Zachariah Chandler: An Outline Sketch of His Life and Public Services
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Title: Zachariah Chandler: An Outline Sketch of His Life and Public Services
Publisher: Mich.) Post and Tribune Company (Detroit
Author of introduction, etc.: James Gillespie Blaine
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Most recently updated: October 22, 2024
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ZACHARIAH CHANDLER: AN OUTLINE SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES ***
[Illustration]
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER:
AN OUTLINE SKETCH
OF
His Life and Public Services.
BY
THE DETROIT POST AND TRIBUNE.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY LETTER
FROM
JAMES G. BLAINE, OF MAINE.
O iron nerve to true occasion true,
O fall'n at length that tower of strength
Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew!
--_Tennyson._
DETROIT:
THE POST AND TRIBUNE COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.
R. D. S. TYLER & CO., DETROIT.
CHARLES DREW, NEW YORK.
J. M. OLCOTT, INDIANAPOLIS.
TYLER & CO., CHICAGO.
WM. H. THOMPSON & CO., BOSTON.
1880.
ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1879, BY
THE DETROIT POST AND TRIBUNE,
IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON.
Electrotyped by
A. W. HABBIN, Detroit.
PRESS OF
WRIGHTON & CO.,
CINCINNATI, O.
TO
THE REPUBLICANS OF MICHIGAN,
WHO SO LONG UPHELD, AND WHO WERE IMPLICITLY TRUSTED BY,
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,
THIS RECORD OF HIS LIFE IS
DEDICATED.
It is stated elsewhere that this work is written "BY THE DETROIT
POST AND TRIBUNE." Unusual as this form of announcement is on the
title-pages of books, there certainly may be an authorial as well
as an editorial impersonality; in this case the phrase succinctly
expresses the fact, namely, that the volume represents the joint labors
of the staff of THE POST AND TRIBUNE, alike in the collection and the
treatment of its material.
While its preparation has been almost wholly a matter of original
research, such use as was necessary has been made of historical data
contained in "The Centennial History of Bedford, N. H.," published in
1851, in Horace Greeley's "American Conflict," and in Henry Wilson's
"History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power."
Needed information has been furnished by those intimately connected
with Mr. CHANDLER, but the work has not been submitted to their
revision, and they are not responsible for the form of the narrative,
nor for the personal estimate it embodies.
This book presents a sketch of the life and the public services of a
remarkable man. It has been written from the standpoint of political
sympathy, and with the hope of deepening the wholesome influences so
powerfully exerted upon public sentiment in his lifetime by ZACHARIAH
CHANDLER. The aim has been to make it accurate in statement, and to see
that its chapters should fairly draw, in outline at least, the picture
of the career of a genuine leader of men.
INTRODUCTORY LETTER.
TO THE EDITORS OF THE POST AND TRIBUNE:
I am unable to give any personal or special incidents in the life of
Mr. Chandler not open to his biographers from other sources. I was not
so intimate in my relations with him as were some others, nor did I
know him better than many others who like myself were associated with
him in public life for a long period. I knew him well, however, both on
the side of his private life and his public life, and in every phase he
was a man of strong character.
The time in which a man lives, and the circumstances by which he is
surrounded, control his fate even more largely than his personal and
inherent qualities. Mr. Chandler was fortunate in the time of his
removal to the West, fortunate in the era which brought him into
public life. When he became a citizen of Michigan the days of hard
pioneer life were ending, extensive cultivation of the soil had begun,
products for shipment were large and rapidly increasing. Facilities
for transportation were already great. The Erie Canal had been open
for several years, and steamers had multiplied on the Great Lakes.
Everything was in readiness for a strong-minded, energetic, competent
man of business, and Mr. Chandler had the good fortune to settle in
Detroit at the precise point of time when the elements of success were
within his grasp. For a quarter of a century thereafter his career was
that of a business man intensely devoted to his private interests,
and participating in public affairs only as an incident and with no
effort to secure advancement. The result of this steady devotion to
business was that Mr. Chandler found himself at forty-four years of age
possessed of a large property, constantly and rapidly increasing in
value.
Coincident with this condition in his financial fortunes came a
crisis in the political affairs of the country, involving the class
of questions which took deep hold on the mind and the heart of Mr.
Chandler. The curbing of the slave power, the assertion and maintenance
of freedom on free soil, undying devotion to the Union of the States,
and the bold defense of the rights of the citizen--these were the
issues which in various phases absorbed the public mind from the repeal
of the Missouri compromise in 1854 down to the close of Mr. Chandler's
life. And on all the issues presented for consideration for twenty-five
years Mr. Chandler never halted, never wearied, never grew timid, never
was willing to compromise. On these great questions he became the
leader of Michigan, and Michigan kept Mr. Chandler at the front during
the prolonged struggle which has wrought such mighty changes in the
history of the American people.
It is a noteworthy fact, not infrequently adverted to, that the
political opinions of Michigan both as Territory and State, for a
period of sixty years, were represented, and indeed in no small degree
formed, by two men of New Hampshire birth. From 1819 to 1854 General
Cass was the accepted political leader of Michigan, and only once
in all that long period of thirty-five years did her people fail to
follow him. That was in 1840, when the old pioneers and the soldiers of
1812--generally the friends of Cass--refused his leadership, and voted
for the older pioneer and the more illustrious chieftain, William Henry
Harrison. From 1854 till Mr. Chandler's death the dominant opinion
of Michigan was with him; and her people followed him, trusted him,
believed in him. During that quarter of a century the population of the
State more than trebled in number, but the strength of Chandler with
the newcomers seemed as great as with the older population with whom
he had begun the struggle of life in the Territory of Michigan. The
old men stood firmly by him in the faith and confidence of an ancient
friendship, and the young men followed with an enthusiasm which grew
into affection, and with an affection which ripened into reverence.
Mr. Chandler's life in Washington, apart from his public service, was
a notable event in the history of the capital. His wealth enabled him
to be generous and hospitable, and his elegant mansion was a center of
attraction for many years. Nor were the guests confined to one party.
Mr. Chandler was personally popular with his political opponents,
and the leading men of the Democratic party often sat at his table
and forgot in the genial host, and the frank, sincere man, all the
bitterness that might have come from conflict in the partisan arena.
It is fitting that Mr. Chandler's life be written. It is due, first of
all, to his memory. It is due to those who come after him. It is due
to the great State whose Senator he was, whose interests he served,
whose honor he upheld. I am glad the work is committed to competent
friends, who can discriminate between honest approval and inconsiderate
praise, and who with strict adherence to truth can find in his career
so much that is honorable, so much that is admirable, so little that is
censurable, and nothing that is mean.
Very sincerely yours,
JAMES G. BLAINE.
WASHINGTON, February 15, 1880.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND.
PAGE.
The town of Bedford, N. H.--King Phillip's War--Land grants to
surviving soldiers--Souhegan-East--Grant of a charter--Naming
the town--The early settlers--The thirst for civil and religious
liberty--Records of the church--The thrift of the people--Native
humor--A patriotic record--Services in three wars. 19
CHAPTER II.
PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD.
The Chandlers of New England--The first Zechariah
and his possessions--Settlement in the intervale of
the Merrimack--Genealogy of the family--Noted family
connections--Prominence in church and State--The family
residences--Birthplace of Zachariah--Inherited traits--A strong,
self-reliant boy--His school-days--One term as teacher--Work on
the farm--Military experience--Clerk in a store--His journey
Westward--Affection for the old town--Some of Bedford's emigrants.
31
CHAPTER III.
REMOVAL TO MICHIGAN--MERCANTILE SUCCESS--BUSINESS INVESTMENTS.
Business start in Detroit--The cholera epidemic--Caring for
the sick--Characteristics of the young business man--Nearest
approach to an assignment--Pushing his business--Visits
to the interior--Strong friendships--His young clerk and
successor--Commercial integrity and sagacity--Accumulation of
property--Helping the Government credit--Incorruptibility as a
Legislator. 44
CHAPTER IV.
THE PANORAMA OF NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT.
Early explorations of the Lakes--A mission at the Sault--Passage
of the Strait--First settlement at Detroit--Steam navigation
upon the Lakes--Organization of the Territory--An imperial
domain--Detroit in 1833--Marvelous development of a great City and
State--Statistics of 1879. 54
CHAPTER V.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY--RECORD AS AN ANTI-SLAVERY
WHIG.
A conspicuous figure in politics--Lewis Cass, his career and
characteristics--A strong contrast--Mr. Chandler as a Whig--A
sinewy worker at the polls--The Crosswhite case--Making a
firm friend--Nomination and election for Mayor--A sharp
campaign--Invitation to Kossuth--Nominated for Governor--An
energetic but unsuccessful canvass--First nomination for the
Senate. 71
CHAPTER VI.
THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
The Compromises of 1820 and 1850--Annexation of Texas--Calhoun's
farewell--Profound Northern indignation--Memorable debates in
Congress--"Free Democrat" action in Michigan--Public anti-slavery
meetings and private conferences--The Whig Convention at
Kalamazoo--Steps toward union--A stirring address--"Under the Oaks"
at Jackson--A notable convention--Formation of the Republican
party--A ringing platform--The first of a series of uninterrupted
successes--Work of Mr. Chandler in the campaign. 89
CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRST ELECTION TO THE SENATE.
Work in the campaign of 1856--The National Conventions--Aid in
making Michigan radical--Republican success in that State--An
earnest Senatorial canvass--Mr. Chandler nominated over Mr.
Christiancy and others--His election--Composition of the
Thirty-fifth Congress--Subsequent career of his associates. 119
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONSPIRACY--THE ELECTION OF ABRAHAM
LINCOLN.
Preparations for Disunion--Imbecility of the Administration--Gloomy
forebodings--Mr. Chandler's first prepared address--A vigorous
and unanswerable speech--The Dred Scott decision--The John Brown
raid--A warning to traitors--Denunciation of treason--Personal
peril--Giving "satisfaction" to Southern "gentlemen"--Mr. Chandler
not to be bullied--The Chandler, Cameron and Wade compact. 133
CHAPTER IX.
SERVICES TO THE CAUSE OF THE PROTECTION OF HOME INDUSTRY.
Beneficence of "The American System"--Reply to the "mud-sill"
speech--Defense of free Northern labor--Review of the tariff
controversy--The Morrill tariff of 1861--Modifications proposed in
1867--The priceless value of the skilled mechanic. 151
CHAPTER X.
SERVICES TO NORTHWESTERN COMMERCIAL INTERESTS AND THE CAUSE OF
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
The Committee on Commerce as first organized--Unavailing
protests--Mr. Chandler's first speech in the Senate--The St. Clair
Flats improvement--A defeat and significant prophecy--The work,
its cost and value--Mr. Chandler a member and then Chairman of
the Committee on Commerce--The wide scope of that committee's
labors--One-half of the entire amount expended by the United
States for rivers and harbors appropriated during Mr. Chandler's
chairmanship. 164
CHAPTER XI.
THE OUTBREAK OF THE REBELLION--NO COMPROMISE OF CONSTITUTIONAL
RIGHTS.
First formal step of secession--Buchanan's "No coercion"
message--Organization of the Southern Confederacy--Mr.
Chandler opposes compromise--Thwarting the plots of rebel
leaders--Securing the appointment of Secretary Stanton--Unwritten
reminiscences--Denunciation of traitors and imbeciles--The proposed
Peace Congress--The "blood-letter" and its justification. 182
CHAPTER XII.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR.
President Lincoln's arrival in Washington--Mr. Chandler's advice
as to the Cabinet--Conciliatory character of the inaugural--An
illustration of Southern perfidy--Surrender of Fort Sumter--A
Detroit meeting--"But one sentiment here"--Reception of Michigan
men in Washington--Visit to Fortress Monroe--Crossing the
Potomac--Proposed confiscation of rebel property--"Two parties in
the country, patriots and traitors"--Vindication of Michigan's
record--An advance movement urged. 201
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.
The disaster at Ball's Bluff--A committee of inquiry proposed
by Mr. Chandler--Organization of the Committee on the Conduct
of the War--Opposition and subsequent co-operation of the
Administration--Confidential Relations with President Lincoln and
Secretaries Cameron and Stanton--Laying out work--Mr. Chandler's
great speech against McClellan--Distrust of McClellanism in
politics--The Fitz-John Porter case--Last work of the committee. 215
CHAPTER XIV.
THE VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF THE WAR.
The political reverses of 1862--The "Union movement" in
Michigan--Re-election of Senator Chandler--Proposition to arm
the colored people--The Fremont proclamation and the Hunter
order--Opposition to the colonization schemes--Influence with the
Secretary of War--The Trent affair--Aid to Michigan soldiers in the
Washington hospitals--"We must accept no compromise." 250
CHAPTER XV.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864.
The political and military successes of 1863--The Cleveland
convention--Nomination of Fremont and Cochrane--Renomination
of Abraham Lincoln--Resignation of Secretary Chase--Peace
negotiations at Niagara Falls--The Wade-Davis manifesto--Nomination
of McClellan--Mr. Chandler's conferences with the disaffected
Republicans--Resignation of Postmaster-General Blair--Withdrawal of
the Fremont ticket--An overwhelming political triumph. 263
CHAPTER XVI.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF ANDREW JOHNSON--RECONSTRUCTION AND
IMPEACHMENT.
The Assassination of President Lincoln--The War Committee
meet President Johnson--Revengeful disposition of the new
Executive--Legal questions in reference to the trial of
traitors--An important paper by Benjamin F. Butler--A practicable
method for prosecuting Jeff Davis--Change of sentiment in President
Johnson--He abandons the party that elected him--Development of his
"policy"--Hindrance to successful reconstruction--The impeachment
resolutions and trial--Disappointment of Mr. Chandler at the
failure to convict--General work in the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth
Congresses. 279
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT--THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL
COMMITTEE.
Work in the campaign of 1868--Mr. Chandler's re-election to the
Senate--The Fifteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights bill--Edwin
M. Stanton's death and the fund for his family--Mr. Chandler's
opposition to Southern war claims--His purchase of the Confederate
archives--The value of these documents--Election of Senator
Ferry--Mr. Chandler's fidelity to his friends--His denunciation of
Southern outrages--His comparison of the two parties--His defense
of President Grant against Charles Sumner's attacks--The "Salary
Grab" opposed by Senator Chandler and his colleague--The Republican
Congressional Committee and its efficient work--Intimacy between
Mr. Chandler and James M. Edmunds--The latter's usefulness. 298
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE MAINTENANCE OF A SOUND CURRENCY AND THE PUBLIC FAITH.
Condition of the government credit in 1861--The first issue of
"greenbacks"--Mr. Chandler's opposition to any increase in the
amount--Taxation recommended as a substitute--Opposition to the
taxation of national bonds--Arguments for payment in coin of the
"greenbacks" and bonds--Advocacy of the national bank system--The
panic of 1873--Resistance to every measure of inflation--Mr.
Chandler's speeches in January and February, 1874--The Resumption
act. 319
CHAPTER XIX.
SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR IN THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT GRANT.
Political reverses of 1874--The contest in Michigan a
complicated one--Republican success by a narrow margin--A close
Legislature--Resistance to Mr. Chandler's re-election--His
pronounced success in his party caucus--A combination of a few
Republicans with the Democrats elects Judge Christiancy--Like
results elsewhere--Mr. Chandler's confidence--"A candidate for
that seat"--Letter to the Republican members of the Legislature--A
seeming calamity proves to be a benefit--Appointment as Secretary
of the Interior--Changes in the _personnel_ of the Department--How
Alonzo Bell became Chief Clerk--The first blow falls--An entire
room closed as a measure of "practical reform"--Purification of
the Bureau of Indian Affairs--"The most valuable men" suddenly
dismissed--Order against the "Indian attorneys"--President
Grant's support--Changes in the Bureau of Pensions and the
General Land Office--Mr. Chandler's admirable executive
qualities recognized--Anecdotes of his Cabinet service--Fighting
the patronage-seekers--A cowardly informer--A head to the
Department--An investigation that failed--"Pumping a dry
well"--Close of Mr. Chandler's term--Tributes of Secretary Schurz
to the practical efficiency of his predecessor. 337
CHAPTER XX.
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1876--AT HOME--THE MARSH FARM NEAR
LANSING.
Mr. Chandler made Chairman of the National Republican
Committee--His original confidence in the result--Apathy in the
West--Aid to Ohio--The closeness of the contest apparent--Measures
to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat--Mr. Chandler's
firm attitude during the remainder of the contest--Its great
value--Dissent from the "policy" of the new Administration--A
Cabinet anecdote--Mr. Chandler retires to private life--A visit
to the Pacific coast--Other extended trips--The marsh farm near
Lansing, Michigan--An important experiment in the reclamation
of wet lands--Mr. Chandler's "expensive theory"--The method
of drainage explained and illustrated in detail--Successful
results of the earlier experiments in cultivation--General farm
equipment--Houses, barns and stock--Relaxation at the farm--Mr.
Chandler's correspondence--The answering of every letter his
rule--The power of his oratory--Terse sentences, Saxon words, and
brief speeches his aim--The sincerity and honesty of the man--The
strength of his friendships--His hearty social qualities--His
Washington and Detroit residences described--Narrow escape from
a serious accident in 1858--Mr. Chandler's family--His domestic
happiness--His wife and daughter his sole heirs. 356
CHAPTER XXI.
THE MICHIGAN ELECTION OF 1878--MR. CHANDLER'S RETURN TO THE
SENATE--"THE JEFF. DAVIS SPEECH."
Development of "Greenback" strength in the West--Resolute
resistance in Michigan to the spread of financial heresy--Mr.
Chandler leads the Republican battle--A great victory--It is
followed by his fourth election to the Senate--He takes his seat
in time to answer rebel eulogies in the Senate on Jeff. Davis--His
brief and telling response--It strikes the chord of patriotic
feeling--The popular response--The "extra session" of 1879--Mr.
Chandler's last Congressional speech. 374
CHAPTER XXII.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1879--MR. CHANDLER'S LAST DAYS--DEATH AND FUNERAL.
Mr. Chandler at the front in the political contests of 1879--He is
greeted by a popular ovation--His name urged for the Republican
presidential nomination in 1880--Grant his own choice--Work affects
his strong constitution--His Chicago speech--Dead in his bed at the
Grand Pacific Hotel on Nov. 1, 1879!--The national grief--Funeral
and burial. 386
APPENDIX.
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER'S LAST SPEECH: DELIVERED IN MCCORMICK HALL, IN
THE CITY OF CHICAGO, ON OCTOBER 31, 1879.
THE DORIC PILLAR OF MICHIGAN: A MEMORIAL ADDRESS, DELIVERED IN THE
FORT STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, DETROIT, ON NOVEMBER 27, 1879, BY
THE REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
STEEL PORTRAIT OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, _Frontispiece._
THE CHANDLER HOMESTEAD AT BEDFORD, N. H., 33
THE BIRTHPLACE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, 35
THE ENTRY OF THE BIRTH OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER IN THE FAMILY
BIBLE, 37
THE SCHOOL HOUSE AT BEDFORD, N. H., 39
THE CHANDLER BLOCK (Detroit), 49
DETROIT IN 1834, 65
FAC-SIMILE OF THE "TEMPERANCE TICKET" OF 1852 IN MICHIGAN, 86
THE FIRST REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION--("Under the Oaks" at
Jackson, Mich., July 6, 1854), 111
THE NATIONAL CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON, 127
THE SHIP CANAL AT THE ST. CLAIR FLATS, 173
PORTRAIT OF SENATOR CHANDLER IN 1862, 217
PORTRAIT OF THE LATE JAMES M. EDMUNDS, 315
THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT AT WASHINGTON, 341
THE CABINET OF PRESIDENT GRANT--1876-'77--(From a Sketch by
Mrs. C. Adele Fassett), 347
THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, 353
PLAT OF THE MARSH FARM, 361
THE "BIG DITCH" OF THE MARSH FARM, 363
THE MAIN HOUSE AT THE MARSH FARM, 365
THE LARGE BARN AT THE MARSH FARM, 367
MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE AT WASHINGTON, 369
MR. CHANDLER'S RESIDENCE AT DETROIT, 371
THE STATE CAPITOL OF MICHIGAN, 377
SENATOR CHANDLER DENOUNCING THE EULOGIES UPON JEFF. DAVIS IN
THE SENATE CHAMBER AT 3 A. M. OF MONDAY, MARCH 3, 1879, 381
THE GRAND PACIFIC HOTEL AT CHICAGO, 389
PROFILE BUST OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER--(A sketch from Leonard W.
Volk's Plaster Cast), 391
THE TRIBUTE OF GEN. U. S. GRANT (_fac-simile_), 393
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND.
In the valley of the Merrimack, fifty miles northwest from Boston,
is the New Hampshire town of Bedford. It is a community of thrifty
farms, with striking characteristics, and almost a century and a half
of entertaining history. Simplicity of manners and sturdiness of
character prevail among its people to-day, and the vigor of the stock
of its original settlers, the loftiness of their traditions, and the
puritanism of its civilization have made it a nursery of strong men.
King Philip's War ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the New England
provinces. The subjugation of the savages was only accomplished when
one in twenty of the men among the colonists had fallen and a like
proportion of their families was houseless, and it left behind it what
was in those days a heavy debt. More than half a century elapsed before
there was any substantial recognition of the claims of the survivors of
that war and their descendants. It was not until 1732, after numerous
petitions and prolonged discussion, that "the Great and General Court
of Massachusetts" granted land enough for two townships "to the
soldiers who had served in King Philip's or the Narragansett War and to
their surviving heirs-at-law." This grant was subsequently enlarged to
seven townships, as appears from the following record of proceedings in
"the Great and General Court or Assembly for His Majestie's Province of
the Massachusetts Bay," under date of April 26, 1733:
A Petition of a Committee for the Narragansett Soldiers, showing
that there are the number of Eight Hundred and Forty Persons
entered as officers and soldiers in the late Narragansett War,
Praying that there may be such an addition of Land granted to them,
as may allow a Tract of six miles Square to each one hundred and
twenty men so admitted.
In the House of Representatives, Read, and Ordered that the Prayer
of the Petition be granted, and that Major Chandler, Mr. Edward
Shove, Col. Thomas Tileston, Mr. John Hobson and Mr. Samuel
Chandler (or any three of them,) be a Committee fully authorized
and empowered to survey and lay out five more Tracts of Land for
Townships, of the Contents of Six miles Square each, in some of
the unappropriated lands of this Province; and that the said land,
together with the two towns before granted, be granted and disposed
of to the officers and soldiers or their lawful Representatives, as
they are or have been allowed by this Court, being eight hundred
and forty in number, in the whole, and in full satisfaction of the
Grant formerly made them by the General Court, as a reward for
their public service. And the Grantees shall be obliged to assemble
within as short time as they can conveniently, not exceeding the
space of two months, and proceed to the choice of Committees,
respectively, to regulate each Propriety or Township which is to
be held and enjoyed by one hundred and twenty of the Grantees,
each in equal Proportion, who shall pass such orders and rules as
will effectually oblige them to settle Sixty families, at least,
within each Township, with a learned, orthodox ministry, within the
space of seven years of the date of this Grant. Provided, always,
that if the said Grantees shall not effectually settle the said
number of families in each Township, and also lay out a lot for
the first settled minister, one for the ministry, and one for the
school, in each of the said townships, they shall have no advantage
of, but forfeit their respective grants, anything to the contrary
contained notwithstanding. The Charge of the Survey to be paid by
the Province.
In Council read and concur'd.
J. BELCHER.
In June of 1733 these grantees met on Boston Common for the purpose of
making a division of the lands thus appropriated, but twenty veterans
of the Narragansett War being then living. They organized into seven
societies, each representing one hundred and twenty persons, and each
represented by an executive committee of three. These committees
convened in Boston on the 17th of October, 1733, and, by drawing
numbers from a hat, apportioned to their societies the following
seven townships set apart from the public domain under the grant:
No. 1, in Maine, now called Buxton; No. 2, Westminster, Mass.; No.
3, Souhegan-West, now Amherst, N. H.; No. 4, originally at the Falls
of the Amoskeag, where Goffstown now is (subsequently exchanged for
lands in Hampden county, Mass.); No. 5, Souhegan-East, N. H.; No. 6,
Templeton, Mass.; No. 7, Gorham, Me. Thomas Tileston, of Dorchester,
drew "Number 5, Souhegan-East;" of the one hundred and twenty grantees
whom he represented, fifty-seven belonged to Boston, fifteen to
Roxbury, seven to Dorchester, two to Milton, five to Braintree, four
to Weymouth, thirteen to Hingham, four to Dedham, two to Hull, one to
Medfield, five to Scituate, and one to Newport, R. I. In the fifteen
Roxbury grantees was Zechariah Chandler, who was one of the few who
personally took up land under the grant and settled upon it one of his
own family. As a rule the grantees sold their claims to others. On the
town records Zechariah Chandler's name is signed in the right of his
wife's father, Thomas Bishop, who served against King Philip. His son,
Thomas Chandler, took possession of the land and was among the pioneers
of the town. To-day the Chandler family is believed to be the only
representative in Bedford of the original grantees. It was in 1737,
1738, and 1739 that systematic settlement practically began in this
part of the Merrimack valley.
In 1741 New Hampshire became a separate province, and in 1748 the
farmers of Souhegan-East, finding themselves without any township
organization and without the power to legally transact corporate
business, called upon the government for relief. As a result, it is
recorded that on the 11th of April in that year Gov. Benning Wentworth
informed the Council of New Hampshire "of the situation of a number of
persons inhabiting a place called Souhegan-East, within this Province,
that were without any township or District, and had not the privilege
of a town in choosing officers for regulating their affairs, such as
raising money for the ministry," etc. Thereupon a provisional township
organization was authorized, under which the municipality was managed
until 1750, when, on the 10th of May, the following petition was sent
to the Governor, signed by thirty-eight citizens, among them Thomas
Chandler:
To his Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., Governor and
Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty's Province of New Hampshire,
and to the Honorable, his Majesty's Council, assembled at
Portsmouth, May 10, 1750.
The humble Petition of the subscribers, inhabitants of
Souhegan-East, so-called, sheweth, That your Petitioners are major
part of said Souhegan; that your petitioners, as to our particular
persuasion in Christianity, are generally of the Presbyterian
denomination; that your petitioners, through a variety of causes,
having long been destitute of the gospel, are now desirous of
taking proper steps in order to have it settled among us in that
way of discipline which we judge to tend most to our edification;
that your petitioners, not being incorporated by civil authority,
are in no capacity to raise those sums of money, which may be
needful in order to our proceeding in the above important affair.
May it therefore please your Excellency, and Honors, to take the
case of your petitioners under consideration, and to incorporate
us into a town or district, or in case any part of our inhabitants
should be taken off by any neighboring district, to grant that
those of our persuasion, who are desirous of adhering to us, may
be excused from supporting any other parish charge, than where
they conscientiously adhere, we desiring the same liberty to those
within our bounds, if any there be, and your petitioners shall ever
pray, &c.
This petition was presented on May 18, 1750, to the Council, which
unanimously advised the granting of a charter, and this the Governor
did upon the following day. The name of the town was changed by
Governor Wentworth from Souhegan-East to Bedford, it is said in honor
of the fourth Duke of Bedford, then Secretary of State in the ministry
of George II. This was the formal organization of the present town,
which has a territorial extent of about twenty thousand acres of land.
Of the early population of this and neighboring towns "The Centennial
History of Bedford" (published in 1851) says:
With few exceptions the early inhabitants of the town were from
the North of Ireland or from the then infant settlement of
Londonderry, N. H., to which they had recently emigrated from
Ireland. Their ancestors were of Scotch origin. About the middle
of the seventeenth century they went in considerable numbers
from Argylshire, in the West of Scotland, to the counties of
Londonderry and Antrim, in the North of Ireland, from which in
1718 a great emigration took place to this country. Some arrived
at Boston, and some at Casco Bay near Portland, which last were
the settlers of Londonderry. Many towns in this vicinity were
settled from this colony. Windham, Chester, Litchfield, Manchester,
Bedford, Goffstown, New Boston, Antrim, Peterborough and Acworth
derived from Londonderry a considerable proportion of their first
inhabitants.
Many of their descendants have risen to high respectability, among
whom are numbered four Governors of New Hampshire, one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence, several distinguished
officers in the Revolutionary War and in the last war with Great
Britain, including Stark, Reid, Miller, and McNeil, a President
of Bowdoin College, some Members of Congress, and several
distinguished ministers of the gospel.
It was a Scottish stock, with an Irish preceding the American
transplanting, that peopled Bedford. There were among its original
settlers a few families of English and fewer still of pure Milesian
extraction, but the Scotch descent was overwhelmingly predominant,
and the austere theology and noble traditions of the Kirk of Scotland
formed the leaven of the community. Their religious history dated back
to John Knox. Their immediate ancestors were the sturdy Presbyterians
with whom James I. colonized depopulated Ulster after he had crushed
the Catholic uprisings. Those involuntary colonists made that the
most prosperous of the Irish provinces, and at a critical moment for
the cause of Protestantism added to the annals of heroic endurance
the defense of Londonderry against the army of James II. But to their
simple and tenacious faith the tithes and rents of the Anglican Church
were scarcely less abhorrent than Catholic persecution, and the
example of Puritan emigration ultimately led them by thousands to
American shores. Much of this tide of settlement was diverted by the
Puritan pre-occupation of New England soil to the Middle and Southern
States, but a strong current set up into northern New England and
occupied (with much other territory) the valley of the Merrimack. It
was to these Scotch-Irish Presbyterians that the greater number of
the grantees of Bedford--as a rule the descendants of Massachusetts
Puritans--sold their claims, and the community became what their labors
and influence made it. The Chandler (representing an original grantee)
was one of the few Bedford families which sprang from English stock and
possessed Puritan antecedents.
The settlement of Bedford was thus the outgrowth of an unquenchable
thirst for civil and religious liberty. A profound conscientiousness
added these simple, devout, frugal, and industrious people to the
pioneer assailants of the North American wilderness. The ancient
records and the published annals of the town afford a quaintly
interesting picture of early New England civilization. Its background
is the rock of religious faith, and to repeat the chronicles of the
Bedford church for the eighteenth century is to write the history
of the township for that period. The original grant required the
maintenance of "a learned, orthodox ministry." The petition for
the charter of Bedford set forth that "your petitioners, as to
our particular persuasion in Christianity, are generally of the
Presbyterian denomination," and assigned as the chief reason for asking
incorporation that they "having been long destitute of the gospel, are
now desirous of taking the proper steps in order to have it settled
among us," but "not being incorporated by civil authority are in no
capacity to raise those sums of money which may be needful." The
official records of formal township proceedings abound in such entries
as these:
_Feb. 15. 1748._ _Voted_--That one third of the time, Preaching
shall be to accommodate the inhabitants at the upper end of the
town; one other third part, at the lower end of the town; the last
third, about Strawberrie hill.
_July 26, 1750._ _Voted_, There be a call given to the Rev. Mr.
Alexander Boyd, to the work of the ministry in this town.
_March 28, 1753._ _Voted_, Unanimously, to present a call for Mr.
Alexander McDowell, to the Rev'd Presbytery for the work of the
ministry in this town.
_March 13, 1757._ _Voted_,--That Capt. Moses Barron, Robert Walker,
and Samuel Patten, be a committee for boarding and shingling the
meeting-house.
_March, 1767._ _Voted_,--That the same committee who built the
pulpit, paint it, and paint it the same color the Rev. Mr.
McGregor's pulpit is, in Londonderry.
_June, 1768._ The meeting-house glass lent out[1]; Matthew Little's
account of the same. David Moore had from Matthew Little, six
squares of the meeting-house glass; Daniel Moor had 4 squares of
the same, Dea. Gilmore had of the same, 24 squares. _November 20,
1768_, the Rev. Mr. John Houston, had 24 squares of the same; Hugh
Campbell had 12 squares of the same; Dea. Smith is to pay Whitfield
Gilmore 6 squares of the same; James Wallace had 15 squares of the
same; John Bell had 9 squares of the same; Joseph Scobey, one quart
of oil.
A true record.
Attest, WILLIAM WHITE, _Town Clerk_.
[Extract from the "town meeting warrant" (call) for 1779]: As for
some time past, the Sabbath has been greatly profaned, by persons
traveling with burthens upon the same, when there is no necessity
for it,--to see whether the town will not try to provide some
remedy for the same, for the future.
The Bedford church has been ever the center of all public activity.
Its officers have been the officers of the town. From its pulpit
have been made all formal announcements. Within its walls have been
inspired every important home measure, and its influence has stimulated
each wise public action. In the early records the school-house also
shares prominence with the meeting-house, and the later generations of
Bedford's inhabitants were men and women of solid primary education and
thorough religious training. Thrift and industry made them prosperous,
and they raised large families of powerful men and vigorous women.
The mothers and daughters shared in the field work, and even carried
on foot to Boston the linen thread from their busy spinning wheels.
Physical and moral strength characterized the race, and they built up
a community of comfortable homes, severe virtues, strong religious
instincts, a stern morality, and long lives. Neither poverty nor riches
were to be found among them, and the simplest habits prevailed. Silks
were unknown, and homemade linen was the choicest fabric. Brown bread
was the staple of life, and wheat flour a luxury. Tea and coffee were
rarely seen, but barley broth was on all tables. Shoes were only worn
in winter, except to church on Sundays when they were carried in the
hand to the neighborhood of the meeting-house. The saddle and pillion
were used in journeys. Splinters and knots of pitch pine furnished
lights. The hymns were "deaconed out" by the line at the meeting-house,
and at the appearance of the first bass-viol in the gallery (about
1790) there was a fierce rebellion among the more austere of the
worshipers. There was community of effort in all important enterprises,
and no man needed aught if his neighbor could supply it.
But this frontier picture is not wholly stern in its lines. Along with
this simplicity of life and severity of religious doctrine there was no
lack of frolic and rough joking, and the other rugged characteristics
were relieved by shrewd wit and native humor. The annals of Bedford
are entertaining and abound in such anecdotes as these: Deacon John
Orr (the grandfather of the mother of Zachariah Chandler) was a sturdy
Irish-Scotchman, whose temper under extreme provocation once got
the better of his devoutness and led him into a vigorous profanity
of speech. This glaring dereliction in a church officer called for
reprimand, and he was waited upon by the minister and a delegation of
his brethren who asked, "How could you suffer yourself to speak so?"
"Why, what was it?" His offending language was repeated to him. "And
what o' that!" said he, "D'ye expect me to be a' spirit and nae flesh?"
Late in life Deacon Orr visited Boston with a load of produce and
put up at a house of entertainment where, after he had drunk several
cups of tea, and refused a final invitation, the landlady said that
it was customary to turn the cup upside down to show that no more
was wanted. He apologized and promised to remember the injunction.
The next morning he partook of a huge bowl of bread and milk for
breakfast, and not wanting the whole laid down his spoon and turned
the dish upside down with its contents on the table. The hostess was
naturally angry, but was met with the statement that he had merely
followed her own direction. The answer of a brother deacon to one of
the congregation who complained, "I could na' mak yesterday's preaching
come together," was a compend of practical Christianity: "Trouble
yourself na' about that, man--a' ye have to do, man, is to fear God
and keep His commandments." It is also told that the objections of one
of the staunch Scotch Presbyterians of Bedford to the marriage of his
daughter with an urgent suitor of Catholic parentage were overcome by
the apt query, "If a man happened to be born in a stable would that
make him a horse?" And to one of the rural theologians of the town
is credited this contribution to ecclesiastical distinctions: "The
difference between the Presbyterians and Congregationalists is this:
The Congregationalist goes home and eats a regular dinner between
services, but the Presbyterian postpones his until after meeting."
After a most vigorous quarrel between the minister and one of the flock
over a boundary line dispute, the wrathful member of the congregation
was prompt at service on Sunday with the following explanation: "I'd
have ye to know, if I did quarrel with the minister, I did not quarrel
with the Gospel."
That this was a community of uncompromising patriotism follows from its
character. In the French and Indian war the New England forces were at
one time under command of Col. John Goffe, of Bedford, and the number
of privates enlisted from that town was large. The New Hampshire
regiment which joined the expedition of General Amherst against Canada,
commanded by Colonel Goffe, was raised largely among the Scotch-Irish
emigrants of Hillsborough and Rockingham counties, and had in its ranks
many Bedford men. In the Revolutionary War a large portion of its
able-bodied citizens were in the first American army that beleaguered
Boston and fought at Bunker Hill; nearly or quite half of all who
could handle a musket were with Stark at Bennington, and with Gates at
Saratoga. General Stark lived but a few rods from the town line on the
north, and one of his most trusted officers was Lieutenant, afterwards
Colonel, John Orr, of Bedford. The town records abound with votes taken
to carry out the measures proposed by the Continental Congress, and
also chronicle one case of semi-Toryism and its punishment. In 1776
Congress advised the disarming of all who were disaffected towards the
American cause, and the selectmen of the New Hampshire towns circulated
this pledge among their people:
In consequence of the above Resolution of the Continental Congress,
and to show our determination in joining our American brethren, in
defending the lives, liberties, and properties of the inhabitants
of the United Colonies, We, the Subscribers, do hereby solemnly
engage and promise, that we will, to the utmost of our power, at
the risk of our lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose the hostile
proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies against the United
American Colonies.
Among its Bedford signers were John Orr, Zachariah Chandler, and Samuel
Patten (all ancestors of Zachariah Chandler,) and the report made from
that town was this:
To the honorable, the Council and House of Representatives, for
the Colony of New Hampshire, to be convened in Exeter, in said
Colony, on Wednesday, 5th inst.
Pursuant to the within precept, we have taken pains to know the
minds of the inhabitants of the town of Bedford, with respect to
the within obligation, and find none unwilling to sign the same,
except _the Rev. John Houston_, who declines signing the said
obligation, for the following reasons: Firstly, Because he did
not apprehend that the honorable Committee meant that Ministers
should take up arms, as being inconsistent with their ministerial
charge. Secondly, Because he was already confined to the County of
Hillsborough, therefore, he thinks he ought to be set at liberty
before he should sign the said obligation. Thirdly, Because there
are three men belonging to his family already enlisted in the
Continental Army.
Mr. Houston, who was thus officially reported as the only Bedford Tory,
had occupied the town pulpit for over fifteen years, and was a man of
scholarship and purity, but he had become a loyalist in sympathy at
the outbreak of the Revolutionary troubles, and was as inflexible in
conviction as his neighbors. Originally (in 1756) the town had voted
that his salary should be at the rate of forty pounds sterling a year
for such Sundays as they desired his services. When they felt unable to
pay they voted him one or more Sundays for himself, and then deducted
from his salary proportionately. In 1775, after prolonged controversy
with him, his case was brought before town-meeting (on June 15th), and
he was unanimously dismissed by the adoption of a vote setting off for
his own use all the Sabbaths remaining in the calendar year. The town
records contain this explanation of the action:
_June 15, 1775._ _Voted_--Whereas, we find that the Rev'd Mr. John
Houston, after a great deal of tenderness and pains taken with
him, both in public and private, and toward him, relating to his
speeches, frequently made both in public and private, against the
rights and privileges of America, and his vindicating of King and
Parliament in their present proceedings against the Americans; and
having not been able hitherto to bring him to a sense of his error,
and he has thereby rendered himself despised by people in general,
and by us in particular, and that he has endeavored to intimidate
us against maintaining the just rights of America: Therefore, we
think it not our duty as men or Christians, to have him preach any
longer with us as our minister.
The resolute and uncompromising spirit, which thus sternly resented
and punished unpatriotic sympathies in one whom the people had been
accustomed to hold in reverence, was manifested on all occasions. This
is a document of later date, signed by a Bedford committee, which seems
not to have been suggested by any outside action, but to have resulted
from the impulses of the citizens themselves:
_Bedford, May 31, 1783._
To Lieut. John Orr, Representative at the General Court of the
State of New Hampshire:--
Sir:--Although we have full confidence in your fidelity and public
virtue, and conceive that you would at all times pursue such
measures only as tend to the public good, yet upon the particular
occasion of our instructing you, we conceive that it will be an
advantage to have your sentiments fortified by those of your
constituents.
The occasion is this; the return of those persons to this country,
who are known in Great Britain by the name of loyalist, but in
America, by those of conspirators, absentees, and tories;
We agree that you use your influence that these persons do not
receive the least encouragement to return to dwell among us, they
not deserving favor, as they left us in the righteous cause we were
engaged in, fighting for our undoubted rights and liberties, and as
many of them acted the part of the most inveterate enemies.
And further,--that they do not receive any favor of any kind, as we
esteem them as persons not deserving it, but the contrary.
You are further directed to use your influence, that those who are
already returned, be treated according to their deserts.
In the War of 1812 there were more than two hundred men in Bedford
armed and in readiness to march whenever called upon, and in this two
hundred was one company of about sixty men over forty years of age
and therefore exempt from military duty. In the War of the Rebellion
Bedford invariably filled its quota without draft and without high
bounties, and it paid its war debt promptly.
It was in this community of stalwart, clear-headed, freedom-loving,
sturdily honest, and uncompromisingly sincere men and women, that
Zachariah Chandler was born and that the foundations of his character
were durably laid.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The glass for the meeting-house was procured before the building
was ready for it, and it was loaned to different members; the careful
record kept shows how scarce and costly an article it then was.
CHAPTER II.
PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD.
The Chandlers of New England are the descendants of William Chandler,
who came from England in the days of the Puritan immigration--about
1637--and settled in Roxbury, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The Chandlers of Bedford, N. H., are the posterity of one of his
descendants, Zechariah Chandler of Roxbury, who was among the grantees
of Souhegan-East in the right of his wife, the daughter of a soldier
in King Philip's War. They were the conspicuous English family in that
Scotch-Irish Presbyterian settlement, and their farm is the only one in
that town which is still in possession of the lineal descendants of an
original grantee. That Zechariah Chandler was a man of some means is
shown by this document, which is still on record and reads curiously
enough in the biography of a most inveterate and powerful opponent of
slavery and the slave power:
BOSTON, November 11, 1740.
Received of Mr. Zechariah Chandler, one hundred and ten pounds, in
full, for a Negro Boy, sold and delivered him for my master, John
Jones.
£110 WM. MERCHANT, Jun'r.
This slave was taken to Bedford, but soon freed by his owner, when he
assumed the name of Primas Chandler. Although past the usual military
age, in 1775 he enlisted as a private in the service of the colonies,
was captured by the British at "The Cedars" and was never afterwards
heard from by his friends. He left a wife and two sons in Bedford, but
his family has since become extinct.
The first settlers in Bedford located chiefly on the rocky and hilly
territory which is now the central and most thickly inhabited portion
of the town. East of this, in the smooth and fertile intervale of
the Merrimack, judging by the names on the most ancient maps, the
settlers were chiefly of English descent, and among them was Thomas
Chandler, the son of Zechariah, and the first actual occupant of the
land granted to his father. He married Hannah, a daughter of Col. John
Goffe, by whom he had four children--three daughters and a son named
also Zachariah, who married Sarah Patten, the second daughter of Capt.
Samuel Patten. This Zachariah, the grandfather of his namesake, the
Senator, died on April 20, 1830, at the age of 79, and his widow died
in 1842, aged nearly 94. From them were descended the two families of
Chandlers, who in the present generation have been prominent in Bedford.
The oldest son of Zachariah was named Thomas, and was born August 10,
1772. He had four children--Asenath, who married Stephen Kendrick, of
Nashville; Sarah, who married Caleb Kendrick; Hannah, who married Rufus
Kendrick, a well-known citizen of Boston; and Adam, who now lives in
Manchester, where also reside his three sons, Henry and Byron, who are
connected with the Amoskeag National Bank, and John, who is a prominent
merchant of that city. The only daughter of Zachariah, Sarah, remained
single, and lived at the old homestead, which had become her property,
until her death in 1852. Throughout that whole region she was known for
years as "Aunt Sarah."
[Illustration: THE CHANDLER HOMESTEAD, AT BEDFORD, N. H.]
Samuel, the second son of Zachariah, was born May 28, 1774, and
married Margaret Orr, the oldest daughter of General Stark's most
trusted officer, Col. John Orr. They had seven children, one of whom
died in infancy. Those who reached maturity were Mary Jane, who was
successively married to the Rev. Cyrus Downs, the Rev. David P. Smith,
and the Rev. Samuel Lee, and who is still living, the last surviving
member of the seven, at the present homestead; Annis, who married
Franklin Moore and became a resident of Detroit; Samuel, Jr., who,
after four years at Dartmouth and Union colleges, lost his health
and died in Detroit in 1835; Zachariah, the subject of this memorial
volume; and John Orr, who, after graduating at Dartmouth, spent one
year in Andover Theological Seminary, came in feeble health to Detroit
where he was tenderly cared for by his brother, and finally went by way
of New Orleans to Cuba, where he died in January, 1839, his remains
being subsequently removed to the Bedford burying-ground. The father,
Samuel, died in Bedford on January 11, 1870, at the age of 95, and the
mother in 1855, at the age of 81.
The Chandlers during the three generations from Thomas to Samuel were
thus allied by marriage to three of the most noted families, not only
in Bedford but in New Hampshire, the Goffes, Pattens and Orrs. They
were generally long-lived, although consumption developed in different
generations, and were always prominent in town and church matters. The
Thomas Chandler who first settled in Bedford was one of the signers
of the petition for incorporation in 1750, and was conspicuously
connected with all local movements at that time. His grandson Thomas,
the Senator's uncle, was in the Legislature several terms, and in
Congress from 1829 to 1833, being elected as a Jackson Democrat. His
name is frequently mentioned in the records of the church where he was
choir-leader and where he formed a class for instruction in sacred
music. He was also selectman for many years, and held other positions
in connection with the town government. He as well as his father "kept
tavern" on one of the main New England thoroughfares of those days, and
both were widely known through that region. Samuel, the father of the
Senator, played the first bass-viol ever used in the church choir, and
helped to stem the tide of indignation with which the introduction of
this "ungodly" instrument was met by the more rigid members of that
orthodox Presbyterian body. His name often appears in the records
as clerk of the church, selectman, and town clerk. He was for over
twenty years consecutively a justice of the peace, and in his hands
was usually placed such business as the settlement of estates. In the
list of town officers the name of Chandler appears almost every year,
and in almost all church and public gatherings for over a century some
member of this family was present among the active and public-spirited
citizens.
[Illustration: THE BIRTHPLACE OF ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.]
The first house built on the Chandler farm was on the east side of
the river road, and not far from the present homestead. It was torn
down many years ago, but the cellar was visible until within a
comparatively recent period. The second house was built before the
Revolutionary War, by the grandfather of the Senator, and this is
still standing, though it has been remodeled and modernized. It was
used as a tavern and court-house during that war. In this the second
Zachariah and his wife lived for many years, and in this they and their
daughter Sarah died. During their declining years they were cared for
there by the mother of Rodney M. Rollins, the present occupant and
owner of the place, and the house, with forty acres of land, was willed
to Mrs. Rollins by "Aunt Sarah" previous to her death. This was the
first alienation from the possession of the family of any part of the
Chandler farm. Although the house has been remodeled, it retains many
of its old features, and one apartment at the northwest corner has been
preserved nearly as it was at the time of the Revolution. It is called
the Revolutionary room, and has still in its furniture some of the
chairs that were there a hundred years ago, and among its fixtures an
ancient buffet, carved by hand and unchanged except by paint since 1776.
On the opposite side of the road, fronting the east, and in sight of
the Merrimack, where it takes its broad sweep above Goff's Falls, is
the present Chandler homestead, which was built by Samuel Chandler in
1800, before his marriage. It remains to-day almost precisely as first
constructed, and seems good for half a century more. Its rooms are
large, and the ceilings unusually high for a farm-house of the earlier
times. The front portion contains four large apartments on the lower
floor, and in the rear are the dining-room, the kitchen, the pantry,
and store-rooms. In the second story are five bed-rooms, with closets
and additional store-room, and above these is a spacious attic. Among
the furniture are chairs and chests of drawers of pro-revolutionary
times, one of the ancient four-post bedsteads common a hundred years
ago, and brass andirons which would delight the eyes of a lover of
antique relics. Here still lives the Senator's oldest sister, and here
the family of seven were born.
In the ancient family bible, printed in 1803 and preserved by Mrs. Lee,
is an entry of a birth, of which this is a fac-simile:
[Illustration: Zacharias Chandler
Born Decʳ. 10ᵗʰ 1813]
It will be noticed that the given name is written Zacharias. Mrs. Lee
still speaks of her brother as Zacharias, and his name is also so
printed in the Chandler genealogy in the centennial history of Bedford.
The Senator in his signatures simply used the initial of his first
name, but he ultimately adopted the ancestral Zachariah, and that was
the name which he made famous, and by which he will be known in this
biography.
Zachariah Chandler's father and paternal grandfather, Samuel and
Zachariah, are described as spare men of medium stature, but energetic
and full of endurance. His mother, Margaret Orr, was tall and powerful;
her distinguished son resembled her in face, and inherited from her
many of his most vigorous traits. She was a woman of great strength
of character and robust sense, and exercised a large influence over
her children. Her family was a remarkable one; her father was the
conspicuous man of his day in his part of New Hampshire; her brother,
Benjamin Orr, became the foremost lawyer of Maine early in the
present century, and served one term from that State in Congress; her
half-brother, the Rev. Isaac Orr, was a man of many accomplishments
and a diverse scholarship, a prolific writer on scientific and
philosophical topics, and with a claim on the general gratitude as the
inventor of the application of the air-tight principle to the common
stove.
The boy Zachariah was healthy, strong, quick-tempered, and
self-reliant, and the contrast was marked between his sturdiness
and the constitutional feebleness of his short-lived brothers. The
traditions of his childhood, still fondly cherished by his surviving
sister, all show that from his cradle he was ready to fight his own
battles, and that his "pluckiness" was innate. One juvenile anecdote
related by Mrs. Lee will illustrate scores that might be repeated: His
father's poultry-yard was ruled by a large and ill-tempered gander, the
strokes of whose horny beak were the dread of the smaller children. The
oldest brother was one day driven back by this fowl while attempting to
cross the road, when the young "Zach.," then three years old, called
out "Do, Sammy, do, I'll keep e' dander off," and rushed into a pitched
and victorious battle with the "dander," during which his brother made
good his escape.
His rudimentary education was obtained in the little brick school-house
at Bedford, which remains substantially unchanged and is still used.
Here he attended school regularly from the age of five or six until he
was fourteen or fifteen. He had an excellent memory, and was a good
scholar, standing well with others of his age. He was a leader in the
boys' sports, always active, and entering with zest into every frolic.
Of these days, one of his early playmates--now the Rev. S. G. Abbott,
of Stamford, Conn.--thus writes: "The death of Mr. Chandler revives
the memories of half a century ago. The old brick school-house where
we were taught together the rudiments of our education; the country
store where his father sold such a wonderful variety of merchandise
for the wants of the inner and outer man; the broad acres of field
and forest in the ancestral domain where we used to rove and hunt;
his uncle's 'tavern,' the cheerful home of the traveler when there
were no railroads, situated on a great thoroughfare, constantly alive
with stages, teams, cattle, sheep, swine, turkeys, and pedestrian
immigrants--all these form a picture as distinct to the mind's eye as
if a scene of the present. No unimportant feature of that picture in
my boyish memory was a rough-built, overgrown, awkward, good-natured,
popular boy, who went by the never-forgotten, familiar sobriquet of
'Zach.' He never forgot it. After more than forty years' separation,
when I called on him in the capitol, and apologized for calling him
Zach., in his old, rollicking way he said 'Oh, you can call me _old_
Zach., that's what they all call me out West.'"
[Illustration: THE SCHOOL-HOUSE AT BEDFORD, N. H.]
In his fifteenth and sixteenth years he attended the academies at
Pembroke and Derry, with his older brother, who was fitting for
college. In the winter following he taught school one term in the
Piscataquog or "Squog" district. As is the rule in country schools,
many of the pupils were about as large as the teacher, and the "Squog"
boys had the reputation of being especially unruly. The usual disorders
commenced, but after some trouble the energetic young man from the
Chandler farm established his supremacy, and the scholars recognized
the fact that there was a head to the school. Mr. Chandler always spoke
with interest of his brief experience in teaching, although he never
claimed any particular success in that calling. While he was thus
employed the teacher of the brick school, in which he had been so long
a pupil, was a Dartmouth sophomore who in his "boarding around" was
especially welcome at the house of Samuel Chandler. This was James F.
Joy, who then formed with the young Zachariah an intimacy, which ranked
among the causes that determined Mr. Joy's own selection of Detroit as
a home, and lasted through life.
In the latter years of his school life young Chandler worked on the
farm through the summer, and the last season that he was home he took
entire charge, employing the help and superintending the labor. Thomas
Kendall, who was with him during three summers, and who is still living
in Bedford, says, "Zach. was a good man to work and a good man to
work for." He was just in his dealings with the men, but vigorous as
an overseer, and himself as good a "farm hand" as there was. Stories
are still told of his achievements in mowing contests with the men.
He had no liking, as had many of his fellows, for hunting or fishing,
but he was fond of athletic sports, and was the best wrestler in town.
"Whoever took hold of Zach.," says Mr. Kendall, "had to go down."
During one of the last years of his residence at Bedford, Mr. Chandler
was enrolled in the local militia company and turned out at the
"general muster." He did not, however, succeed in bringing himself
to perfect obedience to the orders of the young captain, whom he
knew he could easily out-wrestle and out-mow, and was arrested for
insubordination. He was kept under arrest through one afternoon, but
the court-martial which had been ordered for his trial was recalled
and he was released. He was afterwards for a short time on the staff
of the commanding officer, General Riddle, but his removal from New
Hampshire took place at about this time. After his Janesville, Wis.,
speech, two days before his death, Mr. Chandler was called upon by
the Captain Colley who had placed him under arrest nearly fifty years
before. Mr. Colley is now a resident of Rock county, Wis., and had
driven a long distance to listen to his old-time subordinate, or rather
insubordinate, and to revive with him old memories.
In the year 1833 Zachariah Chandler entered the store of Kendrick
& Foster of Nashua, and in September of that year, moved by the
same impulse that has sent so many New Englanders into the growing
territories, turned his face Westward, and in company with his
brother-in-law, the late Franklin Moore, came to the city, which from
that time to his death was his home. He had not then shown in any
marked degree the qualities which made his future success so eminent,
and was apparently simply a good specimen out of thousands of the
energetic, determined, and sagacious young men, who, leaving more
sterile New England, have subdued the forests, moulded the politics and
conducted the business of half a dozen Western States.
For the old homestead and its occupants, and for the town of Bedford,
Mr. Chandler always entertained a warm affection. He was a good
correspondent, and his home letters, which until his entrance into
public life were frequent and long, breathed a genuine feeling of
filial and brotherly affection. After his election to the Senate, with
the voluminous correspondence which his official position involved,
his letters to the old home became less frequent, but to the last
he kept up occasional communication with the surviving friends at
his birthplace. During his father's life he visited Bedford twice
or more each year, and after his father's death made at least one
annual journey there. In 1850, when the centennial celebration of the
incorporation of the township occurred, Mr. Chandler was among those
invited to be present, and sent the following letter of regret:
DETROIT, May 16, 1850.
GENTLEMEN:--I regret exceedingly my inability to accept your kind
invitation to be present at your Centennial Celebration of the
settlement of the good old town of Bedford. It would have afforded
me great pleasure to meet my old friends upon that occasion, but
circumstances beyond my own control will prevent. The ashes of the
dead, as well as the loved faces of the living, attract me strongly
to my native town, and that attachment I find increasing each day
of my life. Permit me, in conclusion, to offer: "_The town of
Bedford_--May her descendants (widely scattered through the land)
never dishonor their paternity."
Be pleased to accept, for yourselves and associates, my kind
regards, and believe me,
Truly yours,
Z. CHANDLER.
His later visits were looked forward to with much interest, not only by
his relatives, but by the neighbors, to whom a talk with him was one of
the events of the year. He was there always genial and friendly, kept
up his acquaintance with the old residents, and thoroughly enjoyed his
association with them. His last visit to the homestead was after the
close of his campaign in Maine, in August, 1879. He then met many of
his boyhood friends, and enjoyed a ramble over the undulating fields
which stretch from the central hills toward the banks of the Merrimack.
And as he drove for the last time down the road from the house of his
birth toward Manchester, he pointed to a pine grove which skirts the
northern border of the Chandler farm, and said to his companion, "That,
to me, is the most beautiful grove in the world."
New Hampshire has been prolific in strong men with the granite of
its hills in the fibres of their characters. Bedford itself has been
the birthplace of scores of the leading men of the thriving city of
Manchester; of Joseph E. Worcester, the lexicographer; of Benjamin
Orr, of Maine; of David Aiken, Isaac O. Barnes, and Jacob Bell, of the
Massachusetts bar; of the Hon. David Atwood, of Wisconsin; of Judge
A. S. Thurston, of Elmira, N. Y.; of Hugh Riddle, of the Rock Island
Railroad, and Gen. George Stark, of the Northern Pacific; of the Rev.
Silas Aiken, of the Boston pulpit; and of others of large influence in
their generations. But upon no one of its sons was the impress of its
peculiar history so indelibly stamped as upon the young man who left
it to aid in founding a powerful State amid the Great Lakes, and who
became the foremost representative of that State's vigorous political
conviction and purpose.
CHAPTER III.
REMOVAL TO MICHIGAN--MERCANTILE SUCCESS--BUSINESS INVESTMENTS.
In 1833 Zachariah Chandler, then still a minor, joined the current of
Western emigration from New York and New England which had sprung up
with the completion of the Erie canal, and in the fall of that year
entered into the retail dry-goods business at Detroit. Franklin Moore
(the husband of his sister Annis), who had already visited Michigan,
came with him as a partner in the enterprise, and the original firm
name was Moore & Chandler. At the outset the young merchant had some
assistance from his father, who, the tradition is, offered him $1,000
in cash or the collegiate education which his brothers received, the
money being chosen. Samuel Chandler also subsequently bought a store
for his son's use, but it is understood that all such advances were
speedily and fully repaid. The building in which the future Senator
first laid the foundation of his ample fortune was located where the
Biddle House now stands; it adjoined the mansion of Governor Hull, and
was subsequently transformed into the American House. Upon its shelves
Moore & Chandler displayed a small general stock, representing the
ample assortment usual in frontier stores, and saw a promising business
answer their invitations. In the following spring they removed to a
brick store (on the site now occupied by S. P. Wilcox & Co.), near the
main corner of the town (where Woodward and Jefferson avenues meet).
In the summer of 1834 Detroit was visited by the Asiatic cholera,
which appeared in malignant form, and was attended by an appalling
death rate, and an almost entire suspension of general traffic. Mr.
Chandler did not yield to the prevalent panic, but remained at his
business and was indefatigable in his efforts to relieve the universal
distress. His vigorous constitution and plain habits guarded his own
health, and he cared for the sick and buried the dead without faltering
amid the dreadful scenes of the pestilence. For weeks he and a clerk
(Mr. William N. Carpenter, of Detroit) alternated in watching by sick
beds, and, with others of like strength and courage, brightened with
unassuming heroism the gloomy picture of a season of dreadful mortality.
On August 16, 1836, the firm of Moore & Chandler was dissolved, and the
junior partner retained the established business, and continued its
vigorous prosecution. Those who knew him then describe a fair-haired,
awkward, tall, gaunt and wiry youth, blunt in his ways, simple in
habits, diffident with others, but shrewd, tireless in labor, and of
unlimited energy. He worked day and night, slept in the store, often
on the counter or a bale of goods, acted as proprietor, salesman,
or porter as was needed, lived on $300 a year, avoided society, and
allowed only the Presbyterian church to divide his attention with
business. He kept a good stock, especially strong in the staples,
bought prudently, and there was no better salesman in the West. His
trade became especially large with the farmers who used Detroit as a
market, and the unaffected manners and homely good sense of the rising
merchant soon gave him a popularity with his rural customers that
foreshadowed the strong hold of his later life on the affectionate
confidence of the yeomanry of the State.
The training which this intense application added to native vigor of
judgment early made him a thorough business man, exact in dealings,
strong in an intuitive knowledge of men, sound in his judgment of
values, prudent in ventures, and of an unflagging energy which pushed
his trade wherever an opening could be found. As interior Michigan
developed he added jobbing to his retail department, and became known
as a close and prudent buyer, a shrewd judge of credits, and a most
successful collector. A business established at the commencement of an
era of marvelous growth, pushed with such industry, drawn upon only for
the meagre expenses of a young man living with the closest economy,
and unembarrassed by speculation, meant a fortune, and at twenty-seven
years of age Mr. Chandler found himself with success assured and wealth
only a matter of patience. His nearest approach to financial disaster
was in the ruinous crash which swept "the wild-cat banks" and so many
mercantile enterprises out of existence in Michigan in the year 1838.
Like others he found it almost impossible at that time to obtain money,
and the Bank of Michigan which had promised him accommodations was
compelled by its own straitened condition to decline his paper. Thus
it happened that a note for about $5,000 given to Arthur Tappan & Co.
of New York fell due and went to protest. Mr. Chandler, accustomed to
New England strictness in business and exceedingly sensitive on the
point of meeting all engagements, was inclined to treat the protest as
bankruptcy itself, and called upon his Bedford friend, James F. Joy,
then a young lawyer in Detroit and for years afterwards Mr. Chandler's
counsel, to have a formal assignment drawn up. What followed is given
in Mr. Joy's language: "I looked carefully into his affairs, and found
them in what I believed to be a sound and healthy condition. I then
said: 'I won't draw an assignment for you, Chandler; there is no need
of it.' 'What shall I do?' was his answer, 'I can't pay that note.'
My reply was, 'Write to Tappan & Co. and say that you cannot get the
discounts that have been promised, but that if they will renew the note
you will be able to pay it when it next falls due.' He took my advice
and went through, and never had any trouble with his finances after
that. I reminded Mr. Chandler of that occurrence about two months
before his death, when he said he remembered it perfectly, and added
that if it had not been for that advice he might have been a clerk on a
salary to this day."
Mr. Chandler's was the first business in Detroit whose sales aggregated
$50,000 in a single year, and the reaching of that limit was hailed
by the community as a great mercantile triumph. He showed increasing
commercial sagacity at every stage of his active business life. He
pushed his jobbing trade in all directions and made his interior
customers his personal friends. He invested his surplus profits in
productive real estate which grew rapidly in value. He was never
tempted into speculation, and he was very reluctant to incur debt. As
a result, ten years after he landed at Detroit he had a reputation
throughout the new Northwest as a merchant of ample means, personal
honesty, large connections, and remarkable enterprise.
Between 1840 and 1850 Mr. Chandler reduced his business to a purely
wholesale basis and made himself independently and permanently rich. He
had opportunities and they were improved to the full. [And it may be
here said without exaggeration that every dollar of the fortune with
which he closed his career as an active merchant represented legitimate
business enterprise; it was the product of personal industry and good
judgment put forth in a field wisely selected and with only slight aid
at the outset.] The wiry stripling had become a stalwart man, despite a
family consumptive tendency which at times caused alarm. Prosperity did
not affect the plainness of his manners and speech, nor the simplicity
of his character, and maturity added method to, without impairing, his
powers of personal application. He was a man alive with energy and
thoroughly in earnest. He was active and influential in all public
matters in Detroit. Every year he drove through the State, visited its
cross-roads and its clearings, saw its pioneer merchants at their homes
and in their stores, made up his estimate of men and their means,
studied the growth of the State, and marked the course of the budding
of its resources. He thus kept himself thoroughly informed as to the
material development of Michigan, and acquired that intimate knowledge
of the State and its representative men which formed such an important
part of his equipment for public life. His companion in these numerous
commercial journeys was the man who succeeded him in the Senate, the
Hon. Henry P. Baldwin of Detroit, who came to Michigan largely through
his solicitations, was engaged in business for years by his side,
and remained his intimate associate through life. This part of Mr.
Chandler's career abounded in the making of friendships which endured
until death. While strict in all his dealings, he was considerate and
his sympathy was quick with struggling industry and honesty. He aided
when they needed it many who afterwards rose to position and wealth,
and these men became the most firmly attached of his supporters in his
public career.
[Illustration: THE CHANDLER BLOCK.]
Shortly after 1850 political affairs commenced to receive Mr.
Chandler's attention, and he gradually entrusted more and more of the
actual management of his large business to others, though he still for
some years directed in a general way the operations of the house. He
had been already absent one winter on a trip to the West Indies for his
health, and had made a brief and not wholly satisfactory experiment
(about 1846) at establishing a jobbing fancy-goods trade in New York.
With these exceptions he had made his Detroit dry-goods business his
personal charge. The firm name had generally been Z. Chandler & Co.,
although it was for some time Chandler & Bradford, and some of his
relatives had been and were associated with him in business. From his
second location he had moved his stock to more commodious quarters on
the site now occupied by the Chandler Block, and in 1852 he again moved
to the stores built jointly by himself and Mr. Baldwin on the southwest
corner of Woodward avenue and Woodbridge street. In 1855, as outside
matters commenced to press constantly upon Mr. Chandler's attention,
there came into his employment as a clerk a young man of twenty-three
from Kinderhook, N.Y., Allan Shelden. He showed an aptitude for
business and a capacity for work that recalled to the head of the
house his own earlier days, and Mr. Shelden's rise in his employer's
confidence was rapid and permanent. On Feb. 1, 1857, just before Mr.
Chandler took his seat as the successor of Lewis Cass in the Senate,
the firm name was changed to Orr, Town & Smith, with Mr. Chandler as a
special partner, with an interest of $50,000. In the fall of that year,
it became Town, Smith & Shelden; in the fall of 1859 it was changed to
Town & Shelden; on Feb. 1, 1866, it was again changed to the present
name of Allan Shelden & Co. Three years later Mr. Chandler ceased to
be a special partner, and thus finally sundered his formal connection
with the business he had established. The mercantile pre-eminence in
Michigan of his house in its line of trade has been maintained by his
successors, and it now occupies the magnificent Chandler Block, built
for its accommodation by its founder in 1878 on Jefferson avenue in
Detroit. Mr. Shelden himself continued in confidential relations with
his predecessor, and was entrusted in later years with the management
of a large share of his private affairs.
During his active business life no Northwestern merchant surpassed
Mr. Chandler in credit, in enterprise, or in success, and he left the
counter and office of his store with wealth and with an unsullied
mercantile character. His commercial integrity and sagacity always
remained among his marked characteristics. He made profitable
investments, became interested in remunerative enterprises, and, while
he lived generously after his income warranted it, saw his riches
steadily increase under prudent and shrewd management. At the time of
his death, his estate which was absolutely unincumbered was roughly
estimated as exceeding, at the least, two millions, representing
valuable business property in Detroit, several farms, large tracts of
timbered lands, the marsh farm at Lansing, residences in Washington and
Detroit, bank stock, government and other securities, and investments
in railroad and like enterprises. His business habits remained in full
vigor to the last. He was punctuality itself in all appointments; he
was rigid in his adherence to his engagements; he hated debt, and never
permitted the second presentation of an account; he did business on
business principles and with business exactitude; he spent money freely
but knew where and for what it went; and always his counsel was sought
and prized by men engaged in enterprises of the largest magnitude.
Without being ostentatious or profuse in his charities he was a large
giver, rarely refusing a meritorious application for aid, but he
invariably satisfied himself that the object was worthy, and put a
heartiness into his "no" when a refusal seemed to him to be in order.
His business instincts he never relaxed except for well-considered
reasons. The ditching of the marsh farm he regarded as an experiment
of far-reaching public importance, and he paid its cost cheerfully for
the sake of settling the question of the possibility of reclaiming such
lands. Some of his "imprudences" of this deliberate and well-weighed
sort proved profitable. During the war and when the credit of the
United States was at an alarmingly low ebb as shown in the ruling
prices of its bonds, he visited the city of New York in company
with Representative Rowland E. Trowbridge, of his State. On the way
there he spoke, in private, in a tone of unusual depression of the
financial difficulties of the government, and lamented the absence of
any available remedy. The next day there was a decided improvement in
the rates for "governments" on Wall street, and the firmer feeling
it created never wholly disappeared but was followed by a gradual
appreciation in this class of securities. Mr. Trowbridge called
his attention to the advance on the day following, and the Senator
answered, "I know all about it. I gave my broker orders to buy heavily
and the street, finding that out, said 'Chandler is just over from
Washington and knows something,' and so they followed my lead, and
there was a rush which sent the market up." Years afterwards, Mr.
Chandler was reminded by Mr. Trowbridge of the permanent character
of the improvement in the government's credit which attended his
speculation and of his own profit in the matter. He replied that while
he had sold many of his bonds bought during the war, he still held
those which came into his possession at that time, cherishing them
for their associations with an investment which he made at some risk
to help the treasury in its difficulties and which had proved very
remunerative.
During his public life information legitimately acquired and the
broadening of his judgment by contact with men undoubtedly helped his
investments, and thus added to his wealth, but individual pecuniary
advantage he resolutely ignored in shaping his public career. And his
sturdy incorruptibility as a legislator was proverbial at the capital.
An illustration of this fact was shown in his strenuous resistance to
and emphatic denunciation of the bills to remonetize and coin without
limit the old silver dollar. While these measures were pending he had
considerable investments in silver mining stocks, which would have been
greatly increased in value by the proposed policy, but, showing one
day to a friend a large draft representing a silver-mine dividend, he
said, "I ought for personal reasons to favor these bills, but I can't
consent to make money at the expense of the people." Another incident
exemplifies this phase of his character: In February, 1873, the city
of Manistee, on the shore of Lake Michigan, sent Gen. B. M. Cutcheon
to Washington to secure an increased appropriation for the improvement
of its harbor. Senator Chandler, as the chairman of the Committee on
Commerce and with a reputation for vigilance in caring for Michigan
interests, was naturally relied upon for valuable assistance. He
received General Cutcheon cordially, gave his personal attention to the
matter of introducing the representative of Manistee to influential
Congressmen and to department officials, and then made an appointment
for the consideration of what his own share in the work should be.
At that private meeting he expressed to General Cutcheon his cordial
sympathy with his errand, but added, "My hands are tied; the fact is
that I am interested in large tracts of pine on the Manistee river,
and, if I should take charge of your appropriation, it would be said,
'Chandler is feathering his own nest;' and if I am going to retain my
influence for good here, I must keep clear of even the suspicion of a
job."
The great multitude who knew Mr. Chandler as a public man knew
nothing of this early chapter of business life. It wholly ante-dated
his appearance at Washington, and the channels in which his strong
energies made themselves felt there and in his younger days were widely
distinct. But it is a fact that he was a remarkable man of business and
as thorough a merchant as ever developed in the West a great trade from
small beginnings. His was a doubly successful career. Before he had
reached middle age he had won success in business and a fortune. Then
he entered public life and made himself a leader of men in a historic
era.
CHAPTER IV.
THE PANORAMA OF NORTHWESTERN DEVELOPMENT.
The forty-six years of Zachariah Chandler's life in Michigan saw a vast
material empire supplant an almost unbroken wilderness. His commercial
enterprise and success and his labors as a legislator were among the
influential agents in this marvelous development and give its story a
title to a place in his biography.
As early as 1634 Jesuits Brebuef, Daniel and Davost, following a route
explored by Samuel Champlain eighteen years before, passed up the
River Ottawa, across Lake Nipissing, down French river and along the
lonely shores of the great Georgian bay to the dark forests bordering
Lake Huron. Brebuef reached there first; Daniel came later, weary and
worn; Davost came last of all, half dead with famine and fatigue.[2]
Champlain had been before them, and other explorers preceded Champlain,
but these three were the first Europeans who made a habitation by the
shores of the great lakes which roll their tireless flood down through
the gateway of Detroit. They erected a hut, and daily rang a bell to
call the surrounding savages to prayers. Behind them was the tangled
forest they had penetrated; at their feet were the broad waters of
Lake Huron; beyond--toward the setting sun--was an abyss so soundless
that no echo had ever come from it. And these three soldiers of the
cross, converters of the heathen, unarmed and alone amid a multitude
of savages, were the advance ripples of the mighty wave that two
centuries later was to break across the lake at their feet and the
rivers below them and surge over the trackless wilderness beyond.
Seven years later (September, 1641,) Charles Raymbault and Isaac Jaques
embarked in a frail birch-bark canoe, paddling northwest from Georgian
bay among the countless islands of the St. Marie river, amid scenery
that filled them with delight. After seventeen days the Sault de St.
Marie burst upon their enraptured vision. There they were welcomed
"as brothers" by the Chippewas and there began the first known white
settlement in Michigan.
On the 28th of August, 1660, Rene Mesnard left Quebec, resolved to
make greater progress in the exploration of the Northwest. He ascended
the Sault in a canoe, coasted along the northern shore of the upper
peninsula of Michigan, and on the 15th of October of that year reached
the head of Keweenaw bay to which he gave the name of St. Theresa.
Eight years later (1668) a permanent mission was established at the
Sault. In the autumn of 1678 occurred an event forever memorable in the
annals of Michigan. There was then laid on the Niagara river the keel
of the first large vessel built on the shores of the great lakes. It
was completed and launched early in the following summer, and on the
7th of August, 1679 (200 years ago), amid the discharges of arquebuses
and the sound of swelling _Te Deums_ it began the first voyage ever
made by Europeans upon the upper inland seas of North America. This was
the "Griffin," sixty tons burden, carrying five guns, with La Salle
commander, Hennepin missionary and journalist, and a crew of Canadian
fur traders. Three days later (August 10), after many soundings, they
reached the islands grouped at the entrance of Detroit river. They
thus knew the lake was navigable by vessels of large size--this was
one step toward solving the destiny of the West. Ascending the river,
the explorers passed by a large number of Indian villages; these had
been visited years before by Jesuit missionaries and _coureurs des
bois_. Some fix the date as early as 1610, but others make it later,
no names being given in either case. Louis Hennepin gives the earliest
description of the river: "The strait (De troit) is finer than Niagara,
being one league broad, excepting that part which forms the lake that
we have called St. Clair." The strait once voyaged and understood, its
value was quickly appreciated by the French as a means of resisting the
inroads of the persevering English (who from New York and New England
were pressing upon their possessions in the East), and of preventing
British interference with the valuable hunting privileges or with
the Indian tribes dwelling upon the borders of the Northern lakes.
With this in view the Marquis de Nonville, Governor-General of the
Canadas, ordered (June 6, 1686) M. Du Lhut, who had been commandant at
Michilimackinac, "to establish a post on the Detroit, near Lake Erie,
with a garrison of fifty men," and the order added, "I desire you to
choose an advantageous place to secure the passage, which may protect
our savages who go to the chase, and serve them as an asylum against
their enemies and ours." In obedience to these instructions, M. Du Lhut
proceeded to the entrance of the strait from Lake Huron, where he built
a fort and established a trading post (on the site of the present Fort
Gratiot) which he called Fort St. Joseph. Thus (1686) was made the
first settlement by Europeans in the lower peninsula of Michigan.
The misfortunes of the war with England which terminated with the peace
of Ryswick (Sept. 1, 1697,) still further convinced the most sagacious
of the leading French colonists of the importance of a fort on the
Detroit river which would command this channel of communication with
the great lakes above. Impressed with this fact, Antoine de la Mothe
Cadillac, a Gascon sailor who amid a career of romantic adventure came
to be commandant at Michilimackinac, crossed the Atlantic in person,
and earnestly and repeatedly pressed upon the colonial minister, Count
Ponchartrain, the necessity of the prompt establishment of a permanent
post on the Detroit, where it would bring the French forces in closer
proximity to the Iroquois and would give them command of the waters
of the upper lakes and of the great fur trading regions about them.
Cadillac did not urge this as a missionary enterprise but for its
commercial and military advantages, and the force and vigor of his
representations prevailed at the palace. He sailed from France with the
royal order, "Take prompt possession of Detroit," with this supplement
from Ponchartrain: "Prosecute vigorously; if the Jesuits obstruct,
return and report." Cadillac arrived in Quebec early in the first year
of the eighteenth century (March 8). Three months later (June 5) his
preparations were made, and on that day he took his departure from La
Chine. With him were Captain Tonti, Lieutenants Dugue and Chacornacle,
fifty soldiers, and fifty Canadian traders and artisans. Nineteen days
later he arrived upon the site of the present city of Detroit. In his
memoir Cadillac wrote: "I arrived at Detroit, July 24 (1701), and
fortified myself there immediately. I had the necessary huts made and
cleared up the ground preparatory to its being sowed in the autumn."
When he touched the shore of Michigan, with pomp and ceremony he
erected a cross, a cedar post beside it; then with a sword in one hand
and a sod in the other he made solemn proclamation with many words of
"possession taken" of all the country round about, from the great lakes
to the south seas, in the name of the King of France.
Thus French Michigan began, and so it remained until Wolfe's victory
gave new rulers to Canada and to all the French possessions beyond.
On Nov. 29, 1760, the French flag floated for the last time over
Detroit, as a part of the dominion of France. On that day Maj. Robert
Rogers, an English provincial officer, native of New Hampshire, took
possession in the name of another king, ran up the Cross of St. George,
fired a salute, gave some round British cheers, and (the Treaty of
Paris confirming this occupation) Michigan was English. It so remained
until the Revolution and the treaty of 1783 made it American. But
it was not until thirteen years after (1796) that it was evacuated
by the British garrison; in June of that year Captain Porter with a
detachment of American troops entered the fort and hoisted the Union
flag for the first time, and took formal possession in the name of the
United States. The Hull surrender again swept Detroit and that part of
Michigan lying within its command under the Cross of St. George (Aug.
16, 1812,) to remain until Perry's victory and the subsequent military
successes of General Harrison expelled the English and restored it
permanently to the Union, on Sept. 28, 1813. During the Revolution
Detroit was the headquarters of British power in the Northwest, and
from it were sent out the expeditions which ravaged the frontiers of
Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The British captain, Rogers, who took possession in 1760, afterwards
reported the population (1765) as: Able-bodied men, 243; women, 164;
children, 294--total, 701. This was exclusive of the garrison, who
were sent away as prisoners of war, and included the 60 men, women and
children who were slaves. He also reported that of the French families
remaining in the settlement there were 23 men able to bear arms, 24
women, and 41 children. The others were probably English who had
followed upon the track of the troops. Captain Rogers's report gives
strength to this supposition. It says: "There are in the fort many
English merchants, several of whom have bought houses." Then it gives
this insight into the industrial condition of the settlement: "Of farms
there are 40, and some fourscore acres in depth with a frontage on
the river; of these several farms are at present in cultivation." The
number of acres under cultivation is given as 404; number of bushels
of wheat raised the preceding year, 670; bushels of corn, 1,884. The
report quaintly adds: "The Indian corn would have been in greater
abundance, had proper care been taken of it; the most part has been
devoured by birds."
Here remote from the world, with the joyous sparkling of the great
river at their feet, the luxuriance of the forest about them, the
cottages of the settlers peeping out from the green foliage in which
they were half hidden, these simple colonists lived uneventful lives,
surrounded by the beauty and the bounties of nature. The forests teemed
with game, the marshes with wild fowl, and the rivers with fish. The
long winters were seasons of enjoyment. In summer and autumn traders,
voyageurs, _coureurs des bois_, and half-breeds gathered from the
distant Northwest, and the settlement was boisterous with rude frolic
and gaiety. This was Detroit and Michigan in 1765.[3]
Between the French surrender and American occupancy, little was done
toward the development of the peninsulas. In 1796 there were a few
straggling settlements on the Detroit river, as also on Otter creek
and on the rivers Rouge, Pointe aux Tremble, and other small streams
flowing into Lake Erie. The French Canadians had extended their farms
to a considerable distance along the banks of the St. Clair. Detroit
was a small cluster of rude wooden houses, defended by a fort, and
surrounded by pickets. Villages of the Ottawas and Pottawatamies stood
on the present site of the city of Monroe, and near them were a few
primitive cabins constructed of logs, erected by the French on either
bank of the river Raisin; this was called Frenchtown, and is now part
of Monroe. On the upper lakes there were the posts on the island of
Mackinac, at St. Marie, and at St. Joseph (on the St. Joseph river).
The transition from France to England had given the monopoly of the
fur trade to the Hudson Bay Company, thus changing the direction of
its profits; otherwise the effect upon Michigan had been a change of
masters, flag and garrison, and little else. And the shifting from
England to the United States also meant only new faces and new colors
in the fort; otherwise it was for the time effectless.
The interior of the country was but little known except to those
engaged in the fur trade, and they were interested in depreciating
its value. Even as late as 1807 the Indian titles had only been
partially extinguished, and no portion of the public domain had been
brought into the market. The opposite shore was occupied by a vigilant
and jealous foreign power. The interior of the future State swarmed
with the savages who yet made it their home, and an Indian war was
threatening. These things repelled the tide of immigration that was
already surging over Ohio and the country bordering on the Ohio river.
Fourteen years after American possession the population of Michigan
was given as: Whites, 4,384; free blacks, 120; slaves, 24--total,
4,528. Five years before the number of householders in the lower
peninsula was officially given as 525. There are antecedent estimates
of population and assertions, but no facts that can be relied on. It
is, however, probable that at the time of the British evacuation (1796)
the population did not exceed 2,500 souls, for two years afterwards
(1798) Wayne county, then co-extensive with the present State of
Michigan, sent a representative to Chillicothe, where it was claimed
that the Northwest Territory was entitled to a delegate in Congress
because there were then 5,000 inhabitants within its boundaries. It can
scarcely be possible that half of that aggregate was in Michigan alone,
and that its settlers then equaled in numbers those scattered over
the inviting and fertile region which now includes the powerful and
populous States of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
The growth of the decade succeeding 1810 was trifling. In 1820 the
census showed but 9,048 souls in Michigan Territory, which included
the present State and the region beyond the lakes north of Illinois.
The war was over. Indian depredations had ceased and the Indian titles
had been quieted. The perils of settlement were removed. The seeming
obstacles of the toil and privations of frontier existence were mere
cobwebs in the way of the hardy and adventurous. But there yet remained
serious impediments to Michigan's growth. Distance was one, for the
State was still difficult of access, and canals and railroads were yet
in the future. A more serious impediment was a blunder. On May 6, 1812,
Congress passed an act requiring that 2,000,000 acres of land should
be surveyed in Michigan Territory. The surveyors went into the forest
with their chains and poles, and the result was a report to Congress
which may be thus summarized: "Many lakes of great extent; marshes
on their margins; marshes between; other places covered with coarse
high grass; this grass covered with water from six inches to three
feet; lakes and swamps over half the country; the intermediate space
poor, barren and sandy; the dry land composed of sand-hills, with deep
basins between and more water; the margins of many of the streams and
lakes literally afloat, or thinly covered with a sward of grass with
water and mud underneath; the country altogether so bad that there
would not be more than one acre out of a hundred, if there would be
one out of a thousand, that would in any case admit of cultivation."
Official stupidity had its effect on Congress, and in 1816 (April 29)
that body cancelled the survey order, and abandoned Michigan to the
hunters and trappers and their game. For two years this continued;
but the adventurous would plunge into the wilderness and would come
back and talk of beautiful valleys, broad prairies and fertile soils.
Explorations widened and a multitude of witnesses came with their facts
to prove that the curtain of forest concealed something more inviting
than marsh and barren and sand-hill. Then the government (1818) ordered
a new survey and out of all this came part of the truth, namely: There
was in this wilderness an immense variety of forest trees--oak, maple,
ash, elm, sycamore, locust, butternut, walnut, poplar, whitewood,
beech, hemlock, spruce, tamarack, chestnut, white, yellow, and Norway
pine. There were plains and natural parks; there were level prairies
and hills rising with gradual swell away to the center of the State.
Of soils there were deep sandy loams mixed with limestone pebbles,
deep vegetable moulds mingled with clay producing dense and luxuriant
vegetation, brown loams mingled with clay, deep vegetable moulds with a
surface covering of black sands. There was water in abundance, rivers
and streams and creeks and beautiful lakes. All these reports and more,
confirmed and re-confirmed by pioneers and surveyors, came back from
the interior, until the exceeding richness and great agricultural value
of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan was established.
But another event was to exercise a most important influence upon the
future State. In 1817 the first steamer upon the Northern lakes, the
"Ontario," was launched, and, amid bonfires, illuminations and most
lively demonstrations of joy, made her first trip upon Lake Ontario.
This heralded the dawn of a material revolution. One year later, on the
27th day of August, 1818, the "Walk-in-the-water," the first steamer
launched above Niagara Falls, came up to the wharves of Detroit after
a passage of forty-four hours from Buffalo. This vessel, of only 340
tons, and lost three years later, was a puny affair, but wise men
saw in her advent the promise of a future which time has more than
realized. Then in the wake of the steamer, Congress (1819) ordered
the public lands of Michigan placed in the market for sale. At this
time Detroit contained 250 houses, 1,415 inhabitants, and the entire
territory a population of 8,896. In 1825 the Erie canal was completed,
and its far-sighted projector, De Witt Clinton, sailed amid national
acclamations from Lake Erie to tide-water. It completed the link of
direct water communication with Michigan, and the stream of Western
emigration was quickly swollen to a torrent.
Mr. Chandler first came to Michigan in 1833. Three years before (1830)
the census of the entire territory, as it was constituted when Illinois
was admitted to the Union, was 32,531. The growth during the preceding
decade had been steady, not immense; that was to come after. It was
in the year of 1833 that the first settlement was made in the present
State of Iowa. And in that fall (September) the people of Detroit were
rejoicing that "arrangements were in train for the establishment of a
new stage-line route to Chicago, by which travelers can go from one
place to the other in five days." There was not then a mile of railroad
in the territory, and not until five years after (1838) was the first
twenty-nine miles completed to Ypsilanti. Detroit was still a frontier
post numbering less than 4,000 inhabitants. On all the Western lakes at
the beginning of that year there were but eighteen steamers, ranging
from fifty to 395 tons in burden, and aggregating but 3,710 tons, and
with the best of these a voyage of thirty-nine hours from Buffalo to
Detroit was a remarkable passage. All this was improvement; yet the
Detroit merchant in that year could not expect to receive his purchases
made in New York within less than from three to six months after the
time of setting out to procure them. During the winter steamboats and
river craft were ice-bound, and the settlements at Detroit, the River
Raisin and elsewhere throughout the broad peninsula, were shut out from
the Eastern world, except as travelers braved the tedious and painful
staging through Canada to Buffalo, with its week of continuous day and
night journeying.
A year later (1834) Congress defined the boundaries of Michigan
Territory. Let the finger trace on the atlas the northern borders
of Ohio and Indiana, follow around the south shore of Lake Michigan
to the boundary between Wisconsin and Illinois, pursue that line to
the Mississippi river, then down its stream to the north line of the
State of Missouri, along that westward to the Missouri, and up that
river until between the 25th and 26th degrees of west longitude the
finger reaches the faint line, coming down into the Missouri from the
north, of the White Earth river--all the land and lakes between the
Detroit straits and this little White Earth river and between the
line so traced and the British possessions, was Michigan Territory in
1834 and until Michigan was admitted as a State into the Union. It
was an imperial domain, larger than Sweden and Norway united; nearly
three times greater than England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the
Channel islands; surpassing the united territories of France, Belgium,
Switzerland, Denmark and The Netherlands; even exceeding the combined
acreage of Italy and the German Empire. Yet in all this region, when
Mr. Chandler displayed his first stock of goods in Detroit, there
was not one mile of railroad or telegraph, not one steam mill or
manufactory, but one city approaching 4,000 inhabitants and not one
exceeding it, and not a single mile of paved street or sewerage. There
was but one water-works, and no gas-works. There was not one daily
newspaper, and but few of any kind. The valuable iron deposits of
the Upper Peninsula were undiscovered. The wealth of pine timber was
unknown. In the previous year (1832) the total value of foreign and
domestic produce exported from Michigan amounted to but the trifling
sum of $9,234, and in the preceding federal census (1830) the entire
civilized population of this vast area of limitless possibilities was
less than 33,000, although there were then in the Union twenty-four
States with a population of 12,866,020.
[Illustration: DETROIT TN 1834.]
Mr. Chandler came in with the first swell of the great tide of
emigration which broke over Michigan Territory. Up to within a brief
period preceding, that extensive and fertile region was scarcely known
except as it appeared on maps. Its rich prairies, its fertile plains,
its deep forests with all their wealth, were a _terra incognita_ to all
white men except the fur traders. But it was being rapidly known and
understood. Its fame had rolled back over the East, and the fruits were
seen in the new faces and sturdy forms swarming to Detroit as a point
of departure to the new and beautiful land. In that year (1833) it was
a matter of boasting that as many as "one hundred and seventy-five
emigrants had landed in Detroit in one day." The next year _Niles'
Register_ had a report from Detroit that the arrivals had reached the
magnificent proportions of "nine hundred and sixty in one day," and
that "the streets of Detroit were full of wagons loading and departing
for the West," principally for the region about Grand river. And the
same journal said: "The character of these emigrants is in every
respect a subject of felicitation. They will give Michigan a capital
stock of wealth and moral worth unequaled by any of the newly-formed
States, and scarcely approximated by Ohio."
In 1833 and for more than a year afterward the business part of Detroit
was confined to the narrow space bounded by Wayne and Randolph streets,
Jefferson avenue and the river, and at the same time there were but few
buildings on Jefferson avenue above Rivard, and but one on Woodward
avenue north of State street. Old wind-mills lined the shores; the
little unsightly French carts clattered through the streets; ducks,
geese and pigs were the only city scavengers. This sounds like another
age--another continent--but it was the Detroit and Michigan of but
forty-six years ago. Change came with population--slowly at first, then
with increased speed, then with immense strides. Mr. Chandler lived
to see it all and to be a part of it. He came with the early tide
of population; he saw the tide rising, at first languid, halting and
uncertain; he saw it year by year gathering momentum and volume until
it swelled and rolled over Michigan a mighty flood of brawn and brain,
of enterprise and conscience.
On the fifth day of November, 1879, tens of thousands of people looked
upon the dead face of the stalwart Senator and followed his body to
its last resting place in the city to which he had come in 1833.
Forty-six years and a few weeks had passed; no more. But in that time
the city which he made his home had spread its wings until it covered
an area of thirteen and a half square miles, with 300 miles of streets
(seventy-six miles paved), and some of them among the broadest and
most beautiful in the world, shaded by rows of graceful trees of
luxuriant foliage, and adorned by stores and private residences rich
in finish and architecture. It had 200 miles of water-mains and 150
miles of sewers, making it one of the most perfectly-drained cities
on the continent. Its population had grown to be 120,000, and its
taxable wealth to exceed $87,000,000. School buildings, representing
a public investment of $650,000 and accommodating 15,000 pupils, were
scattered through its wards, and numerous churches and abundant public
and private charitable institutions made proclamation of the faith and
philanthropy of its citizens. Great manufacturing enterprises lined its
wharves and suburbs; scores of railroad trains arrived at and departed
from its depots daily; and the commerce of the lakes was passing along
its river front at the rate of thousands of tons hourly.
But the change in Michigan had been no less marvelous. The State
has a representation in the present Congress of the United States
exceeding that of any one of eight of the first States of the
Union, equaling the representation of that of two others (Georgia
and Virginia), and only exceeded by that of three of the original
thirteen--Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. In a single
county of the Upper Peninsula, in 1833 supposed to be only a mass of
barren, uninviting and uninhabitable rocks, there are three cities
either one of which has a greater population than the Detroit of that
day, and in Michigan out of its forty-three cities and 178 villages
(April, 1879) there are over thirty more populous than Detroit in
1833--some of them with populations from five to eight times greater.
The people of the State are a million and a half in number, spread over
the greater part of the Lower Peninsula, about the Sault, and from
Marquette to Ontonagon and south to Menominee in the Upper Peninsula.
Its newspapers have grown to twenty-three dailies and over 300 with
less frequent issues. Its railroads have developed from non-existence
to 3,500 miles, owned by thirty-six corporations, connecting Detroit
and the principal cities of Michigan with all portions of the State,
penetrating to every center of population and industry, costing over
$160,000,000, and paying in each year for salaries and operating
expenses over $13,000,000. Strong institutions for the care of the
deaf and dumb and the blind and for the insane, a thriving college
for agricultural education, and that noblest monument of the wisdom
and forethought of the latter-day founders of Michigan, the State
University, were all planted in these years. And with this, the public
school system was nourished until there are over 300 graded schools and
over 6,000 public schools in the State, with property valued at over
$9,000,000, paying almost $2,000,000 yearly in teachers' wages, and
with annual resources amounting to nearly $4,000,000. In the mountains
of the Upper Peninsula, so long reputed a barren wilderness, have been
discovered exhaustless mines of the richest iron ores and the most
extensive and valuable copper deposits known on the globe. The Saginaw
Valley has poured a briny stream of wealth upon the State from its
unfailing salt-wells, and from the forests about and beyond to the
westernmost limits of Michigan have been gathered great treasures of
pine and hard woods. And while nature was yielding its hidden stores
to enrich the State its skilled citizens were not idle. Over 10,000
manufacturing establishments in Michigan now employ upward of 70,000
people, pay more than $25,000,000 annually in wages, make an infinite
variety of wares, and turn out products each year amounting in value
to more than $130,000,000. The statistics of agricultural development
are equally remarkable. The log cabin and the clearings have yielded
to ample farms. The marsh, the pine barren, even the hyperborean
soil of the Upper Peninsula, have been transformed into productive
wheat-fields. The cereals of Michigan exceed in their annual product
70,000,000 bushels, and $45,000,000 in their value. Highly cultivated
and valuable farms (over 111,000 in number and with a total acreage of
10,000,000) cover the greater part of the Lower Peninsula. Comfortable,
even stately, farm houses dot the landscape. School-houses, churches,
villages, towns and cities stand where the forest was. The wilderness
has fled away. Everywhere there are evidences of peace, prosperity,
happiness and a high civilization. It is magic; courage, intelligence
and industry have been the magicians.
The changes in the other parts of the Michigan Territory of 1833 have
been no less marvelous. Four States have been carved out of that
region whose boundaries in 1834 were traced on the atlas--Michigan,
Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota--and the great wheat farms of Dakota
will soon develop into a fifth. This entire territory to-day has eight
Senators, twenty-nine Representatives and one Delegate in Congress,
has over 11,000 miles of railroad, seventy-seven daily papers and over
1,100 weekly or monthly publications, and several great cities larger
than Philadelphia and New York when the United States had taken its
second census. It has a population greater than that of the thirteen
colonies which successfully defied the power of Great Britain during
the Revolution, greater than that of the six New England States in
the present day. It produces a larger amount of breadstuffs than the
whole Union yielded when Mr. Chandler first came to the territory, and
contains more wealth than did all the States fifty years ago.
This is a marvelous story of growth. Nothing in the Old World has
equaled it. Nothing the New has exceeded it. It has confounded
prophecy. It has outrun imagination. It is the achievement of a
stalwart race. It is the triumph of faith, of zeal, of courage. It
dazzles the men of to-day. And it will stand for centuries to excite
the admiration of the historian and the wonder of the future.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Parkman's "Jesuits in North America."
[3] This is Parkman's picture in "The Conspiracy of Pontiac."
CHAPTER V.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF POLITICAL ACTIVITY--RECORD AS AN ANTI-SLAVERY WHIG.
The conspicuous figure in Michigan politics, when Zachariah Chandler
landed at Detroit and for twenty-five years afterward, was Lewis Cass.
He was a man of ability and many accomplishments, irreproachable in
private life, and with a claim upon the enduring gratitude of the
people of the Northwest for his large share in the founding of mighty
States about the shores of the great lakes. He came to Michigan with
military distinction, and had added to his laurels civic honors as a
territorial ruler, as a skilful negotiator with the Indians, and as
an intrepid explorer. General Cass was a warm political and personal
friend of Andrew Jackson, and his influence made Michigan a strongly
Democratic territory and State. In 1831 he had been appointed Secretary
of War in President Jackson's cabinet, and in 1836 he was sent to Paris
as the United States Minister at the court of Louis Phillippe. The
courage, vigor and skill of his attack upon the "Quintuple Treaty,"
which embodied Great Britain's theories on the then delicate topic of
the right of search on the high seas, and which was defeated by the
refusal of France to ratify the preliminary negotiations, made his
ambassadorship an event in European diplomacy, and gave him a national
reputation on this continent. His return to Detroit in 1843 was
attended by unusual popular demonstrations at every important point in
his Westward journey. In 1845 Michigan sent him to the Senate, and in
1848 the Democracy nominated him as its candidate for the presidency.
That a man who thus made a new commonwealth influential in national
politics should call about him a strong following and mould public
sentiment at his own home was natural, and the State of Lewis Cass was
long regarded as staunchly Democratic. His party held control for years
of the main avenues of political preferment, and not a few young men
of parts and ambition who came to Michigan as Whigs were led into the
ranks of the Democracy by the fact that it was the only organization
which had honors and offices to bestow.
General Cass was a courtly gentleman, dignified in manners, who, with
a natural boldness of character which never lost wholly its power of
self-assertion, gradually became ultra-conservative in his Democracy.
Originally he had anti-slavery tendencies, but the Southern drift
of his party, which became apparent about the time of his return
from France, carried him with it, and he grew to be one of the most
assiduous originators and supporters of the series of compromises
which so long defeated justice and encouraged the aggressions of the
slave power. The result was that in time the hammer of his personal
influence in Michigan was broken on the anvil of New England ideas,
while his name became the symbol of "hunkerism" in the Northwest;
but in December, 1860, his octogenarian patriotism flamed up in the
presence of armed treason and executive imbecility, and he branded
the administration of James Buchanan as it deserved by indignantly
resigning the portfolio of the department of state. No political
contrast could well be more vivid than that between Lewis Cass and the
man who succeeded him in the Senate, and replaced him in the political
leadership of Michigan, representing a greater State, a nobler
political cause, and instead of the make-shifts of compromise ideas
which are to-day embodied in the fabric of American civilization.
Zachariah Chandler's father was originally a Federalist, and then
a Whig. The son brought with him to Detroit Whig sympathies and
anti-slavery convictions, but no predisposition to political activity.
For many years he refused to divert his energies from his mercantile
pursuits, and took no share in party contests, except such as would be
natural in the case of any enterprising citizen with a lively interest
in public questions. He was known as a staunch Whig, and he thoroughly
identified himself with that party when in both Michigan and the Union
its victories seemed accidental, and its defeats certain. Between
1837 and 1848 his name frequently appears among the officers of Whig
meetings, or as a member of the election day vigilance committees of
his party, and (very rarely) as a ward delegate to Whig conventions. He
was a regular contributor to the campaign fund, and he did his share
of work at the polls. At that time the labors of election day were not
those of persuasion merely. Partisan feeling was bitter, and in the
population of the growing frontier city, there was a strong ruffianly
element, which was as a rule Democratic in its sympathies. In close
contests mobs sometimes gathered about the voting places, and sought
by jostling and occasional assaults to keep away from the ballot-boxes
the more timid or fastidious of the Whigs. On these occasions Mr.
Chandler was among the men of strong frames, sinewy arms, and pugnacity
of spirit, who furnished the Whig muscle to defeat this variety of
"Loco-foco trick." He and Alanson Sheley (now a well-known Detroit
merchant) were, with a few others of like strength and stature, the
Whig body-guard who forced a way for voters through the dense crowd,
and interposed for the rescue of the threatened. There is no lack of
amusing anecdotes of this species of service rendered by Mr. Chandler
to the Whig party; and it was at times attended by serious danger. In
later years he credited Mr. Sheley with having saved his life in one of
these election disturbances, and frequently recalled reminiscences of
the muscular exploits of those days. It was not until Mr. Chandler was
a Whig of nearly twenty years' standing, that he became that party's
candidate for any office, or that he actively interested himself in
its committee work and practical management. He cast a void vote for
Harrison in 1836, before Michigan had been formally admitted; he
attended the monster meetings and sang campaign songs in the log cabins
of 1840, and gave then a valid vote to Harrison; he denounced Tyler's
political treason, and in 1844 cheered for Clay and Frelinghuysen; he
opposed General Cass in 1848, and at that time delivered his maiden
speech, in support of "Zach." Taylor; but it was not until 1851 that
he manifested any especial taste for or skill in politics, or that he
allowed his name to be used as a candidate for position.
The Whigs of Michigan were as a rule of New England extraction, and the
masses of the party were always staunchly anti-slavery in sentiment.
They charged General Cass's denunciation of the "Quintuple Treaty" to
a disposition to seek Southern approval by indirectly shielding the
slave trade: they opposed the annexation of Texas, applauded the Wilmot
Proviso, and were restive under Southern aggression and slaveholding
arrogance at the capital. The few Congressmen whom they were able to
elect voted uniformly for free institutions and against the extension
of human bondage. Michigan's first Whig Senator, Augustus S. Porter,
while still new in his seat, opposed alone Calhoun's resolutions in
"the Enterprise case" (a vessel employed in the coastwise slave trade
had touched at Port Hamilton in the British West Indies, and some
negro chattels who formed part of her cargo had taken advantage of
English law to assert their manhood and freedom), and cast a solitary
vote to lay them upon the table. Of this act Joshua R. Giddings wrote:
"Seeing that eminent Senators around him interposed no objection to
the passage of the resolutions, Mr. Porter, obeying the dictates of
his own judgment and conscience, heroically met the overwhelming
influence arrayed against him, and showed the most cogent reasons for
rejecting the resolutions, by exhibiting the absurdity of the attempt
to induce the British government to acknowledge the laws of slavery
and the slave trade to exist and be enforced within her ports." Both
Mr. Porter and William Woodbridge voted against the resolution for the
annexation of Texas. In the House of the Twenty-seventh Congress Jacob
M. Howard acted with the friends of freedom on questions involving
that issue, and in the Thirtieth Congress William Sprague, the second
Whig Representative, was openly classified as a Free Soiler. In 1849
the Whigs and Free Soilers united to support Flavius J. Littlejohn
for Governor, and the Whigs of Michigan as a whole were a body of
intelligent and conscientious anti-slavery men, and made their
political weight felt on the side of free institutions.
Mr. Chandler was from his boyhood radical in his opposition to human
bondage, and for a time hoped that the Whig party of the North could be
used to effectually resist the conspiracy of the slave power against
the territories. His anti-slavery activity preceded his appearance
in politics. Detroit was an important terminus of the "Underground
Railroad," that mysterious organization which so skilfully and quietly
transported colored fugitives from the Ohio to Canadian soil, and Mr.
Chandler, while still absorbed in business, was a frequent and liberal
contributor to the fund for its operating expenses. He manifested an
especial interest in the Crosswhite case, which, played a conspicuous
part in the fugitive slave law agitation preceding the compromises of
1850. Adam Crosswhite was the mulatto son of a slave mother who was
owned by his father, a white farmer in Bourbon county, Kentucky. While
a boy he was given as a servant to his half-sister, a Miss Crosswhite,
who married a slave-dealer named Stone. Her husband subsequently sold
her brother for $200, and Crosswhite ultimately became the chattel
of a Kentucky planter named Giltner living in Carroll county. When he
had reached the age of forty-four and had become the father of four
children, he learned that his master was planning to sell a portion of
his family. The parental instinct drove this man to a step which he had
not taken through any desire for personal freedom, and he determined
upon flight. He succeeded in getting his entire family across the Ohio
in a skiff, and into the hands of the "Underground Railway" managers
in Indiana. There was a vigorous pursuit, and at Newport the fugitives
were nearly captured, but Quaker shrewdness concealed and protected
them, and after weeks of stirring adventure, during which the father
and mother were compelled to separate, they reached Michigan, and
became the occupants of a little cabin in the eastern part of the
present city of Marshall. They were quiet and industrious citizens,
and by thrift and unremitting labor commenced making payments on
their homestead. In time the history of the fugitives became known
to their neighbors, and finally some one with the genuine spirit
of the slave-driver sent to Kentucky information concerning their
hiding-place. In December, 1846, Francis Troutman came to Marshall,
ostensibly as a young lawyer in search of business, but in fact as
Giltner's representative in identifying his fugitive slaves and
planning their recapture. He did his work well, through artifice and
with the help of aid which he hired at Marshall, but did not succeed
in perfectly concealing his plans. Crosswhite received warning of the
impending danger, and both armed himself and arranged with sympathizing
friends for prompt assistance. The abduction was finally attempted
early on the morning of Jan. 27, 1847. Troutman was assisted by David
Giltner, Franklin Ford, and John S. Lee, all Kentuckians, and the four
men were well armed. Crosswhite saw their approach, and succeeded in
giving the alarm, but before his friends commenced to assemble the
Kentuckians broke in the door of his cabin and informed the negroes
that they must go at once before a magistrate where it was proposed
to prove the fact of their escape from slavery. While the preparation
of the children for the winter's ride to the justice's office was in
progress, a crowd, at first largely composed of colored men but soon
including many whites, gathered about the cabin, and promptly made
the fact apparent that they were in no mood to permit the proposed
restoration of human property to its Kentucky owners. The courage of
the slave-hunters did not prove equal to the occasion, and finally
Troutman resorted to argument. He harangued the jeering crowd on the
sanctity of the fugitive slave law and the legality of Giltner's
claim, even offering as proof of his law-abiding spirit not to take
back to slavery a child born to the Crosswhites since their escape.
The response to this proposition to do exact justice by separating an
infant from its mother may be imagined, and in the end the Kentuckians
abandoned their attempt. Crosswhite had meanwhile complained against
them for trespass, and they were then arrested, convicted and fined
$100. Money was also at once raised in Marshall by which the negroes
were sent to Detroit and thence to Canada. While the excitement was
at its hight some of the prominent citizens of Marshall joined the
crowd, and endeavored to restrain them from violence and to convince
the slave-hunters of the folly of attempting to defy the aroused
indignation of the community; they were careful, however, to avoid any
violation of the law. Troutman met their remonstrances by a demand
for their names. One of them replied, "Charles T. Gorham; write it in
capital letters." The answer of another was, "Oliver Cromwell Comstock,
Jr.; take it in full so that my father may not be held responsible
for what I do." Troutman also obtained the name of Jarvis Hurd, these
three being well-known residents of Marshall and gentlemen of pecuniary
responsibility. Nothing further took place at the time, and in a few
days the Kentuckians returned to their State, which was soon aflame
with wrath at this "Northern outrage." Public meetings were held to
denounce the "abolition rioters," the most exaggerated accounts of
the Marshall release were circulated and believed, the event received
Congressional attention, and finally the State of Kentucky made an
appropriation for the prosecution of all who were concerned in the
escape of the Crosswhite family. Troutman returned to Michigan in the
summer of 1847, and brought an action to recover the value of the
rescued slaves, in the United States Circuit Court, against a large
number of defendants; the case as tried, however, was practically a
prosecution of Messrs. Gorham, Comstock, and Hurd. The Kentuckians
retained a large array of counsel, including John Norvell, the veteran
Democratic leader, while the defense was represented by Theodore
Romeyn, Wells & Cook, and Hovey K. Clarke, with Halmer H. Emmons
(subsequently United States Circuit Judge) and James F. Joy as counsel.
Gerrit Smith also came from New York to argue the constitutional
question involved, but the defendants' attorneys did not deem it
prudent in a jury trial at that time to ally themselves with so radical
an abolitionist. The case was taken up before Justice John MacLean,
in 1848, and attracted national attention. The first trial took place
in the June term and resulted in a disagreement of the jury. A second
trial followed in November and December of the same year and ended
in a verdict for the plaintiffs of $1,926 and costs; the expenses of
defending the suits had also imposed heavy pecuniary burdens upon the
Marshall gentlemen. Mr. Gorham was then a Democrat, and found among his
party friends a strong feeling that it was important at that time and
in so conspicuous a case that Michigan should manifest a disposition to
rigidly enforce the fugitive slave law, as these were the years when
General Cass's presidential aspirations culminated, and when it was
essential that his hold upon Southern confidence should be preserved.
There was no lack of private expressions of Democratic sympathy with
the defendants, and assurances were given that they should not be left
to meet alone the heavy expenses involved, but among the Democratic
leaders there was an unmistakable wish that the prosecution should
be vigorously pushed for the sake of its political effect, and this
secret pressure had a powerful influence. This case interested Mr.
Chandler from the outset, and he watched every development closely.
Early in the proceedings he met Mr. Gorham, with whom his acquaintance
was then but slight, and said to him, "I am satisfied from what I have
seen and learned that this case is being manipulated in the interest
of the Democratic party, and that you are to be sacrificed to appease
the slave power of the South, so that Cass may not be damaged by the
result. Offer no compromise; fight them through to the end; I will
stand by you, and see that you do not suffer." He was as good as his
word, gave and helped to raise money for the defense, and attended
the trial to the close. Mr. Gorham, who received no Democratic aid of
importance, became one of his firmest and most intimate friends, and
when Mr. Chandler was appointed Secretary of the Interior Mr. Gorham
(who had then served five years as United States Minister at The Hague)
became the Assistant Secretary of that department. Of the same period
of Mr. Chandler's life this characteristic anecdote is told: John
Sumner, one of his Jackson customers, passed Sunday as his guest in
Detroit, and at church listened with him to a sermon of pro-slavery
flavor, followed by a prayer by a visiting clergyman in which the
Divine blessing was earnestly invoked upon the down-trodden and the
oppressed. At the conclusion of the services Mr. Chandler stepped to
the foot of the pulpit, sought an introduction to the utterer of the
prayer, and said: "Thank you for that prayer! It was all that I have
heard this morning that was worth hearing." Throughout the days of
Mr. Chandler's earnest attachment to the Whig party, his anti-slavery
feeling was pronounced.
In 1848 Mr. Chandler fleshed his political broadsword with one
or more speeches in behalf of General Taylor. He had been an
occasional participant in the debates of the Young Men's Society,
the training-school for not a few of Detroit's eminent men, but in
that year for the first time he addressed a miscellaneous audience
on public questions. His earlier speeches showed the strength of the
man, and despite some ruggedness were effective. In the State election
of 1849 Mr. Chandler took no active part. In 1850 he was one of the
Wayne county delegates to the Whig State convention, which met at
Jackson on the 18th of September, and nominated a ticket headed by
George Martin, of Kent, for Secretary of State; the following campaign
was a local one, arousing but little interest, and in it Mr. Chandler
did not prominently share. On February 19, 1851, the Whigs of Detroit
held a convention to select a city ticket for the charter election
in March, and after one informal ballot Mr. Chandler was unanimously
nominated by them for Mayor. This event marks the commencement of his
career as a popular, shrewd, and successful political leader. The
Democratic candidate for the Mayoralty was Gen. John R. Williams, a
native and one of the foremost citizens of Detroit, the president of
the Michigan constitutional convention of 1835, and the senior officer
of the State militia. He had been the first Mayor of the city, and had
held that place for six terms, and was a man of practical ability, the
owner of a large estate, and popular with the people. His personal
strength made him a formidable candidate, and his defeat not easy of
accomplishment. Mr. Chandler's answer to the delegation who waited
upon him with the question, "Will you run on the Whig ticket against
John R. Williams?" was, "I will and I will beat him too," and he put
all his energy into the campaign which followed. The Whig convention
by resolution presented his name to the people of Detroit as that of
"a man identified with its improvements, prominent in its welfare, and
interested in its prosperity," and in the Whig journals he was warmly
commended as "known to every man, woman, and child in the city as a
man of strict integrity, active and industrious business habits, of
great liberality of views, both in person and sentiment, and of the
purest moral character; eminently popular and affable in his habits of
intercourse with his fellow-citizens, his extensive business operations
have brought him in daily contact with all, through a long course of
years." His election was also urged on the ground that he was the only
candidate "known to be in favor of extending the various enterprises
of sewerage, pure water, pavements and sidewalks, just as fast as the
needs of a young city shall require," and because his "course in his
own business, and in relation to the public interest, has been an
energetic, discreet and efficient prosecution of everything upon which
he has laid his hands." During this canvass Mr. Chandler gave what is
believed to be the only lecture of his life, and its marked success
undoubtedly helped him at the ballot-box. It was delivered before
the Young Men's Society upon February 25, 1851, its theme being "The
Element of Success in Character." The newspaper report of it was as
follows:
The theme chosen by Mr. Chandler. "The Element of Success in
Character," though much worn, was most successfully treated.
Intending only to discourse from his own observations and
experience, his views were as philosophical as they were practical.
Therein was the charm and _takingness_ of the lecture. Without
rhetorical flourish the composition was excellent, severe in its
simplicity and directness, nevertheless abounding in beauty. For
originality, aptness of quotation and illustration, and felicitous
use of language, it ranks with the choicest productions before the
society. In his own person he furnished the very best illustration
and proof of success. Such a lecture from any one would do good,
but how much greater its influence when enforced by the living
example the lecturer himself affords of the truths of his teaching.
Mr. Chandler organized his first political battle with characteristic
thoroughness and system, visited every ward, called upon the voters,
and made a remarkable personal canvass. The result was that when the
ballots were counted it was found that he had carried every precinct
in Detroit and had defeated his opponent by 349 majority in a total
vote of less than 3,500. He led by nearly 400 the average vote of his
ticket, and the Democrats elected at the same time a large proportion
of their candidates. The victory was celebrated by a Whig serenade,
at which the Mayor-elect made a modest and brief speech of thanks.
This manifestation of personal strength and political skill at once
attracted State attention, and it became the source of new Whig hope.
Mr. Chandler's term as Mayor continued for one year, but was devoid of
especial incident, although even now some interest will be felt in this
official letter to Kossuth, which the Hungarian patriot answered with a
note of regretful declination:
DETROIT, January 10, 1852.
_To his Excellency Louis Kossuth_:
DEAR SIR: By resolution of the Common Council, it becomes my
pleasing duty to invite you to visit the city of Detroit and
partake of its hospitalities. Much as we esteem you personally,
highly as we appreciate your public and private worth, it is not
to these alone that we do homage, but to the great principles
which you advocate. We hail you as the champion of republicanism
in Europe, as God's instrument in arousing throughout the world
a hatred of despotism, as a man who has sacrificed his all, and
offers his life upon the altar of liberty, as a teacher of "even
bayonets to think." We, sir, have not been disinterested spectators
of your glorious struggle for Hungarian independence. We watched
with most intense interest the commencement and progress of that
sanguinary conflict. When we saw the people rising in their might,
the nobleman and citizen vieing with each other in devotion to
their country's cause, emulous in sufferings and sacrifices, under
such a leader, we felt that victory must crown your exertions;
and when we saw the elements of Despotism uniting to crush this
(to them) detested spirit of Freedom, when we saw the temporary
triumphs of your oppressors, we felt that all was not lost--that
the Almighty Ruler of the Universe would neither leave nor forsake
you in your low estate, that the days of despotism were numbered.
Again would I invite you to visit Detroit and partake of its
hospitalities. Again would I assure you of our deep sympathy for
your down-trodden country, and I hazard nothing by the assertion
that that sympathy will manifest itself in a tangible form. Whether
our government will act in your behalf as a government, is not for
me to say; whether it would be proper for it to do so, is not for
me to discuss at this time. But that you have the deep sympathy of
our entire population is manifest to all.
With great respect, I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER,
_Mayor of the City of Detroit_.
At the conclusion of Mr. Chandler's term as Mayor the Common Council of
Detroit, by unanimous vote, spread upon its records this resolution:
_Resolved by the Common Council of the City of Detroit_, That in
retiring from the office of chief magistrate of this city the
Hon. Zachariah Chandler, by his urbanity, fidelity and zeal in
the discharge of his official duties for the past year, merits
the admiration and respect of the Council, and that in retiring
to private life he carries with him our cordial wishes for his
happiness and prosperity.
In November, 1852, occurred Michigan's first general election under
the constitution of 1850. The Democratic candidate for Governor
was Robert McClelland, who had already held that office during the
preceding short term. General Cass alone surpassed this gentleman in
personal strength with his party in the State. Mr. McClelland was an
upright and able man, who had served with distinction in Congress, and
had held many important offices in Michigan; he subsequently became
Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of President Pierce. While
a member of the House of Representatives he had assisted in drafting
the original Wilmot Proviso, but he had grown conservative with his
party, and in 1852 came before the people as a warm champion of the
compromises of 1850. Personally he was a man of some reserve, but
affable with acquaintances and respected everywhere. He was renominated
enthusiastically and with every prospect of an easy re-election.
With the single exception of William Woodbridge, who was borne into
office on the Whig tidal-wave of 1839 and 1840, Michigan had chosen
an unbroken line of Democratic Governors. At the first election after
its admission to the Union, Stevens T. Mason had a majority of 237 in
a total poll of 22,299. The term for which Governor Woodbridge was
chosen (he resigned to take a seat in the Senate) was followed by six
successive Democratic victories. John S. Barry was elected in 1841
with 5,326 majority over his Whig competitor, Philo C. Fuller, and two
years later he defeated Dr. Zina Pitcher by 6,493 votes. Alpheus Felch
in 1845 had 3,807 majority over Stephen Vickery, Whig, and in 1847
Epaphroditus Ransom was chosen over James M. Edmunds by 5,649 votes. In
1849 John S. Barry was again elected, defeating Flavius J. Littlejohn,
Whig and Free Soiler, by 4,297 votes in a total poll of 51,377. In
1851, which was the last election under the old constitution, Robert
McClelland led Townsend E. Gidley 6,926 votes. The Liberty party, as a
distinct organization, also existed six years in Michigan, beginning
in 1841 with 1,214 votes and ending in 1847 with 2,585. Thus from 1841
to 1852 not only did the Democrats control Michigan but at every State
election had a clear majority over all shades of opposition.
In 1852 the chronic difficulties of the Whig situation in Michigan
were aggravated by the fact that the Baltimore convention which
nominated Scott and Graham had condemned that anti-slavery sentiment
of the party, which gave it all its virility in the West. The greater
portion of the Northern Whigs with Mr. Greeley supported the ticket
and "spat upon the platform," but some of them abandoned old party
affiliations and joined the Free Soil Democrats, who put up Hale and
Julian as their national candidates and in Michigan nominated a full
State ticket headed by Isaac P. Christiancy. The Whig State convention
of 1852 met at Marshall on July 1, and was called to order by Henry T.
Backus as chairman of the State Central Committee, and presided over by
Cyrus Lovell of Ionia. In the preliminary consultations Mr. Chandler's
was the name chiefly urged for the head of the ticket, on account of
his acquaintance throughout the State and the political strength and
capacity he had shown as a candidate in Detroit. This is an extract
from the official record of the convention:
On motion of W. A. Howard of Detroit a ballot was taken for
Governor and was announced by the tellers as follows:
Z. Chandler, 76
H. G. Wells, 7
G. A. Coe, 2
H. R. Williams, 1
J. R. Williams, 1
George R. Pomeroy, 2
On motion of Mr. DeLand of Jackson a formal ballot was had as
follows:
Z. Chandler, 95
H. G. Wells, 2
J. R. Williams, 1
Blank, 1
Mr. Chandler was not present and inquiry was made if it was known
whether he would accept the nomination. Mr. Wm. A. Howard of
Detroit, chairman of the delegation from that city, said on the
part of that delegation that he had seen Mr. Chandler previous to
leaving Detroit, and Mr. Chandler had said to him that he was not
a candidate for any of the offices under consideration, that he
preferred working in the ranks, but that should the convention see
fit to nominate him he was with them.
[Illustration: =Temperance Ticket.=
For Governor,
Zachariah Chandler.
For Lieut. Governor,
Andrew Parsons.
For Secretary of State,
George E. Pomeroy.
For State Treasurer,
Bernard C. Whittemore.
For Auditor General,
Whitney Jones.
For Attorney General,
Nathaniel Bacon.
For Sup't of Pub. Instruction,
U. Tracy Howe.
For Com'r of State Land Office,
Nathan Power.
For State Board of Education,
Isaac E. Crary, for the term of six years.
Grove Spencer, for the term of four years.
Chauncey Joslin, for a term of two years.
For Member of Congress 1st District,
William A. Howard.
For Member of Senate,
For Representative,
For Sheriff,
Henry B. Holbrook.
For Clerk,
Jeremiah Van Rensselaer.
For Prosecuting Attorney,
D. Bethune Duffield.
For Judge of Probate,
Rufus Hosmer.
Circuit Court Commissioner,
John S. Newberry.
For Register,
Robert E. Roberts.
FAC-SIMILE OF ONE OF THE STATE TICKETS OF MICHIGAN IN 1852.]
The result was hailed with hearty cheering, and Mr. Chandler soon
formally accepted this nomination and commenced a most energetic
personal canvass of the State. The Temperance party made up a ticket in
that year from the Democratic and Whig candidates, and Mr. Chandler was
also retained as its nominee for Governor, but this action was without
practical importance in the campaign or at the polls. During the fall
of 1852 the Whig nominee for Governor labored unremittingly. He visited
all the leading towns in the State, and spoke constantly from the
middle of September until the week before election. The list of his
appointments included Jonesville, Coldwater, Constantine, Cassopolis,
Howell, Lansing, Eaton Rapids, Hastings, Allegan, Grand Rapids, Ionia,
DeWitt, Corunna, Flint, Saginaw, Lapeer, Almont, Romeo, Mt. Clemens,
Ann Arbor, Jackson, Marshall, Battle Creek, St. Clair, and Detroit. His
addresses were vigorous, entertaining and telling, and while he neither
then nor afterward sought for the polished sentence or rounded period,
he showed that capacity for plainness and force of reasoning and for
hard-hitting which ultimately made his oratory so characteristic
and effective. In this series of speeches he dealt largely with the
national questions of Protection and Internal Improvements, and also
with the business aspects of the State administration. His friends
laid especial stress upon his strength as "a business man of energy,
integrity and success," and urged his election because he bore "the
reputation, well earned by a long course of business experience, of
being a keen and shrewd business man of the highest moral tone," and
because he was "endowed with remarkable business talent," and had
been "identified with the growth and interests of the State." Mr.
Chandler was also helped in this contest by his mercantile friendships
throughout Michigan, and by the natural pleasure with which his fellow
merchants saw one of their own guild fighting his way to political
distinction along the paths so largely occupied by men of professional
callings. As part of the organization of this canvass he mailed large
quantities of gummed "slips" bearing his name to acquaintances in all
parts of the State, and this is believed to be the first instance
in which this now common weapon of political warfare was used in
the Northwest. The Democrats found themselves compelled by this
unprecedentedly vigorous attack to put forth most strenuous efforts,
and General Cass labored assiduously to prevent the loss of his own
State. So pronounced did the opposition of the veteran Democratic
leader to the head of the Whig ticket become, that Mr. Chandler
laughingly said to friends by way of comment upon it, "I am afraid that
it will take General Cass's Senatorial seat to balance the account
between us."
But the national tide was then overwhelmingly against the Whigs,
and Southern distrust of General Scott and Northern wrath at the
circumstances of his nomination brought that party to the Waterloo
defeat from which it never recovered. Michigan cast 41,842 votes for
Pierce, 33,859 for Scott, and 7,237 for Hale. Mr. Chandler received
34,660 votes for Governor against 42,798 for McClelland, and 5,850 for
Christiancy. He thus received 801 more votes than Scott; he also led
the entire Whig State ticket by from 500 to 4,000 votes, and received
over 11,000 more votes than had ever been given to any Whig candidate
for Governor. He had made a resolute fight, and again strikingly
manifested his personal strength with the people and his political
ability.
In the Michigan Legislature of 1853, which was chosen at the same
State election, the Democrats had a majority on joint ballot of
forty-eight, and the Whig minority included but seven Senators and
twenty-one Representatives. The term of Alpheus Felch as United States
Senator expired on March 3, 1853, and Charles E. Stuart was chosen
as his successor. The Whigs gave expression to their high estimate
of the value of Mr. Chandler's services in the preceding campaign
by complimenting him with their united vote for the Senate, and the
footings of the Legislative ballot for that office were:
SENATE.
C. E. Stuart, 27
Z. Chandler, 7
HOUSE.
C. E. Stuart, 49
Z. Chandler, 21
H. K. Clarke, 1
This was the last important political action of the Whig party of
Michigan. Before another State election its formal dissolution had been
pronounced, and the great body of its members had gathered around the
cradle of infant Republicanism.
CHAPTER VI.
THE FORMATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
The darkest hour for the anti-slavery cause preceded the dawn of 1854.
The compromises of 1850 had closed that long series of so-called
bargains, by which the South had forced surrender after surrender
from the North in the vain hope of preserving by such artificial
devices its traditional preponderance in the government, so constantly
threatened by the rapid development of the free States and the
marvelous settlement of free territory. Behind the Louisiana purchase
from Bonaparte was slavery's demand for new States to reinforce
its political strength. Florida was bought from Spain for the same
reasons. The Missouri compromise of 1820 involved the admission of a
new slave State to the Union, and the organization of Arkansas as a
slave territory; it was the work of the advocates of slavery extension,
and was practically a surrender of free territory to bondage, the
only consideration being the exclusion of slavery from soil on which
(judging from all the experience of American settlement up to that
time) it could not be established nor maintained. The annexation of
Texas had been forced to add to the Union an enormous expanse of slave
territory, capable, it was hoped, of early division into several slave
States. The Mexican War was a peculiarly Southern scheme, having as
its real aim the conquest of an empire which was to include human
bondage among its established institutions. The futile plans for
the annexation of Cuba came from the same prolific source, and were
inspired by the same need of forcing the expansion of the political
power of the slave South to prevent its being outstripped by the
magnificent growth of the free North. But the forces of nature prove
more potent than human devices, and the last speech of John C. Calhoun
(read for him in the Senate on March 4, 1850,) showed how clearly this
fact had impressed itself on the ablest and acutest of the Southern
statesmen. That farewell address sketched minutely the history and
condition of the steadily-growing disparity between the North and the
South, declared in effect that the South with its institutions could
not permit Northern ascendancy, demanded from the North constitutional
amendments "which would restore to the South in substance the power
she possessed of protecting herself before the equilibrium between the
sections was destroyed," added that on no other basis could the South
safely remain in the Union, and said that, if this demand was refused,
"we would be blind not to perceive that your real objects are power and
aggrandizement, and infatuated not to act accordingly." To this candid
avowal of the Southern programme (ten years later it became evident
that Mr. Calhoun had stated then the slave power's ultimatum) the
answer was the final surrender of 1850. The compromise measures of that
year pledged the United States to the subdivision of Texas into new
(slave) States, organized Utah and New Mexico without any prohibition
of slavery within their boundaries, forbade the abolition of slavery in
the District of Columbia, and set the odious machinery of the Fugitive
Slave law in operation throughout the North. The consideration Freedom
received for these concessions was the admission of California to the
Union (it was evident that nothing but invasion and conquest could ever
make it a slave State) and the abolition of the slave trade in the
District of Columbia, amounting to a removal of the auction blocks of
slave dealers from the shadow of the Capitol to the narrow streets of
decaying Alexandria.
The opiate of compromise sufficed to keep still dormant the conscience
of the North, and the national acquiescence in this adjustment was
emphatic. The Whig and the Democratic parties in 1852 both formally
accepted in their platforms the legislation of 1850 as a decisive
and just settlement of the slavery question, and they polled almost
3,000,000 votes, while for the Free Soil ticket, representing hostility
to slavery extension and to pro-slavery compromises, but 155,000
votes were cast. The victory of the Democrats, who embodied in much
the fullest degree the spirit of concession to Southern demands,
was an overwhelming one. They carried 27 out of the 31 States, and
had 254 electoral votes out of 296, with a clear popular majority
over the entire opposition. In the Senate they had 14 majority out
of a membership of 62, and in the House a majority of 84 in a total
membership of 234. The condition of public sentiment then is thus
described by the most accurate and graphic historian of that era:
Whatever theoretic or practical objections may be justly made to
the compromise of 1850, there can be no doubt that it was accepted
and ratified by a great majority of the American people, whether
in the North or in the South. They were intent on business--then
remarkably prosperous--on planting, building, trading and getting
gain--and they hailed with general joy the announcement that all
the differences between the diverse "sections" had been adjusted
and settled. The terms of settlement were, to that majority, of
quite subordinate consequence; they wanted peace and prosperity,
and were no wise inclined to cut each other's throats and burn each
other's houses in a quarrel concerning (as they regarded it) only
the _status_ of negroes. The compromise had taken no money from
their pockets; it had imposed upon them no pecuniary burdens; it
had exposed them to no personal and palpable dangers; it had rather
repelled the gaunt spectre of civil war and disunion (habitually
conjured up when slavery had a point to carry), and increased
the facilities for making money, while opening a boundless vista
of national greatness, security and internal harmony. Especially
by the trading class, and the great majority of the dwellers in
seaboard cities, was this view cherished with intense, intolerant
vehemence.... Whatever else the election of 1852 might have meant,
there was no doubt that the popular verdict was against "slavery
agitation" and in favor of maintaining the compromises of 1850....
The finances were healthy and the public credit unimpaired.
Industry and trade were signally prosperous. The tariff had ceased
to be a theme of partisan or sectional strife. The immense yield of
gold in California during the four preceding years had stimulated
enterprise and quickened the energies of labor, and its volume as
yet showed no signs of diminution. And though the Fugitive Slave
law was still denounced, and occasionally resisted by abolitionists
in the free States, while disunionists still plotted in secret and
more openly prepared in Southern commercial conventions (having for
their ostensible object the establishment of a general exchange
of the great Southern staples directly from their own harbors
with the principal European marts, instead of circuitously by way
of New York and other Northern Atlantic ports) there was still a
goodly majority in the South, with a still larger in the North and
Northwest, in favor of maintaining the Union and preserving the
greatest practical measure of cordiality and fraternity between the
free and slave States, substantially on the basis of the compromise
of 1850.
This was the blackest chapter in the history of the agitation for
Freedom on this continent. The era seemed to have been at last reached
of national surrender to slavery's demands, and of the purchase
of peace by the abandonment of (with the promise never to resume)
resistance to "the sum of all villainies." John Quincy Adams had said
that up to his day "the preservation, propagation, and perpetuation
of slavery" had ever been "the animating spirit" of the American
government. Daniel Webster had bitterly declared in 1848 that there was
no North in American politics, and that the South absolutely controlled
the government. Certainly, in 1853, the surface of the political
situation fully justified the indignant words of Gerrit Smith: "Were
this government despotic and her religion heathen, there might be some
hope of republicanizing her politics and Christianizing her religion;
but now that she has turned into darkness the greatest of all political
lights and the greatest of all religious lights, what hope is left for
her?"
It was at this juncture, when its triumph appeared to be complete, that
slavery fatally overreached itself. The Missouri compromise of 1820,
which _forever_ prohibited slavery in all of the original Louisiana
territory north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes of north latitude, had
remained unquestioned upon the statute books for a generation. The
South had received the full benefits of its share of that bargain,
which added Arkansas and Missouri to the ranks of the slave States. In
the interminable discussions of 1850 there had been no suggestion that
the compromise measures of that year were intended to either disturb
or supersede the Missouri compact, and the first message of Franklin
Pierce congratulated the country on the sense of repose and security
in the public mind which the compromise measures had restored, and
added the pledge, "this repose is to suffer no shock during my official
term, if I have power to avert it." Before two months had elapsed,
the North heard with astonishment and indignation the doctrine laid
down in Congress by the representatives of the slave power that the
Missouri compromise had been abrogated by the measures of 1850, and
that the vast domain between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains, rich
in all material and political possibilities, was open to slaveholding
settlement. A few days more passed, and it was discovered that this
claim was receiving the powerful support of the administration, and
that it would also be championed by Stephen A. Douglas, with his
formidable energy, personal influence, and rare skill in debate, as a
step towards the vindication of his dogma of "Popular Sovereignty." Of
the memorable four months' struggle over this issue, the following is a
sketch in outline:
Soon after the Thirty-third Congress assembled, in December, 1853,
Senator A. C. Dodge, of Iowa, introduced a bill to organize the
Territory of Nebraska out of the magnificent region between Missouri
and Iowa and the Rocky Mountains. It was referred to the Committee on
Territories, and was reported back by Senator Douglas with amendments,
none of which, however, proposed to repeal the prohibition of slavery
included in the Missouri compromise. Upon this, Senator Archibald
Dixon, of Kentucky, a Whig who declared that on the question of slavery
he knew no Whiggery and no Democracy, but was a pro-slavery man,
gave notice that he should offer an amendment, providing that the
act of 1820 should not be so construed as to apply to the territory
contemplated by this act, nor to any other territory of the United
States. Senator Douglas thereupon had the bill recommitted, and
subsequently reported in an entirely different form, creating _two_
territories, Kansas and Nebraska, instead of one, and including the
provision that all questions pertaining to slavery in the territories
and in the new States to be formed therefrom should be left to the
action of the people thereof through their appropriate representatives,
and that the provisions of the constitution and laws of the United
States in respect to fugitives from service should be carried into
faithful execution in all the organized territories the same as in the
States. This was, equally with Senator Dixon's proposition, a direct
violation of the provision of the Missouri compromise, which was in
these words (Section 8): "That in all that territory ceded by France
to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of
36 degrees and 30 minutes of north latitude, not included within the
limits of the State contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary
servitude, otherwise than as the punishment of crime, shall be and is
hereby forever prohibited." In the last report, however, the pill was
sugar-coated with Mr. Douglas's catch-word of "Popular Sovereignty."
The territory which the Kansas-Nebraska bill was intended to organize
was included in this quoted prohibition. That bill as introduced, in
the section that provided for the election of a delegate to Congress
from Kansas, had the stipulation:
That the constitution and all laws of the United States, which are
not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect
within said territory as elsewhere in the United States.
To this the amended bill added the following reservation:
Except the section of the act preparatory to the admission of
Missouri into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which was
superseded by the principles of the legislation of 1850, commonly
called the compromise measure, and is declared inoperative.
A similar provision with a like reservation was added to the section
providing for the election of a delegate from Nebraska. A prolonged and
brilliant debate followed in the Senate, and finally in place of the
original reservation the following was adopted, on motion of Senator
Stephen A. Douglas, by a vote of 35 to 10:
Except the section of the act preparatory to the admission of
Missouri into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which, being
inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress
with slavery in the States and territories, as recognized by the
legislation in 1850 (commonly called the compromise measure), is
hereby declared inoperative and void, it being the true intent and
meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or
State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions
in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United
States.
Senator Chase then moved to add to the above the following:
Under which the people of the territory, through their appropriate
representatives, may, if they see fit, prohibit the existence of
slavery therein.
This amendment was voted down, yeas 10, nays 36, the Senate thus
declaring its understanding that the people of the new territories
should _not_ be allowed to prohibit slavery previous to their admission
as a State. The bill passed on the morning of March 4th, by a vote
of 37 to 14. In the House a separate bill had been introduced, but
when it came up for consideration the Senate bill was substituted for
it--by a parliamentary trick its opponents were prevented from offering
amendments--and the bill was passed, yeas 113, nays 100. It went back
to the Senate, in form as an original measure, but in effect the Senate
bill, and on May 26 was finally passed by that body and was approved by
President Pierce on May 30. The debate had been a memorable one; for
the friends of Liberty, while they resisted to the last the surrender
of what had been once bought for Freedom, joyfully recognized the fact
that this act would in its logic make every compromise repealable,
and thus kill in the womb all future political bargainings. Benjamin
F. Wade said in the Senate that "the violation of the plighted
faith of the nation would precipitate a conflict between liberty and
slavery; and that, in such a conflict, it will not be liberty that
will die in the nineteenth century. You may call me an Abolitionist
if you will; I care little for that, for if an undying hatred to
slavery constitutes an Abolitionist, I am that Abolitionist. If man's
determination at all times and at all hazards, to the last extremity,
to resist the extension of slavery, or any other tyranny, constitutes
an Abolitionist, I before God believe myself to be that Abolitionist."
William H. Seward said: "You are setting an example which abrogates all
compromises.... It has been no proposition of mine to abrogate them
now; but the proposition has come from another quarter--from an adverse
one. It is about to prevail. The shifting sands of compromise are
passing from under my feet, and they are now, without agency of my own,
taking hold again on the rock of the constitution. It shall be no fault
of mine if they do not remain firm." Charles Sumner closed his protest
against this removal of "the landmarks of freedom" by declaring the
measure to be "at once the worst and best bill on which Congress ever
acted--the worst inasmuch as it is a present victory for slavery, and
the best bill because it prepares the way for the 'All hail hereafter,'
when slavery must disappear. Sorrowfully I bend before the wrong you
are about to perpetrate. Joyfully I welcome all the promises of the
future."
The response of the North to the abrogation of the Missouri compromise
justified these predictions. To this overthrow of a solemn compact
for the purpose of opening a vast empire to attempts at slave
colonization, men of every shade of anti-slavery conviction made
answer by eagerly seeking ways of uniting in effective resistance to
such a crime against civilization. Amid an excitement, which grew
profounder as the contest progressed, and which was fed by the press,
the pulpit, and the lyceum, and was organized by public meetings,
the demand became daily stronger for political action on the basis of
uncompromising hostility to the aggressions of the slave power. Before
the Kansas-Nebraska controversy was finished the Whig party had ceased
to exist, the Democracy had become a pro-slavery organization, the era
of compromise had passed away, and the young giant of Republicanism
stood on the threshold of the territories commanding slavery to stand
back. This vast and far-reaching political revolution was accomplished
through the wholesale sacrifice of cherished ties by the friends of
free institutions and through their hearty union in the new party
of Freedom. The State in which this fusion of anti-slavery opinion
into Republicanism was first accomplished was Michigan, and the
Republican party as a distinct organization was born and christened
under the oaks of Jackson on the 6th of July, 1854. Political opinion
in that State was peculiarly ripe for this step. Its Whigs were with
but rare exceptions staunch anti-slavery men. Even Senator Cass's
great influence had failed to keep all the Democrats submissive to
pro-slavery compromises. The Free Soilers were strong in character
and several thousands in number. Thus when the opportunity came for
decisive action it found the men ready.
The Free Democrats of Michigan, encouraged by the increase in their
vote in 1852, and responding to an appeal of the "Independent Democrats
in Congress" (signed by Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Joshua R.
Giddings, Gerrit Smith, Edward Wade, and Alexander De Witt) for popular
resistance to the attack on the Missouri compact, held the first
political convention of 1854 in that State. It met in Jackson, on
February 22d, under a call issued at Detroit on January 12, and signed
by U. Tracy Howe, Hovey K. Clarke, Samuel Zug, Silas M. Holmes, S. A.
Baker, S. B. Thayer, S. P. Mead, J. W. Childs, and Erastus Hussey,
forming the state central committee of that party. The convention
was called to order by Hovey K. Clarke, and it organized with Wm.
T. Howell of Hillsdale as president. The committee on resolutions
consisted of Hovey K. Clarke, Fernando C. Beaman, Kinsley S. Bingham,
E. Hussey, Nathan Power, D. C. Leach, and L. Moore, and a committee of
twenty-four was appointed to nominate a State ticket. The committee on
resolutions reported a platform prepared by Hovey K. Clarke, declaring
freedom national and slavery sectional, and denouncing the attempt to
repeal the Missouri compromise as an infamous outrage upon justice,
humanity and good faith. The nominating committee submitted this list
of candidates for the State offices:
Governor--Kinsley S. Bingham.
Lieutenant-Governor--Nathan Pierce.
Secretary of State--Lovell Moore.
State Treasurer--Silas M. Holmes.
Auditor-General--Philotus Hayden.
Attorney-General--Hovey K. Clarke.
Commissioner of Land Office--Seymour B. Treadwell.
Superintendent of Public Instruction--Elijah H. Pilcher.
Member of Board of Education--Isaac P. Christiancy.
Kinsley S. Bingham was a pioneer farmer of Central Michigan, one of
the very best representatives of his influential class, and a man of
sterling sense, strong convictions, and excellent abilities. He had
served with honor in the State Legislature, and had as a Democratic
Congressman sustained alone in his State delegation the Wilmot
Proviso. His nomination was in itself the strongest possible appeal
to the anti-slavery Democrats of the State. The ticket also had upon
it the names of gentlemen who had in the past acted with the Whigs.
The convention ratified the reports of its committees, and after
listening to a few speeches adjourned. It was a significant fact that
two of the speakers were conspicuous Whigs, Henry Barns of the Detroit
_Tribune_, and Halmer H. Emmons; Mr. Emmons was especially emphatic
in his expression of the hope that before the day of election "all
the friends of freedom would be able to stand upon a common platform
against the party and platform of the slave propagandists."
Cotemporaneously with this organized action of the Free Soilers, but
outside of it and of all party lines, there were held many public
meetings throughout Michigan to denounce the Kansas-Nebraska act.
Some of these were county conventions in form, and others were local
mass-meetings. One of the latter took place at Detroit on the 18th of
February; Zachariah Chandler was among the many prominent citizens who
signed its call, and was one of the five speakers from its platform
(the others were Jonathan Kearsley, Samuel Barstow, James A. Van Dyke,
and D. Bethune Duffield). The tone of all the speeches was wholesomely
defiant, and this was also true of the resolutions adopted which were
reported by a committee consisting of Samuel Barstow, Jacob M. Howard,
Joseph Warren, James M. Edmunds, and Henry H. Le Roy. The effect of
this demonstration in the metropolis of the State upon public opinion
was marked, and it and like non-partisan action did much to pave the
way for the fusion of July. Powerful contributions to the same movement
came also from the strong and growing current of sentiment in that
direction throughout the entire North, and from the significant results
of many of the spring elections. Both New Hampshire and Connecticut
elected anti-administration candidates in March and April, and in
Michigan anti-slavery coalitions were successful in quite a number of
municipal contests, notably in the important city of Grand Rapids which
chose Wilder D. Foster mayor on that issue.
Throughout the spring of 1854 many private conferences (Mr. Chandler
sharing in them) were held in Michigan among representative men of
the Whigs, Free Soilers, and Anti-Nebraska Democrats to discuss the
feasibility of union and consider plans for its accomplishment. The
early action of the Free Soilers was in fact a practical obstacle in
the way. That party represented but a small element of the anti-slavery
sentiment of Michigan, and neither the sincerity of its purpose, nor
its tender of the olive branch by placing Whig names on its State
ticket, nor the soundness of its platform on the slavery question could
counterbalance the many reasons why the Whigs would not surrender
a time-honored organization and march bodily into the camp of what
they had always regarded as a faction of impracticables. There was
also much in the State situation to encourage Whig hope, for the
party there was almost solidly anti-slavery and certain to profit by
the weakening of the enemy through the revolt of the Anti-Nebraska
Democrats. But there was a vigor of principle and an intelligence of
sentiment in the Whig party of Michigan which encouraged the belief
that it would not subordinate essentials to a name, and that it would
assent to an anti-slavery union under conditions not involving any
seeming self-degradation. In fact it was called upon to make the only
real sacrifice involved in the desired coalition. The Free Soilers
were powerless, and had nothing to lose and everything to gain in
the new movement; the Anti-Nebraska Democrats were condemned by, and
without influence in, their own party; but the Whigs were strong
in numbers, and were asked to surrender a historic name, honorable
traditions and reviving hope for a doubtful experiment. But that the
hour demanded precisely this act of self-denial was clear, and men
of resolution and principle grappled with the problem of making it
possible. Altogether the most important work in that direction was done
by Joseph Warren, editor of the Detroit _Tribune_, then an influential
Whig paper, which began the publication in its columns of a series of
vigorous and well-considered articles advocating the organization of
a new party composed of all the opponents of slavery extension. This
policy accorded with the drift of public opinion, and, involving as
it did the disbanding of both the Whig and Free Soil organizations,
avoided any appearance of surrender and humiliation. Public and private
discussion made its wisdom plainer, and the proof of its feasibility
was followed by steps for its accomplishment. An indispensable
preliminary was the withdrawal of the "Free Democrat" ticket, as this
would remove the chief stumbling-block in the path of the anti-slavery
Whigs. Mr. Warren, whose personal labors at this juncture were of the
utmost value, writes with reference to the spirit with which the Free
Soil leaders met the demand for this step:
One of the first and chiefest obstacles to be overcome in order to
ensure the co-operation of all the opponents of slavery extension
in the movement looking to the organization of a new party, was
to induce the Free Soilers to consent to the withdrawal of their
ticket from the field, thus placing themselves on the same footing
as the Whigs (who as yet had made no nominations), free from all
entangling alliances and in a position to act in a way likely to
prove most effectual. But formidable as this obstacle seemed to
be in the beginning, it was promptly removed through the wisely
directed and patriotic efforts of the prominent leaders of the
party. Such men as Hovey K. Clarke, Silas M. Holmes, Kinsley S.
Bingham, Seymour Treadwell, all on the Free Soil ticket, F. C.
Beaman, S. P. Mead, I. P. Christiancy, W. W. Murphy, Whitney Jones,
U. Tracy Howe, Jacob S. Farrand, Rev. S. A. Baker, proprietor,
and Rev. Jabez Fox, editor of the Detroit _Free Democrat_, were
especially active and influential in preparing the way for this
necessary preliminary step.
This readiness of the Free Soil leaders to make the sacrifices required
on their part bore prompt fruit. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed
by the House on the 22d of May, and three days after a stirring call
was issued for a mass convention of the Free Democrats of Michigan at
Kalamazoo on June 21st. The village of Kalamazoo had long been a center
of anti-slavery sentiment, and the agitation against the pending bill
had been especially vigorous there and in the surrounding counties.
The call was full of fiery denunciation of the slavery propagandists,
and its vigor and _vim_ showed how thoroughly the people were aroused.
The convention itself, owing to bad weather and other inauspicious
circumstances, was not a large one, but its character and action were
significant and important. Among those in attendance were four of
the candidates on the "Free Democrat" ticket, including Kinsley S.
Bingham. M. A. McNaughton was made president, and Hovey K. Clarke,
from the committee for that purpose, reported a series of resolutions
reviewing the disgraceful proceedings of the session of Congress,
denouncing the Kansas-Nebraska bill as the crowning act of a series of
aggressions by which slavery had become the great national interest
of the country, and appealing to the virtue of the people "to declare
in an unmistakable tone their will that slavery aggression upon their
rights shall go no further, that there shall be no compromise with
slavery, that there shall be no more slave States, that there shall
be no slave territory, that the Fugitive Slave law shall be repealed,
that the abominations of slavery shall no longer be perpetrated under
the sanctions of the federal constitution, and that they will make
their will effective by driving from every place of official power the
public servants who have so shamelessly betrayed their trust, and by
putting in their places men who are honest and capable, men who will be
faithful to the constitution and the great claims of humanity." A final
resolution directed the appointment of a committee of sixteen, two from
each judicial district, to consult with others for the organization
of a new party animated and guided by the principles expressed in
the resolutions, and it empowered that committee, in case of the
establishment of an "efficient organization" of such a character,
to surrender the "distinctive organization" of the "Free Democrats"
and withdraw the State ticket nominated on the 22d of February. This
action, reached after a vigorous discussion, cleared the way for the
coalition.
A few days before the meeting of the Kalamazoo convention, but after
its probable course had become apparent, a call had appeared in the
columns of the Detroit _Tribune_ (it was copied, after the Kalamazoo
action, by the Detroit _Free Democrat_ also) for a mass-meeting at
Jackson, on July 6, of all the opponents of slavery extension. This
was signed by several thousand leading citizens of Michigan, in all
parts of the State, including Zachariah Chandler, Jacob M. Howard, H.
P. Baldwin, H. K. Clarke, Franklin Moore, John Owen, Jacob S. Farrand,
Shubael Conant, J. J. Bagley, E. B. Ward, R. W. King, James Burns,
Charles M. Croswell, Allen Potter, Austin Blair, Isaac P. Christiancy,
Chas. T. Gorham, and others. The signatures filled two newspaper
columns in close type, and it was announced on the last day that
several hundred names had been received too late for publication. The
text of this document was as follows:
TO THE PEOPLE OF MICHIGAN.
A great wrong has been perpetrated. The slave power of this country
has triumphed. Liberty is trampled under foot. The Missouri
compromise, a solemn compact, entered into by our fathers, has been
violated, and a vast territory dedicated to freedom has been opened
to slavery.
This act, so unjust to the North, has been perpetrated under
circumstances which deepen its perfidy. An administration placed in
power by Northern votes has brought to bear all the resources of
executive corruption in its support.
Northern Senators and Representatives, in the face of the
overwhelming public sentiment of the North, expressed in the
proceedings of public meetings and solemn remonstrances, without
a single petition in its favor on their table, and not daring to
submit this great question to the people, have yielded to the
seductions of executive patronage, and, Judas-like, betrayed the
cause of liberty; while the South, inspired by a dominant and
grasping ambition, has, without distinction of party, and with
a unanimity almost entire, deliberately trampled under foot the
solemn compact entered into in the midst of a crisis threatening
to the peace of the Union, sanctioned by the greatest names of our
history, and the binding force of which has, for a period of more
than thirty years, been recognized and declared by numerous acts
of legislation. Such an outrage upon liberty, such a violation
of plighted faith, cannot be submitted to. This great wrong must
be righted, or there is no longer a North in the councils of the
nation. The extension of slavery, under the folds of the American
flag, is a stigma upon liberty. The indefinite increase of slave
representation in Congress is destructive to that equality between
freemen which is essential to the permanency of the Union.
The safety of the Union--the rights of the North--the interests of
free labor--the destiny of a vast territory and its untold millions
for all coming time--and finally, the high aspirations of humanity
for universal freedom, all are involved in the issue forced upon
the country by the slave power and its plastic Northern tools.
In view, therefore, of the recent action of Congress upon this
subject, and the evident designs of the slave power to attempt
still further aggressions upon freedom--we invite all our fellow
citizens, without reference to former political associations, who
think that the time has arrived for a _union_ at the North to
protect liberty from being overthrown and down-trodden, to assemble
in mass convention on Thursday, the 6th of July next, at 4 o'clock,
P. M., at Jackson, there to take such measures as shall be thought
best to concentrate the popular sentiment of this State against the
aggression of the slave power.
The response to this appeal was the gathering at Jackson, on a
bright mid-summer day, of hundreds of influential men from all parts
of Michigan, representing every shade of anti-slavery feeling, and
thoroughly alive to the importance of the occasion and the difficulty
of the task projected. The convention far outstripped in numbers the
preparations for its accommodation, and, after filling to excess the
largest hall in the town, it adjourned to meet in a beautiful oak
grove, situated between the village and the county race-course, on a
tract of land then known as "Morgan's Forty." The growth of Jackson has
since covered this historic ground with buildings, and the spacious
grove has dwindled to a few scattered oaks shading the city's busy
streets. A rude platform erected for speakers was appropriated by the
officers of the convention, and about it thronged a mass of earnest
men, the vanguard of the Republican host. In a body so incongruous
and unwieldy, confused purposes, discordant views, and conflicting
interests were unavoidable, but the universal fervor of the fusion
sentiment formed a broad foundation for harmonious action, and the
convention did not lack for shrewd and sagacious political managers
with the skill to direct earnest effort into practical channels. Such
differences of opinion as there were on questions of policy and as
to candidates exhausted themselves in private conferences and secret
committee deliberations, and the convention itself did its business
with promptness, without discord, and amid a genuine enthusiasm.
Its temporary chairman was the Hon. Levi Baxter, of Jonesville, a
pioneer settler of Southern Michigan, and the founder of a family of
marked prominence in that State. He was well known as the master spirit
of many important business enterprises, had been a Whig and then a Free
Soiler, and had been elected to the State Senate by a local coalition
of both those parties in his own county. After a brief address by
Mr. Baxter, Jeremiah Van Renselaer was chosen temporary secretary,
and this committee on permanent organization was appointed: Samuel
Barstow, C. H. Van Cleeck, Isaac P. Christiancy, G. W. Burchard, Lovell
Moore, James W. Hill, Henry W. Lord, and Newell Avery. While they were
deliberating, the convention adjourned to the oak grove, and there
listened to brief speeches until a permanent organization was effected
with the following gentlemen as officers of the first Republican State
convention ever held:
President--David S. Walbridge, of Kalamazoo.
Vice-Presidents--F. C. Beaman, Oliver Johnson, Rudolph Diepenbeck,
Thomas Curtis, C. T. Gorham, Pliny Power, Emanuel Mann, Charles
Draper, George Winslow, Norman Little, John McKinney, W. W. Murphy.
Secretaries--J. Van Renselaer, J. F. Conover, A. B. Turner.
Mr. Walbridge was a prominent merchant of Central Michigan, and an
exceedingly active and earnest Whig. He had already served several
terms in the Legislature and was afterward a Republican Congressman
for four years from Michigan. His selection as president of the
convention was a wise recognition of the important Whig element in its
membership. The great throng next separated into representatives of
the four congressional districts, and chose the following committee
on resolutions: Jacob M. Howard, Austin Blair, Donald McIntyre, John
Hilsendegen, Charles Noble, Alfred R. Metcalf, John W. Turner, Levi
Baxter, Marsh Giddings, E. Hussey, A. Williams, John McKinney, Chas.
Draper, M. L. Higgins, J. E. Simmonds, Z. B. Knight. The chairmanship
of this important committee naturally fell to Jacob M. Howard,
of Detroit, a lawyer of eminence and rare powers, the first Whig
Congressman from Michigan, and a man of deservedly high reputation
for intellectual vigor and personal integrity. He was afterward for
nine years a Republican Senator, and at Washington earned national
distinction as the author of the Thirteenth Amendment and by much
able and laborious public service. Mr. Howard had prepared a draft
of a platform in advance of the convention, and the committee met to
consider it under a clump of trees on the outskirts of the grove (at
the present intersection of Franklin and Second streets in the city
of Jackson). No material modifications were made in the document,
which was adopted substantially as written by Mr. Howard, except that
Austin Blair proposed to add two resolutions relating to State affairs
purely. As to the expediency of this action there was some difference
of opinion, and finally Mr. Blair submitted his propositions as a
minority report, and the convention adopted and thus added them to the
main platform. Over the resolution formally christening the new party
"Republican," there was no especial discussion. There had already been
suggestions made throughout the country that, for the new organization
evidently about to be born, it might be expedient to revive "the name
of that wise conservative party, whose aim and purpose were the welfare
of the whole Union and the stainless honor of the American name."[4]
The history of this resolution in the Howard platform has been thus
given with undoubted correctness by Mr. Joseph Warren in a published
letter: "The honor of having named and christened the party the writer
has always claimed and now insists belongs jointly to Jacob M. Howard,
Horace Greeley and himself. Soon after the writer began to advocate,
through the columns of the _Tribune_, the organization of all opponents
of slavery into a single party, Horace Greeley voluntarily opened a
correspondence with him in regard to this movement, in which he frankly
communicated his views and gave him many valuable suggestions as to the
wisest course to be pursued. This correspondence was necessarily very
short, as it began and ended in June, it being only five weeks from the
repeal of the compromise, May 30, to the Jackson convention. In his
last letter, received only a day or two before it was to assemble, Mr.
Greeley suggested to him 'Republican,' according to his recollection,
but, as Mr. Howard contended, 'Democrat-Republican,' as an appropriate
name for the proposed new party. But this is of comparatively little
consequence. The material fact is, that this meeting the writer's
cordial approval, he gave Mr. Greeley's letter containing the
suggestions to Mr. Howard on the day of the convention, after he had
been appointed chairman of the committee on resolutions, and strongly
advised its adoption. This was done and the platform adopted."
While the committee on resolutions was absent, the convention was
addressed by Zachariah Chandler, Kinsley S. Bingham, and a number of
others. No complete record was made of Mr. Chandler's remarks upon
this occasion, but the report of the convention in the Detroit _Free
Democrat_, prepared by its secretary, contains this: "We would say in
parenthesis that an allusion most generously made by Mr. Chandler to
Mr. Bingham drew from the crowd three rousing cheers for the latter
gentleman." The Jackson _Citizen_ also gave the following reference
to Mr. Chandler's remarks: "When in the course of his speech he gave
a brief history of the Wilmot Proviso in Michigan, alluding to the
anti-slavery resolutions passed by a Democratic State convention
in 1849, and the resolutions of instructions to our Senators and
Representatives in Congress by the Legislature on the same subject,
and then exclaimed that 'not one of our Representatives had ever been
_honest_ enough to carry them out except Kinsley S. Bingham, a spark
of enthusiasm fired the crowd, the shout of approbation ran through
the vast assembly, and, if any doubt had previously existed as to who
should be the man, that doubt was then removed." These addresses were
followed by the report of the committee on resolutions, which was read
by Mr. Howard amid frequent outbursts of applause, and was as follows:
The freemen of Michigan, assembled in convention in pursuance of
a spontaneous call, emanating from various parts of the State, to
consider upon the measures which duty demands of us, as citizens of
a free State, to take in reference to the late acts of Congress on
the subject of slavery and its anticipated further extension, do
_Resolve_, That the institution of slavery except in punishment
of crime is a great moral, social and political evil; that it was
so regarded by the fathers of the republic, the founders and best
friends of the Union, by the heroes and sages of the Revolution
who contemplated and intended its gradual and peaceful extinction
as an element hostile to the liberties for which they toiled;
that its history in the United States, the experience of men best
acquainted with its workings, the dispassionate confession of
those who are interested in it; its tendency to relax the vigor
of industry and enterprise inherited in the white man; the very
surface of the earth where it subsists; the vices and immoralities
which are its natural growth; the stringent police, often wanting
in humanity and revolting to the sentiments of every generous
heart, which it demands; the danger it has already wrought and the
future danger which it portends to the security of the Union and
our constitutional liberties--all incontestably prove it to lie
such evil. Surely that institution is not to be strengthened and
encouraged against which Washington, the calmest and wisest of our
nation, bore unequivocal testimony; as to which Jefferson, filled
with a love of liberty, exclaimed: "Can the liberties of a nation
be ever thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis,
a conviction in the minds of the people that their liberties are
THE GIFT OF GOD; that they are not to be violated but with His
wrath? Indeed, I tremble, for my country when I reflect that God
is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever; that, considering
numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel
of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events; that
it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty
has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest!"
And as to which another eminent patriot in Virginia, on the close
of the Revolution, also exclaimed: "Had we turned our eyes inwardly
when we supplicated the Father of Mercies to aid the injured and
oppressed, when we invoked the Author of Righteousness to attest
the purity of our motives and the justice of our cause, and
implored the God of battles to aid our exertions in its defense,
should we not have stood more self-convicted than the contrite
publican?" We believe these sentiments to be as true now as they
were then.
_Resolved_, That slavery is a violation of the rights of man as
man; that the law of nature, which is the law of liberty, gives to
no man rights superior to those of another; that God and nature
have secured to each individual the inalienable right of equality,
any violation of which must be the result of superior force; and
that slavery therefore is a perpetual war upon its victims; that
whether we regard the institution as first originating in captures
made in war, or the subjection of the debtor as the slave of his
creditor, or the forcible seizure and sale of children by their
parents or subjects by their king, and whether it be viewed in
this country as a "_necessary evil_" or otherwise, we find it to
be, like imprisonment for debt, but a relic of barbarism as well
as an element of weakness in the midst of the State, inviting the
attack of external enemies, and a ceaseless cause of internal
apprehension and alarm. Such are the lessons taught us, not only
by the histories of other commonwealths, but by
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