USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 2 > Part 38
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In his annual report, submitted to Congress in December, 1861, as he originally prepared it, the Secretary argued the right to seize and arm the slave as undisputed, but by direction of the Government it was materially modified. In his first draft he had said : " War, even between independent nations, is made to subdue the enemy, and all that belongs to that enemy, by occupy- ing the hostile country, and exercising dominion over all the men and things within its territory. . . . Why should this (slave)
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property be exempt from the hazards and consequences of a rebellious war? . .. While the loyal States have all their property and possessions at stake, are the insurgent rebels to carry on warfare against the Government in peace and security to their own property ? Reason, and justice, and self-preservation forbid that such be the policy of this Government, but demand, on the contrary, that being forced by traitors and rebels to the extremity of war, all the rights and powers of war should be exercised to bring it to a speedy end. . .. The Government has no power to hold slaves, none to restrain a slave of his liberty, or to exact his service. It has a right, however, to use the vol- untary service of slaves liberated by war from their rebel masters, like any other property of the rebels, in whatever mode may be most efficient for the defence of the Government, the prosecution of the war, and the suppression of the Rebellion. It is as clearly a right of the Government to arm slaves when it may become necessary, as it is to take gunpowder from the enemy and use it against them. . . . If it shall be found that the men who have been held by the rebels as slaves are capable of bearing arms and per- forming efficient military service, it is the right, and may become the duty of this Government to arm and equip them and employ their services against the rebels, under proper regulations, dis- cipline and command. But in whatever manner they may be used by the Government, it is plain that once liberated by the rebellious acts of their masters, they should never again be restored to bondage. By the master's treason and rebellion he forfeits all right to labor and service of his slave; and the slave of the rebellious master, by his service to the Government, becomes justly entitled to freedom and protection." This, at the very outset of the war, was considered bold doctrine, and appar- ently not entirely in harmony with the declarations of the President in his messages, as to the purposes of the Government, though the course here pointed out was at a later period actually adopted without incurring any imputation of inconsistency, the necessity for preserving the life of the government overriding every other consideration, and might from the first have been adopted had public sentiment been prepared for it. At the sug- gestion of the Government, however, Mr. Cameron's argument was
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so modified as simply to say : "Their labor may be useful to us; withheld from the enemy it lessens his military resources, and withholding them has no tendency to induce the horrors of insurrection, even in the rebel communities. They constitute a military resource, and being such, that they should not be turned over to the enemy is too plain to discuss. Why deprive him of supplies by a blockade, and voluntarily give him men to produce them ?" The publication of the original draft subserved the important purpose, at the time, of familiarizing the loyal people of the course which the Government might be compelled to adopt, and at the same time gave the disloyal a strong hint of what they might eventually reasonably expect.
On the 11th of January, 1862, Mr. Cameron resigned his position as Secretary of War, and was immediately tendered by the President and accepted the place of Minister to Russia. He undertook this important mission at a critical period in the national history. Complications with foreign nations were then hourly thickening. Several first-class powers were earnestly discussing the question of recognizing the Southern Confederacy. Napoleon was maturing his schemes for the occupation of Mexico. Southern emissaries were laboring at every European court to gain favor for their newly formed government, and seeking to create a sentiment at variance with that of the United States. In the midst of these portents of evil, to preserve and cement the friendship of so powerful a nation as Russia was of the first moment. To Mr. Cameron was committed this all important duty. How well he executed his high trust the sequel of events proved. As the winter of 1863 drew on apace, and the prospect of ultimate triumph seemed more and more remote-the western nations of Europe supporting the rebels not only with their sympathy but with material aid-there suddenly appeared, one bright morning, in New York harbor a fleet of the most powerful war vessels in the Russian navy, and there they remained during the entire season. No word was spoken as to their destination or purpose, and ostensibly they were seeking a safe haven. But European nations, hostile to the government of the United States, were not slow in reading the import of the act. In tones which echoed across the Atlantic, it uttered the condemnation of
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intervention, and proclaimed: "Gentlemen, in this struggle of the American nation, hands off!" . It was a call to keep the peace which the nations of Europe chose to respect ..
On the 30th of April, 1862, the United States House of Repre- sentatives passed a resolution censuring the conduct of Mr. Cameron, while Secretary of War, in investing Alexander Cum- mings with public money without taking security therefor, and in other ways involving the Government in large outlays. This resolution had no sooner met the eye of President Lincoln than he prepared a message to Congress, in which he stated. that at the crisis in April, 1861, when communication with the North had been cut off, and the Government itself was in imminent danger of immediate overthrow, he sent orders to the command- ants of the navy yards at Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to purchase each five war vessels for defence, had empowered Governor Morgan and Alexander Cummings of New York to provide for the transportation of troops, no security being required, and had directed the Secretary of the Treasury to advance $2,000,000 to Messrs. Dix, Opdyke, and Blatchford to meet necessary expenditures. "I believe," the President con- tinues, "that by these and other similar measures taken in that crisis, some of which were without any authority of law, the Government was saved from overthrow. . . . Congress will see that I should be wanting equally in candor and justice if I should leave the censure expressed in this resolution to rest exclusively or chiefly upon Mr. Cameron. The same sentiment is unani- mously entertained by the heads of departments who partici- pated in the proceedings which the House of Representatives has censured. It is due to Mr. Cameron to say that, although he fully approved the proceedings, they were not moved nor sug- gested by himself, and that not only the President but all the other heads of departments were at least equally responsible with him for whatever error, wrong, or fault was committed in the premises."
After accomplishing the purposes of his mission to the court of the Czar, Mr. Cameron resigned and returned to his home in Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1867, when he was again elected to the United States Senate, and was reelected in 1873,
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and should he serve out this term he will have been twenty years a member of that body. Upon the retirement of Mr. Sum- ner from the chairmanship of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, a place of great dignity and responsibility, Mr. Cameron was selected for the position thus made vacant. He has always held a place upon some of the most important committees, in which he has ever been attentive, and swayed a controlling influence. In debate he expresses himself clearly, forcibly and cogently, but with no attempt at display. In a deliberative body and in a popular canvass he is never failing in resource and remarkably success- ful. Few men have been more so, and much of the antagonism which he has encountered has arisen from this cause. In person he is over six feet in height, broad-shouldered, and though now in his seventy-sixth year is as erect and lithe as a youth of twenty. Mr. Cameron married Miss Margaret Brua, who died in 1873. Both were of Scotch descent. The issue of this marriage was three sons and three daughters.
DWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War during the greater part of the Rebellion, was born in Steubenville, Ohio, on the 19th of December, 1815. His great-grandfather was a Quaker, who settled early in the history of Massachusetts colony on Nantucket Island. His grandfather moved to North Carolina, where he married a Miss Norman from Virginia, and whence he afterwards moved to Steubenville, where Edwin M. was born. He entered Kenyon College, but, on account of the straitened circumstances of the father, only remained a few months, and then went to Columbus, where he was engaged in a bookstore. During his leisure moments he applied himself to the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1836. He commenced practice at Cadiz, and was for one terin District Attorney for Harrison county ; but at its expiration removed to Steubenville. In 1839 he was elected by the Legislature of Ohio, reporter of the Supreme Court, which position he held for three years. In 1842 he defended Mr. Mc.Nulty, Clerk of the House of Repre- sentatives, charged with defalcation, winning a national reputa- tion by the ability displayed. In 1848 he removed to Pittsburg and entered into a law partnership with Charles Shaler and
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Edwin Mr. Stanton
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Theodore Umbstratter, at once taking a leading rank, his practice extending beyond the limits of the State. He had some time before been called to the Supreme Court, and here some of his most important and lucrative practice was found. The case of the Wheeling Bridge Company in which he was engaged involved large amounts and attracted wide attention, as did also the defence of Sickles for the killing of Key. In 1858 he was appointed by Attorney-General Black to represent the United States in the celebrated California land cases. He accordingly proceeded thither, and after a protracted and determined contest succeeded in overthrowing the titles under the Mexican grants and established those of the rightful claimants.
With this exception he had held no public office until Decem- ber, 1860, when, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the transfer of Mr. Black to Secretary of State, he was appointed to a cabinet office under Mr. Buchanan. He advocated a determined and vigorous policy ; but Mr. Buchanan's ear was heavy, and he only sought to retire without a conflict. When Mr. Lincoln was installed, Mr. Stanton resumed the practice of his profession, but civil life was now overshadowed by military, and he did not remain long in retirement; for when Mr. Cameron was sent to Russia, Mr. Stanton was nominated to the place left vacant in the cabinet. Some surprise was manifested by the leaders of the Republican party, that he, a pronounced Democrat, fresh from the cabinet of Buchanan, should receive this signal mark of honor, the War Office-in view of the magnitude of military operations to be carried on, the most important in the Govern- ment. With so firm a hand and with such relentless vigor did he execute the trust that he was justly styled the American Carnot. An editorial of the New York Herald, in an appreciative estimate of his character, says of him at this period : "An honest, earnest, active, firm, resolute, decisive and efficient man was Stanton in the War Office-the man of all men for the part he had to play. It may be said that he was rough, imperious, despotic, cruel, and offensive in many things. Measured, how- ever, by the hatred of the implacable adherents of the Rebellion, in his services to the Union, he stands first in the list of the great champions of the cause." Better than any description or
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analysis of his character are incidents which show him to the life. In an article contributed to Harper's Magazine by Mr. T. B. Thorpe is the following : "Mr. Stanton, with an amanuensis, made his appearance punctually at eleven o'clock. His approach was heralded by the noise of the rapidly disappearing feet of messengers and idlers, who were by some fascination hanging about the War Office. . . . Instantly a tall gentleman supported by a bundle of papers, fawning and gushing, but with very weak knees and a stereotyped smile, would approach, and with a vulgar salute of presumed familiarity would hurriedly utter, 'Good-morning, Mr. Secretary ; fine morning, sir.' Mr. Stanton would give a nervous twitch, as the familiar voice met his car, and turning abruptly to the speaker would growl between his teeth: 'Sit down, sir; I'll attend to you by-and-by,' and Mr. Senator Mealymouth, with papers about some 'job,' would sud- denly disappear. Next in presumed importance, a gentleman with a brand-new suit of military clothing, glistening like an ignited pinwheel, with stars and stripes: 'My card, Mr. Secretary- Major-General Brassbuttons.' Mr. Stanton would turn on the new speaker like a tiger at bay, would examine the caricature of Mars from head to foot, would thunder out : 'Come, sir, what are you doing in Washington ? If you are not needed at the front I'll see about mustering you out.' General Brassbuttons would gasp for breath, and his capacious boots, less sensitive than the man, would carry the discomfited officer out of the room. Consterna- tion would now reign in the audience room. Even the widows and wounded soldiers would grow pale. When they beheld such great men as Senators and Generals in good health suddenly squelched out, they naturally asked themselves, 'What is to become of us?' By this time Mr. Stanton literally had his audience in hand; no one was now venturesome enough to obtrude especially himself or wants upon his notice; so at his leisure he would glance around the room, then suddenly stopping to examine a sick or wounded soldier, the poor fellow would attempt to rise from his seat in acknowledgment of the honor, when Mr. Stanton would mildly, musically say, 'Keep your seat, my good man," and the iron Secretary would leave his place, would walk over to the silent but eloquent applicant for relief;
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and taking him kindly by the hand, would ask, 'What brings you here?' The story was the same so often told. Soldier in one of the Washington hospitals, suffering from a severe wound ; cannot identify himself, as his regiment is on the move, and no descriptive list can be obtained. Can get no pay, draw no clothing; wants a furlough to go home. The hospital regulations keep him with the strictest severity in the narrow whitewashed walls, now worse than a prison. Order from Mr. Stanton : 'Advance of two months' pay, transportation home, and thirty days' furlough.' Soldier retires, his face beaming with satisfac- tion, and realizing keenly, for the first time, that he has a country worth fighting for and men in the Government who care for its defenders."
General Sedgwick, the gallant commander of the Sixth corps, having gone immediately to the front on coming to Washington from the frontier in 1861, had never met Mr. Stanton till late in 1863, when he was summoned to the capital to testify before the Committee on the Conduct of the War. On his arrival as was his duty he went immediately to the War Office to pay his respects to the Secretary. Though entering carly, Mr. Stanton studiously ignored his presence until every one in the room had been received. "The two alone," says Thorpe, " Mr. Stanton turned toward his imperturbable visitor, and, looking him full in the face, ejaculated, 'Well, sir?' To which came the reply: 'Mr. Secretary, I am General Sedgwick; I have called to pay my respects to you as the head of this department. I have neglected this duty up to this time, because I have not been here since I came from the frontier in 1861, and,' Sedgwick added, with some emotion, 'I shouldn't have been here now, sir, if I had not been ordered to do so by a committee of Congress.' The Secretary's face instantly changed. The harsh voice that put the equivocal ' Well, sir?' softened into a cheerful greeting. 'Give me your hand, General,' said Mr. Stanton, his face beaming with pleasure. 'I am glad to see you-I would be glad to see more soldiers like you. Come into my private room; I don't see you very often.'"
Mr. Stanton saw many dark and wearisome days when dis- aster followed disaster, and when for a long time the result of the contest hung trembling in the balance. A friend visited him
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when upon his dying bed, after the triumph had come, and he was about to yield up his life. It was thus described in Wilkes' Spirit of the Times: "The day was tempestuous and gloomy, and the wind howled violently around the angles of the building. After some conversation, we noticed this by saying, that doubt- less such dismal noises had the effect of making him feel unusually sad. 'Oh, no,' he answered, 'not at all; on the con- trary, I derive a peculiar pleasure now in listening to the howling of the winds. There was a time when it would make me dread- fully nervous, and keep me awake for hours in the night. Then there were thousands of our boys afloat on the Atlantic coast; others were on the treacherous bosom of the Gulf; others were exposed on the surface of the Mississippi, and thousands upon thousands lay drenched in camp, or shivering upon picket duty; but'-and here the speaker's eyes exhibited reviving light, and his voice strengthened into joyful volume -- ' but the boys are all home now ; all home now ; out of the reach of the storm!' It is impossible to describe the exquisite tenderness with which this was said, or to explain the emotion which we felt when, as he concluded, we saw a tear break from each lid and quietly roll down his cheeks."
Mr. Stanton was retained in the War Office under President Johnson, and for a time the immense business of bringing home the armies and returning them to the pursuits of peace went smoothly on. But when the subject of reconstruction of the revolted States came to be settled, the President enunciated views which were at variance with those entertained by Mr. Stanton, and the party which had placed him in power. The Tenure of Office Act rendered it possible for him to remain in office in spite of the will of the President. The Republican party, being in the ascendency and responsible for the government of the country, was desirous of shaping its own policy. At the urgent entreaty of the leaders of that party he was induced to hold the position after his successor had been named by the President, barricading and making his office a citadel. When the impeachment of the President failed-regarding that as decisive of his party's authority-he quietly retired. The great strain upon his nerves had left his system weakened and shattered; but
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he resumed the practice of his profession with the zeal of youth, appearing in several important cases before the Supreme Court. His labors, however, were of short duration, and on the 22d of December, 1865, after a short illness, the great Secretary quietly breathed his last. A short time before his death he was nomi- nated and confirmed an associate Justice of the Supreme Court, but he lived not to take his seat in that grave place of honor and renown. The writer above quoted from the Herald, in closing his summing, says : "Eminently distinguished in the character of Carnot, he has left the additional fame of a lawyer fully qualified for the high position to which he was but the other day appointed and confirmed, as a Judge of the Supreme Court. His name will live, and his memory will be revered, while the enduring principles of the Union, liberty, equal rights and law survive in the minds of men. His friends, in view of his services as a public man, are millions in number, while the enemies he leaves behind him with a few exceptions are the unhappy mourners over the 'lost cause.'"
'HLADDEUS STEVENS, "The Great Commoner," was born in Peacham, Caledonia county, Vermont, on the 4th of April, 1793. He was a sickly child and club-footed, and his parents being extremely poor he had small prospect of eminence. His father appears to have been what is commonly termed a "good- for-nothing," but his mother having strong native sense and great tenderness for her unfortunate boy labored assiduously to gratify his desire to learn, in providing decent clothing and keeping him in the rural district school which for a few months in each year was in operation. An old lady who was a schoolmate in this humble situation says: "I remember him as it was yesterday. Folks never supposed they would ever be able to raise him; but they did. He was still and quiet like, different from the rest of the boys, and they'd laugh at him, boy-like, and mimic his limping walk. They didn't mean any harm; but Thaddeus was a sensitive little fellow, and it rankled him. I've always thought that's the reason, perhaps, he has never been back to the old homestead." By close application he prepared for college, cking out the necessary means by teaching school in the intervals of
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study, and graduated at Dartmouth in 1814. Soon after he removed to York, Pennsylvania, which State became his perma- nent home, where he taught school and studied law. Known only as a school teacher, when at the end of two years he was about to seek admission to the bar, the members of the profession actuated by pride and prejudice refused to recognize Stevens as a law student, and actually passed a resolution providing that no person who pursued any other avocation than that of the regular study of the law should be eligible to membership. Stevens was not a man to be foiled in a way like this, and changing his residence for a month or two to a neighboring county of Mary- land he was admitted, when returning to Pennsylvania he had the satisfaction of coming to the bar in spite of the narrow- minded policy by which he had been met, and soon rose to the front rank as a practitioner. He eschewed politics for a time ; but in the exciting campaigns following the advent of John Quincy Adams to the Presidency he could not remain a quiet spectator, espousing the cause of Adams and subsequently of the Whigs. In 1833 he was elected to the Legislature, and was returned in '34, '35, '37 and '41.
It was during his membership of this body that Mr. Stevens made his noted speeches on the Common School System and the act for establishing a School of Art. From 1809 to 1834 a system of educating the poor gratis had been in operation in the State, a system which had become odious, as it could only benefit those abject enough to have themselves recorded as paupers. After long efforts a bill was drawn in that year, during the administration of Governor Wolf, providing for the establishing of a complete system. "It was believed," said Mr. Stevens, in a conference upon this subject with the writer, "that the best way to pass it was not to have any public discussion, but to canvass the members individually. So successful was it that it passed the House of Representatives with but one vote against --- Mr. Grimm's, of Lehigh. When the law was published and sent out for execu- tion, it caused an excitement throughout the State which I have never known equalled in any political contest. The members were denounced as usurpers, and the people were warned that their liberties and rights were in danger. Very few of the old
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Furune
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members were returned at the next election except such as recanted and promised to vote for the repeal. At the meeting of the Legislature petitions for the repeal poured in until the signa- tures amounted to about fifty thousand. Very few remonstrances could be got up, though considerable effort was made. The Democratic party held a caucus and advised Governor Wolf to yield to the storm and not oppose the repeal, as it would not be possible to reëlect him if he vetoed the bill, which was sure to pass. This was the condition of things when I went to Phila- delphia on a committee of investigation and was absent, I think, about two weeks. When I returned, my colleague, Mr. McSherry, a most estimable man and a great friend of the law, called and informed me that a bill had passed the Senate repeal- ing the school law, with but eight dissenting votes; that a vote of reference, which was made a test vote, showed that there was a majority in the House for the repeal of over thirty; that the friends of the law had consulted and agreed that it was useless to oppose the repeal. He said that he thought that we were bound to vote for it, as he had ascertained that three-fourths of our con- stituents had petitioned for the repeal. I inquired and learned that the Governor, a fast friend of education, had answered the committee that he would veto the bill if he did not get a vote in the State. I informed my colleague that whilst I would not ask him to vote against his judgment, I would make an effort to save the original law. The Senate bill to repeal it came up on April 10th and 11th, and I moved an amendment to strike out the whole of the bill but the enacting clause, and insert a supplement to the Act to Establish a General System of Education by Com- mon Schools."
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