Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches, Part 13

Author: Guild, Jo. C. (Josephus Conn), 1802-1883
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Nashville, Tavel, Eastman & Howell
Number of Pages: 1012


USA > Tennessee > Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches > Part 13


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Although the campaign had not been a brilliant one, because of the unfavorable territory in which we had to operate, yet a more patriotic, courageous brigade never left the State of Ten- nessee. The soldierly bearing of the men was conspicuous both on the march and in battle. By their great courage, their bold and fearless charges, they drove the Indians into the Everglades, far removed from the white settlements, which gave a security to life and property the people of Florida had not enjoyed for a long period. The vigorous manner in which the Tennessee vol- unteers waged war contributed very much toward inducing up- ward of two thousand of the Indians to come in and surrender to Gen. Jessup in 1837, and to go to the reservation provided for . them West of the Mississippi. There were still about two thous- and Indians left in Florida, who were as hostile as ever, but they were conquered by Gen. Zach. Taylor, and sent West, thus leav- ing that section to the enjoyment of peace and prosperity hitherto


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unknown, and thus closed this long, troublesome, and costly war. Some of our first and most prominent men served with distin- guished gallantry as volunteers in this regiment in the Florida campaign, among whom I may mention ex-Gov. Neil S. Brown, ex-Gov. Wm. Trousdale, ex-Gov. Wm. B. Campbell, Gen. Robert Armstrong, Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer, Hon. Russell Houston, Judge Terry H. Cabal, Judge Nathaniel Baxter, Gen. . . J. B. Bradford, Oscar F. Bledsoe, Capt. Frierson, Col. Henry,


Maj. - Goff, Col. John H. Savage, Col. J. H. McMahon, Gen. Lee Reed, and Jesse Finley, Representative in Congress from Florida. The brigade has furnished the country four con- gressmen, eight legislators, three Governors, two Chancellors, three Judges, one member of the Constitutional Convention of 1870, and two ministers to foreign governments.


I am indebted to the notes of Gen. Zollicoffer for the dates and many of the facts contained in this sketch of the Florida cam- paign of 1836, and tender my thanks to his daughter, Mrs. Wil- son, for the use of them.


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IX.


SOME POLITICAL REMINISCENCES-THE FIRST POLITICAL PARTIES IN TENNESSEE.


IN the good old times of Tennessee the questions at issue in elections were not those of public measures and political princi- ples so much as the personal fitness of candidates for the offices to which they aspired. Up to 1836, indeed, there seems to have been but one political party, and that the Jackson party.


Gen. Jackson had settled in the Mero District-as what is now Middle Tennessee had been named by North Carolina- when it was covered with primeval canebrakes; had taken and maintained the stand of a leading public man; was its first rep- resentative in Congress, both in the House and Senate, and had really little or no opposition for any place in the management of public affairs that he desired to occupy.


When nominated for the Presidency in 1824, the State went solidly for him; and when renominated and elected in 1828, not more than a thousand votes were cast for his opponent, Presi- dent Adams, and these probably were cast by those whom Mr. Adams' administration had befriended or who had some per- sonal grievance against the General.


When Gen. Jackson's administration of eight years was draw- ing to a close, and it was known he would not be a candidate for a third term, his leading political friends in Tennessee, desirous of still holding on to the honors of the Presidency, associated together to bring out the General's life-long friend, Hugh L. White, of East Tennessee, for many years a United States Sen- ator, for the succession. Strenuous efforts were made by them to induce the old General to take a hand in the movement, but he refused, on the ground that the nominee should be determined by a national convention.


It was known to the country that the intimacy which existed between him and Martin Van Buren would incline him to favor the nomination of the latter instead of Judge White, especially


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as the United States Senate had refused to confirm his nomina- tion of Mr. Van Buren to the Court of St. James. Indeed, be- fore the national convention took place, it was well understood by the knowing ones that Gen. Jackson preferred Mr. Van Buren to Judge White as the nominee.


This excited the ire of the leading politicians of Tennessee to such an extent that they organized a party for Judge White, de- nounced the nomination of Mr. Van Buren, accused the old General of deserting them, of declaring who should be his suc- cessor, and went in a body against him and the Democratic nom- inee, giving the vote of the State to Judge White in the election of 1836 by an overwhelming majority.


The campaign of that year was not one of much public excite- ment, for nearly all the political leaders, with the exception of Judge Grundy, Col. Polk, and a few others, and all the newspa- pers of the State, with the exception of Mr. Ford's little paper at MeMinnville in the mountains, were for White, and they suc- ceeded in persuading the people temporarily that the old chief had proved untrue to his own State.


So generally had this opinion obtained, that in the year 1837 the State election was carried for the partizans of Judge White by a vast majority; and, to all appearances, they had cut en- tirely loose from Jackson and the Democratic party and joined their fortunes with Mr. Clay and the Whig party.


As may be supposed, this conclusion was unpleasant to Gen. Jackson, then reposing in retirement at the Hermitage after such an eventful life, and his hosts of political friends throughout the country, especially those employed in the administration of Mr. Van Buren at Washington, felt the liveliest sympathy with him. It was resolved by them, and by the few leading politicians in Tennessee who still stood by him, to make a grand effort to re- cover the State at the election of 1839. An organization was effected in 1838. In the beginning of the following year the Nashville Union was enlarged and more frequently issued, and J. George Harris, a young man who had acquired some celebrity in New England as a political writer, was installed as its editor. He had been an editorial pupil of George D. Prentice at the North years before, and he came to Nashville most favorably endorsed by Prentice in everything except his politics,-for


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Prentice was editor of the Louisville Journal, the home organ of Mr. Clay, while Harris came to conduct the home organ of Gen. Jackson. In politics they were wide as the polls asunder, though always personal friends.


In those days the newspapers were partizan organs, and their influence in shaping public sentiment and controlling elections, as we look back from the standpoint of to-day, was really won- derful. Young Harris had his hands full. There was the Nash- ville Banner, conducted by the veteran Hall, and the Whig, by Norvell; the Memphis Enquirer, by McMahon; the Knoxville Register, by Ramsey; the Columbia Observer, by Zollicoffer, and the Jonesborough Whig, by Brownlow. He commenced by day after day publishing the Democratic speeches and defenses of Gen. Jackson made in Congress and at the hustings by John Bell, Ephraim H. Foster, Judge White, and all the leading ora- tors and statesmen of the State, and constantly held up to them what he called a looking-glass, for the federal Whig leaders of Tennessee, in pamphlet form.


Meantime, Col. James K. Polk closed the term of his Speak- ership in Congress, came home after the 4th of March, took the stump as the Democratic candidate for Governor, and candidates for Congress and the Legislature were brought out. As it was. deemed necessary that the press should be put to work in East and West Tennessee, the Argus was established at Knoxville, with Elbridge G. Eastman, of New Hampshire, as its editor, and a small weekly paper was started at Dresden, in the Western District.


The campaign waxed hotter and hotter, until in May, June, and July, up to the day of the election in August, it became the most ardent political conflict that had ever taken place in the State. Col. Polk rode on horse-back from Carter to Shelby, making speeches in every county, and wherever the people had assembled at cross-roads and by the wayside to hear him. He was met everywhere by his competitor, Gov. Cannon, and every inch of ground was manfully contested. Candidates for Con- gress and the Legislature were addressing the people every day in every county, the newspapers were filled with crimination and recrimination; personal conflicts between differing partisans were almost an every-day occurrence, and, indeed, it seemed as though


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difference of opinion in politics could not be tolerated in Ten- nessee and personal friendship preserved and maintained.


But the result was the election of Col. Polk to the Governor- ship by three or four thousand majority, and of a Democratic majority in each branch of the Legislature, by which Felix Grundy was subsequently elected to the United States Senate.


It was a joyous day for Gen. Jackson, as well as for his friends throughout the country. It was pleasant in those days to visit the old hero and hear him tell how much he was gratified that his own Tennessee had come back to him; how he knew it would be so when the people should be made to see the mere partisan management by which they had been estranged from him; and what unbounded confidence he had in their virtue and intelligence.


This grand political achievement brought Gov. Polk before the country as a man of mark in his party, and contributed to give him, more than any other event of his life, that prominence which led to his nomination and election to the Presidency in 1844.


THE EXPUNGING RESOLUTION.


Gen. Jackson's second term was drawing to a close. In No- vember, 1836, his successor was to be elected. Gen. Jackson had broken down the Bank of the United States by interposing his veto to its recharter. The public deposits had been removed from its vaults by his order, which led to the establishment of the Sub-Treasury-a system by which the Government became the custodian of its own money, and disbursed it by specific ap- propriations by act of Congress. The specie circular was issued and the public debt paid off, and the administration, sustained by the masses, had brought the Government up to the Jeffer- sonian standard. Mr. Van Buren, in conjunction with Edward Livingston and other leading Democrats, had sustained not only the election but the administration of Gen. Jackson. The Sen- ate had for many years, by a large majority, under the lead of Clay, Calhoun, and Webster, most vehemently opposed the meas- ures of Gen. Jackson's administration, backed by the moneyed power of the nation, at the head of which was the Bank of the United States. It was such an opposition as no public man in


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America, except Gen. Jackson, could have overcome. This he had done, and was about to retire to private life, leaving the country in a healthy and prosperous condition. The candidates for the succession were Gen. Wm. H. Harrison, of the Whig party, and Martin Van Buren, of the Democratic party. Mr. Van Buren's nomination to an important foreign mission by Gen. Jackson was rejected by a factious Senate, and this unques- tionably made him the chosen champion of the Democracy to succeed Old Hickory. It was natural that Gen. Jackson should favor and desire the election of Mr. Van Buren, for he believed that he never would abandon the principles which controlled his administration, and which he believed were right and proper, and that they advanced the great interests and prosperity of the people. If they had been the only candidates, Mr. Van Buren would have been elected by a much larger majority than he re- ceived; but Judge Hugh L. White, of Tennessee, the long and tried friend of Gen. Jackson, but a bitter enemy of Van Buren, permitted his name to be used by a majority of the Tennessee delegation in Congress, at the head of which was John Bell, for the purpose of defeating the favorite of the old chief, and thus the Democratic party in Tennessee became divided, and a part united their forces with those of the opposition. The result was that the vote of Tennessee was cast for Judge White, as was that · of Georgia. South Carolina threw her vote away upon Willie P. Mangum, of North Carolina; and Massachusetts cast her vote for Daniel Webster. Gen. Harrison received the votes of Ver- mont, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio-73 in all. Mr. Van Buren received the votes of Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, and Michigan-170. Richard M. Johnson, the candidate for Vice President on the Democratic ticket, did not receive a sufficient number of votes, as required by the constitution, to elect him, and the Senate elected him Vice President.


Thus, by the fusion of the disaffected Democrats in Tennessee with the Republican or Whig party of the North, was inaugu- rated the great political struggle in this State, which continued until our civil war, when the two parties again became one under


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the old name of Democrats. From 1835 to that time, Tennes- see was one of the most evenly divided States in the Union as between the two political parties. The Democrats elected the Governor as follows: Gen. Wm. Carroll, in 1835; James K. Polk, in 1839; Aaron V. Brown, in 1845; Gen. Wm. Trous- dale, in 1849; Andrew Johnson, in 1853 and 1855; and Isham G. Harris, in 1857, 1859, and 1861. The Whigs as follows: Newton Cannon, in 1837; James C. Jones, in 1841 and 1843; Neil S. Brown, in 1847; and Gen. Wm. B. Campbell, in 1851. The political complexion of the Legislature changed about as often, and the consequence was, we had one of the best governed States in the Union, because neither party could afford to make mistakes, when the voting population was so nearly divided that the change of a few votes would insure the defeat of the domi- nant party, without the hope of regaining power.


In 1833, Mr. Clay introduced in the Senate his unconstitu- tional resolution censuring Gen. Jackson for removing the public deposits, which was adopted by that body. "Old Bullion," as Thomas H. Benton was called, the Ajax of the Senate, sustained Gen. Jackson's administration with great ability and eloquence. He became the great defender of Jackson's financial policy, and introduced in the Senate what is known as the " expunging reso- lution," the object of which was to expunge from the journal of the Senate Mr. Clay's resolution of censure of Gen. Jackson. He said, " I alone put this ball in motion, and shall never cease to roll it until it shall be adopted by an American Senate." Up to 1836, fifteen States had instructed their Senators to vote for the expunging resolution. The White furor was so great in Tennessee as to return an overwhelming majority of White men to the Senate and House of Representatives of the State Legis- lature. I was returned by the good people of Sumner county to the House of Representatives. A few days after the meeting of the General Assembly -- Ephraim H. Foster being Speaker of the House of Representatives-I introduced the following reso- lutions instructing our Senators in Congress to vote for the ex- punging resolution. I quote from the Nashville Union of that period as follows:


" Mr. Guild, of Sumner, introduced the following preamble and resolutions, which were laid on the table for one day :


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"' Whereas, the resolution introduced by the Honorable Henry Clay, and adopted by the Senate of the United States, on the 28th day of March, 1834, pronouncing the judgment of that body against the President of the United States, as being guilty of "assuming upon himself authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both," is itself a violation of the constitution, and was attended, in its incep- tion, progress, passage, and in the subsequent efforts made to perpetuate it as a precedent upon the journals, by circumstances deeply wounding the fundamental principles of republican gov- ernment; whereof the following facts are given as specifica- tions :


"' 1. The said resolution originated in an attempt of the Bank of the United States to control the government of the country. On the 14th of October, 1833, Mr. Clay having visited Phila- delphia and held intercourse with the managers of the bank, addressed a public letter to some of the leading friends of the institution (Messrs. John Sargeant, J. K. Ingersoll, and others), which, referring to the removal of the deposits, made the issue between the corporation and the administration of the General Government, in this emphatic language: "Gentlemen, disguise is useless, the time is come when we must decide whether the constitution, the laws, and the checks which they have respec- tively provided, shall prevail, or the will of one man. In the settlement of that question, I shall be found where I have ever been." This was the note of preparation. In conformity with this distinct pledge Mr. Clay, on the 26th day of December, 1833, introduced his resolution, specifically charging the Presi- dent with a violation of the constitution and laws, in the dismis- sion of Mr. Duane and the removal of the deposits. The man- agers of the bank, instead of the House of Representatives, were everywhere visible as the prosecutors of the spurious im- peachment. They laid upon the tables of the Senators a pam- phlet address of the directory, denouncing the course of the President towards the bank, wherein the accusers justify their proceedings against him by likening his case to that of a coun- terfeiter. The friends and agents of the bank, in the meantime, were active in every section of the Union in getting up memo- rials and petitions to sustain the charge made against the Presi-


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dent in the Senate ; public meetings were held by them in popu- lous cities, towns, and counties, and committees sent to Washing- ton to sustain it ; public distress was occasioned by extraordinary and unnecessary calls upon the debtors of the institution, and a general panic created by the bankruptcy of merchants, brokers, and such banks as were in the power of the Bank of the United States. The public alarm and the oppression of individuals were aggravated by the circulation of nearly a million of panic speeches, for the most part paid for out of the funds of the cor- poration; and by the harrangues of members of Congress (some of them the counsel of the bank in the courts of law) in a city nearest to the capital, appealing to force in the last resort, to ac- complish the objects of the President's assailants, and giving birth to military associations to overawe the deliberations of Con- gress.


"' 2. The said resolution was, in its adoption, a virtual assump- tion of the impeaching power of the House of Representatives, in assuming to prefer a charge against a public functionary for an impeachable offense, of which it could, constitutionally, only take cognizance in virtue of the authority, and at the instance of the House of Representatives; and it violated the rights of the President, in daring to condemn him without a hearing, and all the principles of its own organization, in passing sentence on al- legations involving a high crime and misdemeanor, in its legis- lative capacity, of which it could have no cognizance, but as a judicial forum, and for which appropriate judicial character, it disqualified itself by prejudging the charge, in a judicial, dis- guised as a legislative proceeding.


"'3. The said resolution violated the spirit of the constitution in being predicated upon a denial of the rights of the chief Ex-" ecutive Magistrate to remove from office subordinate executive agents, for whose conduct he is responsible. This assumption, if sustained, would overrule the interpretation given by the fathers of the constitution, in a solemn act of the first Congress, which interpretation has been sanctioned by uninterrupted usage, from the establishment of the Government to the present time. Al- though this principle, subverting the established construction of the constitution, is now left to implication, from the resolution and its history as it stands recorded in the journal, yet it has as-


·


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sumed a position and more definite form in a collateral resolution, still depending before the Senate, which was subsequently offered by Mr. Clay, proposing as its object the denial to the President of his constitutional right of removal and appointment of public officers; and the usurpation for the Senate of a full participation in the executive power of removal and appointment, thus trans- ferring from the head of the executive department, responsible every four years, immediately to the people, through the ballot box, every hour, mediately by impeachment, through their Rep- resentatives, for a faithful execution of the laws, to a body per- petual by its constitutional organization, irresponsible by im- peachment, and not accountable for the execution of the laws, the absolute control over the power of appointing and dismissing the agents upon whom the execution of the laws depends.


"'4. The efforts made to perpetuate the said resolution on the journal as a precedent, has involved repeated violations of the vital principle of representative government-the right of instruc- tion. The Senators from Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi, who voted for the said resolution on its passage, and have since maintained it to be a rightful and constitutional act of the Senate, in defiance of the known will of the people, and the positive instructions of such of the General Assemblies of their respective States as have passed upon the subject, practically asserted the anti-republican doctrine that the will of the representative is paramount to the will of the constituent body; and that the purposes of the ser- vant, when acting in his public capacity, are to be accomplished, instead of those of the principal.


"'5. From the character of the said resolution, from the fact that it was designed to destroy the reputation and influence of the Chief Magistrate, identified by his principles and measures, as the head of the Republican party in the United States; from the well known designs and political principles of the prominent actors in the attempt to attaint the President; from the intense interest shown by them in its discussion for an hundred days; from the anxious zeal with which it has been since defended by its original friends and those who have joined their standard, it is clear that it was not only intended to bear upon the present incumbent of the Chief Magistracy and his administration, but


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upon the election of his successor and the future administration of the Government.


"' The triumph, then, of those who support this resolution will be the triumph of all the dangerous principles connected with it; and if that triumph shall be accomplished (as it is the design of the authors of this obnoxious measure) by taking the election of President from the people to the House of Representatives, every feature of true representative democracy will be expunged from the operations of the Government, which will then be converted into a system of aristocracy like that of England, combining the machinery of a National Bank, the monied power with the Sen- ate and representative body, all contributing to crush popular rights, under the wright of corporations, privileged classes, and official power spurning responsibility.


"'From the view of the whole subject as herein presented, the inquiry irresistably arises, What action of the Senate of the United States is now proper and constitutional, and best calcu- lated to vindicate the great republican principles which have been invaded and violated by the adoption of said resolution, and prevent a recurrence of it, as a precedent in future times, and also redeem the present Chief Magistrate from that stigma, de- signed by the authors of said resolution to be affixed to his name? To repeal or rescind said resolution would be wholly inadequate to the objects contemplated. The term "repeal" is appropriately used in reference to such acts of a legislative body as have as- sumed the form of statutes or laws; the term "rescind," is more appropriately used when prior resolutions of a legislative body are to be operated upon. When either are repealed or rescinded, they cease to have any effect or operation in future; but this by no means proves that they are unconstitutional or inexpedient when passed or adopted. The repeal or rescission of an act or resolution of Congress, or of a State Legislature, does not imply that the act was unconstitutional, or that at the time of its pass- age it was inexpedient. So far from it, many acts are expedient when passed which afterward, by a change in the condition of the country, combined with other causes, may become highly injuri- ous and inexpedient ; the repeal of such aets does not carry with it a disapprobation of their passage in the first instance; so far from it, sound policy may dictate at one time the passage of par-




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