USA > Wisconsin > A political history of Wisconsin > Part 7
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Democrat himself in good standing, sends the writer a note, in answer to an interrogatery upon the subject, which is here copied: "Barstow once told me that Upham woukl have been Governor if he (Barstow) had been his friend; and at the time I had no doubt of his being really elected. Barstow said: "Upham had the votes and I knew where they were, but I was not going to take the trouble to get them and have them counted." This may have been talk, but I then believed, and do now, that Upham was really elected." On the other hand, Col. E. A. Calkins, who was on the ground at the time and had personal knowledge of what was going on on the inside of the Democratic party, writes as follows:
"Upham was not counted out. The majority for Farwell was honest. The township returns, direct to the Secretary of State. were counted for both candidates. It was largely on the direct township returns that Barstow claimed a majority in 1855. They were allowed for Bashford by the Supreme Court after Barstow's default by withdrawal from the trial. There was a judicial election a few years earlier decided on township returns: It was in a western circuit, Wyman Knowlton being declared elected, and taking the office."
Farwell's candidacy was warmly supported by the Whigs and anti-slavery men of the State, and by many of the business men of Milwaukee without regard to politics. Farwell's Milwaukee sup- porters issued a labored address to the people of the State, in which they gave their candidate a good send off, from which is taken the following paragraph :
"Mr. Farwell is a man of high and sterling character, possessed of more than ordinary natural ability; he has improved his talents by study and converse with the world. He has excellent practical sense, is clear-headed and sagacious. All admit that he has great firmness, decision and energy. His generosity and public spirit are proverbial; more than all, he is an honest, high-minded, hon- orable man. His moral character is without reproach."
Governor Farwell had too many irons of his own in the fire to pay much attention to the business of the State. Realizing this, he made a very judicious selection of his private secretary and pro- cured the services of a gentleman who was familiar with State
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affairs, of unquestioned ability and sagacity, a good lawyer, and one every way more capable of taking the leading part in the gubernatorial drama than Farwell himself. His name was Harlow S. Orton, late Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and one of the soundest jurists the State has ever known. Orton was an original character, with a mental endowment of the best. His career in Wisconsin was quite as picturesque, interesting and eventful as that of James Duane Doty. He came to Wisconsin irom Indiana in 1847, and practiced law in Milwaukee for four years. When he was appointed private secretary by Governor Far- well, he removed to Madison and made that city his home until he clied. It is needless to say that Orton was really the Governor during Farwell's term of service, and that he was the power behind the throne greater than the throne itself. No other public man in Wisconsin has ever experienced so many changes in life as Judge Orton. At one time a starving young attorney, without means, friends or clients: sometimes, in fits of despondency, he was on the verge of suicide; at another, he was Judge of the Circuit Court, surrounded by friends, and later, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, having the admiration of the bar and the respect of all who knew him. In politics he had belonged to all the parties that ever were organized, Whig. Democrat, Anti-Slavery and Prohibitionist, his last display in that respect, before his elevation to the Supreme bench, being his advocacy of the greenback issue which swept over the State in 1877. As a public speaker he was incisive, epigram- . matic and often gorgeously eloquent, having great influence with juries when a practicing attorney. Some of his Supreme Court decisions have won much praise.
If a message was to be sent to the Legislature, and the Gov- ernor had neither time nor inclination to write it, even if he had the ability, Orton was there ready, willing and perfectly competent to do it with neatness and dispatch: if a bill was to be vetoed. Orton could inform the house wherein the act had originated. just where it was faulty and in what respect it contravened the spirit and letter of the constitution. Orton was to Farwell what Edmund Burke was to Rockingham.
Some very important legislation was enacted during Governor
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Farwell's administration, beside the abortive attempt to impeach Levi Hubbell, Judge of the Milwaukee Circuit, the first and only attempt made in Wisconsin to impeach a judicial officer. A meas- ure of incalculable benefit, pleasure, and satisfaction to the people of Wisconsin, was the reorganization and! rejuvenation of the State Historical Society, which has already become second to none of its kind in the United States. Its great success is largely due to the unselfish labors of the late Lyman C. Draper, to whose mem- ory it must forever stand as his most appropriate monument. It is but feeble praise to say that no man, living or dead, has ever con- ferred upon the inhabitants of Wisconsin a service of more endur- ing benefit than this remarkable devotee to science, art, literature and the historic spirit, has rendered to the present and to all com- ing generations. "The best work I ever did for Wisconsin," said the late Charles H. Larrabee in a private letter to a friend, "was to induce Lyman C. Draper to remove from Baltimore to Wiscon- sin. I had my academic education at Granville, O., where Draper was a schoolmate. I procured the first appropriation for a small salary for Draper as secretary of the State Historical Society, and took an active part in its reorganization, with William R. Smith, Moses M. Strong and Edward V. Whiton. Judge Whiton and I were judges of the Supreme Court at that time, before the organization of the separate Supreme Court, and I first brought Mr. Draper to the attention of Governor Farwell. who aided me cordially and substantially." Judge Larrabee himself bore a promi- rent part in the carly judicial and legislative history of the State, but as he admits, his most valuable and enduring service to Wis- consin has been recorded above in his own words. Larrabee was a member of the second Constitutional Convention in 1847: Judge of the Dodge County Circuit Court and a member of the Thirty- sixth Congress from the Third District, in 1859, the successor of. Charles Billinghurst. He lost his life in a railroad accident on the Southern Pacific Railroad a few years ago.
The object of the Society, as recited in the incorporating act. was to collect, embody, and preserve in an authentic form, a library of books, pamphlets, maps, charts, manuscripts, paintings, papers, statuary, and other materials illustrative of the history of
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the State; to resene from oblivion the memory of its early pioneers, and to obtain and preserve narratives of their exploits, perils and adventures; to exhibit faithfully the antiquities and the past and present conditions of the resources of Wisconsin; to promote the study of history by lectures, and to diffuse and publish information relating to the description and history of the State.
It was in 1853. also, that the act was passed abolishing capital punishment for murder and substituting therefor imprisonment for life in the penitentiary at hard labor. This was a startling in- novation in the history of jurisprudence, Wisconsin being the first State to abolish the gallows, and the new departure attracted uni- versal attention, not only among members of the bar, but by all classes of reformers interested in the welfare of society. The pas- sage of this extraordinary law was mainly due to the unceasing efforts of Marvin H. Bovee, then a member of the State Senate from Waukesha county, who devoted much of his time in after years in trying to secure the passage of a similar law in other States. The opponents of the law, which were many, predicted at the time of its passage that its effect would be seen immediately in an increase of capital offenses in this State; but such has not been the case, as a long experience has proven. Like the operation of an elective judiciary system, it has proved to be less destructive of good order and sound public policy than most conservative people anticipated. There have been many attempts made, however, to have the law repealed. but they have never been successful, and probably never will be.
Another important act provided for a geological survey of the State, and the appointment of a State Geologist by the Governor, and an appropriation from the State treasury to deiray the ex- penses of the same. Governor Farwell appointed Edward Daniels State Geologist, a gentleman who afterward acquired some dis- tinction and won applause for his courage by helping to overpower the guard who was keeping watch and ward over Sherman M. Booth, when he was imprisoned in the Milwaukee postoffice building, and spiriting him away to a place of safety in the country. When the Rebellion broke out, Prof. Daniels raised a regiment of Wisconsin cavalry and went to the front. After the
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war was over he bought a large tract of worn-out land in Virginia, near Washington, which he proposed to restore to its original fertility by his scientific knowledge of agriculture, ou which he now resides.
It was during the last year of Governor Farwell's reign that the question of passing a prohibitory liquor law was submitted to a vote of the people, and passed in the affirmative by a vote of 27.519 to 24.100-a majority of 3.410. Such a law was passed by the Legislature during Governor Barstow's administration, but he vetoed it.
Few Wisconsin men have experienced greater changes in their own lives than L. J. Farwell. Born in New York in 1819, he was apprenticed to a tinsmith at an early age: at 19 he came West." establishing himself first at Lockport. Ill., then locating in Milwau- kee in 1840. where he soon had the largest wholesale house in the State. He made money rapidly and in 1847 he made a large pur- chase of real estate in the city of Madison, where he took up his residence and began improvements on a large scale, which were calculated to benefit the town, as well as himself. The financial revulsion of 1857 proved too much for him and he failed. In 1863, Mr. Lincoln appointed him an assistant examiner in the Patent Office. Three months later he was promoted to the office of princi- pal examiner of inventions, which position he held for seven years. He was present at Ford's theater on that fatal night when President Lincoln was assassinated by J. Wilkes Booth. April 14th, 1865, and has written a graphic account of that horrible tragedy, which has a double interest to Wisconsin people, for the reason that Governor Farwell was probably the only Wisconsin man who witnessed that dreadful crime. That there was a well-laid conspiracy to murder Vice-President Johnson, Secretary Seward and Edwin M. Stanton. Secretary of War, was clearly established on the trial of the con- spirators afterwards. That Farwell saved the life of Andrew John- son there is little room to doubt. Governor Farwell went with a friend to Ford's theater that fatal night on purpose that his friend might see Mr. Lincoln, it having been announced in the news- . papers that the President and his family would occupy a box to witness the popular play of "Our American Cousin," in which
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Laura Keene had won much well-merited applause. Mr. Farwell tells the story of the revolting murder as follows:
"We procured seats, having the President's box in full view on our right. When the fatal shot was fired we involuntarily turned cur eyes to the box from whence the sound proceeded. and the same instant the horrible vision of J. Wilkes Booth flashed upon my eyes, brandishing a knife and jumping from the President's box, repeating the words, 'Sic Semper Tyrannis! I had scarcely seen or heard him before he had vanished from the stage. As the President fell and the cry rang through the house that he was assassinated. it flashed across my mind that there was a conspiracy being consummated to take the lives of the leading officers of the government, which would include that of Mfr. Johnson. The cause for this suspicion and of my alarm for the safety of Mr. Johnson was probably the fact of my having read in some newspaper the article copied from The Selma (Ala.) Despatch, being an offer by some fiendish rebel to aid in contributing SI.oco.coo for procuring the assassination of Lincoln. Johnson and Seward. While some seemed paralyzed by the boldness of the deed and others intent upon knowing how seriously the President was injured. I rushed from the theater and ran with all possible speed to the Kirkwood House to apprise Mr. Johnson of the impending danger. impelled by the fear that it would be even then too late. Passing Mr. Spencer, one of the clerks of the hotel, who was standing just outside the door, I said to him: "Place a guard at the door: Presi- dent Lincoln is murdered': and to Mr. Jones, another clerk, who was at the office desk. as I hurried by. Guard the stairway and Governor Johnson's room: Mr. Lincoln is assassinated!' And then darting up to Mr. Johnson's room, No. 68. I knocked, but hearing no movement I knocked again, and called out with the loudest voice that I could command: 'Governor Johnson. if you are in this room I must see you!' In a moment I heard him spring from his bed and exclaim: 'Farwell. is that you?' 'Yes, let me in.' I replied. The door was opened. I passed in, locked it, and told him the terrible news, which for a time overwhelmed us both. and grasping hands, we fell upon each other as if for mutual support. But it was only for a moment."
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In writing on this subject, the late James R. Doolittle said: "It seems that one of the conspirators, George E. Atzerodt, who has since paid the penalty of his crime with his life, had on the morn- ing of the 14th of April taken a room at the Kirkwood House. on the floor above that occupied by Mr. Johnson: that he was in the room during the day and was there visited by Booth; that at the time President Lincoln was shot, his horse was standing sad- dled and bridled near the hotel."
It is evident that Atzerodt's part in the devilish program was to murder Vice-President Johnson, but was prevented by the timely arrival of Governor Farwell.
Governor Farwell died April 10, 1880).
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CHAPTER VIL.
THE HUBBELL IMPEACHMENT TRIAL ..
It was during the last year of Governor Farwell's administra- tion that the impeachment trial of Levi Hubbell, judge of the Circuit Court. took place, his circuit consisting of the counties of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Jefferson and Dane. It was an extra- ordinary proceeding, the attempt to impeach a judicial officer never having been made before in the history of the State. He was a gentleman of refined and pleasing manners, of a genial and companionable disposition, and he possessed many scholarly attainments. He was graduated from Union College; studied law and settled in Ithaca, and was elected. to the Assembly in : New York in 1836. He came to Wisconsin in 1844. and soon became prominent at the bar and in the councils of the Democratic party of the State. He was a popular stump orator whose ser- vices in city and country during political campaigns were in con- . stant demand. His first terin as judge of the Second circuit expired in 1851, at which time he was re-elected for a term of six years. On the 26th of January, 1853. William K. Wilson, of Milwaukee, preferred the charges in the Assembly against Judge Hubbell. Mr. Wilson was not then a member of the Assembly. but he had served in both branches of the Legislature, and was at that time considered one of the leading members of the Dem- ocratic party. He had become somewhat conspicuous in an early day as a Free Soiler and an advocate of the public lands being sold only to actual settlers, and of limiting the amount of land which one man might own to 320 acres, which was supposed . "to be about the amount that one farmer could cultivate to the best advantage. Wilson's free soil theories, however, did not receive their inspiration from the anti-slavery movement, which. later on, culminated in the formation of the Republican party, the
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object of which was to keep slavery out of the free territories. the issue upon which Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860. Not only were the accuser and the accused bright and shining lights in the dominant party, but the Assembly that must pros- ecute the case contained a large majority of Democrats. So did the Senate which was to sit as court of impeachment.
It looked very much to outsiders like a family quarrel, which might possibly end in something like an Irish wake.
Mr. Wilson's communication, addressed to the Speaker of the Assembly, was as follows: "The undersigned, a citizen and elector of this State, hereby charges the Hon. Levi Hubbell, judge of the Second Judicial circuit of this State, with having committed and being guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and mal- feasances in office, and has so acted in his official capacity as to require the interposition of the constitutional power of the Assen- bly. I therefore request you to lay this communication before your honorable body, so that an investigation can be made, to enable the Assembly to determine whether or not the constitu- tional power ought to be exercised in regard to the Hon. Levi Hubbell."
The presentation of the charges caused intense excitement throughout the State. The Assembly went at the business with great deliberation, and about a month elapsed, after the appoint- ment of the special committee to investigate the case, before the articles of impeachment were presented to the Senate. This was done March 5. The Legislature then concluded the regular bus- iness of the session, and took a recess until the 6th of June. Re-assembling on that day, the trial proceeded. The State Senate. which was to sit as the jury in the case, was a body of men that contained some of the best known and most distinguished cit- izens of the commonwealth. When all present they numbered twenty-five. Lieut .- Gov. Timothy Burns being absent, the pres- ident pro tem., Dancan C. Reed, of Milwaukee, presided. The roll call of the Senators showed up well for sagacity, fairness. judicial ability and a general acquaintance with public affairs. The Democrats were largely in the majority. The Republican party was not organized until the next year, so that they were classified
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A POLITICAL HISTORY OF WISCONSIN. 87 .
as Whigs and Democrats. It was not an occasion that called for any display of partisanship, and none was shown. Personal preju- dice, hatred, jealousy and rivalry took its place. There were many capable men among them. The best lawyers were Charles Dum. ex-chief justice of the territory: John W. Cary, who afterwards became famous as the general solicitor of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Company, then a Senator from Racine; John R. Sharpstein. for a long time editor of the old Milwaukee News, and later one of the associate justices of the Supreme Court of California; James T. Lewis, who served as Governor of the State from 1864 to 1866. and A. M. Blair, a prominent lawyer of Fond du Lac. There were others who had made their mark along other lines of activity, and whose names were familiar to the people. Coles Bashford, whose contest with Barstow for the governorship has indelibly impressed his name upon Wisconsin's political his- tory, was a conspicuous figure as one of the Senators. Another was Baruch Schileisinger Weil of Washington county, who came here from France at an early day under the .plain name of Baruch . Schleisinger, but married a Miss Weil and took her name. Mar- vin H. Bovee. of Waukesha county, owed his claim to distinction to his efforts in getting a bill passed to abolish hanging in Wis- consin. Then there were such solid men as James S. Albon, Levi Sterling, Eleazer Wakely and Judson Prentice. Altogether they were quite a different class of men from the average run of igno- ramuses that usually compose the petit juries in our Circuit Courts. It was evident that Judge Hubbell was to have a fair trial. The case was unique; it was destined to become historic; the charges were very grave, and, if proven, must end the public career of a prominent citizen. Turning from the Senate, the jury in the case. to the Assembly that was made the prosecutor by the constitu- tion, we find there, also, some noted men of that day. The Speaker was Henry L. Palner, of Milwaukee, already conspicuous at the bar and in political life, who appointed the select committee to - frame and present the articles of impeachment. This special committee consisted of Horace T. Saunders, a noted lawyer, pol- itician and Democrat of Racine, chairman: George W. Cate. afterwards a Circuit judge and member of Congress from the
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Eighth district. also a Democrat : J. Allen Barber, a Whig, a man of Puritanic integrity, Speaker of the Assembly in 1863, and a member of Congress from the Third district from 1871 to 1875; the others were P. B. Simpson (Democrat) of Shullsburg, and E. Wheeler (Whig), who represented the Fifth district in Congress from 1863 to 1865.
The other prominent members of the Assembly were John H. Tweedy, a leading Whig and ex-member of Congress in territorial times; William M. Dennis, later elected Bank Comptroller on the Democratic ticket: John E. Holmes, first Lieutenant-Governor of the State; C. Latham Sholes, editor. inventor and legislator; David Taylor, late a member of the Supreme Court, and W. D. Bacon, Whig, and an active citizen of Waukesha, and others of more or less prominence. Of course, there was a diversity of opinion among the Senators and Representatives regarding the guilt of the accused, and it may be said that the confidence of the public in the good sense and impartiality of the select committee which had investigated the case and brought in the articles of impeachment was such that the preconceived opinion of the com- munity was generally adverse to Judge Hubbell. The members of the Assembly had little to do in the case, as their part of the pro- gram had been committed to the hands of a special committee. of which Saunders and Barber were the leaders. When all was ready the trial proceeded. It was to be a battle of the giants among the lawyers. Old Thor, the thunder god of the superstitious Norsemen, was there, in all the pride and power of his genius, in the person of E. G. Ryan, whom the prosecution had sum- moned to their aid. although Saunders. Barber and Cate were recognized as able attorneys and skillful parliamentarians. Ryan cherished a decided dislike of Hubbell, before whom he had prac- ticed, and he entered upon the prosecution with all the spirit. vehemence, energy and zeal that characterized that wonderful advocate. He was then just entering upon a most brilliant pro- fessional career, and the case. so unusual in the annals of the new State, offered an opportunity for the display of his extraordinary powers of speech not to be neglected. Ryan was at his best. which means that he was at his worst for the defendant.
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Ile was about 40 years of age, and had won great distinction in the first constitutional convention as a lawyer and powerful debater, and he was to win more in the present trial. and in the Barstow-Bashford. and in the Booth-Glover rescue cases. His manner was aggressive and overbearing towards his opponents; always respectful and deferential towards the court, and his words eloquent, incisive, sarcastic and sometimes as caus- tic as red hot potash. He was the best read man of his day in Wisconsin of any profession in all the fields of classical and con- temporaneous literature, and so encyclopedical was his knowledge that an observer once declared, after listening to him plead a case in court, that he "knew more law than the judges, more theology than the clergy, and more materia medica than the doctors." In some of his highest flights of oratory he ranged at will through every field of learning and made every art that could arouse a human passion. subservient to his use. A gentleman who knew Ryan well and had studied him in all his various moods and tenses, once described him in these words: "A mind compre- · hensive in its grasp; quick of perception; profound learning in the . law; close familiarity with the writers of the past: thorough mas- tery and precision of language: classical beauty of dietion; won- derful power of imagery: great nervous force and energy, were the marked characteristics of him who towered above all others at cur bar -- the lawyer among lawyers. His arguments were models of their kind-clear in statement, clothed in the classic garments of thought and speech, rich in metaphor, scathing in invective. terrible in denunciation!"
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