LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0DD0S3T1E71 -n^-o^ ^^-^^^ '. t^o^ .^"^^ V .♦i*^'. c^ A*?' .•J.Jr;^'*. •^. . V .*1^"-. e^ -iP^,»*' % '*"^^'-' ^0' ■^o^ .^^ >,. •- ^^'%^ .• *<■' •«;, o*"..-...V'^'^<' o'^ .l:l% V iVt^ ^°-'*-. % *'ir,"' > %^-i' v*'% -."JWS?-' ./%. -.^K^ >*'"*- °" V A c :^rr*' /v 5q '. '^^^ ^'^ ♦V ^ol V •'•-°' ^ -ftp .'iM^* '^ v^ »* r .»:L:nL% o^ *'7VV* A / ^^ -^^ °^' '- ^^0^ \ *^o< v^\^ ."^^. • ,.- aO ^ '-.o %/^Tr;-* ao V -^ ^s^^ -n^o^ >bv^ / ^y .v^. .c ^3 ♦*'^77• A V :W HAMILTON WARD, JR. 1902. Press OF A. H. Morey, 45 N. Division St., Buffalo, N. Y. P. .SS' <• ,• , PREFACE. For the better part of three years the preparation of my father's biography has occupied my spare moments and I feel myself viewing its completion with regret because the task has been a pleasant companion from whom I am loath to part. Much pleasanter, indeed, would it have been could we have ransacked attic and scrap-book, newspaper file and pub- lic document together in this work as I had hoped ; then the dry and disjointed array of facts which I have gathered would have glowed with his vigor, sparkled with his humor and told a story which would have described more correctly his active and eventful life. Nevertheless, as that was not to be, I have endeavored to set down from such scattered and in many cases unsatis- factory sources as I could command the following narrative which is written, not for wide publicity or in response to any public demand, but for the family and for the few old and dear friends who would take pleisaie ia recalling, through these pages, once farhiliar occiire-nees.' ■ '- - - ' And above all else it is written for the purpose of pre- serving in permanent form the record of a life whose every event and circumstance I love to remember. He was devoted to his home and village and much local history has crept in because it was so closely associated with him. I have set forth his speeches at much length for they were typical of him and grew with his growth; and the episodes of his congressional career will deepen with interest as the passing years teach us the true importance of that great period toward which the future will turn for precedent and inspiration. The Hendryx case is set out in full as it illustrates his industry and mastery of detail and the summing-up is, I be- lieve, a good example of forensic eloquence ; and I have gone at some length into the history of the Manhattan litigation as that was the greatest trial that ever befell my father and the test of a man is the way he meets adversity. I have not endeavored in the following pages to do much more than to set out his work and that, I fear, has been done imperfectly, as the personal knowledge possessed by myself and my brother, whose assistance in this matter has been of great value to me, extended over only the last ten years of his life; before that we were too young to know more than that he was our best friend and compan- ion ; that he was always just and absolutely without deceit or pretence. He counciled us in our boyish troubles, shared our secrets, furthered our plans, -taught, us bur sports and as we grew older we were ev^nc'loserto him; he entered with keen zest into oar studies. and rearrly .professional struggles and told us of his own pkn^ and efforts.-' He'was more than a parent, he was our inspiration, our advisor, our best friend, whose pleasure and approval were our highest aims, and upon whose judg- ment we implicitly relied. Genial, keen and vigorous his death seemed most un- timely; but he died at work with his natural powers un- abated and perhaps he would have had it so. He sleeps on the brow of a little hill to the west of the village of Belmont which for half a century was loyal to his fortunes and to whose every inhabitant he was a friend. HAMILTON WARD, JR. April 14, 1902. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Family History. CHAPTER H. Boyhood 1829-1849. School days, page 7. CHAPTER HI. The Low Student. Description of Admission to the Bar, pages 13 to 17. Removal to Phil- lipsville, page IS. CHAPTER IV. TKe Yoxing' Lawyer. Encounter with Martin Grover, page 19. Letters from Phillipsville, pages 20 to 32. Journey to Tennessee, with sequel, pages 34 to 36. Incorporation of Village of Belmont, page 37. Marriage, page 38. Fourth of July Speech, pages 38 to 48. Town of Ward created, page 48. Election as District Attorney, page 48. Removal of County Seat from Angelica, page 49. Member of Military Com- mittee, page 50. First Congressional Nomination, page 53. Burn- ing of the Racine, page 55. CHAPTER V. In Congress. Fellow Members, page 58. First Resolutions, page 59. First Speech, page 60. Speech on Reconstruction, page 64. Relief of Ishmael Day, page 76. Appointment of E. W. Hatch to Anapolis, page 83. Elmira Speech, page 86. Thurlow Weed Episode, page 90. Sec- ond Congressional Nomination, page 102. Speech on Negro Suf- frage, page 104. Resolution of Thanks of the People of Baltimore, page 118. Speech on Impeachment, page 123. Second Speech on Reconstruction, page 134. Articles of Impeachment, page 142. Speech on Articles, page 153. Episode with Stanton, page 157. Letter on Result of Impeachment, page 166. Stebbins' Letter, page 171. Third Nomination to Congress, page 173. Beecher Episode, page 176. Proposed Amendment to the Constitution, page 185. Estimate of Blaine and Garfield, page 190. Agricultural Speech, page 191. Speech on Re-admisssion of Virginia, page 193. Speech on Polygamy, page 195. Speech on Income Tax, page 197. Speech on Naturalization, page 199, Withdraws from Contest for Fourth Nomination, page 201. CHAPTER VI. Civil Life 1871-1879. Syracuse Convention, page 206. Position as to Greeley, page 207. A Candidate for Justice to the Supreme Court, page 212. Hendrick's Case, page 214. Mackin Case, page 257. State Convention of '79, page 259. Nominated as Attorney General — Platform, page 260. Rome Speech, page 265. Incident of a Grateful Soldier, page 268. CHAPTER VH. Attorney-General. Appointees, page 271. Hughes Case, page 272. Dennison Case, page 275. Hudson River Bridge Episode, page 281. Investigation Cost of State Capitol, page 281. Resignation of Conkling and Piatt, page 283. Cornell's Ingratitude to Conkling, page 291. Defeated for Renomination, page 294. Assassination of Garfield, page 298. Manhattan Railway Litigation, page 299. Roosevelt Resolution, page 314. Hearing before Judicial Committee, page 321. Vindica- tion, page 324. CHAPTER VHI. Law and Politics 1882-1890. Torpedo Cases, page 328. Again a Candidate for Justice, page 331. Speech on Blaine, page 333. Bath Decoration Day Speech, page 336. Baldwin-Fassett Campaign, page 337. Harrison-Platt Epi- sode, page 338. Whitney Case, page 340. Judicial Contest, page 347. Constitutional Commission, page 348. Congressional Con- test, 1890, page 355. Old Friends, page 357. Reynolds on Law Practice, page 359. Davis Personal Reminiscence, page 361. Ap- pointment as Justice of the Supreme Court, page 363. Action of the Senate on Confirmation, page 369. CPIAPTER IX. On tKe BencK. First Courts, page 372. Judicial Nomination, page 375. Pass Episode, page 381. Decisions at Circuit and Special Term, page 386. Charge to the Grand Jury, page 387. Anecdotes, page 392. Ap- pointment to the General Term, page 394. Appointment to the Appellate Division, page 397. Letter from D. B. Hill, page 399. Speech at Almond Centennial, page 400. Kerr Case, page 402. Wadsworth Case, page 405. Allen Case, page 405. Mahany Let- ter, page 407. CHAPTER X. His DeatK. Newspaper Comment, page 412. Remarks by Judge Norton, page 414. Remarks by Elba Reynolds, page 416. Comments by St. Clair Mc- Kelway, page 418. Funeral Services, page 422. Bar Association Resolutions, page 425. Resolution of Appellate Division, page 427. Resolution of Rochester Bar, page 429. CHAPTER I. Family History. In the year 1879, Hamilton Ward was "stumping" the State of New York as a candidate for Attorney-General, and on the 9th day of October, of that year, was in Boon- ville, Oneida County, N. Y., where he delivered an address. After the speech he was asked by a young man present to go to call on James Ward, who the young man said, desired to see him. He did as requested, and found an old man over ninety years of age, who mformed him that he was his great uncle, and from his lips he took down the history of the family in America, which is as follows : "My grandfather's given name was Peter. He was born near the line that divides England and Scotland, on the Scot- tish side. He was part Scotch and part Irish. He came to this country before the Revolution, and settled in what was called Long Pond, N. J., about thirty miles from New York City. He was a farmer. His son, my father's given name was also Peter. He was bound out to a tanner. He was a large man with black hair and dark blue eyes. He was a very active man. He was born at Long Pond, now Ring- wood. He was all through the Revolutionary War. He entered as a private and was promoted to captain for merit. He died in 181 2, aged fifty-seven. He settled in Camp Gaw, N. J., right after the Revolutionary War. He was a great politician and a Federalist. He was a member of the Senate and Assembly of New Jersey for twenty years — most of the time in the Senate. He had a good farm. My mother's maiden name was Nancy Mead. She was born in Holland. Her father's name was John Mead, who emigrated from Holland before his daughter's marriage, and settled in Camp Gaw. My parents had five sons. Peter, the oldest, John, Thomas, James (myself) and William, and three daughters, Jane, Catherine and Mary. 2 HAMILTON WARD. Peter was born at Camp Gaw, When he was married he settled there. He had a farm of a hundred acres and a distillery, and was doing a good business. He was three months in the war of 1812. He was brigade major of the mil- itia, and was stationed at the Narrows. In the flush times, during the war, he bought property at high prices, and it ruined him. He made an assignment of his property to his brother, and moved to this place (Boonville). Losses and troubles made him deranged and he wandered off, his family knows not where, and died on Long Island. He was a very smart man. Short in stature with black hair and eyes. He was a great politician and like his father a Federalist. My sister married Isaac Bogart of Camp Gaw. Catherine married Stephen Sloat of Sloatsburg, N. Y. Mary married Abram Dater of Rockland County, N. Y, Nothing- is known of the family prior to its emigration. The records of the State of New Jersey show that Captain Peter Ward was appointed a recruiting officer for Bergen County in 1781, and was captain in the State Militia during the Revolutionary War. That he was a Captain of Light Horse in Major Hayes' Batallion of State Troops is set forth in a book entitled "Oflicers and Men of New Jersey in Revo- lutionary War," compiled by William Styker. He was born in 1755 at Ringwood, N. J., and died at Camp Gaw% March 15th, 181 2. His wife, Nancy Mead, was born in Holland in 1763, and died at Camp Gaw, May i6th, 1806. Concerning the history of the other children no infor- mation is at hand, and this chapter will concern itself princi- pally with the immediate stock of Hamilton Ward. Peter Ward, the eldest son referred to in the statement of Tames Ward, was born at Camp Gaw, in 1781, and mar- ried Maria Colfax in the year 1802. She was the daughter of Robert Colfax, and niece of George William Colfax and second cousin of Vice-President Schuyler Colfax. Major Peter Ward served under General William Colfax in the war of 181 2, and was stationed at Bergen Heights and Sandy Hook. Peter Ward and Maria Colfax had twelve children, of v.^hich the oldest was Robert Colfax Avery, born in 1803, FAMILY HISTORY. 3 and the second, Peter Hamilton, born at Camp Gaw, N. J., Sept. 24tli, 1804, the middle name being given contrary to the family custom in honor of Alexander Hamilton, of whom the father and grandfather had been warm admirers, and family tradition says, although there is no documentary proof, that Major Peter Ward was present at the famous duel between Hamilton and Burr. There w'as one other son, John Jacob, and nine daughters, Sarah Ann, Harriett Colfax, Jane, Mary, Catherine SI oat, Lucy Prince, Peyrna, Maria Colfax and Elizabeth Salter. Neither Robert nor John left sons. Peter Plamilton Ward had an only son, Hamilton, who is the subject of this book. Owing to the reverses of Major Peter Ward, referred to in the statement of James Ward, the family removed to Oneida County, N. Y., in 1819, then almost a wilderness, and took up the battle of life as pioneers. In 1828 Peter Plamilton Ward married at Saulsbury, Herkimer County, New York, Eliza Cleveland, who was the daughter of Daniel Cleveland, and was born Nov. 27, 1811, and on July 3rd, 1829, their first child, Hamilton Ward, was born, at Saulsbury, on the farm where Peter Hamilton Ward then resided. When Hamilton Ward was five years of age the family removed to Green Spring Plantation, near old Jamestown, in James City County, in the State of Virginia. This plan- tation was owned by Robert and John Ward, who had be- come men of some property, and who also owned a line of schooners which ran from the plantation and other ports in Virginia to New York City; it was sold by Robert in 1886. There w^as also a considerable number of slaves owned by the brothers. Green Spring was a historic spot. It had been the home of Sir William Berkely, the bloody royal Governor of Virginia, and of a number of his successors. Famous men of the Colonial period were buried there, and the great brick house had seen many a gay concourse and grave assembly of men and women who made the early history of this people. Old Jamestown was but four miles distant, and Williamsburg 4 HAMILTON WARD. but eight miles. It was one of the first and best plantations of the colony and contained three thousand acres. The irony of fate has recently located upon the site of old Sir William's house a postoffice called Bacon, after the man who so successfully resisted the Governor's authority and con- ducted the famous Bacon Rebellion. The silent and historic places, the solemn forests, the great lonely river left an indelible impression on the boy's youthful fancy. He learned, too, to love the sea and often sailed to and from New York on his uncle's schooners, and he gathered from the negroes around him the songs of the South, which he always remembered. Four years later the family removed to the County of Chemung, in the State of New York, where Peter Hamilton purchased a farm about a mile west of the village of Horse- heads, and remained there until 1849, when he returned to Virginia, and again took up his residence on the Green Spring Plantation. His wife, Eliza Cleveland, died on the 5th day of December, 1849, and was buried on the Powhat- ten Plantation, in a private burying ground in James City County, near old Jamestown. She left one other child be- sides Hamilton, a daughter, Harriett Elizabeth, born Janu- ary 23rd, 1838. Eliza Cleveland's grave is marked with a marble head and foot stone, upon which her name is inscribed. The plan- tation on which it is located is about seven miles southwest of Williamsburg, and was formerly owned by Dr. Martin. It is now the property of Charles E. Dean, of Williams- burg. An iron fence has recently been erected about the grave. Eliza Cleveland was a woman of most sweet and lovable disposition. The early papers and journals of Hamilton W^ard are full of tender remembrances of her. Peter Hamilton sold his Horseheads farm in 1853 and removed to Belmont, N. Y.. in 1859. There he purchased a farm about two miles outside of the village, and remained there with his son in the village until 1867 when, having sold his farm, he removed to a farm owned by Mary Adelia Chamberlain, the wife of Hamilton Ward, in Waterloo, N. Y. He worked this farm until his death, which occurred FAMILY HISTORY. 5 on May 4th, 1880. He is buried in the "New Cemetery" in Waterloo, N. Y., and his grave is marked with a headstone. His daughter, Harriett Elizabeth, never married. She re- sided with him up to the time of his death, and then went to live in New York City with a niece of her mother's, Mrs. Eliza Angevine, where she still is. Peter Hamilton Ward was a careful, industrious and ex- tremely conscientious man. He was a member of the Epis- copal Church, and a Whig in politics. When the Whig party went to pieces he became a Democrat, and remained such until the time of his death. So strong were his party convictions that on one occasion when his son was a can- didate for Congress, he accompanied him to the polls, and cast his vote for his adversary. He was known for his fair dealings and honest, kindly heart, and all those who recall him do so with pleasure. He never accumulated much property nor does it appear that he ever cared for it. After his wife's death he was for a time shattered in health, but his later years found him active and useful. The deepest affection always existed between him and his son, as is shown by the letters which they exchanged and the references to him in his son's journal. He was opposed to his son's course in actively partici- pating in politics, and when his son informed him that he intended to leave the farm and study law he replied that "he had hoped that his only son would be an honest man." To do right and be just was his highest ambition and as near as possible he attained to it. CHAPTER 11. BoyKood. 1829 to 1849. Hamilton Ward was born in Saulsbury, N. Y., on the 3rd day of July, 1829, His mother was a woman of intelligence and force of character, and he received from her most of his early educa- tion. When he was five years of age the family removed to Green Spring Plantation, on the James River, near old Jamestown, in Virginia, and remained there four years. While in Virginia he attended a private school, where he boarded ; however most of the recollections he had of that period of his life were of negroes on the plantation, their songs and customs, and of the schooners which his uncles owned, and which conveyed to New York wood cut by the slaves. On these schooners the boy often sailed, and in the heat of the summer the family sometimes returned on them to Camp Gaw, N. J., where relatives resided. In 1838 the family removed to Horseheads, in Chemung County, and there Hamilton Ward attended the public schools of the village of Horseheads, near the city of El- mira. Most of the old schoolmates and friends are dead, and but little data remains which will throw light on his boy- hood. Benjamin Marriott, now of Corning, N. Y., lived on the next farm. He says that Hamilton and himself attended school at Horseheads during the winter months until his father, mother and sister removed to Virginia again, when he went to school for one winter in New York City. Mar- riott says: "As a pupil Hamilton was always at the head of his class. He was fond of debating, and was regarded as one of the best in the school. In his youth he was an ardent Whig, BOYHOOD, 1829 TO 1849. 7 and at the age of nineteen years he was engaged by the Whig County Committee to deliver political speeches at points within the county during the Presidential Campaign. Many dark and stormy nights 1 have gone with him to some little school house wliere he would deliver a political speech, and we would arrive home during the small hours of the morn- ing. He always gave satisfaction to the Committee and to his party, who listened to him, and acquitted himself with credit. He was firm in his convictions, and always stood by what seemed to him to be right." JMarriott further says that when the old Whig party broke up, and Hamilton became a Republican, it was in op- position to his father's wishes, who sympathized with the Democratic party on account of his pro-slavery views, own- ing as he did at that time, in connection with his brothers John and Robert, many negroes on the Green Spring Plan- tation, and that many arguments occurred between father and son on the subject of slavery. In the Blossburg Industrial Register, under date of July 31st, 1879. appears an article on the class of 1847-48, which met in Old Masonic Hall in Horseheads, under Prof. W. S. Minier, who later became a Circuit Court Judge in the State of Oregon ; in which the name of Hamilton Ward appears as a member of the class. There was also a teacher in rhet- oric to whom Hamilton paid much attention and whom he 'frequently recalled — an absent minded old gentleman whose head was filled with declamations, which he constantly re- peated. It was his custom to call every Sunday night on a certain maiden lady and tie his horse to a post in front of the house. On coming out he always walked home leading his horse, reciting aloud. To test his absent mindedness on one occasion Plamilton and other boys of the school re- moved the horse, and as the tale goes, the old man dragged the bridle home unconscious of the fact that the horse vras not attached to it. Hamilton's first attempts to make public speeches were opposed by his father, who was a quiet man and cared little for such things, and he has often spoken of a certain occa- sion upon which he was invited to address a Whig meetin.';]: 8 HAMILTON WARD. in the then flourishing village of Elmira. He was called for by the Committee of Citizens in a carriage. They inquired for Mr. W^ard, and his father went out to meet them. They said they wanted the Mr. Ward who was going to make a speech that night, and the old gentleman replied that there was no such person, and that his boy, who was the only other one of the name in the neighborhood, was in bed. The car- riage drove off, but Hamilton dodged his father, caught up with it, and attended the meeting. He had a full beard at nineteen, and was several times sent as a delegate to conventions before he was of age. It does not appear that he traveled much, except that he made several journeys to and from Virginia and to and from the city of New York and points in New Jersey, where his relatives were living. He attended school in the city of New York the winter of 1847-48, and boarded with his aunt, Elizabeth Lydecker — the study which most interested him being rhetoric. As a boy he was very fond of poetry and history and there is still in existence his much thumbed and marked copy of Lord Byron's poems. He often went into the woods to deliver speeches, and the neighbors' boys used to follow him and listen, and when discovered a fight would immediately pursue. The haymow w^as his favorite study, and there he kept some of his books. The barn on his father's farm was an old fashioned one, with doors opening on both sides through which the wagon loads of grain and hay could be driven. It is said that on one occasion wdien he was driving a load of grain into the barn to be unloaded he became so interested in a discourse which he was delivering to an imaginary audi- ence, that he drove through the barn and back into the fields again with his full load, where his more prosaic father promptly recalled him to his duty. He was an intense lover of nature, a trait which he always retained, and the daily phenomena of heaven and earth seemed to him an endless source of wonder and beauty. He was subject at times to depression, and, especially after his mother's death, he would wander in the fields and woods, seeking comfort and consolation from their solitude. CHAPTER III. TKe La-w Student. In the spring of 1849 Peter Hamilton removed with his family to Virginia, leaving young Hamilton alone on the farm, which he worked during that summer and fall. In the fall he resolved to carry out his cherished ambi- tion, and entered the law office of Aaron & W. P. Konkle of Elmira, N. Y., as a student, boarding in the city and main- taining himself chiefly from the proceeds of the farm. Here he was elected Secretary of the Lyceum, or de- bating society and frequently spoke in public on temperance, and other subjects, discussed at that time. The law students of the city, of whom there seems to have been a considerable number, formed a class wdiere all assembled almost daily and studied and discussed some par- ticular legal question. In March, 1850, Hamilton began to keep a journal, and from this many interesting facts are drawn. A typical day is as follows : March 26th, Tuesday. I arose at seven. Breakfast at eight. Shaved. Went to the recitation room at nine. Spent two hours w4th the class. Had some warm discusisons in the class upon law topics. Went to the office at eleven. Read some portions of last evening's Tribune in reference to the trial of Dr. Webster for murder. Returned to my boarding place at twelve. Read thirteen pages of the law. Dinner at half past one. Started for the office. Arrived there at 2 P. M. Read thirty pages of Greenleaf on Evidence, referring to the best of evidence and hearsay evidence. Conversed some with a Mr, Lawrence upon the respective merits of a protec- tive and revenue tariff. Conversed some with W, P. Konkle. Esq., upon the effects of certain kinds of diet upon the sys- tem. Came to the conclusion that the taking of animal food 10 HAMILTON WARD. into the system of an individual that exercises but little is in- jurious. Conversed with G. A. Burk about the political as- pect of the Union. Disagreed with him somewhat in opinion. Returned to my boarding place at six in the evening, re- turned to my studies ; supped at seven. Read fifteen pages of the Common Law of England relative to the injuries to personal and real property. Settled up an account between myself and G. R. Posts. Read a number of pages in Gib- bons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Felt very much fatigued during the evening. Retired at ii o'clock." To his fresh, strong mind everything was new and in- teresting, and each event made its impression, and above everything else, the high ambition to improve himself is con- stantly manifested. On March 30th he writes of a conversation with a friend ''about the evil effects of mingling too much in the society of the gay,'' and on March 22nd he says "spent the day with- out much study or improvement, which I very much regret." He took long walks in the fields, and by the river, and on April 3rd, in speaking of a walk on Charles Island in the Chemung River, says: "I made to the age-marked trees and rushing waters a speech upon the influence of natural scenery upon the mind." Of high hope and lively imagination, he experienced frequent depressions of spirit, and on April 7th he writes: ''The world looks dark and ominous, the waters of my destiny seemed to be fouled, the starlight of hope died away in my soul. The prospect before me was a bleak and cheer- less void. I felt friendless and alone. I knew that no kind hearts were beating for me, but the troubled one of my father, and that of my dark eyed sister, and they were far away. I tried to read but could not. The thrill of misan- throphy curdled my blood, dark disgust for men was para- mount in my breast. I threw me on my couch at 12 o'clock ; in dreams I visited the grave of my mother and poured my troubles upon that lonely consecrated spot." Frequent tender references are found to his mother, whose memory comforted him when depressed. On May nth it appears that a circus visited Elmira, THE LAW STUDENT. 11 which he attended both afternoon and evening, returning home "with the bitter conviction of having misspent the day." He occasionally wrote verses but they have not been preserved. The authors most frequently mentioned which he studied were Byron and Shakespeare. On June 14th he resolved upon the following system: "To arise in the morning at least by 6 o'clock, to read dur- ing the day, besides my writing and other business, at least 40 pages of the elementary law. To note down the principal facts contained in my reading lesson. To read at least ten pages of law in the evening and take notes of the same, and to transcribe the substance of the notes upon my common- place book and not retire until midnight or after. To ab- stain from the use of cigars, and to eat but little animal food." Elmira was not a large place, but even at this time con- tained the germs of that activity which has since made it the "home of statesmen." One of the newspapers was called the Republican, and on Aug. 26th it is recorded that Hamil- ton Ward wrote an article for this paper, entitled: "The star of Empire westward takes its way." In August and September, Peter Hamilton returned •from the South, and during those months w^as engaged with his son in gathering the crops from the farm at Horseheads. On Sept. 17th a momentous event was recorded — The first client appeared, charged by the trustees of the village with selling liquor. He w^as defended by the young law stu- dent — with what result is not known. After this there wms an occasional client. On Sept. 21, 1850, he was a candidate for delegate to the State Convention at the County Convention held at the village of Horseheads. He w^as defeated but was elected a delegate to the Congressional Convention. On the day be- fore this he w'as evidently engaged "in fixing his fences." and remarks in the journal that "he spent the afternoon in running around and looking at folks as big fools as myself." He made some speeches for the Whig Ticket during the 12 HAMILTON WARD. fall, and the journal passes to the month of March, 185 1. The period passed over is reviewed March the nth as fol- lows: "The winter of 1850 and 185 1 has been spent studiously and profitably. I have spent less time at my books than I am wont to do during that period, but have learned as fast as I otherwise should have done, had I studied more and re- created less. I have been as much a recluse as ever but have settled my mind upon my business more, enlarged the sphere of my reflection and observation, thoughtless of paltry triumphs, and the fleeting vanities which so much gratify a boy's ambition. I have spoken less than perhaps I ought during that time. Have given no public lectures or ad- dresses, and participated in but few debates. My limited knowledge of the law has enlarged considerably, much that was then dark and intricate now appears plain and consist- ent. I have practiced a little in a Justice Court during that time, but only enough to convince me of my utter incompet- ency to practice, yet, with credit to myself and justice to my client." On April ist he worked all day at the polls for the un- successful Whig ticket and says ; "It was all fool's day and I was as big a fool as any, time, money and happiness all spent to gratify a mushroom enthusiasm and the grasping spirits of ambitious partisans — folly — folly." As the journal proceeds an improvement in the style is manifest, an undoubted result of unremitting effort with voice and pen. During this winter and the last it was fre- quently recorded that his health was not good, attributable probably to his hard work, late hours and lack of accustomed exercise. During the summer the journal was abandoned, but on September 21st, 1851, appears the following, which best tells its own tale: Sunday, September 21st, 1851. I open again the journal of my life. I have had it shut too long. Some of the most important events of my life have transpired since I closed its pages that only exist now in the memory of the past, and stand unrecorded except in THE LAW STUDENT. 13 the great judgment book of the Eternal. To others, intent upon their schemes of hfe and ambition, the history of a poor, friendless individual like myself, would be of but little interest — it would be but to them a simple rehearsal of the experience, hopes, fears, thoughts, emotions and sentiments of one of many millions that float along the tide of life to- gether to that final terminus — the Grave. But to me it is pregnant with the deepest interests. Every event recorded there stands out in bold relief as a monument of bygone days, recalling some cherished memory and hallowed inci- dent which in the hustle and distractions of the world had being veiled beneath the pall of forgetfulness, but reappear when events of co-temperanous date are recalled; by the principle of association. Each man's life is a volume of itself, of great importance to his soul and fervid interest to himself, a book of destiny containing instructions vast, and lessons deep. Whoever the man may be, high or low, rich or poor, elevated or de- based, his history is worth perusing, at least by himself. It is human nature that is written there. The voice, the heart, is heard in every transaction. The working of human sym- pathies, love, hate, ambition, insatiable desires that haunt the heart and disturb the pillow, the ever recurring circum- stances which please or annoy, the constant longings after change, and a betterment of our condition, which are com- mon to us all, are written there. It is chiefly interesting be- cause it is a truthful delineation of life, written down with an active and trembling hand, often when the heart is tu- multous with excitement and the strongest feeling of our nature are in the ascendant. It is no cold preparation for the public, it is not cut and garbled and robbed of its beauty, warmth and simplicity to gratify the fastidious eye of criti- cism. I have had many changes and experienced much since I deserted my journal, more than three months have sought the misty vault of past ages since that time, and as I look back upon that period how speedily it seems to have fled, 14 HAMILTON WARD. but in that short time I mark a long array of broken reso- lutions, foolish resolves, follies, inconsistencies and faults. The ghost of misspent time emerges with upbraiding feat- ures and dusty vestment from the shadows of oblivion, precious hours that might have stored my mind with wealth of an immortal hue have fled past me forever. There is no recalling it, they are gone "Glimmering among the dream of things that were, a school boy's tale, the w^onder of an hour." I will not lament over the past but aim to do better in the future. Regrets are only useful so far as they serve to in- struct us and warn us against pursuing a similar course in future. I will write my experience dow'n every day. I will waste no more time foolishly in politics. Since I left you, my dear journal, some things of re- markable interest have transpired. I commenced studying desperately on the ist of May, 1851, night and day I bent constantly over my books, severe was my toil, but great the objects I had in view. I expected to be examined for ad- mission to the bar early in July. I deserted society and shut myself up in solitude and silence, away from the clamor of the world, my exercise I took ere the sun peeped above the eastern hills, and when King Morpheus reigned over the senses and energies of the world. Nothing of interest or note transpired to break the dullness and monotony of my study. Night succeeded morning and day after day stalked into the oblivious vault of the past until the last suns of June warned me that the fierce and long dreaded ordeal was at hand. I had studied but eighteen months and of course felt illy prepared to meet the searching eye of legal criticism, and station myself in those learned and swarming ranks of forensic power, that overshadowed the land and struggle fiercely with each other for the mastery. On Monday, the 30th of June, I took my departure from Elmira to Cooperstown, Otsego County, where the General Term of the Supreme Court would sit next day. After a pleasant journey I arrived at Cooperstown at i o'clock P. M. on the day of my examination. It w^as a lovely day and a long ride of twenty-six miles on a fine plank road and nine miles of the distance besides Otsego Lake, as beautiful a THE LAW STUDENT. 15 sheet of water as one would like to see, had much refreshed me. I went straightway to the Court House and found that we were to be examined at 5 P. M. of that day. I exercised until the time came by walking, running, riding, and with a fine companion cheered and excited my spirits. When the time came I hastened with a nervous tread and beating heart to the place appointed. As I entered the Court House and saw it crowded with all classes of men awaiting the examina- tion, the bar filled with the learned and dignified of the pro- fession, the bench occupied by three judges, looking as solemn and awful as a Roman Senate, and my companions in distress arranged like so many culprits on a fine of chairs stretching from one side of the bar to the other, and faced by three dignified examiners who looked all sort of wis- dom at the shrinking wretches before them, my heart shrank into a little measure, the animal energy my exercise had aroused fled from my limbs and I sunk with a sensation of faintness into a seat afTorded to me by the humane and gen- tlemanly clerk of the Court, Mr. North, I believe his name \vas. The examination soon commenced and the first ques- tion asked me was one on the practice, which I knew per- fectly well, but was so embarrassed that I blundered over it shamefully, but at last got right, the next I got right after a great deal of difficulty, and the next I missed ; at length the Judges took hold of it and got it in a department of law I was perfectly at home in. and then I did admirably. I an- swered two questions that w^ent all around the class, recov- ered my confidence and self-command and went far to re- trieve the character I had lost in the outset. I got through after an examination of three hours in length, satisfied that I had done as well as most of the class. The Court broke up and we repaired to the tea table, where we relished an excel- lent supper. That night I could not sleep. The Judges informed us they would announce their decision as to what they would do with us in the morning, so I was cast upon a sea of un- certainty and speculation as to what my destiny would be. 16 HAMILTON WARD. I was too nervous and excited to seek repose, so beneath the sweet, mellow, harvest moon I strolled down to the beach, where the solitary waters of the sweet lake were dash- ing melodiously. A light bark was heaving on the gentle swell nearby. I obtained permission to use it of its owner, and soon with paddle in hand was skimming over the glassy surface of the lake with the swiftness of the arrow. I soon found myself, as I judged, a mile from shore, and sitting down in my boat, my paddle thrown by my side, I gave myself up to thought, of strange and mingled charac- ter. The night was so pure and beautiful, the sky was so calm and cloudless, the air so sweet and balmy, the flow of the waters around me so soothing to my heated brain that I fell into a soft and delicious reverie, not deep enough to pre- clude stern reflections, nor stupifying enough to sweep away the ascendancy of reason, but sufficient to send a halo and a glow and beauty to the sternest realities of life ; like all young men my thoughts wandered to the future and the long array of years that stretched out before me, and like the ever varying landscape a sunset first gloomy in the full blaze of the vanishing illumination, then darkened by the gather- ing shadows of night, so looked my future prospects, at one time bright and beautiful, beckoning me on to a glorious destiny, where bright and happy ones awaited and warm and generous friends extended to me the hand of friendship and of love. And again it would look sad and dreary, cold, dark and unhospitable, and a sensation of solitude and gloom would creep over me, and as I sat alone in my frail bark, re- mote from humanity and love, with nothing to keep me from the depths below, but a little tiny bark, so I was alone in the world, poor and friendless, disconnected from society, with but half-got learning to secure me the necessities of life ; those bound to me by the ties of blood were away, dead or cold and neglectful, the home of my youth was broken up, its sacred halls were desolate, the companions of my youth had all started out in different directions upon the great journey of life, and I, awaiting my fate at the hands of three stern men who knew nothing nor cared nothing for my situa- tion, thoughts and reflections. THE LAW STUDENT. 17 For hours 1 sat upon the bosom of the waters, watching the gentle ripples that flashed about the bow of my Httle craft, and the stars as they twinkled in the broad blue curtain that shut out heaven appearing and fading by turns as though swayed by the wand of a mighty enchanter whose throne was the vault of night, and the full moon careening over wave and woodland, lake and hillside and valley; her impress was in the water by my side, her ray was glistening on the mountain top, dim in the distance, piercing into dells misty and ravines deep and solitude profound. The morning gray dawned upon me and I had drifted several miles from shore. I aroused myself and paddled back with a keen appetite and vacant eye. At eight A. M. we again repaired to the Court House to learn our fate. The Judges were there. I took my seat and in a moment a deep voice issued from the bench, saying "Hamilton Ward will step forward and take the required oath." I did it. The oath was administered to support the National and State Constitutions and to maintain the dignity and purety of the profession of the law ; it was done. I withdrev»r with bound- ing heart and in silence. I was thenceforth a member of the bar. That day I started for New York, arrived at Albany that evening, stopped at the Delevan House and remained there until the 3rd of July, 1851, which was the anniversary of my birth. 1 was then twent)'^-two years of age. I spent the day in the Legislature, which was in extra session. My friend, reporter Perkins, gave me an excellent seat and showed me many kindnesses which I shall always recollect v.ith gratitude and pride. That night I embarked on board the beautiful steamer Isaac Newton for New York City. Procured a state room, and after a splendid night's rest upon the breast of the unrivaled Hudson found myself landed in the city on the morning of the 4th of July, that day so dear to the hearts of freemen, so consecrated in the annals of American history. Amid the thundering of artillery, the roar of the mighty population, alive with interest and pa- triotism and the rush of men, I threaded my way as far as 88 Varrick Street, and pulled the bell, was issued into a neat 18 HAMILTON WAKD. little parlor and in a moment was clasped in the arms of my sweet and gentle sister, the only one God ever gave me, with her dark braids falling over my shoulder, and her warm kisses on my cheek. Dear girl, how I love her. I hope her future path will be strewn with flowers. 1 spent a week in iny journey, and returned home on the 8th of July. I then commenced looking about me to obtain a place to settle in and at last fixed my eye upon a little village in the County of Allegany, State of New York, and named Phillipsville. It was a place containing 6oo inhabitants, with vast natural re- sources and a fine prospect ahead ; there was no other lawyer ihere, so after considerable preparation on Friday, the 29th day of August, 1851, I landed at my new home, and on the Monday following opened an oflice in that place. I have been here now for more than three weeks, have had little 10 do, like the people very well, think I shall have more busi- ness by and by, employ my time in reading and fitting myself for business, if I ever get any. The society is small but good. T get the blues sometimes, but shake them off. Had a visit from my dear father, who spent a week with me. God bless my father. So my dear journal I have endeavored to give you a slight sketch of what I have been doing since I left you and in future T will keep you posted as to my whereabouts." The County Court House of Allegany County stands on a knoll in the center of the village of Belmont, formerly Phillippsville, and when Hamilton Ward came to Phillipps- ville, at the point where the steps of the Court House now are. a great pine stump stood. Upon this stump he climbed, and looking over the beautiful valley to the north and south of him, decided to remain, and when the Court House was built he persuaded the Commissioners to locate the steps on the spot occupied by this stump. CHAPTER IV. TKe "Yoxing La-wyer. The first client that came to the young lawyer was Rob- ert Tucker, at that time a man of some property, who re- sided near the village. Some dreary days had gone by. There seemed to be no business. He had but little money left and one afternoon he resolved to return to Elmira. His books were packed, and he was sadly contemplting the few empty shelves when Tucker came in, gave him a note to sue, and v^hat was more important, hope for the future. Mr. \Vard has often told of his first action in a Court of Record. This was on a note signed "Wm" and many anxious days were spent in trying to decide whether to sue the defendant as "Wm" or "William." Angelica at this time was the county seat, the home of most of the bar, and the center of political influence. Here resided the famous Martin Grover, afterwards a Judge of the Court of Appeals, and as well known for his disregard of his personal appearance as for his legal ability. At this time he was the leader of the bar and did much of the business. When Mr. Ward attended his first court in Angelica he sat inside the rail with the other attorneys. He saw a dirty, ragged man with a tobacco stained face come in, and to his surprise take a seat beside him. The stranger placed a grimy hand on his knee, and in a nasal voice said: ''Young man who be you?" Proud of his new position as an attor- ney, and conscious of the dignity that the only suit of "store clothes" in the Court Room leant him, Mr. Ward intimated that it was none of the stranger's business. Whereupon great consternation fell upon the attorneys present; Mr. Ward was speedily informed of his mistake, but Grover was unforgiving, and for years some feeling existed between the two men, and when finally in 1858 the county seat was re- moved to Belmont to some extent through Mr. Ward's efifcrts. Grover p.lwavs sr)oke of him as the "red headed ban- 20 HAMILTON WARD. tarn from the Burg," referring to his abundant red hair and beard, and his stature, which was 5 ft. 6 in., his weight being about 130 pounds. Mr. Ward's warmest friends while in Ehnira were Charles G. Fairman (afterwards editor and proprietor of the Elmira Advertiser) and C. Boardman Smith, who succeeded him in Congress and afterwards became a Justice of the Supreme Court. During the year 1851 Mr, Ward wrote a series of five letters to Fairman, then on the Elmira Daily Reporter, de- scribing Phillipsville, his experience and impressions. The letters explain themselves, and are as follows : Letters from Phillipsville — No. 1. THE JAUNT. Dear Charley — It was on a dull, foggy morning, in the latter part of August, 1851, that a young man, diminutive in size, and with a dejected air, was seen wending his way to the railroad depot in Elmira. He waa tolerably well burdened with luggage, and frequently heaved a heavy sigh, wblch one would hardly know whether to attribute to his load or his thoughts. Strange thoughts were passing through his mind, as he threaded his way, regardless of what was passing around him. He was embarking into a new and untried course of life — among strangers with whom he felt no kindred feelings and sympathies. He was leaving the home and associa- tions of his youth, which time had taught him to regard with peculiar affec- tion every object that he passed, and every countenance he beheld. He felt a little nervous withal; and as the announcement of railroad importance burst upon his ear, a something like a shudder passed over him, and the future suddenly turned grey and dim before his excited vision, and tlie strong resolution he had taken to rend asunder the ties that bound him to the home of his childhood, were momentarily shaken. But no time was loft for regrets; none for retraction. The "Iron Horse" was stamping, paw- ing and whinning vociferously — he could not retract if he wished. And the impatient pawing of the highly mettled animal disturbed the spirit of the wanderer's day dreams, and told him he must be away. These infernal engines have no sympathy with a man's thoughts and feelings, however bitter. The edict was issued — the decree had gone forth — it was too late to return. How often in the journey of life we halt, irresolute whether to ad- THE YOUNG LAWYBK. 21 vance or recede, and, in the midst of our perplexity, some propelling circum- stances push us sternlj- forward. The young man shook a long good-bye, with a few friends that were near, stepped aboard the swift runner, and in twinkling the scream of pro- gress was thundering thro' the valley, and your friend waved a long adiet* to Elmira. The first place of any importance we passed through was the Junc- tion, about four miles above Elmira, a large and flourishing place, which, by the by, will in time prove a formidable rival to the latter place. I think the population as set down by the "Little man with the Big Book," was one; but since that time there has been 300 per cent, increase. The lonely man who was patient enough to switch out a whole train of cars, has surrounded himself with the sweets of domestic life and as he main- tains his nightly vigils at the iron confluence has the cheering reflection that a gentle wife, and noisy little ones are sighing or brawling for his return. In a moment after we reached the prettiest valley in the world; and in the distance I saw a little weather-beaten shade surrounded domicil, that overlooked the whole. That was the theatre of my boyish sports, sor- rows and triumphs. Oh how I longed to spring from my seat and bury myself beneath its redundant shade! I gave it a single glance — a single thought came swell- ing from my heart, pregnant with the memory of years — a whole hfe was crowded in that moment. Visions of other times clustered thickly around me. My indulgent father, angel mother, and dark-eyed sister — the com- panions of my youthful hours — passed in rapid review before me. All novr dead or gone! and those sacred halls now desolate, echoing to the tread o€ strangers I It faded from sight; hills and valleys were between, but memorf lingered there, and I thought not of the field, the glen, or the wildwood we were passing. "Our early days, how often back. We turn, on Life's bewildering track, Where over hill and valley plays, The sunlight of our early days." The shriek of the whistle aroused me, and I looked about, and a wood colored, dingy-looking village presented itself, and the noisy breakman cried out "Big Flats." Rightly named— every thing looked big but decidedly flat. The farms around bespoke good cultivation and an excellent soil; but the village presented rather an inferior aspect. We were off in a moment; our steed grumbled terribly at being compelled to stop, and disregarded entirelr every rule of gallantry and good breeding by leaving a lady in the lurch, who had come a leetle too late. Corning stuck out on a post when next we halted, the smoke pipe wa« 22 HAMILTON WARD. a moment quiet for a rarity, and the ambitious rival of Blmira, turned to TJew; it is a thriving town and deserves success. The burning element only eeems to have heated its energies for a fierce struggle, to outstrip its com- petitors of the Southern Tier. The Tocsin a^ain sounded, and we sped through a beautiful farming country, stopped long enough at Painted Post to discover that she too has unquiet longings after greatness, and looks with eye undaunted upon the long line of larger villages that stretch to the Eastward. Addison is deci- dedly the loveliest place I saw on my route. It is one of those quiet and beautiful spots we would naturally seek when retreating from the noise and bustle of the world. The fog that surrounded us all the morning began to dissipate before one of those suns at the end of summer, that makes us wish that summer would always last. The forerunners of Autumn had gathered the sere about the edge of the foliage, as the manly brow around which are sprinkled the first whitened evidence of coming age. The Cauisteo rolled by on one side, tranquil as .sleeping innocence. There was melody in its quiet march toward the sea. Humility in its un- promising murmuring, the voice of its waters was peace, the prayers of nature to its God. The valley through which we wound grew less and less, and the mountains closer and closer together, and the little space between was filled with a beautiful mist, sparkling in the sunbeams, as the sand that render glorious the Fairy Realm of the El Dorado. 1 saw but little tillable land, and that seemed to be poorly cultivated, occasionally a patch of potatoes and a spot of arid stubble, relieved the mo- notonous wildness of the scene; many of the farmers were in the midst of their harvests, the shadows of the tall trees had made it late. Cameron, Rathbonevillc, and Canisteo are little places, just springing into existence, the railroad is dragging them from their obscurity and op- ening to them the markets of the Emporium. They will ultimately be some. We stopped at Hornellsville to change horses, our leader had growD tired, with a run of sixty miles in two hours and a half. This is a very stirring place, and seems to be quite a favorite with the company. We stopped at a number of small places between Hornellsville and Phillipsville, a description of which would trespass too much upon your valuable time and attention, and I will content myself with passing them over in silence, and drawing this long letter to a close. The scenery as we passed along was truly beautiful, the majestic mountains towering on either side to the sun, imbeding the roots of gigantic trees, whose lofty branches held communion with the clouds, and ever and anon points of high projecting rocks would thrust their moss bound heads out over us, "gray with the mist of age." THE YOU.\(J LAWYER. 2» And often ns we glided on the head would swim, when h)okinK 'pre all hungry, therefore we love Turkey. Toast by John Bull. Kossuih: The chumpiou of the old world's liberty, may he twine the Slars and Stripes with the Tricolors of Hungary, and lead on the crusade of the free, to accomplish the liberty of all mankind. This was received with great enthusiasm and followed by a tremendous attack u)i<):i Turkey. The moments sped rapidly on, and a heavy stillness hung over the scene, disturbed only by the clattering of knives and forks, and an occasional ejaculation from the company, until Turkey was no more. Nothing beiny left of her maginficent proportions but a few long Avrecks, that were strewn about the table, Whereupon Kosiosko gave a toast, Hungary; Betrayed but not undone, the dawn of tht; 20th century will behold her standing proudly in the list of Nations. — (Tremendous ap- plause); Jonathan's voice was soon heard above the tempest, clubbing with his hand upon his depository of food, I fear not, 1 feel from the bottom of my heart that Turkey has destroyed Hungry. The oysters came and went, how or where I will not pretend to say, but they Avere gone, and John Bull was called upon for a speech. I will not pretend to report all he said, but content myself with giving such ex- tracts as 1 remember; he seemed to forget himself and launched out like a true blooded American. It was something as follows: "Gentlemen of the B. C: "We have met to celebrate a thrilling and interesting event. The winds and waves of the .Atlantic have thrown upon our shores the "foremost 32 HAMILTON WARD. man' of all this world." [Cheers.] A refugee from the wiles of treachery, and the bloodhounds of despotism, he came, bearing with him the accumu- lated sufferings of 5,000,000 of people, scourged by the rod of tyrants. The victims of merciless persecutions; all their lofty national prido, their soul- stirring aspirations, their time-hallowed institutions, rights and privileges, trailing in the dust. Their altars desolate, and their temples echoing to the sacriligeous tread of a ruthless soldiery, their homes laid waste, and the monuments of their former grandeur blasted by the shock of war. Where stood the sanctuary and waved the corn, stands the gibbot and lies the blackened corpse, the land bewails liberty departed, and the soil is fattening with the blood of her defenders. But the Leader is free. [Cheers.] God has reserved him for a great work to emancipate his country, and strike the shackles from the oppressed of Europe (immense cheering with an. ocean of shouts, God wills it, God wills it>. Hungary is low but her blood cries to Heaven for justice, and it will come. [Cheers]. The handwriting is upon the wall of St. Petersburg, and passing away is written upon the throne of the Hapsburgs. Corruption and blood hold together its rotten foundations, and it must fall. [Cheers]. And He, the wandering star of a people's hopes, we bid him wel- come. [Renewed cheering]. Around him we twine the Stars and Stripes, and consecrate to him a lofty niche in the Temple of Heroes. [Loud cheer- ing]. How the splendor of ancient conquerors shrinks into insignificance when compared with him. He comes not with the arm of war, with banner and spear, but with resistless eloquence upon his lips. The burden of his song is freedom, and the spirit of his prayer is humanity, and 25,000,000 people rise up to greet him as one man and invoke the blessings of heaven upon his head and cause. How he roused the fires of liberty in his native laud; how he led on the brave to triumph and glory; how he shook to its centre the Austrian Dynasty; how he swept back the increasing herds of the Don Cossacks; how victory perched upon his banner, though hemmed in by the slavish millions of two mighty empires, until 'Treason like a deadly blight comes o'er the councils of the brave and blasts them in hour of might.' And the Traitor Georgey sunk his couutry's sun in gore, and the de- mon Haynau vented his fiendish cruelty upon the murdered and betrayed. But the night of depotism is passing away, and the land of Kossuth will take its place in the family of nations. [Cheers]. This is no idle prophecy; the progress of the age, the march of steam, lighting and in- telligence presages it. The reign of absolutism is ended, and the chant of Liberty will echo from valley to hill top all the world round. Thrones and potentates will sink into their 'merited oblivion,' and upon the battlements THE YOUNG LAWYER. 33 of the eventful future I see occupying the most exalted region in the esti- mation of mankind, two names, outrivaling all others in splendor, and hailed by all coming generations as the deliverers of the world, Washington and Kossuth, (Three times three for them). The thunder subsided, and the Sailor called for a bumper on the fol- lowing: "The Hungarian Banner," Soon may its bright folds wave over the Fatherland, as unpolluted by the touch of despotism as the Stars and Stripes of our own glorious Union, (Hot Coffee flourished High), with a waving of banners, the Star Spangled, the Tri-colored, the Union Jack and the Crescent. The night had crept into the "small hours," and the Club broke up with a march after the sort of Yankee Doodle — Jonathan losing all control over himself at the sound, and terribly disaranging the starched ruffles of John Bull. Among the Club I recognized L. J. B., R. T. F., A. J. H., B. F. M., and H. W., formerly from Elmira, and it was unanimously resolved that the Elmira papers be requested to publish the proceedings of the meeting. H. W. The journal records the slow beginnings of a country- law practice. Showing him to be sometimes impatient, sometimes despondent and yet slowly gathering force and confidence. On October 4th he was appointed attorney for the Phil- lipsville Plank Road Company, and on the i6th of that month was elected a delegate to the Whig County Conven- tion. On the 24th he was defeated in his first trial. Martin Grover and Wilks Angel being opposed to him, and resorts to the lawyer's remedy, viz: "Swearing at the Court." From the journal and from those who remember those days it appears that his industry was most unremitting. All day long and late in the night he was to be found in his office hard at work, with but small financial results, as his joy re- corded in the journal over a $3.00 fee witnesses. On November I5tli he described a visit to Elmira and Waterloo, and confesses that he is in love with the girl 34 HAMILTON WARD. whom he subsequently married, Mary Adelia Chamberlam, of Waterloo. From this time the journal in principally devoted to her. However his business rapidly increased until by the Dc- ginning of 1853 he had a considerable country practice. In 1853 is recorded the fact that the first Episcopal ser- vice held in the town occurred on February 13th. In this year Hamilton took a journey whicli in those days M-as interesting and somewhat difficult. Its singular results and curious events are best related in an article re- printed in the Allegany County Republican, in 1880 or 1881. The term "Stalwart Act" is a reference to the regular or- ganization of the Republican party, to which Hamilton Ward belonged at that time. The interview is true to life, and the article in full is as follows : HAM. WARD'S STORY. [NTERESTING SCRAP FROM A CONGRESSMAN'S DAIRY "STALWART ACT." A correspondent of the Syracuse Herald caught Attorney Genera! Ward in a sociable mood .nfter dinner the other day at Albany, and be- tween the puffs of smoke from a choice cigar, the following scrap of experi- ence w-as drawn out of him. It '"sounds" just like Ham, and his hundreds of Allegany County friends will read the narrative with keen relish: "Soon after graduating at a law school in the central part of this State, I was given a large claim to collect from a wealthy planter living iu Tennessee. It was before the day of railroads, and the swiftest way to get there was by the sea. I went to New Y'^ork, sailed down the coast, landed at Charleston, S. C, and traveled across the State toward Tennessee. They were having the cholera South that year. I caught it and was laid up at Columbia two weeks. I din't have much money with me at starting, and the sickness about used it up. I was so weak when I again started on my journey to Tennessee that I could hardly walk. At last I reached Green- ville — my money was all gone and I presume I looked like a tramp. As I reached the place the church bells were ringing, but my shoes were so worn out that I was ashamed to go upon the ground floor. So I crept into the gallery at one of the churches, and sat among some of the prettiest girls I ever saw in my life. (Ham., it thus appears, was at this early age a great admirer of female beauty! and we doubt if he heard a word of the FPrmon that morning! — Ed. Republican). I told Andy Johnson about it, THE YOUNG LAWYER. 35 yoars afterward, nnd he said that indeed they did have a lot of pretty girl* ill Greenville at that time. "The next morning I started for ray destination, 30 miles up in the mountains. I had to foot it every inch of the way, and on arriving there I found that my man had died and that his will was disputed. So I skir- mished around and discovered that one of the men who was contesting the will was rich, and lived some four or five miles out of the town. He was one of your Southern barons, had several hundred negroes, scores of horses and some bloodhounds. I tried threatening him: he set the dogs on me. I killed one with a billet of wood and escaped to the town. Well, there I was. without a cent — a poor wretch, with no person of property in the North who cared about me, to whom I could send for assistance. I made my way back to Greenville, somehow, and resolved upon a bold stroke. 1 went into the fir.st lawyer's office I came to and said: "My name is Ward; I came from New York State to collect a claim; the man has died and his will is disputed; I would like to sell you this claim for $50. I want money to go back to New York." The lawyer was a kind-faced man. I remember he asked me why I didn't send for money to New York, and I owned up that there was no one there I could remember who would send it to me. He finally said: "Well, I will go and see a friend about this." He brought his friend back with him and they agreed to lend me ,$50. I signed a paper and they gave me the money. Then I put my hand deep in my trousers' pocket and hauled out a gold watch (we infer Ham., had already "planted" his gold chain! ha! ha! — Ed. Rep.) I said: "Gentlemen, I want you to take this watch and keep it as a sort of security for what I owe you. The first money I earn I promise you it will be sent to you to repay you." They wouldn't take the watch at first, but I forced them to. I got home, and when I had scraped together $73 I sent it to them. They took out their principal and interest and sent me the watch and the money that was over. And so apparently my connection with the Greenville man ended. Twenty years passed, and I was a Member of Congress from this State. It was the time of Reconstruction, and as a Radical Republican I was a member of the Reconstruction Committee. I had special charge of the reconstruction of the State of Tennessee. One day there were a lot of Tennosseans before me in relation to the affairs of the State— Horace May- nard, W. L. B. Stokes. Roderick R. Butler, and others. That evening, at home, in glancing over the papers I saw that Johnson had nominated a man named Milligan for .Judge of the Court of Claims. It was at a time when Congress was having its fierce war with .lohnson; so fierce that the Senate would confirm none of his nominations, no matter how good they might be. .36 HAMILTON WARD. I thought this man Miliigan would have no chance, and then turned to mj wife and said: "Do you remember a man named Milligan?" She did not, "Well," said I, "is there any circumstance of my life in which I have been connected with a man of that name?" She did not remember. The following morning, at the committee room I turned to Maynard and said: "Who is this man Milligan that Johnson has nominated for Judge of the Court of Claims?" He replied, "Oh. ho is a lawyer living at Greenville, Tennessee— one of Johnson's chums." "Was Milligan a Union man during the war?" I then inquired. "Yes," said Maynard, "and such an outspoken one that the rebs strip- ped him of all his property. He is now as poor as a church mouse." "Is he a good lawyer?" I next asked. "One of the best in East Tennessee," replied Maynard. "Then," said I, rapping the table with my fist, "By God, Sir, " He shall be confirmed.''^ They were all amazed, and inquired what earthly interest I had in Milligan. I didn't tell them; but went over to Conkling in the Senate and told him the entire story I have told you, of how this man Milligan helped me when I was in sore trouble. Then I went about the Senate getting votes for Millgan. I pestered Mayn- ard night and day to get his consent, and the end of it was that Milligan Was Confirmed. Johnson sent for me and thanked me. The news of the confirmation got down to Tennessee, and Milligaji' start- ed for Washington. He came from the railroad train to the Capitol, still wearing his duster. Roderick R. Butler brought me out to him and in- troduced us. Milligan was then betwixt sixty and seventy and had a wife many years younger than himself. He said to me: "Mr. Ward, what was it that caused you to interest yourself in a stranger's fortunes? I was looking forward to an old age of misfortune and poverty. This apointment is like manna from Heaven for me." I replied — '^''Do You Rememhcr Lending $50 over twenty years ago to a poor, cholera-stricken wretch of a lawyer that had come down to Tennes.see to collect a claim, and spent all his money?" Milligan said, "I do." THE YOUNG LAWYER. 37 "Well— that was me!" Well, if you would boliove me, we all had a crying spell over the way things turnetl out. Allegany was at this period a new country. The Gen- esee Valley was a niightv forest of White Pine, and the river furnished the power to saw it into logs. The Erie Railroad, then but a few years old, supplied the transportation, and business was most active. As the first practicing lawyer in Phillipsville, Hamil- ton Ward found his practice steadily growing, and for some time he was the only attorney in the village. Later one, J. W. Duell, came, but he remained only a short time, and re- moved to Oramal, Allegany County, and in 1857 Edward W. Chamberlain, a brother of Mrs. Ward's, was admitted to the bar, and began to practice in Belmont, where he re- sided until the time of his death, which occurred March 6th, 1900. For the first few years of his practice he was in part- nership with Hamilton Ward. Mr. Ward's first office was in the Bush Building, on the south side of Schuyler Street, opposite Wells Lane. After the fire he rented the three rooms over Jesse Sorter's groc- ery store, on the north side of the street, which of^fice he al- ways thereafter occupied. He maintained an excellent library, but in other respects his office was plainly appointed. He always enjoyed the best practice in the village, al- though A. J. McNett, Wilkes Angel and Rufus Scott were worthy competitors. The village of Belmont was incorporated February 21st, 1853. This project, which was enthusiastically supported by Mr. Ward, was strongly opposed by some of the older residents, especially Alvin E. Parker, who was the rich man of the place, and who objected to the increase of taxation. Parker was routed at the town meeting after Mr. Ward had compared him to the unprogressive Scotchman, who ob- jected to harnessing the 'Svind of the Lord" in a fanning mill. Two miles southeast of the village a wood-crowned hill lifted its green head several hundred feet above the valley, and Mr. Ward, on this account, selected the name Belmont, 38 HAMILTON WARD. which was approved and adopted. The postoffice, however, went by the name of Philhpsville until the year 1859. when it too became Belmont. On August 7th, 1854, Peter H. Ward purchased a house on Washington Street in the village, of Col. Luscian May for his son, and on the 24th day of October, 1854, Hamilton Ward married at St. Paul's Church, in the village of Water- loo, Seneca County, N. Y., Mary Adelia Chamberlain, youngest daughter of John Chamberlain, and Julia Burt, of that place. Returning to Belmont after a brief wedding trip to Vir- ginia, the young couple went to live in the house recently piu chased by Peter Hamilton Ward, which was deeded to Hamilton Ward in 1868. Hamilton Ward was rapidly developing. He was fond of literature, and a constant study of the works of Byron and Shakespear gave him a style which was extremely well adapted to public speaking. His fancy was strong, and his style would do credit to one of much better advantages. Few of the speeches of these days remain, but a 4th of July oration delivered in Belmont in 1855 is of interest. It is as follows : Mr. Chairman and Ladies and Gentlemen: This is no ordinary occasion that calls us together. No suddon gath- ering convened by some unexpected necessity or strange unlocked for event of congratulation or peril. But a single wave of that vast sea of patriotism and love of country which has swept annually over the land for more than three-quarters of a century. To-day for the seventy-ninth time the freemen of America meet with one spontaneous accord to celebrate an event which ushered liberty into the world and founded on the rock of equality the noblest structure of civil gov- ernment that ever took its seat in the family of nations or sent its voice thrilling through the counsels of time. To-day. thank God, we meet as men. No party fueds, sectional dissen- tions. bitter feelings, animosities, political, social or religious fester in our hearts. No cold formalities, invidious distinctions of caste, class and posi- tion smother the better and nobler impulses of the soul. The rich, the poor, the old, the young and the middle aged, the laugh- ing, bright eyed child, the beautiful gay-hearted maiden, the dignified and 4TH OF JULY SPEECH ISfif.. 3» graci'fuJ matron, the stroug and bouyant youth, the men of oarp ami busi- iicss, toil and suffering; the son of toil, of wealth and misfortune, of success and disappointment, natural born and adopted, all are here, side by *ide and united upon the same broad platform of equal rights. All mer- ttnary, scllish ft'elin,i;s are at rest. Stirred up and enlivened with one emo- tion of patriotism, moved by one throb of sympathy, and rendering one uni- versal homage to the founders and perpetuators of the liberties we enjoy and the government that secures it. And not only here among the hills of Allegnny is this scene transpir- ing, but the bosom of thirty-one republics linked by one cord of sympathy and purpose, heaves with emotions that come up from the foundations of human action and responds to the sentiments we hear proclaimed. From the Canadas to the remotest Florida, from ocean to ocean on every mountain and in every dale, in the city and in the country, beside every stream and in every place, palace or hamlet hearts are beating, and fihouts are rising from 25,000,000 of people in unism with yours to-diiy. And not alone upon the soil consecrated by the ashes of our fathers and tho blood-bought heritage transmitted to us but upon every ocean, in every har- bor, capital and port throughout the civilized world the representatives of our gdvornment and commerce are assembled, and the same banner which is yonder unfurled to the breeze is waving, the shout that swells up from our grateful souls is echoing even 'neath the glories of tyrants and the pres- tage of thrones. Aye, too! far over the sea where the slave of domination is toiling; his averted eye is brightened and the great heart of the masses is heaving Filent and pure in unison with your.s, and upon every breeze that is wafted to your embrace, even where the prison fetters gall and liberty is treason, is the deep and mighty invocation of down trodden nations for your safety and preservation. And there the blood cemented thrones long standing, and • rime engendered desposilions. are tottering. The votaries of pomp, position and pride are humbled and silent and there steals upon their terrified ears from all this the sure and solemn prelude of their fall, but now while our banner floats on land and sea amid the acclamations of our countrymen, while joy lights upon every face and beams in every eye. while six thou- sand years all looking down upon us and the spirits of departed generations communing with us, let us pause and render to the God of the Universe our deep felt gratitude and profound appreciation for all these blessings and privileges which he has showered upon us. And now the scene and occasion throng us with thick memories that reach farback into the ages that are gone and drag from the mist of the past facts of which history is almost mute, and leads us to inquire the cause of those events that have rolled over the world for the last century, and we 40 HAMILTON WARD. may obtain some clew as to the reason for this day and the vast combina- tions of causes that first wrought the discovery of that vital principle of liberty so dear to the hearts of us all. And secondly the direct and immediate agency by which that prin- cipal was asserted and maintained on this side of the Atlantic until its full development brought forth this proud structure of civil government. The perpetuity and magnificence of which we are commemorating on this oc- casion. The principals upon which our institutions are based are eternal. They are founded in the very nature of things, in the natural and inalienable rights, embodied and so beautifully exemplified in the memorable declara- tion just now read. Truthful as is that instrument it is no new expression of the principals it sets forth. These principals and the causes of their adoption in this country existed long anterior to the discovery by Columbus or the landing of the Puritans. We catch glimpses of them as far back as history carries us until we approach that doubtful period, the boundary of chronicaled events when fact and fancy hold a disputed empire over tJie public mind. In the early ages we find them overthrowing dynasties, carry- ing away thrones and monarchies, systems and dependencies like the sweep of the magician's wand until Rome, Greece, Carthage and an innumerable number of lesser republics arose from the night of barbarism and assumed in turn such all controlling positions in the scale of nations. We see these republics flourish even amid the darkness that envelopes them, and as long as they were true to freedom and themslves their arms were triumphant in every land, their names were terrible in every capital, nation after nation bowed the tributary knee and their rulers and ill- gotten wealth adorned the triumphal march of their successful conquerors. The principal of liberty was taught by Socrates, written by Lycurgus, pro- claimed by Cato, thundered by Cicero and Demosthenes, illustrated by Cin- cinnatus, and beloved by every Roman and Grecian heart. For it Leon- idas fell and Brutus perished. Virtue, stern virtue and integrity, sustained these men and nations and kept in the ascendant this principal until the fascinations of power and the allurements of gold corrupted the simple Re- publicans, and they tottered and fell like a strong man in dissolution while a rude race from the lands beyond the Volga ravaged the gardens of Greece and the palaces of Italy, and then followed the world's darkest era — all seemed lost and the principal of liberty shut out for ever. But not so — it lingered in a thousand hearts, in the mountain fastnesses, the caves of darkness, and haunts of silence it lingered, and amid the centuries that followed it nerved many a strong arm, it shone dimly yet inspiringly upon many a rude mind. It lurked In the heart of the poor, the oppressed and forsaken, nerved the soul of the martyr, lifted the prisoner's hopes, in- THE YOUNG LAWYER. 41 spired tho dying brave, dwelt on the lips of the manacalled slave, on every home alter which the desecrating tread of tyranny had blighted it kindled « Dame. It had no intelligence to guide, no religion to cheer it, no harbor to re- ceive it, still it struggled on, it knew not why or whither. It saw no broad continent touched by the brine of tither ocean, reposing in grand tran- quility in the western waters where that principal would be asserted, it scarcely knew a God to which it could appeal in the dark era that followed the downfall of Kome and preceded the reformation. But on it struggled, following its unseen destiny, and handing down from father to son as a precious legacy, as something to be kept sacred and not to be told save to trusty sympathizers, less crime-aged despotism should hear its whisper, but every prayer of tlie enslaved, groan of oppression, fear of suffering, sign of degradation that were uttered and felt in that long and dismal era of 1600 years ago were silently and surely carving out the fate of the new world. They were treasured in heaven, placed upon the records of eter- nity and gradually and faithfully, in God's own time, was preparing the way for the emancipation of mankind. I have said that tho light that guided it was obscured; in its restless longings it often took a wrong direction and many things were attributed to it by the crafty and subtle which did not legitimately belong to it. Hence history often records its votaries as rebels, revolutionists and enthusiasts who are charged with committing great excesses, but they were often clog- ged with obstacles which sprung directly from their association with bar- barism. Still it persevered, put on a thousand different phases, adopted itself to the various circumstances in which it was placed. It could not abolish tyranny altogether, hence it was content to abolish it as much as possible. In the church it limited the political supremacy of the Pope by turning against it the monarchies of France, Italy and many of the German states and at length brought out the moral reformation of Luther. In the state it wrested from the unwilling grasp of King John the charter of English liberties and pitted the barons of the realm against tho potentate, established the habeas corpus and trial by jury and in similar inann«r curtailed the power of the monarchs of France and many of the states of Northerm Europe. It estab- lished a popular branch in the government I have named where the people could have access. It remodeled and improved the judiciary and otherwise constantly enlarged the liberty of the subject until Louis the 16th of France fell a victim to its inordinate cravings and Charles the 1st of England stooped to the block. It gained a momentary supremacy fat the days of Cromwell, but ignorance and perfidy palsied its efforts and gained some petty advantages in other portions of Europe. But the grand drama was opening, the plans of the God of the Universe were at last de- 42 HAMILTON WARD. veloped— to the astonished gaze of liberty's champions. A home and coun- try were revealed to it where liberty would at last repose and be asserte*!. Long had it traveled from the land of the Pyramids. It had wandered through generations of darkness and blood ever westward until a band of exiles driven alternately from England to Holland through fire and perse- cution and that which would have been death to many men, inspired by emotions that burn and nerved by a purpose that the fate of humanity had fixed in their hearts, Bid adieu forever "to the land of corpses and .slaves, A dreary master of chains and graves," Yet home and all to them with many tears and long farewells these men of iron and representatives of freedom launched upon the boundless deep, and the Mayflower was sail- ing to the New World. And there fellow citizens in that small bark, lashed by the foam of the vast ocean, with the blue heavens above and the blue waters beneath, with hardly a compass or guide, this frail bark, a mere atom on the waste of waters, that a single blast might destroy, a single wave submerge, con- tained the germ of that liberty you this day enjoy, the acorn of that tree that spreads its broad branches over you now where your eagle sits and your stars are blazing. On the 9th day of November, 1620, the Puritan foot first trod the soil of New England, the first echo of civilization and the mighty events to come, broke upon the wild stillness of centuries. No pleasant fields, glowing landscapes, vernal dykes, no habitation of ease and luxury, no city spires, capacious harbors, welcoming throng, friendly glances or ex- tended palms welcomed these sea tossed, storm lashed wanderers to the new world, but a stern rock bound coast, worn bare by the surf of ages on an unhospitable shore, a howling wilderness, a background of snow and Ice, a savage foe skulking near with looks of revenge and implements of death, the howling wolf and screaming panther, extended the grim salutft from a continent untamed to the founders of an empire. I will not follow them, their trials, hardships and vicissitudes fill a volume in the heart of every patriot. Their stern integrity, iron perseverance, the hazardous con- ditions under which they lived, their sufferings, trials and peculiarities and nltimate success, the part which they took in the struggles which ended in securing liberty for this country— are as familiar as "household words" to every school boy. They form the theme of a thousand tales, the inspira- tions which millions feel. They had no giiide but right, no incentive but freedom; unlike all others they accomplished what no other community ever did. history has no such eharactei-s upon its broad margin. They seemed sent on the especial errand of colonizing the new world, a community of heroes no discouragement appalled, no obstacle thwarted, no influence could sever them from the stern rule of duty their religion 4'1'H OF JULY SPEECH 18;j0. 4S sduifht, lliC'ir noble souls embraced, their conscience approved. We see, it i« true, about their characters and actx that which tho fastidiousness of this age might disclaim (but would to God this period could boast of half such worthy men). Errors marked their career no doubt, but they were error* of the head and not of the heart, they sprang inevitably out of their condi- tions. They wore an isolated band arrayed against the whole world — thej had no affinities of cast with any people under heaven, the governments of the old world were opposed to them in principal, theory and actions and built up foes against them on the very alters they had left. The hereditary lords of the soil, the wild beast and the much wilder savage were lurking in every nook and beneath the shadow of every tre« and thicket to destroy them; from the East came home upon every swell of the broad Atlantic the edicts of political death and social demoralization; from the West came the torch, the scalping knife and the tomahawk; amid such jeopardy they lived, under such circumstances arose, over such ob- stacles triumphed; is to be wondered at that such brave yet ignorant men were guilty of some absurdities, and guided by their rigid piety, some timea bordered on fanticism? They banished Ann Hutchison and Roger Williams but inculcated morality and the strictest integrity. They punished witchcraft but encouraged the arts and sciences, planted the I'ose in the wilderness, built cities and thriving towns in the trackless waste, brought fertile fields and a nourishing agriculture from the Bterile earth and above all kept alive and blazing, pure and unadulterated that vital principle I have been tracing through such a period of blood and disseminated its influence throughout the land; bearded the British lion in his den, sent men of iron with nerves of steel to dispute every inch of ground with oppression until the crowning act of insolence and temerity was done by the assumption of the Mother Country. The Stamp Act was passed. Taxation without representation burst the last tie assunder that linked the Two Hemispheres. The tea M'as thrown into the Boston Harbor, the first patriot blood was dying the plains of Lexington, the cannon was booming on Bunker Hill, the electric voices of Adams, Henry and James Otis were calling the masses to arms, the hasty Congress was convened, the Declaration just read, fearlessly published to tho world, and the war was actually begun, and what a contest; it has no parallel in the world's history, in significance and importance. It did not involve the paltry fate of an isolated province alone, nor a slight ripple upon the tide of political events, but one that would tell greatly for the weal or woe of the whole earth; it was the gi- gantic effort of the thralldom of centuries to maintain its dominion. The 44 HAMILTON WARD. first decided stand taken on the field and in the Cabinet for the principle of human liberty since the downfall of Rome, and the advent of Christ. In the balance hung all that is sacred to the heart, dear to the conscience and desirable in life. To be defeated in that contest the patriot felt was the greatest misfortune that could cloud the destinies of the human race; the hope of ages would be crushed, the light of equality extinguished forever, and the world retrogade to a darkness that would be perpetual, no star would peer in upon the general gloom to point out one landmark, reflect one ray of hope or beam of better days upon the sunken heart and galling fetters of the slave. The strong aspirations of men after a nobler and bet- ter fate would shrink away from the heart, and the future, every home a charnel house, every mount a tomb, every vale a prison, every bugle a dirge, all men tyrants or slaves. Then or never was the principle to be main- tained, ten the crisis. If the patriot conquered our country, Ay the world was free if the usurper and the hireling, the cloak of the fallen and the gown of the downtrodden would cover society to the latest generations. Was there ever such an issue presented to any people? And what did the present indicate and the future proclaim? Was there even a hope of success? Could the most sanguine anticipate more than entire destruction? Across the sea on the other side stood the monu- ments of fraud which time had given the prestage of divinity. Great Britain with her countless myriads, upon whose empire the sun never sets, the commercial ruler of the world, the Titan of nations, and whose name chilled the vitals of every antagonistic power, whose arms were the most renowned, whose bounds the most extensive. Beside her, in active co-operative sympathy, stood every despotic mon- archy and principality under heaven, ready to assist her was the combined moneyed interests of the globe, the petty states of Central Europe werw volunteering their hireling multitudes to crush Republicanism in the New World, and in fact all those governments whose foundations rested upon the neck of the people were united to effect it, lest the rising light of the west might illumine their ruins. And the other side what was it? The side of humanity, liberty, heaven. Where the power to confound the mighty influence I have refer- red to? Who was to raise the sword and marshal the hosts of the right? Who the champion to receive the gauntlet a world had flung down, to com- bat the aims of a continent, the machinations of its diplomatists, the long arm of its vengeance and omnipotence, and overturn the prejudices time had engendered in the hearts of mankind? Who secure and estabhsh in the face of a hundred despotisms a principle and a government that would sweep them in time from the catagory of nations and hurl them into their merited oblivion? THE YOUXG LAWYER. 45 It was 3,000,000 of people without goverument, funds, arms, union, discipline, leaders or experience, in whose hearts, cold as they were, lurked many affections for the mother country, many misgivings as to the course they should adopt, thirteen feeble colonies, sprigs of the various trees of Europe planted upon a new coast in the bosom of an untried wilderness girt by the ocean and the savage, pervaded with intestine commotions, jealousies and suspicions that sprung directly from the nationalities that placed them there, in whose very presence and by whose very fireside sat the subtle Tory and the rabid traitor. This the power to oppose, this to redeem, who would dare to dream of their success, the oppressor smiled as he gazed upon this pitiful spectacle, the philanthropist trembled as he predicted their certain fate, as he ex- claimed: '•Dark will their doom be. Darker still their immortality of ill." But the God of Battles presided in their councils. The inspirations of eternity inspired their souls, the destiny of mankind bouyed up their pur- pose, the pale hand of the unnumbered dead who had perished in their cause was reaching to their hearts through the dim alcove of vanished ages from every patriot shrine and hero's tomb, the crushed spirit of Ro- man and Grecian independence was whispering in their ears and lifting the curtain of their dreams. Every drop of blood shed, every tear fallen, every sigh heaved to heaven, every groan and hour of suffering lost and fear felt. Freedom from the morning of creations was firing their souls to ac- tion, the shades of vanished republics and the fate of untold generations their own posterity, the safety and sanctity of their homes and altars, were moving them on to conquer or to die, and the colonists became united as one man and George Washington was the commander and chief of the Ameri- can forces. Let us pause and contemplate that lofty character with whose im- mortal name the heavens resound and the earth re-echoes. Look at him gaz- ing calmly in the diabolic face of tyranny, world denounced as a rebel, branded as a conspirator with a price upon his head. He wrought order from confusion, substance from chaos, union and discipline from the rude and dis- organized masses, many were his triaJs, dark and gloomy were the clouds that beset his pathway, even his God seemed to desert him and the star of his destiny grew dim and sunk toward the region of perpetual night. Often hope seemwl lost as his countrymen crouched in despair at his feet. He saw their blood upon the frozen earth marking to blood hounds in pursuit where they trod, he heard the howling winds and merciless stornaa chilling the hearts of his half naked soldiers, the groans of his empoverishod and dying comrades loaded every brtH»ze of heaven; he found his repeated 46 HAMILTON WARD. petitions for aid at the public treasury neglected, and it wrung his heart with agony as liberty's defenders were crying for bread. He knew that he was encompassed with foes treble his number, and in his own camp, stab- bing at his reputation and endeavoring to alienate from him his own soldiers were the traitor and the spy. Weak in number, cursed by famine and starvation, goaded by the hisses of tyrants and cries of the oppressed and his country gazing on him and her fate at his disposal, Great God what a position. But by magic the Delaware was crossed, his cannon was thundering at Trenton and Princeton, the star of the patriots brightened. The wave that threatened to destroy them rolled back to submerge the wretches who sent it. With a prayer to God and an appeal to his countrymen with efforts that sink into significance all the achievements of ancient or modern times, he came, he saw, he conquered. Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. Peace was declared and the principle of man's liberty established at last. He had no predecessor or model, no equal or successor. History re- veals no character in which all that was great and good was so thoroughly developed, so harmoniously blended. He stands alone, occupying an exalted station in the estimation of his countrymen and all mankind, the loftiest niche in the temple of fame. No language can describe his acts and sac- rifices or do justice to his name. No man can pronounce his eulogy and far be it from me to attempt it; it is beyond the power of human experience or conception. That eulogy is pronounced by all We see and hear, by the universal applause of mankind and the deep veneration felt in every patriot's heart. Every monument consecrated to freedom, every town, city, improvement by all the evidences of wealth and prosperity, by the blooming fields, fertile vales, the church, the school house, the thriving community and intelligent citizens in our beautiful land in every fear that quakes the despot's heart, in every acclamation that loads the sky, in our institutions, laws, influence, in the grandeur of our name and the splendor of our destiny, his eulogy is pronounced. Beside the slumbering Potomac he sleeps — the hero sleeps — his hum- ble tomb is the Mecca of the free, but his name will never die, it will brighten as it descends to the latest posterity, and should our country ever fall, should these pillars of her glory ever pass aAvay, and she disappear from the list of nations, the last gasp of her defenders and the dying watch- word of her heroes will be the sacred name of Washington, "first in peace, first in war, first in the hearts of his countrymen." And those who fought by his side bore his troubles, rejoiced in his success, wept at his defeats, who watched for every word and obeyed with alacrity every decree that fell fi-om his endeared lips. The heroes of that 4TH OF JULY SPEECH 1855. 47 war, the bold, hardy men that went forth from the field, the cabin and thfl fireside to defend this country and purchase the boom of civil and religious liberty, the men who willingly embraced sufferini;, exposure and death, gave up all the pleasures of home and happiness which we so highly prize, met de- struction with a shout of triumph in the cause so sweet and so vast; the 20,000 who perished in that eventful struggle without a stone to mark the spot where their hallowed ashes slumber — who fought, bled and died not for fame, glory or mercenary ends, but for their whole country and nothing but their country, the unrecorded masses whose names do not come down to u», whose deeds are only rehearsed when the grand result is given, what shall we say of them? Too often in our applause for the leaders whose prominent positions gave them a place on the scroll of time, we forget the common sol- dier, the bone and sinew of the camp, the man of humble life and toil who faced the foe and the red hot missiles of death, who faltered not but sus- tained the standard of the country where the fight was thickest and the battle hottest, who bore the wounded to his couch, the departed to the grave — of those I would speak. Let us turn our memories back to them, kind friends. We have read the tale of their glory in our school boy days, our hearts have rendered them a thousand tributes. In the hour when all was young and bright with us we listened to the story of their sacrifices and achieve- ments on the home altar and in the chimney corner from venerable lips and saw grey locks grow young again at the recital. It is said by a great man that heroes strew the soil of every state from Main to Georgia, aye, their spirits are hovering over this assembly to-day, they are watching us from beyond the clouds, they are clustering in blest communion in the spirit land. Let their example inspire your hearts, he the talisman of your lives, teach it to your children, let it be with and guide you in every act of your life, fill your souls with purity, guide your acts in the Cabinet, in the Legislature, in the primary political meetings and at the ballot box. Remember it when corruption and demagogism sever you from your duty, stamp it with indelible characters on your soul, and should danger, menace or treason attempt to sap the foundations of our government, let it nerve you with the power and daring of patriots and warriors to strike the reprobate to the earth. Remember them, for they gave you the privilige of this day, they consecrated the soil on which you tread, transmitted unimpaired to you the responsibilities and the immunities which belong to all men, enjoyed by you alone; they gave you this freedom, nourish and preserve it, keep it pure and untainted, hand it down thus to those who come after you. the memory, the devotion, the deathless gratitude we owe to those who: 48 HAMILTON WARD. "Fell devoted but undying, Their very names the gales seem sighing, The waters murmur of their name, The woods are peopled with their fame. The silent pillar, lone and gray. Claims kindred with their sacred clay; Their spirits wrap the dusky mountain, Their memory sparkles in the fountain The meanest rill, the mightiest river Roll mingled with their fame forever." These were the days when the American people beheved that God had charged them with a duty toward humanity, a duty which the modern spirit of "commerciahsm" does not fulfill, and the change in our national attitude is well illus- trated by our present neglect of the observance of the 4th of July. Then men asked of a stranger who are you ? Now the question is : Who do you work for? The day of individuals and the day of combinations — the day of patriots and the day of machines. Hamilton Ward rapidly grew in consequence in the county, and owing to his genial and unassuming manners made many friends. In 1856 he stumped the county for John C. Fremont, Republican candidate for President. In this year a new township was erected in Allegany County from parts of the towns of Alfred and Amity by Chapter 807 of the Laws of 1857, passed November, 1856, and the inhabitants of the new township decided to call it Ward, after Hamilton Ward, which name it still bears. It lies directly east of the town of Amity and contains no vil- lages. Out of a population of less than 800 it contributed eighty-seven soldiers to the Civil War. Mr. Ward frequently expressed the wish that he might some day be able to erect a town hall in this town, and pre- sent it to the people, and it is to be hoped that this desire may in the future be carried out. In 1856 he became a candidiate for District Attorney. The political leaders of the county resided in Angelica and most of the lawyers were there. It was an iron clad custom to allow the offices to alternate between two assembly dis- TiiE YOUNG LAWYER. 49 triets, north and south, into which the county was divided. The southern district was entitled to the office, and Mr, Ward began his first campaign for himself. He rode over the countr)^ and was nominated on the Whig ticket. Josiah Rathburn of Belmont, a Whig leader, rendered him much assistance. His election by a substantial majority followed on the 4th day of November, 1856, his vote being 6,426 to 1,672 for his highest adversary. Very little record exists of this period of his life. His principal work as District Attorney consisted in convicting a gang of thieves who had taken up their headquarters in the town of Ward. They were known as the Way-Powell gang and were among the last of the frontier ruffians. They helped pass stolen property from other stations, and when caught were preparing an issue of bogus money. Their leader had a singular disguise. His hair and beard were very long and were so trimmed that by tucking them under his collar he appeared like a man with short hair and beard, but when a disguise was required they were pulled out, cov- ering the owners features. This man was sent to State Prison for a long term of years, threatening to kill Mr. Ward if he ever got out. At the expiration of his first term, the rule of rotation in office heretofore spoken of, being in force, Mr. Ward was not a candidate for renomination. For some time a discussion had been kept up through- out the county regarding the wisdom of moving the County Seat from Angelica to some point on the Erie Railroad, then and for many years the only railroad in the county. Legislation had been attempted and finally in 1856 the County Board of Supervisors, by a vote of 17 to 1 1 resolved that an effort should be made to remove the County Seat to Belvidere, a station on the railroad two and a half miles north of Belmont. No legislation was secured and the reso- lution was renewed in the following year. Finally a commis- sion of three members was appointed by the Legislature to select a new County Seat at some convenient point on the railroad. They vi.^ted Belmont, Belvidere and other points and finallv decided in favor of Belmont, which became the 50 HAMILTON WARD. County Seat by Chapter 84 of tlie Laws of 1858. The result was largely brought about by the indefatigable efiforts 01 Colonel Lucian May and Hamilton Ward. The people of Angelica were much dissatisfied with this result, and in i860, by Chapter 489 of the Laws of that year another act was passed directing that one-half of the terms of the County and Supreme Courts be held in AngeHca. This situation existed until 1892 when by Chapter 521 the Act of i860 was repealed, and the old Court House at Angelica sold to the town. In i860 Mrs. Ward's health broke down and she was obliged to spend most of her time in Buffalo under the care of a physician, Mr. Ward's expenses on this account and be- cause of his widening political interests were heavy and he was considerably in debt, and this fact in connection with his wife's illness determined him not to volunteer in the Union Army. However he did all that any man could do at home. He engaged a substitute, although not drafted, and in the fall of i860 was appointed by the Governor one of the Mili- tary Committee for the 30th Senatorial District, and as a member of this committee was instrumental in raising the 130th and i6oth Regiments N. Y. State Volunteers. He was always regarded as a friend by the soldiers and his sub- sequent actions justified this feeling, as will more fully ap- pear. On the 15th day of February, 1861, on motion of Hon. Alfred Ely he was admitted to the U. S. Supreme Court. In 1862 the work of the Military Committee became more serious. It was then seen that the contest was not one between the Government of the North and the Government of the South, but that it was a life and death struggle be- tween the people of those sections, and the way in which the people of the North faced and mastered the situation is best shown by the following address to the People of Allegany County by the Military Committee, and the report of the Committee's proceedings: THE YOUNG LAWYER. 51 ATTENTION, VOLUNTEERS! CUBA. July 23, 18G2. Editors of The True Patriot: For the inforroation of the citizens of Allegany, I send you for publi- cation the quota of volunteers required to be raised in the County under the recent call for troops. The Military Committee for this Senate District met at Geneseo yes- terday and recommended Major-General Fullerton as Commander of the Regimental Camp, and by resolution requested the Governor to change it» location to Portage, which will undoubtedly be done. Everything is now ready for the prompt action of the People in the several towns. By the time a sufficient number of volunteers are raised to be forwarded to the camp, the commanding officer will be ready to re- ceive them. The people are appealed to by the highest considerations to respond to this call— not only the claims of patriotism and our imperilled army looking hopefully for aid, but every person capable of bearing arms has a direct personal interest in raising these troops; for at an early day, if not obtained, the liberal bounties ofifered for volunteers will cease and drafting begin. Let the prominent citizens of each town go at once earnestly to work. There will no difficulty in persons who raise the requisite number of volun- teers to entitle them thereto, obtaining the recommendations of the commit- tee for commissions. Y^'ours respectfully, M. B. CHAMPLAIN, of the Com. PROCEEDINGS OF THE MILITARY COMMITTEE FOR THE 30TH SENATE DISTRICT. At a meeting of said committee, convened at the Court House in Gen- eseo on the 22d day of July instant, at 11 o'clock A. M., pursuant to notice —Hon. Charles Colt was called to the Chair and Hon. J. B. Halstead was chosen secretary. The following members of said committee appeared and answered to their names: LIVINGSTON COUNTY- Hon. Charles Colt, Charles H. Carroll, A. A. Hendee, .Tomes Faulkner. A. Bradner, McNeil Seymour, Alfred Bell, Gen. W. S. Fullerton. and W. E. Lauderdale. WYOMING COUNTY— Hon. J. B. Halsted, H. L. Comstock, L. W. Thayer and .John B. Skinner 2d. ALLEGANY COUNTY— Hon. M. Grover and Hon. M. B. Cham- plain. o2 HAMILTON WARD. On motion of Gen. L. W. Thayer, it was Resolved, That each county have an equal representation on the com- mittee, and that the members in attendance present the names of the ad- ditional committeemen for :)ppointment. After recess of fifteen minutes, the following names to fill the com- mittee from Allegany were presented: Alfred Lockhart, William Colweli, Luman B. Eliiott, Hamilton Ward, Jeremiah Hatch and Samuel Swain. Wyoming County presented the following names: Charles O. Shepard, John B. Folsom, Wm. Bristol, Duncan Cameron, Marcus Willner. On motion of A. A. Hendee, it was Resolved, That the committee proceed to recommend a Regimental Commandant to take charge of the camp until the regiment is formed and a Colonel duly appointed. Upon a viva voce vote, Major-General W. S. Fullerton was duly elected, which election was made unanimous. On motion of Mr. Grover, it was Resolved. That the Commander-in-Chief be earnestly requested to change the location of the Regimental Camp from Geneseo to Portagt* Station. All the committee from Allegany and Wyoming, and four from Liv- ingston, voted in the affirmative, making ten in favor to four in the nega- tive from Livingston county. Hon. A.. A. Hendee, of Geneseo, was elected corresponding secretary of the committee. On motion, it was Resolved, That the committee of each county proceed to select suit- able persons in their respective counties for recruiting officers to be recom- mended for appointment. It was further Resolved, That all future meetings of the committee be held at Port- age Station. The committee was ably and eloquently addressed during its session by the Chairman. Hons. M. Grover, .T. B. Halstead, M. B. Champlain, L. W. Thayer, Charles H. Carroll, James Faulkner, and others. The committee then adjourned to meet at Portage Station on the 30th inst., at 12 o'clock, noon. CHAS. COLT, Chairman. J. B. HALSTEAD, Secretary. On a notice to the Town Supervisors in October, 1862, to produce a list of persons enlisted, Mr. Ward's name ap- pears as Secretary of the Committee. In the fall of 1862 he again became a candidate for the FIKST CONGIII^SSIONAL XOMIXATION. 53 nomination for District Attorney, and was nominated by ac- clamation on the "Union" ticket, as the RepubHcan ticket at that time was styled, and was elected by a majority of thirty-three hundred, Nov. 4th, 1862. Mrs. Vv^ard continued to be an invalid during the year 1863. In the year 1864, while still occupying the office of Dis- trict Attorney he became a candidate for Congress in what was then the 27th N.Y. Congressional District, comprised of the counties of Allegany, Chemung and Steuben. The con- test was spirited, and was only decided in the convention. The proceedings of the convention were as follows ; as ap- pears from the Angelica Reporter of September 28th : CONGRESSIONAL CONVENTION. The Convention was organized at the Osborne House, Hornellsville, on the 20th inst. by choosing Hon. Wilkes Angel, chairman, and Harlo Hakes and G. McDonald, secretaries. The following delegates presented their credentials and took their neats: Allegany Connty, 1st Dist. — Wilkes Angel, Christopher Jennings, Na- thaniel Bell. 2d Dist.— Riifus L. Colwell, Alonzo B. Coon, ,Tohn L. Russel. Steuben County, 1st Dist.— E. R. Kasson. J. H. Butler, Owen Riley, Jr. 2d Dist.— S. T. Hayt, William Moore, Wm. M. Sherwood. 3d Dist.— Harlow Hakes, James P. Clark, E. G. Durfy. Chemung County — .John I. Nicks, F. M. .Jones, J. McDonald, E. A. Owen. On motion of E. R. Kasson, the convention proceeded to an informal ballot for candidate for Member of Congress, which resulted as follows: Hamilton Ward, 7; Tracy Beadle, 4, and A. C. Morgan, G. Blank 2. Whereupon a formal ballot was taken, which resulted iu giving, for Hamilton Ward, 9; Tracy Beadle, 4, and A. C. Morgan, G. And after twenty-three ballotings, with the same result, there were finally cast for Hamilton Ward, 13; A. C. Morgan, G. The nomination of Mr. Ward was then made unanimous. On motion of E. G. Durfy, the chair appointed the following commit- tee to report resolutions: E. G. Durfy, N. D. Boll, and J. McDonald, who reported the follow- ing resolution, which was unanimously adopted: Resolved, That the Convention fully approve of and commend tha course pursued by Hon. R. R. Van Valkenburgh, our present representa- 54 HAMILTON WARD. tive in Congress, for the able and honorable manner in which he has dis- charged his duties as such representative, and the zeal and fidelity with which he has, in the councils of the Nation, sustained the reputation of our district, and the integrity of our country. On motion, the chair appointed the following Congressional Committee: C. G. Fairman, Rodney Dennis, George Pratt, George S. Ellas, C. F. Dickinson, A. N. Cole. On motion, Resolved, That the proceedings be published in the Republican papers throughout the district. WILKES ANGEL, Chairman. HARLOW HAKES, J. M. DONALD, Secretaries. Mr. Ward's nomination was secured by the Chemung delegates voting for him. The Democrats nominated a soldier who had lost an arm in the service, Col. A. J. McNett of the 141st N. Y. V. I., a resident of Belmont, hoping thereby to secure the sol- diers' vote and made a strenuous effort, assisted somewhat by a defeated Republican candidate for the nomination, to defeat Mr. Ward, but, after a hot campaign, in which he visited and spoke in almost every town in his district, Mr. W'ard carried Allegany County by a majority of 3,438, Steu- ben by 2,169 ^^^^^ Chemung by 162, running about 300 be- hind Lincoln. This Congressional election to a man of but 35 years of age was indeed a high honor, and especially so in those days when every session of Congress determined whether the Government should live or die, when the great ques- tions of State rights were settled once and for all, and the duty of the nation to each and every citizen at length estab- lished. In the three Congresses following 1864 the "con- flicts of the constitution" were decided and the course and destiny of the nation laid out. How welcome must such an opportunity, as was given by this nomination, have been ! By a strange freak of fate this triumph followed close upon the heels of a great peril and substantial loss. In July, 1864, Hamilton Ward with his wife, undertook to visit rela- tives in Michigan and to see the wonderful western lakes. After passing through Lakes Superior and Huron they BlJIlMNfJ OF THE UACIXE. 55 sailed from Detroit on tlieir return on the steam propeller Racine ,a boat belonging to the Western Transit Company, which carried, as did most boats in those days, both freight and passengers. The boat had a deck load of high wines, and some of the crew tapped one of the casks — became in- toxicated and forgot to return the plug, with the result that the escaping spirits reached the fires and caused a conflagra- tion which destroyed the ship. The following statement of the occurrance appeared in the RufYalo Morning Express of Aug. 13th, 1864: THE BURNING OF THE RACINE.— The surviving passengers of the propeller Racine deem it proper to make the following statement rela- tive to the burning of that vessel, that it may be known to the public: The propeller Racine was one of the Western Transportation Com- pany's boats, running between Buffalo and Chicago, and was returning frona Chicago. The boat was heavily laden with produce and high wines. The whole number of passengers, officers, and crew, was 30. The following is a list of the passengers lost, and of the crew lost and saved: PASSENGERS LOST. Peter Warner, Karp River, Michigan, and two others, names un- known, who took passage at Detroit. PASSENGERS SAVED. Mrs. Ellen Burke, Milwaukee. Mrs. M. Waldron, Chicago, Illinois. H. Ward and lady, Belmont, N. Y. •Tames Greenwood, Boston, Mass. Wm. S. Wright, New York. Levi Richardson, Detroit, Mich. J. S. Blossom, Burlington, Wis. John Allen, Indiana. S. H. Rubins, Buffalo, N. Y. CREW LOST. John, Manaher, second mate. Alexander McLean, watchman. Patrick Lynche, deckhand. Thomas Welch, deckhand. Peter Mullen, deckhand. Mike Powers, deckhand. Jack Leary. deckhand. Edward (surname unknown). 56 HAMILTON WARD. The propeller left Detroit about 5 P. M., on the 9th of August, took wood at Maiden, C. W., and left there for Buffalo at 8 P. M. At 2:30 A. M., on the 10th, when about 12 miles above Roundeau, a fire was discov- ered near the boiler, just a few feet from the furnace, as near as we can ascertain. Upon alarm being given, the captain and first engineer took measures to extinguish the fire and prevent explosion of the boiler; but it was found impossible to subdue the flames when the officers arrived. The passengers were then called. A panic immediately seized a por- tion of the passengers and crew, who, upon their own responsibility, seized one of the yawls — the men jumping into the boat confusedly; and when the boat was near the water, the steamer making eight or nine miles an hour, they cut the tackle and she immediately swamped, and was crushed under the wheel, and all in her lost except the second engineer, who was found clinging to the bottom of the boat. The flames rapidly spread to the upper deck, when the captain ordered the jolly boat to be lowered, and he, with the assistance of the first mate, first engineer and passenger Wm. T. Wright, in the midst of the flames (as the boat was surounded by the fire) with almost superhuman power at a great personal risk, lowered the boat and brought her forward. The ladies were then put into the boat. The life boat was then lowered. Nearly all the passengers and crew crawled into the boat. By great exertions of the captain and others who remained on the burning vessel after the boats were lowered, such valuables as were in reach and could be safely put in the boats were so placed. Provisions were also placed in the boat for the subsistence of the passengers. The compasses were secured; life planks, doors, stools and other articles that could be of nse in case the boats should be swamped, were thrown over. About 250 barrels of flour and high wines were also cast over. All was done that doing human could do to save life and property. Passengers Wright and Greenwood were cool and active throughout, and did their utmost to assist the officers. The captain at last stood alone on the burning deck; the lurid flames had nearly enveloped him, the jolly boat was attached to the vessel by a single line — in the midst of smoke, fire and ruin, he stood and unfurled the Stars and Stripes, shouted "Freedom for ever," then gliding down the rope and entering the boat he said: "We are afloat, if we perish we will go down under the old flag." We then drifted away over the water. Directions were given to remain as near the wreck as possible, as we would be more likely to be seen in the light of the burning steamer. At about 4 o'clock we saw a light, and soon our ears were greeted by the joyful sound of a steam whistle and shortly after the pro- peller "Avon," Capt. Frazer Smith, rescued us from our perilous position. From Capt. Smith and the men and officers of his boat we received the ut- most attention. They did all in their power to make us comfortable. Boats were sent out and search made for the missing. The burning wreck was BURNING OF THE RACINE. 57 taken in tow and Capt. Smith even exposed liis own boat to get the vessel ashore. Wo cannot close this painfnl narrative without paying a personal tri- bute to our captain. From the first to the last of this trying ordeal he was calm, collected, and stood the master spirit of the scene. Nothing was omit- ted; the safety of life and property alone seemed to animate him, risking his life in many ways. We have for him the most unbounded affection and respect. At the time of the lowering of the life boat, and saving property afterwards, the captain enforced obedience to orders by presenting a re- volver, but no other officer had a weapon, as reported in one of the morn- ing papers. The first engineer, Thomas Haig, nobly performed his duty, showing himself a hero and a man. God bless noble Tom! The boiler did not burst, as at first stated. We say nothing of those who had charge of the machinery, and who were on watch at the time the fire commenced. Some have gone to their long account; others yet live. We deem it proper to say that as to the origin of the fire, it should have a rigid examination. Mr. and Mrs. H. Ward, Mrs. Ellen Burke, Mrs. M. Waldrou, S. II. Rubins, lievi Richardson, Jas. Greenwood, Wm. S. Wright, J. S. Blossom. Buffalo, August 12, 1864. Those who escaped lost everything. Their boat leaked, and was with difficulty kept afloat until they were rescued, as set forth, most of the passengers, including Hamilton Ward and his wife being in their night clothes. They were finally landed in BufYalo. They then hurried to Belmont only to discover that in their absence Mr. Ward's law office had been burned, together v.ith other buildings in the village, and that his library, furniture and papers had been totally destroyed. All that was left was a cow, as the residence at that time belonged to Peter Hamilton Ward, and the morn- ing after his return Mr. Ward started for the farm where he had put the cow to pasture on his departure. He found her in a gully, heels up, covered with crows. There was nothing more to lose, and it is said he found comfort in that solitary fact and whistled as he came back to the village. CHAPTER V. In Congress. In the month of December, 1865, Hamilton Ward re- moved with his wife to the city of Washington, and took up his residence on 12th Street. Among the famous men of the nation who were mem- bers of this Congress were James G. Blaine of Maine, Justine S. Morrill of Vermont, Oak Ames, Nathaniel Banks, George S. Boutwell, Wm. B. Washburn of Massachusetts, Roscoe Conkling of New York, Samuel J. Randall and Thadius Stevens of Pennsylvania, Rutherford B. Hayes, Robert C. Schenck, John A. Bingham and James A. Gar- field of Ohio, Michael C. Kerr, Daniel W. Voorhees and Schuyler Colefax of Indiana, Elihu B. Washburn and Shelby M. Collum of Illinois, William B. Allison and James F, Wilson of Iowa, Philitas Sawyer of Wisconsin and William Windom of Minnesota. Schuyler Colefax, who, as before appears, was related to Hamilton Ward, was chosen speaker against Mr. James Brooks, the Democratic candidate, by a vote of 139 to 36. Mr. Ward was placed upon thefollowing committees : On Claims, the chairman being Columbus Delano of Ohio ; on Accounts, of which Edward H. Rollins of New Hampshire was chairman. He had, however, not waited for the organi- zation of the House to commence to discharge the duties he felt he owed his constituents, coming as he did from a por- tion of the country that had contributed so lavishly to the Union's cause. On Dec. 11, 1865, he made his first appear- ance on the floor of Congress and introduced his first bill which provided for the giving of lands and money as a bounty to U. S. soldiers who had served in the late Rebel- IN CONGRESS 18C>5. 59 lion. This was referred to the Committee on Mihtary Af- fairs, to be appointed and ordered printed. It pro- vided in detail that the soldiers who had volunteered or en- listed prior to June 5th, 1863, who had served for not more than three months should receive 40 acres of land, and in an increasing ratio, so that it was provided that those who had served over two years should receive 160 acres of land and $100.00 in money. And it was further provided that the provisions of the Act should apply to colored soldiers who had not at this time been protected by the constitu- tional amendments. This bill was the first of the sort in- troduced and greatly pleased the soldiers and loyal people of the North. On December i8th, Mr. Ward introduced the following resolution: *. "Whoreaa. Certain inhabitants of the Territory of Utah, in violation of the laws of the United State.s, have been and still are sustaining the abominable system of polygamy, and the numbers who practice it, and the crime and demoralization consequent thereon, are largely on the increase; and whereas for reasons not understood, the law against polygamy has not been enforced; and, in the judgment of this House, this great and re- maining barbarism of our age and country should be swept, like its twin system, slavery, from the Territories of the Republic; and means, adequate to that end should be adopted; Therefore, "Resolved, That the Committee on Territories be instructed to inquire and ascertain what means, civil or military, may lawfully be re- sorted to to effectually eradicate this evil from the land, and what legislation is needed, if any, to effect that object, and what reasons exist why the laws against polygamy have not been executed; and also to ascertain whether the United States officials in said Territory are seeking to enforce the laws and to inquire into their conduct generally, so far as relates to the dis- charge of their public duties in relation to this system, and that said Com- mittee have leave to report by bill or otherwise." On January loth, 1866, Mr, Ward introduced the fol- lowing resolution, v/hich was agreed to by the House: "Whereas, It is alleged that the form of contract to be entered into between the freemen and their former masters in the State of South Caro- lina, has been adopted by certain government officials on the one side, as- suming to represent the freedmen, and their former masters on the other side, whereby, amoug other things, it is provided that the freedmen be- «)f) HAMILTON WARD. oouu's the servuDt of the master for the period of one ye.ar; that he shal! not be iiern^itted to leave the premises where he is bound to labor, or to receive \isits from relatives or friends thereon during said time without the master's consent, nor without such a consent to keep any poultry, stock, etc., during the time; that if said freedman is absent for two days without the master's consent, no matter for what cause, he for- feits his whole year's pay, part of which goes to his master; that if any team, horses, mules, or farming utensils are injured while being used by the freedman such damage shall be deducted from their wages, it not being specified that such liabiHty should only be incurred when the freedman was at fault, and in case of any breach of any of the provisions of the con- tract by any servant he shall be liable to forfeit all his wages and be dis- missed from the plantation; and whereas it is alleged that said freedmen are being induced to enter into such contract; therefore "Resolved, That the select committee on freedmen be instructed to inqnire into the truth of said allegations, and also to ascertain what con- tracts, if any, are being forced upon the freedmen of other states and to report by bill or otherwise." On January 12th Mr. Ward submitted the following resolution: "Resolved, That the Committee on Ways and Means be instructed to inquire into the expediency of i-epealiug the internal revenue tax on paper, and upon all bibles, testaments and religious books and publications, and upon all school books used in schools, academies and colleges." This was immediately passed. His first speech was dehvered on January 25th on the subject of an amendment to the constitution, and is as follows : "Mr. Speaker, I do not suppose there is a Union man on this floor but desires that some amendment to the Constitution should be secured that shall avoid in future the patent injustice and glaring defect which now exists in the basis of representation in the Southern States. "The fact that one South Carolinian, whose hands are red with the blood of fallen patriots, and whose skirts are reeking with the odors of Columbia and Andcrsonville, will have a voice as potential in these halls as two and a half Vermont soldiers who have come back from the grandest battle fields in history maimed and scarred in the contest with South Caro- lina traitors in their efforts to destroy this Government, cries aloud for remedy, and it depends upon Congress to inaugurate this remedy. And the country expects and demands from the large Union majority here some united action, and not to fritter away our strenccth in useless divisions and accomplish nothing. SrEEClI ox (X)NSTITIJ'I'1().\AL AMENDMENT ISCC. 01 "We must be Kiiiued by a spirit of compromise and b.irraony. No nmtndmont can be presented entirely free from objection, and that may not bear unequally in some respects; but in the spirits of our fathers who framed the immo' tal instrument we are seeking to change, let us who have a common object at heart strive faithfully to agree, each section willing, if necessary, to yield a little for the general good. '"I am iVee to say that to my mind that there are s<'rious objections to the amendment reported by the committee. Still, if nothing better can be agreed upon, I will support it upon the principal that it is better than no amendment at all. Numerous amendments have been proposed, many of which I deem so extraordinary as to be entirely out of question. There are, however, a class of amendments that purpose to base representation upon male suffrage simply, l^et us examine for a moment the effect of this. "Those who vote will, of course, in all cases be the direct agents in se- lecting the representative; but what becomes of that large class of non- voting tax-payers that are found in every section? Are thoy in no manner to be represented? They certainly should be enumerated in making up the whole number of those entitled to a representative. If that is not done, then, indeed, we have reversed the progress of nearly a century, and the doctrine that our fathers fought against and overthrew in the Revolutionary struggle is at last asserted in this country and made part of the funda- mental law of the land, namely taxation without representation. "The amendment reported by the committee adopts the right prin- »ipl'^. and is good enough as far as it goes; but it can readily be seen that if the poor whites of the South, or the blacks, are excluded for any other (>stensible reason than that of "race or color," or if no reason is given for the exclusion, and the law excluding them; the same difficulty exists as now. and the object sought to be obtained is defeated. Do you suppose that these "whitewashed traitors" with the infernal ingenuity which maintained the great rebellion against the grandest ai'my and the most mighty power on earth for four long years will not invent some scheme, if the amend- ment as it now stands prevails, to keep a down-trodden people whom they hate away from power and all means of elevation, and yet, true to their old habit of appropriating the use of these people without compensation, use their numbers as a basis of representation with which to get them- selves into Congress? They will readily publish some ground of exclusion from suffrage other than of "race or color." They may require them to read and write, and yet keep alive the black code against disseminating knowledge among them. Indeed, they may require them to have a college education or something else equally absurd. Perhaps the fact of their undoubted loyalty to the government will be a ground of exclusion. "It is no answer to say that the same ground of exclusion must be applied to whites as well as blacks. This does not necessarily follow. Sup- 62 HAMILTON WARD. pose it were so, what consideration has the Southern oligarchy ever showa for the "poor white trash?" With their contempt for labor, their known desire for landed aristocracy and the privileged class, how ready would they be to exclude the masses by some property or other qualification from power, to the end that thoy might grasp it all. "How, then, yon ask, shall this be remedied? I answer by simply also excluding from the basis of representation all those who are deprived of suffrage by reason of a property or tax qualification, or any other quali- fication not heretofore recognized as a qualification of suffrage in the state where the qualification is applied; so that no subterfuge could be adopted to defeat the purposes of the amendment, and so that a state would have the choice simply, as we desire it should, of enfranchising its people or not having them counted in the basis of representation; and thus the tax-payer of the state is not deprived by the Federal Constitution of representation absolutely, as in the other plan I have referred to; but the excepted classes are made dependent upon State action alone, the State having power at any time to remove the disability that the Constitution imposes. "My amendment consists in adding to the joint resolution proposed by the committee these words: "And provided further that all persons who are deprived of the elec- tive franchise in any State by reason of a tax or property qualification, or by reason of any other qualification, which (other qualification) was not in force on the 1st day of January, 1866, in the State where the same is applied, shall be excluded from the basis of representation. "So that the joint resolution shall read as follows: "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed: Provided, That whenever the elective fran- chise shall be denied or abridged in any State on account of race or color, all persons of such race or color shall be excluded from the basis of repre- sentation, AND PROVIDED FURTHER, That all persons who are de- prived of the elective franchise in any State by reason of a tax or property qualification, or by reason of any other qualification which (other quali- fication) was not in force on the 1st day of January, 1866, in the State where the same is applied, shall be excluded from the basis of representa- tion. "I ask the earnest consideration by the House of the amendment. It seems to meet all the difficulties that surround us, and I hope it will pre- vail. "It has been suggested that perhaps the loyal States will not pass the nmendment. In my judgment the loyal States will pass any article that I.N COMJKESS ]S()U. 63 wo shall proposo to them from their adoption, aud make it the fundamental law of the land. "As for the disloyal States, those who stood in a hostile attitude against this Govei-nraeut aud have exerted all their power for its destruc- tion during the last four years, I have only to say that they have only the right which the criminal has who pleads before the judge for mercy. They will pass this amendment as they did the former." The wisdom of this amendment is amply demonstrated by the present course of the Southern States (1898-1900) in estabhshing- educational, property and heriditary qualifi- cations for the voters. On January 30th, 1866, he addressed the House briefly on the vSouthern loyalists as follows: "I concurred with much, reluctance in the report which comes from the committee. I felt that the loyal men of the South who have been faith- ful among the faithless, who have risked all and suffered all, and the wives and children of those who had perished in consequence of their devotion to the national flag, should in a measure be compensated for the losses v/hich they have sustained in consequence of their adherence to the Na- tional Government. But. sir, the magnitude of these losses, the difficulty of distinguishing at this tinse between loyal men and traitors, and the con- dition of our finances, admonished me that we should not open a door that would let in financial ruin, national disgrace and perhaps repudiation of the national debt. I felt that this cla.ss of claims might double the national debt, and so bring about results which all would depreciate — results so de- plorable, I am sure, that all would wish to avert them, and none more so than those patriotic men whose claims are so strong, and who have shown by their sacrifices that the national honor is very dear to them. "And so far as I am concerned I desire to say that I hope that this action, will not be regarded as final; that it shall not bind as a precedent those who shall come afterwards; but I hope that at no distant day, when the dark clouds that surround our national pathway shall have vanished, when the difficult work of reconstruction shall be done, when the nation no longer reels under a gigantic national debt, and when these loyal men shall be clearly ascertained, then justice shall be done to these people, and the na- tion shall reward them as they deserve." These speeches are self explanatory and cannot be added to by anything that can be said at the present time. They illustrate the zeal with which he took up his new la- bors, and the breadth and keenness of his mind. A new W HAMILTON WARD. member of Congress nowadays to become at once so active would be frowned upon by the older members, but no such sentiment affected the dehberations of the great Con- gresses of the Reconstruction period, whose members were almost all young men and comparatively new in the public service of a new party, confronting new conditions and com- pelled to resort to new remedies. On February lo, 1866, Hamilton Ward made one of the best speeches which he ever delivered, in the House. It is on the question of reconstruction, and is as follows: RECONSTRUCTION. The House resumed the consideration of the President's message, as ju Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union. MR. WARD said: Mr. Speaker: I should not thrust myself upon the attention of the House at this time, could I with justice to myself remain silent. So varied and novel are the schemes of reconstruction and the resolu- tions upon that subject that are crowded through the House without oppor- tunity for debate, under the operation of the "previous question," that it seems neeessary for members who desire their true position understood upon this vexed question to take the opportunity offered for the discussion of the President's message, to do so. After so many great minds, at both ends of this Capitol, have ex- hausted so thoroughly all views and phases of this question, it will not be expected that I will advance anything new. I shall only express the earn- est, deeply fixed convictions of one of the humblest upon this floor, and you will receive them simply as such. Who can but tremble at the vast respon- sibility to our country, our countrymen, and to God, under which we rest as members of this Congress. Never before in the history of nations has a legislative body met charged with such duties and obligations as have been imposed upon us. We are legislating for the present and the future. The effect of our action will not be circuiuscrilied by our time and couutry alone: it will reach the svhole earth and the remotest generation. Ten million people, emerging from the chaos of war, stand before us powerless, disarmed, without government, without law, save from the strong arm of the military power, awaiting our action, demanding from us the full exercise of the rights they enjoyed in the better days gone by, when, true to the Union, they stood side by side with us upholding the honor of our common flag. What have they done? Why arc they knocking thus ■t the doors of our national councils? Why these vacant seats? Ah! they SrEBCH ON RECONSTRUCTION ISlUJ. G5 have committeil the most fearful and gigantic crime known in the records of time. They conspired to overthrow and blot from the book of nations the Government of their fathers, under whose protecting power they have grown rich, powerful, and enjoyed every blessing, without cause, save the desire to perpetuate human bondage. They conspired against popular rights and liberty. They sought to dishonor and degrade labor. Governors, Legislatures, judges, municipal oflficers; the whole ma- chinery of government. State and local; all collective and individual action of the people, were directed with awful power for long and terrible years for the destruction of this Republic. In the cabinet, on the field, on the ocean, in foreign climes and capi- tals, with armed men, with the torch, with poison, with fire, by robbery, arson, murder, starvation, pillage, and all the crimes that a fiendish in- genuity could devise and put into execution, they pursued their work of death. They declared that the Union was dissolved, its mission ended, and that never while they lived on earth, while the last man could grasp the last musket, would they yield this pretension. And well they did their infernal work. They stand before God and man staggering under the murder of three hundred thousand of the noblest men that ever went forth to battle and to death. They have desolated and darkened every home in the land; $3,000,000,000 of national debt, $500,000,000 more obligations incurred by States and counties; two million men have shouldered arms for the Re- public: one hundred and three thousand pensions upon our bounty caused by the war. These are some of the results of their action. They failed. Such men as were gathered into hosts and marched to the music of the Union and swept the armies of treason from the land were never before given to any country. How we should prize and cherish those who live, hind up their wounds, give them of our substance in their time of need. .\nd those who died, whose precious dust reposes iu the soil of every State, let us remember and sanctify their resting places, and guard well their wid- ows and orplians as the nation's treasure. What is the condition of those States and people? What their rela- tions to the General Government? What shall we do with them? And now, without resentment or fear or looking backward or trim- ming our sails to catch some popular breeze, acting under our oaths, and with the desire only to do right as it is given us to "see the right," let us enter upon the consideration of these momentous questions. All sovereignty rests with the people in this country; by virtue of this sovereignty they have organized States and State governments, and been received as such States into the Union; and subject to the Constitution of the T'nited States and the laws of Congress made in pursuance thereof. 66 HAMILTON WARD. each State, as long as the- people thereof have observed their allegiance to the General Government, has been free and independent. The legal union of the States cannot be broken by the action of the people of any State unless it is accomplished by successful rebellion. The rebellion failed, and therefore all the people who have upheld the Union and still control its Government can insist that the Union is not dissolved, and that territorially the States in rebellion still exist. Sovereignty is still inherent in the people of those States, to be exercised whenever iu the judg- ment of the Government they can do so consistent with the national safety. 1 do not recognize any authority now existing in these States to represent this sovereignty or to carry out the powers which a loyal people, instituting loyal State governments and sending loyal members to Congress, can do, for the reason that the authorities and people of those States went into rebellion, as I have stated, together with their representatives iu Congress, who with- drew from these Halls for that purpose. Their right to a new State government, to resume their practical and original relations with the loyal States, undoubtedly exists under certai)i conditions and restrictions. It seems to me that it necessarily follows from the relation of Government and people, which is of allegiance on the one hand and protection on the other, that if a portion of the people refuse their allegiance to the Government and make war upon it for its destruction, and are defeated in the attempt, they have forfeited the right of protection and are at the mercy of the Government. I said they were entitled to resume their original relations under certain conditions and restrictions. Who is to be the judge of those conditions and what shall they be? Shall the red- handed traitor be the judge; Is he to prescribe the conditions of his own return. No one will contend that. The whole practice of our Government under the last Administration and the present has been against it. Shall foreign nations be the judge? No, thank God, in our darkest hour our Government resented oven the advice of some of those nations as offensive and impertinent. And now we stand magnificent and peerless among the nations, which of them shall thrust its judgment upon us? Will the autocrat of France? We say to him that if his intermeddling with affairs on this continent in defiance of the time-honored policy of this coun- try does not cease, the army of blue will again be in motion and Maximil- lian will he hurled from the throne of the Montezumas. I shall not perplex myself with abstract propositions or enter into any discussiou as to whether the rebel States are in the Union or out of it. No one contends that they have legally severed their connection with the Union. The territorial boundaries of the States still exist; we have the right still to compel their obedience to the Government; they owe allegiance to no other; but as Mr. Lincoln, in his great good sense, in a speech made a few days before his assassination, says SPEECH ON RECONSTRUCTION 186G. 67 "They are out of their practical relation with the Union." Practically, thoy have been out of the Union, and practically in feel- ing and sympathy they are out still; and ours shall be the task to bring them back, not simply to power without Union, but so to reconstruct as to secure a true Union with power. And while a State, considered as simply a legal institution, cannot be destroyed, still its government can be over- turned and its members and people go into treason, so that practically it is destroyed; for after all — "What constitutes a State? Not high-raised battlements, or labored mound, Thick wall, or moated gate; Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned; Not bays and broad-armed ports. Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; Not starred and spangled courts. Where low-browed baseness wafts perfumes to pride — No! men, high-minded men." not traitors. Where do you get your constitutional power to keep their Representa- tives from Congress; to organize military tribunals over them; suspend their courts, their Legislatures, their State functions? Ask gentlemen on the Democratic side— you are revolutionary, say they. The land groans under your despotism, they exclaim. These terrible assertions would alarm us did we not "consider the source." These same persons and their party said, when treason's gripe was at the nation's throat, and its guns command- ed this capital, and our Government was trembling in the balance, "Oh! you cannot coerce a State!" "You must not make arbitrary arrests!" "You cannot make your Government credits legal tender!" "You cannot legally draft men into the army; you are revolutionary; you disregard the Consti- tution." They said the war was a failure, at Chicago; they were the first after the war to grasp hands all red with the blood of our slain brothers; and now they are in these Halls still harping on the subject. They had not long since the Democratic party with three-quarters of the States; and year by year and one by one the people thrust them out as false prophets and guides; and now they have not a State (except a few reconstructed rebel ones in the South) that they can control; and here they are, a lean and hungry band of thirty-five or forty, uttering their notes of discord as ever, and now "crooking the pregnant hinges of the knee" to President Johnson, "that thrift may follow fawning." And they, thus re- pudiated and disowned, are still repeating their old cry of unconstitution- ality. I say to them that they learn nothing by experience, nothing from history, or they would have seen ere this the "handwriting upon the wall," 08 HA.AIILTON WARD. and road their own fate in that of the Tories of the Revolution and the Federalists of 1812. They assume to be the special champions of the Presi- dent, whom not long ago they denounced a "usurper" and "tyrant." Do they think the President anxious to share their fate, to go down with them to a political death from which there will be no resurrection? No, gentle- men; be admonished; the President understands you as he did when the southern wing of your party drove him a refugee from his home and hunted him like a wild beast. Had your counsel been followed in the time of wai- the nation would have perished. The people will not listen to you now. When the difficult work of reconstruction is to be done, they will follow the earnest men who have brought them safely through the night now the morning is breaking. Call them radicals, call them revolutionists, denounce the reconstruction committee ordered by Congress as you denounced Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, and the "mercenary soldiery" that scared your rebel friends and rested like nightmares upon your copperhead slumbers, and yet the nation will come up to the great work. Congress wil do its whole duty unawed by fear, un- seduced by favor. The people will sustain that Congress in taking all the tin)e necessary to reconstruct our Union on the foundations of immutable justice and equity to all classes and races under this broad flag, and woe to him, high or low, that stands in the way of it. But I answer you that the Constitution does not provide for its own destruction; it was not so framed as to exclude all things that were needed for its own perpetuity. It provides for putting down rebellion, for the pun- ishment of treason, for securing republican governments to the States: for rules and regulations to govern the Territories and other property of the United States; for raising armies and navies, and for the common defense. These are the grand objects of the Constitution; anything necessary to be done to carry out these objects is constitutional. It is constitutional to do all things necessary to preserve the Constitution and the nation which it founded. It was constitutional to put down the rebellion; so it is constitutional to do all to prevent a return of rebellion— to provide for the future security of the nation. You cannot invoke precedents in history to control our action; the situation is new. As there never was such a framework of government- such a people, such a rebellion, such traitors to deal with — we have conse- quently no guides in the past to illumine our pathway in the future. We must do what is necessary, relying upon our own judgement and sense of duty to complete the work began in the field; for I say to you we are still combatting our old enemy in another form. Again, the rights we now claim to exercise spring from the war power which is inherent in all governments. When civil governments fail to se- SrEF.CH ox KKCOXgl'KTJCTIOX l.St;(;. CO ouij- obedience to tho Coustitution and laws, rtsoit is had to tlio military power, and military jrovernments are established such as Tennessee possess- ed under Governor (now President) Johnson, and other States have had during the rebellion; and, since the disloyal armies were overthrown, the war power has still been exercised, and its exercise in still needed ini those States. The President has insisted that they should ratify the constitution- al amendment, give the freedman a standing in court as witness and party, and that they should repudiate the rebel debt before he would remit them to their civil rights, or advise the reception of their members by Congress. How can this extraordinary executive power be justified except upon the principles I have adverted to? The only question remaining is, when are these former rebels to be admitted to a share in the Government? That will depend much upon their loyalty and the ability they manifest to take loyal part in the Government. Thirty years the rebellion was hatching. Have all its teachings gone in nine months? Four years it fought with a desperation worthy of a better cause. Are its resentments, its pride forgotten? The same ministers that preached treason, the same presses that proclaimed it, now lead the people and control their opinions. It must bo remembered that thtse people are now on their good be- havior. Everything that is printed, said, or done is with reference to their getting back into the Government as soon as possible, and so the cloven foot is hidden as much as possible. But truth will assert itself; in spite of all these precautions facts crop out proving beyond all doubt their continued disloyalty. Shouts are given for Lee in the loyal Legislature of Virginia. A form- er member of the rebel congress, once a Speaker of this House, whose lips are steeped in violated constitutional oaths, is elected Governor of South Carolina. I^oyal Alabama has a rebel general for Governor. "Whipped, but not conquered."— Jackson (Mississippi) Free Trader. "The title of rebel is a proud one." — Petersburg (Virginia) Daily News. "The southern people have not been guilty of any crime; they have only failed," says a leading southern divine. "We have a right to elect our military heroes to office. Ought we to give up our cherished notions of policy to swallow a plum?'— Macon (Georgia) Journal. "We vote for the late Confederate soldiers because they represent the valor, honor, and intelligence of the people."— The South Carolinian. The Richmond Ttepuhlic thus illustrates the southern idea of loyalty: "The other day two young men were talking on a street in, a city. They were diving deeply into fundamental principles. One of them asked the other what loyalty was. Ideas have been so unsettled about what it re- ally consists in that an answer did not come very readily to the respondent. 70 HAMILTON WARD. After some deliberation and an anxious, puzzled expression of countenance, the other's face suddenly brightened up. 'Why,' says he, 'I'll tell you ex- actly what it is; it is swearing to lie.' Did or did not this young man, in the candid impulse of youth, speak the popular sentiment, or describe in a few words the sort of loyalty which is manifested around us?" See what the Memphis Argus said of Union men during the rebellion: "The Daily Memphis Argus of December 2, 1861, contained a para- graph headed 'Hang 'em,' and commencing — " 'Hang 'em! yes, hang them every one! Every East Tennesseean, every Tessesseean found recreant to the will and interest of the State of Tennessee, and known to be actively contriving with the enemies, should be hung, and loftily.' " See what the Memphis Appeal says now: "The confederacy is gone, and while we hold in eacred reverence its glorious memories, and treasure in our heart of hearts those 'few in Sardis who did not defile their garments,' the noble breed of men and women who showed most true metal the greater the sacrifices they were called upon to make, and who to the last gave an unreserved allegiance to their country, drinking " 'Love in each life-drop that flowed from her breast,' we, bitter rebels as we have been, can give the charity of silence to " 'The slave Whose treason like a deadly blight Crept o'er the councils of the brave To blast them in their hour of might.' "Yes, we can give him or her the charity of silence. If he sees fit to lire in and seek a competence in the land he has betrayed, why let him eat the bitter bread of remorse in peace, and be assured that if a single element of a man remains within him, that bread will indeed be bitter." Tennessee loyalists begging to have the military retained for the pro- tection of loyal men, and saying that the rebels there are as cruel, ma- liganant, and insolent as ever! This is indorsed by their Governor, the dauntless Brownlow. What do you think of reconstructed Tennessee? Five hundred loyalists from the mountain fastnesses of Alabama say the same of that State. "They talk of insurrectionary violence yet in Ala- bama," says Major General Swayne. The New Era, a loyal paper, published in Arkansas, sums up the whole situation thus: "Arkansas, as she stands before the country now, can never be ad- mitted upon a footing of equality with the loyal States, and we fervently trust never will until loyalty shall be supreme in the State. Arkansas is no worse than any other iusurrectionary State; on the contrary, she contains a considerable loyal element of the conservative stripe. But that element SPEECH ON RECONSTRUCTION 18G6. 71 is even now in danger, if it has not already done so, of losing the prestige it so far possessed. Certain it is that when once admitted on the floor of Congress, and the military protection of the United States removed, tho late disloyal element, which is as much opposed to republican principles as ever, and vastly superior to the loyal element, not only in number but brains, organization, wealth, and everything to make a party successful, will make short work of tlie present State government, laws, and ordi- nances. "'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty;* the rebels are seeking to gain by the ballot what they could not gain by the bullet. Congress alone stands between the re-establishment of the power of the old slave oligarchy and the triumph of Republican and radical Union principles. "God grant that Congress remain firm and not abandon the principles for the especial vindication of which the Almighty seems to have raised up this nation." This is but a type of the whole. General Grant is sometimes cited as an authority to show that the South is pacified, trustworthy, and loyal. If so he has a queer way of Bhowing it. See what he says in answer to an application from Governor Parsons, of Alabama, for withdrawing the military from that State: "For the present, and until there is full security for equitably main- taining the rights and safety of all classes of citizens in the States lately in rebellion, I would not recommend the withdrawal of the United States troops from thence. The number of interior garrisons might be reduced, hut a movable force, sufBcient to insure tranquility, .should be retained. While such a force is retained in the South I doubt the propriety of putting arms in the hands of the militia." And I might multiply these terrible proofs to any extent. Do you need any more evidence that the "leopard has not changed his spots?" If go, peruse carefully the official report of General Carl Schurz. He found no loyalty there, only bold, defiant treason. In not a single Southern State have they done justice by the freed- men. In not one have they passed just and equitable laws that will protect him in his rights. The courts are rebel, jurors rebel, Legislatures rebel; the men who fought our flag boast of scars won in behalf of treason as honorable, and receive in reward office, honor, and profit. They do not disguise their hate for Union men; who are excluded from all those honors and privileges because of their loyalty. Freedom of speech, as of old. is a mockery. In the name of God, is such a people entitled to representation on this floor? Are you ready to receive them back now, to make laws for the widow whose husband they have slain; for the orphan whose sire they have murdered; for the maiiney the blood of a million men. Let ns re- construct now upon solid foundations. We have the power and the right, and it is our highest duty to do so. We should convict and liang for treason the leaders of the rebellion, that all ambitious demagogues hereafter shall be admonished that "treason is a crime" to be punished. .Justice, by con- stitutional amendment fixed beyond the mutations of southern legislation, would give to every class and race of men in those States equality before the law, and all the power and franchises necessary to secure that equality. .Instice and a due regard to our national safety would take the government of those States from the hands of our country's enemies and place it in the hands of its friends; and if special legislation is needed to create for the future, as in the past, territorial governments for them to secure those ends, let it be done. And let not an indecent haste to strike hands that are red with our brothers' blood and put on garments that are reeking with the odors of rebel prison pens throw away the opportunity to enforce justice. Take all the needed time to settle these grave issues upon the eternal prin- 74 HAxMILTON WARD. ciples of right, build up the new structure on the rock of justice and equal- ity, so that the waves of war and sedition may dash against it unharmed through all the ages that are to come. We are the judges, I have said, of the condition of their return to power. Congress, the loyal Congress, is to decide who shall take seats here. Loyal men, I am told, have come here as representatives from some of those States; as such men I take them by the hand. But I would ask them, do you represent a loyal constituency? It is the constituency we are rejecting, not the man. I would ask them what guarantee they can give, that when their brief term here is ended, that men in sympathy with their rebellious districts, who can swear hard enough to take the oath, (for they are a nation of oath-takers and oath-breakers,) will not succeed them. They should remember that they were electee! while the war was still raging, while these rebel constituents were in the field; now they have returned to vote at the next election, do they expect a re-election from their hands? Can they as- sure me that they were not put forward for the present by design, to use their loyalty to edge their districts into Congress, and then to be laid aside (as Governor Holden of North Carolina was) as a cast-off mask when the object is accomplished? Suppose we let them in now, what excuse can we give, having established this precedent, for excluding others? I will yield to none in my regard for the Union men of the South, but I can do nothing to jeopardize the great questions of the time. I cannot sacrifice principle in my partiality for men. Congressmen and Presidents are but the objects of the day — "That strut and fret their hour upon the stage. And then are heard no more." They pass away and are forgotten; but our acts here on these great ques- tions will live forever, for the weal or woe of the Republic. We must make no mistakes, but build the edifice slowly and surely. And when the justice we have demanded is secured, the guarantees we ask for are given, and a returning Union sentiment is apparent, then we would lift no longer the veil or horrors, but consign to Heaven, that rights all wrongs, the guilty of our "misguided countrymen;" and united with the South we would seek to lift it up to a purer patriotism and to the level of the olden time, when together we fought the common foe, cherished common glories and traditions, and reposed beneath the folds of a common flag. And then our country will march on to its imperial destiny, the greatest and the best of all the nations of the earth. On the 2 1 St day of March, 1866, Hamilton Ward made the following- statement in the House in relation to the Ar- IN CONGRESS ISGO. 75 lingtoii Military Cemetery, and presented the letter which follows the statement : "I desire to male a statement upon a siihjcct in relation to which the public feel a very deep interest. I have received numerous letters from various parts of the country, written by friends and relatives of soldiers who have been buried at Arlington Heights, expressing tlieir solicitude as to the title which the Government holds of those heights. Fears seem to be entertained that at some future time the sacred dust of our heroic dead may become the property of the arch-traitor Lee or his descendents. In order to ascertain! the facts I have addrt'Ssed the Secretary of War a letter upon the subject. His reply I ask to have read." The Clerk read the communication as follows : ''War Department, Washington City, Feb'y 24, 186G. "Sir: I am directed by the Secretary of War to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 15th inst., requesting information with regard to the title of the Government to the grounds on Arlington Heights, oc- cupied for a national military cemetery, and in reply thereto to state that it appears from a report of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel L. G. C Lee, as- sistant quartermaster U. S. Army to the Quartermaster General, that at a sale of lands for unpaid taxes on the 11th day of January, 1864, the Ar- lington estate, including the grounds referred to, was bid in by the U. S. for the sum of $26,800.00, and was afterwards turned over to the mili- tary authorities, and that the certificate of the sale is now in the hands of the II. S. Tax Commissioners at Alexandria, Virginia, but will, as is stated by them, be soon placed on file in the Treasury Department. "I have the honor, sir, to be your most obedient servant. "EDWIN L. STANTON." "Hon Hamilton Ward. "Washington, D. C." On April 2nd, i866, Mr. Ward introduced a petition signed by several hundred citizens of his district asking that the legal day's w'ork on government work be eight hours. This is interesting in view of the advanced position on the labor question (at that time) taken by the 27th Congres- sional District of New York, w'hich w^as largely agricultural. On April 7th of that year he presented a petition from Chemung County wool growers, asking that the tariff on wool be increased. 76 HAMILTON WARD. On April i6rli, still befriending- the soldiers, he intro- duced a bill providing the means for the payment of the militia in the State of New York, for their service in the war of 1812. It was referred to the Committee on Appropria- tions. On April 30th, 1866, Mr. Ward reported a bill for the relief of Ishmael Day and the proceedings in the Congres- sional Globe of that da}^ are as follows : "Mr. Ward, from the Committee on Claims, to whom w.'is referred the petition of Ishmael Day, praying compensation for the destruction of his property by rebel raiders on the 12th of April, 18(>4, reported a bill for the relief of Ishmael Day, which was read a first and second timi-. "The bill which was read provides that, as a recognition of the hero- ism of Ishmael Day, of Baltimore County, Maryland, and as compensa- tion for the loss of all his proi)erty in defending the national flag from an attack by rebel raiders on the 12th day of July, 1S64, there be paid to Ishmael Day, annually from July 12th, 1864, during his life the sum of ?421.o0 to be paid in semi-annual payments. "The report which was read states that the petitioner, aged seventy- two years and loyal to the dovernment of the United States, had his prop- erty, consisting of a dwelling house, outhouses and personal property to the value of $7,025, burned and destroyed on July 12th, 1804, under the following circumstances: "Early on the morning of that day, as was his custom, he elevated and unfurled the flag of the United States in front of his door-steps as an insignia of his principles. Soon thereafter, while it was waving there, one hundred and fifty of Gilmore's raiders approached the premises, while two of the men in advance of the main squad of the enemy seized the flag staff and jerked it down, cursing and calling the flag "a damned old rag." At this juncture old Ishmael Day rushed instantly up stairs, where he kept two guns loaded, seized one, shot and killed the traitor who had insulted the national flag, and immediately, with the other gun, he pursued the remaining rebel, who succeeded in making his escape. Very soon the whole party of raiders came upon the old man, threatened his life, and burned and destroyed his property, being all that he possessed in the world. The matter was presented to the consideration of the late President of the United States, who directed that the amount of the loss sustained by the petitioner should be collected by the military order and assessment by levy upon the property of disloyal rebel sympathizers of the vicinity. But this order, for some reason unknown, was never exe- ISHMAEL DAY 18G«. 77 outed; nor has the petitioner ever received any compensation for any part of his loss in thus defending his country's flag. "The constitutional convention of Maryland, which met soon after Day's display of patriotism and loyalty, passed by a large majority the following: "ORDERED that the thanks of this convention, representing as it does the people of Maryland, are hereby tendered to the old citizen and patriot of Baltimore County. Ishmael Day, for his heroic and gallant act in shooting doAvn the traitor who dared to pull down his country's flag, which he had raised as an evidence of his loyalty and patriotism, which act of daring heroism meets with the approbation of the heart and con- science of every loyal citizen of Maryland." "The committee state that they are satisfied that Day needs the amount asked to provide for his comfortable support during the remain- der of his days. In recommending a favorable consideration of the claim, they base their action upon the extraordinary and peculiar circumstances of the case; and in view of the example to the community at that critical period of the country they deem it but just to this brave and aged patriot that his gallant deed should receive the especial notice and recognition of Congress and the country, and that compensation in a measure for the loss he actually sustained should be made. "The committee further repoi-t that they do not regard a recommen- • .'on of this claim as establishing any precedent for the payment of other claims for damages resulting fi-om the ravages of war. "Mr. Ward: Mr. Speaker, the Committee on Claims have not been lavish of their favors, as the House will bear witness. They have felt, as the guardians of the Public Treasury at this critical time in our affairs financially, we should be careful of what kind of claims they should be allowed to recommend to the House. They have chosen to be just rather than to be generous, and hence a great many claims appealing strongly to our sympathies and patriotism have beeni rejected by the committee, not because of unwillingness to give relief in these cases but because of the condition of our finances and because they would establish a precedent which might involve the country in the payment of large amounts of money. The committee felt that in this case, in the case of this old man of sev- enty-four years of age, who, in the midst of that treacherous community in which he lived, remained firm and true to the flag of his country; who never retirefl at night but he prayed a prayer for our imperilled nation and never arose in the morning but he raised the flag over his doorstep; who, when the flag was torn down by a ruthless hand, shot the traitor who did it; and who, in consequence of that act, was sent forth in his old age 78 HAMILTON WARD. to wander upon the face of the earth without a roof to shelter him— in this case the committee thought they were justified in presenting this bill and report. "I remember very well, Mr. Speaker, when in the outbreak of the Rebellion, when the Union was in jeopardy from traitors North and South and in foreign countries, and even when the Administration seemed to be conspiring to overthrow the Government, that the first inspiration we had from oflicial circles, the first word of encouragement from Washing- ton which sent a thrill of joy to every patriotic heart, was the injunction of General John A. Dix to his subordinates: "Whoever shall haul down the American tlag, shoot him on the spot." That injunction has become as familiar as household words. It has rendered his name immortal. Old fshmael Day obeyed that injunction and shot the traitor on the spot. Allow me to express the fervent hope, through ail the perils which shall beset our national life in coming ages, may this injunction be remem- bered and the example of old Ishmael Day shine out to fire the hearts and inspire the arms of our people to the latest generation. I think we should stamp upon this act the seal of our approbation. I hope there will be no dissenting voice. "Mr. Upson: Is this to pay for property destroyed by rebels? "Mr. Washburne, of Illinois: It is for shooting downi a traitor. "Mr. Upson: On what principle is it proposed to establish this prece- dent, and how is it ot be carried out? "Mr. Ward: He has shot down a traitor for hauling down the Am- erican flag. I would sustain every one who sustained the American flag in that way. I demand the previous question." The bill was passed. It was at this session of Congress that the jealousy and bitterness which had existed between the truly great men. Roscoe Conklin and James G. Blaine, broke out, and it was at this session that Blaine made his historic speech, denouncing Conklin. a speech which cost him the Presi- dency in 1884. Hamilton Ward was a partisan of Conklin. On the 5th of April, 1866, shortly before the final con- troversy Blaine rose to make a personal explanation, which every one knew to be an attack on Conklin. But before he had begun his argument he was interrupted by Mr. Ward who rose to inquire if his colleague from the Utica district (Conkhn) was in his seat. Conklin was there and was able to protect himself. IN CONGRESS ISOi!. T'J Mr. Ward's position on the Committee of Claims was a very trying one. Such enormous sums of money had been disbursed by the officials of the Government in crush- ing the Rebellion that the old national spirit of economy had almost died out, and even in this first session Mr. Ward is constantly found objecting to the allowance of claims, and especially to the increase of salaries or the creation of new offices. There was one object, however, for which he thought the Government moneys might properly be expended, and that was to the men who had preserved that Government — the common soldiers. Although a radical Republican and among those who did not believe in immediately restoring rebels to full citi- zenship, still Mr. Ward watched the course of events with great attention, and wiien the loyal men of East Tennessee organized a State Government and presented themselves for re-admission to the Union he offered a resolution pro- viding for the re-admission of the State. This was however defeated. On July 26th, 1866. Mr. Ward stopped two "grab bills" and throughout the session he constantly and per- sistants opposed the payment of money on any claims which had not been carefully considered by committees. At this time the President (Johnson) began the course which ended in his impeachment trial, and Congress stood practically alone, arrogating to itself, so far as the constitu- tion permitted all the functions of government. The Halls of Congress were everywhere and every public question re- ceived minute and earnest attention. Many letters were received by Mr. Ward from his district and from other parts of the country of a cheering and commendatory character, and even his defeated opponent for the Republican nomina- tion, A. N. Cole, "The father of the Republican Party." congratulated him ; one letter from the State of Iowa is as follows : 80 HAMILTON WARD. "Dubuque, Iowa, March (jth, 1866. "Hon. H. Ward, M. C: "My dear sir: — I have recently perused your great speech delivered before the House of Representatives on the 10th ultimo, with great pleas- ure, and I cannot, as a loyal American refrain from penning a word of congratulation and thanks to you sir for your untiinching loyalty upon the momentous questions that now agitate the American people. I had the honor to be called to a neighboring city a few days since for the pur- pose of addressing a meeting prior to a town election, and it did my soul good to be called upon to read from an Iowa paper the speech of Hon. H. Ward, of New York. Such enthusiastic cheering from an assembly of three thousand men you never heard, and I am only sorry that you, sir, could not have been present to have enjoyed the enthusiasm. "I extend to you sir on the part of the loyal great Northwest my hearty thanks and congratulations. "I am sir, "Respectfully your obedient servant. "HARRY FRONDINGTON." "Should you desire to know of your correspondent I would respect- fully refer you to the Hon. Ward H. Lamon, of Washington." On April 4th, 1866, C. S. Fairman, editor of the El- mira Advertiser and a friend since boyhood, writes as fol- lows: "Elmira, April 4, 1866. "Dear Hamilton: — "I received your long and interesting letter today. Its reception re- minded me that the long neglected duty of writing to you must be ne- glected no longer. "You give rather a dreary description of the situation at Washington. It is plain to all Republicans whatever their views upon Andy, that the case is a bad one. The rinderpest and the cholera and the yellow fever, and the devil knows what all seems to have got into the party, and have been raising special Ned; but those chaps down in Connecticut rather took the kink out of the pestilence and the ranks after the battle present a healthy appearance pleasant to look at. There are worse things than vetoes, though these are bad enough. We can be vetoed and live and hold np our heads but we couldn't have been beaten in New Hampshire and Connecticut without having a funeral. "I confess to many misgivings about Andy Johnson. I am afraid he has committed the unpardonable ein, but you remember the old couplet IX CONGRESS ISGO. 81 While .vet the lamp holds out to burn the vilest sinner may return.' Therefore, my advice is to keep cool, don't get excited, do nothing rashly, stand firm and wait on events. If the President is going, let him go in his own way and his own time. If he has already gone then the worst is over and we can get along without him better tham he can get along with- out us. He don't yet take the offices from Eepublicaus and give them to Copperheads. Indeed the evidence is somewhat strong that even now that he is about to appoint Census Depew Collector of New York and I have high authority for saying this will meet the approbation of every d d mam, woman and child in at least one Congressional district in this State. "Don't be gloomy. The nation has overcome secession, rebellion, and the devil. We need'nt be frightened now at a veto. The people out here are as calm as cucumbers. They sleep sound nights, go to meeting regular on Sunday and swear that the Daily Advertiser is the best paper in the State. Nicks has been elected Mayor and Jim Hill turned out of the police. What more do we want? Ain't the Union safe? If not, why not? Caldwell is Supervisor of the First Ward and has registered an oath to support the constitution. Didn't he make a map of Allegany County with Belmont in the middle and Angelica way ofE in the corner. I tell you he can reconstruct anything from a two-membered county to a dis- membered Union. "We will all stand by you in a firm adherence to duty and principle. We do stand by you. Don't swerve an inch from the true and right path; let no rebel into Congress and put up the bars against their future admission. But don't imagine that the people are crazy about the vetoes. They don't like them and they will vote to override them. But we get up more excitement here about a fire in a bakeshop than over a thousand vetoes. Again I say do right, but keep cool. Excuse the looseness and freedom of these few remarks and believe me as ever your sincere friend and sturdy backer. "C. G. FAIRMAN." Congressmen were doubtless flooded with correspon- dence and Lincoln's "Government by the People" was fully realized. In the President's effort to build up a personal filled with his sympathizers, and this threat was held over the country loyal men were removed from office and their places filled with sympathizers, and this threat was held over the Radical Republican members of the House, with the expec- tation that the pressure brought to bear by their constitu- 82 HAMILTON WARD. ents would be irresistable. This, however, did not affect Mr. Ward's action and even those constituents who were removed from office sustained him. The following- letter from a country postmaster and his wife is typical: "May 16th. "H. Ward. "Dear Sir: — Your second is received. "You place me under lasting obligations to you. Of course whatever you think best to do will be gratefully received by myself but I do not wish you to withhold your ideas of right and wrong for a dozen such offices as this. In haste, "Respectfully. &c., "L. F. PHILLIPS, "ALICE J. PHILLIPS." On June 9th. Mr. Ward wrote the following letter to the President relative to the proposed removal of the Post- master at Cuba. N Y. "Washington, D. C, June 9th, 1866. "To the President: "Dear Sir: — I have received notice that an application has been made for the removal of L. A. Butts, P. M.. at Cuba, Allegany Co., N. Y., and the appointment of Samuel M. Russell in his place. Against this change I most emphatically protest for the following reasons: "I am well acquainte(j. 83 the President and this selection was approved by nearly the entire people of the P. O. district. "The man who makes the complaint against Captain Butts (Calvin T. Chamberlain) is a notorious Copperhead of Allegany County and who sympathized more with the Rebellion than he did with the Union cause. "The man Russell, whom he recommended as a strong Johnson man, wrote me a letter not long since condemning the course of the President on the subject of reconstruction which I think I have saved and can pro- duce. "Should the President desire to hear from the community interested an almost univeisal remonstrance against the removal can bo obtained. "Respectfully yours, "HAMILTON WARD." On the 23rd clay of May. at the request of loyal Re- publicans, Mr. Ward delivered a speech at Towsontown, Md. In the spring of this year (1866) a vacancy occurred in the Naval Academy at Annapolis for the 27th N. Y. Con- gressional District and the power of appointment resided in the Congressmen. As the military spirit of the country was still keen the appointments were much sought after and in fact large sums of money were offered for them, which temptation proved too much for many a Congressman from the reconstruction States. Mr. Ward had an old friend, one, Jeremiah Hatch of Friendship, who at the commencement of the war had se- cured a captain's commission with Mr. Ward's assistance and had gone to the front, where he died of fever, leaving a wife and two small sons. Concerning this appointment Mr. Ward wrote the following letter to the widow: "Washington, D. C, March 2^. ISOG. "Mrs. J. Hatch. "Dear Madam: — I have got to recommend a boy for the Naval Academy from the Congressional District I have the honor to represent. "There are many candidates for the place and many sons of wealthy, influential men are striving h.ird to get the appointment, for it is the making of the young man for life and a fortune for him. "But my heart turns aside from all these to find the dependent son S4 HAxMlLTON WAKD. of some widow who htis lost his father in the service of his country and whose only legacy from that father is his glorious sacrifioe upon the nation's alter. And looking over the list I find none more worthy than the sons of my valued friend and your lamented husband. "You will please find the regulations of the naval school inclosed. Look them over and if one of your boys will answer the description send me his name and I will recommend him. What is the name of that littld fellow I saw on the ears selling apples some time ago? If he is suitable I would like to recommend him. "Truly your friend, "HAMILTON WARD." Thereafter the boy, Edward W. Hatch, received the appointment, and went to AnnapoHs, whence he ran awa)^ in a few months and returned home, a fortunate decision, as he is now one of the foremost jurists in the State; at the present time being a Justice of the N. Y. Supreme Court, serving on the Appellate Division for the ist Department with absolutely no limits to his future. On Jul}^ 4th, Mr. Ward, whose reputation as a speaker was rapidly increasing, delivered another speech in Mary- land ; this time at Hagerstown at a 4th of July celebration, a loyal demonstration organized by the Loyal Soldiers League. The Hagerstown Herald and Torch of July nth says: "Mr. Ward's address was political in its character, spiced with just enough of the 4th of July to make it appropriate. We consider it incomparably the best political speech that has been made in Hag-erstown for many years." Of course as the summer of 1866 came on the Congres- sional nominations and elections attracted attention. The President's course in removing Mr. Ward's friends in the 27th District has strengthened instead of weakened him. and this especially in Chemung County, where John L Nicks, a party leader, lost his place as appraiser because of his advocacy of the constitutional amendments. Finally Dr. Beadle, of Elmira. the only avowed candidate in opposi- tion, withdrew. The Elmira Advertiser declared for Ward ELMIKA SPEECH ISGG. 85 as it had all along desircci to do, and his unanimous renom- ination was assured. On the 2ist day of July the following- in\itation was sent to Mr. Ward : "Elmira. N. Y., .July 21st, ISGU. "Hon. Hnmiltou Ward, "House of Rcijresentatives, "Washington, D. C. "Sir: — The undersigned, jour fellow citizens, and supporters of the Republican Union, party of tlie nation, request that you will name some early day after the close of the present session of Congress, most conveni- ent for yourself, on which you \vill address the people of this city and vicinity on the present condition of public affairs. "With sincere wishes for your public and private prosperity, "We remain, sir. Very respectfully, "Your obedient servants. C. C. Gardiner, H. B. Smith, And. S. Thurston, E. A. Scott, J. H. Rathborn. William E. Hart, E. S. Hubbell, R. W. Barton, F. G. Hall, E. W. J. Dolwell, J. Langdon, E. N. Frisbee, A. P. Radsa. A. E. Merrill. S. B. Fairman, X. P. Fassett, S. R. Van Campen, L. M. Smith, T. H. Squire. H. M. Pattridge, N. W. Gardnier, D. H. Tuthill, C. G. Fairman, George Swain, S. R. Pratt, G. A. Giidley. Henry Wilson, Asher Tyler, W. N. Starks, L. A. Humpery. To which he replied as follows : "Washington, D. C, July 25. 18G6. "Gentlemen : — "I am in receipt of a communication signed by yourself an States of all civil government. He found them prostrated. He found the haujrhty Lee driven from the field. He found the national flag floating over every State — grand, imperial, and magnificent— from ocean to oceau —from the Great Lakes to the (xulf. He found the Southern people sub- dued, their land a land of carnage and graves — ready to accept any terms, and asking only for life—only for existence. They felt that they had com- mitted the greatest crime in history, that they had raised a parricidal hand against the best government on earth, and conspired against popular liberty throughout the world. They felt abashed and condemned. They were ready for anything. They expected the most humiliating terms. Andrew Johnson became President by the blow of the assassin. You re- member the shameful transaction of the 4th of March preceding, when the nation blushed with shame at hi^5 conduct. With astonishment and horror we received the tidings of the death of the President, because we knew on whose shoulders his mantle was to descend. Still the nation was willing to receive him, and if he had appreciated his position and the high responsibility resting upon him. when he found eleven States without gov- ernment, or law, or legislation, he would have called, as he had a right to do under the circumstances, upon the representatives of the people, he would have convened a s[)ecial and extraordinary session of Congress, and said to them, "Here is the reserved power authorizing me to convene you, and I ask you to convene in those marble halls and take counsel." We all queried why he did not do this — why he did not call upon the repre- sentatives of the people to advise with him. Our strong men went there. I eading men from all parts of the country waited upon him, and said that they thought he should be surrounded by the legislative branches of the government. He treated them with contempt. What did he do? — He un- dertook to organize governments in these Slates. Why did he do it? We have the answer now in the blood shed at New Orleans. Time has de- veloped the answer. He intended to throw the whole power of the gov- ernment into the hands of the rebels in those States— (A voice — For shamel) — and that the loyal people should become their victims. You ask why he refused to call Congress together. I tell you it was for the pur- pose of organizing a great party, of which he should be the grand head center, and of which the Copperheads and rebels should form the ranks. Fellow citizens, I came here to talk as I feel. If I talk too radical for yon, tell me of it. (Cries, "Goocutive overshadowing and dangerous, for with this suupreme authority to give civil government to a disorganized State, his inclination would only limit his becoming at such time as this, a despot and a tyrant. Congress would dwindle into a mere register of his edicts— an idle spectator of the scene. '•From the nature of the duty imposed it must be legislative. Civil government to a Statf cannot be secured without legislation. The consti- tutional agent must either legislate itself or authorize others to do so. The President cannot legislate himself. Can he authorize others to do it? Can lie authorize the legislature of Georgia, for instance, to do so? Can he do by proxy what he cannot do himself? Clearly not. •'A Republican form of government cannot exist unless wise and just laws are provided for the government of the people, protecting them in their personal and political rights. Can such a government spring out of and be controlled by simple military appointments, emanating from the Commander-in-Chief. Are these laws to be military orders or the solemn enactment of legislative bodies. If this Republican form of government be the result of legislation, the Constitution defines where the power to grant it is invested. Section 1st, Article 1st provides that all legislative power herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. This power is nowhere in the Constitution, expressly or by implication, conferred upon the President. His duties are clearly defined and specially enumerated. "But Congress has a wider range. General powers are given it in broad language sufficient to cover emergencies that it was foreseen might arise, and which have arisen in the course of our national life, and in con- • Inding its enumerated and general powers in the last sub-division of Sec- lion 8, Article 1st, it is provided for Congress to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or officer thereof. "Here, then, in broad and clear terms, the duty is thrust upon Con- gress to carry out this power of guaranteeing (o 'every State in the Union a Republican form of government.' "Again, the Constitution commits the whole subject matter of State and territorial goverament, so far as the national government has any power over them, to Congress. Thus — "New States may be admitted by the Congress into the Union." — Art. 4, Sec. 3. Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations concerning the territories and other property. — Same section. Was the Constitution thus 94 HAMILTON WARD. careful to vest in Congress these powers and to deprive it of the anala- gous power of reconstructing a State whose civil government had been destroyed by the enemies of the Union?— a power of the same character as that of admitting a new State? It seems entirely clear that my con- struction is the just and sound one. By it the Legislative and the execu- tive branches of the government work in harmony, and each performs its part of the great duty. By the other construction the President is su- preme in a matter purely legislative in its character, and Congress is ig- nored. "I should not occupy so much time and space in establishing what seems so clear a proposition, but for the fact that it is claimed with ap- parent sincerity in certain quarters that this vast power is vested ex- clusively with the President, and as a consequence the State organizations referred to were legal, and their Representatives and Senators should be received as commissioned by and representing legal organizations. "How then were the present State governments in those States or- ganized? Simply by proclamation of the Commander-in-Chief. He ap- pointed a provisional governor for each State, directed that Governor to call a convention, the President prescribing the qualifications of voters for delegates to that convention, and directing that "said convention, when convened, or the legislature that may be hereafter assembled, will pre- scribe the qualifications of electors and the eligibility of persons to hold office." So the President assumes to vest legislative power in the con- vention, or the Legislature thereafter to assemble. This, as I have shown, he clearly cannot do. "What do these conventions do? They change in many respects the constitution of their respective States. They provide for the election of State officers, judicial officers, members of Congress, and members of the State Legislature. Thus, by virtue of illegal and imconstitutional means, the State governments are created and members of Congress are elected in pursuance thereof. The foundation being unwarranted by law the whole superstructure reared upon it falls to the ground. The election of mem- bers of Congress is illegal and void, so that Congress in exercising the con- stitutional right of judging of the 'election returns and qualifications of its own members,' must necessarily exclude the members and senators thus illegally elected. It is not a qeustion whether they send loyal men simply. The question is have the States acted at all? "The constitution does provide in effect that each State shall be en- titled to two Senators, and at least one Representative, and hence much complaint is made gainst Congress that it is depriving rebel States of the Constitutional right of representation. This complaint brings us back to ELMIKA SPEECH 180G. 95 the question just considtitHl— whether the State has acted at all— whether these men are legally or illegally elected. If they are not legally elected then they do not represent the State. The governments that sent them here are simple usurpations, and not 'the State.' Congress, while it admits the legal representatives of legal States, must see to it that it is the State that comes and knocks at the door and not a combination of lawless indi- viduals. The powers of a State, that by the rebellion of its people has been deprived of 'all civil government,' lie dormant, and cannot be exer- cised either in electing Senatoi's and Representatives, or any other right which the State has in its normal relation to the Union., except in one of two ways: By the spontaneous and bona fide action of the loyal people of the State, free from dictation or control of the military power, which action shall be ratified and approved by laws of Congress, or else the Con- gress must pass enabling acts which will give them the machinery with which to resume their practical relations to the Union, and to elect their Representatives and Senators, and to guarantee to them a 'Republican form of government.' ''No, Mr. President, we do not recognize these organizations as States. Whenever you present to us a loyal constituency, sending us a loyal representative, we will admit him. — The moment the State of Ten- nessee had disfranchised her rebels, and ratified the constitutional amend- ments, we welcomed her representatives to the floor with open arms. (Ap- plause.) You should have witnessed the scene when radical New Eng- land shook hands with radical Tennessee. (Great cheering). But as long iis the sun shall shine upon our heads, we never shall consent, with God's blessing, that one of these rebels shall get back into power. For this what are you told? You are told that we are a rump Congress — that we are try- ing to destroy the Union of the States. Who tells you thatV Alexander II. Stephens, Robert E. Lee, and Raphael Semmes and Jeff Davis tell you that (Laughter), and certain office holders, who tjemble for fear their heads will come off. They are going down to Philadelphia. Who is going there? Stephens, Vallandigham, Semmes and Ben Wood. I don't know who is the man from this district. "I understand they had a convention at Hornellsvile, the other day. and one of the members of the convention told me that they had hired a large hall, intending to have a big gathering, but when they got to- gether there were but six all told, and so they concluded to hold their con- vention in a bed room, and make of it a strictly private transaction. With your permission I will read in this connection a letter for an energetic young radical, residing in the same town I do, to his brother, who is a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention. I begged a copy of it, which is as follows: 96 HAMILTON WARD. "Belmont, August 9th, 1866. "Brother Pitt:— Herewith I send you a Confederate five dollar bill. As you are about to depart for the Philadelphia Convention I think the opportunity a good one to have it collected. If Mr. Stephens is unable to pay the gold upon it you may receive U. S. Currency. You can receive to yourself 50 per cent, for collection. The balance you may apply to ob- taining a pardon for Gov. Hahn, of Louisiana, for his base conduct toward your confreres in supporting the United States Government during the great rebellion. Your brother, "JAS. R. ANGEL. "To W. P. Angel, Olean, Del. to Phil. Con. "P. S. — If you cannot get anything else you may send me one of Ben Wood's lottery tickets, or a post office. J. R. A." "There will be a precious gathering at Philadelphia, but I am per- suaded that it will turn out some as a man did I once heard of who brought a lot of old iron to a blacksmith and told him that he wanted a plough made of it. In a few days the farmer called for his plough, but the blacksmith said to him, 'My dear sir, that iron of yours won't make a plough, but I think it will make a shovel plough.' In the course of time the farmer demanded his shovel plough, but the blacksmith said to him, 'That iron of yours won't make a shovel plough but I think it will make an excellent wedge.' By and by the farmer called for his wedge, but the blacksmith said to him, 'My dear sir, that iron of yours won't make a wedge, but I know it will make a first-rate clevis.' Wheni the farmer came for his clevis, the blacks^mith said to him, '^ly dear sir, that iron of yours won't make a clevis, but if we heat it red hot, and make it into a ball, and throw it into the cooling tub, it will make one grand big fizzle.' — (Laughter), There will be just enough of Union material in the Phila- delphia convention to make one grand big fizzle. (Laughter and cheers). "The President vetoed every measure that we deemed for the salva- tion of the government. We then submitted a plan for reconstruction. The first section of that proposition recites, in substance, the Civil Rights Bill, that all persons born in the United States should be citizens of the United States — that the privileges and immunities of the citizens should not be infringed upon by any State. It was a new bill of rights akin to that which was wrung from the barons by King John, hundreds of years ago. There was another proposition— that the rebel debt should never be assumed by the United States— that the public debt should remain inviolate, and that those men who had perjury stamped upon their souls, by leaving the service of the nation they had sworn to sustain, and going into the re- ELMIRA SrEECII 1800. 97 bellion, should never hold office again. It said nothing about suffrage — it simply proposed to extend these rights to all people. It proposed to place beyond question the national debt, and the refusal to assume the rebel debt. The man who made all the valiant declarations when he assumed the Presidential chair, sent au impertient message to Congress, indicating that he should throw the entire weight of his administration against the propositions. Then we saw that he abandoned and made war upon us. — It is a solemn thing to say that I believe to-night that the rebels have con- trol of the government! (Great sensation). How else can you explain the fact that the military in Louisiana were called in aid of the rioters iu New Orleans? I know Gov. Hahn, I know his heart, and every pulsation of it beats in unison with the dearest interests of the liepublic;— and when I read of his being dragged in the streets like a felon, for daring to meet with others iu the Union Convention, I blush for shame that the President should order the brave and gallant Sheridan to aid the rebel authorities, if necessary, in completing this hellish work. — What else does the order mean? The convention was broken up. Some of the members were murdered, and others were thrown into prison. I told you a little while ago, that he got the answer, in this riot, to the question why he or- ganized these governments.— When it was suggested that a new govern- ment should be organized, to take its place, and that Congress might ad- mit it, a mob was gathered to break up the convention. "Now, what are we to do, my friends? I believe in the people. I believe that all over this fi-ee north, men irespective of any party will rally to the defense of the nation. My only hope is, that all over this free country, there shall swell up such a storm of indignation that not Mr. Johnson, but the men who control him, shall tremble — that they shall be admonished that the North will not submit to rebels controlling the coun- try. (Applause). That they shall understand that the only way for them to get back into Congress is to come as Tennessee came, with their gov- ernment in the hands of our friends, and not of our enemies. If you falter, if you are divided, if you fail to sustain the policy of your repre- sentatives, the rebels will hold high carnival in the halls of Congress. Afen will get into Congress who will repudiate your national debt, and your greenback may not be worth a dollar; and with these rebel bonds, and paper owned by these rebels in power, how are you to know that they will not be saddled upon you to pay? I left you fifteen years ago, a boy with bounding hopes. I come back to you now in middle age to plead with yon for the life of the nation. I believe that the people will not falter, but will strike such blows upon this budding treason as shall crush it out, and that the people will go on and rooonstruct the republic 98 HAMILTON WARD. with right and freedom to all, and that it will lift up the down-trodden and make this country free and pure indeed, and that it shall stand out and be a bright and shining light among the nations of the earth. (Ap- plause). God has not raised np this people to falter and shrink in such an emergency. "I have the honor of addre.ssing so many of the fair and beautiful to-night, that 1 must say to them all in the struggle through which we have passed they have been true to the republic in every way. — (Cheers). While their Southern sisters were tearing the old Hag iji shreds, and in- sulting the Union soldiers in the field and in the prison, and the dead men in the trench, the women of the North were contributing to the wants ami comfort of the soldier in every way, and were hovering like angels over field, hospital and camp, comforting the sick and smoothing the pillow of the dying; and even now are gathering all over this laud, the orphans of the lost heroes to houses of comfort and to their heart of hearts. (Ap- plause). "And to those men who have taken their lives iii their hands, and amidst the shock of battle and roar of the cannon, and the groans of dy- ing comrades, have upheld the starry flag, and conquered through all, and swept armed treason from the land — they will not suffer this Republic to perish. I do not believe that Andrew Johnson can get one of them. The bummei-s. and cowards, and sneaks, will follow his standard, but not a true hearted soldier of the Union. "To illustrate the present condition of the South, and the hostility of the rebels towards Union men, permit me to read the following extract from a letter to me from Capt. J. W. Etheridge, formerly captain in the First North Carolina Union Volunteers, under date of June 19th, 18G5, in which he says: "I am one of the truly loyal of North Carolina, but we are in a worse condition than a slave prior to the war, and all over Union men are in the same condition. I hope that the 'rebel attorney,' Andrew John- son, will be overruled by a true Congress." "What a spectacle! The scarred soldiers of the Republic to write to us that they are in a worse condition than slaves! — amd this to be upheld by the President of the United States! I will say to Mr. Johnson and to Mr. Seward that there was once an administration that betrayed the people that temporized with treason, and allowed traitors to do their hell- ish work. I point the President to Mr. Buchanan, who, in retirement and contempt is dragging out his days, hated and despised by his countrymen, who once delighted to honor him. I point Mr. Seward to the fate of Mr. Toucy, and the other members of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet, who were false CAMPAIGN OF 1SG6. 99 to the trust reposed in them. If you have a President who has betrayed you. I point him to the fate of the gentlemen I have named. The people are in earnest in this matter, they will go on in the work, and whoever arrays himself against them, will be swept from the path as if by the be- som of destruction. (Cheers). "Fellow citizens, I believe, as I said before, that Cod is in this work —that he has not designed this nation to be crushed, but that it shall live, and grow, and streugtheuu But we have a work to do. From now on until the time that November's sun shall set upon election day, let us stir up the public heart to stand by a loyal Congress and rebuke a treacherous administration. (Loud and prolonged cheers)." Shortly before this speech Mr. Ward had an interview with Johnson's pohtical manager. Thurlow Weed, which is best described by the Tril^une correspondent, who says : Washington, July 2, 18U(>. The President's warfare on Congress, taking the form of an attack on the influence of the Representatives, to be followed by concerted efforts to beat them in convention for renomination, and, failing in that, to beat them at the polls with Copperhead votes and the influence of the newly- appointed .Tohnson officials, has commenced in the Allegany district of New York with significant spitefulness. Seven postmasters, good Union men and good officials, recommended to their positions by the good and true repre- sentative, Hamilton Ward, have been removed. Mr. Ward protested against this wrong to the Assistant Postmaster General, Randall — remonstrated against it to Thurlow Weed, who was then here. When Randall showed himself to be inexorable in his purpose politically, Mr. Ward struggled to save the offices from falling into the possession of the vulgar mercenaries of politics who had been selected to fill them, and requested that they be given! to disabled soldiers. He entreated that the Angelica office be given to Mr. Charles, mutilated in battle, but qualified for its duties— that the Belmont office be given to Harrison Crandall, and that at Wells- ville to Captain Moses Stearnes, both scarred in their country's service, and named soldiers for all the other offices. This just and patriotic recpiest was unjustly and unpatriotically refused by Randall, with a supplementary insult to the party that is now burdened with feeding and clothing him, ex- pressed in his angry declaration to Mr. Ward, "This matter has got to bo fought out between Congress and the President." He also gave Mr. Ward notice that "there was to be a general removal of all postmasters who do not favor the President's policy."' Mr. Ward, as I have said, went to Thurlow Weed to have the work of removing good Union men in Allegany countv arrested. His success Lci'C. 100 HAMILTON WARD. with this politician was quite equal to that with Randall. After retiring from the interview he made a memoraudum of the couveisation between them while it was fresh in his mind. For the political enlightenment of the hundreds of thousands in the State of New York who fought aud bled, and gave of their sons, their husbauds, their brothers, aud of their money, to the holy war against rebellion and slavery, I send you this remarkable de- claration of war by Andy Johnson against the Unionists of the Empire State, made through the aged adjutant general of the President's chief of staff, the Secretary of State: , June 25, 1866. I had learned that one Sherman, from Allegany county, New York, in company with Mr. Weed, was in W^ashington to secure the removal of certain postmasters in the district I have the honor to represent (the twenty-seventh district. New York). I saw Mr. Weed about 8:30 A. M., at Willard's Hotel, and entered into conversation with him upon the subject, and stated to him that I came to see him about certain postmasters in that district. He said promptly and frankly, "Oh, yes; I shall do all I can to get them removed." I asked what reason there was for their removal. He said there was reason enough; they were not friendly to the President's plan of reconstruc- tion, but sustained the course of Congress. I said I did not suppose the policy would be to remove men who had supported Lincoln and .Johnson in 18(yi, and were still good Union men, unless they abused or denounced the President personally; that I had got that understanding, both from the President and the Postmaster General. He said that he (Weed) was in favor of removing all Federal ofBcers who did not support the President's policy and putting Administration men in their places. I said if this is so, why is it not made general? Why is the district I represent specially selected as a victim? He said that was merely accidental; that friends of his in Allegany county, on whom he could rely, had called his attention to the matter, and that he was in favor of the changes for the reasons (I have) given, and that as soon as it could be done, he was in favor of making the changes universal. I asked, is it any pei-- sonal hostility to me that prompts this selection? He said not. I then stated that as the Union member of Congress from that district. I felt that I was entitled to be consulted with reference to the distribution of the patronage of the district. He replied that my course in Congress did not justify me in that claim; that I had favored a policy opposed to the views of the Administration; that I would only hold my seat in Congress a few months longer; that it was the intention to secure the election of Admin- istration men in the place of the present radical members of Congress. CAMPAIGN OF 1S66. 101 I then said, from what you say it appears to be your dpsign and that of the friends of the President generally to make war upon Congress, break up the Union party, and hand the Government over to the Copper- heads. He said he was in favor of restoring the Union; and that Congress by its course was preventing the desired restoration, and that Congress was as much disunion now as the rebels were during the Rebellion, and that Congress was breaking up the Union party and not the President. I said M-hile we differ as to the method of reconstruction, I have no doubt but it is the sincere desire of all true men to restore the country to peace and harmony, and when the issue of reconstruction was disposed of, I saw no difHculty in the Union party and Congress going along toj^ether. He said there was no hope of that; that Congress had made war upon the President and that the war must go on. I said, if that is the determination we might as well understand it. As an echo of the Elmira speech the Corning Journal of August 30th contained the following : Hon. John I. Nicks, Mayor of Elmira, has been removed from his office of U. S. Assessor for this Congressional District, and Col. William R. Judson, late of Kansas, but formerly Democratic Sheriff, appointed in his place. This removal was solely because Mayor Nicks would not becomft a Johnson man. On Tuesday night Mayor Nicks was serenaded by his friends. Three thousand Republicans were present to testify their approval of his political course. Speeches were made by Hon. H. Boardmau Smith and others, and the following resolutions were read by Charles G. Fairman, and adopted with cheers: Whereas, A Cabinet Minister of President Johnson has recently vis- ited our county, and stated that the administration would be satisfied if we send to Congress even a more radical man than Mr. Ward, so that it be not Mr. Ward himself, and Whereas, Thurlow Weed has stated that $1.^.000 can be had to beat the "little cuss," and Whereas, Henry J. Raymond has kindly offered if we would send any man but Ward, even a radical, he will see to it that the office-holders in the district retain their places— and that certain offices in the district shall be at the disposal of the opponents of Mr. Ward with which to bur the delegates of Steuben County against him, and, 102 HAMILTON WARD. Whereas, It would be a bitter humiliation that our nomination should be made by such foreign and impertinent dictation, therefore Resolved, That the city delegation to the County Convention at Horseheads, convey to the convention this expression of our earnest wishes that they will see to it that Mr. Ward is returned to Congress, and the blister put again on the same old spot. The same paper contains an account of the Chemung Count)- Convention : CHEMUNG COUNTY FOR WARD. The Union Republican County Convention met at Horseheads yester- day and elected as State delegates E. P. Brooks, Luther Caldwell, Jesse Owen. On the informal ballot for Congressional delegates the result was, for delegates for Ward, 37; for Gen. Gregg, 38; for Dr. Beadle, 14. On the formal ballot the Ward ticket was elected, viz: John I. Nicks, 48; Jarvis Langdon, 47; Peter Wintermute, 47, and Henry F. Wells, 4.j votes. They were declared unanimously elected. Gen. Gregg being called on made an appropriate speech, assuring the convention of his hearty support of the nomination of Hon. H. Ward, if he received the nomination from the Congressional Convention. We rejoice that Chemung County has thus triumphantly endorsed Mr. Ward. When we saw that four of the five wards of the city of Elmira had gone for him we felt hopeful of this result. It is a patriotic tribute to a faithful public servant. No one is disposed to under-rate the ability and claims of the two distinguished citizens of Chemung whose names were urged in the convention, but it was deemed eminently proper to endorse Mr. Ward, as due to him, and a deserved rebuke for the dictation of the National Administration. The Ehnira Advertiser of Sept. 15, 1866. contains the following account of the Republican Union Convention : REPUBLICAN UNION CONVENTION. The Union Convention met at Hornellsville yesterday, Wednesday, Sept. 12th, and was called to order by Geo. W. Pratt, Esq., of Corning. Chairman of the District Committee, on whose motion the Hon. John I. IN CONGRESS. 103 Nicks of Elmira was appointed Chairman. Mr. Nicks, in a brief speooh, thanked the convention for the honor conferred, and congratulated the Convention on the brigM prospects of tht; Union party and the unmis- takable signs of a glorious victory. J. H. Butler, of Steuben, and J. S. Green, of Alleganiy, were appointed secretaries. The credentials of the following delegates were presented and approved: Allegany— 1st District.— James S. Green, Orrin Stacy, William Van Northam. Second District.— Royal T. Howard, David Rawson, W. A. Hart. Chemung.— John I. Nicks, David Decker, Peter Wintermute, H. P. Wells. Steuben— 1st District.— E. R. Kasson, J. H. Butler, A. Hadden. Second District.— Chester S. Cole, Lyman Balcom, O. S. Wetmore, Third District.— Geo Riddle, Edward Kidler, C. D. Robison. The HoTi. Lyman Balcom, of Steuben county, then arose and moved that the Hon. Hamilton Ward be, and is hereby unamiously nominated, and by acclamation, as the Union candidate for Congress at the coming election. The motion was carried by the whole Convention rising and voting in favor thereof. The Chair declared the motion unanimously adopted. E. R. Kasson, Dr. C. D. Robinson and David Decker were appointed a committee to wait upon Mr. Ward and inform him of the action of the Convention and request his attendance before the same. — The committee shortly appeared accompanied by the Hon. H. Ward, who upon being introduced proceeded to address the Convention, thanking it for the honor conferred and promising to continue as faithful in the future as in the past. —Mr. Ward continued at some length in discussion of National affairs to the evident gratification of the Convention, after which Mr. L. Caldwell was called upon, who briefly addressed the meeting. The following resolutions were unanimously adopted: Resolved, That the Union Republicans of this district cordially sustain the plan submitted by Congress for the reconstruction of the Union, as being imperative for the future peace and welfare of the country, believ- ing, as we do, that the States which rebelled against the best Government ever instituted by man, thereby forfeited their rights, and that those who fought to destroy the Union should not be immediately restored to positions of power in the Halls of Congress. Resolved, That the treachery of the President of the United States 104 HAMILTON WARD. and his chief cabinet minister, merits the eondeniuation and contempt of all loyal men, and as the Republican party is founded upon principle and i-ests its hope of permanent triumph upon the intelligence, virtue and patriotism of the people, we feel sure that the treachery of honored and trusted leaders will not avail to defeat the objects for which said party was formed. Resolved, That in the re-nominatiom of Hon. Hamilton Ward, as the representative in Congress for this district, we discharge a duty to a faith- ful and able member, whose voice, influence and vote have been true to the party that elected him; that we cordially endorse him as a true and cour- ageous defender of Republican principles, and as an earnest, sagacious and distinguished advocate of the Rights of Man, and it gives us especial pleasure that by this signal approval of his official career, we are show- ing to Andrew Johnson that the Freedom-loving voters of this Congres- sional District spurn his bribes, defy his dictation and challenge his further hostility by returning a member of Congress who "will be a blister on the same old spot." (Signed) JOHN I. NICKS, Chairman. J. S. GREEN, J. H. BUTLER, Secretaries. Mr. Ward's vote was largely increased over 1S64. He ran ahead of the Governor and carried Allegany County by a plurality of 3728 and the district by over 6300, an in- creased plurality of 800. This increased plurality was par- ticularly gratifying in view of the extremely radical position taken by him in opposition to President Johnson, being as Noah Davis said in a letter to him of Nov. loth, 1866 "The first member who dared 'beard the lion in his den.' " On the reassembling of Congress Mr. Ward felt that the question of negro suffrage could no longer be neglected and on the 13th day of December he delivered the follow- ing speech : SPEECH OF HON. HAMILTON WARD, OF NEW YORK, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 13, 18G6. The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and having under consideration the President's annual message — SrEECH ON NEGRO SUFFRAGE ISGG. 105 ME. WARD, of New York, said: Mr Chairman: The country has spoken; the popular verdict stands recorded in the recent elections; and the Thirty-Ninth Congress reassem- bles strengtheness and smoke, suffocated the jury into giving an unjust verdict for the plaintiff, as we mutually consoled and agreed. But in this, one of his "first efi'orts," Mr. Ward gave promise of success at the bar; for it evidently required the serious attention of the "senior counsel" to save his client from defeat. Without proceeding in detail, Mr. Ward within a few years was elected District Attorney of the county, and to say that he discharged the IN CONGRESS 1867. 121 duties of that office with marked ability and great industry, is no more than the public accede to him. When the folly, wickedness and madness of men had almost sus- pended the civil powers of the general Government and introduced war devastation and almost anarchy in their place, and when we wantcvJ our best men in counsel, Mr. Ward was warmly supported by his friends and admirers as a candidate for a seat in the National Legislature. By their exertions, and through his own great personal popularity, he was nomin- ated and elected to Congress. Many doubted whether he had ripened sufficiently in intellect and experience to qualify him for the grave trusts and serious duties now imposed upon him: but he has in no way come short in his duties, and has gratified the highest expectations of his friends. It has been well said that it is the duty of the editor to sub-soil pub- .0 opinion to make it deep and porous, then sow it with the soundest seed; that the duty of the Legislature is not less plain, it is to put the highest opinion in.o the form of law; and this is the true test of his excellence as a statesman. .Judged by this test, Mr Ward has been eminently successful for the well considered opinions of a large majority of his constituents, aid- ed by his zealous efforts, have become the "Law of the Land " His am- bition has been indeed noble, and his success glorious. Mr. Ward believed the rebels should be punished, he said so, he never lorgave a Copperhead; he was fearless in manitaining his views. On the 13th day of July ,1867, he delivered a Republican speech in Alexandria, Va., in vvhich he said he believed the rebel leaders should be hung and he attributed the difference between New York and Virginia between the populous and cultivated banks of the Hudson and the desolate and poverty stricken shores of the Po- tomac and Tames, to the difference in industrial conditions between the t^vo sections, one free the other slave ^ A^'i^^^T^ ^^% "' ^^^^>' P"^^"' Richmond, Va., he made a radical Republican speech to two thou.sand recently en- -ranchised negroes, and no doubt enjoyed the change a short period of time had brought to this historic building Before the speech he was told that he would be asassinatell f he attempted to proceed, which he did nevertheless, first stating to the audience the threat which had been made No violence was attempted. 122 HAMILTON WAKD. In July Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts offered a resolution asking for the appointment of a select committee of five to consider the assassination of President Lincoln, with power to examine the witnesses, and grant amnesty in case it should be deemed wise by the committee. This resolution was agreed to and on the 9th day of July the speaker appointed the following committee : Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts, Samuel Shellabarger of Ohio, George W. Julian of Indiana, Hamilton Ward of New York and Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania. The criminal courts satisfactorily disposed of the assassins and the committee took no action. The impeachment of Andrew Johnson was now openly discussed. He was regarded as a traitor to his party and by many to the State, and his unfortunate personal failings alienated from him many conservative men, who otherwise would have been loth to follow the Radical Republican majority. On Sept. 28, 1867, Schuyler Colfax, then speaker of the House, and later Vice-President, wrote Mr. Ward as fol- lows : My dear Friend: — On my return from ten days' speaking in Ohio I find your cordial and welrome letter. We have had bad luck this year — having in nearly every State side issues that weaken us and vrhich tend to intensify the bold, bad man at the head of affairs in Washington. But T have hope and faith that all will be right in the end. Perhaps these things will unite us better for next year. I go next to Wisconsin, where our friends write me that there is just apathy and general dissatisfaction. In the Northwest all our friends are for impeachment. A. J'.s course since Congress ad- journed and his removal of Stanton, Sheridan and Sickles have been "the last feather that broke the camel's back." Thanking you for your friendly personal allusions and with regards to Mrs. Ward, I am, Very truly yours, SCHUYLER COLFAX. On the assembling of the 40th Congress most of the active men of the preceding Congress were found to have been re-elected. Morrill of Vermont had been promoted COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS 18U7. 123 to the Senate. John Morrissey, the prize-fighter, made his appearance from New York. Fernando Wood of New York was also a member of this Congress. Roscoe ConkHn, Hke Morrill, had been promoted to the Senate. John A. Logan had come from Illinois and Ignatius Donnelly from Minnesota. In the appointment of the committees which were on the Committee of Claims, John A. Bingham of Ohio being first and Wm. B. Washburn of Massachusetts being second. He was named as Chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. These two committees, together with the Committee on the Assassination of President Lincoln and to prepare articles of impeachment for President Johnson, spoken of later, constituted Mr. W'ard's committee service in the 40th Congress. On the convening of the 40th Congress in November, 1867, the impeachment of the President became the perma- nent issue. On January nth, 1S68, Mr. Ward delivered the follow- ing speech in the House: IMPEACHMENT. Mr. WARD. Mr. Chairman, I will ask the indulgence of the com- mittee for a short time while I examine two or three questions about which I desire to express opinions and advance such reasons as govern my action with regard to them. And in the first place, sir, I wish to refer to the question of impeach- ment, and in doing so I am well aware that I shall encounter the im- patience of gentlemen who will exclaim, "Oh, impeachment is dead and buried; why revive it now':'" I am aware, sir, that so far as this House is concerned such is the case, but I was one of those who felt constrained to vote for the impeachment of the President and by the extraordinary manner in which the question was disposed of had no opportunity to state my reasons for so doing. And, sir, some of those who olHciated at the burial will not lot the matter rest, but with uneasy legal consciences keep exhuming the dead carcass and displaying it before th^ House. The learned gentleman from Pennsylvania (Judge Woodward) feels obliged to protest agaiui^t the legal 124 HAMILTON WAR]). conolnsions of those opposed to impeachnient and favors the conclusions adopted by the committee. My friend, also, from Pennsylvania (Mr. Boyer) and the gentleman from Ohio on my left (Judge Van Trump) take issue wilh Judge Woodward on the law. From all this it is evident that this question "will not down" at the bidding of the chairman of the Ju- diciary, but, like Banquo's ghost, is constantly reappearing. I may there- fore be pardoned a few observations upon the subject. The majority of the House, under the able leadership of the chair- man of the Judiciary Committee, strangled debate upon this grave and momentous question, and, with the exception of obtaining the views of two distinguished gentlemen, nothing was allowed to be said in the House. But by a most arbitrary use of the "previous question" the report of the Ju- diciary Committee and the whole matter of impeachment were hurried to their graves with all the impatience of those who know that there is some- thing "rotten in Denmark," but that "dead men tell no tales." I was one of those who felt it a duty to avoid, by such dilatory mo- tions as were in the power of the minority, the vote on the motion to lay the report of the committee on the table until the majority would concede to us the privilege of discussing to a reasonable extent the question. Such motions are sometimes the only means the minority of a legis- lative body have to protect themselves and secure the freedom of debate on vital public questions, and this, in my humble opinion, was a pi-oper occasion for the exercise of that right. We did not succeed, however; the majority were fearful of discussion, and all we secured was a direct vote upon the question. In this connec- tion let me advert to the course of gentlemen on the Democratic side of the House. They have on all occasions in the Thirty-Ninth and the pi'esent Congress insisted, while they were in the minority on great political ques- tions, when those questions came to be considered, insisted upon the great- est latitude of debate, and complained bitterly of the "tyranny" of the ma- jority; but upon this occasion, when they were suddenly grown into the majority, not one of them is found in favor of the freedom of debate or the rights of the minority. It is said that the only bleniish that rests upon the memory of the Pilgrim P'athers is that they who had fled from the persecutions and op- pressions of the Old World to the wilderness of the New, to enjoy the priceless blessing of civil and religious liberty, became in time as intolerant as the oppressors from whom they fled, and burnt witches and banished Quakers. I commend this bit of history to the consideration of these hon- orable gentlemen. SrEK'CU U.\ IMrEACllMENT 1SG8. 125 I carefully examined the evidenc-e taken by the various reports emanating from the Judiciary Committee on the subject of impeachment, and, sir, as one of the grand inquests of the nation, sought to examine the whole matter with a judicial mind uninfluenced by partisan feeliug or prejudice. At the same time, sir, I was not awed by tlie power and glit- ter of this great office. I did not bask in the smiles of Executive favor or meekly pick up the crumbs that fell from his official table; nor was I de- terred from doing my duty by the threats aud jeers of tiaitors, the sneers of conservatives, or the pr(>tended contempt of the opposition. I found, sir, that Andrew Johnson had, in violation of law, seized upon the gov- ernments of ten States of this Union, created Governors, Legislatures, judges for them; appointed to offices created by himself in those States men who had been in rebellion against our Government, whose hands were red with the blood of our people, and had paid those officers out of the people's money in violation of law. I found that he had overridden and defied the legislative branch of this Government and usurped with a high liand the prerogatives of Congress. When Congress resisted and denounced his usurpations, with deliber- ate and well formed purpose to continue his usurpations aud put traitors into power in this country, to the exclusion and oppression of loyal men, he prostituted the pardoning power, the veto power, and the power of ap- pointment to office — all great powers given him by the Coustitution for a wise and discreet use, for the public good, and not to be abused and made instrumental of fraud, usurpation, and oppression. I found him encouraging insubordination in the population that had been in rebelliou; insidiously inducing them to resist the law; lighting in New Orleans the flames of se- dition and murder; calmly witnessing the murder of thousands of Union men in the South who had fallen victims to his creatures and under the protection of his State governments. I found him surrendering to the enemy millions of public property in violation of law; restoring to traitors millions more than by law belonging to the Treasury, and could only be taken from thence by an appropriation by Congress pursuant to law; that he knowingly appointed a large number of officers who could not take the "iron-clad" oath of office to discharge the most delicate and responsible duty of collecting the public revenue, thus disregarding the law himself and encouraging others to do so; that he had sold on credit vast amounts of personal property belonging to the Government, in violation of law, to rebels, con.«;tituting Tennessee railroad corporations, taking no adequate security therefor, and when, by means of such property, said railroad cor- porations amassed a considerable sum of money, he postponed the pay- ment of the public demands upon said corporations in order to secure thp 12G HAMILTON WxiilD. payment of obligations which he, the President, had against such corpora- tions, and which constituted doubtless the real reason of the original sale of the aforesaid personal property to them. I found that while it was his duty and sworn obligation "to see that the laws were faithfully executed," not one traitor had been brought to punishment for the crime that deluged our land in blood, clothed it in mourning, covered it with debt, and filled it with graves; but on the con- trary, traitors had been pardoned, and many of them clothed with offices of honor and trust, while the laws providing for confiscating their prop- erty had been deliberately and systematically violated by the Executive, and even property was restored to rebel owniers that had before been con- fiscated by law and belonged to the Treasury of the United States. In short, I found that he had betrayed and violated in many ways his high trust, and I voted with a clear sense of the magnitude of the occasion and the responsibility under which 1 rested as a Representative of the people for the impeachment of this high offender. The minority report, presented by the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, admits as true in effect the most of these charges, but seeks to escape from their effect by assuming that none of these are legally im- peachable offenses. But let us examine briefly the legal question: •'The President, Vice-President, and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other crimes and misdemeanors." — Constitution, Art. 2. Sec. 4. What are the impeachable offenses within the meaning of the Con- stitution? "Treason and bribery" clearly are, being made so by the Con- stitution itself. The difficulty arises in determining what other offenses are impeachable. The language employed is "other high crimes and misde- meanors;" very broad terms, indeed, and sufficiently so to cover every con- ceivable criminal offense above the grade of simple misdemeanor. It is not necessary to discuss whether a civil officer, if you please the President, can be impeached for crimes not committed by color of his office or within the scope of his official acts, but w'holly disconnected there- from; such as larceny of the property of private individuals, arson, bur- glary, or the like; but we will consider what acts done or omitted within the range of official duties and as public officer will come within the defin- ition of "high crimes or misdemeanors." In determining this questiou reference must be had to the character of the official trust imposed and the consequences of a failure to execute that trust. SPEECH ON IMl'EACiniENT ISdM. 127 Tho executive oflice is one of the branches of tiie Government; it is created to execute the law, not to mald by enemies from without or traitors withini. Mr. Chairman, we must look to the substance of things and not to their forms; the Constitution was formed to preserve the nation, not to destroy it; he who raises a parricidal hand to strike down the Constitu- tion of his country cannot invoke its protection for that very act. The rebellion does not cease with the surrender of the rebel arms; it never ceases until the rebels become good citizens, return to their allegiance in good faith, and accord to all loyal men in their midst their constitutional rights. The jurisdiction of Congress over the subject matter once obtained by the rebellion and the consequent destruction of civil government im the States does not cease until such punishment is meted out to them and such guarantees secured from them as the national safety require, or as Con- gress, representing the supreme will of the nation, shall demand. But, says the President, a portion of the southern people are black, and they (for such is the substance of the argument) "have no rights that white men are bound to respect." They are ignorant, he says; he thinks they ought to be set off in some country by themselves. In the name of all that is good what kind of a "INIoses" is this? Gentlemen of the opposition take up the subject approving the President's sage views, appealing to the lowest prejudices of our nature to induce us to deny to the loyal people of the South their political rights. One gentleman, my distinguished col- league from New York City, (Mr. Brooks), in a speech in this House a few days since, entered into a minute description of the black man. He told us of the curls in his hair: of the thickness of his lips; of the size of his nose; of the shape of his jaw; and the honorable gentleman got down into the dirt and measured the length of his heel. He makes no objection on the ground of color, for ho says there are many colors in the world and no distinction should be made on that account; but the distinction seems to be one of heels, sir — heels. He carried us across the waters, and in splen- did flights of oratory he stood with a black man in a Turkish harem, he glided over Moslem and Arab history, and recalled with vivid portraiture the glories of old Spain. He showed us the evil effects of amalgama- tion upon the Arab and the Spaniard and other people. Here the gentleman overleaped himself and gave a most ungracious thrust at those rebel autocrats whose cause he has been so obsequiously serving with voice and pen these many years, for the only amalgamationists in this country are these same individuals whose cause he is pleading, and in whom he would repose unchecked and exclusive power in the South— the same men who owned women and sold their off- 138 HAMILTON WAKL). spring on the auction block for gold. Sir, I concede all the gentleman claims of the evil effects of amalgamation, and we are seeking by our policy of reconstruction to give these blacks citizenship, suffrage, and freedom, so that they can own themselves and protect themselves from this horrible system which slavery alone engenders. And the honorable gentleman saw at length the drift of his argument, and how severely it bore upon his southern friends, for when he came to speak of mulattoes his yearning tenderness for the blood of the "first families" overcomes him and he hastens to make reparation, and he says he would "admit the mulatto to the right of suffrage," "but for violating a law of God," for he says he recognizes "our white blood flowing in his veins, and I know that he is often the equal and sometinu^ the superior of some white men." But the honorable gentleman is not entitled to a copyright for the invention of his ethnographical argument; it is as old as fraud and slavery themselves. It was proclaimed two years ago in the other end of this Cap- itol by Senator Davis, of Kentucky, and i-eproduced a few months ago by the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. Mungeu). I am astonished that the gen- tleman, in his labored effort, omitted the other part of the old harangue, and that is that "Noah cursed Ham and doomed his children to bondage, and therefore slavery is supported by the Bible and is a divine institu- tion," With all due respect to the honorable gentleman, I pronounce his argu- ment trifling — trifling with a great question, with human beings and rights. If the gentleman claims that the negro is a brute I can understand his argument. But, sir, if the negro is a man with an immortal soul, with heai't, brains, and sympathies Hke other men, a native-born American citi- zen, who is to pay taxes, fight in our armies and navies, work in all the varied fields of labor, help develop the prostrate South, help pay our na- tional debt, live under and obey the laws which are to govern him and us, then, sir, I pronounce the message of his "Excellency" and the arguments of the opposition in relation to this matter as unworthy of tho subject and the occasion, and deserving little less than contempt. What! shall we meas- ure a man's rights in this free country by the kinks in his hair and the length of his heel? Sir, if we do so we had better appoint my honorable colleague a committee to at once adjust a scale of rights on that basis, and give us the kind of hair or heel that will admit a man to the privi- leges of the ballot-box. (Laughter). But, say gentlemen, with apparent triumph, if yon force negro suf- frage on the South why do you not secure it at the North? Sir, I am in favor of suffrage to all loyal native-born and naturalized citizens every- where under our flag, and so are fotr-fifths of the Union party. We have SPEECH ON RECONSTRUCTION 1808. 130 boen trying to secure this in Ohio, Kansas, and Minnesota lately, and all the gentleman's party and a few Republicans in those States who bav» prejudices upon the subject voted against and defeated it. The responsi- bility of that defeat is with the Democratic party, not with us. Again, in the northern States nearly all the citizens exercise the elec- tive franchise, whereas in several of the southern States if you exclude the black man the majority of the people will be excluded from a voice in the government, and the minority, as I have before said, will rule. And, sir, independent of the question of suffrage in the States that have not been in rebellion and have not given Congress a right by their treason, to interfere in their State and local affairs, we have the right, and it is our duty as a necessary measure of public safety and the protection of the loyal people of the South, to insist upon impartial suffrage in those States now being reconstructed; so that the question of suffrage in New York and Pennsylvania does not hinge upon the same reasons that it does in the rebel States. In the one case the public safety does not absolutely require impartial suffrage; in the other it does. But, sir, I hope the time is not far distant when the people of the loyal States will accord to all men equal rights at the ballot-box. Do gen- tlemen suppose that five hundred thousand citizens in this country that are loyal to the Government, subject to all the burdens of other citizens, can be deprives! for any considerable time of all voice in the laws that govern them and the Government they help to support? Oh, no! This is the wild- est dream of political infatuation. Sir, they are voting now. They have tasted this sweet privilege, they have shed their blood as a ransom for this right; and when Abraham Lincoln struck the shackles from their limbs and Congi-ess gave them the ballot they received a boon that they will not surrender as long as the nation sball stand; and woe to that man or that party that seeks to strip those rights from them. The attempt will fail. And now be wise in time; take no encouragement from the recent elections. They meant no injustice to the loyal men of the South— they meant no exclusive privileges to the rebels; they simply meant disgust at the failure of Congress to give a good financial system to the country; and, sir, I believe also at the failure of Congress to rebuke and punish the mis- conduct of the President of the United States. I will bring to the recollection of gentlemen the dark days of 1862. Earnest men were then disgusted with the inaction of the Union party, and the opposition swept all the States that they carried at the last election, and Ohio besides, and then these same gentlemen predicted the destruc- tion of the Union party and the overthrow of its principles; and, with Val- landigham, Seymour, and company in the foreground, excited the spirit 140 HAMILTON WARD. and uttered the doctrines they are proclaiming to-day; and iu 1S(>3 they were swept from the nation's path as with a besome of destruction. So it will ba again if they continue to "kick against the pricks." Sir, the constitutions that have been adopted by the conventions that have been held in the South are wise and beneficent instruments, guaran- tying to the people of those States for the first time in their history the full rights of American citizens. Some of the States will adopt the con- stitutions and send their members to Congress, and as to those the work of i-estoration will be complete. Others, acting on the dangerous advice of the President, will delay, reject the constitutions, and still remain un- der military control; for of this they can be assured, that until they come up to the full measure of the demands of the people upon them they will remain where they are. But, Mr. Chairman, it is charged that we have delayed reconstruc- tion and squandered the public money for party purposes. Sir, I deny it. Had the South accepted the constitutional amendment submitted by Con- gress and approved by the people m 1866 the work would have been done months ago; but the President and the Democratic party advised against it, and so the amendment was rejected. Then, Congress determined on reconstruction, prescribed another pol- icy, one that would execute itself and did not depend upon rebel aid; a policy of justice and equal rights, that permitted the loyal men of the South to become actors in the great work. And they are at work, sir; and if let alone they will accomplish reconstruction in ninety days. And now the President and his party are doing all in their power to prevent it. Sir, they are the obstruction, not we. Mr. Chairman, the country needs repose. Let gentlemen rise for once above the dead level of the partisan, above plotting and scheming for rebel help to restore their party to power, and take hold with us faithfully and earnestly to bring the country back to peace. Six thousand million dollars of property, public and private, has been expended or destroyed in this war, and by that much the nation is poorer to-day. Great want and des- titution prevails all over the South. Capital is stagnant; labor is dull everywhere and looks in vain for employment; hundreds of thousands of laboring men and women at the North are out of work and are looking with anxious faces into the grim winter, and wondering how they are to keep the wolf from the door. Our finances are disordered, national bank- ruptcy is imminent, and repudiation, the vilest of all national sins, ig openly advocated. Sir, this condition of things needs the closest economy, the most ju- dicious expenditure of the public moneys, an equal and just distribution SPEECH ON IlECOXSTKUCTIOX 1808. 141 of the public burdens, and presents a problem the solutiou of which will tax the highest "resources of statesmanship." Reconstruction is the hinge upon which all eJse turns. We can have no peace, no safe financial condi- tion, until we have a just and sound reconstruction. Let Congress com- plete its work. Why delay? Why should the opposition delude the south- ern rebels with false hopes longer? Let the work be finished now, and your military will be withdrawni, and the "wayward sisters" will swing into line and renew their old relations with the Federal Union. But, sir, let the opposition theory prevail and I will not predict the result. Tho contest then will only be begun. Kobbed of their rights the loyalists of the South will struggle to regain them, like men who "know those rights" and "dare maintain" them. The traitor horde, restored to exclusive power, will gratify the hate of race and all the brutal feelings of revenge upon them. Society will be shaken from center to circumference, industry will languish, and that afflicted portion of our country, once so fair and pros- perous, will continue to be convulsed with the strife of men, on the one side for justice and on the other side for power. The people of the North will, as now, divide upon the question; and so the contest wil go on until the problem will be .solvetl in blood or the people reassert their God-given rights by revolution at the ballot-box. Sir, we can avoid all further con- tention and war, and dispose of the negro question in this country for all time, by simply giving the ballot, the only protection of freemen, to the people impartially. Then, sir, the last peril that threatens thie Republic will be ended; then the North and South, East and West will stand in har- mony together, bound by a common interest, working out a common and most glorious destiny. Like giant sentinels they will stand, upholding and guarding the temple of freedom for us and our posterity forever. Considering- Mr. Ward's advanced position on recon- struction, and his attitude toward the President, it is not sur- prising that when the great crisis arrived and the House decided for the first time in the nation's history to present articles of impeachment against the Chief Magistrate that Hamilton \v'ard was nam.ed as one of a Committee of Seven *'To declare articles of impeachment against the President of the United States." This was on February 25, 1868. The Committee was as follows : George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts. Thadius Stevens of Pennsylvania, John A. Bingham of Ohio, John A. Logan of Illinois, James F. Wil- son of Iowa, George W. Julian of Indiana and Hamilton Ward of New York. Next to the Constitution, the De- 142 HAMILTON WARD. claration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclama- tion, these articles of impeachment were the most miportant State papers in the history of our Government, and the fact of beino- selected to perform this great and dangerous duty, dangerous if the plans of Johnson had succeeded, was the hi-hest honor that came to Hamilton Ward durmg his long and useful life. The other members of the Committee were the leaders of the nation, and history deals clearly with each one of them. . . , o. . The honor done Mr. Ward and his district and btate was appreciated by his constituents. The Elmira Daily Advertiser, the leading paper ot tne district, on February 26th, 1868, says: "It will be noticed that Hon. Hamilton Ward is a member repress- ing the State of New York, on the Committee of the House of Representa- tives to prepare articles of impeachment against the President. To be so selected and placed on this Committee, the most momentous ever raised in the history of Congress, is a compliment of which his constituents may well be proud. Mr. Ward is worthy of the honor thus bestowed upon him, and will fulfill has important duty with stern and fearless justice." On Februarv 29th, 1868, the Committee reported arti- cles of impeachment which being discussed, a final report was made on March 2nd. The Articles of Impeachment are as follows: Article 1. That «aid Andrew .Johnson, President of the United States, on the 21st day of February, in the year of our Lord, 18(». at Washington, in the District of Columbia, unmindful of the high duties of his office, of his oath of office and of the requirements of the Constitution that he should take care that the laws be faithfully executed, did unlawfully and in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, issue an order in writing for the removal of Edwin M. Stanton from the office of Secretary for tie De- partment of War, said Edwin M. Stanton having been theretofore duly ap- pointed and commissioned, by and with the advice and consent of the Sen- ate of the United States, as such Secretary, and said Andrew .Johnson, President of the United States, on the 12th day of August, in the year of AliTlCLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 113 our Lord, 18(;7, and duriug the recess of said Senate, luivin;,' suspended by his order Edwin M. Stanton from said office, and within twenty days after the first day of the next meeting of said Senate, that is to say. on the lUh day of December, in the year last aforesaid, having reported to said Senate such suspension with the evidence and reasons for his actiou in the case and the name of the person designated to perform the duties of such olfice temporarily until the next meeting of the Senate, and said Senate thereafterward on the 13th day of January, in the year of our l.ord, 18b8, having duly considered the evidence and reasons reported by said Andrew Johnson for said suspension, and having refused to concur in said suspension, whereby and by force of the provisions of an Act entitled Ai, act regulating the tenure of certain civil ofQces," passed March 2 1867, said Edwin M. Stanton did forthwith resume the functions of his office, whereof the said Andrew Johnson had then and there due notice and said Edwin M. Stanton, by reason of the premises, on said 21st day of February, being lawfully entitled to hold said office of Secretary for the Department of War, which said order, for the removal of said Edwin M Stanton is. in substance, as follows, that is to say: Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Sir:- Feb. 21. 1868. By virtue of the power and auth^irity vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States, you are hereby removed from office as Secretary for the Department of War, and your functions as such will terminate upon the receipt of this communication. You will transfer to Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas Adju- tant General of the Army, who has this day been authorized and empow- ered to act as Secretary of War ad interim, ail records, books, papers and other public property now in your custody and charge. Respectfully yours, Hon. Edwin Af. Stanton. ANDREW JOHNSON. Washington, l>. (J. Which order was unlawfully issued with intent then and there to violate the act entitled "An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed March 2, 1867, and, with further intent contrary to the provisions of said act, in violation thereof, and contrary to the provision, of th*> Constitution of the United States, and without the advice and con- sent of the Senate of the United States, the said Senate then and there being in session, to remove said Edwin M. Stanton from the office of Sec- 144 HAMILTON WARD. retary for the Department of War, the said Edwin M. Stanton being then and there Secretary of War, and being then and there in the due and law- ful execution and discharge of the duties of said oflace, whereby said An- drew Johnson, President of the United States, did then and there commit and was guilty of a high misdemeanor in office. Article II. That on said 21st day of February, in the year of our Lord, 1868, at Washington, D. C, said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmindful of the high duties of his office, of his oath of office, and in violation of the Constitution of the United States and contrary to the provisions of an act entitled: "An Act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed March 2, 18G7, without the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, said Senate then and there being in session, and without authority of law, did with intent to violate the Constitution of the United States and the act aforesaid, issue and deliver to one, Lo- renzo Thomas, a letter of authority in substance as follows, that is to say: Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Feb. 21, 1868. Sir: — Hon. Edwin M. Stanton having been this day removed from office as Secretary for the Department of War, you are hereby author- ized and empowered to act as Secretary of War ad interim, and will im- mediately enter upon the discharge of the duties pertaining to that office, Mr. Stanton has been instructed to transfer to you all the records, books, papers and other public property now in his custody and charge. Respectfully yours, ANDREW JOHNSON. To Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General, United States Army, Washington, D. C. Then and there being no vacancy in said office of Secretary for the Department of War, whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, did then and there commit and was guilty of a high misde- meanor in office. Article III. That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, on the 21st day of February, in the year of our Lord, 1868, at Washington, in the District of Columbia, did commit and was guilty of a high misdemeanor ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 145 in ofBcc in this, that, without authority of law, while the Senate of the United States was then and there in session, he did appoint one, Lorenzo Thomas, to be Secretary for the Department of War ad interim, without the advice and consent of the Senate, and with intent to violate the Con- stitution of the United States, no vacancy having happened in said ofBce of Secretary for the Department of War during the recess of the Senate, and no vacancy existing in said office at the time, and which said appoint- ment so made by said Andrew Johnson, of said Lorenzo Thomas, is in sub- stance as follows, that is to say: Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Feb. 21, 1868. Sir: — Hon. Edwin M. Stanton having been this day removed from office as Secretary for the Department of War, you are hereby authorized and empowered to act as Secretary of War ad interim, and will immedi- ately enter upon the discharge of the duties pertaining to that office. Mr. Stanton has been instructed to transfer to you all the records, books, papers and other public property now in his custody and charge. Respectfully yours, ANDREW JOHNSON. To Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General, United States Army, Washington, D. C. Article IV. That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmind- ful of the high duties of his office, of bis oath of office, and in violation of the Constitution and laws of United States, on the 21st day of Feb- ruary, in the year of our Lord, 1808, at Washington, in the District of Columbia, did unlawfully conspire with one Lorenzo Thomas, and with other persons of the House of Representatives unknown, with intent, by intimidation and threats unlawfully to hinder and prevent Edwin M. Stanton, then and there the Secretary for the Department of War, duly appointed under the laws of the United States, from holding said office of Secretary for the Department of War, contrary to and in violation of the Constitution of the United States, and of the provisions of an Act en- titled "An act to define and punish certain conspiracies," approvetl July 31st, 1861, whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, did then and there commit, and was guilty of a high crime in office. Article V. That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmiud- 140 HAMILTON WARD. fill of the high duties of his ofiice and of his oath of ofiBce, on the 21st day of February, in the year of our Lord, 1868, aud on divers and other days and times in said year, before the 2d day of March, A. D., 1SG8, at Wash- ington, in the District of Columbia, did unlawfully conspire with one, Lorenzo Thomas, and with other persons to the House of Representa- tives unknown, to prevent and hinder the execution of an Act entitled: "An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed March the 2d, 1867, and in pursuance of said conspiracy did unlawfully attempt to prevent Edwin M. Stanton then aud there being Secretary for the Department of War, duly appointed and commissioned under the laws of the United States from holding said othce, whereby the said Andrew Johnson, Presi- dent of the United States, did then and there commit and was guilty of a high misdemeanor in office. Article VI. That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmind- ful of the high duties of his office and of his oath of office, on the 21st day of February, in the year of our Lord, 1868, at Washington, im the Dis- trict of Columbia, did unlawfully conspire with one Lorenzo Thomas, by force to seize, take, and possess the property of the United States in the Department of War, and then and there in the custody of Edwin M. Stan- ton, Secretary for said Department, contrary to the provisions of an Act entitled: "An Act to define and punish certain conspiracies," approved July 31st, 1861, and with intent to violate and disregard an Act entitled "An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed March 2nd, 1867, whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, did then and there commit a high crime in office. Article VII. That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmind- ful of the high duties of his office and of his oath of office, on the 21st day of February, in the year of our Lord, 1808, at Washington, in the District of Columbia, did unlawfully conspire with one Lorenzo Thomas with in- tent unlawfully to seize, take and possess the property of the United States in the Department of War, in the custody and charge of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary for said Department, with intent to violate and dis- regard the Act entitled "An Act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed March 2nd, 1867, whereby said Andrew Johnson, Presi- dent of the United States, did then and there commit a high misdemeanor in office. ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT. 147 Article VIII. That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmind- ful of the high duties of his office and of his oath of office, with intent unlawfully to control the disbursements of the moneys appropriated for the Military Service and for tlie Department of War, on the 21st day of Feb- ruary, in the year of our I^ord, 18G8, at Washington, in the District of Columbia, did unlawfully and contrary to the provisions of an Act enti- tled "An act regulating the tenure of certain civil offices," passed March 2nd. 3S67, and in violation of the constitution of the United States, and without the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, and while the Senate was then and there in session, there being no vacancy in the office of Secretary for the Department of War, with intent to vio- late and disregard the act aforesaid, then and there issue and deliver to on<>, Lorenzo Thomas, a letter of authority and writing in substance as follows, that is to say: Executive Mansion, Washington, D. C, Feb. 21, 1868. Sir:— Hon. Edwin M. Stanton having been this day removed from office as Secretary for the Department of War you are hereby authorized and empowered to act as Secretary of War ad interim, and will immedi- ately enter upon the discharge of the duties pertaining to that office. Mr. Stanton has been instructed to transfer to you all the records, books, papers and all other public property now in his custody and charge. Respectfully yours, ANDREW JOHNSON. To Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant General of the United States Army, Washington, D. C. Whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States did then and there commit and was guilty of a high misdemeanor in office. Article IX. That said Andrew .Johnson, President of the United States, on the 22nd day of February, in the year of our Lord, 18G8, at Washington, in the District of Columbia, in disregard of the Constitution and the laws of the United States, duly enacted, as Commander in Chief of the Army of the United States, did bring before himself then and there William H. Emory, a Major General by Brevet in the army of the Unites of nianoeuvers and intrigues such as would disgrace even a barbarous country. Chase assumes powers that the Constitution does not give him while presiding at the trial. He assumed to decide, in the place of the Senate, questions of evidence as they arose and when the court was equally divided he presumed to give the casting vote. Splendid dinners were given at his mansion to which certain Senators were invited; they took long drives with him into the country. "The Chief Justice" could find no law to convict the President; he was constantly trying to convince Senators of that. Trumbull, Fesseuden, Grimes and Henderson were in 168 HAMILTON WARD. turn played upon, each having the medicine best adapted to him, and they were informed that if impeachment succeeded, the radicals would control the next two administrations, and that they, the honest and far-seeing conservatives, would be ignored and forgotten, and that they must kill impeachment or be killed themselves. Fessenden was reminded that Wade had been lifted to the place so coveted by Fessenden by the action of the Senate, All that infernal ingenuity could devise, this ambitious man did; moulding his willing instruments the way I have indicated and by such other means as was necessary. The time may come and I believe it will, when all the rottenness of this transaction will be laid bare, and when the grand central figure of the whole conspiracy will stand out unmasked, at last, to the detestation and scorn of all mankind. Other base instrumen- tality aided in this work; vile women played their brazen part. Contrac- tors whose power secured Senators their seats were active agents. Rum in gilded saloons, and at social boards, was passed freely round by taper- ing fingers and jeweled hands, to swell the debauch and help the work of crime. How much of sordid pelf soiled honorable palms, and who, if any, mortgaged life and soul for money, the conspirators themselves know best; each man will form an opinion for himself upon the subject. The fate of reconstruction, the prospective murder of thousands of Unionists in the South, the further derangement of business affairs, the continuation of the dangerous criminal at the White House in power, the peril in which it placed the Republic, the unanimous and earnest demand of the Union party for conviction, were considerations that ought to have warned those Senators to another course, but they defied all these considerations for base and unworthy motives. "Oh for a tongue to curse the Slave, "Whose treason like a deadly blight, "Comes o'er the counsels of the brave, "And blasts them in their hour of might." But this infamous scheme will not succeed; it will not defeat recon- struction, elevate Chase to the Presidency, defeat Grant, destroy the Union party or break up the Government, as intended by its authors. Thou- sands of good men at the South will be sent to bloody graves, the country will be agitated from center to circumference, industry will be paralyzed the finances depressed and disordered, until the apostate's term these in- grates have saved expires. But from this hour there wil go forth a voice from the great people that shall be heard throughout the land, calling again its children to battle for the right, to organize in every town, city and hamlet, for the great campaign before us; the same voice that startled the nation when the cannon boomed at Fort Sumpter, the same voice that THIRD NOMINATION. 1G9 was lifted up in lamentation when Lincoln died; the voice of the Union masses, ever true to liberty and justice, who though betrayed and aban- doned, time and again by the men they trusted, are still firm in the faith that a free Government can be preserved by a free people. Let there bo no faltering now, no faint hearts, no yielding to despair. Let us close up the ranks and move on undismayed, for "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." And under the banner of him who led our armies to victory when embattled treason sought the nation's life, we will, with God's bless- ing crush out this new and baser treason and restore our afflicted country to security and peace. I trust you will pardon the great length of this letter; my only apol- ogy is the great importance of the subject matter. Truly your friend, X. The Congressional campaign in 1868 began early and much opposition to Mr. Ward's return for a third term was manifested, especially in Chemung County. The custom for years in this district had been to give the Congressmen two terms and no more, and that the three counties in the district, Allegany, Steuben and Chemung should take the office in turn. This custom had a strong hold on the minds of the people and was difficult to overcome. Chemung claimed that she was entitled to the Congressman and finally settled on General Gregg, a soldier, as her candidate, Mr. Ward's friends in the county being overborne by the appeal to the custom just mentioned. Allegany County was unanimously for Mr. Ward. The following is a report of the County Convention of July I St, 1868, from the Allegany Radical, published at Belmont: REPUBLICAN CONVENTION. The Republican County Convention of this county met in the Court House at Belmont on Wednesday, July 1. A full representation from nearly every town in the county was present. The Convention was called to order by the chairman of the Central Committee, Gen. Rufus Scott, and Major Withy of Wirt was elected chairman, and Dr. Saunders of Belfast, and Col. Fisk of the Free Press, were elected secretaries. While the secretaries were preparing the list of delegates, Hon. Hamilton Ward was called for and responded in an appropriate and eloquent speech of 170 HAMILTON WARD. twenty or thirty minutes, vindicating the radical Congress, discussing the financial question, and declaring the principles of the Republican party strongly entrenched in the hearts of the people. AVith Grant and Colfax for our standard bearers, we were sure to win the day. His speech was en- thusiastically applauded throughout its delivery. On motion of Mr. L. D. Davis, a committee of five was appointed, expressive of the sentiments of the Convention. In accordance with that motion the following resolutions were presented: Resolved, That the Republicans of Allegany county adhere with un- faltering faith to the great principles upon which the party was founded, and will enter the coming political campaign with the determination to sustain those principles by an increased majority at the polls at the next election. 2nd, Resolved, That in our nominees, the heroic Grant, and the earnest and faithful Colfax, we have men worthy of support as the faithful representatives of those principles, and we most cordially endorse the plat- form upon which they have been placed by the National Convention at Chicago. 3d, Resolved, That the course of our Representative in Congress, the Hon. Hamilton Ward, fully meets our approval, and we hereby request the delegates this day elected to use all honorable means to secure his re- nomination to Congress. L. D. DAVIS, A. LOCKHART, E. B. CRANDALL, J. W. HOYT, L. B. FREEMAN, Committee. The following named persons were chosen delegates to attend the State and Congressional Conventions State Delegates — Hon. Silas Richardson, James S. Green, Rodrick Stebbins. Congressional Delegates— Rufus Colwell, Alfred Lockhart, L. D. Davis, A. C. Hall, Joel Karr, William Van Ostrand. Steuben County favored Mr. Ward's renomination, and the party leaders and the press were for him. General Gregg made as much of a fight as he could in Steuben with the assistance of certain soldiers who thought they should have a soldier candidate, and with the sympathy of the few Johnson followers, but without result, both As- THIRD NOMINATION. 171 semblv districts in Steuben County being- carried for Mr. Ward.' One of the amusing incidents of the campaign is set forth in an interesting letter from the famous F. G. Steb- bins, editor of the Cuba Patriot, which is as follows : Office of Cuba Free Patriot, Cuba, N. Y., July 22, 1868. Friend Ward:— I have had fun! I had it yesterday afternoon and I laughed all night to such an extent that Mrs. S. (who by the way is a staid, quiet, "old" lady) thought I had surely gone demented. I am laughing yet; I still feel jolly. When or where the fit will end is at present in the womb of futurity. But gushingly I say "Let her gush." A man who laughs much and often never commits murder. At this rate I wouldn't kill a June bug if he was feeding on my sweet potato vines. I'll tell you what's the matter. Monday General Gregg was here in Cuba. I didn't see him but I smelled a big mice. Yesterday just before train time I smelled out said mice. A meet- ing was to be held at Hornellsville on that day (Tuesday), a meeting of "soldiers and sailors" to take into consideration the propriety of running a "soldiers' and sailors" candidate for Congress. Stebbins rushed for the cars. Stebbins was not only a soldier but a sailor— and why not? \^'asn't he drafted? And didn't he report promptly, and had'nt he sailed the raging Genesee Valley Canawl? I took the postal car to better watch the proceedings. At Belvidere another brave "soldier" and "patriot," oh yes a first class patriot, got on the train. That man was one, John "Wrong," ex-sheriff of this county. I met Col. Fisk at Wellsville and Hi Coats. They had just got wind of the affair. We all then got into the baggage car and watched. At Andover there were gi-eat inquiries for "Ira, Ira, Ira Cutler," by John F., but Ira had gone away, so said the depot agent. Arriving at Hornellsville we found Gregg, Irvine, about half a dozen soreheads and some two dozen Copperheads. I was asked to take a drink. "Certainly, said I, but I am not a Democrat, although I sometimes have the d est symptoms of one in the world. This is one of the symp- toms," said I as I put down a small slug of corn juice. Some one asked me if I was a soldier, rather hinting that I had no right there. "Ho, sir," said I, "I am not a soldier but I am a d d good sailor and I want it understood distinctly that I represent Western Allegany." That got up a shout from your friends, of whom you had sev- eral, if not more. Directly I had an introduction to General Gregg. "Gen- eral," said I, as I shook hands, "What in h 11 are you doing here." 172 HAMILTON WARD. Then for an hour he labored with me telling me his grievances. I gave him my advice in a few words: "Keep out of this or you are dead as damnation and no resurrection." I told him further that if he ran we would give him Chemung by 1500, and If that was not enough let him tie us in Steuben and then old Allegany would knock the skillets of • • ♦ ont of him. He only remarked that he was in the hands of his friends. His friends! I asked him if he called such damned Copperheads his friends. He asked me, "What can a man do if he is run over?" I told him that was a good conundrum, but I couldn't answer dt. But if I were the man I would have kept out of the way of the engine when the bell rung. Capt, Canfield and Cole were there working quietly outside for you. That ain't my way. I always buz around and throw cold water jokingly, sarcastically and yet earnestly plump in their faces. And you can bet I did with good effect. The consequences of what we all done in our several ways were that the meeting didn't accomplish anything. But two or three of them quietly got together and quietly adjourned to Corning the 12th of August to further consider the matter. On that occasion Steb. will ba there with the "soldiers" and "sailors." Chet Cole is working through, in his quiet way, like a beaver io Steuben. You must reward him sometimes if there 4s an opening. Through a third party (one of Gregg's friends) the General wanta six hundred dollars worth of the True Patriot. He wUl get it In a verj large horn. Barnes of the Bath paper and, I mistrust, the Horaellsville Time* are bidding. Don't offer them anything to retain them. Let them go to bell, for I am perfectly confident that no raid of suflBcient magnitude cao be inaugurated to beat you. Write me. Yours truly, F. G. STEBBINS. P. S. Tell Colfax that the Cuba True Patriot came within one of getting him nominated for the Presidency. Therefore when he is inau- gurated as Vice I shall expect that "little" appointment, sure. STEBBINS. It was this same Stebbins who was later ap- pointed Consul to the now famous Manilla. The night he arrived, and while still on board ship, an earthquake de- stroyed a portion of the city, whereupon without disembark- ing, "Steb," as he was called, returned to the United States and sacrificed his "little" appointment. The Congressional Convention met in Corning, Steu- ben County on July 14th, 1868, and the Elmira Advertiser of the next day describes it as follows: THIRD NOMINATION. 173 THE CONGRESSIONAL CONVENTION. Withdrawal of the Chemung County Delegates. Nomination of Mr. Ward. The Republican Congressional Convention for Chemung, Steuben and Allegany met at Corning yesterday, and was called to order by Dr. George W. Pratt, chairman of the Congressional Committee, on whose motion the Hon. Daniel B. Bryan, of Steuben, was made chairman of the Con- vention, and R. R. Colewell of Allegany and S. Kellogg of Steuben were appointed secretaries. Credentials were presented by the following people, who took seats in the Convention. Allegany— Rufus Colewell, Alfred Lockhart, L. D. Davis, Edwin S. Bruce, Joel Karr, Rufus Scott. Chemung — Daniel F. Pickering, Will Irving, Alonzo Banks, George W. Buck. Steuben: 1st Diet.— Edwin R. Kasson, D. B. Bryan, J. H. Butler, A. J. Switzer. 2nd Dist.— Harlo Hakes, C. H. Erwin, John Towle, Silas Kellogg, C. S. Cole. The following resolutions were presented by Mr. Pickering: Resolved, That pursuant to the common assent of the Convention of 1864 and that of the convention of 1866, the candidate to be put in nomin- ation by this Convention be accorded to the County of Chemung, upon a selection to be unanimuosly made by the delegation from that county. Resolved, That Hon. Hamilton Ward, having been generously ac- corded two successive terms, it is the duty of his friends to waive his claims to a third nomination. Gen. Irvine addressed the Convention at length in favor of the adop- tion of the resolutions, and was followed in an argument by Mr. D. F. Pickering on the same side. Harlo Hakes of Steuben replied in a capital and well timed speech and was followed by Alfred Lockhart of Allegany on the same side. Mr. J. H. Butler of Steuben then moved that the resolution be laid on the table, which was carried, the delegates from Steuben and Allegany voting in the affirmative, and those from Chemung in the negative. The Chairman declared the motion to lay on the table carried, where- upon Mr. Irving, Mr. Pickering and Mr. Banks withdrew from the Con- vention. Mr. Buck was absent. The Convention then took a recess for ten minutes. On re-assembling the Convention proceeded to vote for a candadite for Representative in Congress. The Hon. Hamilton Ward received the vote of each delegate from Steuben and Allegany— fifteen in all. The delegates from Chemung 174 HAMILTON WARD. having withdrawn, no other candidate was voted for. Mr. Ward was de- clared the nominee of the Convention. The Convention was then addressed by the following gentlemen: Luther Caldwell, C, G. Fairman, John I. Nicks, G. L. Smith and H. M. Partridge, who assured the convention of their support of the candidate and expressed their confidence that the Republicans of this county wolld do likewise. Gen. Gregg also briefly addressed the Convention, saying he was in the hands of his delegation and would do as they did. On motion, John Towles, Alfred Lockhart and Harlow Hakes were appointed a Comittee to wait on Mr. Ward, and inform him of his nomina- tion, and invite him to address the Convention. After a short absence they returned, accompanied by Mr. Ward, who, having announced his accept- ance of the nomination, proceeded to address the Convention in an elo- Quet and able speech. It will be seen that Mr. Ward's old friends in Chemung County stood by him in spite of the withdrawal of the Gregg delegation. The National Body of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Asso- ciation, knowing Mr. Ward's record in Congress, disap- proved the action of Gen. Gregg and his followers, and on July 24th the following letter was received by General Crane, a member of the Association, and a resident of the 27th Congressional District: Gen. N. M. Crane, Hornellsville, N. Y.: Dear Sir — Information has been received at these Headquarters, that an attempt is being made to aiTay the soldiers of your District against the Hon. Hamilton Ward, the Republican nominee for Congress, and that a Convention of soldiers has been called for the 12th of August, to nominate an independent candidate. In the absence of Gen. Chipman, the Secretary, I take the liberty of advising you, as the Representative of the Twenty-seventh Congressional District, on the New York Soldiers and Sailors' State Central Committee, to use your best efforts to prevent this scheme, as it is in direct conflict with the Resolutions of the Soldiers and Sailors' National Convention, held at Chicago, May 19th, pledging the Soldiers and Sailors to support the Republican Party, which they cannot do without sustaining the nom- inee of the party. No good reason exists for this crusade against Mr. Ward, as he was regularly and fairly nominated on the 14th inst., by the Repblican Con- vention of the 27th District, and if persisted in, will distract the party and THIRD COXGIiESSlONAL CAMPAIGN 18(J8. 175 injure the State aud Presideutial ticket, and no Soldier or Sailor, who is anxious to render the State good service, and interested in the success of the Republican party will, I am satisfied, join in this movement, on the contrary, will give his aid and support to Mr. Ward, as he is a competent legislator, a sound and unflinching Republican, and good friend of the Soldiers, always suporting an dtidvocating a just recognition of their claims before Congress. It is to be hoped. General, that such action may be inimeditely taken as will completely neutralize the effects, among the "Boys in Blue," of this contemplated Convention. Very respectfully your obdt. scrvt., W. A. SHORT, Assistant Secretary. I concur in the foregoing, and eancstly hope no action of the Soldiers of your District will be had, that will militate against the success of Re- publican candidates. Any distraction upon local candidates must necessar- ily injure the general and State ticket. H. A. BARNUM, Chairman. At a so-called "Soldiers and Sailors" Congressional Convention, held in Elmira, on Aug. 12th, General Gregg was nominated for Congress, speeches being made by sev- eral ex-army men in opposition to Mr. Ward and a third term. General Gregg was not however a factor in the cam- paign which followed and received no votes. On Oct. loth, 1868, Col. C. C. Gardiner was nominated by the Democrats. One of the most interesting incidents of the campaign was the part taken in it by the Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, the leading minister of Elmira, a man of more than local reputation and a brother of the famous Henry Ward Beecher. He edited a department in the Elmira Ad- vertiser, called the Saturday Miscellany, and in this depart- ment, under date of Oct. 9th, the following appeared: OUR QUESTIONS. We said last week that Mr. Ward should bo questioned. We did not say that a discussion was desirable. That an agent should give account to his principal is too plain to need assertion. That a principal may ques- tion his agent upon any and all matters connected with his agency is obvi- ously just and proper. And if the agent be sulky or silent or prevaricating. 176 HAMILTON WARD. then the principal may discharge him or bear with him, as he may see best. Every one linows that Mr. Ward is an extreme Republican. No one need have curiosity to hear what he will say in a speech, for he will say nothing new upon the general issues of the canvass. The matters upon which he can enlighten and instruct us, he will probably never allude to unless questioned. So here are some questions which every man in the county would like to hear answered — every man in the county except thirty or forty politicians, so-called: Mr. Ward, what is the salary paid to a member of Congress? What mileage are you accustomed to charge? How many times have you collected mileage during the four years that you have been in Congress? Of what committees are you a member in the present Congress? How many hours a day do your duties as Congressman keep you busy? Is your salary and mileage as Congressman sufficient for your sup- port? Have you attended to other business as a lawyer, claim agent or pub- lic speaker since your election as member of Congress? Have your elections hitherto cost you anything personally over and above the cost of printing tickets and your share of the ordinary election expenses to which all citizens openly conti'ibute? Are you a member of the Congressional Temperance Society? Is the drinking of spirits by our Congressmen increasing or diminish- ing in Washington? Does your position at any time seem to compel you to "treat" or seem ill-natured? Do you feel that your services in Congress have so taken you from your home and your profession, that some compensation is due you from your fellow citizens because of losses thus incurred? And further: — Mr. Ward, about how many federal offices are there in our district? In how many of them do the emoluments exceed five hundred dollars a year? Have you formed any opinion as to the worthiness or unworthiness of the office holders now "on duty"? So far as appointments depend upon your recommendations, do you intend any considerable changes? Have you made any promises to any citizens to obtain office for them? If you have, who are they? Have they proposed making any return to you for services rendered? In short, Mr. Ward, it is reported and widely believed that you have perfected extensive arrangements in this district, looking to your own re- election, and a redistribution of federal patronage, and a triumph of the Republican party. As a citizen and a voter I am interested in these ques- THOS. K. BEECHEK EPISODE. 177 tionp. If your election means the appointment of twenty or thirty men besides yourself, so that voting for you amounts to voting for them, you should let us know it. And by these questions you have an opportunity of answering without seeming to be immodest or instrusive. Were I in your place I should rejoice to answer any or all questions that an honest man could ask pertaining to my ofiicial self and my public Avork. If you have secrets that you will not or dare not expose, I am sorry for j'ou, and can only say that secret plans and pledges are dangerous luggage for any public man. I am yours respectfully, THOS. K. BEECHER. P. S. — If you are moved to reply to these well meant questions, I will ..heerfully aid you in circulating your answers among the thousands of your constituents who will be at least curious if not earnest in expecting them. To this some zealous friends of Mr. Ward's replied with a series of questions for Air. Beecher which are good enough to be preserved. They are : What is your salary as pastor of the Congregational Church? How much do you make for marriages and lectures? How many times have you made people pay you twice for the same work ? What do you do with the money when you get it? How much does it cost you to live? Do you pay your tailor for the clothes you buy of him? If you were a grocer would you cheat in the measure? How many hours a day do your duties as pastor keep you busy? Do you spend your time travelling over the country delivering literary lectures at a hundred dollars each, when you are paid for preaching sermons at home? Have you ever done anything that was mean or dishonest? Are you a decent man? Do you believe in the hen fever? Did you pay for your own education, or did your father foot the bills? Did you ever refund the money? Do you ever drink ale, or whiskey? Is the drinking of intoxicating spirits increasing or diminishing among members of your profession? Do you ever treat people at the bar? Have you made any promises to any body to sell yourself for gain? Are you a natural born scoundrel? 178 HAMILTON WARD. When you come to town do you roll down hill or walk afoot? In short, Mr. Beecher, it is reported and widely believed that you are an ale drinker and wine bibber, that you are a billiai'd player, a card player, and the proprietor of a ten pin alley— that you are a profane swearer, a trifler, a mocker, and a stumbling block generally in the way of Christian religion. You know, Mr. Beecher, that all these things, and more are said of you. Why don't you answer and refute them? You can do so without seeming immodest or intrusive, and your persistent silence leads many people to believe them true. If you have secrets that you will not or dare not expose, we are sorry for you, and can only say that secret plans and habits are dangerous luggage for any public man. On the 1 2th of October Mr. Beecher wrote to Mr. Ward as follows : "Dear Mr. Ward: — Mr. Langdon tolls me that you doubt somewhat •what my interest may have been in my recent questions addressed to you, and says you are quite willing to answer any and all such. I hasten to tell you that my only aim was and is to promote habits of openness, truth and perfect acquaintance between representative and people. Many things are spoken in secret which ought to be proclaimed on the house-top. My aim was to give you an opportunity when ques- tioned by a citizen not unknown to give answer and tell facts to your own advantage, which you could get before the public in no other way. To a series of answers to my questions I proposed giving from fifty to one hundred dollars and send them all through the district as Ward's honest answers to Beecher's honest questions. Read them again and if by a line I have hurt your feelings or over- past the bounds of propriety— I will as publicly apologize. But if possible give me a set of short, true and manly answers and thus help one teach the people. Yours truly, THOS. K. BEECHER. To which Mr. Ward replied at length on Oct. 19th, as follows ; "Belmont, N. Y., Oct. 19, 1868. Rev'd Thos. K. Beecher. Dear Sir:— I have received your letters of Oct. 12th and 15th. It gives me pleasure to respond in the spirit of your letters to such THOMAS K. BEECIIER EPISODE. 179 inquiries as it seems proper to be addressed to me but for reasons I sliall give I cannot permit the publication of our correspondence. I will franlily say that I did not regard your questions first addressed to me through a newspaper (and several of them containing insinuations of improper conduct on my part) without being sent to me in the usual way, by mail or messenger, as one gentleman and friend usually communicates with another, as conceived in a friendly spirit to me or for my benefit, but rather to give the public an impression that there was truth in the charges implied in the questions. Several things occurring about that time and a litte before your questions appeared in the Advertiser, tended to strengthen this impression. You called upon Gen. Gregg, Dr. Beadle and others to question me when I came to Chemung to speak. A series of insulting questions were addressed to me in the Elmira Gazette containing base and false insinu- ations against my honor as a man which I could not notice without forfeit- ing my own self respect. When I got to Elmira and was speaking at a large meeting a boy handed me what he said was a telegram, enveloped as telegrams usually are. I opened it and found it to contain a set of ques- tions similar to the ones that had been published in the Gazette. I paid no attention to these questions. Then followed your inquiries, and it occurred to mo that the vile slanderers and traducers that had thus been foiled in their attempt to drag me into a controversy with them, had in some man- ner worked upon you, who had respectability and position to command from decent men that attention which they could not secure. In that sur- mise I may be mistaken; I do not charge it upon you, but your letters dis- claim any intention to injure me and I accept your disclaimer as true and then to your questions: You set out with the statement "thiat no one need to have curiosity to hear what he (Ward) will say in a speech, for he will say nothing new upon the general issues of the canvass." A number of meetings had been advertised in Chemung County at which I was to address my constituents upon public affairs. It seems to me that advice to the people to keep away fro-m the meetings (for that is the substance of it) as I could say nothing to interest them, is not exactly becoming in one who wishes to promote habits of openness, truth and perfect acquaintance between Representative and people. Suppose I should come out through the papers and advise the people not to attend your Sun- day evening lectures at the Opera House, because perchance you may in all your interesting speeches upon religious subjects, not utter a single word or thought that some religious teacher has not spoken or written before you. Would you regard this as a friendly act? Indeed, Mr. Beecher, there has seemed to be a disposition to belittle me in several of your mis- cellany, as you will doubtless remember. 180 ha:\iilton ward. The questions about my habits, and as to whether I have bartered away the offices of the District for a consideration, and thus been guilty of the grossest political corruption— you must get answered from other soui-ce than myself. I have lived in this Congressional District for more than thirty years, boy and man, and if my daily walk and conversation will not answer those questions, I can make none. My salary and mileage is such as the law prescribes; ^5.000.00 a year and twenty cents a mile travel fee one session a year. For the last three years we have had two or three .sessions a year, and for the extra sessions have received no mileage, and I voted against giving any. I am a member of the Committees of Claims and Revolutionary Claims. While Congress is in session my duties as a member in the House at the Departments and attending to necessary correspondence keep me busy from ten to twelve hours a day. When Congress is not in session a large share of my time is occupied with duties pertaining to my office. I think the salary sufficient. With economy a member can save perhaps $1,000 a year; most of them save nothing. It breaks up a man's business completely; I have done no other business since I was in Congress except a little law business in vacation that would not amount to $200 a year. I can save much more money in my profession and not work half so hard, although, as you were once kind enough to say in your "Miscellany," I am "but a tolerable lawyer." I do not know how many federal offices there are in the District and how many of them draw salary of ^.lOO.OO or over. I have no time to look the matter up. You will have no difficulty in ascertaining that. I have given no thought to the subject of changes in the federal offices; have promised to effect none: hope to effect some where the in- cumbents are Johnson men. Copperheads or unfit for the place. Have prom- ised nothing on the subject; am under no pledges; will try and do for the best and as far as I consistently can wi'l build up and strengthen the Re- publican party. I have been in Congress nearly four years and am worth not to exceed $3,000.00. I never paid out a dollar in all my political operations that was not legitimately and properly paid and sanctioned by good morals and public policy. I never was intemperate in anything except tobacco, which I abandoned forever four years ago. Mr. Beecher, I hope your record as a public man and a citizen is as clean a.s mine. I told Mr. Langdon I would answer any proper questions that you might desire for your own information, and I have done so, but as I told you before, this i.s not for publication, but simply for your own informa- tion. I have never had my honor or integrity questioned except by vile political scavengers who assail me through partisan presses and harrangues THOMAS K. BEECHER EPISODE. 181 when I am a candidate for office. I have never permitted myself to notice these slanders. Time and again I have been asked to do so by insulting and impertinent questions addressed to me through newspapers. If I answer one I must answer all or reason may seem to exist for the charge that I answered such as I dare and decline to answer such as I dare not. I cannot answer your questions through the papers unless I answer all that others may choose to ask through the Copperhead presses of the Dis- trict. I cannot, of course, attempt to answer all the things that are sur- mised or said against me. If anything is established against me by prima facie proof then I will confront and disprove it, but until that is done I will stand on that presumption of innocence that surrounds every man and upon the character that I am not ashamed of, that I have been thirty years forming. But no man can answer all the suspicions and accusations that all the idle and malignant tongues that are his enemies, personal and political, may utter in a political canvass, and I shall attempt to answer none that are based on simple allegations. These are my reasons for de- clining a public answer to your somewhat extraordinary questions. I agree with you in thinking that there should be frankness and confidence between Constituents and Representative, but I must be judged by my public and private acts and declarations, not by mere words in a newspaper controversy. Truly yours, HAMILTON WARD. You can show this to Mr. Langdon if you desire." To this Mr. Beecher replied on Oct. 20th as follows: Dear Mr. Ward:— I am sorry not to have leave to print your letter, but readily admit that your reasons for repressing are weighty. In what I have said about you in the Advertiser, I have never aimed to be polite or complimentary. I aim so to speak so as to hold the ear of men of both parties — and so in speaking of you I touch you up not untruly, but in a way that would offend a private and sensitive man. I hope you are at least as thick skinned a.-;; I am and can give and take. My judgment— soberly — is that extreme Republicans are wrong. That some of your votes have been unwise, but that you are by all odds the ablest man that we can send from this district. So I said when my pen was the very first to nominate you and so I say still. If Lucien Robinson had been nominated independently I should have done what I could to win votes for him. Our party needs a decent oppo- sition. 182 HAMILTON WARD. I still think that no man need be curious to hear what you say in a political speech upon the general issues. But it was right and good for you to show yourself and people do well to come and hear and see you. I think that curiosity calls none but strangers to my lectures in Opera House. I return your letter and shall let no one know that I have received it. You may send it to Langdon if you wish. I never carry confidential messages. I can keep a secret but I never like to have help. You will be answered I trust by my letter in your name which I shall print this week. Trusting that we are better acquainted already, and shall be better still hereafter, I am, Truly your friend, THOS. BEECHER." And on the following Saturday concluded the episode by an article in his Miscellany as follows: Belmont, Oct. 26, 1868. Rev. T. K. Beecher: My Dear Sir; — When I first read your questions in the Advertiser I was vexed that you should lend yourself to the aid of •my numerous and unprincipled political enemies. But on second thought I remembered your eccentric position as a no party man, or a both party man, and so have tried to give you credit for sincerity in asking the ques- tions, and will therefore answer them frankly. But you will permit me to say that your course is a very odd one and does you no credit as a prac- tical man or astute politican. And I think that you ought to have at least consulted me privately before catechising me in public. But I have nothing to conceal, so here are my answers and you may do what you will with them: I have been Congressman from this district nearly four years. I have received for my services five thousand dollars each year; and for my traveling expenses or mileage one hundred and fifty dollars a year. The law entitles me to no less than this, and I claim no more. I have made during various recesses of Congress many trips between my home and Washngton in the service of my constituents, so that I have actually paid more money to railways than I have received as mileage. My duty as Congressman has completely broken up my business as a lawyer. My present income, less the increased expense of living at Wash- ington, is not as profitable to me as my former income as a practising law- yer. Had I remained at home my estate would have been at this moment larger than it is. Besides my salary and mileage, I, of course, have re- ceived nothing — not a cent. THOMAS K. BEECHER EPISODE. 188 I can live decently upon my present pay. But I cannot lay up much. An hone.st Conj?ressman cannot make money. My duties occupy me at least twelve hours a day while Congress is in session. I am a member of several committees. All Congressman are put on some committee or other, and when they have experience, they are usually made chairmen of committees. This position adds much to a man's work, but nothing to his pay. Committee work makes no show, and gets a man no credit. I have frequently aided my constituents in transacting their Wash- ington business. Having had experience and having formed a large acquaint- ance there, I can help them more effectually hei-eafter. I have collected 6ome claims against government, and helped collect others. I look upon this as part of my official duty, and what I do is paid for by my salary. I have never yet been elected to office except at some considerable cash expense. Elections are costly. The public treasury which pays the cost of schools, courts, legislatures, executions and damages by riots, curiously enough provides not a cent for elections. Hence it is customary for candidates and other patriotic citizens to make up a fund, and from it pay the cost of advertising, handbills, ballots and other printing; also the cost of bands, uniforms and kerosene oil, also the cost of wigwams, the rent of halls, the cost of documents, the travel of speakers, and "kicking up a fuss generally." To this fund I always contribute. I expect to spend at least a thousand dollars this year in perfectly lawful and honorable ways to secure my re-election, and the success of the principles I represent. I am not a member of any temperance society. But I am a strictly temperate man. I see much foolish drinking, in and around the capitol, and am sometimes unable to keep clear of it without giving offence. I have invited gentlemen to drink, and shall probably do so again, and yet I do not approve my own act in so doing. There are between thirty and forty offices in this district which yield a desirable though moderate income. Some of these offices are held by improper and unprincipled persons. I intend to recommend a change in every such case. A few responsible and quite lucrative offices I have thought should render me some assistance in meeting the necessary and honorable expenses of an election. I have selected good men for these offices, and they will share with me the expenses above named. And further, by the untimely death of Lincoln and the accession of .Johnson, and my well known opposition to his policy, I have been made powerless during four years to reward the friends or thwart the enemies of Republicanism in this district. I wish to go back to Congress now under better auspices, that I may in part repay faithful men for their labor and sacrifice in a good cause. I am ashamed of none of my nominees. TJiey are good men and true. 184 HAMILTON WARD, I would give you their names, had I permission from them so to do. I truly regret the habits of secrecy which political warfare has created in both parties. Finally, The report you allude to is true. I have perfected arrange- ments in this district looking to my own re-eletion, a redistribution of federal patronage, and a triumph of the Republican party. And I believe that the people intend to re-elect me, because of the doctrines which I repre- sent. And there are twenty or thirty men who will get office by my election. If they consent I will give you their names. So far as I am concerned, I know not that I have a thought or an act that I fear to have unveiled. My wonder is that a man of your reputed intelligence should have need to ask such questions of me at all. Yours publicly, HAMILTON WARD. There is a letter which Mr. Ward did NOT write. But suppose he had, would he not be at this moment better off for it? Always after this Mr. Beecher was among Mr. Ward's warmest supporters and strongly advocated his nomination in 1870. Many meetings were held throughout the district and Mr. Ward spoke in almost every town. His speeches fol- lowed the general lines of those heretofore set forth and are not fully reported. In one of them he said: "That the rebels of the South and the Copperheads of the North are two links from the same sausage, both made from the same dog," inelegant but not inappropriate to the stump. At this period Mr. Ward's oratorical powers, at all times considerable, were at their best, and men who remember this campaign say that he carried his audiences by storm by the force of his eloquence, his earnestness and personal magnet- ism. In spite of the vigorous attacks made by General Gregg and other disgruntled persons, Mr. Ward was elected by a majority of 5,467, running sixty-eight ahead of the State ticket in Allegany County, twenty-eight behind in Steuben County and eighty-seven behind in Chemung County, the home of both his adversaries. This triumphant re-election of one who had so persist- ently assailed and defied President Johnson called forth IN CONGRESS 1869. 185 much comment and many congratulations. xA.mong others, letters were received from Roscoe Conkling, Governor E. O. Morgan, of New York, and also James G. Blaine, who referred to Mr. Ward's service in the House as "honorable and valuable." In reconstructing the Southern States and in amending the constitution, Hamilton Ward took an active part, and in accordance with the postion taken all along by him, on the 27th day of January, 1869, he ofTered in the House of Repre- sentatives the following proposed amendment to the consti- tution : "lusert in lieu of section one of the article proposed to be added to the Constitution the following: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge or deny to any male citizen of the United States, of sound mind, and over twenty- one years of age, the equal exercise of the elective franchise at all elections in the State wherein he shall have actually resided for a period of one year ne.Tt preceding such election, except such of said citizens as shall hereafter engage in rebellion, or insurrection, or who may have been or who shall be duly convicted of treason or other crime of the grade of felony at common law. In lien of section one of the article proposed to be added to the Constitution insert the following: No State .shall make or enforce any law wliich shall deny to any male citizen of the United States over twenty-one years of age, who has been such citizen for three months, the free exercise of the elective franchise in the State of his residence except as punishment for treason or other crime of the grade of felony at common law, whereof the person shall have been duly convicted. But this article shall not affect persons now disfranchised for participation in rebellion, nor prevent the execution of such proper regis- tration and naturalization laws as may be needed to protect the people in a just exercise of the elective franchise, nor to affect such qaulifications of electors as to time of residence as may be imposed by law for a period of one year or less." If the language of this amendment has been adopted the Louisiana plan of hereditary voting qualifications re- cently inaugurated would fall to the ground and the black vote could not be disfranchised by State law, as it now is throughout the South. jgg HAMILTON WARD. On January 29th, 1869, Mr. Ward delivered a ringing speech in the House on suffrage, which shows that he is firm in his ancient faiths. Mr Speaker, I think that nothing is more apparent than that this Congress should hand over to the people this proposition to amend the Con- Stut on It will be the capstone in the great temple of American freedom I w be the consummation of our great work. It will secure to us the uL Of the war. It will settle the controversies between th^ra^ ^U wil stop the contests between white men and black men. It will stop h "ntroversies of the North and the South on that subject. It wdl bnng tb country back to peace, which all the interests of the couutry demand. I hone Therefore, tL House will not hesitate about passing this amendment ' b' t tl^^ gentleman from Ohio tells us that we should extend universal amnesty He tells us, in substance, that we shall hand suffrage over to Terv rebel and every traitor disqualified by the laws of those States fiw bright Of suffrage. I am opposed to that. {^^ ^^^'^^ ^'i::^:^ I ^m willing to be just: I am willing to give these men m the South their iveT Ube tv and p operty; but I am not willing to banish from the statue- Lok the 1 's punishment for treason; for the moment you admit them to suffrage you must admit them to office, and when you ad.mit them to office Mr Bi^ckenridge comes in triumph fron. Kentucky and takes his seat m the Senate Mr. Toombo comes in triumph from Georgia and takes tjie seat in the Senate which he dishonored, Jefferson Davis returns from his t iumphal tour in Europe and takes his seat, and we shall have those p""s back here who defiled these halls with treason, who went into re- be in and brought all the blood and sacrifice of the rebellion upon tl«^ country. It has occurred to me that the quality of mercy might be stramed that we might be too magnanimous. We have been too magnanimous al- ready. There is now a member of this House who was a brigadier genera ot the Confederate army, who was educated at West Point, and who has come here booted and spurred from the rebel service to make laws fo the widows and orphans he has helped to make. He was not admitted, how- '^''^ L^\iTU:rr much the recent conduct of the rebels entitles them to "universal amnesty." Look at the violent overthrow of the loyal Legis- lature of Georgia under the leadership of Albert Toombs ^t vv^s but be other day that we performed our last sad duty to a member of h.s House from Arkansas who was murdered in cold blood by rebels of that State, with twenty other prominent Union men. I hold in my hand what is called the "final summary" of the report of the committee of the Legislature of Louisiana on the conduct of the late IN CONGRESS 18G9. 187 elections iu that State. The "summary" shows that the following number of Union men in that State were killed, wounded, and maltreated: eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, of which more than a thousand were killed out- right. This is the fruit of the "loyalty" of these former rebels in a single State. Clemency to such men is crime; it is unjust to the dead who fell in our cause and to the living who survive the contest, bearing its marks upon them, and it will be dangerous as a precedent iu the future. I hope we shall not insult the loyal sense of this nation by restoring all these murderous villains to political power. I am weary of this sickly senti- mentalism which strikes hands with traitors and criminals at the expense of justice and the public safety. I have no fears, Mr. Speaker, of giving suffrage to the black man. The nation in its march of greatness and to the accomplishment of its high destiny will confer it upon him. Let us have no timidity, no faltering. Let us shake not at the counsels of the weak, but go on and do justice, and from that will come safety, security, and peace. During the war General Lee's homestead at Arhngton, Va., fell into possession of the Federal troops and many relics of George Washington, the property of Mary Custiss Lee, were renioved to Washington. An effort was made by General Lee's family after the war to recover these articles and on the 27th of February, 1869, Mr. Ward offered the following resolution : "Whereas there appears in the Evening Express, a paper published in this city, under date of February 26th, 1869, the following: THE ARTICLES TAKEN FROM THE ARLINGTON HOUSE. General Robert E. Lee made application a few days ago. through a gentleman residing in this city, to the Secretary of the Interior for a num- ber of articles once the property of George Washington, which were taken from the Arlington House, General Lee's estate before the War, when that place fell into the possession of the Federal Army. The articles were pieces of household furniture, clothing, dishes, and papers, which formerly belonged to General Washington. Secretary Browning has decided to grant the request and an order has been given to turn the articles over to the person deputed by General Lee to receive them." Resolved, That the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds be directed to inquire into the subject, and ascertain whether the matter so published is true, and if true to ascertain by what right the Secretary of the Interior surrenders those articles so cherished as once the property of the Father of his Country to the rebel general-in-chief ; and that said Com- 188 HAMILTON WARD. mittee report fully upon the subject by bill or otherwise; and that they have power in pursuing said investigation to send for persons and papers, and leave to report at any time." Unanimous consent not being obtained at this time for the adoption of the resokition, it went to a committee, who reported on March 3rd, as follows : Resolved, That the articles known as the effects of George Wash- ington, the Father of his Country, now in the custody of the Department of the Interior, are of right the property of the United States; and any attempt on the part of the present Administration or any Department there- of to deliver the same to the Rebel General, Robert E. Lee, is an insult to the loyal people of the United States; and they ought to remain as relics in the Patent Office, and ought not to be delivered to anyone without the consent of Congress. This resolution was adopted and the Government re- tained the relics. In 1901 some of the articles were ordered delivered to members of the L,ee family by the McKinley Administration. As Mr. Ward gained confidence in himself and the ear of the House, he was found day after day opposing appropri- ation bills ; at this time it is most difficult to distinguish be- tween proper and improper appropriations, but as one reads the records of the 39th, 40th and 41st Congresses the point that presents itself most prominently in Mr. Ward's record is his economy. He was growing restive under the ex- travagance of the Dominant Radical faction and while in the forefront of the opposition to Johnson at the same time he opposed his fellow Radicals in their reckless expenditure of public funds. His remarks on March 3rd, 1869, in opposition to pay- ing the claims of three contestants to the same seat in Con- gress are typical and are as follows : "Now I would like to know upon what principle we are to pay three men who come here demanding a seat and all of whom have been rejected. Is it possible that each one of these gentlemen had such claims to the seat as justified him in making a contest? Is it possible that each of them could have a prima facie i-ight to the seat? IN CONGRESS 18G9. 189 It seems to me we should not be too liberal with the public money. It appears to me we should begin to redeem some of our broken promises tq the people. We have pledged ourselves to commence a system of economy and reform; to retrench in every possible way; to stop every leak in the public treasury. This is what we have promised the people in our platfornjs, our resolutions, our public speeches and declarations. It is about time that we should begin somewhere, somehow, and in some man- ner to stop the outrageous public expenditures which are constantly going on here. In this last night of the sessions of the Fortieth Congress let us commence a wholesale reform; let us inaugurate this work of economy. Let us admonish the twenty-live or thirty contestants for seats in the next Congress that if they come here claiming seats they must come here with a reasonable case; that every adventurer in the land shall not, if he can get a few votes in his favor, come here and make a contest, and after being rejected by the House be allowed his expenses as an inducement to all men of the same character and under similar circumstances to do in the future the same thing." Mr. Ward was active in the organization of the House and on March 5th, as spokesman of the RepubHcan caucus placed in nomination the Clerk, Edward McPherson, of Pennsylvania, and the Sergeant-at-Arms, N. G. Ordway, of New Hampshire, the two most important ofticers, who were duly elected. The leaders of the 40th Congress were mostly re-elected. In this Congress there first appeared George F. Hoar, of Massachusetts, James B. Beck, of Kentucky, and Daniel W. Voorhees, of Indiana. Noah Davis was iit the Nev.' York delegation. During Johnson's term the Republican majority feared to trust him with the full control of the U. S. Army and en- deavored to divest him of this constitutional right by enact- ing a law that all orders to the Army should pass throup;]i the General of the Army, at that time General U. S. Grant. With the defeat of Johnson and Grant's accession to the Presidency, the necessity for this emergency law disappeared and on the 15th day of ]\Iarch, 1869, Mr. Ward introduced Plouse Resolution No. 14, providing for the repeal of thii; act, and the act was subsequently repealed. On this day the standing committees of the 41 st Con- lt)0 HAMILTON WAKI). gress were announced by the Speaker, James G. Blaine, of Maine. Schuyler Colfax having been elected Vice-Presi- dent. Mr. Ward was not placed upon either of the Committees on Claims, where he had formerl}^ so zealously guarded the public purse, and instead was made fifth on the important Committee on Reconstruction, B. F. Butler, of Massachus- etts, being Chairman ; and second on the Committee on Ter- ritories, Shelby M. Cullum, of Illinois, being Chairman. Blaine had promised to make Mr. Ward chairman of the Committee on Claims, but this, like many other promises of this erratic statesman, was not carried out. On March 17th Mr. Ward asked to be excused from committee service, but the Speaker ruled that there was no quorum present to grant the desired permission. The re- quest was not again preferred. Mr. Ward never admired "The Plumed Knight" (Blaine), and often said in private conversation that he did not regard him as either an honest or sincere man, sharing this belief with Roscoe Conkling, who later became his warm and valued friend. In this connection it may be proper to set down Mr. Ward's idea of James A. Garfield, who was in Congress at this time, and who later became President of the United States and was assassinated by Guiteau. Garfield, Mr. Ward said, was a lazy man and of loose moral habits, but of great brilliancy. His speeches had a lofty and sincere tone which were not exemplified in his life, and the applause which greeted him from the gallery frequently came from the frail fair of his aquaintance who had come to hear the "Campbellite Preacher." Garfield's subsequent treatment of Conkling showed the weakness of his character. Mr. Ward's sense of humor was one of his most charac- teristic traits. Frequently he enlivened a dull debate with a joke, and in company he was always genial and affable. He much regretted his inability to recall names, and while hav- ing a remarkable memory for faces, he sometimes found it difficult to place a familiar countenance. He used to tell a AGRICULTURAL SPEECH 18G9. 191 Story of an incident which occurred about this time which well illustrates this. One morning he took an Erie train at Elmira for Belmont, at one of the way stations in Steuben County a farmer got on who stared at him and sat down in the seat in front. Mr. Ward thought that he recognized the face but could not place the man, and fearing that he might offend some constituent who had carried a caucus for him, or something of the sort, he leaned forward, and ad- dressed the stranger, who continued to glance at him from time to time, and in his most engaging way said : '■! beg your pardon, but haven't I seen your face somewhere be- fore?" The supposed constituent, in a voice that could be heard all over the car. replied: "Mebby you have, stranger, mebby you have. I've had that face a long time and a good many darn fools have looked at it," which reply, needless to say, concluded the conversation. Later in the summer Mr. Ward delivered an address upon invitation at the Hornellsville Agricultural Fair, and extracts from it are as follows: ''Ladies and Gentlemen: — You have brought here again youi- annual offering of fruits and flowers and the products of your farms and industry to present them in generous competition. Your contests here are those of peace and thrift, not of war and tumult. Your victories are over the steril soil, the forests, inclement seasons and nature's obstructions to toil, not over bloody fields and fallen men. Yours is the foundation art— Commerce rears its cities; builds palaces and costly piles: launches its ships upon the sea, but you furnish the material for the whole. The mechanic, arts, manufacture, adorn and beautify, but you give the mechanic the bread he eats; the wool that clothes his back and the silk and cotton for his family use. Yours is the primal art, thousands of years ago soon after the great diet was issued "Let there be light," "Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain was a tiller of the ground." Before the prolific brain of man had worked out the great problems of civilization; before Tyre was built, Baby- Ion shone and Rome was founded on her seven hills, the sons of men wrought by agriculture from a generous earth nourishment for their chil- dren. The work of the husbandmen has grown with the ages and has par- taken of the improvements which during the last two centuries have revo- lutionized society and annihilated time and space and brought the ends of the earth together. ****** 192 HAMILTON WARD. In conclusion let me say, son and daughter of toil, be not discour- aged or cast down. Yours is the work that Heaven imposes for wise pur- poses. No act of hand or heart or brain in this world is lost; its effect is more lasting than the granite hills, for it will remain when earth and sea shall pass away and the '"elements melt with fervent heat." Each blow you strike, each acre you till, each contribution you make to the world's wealth will bring its reward. Think not that your humble trade or calling is of no consequence, you are the Monarchs of the World, for you feed, cloth and support it. If you have uneasy longings after something better, if your ears would like to catch the silvery notes of fame and you desire the luxuries of riches, and you cannot accomplish these, be not discontented, these things bring thorns and sorrows that you know not of and you will be no happier if you possess them. Be content with what is allotted to you, and in all things do your duty, and you are the peers of the loftiest and equals of the best. Your name may not sound in "song or story," but the farmer with his little farm in debt, struggling hard to got an honest living and support his family, who rears up his children to be good citizens and useful men and women, and does his full duty to God and man; the mechanic that toils early and late at the forge or bench and struggling perchance in debt, misfortune or poverty to do his duty and rear his offspring in the right way, and leading an hon- est life, dies as he lived, fighting the world's battles bravely with his harness on his back; the poor widow in her weeds and with her helpless orphan chil- dren clinging to her for bread, goes nobly out into the cold world and gives up the labor of her life to get food and clothing for the little ones and to bring them up in honest paths and in the fear of Heaven, keeping alive through temptation, soitow and toil the noble wo-manhood that was given her and leading a pure and blameless life; these and such as these are the true heroes of this world, and such in the eternal judgment book they will be recorded." At the time of the re-assembhng of Congress in Decem- ber, 1869, the American people were much wrought up over the war for Cuban Independence then desolating that island, and the same desire for intervention was manifest which plunged the nation in war thirty years later and brought an end to Spain's dominion in America. On December 13th, Mr. Ward presented a petition signed by over 72,000 residents of New York State asking Congress to recognize Cuban independence and said : IN CONGRESS 1869. 193 "I wish to say that it seems to me that the sufferiug of these people in Cuba in the cause of liberty, equal rights aud justice appeal to our com- miseration and sympathy; that the struggles of the people in Cuba in as- serting their independence and equal rights challenge our highest admira- tion. Aud I think it would be unbecoming tJie American Congress to refuse even to listen to the petition of the people of my State asking that the suffering cry of more than a million people almost within our own borders, struggling for life and liberty, should be heard; and that we should allow the petition to be read, is the least we can do. I ask unanimous consent that the petition be read at the Clerk's Desk." The petition is as follows: TO THE HONORABLE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES: We, the citizens of the American Union, in behalf of the principles written in our charter of national independence, and in the name of libeity and the sovereignty of a people struggling to be free, respectfully petition that your honorable body do accord to Cuba the rights of a belligerent Power, and at once recognize the independence of her sons from the tyranny of a foreign yoke which for more than a year they have maintained un- aided, by the triumph of their arms. This was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, but with no substantial result. Had Congress at this time intervened before Cuba was desolated by the ten years war and before Wyler's policy of Re-concentration reduced the population by 40 per cent., the ultimate result would have justified it. On January 14th, 1870, in the House, in discussing the reconstruction of Virginia, Mr. Ward defended the report of the Reconstruction Committee, which advocated admitting Virginia on terms, i. e., requiring her to guarantee the civil rights and the franchise to the blacks. This requirement had not been made of Tennessee, but had been made in the case of the other reconstructed States, and Mr. Ward urged that it should especially apply to Virginia. His per-oration is as follows : Mr. Ward. Did the gentleman never hear of a bond without a pen- alty, of an obligation without a penalty? From his remarks it might be supposed he never heard of such. I suppose an obligation can be en- force thoy cringed around the knees of power and begged to be let in on such terms as they might prescribe. I tell you, Mr. Speaker, while I do not in- tend to be uncharitable, I have no faith in rebels of this generation. I be- lieve, witJi few exceptions, they respect and fear but one thing, and that is the power of this Government; and while we have got that power, I would insist upon enforcing it. And now, sir, when Stonewall Jackson and Lee and the Confederate Congress have been swept away we stand upon the ruins of the old State government, we propose to build it up and cement it in fundamental law upon the eternal principles of right, justice, and equity, that all men shall be protected in the right to the ballot and the jury-box; and we propose to petrify those rights in their constitution, so that when storms shall come hereafter they cannot be lost or overwhelmed; that treason may raise its hydra head no more; that the land of Washing- ton, Jefferson ajid Madison may be restored with a true republican govern- ment to its old place in the Union, there to remain forever, realizing the hope that inspired those heroic men when they dared and achieved so much to obtain our national independence; that the Union of these States should last for many centuries to come, securing to all men within its borders the priceless blessings of civil and religious liberty. Virginia was subsequently admitted with the restric- tions. During- this term Mr. Ward passed a bill providing foi the holding of an annual term of the Circuit and District U. S. Courts in the City of Elmira, a privilege which that city still enjoys. On March 23rd, he delivered a speech on polygamy in Utah which he regarded as one of his best efforts. Extracts from it are as follows : In everything I see in reference to this institution of polygamy does it become me now and here to condemn it. It has been condemned by the sentiment of a century, and it has received the condemnation of all honor- able and proper people. Whenever you degrade women you degrade all. That institution which debauches the mother, which dishonors the wife, which disgraces the daughter and sister, strikes at the foundation of all just government and free institutions. Say what you may of your great Republic, plead as you may for its success, glorify as you may over it» stretching from ocean to ocean and from the frozen regions of the North to the (Julf of Mexico, reaching its influence throughout the globe. Christian- izing and beautifying the world — say what you may, it all rests upon home virtue. It rests upon the love, its rests upon the integrity of the mother and 196 HAMILTON WARD. wife; and whenever you debauch the home and household you corrupt all; and it is the homes of this country. North, South, East, and West, where purity reigns, where virtue reigns, where this Republic is to live, and upon that superstructure to-day, with God's blessing, it is permitted to stand. I ask you, honorable gentlemen, where would you have been if your homes had been brothels and your mothers concubines? How often in the history of your lives can you look over the desert track of your existence and recall all that has surrounded you, and at the same time recall the flaming sword which seemed to stand at the gate and kept you from doing evil. I ask you, when you remember this, what it was that preserved you so well? What were more powerful than the early influence of a mother's guidance and the lessons of love and duty which spring up in every virtuous household? These principles, learned in the homes of the land, are what have saved you from every peril that may have beset your path in life. I remember very well one who was pure and beautiful, and who twenty years ago they buried on the banks of the James. I remember very well whose counsel it was hung over my childhood like an angel beam and protected me from a thousand harms. I pay this tribute to her name. I speak of these things because it is proper, and we are called upon in relation to this matter to go to the i-oot of all government, and that is the house- hold. Say what you may of the woman of Utah; say that they acquiesce in this system; refer if you please to their conduct in reference to this bill; but you cannot change their nature. Six thousand years have rolled over this earth and still it is the same with women. She will admit of no part- nership in her affections. She will admit of no division of her regards. While man is controlled by schemes of ambition, which he pursues over laud and sea the woman, the true woman, has but one great ambition, and that is to make her home a paradise. You break down^ that home, you destroy that feeling, and you crush her, you tend to make her a waif, you tend to make her a debauched and dishonored thing, you leave her at the mercy of every wind and tide that may assault her. And when your legislation en- courages this state of things I assure you, Mr. Speaker, that it strikes at the very foundation of free institutions. In June he introduced a resolution in the House to re- move the tariff on coal, which was passed in spite of opposi- tion from Pennsylvania, and his ever present inclination to joke was manifested in the same month when a resolution to appropriate moneys for an expedition to the North Pole was being considered, by moving- an amendment that a like sum be appropriated for an expedition to the South Pole, as Con- SPEECH ON INCOME TAX. 197 gress should not discriminate in favor of either Pole. Mr. Ward took a decided stand on the proposal to re- peal the income tax law, a species of taxation now growing in favor, and his remarks on June 2nd, on that subject, are as follows : "Mr. Speaker, I have refrained from takinj? any part in the debates which have grown out of financial questions which the Committee of Ways and Means have presented through their tariff bill and the bill now before the House. I have preferre