LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ' — Ci - y "^ ^\^ — %m^M 1^* ■ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. CHIPS FKOM THK WHITE HOUSE OB WORDS OF OUR PRESIDENTS SELECTIONS FROM THE Speeches, Conversations, Diaries, Letters, and Other Writings, of all the Presidents of the United States COMPILED BY JEREMIAH Chaplin CHICAGO The Interstate Publishing Company BOSTON : 30 FRANKLIN STREET Copyright, 1886, By Th« Intbrstatb Publishing Company. TO JAMES A. GARFIELD, WORTHY SUCCESSOK TO THE BEST WHO HAVE PRECEDED HIM IN THE HIGHEST OFFICE OF THE REPUBUC, i^is 0olunit IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. Mabcu 4, IS81. The Presidents. FROM 1789 TO 1885—96 YEARS. GEOKGE WASHINGTON, Virginia, 1789-1797 — 8 ycai-s. JOHN ADAMS, Massachusetts, 1797-1801 — 4 years. THOMAS JEFFERSON, Virginia, 1801-1809 — 8 years, JAMES M.IDISON, Virginia, 1809-1817 — 8 j-cars. JAMES MONROE, Virginia, 1817-1825 — 8 years, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Massachusetts, 1825-1829 — 4 years. ANDREW JACKSON, Tennessee, 1829-1837 — 8 years. MARTIN VAN BUREN. New York, 1837-1841 —4 years. WILLIAM HENRY ILVRRISON, Ohio, 1841 — 1 month. JOHN TYLER, Virginia, 1841-1845 — 3 years and 11 months. JAMES K. POLK, Tennessee, 1845-1849 — 4 j-ears, ZACIIARY TAYLOR, Louisiana, 1849-1850 — 1 year, 4 months. 5 days. MILL/UID FILLMORE, New York, 1850-1853 — 2 years, 7 months, 22 days. FRANKLIN PIERCE, New Hampshire, 1853-1857 — 4 years, JAMES BUCHANAN, Pennsylvania, 1857-1861-4 j-ears. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Illinois, 1861-18G5 — 4 years, 1 month, and 11 days, ANDREW JOHNSON, Tennessee, 1865-1869 — 3 years, 10 months, and 17 days. ULYSSES S. GRANT, Illinois, 1869-1877— 8 years. IIUTIIEPJ'ORD B. HAYES, Ohio, 1877-1881— 4 years. JAMES A. GARFIELD, Ohio, 1881 — 6 months. CHESTER A. ARTHUR, New York, 1881-1885 — 3 years 6 mouths. GROVER CLEVELAND, New York, 1885- PREFACE. The present volume is not intended to be so much a contribution to political science, as to exhibit aa interesting phase in American history, as it appears in the opinions, upon a variety of subjects of general interest, political and otherwise, of the men who, dur- ing the period of nearly a centurj', have successively reached the highest position in the Republic. It is an occasion for just pride for ourselves, and cheering anticipations for mankind, that, be^'ond all precedent in ancient and modern times, in the regular succession of rulers, the chief magistrates of the United States have all been men of fair reputation and abilities, and many of them men of superior intellectual capacity and singular devotion to the interests of humanity and freedom. This fact speaks loudly in favor of popular self-government, as opposed to hereditary rule. In this important respect, as in other ways, the people have never failed to show their capacitj' to manage their own affairs. And the history of the past fur- nishes a guarantee, that no man of feeble abilitj- or 8 PREFACE. questionable moralitj' can hereafter gain the suffrages of the free citizens of America, to represent and exe- cute their will in the highest office in their gift. In the case of two or three of the Presidents, the selections from their writings are necessarily brief and unsatisfactory ; but for the rest, more abundant mate- rial has enabled us to present their opinions with sufficient fulness. It is proper to state that for the conversations of General Grant, we are indebted to a work of much interest and value — " Around the World with General Grant in 1877-1879," by John R. Young. J. C. C O IS^ T E IS^ T S . Chapter. Paoe. I. George Washington 11 II. John Adams 45 III. Thomas Jefferson 88 IV. James Madison Ill V. James Monroe ...... 127 VI. JoiiH QuiNcy Adams 133 VII. Andrew Jackson 176 VIII. Martin Van Bcren 18G IX. William Henry Harrison .... 195 X. John Tyler 202 XI. James K. Polk 205 XII. Zachary Taylor 210 XIII. Millard Fillmore 212 XIV. Franklin Pierce 217 XV. James Buchanan 219 XVI. Abraham Lincoln 223 XVII. Andrew Johnson 284 XVIII. Ulysses S. Grant 292 XIX. Rutherford B. Hates 347 XX. James A. Garfield ... . . 388 XXI. Chester A. Arthur 480 XXII. Grover Cleveland 490 " Thf.ke is not, perhaps, one sovereign of the Continent wlio, in any sense of the word, can be said to honor our nature, while many make us almost ashamed of it. The curtain is seldom drawn aside without exhibiting to us beings, worn out with vicious indulgence, diseased in mind if not in body, the creatures of caprice and insensibility. " On the other hand, since the foundation of the American Kcpublic, the chair has never been filled by a man for whose life, to say the least, any American need to blusli." — London Morning Chronicle, after the death of Adams a7id Jefferson. "Every four years there springs from the vote created by the whole people a President over that great nation. I think the world afibrds no finer spectacle than this : I think it afibrds no higher dignity — that there is no greater object of ambition on the political stage on which men are permitted to move. You may point, if you like, to hereditary royalty, — to crowns coming down through successive generations in the same fami- lies, to thrones based on prescription or on conquest, to sceptres wielded over veteran legions or subject reiilms, — but to my mind there is nothing more worthy of reverence or obedience, nothing more sacred, than the authority of a freely chosen magistrate of a great and free people." — John Bright, Speech at Rochdale, Eng., Dec. 4, 1860. 10 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. GEOEGE WASHINGTON. BOEN 1732; DIED 1799, AGED 67. — RIAJOR EST 1751. — MEIMBEB OF PEOVrSCIAL ASSEMBLY OF VIKGINLl. — COIVEMANDEK- IN-CIilEF OF THE COKTINENTAL ARMY, JUNE 15, 1775.— RESIGNED HIS COSIBIAND, DECEMBER 23, 1783. — MEMBER OF THE CONVENTION "WHICH FRAJMED THE CONSTITU- TION, 1787. — PRESIDENT, 1789-1797. [To Captain Robert Mackenzie, of Virginia, who had written to "Washington from Boston, September 13, 1774, complaining of tlie province of Massachusetts as aiming at "total independence," and that "the rebellious and numer- ous meetings of men in arms, their scandalous and ungen- erous attacks upon the best characters in the province, obliging thcni to save tliemselves by flight, and tlieir re- peated but feeble threats to dispossess the troops, have fur- nislied sufucicnt reasons to General Gage to put the town in a formidable state of defence, about which we are now fully employed, and which will be shortly accomplished, to their gi'eat mortilication."] Pmr.ADELPHiA, 9 October, 1774. Dear Sir : Your letter of the 13th uhimo, from Boston, gave me pleasure, as I learnt thereby)' that you were well, and might be expected at Mount 11 12 CHIPS FR03r TTTE "SMTITE HOUSE. Vernon, in your way to and jErom James Eiver, in the course of the winter. When I have said this, permit me, with the freedom of a friend, to express my sorrow that fortune should place you in a service that must fix curses to the latest posterity upon the contrivers, and, if success (which, by the by, is impossilDle) accompanies it, execrations upon all those who have been instrumental in the execution. I do not mean l3y this to insinuate that an officer is not to discharge liis duty, even when chance, not choice, has placed him in a disagreeable situ- ation ; but I conceive, when you condemn the con- duct of the Massachusetts people, you reason from effects, not causes ; otherwise you would not won- der at a people, who are every day receiving fresh proofs of a systematic assertion of an arbitrary power, deeply planned to overturn the laws and constitution of their country, and to violate the most essential and valuable rights of manldnd, being irritated, and with difficulty restrained from acts of the gi'catest violence and intemperance. For my own part, I confess to you candidly, that I view things in a very different point of hght from the one in wliich you seem to consider them ; and though you are led to believe by venal men, — for I must take the liberty of so calhng those new- fangled counsellors who fl}^ to and suiTound you, and all others who for honor or pecmiiar}- grati- GEORGE WASHINGTON. 13 fication will lend their aid to overturn the consti- tution, and introduce a system of arbitrary gov- ernment, — although 3^ou are taught, I say, by discoursing with such men, to beheve that the people of Massachusetts are rebellious, setting up for independency, and what not, give me leave, my good friend, to tell you that you are abused, grossly abused. This I advance with a degree of confidence and boldness which may claim your be- lief, having better opportunities of knowing the real sentiments of the people you are among, from the leaders of them, in opposition to the present measures of the administration, than you have from those whose business it is not to disclose truths, but to misrepresent facts in order to jus- tify as much as possible to the world their own conduct. Give me leave to add, — and I think I can announce it as a fact, — that it is not the wish or interest of that government, or any other upon this continent, separately or collectively, to set up for independence ; but this you may at the same time rely on, that none of them will ever submit to the loss of those valuable rights and privileges wliich are essential to the happiness of every free state, and without which, life, liberty, and prop- erty are rendered totally insecm-e. 14 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. [From a reiily to a Congratulatory Address by the President of the New Yoi-k Congi-ess, 1775.] As to the fatal but necessary operations of war, when we assumed the soldier we did not lay aside tlic citizen ; and we shall most sincerely rejoice with you in that happy hour when the establish- ment of American liberty on the most firm and solid foundations shall enable us to return to our private stations, in the bosom of a free, peaceful, and happy country. [From a letter to his wife, on his appointment to the com- mand of the American army, 1775.] You may believe me when I assure you, in the most solemn manner, that, so far from seeking this appointment, I have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwilhngness to part with you and the family, but from a con- sciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity, and I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven times seven years. But as it has been a Idnd of destiny that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it is designed to answer some good purpose I shall rely confidently on that Providence which has heretofore preserved and been bountiful to me, not doubting but that I shall return safe to GEORGE WASHINGTON. 15 you in the fall. I shall feel no pain from the toil or danger of the campaign ; my mihappiness will flow from the uneasiness I know you will feel from being left alone. I therefore beg that you will summon your whole fortitude, and pass your time as agreeably as possible. Nothing will give me so much sincere satisfaction as to hear this, and to hear it from your own pen. [From a letter to his brother John Augustine, on the same occasion.] I am now to bid adieu to you, and to every kind of domestic ease, for awhile. I am embarked on a wide ocean, boundless in its prospect, and in which, perhaps, no safe harbor is to be found. I have been called upon by the unanimous voice of the colonies to take the command of the con- tinental army ; an honor I neither sought after nor desired, as I am thoroughly convinced that it re- quires gTeat abilities, and much more experience than I am master of. ... I shall hope that my friends will visit, and endeavor to keep up the spirits of, my wife as much as they can, for my departure will, I know, be a cutting stroke upon her ; and on this account alone I have many disa- greeable sensations. 16 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. [Letter to George William Fairfax, England. The fight at Concord, here referred to, occurred April 19, 1775.] Philadelphia, 31st May, 1775. Dear Sir : Before this letter will come to hand you must undoubtedly have received an account of the engagement in the Massachusetts Bay be- tween the ministerial troops (for we do not, nor can we yet prevail upon ourselves to, call them the king's troops) and the provincials of that gov- ernment. General Gage acknowledges that the detach- ment under Lieutenant-Colonel Smith was sent out to destroy private propert}', or, in other words, to destroy a magazine which self-preser- vation oblisred the inhal^itants to estal)lish. And he also confesses, in effect, at least, that his men made a very precipitate retreat from Concord, notwithstanding the reinforcement under Lord Percy ; the last of which may serve to convince Lord Sandwich, and others of the same sentiment, that the Americans will lio-ht for their libei-ties and property, however pusillanimous in his lordship's eye they may appear in other respects. From the best accounts T have been able to col- lect of that affair, indeed from every one, I believe the fact, stripped of all coloring, to be plainly this : That if the retreat had not been as precipitate as it was, and God knows it could not well ha^e been more so, the ministerial troops must have surren- GEORGE WASHINGTON. 17 dered, or been totally cut off. For they hud not arrived in Charlestown (under cover of their ships) half an hour, before a powerful body of men from Marblehead and Salem was at their heels, and must, if they had happened to be up one hour sooner, inevital)ly have intercepted their retreat to Charlestown. Unhappy it is, thou2:h, to reflect, that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's breast, and that the once happ}- and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative ! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice? [From a letter to Joseph Reed.] Cambridge, 14 January, 177G. Dear Sir : The reflection on my situation, and that of this army, produces many an unhap}>y hour when all around me are wrapi)cd in sleep. Few perisons know the predicament we arc in on a thousand accounts ; fc^ver still will believe, if any disaster happens to these lines, from what cause it flows. 1 have often thought how much happier I should have been if, instead of accepting the com- mand under such circumstances, I had taken my musket' on my shoulder and entered the ranks, or, if I could have justitiod tlu; matter to i)ostcrity and my own conscience, had retired to the back coun- try and lived in a wigwam. K I shall be able 2 18 CHIPS FROM THE "WHITE HOUSE. to rise superior to these and many other difficul- ties which might be enumerated, I shall most re- ligiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it, to blind the eyes of our enemies ; for surely, if we get well tjirough this month, it must be for want of their knowing the disadvantages we labor under. [To Benedict Calvert.] Mount Veenon, 3 April, 1773. Dear Sir : I am now set down to write you on a subject of importance, and of no small embaiTass- ment to me. My son-in-law and ward, Mr. Cus- tis, has, as I have been informed, paid his addresses to your second daughter, and, having made some progress in her affections, has solicited her in mar- riage. How far a union of this sort may be agi'ee- able to you, you best can tell ; but I should think myself wanting in candor, were I not to confess that Miss Nelly's amial)le qualities are acknowl- edged on all hands, and that an alliance with your family will be pleasing to his. This acknowledgment being made, you must permit me to add, sir, that at this, or in any short time, his youth, inexperience, and unripened edu- cation, are, and will be, insuperable obstacles, in my opinion, to the completion of the man-iage. As his guardian, I conceive it my indispcnsalile duty to endeavor to carry him through a regular course GEORGE WASHINGTON. 19 of education, (many branches of which, I am sorry to add, he is totally deficient in,) and to guard his youth to a more advanced age before an event, on which his own peace and the happiness of another are to depend, takes place. Not that I have any doubt of the warmth of his affections, nor, I hope, I may add, any fears of a change in them ; but at present I do not conceive that he is capable of be- stowing that attention to the important consequences of the married state, which is necessary to l)e given by those who are about to enter into it, and of course I am unwilling he should do it till he is. If the affection which they have avowed for each other is fixed upon a solid basis, it will receive no diminution in the course of two or three years, in which time he may prosecute his studies, and thereby render himself more deserving of the lady, and useful to society. If, unfortunately, as they are both young, there should be an abatement of affection on either side, or both, it had better pre- cede than follow marriage. Delivering my sentiments thus freely will not, I hope, lead you into a belief that I am desirous of breaking off the match. To postpone it is all I ha\'e in view ; for I shall recommend to the young gentleman, with the warmth that becomes a man of honor, (notwithstanding he did not vouchsafe to consult either his mother or me on the occasion,) to consider himself as much engaged to your 20 CHIPS FROM THE WIHTE HOUSE. daughter as if the indissoluble knot were tied ; and, as the surest means of effecting this, to apply himself closely to his studies, (and in this advice I flatter myself you will join me,) by which he will, in a great measure, avoid those little flirtations with other young ladies, that may, by dividing the attention, contribute not a little to divide the af- fection. It may be expected of me, perhaps, to say some- thing of property ; but, to descend to particulars, at this time, must seem rather premature. In general, therefore, I shall inform 3"ou, that Mr. Custis's estate consists of about fifteen thousand acres of land, a good part of it adjoining the City of Wilhamsburg, and none of it forty miles from that place ; several lots in the said city ; between two and three hundred Negroes ; and about eight or ten thousand pounds upon hand, and in the hands of his merchants. This estate he now holds indciocndent of his mother's dower, which will be an addition to it at her death ; and, upon the whole, it is such an estate as you will readily ac- knowledge ought to entitle him to a hAndsome por- tion with a wife. But as I should never require a child of my own to make a sacrifice of himself to interest, so neither do I think it incumbent on me to recommend it as a guardian. At all times, when you, ]\Irs. Calvert, or the young ladies can make it convenient to favor us GEORGE WASHINGTON. 21 ■with a visit, we should be happy in seeing you at this place. Mrs. Washington and Miss Custis join me in respectful compliments, and I am, dear sir, your most obedient servant. [Letter to Miss Phillis Wheatley, a colored poet, who pub- lished a volume of poems in 1773, when she was nine- teen j-eafs of age. She addressed a letter and poem to Washington.] Cambridge, 28 February, 177G. Miss Phillis : Your favor of the 26th of Octo- ber did not reach my hands till the middle of De- cember. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of important occurrences, continually interposing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming l)ut not real neglect. I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant hues you enclosed ; and how- ever undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a strildug proof of your poetical talents ; in honor of which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have pul)lished the poem had I not been apprehensive that, while I only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I might have incun'ed the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it place in the pubho prints. 22 CHIPS FROM THE ^VHITE HOUSE. If 3^ou should ever come to Cambridge, or neur head-quarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the JNIuses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. I am, with great respect, your obedisnt humble servant. [From Orderly Book, August 3d, 1776.] That the troops may have an opportunity of at- tending public worshijD, as well as to take some rest after the great fatigue they have gone through, the General in future excuses them from fatigue duty on Sunday's, except at the ship-yards, or on special occasions, until further orders. The Gen- eral is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in an American army, is growing into fashion ; he hopes the offi- cers will, by example as well as influence, endeavor to check it, and that both they and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms, if we insult it by our im- piety and folly ; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it. [From a letter, August 20, 1778.] The hand of Providence has been so conspicu- ous in all this, that he must be worse than an GEORGE WASHINGTON. 23 infidel, that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. [To Dr. Jolin Cochrane, Surgeon and Physician General.] West Point, 16 August, 1779. Deak Doctor : I have asked INlrs. Cochrane and Mrs. Livingston to dine with me to-morrow ; but am I not in honor bound to apprise them of theii fare? As I hate deception, even where the imagi- nation only is concerned, I will. It is needless to premise, that my table is large enough to hold the ladies. Of this they had ocular proof yesterday. To say how it is usually covered is rather more essential ; and this shall be the purport of my letter. Since our arrival at this happy spot, we have had a ham, sometimes a shoulder of bacon, to grace the head of the tabic ; a piece of roast beef adorns the foot ; and a dish of beans or greens, almost imperceptible, decorates the centre. When the cook has a mind to cut a figure, which I pre- sume will be the case to-morrow, we have two beef- steak pies, or dishes of crabs, in addition, one on each side of the centre dish, dividing the space and reducing the distance between dish and dish to about six feet, which without them would be near twelve feet apart. Of late he has had the surpris- ing sagacity to discover that apples will make pies • 24 CHIPS FKOil THE ^\TIITE HOUSE. and it is a question, if in the violence of his efibrts, we do not get one of apples, instead of having both of beef-steaks. If the ladies can put up with such entertainment, and will submit to partake of it on plates once tin but now iron (not become so by the labor of scouring), I shall be happy to see them ; I am, dear Doctor. Yours, etc. [From a letter to Lafayette, in 1783, four years before th? adoption of the Fudnral Constitution, and six years before his inauguration as President.] We are now an independent people, and have yet to learn political tactics. We are placed among the nations of the earth, and have a character to establish; but how we shall acquit ourselves time must discover. The probability is (at least I fear it), that local or state politics will interfere too nmch with the more liberal and extensive plan of government which wisdom and foresight freed from the mist of prejudice, would dictate ; and that we shall be guilty of many blunders in tread- ing this boundless theatre before we shall have arrived at any perfection in this art ; in a word, that the experience which is purchased at the prici of difficulties and distress, will alone convince us, that the honor, power, and true interest of this country must ))e measured b^'' a continental seals, and that every departure therefrom weakens t'le GEORGE WASHINGTON. 25 Union, and may ultimatcl}' l)re:ik the band wlii.'h holds us too-ethcr. To avert these evils, to ibrni a new constitution that v\'ill give consistency, sta- bility, and dignity to the Union, and suiBcient power to the great council of the nation for gen- eral purposes, is a duty incumbent on every man who vrishes well to his country, and will meet with my aid as far as it can be rendered in the pri- vate walks of life. [From a letter to Robert ^^.lorris.] Mount Verxox, 12 April, 1786. . I hope it will not be conceived from these ol^servations that it is my vcish to hold the unhappy people who are the subject of this letter, in slavery. I can only say that there is not a man living who vvishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it ; but there is only one proper and efiectual mode ])y which it can be accomplished, and that is by legislative author- ity ; and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting. But when slaves who are happy and contented with their present masters are tampered with and seduced to leave them ; when masters are taken unawares by these prac- tices ; when a conduct of this kind begets discon- tent on one side and resentment on the other ; and when it hapcna to fidl on a man whose purse 2G CHIPS FlibM THE WHITE HOUSE. will not measure with that of the society, and he loses his property for want of means to defend it ; it is oppression in such a case, and not human- ity in any, because it introduces more evils than it can cure. [Fi'om a letter to Lafayette.] Mount Veknon, 10 May, 1786. The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so conspicuous upon all occasions that I never wonder at any fresh proofs of it ; but your late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the slaves on it, is a generous and noble proof of your hu- manity. Would to God a like spirit might dif- fuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country. But I despair of seeing it. Some petitions were presented to the Assemlj>ly at its last session for the abolition of slavery, but they could scarcely obtain a reading. To set the slaves afloat at once would, I really beheve, be pro- ductive of much inconvenience and mischief; but by degrees it certainly might, and assuredly ought to, be effected, and that, too, by legislative authority. [From a letter to John F. ]\Icrcer.] September 9, 1786. I never mean, unless some peculiar circumstances should compel me to it, to possess GEORGE "WASHINGTON. 27 another slave by purchase, it being among m}'' first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be a]:)olishcd l)y lav\^. [From a letter to Henry Knox, 1787.] It is among the evils, and perhaps not the smallest of democratical governments, that the people must always feel before they Avill see. AYhen this happens they are roused to action. Hence it is that those kinds of government are so slow. [From a letter to David Stuart.] PniLADiiLPHiA, July 1, 1787. Happy, indeed, will it be, if the con- vention shall be able to recommend such a firm and permanent government for this Union, that all who live under it may be secure in their lives, liberty, and property ; and thrice happy would it be if such a recommendation should ol:>tain. Every- body wishes, everybody expects something from the convention ; but what will be the final result of its deliberation, the book of fate must disclose. Persuaded I am that the primary cause of all our disorders lies in the different state governments, and in the tenacity of that power which pervades the whole of their systems. Whilst independent sovereignty is so ardently contended for ; whilst 28 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. the local viovrs of each slate, and separate inter- ests by which they are too much governed, will not yield to an enlarged scale of politics, incom- patibility in the laws of different states, and disre- spect to those of the general government, must render the situation of this great country weak, inefficient, and disgraceful. It has already done so, almost to the final dissolution of it.* [From a letter to the iNIarquis tie Chastcllnx.] MocKT Vernox, 25 April, 1788. My deab Marquis : In reading your very friendly and acceptable letter, which came to hand by the last mail, I was, as j'ou may well suppose, not less delighted than surprised to meet the plain American words, " My vdfe." A wife ! "Well, my dear Marquis, I can hardly re- frain from smiling to find you are caught at last. I saw by the eulogium you often made on the hai> piness of domestic life in America that you had s^vallov\•ed the ])ait, and that you would as surely be taken, one day or another, as that you were a philosopher and a soldier. So your day has at length come. I am glad of it with all my heart and soul. It is quite good enough for you. Kow you are well served for cominr? to fi^-ht in favor of the American rebels all the way across the Atlantic * The present constitution went into full operation in 1789. GEORGE WASHINGTON. 21) Ocean, by catching that terrible contagion, domes- tic felicity, which, like the smallpox, or the plague, a man can have only once in his life, because it commonly lasts him (at least, with us in America — I know not how you manage these matters in France) for his whole lifetime. And 3'et, after all, the worst wish which I can find in my heart to make against Jvladame do Clias- tellux and yourself is, that you may neither of you ever get the better of this same domestic felicity during the entire course of 3'our mortal existence. If so wonderful an event should have occasioned me, my dear jNIarquis, to write in a strange style, you will understand me as clearly as if I had said, what in plain English Is the simple truth, " Do me the justice to believe that I take a heartfelt inter- est in v.'hatsoever concerns }'Our happiness." And, in this view, I sincerely congratulate you on your auspicious matrimonial connexion. I am happy to find that Madame de Chastellux is so intimately connected with the Duchess of Orleans ; as I have always understood that this noble lady was an illustrious example of connubial love, as well as an excellent pattern of virtue in general. . . . P. S. May 1st. Since writing the above I have been favored with a duphcate of your letter in the handwriting of a lady, and cannot close this without acknowledging my ol^ligations for the 30 CHIPS FROM TIIE WHITE HOUSE. flattering postscript of the fair transcriber. In effect, my dear INIarquis, the characters of this in- terpreter of your sentiments are so much fairer than those through which I have been accustomed to decipher them, that I already consider myself as no small gainer by j'our matrimonial connexion ; especially as I hope your amiable amanuensis will not foro^et sometimes to add a few annotations of her own to your original text. [From a letter to Lafayette.] Mount VEnxoij, 28 April, 1788. On the general merits of this proposed Constitution [adopted in the course of this year] , I wrote to you some time ago my sentiments pretty freely. . . . There are other points in which opin- ions would be more likely to vary ; as, for in- stance, on the ineligibility of the same person for President after he should have served a certain course of years. Guarded so effectually as the proposed Constitution is, in respect to the preven- tion of l)ribery and undue influence in the choice of President, I confess I differ widely from Mv. Jefferson and you as to the expediency or neces- sity of rotation in that appointment. The matter was fully discussed in the Convention, and to my full eonviction, though I cannot have time or room to sum up the arguments in this letter. There cannot, in my judgment, be the least danger that GEORGE WASHINGTON. 31 the President will by any practicable intrigue ever be able to continue himself one moment in office, much less to perpetuate himself in it, but in the last stage of corrupted morals and political de- pravity ; and even then there is as much danger that any other species of domination would pre- vail. Though when a people shall have become incapable of governing themselves, and fit for a master, it is of little consequence from what quar- ter he comes. Under an extended view of this part of the subject, I can see no propriety in pre- cluding ourselves from the services of any man, who, on some great emergency, shall be deemed universally most capable of serving the public. In answer to the observations you make on the probability of my own election to the presidency,* knowing me as you do, I need only say, that it has no enticing charms and no fascinating allure- ments for me. However, it mio:ht not be decent for me to say I would refuse to accept, or even to speak much about, an appointment which may never take place ; for, in so doing, one might pos- sibly incur the application of the moral resulting from that fable in which the fox is represented as inveighing against the sourness of the grapes, be- cause he could not reach them. All that it will be necessary to add, my dear Marquis, in order to dhow my decided predilection, is, that at my time * Wasliin":ton became President in 1789. 32 CHIPS FliOlI THE WHITE HOUSE. of liib,* and under my circumfitances, the increas- m the &rst objects in the dress of a judicious and sensible man. A conformity to the prevailing fiishion in a certain degree is necessary ; but it does not from thence follow, that a man should always get a new coat or other clothes upon every triiling change in the mode, when perhaps he has two or three very good ones b\' him. A person who is anxious to be a leader of the fashion, or one of the first to follow it, will certainly appear in the eyes of judic- ious men, to have nothing better than a frequent change of dress to recommend him to notice. I would always v.ish you to appear sufficiently decent to entitle you to admission into any com- pany where you may be ; but your own knowledge must cominco you, tb^t j'ou should bo as littlG expensive in this respoct r.s you properly can. You should alvrays keep some clothes to "wear to church or on particular occasions, which should not be TTom every da}' ; tliis can be done Trithcut any additional expense, for vchenever it h neces- sary to get new clothes, thoso which have been kept for particular occasions will then come in s.3 cvery-day ones, unless they should be of superior quahty to the new ]\inch more might be said to you as a young man, upon the necessity of paying a due attention to the moral virtues ; but this maj, perhaps, mcr3 properly be the subject of a futm'o letter when you may be about to enter into the world. If you comply with the advice herein given, . . . you v\-ill find but few opportunities and httle inclina- tion, while you continue at an academy, to entei into those scenes of vice or dissipation which too often present themselves to youth in any place, and particularly in towns. K you are determined to neglect your books, and plunge into extrava- gance and dissipation, nothing I could now say would prevent it ; for you must l^e employed, and if it is not in pui^uit of those things which aro profitable, it must be in pm^suit of those things which aiG destructive. 42 CHIPS FEOM THE 'WHITE HOUSE. [Letter to General Ai'mstrong.] March U, 1792. I am sure there never was a people who had more reason to acknowledge a divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States ; * and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency which was so often manifested during our revolution, or that they failed to con- sider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them. [To tlic Members of the New Church in Baltimore.] January, 1703. \\^Q have abundant reason to rejoice that, in this land, the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his OAvn heart. In this enlight- ened age, and in this land of equal liberty, it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets Avill not forfeit the protection of the laws, nor deprive him of the rioht of attainins^ and holdino: the hisfhest ciHces that arc known in the United States. [From a. Speech to both Houses of Congress.] December 8, 1795. While we indulge the satisfaction Avhich the actual condition of our western borders so well * Referring to the suceessful progi*ess of the war. GEORG2 WASHINGTON. 43 authorizes, it is necessary that wo should not lose sight of an important truth, which, continually re- ceives new coniirmation ; namcl\% that the provis- ions heretofore made with a vievv^ to the protection of the Indians from the violence of the lavvless pa»t of our frontier inhabitants are insuiBL-icnt. It is demonstrated that these violences can nov/ bo perpetrated vsith impunity ; and it can need do ar- gument to pro^■e that, unless the murdering of In- dians can be restrained by bringing the murderers to condign punishment, all the exertions of the government to prevent destructive rctahations by the Indians v.ill prove fruitless. The frequent destruction of innocent vromon and children, v^ho are chiclly the victims of retaliation, must continue to shock humanity, and an enormous expense to drain the treasury of the Union. To enforce upon the Indians the ol)scrvancc of justice it is indispensable that there should Ijo competent means of rendering justice to them. ... I add, vcith pleasure, that the probability even of their civilization is not diminished by the ex- periments Vvhich have been thus far made under the auspices of government. The accomplishment of this work, if practicable, will reflect undecaying lustre on our national character, and administer the most grateful consolation that virtuous minds can know. 44 CHIPS FROM THE AVHITE HOUSE, [From {lie Farewell Atldress to the people of the Unitctl States, September 17, 179G.] Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to politic.'al prosperity, religion and morality are indis- pensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism vvho should labor to sub- vert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not tra,cc all their connections vvilh private and public felicity. . . . And let us, w^th cau- tion, indulge the supposition that morality' can be maintained v.'ithout religion. Whatever may bo conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. JOHN ADAMS. 45 JOHN ADAMS. BORN, ITSo; DIED, 182G, AGED 01. — GRADUATED AT HARVAJID COLLEGE, 1755. — TAUGHT A GUAMMAK SCHOOL, 1755. —BEGAN PRACTICE OF LAW, 1758.— REPRESENTATIVE IN THE GEN- ERAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1770. — DELEGATE TO THE CONGRESS OF 1771. — TO THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 1775.— PRESIDENT OF DOARD OF WAR AND ORDINANCE, 17TG. — COM- MISSIONER TO FRANCE, 1777. —MEMBER OF CONVENTION TO FRAME A CONSTITUTION FOR MASSACHUSETTS, 1778.— MIN- ISTER TO GREAT BRITAIN, 1773 — INHNISTER TO HOLLAND, 1780. — MINISTER TO GREAT BRITAIN, 1785. — MEMBER OF THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, 17S8. — VICE-PRESIDENT, 1780.— RE-ELECTED, 1792. — PRESIDENT, 1707-1801. [From a. letter to Mrs. Adams, at Braintree.] Boston, 12 May, 1774. We live, mv dear soul, in an a^Q of trial. What will be the consequence, 1 know not. The town of Boston, for aught I can see, must suffer martyrdom. It must expire. And our principal consolation is, that it dies in a noble cause — the cause of truth, of virtue, of liberty, and of humanity, and thus it will probably have a glorious resurrection to greater wealth, splendor, and power than ever. Let me know what is best for me to do. It is expensive keeping a family here, and there is no prospect of any lousiness in my way in this town this Avholo summer. I don't receive a shilling a week. AVe must contrive as many waj's as we can to save expenses : for we may have calls to contribute very largely, in proportion to our cir- 46 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. cumstanccs, to prevent other very honest, worthy people from suffering for want, besides our own loss in point of business and profit. Don't imagine from all this that I am in the dumps. Far otherwise. I can truly say that I have felt more spirits and activity since the arrival of this news than I had done before for years. I look upon this as the last effort of Lord North's despair, and he will as surely be defeated in it as he was in the project of the tea. [From a letter to James Waterhouse.] It has been, in all times, the artifice of desi:)ot- ism and superstition to nip liberty, truth, virtue, and religion in the bud, by cutting off the heads of all who dared to show regard to either. But when a process so summary could not be effected, the next trick was to blast the character of every rising genius who excited their jealousy, by propa- gating lies and slanders to destroy his influence. [From a letter to J. H. Tiftany.j I would define liberty to be a power to do as we would be done by. I advise every young man to keep school. I acquired more knowledge of human nature while I kept school than while I was at the bar, than while I was in the world of politics or at the Courts of Europe. It is the best method of acquiring patience, self-command, and a knowledge of char- ter. John Adams. JOHN ADAMS. 47 [Letter to Mrs. Adams, at Braintree. Reference is had to serious interruptions in his legal business, in Boston, from his political principles.] York [Maine], 1 July, 177'1. I urn so idle that I have not an easy moment without my pen is in my hand. My time [at home] might have been improved to some purpose in mowing grass, raking hay, or hoeing corn, weeding carrots, picking or shelling pease. Much better should I have been employed in schooling my children, in teaching them to write, cipher, Latin, Fi'euch, English, and Greek. I sometimes think I must come to this — to be the foreman upon my own farm, and the school- master to my own children. I confess myself to be full of fears that the ministry and their friends and instruments will prevail, and crush the cause and friends of liberty. The minds of that party arc so filled with prejudices sgainst me that they will take all advantaofes, and do mo all the damairo they can. These thoughts have their turns in my mind, l)ut in general my hopes are predominant. Dr. Gardiner arrived here to-day from Boston, brings us news of a battle at the town meeting, between Whigs and Tories, in which the Whias, after a day and a half's obstinate engagement, were finally victorious by two to one. He says the Tories are prepai'ing a flaming protest. 48 CHIPS feo:m the white house. I am determined to be cool, if I can. I have suffered such torments in my mind heretofore as have ahnost overpowered my constitution, without any advantage. And now I will laugh and be easy if I can, let the contest of parties terminate as it vv'ill ; nay, whether I stand high or low m the esti- mation of the world, so long as I keep a conscienco void of olFence towards God and man. And this I am determined, by the will of God, to do, let v\'hat will become of me or mine, my country or the world. I shall arouse m^^self ere long, I beheve, and exert an industry, a frugality, a hard labor, that will serve my family, if I can't serve my country. I V'ill not lie down in despair. If I cannot servo my children by the law, 1 will serve them by agri- culture, by trade, by some way or other. I thank God I have a head, and heart, and hands, which if once fully exerted altogether, will succeed in the world as well as those of the mean-spirited, low- minded, fawning, obsequious scoundrels vvdio have long hoped that my integrity would be an obstacle in my way, and enable them to outstrip me in the race. But what I want in comparison of them of villany and servility, I will make up in industry and capacity. If I don't, they shall laugh and triumph. 1 will not willingly see blockheads, whom I have a right to despise, elevated above me and insolently triumphing over me. Nor shall JOHN ADAMS. 4i^ knavery, through any negligence of mine, get the bcttci* of honesty, nor ignorance of knowledge, nor folly of vriodom, nor vice of virtue. I must entreat you, my dear partner in all the joys and sorrows, prosperity and adversity of my life, to take a part with me in the sti^uggle. I pra}^ God for your health — entreat you to rouse your whole attention to the family, the stock, the farm, the dairy. Let every article of expense which can possibly be spared be retrenched ; keep the hands attentive to their business, and the most prudent measures of every kind be adopted and pursued with alacrity and spirit. [To Mrs. Adams, at Braintrce, written while on his way to Philadelphia, as a delegate to Congress.] Princeton, New Jeksf.y, 28 August, 1774. I received j'our kind letter at New York, and it is not easy for 3'ou to imagine the pleasure it has given me. I have not found a single opportunity to vvrite you since I left Boston, excepting by the post, and I don't choose to WTite by that convej^- ance for fear of foul play. But as wc are now within forty-two miles of Philadelphia, I hope there to find some private hand by which I can con\'C3' this. The particulars of our journey I must reserve, to be communicated after my return. It would take a volume to describe the whole. It has been, 50 CHIPS FROM THE MailTE HOUSE. upon the wIioIg, an agreeable jaunt. We have had opportunities to see the world, and to form acquaintance with the most eminent and famous men in the several colonies wc have passed through. We have been treated with unbounded civility, complaisance, and respect. We yester- day visited Nassau Hall College, and were politely treated by the scholars, tutors, professors, and president, whom we are this day to hear preach. To-morrow we reach the theatre of action. God Almighty grant wisdom and virtue sufficient for the high trust that is devolved upon us. The spirit of the people, wherever we have been, seems to be very favorable. They universally consider our cause as their own, and express the firmest resolution to abide by the determination of the Cono-ress. I am anxious for our perplexed, distressed province ; hope they Avill be directed into the right path. Let me entreat you, my dear, to make yourself as easy and quiet as possible. Resigna- tion to the will of heaven is our only resource in such dangerous times. Prudence and caution should be our guides. I have the strongest hopes that we shall yet see a clearer sky and better times. Remember my tender love to little Abby ; tell her she must write me a letter, and inclose it in the next you send. I am charmed with your JOHN ADAMS. 51 amusement with our little Johnny.* Tell him I am glad to hear he is so good a boy as to read to his mamma for her entertainment, and to keep him- self out of the company of rude children. Tell him I ho[)e to hear a good account of his accidence and nomenclature when I return. . . . Your ac- count of the rain refreshed me. I hope our hus- bandry is prudently and industriously managed. Frugality must be our support. Our expenses in this journey vv411 be very great. Our only [roc- ompcnso Avill] be the consolatory reflection that we toil, spend our time, and [encounter] dangers for the public good, — happy, indeed, if we do any good. The education of our children is never out of my mind. Train them to virtue. Habituate them to industry, activity, and spirit. ]\Iake them con- sider every vice as shameful and unmanly. Fire them with ambition to be useful. jNIakc them dis- dain to be destitute of any useful or ornamental knowledge or accomplishment. Fix their ambition upon great and solid objects, and their contempt upon little, frivolous, and useless ones. It is time, my dear, for you to begin to teach them French. Every decency, grace, and honesty should be inculcated upon them. ... I am, with the tenderest affection and concern, Your wandering JoriN Adams. * John Quincy Adams. 52 CHIPS FROM THE -WHITE HOUSE. [Lottcr to Mrs. Adams, nt Braintroe.] riiiLADKLPiiiA, IG Scpteniljcr, 1774. Having a leisure moment vcbilc the Congi'ess is assem1)ling, I gladly embrace it to write you a line. When the Congress first met, Mr. Gushing made a motion that it should be opened with i:)rayer. It was opjoosed l)y ]\lr. Jay of New York, and Mr. Eutledge of South Carolina, be- cause wc were so divided in religious sentiments, — some Episcopalians, some Quakers, some Analjap- tists, some Presbyterians, and some Congegalion- alists, — that vre could not join in the same act of worship. Mr. Samuel Adams arose and said he was no bigot, and could hear a prayer from a gen- tleman of piety and virtue, who was at the same time a friend to his country. He was a stranger in Philadelphia, but had heard that i\Ir. Ducho (Bu- shay, they pronounce it) deserved that character, and therefore he moved that Mr. Duchc, an Epis- copal clergyman, might be desired to rend praters to the ConoTGSs to-morrow mornins:. The motion was seconded, and passed in the affirmative. Mr. Randolph, our president, waited on Mr. Duch6, and received for answer that if his health vrould per- mit he cert;:inly would. Accordinglv, next morn- ing, he appeared with his clerk, and in his pontifi- cals, and read several prayers in the established form : and then read the Collect for the seventh day of September, which was the thirty-fifth JOHN ADAMS. 53 psalm. You must remember that this was the next moraing after we heard the horrible rumor of the cannonade of Boston. I never saw a greater effect upon an audience. It seemed as if heaven had ordained that psahn to bo read on that morning. After this, Mr. Duchd, unexpected to every- body, struck out into an extemporary prayer, which filled the bosom of every man present. I must confess I never heard a better prayer, or one so well pronounced. Episcopalian as ho is, Dr. Cooper* himself never prayed with such fervor, such ardor, such earnestness and pathos, and in language so eloquent and sublime, — for America, for the Congress, for the Province of Massachu- setts Bay, and especially the town of Boston. It has had an excellent effect upon everybody here. I must beg you to read that psalm. If there was any faith in the Sortes Biblicae, it would be thought providential. It vvill amuse your friends to read this letter and the thirty-fifth psalm to them. Read it to your father and j\Ir. Wiliird. I wonder vdiat our Braintree churchmen vvill think of this ! Mr. Duch'j is one of the most ingenious men, and best characters, and greatest orators in the Episcopal * Pastor of the BnitLle Square church, Boston, ami a zealous patx'iot. 54 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. order, upon the continent, j'et a zealous friend of liberty and bis country. * I long to see my dear family. God bless, pre- serve, and prosper it. Adieu. [Fi'om ti letter to Mrs. Adams.] 7 October, 1775. The situation of thinsrs is so alarminsr, that it is our duty to prepare our minds and hearts for every event, even the worst. From my earliest entrance into life, I have been engaged in the public cause of America, and from first to last, I have had upon my mind a strong impression that things would bo wrought up to their present crisis. I saw, from the begim^ing, that the controversy was of such a nature that it never would be settled, and every clay convinces me more and more. This has been the source of all the disqui- etude of my life. It has lain down and ri^en up wiih me these twelve years. The thought that we might be driven to the sad necessity of breaking our connection with Great Britain, exclusive of the carnage and destruction which, it vv'as easy to see, must attend the separation, always gave me a oreat deal of orief. And even now, I would cheerfully retire from public life forever, renounce * Three years later, Mr. Ailams wrote: "Mr. Dnchc, I am sorry to inform you, has turned out an ajoostatc and traitor. I pity his weakness, and detest his wickedness." JOHN ADAMS. 55 all chance for profits or honors from the public, nay, I would cheerfully contribute my little prop- erty to obtain peace and liberty. But all these must go, and my life too, before I can surrender the right of my country to a free constitution. I dare not consent to it. I should be the most mis- erable of mortals ever after, whatever honors or emoluments mio^ht surround me. [Letter to George Wythe.] January, 1776. You and I, my dear friend, have been sent into life at a time when the greatest lawgivers of an- tiquity would have wished to live. How few of the human race have ever enjoyed an opportunity of makins: an election of fjovernment more than of air, soil, or climate, for themselves or their chil- dren? When, before the present epocha, had three millions of people full power and a fair opportu- nity to form and establish the wisest and happiest government that human wisdom can contrive ? Genius, in a general, is oftener an instrument of divine venoreance than a guardian ano-el. [To Mrs. Adams.] Philadelphia, 23 April, 1776. This is St. George's Day. . . . The natives of Old England in this city heretofore formed a so- ciety, which they called St. George's Club. Upon 56 CHIPS FE03I THE WHITE HOCSE. the 23d of April, annually, they had a gi*eat feast. But the Tories and polities have made a Gchiam in the society, so that one part of them are to meet and dine at the City Tavern, and the other at the Bunch of Grapes. Israel Jacobs and a third party go out of town. One set are stanch Americans, another stanch Britons, and a third half-way men, neutral beings, moderate men, prudent folks ; for such is the division among men upon all occasions and every question. This is the account which I have from my bariier, who is one of the society, and zealous on the side of America. This curious character of a barber I have a ijreat inclination to draw for your amusement. He is a little, dapper fellow, short and small, but active and lively. A tongue as voluble and fluent as j'ou please, wit at will, and a memory or an invention which never leaves him at a loss for a story to tell you for your entertainment. He has seen great com- pany. He has dressed hair and shaved faces at Bath, and at court. He is acquainted with several of the nobility and gentry, paiiicularl}' Sir William Meredith. He man-ied a girl, the daughter of a Quaker in this place, of whom he tells many droll stories. He is a sergeant in one of the companies of some battalion or other here. He frequents, of evenings, a beer-house kept by one "Weaver, in the city, where he has many curious disputes and ad- ventures, and meets many odd characters. JOHN ADA31S. 57 I believe you will think me very idle to write you so trifling a letter, upon so uninteresting a subject, at a time Avlien my country is fighting pro avis et focLs. But I assure you I am glad to chat with this barber while he is shaving and combing me, and to divert myself from less agreeable thoughts. He is so sprightly and good humored that he contributes more than I could have imagined to my comfort in this life. Burne has prepared a string of toasts for the club to drink to-day at Israel's : " The Thirteen United Colonies," " The Free and Independent States of America," " The Congress for the time being," "The American Army and Navy," "The Governor and Council of South Carolina," etc., etc., etc. "A happy election for the Whigs on the 1st of May," etc. PiiiLADEi.piiiA, 23 April, 1777. My barber has just left the chamber. The following curious dialogue was the amusement during the gay moments of shaving : "Well, Burne, what is the lie of the day?" " Sir, Mr. told me that a privateer from Baltimore has taken two valuable prizes with six- teen guns each. I can scarcely believe it." " Have you heard of the success of the Battle snake, of Philadelphia, and the Starchj Begrjar, of Maryland, Mr. Burne? These two privateers have taken eleven prizes, and sent them into the 58 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. "West India I.slands ; nine transports and two Guinea-men." " Confound the ill-luck, sir ; I was going to sea myself on board the RaUlesnake, and my wife fell u yelping. These wives are queer things. I told her I wondered she had no more ambition. 'Now,' says I, 'when you walk the streets, and anybody asks who that is, the answer is " Biirne the hat'' ber^s ^cife." Should you not be better pleased to. hear it said, " That is Captain Burnes lady, the captain of marines on board the Battlesnake 9 " ' ' Oh,' says she, ' I would rather be called Burne the barber's Avife than Captain Burne's widow. I don't desire to live better than you maintain me, my dear.' So it is. Sir, by this sweet, honey lan- guage, I am choused out of my prizes, and must go on with my soap and razors and pincers and combs. I wish she had my ambition." If this letter be interc.'epted by the Tories, they will get a booty. Let them enjoy it. If some of their wives had been as tender and discreet as the barber's, their husl)and's ambition would not have led them into so many salt-ponds. What an ignis fatuus this ambition is ! How few of either sex have arrived at Mrs. Burne's pitch of moderation, and are able to say, " I don't desire to live better, and had rather be the barber's wife than the cap- tain's widow ! " Quite smart, I think, as well as philosophical. JOHN ADAMS. 59 [From a letter to Mrs. Adams.] Baltimoru, 15 Feb., 1777. We have, (in Congress,) from New Hampshire, a Colonel Thornton, a physician by profession, a man of humor. He has a large bud- get of droll stories, with which he entertains com- pany perpetually. I heard, about twenty, or tive- and-twenty, years ago, a story of a physician in Londonderry, who accidentally met with one of our New England enthusiasts, called exhorters. The fanatic soon began to examine the doctor concern- ing the articles of his faith, and what he thought of original sin. "Why," says the doctor, "I sat- isfy mvself about it in this manner. Either orio-- inal sin is divisible or indivisible. If it is divisible, every descendant of Adam and Eve must have a part, and the share which falls to each individual at this day is so small a particle that I think it is not worth considering. If indivisible, then the whole quantity must have descended in a right line, and must now be possessed by one person only; and the chances are millions and millions and millions to one that that person is now in Asia or Africa, and that I have nothing to do with it." I told Thornton the story, and that I suspected him to be the man. He said he was. He belongs to Londonderry. 60 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. [To Mrs. Ad:ims.] Piiii,ADEi.riiiA, 20 August, 1777. This day completes three yeiirs since I stepped into the coach at Mr. Cushing's door, in Boston, to go to Phikidelphia in quest of adventures ; and adventures I have found. I feel an inclination sometimes to write the history of these last three years, in imitation of Thucydides. There is a striking resemblance in several particulars between the Pcloponnesian and the American war. The real motive to the former Avas a jealousy of the growing power of Athens by sea and land. The genuine motive to the latter was a similar jealousy of the growing power of America. The true causes which incite to war are seldom professed or acknowledged. We are now upon a full sea ; when we shall ar- rive at a safe harbor, no mariner has skill and ex- perience enough to foretell. But by the favor of Heaven we shall make a prosperous voyage, after all the storms and shoals are passed. [To Patrick Heniy.] Philadelphia, S June, 177C. The dons, the bashaws, the grandees, the patricians, the sachems, the nabobs, call them by what name you please, sigh, and groan, and fret, and sometimes stamp, and foam, and curse, but all in vain. The decree is gone forth, and it JOHN ADAMS. 61 cannot ho recalled, that a more equal liberty than liao prevailed in other parts of the eai'th, must be established in xViuerica. That exuberance of pride vrhich has produced an insolent domination in a fevv% a. veiy fev^^, opulent, monopolizing families, will be brought down nearer to the confines of reason and moderation than they have been used to. This is all the evil which they themselves vrill endure. It will do them good in this world, and in every other. For pride was not made for man, only as a tormentor. 3 July, 177G. But the day is past. The second day* of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding genera- tions as a great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and p^irade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonlires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to another, from this time forward, for evermore. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it vrill cost us to maintain * TIk" Dc'cl;ir;ition of Inclcppndcnce -vvas p,2rcod to on the scconil day of July, but not formally approved and signed till tlio fourth. 62 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. this declaration, and support and defend thc.o states. Yet, through all the gloom, I can sec tlie rays of ravishing light and glory. I can sec that the end is worth more than all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that da3''s transactions, even although vv^c should rue it, which I trust in God V\"e shall not. [1 o Mrs. Adams.] Passy, 3 June, 1778. On the loth of Fel3ruary I left you. * It is now the od of June, and I have not received a line nor heard a word, directly or indirectly, concerning you, since my clepai-ture. This is a situation of mind in which I never was before, and I assure 3'ou I feci a great deal of anxiety at it ; yet I do not wonder at it, because I suppose few vessels have sailed from Boston since ours. ... It M'Ould be useless to attempt a description of this country. It is one great garden. Nature and avt have conspired to render everything here delight- ful. . . . There is so much danger that my let- ter may fall into malicious hands, that I should not choose to be too free in my observations upon the customs and manners of this people. But thvs much I may say with truth and without ollcnce, * lie had been appointed Commissioner at the Court of Versailles, to act in conjunction with Dr. Franklin ami Arthur Lee. JOHN ADAMS. CS that there is no people in the Avorlcl v\-ho take so much pains to please, nor any vv^hose endeavors in this way have more success. Their acts and man- ners, taste and language, are more respected in Europe than those of any other nation. Luxury, dissipation, and effeminacy are pretty nearly of the same degree of excess here and in every other part of Europe. The great cardinal vii-tuo of temper- ance, however, I believe flourishes hero more than in any other part of Europe. My dear countrymen ! how shall I persuade yon to avoid the plague of Europe? Luxury has as many and as bewitching charms on your side of the ocean as on this ; and luxury, wherever she goes, effaces from human nature the image of the Divinity. If I had power I w' ould forever banish and exclude from America all gold, silver, precious stones, alabaster, marble, silk, velvet, and lace. Oh, the tyrant ! the American ladies would say. What ! A}', my dear girls, these passions of yours, which are so easily alarmed, and others of my own sex which are exactly like them, have done and vrill do the work of tyrants in all ages. Tyrants different from me, whose power has ban- ished, not gold indeed, but other things of greater value, W'isdom, virtue, and lilieity. My son * and servant are well. I am, with an ardor that words have not power to express, yours. • John Quincy. 64 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. Paris, February, 1780. I have the honor to be lodging hero vrith no less a personage than the Prince of Hcssc-Cassel, ^v]lo is here upon a visit. We occupy different apart- ments in the same house, and have no intercourse vrith each other ; but some wags are of opinion that if I were authorized to open a negotiation vrith him, I might obtain from him as many troops to fight on our side of the question as he has already hired to the Englii;h against us I [To Mrs. Adams.] Don't disturb yourself about any malicious at- tempts to injure me in the estimation of my coun- trymen; Let them take their course, and go the length of their tether. They vvill never hurt your husband, whose character is fortified with a shield of innocence and honor ten thousand fold stronger than brass or iron. The contemptible essays, made by you know whom, will ou\y tend to their own confusion. My letters have shown them their own ignorance, a sight they could not bear. Say as little about it as I do. I laugh, and will laugh before all posterity at their impotent rage and envy. JOHN ADAMS. 65 [To Mrs. Adams, Jane 9, 1782, and reffti-ring to French in- trigues, diflficulties in America, and opposition in Eng- land to a treaty of peace with Great Britain.] I am weary, worn, and disgusted to death. I had rather chop -wood, dig ditches, and make fence upon my poor little farm. Alas, poor farm ! and poorer family ! what have you lost that your coun- try might be free ! and that others might cat(3h fire and hunt deer and bears at their ease ! There will be as few of the tears of gratitude, or the smiles of admiration, or of the sighs of pity for us, as for the army. But all this should not hinder me from ooino' over the same scenes aa'ain, upon the same occasion — scenes which I would not encounter for all the wealth, pomp, and power of the world. Bo^'s ! if you ever say one word, or utter one complaint, I will disinherit 3'ou. Work ! you rogues, and be free. You will never have so hard work to do as papa has had. Daugh- ter ! get 3^ou an honest man for a husband, and keep him honest. No matter whether he is rich, provided he be independent. Regard the honor and the moral character of the man more than all circumstances. Think of no other greatness but that of the soul, no other riches but those of the heart. 66 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. [To Secretaiy Livingston, Paris, 23 June, 1783.] Wise statesmen, like able artists of every kind, study nature, and their works are perfect in pro- portion as they conform to her laws. [To Count Sarsfield, 1785. Dated Grosvenor Square.] I believe this many-headed beast, the people, will some time or other, have wit enough to throw their riders ; and, if they should, they will put an end to an abundance of tricks with which they are now curbed and bitted, whipped and spurred. [To Thomas Jefferson, 1813.] God has infinite wisdom, goodness, and power ; he created the universe ; his duration is eternal, a parte ante and a parte post. His presence is as extensive as space. What is space ? An infinite spherical vacuum. He created this speck of dirt and the human species for his glory ; and with the deliberate desjoii of makins: nine-tenths of our species miserable forever for his glory. This is the doctrine of Christian theologians in general, ten to one. Now, my friend, can pro})hecies or miracles convince you or me that infinite benevo- lence, wisdom, and power created, and preserves for a time, innumcral)le millions, to make them miserable forever for his own glory ? AV retch ! What is his glory? Is he ambitious? Does he JOHN ADAMS. 67 "want promotion? Is he vain, tickled with adula- tion, exulting and triumphing in his power and the sweetness of his vengeance ? Pardon me, my Maker, for these awful questions. My answer to them is always ready. I believe no such things. My adoration of the author of the universe is too profound and too sincere. The love of God and his creation — delight, joy, tri- umph, exultation in my own existence — though but an atom, a molecule oryanique of the universe, are my religion. [To Thomas Jeflferson, 1813.] I have examined all [religions] as well as my narrow sphere, my straitened means, and my busy life would allow me ; and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world. It contains more of my little philosophy than all the libraries I have seen ; and such parts as I cannot reconcile to my little philosophy I postpone for future in- vestigation. [To Thomas Jefferson, 181?. ] It appears to me that the great principle of the Hebrews was the fear of God ; that of the Gen- tiles, honor the gods ; that of Christians, the love of God. 68 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE, [To Thomas Jefferson, 1813.] The human understanding is a revelation from its Maker, which can never be disputed or doubted. [To Dr. J. Morse.] Qlincy, 22 December, 1815. In the course of these ten years [from 17G5 to 1775], they [the British ministry] formed and organized and drilled and disciplined a party in favor of Great Britain, and they seduced and deluded nearly one third of the people of the colonics. . . . Let me contine myself to IVIassachusetts. . . . Daniel Leonard was the only child of Colonel Ephraim Leonard, of Norton. He was a scholar, a lawyer, and an orator, accord- ing to the standard of those days. As a member of the House of Representatives, even down to the year 1770, he made the most ardent speeches which Merc delivered in that House against Great Britain, and in favor of the colonies. His popu- larity became alarming. The two sagacious spirits, Hutchinson and Sewall, soon penetrated his char- acter, of which, indeed, he had exhibited very vis- il)le proofs. He had married a daughter of i\Ir. Hammock, who had left her a portion, as it was thought, in that day. He Avore a broad gold lace round the rim of his hat, he had made his cloak glitter with laces still broader, he had set up his JOHN ADAMS. 69 chariot and pair, and constantly travelled in it from Taunton to Boston. This made the world stare ; it v\-as a novelty-. Xot another lawyer in the province, attorney or barrister, of whatever age, reputation, rank or station, presumed to ride in a coach or a chariot. The discerning ones tioon perceived that wealth and power must have charms to a heart that delighted in so much finery, and indulged in such unusual expense. Such marks could not escape the vigilant eyes of the two arch- tempters, Hutchinson and ScAvall, who had more art, insinuation, and address than all the rest of their party. Poor Daniel was beset with great zeal for his conversion. Hutchinson sent for him, courted him with the ardor of a lover, reasoned with him, llattercd him, overawed him, frightened him, invited him to come frequently to his house. As I was intimate with ]Mr. Leonard during the whole of this process, I had the sul)stance of this information from his own mouth, was a witness to the progress of the impression made upon him, and to many of the labors and struggles of his mind, between his interest or his vanity, and his duty. [Letter to William Tudor.] QriscY. 24: January, 1S17. Bernard, Hutchinson, Oliver, the commissioners of the customs, and their satellites, had an espio- nage as inquisitive, as zealous, and as faithful as 70 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. that ill France, before, during, or since the revo- lution, by which the Tories were better informed of the anecdote which I nm about to relate to you, than the AVhigs were in general The public had been long alarmed with rumors and predictions that the king, that is, the ministry, would take into their own hands the payment of the salaries of the judges of the Supreme Court. The people would not believe it ; the most thinking men dreaded it. They said, '' With an exccuiivo authority in a governor possessed of an absolute negative on all the acts of the legislature, and the judges dependent only on the crown for sal:-:ries, as Avell as their commissions, what protection have we? We may as well abolish all limitations, and resign our lives and liberties at onco to the will of a prime-minister at St. James's." You remem- ber the controversy that General Brattle excited concerning the tenor of the judges' commissions, and the universal anxiety that then prevailed on the subject. The despatches at length arri\cd, and expectation was raised to its highest pitch of exultation and triumph on one side, and of grief, terror, degradation, and despondency on the other. The legislature assembled, and the governor communicated to the two houses his Majesty's commands. It happened that I was invited to dine that day with Samuel W^inthrop, an excellent character, JOHN ADAMS. 71 and ci predecessor in the respectable office you no^Y hold in the Supreme Court. Arrived at his houGe in Isexv Boston, I found it full of counsel- lors, and representatives, and clergy. Such a group of melancholy countenances I had rarely, if ever, seen. No conversation, except some in- sipid observations on the weather, till the great topic of the day was introduced, and at the same time a summons to the feast. All harps upon the willow, we sat down to a triste dinner, which all the delicacies before us could not enliven. A few glasses of good wine, however, in time brought up some spirit, and the conversation assumed a little vigor, but it was the energy of grief, com- plaint, and despair. All expressed their detesta- tion and horror of the insidious ministerial plot, but all ao-recd that it was irremediable. There was no means or mode of opjiosing or resisting it. Indignation and despair, too, boiled in my breast as ardently as in any of them, though, as the company were so much superior to me in age and station, I had not said anything ; but Dr. Win- throp, the professor, then of the council, observing my silence, and perhaps my countenance, said : "Mr. Adams, wdiat is your opinion? Can you think of any way of escaping this snare ! ' My answer was : " No, sir ; I am as much at a loss as any of the company. I agree with all the gentle- men, that petitions and remousti'ances to king or 72 CHIPS FROM THE A^TilTE HOUSE. parliament will be incifectual. Nothing but force ^viil succeed ; ]:)ut I ^vould try one project bcibro I had recourse to the last reason and (itncss of things." The company cried out, almost or quite together, "What project is that? What -would you do?" A. "I would impeach the judges." "Impeach the judges? How? Where? AVho can impeach them?" A. "The House of Ecprc- sentatives." "The House of Rei^resentatives? Bo- fore whom ? Before the House of Lords in En;?- land?" A, "iSo; surely. You might as well impeach them before Lord Xorth alone." "Where, then?" A. "Before the governor and council." "Is there any precedent for that?" A. "If there is not, it is now high time (hat a precedent should beset." "The governor and council will not re- ceive the impeachment." ^1. "I know that very well, but the record of it will stand upon the jour- nals, be published in pamphlets and newspapers, and perhaps make the judges repent of their sal- aries, and decline them ; perhaps make it too troublesome to hold them." "What right had we to impeach anybody?" A. "Om- House of Rep- resentatives have the same right to impeach as the House of Commons has in Enaland, and our <2:ov- ernor and council have the same right and duty to receive and hear impeachments as the king and House of Lords have in parliament. If the gov- ernor and council would not do their duty, that JOHN ADAMS. 73 •xrould not be the fault of the people ; their rcpre- scntalivcG ouo-ht nevertheless to do theirs." Some of the company said the idea was so new to them that they vvished I would show them some reason for my opinion that we had the right. I repeated to them the clause of the charter which I relied on, the constant practice in England, and the ne- cessity of such a power and practice in every free government. The company dispersed, and I went home. Dr. Cooper and others were excellent hands to spread a rumor, and before nine o'clock half the town, and most of the members of the general court, had in their heads the idea of an impeachment. The next morning, early, jMajor Ilawley, of North- ampton, came to my house under great concern, and said he heard that I had yesterday, in a pub- lic compan}^ suggested a thought of impeaching the judges ; that report had got about, and had excited some uneasiness, and he desired to know my meaning. I invited him into my office, opened the charter, and requested him to read the para- graphs that I had marked. I then produced to him that volume of Selden's works v»-hich contains his treatise on Judicature and Parliament ; other authorities in law were produced to him, and the State Trials, and a profusion of impeachments, vvith Vvhich that work abounds. Major Hawley, who was one of the best men in the province, and 74 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. one of the ablest lawyers and best speakers in the legislature, was struck with surprise. He said, " I know not what to think. This is in a manner all new to me. I must think of it." You, I\ir. Tudor, will not wonder at Major Hawley's embar- rassment, if you recollect that my copy of Sel- den's works of the State Trials, and the Statutes at Large, were the only ones in Boston at that time My strange brother, Eobert Treat Paine, came to me with grief and terror in his face and man- ners. Ho said he had heard that I talked of an impeachment of the judges ; that it had excited a great deal of conversation, and that it seemed to prevail, and that, according to all appearances, it would be brought forward in the House ; he was very mieasy aljout it, etc. I knew the man. In- stead of entering into particular conversation with him, I took him into my oiEce, and showed him all that I had before show^n to Major Hawley. Ho had not patience to read much, and Avent away with the same anxious brow. This man had an upright heart, an abundance of wit, and, upon the whole, a deeper policy than I had. He soon found, however, that the impeachment was pop- ular, and would prevail, and prudently acquiesced. JNIajor Hawley, always conscientious, always de- lil)erate, alwaj's cautious, had not slept soundly. "What were his di-eams about impeachment, I know JOHN ADAMS. 75 not. But this I know ; he drove away to Cam- bridge, to consult Judge Trowbridge, and ap- pealed to his conscience. The charter was called for ; Selden and the State Trials were quoted. Trowbridgre said to him what I had said before, that '* the power of impeachment was essential to a free government ; that the charter had given it to our House of Representatives as clearly as the Constitution, in the common law or immemorial usa2:e, had oiven it to the House of Commons in England." This was all he could say, though ho lamented the occasion of it. ]Major Hawley returned full in the foith. An impeachment was voted, a committee appointed to prepare articles. But Major Hawley insisted upon it in private with the committee that they should consult me, and take my advice upon every article before they reported it to the House. Such was the state of parties at that monjent, that tho patriots could carry nothing in the House without the support of Major Hawley. The committee very politely requested me to meet them. To avoid all questions about time and place, I invited them to my house in the evening. They came, and produced a draft of articles, which were examined, considered, and discussed, article by article, and paragraph by pjiragraph. I objected to some, and proposed alterations in others. Some- times succeeded, and often failed. . . . The result. 76 CHIPS FKOM THE WHITE HOUSE. upon the whole, was not satisfactory to mc in all i:)oints, l)iit I "was not responsible. Kext day I met Ben Gridlcy, who accosted mc in his pompous style, "Brother Adams, you keep late hours ! Last niijht I saw a host of senators vomit forth from your door after midnight." Now, brother Tudor, judge you whether this whole transaction was not as well known at head- quarters, and better too, than in the House of Eepresentatives. This confidence of jMnjor Haw- ley in me became an object of jealousy to the patriots. Not only jMr. Paine, but ]\Ir. [Samuel] Adams and Mr. Hancock, could not refrain from expressing, at times, their feeling of it. But they could do nothing without Major Hawley. These little passions of which even the apostles could not wholly divest themselves, have, in all ages, been small causes of great events ; too small, in- deed, to be described by historians, or even known to them, or supected by them. These articles were reported to the House, dis- cussed, accepted ; the impeachment voted, and sent up in form to the governor and council ; re- jected, of course, as everybody knew beforehand that it would be : but it remained on the journals of the House, was printed in the newspapers, and went abroad into the world. And what were the consequences? Chief Justice Oliver and his Su- perior Court, your Supreme Judicial Court, com- menced theu' regular circuit. JOHN ADAMS. 77 Tbo Chief Justice opened his court as usual. Grand jurors and petit jurorG refused to take their oaths. They never, as I believe, could prevail on one juror to take the oath. I attended at the bar in two counties, and I heard grand jurors and petit jurors say to Chief Justice Oliver, to his face, " The chief justice of this court stands impeached by the representatives of the people of high crimes and misdemeanors, and of a conspiracy against the charter privileges of the people. I therefore can- not serve as juror, or take the oath." The cool, calm, sedate intrepidity vvith whicli these honest freeholders went through tliis fiery trial filled my eyes and rny heart. In one vrord, the royal government vv^as from that moment laid prostrate in the dust, and has never since revived in substance, though a dark shadovv' of the hobo-oblin haunts me at times to this day. [From a letter to William Tudov, 1817.] The bloody rencounter between the citi- zens and the soldiers on the 5th of jNIarch, 1770, produced a tremendous sensation throughout the tovrn and country. The people assembled first at Fancuil Hall, land adjourned to the Okl South Church, to the number, as was conjectured, often or twelve thousand men, among whom were the most virtuous, substantial, independent, disinter- 78 CHIPS FROM THE ■^^^^ITE house. ested, and intelligent citizens. They formed them- selves into a regular deliberative body, chose their moderator and secretary, entered into discussions, deliberations, and debates, adopted rcsolulionr,, appointed committees. ... A remonstrance to the governor was ordained, and a demand that tho regular troops should be removed from the tovv^n. A committee was appointed to present this remon- strance, of which Samuel Adams was the chair- man. ... In his common appearance he was a plain, simple, decent citizen, of middling stature, dress, and manners. He had an exquisite ear for music, and a charming voice, when he pleased to exert it. Yet his ordinary speeches in town meet- ings, in the House of Representatives, and in Con- gress, exhibited nothing extraordinary ; but upon great occasions, when his deeper feelings were ex- cited, he erected himself, or rather Nature seemed to erect him, without the smallest symptom of atFec- tation, into an upright dignity and gesture, and gave a harmony to his voice which made a strong impression on spectators and auditors, — the more lasting for the purity, correctness, and nervous elegance of his stj'le. Tliis was a delicate and a dangerous crisis. The question in the last resort was, whether the town of Boston should become a scene of carnage and desolation or not. Humanity to the soldiers con- spired with a regard for the safety of the town, in JOHN ADAMS. 79 suggesting the wise measure of calling the town tosrcther to deliberate. For nothin' mind, and of his extensive information, and ren- dered him the first of every assembly after^vard of which he became a meml)er. Never wandering from his subject into vain declamation, but pur- suing it closcl}', in language pure, classical, and copious, soothing ahvays the feelings of his adver- saries by civilities and softness of expression, he THOMAS JEFFERSON. 89 roso to the eminent station which he held in the gre.it National Convention of 1787 ; and in that of Virginia, v/hich ibllo"\ved, he sustained the new conatitution in all its parts, bearing off the palm against the logic of George jMason, and the fervid declamation of Mr. Ileniy. With these consum- mate powers Avas united a pure and spotless virtue, Vv^hich no calumny has ever attempted to Gully. Of the povvers and polish of his pen, and of the wisdom of his administration in the highest office of the nation, I need say nothing. They have spoken, and will forever speak for themselves. — Writings.) Vol. I, p. 33. The bill [in the General Assembly of Virginia] for establishing religious freedom ... I had dravrn in all the latitude of reason and right. It still met with opposition ; but, with some mutilation in the preamble, it was linally passed ; and a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the W'Ords " Jesus Christ," GO that it should read, " a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion"; the insertion vv-as rejected by a great mnjorit}', in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection, tho Jew and 90 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. the Gentile, the Christian and I\lahometan, (he Hindoo, and Inlidol of cveiy denomination. — Writings, Vol. I., 3G. [Letter to Jolin Randol]:)]!.] Kovember 29, 1773. Believe me, dear sir, there is not in the British empire a man Avho more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God Ihat made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose ; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America. The passage of the Patowmac [Potomac] through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupen- dous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point of land. On your right comes up the Shen- andoah, having ranged along the foot of the moun- tain an hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left a})proachcs the Patowmac, in quest of a pas- sage also. In the moment of their junction they rush together against the mountain, rend it asun- der, and pass oH' to the sea. The first glance of this scene hurries our senses into the opinion that this earth has been created in time, that the moun- tains were formed first, that the rivers began to flow afterwards, that in this place particularly they have been dammed up by the Blue ridge of moun- tains, and have formed an ocean which filled the THOMAS JEFFERSON. 91 whole valley ; that continuing to rise, they have at length broken over at this spot, and have torn the mountain down from its Gummit to its base. The piles of rock on each hand, but particularly on the Shenandoah, the evident mar]vs of their clisrupturo and avulsion from their beds by the most povverful agents of nature, corroborate the impression. But the distant finishino; which natiu'e has G;iven to the picture is of a very different character. It is a true contrast to the foreground. It is as placid and delightful as that is wild and tremendous. For the mountain being cloven asunder, she presents to your eye, through the cleft, a small patch of smooth, blue horizon, at an inlinite distance in the plain country, inviting you as it were from the riot and tumult roaring around to pass through the breach and participate of the calm below. Here the eye ultimately composes itself; and that way too the road happens actually to lead. You cross the Patowmac above the junction, pass along its side through the base of the mountain for three miles, its terrible precipices hanging in fragments over you, and vdthin about twenty miles reach Fredericktown, and the fine country round that. This scene is worth a voyage across the Atlantic. — 1781. JV^otes on Virginia. The Natural Bridge, the most sublime of nature's works, ..... is on the ascent of a hill, which 02 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. seems to have been cloven through its length by some great convulsion. The fissure, just at the bridge, is, by some admeasurements, tvv'o hundred and seventy feet deep, by others only tvro hundred and five. It is about forty-five feet wide at the bottom, and ninety feet at the top ; this of course determines the len2:th of the bridge, and its hei^'ht from the water. Its breadth in tlie middle is about sixty feet, but more at the ends, and the thickness of the mass, at the summit of the arch, about forty feet. A part of this thickness is constituted by a coat of earth, which gives growth to many largo trees. The residue, with the hill on both sides, is ono solid rock of limestone. The arch approaches the semi-elliptical form ; but the large axis of the ellipsis, which would be the chord of the arch, is many times longer than the transverse. Though the sides of this bridge are provided in some parts with a parapet of fixed rocks, j'ct fev/ men have the resolution to walk to them, and look over into the abyss. You involuntarily fall upon your hands and feet, creep to the parapet, and peep over it. Looking down from this height above a minute gave mo n violent headache. If the viev/ from the top be painful and intoler- able, that from belov,- is delightful in an cqu.ii ex- treme. It is impossible for the emotions arising from the sublime to be felt bej'^oud what they are THOMAS JEFFEIISON. 93 here : so l^eautiful an arch, so elevated, so light, and s]")ringing ;is it "were up to heaven, the ra})ture of the spectator is really indescribabic ! — 1781. JVotes, etc., p. 34. THE NEGEOES. Whether further observation will or Avill not verify the conjecture that nature has been less bountiful to them in the endowment of the head, I believe that in those of the heart she "will be found to have done them justice. That disposi- tion to theft with whicli they have been branded must be ascribed to their situation, and not to any depravity of the moral sense. The man in whose favor no laws of property exist probably feels him- self less bound to respect those made in favor of others. When arguing for ourselves, v\e lay it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a reciprocation of right ; that without this they arc mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force and not in conscience ; and it is a problem which I give to the master to solve, whether the religious precepts against the viola- tion of property were not framed for him as well as his slave ? and whether the slave may not as justifiably take a little from one who has taken all from him, as he would sla}'' one who would slay him? That a change in the relations in which a man is placed should change his ideas of moral 94 CHIPS FEOM THE WHITE HOUSE. right and Avrong is neither new nor peculiar to the color of the blacks Notwithstanding' these considerations, which must vveaken their respect for the lavrs of prop- erty, we find among them numerous instances of the most rigid integrity, and as many as among their better-instructed masters, of benevolence, gratitude, and unshaken fidelity. The opinion that they arc inferior in the faculties of reason and imagination must be hazarded with great diffidence ; ... let me add, too, as a cir- cumstance of great tenderness, Avliere our conclu- sion would degrade a whole race of men from th3 rank in the scale of beings which their Creator may, perhaps, have given them. — 1781. iVb^es, etc. p. 211. There must, doubtless, be an unhapp}'' influence on the manners of our pco})lc produced l)3'thc ex- istence of slavery among us. The whole com- merce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and cle- gradins: submissions on the other. Our children sec this, and learn to imitate it ; for man is an im- itative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is Icarninij to do what he sees others do. If a parent could find no motive either in his philan- THOMAS JEFFERSON. 95 thropy, or Lis self-love, for restraining' the intem- perance of passion towards his slave, it should always be a sufficient one that his child is present. But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of "vvrath, puts on the same airs to the circle of smaller slaves, gives aloose to the worst of pas- sions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exer- cised, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. And with what execration should the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies ; destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor i)ntriae of the other. For if a slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that in which he is born to live and labor for another, in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contrib- ute, as far as depends on his individual endeavors, to the cvanishmcnt of the human race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endless genera- tions proceeding from him. With the morals of the people their industry also is destroyed. For in a warm climate no man will labor for himself who can make another labor for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors 96 CHIPS FROM THE V.TIITE HOUSE. of sLives a very small proportion indeed arc ever seen to labor. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only lirm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties arc of the gift of God ; that they are not to be violated l)ut "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 Avlieel of fortune, an ex- change of situation, is among possible events ; that it may become probable by supernatural inter- ference ! The Almighty has no attribute Vvhich can take side with us in such a contest. — 1781. JVotes, etc., p. 240. What an incomprehensible machine is man ! who can endure toil, famine, strife, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow-man a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. — Letter to a friend. We must wait with patience the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is pre- paring the deliverance of these our brethren. THOMAS OT^FFEKSOX. 97 WTien the measure of their tears shall l^e full, uhen their groans shall have involved Heaven itself in darkness, doubtless. a God of justice will awaken to their distress. Nothing is more cer- tainly written in the Book of Fate than that this people shall be free. — 1778, I served with General Washington, in the legis- lature of Virginia, l^cibre the revolution, and, during it, with Dr. Frankhn, in Congress. I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point, which was to decide the question. They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves. — Writings^ Vol. I., p. 47. It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers, but by their distribution, that good government is effected. Were not this great country already divided into States, that division must be made ; that each might do for itself what concerns itself directly, and what it can so much better do than a distant authority. Every State again is divided into counties, each to take care of what lies within its local l)ounds ; each county again into townships, or wards, to mnnage mmuter details ; and every ward into farms, to bti gov- erned each by its individual proprietor. lV<,'rc we directed from Washington when to sow, and when 98 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. to reap, we should soon want bread. It is by this partition of cares, descending in gradation from general to particular, that the mass of human afiairs may be best managed, for the good and prosperity of all. — Writings, Vol. I., p. Q>Q. [Letter to Peter CaiT, Aug. 19, 1785. J Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act. . . . Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act, were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly. ... If ever you find yourself environed with difficulties and peiplexing circum- stances, out of which you are at a loss how to extricate yourself, do what is right, and be assured that that will extricate you the best out of the worst situations. Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, and plain dealing, and never fear their leading you out of the labyrinth, in the easi- est manner possible. . . . Nothing is so mistaken as the supposition that a person is to exti'icate himself from a difliculty by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimulation, by trimming, by an untruth, by an injustice. This increases the difficulties ten- fold; and those who pursue these methods get themselves so involved at length, that they can THOMAS JEFFERSON. 99 turn no way but their infamy becomes more ex- posed. It is of great importance to set a resolu- tion not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. . . . This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions. — Writings, Vol. I., 285. [To a friend who had invited him to share in some promis- ing business enterprise, he rej^lied] : When I first entered on the stage of public life (now twentj^-four years ago) , I came to a resolu- tion never to engage, while in public office, in any kind of enterprise for the improvement of my for- tune, nor to wear any other character than that of a farmer. I have never departed from it in a sin^ gle instance ; and I have, in multiplied instances, found myself happy in being able to decide and to act as a public servant, clear of all interest, in the multiform questions that have arisen, wherein I have seen others embarrassed and biassed by hav- inof o'ot themselves in a more interested situation. Then I have thought myself richer in contentment than I should have been with any increase of fortune. Certainly I should have been much wealthier had I remained in that private condi- tion which renders it lawful and even laudable to use proper efibrts to better it. An honest heart being the first blessing, a know- ing head is the second. — Writings. 100 CHIPS FEOM THE WHITE HOUSE. The object of walking is to relax the mind. You should therefore not permit yourself even to think while you walk, but direct your attention by the objects surrounding you. Walking is the best possible exercise. — Vol. I., p. 287. The modern Greek is not yet so far departed from its ancient model, but that we might still hope to see the language of Homer and Demosthe- nes flow with purity from the lips of a free and ingenious people. — Vol. I., p. 289. You have formed a just opinion of Monroe. He is a man whose soul might be turned 'WTong side outward, without discovering a blemish to the world. — Vol. II.- p. 15. I think that by far the most important bill in our whole code, is that for the difiasion of knowl- edge among the people. No other sure founda- tion can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness. If anybody thinks that kings, nobles, or priests are good conservators of the public happiness, send him here. It is the best school in the universe to cure him of that folly. He will see here, with his own eyes, that these descriptions of men are an abandoned confederacy against the '\appiness of the mass of the people. — Letter froi Paris, 178G, Vol. II., 45. THOMAS JEFFERSON. 101 Preach a crusade against ignorance ; establish and improve the law for educating the common people. The Virginia act for religious freedom has been received with infinite approbation in Europe, and propagated with enthusiasm. I do not mean by the governments, but by the individuals who com- pose them. It has been translated into French and Itahan, has been sent to most of the courts of Europe, and has been the best evidence of the falsehood of those reports which stated us to be in anarchy. It is inserted in the new Encyclopedle and is appearing in most ot the publications re- specting America. In fact, it is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after so many ages, during which the human mind has beenheldin vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles, and it is honorable for us to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to declare that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions. — Vol. II., p. 64. 1786. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. "We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither [)icks 102 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. my pocket nor breaks my leg, If it be said his testimony in a court of justice cannot be relied on, reject it then, and be the stigma on him. Con- straint may make him worse by making him a hypocrite, but it will never make him a truer man. It may jSx him obstinately in his errors, but will not cure them. Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error. Give aloose to them, they will support the true religion, by bringing every false one to their tribunal, to the test of their investigation. They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only. — JS^otes. [From the Declaration of Independence.] When, in the course of human events, it be- comes necessary for one people to dissolve the pohtical bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they are endoAved by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, hberty, and the i)ursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, govern- ments are instituted among men, deriving their THOMAS JEFFERSON. 103 just powers from the consent of the governed ; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dic- tate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that man- kind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pur- suing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such gov- ernment, and to provide new guards for theii* fu- ture security. [A passage in the original draft of the Declaration of In- dependence, which was sti'icken out by Congress.*] He [George III.] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violatinii" its most sacred riijhts of life and liberty in the persons of a distant peo- * The clause reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the im^wrta- tion of slaves, and who, on tiie contrary, stiU wished to con- 104 cirrrs FKo:\r ttte ayiitte house. pie who never offended him, captivating and cany- ing them into .slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powei-s, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. Detennined to keep open a mar- ket where men should ])e bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors mioht want no fact of distinsruished dye, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of Avhich he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them ; thus pay- ing off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of ouc pcoplc, witli ci'imes which ho urges them to commit against the lives of an- other. The man who fights for the country is entitled to vote. "One must be astonished," says the Abbe Raynal,* "that America has not yet produced a tinue it. Oar nortliern brethren, also, I believe, felt a little tender under those censures ; for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty con- siderable carriers of them to others. — Thomas Jefferson, Writings, Vol. I., p. 15. * Died, 1796. THOMAS JEFFERSOX. 105 good poet, an able mathematician, one man of genius in a single act or a single science." "America has not yet produced one good poet." When we shall have existed as a people as long as the Greeks did before they produced a Ilojper, the Romans a Virgil, the French a Racine and Vol- taire, the English a Shakespeare and INIilton, should this reproach be still true, we will inquire from what unfriendly causes it has proceeded, that the other countries of Europe and quarters of the earth shall not have inscribed any name in the roll of poets. Has the world as yet produced more than two poets acknowledged to be such by all nations? An Englishman only reads Milton with delight, an Italian Tasso, a Frenchman Henriade, a Portuguese Camoens, but Homer and Virgil have been the rapture of every age and nation ; they are read with enthusiasm in their originals by those who can read the originals, and in transla- tions by those who cannot.* But neither has America produced "one able mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single science." In war we have produced a Washington, whose memory will be adored while liberty shall have votaries ; whose name will tri- umph over time, and will in future ages assume its just station among the most celebrated worthies of * Tliis sentence has been transferred from a note to the text. 106 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. the world, when that wretched philosophy shall be foro-otten which would have arransred him amoncr the degeneracies of nature.* In physics we have produced a Franklin, than whom no one of the presen||,age has made more important discoveries, nor has enriched philosophy with more, or more ingenious, solutions of the phenomena of nature. We have supposed Mr. Rittenhouse second to no astronomer living ; that in genius he must be the first, because he is self-taught. As an artist he has exhibited as great a proof of mechanical genius as the world has ever produced. As in philosophy and war, so in government, in oratory, in painting, in the plastic art, we might show that America, though but a child of yester- day, has already given hopeful proofs of genius, as well as of the nobler kinds, which arouse the best feelings of man, which call him into action, which substantiate his freedom, and conduct him to happiness, as of the subordinnte, which serve to amuse him only. We, therefore, suppose that this reproach is as unjust as it is unkind ; and that, of the geniuses which adorn the present age, America contributes its full share. For comparing it with those coun- tries where genius is most cultivated, where are * Referring to Buflfon's theory " of the temlency of nature to buhttle her productions on this side of the Athxntic." THOMAS JEFFERSON. 107 the most excellent models of art, and scafiblding for the attainment of science, as France and Eng- land, for instance, we calculate thus : The United States contain 3,000,000 of inhabitants ; France, 20,000,000 ; and the British Islands, 10,000,000. We produce a Washington, a Franklin, a Eit- tenhouse. France, then, should have half a dozen in each of these lines, and Great Britain half that number, equally eminent. — Notes, p. 97. In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will discover, and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate, and im- prove. Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves then are its only safe deposito- ries. And to render them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree. — 1781. Notes, p. 220. But are there no inconveniences to be thrown into the scale against the advantage expected from a multiplication of numbers by the importation of foreigners ? It is for the happiness of those united in society to harmonize as much as possible in matters which they must of necessity transact together. Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be 108 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. conducted by common consent. Every species of government lias its specific principles. Ours, perhaps, are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution with others derived from natural reason. To these nothing can be more opposed than the maxims of al)Solute monarchies. Yet from such we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth ; or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an un- bounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of tem- perate liberty. These principles, with their lan- guage, they will transmit to their children. In proportion to their numbers, they will share with us the legislation. They will infuse into it their spirit, warp and bias its directions, and render it a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass. . . . If they come of themselves, they are entitled to all the rights of citizenship ; but I doubt the expediency of inviting them, by extraordinary en- couragements. — 1781. JVotes, p. 128. [From his first Inaugural Address, ]\Iarch 4, 1801.] Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names THOMAS JEFFERSON. 109 brethren of the same principle. We are all Re- publicans — we are all Federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturljed, as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the ijovernment of others ? Or have we found anjrels in the form of kinsrs to govern him? Let history answer the question. Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none. March 23, 1801. I am in hopes . . . they will find that the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion above all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest ex- pression of the human mind. March 29, 1801. Civil Service. — The right of opinion shall suffer no invasion from me.* Those who have acted well, * He had just become President. 110 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. have nothing to fear; those who have done ill, however, have nothing to hope ; nor shall I fail to do justice, lest it should be ascribed to that differ- ence of opinion. Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached al- ways as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civihzed world would now have been Christian. — June 26, 1822. [Letter to S. A. Wells, May 12, 1829.] Samuel Adams : I can say that he was truly a great man, wise in council, fertile in resources, immovable in his purposes, and had, I think, a greater share than any other meml^er [of Con- gress] , in advising and directing our measures in the Northern war. As a speaker, he could not be compared with his living colleague and namesake,* whose deep conceptions, nervous style, and un- daunted firmness, made him truly our bulwark in debate. But Mr. Samuel Adams, although not of fluent elocution, was so vigorously logical, so clear in his views, abundant in good sense, and master always of his subject, that he commanded the most profound attention whenever he rose in an assembly, by which the froth of declamation was heard with the most sovereign contempt. — Writ' ings, Vol. /. , 99. * Jolm Adams. JAMES MADISON. Ill JAMES MADISON. BOKN, 1751; DIED, 1836, AGED 85.— ENTERED PRINCETON COL- LEGE, 1769. — BEGAN PRACTICE OF LAW, 1772, — MEMBER OF VIRGINIA CONVENTION, 1776. — OF THE GENERAL ASSEM- BLY, 1776.— OF CONGRESS, 1780. — OF THE GENERAL ASSEM- BLY, 17S4. — OF THE CON\\ENTION WHICH FRAMED THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1787. — OF THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION, 1788. — OF CONGRESS, 1789. — PRESI- DENT, 1809-1817. Orange Co., Va., November 9, 1722, " I THINK 3"ou make a judicious choice of history and the science of morals for your winter's study. They seem to be of the most universal benefit to men of sense and taste in every post, and must certainly be of gi-eat use to youth in settling their principles and refining their judgment, as well as in enlaroinij knowledo-e and coiTecting; the imagfi- nation. I doubt not but you design to season them with a little divinity now and then, which, like the philosopher's stone, in the hands of a good man, will turn them and every lawful acquirement into the nature of itself, and make them more pre- cious than fine gold. . . . Pray do not suffer those impertinent fops that abound in every city to divert you from your business and philosophical amusements. ... I am luckily out of the way 112 CHIPS TEOM THE ASTUTE HOUSE. of such troubles, l)ut I know you are surrounded with them ; for they breed in towns and populous places as naturally as flies do in the shambles, be- cause there they get food enough for their vanity and impertinence." [To William Bradford, Jr., Philadelphia.] Orange Co., Va., 1774. " If the Church of England had been the estab- lished and general religion of all the Northern Colonies, as it has been among us here, and unin- terrupted tranquilhty had prevailed throughout tha continent, it is clear to me that slaverj^ and subjec- tion might and would have been gradually insinu- ated amons: us. Union of relii>ious sentiments begets a surprising conlidence, and ecclesiastical establishments tend to creat i^-norance and cor- ruption ; all of which facilitates the execution of mischievous projects " I want again to breathe your free air. I expect it will mend my constitution and confirm my prin- ciples. I have indeed as good an atmosphere at home as the climate will allow ; but have nothing to brag of as to the state and liberty of my coun- try. Poverty and luxury prevail among all sorts ; pride, ignorance, and knavery among the priest- hood, and vice and wickedness among the laity. This is bad enough, but it is not the worst I have JA]MES MADISON. 113 to tell you. That diabolical, hell-conceived prin- ciple of persecution rages among some ; and to their eternal infamy, the clergy * can furnish their quota of imps for such business. This vexes me the most of anything whatever. There arc at this time in the adjacent county not less than tive or six T^ell-meaning men in close jail for pul)lishing their religious sentiments, which in the main are very orthodox. I have neither patience to hear, talk, or think of anything relative to this matter ; for I have squabbled and scolded, abused and ridi- culed so long about it to little purpose, that I am without common patience. So I must l)eg you to pity me, and pray for liberty of conscience for all." [To Mr. Bradford, Philadelphia, 1774.] " Our Assembly is to meet the first of May, when it is expected something will be done in behalf of the dissenters. Petitions, I hear, are already forming among the persecuted Baptists, and I fancy it is in the thoughts of the Presby- terians also to intercede for gi'eater liberty in matters of religion. . . . The sentiments of our people of fortune and fashion on this subject are vastly different from what you have been used to. That liberal, catholic, and equitable way of think- ins:, as to the rij^hts of conscience, which is one of * Of the then established church, — the church of England. 114 CHIPS FROM THE ■\^^^ITE HOUSE. the characteristics of a free people, and so strongly marks the people of your Province, is but little known among the zealous adherents of our hie- rarchy. We have, it is true, some persons in the legislature of generous principles both in Religion and Politics ; but number, not merit, you know, is necessary to carry points there. Besides, the clergy [of the church of England] are a numerous and powerful body, have great influence at home by reason of their connection with and dependence on the Bishops and Crown, and will naturally em- ploy all their art and interest to depress their rising adversaries, for such they must consider dissenters, who rob them of the good-will of the people, and may in time endanger their livings and security. You are happy in dwelling in a land where those inestimable privileges are fully enjoyed, and the public has long felt the good eflects of this religious as well as civil liberty." [Fi-om an address to the States, April, 1783. Adopted by Congress.] Let it be remembered that it has ever been the pride and boast of America that the rights for which she contended were the rights of human nature. By the blessing of the Author of these rights on the means exerted for their defence, they have prevailed over all opposition, and form the JAMES MADISON. 115 basis of thirteen independent states. No instance has heretofore occurred, nor can any instance be expected hereafter to occur, in which the unadul- terated forms of republican government can pre- tend to so fair an O2:)portunity of justifying them- selves by their fruits. In this view the citizens of the United States are responsible for the greatest trust ever confided to a political society. If jus- tice, good faith, honor, gratitude, and all other qualities which ennoble the character of a nation, and fulfil the ends of government, be the fruits of our establishment, the cause of liberty will ac- quire a dignity and lustre which it has never yet enjoyed, and an example will be set which cannot but have the most favorable influence on the rights of mankind. If, on the other side, our govern- ments should be unfortunately blotted with the reverse of these cardinal and essential virtues, the great cause which we have engaged to vindicate will be dishonored and betrayed ; the last and fairest experiment in favor of the rights of human nature will be turned against them, and their patrons and friends exposed to be insulted and silenced by the votaries of tyranny and usurpation. It were doubtless to be wished that the power of prohibiting the importation of slaves had not been postponed until the year 1808, or rather that it had been suffered to have immediate opera- 116 CIIIl'S FKO:\I THE A'.TIITE HOUSE. tion. But it is not difficult to account either for this restriction on the genenil government, or for the manner in whicli the whole clause is expressed. It ought to be considered as a gi'eat point gained in favor of humanity, that a period of twenty years may terminate forever within these states a traffic wliich has so long and so loudlj" upbraided the barbarism of modern policy ; that within that })eriod it will receive a considerable discouragement from the federal goverament, and may be totally abohshed by the concurrence of a few states which continue the unnatural traffic, in the prohibitory example which has been given by so great a ma- jority of the Union. Happy would it be for the unfortunate Africans if an equal prospect lay be- fore them of being redeemed from the oppression of their European brethren ! — Federalist , No. xlii. The British constitution was to IMontcsquieu what Homer has been to the didactic writers on epic poetry. As the latter have considered the work of the immortal baixl as the perfect model from which the principles and rules of the epic art were to be dravni, and by which all similar works were to be judged ; so this great political critic appears to have viewed the constitution of England as the standard, or, to use his own ex- pression, as the mirror of political liberty. — JFederulisty No. xlvii. JAIVIES MADISON. 117 A popular government, without popular infor- mation, or the means of acquiring it, is but a pro- logue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps to both. The great security against the gradual ct)ncen- tration of the several powers in the same depart- ment, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives to resist encroach- ments of the others. The provision for defence must in this, as in all other cases, be made com- mensurate to the danger of attack. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The inter- est of the man must be connected with the consti- tutional rights of the place. It may be a reflec- tion on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself l)ut the greatest of all reflections on human nature ! If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be neces- sary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difliculty lies in this : you must first enable the government to control the governed ; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is no doubt the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind 118 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. the necessity of auxiliary precautions. — Federulisty No. U. Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been, and ever wiU be, pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the form of which the stronger faction can unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger ; and as in the latter state, even the stronger indi- viduals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves, so in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradually induced, by a like motive, to wish for a government which will protect all par- ties, the weaker as well as the more powerful, . . . And happily for the republican cause, the practi- cable sphere may be can-ied to a very great extent by a judicious modification and mixture of the fed- eral principle. [To Thomas Jefferson.] New York, October 17, 1788. "Wlierever the real power in a government re- sides, there is the danger of o^Dpression. In our government the real power lies in the majority of JAMES MADISON. 119 the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of gov- ernment contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constit- uents. This is a truth of great importance, but not yet sufficiently attended to. . . . "Wherever there is an interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done, and not more readily by a powerful and interested party than by a powerful and interested prince. The difference, so far as it relates to the superiority of republics over mon- archies, lies in the less degree of probability that interest may prompt abuses of power in the former than in the latter, and in the security of the former against an oppression of more than the smaller part of the society, whereas in the latter, it may be extended in a manner to the whole. [To Thomas Jefferson.] New York, May 23, 1789. My last enclosed copies of the President's inau- gural speech, and the answer of the House of Representatives. I now add the answer of the Senate. It will not have escaped you that the former was addressed with a truly republican sim- plicity to George Washington, President of the United States. The latter follows the example, with the omission of the personal name, but with- 120 CHIPS FROM THE W1IITE HOUSE. out any other than the constitutional title. The proceeding on this point was in the House of Eep- resentatives spontaneous. The imitation by the Senate was extorted. The question became a serious one between the two houses. John Adams espoused the cause of titles with great earnestness. . . . The projected title was, His Highness the President of the United States and Protector of their liberties. Had the project succeeded, it would have subjected the President to a severe dilemma, and given a deep wound to our infant government. [To Edmund Randolph, New York, 1789.] I think it best to give the Senate as little agency as possible in executive matters, and to make the President as responsible as possible in them. Were the heads of departments dependent on the senate, a faction in this branch might support them against the President, distract the executive department, and obstruct the public liusiness. The danger of undue power in the President from such a regulation is not, to me, formidable. I sec, and jDoUtlcalhj feel that that will be the Aveak branch of the government. [From a message to Congi'ess, 1803. The war* has proved that our free govern- ment, like other free governments, though slow in * The war of 1812-1815, with England. JAMES MADISON. 121 .ltd early movements, acquires in its progress a force proportioned to its freedom, and that the union of these states, the guardian of the freedom and safety of all and of each, is strengthened by every occasion that puts it to the test. [Letter to Edward Livingston, 1822.] I observe with particular pleasure the view you have taken of the immunity of religion from civil jurisdiction in every case where it does not trespass on private rights or the public peace. This has always been a favorite principle with me ; and it was not with my approbation that the deviation from it took place in Congress when they appointed chaplains to be paid from the national treasury. It would have been a much better proof to their constituents of their pious feeling, if the members had contributed for the purjiose a pittance from their own pockets. There has been another deviation from the strict principle in the executive proclamation of fasts and festivals, so far, at least, as they have spoken the language of injunction, or have lost sight of the equality of all religious sects in the eye of the con- stitution. Whilst I was honored with the execu- tive trust I found it necessary on more than one occasion to follow the example of predecessors. But I was always careful to make the proclama- tions absolutely indiscriminate, and merely recom- mendatorv 122 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE* It was the belief of all sects at one time that the establishment of religion by law was right and necessary ; that the true religion ought to be established in exclusion of every other ; and that the only question to be decided was, which was the true relio;ion. . . . We are teachino; the world the great truth that governments do better without kings and nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson, that religion jlourishes in greater purity without than with the aid of government. [Letter to Mr. Ringgold, 1831.] I need not to say to you how highly I rated the comprehensiveness and character of his [Monroe's] mind, the purity and nobleness of his principles, the importance of his party services, and the many private virtues of which his whole life was a model. [Letter to I. C. Caball, 1831.] I know not whence the idea could pro- ceed that I concurred in the doctrine, that although a state could not nullify a law of the Union, it had a right to secede from the Union. Both spring from the same piosonous root, unless the right to secede be limited to cases of intolerable oppres- sion, absolving the party from its constitutional obhgations. I hope that all who now see the absurdity of JAMES MADISON. 123 nullification will see also the necessity of rejecting the claim to effect it through the state judiciaries, which can only be kept in the constitutional career by the control of the federal jurisdiction. Take the linch-pin from a carriage, and how soon would a wheel be oif its axle, — an emblem of the speedy fiite of the federal system were the parties to it loosened from the authority which confines them to their sphere. [James Monroe.] Few men have eyer made more of what may ])e called sacrifices in the ser- vice of the public. When he considered the inter- ests or the dignity of his country involved, his own interest was never regarded. Beside this cause, his extreme generosity, not only to the numerous members of liis family dependent on him, but to friends not united by blood, has greatly contributed to his impoverishment. [To J. R, Paulding, 1831.] [Alexander Hamilton.] That he possessed in- tellectual powers of the first order, and the moral qualit}^ of integrity and honesty in a captivating degiee, has been decreed to him by a sufii'age now universal. Of his theory of government, deviating from the republican standard, he had the candor to avow it, and the greater merit of co-operating 124 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. faithfully in maturing and supporting a system which was not his choice. [Benjamin Franklin.] He has written his own life, and no man had a finer one to write, or a better title to be himself the writer. [Thomas Jefferson.] It may, on the whole, be truly said of him, that he was greatly eminent for the comprehensiveness and fertility of his genius, for the vast extent and rich variety of his acquisi- tions, and particularly distinguished by the phil- osophical impress left on every sul:)ject which he touched. Nor was he less distinguished for an early and uniform devotion to the cause of liberty, and systematic preference of a form of government squared with strictest degree to the rights of man. In the social and domestic spheres, he was a model of the virtues and manners which most adorn them. [John Adams.] That he had a mind rich in ideas of his own, as well as its learned store, with an ardent love of country, and the merit of being a colossal champion of its independence, must be allowed by those most offended by the alloy in his republicanism, and the fervors and flights origi- nating in his moral tcmiierament. J.VIMES MADISON. 125 [To N. P. Trist, 1832.] I have received yours of the 19th De- cember, enclosing some of the South Carolina pa- pers. There are in one of them some interesting views of the doctrine of secession — one that had occurred to me, and which for the first time I have seen in print, namely, that if one state can, at will, withdraw from the others, the others can, at will, withdraw from her, and turn her, nolentem vohn- tern, out of the Union. ... It is high time that the claim to secede at will should be put down by the public opinion. [To Edward Coles, 1834.] You call my attention, with much emphasis, to the principle that offices and emoluments were the spoils of victory, the personal property of the successful candidate for the presidency, to be given as rewards for electioneering services, and in gen- eral to be used as the means of rewarding those who support, and of punishing those who do not support, the dispenser of the fund. I fully agree in all the odium jou attach to such a rule of action. [To Edward Coles, 1834.] Nullification has the eflect of putting powder under the Constitution and Union, and a match in the hand of every party to blow them up at pleasure. 126 CHIPS FEOM THE WHITE HOUSE. [Abolition of the Slave-trade.] The dictates of humanity, the principles of tho people, the national safety and happiness, and prudent policy, require it of us. It is to be hoped that by expressing a national disapprobation of the trade, we may destroy it, and save our country from reproaches, and our posterity from the im- becility ever attendant on a country filled with slaves. It is wrong to admit into the Constitution the idea that there can be property in man. "We have seen the mere distinction of color made, in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever ex- ercised by man over man. JAUIES MONROE. 127 JAJMES MONROE. BOKN, 1758 ; DIED, 1831, AGED 73. — EDUCATED AT WILLIAM AND MABY COLLEGE. — LIEUTENANT IN THE ABMY, 1776.— IVLi.- JOK, 1777. — MEMBER OF ASSEMBLY OF VIRGINIA, 1782. — OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF VIRGINIA, 1782. — OF CON- GRESS, 1783.— RE-ELECTED TO, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1787. — DELEGATE TO THE VIRGINIA CONVENTION FOB DE- CIDING UPON THE ADOPTION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTI- TUTION, 1788.- UNITED STATES SENATOR, 1790.— MINISTER TO FRANCE, 1794.— GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, 1799. — ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY TO FRANCE, 1802. — IVnNISTER PLENIPO- TENTIARY TO ENGLAND, 1802. — MEMBER OF VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1810. — GO^^ERNOR OF VIRGINIA, 1811. — SECRETARY OF STATE, 1811. — SECRETARY OF WAR, 1814.— PRESIDENT, 1817-1825. [From a Message, November 17, 1818.] I communicate with great satisfaction the accession of another State, Ilhnois, to our Union ; because I perceive from the proof aflforded by the additions ah-eady made, the regular progress and sure consummation of a policy, of which his- tory affords no example, and of which the good effect cannot be too highly estimated. By ex- tending our government on the principles of our constitution, over the vast territories within our limits, on the Lakes and the Mississippi and its numerous streams, new life and visror are infused 128 CHIPS FROM THE WTTITE HOUSE. into every part of our system. By increasing the number of the States, the confidence of the State governments in their own security is increased, and the jealousy of the national government propor- tionally diminished. The impracticabihty of one consolidated govcrimient for this great and grow- ing nation will be more apparent, and will be uni- versally admitted. Incapable of exercising local authority, except for general purposes, the general government will be no longer dreaded. In those cases of a local nature, and for all the great pur- poses for which it w^as instituted, its authority w^ill be cherished. Each government will acquire a new force and a greater freedom of action, within its proper sphere. [From a Message, 1819.] Due attention has been paid to the sup- pression of the slave trade, in comphance with the law of the last session. Orders have been given to the commanders of all our public ships to seize all vessels navio-ated under our flao- eni?a<2:ed in the traffic, and to bring them in, to be proceeded against in the manner prescribed by the Islsv. It is hoped that these vigorous measures, supported by the acts of other nations, will soon terminate a commerce so disgraceful to the civilized world. JAMES MOXROE. 129 [From a Message, 1822.] The military academy forms the basis, in rejjard to s€ieuc'e, on which the military estab- lishmeut rests. It furnishes annually, after due examination, many well-informed youths to till the vacancies wliich occur in the several coi'ps of the army, wliile others, who, retii'cd to private life, carry with them such attainments as, under the right reserved to the several states to appoint the officers and train the militia, will enable them, by affording a wider field for selection, to promote the great object of the power vested in Congress, of providing for the organizing, arming, and disci- phning the mihtia. Thus, by the mutual and har- monious co-operation of the two governments, in the exercise of a power divided between them, an object always to be cherished, the attainment of a great result, on which our liberties may depend, cannot fail to be secured. I have to add, that in proportion as our regular force is small should the instruction and discipline of the militia, the great resource on which we rely, be pushed to the ut- most extent that circumstances will admit. [Fi'om a ^Message, 1821.] ExiDerience has already shown that the difference of climate and of industry proceeding from the cause inseparable from such vast domains, 130 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. and which, under our system, might have a repul- sive tendency, cannot fail to produce, with us, under wise regulations, the opposite eflect. What one part "^v^ants the other may supply, and this will be most sensibly felt by the parts most distant from each other, forming, thereby, a domestic mar- ket and an active intercourse between the extremes, and throughout every part of our Union. Thus, by a happy distribution of power between the National and State governments, governments which rest exclusively on the sovereignty of the people, and are fully adequate to the great pur- poses for which they were respectively instituted, causes which might otherwise lead to dismember- ment, operate powerfully to draw us closer to- gether. [Message, December, 1823.] The political S3^stem of the allied powers* is essentially different from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective governments. As to the defence of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the Tvis- dom of their most enhghtened citizens, and under * From 1815 to 1853 the world was substantially pre- Bervod from any war of importance by the iive great powers who preside over the destinies of Europe, namely, France, Great Britain, Russia, Aiistria, and Prussia. — Appleton^s Cyclop, JAMES MONllOE. 131 ■which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. AVe owe it therefore to candor, and to the amical)le relations existing be- tween the United States and those powers to declare, that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety Our pohcy with regard to Europe, which we adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, never- theless remains the same, which is, not to inter- fere in t]ie internal concerns of an}" of its pow- ers ; to consider the government de facto as the legitimate government for us ; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy ; meeting in all cases the just claims of every power ; submitting to injuries from none. But in regard to those con- tinents [North and South America] , circumstances are eminently and consjoicuously different. It is impossil)le that any allied powers should extend their political s^^stem to any portion of either con- tinent without endangering our peace and happi- ness ; nor can any one believe that our Southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossiljle, there- fore, that Ave should behold such interposition, in any form, with indifference. If we look to the 132 cmrs from the vriiixE house. comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new governments, and their distance from each other, it must be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves, in the hoi3e that other powers will pursue the same course. [From a speech in the Virginia Convention.] We have found that this evil (slavery) has preyed upon the very vitals of the Union, and has been prejudicial to all the States in which it has existed. JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS. 133 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. ROKN, 17157 ; DIED, 1848, AGED, 81. — AT TPIE UNIVERSITY OF LEYDEN, 1780. — PRIVATE SECRETARY TO FRANCIS DANA, MINISTER TO RUSSIA, 1782. — ENTERED HARVARD COELEGE IN ADVANCE, 1786. - BEGAN PRACTICE OF LAW, 1791. — MIN- ISTER TO THE HAGUE, 1794. — INIINISTER TO BERLIN, 1797.— MEMBER OF MASSACHUSETTS SENATE, 1802. — OF THE IGNITED STATES SENATE, 1803. — PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC ANT) BELLES LETTRES IN HARVARD COLLEGE, 1806. — INIIN- ISTER TO RUSSIA, 1809. — RESIDENT MINISTER IN ENGLANT>, 1815. — SECRETARY OF STATE, 1817. — PRESIDENT, 1825-1829.— REPRESENTATIVE TO CONGRESS, ISai. [From an Oration delivered at Plymouth, 1802.] This theory [a community of good] results, it must be acknowledged, from principles of reason- ino; most flatterino^ to the human character. If in- dustr}'", frugality, and disinterested integrity w^ere alike the virtues of all, there would, apparently, be more of the social spirit in making all property a common stock, and giving to each individual a proportional title to the wealth of the whole. Such is the basis upon which Plato forbids in his re- public the division of property. Such is the sys- tem upon which Rousseau pronounces the first man who enclosed a field with a fence, and said, This is mine, a trait 3r to the human species. A wiser 134 CHIPS FR03I THE A^^IITE HOUSE. and more useful philosophy, however, directs U3 to consider man iiccording to the nature in which he was formed, — suljject to infirmities Avhich no wisdom can remedy ; to weaknesses which no in- stitution can strengthen ; to vices which no legis- lation can correct. Hence it becomes obvious that separate property is the natural and indisputable right of separate exertion — that communit}^ of goods without community of toil is oppressive and unjust ; that it counteracts the laws of nature, w^hich prescribe that he only who sows the seed shall reap the harvest; that it discourages all energy l^y destroying its rewards ; and makes the most virtuous and active meml)ers of society the slaves and drudges of the w^orst. Ehetoric alone can never constitute an orator. Ko human art can l)e acquired by the mere knowl- edge of the principles upon which it is founded. But the artist who understands the principles will exercise his art in the highest perfection. The profoundest study of the writers upon archi- tecture, tlie most laborious contemplation of its magniiicent momnncnts, will never niake a mason. But the mason thoroughly acquainted with the writers, and familiar with the construction of those monuments, will surely l)e an abler artist than the mere mechanic, ignorrTnt of the mysteries of his trade, and even of the names of his tools. — Lec- tures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Lect. n. JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 135 The art of speaking must be most eagerly sought where it is found to be most useful. It must be most useful where it is capable of producing the greatest effects, and that can be in no other state of things than where the power of persuasion operates upon the will, and prompts the actions of other men. The only birthplace of eloquence, therefore, must be a free state. Under arbitrary governments, where the lot is cast upon one man to command, and upon all the rest to obey ; where the despot, like the Eoman centurion, has only to say to one man. Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh, persuasion is of no avail. Between authority and obedience there can be no deliberation ; and wheresoever submission is the principle of government in a nation, eloquence can never arise. Eloquence is the child of liberty, and can descend from no other stock. . . . Our institu- tions, from the smallest municipal associations, to the great national bond, which links this continent in union, are republican. Their vital principle is li])erty. Persuasion, or the influence of reason and of feeling, is the great if not the only instru- ment whose operation can efiect the acts of all our corporate bodies : of towns, cities, counties, states, and of the whole confederated empire. Here, then, eloquence is recommended by the most elevated usefulness, and encouraged by the promise of the most precious rewards. — Lect. ii. 1?)C) CHIPS FRmr ttie white house. When the cause of ages and the fate of nations hang upon the thread of a debate, the orator may fairly consider himself as addressing not only his immediate hearers, but the world at large, and all future times. Then it is, that, looking beyond the moment in which he speaks, and the immediate issue of the deliberation, he makes the question of an hour a question for every age and every region ; takes the vote of unborn millions upon the debate of a little senate ; and incorporates himself and his discourse with the general history of manldnd. On such occasions and at such times, the oration naturally and properly assumes a solemnity of manner and a dignity of language commensurate ■with the grandeur of the cause. Then it is that deliberative eloquence lays aside the plain attire of her daily occupation, and assumes the port and purple of the queen of the world. Yet even then she remembers that majestic grandem- best com- ports with simplicity. Her crown and sceptre may blaze with the brightness of the diamond, but she must not, like the kinjxs of the o-oro-eous east, be buried under a shower of barbaric pearls and gold. — Lect. XI. [From his Diuiy, Augnst 19, 1822, when Secretary of State.] Answered General Dearborn's letter, and re- ceived one from my wife, chietly upon an attack against me in one of the Philadelphia newspapers joiiN Qinisrcri' adams. 137 on account of the negligence of my dress. It says that I wear neither waistcoat nor cravat, and sometimes go to church barefoot. My wife is much concerned at this, and several of my friends at Philadelphia have spoken to her of it as a seri- ous ajffair. In the Washington City Gazette, some person unknown to me has taken the cudgels in my behalf, and answered the accusation gravely as if the charge were true. It is true only as re- regards the cravat, instead of which, in the extrem- ity of the summer heat, I wear round my neck a black silk ribbon. But even in the falsehood of this charge what I may profitably remember is the perpetual and malignant watchfulness with which I am observed in my open day and my secret night, with the deliberate purpose of exposing me to public obloquy or public ridicule. There is nothing so deep and nothing so shallow which po- litical enmity will not turn to account. Let it be a warning to me to take heed to my ways. [From his Diary, October 13, 1822.] This ode [Pope's " Dj'^ing Christian to his Soul "] is exquisitely beautiful, though most singularly compounded of five half-ludicrous Latin lines, said to have been spoken by the emperor Hadrian at the article of death, of Sappho's fiery lyric ode ; and of that triumphant and transporting apos- trophe of St. Paul, in the fift}'-fifth verse of this 138 CHIPS FROM THE ^^TIITE HOUSE. fifteenth chapter of Corinthians : " O death, whero is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" From these materials, upon a suggestion and at the request of Steele, Po})e wrote this truly se- raphic song, to be set to music. In comparing it with the lines of Hadrian, I see the eflect of the Christian doctrines upon "the idea of death. Pope contends that there is nothing trilling, or even gay, in the lines of Hadrian ; ])ut his imagination leads his judgment astray. The heathen philosophers taught that death was to be met wath indifference, and Hadrian attcmjjted to carry this doctrine into practice by joking at his own death, w^hile in its agonies. Yet the thought of what was to become of his soul was grave and serious, and his idea of its future state was that of darkness and gloom. The character of his lines, therefore, is a singular mixture of levity and sadness, the spirit of which appears to me to be lost in Pope's translation of them, given in a letter to Steele. I set down the lines here, with a translation of them as literal and as much in their spirit as I can make them. Animul.i, vagula, blandula, Hospes comesqne corjioris, Qua) mine ahibis in loca? Pallidula, rigiila, nudula, Nee (nt soles) dabis joca! Dear, flutterinjr, flattering little soul. Partner and inmate of this clay, JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS. 139 Oh, whither art thou now to stroll? Pale, shivering, naked, little droll, No more thy wonted jokes to play! Pope insists that the diminutives are epithets, not of levity, but of endearment. They are sig- nificant of both, and the repetition of them, with the rhyme of "/oc«" and "Joca," in Latin verses of that age, decisively marks the merriment of afiected indifference. In the process of the cor- respondence, Steele desired Pope to make an ode as of a cheerful, dying spirit ; that is to say, tlie emperor Hadrian's "Animula, vagula," put into two or three stanzas for music. This hint was Pope's inspiration. He made the cheerful, dying spirit a Christian, and cheerful death then became the moment of triumphant exultation, and the song is, as it were, the song of an angel. To A Bereaved Mother. Sure to the mansions of the blest. When infant innocence ascends, Some angel, l;righter than the rest, The spotless spirit's flight attends. On wings of ecstasy they rise, Beyond where worlds material roll, Till some fair sister of the skies Receives the unpolluted soul. That inextinguishable beam. With dust united at our birth, Sheds a more dim, discolored gleam. The more it lingers upon eai'th. 140 CHIPS FROM THE WinTE HOUSE. But when the Lord of mortal breath Decrees his bounty to resume. And points the silent shaft of death Which speeds an infant to tlie tomb, No passion fierce, nor low desire, Has quenched the radiance of the flame; Bacli to its God the living fire Reverts, unclouded as it came. Fond mourner he that solace thine! Let Hope her healing' charm impart, And soothe, with melodies divine, The anguish of a mother's heart. Oil, think! the darlings of thy love, Divested of this earthly clod. Amid unnumbei-ed saints, above, Bask in the bosom of their God. O'er thee, with looks of love they bend ; For thee tlie Lord of life implore ; And oft from sainted bliss descend. Thy wounded quiet to restore. Then dry, henceforth, the bitter tear; Their part and thine inverted see. Thou wert their guardian angel here. They guardian angels now to thee. Eeading further in Walpole's JNIemoirs, or Se- cret History of the British Administrations fi'om 1750 to 1760, I find in them many things that re- mind me of the present state of things here. The public history of all countries and all ages is but a sort of mask richly colored. The interior work- ing of the machinery must be foul. There is as much mining and counterirdning for power, as JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 141 man}'' fluctuations of friendship and enmity, as many attractions and repulsions, bargains, and oppositions, narrated in these Memoirs as might be told of our own times. Walpole witnessed it all as a sharer in the sport, and now tells it to the W'Orld as a satirist. And shall not I, too, have a tale to tG\\? — Diari/, Nov. 9, 1822. [From his Inaugural Address, 1825.] Ten years of peace at home and abroad have assuaged the animosities of political conten- tion, and blended into harmony the most discord- ant elements of public opinion. There still re- mains one eflbrt of magnanimity, one sacrifice of prejudice and passion, to be made by the individ- uals throu<2:liout the nation who have heretofore followed the standards of political party. It is that of discarding every remnant of rancor against each other, of embracing as countrj^men and friends, and of yielding to talents and virtue alone that confidence which in times of contention for principle was bestowed only upon those who bore the badge of party communion. [From an Address at a public dinner in Faneuil Hall in con- neclion •svitli the annual examination of the public schools.] It was from schools of public instruction insti- tuted by our forefathers that the light burst forth. 142 ClirPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. It was in the primary schools, it was by the mid- nights lamps of Harvard Hall, that were conceived and matured, as it was within these hallowed walls ihut were first resounded, the accents of that independence which is noAv canonized in the memory of those by whom it was proclaimed. [A representation having been made to President Adams, that a certain functionary of the general government was using his influence against his re-election, and therefore ouglit to be removed, he replied] : That gentleman is one of the best officers in the public service. I have had occasion to know his diligence, exactness, and punctuality. On public grounds, therefore, there is no cause of complaint against him, and upon no other will I remove him. If I cannot administer the government on these principles, I am content to go back to Quincy. SuNDAV, November 5, 1826. Heard Mr. Little from Psalms, cxix. 133. . . . Among his quotations from Scripture was that of the first seven verses of the fifth chapter of Isaiah. — the song of the vine^^ard that brought forth wild grapes. In this instance, as in number- less others, I was struck with the careless inatten- tion of my own mind when reading the Bible. I had read the chapter of Isaiah containing this para- ble, I dare say, fifty times, and it was altogether familiar to my memory ; but I had never perceived JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS. 143 a fiftieth purt of Jts beauty and sul)limity. The closing verse of the parable, especially, which points the moral of the allegory, speaks with irre- sistible energy : " For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant : and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression ; for righteousness, but be- hold a cry." The parallel is pursued no further. He had said in the parable how the vineyard would be destroyed, and here, after declaring what the vineyard was, and w^hat its fruits had been, he leaves the conclusion of ruin and destiiic- tion to the imagination of the reader. This art of selecting ideas to be presented, and of leading the mind to that which is not expressed, is among the greatest secrets of composition — to make the sup- pressed thoughts, like the statues of Brutus and Cassius at the funeral of Junia, most resplendent because they are not exhibited in the highest effort of skill.— Diar-y. Nov. 5, 182G. May 6. I heard j\Ir. Campbell. . . . His text was from Rev. ii. 16: "Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly." jNIr. C. dwelt largely and earnestly upon the uniA^ersal depravity of mankind. It is a matter of curious speculation to me how men of good understanding and reasoning faculties can be drilled into the sincere belief of 144 CHIPS FROM tut: white house. these absurdities. The Scripture says that the heart is deceitful and desperately Avicked. Tliis is certainly true, and is a profound observation upon the human character. But the lans^uao^e is lisfura- tive. By the heart is meant, in this passage, the selfish passions of man. But there is also in man a spirit, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding. It is the duty of man to dis- cover the vicious propensities and deceits of his heart, to control them. This, with the grace of God, a large portion of the human race in Christian lands do accomplish. It seems, there- fore, to be worse than useless for preachers to de- clare that mankind are universally depraved. It takes from honest integrity all its honors ; it de- grades men in their own estimation. Mr. Campbell read a hymn, wliich declared that we were more base and brutish than the beasts, — a spiritual song of Isaac Watts. "What is the meanino: of tliis? If Watts had said this on a week-day to any one of his parishioners, would he not have knocked him down ? And how can that be taught as a solemn truth of rehgion, applicable to all mankind, wliich, if said at any other time to any one individual, would be punishable as slan- der?— Dm/-^, 1827. I read also the speech of John Randolph, on re- tienchment and refonn, published by himself in a JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 145 pamphlet, with notes. It is, like all his speeches,* furrago of commonplace political declamation, mir- gled up with a jumble of historical allusions, scraps of Latin from the Dictionary of Quotations, and a continual stream of malignity to others, and of in- flated egotism, mixed in proportions like those of the liquor which he now tipples as he speaks in thp House, and which he calls toast- water, — about one-third brandy and two-thirds water. This is the speech in wliich he charges Clay with having conde- scended to electioneer with him ; asserts there was a combination of Webster and Clay against me, which, in a note, he saj's I defeated Jiy causing the votes which Mr. Crawford got in the New York Legis- lature to be given to him, and thereby securing his return to the House, and excluding thereby Mr. Clay. This idea of my causing v(>tes of the New York Legislature, which I could not ol)tain for myself, to be given to Mr. Crawford, is one of the most ingenious in the whole pamphlet, and is a sample of the materials of which his accusations are composed. The rancor of this man's soul against me is that which sustains his life, and so it is of W. B. Giles, now irovernor of Virijinia. The agony of their envy and hatred of me, and the hope of effecting my downfall, are their chief remaining sources of vitality. The issue of the presidential electk)n will kill them by the gratifica- tion of their revenge. — Diary, INIarch 11, 1828. 10 146 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. [Rev.] Mr. Baker made also some inquiries con- cerning my religious opinions, and particularly con- cerning my ideas of the trinity. I spoke to him as fi'eely as I did with the general of the Jesuits at St. Petersburg. I told him, in substance, . . . that I was not either a Trinitarian or a Unitarian ; that I believed the nature of Jesus Christ was super- human ; but whether he was God, or only tho first of created beings, was not clearly revealed to me in the Scriptures. — Diary, March 17, 1828. I went to the Presbyterian church to hear Mr. Smith, but his place was supplied [by another]. His text was from Luke xv. 17 : "And when he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger ! " A commoni)lace of Calvinism. The argument was that all uiu-cgen- erate sinners were insane, or beside themselves, and that conversion was nothing more than a return to reason, or coming to themselves. In the common affairs of the world, an eloquent ex- hortation to the insane to come to himself would sooner send the preacher to Bedlam than release his hearer from it ; but this is orthodox Calvin- ism, and our pulpit orator urged us all, with great and anxious earnestness, to come to our- selves. — Diary, March 20, 1831. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 147 Mr. jNIunroe is a very remarkable instance of a man whose life has been a continued series of the most extraordinary good fortune, who has never met with any known disaster, has gone through a splendid career of pubhc service, has received more pecuniary reward from the pul)lic than any other man since the existence of the nation, and is now dying, at the age of seventy-two, in Avretch- edness and beggary. I sat with him perhaps half an hour. He spoke of the commotions now dis- turl)ing Europe, and of the recent quasi revolution at Washino;ton ; l)ut his voice was so feeble that he seemed exhausted b}^ the exertion of speaking. I did not protract ni}^ visit, and took leave of him, in all probal)ility, for the last time. — Diary, New York, April 27^ 1831. His [President Monroe's] Ufe for the last six years has 1)een one of abject penury and distress, and they have brought him to a premature graAe, though in the seventy-third year of his age. His administra- tion, happening precisely at the moment of the breaking up of old party divisions, was the period of the greatest tranquillity wliich has ever been en- joyed by this country ; it was a time of great prosperity, and liis personal popularity was un- rivalled. Yet no one regretted the termination of his administration, and less of popular veneration followed him into retirement than had accompanied 148 CHIPS FROM THE W^IITE HOUSE. all his predecessors. His last days have been much afflicted, contrasting deeply Avitli the triumphal pro- cession which he made through the Union in 1817 and 1819. — Diary, Washington, July 4, 1831. In the primitive principles of the parties, the Federalists were disposed to consider the first principle of society to be the preservation of order ; while their opponents viewed the benefit above all others in the enjoyment of liberty. — Eulogy of President Monroe, August 25, 1831. [From an Oration on the Life and Character of Lafayette, 1831.] Let us observe the influence of political institutions over the destinies and the characters of men. Georo-e the Second was a German Prince : he had been made king of the British Islands by the accident of his birth ; that is to say, because his crcat-OTandmother had been the dauij-hter of James the First ; that great-grandmother had been married to the king of Bohemia, and her 3'oungcst dauo-hter had been married to the Elector of Hanover. George the Second's father was her son, and, Avhen James the Second had been expelled from his throne and bis country by the indignation of his people, revolted against his tyranny, and when his two daughters, who succeeded him, had died without issue, George the First, the son of the Electress of JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS. 149 Hanover, became king of Great Britain, by the settlement of an act of Parliament, blending to- gether the principle of hereditary succession with that of Reformed Protestant Christianity, and the rites of the Church of England. The throne of France was occupied by virtue of the same principle of hereditary succession, differ- ently modified, and blended with the Christianity of the Church of Home. From this line of suc- cession all females w^ere inflexibly excluded. Louis the Fifteenth, at the age of six years, had become the absolute sovereign of France, because he was the great-grandson of his immediate pred- ecessor. He was of the third generation in de- scent from the preceding king, and, by the law of primogeniture, engrafted upon that of lineal suc- cession, did, by the death of his ancestor, forthwith succeed, though in childhood, to an absolute throne, in preference to numerous descendants from that same ancestor then in the full vio-or of manhood. The first reflection that must occur to a rational being, in contemplating these two results of the principle of hereditary succession, is, that two persons more unfit to occupy the thrones of Brit- ain and of France, at the time of their respective accessions, could scarcely have been found upon the face of the glolje. George the Second, a for- eigner, the son and grandson of foreigners, born beyond the seas, educated in uncongenial manners, 150 CHIPS FROM THE "VVmTE HOUSE. ignorant of the Constitution, of the Laws, even of the language of the peoi)le over whom he was to rule ; and Louis the Fifteenth, an infant, incapable of discernino; his rio^ht hand from his left. Yet strange as it may sound to the ear of unsophisti- cated reason, the British nation were wedded to the belief that this act of settlement, fixing their crown upon the heads of this succession of total strangers, was the brightest and most glorious exemplification of their national freedom ; and not less strange, if aught in the imperfection of human reason could seem strange, was that deep conviction of the French people, at the same period, that their chief glory and happiness con- sisted in the vehemence of their affection for their king, because he was descended in an unbroken male line of genealogy from Saint Louis. Among the dark spots in human nature, Avhich in the course of my life I have observed, the de- vices of rivals to ruin me have been sorry pictures of the heart of man. They first exhibited them- selves at college, but in the short time that I was there their operation could not be of much efiect. But from the day that I quitted the walls of Harvard, H. G. Otis, Theophilus Parsons, Timothy Picker- ing, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, William H. Crawford, John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, and John Da- JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 151 vis, W. B. Giles, and John liandolph, liave used up their faculties in base and dirty tricks to thwart my progress in life, and destroy my character. Others have acted as instruments to these, and among- these Russell was the most contemptible, because he was the mere jackal to Clay. He is also the only one of the list whom I have signally punished. To almost all the rest I have returned good for evil. I have never wronged any one of them, and have even neglected too much my self- defence against them. — Diary, Washington, Nov. 23, 1835^ There was in the National Intelligencer, this morning, an advertisement signed James H. Birch,, and Edward Dj^er, auctioneer, headed " Sale of Slaves," — a sale at public auction, at four o'clock this afternoon, of Dorcas Allen and her two sur- viving children, aged about seven and nine years, (the other two having been killed by said Dorcas in a fit of insanity, as found l)y the jury who lately acquitted her). The advertisement further says that the said slaves were purchased by Birch, on the 22d of August last, of Rezin Orme, warranted sound in body and in mind ; that the terms of sale will be cash, as said slaves will be sold on account of said Rezin Orme, who refuses to retake the same and repay the purchase money, and who is notitied to attend said sale, and, if he thinks proper, 152 ciiirs TnoM ti[e white house. / to bid for them, or retake them, as he prefers, upon refunding- the monej^ paid and all expenses in- curred under the warranty given by him. I asked Mr. Frye Avhat tliis advertisement meant, lie seemed not to liiie to speak of it, but said the woman had been sold witli her children, to be sent to the South and separated from her husband ; that she had killed two of her children by cutting their throats, and cut her own to kill herself, but in that had failed ; that she had l)een tried at Alexandria foi tlie murder of her children, and acquitted on the ground of insanity, and that this sale was now by the jnirchaser at the expense of the seller, upon the wan-anty that she was sound in body and mind. I called at the office of the JSfatio7irfl Intelligencei' and saw Mr. Seaton ; inquired of him concerning the advertisement. . . . He answered with re- luctance, and told me the same story that I had heard from Mr. Fr3-e, adding that there was some- thing very bad about it, but without telling me what it was. It is a case of conscience with me whether my duty requires or forbids me to pursue the inquiry in this case — to ascertain ail the facts, and ex- pose them in all their turpitude to the world. The prohiliition of the internal slave-trade is within the constitutional power of Congress, and, in my opinion, i:* among their incumbent duties. I have gone as far upon this article, the abolition of JOHX QUIXCY ADA3ES. 153 slavery, as tlie public opinion of the free portion of the Union will bear, and so far that scarcely a slaveholdi ng member of the House dares to vote with me upon any question. I have, as yet, been throughly sustained in my own State, but one step further and I hazard my own standing and influ- ence there, my own final overthrow, and the cause of liberty itself for indefinite time, certainly for more than my remnant of life. Were there in the House one member capalile of taldng the lead in this cause of universal emancipation, which is moving onward in the world and in this country, I would withdraw from the contest, which will rage with increasing fury as it draws to its crisis, but for the management of which, my age, infirmities, and ap[)roaching end, totally disqualify me. There is no such man in the House. — Diary, Oct. 23, 1837. [To this he added on the 28th.] There was in the JSt^aiional Inielh'f/encej' of this morning an advertisement, ao-ain, of the sale of a woman and two children, at eleven o'clock. I went between cloven and twelve o'clock to tlie room. The woman and children, girls of seven and nine 3'ears of age, were there, the ^voman weeping and Availing most piteously. 1 inquired of Dyer if the}' were sold. He snid, no, that they had been sold last ^louday, and bought in by the 154 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. husband of the woman, who was free, and a waiter at Gadsby's ; he had bought them in for four hundred and seventy-five dollars, l)ut was un- able to raise the money, Avhich was the reason why they were to be sold again. They were waiting for the man, who was endeavoring to procure, by subscription, upon his own engagement to repay the money, the means of paying for his purchase last jMonday. [On the loth of November Mr. Adams paid fifty dollars towards this object, and General Walter Smith, of Georgetown, undertook, with the other subscriptions, to pay the whole sum and take the bill of sale, liy which the emanci- pation was secured.] [On presenting wliat professed to be a petition from some slaves, in tlae House of Representatives, February 7, 18C7, whieli created intense excitement, Mr. Adams said] : Sir, it is well known that from the time I entered this House down to the present day, I have felt it a sacred duty to present any petition couched in respectful language, from any citizen of the United States, be its object what it may : be the prayer of it that in which I could concur, or that to which I was utterly opposed. It is for the sacred right of petition that I have adopted this coui'se Where is your law which says that the mean, the low, and the degraded shall be deprived of the right of petition — if their moral character la not JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 155 good? Where, in the land of freemen, was the right of petition ever placed on the exclusive basis of morality and virtue ? Petition is supplication — it is entreaty — it is prayer! And where is the degree of vice or immorality Avhich shall deprive the citizen of the right to supplicate for a boon, or to pray for mercy? Where is such a law to be found ? It does not belong to the most abject des- potism. There is no absolute monarch on earth who is not compelled by the Constitution of his country to receive the petitions of his people, whosoever they may be. The Sultan of Constan- tinople cannot walk the streets and refuse to re- ceive petitions from the meanest and vilest of the land. This is the law even of despotism. And what does your law say ? Does it say that before presenting a petition you shall look into it, and see whether it comes from the virtuous, and the great, and the mighty? No, sir, it says no such thing. The right of petition belongs to all. And so far from refusing to present a petition because it might come from those low in the estimation of the world, it would be an additional incentive , if such incen« live were wanting. 15G CHITS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. [Speech in the House of Representatives, upon a petition from the women of Plymouth, JMass., remonstrating against tlie annexation of Texas, as a shxveholding tei'- ritorj.] June 26, 1838. The honorable g-entleman [Mr. Howard] considered it " discreditable " not only to the sec- tion of country whence these memorials came, but discreditable to the nation. Sir, was it from a son — was it from a father — was it from a husband, that I heard these words? Does the gentleman consider that women, by petitioning this House in favor of suiicring and distress, perform an office " discreditable " to themselves, to the section of country where they reside, and to this nation? I trust to the good nature of that gentleman that he will retract such an assertion. I have a right to make this call upon him. It is to the wives and to the daughters of my constituents that he applies this language. Am I to consider their conduct in petitioning this House as a discredit to that section of the Union and to their country ? Sir, if there is anything in which they could do honor to their country, it was in this very act. He says that women have no right to petition Congress on polit- ical suljjccts. Vi'hy, sir, what does the gentleman understand by " political subjects?" Everything in which this House has an agency — everything which relates to peace and relates to war, or to any JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 157 other of the great interests of societ}', is a politi- cal subject. Are women to have no opinions or action on subjects relating to the general "\velf\irc ? This must be the gentleman's principle. Where did he ffet it ? Did he find it in Sacred history ? in the account which is given of the emigration of a whole nation from the land of Egypt, under the guidance of INIoses and Aaron? What was the language of jMiriam, the prophetess, when, after one of the noblest and most sublime songs of tri- umph that ever met the human eye or ear, it is said : "And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And ]\Iiriam answered them. Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously ; the horse and his rider hath he throAvn into the sea." Sir, is it in that portion of sacred history that he finds the principle that it is improper for women to take any concern in public affairs ? This hap- pened in the infancy of the Jewish nation. But has the gentleman never read or heard read the account which is given, at a later period, of the victory of Deborah? " And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of lja])i- doth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm-tree of Deborah, between Raniali and Bethel, in INIount Ephraim ; and tho children of Israel came to her iov judgment." 158 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. Has he never read that inspiring cry ; " Awake, awake, Deborah ; awake, awake, utter a song; arise Barak, and lead thy captivity cap- tive, thou son of Abinoam." Is the principle recognized here that women have nothing to do with political afiairs? — no, not so much as even to petition in regard to them ? Has he forgotten the deed of Jael, who slew the dreaded enemy of her country, who had so often invaded and ravaged it? Has he forgotten the name of Esther, who, by a petition, saved her people and her country? . . . Sir, I might go through the whole of the Sacred history of the Jews, down to the advent of our Saviour, and lind innumerable examples of women who not only took an active part in the politics of their times, but who are held up with honor to jiosterit}^ be- cause they did so. I might point him to the names of Abigail, of Huldah, of Judith, the beautiful widow of Bethuha, who, in the da^^s of the ca}itivity, slew Holofernes, the commanding- general of the King of Babylon. But let me come down to a happier age under the dispen- sation of the new covenant. . . . But now, to leave sacred history and go to profane history. Does the chairman of the Committee find there that it is " discreditable " for women to take any interest or any part in political affairs ? Let him read the history of Greece. Let hun examine the JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS. 159 character of Aspasia, and this in a country where the conduct and freedom of women were more se- verel}^ restricted than in any modern nation, save amon£»- the Turks. It was in Athens, where female character had not that full development which is permitted to it in our state of society. . . . Can be have forgotten the innumerable instances re- corded by the profane historians, where women distinguished, nay, immortalized their names, by the part they took in the affairs of their country ? Why does it follow that women are fitted for nothing but the cares of domestic life? for bearins: children and cookins; the food of a family ? devoting all their time to the domestic cir- cle, to promoting the immediate personal comfort of their husbands, brothers, and sons ? Observe, sir, the point of departure between the chairman of the committee and myself. I admit that it is their duty to attend to these things. I subscribe fully to the elegant compliment passed by him upon those members of the female sex who devote their time to these duties. But I say that the correct principle is, that women are not only jus- tified, but exhibit the most exalted vii'tue when they do depart from the domestic circle, and enter on the concerns of their country, of humanity, and of their God. The mere departure of woman from the duties of the domestic circle, far from being a reproach to her, is a virtue of the highest 160 CHIPS FlIOM THE AVHITE HOUSE. order, when it is done from purity of motive, bv appropriate means, and towards a virtuous pur- pose. There is the true distinction. Tlie motive must be pure, tiie means appropriate, and the pur- pose good. And I say that woman, by the dis- charge of such duties, has manifested a virtue which is even al)ove the virtues of mankind, and approaches to a superior nature. [Speech in the House of Rejiresentatives, 1838] I am well aware of the change which is taking place in the moral and political philosophj^ of the South. I know well that the doctrine of the Dec- laration of Independence, that ^' all men are born free and equal," is there held as incendiary doc- trine, and deserves Lynching ; that the Declara- tion itself is a farrago of abstractions. I know all this perfectly ; and that is the very reason that I want to put my foot upon such doctrine ; that I want to drive it back to its fountain, — its corrupt foun- tain, — and pursue it till it is made to disappear from this land and from the world. Sir, this phi- losophy of the South has done more to blacken the character of this country in Europe than all other causes put together. They point to us as a nation of liars and hypocrites, who publish to the Avorld that all men arc born free and equal, and then hold a large portion of our own population in ))ondage. But 1 ha\e been drawn into obijervations which JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS. IGl arc, here, xery much out of pla(e; and which I probabl}'^ should not have made, and certainly not with the force I have endeavored to give them, had it not been for the interruption cf the irentle- man from South Carolina.* If he %\ill put .such questions he must expect to receive answers cor- responding to them ; and he will receive not only my answer, but thos^e of others, Vvho are far deeper thinkers than I, not only in this country but abroad ; for this debate will go on the wings of the wind. The account of the gentleman's prin- ciples will come back from all parts of Europe and of the civilized world in hisses and execrations that a man should have been found, in the highest legislative body of this free republic, to avow opinions such as wc have just heard from the lips of that gentleman. I shall dismiss that branch of the subject now. If the gentleman is desirous of more ; if he wishes to enter into a full and strict scrutiny of the question of slavery in all its bear- ings, cither at this session or the next, and God shall give mc life, and breath, and the faculty of speech, he shall have it to his heart's content. * Mr. Ciimpbell had said, amoii;r Dthor remarks, that *' mail}' woilhy men, who were, foinjerly somewhat uneasy at the existence of this institution, now fei'l themselves call'-d U])on by every motive, personal and private;, l^y v.very coii^ideration, jniblie, and patriotie, to guard it with the must jealous watehfiilness, — to defend it at eveiy hazard." u 162 CHIPS FROM THE AVIHTE HOUSE. [From the same Sjjeech.] The Declaration of Independence, "which united the people of thirteen separate and independent states into one, speaks from the beginning to the end in the name of the people. ... I pass on to the Constitution of the United States. . . . The very first words were such as put the People in action ; they declare that it is the act of one People "who have separated themselves from another, and have agreed to frame for themselves this Consti- tution of Government. I shall not enter on the captious quibbling whether the Peojile voted man by man, through- out the Union, or whether they voted by their rep- resentatives in special conventions assembled in each of the states separately. It is not necessary to settle any such questions. These are the cob- web threads of justification, all spun from the bowels of slavery. The language of the whole instrument is, " We, the People." It has, from the beginning, been the government of " us, the People," and will, I tnist, l)e that of posterity. The conflict between the principle of libertj^ and the fact of slavery is coming gradually to an issue. Slavery has now the power, and falls into convul- sions at the approach of freedom. That the fall of slavery is predetennined in the counsels of Omnipotence, I cannot doubt ; it is a part of the great moral improvement in the condition of man, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 163 attested by all the records of liistory. But the conflict will be terrible, and the progress of im- provement perhaps retrograde before its final progress to consummation. — Didrij, December 13, 1838. On December 20th, 1838, in the House of Rep- resentatives, ]\ir. Adams presented a petition for the establishment of international relations with the Repubhc of Hayti, and said : . . . Then, sir, I come back to my position, that every man in this country has a right to be an abolitionist, and that in being so he otfends no law, but, in my opinion, obeys the most sacred of all laws. [In 1832, South Carolina passed an ordinance declaring the tariff laws " null and void," and that the State would secede from the Union if force should be employed to collect any revenue at Charleston ; upon which President Jackson issued a Proclamation denouncing "nullification," and declaring his purpose to execute the laws. It was in December of this year, that JNIr. Adams wrote in his Diary] : " I told Hoffman that the real ques- tion now convulsing this Union was, whether a population spread over an immense territory, con- sisting of one great division, all freemen, and an- other, of masters and slaves, could exist perma- nently together as members of one community or 164 criirs n:oM the aviiite house. not ; tnat, to go a step further back, the question at issue was slavery." I do believe slavery to be a sin before God. — /Speech in the House of Representatioes, 1838. It is among the evils of slavery, that it taints the very sources of moral principle. It estab- lishes false estimates of Anrtuc and vice : for what can be more false and more heartless than this doctrine, which makes the first and holiest rights of humanity to depend upon the color of the skin ? It perverts human reason, and induces men en- dowed with logical powers to maintain that slavery is sanctioned hy the Christian religion ; that slaves are happy and contented in their condition ; that between master and slave there are ties of mutual attachment and affection ; that the virtues of the master are refined and exalted by the degradation of the slave, while, at the same time, they vent execrations ui)on the slave-trade, curse Britain for having given them slaves, burn at the stake negroes con\ictcd of crimes, for the terror of the example, and writhe in agonies of fear at the very mention of human rights as applicable to men of color. — Diarij. [From the Introduction to the Memoir of Elijah P. Lovojoy, 1838.] In the biographical narratives of the Founder of the Christian religion, and of his primitive dis- JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 165 ciples, there is an internal evidence of truth, not less conclusive than that of the miracles which they performed. The miracles were the evidence necessary to prove the authenticity of his mission to his contemporaries, to whom he was accredited, to whom he revealed the hidden mystery of their owai immortality, and to whom he proclaimed the laws of their own nature, the obligations of mutual benevolence and charity : — love upon earth and life hereafter were the everlasting pillars of his system of religion and of morals In the progressive revolutions effected by the Christian system of religion and morals, it was in the order of Providence that its operations should be slow and gradual, embracing a period of many thousand years. ... In these doctrines [of uni- versal love and eternal life] , however, there was a principle of vitality destined to survive all persecu- tion, and to triumph over all human power. The moral precepts of the Levitical law, purified and retined, shone with undying lustre in the new dispen- sation, — its rites and ceremonies, its priests and Levites, its sacrifices of blood, its visions, and its dreams, gave way to a simple and sjiiritual form of worship ; the working of miracles, no longer neces- sary for the authentication of faith, was withdraAvn from the disciples of the cross, and the new sys- tem of religion and morals was left to make its way in the w^orld by the perpetual miracle of its 166 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. celestial origin, self-evident by the internal dem- onstration of its iiTcsistible power and its super- human perfection. [On the opening of the 26th Congress, De- cember, 1839, there being a twofold delegation from New Jersey, the clerk, on reaching that State, refused to proceed with calling the roll, and the members could effect no organization. It was so for three days. On the fourth da}', when the State of New Jersey was reached,* Mr. Adams rose and said] : "I rise to interrupt the clerk," — • which created an intense excitement. " It was not my intention to take any part in these extraordi- nary proceedings. I had hoped that this House would succeed in organizing itself ; that a Speaker * On December 2, 1839, nt the opening of the 26th Congress, the clerk commenced calling the roll of mem- bers. When he came to New Jersey, (whose members were then elected by general ticket,) he stated that the seats of live of the six members from that state were con- tested : that he did not feel authorized to decide the ques- tion of their right to their seats, and tliat he should there- fore pass over their names, and proceed with the call The election of these members was certified to by the governor of New Jersey. It so happened that these five mo?.i the white house. any other way — if this clerk of yours will not consent to our discharinno- the trusts confided to us by our constituents, then let us imitate the ex- ample of the Virginia House of Burgesses, which, when the colonial governor, Dinwiddie, ordered it to disperse, refused to obey the imperious and insulting mandate, and, like men — [here followed a burst of enthusiasm, when i\Ir. Adams sub- mitted a motion requiring the acting clerk to pro- ceed in calling the roll. Many members inquiring, " How shall the question l)e put?" "AVho will put the question?" Mr. Adams rephed, " / /^^enc/ to put the question myself f' Whereupon Mr. Rhett, of South Carolina, exclaimed, "I move that the Hon. John Quincy Adams take the chair of the Speaker of this House, and officiate as presiding officer till the House be organized l)y the election of its constitutional officei's. As many as agree to this will say. Aye; those — " which was followed by an universal shout of Aye. And order came out of confusion."] [A "gag-laAv," forbidding the presentation of petitions on the subject of slavery, having passed the House of llepresentatives, i\Ir. Adams, at the commencement of each subsequent session, de- manded its abolition, and continued to hand in petitions as before. He was threatened with ex- pulsion, assassination, and indictment before the JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS. 1G9 grand jury of the District of Columbia. On one occasion he said] : Do the gentlemen from the South think they can frighten me by their threats ? If that be their object, let me tell them, sir, they have mistaken their man. I am not to be frightened fi(j:ii the discharge of a sacred duty by their indignation, by their violence, nor, sir, by all the grand juries in the universe. I have done only my duty ; and I shall do it again under the same circumstances, even though they recur to-morrow. [When, in the year 1845, the "gag-law" was re- scinded, Mr. Adams exclaimed] : " God be praised ; the seals are broken, the door is open." [In an address at Pittsfield, Mass, in 1843, he said] : In 1775 the minute-men from a hundred towns in the province were marching at a moment's warning to the scene of opening war. Many of them called at my father's house in Quincy, and received the hospitality of John Adams. All were lodged in the house whom the house would con- tain ; others in the barns, and wherever they could find a place. There were then in ni}' father's kitchen some dozen or two of pewter spoons ; and I well recall going into the Idtchen and seeing some of the men engaged in running those spoons into bul- lets for the use of the troops ! Do you wonder 170 CHIPS FROM TIIE "WHITE HOUSE. that a boy of seven years of age, who -witnessed this scene, should be a patriot? The influence of ]\Ir. Jefferson over the mind of Mr. Madison was composed of all that genius, talent, experience, splendid public ser- vices, exalted reputation, added to congenial tem- per, undivided friendship, and habitual sympathies of interest and of feeling could inspire. Among the numerous blessings which it was the rare good fortune of Mr. Jefierson's life to enjo}", was that of the uninterrupted, disinterested, and eflicient friendship of Madison. But it was the friendship of a mind not inferior in capacity, and tempered with a calmer sensibility and a cooler judgment than his own. — Eulogy on President Madison. A confederation is not a country. There is no magnet of attraction in any league of sovereign and independent states which causes the heart- strino-s of the individual man to vibrate in unison with those of his neighbor. Confederates are not countrymen. — Eulogy on President Madison. The Declaration of Independence annulled the national character of the American people. That character had been common to them all as subjects of one and the same sovereign, and that sovereign was a king. The dissolution of tliat tie was pro- JOHN QUIXCY ADAMS. 171 nounced hy one act common to them all, and it left them as members of distinct communities in the relation towards each other, bound only by the obligations of the law of nature and of the Union, b}^ which they had renounced their connection with the mother country. But what was to be the character of their national existence? This was the problem of difficult solution for them ; and this was the opening of the new era in the science of govern- ment, and in the history of mankind. — Eulogy on President Madison. [From the same.] The principle that religious opinions are altogether beyond the sphere of legislative control is but one modification of a more exten- sive axiom, w^hich includes the unlimited freedom of the press, of speech, and of the communication of thought in all its forms. [From the same.] In most of the inspirations of genius there is a simplicity which, when they are familiarized to the general understanding of men by their effects, detracts from the opinion of their gi'eat- ness. That the jjeople of the British colonies, who, by their united counsels and energies, had achieved their independence, should continue to be 172 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. one people, and constitute a nation under the form of one organized o'overnraent, was an idea in itself so simple, and addressed itself at once so forcibly to the reason, to the imagination, and to the benevolent feelings of all, that it can scarcely be supposed to have escaped the mind of any rcflect- ino^ man from Maine to Georo'ia. It was the die- tate of nature. But no sooner was it conceived than it was met by obstacles innumerable and in- superable to the general mass of mankind. They resulted from the existing social institutions, di- versihed among the parties to the projected na- tional union, and seeming to render it impractica- ble. There were chartered rights, for the main- tenance of which the war of the revolution itself had first been wao-ed. There were state sovereign- ties, corporate feudal baronies, tenacious of their own liberty, impatient of a superior, and jealous and disdainful of a paramount sovereign, even in the whole democracy of the nation. There were colli- sions of boundary and of proprietary right west- ward in the soil ; southward, in its cultivator. In fine, the diversities of interests, of opinions, of man- ners, of habits, and even of extraction, were so great, that the plan of constituting them one peo- ple appears not even to have occurred to any of the members of the convention * before they were * For formino: new Constitution. JOIIN QUINCY ADAMS. 173 assembled together. . . . Nearly four months of anxious delii)eration were employed by an assem- bly composed of the men who had been the most distinguished for their services, civil and military, in conducting the country through the arduous struggles of the revolution ; of men who, to the fire of genius, added all the lights of experience, and w ere stimulated hy the impulses at once of ardent patriotism and of individual ambition aspiring to that last and most arduous labor of constituting a nation destined in after times to present a model of government for all the civil- ized nations of the earth [From the same.] Government, in the first and most obvious aspect which it assumes, is a restraint upon hu- man action, and, as such, a restraint upon liberty. The ci)nstitution of the United States w^as intended to be a government of great energy, and, of course, of extensive restriction, not only upon in- dividual lil)erty, but upon the corporate action of states claiming to be sovereign and independent. The conA'cntion had been aware that such restraints upon the people could be imposed l)y no earthly power other than the people themselves. They were aware that to induce the peoi)lc to impose upon themselves such binding ligaments, motives not less coo-ent than those which form the basis of 174 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. human association "svere indispensably necessary ; that the first principles of politics must l)e inclis- solubly linked with the first princiiDles of morals. They assumed, therefore, the existence of a Peo- ple of the United States, and made them declare the constitution to be their own work, speaking in the first person, and saying. We, the People of the United States, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America ; and then the allegation of motives, to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro- mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. These are precisely the purposes for which it has pleased the Author of nature to make man a social being, and has Ijlended into one his happiness with that of his kind. How much of the South Carolina character origi- nated in Locke's Constitution ? How much in the sub-tropical climate? How much in the cultivation of indigo, rice, and cotton? How much (more than ail the rest) in negro slavery? How much in the Christian religion? And how much in Anglo-Saxon descent? These elements, mixed w ith the casual diversities of individual men in the progress of population, have produced an average associate character different from that of any other JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. 175 state in the Union — from none more than from that of its next-door neighbour, North Carolina. This character shows itself everywhere — in the city, in the field, by the family fireside, in the social circle, at the bar, in the legislative hall, and finally in the pulpit. — Diary ^ May, 1840. 176 CHIPS FROM TIIE WTIITE HOUSE. ANDREAV^ JACKSOX. BOEN, 1767; DIED, 1845, AGED 78.— BEGAN PRACTICE OF LAW, 1786. — SOLICITOIl OF TIIE WESTERN DISTRICT OF N. CAR^ OLINA, 178.S. — DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF TEN'NESSEE, 1796.— aiEMDER OF CONVENTION TO FRAME A CONSTITUTION FOR TENNESSEE, 17C;(i. — EEPEESENTATI\Ti: IN CONGRESS, 1706. — UNITED STATES SENATOR, 1797. — JUSTICE IN THE SU- PRE:\IE COURT OF TENNESSEE, 1798. — ENGAGED IN THE CREEK WAR, 1813, 1814. — SLAJOR-GENERAL IN TIIE UNITED STATES ARMY, 1814. — COMSEiNDER AT NEW ORLEANS, 1815. — COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE SOUTHERN DmSION OF THE U. S., 1815- ENGAGED IN THE SEMINOLE WAR, 1817. — GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA, 1829.- UNITED STATES SENATOR, 1823, — PRESIDENT, 1829-1837. [From a Message to Congress, December, 1831.] [Atter a review of our foreign relations, the President said] : "I have great satisfaction in mak- ing this statement of our afiairs, because the course of our national policy enal)les me to do it without any indiscreet exposure of what in other govern- ments is usually concealed from the people. Hav- ing none but a straightforward, open course to pursue, — guided by a single i)rinciplc that will bear the strongest light, — we have happily no political combinations to form, no alliance to en- tangle us, no complicated interests to consult; and in sul^jecting all that we luive done to the con- ANDREW JACKSON. 177 sideration of our citizens, and to the inspection of the world, we give no advantage to other nations, and lay ourselves open to no injurj'. [From a Message to Congress, July 10, 1832.] The Congress, the Executive, and the [Supreme] Court must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the Constitution. Each pubhc ofliccr, who takes an oath to sup})ort the Constitution, swears that he will support it as as he understands it, and not a3 it is understood 1)V others. It is as much the duty of the House of Ecprescntatives, of the Senate, and of the President to decide upon the constitutionality of any l)i]l or resolution which may be presented to them for passage or approval, as it is of the Supreme Judges, when it may be brought before them for judicial decision. The opinion of the judges has no more authority over Congress, than the opinion of Congress has over the judges, and on that point the President is independent of both. It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their self- ish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of •'alents, of education, oi* of wealth, cannot be pro- duced l)y human institutions. In the full enjoy- pient of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of 178 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law. But when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to .grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges — to make the rich richer and the potent more poAverful — the humble members of society — the farmers, me- chanics, and laborers, who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to them- selves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government. There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. [Letter to Col. A. J. Hamilton.I Washington, November 2, 1832. My dear Sir : I have just received your letter of the 3 1st ult., with the enclosure, for which I thank you. I am well advised of the views and proceedings of the great leading nullifiers of the South in my native State (South Carolina) , and weep for its fate, and over the delusion into which the people are led by the Avickedness, ambition, and folly of their leaders. I have no doubt of the intention of their leaders to alarm the other States to submit ANDREW JACKSON. 179 to their views rather than a dissohition of the Union should take place. If they fail in this, to cover their own disgrace and wickedness, to nullify the tariff, and secede from the Union. AVe are wide awake here. The Union will be preserved, rest assured of this. There has been too much blood and treasure shed to obtain it, to let it be surrendered without a struggle. Our liberty and that of the whole world rests upon it, as well as the peace, prosperity, and happiness of these United States. It must be perpetuated. [Letter to Col. J. A. Hamilton.] Washington, December 6, 1832. Yours of the 3d inst. is just received. I accord with you fully in the propriety of the people giv- ing fully and freely their sentiments and opinions on nullification, and the course pursued by South Carolina in her late proceedings. The ordinance passed, when taken in connection with the Governor's message, is rebellion and war against the Union. The raising of troops under them to resist the laws of the United States is absolute treason. The crisis must be, and as far as my constitutional and legal powers go, will be met Avith energy and finnness. Therefore the pro- pi'iety of the public voice being heard, and it ought now to be spoken in a \o\ce of thunder that will make the leaders of the nuUifiers tremble, and 180 CHIPS FROM THE -WHITE HOUSE. which will cause the good citizens of South Caro- lina to retrace their steps and adhere to that con- stitution of perpetual union they have sworn to support. This treasonable procedure against the Union is a blow against not only our liberties Init the liberties of the world. This nullifying movement in the South has done no great injury abroad, and must not only be promptly met and put down, but frowned down by public opinion. It is therefore highly proper for the people to speak all over the Union. I am preparing a proclamation to the people of the South, and as soon as officially advised of these rebellious proceedings, will make a communication to Congress. [From a Message to Congi*ess, January 16, 1833.] A recent proclamation of the present Governor of South Carolina has openly detied the authority of the Executive of the Union, and gen- eral orders from the head-quarters of the State announced his determination to accept the services of volunteers, and his belief that, should their country need their services, they will be found at the post of honor and duty, read}^ to lay down their lives in lier defence. Under these orders, the forces referred to are directed to " hold themselves in readiness to take the field at a moment's warn- ing ; and in tlie cit}^ of Charleston, within a colleo- ANDREW JACKSON. 181 tion district and a port of eutiy, a rendezvous has been opened for the par})oso of enlisting men for the magazine and municipal guard. Thus South Carolina presents herself in the attitude of hostile preparation, ^uid ready even for military violence, if need be, to enforce her laAvs for preventing the collection of the duties within her limits It therefore becomes my duty to bring the sub- ject to the serious consideration of Congress, in order that such measures as they, in their wisdom, may deem fit, shall be seasonably provided ; and that it may he therel)y understood that, while the government is disposed to remove all just cause of complaint, so far as may be practicably consistent with a proper regard to the interests of the com- munity at large, it is nevertheless determined that the supremacy of the laws shall l)e maintained. . . . By these various proceedings the State of South Carolina has forced the general government, un- avoidably, to decide the new and dangerous alter- native of permitting a State to obstruct the execu- tion of the laws within its limits, or seeing it able to execute a threat of withdrawins: from the Union. That portion of the people at present exercising the authority of the State solemnly assert their right to do either, and as solemnly announce their determination to do one or the other. In my opinion both purposes are to be regarded as revolutionary in their character and tendency, 182 CHIPS FROM THE AVHITE HOUSE. and subversive of the siiprcniacy of the Constitu- tion and of the integrity of the Union. The result of each is the same ; since a State, in which, by an usurpation of power, tlie constitutional authority of the Federal government is openly defied and set aside, wants only the form to be independent of the Union. The right of the people of a single State to ab- solve themselves at will, and without the consent of other States, from their most solemn obligations, and hazard the liberties and happiness of the mil- lions composing the Union, cannot be acknowl- edged. Such authority is believed to ])e utterly repugnant both to the principles u[)on which the General Government is constructed, and to the ob- jects which it is expressly formed to attain. Against all acts which may be alleged to tran- scend the constitutional power of the government, or which may be inconvenient and oppressive in their operation, the Constitution itself has pre- scribed the modes of redress. It is the acknowl- edged attribute of free institutions that, under them, the empire of reason and law is substituted for the power of the sword. To no other source can appeals from supposed Avrongs be made con- sistently with the obligations of South Carolina; to no other can such appeals be made with safety at any time ; and to their decisions, when consti- tutionally pronounced, it becomes the duty, no ANDREW JACKSON. 183 less of the public authorities than of the people, in every case to yield to a patriotic submission. . . . Independently of these considerations, it will not escape observation that South Carolina still claims to be a component part of the Union, to participate in the national councils, and to share in the public benefits, without contributing to the pulilic burdens — thus asserting the dangerous anomaly of continuing in an association without acknowledging any other obligation to its laws than what depends upon her own will. In this posture of aflairs the duty of the Govern- ment seems to be plain. It incujcates the recog- nition of that State as a member of the Union, and suliject to its authority ; a vindication of the just power of the Constitution ; the preserv^ation of the integrity of the Union, and the execution of the laws by all consistent means While a forbearing spirit may, and, I trust, will, be exercised towardsth e errors of our brethren in a particular quarter, duty to the rest of the Union demands that open and organized resistance to the laws should not be executed with impunity For myself, fellow-citizens, devoutly relying upon that kind Providence which has hitherto watched over our destiny, and actuated by a pro- found reverence for those institutions I have so much cause to love, and for the American people, whose partiality honored me with this high trust, 184 CHIPS FltOM THE WHITE IIOCSE. I have determined to spare no efibrt to discharge the duty which, in this conjuncture, is devolved upon me. That a similar spirit will actuate the liepresentatives of the American people is not to be questioned ; and 1 fervently pi'ay that the Great Ruler of nations may so guide your deliberations, and our joint measures, as that they may prove salutary examples, not only to the present, but to future times ; and solemnly proclaim that the Con- stitution and the laws are supreme, and the Union indissoluble. [From a letter; to Rev. A. J. Crawford, May 1, 1833.] The tariif was only a pretext [for nullifi- cation] , and Disunion and a Southern Confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negi'o or slavery question. [From a IVIessage, December G, 1836.} Variableness must ever be the character of a currency of which the precious metals are not the chief ingredient, or which can be expanded or contracted without regard to the principles that regulate tlie value of those metals as a standard in the general trade of the world. . . . The pro- gress of an expansion, or rather a depreciation of the currency, by excessive bank issues, is always attended by a loss to the laboring classes. This part of the community has neither time nor oppor- AXDKEW .TACKSOX. 185 tunity to watch the ebLb and flows of the money market. Engaged from da}^ to day in their use- ful toils, they do not perceive that although their wages are nominally the same, or even somewhat higher, they are greatly reduced in fact by the rapid increase of a spurious curren(n% which, as it appears to make money a])ound, they are at tirst inclined to consider a blessinn;. To a INIajor Lewis, of Kentucky, who rather pompously said to General Jackson, '' Well, Gen- eral, I have all my life been voting against you," he replied, " Well, jNIajor, I have all my life l)een tighting the l)attles of my country in order that you might enjoy that privilege." — JV^aahviUe Ban- ner. 18b0. 186 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. MAETIN VAN BUEEN. BORN, 1782; DIED, 1862, AGED 80. — SURROGATE OF COLUMBIA COUNTY, N. Y., 1808.— STATE SENATOR, 1812. — MEMBER OF THE CONVENTION TO REVISE THE NEW YORK STATE CONSTITUTION, 1821. — UNITED STATES SENATOR, 1827. — GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK, 1828. — SECRETARY OF STATE, 1829. — MINISTER TO ENGLAND, 1831. — VICE-PRESIDENT, 1832-1836. — PRESIDENT, 1837-1841. [From an Address, 1819.] The struggle which gave birth to our nation must ever be regarded as one of the most impor- tant and interesting eras the world has ever wit- nessed. History records no event which called into action a race of statesmen equal in all the splendid virtues which adorn and give celebrity to the human character. And it is a fact honorable to our nation, that of the long list of patriots and sages who, at the hazard of all that was dear to man, signed the Declaration of Independence, and of those w^ho framed the grand charter of our hb- erties, there has not been one who, in after life, has fallen from the eminence to which, by his con- nection with those events, he was raised, or has in the least impaired the character he thus ac- quired. Those whom the ravages of time have yet MARTIN VAN BUREN. 187 spared to their countiy are everj'where honored and respected ; and those whose deaths we de- plore, who are now numbered with "the spirits of just men made perfect," have descended to the tomb accompanied by a nation's tears, and blessed with a nation's o-ratitude. [From a Speech in the Convention for revising the Consti- tution of New York, 1821, in favor of a proposition to vest in the Governor a revisory power upon the acts of the legislature.] Distinct branches are not only necessary to the existence of government, but when you have prescribed them, it is necessary that you should make them, in a great degree, independent of each other. No government can be so favored as to make them entirely separate ; but it has been the study of the wisest and best men to in- vent a plan by which they might be rendered as independent of each other as the nature of govern- • ment would admit. The legislative department is by far the strongest, and is constantly inclined to encroach upon the weaker branches of govern- ment, and upon individual rights. This arises from a variety of causes. In the first place, the powers of that department are more extended and indefinable than those of an}' other, which gives its members an exalted idea of their superiority. They are the representatives of the people, from 188 CHirs Fr.oM the white house. which circumstance they think they possess, and of right ouglit to possess, all the iwwer of the peo- ple. This is natural, and it is easy to imagme the consequences that necessarily follow. This is not all. They hold the purse-strings of the state ; and every member of all the branches of the government is dependent on them for his subsistence. You have been told, and correctly told, that those who feed men, and enjoy the priv- ilege of dispensing the public bounty, will, in a greater or less degree, influence and control them. Is it unreasonable or im})robable to suppose that power, thus constituted, should have a tendency to exert itself for purposes not congenial with the true interests of the other branches of government ? . . . Such is the superior force and influence of legislative pf)wcr ; such is the reverence and re- gard with M'hich it is looked up to, that no man in the community will have the temerity, on ordinary occasions, to resist its acts or check its proceed- ings. I cannot illustrate this position more strongly than by a reference to the constitution of England. There the executive is a branch of the legislatui'e, and has an absolute negative. Sur- rounded as he is with prerogative, and placed far beyond the reach of the people, yet since the year 1GD2 no objection has been made by the king of Great Britain to any bill presented for his ap- proval. Kather than produce the excitement and MARTIX VAN BUUEX. 189 irritation which, even there, would result from the rejection of a bill passed by tjje Parliament, he has resorted to means which have dep'raded the gov- ernment and dishonored the nation, to prevent the passage of bills which he should feel it his duty to reject. In the Declaration of Independence, in the category of wrongs under which our fathers had been suffering, one of the most prominent was, that the king had exercised his prerogative, and had refused his sanction to salutary laws. Gentlemen may, therefore, rest satisfied that very little danger is to be apprehended on this subject. [From "Political Parties in the United States."] John Adams was in every sense a remarkable man. Nature seems to have employed in his con- struction intellectual materials sufiicient to have furnished many minds respectably. It would not be easy to name men either of his day or of any period, whose character presents a deeper or a stronger soil, one which during his long and some- w^hat boisterous jiublic life was thoroughly probed by his enemies without disclosing any variation in its depths from the qualities and indications of its surface. Still more deeply was it turned up and exposed to light by himself with the same result. His writings, which have been more extensive and more varied than those of any of his contempo- raries, have been given to the world apparently 190 CHIPS FROM THE ^^^^ITE house. ■without resen^e. These, with liis. diaries and auto- biography have turned his character inside out, and shown us, without disguise of any sort, the kind of man he was ; and the representation is in- variably that of the same "alwaj^s honest man" that he was three quarters of a century ago when that high praise was accorded to him hy his not too particular friend Benjamin Franklin, in a com- munication not designed to be over civil. . . . Mr. Jefferson, but two years before the death of both of them, on referring to that [the revolution- ary] period, and to Mr. Adams' great services, in my presence, was warmed by the subject, and spoke of him as having been the mainmast of the ship — the orator of the Revolution, etc. [From the Same.] Mr. Jefferson commenced the discharge of his official duties by an act which, though one of form, involved matter of the highest moment. I allude to the decision and facility with which, in his intercourse with other branches of the govern- ment, he suppressed the observance of empty ceremonies which had been l^orrowed from foreign courts by officials who took an interest in such matters, and were reluctantly tolerated by Wash- ington, who was himself above them. Instead of proceeding in state to the capitol to deliver a speech to the legislature, according to the custom MARTIN VAN BUREN. 191 of monarclis, lie performed his constitutional duty by means of a message in writing, sent to each House l)y the hands of his private secretary, and tliey performed theirs by a reference of its con- tents to appropriate committees. The executive procession, instead of marking the intercourse be- tween the diflerent liranches of the government, was reserved for the Inauguration, when the Presi- dent appeared before the people themselves, and in their presence took the oath of office. [From his Reply to the Committee of the Convention which nominated him for the Presidency] We hold an immense stake for the weal or woe of mankind, to the importance of which we should not be insensible. The intense interest manifested abroad in every movement here that threatens the stability of our system, shows the deep conviction which pervades the world that upon its fate depends the cause of republican gov- ernment. The advocates of monarchical systems have not been slow in perceiving danger to such institutions in the permanency of our Constitution, nor backward in seizing upon every passing event by which their predictions of its speedy destruc- tion could be in any degree justified. Thus far they have been disappointed in their expectations, and the circumstances by which they were encour- aged, however alarming at the time, have in the 192 CHIPS fko:m the ^VH1TE house. end only tended to slio\v forth the depth of that devotion to the Union which is yet, thank God, the master passion of the American bosom. [From a Message to Congress, September 5, 1837.] It has since appeared that evils similar to those suffered by ourselves, have been expe- rienced in Great Britain, on the Continent, and in- deed throughout the commercial world, and that in other countries as well as in our own, they have been uniformly preceded by an undue enlargement of the l)Oundaries of trade, prompted, as with us, by unprecedented expansions of the systems of credit. A reference to the amount of banking capacity and the issues of paper credits put in cir- culation in Great Britain by banks and in other ways, during the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, will show an augmentation of the paper currency' there, as much disproportioncd to the real wants of trade as in the United States. AVith this redundance in the paper currency, there arose in that country also a spirit of adventurous speculation embracing the whole range of human enterprise. Aid was profusely given to projected improvements ; large investments made in foreign stocks and loans ; credits for goods were granted with unbounded lil)erality to merchants in foreign countries; and, all the means of acquiring and employing credit s.cre put in active operation, and extended, in their eliects, to every department of business, and MARTIN VAN BlIREN. 193 to cveiy quart ei' of the globe. The reaction Avas proportioned in its violence to the extensive char- acter of the events which preceded it. .... In A'iew of these facts, it would seem impossil)le for sincere inquirers after truth to resist the conviction, that the causes of the revul- sion in both countries have been substantially the same. Two nations, the most commercial in the world, en jo3'ing but recently the highest degree of apparent prosperity, and maintaining with each other the closest relations, arc suddenly, in a time of profound peace, and without any great national disaster, arrested in their career, and i)lungcd into a state of embarrassment and distress. In both coun- tries Ave have witnessed the same redundancy of paper money, and other facilities of credit ; the same spirit of speculation, the same partial successes ; the same difficulties and rcA'erses ; and at length nearly the same overwhelming catastrophe All connnunities are apt to look to government for too mucli. Even in our own country, Avhere its powers and duties are so strictly limited, we are prone to do so, especiallj^ at periods of sudden cml^arrassment and distress. But this ought not to be. The framers of Ttiiv excellent Constitution, and the people who approved it, with calm and sagacious deliberation, acted at the time on a sounder principle. They wisely judged that the less government interferes with private 13 194 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. pursuits, the better for the genenil prosperity. It is not its legitimate object to make men rich, or to repair, by direct gi'ants of money or legislation in favor of particular pursuits, losses not incurred in the public service. This would be substantially, to use the property of some for the benefit of others. But its real dut}^, that duty, the perform- ance of which makes a o-ood o-overnment the most precious of human blessings, is to enact and en- force a system of general taxes commensurate with, but not exceeding, the objects of its establishment, and to leave eveiy citizen and every interest to reap, under its benign protection, the rewards of virtue, industry, and piTidence The great agricultural interest has, in many parts of the country, suffered comparatively little ; and, as if Providence intended to display the mu- nificence of its goodness at the moment of our greatest need, and in direct contrast to the evils occasioned by the waywardness of man, we have been blessed, throughout our extended tenitory, with a season of general health and of uncommon fruitful ness It is a hioh gratification to know that we act for a pc()})lc to wiiom the truth, however unpromising, can always l)e spoken with safety, for the trial of whose patience no emergency is too severe, and who are sure never to despise a public functionary honestly laboring for the public good. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 195 WILLIAJVI HENEY HARRISON. BORN, 1773; DIED, 1841, AGED 68. — CAPTAIN IN THE ARMY, 1795. — SECRETARY OF THE TERRITORY NORTH-WEST OF THE OHIO, 1707. — DELEGATE TO CONGRESS, 1790. — GOVERN- OR OF THE TERRITORY OF INDIANA, 1801.— ENGAGED IN THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE, 1811. — BRIGADIER-GENERAL AND CO:\i:\IANDER OF THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER, 1812. — MAJORr-GENERAL, 1813. — COMMANDER IN THE BATTLE OF THE THAMES, 1813. — REPRESENTATIVE TO CONGRESS, 1816. — IN THE STATE SENATE OF OHIO, 1819. — IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, 1824. — MINISTER TO COLOMBIA, 1828.— PRESIDENT, 1841. [From an Address, when Governor and Commander-in-chief of the territory of Indiana, to the Legislative Council and House of Representatives, 1805.] An enlightened and generous policy has forever removed all cause of contention with our western neighbors [by the acquisition of Lou- isiana in 1803]. The mighty river which sepa- rates US from the Louisianians will never be stained with the l)lood of contending nations, 1)ut will prove the bond of our Union, and will convey upon its bosom, in a course of many thousand miles, the produce of our great and united em- pire 19G CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. The interests of your constituents, the interests of the miserable Indians, and your own feelings, will suiBciently urge to take it into your most serious consideration, and provide the remedy which is to save thousands of our fellow-crea- tures. ... So destructive has the progress of intemperance been among them, that whole vil- lages have been swept away. A miserable I'emnant is all that remains to mark the names and situation of many numerous and warlike tribes. In the eneroetic Ian2:ua2:e of one of their orators, it is a dreadful conflagration, which spreads misery and desolation through their country, and threatens the annihilation of the whole race. Is it then to be admitted as a political axiom, that the neighborhood of a civilized nation is in- compatible with the existence of savages? Are the blessings of our repu1)lican government onh'' to be felt by ourselves? And are the nations of North America to experience the same fate with their brethren of the Southern Continent? It is with you, gentlemen, to divert from those children of nature the ruin which hangs over them. Nor can I believe that the time Avill be considered as misspent which is devoted to an object so consist- ent with the spirit of Christianity and with the principles of republicanism. k WILLIAM HENEY HARRISON. 197 [To the Legislature of the territoiy of Indiana, 1807.] The propriety and policy of a law of this kind [authorizing the general and circuit courts to grant divorces] has been strongly contested in many parts of the United States ; and it is be- lieved that the principle has been everywhere con- demned, save in one or two States only. It can- not be denied that the success of one applicant for a divorce has always the effect of producing others, and that the advantages which a few individuals may derive from a dissolution of this solemn con- tract, are too dearly purchased by its injurious effects upon the morals of the community. The scenes which are frequently exhibited in trials of this kind are shocking to humanity. The ties of consanguinity and nature are loosened — the child is brousfht to ffive testimonv aijainst his parent — • confidence and affection are destroyed — family secrets disclosed — and human nature is exhibited in the Avorst colors. [From a letter dated Headquarters, Detroit, 9 October, 1813, giving an account of the victory of the Amei-ican troops over the combined Indian and British foi'ces under General Proctor.] "Whilst I was engaged in forming the in- fantry, I had directed Colonel Johnson's * regiment, * Riclmrd M. Johnson. 198 CHIPS FEOM THE AVIIITE HOUSE. which was still in front, to be formed in two lines, opposite to the enemy, and, upon the ad^'ance of the infantry, to take ground to the left, and form- ing upon that tiank, to endeavor to turn the right of the Indians. A moment's reflection, however, convinced me that from the thickness of the woods and swampiness of the ground, they would be un- able to do anything on horseback ; and there was no time to dismount them and place their horses in security ; I therefore determined to refuse my left to the Indians, and to lireak the British lines at once by a charge of the mounted infantry. The measure was not sanctioned by an}i:hing I had seen or heard of, but I was fully convinced that it would succeed. The American backwoodsmen ride better in the woods than any other people. A musket or rifle is no impediment to them, being accustomed to carry them on horseback from their earliest youth. I was persuaded, too, that the enemy would be quite unprepared for the shock, and that they could not resist it. Conformably to this idea, I directed the regiment to be drawn up in close column, witli its right at the distance of fifty yards from the road (that it might be in some measure protected by the trees from the artillery), its left upon the swamp, and to charge at full speed as soon as the enemy delivered their fire. The few regular troops of the 27th regiment, under their colonel (Paul), occupied, in column WILLIAM HENRY HAItEISON. 199 of sections of four, the small space between the road and the river, for the purpose of seizing the enemy's artillery, and some ten or twelve friendly Indians were directed to move under the bank. The crotchet formed by the front line and General Desha's division was an important point. At that place the venerable governor of Kentucky (Shelby) was posted, who, at the age of sixty-six, preserved all the vigor of youth, the ardent zeal which dis- tinguished him in the Revolutionary war, and the undaunted bravery which he manifested at King's Mountain.* With my aid-de-camp, the acting assistant adjutant-general. Captain Butler, my gal- lant friend, Commodore Perry, who did me the honor to serve as my volunteer aid-de-camp, and Brigadier-General Cass, f who, having no command , tendered me his assistance, I placed myself at the head of the front line of infantry, to direct the movements of the cavalry, and give them the necessary support. The army had moved on in this manner but a short distance, when the mounted men received. the fire of the British line, and were ordered to charge ; the horses in the front of the column recoiled from the fire ; an- other was given by the enemy, and our column at length getting in motion, broke through the enemy with irresistible force. In one minute the contest * In North Carolina, October 9, 1780. t Lewis Cass. 200 CHIPS FEOM THE WHITE HOUSE. in front was over ; the British officers, seeing no hopes of reducing their disordered ranks to order, and our mounted men wheeling upon them, and pouring in a destructive lire, immediately surren- dered. It is ceilain that three only of our troops were wounded in this charge. Upon the left, however, the contest was more severe with the Indians. Colonel Johnson, who commanded on the flank of his regiment, received a most galling fire from them, which was returned with great effect. The Indians still farther to the right ad- vanced, and fell in with our front line of infantry, near its junction with Desha's division, and for a moment made an impi^ssion upon it. His excel- lency Governor Shelby, however, brought up a regiment to its support, and the enemy, receiving a severe fire in front, and a part of Johnson's regiment having gained their rear, retreated with precipitation. The loss was very considerable in the action, and many were killed in the re- treat.* [From his Inaugural Address, 1841.] The spirit of liberty is the sovereign balm for every injury which our institutions may re- ceive. On the contrar}', no care that can be used in the construction of our government, no division of powers, no distribution of checks in its several * Tecumseh was killed in this battle. WILLIAM IIEXnV IIAP.rjSOX. 201 departments, "vvill })rove effectual to keep us a free people, if this spirit is suffered to decaj^ , and de- cay it will without constant nurture. . . . And although there is at times much difficulty in dis- tinguishing the false from the true spirit, a calm and dispassionate investigation will detect the counterfeit, as well by the character of its ope- rations as the results that are produced. The true spirit of liberty, although devoted, persevering, bold, and uncompromising in principle ; that se- cured, is mild, and tolerant, and scrupulous as to the means it employs ; whilst the spirit of party, assuming to be that of liberty, is harsh, vindictive, and intolerant, and totally reckless as to the charac- ter of the allies wliich it Ijrings to the aid of its cause. 202 CHIPS FROM THE "WTIITE HOUSE. JOHN TYLER. BORN, 1790; DIED, 1862, AGED 72. — GRADUATED AT WILLIAM AND ]MARY COLLEGE, 1807. — BEGAN PRACTICE OF LAW, 1800. — IN LEGISLATURE OF VIRGINLi, 1811. — CONGRESS, 1816. — STATE LEGISLATURE, 1820. — GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA, 1825. — UNITED STATES SENATOR, 1827.— IN THE STATE LEG- ISLATURE, 1838. — VICE-PRESIDENT, 1841.— PRESIDENT, 1841. [From an Address as President of the Senate, March, 1841.] Here are to be found the immediate Representatives of tlie States, by whose sovereign will the government has been spoken into exist- ence. Here exists that perfect equality among the members of this confederacy, which gives to the smallest State in the Union a voice as potential as that of the largest. To this bod}'" is committed, in an eminent dc2rree, the trust of o:uardin£]f and protecting the institutions handed down to us from our fathers, as well against the waves of popular and rash impulses on the one hand, as against at- tempts at executive encroachment on the other. It may properly be regarded as holding the balance in which is weighed the powers conceded to this government, and the rights reserved to the States and to the people. It is its province to concede JOHN TYLER. 203 what has been granted — to withhold what has been denied ; thus, in all its features, exhibiting a true type of the glorious confederacy under which it is our happiness to live. Should the spirit of faction, that destructive spirit which reck- lessly walks over prostrate rights, and tramples laws and constitutions in the dust, ever tind an abiding place within this hall, then, indeed, will a sentence of condemnation be issued against the peace and happiness of this people, and their political institutions be made to topple to their foundations. But while this body shall continue to be what by its framers it was designed to be, deliberative in its character, unbiassed in its coun- sel, and independent in its action, then may liberty be regarded as intrenched in safety behind the sacred ramparts of the Constitution. [From a Message to Congi-ess, June 1, 1841.] I must be permitted to add, that no scheme of governmental policy, unaided by indi- vidual exertions, can 1)e available for ameliorating the present condition of things. Commercial modes of exchange, and a good currency are but the necessary means of commerce and intercourse, not the direct productive sources of wealth. Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality, and nothing can be more ill-judged than to look to 204 CHIPS ftio:m the white house. facilities in boiTowino;, or to a redundant currency, for the power of discharging pecuniary obhgations. The country is full of resources, and the people full of energy ; and the great and permanent rem- edy for present embarrassments must be sought in industry, economy, the observance of good faith, and the favorable influence of time. JAMES K. POLK. 205 jjlmes k. polk. BOEN, 1795; DIED, 1849, AGED 54. — GRADUATED AT THE UNI- VERSITY OF KOBTH CAROLIXA, 1818.— ADMITIED TO THE BAR, 1820. — IN THE TENNESSEE STATE LEGI0I.ATURE, 1823. — ELECTED TO CONGRESS, 1825. — SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 1835. — GO VERNOR OF TENNESSEE, 1839. — PRESIDENT, 1845-1849. [From his Inaugural Address, ]\Iarch, 1»45.] " Who shall assign limits to the achieve- ments of free minds and free hands, under the protection of the glorious Union? No treason to mankind, since the organization of society, would be equal in atrocity to that of him who would lift his hand to destroy it. He would overthrow the noblest structure of human wisdom, which pro- tects himself and his fellow-men. He would stop the progress of free government, and involve his country either in anarchy or destruction. Has the sword of despots proved to be a safer 0)' surer instrument of reform in government than enlightened reason? Does he expect to tind among the ruins of this Union a happier abode for our swarming millions than they now have under it? Every lover of his country must shudder at 206 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. the thought of the possibility of its dissolution, and will be ready to adopt the political sentiment : Our Federal Union ; it must be preserved. Nor will it become in a less degree my duty to assert and maintain, by all consistent means, the right of the United States to that part of our terri- tory which lies beyond the Rocky Mountains. Our title to the country of the Oregon is clear and unquestionable, and already are our people pre- paring to perfect that title, by occupying it \vith their wives and children. But eighty years ago our population was confined on the west by the ridge of the Alleghanies. Within that period — within the lifetime, I may say, of some of my hearers — our people, increasing to many mil- lions, have filled the eastern valley of the Missis- sippi, adventurously ascended the Mississippi to its head springs, and are already engaged in estab- lishing the blessings of self-government in valleys of which the rivers flow to the Pacific. The world beholds the peaceful triumphs of the industry of our emigrants. To us l)elongs the duty of pro- tecting them adequately, wherever they may be upon our soil. The jurisdiction of our laws, and the benefits of our republican institutions, should be extended over them in the distant regions wliich tliey Imve selected for their homes. JAMES K. POLK. 207 [Fi'om his first annual Message, December, 1845.] It is well known to the American people, and to all nations, that this government has never interfered with the relations subsisting between other governments. We have never made ourselves parties to their wars or their alli- ances ; we have not sought their territories by conquest ; we have not mingled with parties in their domestic struggles ; and believing our own form of government to be the best, we have never attempted to propagate it by intrigues, by diplo- macy, or by force. We may claim on this conti- nent a like exemption from European interference. The nations of America are equally sovereign and independent with those of Europe. They possess the same rights, independent of all foreign inter- position, to make war, to conclude peace, and to regulate their internal affairs. The people of the United States cannot, therefore, view w'ith indiffer- ence attempts of European powers to interfere with the independent action of the nations on this continent. The American system of government is entirely different from the European. Jealousy among the ditlercnt sovereigns of Europe lest any one of them might become too powerful for the rest has caused them anxiously to desire the estab- lishment of w^hat they term the " balance of power." It cannot be permitted to have any application on 208 cnrps fro^i the white house. the North American Continent, and especialh^ to the United States. We must ever maintain the principle, that the people of this continent alone have the right to decide their own destiny. Should any portion of them, constituting an independent state, propose to unite themselves with our confed- eracy, this will be a question for them and us to determine, without any foreign interposition. Nearly a quarter of a century ago the principle was distinctly announced to the world in the an- nual message of one of my predecessors, that " the American continents, Iw the free and independent condition which they have assumed and main- tained, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization hy any European powers." This principle will apply with greatly increased force should any European power at- tempt any new colony in North America. [From a Message, December, 1848.] Any attempt to coerce the President to yield his sanction to measures which he cannot ap- prove would be a violation of the spirit of the con- stitution, palpable and llagrant ; and if successful would break down the independence of the execu- tive department, and make the President, elected by the j^cople, and clothed l)y the constitution with power to defend their rights, the mere hi- JAMES K. POLK. 209 strument of a majority of Congress. A surrender on his part of the powers with which the constitu- tion has invested his office would effect a practical alteration of that instrument, without resorting to the presci ibed form of amendment. 210 CHIPS FROM THE TVTIITE HOUSE. ZACHARY TAYLOE. BORN, 1784; DIED, 1S50, AGED CO.- CAPTAIN EN THE UNITED STATES ARMY, 1810. — COLONEL, 1832. — IN THE BLACK IL\WK WAR, 1832. — BRIGADIER-GENERAL, 1837. — COMMANDER-IN- CHIEF IN FLORIDA, 1838. — IN THE MEXICAN W^Ul, 1846, 1847. — PRESIDENT, 1849. [From a Message to Congress, December 27, 1849.] As indispensable to the preservation of our sj'stem of self-government, the independence of the representatives of the states and the people is guaranteed by the constitution, and they owe no responsibility to any human power but their con- stituents. By holding the representative respon- sible only to the people, and exempting him from all other influences, Ave elevate the character of the constituents, and quicken his sense of responsi- bility to his country. It is under these circum- stances only that the elector can feel that, in the choice of a lawmaker, he is himself trul}^ a com- ponent part of the sovereign power of the nation. With equal care we should study to defend the rights of the executive and judicial departments ; our government can only be preserved in its purity by the suppression and entire elimination of every ZACHARY TAYLOR. 211 claim or tendency of one co-ordinate brancli to en- croacliment upon another. With the strict observ- ance of this rule, and the other injunctions of the constitution ; with a sedulous inculcation of the respect and love of the union of the states, which our fathers cherished and enjoined upon their chil- dren ; and with the aid of the overruling Provi- dence which has so long and so kindly guarded our liberties and institutions, we may reasonably expect to transmit them, with their innumerable blessings, to the remotest posteiity. But attachment to the union of the states should be habitutdly fostered in excvy American heart. For more than half a centurv, durins: which kins:- doms and empires have fallen, this Union has stood unshaken. ... In my judgment, its disso- lution would be the greatest of calamities, and to avert that should be the study of every American. Upon its preservation must depend our own happi- ness and that of countless generations to come. Whatever dangers ma}' threaten it, I shall stand by it and maintain it in its integi'ity to the full ex- tent of the obligations find the power conferred aj)on me by the constitution. 212 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. MILLAED FILLMOEE. BOEN, 1800; DIED, lcS74, AGED T4. — BEGAN PKACTICls OF LAW 1823.— ELECTED TO THE NEW YORK LEGISL^ITUEE, 1828.— TO CONGRESS, 1832. — RE-ELECTED, 1836.— AGAIN, 1838 AND 1840. — CIIAIRJIAN OF C0M3IITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS. —NEW YORK STATE COMPTROLLER, 1847. — VICE-PRESI- DENT, 1849. — PRESIDENT, JULY 10, 1850-1853. No individuals have a right to hazard the peace of the country, or to violate its laws, upon vague notions of altering or reforming gov- ernments in other states. . . . Friendly relations with all, but entangling alliances with none, has been a maxim with us. Our true mission is not to propagate our opinions, or impose upon other countries our form of government, by artifice or force, but to teach by example, and show by our success, moderation, and justice, the blessings of self-government and the advantages of free institu- tions. Let every people choose for itself, and make and alter its political institutions to suit its own condition and convenience. But while we avow and maintain this neutral policy ourselves, we are anxious to see the same forbearance on the part of other nations, whose forms of government MILLARD FILLMORE. 213 are different from our own. The deep interest which we feel in the spread of liberal principles and the establishment of free governments, and the s^-mpathy with which we witness every strug- gle against oj)pression, forbid that we should bo indifferent to a case in which the strong arm of a foreign power is involved to stifle public senti- ment and repress the spirit of freedom in any country. [From a Message, December, 1850.] The great law of morality ought to Lave a national as well as a personal and individual application. We should act toward other nations as we wish them to act toward us ; and justice and conscience should form the rule of conduct be- tween governments instead of mere power, self- interest, and the desire of aggrandizement. To maintain a strict neutrality in foreign wars, to cul- tivate friendly relations, to reciprocate every noble and generous act, and to perform punctually and scrupulously every treaty obligation ; these are the duties which we owe to other states, and by the performance of which we best entitle our- selves to like treatment from them ; or if, in any case that be refused, we can enforce our own rights with a just and clear conscience. 214 CIIIPS FllOM THE WHITE HOUSE. [From a Message, December, 1852.] It Ims been the uniform policy of this government, from its foundation to the i)resent day, to iibstuin from all interference in the domes- tic affairs of other nations. The consequence has been that while the nations of Europe have been engaged in desolating wars, our country has pur- sued its peaceful course to unexampled prosperity and happiness. . . • During the tcmble contest of nation against nation which succeeded the French revolution, we were enabled, by the wis- dom and iirmness of President Washington, to maintain our neutrality. While the nations were drawn into this Avide-spreacling wliirlpool, we sat quiet and unmoved upon our own shores. While the flower of their numerous armies was wavSted by disease, or perished by hundreds of thousands upon the battle-field, the youth of this favored land were permitted to enjoy the blessings of peace be- neath the paternal roof. While the states of Europe incurred enormous deljts, under the bur- den of which their subjects still groan, and which must al)sorb no small part of the produce of the honest industries of those countries for generations to come, the United States have once been enabled to cxliibit the proud spectacle of a nation free from public debt ; and if pennitted to pursue our pros- perous way for a few years longer in pea^e, w** may do the same again. MILLARD FILLMORE. 215 But it is now said that this policy must be changed. Europe is no longer separated from us by a voyage of months, but steam navigation has brought her within a few days' sail of our shores. We see more of her movements, and take a deep interest in her controversies. Although no one proposes that we should join the fraternity of po- tentates who have for ages lavished the blood and treasure of their subjects in maintaining "the bal- ance of power," yet it is said that we ought to interfere between contendins: o-overnments and their subjects, for the purpose of overthrowing the monarchies of Europe, and establishing in their place republican institutions. It is alleged that we have hitherto pursued a different course from a sense of our weakness, but that now our conscious strength dictates a change of polic}^ and that it is consequently our duty to mingle in these contro- versies, and aid those who are stru2:2:lin2r for liberty. This is a most seductive but dangerous appeal to the generous sympathies of freemen. Enjoying, as we do, the blessings of a free o-ovcrnment, there is no man who has an American heart that would not rejoice to see these blessings extended to all other nations. . . . Nevertheless, is it prudence, or is it wisdom to involve ourselves in these foreign wars? Is it indeed true that we have heretofore refrained from doing so merely from the degrading 216 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. motive of a conscious weakness? For the honor of the patriots who have gone before, I cannot ad- mit it. . . . The truth is, that the course which they pursued was dictated hy a stern sense of inter- national justice, by a statesman-like prudence, and a far-seeing wisdom, looking not merely to the present necessities, but to the permanent safety and interest of the country. They knew that the world is governed less by sympathy than b}' reason and force ; that it was not possible for this nation to become a " propagandist " of free principles with- out ari'aying against itself the combined powers of Europe ; and that the result was more likely to he the overthrow of republican liberty here than its establishment there. FRANKLIN PIERCE. 217 FEANI^LIN PIERCE. BORN, 1804; DIED, 18G0, AGED G5. — GRADUATED AT BOWDOD? COLLEGE (ME.), 1824. — ADMITTED TO THE BAR, 1827.— ELECTED TO THE NEW HAMPSHIRE STATE LEGISL.1TURE, 1829. — SPEAKER, 1832.— ELECTED TO CONGRESS, 1833. — TO THE LTsITED STATES SENA.TE, 1837. — GENERAL IN THE MEXICAN WAR. — PRESIDENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL STATE CONVENTION, 1850. — PRESIDENT, 1853-1857. [From a Message, December 6, 1854.] Our forefathers of the thirteen United Colonies, in acquiring their independence, and in founding this republic of the United States of America, have devolved upon us their descendants the greatest and most noble trust ever committed to the hands of men, imposing upon all, and especially such as the public will may have in vested, for the time being, with political functions, the most solemn obligations. We have to main- tain inviolate the great doctrine of the inherent right of popular self-government ; to reconcile the largest liberty of the individual citizen wath complete security of the public order ; to render cheerful obedience to the laws of the land, to unite in enforcing their execution, and to frown nidig- nantly on all combinations to resist them , to har- monize a sincere and ardent devotion to the insti- tutions of religious faith with the most universal 218 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. religious toleration ; to preserve the rights of all by causing each to respect those of the other ; to cany forward every social improvement to the utmost limit of human perfectibility by the free action of mincl upon mind, not by oljtrusive inter- vention of misplaced force ; to uphold the integrity and guard the limitations of our organic law ; to preserve sacred from all touch of usurpation, as the very palladium of our political salvation, the reserved rights and powers of the several States and of the people ; to cherish, with loyal fealty and devoted afiection, this Union, as the only sure foundation on which the hopes of civil liberty rest ; to administer government with vigor, in- tegi'ity, and rigid economy ; to cultivate peace and friendship with foreign nations, and to demand and exact equal justice from all, but to do wrong to none ; to eschew intermeddling with the national policy and the domestic repose of other govern- ments, and to repel it from our own ; never to shrink from war when the rights and the honor of our country call us to arms, but to cultivate in preference the arts of peace, seek enlargement of the rights of neutrality, and elevate and liberalize the intercourse of nations ; and by such just and honorable means, and such onl}', while exalting the condition of the repul)lic, to assure to it the legiti- mate influence and the benign authority of a great example amongst all the powers of Christendom. JAMES BrCHAXAN. 219 JAINIES BUCHANAN. BORN, 1791; DIED, 1808, AGED 77. — GRADUATED AT DICKIN- SON COLLEGE (PENN.), 1809. — ADMITTED TO THE RAR, 1812.— ELECTED TO PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE, 1811.— TO CONGRESS, 1821. — JMINISTER TO RUSSIA, 18C1. — UNITED STATES SENATOR, 1833.— SECRETARY OF STATE, 1845-1849. MINISTER TO ENGLAND, 1853. —PRESIDENT, 1857-1861. [From his jNIessage to Congress, December, 18G0.] In order to justify secession as a consti- tutional remedy, it must he on the principle that the Federal Government is a mere voluntary asso- ciation of States, to be dissolved at pleasure by any one of the contracting parties. If this be so, the confederacy is a rope of sand, to be penetrated and dissolved by the first adverse wave of public opinion in any of the States. In this manner our thirty-three States may resolve themselves into as many petty, jarring, and hostile republics, each one retiring from the Union, without responsibility, whenever any sudden excitement might impel them to such a course. By this process, a union might be entirely broken into fragments in a few weeks, which cost our forefathers many years of toil, pri- vation, and blood to establish. Such a prmciple is wholly inconsistent with the 220 CHIPS FEOM THE WHITE HOUSE. history as well as the character of the Federal Con- stitution. After it was framed with the greatest deliberation and care, it wab submitted to conven- tions of the people of the several States for ratifi- cation. Its provisions were discussed at length in these bodies, composed of the first men of the country. Its opponents contended that it con- ferred powers upon the Federal Government dan- gerous to the rights of the States ; while its advo- cates maintained that, under a fair construction of the instrument, there was no foundation for such apprehension. In that mighty struggle between the first intellects of this or any other country, it never occurred to any individual, either among its opponents or advocates, to assert, or even to inti- mate, that their efforts were all vain labor, because the moment that any State felt herself agrieved she might secede from the Union. What a crusliing argument would this have proved against those who dreaded that the rights of the States would be endangered by the Constitution ! The truth is, that it was not till many years after the origin of the Federal Government that such a proposition was first advanced. It was then met and refuted by the conclusive arguments of General Jackson, who, in his Message of the 16th of January, 1833, transmitting the nulhfving ordinance of South Carolina to Congress, employs the following lan- guage : " The right of the people of a single State JAMES BUCHANAN. 221 to absolve themselves at will, and without the con- sent of the other States, from their most solemn obligations, and hazard the liberty and happiness of the millions composing this Union, cannot be acknowledged. Such authority is believed to be entirely repugnant both to the principle upon which the General Government is constituted, and to the objects which it was expressly formed to attain." '* This government, therefore, is a great and powerful government, invested with all the attributes of sovereignty over the special subjects to which its authority extends. Its framers never intended to implant in its bosom the seeds of its own destruction, nor were they at its creation guilty of the absurdity of providing for its own dissolution. It was not intended by its framers to be the baseless fixliric of a vision, which, at the touch of the enchanter, would vanish into thin air ; but a substantial and mighty fabric, capable of re- sisting the slow decay of time, and of defying the storms of ages." [Proclamation for a National Fast, on January 4, 1861.] . . . . . The Union of the States is at the present moment threatened with alarming and immediate danger — panic and distress of a fearful character prevail throughout the land — our laboring popu- lation are without employment, and consequently 222 CHirS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. deprived of the means of earning their bread — in- deed, hope seems to have deserted the minds of men. All classes are in a state of confusion and dismay ; and the wisest counsels of our best and purest men are AvhoUj disregarded. ABRAHAM TJNCOLN. 223 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. BORN, 1809; DIED, 1865, AGED 56. — CAPTAIN IN THE I5LACK HAWK AVAR. — ELECTED TO THE ILLINOIS STATE LEG- ISLATURE, 1831. — AGAIN, 1836.- ADMITTED TO THE BAR, 1837.- ELECTED TO CONGRESS, 1846.— MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE ON POST-OFFICES AND POST-ROADS AND WAR-DEPARTMENT EXPENSES.— MADE HIS FIRST SPEECH IN CONGRESS, JAN. 12, 1848, IN OPPOSITION TO THE MEX- ICAN WAR. — SPEECH IN COOPER'S INSTITUTE, NEW YORK CITY, I860. — PRESIDENT, 1860-1865. [" He is the author of a multitude of good say- ings, so disguised as pleasantries that it is certain they had no reputation at first but as jests ; and only later by the very acceptance and adoption they find in the mouths of millions, turn out to be the wisdom of the hour. I am sure if this man had ruled in a period of less facility of printing, he would have become mythological in a very few years, like ^sop or Pilpay, or one of the Seven Wise Masters, by his fables and proverbs. " But the weight and penetration of many pas- sages in his letters, messages, and speeches, hidden now by the very closeness of their application to the moment, are destined hereafter to a wide fame. What pregnant definitions 1 what unen-ing com- 224 CHIPS FROM THE AVHITE HOUSE. mon-sense ! what foresight ! and, on great occa- sions, what lofty, and, more than national, what humane tone." — Ralph Waldo Emerson. How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true. — London Panch.~\ [From a Lecture before the Springfield Lyceum, on the Pei'petuation of our Free Institutions, January, 1837.] At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected ? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must hve through all time, or die by suicide. [Letter to Mr. Herndon.]* Washington, February 1, 1848. That vote affirms that the [Mexican] war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally com- menced by the President; and I will stake my life, that, if you had been in my place, you would have voted just as I did. Would you have voted what you felt and knew to be a lie? I know you would not. Would you have gone out of the House, — skulked the vote? I expect not. If you had skulked one vote, you would have to * Mr. Lincoln voted for Mr. Ashmun's amendment. ABKAIIAM LIXCOLX. 225 skulk many more before the end of the session. Richardson's resolutions, introduced before I made any move, or gave any vote upon the subject, make the direct question of the jirstice of the war ; so that no man can be silent if he vrould. You are compelled to speak ; and your only alternative is to tell the truth or tell a lie. [To the Same] Washington. July 10, 1S48. The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself every way he can, never sus- pecting that anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation. There may sometimes l)e ungenerous attempts to keep a 3"oung man dovrn ; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel, to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if this feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall into it. [Frora a Speech in Congress, July 27, 1848.] The other day one of the gentlemen from Georgia, an eloquent man, and a man of learning, so far as I could judge, not being learned myself, came down upon us astonishingly. lie spoke in what the Ualtimoi-e American calls the "scathinsf and withering style." At the end of his second 15 226 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. severe flash I was struck blind, and found myself feeling with my fingers for an assurance of my continued physical existence. A little of the bone was left, and I gi'adually revived. I say that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other s consent. — Oct. 1854. [From a Speech in 1856.] Twenty-two years ago, Judge Douglas and I became first acquainted ; we were both young men — he a trifle younger than I. Even then we were both ambitious, I perhaps quite as much as he. With me the race of ambition has been a failure — a flat failure. With him it has been one of splendid success. His name fills the nation, and it is not unknown in foreign lands. I afiect no contempt for the high eminence he has reached, so reached that the oppressed of my species might have shared with me in the elevation. I would rather stand on that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow. [From a Speech delivered in 1857. Describing tlie helpless state of the American slave, he said] : They have him in his prison-house. They have searched his person and left no prying instrument with him. One after another they have closed the heavy iron doors upon him, and now they have ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 227 him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, which can never be unlocked without the concurrence of every key ; the keys in the hands of a hundred diiferent men, and they scattered to a hundred different and distant places ; and they stand musing as to what invention, in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced to make the impossibility of his escape more com- plete than it is. [From a Speech,* delivei-ed at Springfield, Illinois, June 17, 1858, before the Republican State Convention.] If we could first know where we are, and whith- er we are tending, we could better judge vv'hat to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, * Mr. Lincoln read this speech, before its public delivery, to Mr. Ilerndon. When he had finished the first paragraph, he asked his auditor, " How do you like that? What do you think of it?" "I think," returned Mr. Ilerndon, "it is true ; but is it entirely politic to read or speak it as it is written?" "What makes the difference?" Mr. Lincoln said. "That expression is a truth of all human experience, •A house divided against itself cannot stand;' and 'he that runs may read.' The proposition is indisputably true, and has been true for more than six thousand years ; and I will deliver it as written. I want to use some universally known figure, expressed in simple language as universally 228 CHirs FROM the white house. but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and i)assed. " A house divided against itself can- not stand." I beUeve this government cannot en- dure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to l)e dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall ; but I do expect it vrill cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its ad- vocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new, north as well as south. [In the same speech, Mr. Lincoln said that the doctrine of " Squatter Sovereignty," otherwise known, that may strike home to the minds of men, in order to rouse them to the jjeril of the times. I would rather be defeated with this expression in the speech, and it held up and discussed before the people, than to be victorious icith- out it.'''' ]\Ir. Lincoln was not elected senator. In the summer of 1859, at a paily of friends, the subject of this speech Avas discussed. "We .all insisted," says Mr. Swett, who was one of the company, "that it was a great mistake," losing him his election. " Well, gentlemen," replied Mr. Lincoln, "you may think that speech was a mistake; but I never have believed it was, and you will sec the day when you will consider it was the nicest tiling I ever said." — See La- MON's JAfe of Lincoln. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 229 called " sacred right of self-government," as ex- pressed in the " Nebraska Bill," hy ^vhich the right of a slaveholder to hold slaves in any territory or state, was affirmed, amounted to this:] — "That if any one man chose to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to object.'' [From a Speech in reply to INIr. Douglas, July 10, 1858.] We are now a mighty nation ; we are thirty, or about thirty millions of people, and we own and inhabit about one-fifteenth part of the dry land of the whole earth. We run our memory back over the pages of history for about eighty-two years, and we discover that we were then a very small people in point of numbers, vastly inferior to M'hat we are now, with a vastly less extent of country, with vastly less of everything we deem desirable among men, — we look upon the change as extreme- ly advantageous to us, and to our posterity, and we fix upon something that happened away back, as in some way or other being connected with this rise of prosperity. We find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grand- fathers ; they were iron men ; they fought for the principle that they were contending for ; and we understood that by what they then did it has fol- lowed that the degree of prosperity which we now enjoy has come to us. We hold this annual cel- ebration to remind ourselves of all the good done 230 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. in this process of time, of bow it was done, and who did it, and how we arc historically connected with it ; and we go from these meetings in 1 )etter humor with ourselves ; we feel more attached the one to the other, and more tirml}' bound to the country we inhabit. In every way we are better men in the age, and race, and country in which we live, for these celebrations. But after we have done all this we have not yet reached the whole. . . . We have besides these descended by blood from our ancestors, men among us, perhaps half our people, who are not descendants at all of these men ; they are men who have come from Europe, — German, Irish, French, and Scandinavian, — men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look l)ack through their history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none ; they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch, and make themselves feel that they are part of us ; but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence, the^i find that those old men say that " Vie hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," etc., and then they feci that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 231 all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that declaration ; and so they are. That is the electric cord in that declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men to- gether, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world Those arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as much allowance as they are capable of enjoying ; that as much is to be done for them as their condition will allow. What are these arguments ? They are the argu- ments that kings have made for enslaving the peo- ple in all ages of the world. You will find that all the arsfuments in favor of kin2:-craft were of this class ; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off" for being ridden. That is their argument, and this argument of the judge is the same old serpent that says, You work, and I eat; you toil, and I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn it whatever way you will, whether it come from the mouth of a kins:, fin excuse for enslavinsT the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslavini? the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent, and I hold if that course of argumentation that is made 232 CHIPS FROM THE ^NTIITE HOUSE. for the purpose of convincing the public mind that we should not care about this, should l)e granted, it does not stop with the negro. I should like to know, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon princi- ple, and making exceptions to it, where will it stop? If one man says it does not mean the negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man? If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute book in which we find it and tear it out ! Who is so bold as to do it ! If it is not true, let us tear it out ! [Cries of " No, no ! "] Let us stick to it, then ; let us stand firml}^ by it, then. [From a letter to IMr. Speed, Au^ist 24, 1858.] Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declar- ing that " all men are created equal." We now practically read it, " All men are created equal, except negroes." When the Know-nothings get control it will read, " All men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigratmg to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty ; to Russia, for instance, where des- potism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hj'pocrisy. ABRATIA-M LIXCOLX, 233 [From a sjoeech delivered October, ISoS.j The judge has alluded to the Declaration of In- dependence, and insisted that negroes are not in- cluded in that declaration ; and that it is a slander upon the iramers of that instrument to suppose that negroes were meant therein ; and he asks }ou, Is it possible to believe that Mr. Jefferson, who penned the immortal pa})er, could have supposed himself appl}-ing the language of that instrument to the negro race, and yet held a portion of that race in slavery ? Would he not at once have freed them? I only have to remark, . . . that I believe the entire records of the world, from the date of the Declaration of Independence up to Avithin three years ago, may be searched in vain for one single affirmation, from one single man, that the negro was not included in the Declaration of Indepen- dence ; . . . that Washington ever said so, that any President ever said so, that any member of Congress ever said so, or that any living man upon the whole earth ever said so, until the necessities of the present policy of the Democratic party, in regard to slavery, had to invent that affirmation. And 1 will remind Judge Douglas and this audi- ence, that while ]\Ir. Jefferson was the owner of slaves, in speaking upon this very sul)ject, lie used * the strong language, thsit " he trembled for his country when he remembered that God was just." 234 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. . . . He supposed there was a question of God's eternal justice wrapped up in the enslaving of any race of men, or any man, and that those who did so braved the arm of Jehovah ; that when a nation thus dared the Almighty, every friend of tJiat na- tion had cause to dread His wrath. [From a Speech delivered in 1858.] Judge Douglas declares that, if any community want slaverj^, they have a right to have it. He can say that logically, if he says that there is no wrong in slavery ; but if you admit that there is a wrong in it, he cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong. He insists that, upon the score of equality, the owners of slaves and owners of prop- erty, — of horse, and every other sort of property, — should be alike, and hold them alike, in a new territory. That is perfectly logical if the species of property are alike, and are equally founded in riglit. But if you admit that one of them is wrong, you cannot institute any equality between right and wrong. And from this difference of sentiment, — the belief on the part of one that the institu- tion is wrong, and a policy springing from that belief which looks to the arrest of the enlargement of that wrong ; and this other sentiment, that it is no wrong, and a policy sprung from that sentiment which will tolerate no idea of preventing that wi'ong from growing larger, and looks to there ABRAHAM LDfCOLN. 235 never being an end of it through all the existence of things, — arises the real difierence between Judo'e Douo'las and his friends on the one hand, and the Eepubhcans on the other. Now I confess myself as belonging to that class in the country "who contemplate slavery as a moral, social, and political evil, having due regard for its actual ex- istence amongst us, and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any satisfactory w^ay, and to all the constitutional obligations which have been throAvn about it ; but, nevertheless, desire a policy that looks to the prevention of it as a wrong, and looks hopefully to the time when, as a wrong, it may come to an end. [From a Speech at Alton, Illinois. To the question, "Is slavery wrong? " Mr. Lincoln said] : That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struirQle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are two principles that have stood face to face from the beiiinninof of time, and will ever continue to struofole. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the di- vine rioht of kings. 236 CHirs FROM the white house. [From a Speech at Springfield, Illinois.] Judo'c Doii2:las is 2:oinsr back to the era of the EcvokitioD, and, to the extent of his ability, muz- zling the cannon ■which thunders its * annual joy- ous return. Yv^hen he invites any people willing to have slavery to establish it, he is l^lowing out the moral lights around us. When he says he " cares not vrhether slavery is voted down or voted up," — that it is a sacred right of self-government, — he is, in my judgment, penetrating the human soul, and eradicatino- the liuht of reason and the love of lilierty in this American people. [From a Speech in New York, at the Cooper Institute, Feb- ruary 27, 1860 ] "Wrong as Me tliink slavery is, we can 3'et afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence in the nation ; but can we, while our votes vrill prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, and to overrun here in these Free States? If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of these sophistical con- tri^anccs where with we are so industriously plied * The celebration of Indepeadence, on. the 4th of July. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 237 and belabored — contrivances such as groi)ing foi some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man — such a policy of " don't care " on a question about which all true men do care, — such as Union appeals be- seeching true Union men to 3'ield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sin- ners, but the righteous, to repentance — such as invocations to Washington, imploring men to un- say what Washington said, and undo what Wash- ington did. Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the gov^ernment, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might ; and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. [Farewell Speech to his neighbors, from the jjlatform of the car, as he was leaving Springfield for Washington, Feb- ruary 11, 18G1.] Friends, — No one who has never been placed in a like position can understand my feelings at this hour, nor the oppressive sadness I feel at this parting. For more than a (juartcr of a century I have lived among you, and during that time I have received nothing but kindness at your hands. Here I have lived from my youth, until now I am an old 238 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. man. Here the most sacred ties of earth were assumed. Here all my children were born ; and here one of them lies bm'ied. To you, dear friends, I owe all that I have, all that I am. All the strange, checkered past seems to crowd now upon my mind. To-day I leave you. I go to as- sume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon Washington. Unless the gi-eat God, who assisted him, shall be with and aid me, I must fail ; but if the same omniscient mind and almighty arm that directed and protected him, shall guide and support me, I shall not fail, — I shall succeed. Let us all pray that the God of our fathers may not forsake us now. To Him I commend you all. Permit me to ask that, with equal sin- cerity and faith, you will invoke His wisdom and guidance for me. "With these few words I must leave 3'ou ; for how long I know not. Friends, one and all, I must now bid you an affectionate farewell. [In an Address to the Legislature of New Jersey, on Ins way to Washington, February, 1861, Mr. Lincoln said] : I shall endeavor to take the ground I deem most just to the North, the East, the West, the South, and the whole country. I take it, I hope, in good temper, — certainly with no malice toward any sec- tion. I shall do all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful settlement of all our difficulties. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 239 The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am — none who would do more to presence it. But it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly. And if I do my duty, and do right, you will sustain me, will you not? Received as I am by the members of a Legislature, the ma- jority of whom do not agree with me in political sentiments, I ti'ust that I may have their assistance in piloting the ship of State through this voyage, surrounde'd by perils as it is ; for if it should suf- fer shipwreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage. [At Philadelphia, in " Independence Hall," from which was issued the Declaration of Independence, in 1776, Mr. Lincoln said] : I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here, in this place, where were collected the Avisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to prin- ciple, from which sprang the institutions under which we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of I'estoring peace to the present distracted condition of the country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political senti- ments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated and were given to the woild from this hall. I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied 2 40 CHIPS Fi:o]M the white house. in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which vrcre incurred hy the men who assembled here, and framed and adopted the Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that Avere en- dured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it Yv'as that kept this confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother-land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would l)e lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Decla- ration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon this basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I Mas about to say, I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. Now, in my view of the i^rcsent aspect of af- fairs, there need I)c no l^loodshed or war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may siiy, in advance, that there will ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 241 be Tio bloodshed unless it be forced u|)on the Gov- ernment, and then it will be compelled to fict in sell-defence. My friends, this is wholly tm unexjKicted speech.^ ... I may, therefore, have said something in- discreet. I have said nothing but what I am will- ing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Al- mighty God, to die hy. [From his Iniingural Address, March 4, 1861.] Vi^hy should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equ:d hope in the world ? In our present differences, is either party without faith of Ijcing in the right ? If the Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prc^ vail, by the judgment of the great tri))unal of the American people You can have no conflict without J)eing }our- selves the aggressors. You have no oath regis- tered in heaven to destroy the government, while 1 shall have the niost solemn one to " j^rescrve, protect, and defend " it. I am loath to close. T»'c are not enemies, but friends. Vi'c iimst not be enemies. Tiiough pas- sion may have strained, it mu,st not break our bonds of iuTection. The mystic cJiord of memory. 242 CHIPS FROM THE ^\^^ITE HOUSE. stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the cliorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely it will be, by the better angels of our nature. [From a Message to Congress, July 4, 1861.1 It might seem, at first thought, to be of little difference whether the present movement at the South be called "secession," or "rebellion." The movers, however, will understand the differ- ence. At the beginning they knew the}^ could never raise their treason to any respectable mag- nitude by any name which implies violation of law. They knew their people possessed as much of moral sense, as much of devotion to law and order, and as much pride in, and reverence for, the his- tory and government of their common countiy, as any other civilized and patriotic people. They knew they could make no advancement directly in the teeth of these strong and noble sentiments. Accordingly they commenced by an insidious de- bauching of the public mind. They invented an ingenious sophism, which, if conceded, was fol- lowed by perfectly logical steps, through all the incidents, to the complete destruction of the Union. The sophism itself is, that any State of the Union may, consistently with the National Constitution, and therefore lawfully and peace- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 243 fully, witliclraw from the Union without the con- sent of the Union, or of any other State. The little disguise that the supposed right is to be ex- ercised only for just cause, themselves to be the sole judge of its justice, is too thin to want any notice. With rebellion thus sugar-coated, they have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years, and until at length they have brought manv 2:ood men to a willingness to take up arms against the government the day after some assemblage of men have enacted that farcical pretense of taking their State out of the Union, who could have been brought to no such thing the day l)efore. [SjDeaking of what was called the right of peaceful secession, that is, secession in accordance with the National Con- stitution, he said] : This sophism derives much, perhaps the whole, of its currency from the assumption that there is some omnipotent and sacred supremacy pertaining to a State — to each State of our Federal Union. Our States have neither more nor less power than that reserved to them in the Union b}^ the Consti- tution, no one of tham ever having been a State oi«^ of the Union. The original ones passed into the Union even before they cast ofi* their British colonial dependence, and the new ones each camo 244 CHIPS FROM THE 'UlIITE HOUSE. into the Union directly from a condition of depend- ence, excepting Texas. And even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never designated a State. The new ones only took the designation of States on coming into the Union, while that name was first adopted for the old ones in and by the Declaration of Independence. Therein the " United Colonies " were declared to l)e " free and independent States ; " but, even then, the object plainly was not to declare their independence of one another, or of the Union, but directly the con- trary, as their mutual pledge, and their mutual action, l)efore, at the time, and afterward, abun- dantly show. The express plighting of faith by each and all of the original thirteen, in the arti- cles of Confederation, two years later, that the Union shall be perpetual, is most conclusive. Having never been States, either in substance or in name, outside of the Union, whence this magi- cal omnipotence of "State rights," asserting a claim of power to lawfully destroy the Union itself? Much is said about the " sovereignty " of the States ; but the word even is not in the National Constitution, nor, as is believed, in any of the State Constitutions. What is a " sovereignty " in the political sense of the term ? Would it be far wrong to define it a "political community, with- out a political superior? " Tested by this, no one of our States, except Texas, ever was a sover- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 245 eignty ; and even Texas gave up the character on coming into the Union ; by which act she acknoAvl- edged the Constitution of the United States, and the laws and treaties of the United States made in pursuance of the Constitution, to be, for her, the supreme laws of the land. The States have their status IN the Union, and they have no other legal status. If they break from this, they can only do so against law, and by revolution. The Union, and not themselves separately, procured their independence and their liberty. By conquest, or purchase, the Union gave each of them whatever of independence and liberty it has. The Union is older than any of the States ; and, in fact, it created them as States. Originally, some de- pendent colonies made the Union, and, in turn, the Union threw off their old dependence for them, and made them States, such as they are. Not one of them ever had a State constitution indepen- dent of the Union. Of course, it is not forgotten that all the new States framed their constitutions before they entered the Union ; nevertheless de- pendent upon, and preparatory to, coming into the Union. This relative matter of National power and State rights, as a principle, is no other than the princi- ple of generality, and locality. Whatever con- cerns the whole should be confided to the whole — 246 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. to the general government ; while whatever con- cerns onhj the State should be left exclusively to the State. This is all there is of original principle about it. Our adversaries have adopted some declarations of independence, in which, unlike the good old one penned by Jefferson, they omit the words, " All men are created equal." Why? They have adopted a temporary national constitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good old one signed by Washington, they omit " We, the people," and substitute " We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States." Why? Why this deliber- ate pressing out of view the rights of men and the authority of the people? This is essentially a people's contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struofiile for maintaining in the world that form and substance of government whose leading object is to elevate the condition of men ; to lift artilicial weiglits from all shoulders ; to clear the paths of laudable pursuit to all ; to afford all an unfettered start, and a fair chance in the race of life. Yield- ing to partial and temporary departures, from ne- cessity, this is the leading object of the govern- ment, for whose existence we contend. I am most happy to believe that the plain people understand and appreciate this. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 247 [Reply to a Letter of Horace Greeley, entitled, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," to President Lincoln.] August 22, 1862. I have just read yours of the nineteenth, ad- dressed to myself through the JVeivYork Tribune. If there be in it any statement, or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them. If there be in it any inference, which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here ara^ue asfainst them. If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dic- tatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right. As to the policy I " seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I Avould save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the National authority can be restored, the nearer tlie Union will be " the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save Slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree "witli them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not cither to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing 248 CHIPS Fno:\r ttte wjuti: noi^sE. any slave, I would do it ; and if I could save it I)}'' freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union ; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. 1 shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do 7no7'e whenever I shall believe doino; more will help the cause. I shall try to connect errors when shown to be errors ; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views, I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish, that all men, everyAvhere, could be free. [To a delogation of clcrgrmen from Chicago, who urged hhn to issue a proclamation of emancipation, September 13, 1862.] I do not want to issue a document that the whole world v>all see must necessarily be inopera- tive, like the pope's bull against the comet. . . . Do not misunderstand me, because I have mentioned these olijections. They indicate the diiEculties which have thus far prevented my action in some such way as you desire. I have not decided against a proclamation of liberty to the slaves, but ABRAIIA3I LINCOLN. 249 hold the matter under advisement. And I can assure you that the subject is on my mind, by day and night, more than any other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will, I will do. [To strictures upon his conduct of the w;ir by some "Western gentlemen, he replied] : Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across Niagara Falls on a tight- rope, would you shake the rope while he was pass- ing over it, or lieep shouting to him, "Blondin, stoop a little more ; " " Go a little faster? " No, I am sure you would not. You would hold your breath as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he was safely over. Now the government is in the same situation, and is carrying across a stoiTuy ocean an immense weight ; untold treasures are in its hands ; it is doing the best it can ; don't badger it ; keep silence, and it will get you safely over. [General Order respecting the observance of the Sabbath in the army and navy.] November 16, 18G2. The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observ- ance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, 250 CHIPS FROM THE -WHITE HOUSE. the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a l)ccoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine ■uill, demand that Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced to the measure of strict neces- sity. The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled, by the profanation of the day or the name of the Most Hi oh. " At this time of public distress," adopting the words of Washington in 1776, ''men may find enough to do in the ser- vice of God and their country without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality." The first general order issued by the Father of his Country after the Declaration of Independence, indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded and should ever be defended : " The General hopes and trusts that every ofiiccr and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier de- fending the dearest rio;hts and liberties of his coun- try." [To INIr. Colfox, on the evenin;]^ of the day on which Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863.] The South had fiiir warning, that if thej^ did not return to their dut}^, I should strike at this pillar of their strength. The promise must now be kept, and I shall never recall one word. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 251 [Reply to an Address by the citizens of IManchester, Eng- land, after the issuing of the Proclamation of Emanci- pation.] Jmiuary 19, 1SG3. To the Workin^men of jManchester : . . . AVben I came, on the fourth of March, 1861, through a free and constitutional election, to pre- side in the Government of the United States, the country was found at the verge of civil war. Whatever might have been the cause, or whose- soever the fault, one duty, paramount to all others, was before me, namely, to maintain and preserve at once the Constitution and the integrity of the Federal Republic. A conscientious purpose to perform this duty is the key to all the measures of administration which have been, and to all which will hereafter be pursued. Under our frame of government and my official oath, I could not depart from this purpose if I would. It is not always in the power of governments to enlarge or restrict the scope of moral results which follow the policies that they may deem it necessary, for the public safety, from time to time to adopt I know, and deeply deplore, the sufferings which the workingmen at Manchester, and in all Europe, are called to endure in this crisis. It has been often studiously represented that the attempt to over- throw this Goverimaent, which was built upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for 252 CHIPS FEOM THE WHITE HOUSE. it one which should rest exclusively on the basis of human slavery, was likely to oljtain the faA or of Europe. Through the action of our disloyal citizens, the workinirmen of Europe have been subjected to severe trial, for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. Under these cir- cumstances I cannot but regard your decisive utter- ances upon the question as an instance of sublime Christian heroism which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an ener- getic and re-inspiring assurance of the inherent power of truth, and of the ultimate and universal triumph of justice, humanity, and freedom. I do not doubt that the sentiments you have expressed will be sustained by your gi-eat nation; and, on the other hand, I have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite admiration, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of friendship among the American people. I hail this interchange of sentiment, therefore, as an augury that, whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now ex- ist between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 253 [From his Reply to Rcsolntions of the New York Demo- crats, J\I:vy 19, 18G3, protesting against his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and arrest of Mr. Vallanding- ham for tlie crime of seeking to prevent the enlistment of troo2)s.] Prior to my installation here it had been inculcated that any State had a lawful right to secede from the National Union, and that it would be expedient to exercise the right whenever the devotees of the doctrine should fail to elect a president to their own liking. I was elected con- trary to their liking ; and accordingly, so for as it was legally possible, they had taken seven States out of the Union, had seized many of the United States forts, and had fired upon the United States flag, all before I was inaugurated, and of course before I had done any official act whatever. The rel^cUion thus begun soon ran into the present civil vrar ; and, in certain respects, it began on very unequal terms between the parties. The in- surgents had been preparing for it more than thirty years, while the government had taken no steps to resist them. The former had carefully considered all the means which could be turned to their account. It undoubtedly was a well-pon- dered reliance with them that in their own unre- stricted eflbrts to destroy Union, Constitution, and law, all together, the government would, in great degree, be restrained by the same Constitution 254 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. and law from arresting their progress. Theit sympathizers pervaded all departments of the gov- ernment and nearly all communities of the people. From this material, under cover of " liberty of speech," "liberty of the press," and habeas corpus^ they hoped to keep on foot amongst us a most effi- cient corps of spies, informers, suppliers, and aiders and abettors of their cause in a thousand M^ays. They knew that in times such as they were inaugurating, by the constitution itself, the habeas corjjus might be suspended ; but they also knew they had friends who would make a question as to who was to suspend it ; meanwhile their spies and others might remain at large to help on their cause. Or if, as has happened, the executive should suspend the writ, without ruinous waste of time, instances of arresting innocent persons might occur, as are always likely to occur in such cases, and then a clamor could be raised in regard to this, which might be, at least, of some service to the insurgent cause. It needed no very keen per- ception to discover this part of the enemy's pro- gramme so soon as by open hostilities their ma- chinery was fairly put in motion. Yet, thoroughly imbued with a reverence for the guaranteed rights of individuals, I was slow to adopt the strong measures which by degrees I have been forced to regard as being within the exceptions of the Constitution, and as indispensable to the public safety ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 255 I understand the meeting, whose resolutions I am considering, to be in favor of suppressing the rebellion by militaiy force — by armies. Long experience has shown that annies cannot bo main- tained unless desertion shall be punished by the severe penalty of death. The case requires, and the law and the Constitution sanction this punish- ment. Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert ? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend, into a public meeting, and there working upon his feelings till he is per- suaded to write the soldier-boy that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptible government, too weak to aiTcst and punish him if he shall desert. I think that in such a case to silence the agitator and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but withal a great menjy. Nor am I able to appreciate the danger appre- hended l)y the meeting, that the American people will, by means of military arrests during the rebel- lion, lose the right of public discussion, the liberty of speech and the press, the law of evidence, trial by jury, and habeas corpus throughout the indoli- nite peaceful future which, I trust, lies before them, any more than I am able to believe that a man could contract so strong an appetite for 256 CHIPS FROM THE "V\anTE HOUSE. emetics during temporary illness as to persist in feeding upon them during the remainder of his healthful life. In giving the resolutions the earnest considera- tion which you request of me, I cannot overlook the fact that the meeting speak as ''Democrats." Nor can I with full respect for their known intel- ligence, and the fairly presumed deliberation with which they prepared these resolutions, l)e permit- ted to suppose that this occurs by accident, or in any way other than that they prefer to designate themselves Democrats rather than American citi- zens. In this time of national peril I would have preferred to meet you on a level one step higher than any party platform, because I am sure that from such more elevated position we could do bet- ter battle for the country we all love than we pos- sibly can from those lower ones where, from the force of habit, the prejudices of the past, and selfish hopes of the future, we are sure to expend much of our ingenuity and strength in finding fault with, and aiming blows at, each other. But, since you have denied me this, I will yet be thank- ful, for the country's sake, that not all Democi'ats have done so. [Letter to James C. Conkling.] August IG, 18G3. There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would say. You desire peace, ABKAHA3I LIXCOLX. 257 and you blaiuo mc that Ave do not have it. But hosv can avc obtain it? There arc but three con- ceivable ways. First, to suppress the rebellion l^y force of arms. This I am trying to do. Are you for it ? If you are so, Ave are agreed. If you are not for it, a second Avay is to give up the Union. I am against this. If you are, 3"ou should say so plainly. If you are not for force, nor yet for dissolution, there only remains some imaginary compromise. I do not ))eiieve that any com})ro- mise eni])racing the maintenance of the Union is noAv possil)le. All that I learn leads to a directly opposite belief. The strength of the rebellion is its militar}-, its array. The army dominate all the country, and all the people Avithin its range. Any ofier of terms made by any man or men AA'itliin that range in opposition to that arm}' h simply nothing for the present ; because such man or men liaA-e no poAver Avhatever to enforce their side of a comj^romise, if one Avere made Avith them. You dislike the Emancipation Proclamation, and perhaps AA'ould haAx it retracted. You say it is un- constitutional. I think diifercntly. I think the Con- stitution invests its Connnander-in-chief Avith the laAV of Avar in the time of Avar. The most that can be said, if so much, is that slaves arc property. Is there, has there ever l)een, any question that by the hiAv of Avar propertj', both of enemies and 258 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever taking it helps us and hurts the enemy ! Armies the world over destroy ene- my's property when they cannot use it ; and even destroy their own to keep it fi'om the enem3^ Civilized belligerents do all in their power to help themselves and hurt the enemy, except a few things regarded as barbarous or cruel. Amongr the exceptions are the massacre of vanquished foes and non-combatants, male and female. But the Proclamation, as law, is valid, or is not valid. If it is valid, it cannot be retracted any more than the dead can be brouoht to life. Some of you profess to think that its retraction would operate favorably for the Union. Why better after the retraction than before the issue ? There was more than a year and a half of trial to sup- press the rebellion before the Proclamation vras issued, the last one hundred days of which passed under an explicit notice that it was coming, unless averted by those in revolt returning to their allegiance. The Avar has certainly progressed as favora])ly for us since the issue of the Proclamation as before You say you will not fight to free negroes. Some of them seem to be willing to fight for 3'ou. But no matter. Fight you then exclusively to save the Union. I issued the Proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. ABEaHAJiI LINCOLN. 259 Whenever we shall have conquered all resist- ance to the Union, if I shall urge you to continue fighting, it will be an apt time then for you to de- clare that you will not tight to free negroes. I thought that in }our struggle for the Union , to whatever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy, to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to jou . Do you think differently ? I thought that whatever negroes can be got to do as soldiers leaves just so much less for white sol- diers to do in saving the Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other peo- ple, act upon motives. Why should they do any- thino- for us if we will do nothins; for them ? If they stake their lives for us they must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of their freedom. And tlie promise, be- ing made, must be kept. The sims look better. The Father of Waters asrain ijoes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great North-west for it. Nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey hewing their Avay right and left. The sunny South, too, in more colors than one, also lent a hand. On the spot their part of the history was jotted down in black and white. The job was a great national one, and let none be banned who bore an honorable part in it. And while those who have cleared the areat 260 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. river may well he proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has been more bravely or better done than at Antietam, IMurfreesboro, Gettysburg, and on many fields of lesser note. Nor must Uncle Sam's we])-foot l)e forgotten. At all tlie waters' margins they have been present, not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddj^ bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the great licpublic, — for the principles by which it lives and keeps alive for man's vast future, — thanks to all. Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will soon come, and come to stay, and so come as to be worth keeping in all future time. It will then have been i)roved that among freemen there can he no successful appeal from the ballot to tlie l)ullct, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and pay the cost. And then there will be some l)lack men Avho can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great con- summation, while I fear there will be some white men unable to forget that, with malignant heart and deceitful speech, they have striven to hin- der it. Still, let us not be over sanguine of a speedy ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 20 1 final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, will give us the rightful residt. [To Ml-. Colfax, in the winter of 18G3, the morning after unfavorable news from the army.] How willingly would I exchange places to-day with the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the Army of the Potomac. [From his third Annual Message to Congress, December 8, 1863.] AVhen Congress assembled a year ago, the war had already lasted nearly twenty months, and there had been many conflicts on both land and sea w'ith varying results. The rebelhon had been pressed back into reduced limits ; yet the tone of public feeling and opinion, at home and abroad, was not satisfactor3\ With other signs, the popu- lar election, then just passed, indicated uneasiness among ourselves, while amid much that w^as cold and menacing, the kindest words coming from Eu- rope were uttered in accents of pity*that we were too blind to surrender a hopeless cause. [From a Speech after his re-cloction, Xoveniber 10, 1864.] So long as I have been here I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. AVhile I am 262 CHIPS FROM THE -NVHITE HOUSE. deeply sensible of the high compliment of a re- election, and duly grateful, I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think, for their own good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disapj)ointcd or pained by the result. [To a Committee of the Xew York Workingmen's Republi- can Association, March 21, 18G4.] The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, should be one unit- ing all working people, of all nations, tongues, and kindreds. Nor should this lead to a war upon property or the owners of })ropcrty. Property' is the fruit of lal)or ; property is desira])le, is a posi- tive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to independence and enter- prise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build one for himself; thus by example as- suring that his own shall be safe from violence when built. [From a letter to Colonel Hodges, of Kentucky.] Washingtox, April 4, 1864. You ask me to put in writing the sul)stance of what I verbally said the other day in 3^our pres- ence to Governor Bramlette and Senator Dixon. ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 2G3 It was about as follows: "I am naturally anti- slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unre- stricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would to the best of my abihty preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it in my view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understand, too, that in ordinary and civil administration this oath even forbids me to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this at many times and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no offi- cial act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, how- ever, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that Government — that nation — of which the Consti- tution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation, and yet preserve the Constitution? IBy general law, life and limb must be protected ; yet often a limb must be amputated, to save a life ; 264 ciiips FEO:,i the white iioupe. but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution, through the preservation of the nation. Eight or wrong, I as- sumed this ground ; and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery, or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country, and constitution all together. ... I add a word which was not iu the verbal conversation. In telling this tale, I at- tempt no compliments to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now at the end of three years' struggle the nation's con- dition is not what either party or any man devised or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that wc of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impar- tial history will Hnd therein new causes to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God." abeaha:,! lixcol:?^. 2fi5 [From Carpenter's " Six IMonths at the "White Ilonse." 18G5.] I put the draft of the Emancipation Proclama- tion* aside, "waiting for a victory. Well, the next news we had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than ever. Finally came the Aveek of the battle of Antietam [September 17, 1862]. I determined to wait no longer. The news came, I think, on Monday, that the achan- tage was on our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home. Here I linishecl writins; the sec- ond draft of the proclamation ; came up on Satur- day ; called the cabinet together to hear it, and it was pul)lished the following Monday. I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee vras driven back from ISIaryland, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves. As affairs have turned, it is the central act of my administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century. [From Noah Brooks's " Reminiscences."] I should be the most presumptuous blockhead upon this footstool, if I, for one daj^, thought that I could dischanre the duties which h;ive come ut)o?i, * The oriuinal draft vas prej:;ar:arded as an effort to defeat the laws of Congress. ULYSSES S. GRANT. 309 [During ILe suspension, for political reasons, of Mr. Stanton as Secretary of War, by President Johnson, General Grant was appointed Secretary of War, ad interim. AVhen the Senate, January 13, 1868, passed a resolution of non-concurrence with the suspension. General Grant immediately} surrendered the keys of the office, which offended Mr. Johnson. A corres^wndence between them ensued. General Grant's closing letter is as follows] : The course you understood I agreed to pursue was in violation of law, and that without orders from you ; while the course I did pursue, and which I never doubted you fully understood, was in accordance with law, and not in disobedience of any orders of my superior. And now, Mr. President, when my honor as a soldier, and integrity as a man, have been so violently assailed, pardon me for saying that I can but regard this whole matter, from beginning to end, as an attempt to involve me in the resistance of law for which you hesitated to assume the responsibility, in order thus to destroy my char- acter before the country. I am in a measure confirmed in this conclusion liy your recent orders d:recting me to disobey orders from the Secretary uf War, my superior, and your subordinate, M'ith- out having countermanded his authority. I con- clude with the assurance, INIr. President, that nothing less than a ^'indication of my personal honor and character could have induced this cor- respondence on my part. 310 CHIPS FROM THE ^VHITE HOUSE. [From his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1869.] Citizens of the Uxited States : Your suffrages havino; elected me to the office of President of the United States, I have, in conformity with the Con- stitution of our country, taken the oath of office prescribed therein. I have taken this oath without mental reservation, and with a determination to do, to the best of my ability, all that it requires of me. The responsibilities of the position I feel, but accept them without fear. The office has come to me unsought ; I commence its duties untram- melled. I bring to it a conscious desire and deter- mination to fill it, to the best of my ability, to the satisfaction of the people. On all leading ques- tions agitating the pul)lic mind I will always ex- press my views to Congress, and urge them accord- ing to my judgment, and when I tliink it advisable, will exercise the constitutional privilege of inter- posing a veto to defeat measures wliich I oppose. But all laws will be faithfully executed, whether they meet my approval or not. I shall on all sul)jccts have a policy to recom- mend, none to enforce against the will of the peo- ple. Laws are to govern all ahke — those opposed to as well as those in favor of them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effectual as their strict execution ULYSSES S. GRANT, 311 i'. o-reat debt has been contracted in se(?urino' to us and our posterity the Union. The payment of this, principal and interest, as well as the re- turn to a specie basis as soon as it can be accom- plished without material detriment to the debtor class or to thf. country at large, must be provided for. To protect the national honor, every dollar of the government indebtedness should be paid in gold, unless otherwise especially stipulated in the contract. Let it be understood that no repudia^ tion of one farthing of our public de1)t will be trusted in public places, and it will go far toAvards strengthening a credit psrhich ought to be the best m the world, and will ultimately enable us to re- place the debt with bonds bearing less interest than we now pa}". [From a Message, December, 1870.] As soon as I learned that a Eepublic had been proclaimed at Paris, and the people of France bad acquiesced in the change, the minister of the United States was directed by telegraph to recog- nize it, and to tender my congratulations and those of the people of the United States. The re-estab- lishment in France of a sj^stem of government dis- connected with the dynastic traditions of Europe appeared to be a proper subject for the feUcitations of Americans. Should the present struggle result in attacliing the hearts of the French to our simpler 312 CHIPS Fi:OM TlfE •WHITE HOUSE. foiin of representative government, it will be a sub- ject of still further satisfaction to our people. "While we make no etfoil: to impose our institutions upon the inhabitants of other countries, and while we adhere to our traditional neutrality in civil contests elsewhere, we cannot l)e indifferent to the spread of American political ideas in a great and highly civilized country like France. [From a Message, December, 1871.] In Utah there still remains a remnant of barbarism repugnant to civilization, to decency, and to the laws of the United States. . . . Neither polygamy nor any other violation of existing stat- utes will be permitted within the territory of the United States. It is not with the religion of the self-stvled Saints that we are now dealins:, but with their j)ractices. They wiD be protected in the Avor-ship of God according to the dictates of their own consciences, but they will not be per- mitted to violate the laws under the cloak of reli- gion. [From a Message, December 7, 1875.] As we are now about to enter upon our second centennial — commencinof our manhood as a nation — it is well to look back upon the past, and study what will be best to presei've and ad- vance our future greatness We should look to the dangers threatening us, ULYSSES S. GRANT. 813 and remove them as far as lies in our power. We are a republic whereof one man is as good as an- other before the law. Under such a form of gov- ernment, it is of the greatest importance that all should be possessed of education and intelligence enough to cast a vote with a right understanding of its meaninor. A lari^-e association of iiniorant men cannot, for any consideral)le period, oppose a successful resistance to tyranny and oppression from the educated few, but will inevitably sink into acquiescence to the will of intelligence, whether (hrected by the demagogue or by priestcraft. Hence the education of the masses becomes of the first necessity for the preservation of our institu- tions. They are worth preserving, because they have secured the greatest good to the greatest })ro- portion of the population of any form of govern- ment yet devised. All other fonns of government approach it in proportion to the general diffusion of education and independence of thought and ac- tion. As the principal step, therefore, to our advancement in all that has marked our progi'ess in the past century, I suggest for youi* earnest con- sideration, and most earnestly recommend it, that a constitutional amendment be submitted to the legislatures of the several States for ratification, maldng it the duty of each of the several States to establish and forever maintain free pubhc schools adequate to the education of all the chil- 314 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. di'en ill the rudimentary branches within their re- spective limits, irrespective of sex, color, birthplace or relio-ions ; forbiddino- the teachino; in said schools of religious, atheistic, or pagan tenets ; and pro- hibiting the gi'anting of any school funds or school taxes, or any part thereof, either by legislative, municipal, or other authority, for the benefit or in aid, directly or indirectly, of any religious sect or denomination, or in aid or for the benefit of any other object of any nature or kind whatever. [From a Speech at the Annual Reunion of the Army of the Tennessee, at Des Moines, Iowa, September 29, 1875.] Comrades : It alwaj's affords me much gratifi- cation to meet my old comrades in arms of ten or fourteen years ago, and to live over again in mem- ory the trials and hardships of those days — hard- ships hnposed for the preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions. We believed then, and believe now, that we had a oood ijovcrnment, worth fighting for, and, if need be, dying for. Hoav many of our comrades of those days paid the latter price for our preserved Union I Let their heroism and sacrifices be ever green and in our memory. Let not the results of their sacrifices be destroyed. The Union and the free institutions for which they fell, should be held more dear for their sacri- fices. We will not deny to any of those who ULYSSES S. GRAXT. 315 fought against us any privileges under the goyern- ment which Ave claim for ourselves ; on the contra- ry, vre honor all !-;uch who come forward in good faith to help build up the waste i)laces, and to per- petuate our institutions against all enemies, as brothers in full interest with us in a common heri- tage ; but we are not prepared to apologize for the part we took in the war. It is to be hoped that like trials will never again befall our country. In this sentiment no class of people can more heartily join than the soldier, who submitted to the dangers, trials, and hardships of the camp and the battle- field. On whicheve?. sicie they may have fought, no class of people are more interested in guarding against a recurrence of those days. Let us then begin by guarding against every enemy threatening the perpetuity of free repulilican institutions. I do not bring into this assemblage politics, certainly not partisan politics ; but it is a fair subject for soldiers in their deliberations to consider what 'i:a v be necessary to secure the prize for which they battled in a republic like ours. Where the citizen is sovereisrn and the official the servant, where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sover- eign — the people — should possess intelligence. The free school is the promoter of that intelli- gence which is to preserve us as a free nation. If we are to have another contest in the near future 316 CHirs Fi;o:.i the wiiitj: house. of o^ur national existence, I predict that the divid- ing line will not be Mason and Dixon's, hut between patriotism and intelligence on the one sidi:, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other. Now in this centennial year of oui national exist- ence, I believe it a good time to be privilege of a common-school education l)e- fore public means are applied to a higher educa- tion for the few. [Froin a Message.] In a foniier INlessage to Consress I had occasion to consider this question, [the recognition of bel- ligerent rights,] and reached the conclusion that the conflict in Cuba, dreadful and devastatmg as were its incidents, did not rise to the fearful dig- nity of war. [From a Message, December, 1876.] The compulsory support of the free schools, and the disfranchisement of all who can- not read and write the English language, after a iixed probation, would meet my hearty approval.* [Veto Message of the Senate Currency Bill.] I am not a believer in any artificial method of making paper monc}' equal to coin when the coin * lie wonkl not have this action retrospective. It should apply only to future voters. 318 CHirS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. is not owned or held ready to redeem the promise to pay, for paper money is nothing more thtm promises to pay. [From a Sjieech at a banquet in the Town-hall, Birming- ham, October 17.] He [Mr. Chamberlain, M. P.] alluded to the o-reat merit of retirino; a larsfe army at the close of a great war. If he had ever been in my position for four years, and undergone all the anxiety and care that I had in the management of those large armies, he would appreciate how happy I was to be al)le to say that they could be dispensed wath. I disclaim all credit and praise for doing that one thing. . . . Further, we Americans claim to l^e so much of Englishmen, and to have so much general intelligence, and so much personal independence and individuality, that w^e do not quite Ijelieve that it is possil)le for any one man there to assume any more right and authority than the constitution of the land gave to him. Among the English-speaking people w^e do not think these things possible. We can fight among ourselves, and dispute and abuse each other, but we will not allow ourselves to be abused outside ; nor will those who look on at our little personal quarrels in our own midst permit us to interfere with their ow^n rights. — Around the World loiih General Grant, by John Russell Young. ULYSSES S. GRANT. 319 [From a Sj^eech, in reply to an Address on behalf of the International Arbitration Union, Birmingham.] I am conscientiously, and have been from the Ijeoinninof, an advocate of what the so- ciety represented by you is seeking to carry out ; and nothing would afford me greater happiness than to know, as I believe will be the case, that, at some future day, the nations of the earth will agree upon some sort of Congress, which shall take cognizance of international questions of diffi- culty, and whose decisions will be as binding as the decision of our Supreme Court is binding on us. It is a dream of mine that some such solution may be found for all questions of great difficulty that may arise between different nations. In one of the addresses reference was made to the dismis- sal of the army to the pursuit of peaceful industry. I would gladly see the millions of men Avho are now supported by the industry of the nations re- turn to industrial pursuits, and thus become self- sustaining, and take off the tax upon labor wdiich is now levied for their support. — A7'ound the World. [In reply to an Address of tlie Iron-Founders' Society, July 3, 1877.] I recognize the fact that whatever there is of greatness in the United States, or indeed in any other country, is due to the labor performed. 320 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. The laborer is the author of all greatness and wealth. Without lal)or there would he no govern- ment, or no leading class, or nothing to preserve. With us labor is regarded as highly res})ectable. — jit^oiuid the World. [At a lunch in the Guild hall, London, June 16, 1877. After having spoken once before, he said] : Habits formed in early life and early education press upon us as we grow older. I am not aware that I ever fought t"vvo battles on the same day in the same place, and that I should be called upon to make two speeches on the same day under the same roof is beyond ni}^ understanding. What I do understand is, that I am much indel^ted to all of you for the compliments you have paid me. All I can do is to thank the Lord Mayor for his kind words, and to thank the citizens of Great Britain here present in the name of my country and for myself. [Later in the day, at a dinner in tlie Crystal Palace, Mr. Thomas Hughes proposed the health of General Grant, adding that he did not impose the burden of a reply. General Grant, however, said] : INIr. Hughes, I must none the less tell you what gratilication it gives me to hear my health pro- posed in such hearty words by Tom Brown, of Ruii'bv. — Around the World. ULYSSES S, GRANT. 321 [A Speech at a dinner-party at Hamburg, of American la- dies and gentlemen, J uly 4, 1878.] Mr. Consul akd Friends : I am much obliijo 1 to you for the Idnd manner in which you ch'ink my health. I share with you in all the pleasure and gratitude which Americans so far from home should feel on this anniversary. But I must di-ssent from one remark of our consul, to the effect that I saved the country during the recent war. If our country could be saved or ruined by the efforts of any one man we should not have a country, and we should not be now celebrating our Fourth of July. There are many men who would have done far better than I did under the circumstances in which I found myself during the war. If I had never held command ; if I had fallen ; if all our generals had fallen, there were ten thousand behind us who would have done our work just as well, who would have followed the contest to the end, and never surrendered the Union. Therefore it is a mistake, and a reflection upon the people, to attribute to me, or to any number of men who held high com- mand, the salvation of the Union. We did our work as well as we could, and so did hmidreds of thousands of others. "We deserve no credit for it, for we should have been unworthy of our country and of the American name, if we had not mado every sacrifice to save the Union. ^Y]mt saved 322 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. the Union was the coming forward of the young men of the nation. They came from their homes and fields, as they did in the time of the Revolu- tion, giving everything to the country. To tlieir devotion we owe the salvation of the Union. The humblest soldier who carried a musket is entitled to as much credit for the results of the war as those who were in command. So long as our young men are animated by this spirit there will be no fear for the Union. — Ai^ound the Woi^ld. "With a people as honest and proud as the Am- ericans, and with so much common-sense, it is always a mistake to do a thing not entirely right for the sake of expediency. — Around the World. When I was in the ai-my I had a physique that could stand anything. Whether I slept on the ground or in a tent, whether I slept one hour or ten in the twenty-four, whether I had one meal or three, or none, made no difference. I could he down and sleep in the ram without caring. But I was many years younger, and I could not hope to do that noAV. — Arouyid the World. The only eyes a general can trust are his own. — Around the World. I never saw the President [Lincoln] until he gave me my commission as Lieutenant-general. ULYSSES 8. GRANT. 323 Afterwards I saw him often, either in Washington or at head-quarters. Lincohi, I may ahiiost say, spent the last days of his life with me. I often recall those days. He came down to City Point in the last month of the war, and was with me all the time. He lived on a dispatch-boat in the river, but was always around head-quarters. He was a line horseman, and rode my horse Cincin- nati. He visited the different camps, and I did all I could to interest him. He was ver}^ anxious about the war closing ; was afraid we could not stand a new campaign, and wanted to be around when the crash came. I have no doubt that Lincoln will be the con- spicuous figure of the war ; one of the great figures of history. He was a great man, a very great man. The more I saw of him, the more this im- pressed me. He was incontestably the greatest man I ever knew. What marked him especially was his sincerity, his kindness, his clear insight into affairs. Under all this he had a firm will, and a clear policy. People used to say that Seward swayed him, or Chase, or Stanton. This ^vas a 'nistake. He might appear to go Seward's \v!^.y one da}^, and Stanton's another, liut all the time he was going his own course, and they with him. It Avas that gentle firmness in caiTying out his own will, without apparent force or friction, that foiTued the basis of his character. He was a 324 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. wonderful talker and teller of stories. It is said his stories were improper. I ha\'e heard of them, but I never heard Lincoln use an im))roper word or phrase. I have sometimes, when I hoar his memory called in question, tried to recall such a thing, but I cannot. 1 always found him pre- eminently, a clean-minded man. I regard these stories as exaggerations. Lincoln's power of il- histration, his humor, was inexhaustible. He had a story or an illustration for everything. — Arnund the Wordd. I would deal with nations as equitable law re- quires individuals to deal with each other. I knew Stonewall Jackson at West Point and in Mexico. At AVest Point he came into the school at an older age than the average, and began with a low gi'adc. But he had so much courage and energy, worked ^o hard, and governed his life by a discipline so stern, that he steadilj^ worked his way along and rose far above others who had more advantages. Stonewall Jackson at West Point Avas in a state of constant improvement. He was a religious man then, and some of us regarded liim as a fanatic. Sometimes his religion took strange forms — hypochondria — fancies that an Evil Spirit had taken possession of him. But he never re- laxed in his studies or his Christian duties. I knew him in Mexico. He was alway* a brave and ULYSSES S. GRANT. 325 trustworth}^ officer, — none more so in the aniiy. I never knew him or encountered him in the rebellion. 1 question whether his campaigns in Virginia justify his reputation as a great commander. He was killed too soon, and hcfore his rank allowed him a jrreat conunand. It would have lieen a test of generalship if Jackson had met Sheridan in the Valley, instead of some of the men he did meet. From all I know of Jackson, and all I see of his campaigns, I have little .doubt of the result. If Jackson had attempted on Sheridan the tactics he attempted so successfully upon others he would not only have been beaten but destro3'ed. Sudden daring raids, under a fine general like Jackson, might do against raw troops and inexperienced commanders, such as we had in the beginning of the war, but not against chilled troops and a com- mander like Sheridan. The tactics for which Jackson is famous, and which achieved such re- markable results, belonged entirely to the beginning of the Avar and to the peculiar conditions under which th(; earlier battles were fought. They would have ensured destruction to any commander who tried them upon Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, IMeade, or, in fact, any of our great generals. Consequently Jackson's fame as a general depends ui)on achievements gained before iis generalship was tested, before he had a chance of matching himself with a really great commander. No doubt 326 CHIPS FUOM THE WHITE HOUSE. SO able {ind patient a man as Jackson, who worlvcd so hard at anything he attempted, would ha^■e adapted himself to new conditions and risen with them. He died before his opportunity. I always respected Jackson personally, and esteemed his sincere and manly character. He impressed me always as a man of the Cromwell stamp, a Puri- tan — much more of the New Englander than the Virginian. If any man believed in the rebellion, he did. And his nature was such that Avhatever he believed in became a deep religious duty, a duty he would discharge at any cost. It is a mistake to suppose that I ever had any feeling for Stonewall Jackson but respect. Personally we were ahvays good friends ; his character had rare points of merit, and although he made the mistake of fighting against his country, if ever a man did so conscientiously, he was the man. — Around the World. The war, when it Ijroke out, found me relieved from the army, and engaged in my forher's business in Galena, Illinois. A compan}'' of volunteers were formed under the first call of the President. I had no position in the company, but having had militar}' ex})erience I agreed to go with the com- pany to Si)ringficld, the capital of the State, and assist in drill. WTien I reached Springfield I was assigned to duty in the Adjutant's Department, and i ULYSSES S. GRANT. 327 did a good share of the detail work. I had had experience in Mexico. As soon as the work of mustering-in was over, I asked Gov. Gates for a week's leave of absence to visit my parents in Covington. The Governor gave me the leave. While I wanted to paj^ a visit home, I was also anxious to see McCIellan. McClellan was then in Cincinnati in command. He had been appointed ]\Iajor-General in the regular army. I was de- lighted with the appointment. I knew McClellan and had great confidence in him. I have, for that matter, never lost my respect for McClellan's character, nor my 'confidence in his lo}^alty and ability. I saw in him the man who was to pilot us through, and I wanted to be on his staff. I thought that if he ^v'ould make me a major, or a lieutenant-colonel, I could be of use, and I wanted to be with him. So Avhen I came to Cin- cinnati I went to the head-quarters. Several of the staff oflScers were friends I had known in the army. I asked one of them if the General was in. I Avas told he had just gone out, and Avas asked to take a seat. Everybody was so busy that they could not sa^^ a word. 1 waited a couple of hours. I never saw such a busy crowd — so many men at an army head-quarters with quills behind their ears. But I supposed it was all right, and was much encouraged by their industry. It was a great comfort to see the men so busy with 328 CHIPS FROSl THE WHITE IIOI'.'>;E. the quills. Finally, after a long -wait, I told an officer that I would come in again next day, and requested him to tell McClellan that I had called. Next day I came in. The same story. The genend h;id just gone out, might be in at any moment. Would I wait? I sat and waited for two hours, watching the officers with their quills, and left. . . . McClellan never acknowledged my call, and, of course, after he knew I had been at his head-quarters I was bound to await liis ac- knoAvledgment. I was older, had ranked him 'a the army, and could not hang around his head- quarters watching tho men with the quills behind their ears. I went over to make a visit to an old army friend, Reynolds, and Avhile there learned that Governor Gates, of Illinois, had made me a colonel of volunteei's. Still I should like to have joined McClellan. This jiomp and ceremony was common at the beginning of the war. McClellan had three times as many men with quills behind their ears as I had ever found necessary at the head-quarters of a much larger conmiand. Fremont had as much state as a Sovereign, and was as difficult to approach. His headquarters alone required as much transporta- tion as a division of troops. I was under his com- mand a part of the time, and remember how impos- insr was his manner of doinix business. He sat in a room in full uniform, with his maps before him. ULYSSES S. GKAXT. 329 WTien you went in, be would point out one line or another in a mysterious manner, never asking you to take a seat. You left without the least idea of what he meant or what he wanted you to do. McClellan is to me one of the mysteries of the war. As a }oung man he \\as always a m}s- tcry. Tie had the way of inspiring you with the idea of immense capacity, if he would only have a chance. Then he is a man of unusual accomplish- ments, a student and a well-read man. I have never studied his campaigns enough to make up my mind as to his military skill, but all my impressions are in bis favor. I have entire confidence in McClellan's loyality and patriotism. But the test which was applied to him would be terrible to any man, being made a major-general at the beginning of the war. It has always seemed to me that the critics of jMc- Clellan do not consider this vast and cruel responsi- bility — the war a new thing to all of us, the array new, everything to do from the outset, Avith a rest- less peojile and Congress. McClellan was a young man when this devolved upon him, and if he did not succeed, it was because the conditions of suc- cess were so trying. If INIcClellan had gone into the war as did Sherman, Thomas, or ]\Ieade, had fought his way along and up, I have no reason to suppose he would not have now as high a distinction as any of us. iNIcClellan's main lilundcr was in allowing himself political sympathies, and in permitting him- 330 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. self to become the critic of tlio President, and in time his rival. This is shown in his letter to Mr. Lincoln on his return to Harrison's Landins:, when he sat down and ^vrote out a policy for the govern- ment. He was forced into this by his associations, and that led to his nomination for the presidency. I remember how disappointed I Avas about this let- ter, and also in his failure to destroy Lee at Antie- tam. His friends say that he failed l)ecauseof the in- terference from Washington I am afraid the inter- ference from Washington was not from I\Ir. Lincoln so much as from the enemies of the administration, who believed they could carry their point through the army of the Potomac. My own experience with Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton, both in the western and eastern armies, was the reverse. I was never interfered with. I had the fullest support of the President and Secretary of War. No general could want better backing, for the President was a man of great wisdom and moderation, the Secretary a man of enormous character and w^ill. Very often where Lincoln would want to say Yes, his Secretary w^ould make him say No ; and more frequently when the Secretary was driving on in a violent course, the President would check him. United, Lincoln and Stanton made about as perfect a combination as I believe could, by any possibility, govern a great nation in time of war. — Around the World. ULYSSES S. GRANT. 331 A ireneral who will never take a chance in a bat- tle will never light one. — Around the World. Sherman is not only a great soldier, but a great man. He is one of the very great men in our country's history. He is a many-sided man. He Js an orator with few superiors. As a writer he is amono- the first. As a iyeneral I know of no man I would i)ut above him. Above all, he has a line character — so frank, so sincere, so outspoken, so genuine. There is not a false line in Sherman's character — nothinof to re^et The march to the sea was proposed Ijy me in a letter to Halleck before 1 left the Western army ; my ol)jective pomt was INIobile. It was not a sud- den inspiration, but a logical move in the game. It was the next thins: to be done. We had g-one so far into the South that we had to go to the sea. We could not go anywhere else, for w^e were cer- tainly not going back. The details of the march, the conduct, the whole glory belong to Shennan. I never thought much as to the origin of the idea. I i)resume it grew up in correspondence with Sherman ; that it took shape as those things ahvays do. Sherman is a man with so many resources and a mind so fertile, that once an idea takes root it gTows rapidly. My objection to Sherman's plan at the time, and my objection now, was liis leaving Hood's army in the rear. I alwaj^s wanted the 332 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. march to the sea, but at the same time I "vrantcd Hood. — Around the World. [From his Speech in London, when presented with the fre*»- dom of the city, June 15, 1877.] Although a soldier by education and profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it except as a means of peace. — Aroiuul the World. I was never more delighted at anytliing than the close of the war. I never hked service in the army — not as a young officer. I did not want to go to West Point. J\ly a})pointment was an acci- dent, and my father had to use his authority to make me go. If I could have escaped "West Point without bringing myself into disgrace at home, I w^ould have done so. I remember about the time * I entered the Academy there were debates in Con- gress over a proposal to abolish West Point. I used to look over the papers and read the Congress reports with eagerness to see the progress the bill made, and hoping to hear that the school had l)eeu aljolished, and that I could go home to my father without being in disgrace. I never went into iX battle willingly or with enthusiasm. I was alwa}'S glad when a battle was over. I never want to command another army. I take no interest in armies. When the Duke of Cambridge asked me to review his troops at Aldershot, I told liis Koya) ULYSSES S. GRANT. 333 Hio'liness that the one thins: I never wanted to see again was a military parade. Y\Tien I resigned from the army and Avent to a farm I was happy. "When the reljcHion came I retm-ncd to the service l)ecause it was a dut}'. 1 had no thought of rank ; all I did was to try and make myself useful. My first commission as brigadier came on the unani- mous indorsement of the delegation from Illinois. I do not think I knew any of the mcmljers hut "Washburne, and I did not know him very well. It was only after Donelson that I began to see how important was the work that Pro\'idence devolved upon me. . . . You see, Donelson was our first clear victory, and you will remember the enthusi- asm that came with it. . . . When other com- mands came I alwa^'s regretted them. "When the bill creatino; the oTade of Lieutenant-General was proposed, with my name as Lieutenant-General, I wrote jNIr. "Washburne opposing it. I did not want it. 1 found that the bill was riolit and I was wrong, when I came to conmiand the Army of the Potomac — that a head was needed to the army. I did not want the Presidency, and have never quite forgiven myself for resigning the command of the army to accept it; but it could not l)e helped. I ovv-ed my honors and opixn-tunities to the Ivciuil)li- can parly, and if my name could aid it I was bound to acc('})t. The second nomination was almost due to me — if I may use the phrase — be- 334 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. cause of the bitterness of political pevsoral op- ponents. My re-election was a great gratification, because it showed me how the country felt. — A.round the JVorld. I always dreaded going to the Army of the Potomac. After the battle of Gettysburg I was told I could have the command, but I managed to keep out of it. I had seen so many generals fall, one after another, like bricks in a row, that I shrank from it. After the battle of Mission Ridge, and my appointment as Lieutenant-Gencral, and 1 was allowed to choose my place, it could not be avoided. Then it seemed as if the time was ripe, and I had no hesitation. — Around the World. The most troublesome men in public life, are those over-righteous people who see no motive in other people's actions but evil motives ; who be- lieve all public life is corrupt, and nothing is well done unless they do it themselves. They are nar- row-headed men, their two e3'es so close together that they can look out of the same gimlet-hole without winking. — Around the World. Andrew Johnson, one of the ablest of the poor white class, tried to assert some independence ; but as soon as the slaveholders put their thumb upon him, even in the Presidency, he became their slave. — Around the World. ULYSSES S. GRANT. 335 T do not believe in luck in war any more tlian in luck in business. Luck is a small matter; may afiect a battle or a movement, but not a campaign or a career. — Around the World. Speaking of the notable men I have met in Eu- I'opc, I regard Bismarck and Gambetta as the greatest. I saw a good deal of Bismark in Berlin, and later in Gastein, and had long talks with him. He impresses you as a great man. Gambetta also impressed me greatly. I was not surprised, when I met him, to see the power he wielded over France. I should not be surprised at any prominence he might attain in the future. I was very much pleased with the Repul)lican lead- ei's in France. They seemed a superior body of men. My relations with them gave me great hopes for the future of the Kepublic. They were men apparently of sense, wisdom, and moderation. — Around the Woy^ld. I have always had an aversion to Napoleon and the whole family. When I was in Denmark the Prince Imperial was there, and some one thought it might lie pleasant for me to meet him. I de- clined, saying I did not want to see him or any of his family. Of course the first emperor was a great genius, but one of the most selfish and cruel men in history. Outside of his mihtary skill, I do 336 CTiirs FROM the ^^^^ITE house. not see a redeeming trait in his character. Ho abused France for his own ends, and brouo-ht incred- ible disasters u})on his country to gratify his selfish ambition. I do not think any genius can excuse a crime like that. The tliii'd N.'ipoleon was worse than the first, the especial enemy of America and liberty. Think of the nn'sery he brought u})on France by a war, which, under the circumstances, no one but a madman would have declared. 1 never doubted how the war would end, and my sympathies at the outset were entirely with Ger- many. I had no ill-will to the French peoj^le, but to Napoleon. After Sedan, I thought Germany should have made peace with France ; and I think that if peace had been made then, in a treaty which would have shown that the war was not against the French people, but against a tyrant and his dynasty, the condition of Europe Avould now be different. Germany, esi)ecially, ^vould be in a better condition, without being compelled to arm every man, and drain the country every 3'ear of its yoimg men to arm a2:ainst France. . . . There exists, and has since the foundation of our government always existed, a traditional friendship between our i)Cople and the French. 1 had this feeling in connnon with my countrymen. But I felt at the same time that no peo})Io h:id so great an intcie.st in the removal of Napolconism IVom France as the French people. — Around the World. ULYSSES S. GRANT. 337 [From a Speech at Elgin, Scotkind.] I am happy to say, that during the eight yenrs of my Presidency it \vas a hope of mine, which 1 am glad to say was realized, that all ditfcrences between the two nations should he settled in a man- ner honorable to l)oth. All the questions, I am glad to say, were so settled, and in my desire for that result, it was my aim to do what was right, irrespective of any other consideration whatever. During all the negotiations, I felt the importance of maintaining the friendly relations between the great English-speaking people of this country and the United States, which I believe to be essential to the maintenance of peace })rinciples throughout the world, and I feel confident that the continu- ance of those relations will exercise avast influence in promoting peace and ci\'ilization throughout the world. — Arou7id the World. [From a Speech at Newcastle.] The President [of the Chamber of Com- merce] in his remarks has alluded to the personal friendship existing betw^een the two nations. I will not say the two peoples, because we are one people ; but we are two nations having a common destiny, and that destiny will be brilliant in proportion to the friendshi]! and co-operation of the brethren on the two sides of the water. . . . These are tM'O 22 338 CHIPS FEOM THE WHITE HOUSE. nations which ought to be at peace with each otlier. We ought to stiive to keep at peace with all the world besides, and hy our example stop those wars which have devastated our oAvn coun- tries, and are now devastating some countries in Europe. — Arotmd the World. [From a Speech to the workingmen at Newcastle.] I was always a man of peace, and I have alwaj's advocated peace, although educated a soldier. I never willingly, although I have gone through two wars, of my OAvn accord advocated war. I advo- cated what I believed to be right, and I have fought for it to the best of my ability, in order that an honorable peace might be secured. — Aroimd the World. Now, there is one subject that has been alluded to here, that I do not know that I should speak upon at all, — I have heard it occasionally whispered since I have been in EnQ:land, — and that is, the irreat advantasjes that would accrue to the United States if free trade should only be established. I have a sort of recollection, throusfh reading, that Enijlaiid herself had a protective tarifl' until she had manu- factories somewhat established. I think we are rapidly progressing in the way of estal)lishing manufootories ourselves, and I believe we shall ULYSSES S. GRANT. 339 become one of the greatest free-trade nations on the face of the earth ; and when we both come to be free-traders, I think that probably the balance of the nations had better stand aside, and not contend with us at all in the markets of the w^orld. — A.round the World. [Fi-om a Conversation with Bismarck.] I regard Sheridan as not only one of the great soldiers of om' w'ar, but one of the great sol- diers of the world, — as a man who is fit for the highest commands. No better o-eneral ever lived than Sheridan. The truth is, I am more of a farmer than a sol- dier. I take little or no interest in military affairs, and, although I entered the araiy thirty- five years ago, and have been in two w'ars, in Mexico as a young lieutenant, and later, I never went into the army without regret, and never re- tired without pleasure. — Around the World. [The following conversation took place between Genera] Grant and Bismarck.] " You had to save the Union just as we had to save German}'." " Not only save the Union, but destroy slavery." " 1 suppose, however, the Union was the real Bentiment, the dominant sentiment?" 340 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. " In the beginning, yes ; but as soon as slavery fired upon the flag, it was felt, we all felt, even those who did not object to slaves, that slavery must be destroyed. AVe felt that it was a stain to the Union that men should be bought and sold like cattle." " I suppose if you had had a large army at the beoinnins; of the war it Avould have ended in a much shorter time ? " " AVe might have had no war at all ; but we cannot tell. Our war had many strange features ; there were many things which seemed odd enough at the time, but which now seem providential. If we had had a larger regular army, as it was then constituted, it might have gone with the South. In fact, the Southern feeling in the army among high officers was so strong that when the war broke out the army dissolved. \Ye had no army. Then we had to or^-anize one. A great com- mander like Sherman or Sheridan even then might hsLxe organized an ai-my and put do^vn the rebel- lion in six months or a year, or, at the farthest, two years. But that would have saved slavery, perhaps, and slavery meant the genns of new re- bellion. There had to be an end of slavery. Then we were fighting an enemy with whom we could not make a peace. We had to destroy him. No convention, no treaty wa'fe possible, only de- struction." t^LYSSES S. GRANT. 341 " It was a long war, and a great work well done, and I suppose it means a long peace." "I believe so." — Around the World. [From a letter to Governor Chamberlain, of South Carolina, July 2G, 1876.] Too Ions: denial of o-uaranteed rii>:ht is sure to o o o lead to revolution, bloody revolution, where suffer- ing must fall upon the innocent as well as the guilty. [From a Speech at Galveston, Texas, IMarch 25, 1880.] It was m^' fortune, more than a third of a century ago, to visit Texas as Second Lieutenant, and to have been one of those who went into the conilict which Avas to settle the boundary of Texas. I am glad to come back now on this occasion to be- hold the territory which is an empire in itself, and larger than some of the empires of Europe. I wish for the people of Texas, as I do for the people of the entire South, that they may go on developing their resources, and become great and powerful, and in their prosperity forget, as the worthy j\layor expressed it, that there is a boundary between the North and South. I am sure we will all be happier and much more prosperous Avhen the day comes that there shall be no sectional feeling. Let any American, who can travel abroad, as I have done, and with the opportunity of witnessing Avhat there is to be seen tlxat I liAve had, and he will return to 342 CHIPS FROM THE AVHITE HOUSE. America a better American and a better citizen than when he went away. He will return more in love with his own country. Far be it from me to find fault w^ith any of the European Governments. I was w^ell received at their hands on every side, by every nation in Europe, but with their dense pop- ulation and their worn-out soil it takes a great deal of government to enal )lc the people to get from the soil a have sul)sistcnce. Here we have rich virgin soil, with room enough for all of us to expand and live, wdth the use of very little government. I do hope we long may be al)le to get along happily and contentedly without being too much governed." [From a Sijeech at Warren, Ohio, September 28, ISSO.] In view of the kno^vn character and ability of the speaker who is to address you to-day, and his long public career and association Avith the leading states- men of this country for the past twenty years, it would not be becoming in me to detain you with many remarks of my own. But it may be i)roiier for me to account to you on the first occasion of my presiding at political meetings for the faith that is in me. I am a Repul)lican, as the two great political parties are now divided, because the Republican party is a National party, seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of citizens. There is not a precinct in this vast Nation where a Democrat I ULYSSES S. GRANT. 343 cannot cast his ballot and have it counted as cast. No matter what the prominence of the opposite part}', he can proclaim Ms political opinions, even if he is only one among a thousand, without fear and without proscription on account of his opinions. There are fourteen States, and localities in some other States, where Republicans have not this priv- ileo-e. O This is one reason why I am a Republican. But I am a RepubUcan for many other reasons. The Republican party assures protection to life and property, the pubhc credit and the paj^ment of the debts of the Government, State, county, or muni- cipality so far as it can control. The Democratic party does not promise this ; if it does, it has broken its promises to the extent of hundi'eds of millions, as many Northern Democrats can testify to their sorrow. I am a Rcpubhcan, as between the existing parties, because it fosters the production of the Held and farm and of manufactories, and it encourages the general education of the poor as well as the rich. The Democratic party discour- ages all these when in absolute power. The Re- publican party is a party of progress and of liber- ality toward its opponents. It encourages the poor to strive to better their children, to enable them to compete successfully with their more for- tunate associates, and, in fine, it secures an entire equality before the law of every citizen, no matter 344 CHIPS FlIOM THE WHITE HOUSE. what his race, nationality, or previous condition. It tolerates no privileged class. Every one has the opportunity to make himself all he is capable of. Ladies and gentlemen, do you believe this can be truthfully said in the greater part of fourteen of the States of this Union to-day which the Democratic party controls absolutely? The lie- publican party is a party of principles, the same principles prevailing wherever it has a foot- hold. The Democratic party is united in but one tiling, and that is in 2:etting control of the Govern- ment in all its branches. It is for internal im- provement at the expense of the Government in one section and against this in another. It favors repudiation of solemn obhgations in one section, and honest payment of its debts in another, where l)ul)lic opinion will not tolerate any other view. It favors fiat money in one place and good money in another. Finally, it favors the pooling of all issues not tlwored by the Republicans, to the end that it may secure the one principle upon which the party is a most haiTuonious unit, namely, get- ting control of the Government in all its branches. I have been in some part of every State lately in rebellion, within the last year. I was most hospi- tably received at every place where I stopped. My receptions were not by the Union class alone, but by all classes, without distinction. I had a frea talli with many who were against me in the war. ULYSSES S. GIJA-\T. 345 and who have been against the Repul)Iican party ever since. They were in all instances reasonable men, judged by what they said. I believed than and believe now that they sincerely want a 1)reak- up in this ''Solid South "political condition. They see that it is to their i)ecuniary interest as well as to their haj^pincss that there should bo harmony and conlidence between all sections. They want to l:)reak away from the sla\'ery which 1)inds them to a party name. They want a pretext that enough of them can unite upon to make it respectable. Once started, the Solid South will go as Ku- kluxism did before, as is so admirably told by Judge Tourgee in his "Fool's Errand." When the l)reak comes those ^^■ho start it will l)e astonished to Ihid how many of their friends have l^een in favor of it for a long time, and have onh' l)een waiting to see some one take the lead. This desir- able solution can only be attained by the defeat and continued defeat of the Democratic party as now constituted. [Speech in New York, November 20, 1880.] \ Now, in regard to the future of mj^self, which has been alluded to here, I am entirely satislled as I am to-day. I am not one of those who cry out aa'ainst the rcpubHc, and chara-e it Avith l)einn; ungrateful. I ;im sure thr.t, as regards the Amer- ican people, as a nation and as indiviclujils, I have 346 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. every reason under the sun, if any person really has, to be satisfied with their treatment of me. [Speech in New York, December 1, 1880.] The government owes much to the service of its volunteer soldiers. Too much credit cannot be paid them. The very fact that the country can raise so great and good an arm}% in such an emer- gency as our late civil war, is a proof that we have institutions in which all the people have an equal part ; that w^e have a government, not for the privileged class, but for the people and by the people. When the peaceful citizen changes to the soldier, he does so readily, feeling that he is fight- ms: for himself when he is fio-htins: for his o'overn- ment. I hope and feel that the country will not again have to call upon such numbers of its citi- zens for support. I am confident that we will not Lave another civil w^ar, but should the menaces of a foreign foe cause a call to arms, we will find the same support and readiness in organizing an army as in 18G1. RUTHEKFOED B. HAYES. 347 EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. BOKN, 1822. — GRADUATED AT KEN YON COLLEGE, O., 1842.— MEMBER OF IIARVAED COLLEGE LAW SCHOOL. — BEGAN PRACTICE OF LAW, 1845. — MA JOR IN THE UNION AIOIY, JUNE 7, ISCl.— JUDGE ADVOCATE OF THE MILITARY DE- PARTMENT OF OHIO, lECl. — LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, CCTO- BER 21, 18G1. — BRIGADIER-GENER.:U:., MARCH 13, 1EG5.— ELECTED TO CONGRESS, ISGO. — CHAIRMAN OF THE LI- BRARY COMMITTEE. — RE-ELECTED, 1S67. — GOVERNOR OF OHIO FOR THREE TERMS, 1868-1872. — PRESIDENT, 1877-1881. Give me the popularity that runs after, not that "which is sought for. — College Diary. Judge [Stanley] Mathews and I have agreed to go into the service for the war — if possible, into the same regiment. I spoke my feelings to him, which he said were his own, that this was a just and a necessary w'ar, and that it demanded the whole power of the country ; that I would prefer to go into it, if I knew I was to be killed in the course of it, rather than to live through and after it without taking any part in it, — 3Iai/ 15, 18G1. [From a Speech in Ohio, 18G7.] The uniform lesson of history is, that unjust and partial laws increase and create antagonism, 348 CHIPS FROJI THE AVTIITE HOUSE. while justice and cquitj' are the sure foundation of prosperity and peace The truth is, that cxcvy step made in advance towards tlie standard of the ri£>ht has in the e^■ent always proved a safe and wise step. Every step toward the right has proved a step toAvard the ex pedient ; in short, that in politics, in morals, in public and private life, the right is always ex- pedient. [From a vSpecch, in 1867, during the political campaign.] Our adversaries are accustomed to talk of the reljellion as an affair which began AA'hen the rebels attacked Fort Sumter in 18G1, and which ended when Lee surrendered to Grant, in 1865. . . . But the causes, the principles, and the methods which produced the rebellion are of an older djite than the generation which suffered from the friut they bore, and their influence and power are likely to last long after that generation passes avv'ay. Ever since armed rebellion failed, a large party in the South have struggled to make participation in the rebellion honoral)le, and loyalty to the Union dishonorable. The lost cause with them is the honored cause. In society, in business, and in politics, devotion to treason is the test of merit, the passport to preferment. They wish to return to the old state of things, an oligarchy of race and the sovereignty of States. EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 349 To defeat this purpose, to secure the rights of man, and to peri)etuate the national Union, arc the objects of the congressional plan of reconstruction. . . . There are now within the limits of the United States about five millions of colored people. They are not aliens or strangers. They are not here l^y the choice of themselves or their ancestors. They arc here by the misfortune of their lathers and the crime of ours. Their labors, privations, and suf- ferings, unpaid and unrequited, have cleared and redeemed one-third of the inhabited territory of the Uniau. Their toil has added to the resources and wealth of the nation untold millions. Whether we prefer it or not, they are our countrymen, and will remain so forever. They are more than our countrymen — they are citizens. Free colored people were citizens of the colonies. The constitution of the United States, formed by our fathers, created no disablities on account of color. By the acts of our fathers and of ourselves, they bear equally the burdens, and are required to discharge the highest duties of citi- zens. They are compelled to pay taxes, and bear arms. They fought side by side with their white countrymen in the great struggle for independence, and in the recent war for the Union. . . . Slaves were never voters. It was bad enough that our fiitliers, for the sake of union, were compelled to allow masters to reckon tliree-fifths of their sla^ es 350 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. for representation, without adding slave suffrage to the other privileges of the slaveholders. But free colored men were always voters in many of the colonies, and in several of the States, North and South, after independence was achieved. They voted for meml)ers of the Congress which declared independence, and for members of every Congress prior to the adoption of the federal con- stitution ; for the members of the convention which framed the constitution ; for the members of many of the State conventions which ratified it, and for every president, from Washington to Lincoln. Our government has been called the white man's government. Not so. It is not the government of any class, or sect, or nationality, or race. It is a government founded on the consent of the governed. It is not the government of the native- born, or of the foreign-born, of the rich man, or of the poor man, of the white man, or of the col- ored man — it is the government of the freeman. And when colored men were made citizens, sol- diers, and freemen, by our consent and votes, we were estopped from denying to them the right of suffrage. To corrupt the ballot-box is to destroy our free institutions. — 1868. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 351 [From the Annual Message, as Governor of Ohio, 1869.] All agree tliut a Republican government will fail unless the purity of elections is preserved. Con- vinced that great abuses of the electoral franchise cannot be prevented under existing legislation, I have heretofore recommended the enactment of a registry law, and also some appropriate measure to secure to the minority, as far as practicable, a representation upon all boards of elections. [From the Inaugiu-al Address, as Governor, 1870.] Our judicial system is plainly inadequate to the wants of the people of the State. Exten- sive alterations of existing provisions must be made. The suggestions I desire to present in this connection are as to the manner of electing judges, their terms of office, and their salaries. It is for- tunately true that the judges of our courts have heretofore been, for the most part, lawyers of learning, ability, and integTity. But it must be remembered that the tremendous events and the wonderful progress of the last few years are work- ing great changes in the condition of our society. Hitherto, population has l)een sparse, propei-ty not unequally distributed, and the bad elements which so frequently control large cities have been almost unknown in our State. But with a dense popula- tion crowding into towns and cities, with vast 352 CHirs FiiOM the white house. wealth accumulating in the hands of a few persons or corporations, it is to be apprehended that the time is coming when judges elected by popular vote, for short official terms, and poorly [)aid, Avill not possess the independence required to protect individual rights. Under the National Constitu- tion judges are nominated hy the Executive and confirmed 1)Y the Senate, and hold office during good behavior. It is worthy of consideration whether a return to the system established by the fathers is not the dictate of the highest prudence. I believe that a system under which judges are so appointed, for long terms and with adequate sala- ries, will affiord to the citizen the amplest jiossible security that impartial justice will be administered by an independent judiciary. [From a Speech at Columbus, Ohio, 1870.] The sectarian agitation against the pub- lic schools was begun many 3'ears ago. During the last few years it has steadily and rapidly in- creased, and has been encouraged by various indi- cations of possible success. It extends to all of the states where schools at the common expense have been long established. Its triumphs are mainly in the large towns and cities. It has already divided the schools, and in a considerable degree impaired and limited their usefulness. The glory of the American system of education KUTTIEKFORD B. HAYES. 353 has been, that it was so cheap that the humblest citizen could afford to give his children its advan- tages, and so good that the man of wealth could nowhere provide for his children anything better. This gave the sj^stem its most conspicuous merit. It made it a republican system. The young of all conditions of life are brouijht toa^ether, and educated on terms of perfect equality. The ten- dency of this is to assimilate and to fuse together the various elements of our population, to promote unit}', harmony, and general good- will in our American society. But the enemies of the American S3'stem have begun the work of destroying it. They have forced away from the public schools, in many towns and cities, one third or one fourth of their pupils, and sent them to schools, which, it is safe to say, are no whit superior to those they have left. These youths are thus deprived of the associations and the educa- tion in practical republicanism and American senti- ment which they peculiarly need. Nobody questions their constitutional and legal right to do this, and to do it by denouncing the public schools. Sectarians have a lawful right to say that these schools are " a relict of paganism — that they arc " godless," and that " the secular school- system is a social cancer." But when, having thus succeeded in dividing the schools, they make that a ground for abolishing school taxation, dividing 23 354 CHIPS lliOM THE ^\^IITE HOUSE. the school fund, or otherwise destroying the system, it is time that its friends should rise up in its de- fence. We all agree that neither the government nor political parties ought to interfere with religious sects. It is equally true that religious sects ought not to interfere with the government or with poUti- cal parties. We believe that the cause of good government and the cause of religion both suffer by all such interference. But if sectarians make demands for legislation, of political parties, and threaten a party with opposition at the elections in case the required enactments are not passed, and if the political party yields to such threats, then those thrcatenings, those demands, and that act of the political party become a legitimate subject of polit- ical discussion, and the sectarians who thus inter- fere with the legislation of the State are alone responsible for the agitation which follows. [From his Annual Message, as Governor of Ohio, January, 1871. Civil Service Reform.] What the public welfare demands is a practical measure w'hich will provide for a thorough and impartial investigation in every case of sus- pected neglect, abuse, or fraud. Such an investi- gation to be effective must be made by an authori- ty independent, if possible, of all local influences. When abuses are discovered, tlie prosecution and RUTHERrOED B. HAYES. 355 punishment of offenders ought to follow. But even if prosecutions fail in cases of full exposure, public opinion almost always accomplishes the ob- ject desired. A thorough investigation of corrup- tion and criminality leads with great certainty to the needed reform. Publicity is a great corrector of abuses. [From a Speech at Glendale, Ohio, 1872.] We want a financial policy so honest that there can be no stain on the national honor, and no taint on the national credit ; so stable that laljor and capital and legitimate business of every sort can confidently count upon what it will be the next week, the next month, and the next year. We want the burdens of taxation so justly dis- tributed, that they will bear equally upon all classes of citizens in proportion to their ability to sustain them. We want our currency gradually to apprecia;te until, without financial shock or any sudden shrinkage of values, but in the natural course of trade, it shall reach the uniform and per- manent value of gold. [From a Speech at Marion, Ohio, 1872.] The objections to an inflated and irredeemable paper cuiTcncy are so many that I do not attempt to state them all. ... It promotes speculation and extravagance, and at the same time discour- ages legitimate business, honest labor, and econ- 356 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. omy. It dries up the true sources of individual and public prosperity. Oveiirading and fast liv- ing ahvays go with it ; it stimulates the desire to incur debt ; it causes high rates of interest ; it increases importations from al)road ; it has no fixed value ; it is liable to frequent and great fluc- tuations, thereby rendering every pecuniary en- gagement precarious, and disturbing all existing contracts and expectations. It is the parent of panics. Every period of inflation is followed by a loss of confidence, a shrinkage of values, depres- sion of business, panics, lack of employment, and "wide-spread disaster and distress. The heaviest part of the calamity falls on those least aljle to bear it. The wholesale dealer, the middle-man, and the retailer, always endeavor to cover the risks of the fickle standards of value by raising their prices. But the men of small means and the laborer are thrown out of employment, and want and suflering are liable soon to follow. When government enters upon the experiment of issuing irredeemable paper money, there can be no fixed limit to its volume. The amount will de- pend on the interest of leading politicians, on their whims, and on the excitement of the hour. It af- fords such facilities for contracting debt that ex- travagance and corrupt govermncnt expenditures are the sure result. Under the name of pubhc improvements, the wildest enterprises, contrived EUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 357 for private gain, are undertaken. IndefiiJte ex- pansion becomes the rule, and, in the end, bank- ruptcy, ruin, and repudiation. [From an Address at the Dedication of a Soldiers' IVIona- ment in Findley, Ohio, 1875.] I know not how many of them [the fal- len soldiers] have been gathered into the ceme- teries near their homes ; I know not how many others have been gathered into the beautiful na- tional cemeteries near the great battle-fields. I know not how many are lying in swamps, along the mountain sides, in nameless graves, — the un- known heroes of the Union ; but wherever they are, and ho^vever many there may he, you people of Hancock County have erected your monument to all who fell, who left your county. All sol- diers, I am sure, feel like thanking you for this. I remember well the first of the saddest days of my life was after one of our great battles in the' early period of the war. Recovering from wounds with other comrades who had been wounded there, we passed near the battle-field, as soon as we felt able to do so ; and Avhen we came there, Mhat did we learn? Passing up the mountain, charging the line of the enemy, they fell ; and everywhere were the shallow graves in which were deposited the re- mains of our seven hundred companions who had fallen. And how were the}' buried? and how 358 CHIPS FROM THE AMHTE HOUSE. \ras their last resting-place marked? Hastily, tendcrh% no doubt, the parties detailed to bury them had gathered up their reniains. You soldiers know how it was done. They placed upon the face of each man who died, whenever they could ascertain his name, a piece of an envelope, or a scrap of a letter, or something of the kind, con- taining his name, his company, his regiment, fastening it there, hoping some day his friends might come and find him, and learn who Avas there buried. And then, you remember, there were no cofiins, nothing of the sort ; but they took the blue overcoat and placed it around the man, and took the cape, and bringing it over the face, fastened it down. This was his shroud ; this was his coffin ; and he Avas placed away to rest until the resurrection morn. That was the manner of his burial. And strange, I may say, was the re- sult of that woollen material over the face ; satu- rated in the water and covered with the earth, it did so protect them from decay that months afterwards many were recognized by their friends, preserved as they were by the overcoat-cape. And how was the grave marked ? With a pencil they scratched upon a piece of fine board — a thin piece of cracker-box — the name and company, which was placed at the grave. This was all then ; and we did not know what the result woidd be. We did not know what friends would do, what monuments would be reared. RUTnERFORD B. HAYES. 359 As we left that field, talking to each other, we said there must be a soldiers' monument for the soldiers of our regiment. After the famous Antietam campaign was fought, we called the men together — four hundred and fifty or five hundred men, — and from the scanty pay which was to support the men, and to some extent, their families, the majority of the remainder subscrilied at least one dollar, and others more, according to their ability, and raised in the regiment' two thousand dollars to build a monu- ment, on which, it was agreed, should be inscribed the name of every man in the regiment who had fallen, and every man who should fall during the continuance of the war. [From his Letter of Acceptance of the Nomination for the Presidency, by the Republican National Convention.] Columbus, Ohio, July 8, 1876. The fifth resolution adopted by the Convention is of paramount interest. ]\Iore than forty years ago, a system of making appointments to office grew up based upon the maxim, " To the victors belong the spoils." The old rule, — the true rule, — that honesty, capability, and fidelity constitute the only real qualifications ^r office, and that there is no other claim, gave place to the idea that party services were chiefly to be con- sidered. All parties in practice have adopted this 3 GO CTIIPS FR05I THE WHITE HOUSE. system. It has been essentially modified since its first introduction. It has not, however, been improved. At first, the President, either directly or through the heads of departments, made all the appointments. But gradually the appointing power, in many cases, passed into the control of members of Congi'ess. The offices, in these cases, have become not merely rewards for party services, but rewards for services to party leaders. This system destroys the independence of the separate depart- ments of the government ; it tends directly to extravagance and official incapacity ; it is a temp- tation to dishonesty ; it hinders and impairs the careful super\ision and strict accountabihty by which alone faithful and efficient public sei*vice can be secured ; it obstructs the prompt removal and sure punishment of the unworthy. In every way it degrades the civil sendee and the character of the government. It is felt, I am confident. In'' a large majority of the members of Congress, to be an intolerable burden, and an unwarrantable hindrance to the proper discharge of their legit- imate duties. It ought to be abolished. Thei reform should be thorough, radical, and complete. We should return to the principles and j^ractices of the founders of the government, supplying by legislation, when needed, that which was formerly established custom. They neither expected nor RUTHEIJFOKD 15. TTAYES. 3G1 desired from the public officers any partisan service. They meant that pulilic officers should 0A\ e their whole service to the government and to the people. They meant that the officer should be secure in his tenure as long as his personal char- acter remained untarnished, and the performance of his duties satisfactory. If elected, I shall conduct the administration of the government upon these principles ; and all constitutional pow- ers vested in the executive will be employed to establish this reform With a civil service organized upon a system which will secure purity, experience, efficiency, and economy ; with a strict regard to the pulilic welfare, solely, in appointments ; with the speedy, thorough, and uns|)aring prosecution and punish- ment of all public officers who betray official trusts ; with a sound cuiTcncy ; with education unsectarian and free to all ; with simplicity and frugality in public and private aliairs ; and with a fraternal spirit of harmony pervading the people of all sections and classes, we may reasonably hope that the second century of our existence as a nation, will, by the blessing of God, be pre-eminent as an' era of good feeling, and a period of progress, ' prosperity', and happiness. ' 362 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. [From his Message, vetoing the Silver Bill, February 28, 1878.] National promises should be kept with unflinch- ing fidelity. There is no power to compel a nation to pay its just debts. Its credit depends on its honor. The nation owes what it has led or allowed its creditors to expect. I cannot approve a bill which, in my judgment, authorizes the violation of sacred obligations. The obligation to the public faith transcends all questions of profit or public advantage. Its un(][uestionable maintenance is the dictate as well of the highest expediency as of the most necessary duty, and should ever be carefully guarded by the Executive, by Congress, and by the people. [From the Message vetoing the Chinese Bill, restricting Chinese immigration.] The principal feature of the Burlingame treaty was its attention to and its treatment of the Chinese immigration, and the Chinese as forming, or as they should form, a part of our population. Up to this time (1859) the uncovenanted hospitality to imnu- gration, our fearless liberality of citizenship, our equal and comprehensive justice to all inhabitants, whether they abjured their foreign nationality or not, our civil freedom and our religious toleration had made all comers welcome, and under these pro- RUTHEKFORD B. HAYES. oG3 tections the Chinese, in considerable numbers, had made their lodgment upon our soil Unquestional)ly the adhesion of the government of China to these liberal principles of freedom in emigration, with which we were so familiar, and with which we were so well satisfied, v^as a great advance toward opening that empire to our civili- zation and religion, and gave promise in the future of greater and greater practical results in the diliti- sion, throughout that great population, of our arts and industries, our manufactures, our material im- provements, and the sentiments of goveriuncnt and religion which seem to us so important to the wel- fare of mankind. The first clause of this article [of the Treaty] secures this acceptance b}^ China of the American doctrine of free emigi'ation to and fi'o among the people and races of the earth. [Veto Message — Militaiy Bill, April 29, 1879.] It is the right of every citizen, possessing the qualifications prescribed by law, to cast one unin- timidatcd ballot, and to have his ballot honestly counted, [From the Veto of the Bill " to prohibit militai-y interfer- ence at elections," May 12, 1879.] Under the sweeping terms of the bill, the national government is efiectually shut out from the exercise of the right, and from the discharge of the impera- 364 cnirs fkom the v/iiite house. tive duty, to use its whole executiA'c power, when- ever and wherever reqmred, for the enforcement of its laws, at the places and times when and where its elections are held. The emplo^^uent of its or- ganized armed forces for any such purpose would be an offence against the law, unless called for by, and, therefore, upon permission of, the authorities of the States in which the occasion arises. What is this but the substitution of the discretion of the State governments for the discretion of the govern- ment of the United States as to the performance of its own duties? In my judgment, this is an abandonment of its obligations by the national government ; a subordination of national authority, and an intrusion of State supervision over national duties, which amounts, in spirit and tendency, to State supremacy. [Veto of the Bill regulating the pay and apiiointmeiit of United States Deputy Marshals, Jiuic 15, 1880.] We hold it to be an incontrovertiJjle principle that the Government of the United States may, by means of physical force, exercised through its official agents, execute in every foot of American soil the power and functions that belong to it. [Fi-om tlie A^'eto Message — Ai'my Appropi'iation Bill.] Upon the assembhng of this [fort^^-sixth] Congress, in pursuance of a call for an extra ses- RUTHERFOED B. HAYES. 365 sion, which was made necessary by the fuihire of the Forty-fifth Congress to make the needful ap- propriations for the support of the government, the question was presented whether the attempt made in the last Congress to engraft, by construc- tion, a new principle upon the Constitution, should be persisted in or not. This Congress has ample opportunity and time to pass the appropriation bills, and also to enact any pohtical measures which may be determined upon in separate bills by the usual and orderly methods of proceeding. But the ma- jority of both Houses have deemed it wise to adhere to the principles asserted and maintained in the last Congress by the majority of the House of Representatives. That principle is that the House of Representatives has the sole right to originate bills for raising revenue, and therefore has the right to withhold appropriations upon which the existence of the government may depend, unless the Senate and the President shall give their assent to any legislation which the House may see fit to attach to appropriation bills. To establish this principle is to make a radical, dangerous, and un- constitutional change in the character of our insti- tutions The enactment of this bill into a law will estab- lish a precedent which will tend to destroy the equal indci:)cndence of the several branches (^f the government. Its principle places, not merely the 366 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. Senate and the Executive, but the judiciary also, under the coercive dictation of the House. The House alone will be the judge of what constitutes a grievance, and also of the means and measures of redress. [From an Address at the Annual Reunion of the 23d Regi- ment, Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infontry, at Youngstown, Ohio.] No man has ever stated the issues of the civil war more fully, more clearly, or more accurately than Mr. Lincoln. In any inquiry as to what may fairly be included among the things settled by our victory, all just and patriotic minds instinctively turn to ]Mr. Lincoln. To him, more than to any other man, the cause of Union and liberty is indebted for its final triumph. Besides, with all his wonderful sagacity, and wisdom, and logical faculty, dvrelling intently, and anxiously, and prayerfully, during four 3^ears of awful trial and responsibility, on the questions which were continually arising to perplex and almost confound him, he at last became the very embodiment of the principles by which the country and its liberties were saved. All good citizens may now well listen to and heed his words. None have more reason to do it with respect and confidence, and a genuine regard, than those whom he addressed in his first inaugural speech as " my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen." The leader of RUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. 367 the Union cause was so just and moderate, and patient and humane, that many supporters of the Union thought that he did not go far enough or fast enough, and assailed his opinions and his conduct ; but now all men begin to see that the plain people, who at last came to love him and to lean upon his wisdom and firmness with absolute trust, were altogether right, and that in deed and purpose he was earnestly devoted to the welfare of the whole country, and of all its inhabitants. Touching the remaining important controversy settled by the war, the public avowals of opinion are almost all in favor of the faithful acceptance of the new constitutional amendments. On this sub- ject tlie speeches of public men and the creeds and platforms of the leading political parties have for some years past been explicit. In 1872, all parties in their respective National Conventions adopted resolutions recognizing the equality of all men be- fore the law, and pledging themselves, in the words of the Democratic National Convention, "to main- tain emancipation and enfranchisement, and to oppose the reopening of the questions settled by the recent amendments to the Constitution." In 1876, the great political parties again, in the lan- guage of the St. Louis National Convention, afSrmcd their " devotion to the Constitution of the United States, with its amendments universallif 368 cnirs rroii the white house. accepted as a final settlement of the controversies that engendered the civil war." Notwithstanding these declarations, we are compelled to take notice that, while very few citizens anywhere would wish to re-establish slaver}^ if the}- could, and no one would again attempt to break up the Union by secession, there still remains in some communities a dangerous practical denial to the colored citizens of the political rights which are guaranteed to them by the Constitution as it now is. In the crisis of the war Mr. Lincoln appealed to the colored people to take up arms. Al)0ut two hundred thousand responded to the call, enlisted in the Union armies, and fought for the Union cause under the Union flag. Equality of rights for the colored people, from that time, thus became one of the essential issues of the war. General Sherman said, " when the fight is over, the hand that drops the musket cannot be denied the ballot." Jefierson said long before, " the man who lights for the country is en- titled to vote." When, with the' help of the colored men, the victory Avas gained, the Fifteenth Amendment followed naturally as one of its legiti- mate results. No man can truthfully claim that he faithfully accepts the true settlements of the war, who sees with indifference the Fifteenth Amend- ment practically nullified. No one can overstate the evils which the country must suffer if lawless and Aiolent opposition to the RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 369 enjoyment of constitutional rights is allowed to be permanently successful. The lawlessness which to-day assails the rights of the colored people will find other victims to-morrow. This question be longs to no race, to no party, and to no section. It is a question in which the whole country is deeply interested. Patriotism, justice, humanity, and our material interests, all plead on the right side of this ques- tion. The colored people are the laborers who produce the cotton which, going abroad to the mar- kets of the world, gives us that favorable balance of trade which is now doin^ so much for the revival of all business. The whole fabric of society rests upon labor. If free laborers suffer from oppres- sion and injustice, they will either become discon- tented and turbulent, destroyers of property, and not producers of property, or they will abandon the communities which deprive them of their in- alienable rights. In either case, social order and the peaceful industries upon which prosperity de- pends, are imperilled and perhaps sacrificed. It will not do to say that this is an affair which belongs solely to the distant States of the South. The whole country must suffer if this question is not speedil}' settled, and settled rightly. Where the two races are numerous, prosperity can only exist by the united and harmonious eflforts of both the white people and the colored people. The only 24 370 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. solid foundations for peace and progress in such communities are equal and exact justice to both races. Consider the present situation. Whatever complaints may have been heard during the prog- ress of reconstruction, candid men must admit that all sections and all States are now equally re- garded, and share alike the rights, the privileges, and the benefits of the common Government. All that is needed for the permanent pacification of the country is the cordial co-operation of all well-dis- posed citizens to secure the faithful observance of the equal-rights amendments of the Constitution. To establish now the State rights doctrine of the supremacy of the States, and an oligarchy of race, is deliberately to throw away an essential part of the fruits of the Union victory. The settlements of the war in favor of equal rights and the suprem- acy of the laws of the nation are just and wise, and necessary. Let them not be surrendered. Let them be faithfully accepted and firmly enforced. Let them stand, and, with the advancing tide of business prosperity, we may confidently hope, by the blessing of Divine Providence, that we shall soon enter upon an era of harmony and progrcs»j such as has been rarely enjoyed by any people. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 371 [An Address at the Soldiers' State Reunion.] Columbus, Ohio, August 11, 1880. The citizens of Ohio who where soldiers in the Union Army, and who have assembled here in such large numbers, have many reasons for mu- tual congratulations as they exchange greetings and renew old friendships at this State reunion. We rejoice that we had the glorious privilege of enlist- ing and servino- on the riirht side in the great conflict for the Union and for equal rights. The time that has passed since the contest ended is n(;t so great Init that we can without eflbrt recall fresh- ly and vividly the events and scenes and feelings and associations of that most interesting period of our lives. We rejoice, also, that we have been permitted to live long enough to see and to enjoy the results of the victory we gained, and to meas- ure the vast benelits which it conferred on our country and on the world. I shall not attempt to make a catalogue of those benefits, or to estimate their value. A single fact, to which I call 3'our attention, will sufficiently illustrate, for my pres(>nt purpose, the immeasurable l)lessing conferred u} on the United States by the success of the Union anxis. The statistics of emigration, showing the move- ments of population wliich are going on in the world, afford a very good test of the compart- ive advantages and prosperity of the various ci\i ized 372 CHIPS FliOM THE -WHITE HOUSE. nativons. People leave their own country and fiieek new homes in foreign lands to Jjettcr their condi- tion. Immigration into a country, therefore, is an evidence of that country's prosperity. It is also a most efEeient cause of the progress of the country which receives it. During our civil w^ar, and durins: the disturbed and troubled -\cars which immediately preceded and followed it, im- migration fell olT and became of comparatively small importance. But now, our country's pros- perity, the stability of our government, and the permanent prevalence of peace at home and Avith foreio-n nations, blessinii's which could not have been enjoyed by this country if the Union arms had failed, have given to the world a confidence in the future welfare and o-reatness of the United States which is pouring upon our shores such streams of immigration as w^ere never known before. This is a fact of the most pregnant significance in our pre- sent condition. If we take a survey of the globe, "we shall find everywhere, among civilized nations esi^ecialljs many people who arc eagerly looking forward to the time when they can emigrate to some more favored land. Only one of the great nations is in no danger of losing its capital and lal)or and skill by emigration. We find only one which by immigration is gaining rapidly in numbers, wealth and power. All are losing by this cause except the United States. The United States alone is RUTIIEEFOKD B. HAYES. 373 gaining. Other nations see their people going, going. "We see, from every quarter, the people of other countries comino:, comino-, comino;. There is one flag, and in all the world only one, whose protection good men and women born under it vrill never willingly leave. There is one flag, and only one in the world, whose protecting folds good men and women born under every other flag that floats under the whole heavens are eagerly and gladly seekins;. That flaor, so loved at home, so lono^ed for by millions abroad, is the old flag under which we marched, to save, what in our soldier days we were fond of calling, "God's country ! " It is easi- ly seen what it is that chiefly attracts this immigra- tion. It goes where good land is cheap ; where lal)or and capital find profitable emplo}nnent ; where peace and social order prevail ; and where civil and religious liberty are secure. If we draw nearer to the subject, and ask where in our own country does this immigration mainly go, the recent census, V\hose results we are now getting, gives us the answer. That census shows us parts of our own country, where land is cheap and where capital and labor are needed, that are not rapidly increasing in prosperi- ty. In these States it will be found that two things arc wanting — the means for popular education are not sufliciently provided, and the good order of society is disturbed by a practical popular refusal to accept the results of the war for the union. 374 CHIPS Fl!OM THE AVHITE HOUSE. These two defects, wherever they prevail in our American society, are hostile to the increase of pop- ulation and to prosperity. They are found gener- ally to exist together. Where popular education prevails, tlie equal rights "amendments to the Con- stitution of the United States, embodying the re- sults of the war, are inviolable." It must, perhaps, be conceded that there was one great error in the measures by which it was sought to secure the re- sults , to harvest the fruits of our Union victory. The system of slavery in tlie South of necessity kept in io;norance four millions of slaves. It also left an- provided with education a large number of non- slave-holding white people. With the end of the war the slaves inevitably became citizens. The uneducated whites remained as they had been, also citizens. Thus the grave duties and responsibili- ties of citizenship were devolved largely, in the States lately in rebellion, upon uneducated peo- ple, white and colored. And with Avhat result? Liberty and the exercise of the rights of citizenship are excellent educators. In many respects we are glad to believe that encouraging progress has been made at the South. The labor system has l)een reorganized, material prosperity is increasing, race prejudices and antagonisms have diminished, the passions and animosities of the war arc subsiding, and the ancient harmony and concord and patriotic national sentiments are returning. But, after all, RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 375 We cannot fail to observe that immigration, which so infallibly and instinctively finds out the true C'\>n- dition of all countries, does not largely go into the late slaveholding region of the United States. A great deal of cheap and productive land can there be found where population is not rapidly increasing. "When our Revolutionary fathers adopted the ordi- nance of 1787 for the government of the north- west territory, out of which Ohio and four other great States have been carved, they were not con- tent with merely putting into that organic law a firm prohibition against slavery, and providing effectual guarantees of civil and religious lil)erty, but they established, as the corner-stone of the free institutions they wished to build, this article : "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." Unfortunately for the complete success of reconstruction in the South, this stone was rejected by its builders. Slavery- has been destroyed by the war : but its evils live after it, and deprive many parts of the South of that intelligent self-government without which, in America at least, great and permanent prosperity is impossible. To perpetuate the Union and to abolish slavery were the work of the war. To educate the uneducated is the appropriate work of peace. As long as any considerable numbers of our countrymen are uu- 37G CHIPS FHOM Tiir "wtute house. educated, the citizensbi}) of every American in evyry State is impaired in value, and is constantly imperilled. It is plain that at the end of the vvar the tremendous chan^-G in the labor and social sys- tems of the Southern States, and the ravages and impoverishment of the conflict, added to the biu- den of their debts, and the loss of their whole cir- culating medium, which died in their hands, left the people of those States in no condition to pro- vide for universal popular education. In a recent memorial to Congress on this subject, in behalf of the trustees of thePeabody educational fund, Hon. A. II. II. Stuart of Virginia shows that "two mil- lions of children in the Southern States are with- out the means of instruction " ; and adds, with great force, " Where millions of citizens are grow- ing up in the grossest ignorance, it is obvious that neither individual charity nor the resources of im- poverished States will be suiScient to meet the emergency. Nothing short of the wealth and power of the Federal Government v/ill sutBce to over- come the evil." The principle applied by general consent to works of i)ublic improvement is in point. That principle is, that whenever a public improve- ment is of national importance, and local and pri- vate enterprise are inadequate to its prosecution, the General Government should undertake it. On this principle I would deal with the question of ed- ucation hy the aid of the National Government. I RUTIIUKFOUD B. HAYES. 377 "WTierever in the United States the local systems of popular education are inadequate, they should be supplemented l^y the General Government, by devoting to the purpose, by suitable legislation and with proper safeguards, the public lands, or, if necessary, appropriations from the treasury of the United States. The soldier of the Union has done his work, and has done it well. The work of the schoolmaster is now in order. "Wherever his work shall be well done, in all our borders, it will be found that there, also, the principles of the Dec- laration of Independence will l)e cherished, the sentiment of nationality will prevail, the equal- rights amendments will be cheerfully obeyed, and there will be " the home of freedom and the refu^-e of the oppressed of every race and of every clime." [From an Address at the Reunion of Ohio Soldiei's and Sailors, at Canton, Ohio, SoiJtcmber, 1880.] At the Soldiers' State reunion in Columbus, last month, I made some remarks on the duty of the general government to complete the work of recon- struction by affording aid, wherever it is needed, for the education of the illiterate white and colored people in the late slaveholding States. I am firmly convinced that the subject of popular education deserves the earnest attention of the people of the whole country, with a view to wise and compre- hensive action by the gov-ernment of the United 378 CHIPS FROM THE MTHTE HOUSE. States. The means at the command of the local and State authorities are, in man}'^ cases, wholly inadequate to deal with the question. The magni- tude of the evil to be eradicated is not, I appre- hend, generally and fully understood. Consider these flicts : 1. In the late slaveholding States, under the system of slavery, education was denied to the colored people, and the education of the non- slaveholding white people was greatly neglected. By reason of this state of things, in 1870 more than four millions of people in the South of school age and over that age "svere unable to read and write, and more than three-quarters of a million of voters are too illiterate to prepare or even to read their own ballots. This evil is not rapidlj- diminishing. By the latest available statistics it appears that in 1878 the total school population, white and colored, in the late slaveholding States was 5,187,584, and that only 2,710,096 were during that year enrolled in any school. This leaves 2,477,488 — almost two and a half milhons — of the young who arc growing up without the means of education. Citizenship and the right to vote were conferred upon the colored people by the government and people of the United States. It is, therefore, the sacred duty, as it is the highest interest, of the United States to see that these new citizens and voters are fitted by education for the RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 379 grave responsibility that has been cast upon tbem. Dr. RufFner, school superintendent of Virginia, in an argument that the general government should aid the public schools of the South, saj's : '' I know not what is true of Noi*thern or Western States, but I can say for my State, and for most of the Southern States, we are not able to educate our people in any tolerable sense. We are too poor to do it. A few years ago I showed this conclusively by statistics. . . . There has not been much increase in financial ability in these States since that time ; no increase on an average of my own State, so far as I can judge, and every well- informed man knows that, whatever be the wants of a State, her power of taxation has a limit." 2. In the Territories of the United States it is estimated that there are over two hundred thousand Indians, almost all of whom are uncivilized. They have heretofore been hunters and ^varriors. But now no one who observes the rapid progress of railroads and settlements in the West can fail to see that the game and fish, on which the Indians have hith- erto subsisted, are about to disappear. The solu- tion of the Indian question will speedily be either the extinction of the Indians, or their absorption into American citizenship, by means of the civil- izing infiuences of education. AYith the disappear- ance of game, there can no longer remain Indian hunters and warriors. The days of Indian wars 380 CIIIPS FKO:\I THE WHITE HOUSE. are drawing to a close. There will soon be no room for question as to the department to which the Indian will belong. In a few years all must agree that he should belong, like every other citi- zen, only to himself. The time is not distant when he should be chiefly cared for by the civil- izing department of the government — the Bureau of Education. o. The people of the Territory of New Mexico have never been provided with the means of edu- cation. The number of people in that Territory in 1870, ten 3'ears old and upward, who could not read and write, was fifty-two thousand two hun- dred and twenty. This is largely more than half of the population. The school population is now over thirty thousand, of whom only about one-sixth are enrolled in schools. It will not be questioned that the power of the general government to " make all needful rules and regulations respecting the Ter- ritory belonging to the United States," is sufficient to authorize it to provide for the education of the increasing mass of illiterate citizens growing up in Kew jMexico and in the other Territories of the United States. 4. The number of immigrants arriviuGT in the United States is greater than ever bcibre. It is not improbable, from present indications, that from this source alone there will be added during the current decade to the population of our coun- RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 381 try 5,000,000 of people. On one day kst spring there arrived in New York 4,007 immigrants, — almost five thousand in a -single day at that one port. During the quarter ending the 30lli of June last, the number of immigrants into the United States averaged 80,000 a month, and dur- ing the four months ending the 3 1st of July last there were nearh^ 300,000. Hai^pily for the United States, several of the large elements of this immigration contain very few people who are wholly uneducated. The Germans and Scandinavians have for the most part been educated at public schools in their own country. But it is probable that from one-fourth to one-third of the present total immigration into our country is from foreign nations in Avhich popu- lar education is greatly neglected. It may rea- sonably be estimated that at least from twenty to twenty-five per cent, of the immigrants are illiter- ate. In the current decade we shall probably re- ceive from abroad more than a million of people of school age and upward who arc unable to read and write any language ; and of these about a quarter of a million in a few years will share with us c(}ually, man for man, the duties and responsi- bilities of the citizen and the voter. JeHerson, with his almost marvellous sagacity and foresight, declared, nearly a hundred 3ears ago, that free schools were an essential part — one of the col- 382 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. umns, as he expressed it — of the republieun edi- fice, and that " without instruction free to all, the sacred flame of libertycould not be kept burning in the hearts of Americans." Madison said, almost sixty years ago, "A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or per- haps to both." Already, in too many instances, elections have become the farce which JNIadison predicted ; and the tremendous tragedy which we saw when we were soldiers of the Union, and in which we bore a part, could never have occurred, if in all sections of our country there had been universal suffrage based upon universal education. In our country, as everywhere else, it will be found that, in the long run, ignorant voters are powder and ball for the demagogues. The failure to support free schools in any part of our country tends to cheapen and degrade the right of suffrage, and will ultimately destroy its value in every other part of the Kepublic. The unvarying testimony of history is, that the nations which win the most renowned victories in peace and war are those which provide ample means for popular education. Without free schools there is no such thing as af- fording to " everj^ man an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life." In the present condition of our country universal education re- quires the aid of the general government. The RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 383 authority to gi'imt such aid is established l)y a line of precedents beginning with the origin of the Re- public, and running down through almost every administration to the present tnne. Let this aid be gi'antccl wherever it is essential to the enjoy- ment of free popular instniction. In the language of Mr. Webster : " The census of these States shows how great a proportion of the whole popu- lation occupies the classes between infancy and manhood. These are the wide fields, and here is tiie deep and quick soil, for the seeds of knowledge and virtue, and this is the favored season, — the very springtime for sewing them. Let them be disseminated without stint ; let them be scattered with a bountifid hand broadcast. Whatever the government can fairly do toward these objects, in my opinion, ought to be done." [From an Address at the Anniversary of the Hampton In- stitute, Virginia, May 20, 1880.] The President said that he should be glad if he could speak to all who are entitled to the credit of establishinoj and sustainin2: the Institute — the feel- ing of all who have listened to the exercises of the day ; but the stream of congratulation and encour- agement for the Institute flows so deep and strong that it is hardly necessary to add anything to it. He desired only to thank the principal, Gen. Armstrong, who has done so much, the trustees, the teachers, the 384 CIIIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. pupils, and these who were now to go out, and to express to them all the gratitude and the satisfac- tion which he felt in what had been done. The question you are dealing with is the oldest and one of the most difficult, and indeed one of the most vital — how to deal with the seemingly i-epugnant elements which mako up our population. When I remember the diversity of climate and soil and natural resources Avhich characterize our country, it seems to me that these conditions required, if they did not create, the diverse elements of the population. The great task is, how to fuse a peo- ple differing so widely in race and nationality into one harmonious whole ? — and this is the problem which Hampton Institute is solving. It is teaching us to deal with all these diverse races and classes as children of the same great Father. It is helping to wipe out sectionalism and race prejudice — and these are the only two enemies America has ever had to fear. We do not wish to repeal or change the laws of nature ; Avhat God has made separate and distinct, we do not mean to interfere with. We do not wish to abolish the distinctions lietween the races. We arc willing that they should remain distinct and separate as the lingers of the hand ; but wc want them, for eifectiveness in every good work, and for the national defence, to be united, to become one as the hand. This is the problem, so hard and difficult, which has caused so much RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 385 anxiety, and so much suffering and affliction, which Hampton is solving. The question is settled, and there is no need of making a speech about it. [From an Address to the Citizens of Detroit, Michigan, September 18, 1880.] The practice of creating public debts, as it pre- vails in this country, especially in municipal gov- ernments, has long attracted very serious attention. It is a great and growing evil. States, whose good name and credit have been hitherto untarnished, are threatened with repudiation. Many towns and cities have reached a point where they must soon face the same peril. I do not now wish to discuss the mischiefs of repudiation. My purpose is mere- ly to make a few suggestions as to the best way to avoid repudiation. But, in passing, let me ob- serve : Experience in this country has shown that no State or community can, finder any circumstances, gain by repudiation. The repudiators themselves cannot afford it. The conmiunity that deliberately refuses to provide for its honest debts, loses its good name and shuts the door to all hope of fu- ture prosperity. It demoralizes and degrades all classes of its citizens. Capital and labor and good people will not go to such comnmnities, but will surely leave them. If I thought my words could influence any of my countr^Tiien who are so unfor- 26 386 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. tunate as to be compelled to consider this question, I would say, let no good citizen be induced, by any prospect of advantage to himself or to his party, to take a single step toward repudiation. Let him set his face like flint against the first dawning of an attempt to enter upon that down- ward pathway. It has been well said that the most expensive way for a community to get rid of its honest debts is repudiation. [From a Message to Congress, February, 1881.] The Indians should be prepared for citizenship by giving to their young of both sexes that indus- trial and general education which is requisite to enable them to be self-supporting and capable of self-protection in civilized communities. Lands should be allotted to the Indians in sever- alty, inalienable for a certain period. The Indians should have a fair compensation for their lands not required for individual allotments, the amount to be invested, with suitable safeguards, for their benefit. With these prerequisites secured, the Indians should be made citizens, and invested with the rights and charged with the responsibilities of citi- zenship. Nothinir should be left undone to show to the Indians that the government of the United States RUTHERPORD B. HAYES. 387 regards their rights as equally sacred with those of its citizens. [With reference to the Poncas, and theu*alleged -wrongs, he added] : Whether the Executive, or Congress, or the pub- lic is chiefly in fault is not now a question of prac- tical importance. As the chief Executive at the time when the wrong was consummated, I am deeply sensible that enough of the responsibility for that wrong justly attaches to me to make it my personal duty and earnest desire to do all I can to give these Indian people that measure of redress wliich is required alike by justice and by hu- manity. 388 CHIPS YROM THE WHITE HOUSE. JAMES A. GARFIELD. BOKN, 1831. — GRADUATED AT WILLIAjMS COLLEGE, INLVSS, 1856. — PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT LANGUAGES IN HIRAM INSTI- TUTE, OHIO, 1856. — PRESIDENT OF HIRAM COLLEGE, 1857. — ELECTED TO THE STATE SENATE. OHIO, 1853.— ADiHTTED TO THE BAR, 1860. — COLONEL OF AN OHIO REGIMENT, 1861. —BRIGADIER-GENERAL, 1862. — MEMBER OF THE FITZ-JOHN PORTER COURT-]NL\RTIAL, 1862. — CHIEF OF STAFF LENDER GENERAL ROSECRANS, 18C3. — ELECTED TO CONGRESS, 18G3. — MEMBER OF THE IMILITAEY COJOIITTEE. — RE-ELECTED TO CONGRESS, 1SG5.— MEMBER OF COMJiIITTEE OF WAYS AND MExVNS. — VISITED EUROPE, 18C7. —CHAIRMAN OF THE COINIMITTEE ON THE TARIFF, 1870. — ON APPROPRLITIONS, 1871-1875. — RE-ELECTED TO CONGRESS, 1878.- MEMBER OF THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION, 1S76. — ELECTED TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FROM OHIO, 1880. - PRESI- DENT, 1881. [Speech on the CiuTency. — d6th Congress.] No man can doubt that within recent years, and notably within recent months, the leading thinkers of the civilized world have become alarmed at the attitude of the two precious metals ui relation to each other ; and many leading tliinkers are becom- ing clearly of the opinion that, by some wise, judi- cious arrangement, both the precious metals must be kept in service for the currency of the world. And this opinion has been very rapidl}^ gaining JAMES A. GARFIELD. o8P ground within the past six months to such an ex- tent, that Enoland, which for more than half a cen- tury has stoutly adhered to the single gold stand- ard, is now seriously meditating how she may harness both these metals to the monetary car of the world. And yet outside of this capital, I do not this day know of a single great and recog- nized advocate of bi-metallic money who regards it prudent or safe for any nation largely to increase the coinage standard of silver at the present time beyond the limits fixed by existing laws. . . . Yet w^e, who during the past tw^o years have coined far more silver dollars than we ever before coined since the foundation of the Government ; ten times as many as we coined during half a century of our national life ; are to-day ignoring and defying the enlightened universal opinion of bi-metallism, and saying that the United States, single-handed and alone, can enter the field and settle the mighty issue. We are justifying the old proverb that "fools rush in where ano-els fear to tread." It o is sheer madness, Mr. Speaker. I once saw a dog on a great stack of hay that had been floated out into the wild overflowed stream of a river, with its stack-pen and foundation still holding to- gether, but ready to be wrecked. For a little while the animal appeared to be perfectly happy. Ilis hay-stack was there, and the pen around it, and he seemed to think the world briijiit and hi.s 390 CHIPS FROM THE AVHITE HOUSE. happiness secure, while the sunshine fell softly on his head and hay. But by and by he began \o discover that the house and the barn, and their surroundings were not all there, as they were when he went to sleep the night before ; and he began to see that he could not command all the prospect, and peacefully dominate the scene as he had done before. So with this House. We assume to manaije this mighty question which has been launched on the wild current that sweeps over the whole world, and we bark from our legislative hay-stacks as though we commanded the whole world. In the name of common sense and sanity, let us take some account of the Hood ; let us understand that a deluge means something, and try if we can to get our bearings before we undertake to settle the affairs of all mankind by a vote of this Plouse. To-day we are coining one-third of all the silver that is being coined in the round world. China is coining another third ; and all other nations are using the remaining one-third for subsidiary coin. And if we want to take rank Avith Cliina, and part company with all of the civilized nations of the Western world, let us pass this l:)ill, and then "bay the moon " as we float down the whirling channel to take our place among the silver mono-mctalhsts of Asia. JAMES A. GAllFIELD. 391 [Letter to B. A. Kimball.] Columbus, Ohio, February 16, 1861. Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. The rush of people to see him at every point on the route is astonishing. The reception here was plain and republican, but very impressive. He has been raising a respectable pair of dark-brown whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no ap- pendage can ever render him remarkable for beauty. On the whole, I am greatly pleased with him. He clearly shows his want of culture, and the marks of western life ; but there is no touch of affectation in him, and he has a peculiar power of imi^ressing you that he is frank, direct, and thoroughly honest. His remarkable good sense, simple and condensed style of expression, and evident marks of indomitable will, o-ive me sfreat hopes for the country. And, after the long, dreary period of Buchanan's weakness and cowardly im- becility, the people will hail a strong and vigorous leader. [To the Same.] A monarchy is more easily overthrown than a rcbublic, because its sovereignty is concentrated, and a single blow, if it be powerful enough, will crush it. 392 CHIPS Fnmr ttit: wrriTE ugu^k. As an abstract theory, the doctrine of Free Trade seems to be universally true, but as a ques- tion of practicability, under a government like ours, the protective system seems to be indis- pensable. [Spoecli on a Draft Bill, June 21, 1864.] It has never been my policy to conceal a truth merely because it is unpleasant. It may be well to smile in the face of danger, but it is neither well nor Avise to let danger approach unchallenged and unannounced. A brave nation, like a brave man, desires to sec and measure the perils which threaten it. It is the right of the American people to know the necessities of the Republic when they are called upon to make sacrilices for it. It is this lack of contidence in ourselves and the people, this timifl Availing for events to control us when they should obey us, that makes men oscillate between hope and fear ; noAv in the sunshine of the hill-tops, and noAv in the gloom and shadoAvs of the A^alley. To such men the bulletin Avhich heralds success in the army gives exultation and high hope ; the cA^ening dispatch, amiouncing some slight disaster to our advancing columns, brings gloom and de})ression. Ho])e rises and falls by the accidents of Avar, as the mercury of the ther- mometer changes by the accidents of heat and cold. Let us rather take for our symbol the JAMES A. GARFIELD. 393 sailor's Tjaronieter, which faithfully forewarns hira of the tempest, and gives him unerring promise of serene skies and peaceful seas. [Sijeech in New York City, 1865, on the Assassination of President Lincoln.] By this last act of madness it seems as though the Rebellion had determined that the President of the soldiers should go with the soldiers who have laid down their lives on the battle-field. They slew the noblest and gentlest heart that ever put down a rebellion upon this earth. In taking that life they have left " the iron " hand of the people to fall upon them. Love is on the front of the throne of God, but justice and judgment, with inexorable dread, follow behind ; and where law is slighted and mercy despised, when they have rejected those who would l)e their liest friends, then comes justice with her hoodwinked eye, and with the sword and scales. From every gaping wound of your dead chief, let the voice go up for the people to see to it that our house is swept and garnished. I hasten to say one thing more. For mere vengeance I would do nothing. This nation is too great to look for mere revenge. But for security of the future I would do everything. 394 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. [Speech in Cons^-ess on the Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery, January 13, 1865.] On the 21st day of June, 1788, our national sovereignty was lodged, by the people, in the Constitution of the United States, where it still resides, and for its preservation our armies are to-day in the tield. In all these stages of devel- opment, from colonial dependence to full-orbed nationality, the people, not the States, have been omnipotent. They have abolished, established, altered, and amended, as suited their sovereign pleasure. They made the Constitution. That great charter tells its own story best : "We, the people of the United States, in order to foi'm a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tran- quillity, provide for the common defence, promote the gen- eral welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." That Constitution, with its amendments, is the latest and the greatest utterance of American sovereignty. The hour is now at hand when that majestic sovereign, for the benignant purpose of securing still farther the 'blessings of liberty,' is about to put forth another oracle ; is about to de- clare that universal freedom shall be the supreme law of the land. Show me the power that is JAMES A. CAr.rii:LD. 395 authorized to forl)icl it. . . . They made the Con- stitution what it is. They could have made it otherwise then ; they can make it otherwise now. In the very crisis of our fate, God lirought us face to ftice with the alarming truth, that we must lose our own freedom, or grant it to the slave. In the extremity of our distress, we called upon the black man to help us save the Republic, and amidst the very thunder of battle we made a cov- enant with him, sealed both with his blood and ours, and witnessed by Jehovah, that when the nation was redeemed, he should be free, and share with us the glories and blessings of freedom. In the solemn words of the great proclamation of emancipation, we not only declared the slaves for- ever free, but we pledged the faith of the nation *'to maintain their freedom" — mark the words, ^' to maintain their freedom." The Omniscient witness will appear in judgment against us if we do not fulfil that covenant. Have we done it? Have we given freedom to the black man? What is freedom? Is it a mere negation? the bare privi- lege of not being chained, bought, and sold, branded, and scourged? If this be all, then free- dom is a bitter mockery, a cruel delusion, and it may well be questioned whether slavery were not better. But liberty is no negation. It is a substantive. 396 cmrs fkom the wiiitk house. tangible reality. It is the realization of those im- perishable truths of the Declaration, "that all men are created equal," that the sanction of all just government is " the consent of the governed." Can these truths be realized until each man has a right to be heard on all matters relating to himself? Mr. Speaker, we did more than merely to break olF the chains of the slaves. The abolition of slavery added four million citizens to the Re- public. By the decision of the Supreme Court, by the decision of the attorney-general, hy the decision of all the departments of our govern- ment, those men made free are, by the act of free- dom, made citizens. If they are to be disfranchised, if they are to have no voice in determining the conditions under which they are to live and labor, what hope have they for the future ? It will rest with their late masters, whose treason they aided to thwart, to determine whether negroes shall be permitted to hold property, to enjoy the ])cnefits of education, to enforce contracts, to have access to the courts of justice — in short, to enjoy any of those rights which give vitality and value to freedom. Who can fail to foresee the ruin and misery that await this race to whom the vision of freedom has been pre- sented only to be withdrawn, leaving them with- JA3IES A. GARFIELD. 397 out even the aid which the muster's selfish, com- mercial interest in their life and service formerly afforded them? Will these neo-roes, rememlierinc* the battle-fields on which nearly two hundred thousand of their number have so bravely fought, and many thousands have heroically died, submit to oppression as tamely and peaceably as in the days of slavery ? Under such conditions there could be no peace, no security, no prosperity. The spirit of slavery is still among us ; it must be utterly destroyed before we shall be safe. Mr. Speaker, I know of nothing more dan- gerous to a Republic than to put into its very midst four million people, stripped of every attri- bute of citizenship, robbed of the right of repre- sentation, but bound to pay taxes to the govern- ment. If they can endure it, we can not. The murderer is to be pitied more than the murdered man ; the robber more than the robbed. And we who defraud four million citizens of their rights are injuring ourselves vastly more than we are injuring the black man whom we rob. Throughout the whole web of national existence we trace the golden thread of human progress to • ward a higher and better estate. The life and light of a nation are inseparable. 398 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. We confront the dangers of suffrage by the blessings of universal education. We should do nothing inconsistent with the spirit and genius of our institutions. We should do nothing for revenge, but everything for secu- rity : nothing for the past ; everything for the present and future. There are two classes offerees whose action and reaction determine the condition of a nation — the forces of Repression and Expression. The one acts from without; limits, curbs, restrains. The other acts from within ; expands, enlarges, propels. Constitutional forms, statutory limitations, con- servative customs, belong to the first. The free play of individual life, opinion, and action, belong to the second. If these forces be happily balanced, if there be a wise conservation and correlation of both, a nation may enjoy the double blessing of progress and permanence. It matters little what may be the forms of Na- tional institutions, if the life, freedom, and growth of society are secured. There is no horizontal stratification of society in this country like the rocks in the earth, that hold one class down below forevermore, and let another come to the surface to stay there forever. Our stratification is like the ocean, where every indi- JAMES A. GAKFIELD. S99 vidual drop is free to move, and where from the sternest depths of the mighty deep any drop may come up to glitter on the highest wave that rolls. The Union and the Congi-ess must share the same fate. They must rise or fall together. Real political issues cannot be manufactured by the leaders of political parties, and real ones can- not be evaded by political parties. The real polit- ical issues of the day declare themselves and come out of the depth of that deep which we call public opinion. The nation has a life of its own as dis- tmctly defined as the life of an individual. The signs of its growth and the periods of its develop- ment make issues declare themselves ; and the man or the political party that does not discover this, has not learned the character of the nation's Hfe. [Reply to Mr. Lamar, in a Committee of the Whole.] Mr. Chairman, gi-eat ideas travel slowly, and for a time noiselessly, as the gods, whose feet were shod with wool. Our war of independence was a war of ideas, of ideas evolved out of two hundred years of slow and silent growth. When, one hundred years ago, our fathers announced as self-evident truths the declaration that all men are created equal, and the only just power of govern- ments is derived from the consent of the governed, 400 CHIPS FlIOM THE WHITE HOUSE. they uttered a doctrine that no nation hud ever adopted, that not one kingdom on the earth tlien believed. Yet to our fathers it was so plain that they would not dcl^ate it. The}^ announced it as a truth ''self-evident." Whence came the immortal truths of the Dec- laration ? To me this was for years the riddle of our history. I have searched long and patiently through the books of the doctrinaires to find the germs from wdiich the Declaration of Independence sprang. I find hints in Locke, in Ilobbes, in lious- seau, and Fenelon ; but they were only the hintii of dreamers and philosophers. The great doc- trines of the Declaration germinated in the hearts of our fathers, and were developed under the new influences of this wilderness world, by the same sul)tile mystery which brings forth the rose from the germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciously to them- selves, the great truths were growing under the new^ conditions, until, like the century-plant, they blossomed into the matchless beauty of the Decla- ration of Independence, whose fruitage, increased and increasing, we enjoy to-day. It will not do, Mr. Chakman, to speak of the gigantic revolution through which we have lately passed as a thing to be adjusted and settled by a change of administration. It Avas cyclical, epochal, century-wide, and to he studied in its l>road imd JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 401 grand perispective — a revolution of even wider scope, so far as time is concerned, than the Revo- lution of 1776. We have been dealing with ele- ments and forces which have been at Avork on this continent more than two hundred and fifty years. I trust 1 shall be excused if I take a few moments to trace some of the leading })hases of the great strusfijle. And in doing so, I bes; o-entlemen to see that the subject itself lifts us into a region where the individual sinks out of sight and is ab- sorbed m the mighty current of great events. It is not the occasion to award praise or jironounce condemnation. In such a revolution men are like insects that fret and toss in the storm, but are swept onward by the resistless movements of ele- ments beyond their control. I speak of this revo- lution not to praise the men who aided it, or to censure the men who resisted it, but as a force to be studied, as a mandate to be ol^eyed. In the year 1620 there were planted upon this continent two ideas irreconcilably hostile to each other. Ideas arc the great warriors of the world ; and a war that has no ideas behind it is simply brutality. The two ideas were landed, one at Plymouth Rock, from the Maijjlou'er, and the other from a Dutch brig at Jamestown , Virginia. One was the old doctrine of Luther, that private judgment, in politics as well as religion, is the right and duty of every man ; and the other, that capital should 26 402 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. own labor, that the negi'o had no rights of man- hood, and the white man might justly buy, own, and sell him and his offspring forever. Thus free- dom and equality on the one hand, and on the other the slavery of one race and the domination of another, were the two germs planted on this con- tinent. In our vast expanse of wilderaess, for a long time, there was room for both ; and their advocates begTin the race across the continent, each developing the social and political institutions of their choice. Both had vast interests in com- mon ; and for a long time neither was conscious of the fatal antagonisms that were developing. For nearly two centuries there was no serious collision ; but when the continent began to fill up, and the people began to jostle against each other ; when the Roundhead and the Cavalier came near enough to measure opinions, the irreconcilable character of the two doctrines began to appear. INIany conscientious men studied the subject, and came to the belief that slavery was a crime, a sin, or, as Wesley said, ' the sum of all villanies.' This belief dwelt in small minorities for a lona; time. It lived in the churches and vestries, but later found its Avay into the civil and political organizations of the countr}% and finally found its way into this chamber. A few brave, clear-sighted, far-seeing men announced it here, a little more than a generation ago. A predecessor of mine. JAMES A. GArFIELD. 403 Joshua R. Giddinsrs, followins; the lead of John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, ahnost alone held up the banner on this floor, and from year to year comrades came to his side. Through evil and through good report he pressed the question upon the conscience of the nation, and bravely stood in his place in this House, until his white locks, like the plume of Henry of Navarre, showed where the battle of freedom raged most fiercely. And so the contest continued ; the supporters of slavery believing honestly and sincerely that slavery was a divine institution ; that it found its hi2:h sanctions in the livinelievino: and holding that wc were a nation, the South insisting that we were only a confedera- tion of sovereign States, and insisting that each State had the riglit, at its own discretion, to break the Union, and constantly threatening secession where the full rights of slavery were not acknowl- edged. Thus the defence and aggrandizement of slavery, and the hatred of abolitionism, became not only the central idea of the Democratic partj^ but its master passion, — a passion intensified and in- flamed by twenty-five years of fierce political con- test, which had not only driven from its ranks all those who preferred freedom to slavery, but had absorbed all the extreme pro-slavery elements of the fallen Whig party. Over against this was arrayed the Republican part}', asserting the broad doctrines of nationality and loyalty, insisting that no State had a riofht to secede, that secession was treason, and demanding that the institution of slavery should be restricted to the limits of the States where it already existed. But here and JAMES A. GARFIELD. 405 there many l^older and more radical thnikers de- clared, with Wendell Phillips, that there never could be miion and peace, freedom and prosperity, irtitil we were willino- to see John Hancock under a black skin. ]Mr. Chairman, ought the Republican party to surrender its truncheon of command to the Democ- racy? The gentleman from ]\Iississii)pi says, if this were England, the ministry would go out in twenty-four hours with such a state of things as we have here. All, yes ! that is an ordinary case of change of administration. But if this were Eng- land, what would she have done at the end of the war? England made one such mistake as the gentleman asks this country to make, Avhen she threw away the achievements of the grandest man that ever trod her highway of power. Oliver Cromwell had overturned the throne of despotic power, and had lifted his country to a place of masterful greatness among the nations of the earth ; and when, after his death, his great sceptre was transferred to a weak thou<2:h not unlineal hand, his countr}', in a moment of reactionary l)lindness, brought back the Stuarts. England did not re- cover from that folly until, in 1689, the Prince of Orange drove from her island the last of that weak and wicked line. Did she afterward repeat the blunder? 406 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. I am aware that there is a general disposition " to let by~gones be by-gones," and to judge of parties and of men, not by what they have been, but by what they are and what they propose. That view is partly just and partly. erroneous. It is just and wise to bury resentments and an- imosities. It is erroneous in this, that parties have an organic life and spirit of their own — an individ- uality and character which outlive the men who compose them ; and the spirit and traditions of a party should be considered in determining their fitness for managing the afiairs of a nation. I will close by calling your attention again to the great problem before us. Over this vast hori- zon of interests North and South, above all party prejudices and personal wrong-doing, aljove our battle hosts and our victorious cause, above all that we hoped for and Avon, or you hoped for and lost, is the grand, onward movement of the Re- public to perj)etuate its glory, to save liberty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice to all, to pro- tect and foster all these priceless principles, until they shall have crystalized into the form of endur- ing law, and become inwrought into the life and the habits of our people. xVnd, until these great results are accomplished, it is not safe to take one step backward. It is still more unsafe to trust interests of such measureless 1 JAMES A. OAr.FIELD. 407 value in the hands of an organization whose mem- bers have never comprehended their epoch, have never been in sympathy with its great movements, who have resisted every step of its pi'ogress, and whose principal function has been " ' To lie in cold obstruction ' across the pathway of the nation. " No, no, gentlemen, our enlightened and pa triotic people will not follow such leaders in the rearward march. Their myriad faces are turned the other way ; and along their serried lines still rings the cheering cry, ' Forward ! till our great work is fully and worthily accomplished.' " [From a Speech in Congress, 1866.] Duties should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with the foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the for- eign article, enjo}- a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price as they please. This is my doc- trine of protection. ... I am for a protection that leads to ultimate free trade. I am for that free trade which can only be achieved through a reason- able protection. [Letter to A. B. Hinsdale.] Washington, January 1, 1867. I am less satisfied with the present aspect of pub- lic aflairs than I have been for a lonar time. . . . 408 CHIPS Fr.o:\r ttie ^^^IITE norsE. Reully there seems to be a fear on the part of many of our friends that they may do some absurdly extravagant thing to prove their radicalism. I am trying to do two things : dare to be a radical and not be a fool, which, if I may judge by the exhibi- tions around me, is a matter of no small difficulty. . . . My own course is chosen, and it is quite probable it will throw me out of public life. We provide for the common defence by a system which promotes the general welfare. [From an Address at Hiram College, June 14, 1867.] It is to me a perpetual wonder how an}' cliild's love of knowledo^e survives the outrao-es of the school-house. I, for one, declare that no child of mine shall ever be compelled to study one hour, or to learn even the English alphabet, before he has deposited under liis sldn at least seven years of muscle and bone. [From the Same.] I The student should study himself, liis relations I to society, to nature, and to art, and above all, in all, and thi'ough all these, he should study the rela- tions of himself, society, nature, and art, to God, the Author of them all. JAMES A. OATIFIELT). 40^ [From the Sume.] It is well to know the history of those mruynifi- cent nations whose origin is lost in fahle, and ^V'hose epitaphs were written a thousand years ago — but if we cannot know both, it is far better to study the history of our own nation, whose origin we can trace to the freest and noisiest aspirations of the human heart — a nation that was formed from the hardiest, purest, and most enduring ele- ments of European civilization — a nation that, l)y its faith and courage, has dared and accomplished more for the human race in a single century than Europe accomplished in the lirst thousand years of the Christian era. The New England township was the type afier which our Federal Government was modelled ; yet it would be rare to find a col- lege student who can make a comprehensi^'e and intelligible statement of the municipal organization of the township in which he was born, and tell you by what officers its legislative, judicial, and execu- tive functions were administered. One half of the lime which is now almost vrasted, in district schools, on Enghsh Grammar, attempted at too earl}'^ an age, would be sufficient to teach our chil- dren to love the I\epul)hc, and to become its loyal and life-long supi)0i-tcrs. After the Idoody l)ap- tism from which the nation has arisen to a higher and nol)ler life, if this shameful defet-t in our sys- 410 CHIPS FROM THE >VHITE HOUSE. tern of education be not speedily remedied, we shall deserve the infinite contempt of future gene- rations, I insist that it should be made an indis- pensable condition of graduation in every American college, that the student must understand the his- tory of this continent since its discovery by Euro- peans, the origin and history of the United States, its constitution of o|;overnment, the strusfijles throuo'h which it has passed, and the rights and duties of citizens who are to determine its destiny and share its^lory. Having thus rained the knowledo-e which is necessary to life, health, industry, and citizenship, the student is prepared to enter a wider and grand • er field of thought. If he desires that large and liberal culture, which will call into activity all his powers, and make the most of the material God has given him, he must study deeply and earnestly the intellectual, the moral, the religious, and the aesthetic nature of man ; his relations to nature, to civilization, past and present, and above all, his relations to God. These should occupy nearly, if not fully, half the time of his college course. In connection with the philosophy of the mind, he should study logic, the pure mathematics, and the general laws of thought. In connection with moral philosophy, he should study political and social ethics — a science so little known either in colleges or congresses. Prominent among all the rest JAMES A. GARFIELD. 411 should be bis study of tbe wonderful history of the human race, in its sIoav and toilsome march across tbe centuries — now buried in ignorance, supersti- tion and crime ; now rising to tbe sublimity of heroism and catching a glimpse of a better destiny ; now turning remorselessly away from, and leaving to perish, empires and civilizations in which it had hivested its faith, and courage, and boundless en- ergy for a thousand years, and plunging into the forests of Germany, Gaul, and Britain, to build for itself new empires, better fitted for its new aspira- tions ; and, at last, crossing three thousand miles of unknown sea, and building in the wilderness of a new hemisphere its latest and proudest monu- ments. [Speech in the House of Representatives, February 12, 1867.] I cannot forget that we have learned slowly. ... I cannot forj^et that less than five years ago I received an order from my superior oflicer com- manding me to search my camp for a fugitive slave, and if found, to deliver him up to a Ken- tucky captain who claimed him as his property ; and / had the honor to be perhaps the first officer ill the ariiif/ tcho peremptorily refused to obey such an order. We were then trying to save the Union without hurting slavery. ... It took us two years to reach a pomt where we were willing to do the 412 CHIPS FEOM THE WHITE HOUSE. most meagi'e justice to the lilack man, and to rec- ognize the truth that " A man's a man for a' that! " Sir, the hand of God has been visible in this work, leading us by degrees out of the blindness of our prejudices, to see that the fortunes of the Repul^lic and the safety of the party of liberty are inseparably bound up with the rights of the black man. At last our party must see that if it would preserve its political life, or maintain the safety of the Republic, we must do justice to the humblest man in the Nation, whether black or Avhite. I thank God that to-day we have struck the rock ; we have planted our feet upon solid earth. Streams of lio'ht will ijleam out from the luminous truth embodied in the legislation of this day. This is the ne pliia nltni of reconstruction, and I hope we shall have the courage to go before our people everywhere with "This or nothing" for our motto. Now, sir, as a temporary measure, I give my support to this military bill properly restricted. It is severe. It was written with a steel pen made out of a bayonet ; and bayonets have done us good service hitherto. All I ask is that Congress shall place civil governments before these people of the rebel States, and a cordon of bayonets behind them. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 413 Now, what does this bill propose? It lays the hands of the Nation upon the rebel State govern- ments, and takes the breath of life out of them. It puts the bayonet at the breast of every rel)el murderer in the South to bring him to justice. It commands the army to protect the life and prop- erty of citizens whether black or Avhite. It places in the hands of Congress absolutelj^ and irrevo- cably the whole work of reconstruction. With this thunderbolt in our hands shall w^e stao-crer like idiots under its weio;ht? Have we grasped a weapon which we have neither the courage nor the wusdom to wield ? WILLI A3I H. SEAVARD.* When in Europe in 1867, my attention w^as particularly drawn to the significant fact that the pictures of Lincoln and Seward were the only por- traits of American statesmen that w^ere nota])ly prominent, and that these were everywhere seen together. I asked a Frenchman of distinction w^hy * " Anothei- talk that I recall was at a social gathering. Tt was at a dinner-party, after the failure of Greeley's cam- paign. The host was, perhaps, the most original genius in "Washington. lie was an old companion of GreeU^y at Broftk Farm. lie was giving the dinner in payment of a bet lie had lost by reason of Greeley's defeat. The conver- sation embraced all the topics of the day, and, in the coui'se of it, turned to Seward. A member of the company thought that Seward had been dead years before he was put 414 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. Seward was held in such high estimation ; and his answer most seriously impressed me with the thought that perhaps, after all the slanders of his detractors, Mr. Seward had builded for the future more wisely than we knew. This gentleman said : " Mr. Seward is the American statesman who looms up the most prominently from over the water. His diplomacy in Mexico has placed the imprint of greatness upon his name. Halting for a moment in the midst of the turmoil of the civil Avar, with his pen he dismembered the coalition organized to place Maximilian upon the Mexican throne, and thus placed the first mine under the throne of the Third Bonaparte. He has undertaken what the combined powers of Europe have not ventured to essay — to break the sceptre of the Second Em- pire." The views entertained by this distinguished Frenchman seem also to have been held in Mexico, for upon the occasion of the death of Mr. Seward, the press of that country all made the most grate- ful mention of liis services in that regard. into the gi-ave. General Garfield thought differently, and delivered, on the spar of the moment, a remarkable eulogy on the dead statesman. Soon afterward, I reduced to notes the outlines of tliat eulogy, so far as my memoiy served me, and I reproduce it here. General Garfield possesses rare conversational powers, and uses, in social discourse, a diction not less eloquent and elegant than that to which he is accustomed in tlie forum." — Washington Correspondent of the Chicago Tribune. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 415 The enthusiasm of this Frenchman, continued General Gartiekl, had not perished from my memory later when public duties called me to the State Department. The Alaska treaty had just been siofned. I found the Sao-e of Auburn alone, in the thoughtful mood so common to him when meditating upon great subjects. Our conversation fell upon himself, and I found that he had been meditating upon his withdrawl from public life. He had been eight years in the second highest place in this Nation. He had almost had the Presidency within his grasp ; but the displeasure of his party had fallen upon him, and he was about to retire from the political arena. He told me that power was sweet to him ; that he clung even then fondly to its shadow ; and that he relinquished his Rceptre with regret. His exact language, in speak- ing of his past career was : '' It is unpleasant to yield up power." The conversation turned upon Alaska. The Secretary fell into the dream-like attitude that was never seen except by those who were familiar with him, and commenced to explain his theory of the Alaska purchase in forcible, pro- phetic, almost pathetic words which I never shall forget. I left the room then with grander ideas of the man than I had ever entertained before. His con\'ersation indicated that he had been following a particular course of study, for he remarked that, to his notion, the two greatest books of the century 41 G CHIPS FJtOM THE AVHITE H(3USE. "were ]\Iarsh's " Man in Nuluiv^,"' and the Duke of Argyll's " Eeign of Law." The application of Ar- gyll's theory of law as applied to political develop- ment, Mr. Seward had evidently studied with much care. He had been reasoning upon natural laws as they aifect a nation. He had been speculating upon the elementary forces of a nation's grandeur, and upon the contrivance in combining them to make them operate in a direction desired.- This theory was founded upon the possibility of tracing these forces in history, and of discovering the operation of these laws under conditions which had actually determined the course of mankind and nations in definite directions. The text of his theor}^ was the liistory of the world's seas. History had tauoht him that the grandest achievements of man had been associated with the shores of the world's seas. To go back no further than the be- ginning of the Christian era, the most sacred, solemn story of the hopes of man had been written m Avanderinos on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. With the progress of Christian ciAilization, thus sea-born, the advancing tide of human progress was staid by the banks of the ^Mediterranean. It was along the borders of this sea that the Byzantine Empire flourished and was destroyed ; that Rome attained her supremacy, and fell. AVith the pro- gress of time, and the advance of civilization west- ward, the Atlantic took the place of the Galilean JAMES A. GARFIELD. 417 Sea and of the Mediterranean. It is the sea of the present. But unless the laws of political geogra- phy are false, the contests of the future are to be around the shores of the " still sea," noAv our own Pacific. The nation of the future is the nation that holds the key of those waters. The purchase of Alaska has given our Republic a foothold on ])oth sides of that sea. It is a geographical impossiliil- ity that any other nation can occupy a position in its own territory upon l)oth sides of the Pacific. This is the theory of the purchase. It secures the control of the Pacific to the young Republic. It assures the future of the world's dominion to Yankee civilization. This was the theory. And liis outlook, said General Garfield, with en- thusiasm, was grand. In his political horoscope, he saw the Republic enjoying a prosperity of which the annals of human afl'airs had furnished no ex- ample ; he saw our country rising to the place of umpire among the world's powers ; he saw how, by wise statesmanship, our material prosperity and peaceful conquests grew together ; how our in- creasing commerce made us mistress of the seas ; how Western civilization and Oriental decrepitude were staid upon the borders of that Pacific sea, and compelled to render homage to Young America, who had become the keeper of the MorkVs keys. These were the grand thoughts of Mr. Seward as he Mas about to relinquish the mantle of his 27 418 CHIPS FROM THE AVHITE HOUSE. power, and, continued General Garfield, his views have left a lasting impression upon me. Mr. Seward could not have died more successfully than he did. He passed away in the lull between two elections, and received the merited eulogiums of both parties. He bore success followed by failure better than any American I know. He was for nearly a decade next to the source of power, and missed the place which was the goal of his later years, retiring from pubhc life suffering the dis- pleasure of his party. But he quietly retired to private life, and never lost his genial spirit or his noble ways. [This report of the conversation is indorsed by General Garfield as " in the main correct." J. C] [Speech on the Currency Question, 1868.] As a medium of exchange, money is to all busi- ness transactions what ships are to the transporta- tion of merchandise. If a hundred vessels, of a given tonnage, are just sufficient to carry all the commodities between two ports, any increase of the number of vessels will correspondingly decrease the value of each as an instrument of commerce ; any decrease below one hundred will correspond- ingly increase the value of each. If the number be doubled, each will carry but half its usual frciglit, will be worth but half its former value for that JAMES A. GARFIELD. 419 ti'ade. There is so much work to be done, and no more. A hunch-eJ vessels can do it all. A thou- sand can do no more than all. "When the money of the country is gold and sil- ver, it adapts itself to the fluctuations of business vrithout the aid of legislation. If at any time wo have more than is needed, the surplus flows ofl" to other countries throuo'h the channels of interna- tional commerce. If less, the deficiency is sup- plied through the same channels. Thus the mone- tary equilibrium is maintained. So immense is the trade of the world, that the golden streams pouring from California and Australia into the specie circulation are soon absorbed in the great mass, and equalized throughout the world, as the waters of all the rivers are spread upon the surface of all the seas. Not so, however, with an inconvertible paper currency. Excepting the specie used in payment of customs and the interest on our public debt, we are cut ofl* from the money currents of the w^orld. Our currency resembles rather the waters of an artificial lake, which lie in stagnation or rise to full banks at the caprice of the gate-keeper. [A Speech on Currency and the Banks, 1870.] The business of the country' is like the level of the ocean, from which all measurements are made 420 CHIPS FEOM THE WniTE HOUSE. of heights and depths. Thougli tides and cuvrents may for a time disturb, and temi)ests vex and toss its surface, still through calm and storm the grand level rules all its waves and lays its measuring- lines on every shore. So the business of the coun- try, which, in the aggregated demands of the peo- ple for the exchange of values, marks the ebb and flow, the rise and fall of the currents of trade, and forms the base-line from which to measure all our financial legislation, and is the only safe rule by which the volume of our currency can be deter- mined. The State bank system was a chaos of I'uin, in which the business of the country was again and again ingulfed. The people rejoice that it has been swept away, and they will not consent to its re-establishment. In its place we have the Na- tional-bank system, based on the bonds of the United States, and sharing the safety and credit of the government. Their notes are made secure, first, by a deposit of government bonds, Avorth at least ten per cent, more than the whole value of the notes ; second, by a paramount lien on all the assets of the banks ; third, the personal liability of all the shareholders to an amount equal to the Gtipital they hold ; and, fourth, the absolute guar- antee by the government to redeem them at the JAMES A. GARFIELD. 421 National Treasury if the banks fail to do so. In- stead of seven thousand difTerent varieties of notes, as in the State system, we have now but ten varie ties, each uniform in character and appearance. Like our flag, they bear the stamp of nationality, and are honored in every jjart of the Union. [From a Sj^eech in the House, April 1, 1870.] As an abstract theory of poHtical economy free- trade has many advocates, and much can be said in its favor ; nor will it l)e denied that the scholar- ship of modern times is largely on that side ; that a large majority of the great thinkers of the pres- ent day are leading in the direction of what is called free-trade. While this is true, it is equally undeniable that the principle of protection has always been recog- nized and adopted in some form or another by all nations, and is to-day, to a greater or less extent, the policy of every civilized government Protection, in its practical meaning, is that pro- vident care for the industry and development of our own country which ^vAW give our own peo})le an equal chance in the pursuit of wealth, and save us from the calamity of being dependent upon other nations with whom we may any day be at war. In so far as the doctrine of free-trade is a pro- 422 CHIPS FEOM THE WHITE HOUSE. test against the old system of oppression and pro- hibition, it is a healthy and worthy sentiment. But underlying all theories, there is a strong and deep conviction in the minds of a great majority of our people in favor of protecting American in- dustry [Speech on the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, April -1, 1871.] Nothing more aptly describes the char- acter of our Republic than the solar system, launched into space by the hand of the Creator, where the central sun is the great power around which revolve all the planets in their appointed orbits. But wliile the sun holds in the grasp of its attractive power the whole system, and imparts its light and heat to all, yet each individual planet is under the sway of laws peculiar to itself. Under the sway of terrestrial laws, winds blow, waters flow, and all the tenantries of the planet live and move. So, sir, the States move on in their orbits of duty and obedience, bound to the central government by this Constitution, which is their supreme law ; while each State is making laws and regulations of its own, developing its own energies, maintaining its own industries, managing its local affairs in its own way, subject only to the supreme but beneficent control of the JABIES A. GARFIELD. 423 Union. When State-rights ran mad, put on the form of secession, and attempted to drag the States out of the Union, we saw the'grand lesson, taught in all the l)attles of the late war, that a State could no more be hurled from the Union, without ruin to the nation, than could a planet be thrown from its orbit without dragging after it, to chaos and ruin, the whole solar universe. In 1865 we had a debt of two billions seven hundred and seventy-two millions of dollars upon our hands, the debt accumulated from the great results of the war ; we were compelled to pay from that debt one hundred and fifty-one millions of dollars in coin a year as interest, and that was a dreadful annual burden. In the year after the war ended, we paid five hundred and ninety mil- lions of dollars over our counter in settling the business of the war and maintaining the ordinary expenses of the government. These tremendous burdens it seemed for a time we could not carry, and there were wicked men, and despairing men, and men who said we ought not to try to carry the burdens ; but the brave nation said. This burden is the price of our country's life, all through it there is the price of blood and the price of liberty, and, therefore, we will bow our knees to the burden, we will carry it upon the stalwart shoulders of the nation. 424 CHIPS FEOM THE WHITE HOUSE. [Letter to Professor Demmon, December 16, 1871.] Since I entered public life, I have con- stantly aimed to find a little time to keep alive the spirit of my classical studies, and to resist that constant tendency, which all public men feel, to grow rusty in literary studies, and particularly in the classical studies. I have thought it better to select some one line of classical reading, and, if possible, do a little work on it each day. For this winter I am determined to review such parts of the Odes of Horace as I may be able to reach. And, as preliminary to that work, I have begun by reading up the bibliography of Horace. The Congressional Library is very rich in ma- terials for this stud}--, and I am amazed to find how deep and universal has been the impress left on the cultivated mind of the world by Horace's writings. The Student should study himself, his relation to Society, to Nature and to Art — and above all, in all, and through all these, he should study the relations of Himself, Society, Natm'e, and Art to God the Author of them all. Greek is perhaps the most perfect instrument of Thought ever invented by Man, and its Litera- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 425 ture has never been equalled in purity of style and boldness of expression. History is but tlie unrolled scroll of Prophecy. The world's history is a divine Poem, of which the history of e^ery nation is a canto, and every man a w^ord. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and though there have l^een mingled the discords of warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian, Philosopher, and Historian — the hum1)le listener — there has been a divine melody running through the song which speaks of hope and halcyon days to come. The lesson of History is rarely learned by the actors themselves. Theoloa'ians in all ages have looked out admir- ingly upon the material universe, and from its inanimate existences demonstrated the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God ; but Ave know of no one who has demonstrated the same attributes from the History of the human race. Mankind have been slow to belieAC that order reigns in the universe, that the world is a Cosmos, not a chaos. 42 G CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. The assertion of the reign of Law has been stubbornly resisted at every step. The divinities of Heathen superstition still linger in one form or another in the faith of the ignorant, and even many intelligent men shrink from the contem- plation of one Supreme Will acting regularly, not fatuitousl}^, through laws beautiful and simple, rather than through a fitful and capricious Provi- dence. English liberty to-day rests not so much on the government as on those rights which the people have wrested from the government. The rights of the Englishman outnumber the rights of the Eno;lishman's king. Poetry is the language of Freedom. Liberty can be safe only when Suffrage is illu- minated by education. [Speech on the last Census.] The developments of statistics are causing his- tory to be re-written. Till recently the historian studied nature in the aggi-egate, and gave us only the story of princes, dynasties, sieges, and battles. Of the people themselves — the great social body, with life, growth, forces, elements, etc. — he told us nothing. Now, statistical inquiry leads us into the hovels, houses, workshops, mines, fields, pris- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 427 ons, hospitals, and all places "where human nature displays its weakness and strength. In these explorations he discovers the seeds of national growth and decay, and thus becomes the prophet of his generation. Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In legislation, as in physical sci- ence, it is beo'innins: to be understood that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws. The legislator must formulate in his statis- tics not only the national will but also those great laws of social Ufe revealed by statistics. He must study society rather than black-letter learning. He must learn the truth that " society usually pre- pares the crime, and the criminal is only the in- strument that completes it," that statesmanship consists rather in removing causes than in pun- ishing, or evading results. [Speech on National Aid to Education, February 6, 1872.] We look sometimes with great admiration at a government Hke Germany, that can command the hght of its education to shine everywhere, that can enforce its school laws everywhere throughout the Empire. Under our system we do not rejoice in that, but we rather rejoice that here two forces play with all their vast power upon our s}'stcm of education. The first is that of the local municipal power under our State .government. There is the 428 CHIPS FROM THE AVIIITE HOUSE. centre of responsibility. There is the chief edu- cational power But tliere is another force even s^reater than that of the State and the local governments. It is the force of private voluntary enterprise, that force M'hich has built up the multitude of private schools, academies, and colleges throughout the United States, not always wisely, but always with enthu- siasm and w^onderful energy. I am considering what is the best system of oro'anizing the educational work of a nation, not from the political stand-point alone, but from the stand-point of the school-house itself. This work of public education partakes in a peculiar way of the spirit of the human mind in its efforts for culture. The mind must be as free from extra- neous control as possible ; must work under the inspiration of its own desires for knowledge ; and while instructors and books are necessary helps, the fullest and highest success must spring from the power of self-help. So the best system of education is that which draws its chief support from the voluntary effort of the community, from the individual effort of citizens, and from those ])urdcns of taxation which they voluntarily impose upon themselves. . . . Government shall be only a help to them, rather than a commander, in the work of education. JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 429 I would rather be beaten in Ri2:ht than succeed in Wronsr. Present evils always seem greater than those that never come. Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify ; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can hap- pen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim for himself. In all my acc|uaiBtance I never knew a man to be drowned who was worth the saving. For the noblest man that lives there still re- mains a conflict. Ko man can make a speech alone. It is the great human power that strikes up from a thousand minds that acts upon him and makes the speech. After iLe battle of Arms comes the battle of History. There is f, fellowship among the Virtues by which one great, generous passion stimulates another. Growth is better than Permanence, and per- manent gro^vth is better than all. The principles of Ethics have not changed by the lapse of years. 430 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOU8E. The possession of great power no doubt carries with it a contempt for mere external show. [From a Speech on Repealing the Salary Clause, 1873.] One of the brightest and greatest of men I know in this nation [Louis Agassiz] , a man who, perhaps, has done as much for its intellectual life as any other, told me not many months ago that he had made it the rule of his life to abandon any intellectual pursuit the moment it became com- mercially valuable ; that others would utilize what he had discovered ; that his field of work was above the line of commercial values, and when he brought down the o-i'eat truths of science from the upper heights to the level of commercial values, a thousand hands would be ready to take them, and make them more valuable in the markets of the world. He entered upon his great career, not for the salary it gave him, for that was meagre compared with the pay of those in the lower walks of life ; but he followed the promptings of his great nature, and worked for the love of truth and the instruction of manldnd. [Letter to B. A. Hinsdale, 1874.] The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have been greatly alleviated by throwing mj'self with all my energy into some work relating to others. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 431 [Speech on the Currency and the Pubh'c Faith, April 8, 187i.] There never did exist on this earth a body of men wise enough to determine \)y any arbitrary rule how much currency is needed for the business of a great countr3^ The laws of trade, the laws of credit, the laws of God impressed upon the elements of tliis world, are superior to all legisla- tion ; and wc can cnjo}^ the benefits of these immu- table laws only l)y obeying them. It has been demonstrated again and again that upon the artisans, the farmers, the clay-laborers falls at last the dead weight of all the depreciation and loss that irredeemable paper-money carries in its train. Let this policy be carried out, and the day will surely and speedily come when the nation will clearly trace the cause of its disaster to those who deluded themselves and the people with what Jefierson fitly called ' ' legerdemain tricks of paper- money." [Speech on the Railway Problem, June 22, 1874.] We are so involved in the events and moAements of society that we do not stop to reahze — what is undeniably true — that during the last forty years all modern societies have entered upon a period of change more marked, more pervading, more 432 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. radical than any that has occurred during the last three hundred years. In saying this, I do not for- get our own political and militar}' history, nor the French Kevolution of 17U3. The changes now taking place have been wrought, and are being wrought, mainly, almost wholly, by a single me- chanical contrivance, the steam locomotive. Im- agine, if you can, what would happen if to-morrow morning the railway locomotive, and its corollary, the telegraph, were blotted from the earth. At first thought, it would seem impossible to get on at all with the feeble sulxstitutes v>^e should be com- pelled to adopt in place of these great forces. To what humble proportions mankind would be com- pelled to scale down the great enterprises they are now pushing forward with such ease ! But were this calamity to happen, we should simply be placed where we were forty-three years ago. There are many persons now living who well remember the day when Andrew Jackson, after four weeks of toilsome travel from his home in Tennessee, reached Washington and took his first oath of office as President of the United States. On that day the railway locomotive did not exist. During that year Henrj^ Clay was struggling to make liis name immortal by linking it with the then vast project of building a national road — a turnpike — from the national capital to the banks of tlie Mississippi. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 433 In the autumn of that very year Geoige Ste- phenson ran liis iirst experimental locomotiA'e, the *' Kocket," from INIanchcster to Liverpool and back. The rumble of its wheels, redoubled a milUon times, is echoing to-da}' on every continent. The American people have done much for the locomotive, and it has done much for them. We have akeady seen that it has greatly reduced, if not wholly destroyed, the danger that the govern- ment will fall to pieces by its own weight. The railroad has not only brought our people and their industries together, l)ut it has carried civilization into the wilderness, has built up States and Terri- tories, wliich, but for its power, would have re- mained deserts for a century to come. "Abroad and at home," as Mr. Adams tersely declares, " it has equally nationalized people and cosmopolizcd nations." It has played a most important part in the recent movement for the uniiication and pres- ervation of nations. It enabled us to do what the old military science had pronounced impossible — to conquer a revolted population of eleven milhons, ocjcupying a territory one-fifth as large as the continent of Europe. In an able essay on the railway system, ]Mr. Charles F. Adams, Jr. has pointed out some of the remark- able achievements of the railroad in our recent history. For example, a single railroad track 28 434 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. enabled Sherman to maintain eighty thousand fight- ing men three hundred miles beyond his base of supplies. Another line, in a space of seven days, brought a re-enforcement of two ftilly equippeu army corps around a circuit of thirteen hundre(? miles, to strengthen an army at a threatened point. He calls attention to the still more striking fact that for ten years past, with fifteen hundred mil- lions of our indebtedness abroad, an enormous debt at home, unparalleled public expenditures, and a depreciated paper currency, in defiance of all past exi^crience, we have been steadily conquering our difficulties, have escaped the predicted collapse, and are promptly meeting our engagements ; be- cause, through energetic railroad development, tho country has been producing real wealth, as no country has produced it before. Finally, he sums up the case by declaring that the locomotive has *' dragged the country through its difiicultics in spite of itself." In the darkness and chaos of that period, the feudal system was the first important step toward the organization of modern nations. Powerful chiefs and barons intrenched themselves in castles, and, in return for submission and service, gave to their vassals rude protection and ruder laws. But as the feudal chiefs grew in power and wealth, iJiey became the oppressors of their people, taxed JAMES A. GARFIELD. 435 and robbed them at will, and finalh^ in theii arro- gance, defied the kings and emperoi's of the Medi- aeval States. From their castles, planted on the great thoroughfares, they practised the most capri- cious extortions on commerce and travel, and thus gave to modern language the phrase, "levy black- mail." The consolidation of our great industrial and commercial companies, the power they wield, and the relations they sustain to the State and to the industry of the people, do not full far short of Fourier's definition of commercial or industrial feudalism. The modern barons, more powerful than their military prototypes, own our greatest highways, and levy tribute at will upon all our vast industries. And, as the old feudalism was finally controlled and subordinated only by the combined efforts of the kings and the people of the free cities and towns, so our modern feudalism can be subordinated to the public good only by the great body of the people, acting through their governments by wise and just laws. I shall not now enter upon the discussion of methods by which this great work of adjustment may be accompli slied. But I refuse to believe that tlie genius and energy which have developed these new and tremendous forces, will fail to make them, not the masters, but the faithful ser- vants of society. It will be a disgrace to our age 436 CHIPS FROM THE ^^^^IT£ house. and to us, if wc do not discover some method by ■which the public functions of these organizations may be brought into full subordination to the public, and that, too, without violence, and with- out unjust interference with the rights of private individuals. It will be unworthy of our age, and of us, if we make the discussion of this subject a mere warfare against men. For in these great industrial enterprises have been, and still are en- gaged, some of the noblest and worthiest men of our tune. It is the s^'stcm — its tendencies and its dangers — which society itself has produced, that we are now to confront. And these indus- tries must not be cripi:)led, but promoted. The evils complained of are mainly of our own mak- ing. States and communities have willingly and thoughtlessly conferred these great powers upon railwa3's ; and they must seek to rectify their own errors without injury to the industries they have encouraged. It depends upon the wisdom, the culture, the self-control of our people and their representa- tives, to determine how wisely and how avcII this question shall be settled. But that it will be solved, and solved in the interest of liberty and justice, I do not doubt. And its solution will open the way to a solution of a whole chapter of similar questions that relate to the conflict between capital and labor. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 437 fFrom a Speech in the House of Representatives, June. 1874.] The division 1)etAveen church and state ouoht to be so absolute that no church property anywhere, in any State or in the nation, should be exempt fi'om taxation ; for, if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent 30U impose a church-tax upon the whole community. Occasion may be the l)ugle-call that summons an army to battle, but the blast of a bugle can never make soldiers or win victories. Things don't turn up in this world until some- body turns them up. We cannot study nature profoundly without bringing ourselves into communion with the spirit of art which pervades and fills the universe. If there be one thing upon this earth that man- kind love and admire better than another, it is a brave man ; it is a man who dares to look the devil in the face, and tell him he is a devil. It is one of the precious mysteries of sorrow, that it finds solace in unselfish thought. True art is but the anti-type of nature, the em- bodiment of discovered beaut}' in utility. 438 CHIPS FE03I THE ■^^^^TE house." In order to Lave any success in life, or any worthy success, you must resolve to carry into your work a fulness of knowledge ; not merely a sufficiency, but more than a sufficiency. Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. If you are not too large for the place, you are too small for it. What the arts are to the world of matter, lit- erature is to the world of mind. Many books we can read in a railroad car, and feel a harmony between the rushing of the train and the haste of the author ; but to enjoy stand- ard works, we need the quiet of a winter evening ; an easy-chair before a cheerful fire, and all the equanimity of spirits we can command. He who would understand the real spirit of ^iterature should not select authors of any one period alone, but rather go to the fountain-head, and trace the little rill as it courses along down the ages, broadening and deepening into the great ocean of thought Avhich the men of the present are exploring. The true literary man is no mere gleaner, fol- lowing in the rear and gathering up the fragments of the world's thought ; but he goes down deep JAIMES A. GARFIELD. 439 into the heart of humanity, watches its throbbings ; analyzes the forces at "s\rork there ; traces out, with j)rophetic foresight, their tendencies, and thus, standing out far beyond his age, holds up the pic- ture of what it is and is to be. [Letter to A. B. Hinsdale, 1876.] I have followed this rule [as a lawyer] : when- ever I have had a case, I have undertaken to work out thoroughly the principles involved in it ; not for the case alone, l)ut for the sake of comprehend- ing thoroughly that branch of the law. [From " Life and Character of Almoda A. Booth,'" June 22, 1876.] We can study no life intelligently except in its relation to causes and results. Character is the chief element ; for it is both a result and a cause — the result of all the elements and forces that combined to form it, and the chief cause of all that is accomplished by its possessor Every character is the joint product of nature and nurture. By the first, we mean those inborn qualities of body and mind inherited from parents, or rather from a Ions; line of ancestors. AVho shall estimate the effect of those latent forces, enfolded in the spirit of a new-born child, which may date back centuries, and find their origin in the unwrit- ten history of remote ancestors — forces, the germs 440 ciiirs n:o3i Tim aviiite house. of which, enveloped in the solemn mystery of life, have been transmitted silently, from generation to generation, and never perish? All-cherishing Na- ture, provident and iinforgetting, gathers up all these fragments th[:t nothing may be lost, but that all may reappear in new combinations. Each new life is thus the " heir of all the ages," the possessor of qualities Avhich ordy the events of life can un- fold. By the second element, nurture, culture, we designate all those influences wliich act upon this initial force of character, to retard or streui^thcn its development. There has been much discussion to determine "which of these elements plays the more important part in the formation of character. The truth doubtless is, that sometimes the one and sometimes the other is the greater force ; but so far as life and character are dependent upon volun- tary action, the second is no doubt the element of chief importance, [From the Same] Not enough attention has been paid to the marked difference between the situation and possibilities of a life developed here in the West, during the first half of the present centur}', and those of a life nurtured and cultivated in an old and settled community like that of New England. Consider, for example, the measureless diifer- JAMES A. GAllFIELD. 441 ence between the early surroundings of John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincohi. Both were possessed of great natural endowments Adams was blessed with parents whose native force of character, and vvhose vigorous and thor- ough culture h:ive never been surpassed by any married pair in America. Young Adams was thoroughly taught by his mother until he had com- pleted his tenth year ; and then, accompanying his father to France, he spent two years in a training- school at Paris and three years in the University at Leyden. After two years of diplomatic service, under the skilful guidance of his father's hand, he returned to America, and devoted three years to study at Harvard, where he was graduated at the age of twenty-one ; and, three years later, was graduated in the law, under the foremost jurist of his time. "With such parentage and such oppor- tunities, vrho can wonder that b}- the time he reached the meridian of his life, he was a man of immense erudition, and had honored every great office in the gift of his country ? How startling the contrast, in e^ery particular, between his carl}^ life and that of Abraham Lin- coln. . . . Born to an inheritance of the extrem- est poverty, wholly unaided by his parents, sur- rounded by the rude forces of the wilderness, only one year at any school, never for a day master of his own time until he reached his majority, forcing 442 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. his way to the profession of the law by the hard- est and roughest road, and beginning its practice at twenty-eight years of age, yet, by the force of unconquerable will and persistent hard work, he attained a foremost place in his professi.on. " And, moving np from high to higher, Became, on fortune's crowning slope, The pillar of a peojile's hope. The centre of a world's desire." [From the Same.] It is one of the precious mysteries of sorrow, that it finds solace in unselfish work. A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck. Let not poverty stand as an obstacle in your way. Here is the volume of our laws. INIore sacred than the twelve tallies of Rome, this rock of the law rises in monumental grandeur alike above the people and the President, above the courts, above Congress, commanding everywhere reverence and obedience to its supreme authority. That man makes a vital mistake who judges truth in relation to financial affairs from the chang- ing phases of public opinion. He might as well stand on (he shore of the Bay of Fundy, iiixd from the ebb twd flow of a single tide attempt to deter- mine the general level of the sea, as to stand upon this floor, and from the current of public opinion JAMES A. GARFIELD. 413 on any one debate, judge of the general level cf the public mind. It is only 'ivhen long spaces alon<2: the shore of the sea are taken into account that the grand level is found from ^vhicli the heights and depths are measured. And it is only when long spaces of time are considered, that we find at last that level of public opinion Avhich v.e call the general judgment of mankind. Bad faith on the part of an individual, a citv, or even a State, is a small evil in comparison vvith the calamities which follow bad faith on the piirt of a sovereimi government. In the complex and delicately adjusted relations of modern society, confidence in promises lawfully made is the life-blood of trade and commerce. It is the vital air Labor breathes. It is the light which shines on the pathway of prosperity. An act of bad faith on the part of a State or municipal corporation, like poison in the blood, will transmit its curse to succeeding generations. AVe are accustomed to hear it said that the great powers of government in this country are divided into two classes ; National powers and State powers. That is an incomplete classification. Our fathers carefully divided all governmental powers into three classes ; one they gave to the 444 CHIPS FROM THE ^^^IITE HOUSE. States, another to the Nation ; but the third groat class, eomprisino; the most precious of all powers, they refused to confer on the State or Nation, but reserved to themselves. This third class of powers has been almost uniformly overlooked bj' men who have written and discussed the American system. Congress must always be the exponent of the political character and culture of the people, and if the next centennial does not find us a great Na- tion with a great and worthy Congress, it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the Nation do not aid in controlling the political forces which are em- joloyed to select the men who shall occupy the great places of trust and power. There is scarcely a conceivable form of corrup- tion or public wrong that does not at last present itself at the cashier's desk and demand money. The Legislature therefore, that stands at the cash- ier's desk and watches Avith its Argus eyes the de- mands for payment over the counter is most cer- tain to see all the forms of public rascality. A steady and constant Revenue drawn from sources that represent the prosperity of the nation, — a Reveime that grows Avith the growth of na- tional wealth, and is so adjust-ed to the expendi- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 445 tures, that a constant and considerable surplus is annually left in the Treasury above all the neces- sary current demands, a surplus that keeps the Treasury strong, that holds it above the fear of sudden panic, that makes it impregnable against all private combinations, that makes it a terror to all stock-jol)bing and gold-gambling, — this is fi- nancial health. [From the "Atlantic Monthly," July, 1877. j The .most alarming feature of our situation is the fact, that so many citizens of high character and solid judgment pay but little attention to the sources of political power, to the selection of those ■who shall make their laws. . . . It is precisely this neglect of the first steps in our political pro- cesses that has made possible the worst evils of our system. Corrupt and mcompetent presidents, judges, and legislators can l)e removed, but when the fountains of political power are corrupted, when voters themselves become venal, and elections fraudulent, there is no remedy except by awaken- ing the public conscience, and bringing to bear upon the subject the power of pul)lic opinion and the penalties of the law. ... In a word, our national safetj' demands that the fountains of political power shall be made pure by intelligence, and kept pure by ^■igi lance ; that the best citizens shall take heed to the selection and election of the 446 CHirs FROM the -white house. worLliiest and most intelligent among them to hold seats in the national legislature ; and that when the choice has been made, the continuance of their representative shall depend upon his faithfulness, his abilit}^ and his willingness to work. [Speech on the presentation to Congi-ess of Carjienter's painting of President Lincoln and his Cabinet, at the time of his first reading of the Proclamation of Emanci- pation, January 16, 1878.] Let us pause to consider the actors in that scene. In force of character, in thoroughness and breadth of culture, in experience of public affairs, and in national reputation, the cabinet that sat around that council-board has had no superior, perhaps no equal in our history. Seward, the finished scholar, the consummate orator, the great leader of the senate, had come to crown 'his career with those achievements which placed him in the first rank of modern diplomatists. Chase, with a culture and a frame of massive grandeur, stood as the rock and pillar of the public credit, the noble embodi- ment of the public faith. Stanton was there, a very Titan of strength, the great organizer of vic- tory. Eminent lawyers, men of business, leaders of states, and leaders of men, completed the group. But the man who presided over that council, who inspired and guided its determinations, was JAMES A. GARFIELD. 447 a character so unique that he stood alone, without a model in history, or a parallel among men. Bom on this day, sixty-nine years ago, to an inheritance of extremest poverty, surrounded by the rude forces of the wilderness ; wholly unaided by par- ents ; only one year in any school ; never, for a day, master of his own time until he reached his majority ; making his way to the profession of the law hy the hardest and roughest road ; yet, by force of unconquerable will and persistent, pa- tient work, he attained a foremost place in his pro- fession, " And, moving' up from liigh to higher. Became, on fortime's crowning slope. The pillar of a people's hope, The centre of a -world's desire." At first it was the prevailing belief that he would be only the nominal head of his adminis- tration ; that its policy would be directed by the eminent statesmen he had called to his council. How erroneous this opinion was, may be seen from a single incident. Among the earliest, most difficult, and most delicate duties of his adminis- tration, was the adjustment of our relations with Great Britain. Serious complications, even hostil- ities, were apprehended. On the 21st day of May, 18G1, the Secretary of State presented to the President his drauglit of a letter of instruc- tions to ^Minister Adams, in which the position of 448 CHIPS FEo:.i the white house. the United States and the attitude of Great Britain were set forth with the clearness and force which long experience and great ability had placed at the command of the Secretary, Upon almost every page of that original draught are erasures, additions, and marginal notes in the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln, which exhibit a sagacity, a breadth of wisdom, and a comi)rehen- sion of the whole subject, impossible to be found except in a man of the very first order. And these modiiications of a great state-paper were made by a man who, but three months before, had entered, for the first time, the wide theatre of executive action. Gifted with an insight and a foresight which the ancients would have called divination, he saw, in the midst of darkness and obscurity, the logic of events, and forecast the result. From the first, in bis own quaint, original way, vvithout ostentation or offence to his associates, he was pilot and con]- mander of his administration. He was one of the few great rulers whose wisdom increased with liis power, and whose spirit grew gentler and tenderer as his triumphs were multiplied. [From the "Xorlh American Review," ]\I:n--,Tune, 1878.] The Secretary of War is a civil officer ; one of the constitutional advisers of the President — his JAMES A. GARFIELD. 449 civil executive to direct and control military affairs, and conduct army administration for tlie President. . . . This was clearly understood in our early bis- torts and it is worthy of note that om* most emi- nent Secretaries of War have been ciA'ibans, Avbo brought to the duties of the office great political and legal experience, and other high qualities of statesmanship. Perhaps it was wise in Wasliington to choose as the first Secretary of War, a distinguished soldier, for the purpose of creating and setting in order the military establishment ; but it may vrell be doubted if any subsequent appointment of a soldier to that position has l)ecn wise. In fact, most of the misadjustments between the Secretary of War and the army, so much complained of in recent 3'ears, originated with a Secretary of War who had been a soldier, and could hardly refrain from usurping the functions of command. . . . No very serious conflict of jurisdiction and command occurred until Jefterson Davis became Secretary of War. His early training as a soldier, his spirit of self-relianccv and habits of imperious command, soon brought him into collision with General Scott, and were the occasion of a corre- spondence, perhaps the most acrimonious CAei carried on by any prominent public man of our country. 29 450 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. [From a Speech at Faneuil IIa>l, Boston, September 11 1878.] The Republican party of this country has said, and it says to-day, that, forgetting all the animosi- ties of the war, forgetting all the fierceness and the passion of it, it reaches out both its hands to the gallant men who fought us, and offers all fel- lowship, all comradeship, all feelings of brother- hood, on this sole condition, and on that condition they will insist forever : That in the war for the Union we were right, forever right, and that in the war against the Union they were wrong, for- ever wrong. We never made terms, we never will make terms, with the man who denies the everlasting risrhtfulness of our cause. That would be treason to the dead and injustice to the living ; and on that basis alone our pacification is com- plete. We ask that it be realized, and we shall consider it fully realized when it is just as safe and just as honorable for a good citizen of South Carolina to be a Republican there as it is for a good citizen of ^Massachusetts to be a Democrat here. [ From an Address at Hiram College.] Our great dangers are not from without. We do not hve by the consent of any other nation. We must look witliin to find elements of danger. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 451 [From a Speech on the Ninth Census.] Statesmanship consists rather in removing causes than in punishing, or evading results. [From a Speech, December 10, 1878.] The man who wants to serve his country must put liimsclf in the line of its leading thought, and that is the restoration of business, trade, com- merce, industry, sound political economy, hard money, and the payment of all obhgations ; and the man who can add anything in the direction of accomplishing any of these purposes is a public benefactor. The scientific spirit has cast out the Demons and presented us with Nature, clothed in her right mind and livino- under the reim of law. It has oiven us for the sorceries of the alchemist, the beautiful laws of chemistry ; for the dreams of the astrol- oger, the sublime truths of astronomy ; for the wild visions of cosmogony, the monumental rec- ords of geology ; for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws of God. "\Ve no longer attribute the untimely death of infants to the sin of Adam, but to bad nursing and ignorance. Truth is so related and correlated that no depart- ment of her realm is wholly isolated. 452 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. Truth is the food of the human spirit, which could not gTow in its majestic proportions without clearer and more truthful vdews of God and his universe. Ideas are the great warriors of the world, and a war that has no ideas behind it is simply brutality. I love to ]3elieve that no heroic sacrifice is ever lost, that the characters of men are moulded and inspired 1)y what their fathers have done ; that, treasured up in American souls are all the uncon- scious influences of the great deeds of the Anglo- Saxon race, from Agincourt to Bunker Hill. Eternity alone will reveal to the human race its debt of gratitude to the peerless and immortal name of Washington. I douljt if any man equalled Samuel Adams in formulating and uttering the fierce, clear, and inex- orable logic of the Revolution. The last eight decades have witnessed an Empire spring up in the full panoply of lusty life, from a trackless wilderness. In their struggle with the forces of nature, the ability to labor was the richest patrimony of the colonist. The granite hills are not so changeless and abid- ing as the restless sea. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 453 To him a battle was neither an earthquake, nor a volcano, nor a chaos of brave men and frantic horses ii^^olved in vast explosions of gunpowder. It was rather a calm rational combination of force ao-ainst force. — Oration on Geo. II. Thomas. After the fire and lilood of the battle-fields have disappeared, nowhere does war show its destroy- ing power so certainly and so relentlessly as in the columns which represent the taxes and expendi- tures of the nation. [From a Sijeech, June 2, 1879.] The Eesumption of Specie Payments closes the most memorable epoch in our history since the birth of the Union. Eighteen hundred and sixty- one and eighteen hundred and seventy-nine are the opposite shores of that turbulent sea whose storms so seriously threatened with shipwreck the ];ros- perity, the honor, and the life of the nation. Ikit the horrors and dangers of the middle-passag'e have at last been mastered ; and out of the night and tempest the Repul)lic has landed on the shore of this new year, bringing with it union and lib- erty, honor and peace. Our country needs not only a national but un international currency. 454 CHIPS FROM THE %An[nTE HOUSE. Let us have equality of dollars before the law, so that the trinity of our political creed shall be — equal States, equal men, and equal dollars through- out the Union. [Address, at the Memorial Meeting, in the House of Repre- sentatives, January 16, 1879.] No page of human history is so instructive and significant as the record of those early influences which develop the character and chrect the lives of eminent men. To every man of great original power, there comes in early youth, a moment of sudden discovery — of self recognition — when his own nature is revealed to himself, when he catches, for the first time, a strain of that immortal song to which his own spirit answers, and which becomes thenceforth and forever the inspiration of his life — " Like noble music unto noble words." More than a hundred years ago, in Strasbourg, on the Ehine, in obedience to the commands of his father, a German lad was reluctantly studying the mysteries of the civil law, but feeding his spirit as best he could upon the formal and artificial poetry of his native land, when a page of "\rilliam Shakes- peare met his eye, and changed the whole current of his life. Abandoning the law, he created and crooned with an immortal name the grandest epoch of German literature. JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 455 Recording his own experience, lie says : At the first touch of Shakespeare's genius, I made the glad confession that something inspiring hovered above me. . . . The first page of his tliat I read made me his for life; and when I had finished a single play, I stood like one born blind, on whom a miraculous hand bestows sight in a mo- ment. I saw, I felt, in the most vivid manner that my ex- istence was infinitely expanded. This Old AVorld experience of Goethe's was strildngly reproduced, though under different con- ditions and with different results, in the early life of Joseph Henry. You have just heard the inci- dent worthily recounted ; but let us linger over it a moment. An orphan boy of sixteen, of tough Scotch fibre, laboring for his own support at the handicraft of the jeweler, unconscious of his great power, delighted with romance and the drama, dreaming of a possible career on the stage, his attention was suddenly arrested by a single page of an humble book of science which chanced to fall into his hands. It was not the flash of a poetic vision which aroused him. It was the voice of great Nature calling her child. With quick recog- nition and glad reverence his spirit responded; and from that moment to the end of his long and honored life, Joseph Henry was the devoted student of science, the faithful interpreter of nature. To those who knew his gentle spirit, it is i ot 456 CHIPS FHO.AI TIIE WHITE HOUSE". surprising that ever afterward he kept the little volume near him, and cherished it as the source of his fii'st inspiration. In the maturity of his fame he recorded on its fly-leaf his gratitude. Note his words : This book, under Providence, has exerted a remarkable influence on my life. ... It opened to me a new world of thought and enjoyment, invested things before almost unno- ticed with the highest interest, fixed my mind on the study of nature, and caused me to resolve, at the time of reading it, that I would devote my life to the acquisition of knowledge. We have heard from his venerable associates with what resolute perseverance he trained his mind and marshalled his powers for the higher realms of science. He was the first American after FrankUn who made a scries of successful original experiments in electricity and magnetism. He entered the mighty line of Volta, Galvani, Oersted, Davy, and Ampere, the great exploring philoso- phers of the world, and added to their work a final great discovery, which made the electro-magnetic telegraph possible. j It remained only for the inventor to construct! an instrument and an alphabet. Professor Henry refused to reap any pecuniary rewards from liis great discover}', but gave freely to manldnd what nature and science had given to him. The vener- able gentleman of almost eighty years, who has JA3IES A. GATJFIELD. 457 just addressed us so eloquently, has portrayed the difficulties which beset the government in its attempt to determine how it should wisely and worthil}^ execute the trust of Smilhson. It was a perilous moment for the credit of America when that bequest was made. In his large catholicity of mind, Smithson did not trammel the bequest with conditions. In nine Vv'ords he set forth its ol^jcct — "-for the increase and diffusion of knowledc»:e among men." He asked and believed that America would interpret his wish aright, and with the Min- eral wisdom of science For ten years Congress wrestled with those nine words of Smithson and could not liandle them. Some political philosophers of that period held that we had no constitutional authority to accept the gift at all [laughter] and proposed to send it back to England. Every conceivable proposition was made. The colleges clutched at it ; the libraries wanted it ; the publication societies de- sired to scatter it. The fortunate settlement of the question was this : that, after ten 3'ears of wran2:lin2:, Congress was wise enouiyh to acknowl- edge its own ignorance, and authorized a body of men to find some one who knew how to settle it. [Applause.] And these men were wise enough to choose your great comrade to midertako the task. Sacrificing his brilliant prospects as a dis- coverer, he undertook the difficult work. lie 458 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. drafted a paper, in which he offered an interpre- tation of the will of Smithson, mapped out a plan which would meet the demands of science, and submitted it to the suffrage of the repul)lic of scientific scholars. After due deliberation it re- ceived the almost unanimous approval of the scientific world. With faith and sturdy persever- ance, he adhered to the plan and steadily resisted all attempts to overthrow it. In the thirty-two years during which he admin- istered the great trust, he never sw^erved from his first purpose ; and he succeeded at last in realizing the ideas with which he started. The germ of our political institutions, the pri- mary cell from which they were evolved, was in the 'New England to^vn, and the vital force, the inform- ing soul of the town, was the Town INIeeting, Tvhich for all local concerns was king, lords, and commons in all. It is as much the duty of all good men to protect and defend the reputation of worthy publia servants as to detect public rascals. Political parties, like poets, are born, not made. No act of political mechanics, however wise, caa manufacture to order and make a platform, and put a party on it which will live and flourish. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 459 [On the Relation of the Government to Science, February 11, 1879.] What ought to be the relation of the National Government to science ? What, if anything, ought we to do in the Avay of promoting science? For example, if we have the j)ower, would it be wise for Congress to appropriate money out of the Treasury, to employ naturalists to find out all thai is to be known of our American birds? Orni- thology is a delightful and useful study ; but would it be wise for Congress to make an appropriation for the advancement of that science? In my judgment, manifestly not. We would thereby make one favored class of men the rivals of all the ornithologists who, in their private way, following the bent of their genius, may be working out the results of science in that field. I have no doul:)t that an appropriation out of our Treasury for that purpose would be a positive injury to the advance- ment of science, just as an appropriation to estab- lish a church would work injury to religion. Generally, the desire of our scientific men is to be let alone to work in free competition with all the scientific men of the world ; to develop their own results, and get the credit of them each for himself; not to have the Government enter the lists as the rival of private enterprise. As a general principal, therefore, the United 460 cmrs from the white house. States ought not to interfere in matters of science, but should leave its development to the free, vol- untary action of our great third estate, the people themselves. In this non-interference theory of the Go\ern- ment, I do not go to the extent of saying that we should do nothing for education — for primary education. That comes under another consider- ation — the necessity of the nation to protect itself, and the consideration that it is cheaper and wiser to give education than to build jails. But I am speaking now of the higher sciences. To the general principle I have stated, there are a few obvious exceptions which should be clearly understood when we legislate on the subject. In the first place, the Government should aid all sorts of scientific inquiry that are necessary to the in- telligent exercise of its own functions. For example, as we are authorized by the Con- stitution and compelled byaiecessity to build and maintain light-houses on our coast and establish fog-signals, Ave are bound to make all necessary scientific inquiries in reference to light and its laws, sound and its laws — to do whatever in the way of science is necessary to achieve the best results in lighting our coasts and warning our mariners of danger. So, Avhen we are building iron-clads for our navy or casting guns for our arm}', we ought to know all that is scientificallj JA3HES A. GARFIELD. 461 possible to be known about the strength of ma- terials and the laws of mechanics Avhich apply tc such structures. In short, wherever in exercising any of the necessary functions of the Government scientific incj[uiry is needed, let us make it, to the fullest extent, and at the public expense. There is another exception to the general rule of leaving science to the voluntary action of the people. Wherever any great popular interest, affecting whole classes, possibly all classes of the community, imperatively need scientific investiga- tion, and private enterprise cannot accomplish it, we may wisely intervene and help where the Con- stitution gives us authority. For example, in discovering the origin of yellow-fever and the methods of preventing its ravages, the nation should do, for the good of all, Avdiat neither the States nor individuals can accomplish. I might perhaps include in a third exception those inquiries which, in consequei^pe of their great magnitude and cost, cannot be successfully made by private individuals. Outside these three classes of in- quiries, the Government ought to keep its hands off, and leave scientific exiDeriment and in(]uiry to the free competition of those bright, intelligent men wh^se genius leads them into the fields of research. And I suspect, when we read the report of our commissioner to the late Paris Exposition, which 462 CHIPS FROM THE ■WHITE HOUSE. shows such astonishing results, so creditable to our country, so honorable to the genius of our people, it will be found, in any final analysis of causes, that the superiority of Americans in that great Ex- position resulted mainly from their superior free- dom, and the greater competition between mind and mind untrammelled by Government interfer- ence ; I believe it will be found wo are best serving the cause of religion and science, and all those great primary rights which wg did not dele- gate to the Congress or the States, but left the people free to enjoy and maintain them. [Speech on the National Election.] The irreat dano-er which threatens this countrv is, that our sovereign may be dethroned or destroyed by corruption. In any monarchy of the world, if the sovereign be slain or become lunatic, it is easy to put another in liis place, for the sovereign is a person. But our sovereign^ is the whole body of voters. If you kill, or corrupt, or render lunatic our sovereign, there is no successor, no regent to take his place. The source of our sovereign's supreme danger, the point Avhere his life is vul- nerable, is at the ballot-box, where his will is declared ; and if we cannot stand b}'^ that cradle of our sovereign's heir-apparent and protect it to the uttermost ao^ainst all assassins and assailants , we have no government and no safety for the future. JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 463 [Remarks, in the House of Representatives, February 11, 1879, on tile Life and Cliaracter of Gustavo Sclileiclier.] We are accustomed to say, and we have heard to-night, that he [Gustave Schleicher] was born CD foreign soil. In one sense that is true ; and yet in a very proper historic sense he was born in our fatherland. One of the ablest of recent historians begins his opening volume with the declaration that England is not the fatherland of the Engligh-speak- ing people, but the ancient home, the real father- land of our race, is the ancient forests of Germany. The same thought was suggested by Montesquieu long ago, when he declared in his Spirit of Laws that the British constitution came out of the w^oods of Germany. To this day the Teutonic races maintain the same noble traits that Tacitus describes in his ad- mirable history of the manners and character of the Germans. We may t|ierefore say that the friend whose memory we honor to-night is one of the elder brethren of our race. He came to America direct from our fatherland, and not, like our OAvn fathers, by the way of England. We who were born and have passed all our hves in thii wide New ^Vorld can hardly appreciate the influences that surrounded his early Ufe. Born on the borders of that great forest of Germany, the Odenwald, filled as it is with the memories and 4(^4 CllirS FKOM THE WHITE HOUSE. traditions of centuries, in which are mingled Scandinavian mytholog}', legends of the raiddle ages, romances of feudalism and chivahy , histories of barons and kings, and the struggles of a brave people for a better civihzation ; reared under the institutions of a strong, semi-despotic government ; devoting his early life to personal culture, enter- ing at an early age the University of Giessen, venerable with its two and a half centuries of ex- istence, vrith a library of four hundred thousand volumes at his hand, with a great museum of the curiosities and mysteries of nature to study, he fed his eager spirit upon the rich culture wliich that Old World could give him, and at twenty-four years of age, in company with a band of thirty- seven young students, like himself, cultivated, earnest, liberty-loving almost to the verge of com- munism — and who of us would not be communists in a despotism? — he came to this country, at- tracted by one of the most wild and romantic pictures of American history, the picture of Texas as it existed near forty years ago ; the country dis- covered hy La Salle at the end of his long and perilous voyage from Quebec to the northern lakes and from the lakes to the Gulf of ]Mexico ; the country possessed alternately by the Spanish, and the French and then by Mexico ; the country made memorable by such names as Blair, Houston, Albert Sidnej- Johnson, and Mirabeau Lamar, per- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 4G5 haps as adventurous and daring spirits as ever as- sembled on any spot of the earth ; a country that achieved its Treedom by heroism never surpassed, and which maintained its perilous independence for ten years in spite of border enemies and European mtrigues. It is said that a society was formed in Europe embracing in its membership men of high rank, even members of royal families, for the purpose of colonizing the new Eepublic of the Lone Star, and making it a dependency of Europe under their patronage ; but without sharing in their designs, some twenty thousand Germans found their way to the new Republic, and among these young Schleicher came. [From the " North American Review," March, 1879.] The ballot was given to the negro not so much to enable him to govern others as to prevent others from misofoverninEf him. Suifras^e is the sword and shield of our law, the best armament that liberty oilers to the citizen. [From the Same, June, 1879.] If our republic were blotted from the earth and fi'om the memory of mankind, and if no record of its history survived, except a copy of fiuv revenue, laws and our appropriation bills for a single year, the political philosopher would be able from these 466 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. materials alone to reconstruct a large pail; of out history, and sketch with considerable accuracy the character and spirit of our institutions. [Speech in Congress, on the first anniversary of Mr. Lin- coln's death.] There are times in the history of men and nations when they stand so near the veil that sep- arates mortals and immortq,ls, time from eternity, and men from their God, that they can almost hear the breathings, and feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Throuo-h such a time has this nation passed. When two hundred and fifty thousand brave spirits passed from the field of honor through that thin veil to the presence of God, and when at last its parting folds ad- mitted the martyred President to the company of the dead heroes of the republic, the nation stood so near the veil that the wdiispers of God were heard by the children of men. Awe-stricken by his voice, the American people knelt in tearful reverence, and made a solemn covenant with God and each other that this nation should be saAcd from its enemies ; that all its glories should be restored, and on the ruins of slavery and treason the temples of freedom and justice should be built, and stand forever. It remains for us, consecrated by that great event, and under that covenant with God, to keep the faith, to go foi-ward in the great JAIVIES A. GARFIELD. 4G7 Work until it shall be completed. Folloiving the lead of that great man, and obeying the high be- hests of God, let us remember "He has sounded forth his trumpet, that shall never call retreat ; He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment- seat; Be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant, my feetj For God is marching on." Every great political party that has done this country any good has given to it some immortal ideas that have outlived all the members of that party. [Speech at Cleveland, Ohio. October 11, 1879. — Resump- tion of Specie Payments.] Now, what has been the trouble with us? 18G0 was one shore of prosperity, and 1879 the other; and between these two high shores haa flowed the broad, deep, dark river of fire and blood and disaster throuo-h which this nation has been compelled to wade, and in whose depths it has been almost suffocated and drowned. In the darkness of that ten-ible passage we carried liberty m our arms ; we bore the Union on our shoulders ; and we bore in our hearts and on our arms what was even better than liberty and Union — we bore the faith, and honor, and public trust of this mighty Nation. And never, until we came up out ) 468 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. of the dark waters, out of the darkness of thd terrible current, and planted our feet upon tie solid shore of 1879 — never, I say, till then could this country look back to the other shore and f3el that its feet were on solid ground, and then look forward to the rising uplands of perpetual peace and prosperity that should know no diminution in the years to come. [Speech at Cleveland, October 11, 1879. — Aj^peal to Young JNIen.] Now, I tell you, young man, don't vote the liepublican ticket just because your father votes it. Don't vote the Democratic ticket, even if he does vote it. But let me give you this one word of advice, as you are about to pitch your tent in one of the great political camps. Your life is full and buoyant with hope now, and I beg }'ou, when you pitch your tent, pitch it among the living and not among the dead. If you are at all inclined to pitch it among the Democratic people and with that part}^, let me go with you for a moment while we survey the ground where I hope you will not shortly lie. It is a sad place, young man, for you to put your young life into. It is to me fa? more like a graveyard than like a camp for the living. Look at it ! It is billowed all over with the graven of dead issues, of buried opinions, of exploded theories, of disgraced doctrines. You cannot live I JA3IES A. GARFIELD. 409 in comfort in such a place. Why, look here ! Here is a little double mound. I look down on it and I read, " Sacred to the memory of Squatter Sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision." A million and a half of Democrats voted for that, but it has been dead fifteen 3'ears — died by the hand of Abraham Lincoln, and here it lies. Young man, that is not the place for you. But look a little farther. Here is another mon- ument — a black tomb — and beside it, as our distinguished friend said, there towers to the sky a monument of four million pairs of human fetters taken from the arms of slaves, and 1 read on its little headstone this ; " Sacred to the memory of human slavery." For forty years of its infamous life the Democratic party taught that it was di- vine — God's institution. They defended it, they stood around it, they followed it to its grave as a mourner. But here it lies, dead by the hand of Abraham Lincoln. Dead hy the power of the Eepublican party. Dead hy the justice of Al- mighty God. Don't camp there, young man. But here is another — a little brimstone tomb — and I read across its yellow face in lurid, bloody lines these words : '' Sacred to the memory of State Sovereignty and Secession." Twelve mil- lions of Democrats mustered around it in arms to keep it alive ; but here it lies, sliot to death by tho million guns of the Republic. Here it lies, its 470 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. shrine burnt to ashes under the blazing rafters of the burning Confederacy. It h dead ! I would not have you stay in there a minute, even in this balmy night air, to look at such a place. But just before I leave it I discover a new-made grave, a little mound — short. The grass has hardly sprouted over it, and all around it I see torn pieces of paper with the word "hat" on them, and I look down in curiosity, wondering what the little grave is, and I read on it : " Sacred to the memory of the Rag Baby nursed in the brain of all the fanaticism of the world, rocked by Thomas Ewing, George II. Pendleton, Samuel Cary^ and a few others throughout the land." But it died on the 1st of January, 1879, and the one hundred and forty millions of gold that God made, and not fiat power, lie upon its little carcass to keep it down forever. Oh, 3'oung- man, come out of that ! That is no place in which to put }'our 3'ouug life. Come out, and come over into this camp of libert}^ of order, of law, of justice, of freedom, of all that is glorious under these night stars. Is there any death here in our camp ? Yes ! yes ! Three hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, the noljlest band that ever trod the earth, chcd to make this camp a camp of glory and of Hberty forever. But there ai'e no dead issues here. There are JAMES A. GARFIELD. 471 no dead ideas here. Hang out our banner from under the blue sky this night until it shall sweep the green turf under your feet ! It hangs over our camp. Read away up under the stars the inscrip- tion we have written on it, lo ! these twenty-five years. Twenty-five years ago the Republican party was married to Liberty, and this is our silver wedding, fellow-citizens. A wortliily married pair love each other better on the day of their silver wedding than on the day of their first espousals ; and we are truer to Liberty to-day, and dearer to God than w^o w^ere when w^e spoke our first word of liberty. Read away up under the sky across our starry banner that first word we uttered tw^enty- five years ago ! What was it ? " Slavery shall never extend over another foot of the territories of the great West." Is that dead or alive? Alive, thank God, forevermore ! And truer to-night than it was the hour it was written ! Then, it was a hope, a promise, a purpose. To-night it is equal with the stars — immortal history and immortal truth. Come down the glorious steps of our banner. Every great record we have made we have vindi- cated w^ith our blood and with our truth. It sweeps the ground, and it touches the stars. Come there, young man, and put in your young life where all is living, and where nothing is dead but 472 CHIPS fro:m the white house. the heroes that defended it ! I think these }'oung men will do that. [From a S^xjech, January 1-1, 1880.] I sjiy, moreoA-er, that the flowers that bloom over the a-arden-wall of party politics are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom in the gai- dens of this world, and where we can fairly pluck them and enjoy their fragrance, it is manly and delig-htful to do so. [Letter of Acceijtance, Jul}' 10, 1880.] Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, ^^■ithout which neither justice nor freedom can be permanently maintained. Its interests are intrusted to the States, and to the voluntary action of the people. Whatever help the Xation can justly aftbrd should be generously given to aid the States in supporting common schools ; but it would l)e unjust to our people, and dangerous to our institutions, to apply any i)ortion of the revenues of the Xation or of the States to the support of sectarian schools. The separation of the Church and the State in everything relating to taxation should be al)solute. Our country cannot l)e independent unless its people, with theh* abundant natural resources, lX)ssess the requisite skill at any time to clothe, JA3IES A. GARFIELD. 473 arm, and equip themselves for vrar, and in time of peace to produce all the necessary implements of labor. It Avas the manifest intention of the found- ers of the Government to provide for the common defence, not by standing armies alone, but by rais- ing among the people a greater army of artisans, whose intelligence and skill should powerfully con- tribute to the safety and glory of the nation. Over this vast horizon of interests, North and South, above all party prejudices and personal wrong-doing, above our battle hosts and our vic- torious cause, above all that we hoped for and won, or you hoped for and lost, is the grand onward movement of the Republic to perpetuate its glory, to save Liberty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice to all, to protect and foster all these price- less principles until they shall have crystalhzed into the form of enduring law and become in- wrought into the life and habits of our People. I look forward with joy and hope to the day when our bravo people, one in heart, one in their aspirations for freedom and peace, shall see that the darkness through which we have travelled was but a part of that stern but beneticent disci- pline by which the great Disposer of events has been leadinof us on to a hic-hcr and nobler national life. The hope of our National perpetuity rests upon 474 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. that perfect individual Freedom which shall forever keep up the circuit of perpetual change. Whatever opinions we may now entertain of the Federalists as a part}', it is unquestionably true that we are indebted to them for the strong points of the Constitution and for the stable government they founded and strenothened clurins: the administra- tion of Washino-ton and Adams. While it is true that no party can stand upon its past record alone, yet it is also true that its past shows the spirit and character of the organization, and enables us to judge what it will probably do in the future. Parties have an organic life and spirit of their own — an individuality and character which out- live the men who compose them; and the spirit and traditions of a party should be considered in determininij their fitness for manao-ino- the affairs of the nation. It is a safe and wise rule to follow in all legisla- tion, that whatever the people can do without legis- lation will be better done than by the interventio i of the State and Nation. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 475 [From a Speech, at the unveiling of a Soldiers' Moniimentj Painesville, Ohio, July i, 1880.] I once entered a house in old Massachusetts, Avhere over its doors were two crossed swords. One was the sword carried by the grandfather of its owner on the field of Bunker Hill, and the other was the sword carried by the English grand- sire of the wife on the same field, and on the other side of the conflict. Under those crossed swords, in the restored harmony of domestic peace, lived a happy and contented and free family, under the light of our repubhcan liberties. I trust the time is not far distant when, under the crossed swords and the locked shields of Americans, north and south, our people shall sleep in })eace and rise in liberty, love, and harmony, under the union of our flag of the stars and stripes. [Speech to a Delegation of four hundred Young Men — First Voters — of Cleveland, Ohio, at Mentor, October 8, 1880.] I have not so far left the coast of youth to travel inland but that I can very well remember the state of young manhood, from an experience in it of some years, and there is nothing to me in this world so inspiring as the possibilities that lie locked up in the head and breast of a young man. The hopes that lie before him, the great inspira- 476 CHIPS FROM THE WailTE HOUSE. tions around him, the great aspirations above hira, all these things, with the untried pathway of life opening up its difficulties and dangers, inspire him to courage, and force, and work. [From a Speech in New York, August 6, 1880.] Ideas outlive men. Ideas outlive all things, and 3'ou who fought in the war for the Union fought for immortal ideas, and by their might you crowned our war with victory. But victory was worth nothing except for the fruits that were under it, in it, and above it. We meet to-night as veterans and comrades, to stand sacred guard around the truths for which we fought, and while we have life to meet and grasp the hands of a comrade, we will stand by the gi'eat truths of the war ; and, comrades, among the convictions of that war which have sunk deep in our hearts there are some that we (;an never forget. Think of the great elevating spirit of the war itself. We gath- ered the boys from all our farms, and shops, and stores, and schools, and homes, from all over the Republic, and they went forth unknown to fame, but returned enrolled on the roster of immortal heroes. They went in the spirit of those soldici's of Henry at Agincourt, of whom he said, " Who this day sheds his blood with me, to-day shall be my broth-er. Were he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition ; " and it di gentle tlie condi- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 477 tion and elevate the heart of every Avorlcing sol- dier who fought in it, and he shall be our brother for evermore ; and this thing we will remember ; we will remember our allies who fought Avith us. Soon after the orreat strusrale beijan we looked be- hind the army of white rebels and saw 4,000,000 of black people condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies, and we found that the hearts of this 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of freedom, and that they were our friends. We have seen white men betray the flag and fight to Idll the Union, but in all that long, dreary war we never saw a traitor m a black skin. Our prisoners, escaping from the stai'vation of prison, and fleeing to our lines by the light of the North-star, never feared to enter the black man's cabin and ask for bread. In all that period of suffering and danger no Union soldier was ever betrayed by a black man or woman, and now that we have made them free, so long as we live we will stand by these black citizens. We will stand by them until the sun of liberty, fixed in the firmament of our Constitution, shall shine with equal rays upon every man, black or white, throughout the Union. Now, fellow- citizens, fellow-soldiers, in this then; is all the beneficence of eternal justice, and by tliis we will stand forever. 478 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HODSE. [Remmks at Chatauqna, August 1, 1880.] I would rather be defeated than make capital out of my religion. [From an Address at the Anniversary of Hiram College, directly afcer the Chicago Convention, 1880.] Fellow-citizens, Neighboes, and Fijiends of "MAiiY YEARS : It always has given me pleasure to come back here and look upon these faces. It has always given me new courage and new friends. It has brought back a large share of that richness that belono"s to those thino:s out of which come the joys of life. While I have been sitting here this afternoon, watching j^our faces and listening to the very interesting address which has just been de- livered, it occurred to me that the best thing you have that all men envy — I mean all men who have reached the meridian of life — is, perhaps, the thing that you care for less, and that is your leisure, — the leisure you have to think ; the leisure you have to be let alone ; the leisure you have to throw the plummet with j^our hand, and sound their depths and Hnd out what is below ; the leisure you have to walk about the towers of yourselves, and find how strong they are, or how weak they are, and determine what needs building up, and determine how to shape them, that you may make the final being that you are to be. Oh, JAMES A. GARFIELD. 479 these hours of building ! If the superior beings of the universe would look down upon the world to find the most interesting object, it would l)e the unfinished, unformed character of 3'oung men, or of young women. These behind me have, proba- bly, in the main settled such cjuestions. Those who have jDassed into middle manhood and middle Avomanhood are about Avhat they shall always l)e, and there is little left of interest or curiosity as to our development. But to your young and yet uninformed natures no man knows the possibilities that lie treasured up in your hearts and intellects ; and while you are working up these possibihties with that splendid leisure, you are the most envied of all classes of men and women in the world. I congratulate you on your leisure. I commend you to keep it as your gold, as your wealth, as your means, out of which you can demand all the pos- sible treasures that God laid clown when He formed your nature, and unveiled and devel- oped the possibility of your future. This place is too full of memories for me to trust myself to speak upon, and I will not ; but I draw again to-day, as I have for a quarter of a century, evidences of strength and affection from the people who gather in this place, and I thank you for the permission to see you, and meet you, and greet you, as I have done to-day. 480 CHIPS FROM .HE WHITE HOUSE. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. BORN 1S30. — GRADUATED AT UNION COLLEGE, 1S48.— PRINCI- PAL OF NORTH POWNAL ACADEMV, VT., Is51. — ADiMlTTED TO THE BAR, 18.VJ. — * RETAINED IN THE FAMOUS LEM.MUN SUIT, KS52.— ENGINEER-IN-CHIEF OF GOVERNOR MORGANS STAFF, ISGl.— QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL OF STATE OF NEW YORK, 18G1'. — COLLECTOR OF NEW YORIC PORT, lsV2. — VICE-PRESIDENT, l^sl. — PRESIDENT, IStd. [From Annn.-il Mcssa2;e, December, 1881.] Prominent umonof the matters which chiiilenge the attention of Coni^ress at its present session is the management of our Indian affairs. While tins question has been a cause of ti'oul)le and eml)arrassment from the infancy of the govern- ment, it IS but recently that any effort has been made for its solution, at once serious, determined, consistent, and promising success. * In 18J2, Jonathan and Juliet Lemmon of Virginia were in New York awaiting with eight slaves the sailing of a steamer for Texas. A writ of habeas corpus was obtained from Julge Paine to test the question whether the provi-ions of the Fugitive Slave Law were in force in that State. Judge Paine's decision was that they were not, and he ordered the Lemmon slaves to be liberated. The Virginia Legislature then au'horized their At- torney-General lo appeal. William M. Kvarls and Chester A. Arthur were employe 1 1 o represent the people, and won their case. It was taken up to^the Supreme Court, and again lost. A long step was thui talien toward the emancipation of the slaves. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 481 It has been easier to resort to convenient make- shifts for tiding over temporary difficulties than to grapple with the great permanent problem, and, accordingly, the easier course has almost invariably been pursued. It was natural, at a time when the national territory seemed almost illimitable, and contained many millions of acres far outside the bounds of civilized settlements, that a policy should have been initiated which more than aught else has been the fruitful source of our Indian complica- tions. I refer, of course, to the policy of dealing with the various Indian tribes as separate nationalities, of relegating them by treaty stipulations to the occupanc}' of inunense reservations in the ^^'est, and of encouraging them to live a savage life, undisturbed by any earnest and well directed ef- fort to brini>; them under the inlluence of civili- zation. The unsatisfactor}' results which have sprung from this policy are becoming api)arent to all. As the white settlements have crowded the borders of the reservations, the Indians, sonie- times contentedly and sometimes against their will, have l)een transferred to other hunting- grounds, from which they have again been dis- lodjjed whenever their new-found homes have been desired by the adventurous settlers. 482 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. These removals, and the frontier collisions by which they have often been preceded, have led to frequent and disastrous conflicts between the races. It is profitless to discuss here which of them has been chiefly responsiljle for the disturbances, whose recital occupies so large a space upon the pages of our history. We have to deal with the appalling fact that though thousands of lives have been sacrificed, and hundreds of millions of dollars expended, in the attempt to solve the Indian problem, it has, until within the past few years, seemed scarcely nearer a solution than it was half a century ago. But the government has of late been cautiously but steadily feeling its way to the adoption of a policy which has already produced gratifying re- sults, and which, in my judgment, is likely, if Congress and the executive accord in its support, to relieve us ere long from the difficulties which have heretofore beset us. For the success of the efforts now making to introduce among the Indians the customs and pursuits of civilized life, and gradually to absorb them into the mass of our citizens, sharing their rights and holding to their responsibilities, there is imperative need for legislative action. My suggestions in that regard will be chiefly such as have been already called to the attention CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 483 of Congress, and have received to some extent its consideration : — First, I recommend the passage of an act mak- ing the laws of the various States and Territories applicable to the Indian reservations within their borders, and extending the laws of the State of Arkansas to the portions of the Indian Territory not occupied by the five civilized tribes. The Indian should receive the protection of the law. He should be allowed to maintain in court his rights of person and property. He has re- peatedly begged for this privilege. Its exercise would be very valuable to him in his progress towards civilization. Second, of even greater importance is a meas- ure which has been frequently recommended by my predecessors in ofiice, and in furtherance of which several bills have been from time to time introduced in both Houses of Congress. The enactment of a general law permitting the allot- ment in severalty, to such Indians, at least, as desire it, of a reasonable quantity of land, secured to them by patent, and for their own })rotection made inalienable for twenty or twenty-five 3'^ears, is demanded for their present welfare and their permanent advancement. In return for such considerate action on the part of the government, there is reason to believe that the Indians in large numbers would be persuaded 484 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. to sever their tribal relations, and to engaire at once in agricultural pursuits. Many of them real- ize the fact that their hunting days are over, and that it is now for their best interests to conform their manner of life to the new order of things. By no greater inducement than the assurance of permanent title to the soil can they be led to en- gage in the occupation of tilling it. The well attested reports of their increasing interest m husbandry justify the hope and belief that the enactmsnt of such a statute as I recom- mend would be at once attended with gratifying results. A resort to the allotment system would have a direct and powerful influence in dissolving the tribal bond, which is so prominent a feature of savage life, and which tends so strongly to perpetuate it. Third, I advise a liberal appropriation for the support of Indian schools, because of my confi- dent belief that such a course is consistent with the wisest economy. Even amono; the most uncultivated Indian tril)es there is reported to be a general and urgent de- sire on the part of the chiefs and older members for the education of their children. It is unfortu- nate, in view of this fact, that during the past year the means which have been at the command of the Interior Department for the purpose of Indian in- struction have proved to be utterly inadequate. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 485 The success of the schools which are in operation at Hampton, Carlisle, and Forest Grove, should not only encourage a more generous provision for the support of those institutions, but should prom})t the establishment of others of a similar character. They are doubtless much more potent for good than the day schools upon the reservations, as the pupils are altogether separated from the surround- ino^s of savafje life and brought into constant con- es o o tact with civilization. [From the same.] . . . The existing civil-service system of Great Britain ; — the success which has attended that sys- tem in the country of its birth is the strongest ar- gument which has been urged for its adoption here. The fact should not, however, be overlooked that there are certain features of the English system which have not generally been received with favor in this country, even among the fore- most advocates of civil-service reform. Among them are : — 1. A tenure of office which is substantially a life-tenure. 2. A limitation of the maximum age at which an applicant can enter the service, whereby all men in middle life or older are, with some excep- tions, rigidly excluded. 486 CHIPS FROM THE \\TFIITE HOUSE. 3. A retiring allowance upon going out of office. These three elements are as important factors of the problem as any of the others. To eliminate them from the English system would effect a most radical change in its theory and practice. The avowed purpose of that system is to induce the educated young men of the country to devote their lives to public employment, by an assurance that, having once entered upon it, they need never leave it, and that after voluntary retirement they shall be the recipients of an annual pension. That this svstem, as an entirety, has proved very suc- cessful in Great Britain, seems to be generally conceded, even by those who once opposed its adoption The present English system is a growth of years, and was not created by a single stroke of executive or legislative action. Its besrinninsfs are found in an order of council promulgated in 1855, and it was after patient and cautious scru- tiny of its workings that, fifteen years later, it took its present shape There are very many characteristics which go to make a model civil servant. Prominent among them are probit}', industry, good sense, good habits, good temper, patience, order, courtesy, tact, self-reliance, manly deference to superior officers, and manly consideration for inferiors. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 487 The absence of these traits is not supplied by wide knowledge of books, or by promptitude in an- swering questions, or by any other quality likely to be brought to light by competitive examina- tions. [From Message, December, 1882.] About a year since, invitations were extended to the nations of this continent to send represen- tatives to a peace Congress to assemble at Wash- ington in November, 1882. The time of meeting was fixed at a period then remote, in the hope, as the invitation itself declared, that in the meantime the disturbances between the South American re- publics would be adjusted. As that expectation seemed unlikely to be realized, I asked in April last for an expression of opinion from the two houses of Congress as to the advisability of hold- ing the proposed convention at the time appointed. This action was prompted in part by doubts which mature reflection had suggested : whether the di- plomatic usage and traditions of the government did not make it fitting that the executive should consult the representatives of the people before pursuing a line of policy somewhat novel in its character, and far-reaching in its possible conse- quences. In view of the fact that no action was taken by Congress in the premises, and that no provision had been made for necessary expenses, 488 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. I subsequently decided to postpone the convoca- tion, and so notified the several governments which had been invited to attend. I am unwilling to dismiss this subject without assuring you of my support of any measures the wisdom of Congress may devise for the promotion of peace on this continent and throughout the world, and I trust that the time is nigh when, with the universal assent of civilized peoples, all international differences shall be determined with- out resort to arms — by the benignant processes of arbitration. [From the same.} The condition of the forests of the country, and the wasteful manner in which their destruction is taking place, give cause for serious apprehension. Their action m protecting the earth's surface, in modifying the extremes of climate, and in regu- lating and sustaining the flow of springs and streams, is now well understood, and their im- portance in relation to the growth and prosperity of the c^ountry cannot l)e safely disregarded. They are fast disappearing before destructive fires and the legitimate recjuirements of our increasing po])- ulation, and their total extinction cannot be long delayed unless better methods than now prevail shall be adopted for their protection and cultiva- tion. The attention of Conorress is invited to the CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 489 necessity cf udditional legislation to secure the preservation of the valuable forests still remaining on the i)ul)lic domain, especially in the extreme Western States and Territories, where the neces- sity for their preservation is greater than in less mountainous regions, and where the prevailing dryness of the climate renders their restoration, if they are once destroyed, well nigh impossible. [From Message vetoing the River and Harbor Appropriation Bill ] The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that mouey to the peoj)le who are taxed for it. They sustain a greater injury m the demoralizing etfect produced upon those who are intrusted with offi- cial duty through all the ramifications of govern- ment. 490 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. GEOYER CLEYELAOT). BORN, 1837.— TEACHER IN THE NEW YORK INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 1853. -ADMITTED TO THE BAR, 1859. — ASSIST- ANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK, 1863-66.— SHERIFF OF COUNTY, 1870-73. — MAYOR OF BUF- FALO, 1882.— GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK, 1883. — PRESIDENT, 1885. [From Speech accepting the nomination of Mayor ] I BELIEVE much can be done to relieve our citi- zens from their present load of taxation, and that a more rigid scrutiny of all public expenditures will result in a great saving to the community. I also believe that some extravagance in our city government may be corrected without injury to the public service. There is, or there should be, no reason why the affairs of our city should not be managed with the same care and the same econ- omy as private interests. And when we consider that public officials are the trustees of the people and hold their places and exercise their powers for the benefit of the people, there should be no higher inducement to a faithful and honest dis- charge of public duty. GROVER CLEVELAND. 491 [From inangnral address to the Common Council of Buffiilo, January 2, 1882.] We hold the money of the people in our hands, to be used for their purposes and to further their interests as members of the municipality ; and it is quite apparent that when any part of the funds which the taxpayers have thus entrusted us are diverted to other purposes, or when, by design or neglect, we allow a greater sum to be applied to any municipal purpose than is necessar}^, we have, to that extent, violated our duty. There surely is no diflerence in his duties and obligations, whether a person is entrusted with the money of one man or many. And yet it sometimes appears as though the office-holder assumes that a different rule of fidelity prevails between him and the taxpayer than that which should regulate his conduct when, as an individual, he holds the money of his neighbor. [Fi'om Speech before the Irish-Amorican citizens of Buffalo, April 9, 1882. j From the earliest civilization, to be a citizen has been to be a free man, endowed with certain privileges and advantages, and entitled to the full protection of the State. The defence and protec- tion of the personal rights of its citizens has 492 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. always been the paramount and most important duty of a free, enlightened government. . And this protection adheres to us in all lands and places as an incident of citizenship. Let but the weight of a sacrilegious hand I)e put upon this sacred thing, and a great strong government springs to its feet to avenge the wrong. Thus it is that the native-born American citizen enjoys his birthrights. But when, in the westward march of ein})ire, this nation was founded and took root, we beckoned to the Old A^'orld, and invited hither its emigration, and provided a mode by which those who sought a home among us might become our fellow-citizens. They came by thou- sands and hundreds of thousands ; they came and Hewed the dark old woods away. And gave the virgin fields to day; they came with strong sinews and brawny arms to aid in the growth and progress of a new country ; they came, and upon our altars laid their fealty and submission ; they came to our temples of jus- tice, and under the solemnity of an oath renounced all allegiance to every other State, potentate, and sovereignty, and surrendered to us all the duty pertaining to such allegiance. We have acce])ted their fealty and invited them to surrender the pro- tection of their native land. And what should be given them in return? GROVER CLEVELAND. 493 Manifestly, good faith and every dictate of honor demand that we give them the same liberty and protection here and elsewhere which we vouchsafe to our native-born citizens. And that this has been accorded to them is the crowmug glory of American institutions. [From an address at the laying of the corner-stone of the bailding of the Young Men's Christian Association of Buffalo, September 7, 1882.] We have been too much in the hal)it of reoarding institutions of this kind as entirely disconnected from any consideration of municipal growth or prosperity, and have too often considered splen- did structures, active trade, increasing commerce, and growing manufactures as the only things worthy of our care as public-spirited citizens. A moment's reflection reminds us that this is wrong. The citizen is a better business man if he is a Christian gentleman, and surely business is not the less prosperous and successful if conducted on Christian principles. [Tlie Common Council had passed a resolution involving a clear loss to Buffalo of over $100,000. In vetoing it Mayor Cleveland said thus.] . . . This is a time for plain speech, and my objection to the action of your honorable body now under consideration shall be plainly stated. 494 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. I withhold my assent from the same, because I regard it as the culmination of a most barefaced, impudent, and shameless scheme to betray the interests of the people and to worse than squander the public money. I will not be misunderstood in this matter. There are those whose votes were given for this resolution whom I cannot and will not suspect of a wilful neglect of the interests they are sworn to protect ; but it has been fully demonstrated that there are mfluences, both in and about your hon- orable body, which it behooves every honest man to watch and avoid with greatest care. When cool judgment rules the hour, the people will, I hope and believe, have no reason to com- plam of the action of your honorable body. But clumsy appeals to prejudice or passion, insinua- tions, with a kind of low cheap cunning, as to the motives and purposes of others, and the mock heroism of brazen effrontery which openly de- clares that a wholesome public sentiment is to be set at naught, sometimes deceive and lead hon- est men to aid in the consummation of schemes which, if exposed, they would look upon with ab- horrence. GROVER CLEVELAND. 495 [From letter of acceptance of nomination as Governor,] October 7, 1882.] Our citizens for the most part attach themselves to one or the other of the great political parties ; and under ordinary circumstances they support the nominees of the party to which they profess fealty. It is quite apparent that under such cir- cumstances the primary election or caucus should be surrounded by such safeguards as will secure absolutely free and uncontrolled action. Here the people themselves are supposed to speak ; here they put their own hands to the machinery of gov- ernment, and in this place should be found the manifestations of the popular will. When by fraud, intimidation, or any other questionalile practice, the voice of the people is here smothered, a direct blow is aimed at a most precious right, and one which the law should be swift to protect. If the primary election is uncontaminated and fairly conducted, those there chosen to represent the people will go forth with the impress of the "people's will upon them, and the benefits and pur- poses of a truly representative government will be attained. Public officers are the servants and agents of the people, to execute laws which the people have made, and within the limits of a constitution which they have established. Hence the interference of 496 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. officials of any degree, and whether State or fed- eral, for the puri)osc of thwarting or controlling the popular wish, should not be tolerated. Subordinates in public place should be selected and retained for their efficienc}', and not because they may be used to accomplish partisan ends. The people have a right to demand, here as in cases of private employment, that their money be paid to those who will render the best service in return, and that the appointment to and tenure of such places should depend upon ability and merit. If the clerks and assistants in public de- partments were paid the same compensation and required to do the same amount of work as those employed in prudently conducted private estab- lishments, the anxiety to hold these public places would be much diminished, and, it seems to me, the cause of civil-service reform materially aided. The system of levying assessments for partisan purposes on those holdmg office or place cannot be too strongly condenmed. Through the thin disguise of voluntary contributions, this is seen to be naked extortion, reducing the compensation which should be honestly earned, and swelling a fund used to debauch the people and defeat the popular will Corporations are created by the law for certain defined puri)oses, and are restricted in their opera- tions by speciiic limitations. Acting within their GROVER CLEVELAND. 497 legitimate sphere, they should be protected; but when by combiuatioii or by the exercise of unwar- anted power they oppress the people, the same authority which created should restrain them and protect the rights of the citizen ... It is wilful blindness not to see that the people care but little for party obligations when they are invoked to countenance and sustain fraud- ulent and corrupt practices. And it is well for our country and for the purification of ix)litics that the people, at times fully roused to danger, re- mind their leaders that party methods should be something more than a means used to answer the purposes of those who proiit by political occupa- tion. The importance of wise statesmanship in the management of public affairs cannot, I think, be overestimated. I am convinced, however, that the perplexities and the mystery surrounding the administration of State Concerns grow, in a great measure, out of an attempt to serve partisan ends rather than the welfare of the citizen. [From letter to the Assembly, April 9, 1883] I believe m an open and sturdy partisanship, which secures the legitimate advantages of party supremacy ; but parties were made for the people, and I am unwilling, knowingly, to give my assent to measures purely partisim, which will sacrifice or endansrer their interests. 498 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. [From address to the pupils of the Albany High School.] The theory of the State in furnishing more and better schools for the children is that it tends to fit them to better perform their duties as citizens, and that an educated man or woman is apt to be more useful as a member of the com- munity. This leads to the thought that those who avail themselves of the means thus tendered them are in duty bound to make such use of their advan- tages as that the State shall receive in return the educated and intelligent citizens and members of the community which it has the right to expect from its schools. You, who will soon be the men of the day, should consider that you have as- sumed an obligation to fit yourselves by the edu- cation which you may, if you will, receive in this school, for the proper performance of any duty of citizenship, and to fill any public station to which you may be called. And it seems to me to be none the less important that those who are to be the wives and mothers should be educated, re- fined, and intelligent. To tell the truth, I should be afraid to trust the men, educated though they should be, if they were not surrounded by pure and true womanhood. Thus it is that you all, now and here, owe a duty to the State which can only by answered by diligent study and the great- . GROVER CLEVELAND. 499 est possible improvement. It is too often the case that in all walks and places the disposition is to render the least possible return to the State for the favors which she bestows. [The Germans of Buffalo erected in 1883 a large music hall. At its dedication Governor Cleveland was asked to ad- dress the Sangerfest. From his speech.] At this moment the reflection is uppermost in my mind that we owe much to the German ele- ment among our people. . . . They have brought to us their music and their song, which have done much to elevate, refine, and improve, and to de- monstrate that nature's lansfuao-e is as sweet as when the morning stars sang together. I am inclined to think that a music-loving peo- ple are not apt to be a bad people ; and it may well be hoped that occasions like this will tend to make the love and cultivation of music more uni- versal in our land. [From speech at Oswegatchie Fair.] Broad fields, well tilled, not only secure com- fort and an income to the farmer, ])ut build up the commerce of the State, and easily supply the wants of the population. This is the magic wand whose touch creates wealth and a great State. So all of us who work are, in our several ways, engaged in 500 CHIPS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. building to a higher reach and nobler proportions the fabric of a proud commonwealth. Those who make and execute the laAvs join with those who toil from day to day with their hands, in their sev- eral occupations, all alike engaged in building up and protecting the State. INDEX I :n^ D E X. Adams, John, 45, 66-68, 82, 85, 87, 124, 169, 189, 190. Adams, John Quincy, 51, 133, 143, 144, 441. Adams, Samuel, 52, 80, 110. Agassiz, Louis, 430. Alaska, 415. Allied Powers, The, 130. Amendment, The Fourteenth, 422. Amendments to the Constitution, 367-370. America and England, 318, 337. Arbitration, International, 237, 487. Arthur, Chester A., 480. B. Bible, The, 67, 143. Bi-metallism, 389. Birmingham, England, 359, 360. Bismarck, 335. Bonaparte, Napoleon, 335, 336. Books, 438. Boston, 45, 47, 77-80. British Constitution, 116. Burliugame Treaty, 362. Calvinism, View of, 146. Cass, Lewis, 199. Cassel, Prince of Hesse-, 64. C. 602 INDEX. 503 Caucus, The, 495, Chaplain to Congress, 121. Character, 98, 439. Chase, S. P., 275, 446. Chinese Immigration, .362, 363. Christian Citizen, The, 493. Christianity, 87, 109, 110, 164, 165. Church-membership, 266. Church and State, 437. Civil Service, 109, 120, 142, 354, 359-361, 496. Civil Service System of Great Britain, 485-487. Cleveland, Grover, 490. College Studies, 410. Colored Citizens, 290, 349, 350, .368, 369, 374, 378, 465. Colored Soldiers, 260, 270, 290, 294, 298, 477. Commercial Reverses, 192. Communism, 133. Concentration of Power, 97, 117. Concord, Battle at, 16. Confederation, The, 170. Congress, 444. Congress, Organizing, in 18.39, 166. Congress, International, 319. Consolidated Government, 97, 127. Constitution, The U. S., 171-174, 177, 394. Convention, Constitutional, 24, 172. Credit, Expansion of, 221. Currency, The, 184, 192, 317, 355, 356, 388, 418-420, 431. r>. Davis, .Jefferson, 449. Debt. The National, 311, 423. Debts, PubHc, 385. Declaration of Independence, 102, 160-162, 170, 186, 189, 230- 233, 240, 244, 400. Declaration of Independence, Signers of, 59, 186. Democratic Party, The, 343-345, 468. Depravity, Human, 143. 504 IXDEX. DissoTntion of the Union, 211, 219. Divorce. J97. Dorrf^las. Stephen A., 226, 233, 236. Draft Bill, 392. Duche, I!ev. Mr., 52-54. Duties and Obligations of Office-holders, 491. TC. Education, Popular, 100, 107, 117, 141, 313, 314, 317, 352-354, 372-,383, 376, 460, 472. Education, I'opular, National Aid to, 427. Elections, Purity of, 351, -363, 462. Elective Franchise, :i51, 3(53. Emancipation. 270. Emancipation Proclamation, 248, 250, 257-259, 265, 275-278, 285, 294, 304, 446. Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 223, 278. England and America, 337. English Constitution, The, 188. Everett, Edward, 279. Extravagant Expenditure of Public Moneys, 489, 490, 493. Federalists, The, 148, 474. Fillmore, Millard, 212. Finance, 355. Foreign-born Citizens, 491-493. France, 62. Franklin, Benjamin, 97, 124. Free Trade, :ilS, 392, 421. French Republic, 311. Fourth of July, 61. Fugitive Slaves, 411. Future Life, The, 85. Gag-law, 168, 169. Garfield, James A., 388, 411, 413. INDEX. 505 Garabetta, 335. Genius, 55, 66. (Georges, The, 148. German Element in America, 499. Gettysburg, Address at, 278, 279. Goethe, 454, 455. Government, 118, 119, 177, 178, 187. Grant, U. S., 280, 281, 292, 326, 332-334, 339, 345. Greek Language, The, 424. Greeley, Horace, 247. H. Habeas Corpus, 253-255. Hadrian, Lines of, 138. Hamilton, Alexander, 123. Hampton Institute, 383. Harrison, William Henry, 195. Hayes, Rutherford B., 347. Hayti, 163. Henry, Joseph, 455. Hereditary Succession, 149. Hesse-Cassel, Prince of, 64. History. 425. Hodges, Colonel, 262. Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 283. Horace, 424. Hughes, Thomas, 320. Hutchinson, Governor, 68, 69, 79, 80, 82. I. Ideas, 399, 476. Illinois, 127. Immigration, 107, 371-373, 375, 381; Chinese, 362, 363. Indians, The, 43, 196, 283, 379, 386, 480-485. J. Jackson, Andrew, 163, 176, 284, 309. Jackson, •' Stouewall," 324. 506 INDEX. Jefferson, Thomas, 88, 124, 170, 190, 381. Johnson, Andrew, 234, 284, 308, 309. Johnson, Richard M., 197, 200, 384. Judiciary, The, 70, 72, 351. Labor, 319. Laboulaye, E., 271. Law, Reign of, 426. Legislative Department, 187. Leisure, 478. Lemmon Case, 480. Liberty, 46, 86, 171, 290, 406. Lincoln, Abraham, 223, 271-273, 278, 279, 322-324, 330, 366, 367, 368, 391, 393, 413, 446-448, 466. Literature in America, 104-107. Locke, John, 174. "Lost Cause, The," 348. Louis XV., 149. Louisiana, 195. IM. Madison, James, 88, 111, 170, 382. Manchester, England, 251. Massachusetts, 12, 13. Massacre, Boston, 77. Mathews, Stanley, 347. McClellan, George B., 327-330. Metallic Basis, 184. Military Academy, 129. Militia, The, 129. "Minute-men" of 1775, 169. Miracles, 165. Mississippi, The, 195. Monroe, James, 100, 122, 127, 146, 147. "Monroe Doctrine," 130, 207, 214. Napoleon Bonaparte, 335, 336. Napoleon, Louis, 336. INDEX. 507 National Authority, 364; and State Authority, 130. National Credit, 213, 311, 322, 362. National Debt, 311, 423. National Morality, 115, 213, 322, 324, 348. National Policy, 204. Natural Bridge, The, 91. Nature, Conformity to, 66. Negroes, 93. Neutrality, 207, 208, 214. New England, 440. New Jersey Delegation of 1839, 166. New States, Admission of, 127. North Carolina, 173. NulUfication, 122, 123, 125, 163, 178-184. Orator, The, 134. Oregon Territory, 206. Otis, James, 83, 84. O. P. Parties, Origin of, 399, 458. Partisanship, 497. Party Methods, 497. Party Spirit, 141. Pemberton, General, 295. People, The, 66, 394. Perry, Oliver Hazard, 199. Persecution, Religious, 112, 113. Petition, Right of, 152-161, 168. Pierce, Franklin, 217. Polk, James K., 205. Poncas, The, 387. Pope, Alexander, 137. Potomac, The, 90. Preservation of Forests, 488. President and Senate, 138. Presidential etiquette, 190; receptions, 268; title, 120. 508 INDEX. Profanity, 22. Property, 262, Protective Duties, 407. Public Schools, 141. Punch, 224 n. R. Railway System, The, 431. Eandolph, John, 144. Raynal, Abbe, 104. Reason, a revelation, 68. Rebellion, The, 348. Rebel States, 296, 297. Reconstruction, 412. Relation of Labor to the State, 499. Religion, 44, 67, 266. Religious Freedom, 42, 89, 101, 113, 114, 121, 171. Republican Party, The, 342-345, 450, 470. Repudiation, 311, 385. Revenue, National, 444. ^ Revenue Bills, 364. Revolution, The American, 186. Rhetoric, 134. Ruffner, Dr., 379. S. Sabbath, The, 22, 249, 250. Schleicher, G., 463. School-keeping, 46. Schools, Public, 352-354; Sectarian, 352, 472; Theory of, 498. Science, 451 ; Relation of Government to, 459. Secession, 122, 125, 163, 179-182, 242, 243. Secretary of War, 448. Sectarian Schools, 472. Self-government, 55, 109. Senate, Functions of the, 120. Separation from England, 54. Seward, William H., 413, 446. INDEX. 509 Shakespeare, 282. Sheridan, Gen., 325, 339. Sherman, Gen., 331. Sin, Original, .59. Slavery, 25, 26, 85, 93-97, 104, 126, 128, 1.32, 151-1.54, 160-162, 164, 184, 226, 231-236, 247, 263, 264, 267, 268, 270-275, 286, 287, 339, 340, 374, 375, 378, 394, 395-397, 401-405, 411. Slave-trade, 126, 128. Smithsonian Institute, 457. "Solid South," The, 345. South Carolina, 125, 163, 174, 178-183. Special Privileges, 206. Specie Payments, Eesumption of, 453, 467. Spectator, The London, 271. "Spoils of Office," 125, 359. "Squatter Sovereignty," 228. Stanton, Secretary, 8.30, 446. State Eights, 27, 243-246, 364, 370. Statistics, 426. Stuart, A. H. H., 376. Student, The, 408-411, 424. Suffrage, Negro, 465; Unrestricted, 350. " Surrender, Unconditional," 293. T. Tariff, The, 184. .338, 407. Taylor. Zachary, 210. Teutonic Races, 463. Texas, 244, 245, 341, 465. Thames, Battle of the, 197-200. Thomas, Gen., 4.58. Township, The New England, 400, 458. Trade with KeDels, 296, 297. Treason. 284, 288, 289. Trinity, The, 146. Tyler, John, 202. 510 INDEX. TJ. Union, Saving the, 247, 257-259, 339. Union Soldiers, 321, 357-358, 371. Utah, 312. Van Buren, Martin, 186. Vicksburg, 280, 294-296. Volunteer Soldiers, 346. V. ^W. Walpole, Memoirs of, 140. War, 332, 335, 338. War, Civil, Philosophy of the, 399, 400. Washington, George, 11, 97, 119, 214. Webster, Daniel, 383. Wheatley, Phillis, 21. Wilderness, The, 302. Woman, Political Influence of, 156-160. Writs of Assistance, 81, 82. Y. Young Man, Advice to a, 225. Young Men, 475. I I I