THE VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.
Conscription, taxation, and the reverses of the Union arms in the
summer of 1862 in Virginia and elsewhere materially affected the
political currents of the ensuing fall, and the tide of reaction
against the war feeling reached its highest flood in the closing
elections of that year. Horatio Seymour was then chosen Governor of
New York; the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois gave anti-Republican majorities, and ten of the principal
Northern States, which in 1860 rolled up over 200,000 Republican
majority, gave over 35,000 to the Opposition, while the footings of
their Congressional delegations showed a Democratic majority of ten
replacing a Republican preponderance of forty-one. In Michigan a
successful effort was made to fuse all the "conservative" elements in a
so-called "Union movement," which obtained some support from lukewarm
Republicans and was thus enabled to manifest unusual strength. Its
platform was dissent from "radical" measures in general, and the force
of its attacks was centered upon Senator Chandler and his record, as
representing the most aggressive type of Republicanism. He accepted
this challenge unhesitatingly, and fought the campaign through without
a hint at retraction or an apologetic word. He defended the "blood
letter" and the "McClellan speech" on every stump; he repeated before
the people the bold utterances with which he had stirred the Senate;
he declared to every audience that his record he would not qualify by
a hair's breadth, and that by it he was prepared to stand or fall;
and he denounced with unstinted severity the weakness of some of his
critics and the disloyalty of others.[25] The brunt of the battle in
his State fell upon him, and the vigor and courage of his personal
canvass attracted widespread attention. He spoke in all the leading
cities of Michigan during the campaign, and worked uninterruptedly
until the day of election. The result was the casting of 68,716 votes
for the Republican State ticket to 62,102 for the "Union" candidates,
and the choice of five Republicans out of the six members of Congress,
and of a Legislature constituted as follows: Senate--18 Republicans
and 14 Fusionists; House--63 Republicans and 37 Fusionists. This
Legislature, on assembling in January, 1863, re-elected Mr. Chandler
to the Senate in accordance with the unmistakable wish of his party
and the universal expectation. The most strenuous efforts were made
to detach Republican support from him, but they failed utterly. In
the caucus the vote was taken _viva voce_, and it was unanimous for
Mr. Chandler. In the Legislature he received the support of the
representatives of his party as well as that of one or two members
chosen by the Fusionists. The Opposition selected a candidate of
Republican antecedents, and its vote was divided as follows: James F.
Joy, 45; Alpheus Felch, 2; Hezekiah G. Wells, 1; Solomon L. Withey, 1.
In his address of thanks before the nominating caucus, Mr. Chandler
said: "I do not claim my re-election as a personal tribute. It is,
rather, a tribute to principle. It indicates that the patriotic sons
of Michigan stand firm in support of the government and a vigorous
prosecution of the war."
Not only did he thus modestly measure the significance of his
re-election, but he bent every energy to make that felt which the
people meant. Strafford's motto of "Thorough"--although the spirit was
that of Hampden and Pym and not of the apostate Earl--expresses the
fixity of purpose and the ardor of zeal with which he strove to make
irresistible the blows of the Union against its assailants. Before the
people, on the floor of the Senate, within the White House, at the
private offices of the War Department, in committee-room, and as part
of his daily intercourse with men of all ranks and classes, he urged
the use of every resource for the defense of the nation and demanded
the sternest punishment of those who had dared
"to lay their hand upon the ark
"Of her magnificent and awful cause."
As a Senator his vote was recorded for every important war measure,
relating to the revenues, the finances, and the armies of the Union.
Upon the great questions of public policy which bore so powerfully
on the progress of the struggle he uniformly led his party. At the
first Congressional session of the war he urged the employment of
confiscation as a legitimate and effective weapon for checking and
punishing rebellion; the measure he introduced at that time proved to
be too sweeping to receive an immediate enactment, but within a few
months Congress did advance on this subject to his ground. When General
Butler declared that the slaves who fled to his camp from work upon
the rebel intrenchments were "contraband of war," and reported his
action to the authorities at Washington and asked for instructions, Mr.
Chandler was one of the first to appreciate the adroit wisdom of that
epigrammatic construction of military law, and his co-operation with
Secretary Cameron in urging the approval of General Butler's action
upon the President and General Scott was very valuable and effective.
Immediately after the battle of Bull Run he, with Mr. Sumner and
Mr. Hamlin, called upon Mr. Lincoln with a proposition to organize
and arm the colored people. Mr. Chandler even then favored the full
exercise of the President's constitutional war powers, and urged that
they should be used, first, to set the slaves free; and, second, to
make the slaves themselves aid the work of abolishing slavery and
maintaining the Union. He believed that this institution was the
backbone of the South, that the war was brought on to save it from the
civilizing tendencies of the age, and that among the first steps taken
by the Federal government, when thus assailed by slavery, should be
the proclaiming of freedom to all bondsmen and the guaranteeing of the
protection of the government to the free. He argued that such a policy,
promptly declared, would produce chaos in the South, would subject the
Confederate government to the danger of local uprisings of the negroes,
and would thus make victory easy. But the Administration was not
prepared to take a step so far in advance of popular opinion, and for
some months the prevailing policy was one which prohibited the soldiers
of the Union from protecting or harboring fugitive slaves, and in some
instances made slave-hunters of the troops. When General Fremont, on
the 31st of August, issued his proclamation in Missouri, declaring
free all slaves belonging to persons engaged in the rebellion, Mr.
Chandler was among those who most heartily approved this step. The
President was alarmed, as he feared the country was not ready for such
an act, and greatly modified the Fremont proclamation, as he also did a
still more sweeping order of General Hunter in the following May. Mr.
Chandler's disappointment at this was extreme, but within a few months
he saw emancipation resorted to by the Administration as a war measure,
and a death-blow dealt to "the relic of barbarism." That part of the
report for 1861 of Simon Cameron as Secretary of War, which urged the
most summary attacks upon the institution of slavery as the surest
means of dealing mortal blows to the rebellion, and which Mr. Lincoln
suppressed, Mr. Chandler heartily endorsed, and every manifestation by
Northern commanders of a disposition to make their armies defenders
of the slave system aroused his indignation. The act of March 13,
1862, prohibiting by an article of war the use of the troops for the
returning of fugitive slaves to their masters, he earnestly supported,
and the act of April 16, 1862, abolishing slavery in the District of
Columbia, was a measure in which he especially interested himself, and
whose final passage he celebrated by an entertainment given to its
most devoted friends at his rooms in the National Hotel of Washington.
The abortive colonization schemes which were tried about this time, at
Mr. Lincoln's urgent recommendation, Mr. Chandler privately opposed
as utterly inadequate and as a mere diversion of force into useless
channels, but for public reasons he made no open resistance to the
experiment. For the laws of June 19, 1862, forever prohibiting slavery
in the territories, and of June 28, 1864, repealing the fugitive slave
statutes, it need not be said that he labored with unflagging industry.
Mr. Chandler was very active in advocating the use of colored troops
as soldiers, being months in advance of the Administration in this
respect; he urged this policy upon the authorities unsuccessfully
for weeks, and then worked earnestly to secure legislation from
Congress authorizing the enrollment and enlistment of negroes. This
movement was so strenuously resisted at the capitol that in the end a
compromise was effected upon a bill, which was approved on July 16,
1862, authorizing the receiving of colored men as laborers in the
army to dig trenches and do other work of non-combatants. But after
the Emancipation Proclamation black men were accepted as soldiers by
order of the President, and regularly enrolled and paid. Mr. Chandler
always believed that that proclamation and the enlistment of freedmen
in the army were two of the most powerful blows at the rebellion,
and often remarked, when talking upon the subject, that they were
worth 300,000 men. While the controversy over this important step
was unsettled, General Butler, at New Orleans, found himself in need
of reinforcements, and was actually compelled to organize and arm
several regiments of colored soldiers, whom he knew to be especially
well adapted to the performance of a certain class of duties in that
region which could not be done by soldiers from the North, who were
not acclimated. This step on his part followed his definite refusal,
under instructions from Washington, to permit General Phelps to do
the same thing (that officer resigning for this very reason.) While
the correspondence on this whole topic was in progress with the
authorities, General Butler appealed to Senator Chandler, writing him
long letters showing the sanitary necessity of having negro garrisons
in some localities, and touching upon the other phases of the question.
He also asked the Senator's aid in securing arms and equipments for
these colored troops, and obtained from him valuable assistance in
pushing on the requisitions at the War Department in defiance of
official "red tape." On this general question Mr. Chandler said in the
Senate, on June 28, 1864:
I believe that this rebellion is to be crushed, is to be
exterminated, and I believe that every man who favors it, whether
he be a member of this body or a member of the Southern army, is
to be crushed and to be exterminated, unless he repents. That is
what I believe.... I thank God the nation has risen to the point of
using every implement that the Almighty and common sense have put
in its hands to crush the rebellion.... We do not need another man
from north of the Potomac. Let us bring the loyal men of the South
in to put down treason in the South, and there are men enough and
more than enough to do it. We have heard enough about not using
black men to put down this rebellion. I would use every thing that
God and nature had put in my hands to put down this rebellion; but
first I would use the black element, bring every negro soldier who
can fight into the army. A negro is better than a traitor. I say
this advisedly. I consider a loyal negro better than a secession
traitor, either in the North or the South. I prefer him anywhere
and everywhere that you please to put him. A secession traitor is
beneath a loyal negro. I would let a loyal negro vote; I would let
him testify; I would let him fight; I would let him do any other
good thing and I would exclude a secession traitor.
The seizure of the rebel emissaries, Mason and Slidell, by Captain
Wilkes, on the British steamer Trent, was heartily applauded by Mr.
Chandler, and he opposed with much earnestness their surrender at the
demand of Great Britain. Mr Seward's policy in the matter seemed to him
to be humiliating and the possibility of a second war, in case Captain
Wilkes was sustained, he did not dread, believing that the nation would
treble its military strength in the face of such a danger, that the
South would suffer from an alliance with a country so long regarded as
the hereditary foe of the American people, and that the end would be
the conquest and annexation of the British American provinces. He was
greatly incensed by Great Britain's prompt concession of belligerent
rights to the South and by its blustering bearing in the Trent case,
and at one time suggested a policy of non-intercourse with that power,
which he regarded as an inveterate enemy. In later years he advocated
the most vigorous pushing of "the Alabama claims," and at the time
of the British war with Abyssinia offered in the Senate a resolution
recognizing King Theodore as a "belligerent" in the general terms of
the Queen's proclamation of May, 1861 in regard to the Confederacy.
He never ceased to believe that the United States, in the settlement
of its war claims with Great Britain, ought to have refused to accept
anything less than the annexation of the Canadas.
Mr. Chandler in the Senate favored imposing severe penalties on the
gold gambling in Wall street, which affected so injuriously the
national credit. In the preparation of the internal revenue laws of
1862, imposing a large number of taxes and affecting vast interests,
he gave exceedingly valuable aid, his own business experience and his
familiarity with commercial details making his suggestions practical
in form and wise in scope. Every measure to secure the stringent
enforcement of the laws for the punishment of treason received his
hearty support, and his denunciation of traitors and their open or
secret allies continued to be vigorous and unsparing.[26] His industry
time alone seemed to restrain, for his zeal was inexhaustible and his
magnificent physical powers bore the tremendous strain unyieldingly.
His public record during the four years of the war makes it possible
to apply to him, without extravagance, Lord Clarendon's description of
Hampden: "He was of a vigilance not to be tired out or wearied by the
most laborious, and of parts not to be imposed on by the most subtle or
sharp, and of a personal courage equal to his best parts."
The "little, nameless, unremembered acts" of these days were of
no slight aggregate importance and thoroughly illustrate the
characteristics of the man. There was no reasonable service that he
was not quick to render to any volunteer who applied to him for aid. A
blue uniform gained for its wearer prompt admittance to his room and
a careful hearing for any request. Repeatedly private soldiers saw
him leave men of rank and influence to listen to their stories, and
lay aside matters of pressing moment to act upon their complaints or
relieve their distress.[27]
He visited the hospitals to seek out Michigan men whom he could
help, and to see that they were properly provided for, while their
applications for furloughs and for discharges, if entrusted to his
care, were so pushed as to obtain prompt action from the authorities
in spite of routine and official tardiness. He advanced large sums of
money to help destitute and invalid soldiers homeward,[28] or to aid
the friends of fallen or wounded men upon their melancholy errands.
Upon all occasions he was especially attentive to the humblest
applicants, and the ease of the private soldier in distress and need
touched his sympathies the most quickly. His was a familiar figure in
all the departments, often accompanied with a squad of sick, crippled,
even ragged, veterans, in search of delayed furloughs, or of arrears
of pay, or of the medical examinations preceding invalid discharges,
or of some service which "red tape" had delayed. In the words of one
who possessed abundant opportunities for obtaining knowledge, "This
could be said of Mr. Chandler to a greater extent than of any other
public man I ever saw, that he would spare no pains in doing even
little things for men who were of the smallest consequence to one in
his position. He would take great trouble in hunting up minor matters
for enlisted men, and this it was that made him so popular among the
soldiers." His activity in their behalf was not limited by State lines;
he answered any appeals that came to him, although he was especially
prompt and vigilant in helping the "Michigan boys."[29]
At the War Department Mr. Chandler was as well known as (and was
reputed to be scarcely less powerful than) the Secretary himself. Mr.
Stanton's brusqueness never daunted him, and few stood upon such terms
of privileged intercourse with that no less irascible than great man.
Repeatedly he elbowed his way through the crowded ante-chamber of the
Secretary's office, pushed past protesting orderlies, strode up to Mr.
Stanton's private desk, and obtained by emphatic personal application
some order which subordinates could not grant in a case needing prompt
action.[30] Where other men would have encountered rebuff he rarely
failed. In connection with this phase of his public activity these
letters are of interest:
DETROIT, Mich., July 29, 1862.
_Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War._
DEAR SIR: Brigadier-General Richardson, of this State, is reported
as being absent from duty without leave. This is not true. He is
absent on sick leave, and is not able to join his command. Will
you not, in accordance with the wishes of the whole delegation,
assign him to the command of Michigan soldiers now being raised?
His presence here, and the assurance that he is to command, will
greatly stimulate enlistments. We are proud of him as one of the
best fighting generals of the army. Very truly yours,
Z. CHANDLER.
DETROIT, July 31, 1862.
_Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War._
SIR: There is a fine company of ninety-five splendid men guarding
_three rebel prisoners_ at Mackinac. Would it not be well to put
those rascals in some tobacco warehouse or jail and send these
troops where they are needed? General Terry would like a command in
some other division than the one he is in. Can you not accommodate
him? The soldiers at Mackinac are anxious for active service and
are well drilled. Very truly yours,
Z. CHANDLER.
DETROIT, Aug. 9, 1862.
_Adjutant-General Thomas._
DEAR SIR: Are the boys of the Michigan First (Bull Run prisoners)
exchanged yet? I promised them it should be done at once, and now
find them enlisting again under the supposition that it has been
done. The list is with the Secretary of War. Our quota is full, and
our blood is up. They were yesterday paying $10 for a chance to
enter some of the regiments. Very truly yours,
Z. CHANDLER.
DETROIT, Aug. 28, 1862.
_Hon. Wm. A. Howard._
DEAR SIR: Will you say from me to the Secretary of War that I
deem it of vital importance that some one be authorized to open
and examine rebel correspondence passing through the Detroit
postoffice? Mr. Smith (of the postoffice) informs me that letters
come through directed to rebels at Windsor. Truly yours,
Z. CHANDLER.
DETROIT, Nov. 15, 1863.
_Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War._
DEAR SIR: I telegraphed you to-night to send heavy guns and
ammunition to the lakes. The reason was this: Upon examination
I found that we could improvise a navy in about two hours which
could cope with any rebel armament which could be placed upon the
lakes, _if we had big guns_. But my investigation furnished one
68-pounder, condemned, and four 32-pounders, without powder, at
Erie; and this was our whole armament on the lakes, except one
32-pounder upon the Michigan, and a few 6, 10 and 12-pounders. We
must have guns of large calibre at each of the principal ports.
If you cannot spare eleven-inch guns immediately send us some
eight-inch or some old 68-pounders, with ammunition. A tug,
costing not over $30,000, with one eleven-inch gun on board and
a crew of twenty men, could destroy a million dollars' worth of
property on the lakes every twenty-four hours, and we would be
powerless. She would sink the Michigan with one judiciously-placed
shell. We are not alarmed, but we want big guns and _must have
them_. The lake marine is scarcely second to the ocean in tonnage
and value, and it must be protected. We had no idea of our defenses
until the late scare. Truly yours,
Z. CHANDLER.
Mr. Chandler's influence with public men and in the private councils
of the nation's leaders at Washington was throughout the war always
invigorating. From the very outset, and while the patriotic instinct
of the North was "still, as it were, in the gristle and not yet
hardened into the bone," he urged upon the executive authorities
summary measures, and the striking of hard and quick blows. He advised
them to arrest traitors while their treason was still in the bud.
He urged them to make early and incessant attacks on the enemy, and
counseled implicit reliance on the devotion and loyalty of the North.
The Union cause saw no hour so dark that the eye of his courage could
not penetrate its gloom; the rebellion won no victory that shook his
absolutely "dauntless resolution." Every suggestion of peace except on
the basis of Freedom and the national supremacy he denounced. Every
hint of conciliating armed traitors he scouted as, in Hosea Biglow's
phrase, mere "tryin' squirt-guns on the infernal Pit." To the real
statesmanship of that period he thus gave expression in a public
dinner at Washington early in 1863: "We must accept no compromise; a
patched-up peace will be followed by continued war and anarchy." He
chafed like a caged lion before half-heartedness, imbecility and delay.
His sincerity and his earnestness revived the discouraged and aroused
hope, and his strong convictions inspired men of weaker moral fibre
with something of his own inflexibility. He never hesitated to use
plain words in dealing with the nation's enemies, he never lost faith,
and he never admitted the possibility of defeat. At the White House
his visits were ever welcome, his advice received, and the virility
of his understanding and the fervor of his patriotism recognized. Mr.
Chandler appreciated to the full extent the innate strength of Abraham
Lincoln's remarkable character and its rare loftiness, and, different
as were their dispositions and widely divergent as often were their
opinions, he never lost confidence in the President's aims and never
ceased to be one of his trusted counselors. Many features of executive
policy he condemned plainly and boldly to the President himself,
but frankness and sincerity prevented his criticisms from becoming
unpalatable, and Mr. Lincoln often acknowledged his indebtedness to the
practical wisdom and the tireless zeal of the Michigan Senator.
Cecil said to Sir Walter Raleigh, "I know that you can toil terribly."
This Mr. Chandler did through those eventful years. His labor was
without cessation. The great demands upon the energies of the public
man were equaled by appeals for private effort which he would not
decline, and in every channel of profitable work for the Union cause
he made his strong will and his aggressive vitality felt. Industry,
so unusual and efficient, multiplied the power of his Roman firmness,
and these qualities, guided by his strong understanding, high courage,
sincerity of conviction, and the ardor of his patriotism, made him a
leader of men in years when leadership without strength was impossible.
His impress is upon the events of that era, and of the war for
Emancipation and the Union he could say with Ulysses, "I am part of
all that I have met." Through the tempest of civil strife his strong
spirit battled its way unflinchingly to the goal, and title was fitly
bestowed in the people's knighting of Zachariah Chandler as "The Great
War Senator."
FOOTNOTES:
[25] I pity the man who, in this hour of peril, stands back and says,
"this is an abolition war, and I won't go." ... There are but two
classes of men now in the United States, and there are no middle men;
these two classes are patriots and traitors. Between these two you must
choose. A man might as well cast himself into the gulf that separated
Dives from Lazarus as to stand out in this hour of trial.--_Speech at
Ionia on September 6._
It has taken time to educate us. If we had won certain victories the
war would have been over, but the cause would have remained. The
proclamation pronouncing emancipation, for which God bless Abraham
Lincoln, is educating the people, and soon we will be ready to go
forward.... We can never secure a permanent peace until we strike a
death-blow at the cause of the war.--_Speech at Jackson on October 7._
[26] Extract from a debate in the Senate on April 12, 1864:
MR. POWELL, of Kentucky: The Senator from Michigan, if I understood
him, said that I was now the friend of traitors?
MR. CHANDLER: You did understand me properly. You have been the friend
of traitors, and I voted to expel you, as a traitor, from this body.
MR. POWELL: Do I understand you to say that I am now the friend of
traitors and of treason?
MR. CHANDLER: You co-operated with traitors, and I have never known you
to cast a vote that was not in favor of rebellion.
[27] It is exceedingly gratifying to witness the marked attention Mr.
Chandler bestows on soldiers. One day I happened to be in his room,
when a major-general and a senator came in. Shortly after a sprightly
young soldier came to the door. When about to enter, the young man
hesitated to interrupt their conversation, but Mr. Chandler at once
gave his attention to the soldier, who, on being asked to take a seat
and tell what he desired, said he was a paroled prisoner and wished a
furlough home, and that he had been told that all he had to do was to
apply to him and he would be sure to get it. Mr. Chandler immediately
took his papers and secured the furlough for him.--_Washington letter
of 1863._
[28] Mr. Chandler said that during the late war, while he was in
Washington, he loaned our soldiers several thousands of dollars, in
small sums of from $2 to $10 each, but that the whole amount was repaid
to him with the exception of about $10, and he was satisfied that the
poor men who owed him that small amount had given their lives for their
country.--_Hon. M. S. Brewer in the House of Representatives, Jan. 28,
1880._
[29] This tribute comes from a well-known officer of the Michigan
volunteer regiments:
DETROIT, February 3, 1880.
Could all the acts of kindness and aid rendered by Senator Chandler to
the soldiers of Michigan, their families and friends, during the war,
and especially to those who filled the ranks, be gathered together
and written out, the volumes that contained them would be large and
numerous. No soldier, however humble, ever applied to him, when in
distress or trouble, that he did not receive a patient hearing and, if
possible, speedy aid. No soldier's wife, father, mother, or other kin
ever wrote him a letter that was not answered. To these facts there are
thousands who can testify to-day, and many thousands more who could do
so were they not in their graves.
In those dark days he was always sanguine of the final triumph of our
armies, and he always assured the soldiers of his positive convictions
that in the end they would be victorious. None except those who had
experience can ever know what cheerful assurances and hopeful words
from those high in authority did to nerve men for the work of severe
campaigns.
The trials and fatigues of army life, and the uncertainty of the
final results, were lessened vastly by the assuring words of brave,
indomitable men like Zachariah Chandler. All honor to his memory, as
also to the memory of his great associates in high places during those
memorable days!
R. A. ALGER.
[30] This anecdote is related by a prominent Michigan officer: I
accompanied Senator Chandler once to the War Department to secure the
re-instatement of a paymaster who, it had been clearly ascertained,
had been unjustly dismissed. The papers were in the possession of the
proper bureau, and action had been promised, but was delayed. A great
body of eager applicants were gathered about the Secretary's door,
which was guarded by two sentries with crossed bayonets. He pushed
rapidly through the mass of people to the entrance of the private
office, where the sentinel said, "The Secretary is very busy, Mr.
Senator." "I know he is," was Mr. Chandler's response, and laying a
hand on each bayonet he pushed them up over our heads, opened the door,
and we were in Mr. Stanton's presence. Once there, he commenced a
vigorous denunciation of the tardiness of the Department, upbraided the
Secretary because no action had yet been taken in the case according
to promise, and astonished me by the earnestness of his criticisms.
Mr. Stanton heard him pleasantly, said when he stopped, "Are you all
through, Chandler?" and then gave the order we needed.