USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 52
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* Edwin Dennison Morgan was born in Washington, Mass., in February, 1811. With a grocer in Hartford, Conn., he was first a clerk (1828), and in 1831 a partner in business. He removed to New York in 1836, where he pursued the same business successfully, and accumulated a large fortune. From 1849 to 1853 he was State Senator, and was made chairman of the State Republican Committee. In 1859 he took his seat as Governor of New York, and retained it until 1863, being one of the most active of the famous " war
515
THE JOHN BROWN RAID.
Missouri Compromise, in 1854, and the violent struggle for the mastery in Kansas between the defenders and opposers of the slave system. Threats of disunion flew thick and fast from the lips of Southern political leaders, and the ominous mutterings of a gathering tempest were heard.
During the summer and early autumn of 1859 an unusual quiet seemed to pervade the political atmosphere. The violent agitation of the slavery question had almost ceased, and it was hoped by many that permanent public repose was nigh, when suddenly, in October, news flashed over the land that " an insurrection has broken out at Harper's Ferry, where an armed band of Abolitionists have full possession of the Government Arsenal." This was the famous "John Brown raid," which kindled a blaze of intense excitement in the slave-labor States, and which was fanned into the fearful conflagration of a four-years' civil war of unpar- alleled extent and destructiveness.
The events of the year 1860 rank among the most momentous in the history of our republic. In these events every State in the Union was a participant in feeling and interest. John Brown had been hanged for his foolish but philanthropic attempt to inaugurate a servile insurrection in favor of liberty in Virginia. The bitterness it engendered was nursed into the most intense implacability. The Republican Party was wrong- fully charged with having originated and promoted John Brown's attempt to liberate the slaves ; and in the canvass for the Presidency of the republic in 1860 the zeal displayed by the opposing parties was unex- ampled in warmth and persistence.
For many years a conspiracy for destroying the Union and establishing an empire, the corner-stone of which should be the system of human slavery, had been ripening in seeret among leading politicians of the slave-labor States. They had elearly perceived that the "peculiar institution" and the domination of the National Government by the Southern oligarchy was foredoomed, by the power of public opinion, to a speedy close. They madly believed that in the erisis at hand was their golden opportunity to carry out their designs. They proceeded to " fire the Southern heart" by deelaring that the success of the Republican Party in the pending presidential election would result in the ruin of the
governors" of that period. Stimulated by his zeal, his State Legislature voted men and money lavishly in support of the imperilled National Government. In 1861 he was created major-general of volunteers, but resigned in 1863. At about that time he was chosen to represent New York in the United States Senate. Governor Morgan was distinguished for his untiring zeal in philanthropic work and the promotion of Christian institutions. For these objects his gifts were munificent. He died on February 14th, 1883.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Southern States if acquiesced in, and that it would afford ample warrant for the secession of the slave-labor States from the Union, and the forma- tion of an independent government.
To this end the few conspirators worked. They cast into the Demo- cratic national nominating convention at Charleston in 1860 an apple of discord which caused a disruption of the party and gave strength to the Republicans, who nominated Abraham Lincoln, an avowed anti-slavery man, for the presidency of the republic. This the unwise conspirators, " deprived of reason," believed to be a sure prophecy of their triumph and a golden opportunity. They sent out their emissaries to " fire the Southern heart" by inflammatory harangues ; and so well did they suc- ceed that when it was known that Mr. Lincoln was elected, a larger pro- portion of the people in the slave-labor States, deceived by sophistry, misled by false statements, and benumbed by undefinable dread, were ready to submit passively to the will of these fiery politicians, who got up congenial conventions that passed ordinances of secession, which they never did (for they never dared), to ask the people to consider and act upon.
South Carolina, in which the serpent of secession was hatched from the egg of Nullification, was the first to "secede"-on paper-on December 20th, 1860, and having announced its " sovereignty," pro- cecded to make war upon the " foreign" Government of the United States. That Government, paralyzed by fear or something more serious, acted so feebly at first against rampant disloyalty in its very presence, and widespread treason, that conventions in State after State passed ordinances of secession, and made war upon the National Government in various forms, with impunity. The representatives of European mon- archies at Washington sent home the tidings pleasing to the ears of the enemies of self-government, that the days of the great republic of the West were numbered. " The wish was father to the thought."
It is not the province of this work to give more than passing allusions to the history of the Civil War. Its chief task is to give a compendious narrative of the most important actions of the State of New York during that fearful struggle.
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TOKENS OF AN APPROACHING TEMPEST.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
AT the beginning of the Civil War in 1861-the great crisis in our national history-the commonwealth of New York was, indeed, the "Empire State" of the republic. Its population then was 3, 882,000. Its taxable property was assessed at $1,425,000,000. Its chief city, by the sea, contained a cosmopolitan population of more than 800,000. The foreign commerce within its revenue district, exports and imports, amounted in value to $375,000,000 in 1860. This population, wealth, and commerce fairly entitled New York to the honor of being the national metropolis.
New York City then (as now) was an eminently commercial mart. The influence of trade fashioned its general policy in a remarkable degree.
The best condition for commerce is peace. When the storm-clouds of civil war, though no " bigger than a man's hand," began to appear at the close of 1860, the business men of the city were ready to make enor- mous sacrifices of sentiment and pride for the preservation of peace. Hence, as we have observed, the citizens of New York were very con- servative at the beginning of the trouble. They watched the approach- ing tempest as it gathered energy with mingled incredulity and uneasi- ness ; and they anxiously observed the faint-heartedness or indifference of the National Government at that time of peril, with gloomy fore- bodings. Treason was then rampant and defiant at the national capital, and sappers and miners were working secretly and openly for the destruc- tion of the great temple of liberty in the West. At that hour of greatest despondency, the trumpet voice of the newly-appointed Secretary of the Treasury (John A. Dix, of New York) rang throughout the nation, say- ing to an officer of the revenue service at New Orleans, "If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot !" That utterance was hailed by the loyal people of the land with hope and joy as a sure prophecy of salvation for the republic.
The Legislature of New York was then eminently loyal. There were thirty-eight Republicans and nine Democrats in the Senate, and ninety- eight Republicans and thirty-five Democrats in the Assembly. When that body assembled on January 2d, 1861, the whole country was in a fever of intense excitement. The message of Governor Morgan to the
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Legislature was calm, dignified, conservative, and even cold in compari- son with the fervor of the public mind. In conciliatory tones he urged
Reaassay Depourtant. Jan, 29,1861
Tele Tient Baldwell to anest Laft. Freshwood, assume coonhound of the cutter and day the order I gave though. Your Heart. Bushword afteranest undutatry to returfue in the tw command of the Cutting, tele tielt faldecall to contentin of a Mutinea treat kriv acero- Mapy . Harry one attempts to have Down the american flag Most Vincenthespor ...
Secretary of the hay.
FAC-SIMILE OF DIX'S ORDER.
the duty of all legislators to act with moderation. Reflecting the senti- ments of capitalists and business men specially, he said :
" Let New York set an example in this respect ; let her oppose 110
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PATRIOTISM OF THE NEW YORK LEGISLATURE.
barrier [to conciliation], but let her representatives in Congress give ready support to any just and honorable settlement ; let her stand in hostility to none, but extend the hand of friendship to all. Live up to the strict letter of the Constitution, and cordially unite with other members of the Confederacy in proclaiming and enforcing a determina- tion that the Constitution shall be honored and the Union of the States be preserved."
The governor even recommended the repeal of the statute which gave liberty to every slave whose feet should tread the soil of New York, and recommended other States to repeal their "Personal Liberty acts." There was naturally an earnest desire for peace, for war implied the cancelment of millions of dollars of debt due New York merchants by Southern customers.
The views of the Legislature were not in consonance with those of the governor. That body was more disposed to be defiant and uncompro- mising, especially when news arrived of the overt act of armed rebellion by South Carolinians in Charleston Harbor in firing upon the Star of the West when she entered those waters laden with supplies for the imperilled garrison in Fort Sumter. That act called out a patriotic message from President Buchanan, and the Legislature of New York spoke out in tones not to be misunderstood (January 11th, 1861), saying : "Resolved, That the Legislature of New York is profoundly impressed with the value of the Union, and determined to preserve it unimpaired ; that it greets with joy the recent firm, dignified, and patriotie special message of the President of the United States ; and we tender him, through the chief magistrate of our State, whatever aid in men and money may be required to enable him to enforce the laws and uphold the authority of the Federal Government ; and that, in defence of the Union, which has conferred prosperity and happiness upon the American people, renewing the pledge given and redeemed by our fathers, we are ready to devote our fortunes, our lives, and our sacred honor."
This patriotic proclamation by the representatives of the people of New York was in vivid contrast with the utterances of the disloyal Mayor of New York City (Fernando Wood) a few days before. He was in sympathy with the movements of the secessionists ; and in a message to the Common Council (January 7th, 1861) he advocated the secession of the city from the State.
"Why should not New York City," he said, "instead of supporting by her contributions in revenue two thirds of the expenses of the United States, become, also, equally independent ? As a free city, with a nominal duty on imports, her local government could be supported with-
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
out taxation upon her people. Thus we could live free from taxes, and have cheap goods nearly duty free. . . . When disunion has become a fixed and certain fact, why may not New York disrupt the bands which bind her to a venal and corrupt master-to a people and a party that have plundered her revenues, attempted to ruin her commerce, taken away the power of self-government, and destroyed the confederacy of which she was the proud empire city."
The Common Council, in political accord with the mayor, ordered three thousand copies of this message to be printed in pamphlet form for free distribution among the people. The loyal citizens of New York condemned this revolutionary movement with great severity of utterance and patriotic deeds.
The message of Mayor Wood and the bold resolution of the Legisla- ture alarmed a certain class of people, who were ready to make every concession to the insurgents consistent with honor and patriotism. A memorial in favor of compromise measures, largely sigued by merchants, manufacturers, and capitalists, was sent to Congress on January 12th, 1861. It suggested the famous " Crittenden Compromise." # On the 18th a large meeting of merchants was held in the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce, when a memorial of similar import was adopted, and was taken to Washington early in February, with forty thousand names attached. On the 28th an immense gathering of citizens at the Cooper Union appointed three commissioners- James T. Brady, C. K. Garrison, and Appleton Oakes Smith-to confer with the " delegates" of six " seceded " States in conventions assembled, in regard to "the best measures calculated to restore the peace and integrity of the Union." At about the same time the Legislature, on the invitation of Virginia, appointed five representatives to a peace conference, to be held at Wash- ington City, but with instructions not to take part in the proceedings unless a majority of the free-labor States were there represented.
Meanwhile the pro-slavery element in New York had been aroused to active sympathy with the insurgent slaveholders. An association was speedily formed which was styled " The American Society for the Pro- motion of National Union." They denounced the seminal doctrine of the Declaration of Independence, that " all men are created equal,"
* John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, offered in the Senate of the United States, in December, a series of resolutions which was called a compromise between the people of the two sections of the country, but which virtually conceded to the slaveholders and their friends nearly everything for which they professed to be contending. It was before Congress during the whole session, and was finally rejected on the last day (March 3d, 1861) by a vote of twenty against nineteen.
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A LEAGUE TO DESTROY THE REPUBLIC.
and said : " Four millions of immortal beings, incapable of self-care, and indisposed to industry and foresight, are providentially committed to the hands of our Southern friends. This stupendous trust they cannot put from them if they would. Emancipation, were it possible, would be rebellion against Providence, and destruction of the colored race in our land."
How strangely mediaval appears such a sentence (written by one of the most distinguished scientists of the world) in the light of history to-day ! This society, which sent its disloyal publications broadcast over the land, was the mother of the mischievous Peace Faction, which pro- longed and increased the miseries of the Civil War. It was the parent of the brood of misguided men called " Copperheads" during that fear- ful struggle.
The exportation of fire-arms from the port of New York to the Southern insurgents was begun with the year 1861. Late in January the efficient chief of police (John A. Kennedy) caused to be seized a large quantity of arms consigned by an agent of the Governor of Georgia to insurgents in that State and in Alabama, which had been placed on a vessel bound for Savannah. This fact was telegraphed to the Georgia capital. Robert Toombs, a private citizen, took the matter in hand and peremptorily demanded of Mayor Wood whether or not the report was true. The mayor answered " Yes," and said he had no power over the police, or he would punish them for the act. The Governor of Georgia retaliated by ordering the seizure of some New York merchant vessels in the port of Savannah. The affair created intense excitement all over the Union. It was soon amicably adjusted.
Delegates appointed by secession conventions (not of the people) of six States assembled at Montgomery, Ala., on February 4th, 1861, and formed a league with the title, " CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA"-a misnomer, for no States, as States, were there represented. A Provisional Constitution was adopted. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was chosen " Provisional President," and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, was made Vice-President.
Meanwhile the conspirators in Congress had been withdrawing from that body and organizing rebellion at home. President Buchanan remained a passive spectator of the rising rebellion. The general-in- chief of the national armny (Scott) was feeble in mind and body ; and when Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated (March 4th, 1861) the insurgents were organized and prepared for war. They had been materially assisted by treacherous members of the Cabinet of the retiring President, who became leaders of the insurgents.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
South Carolinians had flocked to Charleston and piled fortifications around the harbor. On April 12th, 1861, the two hundred great guns of these forts opened fire upon Fort Sumter, which was occupied by a national garrison under the command of Major Anderson, a loyal Ken- tuckian. His provisions exhausted, he was compelled to evacuate (not surrender) the fort, carrying away with him the garrison flag. This event occurred on Sunday, the 14th. Just four years afterward Major Anderson again unfurled that flag over the ruins of the repossessed fort.
Twenty-four hours after the evacuation of Fort Sumter President Lincoln issued a call for seventy-five thousand militia from the several States, to serve for three months in suppressing this armed rebellion. The quota of New York was seventeen regiments, or thirteen thousand men. There was no longer hesitation in the Empire State. The gov- ernor sent the proclamation to the Legislature, then in session. In a few hours an act was passed conferring large powers on the chief magis- trate, and authorizing the enrolment of thirty thousand men for two years, and an appropriation of $3,000,000.
The governor issued a proclamation ordering the troops to rendezvous at Elmira and New York City. An officer sent to Washington obtained the acceptance of the surplus regiments. The Secretary of War sent inarching orders. Contracts for a large amount of supplies were imme- diately made. On April 24th an agent of the State sailed for Europe with a bill of credit for $500,000, with which to purchase arms ; and very speedily nineteen thousand Enfield rifles, which cost $375,000, were landed at New York City.
The authorized thirty thousand men had been raised within thirty-six days after the President's call for troops ; and early in July they were organized into thirty-eight regiments. An active committee in New York City added ten regiments ; and on July 1st-seventy-seven days after the date of the President's proclamation-New York troops in the field numbered forty-six thousand seven hundred.
On April 20th an immense war meeting was held in Union Square, in the city of New York. So great was the multitude that it was divided into four sections, presided over respectively by John A. Dix, Hamilton Fish, ex-Mayor Havemeyer, and Moses II. Grinnell .*
* Moses H. Grinnell, an eminent merchant of New York City, was born at New Bed- ford, Mass., in March, 1803, and died in New York in November, 1877. He was educated at private schools and at an academy belonging to the Society of Friends, or . Quakers. Bred a merchant, he frequently went abroad as supercargo. He removed to New York, and in 1829 he became one of the firm of Grinnell, Minturn & Company, a
523
UNION DEFENCE COMMITTEE IN NEW YORK.
Speeches fraught with intense fervor were made, and patriotic resolu- tions were adopted. That meeting effectually removed the false im- pression that the greed of commerce was stronger than patriotism in New York City. The insurgents, who evidently thought so, were dis- appointed. One of their organs, the Richmond Despatch, said : " New York will be remembered with special hatred by the South for all time."
At that meeting a Commit- tee of Safety was appointed, composed of the most distin- guished citizens of New York. They met on the same evening, and organized the famous Union Defence Committec .* Its room (30 Pine Street) was open every day, and at the Fifth Avenue Hotel every evening. The committee was charged with the duty of representing " the citi- zens in the collection of funds and the transaction of such other business, in aid of the move- ments of the Government, as the public interests may re- quire." Its existence continued MOSES H. GRINNELL. about a year, during which time it disbursed about $1,000,000, which the corporation of New York ap- propriated for war purposes and placed at its disposal. It assisted in the equipment, etc., of forty-nine regiments, or about forty thousand men. It spent of the city funds for military purposes nearly $759,000, and for the relief of soldiers' families, $230,000. Within ten days after the
house founded many years before by Joseph Grinnell and Preserved Fish. Mr. Grinnell was one of the chief promoters of the expedition to the Arctic seas in search of Sir John Franklin, which was led by Dr. E. K. Kane, 1853-55. He was a member of Congress, 1839-41, and in 1869-71 he was Collector of the Port of New York.
* The members of the Union Defence Committee were : John A. Dix, Chairman ; Simeon Draper. Vice-Chairman ; William M. Evarts, Secretary ; Theodore Dehon, Treasurer ; Moses Taylor, Richard M. Blatchford, Edwards Pierrepont, Alexander T. Stewart, Samuel Sloan, John Jacob Astor, Jr., John J. Cisco, James S. Wadsworth, Isaac Bell, James Boorman, Charles H. Marshall, Robert H. MeCurdy, Moses H. Grinnell, Royal Phelps, William E. Dodge, Green C. Bronson, Hamilton Fish, William F. Have- meyer, Charles H. Russell, James T. Brady, Rudolph A. Whitthaus, Abiel A. Low, Prosper M. Wetmore, A. C. Richards, and the mayor, comptroller, and the presidents of the two boards of the Common Council of the City of New York.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
President's call for troops, that committee had sent to the field from the eity of New York fully ten thousand men, well armed and equipped.
Among the regiments that went from the city of New York was the famous Seventh, National Guard, commanded by Colonel Marshall Lefferts. It was composed chiefly of young men of the best families in the city. Just as it was abont to mareh news came of an attack upon Massachusetts troops in Baltimore by a mob. The regiment was fur- nished with ball cartridges. As it marehed down Broadway it was greeted at every step by multitudes of the citizens on sidewalks and balconies, and from windows. At the ferry it was joined by a Massa- chusetts regiment accompanied by General B. F. Butler. Both regi- ments were speeding across New Jersey by railway at evening twilight.
Hundreds of families wooed sleep in vain that night. They knew that blood had been shed in Baltimore, and that their loved ones were in imminent peril. But patriotism triumphed over personal considera- tions. The enthusiasm of the people was marvellous. The women were as patriotic as the men. Five brothers of a New York family enlisted and marched away. Their mother was absent at the time. She wrote to her husband :
" Though I have loved my children with a love that only a mother knows, yet when I look upon the state of my country, I cannot withhold them. In the name of their God, and their mother's God, and their country's God, I bid them go. If I had ten sons instead of five I should give them all sooner than have our country rent in fragments."
This was the spirit of the loyal women all over the land during the fierce struggle that ensned .*
* The Society of Friends, or Quakers, were generally loyal. Their principles forbade them to bear arms, but they gave generous aid to the good cause by assiduous services in hospitals, etc. The society felt it a duty to publish a "Testimony" exhorting their brethren to resist " the temptations of the hour," and while anxious to uphold the Gov- ernment, not to " transgress the principles and injunctions of the gospel." But many of the younger Friends especially gave little heed to the " Testimony," but bore arms and obeyed the injunctions of a patriotic Quaker mother in Philadelphia, who wrote to her son in camp : " Let not thy musket hold a silent meeting before the enemy."
In strong contrast with this was the letter of a Baltimore mother to her loyal son, a clergyman in Boston, who, on the Sunday after the attack on Fort Sumter, preached a patriotic sermon to his flock. She wrote :
"BALTIMORE, April 17, 1861.
"MY DEAR SON : Your remarks last Sabbath were telegraphed to Baltimore and published in an extra. Ilas God sent you to preach the sword or to preach Christ ?
The son replied :
" YOUR MOTHER."
" BOSTON, April 22, 1861.
"DEAR MOTHER : ' God has sent ' me not only to ' preach' the sword, but to use it. When this Gov- ernment tumbles, look among the ruins for
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