USA > Minnesota > Meeker County > Album of history and biography of Meeker County, Minnesota > Part 8
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In 1854 the repeal of the Missouri Compromise by the Kansas-Nebraska act aroused Lincoln from his indifference, and in attacking that measure he had the im- mense advantage of knowing perfectly well the motives and the record of its author, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, then popu- larly designated as the " Little Giant." The latter came to Springfield in October, 1854, on the occasion of the State Fair, to vindi- cate his policy in the Senate, and the " Anti- Nebraska" Whigs, remembering that Lin- coln had often measured his strength with
Douglas in the Illinois Legislature and be- fore the Springfield Courts, engaged him to improvise a reply. This speech, in the opinion of those who heard it, was one of the greatest efforts of Lincoln's life; cer- tainly the most effective in his whole career. It took the audience by storm, and from that moment it was felt that Douglas had met his match. Lincoln was accordingly selected as the Anti-Nebraska candidate for the United States Senate in place of General Shields, whose term expired March 4, 1855, and led to several ballots; but Trumbull was ultimately chosen.
The second conflict on the soil of Kan- sas, which Lincoln had predicted, soon be- gan. The result was the disruption of the Whig and the formation of the Republican party. At the Bloomington State Conven- tion in 1856, where the new party first assumed form in Illinois, Lincoln made an impressive address, in which for the first time he took distinctive ground against slavery in itself.
At the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia, June 17, after the nomi- nation of Fremont, Lincoln was put for- ward by the Illinois delegation for the Vice-Presidency, and received on the first ballot 110 votes against 259 for William L Dayton. He took a prominent part in the canvass, being on the electoral ticket.
In 1858 Lincoln was unanimously nomi- nated by the Republican State Convention as its candidate for the United States Senate in place of Douglas, and in his speech of acceptance used the celebrated illustration of a " house divided against itself" on the slavery question, which was, perhaps, the cause of his defeat. The great debate car- ried on at all the principal towns of Illinois between Lincoln and Douglas as rival Sena- torial candidates resulted at the time in the clection of the latter ; but being widely cir- culated as a campaign document, it fixed the attention of the country upon the
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former, as the clearest and most convinc- ing exponent of Republican doctrine.
Early in 1859 he began to be named in Illinois as a suitable Republican candidate for the Presidential campaign of the ensu- ing year, and a political address delivered at the Cooper Institute, New York, Febru- ary 27, 1860, followed by similar speeches at New Haven, Hartford and elsewhere in New England, first made him known to the Eastern States in the light by which he had long been regarded at home. By the Re- publican State Convention, which met at Decatur, Illinois, May 9 and 10, Lincoln was unanimously endorsed for the Presi- dency. It was on this occasion that two rails, said to have been split by his hands thirty years before, were brought into the convention, and the incident contributed much to his popularity. The National Republican Convention at Chicago, after spirited efforts made in favor of Seward, Chase and Bates, nominated Lincoln for the Presidency, with Hannibal Hamlin for Vice-President, at the same time adopt- ing a vigorous anti-slavery platform.
The Democratic party having been dis- organized and presenting two candidates, Douglas and Breckenridge, and the rem- nant of the " American" party having put forward John Bell, of Tennessee, the Re- publican victory was an easy one, Lincoln being elected November 6 by a large plu- rality, comprehending nearly all the North- ern States, but none of the Southern. The secession of South Carolina and the Gulf States was the immediate result, followed a few months later by that of the border slave States and the outbreak of the great civil war.
The life of Abraham Lincoln became thenceforth merged in the history of his country. None of the details of the vast conflict which filled the remainder of Lin- coln's life can here be given. Narrowly escaping assassination by avoiding Balti-
more on his way to the capital, he reached Washington February 23, and was inaugu- rated President of the United States March 4, 1861.
In his inaugural address he said: " I hold, that in contemplation of universal law and the Constitution the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied if not ex- pressed in the fundamental laws of all na- tional governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a pro- vision in its organic law for its own termi- nation. I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution en- joins upon me, that the laws of the United States be extended in all the States. In doing this there need be no bloodshed or vio- lence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power conferred to me will be used to hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the Government, and to col- lect the duties and imports, but beyond what may be necessary for these objects there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-country- men, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being your- selves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Gov- ernment, while I shall have the most sol- emn one to preserve, protect and defend it.'
He called to his cabinet his principal rivals for the Presidential nomination - Seward, Chase, Cameron and Bates; se- cured the co-operation of the Union Demo- crats, headed by Douglas ; called out 75,000 militia from the several States upon the first tidings of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, April 15; proclaimed a blockade of the Southern posts April 19; called an extra
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session of Congress for July 4, from which he asked and obtained 400,000 men and $400,000,000 for the war; placed Mcclellan at the head of the Federal army on General Scott's resignation, October 31; appointed Edwin M. Stanton Secretary of War, Jan- uary 14, 1862, and September 22, 1862, issued a proclamation declaring the free- dom of all slaves in the States and parts of States then in rebellion from and after January 1, 1863. This was the crowning act of Lincoln's career-the act by which he will be chiefly known through all future time-and it decided the war.
October 16, 1863, President Lincoln called for 300,000 volunteers to replace those whose term of enlistment had expired ; made a celebrated and touching, though brief, address at the dedication of the Gettysburg military cemetery, November 19, 1863; commissioned Ulysses S. Grant Lieutenant-General and Commander-in- Chief of the armies of the United States, March 9, 1864; was re-elected President in November of the same year, by a large majority over General Mcclellan, with Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, as Vice- President; delivered a very remarkable ad- dress at his second inauguration, March 4, 1865; visited the army before Richmond the same month; entered the capital of the Con- federacy the day after its fall, and upon the surrender of General Robert E. Lee's army, April 9, was actively engaged in devising generous plans for the reconstruction of the Union, when, on the evening of Good Fri- day, April 14, he was shot in his box at Ford's Theatre, Washington, by John Wilkes Booth, a fanatical actor, and expired early on the following morning, April 15. Al- most simultaneously a murderous attack was made upon William H. Seward, Secre- tary of State.
At noon on the 15th of April Andrew
Johnson assumed the Presidency, and active mcasures were taken which resulted in the death of Booth and the execution of his principal accomplices.
The funeral of President Lincoln was conducted with unexampled solemnity and magnificence. Impressive services were held in Washington, after which the sad procession proceeded over the same route he had traveled four years before, from Springfield to Washington. In Philadel- phia his body lay in state in Independence Hall, in which he had declared before his first inauguration " that I would sooner be assassinated than to give up the principles of the Declaration of Independence." He was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery, near Springfield, Illinois, on May 4, where a monument emblematic of the emancipation of the slaves and the restoration of the Union mark his resting place.
The leaders and citizens of the expiring Confederacy expressed genuine indignation at the murder of a generous political adver- sary. Foreign nations took part in mourn- ing the death of a statesman who had proved himself a true representative of American nationality. The freedmen of the South almost worshiped the memory of their de- liverer; and the general sentiment of the great Nation he had saved awarded him a place in its affections, second only to that held by Washington.
The characteristics of Abraham Lincoln have been familiarly known throughout the civilized world. His tall, gaunt, ungainly figure, homely countenance, and his shrewd mother-wit, shown in his celebrated con- versations overflowing in humorous and pointed anecdote, combined with an accu- rate, intuitive appreciation of the questions of the time, are recognized as forming the best type of a period of American history now rapidly passing away.
Anew Johnson
.
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ANDREW JOHNSON.
nDREW
ToEnson.
NDREW JOHNSON, the seventeenth Presi- dent of the United States, 1865-'9, was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, De- cember 29, 18OS. His father died when he was four years old, and in his eleventh year he was ap- prenticed to a tailor. He nev- cr attended school, and did not learn to read until late in his apprenticeship, when he suddenly acquired a passion for obtaining knowledge, and devoted all his spare time to reading.
After working two years as a journey- man tailor at Lauren's Court-House, South Carolina, he removed, in 1826, to Green- ville, Tennessee, where he worked at his trade and married. Under his wife's in- structions he made rapid progress in his education, and manifested such an intelli- gent interest in local politics as to be elected as " workingmen's candidate " al- derman, in 1828, and mayor in 1830, being twice re-elected to each office.
During this period he cultivated his tal- ents as a public speaker by taking part in a
debating society, consisting largely of stu- dents of Greenville College. In 1835, and again in 1839, he was chosen to the lower house of the Legislature, as a Democrat. In 1841 he was elected State Senator, and in 1843, Representative in Congress, being re-elected four successive periods, until 1853, when he was chosen Governor of Tennessee. In Congress he supported the administrations of Tyler and Polk in their chief measures, especially the annexation of Texas, the adjustment of the Oregon boundary, the Mexican war, and the tariff of 1846.
In 1855 Mr. Johnson was re elected Gov- ernor, and in 1857 entered the United States Senate, where he was conspicuous as an advocate of retrenchment and of the Homestead bill, and as an opponent of the Pacific Railroad. He was supported by the Tennessee delegation to the Democratic convention in 1860 for the Presidential nomination, and lent his influence to the Breckenridge wing of that party.
When the election of Lincoln had brought about the first attempt at secession in December, 1860, Johnson took in the Senate a firm attitude for the Union, and in May, 1861, on returning to Tennessee, he was in imminent peril of suffering from
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popular violence for his loyalty to the " old flag." He was the leader of the Loyalists' convention of East Tennessee, and during the following winter was very active in or- ganizing relief for the destitute loyal refu- gees from that region, hisown family being among those compelled to leave.
By his course in this crisis Johnson came prominently before the Northern public, and when in March, 1862, he was appointed by President Lincoln military Governor of Tennessee, with the rank of Brigadier-Gen- eral, he increased in popularity by the vig- orous and successful manner in which he labored to restore order, protect Union men and punish marauders. On the ap- proach of the Presidential campaign of 1864, the termination of the war being plainly foreseen, and several Southern States being partially reconstructed, it was felt that the Vice-Presidency should be given to a South- ern man of conspicuous loyalty, and Gov- ernor Johnson was elected on the same platform and ticket as President Lincoln; and on the assassination of the latter suc- ceeded to the Presidency, April 15, 1865. In a public speech two days later he said: "The American people must be taught, if they do not already feel, that treason is a crime and must be punished; that the Gov- ernment will not always bear with its ene- mies; that it is strong, not only to protect, but to punish. In our peaceful history treason has been almost unknown. The people must understand that it is the black- est of crimes, and will be punished." He then added the ominous sentence: " In re- gard to my future course, I make no prom- ises, no pledges." President Johnson re- tained the cabinet of Lincoln, and exhibited considerable severity toward traitors in his earlier acts and speeches, but he soon inaug- urated a policy of reconstruction, proclaim- ing a general amnesty to the late Confeder- ates, and successively establishing provis- ional Governments in the Southern States.
These States accordingly claimed represen- tation in Congress in the following Decem- ber, and the momentous question of what should be the policy of the victorious Union toward its late armed opponents was forced upon that body.
Two considerations impelled the Repub- lican majority to reject the policy of Presi. dent Johnson: First, an apprehension that the chief magistrate intended to undo the re- sults of the war in regard to slavery; and,sec- ond, the sullen attitude of the South, which seemed to be plotting to regain the policy which arms had lost. The credentials of the Southern members elect were laid on the table, a civil rights bill and a bill extending the sphere of the Freedmen's Bureau were passed over the executive veto, and the two highest branches of the Government were soon in open antagonism. The action of Congress was characterized by the Presi- dent as a " new rebellion." In July the cabinet was reconstructed, Messrs. Randalt, Stanbury and Browning taking the places of Messrs. Denison, Speed and Harlan, and an unsuccessful attempt was made by means of a general convention in Philadel- phia to form a new party on the basis of the administration policy.
In an excursion to Chicago for the pur- pose of laying a corner-stone of the monu- ment to Stephen A. Douglas, President Johnson, accompanied by several members of the cabinet, passed through Philadelphia, New York and Albany, in cach of which cities, and in other places along the route, he made speeches justifying and explaining his own policy, and violently denouncing the action of Congress.
August 12, 1867, President Johnson re- moved the Secretary of War, replacing him by General Grant. Secretary Stanton retired under protest, based upon the ten- ure-of-office act which had been passed the preceding March. The President then is- sued a proclamation declaring the insurrec-
ANDREW JOHNSON.
tion at an end, and that " peace, order, tran- quility and civil authority existed in and throughout the United States." Another proclamation enjoined obedience to the Constitution and the laws, and an amnesty was published September 7, relieving nearly all the participants in the late Rebellion from the disabilities thereby incurred, on condition of taking the oath to support the Constitution and the laws.
In December Congress refused to confirm the removal of Secretary Stanton, who thereupon resumed the exercise of his of- fice; but February 21, 1868, President Johnson again attempted to remove him, appointing General Lorenzo Thomas in his place. Stanton refused to vacate his post, and was sustained by the Senate.
February 24 the House of Representa- tives voted to impeach the President for " high crime and misdemeanors," and March 5 presented eleven articles of impeachment on the ground of his resistance to the exe- cution of the acts of Congress, alleging, in addition to the offense lately committed, his public expressions of contempt for Con- gress, in “ certain intemperate, inflamma- tory and scandalous harangues" pronounced in August and September, 1866, and there- after declaring that the Thirty-ninth Con- gress of the United States was not a competent legislative body, and denying its power to propose Constitutional amend- ments. March 23 the impeachment trial began, the President appearing by counsel, and resulted in acquittal, the vote lacking
one of the two-thirds vote required for conviction.
The remainder of President Johnson's term of office was passed without any such conflicts as might have been anticipated. He failed to obtain a nomination for re- election by the Democratic party, though receiving sixty-five votes on the first ballot. July 4 and December 25 new proclamations of pardon to the participants in the late Rebellion were issued, but , were of little effect. On the accession of General Grant to the Presidency, March 4, 1869, Johnson returned to Greenville, Tennessee. Unsuc- cessful in 1870 and 1872 as a candidate re- spectively for United States Senator and Representative, he was finally elected to the Senate in 1875, and took his seat in the extra session of March, in which his speeches were comparatively temperatc. He died July 31, 1875, and was buried at Green- ville.
President Johnson's administration was a peculiarly unfortunate one. That he should so soon become involved in bitter feud with the Republican majority in Congress was certainly a surprising and deplorable inci- dent; yet, in reviewing the circumstances after a lapse of so many years, it is easy to find ample room for a charitable judgment of both the parties in the heated contro- versy, since it cannot be doubted that any President, even Lincoln himself, had he lived, must have sacrificed a large portion of his popularity in carrying out any pos- sible scheme of reconstruction.
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"ULYSSES'S GRANT
A
LYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, the eight- eenth President of the United States, 1869-'77, was born April 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio. His father was of Scotch descent, and a dealer in leather. At the age of seventeen he en- tered the Military Academy at West Point, and four years later graduated twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine, receiving the commission of Brevet Second Lieutenant. He was assigned to the Fourth Infantry and re- mained in the army eleven years. He was engaged in every battle of the Mexican war except that of Buena Vista, and received two brevets for gallantry.
In 1848 Mr. Grant married Julia, daughter of Frederick Dent, a prominent merchant of St. Louis, and in 1854, having reached the grade of Captain, he resigned his commis- sion in the army. For several years he fol- lowed farming near St. Louis, but unsuc- cessfully ; and in 1860 he entered the leather trade with his father at Galena, Illinois.
When the civil war broke out in 1861, Grant was thirty-nine years of age, but en- tirely unknown to public men and without
any personal acquaintance with great affairs. President Lincoln's first call for troops was made on the 15th of April, and on the 19th Grant was drilling a company of volunteers at Galena. He also offered his services to the Adjutant-General of the army, but re- ceived no reply. The Governor of Illinois, however, employed him in the organization of volunteer troops, and at the end of five weeks he was appointed Colonel of the Twenty-first Infantry. He took command of his regiment in June, and reported first to General Pope in Missouri. His superior knowledge of military life rather surprised his superior officers, who had never before even heard of him, and they were thus led to place him on the road to rapid advance- ment. August 7 he was commissioned a Brigadier-General of volunteers, the ap- pointment having been made without his knowledge. He had been unanimously recommended by the Congressmen from Illinois, not one of whom had been his personal acquaintance. For a few weeks he was occupied in watching the move- ments of partisan forces in Missouri.
September i he was placed in command of the District of Southeast Missouri, with headquarters at Cairo, and on the 6th, with- out orders, he seized Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee River, and commanding the navigation both of that stream and of
U. s. Grant
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ULYSSES S. GRANT.
the Ohio. This stroke secured Kentucky to the Union; for the State Legislature, which had until then affected to be neutral, at once declared in favor of the Govern- ment. In November following, according to orders, he made a demonstration about eigliteen miles below Cairo, preventing the crossing of hostile troops into Missouri ; but in order to accomplish this purpose he had to do some fighting, and that, too, with only 3,000 raw recruits, against 7,000 Con- federates. Grant carried off two pieces of artillery and 200 prisoners.
After repeated applications to General Halleck, his immediate superior, he was allowed, in February, 1862, to move up the Tennessee River against Fort Henry, in conjunction with a naval force. The gun- boats silenced the fort, and Grant immedi- ately made preparations to attack Fort Donelson, about twelve miles distant, on the Cumberland River. Without waiting for orders he moved his troops there, and with 15,000 men began the siege. The fort, garrisoned with 21,000 men, was a strong one, but after hard fighting on three successive days Grant forced an " Uncon- ditional Surrender " (an alliteration upon the initials of his name). The prize he capt- ured consisted of sixty-five cannon, 17,600 small arms and 14,623 soldiers. About 4,- 000 of the garrison had escaped in the night, and 2,500 were killed or wounded. Grant's entire loss was less than 2,000. This was the first important success won by the national troops during the war, and its strategic re- sults were marked, as the entire States of Kentucky and Tennessee at once fell into the National hands. Our hero was made a Major-General of Volunteers and placed in command of the District of West Ten- nessee.
In March, 1862, he was ordered to move up the Tennessee River toward Corinth, where the Confederates were concentrat- ing a large army ; but he was directed not
to attack. His forces, now numbering 38,- 000, were accordingly encamped near Shi- loh, or Pittsburg Landing, to await the arrival of General Buell with 40,000 more; but April 6 the Confederates came out from Corinth 50,000 strong and attacked Grant violently, hoping to overwhelm him before Buell could arrive ; 5,000 of his troops were beyond supporting distance, so that he was largely outnumbered and forced back to the river, where, however, he held out until dark, when the head of Buell's column came upon the field. The next day the Confederates were driven back to Corinth, nineteen miles. The loss was heavy on both sides; Grant, being senior in rank to Buell, commanded on both days. Two days afterward Halleck arrived at the front and assumed command of the army, Grant remaining at the head of the right wing and the reserve. On May 30 Corinth was evacuated by the Confederates. In July Halleck was made General-in-Chief, and Grant succeeded him in command of the Department of the Tennessee. September 19 the battle of Iuka was fought, where, owing to Rosecrans's fault, only an incom- plete victory was obtained.
Next, Grant, with 30,000 men, moved down into Mississippi and threatened Vicks. burg, while Sherman, with 40,000 men, was sent by way of the river toattack that place in front ; but, owing to Colonel Murphy's surrendering Holly Springs to the Con- federates, Grant was so weakened that he had to retire to Corinth, and then Sherman failed to sustain his intended attack.
In January, 1863, General Grant took command in person of all the troops in the Mississippi Valley, and spent several months in fruitless attempts to compel the surrender or evacuation of Vicksburg: but July 4, following, the place surrendered, with 31,- 600 men and 172 cannon, and the Mississippi River thus fell permanently into the hands of the Government. Grant was made a
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PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES.
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