USA > Michigan > Calhoun County > History of Calhoun county, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume I > Part 12
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of freedom to action, and to unite all the enemies of slavery upon one platform and under one party. The influence of the Detroit Tribune, the leading state paper of the Whig party cannot be over-estimated, in moulding public opinion. Other papers in the State republished these articles and supplemented the cause; meanwhile Horace Greeley, the master leader of the political movement was urging it on in his mighty editorials in the New York Tribune and scattering them broadcast throughout Michigan and other northern states. Zachariah Chandler, the Whig candidate for governor in 1852, contributed his Herculean strength, and traveled all over the State to organize an anti-slavery party. His influence wrought great results and his political opponents gave him the sobriquet "of the traveling agent of the new Abolition party." On the 25th of May, a ringing call was made for a mass meet- ing of all the citizens opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to meet at Kalamazoo in a mass convention the 21st of June follow- ing. Men of all parties met at this convention. Hovey K. Clarke was again chairman of the committee on resolutions and drew the resolutions adopted. These resolutions denounced the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise and reaffirmed the Free-Soil platform of 1852. They also recom- mended concentration of the anti-slavery forces, offered to withdraw the ticket nominated at Jackson and surrender their organization, as means to an end, and authorized the appointment of a committee of sixteen to carry out this purpose. Erastus Hussey was also a member of the committee of resolutions and a member of the committee of six- teen to withdraw the ticket.
Mr. Clarke made a telling speech in favor of his resolutions and they were enthusiastically adopted. The action of this committee under the leadership of Marshall men, cleared the way for the union of the Abo- litionists, Free-Soilers, Wilmot Proviso Democrats, and Anti-slavery Whigs into one organization. Men of all parties saw the way clear and . went to work in earnest.
A call "inviting all our fellow citizens, without reference to former political associations, who think that the time has arrived for a union at the north to prevent liberty from being overthrown and down-trodden, to assemble in mass convention on Thursday, on the 6th of July next, at one o'clock P. M." signed by more than ten thousand freemen of the State had been issued. Charles T. Gorham, Hovey K. Clarke, Erastus Hussey and over one hundred other Marshall men signed this call and two hundred citizens of Calhoun County attended this convention. In the organization of the convention, Charles T. Gorham was vice-presi- dent, and a member of the committee, to nominate candidates. Erastus Hussey was a member of the committee on platform. The first Republi- can platform, denouncing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, de- manding the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, and taking a decisive stand against the extension of slavery was unanimously adopted. The committee of the Free-Soil party appointed at Kalamazoo for that pur- pose withdrew its ticket nominated on the 22nd of February, and sur- rendered its organization and the Free-Soil party became immerged in the Republican party. Thus under the oaks at Jackson was organ-
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ized the mighty Republican party89 and it commenced its immortal career for liberty and humanity. Mr. Gorham rendered most valuable service on the nominating committee, and especially in bringing forward the name, and securing the nomination of Kinsley S. Bingham90 for governor. Mr. Bingham had been a Democratic member of Congress, and was the only member from this State who had the courage to refuse to follow the leadership of Gen. Cass and vote for the Wilmot Proviso. . He had been read out of the Democratic party for that reason. This nomination was most fortunate. Gov. Bingham was a man of rare poise, and as an organizer, harmonizer and vote-getter and political leader, he never had a superior in the State. As governor and United States Senator, the state of Michigan can look to him as a model. It had been expected that Hovey K. Clarke would be the nominee for attorney general, but the nominating committee concluded, that the name of Jacob M. Howard,91 a former member of Congress, would draw more votes from the Whig party, and as that party had not yet announced its course, he was nominated with the hearty approval of Mr. Clarke. The nominating committee had a most delicate and difficult duty to per- form in recommending a ticket, made up of Wilmot Proviso Democrats, anti-slavery Whigs, Free-Soilers, and Abolitionists, so as to meet the approval of all factions. This duty was most faithfully and wisely per- formed, and the report was unanimously adopted by the convention. While Michigan was the first state to organize the new anti-slavery party, the same causes existed elsewhere, and other states quickly fol- lowed in her footsteps. The ticket thus nominated was elected by a large majority in November. The success, the influence and history of the party thus organized is known of all men.
The Calhoun county convention of the Whig party, to nominate dele- gates to the state Whig convention met at Marshall, September 30th, 1854, and appointed delegates and instructed them to vote against the nomination of a Whig state ticket. The Whig convention to nominate state officers met at Marshall on the 4th of October, 1854. This con- vention determined not to nominate a state ticket, endorsed the princi- ples and policies of the Republican party and issued a stirring address to the Whigs to unite and work to stop the extension of slavery. This was the end of the Whig party in Michigan. It completed the fusion of the anti-slavery men in the State. For earnest patriotism, devoted to the liberty and nnion of purpose, these men can only be compared with the men in the Congress of 1776, and in the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787. The resolutions of the Free-Soil conventions at Jack- son and Kalamazoo were drawn by Hovey K. Clarke and the platform of the Republican convention was drawn by Jacob M. Howard. The resolutions and addresses of the Whig convention were drawn by James
89 See Michigan in Our National Politics, by A. D. P. Van Buren, Vol. XVII, pp. 254-266, also The Republican Party, a True History of its Birth, by Albert Wil- liams, Vol. XXVIII, p. 478, this series.
90 See sketch, Vol. XXXV, pp. 475-478, this series.
91 See sketeh, Vol. XXXV, pp. 462-464, this series.
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Van Dyke.92 As bold declaration of principles, as earnest consecrations to liberty, as patriotic calls to duty, as rallying appeals for action, as assurances of harmony and unity, and as pledges to return to the Jeffersonian policy of restricting slavery, these papers were master- pieces. These declarations of principles and policies were published, ratified and followed throughout the north. They performed the func- tions of a second declaration of independence. As the name of Jefferson is immortalized for penning the Declaration of Independence in 1776, so should the names of Clarke, Howard, and Van Dyke be immortalized for penning the second declaration of independence in. 1854.
The Crosswhite case set Marshall men thinking and aroused their love of liberty and hatred of slavery. They were the pioneers in the movement and did much to give Michigan the honor of organizing the Republican party, which destroyed slavery. Similar influenees were at work in other states, and similar organizations were speedily formed. Mr. Gorham was elected a delegate to the Philadelphia convention in 1856, the first national convention of the party, but by mutual agree- ment, Zachariah Chandler, his alternate took his place. History has its curiosities and its paradoxes. From the same exeiting cause, Mich- igan took a bold stand against slavery and organized to destroy it while Kentucky had become the leading state to extend the eurse and to preserve its existence. Michigan would make freedom national, and slavery seetional, while Kentucky would make slavery national and freedom seetional. Michigan men advocated and formulated a platform to limit and destroy the evil, while Kentucky senators introduced and advocated the Fugitive Slave Law, and the act to repeal the Missouri Compromise. Michigan was the first state in the union to form an effective organization for the destruction of slavery, and Kentucky was the last state in the Union to abolish it. Michigan was the second state in the Union to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment,93 and Kentucky was the first to reject it.
The state tieket nominated under the oaks at Jackson and a Republi- can legislature was elected in 1854. Erastus Hussey, then of Marshall, was elected to the senate. Federal officers were accustomed to detain federal prisoners in the different jails, prisons and penitentiaries of the various states, and fugitive slaves were sometimes thus detained. The
92 James A. VanDyke was born in Franklin Co., Pa., a few miles north of the Maryland line. He graduated from Madison College, Uniontown, Pa., at the age of nineteen and after studying law at Chambersburg, Pa., and Hagerstown, Md., eame to Detroit in 1834. He was admitted to the bar that year and in 1835 formed a partnership with Charles W. Whipple. The same year he married Elizabeth Des- noyers, who died July 10, 1896. He was in partnership with E. B. Harrington, Halmar H. Emmons and was general counsel of the Michigan Central Railroad Company until the date of his death, May 27, 1855. See Early Bench and Bar of Detroit, by Robert Ross, p. 205.
93 Thirteenth amendment, See. I. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly con- vieted, shall exist in the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
"See. II. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legis- Jation." This amendment was proposed by Congress, Feb. 1, 1865, and declared to have been ratified by twenty-seven of the thirty-six states, Dee. 18, 1865.
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duty of reclaiming fugitive slaves under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 had been granted to federal officers, some of whom, were provided for that purpose solely. The law was so repugnant to northern senti- ment, that the people demanded all possible relief from their state legis- lature, and what is known as personal liberty laws were passed by many states. The states of Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut passed such laws in 1854. Erastus Hussey formulated and introduced such a bill in the legislature of Michigan, which under his leadership, with the support of Austin Blair, became a law, February 13, 1855. This law made it a duty of the prosecuting attorney at state expense, to protect persons charged with being fugitive slaves, gave such fugitives the right of trial by jury, the right of habeas corpus, and the right of appeal; and it prohibited the use of any jail, or any prison in the state for detaining fugitives. It required the evidence of two witnesses to establish the fact of servitude, and it provided heavy penalties for seizing free persons. The old-time conductor of the under-ground rail- road had now become an anti-slavery legislator and he formulated laws for the fugitive. Maine and Massachusetts adopted similar laws the same year, Wisconsin and Kansas in 1858, Ohio in 1859, and Pennsyl- vania in 1860. These laws undertook to restore to the fugitive from labor under state authority, some of the rights taken from him by the federal law. They threw obstacles in the way, and made it more diffi- cult for the master to recover his slaves. Some of the northern states claiming that the law of 1850 was unconstitutional, treated it as a nullity, and did not pass personal liberty bills. If the federal govern- ment had authority under the constitution to adopt the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, doubtless these personal liberty measures were nullification laws. These laws and the prevailing repugnance to the measure made it difficult to enforce the federal act. The personal liberty laws of the north were influential, as hereafter shown, in the action of the south.
Lewis Cass had for many years been Michigan's most distinguished citizen. In his struggle for the presidential nomination he repudiated the Jeffersonian doctrine of the Wilmot Proviso in 1847, and had ac- cepted the untried doctrine of popular sovereignty. This unfortunate change secured his nomination in convention, but caused his defeat, at the election. His legislature had twice endorsed the Wilmot Proviso and commanded his support. But he could not consistently retreat. In January, 1850, while discussing a resolution favoring the organization of a territorial government for California, it was manifested that he demurred to the resolutions of the legislature of 1849 and he intimated that if the legislature persisted he would resign his office as senator. Gen. Cass was the idol of his party in Michigan, and on the 2nd of April, 1850, the legislature passed resolutions requesting the senators to retain their seats and relieving them from such instructions.9+ This action of Gen. Cass and of the legislature on the slavery question raised a storm of indignation in the State. His servility to the South had made bitter political enemies at home. A radical anti-slavery man was demanded to take his place, in the Senate in 1857. Charles T. Gorham
94 Laws of Michigan, 1855, p. 413.
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announced himself as favoring Zachariah Chandler as the man to be sent to the Senate from Michigan to meet the fire-eaters and domineering senators from the South. He worked constantly and effectively to this end. No man in the State did more perhaps to elect Zachariah Chandler than did Gen. Gorham. The great influence and achievements of Senator Chandler in behalf of Michigan, the cause of liberty, and humanity, might not have been made possible, had it not been for his influential and efficient friend from Marshall. Under the influence of these men, Calhoun County always supported and held up the hands of that stalwart statesman and leader.
As we have seen, the fugitive slave law provoked the personal liberty laws. The personal liberty laws were in turn to provoke another move- ment in the South. The party organized under the oaks at Jackson to stop the extension of slavery had elected Abraham Lincoln, president. On the 20th of December, 1860, South Carolina in convention passed the ordinance of secession, and on the 24th of the month, announced the personal liberty laws of Michigan above mentioned, with similar laws from other states, as a reason for such action. This reason had more force than all other excuses combined. Eleven other states fol- lowed South Carolina for the same reason. Secession brought on the War of the Rebellion. The war of the Rebellion brought forth the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, resulted in the surrender of the slave-power at Appomattox in April, and secured the 13th amendment to the Federal Constitution in December, 1865.
ULTIMATE RESULTS
Though young men and comparatively unknown in 1847, Charles T. Gorham, O. C. Comstock, Jr., Asa B. Cook, Jarvis Hurd, George Inger- soll, Hovey K. Clarke and Erastus Hussey, in subsequent years, became widely known and exerted commanding influences. A glance at their efforts and their achievements in the great social reform of their day has been attempted. They voluntarily became the champions of the slave when to be called an Abolitionist was the vilest term of contempt in political parlance. But their experience was not unique. Other slaves were captured and rescued in the north. Other communities released the captive from his captors. Other men were compelled to pay the burdensome price. Other municipalities were aronsed by the exhibition of cruelty and inhumanity of the peculiar institution in their midst, and other freemen have bravely toiled, and sacrificed to cripple and destroy the curse, but I find no other event from which such direct and far reaching consequences resulted and which aided so much, in the evolution of measures for and against slavery, and which eventually destroyed it, as did the impromptu town meeting held at the fugitives' door in Marshall. Public sentiment was prepared, the time was ripe for action, the opportunity came and these men embraced it, and began their work. They formulated measures, organized forces and inaugu- rated a warfare against the extension of slavery, and continued the con- test until the institution was destroyed. Who can estimate the ulti- mate results of their sacrifice and labors? Their names should be
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remembered, and their memories should be cherished as brave leaders, heroes and martyrs in the cause of freedom.
Francis Troutman, the champion of slavery, angered and threatening revenge, hastened home from that meeting and made complaint to the slave-holders and legislature of Kentucky. That legislature demanded relief from the state of Michigan. It required their senators and representatives in Congress to obtain greater security in their property in men. Pursuant to this legislative mandate, Henry Clay introduced the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. That cruel law aroused the sleeping hatred of the North, and brought forth Uncle Tom's Cabin, that political drama which awoke the sleeping world. The fugitive slave law pro- voked the personal liberty laws in the northern states. These laws were assigned as the cause of secession, secession was the cause of the Re- bellion, and the Rebellion caused the destruction of slavery.
The Republican party formulated the measures, controlled the policies and assisted by the loyal people of all parties, destroyed the institution of slavery. The Republican party was first organized in the state of Michigan. Charles T. Gorham, Asa B. Cook, George Ingersoll, Erastus Hussey, Hovey K. Clarke, Austin Blair, Halmar H. Emmons and Zachariah Chandler were among the leaders and most influential organ- izers of that party. Without these sagacious, persuasive and influential men, this party would not and in fact could not have been organized. Each had been interested in the Crosswhite case as a party, counsel or contributors. These men had witnessed some of the evils of the institu- tion at their own door, had battled with the arrogant slave power in court, had spent time and money extorted by the cruel system.
What an experience to arouse hostility to the institution of slavery ! What a school to educate stalwart freemen! These Marshall men, one and all, have left their impress upon the institutions of our country. The Crosswhite case influenced the political course of all. Without attempting to describe the effects upon each party, let its effect upon one indicate its influence upon all. As a citizen, it made Charles T. Gorham an organizer, and supporter of the Free-Soil party in 1848, and of the Republican party in 1854. As a delegate to the Republican national convention it caused him to vote for the renomination of Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and for the nomination of Ulysses S. Grant in 1868, and as state senator, Minister to the Hague and as Assistant Secretary of the Interior, on the issues of slavery or freedom, it in- spired his whole official life.
The influence of the Crosswhite case was not confined to Marshall or to Marshall men alone. Its influence in the cause of liberty was not local but national. It aroused the genius of Halmar II. Emmons and inspired him to fire the hearts of freemen in 1854, and affected his brilliant career at the bar in behalf of freedom and on the Federal Bench. It transcribed the inbred love of liberty of Austin Blair into the Buffalo platform of 1848 and into the Republican platform of 1854. It made him the great war governor of Michigan, enabled him to discover Gen. Phil Sheridan 95 and send him forth as a champion of freedom,
95 Phil. H. Sheridan was commissioned by Gov. Blair, colonel of the Second Michi- gan Volunteer Cavalry, May 25, 1862.
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it trained him to make Michigan a citadel of strength of Abraham Lincoln in the great crisis. It educated the fearless Zaeh Chandler to defy the arrogant representatives of the slave power in the Senate before the war, it nerved him to sustain the immortal Lincoln in his super- human task, it inspired him to wield a mighty influence for liberty and union during the war. These men, and men of their type, after the Democratic party had surrendered to the slave power, in 1854, took is- sue on the slavery question, and organized a party to restrict slavery, and in due time to remove the dangerous and irritating eurse from the land. This organization first made Kansas and Nebraska free, in spite of the broken pledges of the slave power and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. It paralyzed the force of the fugitive slave law, defying the despotie demands of the master, following the impulse of Christian brotherhood, championed the cause of the slave. It grappled with the hydra-headed moster of secession, and preserved the Union. It throt- tled rebellion and emancipated a race, it removed the irritative eurse of slavery from American policies, and the whole world is glad. Now no hostility exists between Michigan and Kentucky, the apple of discord had been removed and both remain under the old flag in fraternal amity, as members of the same, but a regenerate Union. Truly on that winter morning at Marshall, Adam Crosswhite "fired the shot heard around the world."
OTHER MEN AND MEASURES
Time will not permit of a sketch of other Marshall men and measures of historie value, in the progress and evolution of the State and nation. Pre-eminent among our influential citizens, I recall the names of J. Wright Gordon,96 senator, lieutenant-governor, governor and diplomat, Edward Bradley,97 senator and member of Congress; George C. Gibbs, representative and supreme court reporter; Abner Pratt,98 representa- tive, senator, judge of the supreme court and diplomat; Henry W. Taylor, representative, judge and publicist; Ilovey K. Clarke, repre- sentative, political organizer, supreme court reporter; Oliver C. Com- stock, Sr., divine, member of congress and superintendent of public instruction ; Francis W. Shearman, journalist, superintendent of public instruction and historian of our public school system; Jabez S. Fitch, the pioneer anti-slave advocate; Charles Dickey, representative, senator and United States marshal during the war; John P. Cleaveland, the eloquent divine and earnest edueator ; Nathaniel A. Balch, the inspiring teacher, lawyer and legislator; Thomas B. Church, the gifted advocate and moulder of constitutions; Jabez Fox, journalist and anti-slavery leader and organizer; Parsons Willard, legislator and governor of Indi- ana, Morton C. Wilkinson, United States Senator from Minnesota, who have been influential actors in forming and fostering onr public school system, our exemption laws, abolition of the death penalty and im- prisonment for debt, securing the rights of married women, the aboli-
96 See sketch, Vol. XI, p. 274, this series.
97 See sketch, Vol. XI, p. 275, also Vol. XXXV, p. 472, this series.
98 See sketch, Vol. XI, p. 278, this series.
Vol. 1-6
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tion of slavery and other reforms of the day. I am not able to name all who are worthy of mention. Hoping that some more efficient worker, and more eloquent pen may record their worth and work and rescue their names from oblivion, I leave them now.
BATTLE CREEK AS A STATION ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILWAY 1
By Charles E. Barnes 2
There is an institution now only known in history as the Under- ground Railway. This society, or system, as it should be more properly called, came into existence in 1840 in the midst of the famous Harrison campaign, and was organized by Levi Coffin, of Cincinnati, a Quaker. It was a league of men, almost all of whom were Quakers, who organ- ized a system for spiriting away and conducting runaway slaves from Kentucky, Tennessee and other slave states, through to Canada. These men were enthusiastic Abolitionists, who devoted their time to watching for fleeing bondsmen, ferried them in rowboats in the night-time over the Ohio River, and then started them to the first Underground Rail- way station, thence from station to station until they arrived in Detroit, where they were ferried over the river in rowboats to Canada-and freedom. The workings of the Underground Railway were a great mystery to the people because of the secret manner in which everything was conducted. Slaves strangely disappeared and nothing was heard of them until reported to have been seen in Canada. None of the methods was known to the public. These slaves were conducted from the Ohio River to Canada as it shot through a hollow tube. This imag- inary explanation of how the fugitives reached Canada is what gave origin to the name "Underground Railway."
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