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 46
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Young Curtin was educated in Milton, Northumberland county, where he was one of the pupils at the academy of the Rev. J. Kirkpatrick. After obtaining a good rudimental education he was placed in the law office and law school of Judge Reed, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. At this time the school
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formed a portion of Dickinson college, and Judge Reed was esteemed the best lawyer in Pennsylvania.
During the year 1839, Andrew G. Curtin was admitted to the bar, and began his profession in Bellefonte. He was very successful, and transacted a large and varied practice in the courts of the neighboring counties. Like most lawyers, he began to take a great interest in politics, and attached himself to the Whig party of the period. He was actively engaged, during 1840, in promoting the election of General Harrison as Presi- dent of the United States; and in 1844 stumped the State in support of Henry Clay-being always successful in collecting an audience on the shortest notice.
Mr. Curtin was placed on the electoral ticket for 1848, and again travelled through his native State, advocating the election of General Zachary Taylor. In 1852, he supported the nomi- nation of General Scott, was placed on the electoral ticket, and worked arduously in his behalf. Indeed, in all his political ac- tions, he took the side of what were known as the Pennsylva- nia Whigs.
During the year 1854, Mr. Curtin was very earnestly re- quested by the voters of the centre of Pennsylvania to accept the nomination for Governor of the State, but refused, receiv- ing instead, the chairmanship of the State Central Committee. He was afterward appointed, by Governor Pollock, State Secre- tary of the Commonwealth.
Secretary Curtin devoted a great deal of his attention to common schools, and to the question of public improvements. After his retirement from the State secretaryship, he again de- voted himself to the practice of the law, and was very active in the extension of railroad facilities through the centre of the State.
Mr. Curtin accepted the ‘nomination for Governor of the
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State of Pennsylvania in 1860; was elected in October of that year, and was formally inaugurated January 15th, 1861. The country was then becoming distracted by the first movements of the rebellion, and Governor Curtin soon began to make pre- parations to support the United States Government. On April 9th, he sent a message to the State Legislature, recommending that measures be immediately adopted to remedy the defects in the militia system of the State. The legislative committee re- ported a bill for that purpose, and three days after it became a law.
The excitement attending the fall of Sumter requiring speedy legislative action, the recently adjourned Legislature was again convened, on April 30th, under Governor Curtin's proclamation of April 20th. Volunteers were called for by the United States Government, and through Governor Curtin's energy, the first regiment that entered the national capital, for its defence, was the 25th Pennsylvania volunteers, Colonel Cake. The Legislature provided for the raising of a reserve corps, and when the three years' volunteers were called for, Pennsylvania was ready to send a full division at once into the field. This Pennsylvania Reserve Corps did great honor to the State and extraordinary service to the nation. General Reynolds, who fell on the first day at Gettysburg, was one of its commanders, and Major-General Meade, afterward commander of the Army of the Potomac, another.
The territory of Pennsylvania was threatened, and its border invaded, in September, 1862, before the battle of Antietam ; but w the movements of the rebels, in June and July, 1863, when sev- eral of its towns were plundered and burned, its capital and its chief city threatened, and one the bloodiest battles of the war fought, for three days, in one its towns, created great alarm among its inhabitants, and it required all Governor Curtin's
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self-possession, calmness, and executive ability, to re-assure his people and organize them for resistance to the invaders.
His executive powers were again called into exercise in the summer of 1864, when the south-eastern part of the State was invaded again by the rebels, and great destruction of property resulted. Governor Curtin was re-elected in 1863, and con- tinued in office till January, 1867. Since his retirement, he has been actively engaged in business, but during the political campaign of 1867-1868, he did good service for the Republican party as a speaker, in New York, New Hampshire and Connec- ticut. He was strongly pressed as a candidate for the vice-presi- dency at the Chicago Convention, in May, 1868, but the current being evidently in favor of Mr. Colfax, he caused his name to be withdrawn.
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HON. GERRIT SMITH.
ERE we called upon to point out a man whose whole course of life had been controlled, both in public and private, by the conscientious desire to obey the great law of love, " whatsoever things ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them," we should have no hesitation in selecting Gerrit Smith as that man.
He may have erred in judgment at times ; his measures for accomplishing good may have failed, in some instances, either from their own imperfection, or the weakness, stupidity or un- worthiness of those whom he has sought to benefit; he may, in his anxieties to benefit his fellow-man, have been led into erroneous and dangerous views of the plans, purposes, and revelation of Him, whom yet, in his heart of hearts, we believe he reverently worships; but of his earnest desire to do his whole duty to his fellow-man there can be no question.
GERRIT SMITH was born in Utica, New York, March 6th, 1797. His father, Hon. Peter Smith, was known in the early part of the present century as one of the largest land-holders in the United States. At his death his great fortune was divided ^mainly between his two sons, Peter Sken Smith and Gerrit Smith, the former receiving the larger share of the personal, and the latter the greater part of the real estate.
Gerrit Smith was graduated at Hamilton college, Clinton,
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New York, in 1818. He never entered himself as a student of law, but was admitted to practice in the State and Federal · courts of New York in 1853, and has participated in several important trials.
His philanthropic disposition led him at an early age to take an active part in the benevolent enterprises of the day. In 1825, he connected himself with the American Colonization Society, in the hope that it would facilitate the emancipation of the slaves. He contributed largely to its funds, but finally becoming satisfied that it was not the intention of its founders or directors to promote general emancipation, he withdrew from it in 1835, and has been ever since identified, heart and soul, with the voting portion of the anti-slavery party.
Gifted with a simple and natural eloquence, very effective with the masses, he has plead the cause of the slave for thirty years past with great earnestness, and a confiding faith in the eventual triumph of the principles of emancipation ; and that his faith might not be unsustained by works, he has given, with a princely liberality, to every effort for the promotion of the abolition of slavery.
It is a characteristic of. Mr. Smith's mind that he must push his views of philanthropy to their ultimate logical conclusions, and he cannot rest in any thing short of these. Thus holding that slavery was wrong, and that no man had a right to enjoy the rewards of the enforced labor of another, he came to the farther conclusion, that it was wrong to purchase or use any thing produced by the labor of the slave, and hence he refused to wear or use any article made of cotton, unless he could be satisfied that it was free labor cotton, any sugar except that produced by free labor, any rice except that grown in India or China.
But his philanthropy was not confined to the slave; the
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victim of intemperance was equally an object of his sympathy and commiseration, and his own eloquence, and his means, were freely expended in the endeavor to restrain or prohibit the sale of intoxicating drinks. He was strongly opposed to the use of tobacco, and aided in the publication and circulation of tracts to dissuade people from its use. He believed woman oppressed by the laws, and exerted himself to have them changed so as to better her condition. He aided in prison reformation and the establishment of juvenile reformatories ; and when the news of the attempts to fasten slavery upon Kansas came to his ears, though in general a peace-man and non-resistant, he contributed largely for the purchase of Sharp's rifles, and for the outfit and forwarding of large bodies of sturdy northern settlers to that territory. Though by inheritance and purchase from his fellow-heirs, one of the largest land-holders in the United States, he had convinced himself of the wrongfulness of land monopoly, and practically illustrated his views, by distributing two hundred thousand acres of land, partly among institutions of learning, but mostly among the poor white and black men, to whom he allotted, in tracts of about fifty acres, one hundred and twenty thousand acres of land, accompanying the deed in many instances with a sum of money sufficient to enable them to erect a cabin, and procure a little stock.
Some of his colonists did well; but many, a majority, we fear, proved unworthy of his kindness, and after receiving his bounty, abandoned their lands, and reviled him because he would not support them in idleness.
It was in connection with these gifts of land, that he first became acquainted with John Brown, afterward of Kansas. Mr. Brown was of great service to him in the care and instruc- tion of his colored colonists, and some of them, under his influence, did well. In the Kansas troubles, Mr. Smith put 39
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money into Brown's hands frequently, to distribute among the poor in that territory. Brown visited him a few months before his Harper's Ferry raid, but did not communicate to him his plans.
In 1852, Mr. Smith was elected to Congress from the twenty- second Congressional district of New York, but resigned at the close of the first or long session, on account of the pressure of his private affairs, and his extreme disrelish for public life. After the John Brown raid, in 1859, an attempt was made by Virginians, and other pro-slavery leaders, to identify him and other prominent anti-slavery men at the North with the move- ment, and to demonstrate that it was an extensive conspiracy against the South. The charge was absolutely false; but Mr. Smith being at the time in very feeble health, and being excited by the virulent attacks made upon him, became for a short time insane. He speedily, however, recovered his reason, with the improvement of his general health. In 1861, he entered with great spirit and patriotism into the efforts for raising regiments and sustaining the Government in a vigorous prosecution of the war. He addressed a number of large gatherings on this subject, and, as usual, gave liberally for it.
The war over, he inclined to the policy of extreme mercy to the South, and in May, 1867, at the request of one of Mr. Jefferson Davis's counsel, became one of the signers of his bail- bond, qualifying in the sum of five thousand dollars for his appearance. His course in the matter, like that of Mr. Greeley, occasioned considerable animadversion, but both gentlemen defended themselves by published letters, to the best of their ability.
For several years past, Mr. Smith has advocated, both by published speeches, and public essays and appeals, a larger liberty of opinion, and freedom from what he believed the
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bondage of sect. These views, which at first took only the form of a protest against denominationalism, have gradually, from his habit of pushing his speculations to their ultimate conclusions, developed into a modified deism, rejecting many of the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, and assailing, with great vehemence, the Christian church. In this crusade he has made very few converts, and in common with most of his friends, we believe his errors to be rather of the head than the heart.
Under his abundant, almost lavish giving, Mr. Smith's princely estate has diminished till he is now comparatively poor. Yet his generous nature remains, and we doubt not he suffers more than the applicant for his bounty, when he is obliged to deny or diminish the amount of his beneficence.
Mr. Smith published a volume of his "Speeches in Congress," in 1856 ; a volume entitled "Sermons and Speeches by Gerrit Smith," in 1861; and numberless pamphlets and broad sheets. His latest pamphlets are, "The Theologies," 1866; " Nature's Theology," 1867 ; and." a Letter from Gerrit Smith to Albert Barnes " 1868.
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THEODORE TILTON,
EDITOR OF THE INDEPENDENT.
MONG the journalists of the nation, several of whom we have sketched in this volume, there is none who has risen earlier or more rapidly, to the chief editorship of a leading and influential paper, or given indications in early manhood of greater genius and intellectual grasp, than the still youthful editor of the Independent.
THEODORE TILTON was born in New York city, October 2, 1835. He derives his mental and social characteristics in a great degree from his mother, a woman, largely endowed with intellectual gifts. His early education was received at the pub- lic schools of New York city, and he graduated at the Free Academy, now the college of the city of New York, long before he was twenty years of age. He had been early trained to sympathy with the abolitionists, who, in his childhood, were persecuted and abused by the pro-slavery leaders in both politi- cal parties ; and the fiery eloquence of Dr. Cheever, the leader, for many years, of the religious anti-slavery party in New York, had made a deep impression on the pale, thoughtful, freedom-loving lad. He longed to share in their trials and triumphs, and while yet a child, ranged himself with them, to take his share of the contempt, insult, and obloquy which greeted them on all occasions, and his share also of the coming glory
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and honor, which even his boyish vision foresaw for them in the speedy future.
What was at first, perhaps, only the sympathy of a sensitive boy, abhorring oppression, injustice, and wrong, soon came to be one of the deepest convictions of his nature ; and it is not sur- prising that though his friends were desirous that he should qualify himself to enter the ministry in the Congregational church, he should have preferred the career of a journalist.
He connected himself early with the New York Independent, a religious and political paper, anti-slavery and radical repub- lican in its character, and addressing even at that time a very large number of intelligent readers. Rev. Dr. Leavitt was then its managing editor, and such men as Drs. R. S. Storrs, jr., J. P. Thompson, and George B. Cheever, were the members of its editorial committee. Mr. Tilton's first duties were reporto- rial, with occasional notes in the local column ; but he soon dis- played so much ability and tact as to become a valuable assist- ant to Dr. Leavitt in the management, and the preparation of editorial notes and paragraphs for the paper.
After two or three years of this service, a change occurred in the control of the paper, and the editorship was transferred to Mr. Beecher, Dr. Leavitt being still, however, office editor. Mr. Beecher knew and appreciated his young friend Tilton, and gave him a more prominent position on the paper, and when, in 1863, Mr. Beecher found it necessary to make a voyage to Europe for his health, Mr. Tilton became de facto editor in chief, and has since retained the position, his name being placed at the head of the paper, a year or two later.
Under his management, the Independent has been noted for the extraordinary vigor and power of its editorials, some of which have hardly been surpassed, in the way of newspaper writing, during the present century. They bear marks of
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being flung off at a white heat, and while sometimes lacking a little in prudence and caution, are always attractive and reada- ble.
Mr. Tilton has given evidence of the possession of the poetic faculty, both in his prose and in his poetry. His best poems are those which he has most carefully elaborated, touching and retouching them as an artist does his favorite picture. Among those of the greatest merit are "The Bell Roland," "The Lotus," " The Victory of Life," "The Fellowship of Suffering," and "The Captain's Wife." He collected most of his lyrics in a pretty volume in 1867, but included in it some verses which are not poetry, in its highest sense.
For two or three years past, Mr. Tilton has been numbered among the corps of lyceum lecturers, and has achieved a great success. He is to-day perhaps foremost in reputation among the younger class of speakers. His electric energy, playful fancy, ready wit, and fiery eloquence, make him very popular with audiences everywhere, and he has more engagements offered him than he can accept. Without the slightest wish or attempt on his part to imitate Mr. Beecher, there is a very considerable similarity in the manner in which the two men control and magnetize an audience. With both there is an alternation of the humor which provokes a smile, and the pathos which causes the tears to moisten the eyes; both draw their illustrations mainly from nature, and both possess that power of word-painting which enables them to make their hearers see what they describe. The following passages from his speech at the New England Society's dinner, December 22, 1865, will give a very good idea of his humor, the delicacy of his conceits, and his descriptive power. He was at this time but thirty years of age, and looked at least six years younger.
The following toast was given :-
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" Woman-The strong staff and beautiful rod which sustained and comforted our forefathers during every step of the Pilgrims' Progress."
Mr. Tilton being called upon to respond, spoke as follows :-
: Gentlemen : it is somewhat to a modest man's embarrassment, on rising to this toast, to know that it has already been twice partially spoken to this evening-first by my friend Senator Lane, from Indiana, and just now, most eloquently, by the mayor-elect of New York, who could not utter a better word in his own praise, than to tell us that he married a Massachusetts wife. [Applause.] In choosing the most proper spot on this platform as the stand-point for such remarks as are appropriate to such a toast, my first impulse was to go to the other end of the table-for hereafter, Mr. Chairman, when you are in want of a man to speak for woman, remember that Hamlet said, 'Bring me the recorder !' [Laughter.] But, on the other hand, here, at this end, a prior claim was put in from the State of Indi- ana, whose venerable Senator has expressed himself disappointed at finding no women present. So, as my toast introduces that sex, I feel bound to stand at the Senator's end of the room, not, however, too near the Senator's chair, for it may be dangerous to take woman too near that 'good-looking man.' [Laughter.] Therefore, gentlemen, I stand between these two chairs-the army on my right (General Hancock), the navy on my left (Admiral Farragut), and hold over their heads the name that conquered both,-woman ! [Applause.] The chairman has pictured a vice-admiral tied a little while to a mast: but it is the spirit of my sentiment to give you a vice-admi- ral tied life-long to a master. [Applause.] In the absence of woman, therefore, from this gilded feast, I summon her to your golden remembrance. You must not forget, Mr. President, in eulogizing the carly men of New England, who are your clients to-night, that it was only through the help of the early women of New England, who are mine, that your boasted heroes could ever have earned their title of the Pilgrim Fathers. [Great laughter.] A health, therefore, to the women in the
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cabin of the May-Flower! A cluster of may-flowers them- selves, transplanted from summer in the old world to winter in . the new ! Counting over those matrons and maidens, they number, all told, just eighteen. Their names are now written among the heroines of history! For as over the ashes of Cornelia stood the epitaph, 'The Mother of the Gracchi,' so over these women of that Pilgrimage we write as proudly 'The Mothers of the Republic.' [Applause.] There was good Mistress Bradford, whose feet were not allowed of God to kiss Plymouth Rock, and who, like Moses, came only near enough to see, but not to enter the promised land. She was washed overboard from the deck-and to this day the sea is her grave, and Cape Cod her monument! [Applause.] There was Mistress Carver, wife of the first governor, who, when her husband fell under the stroke of sudden death, followed him at first with heroic grief to the grave, and then, a fortnight after, followed him with heroic joy up into heaven ! [Applause.] There was Mistress White-the mother of the first child born to the New England Pilgrims on this continent. And it was a good omen, sir, that this historic babe was brought into the world on board the May-Flower, between the time of the casting of the anchor, and the landing of the passengers-a kind of amphibious prophecy that the new-born nation was to have a birthright inheritance over the sea and over the land. [Great applause.] There, also, was Rose Standish-whose name is a perpetual June fragrance, to mellow and sweeten those December winds. And, there, too, was Mrs. Winslow, whose name is even more than a fragrance ; it is a taste ; for, as the advertisements say, 'children cry for it;' it is a soothing syrup. [Great laughter.] Then, after the first vessel, with these women, came other vessels, with other women-loving hearts, drawn from the olden land by those silken threads which afterward harden into golden chains. For instance, Governor Bradford, a lonesome widower, went down to the sea- beach, and, facing the waves, tossed a love letter over the wide ocean into the lap of Alice Southworth in Old England, who caught it up, and read it, and said, 'Yes, I will go.' And she
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went! And it was said, that the governor at his second wed- ding married his first love! Which, according to the new theology, furnishes the providential reason why the first Mrs. Bradford fell overboard ! [Great laughter.] Now, gentlemen, as you sit to-night in this elegant hall, think of the houses in which the May-Flower men and women lived in that first winter !
" Think of a cabin in the wilderness-where winds whistled -where wolves howled-where Indians yelled ! And yet within that log-house, burning like a lamp, was the pure flame of Christian faith, love, patience, fortitude, heroism! As the Star of the East rested over the rude manger where Christ lay, so-speaking not irreverently-there rested over the roofs of the pilgrims a Star of the West-the Star of Empire; and to- day, that Empire is the proudest in the world! [Applause.] And if we could summon up from their graves, and bring hither to-night that olden company of long-mouldered men, and they could sit with us at this feast, in their mortal flesh, and with their stately presence, the whole world would make a pilgrimage to see those pilgrims! [Applause.] How quaint their attire ! How grotesque their names! How we treasure every relic of their day and generation! And of all the heir- looms of the earlier times in Yankee-land, what household memorial is clustered around about with more sacred and touching associations than the spinning-wheel! The indus- trious mother sat by it, doing her work while she instructed her children! The blushing daughter plied it diligently, while her sweetheart had a chair very close by ! And you remember, too, another person who used it more than all the. rest-that peculiar kind of maiden, well along in life, who, while she spun her yarn into one 'blue stocking,' spun herself into another. [Laughter.] But perhaps my toast forbids me to touch upon this well-known class of Yankee women-restricting me, rather, to such women as 'comforted' the Pilgrims." [Laughter.]
A friend of Mr. Tilton, thus describes his personal appear- ance. The portraiture is to the life :-
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" In person, he is tall and commanding, and when excited in debate, majestic. His head is large, and thickly covered with a heavy sheaf of soft brown hair, which hangs over his coat collar, giving him a spiritualistic look. His face, free of mus tache and whiskers, is closely shaved and pale, though of a clear and healthy tone. The most casual observer will see in it indications of thought and feeling. It is such a face as a child can trust and caress. His eyes are blue, large and mag- netic, lighting up pleasantly in conversation; but they are usually dull in repose, hence the photographer seldom does him justice."
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