USA > Pennsylvania > Lives of the governors of Pennsylvania : with the incidental history of the state, from 1609 to 1873 > Part 35
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
and thus obtaining his future sympathy and support. At the same election, Mr. Ritner, the anti-Masonic candidate, was also elected Governor by a plurality vote over his Democratic competitors, George Wolf and Henry A. Muhlenberg.
In 1836 he united with O. Barrett and Benjamin Parke in the establishment and publication of The Keystone, at Harris- burg, a paper which at once commanded the confidence and support of the Democratic party of the State. The enter- prise was successful, and Mr. Packer continued a member of the firm until 1841, when he retired. In the memorable con- test of 1838, between David R. Porter and Joseph Ritner for the governorship, which was both animated and bitter, The Keystone contributed largely to the election of Governor Porter. Mr. Packer also distinguished himself in the cam- paign by his tact and power as a public speaker.
In February, 1839, he was appointed a member of the Board of Canal Commissioners, where he was associated with James Clarke and Edward B. Hubley. The responsibility and patronage of the Canal Board were little exceeded by those of the Executive; and for the succeeding three years, during which he held the office, his whole attention was de- voted to the successful management of the State's vast chain of internal improvements.
At the commencement of Governor Porter's second term, in May, 1842, Mr. Packer was appointed Auditor-General of the Commonwealth. He continued to discharge the duties of that office until 1845, a period of three years. His office gave him a seat in the cabinet of the Executive, and thus called into action his knowledge of men, of measures, and of the diversified interests of the State. Holding jurisdiction over all the public accounts, including the large expenditures of money for public improvements, numerous difficult and complicated questions arose for adjudication, which called for the exercise of the soundest judgment; and no mind, save one well informed by an extensive acquaintance with the whole internal improvement system, as well as with the statutes of the Commonwealth, could have discharged the
..
11:
simon, Mi gt to bec.It
-
:
438 GOVERNORS UNDER CONSTITUTION OF 1838.
duties successfully. The ability and impartiality displayed in this trust, are acknowledged by men of all parties.
In 1847 he was duly elected a member of the House of Representatives from the district composed of the counties of Lycoming, Clinton, and Potter, by a majority exceeding fifteen hundred votes. He was a candidate at the preceding election, and, as afterwards appeared, received a majority of votes; but by a mistake in carrying out the returns of Porter Township, Clinton County, his competitor was returned as elected, and actually served during the whole of the session before the error was discovered. Although this was his first appearance as a member of any legislative body, his knowledge of the public interests, his acquaintance with parliamentary rules, and his business capacity were so widely known and acknowledged, that he was chosen Speaker. The selection of a new member to a post of such great responsibility, and requiring such varied and extensive abilities, may be regarded as a high honor in which he stands as the sole recipient in the annals of the State. In 1848 he was re-elected by an increased majority. The brilliant achievements of a brave and suc- cessful general, who was a candidate for the Presidency, had produced disastrous results to the Democratic party through- out the Union, giving the Whigs a large majority in the Senate of Pennsylvania, and reducing the Democratic mem- bers of the House to a bare equality in number with their opponents- each party having fifty members. Notwith- standing this circumstance, and although every member was in attendance at the organization of the House, Mr. Packer was again elected Speaker of that body. Considering his known attachment to Democratic principles, his great influ- ence and continual activity as a writer and as a public speaker in sustaining those principles, his second elevation to the Speaker's chair was an honorable and magnanimous tribute to his talents and integrity, and to the impartiality and ability with which he had discharged the high duties of the office at the previous session. This compliment was in fact richly .
1
٢٠٠
439
WILLIAM F. PACKER.
merited. Although self-taught, his education had not been neglected. IIe was familiar with the current literature, and with the teachings of history and philosophy. Though not a member of the legal profession, he was a much better lawyer than many who belonged to it. His thorough acquaintance with legal principles and with constitutional and parliamen- tary law, eminently qualified him for the duties of the chair. So satisfactory were his decisions upon the many difficult ques- tions which arose during the two sessions in which he served as Speaker, that they were in no instance reversed by the House. Indeed, an appeal was never taken, except in a soli- tary case; and on that occasion, upon hearing his reasons and the authority cited in support of his decision, the judgment of the Chair was unanimously sustained,- the gentleman who took it voting against his own appeal.
At the general election of 1849, Mr. Packer, having re- ceived the Democratic nomination for State Senator, in the district composed of the counties of Lycoming, Clinton, Centre, and Sullivan, was elected by a large majority over Andrew G. Curtin, who succeeded him in the Executive chair. Politically, at that time, the Senate was about equally divided, and at the two succeeding sessions the Whig party had the control. In that body, as was anticipated, he proved one of the most efficient members, and especially dis- tinguished himself on all questions relating to the improve- ment of the valley of the Susquehanna. Hitherto no rail- road had been authorized along that valley by which a close. North and South connection could be effected between Washington and Baltimore and the Great Lakes. Trade and travel were compelled to leave the route destined by nature for a great public highway, and pass over mountain chains or by circuitous routes, through other cities. The reason assigned for this unwise course was that the policy of Penn- sylvania was opposed to the building of roads leading across the line of its improvements and directly to cities of other States. Mr. Packer, in the session of 1851, met this question boldly, by introducing a bill to incorporate the Susquehanna
٠٠
:
440 GOVERNORS UNDER CONSTITUTION OF 1838.
Railroad Company, with authority to construct a road con- necting with the York and Cumberland road at Bridgeport, opposite Harrisburg, or with the Pennsylvania road, on either side of the Susquehanna, or on the Juniata, and with the right and privilege to connect with both or either of said roads, and running through Halifax and Millersburg, in Dauphin County, to Sunbury, in Northumberland County ; and with the further privilege of extending the road from Sunbury to Williams- port, on the West Branch, and to Wilkesbarre, on the North Branch, of the Susquehanna. This project, so eminently proper in itself, but so repugnant to the policy theretofore pursued, was, of course, bitterly opposed. Finding that it could not be defeated by direct attack, bold attempts were made to destroy its effect by amendments. But all these efforts to embarrass and defeat the measure were firmly and successfully resisted. The bill passed and became a law.
At the same session, a bill was reported by the Senate committee of finance authorizing the assessment of a tax of twenty-five cents per ton on all freight, and fifteen cents on each passenger paying fare and passing over the York and Cumberland Railroad. As that road was but twenty-six miles in length, the tax proposed was almost prohibitory, and . was intended by its supporters to prevent trade and travel from leaving the valley of the Susquehanna and passing to Baltimore - the York and Cumberland Railroad constituting a link in the chain of roads leading to that city. Mr. Packer's speech, in opposition to that measure, delivered on the 21st of February, 1851, and reported by Wm. E. Drake, was a masterly effort. It was extensively republished, and produced a marked effect upon the public mind. It was con- clusive; and the friends of the bill were constrained to accept the same terms of taxation on the York and Cumberland, which were by law imposed upon the Pennsylvania railroads. The liberal and statesmanlike policy so successfully advocated by him on that occasion is not now questioned, and is ap- proved by none more heartily than by those who then opposed it with the greatest zeal.
g أربع
441
WILLIAM F. PACKER.
When the three-hundred-dollar exemption law was passed, Mr. Packer was Speaker of the House of Representatives, and gave it his cordial support. At the succeeding session, in presenting to the Senate a petition from a portion of his own constituency, asking for the repeal of the law, he an- nounced his fixed determination to resist the repeal, and in a speech upon that subject, feelingly remarked: "I would not permit the covetous and hard-hearted creditor to drive his unfortunate debtor, naked and penniless, out upon the cold charities of an inhospitable world. The laws that authorize such a procedure should be blotted from the pages of the statute books of every State in this Union. They are repug- nant to the spirit of the age, and revolting to humanity. Like the laws sanctioning imprisonment for debt, they should be repudiated by every philanthropic legislator; they should exist but in the history of the past- an obsolete idea. It has been truly said, Mr. Speaker, that he who sells out the last little property of a wife and family of small children of a rash, heedless, or perhaps intemperate husband and father, and afterwards, with a cheerful countenance, goes home to dine, goes home to feast on human hearts. Sir, money thus obtained has a damning curse upon it."
He also supported, in both branches of the Legislature, the proposed amendment of the Constitution, authorizing the election of the judiciary by the people.
On the organization of the Susquehanna Railroad Com-' pany, in June, 1852, Mr. Packer was made its first president ; and it was mainly through his exertions, aided by influential citizens of Baltimore, that that city, by its councils, decided to guarantee five hundred thousand dollars of the bonds of the York and Cumberland Railroad Company, which had been loaned to the Susquehanna Company. This at once gave to the latter funds and a credit which ultimately secured the completion of the road to Sunbury. Subsequently, the Susquehanna, the York and Cumberland, and the Baltimore and Susquehanna Companies were consolidated under the title of the Northern Central Railway Company, and a dis-
WWEALE
.
:
.5
;
1:
;!
442
GOVERNORS UNDER CONSTITUTION OF 1838.
tinguished Baltimorean was made its first president, Mr. Packer continuing a member of the board of directors.
In 1854 the Legislature annulled the charter of the Frank- lin Canal Company and assumed the control of the railroad built by that company from the city of Erie to the Ohio State line, and Mr. Packer was appointed to take charge of the road while it was in the possession of the State. He entered upon those duties, and continued to discharge them until the Lake Shore Railroad difficulties were finally and satisfactorily settled.
For some years prior to the Presidential election of 1856, the Democracy of Pennsylvania had presented the name of James Buchanan for the first office of the nation, and to secure his nomination by the Cincinnati Convention of that year, great care was taken in the selection of delegates to represent the State in that body. Among those chosen was Mr. Packer, who labored earnestly to accomplish that object. Mr. Buchanan was nominated; and when the platform was reported to the convention, it so fully met the approval of Mr. Packer's judgment that he moved its adoption " without the crossing of a t or the dotting of an i; " and his motion was unanimously carried. Gratified alike with the candidate and the platform, all his energies were devoted to their suc- cess; and his numerous speeches during that campaign contributed largely in producing the desired result. In this connection, it may be stated that he was also a delegate to the first Democratic National Convention, which assembled in Baltimore in 1835, and nominated Martin Van Buren for President, and Richard M. Johnson for Vice-President.
In March, 1857, he was nominated for Governor, and though opposed by the Hon. David Wilmot, author of the " Wilmot Proviso," who enjoyed a wide-spread reputation as a public speaker and a politician, candidate of the Republi- cans, and by the Hon. Isaac Hazlehurst, candidate of the Native Americans, he was triumphantly elected, having a majority over both of more than fourteen thousand votes.
At the period of his nomination for Governor, the political
٠٠
٧٠٠٠٠٠
1
16. 100 8911 91
٫٠٩
٦٫٤
1
443
WILLIAM F. PACKER.
question which overshadowed all others was, whether Kansas should be admitted into the Union with or without a con- stitutional recognition of slavery. A state of armed hostility existed between the inhabitants and the general Government, and the agents of the latter, for their safety, had been com- pelled to flee from the territory. In view of the bearing which the action of the national administration on this ques- tion must necessarily have upon the Pennsylvania election, then pending, Mr. Packer addressed a letter to President Buchanan, from which, though marked " private," the fol- lowing paragraphs may be made public without impropriety. It is dated, Harrisburg, March 24, 1857. " Our people," he says, " confidently expect that your administration will see that equal and exact justice shall be done to all parties - the free-state as well as the pro-slavery men -and they will be satisfied with nothing short of that. We approve of the Kansas bill ; but in God's name let its provisions be honestly carried out; let the law be faithfully executed. Let the con- duct of the public agents in Kansas not only be right, but let it appear to be right. If slavery should be instituted by, or under a slave-holding Executive, and Kansas should claim admission as a slave State, it does not require a prophet to foretell the consequences north of Mason and Dixon's line. The Democratic party, which has stood by the Constitution and the rights of the South with such unflinching fidelity, would be stricken down in the few remaining States where it is yet in the ascendancy ; the balance of power would be lost; and Black Republicans would rule this nation, or civil war and disunion would inevitably follow. What, then, is to be done ? Will you permit me to make a suggestion ? The post of honor and renown, if successfully and satisfactorily filled, at this moment in the gift of the President, is the Gov- ernorship of Kansas. Send one of the first men of the nation there - some gentleman who enjoys the confidence of the North and the South - and let him cover himself with glory by a fearless and a faithful discharge of the duties of his sta- tion. Sustain him, then, with the whole power of the Govern-
.
1
444
GOVERNORS UNDER CONSTITUTION OF 1838.
ment, and follow with swift vengeance any party that dares to raise a hand against the law or its prompt and faithful exe- cution. The time for trifling is past. Bold, efficient action is required. To waver or to vacillate, is to fail. Who, then, should be appointed ? If General Scott would accept of the position, and if the duties are compatible with those of the military station he now holds, I answer, appoint General Winfield Scott. He has the confidence of the nation. He is acceptable to the South, having been born and reared in Virginia; and he is not unacceptable to the North, inasmuch as he now resides there. If requested by the President, in view of the importance of the mission, I do not think that he would decline. However, let some such man be appointed - some man well known to the American people, and in whom they confide, and the result will be the same. All will be well. Otherwise, I tremble for the result."
His official action on national questions which, during his Executive term, seriously threatened the dissolution of the Union, and which ultimately involved the country in civil war, forms so important a part of the record of that eventful crisis, as it relates to Pennsylvania, that it is due to the truth of history, as well as to Governor Packer's memory, to pre- sent some extracts from his annual messages, in which the whole subject was discussed. Throughout his administration he was the firm advocate of the doctrine of popular sovereignty - the right of the people of the States and Territories to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States. In his inaugural address he said : "To the people of Penn- sylvania the admission of a new State into the Union - into that confederacy of which she is a member -must be at all times a subject of high interest. And I believe I express their sentiments, as well as my own, in declaring that all the qualified electors of a territory should have a full and fair opportunity to participate in selecting delegates to form a constitution preparatory to admission as a State, and, if de- sired by them, they should also be allowed an unqualified right to vote upon such constitution after it is framed."
0
.1
Ich now en Koolaid to
445
WILLIAM F. PACKER.
In his annual message to the Legislature, in January, 1859, referring to his inaugural address, he said: "Subsequent events have confirmed me in these sentiments. The de- plorable disputes in the first session of the present Congress, the popular excitement resulting from those disputes, together with other proceedings, in their nature novel and alarming, would all have been averted, had the people been secured in ' the unqualified right' to vote upon their domestic institu- tions. I regret to be compelled to say that, under various pretences, this sacred franchise has been virtually withheld from them. During the angry feelings which this contro- versy has aroused, the theory has been started, and insisted upon, that it will henceforward be the duty of Congress to protect slavery in the territories, if the people of the terri- tories shall fail to do so. . . . Such a doctrine, no matter how sanctioned or supported, will shake the very pillars of our constitutional fabric. It would compel every territory to elevate property in slaves above every other description of property, and to establish a slave code in its early municipal regulations; or else it would convert the Congress into a theatre of crimination and confusion, and fill the whole country with strife. . .. Regarding myself as fully commit- ted to the doctrine of popular sovereignty in its broadest sense, I can never subscribe to the theory of congressional intervention, as understood and supported by the opponents of this doctrine. ... A theory equally heretical has been advanced in another portion of the Union. It has been held that this government, divided into free and slave States, as it was framed by our revolutionary fathers, cannot endure, - that all must become free, or all become slave. When such a doctrine shall be enforced, the constitution will have been subverted, State sovereignty prostrated, State rights disre- garded, and the liberty of the people destroyed. It should meet an indignant rebuke from every lover of his country, and the blood-bought right of the people and the States to self-government."
In the fall of 1859, "John Brown's raid " was made into
:
1:1.
١٠
.5
1.11
end bon sod ding a gooddi A . . somused and to
446
GOVERNORS UNDER CONSTITUTION OF 1838.
Virginia. In his annual message to the Legislature, in Jan- uary, 1860, Governor Packer thus refers to that subject : "The recent seizure of the public property of the United States at Harper's Ferry, and the invasion of the State of Virginia, by a small band of desperadoes, with an intention to excite the slave population to insurrection, have drawn attention to the dangers which beset our federal relations. . . To us, as Pennsylvanians, it is gratifying to believe that the citizens of this Commonwealth have not, in any manner, participated in this unlawful proceeding, and to know that when some of the guilty perpetrators were arrested within our jurisdiction, they were promptly surrendered to the justice of the offended and injured State. The several States of this Union are independent sovereignties, except so far as they have granted certain enumerated powers to the Federal government. In cases not provided for in the Federal Constitution, the several States, in their relations to each other, ought to be governed by the principles which regulate the conduct of civilized nations. These principles forbid, in all nations, ' every evil practice tending to excite disturbance in another State,' and are founded on the maxim that 'dif- ferent nations ought, in time of peace, to do one another all the good they can, without prejudicing their real interests.' This maxim, recognized by all civilized governments, applies with peculiar force to the several States of this Union, bound together, as they are, by a sacred compact for mutual support and protection ; and, therefore, any attempt in one State to incite insurrection in another is an offence against all the States, because all are bound by the Constitution to put down such disturbance. . . . In determining our relative duties towards our sister States, the morality of servitude is not an open question, for we are bound by the legal and moral obligation of the compact of the Union, under which we have been brought into existence and preserved as inde- pendent States, as well as by the principles of international law, to respect the institutions which the laws of the several States recognize, and in no other way can we faithfully fulfil our obligations as members of this confederacy."
.77
1
...
1
447
WILLIAM F. PACKER.
Governor Packer's official term closed in January, 1861. South Carolina, by its Convention, had just passed a seces- sion ordinance. In his last Annual Message to the Legisla- ture, referring to this momentous subject, he said: "The extraordinary and alarming condition of our national affairs demands your immediate attention. On the twentieth of December last, the Convention of South Carolina, organized under the authority of the Legislature of that State, by a unanimous vote declared 'that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and the other States, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved ;' and the action already taken in several other Southern States indicates, most clearly, their intention to follow this example. On behalf of the advocates of secession, it is claimed, that this Union is merely a compact between the several States composing it, and that any one of the States, which may feel aggrieved, may, at its pleasure, declare that it will no longer be a party to the compact. This doctrine is clearly erroneous. The Constitution of the United States is something more than a mere compact, or agreement, between the several States. As applied to nations, a compact is but a treaty, which may be abrogated at the will of either party; responsible to the other party for its bad faith in refusing to keep its engage- ments, but entirely irresponsible to any superior tribunal. A government, on the other hand, whether created by consent, or conquest, when clothed with legislative, judicial, and exec- utive powers, is necessarily in its nature sovereign; and from this sovereignty flows its right to enforce its laws and decrees by civil process, and, in an emergency, by its military and naval power. The government owes protection to the people, and they, in turn, owe it their allegiance. Its laws cannot be violated by its citizens, without accountability to the tribu- nals created to enforce its decrees and to punish offenders. Organized resistance to it, is rebellion. If successful, it may be purged of crime by revolution. If unsuccessful, the per- sons engaged in the rebellion may be executed as traitors. The Government of the United States, within the limits
: ٠١٢
448
GOVERNORS UNDER CONSTITUTION OF 1838.
assigned to it, is as potential in sovereignty as any other government in the civilized world. The Constitution, and laws made in pursuance thereof, are expressly declared to be the supreme law of the land. Under the Constitution, the general Government has the power to raise and support armies, to create and maintain a navy, and to provide for calling forth the militia, to execute its laws, suppress insur- rection and repel invasion. .... The creation of the Federal government, with the powers enumerated in the Constitution, was the act of the people of the United States, and it is per- fectly immaterial that the people of the several States acted separately within the territorial limits of each State. The form of their action is of no consequence, in view of the fact that they created a Federal government, to which they sur- rendered certain powers of sovereignty, and declared those powers, thus surrendered, to be supreme, without reserving to the States, or to the people, the right of secession, nullifi- cation, or other resistance. It is therefore clear, that there is no Constitutional right of secession. Secession is only an- other form of nullification. Either, when attempted to be carried out by force, is rebellion, and should be treated as such, by those whose sworn duty it is to maintain the suprem- acy of the Constitution and laws of the United States."
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.