USA > Maine > Maine; a history, Volume II > Part 13
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THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
or "with no" slavery but under the constitution with no slavery the right of slave owners to their slaves which were in the territory at the time of the constitution and presumably to their increase was guaranteed and the constitution could not be amended until 1864. This violation of the much- lauded principle of popular sovereignty called forth sharp condemnation from Democrats themselves. Buchanan's Governor of Kansas opposed it, and Senator Douglas fought it with all his might. Many Democratic papers in Maine supported him. The Augusta Age called on the Democratic State convention to denounce the constitution if it should be adopted.
The Argus regretted such extreme action. It said: "The Democratic party is weak enough in the State without being divided and further crip- pled by introducing new tests," on a temporary question. "The sterling Democracy will say let us have no attempts to organize and array one portion of the Democracy against another portion; let us tolerate honest differences of opinion in a brotherly spirit."
The Republicans hailed the quarrel in the Democratic party with joy. The Advertiser was ready to open its arms even to the author of the hated Nebraska bill. It said, "There can be no doubt that this separation of Douglas and the Administration is complete at the present time, and that it may be made final by a wise, prudent and liberal course on the part of the Republican opposition. We gladly hail all fellow laborers, even though they do not join us until the eleventh hour. They will be received into full heirship into the Republican family, and for past misdeeds will be held accountable only by a Higher than human power."
But the Whig declared that the contest between Douglas and Buchanan was a personal fight and that the Republicans would gain nothing by dilut- ing their principles.
On election day the Republicans again triumphed over the divided Democracy. The official returns gave Morrill 60,380 votes and Smith 52,440 ; there were 78 scattering.
The Democrats may have found some comfort a little later in the dis- covery that the Governor had "cribbed" his Thanksgiving Proclamation. Mr. Charles E. Bliss of Bangor, a Webster Whig who devoted much of his leisure to the study and enjoyment of belles lettres, noted a striking resemblance between the proclamation and a sermon by an eminent preacher of the day, Rev. E. H. Chapin. With no thought of publication Mr. Bliss mentioned the matter to a Democratic editor, who accused the Governor of plagiarism and proved it by the "deadly parallel." The Argus reproduced the article and also showed that other passages were much like portions of Beecher's The Christian Commonwealth.
Maine received some rather unpleasant advertising. The Pennsyl- vanian said that Governor Morrill's "recent proclamation has made his name a by-word in all sections of the Union." The Boston Post said that "The most serious objection to electing Governor Morrill United States
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Senator from Maine is that the Rev. Mr. Chapin will be unable to go with him to Washington to make his speeches."
The year 1859 was a rather quiet one. The United States paid Massa- chusetts her expenses for national purposes in the War of 1812, and by the terms of separation Maine received one-third of this. There was a struggle between the followers of the Administration and those of Douglas, and the leading Douglas Democrats including Bion Bradbury, and Ephraim K. Smart, were removed from their offices. Bradbury was the only man who voted against the anti-slavery resolutions of 1849. The Douglas men are said to have threatened to run an independent candidate in the State elec- tion, though promising to be regular in 1860. Smart declared that if the Democratic national convention should favor Congress' enacting a code for the protection of slavery in the territories, he would not support the nom- inee. Some were inclined to expel him from the party but the Argus urged moderation. It said that Smart had done good work in the last Legislature, that it disbelieved in his theory that Congress and the people of a territory could exclude slavery therefrom, but that the question was practically un- important, the so-called Free State party had been in power in Kansas for nearly two years but slavery had not been abolished there. It thought Smart was unwise to assume that the Democratic national convention would declare for a slave code and to announce what he would do in that case. The Argus also said that the convention should not express an opinion regarding the political power over slavery in the territories, that being a question for the courts.
In the State convention the Douglas men opposed the renomination of Governor Smith, putting forward Mr. Smart as their candidate, but were defeated.
The Republicans renominated Governor Morrill without opposition. The convention beside reiterating Republican doctrines on the subject of slavery blamed the Democrats for defeating the bill giving homesteads on the public lands to actual settlers, saying that this was a direct blow to the laboring classes of the country and another conclusive proof of the utter subservience of the Democrats to the Slave Power and of its hostil- ity to Freedom. The convention pledged the party in the future as in the past to "the encouragement of manufacturing industry, the settlement of our public lands, the development of our vast resources, and the improve- ment and perfection of our Common School system."
The Democrats declared that it seemed little short of folly when the State had millions of acres of good lands needing settlers to insist on the grant of free homesteads by the national government. They also charged the Republicans with various misdeeds, actual or intended, in State matters. At the end of the campaign the Whig declared that it had been signally deficient in excitement and that in many sections positive dullness and inaction had prevailed. The Republicans won easily. The official count gave Morrill 57,230 votes and Smith 45,387; there were 35 scattering.
Chapter XV THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR
PORTLAND HEADLIGHT, PORTLAND HARBOR
FORT ALLEN PARK, PORTLAND
#
HOME OF THE PEARLS, ORR'S ISLAND
CHAPTER XV THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR
The year 1860 closed with the shocking discovery that the State Treasurer, B. D. Peck, a former minister of the gospel, was a defaulter to a large amount. In earlier days public officers had mingled their official and private funds, had received interest on public money deposited by them in banks, and had even used the money in their own business, and little or nothing was thought of it if no loss resulted to the government. But public opinion had grown stricter and in 1856 the Legislature of Maine had passed an act forbidding the Treasurer to loan the money of the State or to profit in any way from its custody, but the only penalty for a violation of the law was the forfeiture to the State of a sum equal to the amount wrong- fully used.
Mr. Peck had been Treasurer for 1857-58-59. In each of these years he lent money to his bondsmen, and in 1858 he began to use his official position and authority to help him in his business. Several ambitious and hopeful gentlemen had formed a partnership and obtained a refusal of a saw mill and a right to cut timber on a large tract of land in Canada. But only one had any money to spare and he had no intention of risking it. Accordingly, they looked around for an "angel" to provide them with the needful cash and induced Mr. Peck to assume the part. He had indeed very little money of his own, but he not only obtained loans from banks who wished to oblige him because he had deposited public money with them, but drew State money for use in his speculation. Loans were also obtained from private parties. In justice to Peck's associates it must be admitted that if they contributed no cash, Micawber himself could not have been readier to pledge his credit. A legislative investigating committee said in its report : "They were all obliging enough to furnish Peck with notes to any amount, at any time, to be negotiated at any discount and to be paid by anybody-except the makers."
Peck had been tempted into the venture by assurances of large returns on a small outlay, but the expenses proved much greater than had been anticipated. A new saw mill had been built which it was thought would be in operation in July, 1859, but it was not ready until October, and in a little more than a month it was disabled by the collapsing of a flue. Peck was unable to raise money to meet his notes and by the last of December his "condition as a public defaulter was a matter of such general notoriety as to have become a topic of newspaper comment." The final blow was given by the suspension of the Norombega Bank of Bangor, with which Peck had had numerous transactions. The cashier was a partner in the Canada enterprise and had illegally favored Peck to the injury both of the State and the bank.
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The Governor publicly declared Peck a defaulter and prohibited depos- itories of the public money from honoring his checks. A joint committee of investigation was appointed by the Legislature and they made a report giving an account of Peck's misbehavior from his first assuming the office of Treasurer and stating their opinion of the liabilities of his bondsmen and other persons with whom he had done business. The representatives on the committee were appointed commissioners to make a just and equitable settlement with the bondsmen. There was an undisputed liability of the sureties for 1859 of $37,585.41 and a somewhat doubtful one of $4,038.44. The committee decided that for both practical and equitable reasons the State should assume the loss of the latter sum. The sureties offered in return for a full discharge $7,000 in cash, and $30,000 in notes of General S. F. Hersey and Walter Brown payable in annual instalments of $10,000, with a mortgage of land as security. The commissioners having satisfied themselves as to the value of the land accepted the proposal, complimenting the bondsmen on their honorable conduct.1
The bondsmen of 1858 denied their liability. They claimed that there was an understanding that the bond should not be delivered unless additional bondsmen were obtained and also that the seals were not affixed before or at the time of their signature. It seemed impossible to obtain a judgment. In 1869 Attorney-General William P. Frye said of the case, "I received this as a legacy from my predecessor, and transmit it to my successor unim- paired." In 1871 the Law Court decided that the defendants owed the State the face value of their bonds and interest, the whole amounting to over $64,000.
In the following winter the Legislature discharged two of the defend- ants, Dow and Cummings, probably the only sureties whose signatures were of any real value, on condition of the payment by each of $5,026.11. '
There was also a loss by loans to bondsmen and by payment of State funds to persons who, it was alleged, knew at the time the payments were made that Peck was a defaulter. Most of the bondsmen had repaid their loans before the crash came but Congressman Somes, who had borrowed considerable sums from Peck, had disastrously failed in business and, said the investigating committee, was "understood to be hopelessly insolvent." Another bondsman who had received advances from Peck was Neal Dow. In return he gave Peck checks which were later exchanged for endorsements on notes. Mr. Dow promptly paid the notes and also paid into the State treasury the amount he had received, except $3,000 which he claimed that Peck had obtained from the sale of a note and had deposited to the credit of the State. In 1866 a court decided that Mr. Dow was not liable for this amount.
The investigating committee strongly recommended that suit be brought against two persons for money received from Peck and this was done the
1Legislative Reports, 1860, 1861.
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next year, but the matter was not pressed until Thomas B. Reed became Attorney-General. Mr. Reed gave notice that the case must be tried. One of the defendants was dead and the other very old and the Legislature was applied to for leave to compromise. The requisite authority was given to the Attorney-General subject to the approval of the Governor and Council. The original suit was for $4,507.39. Mr. Reed accepted $3,200 as payment in full including taxable costs. He considered this for the best interests of the State since much of the evidence had been destroyed by lapse of time.2
The politicians, men who cared as much for success as for principle, were now coming to the front in the Republican party. The excitement over Kansas was dying down and various clever men thought that, having now corralled the strongly anti-slavery men, it would be well to cater to the old Whigs and others who opposed Buchanan, by taking a very mod- erate man for a candidate, perhaps one not hitherto identified with the Republican party. Such, however, was not the opinion of the Maine Republicans. The Whig in an editorial of February 17 announced that it favored Banks, Seward, Chase or Fessenden for President, and Lincoln, Cassius M. Clay, Frank P. Blair, or Henry Winter Davis for Vice-Presi- dent, saying: "It is not now the time to take a fossil and galvanize him into life. A leader should be in the advance, not carried forward up the breach a dead weight on the shoulders of his men. . In a struggle like that of 1860 nothing can justify the selection of any but the fathers of the party for standard bearers, and no timidity of the result, no anxiety to catch a floating vote that isn't worth catching, or that entails an equal loss of party strength, can justify any other course."
Ten days later it was ready to make a small concession. It still opposed the choice as a Presidential candidate "of a nominal Republican who might lose as many votes as he would gain and whose election would be a doubt- ful advantage." "As to the man," said the Whig, "we would have our delegates go unpledged-we would have them go with the simple under- standing that it is a Republican, and not a mere opposition convention which they are attending and consequently whatever allies the Republicans may have, their vast preponderance of strength entitles them to the chief candidate on the ticket. That something may be safely conceded as to the second nomination, may be true; and we should not oppose any proper arrangement of that kind."
The favorite candidate of the men holding these views was William H. Seward of New York, long a leader, perhaps one should say the leader, in the political opposition to slavery. He had been Governor of his State for four years and was now nearing the completion of a second term as her Senator. To his followers it seemed that he was in every way the natural and the fittest candidate for the Republican nomination and that his defeat
"Report of Attorney General, 1872.
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would be the triumph of little men and scheming politicians. John L. Stevens, the editor of the Kennebec Journal, desired his nomination with .all his heart and soul.
But two of the shrewdest politicians in the State, Hannibal Hamlin and James G. Blaine, were opposed to Seward's nomination. Mr. Hamlin believed that Seward could not be elected and also that he was better fitted for the Senate than the White House. His first choice for President had been Chief Justice Read of Pennsylvania, an earnest Republican, very popular in his State, and solid and sensible, if not brilliant, but Read had been set aside by Simon Cameron and Hamlin decided to support Lincoln, being much influenced by his Cooper Union speech, and also by the high opinion of him expressed by Stephen A. Douglas, and Elihu B. Washburne, formerly of Maine but now of Illinois. Mr. Blaine had been in Illinois during the Lincoln-Douglas debates, had heard Lincoln speak twice, and had conceived a great admiration for him. On February 28, the Republican members of the Maine Legislature held a caucus to choose the four dele- gates at large to the Republican national convention. There had been a general belief that they would be instructed to support Seward but Hamlin had been quietly exerting his influence against such action, and when Mr. Blaine offered a resolution authorizing the delegates to vote for the Repub- lican "most likely to obtain the largest number of votes, principle being regarded as superior to men, and the triumph of the cause above every- thing else," the convention accepted it. They elected, however, Seward men as delegates. The persons chosen were George F. Talbot of Machias, William H. McCrillis of Bangor, John L. Stevens of Augusta and Rens- selaer Cram of Portland. The result was agreeable to Mr. Hamlin, who "believed that if representative men were sent to Chicago, they would speedily see for themselves that the logic of the situation would dictate the selection of a man other than Seward." Blaine was less pleased. The Maine Senators had themselves been mentioned both within and without the State as candidates for the nomination, but each of them had refused to allow his name to be used. Blaine, however, believed that Fessenden had an excellent chance of being nominated and the delegates chosen were not as well disposed toward him as he would have wished. On March 6 Blaine wrote to Mr. Fessenden :
"MY DEAR SIR :- There was a very curious contest for delegates-at- large, and the result was very much the same as I anticipated in my last letter to you. The delegation is not such a one altogether as I desired, but I am utterly unable to do anything to change its character; so, also, of others, who feel an especial degree of friendship for yourself. The con- vention was boisterously demonstrative at the mention of your name, and I am quite sure that your friends had the most abundant cause to be satis- fied and gratified with the spirit that was everywhere manifest.
"Governor Morrill would have been unanimously elected had he con- sented to stand, and even after positively declining he received nearly half
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the votes of the convention. The Governor designs to go to Chicago, as- does [sic] a large number from this section, but he had some peculiar objections to heading the delegates, and as he is a man of great sensitive- ness of feeling, he could not be induced to risk certain flings which he thought would follow his election. He is a most cordial friend of yours. . .
"It was difficult in the convention to keep a resolution specifically recommending you from being offered, and it was only upon the assurance that you would not desire it that the movement was suppressed. Had it been introduced, it would have been idle to attempt any withdrawal of it; it would not have been permitted by the convention."
Messrs. Morrill and Blaine both went to Chicago, and all through the journey Blaine labored with his companion to induce him to support Lincoln,' but though he made an impression, the Governor was not a thor .. ough convert until after his arrival at Chicago. What he saw and heard there quickly proved decisive, he became an earnest Lincoln man, and worked heartily with Blaine for his nomination.
Mr. Hamlin had been busy in Maine. The district conventions in general followed the example of the State convention and left their dele- gates unpledged.
"But in one district, which was then the second and now a part of the third, the Seward men made a determined effort to choose one of their number, Colonel John N. Swazey, a leading citizen of Bucksport and a man of influence in his party. When this move was reported to Senator Hamlin, he exerted himself to head off the Seward men. He instructed his son Charles, who was then beginning the practice of law at Orland, to concentrate the anti-Seward strength on some representative Republican who would go to Chicago unpledged. Mr. Hamlin conferred with leading men in Hancock County who were his father's friends, with the result that Capt. John West, of Franklin, was selected as their candidate. He had leanings towards Lincoln, and he was chosen also because he was a cool and reliable politician, and would be governed wholly by practical considera- tions in the Chicago convention. There was a sharp fight, and Captain West was elected by a small majority."
Two of Mr. Hamlin's staunchest followers, General S. F. Hersey of Bangor and Mark F. Wentworth of Kittery, had been chosen delegates and their leader's arguments convinced them that it would be unwise to nominate Seward. He advised them to canvass the delegates from the three great doubtful States of Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois and to obtain in writ- ing the names of three men who these gentlemen believed could carry their States. A canvass was made. A majority placed the name of Lincoln on their memoranda, but only a minority wrote Seward's. This converted three other Maine delegates-George W. Lawrence of Warren, Leonard Andrews of Biddeford and Rensselaer Cram of Portland. Accordingly, on the three ballots taken for President, Maine gave Lincoln six votes and
'Doubtless Blaine thought that Fessenden should only be brought forward, as a compromise candidate in case of a deadlock.
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Seward ter. On the third ballot Lincoln lacked only 11/2 votes for a nom- ination. At once delegation after delegation changed their votes and he was nominated by a majority of over 3 to I.
For Vice-President two ballots were taken. The first stood, Hannibal Hamlin, 194; Cassius M. Clay, 1021/2; John Hickman, 58; Andrew J. Reeder, 51 ; Nathaniel P. Banks, 381/2. On the second ballot, Hamlin was chosen by a vote of 367 to 86 for Clay and 13 for Hickman. The nomina- tion was due to various causes. The Seward men, sorely disappointed at the defeat of their leader, bluntly refused a request to suggest a nominee for Vice-President, and when the honor was offered to Governor Morgan of New York he promptly declined it. But New York was in favor of Hamlin,' and Senator Preston King worked actively in his behalf.' Ohio also favored him and as both these States had opposed Lincoln, his friends were glad to placate them by supporting their candidate for Vice-President. Moreover, the nominee for President was a Western man and a former Whig, and it was deemed reasonable that the other place on the ticket should be given to an Eastern man and an ex-Democrat.
The news of Hamlin's nomination was received in Maine with much enthusiasm. A letter to him from his brother Elijah describes what hap- pened in Bangor. He says :
"About twelve o'clock I was awakened by a crowd about my house shouting your nomination for Vice-President. Augustus and I had to get up, and upon opening the door, the outsiders rushed into the house with loud cheers. After partaking of some refreshments, Augustus found a swivel and some powder, and a salute was fired in honor of the nomination.
"There was a call for some wadding for the gun. John Wingate tore off a piece of his pantaloons for wadding and continued to furnish wadding in the same way, and when the firing was over he had nothing left of his pantaloons but the waistbands. When the firing commenced in the after- noon, Wingate was fishing on your old grounds beyond Eddington. Upon hearing the first gun, he says, he gave such a jump and shout for the Republican nomination that he broke his watch crystal all to smash, and he produced the watch to show it. He immediately started for home, having some ways to come on foot, and in his hurry he damaged his pantaloons badly. He came into the city about twelve o'clock, at about the same time of the news of your nomination, and he said he would make a burnt offering of his pantaloons, and so had them fired off in wadding the gun. Wingate's performance has made a good deal of fun, and he says he is ready to be fired off himself if he could only kill the Democratic party.
"Two drums were obtained, and the crowd then went to the mayor's. Hollis Bowman, then to Wingate's, the street commissioner, and so on to other places until near sunrise. The nomination was everywhere enthu- siastically received, and in some cases, persons came out just as they came out of bed. The Democrats complain that they had no sleep the last part of the night, there was such an infernal uproar in the streets.
"It is probable also that New York was angry at the failure of Pennsylvania and the friends of Banks to support Seward and felt a revengeful pleasure in helping to nominate Hamlin instead of Banks, or Reeder or Hickman of Pennsylvania.
"Hamlin, "Hamlin," 345-
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"There is to be a demonstration made in Hampden this afternoon, and I and others intend going down.
"The nomination takes well. The Democrats are sulky. Some have been heard to say that it will be of no use to oppose the ticket. I would congratulate you on the nomination, for whether elected or not, it is highly complimentary to you and our State.""
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