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ABRAHA3/[ LUSrCOLN. Residenl of liie Um*p(i Sinths
ENGRAVED EXi'RESSLY FOR'EajEIOTISM OF IlLINOIs" CLAEKE & CO.FDBUSHEHS.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN S HOME, SPRINCFIELD, ILLINOIS.
.^i^'i^A/^
THE
PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
A RECORD OF THE
CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY
OF THE STATE IN TUB
WAR FOR THE UNION,
HISTORY OF THE CAMPAIGNS IN WHICH ILLINOIS SOLDIERS HAVE BEEN CONSPICUOUS,
SKETCHES OF DISTINGUISHED OFFICERS, THE ROLL OF THB
ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD, MOVEMENTS OF THE SANITARY
AND CHRISTIAN COMMISSIONS.
BY T. M. EDDY, D. D.,
Editor N. W. Christian Advocate.
ILLUSTRATED WITH STEEL ENGRAVINGS OF EMINENT MEN.
IN TWO VOLS.- VOL. i.
CHIC AaO:
CLARKE & CO., rUCLISHERS,
1865.
Entered according to Act of Conajess, in the year 1865,
Bt CLAKKE & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States loi the Northern District of Illinois.
Btereotypen by John Co»aha?»
^.rt'V
TO ILLINOIS SOLDIERS,
FROM THE LIEUTENANT GENERAL
TO THE
SMALLEST DRUMMER-BOY:
TO THE
GALLANT LIVING AND HEROIC DEAD
WHO HAVE MADE THE STATE ILLUSTRIOUS
ON EVERY BATTLE-FIELD,
THESE VOLUMES ARE GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.
PUBLISHERS NOTICE.
XT gives us pleasure to present to the public, and especially to the -*- citizens of Illinois, the first volume of the military history of the State. The work has been prepared, we think, with marked ability and impartiality, and the Publishers have spared no pains or expense to make it attractive and permanent. As it is a record of the part our noble State has borne in the great struggle to maintain our glorious government and to hand down our institutions untar- nished and unimpaired, therefore eveiy family will be interested to possess a copy of the work. Much care has been taken to combine incidents and statistics, sketches of persons and battles, thus em- bodying the essential and important ficts of our great history, so that the work shall be instructive to all classes of readers.
The second volume will follow in as close proximity as possible. It will be issued in the same style, so that Avhen completed it will make an interesting standard work for both private and public libraries ; containing, as far as possible, a complete record of our brave men who have fallen in their country's cause.
PREFATORY NOTES.
PATRIOTISM is the love of country. It lias ever been recog- nized among the cardinal virtues of true men, and he who was destitute of it has been considered an ingrate. Even among the icy desolations of the far north we expect to find, and do find, an ardent afiection for the land of nativity, the home of childhood, youth and age. There is much in our country to create and foster this senti- ment. It is a country of imperial dimensions, reaching from sea to sea, and almost "from the rivei'S to the ends of the earth." None of the empires of old could compare with it in this regard. It is washed by two gi'eat oceans, while its lakes are vast inland seas. Its rivers are silver lines of beauty and commerce. Its grand moun- tain chains are the links of God's forging and welding, binding to- gether north and south, east and west.
It is a land of glorious memories. It was peopled by the picked men of Europe, who came hither "not for wrath but conscience' sake." Said the younger Winthrop to his father, " I shall call that my country where I may most glorify God and enjoy the presence of my dearest friends." And so came godly men and devoted women, flpng from oppressive statutes, where they might find " Freedom to worship God."
There are spots on the sun, and the microscope reveals flaws in bur- nished steel, and so there were spots and flaws in the early records of the founders of this land, but with them all, our colonial history is one that stirs the blood and quickens the pulse of him who reads.
6 PREFATORY NOTES.
And then the glorious record of tliat Revohitionary struggle gives each American a solid historic platform on which he may plant his foot. It was an era of high moral heroism, and for principle, against theoretical usurpation, rather than practical (though of the latter tliere wanted not enough to give to our fathers' lips a full and bitter cup), the men of the Revolution drew their swords, and en- tered the field against the most powerful nation of the world, and fought on and on, through murky gloom, until triumph came. It was also an Qra of Providential agencies and deliverances, and each right feeling American, realizes that not more truly did God raise up Moses and Aaron and lead Israel with the pillar of cloud and fire, than He raised up our leaders and led our fathers. And reverent is our adoration, when we remember how he guided the deliberations of our Constitutional Convention and poured the peaceful spirit, in answer to ascending prayer, down upon that august convocation
There are later memories, when again measuring strength with Britain, our gallant tars showed on the Sea and on the Lakes that the empire of the deep was not henceforth conceded to the so-called " Mistress of the Seas." It was a new sensation experienced by the old nations, when the youngest of them all dared lift the glove of the power which "ruled the waves," and defy her on the field of her greatest prowess. Yet so it was, and the achievements of De- catur, McDonough, Paul Jones and Porter gave luster to our navy to be brightened by Foote, Farragut, Porter, Dahlgren and Worden in our own times. For it is no idle boast to say that to-day the United States floats the most powerful navy of the world. These and other memories invest our land with sacredness, and commend it to the reverent love of its sons, native or adopted.
Its institutions of civil and religious freedom, guaranteeing the rights of citizenship, education and worship, extending the blessings of beneficent law silently and extensively as the atmosphere about us, demand our love. True, one dark blot, one iron limitation, (me cruel exception was in our organization, one tolerated by our fathers in the faith that it would soon die, endured as a necessary but tran- sient evil, but which from toleration, soon claimed protection, from protection, equality, and from equality, supremacy; one deplored by the good, and destined to bring its terrible harvest upon us, remind-
PREFATORY NOTES. 7
ing the world that, as truly of nations as of individuals, is it written that whatsoever is sown shall be reaped, and " with what measure ye mete, shall it be measured to you again." But wuh this, there was much that was great and elevating in our institutions, so that with more than ancient Konian pride could the traveler in far-off lands exclaim, "I am an American citizen."
It is a land of innumerable resources. Extending through so many parallels of latitude, and isothermal lines, its soil yields almost an infinite variety of productions. It gives the fruits and grains of ail zones. Within its bosom lie hid all minerals, the iron, the cop- per, vast fields of coal, the gold, the silver, the platina, the quick- silver, while the very "rock poxirs out rivers of oil." Its forests are rich in exhaustless stores of timber, while its prairies are the granaries of the world.
It is the land of the free school, the free press, and the free pul- pit. It is impossible to compute the power of this trio. The free schools, open to rich and poor, bind together the people in educa- tional bonds and in the common memories of the recitation-room and the play-ground, and how strong they are, you, reader, weU know, as some past recollection tugs at your heart-strings. The free press may not always be altogether as dignified or elevated as the more highly cultivated may desii-e, but it is ever open to the com- plaints of the people; is ever watchful of popular rights and jealous of class encroachments, and the highest in authority know that it is above President or Senate. The free pulpit, sustained not by legally exacted tithes wrung from an unwilling people, but by the fi-ee-will offerings of loving supporters, gathers about it the millions, incul- cates the highest morality, points to brighter Avorlds, and when occa- sion demands, will not be silent before political wrongs. Its power, simply as an educating agency can scarcely be estimated. In this country its freedom gives a competition so vigorous that it must remain in direct popular sympathy. How strong it is, the country saw when its voice was lifted in the old cry, *' Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." Its words started the slumbering, roused the careless, and called the "sacramental host," as well as the "men of the world to arms." These three gi-and agencies are not rival but supplementary, each doing an essential work in public culture.
8 PREFATORY NOTES.
Ours, above all others, is the land of homes. Local attachment is essential to patriotism. Give a man a bit of ground and let him build a house, though it be scarce larger than Queen Mab's, and he becomes a permanent part of the country. He has something to live for, vote for, fight for. Here there is no system of vast land- ownerships, with kttings and sub-lettings, but, on the contrary, the abundance and cheapness of land, and the prevalence of wise homestead exemptions, give a large proportion of the population proprietary interests. To all this, add the freedom of elective fran- chise, which invests the humblest citizen with the functions of sov- ereignty, and opens to his competition the highest places of trust and profit, and is there not reason for loving such a country ? Is there not reason why its liome-born sons should swear upon its holy altars that this trust received from their fathers, shall be transmitted, pure and whole, to their cliildren ? Is there not reason why each adopted son sliould see that the land which gives him sanctuary, refuge and citizenship shall not be rent in twain? Especially that it shall not be divided in the interest of class-distinctions, of distinction between labor and capital, based upon a difference of birth and ancestry?
Above all : When we assume the higher doctrine that civil gov- ernment is divinely appointed, " that the powers that be, are ordained of God," and the maintenance of lawfully established government becomes a duty, God, the King of Nations, summons us to prevent its overthrow ; and He declares that the hour when it is imperiled, the magistrate shall not bear the sword in vain, but shall be " the min- ister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil," and that they who rise up against lawful authority and " resist the power, resist tlie ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation."* Patriotism then comes to the baptism of Christian duty, and for the hour when just government and right- eous authority are periled, the duty is one of sternness, and the sword of the magistrate is its symbol.
The civilization of the West is in some respects peculiar. Its groAvth has been so rapid as to be almost incredible. Into it have come the active young of Eastern and Middle States, young men portionless or desiring a wider field than their narrow patrimony
* Romans xiii. 1—4.
PKEFATOKY NOTES. 9
aflforded. They are not the men to settle in quiet dignity. We know not who originated the use of " push " as a noun, but it ex- presses the characteristic of these "younger sons" — younger but not "prodigal" — who come to our "Western States. "Push" — they will stop for no obstacle and brook no difficulty. Before that "push" forests disappear, prairies are decked with cultivated beauty, railways are projected of length sufficient to open the eyes of gi'ave eastern directors, which yet, somehow, secure eastern capital for their con- struction. These are not men to be held in leading strings, and kept in subjection to effete systems.
The traveler from the Eastern States, will find in each "Western frontier village the evidences of highest culture. In the cabin of unhewn logs or "ended" slabs he will find music and painting. With this, there is, of course, the endless variety of foreign popula- tion. German, Irish, Scandina%nan are its chief elements, though in the Northwest there is a large infusion of the genuine English. This population must be fused, and that work has been going on under the combined influence of the educating trio of powers above indi- cated, with the additive influence of business and politics.
To these is now being added the uniting influence of the War for THE Uxiox. Together are we all being " baptized in the cloud and in the sea," and we shall emerge more than ever one people.
Illinois has full share of all Western peculiarities. Its size and elements of material wealth have long since caused it to be con- ceded that it was destined to rank with the foremost of the States of the Union, When, therefore, the tocsin of war was sounded, it was proper, it was natural, that the nation should turn its eyes upon this, with other large States, and ask, "What will Illinois do?" The answer is given in the offering of more than a quarter of a million of soldiers and imtold millions of money to the countiy.
It is proper that each State should, in some form, make its own record during the war. No general history can do the individnal States justice ; nay, no complete, comprehensive history can be writ- ten imtil, at the end of the war, the States have made iip their annals. For these the Irvings, Bancrofts and Prescotts of the IJnion must wait. In each State should be written the deeds of its sons ; the achievements of its regiments, the deeds of its officers and citizen
10 PEEFATORY NOTES.
soldiery. If delayed, much will be lost ; if issued at once, there cannot be perfect synimetiy and complete finish. Between tliese alternatives, it seems better to seize the present and accept the artistic sacrifice.
When the proposition was made to the author to undertake the preparation of the present Avork he promptly declined. He had enough work upon his hands to tax all his strength and consume all his time. But the proposition was renewed and so pressed upon him by numerous and influential gentlemen whose judgment he highly respects, that it became a question of duty. The entire business management has been with the publishers, the author declining any participation in its details.
As to material, of course all published works are procured, re- gardless of expense, and the uninitiated would wonder at the amount of war literature from massive octavos down to pamphlets, already produced.
His Excellency, Governor Yates, placed at the author's disposal a valuable collection of State papers and other documents, and for his uniform courtesy the author renders this public acknowledgment. Adjutant-General Fuller coui-teously tendered access to the docu- mentary stores of his office. Mnjor-General McClernand placed in his possession his full memoranda of the movements of his command. Maj or- General Hurlbut kindly furnished important information.
Learning that Rev. F. Senour, of Rockford, Illinois, had contem- plated a similar work and had already collected considerable 'mate- rial, a correspondence was opened, followed by a personal interview, resulting in the transfer to the writer of Mr. Senour's MSS., princi- pally biographical and regimental sketches. These have been of much service, and their use is thus acknowledged.
In a very few instances pamphlet sketches of single regiments have been published and made available. The " History of the Old Second Division," by Wm. Sumner Dodge, and the " annals of the Army of the Cumberland," hy John Fitch, have afforded valuable assistance. Col. James Grant Wilson's " Sketches of Illinois Officers," have aided in personal biography. But the principal reliance for regi- mental and personal sketches has been upon the Adjutant-General's reports, official reports of commanders, and MSS. furnished the author.
PREFATORY NOTES. 11
In giving regimental sketches there is a diiFerence in the space given. This may need explanation. There is a Avide diiference in the service rendered by regiments equally meritorious. One has been from " muster" almost constantly with the same brigade and division, while another has been on detached service, or thrown from division to division, from one department to another.
The same principle will explain the difference in personal notices. One officer has performed service so varied in kind and field that any just notice requires much detail — another has served as well, as bravely, but his career has been with one corps or division.
There has been a difference also in accessible materials which no industry could prevent. The history of very few regiments is yet completed, and among the most difficult to reach, the author has found the regiments out of service. It will be remembered that the work is yet incomplete, and that for regiments with scanty mention there is ample record in store.
Much regimental history is found in the record of campaigns, battles and sieges. Indeed it is such as is the most satisfactory. You find a regiment, as for instance the 13th at Chickasaw Bayou, or the 19th at Stone River, and what special record does it need to tell its gallantry ?
Illinois troops have seldom been brigaded together, at least this was so early in the war. This adds to the labor of the historian and prevents that unity which is desirable. From the manner in which the regiments were distribiUed it has not been practicable to treat them in numerical order.
Furthermore, in the preparation of regimental sketches, the author has followed veiy closely the authorities before him, editing rather than preparing them. Hence they sometimes seem bald and rugged, but there was only space for the rugged statement of facts.
Care has been taken to secure accuracy, and corrections have been made at much expense, subsequently to stereotyping — in some in- stances chapters canceled and rewritten on receiving later or more satisfactory authorities ; and yet, in such a work, it is too much to hope that entu-e accuracy, especially in names and dates, has been secured. Proper names -are the terror of printers and proof-readers and the vexation of authors. " What's in a name ?" Much, and no
12 PREFATORY NOTES.
man wishes to see his deeds assigned to some respectable person of whom he has no knowledge.
The lists of killed and wounded are not given. In the case of regiments and batteries yet in the field, the present publication would, alas! be premature. In the regiments mustered out, the casualty reports of the Adjutant's office are not brought down to date of expiration of service, and to have secured them from the officers would have demanded a delay disappointing and vexatious to patrons. It has therefore been thought best — necessary indeed — to defer such publication until the second volume shall appear. Eflbrts were made to prevent this, but they would have been suc- cessful only by further delay.
The reader will be struck with the diflTerence of space assigned the campaigns of the West and those of the East, but the reason is clear. These volumes do not profess to be a complete history of the war, but of the work of Illinois in the war. It has so happened that most of the Illinois troops have been in the West, and until the recent battles of Franklin and Nashville and the capture of Savannah and Charleston, Ave have had but few of them on the Potomac, Shenandoah, the James, or the coast of the Carolinas. How could the record of our men be written without the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, the Hatchie, the siege of Vicksburg, Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain ? They were there ! It was absolutely necessary, either to sketch the campaigns at once, or to go over them again and again with the several regi- ments. We have, for instance, given much space to Donelson and Shiloh. How could that be avoided when so many from Illinois fought those battles; when Grant, and McClernand, and Hurlburt were the master spirits, and Wallace poured out his life ?
Here is made a personal acknowledgment. In the midst of pressing cares and overwork, the health of the author threatened to give way so seriously, as to peril the completion of the first volume months beyond the promised time. In this emei-gency he was so fortunate as to secure the assistance of Mr. George Upton, now one of the Chicago Tribune staff, a gentleman who, as rcpoiter was with the Western army in its early campaigns, and is familiar with military movements. Mr. Upton's assistance has been of great
PKEFATOKT NOTES. 13
value, ligliteuing the author's labors at a time when they were pros trating him.
By a Providential coincidence, a former Illinois lawyer is Com- mander-in-chief of om- Ai-my and Navy, and the former Colonel of the 21st Illinois Infantry is, as Lieutenant Geneial, in immediate command of our armies. The former has passed through four years of an eventful administration, and having been proven by the peo- ple, has been re-connuissioned. The nation has recognized in him a divinely chosen leadei-, and believes, that with all his liability to mistake, the President has been divinely directed. It was a sublime moment when that tall form was seen on the platform of the car as the traui was about to carry him from his quiet home in Springfield to the cares and perils which awaited him, and the President elect, with choked utterance, asked his old friends to pray for him ! So they did. It seemed proper to follow our Illinois citizen with some particularity, until he became actually the Nation's Chief Magistrate.
Oar scarcely less distinguished fellow-citizen, the Lieutenant- General, merits ampler notice than has yet been given him. But the time for it is not yet. When time shall have fully tested his plans and his generalship will be the hour of his record.
This volume has brought down the history of the State in the war to the close of 1864, and the close of the administration of Gov- ernor Yates. It was providential that a man with his spirit and ac- tivity was in the chair executive. He was as fully committed to free- dom as against slavery, nor did he ever falter in his position. He stood as an iron pillar, when locally in a minority, and waited for the day when truth should triumph. As Governor he was the soldier's friend. On the field he went with them under fire, used every pos- sible exertion to forward them sanitary supplies, to bring the wounded into hospitals and to their homes. The soldier's wife or widow could secure audience when officers were turned away. It Avas no wonder that when his official term as govei*nor expired that BO strong a popular demand was made for his election to another position of emuience. His messages and proclamations, so far as they bear on the war, are fuUy given, for they indicate the State history.
His successor is a gallant officer of the Union, wounded on more
14 ' PKEFATOKY NOTES.
than one field, an ardent patriot and able administrator. His official doings are not before the reader as yet, but there have been enough to foreshadow a wise and patriotic administration. In Richard J. Oglosby, Illinois has a trustworthy leader.
At the termination of four years of war, is Illinois exhausted and desponding ? Can it afibrd to go on ? It has given answer as to what it meant to do in the popular elections of the autumn of 1864 ! The purpose of the people is unalterable to restore the authority of the general government and to maintain the federal Union. As to " exhaustion," a few facts presented in Governor Yates's last mes- sage should be conclusive answer.
" Notwithstanding the war, we have prospered beyond all former precedents. Notwithstanding nearly two hundred thousand of the most athletic and vigorous of our population have been withdrawn from the field of production, the area of land now under cultivation is greater than at any former period, and the census of 1865 will ex- hibit an astounding increase in every department of material indus- try and advancement ; in a great increase of agricultural, manufac- turing and mechanical wealth, in new and improved modes for pro- duction of every kind; in the substitution of machinery for the manual labor withdrawn by the war ; in the universal activity of business in all its branches ; in the rapid growth of our cities and villages ; in the bountiful harvests, and in unexampled material pros- perity, prevailing on every hand ; while at the same time the educa- tional institutions have in no way declined. Our colleges and schools of every class and grade are in the most flourishing condi- tion ; our benevolent institutions, State and private, are maintained ; and, in a word, our prosperity is as complete and ample as though no tread of armies or beat of drum had been heard in our borders."
Surely these are not the ordinary indices of exhaustion ! As to resources for the future struggle the resources of the State will meet each legitimate call. Illustrative of this are some additional para- graphs from the same document:
" The physical resources of a State are the foundation of all others. They make it great or little. They shape its destiny. They even afi*ect its moral and religious character. History teaches this truth. All the great nations of ancient and modern times demonstrate it.
PEEFATORT NOTES. 15
Egypt, Syria, Greece, Rome ; Great Britain, France, the United States, are so many proofs that favorable physical situations and resources are absolutely necessary to material and moral develop- ment. Illinois, in this respect, stands pre-eminent among the States of the Union. She is the heart of the Noi-thwest. In agricultural resources she is unsurpassed. In manufacturing and commercial facilities she has no superior. On the east, south and west, the great river of the continent and its tributaries water her border counties, while their branches penetrate to every part of the State, irrigating her soil, draining her low lands, and affording water power for her manufactures. The Illinois River runs for over two hundred miles through the State, from northeast to southwest, forming a natural highway between the Lakes and the Mississippi, the key of which is entirely in our possession. This highway is one of the most impor- tant of the physical resources of the State ; while, in a military point of view, it enables us to dominate the Lakes on the one hand, and the Father of Waters on the other. A State, holding this great water- way, must always be a power on the continent, as well as in the Union. Then, we have, on the northeast, an outlet to the ocean through the great Lakes, those inland seas of the continent ; while that one of them, Michigan, which laves our northeastern border, is almost land-locked, and thus the least liable to hostile incursions from foreign powers. This secures to us the site for a naval depot, for dock-yards, for the building and repair of vessels, for foundries for cannon, for workshops for all descriptions of war material, at some point on Lake Michigan, between the Wisconsin and Indiana State lines. Our State is also on the direct route of the Pacific Rail- road, which must intersect it from east to west ; thus making it a portion of the great highway between Europe and the Indies. Then, again, all our lines of communication, from the interior of the State to shipping points connected with tide-water, at which bulky articles of merchandise or agricultural products can be received or delivered, are short. This saves the cost of lengthy transportation of such articles by railway, which must always be expensive. At present, in some of the States to the west and northwest of us, large quanti- ties of grain have been stored on the navigable rivers for the last two seasons. On account of low Avater it cannot be sent to market
16
PREFATOET NOTES.
by steamboat, while the cost of railway transportation would eat up its value. This can never be the case in Illinois, as long as water runs in the Mississippi, and that of the great Lakes flows unob- structed to the sea. But not alone do we possess agricultural re- sources of an almost unlimited character : we have also within the limits of our State, facilities for manufiictures, which equal those of nearly all the other States of the Union combined. Beneath the surface of our blooming prairies and beautiful woodlands are millions of tons of coal, easy of access, close to the great centers of commerce and manufactures, on great navigable rivers, and intersected by rail- way facilities of the best description.
" Illinois, in 1860, was the fourth State in the Union in the number of tons of coal produced. Bvit what has been produced bears no comparison to what may be. Our State geologist assures me that in a single county in this State there are a thousand millions tons of coal awaiting the various uses to which the civilization of the future will apply it. It will thus be seen that Illinois possesses within itself the physical resources of not only a gi-eat State but a great nation."
Guiding all these is the intelligent purpose of the peojile, and Illi- nois will continue to demand the vigorous prosecution of the war, until the authority of the Government of the United States is acknowledged over every State and Territory of the Republic.
It were ungrateful for rendered service, and untrue to facts were, not mention made of the devoted patriotism of the women of the State. They have not their record in the organization and marching of regiments, but theirs was nevertheless real and a noble work. They inspired the love of country by their own spii'it. They would hear nothing of cowardice, or Avorldly prudence. They threw the halo of love of country over all social life. They gave their best loved to the altar of the State. They organized sewing circles, aid societies, etc., in every neighborhood; they organized and managed fairs ; they opened and sustained Homes or Rests for the weary and wounded soldier. This record is a meager one, and does scanty justice to the devoted women of Illinois. Many a soldier has said "God bless them."
The people of this State have seen, in common with their fellow-
PREFATORY NOTES. 17
citizens elsewhere, that God is in this contest. They have heard His speech and were afraid ; they have seen His hand and have trusted. They have believed that He was leading the nation through the Red Sea and the desert to the Canaan of liberty. They have steadily believed that ere their Abraham should return to dwell in his Springfield home ; the Isaac of Freedom should be born ! So they still believe, and they are sanguine that the day Cometh !
In these notes the author must mention two facts with peculiar satisfaction, which did not come within the scope of the text of the first volume, facts which are to the honor of the State.
The first is the repeal, by the Legislatm*e, of the odious black laws. They were passed when j^rejudice against the colored race was at its hight. The African was a pariah, an outlaw, and only by ostra- cizing him could there be safety for the State. The cry of " Amal- gamation " was raised, forgetting that it is slavery that mingles the races ; slavery that makes each plantation as many colored in its population as Joseph's famed coat of ancient days ; slavery that bleaches African slavery out by bleaching Anglo-Saxon slavery in !
And so a code xmchristian and inhuman crept into the statute- books. It made Illinois virtually a slave state. Fortunately its most odious features were decided by the Supreme Court to be at variance with tlie constitution of the State. The remnant had come to be a dead letter, and so little attention was directed to it that it might have gone unrepealed but that certain " sons of Belial " in whom was little of the love of God or country saw fit to prose- cute Union officers, who, on temporary return from the field, brought with them each his servant, " confiscated " by the sword, made free perhaps for service rendered the army. No matter — bringing him into the State was illegal, and prosecution followed. It was mean and dastardly as the selling of Joseph into Egypt, but like that event was overruled for good. A demand swept from Cairo to Waukegan from Quincy to Paris, from Old Kaskaskia to Galena that the code should be repealed. Governor Yates urged the popular demand with fiery vehemence ; Governor Oglesby threw his influence in its favor, and the 1st day of February 1865, the General Assembly voted the repeal. The Governor promptly appended his signature, 2
18
PREFATORY NOTES.
and the black laws of Illinois were consigned to the tomb of dead monstrosities !
The other was tlie prompt approval of the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States, rendering human slavery forever impossible in all the States and Territories of the Union. After a protracted debate on it in Congress it received the constitu- tional majority, and of course the signature of the President.
The telegraph flashed the news over the country, and immediately Gov. Oglesby sent a special message to the Legislature, recom- mending its concurrence. In spite of parliamentary strategy, a joint resolution was put upon its passage, and within twenty-four hours of the Congressional vote, Illinois had given, first of all the States, her approval ! The capitol at Springfield rang with cheer after cheer when the result was announced, and throughout the State there was most intense rejoicing. Bonfires blazed, cannon roared and people shouted. Illinois had placed herself in the van of the States in demanding freedom for man as man. It is an honor the Prairie State may justly place upon her crest and proudly wear. These two events merit record in the volumes which chron- icle the Patriotism of Illinois.
It is amazing to contemplate the imperial contributions the State has made in this war. With the completion of the call now pend- ing, more than one quarter of a million of men will have gone from her homes. They were not her pauper population sent away that she might find for them cheap burial and cheaper graves, but the sons of the hearths and homes of the State of broad prairies. They went Avith the blessing of Avives, mothers, sisters and betrothed upon them.
The Sanitary Commission at Chicago credits the citizens of Chicago with contributions amounting to $40,331.13, and the citizens of the State outside of Chicago with $55,541.68, and nine thousand five hundred and thirty-nine packages of various kinds, while im- mense amounts of stores have gone forward from other centers.
The Christian Commission has received and expended $145,844; a single farmer, Jacob Strawn, giving his check, and one that would be honored anywhere, for ten thousand dollars, the citizens of Mor- gan county sending with it an equal amount ! And this to provide
rEEFATORY NOTES. 19
religious instruction to the men in the army ! The people saw an army of soicls, not of fighting machines ! In addition the Illinois donations to the Freedmen's Aid Commission amount to 181,865,81.
In what follows it is not claimed that other states have not done nobly, for they have. In the patriotic sisterhood Illinois claims to be second to none. She is Avorthy to clasp them by the hand, for she has not disgraced them. She has not faltered when they called, nor deserted in the hour of extreme peril. With Peninsular Michi- gan, glorious Indiana, gallant Wisconsin, Iowa, whose rolling prai- ries resemble some vast ocean suddenly solidified, and with Missouri lately made free by her own act ; with these her immediate neighbors she is well worthy to clasp hands, to exchange greetings, and when the day of victory shall come, to mingle congratulations.
Illinois is justly proud of the eminent leaders she has given to the country. There is Grant, of cool persistence and undying purpose ; McClernand, whose early record was so brilliant; Prentiss, who suffered from wasting captivity; Pope, whose military genius shone brilliantly in the campaign of Island No. 10 and Corinth; Hurlbut, whose fighting 4th division stood as a wall on the bloody plain of Pittsburg Landing and whose admirable generalshij) won the battle of the Hatchie ; Logan, whose shout has many a time steadied the Avaving column ; Palmer, whose reputation rests upon a solid basis, with many others of lower rank, but not lower bravery.
The official action of churches deserves permanent record in these volumes, and wiU receive it, but in the present is omitted.
It has not been possible to speak of surgeons and chaplains as their services demand. The surgeon has no promotion ahead ; noth- ing to cheer or stimulate, but the stern sense of duty. The chaplain has no promotion, and during the earlier part of the war had no rank, and was made the foot-ball of contrary and sometimes oppres- sive decisions. But with these drawbacks, statements yet to be made Avill show that the service owes much to these officers. The surgeons have saved life, the chaplains have pointed to the higher life.
With the exception of two who rose from the ranks to the chap- laincy, special mention has been avoided from a purpose to collect and generalize certain facts and suggestions in the second volume.
20 PREFATOEY NOTES.
The burdens of a chaplain's life, early in the service were Tery onerous, and with the shifting orders in reference to his rank and pay, no wonder he was sometimes driven to resignation. The vex- ations culminated in giving such a construction to the law, that if a chaplain was absent from active duty, though it might be from wounds or sickness contracted in actual service, all allowances of pay and rations were stopped ! In one instance a chaplain refused to leave the hospital when he was serving the wounded, and worked on until prostrated. His conduct merited honorable mention in offi- cial reports, and promotion if such a thing had been possible. What it brought him was deduction of fifty days' pay ! No wonder so many were driven out of the army. The law has been amended, but is yet vague and too indefinite, and is susceptible of improvement.
Richmond, the rebel capital, has surrendered, and the Libby prison has opened its gloomy portals ; the tramp of Weitzel's armed freedmen has been heard in its streets, and Mr. Lincoln lived to give audience in the departments of Davia. The iron chamber has been compressing its walls ; General Lee has surrendered his grand army, and this volume goes to its patrons with the glad prophecy of early peace. The country is saved, and before it are long days of peace and quietness.
" God bless our native land."
The author seiids out this volume, craving for it such modification of severe criticism as the circumstances suggest. Our regiments are a-field — forty-six are with Sherman as he marches through the sea-board States of the Confederacy, and in many instances com- munication with them is impossible. Matter designed for this vol- ume is iinavoidably delayed until the second.
There has been honesty of intention, close and faithful application, and free expenditure of means in gathering information. Error has been guarded against,but 'twere too much to hoj^e that it is entirely excluded.
* * * * The author craves indulgence to state that the delay of sending this volume to press, gives opportunity to say that Charleston, which fired the first gun of the rebellion has yielded to Federal authority and without any desperate resistance, and the L^. S. colored troops, South Carolina freedmen, were first to parade its streets, singing as they marched, the Gloi-y Halleluiah of the John Brown song !
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTOEY.
PAcn,
The StaW — Extent and Boundaries — Decades — Productions — Civil War — Free and Slave Labor — Demands of Slavery — Lincoln and Douglas — Senatorial Con- test— 1860 — Presidential Contest — Threats of Disunion — No Justification for Revolution — A. H. Stephens's Speech — Mr. Lincoln's Views — Powerless for Evil — Mr. Buchanan — Cabinet — Scenes in Congress — South Carolina Se- cedes— "Coercion" — Lincoln's Policy Foreshadowed — Major Anderson — Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter — Commissioners — General Scott and Reinforce- ments— A Truce — ^Illinois Congressional Delegation — Summary of Important Facts — ^Termination of the Buchanan Administration 33
CHAPTER II.
THE ILLINOIS PRESIDENT.
Abraham Lincoln — Early History — Removals — Taste of "War — Candidacy — ^A Surveyor — Member of Illinois Legislature — Internal Improvement — Private Life — In Congress — Wilmot Proviso — Nebraska Bill — His Opposition — Mis- souri Compromise — Peoria Speech — Prophetic Words — Right and Wrong — Bill of Exceptions to Slavery — The Fathers — Senatorial Election — Contest of 1858 — The Divided House Speech — The Way of Providence — Leaders for Crises — His Characteristics — National Republican Convention — Wigwam — Seward and Lincoln — Nomination — Leaving Springfield — Invocation of Prayer — His Farewell — The Journey — Speeches — At Indianapolis — Cincin- nati— New York — Trenton — Philadelphia — In Washington — Inauguration — The Inaugural Address — Cabinet — Sumter — Surrender — A Lowered Flag — Only a Moment 63
22 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
TUK GREAT UPRISING.
Pi.sa
Sabbath and Sumter — Pulpits — Excitement — How could it be? — Reasong for Surrender — Watchwords of Loyalty — The Flag — The Churches — The Press — Oratory — The Children — Woman — Voice of Providence — President's Procla- mation— Blockading Proclamation — Springfield — Governor Yates's Proclama- tion— Six Regiments — Senator Douglas's Springfield Speech — Interview with Governor' Yates — Wigwam Speech — Its Influence — His Death — Speech Quoted — Baltimore Riot — A Minister's Expression — Popular demand to take Troops through Baltimore — Object of Mob Defeated — Men and Money Ten- dered— People demand Short, Earnest War — Influence of the "Great Up- rising" on the Secessionists 73
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY WAR MEASURES.
Patriotic Governors — Richard Yates — Parentage and Education — State Legisla- ture— In Congress — Elected Governor — Inaugural — What shall be done ? — Adjutant-General Fuller — First Call for Troops — The Situation — The Militia — Proclamation — Special Message — Aid — General Orders Nos. 1, 2 — Character of the First Call — Why was it so ? — Perhaps — Hopes of Peace — Awaiting Congress — Mr. Cameron on the Situation — Richmond Enquirer — The Navy — After the Event — Egypt and Israel 85
CHAPTER V.
EARLY STATE MOVEMENTS ORGANIZATION.
Ten Days' Work — Ten Thousand — Without Arms — State Messenger in Balti- more— Importance of Cairo — River and Railway Key — Yates's Order to Gen. Swift — Means Business — Cairo Expedition — Equipment — Big Muddy — At Cairo — Artillery Ammunition — A Trio of Border Governors — Imperti- nence— Kentucky Neutrality — Pious Beriah — Governor's Special Message — Grim Romance — Brass Missionaries — Cairo in Kentucky — Col. Prentiss in Command — Contraband Trade — Seizure of Steamers — Cargo — Legislative Action — War Footing — Numbering Regiments — Ten Regiment Bill — Dis- trict Headquarters — President's Second Call — Capt. Stokes — St. Louis Arsenal — Secessionist Difficulties — Tact and Courage — Success — "Straight for Alton." 87
coNTEin'S. 23
CHAPTER VI,
THE STATE AUTHORITIES AND WAE DEPAETMENT.
FAQK
Six Regiments Wanted — Two Hundred Companies Offered — Selection — Regi- mental Headquarters — Cavalry Declined — Secretarial Wet Blanket — Mes- senger to Washington — Four Additional Regiments Accepted — Reclaiming Enlisted Men — The Colonels — "Foraging Stopped" — "Go to your Consul" — Correspondence between Governor Yates and Mr. Cameron — After Bull Run and Wilson's Creek — At Last — Cavalry — Ten Companies — Thirteen Regi- ments— Artillery — Infantry Regiments — Enlisting again Stopped — Illinois and Sister States 106
CHAPTER YII.
THE STATE AND THE ARMY '61 TO '64.
The New Year — The Situation — Sober Views — The "Cause" to Perish — Carpet Knights — Ahead of all Calls — Other Regiments — To Fill Old Regiments — Special Service — "Washington in Danger" — A Time of Gloom — Tender- footed Commanders — The Inevitable Negro — Fremont and Hunter — War in Earnest — New Call — Governor's Proclamation — Letter to the President — The Old Score — No Draft — A Credit Declined— Two Years' "Work — A Shock to State Pride — ^The Legislature of 1863-4 — Its Responsibilities — Governor's Recommendations — Neglect of Grave Business — A Sudden Prorogation — "Profane History" — A Better Record — Governor's Proclamation February 5, 1864 — Adjutant-General's Report of February 1, 1864 116
CHAPTER YIII.
THE PRECEDING CHAPTERS.
Insertion of Documents — Baffled Schemes — Close of First Great Epoch — Ad- ministration on Trial — The Issues — The Decision — The Eighth of November — Twenty-seven Years, or from Lovejoy to Lincoln — Oglesby and Bross — Yates — His Final Message — Quotations — Education — Principles — Churches — Benevo- lent Organizations — Sanitary and Christian Commissions — Freedmen's Aid Societies — Soldier's Homes — The Hand of Providence — Finance — Imple- mental Industry — Negro and Machinery — Northern Planters — The Sewing Machine — Achievements of the Year — Prospects.
24: CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
pkbmont's administbation.
FAQB-
Illinois Troops in the West — Situation of Missouri — St. Louis and Lyon — Attack on Boone ville — Carthage — Arrival of Fremont — "Western Department" — A Critical Time — Southeastern Missouri — Reynold's Pronunciamento — Governor Jackson's Proclamation — Wilson's Creek — Death of Lyon — Prentiss to Fre- mont— Fremont's Statement — Plan of His Campaign — His Celebrated Order — Lexington — Col. Mulligan's force — The Assailants — Estvan's Testimonial — In- dignation— Colfax and Fremont — Retreat of Price — Crossing the Osage — Fre- mont's March — Zagonyi's Charge — Price at Pineville — Removal of Fremont — Himter's Retreat — Its Adverse Consequences — fight at Monroe — Gen. Hurl- but's Order — Gen. Pope's Order — Battle of Charleston — Fremont's Report — Col. Dougherty — The March — Charge — Its Results — Killed and Wounded — Battle of Fredericktown — Col. Plummer and his Command — The Engagement — The Victory 155
CHAPTER X.
U. S. GRANT.
The Lieutenant-General — Birth — At West Point — His Academic Course — Grad- uation— His Class-Mates — Brevet 2d Lieutenant — To Mexican Border — Full Commission as 2d Lieutenant — Palo Alto — Reseca de la Palma — Along the Rio Grande — Monterey — Molino del Rey — Promoted — Brevet Declined — Chepul- tepec — Noticed in Reports — Captain's Brevet — Full Commission as 1st Lieu- tenant— To Oregon — Commissioned Captain — Resignation — St. Louis — Ga- lena— Conversation with Rev. Dr. Vincent — Governor Yates' Account — In Command at Mexico — At Cairo — Seizes Paducah and Smithland — The Battle of Belmont — Loss — Fouke and Wright — Illinois Regiments — Gunboats — Hal- leck — Grant's District — New Campaign — Major-General — Promotion — Ele- ments of Success 1*73
CHAPTER XI.
THE CUMBERLAND AND TENNESSEE.
Reconnoissance — Preparations — Battle of Milford — Mt. Zion — Silver Creek- Columbus — Grant's Brigading Order — Other Forces — Fort Henry — Gunboats — Land Forces — ^Tennessee Mud — Instructions — The Bombardment — The White Flag — The Surrender — Tighlman and Foote — The Commodore in the Pulpit — Escape of the Camp — Rebels — Iron-clads — Muster of Forces for Donelson —
CONTENTS. 25
FACB.
Defenses — Rebel Commanders — Waiting for the Transports — The Gun- boats— They Retire — Grimes on Admiral Foote — Siege — A Sortie — A Terrible Contest — Gen. Smith's Charge — White Flag — Floyd and Pillow — Correspondence — Unconditional Surrender — The Victory — Its Results — Stan; ton's Letter — Grant's Report — The Tides of War — Kentucky — McGoflSn — Bet- ter and Truer Men — The Legislature — Gen. Anderson — Buckner's Attempt to Seize Louisville — Gen. Roseau — Hegira — The Situation — Gen. Anderson Re- tiros — "Crazy Sherman" — A "Bogus Convention" — "Council of Ten" — Broad Face — A "Strong Ass" — Gen. Buell — Divisions — The Second — The Third — Rowlett's Station — Mill Springs — Defeat of Marshall — Mitchell's March on Bowling Green — Crossing Barren River — Occupation — On to Nashville — Its Occupancy — A Rebel Account — Mitchell's and Buell's Forces 190
CHAPTER XII.
COLUMBUS: ISLAND NO. 10: PEA RIDGE.
Federal Strategy — Results — Columbus — Halleck's Dispatch — Gunboats — " That Flag" — Rebel Strength — Gen. Pope — A Cavalry Skirmish — Capture of New Madrid — Morgan's Gallant Brigade — Evacuation — Pope's Dispatch — "Island No. 10" — Naval Bombardment — Buford's Dash on Union City — Col. Roberts' Daring Exploit — Running Batteries — The Surrender — General Presentment — Gen. Pope's Command — Battle of Pea Ridge — Incidents — Major-General Cur- tis— Brigadier-General Eugene A. Carr — General Julius White — Col. Grcu- sel— Col. Post 216
CHAPTER XIII.
PITTSBUEG LANDING — SHILOH.
General Statements — Illinois Interest in the Battle — The New Rebel Line — Union Line — Force at Corinth — Galaxy of Generals — Change of Plan — Savan- nah— Pittsburg Landing — The Fight Begun — Disposition of our Forces — Gen.
Johnston's Address — Rebel Corps — Skirmish of April 2d — Rebel Design
Rebel Order of Battle — Sunday at half-past five — Rebel Mistake — Terrible Charge — Prentiss', Sherman's, McClernand's and Wallace's Divisions — Grant as to a Surprise — Wallace and Hurlbut — Wallace Falls — Disaster — A Lull — Lew. Wallace and Buell — Webster's Guns — Another Conflict — The Enemy Stayed — Sunday Night — Beauregard's Report — Monday Morning — Union Or- der of Battle — The Fight Opens — Nelson's Advance — Terrill's Battery — Ori- ginal Ground Recovered — Battle Ended — Whose the Victory ? — A Mourning State — Relief— The Governor — Sanitary Stores — Grant's Official Report — Prentiss' Report — Letter from Gen. Sherman 240
SJO CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIV.
PERSONAL AND INCIDENT.
PASS
Brigadier-General W. 11. L. Wallace — Major-General Benjamin F. Prentiss — Brigadier-General Brayman — Brigadier-General D. Stewart — Major-General S. A. Hurlbut — Lieut. -Colonel Ellis — Colonel Raitli — Major Goddard — Major Eaton — Major Page — Notices of wounded Officers in Official Reports — The Batteries — The Scout Carson — Our Wounded — Illinois and the Battle of Shiloh 261
CHAPTER XV.
CORINTH CAMPAIGNS.
Reconnoissance of the Corinth Road — The Movement on Purdy — The Battles at Farmington — Evacuation of Corinth and its Occupation by the Union Forces — Changes in the Army — Battle of luka — The Rebel Defeat at Corinth — Battles of the Hatchie 285
CHAPTER XVI.
REGIMENTAL SKETCHES.
The Thirteenth Infantry — First Organized for Three Years — Early Services — Battles — Marches — Officers — Colonel Wyman — Chaplnin Needham — 2d Cav- alry— Scattered — Donelson — Marches and Battles — Officers — Colonel Mudd — The 22d lufantrj' — Charleston — Belmont — Shiloh — New Madrid — Marches — Engagements — Col. Dougherty — Lieut.-Colonel Swanwick — Major Johnson — The Fortieth — Enlistment — At Paducah — At Shiloh — Corinth — Marches — Officers — Forty-eighth Infantry — Organization — Donelson — Major Stephen- Bon — Mission Ridsre — Knoxville — Re-enlisted — Col. Greathouse 295
CHAPTER XVII.
Mitchell's campaigns.
History of General Mitchell's Campaign — The March upon Huntsville — Splendid March of General Turchin's Brigade — Illinois in the Advance — Surprise and Capture of Huntsville — General Turchin's Occupation of Tuscumbia — His Retrograde Movement — Occupation of Athens — Refutation of Malicious Charges — The Battle of Bridgeport — Complete Surprise and Route of the Rebels — Close of the Campaign — Gen. Negley's Expedition — Illinois Again in the Advance — ^The Shelling of Chattanooga — Life and Character of Gen. Turchin 331
CONTENTS. 27
CHAPTER XVIII.
buell's campaign.
PAOB
Gen. Buell's Campaign — Capture of the Union Garrison at Munfordsville — The Battle of Bolivar, Tenn — Splendid Charge of the Second Illinois Cavalry — Death of the Gallant Hero, Lieut.-Col. Hogg — The Last words of a Brave Man— "For God's Sake, Don't Order Me Back"— The Battle of Perryville— How Illinois Was Represented — Magnificent Charge of Colonel Carlin's Brig- ade— The Heroes of Pea Ridge in Their Glory — The Illinois Regiments En- gaged— Closing Scenes of the Campaign — Buell Superseded.
CHAPTER XIX.
STONE KIVER.
Gen. Buell Superseded by Gen. Rosecrans — Reorganization of the Army — The March on Murfreesboro — The Battle of Stone River — Three Days' Fighting — Plan and Details of the Battle — The 89th Illinois Fighting Against Fate — Gallantry of Gen. Kirk's Old Regiment — Wounding of Gen. Kirk — The Rebel Attack on Our Left — Gen. Negley Comes Up — Illinois to the Rescue — "Who Will Save the Left?" "The 19th Illinois, Sir"— Magnificent and Daring Charge of the 19th — Complete Rout of the Rebel Right — Capture of a Bat- tery— The Chicago Board of Trade Battery — Casualties, &c 350
CHAPTER XX.
G E I E R S O n's raid.
Col. Grierson's Raid — Organization of the Expedition and its Character — Col. - Hatch Leaves the Force — Illinois Alone in the Field — On for Baton Rouge — Daring E.xpedition of Capt. Forbes — Three Thousand Rebels Surrender to Thirty-five Union Troopers — ^The Crisis at Pearl River Bridge — Saving the Bridge — A Perilous Moment — Capture of Hazlehurst — How they Crossed the Pearl River — Capture of Brookhaven — Destroying Railroads and Tele- graphs— In the Swamps and in Ambush — Capture of Stuart's Cavalry — En- tering Baton Rouge — Rejoicings and Ovations 364
CHAPTER XXI.
BIO GR APHI GAL.
Life and Character of Gen. Kirk — His Law Studies — Entrance Upon the Mili- tary Stage — On the Military Board of Examiners — Wounded at Shiloh — ^Trib-
28 CONTENTS.
PASB.
utes of Gen. McCook and Buell — In Command at Louisville — Wounded at Stone River — His Death — Character of Gen. Kirk — Col. Von Trebra — Sketch of His Life — Col. Sheridan P. Read — Killed at Stone River — Col. George W. Roberts — His Important Services — Fell with His Face to the Foe — Colonel Joseph R. Scott — The Nationol Cadets^His Military Knowledge — Organiza- tion of the 19th— The Left Was Saved, but Scott Was Lost ^11
CHAPTER XXII.
EE GIMENTAL.
The Thirty-fourth and its OflBcers — ^The Seventy-ninth — The Tenth Cavalry and its Officers— The Seventy-fourth— The Seventy-fifth— The Twenty-sixth— The Sixtieth— Brydges' Battery 386
CHAPTER XXIII.
VI C KSBURG.
The Vicksburg Campaign — Original Plan of Gen. Grant's Movement — His Ad- vance on Holly Springs — ^The Battle Near Cofifeeville — Gallantry of Colonels Dickey and Lee's Cavalry — A Retrograde Movement — Col. Dickey's Expedi- tion— His Escape from VanDorn's Cavalry — Rebel Raids upon Grant's Commu- nications— ^The Disgraceful Surrender of Holly Springs — Repulse of the Reb- els at Davis' Mills — Forrest's Raid on Humboldt and Trenton — The Battle of Parker's Cross Roads — Gallantry of the First Brigade — A Crisis in the Battle Its rescue by the Second Brigade — Gens. I. N. Haynie and Sullivan to the Rescue — ^The Rebels Defeated — Grant Falls back to Holly Springs 425
CHAPTER XXIV.
GEN. SHEKMAn's VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN.
Gen. Sherman's Vicksburg Campaign — The Connection of Gen. McClernand with It — Organization of the Expedition — ^McClernand's Correspondence with the Secretary of War — Letter from the President — Correspondence with Gen. Halleck and Gen. Grant — Gen. McClernand Assigned to a Corps after the Movement of the Expedition — His Voyage Down the River — Assigned to Com- mand the Forces — Letters from Gen. Grant — Gen. Sherman's Failure on the Chickasaw Bayou — Details of the Three Days' Battle — Death of General Wy- man — Return of the Forces — Gen. McClernand Assumes Command 435
CONTENTS. 20
CHAPTER XXV.
AEMT OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
PAoa
Gen. McClernand Assumes Command of the Army of the Mississippi — The Mil- itary Situation — General Order Xo. 1 — Submission of Plan to Gen. Grant — The Movement against Arkansas Post — Nature of the Position — Illinois Reg- iments in the Expedition— Preliminary Reconnoissance — The Attack Upon the Fort — Its Surrender — 'Details of the Battle — Extracts from Gen. McCler- nand's Report — His Order of Congratulation — The Views of the President — Correspondence Between Gov. Yates and Gen. McClernand 444
CHAPTER XXVI.
GEN. grant's descent OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
The New Plan of Operation Against Vicksburg — Canal Digging — The Wil- liams, Lake Providence and Moon Lake Canals — Their Failures — The Steele's Bavou Expedition and its Failure — Gen. McClernand's Movement Down the West Bank of the River — Capture of Richmond — Difficulties of the March — Running the Batteries — The Illinois Volunteers — Failure of the Movement Against Grand Gulf — Running the Batteries Again — The Advance on Port Gibson — Battle of Port Gibson — Gallantry of the Illinois Troops — Gen. Grant's Order — Evacuation of Grand Gulf — Interesting Movements of the Army 452
CHAPTER XXVII.
FROM GRAND GULF TO VICKSBUBG.
A Series of Battles and Victories — The Battle of Raymond — A Splendid Charge — General Crocker's Charge at Jackson — Capture of the City — The Battle of Champion Hills — Desperate Fighting of Logan's Division — Gallantry of Logan's Corps — The March on Big Black River Bridge — Storming the Works — The Rebels Driven Out — The Fmal Investment of Vicksburg — A Review of the Situation — Tribute to Illinois Valor 461
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE INVESTMENT OP VICKSBUEQ.
Incidents of the Siege — ^The Charge on the 22d of May — Gallantry of Ransom's Brigade — A Terrible Fire— Gen. Ransom Leads his men— Failure of the
30 ' CONTENTS.
PAGU.
Charge — Splendid Retreat of the Brigade — Gallantry of the Mercantile Bat- tery— Gen. McClernand Presents Them With Two Napoleon Guns — Death of Dr. Stevenson and Capt. Roarers — Valor of the 20th Illinois — Accuracy of our Artillerists — A Rebel Sortie Repulsed— The Assault on Fort Hill — The Glorious Lead Mine Regiment — Death of Lieut.-Col. Melancthon Smith — Cap- itulation of Vicksburg — Correspondence Between Gens. Grant and Pcmberton —Biography of Lieut.-Col. Wright of the T2d Illinois 468
CHAPTEE XXIX.
BIOGRAPniCAL SKETCHES OF ILLINOIS GENERALS.
Life and Career of Gen. McClernand — His Youth — On the Law and in Business — Elected to the Legislature — Advocacy of Great Public Measures — Elected to Congress — Bills Introduced — Enters the Service — His Career as a General — Resignation — Life of Gen. Logan — Congressional Career — In the Service — Personal Sketch — His Influence and Example — A Noble Letter — Life of Gen. Ransom — Early Days in Chicago — Enters the Service — At Vicksburg and Pleas- ant Hills — His Heroism — Last Illness — Death of a Gallant Soldier — Graphic Description of His Death — Summary of his Character — Gen. McArthur and His Life and Career 4'7A
CHAPTER XXX.
THE CAMPAIGNS OF THE ARMY OF THE CITMBERLAND.
Reorganization of the Army of the Cumberland — Second Attack on Fort Donel- son — Gallant Defense by the 83d Illinois, Col. Harding — The Rebels Driven oif — Col. Colborn's Brigade Captured at Spring Hill — Defeat of John Morgan at Milton — The 123d and 80th Illinois in the fight — Splendid Conduct of the 80th — Granger Attacked by Van Dorn — Defeat of the Rebels at McMinns- ville — Col. Streight's Expedition — The Roll of Honor — Names of Illinois Soldiers Distinguished for Bravery 496
CHAPTER XXXI.
TE S T I M ON I AL S.
The TTtterances of the Patriotism of Illinois During the War — The Emancipa- tion Proclamation, the Key Note of the Campaign — The Great Speech of Honest Farmer Funk — A Stirring Letter from Gen. Logan to His Soldiers — Letter from Col. Frank Sherman — Extracts from Speeches of Hon, Richard Yates, Hon. Lyman Trumbull, Hon. Owen Lovejoy, Gen. Farnsworth, Hon. I.
CONTENTS 31
PAGK.
N. Arnold — President's Lincoln's Inaugural Address, Last Speecli and Procla- mation— The Nortli American Review and Kentucky Letter — Mr. Lincoln Dead 511
CHAPTER XXXII.
ILLINOIS ON THE POTOMAC.
Campa!gns of East and West — Virginia the Battle-ground — Its Natural Divi- sions— Campaigns of Western Virginia — General Scott — Bull Run — General McClellan — Waiting — " On to Richmond " — Yorktown — Battles of the Chick- ahominy — Pope — McClellan— Burnside — Fredericksburg — " No. 8 " — Hooker — Chancellorsville — Lee's Strategy — His Advance on Pennsylvania — New Call — Lee's Ultimate Advance — Meade — Advance of His Army — Gettysburg — Battles — Lost Opportunity — More Waiting — Lee's Army Escapes, and Gen. Meade Escapes the Highest Honor — Gettysburg and Vicksburg — Shenandoah Valley — The Coast — Lieut.-Gen. Grant — Into the Wilderness — Its Battles — Before Petersburg 537
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE POTOMAC — CAMPAIGN AND REGIMENTAL.
Major-General Hunter — Then and Now — The 8th Cavalry — General Farnsworth — General Gamble — Col. Clendening — General Beveridge — Major Medill — The Chaplains — The 12th Cavalry — Col. Voss — Col. Davis — Barker's Dragoons— The 23d Infantry— General Mulligan— The 39th Infantry— Col. Osborn— Lieut- Colonel Mann — Sturgis' Rifles , 548
CHAPTER XXXIV.
BIO GR AP H I C AL . Major-General John Buford — The Cavalry Marshal — Colonel John A. Bross — Colored Troops— In the Cedars— The 29th U. S. C. T.— Obey Orders— The Mine — Lieut. De Wolf — Lieut. Skinner — Young Durham 687
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE ADJUTANT GENERAl's OFFICE. Its Appearance — Its Occupants — Its Contents — Mather — W^-man — Grant — Loomis — Adjutant-General Fuller — Biography — Judge — Adjutant— Governor
Yates' Testimony — Speaker — Resolutions of House — Economy 602
APPENDIX. Tabular statement, showing the population, enrollments of 1863-4, and the totals of all the quotas to 1864, and credits, deficits and excess of each county in the State to July 1, 1864 607
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Pkeside.yt ABRAHAM LINCOLN. HOME OF MR. LINCOLN. Hox. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. Hox. RICHARD YATES. Lieutenant-Geneeai. TJ. S. GRANT. Brigadier- General W. H. L. WALLACE. Major-General JNO. A. McCLERNAND. Major-General JNO. A. LOGAN. Brigadier-General T. E. G. RANSOM. CoLoxEL JAS. A. MULLIGAN.
LiBUTENANT-COLONBL JNO. A. BROSS.
PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
CHAPTEE I.
INTRODUCTORY.
The State — Extent and Boundaries — Decades — Prodpctions — Civil War — Frek AND Slave Labor — Demands of Slavery — Lincoln and Douglas — Senatorial Contest — 1860 — Presidential Contest — Threats of Disunion — No Justification for Revolution — A. H. Stephens' Speech — Mr. Lincoln's Views — Powerless for Evil — Mr. Buchanan — Cabinet — Scenes m Congress — South Carolina Secede3 — " Coercion" — Lincoln's Policy Foreshadowed — Major Anderson — Fort Moul- trie AND Fort Sumter — Commissioners — General Scott and Reinforcements — A Truce — Illinois Congressional Delegation — Summary of Important Facts — Tebuuiation of the Buchanan Administration.
THE STATE OF ILLINOIS stretches from 36° 56' to 42° 30' north latitude, and is between 87° 35' and 91° 40' longitude. Its extent is truly imperial ; its length from north to south beiqg three hundred and eighty-eight, and its extreme breadth from east to west two hundred and twelve mUes. Its head is as far north as Lowell, Massachusetts, and its foot farther south than Rich- mond, Virginia. Its area is 55,405 square miles, or 35,459,200 acres. Its northern boundary is Wisconsin; the north-eastern, Lake Michigan ; eastern, Indiana, from which it ib, in part, separated by the Wabash River ; its southern, Kentucky and the Ohio River, while on its western line is the Mississippi Riv(^r, across which are the States of Missouri and Iowa. It is divided into one hundred and one counties, which are dotted with villages, towns or cities.
Its growth has been very rapid, as the statement of its decennial periods from 1810 to 1860 shows:
tear. whites. free colored, slaves, total.
1810 11,501 613 168 12,282
1820 53,788 457 917 55,162
1830 155,061 1,637 747 157,445
1840 472,254 3,598 331 476,183
1850 846,034 6,436 851,470
I860 1,704,323 7,628 1,711,951
8
34 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
The development of material prosperity lias been proportionate to the increase of population. Broad and beautiful streams open outlets for its products, and supply water-power for its machinery. The Mississippi River, the Illinois River and Canal, and the great Lakes furnish water transportation for its cereals and its beef and pork to southern or eastern tide-water ; long lines of railway traverse it in every direction ; its prairie soil is of almost exhaustless fertility ; vast fields of coal and quarries of stone are hid beneath it ; grains and fruits grow in profusion ; churches, public schools, academies and colleges give morality and intelligence to its people, and down to the spring of 1861, though there had been disastrous financial revulsions, no serious check had been given to its prosperity.
From 1850 to 1860 the ratio of increase was, of whites, 101.45 per cent; free colored, 40.32 per cent. Judge Fuller, the able and patriotic Adjutant General, says in his report for 1861-2 :
"From a population, in 1850, of 851,470, we had increased to 1,711,951 — more than doubling our population in one decade. Our real and personal property, in 1850, valued at $156,265,006, had, in 1860, increased to $871,860,282— being an increase of $715,595,276, or 457.93 per cent. Our improved lands which, in 1850, were but 5,039,545 acres, with an estimated value of $96,138,290, had increased, in 1860, to $13,251,473 acres, with an estimated value of $432,531,072. The two prin- cipal staple products of our soil — wheat and corn — had increased in a similar ratio — the former from 9,414,575 bushels, in 1850, to 24,159,500 bushels, in 1860, and the latter from 57,646,984 bushels, in 1850, to 115,296,779 bushels, in 1860. Our magnificent railways, which in 1850 were only 110 miles, costing $1,440,507, had extended in 1860 to 2,867 miles, at a cost of $104,944,561. Nor had the progress of our people been confined to an increase of population and wealth. In every city and town had sprung up, as if by magic, the unmistakable evidences of progress in the arts and sciences. In fact, it could be truly said that, through the enlightened liberality of our citizens, the unfortunate, the poor and the helpless, were provided for and educated, without money and without price."
From its coal mines, which in 1860 had just begun to be fairly worked, were taken 14,158,120 bushels — an aggregate only below the great States of Pennsylvania and Ohio. These are items in a pros- perity so great as to be a marvel. A single city had, in thirty years, grown from a small village around an old fort to be the first grain, lumber and beef and pork entrepot of the continent, if not of the world.
In this march to greatness Illinois was not alone, but worthy com- peers were her near sisters, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin.
BAKER A>^D BENJAMIN. 35
Young Minnesota was whispering her golden promise, and Missouri was waiting until, free from slavery, she, too, could show how States are made.
In 1861, came civil war upon a scale of astounding magnitude, destined, if not to suspend, at least to vary, the direction of its pros- perity, and the history of the State through this great war demands our attention.
There had been a struggle between the opposite systems of free and slave labor, which had grown into antagonism, extending into literature, religion, politics. Slavery was outgrown by freedom ; its old supremacy was being destroyed by the rapid expansion of the Free States, and their growth in material prosperity. Indeed the rebellion was rather against the revelation of the census tables than against the government of any man or party. The friends of slavery demanded that it should be exempted from free discussion, and not only tolerated but fostered. They claimed for it the right to go, under the Constitution, into the Territories of the United States, setting aside the long established principle that it was the creature of local law dnd could only exist where covered by positive enact- ments. Said General Quitman, " Slavery requires for its kind devel opment a fostering government over it. It can scarcely exist without such development. ' It was to be accepted as good without question, for to question was to irritate. Said Senator Baker, of Oregon, to Senator Benjamin, of Louisiana, "If we, a free people, really, in our hearts and consciences, believing that freedom is better for everything than slavery, do desire the advance of free sentiments, and do endeavor to assist that advance in a constitutional, legal way, is that ground of separation ?" Senator Benjamin : "I say, yes."
As early as 1858, Jefferson Davis, the President of the Southern Confederacy, organized by rebellion, said, in a speech, in Jackson, Mississippi, " If an Abolitionist be chosen President of the United States, you will have presented to you the question of whether you will permit the government to pass into the hands of your avowed and implacable enemies ? Without pausing for an answer, I will state my own position to be, that such a result would be a species of revolution, by which the piirposes of the government would be destroyed, and the observance of its mere forms entitled to no respect. In that event, in such a manner as should be most expe-
36 PATKIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
dient, I should deem it your duty to provide for your safety outside of the Union with those who have already shown the will, and would have acquired the power to deprive you of your birthi-ight, and to reduce you to worse than the colonial dependence of your fathers."
The simple fact of the constitutional election, by the people, of a President holding that slavery was wrong, should be deemed occa- sion of revolt. Mr. Davis subsequently said, in conversation with Colonel Jaques, " We seceded to escape the rule of majorities.*'
In the State of Illinois there was to be a contest which was to have most weighty influence in shaping the pending controversy.
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln was put forward as candidate for the seat in the national Senate about to be vacated by the expiration of the term of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, who was a candidate for re-election. These distinguished gentlemen canvassed the State and met, for joint discussion, at seven prominent places. Never, in the history of American politics, did a discussion so arrest the public attention, and assume an importance so truly national. Thousands crowded to hear the debates ; reporters of the leading newspapers of the Union wei'e in attendance, and the speeches were widely copied. The discussion was termed by a public journal " the battle of the giants." Mr. Douglas secured the State Legislature and his Senatorial seat, and lost the Presidency. Mr. Lincoln, carrying the popular vote of the State, lost, nevertheless, the Legislature, and was defeated for the Senatorship, but the nation had its eye, upon him, and called him to the Presidential chair.
The principal topic of discussion was Slavery and the Territories, Mr. Lincoln insisting that Congress, for the American people, had the right to exclude it, and should do so ; Mr. Douglas insisting that each Territory should be left to settle its own domestic institu- tions in its own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States. Neither assumed the attitude of hostility to slavery, as existing in States already in the Union. Little did those men know that they were consolidating the forces of the Union and making prominent, and more than ever sacred, the doctrine of the majesty of majorities.
In 1860, four candidates for the Presidential chair were before the American people — Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois ; Abraham Lin- coln, of Illinois ; John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky ; and John
NO CAUSE FOR REVOLUTION. 37
Bell, of Tennessee. The contest was one of the most exciting of our history, and resulted in the election of Mr. Lincoln, who received one hundred and eighty electoral votes ; Mr. Breckinridge, seventy- two ; Mr. Bell, thirty-nine ; Mr. Douglas, twelve ; Mr. Lincoln's electoral majority being fifty-seven. The popular vote was, for Mr. Lincoln, 1,857,610; Mr. Douglas, 1,365,976; Mr. Breckinridge, 847,953; for Mr. Bell, 590,631. The election of Mr. Lincoln was rendered inevitable by the refusal of the Southern States to submit to the nomination of Mr. Douglas, and the factious nomination of IVIr. Breckinridge, of Kentucky.
Early in the campaign came threats of disunion, in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election ; the Southern States would secede and form an independent confederacy, on the ground that slavery would be impeiiled and Southern institutions destroyed by longer union with Free States. The historian who concedes the right of revolution searches in vain for any reason in justification of so grave a step at that time. Up to the election of Mr. Lincolij there had been no change in the Federal Constitution, affecting the rights of either sec- tion of the Republic. No statute had been created by Congress in opposition to a united South, or against which its representatives had voted in a body. No change had been made in the status of slaveiy, but, in fact, the administration, the legislature, the compromises and the pati'onage of the government had steadily been in its interest. Its area had been broadened by compromise, purchase and conquest. A law, in the judgment of Northern men, of needless severity and downright barbarity, stood unamended and unrepealed upon the statute books, and was everywhere enforced in the rendition of fugi- tive slaves. There had been no taxation without representation, but on the contrary, a representation had been given, in the South, to what was claimed as property. There had been no interference with the freedom of the press, of education, of speech, of worship, or of the elective franchise. These statements are conceded by Alexander H. Stephens, one of the most acute minds and wisest statesmen of the South, and though he subsequently went with his State, and has been the second officer of the Confederacy, his words have lost none of their significance. In the convention of Georgia, when secession was being discussed, he arose and said : " This step [the secession of Georgia] once taken, can never be recalled ; and
38 PATEIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
all the baleful and withering consequences that must follow (as you will see), will rest on the Convention for all coming time. When we and our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon of war, which this act of yours will inev- itably invite and call forth ; when our green fields of waving harvests shall be trod- den down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war sweeping over our land ; our temples of justice laid in ashes ; all the horrors and desolations of war upon us ; who but this Convention will be held responsible for it ? and who but him who shall have given his vote for this unwise and ill-timed measure (as I honestly think and believe) shall be held to strict account for this suicidal act, by the present generation, and, probably, cursed and execrated by posterity for all time to come, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this act you now propose to perpe- trate ?
" Pause, I entreat you, and consider, for a moment, what reasons you can give that will even satisfy yourselves, in calmer moments ; what reasons can you give to your fellow-sufi"erers in the calamity that it will bring upon us ? What reasons can you give to the nations of the earth to justify it? They will be the calm and deliberate judges in the case ; and to what cause, or one overt act, can you name or point, on which to rest the plea of justification ? What right has the North assailed ? What interest of the South has been invaded? What justice has been denied ? and what claim, founded in justice and right, has been withheld ? Can either of you, to-day, name one governmental act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the government, of which the South has a right to complain ? I challenge the answer ! While, on the other hand, let me show the facts (and, believe me, gentlemen, I am not here the advocate of the North, but I am here the friend, the firm friend and lover of the South and her institutions, and for that reason I speak thus plainly and faithfully, for yours, mine, and every other man's interest, the words of truth and soberness), of which I wish you to judge, and I will only state facts which are clear and undeniable, and which now stand as records authentic in the history of our country.
" When we of the South demanded the slave-trade, or the importation of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years ? When we asked a three-fifth representation in Congress for our slaves, was it not granted? When we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the constitution ? and again ratified and strengthened in the Fugitive Slave Law of 1840 ?
" But, do you reply, that in many instances they have violated this compact, and have not been faithful to their engagements ? As individuals and local communities they may have done so, but not by the sanction of government, for that has always been true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, look at another fact : When ■we have asked that more territory should be added, that we might spread the insti- tution of slavery, have they not yielded to our demands, in giving us Louisiana, Florida and Texas, out of which four States have been carved, and ample territory to be added in due time, if you, by this unwise and impolitic act, do not destroy this
STEPHENS S SPEECH. 39
hope, and, perhaps, by it lose all, and have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico were, or by the vindictive decree of universal emancipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow ?
"But, again, gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our rela- tion to the general government ? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, if we remain in it, and are as united as we have been. We have had a majority of the Presidents chosen from the South, as well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty years of Southern Pres- idents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the executive department. So of the Judges of the Supreme Court, we have had eighteen from the South and but eleven from the North. Although nearly four fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the Free States, yet a majority of the Court has always been from the South. This we have required, so as to guard against any interpretation of the constitution unfa- vorable to us. In like manner, we have been equally watchful to guard our interests in the Legislative branch of government. In choosing the presiding Presidents {pro tern.) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the House, we have had twenty-three and they twelve. While the majority of the Rep- resentatives, from their greater population, have always been from the North, yet we have so generally secured the Speaker, because he, to a great extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country. Nor have we had less control in every other department of the general government.
*************
"Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless millions of dollars you must expend in a war with the North, with tens of thousands of your sons and brothers slain in battle, and offered up as sacrifices on the altar of your ambition — and for what, we ask again ? Is it for the overthrow of the American Government, estab- lished by our common ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on the broad principles of Right, Justice and Humanity ? And as such, I must declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots, in this and other lands, that U is Hie best and freest government; the most equal in Us rights ; the most just in its decisions ; the most lenient in its measures, and the most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun of heaven ever shone upon.
" Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a government as this, under which we have lived for more than three-quarters of a century — in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domestic safety, while elements of peril are around us, with peace and tranquillity accompanied with unbounded prosperity and rights unassailed — is the hight of madness, folly and wickedness, to which I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote."
The President elect stood upon a platform wMeh did not warrant the apprehension that he would interfere, or sanction interference with slavery in the States. It is true he had said, " It is my opin- ion that this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and
4:0 PATKI0TI8M OF ILLINOIS.
half free," but he had also said, " I now assure you that I neither then had, nor have, nor ever had, any purpose, in any way, of inter- fering with the institution of slavery where it exists. I believe we have no power, under the Constitution of the United States, or rather under the form of government under which we live, to interfere with the institution of slavery, or any other of the institutions of our sister States, be they Free or Slave States."* If the Southern Sen- ators and Representatives remained in their places, he was without a majority in Congress, and was, indeed, dependent upon the courtesy of his opponents for the confirmation of his cabinet. He was hedged in upon every side, and powerless for evil had it been in his heart.
But madness ruled the hour. Southern conspirators were bent on securing what had long been planned; viz., separation from the Union. Mr. Lincoln's election was made the pretext, and active preparations were made. Unfortunately, the President, Mr. Buchan- an, lacked that com*age and inflexible purpose which the crisis de- manded, and cowered piteously before the coming storm. There was an understanding that, while he remained in power, there should be no open assault upon the government, and the old man seemed to feel with the ancient King, " Good is the word of the Lord, if there be peace in my day." Arch-conspirators were about his council board. They removed southward large stores of heavy ordnance, small arms and ammunition, and then, except where they had reason to believe the commanding officers in sympathy with them, removed the garrisons, leaving only a feeble handful of defenders at each post. The navy was scattered through all distant seas, and made as inefficient as possible. A heavy debt was pressed upon an exhausted treasury.
The Southern press, pulpit and rostrum, were busy " firing the Southern heart," and an excited people was ready for revolt. Union sentiment, where it existed, was suppressed by violence. Procla- mations of Governors, Acts of Legislatures, Ordinances of Conven- tions, followed in rapid succession. Military companies were formed and drilled. Southern Members of Congress resigned and returned to their constituents, and State after State declared itself out of the Union.
* Speech in Cinciiinati, September, 1859.
HUMILIATION IN WASHINGTON. 41
During these days, between the election and inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, it was humiliating to be in the National Capitol. Regu- larly, for a time, the conspirators arose in their places in the Amer- ican Congress, and, after the utterance of treasonable sentiments, after defying the government, they would announce their State with- drawn from the Union, and they then said their mock farewells ! And all that was borne by the shadow of the government which held the power of this gi-eat country !
On the 20th of December, 1860, the Convention of South Carolina declared " The Union now existing between South Carolina and other States of North America is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the nations of the earth, as a free, sovereign and independent State, with full power to levy war and conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."
On the 24th, Governor Pickens issued his proclamation, declaring " South Carolina is, and has a right to be, a free and independent State, and, as such, has a right to levy war, conclude peace, negotiate treaties, leagues and covenants, and to do all acts whatever that rightfully appertain to a free and independent State."
The telegraph carried the news throughout the nation that the chain of the Union was broken, and men said, every where, " What will the government do ?" The government did — nothing ! In the South, the intelligence excited the people as did the display of the fiery cross the ancient Highland clans. In Congress it produced little apparent excitement. It was announced by Mr. Garnet, of Virginia. The Pacific Railroad was the order of the day, and Mr. G. said that his State would not consent to be held responsible for any financial obligation in its construction. " Sk," said he, " while your Bill is under consideration, one of the sovereign States of this Confederacy has, by the glorious act of her people, withdrawn, in vindication of her rights, from the Union, as the telegraph announced at half-past one to-day." There was applause by a few conspirators, but most of the members manifested utter indifference. Boyce and Ashmore, the only remaining Representatives of the recusant State, left their seats, exchanged salutations with personal friends and fellow malcontents, and retired from the Hall of Representatives. Mi*. Bu-
42 PATEI0TI8M OF ILLINOIS.
chanan had before him a clearly defined duty, namely, to enforce the authority of the United States, but his blood was thin and ran slowly. He dared not, but contented himself with mumbling dreary platitudes, and prating about " coercion."
The telegraph gave the announcement at Springfield, the home of Mr. Lincoln, giving him an intimation of the unwonted cares and momentous difficulties likely to environ his administration. He had gauged the probabilities long before, and manifested neither surprise nor alarm. The Journal^ of that city, supposed to reflect his views, said :
" If South Carolina does not obstruct the collection of the revenue, at her ports, or violate another Federal law, there will be no trouble, and she will not be out of the Union. If she violates the law, then comes the tug of war. The President of the United States, in such an emergency, has an imperative duty to perform. Mr. Buchanan may shirk it, or the emergency may not exist during his administration. If not, then the Union will last through his term of oflBce. If the overt act, on the part of South Carolina, takes place on or after the fourth day of March, then the duty of executing the law will devolve upon Mr. Lincoln."
The influence of the above paragraph can scarcely be estimated. It appeared in a newspaper printed in a little Western city, but it was understood to represent the faith and purpose of the coming Chief Magistrate. It was widely copied, and loyal men, as they read it, took heart and hope. The Union, loved with unutterable love, should not be lost ! It would soon have a President who would defend it to the last extremity ! " Oh, that the fourth of March were come !" was said by many, both men and women. They felt they had done the South no wrong. They would ofifer no apologies. The threat of disunion should wring no new abandonment of honor, no new concession to wrong ! After the manner prescribed by law, a President had been chosen. If for that, secession was attempted, it should not be permitted. For the present, they would wait and hope that, at the end of the many months of senile incapacity, if nothing worse, the sinewy hand of the Western President should be laid heavily upon treason.
On the 26th Major Anderson evacuated Fort Moultrie and occupied Fort Sumter. His little force was in the greatest peril, but i ein- foroements were withheld. Two days previously he wrote to Wash- ington, " When I inform you that my garrison consists of only sixty
OCCTJPATION OF FOET SUMTER. 43
effective men, and we are in a very indifferent work, the walls of which are only fourteen feet high, and that we have, within one hun- dred and sixty yards of our walls, sand hills which command our works, and which afford admirable sites for batteries, and the finest covers for sharpshooters, and that, besides this, there are numerous houses, some of them within pistol shot, you will at once see that if attacked in force, headed by any one but a simpleton, there is scarcely a possibility of our being able to hold out long enough for our friends to come to our succor."
Fort Sumter was the key to the Charleston harbor ; once occupied, from it Moultrie could be knocked to pieces, and reinforcements from the sea prevented. He knew the keen eyes of the Charleston au- thorities were upon it. He plead for reinforcements — General Scott seconded the appeal. No — the act would be construed as unfriendly, as a menace, and exasperate the South Carolina rebels : must be avoided ; and was ! Major Anderson went on improving Moultrie, as though he proposed to stay permanently ; at the same time he ordered the work being done on Sumter to be pressed to early com- pletion. Whien notified by Captain Foster that all was ready, he took a responsibility, the announcement of which electrified the nation. Without specific instructions from the President or Secretary of War, on the 26th, he gave orders to prepare for the evacuation of ' Fort Moultrie. Night came ; vessels were loaded with women, children and personal effects. The boats stood off, as if for Fort 'Johnson, but landed at Fort Sumter. At dawn, all had foimd the new shelter, except a few who remained to put Fort Moultrie on a peace footing. This was effected by Captain Johnson and eight men, who coolly proceeded to dismount the heavy guns, and burn the gun carriages. Governor Pinckney and the Convention took alarm from the smoke. Drums beat, the militia flew to arms, and soon the wildest rumors were afloat, corrected, however, by the ap- pearance of Captain Johnson, in the streets of Charleston, who, on behalf of Major Anderson, communicated his action to the authori- ties. It gave great offense and was construed into a threat of " co- ercion." A communication was sent to Washington, through com- missioners, who were instructed to demand of President Buchanan an order remanding Major Anderson to Moultrie, but that was too much, even for him. The State authorities took steps for the imme-
44 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
diate occupancy of Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie, wliich Major Anderson was not authorized to prevent. They also seized the various United States and telegraph buildings. Then, had the word been spoken by the President, Major Anderson could have crushed secession in its nest. His guns could have prevented the erection of those elaborate works which subsequently compelled his surrender, and the dishonor of the flag. It is not the province of the historian to speculate, but it is impossible to resist saying " Ah ! what might have been !"
Major Anderson was suddenly the most famous man in the country, and his strategic movement met with hearty approval throughout the loyal States.
Before leaving the record of this first stage of war, for such it was, it is proper to recur to the statement that Lieut. -General Scott urged upon Mr. Buchanan the importance of reinforcing Major Anderson, and of strongly manning the seaboard defenses. Since the above the autobiography of the Lieut.-General has come to hand, and the statements of the venerable hero are overwhelmingly con- clusive. On the 29th of October, 1860, he addressed Mr. Buchanan a letter, in which, after alluding to the probable nearness of outbreak to foUow Mr. Lincoln's election, he said :
" From a knowledge of our Southern population, it is my solemn conviction that there is some danger of an early act of rashness preliminary to secession; viz., the seizure of some or all of the following forts : Forts Jackson and St. Philip, on the Mississippi, below New Orleans, both without garrisons ; Fort Morgan, below Mobile, without a garrison ; Forts Pickens and McRae, Pensacola harbor, with an insufficient garrison for one ; Fort Pulaski, below Savannah, without a garrison ; Forts Moultrie and Sumter, Charleston harbor, the former with an insufficient garrison, the latter without any, and Fort Monroe, Hampton Roads, without a sufficient garrison. In my opinion, all these works should be immediately so garrisoned as to make any attempt to take any one of them by surprise or coup de main, ridiculous."
Again, he says :
*' October 31. — ^I suggested to the Secretary of "War that a circular should be sent at once to such of those forts as had garrisons to be on the alert against surprises and sudden assaults."
A significant foot-note says, " Permission not granted." On the 12th of December he left the bed to which he had been long eon-
GENEEAL SCOTT AND THE GAKKI80N. 45
fined and repaired to Washington. The next day he called upon the Secretary of War and urged upon him —
"The same views; viz., strong garrisons in the Southern forts — those of Charles- ton and Pensacola harbors at once ; those on Mobile Bay and the Mississippi below New Orleans next, etc. * * * The Secretary did not concur in my views, and I begged him to procure me an early interview with the President, that I might make one more effort to save the forts and the Union. By appointment the Secretary accompanied me to the President, Dec. 15 th, when the same topics were discussed. * * * The President, in reply to my arguments for immediately reinforcing Fort Moultrie and sending a garrison to Fort Sumter, said, in substance, the time had not arrived for doing so ; that he would wait the action of the convention of South Carolina, in the expectation that a commission would be appointed and sent to negotiate with him and Congress respecting the secession of the State and the property of the United States held within its limits ; and that if Congress should decide against the secession then he would send a reinforcement and telegraph the commander (Major Anderson) of Fort Moultrie to hold the forts (Moultrie and Sumter) against attack. And the Secretary, with animation, added, ' We have a vessel of war (the Brooklyn) held in readiness at Norfolk, and he would then send three hundred men in her from Fort Monroe to Charleston.' To which I replied, first, that so many men could not be withdrawn from that garrison but could be taken from New York ; next, that it would then be too late, as the South Carolina commissioners would have the game in their hands, by first using and then cutting the wires ; that as there was not a soldier in Fort Sumter any handful of armed secessionists might seize and occupy it.
" Here the remark may be permitted, that if the Secretary's three hundred men had then, or some time later, been sent to Forts Moultrie and Sumter, both would now have been in the possession of the United States, and not a battery below could have been erected by the secessionists ; consequently the access to these forta from the sea would now (the end of March, 1861,) be unobstructed and free.
" Dec. 80. — "Will the President permit Gen. Scott, without reference to the War Department [foot-note — 'The Secretary was already suspected'] and otherwise, aa secretly as possible, to send two hundred and fifty recruits from New York harbor, to reinforce Fort Sumter ? etc. * * * It would have been easy to reinforce this fort down to about the 12th of February. In this long delay, Fort Moultrie had been rearmed and greatly strengthened, etc. * * * The diflBculty of reinforc- ing bad thus been increased ten or twelvefold. First, the late President (Buchanan) refused to allow any attempt to be made because he was holding negotiations mth the South Carolina commissioners," etc. — Aut. Vol. IT.
There is another quotation from the same authority, which is highly significant :
" Before any resolution was taken; the late Secretary of the Navy making diffi- culties about the want of suitable war vessels, another commissioner from South
46 PATEIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
Carolina arrived, causing further delay. When all this had passed away, SecretarieB Holt and Toucey, Capt. Ward of the navy, and myself, with the knowledge of the President (Buchanan), settled upon the employment, under the Captain (who was eager for the expedition) of three or four small steamers belonging to the coast sur- vey. At that time (late in January) I have no doubt Capt. Ward would have reached Fort Sumter with all his vessels. But he was kept back by something like a truce or armistice made [here] embracing Charleston and Pensacola harbors, agreed upon between the late President and certain principal seceders of South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, etc., and that truce lasted to the end of that adminis- tration."
Alas ! that the evidence should be so conclusive ! Alas ! that such a record must be written ! Yet we may even now see the finger of Providence. Great events were shapmg. By the Calvaries, and through the Gethsemanes of sorrow and purification was the nation to march reverently and penitently to the Bethany of its ascension !
Of course events so momentous caused great anxiety and pro- duced exciting discussions, which cannot be reproduced in a work so specific in its character as this one. How did the Representatives and Senators of Illinois meet the crisis ? In the Senate were Mr. Douglas and Mr. Trumbull. The former was disposed to go as far as possible towards conciliation, farther than his colleague would have deemed proper, but they united in condemning secession. Mr. Douglas, on Tuesday, Dec. 18th, promptly moved to "lay over" a scheme proposed by Senator Joseph Lane of Oregon, which declared the government unfitted for the exigences of the times, and propos- ing the appointment of commissioners to suggest remedies ! Janu- ary Vth, in reviewing the speech of Senator Baker, after criticising the views of the Republican party, he said : " I feel bound, how- ever, and take pleasure in saying, that I don't believe the Southern States are in any danger, or ought to have any apprehension, that Mr. Lincoln, or his party can do any harm or render insecure their rights to persons or property anywhere in this country." In that speech he used the words subsequently so often quoted — " War is disunion, certain, inevitable, final and ii-reversible." He made a point of keen, telling, illustrated logic, in these words : " The Pres- ident in his message first said we could not coerce a state to remain in the Union, but in a few sentences he advised the acquisi- tion of Cuba. As if we should pay $300,000,000 for Cuba, and the next day she might secede and re-annex herself to Spain, and
SENATOR DOUGLAS. 47
Spain sell her again." He (Mr. Buchanan) had admitted that Texas cost us a war with Mexico, and 10,000 lives, and besides, we had paid Texas $10,000,000 for land which she never owned." Again, speaking of war : " The atmosphere is full of it. I have determined that I will do all that is in my power to rescue the oountry from such a dreadful fate. But I will not consider this question of war till all hope of peaceable adjustment fails. Better, a thousand times better, that all political parties be disbanded and dissolved. Better that every public man now in existence be con- signed to retu'ement and political martyrdom, than this government should be dissolved, and this country plunged in civil war. I trust we are to have no war for a platform. I can fight for my country, but there never was a political platform that I would go to war for. I fear if this country is to be wrecked it is to be done by those who prefer party to their country." Later, in reply to Mr. Wigfall, of Texas, he said : " The senator (Wigfall) had better read the Constitution again, then let him tell me where he finds the power given to this government to protect horses, or cattle, or merchan- dise, or slaves, or any species of property in any state or territory of this Union ?" Until the close of Congress he earnestly sought to secure peace, by such amendments to the Constitution as would forever place slavery without the bar of Congressional action or Federal controversy.
Mr. Trumbull, his colleague, was an able and ardent advocate of the policy of the party which had elected Mr. Lincoln, yet he was conciliatory, though bating not one jot of Federal authority. He said in a speech on the night of March 3d, that there would have been no triumphant secession but for complicity with treason in the very cabinet of the government. The President received commis- sioners who, under any other government would have been hung for treason, and that, not until the last moment, when forced to take sides, and either join the secessionists and let Major Anderson perish, or to meet the anger of his countrymen, did the President declare for the Union. Speaking of compromise he said, if they wanted anything let them go back to the Missouri Compromise and Btand to it. All agreed that Congress had not the right to interfere with slavery in the States. But he would never, by his vote, make one slave, and the people of the great Northwest would never con-
48 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
sent by their act, to establish slaveiy anywhere. He did not be- lieve the Constitution needed amending, but was willing to vote a recommendation to the States to make a proposal to call a conven- tion to consider amendments. His position was clearly defined; viz., peace, if possible; government in the Union at all hazards.
In the popular branch were several members of prominence. There was Owen Lovejoy, a primitive an ti- slavery man, who had been bei-eaved of a brother by a pro-slavery mob. John A. Logan and Mr. McClernand, both of whom became Major Generals of U. S. Volunteers, were in opposition to the Republican party, both conservative, and Mr. Logan opposed to coercion. Mr. Mor- ris, Mr. Kellogg and Mr. Washburne were also prominent. Mr. Lovejoy, considered one of the most radical of the extreme aboli- tionists, on the lYth of December, offered, and pressed to a vote, the following :
" Whereas, the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, and its ready and faithful obedience a duty of all good and law-abiding citi- zens; therefore,
" Resolved, that we deprecate the spirit of disobedience to the Constitution, wherever manifested, and that we earnestly recommend the repeal of all nullifica- tion laws ; and that it is the duty of the President to protect and defend the pro perty of the United States."
The conspirators were much annoyed by this flank movement of " an extremist " and generally refused to vote, but without them it was passed by an affirmative vote of 124, none voting nay. On the same day Mr. Morris, for the third time, brought forward his Union resolution declaring " the immense value of the national Union," that " we will frown upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts," and added, "nor do we see anything in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States, or from any other existing cause to justify its dissolution," &c., which was adopted by a vote of 115 to 44. It is singular to find among the nays that of Daniel Sickles, subsequently a gallant and able Major-General of the Union army. Later, Mr. Lovejoy made a remark in caucus which has become famous among the memorable sayings which the war has occa- sioned. He was speaking of a proposition to divide the country to the Pacific between freedom and slavery, and in his own peculiar
LOVEJOY ON THE KEVOLT. 49
■way said, *' There never was a more causeless revolt since Lucifer led his cohorts of apostate angels against the throne of God ; but I never heard that the Almighty proposed to compromise the matter by allowing the rebels to kindle the fires of hell south of the celes- tial meridian of 36° 30'!" Mr. Logan has been spoken of as opposed to coercive measures at the outset, but when the vote was called ujDon a resolution approving the act of Major Anderson in removing from Fort Moultrie and also pledging to "support the President in all constitutional measures to enforce the laws, and preserve the Union," he said in answering to his name, " As the res- olution merits my unqualified approval, I vote aye."
The record of Kellogg, McClernand, Washburne, &c., during that memorable session, the last of the XXXVI. Congress, need not be transcribed. Whatever theoretical difierences may have divided them, when war really came they were found unflinching on the side of the Union.
The position of the Governor and other state authorities, will be seen in a subsequent chapter. It is enough to say that there was no doubt in what direction the hearty influence of the Illinois Execu- tive would be thrown. This introductory chapter will be fitly- closed with a statement of the principal events down to the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration.
On the 28th of December South Carolina troops occupied Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney, and the Palmetto flag was hoisted on the ramparts, instead of the honored national colors. The en- suing day John B. Floyd resigned his place in the cabinet, as Sec- retary of War, charging, with an impudence unparalleled, that the President, by declining to remove Major Anderson, and to with- di-aw the Federal troops from Charleston Harbor, designed to plunge the country into civil war! He said, "I cannot consent to be the agent of such a calamity." On the same day the South Caro- lina Commissioners presented their official credentials which, on the next day were declined. On the 1st day of January, 1861, the loyal press rang with warning that the Capital was in danger of seizure by armed rebels, and called for instant and efficient mea- sures for its protection. On the 2d it was announced that Lieut- General Scott had taken steps to organize the militia of the District of Columbia, and that regulars had been placed in the navy yard 4
50 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
and other precautions taken against surprise or revolution. On the same day came telegraphic information that Georgia had declared for secession, and that Georgia troops had taken possession of the U. S. Arsenal in Augusta, and Forts Pulaski and Jackson. Gover- nor Ellis, of North Carolina, seized the forts at Beaufort and Wil- mington, and the arsenal at Fayetteville, stating with Floyd-like truthfulness that he did so to protect them from mobs ! On the 3d the South Carolina Commissioners departed from the Capitol. On the 5th it was announced that enrollments of men to aid the govern- ment in enforcing the laws and maintaining the union of the States were progressing in the Northern cities. The Alabama and Mis- sissippi delegations in Congress, who had met the preceding even- ing, telegraphed the conventions of their respective states, advising them to secede, stating there was no prospect of satisfactory adjust- ment. The steamer " Star of the "West," sailed secretly from New York with supplies and reinforcements for Fort Sumter. Com- panies of Federal troops were being concentrated in and about Washington, and the piiblic began to hope that at last Mr. Buchanan would prove himself worthy of honorable mention in American history. On the 7th the conventions of Alabama, Mis- sissippi and Tennessee met. On the 8th Secretary Thompson resigned his seat in the Cabinet, on the ground that, contrary to promise, troops had been sent to Major Anderson. On the next day the " Star of the West " was fired into from Fort Moultrie and Morris Island, and turned homeward,, leaving Sumter and its gallant defenders. Henceforward events crowd with fearful rapidity, of which only a few can be recorded. The ordinance of secession passed the Mississippi convention on the 9th, that of Florida, purchased with Union gold, on the 10th, and that of Ala- bama on the 11th, The same day witnessed the resignation of Mr. Thomas, Secretary of the Treasury, and the seizure by the rebels of the arsenal at Baton Rouge, and Forts Jackson and St. Philip at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and Fort Pike at the Lake Pon- chartrain entrance. On the 13th the Pensacola Navy Yard and Fort Barrancas were surrendered to rebel troops by Col. Arm- strong. Lieut. Slemmer, who had withdrawn his command from Fort McRae to Fort Pickens defied Armstrong's orders, and an- nounced his intention to hold his post at all hazards. On the 16th
TEOOPS TENDEKED AND DECLINED. 51
Major-General Sandford, of New York, tendered the President and General Scott the service of the first division of N. Y. Militia, well arnried and disciplined, and numbering seven thousand. On the 18th came a voice from Massachusetts, her Legislature unanimously- tendering the President all the men and money required to maintai»i the authority of the Federal Government, and declaring that South Carolina, in seizing the national fortifications with the Post Office and Custom House,and in firing upon a vessel in the U. S. service, had been guilty of an act of war. And so it had as truly as when, later, fire was opened upon Fort Sumter. The Georgia Convention voted the secession ordinance on the 1 9th. On the 20th it was announced in Washington that a " thousand allied troops " were besieging Lieut. Slemmer and his command in Fort Pickens. On the 24th the Augusta Arsenal was seized by Georgia authorities. The next day the Louisiana ordinance of secession passed the convention. On the 30th the revenue cutters, Cass and McClelland, were betrayed by their commanders into the hands of Louisiana and Alabama rebel officers. On the 1st of February the U. S. Mint and Custom House at New Orleans were seized, and the same day the Texas Convention voted that state out of the Union. On the 4th the " Peace Convention " assembled in Washington, and the Congress of seceded States met in Montgomery, Ala., and John Tyler was chosen President of the former. On the 9th a provisional Constitu- tion was adopted at Montgomery, it being the U. S. constitution varied to suit the purposes of treason. Jefferson Davis, of Mis* Bissippi, was chosen President, and Alexander H. Stephens, despite the sentiments of his speech already quoted, Vice-President of the "Confederate States of North America." And yet the President of the United States saw no occasion to employ the troops tendered him ! The government was going to pieces, and he was trembling with fear, not daring to strike, when a single blow might have crushed rebellion and saved the nation its terrible ordeal of blood. On the 11th Mr. Lincoln left his home for Washington ; of his jour- ney the next chapter will speak. On the 18th Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President of the C. S. A. On the 25th it was ascer- tained that General Twiggs, commanding the department of Texas, had basely betrayed his trust and given up all the military posts, munitions, arms, &c., to the authorities of Texas. On the 3d of
52 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
March, at midnight, the term of James Buchanan expired. His ad- ministration commenced with a prosperous country, a full treasury, and a triumphant party. He went out with the latter beaten, the treasury empty, the nation in debt, and the country tossing in the agony of disruption. He sacrificed Mr. Douglas and was in turn sacrificed by his Southern allies. It, perhaps, remains to be seen whether his closing months of power gave the country an adminis- tration controlled by fear of the solemn responsibilities of the crisis or something worse. Be this as it may, the nation thanked God and took courage at twelve o'clock on the night of March 3, 1861.
CHAPTER II.
THE ILLINOIS PRESIDENT.
Abraham Lincoln — Early History — Remotals — Taste op War — Candidacy — A Surveyor — Member of Illinois Legislature — Internal Improvement — Pritatk Life — In Congress — Wilmot Proviso — Nebraska Bill — His Opposition — Mis- souri Compromise — Peoria Speech — Prophetic Words — Right and Wrong — Bill OF Exceptions to Slavery — The Fathers — Senatorial Election — Contest of 1858 — The Divided House Speech — The Way of Providence — Leaders for Cri- ses— His Characteristics — National Republican Convention — Wigwam — Sew- ard AND Lincoln — Nomination — Leaving Springfield — Invocation of Prayer — His Farewell — The Journey — Speeches — At Indianapolis — Cincinnati — ^New York — Trenton — Philadelphia — In Washington — Inauguration — The Inaugu- ral Address — Cabinet — Sumter — Surrender — A Lowered Flag — Only a Mo- ment.
THE eyes of the Nation had been, from November, turned toward Springfield, the capital of Illinois, where resided the President elect. Illinois had given the Republic the first Northern President who was destined to a re-election. Of necessity our his- tory must make some mention of him who, the nation's chief magistrate and commander-in-chief of its army and navy, is yet of Illinois, whom she received when a young man; who developed into mature strength on her prairies — Abraham Lincoln.
He was bom in Hardin County, Kentucky, February 12, 1809. In 1816 his father removed to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, and cleared his farm from the dense timber of that part of the State. Here the future statesman underwent the discipline of sturdy toil and patient labor. In 1830 his father removed to Illinois, and "lo- cated" on new land about ten miles northwest of Decatur on the north bank of the Sangamon, where timber and prairie are blended. His boyhood had few privileges of school or culture in books, and he was emphatically "self-made." In 1832 he volunteered in the noted Black-Hawk war and was captain of a company. He served three months, but was in no engagement with the enemy. Return-
54 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
ing home, he became a candidate for a seat in the Legislature only ten days before election, but being an Adams man, he was defeated, though in his own precinct he received more votes than both rival candidates for Congress. He was sometime engaged in surveying, and in 1834 was elected to the Legislature, to which he was subse- quently thrice chosen, and devoted himself to the practical work of the people's representative. Says one of his biographers:
" The period embraced by the eight yeara in which Lincoln represented Sangamon County, was one of the greatest material activity in Illinois. So early as 1820, the young State was seized with the ' generous rage' for public internal improvements then prevalent in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and in its sessions for a score of succeeding years, the Legislature was occupied by the discussion of various schemes for enhancing the prosperity of the State. The large canal uniting the waters of Lake Michigan and the Illinois River was completed at a cost of more than eight millions. By a Board of Commissioners of Public Works, specially created, provisions were made for expensive improvements of the Wabash, Illinois, Rock, Kaskaskia and the Little Wabash, and the great Western mail route from Vincennea to St. Louis. Under the charge of the same Board, six railroads, connecting princi- pal points, were projected, and appropriations made for their completion at £in immense outlay.
" One effect of a policy so wild and extravagant was to sink the State in debt. Another was to attract vast immigration, and fill up her broad prairies with settlers. Individuals were ruined; the corporate State became embarrassed; but benefits have resulted in a far greater degree than could have been hoped when the crash first came. It is not yet time to estimate the ultimate good to be derived from these improvements, though the immediate evil has been tangible enough.
" The name of Abraham Lincoln is not found recorded in favor of the more vis- ionary of these schemes, but he has always favored public improvements, and his voice was for whatever project seemed feasible and practical. During his first term of service, he was a member of the Committee on Public Accounts and Expendi- tures. He voted for a bill to incorporate agricultural societies ; for the improvement of public roads ; for the incorporation of various institutions of learning ; for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal ; he always fostered the interests of public education, and favored low salaries for public officials. In whatever pertained to the local benefit of his own County, he was active and careful ; but his record on thia subject is of little interest to the general reader.
" Lincoln's voice was ever for measures that relieved the struggling poor man from pecuniary or political difficulties — he had himself experienced these difficulties — he therefore supported resolutions for the removal of the property qualification in fran- chise, and for the granting of pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands. He was the author of a measure permitting Revolutionary pensioners to loan their pen-
Lincoln's peorla. speech.
55
eion money without taxation. He advocated a bill exempting from execution Bibles, school-books, and mechanics' tools.
"His first recorded vote against Stephen A. Douglas, was on the election of that politician to the Attorney Generalship by the Legislature.
" He twice voted for the Whig candidates for the United States Senate. Other- wise than in the election of Senators, State Legislatures were not then occupied with national affairs, and it is difficult to find anything in Mr. Lincoln's legislative history which is of great national interest. There were no exciting questions, and Mr, Lincoln's speeches were few and brief* He was twice the candidate (in 1838 and 1840) of the Whig minority for Speaker of the House."f
For six years he remained in private life, devoting hiniiself to the practice of law, which he had studied. In 1844 he canvassed his State in behalf of the Whig candidate for the Presidency. In 1847 he took his seat in Congress, the only Whig Representative from Illinois, which then had seven members in the House of Represen- tatives. He was a staunch advocate of the Wilniot Proviso, showing, in 1 847, the same care to secure the Ten-itories to freedom which he manifested in the Kansas struggle and in 1860. He declined candi- dacy for re-election. In 1849 he received the vote of his party in the Legislature for the U. S. Senate.
In 1854 the celebrated Nebraska Bill was passed, rallying anew and into permanent organization the opposition to slavery. In his celebrated "Peoria speech" he went fully into the principles involved in the proposed repeal of the Missouri Compromise. He was reply- ing to Senator Douglas and showing the results of the repeal. The following words there spoken on that 16th of October, 1854, sound now, that ten years have gone, like history written "before the Ikct."
" In this state of affairs the Genius of Discord himself could scarcely have invented a way of again setting us by the ears, but by turning back and destroying the peace measures of the past. The counsels of that Genius seem to have prevailed ; the Missouri Compromise was repealed ; and here we are, in the midst of a new slavery agitation, such, I think, as we have never teen before. Who is responsible for this ? Is it those who resist the measure ? or those who, causelessly, brought it forward, and pressed it through, having reason to know, and, in fact, knowing, it must and would
*A protest from Mr. Lincoln appears on the journal of the House, in regard to some resolutions which had passed. In this protest he pronounces distinctly against slavery, and takes the first public step toward what is now Republican doctrine.
f Howell's Life of Lincoln.
66 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
be 80 resisted ? It could not but be expected by its author, that it would be looked upon as a measure for the extension of slavery, aggravated by a gross breach of faith.
" Argue as you will, and long as you will, this is the naked front and aspect of the measure. And, in this aspect, it could but produce agitation. Slave)"y is foutided in the selfishness of man^s nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles are in eternal antagonism ; and, when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise — repeal all compromises — repeal the Declaration of Independence — repeal all past history — you still cannot repeal human nature. It Btill will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery extension is wrong, and, out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.
*************
" And, really, what is the result of this ? Each party within having numerous and determined backers without, is it not probable that the contest will come to blows and bloodshed ? Could there be a more apt invention to bring about collision and violence, on the slavery question, than this Nebraska project is ? I do not charge or believe that such was intended by Congress; but if they had literally formed a ring, and placed champions within it to fight out the controversy, the fight could be no more likely to come off than it is. And if this fight should begin, is it likely to take a very peaceful. Union-saving turn ? Will noi the first drop of blood, so shed, be the real knell of the Union ?
" The Missouri Compromise ought to be restored. For the sake of the Union, it ought to be restored. We ought to elect a House of Representatives which will vote its restoration. If, by any means, we omit to do this, what follows ? Slavery may or may not be established in Nebraska. But whether it be or not, we shall have repudiated — discarded from the councils of the nation — the spirit of compromise, for who, after this, will ever trust in a national compromise? The spirit of mutual con- cession— that spirit which first gave us the Constitution, and which has thrice saved the Union — we shall have strangled and cast from us forever. And what shall we have in lieu of it ? The South, flushed with triumph and tempted to excesses ; the North, betrayed, as they believe, brooding on wrong and burning for revenge. One Bide will provoke, the other resent. The one will taunt, the other defy ; one ag- gresses, the other retaliates. Already a few in the North defy all Constitutional restrai:'.., resist the execution of the Fugitive Slave law, and even menace the insti- tution o ' slavery in the States where it exists. Already a few in the South claim the Cor.stitutional right to take to and hold slaves in the Free States ; demand the revival of the slave-trade ; and demand a treaty with Great Britain, by which fugi- tive slaves may be reclaimed from Canada. As yet they are but few on either side. It is a grave question for the lovers of the Union, whether the final destruction of the Missouri Compromise, and with it the spirit of all compromise, will or will not embolden and embitter each of these, and fatally increase the number of both." In the extract which follows we find, blended with a conservatism
NEBEASKA BILL IMMOEAL. 57
SO strong that it was not willing to see disturbed the Fugitive Slave Law, because it resulted from a compromise, and, odious as were some of its provisions, he would abide the compact, that honest manly sense of right which has been so marked a characteristic of Mr. Lincoln ; — devotion to the right because it is right.
" Some men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration, lest tliey be thrown in company with the Abolitionists. Will they allow me, as an old Whig, to tell them, good-humoredly that I think this is very silly ? Stand by anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he is wrong. Stand with the Aboli- tionist in restoring the Missouri Compromise, and stand against him when he attempts to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law. In the latter case you stand with the Southern disnnionist. What of that ? you are still right. In both cases you are right. In both cases you oppose the dangerous extremes. In both you stand on middle ground, and hold the ship level and steady. In both you are national, and nothing less than national. This is the good old Whig ground. To desert such ground because of any company, is to be less than a Whig — less than a man — less than an American."
The most ultra enemy of slavery, as interj^reted in the red glare of four years of civil war, now scarcely surpasses the sentiments of ten years ago as further expressed :
"I particularly object to the new position which the avowed principle of this Ne- braska law gives to slavery in the body politic. I object to it because it assumes that there can be a moral right in the enslaving of one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a free people — a sad evidence that, feeling pros- perity we forget right — that liberty, as a principle, we have ceased to revere. I object to it, because the fathers of the Republic eschewed and rejected it. The argument of ' necessity,' was the only argument they ever admitted in favor of slavery, and so far, and so far only, as it carried them did they ever go. They found the institution existing among us, which they could not help, and they cast the blame upon the British king for having permitted its introduction. Before the Constitu- tion they prohibited its introduction into the Northwestern Territory, the only coun- try we owned then free from it. At the framing and adoption of the Constitution, they forebore to so much as mention the word 'slave,' or 'slavery,' in the whole instrument. In the provision for the recovery of fugitives, the slave is spoken of as a ' person held to service or labor.' In that prohibiting the abolition of the African slave-trade for twenty years, that trade is spoken of as ' the migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit,' etc. These are the only provisions alluding to slavery. Thus the thing ia hid away in the Constitution, just as an afl3icted man hides away a wen or cancer, whi^jh he dares not cut out at once, lest he bleed to death, with the promise, never-
58 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
theless, that the cutting may begin at the end of a certain time. Less than this our fathers could not do, and more they would not do. Necessity drove them so far, and further they would not go. But this is not all. The earliest Congress under the Constitution took the same view of slavery. They hedged and hemmed it in to the narrowest limits of necessity.
"Ill 1794, they prohibited an outgoing slave-trade — that is, the taking of slaves from the United States to sell.
"In 1798, they prohibited the bringing of slaves from Africa into the Mississippi Territory — this Territory then comprising what are now the States of Mississippi and Alabama. This was ten years before they had the authority to do the same thing as to the States existing at the adoption of the Constitution.
"In 1800, they prohibited American citizens from trading in slaves between for- eign countries, as, for instance, from Africa to Brazil.
"In 1803, they passed a law in aid of one or two Slave State laws, in restraint of the internal slave-trade.
"In 1807, in apparent hot haste, they passed the law, nearly a year in advance, to take effect the first day of 1808 — the very first day the Constitution would per- mit— prohibiting the African slave-trade by heavy pecuniary and corporeal penalties.
"In 1820, finding these provisions ineffectual, they declared the slave-trade piracy, and annexed to it the extreme penalty of death. While all this was passing in the General government, five or six of the original Slave States had adopted systems of gradual emancipation, by which the institution was rapidly becoming extinct within these limits.
"Thus we see the plain, unmistakable spirit of that age, toward slavery, was hostil- ity to the principle, and toleration only by necessity.
"But now it is to be transformed into a "sacred right." Nebraska brings it forth, places it on the high road to extension and perpetuity, and, with a pat on the back, says to it, ' Go, God speed you.' Henceforth, it is to be the chief jewel of the na- tion— the very figure-head of the ship of state. Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal, but now, from that beginning, we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a 'sacred right of self-government.' These principles cannot stand togeth- er. They are as opposite as God and mammon, and whoever holds to the one must despise the other. "When Pettit, in connection with his support of the Nebraska bill, called the Declaration of Independence a * self-evident lie,' he only did what consistency and candor require all other Nebraska men to do. Of the forty odd Nebraska Senators who sat present and heard him, no one rebuked him. Nor am I apprised that any Nebraska newspaper, or any Nebraska orator, in the whole nation has ever yet rebuked him. If this had been said among Marion's men, South- erners though they were, what would have become of the man who said it ? If this had been said to the men who captured Andre, the man who said it would probably have been hung sooner than Andre was. If it had been said in old Independence
GO BACK TO OLD PRINCIPLES. 59
Hall, seventy-eight years ago, the very door-keeper would have throttled the man and thrust him into the street.
" Let no one be deceived ; the spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraslia are utter antagonisms, and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter.
" Fellow-countrymen ! Americans — South as well as North — shall we make no effort to arrest this ? Already the liberal party throughout the world express the apprehension ' that the one retrograde institution in America is undermining the principles of progress, and fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw.' This is not the taunt of enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to disregard it — to despise it ? Is there no danger to liberty itself, in dis- carding the earliest practice and first precept of our ancient faith ? In our greedy chase to ma.ke profit of the negro, let us beware lest we ' caned and tear in pieces' even the white man's charter of freedom.
" Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. Let U8 turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not in the blood, of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of ' moral right' back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of 'necessity.' Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of Independence, and, with it, the practices and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South- let all Americans — let all lovers of liberty everywhere — join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but we shall have so saved it as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving. We shall have 80 saved it, that the succeeding millions of free, happy people, the world over, shall rise up and call us blessed, to the latest generations."
He then saw, with eagle eye and prophetic foresight, the beginning of the end. The State voted anti-Nebraska, and Mr. Lincoln was the prominent man for the seat in the national Senate to be vacated by General Shields, and was voted for on several ballots, but fearing division might result in the election of some man of doubtful policy he used his influence to harmonize his friends in the support of Lyman Trumbull, who was elected. Mr. Lincoln was in training for a higher post, though he knew it not.
In a former chapter there has been mention made of the great contest of 1858 between himself and Mr. Douglas — "the battle of the giants." It is only adverted to here to complete the links of the historic chain, and for the purpose of quoting from his Springfield speech of June 17, 1858, the sentences so often quoted by friends and foes :
" A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to b«
60 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
dissolved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."
The result of the contest has been noticed. Mr. Lincohi did not enter the Senate. Providence hath its own hour and its own way of raising up the leaders for great crises, and one of these was upon the country. Mr. Lincoln had grown up among the jDcople and not in a political hot-bed. He had a native, vigorous logic, not inaptly symbolled by his physique. He was one of the people. He came not from titled or moneyed aristocracy, but was of the hard-handed nobility of toil. He knew at once the dignity and the value of a freeman's labor, and God raised up this man, this vigorous, cool- brained, warm-hearted, strong-handed laborer, to be the leader of free men in the battle between freedom and slavery. On that rugged homely face was written an honest character. In him was a sim- plicity which more than matched the subtilty of his opponents. He was written as the Moses who should lead the childi-en of this Israel through a deep Red Sea into the promised land of freedom.
THE NOMINATION.
The Republican National Convention of 1860 met in Chicago on the 16th of May. A huge building, called "the wigwam," had been erected by the citizens for the occasion. The names of Gov. Chase, Mr. Bates, and Mr. Cameron had been pressed, but it was evident from the first hour that the contest was between W. H. Seward, of New York, and Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois.
The one had spoken of the " uTCsistible conflict," the other of the " divided house." Theii* names now connected were to be written together in succeeding chapters of pregnant history. These men were to stand shoulder to shoulder through the most momentous struggle of the world's annals. On the third ballot Mr. Lincoln received 354 votes and was nominated. On motion of Mr. Evarts, of New York, the nomination was made unanimous. The contest came and Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States.
FOR WASHINGTON. On the 11th of February the President elect left his Illinois home for Washington, there to meet such difficulties as had never con-
FAREWELL TO HIS NEIGHBOKS. Q\
fronted a Chief Magistrate. An oi-ganized conspiracy, ripened into an extensive secession, sought to prevent him in the exercise of the functions of the high office to which he had been chosen as President of the whole country. "War rolled up in the near future, and how Tong, how terrible, and with what results none could prophesy with surety. At the Springfield depot he thus bade farewell to his neighbors :
" My Friends: — No one not in my position can appreciate the sadness I feel at thia parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century; here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me which id, perhaps, greater than that whicli has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him; on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. Again, I bid you all an afifectionate farewell."
These few, simple words thrilled the country through. The rec- ognition of Divine aid made so honestly, and his desire to be remem- bered in the prayers of the people so expressive of a childlike faith in God, at once won the Christian sympathy of the land.
From Springfield to Baltimore was one long ovation. Crowds gathered at the stations and greeted him warmly. He was cautious and guarded in his expressions, as the declaration of a policy upon his part would have been premature and might have been injurious. Tet the policy was foreshadowed in his remarks to the members of the Indiana Legislature, who called upon him at the Bates House, in Indianapolis, on the evening of the 11th:
" Fellow-citizkns of thk State of Indiana: — I am here to thank you much for this magnificent welcome, and still more for the generous support given by your State to that political cause which I think is the true and just cause of the whole country and the whole world.
" Solomon says there is ' a time to keep silence,' and when men wrangle by the mouth with no certainty that they mean the same thing while they use the same loord, it, perhaps, were as well if they would keep silence.
" The words ' coercion' and ' invasion' are much used in these days, and often with some temper and hot blood. Let us make sure, if we can, that we do not misunder- stand the meaning of those who use them. Let us get exact definitions of these
62 ~ PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
words — uot from dictionaries, but from the men themselves, who certainly deprecate the things they would represent by the use of words. What, then, is ' coercion ?' What is ' invasion ?' Would the marching of an army into South Carolina, without the consent of her people, and with hostile intent toward them, be ' invasion ?' I certainly think it would, and it would be ' coercion,' also, if the South Carolinians were forced to submit. But if the United States should merely hold and retake its own forts and other property, and collect the duties on foreign importations, or even withhold the mails from places where they were habitually violated, would any or all these things be ' invasion' or ' coercion ?' Do our professed lovers of the Union, but who spitefully resolve that they will resist coercion and invasion, understand that such things as these on the part of the United Sates, would be coercion or inva- sion of a State ? If so, their idea of means to preserve the object of their affections would seem exceedingly thin and airy. If sick, the little pills of the homeopathist would be much too large for it to swallow. In their view, the Union, as a family relation, would seem to be no regular marriage, but a sort of ' free love ' arrange- ment, to be maintained only on ' passional attraction.'
" By the way, in what consists the special sacredness of a State ? I speak not of the position assigned to a State in the Union, by the Constitution ; for that, by the bond, we all recognize. That position, however, a State cannot carry out of the Union with it. I speak of that assumed primary right of a State to rule all which is less than itself and ruin all which is larger than itself. If a State and a county, in a given case, should be equal in extent of territory, and equal in number of inhabitants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the State better than the county ? Would an exchange of names be an exchange of rights upon principle ? On what rightful principle may a State, being not more than one fiftieth part of the nation, in Boil and population, break up the nation and then coerce a proportionally larger subdivision of itself, in the most arbitrary way ? What mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred on a district of country, with its people, by merely calling it a State ?
Fellow-citizens, I am not asserting any thing ; I am merely asking questions for you to consider. And now allow me to bid you farewell.
Again, he thus spoke in Cincinnati on the 12th:
'* Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens : — I have spoken but once before this in Cincin- nati. That was a year previous to the late Presidential election. On that occasion, in a playful manner, but with sincere words, I addressed much of what I said to the Eentuckians. I gave my opinion that we, as Republicans, would ultimately beat them, as Democrats, but that they could postpone that result longer by nominating Senator Douglas for the Presidency than they could in any other way. They did not, in any true sense of the word, nominate Mr. Douglas, and the result has come certainly as soon as ever I expected. I also told them how I expected they woxild be treated after they should have been beaten ; and I now wish to call their atten- tion to what I then said upon that subject. I then said, * When we do as we say, beat you, you perhaps want to know what we will do with you. I ■will tell you, aB
EEPLY TO MAYOK WOOD. gg
far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition, what we mean to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with your institutions ; to abide by all and every compromise of the Constitution ; and, in a word, coming back to the original proposition, to treat you so far as degenerate men, if we have degenerated, may, according to the example of those noble fathers, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. We mean to remember that you are as good as we ; that there is no difference between us, other than the difference of circum- Rtances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to have, and treat you accordingly.'
" Fellow-citizens of Kentucky ! friends ! brethren, may I call you in my new position ? I see no occasion, and feel no inclination to retract a word of this. If it shall not be made good, be assured the fault shall not be mine."
Passing several short speeches we quote his remarks in New York in response to the reception by Mayor Wood:
"Mr. Mayor: — It is with feelings of deep gratitude that I make my acknowledg- ments for the reception that has been given me in the great commercial city of New York. I cannot but remember that it is done by the people, who do not, by a large majority, agree with me in political sentiment. It is the more grateful to me, because in this I see that for the great principles of our Government the people are pretty nearly or quite unanimous. In regard to the difficulties that confront us at this time, and of which you have seen fit to speak so becomingly and so justly, I can only say that I agree with the sentiments expressed. In my devotion to the Union I hope I am behind no man in the nation. As to my wisdom in conducting affairs so as to tend to the preservation of the Union, I fear too great confidence may have been placed in me. I am sure I bring a heart devoted to the work. There is noth- ing that could ever bring me to consent — willingly to consent — to the destruction of this Union (in which not only the great city of New York, but the whole country, has acquired its greatness), unless it would be that thing for which the Union itself was made. I understand that the ship is made for the carrying and preservation of the cargo ; and so long as the ship is safe with the cargo, it shall not be abandoned. This Union shall never be abandoned, miless the possibility of its existence shall cease to exist, without the necessity of throwing passengers and cargo overboard. So long, then, as it is possible that the prosperity and liberties of this people can be preserved within this Union, it shall be my purpose at all times to preserve it. And now, Mr. Mayor, renewing my thanks for this cordial reception, allow me to come to a close. [Applause.]"
At Trenton, after briefly addressing the Senate, he repaired to the Assembly Chamber, where, in reply to the Speaker, he said :
" Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen : — I have just enjoyed the honor of a reception bj the other branch of this Legislature, and I return to you and them my thanks for
64 PATKIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
the reception which the people of New Jersey have given through their chosen representatives to me as the representative, for the time being, of the majesty of the United States. I appropriate to myself very little of the demonstrations of respect with which I have been greeted. I think little should be given to any man, but that it should be a manifestation of adherence to the Union and the Constitu- tion. I understand myself to be received by the representatives of the people of New Jersey, a majority of whom differ in opinion from those with whom I have acted. This manifestation is, therefore, to be regarded by me as expressing their devotion to the Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people. You, Mr. Speaker, have well said that this is a time when the bravest and wisest look with doubt and awe upon the aspect presented by our national aflairs. Under these cir- O'imstances, you will readily sec why I should not speak in detail of the course I shall deem it best to pursue. It is proper that I shoidd avail myself of all the infor- mation and all the time at my command, in order tliat when the time arrives in which I must speak officially, I shall be able to take the ground which I deem the best and safest, and from which I may have no occasion to swerve. I shall endeavor to take the ground I deem most just to the North, the East, the West, the South, and the whole country. I take it, I hope, in good temper, certainly with no malice towards any section. I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful settlement of all our difficulties. The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am. [Cheers.] None who would do more to preserve it, but it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly. [Here the audience broke out into cheers 80 loud and long, that for some moments it was impossible to hear Mr. Llncoln's voice.] And if I do my duty and do right you will sustain me, will you not ? [Loud cheers, and cries of 'Yes, yes, we will.'] Received, as I am, by the members of a Legislature, the majority of whom do not agree with me in political sentiments, I trust that I may have their assistance in piloting the ship of State through this voyage, surrounded by perils as it is, for if it should suffer wreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage. Gentlemen, I have already spoken longer than I intended, and must beg leave to stop here."
The party arrived at Philadelphia, and the President-elect, pro- ceeding immediately to the Continental Hotel, was welcomed in a brief speech from Mayor Henry, to which he replied as follows :
"Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens op Philadelphia: — I appear before you to make no lengthy speech, but to thank you for this reception. The reception yon have given me to-night is not to me, the man, the individual, but to the man who temporarily represents, or should represent, the majesty of the nation. [Cheers] It is true, as your worthy Mayor has said, that there is anxiety amongst the citizens of the United States at this time. I deem it a happy circumstance that this dissat- isfied position of our fellow-citizens does not point us to any thing in which they are being injured, or about to be injured, for which reason I have felt all the while jus- tified in concluding that the crisis, the panic, the anxiety of the country at this time.
m PHILADELPHIA. 65
is artificial. If there be those who differ with me upon this subject, they have not pointed out the substantial difficulty that exists. I do not mean to say that an arti- ficial panic may not do considerable harm: that it has done such I do not deny. The hope that has been expressed by your Mayor, that I may be able to restore peace, harmony, and prosperity to the country, is most worthy of him ; and happy, indeed, will I be if I shall be able to verify and fulfill that hope. [Tremendous cheering.] I promise you, in all sincerity, that I bring to the work a sincere heart. "Whether I will bring a head equal to that heart will be for future times to deter- mine. It were useless for me to speak of details of plans now ; I shall speak offic- ially next Monday week, if ever. If I should not speak then it were useless for me to do so now. If I do speak then it is useless for me to do so now. When I do speak I shall take such ground as 1 deem best calculated to restore peace, harmony, and prosperity to the country, and tend to the perpetuity of the nation and the liberty of these States and these people. Yom* worthy Mayor has expressed the wish, in which I join with him, that it were convenient for me to remain in your city long enough to consult your merchants and manufacturers ; or, as it were, to listen to those breathings rising within the consecrated walls wherein the Constitu- tion of the United States, and I will add, the Declaration of Independence, were originally framed and adopted. [Enthusiastic applause.] I assure you and your Mayor that I had hoped on this occasion, and upon all occasions during my life, that I shall do nothing inconsistent with the teachings of these holy and most sacred walls. I never asked any thing that does not breathe from those walls. All my political warfare has been in favor of the teachings that came forth from these sacred walls. May my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if ever I prove false to those teachings. Fellow-citizens, I have addressed you longer than I expected to do, and now allow me to bid you good night."
These brief addresses indicated his strong desire to avoid blood- shed, to restore peace and quietness but at the same time to main- tain the unity of the States at every cost. Disappointing the schemes of conspirators he reached Washington on Saturday morn- ing of Feb. 23d, in advance of all expectation, and of hospitable pre- parations for his reception. Threats had been made of a forcible pre- vention of the inauguration, but the thorough preparations of Lieut. - Gen. Scott prevented any outbreak and secured the utmost quiet.
The ceremony of inauguration took place as usual in front of the
Capitol, and in the presence of a vast number of witnesses. Before
taking the oath, Mr. Lincoln, in a clear ringing voice delivered his
inaugural address, to hear which there was intense solicitude ; to
read which the nation and the world waited. The intimate relation
of the President to Illinois warrants the reproduction of the entire
address.
5
66 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
'^Ji'dlato-cntizens of tJte United Slates :
"In compliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Con- stitution of the United States to be taken by the President ' before he enters on the execution of his office.'
" I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of- ad- ministration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement.
"Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the pub- lished speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those epeeches when I declare that 'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.' Those who nominated and elected me did so with full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them. And more than this, they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read:
"*i2esofi;ec?, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State, to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to the balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend, and we denounce the law- less invasion by armed force of the soil of any state or territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.'
" I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming Administration. I add, too, that all the protection which, con- sistently with the Constitution and laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the States, when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause — as cheerfully to one eection as to another.
" There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions :
"'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 service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom Buch service or labor may be due.'
"It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the lawgiver
rNATTGtniAL ADDRESS. ' 67
is the law. All members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constita- tion — to this provision as much as any other. To the proposition then, that slaves, whose cases come within the terms of this clause, ' shall be delivered up,' their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath ?
"There is some difference of opinion whether this law clause should be enforced by national or by state authority ; but surely that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him, or to others, by which authority it is done. And should any one, in any case, be content that his oath shall go unkept, on a mere unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept?
"Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave ? And might it not be well, at the same time, to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guar- antees that 'the citizens of each fe. 'te shall be entitled to all privileges and immu- nities of citizens in the several States.'
"I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules. And while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional.
"It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under our na- tional Constitution. During that period, fifteen different and greatly distinguished citizens have, in succession, administered the Executive branch of the government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with all this scope for precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief con- stitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.
"I hold, that, in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, tJie Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamen- tal law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to exe- cute all the express provisions of our national Constitution, and the Union will en- dure forever — it being impossible to destroy it, except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself.
" Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it ? One party to a contract may violate it — break it, so to speak ; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it ?
"Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that, in legal contemplation, the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history of the Union itselfc
68 PATKIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of all the then Thir- teen States expressly plighted and engaged that it should be perpetual, by the Arti- cles of Confederation in 1778. And, finally, in 1787, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was 'to form a more perfect union.'
"But if destruction of the Union, by one, or by a part only, of the States, be law- fully possible, the Union is less perfect than before, the Constitution having lost the vital element of perpetuity.
" It follows, from these views, that no State, upon its own mere motion, can law- fully get out of the Union; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void ; and that acts of violence within any State or States, against the au- thority of the United States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to cir- cumstances.
" I, therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part ; and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters the American peo- ple, shall withhold the requisite means, or, in some authoritative manner, direct the contrary. I trust this will not be granted as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself.
" In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence ; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me vrill be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the govern- ment, and to collect the duties and imposts ; but beyond what may be but necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, in any interior locality, shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent resident citizens from hold- ing the Federal ofiBces, there will be no attempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the strict legal right may exist in the govern- ment to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irri- tating, and so nearly impracticable withal, I deem it better to forego, for the time, the uses of such offices.
" The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. The course here indicated will be followed, unless current events and experience shall show a modi- fication or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised, according to circumstances actually existing, and with a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of frater- nal sympathies and affections.
•' That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the Unioa
INAUGURAX, ADDEE8S. 69
at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor deny ; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, however, who really love the Union, may I not speak ?
" Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence ? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from — will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake ?
" All profess to be content in the Union, if all constitutional rights can be main- tained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the Constitution, has been denied ? I think not. Happily the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the Constitution has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of numbers, a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution — certainly would if such right were a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly assured to them by afiSrma- tions and negations, guarantees and prohibitions in the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision epeoifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by na- tional or by State authority ? The Constitution does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the territories ? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in the territories ? The Constitution does not expressly say.
" From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities or minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no other alternative ; for continuing the government is acquiescence on one side or the other. If a mi- nority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which, in turn, will divide and ruin them ; for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new Confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it ? All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this.
" Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose a new Um"on, as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed secession ?
"Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sover- eign of a free people. Whoever rejects it, does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible ; the rule of a minority, as a permanent ar- rangement, is wholly inadmissible ; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.
70 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
"I do not forget the position assumed by some, that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court ; nor do I deny that such decisions must be binding, in any case, upon the parties to a suit as to the object of that suit, while they arc also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the government. And while it is obviously possible that such decisions may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil effect following it being limited to that particular case, with the chance that it may be overruled, and never become a precedent for other cases, can better be borne than could the evils of a diflFerent practice. At the same time the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.
*' Nor is there in this view any assault upon the Court of the Judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes. One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is the only sub- stantial dispute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution, and the law for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, are each as well enforced, perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense of the people imperfectly sup- ports the law itself. The great body of the people abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured ; and it would be worse in both cases after the separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave-trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived without restriction in one section, while fugitive slaves, now oiJy partially surrendered, would not be surrendered at all by the other.
" Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but re- main face to face ; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue be- tween them. Is it impossible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before ? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws ? Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends ? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you.
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the national Constitution amended. While I make
mAUGURAL ADDRESS. 71
no reoommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes prescribed ia the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add, that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendmeuta to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, which might not be precisely such as they would wish either to accept or refuse. I under- stand a proposed amendment to the Constitution — which amendment, however, I have not seen — has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, hold- ing such a provision now to be implied constitutional law, I have no objections to ita being made express and irrevocable.
"The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this also if they choose ; but the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present government as it came to hiB hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his successor.
" Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world ? In our present differen- ces, is cither party without faith of being in the right ? If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail, by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people.
"By the form of the government under which we live, the same people have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief; and have, with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.
" My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothiilg valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time ; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it ; while the new administra- tion will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were ad- mitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still ia no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are Btill conipetent to adjust, in the best way, all our present diflBculty
72 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the mo- mentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.
"You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government; while I shall have the most solemn one to ' preserve, protect, and defend ' it.
" I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Tiiough passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
"The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
He had come into power at a dark and stormy hour. Several States had seceded, and others were consummating their arrange- ments to do so. There was treason in army and navy. He was almost without means of offence or defence.
The President's first act was to construct his Cabinet, which was done by the appointment of William H, Seward, of New York, Secretary of State ; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy; Caleb B. Smith, of Indiana, Secretary of the Interior ; Montgomery Blair^ of Maryland, Postmaster General ; and Edward Bates, of Missouri, Attorney General. These nominations were all confirmed by the Senate, and these gentlemen entered upon the discharge of the duties of their several offices. Hereafter Mr. Lincoln's administra- tion will only come incidentally under review.
Meanwhile the works upon which Major Anderson might not open fire were progressing and were finally completed, and were soon to hurl shot and shell upon its doomed defences. On the llth of April came the demand for surrender which Major Anderson de- clined, but admitted that unless supplies reached him before the 15th, hunger would compel surrender. On the morning of the 12th, at four o'clock, fire was opened upon some threescore men from about three thousand, though they knew the threescore were cooped for hopeless starvation. The story has been often told. The garrison did what it could, and then surrendered, and the national flag was struck before the assaulting hands of men born and reared under its protecting folds. It was the first act in the drama of stern, terrible war, and the awe-struck nation stood for a moment and confronted it — only a moment.
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OHAPTEE III.
THE GREAT UPRISING.
Sabbath and Sumter — ^Pulpits — Excitement — How Could it be? — Reasons for Sub- render — Watchwords of Loyalty — The Flag — ^The Churches — The Press — Ora- tory— The Children — Woman — Voice of Providence — President's Proclama- tion— Blockading Proclamation — Springfield — Governor Yates's Proclama- tion— Six Regiments — Senator Douglas's Springfield Speech — Interview with Governor Yates — Wigwam Speech — ^Its Influence — His Death — Speech quot- ed— Baltimore Riot — ^A Minister's Expression — Popular demand to take Troops THROUGH Baltimore — Object of mob Defeated — Men and Money tendered — ^Peo- ple demand short, earnest War — Influence of the "Great Uprising" on the Secessionists.
"Throughout the land there goes a cry; A sudden splendor fills the sky ; From every hill the banners burst, Like buds by April breezes nurst ; In every hamlet, home and mart, The firebeat of a single heart Keeps time to strains whose pulses mix Our blood with that of Seventy-Six !
" The shot whereby the old flag fell From Sumter's battered citadel, Struck down the lines of party creed, And made ye One in soul and deed, — One mighty people, stern and strong, To crush the consummated wrong; Indiguant with the wrath whose rod Smites as the awful sword of God !"
[Bayard Taylor, April 30, 1861.
THE morning of Sabbath, April 14th, brought to the piincipal cities of the Union the announcement that the flag had been struck, and that, overborne by superior strength, Major Anderson had capitulated. That was all, but that was enough ! Pulpits rang that Sabbath with extemporized sermons, yet none more eloquent VT'ere ever preached. Strong men bowed their heads and wept as
74 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
children. Along the streets trod hosts of excited men; martial music was heard on every side, and active measm-es were taken to organize military companies.
The next day brought more definite intelligence, and the whole land rocked with excitement. At first there was surprise bordering on incredulity. How could it be so ? How could the strong walls of Sumter give way ? They forgot, in the hurry of the moment, that the most elaborate and extensive preparations had been made, and that Major Anderson had been compelled to see them completed before his eyes, while he knew that, if permitted to do so, he could easily prevent the finishing of a single battery. They forgot, for the moment, that a handful of men was no match for eager thousands, and that sheer exhaustion would soon cause them to succumb. They did not think, for the moment, of the " heU of fire " to which they were subjected.
But they soon remembered it all, and did full justice to the heroic commandant and his garrison. And then came the terrible con- sciousness that war was upon them. The Union was assailed ; the right of the constitutional majority to rule was denied; and war had begun ! Perhaps no single thought proved more intensely exciting than the dishonor of the flag. It was the representative of Government ; it was the symbol of national majesty ; it was the emblem of authority and protection. It had been honored on all seas, had afibrded sanctuary in all lands, and now it was insulted and hauled down before home conspu-ators ! "For the Flag!" "Defend the Flag !" " Rally to the Flag !" "Avenge the Stars and Stripes !" were mottoes seen in all places ! The Flag was displayed every- where, from stores, shops, and printing offices. It floated from church sjjires, and di-aped alike orthodox and heteorodox pulpits. It flaunted from private residences and school-rooms, and miniature ones were placed upon the cradles of little ones soon to be left fath- erless by "the fortunes of war." It was moimted on almost every locomotive. Copies of the " Star Spangled Banner" and " The Red, White and Blue," were called for until the supply was exhausted, and new editions were demanded. In a day old party lines went down, and for a season we were again one people, united in the determined purpose of National Salvation. Nineteen millions of
THE PULPIT AND PRESS. tj^
people were intensely excited; moving like vast waves surging before a great wind.
In the churches, pulpits thundered stern denunciations of Rebel- lion. The ministers declared that God had set this land midway between the oceans as a great political and religious missionary land. They showed that He marked it as the home of a united people, and that when He aforetime determined the bounds of our habitation. He gave us this land to be made, in its entirety, the land of free speech, free presses, free schools, free pulpits, free men and women. They said He has so built its mountains as to bind together, not divide, the North and the South ; and what God hath joined together, let no man or body of men put asunder ! He has traced the great rivers of the continent so they cannot be di-sdding lines between the States of the Cotton, the Rice and the Sugar, and those of the Wheat, the Corn and the Barley, with the beds of coal and the spindles of industry. They said He hath made it one, and never can it be cut in twain. More than one, at the very outset, saw that the contest was between Freedom and Slavery, and putting on the prophet's mantle, said: "Slavery hath taken the sword: it shall perish by the sword." Not in the Crusades was the re- ligious spirit more marked, causative, and controlling than in Thb Great Uprising of 1861.
The Press was active. Political, Secular and Religious alike made appeal after appeal. Secular papers teemed with prophecy, sermon and exhortation. Religious papers were crowded with proc- lamations, general orders and war songs.
Oratory played its part, and from rostrum, from out-door stands, from court-house steps and hotel balconies, speakers addressed masses of people animated with one great purpose.
The children caught the fever, and each school had its play-ground transformed into a parade-ground, while smaU di-ums, miniature cannon and harmless small arms, were the playthings of the nursery.
Elsewhere," "Woman's works" remain to be noted, and it is enough to say that, knowing that war meant bereavement of hus- bands, sons, brothers and plighted lovers, the women said the na- tion's honor must be prcsei'ved, no matter at what cost!
76 PATEIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
Everywhere, the American people heard the voice of Providence, saying :
" Draw forth your million blades as one ; Complete the battle now begun ! God fights with ye, and overhead Floats the dear banner of your dead. They and the glories of the Past, The Future, dawning dim and vast, And all the holiest hopes of Man Are beaming triumph in your van.
" Slow to resolve, be swift to do ! Teach ye the False how fight the True ! How bucklered Perfidy shall feel In her black heart, the Patriot's steel ; How sure the bolt that Justice wings ; How weak the arm a traitor brings ; How mighty they who steadfast stand For Freedom's Flag and Freedom's Land !"
All eyes were turned toward the National Capital, and the eager question went from lip to lip : " What will the President do ?" The question was soon answered. Before nightfall on Monday, the 15th, was transmitted, by telegraph, the following Proclamation :
PROCLAMATION.
By the President of the United States.
" Whereas, The laws of the United States have been for some time past and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law ; now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, Presi- dent of the United States, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several States of the Union to the aggregate number of YSiOOO, in order to sup- press said combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed.
" The details for this object will be immediately communicated to the State au- thorities through the War Department I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facili- tate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and existence of our national Union, and the perpetuity of popular government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured. I deem it proper to say that the first service assign- ed to the forces hereby called forth, will probably be to re-possess the forts, places and property which have been seized from the Union ; and in every event the ut-
peesident's proclamation. 77
most care will be observed, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any de- vastation, any destruction of, or interference with, property, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens of any part of the country ; and I hereby command the persons composing the combinations aforesaid, to disperse and retire peaceably to their re- spective abodes, within twenty days from this date.
" Deeming that the present condition of public afiFaira presents an extraordinury occasion, I do hereby, in virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, con- vene both houses of Congress. The Senators and Representatives are, therefore, summoned to assemble at their respective Chambers at twelve o'clock, noon, on Thursday, the fourth day of July next, then and there to consider and determine such measures as, in their wisdom, the public safety and interest may seem to de- mand.
/'In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
"Done at the City of Washington, this fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-fifth.
"Abraham Lincoln. " By the President,
" William H. Seward, Secretary of State."
This was followed, on the 19th, by the celebrated Blockading Proclamation, which is here appended :
A PROCLAMATION,
By the President of the United States.
" Whereas, An insurrection against the government of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, and the laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue cannot be efficiently executed therein conformable to that provision of the Constitution which requires duties to be uniform throughout the United States ;
" And, whereas, a combination of persons, engaged in such insurrection, have threat- ened to grant pretended letters of marque, to authorize the bearers thereof to com- mit assaults on the lives, vessels, and property of the good citizens of the country, lawfully engaged in commerce on the high seas, and in waters of the United States ;
" And, wliereas, an Executive Proclamation has already issued, requiring the persons engaged in these disorderly proceedings to desist therefrom, calling out a militia force for the purpose of repressing the same, and convening Congress in extraor- dinary session to deliberate and determine thereon ;
"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, with a view to the same purposes before mentioned, and to the protection of the public peace, and the lives and property of quiet and orderly citizens pursuing their lawful occu- pational until Oongresa shall have assembled and deliberated on the said unlawful
78 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
proceedings, or until tlie same shall have ceased, have further deemed it advisable to set on foot a blockade of the ports within the States aforesaid, in pursuance of the laws of the United States and of the laws of nations, in such cases provided. For this purpose, a competent force will be posted so as to prevent entrance and exit of vessels from the ports aforesaid. If, therefore, with a view to violate such blockade, a vessel shall approach, or shall attempt to leave any of the siiid port3, she will be duly warned by the commander of one of the blockading vessels, who will endorse on her register the fact and date of such warning ; and if the same vessel shall again attempt to enter or leave the blockaded port, she will be cap- tured and sent to the nearest convenient port, for such proceedings against her and her cargo, as prizes, as may be deemed advisable.
" And I hereby proclaim and declare, that if any person, under the pretended au- thority of such States, or under any other pretence, shall molest a vessel of the United States, or the persons or cargo on board of her, such persons will be held amenable to the laws of the United States for the prevention and punishment of piracy.
" By the President. Abraham Lincoln.
" William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
"Washington, April 19, 1861."
These documents convinced all that war -would be waged until rebellion should be suppressed, and they intensified the popular en- thusiasm.
In this State all eyes were turned toward Springfield. It was known that Governor Yates had expressed himself determined to use every means to maintain the unity of the States, and none doubted that his measures would be promptly taken. It was known that, in view of possible war, Judge Allen C. Fuller had accepted the position of Adjutant General of the State, and there was confi- dence in his integrity and executive ability.
On Tuesday morning, it was ascertained that the following dis patch had been received at Springfield :
"Washington, April 15, 1881. "ffis Excellency, Richard Tales :
" Call made on you by to-night's mail for six regiments for immediate service.
" Simon Cameron, Secretary of War."
On the same date Governor Yates issued the followino: Proclama- tion:
" Springfield, 111., April 15, 1861. "I, Richard Yates, Governor of the State of Illinois, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution, hereby convene the Legislature of the State, and
THROUGH BALTIMORE. 79
the members of the twenty-second session of the General Assembly are hereby re- quired to be and appear in their respective places, at the Capitol, on Toesdat, the tioeiity-third day of April, A. D. 1861, for the purpose of enacting such laws and adopting such measures as may be deemed necessary, upon the following subjects : Tbe more perfect organization and equipment of the militia of the State, and plac- ing the same upon the best footing to render assistance to the General Government in preserving the Union, enforcing tbe laws and protecting the property and rights of the people ; also, the raising of such money and other means as may be required to carry out the foregoing object ; and also to provide for the expenses of such session.
"In testimony whereof, I hereunto set my hand, and have caused the Great Seal of the State to be hereunto affixed at the City of Springfield, the 15th day of April, A. D. 1861.
"Richard Yates.
"By order of the Governor: " 0. M. Hatch, Secretary of State."
General Order No. 1 was issued on the 15th, from the head- quarters at Springfield, directing all commandants of divisions, brigades, regiments and companies to hold themselves ready for actual service; and on the 16th, Order No. 2 provided for the imme- diate organization of the six regiments, and within ten days, more than ten thousand men had offered theu* services ; and in addition to the force dispatched to Cau-o, more than the full quota was in camp at Springfield.
A little later two other circumstances increased the intensity of public feeling. The first, the news of the assault on the Massachti- setts sixth and Pennsylvania troops by the Baltimore mob. Nobly has that city redeemed itself from that disgrace, but when the news was read in Chicago, on the morning of the 20th, that on the day preceding, brave men, rushing to the defense of the Capital, were murdered in the streets of Baltimore, there was a demand for the sternest measures. Excited groups, pale with indignation, gath- ered on the corners and asked to be armed and led to Washington through Baltimore. Said a minister of eminence, in his sacred calling : " I was born in Baltimore ; I have loved its name ; my kindred are there, but I should rejoice to know that it was laid in ashes." The State was agitated beyond description when it was learned that the route to Washington was thus closed by violence. In common with sister States, it demanded that the way should be opened, not around the city, as alarmists suggested, but through it.
80 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
The policy which consented temporarily to another route was con- demned as an unwise and undignified concession to a brutal mob, itself the tool of the secession leaders. That mob was expected to stay the march of Union troops until Washington should be captured. Its failure was felt to be the first rebel defeat of the campaign.
The other was the course of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Mr. Lincoln's competitor for the Presidency. They had been political antagonists, and, as we have seen, had represented opposing policies. Mr. Douglas possessed great popular power. He had a command- ing wUl — was bold to audacity ; as an orator, he had few equals, whether he spoke to the American Senate, or to the masses who gathered on the prairies of his own State. In the great uprising, there were whispers that there were parts of the State whose sym- pathies, from ancestry, trade and political afl&nities were with the South, and that they would not go with Mr. Lincoln in the coercion of sovereign States. It was said they would range themselves imder another banner, and that the southern counties of Indiana were with them.
These localities had been devoted to Mr. Douglas, and had stead- ily and enthusiastically supported him. He waited on the Presi- dent, and expressed his concurrence in the policy of calling out the ti'oops and maintaining the national honor at aU hazards, and on the 18th set his face toward the West.
Reaching Springfield, on the 25th he addressed the two houses of the Illinois Legislature in a style of magical power. He said :
" For the first time since the adoption of the Federal Constitntion, a wide-spread conspiracy exists to overthrow the best government the smi of heaven ever shone upon. An invading army is marching upon Washington. The boast has gone forth from the Secretary of War of the so-called Confederate States, that by the first of May the rebel army will be in possession of the National Capital, and, by the first of July, its headquarters will be in old Independence Hall.
" The only question for us is, whether we shall wait supinely for the invaders, or rush, as one man, to the defence of that we hold most dear. Piratical flags are afloat on the ocean, under pretended letters of marque. Our Great River has been closed to the commerce of the Northwest. ***##»*
So long as a hope remained of peace, I plead and implored for compromise. Now, that all else has failed, there is but one course left, and that is to rally, as one man, under the flag of Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison and Franklin. At what time since the government was organized, have the constitutional rights of the South been more secure than now ? For the first time since the Constitution
SENATOR DOUGLAS — HIS LAST WORK. 81
was adopted, there is no legal restriction against the spread of slavery in the terri- tories. When was the Fugitive Slave Law more faithfully executed ? What single act has been done to justify this mad attempt to overthrow the Republic ? We are told that because a certain party has carried a Presidential election, therefore the South chose to consider their liberties insecure ! I had supposed it was a funda- mental principle of American institutions, that the will of the majority, constitu- tionally expressed, should govern ! [Applause.] If a defeat at the ballot-box is to justify rebellion, the future history of the United States may be read in the past history of Mexico.
"It is a prodigious crime against the freedom of the world, to attempt to blot the United States out of the map of Christendom. ******
How long do you think it will be ere the guillotine is in operation ? Allow me to say to my former political enemies, you will not be true to your country if you seek to make political capital out of these disasters [applause] ; and to my old friends, you will be false and unworthy of your principles if you allow political defeat to convert you into traitors to your national land. [Prolonged applause.] The short- est way now to peace is the most stupendous and unanimous preparations for war. [Storms of applause.]
" Gentlemen, it is our duty to defend our Constitution and protect our flag."
While in Springfield, he and Governor Yates met. Between these two gentlemen there had been bitter feelings, growing out of poHtical contests. But what were past party conflicts to them now, as they stood face to face, each bent on the salvation of his country ? Nothing and less than nothing.
The Senator next proceeded to Chicago, where men of aU parties hailed his coming with a grand ovation. He again spoke ; this time — and the last — in the "Republican Wigwam," the building in which was held the Convention which nominated his successful rival, Abraham Lincoln. It was an effort worthy the last public hours of the statesman's life. Its arguments were unanswerable — its appeals irresistible. He closed, returned to his rooms at the Tremont House, to die !
It is scarcely too much to say that those two speeches united the West, and prevented the hori'ors of civil war on this side of the Mis- sissippi River. They were as the word of the prophets of old, fall- ing upon the public conscience and the public heart. His voice had suoh power as had no other.
" One blast upon his bugle horn Was worth a thousand men." His speeches were transmitted by telegraph ; they were copied into 6
82 PATEIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
newspapers; they were read in all homes, and the cry sped from lip to lip — "Douglas sustains Lincoln !" In vain did the emissaries of Davis cry " No coercion." " Douglas sustains Lincoln," not as Lin- coln, but as President of an assailed Republic," was too strong for their piping treason.
Lying in his sick-room, he dictated his last letter, on the 10th of May. It was addressed to Virgil Hickox, Chairman of the State Central Democratic Committee. In that he said : " It seems that some of m,y friends are unable to comprehend the difference between arguments used in favor of an equitable compromise^ with the hope of averting the horrors of war, and those urged in support of the government and flag of om- country, ^ohen war is being waged against the United States, with the avowed purpose of producing a permanent disruption of the Union and a total destruction of its government. ****** * * *
In this view of the state of facts, there teas but one path of duty left to patriotic men. It was not a party question, nor a question involving partisan policy ; it was a question of government or no government / country or no country / and hence it became the im- perative duty of every union man, every friend of constitutional liberty, to rally to the support of our common country, its govern- ment and flag, as the only means of checking the progi'ess of revo- lution and preserving the Union. ****** I trust the time will never come when I shall not be willing to make any needful sacrifice of personal feeling and party policy for the honor and integrity of the country."
And when the word " Douglas is dead," was flashed along the wires, men of all parties wept. They came from almost every county in Illinois, to look upon his remains as they lay in state in Bryan Hall ; and as they passed the pile on which they rested, few looked upon them who did not feel that the last days of his life were incomparably the most glorious. He had crowned his pyra- mid with a capital of stars ! The long procession which followed his body to the quiet grave on the western shore of the grand lake he so much loved, foUowed not the partisan — ^not the eloquent Sena- tor— ^but Stephen A. Douglas, the patriot ! Old strifes were for- gotten; old blows forgiven; old feuds buried.
His words completed the majesty of the "Great Uprising;" they completed the prostration of party lines, and the unity of the people.
WIGWAM SPEECH. 83
It is due to his memory that we place in this chapter some extracts from his last speech :
" I beg you to believe that I will not do you or myself the injustice to think that this magnificent ovation is personal to myself. I rejoice to know that it expresses your devotion to the Constitution, the Union, and the flag of our country. I will not conceal gratification at the uncontrovertible test this vast audience presents— that, what political difiFerences or party questions may have divided us, yet you all had a conviction that, when the country should be in danger, my loyalty could be relied on. That the present danger is imminent, no man can conceal. If war must come — if the bayonet must be used to maintain the Constitution — I say before God, my conscience is clean. I have struggled long for a peaceful solution of the diiSculty. I have not only tendered those States what was theirs of right, but I have gone to the very extreme of magnanimity.
"The return we receive is war; armies marched upon our Capital; obstructions and dangers to our navigation ; letters of marque, to invite pirates to prey upon our com- merce; a concerted movement to blot out the United States of America from tho map of the globe. The question is. Are we to maintain the country of our fathers, or allow it to be stricken down by those who, when they can no longer govern, threaten to destroy ?
" What cause, what excuse do disunioniats give us, for breaking up the best Gov- ernment on which the sun of heaven ever shed its rays? They are dissatisfied with the result of the Presidential election. Did they never get beaten before ? Are we to resort to the sword when we get defeated at the ballot box ? I understand it that the voice of the people expressed in the mode appointed by the Constitution, must command the obedience of every citizen. They assume, on the election of a par- ticular candidate, that their rights are not safe in the Union. What evidence do they present of this ? I defy any man to show any act on which it is based. What act has been omitted to be done ? I appeal to these assembled thousands, that so far as the constitutional rights of slaveholders are concerned, nothing has been done, and nothing omitted, of which they can complain.
"There has never been a time from the day that Washington was inaugurated first President of the United States, when the rights of the Southern States stood firmer under the laws of the land than they do now ; there never was a time when they had not as good cause for disunion as they have to-day. What good cause have they now that has not ex;isted imder every administration?
"If they say the Territorial question — now, for the first time, there is no act of Congress prohibiting slavery anywhere. If it be the non-enforcement of the laws, the only complaints, that I have heard, have been of the too vigorous and faithful fulfillment of the Fugitive Slave Law ? Then what reason have they ?
" The slavery question is a mere excuse. The election of Lincoln is a mere pre- text. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy formed more than a year since, formed by leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than twelve months ago.
"But this is no time for the detail of causes. The conspiracy is now knowm
84: PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
Armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish it. There are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war; only patriots — or traitors.
" Thank God, Illinois is not divided on this question. I know they expected to present a imited South against a divided North. They hoped in the Northern States party questions would bring civil war between Democrats and Republicans, when the South would step in with her cohorts, aid one party to conquer the otlier, and then make easy prey of the victors. Their scheme was carnage and civil war in the North.
" There is but one way to defeat this. In Illinois it is being so defeated by clos- ing up the ranks. War will thus be prevented on our own soil. While there was a hope for peace, I was ready for any reasonable sacrifice or compromise to maintain it. But when the question comes of war in the cotton fields of the South, or the corn fields of Illinois, I say the further off the better.
" I have said more than I intended to say. It is a sad task to discuss questions so fearful as civil war; but sad as it is, bloody and disastrous as I expect it will be, I express it as my conviction before God, that it is the duty of every American citizen to rally around the flag of his country.
" I thank you again for this magnificent demonstration. By it you show you have laid aside party strife. Illinois has a proud position — united, firm, determined never to permit the government to be destroyed."
The uprising of the people tendered to the Government all it wanted of men and means, only asking that there should be a short, sharp, earnest campaign, the speedy suppression of rebellion and the restoration of the Union.
From the outset the people were in advance of the calls of the government. They asked the privilege of going into war. They tendered brigades where the administration only asked for regi- ments. This uprising, on a scale of such grandeur, and with spuit so intense, was evidently unexpected to secessionists. They had so long vaunted themselves the masters of " Northern mudsills," that they had ended, greatly to their cost, in believing it themselves, and thought they had but to frown and Northern men would fly trem- bling to their retreats. They fuother expected Northern divisions to so weaken us as to comiterbalance our nimierical supremacy.
But instead of these things, they saw an outburst of military en- thusiasm. They saw the nation of tradesmen suddenly a nation of soldiers, and a United Noeth ready to do them battle for right of constitutional authority and for the majesty of law. And sefeing that, they knew war awaited them, stern and uucompromising war, and they gu-ded themselves to meet it.
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CHAPTER lY.
EARLY WAR MEASURES.
Patriotic Governors — Richard Yates — Parentage and Education — State Liqis- LATURE — ^In Congress — Elected Governor — Inaugural — What shall be done? — Adjutant-General Fuller — First call for Troops — The Situation — The Mili- tia— Proclamation — Special Message — Aid — General Orders Nos. 1, 2 — Char- acter OF the First Call — Why was it so ? — Perhaps — Hopes of Peace — AwiiT- ING Congress — Mr. Cameron on the Situation — Richmond Enquirer — The Navy — After the Event — ^Egypt and Israel .
IT was surely providential that in the loyal States there were so many Governors who proved to be, emphatically, men for the hour. There was Andrews of Massachusetts, Dennison and Tod of Ohio, Curtin of Pennsylvania, Morton of Indiana, with the noble of executives of Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. With these, as the earnest patriot, the stirring orator, the efficient admin- istrator, the active and prudent Commander-in-Chief, Illinois writes the name of her citizen- Governor, Richakd Yates.
He was born at Warsaw, Gallatin county, Kentucky. In 1831 Iiis father removed to Illinois and settled at Springfield. He graduated at Illinois College, Jacksonville, and subsequently studied the pro- fession of law with Col. J. J. Hardin, who fell in the Mexican war. He represented his coimtry thi-ee times in the State Legislature. Li 1850, he was nominated, by a Whig Convention, to represent his district in Congress, and was elected, and found himself the young- est member of the body. In spite of a change in the district, which, it was supposed, secured it to the opposite party, he was elected over Ml". John Calhoun, a popular leader of the other party. At the next election he was defeated, the district sustaining, by its vote, the " Nebraska BiU " measure of Senator Douglas.
While in Congress he made his mark as an able member, and an able opponent of the extension of the area of slavery. His opposi- tion to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and its associate
86 PATRIOTISM OF ILLINOIS.
legislation was stern and persistent. In 1860 he received the nomi- nation of the Republican State Convention as its candidate for Governor, and after a spu'ited and exciting canvass was elected.
On the 14th of January he delivered his inaugural message to the General Assembly, and in discussing national affairs, showed that, while disposed to tender every lawful measure of pacification, the State of Illinois, as represented by its executive chief officer would maintain the Union and vindicate the right of constitutional majori- ties. He said :
" Whatever may have been the divisions of parties hitherto, the people of Illinois will, with one accord, give their assent and firm support to two propositions :
"First — That obedience to the Constitution and the laws must be insisted upon, and enforced as necessary to the existence of the government.
" Second — That the election of a chief magistrate of the nation in strict conform- ity with the constitution, is no sufficient cause for the release of any State from any of its obligations to the Union.
" A minority of the people may be persuaded that a great error has been com- mitted by such election, but for relief in such a contingency, the Constitution looks to the efficacy of frequent elections, and has placed it in the power of the people to remove their agents and servants at wilL The working of our government is based upon the principles of the indisputable rights of majorities. To deny the right of those, who have constitutionally succeeded by ballot to stations only to be so occu- pied, is not merely unfair and unjust, but revolutionary ; and for a party which has constitutionally triumphed, to surrender the powers it has won, would be an ignoble submission, a degradation of manhood, a base desertion of the people's service, which should inevitably consign it to the scorn of Christendom and the infamy of history.
" The American people need no assurance that the Republican party, valuing as it ought the triumph it has won, will never be disposed to yield its honors or avoid its duties. They not only claim, but intend to have the administration for the period of time allotted to them by the Constitution.
" To give shape and form to their purpose of resistance, the dissatisfied leaders of the South Carolina movement have revived the doctrine, long since exploded, that a State may nullify a law of Congress and secede from the Union at pleasure. Such a doctrine can never for a moment be permitted. Its admission wovdd be fatal to the existence of government, would dissolve all the relations which bind the people together, and reduce to anarchy the order of the Republic.
" This is a government entered into by the people of the whole country in their sovereign capacity, and although it have the sanction also, of a compact between sovereign States, does not receive its chief support from that circumstance, but from the original and higher action of the people themselves.
INAIJGUEAL MESSAGE. 87
"This Union cannot be dissolved by one State, nor by the people of one State or of a dozen States. This government was designed to be perpetual and can be dis- solved only by revolution.
" Secession is disunion. Concede to South Carolina the right to release her people from the duties and obligations belonging to their citizenship and you annihilate the sovereignty of the Union by prostrating its ability to secure allegiance. Could a government which could not vindicate itself, and which had exhibited such a sign of weakness, command respect or long maintain itself? If that State secede, why may not California and Oregon, and with better reason, because they are remote from the Capital, and separated by uninhabited wildernesses and vast mountain ranges, and may have an independent commerce with the shores and islands of the Pacific and the marts of the Indies ? Why may not Pennsylvania secede and dis- pute our passage to the seaboard through her territory ? Why may not Louisiana constitute herself an independent nation, and dictate to the people of the great Northwest the onerous terms upon which her millions of agricultural and industrial products might find a transit through the Mississippi and be delivered to the com- merce of the world.
"It will be admitted that the territory of Louisiana, acquired in 1803, for the pur- pose of securing to the people of the United States the free navigation of the Mis- sissippi, could never have seceded ; yet it is pretended, that when that territory has BO perfected its municipal organization as to be admitted into the Union as a State, with the powers and privileges equal to the other States, slie may at pleasure repu- diate the union and forbid to the other States the free navigation which