At a time when so many Americans seem to be forgetting the history of
their country and are fatuously pursuing the political will-o’-the-wisp
called “British friendship”; when a society organized to frustrate the
unwisdom of foreign alliances,—the League of American Independence,—is
flouted and insulted; when the tendency of the dominant political party
in the Republic is towards international folly and its motto appears to
be “Away with the Constitution,” the incident embodied in the appended
letter may perhaps remind sane Americans what the true attitude should
be to-day towards the Russian and British empires, respectively. The
letter in question is an answer to a request made by me on Mr. Jeremiah
Curtin,—the scholarly translator of “Quo Vadis” and other works of
Sienkiewicz, and himself the author of a number of remarkable volumes on
folk-lore and kindred subjects,—for a paper on Andrew Curtin, his uncle,
the famous war governor of Pennsylvania:
WARSAW, RUSSIAN EMPIRE,
December 28, 1898.
_Joseph Smith, Esq._:
DEAR SIR:—I have just received your letter of December 5, and hasten
to reply.
The time between this date and the meeting of the American-Irish
Historical Society is so short that it would be impossible for me to
prepare a paper as you suggest; were I free there would be
sufficient time, perhaps, but as I am in the midst of important and
urgent investigations I can do no more than write you a few lines.
There are many subjects, of course, which would be of interest to
the Society and consequently to America. The time has come when men
who are of more than ordinary culture, and interested in the history
of America and the British empire, are beginning to understand that
the political and social development of these two immense
aggregations of mankind cannot be studied in a satisfactory and
scientific way without a thorough knowledge of the Celtic race. But,
as I understand, the Society is occupied specially at present in
showing the part which the Irish have taken in the United States
both in winning independence for the republic and afterward in
building it up; the wider aspects of the history and career of the
Celtic race may be considered at some later time, should the Society
so desire.
Among men of Irish descent who have played an important part in
American history, the late Governor Curtin deserves a high place.
His father, Roland Curtin, when a young man, was informed by
governmental authority that he had twenty-four hours in which to
leave Ireland. He went to France, and from France to America. He
settled in Pennsylvania, and established the first iron works, if
not in the state, in that part of it where he lived.
Without entering into the details of the governor’s career and the
great part which he took in defending the integrity of the American
Union, it is sufficient to state here that it was owing to him that
Abraham Lincoln received his first nomination for the presidency.
Had it not been for Andrew G. Curtin, Abraham Lincoln would not have
been president of the United States. Curtin, then governor of
Pennsylvania, received Lincoln on his way to Washington at the
boundary of the state; together they planned the manner of the
president’s further journey, by which he escaped, if not
assassination, the possibility of meeting men who had it in mind.
When a separation of the Southern states had become a fact, Governor
Curtin invited all the loyal governors to meet in conference at
Altoona, Pa., where he made the statement to them, that either the
war must be carried on in real and deadly earnest with all the
powers of the country placed at the disposal of the president, or be
dropped altogether. After due consultation the governors decided to
offer all the power of the states to the president, and went to
Washington to lay that decision before Lincoln; all went except
Governor Bradford of Maryland. After the Altoona conference and the
meeting of the governors with President Lincoln at Washington, the
war became that reality which won final success.
Governor Curtin’s actions during the succeeding years of the
struggle were such that he, Governor Morton of Indiana and Governor
Andrew of Massachusetts, were pre-eminently the great war governors,
the three governors uppermost in men’s minds.
Governor Curtin’s untiring work on behalf of the soldiers of his
state is well known and universally remembered. It is perhaps not so
well known that he founded the first Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home in the
United States, that of Pennsylvania.
Some time after the war he went to St. Petersburg, as Minister
Plenipotentiary, where he gained the respect and esteem of Alexander
II. At his last interview the Emperor presented him a full length
portrait of himself. This portrait, painted in oil, was made
expressly for Governor Curtin, and was sent to his home in
Pennsylvania by the Russian government.
While at St. Petersburg, Prince Gortschakoff took the governor into
the archives of the foreign office, and showed him the
correspondence which took place between the Emperor Napoleon III and
Alexander II of Russia concerning the recognition of the
independence of the Confederate states. The Emperor Napoleon
addressed an autograph letter to Alexander II, stating that the
government of Her Britannic Majesty and his government were ready to
acknowledge the independence of the Confederate States of America,
and invited him to join with them. To this the Emperor of Russia
answered, also in an autograph letter, that the people of the United
States had a government of their own choice, and that they were
using their best blood and treasure to defend it, and not only would
he not do anything to oppose them, but he would reserve freedom of
action to proceed as he deemed necessary under the circumstances.
Soon after, the Russian fleets appeared in New York and San
Francisco.
Governor Curtin read the two letters of the emperors himself, and
gave me the contents, the substance of which I have just given.
Very sincerely yours,
JEREMIAH CURTIN.
The potent action of Russia in our hour of bloody stress, which held the
hands of England and Napoleon the Little, speaks louder than the
strident clamor of the American ingrates, who, forgetting our debt to
the Muscovite, would make us the ally of the Briton, the deadly enemy of
our friend and of us. Under the Providence of God, the action of
Alexander II saved this republic from being torn asunder, and we were
base indeed, if in these days we were to turn from the friend of our
hour of need to take the hand red with the blood of a hundred helpless
races.