USA > New Mexico > Men of our day; or, biographical sketches of patriots, orators, statemen, generals, reformers, financiers and merchants, now on the stage of action > Part 19
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two hundred votes. In 1843, he was again a candidate and was elected by about a thousand majority.
Though elected as a Democrat, and voting with that party on all other questions, Mr. Hamlin, from the commencement of his Congressional career, uniformly opposed the extension and aggressions of slavery. His first speech in Congress was in opposition to the twenty-first rule, by which abolition petitions were excluded; and he ably and strenuously opposed the annexation of Texas, not because he was averse to new acces- sions of territory, but because the bill provided for the exten- sion of slavery there. His speech, in opposition to the annexa- tion on these terms, was one of remarkable eloquence, and its defence of New England against the attacks of southern mem- bers, was one of the finest passages of parliamentary oratory. "I am sure, sir," he said, " that the hardy sons of the ice-bound region of New England, have poured out their blood without stint, to protect the shores of the South, or to avenge her wrongs Their bones are even now bleaching beneath the sun, on many a southern hill; and the monuments of their brave devotion may still be traced, wherever their country's flag has floated on the battle field, or the breeze, upon the lakes, the ocean, and the land :--
"'New England's dead ! New England's dead ! On every field they lie, On every field of strife made red, With bloody victory ! Their bones are on our northern hills, And on the southern plain ; By brook and river, mount and rills, And in the sounding main.'
" I glory in New England and New England's institutions. There she stands, with her free schools, and her free labor, her fearless enterprise, her indomitable energy ! With her rocky 15
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hills, her torrent streams, her green valleys, her heaven pointed spires ; there she stands a moral monument around which the gratitude of her country binds the wreath of fame, while pro- tected freedom shall repose forever at its base."
Mr. Hamlin was re-elected to Congress in 1844, and though known mainly as a working, rather than a talking member, (and his reputation was of the highest, as an efficient business man,) he took some part in the debates, handling the most im- portant questions with great ability. Among the topics on which he spoke were the public land question; on giving notice to the British Government to terminate the joint occu- pancy of Oregon ; on the mode of raising troops for the Mexican war; on the mode of increasing the army, and on establishing a territorial government for Oregon. He also offered the Wilmot Proviso as an amendment to the famous " three million bill."
On his return home he served for one session in the Maine Legislature, and in May, 1848, was elected to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate, caused by the death of Ex-Gover- nor Fairfield. In July, 1851, he was again chosen Senator, for the full term, by the Democrats and Free Soilers. His decided opposition to slavery had alienated a few of the pro- slavery Democrats in the Legislature, but their place was more than supplied by the Free Soilers, who held the balance of power in the Maine Legislature at this time.
In the Senate, Mr. Hamlin almost immediately took a position as one of the ablest members of that body. He was not given to participating in the debates on trivial matters, but on the great questions of the time he usually gave his care- fully considered views, and they commanded the attention and respect of the entire Senate. As a working member, he had no superior ; lie was chairman of the very important Committee on Commerce, from 1849 till his resignation of that position in
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1856, on an occasion to be presently noticed, and drew up and matured many of the bills which have proved so beneficial to our national commerce. He was also chairman of the Com- mittee on the District of Columbia, and an active member of other important committees. He was outspoken and decided in his efforts for the repression of slavery, and in opposition to its aggressive tendencies, and the purpose of its friends to extend it over all the new territories, from his entrance into the Senate. One of his earliest speeches, in 1848, on the bill providing a territorial government for Oregon, denounced in strong and manly terms this purpose of the pro-slavery men, and in the debates on the admission of California, he was equally explicit and earnest. He advocated in the same session the abolition of the practice of flogging in the navy. On commercial topics, his most important and effective speeches were, on the ocean mail service ; on regulating the liabilities of ship owners ; on providing for the greater security of lives on steamboats; in defence of the river and harbor bill; for the codifications of the revenue laws, etc.
Up to 1856, Mr. Hamlin had acted with the Democratic party on all questions, except those connected with the extension of slavery, directly or indirectly. He opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and the Fugitive Slave act, but in all these, others affiliated with that party had acted with him; but the time came, at the national Democratic Convention at Cincinnati, in June, 1856, when that party succumbed to the slave power, and delivered themselves over to the rule and dictation of the South; then Mr. Hamlin felt that he must sever the ties which had hitherto bound him to them. He took the first opportunity of doing this which offered, rising in his place in the Senate, June 12th, 1856, and resigning his position as chairman of the Committee on Com-
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merce, and assigning as his reason, that after the platform and resolutions adopted by the convention at Cincinnati, he could no longer maintain political associations with a party which in- sisted on such doctrines. Thenceforward, he became identified with the Republican party. Two or three weeks later he was nominated by the Republicans for Governor of Maine, and made a personal canvass of the State, speaking nearly one hundred times in the different counties. The Democrats had carried the State by a large majority the year before, and were then in power, but Mr. Hamlin was elected in September, 1856, by an absolute majority of eighteen thousand over both the competing candidates, and of twenty-three thousand over his Democratic competitor, more than double the majority ever given to any other candidate in that State. On the 7th of January, 1857, he resigned his seat in the Senate and was the same day inaugurated Governor of Maine. Nine days later, January 16th, 1857, he was a third time elected to the Senate, for the term of six years from March 4th, 1857, and on the 20th of February resigned the office of governor, and took his seat again in the Senate, on the 4th of March. During the next four years, he was the active and eloquent defender of Republi- can principles in the United States Senate, discussing the Kansas question with consummate ability, attacking the Le- compton Constitution, replying with great pungency and effect to Senator Hammond's "mud-sill" speech, and repelling his assaults upon the free laborers of the North. He also exposed the unfair- ness and gross sectional partiality of the Democratic majority in the Senate, in the formation of the committees, and, in an able speech, defended American rights in regard to the fisheries.
On the 18th of May, 1860, at the Republican National Conven- tion at Chicago, Mr. Hamlin was nominated as the candidate of the party for the vice-presidency on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln:
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The nomination was entirely unexpected by Mr. Hamlin and took him completely by surprise. It was made spontaneously and with great unanimity. The ticket was elected, and on the 4th of March, 1861, in the midst of civil commotion and the loud muttering of the storm which was so soon to burst upon the nation, President and Vice-President were inaugurated. During the four years that followed, Mr. Hamlin was the President's right hand ; calm, patient, clear-headed and far-seeing, he was able to give wise counsel, and enjoyed, throughout his administration, Mr. Lincoln's fullest confidence. It is said that in the history of our country, there has been but one other instance, in which there was full and perfect harmony between the President and Vice-President, and that was in the case of President Jackson and Vice-President Van Buren. As the pre- siding officer of the Senate, he has rarely, if ever, been equalled in the skill with which he conducted its proceedings and the dignity with which he guided its deliberations. So thorough was his knowledge of parliamentary rules and usages, and of the precedents of senatorial action, that not a single ruling of his, during the four years of his presidency over the Senate, was ever over-ruled by that body, and on his taking leave of it all parties united in testifying to his courtesy and impartiality.
At the Baltimore National Republican Convention, in 1864, it was at first proposed to nominate Mr. Hamlin again to the vice- presidency, which he had filled so well; there was nothing to be objected to in his conduct, and very much to praise; but it was represented that the position belonged, by right, to some loyal representative of the border, or seceded States, and this view prevailing, Andrew Johnson was nominated. It has been well said, that " with Hannibal Hamlin in the vice-presidency, either Mr. Lincoln would not have been assassinated, or we should
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have been spared the trouble, discord, and disgrace which has followed."
In July, 1865, Mr. Johnson appointed Mr. Hamlin collector of the port of Boston, the most lucrative office in New England. He held the position about thirteen months, when becoming convinced that Mr. Johnson had deserted the party which elected him, and abandoned its principles, he felt that he could not retain the office, without danger of being identified with Mr. Johnson's treachery, and resigned it in the following manly letter.
" CUSTOM HOUSE, BOSTON, COLLECTOR'S OFFICE, Aug. 28, 1866. " To the President :-
"One year ago you tendered to me, unsolicited on my part, the position of collector of customs, for the District of Boston and Charlestown. I entered upon the duties of the office, and have endeavored faithfully to discharge the same, and I trust in a manner satisfactory to the public interested therein.
"I do not fail to observe the movements and efforts which have been, and are now being made to organize a party in the country, consisting, almost exclusively, of those actively engaged in the late rebellion, and their allies, who sought by other means to cripple and embarrass the Government. These classes of persons, with a small fraction of others, constitute the organiza- tion. It proposes to defeat and overthrow the Union Republi- can party, and to restore to power, without sufficient guaranties for the future, and protection to men who have been loyal, those who sought to destroy the Government.
" I gave all the influence I possessed to create and uphold the Union Republican party during the war, and without the aid of which our Government would have been destroyed, and the rebellion a success.
" With such a party as has been inaugurated, and for such purposes, I have no sympathy, nor can I acquiesce in its measures by my silence. I therefore tender to you my resig. nation of the office of collector of customs, for the District of
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Boston and Charlestown, to take effect from the time when a successor shall be appointed and qualified.
" Respectfully yours, "H. HAMLIN."
After his resignation, Mr. Hamlin engaged in the political canvass in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maine, in the autumn of 1866, and then returned to his home in Bangor, Maine, where he remained, engaged in the management of his estate, taking nart, however, in the political campaign in New Hampshire and Connecticut in the spring of 1868. Mr. Hamlin was the first choice of several of the States for the vice-presidency in the National Convention of May, 1868, and it is no discredit to the other eminent and able candidates, to say that no man could have filled the office better than he.
Mr. Hamlin is about six feet in height, though apparently less, in consequence of his having a slight stoop. His athletic and robust form gives a just indication of his great physical energy and power of endurance. His complexion is dark, and his eyes are of a piercing blackness .* His voice is clear, strong, melodious in its tones, and his delivery rapid, energetic, and highly effective. He speaks without verbal preparation, but without any embarrassment, and with remarkable directness. Always talking to the point, and never for mere effect, he is invariably listened to with respect and attention. As a popular orator, he has great power and eloquence. His manners, though dignified and decorous, are still remarkable for their republi- can simplicity. At his home on the Penobscot, he cultivates
* The southern political speakers and leaders in the presidential cam- paign of 1860. circulated the report widely throughout the South, and it was extensively credited there, that Mr. Hamlin was a mulatto, and that the Republicans had nominated him for the purpose of inciting the negroes to rise in rebellion against their masters. Mr. Hamlin's dark complexion was the only thing which gave the slightest plausibility to this story.
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his small farm with his own hands, laboring on it every summer, with all the regularity and vigor of his youthful days. In his moral character, Mr. Hamlin is wholly without reproach, a man of pure and Christian life, and in his domestic relations, he is most devoted and affectionate. No man is more thoroughly faithful to his friends than he, and none more highly prizes a true friend. His native State honors him, and with reason, for he is one of her best products, a manly, noble man in all the relations of life.
S .P.CHASE
THADDEUS STEVENS
SCHUYLER COLFAX
BENJ .F. WADE
HENRY WILSON
OP MORTON
LYMAN TRUMBU
+
HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE,
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
T would be hard to find a better illustration of the facility with which, under Republican institutions, a man of genius and integrity may rise from obscurity and humble life to the most exalted station, than is afforded in the history of Hon. Benjamin F. Wade. He has not, it is true, like his predecessor, " filled every office, from alderman of a small village to President of the United States," but he has risen from an humble though honorable and honest condition, to the highest positions in the gift of the people, and through all, has maintained himself with dignity, propriety, and honor, and with a reputation for unflinching adherence to the principles of right, justice, and freedom, which any man might covet.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE was born in Feeding Hills Parish, West Springfield, Massachusetts, October 27th, 1800. He was the youngest of ten children. His father was a soldier, who fought in every revolutionary battle from Bunker Hill to Yorktown. His mother was the daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman, a woman of vigorous intellect and great force of character. She fed and clothed her brood while the father was in the army. The family was one of the poorest in New England. A portion of its scanty property was a library of twelve books. This eventually became Benjamin's possession He read the volumes through and through, and over and over,
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after his mother had led him so far into an education as to teach him to read and write. When Ben was eighteen, he tearfully turned his back on the old plow and the older home- stead ; and, with seven dollars in his pocket and a bundle of cloth- ing on his back, started to walk from Springfield, Massachu- setts, to Illinois, to seek his fortune. He footed it to Ashtabula county, Ohio. There, the snow falling, he determined to wait for spring to finish his journey; hired himself out to cut wood in the forest for fifty cents per cord, and snatched hours from sleep at night to read the Bible by the light of the fire on the hearth of the log-cabin. Both the Old and the New Testa- ments are at his tongue's end. Spring came ; but the journey to Illinois and fortune was suspended by a summer's work at chopping, logging, and grubbing, followed by a Yankee winter at school-teaching. The journey was suspended by a second year of such work, and was finally lost in an experience of driving a herd of cattle. Wade led the "lead" steer of a drove from Ohio to New York. Six times he made this trip. The last ox he led took him to Albany." 'Twas winter. Of course,
* General Brisbin relates that on one of these occasions Mr. Wade came near losing his life. He was leading a steer as usual in front of the drove, when he came to a long covered bridge. The gate-keeper, according to the rules, would only allow a few of the herd to pass over at a time, lest their weight shonld injure the bridge. Wade started with the advance guard, but the cattle in the rear becoming frightened, rushed into the bridge and stampe- ded. Young Wade made haste to run, but finding he could not reach the other end before the frantic cattle would be upon him and trample him to death, he ran to one of the posts, and springing up, caught hold of the brace and drew himself up as high as possible. He could barely keep his legs out of the way of the horns of the cattle, but he held on while the bridge swayed to and fro, threatening every moment to break under the great weight that was upon it. At length the last of the frightened animals passed by, and our dangling hero dropped from his perch, to the astonishment of the drover, who thought he had been crushed to death, and was riding through the bridge, expecting every moment to find his crushed and mangled body."
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the drover then expanded into a school-teacher. When the frost was out of the ground, scholars and teacher went to manual labor. The Erie canal got the teacher. During the summer of 1826 Wade shoveled and wheeled ; " The only American I know," said Governor Seward, in a speech in the Senate, "who worked with a spade and wheelbarrow on that great improvement." An- other winter of school-teaching in Ohio, and the persuasions of Elisha Whittlesey, and the friendly offer of a tavern-keeper who had got to loving Wade, to trust him bed and board without limit, drew Ben, at the age of twenty-six, into a law office, to study for the bar. He was admitted in two years. He waited another year for his first suit.
It was but a petty offence with which his first client was charged, but the young lawyer went into his defence with all his might, and secured his acquittal. His zeal and resolution secured him the friendship of the members of the bar, and after the trial was over, the good old presiding judge condescended to privately give him a word of encouragement. Mr. Wade says no one can ever know how much good the kind words of the judge did him, and how they put courage into his heart to fight the future battles of his life. Without the advan- tages of early education, Mr. Wade felt constantly the need of close application to his law books, and became a hard student. The lawyers soon began to notice his opinions, and the energy and confidence he threw into a case. He had a wonderful deal of sense, and could analyze a knotty question with surprising ability. Those lawyers who were far his superiors in learning and eloquence could never equal the rough backwoodsman in grasping the points in a case and presenting them to the jury.
After six years of unremitting toil, Wade found himself em- ployed in almost every case of importance litigated in the
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circuit where he practiced. He was now a man of note; his law business was constantly increasing, and money was coming in to fill his pocket. He felt, as a thousand other men have felt, that the struggle of his life was over; that it was no longer with him simply a fight for bread. The world had been met and conquered, and the master began to look about him, and consider other matters than mere questions of food and clothing. Like most men who have taken the rough world by the throat and conquered it, Mr. Wade felt how completely he was self- made, and how little he had to fear from the future.
In 1835, he was elected prosecuting attorney for the county of Ashtabula. His talent for special pleading was remarkable, and his indictments are considered models at the present time.
In 1837, Mr. Wade was offered the nomination to the State Senate from his district, and reluctantly accepted. This, Mr. Wade contends to this day, was the great mistake of his life. He has been continually successful in politics, and reached the second office in the nation; but he never fails to warn young men to stick to their professions, and let politics alone. The empty honors of public life, he contends, never repay the poli. tician for the toils and troubles that beset him at every step ; and a quiet home is infinitely to be preferred to the highest political honor.
He was just entering his thirty-eighth year when he took his seat in the State Senate of Ohio, and at once began his political career with the same earnestness that had characterized his course at the bar. As a new member, he expected no position ; but his fame as a lawyer had preceded him to the capitol, and he was appointed a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Wade first directed his efforts to the repeal of the laws of Ohio whereby the poor but honest man could be imprisoned for debt by his creditor. He rapidly rose to the leadership of
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the little squad of Whigs in the State Senate, and although greatly in the minority, he handled his small force so effectively as to keep the Democrats always on the defensive.
The question of the annexation of Texas coming up, Mr. Wade made haste to take bold grounds against slavery. He said :
" This State of Texas coming to the Union, as it must (if at all), with the institution of slavery interwoven with its social habits, being brought into this Union for the sole object of ex- tending the accursed system of human bondage, it cannot have my voice or vote; for, so help me God, I will never assist in adding one rood of slave territory to this country."
Soon after his efforts to prevent the extension of slavery, the black people of Ohio began an active movement for relief from the oppressive State laws, and appealed to Mr. Wade to help them. He took their petition and presented it in the Senate, asking that "all laws might be repealed making distinctions among the people of Ohio on account of color." This raised a storm of indignation, and even some of Mr. Wade's personal and party friends warned him to desist in his efforts to place a negro on equal footing with a white man, but Wade sternly re- buked them, and insisted on his petitions being heard. At first the Senate refused to hear what the negroes had to say, but at length received their petition, and at once laid it on the table, Mr. Wade protesting, and saying, with great vehemence and earnestness to the majority : " Remember, gentlemen, you have, by your votes, in this free State of Ohio, so treated a part of her people, these black men and women."
At the close of his senatorial term, Mr. Wade found his negro doctrines had made him unpopular with his constituents. When the convention met in his district, he was not only passed over and a new man nominated, but some of the delegates thought it would be a good thing to censure him for his course. Mr.
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Wade had given great offence by his vehement opposition to State appropriations for internal improvements, and the Com- missioners appointed by the Legislature of Kentucky to visit Ohio and obtain, as Mr. Wade said, "the passage of a law to degrade the people of Ohio."
The bill they sought to have made a law, was one of pains and penalties, intended to repulse from Ohio the unhappy negro, whether bond or free-flying from the cruelty of a mas- ter-or, if manumitted, from the persecution of the superior class of laborers in a slave State, who abhor such rivals. Mr. Wade's noble nature revolted against the tyranny which would not allow human beings a refuge anywhere on a continent from which they had no outlet, and into which they had been dragged against their will; and he opposed the measure with all his might.
Mr. Wade, conscious that he had done right, when his sena- torial term was out, returned to his home and recommenced the practice of law, resolving never again to stand for any political office. In 1840, when General Harrison was nominated for President, Mr. Wade, yielding to the wishes of his friends and the excitement and enthusiasm of the hour, took the stump, and in this campaign, for the first time in his life, became a stump orator. His speeches were plain, matter-of-fact talks, which the people thoroughly understood, and he became popu- lar. He passed over the Reserve, addressing thousands of peo- ple, and laboring day and night for General Harrison's election. As soon as the canvass was over, he returned to his law office, at Jefferson, and began to work up his cases again, regretting that he had not paid more attention to his clients, and less to politics. He had remained single till his forty-first year, but then met with the lady who subsequently became his wife, at the residence of a client. His marriage has been an eminently
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