USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 1 > Part 7
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 | Part 50
59
JOHN H. MITCHELL.
and so thoroughly were these investigations conducted that it was made mani- fest that truth and equity were on the side of the Republican contestants. Public sentiment acquiesced in the judgment of the committee, and the decis- ion of the Electoral Commission, based in a large measure upon the labors of that committee, was sustained by the country, and Mr. Hayes was safely seated in the Presidential chair.
The same indomitable energy that marked Mr. Mitchell's conduct on this occasion is also typical of his efforts in behalf of the interests of his State. The Columbia river, a majestic stream, second only to the " Father of Waters," and draining a country richer by far than the famous valley of the Nile, is obstructed at several places, particularly at The Dalles, where the immense volume of water rushes through a narrow gorge at lightning rapidity, and at the Cascades, where the waters tumble and dash over countless boulders of immense size, creating eddies and swift currents, so that navigation at these two points is impos- sible, and as a result portages have to be made and a trans-shipment rendered necessary. To overcome these obstacles and make the Columbia a free river (for it is apparent that those who control the portages also control, or, perhaps, what is a better and truer expression, own the river) has been the prayer of the people of Oregon for years. Various projects to overcome these obstructions were from time to time presented and discussed, and finally laid aside, as such projects usually are unless backed by some earnest man. Among the first steps taken by Mr. Mitchell soon after his election to the Senate was to secure the aid of the national government in removing these obstructions. After countless difficulties he finally succeeded in obtaining an appropriation for the construction of a system of locks at the Cascades, and this work, though not progressing with the activity that its importance demands, but still with the same sort of activity that marks all enterprises under the supervision of. the government, will be finished in a year or two. In the meantime he did not relax his efforts to get the Government committed to some plan for overcoming the obstructions at The Dalles, and so persistent and energetic have his efforts been that at the present session (First Session, Fiftieth Congress) the Senate has passed his bill for a boat railway, for the commencement of which $500,000 are appropriated ; and when this work is completed, and the last obstruction to the free navigation of the Columbia is thus removed, "a mighty river will go mingling with his name forever."
At the close of his first term the Democrats had succeeded in getting control - of the Legislature ; and it is claimed that their success was brought about through the instrumentality of a company that controlled the navigation of the Columbia river, and was opposed, as a matter of course, to any effort to rend that stream from the grasp of a soulless and selfish monopoly. Be this as it may, the Demo- crats were successful. In 1882, the Republicans again being in majority in the Legislature, Mr. Mitchell received the nomination for Senator, two-thirds of the Republicans in the Legislature voting for him in caucus. For forty days the
60
JOHN II. MITCHELL.
Legislature ballotted without result, Mitchell during most of the time receiving forty-five votes, or within one necessary to elect. This failure to elect was brought about by a bolt of a few malcontents, actuated by personal motives and aims, but on which, however, they have never realized. Seeing that his election was impossible, Mr. Mitchell threw his influence in favor of his former law partner, J. N. Dolph, who was elected in the closing hours of the session. In 1885 the Legislature failed to elect. At a called session Mr. Mitchell, though not a candidate, was elected by the votes of both Republicans and Democrats, it being the almost universal wish of the people of the State that he be returned to the Senate. In the present Congress he is Chairman of the Committee on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, and is a member of the Committees on Claims, Post-offices and Post-roads, Railroads, and Mines and Mining.
As a lawyer Mr. Mitchell is clear-headed and quick to appreciate and appre- hend a point. His legal arguments are perspicacious, and marked by thorough- ness and research. In the debate in the Senate on the Inter-State Commerce Bill he took a position as to the proper construction of that measure, which has been followed by the courts when called upon to construe the law, and the decisions of the Commission have been on a line with his argument-an argu- ment, too, which was contravened by some who have the reputation of being able lawyers, but who in this instance appear to have misconceived the scope and purposes of the bill.
True to his friendships, Mr. Mitchell has the largest personal following of any political leader on the Pacific Coast, and this following is by no means confined to Republicans, but his admirers are to be found on the other side of the party wall, and are no less enthusiastic in their praises of him than those of his followers who are of the same political faith with him. The future has much in store for him ; for it is hardly to be supposed that ability, energy and sincerity are to be overlooked. The country must cver rely upon its earnest men-men of deep convictions, courage, sincerity and honesty of purpose ; and such a man is John H. Mitchell.
HON. ANDREW G. CURTIN.
ANDREW GREGG CURTIN.
T CHE infant Republic had concluded its second conflict with the mother country and the European wars provoked by Napoleon had been settled. The rush of immigration from the Old World to the New began immediately afterward, and was a prominent figure in that epoch which marked a marvellous change in our government. Up to 1815 a conservative mental force had held sway, but at that time progressive materialism succeeded it, and the era which followed hard upon this decisive change marked the beginning of a new life and new prospects for the nation.
This change, like all radical political disturbances, provoked bitter animosities, and party spirit ran high. In the confliets which grew out of the ascendancy of material force, new resources were developed, new theories of government advanced, fresh ideas of constitutional construction born, and new roads cut into the wilderness of science, as applied to the practical demands of the new nation. In 1816-17 Calhoun gave his powerful mind to the problem of the future, and made his great fight for internal improvements by the Federal Government. The veto power destroyed his work, which, had it been successful, and been equitably applied to all the States of the Union, would have made the recent sectional war impossible.
Amid these mighty changes, and just as the nation had crossed the threshold from conservative inaction to progressive action, ANDREW GREGG CURTIN was born at Bellefonte, Centre county, Pa., April 22d, 1817. In the same year the United States Bank was established in Philadelphia, and in 1820-21, when the States numbered only twenty-four, the agitation of the Missouri question began-an agitation which ended in secession and war, which made Andrew Gregg Curtin an eminent figure in American history.
Seventeen years before his birth his father, Roland Curtin, settled in Belle- fonte and began the manufacture of iron. He was a pioneer in this great industry, which has now grown to such gigantic proportions in this State. He is said to have erected one of the first, if not the first, iron furnaces built in Pennsylvania. He emigrated from Ireland seven years before settling in Bellefonte, and brought with him to this country wealth and a good education, obtained at the French capital. His wife was the daughter of Andrew Gregg, a noted politician, who served as United States Senator, Member of Congress, and Secretary of State. So, in birth and advantages, Governor Curtin was favored above the lot of most men. He was a decided favorite with his grandfather, as well as with his father, and exceptional care was taken in his education. He began his school life in private institutions in Bellefonte, and after a term of school at Harrisburg, ended his academic education at Milton.
At the time of his graduation, William W. Potter, who was afterward in Con- gress, was practising law in Bellefonte, and with him young Curtin began the
(61)
62
ANDREW G. CURTIN.
study of the law. He finished with Judge Reed, then one of the great attorneys of the State, after graduating from the law department of Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pa. He was admitted to the bar in his native place, and began the practice of the law in 1837. He at once took a leading position in his profession, but was noted as an advocate rather than as a close practitioner. His powers as a speaker naturally turned him in the direction of politics, and when only twenty- three years of age he made a State reputation as an orator in the campaign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." He was an ardent Whig, and in 1844 made a canvass of the State for Henry Clay. The reputation he had made as a speaker in 1840, in behalf of General Harrison, gave him leading rank on the stump in 1844. His successes in this campaign stamped him as a man of not only great oratorical power but of keen wit and humor, and of political foresight far beyond his years. The old Whigs, referring to that memorable campaign, always asso- ciate with it his brilliant efforts in behalf of the idol of their party. From this campaign Mr. Curtin's political advancement dated, and his reputation as an advocate grew.
In 1848 he was a Presidential elector, and his efforts in behalf of General Taylor were everywhere recognized as contributing to his election. In 1852 he was again upon the electoral ticket, and in the forefront of the battle for the Whig party. In 1854 his leading position as a man and politician was so well recognized that his party desired him to become its candidate for Governor. He declined the honor, but gave his best efforts to the election of his personal friend, Mr. Pollock, who, after his success, appointed him Secretary of State. In those days this position was one of greater power and influence than at present, for in addition to the regular duties of Secretary of State those of Superintendent of Public Schools were added.
To his work in the latter position Mr. Curtin gave much attention and thought, and inaugurated many of the reforms which have given the public schools of Pennsylvania a front rank in the educational institutions of the country.
In the years from 1854 to 1860, when the Republican party was springing into life as a result of the agitation of the slavery question-an agitation begun at the time of Mr. Curtin's birth-he naturally took a leading position in the stirring events which attended the birth of the new party, and in 1860 was made its candidate for Governor. This honor was the more conspicuous be- cause of the all-important questions then pending, and because the future of the party, virtually born with his nomination, depended almost entirely upon his success.
The election of Lincoln absolutely depended upon the two doubtful States, Pennsylvania and Indiana. Both of them held their State elections in the October preceding the November election, and it was therefore essential, nation- ally, that these two States should declare for the Republican candidate to insure his election. When the convention inet at Chicago, it was apparent that Seward was the choice of a large majority of the delegates. But it was morally certain
63
ANDREW G. CURTIN.
that Pennsylvania could not be carried for the Republicans with Seward as the Presidential candidate ; for it had been charged, and was believed, that he had been elected Governor of New York as a Whig, upon an understanding with Bishop Hughes that the school fund of the State was to be divided with the Catholic educational institutions. Hence the native Americans in the Republican party, who came to it after the death of the Know-Nothing party, were bitterly opposed to him. It will thus be seen that at the outset of Mr. Curtin's career as the Republican nominee for Governor, his own position, as well as the position of his State, attracted the attention of the whole country.
The Pennsylvania delegation in the Presidential Convention of 1860 was a great one. It was instructed for General Simon Cameron, with John McLane, of Ohio, as its second choice. Thaddeus Stevens and David Wilmot were the leading men in the delegation, Stevens favoring the nomination of McLane after Cameron, and Wilmot favoring Lincoln, after his name was prominently mentioned. The necessity of carrying Pennsylvania in October to the success of the Republican ticket in November being so apparent, Mr. Curtin went to the Chicago Conven- tion. Colonel A. K. MeClure, who was, in that year, Chairman of the Republican State Committee, went with him. They were not there, as has been generally understood, in opposition to General Cameron's nomination, for they regarded that as impossible. They went there to secure the nomination of some candidate with whom Pennsylvania could be carried in October. It would be hard to pict- ure the important part which Mr. Curtin and his position played in the nomina- tion of Mr. Lincoln. He and Henry S. Lane absolutely decided the contest in Lincoln's favor.
While the convention was largely in favor of Mr. Seward, the importance of carrying Pennsylvania and Indiana was so great that most of the Seward dele- gates outside of New York were willing to forego their preference and nominate a candidate acceptable to Mr. Curtin and Henry S. Lane, the candidates for Governor in the two October States.
The first duty of many delegations from the different States after their arrival in Chicago was to appoint committees to wait upon Mr. Curtin and Henry S. Lane, and ascertain their preferences as to a candidate, and their judgment as to the strongest name in their States. There were a number of names which were to go before the convention, Mr. Seward having a majority of all the delegates ; but Mr. Curtin and Mr. Lane were so certain that their States could not be car- ried with Mr. Seward as the candidate, that a large number of the Seward dele- gates decided to seek for some other candidate. The day before the convention met the Vermont, Massachusetts, and other Seward delegations asked the Penn- sylvania delegation to name three candidates who would carry the State. They held a meeting and named General Cameron as their first choice; John MeLane, Mr. Stevens' candidate, as their second, and Abraham Lincoln as their third.
The circumstances under which Mr. Lincoln was named were both peculiar and interesting. While General Cameron's aspirations had led him to seek the Presi-
64
ANDREW G. CURTIN.
dential nomination, Mr. Lincoln had been decided upon by General Cameron and his friends for Vice-President if Cameron should secure the nomination. Flourish- ing Cameron and Lincoln clubs had been organized in Illinois long before the con- vention met. Next to Mr. Seward, Mr. Bates, of Missouri, was the strongest candidate among the delegates to the convention, and there was a strong feeling in favor of Bates in the Pennsylvania delegation. So when their third selection of a name was to be made, the Cameron men in the delegation under the lead of Mr. Wilmot, who was really in favor of Mr. Lincoln, chose Lincoln by a majority of two votes, they believing him to be the weaker candidate, and that Cameron could thus secure the nomination, and Lincoln be made candidate for Vice-Presi- dent. Pennsylvania's action was ratified by Mr. Lane and his friends, and the next day, when the convention met, and both Cameron's and Mr. McLane's nomination became impossible, Pennsylvania named Mr. Lincoln, who had been made its third choice by Mr. Cameron's friends and an accident, and he was nominated. Had it not been for the Cameron men in the delegation, who believed that the chances for the success of their candidate would be better with Mr. Lincoln than with Mr. Bates, the latter would have been their choice and the nominee of the convention. From this recital the commanding position of Pennsylvania, of its candidate for Governor, and of its Republican leaders, in the party and toward the Presidential candidate of that year, can be understood.
That campaign, from Mr. Curtin's nomination down to the day of the election, was a political romance, the like of which has never been known in this country. The Presidential nominating convention over, Mr. Curtin turned to the duties of his own canvass with characteristic energy, and the history of the first contest of the Republican party in Pennsylvania would make an interesting volume. The details of the work were in the hands of Colonel A. K. McClure, as Chairman of the State Committee, and the management of the campaign was simply matchless. It was carried on with a spirit and energy hitherto unknown in the political history of the State. Mr. Curtin made a personal canvass, which was then, as it is now, regarded as the most brilliant ever conducted in Pennsylvania. He was elected in October, by a large majority, as was Henry S. Lane in Indiana ; and the Presidential election of 1860 was thus virtually decided in favor of the Republican party.
The wisdom of the selection of Governor Curtin by the Republicans was jus- tified from the day he assumed the position to which he had been elected in the intelligence with which he dealt with the grave questions forcing themselves upon him as the Executive of a great State, with the nation upon the threshold of a sectional war. Ile was wise, discreet, conservative and able in the discharge of his important and delicate duties, during the trying days when all were endeavor- ing to peaceably prevent rebellion. He was patriotic, firm, aggressive, and even stubbornly courageous when all efforts failed and the war came. It followed close upon his inauguration as the Chief Executive of the State, and when the first gun was fired, he sprang to the duty of raising troops for the general Government,
65
ANDREW G. CURTIN.
with an energy and spirit unequalled by any other State Executive. He encour- aged enlistments in every possible way, and in an eloquent war speech just after the fall of Sumter he kindled camp-fires upon almost every hearth in Pennsylva- nia, and called more into service than was asked for by the General Government. In this speech he promised that Pennsylvania should permit none of its soldiers to be buried in other soil ; that wives and children should be the wards of the State; that widows of soldiers should be protected and their orphans cared for and educated at the expense of the Commonwealth.
" How has this promise of yours been kept?" was asked of him, more than twenty years after it was made, and seventeen years after the war was ended.
" Religiously," he answered. "Commissioners were placed in every corps of the army, and every Pennsylvania soldier found, wherever he went, the repre- sentative of his State, specially charged with the task of looking after his neces- sities. If he was sick in the hospital, if he was wounded in battle, if he was on the march or in camp, he found that his State had a watchful eye over his com- fort. Pennsylvania was the first State to do this, and no Pennsylvania soldier ever fell in battle whose body was not sent home for burial, if his body had been identified and application made therefor.
" The State did care for the wives and children, has protected the widows and educated the orphans. Sixteen thousand soldiers' orphans have been educated in the different soldiers' orphan asylums throughout the State, provided by the gratitude of Pennsylvania for the valor and patriotism of her soldiers. A mar- vellous fact is that out of nearly sixteen thousand who have been educated in these schools, only two have ever been accused of crime. In the history of the world there has never been a nation that has provided for its soldiery with anything like the watchful generosity with which Pennsylvania has kept the promise I made as its Executive at the beginning of the war."
The career of Governor Curtin, as Executive of Pennsylvania, is naturally the most important in all his eventful life. It cannot be written in a single article, hardly in a volume. With the organization and supervision of the vast body of troops which Pennsylvania gave to the army of the Union, his name and deeds were intimately associated. While he took an interest in all the Pennsylvania troops, the reserves-that corps which gave Reynolds, Meade and Sedgwick to the army-seem to hold the strongest place in his heart. Besides looking after the comfort of the soldiers, he advised and formulated the legislation which will make Pennsylvania pre-eminent in history for the evidences of respect and grati- tude shown her soldiers in the war for the Union. Before his first gubernatorial term was concluded, the condition of his health became so precarious that his friends decided he must not be a candidate for re-election. So broken was he from the effects of his labors, that it was decided long before the convention was held that he could not stand the excitement of renomination, much less the labors of a canvass. It was therefore settled among his friends that he should go abroad instead of again accepting the Republican nomination for Governor.
9
.66
ANDREW G. CURTIN.
So Mr. Lincoln was approached upon the subject of a foreign mission, and the story of the interview with the martyr President must necessarily form an inter- esting part of this sketch on account of the persons who were present. Imagine General Simon Cameron, Colonel John W. Forney and Colonel A. K. McClure, in conference at the rooms of the former in Washington, all in accord as to the desirability of securing a foreign mission for Governor Curtin. Of course, all were actuated by different motives : Colonel McClure, because he was interested in the safety of the Governor's life, the other two because Curtin's presence at the head of the State government was not in accordance with their ideas of the eter- nal fitness of things. This trio, inharmonious on every subject save the pro- priety of giving a foreign mission to Governor Curtin, took a carriage and drove to the White House. The President, so one of the party said, seemed somewhat amused at seeing the three men together, but readily appreciated the situation when the object of the visit was stated.
"There is nothing within my gift to which Governor Curtin is not entitled ; but, gentlemen, there are no first-class missions vacant. Whose mission shall I give him ?" said Mr. Lincoln, relating the story of the young man who, when his father advised him to take a wife, inquired, " Whose wife shall I take?"
One of the party suggested that a second-class mission might do. Colonel McClure said that unless a first-class mission could be tendered the conference might as well end. The result of the interview was that Mr. Lincoln wrote to Governor Curtin offering him a first-class mission, and Colonel McClure carried and delivered the letter.
Before any decision was reached, a large majority of the counties in the State had instructed for Governor Curtin, notwithstanding it was understood that he was not to be a candidate. When the convention met he was unanimously re- nominated, and was elected by an overwhelming majority. He therefore com- pleted a term of service as Governor of Pennsylvania during which transpired the mightiest events in the history of our Government. It was the aspiration of his friends that he should be made United States Senator at the end of his second Gubernatorial term, but the influences which had ever been hostile to him pre- vented. In 1868 he was a prominent candidate for nomination for Vice-President with General Grant, but defeated. Soon after the latter's election, Governor Cur- tin was nominated and confirmed as Minister to Russia, and spent nearly four years at St. Petersburg.
He returned home in 1872, and took part in the Liberal Republican move- ment which nominated Horace Grecley. He was very prominently spoken of for the second place on that ticket, and was the choice of the Pennsylvania dele- gation in the Greeley Convention for President. His connection with the Liberal Republican movement, and the fact that his power and influence in the Republi- can party, which was eminent while he remained in the country, but which had been broken during his absence, carried him into the Democratic party, where he by no means seems at home.
67
ANDREW G. CURTIN.
He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1872-73, and for a few years after had little to do with politics. The political influence which controlled the Republican party of the State seemed, so his friends say, to have put up a bar against his return to his old party. So, when he wearied of the quiet of business life, and longed for politics, he found a place in the Democratic party, and in 1878 was nominated for Congress. He was defeated by a Greenbacker during the financial craze and by the action of some of his new-found asso- ciates, who opposed him on account of his war record and the hard blows he had dealt them in the campaigns of the old Whig and Republican parties.
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.