Glass, 
 Book 
 
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ELIJAH WARD 
 
 rOF NKW YORK.] 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT HADFIELD. 
 
 A NEW EDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 G W . C A R L E T O N & CO., PUBLISHERS. 
 
 LONDON S LOW, SON .1 CO. 
 M.DCCC.LXXVII. 
 
1 <•! A W It h i 1 .1 3 
 
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ELIJAH WARD 
 
 [OF NEW YORK.] 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT HADFIELD. 
 
 A NEW EDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 G. W. CARLETON & CO., PUBLISHERS. 
 
 LONDON : S. LOW, SON & CO. 
 M.DCCC.LXXVII. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, b/ 
 
 G. W. CARLETON A CO., 
 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
 
 J'26|flo 7 
 
 John F. Trow & Son, 
 
 Printers and Bookbinder^ 
 
 105-213 Kast \2th St., 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
TO THE 
 
 CONSTITUENTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HON. ELIJAH WARD, M.C., 
 
 EIGHTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, NEW YORK, 
 
 THIS SKETCH 
 OF HIS PUBLIC SERVICES IS RESPECTFULLY 
 DEDICATED. 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 rpHE honorable career of Elijah Ward, his earnest support of the 
 Government during the late civil war, and his sound views on 
 leading financial, commercial and other questions, would seem to render 
 a sketch of his public services not inappropriate. His recent re-election 
 to the House of Representatives of the United States, affords a suitable 
 occasion on which to present to his constituents and the public, the accom- 
 panying record of his Congressional career. 
 
 December, 1874. 
 
ELIJAH WAED. 
 
 I HE name of Ward is of Scandinavian origin, and passed 
 with the Northmen to Normandy. Two of the principal 
 chiefs, " de la Warde," and " Warde," accompanied Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror into England, and were engaged in the Battle 
 of Hastings. 
 
 The Honorable Andrew Ward, from whom the Wards of West- 
 chester County, in the State of New York are descended, migrated 
 from Sufiblk, in England, to New England, in 1630, in company 
 with a number of families of that county, including that of Mr. 
 (afterwards Governor) Winthrop. He first settled at Watertown, 
 Massachusetts, where, five years afterwards, he, with others, was 
 appointed by the General Court to form a government in Connecti- 
 cut. In the following year, he and his associates held the first 
 court ; and " he made the first law, and tried the first cause in it." 
 He was for several years a judge or magistrate, and, at difierent 
 periods, a deputy or member of both branches of the General Court 
 of that colony. The historian of Connecticut, referring to him and 
 his colleagues, says : " They were the civil and religious fathers of 
 the colony, who assisted in forming its free and happy constitution : 
 were among its legislators, and some of the chief pillars of the 
 church and commonwealth, who, with many others of the same 
 excellent character, employed their abilities and their estates, for the 
 prosperity of the colony." 
 
 In 1641, differences of opim'on arose on certain questions of ci^^l 
 and rehgious liberty, and the views of Mr. Ward, as to its value, be- 
 
ing more consistent than tliose of the constituted authorities of the 
 day, he, with several of his friends, removed to Stamford, and, in 
 1643, purchased the town of Hempstead, L. I., then a part of the 
 colony of New Amsterdam. The following year they formally landed 
 at Hempstead Harbor, now Eoslyn, L. I., and founded the village of 
 Hempstead ; but, h»ving some difficulty with the Dutch authorities, 
 Mr. Ward returned to Connecticut, was appointed a magistrate, and 
 cl(»sed a long and useful life in 1659. 
 
 Some of his cliildren removed to Westchester County, and to 
 them the Wards of that region owe their origin. The name is one 
 of the most distinguished in the annals of the county, and many 
 members of the family have held prominent positions in the state 
 and nation. 
 
 Elijah Ward was born at Sing Sing, Westchester County, and is 
 about fifty-six years of age. He is the son of Israel Ward, now 
 deceased, who married a daughter of the late John Rossel, of the 
 same county. Young Ward was sent to the village academy, 
 where lie received an academic education, and at an early age 
 developed a taste for books and the acquisition of knowledge. 
 He was interested in many subjects ; but, pohtical economy, 
 history, and biography, were his favorites, more especially the latter, 
 wherein youth can trace the progressive steps by which men attain 
 high pubhc, pohtical and social eminence ; and, if ambitious, may 
 learn to follow successful and illustrious examples. His industry 
 and perseverance in self-culture, gave him, in addition to the results 
 of his academic studies, a large fund of general information of much 
 use to iiim in after life. Having an early predilection for the legal 
 profession, he decided upon adopting it. His Idnsman, Major 
 General Aaron Ward, then a representative in congress, and a lead- 
 ing member of the bar in Westchester County, proposed taking liim 
 into his office. The offer was pecuharly favorable, and was warmly 
 appreciated ; but, with the spirit of self-reliance which has been the 
 main spring of liis success, young Ward resolved that, as such a step 
 
would make him somewhat dependent, he would rely upon his own 
 efforts, until he should thus be enabled to pursue his intended 
 studies. 
 
 In the spring of 1833, he went to the city of New York to 
 seek employment. On the day after his arrival, he was engaged 
 by Mr. John S. McKibben, then a prominent and much respected 
 merchant, with whom lie remained up to the time when he was 
 enabled to direct his attention exclusively to his chosen profession. 
 
 Meanwhile he l^ecame thoroughly conversant with business trans- 
 actions, thus acquiring knowledge wliich was afterwards of great 
 value to him in the practice of the law, and developing the deep 
 interest in mercantile affairs and men, wliich has always been an 
 animating principle of his pubhc life. So long as he was with 
 Mr. McKibben, he devoted his time, after the hours of business, 
 to mental improvement. Under competent instructors he unremit- 
 tingly pursued a course of classical, philosophical and practical 
 studies; thus laying the foundation of much that was useful and 
 characteristic in his future successful career. He kept steadily in 
 mind the profession he had marked out for himself, — and, in 1838, 
 while yet a clerk, attended the Law School in the University oi 
 New York, then numbering among its professors the Honorable 
 WiUiam Kent, the Honorable Benjamin F. Butler, and David Gra- 
 ham. 
 
 In January, 1839, Mr. Ward was elected President of the "Mer- 
 cantile Library Association," an institution then, as now, contribut- 
 ing much to the advancement of the intellectual character of the 
 merchants of New York, — and of no little utility to the community 
 of the city at large. Even at that time it numbered more than 5,300 
 members. During the term of his office, it attained a liigher degree 
 of prosperity than in any preceding year of its existence. He was 
 tendered a nomination for re-election, but declined it in conse- 
 quence of the intended change in his occupation. 
 
In February, 1840, lie ei tered, as a student, the law oflSce of the 
 Honorable "William W. Campbell. In May, 1843, having completed 
 the prescribed term of legal study, he was admitted to practice in 
 the Supreme Com-t and Com-t of Chancery. Immechately after his 
 admission he became the law partner of Mr. Campbell. In 1848, he 
 was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 During the partnership, Mr. Campbell was counsel to the Alms 
 House Commissioners, held the office of Commissioner in Bank- 
 ruptcy, was appointed a Master in Chancery, and was elected to 
 Congress as representative from the city of New York. The prin- 
 cipal part of the business, therefore, necessarily devolved upon Mr. 
 Ward. Through the advantages derived from his former commer- 
 cial pm'suits, an extensive acquaintance among merchants, and a 
 steady and earnest devotion to his profession, together with the 
 high character and eminent abihty of his associate, the firm, in a 
 few years, attained a most lucrative and successml practice ; and, on 
 the elevation of Mr. Campbell to the Bench ^f the Superior Court nf 
 the City of New York, in 1850, Mr. Ward succeeded to the busi- 
 ness. 
 
 In May, 1845, he received a commission as Judge- Advocate of 
 the Second Brigade, with the rank of major. In May, 1848, he 
 became Judge-Advocate of the First Division, N. Y. S. M., with 
 the rank of colonel ; and, in January, 1853, was appointed by Gov- 
 ernor Horatio Seymour, Judge-Advocate General of the State, with 
 tiic^ rank of brijrad!cr-<2;eneral. 
 
 Upon his promotion to the position of Division Judge- Advocate, 
 the Second Brigade Staff, on the 4th of July, 1848, presented to 
 him, through General George P. Morris, a beautiful gorget of gold, 
 with appropriate ceremonies, at the quarters of General Sandford, 
 in the presence of the field staff officers of the First Division. 
 
 When he was advanced to the position of Judge Advocate 
 General, the division staff " being unwilling to close tlieir military 
 relations without testifying, in some suitable manner, their esteem 
 
for him as an officer," presented him with a costly and handsome 
 sword, " as evidence of the cordial and friendly regard of those 
 wlio had the best opportunity of witnessing General Ward's devo- 
 tion to the military service of the State." 
 
 Soon after the incorporation of Texas into the American Union, 
 
 open hostilities between the United States and Mexico ensued 
 The acqmsition of New Mexico and Cahfornia, by the treaty of 
 peace with Mexico led to the proposal in Congress that " no part of 
 the territory acquired shall be open to the introduction of slavery." 
 No such proviso .was necessary, as slavery there was already prohib- 
 ited by the laws of Mexico, and could not be instituted until the 
 existing laws had been repealed, and special enactments provided 
 for its estabhshment were passed. The proviso was not adopted, 
 but it led to a violent sectional agitation that distracted and divided 
 the country, until the passage of the Act of 1850, known as the com- 
 promise bill. 
 
 For several years during these dissensions. General Ward con- 
 tinued to devote himself to the practice of the law, and, although 
 always a democrat, kept aloof from the divisions in his party, and 
 deplored their existence ; but when, in 1853, scliism again arose, 
 the prominence of his position rendered it necessary that he should 
 take one side or the other, and he identified himself more fully with 
 the National Democracy, whose principles were most in conson- 
 ance with his own. At this time, his active political career began. 
 
 Hith&rto he had neither sought, nor desired political advance- 
 ment; but had often refused the sohcitations of his personal friends, 
 to enter upon the arena of pubHc life, believing that the bar itself 
 afforded a sufficiently wide field for distinction, and that the faithful 
 performance of his professional duties admitted of no other conciu*- 
 rent pursuits. Now, the dangers wliich arose from bitter sectional 
 and partizan sentiments and have since culminated in war, began 
 more and more forcibly to command his attention, and soon secured 
 
his earnest and active services in behalf of his country. Educated 
 in the revolutionary and national traditions of his family, he deenied 
 the welfare of the whole Union, the proper object of his best 
 efforts as a citizen, and beheved that the federal constitution, loyally 
 and intelligently administered, amply provided alike for secm-ity and 
 progress. 
 
 The expediency of repeahng the laws which prohibited the admis- 
 sion of new slave States, north of the Missouri hue — thirty-six de- 
 grees and six minutes of north latitude — ^into the Union, was much 
 doubted by many prominent Democrats, among others General 
 Ward ; but as Congress, under the lead of the Honorable Stephen 
 A. Douglas, had, in ISS-i, repealed the prohibition, it was 
 deemed advisable to regard the measure as a fact already deter- 
 mined. In Jane of that year. General Ward, being desirous 
 of enabhng Senator Douglas to give a full expression of h'^ 
 opinions on the state of public affairs, and of uniting the iNational 
 Democracy in the support of Ins views, gave a complimentary enter- 
 tainment to liim, at which a large nmnber of the leaders of that 
 party were present. 
 
 In addi-essing Senator Douglas, General Ward bore emphatic 
 testimony to the progressive characteristics of the Democratic party, 
 and the fidehty of it, and the people at large, to the Union. He 
 said: 
 
 " The great success of tbe Democratic party in times past, is attributable to its 
 rigid adherence to a strict construction of the constitution, its national character 
 in regarding all parts of the country as equally entitled to the rights and priv- 
 ileges provided by the constitution, and its s3-mpathy -with, and devotion to, the 
 interests of the people. It is a party of rational and sound progress, and keeps 
 pace -with the advancement of mankind. It believes the people may be safely en- 
 trusted with power; that man is approaching to a state of greater perfectability, 
 and that even ancient laws may be modified to meet the progressive spirit of the 
 ige. 
 
 '•The people are devoted to the Union of the States, and they are determined that 
 nothing shall destroy the beauty and harmony of the whole. They regard the 
 Government as having been placed here by an all wise Providence, for an example 
 that is gradually to spread its influence until the people, everywhere, are impressed 
 with the great fact, that they should be the true source of power, and that 
 Government is constituted for all, and not for privileged classes. They believe 
 
9 
 
 that oiir country lias a great mission to accomplish, and that its great destiny can 
 only be attained through union, that in union is the source of its commercial and 
 political grandeur and power, and that all minor questions sink into insignificance 
 compared with its great future." 
 
 The Legislature of the State of New York, by an act passed the 
 17th of June, 1853, authorized the Commander in Chief of the State 
 to confer brevet rank upon the officers of the Il^ew York regiment 
 of volunteers who served in the war with Mexico. The duty of 
 presenting the commission devolved upon General Ward. The 
 ceremony took place on the 29th of July, 1854, at the Astor House, 
 in the presence of Major-General Quitman, the commander of the 
 volimteers, and the first American Governor of Mexico, together 
 v,it\i several other distinguished officers and civihans. After refer- 
 ring in high terms to the bravery of the gallant New York regi- 
 rnent. General Ward availed himself of this opportunity of express- 
 ing his views as to the inexpediency and danger of maintaining a 
 large standing army, and in faVor of the American volunteer system, 
 in the following terms : 
 
 " Our volunteer service always has been, and is one of the most important and 
 interesting features of our political system, and deserves all possible encourage- 
 ment from our General and State governments. The citizens of this country en- 
 tertain a deep-seated prejudice against a large standing army. The sentiment has 
 arisen from the admonition contained in the history of other nations; it dates 
 from the earliest period in our history as a government, and has grown and been 
 strengthened with its rapid and unparalleled growth. Onr distant position from 
 the powerful nations of the Old World, and the ready and cheerful obedience of 
 our citizens to the laws, render a large permanent army unnecessary. In its place, 
 however, we have all the elements necessar^^ to create at any moment an army 
 adequate to the greatest emergencies of the government. These elements are to be 
 found among the brave, skillful and scientilic officers now in our regular service, 
 manj' of whose names are alread}^ high on the scroll of fame.in the military acade- 
 my, the nursery of the highest order of military science, tactics and knowledge, and 
 in the patriotic devotion of our citizens. The commencement of each war in 
 which our country has been engaged has witnessed a large body of our citizens, of 
 all classes and professions, and of everj^ business, leaving their ordinary avocations 
 for the public service ; and the return of peace has witnessed their retirement to 
 the quiet and peaceful pursuits of private life." 
 
 In August, 1855, General Ward was a delegate to the State Con- 
 vention of the National Democracy, then held at Syracuse, and was 
 
10 
 
 appointed Chairman of the Committee on Eesohitions. The resolu- 
 tions reported by him, and adopted by the convention, were com- 
 prehensive ; embraced the leading principles for which the 
 National Democracy were contending; reflected dignity upon the 
 convention ; and met the approval of his party and conservative men. 
 
 In October of the same year, he was elected President of the 
 Yomig Men's National Democratic Club, composed of a large num- 
 ber of the influential, active and energetic young men of the party, 
 and which did most effective work in the pohtical campaigns of that 
 period. 
 
 In 1856, he was a delegate to the Democratic Convention at 
 Cincinnati, which nominated the Honorable James Buchanan, for 
 President, and the Honorable John C. Breckem-idge, for Yice- 
 President. In the great contest which took place in that body, be- 
 tween the rival divisions of the New York Democracy, his efforts in 
 favor of a harmonious and honorable settlement of the differences, 
 with a view to the unity of the party in the coming struggle, 
 did much to produce the satisfactory result that ensued. 
 
 The same year he was chosen by a large pluraHty, a representa- 
 tive in Congress, from the Yllth Congressional District, composed 
 of the ninth, sixteenth, and twentieth wards of the city of New 
 York, which then, and during the time he represented it, had a 
 repubhcan majority. His competitors were the Honorable George 
 B r i g g s , of the " Native American " party, and General James 
 W. Nye, a Repubhcan. Pursuant to his election, he took his seat 
 as member of the XXX Vth Congress, on the fii-st Monday of 
 December, 1857. 
 
 Dming liis first term in Congress, no member made a more desira- 
 ble reputation as a legislative statesman ; or, more and warmer friends. 
 No other became so famihar with pubhc men of all parties, and 
 from every part of the United States. His speeches were upon snb- 
 jects of substantial interest, and such important points as were 
 immediately before Congress. All of them were characterized by 
 
11 
 
 much condensed and solid information, followed by a terseness and 
 accuracy of reasoning wbich caiTied con\dction to the minds of those 
 who heard him. 
 
 Strongly impressed with the knowledge that slavery would never 
 permanently exist in the territories, then owned by the United 
 States ; that by the simple laws of cHmate, and of profit and loss, 
 slaveholders, and the institution of slavery, could only remain in re- 
 gions more congenial to it ; Gen. Ward earnestly bent his best efforts 
 toward securing a peaceful solution of the question, on which so 
 embittered a controversy had arisen. Nothing but the silent opera- 
 tion of natm-al causes, for so long a period of time, was needed to 
 insm'e the triumph of freedom without injury to either race, or the 
 people of either part of the Union. He saw the dangers inseparable 
 from pressing the decision to an immediate issue by congressional 
 enactments, and behoved the dictate of sound poHcy was that legisla- 
 tion, the cause of such constant sectional agitation, and fraught 
 with so serious consequences to the pe^ce and harmony of the Union 
 should, so far as possible, be left to the people of the territories, 
 and of the new states to be formed out of them. He lamented the 
 sectional and pohtical excitement, engendered by the angry debates 
 aiid frequent misrepresentations of parties not always disinterested 
 on a subject in itself so simple and easy of settlement, and saw that 
 the bond of fraternal intercourse and sentiments, which should 
 always exist between the residents in the different parts of our 
 common country, was akeady weakened. He believed the Demo- 
 cratic party to be the only one that properly appreciated and 
 guarded all the great pm'poses for which om' government was 
 founded, that while it sought to protect individuals in the full enjoy- 
 ment of their personal privileges, and to preserve and extend civil 
 and rehgious hberty, it maintained a sti'ict observance of constitu- 
 tional rights and obhgations, and wisely fostered the great com- 
 mercial, agricultural and mechanical interests of the nation. 
 
 Holding these views, he addressed the House of Representatives on 
 
12 
 
 the 31st of March, 1858, on the " Nationahty of the Democratic 
 party and its importance to the Union." He m-ged the necessity of 
 investing the people of Kansas with the power of exercising the 
 • functions of a State government, so that Congress might be reheved 
 from further interference, and the people be left "perfectly free 
 to form and complete then* domestic institutions in their own. way, 
 subject only to the Constitution of the United States." 
 
 The citizens of Kansas, had an opportunity of voting for delegates 
 to form the constitution; but many of them refused to exercise that 
 right, or be bound by the reciprocal obhgation of the trust reposed 
 in them. The character of the Constitution was as democratic as 
 that of other States. One of the provisions was, that the people 
 should " at all times, have an inahenable and indefeasible right to 
 alter, reform, or abohsh then- form of government in such manner 
 as they may tlunlv proper." Opposition to such a Constitution, 
 seemed to him an omen of evil. He called on the Anti-Leeompton 
 Democrats to pause in the step they were about to take, warning 
 them — how wisely subsequent events demonstrated — that the sec- 
 tional triumph they were striving to accomphsh, might bring in its 
 train, such calamities as could only be conjectured. He said : 
 
 " The public welfare, the repose of the nation, and, indeed, every consideration 
 that can influence the patriot and lover of his country, demand that this subject 
 should be promptly dismissed from the halls of Congress. Kansas admitted, the 
 people of the territory will then adjust their own internal affau-s, peace be restored, 
 a more natural and healthful flow ot immigration than that sent forward by the 
 emigrant aid societies will occur, and peaceful pursuits will be cultivated, instead 
 of the warlike amusements now threatened. If Kansas should not be admitted, 
 the excitement now pervadmg the country will be continued ; the subject will 
 again be presented to Congress, impeding all legislation during the next session, 
 and perhaps m the one following it ; the waves of anger and embittered feeling 
 rolling higher and higlicr. It does not require a prophetic spirit to foretell the dis- 
 astrous consequences that may ensue." 
 
 Confident that slavery in the territories, left to the operation of 
 natm-al causes, would soon perish, General Ward hoped that by 
 pursuing the calm and magnanimous course which is so often the 
 best policy in great afiahs, the people in all parts of om* coimtry 
 
13 
 
 might avoid tlie calamities of the war, through which they have 
 
 since passed. He said : 
 
 " Once firmly established and acted upon in good faith, slavery will be left to 
 the law of climate and soil to control it. This law, which has been silently work- 
 ing since the adoption of the constitution, has caused the abolition of slavery in 
 six ot the original states, and either abolished or prohibited it in nine of the new 
 states since admitted, and which has now brought to us two, if not more, free 
 states for admission into the Union, thereby destroying the equilibrium between 
 the slave and free states, imposes, in my judgment, a higher duty upon the national 
 democracy of the north than has hitherto existed, to see that the compromises of 
 the Constitution are maintained, and the rights of the states secured. Its action 
 in the past is a guarantee for the future." 
 
 In conclusion. General Ward used the following words : 
 
 " I love my whole country : it is with regret that I see contrasts presented, at- 
 tempting to show the greater prosperity of one section or class over another. We 
 are one aggregated w^hole — what adds to one part strengthens the other. Our 
 power and greatness as a nation result from combination, and from that alone 
 must it increase and be carried on in the fulfillment of its great future." 
 
 When he became a member of the House of Kepresentatives, the 
 historical case of Judge Watrous, of the United States District 
 Court in Texas, had engaged its attention during several sessions. 
 The questions involved in it were those of the independence and in- 
 tegrity of the judiciary, and due regard to the sacred right of 
 petition. The State of Texas, through its legislatmes, had made 
 ample examination into the charges against Judge Watrous, and, 
 being fully convinced that he had been corruptly interested in the 
 results of various suits in his court, asked a just investigation from 
 Congress, and that, if the guilt of the accused were established, he 
 should be removed from the high office, of which he had abused the 
 trusts. He was charged with having endeavored, for his personal 
 profit, to give validity, through the coiu-t in which he presided, to 
 certificates of title covering nearly twenty-four millions of acres of 
 land, and with being directly or indirectly interested in the chief 
 suits brought before him. 
 
 On the 4th of December, 1858, General Ward addressed the 
 House, presenting a full, efiective -and impartial statement of the 
 acts of Judge Watrous, and strenuously urged the necessity of main- 
 
14 
 
 taining honesty and purity in the national courts, and of holding 
 corrupt judges to due responsibility. He insisted that the right of 
 petition should be maintained, and that the exercise of this essential 
 institution of repubhcanism should be treated with proper consider- 
 ation by those who are elected to represent the rights and interests 
 of the people. The sources whence the charges emanated were such 
 that a fan- investigation into then- character was due, not only to tho 
 dignity and purity of judicial position, and to the people at large, 
 but also to the accused, who, if innocent, should be allowed an op- 
 portunity of vindication and acquittal. " Until that is done," said 
 General Ward, " his usefulness as a judge is gone, his honor tar- 
 nished, and his integrity impeached." 
 
 The importance, to this comitry and the world, of a ship canal to 
 coimect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, has for many years en- 
 gaged the attention of General Ward, and, on the 15th of February, 
 1859, he dehvered an elaborate speech upon it, in the House of 
 Eepresentatives. After referring, with great warmth, to the inter- 
 est, he, personally, and as the representative of a constituency, to 
 which the progress of commerce was of vital importance, felt in in- 
 creased facihties for the transfer of property, and the intercourse of 
 mankind by means of raih-oad and canal communications, he ex- 
 plained the magnificent project of a ship canal across the Isthmus, 
 between the two great American continents, at such a cost as would 
 yield a reasonable profit. 
 
 Having shown that the chief nations of the world had, from the 
 earliest liistorical period, desu-ed to participate in the trade of the 
 East, and that the country controUing it had for that time held a 
 commercial supremacy over all others, he specified the advantages 
 the United States would gain in the contest for this great and in- 
 creasing trade, by cutting a canal from ocean to ocean, and thus 
 placing our country in a central position between the commercial 
 nations of Europe and those of the Orient. 
 
 Entering into a minute calculation, he demonstrated that, accord- 
 
15 
 
 ing to the official statistics of the United States for 1857, the savins 
 to our trade for that year would, if the canal had been completed, 
 have been $35,995,930, and that the annual saving to the world 
 during the next ten years would be $99,060,416, with a certainty of 
 continual additions. The estimated cost of the canal was $73,687,- 
 141, by way of the Atrato and Truando Eivers. He showed, by 
 valuable tables, the great economy that c6uld be effected in every 
 voyage from New York to various important ports by the proposed 
 work, in comparison with the present routes. San Francisco alone 
 would then be nearer to the commercial metropohs by fourteen 
 thousand miles, tlian by way of Cape Horn ; and on every outward 
 voyage, an average saving of at least ten thousand miles would be 
 made to China, India, Japan, the Sandwich Islands, British Aus- 
 tralia, the Dutch, Enghsh and French East Indies, New Zealand, 
 Alaska, the Russian possessions on the Pacific, the western coast of 
 Mexico, Chile and Peru. Including the return trip, the saving 
 would be doubled. The attainment of such great results would give 
 an extraordinary impulse to the commerce of the United States and 
 other nations. 
 
 Important and remunerative as the work would be, he thought it 
 was of a magnitude too vast to be assumed without the aid of the 
 government. He, therefore, proposed that, if necessary. Congress 
 should guarantee the payment of interest on the capital, from 
 year to year, as required for completion of the undertaking, and pre- 
 sented calculations, based on the amount of trade at the date when 
 he spoke, showing that the saving to the United States alone, dming 
 the first year, when the canal was in operation, would be $8,500,000 
 more than the whole interest on the expenditm-es for twelve 
 years. He presented computations proving that the yearly saving to 
 England would be $9,950,348, to France, $2,183,930, to tlie United 
 States, $35,995,930, and to other countries, $1,400,000 — an aggre- 
 gate of $49,530,208 annually. Hence there were good reasons for 
 believing that England and France would be desirous of being as- 
 
16 
 
 Bociated with the Umted States in solving this great problem of the 
 age. Thus the cost and responsibihtj to each would be moderate ; 
 no international jealousy or exclusive policy would interfere with it; 
 and the leading nations of the world would consult their own inter- 
 ests by guaranteeing its neutrahty and safety in time of war. 
 
 He lu-ged that the work would be a sound and proper investment 
 for the United States to make, even if double the estimated cost 
 were needful, in consequence of the increased benefits the new means 
 of transit would confer upon commerce — the great lever which con- 
 quers and maintains peace, and tends to bind the nations of the earth 
 in perpetual amity. 
 
 The speech was pecuharly instructive. It initiated in Congress a 
 movement of vast moment to the national prosperity, and became 
 the daily talk among thinking men, especially in mercantile and 
 diplomatic circles. The events of the war diverted attention, but 
 the stupendous undertaldng was delayed, not abandoned. It i§ 
 acquiring increased mterest in the pubhc mind, and renewed official 
 investigations, as to its cost and practicabiHty, have recently been 
 made. 
 
 During his first term in Congress, General Ward devoted liimself 
 to the consideration of several other practical and important quesr 
 tions. Upon his return home he was cordially welcomed by his 
 friends and constituents, who assembled in large force to testify their 
 esteem and respect for him, and tender their congratulation upon 
 his fidehty to their interest, and the various trusts confided to his 
 care. In October, 1858, he was nominated for re-election. His 
 competitor was the Hon. George Briggs, who imited the Native 
 American, and Eepublican nominations, by the withdrawal of Augus- 
 tus F. Dow, the candidate of the latter organization. At the elec- 
 tion in the following November, the vote for General Ward 
 exceeded that of 1856, when he was first elected ; but the perfect 
 union of the two other parties in favor of his opponent, made the 
 odds too great to be overcome, and he was defeated. 
 
17 
 
 Soon after the expiration of the first congressional term in 1859, 
 President Buchanan tendered General Ward a foreign mission, a 
 distinction which, while cordially appreciated, was respectfully de- 
 clmed in consequence of an intention to engage more actively in his 
 professional career, which had been partially interrupted by the 
 pressm'e of pubhc duties. His relations with the President were 
 of a most friendly and agreeable character, and he gave to the ad- 
 ministration during the XXXYth Congress, a personal devotion and 
 disinterested support which was at all times duly recognized. 
 
 In 1860, Greneral Ward was nominated for Congress, by the Mo- 
 zart and Breckenridge organizations, Udolpho Wolfe by the Tam- 
 many Hall branch of the party, the Hon. George Briggs, by the sup- 
 porters of BeU and Everett, and Augustus F.Dow by the Republicans. 
 General Ward and Mr. Wolfe, submitted to a conference committee, 
 mutually chosen, the question, which of the two should remain in the 
 field. The decision was in favor of General Ward, and Mr. Wolfe, 
 withdrew from the canvass, Mr. Briggs then also withdrew from 
 the contest, and his friends imited in support of General Ward, who 
 was chosen over Mr. Dow by a majority of 2,397. 
 
 Li 1862, he was again nominated for re-election by the democratic 
 party. His competitors were the Hon. Frederick A. Conkhng, 
 radical repubhcan, and Orison Blmit, conservative repubhcan 
 General Ward was elected by a large plurality, and had a majority 
 of 1,107 over both opponents. 
 
 From his earhest study of the history of his country, General 
 Ward had beheved the decisive course taken in 1833 by Andi-ew 
 Jackson, in reference to the • ordinance of nullification, passed by a 
 convention assembled in South CaroHna, was the true precedent for 
 action whenever any attempt to fhssolve the Union might be made. 
 He held vnth Jackson, that " the rights of a people of a single State 
 to absolve themselves at will, and without the consent of other 
 States, from their most solemn ol)ligations, and liazard the liberties 
 of the millions composing tliis Union, cannot be acknowledged ; " 
 
18 
 
 that, " compared to disunion, all other evils are light, because that 
 alone brings with it an accumulation of all ; that, if by the offensive 
 act of any State, the crime of shedding of a brother's blood should 
 fall upon our land, the mianimity with which the decision of the 
 people would be expressed in favor of the Union, would be such as 
 to inspire new confidence in republican institutions, and that the 
 prudence, the w^isdom, and the courage, wliich it would bring to 
 their defence, would transmit them unimpaired and invigorated to 
 our children." General Ward, held that these views constituted the 
 only rehable rule of pohcy for the democratic party and the nation 
 at large, and hoped that the happy 'sequel to the bold and merciful 
 action of President Jackson, would safely guide President Buchanan 
 to like results. Hence he deeply deplored, as encouraging to seces- 
 sionists, and fraught with the utmost danger to the people in all 
 parts of the coimtry, the declaration of Buchanan, in his message of 
 December, 1860, and in advance of the momentous occasion, that 
 Congress had no power, by force of arms, to compel a State to re- 
 main in the Union. Mr. Buchanan was among the last of the sm-- 
 vivors of a race of men, who in their day, regarded themselves as 
 faithful guardians of the Constitution and the Union. As a member 
 V)f the House of Representatives, a Senator, Minister to England, 
 Secretary of State and President, he was entitled to the highest con- 
 sideration of liis countrymen. When many other eminent men in 
 the North, wavered as to the coiu-se of action proper to adopt in the 
 then existing crisis ; with his constitutional ad\dsers divided upon the 
 issues of the day, it is perhaps, not surprising that he erred in his 
 views, from a desire for a peaceful preservation of the Union. Gen- 
 eral Ward, was of the opinion that if the President had pursued a 
 similar course to that of General Jackson, and appealed to Congress 
 to give Mm men and money, for the coming emergency, it would 
 not only have checked the seditious acts of the Southern men ; but 
 closed his administration with a popularity rarely equalled. 
 
 General Ward promptly recognized the facts that the Govern- 
 
19 
 
 ment did not begin tlie war, and tliat the seceded States, at the time 
 the rebelhon was inaugurated, had nothing of which they could 
 complain, that none of their prerogatives had been mterfered with ; 
 none of their citizens had been burthened by taxation, and all their 
 rights and institutions were under the protection of the United 
 States. He held that they had gone out from among us under tlie 
 pretense that they foresaw in the futm-e, "they should lose their just 
 pohtical power and influence in the Union ; and, acting upon this 
 self-imposed delusion, had drawn the sword wantonly and wdllfully 
 upon the Government and loyal people of' the United States. 
 Deeply impressed with these convictions, he took his seat in tlie 
 XXXVIIth Congress, at the extra session beginning on the 4th of 
 July, 1861, and gave a firm and consistent support to all well- 
 devised efforts to crush the rebelhon. This session was entirely 
 devoted to placing the army and navy in the requisite condition and 
 supplying the other urgent necessities created by the war. 
 
 The injustice of ^vithholding from New York those rights of 
 coinage, which were granted to places so remote from the channels 
 of trade, and so seldom named as Dahlonega and Charlotte, is one 
 of the most flagrant wi'ongs existing under the Government of the 
 United States. General Ward, who when in Congress was pre- 
 eminently the commercial representative of the National emporium 
 of trade, strenuously exposed this costly grievance, and urged the 
 needful reform. In 1862, the Chamber of Commerce of the State 
 of New York, presented to Congress a memorial, setting forth the 
 importance of conferring upon the United States assay office in the 
 City of New York, the privilege of coining with the national cur- 
 rency, such portions of gold and silver bulhon, as may be deposited 
 with the Treasurer at New York for that piu-pose ; and on the 15th 
 of May, General Ward from the Committee on Commerce, made to 
 the House of Representatives, a report in favor of the prayer of the 
 memorial. He submitted also an act for carrying out his recom- 
 mendations. Before impartial judges the opening paragraph of the 
 
20 
 
 report, would by itself, have been sufficiently convincing. He said 
 
 " It should require no argument to prove that the most convenient place, for tho 
 purpose of coinage by the government of the United States, is the commercial cen 
 tre towards which the chief lines of communication tend, bringing from various 
 places, and more than to any other point, the precious metals, and distributing 
 them again in pursuance of the natural and inevitable laws of trade. To send any 
 article some hundreds of miles for the purpose of receiving a stamp or mark, as'a 
 guarantee that it is genuine, and returning it again to the place whence it was 
 sent, and where it is to be sold or used, is so self-evidently an useless and improper 
 expenditure of public money that little more is deemed necessary than to state the 
 facts of this case in the form of accurate statistics. Tried by the plain rules guid- 
 ing men of common prudence in every day life, the singular extravagance of the 
 present plan is manifest. No individual would tolerate a similar wastefulness in 
 his own business." 
 
 In the year before the report was presented, the cost of carrying 
 gold and silver from New York, to be coined at the mint in Pliila- 
 delpliia had been more than $71,755, without includmg the loss of 
 tune to the depositor, or the risks which, under the most favorable 
 circumstances, are attached to the frequent transfer of large smns, 
 sometimes amounting to $1,000,000 at a single time. Thus the 
 injury sustained by the public in that one year alone, was fairly 
 estimated at $100,000, tlie full amount of the appropriation named 
 m the bill under consideration, and enough to put the present assay 
 office in complete order for coining all the gold and silver that wdll 
 probably be offered for that purpose by o^vners and depositors at 
 New York for several years to come. 
 
 The report contained brief statements of the increase of the trade 
 of New York, its proportion to that of the other trade of the coun- 
 try, and of the amounts of bullion annually received m that city 
 The whole amount of coinage at the two mints of Dahlonega and 
 Charlotte, since their commcement in 1838 to 1861, was only $11,- 
 039,034, httle more than two-thirds of the average amount sent, at 
 great expense, from the assay office in New York, for coinage each 
 year of its existence. 
 
 In the seven preceding fiscal years, the amount of gold mined in 
 the United States, and received at the assay office in New York was 
 some twelve times greater than that received at the mint in Phila- 
 
21 
 
 delpliia ; wliile tlie amounts of foreign coin and bullion received at 
 the ports of New York and Pliiladelpliia respectively, dm-inf^ tlie 
 six years ending June 30, 1860, were more than ninety-eight times 
 as large at New York as at Philadelphia. Those who have paid 
 most attention to the subject will best understand the significance ot 
 the following suggestions : 
 
 " The full importance of coinage at New York, the central focus for trade in the 
 prcf^ious metals on this, the chief continent for their production, may never be 
 perceived until the leading commercial nations of the world have adopted'a uni- 
 form system of decimal coinage, a project which is already regarded with much- 
 favor by many thoughtful and philanthropic individuals in various countries, and 
 would conduce greatly to the advantage of mankind, by facilitating commerce, and 
 rendering the common representative of value in every nation intelligible to every 
 civilized man. A greatly increased proportion of the bullion arriving at New 
 York would then be coined there, if the desired facilities for that purpose are 
 granted, and would become a universal currency throughout the globe." 
 
 Few propositions were ever more clearly estabKshed than the one 
 announced at the conclusion of the report, that " a faithful perform- 
 ance of the trusts confided to Congress by the Constitution of the 
 United States, requires that necessary facihties for coinage should be 
 estabhshed in the City of New York, where buUion can be coined 
 with the greatest degree of economy to the government, and the 
 greatest degree of convenience to the largest number of om* citi- 
 zens." 
 
 It is one of the most striking instances of the favoritism of our 
 times, and of the power exercised by local or special interests at 
 the expense of the nation at large, that Congress did not comply 
 with the reasonable recommendations made, and incontrovertibly 
 supported through General Ward. The war intervened, and re- 
 course to a paper cm-rency, rendering coinage less necessary for the 
 time, gave to unjust legislators a power with wliich the reformers 
 were unable to cope. On a return to specie payment, the subject 
 will attract renewed attention. The statistical facts enumerated in 
 the report were generally copied into the metropohtan papers. The 
 conmaents were unanimous, and then- character may be inferred 
 
22 
 
 from the apt and hnmorons illustration given in the Indejpendent 
 
 It said : 
 
 " General Ward, M. C, from New York, has reported from the House Commit- 
 tee on Commerce, a bill, authorizing the coinage of gold and silver in this city, the 
 spot where nine-tenths of the bullion and foreign coin are first received. No buisir 
 ness man would think of opposing such a movement, if it related tO" his own per- 
 sonal affairs ; but politicians, it is now generally supposed, sometimes legislate as 
 though they had neither talent nor brains. Our Government, in this special mat- 
 ter, acts like the man who built a saw-mill on the prairie, and then drew all his logs 
 twenty-five miles to saw them." 
 
 The early connection of General Ward with mercantile life, and 
 his residence and associations in the city of New York, had led him 
 to give to commercial subjects an attention which was not excelled 
 by any member of either House of Congress. In connection with 
 this tendency, his legal career had not only taught him to reflect 
 much on the proper provisions of a uniform bankrupt law through- 
 out the United States, but had filled him with sympathy for the 
 honest sufferers with whom he had been brought into communica- 
 tion, and enabled him to see that what was a measure of mercy to 
 Buch debtors, would almost invariably be also a source of quick 
 justice to creditors. His exertions in favor of such a measm-e 
 began in 1858, as soon as he entered Congress ; and in 1859, when 
 not a member, he had personally endeavored to induce the con- 
 gressional committee, to which the subject had been referred, 
 to lose no time in recommending this valuable legislative reform. 
 It was owing to his efforts that the committee did not report 
 adversely. 
 
 The number of those who were imable to pay their debts, and 
 whose lives were as hopeless for themselves as for their creditors, 
 had for many years increased gradually ; but, soon after the rebel- 
 lion be^an, additional thousands of men became insolvent, from 
 the pressure of a national calamity as unexpected by them as if it 
 had been a sudden conflagration. The leading merchants of New 
 York and Boston, through their commercial associations, expressed 
 their opinion that measures of relief would be peculiarly in harmony 
 
23 
 
 with the beneficent institutions of a wise and liberal republic. 
 General Ward was one of the foremost among those who advocated 
 such a law as would give to each creditor a fair proportion of the 
 assets of the banki'upt, and sharply and decisively define how first 
 settlements between debtors and creditors should be made. 
 
 A sketch of his pubhc career can be little more than a record of 
 ejfforts to bring every day life and national afiiau's into legitimate 
 harmony with reasonable and humane sentiments. Full of faith 
 in this rule of life, he unremittingly served the cause of a bankrupt 
 law with even more than his usual zeal. It commended itself to 
 him, no less through his impartial judgment, than his earnest sym- 
 pathies. 
 
 In 1862, much disappointment was felt at the postponement, by 
 Congress, until December in that year, of all consideration of the 
 bill reported by the special committee, " to establish a uniform sys- 
 tem of bankruptcy throughout the United States;" and he deemed 
 it his duty to bring forward the chief points of the question to a 
 fair and just consideration of the representatives of the people. 
 
 In a speech delivered in the House of Representatives on the 3d 
 day of June, 1862, he illustrated the subject by his customary 
 use of statistics, so comprehensive, that they could not mislead. 
 He traced the ruinous effects of the various expansions and con- 
 tractions of the currency, and argued that, as the causes of the 
 then recent insolvencies were for the most part entirely political, 
 the unfortunate men " who have thus been ruined should no more 
 be punished for these misfortunes than for any of the niunerous ac- 
 cidents to wliich mankind are liable." 
 
 He briefly presented the chief facts of the case in the following 
 
 paragraph, saying : 
 
 " The present indebtedness of the southern to the northern states is carefully es- 
 timated to he about $300,000,000, of which $159,000,000 are due to the City of New 
 York; $24,000,C00 to Philadelphia ; $19,000,000 to Baltimore; and $7,600,000 to 
 Boston. By the losses thus incurred, many men of honor and integrity, whose 
 means of meeting all their pecuniary engagements were as little doubted by them- 
 
24 
 
 selves as by all who knew them, are undergoing the slow torture of mercantile 
 failure — hopeless and lifelong, 'if they be not relieved by the government of their 
 country. In not a few cases, the amount of their debts is many times less than 
 that due to them by their former customers in the southern states. Last year, in 
 the City of New York, nine hundred and thirteen mercantile houses became in- 
 solvent, whose separate liabilities were in no case under $50,000, and in some 
 instances, amounted to several millions. Out of two hundred and sixty-six leadin* 
 dry goods houses reported sound when the rebellion began, only sixteen remain, 
 and their condition is precarious. These firms cannot well be spared from our 
 commercial circles at this present crisis. The common rules of humanity require 
 our sympathy in their behalf, and no less do justice and a regard for the interests 
 of the republic, requu-e that, after a strict examination of the aflairs of each insolv- 
 ent, if he uprig&tly and honorably surrenders his property for the benefit of his 
 creditors, he shall be permitted to begin the world anew." 
 
 The following extract is a fair illustration of his characteris- 
 tic reasoning, in which the facts of statistics and deductions from 
 the principles of humanity and justice are harmoniously blended. 
 He said : * 
 
 " It is estimated that throughout our great commercial cities, in ordinary times, 
 five per cent, of the persons engaged in business fail every year. Ninetj^-five per 
 cent, of our chief business men become insolvent at least once in their life- times, 
 and most of those who ultimately succeed, have, at some time, passed through the 
 same ordeal, and been dependent upon the leniency or indulgence of their cred- 
 itors. In many, perhaps in most cases, the honest debtor is met by his creditor in 
 the spirit of justice. Creditors who adopt this line of action will surely not com- 
 plain of a law making tlie course they pursue obligatory upon other creditors, thus 
 preventing fraudulent and preferential assignments, and much expensive litigation 
 and delay." 
 
 Having stated the result of his own observation to be that in 
 ninety cases out of a hundred where compromise had been offered 
 immediately after failure and repelled, the creditors would after- 
 wards be glad if they could compromise the debt on less favorable 
 terms, but usually fail to realise anything — the debt becoming a 
 total loss, he said : 
 
 " An attempt to settle with their creditors is usually one of tfce first efibrts on 
 the part of those who become insolvent. If the debtor foils in this, through the 
 want of concurrence among his creditors, and the claims against him are pressed, 
 ho foresees long years of thraldom and embarassment, and his next impulse is to 
 secure provisions for himself and family. In his despair of meeting with justice, 
 be often has recourse to many subterfuges, few of which ever reach the public ear ; 
 but the common course is to make a preferential assignment, permitted by law, 
 thus placing his assets in the hands of one or more friends, from whom he hopes to 
 
25 
 
 obtain emplojonent or assistance in business, or, perhaps, support and money from 
 the actual proceeds. The remainder of his creditors remain unsatisfied, and he 
 bids them defiance. Creditors, on the other hand, fearing assignments of tliis 
 kind, often submit to compromises whicli they linovv to be unjust. A proper banli- 
 rupt law, prohibiting these assignments, would diminish, if it did not destroy, such 
 dangers, and thus befriend the creditor. In many cases, through these assign- 
 ments, or by other means, the debtor is tempted to keep all he can until some such 
 terms as he thinks favorable, can be eflFected. From this time he leads a surrep- 
 titious and demoralizing life. Perhaps one creditor alone objects to the offers 
 made. The debtor is determined not to pay one unless he can pay all; It is 
 necessary his family should be maintained. Time passes, and his assets are dimin- 
 ished. Often the creditor fearing preferential assignments, hesitates to use legal 
 measures. The only dividend that can now be offered seems paltry. The debtor 
 finding that neither the world nor the world's law befriend him, and believing that 
 the bondage of debt will be perpetual, not unfrequently sets aside the common re- 
 straints of prudence and morality, and becomes an incubus and injury to society; 
 instead of devoting his intellect and energies to its benefit. If of a nature too 
 scrupulous and honorable to yield readily to temptation, his sufferings are severe 
 and constant. He endeavors to provide for those dependent upon him; but their 
 respect for him is diminished by his own loss of conscious independence, and the 
 change expeiienced in the social position of them all ; arising not from the neces- 
 sity of proper retrenchment — this he and they can meet — but, because society always 
 attaches a certain degree of odium to the insolvent, who is thereby humilated, and 
 often so far depressed, as to cause him to resort to dissipation as a means of obtain- 
 ing a temporary forgetfulness. He feels weak and degraded in the eyes of that 
 little domestic circle of his wife and children, of those whom he is bound by every 
 honorable and sacred instinct of his nature to maintain and defend, at all legiti- 
 mate hazards, by the daily labor of his life, receiving in return, as his natm-al right, 
 the cherished equivalent of their affection and respect. He can bestow upon them 
 nothing more than a temporary subsistence, taking care at best that he never has 
 at his command more than the savings of a limited number of days. The law has 
 done all it can to make honesty no longer the best policy for him, and the only 
 hope he has of worldly prosperitj^, or of competence, consists in practicing dis- 
 honorable concealments." 
 
 The concludiug words of his speech were : 
 
 " Societ}', itself, has at all times an interest in the subsequent life and exertions 
 of the bankrupt. The hope or expectation of future acquisition by conducing to 
 the industry, honesty and morality of the unfortunate debtor contributes to the 
 welfare of the community. A due regard for the public good demands that the 
 future acquisitions of the debtor who has faithftdly surrendered all he owned for 
 the benefit of his creditors, should be placed unc^er his own control, and fully jus- 
 tifies prudent and careful enactments for that purpose." 
 
 At the present thne it is diffictilt to realize how, in a Congress of 
 Representatives of the American people, the passage of a bankrupt 
 law could have been so long delayed ; but the people of the agricul- 
 tural districts, in whose piu-suits there is httle hazard, then under- 
 
26 
 
 stood less thorougUy than they now do, the sudden . monetary 
 revohition by which men of the best intentions, and of good business 
 habits, are sometimes ruined. The imperfect operations of the pre- 
 vious temporary enactments had also their influence. Congress 
 postponed the fm-ther consideration of the subject. 
 
 In the following session of Congress General Ward again took 
 his place in the foreground in the House of Representatives as an 
 advocate of a permanent banki'upt law, tending to prevent the 
 waste of assets, both by its compulsory clauses and by opening out 
 avenues of future, and hopeful employment to every debtor who 
 passes through the ordeal Avith an unblemished reputation. He 
 ably maintained that while such an enactment would be alike more 
 profitable to the creditor, and more humane to the debtor than the 
 customs ah-eady prevailing, it would also tend to " create and 
 maintain a liigh standard of mercantile integrity and honor — a 
 possession of inestimable value to the nation." 
 
 The importance of the commercial relations of the United States 
 with the other nations on this continent early engaged the attention 
 of (jreneral Ward. He saw in the free developement of the material 
 interests they have in common, the natm'al path to those friendly 
 sentiments, and that homogeneity of institutions, which are essential 
 to the most successful admission of such large populations into the 
 Union, or to whatever other mutually beneficial arrangement may be 
 most suitable to the occasion, when prejudice is disarmed and the in- 
 fluence of commerce has brought the people on both sides into profit- 
 able intercourse, and woven the powerful bands of such an alhance 
 between them. 
 
 The treaty providing for a reciprocal trade in certain articles 
 between this country and British North America was, for several 
 years, mutually satisfactory ; but the Canadian authorities raised 
 the duties on manufactured goods to such an extent as to destroy 
 its natural effects in promoting many branches of the industry 
 of om' people. In some cases the results of the new legisla- 
 
27 
 
 tion were so decided that mamifacturing establishments, witli their 
 machinery, capital and men, were removed from this country to 
 Canada. In this state of aifairs, the legislature of the State of Kew 
 York passed concurrent resolutions, demanding a revision of tho 
 treaty, expressing approval o^ the principle of reciprocity, and a 
 desire for an extension of its application. It was seen that unre- 
 stricted trade between the United States and Canada must be no less 
 mutually beneficial than that between New York and Pennsylvania, 
 Illinois, or any of the other states of the Union. 
 
 In 1861 General Ward presented to the House of Representatives, 
 and ably supported the concurrent resolutions passed by the legis- 
 lature of the State of New York, in favor of " the co-operation and 
 expansion of the commercial relations between the United States 
 and British Provinces," and declaring, that although much restrictive 
 legislation in Canada since the enactment of the treaty had modi- 
 fied its natural operations, " free commercial intercom-se between 
 the United States, and the British ISTorth American Provinces and 
 Possessions, developing the natm-al, geographical and other advan- 
 tages of each, for the good of all, is the only proper basis of our 
 intercourse for all time to come." 
 
 The House referred the resolutions to the Committee on Com- 
 merce, in whose behalf he prepared and presented in 1862 a more 
 elaborate report than had ever before been made on the same topic. 
 It was no less comprehensive in principle than accurate in detail. He 
 saw that om- commercial relations with the British Provinces were 
 worthy of the closest investigation, not only from the importance of 
 their territory and population, but for the yet more weighty consid- 
 eration that the principles and plans necessary to a mutually satis- 
 factory adjustment of the existing impediments to the natural devel- 
 opment of trade with them, would have a valuable influence on the 
 future pohcy of the United States, by forming the nucleus for such 
 a system of exchanging the products of the industries of our people 
 with other nations on this continent, as would be no less beneficial 
 
28 
 
 than that of the citizens of our different states with each other ; thns 
 regarding the adoption of just measures of reciprocal trade with Can- 
 ada, as the proper precursor of yet more comprehensive arrange- 
 ments. He sketched the characteristics of the men of the north, 
 and announced in the following paragraph the principle which 
 should animate the policy of the United States towards them. He 
 said : 
 
 " The climate and soil of these provinces and possessions,seemingly less indulgent 
 than those of tropical regions, are precisel}^ those by which the skill, energy and 
 virtues of the human race, are best developed. Nature there demands thought and 
 labor from man, as conditions of his existence, but yields abundant rewards to wise 
 industry. Those causes, which in our age of the world, determine the wealth of 
 nations,are those which render man most intelligently industrious; and it cannot 
 be too often or too closely remembered in discussing subjects so vast as these, where 
 the human mind may be misled if it attempts to comprehend them in their boundless 
 variety of detail, that sure and safe guides in the application of political economy, 
 and to our own prosperity, are to be found in the simple principles of morality 
 and justice, because they are true alike in minute and great affairs, at all times, 
 and in every place. They im]ily freedom for ourselves, and those rules of frater- 
 nity or equality, which enjoin us to regard our neiglibors as ourselves. We can 
 trust in no other policy." 
 
 He demonstrated, and by irrefutable statistics, not only the in- 
 consistency of their recent legislation in Canada in connection with 
 the treaty, but also the magnitude of the benefits which would accrue 
 to both coimtries from actual reciprocity in trade ; and took decided 
 ground in favor of a zollverein or customs' union, as being tlie only 
 way of attaining it, unless the people of Canada should vohmtarily 
 desire annexation to the United States. He was thus the first to 
 introduce to the House of Representatives this project, whicli lias 
 since received much consideration from the press and thouglitfid 
 men in both countries. 
 
 The report attracted attention from nearly all the leading journals 
 of the Union. It was reviewed with approbation in New York, 
 Buffalo, Oswego, and the north western states, and met with mucli 
 consideration in Canada, where, although it occupied thirty eight 
 octavo pages, it was printed at full length in the most widely circu- 
 lated newspaper of the province, accompanied by the recommenda 
 
29 
 
 tion that " it should be read 'and understood by every man of intel- 
 ligence in Canada." The general sentiment of the Canadians at 
 that time may be inferred from the expressions of the same journal, 
 that " although they could live and prosper without reciprocal trade, 
 they preferred freedom of intercourse with their American neigh- 
 bors." It adopted the spirit of the report so fur as to say that 
 " apart altogether from the dissatisfaction of the Americans with the 
 treaty, there is a desire on the part of Canadians to see it improved 
 and extended, and therefore om* government ought to be prepared 
 to receive any proposition which the Americans may make, and 
 consider it with respect, and a desire to come to an an*angement 
 satisfactory to all parties." The Canadian Minister of Finance 
 oflficially published, and caused to be extensively circulated, a long 
 but ineffectual rej)ly to the charges of the report. 
 
 The House of Representatives ordered fifteen thousand copies of 
 the report to be printed, in addition to the usual number, and Mr. 
 Layard, in the British House of Commons, in answer to enquiries, 
 stated that several copies of it had been procured and would be laid 
 upon the table, for the information of the public. It elicited f^ivorable 
 comments from several members of the liberal party in Great Britain. 
 
 In the following Congress the various memorials, relating to the 
 treaty, having been referred to the Committee on Commerce, Gen- 
 eral Ward, on its behalf, made another report, exhibiting such 
 additional facts and statistics as showed the state of trade between 
 the United States and Canada, down to that time. He recommend- 
 ed that the president should be authorized to give notice of the 
 abrogation of the treaty as soon as it might be legally done, unless, 
 before that time, further arrangements, mutually satisfactory to both 
 governments, should be made ; and that the president be also auth- 
 orized to appoint three commissioners, by and with the advice and 
 consent of the Senate, for the revision of the treaty, and to confer 
 with other commissioners, duly authorized therefor, whenever it 
 shall appear to be the wish of the government of Great Britain to 
 
30 
 
 negotiate a new treaty, based upon these principles of reciprocity, 
 and for the removal of existing difficulties. 
 
 The subject again excited much interest throughout the country, 
 and on the 18th of May, 1864, in the same year, a joint resolution in 
 accordance with the recommendation of the committee being under 
 consideration, General Ward addressed the House. He urged that 
 it was more reasonable and beneficial to remove whatever objection- 
 able features then existed in connection with the trade, than to 
 disturb the industry and investments of the large nmnber of our 
 citizens engaged in it, and rebuked the pretentious interference of 
 arbitrary and compulsory legislation with the common affairs of the 
 people, in words which, although they arose naturally from the sub- 
 ject, may well be regarded as a philosophical enunciation of the 
 great general principle of trade. He said : 
 
 " Upon the plainest principles of human nature, it is clear that the individual 
 transactions constituting the vast aggregate of this trade since 1855, and amount- 
 ing to more than fifty millions of dollars in 1863 alone, must, year after year have 
 been sufficiently profitable, to remunerate those who produced the substantial 
 materials of the exchanges, and those who were engaged in the traffic, who in their 
 turn, could not have continued their business if they had not found in the people 
 at large consumers or customers, who were benefited by the purchases they made." 
 
 The subject was not discussed in a merely partisan spirit. The 
 
 manner in wliich it was presented by General Ward ensured a more 
 
 than usual exemption from this danger. He said : 
 
 " I have the satisfaction of knowing that this is no party question, and that 
 many gentlemen on the other side ot the house unite with me in eflForts to establish 
 or extend such a liberal policy towards the proviifces, as shall mutually benefit 
 both countries, uniting us together by the bonds which are the most powerful of 
 all; those of mutual interest, well judged in necessary conformity to higher princi- 
 ples. I am less desirous of an union of the Government, than of an union of the 
 people. I do not wish to admit into our family of states, any who are not im- 
 bued with the spirit of our institutions, and do not appreciate, as we do, the bene- 
 fits resulting from them, or the principles on which they are established." 
 
 He deplored such a course as would again impose duties on 
 many of the articles exempted by the treaty, and which arc the sim- 
 plest materials for the use of our ship builders and manufactin-ers, 
 and necessaries for the support of hmnan life. The mutual exports 
 
31 
 
 and imports of coal fiu-nish one of the best possible illustrations of 
 the principle ; and he said : 
 
 " Among the most important of these materials which should be supplied to our 
 manufacturers and people, at as lo»v a price as possible, is coal, an essential ele- 
 ment of household life and comfort, and the chief producer of the great labor-sav- 
 ing power of steam. The exports from Ohio and Pennsylvania to Upper Canada, 
 are nearly of the same value as those of the New England States and New York, 
 from the Lower Provinces. In Canada West, the coal from the United States has 
 superceded that brought from Liverpool and the Lov.er Provinces; and, at Mon- 
 treal, the anthracite of the easterly portions of Pennsylvania also competes with 
 coal brought from Liverpool and Nova Scotia. These minerals are not found in 
 the geological formations of Upper Canada, and, as the forests disappear, and 
 wool becomes too valuable to be used as fuel, that part of tlie Provinces will ulti- 
 mately depend exclusively upon the United States, for the most economical supply 
 of this necessary article. 
 
 " Anthracite coal, although found abundantly on the eastern slope of the Alle- 
 ghanies, is found no where in the colonies, and will always be imported by them, 
 while for tiany purposes of fuel, in tue eastern states, economy dictates the use of 
 the coal of Nova Scotia. Bituminous coal, of the kind most commonly used in 
 the manufacture of gas, is not found in our territory east of tlie Alleghany moun- 
 tains, witliin an available distance from our chief Atlantic cities. It would be 
 needless to say that a trade of this kind is mutually beneficial. Under a system of 
 free trade in coal, the people of each couutr3^ are supplied more cheaply than they 
 otherwise could be with necessary light and fuel ; and both save, throughout large 
 regions, the expefise and labor of carrying a heavy and bulky article for several 
 hundreds of miles." 
 
 He gave timely and prophetic warning of the course which '• has 
 been taken by Canada in consequence of the exclusive course Con- 
 gress thought fit to adopt. Including the union of the provinces, 
 the construction of intercolonial railroads, the rapid progress in 
 home industry, by which she has become independent of om* manu- 
 factures, and our competitor in neutral markets, and the liberal 
 policy by which so large a share of our western products has been 
 diverted over her railroads and down the St. Lawrence. He closed 
 his speech in the following words : 
 
 " We are considering the commercial relations of one-eighth of the habitable sur- 
 face of the world. Of this vast region, the United States and the people of the 
 colonies, subject to a beneficent providence, control the present condition, and 
 shape the future history. It has been given to us in the advanced condition of 
 human civilization, as a new parchment, on which we may inscribe whatever 
 characters we choose; and the opportunity will never return again in all the plen- 
 itude of the present time. With nations, as with individuals, those habits and 
 
32 
 
 tendencies are easily formed in yontli which are afterwards developed, and control 
 the career through long years or centuries of the future. We may differ from the 
 people of the provinces in opinion as to the best form of government; but other 
 nations can judge better for themselves than we can for them, as to their own 
 method of legislation. A prohibitory or exclusive system would be no less un- 
 natural and injurious as to every commercial, political and moral result, than if 
 we separated New York from Massachusetts, and both of them from Ohio, Illinois, 
 or Iowa. Let us then regulate our intercourse, not by mutual fear or destruction, 
 but b}'' creating, or rather developing, reciprocal benefits, in accordance with the 
 manifest designs of Him who made the world, and who should never be mentioned 
 except upon occasions worthy of Him. Such a system is doubly beneficial. 
 
 ' It droppeth, as the gentle dew from Heaven, 
 Upon the place beneath ; it is twice blessed. 
 It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.' 
 
 Under its influence, assisted by a wise application of the reason with which man 
 is endowed, old animosities will be forgotten, and, in da3-s to come, the people of 
 both countries, seeing plainlj'^ that the social body of mankind, like the material 
 body of the individual, is provided with a healing power, will find additional rea- 
 sons to reverence Him by whom the universe itself was formed." 
 
 One of the most interesting debates known in Congress, on any 
 financial subject, ensued. 
 
 Messrs. Morill, Washburne, Winter Davis, Baxter, Pike, and 
 others, opposed the resohition, and General Ward»was ably sup- 
 ported by Messrs. Sweat, of Maine ; Eliot, of Mass. ; Arnold, of Illi- 
 nois; Pruyn, Littlejohn, Davis and others, of the State of JSTew York. 
 But the cliief burden of the debate, on the liberal side, fell upon 
 him. Mr. Sweat said that he hoped every gentleman in the House, 
 who had not heard the speech of General "Ward, would read it, for 
 in his judgment, the views "therein set forth, are not only correct 
 and sound, but just and wise, and worthy the careful consideration 
 of all who would look at the subject dispassionately." To his mind, 
 it was the most exhaustive treatment given to any subject that had 
 come before the House in that session. " And in this respect," 
 added Mr. Sweat, " I cannot forbear saying, that it presents a very 
 wide contrast to the remarks which have been made by other gen 
 tlemen upon this question, and which, I say it in no offensive sense, 
 have savored more of prejudice than of statesmanship." 
 
 It was the duty of General Ward to sum up the debate, and correct 
 
33 
 
 not a few extraordinary and erroneous statements which had been 
 made by the ultra-protectionists in the course of the debate. He 
 fulfilled his part with conscious reliance on the micontroverted 
 facts and principles he had brought to notice, and without descend- 
 ing to retaliation or invective. 
 
 An amendment submitted by Mr. Arnold, of Illinois, with a view 
 to enlarge the basis of the present treaty, was decisively negatived. 
 Mr. Morill, of Vermont, then offered, as a substitute for the reso- 
 lution reported by General Ward, another, merely authorizing the 
 President to give notice of the termination of the treaty, without 
 providing for any amelioration of it. The substitute was negatived 
 by a vote of 82 to 74. 
 
 The preamble to the resolution presented by General Ward, 
 «i;3tierted that commercial intercom-se between the United States and 
 the British ]^orth American Provinces, should thereafter be so 
 ^ conducted as to be reciprocally beneficial to both parties. It was 
 v^dopted, thus showing that a majority of the members of the House 
 were in favor of the principle. The resolution also would have 
 been carried if a few members, who, together with their constitu- 
 ents, were conspicuously in favor of, and especially interested in, 
 the utmost possible freedom of exchanges 'between the two coun- 
 tries, had not been induced to believe that they would obtain better 
 terms by postponement to the next session of Congress. But the 
 postponement was only adopted by a majority of five out of one 
 hundi'ed and fifty-nine votes. 
 
 Just before the time for reconsideration arrived, the war feeling 
 had attained increased intensity, and the exigencies and temper of 
 the occasion threw all commercial considerations temporarily aside. 
 
 As in the House of Eepresentatives at Wasliington, so also in the 
 public press, the com-se suggested by General Ward, as to the 
 proper commercial relations of the American continent, won many 
 golden opinions from advocates of the most discordant partisan pol- 
 itics. The New York Worlds in several editorial articles, support- 
 
34 
 
 ed his views as to the establishment of a zollvereiu with Canada, 
 and uro-ed " the Chamber of Commerce and om- merchants, who 
 are at all times desirous of information which may lead to an in- 
 crease of foreign trade," to give their careful attention to his sug- 
 gestions, "inasmuch as our national debt and heavy taxation 
 render it prudent, perhaps imperative, to exercise a wise forethought 
 in stimulating the productive energies of om- people, by opening up 
 new outlets in foreign countries." The Times pointed out the 
 new and instructive information he presented, and his careful 
 avoidance of " that hostile spirit which has so often led further and 
 further from the proper objects of discussion, until the simple 
 questions really at issue become hidden under heaps and incrusta- 
 tions of prejudice, accumulated by the errors and hatred of many 
 generations." The Tribune said that " great and pressing as the 
 domestic questions are at this horn*, it is no time to overlook mat- 
 ters of extrinsic but endm-ing interest," and that " the country owes 
 its thanks to him for bringing so much industry and judgment to 
 bear upon om' treaty relations with Canada." The Evening Post 
 commended the report to the perusal of the ultra-protectionists ; 
 and the Journal of Commerce testified that " it labors earnestly 
 and honestly to promote that enlightened liberality of sentiment 
 and mutual good-will, which it is for the interest of both parties to 
 inculcate," adding that " its free circulation cannot fail to do good 
 on both sides of the border ; and we hope that it will be widely 
 distributed for that pm'pose." The Economist, after alluding to his 
 exertions in behalf of a soun^ bankrupt law, and an American Zoll- 
 vereiu, said it would be unjust to General Ward and some other ca- 
 pable and laborious representatives and senators, not to acknowledge 
 the fidelity and practical ability with which they applied themselves 
 effectively to the business of the nation ; and added : 
 
 " The speech of the Honorable Elijah Ward, on the commercial relations between 
 the United States and the British North American Provinces and Possessions, is a 
 model of statesmanly discussion. Its unpartizan spirit and breadth of view pre- 
 sent a welcome contrast to the narrow party animus with which the great fiscal 
 
35 
 
 and commercial questions of the day are now treated in Congress. Mr. Ward 
 rises far above the common Congressional level, and in the treatment of a question 
 that affects the interests ot the whole country, discards the clamor of local inter- 
 ests, rebukes petty international jealousies, and calmly inquires what arrangement 
 of the treaty can be made yieldmg the greatest advantages and the amplest j ustice 
 to both nations concerned." 
 
 Throughout his career in Congress General Ward bokUy main- 
 tained the same opinions on financial subjects as are held by that 
 intelligent and progressive class of men who are now known to the 
 public as Kevenue Reformers. From the beginning of the monetary 
 changes introduced in consequence of the war, he advocated such 
 measures as it is now seen would have been most expedient for the 
 country, and the adoption of whicli would have rendered present 
 reform unnecessary. He firmly opposed the " Legal Tender " pol- 
 icy of Secretary Chase, and others of the party in power. The 
 Secretary of the Treasmy was led so far by the temporary pressure 
 of the times, and the difficulties of his position, as to support by his 
 official authority the pernicious doctrine that the decrease on the 
 value of fictitious money, as compared with gold, was neither wholly 
 nor for the greater part owing to the large volume of paper prom- 
 ises to pay. 
 
 While General Ward opposed the pernicious errors thus enunci- 
 ated in high places, he fully shared in the deep anxiety with which 
 the condition of our financial affairs, and the regulation of the cir- 
 culating medimn, were regarded by thoughtful people throughout 
 the north, from motives of their o^vn personal interest, and yet njore 
 from patriotic devotion to the cause of unity in the great struggle 
 for national existence ; and he knew that, with a large inflation of 
 national cm'rency, not only would the cost of war be immensely 
 increased, and be repaid in a monetary medium of greater value, 
 but lavish and careless expenditures would engender prodigal cor- 
 ruption, and the nation would be subjected to innumerable disasters, 
 against whicIi no human forethought could guard. Yet he did not 
 underrate the difficulties of the occasion. When speaking on tliia 
 
86 
 
 subject in the House of Representatives, on the 15th January, 1863, 
 he said : 
 
 " When it was decided to adopt the principle of ' legal tender' there was no doubt 
 that the majorities of both Houses, who voted for it, did so because they considered 
 it the least objectionable of the measures under consideration. Here, permit me to 
 say, that I know of no greater trial for a statesman or legislator than this, — to be 
 compelled to choose between two measures when his judgment condemns them 
 both ; when his only course is that laid down in the common maxim of life, to 
 ' choose the least of any number of evils.' The whole question is full of difliculties 
 arising out of the mutations of commerce, as well as the exigencies of nations, nu- 
 merous theories and suggestions have been presented by prominent citizens in 
 various parts of the country, but all experience has demonstrated the impossibility 
 of securing lasting prosperity for any country which persistently adheres to the use 
 of a legalized but irredeemable paper currency." 
 
 He showed clearly and forcibly the evil effects then already pro- 
 duced by irredeemable issues of paper money, and that they would 
 be further increased by additional expenses. He illustrated by the 
 following figure, the fallacies of those who were so hardy as to say 
 that the cm*rency had not decreased in value : 
 
 " It is in vain to affirm that gold has risen, but i>aper money has not fallen. The 
 man who is in a sinking boat might as well say that the water is rising and his boat 
 is stationary. Let him, if he is not out of sight of laud, not get engulfed above his 
 eyes ; look at the shore while he can, and see whether the water is flooding its 
 banks. The markets of the world where we sell our products, and buy many ar- 
 ticles in return, are the true laud-marks as to the value of our currency, and they 
 are, and must be as I have already shown, faithfully indicated by the rise and fall 
 of the precious metals." 
 
 He entered into a careful analysis of our own financial affairs, 
 and of various historical precedents in other countries. The result 
 of the irredeemable paper system had then by no means reached 
 the height it subsequently attained, but the reflecting reader will 
 recognize in the following paragraphs a faithful photograph of the 
 time at which General Ward spoke. He said : 
 
 " The merchant and contractor in making sales or agreements charge profit not 
 only on the actual value of the articles they furnish, but on the value in paper 
 money. The Oovern7nent, at tJie present time, pays for all it uses a premium of at least 
 f<yrty or fifty per cent, above its actual value, equivalent in effect, to a corresponding de- 
 preciation in our natio?ial securities. 
 
 " The dealer, who a few months ago, sold his goods at a fair profit on time, finds 
 himself when he is paid unable to replace his stock. From the uncertanity 
 
37 
 
 attending the fnture, business is thrown more and more into the hand^ of the few 
 who are able to buy and sell for cash. The country is suffering from the demoral- 
 izing effects of financial doubt and uacerlaiuty, already so great that ordinary 
 mercantile investments are losing their legitimate character of efforts to supply the 
 demands of the people, and are becoming guesses or chances like those in a lottery 
 — dependent upon the unknown and secret will of the officers and advisers of the 
 Government, and the influence they exert in the price of that which is given and 
 received as the standard of value. The relation between debtor and creditor on 
 all previously existing pecuniary contracts has been arbitrarily changed. Each 
 merchant, jobber and retailer, charging a percentage on the increased price of the 
 article which passes through his hands, the continued and progressive accumula- 
 tion of prices presses with peculiar hardship and severity upon the laboring man, 
 whose wages, in times like these, are the last of all things to rise. The clerk 
 who has agreed to work for a salary, and has arranged his expenses in accordance 
 with his means, finds himself unexpectedly, and from no lault of his own. unable 
 to meet his daily expenses. The family of him who has spared from his income a 
 small sum for life insurance, finds the result of his hard earnings reduced by these 
 deplorable laws, upon the death of a father, more than one third, nearly one half 
 of the just amount. By the practice of constant economy, the parent of many vir- 
 tues, numerous day laborers and other persons have deposited in savings' banks a 
 sum estimated as amounting to at least two hundred and fifty millions dollars in 
 the free states. The depreciation in these frugal savings of the most industrious 
 classes is already more than one hundred millions of dollars. It contrasts 
 strangely with the sums realized by fraudulent contractors, and with the enormous 
 fortunes made by the speculators who know beforehand the intentions of the 
 administration. The motive for industry and economy is thus impaired among 
 one of the most deserving classes of the people by abusing their confidence, and 
 destroying their sense of security. The state fares ill, indeed, when favorites 
 thus flourish ; when the industrious are deprived of their earnings by the Govern- 
 ment which should protect them, and the idle and rapacious are enriched from the 
 spoils of the better part of the community. 
 
 "The soldier and sailor of the regular army and navy, together with those, who 
 in the hour of our peril, have nobly come forward to give their lives, if need be, to 
 the service of their country, thus lose nearly half of their pay by the act of that ad- 
 ministration whose commands they loyally obe3% however repugnant the ruling 
 policy may be to their convictions regarding the welfare and true honor of the 
 nation. Where men enlisted under a stipulation that their pay should be thir- 
 teen dollars, they receive considerable less than eight dollars in actual value. 
 Pensions for the maimed and wounded are reduced in the same proportion. He 
 who dies upon the field, and leaves behind him a widow and orphan children 
 depending upon the bounty of his country, whose gratitude he so well merits, and 
 in whom he had confided with the proud love of his heart, knows that the cold 
 charity of a pension thus unjustly diminished, is all that will be doled ©utto them; 
 but he knows not what will be the end of these curtailments now already so far ad- 
 vanced. 
 
 "I leave the legal questions ansing as to the obligations of contracts and the con- 
 sistenc}'- or conflicts of recent enactments with the constitution of our country, to 
 be decided in those courts of law, where I trust the zeal and blindness of party, 
 
38 
 
 strife, and politics may never enter. Illy purpose in this place at present, is to dis- 
 cuss the tendency and eflfects of law — not their constitutionality." 
 
 At the beginning of the war, he had urged upon Congress the 
 importance of a prompt and judicious system of taxation, adequate 
 to meet the coming demands on the government, and maintain its 
 credit. Now, as other temporary expedients had been adopted, but 
 had not received the unanimous support of the countrj^, he suggest- 
 ed that the Secretary of the Treasury should be reheved from a 
 portion of the solemn responsibilities that devolved upon him, by 
 the appointment of a Commission to enquire, with his co-operation, 
 into the best method of arranging our financial afiairs. It would 
 have been a special part of the duty of such Commission to call be- 
 fore it, without any regard to party, the wisest and most distin- 
 guished bankers and commercial men of extended experience. 
 Thus the odium and partialities which it is difficidt to separate from 
 private conferences, would have been avoided. 
 
 All such leading periodicals of that time, as represented the views 
 
 now commonly entertained by those who have studied the financial 
 
 affairs of the nation, hailed with high enconium the exposition given 
 
 by General Ward — the New York World saying : 
 
 "Mr. , Ward's speech in Congress, on the finance bill before the House, is the 
 most able speech yet delivered on this subject during the existence of this hapless 
 Thirty-ninth Congress. It is replete with official statistics, facts and sound rea- 
 soning on the same, illustrated by parallels drawn from history, which are so ar 
 ranged as to force conviction upon the reader, by the irresistible logic of truth anc. 
 common sense, and in this respect it forms a pleasing contrast to the misstatements 
 and absurdities of some other honorable members. General Ward reviews in de- 
 tail the advance in prices, caused by excessive issues of legal tender notes, and 
 exhibits in a practical manner the Secretary of the Treasury's misstatements 
 respecting prices, the premium on gold, and the redundancj^ of paper money. Mr 
 Ward records his earnest protest against further issues of legal tender notes. His 
 speech ought to be read by every citizen, as it gives an intelligent exposition ol 
 this currency question." 
 
 The life-long character of General "Ward was so well understood 
 
 that even during the pohtical debates of the most exciting times, the 
 
 purity and loyalty of his motives were never questioned. He saw 
 
 that, if secession were permitted to triumph, fm-ther disruption 
 
39 
 
 would be the logical and natural result. He always recognized the 
 desire of the people to sustain the government, and to bear the just 
 burdens resulting from it. All honorable members, even those 
 whose opinions were not in accordance with his own, appreciated 
 his desu'e that the necessary taxation should be so arranged as to be 
 as little burdensome as was possible. 
 
 He always regarded the revolt as " an attempt on the part of the 
 few to create a revolution against the wishes of the many." And 
 always maintained the full force of the great argument, stated in liis 
 own words, that " if we admit the right of secession there is an end 
 to the Government ; and if We cannot put down the rebellion, this 
 repubhc will cease to occupy its proper position among the nations 
 of the world." 
 
 In the running debates on the details of the tariff, in June and 
 July, 1862, when the excited condition of the public mind was 
 seized by interested parties, as the opportunity of unreasonable tax- 
 ation, and the theory of ultra-protection was carried to its utmost 
 extent, he took such a part as might have been expected from one 
 who was never carried away by the furore of the day. He demon- 
 strated that, on many articles, addition of duty would lead to a 
 diminution of revenue, and maintained that revenue for the rchef of 
 the people, and to furnish the sinews of war, was the proper object 
 of the changes in the tariff at that time. 
 
 "When unjust discrimination in taxation was the order of the day, 
 and popularity, emoluments and official position were the rewards 
 of those who stimulated extravagant expenditures, and professed be- 
 lief that " a national debt was a national »blessing," he told the 
 House that, for generations to come, the laboring men of the 
 United States would be compelled to labor for several additional 
 hours daily, and to stint themselves and then* families in necessary 
 comforts ; not to speak of accustomed, and almost necessary luxu- 
 ries, in order to repair the combined results of the deplorable war, 
 and of an unnecessarily burdensome financial policy. 
 
40 
 
 lu subsequent debates on tbe tariff he took a leading part. In a 
 speech made on the 2d of June, 1864, he was abeady enabled to 
 appeal to experience in proof of the opinions he had formerly ex- 
 pressed as to financial affairs of the nation. He said : 
 
 " A fandamental error was long ago committed, in creating the system of legal 
 tender, and tbe earnest conviction of many who knew better than to depart from 
 the truth and reality, have been changed into faint scruples, and then entirely 
 overcome. The spectral doctrine that we can make money by printing it, has 
 superseded the dissolving views of specie payment. The effect of all the redun- 
 dancy of paper is that $100 in gold will buy national securities to tjie amount of 
 $190. We must treat the public debt as something to be actually paid. We must 
 treble our revenue bj^ a well considered system of taxation, pressing as lightly as 
 possible upon the working and producing classes ; and we must, cease to inflate 
 the currency by fictitious values. There is no subject so important to the people 
 as this collective indebtedness. ' One dollar saved by taxation is,' as has been said 
 by the Secretary of the Treasury, ' of more real value to the country, than tvv'O made 
 as money is now supposed to be made ; and the tariff should be so arranged as to 
 yield the largest possible revenue to the country, with the least possible inconve- 
 nience to the people.' " 
 
 He drew the attention of Congress to the valuable financial re- 
 forms, bj which the statesmen of Great Britian had so greatly 
 reheved the people of that country, and pointed out that we, with 
 much benefit to the masses of our own citizens, might limit taxation 
 to fewer articles. He showed that, of the $120,000,000 derived 
 from customs in the United Kingdom, the year before he spoke, 
 ninety per cent, was obtained from six articles only ; and he pre- 
 sented to the House a short but complete analysis of the revenue 
 system of that comitry, setting forth that of the whole income of 
 $355,000,000, spirits contributed $63,000,000, or IT 1-2 per cent. ; 
 beer, $30,000,000, or 8 1-2 per cent. ; tea and coffee, $30,000,000, 
 or 8 1-2 per cent. ; tobacco, $28,000,000, or 8 per cent. ; sugar, $33,- 
 000,000, or 9 per cent. ; wine, $5,000,000, or 1 1-2 per cent.; stamps, 
 $45,000,000, or 12 1-2 per cent ; income and property, $55,000,- 
 000, or 15 1-4 per cent. ; a land tax, $6,000,000, or 1 1-2 per cent. ; ex- 
 cise taxes, exclusive of spirits, $10,000,000, or 2 1-2 per cent. ; the post 
 office, $18,000,000, or 5 per cent. ; assessed taxes, $9,000,000, or 2 1-4 
 per cent. ; and sundry other articles, $23,000,000, or 6 1-2 per cent. 
 
41 
 
 He declared the duty of the representatives of the people in Con- 
 gress to be to legislate, not as partizans, but as statesmen, compre- 
 hending all the great interests of the country, and defined the proper 
 object of a tariff bill to be to reahze as large an amount as is practi- 
 cable, on articles of luxury, to simplify the whole system, to dimin- 
 ish the expense of collection, prevent smagghng or illegal trade, and 
 subject the pviblic to as little vexation and inconvenience, as few 
 minecessary biu"dens as possible, and to relieve the masses of the 
 people from any increased price in the necessary articles of h^^ng. 
 But the House had passed from one extreme to another ; from a 
 disposition to postpone, indefinitely, the enforcement of the neces- 
 sary revenue, it rushed to inordinate and indiscriminating taxation. 
 
 At this time, the absence of proper information as to disburse- 
 ments on behalf of the nation, became a subject of grave interest to 
 many thinking men, and General Ward, for the pm-pose of keeping 
 the capitalists and people well informed as to the condition of the 
 pubhc finances, introduced into tlic House a resolution, directing 
 the Secretary of the Treasury to furnish to Congress, every fort- 
 night, an account of the receipts, expenditures and estimates of the 
 various departments of the government. His motion clid not, at 
 first, produce the desired effect ; but the justice and desirability of 
 the object he had in view were so obvious, tliat the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, who, from the beginning, admitted the soundness of the 
 principle impUed, soon ufterwards began to issue the monthly state- 
 ments, which yet continue to be made. 
 
 On the 4th day of April, 1864, when "the National Banlc Bill" 
 was under discussion in the House of Representatives, Mr. Hooper, 
 who had charge of the bill, announced that the only limit to the 
 banking capital employed under it was the amount of the national 
 debt as it was then, or might be in future, and that the capital might 
 be three times the amount of any such debt. As the debt then ex- 
 ceeded $1,500,000,000, the amount of the capital thus authorized 
 was $4,500,000,000. General Ward showed that the currency of 
 
4:2 
 
 the whole nation never before, except in 1857, when the ten south- 
 ern states were with us, and we were a unit, reached its maximum 
 of $214,778,822, and expressed his belief that the issue of mere 
 promises to pay, called paper money, instead of the adoption of 
 prompt, vigorous and adequate measures of taxation, has from the 
 first been no less injurious to the pecuniary interests of the nation 
 than to a just appreciation of the political crisis and revolution in 
 which we are involved. He said : 
 
 " I have never shrunk from voting all such supplies as the government con- 
 sidered necessary to overcome the rebellion, yet I have always desired that while 
 the citizens of the United States are growing poorer and poorer every day, as long 
 as the war continues, they should be deluded by no fictitious appearance of pros- 
 perity, but these truths which they are here to learn at last, should be brought 
 practically home to their minds and pockets from the beginning. Under such a sys- 
 tem of taxation as I have advocated, great economy would have been practiced ; 
 our securities would have commanded in a greater degree, the confidence of capital- 
 ists, and the people : our national counsels would have been more deliberative, and 
 we should have been stronger in the end." 
 
 By a series of important historical facts and statistics he showed 
 the dangers incident to a large and sudden expansion of the cur- 
 rency. The views he advocated are those of which the truth is 
 now strongly felt by progressive thinkers, and is rapidly becoming 
 popular ; but when he had the boldness to utter them, they were 
 voted down by the financial neophytes of the day. In less than a 
 year from the time when he spoke, the reaction against extreme 
 and precipitate measures had attained such power that he was en- 
 abled to say in the House of Representatives, without contradiction : 
 
 " Some of my friends on the other side of the House, who looked on tranquilly 
 at the time the mischief was being done, have now become alarmed, and call for a 
 suspension of the issues of the national banks, and for measures against state 
 banks, which, in their operations, will be equivalent to the extinction of the latter 
 institutions. As is the case with all panic-stricken people, they want now to 
 nm from the point of extreme inflation, to that of extreme compression, and ad- 
 minister a course of heroic remedies, which may cure the disease at the expense 
 of what little life remains in the patient." 
 
 Throughout the period when General Ward was a member of 
 Congress, he was regarded as being especially the commercial rep- 
 resentative of the city of New York, and many memorials on sub- 
 
43 
 
 jects connected with trade and navigation were intrusted to his 
 charge. A petition was presented by the New York Chamber of 
 Commerce to Congress, in January, 18G4, asking for subsidies to a 
 first class hne of American steamers to make regular trips from New 
 York to Liverpool, and also to the ports of pur continental neigh- 
 bors upon the South American and Pacific shores. They stated 
 
 that: 
 
 " Our steamers have been driven from the ocean until now ; not a solitary one 
 carries our flag to any European port. Not because our mechanics are not as skill- 
 ful — witness the triumphs of the Collins side-wheel, and recently the triumphs of 
 the Pacific screw steamers ; not for want of enterprise on the part of her citizens, 
 for the steamers already built cannot hold their own upon the seas for want of that 
 aid and fostering legislation which other Governments so liberally supply, and 
 without which competition is ruin." 
 
 The petition was referred in the House of Representatives, to the 
 Committee ©n Commerce, a maiority of which was adverse to any ac- 
 tion at that time ; but consented that General Ward make a report, in 
 which the cardinal interests of the country, on tliis important branch 
 of industrial enterprise, were ably advocated. In a series of admira- 
 bly arranged tables, he showed that the steady and gradual increase 
 of the commerce of Great Britain over our own, even with our 
 neighbors on this continent, has followed closely from a quick per- 
 ception of the effects oceanic steam navigation would have upon 
 commerce, and from appropriate legislation in accordance with this 
 wise foresight. He proclaimed it the duty of the Government, in 
 view of its own financial interests, and of the commercial, agricul- 
 tural and industrial prosperity of the people of the United States to 
 give such reas(-)nable encoiu-agemeut, by subsidies and postal con- 
 tracts to lines of steamships running from our own to foreign ports, 
 as would enable the owners of American steam vessels to compete 
 on fair terms with those of the leading commercial nations, on tlie 
 great higliways of the world. His positions as to our trade with 
 South America and China, were presented with great force, and 
 subsequent events have confirmed their accm-acy. He said : 
 
 " In borrowing so largely as the Government has done from the nation, it has 
 
44 
 
 assumed duties of a new class — the duty of rendering that burden as light as possi- 
 ble to the people who have assumed it. As the rebellion wanes, and the dawn of 
 national prosperity again brightens, the energy of the people of the United States 
 will be aroused to Ihe renewal of the sti'uggle for commercial prosperity, and it 
 will not surely be expecting too much, that some additional debt be incurred to 
 develop that branch of iudustrj', which the experience of all nations has shown to 
 present the readiest and most equal method of meeting the expenses of Govern- 
 ment, and interest on its obligations. 
 
 " Wherever steam communication has been introduced by Great Britain, it has 
 been followed by an immediate and rapid increase of her trade with the country 
 with which she has increased her commercial facilities. This continued increase 
 threatens to diminish our own commerce. These results, in relation to Brazil, are 
 everywhere manifest. It is the same in Mexico, Central America, and the West 
 Indies, countries rich, fertile, capable of vast productions of the most valuable 
 character, such as coffee, sugar, cotton, tobacco, the prime necessities and the most 
 prized luxuries of modern civilization. 
 
 " But more than all important is the proposed communication with the east 
 By it, the Atlantic seaboard cities will receive their letters in fifty to fifty-five days 
 from Hong Kong, Shanghae and Niphon ; and information will pass by telegram, 
 via San Francisco, in twenty-five to thirty days. When the projected railroad 
 across the continent is complete, communication by letter may be iiiade in thirty- 
 five daj's, or thereabouts. A large trade will grow up between the eastern and the 
 western shores of the Pacific. The circle of commerce will be complete ; all na- 
 tions, and tribes, and races, will be brought into close and intimate relation, and 
 all that is phj^sical having been subordinated to the comfort and happiness of man- 
 kind, the world will await, with awe and wonder, wliat new development of its 
 progress is yet reserved for the human mind, under the inspiration of the Author 
 and Ruler of the universe." 
 
 In 18G4, General Ward was, for the fifth time, nominated for 
 Congress by the democratic party. His opponents were the Honor- 
 able Henry J. Raymond, on the part of the republicans. Colonel 
 Rush C. Hawkins, an irregular repubhcan, and Eli P. Norton, the 
 candidate of a few disaffected persons who dishked the patriotic 
 support given by General Ward to the war measures of the Govern- 
 ment. The vote in his favor was as large as in the canvass of 1862, 
 but the constituency had increased, and Mr. Norton drew away a 
 sufficient number of votes to defeat him. Thus, by a majority of 
 386, Mr, Raymond was elected. 
 
 From the earliest moment of his public life General Ward had 
 foreseen how destructive of the life and property of his fellow citi- 
 zens a war between the northern and southern states must be, and 
 had conscientiously done his duty in endeavoring to avert it. He 
 
45 
 
 understood tlie subject too thoroughly to suppose such a contest 
 would be terminated in sixty days, as was confidently asserted by 
 some who ought to have known better, and he sought none of the 
 popularity, with its accompaniments of emoluments, power, and 
 political honors, which, at one time, were at the service of those 
 who deluded the people with this flattering and pernicious expecta- 
 tion ; but, when the crisis came, he desired nothing more earnestly 
 than that all the resom-ces of the nation should be economically, 
 wisely, and speedily applied to crush out the rebelhon. 
 
 He held that the doctrine of secession was that of perpetual dis- 
 integration, but he also believed that if pure patriotism and a desire 
 to maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, had been the con- 
 sistent rule of action, throughout the different branches of the gov- 
 ernment, the struggle would have been kept within narrower limits, 
 and have soon ended. In his speech on " the true policy of the 
 government relative to the conduct of the war, with a view to the 
 restoration of the Union," delivered in the House of Kepresentatives 
 on the 9th of January, 1865, when it had under consideration a 
 resolution submitting to the legislatures of the several States a prop- 
 osition to amend the Constitution of the United States, so that all 
 persons should be equal under the law in all the States, without 
 regard to color, and that no person should tliereafter be held in 
 bondage ; he said : 
 
 " It is not ray intention to discuss, at this time and place, the causes which have 
 inaugurated the terrible rebellion which has already cost the republic such a 
 frightful waste of lite and treasure. It is enough for me to know that a death-blow 
 has been aimed at the heart of the American Union, to feel indignant at the out- 
 rage, and solicitous to avert it. It is enough for me to know that a sacrilegious 
 attempt has been made to break up the wisest form of government that human 
 wisdom ever devised, to feel it my duty to join in the effort to chastise the perpe- 
 trators of so great a crime. I have not approved of all that has been done under 
 the sanction of the war power. I have deemed it proper to protest, in the name ot 
 the loyal and law-abiding constituency I have the honor to represent on this floor, 
 against certain acts of the Executive and Congress, which, in my opinion, have 
 been the means of prolonging this sanguinary war ; but I am settled in the convic- 
 tion that secession is treason, and that, as such, it must be put down at all hazarda, 
 and at any cost. If secession succeeds, republican liberties are lost forever, and the 
 
4:6 
 
 government, failing: to vindicate its power, -would forfeit the consideration and 
 respect of every civilized nation ou earth. If the heresy of secession were to be 
 recognized as a canon of our political faith, there would be an end to our govern 
 ment. Let Louisiana secede unhindered, and then, when that act has been accom 
 plished, what is to prevent her from handing that State over to England or any 
 other power, commanding, as she does, the mouth of the great Mississippi ? This 
 she most assuredly has a right to do, if she has a right to secede, thus closing up 
 the " Father of Waters," and excluding all the states on its borders from a market. 
 The same rule would apply to any other seceded state. Hence the duty of every 
 American patriot, whatever his station or condition, to uphold the government in 
 its efiForls to compel the seceded states to respect the Constitution and the law^s ot 
 the country. Upon this conviction of duty I have ever acted since the tirst insult 
 to our flag was offered. The same abiding sense of the responsibility which rests 
 upon me as a representative of the people in Congress will, I trust, carry me un- 
 flinchingly through whatever phase may yet remain undeveloped in the fearfuJ 
 drama which has been so long in process of action." 
 
 He explained the solemn convictions from wliich he had consis- 
 tently advocated the war pohcy of President Lincoln, wdth whom he 
 was on terms of warm personal friendship, and had devoted all his 
 strength " to the support of the Government, the Constitution and 
 the Union, looking upon secession as eternal war, and recognizing 
 tliis great principle — that we are one people, that one we will re 
 main, and one we will die." He alluded to the various proclama 
 tions of Generals Fremont, Hunter and Phelps, all of which the 
 President had revoked, declaring again and again that he had no 
 right, under the Constittition, to emancipate the slaves, and to the 
 instructions under which Governor Stanley and many others had 
 spoken in every part of tlie country, declaring that President Lin- 
 coln was no abolitionist, but was the best friend the south ever had, 
 and that all the administration wanted was peace. The expression 
 of these sentiments produced a strong feeling of reaction in the bor- 
 der states, and added thousands upon thousands to the hsts of 
 recruits. Li advocating the views thus taken by the President, 
 General Ward said : 
 
 " I am well aware, sir, that my course in sustaining the war policy of the Presi- 
 dent has subjected me to considerable animadversion, and that my motives of 
 action have frequently, and sometimes wickedly, been misconstrued by those who 
 either could not understand the emergencies of the occasion, or who preferred see- 
 ing this great republic split up into fragments, rather than yield one iota of their 
 
47 
 
 prejudices. But, sir, there is one tribunal to ■nhich I appeal with feelings of pndo 
 and confidence from the j'Kl^ment of disnnionists : it is the tribunal of my con- 
 science. The verdict which 1 liud recorded there will sustain me under all calum- 
 nies and vituperations. When the day shall come for me to render an account ol 
 my stewardship to my constituents, I shall be able to show them that, in denoimc- 
 ing treason, and in sustaining the government in its eflbrts to put down rebels in 
 arms, I have been true to mj'self, to my country, and to the sternest requirements 
 of the democratic creed. How^ much the democratic party, acting as a party, 
 through its organization, may do to bring back peace to the countr}^ it is impossi- 
 ble to predict. It will depend upon the steadiness with which it adheres to what 
 are admitted to be democratic principles. To expect to return to sound practices 
 in the government, through the medium of a party which, from any suggestions ol 
 expediency, however plausible, departs from its principles, is, of all expectations, 
 the most irrational. Peace will return ; the war fury is a passion which exhausts 
 itself. But however desirable peace may be, we ought to be united in the deter- 
 mination, that when it comes, it should bring with it the union of the states under 
 the federal constitution. Those who fail to recognize this national exigency are 
 not imbued with the true spirit of democracy ; they have read the signs of the 
 times to very little purpose. Thg democratic party is essentially a party of pro- 
 gress, and those who aspire to be its leaders ought, at least, to have sense enough 
 to know that we are in the midst of a great revolution, and that revolution is 
 progress." 
 
 He deplored the existence of causes injurious to the unanimity 
 with which, at the beginning of the war, the people of the whole 
 north had rallied to the support of the administration, and showed 
 that the unanimity had continued until the prosecution of the war 
 was diverted from the o^-iginal object, the restoration of the Union, 
 and a series of measm*es, such as confiscation, suspension of the writ 
 of habeas corpus., and others of similar nature, were inaugurated, 
 thus dividing the north and uniting the south. 
 
 Confident that negro servitude could take no firm root in the ter- 
 ritories, but would be natin*ally and surely destroyed by the laws of 
 climate and soil, which rendered it unprofitable therein, and there- 
 fore could be little affected by any provision embodied in the Con- 
 stitution, and that the war would end slavery in "the Southern 
 States; he opposed the amendment on the ground that such 
 changes should never be made without grave and adequate cause. 
 Each such infraction of the Constitution, under which the people 
 have so far and so gloriotisly prospered, opens the door wider for 
 others — a contingency which the people and statesmen of the 
 
48 
 
 United States had, for wise reasons, always endeavored to avoid. 
 
 He said : 
 
 " Slavery has always been and is regarded as a domestic question. The right to 
 abolish if. does and ought to rest with the states in which it exists. Since the or- 
 ganization of the government, the law of climate and soil has controlled the sub- 
 ject, and has caused the abolition of slavery in six of the original states, and either 
 abolished or prohibited it in all but nine of the new states since admitted This 
 government is one of delegated powers, and those not conferred arc reserved to the 
 states respectively, or to the people. In regard to slavery, the constitution is 
 silent, and, therefore, no power exists to amend it in the respect indicated ; and in 
 addition, in my judgment, that instrument contemplated that all the states should 
 participate in any amendment thereof Sir, I do not stand here as the apologist ot 
 slavery, but merely to insist ^hat we have no right to incorporate the proposed 
 amendment, and that even if the r:ght exists, it is a most injudicious time for the 
 exercise of the power, when we should desire to bring back the seceded states to 
 loyalty and obedience." 
 
 While he regarded all such legislation as practically worse than 
 
 useless, he was one of the first to recognize fully that slavery was 
 
 destroyed by the war, and he aunounced in terms no less strong and 
 
 explicit, that he was resolutely opposed to the re-admission of any 
 
 state which was then, or had beon, occupied by our armies, into the 
 
 Union, %vith the legal right of property in slaves. On this -poirt*- 
 
 he used the following decisive terms : 
 
 " I am as strongly opposed as any of my compsers on the other side of tho 
 House, to the re-admission into the Union, wi*^h the right of slave property, of any 
 state where slavery has been swept away by tbe onward march of our armies. 
 Whatever maybe the object of the war, the practical result is the same, and that is, 
 the overthrow of slavery in all those portions of slaveholding territory which our 
 armies subjugate ; in these the relation of mastsr and slive coase to exist. The 
 masters retreat as our forces advance, and carry with them a portion of their slaves, 
 but the greater part remain behind and take refuge within our Imes ; and the que* 
 tion is, what shall become of them, and what are our dalles in regard to them ? 
 The American people have behaved admirably since this war broke out Tbey 
 have shown an energy and elasticity of spirit, a power of organization and combi- 
 nation, a readiness to make sacrifices, a patriotic devotion, worthy of the highest 
 praise. Let us nt)t forget the claims of those unhappy freedmcn whom we have 
 deprived of their masters, their natural guardians and protectors." 
 
 Dm-ing a debate in the House of Representatives, on the 27th of 
 
 February, 1865, on the bill then known as the "Loan Bill," or "the 
 
 bill to provide ways and means for the support of the government," 
 
 General Ward took the ground that the people are vitally intercsteci 
 
49 
 
 in maintaining tlie public credit, and in the adoption of tlie coui'se 
 of policy best calculated to promote that end. " Difference of opin- 
 ion should," he said, " only exist as the mode of attaining such a 
 result." By this time the inflation of the currency, had begun to 
 excite general alarm, and the Comptroller of the Currency, in a 
 circular addressed to the national banks, had already gone so far as 
 to say that "the apparent prosperity of the country will be proved 
 to be unreal when the war is closed." He opposed the increase of 
 inflation wliich, in spite of the warning, was permitted by the bill, 
 and strenuously urged the early adoption of some plan for funding 
 the public debt. He laid down the following rule of taxation : 
 
 " The foundation of onr national prosperity rests on the remunerative character 
 of the labor of the working classes, while the safety of our political institution lies 
 in the contentment of that part of oi.r population. Let the savings of the sinewy 
 masses be swallowed up in taxation, and the growth of our wealth is arrested by a 
 disease at its root. Let the working people, who constitute a large majority of the 
 population, be taxed beyond their share in the material interests of the countrv, 
 and in paying the expenses of one revolution, we sow the seeds of another. The 
 only method of avoiding the creation of class distinction, and escaping an aristoc- 
 racy of capital, is to see to it, that the citizen is taxed as nearly as possible in pro- 
 portion to his means. Any system of taxation that does not draw revenue chiefly 
 from the classes best able to pay, is inconsistent with republican institutions, and 
 must ultimatelj- be overthrown by the vote of the masses, or itself overthrow the 
 democratic constitution of society." 
 
 He again drew attention in detail to the simplicity of the system 
 of taxation, then recently adopted by Great Britain for the relief of 
 her people, showing, among other things, that the interest on the 
 national debt of that country, — ^nearly $4,000,000,000, — ^is paid en- 
 tirely by the duties on two articles, spirituous liquors and tobacco ; 
 and said, at the conclusion of his remarks : 
 
 " We must, at the earliest moment, return to a sound system of finance ; the 
 great excess of paper issue must be withdrawn ; the expenses of tlie government 
 diminished, and the debt funded and placed in process of liquidation, or tlie crisis 
 will culminate in general bankruptcy and, perliaps, in repudiation. While the 
 resources of the country are not adequate to meet the present and accruing liabili- 
 ties, still upon the return of peace, we may hope for such a rapid development of 
 the vast wealth of the coimtry as will enable the people to bear lightly the gigan- 
 tic debt that will be created during the war between contending states, whose 
 greatness and power depend upon unity." 
 
' 50 
 
 The latter years of the service of General Ward in Congress in- 
 cluded the whole period of the great civil war, an epoch of vast 
 import in the history of the United States, and such an one as may 
 not again be witnessed for many generations. The republic of the 
 United States, comparatively young among the nations of the world, 
 called into the military service, within four years, more than two 
 millions of men to preserve its existence, and developed the mar- 
 vellous financial and material resources required to meet an expen- 
 diture of about $3,000,000,000 in support of the government, and 
 to maintain its vast army and navy. Never before did any people 
 so voluntarily and successfully assert their attachment to the insti- 
 tutions of their country ; and not the least of the inspiring results 
 to the friends of republicanism was the gradual, natural and com- 
 plete return of the victorious citizen-soldiers to the peaceful pursuits 
 of industry. 
 
 When in Congress, General Ward served upon the Committee 
 on Commerce, on that of Roads and Canals, and of the District 
 of Columbia. In addition to the demands made upon him by his 
 legislative duties, much of his time was occupied by special appeals 
 arising out of the war. It was, perhaps, the unavoidable result of 
 the great pressure of public business that the summary dismissals 
 from the army, and the hasty action of court martials, often did 
 great injustice to ofiicers. In these cases his friendly aid was often 
 solicited. Frequent applications were made to him by parents, for 
 passes and other facilities, to enable them to visit their sons, when 
 wounded, or to recover their remains. He was ever ready to give 
 his time, and sympathizing attention to these calls ; and his ready 
 access to, and influence with President Lincoln, the members of his 
 Cabinet, and the heads of the departments, were such that none, in 
 any just case, ever departed mthout the desired relief or action. 
 By these means many an officer is enabled to recollect with grati- 
 tude the substitution of the word " honorable " for that of " dishon- 
 orable" in his discharge; others were promptly restored to their 
 
51 
 
 commands; and many who were wounded and dying liad the con- 
 solation of being attended by their relatives and friends. 
 
 In May, 1865, he sailed for Em'ope. After visiting England, 
 Scotland, Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland, he returned to 
 the United States in the autumn of the same year. 
 
 On the 28th of August, 1866, he was married to Mrs. Ellen E. 
 Stuart, widow of the late Robert Stuart of the United States navy, 
 a lady of high culture,and of a truly benevolent and christian charac- 
 ter. They sailed for Em'ope on the following day, and remained 
 abroad until September, 1868, having in the meantime made an 
 extensive tour through Egypt, the Holy Land, Turkey, and all the 
 European countries. 
 
 In October, 1868, two of the democratic organizations in his old 
 district tendered him a nomination for re-election to Congress. 
 While appreciating this renewed evidence of esteem he respectfully 
 declined being a candidate. 
 
 In pm'suance of an invitation, General Ward, on the 9th of 
 March, 1870, addressed a meeting of th^ members of the Chamber 
 of Commerce, Commercial Union, New York Produce Exchange, 
 Ship Owners' Association, and Citizens' Association, all of the city of 
 New York, taking as the subject of his discom-se : " Our Inland 
 Commerce — a free canal policy the best guarantee for its preserva- 
 tion and increase." 
 
 He is well known as having always been a warm friend of such 
 a liberal administration of the affairs of the State, as would best pro- 
 mote the commercial relations between New York and the Great 
 West, and on which so much of the prosperity of each depends. 
 He deems the proper f ule in all taxation to be, to take a small por- 
 tion of that which men seek as the end of their labor, rather than 
 to impair the means by which they gain their subsistence, and is an 
 open enemy of the narrow and mistaken policy of high tolls on the 
 public works of the state. He observed with deep regret the di- 
 minished proportion of western products, received at New York, 
 
52 
 
 and tlie diversion of tliis valuable trade through other states and 
 Canada, and saw that it could only be regained by such a reduction 
 in the cost of transportation as would enable its again to offer in- 
 ducements superior to those of other routes, by underselling our 
 rivals, while leaving a fair profit to those engaged in the business. 
 He fully appreciated the importance to laboring men, mechanics, 
 merchants, manufacturers, and to the farmers of our state, of being 
 enabled to purchase grain, food, lumber and other raw materials at 
 low prices, and saw that the state itself could do much towards the 
 attainment of this desirable object, by reducing the rates of tolls on 
 the great thoroughfares of wliich it is the owner. 
 
 The high rates had proved a double failm-e, and had not only 
 di'iven trade away, but had decreased the revenue, and the real 
 question at issue, was not merely whether the revenue of the state, 
 from the articles whence it had chiefly been derived, should be less 
 or greater^ but, whether on the transit of these articles with its 
 valuable employment of a large number of om' citizens, the reve- 
 nue thus received should bf entirely lost by high charges or retained 
 and increased by a moderate tariff of tolls. 
 
 In describing the national advantages of the harbor of New York, 
 General Ward having referred to the suggestive fact, that raih-oads 
 " cover om* country with a net work, and lead from the north-west to 
 many cities on the Atlantic coast, but, of all the sisterhood of states, 
 New York alone, possesses a good water route from the lakes, and 
 the great gi-anary of the interior to the ocean ; " added as the result 
 of liis observations in the old world, that although raih-oads are pre- 
 ferred as the means of carrying passengers, and transact an enor- 
 mous and increasing business in freight, tlte canals and natural 
 water com-ses compete successfully with them, in the carriage of 
 heavy and bulky articles, such as form almost exclusively the mass 
 of the exports from the west to the Atlantic. 
 
 He briefly described the topography of the continent ; referred 
 especially to the Appalachian or Alleghany range of mountains, 
 
53 
 
 reaching from Georgia to the northern extremity of Gaspc, driving 
 the water from the great lakes far to the north, but leaving an 
 opening in the Catskills, made when the mountains were formed, 
 through which the Hudson flows, afibrding those facihties for tran- 
 sit which, in connection with the almost um-ivalled harbor at its 
 mouth, and the level sm-face of the land route, chosen for the canals 
 bet^veen Schenectady and the lakes Ontario and Erie, give to New 
 York her inland and foreign commerce. 
 
 In this connection he alluded to the present and future condition 
 of the immense areas north-west. " The rich wheat plains of the 
 Red river of the north, and those of the yet greater valley of the 
 Saskatchewan, well named the Mississippi of the north, which are 
 ready to pom* millions of tons of grain into the cars of the raihoads, 
 almost as soon as its passenger trains afford an opportunity, for the 
 industrial army of settlers to make war upon the yet primeval wil- 
 derness." He said : 
 
 " Thus the great course of the inland trade of this continent is to and fro between 
 the east and the west. Before the Erie Canal was opened, the difficulties of car- 
 riage between these two portions of the imion were so great as almost to constitute 
 an embargo ; but no sooner was this public work in operation than the cost of 
 transportation from Buffalo to Albany was reduced from |100 to $10, and after- 
 wards to $3 a ton. Until the canal was made, the productions of the west were 
 of little commercial value ; there were few inducements for the e.migrants to settle 
 on the new shores of lakes Erie and 3Iichigan, while the country beyond them 
 was a yet more unbroken wilderness. The opening of the canal had an electrical 
 effect, not only m onr own country, but also in stimulating the immigration of the 
 laboring population of Europe ; and the development of the west was accompa- 
 nied by a correspondmg increase of business in the City and State of New York 
 and New England." 
 
 No speech he ever made was characterized more decidedly by his 
 habit of condensmg hnportant statements, and yet presenting them 
 with such simplicity, that the laborious investigation they required 
 is not at fii-st perceived, and he who runs may read and understand 
 them. From this excellence arises the difficulty of giving a more 
 brief analysis of his ideas than was made by himself. He showed 
 that, as long ago as 1860, the total income from the Erie Canal 
 had been more than $41,000,000 over all the expenditui'es for it, 
 
54 
 
 and that by its suitable enlargement, the total cost of bringing a ton 
 of grain from Chicago to New York need not exceed $3 75. 
 
 " Thus," he said, " we should give the grain producers of our country unprece- 
 dented facilities for successful competition in foreign markets. The benefits cre- 
 ated would extend to purchaser and consumer everywhere. There can be no doubt 
 that, by attracting trade through a judicious and liberal system of low tolls, the 
 revenue directly derived by the state treasury itself, from the canals, would be far 
 greater than if we continue the absurd and unbusiness-like policy of gradually 
 driving trade away by exorbitant charges." 
 
 Of the profits from the canal, he said: 
 
 " We are to estimate them by the increase ot individual wealth throughout the 
 community, the rise in real estate, both in city property and in farms, and by the 
 multiplication and prosperity of our people. It would not be difficult to show 
 that by opening out the west to settlement the canal contributed more than any 
 other single cause to the preponderance of the power of the north." 
 
 In concluding his speech, he said: 
 
 "I rejoice to know that the interests of our city are those of the Union at large, 
 and that, in finding or making a way to develope the natural advantages of our 
 position, we not only benefit ourselves and the northwest, but, by increasing profit- 
 able shipments of our productions to other countries, enable our people more easily 
 to pay interest on the large and increasing amoant of our national, and other 
 securities, held in Europe. 
 
 " The canal is both locally, and, in a cosmopolitan sense, an important division 
 ot that yet more comprehensive subject — the commercial iulercourse — which is 
 materially the main-spring of modern triumphs over the forces of nature, the ad- 
 vancement of civilization, and the increase of human welfare. lu a familiar 
 photograph ot the travelling and carrying system of his time, Slijikespeare pleas- 
 antly suggests how recent is the progress of our race on these points. We remem- 
 ber how the company of eight or ten persons assembled at Gad's Hill, and traveled 
 together for protection against common danger, and how, of the two strictly profes- 
 sional carriers, one had on his solitary horse, a ' gammon of bacon and two razes 
 of ginger,' and the other had ' turkeys in his panniers.' Having thirty miles to travel, 
 the members of the cavalcade rose at two in the morning, that they might perform 
 the journey before night. In those days, not only was there no railway and no 
 canal, but even good wagon roads had no existence. When estimating what the 
 future will be, we properly compare the past with the present, as it is, not only in 
 Great Britain and throughout Europe, but in this country — a wilderness in Shake- 
 speare's time. Instead of a couple of carriers owning two horses, laden with one 
 piece of bacon, two 'razes' of ginger and half-a-dozen turkeys, the modern substi- 
 tutes in the United States alone have a capital measured by thousands of millions 
 of dollars, and their tralfic is estimated to be worth as many millions annually. 
 
 " The United States, to a greater extent than any other country, either of ancient 
 or modern times, possess alike the unprecedented appliances of modern science to 
 the production of all that is desirable for the material welfare of man, with un- 
 limited natural resources, and no limits can be assigned to our progress if, to a 
 
55 
 
 sound and decisive policy on subjects directly financial, commercial and ednca* 
 tional, we add due attention to the material advantages obviously within our 
 reach." 
 
 The statistics and facts adduced by General Ward were both 
 curious and striking, and his speech attained an extensive circula- 
 tion and popularity. The question of low tolls had for many years 
 been the foot ball of parties, but in 1871, the policy, of which he 
 demonstrated the expediency, was fully adopted by both. All good 
 and thoughtful citizens will hope that this unanimity will be per- 
 petual. 
 
 When General Ward ceased to be a member of the House, no 
 representative remained who was willing to devote the requisite 
 attention to our relations with Canada ; and the enemies of reve- 
 nue reform, knowing well what was never absent from his mind 
 throughout his discussions on this subject, that it is impossible to 
 arrange om* commercial intercourse with Canada on a permanent 
 basis, unless we first apply to om* own afiairs, in a yet unattained 
 degree, the principles of common sense, and of pure government; 
 have been more than willing to avoid investigation, and let the 
 mutual interests of our own citizens and the Canadians remain un- 
 consulted. Those who are not the friends of mankind profit by 
 dissensions and divisions among the people. 
 
 Every new raiboad in the United States and Canada, leading 
 towards their respective territories, is steadily an antagonist, working 
 day and night to the frontier custom houses. Mutual rights of free 
 import, export and transit throughout the two countries must exist 
 before many more years have elapsed. General Ward treated the 
 subject upon the ground that the legitimate interests of the people 
 on both sides are harmonious, and that magnanimity, mutual 
 respect and accurate statements are better elements for American 
 diplomacy, than unscrupulous bargaining, and a vain, absurd and 
 unworthy attempt, nominally to coerce the Canadians ; but intended 
 less to effect that object than to excite the tumultuous approval of 
 
56 
 
 the unreflecting portion of our own citizens. The representatives 
 of the old high tory principles in the New Dominion, who desire to 
 prevent her annexation to this country, advocate the same policy as 
 that of the adversaries of revenue reform in the United States, and 
 strive to prevent the free commingUng of the people of the two 
 countries in the friendly and profitable pursuit of their mutual and 
 respective interests. 
 
 The growing importance of our commercial relations with Can- 
 ada was not unperceived by thoughtful men in tlie House of Rep- 
 resentatives ; the unsettled state of om* affairs with Mexico, and the 
 ^ serious injm'ies sustained by the revenue of the United States from 
 the estabhshment of the Libra Zona, on the Mexican frontier, in- 
 creased their interest in the subject, and soon after the return of 
 General Ward from Em'ope, several leading members, without dis- 
 tinction of political parties, beheving that the time had come for 
 the adoption of such measm-es as will ensm'e the largest possible 
 extent of mutually beneficial intercourse between the various nations 
 of this contment, requested from him " an expression of his opinions 
 as to the commercial system most worthy of consideration by the 
 people of the United States and Canada, at tliis important crisis." 
 
 The pith of his letter in reply is indicated by the words he used 
 as a motto : " A free continental system, the best means of increas- 
 ing our agricultm'al, manufacturing and commercial prosperity." 
 He deemed the opportune time had arrived when it was incmnbent 
 upon the Government of the United States at least, to ascertain by 
 open inquh'ies, whether it is possible to give the people of both 
 countries the power of profitably exchanging the productions of 
 tlieir industry. The pro\ances had become united, and made Can- 
 ada more independent of European protection and control. This 
 novel position and the evident wilhngness of Great Britain to en- 
 trust to the Canadians the principle of self-government to a yet 
 greater extent, as well as the increased desire of many of her lead- 
 ing statesmen to promote friendly relations ^\dth this country, occu- 
 
57 
 
 pied a large portion of his letter. His \-iew5 were in substance 
 the same as those afterwards adopted by the Commercial Con- 
 vention at Detroit. Advanced enligh.tenment is producing a quiet 
 revolution. General Ward wi'ote : 
 
 " In the present condition of Canada much depends upon the sentiments of the 
 people of the United States and the action of our Government towards her. A 
 friendly and liberal policy will insure her independence, churlish isolation and 
 ill-will would drive her to seek a new and closer, but temporary connection with 
 Great Britain, less advantageous to the Dominion, the mother country, and man- 
 kind than such an arrangement as would fully secure the political liberty of Canada 
 and establish free commercial relations with the vast^confederation of the Celto-Teu- 
 touic States of our Union. 
 
 " The relative geographical positions of the Dominion and the United States are 
 such that reasons tending to a closer union with this country than with Great 
 Britain, must continually^ make themselves manifest ; but there is no reason why 
 w-e should postpone mutual benefits, and, discarding a policy of attraction, jjcrsevere 
 in repelling the Canadians from us. In this aspect I believe the discussion of our 
 commercial relations with Canada is both opportune and important." 
 
 He again explained and urged the adoption of the principles of 
 German Custom's Union, comprehensively defining it to be " the 
 association of a number of states for the establishment of a common 
 customs' law and customs' line with regard to foreign coimtries, and 
 for the suppression of both in the intercom'se of the states within 
 the border line." Experience of the benefits created by this system, 
 was " so satisfactory, that the best publicists of Europe, believed 
 that Prussia thus conferred upon the German people advantages 
 scarcely inferior to those she initiated by the diflfusion of education 
 and intelligence." He showed that it not only promoted the indus- 
 try and prosperity of the allied states more than any other measure 
 or sets of measures, that their government could have devised, but 
 that it was found that the increase of wealth and population thus 
 arising, created an additional demand for foreign products. 
 
 Reasoning from this analogy, he drew the novel but truthful 
 conclusion, which forms perhaps the most telling point in his letter, 
 yet confined his remarks to economical or commercial views, with- 
 out defining too sharply the boundaries between this obvious and 
 
58 
 
 material profit, and the yet stronger element of higher principles 
 
 He said : 
 
 " The interests of the British people would ultimately be promoted by the applica- 
 tion of the zollverein principle on this continent. It would be an important ac- 
 knowledgment of the great natural law that whatever territories nature has joined 
 together and made mutually dependant, should not be kept asunder by artificial 
 arrangements. It would be opposed in Great Britain by those who have not 
 learned wisdom from experience, and formerly thought the mother country would 
 be ruined by granting permission to the colonies to import goods on equal terms 
 from all countries. But as it could not fail to increase the prosperity of the states 
 which would become parties to it, it would enlarge the power of their people to 
 purchase abroad. It vrould bring, almost palpably and by personal perception be- 
 fore their minds, and indirectly force upon the attention of the rest of the world, 
 the truth, that although tariffs for revenue are necessary, thei^rofit or loss attend- 
 ing the exchange of industrial products among men is as independent of their 
 various allegiances as it is of party fealty or religious faith among the^ individual 
 members of each single state." 
 
 The project of pm*chasing San Domingo gave a pointed applica- 
 tion to his remarks. He held that the material and other benefits 
 of reciprocal trade with Canada would soon become so obvious, and 
 om' diplomatic and commercial power be so much augmented, that 
 negociations with other American countries would be greatly facili- 
 tated. He said : 
 
 " Instead of buymg territory or paying people to enter into our political union, 
 we might include Mexico, Cuba, and the Central American States, in one zoll- 
 verein. 
 
 " Our commercial relations with these countries have long been unsatisfactory. 
 We should acquire the chief benefits of actual ownership without its disadvanta- 
 ges. Additional capital would be attracted to Mexico and Central America. La- 
 bor in those countries would meet with more remunerative and regular employ- 
 ment. Thus an antidote would be provided to restless insubordination and want 
 of steady industry. Personal intercourse among the inhabitants of the different 
 portions of the continent would be incalculably promoted. The attrition Avould 
 destroy mutual prejudices. Migration would take place to and fro between distant 
 regions. As the industry of the inhabitants of every part would be more amply 
 remimerated, they would be enabled to buy more largely from each other. As the 
 most advanced manufacturers on this continent, the chief share of increase in the 
 sale of manufactured articles would accrue to us : but all would be benefitted. The 
 cost of articles of tropical origin to the people of the United States and Canada 
 would be diminished. Thus the cost of living and of production would be re- 
 diaced ; industry throughout the continent would be encouraged by the extension 
 of our markets, and would be enabled better to compete abroad with other couu 
 tries. No other course, so readily adopted, would tend so much to diffuse the ideas 
 and industrial habits of the northern and most advanced nations of the world. 
 
59 
 
 "The inhabitants of Canada are nearly homogeneous -with those of the Northern 
 States, and are accustomed to laws, traditions and institutions closely resembling 
 our own; but Cuba, IMexico and Central America have populations unlike ours in 
 race, language and education. Mexico has deplorably failed in attempts to copy 
 our institutions, and the annexation of all these countries with the admission of 
 their people, without preliminary training, to equal influence with our own citizens 
 in the management of our own affairs is, at least, of questionable policy. But re- 
 ciprocal trade with them stands upon a totally different basis, and could not fail 
 to be beneficial to all the parties concerned." 
 
 He demonstrated that such a treaty with Spain as would ensure 
 free admission into Cuba for our flour, other provisions, and various 
 articles of manufacture, would be worth more than the fee simple 
 of the island itself to the farmers and manufacturers and merchants 
 of the United States ; and that the commerce created by a similar 
 arrangement with Mexico would benefit the manufacturers of New 
 England and Pennsylvania far more than the conquest or purchase 
 of half the Mexican territory. 
 
 The agricultural productions of Canada are almost identical with 
 those of the Northern States, but would be exchanged for our own 
 manufactures, and for the products of warmer climates, in part 
 those of our Southern States, and in part of regions yet fm-ther 
 South, whose products would thus be brought through our territory, 
 and afford employment and profit to our people. 
 
 Not a few narrow economists regard the prosperity of the United 
 States as, in some way, a profit made at the cost of other nations, and 
 of which they are naturally and reasonably jealous. General Ward 
 clearly exposed the folly of this, the doctrine of the old Tory school 
 of Great Britain, transplanted to the United States. He ranged 
 himself on the side of those who, in this country, represent Cobden, 
 Bright, Gladstone and other Liberal statesmen of the more grand 
 and modern school, and showed that tke liberal prosperity of the 
 United States would continually react favorably in the nations of 
 Europe, and not the least upon Great Britain, whose peoj^le are the 
 most commercial of aU. By such a customs' union as he advocated 
 we would obtain all the material benefits of complete annexation, 
 without the annoyances and dangers inseparable from admitting the 
 
60 
 
 people of Mexico, Cuba and San Domingo to a participation in 
 making the laws for governing ns, or forcibly obtruding our ideas 
 and institutions where they would not yet be welcomed, might not 
 be advantageous ; but the frequent intercourse necessarily arising 
 from free commerce with tliem, and the mutual migrations between 
 us and them, would tend to increased friendship among the people 
 and a gradual assimilation of ideas and institutions. 
 
 In October, 1874, a 'week before the election. General Ward 
 was nominated by the Democratic and Liberal parties for re-election 
 to the House of Representatives, in the Eighth Congressional 
 District, against John D. Lawson, Republican, In 1872, the 
 District, as then constituted, gave Mr. Lawson 3,910 majority, and 
 the last Legislature of New York State added a portion of another 
 Assembly District to it, to render more certain the election of a 
 Republican member of Congress ; but General Ward overcame 
 this large opposition majority, and was elected by 881 votes over 
 his opponent, notwithstanding that General Dix, the Republican 
 candidate for Governor, received 280 majority. 
 
 In the summer of 1875, General Ward, hoping to direct the at- 
 tention of just and thoughtful men in both political combinations 
 to such measures as would restore to a safe and harmonious basis 
 tlie financial, commercial, and material interests of the nation, wrote 
 an elaborate and comprehensive letter on "The Principles and 
 Policy of the Democratic Party." It appeared first in the New 
 York World, but was afterwards presented to the public in the 
 form of a pamphlet. The changes he urged are those which, in the 
 light of snbsequent events, are now known to be essential to the 
 harmony and prosperity of the people. He defined the first and 
 cliief requisite to be the enactment of such just laws as through 
 reform of the civil service would afford the best and only permanent 
 relief, by insuring integrity and justice in public affairs, and showed 
 that when this vantage-ground is gained there will be less disagree- 
 ment than was then commonly expected on the other leading topics 
 of the times, including an honest currency, justice to the South, and 
 
61 
 
 a liberal tariff alike favorable to the collection of revenue and the 
 progress of commerce and manufactures. Piirsuino; this line of 
 thought, he added : 
 
 Trite as it is to say that "honesty is the best policy," the essential truth hus 
 long been laid aside wdth many forgotten errors, and its practical application is 
 alike the great need of the times and demand of the iieople. Through it only is the 
 way to economy, diminished taxation, and renewed confidence and prosperity. In 
 the end it will be found to include all other public necessities. Without it there 
 can be no reliable reform, and the people will continue to be wronged either by 
 commending evil doctrines, or by intrigues robbing sound principles *of their 
 proper effect. Integrity in those who make our laws and manage public affairs is 
 as needful to the well-being of the people as a firm footing and a pure atmosphere 
 are to the progress and life of individuals. 
 
 In the same pamphlet he impartially reviewed the commercial 
 and financial policy and errors of the government since the begin- 
 ning of the war, so far as tliey afford lessons for future guidance. 
 He urged the resumption of specie payments by such a gradual 
 but certain progress as would prevent retro-action, and lield that as 
 the i3roper object of all legislation is the promotion of the public 
 good rather than that of special and individual interests, the aim of 
 all true citizens should be to separate the business of banking fi-om 
 the government, in whose hands it cannot long remain without 
 creating such centralization and iuliuences as are hostile to the 
 spirit and perpetuation of republican institutions. 
 
 He also pohited out many of the abuses of the tariff created by 
 special influences, wliich regarded the income of the government as 
 secondary to personal interests, needlessly increased prices, and made 
 almost impossible an exchange of various arti(des we were accus- 
 tomed to export, besides impeding the exportation of many others. 
 " Abuses of this kind have," he said, " gone on so long unchecked 
 and encouraged that the financial leader of the majority in the House 
 of Eepresentatives, does not hesitate to denounce the whole system 
 of taxation as controlled by the intrigues of rings and cliques, with- 
 out regard to principles or the interests of the people. Obviously 
 the tariff needs thorough revision and reform." 
 
 As an illustration of the pernicious effects of the tariff on the 
 
62 
 
 trade and indnstry of our citizens, he pointed out that although in 
 1860 seventy-iive or eighty per cent, of our foreign commerce em- 
 ployed American vessels, the proportions are now almost literally 
 reversed, over seventy-two per cent, being carried in the vessels of 
 other countries. The amount thus paid to the owners of foreign 
 steamships for freight and passage-money in 1872 was $134,742,44:1. 
 His argument on this point was in substance that — 
 
 When such sums are paid annually, and as our ship-owners, sailors, and others 
 formerly enjoyed the pre-eminence and chief profits in a trade now so nearly 
 monopolized by foreigners, and of which our citizens are deprived by what are 
 termed "protective laws," it is plain that a liberal and comprehensive change is 
 needed in legislation, and that upon similar principles, judiciously applied, a strong 
 stimulus could be given to the exports of many manufactures, and the additional 
 labor employed in their production would increase the demand for agricultural 
 products, and the home consumption of those manufactures to which the condi- 
 tion of our country is specially adapted. 
 
 To these remarks he added earnest recommendations of measures 
 for the extension of reciprocal trade with Canada, Mexico, and 
 Cuba. 
 
 When indicating the " best policy toward the South," Gen. Ward 
 warmly condenmed the spoliation to which the white people of the 
 Soutliern States have been subjected by the aid of the former con- 
 gressional majority and the federal office-holders, who, with their 
 adherents and the support of their party at Washington, controlled 
 elections, and tampered with the courts and usurped their power, 
 neglecting nothing to foster and perpetuate pernicious enmity and 
 strife between the two races. The restoration of concord and a 
 true union can only be effected by fair-dealing and constitutional 
 li])erty, leaving all simply local and domestic matters to the people 
 of the States. He expressed, in the following words, the leading 
 truths now most prominent in the minds of all good and thinking 
 citizens. He said : 
 
 One of the first objects in the Democratic Southern policy should be to destroy 
 the political " color-line," which it has been the constant aim of those who had no 
 desire for the welfare either of the white or colored race to intensify to the ut- 
 most. If the distinction should be perpetuated, and the colored people continue 
 to be made the tools of those who maintain corrupt government, both at the South 
 
 ^ 
 
63 
 
 and North, tte ultimate result will be especially disastrous to those who, in 'com- 
 parison with the rest of the population of the Union, are in a small minority. 
 
 When the federal government ceases to interfere in the affairs of separate 
 States, and is represented in the South by office-holders whose character will 
 command respect and esteem, a complete and harmonious settlement of the politi- 
 cal questions in those States wiU soon be attained. A lasting attachment to the 
 Union will be insured when an administration, fulfills the duty of making union a 
 blessing. 
 
 One of the most marked characteristics of General Ward through- 
 out his public life has been to study carefully and without preju- 
 dice the great principles and measures most conducive to the 
 political and material benefit of the nation, rather than to participate 
 in discussions on subjects of transient interest. In accordance 
 with this line of conduct and aided by the results of long experience, 
 he made before the Forty-fourth Congress several well considered 
 speeches containing much information and argument of real and 
 permanent importance. As a member of the Committee on Com- 
 merce, he was the author of many valuable reports. Prepared 
 by his observations and reflections during many previous years, he 
 entered with renewed zeal and vigor upon his duties in the national 
 legislature. 
 
 On the 29th of January, 1876, deeply impressed by the embar- 
 rassment of commercial and manufacturing interests throughout 
 the nation, and believing that until the monetary policy of the 
 Government is permanently settled there can be no real renewal 
 of national prosperity, he delivered an able and exhaustive speech 
 on the financial problem. His remarks have the more force and 
 weight, as he himself had been a member of Congress during the 
 periods w'hen the gravest errors on this subject were committed, 
 and had duly protested and recorded his vote against them. 
 
 He briefly reviewed the unwillingness or failure of many leading 
 statesmen at the beginning of the war to comprehend its real 
 magnitude, and their repeated prophecies that it would end in a 
 few weeks. The inevitable result was, that as the character of the 
 impending dangers was not undei stood, the military and pecuniary 
 
64 
 
 measures needed to meet them were not undertaken with due 
 promptitude. The policy of deluding by makeshift expedients, in- 
 tead of following the standard of the real and permanent good of 
 the public as fixed by immutable natural laws, was too conducive to 
 the personal and partisan interests of those in power to be readily 
 abandoned. A vain confidence in the passage of resolutions and 
 the imaginary power of legislation took the place of reason. The 
 Government, which should have guarded the banks carefully, so 
 that a public knowledge of their strength might have insured con- 
 fidence, and kept up the value of the currency, persisted in drawing 
 their gold and scattered it until it could neither be lent over again 
 in sufficient quantities, or made available as a reserve for the banks. 
 Suspension followed soon after the meeting of Congress at its first 
 regular session. 
 
 The next error indicated in the speech was the authorization by 
 the Government, on the 25th February, 1862, of a large issue of 
 " leo-al tender " receivable " for all debts except duties on imports 
 and interest on the public debt." Thus, for the first time in his- 
 tory, a government discredited its own paper by practically pro- 
 claiming its inferiority to specie. He exposed also the ingloi'ious 
 and suicidal attempt to raise loans during the war at an interest of 
 five per cent., the arbitrary addition of fifty per cent, to the duties 
 on imports for sixty-three days, and the bill prohibiting time con- 
 tracts for the sale of gold, which was found to be so pernicious that 
 it was repealed in fifteen days after its passage — a series of financial 
 errors through which a debt of war of $2,800,000,000 was in- 
 curred, although the value received was probably not more than 
 forty cents on the dollar for all the expenditures of the war. 
 
 In the various compositions of General Ward, few paragraphs 
 contaiii any superfluous thought or expression, and each is so 
 essentially a part of the whole discussion that there is great dif- 
 ficulty in abridging his arguments or selecting from his facts. 
 This is nowhere more apparent than in his speech on Finance, 
 where he most succinctly reviewed the causes of the panic of 1874, 
 
65 
 
 and, by an exhaustive summary of the chief historical precedents, 
 and the illustration of comprehensive principles, demonstrated the 
 folly of attempting to compel the people to take irredeemable 
 paper at par with coin. 
 
 The necessity of one universal and uniform standard of values 
 has, perhaps, seldom been more simply and clearly shown than in 
 the following paragraph : 
 
 In the minds of many men aifaiis of state are surrounded with a confusing mys- 
 tery, as if the principles of ordinary facts and common sense could not be applied 
 to them. Yet it is plain that trade in grain of any kind would be placed under 
 such enormous disadvantages as to render it almost impossible if the bushel meas- 
 ure of to-day might be larger or smaller to-morrow from causes the farmer or 
 merchant could not foresee and altogether independent of their control. The 
 dealers in textile fabrics, and in land itself, would be in strange predicaments if 
 the yard and the foot were subject to great and frequent variations, and might 
 represent at one time little more than a third of their measure at another. Yet the 
 obstacle which has been thrown in the way of the trade and prosperity of the 
 country is almost exactly of the same nature. The ' ' legal-tender " dollar at one 
 time was worth little more than a third of the true dollar, and it continually changes 
 from day to day, making trade uncertain and values of all kinds doubtful. No 
 man knows when he rises what they may be that morning, or when he goes to his 
 place of business what they may be before the sun sets. 
 
 In conclusion Greneral "Ward said, and subsequent events have 
 proved the truth of his assertion, that we have now arrived at the 
 period when inflation no longer inflates, that in the body politic 
 and financial as in the human body, tliere is a point where the 
 power of stimulants ceases and can no longer prevent collapse. 
 There is a great shrinkage in business, and no important revival can 
 be expected until a new financial system which will deserve and 
 receive public confidence is fairly begun. He suggested as a 
 practical remedy the monthly purchase and cancellation of some 
 definite amount of legal tender notes, the means of purchase being 
 provided by the sale of bojids bearing the lowest practicable rate of 
 interest. Business being thus adjusted uporf the new basis, confi- 
 dence would return, and with it prosperity would prevail. 
 
 During the first session of the Forty-fourth Congress, a treaty of 
 commerce with the Hawaiian Islands having been advised in the 
 6 
 
66 
 
 Senate by the triumphant success of fifty-one against twelve votes, 
 was brought before the House for its approval and appropi-iate 
 legislation. Tlie measure was met by strong opposition from the 
 ultra-protectionists. General Ward gave it his earnest support, 
 and tlie majority by which it passed was materially increased 
 through his efforts. The broad view he urged upon Congress was 
 that under the policy which had for many years controlled the 
 legislation of this country the industry of the people had been 
 unduly diverted to manufacturing pursuits. Over-production and 
 a want of employment resulted. Hence it was incumbent on the 
 national legislation to do whatever might fairly be in its power to 
 open or extend our markets abroad. As this was one of the direct 
 results which would be accomplished by the proposed treaty, he 
 held that it should be supported by the representatives of the peo- 
 ple without distinction of party. He believed, also, that it would 
 create an increased demand, not only for our manufactures, but 
 also for our agricultural productions, most of which are essentially 
 different from those of the islands, and that the mutually beneficial 
 exchange would be effected by our own sailors and ships, thus giv- 
 ing another impetus to our national progress. He expressed the 
 sound and too often forgotten truth, that although a diminution of 
 revenue in some items might follow such removal of duties as 
 would be required by the treaty, the money thus permitted to 
 remain in the pockets of our citizens would be spent on other 
 articles, many of them yielding revenue to the Government, or be 
 reinvested in industrial pursuits productive of the prosperity and 
 wealth which are the surest sources of national income, and enable 
 the people to pay necessary taxes without repining. 
 
 Eegarding a ship-canal through the American isthmus as prac- 
 ticable, and its completion as only a question of time, and confident 
 that its advantages will benefit the people of this country far more 
 than those of any other, he pointed out the importance of main- 
 taining the most friendly and intimate relations with the Hawaiian 
 Islands. In a naval and military point of view, many of our high- 
 
« 
 
 est iiutliorities have repeatedly warned us not to permit the Islands 
 to pass into the hands of any foreign power, and this they were 
 likely to do if the ITonse refused to sanction the proposed treaty. 
 Yet he chiefly desired the measure should be adopted in the hope 
 that it miglit be the precursor of more extensive and beneficial 
 arrangements with Mexico, Cuba, and Canada. '' Such a treaty," 
 he said, " with Spain, as would entail free admission of our flour, 
 other provisions, and .various articles of manufacture into Cuba, 
 would be worth more than the fee-simple of the island itself to 
 the farmers and manufacturers and mei'chants of the United 
 States ; and the commerce created by a similar arrangement with 
 Mexico would benefit the manufacturers of New England and 
 Pennsylvania far more than the conquest or j)urchase of half the 
 Mexican territory." 
 
 The course General Ward would take in the debate as to the dis- 
 tribution of the funds awarded to' the United States by the tribu- 
 nal of arbitration at Geneva for the claims generally known as the 
 Alabama claims, might have been readily inferred by those who 
 knew his pei-sonal character. To him it seemed a matter of course 
 that the plain and common rules of honesty and fair dealing are as 
 obligatory in arlDitraments between nations as between individuals. 
 In a speech made before the House of Representatives, on the 
 23d of May, 1876, he showed incontrovertibly that the award was 
 made for specific claims which were admitted, while others were 
 no less unequivocally excluded. Thus the application of the 
 money became a matter of right not changeable at will by Con- 
 gress. He reviewed with candid brevity the proceedings of the 
 tribunal, and the principles of marine insurance, showing that 
 the money awarded was in part paid for companies whose claims 
 were admitted to be just, and who had confided them to the Gov- 
 ernment of our country as their best and truest trustee. A 
 majority of the Judiciary Committee had recommended that pri- 
 ority should be given to other demands of vague amount and at 
 least questionable validity. 
 
68 
 
 In conclnsion he made the following summary of his narrative 
 and aro;ument : 
 
 The duty of the Government is plain and simple. Having received the money 
 as the value of private property, it is bailee or trustee for the owners. Repudia- 
 tion of the trust or bailment by any individual under the same circumstances 
 would be severely punished in a court of justice. The nation cannot be sued, but 
 it is therefore so much the more firmly bound by higher considerations of right and 
 policy to render no less justice than the private trustee would be constrained to do. 
 All fair consideration of this subject leads to the same conclusions. The only 
 just claim on the part of the Government is the one per cent, interest, the differ- 
 ence between what it has p lid and received. This is fairly its right, and should 
 be covered into the Treasury. 
 
 The Government ought freely and promptly to submit all claims upon which the 
 award was based to proper audit before the distributing tribunal, where they can 
 be heard upon their merits and decided in accordance with the principles of legal 
 right. No other course will afford substantial or valid protection to the National 
 Treasury, and any indirect or arbitrary procedure cannot fail to disgrace our coun- 
 try in the estimation of the whole civilized world. 
 
 "From 1S64 until the return of General Ward to Congress in 
 1875, the consideration of our trade with Canada received little 
 more than nominal notice. Firmly convinced tiiat there is no 
 more obvious remedy for the present depression of our manufac- 
 tures and trade, nor any more sure foundation of our prosperity in 
 all time to come, than an extension of our commercial relations with 
 the adjacent countries, he took an early opportunity of again di- 
 recting attention to it, soon after he had taken his seat in the 
 Forty-fourth Congress. Various memorials from the National 
 Board of Trade, and other public bodies in New York, Massachu- 
 setts, and elsewhere having been referred to the House Committee 
 on Commerce, he presented an able report from the sub-committee 
 in whose hands they had been placed. In pursuance of the views 
 he had previously advocated, he offered a joint resolution providing 
 for the appointment of commissioners to confer with similar com- 
 missioners appointed by Great Britain, and ascertain on what basis 
 a mutually beneficial treaty between the United States and Canada 
 can be negotiated. On the 18th of May, 1876, he supported this 
 policy in a speech replete with interesting and comprehensive sta- 
 
69 
 
 tistics and irrefutable ai-gaments, eliciting warm approbation from 
 thoughtful members on both sides. 
 
 He tersely but graphically described the climate and resources 
 of the Dominion, from the fisheries of Newfoundland and Labrador 
 to the Pacific Ocean. Three-fourths of the people of the Domin- 
 ion inhabit a territory |oj#th of our boundaries in Maine and 
 Minnesota, and intervening between many of our Eastern and 
 AVestern States. Nearly the whole of the British North American 
 possessions on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains is depen- 
 dent on the railroads, canals, rivers, and other means of connnu- 
 nication in the United States, for the shortest routes to the ocean. 
 Yet more : the great natural and permanent system of exchanges 
 is between the North and South, their productions being separately ' 
 distinct, and modern civilization having rendered them practically 
 necessaries of life to the people of each region. " In fact," he said 
 summarily, " the commercial relations of our Northern, North- 
 western, and Eastern States with the Dominion of Canada, if left 
 simply and without obstruction to the practical test of benefits or 
 profits given and received by the people of both countries, would 
 be more close and intimate than those between most parts of the 
 Union." 
 
 Uaving fully demonstrated the benefits that would result from 
 free exchanges between the ITnited States and Canada, General 
 Ward pointed out the chief obstacles to any fair, mutually advan- 
 tageous and complete arrangement of reciprocity between the two 
 countries. As the most effective remedy he suggested a modified 
 application of the principles of the German Customs-Union, but 
 did not limit his advocacy to the exclusive recommendation of any 
 special plan. 
 
 He demonstrated that the " balance in our favor," as it is called, 
 merely shows that we expel to an enormous extent the trade in 
 grain, flour, and provisions to other countries from our shipping, 
 railroads, elevators, and warehouses, with incalculable injury to 
 all classes of our people, and force it into Canadian channels. In 
 
70 
 
 view of the earl} opening of new or enlarged canals in Canada, 
 this subject acquires peculiar importance. The question is not 
 only wliether we shall exchange our manufactures for food and 
 raw materials, but whether we shall divert inland trade in our own 
 agricultural productions to a foreign route. 
 In conclusion he said : , , 
 
 The principles I am desirous of seeing brought into active use are simply those 
 expressed nearly a century ago by Girard, Franklin, Dean, and Lee in a treaty of 
 commerce between France and the United States, in which they, on the part of 
 this country, agreed to avoid ' ' all those burdensome prejudices which are usually 
 sources of debate, embarrassment, and discontent," and to take as the " basis of 
 their agreement the most perfect equality and reciprocity," " founding the advan- 
 tage of commerce solely upon reciprocal utility and the just rules of free inter- 
 course." Thus all petty, acrimonious debates as to whether one party would 
 make more or less than the other, would cease. All would be merged in considera- 
 tions of plain and palpable benefit as far as it is between States and individuals in 
 the Union. 
 
 It is undeniable that the government and people of Canada are desirous of meet- 
 ing in a friendly and liberal spirit whatever efforts we may make toward extend- 
 ing our trade with them. Thus apparently the means of benefiting a large and 
 suffering portion of our population are open to us by giving them employment 
 through an extended market for their productions. How much this is needed may 
 be estimated from the statement of the Secretary of the Treasury in his annual 
 report, that our domestic exports to all countries decreased in value $70,149,331 
 last year. By opening trade with Canada we should also furnish our people with 
 a more abundant supply of the necessaries of life and some of the materials for 
 manufactures. The purpose of the resolutions now under consideration is simply 
 to ascertain, after full and careful investigation by intelligent citizens of the 
 United States, how far and through what measures we can best bring into actual 
 practice the opportunities which are placed within our reach by the circumstances 
 of the times and by immutable nature, or rather by Providence itself. 
 
 In the same session General Ward directed the attention of the 
 Committee on Commerce and the House of Representatives to 
 needed reform in various particulars of the bill relating to mer- 
 chant seamen, and known as the " Shipping Act of 1872." It was 
 framed and passed through the exertions of benevolent persons 
 who had duly observed that our commerce suffered from the want 
 of enactments duly protecting sailoi's, and that their condition in 
 our seaports was one of great injustice to them and other citi- 
 zens, and disgraceful to the country. In a speech made on the Ist 
 
71 
 
 of June, he earnestl} delineated the evils existing before the pas- 
 sage of the bill. 
 
 While he duly and gladly set forth the marked improvement in 
 the condition of seamen in various ports, and that ship-owners, 
 many of whom were at first opposed to the law, had found benefit 
 from some of its provisions, he felt it his duty to urge several judi- 
 cious and well-considered amendments, necessary to carry out fully 
 the benevolent intentions of those who originated tlie act. Their 
 main object had been to provide an ofiicer or shipping commis- 
 sioner to see that no foul play is practised on the seaman or his 
 employer in the engagement or discharge of crews. The vital ne- 
 cessity of making the shipping commissioners duly responsible had 
 been neglected, and it was found that in several instances, notably 
 in the city of New York, they perverted the powers entrusted to 
 them, and were virtually and practically " a law unto themselves." 
 Gross favoritism and nepotism in the selection of subordinates had 
 prevailed, salaries and rents had been shamefully extravagant, and 
 the object of the appointees had appeared to be rather to discover 
 how all the money collected could be absorbed than to perform 
 services efliciently and faithfully. 
 
 The chief amendment he proposed was to remove the power of ap- 
 pointing the shipping commissioners from the several circuit courts 
 to the Secretary of the Treasury, since the courts, however desirous 
 of being impartial, can scarcely be fair judges between strangers 
 and those appointees whom they have selected either from friendship 
 or confidence. The Committee on Commerce was unanimously in 
 favor of the amendments, which were thirteen in number ; many 
 urgent letters and petitions in their favor were received from various 
 parts of the country. They met with opposition prompted by 
 various motives, but ultimately prevailed, and were passed in the 
 House of Representatives. 
 
 In October, 1876, a few days before the election, General Ward 
 was again nominated in the Eighth Congressional District for re- 
 election to the House of Representatives. The opposing candi- 
 
72 
 
 date was General Anson G, McCook. The district being strongly 
 republican, strenuous and unusual efforts were made, and General 
 Ward was defeated, although he received more than two thousand 
 votes over his previous majority. 
 
 In the second session of the Forty-fourth Congress General Ward 
 renewed his efforts for the extension of our commercial relations 
 with Canada. Since his previous speech tlie chief mercantile 
 bodies throughout the Northern States had passed resolutions com- 
 mending his exertions, and earnestly urging the appointment of 
 such commassioners as he had proposed. The National Board of 
 Trade is an association which attracts to its councils leading mer- 
 chants and manufacturers from all parts of the Union, and includes 
 alike among its members free-traders and protectionists, and many 
 even of the latter had most cordially endorsed his views. The 
 Boston Board of Trade, representing a people depending largely 
 for their success and subsistence upon being able to manufacture 
 cheaply, thought, and none can contradict them, that the success of 
 lUHimfacturing industry depends not only in making sales, but in 
 supplying the prime necessities of life, fuel and food, to the labor- 
 ing population at the lowest practicable cost, and that the most ready 
 alleviation of the present distress is to be found in increasing the sales 
 of manufactures to our neighbors and the supply of raw materials 
 from them. The leading commercial associations in the city and 
 State of New York also zealously advocated the views thus presented. 
 General Ward expressed the same principles in the bi-oadest and 
 most comprehensive sense, showing that an extension of our trade 
 with Canada is of no more importance to the New England 
 States and New York than to the Western and Central States, and 
 that if such a continental system as he desires were established, no 
 cities would be stimulated by it more beneficially than St. Louis 
 and Chicago. 
 
 He made a strong appeal to the House on the ground that, having 
 already sanctioned the treaty for the extension of our trade with 
 remote islands in the Pacific, it was incalculably a greater duty to 
 
Y3 
 
 remove needless restrictions on any business with our next-door 
 neighbors on the North. From every possible point of view our 
 relations with the Hawaiian Islands sink into absolute insignificance 
 when compared with those between the United States and the 
 Dominion of Canada. The comparatively small portion of the 
 Canadian territory southerly from the northern boundaries of 
 Maine and Minnesota would, if extended south from Detroit for a 
 distance equal to its eastern side, reach nearly to Tallahassee or the 
 Gulf of Mexico. He graphically described the injurious results 
 which would follow if such a region under alien laws intervened be- 
 tween the Atlantic and the Western States, thus showing in a clear 
 light the evils to all concerned from the commercial isolation of 
 Canada. Iler population will be computed by the hundred of 
 millions, and her friendship, in a military point of view, is not only 
 more important to us than that of the Hawaiian Islands, but of any 
 other power whatever on either side of the Atlantic. He showed 
 by official statistics that our exports to Canada in 1876 were at 
 least fifty times as large as those to the Hawaiian Islarids. Ac- 
 cording to the best authorities, the exports of our own cott<jn mauu- 
 factures alone to Canada were twice as large as all those of every 
 kind added together to the Hawaiian Islands. The exports of our 
 cotton manufactures to Canada in the same year amounted to 
 $1,591,844, and those of iron and steel to no less than $0,833,649. 
 It was unnecessary to enter into furtlier details. '" It would," he 
 said, "be useless to argue those who do not see tliat such a market 
 for our manufacturers should receive attention and encmii-agement 
 from every true friend of the people." As the prices of agricul- 
 tural productions depend mainly on those in foreign markets, it is 
 suicidal to many of our mercantile, manufacturing and carrying 
 interests, and beneficial to no other, to charge duties on them. 
 Referring to these considerations. General Ward said : 
 
 When our ports were open to the free admission of Canadian wheat our forward- 
 ers and merchants and their employes reaped the profits. There was also a local 
 benefit to our millers and many communities. Thus, when I speak of a liberal 
 
74 
 
 policy, I do not mean that of self-destruction or sacrifice of our own interests, but 
 one in which the benefits of mutual profit are recognized, a belief with which the 
 issues of individual and national well-being- are most intimately connected, and 
 in which that short-sighted view — the most pernicious and perhaps the most com- 
 mon of all political errors — that the gain of one man or nation must be the loss of 
 another, is discarded. 
 
 lie briefly reviewed tlie results of the commercial treaty between 
 England and France, showing that no cause has contributed more 
 powerfully to the marvellous recuperation of France, and that one 
 of its results has been a warmer and more durable friendship than 
 ever before existed between the two nations. The leading com- 
 mercial bodies of Canada, her Minister of Customs, and present 
 Gove?'nor-General have formally signified their readiness to do 
 their part in endeavoring to arrange a commercial treaty which 
 will be mutually satisfactory to both countries, whenever the 
 Government of the United States will appoint a commission for 
 that purpose. 
 
 Increased enlightment has effected a silent revolution in the 
 relation of the colonies and the mother-country. The practical 
 rights of self-government, only obtained by the United Slates 
 through war, have been quietly and voluntarily conceded to Canada, 
 and the belief has become more and more prevalent in Great 
 Britain that the means by which she can most securely and profit- 
 ably derive the elements of real prosperity from her colonies is by 
 permitting them to direct their industry into those channels which 
 their natural position and advantages indicate as the most renumera- 
 tive. If we, in the plenitude of our power and in the present age, 
 refuse even to consider by what means our trade with Canada can 
 be extended with mutual benefit to the people of both countries, we 
 follow the evil example set us in a more aggravated form by Great 
 Britain in the early days of our own history. 
 
 General Ward held that, as in population and power the United 
 States are the first nation on the American continent, it is our duty 
 to ourselves and others to take the lead in giving practical develop- 
 ment to the bounties which Providence has placed within our 
 
75 
 
 reach, and that of all aflairs of foreign policy the opportunity of 
 cheapening the matei'ials of our manufactures and extending our 
 markets is the most important. 
 
 There is little doubt that tlie appointment of commissioners as 
 thus proposed would have been approved by the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, and that a most valuable advance in our relations with 
 Canada would have been effected if the exciting discussions regard- 
 ing the Presidential count had not supervened and temporarily 
 postponed consideration of all subjects except those of inunediately 
 urgent concern. 
 
 The expediency or necessity of converting bullion and the gold and 
 silver currency of other countries into our national coin at New 
 York has from time to time for nearly half a century been urged 
 by leading statesmen, irrespective of party or the locality of their 
 residences. Soon after resuming his seat in Congress General Ward 
 introduced a bill providing for it, but the committee to whom it 
 was referred having omitted reporting thereon he took an oppor- 
 tunity, on the 1st of February, 18Y7, of bringing the subject once 
 more to the attention of the House and the country. He regarded 
 the removal of unnecessary, expensive, and unjust obstacles to the 
 conversi(:»n of the precious metals into the coin of our own country 
 as one of the most important means of aiding in the restoration of 
 specie payments. Since the establishment of the Assay office in 
 New York, the direct and needless expense actually incurred through 
 the transportation of bullion to Philadelphia for coinage exceeded 
 $200,000, besides a waste of time, and other inconveniences. There 
 has seldom been under our government any more flagrant mistake of 
 the power of habit and established patronage in resisting a most need- 
 ful conformity to the requirements of the times. 
 
 The imports and exports of New York in 1874 and 1875, 
 as compared with those of all other ports in the United States, 
 were almost exactly in the proportions of seven to tive. The 
 difference in the value of foreign imports alone is yet more strik- 
 ing, and as the government depends on them for that part of the 
 
76 
 
 revenue which is collected in coin, the comparison is especially 
 important and suggestive. In 1874 and 1875 the imports at New 
 York were almost twice as large as at all the other ports added 
 together. He showed by precise statistical demonstrations that as 
 New York is the commercial, so also is it the monetary centre of 
 the Union. The capital employed in banking in the State is more 
 than twice as large as that of any other State except Massachusetts. 
 Apart from the regions of the Rocky Mountains and on the Pacific 
 Coast, nearly all the gold and silver bars made and issued in tlie 
 United States in 1875 and 1876 were made in the Assay ofiice in 
 New York, the relative proportions having been in 1875 more than 
 twenty to one, and in 1876 more than forty-five to one. He said : 
 
 It may be argued that the impediments to coinage, by compelling the citizens of 
 the centre of the exchanges of the Union to carry their specie to and fro for hun- 
 dreds of miles, are to some extent removed by modem facilities for rapid transit ; 
 but, whatever the cost thus incurred for freightage may be, it is to that extent a 
 tax, primarily upon New York, but ultimately upon the nation, and an obstacle to 
 its foreign and domestic trade. In our commercial system bullion and coin, the rep- 
 resentatives of value and current circulation among all nations, pass and repass to 
 and from New York as the blood in the human system tends toward the heart and 
 is thej distributed again. 
 
 In conclusion. General Ward quoted from the published state- 
 ments of the Director of the Mint and Supervising Architect, that 
 the present Assay ofiice in New York and the land on which it is 
 erected would sell for more than sufficient to purchase a new and 
 better site and erect thereon a suitable structure, more capacious 
 and better adapted, he had no doubt, for the work to be done in it, 
 and also to provide the room and outfit necessary for coinage. Thus, 
 without charge to the national Treasury, arrangements might be 
 made for giving the people of the country ample facilities for coin- 
 age at that port where they would be incomparably more conducive 
 to the national welfare than they can be at any other place on this 
 side of the continent. He earnestly urged tlie change on the 
 ground of economy as well as of j ustice. 
 
77 
 
 The successful career of General "Ward throughout liis public 
 life is primarily owing to a spirit of self-reliance and decision, 
 strengthened by obstacles, moderated by an unfailing generosity 
 not ostentatious, but springing from the heart, and aided by a 
 ready tact acquired through early and familiar intercourse with 
 men of every vocation. He has the advantages of a clear judg- 
 ment, and a self-control seldom disturbed. None know better 
 than he the wondrous power in seeming trifles, how much the 
 right word, look, or tone can accomplish. There is no effort 
 in his courtesy ; all his manner is easy, unaffected, ardent, and in 
 marked contrast with that of the many men of distinction, who are 
 conscious that the best security for their reputation and imaginary 
 greatness consists in keeping others at a safe distance. Endowed 
 by nature with rapid, acute and accurate perceptions, he is one of 
 the best judges of character, and, while despising pretensions, has 
 in an unusual degree the rare and happy power of bringing out 
 the best qualities of those with whom he is associated. He has few 
 enemies and many warm personal and public friends. The causes 
 which laid the foundation of his personal popularity furnish also 
 the key to the characteristics which led him to further distinction. 
 He always deprecated dissensions in his own party, and strove to 
 moderate the strife between it and its opponents, so as to establish 
 a common ground on which all well-meaning and reasonable men 
 might meet. 
 
 Although, when he was a member of Congress, he was often in 
 the minority, and opposed to the administration of the time, he 
 never ceased to have, with the leading oflicers of state, a personal 
 influence, which he freely used on behalf of his constituents, with- 
 out inquiring too closely into their relations as partisans. This 
 liberality has been honorably reciprocated towards him, both by 
 individuals and the press. Educated in business pursuits, he keeps 
 closely to the point under discussion, and deals with facts, not 
 merely with theories. At all times he is ready to exert himself in 
 urging legislat've relief for the sufferers ; and throughout his many 
 
78 
 
 speeches on financial reforms and commercial subjects, he uses the 
 results of his varied experience and study in constant application 
 of tlie principle that all legitimate interests are harmonious. Few 
 have done more to guide aright the opinions of thinking men. In 
 public as in private life, he shrinks from nothing more than false- 
 hood or equivocation in word or spirit. Whenever time permits, 
 his speeches are carefully prepared, and characterized by a candid 
 condensation of solid and comprehensive information, expressed 
 in language at once simple and forcible. If it is not his peculiar 
 gift to arouse, agitate, and control the passions of his hearers, none 
 of his compeers in Congress excelled him in such persuasive pre- 
 sentations, even of the most intricate subjects, as carry conviction 
 to the mind, and bear the test of reflection, in the conscientious 
 discharge of the duties of a thoroughly practical statesman, or in 
 vigilance and devotion to the true and permanent interests of his 
 constituents and countrymen. 
 
 THE END.