USA > Indiana > Delaware County > A portrait and biographical record of Delaware county, Ind. : containing biographical sketches of many prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all of the presidents of the United States, and biographies of the governors of Indiana > Part 6
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On the 4th of March, 1857, President Pierce retired to his home in Concord. Of three children, two had died, and his only sur- viving child had been killed before his eyes by a railroad accident; and his wife, one of the most estimable and accomplished of ladies, was rapidly sinking in consumption. The hour of dreadful gloom soon came, and he was left alone in the world without wife or child.
Such was the condition of affairs when Pres Pierce approached the close of his four years' term of office. The north had become thoroughly alienated from him. The anti- slavery sentiment, goaded by great outrages, had been rapidly increasing; all the intellectual ability and social worth of Pres. Pierce were forgotten in deep reprehension ol his adminis- trative acts. The slaveholders of the south, also, unmindful of the fidelity with which he had advocated those measures of government which they approved, and perhaps, also, feel- ing that he had rendered himself so unpopular as no longer to be able acceptably to serve them, ungratefully dropped him, and nomi- nated James Buchanan to succeed him.
When the terrible rebellion broke forth, which divided our country into two parties, Mr. Pierce remained steadfast in the principles which he had always cherished, and gave his sympathies to that pro-slavery party with which he had ever been allied. He declined to do anything, either by voice or pen, to strengthen the hand of the national govern- ment. He continued to reside in Concord until the time of his death, which occurred in October, 1869. He was one of the most genial
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and social of men, an honored communicant of the Episcopal church, and one of the kind- est of neighbors. Generous to a fault, he con- tributed liberally for the alleviation of suffer- ing and want, and many of his townspeople were often gladdened by his material bounty.
J AMES BUCHANAN, the fifteenth presi- dent of the United States, was born in Franklin county, Pa., on the 23d cf April, 1791. His father was a native of the north of Ireland; a poor man, who had emigrated in 1783, with little property save his own strong arms. Five years afterward he married Elizabeth Spear, the daughter of a respectable farmer, and, with his young bride, plunged into the wilderness, staked his claim, reared his log hut, opened a clearing with his ax, and settled down to perform his obscure part in the drama of life. In this secluded home, where James was born, he remained for eight years, enjoying but few social or intel- lectual advantages. When James was eight years of age his father removed to the village of Mercersburg, where his son was placed at school, and commenced a course of study in English, Latin and Greek. His progress was rapid, and at the age of fourteen he entered Dickenson college, at Carlisle. Here he de- veloped remarkable talent, and took his stand among the first scholars of the institution. His application to study was intense, and yet his native powers enabled him to master the most abstruse subjects with facility. In the year 1809, he graduated with the highest honors of his class. He was then eighteen years of age; tall and graceful, vigorous in health, fond of athletic sport, an unerring shot, and enlivened with an exuberant flow of animal spirits. He immediately commenced the study of law in the city of Lancaster, and was admitted to the
bar in 1812, when he was but twenty-one years of age. Very rapidly he rose in his pro- fession, and at once took undisputed stand with the ablest lawyers of the state. When but twenty-six years of age, unaided by coun- sel, he successfully defended before the state senate one of the judges of the state, who was tried upon articles of impeachment. At the age of thirty it was generally admitted that he stood at the head of the bar.
In 1820 he reluctantly consented to run as a candidate for congress. He was elected, and for ten years he remained a member of the lower house. During the vacations of congress, he occasionally tried some important case. In 1831, he retired altogether from the toils of his profession, having acquired an ample fortune.
Gen. Jackson, upon his elevation to the presidency, appointed Mr. Buchanan minister to Russia. The duties of his mission he per- formed with ability, which gave satisfaction to all parties. Upon his return, in 1833, he was elected to a seat in the United States senate. He there met, as his associates, Webster, Clay, Wright and Calhoun. He advocated the measures proposed by Pres. Jackson, of making reprisals against France, to enforce the payment of our claims against that country; and defended the course of the president in his unprecedented and wholesale removal from office of those who were not supporters of his administration. Upon this question he was brought into direct collision with Henry Clay. He also, with voice and vote, advocated ex- punging from the journal of the senate the vote of censure against Gen. Jackson for re- moving the deposits. Earnestly he opposed the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- lumbia, and urged the prohibition of the circu- lation of anti-slavery documents by the United States mails.
Upon Mr. Polk's accession to the presi-
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dency, Mr. Buchanan became secretary of state, and as such took his share of the re- sponsibility in the conduct of the Mexican war. Mr. Polk assumed that crossing the Nueces by the American troops into the disputed ter- ritory was not wrong, but for the Mexicans to cross the Rio Grande into that territory was a declaration of war. Mr. Buchanan identified himself thoroughly with the party devoted to the perpetuation and extension of slavery, and brought all the energies of his mind to bear against the Wilmot Proviso. He gave his ap- proval of the compromise measures of 1850, which included the fugitive-slave law. Mr. Pierce, upon hiselection to the presidency, hon- ored Mr. Buchanan with the mission to England.
In the year 1856, a national democratic convention nominated Mr. Buchanan for the presidency. The political conflict was one of the most severe in which our country has ever engaged. All the friends of slavery were on one side; all the advocates of its restriction and final abolition, on the other. Mr. Fre- mont, the candidate of the enemies of slavery, received 114 electoral votes. Mr. Buchanan received 174, and was elected. The popular vote stood 1, 341,264, for Fremont, 1,838, 160 for Buchanan. On March 4, 1857, Mr. Bu- chanan was inaugurated. Mr. Buchanan was far advanced in life. Only four years were wanting to fill up his three score years and ten. His own friends, those with whom he had been allied in political principles and action for years, were seeking the destruction of the government, that they might rear upon the ruins of our free institutions a nation whose corner stone should be human slavery. In this emergency, Mr. Buchanan was hope- lessly bewildered. He could not, with his long avowed principles, consistently oppose the state-rights party in their assumptions. As president of the United States, bound by his oath faithfully to administer the laws, he
could not, without perjury of the grossest kind, unite with those endeavoring to overthrow the republic. He therefore did nothing. Mr. Buchanan's sympathy with the pro-slavery party was such, that he had been willing to offer them far more than they had ventured to claim. All the south had professed to ask of the north was non-interference with the sub- ject of slavery. Mr. Buchanan had been ready to offer them the active co-operation of the government to defend and extend the in- stitution. As the storm increased in violence, the slave holders claiming the right to secede, and Mr. Buchanan avowing that congress had no power to prevent it, one of the most piti- able exhibitions of governmental imbecility was exhibited the world has ever seen. He declared that congress had no power to enforce its laws in any state which had withdrawn, or which was attempting to withdraw from the Union. This was not the doctrine of Andrew Jackson, when, with his hand upon his sword hilt, he exclaimed. "The Union must and shall be preserved."
South Carolina seccded in December, 1860, nearly three months before the inauguration of Pres. Lincoln. Mr. Buchanan looked on in listless despair. The rebel flag was raised in Charleston; Fort Sumter was besieged; our forts, navy yards and arsenals were scized; our depots of military stores were plundered; and our custom houses and post offices were appropriated by the rebels. The energy of the rebels, and the imbecility of our executive, were alike marvelous. The nation looked on in agony, waiting for the slow weeks to glide away and close the administration, so terrible in its weakness. At length the long looked for hour of deliverance came, when Abraham Lincoln was to receive the scepter.
The administration of President Buchanan was certainly the most calamitous our country has experienced. His best friends cannot re-
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call it with pleasure. And still more deplor- able it is for his fame, that in that dreadful conflict which rolled its billows of flame and blood over our whole land, no word came from his lips to indicate his wish that our country's banner should triumph over the flag of the rebellion. He died at his Wheatland retreat, June 1, 1868.
BRAHAM LINCOLN, the sixteenth president of the United States, was born in Hardin county, Ky., Febru- ary 12, 1809. About the year 1780, a man by the name of Abraham Lincoln left Virginia with his family and moved into the then wilds of Kentucky. Only two years after this emigration, still a young man, while work- ing one day in a field, he was stealthily ap- proached by an Indian and shot dead. His widow was left iu extreme poverty with five little children, three boys and two girls. Thomas, the youngest of the boys, was four years of age at his father's death. This Thomas was the father of Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States, whose name must henceforth forever be enrolled with the most prominent in the annals of our world.
When twenty-eight years of age Thomas Lincoln built a log cabin of his own, and mar- ried Nancy Hanks, the daughter of another family of poor Kentucky emigrants, who had also come from Virginia. Their second child was Abraham Lincoln. The mother of Abra- ham was a noble woman, gentle, loving, pen- sive; created to adorn a palace, doomed to toil and pine, and die in a hovel. "All that I am, or hope to be," exclaims the grateful son, "I owe to my angel mother."
When Abraham was eight years of age, his father sold his cabin and small farm, and moved to Indiana, where two years later his mother died. Abraham soon became the
scribe of the uneducated community around him. He could not have had a better school than this to teach him to put thoughts into words. He also became an eager reader. The books he could obtain were few; but these he read and re-read until they were almost com- mitted to memory. As the years rolled on, the lot of this lowly family was the usual lot of humanity. There were joys and griefs, weddings and funerals. Abraham's sister Sarah, to whom he was tenderly attached, was married when a child of but fourteen years of age, and soon died. The family was gradually scattered. Thomas Lincoln sold out his squatter's claim in 1830, and emigrated to Macon county, Ill. Abraham Lincoln was then twenty-one years of age. With vigorous hands he aided his father in rearing another log cabin. Abraham worked diligently at this until he saw the family comfortably settled, and their small lot of enclosed prairie planted with corn, when he announced to his father his intention to leave home, and to go out into the world and seek his fortune. Little did he or his friends imagine how brilliant that fortune was to be. He saw the value of educa- tion and was intensely earnest to improve his mind to the utmost of his power. He saw the ruin which ardent spirits were causing, and became strictly temperate; refusing to allow a drop of intoxicating liquor to pass his lips. And he had read in God's word, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain;" and a profane expression he was never heard to utter. Religion he revered. His morals were pure, and he was uncontaminated by a single vice.
Young Abraham worked for a time as a hired laborer among the farmers. Then he went to Springfield, where he was employed in building a large flat-boat. In this he took a herd of swine, floated them down the Sanga- mon to the Illinois, and thence by the Missis-
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sippi to New Orleans. In this adventure his employers were so well pleased, that upon his return they placed a store and mill under his care. In 1832, at the outbreak of the Black Hawk war, he enlisted and was chosen cap- tain of a company. He returned to Sangamon county, and although only twenty-three years of age, was a candidate for the legislature, but was defeated. He soon afterward received from Andrew Jackson the appointment of post- master of New Salem. His only postoffice was his hat. All the letters he received he carried there ready to deliver to those he chanced to meet. He studied surveying and soon made this his business. In 1834 he again became a candidate for the legislature, and was elected. Mr. Stuart, of Springfield, advised him to study law. He walked from New Salem to Springfield, borrowed of Mr. Stuart a load of books, carried them back and began his legal studies. When the legislature assembled he trudged on foot with his pack on his back 100 miles to Vandalia, then the cap- ital. In 1836 he was re-elected to the legislature. Here it was he first met Stephen A. Douglas. In 1839 he removed to Springfield and began the practice of law. His success with the jury was so great that he was soon engaged in almost every noted case in the circuit.
In 1854 the great discussion began between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, on the slavery question. In the organization of the republi- can party in Illinois, in 1856, he took an active part, and at once became one of the leaders in that party. Mr. Lincoln's speeches in opposition to Senator Douglas in the con- test in 1858 for a seat in the senate, form a most notable part of his history. The issue was on the slavery question, and he took the broad ground of the Declaration of Independ- ence, that all men are created equal. Mr. Lincoln was defeated in this contest, but won a far higher prize.
The great republican convention met at Chicago on the 16th of June, 1860. The del- egates and strangers who crowded the city amounted to 25,000. An immense building called "The Wigwam," was reared to accom- modate the convention. There were eleven candidates for whom votes were cast. William H. Seward, a man whose fame as a statesman had long filled the land, was the most prom- inent. It was generally supposed he would be the nominee. Abraham Lincoln, however, received the nomination on the third ballot. Little did he then dream of the weary years of toil and care, and the bloody death, to which that nomination doomed him; and as little did he dream that he was to render services to his country which would fix upon him the eyes of the whole civilized world, and which would give him a place in the affections of his coun- trymen, second only, if second, to that of Washington.
Election day came and Mr. Lincoln re- ceived 180 electoral votes out of 203 cast, and was, therefore, constitutionally elected presi- dent of the United States. The tirade of abuse that was poured upon this good and merciful man, especially by the slaveholders, was greater than upon any other man ever elected to this high position. In February, 1861, Mr. Lincoln started for Washington, stopping in all the large cities on his way, making speeches. The whole journey was fraught with much danger. Many of the southern states had already seceded, and sev- eral attempts at assassination were afterward brought to light. A gang in Baltimore had arranged, upon his arrival, to "get up a row," and in the confusion to make sure of his death with revolvers and hand grenades. A detect- ive unraveled the plot. A secret and special train was provided to take him from Harris- burg, through Baltimore, at an unexpected hour of the night. The train started at half
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past ten; and to prevent any possible com- munication on the part of the secessionists with their confederate gang in Baltimore, as soon as the train had started the telegraph wires were cut, Mr. Lincoln reached Wash- ington in safety and was inaugurated, although great anxiety was felt by all loyal people.
In the selection of his cabinet Mr. Lincoln gave to Mr. Seward the department of state, and to other prominent opponents before the convention he gave important positions.
During no other administration have the duties devolving upon the president been so manifold, and the responsibilities so great, as those which fell to the lot of Pres. Lincoln. Knowing this, and feeling his own weakness and inability to meet, and in his own strength to cope with the difficulties, he early learned to seek Divine wisdom and guidance in deter- mining his plans, and Divine comfort in all his trials, both personal and national. Contrary to his own estimate of himself, Mr. Lincoln was one of the most courageous of men. He went directly into the rebel capital just as the retreating foe was leaving, with no guard but a few sailors. From the time he had left Springfield, in 1861, however, plans had been made for his assassination, and he at last fell a victim to one of them. April 14, 1865, he, with Gen. Grant, was urgently invited to attend Ford's theater. It was announced that they would be present. Gen. Grant, however, left the city. Pres. Lincoln, feeling, with his characteristic kindliness of heart, that it would be a disappointment if he should fail them, very reluctantly consented to go. While listening to the play an actor by the name of John Wilkes Booth entered the box where the president and family were seated, and fired a bullet into his brains. He died the next morn- ing at seven o'clock, and now, if never before, the nation was plunged into the deepest mourn- ing, and truly mourned the "country's loss."
NDREW JOHNSON, seventeenth president of the United States, was born December 29, 1808, in Raleigh, N. C. When Andrew was five years of age, his father accidentally lost his life while heroically endeavoring to save a friend from drowning. Until ten years of age, An- drew was a ragged boy about the streets, sup- ported by the labor of his mother, who ob- tained her living with her own hands. He then, having never attended a school one day, and being unable either to read or write, was apprenticed to a tailor in his native town. A gentleman was in the habit of going to the tailor's shop occasionally and reading to the boys at work there. He often read from the speeches of distinguished British statesmen. Andrew, who was endowed with a mind of more than ordinary native ability, became much interested in these speeches; his anıbi- tion was roused, and he was inspired with a strong desire to learn to read. He according- ly applied himself to the alphabet, and, with the assistance of some of his fellow-workmen, learned his letters. He then called upon the gentleman to borrow the book of speeches. The owner, pleased with his zeal, not only gave hiin the book, but assisted him in learn- ing to combine the letters into words. Under such difficulties he pressed onward laboriously, spending usually ten or twelve hours at work in the shop, and then robbing himself of rest and recreation to devote such time as he could to reading.
He went to Tennessee in 1826 and located at Greenville, where he married a young lady who possessed some education. Under her instructions he learned to write and cipher. He became prominent in the village debating society, and a favorite with the students of Greenville college. In 1828 he organized a workingman's party, which elected him alder- man, and in 1830 elected him mayor, which
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position he held three years. He now began to take a lively interest in political affairs, identifying himself with the working classes to which he belonged. In 1835 he was elected a member of the house of representatives of Tennessee. He was then just twenty-seven years of age. He became a very active mem- ber of the legislature, gave his adhesion to the democratic party, and in 1840 "stumped the state," advocating Martin Van Buren's claims to the presidency in opposition to those of Gen. Harrison. In this campaign he ac- quired much readiness as a speaker, and ex- tended and increased his reputation.
In 1841 he was elected state senator; in 1843 he was elected a member of congress, and by successive elections held that important post for ten years. In 1853 he was elected governor of Tennessee, and was re-elected in 1855. In all these responsible positions he discharged his duties with distinguished ability and proved himself the friend of the working classes. In 1857 Mr. Johnson was elected a United States senator.
Years before, in 1845, he had warmly ad- vocated the annexation of Texas, stating, however, as his reason, that he thought this annexation would probably prove "to be the gateway out of which the sable sons of Africa are to pass from bondage to freedom, and become merged fn a population congenial to themselves." In 1850 he also supported the compromise measures, the two essential features of which were, that the white people of the territories should be permitted to decide for themselves whether they would enslave the colored people or not, and that the free states of the north should return to the south persons who attempted to cscape from slavery.
Mr. Johnson was never ashamed of his lowly origin; on the contrary, he often took pride in avowing that he owed his distinction
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to his own exertions. "Sir," said he on the floor of the senate, "I do not forget that I am a mechanic; neither do I forget that Adam was a tailor and sewed fig leaves, and that our Saviour was the son of a carpenter."
In the Charleston-Baltimore convention of 1860, he was the choice of the Tennessee democrats for the presidency. In 1861, when the purpose of the southern democracy became apparent, he took a decided stand in favor of the Union, and held "slavery must be held subordinate to the Union at whatever cost." He returned to Tennessee, and repeatedly im- periled his own life to protect the Unionists of Tennessee. Tennessee having seceded from the Union, President Lincoln on March 4, 1862, appointed him military governor of the state, and he established the most stringent military rule. His numerous proclamations attracted wide attention. In 1864 he was elected vice-president of the United States, and upon the death of Mr. Lincoln, April 15, 1865, became president. In a speech two days later he said: "The American people must be taught, if they do not already feel, that trea- son is a crime and must be punished; that the government will not always bear with its ene- mies; that it is stroag not only to protect, but to punish. * * The people must under- stand that it (treason) is the blackest of crimes and will surely be punished." Yet his whole administration, the history of which is so well known, was in utter inconsistency with, and the most violent opposition to, the principles laid down in that speech.
In his loose policy of reconstruction and general amnesty he was opposed by congress; and he characterized congress as a new rebel- lion, and lawlessly defied it in everything pos- sible to the utmost. In the beginning of 1868, on account of "high crimes and misdemean- ors," the principal of which was the removal of Secretary Stanton, in violation of the Ten-
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ure of Office act, articles of impeachment were preferred against him, and the trial began March 23.
It was very tedious, continuing for nearly three months. A test article of the impeach- ment was at length submitted to the court for its action. It was certain that as the court voted upon that article, so would it vote upon all. Thirty-four voices pronounced the presi- dent guilty. As a two-thirds vote was neces- sary to his condemnation, he was pronounced acquitted, notwithstanding the great majority against him. The change of one vote from the not guilty side would have sustained the impeachment.
The president for the remainder of his term was but little regarded. He continued, though impotently, his conflict with congress. His own party did not think it expedient to renominate him for the presidency. The bul- let of the assassin introduced him to the presi- dent's chair. Notwithstanding this, never was there presented to a man a better oppor- tunity to immortalize his name and win the gratitude of a nation. He failed utterly. He retired to his home in Greenville, Tenn., tak- ing no very active part in politics until 1875. On January 26, after an exciting struggle, he was chosed by the legislature of Tennessee United States senator in the forty-fourth con- gress, and took his seat in that body at the special session convened by President Grant on the 5th of March. On the 27th of July, 1875, the ex-president made a visit to his daughter's home, near Carter Station, Tenn. When he started on his journey he was appar- ently in his usual vigorous health, but on reaching the residence of his child the follow- ing day was stricken with paralysis, rendering him unconscious. He rallied occasionally, but finally passed away at 2 A. M., July 31, aged sixty-seven years. He was buried at Green- ville, on the 3d of August, 1875.
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