USA > Michigan > Michigan as a province, territory and state, the twenty-sixth member of the federal Union > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
Of like tenor were the speeches of Sumner, of Wade, of Fessenden, of Cameron. It should also be remem- bered that the southern senators had not been accus- tomed to this sort of talk and that there was a strong southern element which was disposed to show its dis- pleasure by physical assault and challenges to mortal combat. Senator Sumner had been stricken down in his place in the senate by a southern member of the house.
I2I
MICHIGAN AS A STATE
Horace Greeley had been assaulted on the capitol grounds by a representative from Arkansas. Senator Chandler had physical as well as moral courage and was ready to expose his very life for principles which he believed to be right. If it were necessary to defend his person with fist, or bludgeon or pistol, he was pre- pared for attack. These incidents show the character of the man and the part he bore in the turbulent and ex. citing events in the senate immediately prior to the breaking out of the civil war. There was hot blood upon both sides, but of one thing the evidence was most clear-Senator Chandler could not be bullied nor cowed.
Hannibal Hamlin sat in the senate during the whole course of Mr. Chandler's term, excepting the four years when he was vice president, and was warmly attached to him. Charles Eugene Hamlin, grandson of the great senator, in his biography of the latter says: "The en- trance of Chandler, Doolittle, Trumbull, into the sen- ate signalized the downfall of hunkerism in the great northwest. Chandler himself dethroned the king of the northern hunkers, General Cass, and Michigan was now a permanent republican state. No man in the sen- ate better embodied the resolute, aggressive and pro- gressive republican spirit of the northwest than Zach. Chandler, as he was commonly called. He made him- self felt the first day he took his seat in the senate, and the little group of republicans knew that a champion after their own hearts had come among them." After the inauguration of Lincoln, when he was pursuing a policy of inactivity, and there was, even among the most radical republicans, great doubts whether the south would actually proceed to extreme measures, southern members of congress were still spouting treason in the capitol, Chandler was furious over the dilatory tactics of the president. He urged the arrest of Breckenridge,
I22
MICHIGAN AS PROVINCE, TERRITORY, STATE
Wigfall and others of that class, and always insisted that this course of action would have stemmed the tide of secession in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky. When the war was actually on, Senator Chandler was one of the foremost advocates of its vig- orous prosecution. The day after the first battle of Bull Run, he with Senator Sumner and Vice President Ham- lin, called upon Mr. Lincoln and urged him to free and arm the slaves, as a war measure. Such a course, he urged, was justified by the act of the slaveholders in re- belling against the government. He maintained that it would plunge the south into confusion and help to top- ple the confederacy to the ground. Mr. Chandler was named as one of the senatorial members of the commit- tee on the conduct of the war and as such served until its close. Mr. Wade, chairman of this committee, and Mr. Chandler were deeper in the confidence of the pres- ident and secretary of war than any other men in con- gress. Differences of aim and opinion among them were very rare. The sessions of this committee were almost continuous, and there can be little doubt that its services to the administration and to the country were inestima- ble.
Mr. Chandler had an active share in formulating the reconstruction measures which were passed by congress after the close of the war. He was specially insistent upon conferring the right of suffrage upon the negroes, as a measure of their political self-defense against their former masters. He would have been glad to see con- dign punishment inflicted upon those southern leaders who were responsible for secession and the war. He was intensely antagonistic to the policy of conciliation and amnesty pursued by President Johnson, and de- nounced in scathing terms the reactionary governments set up by the president in the lately seceeded states.
---
--
-
123
MICHIGAN AS A STATE
Then followed the stubborn contest between the con- gress and Mr. Johnson, in which Mr. Chandler was one of the most bitter of the irreconcilables.
Mr. Chandler entered upon his third senatorial term on the day of the inauguration of General Grant, March 4, 1869. The exciting issues of the war and re- construction had then passed. In 1873 the matter of finances became the most important public question. The shrinkage of values, commercial collapse, and con- sequent industrial stagnation, were disastrous to the bus- iness interests of the country. Mr. Chandler's position in the prolonged controversy over the financial problem was clear and consistent. He contended for rational finance and public honesty without wavering in the face of the strongest opposition, and without any departure from sound doctrine.
In the election of 1874 the money question alienated many votes from the republicans; the prohibition move- ment took on fresh vigor, with the result in Michigan, of serious inroads upon the republican vote. In the leg- islature of 1875 the republican majority on joint ballot was only ten. Mr. Chandler came forward as a candi- date before this legislature for a fourth term. His posi- tive qualities, aggressive methods, and a long career in public life, had naturally provoked antagonisms. These showed themselves in the canvass for the senatorship. In the republican legislative caucus Mr. Chandler re- ceived fifty-two votes to five for three other candidates. In the natural order of things this should have given him the united support of his party. But there were six republicans who had refused to enter the caucus or to be bound by it. These six recalcitrants formed a coalition with the democratic opposition, with the result that when it came to a joint ballot the solid opposition de- feated Mr. Chandler and elected by a narrow margin IV-9
124
MICHIGAN AS PROVINCE, TERRITORY, STATE
Isaac P. Christiancy, then a member of the state su- preme court. The latter had been commonly regarded as a republican, though on some minor issues he had felt free to criticise the policies of the party.
In the following October General Grant called Mr. Chandler into his cabinet as secretary of the interior, and in this position he served until the end of General Grant's term. In the presidential campaign of 1876 Mr. Chandler served as chairman of the republican national committee. The result of the vote on electors, as between Hayes and Tilden, was left in grave doubt by the returns. It was then that Mr. Chandler, by vir- tue of his position at the head of the committee, stiffened the backbone of the republican leaders by claiming everything and conceding nothing. The most exciting episode in the history of the country proved to be the unsettled and disputed returns of the electoral canvass. It is a matter of so familiar history that it is not worth while repeating it here. But the device of an electoral commission, which resolved the tangle and gave to Mr. Hayes a clear title to the presidential office, was un- questionably due to the position taken by Mr. Chandler and the firmness with which he held to it.
In the winter of 1879 Senator Christiancy's health having become impaired, it seemed to be necessary for him to seek rest and a milder climate. The president offered him the choice of the mission to Berlin, Mexico or Lima, Peru. He chose the last mentioned and re- signed his seat in the senate. The Michigan legisla- ture then in session promptly elected Mr. Chandler to fill the vacancy. In February, 1879, he again took his seat in the senate. Within a few days thereafter he made what was probably the most memorable speech of his senatorial career. The question of pensions to vet- erans of the Mexican war was up and an amendment
J. P. I hustrancy
مصر .
125
MICHIGAN AS A STATE
was offered to exclude Jefferson Davis from the benefits of the act. Upon this, several of the southern senators eulogized Mr. Davis and lauded him as one of the greatest and noblest of American soldiers and statesmen. Mr. Chandler's indignation was stirred to the highest pitch bythis fulsome praise. Without preparation or pre- meditation he launched a phillippic which might serve as a model of forensic oratory. The words were well chosen, the construction simple, the statements literally true. The effect was felt throughout the country.
Mr. Chandler took an active part in the campaign of 1879, as he had in many campaigns before. His speeches were made in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois. He closed with a pow- erful address in Chicago on the evening of the last day of October. He retired to his room at the Grand Pa- cific Hotel at a late hour. The next morning he was found dead in his bed, having suffered a stroke of apop- lexy which cut off his life without warning. His body was laid to rest in Elmwood cemetery, Detroit, with evi- dences of most profound sorrow, coming not only from his own friends and neighbors, but from all parts of the country.
1
CHAPTER VIII THE GREENBACK CRAZE SETS IN
T HE necessity for raising money to carry on the operations of the civil war and to pay the soldiers in the field led congress to authorize the issue of a great quantity of treasury notes, or greenbacks, as they were commonly called. These were of small denominations and passed current among the people as money. Four hundred and fifty million dollars of these notes were issued, and they were declared by law legal tender for all debts, public or pri- vate except customs duties and interest on the public debt. Under the influence of this currency gold wholly disappeared as a circulating medium. The government was anxious to get back to a specie basis at the earliest possible moment, regarding greenbacks not as money, but as a debt, or promise to pay, a forced loan. The administration held that the function of issuing notes to be used as money should belong to the national banks, and should not be exercised by the government as a permanent policy. Accordingly the congress authorized the calling in and cancellation of the greenbacks, and the issuing of interest bearing bonds to redeem them. The secretary of the treasury, believing the greenbacks to be unconstitutional and that the country should be brought to a gold basis at the earliest moment, took ad- vantage of this legislation to retire the greenbacks to the full limit authorized.
This policy aroused strong opposition in the congress and in the country. Disordered markets and fall in prices were attributed in the public mind to the contrac- tion of the currency. As a further result, the interest bearing debt was largely increased by the issue of bonds and there was great clamor against withdrawing cur- rency, which drew no interest, and piling up debt, which was a public burden. It was this opposition which post-
129
130 MICHIGAN AS PROVINCE, TERRITORY, STATE
poned for six years all serious efforts for the resumption of specie payment, and brought out the fiat money party. The panic of 1873 and the hard times resulting there- from led to still further demands for the issue of treas- ury notes, and the veto by President Grant of a bill pro- viding for an increase, stirred up a feeling, especially through the western states, which threatened disaster to the dominant republican party. Coupled with the ques- tion whether the government should issue the circulating medium of the country was the other question whether the bonds should be paid in greenbacks or coin. By the law they were payable in "lawful money." The bonds issued by Secretary Mccullough in 1867 were made payable in coin. Here was ground for argument that the whole scheme of the government was in the interest of the moneyed class, who had invested in the bonds, and at the expense of the heavily burdened and tax-rid- den people. It was said that the money which was good enough for the soldier, who had risked his life, was good enough for the bondholder, who had risked noth- ing, not even his gold, except at great odds; that the government securities were made so profitable that cap- italists would put their money into them, rather than into business, and so the people suffered. The bankers were getting rich while industrial pursuits were being crushed.
The purpose of the greenback party was to defeat the machinations of the moneyed interests, and to save the greenback, the money of the people. Its first platform in 1876, demanded the immediate repeal of the specie resumption act and the rescue of our industries from the ruin and disaster resulting from its enforcement. The greenbackers believed in "fiat money," that is, that the government by its fiat shall declare what is money for the people of the country, and whether it be engraved
131
MICHIGAN AS A STATE
paper notes or pine shingles, it is money, if the govern- ment so declares it. The greenback idea of money had tremendous influence on politics and parties which did not cease when the greenback party, as such, had faded wholly away. Its warmest champions were found among the rural folks in the middle west. It has been the subject of many an animated debate at the cross- roads country store. The theories and arguments of the greenback party have been perpetuated in the popu- list, the union labor and the free coinage of silver par- ties, even to quite recent times.
In the general election of 1876 the greenbackers cast eighty-one thousand votes for Peter Cooper, their candi- date for president of the United States of which nine thousand were cast in Michigan. William Sparks, the greenback candidate for governor, received eight thou- sand two hundred and ninety-seven. Two years later, Henry S. Smith, their gubernatorial candidate, received seventy-three thousand three hundred and thirteen, which was within five thousand of the total democratic vote. This is an indication of the rapid growth of the support of the greenback doctrines. The party survived as an organization barely ten years, but in that time it upset many political calculations, and in 1882, by fusion with the democrats, carried the state ticket in Michigan.
At the election of 1876 the question of striking from the constitution the prohibition clause was finally carried by a majority of over eight thousand. This settled a long drawn-out controversy. It was very gratifying to conservative temperance men generally. Under prohi- bition, in most towns, especially the more populous ones, saloons had run wide open and without restraint. No law will enforce itself, and the officials charged with the enforcement of law will neglect their duties unless backed by a strong public sentiment. There was no
132 MICHIGAN AS PROVINCE, TERRITORY, STATE
such sentiment regarding the liquor law. With the striking out of the prohibition clause an era of regula- tion of liquor selling was inaugurated. A very large number of persons wholly opposed to dram drinking and dram selling had come to see that public sentiment could not entirely suppress them by law. It was there- fore, considered wise to yield to the inevitable, and by regulation and restraint overcome the evils of the sa- loon, so far as practicable. It is but the truth to say that this policy has been found wisest in practice and is now almost universally acquiesced in. The rigid provi- sions of law are strictly enforced in most places, and fairly well enforced in all, while the heavy saloon tax furnishes funds which go far in relieving many commun- ities from financial burdens.
Michigan appears to have had a good deal of trouble with her constitution, first and last. Scarcely was there a session of the legislature when various propositions for its amendment were not brought forward. Some of these passed the legislature and were submitted to the people. More often than otherwise they were rejected. We have already noted the failure of the complete revi- sion of 1867. In 1873 the matter came up again. The legislature provided this time for a commission, consist- ing of two members from each congressional district, or eighteen in all, appointed by the governor. This com- mission assembled at the capitol August 27 and contin- ued in session until October 16 following. Sullivan M. Cutcheon of Ypsilanti was chairman, and Henry S. Clubb of Grand Haven was secretary. The instrument formulated by this commission was submitted to the people at the spring election of 1874 and was rejected by an overwhelming majority. There were nearly thir- ty-nine thousand votes in its favor to one hundred and twenty-four thousand votes against. This was the sixth
1
----
i 1
1 !
{
Thomas M . Cooley .
I33
MICHIGAN AS A STATE
constitutional convention. The first was held in Janu- ary, 1835. The second and third were held respectively in September and December, 1836, and had to do merely with the boundary question in connection with admission of the state. The fourth was held in 1850 and prepared a constitution which proved so satisfactory as a whole that it stands to this day, with divers and sundry amend- ments.
Charles M. Croswell of Adrian, served two terms as governor, from 1877 to 1881. During his first term the other state officers were, Alonzo Sessions, lieutenant governor; Ebenezer G. D. Holden, secretary of state; Wm. B. McCreery, treasurer; Benjamin F. Partridge, commissioner of land office; Ralph Ely, auditor gen- eral; Horace S. Tarbell, superintendent of public in- struction ; Otto Kirchner; attorney general. During the term 1879-80, the officers were the same, except that Wm. Jenney was secretary of state; Benjamin D. Prit- chard, state treasurer ; W. I. Latimer, auditor general; James M. Neasmith, commissioner of land office; Cor- nelius A. Gower, superintendent of public instruction. Mr. Croswell was a native of Newburgh on the Hud- son, where he was born October 31, 1825. He migrated when twelve years old to Adrian, which was ever after his home. He learned the trade of carpenter and at the age of twenty-one began the study of law. He entered upon the practice of that profession and was in partner- ship with Thomas M. Cooley until the latter was elected to the supreme bench. He was secretary of the conven- tion at Jackson in 1854, which organized the republican party. He was register of deeds of Lenawee county, city attorney and mayor of Adrian. He sat in the state senate in 1865 and 1867. He was chairman of the constitutional convention of 1867 and speaker of the state house of representatives in 1873. As a senator
1
I34
MICHIGAN AS PROVINCE, TERRITORY, STATE
he drafted the act ratifying the thirteenth amendment to the federal constitution. Capital punishment was abolished in the early history of the state. Scarcely a session of the legislature has passed however, that the issue has not again been raised. Some advocate of ju- dicial killing of his fellow man has always been on hand. But there was never any serious effort to restore the death penalty but once, and then it would probably have succeeded had it not been for the tireless and pow- erful opposition of Mr. Croswell. The popular vote on the state ticket in 1876 was : one hundred and sixty- four thousand for Croswell, one hundred and forty- two thousand five hundred for Wm. L. Webber, demo- crat. In 1878 the vote stood : one hundred and twenty- six thousand three hundred for Croswell, seventy-eight thousand five hundred for Orlando M. Barmes, demo- crat, and seventy-three thousand three hundred for Henry S. Smith, greenback.
One of the most exciting matters which came before the legislature of 1877 and which drew out lively com- ment throughout the state, was the investigation of the chemical department of the state university. Very soon after the convening of the legislature there came to its attention rumors of embezzlement and crookedness which could not be ignored. There was some hesitancy on the part of the legislature in undertaking an investi- gation, for the reason that the affairs of the university are in the hands of the regents, who are elected directly by the people and are in no sense subject to legislative control. But the regents coincided with the popular de- mand for an investigation and formally requested the legislature to thoroughly inquire into the whole case.
Dr. Silas H. Douglas was at the head of the chemical laboratory and Dr. Preston B. Rose was his subordi- nate. The cost of chemicals used in necessary experi-
-1
135
MICHIGAN AS A STATE
ments was charged to the students themselves. It had been the practice to collect in advance from each stu- dent a definite sum, large enough to cover all probable cost, and to keep an account of the same, refunding to him any balance which remained unexpended at the close of his course. The chemicals were bought at wholesale prices out of university funds, and the moneys collected from students were turned into the university treasury. These financial transactions were in the hands of Dr. Douglas, who had been at the head of the labora- tory from its foundation. At the outset, there were few students and the money involved was trifling. Dr. Douglas was a scientist, absorbed in his profession and his teaching duties, and was wholly without business training or experience. So the handling of the moneys in this department was conducted without that system which is indispensable to a clear accounting. Small at first, the sums involved grew to be considerable in amount, as the number of students engaging in laboratory work rapidly increased. While the course pursued by Dr. Douglas might have been sufficient for the purpose in the beginning, it was wholly inadequate after the class had become very large. Matters were still further com- plicated by the fact that Dr. Rose, as assistant to Dr. Douglas, had handled some of the student deposits and there was no clear line of responsibility as between the two.
This was the snarl which the joint investigating com- mittee of the legislature was called upon to untangle. The committee took testimony at Ann Arbor and held meetings in Lansing from time to time until near the close of the legislative session. The testimony taken was voluminous and was afterward printed, by order of the legislature. A side issue which had much to do with the matter grew out of the personal interference of
I36
MICHIGAN AS PROVINCE, TERRITORY, STATE
Rice A. Beal, publisher of the Ann Arbor Courier. He had become involved in some controversies with leading members of the university faculty, and seemed to con- sider that his interests lay in championing the cause of of Dr. Rose as against Dr. Douglas. He was a man of considerable vigor and morbid pertinacity, and the re- sult of his course was the injection of more or less bit- terness which, but for him, would never have arisen. The joint committee made its report near the end of the session. But this report cleared up nothing. The com- mittee contented itself with simply submitting the testi- mony without recommendations or conclusions, except that they found no criminal conduct on the part of any one. They were not able to explain the discrepancies in the testimony nor in the accounts. The whole matter, so far as one may judge, resolved itself into carelessness or lack of method in the handling and accounting for numerous small items and numerous individual cases. The result of the unpleasant affair was to prejudice the members of that legislature to some extent against the university. But its influence was quite ephemeral.
The matter was pursued by the board of regents af- ter the adjournment of the legislature. A bill for ac- counting was filed in chancery against Dr. Douglas, and suit for recovery of moneys misappropriated was begun against Dr. Rose. Upon this latter a judgment of five thousand dollars was entered. This was afterward set- tled by Beal, who furnished the means with which to erect the museum building and also bought and pre- sented to the university the Steere collection of natural history, a very valuable collection which had cost Mr. Steere much time and money. Rose shortly afterward resigned from the faculty and left the state. The suit against Dr. Douglas was discontinued by the regents.
A measure was brought forward at this session of the
137
MICHIGAN AS A STATE
legislature to provide for a reform school for girls. Un- der it a commission was appointed to consider the whole question and to report to the next legislature. The re- sult of this movement was the establishment of the school at Adrian. The first board of managers of this institution consisted of Mrs. S. L. Fuller of Grand Rapids, Mrs. C. B. Stebbins of Adrian, Miss Emma Hall of Flint, Messrs. James McMillan of Detroit and Charles R. Miller of Adrian. The provisions of the law under which it was organized were similar to those of the reform school for boys at Lansing. A large tract of land was secured beautifully located in the outskirts of Adrian and suitable buildings were erected thereon. Employment and instruction were provided. The pur- pose and intention were to reform wayward young girls, to establish in them moral principles, habits of cleanli- ness and decency, right ways of living and thinking, to rescue them from depraved environment and to find homes for them in good families in rural communities, where they might grow up to lead useful and honorable lives. The school has fully justified the efforts of its founders.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.