USA > Maine > Biographical encyclopedia of Maine of the nineteenth century > Part 15
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The same day Mr. Washburn left for a brief visit to his home in Maine. He had been there but a day or two before he was invited by a delegation from Bangor to address the people of that city on the great question that was then agitating the country from one end to the other. The feeling of indignation at the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was general and intense, and the meeting (held June 2, 1854) at the City Hall was very large, and made up alike of Whigs and Democrats, few of whom were ever again to be known by their old party names. The Bangor Whig and Courier of June 3, 1854, says of Mr. Washburn's speech on that occasion, that "he closed by a solemn warning against the present encroachments and future designs of the slave-power in this country, and eloquently urged that all true friends of the Union must now unite and refuse longer to submit to the demands of that power-that they must stand with the men who have acted and voted for freedom in this contest, of whatever party or section of the Union they may bc-by Benton and Houston and others, noble men of the South, as well as the incor- ruptible Democrats of the North, and thus build up a great and truly National party, somewhat sectional at first, perhaps, but National in the end; a party which shall success- fully resist the designs of the tyrannical slave oligarchy, and save the Union from ultimately becoming one broad domain of slavery. This great consideration now overrides all the old party divisions and affects party organizations of the country. They must give way to it-they have already given way ; men who think alike must act together. Freedom must not be less wise than slavery, and slavery is united ; every true 'Republican' must rally under the banner of 'repeal.'" He then added that the new organization should take the name of Republican, and that their aim and purpose should be the welfare of the whole Union and the stainless honor of the American name.
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In this speech Mr. Washburn had struck the key-note of the general sentiment of a large majority of the State, and on his way to Washington a few days later the citizens of Saco called upon him to address them on the great and living issue that had taken prece- dence of all other political questions. He was greeted by an immense meeting, and his advocacy of a new name and a new party, based on freedom as the corner-stone, was received with unanimous approval ; the indignation at the passage of the Nebraska Bill being shared alike by Whigs and Democrats, presaging that union under a new name that was to carry the country through its greatest trial and make it a Republic composed in fact of United States.
In the " Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America," by the Hon. Henry Wilson, is the following passage :*
" In Washington, on the morning after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, there was a meet- ing of some thirty members of the House at the rooms of Thomas D. Eliot and Edward Dickinson of Massachusetts, called at the instance of Israel Washburn, Jr., of Maine, for consultation in regard to the course to be adopted in the exigencies of the case. . . . The name of Republican was suggested, dis- cussed, and finally adopted as appropriate for the new organization. In pursuance of the same object and in harmony with these suggestions, Mr. Washburn addressed a public meeting at Bangor, in which he repeated the views he had advanced in Washington."
The passage of the Nebraska Bill was but a step in the policy the slaveholders had marked out as that on which the Government was thenceforward to be conducted. That policy was to make slavery national and universal throughout the country. To do this it was indispensable that slaves should be recognized as property everywhere, inde- pendently of State laws. The claim was to be opened in a Territory where no State laws existed, and its constitutionality affirmed by the Supreme Court. The ultimate and most important object was not openly avowed, but subsequent events showed clearly that such were the ends proposed among themselves. Among the first to see the policy and effect of their legislation was Mr. Washburn, and he exposed and denounced it at a time when few who sympathized with him on the immediate issue could believe in the audacity of the slave-oligarchy.
Mr. William Goodell, editor of the Radical Abolitionist, early foresaw that this was to be the next measure thrust upon the people of the North, after the slaveholders had extended their peculiar institution over the Territories. In an issue of his paper published in 1859 he thus speaks of Mr. Washburn's exposure of their deep-laid plans :
"We have until quite recently stood almost alone in expressing this conviction. We find, however, that the Hon. Israel Washburn, member of Congress from Maine, has held the same language all along, as will appear from the following extracts from his speeches:
* Vol. ii. p. 410.
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"In Mr. Washburn's speech on the bill to organize Territorial governments in Kansas and Ne- braska, in the House of Representatives, April 7, 1854, having quoted the Charleston Mercury and Mr. Stephens of Georgia as denying the constitutional right of the Territories to exclude slavery, Mr. Washburn said:
"'Well, sir, as I have said, the drama of non-intervention, after one performance more, will be removed from the stage forever-as we sometimes read on the play-bills, it is "positively for one night only." Whether it shall accomplish the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise or not, it will have filled its destiny. In the former case it will be thrown overboard as a thing for which the slave-holders never had any respect, and now have no further use. Then we shall hear that the time has come for the inculcation of the true doctrine: "The North is sufficiently weakened and humbled; the country is ready for it: let it be proclaimed everywhere that the Constitution of the United States, propriore vigore, carries slavery wherever the flag of the Union flies." It carries it, we are told, into the Territories, and neither Congress nor the local Legislatures, nor both combined, can restrain its march: for the Con- stitution is above both, is the supreme law of the land-aye, and carries it into all of the States; for neither State laws nor State constitutions can exclude the enjoyment of a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Government. This, sir, is the doctrine with which we shall be vigorously pressed if this bill is carried. Already has it been more than hinted; and whoever has noticed the advanced ground which slavery occupies now, compared with that on which it rested in 1850, will not be slow to believe it. . . . Nearly all Southern gentlemen who have spoken on this subject, and have in any way recognized the doctrine of non-intervention, are careful to limit the right of the people of the Territories to legislate for themselves, by the Constitution of the United States; and they hold that the Con- stitution forbids all Territorial legislation for the prohibition of slavery.'"
This policy, which Mr. Washburn declared to be the deliberate purpose of the slave- holders as early as April 7, 1854 (and repeated afterward), was steadily pursued by them as long as they had any hope of keeping the, Government under their control; and as late as May 19, 1860, in a speech delivered in the House, he repeated and exposed the terrible issues that depended on the next Presidential election. The decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case, under which slavery was recognized as National, and slaves as property under the Constitution, was received by Mr. Washburn in part in these words :
"'By the Constitution itself,' the court argued, ' slaves were recognized and known as property.' ' The right of property in slaves,' they said, was 'distinctly and expressly affirmed ' in that instrument, and the only authority conferred upon Congress was ' the power coupled with the duty of guarding and pro- tecting the owner in his rights.' These judges readily admitted that, but for the constitutional sanction of slavery, it would be fully competent for Congress to legislate for its regulation or prohibition in the Territories. They stated that the court had decided in a previous case that the power of Congress to govern the Territories was 'unquestionable;' and added, ' in this we entirely concur, and nothing will be found in this opinion to the contrary;' thus destroying, root and branch, the whole doctrine of popular or squatter sovereignty. But, inasmuch as the Constitution has taken hold of slaves as property, and thrown its protection and guarantees around that species of property, it results, they maintained, that Congress, which is itself the creature of the Constitution, cannot have power to destroy or impair that which the Constitution affirms and protects. Now, if it be true that slaves are property under the Con- stitution of the United States, which is the supreme law; that this instrument, which governs and controls, in respect to all questions upon which it speaks, within all the States as well as Territories, attaches to
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a particular class of human beings the character and imprints upon them the stamp of property, and confers upon Congress ' the power coupled with the duty of protecting this property,' for the reason that it is property by a constitutional recognition-it will be difficult to resist the conclusion to which these judges have arrived; nay, it will be impossible to resist it, or that other conclusion to which this decision reaches, viz .: that this kind of property may be taken, held, used, bought and sold, in each and all of the States of the Union.
" It is clear that whatsoever is property by the highest law of the land is entitled to the rights, immunities, and protections of property, wherever that highest law prevails. The Constitution of the United States is in force in every State of the Union; and all laws of Congress, all laws of States, and all State constitutions which are in conflict with its provisions are inoperative and void. If a slave is property by or under the authority of the Federal Constitution, this relation or character cannot be destroyed or injuriously affected by the constitution of a State; for wherever and in whatever respect thesc constitutions are inconsistent with each other, the latter must yield to the former. If the Consti- tution of the United States declares that a man held as a slave is property, he may be so held, treated, and regarded in all places where that fundamental and supreme law is in operation; and a provision in the constitution of the State of Maine, or of any other State, that there shall be no such thing as property in men within that State, cannot stand a moment against the Constitution of the United States, which says that there may be; and the theory of the practical exclusion of slavery by unfriendly legislation is fallacious, and wholly inadmissible-it is as unsound as it is dishonest. If the chattelship of a slave is recognized and secured by the Constitution of the United States, it is something more than a merely nominal recognition, for a security which is merely nominal is no security at all. The constitutional guaranty or protection is of no account if the States or Territories, or Congress, may at their pleasure render that which is the subject of protection valueless, or not worth possessing.
"The Constitution recognizes undoubtedly the idea of property, but the specific articles or things which shall be held and regarded as such it does not name or indicate, with the single exception (if the doctrine of the judges of the Supreme Court and the Democratic Party be sound) of negro slaves.
" The States are sovereign, except in so far as their power is limited by the Constitution of the United States. It is not claimed that the power of the States to declare what shall or shall not be treated as property within their own limits has been taken from them-always excepting the one case of slaves. One State has provided by legislation that there shall be no property in cart-wheels of less than a certain width; another, that there shall be no such thing as property within its jurisdiction in game-cocks; another, that an inferior and vicious species of cattle, which were being brought into it from a neighboring country, shall not be introduced, held, or kept as property within its limits; another, that there shall be no protection to and no property in domestic liquors; and when the question of the power of the State to pass such a law was raised and presented to the Supreme Court of the United States, that tribunal decided in favor of the power. Thus in all cases, and in reference to all kinds of property, except slave property, the States and Territories (or Congress) have unlimited power; and if they may deny the fact of property in any particular article or thing, they may of course regulate its use and enjoyment.
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" The expedient of unfriendly legislation, it has been seen, is not admissible, for the subject to which it is to be applied cannot be affected by it: the property in this case is not like ordinary property-within
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the control of State legislation; but it is property that has been raised by the Constitution of the United States to a position where it is unassailable. Any local law impairing a right which rests upon a special constitutional sanction must be declared inoperative of course. Property founded upon such a right cannot be subject to any laws or regulations more onerous than are made to apply to other property, or perhaps than attacli to the most favored descriptions of property: certainly any invidious legislation, and all regulations discriminating against it, would be unconstitutional. The laws protecting other property would protect this: actions of case, trespass, replevin,-in fine, all the appropriate remedies for injuries to property,-would lie as well for torts to this property as to any other. To maim a slave would be trespass, to steal him would be larceny. So an affirmative code for the protection of slave property would in almost every conceivable case be unnecessary, and unfriendly legislation would in all cases be nugatory. What cannot be done directly, cannot be done indirectly.
"I have dwelt at length upon this branch of my subject, because I perceive that this decision embraces and involves every question in respect to the existence, extension, and perpetuation of slavery. . . .
"It covers every claim that the oligarchy sets up; it forbids the prohibition of slavery exten- sion; it declares in effect that the Constitution carries slavery into every Territory and every State of the Union, and extends to slave property a degree of favor and protection such as is accorded to no other kind of property."
In this speech Mr. Washburn had voiced the sentiments of the people of Maine to an extent he could hardly have anticipated when it was delivered, for from all parts came the call for him to run for Governor at the next State clection. It was his wish still to remain in Congress, but the demand was so strong and so earnest that in the great contest impend- ing he should be at the head of the Republican ticket that he reluctantly gave his consent. He soon entered on the arduous canvass, speaking almost every day till the election to immense audiences ; all of which shared in his opinions that, as Maine would lead off in the fall elections, it should give no uncertain sound as to its determination on the question of slavcry extension. The result of the election surpassed even the Republican expectations. From a total vote of 124,000 Mr. Washburn received a majority of 17,000, and with this impetus for success the campaign opened.
When Mr. Washburn entered on his duties as Governor the mutterings of civil war werc already in the air. The Legislature that convened on the 3d of January, 1861, was to confront new questions and incur unexpected responsibilities. The large majority had been carried into power on the same wave of enthusiasm as had the Governor, and were in entire harmony with him in a determination to resist further encroachments from the South. In his inaugural message he addressed them in regard to the threats that had been made that Mr. Lincoln should not be permitted to serve as President, in the following words :
"If the people of any of the States have determined that Mr. Lincoln, who has been regularly and legally elected President of the United States, is not to enter on the duties of that office unless he and
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those who have supported him will purchase his inauguration as President of an unbroken union by concessions and compromises involving an abrogation and denial of the vital principles of the Govern- ment, and of the cherished doctrines and purposes of the great men who established it, and shall attempt by force to execute such purposes, they will be guilty of treason against the United States, and will fur- nish occasion for testing the strength of the Government. The right of the majority to choose their officers and administer the Government, under the Constitution, must not be surrendered, and will not be, whatever may happen. For in the dark catalogue of public ills all are tolerable but the loss of a people's honor. An errant star rushing wildly from its sphere, and wandering, however long and far, may return to its wonted place in our system; but when the manhood of a people is extinguished there is an end alike of public virtue and of individual freedom, and popular government becomes an impossi- bility."
As is well known, civil war burst forth on the country when the first gun was fired on Fort Sumter on the 12th April, 1861. Maine, like the other States, was called upon to put down the Rebellion ; and on the 14th Governor Washburn issued his proclamation convening the Legislature in extra session. It assembled on the 22d, and was addressed in convention by the Governor in terms that met a ready response from that body. After briefly reviewing the bad faith and wickedness of those who had brought on the war, he continued, repeating from his message of three months before :
" We know that our State, whose attachment to the Union has been avouched not only by words but by works,-by sacrifices which she alone of all the States has been called upon to make, even by the dismemberment of her territory that the nation might have peace, -- will renew her claim on the gratitude of the country by the alacrity with which she will furnish material and efficient proofs of her fidelity and virtue. The divisions of party will disappear from among us, and the names by which we have been recognized will be forgotten, and all will be known as patriots and defenders of the Union."
He added :
"And so it is and so it shall be; and this Union is to be defended and the Constitution preserved, not by Democrats, not by Republicans, but by men who love their country; and all men of whatever party who are for the Government, and will stand by it and fight for it, are brethren.
"For one I know no difference, and I will know no difference; and I will hold that man as wanting in the highest quality of patriotism who will know any distinction between men founded on their former party relations."
In his next annual address to the Legislature (on the 2d of January, 1862) Governor Washburn expressed himself in still stronger terms on the duty of standing by the Govern- ment, of recognizing but two classes-those who sustained and those who sought to embarrass it.
From this address the following extract is taken :
" Whoever in this crisis shall maintain or act as if he believed that the Union ought to be preserved if slavery in it can be protected, but that without slavery it is not worth defending, making in his heart
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slavery and not the Union the great object of his regard, will not fail to be known and treated as one whom no impulses of patriotism, but only the suggestions of cowardice, restrained from the practice of treason; and the citizen who will not act in good faith for the Union and aid in prosecuting the war without conditions and compromises, or who by his complaints, fault-findings, or misrepresentations weakens the arm of the National Administration, renders most efficient aid to the rebels ; and, whatever . his professions, should be marked and shunned as one who makes his selfish purposes or his party views
paramount to his love of country.
" At the present time and under existing circumstances a conditional Union man is an unconditional traitor. For in such an emergency as the present true and loyal men will say, 'Let all else die, but let the country live.' When the star of peace shall return, the ordinary functions of party and party men will be revived, and the affection and confidence of a just and grateful people will be bestowed on those who, in the hour of the nation's direst peril, were most faithful and generous."
When the war broke out the State of Maine was utterly unprepared for such a calam- ity. The old militia system had fallen into disuse and neglect ; there were neither the drilled soldiers nor officers : yet the popular response was most wonderful. The men volunteered by thousands and tens of thousands at the call of patriotism ; and regiments, if not drilled and trained, yet eager to learn the soldier's duty, were sent forward to the seat of war with a rapidity impossible in any country but one where the heart of both officer and private was in the cause. Governor Washburn was justly called the War Governor, for within the two years while he was chief magistrate nearly 50,000 troops were marshalled and sent to the front ; and it was acknowledged by the Department at Washington that no soldiers were better organized or composed of sterner stuff, or did better fighting, than the sons of the " Pine Tree State."
In consideration of the extended line of the coast of Maine, upon which were more deep, accessible harbors, capable of being entered by ships of war of the largest class, than could be found on the entire coast-line of the slave-holding States ; that for more than four hundred miles the State was separated from a foreign country by a merely imaginary line- Governor Washburn was deeply impressed with the necessity of providing for its protec- tion, and labored incessantly to engage the interest of the Federal Government and of the State in this important work.
In his annual address to the Legislature at this session he said :
" In view of the proportions which the Rebellion had assumed, and of the complications with foreign nations in which, in its progress, the Government of the United States was liable to be involved ; and considering the dangers to which Maine would be exposed in the event of war between the United States and any great maritime power, I felt it my duty, in the month of October last, to address a note to the Secretary of State (in response to his wise and timely circular to the Governors of the loyal sea- board and lake-coast States), inclosing a letter or memoir to the President of the United States, in which the attention of the General Government was called to the peculiarly exposed situation of this State, and to the necessity of providing additional defences upon its coast, and indicating to some extent the
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character of the works which seemed to be indispensable to the protection, not of this State merely but of the United States; and that this subject, so important to the State and country, should not fail to be presented in such manner as to secure the most favorable consideration, I gave it in charge of three able and eminent citizens,-the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President of the United States; the Hon. Reuel Williams of Augusta; and John A. Poor, Esq., of Portland,-who immediately repaired to the city of Washington, and who by their assiduous and faithful efforts succeeded, it is believed, in impress- ing upon the Government the necessity of increasing the defences of this State, and of adopting measures for their immediate construction."
The Governor corresponded with the Secretaries of State and War upon the subject. The President of the United States called the attention of Congress to it in a special Message, in which he transmitted this correspondence to that body. These papers, together with the report of the commissioners, were laid by Governor Washburn before the State Legislature, with an earnest request that it should urge upon the authorities of the United States a vigorous prosecution of the works of National defence within this State. As a result of these efforts, works were commenced on this coast and have been prosecuted to this time with more or less vigor ; but especially so far as they related to the strengthening of Portland, which, from its situation in regard to the whole State and to New England, was the point of all others the most necessary to be defended, and where new works have been commenced and are being constructed, which when completed will make, in connec- tion with the old, this the strongest and best fortified city in the United States.
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