USA > Michigan > Newaygo County > Portrait and biographical album of Newaygo County, Michigan : containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county also containing a complete history of the county, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 6
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 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66
The young clothier had now attained the age of nineteen years, and was of fine personal appearance and of gentlemanly demeanor. It so happened that there was a gentleman in the neighborhood of ample pecuniary means and of benevolence,-Judge Walter Wood,-who was struck with the prepossessing ap- pearance of young Fillmore. He made his acquaint- ance, and was so much impressed with his ability and attainments that he advised him to abandon his trade and devote himself to the study of the law. The young man replied, that he had no means of his own, no friends to help him and that his previous educa- tion had been very imperfect. But Judge Wood had so much confidence in him that he kindly offered to take him into his own office;, and to loan him such money as he needed. Most gratefully the generous offer was accepted.
There is in many minds a strange delusion about a collegiate education. A young man is supposed to be liberally educated if he has graduated at some col- lege. But many a boy loiters through university halls and then enters a law office, who is by no means. as
68
MILLARD FILLMORE.
well prepared to prosecute his legal studies as was Millard Fillmore when he graduated at the clothing- mill at the end of four years of manual labor, during which every leisure moment had been devoted to in- tense mental culture.
In 1823, when twenty-three years of age, he was admitted to the Court of Common Pleas. He then went to the village of Aurora, and commenced the practice of law. In this secluded, peaceful region, his practice of course was limited, and there was no opportunity for a sudden rise in fortune or in fame. Here, in the year 1826, he married a lady of great moral worth, and one capable of adorning any station she might be called to fill, -- Miss Abigail Powers.
His elevation of character, his untiring industry, his legal acquirements, and his skill as an advocate, gradually attracted attention ; and he was invited to enter into partnership under highly advantageous circumstances, with an elder member of the bar in Buffalo. Just before removing to Buffalo, in 1829, he took his seat in the House of Assembly, of the State of New York, as a representative from Erie County. Though he had never taken a very active part in politics, his vote and his sympathies were with the Whig party. The State was then Democratic, and he found himself in a helpless minority in the Legislature, still the testimony comes from all parties, that his courtesy, ability and integrity, won, to a very unusual degree the respect of his associates.
In the autumn of 1832, he was elected to a seat in the United States Congress. He entered that troubled arena in some of the most tumultuous hours of our national history. The great conflict respecting the national bank and the removal of the deposits, was then raging.
His term of two years closed ; and he returned to his profession, which he pursued with increasing rep- utation and success. After a lapse of two years he again became a candidate for Congress ; was re- elected, and took his seat in 1837. His past expe . rience as a representative gave him strength and confidence. The first term of service in Congress to any man can be but little more than an introduction. He was now prepared for active duty. All his ener- gies were brought to bear upon the public good. Every measure received his impress.
Mr. Fillmore was now a man of wide repute, and his popularity filled the State, and in the year 1847, he was elected Comptroller of the State.
Mr. Fillmore had attained the age of forty-seven years. His labors at the bar, in the Legislature, in Congress and as Comptroller, had given him very con- siderable fame. The Whigs were casting about to find suitable candidates for President and Vice-Presi- dent at the approaching election. Far away, on the waters of the Rio Grande, there was a rough old soldier, who had fought one or two successful battles with the Mexicans, which had caused his name to be proclaimed in trumpet-tones all over the land. But it was necessary to associate with him on the same ticket some man of reputation as a statesman.
Under the influence of these considerations, the names of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore became the rallying-cry of the Whigs, as their candidates for President and Vice-Peesident. The Whig ticket was signally triumphant. On the 4th of March, 1849, Gen. Taylor was inaugurated President, and Millard Fillmore Vice-President, of the United States.
On the 9th of July, 1850, President Taylor, but about one year and four months after his inaugura- tion, was suddenly taken sick and died. By the Con- stitution, Vice-President Fillmore thus became Presi- dent. He appointed a very able cabinet, of which the illustrious Daniel Webster was Secretary of State.
Mr. Fillmore had very serious difficulties to contend with, since the opposition had a majority in both Houses. He did everything in his power to conciliate the South; but the pro-slavery party in the South felt the inadequacy of all measures of transient conciliation. The population of the free States was so rapidly in- creasing over that of the slave States that it was in- evitable that the power of the Government should soon pass into the hands of the free States. The famous compromise measures were adopted under Mr. Fillmore's adminstration, and the Japan Expedition was sent out. On the 4th of March, 1853, Mr. Fill- more, having served one term, retired.
In 1856, Mr. Fillmore was nominated for the Pres- idency by the "Know Nothing " party, but was beaten by Mr. Buchanan. After that Mr. Fillmore lived in retirement. During the terrible conflict of civil war, he was mostly silent. It was generally supposed that his sympathies were rather with those who were en- deavoring to overthrow our institutions. President Fillmore kept aloof from the conflict, without any cordial words of cheer to the one party or the other. He was thus forgotten by both. He lived to a ripe old age, and died in Buffalo, N. Y., March 8, 1874.
٣٠
Franklin Flera
7 I
FOURTEENTH PRESIDENT.
FRANKLIN PIERCE.
...
RANKLIN PIERCE, the fourteenth President of the United States, was born in Hillsborough, N. H., Nov. 23, 1804. His father was a Revolutionary soldier, who, with his own strong arm, hewed out a home in the . wilderness. He was a man of inflexible integrity; of strong, though uncultivated mind, and an uncompromis- ing Democrat. The mother of Franklin Pierce was all that a son could desire,-an intelligent, pru- dent, affectionate, Christian wom-
an. Franklin was the sixth of eight children.
Franklin was a very bright and handsome boy, gen- erous, warm-hearted and brave. He won alike the love of old and young. The boys on the play ground loved him. His teachers loved him. The neighbors looked upon him with pride and affection. He was by instinct a gentleman; always speaking kind words, doing kind deeds, with a peculiar unstudied tact which taught him what was agreeable. Without de- veloping any precocity of genius, or any unnatural devotion to books, he was a good scholar; in body, in mind, in affections, a finely-developed boy.
When sixteen years of age, in the year 1820, he entered Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Me. He was one of the most popular young men in the college. The purity of his moral character, the unvarying courtesy of his demeanor, his rank as a scholar. and
genial nature, rendered him a universal favorite. There was something very peculiarly winning in his address, and it was evidently not in the slightest de- gree studied : it was the siniple outgushing of his own magnanimous and loving nature.
Upon graduating, in the year 1824, Franklin Pierce commenced the study of law in the office of Judge Woodbury, one of the most distinguished lawyers of the State, and a man of great private worth. The eminent social qualities of the young lawyer, his father's prominence as a public man, and the brilliant political career into which Judge Woodbury was en- tering, all tended to entice Mr. Pierce into the faci- nating yet perilous path of political life. With all the ardor of his nature he espoused the cause of Gen. Jackson for the Presidency. He commenced the practice of law in Hillsborough, and was soon elected to represent the town in the State Legislature. Here he served for four years. The last two years he was chosen speaker of the house by a very large vote.
In 1833, at the age of twenty-nine, he was elected a member of Congress. Without taking an active part in debates, he was faithful and laborious in duty, and ever rising in the estimation of those with whom he was associatad.
In 1837, being then but thirty-three years of age, he was elected to the Senate of the United States; taking his seat just as Mr. Van Buren commenced his administration. He was the youngest member in the Senate. In the year 1834, he married Miss Jane Means Appleton, a lady of rare beauty and accom- plishments, and one admirably fitted to adorn every station with which her husband was honored. Of the
72
FRANKLIN PIERCE.
three sons who were born to them, all now sleep with their parents in the grave.
In the year 1838, Mr. Pierce, with growing fame and increasing business as a lawyer, took up his residence in Concord, the capital of New Hampshire. President Polk, upon his accession to office, appointed Mr. Pierce attorney-general of the United States; but the offer was declined, in consequence of numerous professional engagements at home, and the precariuos state of Mrs. Pierce's health. He also, about the same time declined the nomination for governor by the Democratic party. The war with Mexico called Mr. Pierce in the army. Receiving the appointment of brigadier-general, he embarked, with a portion of his troops, at Newport, R. I., on the 27th of May, 1847. He took an important part in this war, proving him- self a brave and true soldier.
When Gen. Pierce reached his home in his native State, he was received enthusiastically by the advo- cates of the Mexican war, and coldly by his oppo- nents. He resumed the practice of his profession, very frequently taking an active part in political ques- tions, giving his cordial support to the pro-slavery wing of the Democratic party. The compromise measures met cordially with his approval; and he strenuously advocated the enforcement of the infa- mous fugitive-slave law, which so shocked the religious sensibilities of the North. He thus became distin- guished as a "Northern man with Southern principles." The strong partisans of slavery in the South conse- quently regarded him as a man whom they could safely trust in office to carry out their plans.
On the 12th of June, 1852, the Democratic conven- tion met in Baltimore to nominate a candidate for the Presidency. For four days they continued in session, and in thirty-five ballotings no one had obtained a two-thirds vote. Not a vote thus far had been thrown for Gen. Pierce. Then the Virginia delegation brought forward his name. There were fourteen more ballotings, during which Gen. Pierce constantly gained strength, until, at the forty-ninth ballot, he received two hundred and eighty-two votes, and all other candidates eleven. Gen. Winfield Scott was the Whig candidate. Gen. Pierce was chosen with great unanimity. Only four States-Vermont, Mas- sachusetts, Kentucky and Tennessee-cast their electoral votes against him. Gen. Franklin Pierce was therefore inaugurated President of the United States on the 4th of March, 1853.
His administration proved one of the most stormy our country had ever experienced. The controversy be- tween slavery and freedom was then approaching its culminating point. It became evident that there was an "irrepressible conflict " between them, and that this Nation could not long exist " half slave and half free." President Pierce, during the whole of his ad- ministration, did every thing he could to conciliate the South ; but it was all in vain. The conflict every year grew more violent, and threats of the dissolution of the Union were borne to the North on every South- ern breeze.
Such was the condition of affairs when President Pierce approached the close of his four-years' term of office. The North had become thoroughly alien- ated from him. The anti-slavery sentiment, goaded by great outrages, had been rapidly increasing; all the intellectual ability and social worth of President Pierce were forgotten in deep reprehension of his ad- ministrative acts. The slaveholders of the South, also, unmindful of the fidelity with which he had advo- cated those measures of Government which they ap- proved, and perhaps, also, feeling that he had rendered himself so unpopular as no longer to be able acceptably to serve them, ungratefully dropped him, and nominated James Buchanan to succeed him.
On the 4th of March, 1857, President Pierce re- tired to his home in Concord. Of three children, two had died, and his only surviving child had been killed before his eyes by a railroad accident ; and his wife, one of the most estimable and accomplished of ladies, was rapidly sinking in consumption. The hour of dreadful gloom soon came, and he was left alone in the world, without wife or child.
When the terrible Rebellion burst forth, which di- vided our country into two parties, and two only, Mr. Pierce remained steadfast in the principles which he had always cherished, and gave his sympathies to that pro-slavery party with which he had ever been allied. He declined to do anything, either by voice or pen, to strengthen the hand of the National Gov- ernment. He continued to reside in Concord until the time of his death, which occurred in October, 1869. He was one of the most genial and social of men, an : honored communicant of the Episcopal Church, and one of the kindest of neighbors. Gen- erous to a fault, he contributed liberally for the al- leviation of suffering and want, and many of his towns- people were often gladened by his material bounty.
.
James Buchanan
FIFTEENTH PRESIDENT.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
avó
-
AMES BUCHANAN, the fif- teenth President of the United Statcs, was born in a small frontier town, at the foot of the eastern ridge of the Allegha- nies, in Franklin Co., Penn., on the 23d of April, 1791. The place where the humble cabin of his father stood was called Stony Batter. It was a wild and ro- mantic spot in a gorge of the moun- tains, with towering summits rising grandly all around. His father was a native of the north of Ireland; a poor man, who had emigrated in 1783, with little property save his own strong arms. Five years afterwards he married Elizabeth Spear, the daughter of a respectable farmer, and, with his young bride, plunged into the wilder- ness, staked his claim, reared his log-hut, opened a clearing with his axe, and settled down there to per- form his obscure part in the drama of life. In this se- cluded home, where James was born, he remained for eight years, enjoying but few social or intellectual advantages. When James was eight years of age, his father removed to the village of Mercersburg, where his son was placed at school, and commenced a course of study in English, Latin and Greek. His progress was rapid, and at the age of fourteen, he entered Dickinson College, at Carlisle. Here he de. veloped remarkable talent, and took his stand among the first scholars in the institution. His application to study was intense, and yet his native powers en-
abled him to master the most abstruse subjects with facility.
In the year 1809, he graduated with the highest honors of his class. He was then eighteen years of age; tall and graceful, vigorous in health, fond of athletic sport, an unerring shot, and enlivened with an exuberant flow of animal spirits. He immediately commenced the study of law in the city of Lancaster, and was admitted to the bar in 1812, when he was but twenty-one years of age. Very rapidly he rose in his profession, and at once took undisputed stand with the ablest lawyers of the State. When but twenty-six years of age, unaided by counsel, he suc- cessfully defended before the State Senate one of the judges of the State, who was tried upon articles of impeachment. At the age of thirty it was generally admitted that he stood at the head of the bar; and there was no lawyer in the State who had a more lu- crative practice. '
In 1820, he reluctantly consented to run as a candidate for Congress. He was elected, and for ten years he remained a member of the Lower House. During the vacations of Congress, he occasionally tried some important case. In 1831, he retired altogether from the toils of his profession, having ac- quired an ample fortune.
Gen. Jackson, upon his elevation to the Presidency, appointed Mr. Buchanan minister to Russia. The duties of his mission he performed with ability, which gave satisfaction to all parties. Upon his return, in 1833, he was elected to a seat in the United States Senate. He there met, as his associates, Webster, Clay, Wright and Calhoun. He advocated the meas- ures proposed by President Jackson, of making repri-
76
JAMES BUCHANAN.
sals against France, to enforce the payment of our claims against that country ; and defended the course of the President in his unprecedented and wholesale removal front office of those who were not the sup- porters of his administration. Upon this question he was brought into direct collision with Henry Clay. He also, with voice and vote, advocated expunging from the journal of the Senate the vote of censure against Gen. Jackson for removing the deposits. Earnestly he opposed the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and urged the prohibition of the circulation of anti-slavery documents by the United States mails.
As to petitions on the subject of slavery, he advo- cated that they should be respectfully received; and that the reply should be returned, that Congress had no power to legislate upon the subject. " Congress," said he, "might as well undertake to interfere with slavery under a foreign government as in any of the States where it now exists.'
Upon Mr. Polk's accession to the Presidency, Mr. Buchanan became Secretary of State, and as such, took his share of the responsibility in the conduct of the Mexican War. Mr. Polk assumed that crossing the Nueces by the American troops into the disputed territory was not wrong, but for the Mexicans to cross the Rio Grande into that territory was a declaration of war. No candid man can read with pleasure the account of the course our Government pursued in that movement.
Mr. Buchanan identified himself thoroughly with the party devoted to the perpetuation and extension of slavery, and brought all the energies of his mind to bear against the Wilmot Proviso. He gave his cordial approval to the compromise measures of 1850, which included the fugitive-slave law. Mr. Pierce, upon his election to the Presidency, honored Mr. Buchanan with the mission to England.
In the year 1856, a national Democratic conven- tion nominated Mr. Buchanan for the Presidency. The political conflict was one of the most severe in which our country has ever engaged. All the friends of slavery were on one side; all the advocates of its re- striction and final abolition, on the other. Mr. Fre- mont, the candidate of the enemies of slavery, re- ceived 114 electoral votes. Mr. Buchanan received 174, and was elected. The popular vote stood 1,340,618, for Fremont, 1,224,750 for Buchanan. On March 4th, 1857, Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated.
Mr. Buchanan was far advanced in life. Only four years were wanting to fill up his threescore years and ten. His own friends, those with whom he had been allied in political principles and action for years, were seeking the destruction of the Government, that they might rear upon the ruins of our free institutions a nation whose corner-stone should be human slavery. In this emergency, Mr. Buchanan was hopelessly be- wildered. He could not, with his long-avowed prin-
ciples, consistently oppose the State-rights party in their assumptions. As President of the United States, bound by his oath faithfully to administer the laws, he could not, without perjury of the grossest kind, unite with those endeavoring to overthrow the repub- lic. He therefore did nothing.
The opponents of Mr. Buchanan's administration nominated Abraham Lincoln as their standard bearer in the next Presidential canvass. The pro-slavery party declared, that if he were elected, and the con- trol of the Government were thus taken from their hands, they would secede from the Union, taking with them, as they retired, the National Capitol at Washington, and the lion's share of the territory of the United States.
Mr. Buchanan's sympathy with the pro-slavery party was such, that he had been willing to offerthem far more than they had ventured to claim. All the South had professed to ask of the North. was non- intervention upon the subject of slavery. Mr. Bu- chanan had been ready to offer them the active co- operation of the Government to defend and extend the institution.
As the storm increased in violence, the slaveholders claiming the right to secede, and Mr. Buchanan avow- ing that Congress had no power to prevent it, one of the most pitiable exhibitions of governmental im- becility was exhibited the world has ever seen. He declared that Congress had no power to enforce its laws in any State which had withdrawn, or which was attempting to withdraw from the Union. This was not the doctrine of Andrew Jackson, when, with his hand upon his sword-hilt, he exclaimed, " The Union must and shall be preserved !"
South Carolina seceded in December, 1860; nearly three months before the inauguration of President Lincoln. Mr. Buchanan looked on in listless despair. The rebel flag was raised in Charleston ; Fort Sumpter was besieged; our forts, navy-yards and arsenals were seized; our depots of military stores were plun- dered ; and our custom-houses and post-offices were appropriated by the rebels.
The energy of the rebels, and the imbecility of our Executive, were alike marvelous. The Nation looked on in agony, waiting for the slow weeks to glide away, and close the administration, so terrible in its weak- ness At length the long-looked-for hour of deliver- ance came, when Abraham Lincoln was to receive the scepter.
The administration of President Buchanan was certainly the most calamitous our country has ex- perienced. His best friends cannot recall it with pleasure. And still more deplorable it is for his fame, that in that dreadful conflict which rolled its billows of flame and blood over our whole land, no word came from his lips to indicate his wish that our country's banner should triumph over the flag of the rebellion. He died at his Wheatland retreat, June 1, 1868.
A. Lincoln.
79
SIXTEENTH PRESIDENT.
ABRAHAM
LINCOLN.
BRAHAM LINCOLN, the sixteenth President of the ®United States, was born in Hardin Co., Ky., Feb. 12, 1809. About the year 1780, a man by the name of Abraham Lincoln left Virginia with his family and moved into the then wilds of Kentucky. Only two years after this emigration, still a young man, while working one day in a field, was stealthily approached by an Indian and shot dead. His widow was left in extreme poverty with five little children, three boys and two girls. Thomas, the youngest of the boys, was four years of age at his father's death. . This Thomas was the father of Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States whose name must henceforth forever be enrolled with the most prominent in the annals of our world.
Of course no record has been kept of the life of one so lowly as Thomas Lincoln. He was among the poorest of the poor. His home was a wretched log-cabin; his food the coarsest and the ineanest. Education he had none; he could never either read or write. As soon as he was able to do anything for himself, he was compelled to leave the cabin of his starving mother, and push out into the world, a friend- less, wandering boy, seeking work. He hired him- self out, and thus spent the whole of his youth as a laborer in the fields of others.
When twenty-eight years of age he built a log- cabin of his own, and married Nancy Hanks, the daughter of another family of poor Kentucky emi- grants, who had also come from Virginia. Their second child was Abraham Lincoln, the subject of this sketch. The mother of Abraham was a noble woman, gentle, loving, pensive, created to adorn a palace, doomed to toil and pine, and die in a hovel. " All that I am, or hope to be," exclaims the grate- ful son "I owe to my angel-mother. "
When he was eight years of age, his father sold his
cabin and small farm, and moved to Indiana. Where two years later his mother died.
Abraham soon became the scribe of the uneducated community around him. He could not have had a better school than this to teach him to put thoughts into words. He also became an eager reader. The books he could obtain were few; but these he read and re-read until they were almost committed to memory.
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.