THE FIRST ELECTION TO THE SENATE.
The abrogation of the Missouri compromise was followed by the arbitrary
enforcement of the Fugitive Slave act in important Northern cities, and
by a determined struggle between freedom and slavery for the possession
of the virgin soil of Kansas. These phases of "the irrepressible
conflict" were attended by many exciting incidents which constantly
strengthened the new anti-slavery party in the North and in the end
made it the main competitor of the Democracy in the presidential
election of 1856. The decisive character of its victory in Michigan
in 1854 made Republicanism especially strong in that State, and the
events of each successive month of 1855 and 1856 added to its power
both in numbers and in sentiment. Throughout this period Mr. Chandler
labored, in public and in private, and with earnestness and effect, to
inspire the new party with vigor of conviction and unflinching firmness
of purpose. No man did more than he to make it thoroughly "radical,"
and his former prominence as a Whig rendered his efforts especially
fruitful. His earliest Republican speeches did not differ from his
latest in courage of opinion, in plainness of expression, or in
manifest sincerity of conviction. On September 12, 1855, he addressed,
with Henry Wilson, an immense mass-meeting at Kalamazoo, and denounced
the border-ruffian crimes in Kansas in the strongest terms. On the 30th
of May, 1856, he was one of the speakers at a large meeting held in the
city of Detroit to consider the assault of Preston Brooks upon Charles
Sumner. He there gave expression to Republican indignation in the
plainest language. After fitly describing the era of pro-slavery murder
in Kansas, and the recent crime of "a cowardly assassin on the very
floor of the Senate of the United States," he offered two resolutions,
one demanding the impeachment of Franklin Pierce for his action in
relation to Kansas, and a second to expel Rust, of Arkansas, for his
attack upon Horace Greeley, and Preston Brooks for his assault on Mr.
Sumner. Then he said in substance:
This is not a time for argument. It is a time for action, for
speaking boldly and fearlessly.... This assault is upon the entire
North. So long have craven doughface representatives sat in her
places in Congress that the South has come to doubt our manhood....
We should uphold the hands of our representatives, and tell them
that an indignity offered to them is an indignity offered to us.
[Applause.] ... The resolution calling for the impeachment of
the President is one proper to be offered. He has connived at
and aided all this Kansas treachery and wrong. He supports the
bogus Legislature of Kansas and orders its odious laws enforced.
If Thomas Jefferson was to read his preamble to the Declaration
of Independence in Kansas, he could be condemned by those laws
to imprisonment in the penitentiary for two years.... What the
British did at Lexington, the United States troops, under the
orders of President Pierce, did at Lawrence. Our fathers resisted
by all means in their power. We should imitate their example. What
should we do?... We should send enough men there to put Kansas in a
peaceable condition.
Mr. Chandler also said: "Had I been on the floor of the Senate when
that assault occurred, so help me God, that ruffian's blood would
have flowed," and he closed by declaring that Detroit should send one
hundred men to Kansas, and by pledging himself, if that was done, to
devote his entire income while they were there to aiding in their
maintenance. He also made a forcible speech at a Kansas relief meeting,
held in Detroit, to greet Gov. Andrew H. Reeder, on June 2, 1856,
and then headed a subscription paper for the aid of the struggling
Free State men of that territory with the sum of $10,000. Actions and
utterances of this kind in the plastic days of Michigan Republicanism
gave to it that resolute and robust character which has been the source
of its power.
The first national convention of the Republican party was held at
Pittsburg on the 22d of February, 1856, under a call issued by
the chairmen of the Republican committees of Ohio, Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It was attended by
delegates representing twenty-seven States and territories, and
provided for the national organization of the Republican party by
creating a general executive committee and calling a convention, to
meet at Philadelphia on June 17, to nominate a presidential ticket.
Michigan was represented at Pittsburg by a delegation of eighteen,
headed by Zachariah Chandler, and including Kinsley S. Bingham, Jacob
M. Howard, and Fernando C. Beaman. Mr. Chandler was also a member of
the committee which reported the plan for the national organization of
the Republican party, and he participated briefly in the debates of
that important gathering. The Michigan convention to elect delegates to
Philadelphia was held at Ann Arbor, on March 8, 1856, and was addressed
by Mr. Chandler and other prominent Republicans. He was a member of the
Philadelphia convention, acting as an alternate for Charles T. Gorham,
and, after Fremont was nominated, formally promised that the electoral
vote of Michigan should be given for the ticket. He was there made the
member for his State of the first Republican National Committee. The
Michigan delegation at Philadelphia originally supported Mr. Seward for
the presidency, but finally joined in the movement to nominate General
Fremont on the first ballot. For the vice-presidency the majority of
the delegation supported William L. Dayton, but Mr. Chandler, with four
others, voted for Abraham Lincoln.
In the following campaign Mr. Chandler was among the most active of
the Republican leaders. He aided liberally in the work of organizing
the party throughout the State, and spoke at Detroit several times,
and at Kalamazoo, Lapeer, Port Huron, Adrian, Coldwater, and other of
the important cities and towns of Michigan. He also held one joint
discussion with Alpheus Felch, at Olivet, on October 16. The tone of
his public utterances in 1856 will appear from these extracts from his
speech at Kalamazoo (on August 27) before an immense mass-meeting,
which was also addressed by Abraham Lincoln and Jacob M. Howard:
The Republicans of Michigan stand by the constitution, and when
their defamers proclaim that they are a disunion party, as they
do so often, they publish what they know to be a falsehood.... We
are determined to stand by the constitution in all its parts, and,
more than that, to make our adversaries stand by it in all and
every part.... Our opponents have ignored this constitution with
but a single exception. And what is that exception? It is the key
to their character and their principles. In this whole instrument
they acknowledge but one clause, and that is the right to reclaim
fugitive slaves from their hard-earned freedom!
We intend to make our opponents stand by this clause: "The citizens
of each State shall be entitled to the privileges of all the
States." But how is this at present on the Missouri? The citizens
of Massachusetts, of New Jersey, of Pennsylvania or of Michigan,
if they but presume to enter Kansas, are sent back with a guard or
murdered in cold blood, while the citizens of the South are aided
on their way to plant in that beautiful territory the accursed
blight of slavery. We will make them stand by the constitution in
all its parts, or, by the Eternal, we will have a different state
of things here. The oak shall bear other fruit than acorns if the
constitution be not upheld.
Here is another clause of that instrument: "Congress shall make no
law abridging the freedom of speech or the press." How is it in
Kansas to-day regarding this? If any man shall dare to deny the
right to hold slaves in that territory he is imprisoned for a term
of five years.
Our opponents must also stand by this clause of the constitution:
"A well-regulated militia being necessary of a free state, the
right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
That clause of the constitution is trampled under foot, and the
Democratic platform in sustaining Pierce's administration virtually
sustains and endorses the disgraceful outrage.
Here is another clause: "No person shall be deprived of life,
liberty or property without due process of law." The whole history
of the Kansas matter shows how shamefully this clause has been
rejected by those who uphold the administration.
There are but two candidates for the Presidency and but two
platforms. The issue--the only issue--is: Shall slavery be
national? Shall it be under our protection, or shall it be under
the protection of the slave States only? The whole question of
platforms is in that. It is the only question.... The policy of
this government for twenty-five years has been pro-slavery. The
first act toward breaking that policy was the election of Banks
as Speaker last winter. It was the first of what I hope will be a
series of victories.
A few years ago there was great commotion in the land. We were told
"the Union is in danger." "What shall be done?" That was the first
question. What was the answer of the men in power? "Use the utmost
power of the government; the Union must be saved." Armed men went
through the streets of Boston. Troops were ordered there in great
numbers. Ships of war were sent to Massachusetts Bay. What was the
terrible danger of the Union? There was a Negro lost! A slave had
run away! A poor African had escaped from his master and--lo, the
Union was in danger! "Use all the power of the government; the laws
must be enforced." Other troops were ordered there. The militia
were called out. They surrounded the jail. A sloop of war was sent.
Burns was borne back to his master and the Union was saved!
There came a later cry, "the Union is in danger." This time it
was heard from bleeding Kansas. Armed bands were committing
daily depredations. This appeal reached the government, and what
answer is made by the party in power? "I see nothing to call for
executive interference." "Nothing?" Yet an empire is being crushed.
"Nothing?" Yet houses are being robbed and burned, and helpless
women and children murdered! "No cause for interference?" The
reason is plain. There was no Negro lost.
Michigan fulfilled the pledge made in her behalf at Philadelphia by
Mr. Chandler, and gave to the Fremont electors 71,762 votes, while the
Buchanan ticket received but 52,136 and the Fillmore strength was only
1,660. The Republicans thus more than trebled their majority of 1854,
and in this year carried all of the four Congressional districts of the
State. Their victory in the legislative districts was overwhelming, and
they elected twenty-nine of the thirty-one Senators, and sixty-three of
the eighty Representatives. The term of Lewis Cass as Senator of the
United States expired on the 4th of the following March, and his State
had thus decided that he should give place to a representative of its
earnest and aggressive Republican sentiment. Mr. Chandler was at once
recognized as the leading candidate for the position by reason of his
positive qualities, his personal strength with the business classes
of the State and the masses of the people, and his prominence as a
representative of the strong Whig element in the Republican ranks. The
senatorial canvass was an earnest one, but it was from the outset clear
that Mr. Chandler was the first choice of decidedly the largest number
of legislators, and that no other man possessed his popular following.
Some unavailing efforts were made to combine against him the friends
of all other candidates, but the fact that he was also "the second
choice" of many members defeated this plan, and the Republican caucus
met at Lansing on January 8, 1857, with his marked lead in the contest
still unimpaired. Three ballots were taken at its first session, the
third giving Mr. Chandler a clear majority of all the votes cast. The
caucus then adjourned until the following day, when he received a still
stronger support on the fourth ballot and was formally nominated on the
fifth. The following is the record of the balloting:
FIRST SESSION. SECOND SESSION.
+-----------^------------+ +-------^-------+
/ First Second Third \ / Fourth First \
Informal Informal Informal Informal Formal
Ballot. Ballot. Ballot. Ballot. Ballot.
Zachariah Chandler, 37 45 49 54 80
Isaac P. Christiancy, 17 21 22 33 --
Austin Blair, 18 7 6 -- --
Moses Wisner, 12 9 10 -- --
Jacob M. Howard, -- 6 6 3 --
Kinsley S. Bingham, 3 7 2 -- --
George A. Coe, 4 -- -- -- --
James V. Campbell, 1 -- -- -- --
Halmer H. Emmons, -- -- -- 1 --
Blank, -- -- 1 -- --
Scattering, -- -- -- -- 8
---- ---- ---- ---- ----
TOTAL, 92 95 96 91 88
This result was received with the heartiest enthusiasm by the
Republicans, and the caucus greeted its nominee, when he came before it
to return his thanks, with prolonged cheering. The scene which followed
has been thus described by an eyewitness: "This was the only time in
an acquaintance of nearly thirty years that I ever saw Mr. Chandler
abashed. When brought before the caucus he trembled with emotion, and
it was several minutes before he could compose himself to even briefly
return his thanks. He has often said that it was the only time that his
courage and nerve absolutely failed him and that he completely broke
down. The rejoicing was so hearty and unselfish that it overcame him,
and he trembled like a child." On the 10th of January the two branches
of the Legislature voted for Senator, the Democrats complimenting
General Cass with their ineffectual votes. The record of the balloting
was as follows:
SENATE. HOUSE. TOTAL.
Zachariah Chandler, 27 62 89
Lewis Cass, 2 14 16
Blank, -- 1 1
In the following joint convention of the two Houses the resolution,
reciting the action taken separately and finally recording Mr.
Chandler's election, was adopted without any dissent. Among the members
of the Legislature whose votes made him the first Republican Senator
from Michigan were Thomas W. Ferry, in later years his colleague in the
Senate, Omar D. Conger, who became afterward a Republican leader in the
lower branch of Congress, and George Jerome, a most intimate political
and personal friend throughout life.
The Senate of the Thirty-fifth Congress met in special session at
Washington, on March 4, 1857, Franklin Pierce having convened it at the
request of his successor, who was inaugurated on that day. The names
upon its rolls were these:
Clement C. Clay, Jr., and Benj. Fitzpatrick, of Alabama;
Robert W. Johnson and Wm. K. Sebastian, of Arkansas;
David C. Broderick and Wm. M. Gwin, of California;
James Dixon and Lafayette S. Foster, of Connecticut;
Martin W. Bates and James A. Bayard, of Delaware;
Stephen R. Mallory and David L. Yulee, of Florida;
Alfred Iverson and Robert Toombs, of Georgia;
Stephen A. Douglas and Lyman Trumbull, of Illinois;
Jesse D. Bright and Graham N. Fitch, of Indiana;
James Harlan and Geo. W. Jones, of Iowa;
John J. Crittenden and John B. Thompson, of Kentucky;
Judah P. Benjamin and John Slidell, of Louisiana;
W. P. Fessenden and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine;
Anthony Kennedy and James A. Pearce, of Maryland;
Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts;
Zachariah Chandler and Chas. E. Stuart, of Michigan;
Albert G. Brown and Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi;
James S. Green and Trusten Polk, of Missouri;
James Bell and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire;
John R. Thomson and William Wright, of New Jersey;
Preston King and William H. Seward, of New York;
Asa Biggs and David S. Reid, of North Carolina;
Geo. E. Pugh and Benj. F. Wade, of Ohio;
William Bigler and Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania;
Philip Allen and James F. Simmons, of Rhode Island;
Josiah J. Evans and Andrew P. Butler, of South Carolina;
John Bell and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee;
Samuel Houston and Thos. J. Rusk, of Texas;
Jacob Collamer and Solomon Foot, of Vermont;
R. M. T. Hunter and James M. Mason, of Virginia;
James R. Doolittle and Charles Durkee, of Wisconsin.
[Illustration: THE NATIONAL CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON.]
This Senate met in the old chamber now occupied by the Supreme Court,
but around which then clustered fresh memories of Clay, Webster,
Calhoun and their cotemporaries. The Secretary, Asbury Dickins,
called the body to order, and in the absence of John C. Breckenridge,
Vice-President elect, James M. Mason of Virginia was chosen to preside
temporarily. After the roll was called of the members with unexpired
terms, the list of newly-elected Senators was read. As they responded
to their names they advanced to the front of the presiding officer's
desk, in groups of four, to take the oath of office. The first group
were Bates, Bayard, Bright and Broderick; the second consisted of
Simon Cameron, Zachariah Chandler, Jefferson Davis and James Dixon.
This scene was the subject, twenty-two years later,[7] of the most
effective speech ever delivered by Mr. Chandler; probably no speech
ever uttered in the Senate more thoroughly touched the popular heart or
was more widely read. Of the men who were then United States Senators,
parts and witnesses of this scene, Fitzpatrick, Sebastian, Broderick,
Dixon, Bates, Mallory, Iverson, Douglas, Bright, Crittenden, Thompson,
Slidell, Fessenden, Kennedy, Pearce, Sumner, Wilson, Green, Hale,
Thomson, Wright, King, Seward, Pugh, Wade, Allen, Simmons, Evans,
Butler, John Bell, Jas. Bell, Andrew Johnson, Houston, Rusk, Collamer,
Foot, Mason and Durkee (perhaps others) preceded Mr. Chandler to the
grave. Of this number, one (Broderick) was killed in a duel and two
committed suicide (Rusk killed himself at Nacogdoches, Tex., on July
29, 1857, and Preston King on August 15, 1865, and while collector of
the port of New York, jumped heavily weighted into the Hudson river).
Of the members of this Senate Hamlin, Wilson (his original name was
Jeremiah Jones Colbath) and Johnson became Vice-Presidents, and
Johnson, on the death of Abraham Lincoln, became President. Mr. Hamlin
was the only one still in the Senate at the time of Mr. Chandler's
death, and his service had not been continuous but was broken by his
Vice-Presidential term. Sons of Cameron and Bayard were in 1879 in the
seats occupied by their fathers in 1857. Seward became Secretary of
State, Cameron Secretary of War, Fessenden Secretary of the Treasury,
and Harlan and Chandler Secretaries of the Interior. Durkee became
Governor of Utah, Jones Minister to Colombia and Cameron Minister to
Russia. Jones was, on his return from Colombia, arrested for treason
and confined in Fort Warren. Bright was expelled for treasonable
correspondence with the enemy; Polk was expelled for treason, and
Sebastian, who retired from the Senate when Arkansas seceded from
the Union, was also expelled, but after the war, ample proof being
furnished that he was and always remained true to the Union, the
resolution of expulsion was rescinded. Doolittle, Trumbull, Dixon and
Foster, who were Republicans in 1857, afterward joined the Democracy,
and Mr. Seward also ceased to be in sympathy with the party to which
he was indebted for his greatest honors. Gwin identified himself with
the Confederacy, then became _aide_ to the unfortunate Maximilian, by
whom he was created "Duke of Sonora," and is back again at Washington
as a lobbyist. Douglas and John Bell were defeated candidates for the
Presidency in 1860. Houston was Governor of Texas when the ordinance
of secession passed and was deposed from his office by the disunion
convention.
Jefferson Davis, who swore to support the constitution and the Union
at the same instant with Mr. Chandler, within four years rebelled
against the government and became President of the so-called "Southern
Confederacy." Slidell, the most skilful of the disunion leaders, and
Mason were appointed by the rebel government Commissioners to Great
Britain, and while on their way across the ocean were seized by Captain
Wilkes, commanding the United States steamer San Jacinto, taken from
the British vessel Trent, and carried to Boston harbor, where they
were confined in Fort Warren on a charge of treason. This seizure the
Department of State declined to uphold, and on the demand of Great
Britain the "embassadors" were released. Slidell died abroad in merited
obscurity. Benjamin became Secretary of War of the Confederacy, and
after its downfall emigrated to England, became a British citizen,
and is a prosperous lawyer in London. Toombs was Confederate Secretary
of State, and is still living in Georgia, crying as he did in 1861
"death to the Union." Mallory was Confederate Secretary of the Navy,
and for a time after the war was imprisoned in Fort Lafayette. Hunter
was also Secretary of State of the Confederacy; since the war he has
been Treasurer of Virginia, but with the political revolution of 1879
retired to private life and poverty. Clay was a Confederate Senator
and diplomatic agent; in 1865 he was imprisoned in Fortress Monroe.
Fitzpatrick was the original nominee for Vice-President on the Douglas
ticket in 1860, but declined; he became a rebel but without prominence.
Robert W. Johnson was a Confederate Senator and afterward practiced law
in Washington. Yulee (whose original name was David Levy) retired from
the Senate to join the Confederacy, ceased to be conspicuous, and is
now president of a railroad in Florida. Iverson was a Brigadier-General
in the rebel army, as was also Toombs. Brown was Captain in the
Confederate army and a member of the Confederate Senate. Butler died
during the following recess of Congress, and Evans, his colleague, died
before the war. All of these Southern Senators, who retired with their
States in 1861 were afterward formally expelled from the Senate.
When Mr. Chandler entered the Senate the House of Representatives was
controlled by the Democrats, but out of 234 members ninety-two were
filled with the fresh blood of the Republican party. Some of these
men were then distinguished, and others have become so since, but of
the entire number of Representatives only twelve yet remain in either
branch of Congress. Henry L. Dawes is a Senator from Massachusetts,
Lafayette Grover from Oregon, Justin S. Morill from Vermont, Zebulon
B. Vance from North Carolina, George H. Pendleton from Ohio, and L. Q.
C. Lamar from Mississippi. Samuel S. Cox, a Representative from Ohio
in 1857, is now a Representative from New York. Alex. H. Stephens of
Georgia, Alfred M. Scales of North Carolina, John H. Reagan of Texas,
Otho R. Singleton of Mississippi, and John D. C. Atkins of Tennessee
are again members of the House. Stephens was Vice-President of the
Confederacy; Scales was Captain, Colonel and Brigadier-General in the
rebel army; Singleton was Aid-de-camp to Gen. Robert E. Lee; and Atkins
was Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifth Confederate Tennessee regiment, and
afterward a member of the Confederate Congress.
Others who were members of the House in 1857 afterward added to the
reputations they then enjoyed. Schuyler Colfax has been Vice-President.
A. H. Cragin, R. E. Fenton, Thomas L. Clingman, Frank P. Blair, Jr.,
John W. Stevenson, Edwin D. Morgan, Joshua Hill, and George S. Houston
have been United States Senators. Israel Washburn has been Governor of
Maine, John Letcher of Virginia, and C. C. Washburn of Wisconsin. N. P.
Banks was a General in the Union army, and is United States Marshal of
Massachusetts. Daniel E. Sickles was also a General in the Union army
and afterward Minister to Spain. Francis E. Spinner was for many years
Treasurer of the United States. John Sherman has been a Senator, and is
Secretary of the Treasury. Elihu B. Washburne was Minister to France.
John A. Bingham is Minister to Japan, and Horace Maynard to Turkey.
Anson Burlingame was Minister to China, and afterward the embassador
of that empire to negotiate treaties with foreign powers. William A.
Howard is Governor of Dakota, and John S. Phelps of Missouri. The roll
of the dead of the Thirty-fifth House of Representatives far exceeds
that of the living.
Zachariah Chandler entered the Senate of the United States with an
abiding faith in Northern civilization and its right to supremacy,
with a wise distrust of Southern professions, with a just hatred of
institutions poisoned by slavery, with a determination to attack
treason wherever found, with an unquestioning belief that his cause was
right and its defeat impossible, and with as resolute a spirit as ever
crossed the threshold of the Senate chamber. His nature was without an
atom of compromise, and was strong in the rugged qualities of courage,
honesty, sincerity, firmness, and moral intrepidity.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] "The Jeff. Davis speech," March 3, 1879.