USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 2
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 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
" Whether Congress has the Constitutional right to make war against one or more States and require the Executive of the Federal Government to carry it on by means of force to be drawn from the other States is a question for Congress itself to consider. It must be admitted that no such power is expressly given; nor are there any words in the Constitution which imply it. Among the powers enumerated in Article 1, Section 8, is that ' to declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and to make rules concerning captures on land and water.' This certainly means nothing more than the power to commence and carry on hostilities against the foreign enemies of the nation. Another clause in the same section gives Congress the power 'to pro- vide for calling forth the militia,' and to use them within the limits of the State. But this power is so restricted by the words which immediately follow that it can be exercised only for one of the follow- ing purposes : 1. To execute the laws of the Union; that is, to aid the Federal officers in the perform- ance of their regular duties. 2. To suppress insur- rection against the State; but this is confined by
-
9
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Article 4, Section 4, to cases in which the State herself shall apply for assistance against her own people. 3. To repel the invasion of a State by ene- mies who come from abroad to assail her in her territory. All these provisions are made to protect the States; not to authorize an attack by one part of the eonntry upon another; to preserve the peace and not to plunge them into civil war. Our fore- fathers do not seem to have thought that war was calculated 'to form a more perfect Union, establish peace, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity.' There was undoubtedly a strong and universal conviction among the men who framed and ratified the Constitution that military force would not only be useless bnt pernicions as a means of holding the States together.
"If it be true that war eannot be declared, nor a system of general hostilities carried by the Cen- tral Government against a State, then it seems that an attempt to do so would be ipso facto an expulsion of such State from the Union. Being treated as an alien and an enemy, she would be compelled to act accordingly. And if Congress shall break up the present Union by nnconstitutionally putting enmity and armed hostility between different sections of the country, instead of the domestic tranquility which the Constitution was meant to insure, would not all the States be absolved from their federal obligations ? Is any portion of the people bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that ?
"The right of the General Government to preserve itself in its whole Constitutional vigor by repelling a direct and positive aggression upon its property or its officers cannot be deuied. But this is a totally different thing from an offensive war to punish the people for the political misdeeds of their State gov- ernments, or to enforce an acknowledgment that the Government of the United States is supreme. The States are colleagues of one another, and if some of them shall conqner the rest and hold them as subjugated provinces it would totally destroy the whole theory upon which they are now connected. " If this view of the subject be correct, as I think it is, then the Union must utterly perish at the moment when Congress shall arm one part of the people against the other for any purpose beyond that of protecting the General Government in the exercise of its proper Constitutional funetions.
I am very respectfully yonrs, etc., J. S. BLACK".
This remarkable and valnable historical docu- ment not only places on record the legal opinion with regard to the subject it covers, of one of the men most versed in it in the United States, but ex- hibits also the stroug judicial bias of Judge Black's mind, which totally disabled him from cousidering the question from any other than a constitutional and judicial standpoint. As Secretary of State he declared his determined hostility to the secession movement and was at the head of the men in the Cabinet who were in favor of the reinforcement of Fort Sumter. He issued orders to the representa-
tives of the United States abroad to countenance no disintegration of the Republic, and proclaimed the principle that the union of the States was insoluble and indestructible. President Buchanan's annual message, in the beginning of 1860, was framed with dne consideration of the opinion given by Judge Black. On this message being submitted to the Cabinet, Secretaries Cobb and Thompson (who both afterwards resigned) were the only members who did not approve of it. As still further indica- tion of the logical skill of Judge Black, his direet- ness of purpose and the incisive meutal ability which guided him in all his utterances, the follow- ing quotation from a letter which he wrote to the President on another occasion is pertinent :
" The Government of the United States, within its proper sphere is sovereign as much as the States are sovereign within their spheres. It acts imme- diately upon the people and claims their direct obedience to its laws. As a State cannot make war upon a city, country or town and put all its inhabi- tants to the sword because some of them have acted or threatened to act illegally, so the General Government is also restraincd from exterminating the whole population of a State for offenses, actual or intended, of some who live among them. The so- called Ordinances of Secession, in 1860 and 1861, were the declarations of certain persons who made them that they intended to disobey the laws of the United States. It was the duty of Congress and the President to see that forcible resistance to the laws, when actually made, should be met by a counter-force sufficient to put it down; but neither Congress nor the President had authority to declare war and begin hostilities by anticipation against all the people at once, and put them all in the attitude of public enemies, without regard to their personal guilt or innocence."
Nothing in the above could be held to preclude the self-protective action of the United States Gov- ernment in the face of the secession movement which actually occurred; yet such utterances on the part of Judge Black were severely criticised during his lifetime by the more radical of his politi- cal opponents, who conld not see where the work- ings of the judicial mind must necessarily come in conflict with the merely sentimental side of a great question. With regard to this, Judge Holt, who was Secretary of War in 1860 and was appointed Judge Advocate-General of the Army by President Lincoln, used the following language :
" Mr. Stanton, Judge Black and myself were in perfect accord as to the duty of the Government towards the Secessionists, and in perfect harmouy as to the rights of States under the Coustitution. No man could have been more ardent or earnest iu his attachment to the Union or more persisteut in urging those things calculated to save it from the designs of the Southern men than Judge Black."
+
IO
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
As a matter of fact Judge Black differed with Buchanan on many subjects during the latter part of the administration, though remaining a firm friend of the Presideut uutil the last. The extent of those differences may be seen in the following paper published on pages 14-17 in "Essays and Speeches of Jeremiah S. Black." (D. Appleton & Co., 1885. )
" MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT ON THE SUBJEOT OF THE PAPER DRAWN UP BY HIM IN REPLY TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA."
"1. The first and the concluding paragraph both seem to acknowledge the right of South Carolina to be represented near this Government by diplomatic officers. That implies that she is an independent nation, with no other relations to the Government
of the Union than any other foreign power. If such be the fact, then she has acquired all the rights, powers and responsibilities of a separate government by the mere ordinance of secession which passed her convention a few days ago. But the President has always, and particularly in his late message to Congress, denied the right of seces- sion, and asserted that no State could throw off her Federal obligations in that way. Moreover, the President has also very distinctly declared that even if a State could secede and go out of the Union at pleasure, whether by revolution or in the exercise of a Constitutional right, he could not recognize her independence without being guilty of usurpa- tion. I think, therefore, that every word and sen- tence which implies that South Carolina is in an attitude which enables the President to 'treat' or negotiate with her, or to receive her commissioners in the character of diplomatic ministers or agents, ought to be stricken out and an explicit declaration substituted, which would reassert the principles of the message. It is surely not enough that the words of the message be transcribed if the doctrine there announced be practically abandoned by car .. rying on a negotiation.
" 2. I would strike out all expressions of regret that the Commissioners are unwilling to proceed with the negotiations, since it is very clear that there can be no negotiation with them, whether they are willing or not.
"3. Above all things, it is objectionable to inti- mate a willingness to negotiate with the State of South Carolina about the possession of a military post which belongs to the United States, or to pro- pose any adjustment of the subject or any arrange- ment about it. The forts in Charleston Harbor be- long to this Government-are its own, and cannot be given up. It is true they might be surrendered to a superior force, whether that force be in the ser- vice of a seceding State or a foreign nation. But Fort Sumter is impregnable and cannot be taken if defended as it should be. It is a thing of the last importance that it should be maintained if all the power of this nation can do it ; for the command of the harbor and the President's ability to execute the revenue laws may depeud on it.
"4. The words 'coercing a State by force of arms to remain in the Confederacy,' a power which I do not believe the Constitution has conferred on Congress-ought certainly not be retained. They
are too vague, and might have the effect (which I am sure the President does not intend) to mislead the Commissioners concerning his sentiments. The power to defend the public property-to resist an assailing force which unlawfully attempts to drive out the troops of the United States from one of the fortifications, and to use military and naval forces for the purpose of aiding the proper officers of the United States in the execution of the laws-this, as far as it goes, is coercion, and may very well be called ' coercing a State by force of arms to remain in the Union.' The President has always asserted his right of coercion to that extent. He merely de- nies the right of Congress to make offensive war upon a State of the Union as such might be made upon a foreign government.
"5. The implied assent of the President to the accusation which the Commissioners make, of a com- pact with South Carolina by which he was bound not to take whatever measures he saw fit for the de- fense of the forts, ought to be stricken out, and a flat denial of any such bargain, pledge or agreement inserted. The paper signed by the late members of Congress from South Carolina does not bear any such construction, and this, as I understand, is the only transaction between South Carolina and him which bears upon the subject either directly or in- directly. I think it deeply concerns the President's reputation that he should contradict this statement, since if it be undenied it puts him in the attitude of an executive officer who voluntarily disarms himself of the power to perform his duty, and ties up his hands so that he cannot, without breaking his word, 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitu- tion, and see the laws faithfully executed.' The fact that he pledged himself in any such way can- not be true. The Commissioners, no doubt, have been so informed. But there must be some mistake about it. It arose, doubtless, out of the President's anxious and laudable desire to avoid civil war, and his often-expressed determination not even to fur- nish an excuse for an outbreak at Charleston by re- enforcing Major Anderson unless it was absolutely necessary.
"6. The remotest expression of a doubt about Major Anderson's perfect propriety of behavior should be carefully avoided. He is not merely a gallant and meritorious officer who is entitled to a fair hearing before he is condemned. He has saved the country, I solemnly believe, when its day was darkest and its perils most extreme. He has done everything that mortal man could do to repair the fatal error which the Administration has com- mitted in not sending down troops enough to hold all the forts. He has kept the strongest one. He still commands the harbor. We may still execute the laws if we try. Besides, there is nothing in the orders which were sent to him by the War Depart- ment which is in the slightest degree contravened by his act of throwing his command into Fort Sum- ter. Even if those orders, sent without your know- ledge, did forbid him to leave a place where his men might have perished, and shelter them under a stronger position, we ought all of us rejoice that he broke such orders.
"7. The idea that a wroug was committed against South Carolina by moving from Fort Moul- trie to Fort Sumter ought to be repelled as firmly as may be consistent with a proper respect for the high
Very truly Yours
II
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
character of the gentlemen who compose the South Carolina Commission. It is a strange assumption of right on the part of that State to say that our United States troops must remain in thic weakest position they can find in the harbor. It is not a menace of South Carolina or of Charleston, or any menace at all. It is simple self-defense. If South Carolina does not attack Major Anderson, no hu- man being will be injured; for there certainly can be no reason to believe that he will commence hos- tilities. The apparent objection to his being in Fort Sumter is that he will be less likely to fall an easy prey to his assailants.
" These are the points on which I would advise that the paper be amended. I am aware that they are too radical to permit much hope of their adop- tion. If they are adopted the whole paper will need to be recast. But there is one thing not to be overlooked in this terrible crisis. I entreat the President to order the " Brooklyn " and the " Mace- donian " to Charleston without the least delay, and in the meantime send a trusty messenger to Major Anderson to let him know that his Government will not desert him. The re-enforcement of troops from New York or Old Point Comfort should follow im- mediately. If this be done at once all may yet be not well, but comparatively safe. If not, I can see nothing before us but disaster and ruin to the coun- try."
On his retirement from the Cabinet, Judge Black received the appointment of Reporter of the United States Supreme Court ; but his practice increased to such an extent that he was obliged to resign. As a practitioner before the Supreme Court he com- manded an immense business and gained a high reputation. Among important law cases in which he took part may be mentioned the Belknap im- peachment, the McGarrahan case, the New Idria Quicksilver Mine grant, and the Vanderbilt will case, and the Milligan and McCardle cases. As a publicist and essayist Judge Black was universally admired. He was a powerful writer on political subjects, and his controversial abilities were recog. nized. He was a devout Christian. Fearing noth- ing else in this world, he went always and humbly in the fear of God. His whole mind and being were saturated with the morality of the Testament of Christ, which he said was " filled with all forms of moral beauty, and radiant with miracles of light." He was baptized in 1843 by Alexander Campbell, whose eulogy he pronounced upon the unveiling of his statue at Bethany, West Virginia. His contro- versy with Colonel Ingersoll in the North American Review, on the subject of atheism, was a memorable one, in which Ingersoll came out second best and with the most scathing rebuke that had ever been administered to him. Judge Black was an apt scholar, especially in English literature and the Latin classics. He could quote at length from any of his favorite authors in either language. In per-
son, Judge Black was tall, broad-shouldered, with a clean-shaven, rugged face, and sharp, bright cyes which flashed from under snow-white brows-alto- gether a remarkable countenance. The final illness of Judge Black lasted only a week, and from its be- ginning he believed that it would terminate fatally. All through his sickness, although suffering intense agony, he was cheerful, and at times witty in his moments of temporary freedom from pain. Several times he quoted from Shakespeare's "Macbeth " and from Bryant's "Thanatopsis."
ROBERT H. SAYRE.
ROBERT HEYSHAM SAYRE, a distinguished civil engineer and railway official, Vice-President of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and General Manager of the Bethlehem Iron Company, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is the second son of William H. Sayre, and was born in Columbia County, Pennsyl- vania, October 13, 1824. His paternal grandfather, Francis Bowes Sayre, was born in the city of Lan- caster, September 9, 1766, studied medicine and practiced in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and was an original member of the first medical society or- ganized in the United States. He died in Philadel- phia in September, 1798, of epidemic fever while engaged in acts of benevolence among the poor. His maternal grandfather, Rodolphus Kent, came from the city of Waterford, Ireland, settled in New Jersey, and married Sarah Tuthill at Morristown, New Jersey, in 1784. Robert's father, William H. Sayre, was born at Bordentown, New Jersey, 1794, was educated in New Brunswick, removed to Phil- adelphia, and served an apprenticeship of five years in the counting house of Thomas P. Cope ; he mar- ried Elizabeth, daughter of Rodolphus Kent, and subsequently engaged in the queensware business in Philadelphia, under the firm of Cook & Sayre. About the year 1818 he removed to Columbia Coun- ty, and thence to Mauch Chunk in 1828, entering the service of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Com- pany, which was soon to open its canal, then nearly completed between Mauch Chunk and Easton. Mr. Sayre was placed in charge of the boating accounts, collection of tolls, etc., and continued in this posi- tion until his health failed in 1865. His eldest son, Francis, who had been in the office some years, suc- ceeded to his position and is still in charge after a continuous service of over fifty-one years. After the removal of the family to Mauch Chunk and Robert had attained a proper age, he attended the common school of the town and there obtained his
I 2
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
education ; the latter of his school years under the tuition of James Nowlin, an able mathematician. In the fall of 1840 lie left school and entered an en- gineer corps under Mr. Andrew A. Douglas, tlien engaged in the work of enlarging the Morris Canal. Early in January, 1841, a great freshet occurred in the Lehigh, partially destroying the Lehigh Canal between White Haven and Easton. Mr. Douglas withi his corps was transferred to the Lehigh and engaged two years in rebuilding the canal. Subse- quently, under the charge of Edwin A. Douglas, Chief Engineer of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, young Sayre was detailed to make the surveys and build the famous Back-Track Railroad between Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill, the Switch-Back Railroad, and the inclined planes into Panther Creek Valley ; to drive the several tunnels therein, to more largely develop the coal mines of the company, and to erect the necessary breakers and machinery for preparing the coal. He also had charge of all the railroads and inclined planes, and the transportation of the coal over them from the mines to Mauch Chunk. While thus engaged he was sought by the Hon. Asa Packer, who had known him as a boy, and offered the position of Chief Engineer of the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna (now Lehigh Valley) Railroad, ex- tending from Mauch Chunk to Easton. After spend- ing over eleven years in the service of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, in May, 1852, Mr. Sayre commenced the surveys for the railroad, and the same fall the work of construction was begun and prosecuted to completion. Early in the fall of 1855, when the road was turned over by the con- tractor, Judge Packer, to the company, Mr. Sayre was appointed Chief Engineer and General Super- intendent, which position he retained until Novem- ber, 1883. During this period Mr. Sayre had charge as Chief Engineer, in addition to his other duties, of building the Lehigh & Mahanoy Railroad, ex- tending from Black Creek Junction to Mount Car- mel, with its various branches opening up, to a con- nection with the Lehigh Valley, the Mahanoy coal field. He also built the Penn Haven & White Haven Railroad from Penn Haven to Wilkes-Barre, reaching the great Wyoming coal field. Subse- quently, both of the before named roads, together with the Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Com- pany and the Hazleton Railroad and Coal Company, were consolidated with and became a part of the Lehigh Valley system. In 1867 Mr. Sayre took charge of the construction of the Pennsylvania and New York Canal and Railroad, virtually an exten- sion of the Lehigh Valley from Wilkes-Barre up the valley of the North Branch of the Susquehanna
river to the State line near Waverly, New York, where it connected with the New York & Erie Rail- way, making direct communication in connection with the Eric front Wilkes-Barre to Buffalo. At Buffalo lie built the Buffalo Creek Railroad, and the necessary facilities for transfer of coal from cars to vessels on the lake. During the fall of 1868 it was determined, on the part of the general officers and employees of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, to present to Mr. Sayre, its Superintendent and En- gineer, some valuable token of the high regard in which they held him, and of their thorough appre- ciation of the faithful manner in which he had ever discharged the manifold duties of his responsible situation. December 24-Christmas Eve-was the time appointed for carrying this resolution into ef- fect. Accordingly, on that day, the Committee having the matter in charge, in company with other friends of Mr. Sayre, repaired to his residence in South Bethlehem. Assembled in his parlor, Mr. John Taylor, General Freight Agent, presented on behalf of its donors, a very handsome and costly service of silver plate, accompanied with the follow- ing address :
Robert H. Sayre, Esg., Superintendent and Engineer of the Lehigh Valley Railroad :
SIR :- The officers and employees of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company have deputed us their Committee to present to you this token of their ap- preciation of your worth as a Superintendent, your skill as an Engineer, and your ability as a railroad man. In your profession, you stand to-day without a superior.
You have been identified with the Lehigh Valley Railroad from its inception. Under your hands it has grown to be a successful institution. In all times of trial and adversity you have stood by it with the fidelity and steadfastness of a hero. You have lived sir, to see the success of your labors. The road which modestly aspired to connect Mauch Chunk with Easton, has, under your guidance, entered the vast anthracite regions of the Lehigh, Schuylkill and Wyoming, and continuing its course north ward up the Susquehanna to the State line, it will enter, at no distant day, the competing list for the tonnage of the Great West. Thus stands the success of this worthy undertaking a perpetual memorial of your fidelity, skill and judgment.
"Recognizing these things, the officers and em- ployees of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company have deemed it fitting to give them expression by this testimonial, as well to your great skill and judg- ment, as to your uniform kindness and considera- tion to all those under you or with whom you have come in contact.
COL. H. B. BERRYHILL.
HON. ASA PAOKER. W. W. LONGSTRETH. PHILIP HOFEOKER.
CHARLES HARTSHORNE. ALEX. MITCHELL.
L. CHAMBERLAIN. OSBORNE SPENCER.
C. C. LONGSTRETH. WILLIAM KELLOGG.
JOHN P. Cox.
FRED MEROUR.
DAVID THOMAS.
E. R. BROWN.
-
I3
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
A. PARDEE.
WILLIAM B. MACK. RIOHARD CAFFREY.
W. L. CONYNGHAM.
JAMES I. BLAKSLEE.
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.