USA > Maryland > Portrait and biographical record of the Sixth congressional district, Maryland V. 1 > Part 5
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in his heart a desire to be something more than a mere worker with his hands.
The young clothier had now attained the age of nineteen years, and was of fine personal appear- ance and of gentlemanly demeanor. It so hap- pened that there was a gentleman in the neigli- borhood of ample pecuniary means and of benev- olence,-Judge Walter Wood,-who was struck with the prepossessing appearance of young Fill- more. He made his acquaintance, and was so much impressed with his ability and attainments that he advised him to abandon his trade and de- vote himself to the study of the law. The young man replied that he had no means of his own, 110 friends to help him, and that liis previous edu- cation had been very imperfect. But Judge Wood had so much confidence in him that he kindly offered to take him into his own office, and to lend him such money as he needed. Most grate- fully the generous offer was accepted.
There is in many minds a strange delusion about a collegiate education. A young man is supposed to be liberally educated if he lias gradu- ated at some college. But many a boy who loi- ters through university halls and thien enters a law office is by no means as well prepared to prosecute his legal studies as was Millard Fill- more when he graduated at the clothing-mill at the end of four years of manual labor, during which every leisure moment had been devoted to intense mental culture.
In 1823, when twenty-three years of age, he was admitted to the Court of Common Pleas. He then went to the village of Aurora, and com- menced the practice of law. In this secluded, quiet region, his practice, of course, was limited, and there was no opportunity for a sudden rise in fortune or in fame. Here, in 1826, he married a lady of great moral worth, and one capable of
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MILLARD FILLMORE.
adorning any station she might be called to fill,- Miss Abigail Powers.
His elevation of character, his untiring industry, his legal acquirements, and his skill as an advo- cate, gradually attracted attention, and he was invited to enter into partnership, under highly ad- vantageous circumstances, with an elder member of the Bar in Buffalo. Just before removing to Buffalo, in 1829, he took his seat in the House of Assembly of the State of New York, as a Repre- sentative from Erie County. Though he had never taken a very active part in politics, his vote and sympathies were with the Whig party. The State was then Democratic, and he found himself in a helpless minority in the Legislature; still the testimony comes from all parties that his courtesy, ability and integrity won, to a very unusual de- gree, the respect of liis associates.
In the autumn of 1832, he was elected to a seat in the United States Congress. He entered that troubled arena in the most tumultuous hours of our national history, when the great conflict respecting the national bank and the removal of the deposits was raging.
His term of two years closed, and he returned to his profession, which he pursued with increas- ing reputation and success. After a lapse of two years he again became a candidate for Congress; was re-elected, and took his seat in 1837. His past experience as a Representative gave himn strength and confidence. The first term of service in Congress to any man can be but little more than an introduction. He was now prepared for active duty. All liis energies were brought to bear upon the public good. Every measure re- ceived his impress.
Mr. Fillmore was now a man of wide repute, and his popularity filled the State. In the year 1847, when he had attained tlie age of forty- seven years, he was elected Comptroller of the State. His labors at tlie Bar, in the Legisla- ture, in Congress and as Comptroller, had given him very considerable fame. The Whigs were casting about to find suitable candidates for Presi- dent and Vice-President at tlie approaching elec- tion. Far away on the waters of the Rio Grande, there was a rough old soldier, who had fought
one or two successful battles with the Mexicans. which had caused his name to be proclaimed in trumpet-tones all over the land as a candidate for the presidency. But it was necessary to associate with him on the same ticket some man of repu- tation as a statesman.
Under the influence of these considerations, the names of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore became the rallying-cry of the Whigs, as their candidates for President and Vice-President. The Whig ticket was signally triumphant. On the 4th of March, 1849, Gen. Taylor was inaugurated President, and Millard Fillmore Vice-President, of the United States.
On the 9th of July, 1850, President Taylor, about one year and four months after his inaugura- tion, was suddenly taken sick and died. By the Constitution, Vice-President Fillmore thus be- canie President. He appointed a very able cabi- net, of which the illustrious Daniel Webster was Secretary of State; nevertheless, he had serious difficulties to contend with, since the opposition had a majority in both Houses. He did all in his power to conciliate the South; but the pro-slavery party in the South felt the inadequacy of all measures of transient conciliation. The popula- tion of the free States was so rapidly increasing over that of the slave States, that it was inevitable that the power of the Government should soon pass into the hands of the free States. Tlie fa- mous compromise measures were adopted under Mr. Fillmore's administration, and the Japan ex- pedition was sent out. On the 4th of Marchi, 1853, he, having served one terni, retired.
In 1856, Mr. Fillmore was nominated for the Presidency by the "Know-Nothing" party, but was beaten by Mr. Buchanan. After that Mr. Fillmore lived in retirement. During the terri- ble conflict of civil war, he was mostly silent. It was generally supposed that his sympathies were rather with those who were endeavoring to over- throw our institutions. President Fillmore kept aloof from the conflict, without any cordial words of cheer to one party or the other. He was thius forgotten by botlı. He lived to a ripe old age, and died in Buffalo, N. Y., March 8, 1874.
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69
FRANKLIN PIERCE.
70-71
FRANKLIN PIERCE.
RANKLIN PIERCE, the fourteenth Presi- dent of the United States, was born in Hills- borough, N. H., November 23, 1804. His - father was a Revolutionary soldier, who with his own strong arm hewed out a home in the wilder- ness. He was a man of inflexible integrity, of strong, though uncultivated, mind, and was an un- compromising Democrat. The mother of Frank- lin Pierce was all that a son could desire-an in- telligent, prudent, affectionate, Christian woman.
Franklin, who was the sixth of eight children, was a remarkably bright and handsome boy, generous, warm-hearted and brave. He won alike the love of old and young. The boys on the play-ground loved him. His teachers loved him. The neighbors looked upon him with pride and affection. He was by instinct a gentleman, always speaking kind words, and doing kind deeds, with a peculiar, unstudied tact which taught him what was agreeable. Without de- veloping any precocity of genius, or any unnatural devotion to books, he was a good scholar, and in body and mind a finely developed boy.
When sixteen years of age, in the year 1820, he entered Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Me. He was one of the most popular young men in the college. The purity of his moral character, the unvarying courtesy of his demeanor, his rank as a scholar, and genial nature, rendered him a universal favorite. There was something pe- culiarly winning in his address, and it was evi- dently not in the slightest degree studied-it was tlie simple outgushing of his own magnanimous and loving nature.
Upon graduating, in the year 1824, Franklin Pierce commenced the study of law in the office of Judge Woodbury, one of the most distinguished
lawyers of the State, and a man of great private worth. The eminent social qualities of the young lawyer, his father's prominence as a public man, and the brilliant political career into which Judge Woodbury was entering, all tended to entice Mr. Pierce into the fascinating yet perilous path of political life. With all the ardor of his nature he espoused the cause of Gen. Jackson for the Presi- dency He commenced the practice of law in Hillsborough, and was soon elected to represent the town in the State Legislature. Here he served for four years. The last two years he was chosen Speaker of the House by a very large vote.
In 1333, at the age of twenty-nine, he was elected a member of Congress. In 1837, being then but thirty-three years old, he was elected to the Senate, taking his seat just as Mr. Van Buren commenced his administration. He was the youngest member in the Senate. In the year 1834, he married Miss Jane Means Appleton, a lady of rare beauty and accomplishments, and one admirably fitted to adorn every station with which her husband was honored. Of the three sons who were born to then, all now sleep with their par- ents in the grave.
In the year 1838, Mr. Pierce, with growing fame and increasing business as a lawyer, took up his residence in Concord, the capital of New Hampshire. President Polk, upon his accession to office, appointed Mr. Pierce Attorney-General of the United States; but the offer was declined in consequence of numerous professional engage- ments at home, and the precarious state of Mrs. Pierce's health. He also, about the same time, declined the nomination for Governor by the Democratic party. The war with Mexico called
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FRANKLIN PIERCE.
Mr. Pierce into the army. Receiving the appoint- ment of Brigadier-General, he embarked with a poi.ion of his troops at Newport, R I., on the 27th of May, 1847. He took an important part in this war, proving himself a brave and true sol- dier.
When Gen. Pierce reached his home in his na- tive State, he was received enthusiastically by the advocates of the Mexican War, and eoldly by his opponents. He resumed the practice of his pro- fession, very frequently taking an active part in political questions, giving his cordial support to the pro-slavery wing of the Democratic party. The compromise measures met cordially with his approval, and he strenuously advocated the en- forcement of the infamous Fugitive Slave Law, which so shocked the religious sensibilities of the North. He thus became distinguished as a "Northern man with Southern principles." The strong partisans of slavery in the South conse- quently regarded him as a man whom they could safely trust in office to carry out their plans.
On the 12th of June, 1852, the Democratic con- vention met in Baltimore to nominate a candidate for the Presidency. For four days they contin- ued in session, and in thirty-five ballotings no one had obtained a two-thirds vote. Not a vote thus far had been thrown for Gen. Pierce. Then the Virginia delegation brought forward his name. There were fourteen more ballotings, during which Gen. Pierce constantly gained strength, until, at the forty-ninth ballot, he received two hundred and eighty-two votes, and all other candidates eleven. Gen. Winfield Scott was the Whig can- didate. Gen. Pierce was chosen with great una- nimity. Only four States-Vermont, Massachu- setts, Kentucky and Tennessee-cast their elec- toral votes against him. Gen. Franklin Pierce was therefore inaugurated President of the United States on the 4th of March, 1853.
His administration proved one of the most stormy our country had ever experienced. The controversy between slavery and freedom was then approaching its culminating point. It be- came evident that there was to be an irrepressible conflict between them, and that this nation could not long exist " half slave and half free."
President Pierce, during the whole of his admin- istration, did everything he could to conciliate the South; but it was all in vain. The conflict every year grew more violent, and threats of the disso- lution of the Union were borne to the North of every Southern breeze.
Such was the condition of affairs when Presi- dent 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 President Pierce were forgotten in deep reprehension of his administrative acts. The slaveholders of the South also, unmindful of the fidelity with which he had advocated those meas- ures of Government which they approved, and perhaps feeling that he had rendered himself so unpopular as no longer to be able to aceepta- bly serve them, ungratefully dropped him, and nominated James Buchanan to succeed him.
On the 4th of March, 1857, President Pierce re- turned to his home in Coneord. His three ehil- dren were all dead, his last surviving child hav- ing been killed before his eyes in a railroad acci- dent; 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.
When the terrible Rebellion burst forth whichi divided our country into two parties, and two only, Mr. Pieree remained steadfast in the prin- ciples 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 voiee or pen, to strengtlien the hand of the National Government. He con- tinued to reside in Concord until the time of his death, which occurred in October, 1869. He was one of the most genial and social of men, an hon- ored communicant of the Episcopal Church, and one of the kindest of neighbors. Generous to a fault, he contributed liberally toward the allevia- tion of suffering and want, and many of lis towns-people were often gladdened by his material bounty.
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73-74
JAMES BUCHANAN.
ـــجـ
JAMES BUCHANAN.
AMES BUCHANAN, the fifteenth President of the United States, was born in a small frontier town, at the foot of the eastern ridge of the Alleghanies, in Franklin County, Pa., on the 23d of April, 1791. The place where the humble cabin home stood was called Stony Bat- ter. His father was a native of the north of Ire- land, who had emigrated in 1783, with little prop- erty save his own strong arms. Five years after- ward 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 axe, and settled down there to perform his obscure part in the drama of life. 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 Dickinson Col- lege, at Carlisle. Here he developed remarkable talent, and took his stand among the first scholars in the institution.
In the year 1809, he graduated with the high- est honors of his class. He was then eighteen years of age; tall and graceful, vigorous in health, fond of atliletie sports, an unerring shot, and en- livened with an exuberant flow of animal spirits. Ile immediately commeneed 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.
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 profes- sion, having acquired an ample fortune.
Gen. Jackson, upon his elevation to the Presi- dency, appointed Mr. Buchanan Minister to Rus- sia. The duties of his mission he performed with ability, and 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 Cal- houn. He advocated the measures proposed by President 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 front office of those who were not the supporters of his administration. Upon this question he was brought into direct collision with Henry Clay. He also, with voice and vote, ad- vocated expunging from the journal of the Senate the vote of censure against Gen. Jackson for re- moving the deposits. Earnestly he opposed tlie abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and urged the prohibition of tlie circulation of anti-slavery documents by the United States mails. As to petitions on the subject of slavery, he advocated that they should be respectfully re- ceived, and that the reply should be returned that Congress had no power to legislate upon the subject. "Congress," said he, "might as well undertake to interfere with slavery under a for- eign government as in any of the States where it now exists."
Upon Mr. Polk's accession to the Presidency, Mr. Buchanan became Secretary of State, and as such took his share of the responsibility in the
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JAMES BUCHANAN.
conduct of the Mexican War. Mr. Polk assumed that crossing the Nueces by the American troops into the disputed territory was not wrong, but for the Mexicans to cross the Rio Grande into Texas was a declaration of war. No candid man can read with pleasure the account of the course our Government pursued in that movement.
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 cordial approval to the compromise measures of 1850, which included the Fugitive Slave Law. Mr. Pierce, upon his election to the Presidency, honored Mr. Buchanan with the mis- sion to England.
In the year 1856, a national Democratic Con- vention nominated Mr. Buchanan for the Presi- dency. 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. Fremont, the candidate of the enemies of slavery, received one hundred and fourteen electoral votes. Mr. Buchanan received one hundred and seventy-four, and was elected. The popular vote stood 1, 340,618 for Fremont, 1, 224,750 for Buchanan. On March 4, 1857, the latter was inaugurated.
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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 destruc- tion 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 hopelessly 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 per- jury of the grossest kind, unite with those en- deavoring to overthrow the Republic. He there- fore did nothing.
The opponents of Mr. Buchanan's administra-
tion nominated Abraham Lincoln as their stand- ard-bearer in the next Presidential canvass. The pro-slavery party declared that if he were elected and the control of the Goverment were thus taken from their hands, they would secede from the Union, taking with them as they retired the National Capitol at Washington and the lion's share of the territory of the United States.
As the storin 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 pitiable exhibitions of governmental imbecility was exhibited that 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 seceded in December, 1860, nearly three months before the inauguration of President Lincoln. Mr. Buchanan looked on in listless despair. The rebel flag was raised in Charleston; Ft. Sumter was besieged; our forts, navy-yards and arsenals were seized; our depots of inilitary stores were phundered, and our cus- tom-houses and post-offices were appropriated by the rebels.
The energy of the rebels and the imbecility of our Executive were alike marvelous. The na- tion 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 Abra- ham Lincoln was to receive the scepter.
The administration of President Buchanan was certainly the most calamitous our country has ex- perienced. His best friends can not recall it with pleasure. And still more deplorable it is for liis 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.
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
19
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
A BRAHAM LINCOLN, the sixteenth Presi- dent of the United States, was born in Hardin County, Ky., February 12, 1809. About the year 1780, a man by the name of Abrahamn Lincoln left Virginia with his family and moved into the then wilds of Kentucky. Only two years after this emigration, and while still a young man, he was working one day in a field, when an Indian stealthily approached and killed him. His widow was left in extreme poverty with five little chil- dren, three boys and two girls. Thomas, thie youngest of the boys, and the father of President Abraham Lincoln, was four years of age at hiis father's deatlı.
When twenty-eight years old, Thomas Lincoln built a log cabin, and married Nancy Hanks, the daughter of another family of poor Kentucky emigrants, who had also come from Virginia. Their second child was Abraham Lincoln, the sub- ject of this sketch. The mother of Abraham was a noble woman, gentle, loving, pensive, created to adorn a palace, but doomed to toil and pine, and die in a hovel. " All that I am, or hope to be," exclaimed the grateful son, " I owe to my angel- mother." When he was eight years of age, his fatlier sold his cabin and small farm and moved to Indiana, where two years later his mother died.
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 four- tcen years of age, and soon died. The family was gradually scattered, and Thomas Lincoln sold out his squatter's claim in 1830, and emi- grated to Macon County, Il1.
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. Religion he revered. His morals were pure, and he was un- contaminated by a single vicc.
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 lie took a herd of swine, floated them down the Sangamon to Illinois, and thence by the Mississippi to New Orleans. What- ever Abraham Lincoln undertook, lie performed so faithfully as to give great satisfaction to his employers. In this adventure the latter 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 Captain of a company. He returned to Sangamon County, and, although only twenty-three years of age, was a candidate for the Legislature, but was defcated. He soon after received from Andrew Jackson the appointment of Postmaster of New Salem. His only post-office was his hat. All the letters lie 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 clected. 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, lie trudged on foot with his pack on liis back one hundred miles to Vandalia, then the capital. In 1836 he was re-elected to the Legislature. Here it was he first met Steplien A. Douglas. In IS39 lie removed to Springfield and began the practice
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