GENERAL JOHN M. PALMER
General Palmer had a long, varied, and honorable career, beginning
as an Anti-Nebraska Democrat in the State Senate of Illinois, in
1855, and ending as a Gold Democrat in the United States Senate in
1897, after being for a time a Republican.
I first met him as a member of the State Senate, in which service
he showed considerable ability. His one leading characteristic,
I should say, was his independence, without any regard to what
party he might belong to or what the question might be. He would
not yield his own convictions to his party. If the party to which
he belonged differed from him on any question, he did not hesitate
to abandon it and join the opposition party; and this change he
did make several times during his public career. He was one of
the four Anti-Nebraska Democrats in the Legislature of 1855, who
might be said to have defeated Lincoln for the Senate by supporting
Trumbull, until it became apparent that if Lincoln continued as a
candidate, Governor Matteson would be elected. Lincoln sacrificed
himself to insure the election of Judge Trumbull, a Free-soiler.
The other Anti-Nebraska Democrats, who with General Palmer, elected
Trumbull, were Norman B. Judd, Burton C. Cook, G. T. Allen, and
Henry S. Baker, the last two from Madison County.
For some reason or other General Palmer resigned from the Senate.
He was one of the first to join the Republican party. He was a
delegate to the first Republican State Convention of Illinois. I
attended that convention, and recall that General Palmer made quite
an impression on the assemblage, in discussing some question with
General Turner, himself quite an able man, and then Speaker of the
House of Representatives of the Illinois Legislature. Intellectually,
General Palmer was a superior man, but he lacked stability of
judgment. You were never quite sure that you could depend on him,
or feel any certainty as to what course he would take on any
question.
His qualifications as a lawyer were not exceptional, nevertheless
I would rather have had him as my attorney to try a bad case than
almost any lawyer I ever knew; his talent for manipulating a jury
nearly, if not quite, offset all his legal shortcomings.
General Palmer was well known as the friend of the colored people,
both individually and as a race. His sympathy for them was so
thoroughly understood, that whenever a colored man had an important
case, or whenever there was a case involving the rights of the
colored people--such, for instance, as the school question of Alton
--General Palmer was appealed to, and he would take the case, no
matter how much trouble and how little remuneration there would be
in it for him.
He started out as a Democrat, but became a strong Republican, and
so continued for many years; but finally he became dissatisfied
with the Republican party and left it to support Tilden for President.
He continued a Democrat, being elected to the United State Senate
as such; but he left the regular organization of that party, and
became the head of the Gold Democracy, was its candidate for
President, and as such advised his friends to vote for McKinley.
He was the Republican Governor of Illinois during the great Chicago
fire. He acted with the poorest kind of judgment in his controversy
with General Sheridan and the National Administration, for using
the Federal troops in Chicago to protect the lives and property of
the people of that stricken city. He had visited Chicago, witnessed
the splendid work which the troops were doing, seemed to be satisfied,
returned to Springfield, and commenced a quarrel with General
Sheridan and President Grant over the right of the National
Administration to send troops into Chicago, and this quarrel finally
became so bitter that it was one of the reasons for his leaving
the Republican party.
General Palmer had a fairly good record as an officer during the
Civil War; but he did far better at the head of the Department of
Kentucky than he did as a fighting general. He was a native
Kentuckian, understood the people, was a man of good nature and
considerable tact, and handled that trying situation very much to
the satisfaction of Mr. Lincoln. He might have had a brilliant
record as a general had it not been for his unfortunate controversy
with General Sherman at the capture of Atlanta, which resulted in
his resigning his command as the head of the Fourteenth Army Corps,
and being granted leave to return to Illinois, there to await
further orders. General Sherman says of this incident in his
memoirs:
"I placed the Fourteenth Corps (Palmer's) under General Schofield's
orders. This corps numbered at the time 17,288 infantry and 826
artillery; but General Palmer claimed to rank General Schofield in
the date of commission as Major-General, and denied the latter's
right to exercise command over him. General Palmer was a man of
ability, but was not enterprising. His three divisions were compact
and strong, well commanded, admirable on the defensive but slow to
move or to act on the offensive. His corps had sustained up to
the time fewer hard knocks than any other corps in the whole army,
and I was anxious to give it a chance. I always expected to have
a desperate fight to get possession of the Macon Road, which was
then the vital objective of the campaign. Its possession by us
would in my judgment result in the capture of Atlanta and give us
the fruits of victory. . . . On the fourth of August I ordered
General Schofield to make a bold attack on the railroad, anywhere
about East Point, and ordered General Palmer to report to him for
duty. He at once denied General Schofield's right to command him;
but, after examining the dates of their respective commissions,
and hearing their arguments, I wrote to General Palmer:
'From the statements made by yourself and General Schofield to-day,
my decision is, that he ranks you as a Major-General, being of the
same date of present commission, by reason of his previous superior
rank as a brigadier-general. The movements of to-morrow are so
important that the orders of the superior on that flank must be
regarded as military orders and not in the nature of co-operation.
I did hope that there would be no necessity for my making this
decision, but it is better for all parties interested that no
question of rank should occur in actual battle. The Sandtown Road
and the railroad if possible must be gained to-morrow if it costs
half your command. I regard the loss of time this afternoon as
equal to the loss of two thousand men.'
"I also communicated the substance of this to General Thomas, to
whose army Palmer's corps belonged, who replied on the fifth:
'I regret to hear that Palmer has taken the course he has, and I
know that he intends to offer his resignation as soon as he can
properly do so. I recommend that his application be granted.'
"On the fifth I again wrote to General Palmer, arguing the point
with him, as a friend, not to resign at that crisis lest his motives
might be misconstrued and because it might damage his future career
in civil life; but at the same time I felt it my duty to say to
him that the operations on that flank during the fourth and fifth
had not been satisfactory, not imputing to him any want of energy
or skill, but insisting that the events did not keep pace with my
desires. . . .
"I sanctioned the movement and ordered two of Palmer's divisions
to follow in support of Schofield, and summoned General Palmer to
meet me in person. He came on the sixth to my headquarters and
insisted on his resignation being accepted, for which formal act
I referred him to General Thomas. He then rode to General Thomas's
camp, where he made a written resignation of his office as commander
of the Fourteenth Corps and was granted the usual leave of absence
to go to his home in Illinois, there to await further orders."
I quote freely from General Sherman on this incident, as I do not
want to do General Palmer an injustice. No one for a moment doubted
General Palmer's bravery, and I must say that it took a brave man,
and I might add an extraordinarily stubborn man, to resign a
magnificent command just before one of the great movements of the
war on a mere question of some other general's outranking him.
I happened to be on the same ferry-boat crossing from St. Louis
with General Palmer when he was taken home ill. He had brought a
colored servant with him, who accompanied him to his home in
Carlinville. It created considerable excitement, and General Palmer
was indicted for bringing the colored man into the State. There
was not much disposition to try him, but he insisted on being placed
on trial, conducted his own defence, and was acquitted.
He made an honest, conscientious Governor, but did not work in
harmony with the Legislature. He vetoed more bills than any Governor
before or since. His vetoes became too common to bear any influence,
and a great many of the bills were passed over his veto.
I was very much opposed to his renomination. I supported Governor
Oglesby, and I prepared a letter, to be signed by members of the
Legislature, asking Governor Oglesby to be a candidate. Furthermore,
an agent was employed to go to Decatur to remain there until the
obtained a favorable reply from Oglesby, and then go to Chicago
and have the letter and reply published in the Chicago papers.
The scheme worked successfully. Governor Oglesby was nominated
and elected.
Oglesby, Palmer, Logan, and Yates were all ambitious to go to the
Senate, and were rivals for the place at one time or another, and
they all succeeded in their ambition, Palmer being the last. When
Governor Yates was a candidate, in 1865, Senator Palmer thought
that he should have been elected. I liked Governor Yates and
believed that his record as Governor entitled him to a seat in the
Senate. Governor Palmer complained of me for taking any active
part in the contest, and thought that as I was a member of Congress
I should remain neutral. In those days Governor Palmer and I were
not on very friendly terms, although after he came to the Senate
we became quite intimate. He had a struggle in securing his election
as Senator. It was a long contest, but he was finally successful.
General Palmer was very popular with his colleagues in the Senate.
He was one of the best _raconteurs_ in the Senate, and he delighted
to sit in the smoking-room, or in his committee room, entertaining
those about him with droll stories. During his term he made some
very able speeches, and was always sound on the money question.
He was consistently in harmony with President Cleveland, and
consequently he controlled the patronage in the State. He was a
man of great good heart, full of generosity and good humor; and
altogether it would have been impossible to have a more agreeable
colleague.
We had been neighbors in Springfield, and when General Palmer was
elected to the Senate, he felt quite free to write to me. I retain
the letter and quote it here:
"Springfield, _March 14, 1891_.
"Hon. S. M. Cullom,
"Washington, D. C.
"My dear Sir:--
"I am just in receipt of your kind favor of the eleventh inst.,
and thank you for its friendly and neighborly expressions. More
than once since my election, Mrs. Palmer has expressed the hope
that when she meets Mrs. Cullom at Washington, or here, they may
continue to enjoy the friendly relations that have so long existed
between them, to which I add the expression of my own wish that in
the future, as in the past, we may be to each other good neighbors
and good friends.
"I do not know what the usage is in such cases, but I suppose I
might forward my credentials at an early date to the Secretary of
the Senate, who is, I believe, my old army friend, Gen. Anson G.
McCook. If such is the proper course I would be glad to do so
through you, if agreeable to you. I will depend upon you also for
such information as your experience will enable you to furnish me.
I will be glad to know about what time you will probably leave
Washington.
"I am, very respectfully,
"John M. Palmer."
While General Sherman and General Palmer were not particularly
friendly, General Palmer was always ready to forgive and forget
and do the agreeable thing.
On the occasion of a celebration in Springfield, where there was
a very large crowd, General Sherman was present, and, with General
Oglesby and General Palmer, occupied a seat on the platform.
Looking over the crowd, General Palmer recognized General McClernand
in the audience. McClernand and Sherman were not friends, McClernand
being bitterly inimical to Sherman. General Palmer, thinking only
of doing an agreeable act, at one pushed his way through the crowd
to where General McClernand was seated and invited him to come onto
the platform. It was only after a great deal of urging that he
consented to go, but he finally said, "I will go, _pro forma_."
He did go "_pro forma,_" and paid his respects to General Sherman,
but remained only a short time.
General Palmer retired from the Senate at the end of his term, the
Legislature of Illinois being Republican.
I recollect that I went home from Washington to Springfield, and
on arriving there was informed that General Palmer had just died.
I immediately called at the house. He had only just passed away,
and was still lying on his death-bed. I attended the funeral at
his old home in Carlinville, and I do not know that I was ever more
impressed by such a ceremony. He was buried with all the pomp
attending a military funeral.