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1271592
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01083 6739
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
HISTORY OF MAINE
SB. Reed
MAINE
A HISTORY
CENTENNIAL EDITION
Editor-in-Chief LOUIS CLINTON HATCH, Ph.D. Member of Maine Historical Society.
Author of "The Administration of the American Revolutionary Army" Assisted by MEMBERS OF MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND OTHER WRITERS
DIRIGO
VOLUME II
THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEW YORK 1919
Copyright, 1919 The American Historical Society, Inc.
8 - $ 27.50 15.
01/01
1271592
Chapter XII WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS
CHAPTER XII WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS
On March 4, William Henry Harrison was duly inaugurated President before crowds of Whigs who had come to rejoice in the triumph of their party, and, many of them, at least, to press their claims for office. But the hopes both of the new President and of his eager followers were quickly blasted. General Harrison died of pneumonia exactly a month after his inauguration, and John Tyler, a States-rights man of the strictest sort, suc- ceeded him.
For the first time in the history of the country, a President had died in office, and there were various new questions to be solved, among them what honors should be paid to the memory of a deceased Chief Magistrate. Con- gress voted a solemn public funeral, and throughout the country bells were tolled, minute guns fired, and in some cases orations were delivered and sermons preached. The Democrats were in an embarrassing situation. Neither as gentlemen nor as shrewd politicians could they stand aside when the people offered their tribute of respect to the dead, yet they could not, without stultifying themselves, join in the Whig praises of the man they had so recently and so bitterly attacked. But the Argus succeeded in speaking of Harrison in a becoming way, and yet in maintaining full con- sistency. It said: "May he rest in peace. He has departed almost in the moment of his political triumph, and before the cares and anxieties of office had time to embitter his high destiny. He will be mourned by the whole country, for death sanctifies its victims, and while his virtues as a citizen and a man will be remembered, no one will wish now to cherish against him any recollection of what they may honestly regard as his political errors. De mortuis nil nisi bonum."
A fortnight later the Argus protested at what it regarded as an attempt of the Whigs to make political capital out of tributes paid to Harrison's memory. "We are willing," it said, "to go as far as any one in respecting the ashes of the deceased, but we must protest against loading him with praise for qualities, the absence of which we felt called upon to notice, dur- ing his life, and which we cannot now ascribe to his character, without reprobating our own course hitherto, and doing violence to our own opinions now. If it is proper for Democrats now to forget the political principles and acts which they opposed in the late President, and to let him rest in peace, as a good citizen who has been called to his fathers from a high office, it is surely proper, also, that his political friends should refrain from disturbing that peace by constant, excessive eulogy of his political character."
The Whigs, however, might be excused for praising Harrison, for his successor was a sore trial to them. Harrison had called an extra session of Congress, and Henry Clay now demanded the passage of numerous Whig
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measures, including the chartering of a national bank. Tyler had been opposed to such a bank as unconstitutional and when the Legislature of his State instructed him to vote for one he had resigned rather than obey. Congress now passed a moderate bank bill which it was hoped that he might accept, but despite all the efforts of the Clay men the President vetoed it. Then a bill for a "fiscal corporation" was drawn, the President being con- sulted, and it was alleged that he had agreed to sign it, but Mr. Tyler finally vetoed this also. The Cabinet except Webster, the Secretary of State, then resigned in a body, hoping probably to so embarrass the President that he would cry for mercy, but Tyler was ready with a new Cabinet and refused to yield. The Whig Congressmen appointed a committee to prepare an address to the people. The committee recited the President's sins of omis- sion and commission, declared that he had voluntarily separated himself from those who had elected him, and read him out of the party.
The Democrats in Maine, as in other States, were delighted. The Argus had called Tyler's message, when Congress assembled, "a mass of betweenity," but of the first veto it said that this was just what should have been expected if the President was a man of integrity and that "we recog- nize the finger of Providence in raising up and placing in the executive chair a man who has had the firmness to stand between the people and the great fraud contemplated by the conspirators who had obtained a majority in Congress."1
The Maine Whigs went into the gubernatorial campaign in the fall weakened by the internal quarrel of their party. The Maine Democrats also were not entirely harmonious, for they were disputing over the skin of the Whig bear, or coon, before they had killed him. Governor Kent had again removed many Democrats from office and these martyrs felt that their suf- fering should be compensated by immediate re-appointment if the Democrats won. But others who perhaps had not belonged to the office-holding fac- tion held very different views and while condemning the political proscrip- tion practiced by the "Federalists" demanded a rigid adherence to the prin- ciple of rotation in office, and that the future appointing power "should be unshackled by the past condition of things," and under no obligation to reappoint men who had been removed.
Both Fairfield and Kent were nominated by their respective parties. with substantial unanimity. The Democrats declared that Kent sympa- thized with his "silver-gray," that is, old Federalist relatives, while Fairfield when only a boy had served on a privateer in the War of 1812 and asked, "Which will the Sailors choose? The Federalist Kent, or honest John Fair- field, the sailor-boy?"""
The Democrats circulated great numbers of pamphlets containing speeches of Benton, Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire, Secretary of the
'Tri-Argus, Aug. 20, 1841.
"Tri-Argus, Aug. 23, 1841.
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Treasury under Van Buren, and others. The Whigs claimed that they resorted to less honorable means, spreading numerous false stories, such as that Maine public lands would be given away to other States, that the fish- ing bounties would be repealed unless Fairfield were elected, that such heavy duties would be laid on tea and salt that the people could not buy them, and that Kent was a Catholic.
The principal State issues were the apportionment of representatives and the appointments to the Supreme Court. The Whig Legislature had made the decennial apportionment of State Senators and Representatives, and the Democrats declared that it was unfair and unconstitutional and their State convention told the people in its platform, "If you would not have such Log Cabinism as robs the Laboring Classes of a Representative to give to a city of Monopolists and Speculators, vote for Fairfield." An amendment to the constitution had just been passed limiting the terms of judges to seven years. This vacated the seats of Chief Justice Weston and Associate Justice Nicholas Emery, and the Whigs put men of their own party in their places. The Democrats loudly protested against the alleged introduction of partisanship into judicial appointments. Governor Kent himself had wished to reappoint Chief Justice Weston, but the Council refused its assent.
The Liberty [anti-slavery} party appeared in Maine this year for the first time, and nominated for Governor, Jeremiah Curtis, of Calais. The Argus asserted that this was a Federalistic trick to prevent an election and give the choice to the Legislature, that in the large towns the leading Feder- alist Abolitionists avoided pledging themselves to vote for Curtis.' But the Kennebec Journal declared that Curtis was a loco-foco who had voted for Van Buren, that the Democrats planned, if there was no election, and they could succeed by stratagem in controlling the House, to name Fairfield and Curtis as the constitutional candidates, knowing that a Whig Senate would probably choose Fairfield "because Mr. Curtis is entirely unfit for such a station, having nothing to recommend him but his wealth, the most of which he acquired by selling rum." The Whig Calais Advertiser, however, seems to have feared Curtis, and yet hoped to make him useful. It said that there was no reason why Whig Abolitionists should prefer Curtis to Kent, but that the case was otherwise with the Democratic anti-slavery men, that they had nothing in common with Fairfield, and that if they would not vote a Whig ticket, they should support Curtis, who agreed with them both in regard to slavery and politics.
The hope of preventing an election by the people proved totally un- founded. Fairfield was elected, leading Kent by over 10,000 votes. The official returns gave Fairfield 47,354 votes, Kent 36,790, Curtis 1,662; there were 347 scattering. It was a great triumph for the Democrats, and the Argus did not fail to contrast 1840 with 1841, and to hail the latter year as
'Tri-Argus, Aug. 23, 1841.
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the rainbow of promise after the flood. It said: "If, then, it was humiliat- ing to see the hard cider party triumph last year, it is glorious now to see how baseless the fabric of their power, and the history of their success and downfall is one which the people will not fail to profit by. We shall have no more coon-skin campaigns in this country the present age. One will suffice for a generation."""
In the following year ( 1842) the Democrats again nominated Mr. Fair- field. He had declined to run, and it was intended to hold a State conven- tion to choose a candidate, but such serious differences of opinion appeared in the discussion as to who this should be, that the leaders induced the Governor to stand again. There was an extra session of the Legislature called to consider the question of the northeastern boundary, and the Demo- cratic members held a caucus, decided that there should be no convention, and nominated Fairfield. Mr. Kent refused another nomination, and a State convention nominated Edward Robinson, of Thomaston. Mr. Robinson was born November 25, 1796. His original occupation was that of a sailor and shipmaster. In 1831 he retired from the sea and became a merchant. In 1836 he was a member of the Maine Senate, and in 1838 a Representative in Congress, where he served one term. He died February 19, 1857.
The Democrats again praised Fairfield for his patriotism in the War of 1812. The Kennebec Journal answered: "The Governor went out in a privateer when a boy. He did not go like Captain Robinson, to earn an honest living by trade, but he went out to murder and rob peaceable and honest traders of their money and their goods. He went for plunder on the high seas. This might be a preliminary qualification for a loco-foco leader, but it is far from establishing a character as a sailor. Not succeeding in this kind of robbery, he went into trade in some small matters and failed in that. Then he took up the law, went to making writs, and got rich.""
The State issue which received the greatest attention in the campaign was one affecting not Maine, but Rhode Island. The constitution of Rhode Island confined the right of suffrage to landowners. Being unable to obtain a change in a legal way, a convention met, prepared a new constitution, and submitted it to the people. The persons arranging the affair reported that a majority of the adult males of the State had voted to accept it. They also alleged that a majority of the legal voters had ratified it. The new consti- tution was then treated as adopted, an election was held under it, and Thomas W. Dorr chosen Governor. He attempted to seize the capital, but the regular Governor was prepared to meet force by force, and Dorr fled from the State. The Dorrites were mainly Democrats, their opponents were chiefly Whigs, and in the discussion of the affair throughout the country party lines were often drawn. In Maine the Democrats had much to say of the sovereignty of the people. The Augusta Age quoted a statement from
*Tri-Argus, Oct. 15, 1841.
'Kennebec Journal, Aug. 26, 1842.
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the Belfast Republican-Journal, giving extracts from the constitutions of fifteen States, declaring that the people had the right to change their govern- ment in any manner that seemed good to them. The Kennebec Journal answered that not one of these constitutions permitted it to be done in the Dorr manner. "So that the idea of changing their governments 'in such mode as they may select' is all an abstraction," a "glittering generality," as Rufus Choate said later of the Declaration of Independence. The Bangor Whig challenged the Republican-Journal to give a direct answer to the ques- tion, "Can the Constitution of the United States be altered by a majority of the people of the United States, in any manner they see fit?" The Whig said that, according to the theory of the Maine Legislature, any body of men could call meetings, the votes, too, might be counted by any body, and these men could proclaim themselves the chosen of the people and seize the government. It also pointed out that negroes were a part of the "people," and so were women and children.
Some attention was given to national issues, the tariff was mentioned, and also the disposal of the public lands. Clay and the Whigs had brought forward various measures for distributing the proceeds of the sales, with special grants of money or land to the States wherein the land sold was situated. The Democrats of Maine were inclined to oppose such bills, or the ground that the land was the property of all the States and should not be given away. The protectionists, however, even in the East, approved of distribution bills because they lessened the income of the government and so made a tariff more necessary. The Kennebec Journal said that if a long view were taken, distribution appeared a wise measure, that it would settle the question if anything could and give the old States their just share, which otherwise they would lose. "It will secure a great degree of steadiness and permanence in the tariff," which is of more importance, if possible, than the rate of duties."
When election day came, the Whigs met a Waterloo. The Kennebec Journal said: "We have treated him (Robinson) scandalously. Where are the working men that they did not come forward to sustain him? Don't let us hear anything more against nominating lawyers for Governors. We shall not trouble ourselves about collecting election returns. They are not worth printing."" Today, however, even those of us who are straight-out Republicans, can read without excessive emotion that Fairfield received 40,- 855 votes, Robinson 26,745, Appleton (Liberty) 4,080, and "Mr. Scatter- ing," 100.
President Tyler, who had left the Democrats and had been thrown out by the Whigs, was trying to build up a third party with the aid of patronage and the efforts of his "corporal's guard" of State Rights Virginians and
'The amount received from the public lands fluctuated greatly and the custom duties were apt to vary inversely with the receipts from other sources.
'Kennebec Journal, Sept. 23, 1842.
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Caleb Cushing. Mr. Webster had remained in the Cabinet when the other members resigned, and he had recently made a powerful speech in Faneuil Hall, urging conciliation and disapproving the action of the members of the late Cabinet and that of a Massachusetts Whig convention, which had de- clared the President no Whig. In Massachusetts the speech was not without influence, but in Maine it produced less effect. The Kennebec Journal said that the situation of foreign affairs justified Webster's remaining in the Cab- inet, "but we do not think we can ever forgive him for saying that Bell, Ewing and Badger had no reason for withdrawing." A week later Mr. Severance admitted that Webster had made a good case for himself in his speech, but added that he ought not to expect Whigs to support Tyler. "If Mr. Webster chooses to attach himself to imbecility, treachery and infamy in the seat of power, let him do so, keep his own skirts as clean as he can, and do what good he can. What he does for his country under such cir- cumstances will be a severe sacrifice to himself; but let him not ask the Whigs to kiss the rod which smites them or worship the ungrateful ingrate who has betrayed them to promote his own selfish ambition."6
Nor was the President successful in attracting the Democrats, not- withstanding his bank vetoes and his States-rights views. The Argus said in an editorial of March 4, 1842, that it did not complain of the removal of Democrats, and the appointment of Whigs, but that the whole country would oppose the building up of a Tyler faction by such means, and that it believed that never before had it been shamelessly avowed that appoint- ments were made for personal advantage, irrespective of party claims.
The chief business transacted by the Legislature of 1843 was the elec- tion of a United States Senator. Mr. Williams had served with fidelity and credit. His taste and abilities, however, fitted him for the work of the bar rather than that of the Senate, and he determined to resign. The question of his successor was involved with that of the Democratic nomination for President. Governor Fairfield in his message had expounded Democratic doctrine and Van Buren wrote to him expressing his approval. In his reply the Governor gave an account of political conditions in Maine. He said :
"Preble, Parris,' Parks, et id omne genus, have long been endeavoring to make friends for Mr. Calhoun and to organize a party in his favor, and on assembling here this winter the Calhoun men seriously contemplated mak- ing a legislative nomination. On hearing this I deemed it my duty to go to work, not only to ascertain how we stood, but to make things stand right. The result is, that the project of nominating Mr. C. is abandoned, and I verily believe that three out of four of both branches of the Legislature are decidedly in favor of Mr. V. B. I refer of course to the Democratic members, and this I believe to be a fair representation of the democracy of
'Kennebec Journal, Sept. 30, Oct. 7, 1842.
"Not the ex-Governor, but Virgil Delphini Parris, a prominent member of the pro- slavery wing of the Democratic party.
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the State, though the matter has been so little discussed that one cannot speak with entire confidence. Heretofore the friends of Mr. Calhoun have freely expressed their preference, while others have been silent. It will be so no longer. The bad policy of holding back is beginning to be perceived. We lost this State for Mr. Crawford by pursuing just such a policy, and will now endeavor to avoid the rock upon which we then split. Caution and good management, however, is necessary. Our differences must not be pushed so as to jeopard the great object of carrying the whole party for the nominee of a national convention. Hence I doubt whether our friends will attempt a legislative nomination."10
The Calhoun men, however, did not give up the struggle, but made desperate efforts to win. If their opponent may be believed they offered "appointments and other quasi-bribes" for votes. The House senatorial caucus showing by some preliminary ballottings that Fairfield had a large majority, twenty of the Parks men withdrew, and the Governor was nominated by a vote of 88 to 20. When the election was held in the House. Fairfield received 88 votes, there were four scattering, and the Whigs cast 40 votes for William Pitt Fessenden. The Senate voted unanimously for Fairfield.
Mr. Fairfield resigned the governorship on being elected to the Senate, and his office devolved upon Edward Kavanagh, of Newcastle, the presi- dent of the Maine Senate. Mr. Kavanagh was born in Nobleborough, Maine. His father, a wealthy merchant, was of Irish birth; his mother was an American. The young Kavanagh was educated in Boston, Canada, and various colleges in the United States. He studied law, but did not practice. On the death of the elder Kavanagh his son paid his debts from his own means, though not legally bound to do so. Mr. Kavanagh served in the State Senate and House, and for four years in the National House. In 1835 President Jackson appointed him chargé d'affaires at Lisbon, where he remained six years, negotiating an important treaty of commerce. In 1841 and 1842 he served again in the Maine Senate; in the latter year he was chosen president of that body and succeeded Governor Fairfield by con- stitutional provision. Willis says of Mr. Kavanagh: "He was a man of fine personal appearance, distinguished for natural politeness of manners, founded on the great benevolence of his disposition, which was constantly manifested." In religion Mr. Kavanagh was a Roman Catholic, and is the only member of that denomination who has been Governor of Maine.
Although the election of a Senator was the chief business transacted by the Legislature, it was by no means the only matter of importance con- sidered. Many resolutions on national questions were introduced, dis- cussed and finally passed, and the IVhig quoted the suggestion of a "con- temporary," "that as the time of the Legislature of this State has been taken up in discussing the bankrupt law, General Jackson's fine, West Point Academy, the Post Office Law, &c., Congress had better refer their busi- ness to the Legislature of Maine and adjourn."
10Fairfield to Van Buren, Jan. 28, 1843. Van Buren MSS.
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The election of Governor Fairfield to the Senate not only rendered it necessary for the Democrats to find a new candidate for Governor, but made the choice more difficult than it would have been had Mr. Fairfield served out his term. It is probable that an agreement had been reached between the friends of Governor Fairfield and those of Hugh J. Anderson, of Bel- fast, that they should unite to send Fairfield to the Senate and make Ander- son Governor. But it was customary to give the Governor several terms, and the friends of Mr. Kavanagh determined to press his claims. It might be alleged that he had never been elected by the people, that he was only acting governor, and that neither William D. Williamson, who had had the longest term of any acting governor in Maine, nor any other man who had held that office, had been nominated for a second term. To this it could be replied that Mr. Kavanagh was highly qualified for the position, and that Williamson had not sought a renomination, but had gone to Congress.
Fairfield wrote to Van Buren that he should resign and that Mr. Kava- nagh would become acting governor. "This," he said, "may give him some advantage over Anderson, but I trust not much. Kavanagh's being a Cath- olic, having participated in the negotiation of the late treaty (the Ashbur- ton treaty), which sacrificed a large part of Maine's boundary claims, and being in favor of Mr. Calhoun, will, I think, more than counterbalance the advantage which he can derive from his position as president of the Senate and acting governor."
Beaten on the senatorial question, the Calhoun men bent all their efforts to secure the nomination of Kavanagh. The State Convention met at Ban- gor in June. The Calhoun men had worked quietly and it is said that they had succeeded in getting many Calhoun delegates from Van Buren towns. They had also sent their ablest men to the convention, with William Pitt Preble at their head. The Van Buren men offered resolutions endorsing their candidate. Calhoun's supporters fought them most vigorously, threat- ening to defeat the nominee for Governor if they were passed. Albert G. Jewett, of Bangor, wrote to William L. Marcey, of New York, that a Port- land delegate, brother-in-law of Levi Woodbury, attacked Van Buren in a manner "unworthy of a gentleman in a Federal caucus." But all the Cal- houn efforts were in vain. The resolutions were adopted, and Mr. Anderson was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 162 votes against 124 for Mr. Kavanagh and 13 scattering.
Mr. Anderson was a self-made man, who had begun life as a grocer. He had held no important State office, but had served two years in Con- gress. His friends said that he had by private study acquired a knowledge of history and political economy, and was also acquainted with the lighter literature of the day, but that his distinguishing characteristic was general and accurate knowledge of men and things. As this phrase implied, Mr. Anderson was a skilled political manager ; he had courteous and suave man- ners, and while in Congress he had been on terms of intimacy with Mr. Van
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