THE STAND AGAINST DISUNION
The Indian treaties confirmed, Governor Stevens was more determined than
ever to secure the payment of the Indian war debt. This had been
thoroughly examined and audited by a commission appointed by the
Secretary of War, consisting of Captains Rufus Ingalls and A.J. Smith,
of the army, and Mr. Lafayette Grover, the brother of Lieutenant Grover
and afterwards governor of Oregon, and their report had been referred by
the last Congress to the third auditor. It was a long time before he
reported, and his report, when made, was a very unjust and condemnatory
one, manifestly tinged with the prejudice so widely spread by Wool's
slanders. The friends of the debt for some time were unable to get it
before the House, and had to content themselves with enlightening
individual members and the public.
The governor followed up the various matters in behalf of the Pacific
Northwest with his usual energy this session. He spoke on the Pacific
Railroad, on steam vessels for Puget Sound, on Indian appropriations,
military post on Red River, appropriations for surveys, separate Indian
superintendency for Washington Territory, etc. He succeeded in obtaining
an appropriation of $100,000 for the military road between Fort Benton
and Walla Walla, which Lieutenant Mullan was now building, $10,000 for a
military road between Steilacoom and Vancouver, $4500 for the boundary
survey between Oregon and Washington, $95,500 for the Indian service,
and secured a new land office and district for the southern part of the
Territory. During the session he offered thirteen bills, eight
resolutions, and two memorials.
His chief interest and labors, however, were on the Northern Railroad
route. He was indefatigable in making known its great national
advantages. On April 3 he addressed an elaborate letter on the subject
to the railroad convention of the Pacific coast, held at Vancouver. In
this he again advocated three routes; showed the national importance of
the Northern route, its advantages for securing the trade of Asia, and
the danger, if that route were neglected, that the British-Canadians
would build a line to the Pacific within their own borders, and thereby
forestall this country in developing its Pacific ports and securing the
Asiatic commerce. He declared that the explorations thus far made were
simply reconnoissances; that two years would be required to complete the
surveys, and probably ten years to build the road. He urged the
convention to reject absolutely the compromise in the shape of a branch
line from some point on the central route to the Columbia River and
Puget Sound, which had been urged in Congress and elsewhere, and firmly
to insist on the Northern route as a great national work. As published,
this letter makes twenty-four printed pages, and Mr. Smalley, the
historian of the Northern Pacific Railroad, already quoted, says of it
that--
"he gave so clear and condensed an account of the Northern route,
its distances and grades, as compared with the line then projected
to Benicia, California, its advantageous situation in relation to
the China and Japan trade, and the adaptability of the country it
would traverse for continuous settlement, that the document, printed
in pamphlet form, became a cyclopedia in miniature, from which facts
and arguments have ever since been drawn by the friends of that
route."
Governor Stevens had now become the recognized authority on the Northern
route, and the acknowledged leader of its advocates in Congress. He was
ably supported by General Lane, and by the Minnesota senators, Rice and
Ramsay, and was indefatigable in furnishing them with data and points
for use in debate. At a dinner party on one occasion, Senator Gwin
openly taxed the governor with writing the speech which a certain
senator had just delivered in behalf of that route, and which made some
stir, declaring that no one could mistake the governor's style and
ideas; and the charge was well founded.
During Governor Stevens's first term in Congress great efforts were made
by the friends of the Central route to pass a bill granting a subsidy in
lands and bonds to that route, and the bait of a branch from the
vicinity of Salt Lake to the Columbia River and Puget Sound was held out
to placate the adherents of the Northern route. Governor Stevens
strenuously fought this scheme of a branch instead of the through
Northern route. The proposed bill failed.
In the next Congress the adherents of the Central and Southern routes
joined forces. The extreme secessionists, on the eve of withdrawing from
Congress in order to break up the Union, were ready enough to vote
subsidies to the united routes, and the Union sentiment was invoked by
the argument that the aid extended to the Southern route would help
satisfy the South and strengthen the Union. By this combination the
House, on December 20, 1860, passed a bill for a land grant and subsidy
to both the Central and Southern routes. The Northern route was
completely ignored. An amendment offered by Governor Stevens, granting
ten sections of land per mile for a road from Red River to Puget Sound,
was rejected. But when the bill came before the Senate, an amendment
was offered by Senator Wilkinson, of Minnesota, and adopted, the New
England senators aiding those from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Oregon,
giving a subsidy of twenty-five millions for a railroad from Lake
Superior to Puget Sound, and a land grant of six alternate sections per
mile on each side of the track in Minnesota, and ten alternate sections
for the rest of the way. The amendment created the Northern Pacific
Railroad Company, and empowered Charles D. Gilfillan, of Minnesota,
Nathaniel P. Banks, of Wisconsin, and Isaac I. Stevens, of Washington
Territory, to act as a board of commissioners to organize the company.
The bill thus amended went back to the House for concurrence, but the
session was almost at an end, and repeated efforts to take the bill from
the speaker's table, to get it before the House for consideration,
failed for lack of a two thirds vote.
Governor Stevens rapidly overcame--lived down--the prejudice excited by
the charges and reports against him, and won the respect of his fellow
members. Several of them expressed to him their surprise at finding him
so different a man from what they had been led to believe. Said one
gentleman, "I expected to find you a loud-voiced, tobacco-chewing,
drinking, swearing, violent man, and instead I find a gentleman of quiet
manners, education, ability, and high aims and ideals." The governor
used to regard this change of opinion, which he personally made upon
members, with a good deal of satisfaction.
He usually rose early, and spent the two hours before breakfast at work
in his office. After breakfast and until noon, when Congress met, he
would spend in visiting the departments. He kept a light carriage with
one horse for this purpose, and for going to and from the Capitol,
having the colored servant Bob drive it, or driving himself. He had
unbounded influence in all the departments. The clear, lucid way in
which he presented his cases; his brief, prompt, business-like methods;
the fact that he never asked anything that he did not believe to be
right, and called for by public interests, and that he would not submit
to delay or neglect, but would follow up his matters until they received
due attention, even to the President himself if necessary,--made him
respected and somewhat feared, while his uniform courtesy and
consideration for the clerks and subordinates won their goodwill.
He acquired great influence with President Buchanan. His son Hazard was
desirous of entering West Point, and he took the youth to call on the
President and ask an appointment for him. Mr. Buchanan very naturally
asked the governor why he did not give his son the appointment within
his own gift as a member of Congress. The latter declared he could not
do this with propriety, and pointedly requested the desired appointment,
which the President seemed reluctant to make, pleading the many claims
upon him for the few cadetships at his disposal. But finding the
governor still firm in his request, he promised unequivocally and
positively to appoint his son. The governor carefully refrained from
advising or influencing the latter in the choice of a profession,
telling him that he had better decide the matter for himself. An uncle,
however, very strenuously urged him not to go to West Point. At last the
young man besought the advice of his father, who simply said that he
would not advise him to enter West Point, or adopt the army as a
profession, but told him to decide according to his own judgment and
inclination. Under these circumstances he concluded to give up West
Point. Within a year the rebellion broke out, and he was carrying a
musket in the ranks of the Union volunteers. How little can we foresee
the future!
The governor appointed Robert Catlin as cadet to West Point from
Washington Territory.
He dined at six, and spent the evening in social intercourse. Sometimes
he would make the rounds of the hotels, meeting old friends and
acquaintances, and frequently would work late in the night on some
matter that engaged his attention. Like all rising and influential men,
he was more and more sought after in behalf of all sorts of people and
schemes. Mrs. Stevens relates that on one occasion, when she was reading
in the rear end of the large double parlors and the governor was
receiving two gentlemen in the front room, she was startled to see him
suddenly spring from his chair, face his visitors with upright,
soldierly bearing and head erect, exclaiming in a stern and indignant
voice, "Look at me, gentlemen, and tell me what you see about me that
you dare intimate such a proposition! Leave my house!" They slunk off
without a word.
The governor delighted in hospitality, and was never happier than when
entertaining his friends. While in Washington he was visited by many of
his own and Mrs. Stevens's relatives.
Governor Stevens was preëminently a national man in all his ideas and
sympathies. His Revolutionary ancestry, his West Point training, his
participation in large national interests,--as the Mexican war, the
Coast Survey, the exploration of the continent and upbuilding of the
Pacific Northwest, together with the natural bent of his patriotic
nature and comprehensive, far-sighted mind,--strengthened his love for
and pride in the great Republic, and made sectionalism or disunion
utterly abhorrent to him. Like Webster, he regarded the Union as the
palladium of national liberty, life, and power, and its preservation the
highest patriotic duty.
There was an aggressive disunion faction, in the Southern tier of slave
States, seeking to disrupt the Union by magnifying Northern
encroachments against the Southern institution of negro slavery; but the
great bulk of the Southern people still held fast to their ancient
moorings. Governor Stevens firmly believed that to maintain unimpaired
the compromises of the Constitution in regard to slavery was not only
the highest statesmanship looking to the preservation of the Union, but
a matter of justice and good faith to the Southern Unionists. He
believed that as long as the Northern Democracy stood by the
constitutional rights of the South, they would continue to hold fast to
the Union, and defeat the Secessionists, and that thus, by the league of
broad-minded national men both North and South, the extremists could be
kept down and the Union maintained.
The political issues of the day sprang up over the question of slavery
in the Territories. The Republican party held that Congress had the
right, and it was its duty, to prohibit slavery within them; and its
more progressive leaders openly expressed the belief that the
institution, if debarred from extension and confined to the existing
slave States, would ultimately become extinct. The Democratic party was
divided between two doctrines on the question. The majority of Northern
Democrats upheld the "Squatter Sovereignty" doctrine of Stephen A.
Douglas, to wit, that the people of each Territory had the right to
decide for or against slavery; while the Southern Democrats and a large
part of those in the North, including many of the oldest and ablest
leaders and public men, held that, as the Territories had been acquired
by the blood and treasure of all the States, neither Congress nor the
citizens of a Territory could lawfully prohibit slavery therein as long
as they remained Territories; but when they assumed Statehood, the
people could prohibit or establish slavery, as they saw fit. The latter
doctrine had the support of a dictum of the Supreme Court. Moreover,
well-informed men knew that, as a practical matter, there was no
probability that negro slavery could be extended into any of the
existing Territories, for both natural conditions and the great
preponderance of Northern emigration to the West were adverse to it. A
few brief years would settle the question in the Territories, and remove
it from national politics; and meantime, if the Southern people, the
great majority of whom were Union-loving and patriotic, could be
reassured that their constitutional rights as to slavery would be
respected, the disunionists would become powerless, the dangerous
controversies over slavery would die out, and the Union would be saved,
stronger and more glorious than ever. Such were the views of Stevens and
many of the ablest Democratic leaders, the same views that actuated Clay
and Webster and their compatriots when they allayed the storm of an
earlier strife over the same subject. No spirit of subserviency to the
South actuated them, but a strong sense of justice to the weaker
section, of fidelity to the Constitution, of loyalty to the Southern
Unionists, and, above all, a broad-minded national patriotism. Thus it
was that the men of whom Governor Stevens was a type, after striving to
the utmost to safeguard the Southern constitutional rights, when
sacrilegious hands assailed the nation's life, and the Southern people,
frenzied with the madness of the hour, were swept into the maelstrom of
the great rebellion, were foremost in defense of the country, in
self-devotion and self-sacrifice for her sake. In this school of
patriots are numbered two members of Lincoln's cabinet, Edwin M.
Stanton, the great War Secretary, and Joseph Holt, the Attorney-General;
General John A. Dix and Daniel L. Dickinson, of New York; Generals
Grant, Sherman, Halleck, Sheridan; Benjamin F. Butler, of
Massachusetts; John A. Logan, of Illinois; and many others, all of whom
supported Breckinridge and Lane.
Although deeply immersed in the important practical measures for the
advancement of the Northern route and the Pacific Northwest, Governor
Stevens was as earnest and decided in his political views as in
everything else he undertook. He attended the Democratic National
Convention, which was held in Charleston, S.C., April 23, as a delegate
representing Oregon, the Territories having no representation. He
ardently advocated the nomination of General Lane, his friend and
co-worker in behalf of the Pacific Territories. General Lane had
achieved much distinction in the Mexican war, was a man of broad,
statesman-like views, sound judgment, upright, high-toned, generous, and
considerate of others, and universally esteemed. He was just the man for
a compromise candidate, and his chances were good for the nomination
after the more prominent candidates should defeat each other. But the
convention split upon the platform, the Northern delegates insisting
upon the squatter sovereignty doctrine; whereupon the representatives of
nine extreme Southern States seceded from the convention, which, without
making any nominations, adjourned to meet at Baltimore on June 18. In
the few ballots taken, General Lane received six votes; but the
opportune moment for which his friend hoped never arrived, owing to the
disruption of the convention.
The Baltimore convention served but to emphasize the irreconcilable
difference between the two doctrines and wings dividing the Democracy.
Douglas's doctrine was adopted, and himself nominated, by a reduced
convention; while the delegations of eight more States, withdrawing from
it, met in separate convention on June 28, in the same city, and
nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for President, and Joseph
Lane, of Oregon, for Vice-President, on a platform declaring the other
doctrine, and assuming the name of the National Democratic party.
President Buchanan and the entire influence of the administration
supported the latter, and, as the election showed, not only the majority
of the foremost public men of the Northern Democracy, but one third of
its voters.
Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin were nominated by the Republican
party on a platform opposing the extension of slavery in the
Territories; and a convention representing the old Whigs, and many
moderate men and Unionists in both sections, nominated John Bell, of
Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, on the bare declaration
of "The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement of the Laws."
The National Democratic party, thus launched into the struggle, was
destitute of any national organization, so essential for carrying on a
presidential contest. The leaders, including the nominees and members of
the cabinet, after full consultation, besought Governor Stevens to
accept the position of chairman of the National Executive Committee,
organize it, and carry on the canvass. Ever ready to devote himself to
any cause in which he was enlisted, the governor undertook the herculean
task. In a single night he wrote the party address to the country,--an
address covering a whole page of a large metropolitan newspaper, a feat
for which General Lane years afterwards expressed unbounded admiration
and astonishment, both for its ability and for the ease and rapidity
with which it was dashed off.
During the next four months Governor Stevens drove on the canvass with
his accustomed energy and ability. Headquarters were opened in New York,
contributions collected, meetings organized, and large numbers of
speeches and documents circulated all over the country. On September 5
he entertained at dinner, in Washington, General Lane, Secretaries
Howell Cobb and Jacob Thompson, of the cabinet, and a delegation from
New York. The situation seemed by no means hopeless to the adherents of
Breckinridge and Lane. The Republican vote at the last presidential
election was far in the minority, even in the North; and now, with four
candidates in the field, it seemed probable that there would be no
popular election. In such case the choice of President would devolve
upon the House of Representatives, voting by States, and the Democratic
members controlled a majority of the States, and could therefore choose
one of the Democratic candidates. In the event that the House failed to
elect, owing either to dissensions among the Democratic members, or the
abstention of enough members to break a quorum, which the Republican
members could bring about, as they had the numerical majority, then the
Senate had the election of Vice-President, who would act as President,
and that insured the choice of General Lane, because the majority of the
States were represented in the Senate by senators who supported
Breckinridge and Lane.[13]
The election of Lincoln in November overset all these hopes and
calculations, and the drama of the great rebellion, which was to humble
the arrogant fire-eaters of the South, free the land from the curse of
slavery, and vindicate the Union by the sword, the last argument of
kings and nations, was ushered in.
At the last session of this, the 36th Congress, the bill to pay the
Indian war debt was passed, notwithstanding the most strenuous and
bitter opposition, led by a member from New York, General Wool's State,
and inspired by him. The report of the third auditor, which greatly and
very unfairly cut down the award of the Ingalls commission, was made the
basis of the bill. Governor Stevens, in his speeches in Congress,
severely criticised and exposed the mistakes and unfair findings of the
auditor, without impugning his honesty. He was a well-meaning but narrow
man, who had allowed himself to be prejudiced against the volunteers.
Other advocates of the bill were less considerate towards him. On one
occasion he thanked the governor with great warmth and sincerity for
always treating him, and referring to him, as an honest man and
well-meaning public servant, much to the governor's surprise.
He also succeeded in having his Territory made a separate Indian
superintendency, and his friend W.W. Miller appointed superintendent. He
also increased the mail service on the Sound from weekly to semi-weekly,
and secured appropriations of $59,700 for the Indian service, $61,000
for general expenses, and had Lieutenant Mullan's report on building the
military road across the mountains printed. He offered five bills, six
resolutions, and four amendments, and spoke on the Northern Pacific
Railroad, in defense of the Coast Survey, Indian war debt, increased
mail service on Puget Sound, military post on Red River, etc.
During his congressional tour the governor was particularly
indefatigable and successful in establishing new post-roads, and
increasing mail facilities in all parts of the Territory. Years
afterwards General Miller declared that the government had done nothing
since his death but to cut down the mail service, and abolish the
post-offices and routes he had caused to be established.
The military road between Fort Benton and Walla Walla, which the
governor caused to be opened, and in charge of which he had placed
Lieutenant Mullan, known as the Mullan road popularly, was for a number
of years the highway across the Bitter Root and Rocky Mountains,
traversed by thousands of trains, and the great artery for communication
with and supply of thousands of settlers and miners in Montana, until
superseded by the railroads.
The payment of the Indian war debt was a great triumph for Governor
Stevens, and completed the vindication of his course, as the
confirmation of his treaties vindicated his Indian policy.
During the last seven years, what severe and unremitting labors he had
undergone, what great results he had achieved, and what tremendous
obstacles and opposition he had overcome! He had made the exploration of
the Northern route the most complete and exhaustive of all; had
demonstrated its superiority, not simply as a transcontinental line, but
as a world route for the world's commerce, and had made himself the
authority and exponent of that route. By his Indian service he had
treated with over thirty thousand Indians, extinguished the Indian title
to a hundred and fifty million acres, established peace among hereditary
enemies over an area larger than New England and the Middle States, and
instituted over thousands of savages a beneficent policy of instruction
and civilization. By calling out volunteers and waging an aggressive war
against the savage foe, when all was gloom and terror, and the settlers
were not only forsaken but vilified by the military authority, whose
duty it was to protect them, he saved the settlements of his Territory
from extinction, and the progress of the Northwest from being set back
for years. And his firm and patriotic stand against British aggression
saved the San Juan group to the United States.
Entering Congress vilified by high and low, with the censure of his
territorial legislature and the disapproval of the President recorded
against him, he had so ably demonstrated the wisdom and rightfulness of
his course that he secured the ratification of his Indian treaties, the
payment of the Indian war debt, the reversal of the reactionary policy
of Wool, the opening of the interior to settlement, and the punishment
of Indian murderers.
During his brief career up to this time he disbursed over three quarters
of a million dollars for the government, as follows:[14]--
As an officer of engineers, the larger part on Fort Knox $278,108.29
As Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs 386,642.66
In the Northern route exploration 114,103.56
-----------
$778,854.51
Events followed fast that winter in the great national drama. The
ultra-secessionists in the cotton States had it all their own way; and
the Democratic leaders throughout the South, regardless of their
Northern allies, who had stood by them so bravely and against such odds,
were only too ready to follow in the same treasonable path, some
accepting Seward's doctrine of an irrepressible conflict between slavery
and freedom, and believing that separation and an independent government
were the only means by which slavery could be maintained; while others,
furious at the loss of political power, like Lucifer, would rather reign
in hell than serve in heaven,--would ruin where they could no longer
rule.
Great efforts were made by the moderate men, especially of the border
States, to heal the breach; the Republican leaders, frightened at the
storm, displayed a conciliatory spirit; and it seemed for a time that
the differences might be compromised, the fears of the South allayed,
and the Union peacefully preserved. Governor Stevens clung to this hope
to the last. He thought that if a constitutional convention could be
held, the breach could be healed; that the strong Union sentiment in
most of the Southern States would cause them to adhere to the Union; and
that the few seceding States, isolated and helpless, would soon be glad
to resume their places. It is altogether probable that this view was
correct, but one essential condition of such a plan was that no overt
act of hostility should be committed. The secessionists, by violently
seizing the national forts and property, and beginning hostilities,
rendered peaceful adjustment hopeless.
Governor Stevens was firm and decided in his opinion that it was the
duty of the President to protect the national property and forts and
enforce the laws. The following sentences culled from his correspondence
show his views and feelings at this trying and momentous crisis:--
December 10. Should Carolina attack the forts, or seize the revenue,
there must be collision. The government must protect its property
and execute its laws.
Let all men agree to a convention of all the States. When the
delegates meet, I am sure it will be found easier to unite than to
separate. If Union seems to be accompanied by occasional discord,
separation will threaten perpetual war. If in Union there is not
always harmony, in separation there will never be peace.
December 17. That the President will protect the public property and
execute the laws, no one can doubt. That he has troops in readiness
to embark at a moment's warning to succor the forts in the event of
their attack by South Carolina cannot be doubted. I do not believe
that the authorities of South Carolina will make any attack of the
kind, or resist the collecting of the revenue, at least until ample
notice has been given. When the case arises will be the time for the
President to act. That he will act decisively I do not doubt. But
the great problem to be solved is to vindicate the laws without
collision. The only hope of reconciliation is in avoiding collision.
Never were wanted more the qualities of forbearance and moderation
in connection with those of decision and of action.
January 3. The blow of the secessionists in seizing the arsenal and
forts at Charleston has been followed up by the seizure of the
arsenal at Augusta, and of the forts on the Savannah River. There is
no doubt that the secessionists here sent word South some time ago
to seize all the forts on the Gulf, and most if not all are probably
now in their hands.
The mad, headlong, and unjustifiable course of the Southern States
is tending to unite the North as one man. The firm course which the
President is taking will rally around him all true, Union-loving,
conservative men.
When secession raised its treasonable head among his political
associates, Governor Stevens denounced it, and broke with them at once
and forever. He took an active part in urging President Buchanan to
withdraw his confidence from the Southern members of his cabinet, and
take a positive stand in defense of the government and country. He
called on Mr. Buchanan repeatedly, and strongly urged this course. His
recent position as chairman of the National Democratic Executive
Committee added strength to the personal influence he already had, and
aided much in bringing the President to the firmer attitude which
distinguished the last days of his administration. The governor
respected Mr. Buchanan, while he pitied his lack of firmness and moral
courage. He said that for a time Mr. Buchanan presented a pitiable
spectacle of indecision and lack of firmness and courage. He even feared
personal violence, and had been threatened with it by some of the
Southerners.
During the winter Washington was filled with alarming rumors that the
secessionists were plotting to seize the capital, to assassinate the
President-elect, to prevent his inauguration, and there was considerable
foundation for them. To guard against such dangers, Governor Stevens
aided in the organization of a regiment of District of Columbia militia,
and was one of the chief advisers and supporters of Colonel C.P. Stone,
who raised and commanded it, assisting him in procuring arms and
equipments. Colonel Stone was the General Stone who was so unjustly
persecuted for the disaster at Ball's Bluff. The governor personally
urged Mr. Buchanan to sustain Major Anderson in his bold move of
occupying Fort Sumter, to give his entire confidence to General Scott,
and approved and defended his bringing regular troops to Washington. In
these matters Governor Stevens was intimately associated and acted with
Holt, Stanton, Dix, and other Democrats, most of whom had been
supporting Breckinridge and Lane, and who rescued Mr. Buchanan from the
hands of his secessionist cabinet, and inspired him to assert the
national authority.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] Alexander H. Stephens, _The War Between the States_, vol. ii.
p. 276.
[14] The accounts for this vast sum were all found correct, and were
all passed by the accounting officers of the treasury, except
some of the expenditures on the exploration, and it is
instructive to note these items as an example of how great
injustice the rigid rules, or notions of accounting officials,
ofttimes inflict upon the most scrupulous and careful officers.
Governor Stevens was charged with a balance of $8856.14, the
largest item in which ($2626) consisted of the payment to ten
regular officers on the exploration of one dollar per diem
each, while engaged in topographical duty, according to an
established regulation. Other items were for payments for
subsistence and transportation; for compensation paid civil
employees; for interest on the protested drafts, which were
necessary to continue the survey, and for which Congress made
appropriation; for articles and animals necessarily lost or
worn out in so widespread and extended a service; and even for
recompense paid certain of the party who had to abandon their
clothing and effects in the mountains in a snowstorm. No
compensation was ever allowed Governor Stevens for his services
in conducting the exploration and preparing his final report.
Although the disallowed items were referred to Captain A.A.
Humphreys (General Humphreys) for examination, and he reported
in favor of Governor Stevens, and recommended the allowance of
nearly every item, no action was taken before the latter fell
at the battle of Chantilly, the following year. Since then
application has been made to Congress, resulting in one bill
passing the House and another the Senate at different times,
but neither passed both branches. And General Stevens, after
serving his country so faithfully, and accomplishing so much in
her behalf, is accounted a _debtor_ to the government.