While I was Assistant Postmaster-General, Senator Whittihorne,
of Tennessee, called at the Department to see me on official
business. Seated at a window overlooking the Capitol, he remarked
that the chords of memory were touched as he entered the room; that
when barely of age, he occupied for a time a desk as a clerk just
where he was seated.
He then told me that at the time of the Presidential election in
1844 he was a law student in the office of Mr. Polk, and by his
invitation came on with him to Washington. The journey of the
President-elect, from Nashville to Washington, was in February,
1845, just prior to his inauguration. He was accompanied by the
members of his immediate family, his law student Mr. Whittihorne, and
the Hon. Cave Johnson, who was soon to hold a position in his
Cabinet. The journey to Washington, as Senator Whittihorne told
me, was of two weeks' duration: first, by steamboat on the Cumberland
and the Ohio to Pittsburg; thence by stage coach to the national
Capitol.
At the time mentioned, railroads scarcely had an existence south
of the Ohio and west of the Alleghanies; and save the single
wire from Washington to Baltimore, no telegraph line had been
constructed.
How striking the commentary, alike upon human accomplishment,
and upon opportunity under our free institutions, is here presented!
The wearisome and hazardous journey of half a month by steamboat
and stage coach had been succeeded by one in palace car of a day
and a night of comparative ease and safety, and the clerk had risen
from a humble place in the Department to that of Senator from one of
the great States in the Union.
XL
ENDORSING THE ADMINISTRATION
DIFFICULTY EXPERIENCED BY DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS IN PROCURING APPOINTMENTS
FOR THEIR CONSTITUENTS--A NEW MEMBER THREATENS TO FRAME RESOLUTIONS
OF CONDEMNATION--HE DOES THE VERY OPPOSITE--AN EXPLANATORY ANECDOTE.
The Democratic members of the forty-ninth Congress who yet survive
will probably recall something of the difficulty they experienced in
procuring for aspiring constituents prompt appointments to positions
of honor, trust, and profit, under the then lately inaugurated
administration. An earnest desire was felt, and vehemently expressed
at times, by those who had been long excluded from everything that
savored of Federal recognition, for sweeping changes all along the
line.
A new member of the House, from one of the border States, believing
that his grievances were far too heavy to be meekly borne, made
open declaration of war, and asserted with great confidence and
with the free use of words nowhere to be found in "Little Helps to
Youthful Beginners," that at the approaching Democratic convention
of his State, resolutions of condemnation of no uncertain sound
would be adopted. Some conciliatory observations, which I ventured
to offer, were treated with scorn, and the irate member, still
breathing out threatenings, hastily turned his footsteps homeward.
A few mornings later, I was agreeably surprised to find in _The
Post_ a telegram to the effect that upon the assembling of the
convention aforementioned, the honorable gentleman above designated,
securing prompt recognition from the chair, had, under a suspension
of the rules, secured the unanimous adoption of a resolution
enthusiastically and unconditionally endorsing every act, past,
present, and to come, of the national Democratic administration.
Upon the return of the member to Washington, I expressed to him my
surprise at a conversion which, in suddenness and power, had possibly
but one parallel in either sacred or profane history. Closing his
near eye, he said:
"Look here! I can illustrate my position about this matter by
relating a little incident I witnessed near the close of the war.
Just as I was leaving an old ferry-boat in which I had crossed the
Tennessee River, my attention was attracted to a canoe near by
in which were seated two fishermen, both negroes, one a very old
man and the other a small boy. Suddenly the canoe capsized and
they were both dumped in the deep water. The boy was an expert
swimmer and was in no danger. Not so with the old man; he sank
immediately, and it certainly seemed that his fishing days were
over. The boy, however, with a pluck and skill that did him great
credit, instantly dived to the bottom of the river, and with great
difficulty and much personal peril finally succeeded in landing
the old man upon the shore.
"Approaching the heroic youth, as he was wringing the water from
his own garments, I inquired,
"'Your father, is he?'
"'No, sir,' was the quick reply, 'he ain't my father.'
"'Your grandfather, then?'
"'No, sir, he ain't my grandfather nuther, he ain't no kin to me, I
tell you.'
"'Earnestly expressing my surprise at his having imperilled his
own life to save a man who was no kin to him, the boy replied,'
"'You see, dis was de way of it boss; _de ole man, he had de bait!"_
XLI
ANECDOTES ABOUT LINCOLN
LINCOLN'S TROUBLE WITH THREE EMANCIPATION ENTHUSIASTS--A SCHOOLBOY'S
TROUBLE WITH SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABEDNEGO--PRETTY WELL OFF WITH
A FORTUNE OF FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS--LINCOLN REBUKES SOME RICH MEN
WHO DEMAND A GUNBOAT FOR THE PROTECTION OF NEW YORK.
The Hon. John B. Henderson, now of Washington City, but during the
war and the early reconstruction period a distinguished Union
Senator from Missouri, relates the following incident of Mr. Lincoln.
During the gloomy period of 1862, late one Sunday afternoon he
called upon the President and found his alone in his library.
After some moments Mr. Lincoln, apparently much depressed, stated
in substance: "They are making every effort, Henderson, to induce
me to issue a Proclamation of Emancipation. Sumner and Wilson and
Stevens are constantly urging me, but I don't think it best now;
do _you_ think so, Henderson?" To which the latter promptly replied
that he did not think so; that such a measure, under existing
conditions, would, in his judgment, be ill-advised and possibly
disastrous. "Just what I think," said the President, "but they
are constantly coming and urging me, sometimes alone, sometimes in
couples, and sometimes _all three together,_ but constantly pressing
me." With that he walked across the room to a window and looked
out upon the Avenue. Sure enough, Wilson, Stevens, and Sumner were
seen approaching the Executive Mansion. Calling his visitor to
the window and pointing to the approaching figures, in a tone
expressing something of that wondrous sense of humor that no burden
or disaster could wholly dispel, he said, "Henderson, did you ever
attend an old field school?" Henderson replied that he did.
"So did I," said the President; "what little education I
ever got in early life was in that way. I attended an old field
school in Indiana, where our only reading-book was the Bible. One
day we were standing up reading the account of the three Hebrew
children in the fiery furnace. A little tow-headed fellow who
stood beside me had the verse with the unpronounceable names; he
mangled up Shadrach and Meshach woefully, and finally went all
to pieces on Abednego. Smarting under the blows which, in accordance
with the old-time custom, promptly followed his delinquency, the
little fellow sobbed aloud. The reading, however, went round, each
boy in the class reading his verse in turn. The sobbing at length
ceased, and the tow-headed boy gazed intently upon the verses ahead.
"Suddenly he gave a pitiful yell, at which the school-master
demanded:
"'What is the matter with you now?'
"'Look there,' said the boy, pointing to the next verse, 'there
comes them same damn three fellows again!'"
As indicating the slight concern Mr. Lincoln had about money-making,
as well as the significance of the expression "well-off" half a
century or so ago, the following conversation, related by Judge
Weldon, is in point.
At the opening of the De Witt Circuit Court in May, 1859, just a
year before his first nomination for the Presidency, Mr. Lincoln
was present, unattended for possibly the first time by his life-long
friend, Major John T. Stuart. Upon inquiry from Weldon as to
whether Stuart was coming, Lincoln replied, "No, Stuart told me
that he would not be here this term."
Weldon then remarked, "I suppose the Major has gotten to be pretty
well off and doesn't have to attend all the courts in the Circuit."
"Yes," replied Lincoln, "Stuart is pretty well to do, pretty well to
do."
"How much is the Major probably worth, Mr. Lincoln?" asked Mr.
Weldon.
"Well," replied the latter, after a moment's thought, "I don't know
exactly; Stuart is pretty well off; _I suppose he must be worth
about fifteen thousand dollars."_
Another incident characteristic of Mr. Lincoln, was related by his
friend Judge Weldon.
During the gloomiest period of the war, and while our seaboard
cities were in constant apprehension of attack, a delegation of
business men from New York visited Washington for the purpose of
having a gunboat secured for the defence of their city. At
their request, Judge Weldon accompanied them to the Executive
Mansion and introduced them to the President. The spokesman of
the delegation, after depicting at length and in somewhat
pompous manner, the dangers that threatened the great metropolis, took
occasion, in manner at once conclusive, to state that he spoke with
authority, that the gentlemen represented property aggregating
in value many hundreds of millions of dollars. At this, Mr. Lincoln
interposing impatiently, and in a manner never to be forgotten,
said:
"It seems to me, gentlemen, that if I were as rich as you _say_
you are, and as badly _scared_ as you _appear_ to be, I would,
in this hour of my country's distress, _just buy that gunboat
myself!"_
XLII
THE FIRST LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY IN AMERICA
FAR-REACHING EFFECTS OF THE FOUNDING OF THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF
BURGESSES--VIRGINIA'S GIFT OF TERRITORY TO THE GOVERNMENT--KASKASKIA
CAPTURED FROM THE BRITISH--JAMESTOWN THE SCENE OF THE FIRST BRITISH
COLONY--THE BEGINNINGS OF COLONIAL SELF-GOVERNMENT--SALUTARY
LAWS MADE--POCAHONTAS--GOVERNMENT BY CHARTER--DESPOTISM OF JAMES
I--MACAULAY ON THE STUART DYNASTY--THE THIRTEEN ORIGINAL COLONIES--
UNJUST TAXATION--PROGRESS OF REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES--VIRGINIA NOTABLE
FOR HER STATESMEN.
On the thirtieth of July, 1907, at the Jamestown Exposition, was
celebrated the anniversary of the assembling of the House of
Burgesses of Virginia, the first legislative body to assemble upon
the Western continent. The meeting was presided over by the present
Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and by invitation of the
President of the Exposition addresses were made by ex-speakers
Carlisle, Keifer, and myself.
My address was as follows:
"We have assembled upon historic ground. We celebrate to-day a
masterful historic event. Other anniversaries, sacredly observed,
have their deep meaning; no one, however, is fraught with profounder
significance than this.
"The management of the great Exposition did well to set apart this
thirtieth of July to commemorate the coming together at Jamestown of
the first legislative assembly in the New World. The assembling
of the representatives of the people upon the eventful day two
hundred and eighty-six years ago--of which this is the anniversary
--marked an epoch which, in far-reaching consequences, scarcely
finds a parallel in history. It was the initial step in the series
of stupendous events which found their culmination in the Bill
of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the formulation of
the Federal Constitution.
"From my home, a thousand miles to the westward, in the great valley
of the Mississippi, I come at your bidding to bear part in the
exercises of this day. Not as a stranger, an alien to your blood,
but as your countryman, your fellow-citizen, I gladly lift my voice
in this great assemblage. And when were the words, 'fellow-citizens,'
of deeper significance as suggestive of a more glorious past
then to-day, as we gather upon this hallowed spot to commemorate
one of the grandest events of which history has any record?
"The magical words, 'fellow-citizens,' never fail to touch a
responsive chord in the patriotic heart. Was it the gifted Prentiss
who at a critical moment of our history exclaimed, 'For whether
upon the Sabine or the St. Johns; standing in the shadow of Bunker
Hill, or amid the ruins of Jamestown; near the great northern chain
of lakes, or within the sound of the Father of Waters, flowing
unvexed to the sea; in the crowded mart of the great metropolis,
or upon the western verge of the continent, where the restless tide
of emigration is stayed only by the ocean--everywhere upon this
broad domain, thank God, I can still say, "fellow-citizens"'?
"And truly, an Illinoisan is no stranger within the confines of
'the Old Dominion.' You have not forgotten, we cannot forget, that
the territory now embraced in five magnificent commonwealths
bordering upon the Ohio and the Mississippi, was at a crucial period
of our history the generous gift of Virginia to the general
Government,--a gift that in splendid statesmanship and in far-reaching
consequence has no counterpart; one which at the pivotal moment made
possible the ratification of the Articles of Confederation--the
sure forecast of 'the more perfect Union' yet to follow. Illinois,
the greatest of the commonwealths to which I have alluded, can
never forget that it was a Virginian, George Rogers Clark, who, in
the darkest days of the Revolution, led the expedition--'worthy of
mention,' as was said by John Randolph, 'with that of Hannibal
in Italy,'--by which the ancient capital, Kaskaskia, was captured,
the British flag deposed, and Illinois taken possession of in
the name of the commonwealth whose Governor, Patrick Henry, had
authorized the masterful conquest. Nor can it be forgotten that
the deed of cession by which Illinois became part and parcel of
the general Government, bears--as commissioners upon the part of
Virginia--the honored names of Arthur Lee, James Monroe, and Thomas
Jefferson. Is it to be wondered at, that a magnificent Illinois
building adorns the grounds of the Jamestown Exposition,--and that
Illinois hearts everywhere beat in unison with yours in the
celebration of one of the epoch-marking days of all the ages?
"The time is propitious for setting history aright. This exposition
will not have been in vain if the fact be crystallized into history
yet to be written, that the first settlement by English-speaking
people--just three centuries ago--upon this continent, was at
Jamestown. And that here self-government--in its crude form but
none the less self-government--had its historical beginning. Truly
has it been said by an eminent writer of your own State, that prior
to December, 1620, 'the colony of Virginia had become so firmly
established and self-government in precisely the same form which
existed up to the Revolution throughout the English colonies had
taken such firm root thereon, that it was beginning to affect
not only the people but the Government of Great Britain.' In
the old church at Jamestown, on July 30, 1619, was held the
first legislative assembly of the New World--the historical House of
Burgesses. It consisted of twenty-two members, and its constituencies
were the several plantations of the colony. A speaker was elected,
the session opened with prayer, and the oath of supremacy duly
taken. The Governor and Council occupied the front seats, and the
members of the body, in accordance with the custom of the
British Parliament, wore their hats during the session.
"This General Assembly convened in response to a summons issued by
Sir George Yeardley, the recently appointed Governor of the colony.
Hitherto the colony had been governed by the London Council; the
real life of Virginia dates from the arrival of Yeardley, bringing
with him from England 'commissions and instructions for the better
establishing of a commonwealth.'
"The centuries roll back, and before us, in solemn session, is the
first assembly upon this continent of the chosen representatives
of the people. It were impossible to overstate its deep import to
the struggling colony, or its far-reaching consequence to States
yet unborn. In this little assemblage of twenty-two burgesses,
the Legislatures of nearly fifty commonwealths to-day and of the
Congress with its representatives from all the States of 'an
indestructible union' find their historical beginning. The words of
Bancroft in this connection are worthy of remembrance: 'A perpetual
interest attaches to this first elective body that ever assembled
in the Western world, representing the people of Virginia and making
laws for their government more than a year before the _Mayflower_ with
the Pilgrims left the harbor of Southampton, and while Virginia
was still the only British colony on the continent of America.'
"It is to us to-day a matter of profound gratitude that these
the earliest American lawgivers were eminently worthy their high
vocation. While confounding, in some degree, the separate functions
of government, as abstractly defined at a later day by Montesquieu,
and eventually put in concrete form in our fundamental laws, State
and Federal--it is none the less true that these first legislators
clearly discerned their inherent rights as a part of the English-speaking
race. More important still, a perusal of the brief records they
have left, impresses the conviction that they were no strangers to
the underlying fact that the people are the true source of political
power, the evidence whereof is to be found in the scant records of
their proceedings--a priceless heritage of all future generations.
And first--and fundamental in all legislative assemblies--they
asserted the absolute right to determine as to the election and
qualification of members. Grants of land were asked, not only for
the planters, but for their wives, 'as equally important parts
of the colony.' It was wisely provided that of the natives 'the
most towardly boys in wit and the graces' should be educated and set
apart to the work of converting the Indians to the Christian
religion; stringent penalties were attached to idleness, gambling,
and drunkenness; excess in apparel was prohibited by heavy taxation;
encouragement was given to agriculture in all its known forms;
while conceding 'the commission of privileges' brought over by the
new Governor as their fundamental law, yet with the liberty-guarding
instinct of their race they kept the way open for seeking redress,
'in case they should find aught not perfectly squaring with the
state of the colony.' No less important were the enactments
regulating the dealings of the colonists with the Indians. Yet to
be mentioned, and of transcendent importance, was the claim of the
burgesses 'to allow or disallow,' at their own good pleasure,
all orders of the court of the London Company. And deeply significant
was the declaration of these representatives of three centuries
ago, that their enactments were instantly to be put in force,
without waiting for their ratification in England. And not to
be forgotten is the stupendous fact that while the battle with the
untamed forces of nature was yet waging, and conflict with savage foe
of constant recurrence, these legislators provided for the maintenance
of public worship, and took the initial steps for the establishment
of an institution of learning. It is not too much to say that the
hour that witnessed these enactments witnessed the triumph of
the popular over the court party; in no unimportant sense, the
first triumph of the American colonists over kingly prerogative.
Looking through the mists of the mighty past, Mr. Speaker, to
the House of Burgesses, over which your first predecessor presided,
would it be out of place to apply to that assemblage the
historic words spoken of one of a later period: 'Nobles by the
right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a
mightier hand'?
"Did the occasion permit, it would be of wondrous interest to linger
for a time with these, the earliest colonies in this, the cradle
of American civilization; to know something of their daily life,
their hopes and ambitions, their struggles and triumphs; something
of their ceaseless vigil and of the perils that environed them; to
recall stirring incidents and heroic achievements; to catch a gleam
of a spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion which in all the annals
of men scarcely finds a parallel. It would be of curious interest
to watch the parade and pomp of governors and councils of royal
appointment in attempted representation of a pageantry familiar to
the Old World, but which was to have no permanent abiding place in
the New. Governors and their subordinates--though bearing the
royal commission, yet in rare instances to be classed only as bad or
indifferent--pass in long procession before us into the dim shadows.
But out of the mists of this long past, two figures emerge that
have for us an abiding interest, John Smith and Pocahontas--names
that have place not alone in romance and song, but upon the pages of
veritable history.
"Colonial governors strutted their brief hour upon the stage and
have long passed to oblivion; but Smith, the intrepid soldier, the
ever-present friend and counsellor of the early colonists, their
stalwart protector--alike against the bullet of the savage and the
mandate of official power--will not pass from remembrance so long as
heroic deeds are counted worthy of enduring record among men.
"With dark background of rude cabin and wigwam, of scantily appointed
plantation, and of far-stretching forest--with its mysterious voices
and manifold perils--there passes before us the lovely form of the
beautiful Indian maiden, the daughter and pride of the renowned
native chieftain. So long as courage and fidelity arouse sympathy
and admiration, so long will the thrilling legend of Pocahontas
touch responsive chords in human hearts. Its glamour is upon
the early pages of colonial history; her witchery lingers upon
stream and forest, and the firm earth upon which we tread seems to
have been hallowed by her footsteps.
"A name that sheds lustre upon the earliest pages of our Colonial history
is that of Sir Edwin Sandys. Under his courageous leadership, what
was known as the Virginia or Liberal party in the London Company
obtained a signal triumph over that of the court. The result
was the formal grant to the colony guaranteeing free government by
written charter. Its declared purpose was to secure 'the greatest
comfort and benefit to the people and the prevention of injustice,
grievances, and oppression.' It provided for full legislative
authority in the Assembly, and was with some modifications the
model of the systems subsequently introduced into the other English
colonies.
"By this charter, representative government and trial by jury became
recognized rights in the New World. Upon this charter, as has been
truly said, 'Virginia erected the superstructure of her liberties.'
"The coming of this charter marked an epoch in the history of
the Jamestown colony, and set the pace for English-speaking
settlements yet in the future.
"It was in very truth the first step in the direction of the
establishment of the great Republic which was to be the enduring
beacon-light of self-governing people in all future ages.
"To a full appreciation of the supreme significance of the mighty event
we to-day celebrate and its results--now constituting so inspiring
a chapter of history--some account must be taken of conditions then
existing in the mother country. While obtaining the guarantee of a
large measure of self-government for the New World, Sir Edwin Sandys
and his co-patriots were unable to secure that which even savored of
liberal administration in the Old. James--the first of the Stuart
Dynasty--was upon the English throne. In narrow, selfish state-craft
his is possibly in the long list of sovereigns without a rival.
The exercise and maintenance of royal prerogative was with him the
'be all and end all' of government, and, abetted by the sycophants
about him, he unwittingly laid the train of inexorable events that
were to culminate in the execution of one and the banishment of
another of his line. His claim was that of absolute power, and
during a reign of twenty-two years--extending from the death of
Queen Elizabeth to the year 1625--he was the unrelenting foe of
whatever pertained to freedom in religion or in government. His
apparent indifference to the execution of his mother--the ill-fated
Mary, Queen of Scots--and his condemnation of the illustrious
Sir Walter Raleigh to the scaffold, are alone sufficient to render
the memory of this monarch forever infamous. It is a marvel,
indeed, that with James the First upon the throne, and popular
freedom in such a low state throughout his immediate realm, that
so large a measure of liberty should have been conceded to the
distant colony. The achievement is the enduring evidence of
unsurpassed courage in the men in whose immediate keeping were the
early fortunes of the Virginia colony, and sheds unfading lustre
upon their memories.
"Nor can it be forgotten that from the masterful hour that witnessed
the assembling of the first House of Burgesses until the abdication
of James the Second, the welfare of the Virginia colony was in
large measure in the iron grasp of stern antagonists to all that
pertained to liberty of conscience and to popular rule. Whatever there
was of progress during the seventy years--barring the brief period
of the Commonwealth--that immediately preceded the historic English
Revolution, and the crowning of William and Mary, was despite
the untiring hostility of the Stuart Dynasty. During this period the
lives of Englishmen at home were as the dust in the balance. It
witnessed the very heyday of the infamous Star Chamber. It was of
Strafford, the bloody instrument (though wearing judicial ermine) of
Charles the First, that Macaulay said: 'If justice, in the whole
range of its wide armory, contained one weapon which could pierce him,
that weapon his pursuers were bound, before God and man, to employ.'
"And for all time, the Stuart Dynasty itself remains impaled by
the pen of the same master:
"'Then came those days never to be recalled without a blush--the
days of servitude without loyalty, and sensuality without love, of
dwarfish talents and gigantic vices, the paradise of cold hearts
and narrow minds, the golden age of the coward, the bigot, and the
slave. The principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning
courtier, and the _anathema maranatha_ of every fawning dean.
In every high place worship was paid to Charles and James--Belial and
Moloch,--and England propitiated those obscene and cruel idols with
the blood of her best and bravest children. Crime succeeded to
crime and disgrace to disgrace, until the race, accursed of God
and man, was a second time driven forth to wander on the face of
the earth, and to be a byword and a shaking of the head to the
nations.'
"It is our pleasing task to turn now from the dark annals of our
English forebears to the stupendous events of which that we to-day
celebrate in the historical forecast. With the passing years, a
continuing tide of emigration was setting in from the Old to the
New World. Additional settlements had sprung into being, and
the Plantation in its distinctive sense had given way to the Colony,
to be succeeded yet later by the State. The glory of Jamestown
had measurably departed, and to Williamsburg, and yet later to the
now splendid city upon the James, had been transferred the seat of
Virginia authority. New England, despite natural obstacles and
constant peril, was surely working out her large place in history.
Puritan, Quaker, Dutchman, Cavalier, Scotch-Irish, and Huguenot
--'building better than they knew'--had established permanent
habitations from Plymouth Rock to Savannah. Brave men from the
early fringe of settlements upon the Atlantic--regardless of
obstacle and danger--had pushed their way westward, and laid the
sure foundations of future commonwealths. From New Hampshire to
Georgia, thirteen English-speaking colonies, with a population
aggregating near two millions, had attained to a large measure
of the dignity of distinctive States. Their allegiance, meanwhile,
to the mother country had been unfaltering, and in her fierce
struggle with France for the mastery of the continent, America had
sealed her loyalty with the best blood of her sons.
"The successors to the first House of Burgesses had learned well
the lessons gleaned from the scant pages of their earliest history.
Attempts to tax the unrepresented colonies soon encountered concerted
hostility. 'No taxation without representation' became the universal
slogan. The words spoken in the British Parliament by Barre--worthy
comrade of the gallant Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham--near a
century and a half after the event we now celebrate, will quicken the
pulse of all coming generations of American patriots. Said he:
"'Your oppressions planted them in America. They fled from your
tyranny to a then uncultivated, unhospitable country where they
exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature
is liable, among others to the cruelties of a savage foe; they grew
by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care for them,
that care was exercised in sending persons to rule them, to spy
out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions and to prey upon
them; men whose behavior on many occasions has caused the blood of
those sons of liberty to recoil within them; men promoted to the
highest seats of justice, some who, to my knowledge, were glad, by
going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of a
court of justice in their own. The colonists have nobly taken
up arms in your defence; have asserted a valor amid their constant
and laborious industry for the defence of a country whose frontier
was drenched in blood. And, believe me--remember, I warn you--the
same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will
accompany them still.'
"And how prophetic now seem the words of Burke in the same great
debate:
"'There is America, which at this day serves for little more than to
amuse you with stories of savage men and uncouth manners, yet shall,
before you taste of death, show itself equal to the whole of
that commerce which now attracts the envy of the world.'
"Standing at his hour almost within hailing distance of the spot
that witnessed the surrender of Cornwallis and the termination
of the War of the Revolution, it would be passing strange if we
should fail to catch something of the inspiration of the impassioned
words of Barre and of Burke, and their wondrous associations.
"It is said that in Venice there is sacredly preserved a letter
written by Columbus a few hours before he sailed from Palos. With
reverent expression of trust in God--humbly but with unfaltering
faith--he spoke of his past voyage to 'that famous land.' His
dream while a suppliant in the outer chambers of kings, and
while keeping lonely vigil upon the deep, was the discovery of a
new pathway to the Indies. Yet who can doubt that to his prophetic
soul was even then fore-shadowed something of 'that famous land'
with the warp and woof of whose history, tradition, and song his
name and fame are linked for all time. Can it not truly be said
of the members of the first House of Burgesses, as was said of
Columbus and his compeers, 'They were pioneers in the march to
independence--precursors in the only progress of freedom which was
to have no backward steps?' They only 'opened the gates' and
lo! there came in the builders of a new and mighty nation.
"Had it been given to the Virginia--the American--legislators whose
memories we honor this day, 'to look into the seeds of time,' what
mighty events, with the rolling years and centuries, would have
passed before their visions. They would have seen the colony they
had planted in the wilderness, day by day strengthening its cords,
enlarging its borders, and with firm tread advancing steadily to
recognized place among the nations. They would have beheld the
savage foe--giving way before the inexorable advance of the hated
'pale face'--sadly retreating toward the ever-receding western
verge of civilization. It would have been theirs to witness the
symbols of French and Spanish authority disappear forever from
mainland and island of the New World. Following the sun a thousand
miles toward his setting, their eyes would have been gladdened
by the great river flowing unvexed from northern lake to southern sea
through a mighty realm that knew no allegiance other than to the
government that here had its feeble beginning. They would--near a
century and a half later than the meeting of the first House of
Burgesses--have beheld their descendants listening in rapt attention
to the impassioned denunciation by Patrick Henry of the tyranny of
the royal successor of James the First; the thirteen colonies arming
for the seven years' struggle with the most powerful of nations;
the presentation, by a Virginian, in the wondrous assemblage at
Philadelphia of the Declaration of Independence; under the matchless
leadership of a Virginian yet more illustrious than Jefferson, the
Colonial army, with decimated ranks and tattered standards,
would have passed in review--all past suffering, sacrifice,
humiliation, and defeat forgotten in the hour of splendid triumph.
Yet later, and in the great convention over which Washington
presided, and in which Madison was the chief factor, they would
have witnessed the deathless principles of the historic Declaration
crystallized into the Federal compact, which was destined forever to
hold States and people in fraternal union. They would have seen
a gallant people of the Old World--catching inspiration from the
New--casting off the oppression of centuries and, through baptism of
blood, fashioning a Republic upon that whose liberties they had so
signally aided to establish. Yet later, and not France alone, but
Mexico and States extending far to the southward, substituting for
monarchical rule that of the people under written Constitutions
modeled after that of the great American Republic. And yet more
marvellous, in Great Britain the divine right of kings an exploded
dogma; the royal successor to the Stuarts and George the Third only
a ceremonial figurehead in government; the House of Lords in its
death struggle; all real political power centred in the Commons,
and England--though still under the guise of monarchy--essentially
a republic.
"And what a grand factor Virginia has been in all that pertains to
human government in this Western world during the past three
centuries. From the pen of one of her illustrious sons, George
Mason, came the 'Bill of Rights'--now in its essentials embedded
by the early amendments into our Federal Constitution; from that
of another, not alone the great Declaration, but the statutes
securing for his own State religious freedom, and the abolition of
primogeniture--the detested legacy of British ancestors. His sword
returned to its scabbard with the achievement of the independence of
the colonies, and the mission of Washington was yet but half
accomplished. To garner up the fruits of successful revolution by
ensuring stable government was the task demanding the loftiest
statesmanship. The five years immediately succeeding our first
treaty of peace with Great Britain have been truly defined, 'our
period of greatest peril.' It was fortunate, indeed, that Washington
was called to preside over the historic convention of '87, and that
his spirit--a yearning for an indissoluble union of the States--
permeated all its deliberations. Fortunate, indeed, that in its
councils was his colleague and friend, the constructive statesman,
James Madison. Inseparably associated for all time with the
formulation and interpretation of the great covenant are the names
of two illustrious Virginians--for all the ages illustrious Americans
--Madison, the father, and Marshall, the expounder of the
Constitution.
"It remained to another son of this first commonwealth, from the
high place to which he had been chosen, to enunciate in trenchant words,
at a crucial moment, a national policy which, under the designation
of 'the Monroe doctrine,' has been the common faith of three
generations of his countrymen and is to remain the enduring bar to
the establishment of monarchial government upon this western
hemisphere.
"Four decades later, at the striking of the hour that noted the
inevitable 'breaking with the past,' it remained to still
another illustrious successor of Jefferson--alike of Virginian
ancestry, and born within her original domain--by authoritative
proclamation to liberate a race, and thereby, for all time, to give
enlarged and grander meaning to our imperishable declaration of
human rights.
"My countrymen, the little settlement planted just three centuries
ago near the spot upon which we have to-day assembled has under
divine guidance grown into a mighty nation. Eighty millions of
people, proud of local traditions and achievements, yet looking
beyond the mere confines of their distinctive commonwealths,
find their chief glory in being citizens of the great Republic.
The mantle of peace is over our own land, and our accredited
representatives in the world's conference, at this auspicious hour,
are outlining a policy that looks to the establishment of enduring
peace among all the nations. To-day, inspired by the sublime
lessons of the event we celebrate and with hearts of gratitude
to God for all he hath vouchsafed to our fathers and to us in
the past, let us take courage, and turn our faces hopefully,
reverently, trustingly to the future."
XLIII
A NEW DAY ADDED TO THE CALENDAR
THE HIGH CHARACTER OF STERLING MORTON AS A MAN AND A PUBLIC SERVANT
--HONORED BY CLEVELAND--ORIGINATOR OF ARBOR DAY.
I recall with pleasure years of close personal friendship with
J. Sterling Morton. He was a gentleman of lofty character and
recognized ability. Much of his life was given to the public
service. As Secretary of Agriculture he was in close touch with
President Cleveland during his last official term.
At the dedication of the monument erected to his memory at his
home, Nebraska City, October 28, 1905, I spoke as follows:
"I count it high privilege to speak a few words upon an occasion
so fraught with interest to this State, and to the entire country.
I gladly bear my humble tribute to the man whom I honored in life,
and whose memory I cherish. A manlier man than Sterling Morton,
one more thoughtful, kind, considerate, self-reliant, hopeful, I
have not known. Truly--
'A man he seemed, of cheerful yesterdays,
And confident to-morrows.'
Of few men could it more truly be said, 'He took counsel ever of
his courage--never of his fears.' With firm convictions upon
pending vital issues, he did not shrink from the conflict. His
antagonist he met in the open. In the words of Lord Brougham, 'His
weapons were ever those of the warrior--never of the assassin.'
"This, is indeed no ordinary occasion. Here and now, we unveil
a monument erected in honor of the memory of one who, alike in
private life and in public station, illustrated the noblest
characteristics of the American citizen. Something of his life
and achievements we have heard with profound interest from the lips
of the chosen orator of this great occasion, ex-President Cleveland
--one indeed eminently fitted for the task. The orator was worthy
the subject; the subject--honoring the memory of one of the
benefactors of his age--worthy the orator.
"In all the relations of life, the man whose memory we honor this day
was worthy the emulation of the young men who succeed him upon the
stage of the world. With clear brain and clean hands he ably
and faithfully administered high public trusts. He was in the
loftiest sense worthy the personal and official association of the
eminent Chief Magistrate at whose Council Board he sat, and
whose confidence he fully shared.
"Fortune, indeed, came with both hands full to Nebraska, when J.
Sterling Morton, in early manhood, selected this struggling frontier
State for his home. How well, and with what large interest, he
repaid Nebraska for a confidence that knew no abatement, this noble
monument is the enduring witness.
"Under his guiding hand, a new day was added to the calendar. The
glory is his of having called Arbor Day into being. Touched by
his magic wand, millions of trees now beautify and adorn this
magnificent State. It is no mere figure of speech to say that the
wilderness--by transition almost miraculous--has become a garden, the
desolate places been made to blossom as the rose. 'Tree-planting
day' is now one of the sacred days of this commonwealth. Henceforth,
upon its annual recurrence, ordinary avocations are to be suspended,
and this day wholly set apart to pursuits which tend to beautify
the home, make glorious the landscape, and gladden the hearts of
all the people. Inseparably associated in all the coming years
with this day and its memories will be the name of J. Sterling
Morton. That he was its inspiration, is his abiding fame.
"In other times, monuments have been erected to men whose chief
distinction was, that desolation and human slaughter had marked
their pathways. The hour has struck, and a new era dawned. The
monument we now unveil is to one whose name brings no thoughts
of decimated ranks, or of desolated provinces, no memories of
beleaguered cities, of starving peoples, or of orphans' tears. In
all the years, it will be associated with glorious peace. Peace, 'that
hath her victories no less renowned than war'; peace, in whose
train are happy homes, songs of rejoicing, the glad laughter of
children, the planting of trees, and the golden harvest.
'Soft peace she brings; wherever she arrives,
She builds our quiet as she forms our lives;
Lays the rough paths of peevish nature even,
And opens in each heart a little heaven.'"
XLIV
A MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
SUCH INSTITUTIONS VALUABLE FOR MOULDING CHARACTER--MR. SCOTT
BOTH HONORABLE AND PRUDENT IN BUSINESS--HIS GREATNESS AS AN
AGRICULTURIST--HIS AVOIDANCE OF PUBLIC LIFE--HIS SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC
VIRTUES--DEPENDENCE OF THE NATION ON THE CHARACTER OF ITS LITERARY
INSTITUTIONS.
In 1895, Mrs. Julia Green Scott, of Bloomington, Illinois, established
a college in the mountains of Kentucky in honor of the memory of
her husband. He was a native of Kentucky, and the institution
bears his honored name.
Upon the occasion of the dedication I spoke as follows:
"The dedication of the Matthew T. Scott, Jr., Collegiate Institute
marks an important epoch in the history of central eastern Kentucky.
It cannot be doubted that this institution will be potent for good
in moulding the character and fitting the youth of this and succeeding
generations for the important duties that pertain to citizenship
in a great Republic. Is it too much to believe that this may be
reckoned as one of the many agencies in this land, that in the
outstretched years will inspire our youth with yet higher ideals of
duties that await them in life? Would that the words I now repeat
of one of England's great statesmen could be indelibly impressed
upon the memory of all who may hereafter pass out from these walls:
'Be inspired with the belief that life is a great and noble calling;
not a mean and grovelling thing that we are to shuffle through
as we can, but an elevated and lofty destiny.'
"It is eminently fitting to this occasion, that I recall something
of the man whose honored name has been appropriately given to this
institution. And yet, I am not unmindful of the fact that if in
life he would shrink from public mention of his name, or of
aught associated with it in the way of benefactions. He was a
native of Kentucky--born in Fayette County, February 4, 1828. His
father, of the same name, was an honored citizen of Lexington, and
for many years the leading banker of the State. The son inherited
the high sense of personal honor, and the splendid capacity for
business, that for a lifetime so eminently characterized his father.
A graduate of Centre College at the age of eighteen, his fortunes
were soon cast in Central Illinois, where his remaining years were
spent, and where his ashes now repose. During his early residence
in Illinois Mr. Scott realized--as few men did fully at that day
--the marvellous prosperity that surely awaited the development of
the resources of that great State. It was the day of golden
opportunity for the man of wise forecast. His investments were
timely; his business methods all upon the highest plane. He became
in time a large landed proprietor, and stood in the van of the
advanced agriculturists of his day. He formulated enduring systems
of tilling the soil, and making sure the munificent reward of labor
wisely bestowed upon this, the primal calling of man. His methods
were in large measure adopted by others, and have proved no
unimportant factor in the development and prosperity of the
great agricultural interests of the State.
"Mr. Scott was in the largest sense a man of affairs. He was ever
the safe counsellor in the many business enterprises of which he
was the founder. It were scant praise to say he was possessed
of the highest integrity. His was indeed an integrity that could know
no temptation. Faithful to every obligation, he was incapable
of an ignoble act. He was eminently a just man, possessing in a
marked degree the sturdy characteristics of his Scotch-Irish
ancestors. His principle in action was:
'For justice all place a temple,
And all season Summer.'
"He was in no sense a self-seeker. Deeply interested in public
affairs, and having the courage of his convictions upon the exciting
questions of the day, he was never a candidate for public office.
Declining the nomination tendered him by his party for Congress,
he chose the quiet of home rather than the turmoil of public life.
In the advocacy, however, of what he believed to be for the public weal,
'he took counsel ever of his courage, never of his fears.' That he
possessed the ability to have acquitted himself with honor in
responsible positions of public trust, no one who knew him could doubt.
"Courteous to all with whom he came in contact, he was the highest
type of the old-school gentleman. He exemplified in his daily life
the truth of the poet's words:
'That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.'
"No man ever had a loftier appreciation of what was due to woman.
There was in very truth a relish of old-time chivalry in his bearing
in the presence of ladies. He was never happier than when surrounded
by children, by whom he was ever trusted and loved.
"No higher tribute could be paid him than by the words spoken with
equal truth of another: 'With him the assured guardian of my
children, I could have pillowed my head in peace.'
"Holding steadily, and without reservation, to the Presbyterian
faith of his fathers, he was none the less imbued with a true
catholic spirit, and gave where needed, liberally of his abundance.
He was deeply touched by every tale of human sorrow,
'His hand open as day to melting charity.'
"I may be pardoned for adding that Mr. Scott was supremely happy
in his domestic ties. Blessed in all who gathered about his
hearthstone, his cup of happiness was full to overflowing. All
who crossed his threshold felt that they were indeed in the sunshine
of the perfect home. He sleeps in the beautiful cemetery near the
city he loved, his grave covered with flowers by those to whom
in life he had been a benefactor and friend. To those to whom his
toils and cares were given, to kindred and friends, his memory will
ever be a precious heritage. Truly,
'the just
Keeps something of his glory, in his dust.'
"I know of no words more fitting with which to close this poor
tribute to the man I honored and loved, than those of Dr. Craig in
his beautiful eulogy upon the Rev. Dr. Lewis W. Green, father of
Mrs. Julia G. Scott, the noble and gifted woman whose generosity
has made possible the founding of the Institution we now dedicate:
"'Society at large felt the impress of his noble character, his
polished breeding, and his widespread beneficence. His determination
to excel, and that by means of faithful diligence and laborious
applications, should arouse our young men to like fidelity to their
increasing opportunities. He was the most unselfish of men, the
most affectionate of friends, the humblest of Christians. He owed
much to the soil from which he sprang. He repaid that much, and
with large interest.'
"The Institution we now dedicate is just upon the threshold of what
we trust will prove an abundantly useful and honorable career.
And while we may not 'look into the seeds of time and say which
grain will grow and which will not,' yet we may well believe
that under judicious management, already assured, this will prove a
potent agency in the great work of education.
"In this connection the words of a former President of Transylvania
University, and of Centre College, Dr. Green, possess to-day as
deep significance as when uttered almost a half-century ago:
"'But it may be truly said, that no domestic instruction, however wise,
no political institution, however free, no social organization,
however perfect, no discoveries of science, however rapid or sublime,
no activity of the press--pouring forth with prolific abundance
its multitudinous publications--no accumulation of ancient learning
in stately libraries, no one, nor all of these together, can
supersede the education of the school; nay, all of them derive
their noblest elements and highest life from the instruction of
the living teacher. The intelligence of families, the wisdom of
Governments, the freedom of nations, the progress of science itself,
and of all our useful arts, is measured by the condition and
character of our literary institutions. . . . It is from such as
these, that the world's great men have sprung. It is from the
deep, granite foundations of society that the materials are gathered
to rear a superstructure of massive grandeur and enduring strength.
The God of nature has scattered broadcast over all our land and
our mountain heights, in our secluded valleys, and in many a forest
home, the choicest elements of genius; invaluable means of intellectual
wealth, the noblest treasures of the State.'
"The hour has struck, and the Matthew T. Scott, Jr., Collegiate
Institution enters now upon its sacred mission.
"May we not believe that here will be realized in full fruition
the fond hopes of those who have given it being? that as the years
come and go, there will pass out from its walls those who by diligent
application are fitted for the responsible duties that await them in
life, well equipped, it may be, to acquit themselves with honor,
in the high places of school, of church, or of State?"
XLV
DEDICATION OF A NATIONAL PARK
CHICKAMAUGA NATIONAL PARK DEDICATED BY ACT OF CONGRESS--THE SURVIVORS
OF THE GREAT BATTLE NOW BUT FEW--THE REAL CONSECRATION WAS ACCOMPLISHED
BY THE HEROES OF THE FIGHT.
The Chickamauga National Park was by act of Congress dedicated
September 19, 1895. Senators Palmer, of Illinois, and Gordon,
of Georgia, were the orators of the occasion. The immense audience
assembled included the Governors of twenty States and committees
of both Houses of Congress. I presided on the occasion, and
delivered the following address:
"I am honored by being called to preside over the ceremonies of
this day. By solemn decree of the representatives of the American
people, this magnificent Park, with its wondrous associations
and memories, is now to be dedicated for all time to national
and patriotic purposes.
"This is the fitting hour for the august ceremonies we now inaugurate.
To-day, by act of the Congress of the United States, the Chickamauga
and Chattanooga National Military Park is forever set apart from
all common uses, solemnly dedicated for all the ages to all the
American people.
"The day is auspicious. It notes the anniversary of one of the
greatest battles known to history. Here, in the dread tribunal of
last resort, valor contended against valor. Here brave men struggled
and died for the right, 'as God gave them to see the right.'
"Thirty-two years have passed, and the few survivors of that
masterful day--victors and vanquished alike--again meet upon
this memorable field. Alas, the splendid armies which rendezvoused
there are now little more than a procession of shadows.
"'On fame's eternal camping-ground,
Their silent tents are spread.'
"Our eyes now behold the sublime spectacle of the honored survivors
of the great battle coming together upon these heights once more.
They meet, not in deadly conflict, but as brothers, under one flag,
fellow-citizens of a common country, all grateful to God, that
in the supreme struggle, the Government of our fathers--our common
heritage--was triumphant, and that to all the coming generations
of our countrymen, it will remain 'an indivisible union of
indestructible States.'
"Our dedication to-day is but a ceremony. In the words of the
immortal Lincoln at Gettysburg: 'But in a larger sense, we cannot
dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The
brave men living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it
far above our power to add or detract.'
"I will detain you no longer from listening to the eloquent words of
those who were participants in the bloody struggle--the sharers
alike in its danger and its glory."
XLVI
A BAR MEETING STILL IN SESSION
APPOINTMENT OF A COMMITTEE TO FORMULATE RULES FOR COURT PROCEDURE--
SOME MEMBERS AGREE TO VOTE DOWN THE MOTION TO ADJOURN--THE
MOTION REJECTED THREE TIMES--INDIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENT.
A Bar meeting recalled by the mention of Mr. Ingersoll would be
worth while if it could only be described as it actually occurred.
At the opening of the December term of the Circuit Court in Woodford
in the year of grace 'fifty-nine, John Clark, Esq., announced that
a meeting of the Bar would be held at the courthouse at "early
candle-lighting" on that very evening, for the purpose of formulating
rules to be presented to the Court for its government during the
term.
At the appointed hour, the lawyers, "home and foreign," being
promptly in attendance and the court-room crowded, an organization
was duly effected by the election of Colonel Shope, an able and
dignified barrister of the old school, as President. As undisputed
spokesman of the occasion, Mr. Clark, at once moved the appointment
of a committee of five to prepare the aforementioned rules. The
motion prevailing, _nem. con.,_ in accordance with the time-honored
usage, the mover of the resolution was duly appointed Chairman,
with Ingersoll, Shaw, Ewing, and the chronicler of these important
events as his coadjutors. Upon the retirement of the committee,
the rules already prepared by Clark were read and promptly approved,
and that gentleman instructed to present them to the Bar meeting
--then in patient waiting.
As the recognized parliamentarian of the occasion--with the proposed
rules in safe keeping--was in the van, upon the return to the
court-room Ingersoll quietly proposed to his three untitled associates
that, after the adoption of the resolutions, we should _vote
down Clark's motion to adjourn_ and thereby remain all night in
session. In approved form, and with a dignity that would have done
no discredit to a high-church bishop, the rules were read off by
the Chairman and agreed to without a dissenting voice.
After a brief silence, Mr. Clark arose and said: "Mr. President,
if there is no further business before this meeting, I move we
do now adjourn." The motion was duly seconded by Welcome P. Brown,
who had been Probate Judge of McLean County far back in the thirties,
and postmaster of the struggling village of Bloomington when Jackson
was President. President Shope promptly arose and in the blandest
possible terms submitted: "Gentlemen of the Bar, all who are in
favor of the motion to adjourn will please say, Aye." Clark, Brown,
and a half-a-dozen others at once voted, "Aye." "Those opposed to
the motion to adjourn will please say, No," was the alternative
then submitted by the impartial presiding officer. Ingersoll, his
confederates, and a sufficient contingent won over quietly voted, "No."
"The motion is lost," observed the President, resuming his seat.
"What is the further pleasure of the meeting?" The silence of the
grave for a time prevailed. Ingersoll and his followers deporting
themselves with a solemnity well befitting an occasion for prayer.
Again arising, the chairman of the committee--in a voice less rotund
than before--said: "Well, Mr. President, if there is no _further_
business before this meeting, I move we do now adjourn." Duly
seconded, the motion was again put, Clark and half a dozen
others voting as before. "Those opposed," remarked the President--
in tones perceptibly less conciliatory than an hour earlier--"will
say, No." The scarcely audible, but none the less effective "no"
prevailed, the leader meanwhile giving no sign and apparently rapt
as if unravelling the mysteries beyond the veil.
A silence that could be felt now in very truth fell upon the meeting
in the old courthouse assembled. Even the bystanders seemed
impressed that something far out of the ordinary was happening.
Receiving little in the way of encouragement, the Chairman of
the late committee, as he dubiously looked around upon the forms
of the silent majority--each of whom sat apparently buried in
thought that touched the very depths,--again and for the last time
addressed the presiding officer:
"Mr. President, I move _that we adjourn."_
Conclusions being again tried in wonted parliamentary form between
the opposing forces, with like result as before, the venerable
president,--by way of prelude first giving full vent to an exclamation
nowhere to be found in the Methodist "book of discipline,"--at once
indignantly vacated the chair, and literally shook the dust of the
court-room from his feet. The others "stood not upon the order of
their going," and although fifty years have come and gone, that
identical Bar meeting in the old courthouse at Metamora _is still in
session,_--never having been officially adjourned even to this day.
XLVII
THE HAYNE-WEBSTER DEBATE RECALLED
THE PUBLIC CAREER OF LYMAN TRUMBULL--HE HEARS CALHOUN MAKE A MASTERLY
SPEECH IN HIS OWN DEFENCE--TARIFF LAW THE SUBJECT OF DISCUSSION
--MR. HAYNE'S REPLY.
Ex-Senator Lyman Trumbull called upon me at the Vice-President's
Chamber a few months before his death. It was upon the occasion
of his last visit to Washington. He pointed out to me with much
interest the seat he had occupied for many years in the Senate.
The Senators to whom I introduced him had all come in since his
day. His associates in that chamber, with three or four exceptions,
had passed beyond the veil.
The public career of Mr. Trumbull began nearly two-thirds of a
century ago. He was distinguished as a judge, and later as an able
and active participant in exciting debates in the Senate, extending
from the repeal of the Missouri Compromise to the impeachment of
President Johnson. He was a member when the sessions of the Senate
were held in the old chamber, and Cass, Crittenden, Douglas, Tombs,
and Jefferson Davis were among his early official associates.
As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee he had reported the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the
United States.
In the course of my conversation with him upon the occasion
first mentioned, I inquired whether he had ever met either Webster,
Clay, or Calhoun. He replied that it was a matter of deep regret to
him that he had never seen either Clay or Webster, but that he had
in his early manhood heard a masterful speech from Mr. Calhoun.
Mr. Trumbull had then just been graduated from an eastern college;
and on his way to Greenville, Georgia, to take charge of a school,
he spent a few days in Charleston, South Carolina. This was in
1833, and the speech of Mr. Calhoun was in vindication of his course
in the Senate in voting for the Compromise Bill of Mr. Clay, which
provided for the gradual reduction of the tariff. The alleged
injustice of the tariff law then in force had been the prime cause
of the "nullification" excitement precipitated by South Carolina
at that eventful period. The proclamation of President Jackson,
it will be remembered, proved the death-blow, and the nullification
excitement soon thereafter subsided. Mr. Trumbull told me that he
distinctly recalled John C. Calhoun, his commanding presence and
splendid argument, as he addressed the large assemblage. As a
clear-brained logician--whose statement alone was almost unanswerable
argument--he thought Mr. Calhoun unsurpassed by any statesman
our country had known. Mr. Trumbull added that at the close of
Mr. Calhoun's speech before mentioned, amid great enthusiasm,
"Hayne! Hayne!" was heard from every part of the vast assemblage.
For an hour or more he then listened spell-bound to Robert Y. Hayne,
the formidable antagonist even of Webster in a debate now historic.
Mr. Trumbull said that of the two generations of public men he had
heard, he had never listened to one more eloquent than Hayne.
XLVIII
IN THE HIGHLANDS
THE WRITER THE GUEST OF A GENTLEMAN IN THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS--
DUNSTAFFNAGE CASTLE--IONA AND SAINT COLUMBA--SENATOR BECK AND
MR. SMITH BOTH DEVOTEES OF BURNS.
During a sojourn of some weeks on the western coast of Scotland,
I was the guest for a time of Mr. Stewart, the head of what remained
of a once powerful clan in the Highlands. My host was a distinguished
member of the London Bar, but spent his Summers at the home of his
ancestors a few miles out from Alpin. Here, in as romantic a
locality as is known even to the Highlands, with his kindred about
him he enjoyed a full measure of repose from the distracting cares
of the great metropolis. At the time of my visit his brother,
an officer of the British army, just returned from India, was with
him. Both gentlemen wore kilts for the time; and all the appointments
of the house were reminders of bygone centuries when border warfare
was in full flower, forays upon the Lowlands of constant occurrence,
and the principle of the clans in action,
"Let him take who has the power
And let him hold who can."
At the bountifully furnished board of my Highland host there was
much "upon the plain highway of talk" I will not soon forget. And
then, with the gathering shadows in the ancestral hall, with the
rude weapons of past generations hanging upon every wall, and
the stirring strains of the bagpipe coming from the distance, it
was worth while to listen to the Highland legends that had been
handed down from sire to son.
Not far away was the old castle of Dunstaffnage, which in its prime
had been the scene of innumerable tournaments and battles that have
added many pages to Scottish annals. Within the enclosure of
the old castle sleeps the dust of long ago kings--the veritable
grave of Macbeth being readily pointed out to inquiring travellers.
The conversation around the hearthstone of my host turned to the
famous island of the Inner Hebrides, Iona, with its wonderful
history reaching back to the sixth century. The ruins of the
old monastery, built fourteen hundred years ago by the fugitive
Saint, Columba, are well worth visiting. The dust of the early
kings of Norway, Ireland, and Scotland rest within these ancient
walls, and it is gratifying to know that here even the ill-fated
Duncan
"After life's fitful fever sleeps well."
It would have been passing strange, with host and guests all of
Scottish lineage, if there had been no mention of Robbie Burns,
for in old Scotia, whether in palace or hovel, the one subject that
never tires is the "ploughman poet of Ayr." A little incident
of slightly American relish which I related the evening of my
departure needed no "surgical operation" to find appropriate
lodgment.
Senator Beck of Kentucky was a Scotchman. He was in the highest
sense a typical Scotchman--lacking nothing, either of the brawn,
brain, or brogue, of the most gifted of that race. It is needless
to say he was a lover of Burns. From "Tam O'Shanter" to "Mary
in Heaven," all were safely garnered in his memory--to be rolled
out in rich, melodious measure at the opportune moment. The close
friend and associate of Senator Beck, when the cares of State were
for a time in abeyance, and the fishing season at its best, was
"old Smith," superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, also a
Scotchman, and likewise in intense degree a devotee of Burns. The
bond of union between the man of flowers and the Kentucky statesman
was complete.
Now, it so fell out that a newly elected member of the House, from
the Green River district, one day called upon his distinguished
colleague of the Senate, and requested a note of introduction to
the superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, as he wished to procure
some flowers to send a lady constituent then in the city. "Certainly,
certainly," replied the ever-obliging statesman: "I will give you
a line to old Smith." Just as the delighted member was departing
with the letter in hand, Senator Beck remarked, in his peculiarly
snappy Scotch accent, "Now, Tom, if you will only tell old Smith
that you are a great admirer of his countryman, Robbie Burns, he
will give you all the flowers in the conservatory." The member,
who knew as little of Burns as he did of the "thirty-nine articles,"
departed in high feather.
Almost immediately thereafter, presenting his letter, he was received
with great cordiality by the superintendent and assured that any
request of Senator Beck would be cheerfully granted. Just as he
was reaching out for the fragrant bouquet the superintendent was
graciously presenting, the closing words of the Senator were
indistinctly recalled, and in a manner indicating no small measure
of self-confidence, the member remarked, "By the way, Mr. Smith,
I am a great admirer of your countryman, _Jimmy_ Burns." "Jimmy
Burns! Jimmy Burns! Jimmy Burns!" exclaimed the overwhelmingly
indignant Scotchman, _"Jimmy_ Burns! _Depart instantly, sir!"_
The member from Green River district _departed_ as bidden, taking no
thought of the flowers; delighted--as he often asservated--to have
escaped even with his life.
XLIX
ANECDOTES OF LAWYERS
JUDGE BALDWIN'S BOOK, "THE FLUSH TIMES"--DEFENDANT'S COUNSEL ASKS ONE
QUESTION TOO MANY--CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE AGAINST A CARD-PLAYER
--JOHN RANDOLPH'S REVENGE--HORACE GREELEY NOT A MINISTER OF THE
GOSPEL--A CANDIDATE'S QUALIFICATIONS FOR SCHOOL-TEACHING--THE AUTHOR
OF "DON'T YOU REMEMBER SWEET ALICE, BEN BOLT?"--A CANDIDATE'S
POSITION WITH REGARD TO THE MAINE LAW--GOVERNOR TILDEN'S POPULARITY
--MR. TRAVERS MISSES A PORTRAIT--A CANDIDATE FOR HOLY ORDERS TELLS
A BIBLE STORY.
No better place can be found for studying that most interesting of
all subjects, Man, than in our courts of justice. Indeed, what a
readable book that would be which related the best things which
have occurred at the bar!
Judge Baldwin conferred an inestimable blessing upon our profession
when he wrote "The Flush Times," a book that will hold a place
in our literature as long as there is a lawyer left on earth.
To two generations of our craft this book has furnished agreeable and
delightful entertainment. To the practitioner "shattered with the
contentions of the great hall," its pages have been as refreshing as
the oasis to the travel-stained pilgrim.
The late Justice Field, long his associate upon the supreme bench of
California, told me that Judge Baldwin was one of the most genial and
delightful men he had ever known, and certainly he must have been to
have written "Cave Burton," "My First Appearance at the Bar," "A
Hung Court," and "Ovid Bolus, Esq., Attorney-at-law and Solicitor in
Chancery."
Almost every Bar has some tradition or incident worth preserving
--something in the way of brilliant witticisms or repartee that
should not be wholly lost. Of the race of old-time lawyers--of
which Mr. Lincoln was the splendid type--but few remain. Of the
survivors, I know of no better representative than Proctor Knott
of Kentucky. The possessor of ability of the highest order, and
of splendid attainments as well, he is of all men the best story-teller
this country of ours has known. Among his delighted auditors in
and out of Congress have been men from every section and of exalted
public station. For some of the incidents to be related I am
indebted to Governor Knott. The obligation would be much greater if
the stories could be retold in manner and form as in the days gone
by, and upon occasions never to be forgotten when they fell from
his own lips.
If, however, even fairly well I might garner up and hand down some
of the experiences of the generation of lawyers now passing, I
would feel that I had, in some humble measure, discharged that
obligation that Lord Bacon says, "every man owes to his profession."