USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume Two > Part 26
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
1
The Wayne Kettle
General Anthony Wayne died in Erie in 1796 and was buried at the foot of the flagstaff at the old block house. In 1809, when Colonel Isaac Wayne came to Erie to take the bones of the general to Radnor, the body was found to be almost perfectly preserved. As Colonel Wayne drove the entire distance, it was impos- sible to take the whole body back, and Dr. J. C. Wallace was engaged to reduce it to a skeleton, which he did in the kettle from which the illustration was made for this work. The kettle is about three feet in diameter and fifteen inches deep, and is in the inuscum department of the Erie Public Library
labor the ordinary paper currency of the country. It is impos- sible for persons of this description to investigate the concerns of every institution whose notes are in circulation. But no investi- gation could save them from the losses arising from the defaults and frauds of bank officers and the insolvency of bank bor- rowers."
357
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
From these recommendations at last there issued a system of free banking, with authority to issue notes based on real secur- ity deposited with the State. Nearly ninety years had been spent in finding out how to issue a safe kind of paper money, but at last the question was solved. This system was by no means perfect, but it was so much better than any other that all could rejoice over its introduction.
During Governor Packer's term the end came to the State's experiment in building and managing canals and railroads. In 1859 the Delaware division was sold for $1.775,000, the Upper and Lower North Branch divisions for $1,600,000 and the West Branch and Susquehanna divisions for $500,000. The Sunbury and Erie railroad was the purchaser. Commenting on these sales, Governor Packer said: "Whatever differences of opinion may, at any time, have been entertained in regard to the propriety of the details of the legislation authorizing the sale of the main line or the branches, it can scarcely be doubted that the public welfare will, in every respect, be vastly promoted by the transfer of the management of the public works from the State to individual owners. The short experience that we have had already proves conclusively that the Commonwealth is greatly the gainer in a financial point of view, and it has equally been demonstrated that the people at large have been as well, if not better, accommodated by the change. It would, in my judgment, be a public calamity if, by the happening of any contingency, the Commonwealth should be constrained to again become the owner, and resume the man- agement of any portion of the public improvements."
Thus the State finally closed an experiment which had been tried for thirty-five years. With the sale of the public works the functions of the government were once more reduced to their proper proportions, and the State was relieved of a burden which was becoming heavier every day.
Governor Packer was an ardent friend of popular education. One of his first duties as executive of the State was to defend the
358
Bigler, Pollock and Packer
new school department which had just been created. He not only recommended that this department should remain separate, but that it should be "fully organized and effective." He said: "The mere care and promotion of our system of common schools, im- portant and extensive as it obviously is, should not be the sole object of such a department. If it is true that the power to punish crime includes also the right to prevent it by providing for the proper intellectual and moral training of the people, it would seem to follow that the department charged with the latter mo- mentous duty should also be in possession of all the resources and subjects of information calculated to shed light upon the object of its action. Hence the collection, arrangement and practical de- ductions from population and industrial statistics; from natural defects, such as deafness and dumbness, blindness and lunacy ; from crime in its various forms and developments ; together with such control over all the literary and scientific institutions in the State as shall bring their full condition into view should also belong to the same department." The Governor, therefore, urged the establishment of a department of public instruction, endowed with ample powers, so that the educational work of the State might be carried on with vigor and promptness. He also favored liberal appropriations to the normal schools, so that the teachers could be given the training they so much needed. A great deal of vicious school legislation was prevented by Governor Packer's timely vetoes. The enemies of the normal schools introduced measures at every session of the legislature which, if adopted, would have destroyed these schools. But the Governor prevented this mischief by freely using the veto power. The school system was yet in an experimental stage, and was in constant danger of special legislation. This peril threatened the schools until 1874, when the new Constitution prohibited such forms of legislation.
The angry strife in Congress over the question of slavery overshadowed all local issues in the State at that time. Governor Packer was a firm believer in the theory of popular sovereignty,
359
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
as advocated by Stephen A. Douglas. He frequently reverted to this subject in his messages to the legislature, particularly in that of January, 1859, when he said : "During the angry feelings which this controversy 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 territories 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 theater of crimination and confusion, and fill the whole country with strife. Regarding myself as fully committed 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 fath- ers, 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-govern- ment."
John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, in 1859, caused a pop- ular excitement and bitter feeling in all parts of the State. But when Brown was hanged, on December 2, there were many pro- tests of indignation. The feeling ran so high in Philadelphia that it was necessary to convey his body secretly through the city. The authorities of the Southern States began to fear for the welfare of their sons who were attending the educational institutions in Philadelphia. This led Governor Wise, of Virginia, to request the
360
Wayne Block House, Erie
This block house is a reproduction of the origi- nal in which General Wayne died, and stands on the site where he was first buried. From a negative made especially for this work
-
Bigler, Pollock and Packer
young men from the South at the Philadelphia medical colleges to withdraw and finish their education in the South. Many accepted this invitation, and left at once for their homes.
The presidential campaign of 1860 was accompanied by the contest for the governorship of Pennsylvania. While the Demo- cratic party was split on the question of the presidency, that divi- sion did not extend to local issues. The Republicans nominated Curtin for Governor ; while the Democrats united in the support of Henry D. Foster. After an exciting contest, Curtin was elected by a majority of thirty-two thousand votes, while on the 6th of November Abraham Lincoln was chosen President of the United States. Following her threats, South Carolina, on December 20, passed an ordinance of secession, declaring herself to be a free and independent State. The possible dissolution of the Union caused great excitement in Pennsylvania. All eyes were upon this State on account of her geographical position, separated from the slave States merely by an imaginary line. Thus, all parties looked to Pennsylvania to use her great power and influence in avert- ing an open conflict.
Governor Packer's last message was sent to the legislature Jaunary 2d, 1861, and a few days afterward he retired from office in favor of Governor Curtin. In that message the Governor referred briefly to the general condition and affairs of the Com- monwealth, and called attention to the trouble with certain rail- road companies which had purchased portions of the system of public works and the difficulty in collecting the moneys due there- for; also referred to the educational system then in operation under existing laws, and its gradual outspreading and increasing efficiency ; also called attention to the fact that the last preceding legislature had passed a free banking act, thus making a radical change for the better in the State financial system; and he sug- gested, in view of the fact that there had been a rapid increase in the number of private banks, that they be placed under proper legislative restriction.
363
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
But the one subject which appears to have caused the greatest anxiety in the executive mind, and evidently created the gravest apprehension among people of the entire State, was the extra- ordinary and alarming condition of national affairs, which served to demand immediate attention both in the State and the Federal legislatures. On the 20th day of December last, says the Gover- nor on this subject, the convention of South Carolina by unani- mous 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 an intention to follow the example.
Speaking still more directly to the subject which then was uppermost in the public mind, the Governor said: Pennsylvania is included in the list of States that are charged with having refused compliance with that mandate of the constitution of the United States which declares that no person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis- charged with such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim by the party to whom such service or labor may be due.
The imputation of refusal on the part of Pennsylvania to com- ply with the requirements of the Federal fugitive slave laws, Governor Packer took occasion to deny with some warmth, and he asserted that this State had been almost invariably influenced by a proper appreciation of her own obligations and a high regard for the rights, the feelings and the interests of her sister States. Briefly the executive reviewed the various enactments of the State legislature on the question of slavery from 1780, when the first act was passed for the gradual abolition of the institution of slavery within her borders. The first act of Congress providing for the rendition of fugitives from justice or labor was passed in 1793, and originated in the refusal of the Governor of Virginia to deliver up on the requisition of the Governor of Pennsylvania
364
Bigler, Pollock and Packer
three persons who had been indicted for kidnapping a negro and carrying him into Virginia.
The somewhat peculiar geographical position of Pennsylvania among the States of the Union during the days of slavery and the numerous attempts, sometimes unsuccessful, to enforce the harsh provisions of the fugitive slave laws, gave rise to frequent mis- construction of the attitude of this State regarding the law itself, and frequently the State and its authorities were charged with collusion with those philanthropic individuals who controlled the operation of the historic underground railroad leading from the slave States through this and New York State to Gerrit Smith's famous colony, and thence to the Canadian border. At the time of which we write Delaware, Maryland and Virginia were among the so-called slave States, and their authorities and people were insistent in their demands for the rigid enforcement and close observance of the laws on the part of the States where slavery was not recognized as an institution; and as Pennsylvania bor- dered on each of the States mentioned, and had long before abolished slavery, it was only natural that escaping slaves should first seek temporary lodgment and freedom on her territory, where they were furnished with protection and sustenance, and thence were quietly sent farther north; but neither protection nor sustenance were furnished them by the State or its officials, but by persons interested in the work of freeing slaves from bondage and providing them with homes in the States where all labor was free and was paid for according to its worth. Thus it was that Pennsylvania was charged with open defiance of the laws of Con- gress, because thousands and possibly tens of thousands of fugi- tive slaves were temporarily sheltered within its borders; thus it was because of the hatred born of this very fact that Pennsylvania was regarded as the bitterest enemy of the South during the latter days of slavery dominion and in the terrible internecine conflict which followed; and thus it was because of the repeated attempts to bring into public condemnation the people and authorities of
365
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
Pennsylvania in punishment of their so-called offenses that Gov- ernor Packer in his last annual message gave voice to these words :
"Every attempt upon the part of individuals, or of organized societies, to lead the people away from their government, to induce them to violate any of the provisions of the constitution, or to incite insurrections in any of the States of this Union, ought to be prohibited by law as crimes of a treasonable nature. It is of the first importance to the perpetuity of this great Union that the hearts of the people and the action of their constituted authorities should be in unison in giving a faithful support to the constitution of the United States. The people of Pennsylvania are devoted to the Union. They will follow its stars and stripes through every peril. But, before assuming the high responsibilities now dimly foreshadowed, it is their solemn duty to remove every just cause of complaint against themselves, so that they may stand before High Heaven and the civilized world without fear and without reproach, ready to devote their lives and their fortunes to the support of the best form of government that has ever been devised by the wisdom of man."
In order to avert civil war, Governor Packer proposed that the two hostile sections compromise their difference by constitu- tional amendment, or in a convention of the people. His term ended, however, in January, 1861, before any of his suggestions could be acted upon; and Governor Curtin assumed the great re- sponsibility of guiding the affairs of the Commonwealth through the Great Rebellion.
366
CHAPTER XVII.
CURTIN'S ADMINISTRATION-1861-1867
O N the 15th of January, 1861, Andrew Gregg Curtin suc- ceeded to the governorship of Pennsylvania, and was the first distinctively Republican incumbent of that high office in the State. Only a few years previous to this time the Repub- lican party had perfected an organization in the country, and it comprised several component political elements, some harmonious, others discordant, but united for an especial purpose in the gubernatorial campaign of 1860, they safely carried the election and placed Mr. Curtin in the chair. The result at that particular time was exceedingly fortunate, as trouble with the South was already threatening the overthrow of our national institu- tion, and Mr. Lincoln, who had just been elected to the presi- dency, was in great need of the services, the advice and the hearty support of such men as Governor Curtin proved himself to be.
In speaking thus freely of Governor Curtin and his qualities the writer in no sense seeks to cast reflection on any of his pre- decessors, for it so happened that during the trying period of dis- cussion and frequent disputes and more frequent litigations between the people of the slave States and those of States which had abolished slavery, each incumbent of the governorship in Pennsylvania stood true to the anti-slavery side of the question and steadfastly maintained the principles declared in the State nearly a century before. Governor Packer was a radical Demo- crat and a bitter opponent to all that savored of what he termed
367
.
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
"Black Republicanism," which presumably included the ultra anti-slavery advocates, and while he had no consideration for men who held to those teachings, he at the same time showed the highest regard for the laws, no matter by whom enacted or advo- cated. His attitude in relation to the fugitive slave laws showed his truly patriotic spirit, and in the determined stand he took regarding their enforcement, he won the gratitude of all the political elements of his time.
Governor Curtin was born at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1815. He was educated at the schools of his native town, and he also studied at the Harrisburg Academy, under the tuition of John M. Keagy. His literary education was completed at the academy at Milton, Pa., then in charge of Rev. David Kirk- patrick. Young Curtin then returned to his home, and began the study of law under the direction of William W. Potter, a promi- nent lawyer of that day. Curtin completed his legal studies at the Law School of Dickinson College, after which, in 1839, he opened an office at Bellefonte in partnership with Hon. John Blanchard. He advanced rapidly in his profession, and being an effective speaker, was soon looked upon as one of the leading members of the bar.
In politics, Curtin started out as an ardent Whig, and in 1840, he took a prominent part in Harrison's campaign for the presi- dency of the United States. In 1844, he spoke in nearly every county of Pennsylvania in behalf of Henry Clay, achieving a great reputation as a political orator. His name appeared on the Whig electoral tickets of 1848, and 1852, and he took an active part in both of these campaigns. In 1855, Governor Pollock appointed Curtin to the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth, his duties including that of superintendent of common schools. In this po- sition, he had an opportunity to display his rare executive abilities. The common school system was in the formative period of its existence, and was surrounded by a strong opposition ; but through Curtin's labors, the system was preserved and a number of essen-
368
Curtin's Administration
tial features were added. At the expiration of his term of office in 1858, he resumed the practice of law at Bellefonte, and he also took an active interest in opening the railway lines through the central part of the State. Elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 1860, he was thus called to an office where he exhibited the rarest genius as a statesman, and earned the deserving title of "War Governor of Pennsylvania."
William Crawford's Cabin, Connellsville
Crawford led an expedition against the Indians at Sandusky, failed, and was put to death with torture. From drawing in Carnegie Museum
When, on January 15, 1861, Governor Curtin assumed the duties of chief executive of this great Commonwealth the clouds of war were beginning to darken the land. The new administra- tion found the State to contain a total of 2,906,215 inhabitants (census of 1860) chiefly engaged in trade, commerce, manufac- ture, mining and agriculture. The institutions of State govern- ment were established upon a firm basis, the people in every sec- tion were apparently contented, and only the darkening shadow of
2-24
369
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
approaching war disturbed their peace of mind. According to the reports of the treasurer's department in 1860, the total indebted- ness of the State was $37,969,847.50, yet the revenues and re- sources were such that this occasioned no uneasiness in official circles, and the Governor in his inaugural address took occasion to congratulate the legislature and the public upon the healthful- ness of prevailing conditions and the prosperous outlook for the future. But there was that in the Governor's first address which betokened approaching danger to national life, for he was the friend and adviser of the newly chosen President and was enabled to speak with an understanding of the situation. Let us quote from his public utterances regarding the prevailing conditions and their relation to the future :
"The supremacy of the National Government has been so fully admitted and so long cherished by the people of Pennsyl- vania, and so completely has the conviction of its nationality and sovereignty directed their political action, that they are surprised at the pertinacity with which a portion of the people elsewhere maintain the opposite view. The traditions of the past, the re- corded teachings of the Fathers of the Republic, the security of their freedom and prosperity, and their hopes for the future, are all in harmony with an unfaltering allegiance to the National Union, the maintenance of the constitution and the enforcement of the laws. They have faithfully adhered to the provisions of our great National Compact, and willingly recognize the peculiar institutions and rights of property of the people of other States. Every true Pennsylvanian admits that his first civil and political duty is to the General Government, and he frankly acknowledges his obligation to protect the constitutional rights of all who live under its authority and enjoy its blessings.
"Pennsylvania has never faltered in recognition of all the duties imposed upon her by the National Compact, and she will, by every art consistent with her devotion to the interests of her own people, promote fraternity and peace and a liberal comity
370
Curtin's Administration
between the States. Her convictions on the vital questions which have agitated the public mind are well understood at home, and should not be misunderstood abroad. Her verdicts have been as uniform as they have been decisive, in favor of the dignity, the prosperity and the progress of her free industry, and support of the principles of liberty on which the government is founded, and menace or rebellion cannot reverse them. They have passed into history as the deliberate judgment of her people, expressed in a peaceful, fraternal and constitutional manner; and when they shall have been administered in the government, as soon they will be, the madness that now rules the hour will subside, as their patriotic, faithful and national aims bring ample protection and peaceful progress to all sections of the Republic.
"In the grave questions which now agitate the country, no State has a more profound concern than Pennsylvania. Occupy- ing a geographical position between the North and the South, the East and the West, with the great avenues of travel and trade passing through her borders, carrying on an extensive commerce with her neighbors, in the vast and varied productions of her soil, her mines and her manufacturing industry, and bound to them by ties of kindred and social intercourse, the question of disunion involves momentous consequences to her people. The second of the thirty-three States in population, and the first in material resources, it is due both to ourselves and to the other States, that the position and sentiments of Pennsylvania on the question should be distinctly understood.
"In the present unhappy condition of the country, it will be our duty to unite with the people of the States which remain loyal to the Union, in any just and honorable measures of conciliation and fraternal kindness. Let us invite them to join us in the ful- fillment of all our obligations under the Federal Constitution and laws. Then we can cordially unite with them in claiming like obedience from those States which have renounced their allegi- ance. If the loyal States are just and moderate, without any
37I
Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
sacrifice of right or self-respect, the threatened danger may be averted."
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.