USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of the state of Pennsylvania with a compendium of history. A record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume I > Part 12
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This was a peculiar and at the same time serious event in the history of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia. It was the beginning of a new political era, and a movement which ultimately led to the organiza- tion of a great political party ; but many other important events were to take place before that party came into power. Even at this time the question of slavery in the states south of the Mason and Dixon line was the subject of serions debate in the free states, and the shadows of com- ing events were beginning to show in the distance. No discord had yet developed, but there were signs of approaching danger. . As the abolition of slavery began to be discussed in the north, the south began to strengthen the laws relative to escaping slaves, and also to strengthen its hold on the federal government and its law-making power. The real contest was still in the future, but the section of country most deeply concerned in the result was already beginning to prepare for it. The organization of the "Native American" party had no direct relation to these events, but when that ephemeral organization was disintegrated, its best element of strength was united with the forces that opposed the institution of slavery and at length accomplished its downfall.
In 1845 Francis R. Shunk. a lawyer then living in Pittsburg, a native of Montgomery county, was elected governor of Pennsylvania.
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He had been secretary of the commonwealth under Porter, and was in political harmony with him. He was re-elected at the end of his first term. but resigned on account of failing health. July o. 1848. He died in Harrisburg. July 30. During Governor Shunk's first term the war with Mexico was fought and easily won. President Polk asked for six regiments of troops from Pennsylvania, but the response was so prompt and so general that nine regiments were raised. Two of these and part of a third were mustered into service, and they fought at Vera Cruz. Cerro Gordo. Chapultepec, and Mexico. The splendid monument on Capitol Hill in Harrisburg was erected in memory of the soldiers of Pennsylvania who served during the Mexican war. In 1845 telegraphic communication was opened between Philadelphia and New York, and in the same year steps were taken toward the construction of the Penn- sylvania Railroad between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. This was the beginning of a movement which led to the acquisition of the main line of the state public works by the railroad company.
The constitutional provision for the succession of the vacant gov- ernor's chair placed William F. Johnston, speaker of the senate, in that place, but he did not take the oath of office until July 26. 1848. At the next election he was chosen to serve through the remainder of Governor Shunk's second term. The new governor was an ardent Whig, and was instrumental in influencing legislation in respect to the detention of fugitive slaves. Pennsylvania went so far as to prohibit magistrates from executing the old law of 1793. This was now a free state in every sense, and while the old law stood on the statute books, it was obsolete. and not in harmony with the spirit of its institution of government. The use of jails for the detention of slaves was also forbidden, and the privi- lege formerly extended non-residents to keep slaves temporarily in the state was abolished, for it was no more than consent that slave hunters
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might take and hold escaping slaves temporarily within the state. The spirit of abolition in Pennsylvania was rampant, and constantly spread- ing, and almost every aspirant for public office was chosen with reference to his views on the slavery question.
Previous to the enactment of the fugitive slave law of 1850. the territory of Pennsylvania was a safe refuge for escaping bondmen, but after that law went into effect they were compelled to seek freedom in Canada. To facilitate transit through this state, the famous "Under- ground Railroad" was established, leading from Columbia, in Lancaster county, through Chester, Montgomery and Bucks counties, Philadelphia. Quakertown, and Stroudsburg, to points in New York state; thence by like means to Gerritt Smith's famous colony, and ultimately ending on the free soil of Canada.
This was the favorite route of travel for escaping slaves, but it was not the only one ; every county had its association of abolitionists whose helping hand was always ready to give aid to the fleeing blacks, although under the law such practices were punishable. The court records show frequent proceedings against persons charged with offending against this law, but convictions were few. The people of Pennsylvania were not in sympathy with the law, and would not when acting as jurors enforce its arbitrary provisions against a fellow citizen. Frequently during this period of agitation there were encounters between government officers and citizens, but through some unseen agency the captive slaves escaped their keepers, while their abolitionist rescuers were saved from punish- ment through the aid of friendly jurors and magistrates. In 1851 a serious encounter took place at Christiana, in Lancaster county, where a pursuing owner was mortally injured by one of his own slaves. Arrests and trials followed, but the persons accused were never convicted.
Just at the time when the people were most excited over the troubles
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growing out of the enforcement of the fugitive slave law, a campaign for the governorship was at hand. and naturally the question then uppermost in the public mind was an important issue in the contest. Johnston was nominated by the Whigs and Native American parties, and the Demo- crats opposed him with William Bigler, of Clearfield. a former news- paper publisher, but then a prosperous lumberman and business man.
Bigler was elected. He was a man of known integrity, and enter- tained clear convictions on all the leading questions of the day. Both before and after election he favored a higher standard for the common schools, and advocated the employment of professional teachers in all populous localities. He had excellent ideas regarding the canals, and urged the completion of the North Branch division, that an outlet might be provided for the immense coal product of that region. In the mean- time. in 1854. the Pennsylvania Railroad was completed. and this, with other lines, added to the general prosperity of the period and made it re- markable in the history of the state. However, the troubles over the slave laws still continued, but the governor, seeing the drift of public sentiment. let matters work out their own results. He was not a poli- tician, but aimed to be politic and reasonable in all that he did. Had he been more aggressive in his policy, he might have fared better ; but then. Bigler never had high political aspirations.
Governor Bigler was a candidate for re-election in October. 1854. but it was impossible for him to conduct his own campaign. Had his health permitted him to go before the people "on the stump." he probably would have been elected. for his administration had been honest and his course in all respects commendable. In the gubernatorial contest of that year three candidates battled for election. Bigler carried the standard of the straight Democracy : B. Rush Bradford championed the doctrines of the new "Free Soil" party; and Judge James Pollock was the stand-
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ard-bearer of the Whigs and Native Americans. The "Free Soilers" drew their strength from the ranks of the other parties, most largely from the Democracy, and in less numbers from the Americans. The latter was then fast disintegrating, and had come to be known as the "Know Nothing" party. The Whigs more than held their own, and were soon to develop into the Republican party, who advocated abolition until it was accomplished, and who, with the assistance of many loyal Democrats, fought for that principle for four long years, and by their united efforts preserved intact and inseparable the federal Union.
Governor Pollock took up the duties of office in January. 1855. and served one term. His administration was satisfactory, but owing to increasing uneasiness throughout the country on account of the slavery question, and the defiant attitude of the south, there was little attempt to inaugurate new or untried measures. The state did, however. wisely determine. in 1857, to sell its main line of public works, the combined line of railroads and canals between Philadelphia and Pittsburg. They were purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for $7.500.000. Soon afterward the canals on the Susquehanna and its branches above Juniata, together with the Delaware division, were sold to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company for $3.500,000. The sale of these prop- erties materially reduced the public debt, and relieved the people of a burden of taxation. Thereafter the state was forbidden, by act of the legislature, to build or maintain public works or to acquire stocks in any corporate enterprise.
The sale of the canals was accomplished in good season, and none too early. In 1857 a financial panic swept the country like a whirlwind. and spread ruin in its broad path. Banks were wrecked. mercantile in- terests were paralyzed, and all enterprises were crippled for the time. In order to relieve the situation and release the banks from penalties pre-
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scribed for suspension of specie payment. the governor convened the leg, islature in special session. Through this action many banking houses were saved from complete ruin, and many other enterprises were enabled to continue business. The course taken by the governor and the legis- lature was commended in all business circles, and as its result the people of Pennsylvania suffered less than in states where all enterprises were compelled to save themselves without assistance.
The political contest of 1857 was waged when the financial panic was at its height, and when the voting population was in doubt as to which leader would most safely carry the state through the storm of dis- aster and depression. The Democrats flocked around the banner of William F. Packer, an ex-journalist and a legislator of experience. The remnant of the American party put Isaac Hazelhurst in the field, while the Free-soilers carried the standard of David Wilmot, he of "Wilmot Proviso" fame, the champion of anti-slavery, and author of the bill to exclude slavery from the territory purchased from Mexico in 18.16. Wilmot also received the support of the recently organized Republican party, which had absorbed the Whigs and was soon to draw the free soil voters into its ranks.
Packer, the Democrat, was elected; and it was well. for he. with an influential party behind him, with fixed principles to contend for, was best fitted to deal with the important affairs of state that required atten- tion : and besides, Packer was sound on all the leading questions of the time, and was not a novice in matters of legislation and the relation thereto of the executive. Buchanan was now president of the United States. His attitude on the slavery question was a source of anxiety and regret in every anti slavery heart : but the state administration was not in full sympathy with the course Buchanan was pursuing and it was well that a conservative Democrat should occupy the gubernatorial chair
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at that time. A little later, when the first break came, and trouble was threatening, Packer declared himself in ringing. patriotic voice, and the people of Pennsylvania rejoiced that this loyal son of Center county stood at the head of their government.
Governor Packer assumed the duties of office in January, 1858. His predecessor had done much to promote the public welfare, but the cur- rency question still needed attention. The people of the state at large. however, were very little concerned about local matters, for all attention was directed to the greater question which involved the national welfare and safety. James Buchanan, the only man Pennsylvania ever sent to the presidential chair, urged the admission of Kansas to the federal Union as a slave state, and that despite the wishes of the free settlers of that territory. He declared himself clearly on the side of slavery, and at that time there was no more ultra-abolition sentiment in any state in the Union than that from which Buchanan came. His own Lancaster county was a veritable hotbed of abolitionism both before and after this time, and the people there had regarded Buchanan as a favorite son. On many occasions they had honored him with their votes. Ile had been elected to high places, and from 1812. when he began the practice of law in Lancaster. to the close of his presidential term, he was most of the time in the public service. He was a Democrat of firm convictions, yet he had always been perfectly fair and candid in declaring his opinions and policy.
When the United States supreme court held that slaves were chattels. the same as cattle. the people were not overcome with surprise, for the tendency of that high tribunal was known to be pro-slavery ; but when Buchanan urged the admission of a new state as a slave state, he went beyond the expectations of his Pennsylvania supporters, and many of them deserted him. Among these was John W. Forney, who gained
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wide prominence in journalistic circles. Buchanan had received the electoral vote of every slave state and several of the northern states, and naturally he most favored the interests that had elevated him to power. But when he discovered about the close of his term that he had over- reached himself, and adopted his so-called "temporizing policy." he brought down upon his own head the condemnation of the south and did not by his course regain favor with the north.
While these events were taking place, others of a disturbing nature were following one another in quick succession, and none of them were calculated to quiet the situation or relieve the excitement of the period. On the contrary, each occurrence seemed to indicate increased trouble in political circles. Party ties were broken and the people arrayed then- selves either for slavery or against it : there was no other issue. Candi- dates were chosen with reference to their position on the question of slavery, and all other questions, whether local or general in character. dwarfed to insignificance. Another presidential election was approach- ing. Buchanan's successor must be elected, and it was evident that the free states must rally to the standard of the candidate who would stand unflinchingly for the abolition of slavery in the United States.
In the midst of all the political excitement of the period, John Brown made his somewhat famous but ill-timed and unsuccessful raid. He had lived a short time in Chambersburg, and was known to the citizens there as Dr. Smith, a mining operator having interests in Maryland. One Sunday night in October, 1859. Brown set out on the desperate errand by which he proposed to strike a decisive blow against the institution of slavery, but which in fact landed him on the gallows a month afterward ( December 2). It was swift retribution-it cannot be called justice- that overtook John Brown, when he was hanged on that carly December morning : it was a most prompt enforcement of arbitrary law, but it
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served no purpose other than to arouse the indignation of the people throughout the entire north. In Philadelphia there was intense excite- ment, and, on the morning of the hanging, Lucretia Mott, the Quaker abolitionist. and other speakers, addressed a vast assemblage of citizens ; but the people there were not of one accord, as the derisive hisses and groans indicated a pro-slavery sentiment somewhere in the great city. Brown's body was carried through the city on December 4, when there was another demonstration of sympathy for the cause he assumed to represent.
These events in Pennsylvania history were of an unusual character, and were not conducive to its peace and harmony. The conservative people and those at the head of state government were hoping for a peaceful solution of the political problem, and made strenuous efforts in that direction. A presidential campaign was at hand. The people of the state were stirred with excitement. and if there was to be a fair expression of popular sentiment, men in official circles must be calm, and determined to preserve good order among the people. These views were held by Governor Packer and his administration. and something of their spirit appears to have animated the people of Pennsylvania and restrained them from violence or ill-tempered speech during the six months immediately preceding the presidential election of 1860. Never before had so much depended upon the result of the ballot.
When the time arrived for the selection of candidates for the na- tional and state tickets in 1860. business interests were temporarily put aside, and all attention was riveted on the proceedings and final action of the conventions. In this state the best and wisest men were chosen to sit in that body and share in its deliberations, and the people were satisfied that wisdom would govern its councils. There was only one
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question to discuss, and that : shall the institution of slavery be con- tinned in the United States ?
The Democrats of Pennsylvania were united on Henry D. Foster. their candidate for governor, but were divided in the choice for presi- dent, one faction favoring the ticket headed by Breckenridge, and the other advocating support for Douglas. The Republicans with one accord favored Lincoln and Hamlin as presidential nominees, and were a unit jor Andrew G. Curtin for governor. At the polls the Republican ticket was successful. Curtin was elected by a clear majority. The national ticket headed by Abraham Lincoln also was successful, and now for the first time the recently organized Republican party had elected a president -an abolitionist-originally, m his young manhood a "rail-splitter," later a lawyer, and now ( 1860), by the expressed will of the American people, the chief executive of the greatest republic on the earth.
Andrew G. Curtin, the "War Governor" of Pennsylvania, the friend and associate of Lincoln and Cameron, first appeared as a figure in state history in 1855. When he became secretary of the commonwealth and. by virtue of that office, superintendent of common schools. He was born in Bellefonte. Center county. April 28. 1817, and was educated for the legal profession. He served as secretary of the commonwealth and superintendent of schools from 1855 to 1858, and in 1860 was elected governor. The six years next following his public record formed an important chapter in Pennsylvania and national history, for he was the close friend and adviser of Lincoln, and when Mr. Cameron was called into the president's cabinet, there were three conspicuous figures in our state (as well as national) military history -- Lincoln, Curtin. and Cam- cron-three splendid specimens of true American manhood, two of them natives of the state, and the other allied to it by ties of kinship. The president was of that family of Lincolns who came from Massachusetts
ยท
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and settled in Berks county early in the eighteenth century. Mordecai Lincoln was the pioneer, and his son John, who afterward emigrated to Virginia, was grandfather of Abraham Lincoln, the president.
In the south the election of 1860 was followed by open defiance of the will of the majority, and the manifestations of that will took form according to the temper of those who controlled its policy. While Buchanan was still in the presidential chair, before Curtin had been seated governor of Pennsylvania, South Carolina adopted an ordinance of secession, and her action was being considered by other states with a like purpose in view. It was this extraordinary action that evoked from Packer the patriotic utterances that endeared him to every loyal Penn- sylvanian : "The advocates of secession claim that the Union is merely a compact between the several states composing it, and that any one of the states, when aggrieved, may, at its pleasure, declare it will no longer be a party to the compact. This doctrine is clearly erroneous."
Packer was not at all in sympathy with Buchanan's pro-slavery leanings, and raised his voice against the president's indifference to the welfare of Pennsylvania when the rebellions south was making every preparation for war, and the north was powerless to prevent it. Soon after the election the secretary of war in Washington ordered the arms and ammunition in the arsenal at Lawrenceville to be shipped to New Orleans, for the purpose of strengthening the defenses of that city. This bold and unwarranted action was known to the president, but he made no move to stop it.
Buchanan knew that Pennsylvania was the most intensely anti- slavery state in the federal Union: he knew that its southern boundary was the dividing line between the slave states and the free states; and he must have known that in case of war its territory would certainly be subject to invasion by the southern army, and that the revengeful south-
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ern spirit would seek to visit is wrath upon the people who had most vigorously combatted their alleged "sacred institution." Yet Buchanan permitted the agents of the south to weaken the defenses of his own state : and it was not until the people of Pennsylvania arose in loud pro- test against the iniquity that the president's secretary of war informed them that the order of removal would be countermanded. It was asked. to0, that the president "purge his cabinet of disloyal members, and see to it that the republic suffer no detriment" as long as its chief magistracy was in his hands; but Buchanan held on to the end without changing his policy, and then retired to Wheatland, his country estate near Lan- caster, where he died June 1, 1868.
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CHAPTER VIII.
PENNSYLVANIA DURING THE WAR OF 1861-1865.
Governor Curtin took up the reins of state government January 15. 1861: Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated president of the United States March 4. 1861. The governor's administration was sustained and sup- ported by a legislature in perfeet accord with his own political views, and the measures suggested and adopted by them were sanctioned by the loyal people who had placed them in power, and who had absolute confidence in their ability and integrity. When in the course of a few months it became necessary for the governor to call upon his people for volunteers. the answer was so prompt that the honor of placing the first troops in Washington for the defense of country, was accorded to men of Penn- sylvania -- to the "First Defenders."
Mr. Lincoln's introduction to official station was less eventful than Governor Curtin's, and almost from the day he left home for the national capital it was deemed prudent to adopt precautionary measures to insure his personal safety. When he arrived in Harrisburg, on February 22. he was welcomed by a vast throng of people, and also was cordially greeted by both branches of the legislature, whom he in return addressed. But when he left the state capital for Washington, it became advisable to travel secretly by a circuitous route to Philadelphia, and thence south- ward, for it was rumored that a plot had been laid in Baltimore to assas- sinate him while enroute through that city. Thus in 1861 the people of Pennsylvania did honor to the "great emancipator": for four long years afterward they fought to maintain the principles for which he stood ; and in 1865 they did honor to his memory when his body, cold and still
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in death, was carried through the streets of Philadelphia. The work of the assassin had been delayed. but it was not less fatal.
The early part of Governor Curtin's first term was devoted to the rearrangement of his official household. He surrounded himself with careful advisers, yet in all that was done he himself took the initiative and suggested and carried into effect many important measures. He knew that war was inevitable, and, while he labored earnestly for a peace- ful adjustment of existing differences, at the same time he was making preparations for the outbreak. In his inaugural address to the legislature he said "that Pennsylvania would, under any circumstances, render a full and determined support of the free institutions of the Union," and he pledged himself and his state to the support of the constitution and the maintenance of the national compact. The legislature had already placed itself on record in a series of patriotic resolutions, and there was now no doubt as to the loyalty of the Pennsylvanians in case of war with the south.
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