintained the right of the States to hold slaves if they chose to tolerate the institution.

General Cass was the last of the statesmen of the middle period of our history whom it was my fortune to meet. As a whole, and as individuals their fortunes were unenviable. They struggled against the order of things. They accomplished nothing, unless it may be said of them, that they kept the ship afloat. Their memories deserve commiseration, possibly gratitude. No effort of theirs could have secured the abolition of slavery. Any vigorous movement in that direction would have ended in the destruction of the government. From John Adams to Lincoln, only three important measures remain: The acquisition of Louisiana, the acquisition of California, and the Independent Treasury Bill. The war of 1812 was unwise, and in conduct it was weak. The policy of that middle period in regard to paper money, to internal improvements, in regard to the protection of domestic industry, and in regard to slavery has been set aside or overthrown by the better judgment of recent years. Yet so much are statesmen and parties the servants or victims of events, that our opinions should be tolerant of the men who kept the system in motion. Slavery was an inheritance, and time was required for its destruction.

I returned to Massachusetts without waiting for the inauguration.

As I spoke in the convention upon the request of the Republican members of the New York delegation, and as the Representative of the Massachusetts delegation; and as my remarks were not criticized adversely by either party, I reproduce the speech as it was reported by Mr. Chittenden:

SPEECH IN PEACE CONVENTION

I have not been at all clear in my own mind as to when, and to what extent, Massachusetts should raise her voice in this convention. She has heard the voice of Virginia, expressed through her resolutions, in this crisis of our country's history. Massachusetts hesitated, not because she was unwilling to respond to the call of Virginia, but because she thought her honor touched by the manner of that call and the circumstances attending it. She had taken part in the election of the 6th of November. She knew the result. It accorded well with her wishes. She knew that the government whose political head for the next four years was then chosen was based upon a Constitution which she supposed still had an existence. She saw that State after State had left that government,—seceded is the word used,—had gone out from this great confederacy, and that they were defying the Constitution and the Union.

Charge after charge has been vaguely made against the North. It is attempted here to put the North on trial. I have listened with grave attention to the gentleman from Virginia to-day; but I have heard no specification of these charges. Massachusetts hesitated, I say: she has her own opinion of the Government and the Union. I know Massachusetts; I have been into every one of her more than three hundred towns; I have seen and conversed with her men and her women; and I know there is not a man within her borders who would not to-day gladly lay down his life for the preservation of the Union.

Massachusetts has made war upon slavery wherever she had the right to do it; but, much as she abhors the institution, she would sacrifice everything rather than assail it where she has not the right to assail it.

Can it be denied, gentlemen, that we have elected a President in a legal and constitutional way? It cannot be denied; and yet you tell us, in tones that cannot be misunderstood, that, as a precedent condition of his inauguration, we must give you these guarantees.

Massachusetts hesitated, not because her blood was not stirred, but because she insisted that the government and the inauguration should go in the manner that would have been observed had Mr. Lincoln been defeated. She felt that she was touched in a tender point when invited here under such circumstances.

It is true, and I confess it frankly, that there are a few men at the North who have not yielded that support to the grand idea upon which this confederated Union stands that they should have yielded; who have been disposed to infringe upon, to attack certain rights which the entire North, with these exceptions, accords to you. But are you of the South free from the like imputations? The John Brown invasion was never justified at the North. If, in the excitement of the time, there were those to be found who did not denounce it as gentlemen think they should, it was because they knew it was a matter wholly outside the Constitution,—that it was a crime to which Virginia would give adequate punishment.

Gentlemen, I believe—yes, I know—that the people of the North are as true to the government and the Union of the States now as our fathers were when they stood shoulder to shoulder upon the field, fighting for the principles upon which that Union rests. If I thought the time had come when it would be fit or proper to consider amendments to the Constitution at all, I believe that we should have no trouble with you, except upon this question of slavery in the Territories. You cannot demand of us at the North anything that we will not grant, unless it involves a sacrifice of our principles. These we shall not sacrifice; these you must not ask us to abandon. I believe, further,—and I speak in all frankness, for I wish to delude no one,—if the Constitution and the Union cannot be preserved and effectually maintained without these new guarantees for slavery, then the Union is not worth preserving.

The people of the North have always submitted to the decisions of the properly constituted powers. This obedience has been unpleasant enough when they thought those powers were exercised for sectional purposes; but it has always been implicitly yielded. I am ready, even now, to go home and say that, by the decision of the Supreme Court, slavery exists in all the Territories of the United States. We submit to the decision, and accept its consequences. But, in view of all the circumstances attending that decision, was it quite fair, was it quite generous, for the gentleman from Maryland to say that under it, by the adoption of these propositions, the South was giving up everything, the North giving up nothing? Does he suppose the South is yielding the point in relation to any territory which, by any probability, would become slave territory? Something more than the decision of the Supreme Court is necessary to establish slavery anywhere. The decision may give the right to establish it: other influences must control the question of its actual establishment.

I am opposed, further, to any restrictions on the acquisition of territory. They are unnecessary. The time may come when they would be troublesome. We may want the Canadas. The time may come when the Canadas may wish to unite with us. Shall we tie up our hands so that we cannot receive them, or make it forever your interest to oppose their annexation? Such a restriction would be, by the common consent of the people, disregarded.

There are seven States out of the Union already. They have organized what they claim is an independent government. They are not to be coerced back, you say. Are the prospects very favorable that they will return of their own accord? But they will annex territory. They are already looking to Mexico. If left to themselves, they would annex her and all her neighbors, and we should lose our highway to the Pacific coast. They would acquire it, and to us it would be lost forever.

The North will consider well before she consents to this, before she even permits it. Ever since 1820, we have pursued, in this respect, a uniform policy. The North will hesitate long, before, by accepting the condition you propose, she deprives the nation of the valuable privilege, the unquestionable right, of acquiring new territory in an honorable way.

I have tried to look upon these propositions of the majority of the committee as true measures of pacification. I have listened patiently to all that has been said in their favor. But I am still unconvinced, or, rather, I am convinced that they will do nothing for the Union. They will prove totally inadequate; may perhaps be positively mischievous. The North, the free States, will not adopt them,—will not consent to these new endorsements of an institution which they do not like, which the believe to the injurious to the interests of the republic; and if they did adopt them, as they could only do by a sacrifice of principles which you should not expect, the South would not be satisfied: the slave States would not fail to find pretexts for a course of action upon which I think they have already determined. I see in these propositions anything but true measures of pacification.

But the North will never consent to the separation of the States. If the South persist in the course on which she has entered, we shall march our armies to the Gulf of Mexico, or you will march yours to the Great Lakes. There can be no peaceful separation. There is one way by which war may be avoided, and the Union preserved. It is a plain and a constitutional way. If the slave States will abandon the design which we must infer from the remarks of the gentleman from Virginia they have already formed, will faithfully abide by their constitutional obligations, and remain in the union until their rights are in fact invaded, all will be well. But, if they take the responsibility of involving the country in a civil war, of breaking up the government which our fathers founded and our people love, but one course remains to those who are true to that government. They must and will defend it at every sacrifice—if necessary, to the sacrifice of their lives.

At the close of the session, and upon the request of my associates upon the commission, I wrote a report to Governor Andrew, which was signed by all the members of the delegation. Governor Andrew submitted the report, with his approval, to the Legislature the 25th day of March.

The character of the convention, and something of the condition of the country may be gathered from the following extracts from the report:

"The resolutions of the State of Virginia were passed on the 19th of January; and it was expected that within sixteen days thereafter the representatives of this vast country would assemble for the purpose of devising, maturing, and recommending alterations in the Constitution of the Republic. As a necessary consequence, the people were not consulted in any of the States. In several, the commissioners were appointed by the executive of each without even an opportunity to confer with the Legislature; in others, the consent of the representative body was secured, but in no instance were the people themselves consulted. The measures proposed were comparatively new; the important ones were innovations upon the established principles of the Government, and none of them had ever been submitted to public scrutiny. They related to the institution of slavery; and the experience of the country justifies the assertion that any proposition for additional securities to slavery under the flag of the nation, must be fully discussed and well understood before its adoption, or it will yield a fearful harvest of woe in dissentions and controversies among the people. Nor could the undersigned have justified the act to themselves, if they had concurred in asking Congress to propose amendments to the Constitution unless they were prepared also to advocate the adoption of the amendments by the people.

"It is due to truth to say that the Convention did not possess all the desirable characteristics of a deliberative assembly. It was in some degree disqualified for the performance of the important task assigned to it, by the circumstances of its constitution, to which reference has been already made. Moreover, there were members who claimed that certain concessions must be granted that the progress of the secession movement might be arrested; and on the other hand there were men who either doubted or denied the wisdom of such concessions.

"The circumstances were extraordinary. Within the preceding ninety days the integrity of the Union had been assailed by the attempt of six States to overthrow its authority; seven other States were disaffected, and some of them had assumed a menacing and even hostile attitude. The political disturbances had been associated with or followed by financial distress.

"The Convention was then a body of men without a recognized and ascertained constituency, called together in an exigency and without preparation, and invited to initiate measures for the amendment of the Constitution in most important particulars, and all at a moment when the public mind was swayed by fears and alarms such as have never before been experienced by the American people.

"In these circumstances the undersigned thought it inexpedient to propose amendments to the Constitution, believing that so important an act should not be initiated and accomplished without the greatest deliberation and care. Nor could the undersigned satisfy themselves that any or all of the proposed amendments would even tend, in any considerable degree, to the preservation of the Union. Although inquiries were repeatedly made, no assurance was given that any proposition of amendment would secure the return of the seceded States; and it was admitted that several of the border States would ultimately unite with the Gulf States, either within or without the limits of the Union, as might be dictated by events yet in the future. Indeed, no proposition was in any degree acceptable to the majority of delegates from the border slave States that did not provide for the extension of slavery to the Territories, and its protection and security therein."

XXV THE OPENING OF THE WAR

When the call was made for seventy-five thousand men, the Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts was one of the first to respond. On the night of the 16th of April some, if not all, of the regiment, were quartered in Boston. I called upon Company B, of Groton, then in the hall over the Williams Market. I found that they understood that the movement meant war and duty. One of the men said to me:

"Some of us will never see Massachusetts again."

After the affair in Baltimore on the 19th of April, Governor Andrew asked me to go to Washington with despatches for Mr. Lincoln and General Scott. The message was communicated to me through Mr. John M. Forbes. In his letter of request and appointment Governor Andrew said:

"We need your information, influence and acquaintance with the Cabinet, and knowledge of Eastern public sentiment, to leave immediately for Washington. Hope you will proceed at once and open and preserve communication between you and myself." This letter was dated April 22. Under the same date the Governor wrote to President Lincoln:

"Ex-Governor Boutwell has been appointed Agent of the commonwealth to proceed to Washington to confer with you in regard to the forts in Massachusetts and the militia." I was instructed also to see General Wool in New York. I received a package of letters, the contents of which were disclosed to me, one hundred dollars in gold, and a small revolver loaded.* I took with me a young man named Augustus Bixby, who then lived in Groton, but who had seen something of the world, and was not daunted by the uncertainties of life. He was afterwards a cavalry officer. During the war I one day read in the papers that Bixby had been promoted for gallantry in an affair in the Shenandoah Valley. Within a few days after I met him in Washington on a crutch, or walking with the help of a cane. He had been wounded in the contest. I said:

"Bixby, what did you do?" He replied:

"I don't know, except I sailed in."

At New York I telegraphed Vice-President Hamlin, then in Maine, that he should come as far South as New York, that he might be in a situation to act in case of the death or capture of Mr. Lincoln, of whom we then knew nothing. At New York, April 24, I telegraphed Governor Andrew:

"General Wool and Vice-President Hamlin are in favor of your taking the responsibility of sending two regiments to take charge of the forts, and to furnish and arm three vessels for the protection of the coast. You can exercise the power, under the circumstance, better than anybody else." The same day I sent this dispatch: "Send without delay a steamer with provisions for General Butler's command at Annapolis."

At Perryville, at the mouth of the Susquehanna, I sent Bixby with the despatches by the first boat to Annapolis, with instructions to make his way to Washington at the earliest moment. I followed in the next boat. Upon my arrival at General Butler's headquarters, I learned that Bixby had left on foot. As the troops were at work in re-laying the track, there was no danger. Indeed, the small squads of men who had burned bridges and torn up tracks disappeared with the arrival of troops. At nine o'clock in the evening, a train, the first train, carrying the New York Sixty-ninth Regiment, left for Annapolis Junction, at which place we arrived at one o'clock in the morning. The only light upon the train was the headlight, and we moved only the length of the train at each inspection of the road. I made a pillow of my small valise, and a bed of my blanket, and camped on the floor of one of the small houses at Annapolis Junction. In the morning I found Colonel Butterfield of the New York Twelfth and Colonel Scott, a nephew of General Scott, who assumed the direction of affairs. He afterwards joined the rebels. I observed also that our encampment was commanded by hills on the north and east, and Colonel Butterfield informed me that the picket line was a long way inside the base of the hills. At about six o'clock in the evening, a train with troops and three civilians was made ready for Washington. The American flag was displayed at many of the houses on the line of the road.

I arrived in Washington the 27th day of April. I annex a copy of a letter that I wrote to Governor Andrew the day following:

WASHINGTON, April 28, 1861. To His Excellency Governor Andrew.

Sir:—I arrived in Washington to-day, after a journey of forty-eight hours from Philadelphia by Annapolis. There have been no mails from the North for a week; and you may easily understand that the mighty public sentiment of the Free States is not yet fully appreciated here.

The President and Cabinet are gaining confidence; and the measures of the Administration will no longer be limited to the defence of the capital. Secretary Welles has already sent orders to Captain Hudson to purchase six steamers, with instructions to consult you in regard to the matter. I regret that the Secretary was not ready to put the matter into the hands of commissioners, who would have acted efficiently and promptly.

Mr. Welles will accept, as a part of the quota, such vessels as may have been purchased by Mr. Forbes.

Senator Grimes of Iowa will probably give Mr. Crowninshield an order for arms. The United States Government may do the same; but no definite action has yet been taken.