USA > Illinois > Brown County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 8
USA > Illinois > Cass County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 8
USA > Illinois > Schuyler County > Biographical review of Cass, Schuyler and Brown Counties, Illinois: Containing biographical sketches of pioneers and leading citizens > Part 8
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At noon on the 15th of April Andrew
Johnson assumed the Presidency, and active measures were taken which resulted in the death of Booth and the execution of his principal accomplices.
The funeral of President Lincoln was conducted with unexampled solemnity and magnificence. Impressive services were held in Washington, after which the sad procession proceeded over the same route he had traveled four years before, from Springfield to Washington. In Philadel- phia his body lay in state in Independence Hall, in which he had declared before his first inauguration " that I would sooner be assassinated than to give up the principles of the Declaration of Independence." He was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery, near Springfield, Illinois, on May 4, where a monument emblematic of the emancipation of the slaves and the restoration of the Union mark his resting place.
The leaders and citizens of the expiring Confederacy expressed genuine indignation at the murder of a generous political adver- sary. Foreign nations took part in mourn- ing the death of a statesman who had proved himself a true representative of American nationality. The freedmen of the South almost worshiped the memory of their de- liverer; and the general sentiment of the great Nation he had saved awarded him a place in its affections, second only to that held by Washington.
The characteristics of Abraham Lincoln have been familiarly known throughout the civilized world. His tall, gaunt, ungainly figure, homely countenance, and his shrewd mother-wit, shown in his celebrated con- versations overflowing in humorous and pointed anecdote, combined with an accu- rate, intuitive appreciation of the questions of the time, are recognized as forming the best type of a period of American history now rapidly passing away.
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ANDREW JOHNSON.
DDREW JOEnSon.
NDREW JOHNSON, the seventeenth Presi- dent of the United States, 1865-'9, was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, De- eember 29, 1808. His father died when he was four years old, and in his eleventh year he was ap- prentieed to a tailor. He nev- er attended school, and did not learn to read until late in his apprenticeship, when he suddenly acquired a passion for obtaining knowledge, and devoted all his spare time to reading.
After working two years as a journey- , man tailor at Lauren's Court-House, South Carolina, he removed, in 1826, to Green- ville, Tennessee, where he worked at his trade and married. Under his wife's in- struetions he made rapid progress in his education, and manifested such an intelli- gent interest in local polities as to be elected as " workingmen's candidate " al- dernian, in 1828, and mayor in 1830, being twice re-elected to caeli office.
During this period he cultivated his tal- ents as a publie speaker by taking part in a
debating society, consisting largely of stu- dents of Greenville College. In 1835, and again in 1839, he was chosen to the lower house of the Legislature, as a Democrat. In 1841 he was elected State Senator, and in 1843, Representative in Congress, being re-elected four successive periods, until 1853, when he was chosen Governor of Tennessee. In Congress he supported the administrations of Tyler and Polk in their chief measures, especially the annexation of Texas, the adjustment of the Oregon boundary, the Mexican war, and the tariff of 1846.
In 1855 Mr. Johnson was re eleeted Gov- ernor, and in 1857 entered the United States Senate, where he was conspicuous as an advocate of retrenchment and of the Homestead bill, and as an opponent of the Pacific Railroad. He was supported by the Tennessee delegation to the Democratie convention in 1860 for the Presidential nomination, and lent his influence to the Breckenridge wing of that party.
When the election of Lincoln had brought about the first attempt at secession in December, 1860, Johnson took in the Senate a firin attitude for the Union, and in May, 1861, on returning to Tennessee, he was in imminent peril of suffering from
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popular violence for his loyalty to the " old flag." He was the leader of the Loyalists' convention of East Tennessee, and during the following winter was very active in or- ganizing relief for the destitute loyal refu- gees from that region, hisown family being among those compelled to leave.
By his course in this crisis Johnson came prominently before the Northern public, and when in March, 1862, he was appointed by President Lincoln military Governor of Tennessee, with the rank of Brigadier-Gen- eral, he increased in popularity by the vig- orous and successful manner in which he labored to restore order, protect Union men and punish marauders. On the ap- proach of the Presidential campaign of 1864, the termination of the war being plainly foreseen, and several Southern States being partially reconstructed, it was felt that the Vice-Presidency should be given to a South- ern man of conspicuous loyalty, and Gov- ernor Johnson was elected on the same platform and ticket as President Lincoln; and on the assassination of the latter suc- ceeded to the Presidency, April 15, 1865. In a public speech two days later he said: "The American people must be taught, if they do not already feel, that treason is a crime and must be punished; that the Gov- ernment will not always bear with its ene- mies; that it is strong, not only to protect, but to punish. In our peaceful history treason has been almost unknown. The people must understand that it is the black- est of crimes, and will be punished." He then added the ominous sentence: " In re- gard to my future course, I make no prom- ises, no pledges."" President Johnson re- tained the cabinet of Lincoln, and exhibited considerable severity toward traitors in his earlier acts and speeches, but he soon inaug- urated a policy of reconstruction, proclaim- ing a general amnesty to the late Confeder- ates, and successively establishing provis- ional Governments in the Southern States.
These States accordingly claimed represen- tation in Congress in the following Decem- ber, and the momentous question of what should be the policy of the victorious Union toward its late armed opponents was forced upon that body.
Two considerations impelled the Repub- lican majority to reject the policy of Presi. dent Johnson: First, an apprehension that the chief magistrate intended to undo the re- sults of the war in regard to slavery; and,sec- ond, the sullen attitude of the South, which seemed to be plotting to regain the policy which arms had lost. The credentials of the Southern members elect were laid on the table, a civil rights bill and a bill extending the sphere of the Freedmen's Bureau were passed over the executive veto, and the two highest branches of the Government were soon in open antagonism. The action of Congress was characterized by the Presi- dent as a "new rebellion." In July the cabinet was reconstructed, Messrs. Randalı, Stanbury and Browning taking the places of Messrs. Denison, Speed and Harlan, and an unsuccessful attempt was made by means of a general convention in Philadel- phia to form a new party on the basis of the administration policy.
In an excursion to Chicago for the pur- pose of laying a corner-stone of the monu- ment to Stephen A. Douglas, President Johnson, accompanied by several members of the cabinet, passed through Philadelphia, New York and Albany, in each of which cities, and in other places along the route, he made speeches justifying and explaining his own policy, and violently denouncing the action of Congress.
August 12, 1867, President Johnson re- moved the Secretary of War, replacing him by General Grant. Secretary Stanton retired under protest, based upon the ten- ure-of-office act which had been passed the preceding March. The President then is- sued a proclamation declaring the insurrec-
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tion at an end, and that " peace, order, tran- quility and civil authority existed in and throughout the United States." Another proclamation enjoined obedience to the Constitution and the laws, and an amnesty was published September 7, relieving nearly all the participants in the late Rebellion from the disabilities thereby incurred, on condition of taking the oath to support the Constitution and the laws.
In December Congress refused to confirm the removal of Secretary Stanton, who thereupon resumed the exercise of his of- fice; but February 21, 1868, President Johnson again attempted to remove him, appointing General Lorenzo Thomas in his place. Stanton refused to vacate his post, and was sustained by the Senate.
February 24 the House of' Representa- tives voted to impeach the President for " high crime and misdemeanors," and March 5 presented eleven articles of impeachment on the ground of his resistance to the exe- cution of the acts of Congress, alleging, in addition to the offense lately committed, his public expressions of contempt for Con- gress, in “ certain intemperate, inflamma- tory and scandalous harangues" pronounced in August and September, 1866, and there- after declaring that the Thirty-ninth Con- gress of the United States was not a competent legislative body, and denying its power to propose Constitutional amend- ments. March 23 the impeachment trial began, the President appearing by counsel, and resulted in acquittal, the vote lacking
one of the two-thirds vote required for conviction.
The remainder of President Johnson's term of office was passed without any such conflicts as might have been anticipated. He failed to obtain a nomination for re- election by the Democratic party, though receiving sixty-fivc votes on the first ballot. July 4 and December 25 new proclamations of pardon to the participants in the late Rebellion were issued, but were of little effect. On the accession of General Grant to the Presidency, March 4, 1869, Johnson returned to Greenville, Tennessee. Unsuc- cessful in 1870 and 1872 as a candidate re- spectively for United States Senator and Representative, he was finally elected to the Senate in 1875, and took his seat in the extra session of March, in which his speeches were comparatively temperate. He died July 31, 1875, and was buried at Green- ville.
President Johnson's administration was a peculiarly unfortunate one. That he should so soon become involved in bitter feud with the Republican majority in Congress was certainly a surprising and deplorable inci- dent; yet, in reviewing the circumstances after a lapse of so many years, it is easy to find ample room for a charitable judgment of both the parties in the heated contro- versy, since it cannot be doubted that any President, even Lincoln himself, had he lived, must have sacrificed a large portion of his popularity in carrying out any pos- sible scheme of reconstruction.
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ULYSSES S. GRANT.
LYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, the eight- eenth President of the United States, 1869-'77, was born April 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio. His father was of Seoteh deseent, and a dealer in leather. At the age of seventeen he en- tered the Military Academy at West Point, and four years later graduated twenty-first in a elass of thirty-nine, receiving the commission of Brevet Seeond Lieutenant. He was assigned to the Fourth Infantry and re- mained in the army eleven years. He was engaged in every battle of the Mexican war exeept that of Buena Vista, and received two brevets for gallantry.
In 1848 Mr. Grant married Julia,daughter of Frederick Dent, a prominent merehant of St. Louis, and in 1854, having reached the grade of Captain, he resigned his eommis- sion in the army. For several years he fol- lowed farming near St. Louis, but unsue- eessfully ; and in 1860 he entered the leather trade with his father at Galena, Illinois.
When the eivil war broke out in 1861, Grant was thirty-nine years of age, but en- tirely unknown to public men and without
any personal acquaintance with great affairs. President Lincoln's first eall for troops was made on the 15th of April, and on the 19th Grant was drilling a company of volunteers at Galena. He also offered his serviees to the Adjutant-General of the army, but re- ceived no reply. The Governor of Illinois, however, employed him in the organization of volunteer troops, and at the end of five weeks he was appointed Colonel of the Twenty-first Infantry. He took command of his regiment in June, and reported first to General Pope in Missouri. His superior knowledge of military life rather surprised his superior offieers, who had never before even heard of him, and they were thus led to plaee him on the road to rapid advanee- ment. August 7 he was commissioned a Brigadier-General of volunteers, the ap- pointment having been made without his knowledge. He had been unanimously recommended by the Congressmen from Illinois, not one of whom had been his personal aequaintanee. For a few weeks he was occupied in watching the move- ments of partisan forees in Missouri.
September I he was placed in command of the District of Southeast Missouri, with headquarters at Cairo, and on the 6th, with- out orders, he seized Padueah, at the mouth of the Tennessee River, and commanding the navigation both of that stream and of
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the Ohio. This stroke secured Kentucky to the Union; for the State Legislature, which had until then affected to be neutral, at once declared in favor of the Govern- ment. In November following, according to orders, he made a demonstration about eighteen miles below Cairo, preventing the crossing of hostile troops into Missouri ; but in order to accomplish this purpose he had to do some fighting, and that, too, with only 3,000 raw recruits, against 7,000 Con- federates. Grant carried off two pieces of artillery and 200 prisoners.
After repeated applications to General Halleck, his immediate superior, he was allowed, in February, 1862, to move up the Tennessee River against Fort Henry, in conjunction with a naval force. The gun- boats silenced the fort, and Grant immedi- ately made preparations to attack Fort Donelson, about twelve miles distant, on the Cumberland River. Without waiting for orders he moved his troops there, and with 15,000 men began the siege. The fort, garrisoned with 21,000 men, was a strong one, but after hard fighting on three successive days Grant forced an " Uncon- ditional Surrender " (an alliteration upon the initials of his name). The prize he capt- ured consisted of sixty-five cannon, 17,600 small arms and 14,623 soldiers. About 4,- 000 of the garrison had escaped in the night, and 2,500 were killed or wounded. Grant's entire loss was less than 2,000. This was the first important success won by the national troops during the war, and its strategic re- sults were marked, as the entire States of Kentucky and Tennessee at once fell into the National hands. Our hero was made a Major-General of Volunteers and placed in command of the District of West Ten- nessee.
In March, 1862, he was ordered to move up the Tennessee River toward Corinth, where the Confederates were concentrat- ing a large army ; but he was directed not
to attack. His forces, now numbering 38 .- 000, were accordingly encamped near Shi- loh, or Pittsburg Landing, to await the arrival of General Buell with 40,000 more; but April 6 the Confederates came out from Corinth 50,000 strong and attacked Grant violently, hoping to overwhelm him before Buell could arrive ; 5,000 of his troops were beyond supporting distance, so that he was largely outnumbered and forced back to the river, where, however, he held out until dark, when the head of Buell's column came upon the field. The next day the Confederates were driven back to Corinth, nineteen miles. The loss was heavy on both sides; Grant, being senior in rank to Buell, commanded on both days. Two days afterward Halleck arrived at the front and assumed command of the army, Grant remaining at the head of the right wing and the reserve. On May 30 Corinth was evacuated by the Confederates. In July Halleck was made General-in-Chief, and Grant succeeded him in command of the Department of the Tennessee. September 19 the battle of Iuka was fought, where, owing to Rosecrans's fault, only an incom- plete victory was obtained.
Next, Grant, with 30,000 men, moved down into Mississippi and threatened Vicks- burg, while Sherman., with 40,000 men, was sent by way of the river toattack that place in front; but, owing to Colonel Murphy's surrendering Holly Springs to the Con- .federates, Grant was so weakened that he had to retire to Corinth, and then Sherman failed to sustain his intended attack.
In January, 1863, General Grant took command in person of all the troops in the Mississippi Valley, and spent several months in fruitless attempts to compel the surrender or evacuation of Vicksburg; but July 4, following, the place surrendered, with 31,- 600 men and 172 cannon, and the Mississippi River thus fell permanently into the hands of the Government. Grant was made a
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Major-General in the regular army, and in October following he was placed in com- mand of the Division of the Mississippi. The same month he went to Chattanooga and saved the Army of the Cumberland from starvation, and drove Bragg from that part of the country. This victory over- threw the last important hostile force west of the Alleghanies and opened the way for the National armies into Georgia and Sher- man's march to the sea.
The remarkable series of successes which Grant had now achieved pointed him out as the appropriate leader of the National armies, and accordingly, in February, 1864, the rank of Lieutenant-General was created for him by Congress, and on March 17 he assumed command of the armies of the United States. Planning the grand final campaign, he sent Sherman into Georgia, Sigel into the valley of Virginia, and Butler to capture Richmond, while he fought his Own way from the Rapidan to the James. The costly but victorious battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna and Cold Harbor were fought, more for the purpose of annihilating Lee than to capture any particular point. In June, 1864, the siege of Richmond was begun. Sherman, meanwhile, was marching and fighting daily in Georgia and steadily advancing toward Atlanta; but Sigel had been defeated in the valley of Virginia, and was superseded by Hunter. Lee sent Early to threaten the Na- tional capital ; whereupon Grant gathered up a force which he placed under Sheridan, and that commander rapidly drove Early, in a succession of battles, through the valley of Virginia and destroyed his army as an organized force. The siege of Richmond went on, and Grant made numerous attacks, but was only partially successful. The people of the North grew impatient, and even the Government advised him to abandon the attempt to take Richmond or crush the Confederacy in that way ; but he
never wavered. He resolved to "fight it out on that line, if it took all summer."
By September Sherman had made his way to Atlanta, and Grant then sent him on his famous " march to the sea," a route which the chief had designed six months before. He made Sherman's success possi- ble, not only by holding Lee in front of Richmond, but also by sending reinforce- ments to Thomas, who then drew off and defeated the only army which could have confronted Sherman. Thus the latter was left unopposed, and, with Thomas and Sheri- dan, was used in the furtherance of Grant's plans. Each executed his part in the great design and contributed his share to the re- sult at which Grant was aiming. Sherman finally reached Savannah, Schofield beat the enemy at Franklin, Thomas at Nash- ville, and Sheridan wherever he met him ; and all this while General Grant was hold- ing Lee, with the principal Confederate army, near Richmond, as it were chained and helpless. Then Schofield was brought from the West, and Fort Fisher and Wil- mington were captured on the sea-coast, so as to afford him a foothold; from here he was sent into the interior of North Caro- lina, and Sherman was ordered to move north ward to join him. When all this was effected, and Sheridan could find no one else to fight in the Shenandoah Valley, Grant brought the cavalry leader to the front of Richmond, and, making a last effort, drove Lee from his entrenchments and captured Richmond.
At the beginning of the final campaign Lee had collected 73,000 fighting men in the lines at Richmond, besides the local militia' and the gunboat crews, amounting to 5,000 more. Including Sheridan's force Grant had 110,000 men in the works before Petersburg and Richmond. Petersburg fell on the 2d of April, and Richmond on the 3d, and Lee fled in the direction of Lynch- burg. Grant pursued with remorseless
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energy, only stopping to strike fresh blows, and Lee at last found himself not only out- fought but also out-marched and out-gen- eraled. Being completely surrounded, he surrendered on the 9th of April, 1865, at Appomattox Court-House, in the open field, with 27,000 men, all that remained of his army. This act virtually ended the war. Thus, in ten days Grant had captured Petersburg and Richmond, fought, by his subordinates, the battles of Five Forks and Sailor's Creek, besides numerous smaller ones, captured 20,000 men in actual battle, and received the surrender of 27,000 more at Appomattox, absolutely annihilating an army of 70,000 soldiers.
General Grant returned at once to Wash- ington to superintend the disbandment of the armies, but this pleasurable work was scarcely begun when President Lincoln was assassinated. It had doubtless been in- tended to inflict the same fate upon Grant ; but he, fortunately, on account of leaving Washington early in the evening, declined an invitation to accompany the President to the theater where the murder was com- mitted. This event made Andrew Johnson President, but left Grant by far the most conspicuous figure in the public life of the country. He became the object of an en- thusiasm greater than had ever been known in America. Every possible honor was heaped upon him; the grade of General was created for him by Congress; houses were presented to him by citizens; towns were illuminated on his entrance into them ; and, to cap the climax, when he made his tour around the world, "all nations did him honor" as they had never before honored a foreigner.
The General, as Commander-in-Chief, was placed in an embarrassing position by the opposition of President Johnson to the measures of Congress ; but he directly man- ifested his characteristic loyalty by obeying Congress rather than the disaffected Presi-
dent, although for a short time he had served in his cabinet as Secretary of War.
Of course, everybody thought of General Grant as the next President of the United States, and he was accordingly elected as such in 1868 "by a large majority," and four years later re-elected by a much larger majority -the most overwhelming ever given by the people of this country. His first administration was distinguished by a ces- sation of the strifes which, sprang from the war, by a large reduction of the National debt, and by a settlement of the difficulties with England which had grown out of the depredations committed by privateers fit- ted out in England during the war. This last settlement was made by the famous "Geneva arbitration," which saved to this Government $15,000,000, but, more than all, prevented a war with England. "Let us have peace," was Grant's motto. And this is the most appropriate place to remark that above all Presidents whom this Gov- ernment has ever had, General Grant was the most non-partisan. He regarded the Executive office as purely and exclusively executive of the laws of Congress, irrespect- ive of "politics." But every great man has jealous, bitter enemies, a fact Grant was well aware of.
After the close of his Presidency, our General made his famous tour around the world, already referred to, and soon after- ward, in company with Ferdinand Ward, of. New York City, he engaged in banking and stock brokerage, which business was made disastrous to Grant, as well as to him- self, by his rascality. By this time an in- curable cancer of the tongue developed itself in the person of the afflicted ex- President, which ended his unrequited life July 23, 1885. Thus passed away from earth's turmoils the man, the General, who was as truly the " father of this regenerated country" as was Washington the father of the infant nation.
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*RUTHERFORD B. HAYES.+
UTHERFORD BIRCH- ARD HAYES, the nine- teenth President of the United States, 1877-'81, was born in Delaware, Ohio, Oc- tober 4, 1822. His ancestry can be traced as far back as 1280, when Hayes and Rutherford were two Scottish chieftains fighting side by side with Baliol, William Wallace and Robert Bruce. Both fami- lies belonged to the nobility, owned extensive estates and had a large following. The Hayes family had, for a coat-of-arms, a shield, barred and surmounted by a flying eagle. There was a circle of stars about the eagle and above the shield, while on a scroll underneath the shield was inscribed the motto, " Recte." Misfortune overtaking the family, George Hayes left Scotland in 1680, and settled in Windsor, Connecticut. He was an industrious worker in wood and iron, having a mechanical genius and a cul- tivated mind. His son George was born in Windsor and remained there during his life.
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