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 20
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
239
HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE.
happy one, and his two children, both sons, distinguished them- selves and did honor to the name they bear, during the late war.
In 1841, the people of Ohio. having come to thoroughly understand and detest the speculations of internal improvements, and the Kentucky black laws, Mr. Wade's views were adopted, and he became popular as a wise legislator. The people of his district tendered him a re-nomination to the State Senate, but he declined. When the convention met, however, he was placed in nomination and triumphantly elected, by a largely increased majority over his former election.
No sooner had he taken his seat than he renewed his labors in behalf of equal rights, and the repeal of all laws making dis- tinctions on account of color. He brought forward the petition of George W. Tyler, and fifty-four other persons, praying for the repeal of the fugitive slave law, passed by Ohio, in 1838, to please Kentucky. Wade argued, in an able speech, that negroes were men the same as white persons, and as such entitled to personal liberty, trial by jury, testimony in the courts, and com- mon school privileges. Kentucky was then opposed to all these things, and used her influence with Ohio to prevent her from adopting a liberal and just policy toward her black population. That was in 1841, more than a quarter of a centu- ry ago, and although it cannot be said Kentucky has advanced much in the business of securing her black people equal rights, she has done much toward changing their complexion. Herein Kentucky and her people differed from Mr. Wade and the peo- ple of Ohio ; Kentucky desired to equalize her population by nature, Ohio by law. Of the two processes we think posterity will incline to the belief that the former was the best.
In February, 1842, a "bill for the incorporation of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, an institution for the education of persons,
240
MEN OF OUR DAY.
without regard to race or color," came up in the Senate of Ohio. Mr. Wade advocated the bill, but it was voted down. This bill afterward passed, and was the foundation of the excellent college at Oberlin, Ohio, an institution that has furnished more than five hundred anti-slavery missionaries, teachers and preach- ers, and done more than any other college to unmask the de. formities of the system of human bondage.
While he was in the State Senate, the people of Ohio peti tioned their Legislature to protest against the infamous resolu- tion, passed by Congress in 1837, relating to slavery. This resolution was in these words :
Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, and papers touching the abolition of slavery, or buying, selling or transferring of slaves in any State, District or Territory of the United States, be laid on the table without being debated, read or referred, and that no further action whatever shall be taken thereon.
Mr. Wade was appointed a special committee, and the peti- tion of the people of Ohio, and the resolution complained of, referred to him with directions to make a report on them. It is said Wade read and examined, for three weeks, books and au- thorities, before he began writing his report; be that as it may, certain it is, his report was at the time, and is still, regarded as one of the ablest anti-slavery documents ever published in this country. Thirty years have elapsed since then, and yet in all that time few reasons have been advanced against slavery that cannot be found embodied in Mr. Wade's report.
/ At the same session he defended, with great ability and elo- quence, the course of John Quincy Adams in upholding the right of petition in Congress. Mr. Adams had been censured by the House for presenting the Haverhill resolutions, asking for the dissolution of the Union, and the Ohio Legislature undertook to justify that censure, but Mr. Wade and his anti-
241
HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE.
slavery friends, resisted the course of the Democratic majority with great energy and ability, though not with success.
At the close of his second senatorial term, Mr. Wade declined a renomination, and again determined to leave off, forever, political life. From 1842 to 1847 he held no public office, and devoted himself to the practice of his profession and the care of his family.
In February, 1847, Mr. Wade was elected, by the Legislature, president judge of the third judicial district of the State of Ohio. His popularity at this time was unbounded. It has been the fortune of but few men to enter upon the discharge of judicial duties, having in advance secured to such an extent the unqualified confidence of the bar and people. He entered immediately upon the discharge of his duties. His district em- braced the populous counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Maho- ning, Portage, and Summit. The business had accumulated vastly under his predecessor. The same territory has now three resident judges, with but slightly increased business.
It is but truth to say, that in no country on earth has the same number of people had the same amount of important and satisfactory justice administered to them in the same length of time, as had the district under the administration of Judge Wade. The younger members of the profession, who were so fortunate as to practice in this circuit during, Judge Wade's term upon the bench, will remember with lasting gratitude his kindness and judicial courtesy.
During the time he was upon the bench, Judge Wade in- creased (if possible) in the confidence and admiration of his political friends, and disarmed those who had differed with him, and had felt the withering power of his logic and eloquence on the stump and at the bar. His judicial career was brought to a sudden and unexpected close in March, 1851, while he was 16
242
MEN OF OUR DAY.
holding a term of court at Akron, Summit county, by his elec- tion by the Legislature, then in session, to the United States Senate.
When the news of his election reached him, Judge Wade was on the bench trying a case. The firing of cannon, and shouting of men, announced that some unusual event had taken place, and presently a boy came running into the court with a dispatch informing Mr. Wade he had been elected a United States Senator from Ohio.
The intelligence surprised no one so much as the judge, who had no knowledge that his name had been mentioned in con- nection with it, and had made no efforts to secure a nomination. The members of the bar in his judicial district were full of regret at his loss to the bench, but were pleased that his talents were at last appreciated. Resolutions of mingled regret and congratulation were passed, almost unanimously, in the various counties comprising his circuit.
Mr. Wade was again persuaded to reluctantly give up his law business, and go into politics. He did so, however, with less regret this time than before, because the people of Ohio had come up to his anti-slavery views. He felt that in repre- senting the majority of the people of his State, he need make no sacrifice of his own opinions, and he was most anxious to attack slavery at the capital, and, if possible, arouse the people of the country to the enormities of the institution, as he had aroused the people of Ohio.
After his election to the United States Senate, in 1851, Mr. Wade resigned his seat on the bench, and retired to his home at Jefferson.
In 1852, Mr. Wade advocated the nomination and election of General Scott to the presidency. He still insisted, and ardently hoped, that the Whig party, with which he had always acted
243
HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE.
and in which he saw so much to approve and admire, would yet be instrumental in bringing back the Government to the purpose of its founders. Stimulated by this consideration, he again took the stump, in and out of Ohio, and made the hustings ring with the clarion sound of his voice. Wherever he was heard, his reasoning was listened to with the most profound attention ; and where he failed to convince, he obtained credit for honesty of purpose and powerful effort.
Mr. Wade continued to act with the Whig party until 1854, when the proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise began to agitate Congress. In March, 1854, he made a speech in the Senate, clearly defining his position, and fully demonstrating his determined hostility to a measure which, he predicted, would be fraught with more evil to the country, and danger to its peace, than had ever before disturbed its prosperity. After this speech he contented himself with watching the events which he saw must ultimately end in the consummation of all the evils he had predicted. He learned, by discussion of the measure, that it was to be carried by a combination of the southern Whigs, and those who for the occasion assumed the name of "National Democrats." At this union for such a purpose, his heart sickened, and he prepared himself to give utterance to the noble sentiments and awful warnings contained in his speech, delivered on the night of the final passage of that measure in the Senate. The Tribune of that date appropriately called that speech "the new Declaration of Independence." In this speech Mr. Wade takes a final farewell of his former Whig friends of the South, but not until he had seen solemnized the nuptials between them and the Democratic party. We cannot refrain from giving a few extracts from this speech. He said :-
"MR. PRESIDENT: I do not intend to debate this subject further. The humiliation of the North is complete and overwhelming.
244'
MEN OF OUR DAY.
No southern enemy of hers can wish her deeper degradation. God knows I feel it keenly enough, and I have no desire to prolong the melancholy spectacle. * * * I have all my life belonged to the great National Whig party, and never yet have I failed, with all the ability I have, to support her regular candidates, come from what portion of the Union they might, and much oftener has it been my lot to battle for a southern than for a northern candidate for the presidency; and when such candidates were assailed by those who were jealous of slaveholders, and did not like to yield up the Government to such hands, how often have I encountered the violent prejudices of my own section with no little hazard to myself. How tri- umphantly would I appeal on such occasions to southern honor-to the magnanimity of soul which I believed always actuated southern gentlemen. Alas! alas! if God will pardon me for what I have done, I will promise to sin no more. * We certainly cannot have any further political connection with the Whigs of the South ; they have rendered such connection impossible. An impassable gulf separates us, and must here- after separate us. The southern wing of the old Whig party have joined their fortunes with what is called the National Democracy, and I wish you joy in your new connections. * * * To-morrow, I believe, is to be an eclipse of the sun, and I think it perfectly meet and proper that the sun in the heavens, and the glory of the Republic should both go into obscurity and darkness together. Let the bill then pass; it is a proper oc- casion for so dark and damning a deed."
No extract can do any thing like justice to the mind that conceived, and the noble manliness that gave this speech utter- ance. From the time Mr. Wade made this speech, he has known no Whig party, but devoted himself, soul and body, to the advocacy and defence of the measures of the Republican party.
In the struggle over the Kansas-Nebraska bill, Mr. Wade came fully before the country as a debater. The southern fire- eaters and northern doughfaces combined to break him down,
245
HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE.
but he hurled them back with surprising ability, and for the first time the southerners learned they had a northern master in the United States Senate, and were overmatched whenever they came in contact with the old Ohio Senator .* The New
* It is to this portion of Mr. Wade's career that the story so graphically told by General Brisbin belongs, and it illustrates so well his utter fear. lessness that we cannot refrain from quoting it.
Soon after taking his seat, he witnessed one of those scenes so common in the Senate in those days. A southern fire-eater made an attack on a northern Senator, and Wade was amazed and disgusted at the cringing, cowardly way in which the northern man bore the taunts and insults of the hot-headed southerner. As no allusion was made to himself or State, Mr. Wade sat still, but when the Senate adjourned, he said openly, if ever a southern Senator made such an attack on him or his State while he sat on that floor, he would brand him as a liar. This coming to the ears of the southern men, a Senator took occasion to pointedly speak a few days after- wards of Ohio and her people as negro thieves. Instantly Mr. Wade sprang to his feet and pronounced the Senator a liar. The southern Senators were thunderstruck, and gathered around their champion, while the northern men grouped about Wade. A feeler was put out from the southern side, looking to retraction, but Mr. Wade retorted in his peculiar style, and demanded an apology for the insult offered himself and the people he represented. The matter thus closed, and a fight was looked upon as certain. The next day a gentleman called on the Sena- tor from Ohio, and asked the usual question touching his acknowledgment of the code.
"I am here," he responded, " in a double capacity. I represent the State of Ohio, and I represent Ben. Wade. As a Senator I am opposed to duelling. As Ben. Wade, I recognize the code."
"My friend feels aggrieved," said the gentleman, "at what you said in the Senate yesterday, and will ask for an apology or satisfaction."
"I was somewhat embarrassed," continued Senator Wade, " by my posi- tion yesterday, as I have some respect for the Chamber. I now take this opportunity to say what I then thought, and you will, if you please, repeat it. Your friend is a foul-mouthed old blackguard."
"Certainly, Senator Wade, you do not wish me to convey such a message as that ?"
"Most undoubtedly I do; and will tell you for your own benefit, this friend of yours will never notice it. I will not be asked for either retrac- tion, explanation, or a fight."
Next morning Mr. Wade came into the Senate, and proceeding to his seat, deliberately drew from under his coat two large pistols, and unlocking
246
MEN OF OUR DAY.
York Tribune, speaking of his first great speech on the Kansas Nebraska bill says :---
" There are many fine orations and good arguments delivered in the United States Senate from time to time, but not often a really good speech. In order to have a good speech, there must be a man behind it. Such a speech we have in the powerful effort of Judge Wade, and in this case the speech is but the just measure of the man."
Numberless are the incidents told of Mr. Wade's sharp and telling hits made during this protracted and famous debate. We subjoin a few, for most of which we are indebted to General Brisbin.
his desk laid them inside. The southern men looked on in silence, while the northern members enjoyed to the fullest extent the fire-eaters' surprise at the proceedings of the plucky Ohio Senator. No further notice was taken of the affair of the day before. Wade was not challenged, but ever afterwards treated with the utmost politeness and consideration by the Senator who had so insultingly attacked him.
But, while Mr. Wade was not to be intimidated by the bullying of southern fire-eaters, no man living surpassed him in his intense contempt for northern doughfaces. Another incident, not narrated by Gen. Brisbin, but which occurred in the session of 1852-3 illustrates this very forcibly. Hon. Charles G. Atherton of New Hampshire, better known as "Gag Atherton," from his introduction of the resolution to lay all anti-slavery petitions on the table, was emphatically a "Northern man with Southern principles." One day, Mr. Wade, who was personally very popular, even with his political opponents, was conversing with Ex-Governor Morehead of Kentucky, who was then visiting Washington, when Atherton came up, and at once began an attack on Mr. Wade, in regard to the Fugitive Slave law. "Why, Mr. Wade," he said, " if a nigger had run away from a good master in Kentucky, and came to your house in Ohio, wouldn't you arrest him, and send him back to his master?" "No! indeed, I wouldn't;" replied Mr. Wade. "Would you, Atherton ?" "Certainly, I would," replied Mr. Atherton, " I should deem it my duty, to enforce that as much as any other law." Mr. Wade turned to Morehead; "Well, Governor, what do you say ? Would you arrest a nigger and send him back under such circumstances ?" "No," replied Governor Morehead, gruffly, "I'd see him d-d first.". "Well," said Old Ben, after a moment's pause, "I don't know as I can blame you, seeing you have got such a thing as this" (pointing to Atherton) to do it for you."
247
HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE.
Mr. Pugh, Judge Wade's colleague in the Senate, was an intense pro-slavery Democrat; he was a man of very fair ability, but no match in wit or sarcasm for his radical colleague, yet he often sought a collision, and Mr. Wade never hesitated to reply to his challenge. One day, Pugh had put some taunting ques- tions to him respecting the common brotherhood of mankind ; Wade replied :--
"I have always believed, heretofore, in the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are born free and equal; but of late it appears that some men are born slaves, and I regret that they are not black, so all the world might know them." As he said this he pointed to Pugh, and stood looking at him for several moments, with a scowl and expression of countenance that was perfectly ferocious.
Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, interrupted him just as he had said, "I know very well, sir, with what a yell of triumph the passage of this bill will be hailed both in the South and in pandemonium."
Mr. Brown .- "Do you know what is going on there ?" [Laughter.]
Mr. Wade .- " I do not pretend to know precisely what is on foot there; but I think it pretty evident that there is a very free communication between that country and this body, and unless I am greatly mistaken, I see the dwarfish medium by which that communication is kept up." [Great laughter, and a voice on the southern side, "I guess he's got you, Brown."]
During the argument on the Nebraska bill, Mr. Badger, then a Senator from North Carolina, drew a glowing picture of slavery. He had, he said, been nursed by a black woman, and had grown from childhood to manhood under her care. He loved his old black mammy; and now, if he was going to Nebraska, and the opponents of the bill succeeded in prohibit-
248
MEN OF OUR DAY.
ing slavery there, he could not take his old mammy with him Turning to Mr. Wade, he said :- " Surely you will not prevent me from taking my old mammy with me ?"
" Certainly not," replied Mr. Wade; "but that is not the difficulty in the mind of the Senator. It is because, if we make the territory free, he cannot sell his old mammy when he has got her there."
Mr. Wade was arguing to show that slaves were not property in the constitutional meaning of the term. He said : " If a man carries his horse out of a slave State into a free one, he does not lose his property interest in him; but if he carries his slave into a free State, the law makes him free."
Mr. Butler, interrupting him, said: "Yes, but they won't stay with you; they love us so well they will run off, and come back, in spite of you and your boasted freedom."
Mr. Wade smilingly replied, amid roars, of laughter : "Oh, yes, Senator, I know they love you so well, you have to make a Fugitive Slave law to catch them."
The southern men, having tried in vain to head off Mr. Wade, appealed to their northern allies to help them. One day Mr. Douglas rose in his seat, and interrupted Mr. Wade, who was speaking. Instantly the chamber became silent as death, and all eyes were turned in the direction of the two standing Senators. Every one expected to see Wade demolished in a moment, by the great Illinois Senator.
" You, sir," said Mr. Douglas, in measured tones, " continually compliment southern men who support this bill (Nebraska), but bitterly denounce northern men who support it. Why is this ? You say it is a moral wrong; you say it is a crime. If that be so, is it not as much a crime for a southern man to support it, as for a northern man to do so ?"
Mr. Wade .- " No, sir, I say not."
249
HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE.
Mr. Douglas .- " The Senator says not. Then he entertains a different code of morals from myself, and-"
Mr. Wade interrupting Douglas, and pointing to him, with scorn marked on every lineament of his face, " Your code of morals! Your morals !! My God, I hope so, sir."
The giant was hit in the forehead, and after standing for a moment with his face red as scarlet, dropped silently into his seat, while Mr. Wade proceeded with his speech as quietly as though nothing had occurred.
Mr. Douglas was angry, however, and closely watched Wade for a chance to pounce upon and scalp him. It soon occurred, and in this way : Mr. Wade had said something complimentary about Colonel Lane, of Kansas, when Mr. Douglas rose and said : " Colonel Lane cannot be believed-he has been guilty of perjury and forgery."
Mr. Wade .- " And what proof, sir, have you of these allega- tions ? Your unsupported word is not sufficient."
Mr. Douglas .- "I have the affidavit of Colonel Lane, in which, some time since, he swore one thing, and now states another."
Mr. Wade .- " And you, sir, a lawyer, presume to charge this man with being guilty of forgery and perjury, and then offer him as a witness to prove your own word."
Douglas saw in a moment he was hopelessly caught, and attempted to retreat, but Wade pounced upon him and gave him a withering rebuke, while the chamber shook with roars of laughter. Such scenes have to be witnessed to fully understand them, as there is as much in the exhibition as in the words. 1
Mr. Douglas continued to badger Wade, sometimes getting the better of him, but often getting roughly handled, until Wade, worn out with defending himself, determined to become the attacking party. Soon afterward, the "Little Giant" was
1
250
MEN OF OUR DAY.
bewailing the fate of the nation, and picturing the sad condition it would be in if the Free Soilers succeeded. Having worked himself up into a passion, when he was at the highest pitch, Mr. Wade rose in his seat and said, with indescribable coolness, " Well, what are you going to do about it?" Douglas, for a moment, was surprised and dumbfounded, and then attempted to proceed ; but the pith was knocked out of his argument, and the Senators only smiled at his earnestness, and he, at last, sat down in disgust.
Mr. Douglas afterward said, "That interrogatory of Wade's was the most effective speech I ever heard in the Senate. Con- found the man; it was so ridiculous, and put so comically, I knew not what answer to make him, and became ridiculous myself in not being able to tell 'what I was going to do about it.' "
While the Lecompton bill was under discussion, Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, referring to the minority, of which Mr. Wade was one, said : "The majority have rights and duties, and I trust there is fidelity enough to themselves and their principles, and to their country, in the majority, to stand together at all haz- ards, and crush this factious minority."
Instantly, Mr. Wade sprang to his feet, and shaking his fist at Toombs, roared out : " Have a care, sir; have a care. You can't crush me nor my people. You can never conquer us, we will die first. I may fall here in the Senate chamber, but I will never make any compromise with any such men. You may bring a majority and out-vote me, but, so help me God, I will neither compromise or be crushed. That's what I have to say to your threat."
A southern Senator one day said, roughly, to Wade, "If you don't stop your abolition doctrines, we will break up the Union. We will secede, sir !" Wade held out his hand, and said, com-
251
HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE.
ically, ".Good-by, Senator, if you are going now; I pray you don't delay a moment on my account."
Senator Evans, of South Carolina, a very grave and good old man, one day was exhibiting in the Senate chamber and speak- ing of a copy of Garrison's Liberator, with its horrible pictures of slavery. Turning to Mr. Wade, who sat near him, he said : "Is it not too bad that such a paper should be allowed to exist ? Why will not the authorities of the United States suppress such a slanderous sheet ? Can it be possible that any patriotic citizen of the North will tolerate such an abomination ?" Senator Wade put on his spectacles, and looking at the title of the paper, exclaimed in surprise, " Why, Senator Evans, in Ohio, we con- sider this one of our best family papers !" The Senators roared ; but Mr. Evans, who had a great respect for Mr. Wade, turned sadly away, saying, "I am sorry to hear you say so, Mr. Wade; it shows whither we are drifting."
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.