|
|
"
..
.
.
*
*
*
:
ا
,
.
و
و
|
,
,
,
.
1,185,848
*
.
"
A
.
..:: ..
.
و
۰۰:
.. .......... : .
: .. م
-
اجه
.
.
.
نشده مند بن
بسته
ن
نننننناشنت
*
نن

به
مه جه عقد
سطع اسمه عهه
. . . .
. . .
.
ه
ع
.
: برجوعها
مدل
از
3 تن ت اجی
اما
RSIZ
ده
کہنا
المشاه دات السلام
ومضاد سه
-
المكتبات العمل
هههه
- شهدها البسفحه - .
. -
- .
-
.
و ال
.
.
نصيتك
.
،،
عا
دلب -
لنده
ی نسیم

އަހަ/ (/
MEN AND EVENTS OF
FORTY YEARS
Autobiographical Reminiscences of an active career
from 1850 to 1890
BY THE LATE
JOSIAH BUSNELL GRINNELL
WITH INTRODUCTION BY
PROF. HENRY W. PARKER, D.D.
BOSTON
D LOTHROP COMPANY
WASHINGTON STREET OPPOSITE BROMFIELD
COPYRIGHT, 1891,
BY
D. LOTHROP COMPANY.
PREFACE.
By PROF. HENRY W. PARKER, D.D.
The author of this volume lived to complete the book, except
the preface, which has been assigned to me, who knew and loved
him for nearly half a century. Much of the volume was written
in Mr. Grinnell's last days, in the midst of manifold business and
while suffering from disease-sometimes in severe pain while
dictating to an amanuensis. Still, it is one of those valuable
books of reminiscence (probably the more photographic because
rapid and free in expression), of which there are too few in the
past, and which give a better insight into events and men than
formal history — in this case, both state and national. How few
men, of wide acquaintanceship and action, appreciate the future
value of their recollections, not prized by them for the same reason
that posterity would highly prize the story, namely, the narrator's
familiarity with the facts. I once urged upon a septuagenarian,
who could well say pars fui of early western New York, and of
much of New England in the first half of this century, the duty of
talking out his reminiscences on paper; but he persisted rather in
compiling a useless book on the French Revolution, which, natu-
rally enough, had made as hearsay a profound impression on him
in his boyhood.
To look through the eyes of Mr. Grinnell's memory in this book
is to behold a great panorama of events and men, in the most inter-
esting stages of our progress — the founding of States and the
upholding of the Union and Freedom. To look into his eyes, as
one can almost do in reading his pages, is to look into à large,
noble nature of marvellous activities, of remarkable individuality;
viii
PREFACE.
and this alone renders the book a blessing to the youthful who
may be inspired by his energetic and lofty example.
A full appreciation of Mr. Grinnell's chapters, in the minds of
those who knew him, carries with it a vivid impression of his
remarkable personal qualities. The reverse of tall, of very solid
build, with a short, strong neck and fearless temperament, all
his sturdy fighting endowment took the direction of indomitable
energy in enterprise and of intrepid assertion of everything right
and good; and the always overflowing surplus of his vital energy
took the shape of superabounding good nature. His manner was
and opinions, of the largest pattern; his disposition, utterly devoid
of selfishness and any trace of meanness; his feeling, so bright and
hopeful as to exclude the thought of anything dark in the uni-
verse, except it might be present injustice to be righted, or want
and suffering to be relieved. Though not a theoretical, he was a
practical communist, holding every hour and power and possession
ready for the common good. Indeed, he must have struck every
thoughtful acquaintance as a rare, even unexampled, phenomenon
of exhaustless activity and generosity. Of course, with such a
nature he was frank, never stinting expression of his thought and
as in this book, his felicitation over all persons, all things, when it
included himself might seem like egotism, whereas he most cer-
tainly held a modest opinion of himself and his deeds. In fact,
he lived outside of himself in enterprises, in beneficence, and in a
singularly worshipful regard toward men justly eminent, as shown
by much of eulogistic tone in this book.
Some of the passages, quoted from himself in the following
pages, give some hint of his pithy style, his happy humor, and his
truly poetic flights, as an extemporaneous speaker — such that he
was sent for or called upon on all occasions, never failing to fulfill
expectation. The most of the pages give little impression of all
this, written as they were in intervals snatched from business,
without the stimulus of occasion and audience; and the very
nature of the work, together with advancing disease, lending the
sober coloring of retrospect, combined with prospect of life's ter-
mination. Genius of every kind, and especially the literary, is
simply a keen perception of the subtile or manifold inter-relations
of things, with daring and persistence in embodying the conse-
PREFACE.
quent conceptions; and I do not hesitate to say that Mr. Grinnell
was a genius, and would have made his mark as an author, if he
had devoted time and elaboration to literary work. The only man,
so far as my limited knowledge goes, who distinctly recognized
this, was Rev. H. Melville Tenney, his last pastor, who in the
funeral address, said, “He was of an essentially poetic tempera-
ment ... He caught the ideal in every situation ...
This element characterized his deeds, his writings and his public
addresses. His thoughts, tinged with poetic glow, rushed out into
expression, sometimes faster than logic could arrange them, and
sometimes they seemed to mingle in inextricable confusion, but
almost invariably emerged in some telling climax that justified all
that had gone before. There was a real Carlylian strength in his
style when at his best.”
One period of Mr. Grinnell's early life, otherwise overlooked,
was touched upon by Ex-President G. F. Magoun, D. D., on the
same funeral occasion. “In the employ of the American Tract
Society, he was the most useful man ever engaged by that great
truth-distributing organization. He could see more people and say
more in a day than any man I ever knew. He was a herald of
light and truth to the early villages of Iowa and Wisconsin.”
Besides being the founder of several towns (including Chapin,
Iowa, named after his wife's family), and both founder and presi-
dent of a university and of two banks, and other institutions, Mr.
Grinnell held the following official civil appointments: Special
Agent of the Post Office Department for the North-west — by
President Lincoln; Arbitrator in adjustment of Wool Schedules
under the tariff law — by the Secretary of the Treasury; Agent
to report on Animal Industry in the United States — by the Com-
missioner of Agriculture. The following offices he held by popular
election: State Senator, 1856, on a platform of Free Schools, no
saloons, and no extension of Slavery; Representative in Congress
in 1862, and re-elected in 1864, by 6,000 majority, but declined to
canvass for a third term. The following were honorary appoint-
ments: Referee in the Treaty purchase of the Cherokee Neutral
Lands, and as such conferring with United States Senators and
the President; Receiver of the Central Railroad of Iowa, and act-
ing Superintendent, and more than vindicated in his management
by the Courts and the Press; selection by the National Cattle
Association as Chairman of the Committee on Pleuropneumonia to
PREFACE.
draft the Bill passed by Congress, affecting millions of property by
its enactment. Add to these, numerous presidencies and other
offices in State and district associations, directorships of railroads,
etc.
From a long editorial on his life and work, in the Iowa State
Register, of Des Moines, the ensuing extracts may be made as indi-
cating the great public estimation in which he was held, far and
wide:
"Mr. Grinnell's life record would be a history of Iowa. He was one of the
leaders of the noble pioneers who settled in the state within the first decade of
statehood, and his unceasing efforts have done more to develop the central portion
of the state than has been accomplished by any other citizen.
*
*
*
*
*
“It is difficult to write of Mr. Grinnell in a brief article. His splendid life
record has been a continuous labor of love for his State and Nation. He was a
close student, a constant reader, a deep thinker and one of the most condensive
writers and speakers of his time. His short, vigorous and expressive sentences
always betokened his conscientiousness, fidelity to principle and unswerving integ-
rity. Of a progressive mould he was continually striving for improved methods
and better regulations in all the affairs of life. No state boundaries could encom-
pass his good work. He has been a prominent and zealous laborer in the business,
church, educational, temperance and political affairs of the State and Nation, and
had gained the personal acquaintance and respect of more of the leading men of
the past forty years than any man who has lived continuously in Iowa during the
period named. He had a personal acquaintance with Wendell Phillips, Charles
Sumner, Thad. Stevens, Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, John Brown and
nearly all the other noted statesmen, scholars, ministers and patriots of his time,
and was popular with all of them, as he has always been with all good people.
“He was engaged for several years in compiling reminiscences of the past forty
years. His notes, library and memory were all stored with data gathered by him-
self, and we understand that he completed his book, or nearly completed it, before
he was compelled to cease his labors, by the disease that finally conquered the
spirit that never acknowledged defeat from any other source. This history will be
invaluable to all coming generations of this state as he has included Iowa men and
times in his reminiscences of the past four decades.
*
"After Emancipation, the good heart of Mr. Grinnell took up the work of edu-
cation for the negro, as actively as he had participated in the struggle for freedom.
To the black race he was the foremost and most conspicuous friend and cham-
pion in Iowa. When this state, first of all in the Union, enfranchised the negro in
1868, he was the leader of it all, and made every stump eloquent with his appeals
for justice to the oppressed race. Deep in the heart of the black men always will
live the memory of Mr. Grinnell.
“Mr. Grinnell's life began in Vermont in 1821, and closed in Iowa in 1891.
Between the cradle at New Haven, Vt., and the deathbed at Grinnell are seventy
long years of high thinking and noble living - a pilgrimage that reads like the
scriptural accounts of the lives of the elect who walked with God and who in their
hearts carried the consciousness of a divinely appointed mission on earth. The
two facts that stand out most prominently in the earthly pilgrimage of this
PREFACE.
divinely gifted man were his devotion to truth and his love of freedom. Fearless
because deeply conscious that he was right and had truth and justice on his side,
he remained until the great struggle was over, a leader in the ranks of anti-slavery
and pro-Union thinkers and workers. Of the end he never despaired. The dark
days came, the clouds lowered, human hearts were burdened with almost more
than human strength could bear, God and victory seemed to hesitate between the
North and the South, the Right and Wrong - but here was one strong man,
whose hope dimmed not, whose faith faltered not, and whose courage forsook him
not.
“Distinguished in public life, Mr. Grinnell was loved in private life. He was
a man of the home before he was a man of the rostrum, the forum or the school.
With him the home was the beginning of all that is noble and all that is pure. It
was with him the source of personal strength and National security. He loved his
own home. He loved the wife of his heart who tenderly consecrated there her life.
He loved his children with the warmth of a great heart. This man's life, so fear-
less in the discussion of public questions, so brave always, was as tender and as
gracious as a woman's in his own home. Outside of the love of his family he was
loved by thousands. He had troops of friends and never were friends more loyal
to any man. He held them in the grasp of his strong love, and as he neared life's
end they grew nearer and dearer to him. They thought of him and he thought of
them. They inquired more and more earnestly after him as he grew weaker and
weaker, and from a deeper depth of gratitude sent back to them his fervent, 'God
bless you all'.
"Mr. Grinnell, by residence belonged to Grinnell, by faith to the Congrega-
tional Church and by politics to the Republican party, but in a wider, truer sense
he belonged to no city, no sect and no party - but to the people, to the state and to
the cause of the greatest good for all men. His good will, sympathy and assistance
were denied to no good cause. He investigated all subjects of liuman thought. He
labored in all fields of human endeavor. And whatever he espoused, whatever he
touched, he enriched with the love of a warm heart and the genius of a determined
spirit striving for success. Poor, struggling, full of hope, full of ambition in his
youth; active, pushing, energetic, enterprising, determined in the prime of life; in
old age an oracle, and in death mourned and regretted ---such are the life and
death of Iowa's noble pioneer and honored citizen, who lies awaiting the last sad
rites, at his old home in Grinnell.”
Mr. Grinnell died of throat disease, complicated with asthma,
March 31, 1891, at his home, fronting the park in Grinnell. The
eloquent tributes paid to him by his neighbors and the western
Press would make a volume; some extracts are given in an
Appendix. He was buried with the heartfelt mourning of the
whole community.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Birthplace — Ancestry - Family Pioneers — Childhood - The Old
Church and Minister — Youthful Episodes — The Boy School-
master — The Harrison Campaign.
CHAPTER II.
A Student - Moot Courts - First Visit to New York - Notable
Events and Persons of Half a century Ago - Oneida Institute-
Picture of Reformers and Orators, Gerritt Smith, Alvin Stewart,
President Beriah Green.
CHAPTER III.
False Theories — Club Life-Westward, ho!— Wisconsin Prairies —
Codding, the Abolition Orator — The Home of the Badger -
A Volume- A Return East-- A Student in Auburn Theological
Seminary— First Call to Preach— Union Village, New York —
My Mother's Death.
CHAPTER IV.
Washington Society — Its Intolerance — The new Congregational
Church - A Liberal Club— Distinguished Reformers — Dr.
Bailey's National Era— Radical Legislators.
CHAPTER V.
Garrison -- Whittier - Simms, the Fugitive — U. S. Marshal Dev-
ens — Caleb Cushing --Henry Wilson — Anson P. Burlingame
- Theodore Parker.
xiv
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
“Go West, Young Man, Go West” – Out-door Speaking in New
York— Failure of Voice— Horace Greeley's Advice — Copy of
Greeley's Letter — Proposed Colony — Turned from Missouri by
Slavery--- Protégé of Henry Farnam— Railway Magnate -
Fortunate Location of the City of Grinnell.
CHAPTER VII.
Prohibition of Saloons — Pioneering Incidents ---- Rattlesnake Ser-
mon--- Our Mail Service--- First Law Suit - The Long Home-
Foibles of an Enthusiast - First Fourth of July — First Ceme-
tery Burial — A Bell on the Prairie- The Church.
CHAPTER VIII.
State Senator - Free School Law — Congressional Canvass - How
I became a Lawyer.
CHAPTER IX.
The War Congress, 1863—5— A Scat Episode - Wilson, Kasson,
Price, Allison, Hubbard, E. C. Ingersoll, Lovejoy, Henry Winter
Davis, Oakes Ames, President Hayes, President Garfield, Col
fax, Blaine and others - The Opposition Leaders, Hendricks,
Voorhees, Brooks, Wood, Cox, etc. — War Days at Home.
CHAPTER X.
Thirty-ninth Congress, 1865–7–Financial Problems — Red Tape-
Whiskey Tax— The Thirteenth Amendment - Reconstruction,
Review of the Times — The Press Reporters.
CHAPTER XI.
A Personal Assault — Freedman's Bureau the Occasion with the
Apostasy of Andrew Johnson-James F. Wilson— Freedom of
Speech -- General Rousseau reprimanded by the House - His
Death.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Хү
CHAPTER XII.
Lincoln's War Cabinet - Salmon P. Chase-- Edwin M. Stanton-
William H. Seward - General and President Grant.
CHAPTER XIII.
Thaddeus Stevens — Schuyler Colfax — John A. Logan — Gratz
Brown - David Davis — Henry S. Foote- Jefferson Davis —
Gen. Winfield Scott — Henry Clay — Daniel Webster.
CHAPTER XIV.
Our Notable Guests — Wendell Phillips --John Brown— Horace
Greeley — Henry Ward Beecher.
CHAPTER XV.
Some People I have met — John G. Saxe— George H. Corliss -
Alpheus Hardy - Arthur Sherburne Hardy— Father Clark-
son — W. F. Story — Edgar W. Nye— Joseph Cook — John B.
Gough— Robert G. Ingersoll.
CHAPTER XVI.
Iowa and Iowans — Col. S. H. M. Byers, our War Historian -
Charles Aldrich — D. N. Richardson— Hon. Ezekiel Clark-
John L. Coffin -- Generals James B. Weaver, N. B. Baker, John
M. Corse, Samuel R. Curtis, G. M. Dodge, J. M. Crocker and
William W. Belknap-- Governors Grimes, Kirkwood., Stone,
Merrill, Carpenter, Gear, Sherman and Larrabee— Judges
Wright, Nourse, Miller, Dillon, Love and McCrary – Hons.
Graves, Moninger, Howell and McDill - Henry Clay Dean.
CHAPTER XVII.
Indians — The Sacs and Foxes in Iowa— The Friend of the Indians,
John L. Davenport - Indians and the Cattle Husbandry — The
True Policy of the Nation toward its Wards.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Prohibition Temperance Issue— Skirmish Line Demonstrations
— The Political Status -- Prohibition Party - An Address ---
The Iowa Churches -- George C. Haddock — Laws of Heredity-
Revenue from Whiskey.
1
xvi
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
,
CHAPTER XIX.
Railroads - Personal Work — Central Railroad of Iowa— Receiver-
ship and Superintendence — Malicious Litigation—Vindication.
CHAPTER XX.
Agricultural Affairs — Wool-Grower's Association - National Dairy-
men's Fair -- District Fair of 1859 - Fine Stock Breeders'
Society - Commissioner on Pleuro-pneumonia among Cattle-
State Horticultural Society — American Agricultural Associa-
tion — State Fair of 1890— Arboriculture-Fences — Protective
Tariff.
CHAPTER XXI.
Grinnell University and Iowa College - Their building - Progress
- Fire- Tornado Benefactors — Tribute to their Memory-
Other Benefactors — Use of Trust Funds.
CHAPTER XXII. .
The Tornado of 1882 - Descriptive Incidents — Relation to the
Town - Visit to Princely Givers — Personals.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Historical Address at New Haven, Vt., 1887 --- Distinguished Ver-
monters — Iowa Vermont and New England Associations —
Eulogy on Senator Solomon Foote— Shorter Catechism.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Cherokee Neutral Land Purchase- Emigrant Aid Company -
Vindication of Secretary James Harlan-James F. Joy- First
Bridge across the Missouri — A Texas Overland Trip-Journey
to Mexico.
CHAPTER XXV.
Grinnell Quarter Centennial Celebration - Silver Wedding - A Ser-
mon on Sermons — The Home Library— Tribute to a Life's
Companion--- Money Making — Words to Children and Grand-
children - Memorial of Faith.
REMINISCENCES OF MEN AND EVENTS
11
OF FORTY YEARS.
CHAPTER I.
Birthplace- Ancestry - Family Pioneers--- Childhood— The Old
Church and Minister — Youthful Episodes - The Boy School-
master - The Harrison Campaign.
I KNEW the fortune, if it might so be counted, of rural life and
humble poverty. The sorrows of orphanage were mine, but from
the dissipations and perils of youth in cities I had a happy
exemption. My claim as a loyal Vermonter has ever been
unquestioned, and I refer to my oration in New Haven, after
nearly a half century of absence, while speaking in the old church
in the presence of veterans, friends of my parents, and the later
generations, as to the minister who moulded the people, and the
rude but virtuous life of the pioneers.
My father's name was Myron, the eldest son of Reuben Grin-
nell, whom I introduce later. I was born in New Haven, Vermont,
on the 22d of December, 1821, Forefather's day. My father, as
the orator of the day, was addressing a crowd of grown-up pil-
grims, in the church, at that hour, rather than greeting the arrival
of myself, a young pilgrim.
Josiah was the name given me, in honor of a noted clergyman
of the town, Josiah Hopkins, while the second name, Bushnell,
was said to be jointly for the Reverend Jedediah Bushnell, of
Cornwall, and (that the youth thus heavily laden with honor might
be inclined to the ministerial vocation) the famous Horace Bush-
nell, of Hartford, a leader of progressive theology, honored by a
public park and a monument. Then, Hon. Campbell Bushnell, a
lawyer of fame, ever claimed that I was named for him, also, by
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
his next friend, my father, which is confirmed by a correspond-
ence; and if there were wanting an apology for myself, a humble
actor in the role of the ministerial and legal professions, I might
find it both in the names borne and honorable associations of
friendship and blood.
Grinnell is a reminder of Huguenot origin, and an ancestry rich
in traditions of history, and of meu tried and true in the dark
hours of religious persecutions — men with iron in their blood. In
peace, their children were men of affairs. They could scale mount-
ains, navigate seas, and must be classed with the great reformers,
without “principles for sale” or religious convictions to barter.
It is the common remark of those who have studied our genealog-
ical tree that there has never been one of the name convicted of an
infamous offense, which opinion I have no occasion to discredit,
however indifferent many of the name may have been to their
blood, and a fortunate history and environment.
Grinnelle, in the original French, became the same name with-
ont the terminal "e" or with one less “l," and abbreviated by the
loss of an "n"; thus arose the variations of a name from one root,
being many branches from the same trunk. There was a family
“Coat of Arms.” I only look at it, but I do not presume to wear
it, as I think our children will not. I do not forget the more than
traditional honor of the family. Grenelle Spring, in Paris, so
noted, was once in their possession, and is still known for its
medicinal value and historic surroundings.
It is no idle boast that our ancestors were real Huguenots.
Their faith and manhood were tested on the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes, in 1685. The issue was sharp- the renunciation
of their Protestant faith, or the alternative of a bloody strife and
expatriation in poverty. They chose a peaceful course, and the
chronicles of the time give their exit to a home on the chalky cliffs
of Cardiff, Wales, leaving parks and gardens to their intolerant
foes. Here, for twenty-five years, enterprise and sturdy manhood
were blended with patriotism and religion. Then the family was
lured into the migratory tide across the ocean, where they found a
rude home at Little Compton, Rhode Island, in 1710. Their early
shelter, a stone house, from which went forth kindred of various
tastes and ambitions, is still standing. The late Moses H. Grin-
nell, some thirty years ago on the high wave of prosperity, com-
missioned me to make a purchase of the historic stone house for
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
3
the family, a service which I regret was omitted, and the posses-
sion will be left, if ever gained, to some member of the family
of enterprise.*
Persons bearing our name are few, but they are of diverse
tastes, and found engaged in many vocations. There was one
branch in the South, planters, whom I regret to say developed into
enemies of the Union, and are known, many of them, to have
fallen in the late war, and are now unknown by their loyal kin-
dred in the North. There was the commercial branch, Joseph
Grinnell, of New Bedford, being one of the most conspicuous
members, just deceased, over ninety years of age. He was a
banker, a railway president, and held a place in congress forty
years ago, shaping our commercial policy as a nation. Henry
Grinnell, of New York, died in 1874, at the age of seventy-five
years, a quiet merchant prince, who, with munificent liberality,
instituted search for Sir John Franklin and party, and thus was
discovered what is known as “Grinnell Land.” His enterpise
became more than national. Moses H. Grinnell, another brother,
was of the renowned firm of Grinnell & Minturn, New York,
great ship-owners. Mr. Grinnell was elegant in tastes, liberal, as
evinced by the contribution of $20,000 in a single political cam-
paign; long a member of Congress, Collector of the Port of New
York under President Grant, losing the mass of his fortune in
building the Hudson River Railroad, and spending the later years
of his life abroad, offended in his political honor by President
Grant, who would not accept his resignation, but later appointed
an enemy rather than a friend to the Collectorship. I forbear to
give the details of this painful episode, but remember well his last
allusion when I said, “President Grant asked yesterday for your
health," on which I gained the reply: “Will you please inform
the President that he is the last person to whom I should answer;
for in my dealings with men in the last forty years he is the only
* I do not forget that there are persons of our name who insist that there was
an arrival of a branch of our family at Plymouth, in the early colonial days.
Proud of a noble origin, embracing the traditional "three brothers," whose fami-
lies became widely scattered in various pursuits, I do not hold this a simple family
legend, and we must wait on the leisure of some one curious in genealogical
research for names and dates.
The late Hon. Joseph Grinnell, of New Bedford, Mass., gave my version
of their origin, migration and settlement. Still, if antiquarian researches are
prompted by this, and we are found to be of a family of higher repute, it will be no
cause of regret.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
official who had the power and inclination to bring to me shame, I
will not say dishonor.” This circumstance I related to the Presi-
dent, who said it pained him that his friend would not tolerate an
explanation of an occurrence which he had many times regretted
when too late to make atonement to his great-hearted, public-
spirited friend.
The New England Society of New York elected Mr. Grinnell
its President for some ten years, and a fashionable club-house of
that city deemed itself fortunate in possession of his late palatial
residence, at the corner of Fourteenth Street and Fifth Avenue, so
long distinguished for the elegant and liberal hospitality of its
owner.
Of this family I mention only the daughter of another brother,
Cornelia Grinnell, who married the poet, N. P. Willis. She
opened and maintained in her widowhood a ladies' school in New
York. Admiral Hy. Walton Grinnell, the son of Henry Grinnell,
served in the navy during the war with honor, later in the service
of the Mikado of Japan, still later public adviser to the Republic of
Ecuador, and now, I think, has retired after a distinguished career.
Hon. George Grinnell, of Greenfield, Massachusetts, was long a
member of Congress, afterward wearing the ermine of a just
judge, an officer in the Congregational church for half a century,
and lived to an advanced age. His descendants have upheld the
repute of the family. Hon. James S. Grinnell, known as an agri-
cultural writer, is an authority on rural affairs. Hon. W. F. Grin-
nell, long in the Consular service, married a sister of our Vice-
President Morton, of whom he was a business partner, and with
whom he now holds a confidential and honored relation in Wash-
ington. Leaving unmentioned a large class less distinguished, but
alike worthy of honorable family mention, I pass now to
OUR OWN FAMILY.
Our grandfather was Reuben Grinnell, a farmer, who removed
from Salisbury, Connecticut, to Lanesborough, Massachusetts. In
the year 1791 he migrated to what is known as Lanesborough
Street, in the town of New Haven, Vermont. His children were
seven, none of whom survive, nor are their descendants numerous.
Among the sons was Heman; his only son was the late Josiah
Hopkins Grinnell, M. D., of Messina, New York. His son, Pro-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
fessor Ashbell Parmalee Grinnell, M. D., is at the head of the
Medical University at Burlington, Vermont. He is a surgeon of
merited distinction, for whom not his kindred alone predict greater
professional eminence. Another son, Judge Julius Sprague Grin-
nell, of Chicago, is a graduate of Middlebury College, Vermont,
who has early attained national fame, by the arraignment, prosecu-
tion and conviction of the Chicago anarchists in 1887. The world
knows of their imprisonment and execution, deemed a severe blow
to Socialistic theories, and the violence of agitators under our flag.
Julius is now an able and popular judge of the Superior Court, and
justly a favorite in the professional ranks which he adorns.
Myron Grinnell, my father, was a brother of Heman, and the
eldest son of Reuben, with whom, after a mention of my maternal
ancestors, the family narrative will continue.
Grandfather Nathaniel Hastings was born in Scotland; proud,
according to the family traditions, of the eminence of his name in
the annals of that country of renowned heroes. He was the son of
a farmer. While yet a youth he came to this country and bore a
part in the war with Great Britain, serving on the side of his
adopted country, and was wounded at the battle of Plattsburg,
with honor dying from his wounds. There was left a dependent
family, among whom was Catherine Hastings, who gained a good
education by her own exertions and became the wife of Myron
Grinnell, to whom there were born four sons; the second being
Josiah Bushnell, the writer of these sketches.
As to our family tree: It was neither gorgeous nor traced to a
deep root. If it were, I would not minister to family vanity by a
genealogical record, on which, in want of personal force, so many
ordinary mortals lean heavily. My parents were from the com-
mon people, grand as was the French ancestry. Father was an
elegant writer, and a school-master, whose pupil was the only New
Englander knighted by the Queen— the late Sir Curtis M. Lamp-
son, Bart., of London. He, through regard for my father, asked
me to become a guest at his home in London. Mother was early
an orphan, born in Barre, Massachusetts, her father having been
mortally wounded in the war of 1812. She was intelligent, wise
and kind. I once thought her too rigid in discipline of the boys,
but not now, after the lapse of thirty-nine years since she passed
to her sure and great reward.
Grandfather Reuben Grinnell, and grandmother Mabel, were
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
characters whom their descendents remember with pride. Too
early they fell by the fatal epidemic in New Haven, in 1814. I
learned more of them by the lips of our early minister, Josiah
Hopkins, D. D., for whom I was named, than from all other
sources — that not being our day of newspapers and biographies.
A WEDDING TRIP.
What changes! We ride in the Pulman cars. It is true tradi-
tion that Grandfather Reuben, with an ax, “blazed his way" from
Salisbury, Connecticut, up through the forests of Vermont, made a
clearing, put up a log house, and returned after marriage to the
new home with his bride, on a sled drawn one hundred and fifty
miles by oxen. Their arrival was at night, only to learn that the
cow, left at the spring by the stack of marsh hay, had been killed
by the Indians or white marauders, and the cabin burned so far as
the green logs would allow. The bride admitted in later days to
the children, that she dropped tears over their calamities and
perils by the Indians.
“We can go back," said the husband, “or to the nearest settle-
ment.” “No, no," was the sharp answer, “I came here to stay,
and am not going back to be laughed at — until we hear the
Indian whoop. We can put on a new cabin roof, and there is the
spring left, and no fear of starvation, with plenty of fish and game
for the winter.
There is your heroine! The spirit of the Vermont mothers,
worthy to rear and impel the boys, even the grand boys, to deeds
that have since been heralded over the world.
. This is Dr. Hopkins' description of grandfather, his next man
for twenty-one years: “Energetic, brave, but a stammerer-no
stumbler in locomotion - very thick in speech, except when he
prayed; then he was clear, fluent and fervent." By his history
I judge they were not mere words. Families came in good num-
bers to New Haven with the tidal wave of immigration, and the
next thing was a church. He said, passing through the woods,
“That pine tree is the finest in the forest, and must be saved,
with its like, for the meeting-house.” Fifty years after it was
felled and placed in the church I sat upon the tree-stump, proud of
my ancestral relation.
How came the church? On this wise: Grandfather said, “ Let
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
the land rest one year -- Moses was the best farmer as well as law-
maker, and he ruled that at periods of seven years the land should
rest. Ours is overplowed, and I move that there be no sowing of
grain this year. I have spared my best trees, handsome as the
cedars of Lebanon, and our land is worth no more than acres in old
Sodom, if, with our rising families, we cannot have a church and a
minister.” A grand pioneer!
The meeting-house went up, and it stood the only one in
town, spacious, comely and firm, until, after ninety .years, it was
destroyed by fire. The grandchildren have replaced it with an
edifice of elegant adaptation.
The adoption of Moses' plan, allowing the land to rest,
enforced an ancient theory in farming, the next year bringing the
equal of two ordinary crops. A minister was the next demand.
From the records in the old town I learn that the first minister
received as salary, “Five dollars a Sabbath, one-fourth cash in the
spring, and three-fourths cattle in the fall.” It was a Yale Col-
lege graduate, Rev. Silas Bingham, who was the first recipient of
this munificence. Then came Mr. Hopkins, who had been reared
a farmer, and was anxious to lessen the salary burden by labor, if
land could be had on which to work. Grandfather took up the
plan of utilizing the generosity of the able-bodied young minister,
who had heard it hinted that a very fine chopper was spoiled to
make a common divine. The response being, “Well, let me keep
my hand in, if I should return to at least an honest occupation."
There was a parish meeting. A home for the minister was the
living question, and grandfather hinted to the large landholders on
the Street that this was the time to test how much they valued
the worth of a minister in the community. No one responded.
“Well,” said he, “I'll give the land"; then, to the question,
“How much land do you propose ?" the answer was, “For the
Lord's cause, and not to shame my rich neighbors, — steps on
front, down through the sugar orchard, cedars and all. Who'll
measure it? The honest man who'll live on it.”
This was related by Dr. Hopkins, forty years afterward:
“The parish seemed to be out the next morning to witness the
land measuring; I declined the delicate service, a wag saying it
wasn't fair to take the steps of the tallest man in town in cutting
off a man's farm; but I stepped it, and while I heard no regrets at
the gift, it was rumored that your grandfather did say, 'I thought
~
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
.
he had the longest legs I ever saw. The stakes were set, and the
land was over twenty acres, the most liberal act, and the best
stroke of policy for the church, during my stay of twenty-one
years in New Haven."*
Dr. H.’s resignation is fresh in memory. I came from school
hungry, and father and mother came home from the church meet-
ing. Mother, with closed doors, I could hear sobbing in the bed-
room. After coming out we plead to know what was the matter.
She could not speak. At supper nothing was eaten save by the
boys; father saying with a trembling lip, “Children, do you know
Mr. Hopkins is going away?" It dispersed the family, and there
was too much grief to partake even of breakfast.
There was little of excitement for the boys in these early
times — no water near for swimming or to make ice for skating.
I was not, by a mythical spaniel, brought out near drowning,
F
*On Saturday, p. m., the wife of Deacon Tripp called on the family, to find a
cold room in mid-winter, thereupon Mrs. Hopkins informed the Doctor in his
study over the wood-shed, that there was no wood in the house. The reply was,
“Neither is there outside, and Sunday is upon us.” That was an announce-
ment-a bee in the bonnet of the deacon's wife that buzzed over Sunday, bringing
out a captain for a frolic, enjoining a surprise with a load of wood from every
parishioner, fowls plucked and in feathers, pork and beef, in halves and quarters,
urging a contribution from every heated oven, and the presence of matrons and
young maidens. The surprise was only more perfect than the carnival was gay, in
a house overflowing with gifts and guests, the tea-cup stimulating within, and the
flask, bottle and the jug without, up to the going down of the sun, when the house
became too narrow for the provisions and the wood-yard and garden too small for
the loads of maple and beech, from the trees felled from the parish lot and those
gained by trespass over the fence from the Grinnell woods. Within the house
there was reported seven cheese tubs of cake and pastry and thirteen quarters of
beef; and the greater curiosity, a wood pile not fully worked up and burned for
ten years. It was the scene of hilarious conviviality, and on the departure of the
guests, the minister was called on for a speech, which he gave from the top of a
wood-pile, as recalled after twenty-five years :
“Friends, I am cornered, not corned, but crippled in my labors, ruined as to
my garden, covered with logs from the sugar orchard. If you wish me to save
you from a suit for trespass on the Grinnell woods, over the fence, I will make
your plea—'the deep snow covered fences.' Do you think I can live long enough
to burn up this wood-pile? It will be only by a providential interposition and life
far into dotage. I was a chopper in my day, but it calls out the perspiration to
think of these huge logs. Can I ask a favor, that you relieve the house by taking
back, or to your neighbors, loads of provisions inore than my horse can draw ?”
The crowd shouted, “No, No!" "Then if I am to distribute, you may under-
stand that preaching in the parish is suspended until spring."
Great red-letter day for the parish, but loud calls from other churches, with
friction growing out of the Masonic excitement, led to a dismissal for Auburn, N.
Y., with warm counsel, praise and sorrow in the town.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
9
for real safety was in my ignorance of either skating, swimming
or rowing, which may account for my aversion, in all my later life,
I indulge only in an optimistic view, and say not that “the for-
mer days were better than these, for thou dost not speak wisely."
Dare I give you a farmer boy's recollection it would be of bare
feet and nursing stone bruises; binding Canada thistles with stray
stalks of wheat; guiding in locomotion a string of steers at a plow,
with a rebound at stumps and stones, which struck one's anatomy
with the handles, but in a severer shock at the doctrine of the
"perseverance of the saints.” Families rode to church in spring-
cise rather than amusement to the young, and to the mothers in
weariness a doubtful means of gracé. Money to most was not a
snare, nor its possession a delusion. I recall a half day kept from
school to ride a horse in corn ploughing on a scant sheep-skin and
a sharp backbone, often impaled on the harness hames by a sudden
collision with stumps and rocks— and, as my mother was a widow
I was generously paid with a bright, full-orbed silver five cents.
As a carrier of letters from the post office, I have withheld for
twenty-five cents postage a letter from “The Ohio" to the fond
"girl I left behind me.” On the one newspaper subscriber there
were many calls, and if they who “go a borrowing, go a sorrow-
ing,” there was much grief in the neighborhood. The great church
early gave the wood ashes to the sexton for his service, and on
his retiring, fires were made by charity and the bell rung later by
chance. Those high gallery pews screened card players behind the
choir, and boys in the corner at play at fox and geese; on the
stealthy approach of the tithing-man, one boy could swallow the
black fox and the other pocket the geese. I recall now the jutting
tufts of hair in the high, remote African pew, giving nearer access
to their God in worship than to brother mortals. Hymns were
usually in dolorous long meter and sermons in longer measure;
which, with hard seats and chilled extremities, the genius of men-
tal and physical punishment seemed to have inaugurated a prepa-
ration for the abode of the incorrigible.
Sheep-washing was a frolic, and like the return from the barn
or house-raising, there was much reeling, and the usual admixture
of profanity, not confined to the grown men. A story is told of
father, which places him in the family line as a pioneer in thought.
10
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
After a temperance address by father, a moderate toper protested
against signing the pledge, saying that he “washed sheep and
must have it,” to which father replied, “I can prove it is a delu-
sion, wait and we will see," and, at the next washing, father was
set upon and wet all over by dashing the sheep on a chilly day,
yet not taking cold, and fully sustaining his total abstinence the-
ory: A brother wag of the toper would take the pledge with a
reservation, at weddings and sheep-washings." This was said to
be the ludicrous device: tethering a sheep near the house, and dip-
ping it in a trough of water as often as a drink was taken, which
cut short the life of the animal without prolonging by abstinence
that of its owner. I do not vouch for the verity of this last story,
but it was neither a humane nor a philosophic expedient of the
veteran toper.
The cider mill, which was an established institution of the
time, I recall, for we were partners in a concern which I now see
to have been an insidious foe of good order, and leading to the first
steps in a career of drunkenness, poverty and crime.
To travelers all was free at the cider mill; the sweet, little
tasted; the hard, well patronized. And there was real stimulation
in taking out the bungs from the old barrels and inhaling the
fumes; next in effect to a draught of cider-brandy. I was an
imitative boy, and bantered the young company to see who could
longest inhale at the bung. Soon I began to be pale and reel, and,
to test my condition, not simulated, there was a race, and in the
contest my plunge was into the head of a barrel, from which I was
borne and placed in bed, and a doctor was called, to pronounce,
"alcohol on the brain," and my recovery doubtful. Mother said
it was brutal to encourage a race for sport, and she would like to
see the old mill go up in flames. This was my first and last boy
exhibition in a state of intoxication, and has found me not more
inclined to smile at the reeling and drivel of a drunkard than to
take pleasure in the urging of peaceable dogs to a brutal contest,
by their owners and supposed superiors.
To mother I have alluded in her indignation. She was strict,
but not severe in discipline. A home Sabbath-school was known
in my early boyhood, and “it was verse a day, and all the same
verse," and these must be committed, and repeated correctly before
the Sunday supper -- no verses, no supper; and there was for
years no modification of this maternal edict. It seemed a severe
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
11
exaction then, but a hundred times since I have used the verses
learned, as more than the small change in society; an accomplish-
ment to quote and repeat in story or argument what I learned
under an early regime, as serviceable as passages in Homer or
Shakespeare. If one asks as to the rigid exactions of those days, I
cannot advise. There were not as now many books, and a religious
newspaper was a luxury. A family could draw at Sabbath-school
a small book, and borrowing papers from the neighbors was in line
of service with that of bringing up mugs of cider on a friendly
call; both monotonous, even humiliating.
Our mother took a high view as to religious duties. No matter
what the pressure, it was the rule, not an incident, that we were
called into the quiet corner room for morning prayer—the door
bolted. It was my firm conviction that she expected Divine direc-
tion after father's death, and that she would be wisely guided in
mapping out a course for, and in the training of, her four rather
rollicking boys.
My first and last profane oath was uttered when ten years of
age. Not that I have not "felt swear” a thousand times, and
used the common "by,” etc., of youth; but even in anger or war
time never got down to the plane of a vulgar oath. If this seems
a boast, I rather call it a proof that a common and profane prac-
tice is without excuse. I was driving the cows to pasture, and
clandestinely indulging in a barefoot race, when I struck my toe
against a stone, to make a bruise, and bring out an oath. Horrors !
Mother, I thought, would know it, and the heavens seemed full of
accusers, and I so fainted in my fright as to be compelled to sit
down on a rock, and made a resolve, which by the grace of God I
have kept--- never to use a profane word, no matter what the
temptation. My veneration is not large, and to good counsel and
example, rather than to any special goodness, I must attribute at
least negative virtue.
0
À RIDE WITH SPURS.
The horse was to me an early and a great attraction, and I
should be pardoned for an almost idolatrous equine devotion in
later years. A boy must have his experiences. There was no colt
in the neighborhood on whose back I did not covet a seat; impa-
tient with our “old Kate,” reputed very lazy. The troopers I had
12
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
seen with their spurs and plumes, and the only striking picture I
can recall in my bed-room was one of Bonaparte on his steed,
crossing the Alps. A pair of spurs I borrowed, and when some
distance from the barn, in a field, put them on to test the speed of
old Kate. A saddle was a necessity to good riding with spurs, a
serious fact I soon learned. Mounting, there was at once too
much speed for the safety of the rider, and the tighter I clung the
sharper was the piercing, and the more frantic was the mare.
The barn was the objective point of the beast, regardless of the
rider, and there was a leap of the bars, and a bound by the cow,
over the milk maid on duty, screaming in fright, and I passed ·
in the race, and was thrown over the head of the brute into the
manger, from which I was borne, spurs and all, to account for a
venture which came near costing me iny life. It cured me of my
aspiration to become a trooper, if not deterring me from a Colo-
nelcy of cavalry offered to me by the Secretary of War, who, of
course, was in profound ignorance of my aptitude, and this early
episode.
MILITARY INFANTRY SERVICE.
For this I had little taste. In a country of game, in Vermont
and the West, I never took an hour for hunting; and the first,
last, and all of my slain by lead were a prowling dog, a vexatious
boys and desperadoes in Texas, and elsewhere, I never bore a
pistol—and I now regard it as good policy. I carried no weapon
of defense above a penknife. I did, however, carry a gun at train-
·ing, and made iny bow like most of the boys on being chosen a cor-
poral. I coaxed my way, in place of the hired man, to the muster.
The company and recreation I fancied, without any special delight
in gunpowder. After weary and ludicrous evolutions, there was a
finale of a sham-battle, loading and firing by platoons. The "con-
fused noise” and orders put me off my guard, and I went through
the motions with a flint lock, only certain that the powder was
burnt in the pan. There was disbanding with a cheer, after that
day's training in the ways of valor, to meet any armed foe in the
« deadly imminent breach.”
The old. French musket was returned, and then I met derision
which cooled my military ardor. It was not revived by the dress
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY, YEARS.
13
parade of one hundred thousand men which I saw under McClel-
lan, ever drilling and getting ready to "move on to Richmond.”
"That old gun seems to be loaded yet,” said the owner. It was;
wad after wad was withdrawn, and with each a pile of powder left.
upon the floor up to seven or eleven, I do not recall which, but cer-
tain of the kind of load, which was, whether
“Aimed at duck or plover,
Sure to knock the owner over."
It was only good luck that the gun did not go off and burst
with my best intentions, for I should not have been alive to tell
the story, nor my companions in arms, who, rejoicing in a fortunate
escape, rallied “the corporal” on his claims to promotion and pros-
pect of military renown. I accepted the fiasco, ominous of my
failure as a nimrod and a soldier, and have never thought con-
cealed weapons necessary to a brave spirit; nor even the best
defense against personal violence. I have cherished a collateral
heresy, doubting the maxim as a good one for an upright nation,
“In time of peace, prepare for war." We do not act on this in our
relation to other nations, and those foreign people who do, are
bearing colossal burdens against which the people are protesting
with voice soon to be louder than the artillery of the Captains of
men in the great games of slaughter.
AN EXPERIENCE OF SIXTY YEARS AGO.
My first visit to a show is fresh in memory. It was not a car-
avan; but in a ball-room, a long narrow hotel hall. I was nine or
ten years of age, and the novelty of the exhibition was a ballad
singer, a phrenologist and a miniature railroad — less than sixty
years ago there being no riding on railroads.
The lady singer, I care say, was from Boston, that city from
which came our taste for fresh, frozen cod-fish, music teachers and
fancy-dressed people called fops. This singer indulged in all the
airs and show of opera girls, as I afterward learned. How she did
trill and scream! What an open countenance on the high notes !
6? Isn't she good-looking ?” said the rustic boys. “No," answered
the jealous sisters, “she paints, I know it!” There was what was
then called “low-dressing," and what is now termed “décolleté."
14
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Thereupon a heated discussion, by the mothers, as to the delicacy
of the exhibition, avowing it as their “last visit to such a show."
The bland bump-man could not readily find subjects to exam-
ine, after his laughable hits of character, and the boys came up.
Mother told it years after. « Lead up that tow-head!” I was the
subject, and judge there was not much flattery; but in blue days,
later, found only this stimulant, “Keep up courage; don't you
know the phrenologist said you would turn over in your coffin,
after other people said you were dead, and here you are in dumps.?!
This little incident made me what you call an “optimist," but
before I heard that name, the guess of the lecturer was many times
a stimulant, and moved me with courage in the face of ridicule and
in the company of expediency-cowards in many a varied role.
That railway, and the ride thereon, I recall vividly. There was
a portable, elevated wooden track and a miniature locomotive, with
steam up; the car only large enough for a child. A ball-room trip
was made in a few seconds. It did not require much coaxing to
take a ride; yet I was then ignorant as to how they put on the
brakes, to keep the engine from rushing through the windows; but
I did not care to give up the seat after being praised for courage
and the prediction, “That boy will be a railroad man some day.”
The truth is a marvel that I can state, that in the last fifty years
I have ridden a distance equal to many times around the globe,
without personal injury or more than a trivial accident to pas-
senger trains in my charge as a manager, imperiled by freshets,
storms and vile wreckers. What a change! Cars were then only
freighting stone for Bunker Hill monument-three miles against
one hundred and seventy or eighty thousand miles of railroad now,
built at a cost equal to the entire wealth of the country then, aid-
ing in facile locomotive a hundred fold, and employing the brains
or hands of four or five millions of our people.
A conscience the small boy had, and as good as new-- with a
good reason, for he had not used it.
An early, slight peculation is not forgotten. «Will à con-
science beggar him who keeps it?" and did the small boy who
strove to live well, seek to "live without it?” I was on an
errand to the postoffice, at the house where the family were in the
basement at breakfast. On my way down the stairs, I saw on a
shelf a new object to me—a mammoth peach stone, which I cov-
eted, and put in my pocket. Leaving the house, I did not show it
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
15
to the boys, feeling guilty. At the Sabbath-school, Miss Squire,
an accomplished lady, was my teacher. She afterward became a
bride, Mrs. Henry, and mother of Mrs. Gen. Alger, the wife of the
distinguished man— head of the Grand Army of the Republic-
Gen. Logan's successor in fame. That lady talked to the boys
about petty thefts. The peach stone so disturbed me that I hid it.
Of little value as it was, my teacher had made me uneasy by her
appeal, and there were no pleasant thoughts until I stealthily, on
another postoffice errand visit, left the peach stone in the place
where I found it. It was a forced act, without any peculiar, per-
sonal merit; but this is my tribute, after near sixty years, to a
lady who knew how to counsel a wayward boy, not yet quite bereft
of conscience.
My father died in the spring of 1831, of brain fever. I remem-
ber him tossing on the bed amidst the wildest shrieks, after calm
resting, when he had called us together, despairing for himself, yet
giving dying counsel recalled not in the words, but the spirit.
While not a member of the church, he used to take a part in meet-
ings, and officially examine school teachers for the town, as I recall
by the affrighted candidates, especially the girls, who came before
him. Justice courts were held in the house, and patronizing law-
yers, from out of town, took us on their knees, I am slow to
believe, for the purpose of gaining the "favor of Court."
Mother said later, it was bad enough to make a court-room of
the house, but to have them wrangle over Masonry until morning
often, was a bitter experience. Father, I think, stood by the
Order, saying the stories were false, and that, if he could live to
see the boys grow up good church members, they would be found
in safe and reputable society.
STERN DAYS.
A guardian was the next demand for the orphans—under the
law a mother—but later as adviser, Mr. Jonathan Hoyt. If in
New York, he would have been styled a burgher; in Vermont a
squire He was acting postmaster, and the owner of a spacious
village home, and well-stocked farms. I should add he had been
sheriff of the county, was a severe critic of men, an entertaining
story-teller, finding eager listeners among noted guests, and in the
village stores.
16
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
My passing under his guardianship grew out of a village fruit
depredation. It was hinted that “Widow Grinnell's boys” were
not clear of suspicion. I had no part in taking the fruit, and only
witnessed the fright of the escaping boys tangled in potato vines,
even to falling, and who came near being impaled on fences by
rent clothes, which forbade personal denials by the guilty party.
Squire Hoyt, visiting mother, guessed that a separation would
keep the boys from behind the bars," and proposed that I should
make my home with him. I assented, and found great diversion,
and enough to do, and still think it to my credit that I was not
out of the house a night for five years. That I was allowed to
attend school only in the winter, made me backward and restive
when I saw other boys fitted out with their blue suits, books and
pocket money, for the distant academy. But I was a favorite with
Mrs. Hoyt, who was gentle, good, mother-like and a Christian.
She checked my aspirations, while the care of animals, and their
sale, nursed the boy's vanity. I drove the fastest horses in town,
engaged the haying hands, and was an adept in sheep-shearing-
tiresome, merry occasions. Cattle were brought in autumn from
long distances, and with a vein of independence I drove alone a
small herd, more than twenty miles, reaching home only by the
aid of the larger animals, to whose tails, in my weariness, I clung
with a laughable despair. A species of flattery kept me from book
learning, while enlarging my study of men. Great was my elation
when asked by my guardian if I could bring the town money
through the almost impassable mud, from the city of Vergennes,
six miles distant. It was a part of the French indemnity in 1834,
and I overheard a sharp-eyed cashier say, “it wasn't safe to send
so large a sum of money, in bank bills up to the thousands, with
so small a boy.”
On a second trip, one of my mates asked for a ride with me in
a sleigh warm with furs, and after a fleet horse. Here I mention
with gratitude a fortunate resistance to a wild, but satanic sugges-
tion. "Wouldn't it be fine to have so much money ; let us take it.
and be off to Canada.” (Long before the Hegira of our defaulters).
“It is now eight o'clock. Sleighing is fine, and the mare will put
us across the Canada line before morning. It is the town's money
- it can stand it, and we'll never be caught.” I escaped this
great temptation offered to me by a boy older than myself, who
left his own home very early as a runaway and never returned.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
17
The repulse which I gave him is not remembered; but I know that
our mothers were mentioned, and the disgrace, which he sought to
ward off as a joke, was known afterward as a plot.
A permission to make sales of stock and handle money, made
me vain. The sheep sale became the “store talk.” Ex-Gov.
Chittenden, a gentleman of dignity, drove up, and said that he
passed a flock of sheep which he learned was for sale, and asked if
the owner was about. I answered: “He has gone to Michigan;
but the sheep are for sale, and I will show them.” They suited
the Governor, and thereupon a bargain was struck. "I will take
them when Hoyt returns.” I answered, “The feed is short, and
the offer of a bargain is only for to-day." "Are you not rather a
small boy to trade with ?” “Yes, but you can go and ask the mer-
chant about me in the store.” Mr. Roscoe came out, and said,
"Trade with the boy, if you can”; and then eight hundred dollars
passed into my hand (no iron safes in the country then), an inci-
dent talked about, and to feed my youthful vanity still more, while
I was beguiled along in ignorance of books.
At sixteen years of age, in vain I plead for a portion of my
rightful income from land. The answer was, “Not a dollar for
academy, without an order from the Court.” I felt that the rebuff
was cruel, and the hint that I should be served on my majority,
gave me little satisfaction.
A BOY SCHOOL TEACHER.
My new plane of life began by a random, thoughtless reply to
a question, at Sunday noon, while waiting on Mr. Eldridge in the
postoffice room. He said their new school-house room was nearly
done, and asked if I knew if Mr. — had engaged for the winter.
On my reply, I thought he had, he said, "I do not know who to
get then.” “Nor do I," was my sportive reply, “unless you take
me.” “Would you teach ?” “Yes, if anybody dare try me.” “I
will. Your father was a good master, and I went to his school.
Call it a bargain, if it is Sunday, and we'll fix up the details." To
all I assented on condition of strict privacy, as he could readily
guess what talk there would be as to age and my guardian's ridi-
cule, for I was under seventeen years of age.
The crowded schools at that time were shams — masters setting
me back each winter after the puzzling progress in a sum of a frog
18
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
coming up out of the well, going up and falling back so many
stones in the effort. Then the old school-house was but a rookery,
and my location was often on the rogue's bench, and over the
water pail. As often as a book fell into the pail, there was one
spoiled; and in earlier days came a painful flogging infliction, if
found a graduate at the head of the bench on the close of school.
The masters were brilliant, but only student hirelings of college
for the term, and the cold house, crowded with near a hundred,
was fit subject for caricature.
Great praise is due the ladies of a half century ago, as the good
angels of destruction. The heroines of this destruction, with a
smile, heard my account of the demolition of the old school-house,
in my Vermont oration.
“The demolition of the old school-house furnished a vivid illustration, for ‘I
was thar or thereabouts. That old unpainted rookery had been condemned by
public opinion for years ; low, crowded by a round hundred pupils, the mice peep-
ing through cracks by day which larger shy vermin made at night; windows rat-
tled, clapboards flapped in the wind; and a generation of sufferers, like imprisoned
convicts, were doomed by divisions, sordid tax payers and tabled resolves of the
lords, to near freeze on one side of their anatomy and roast on the other, until the
mothers and daughters met, on the fortunate absence of the men at a Bristol wolf
hunt; moved, closing debate, the previous question, which was a signal for the
hasty demolition of the old shell in certain promise of a new house. The veteran
matrons, captains of squads wielding axes, lifting ladders, pulling at ropes, all are
gono, but, as a long-perched victim on a rough bench, I do not withhold my trib-
ute of gratitude for their clever device and courageous execution.
A stern conflict was before me, involving preparation and the
pride of success or the shame of failure in this private school
engagement. Autumn farm work was driving, and not over until
dark. To keep myself from boys' company and the family, that
noted wool spinner by the fire-place, Bertha Chapin, still living,
made an agreement to lock the door for my concealment, if I would
bring in pine knots for light and fire. There, in the buzz of wheel
and crackling fire, for many evenings extended on the floor, when
weary, I found, by hard study, equipment in grammar and arith-
metic for the school. Here, I do not forget the Rev. James Mea-
cham, LL. D., the minister, afterward a member of Congress, who
helped me with the hard sums. Most kindly would be take me
to the school-house in storm, quietly inspiring with those kind
words which I ever valued, as the promptings of the statesman
and generous friend. In the school, I was a student from neces-
sity, to keep ahead of ambitious pupils, and the predicted failure of
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
19
the boy was not realized. I even became bold enough to speak in
our town lyceum, and had an exhibition at the close of the school.
It is a pleasing reminiscence that at the meeting of the people
of the town of New Haven, two years ago, there was the venerable
father who hired me, and his son, laden with honors, of whom I
said: “He is here, the district school pupil, ever equal to the occa-
sion, financier, law maker, an alumnus and treasurer of Middlebury
College, the Hon. L. D. Eldridge. He is pleasingly associated
with the boy of ten years who was to be one of the young orators
fright or allured by sports, and I found Master Eldridge, the boy
father of the man,' solus, and with eloquent aptness declaiming:
"The boy stood on the burning deck whence all but him had fled';
and, knowing the boy, I confidently predict he will never hie to
Canada, nor vacate his trust so long as he can mine in your pleth-
oric pockets, nor fail to linger at the homes where there is a ray
of hope in bequest or codicil for the grand historic college of his
love."
It is a part of the story that I “boarded 'round,” and was paid
$10 a month (it being my first school), and, as a poor financier, I
paid it out for the first broadcloth suit in the hard year of 1838,
with the ambitious device to win a suit, by delicate attentions
(easily surmised), which, by good fortune, at my age, were not a
successful venture.
Upon returning to my guardian, there were sharp words
between us, which severed our relations, and under my guardian's
protest and threat, I left for Castleton Seminary, then a famed
school of Vermont. I took up Latin and algebra, but retired from
the rough preceptor to my old home in the autumn, with medical
books and an engagement to teach school for the winter in Wal-
tham, a lonely spot near by. There I felt as imprisoned, even
envying the cawing crows in the field, and the nimble squirrels in
the trees their antics, cracking walnuts in sight of myself, a caged,
yet voluntary prisoner. Medical books I read during my leisure,
with a high interest, which I thus gave in a letter not long ago:
HOW NEAR I CAME TO BECOMING AN M. D.
Dear Children :
Did I ever tell you my narrow escape from being a compound "saw-bone pill
doctor ?” Somewhat of personal gratitude mingled with thankful emotion, when
I consider the escape of possible victims, prompts a story.
20
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
In the autumn of 1839, after a return from Castleton Academy, our haying
season over, I heard the loose talk of the street boys, “that they might have to
steal a horse to get their names in the papers.” Thinking to secure fame in
another role, I decided to become a physician. It was an easier way than going
through college, and the road was not so long by years and the boy's fever of seven-
teen was on! “Can't wait!” Like many children, I said not a word to mother,
for she had a horror of doctors, and secretly had pitched a higher key for her boy
who had not impaled flies with pins as an amusement, nor was even an actor in
the blood-flowing incident to the slaughter of fowls for the table. I struck out and
took advice of the lamented, good Dr. Smith. He knew I could shear sheep, was
a master of a horse, and seemed flattered that I preferred being a student, to recite
every other day, and accompany him upon calls and surgical visits. His library
was fair and skeletons in duplicate were at my command. Under the cover of
night I took a book home and was ready for a recitation by night study, before
advising with the family. Then the doctor made the proffer of a skeleton, the
“human frame divine,” which was to dangle in my room as an object lesson. By
an oversight it was not hidden, but laid on my bed to affright (not purposely)
mother, as she came into my room. She said, “I cannot choose for you and have
nothing to say, sorry as I am that the glitter of the tower of the Middlebury Col-
lege reflected on your chamber window, does not inspire you to strike higher.” I
said my guardian would do nothing to help and our income was small, and I could
teach winters and take nothing from the farm. The reply was, “It is little I
want and I can trust, even when the purse is empty and we are left with a few
sheep and the cours." I had no argument and only shame kept me from yielding
to the maternal wish. There seemed a reconciliation when the Doctor would say,
“The boy comes on well with the books”; but having been out attending a sur-
gical nasal operation, my preceptor could not say I was in ecstasy over the practice.
My books were taken along to the district school, where I taught in winter,
and I made my stay with Dr. Bullard a portion of the time. He had a wide prac-
tice and was conscientiously solicitous for his patients, and seemed to have no con-
trol of time night or day, which was a vassalage that was repulsive. In church
there was no sense of security - a stir or a late arrival would turn the Doctor's head,
expecting a call-filling a position singular for unrest. This circumstance I men-
tigned, to gain the reply, “I have not been my own man for twenty years. I can
make little calculation and am denied making visits, and great ills break forth in
storns which I must face ; besides, Sunday is the special day when all chronics
want medication.” The picture was before mc- a slave in the mill- and I was
welding the chains with full warning of a life of vassalage, and I closed the book
with the remark, “I have wrestled with muscle-insertions ; can name the bones,
blundering with little Latin, and less Greek, so far, to stop short of the parchment
of a doctor.” From that moment, visions of blood, groans of the sick, fevered and
expiring breath gave place to a higher mission than mere physical study con-
fronted with the uncertainties of medicine, a twin profession to the uncertainties
of law. Dr. Holmes, of poetic fame and professor at Harvard, had not then said :
“If the entire Materia Medica were thrown into the sea it would be better for men
and worse for the fishes."
My decision was a set-back for my old preceptor, Dr. Smith, for he had hinted
that his gray hairs would call for a partner. I recall that he predicted business
success, without a prophecy or guess as to the fate of the patients. A compound
blessing is all I have to see in retrospect, having a surmise how often the wolf
would have been at the door of the family, for I doubt a faculty to have collected
enough bills to have kept horse for the rider, and materials for even homeopathic
pills.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
21
The great log-cabin Harrison campaign was on, and boys of
spirit took part either in singing songs, or sleeping by initiation
in a log cabin, said to be with not strict reverence, “like the gates
of Gospel grace, open night and day.” It was a frolic—a political
carnival — when the hard times were forgotten in the hope of a
"change to bring some change"; hunters could find sale for the
ing their political coats under the inspiration of hard cider, coming
forth from the cellars in contribution to the cause. Democrats
could not indulge in singing, and their drinks were presumably to
drown impending sorrow in defeat. The Burlington mass meet-
ing, which took near a week, was a sample. Carriage and wagon
trips of a hundred miles were made. I left in the Vergennes pro-
cession at daylight, and we were five hours in going twenty miles,
in clouds of dust. The ex-Governor, Ezra Meech, came into the
procession at the front of his log cabin, drawn by a string of
twenty yoke of oxen, that seemed to keep step to music. In the
city the noise was almost deafening. Bells were rung, steam
whistles blew, and cannon boomed, answered by New York guns
across the lake. Every craft on the lake seemed enlisted for the
day, and the thousands of teams were taken to the country to find
States Senator, presided, and used his skill and wonderful voice
with effect. Speaking of it, twenty-five years after, he said it was
the proudest day of his life, and the largest meeting he had ever
seen. This was his timely speech, with a voice on a high key,
resonant and bold: “The freemen of Vermont will come to order
- I see you are all here!” There was a sea of faces, hilarious
shouts, music, vocal and martial, a caricature of the gold spoon,
and impoverishing free-trade policy — there was the climax of an
uprising without a parallel in our annals.
The historic ball was “kept a rolling” from the ocean west-
ward with increasing furor, to the dismay of veteran court poli-
ticians. Then came the Maine election. It ended Democratic
resistance to a sweeping wave, and that story-teller, Senator J. W.
Nye, referring to his last Democratic speech said, “My heart
sank within me." There was an inelegant but popular song of
clubs in halls, and by thousands at camp-fires. The verse based on
the Old Pine State, ran as follows:
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
“And have you heard the news from Maine,
And what old Maine can do?
She went hell-bent for Governor Kent,
And Tippecanoe and Tyler too,
And Tippecanoe and Tyler too."
Our historians tell of an era of financial prosperity following
Harrison's election, and a national calamity by the death of the
President a month after inauguration. It was soon discovered that
the “Tyler too” had become an ambitious marplot - the twin acci-
CHAPTER II.
DRIFTING FROM HOME.
A Student - Moot Courts - First Visit to New York— Notable
Events and Persons of Half a century Ago — Oneida Institute
Picture of Reformers and Orators, Gerritt Smith, Alvin Stewart,
President Beriah Green.
THE death of my eldest brother at the South, not only brought
a new burden of responsibility, but unsettled plans for the future.
In 1840, I entered the Classical School of B. F. Allen, in the city
of Vergennes, but not to secure all the benefits of the closest appli-
cation. The master was easy, classmates were jovial, added to
which there were the dissipating allurements of mock courts at late
hours. The young attorneys and their students and clerks could
afford the recreation, but not so well could the candidate for admis-
sion to college. The farces of the time afforded entertainment,
and gave practice in public speaking, but involved mental dissipa-
tion, rather than proper discipline. The next school engagement
was a pleasant one, with good wages, in Middlebury. The term
was sadly ended by the decease of my brother, Freeman, who died
at the age of twenty-one, at Norfolk, Virginia. With the double
purpose of caring for his effects and entering Yale College, I left
home, making a stay for several weeks in the great city of New
York, a new world to the country boy.
It was a bright, spring morning when I stepped from the Hud-
son river steamboat upon the wharf; pushing my way in the crowd,
amidst the howls of hackmen, I turned to purchase some tempting
fruit, and discovered that my purse was gone. I had read of New
York pickpockets, and the cold sweat stood on my brow at the
thought of being a stranger, penniless in a great city. Without a
recollection of taking my pocketbook from under my pillow in the
berth, I rushed back to find it undisturbed where I had left it.
My gratitude was boundless, first lavishing a surprising sum upon
the chambermaid, and then with an offer of a bank bill to the clerk,
24
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
who replied, “They wanted no bounty for being honest,” which
was a plea for human nature, I am sorry to say, not always truth-
fully in the line of some facts in my later experiences.
WHAT OF THE CITY OF FIFTY YEARS AGO?
Stages rumbling over the pavements of cobble-stones, seemed
almost deafening. Then there was a stench from the gas, one of
the most offensive of all odors known in human life or from the
laboratory of science. Water was drawn by wooden pumps from
the city wells, (most detestable to one accustomed to the pure flow
from the mountains), and in association with poor drainage by sew-
ers, and the burial of the city dead — Greenwood and other ceme-
teries being but in incipient stages of their beauty.
· During my stay in the city, I was not only cautious, but con-
scientious, and sought to heed the counsel on leaving home, which
was “to be sure and hear Dr. Gardner Spring preach,” the most
noted divine in the city. Sunday morning, after a long hunt, I
found the old brick church, since given way to the New York
Times block. Gaily-caparisoned horses and elegant carriages were
by the walk in charge of liveried coachmen, and, to be sure I was
to find Dr. Spring, I asked if that was the church. “Does he
preach to-day?" "Yes, this is his carriage.” Yet, some in
doubt, I said, “Why don't you hitch and go in ?" This caused
a laugh from the company of whips, their spokesman replying,
“We don't go to church, we hold horses.” A verse of the old
song, ridiculing the President, came fresh to me, as sung in the
Harrison campaign:
“Martin's steeds impatient wait
At the palace door,
Outriders behind the coach
And lackeys on before."
I attended the church service, and the doctor fell, in my judg-
ment, below his reputation in the pulpit as a speaker. It was a
sermon, I guessed, about the heathen, but not so sure as was Dr. R.
S. Storrs forty years ago, who, when asked the subject of the ser-
mon to which he listened in his own pulpit, said: “It was about
the Jews; I know that was the subject, for the doctor told me so
as we passed out of the church.”
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
25
That company of carriage drivers, I mentioned when writing
home, were perhaps as needy as the foreign heathen, and I wrote
out the sarcastic reproof given by John Randolph, of Old Virginia.
The planters' ladies were met to prepare clothing for the poor Rev-
olutionary Greeks. Randolph declined to aid their object with his
purse, and as he passed out espied a crowd of squalid negro chil-
dren, when he pushed open the door, and shouted: “The Greeks !
the Greeks! Ladies, they're at your door.”
Charles O'Connor, the Irish lawyer, was rising to fame. I was
fortunate in hearing him in able forensic arguments; tall, elegant
in diction, with a dash of youth. Many years later, I heard him
as the venerable advocate, in the Supreme Court of the United
States, and at a dinner table socially, when I told him of my early
admiration. “Ah!” he replied, “ the change — my eye is now dim,
and normal force wasted. Once they tried me by the press, and
their praise was welcome, no doubt. Now I am before a bench on
trial; not after cases, but anxious to win what I have. Dullness
in court will be my role at the end of a brief pilgrimage.” Of
course, to this I did not in courtesy assent, in the presence of one
so genteel and suave, much as I disliked his political Bourbonism.
Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt was then pointed out, and
at that day little above the rank of a “steamboat man.” He had
a striking face, a piercing eye, set off by a white, ministerial cra-
vat, little consonant with the connoisseur of fast horses, and an
adept with cards; yet loyal and liberal, presenting the govern-
ment, in its need, with a steam vessel in war time, and endowing
the Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tennessee, bearing his
name. Hon. John I. Blair tells me that in his early career, com-
ing over to Staten Island from New Jersey, the Commodore would
give him a boat ride to New York City early, for a silver quarter,
that he might as a country merchant be the first on the market
with butter and eggs, having called out to Bill to put out Mr.
Blair's horses, and mother to get breakfast, which she did barefoot,
and in an out-kitchen, innocent of any floor; glad to get up and
get breakfast for a quarter, by the light of the moon. Then there
was the unfortunate son, Cornelius (brother of the better known
than all, the deceased William H. Vanderbilt), whom I knew as
the Western traveling friend of Horace Greeley. He was great
hearted, with sundry misfortunes, else Mr. Greeley would not have
been, as was said, a foolish endorser in the sum of twenty-five.
26
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
thousand dollars, which to the credit of the millionaire, let it be
said, was paid in full to the family, on Mr. Greeley's decease.
The unfortunate Cornelius spent an evening at my house in Iowa.
What an elegant story-teller, and volatile spirit! “Everybody
knows brother Bill, who got deep into dad's affection; I do. But
suppose he don't like me. We had one mother who never forgot
Cornele." His head dropped, the tears falling with a sigh, remind-
ing me of Hamlet's words:
“One that was a woman;
But rest her soul - she's dead.”
My emotional guest, stricken by a temporary fit, fell upon the
floor. From him I turn with pleasure, reminded that William H.
Vanderbilt, through Chauncey M. Depew, gave me a thousand dol-
lars, and promised more, to repair our college, which was destroyed
by a tornado. His son, Cornelius, is named the philanthropist,
and his brothers promise, in munificent charities and service, to
hold a higher rank than the historic founder of the family, whom I
remember.
Far back then, in 1841, there was no Vanderbilt palace, nor
bronze doors, as in 1889, leading to the famous Art Gallery. Now
there is the delicate and double office in denial, as well as in dis-
pensing charities. Is there a greater exemption from common
frailties and ills in the envied palace, than that enjoyed by the
massez ? Not long ago, on New Year's Day, there was a long line
of gaily-dressed grandchildren at the windows of the Vanderbilt
mansion, witnessing a street pageant. My companion, an M. D.,
and President of the New York Art Club, took little interest in
the juveniles, saying, “Dead Cornelius was princely, and the crowd
envy the children; I don't. Even their money will keep them
effeminate; they'll have the colic oftener than our children, and
they won't look or feel any better in a shroud.”
Burton's Theatre was only a name for Burton, the humorist,
convulsing in laughter, in pantomime; and it was a popular resort
for countrymen. His part in “Toodles” gave him fame and per-
sonality next to that of Edwin Forrest, the tragedian—the inspirer
of a swarm of amateurs in “ Richard the Third.” Forrest was a
star--Burton the idol of a good kind of play-goers fifty years ago,
who always cheered the exploit of Mrs. Toodles in attending auc-
tions, and buying a door-plate at a great bargain, since, with the
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
27
name of “ Thompson ” engraved, there was a possibility it would
come in use, predicated on a daughter being born to them, grow-
ing up, and marrying a Thompson. It was a most convulsive
story on the stage, and I have found the points often like handy
change, in public speaking, on hits at foolish probabilities—not the
weather.
THE AMISTAD STORY.
A black man—a real African I saw, and it was Martin
Cinque, the slave mutineer. The slave vessel had been misguided
by the overpowered owners to Montauk Point. On it were some
fifty men who were kidnapped for the Cuban slave market. They
had risen in mutiny, and after killing the captain and one of the
crew, had trusted the threatened owners to return them to their
country. When brought before one Judson, a United States Dis-
trict Judge, the verdict was, they were not to be sent to Cuba for
trial as murderers and mutineers. An appeal was taken to the
Supreme Court of the United States, where John Quincy Adams,
(the old man eloquent," and Hon. R. S. Baldwin argued on the
popular just side, and the prisoners were set free by the court.
The case stirred our young blood, and the Amistad case came to be
classed with Med, in an English slave trial; also with that of our
Dred Scott and Judge Taney, years later.
At this time, the Tappans were famous in New York. Arthur,
the silk merchant, as an abolitionist, called out a Southern reward
of one hundred thousand dollars for his abduction, and was hon-
ored by a pro-slavery mob. He honored himself by the founding
of professorships in Auburn Theological Seminary and in Oberlin,
besides other great gifts for those days, akin to the aid in opening
Broadway Tabernacle, a spacious building for popular and reform
meetings.
Lewis Tappan and Rev. Joshua Leavitt were said to have the
Africans in charge, as they raised money for their defense. Mr.
Tappan had brothers, Benjamin, senator from Ohio, and John Tap-
pan, in Boston; the blood, with a personal knowledge of Louis in
later years, won my admiration. If there was an escaping fugi-
tive, he knew through Tappan where to find shelter. Such was
the merchant who, for twenty years, was treasurer of the Amer-
ican Missionary Society (I think without pay), and who holds
rightfully a higher place in our eventful annals than the great
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
elegant person, overflowing with humor, standing beside the tall,
liberated, black man, Cinque. «What do you say? They are like
our millions whose ancestors were brought here by kidnappers.
Would you have risen if doomed to slavery ?” The crowd shouted
"Yes!” What shall we do, disperse them, poor and ignorant, or
educate them? The response was “Educate !" Then give us
Martin Cinque was tall, erect, with a noble. brow, and, as it
was learned from his nation, the son of an African chief, a very
prince in his bearing, and was the mutinous hero of that day.
From this sprang the Mendi-African Mission.
From a sight of the lions of that day, since so often described,
I turned, taking a steamboat for New Haven, Connecticut. Yale
College I had chosen, but did not spend much time with profess-
ors and about the buildings, which seemed low and gloomy (less
attractive than the elms), and they were, compared with their pres-
ent splendor.
By the help of a rather free Vermont boy, I got a glimpse of
the "wild ones," and of the costly scrapes and dangerous episodes
of student life. To be rested and to read up for examination, I
took the cars for Meriden, eighteen miles, it being my first railroad
ride. Here I found my favorite cousin, Miss Fitch, the ward of
the venerable Rev. Erastus Ripley. He was merry, beguiling me
with checkers and after-dinner games, varying the entertainment
by an excited discussion as an anti-slavery man with a near neigh-
bor, Mr. Booth, deacon and bank president. My situation came
up on review — age, orphanage and aspirations — when my learned
friend feared that the tone of student morals at Yale and the con-
servatism in the old courses of study would endanger the boy's
future. Of course, he was a partisan radical.
“What are years in Latin and Greek to be in the next fifty
years ? Slavery is to be kept under, Texas kept out, church made
bold and political platforms expurgated, and brave, good speakers
will be in more demand than classic book-worms. Hear what that
scholar of Yale, Dr. Grimke, of South Carolina, says: 'I prefer
Sir Walter Scott to Homer. Then for smutty old poetry, give
place to the Bible in Greek and Hebrew.' I agree with him.
Lawyers are too plenty. Therefore give us a race of students with
backbone and courage for the coming great days."
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
29
So I remember. And there was a mention of Mr. Hough, who
had gone out as financier at Oneida Institute, near Utica, to help
Beriah Green, president, one of the finest of scholars and grandest
of men.
Said the venerable Mr. Ripley : “My son, I have placed money
in that college, where there is a farm to use the muscle, and good
professors with a high moral tone. Come, what do you say? I
have no boy and I advise you to go there.” My reply was that I
knew no one. “I do, and will give you a letter to President
Green ; and if on trial you don't like it, I will pay for the jour-
ney.” The hearty earnestness of the old divine captured me, and
I was even then quite hospitable to his radical ideas, and said:
“Write the letter and I will go." The journey was made by way
of New York, and I left the steamer at Albany, taking a canal
boat ride of one hundred miles for Whitesboro. I handed my
introduction to Mr. Green, who was most genial and gave me a
temporary stay at the house, where the winsome daughters did
much to mitigate homesickness and unrest with new school associ-
ations, the product of radical ideas and a new social birth of
society.
Between our times and those of half a century ago, there seems
only the comparison between the time of sowing and that of the
harvest. Great ideas were getting rooted in the national soil.
Radical reforms now measurably accomplished, were then under
debate. Men lauded now, were then ignored and despised. The
first prophets are never popular. Questions of reform, of temper-
ance, and their kindred themes were then unsolved, even more
than now. Restless minds were breaking loose from the dictation
of conservatives upon the wrong side of morals. Compromises
were in the air. The pooling of moral issues was the dominant
business of the generation, at the expense of the truth. The great
educational and benevolent organizations were too generally found
upon the side of doubtful conservatism. The curse of slavery.
reached many indirect issues.
It was an heroic age — an age in which principles of truth were
striving for recognition in the lives of those bold enough to be
right, rather than popular. Among the few institutions that dared
to risk their success upon the carrying out of ideas hostile in their
time, was the Oneida Institute, at Whitesboro, New York. It was
the hot-bed of radicalism as it existed at that day. Many of its
30
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
ideas have become a part of the national life; while others are still
on debatable ground. There was a heavy brain at its head; and
there were great men back of it. The Oneida Institute was
attempting the unsolved question of combining education with
manual labor. Its chosen curriculum was in favor of the lan-
guages of the living, and sacred languages, rather than of the dead;
it was too far ahead of the times. But whatever the question of
its experiments, its avowed object was never lost sight of. It was
the home of freedom; its pupils were trained for practical men in
the coming struggles of the Republic.
The influence of such an institution was never lost upon the
young student who turned his back upon Yale, to gain the advan-
tages under such an instructor as the renowned President, Rev.
Beriah Green. Added to his natural intuitions upon the side of
freedom, were the instructions here received. The Institute lost
its peculiar status a generation ago; but among those who sat at
the feet of President Green, its principles have lived in power.
THE STUDENTS.
Such a motley company! ·Manual labor, and radicalism as to
studies and slavery, had gathered a large school. Young casuists,
others the wards of rich reformers, not to mention a class sent to a
good place for safety — fit subjects for rustication. I found in the
study of the pupils object lessons related to the ludicrous. There
were an emancipator's boys from Cuba; mulattoes removed from
their sable mother — illegitimates (said to be), under an alias;
the high tempered Spanish student, Slingerland his name, whose
slinging an iron poker at me left an impression; then an Indian,
with that inelegant name, Kunkapot, the calling of which created
a laugh; black men who had served as sailors, or as city hack-
men, also the purest Africans escaped from slavery, of a class like
the eloquent Garnet, the protégé of Joseph Sturge, the English
reformer; sons of the American radicals, Bible students scanning
Hebrew verse with ease, in place of Latin odes; enthusiasts, plow-
boys and printers; also real students of elegant tastes, captured by
the genius of President Green. I do not know that there was a
man looking fiercer by the wearing of a mustache, not then in fash-
ion, or one failing to be guyed who had any foreign foppery airs.
The most were real Democrats, save as to politics. Pedigree did

SSN
SEROS
MR. GRINNELL AS A STUDENT.
(From an old drawing.)
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
31
not furnish envied notoriety, and there was not the least social or
official toleration of a lazy, dissolute character. The non-resistance
doctrines of the Garrison and the peace party were not welcome to
me whose blood leaped in a warm, youthful challenge. Such were
the collegians without base ball, yacht recreation, or gymnasium;
but with a hand fire-engine there was diversion in quickening the
step, or lowering the hauteur of pretenders; occasionally giving
a sprinkle, if not a forced ablution to a flunk in our impromptu
debates, which were both novel and serviceable. There was a class
of inceptive pedagogues who were primed for a First of August
emancipation, or a Fourth of July address; Henry B. Stanton, of
our creed and clan, being the model orator, and Theodore Weld,
the radical oracle.
It was the day of the ecclesiastical excommunication of temper-
ance and abolition agitators. Runaway slaves and pro-slavery
mobs furnished food for morbid appetites, and Birney, the Ken-
tucky emancipator, became a lion in the path, rather than a mere
diversion to the leaders who were in a Presidential race with Polk
and Clay, rivals in subserviency to the slaveholding power.
It is history that the hobbies of Oneida Institute furnished
what became the horses on which politicians afterward compla-
cently rode to place and power, oblivious of those who once stood
in the breach with heroism, to rescue our trailed flag and honor
from the jeers of the world. In that whirl there was a fascination.
I found more diversion in debates and in the writing of colloquies
for exhibitions, than in severe studies. In Greek and Hebrew I
'made fair progress only, and graduated without a diploma, only
because the State Regents, to punish radical innovation, had
denied the Board of Trustees power to confer degrees. Thus for
the honorary degree of A. M., I was indebted to the favor of Mid-
dlebury College, Vermont, some years later.
Among the heroic and notable men of their time, stands a
remarkable trio. Each in his own sphere was a power: Green, the
scholar; Stewart, the legal genius; Smith, the millionaire-philan-
thropist; so they are classed to-day.
THE DISTINGUISHED TRIO.
THE DISTINGUISHED TRIO.
Gerrit Smith, of Peterboro, N. Y., was a distinguished patron
and ardent friend of President Green, and a frequent speaker
32
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
before the students of Oneida College, a Hamilton College scholar
of distinction, a patron in the heirship of townships and lands, and
à generous, active philanthropist, all conspiring to throw about
him the glamour of a real hero. I never heard a finer toned, mel-
lifluous voice, nor was he less striking in elegance of person and
gentlemanly suavity. It was in resisting pro-slavery mobs and
in defence of freedom of speech, that he came first to be the
champion of human rights, and made choice of the society of com-
mon people, rather than to dwell in the seclusion of his palace,
which he closed, and later gave to a dissenting congregation for
worship, choosing a humbler home with leisure for greater service
to reform. The proffer of a senatorship or of a governor's chair,
was no attraction; and it was only on the dawn of a new era that
he assented to serve in Congress, developing a versatile speaker,
an original and bold legislator. It was an idiosyncrasy in his
character to abjure the maxim that “consistency is a jewel," tak-
ing pride in those moral perceptions which made it a truism “He
who never changes his opinion never corrects mistakes.” That he
was the Chesterfield radical of his day, is cognate to the fact that
he was the wealthiest American of the munificent givers to educa-
tion and the cause of temperance and freedom. His epitaph might
never ministered to pride, defeat never embittered the spirit,
hushed his voice, or enfeebled his blows. In boldness, he was the
companion of Horace Greeley, in going on the bail bond of Jeffer-
son Davis, who became a huge political elephant, long imprisoned,
when demanding a trial. Secretly he was the patron of John
Brown in Kansas (I have it from Brown's own lips), but of the
purposed raid in Virginia he was not aware. Mr. Smith gave
thousands of acres of land to make homes for colored people, and
died in 1874, leaving a son, Mr. Green Smith, named for his
friend, and a daughter, Mrs. Miller, of Utica, New York.
Alvin Stewart, of Utica, a witty, eloquent and retired lawyer
and reformer, was a character. A few of his hits, passing like
good currency among the students, I may give prefatory. At the
conventions, on calls for donations, his tact and drollery would be
known with a solemn look and magisterial presence. When tak-
ing names for donations, a colored student came up with a five-
dollar contribution. “Your name, sir ?” “Prime, is the name.”
“A prime gentleman whose paper wants no indorsement.” Next,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
REMINISCENC
S
TORTY
EARS.
33
Freeman, a jet black: “This is to be the cognomen of your race -
a little off color just now.” The city of Utica came up with its
mob spirit. “This is not the poetic pent-up Utica'; our scoun-
drels only burnish their fame on departure.” Then court wit is
remembered. The question was as to ownership and discovery of
a spring. The counsel had not the most savory reputation; there-
upon Mr. Stewart asked: “Suppose Satan had appeared in person
and claimed he had taken the first drink from the spring, and
employed my learned counsel to enforce his claim, as I have no
doubt he would, could that be called a precedent, a law, to keep
out my Christian client?” This character was given to a defend-
ant: “Whatever his family or profession, don't overlook his misfor-
tune as that of a peripatetic somnambulist and wanderer up-stairs
and down-stairs and in the lady's chamber'.” Mr. Stewart's
appearance at our college and as president of state temperance and
anti-slavery conventions, brought an ovation, and made variety
where the voices of the eloquent, elegant Stanton, the solemn
Goodell, the logic of Green, and the rotundity of Gerritt Smith
were heard and seen. His elegant palatial home, variegated in
color by stale mobocratic eggs, had an owner who towered then
justly above all other notables of that city whom I afterward
knew — Governor Seymour, Senators Kernan and Conkling, and
Justice Ward Hunt—as did his house above theirs, less conspicu-
ous in that early epoch. Great as they were, they can never be
named more than the peer of Stewart as a hero, nor have they left
more striking proofs of an orator. Mr. Stewart, in early days,
often addressed the State Legislature on radical politics. In Ver-
mont, the old men remember him by this incident: the question
was up of forbidding slaveholders to retain a claim on their chat-
tels while in the North. He was in the State House by the
mountain range, and apostrophised: “Slavery in Vermont! Clank-
ing of chains on the soil where Seth Warner and Ethan Allen
sleep? No!” Pausing and looking out of the window, “Your
old mountains would hold their breath and refuse to send forth an
echo of your degradation!” He died too soon, without witnessing
the fruition of his hopes, yet not to be forgotten.
President Beriah Green was of this noted triumvirate. He
gained his collegiate education in Vermont, and was for years a
pastor, until called to a professorship in Western Reserve College.
A striking, pleasant face, and vivacious manners, were in happy
34
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
association with the scholar, in deep sympathy with the spirit of
Goethe, the philosophy of Coldridge, also that of an ardent friend
and correspondent of the English rugged Carlyle. His protest
against the ethics of the stall ecclesiastics” was more than
verbal — even a close personal alliance with great reform, disre-
garding obloquy and sacrifice. A spirit genial as the summer sun,
proven integrity, varied learning, and eloquence reaching sub-
limity, would have made him a striking character in the best cir-
cles of citizens and reformers. With him, work had little less
virtue than worship. More than theories were held in regard to
the value of manual labor. He practiced as an exemplar, earning
bread by the sweat of his brow. Character was a product won by
sacrifice at the “roaring loom of time.” An incident in society
would become the basis of a sermon, and students, alike with vet-
eran agitators and scholars, would crowd to hear the more than
transcendental oracle, a preacher with a text, “Duty, stern daugh-
ter of the voice of God.” In his career, there was proof of the
lion heart, for he knew no failure; and, waiting for the bright day
of the emancipation, he fell as he lived, while making a speech
his life was not an epic, neither was his career one of ambition,
like a Cambyses, marching through the desert to awaken the
screams of hungry vultures, leaving no monument but a Golgotha
heap of human sacrifices— nay, it was of a white-winged evangel
with the weeds of widowhood, had long stood crownless. The
humorous incidents related of this great character and family, were
many. An old student, meeting the President in after years, lean-
ing on his hoe, and wearing a high, old-fashioned hat, heard a
young son, with much gravity, while violently knocking off the hat,
say: “Have I not told you repeatedly not to be seen with that old
hat on again, especially in company ?” The reproof was: “What
do you mean, John, by such rudeness ?" At breakfast, after a
juvenile spat, possibly discipline, one of the boys was called on for
his table verse in the round, and muttered, “I'm a brother to drag-
ons and a companion to owls — in the daytime.” On a special
occasion, a stranger student was called on to pray, and he offered
so long and loud a supplication that there was less devotion than
merriment on the seats. Mr. Green followed him in the most sub-
dued tone with his elegant and sarcastic reproof, “We thank thee,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
35
1
O Lord, that Thou art not deaf !” My mature judgment is, that
Mr. Green came out "separate ' too early. Inside there was room
for his genius, courage and eloquence. Church and nation were
asleep.
It should be mentioned that a few were specially favored by
the kind attentions of the President and family. In such a spirit-
ual atmosphere, and with its elevated conversation, the social pow-
ers were developed for a larger usefulness in later days. Sabbath
after Sabbath was spent among the outlying churches and Sabbath-
schools in such efforts as not only became a valued help to them,
but also developed in us that readiness of utterance and individu-
ality of thought that were so absolutely essential in preparation for
usefulness. The equipment of the Institute with a printing press,
upon which the Friend of Man was published, gave a knowledge of
affairs such as are associated with tlie press everywhere.
The favorite recreation of the students was in impromptu
debates. Scores of questions would be put into a hat, and drawn
out for the speaker after he had been called to the platform and
introduced by the presiding officer of the society. It was a men-
tal pastime that tested the boys, and gave a strength that comes
with such wrestling and mental encounter. The stimulus that it
gave to general reading and ready wit was indispensable, though
the contestants knew it not.
In all departments of the Institute the criticisms were of the
freest, and every man was compelled to become bold for the truth;
that was taught as ranking above all else. Thus, in all directions,
bodily, mental and spiritual, by manual labor, the dialectics of the
lyceum, and the cultivation of a profoundly reverent regard for the
truth, the students were being symmetrically equipped for the
service of humanity, that has never had a reformer too many,
nor a well-wisher who could be spared.
In later years, a former editor of the Friend of Man has thus
voiced his recollections of the boy, Grinnell; recollections called
out by an article upon the Iowa pioneer's relation to sheep-raising
in the State of Iowa. It was Wesley Bailey, editor, and father of
Senator Bailey, of Decorah, Iowa, who wrote the following
editorial twenty-five years ago, after inviting the youth to a
partnership:
“We are not only interested in shoep-raising, but we also feel an interest in
the above-named Grinnell. We knew him when a student in Oneida Institute,
36
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
New York - a bright, active youngster, a close scholar, and a genial and intelli-
gent companion, always busy, and ready to turn his hand to anything that turned
up, either when school kept, or the vacation occurred, but always seeking to be
useful. His after life turns out to be just what such a youth gave promise of. He
is at home in the pulpit, the Senate chamber, or the large political convention, as
well as active in the real agricultural improvements which are most sure to enrich
and develop the State of his adoption. We have not seen him since he was a
young man, but the youth is still fresh in our recollection, and having taken a
'liking' to the boy, we note with feelings of pleasure his career of honor and use-
fulness through life.”
CHAPTER III.
False Theories -- Club Life— Westward, ho! - Wisconsin Prairies
Codding, the Abolition Orator- The Home of the Badger--
A Volume- A Return East - A Student in Auburn Theological
Seminary — First Call to Preach-- Union Village, New York-
My Mother's Death.
FIFTY years ago seems to have been the period not alone of agi-
tation, but of wild theories as to abstinence and privation, to
insure a clear brain and the good of an ambitious student. I fell
into the procession so far as to enter upon an almost insane
extreme in abstinence and physical infliction in Oneida Institute,
to attain the greatest good in the briefest period. This was the
personal diary resolve: “To escape dullness and promote mental
activity with a moral purpose, I abjure high living, the use of cof-
fee and tea, vacate the feather bed, and take up a club regimen
where butter and meat are unused, and the hard bed, made by a
blanket on a board, shall be my couch. My place I will take as
cook, steward, etc., in rotation, and, to save time, will in my turn
read while others at the club eat, that we may become more profi-
cient in history, and find themes for discussion outside of dissipat-
ing gossip.” This is the sequel : The cost of living was reduced to
a dollar a week; but the experiment of German scholars, pacing up
and down in their halls, without fire, and the theories of bran
bread philosophers, are not held to be cardinal virtues in a scholar.
After such a régime as led to unpadding the bones, making more
than a few hours' continuous sleep a condition of pain, bringing
feeble nerves and a weak digestion, there was a demand for out-
door life and the practices of wiser men were adopted after severe
delusive trial.
At this crisis, I wrote I could not indulge in a season at Sara-
toga, and was vain enough to think that I could speak to edifica-
tion, and that with a dash of an "unfledged reformer" in a heroic
role, I might rattle the bones, seemingly very dry, in the valleys of
38
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
conservatism. At this time, I made public profession of religion,
which was a surprise amidst spiritual iceberg surroundings of a
circle of sceptics, where I took up an affirmative defense of the
orthodox system. I look back with pleasure on this yielding to
conviction of duty, stimulating to a higher life, and preparation
for public service. I soon found myself deprecating the yellow
traslı literature, in the hands of so many students, and advocating
the claims of good books, and passing out the publications of the
American Tract Society for sale or gift, under a system of colport-
age. Through my friend, J. M. Clark, I was introduced to the
head office in New York, from which I received tempting offers to
remain in New York, declining which, I was allowed to be an
assistant to my friend, Clark, then at the head of colportage in
Wisconsin. With him I found what I coveted — independent
humble service in out-door life on what was then the frontier.
WESTWARD, 110!
.
This was in the summer and fall of 1844, and my first visit to
Wisconsin, then a territory. Chicago was not then reached from
the East by a railroad, and the staunch steamer “Madison,” which
was our craft from Buffalo, encountered a rough passage described
and known ad nauseam. Nothing seemed to gain a hearing save
politics, Polk and Clay being the presidential candidates. Boat
discussion prompted the wildest bets, cool men putting up all their
money on the result. In one instance, a lady in tears called me
aside, saying that her husband had asked for their all, one thou-
sand dollars in gold, which he staked on Polk's election. I had
spoken in a social religious meeting in the cabin, and was urged to
break up the bet. This was my desire, so I said, “Wait until we
reach Cleveland,” which we did, and, going ashore, I found that
Polk was the victor, and returned to the boat with news which
saved the family from penury, for the Clay men were ardent and
confident.
We landed at Milwaukee, not the beautiful city of to-day with
more than two hundred thousand people — then of seven thousand.
The most striking facts were fifty lawyers; also, bands of redinen,
painted, and low-necked ponies loaded with pappooses, peltry and
baskets. I became a correspondent of the New York Tribune, and
sent such florid descriptions of the great country to be, that what I
39
wrote in letters and of facts, the State printed into a little work,
“The Home of the Badgers,” to induce emigration to the State.
Certainly the people came, and have made a grand State of nearly
two millons of people. My destination was Prairieville, distant
from the lake, at the home of Jonas M. Clark, to be his lieutenant
with his books as my health would admit. Arriving at night in
the little town, in my anxiety to see a real prairie, I took a long
stroll after daylight to see a virgin realty only as yet read of,
detailed my adventure at a late and delayed breakfast, and earned
a laugh for a model tenderfoot. There were only fenced farins
near, but take these away and houses, and you have our sunshorn
gardens,” a definition which was a delight to my romantic fancy.
Afterward I saw them really flat, in other places the billows of
the sea; even a marsh prairie fire, a sight worth a thousand mile
trip. I was lost in sight of the now beautiful college town of
Waupun, having the light of distant prairie fire and the guide of
an Indian hunter, to the site of a saw-mill and a farmer's hospita-
ble roof. An open winter was one of almost fathomless mud, and
the malaria was conducive to ague, only kept away by medicine.
I have never yet seen a person in a real ague shake.
It was a time of great religious activity and excited discus-
sions on temperance and slavery. Independents and users of a
free lance were in demand by the masses, while bright minds,
able speakers and abundance of funds, contributed to a political
evolution.
Hon. Edward D. Holton, of Milwaukee, still an eminent, good
citizen of that city, was then a young orator. Hon. Charles
Durkee became a radical Territorial delegate in Congress and
United States Senator, while Ichabod Codding made the circuit of
the counties as one of the most effective orators of the country. I
drop a tear to his memory, and express my admiration for his tal-
ents, the companion and peer of Lovejoy. It was of him that Ste-
phen A. Douglas said, “There would be no amusement in debating
with him on the prairies of Illinois.” In a true emotional mood,
he made many weep; in a story there was great merriment, and in
denunciation of wrong there were the deep tones of indignation.
Missouri slave owners, then in Wisconsin, secretly held their serv-
ants, and fleeing fugitives were common. This is a sample of the
orator, Codding:
“Would you secrete or turn back the escaped ?" was the burn-
40
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
REMINISCENCES
F FORTY YEARS.
ing question. The Bible and human instincts were the basis of
appeal, and the comparison was the supposition of your child cap-
tured by the Indians. The infant is kidnapped, and after years of
anguish is given up as lost. Then comes a secret history as to the
lost child. "Now the captive is in a wigwain, unable to flee.
The father watches for the absence of the braves, and in the dead
of night grasps his long-lost boy from the savages. He mounts
the swiftest pony! What! Steal a horse ? No! Take one, as
the drowning cling to a floating plank! In his flight God shields
him from bullets, covers bis head, and home is reached. The
mother weeps, and kisses her boy; the neighborhood is roused with
joy over the rescue. Hark! In the dull prayer-meeting there is
praise-hallelujah; except when the good deacon hints about tak-
ing property, and snatching the boy from the family; don't say
what he might do; but 'the Constitution calls on us to send back
niggers.' The old mother says they were stolen and the white
thief is no better than an Indian kidnapper. "Ah, Deacon, would
you send them back ?!" shouts Codding. There is silence. “I
poll the house. All who would send back the white boy, rise."
None! “Now, what better before God is a white boy than a black
one ?” Silence again! « All who would send back a panting,
fugitive black man, rise.” None! “I have won iny case. Slave-
holding is man-stealing, and tested by the heart, there is only one
throb in all ages." This is but the outline of a speech given with
the finest inagery and deepest pathos. “Politic lips belie the
heart. Throw away your party shackles! Send Durkee to Con-
gress—an Abolitionist, Holton, to Congress — sponsors at the bap-
tismal font when Wisconsin comes into the Union.” Durkee was
elected.
During my visit to the Territory I met the Rev. John Lewis,
of New Diggings, whose wife was the daughter of Harlan Page,
both of whom were from New York City, and most devoted in
their work. Their experiences were as thrilling in story as their
labors were salutary in restraint, and elevating in a society where
few of the delights of home were possible. In my review of life
I count no labor so much appreciated, or affording me so much sat-
isfaction as my service with the now lamented Lewis, and for a
people exposed to the temptations of camps and strolling outcasts.
Remembrance of home and the finer instincts asked for counsel to
the dying, and a funeral service. On one occasion, while Rev. Mr.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
41
Lewis was sick, there came a call to attend the funeral of a young
lawyer at Lancaster, the county seat. It was on Sunday morning,
and a second messenger left the request, but too late for the word
that the minister was sick. Thereupon I was asked to take his
place. I was not a minister, either in name or in fact, but to my
remonstrance was the answer that they knew neither of us, and
"go right on.” I did; and only after the service did I inform
them that I was not Mr. Lewis, he being sick. Then came one of
the trials of my life in making a decision. There was no resident
minister in the young, ambitious town, and the young men hur-
riedly got up a liberal subscription to induce me to stay and
occupy the Court House on Sundays. It did not avail that I was
no minister, and on restored health was to return East and study
theology. They wanted only one sermon, and pleaded for a year
before return. My answer was, “Independents were often irreg-
ular, but this is a good reason for preparation. A miner would not
use a dull pick; and the blade to cut grass is a good mower sharp-
ened in the morning hour.” That was my case. Why I did not
yield to their solicitation, with a light purse, and where there was
a promise of good, I do not know, unless under the control of that
divinity that shapes our ends.
That occasion is associated with this excerpt from a letter in
my volume, “Home of the Badgers”:
"Passing to Lancaster I found abundance of blackberries, crab-apples, goose-
berries, wild plums and other indigenous fruit. I enumerated the game I saw,
and what I heard. Two deer were bounding in the distance. I saw the gray
squirrel; rabbits darting into the bushes; and heard the prairie hen calling
together her brood, and the music of the birds that sang in the oaks. The thrush
and the sweetest prairie singers gave voluntaries, and I thought of the poet's true
answer to the question, 'What does the bird say ?'
"But the lark is so brimful of gladness and love,
The green fields below him, the blue sky above,
That he sings, and he sings, and forever sings he,
I love my love and my love loves me.'
“From observation, Grant county presents inducements equal to, if not greater
than any other county in the territory. Its commercial facilities, the high cash
market in the mines, are not to be overlooked. In this village there is no groggery,
and a large portion of the citizens are from New England and New York. A
paper is published here called the Grant County Herald. The Fourth of July is
over and there are but few villages in this region that have not run out their flags
and drank their toasts. The soul of repose is in activity-on that day I rode
twenty miles in a buggy, attempted a public speech; rode fifteen miles by steam
on the Mississippi – gazed at'fire-works'in Dubuque until eleven o'clock at night,
42
RIMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
and then without grumbling slept on the floor, as five hundred others did who
slept there that night.
“The temptations to business and land purchases were not less than those to
professional life. Beaver Dam then was only an incipient city with saw-mill and
log houses. I came near buying a half interest in it of Mr. Ordway, and was only
deterred by the fear of damages. to lands by a dam across the outlet of Fox lake,
which furnishes a fine water power, the nucleus of a city of seven or ten thousand
people. Rich as that purchase might have made me, in looking backward I never
have since had a regretful thought of the lost opportunity, and think less of the
sentiment than of the rhythm-
5. Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these-it might have been.'
“My return Eastward was by the way of Chicago, slighting those bargains
offered in lots, the possession of which has brought colossal wealth. The late
'Long John' Wentworth at my side said, 'bid, bid.' I did bid, but too low."
In a letter to a classmate dated from Racine, in November,
1844, there is a glimpse of the discomforts of the trip:
“After three weeks I tell you more of Wisconsin. They have had an October
snow-storm, which was unprecedented. I was chilled almost to numbness, by
twenty-four miles ride in it; but it must be forgotten, as we are now visited with
the more than ordinary delights of autumn. It has been my fortune in riding two
hundred miles to be sloughed but once. It was on a cross-road after a rain. My
buggy was in to the axle-horse flouncing on his side. It was a fit time to con-
sider one's 'condition and prospects.' By neighborly aid I was extricated, and
shall look to my going in future. I have found traveling accommodations gener-
ally good. The exceptions would be, when the light of the candle was put out by
the wind coming through a hole in the logs, which was large enough for a middle-
sized fox-hound to crawl through to be my company. At this place, after enjoying
refreshing sleep, I was greeted over my head with bright starlight. I looked up
and had a full view of some acquaintances in the constellations, through a hole in
the roof full three inches by five. The circumstance was so amusing that I gazed
until twilight. This is a new country incident, but not an uncommon one here."
Here is a description given of a prairie in Dodge county, in the
winter time:
"The prairie is full eighteen miles long, including angles-from two to five
miles wide, and on either side are groves of timber. The farms are made on the
edge and the road, which is in the middle of the prairie, is smooth and hard as a
pavement at this season of the year. It is five miles to a house and as I pass I
ask, What solitude is like this, and who can choose words to describe a prairie in
the winter? The fluttering insect of summer had ceased its music and the unre-
sisted winds of the prairie had driven all that once lived there, into the groves;
the trees were almost lost in the great distance; and in this loneliness, one's strength,
wit or wisdom were useless. The ground was undulating where I rode and wave
after wave rose before me in the distance, and, above, the slow-moving cloud threw
over me the soft mantle of its shadow. The prairie fire had just gone out and not
a dry leaf, stalk or shrub was seen. Even the stones were smoked to the color of
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
43
the sod, and over the extended hue of darkness there was but the gray winding path,
which was as a chain and guide to cherished expectation. I crossed during the
day the Black Hawk trail; it awakened peculiar sensations, to come upon the foot-
steps of so noisy a predecessor. I could hardly keep my eye from it, yet would not
be considered even a chance-won worshiper of that little line which could be just
seen in the varying surface of the prairie."
From such a scene, we catch in the succeeding paragraph the
story of a prairie on fire. I had taken a by-road in order to
shorten the distance from that upon the highway:
“To save a few miles I lost many hours. The sun hid itself, and notwith-
standing four or five miles to the right or left would have brought me to the road-
still I galloped in a circle over brooks, on the ice and through high marsh rushes
and thickets, till my nag was weary. After having warmed myself by burning a
log and heaped together several pair of deer's horn, left by the spring where the
Indians had cooked and camped, I let my horse take his own course. In less than
half an hour I was brought to a road like a by-path; here I saw the sun setting and
learned my direction. On my left was a marsh extending a mile, covered with a
crop of grass and rushes from four to six feet high. I was in a grove, and hearing
the crack of a rifle I looked again and could just distinguish a few Indians across
the marsh. The dry limbs were falling about me, as the wind blew with great vio-
lence from the west. The autumn fire had gone over the ground where I was rid-
ing, but had not crossed the marsh, which was now frozen over, leaving the tall
grass to wave above. Little did I think that amid the anxieties of a man lost in
the woods, I was to be awakened to a sight not to be described by the intellectual
dreamer and only equaled by the mad flame that dances on the roofs of the burning
city. A thick cloud of smoke first reached me in the strong breeze. As it passed
over, my horse wheeled, threw up his ears and faced the wind. A fire had been
set and was fast feeding itself above the icy bottom. At first it moved slowly and
the flame rose but a few feet, but soon it was fairly rooted and heat was generated
which was to be the companion of the wind. A number of fires are set, and as
they widen and dart forward, what a retinue there is of fabled nymphs and tritons
in the many-colored blaze; now the smoke and blaze are uniting—now they sepa-
rate; the curling flame rises higher, flaps like the light canvas and bends with the
breeze and another fire is devouring. Each breath of flame outleaps the last. The
crackling of the knotted reed at first faintly heard, is now like the near and con-
fused snap of ten thousand locusts. The air is heated, and one sheet of flame
dashes in quick succession over another-it is like a race of steeds. The one with
the fairest wind sweeps before the rest and robs them of their fuel. It was a glare
of beauty and splendorma sure messenger of death to all that made race with that
wind-fed fire. One could only lose himself in this view so far above the most brill-
iant imagery. I had before seen a burning prairie, but it was only a fitful flashing,
compared to the strides of those devouring demons, that in a moment turned that
yellow waving plain into a low pall, that rests on nature in darkness.
"I turned into the path and saw an Indian, with his rifle, who had been watch-
ing for game that might be driven out by the fire. I made no words with him,
knowing that he could not be less than out of tobacco, and would have as little
morbid sensibility in coaxing a few shillings from my pocket as we have in making
good farms of their hunting grounds. Passing on I soon reached a stopping place
for the night, and women and children very innocently laughed at my getting lost
in Dodge county.”
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
EASTWARD.
Upon returning from Wisconsin with restored health and spir-
its, there was no longer any wavering as to a choice of profession.
under the influence of the early friend of my father and mother,
their honored pastor, Doctor Hopkins. The earlier devotion of
the parents to the pastor was now bearing its unlooked-for fruit.
Of the Theological Seminary he was a trustee. He was also min-
ister to the first Presbyterian Church. He had no children living,
and I was made a welcome guest at his house until failing health
caused his resignation from the pulpit, and I was then made wel-
come in the house of his relative, Mr. Job Alling, one of the kind-
est of gentlemen.
Dr. Hopkins was an entertaining story-teller, also a theological
writer and author. His reminiscences were striking, but his psy-
chology and severe logic I remember to have listened to only by
courtesy. On my later Vermont visits I found the old people who
confirmed the lively stories written out from recollection. More
than once the old incidents were repeated in which the Doctor was
compelled to acknowledge his part. Two of these, by no means
legendary, are here given out of their chronological order because
they refer to associations gathered about the man. They are
given in vivid recollection.
Shall I recite the wolf hunt story?
“In the early days depredations on the flocks aroused the
neighborhood for a hunt, if the invaders did not early escape to
their lairs. These occasions were usually in the line of special
providence which often makes doctors busy on Sunday—the day
also of great battles. At this time the men of the congregation
were missing, and the excitement of the ring, near by, withdrew a
majority of the women, and what was there for the minister but to
follow; and, as I have some repute as a good shot, a youngster in
line passed his gun to me, and as he told it, 'the wolf coming in
sight, the parson shut his eyes, saying, Heaven direct the shot!
then aimed, but he didn't, firing, touch a hair.' One questioning
was as thoughtless as the shot was harmless, and I was disposed to
fall back on the New Haven boy, who, a few years after, being
questioned about fishing in the trout streams, said it was poor, for
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
45
he was down yesterday. “What, Sunday ?” “Yes, but didn't
stay long," and he cut short my gentle reproof in a boyish rebuff,
“Guess I didn't break Sunday much, didn't cotch nothing," which
is akin to my apology. I neither loaded a gun nor killed anything,
but it was my last appearance in a wolf hunt.'"
The traditional jug story I learned from original sources given
in gleeful recollection. On the temperance awakening, when the
distillery under the hill was a large and prosperous institution, the
hard drinkers distrusted the strict abstinence of the zealous
reformers, including the minister. They would “all take it in
secret behind the door," and to confirm the opinion, one of the
thirsty doubters met Mr. Hopkins, and espying a brown jug in the
parson's wagon, himself on the way for a dram, said he would say
nothing about it, for the best of people would have it in the house
and most would drink on the sly. The jug was just filled with
new yeast — «emptings” from the still-house, and there was a sug-
gestion in a sportive mood, that, as we were under the hill, there
would be no scandal in taking a drink. The thirsty customer
fixed his lips for a full, hasty dram, his companion holding up the
jug at a proper angle, to conceal the contents and insure a full
delivery on the drawing of the plug, which saturated the person of
his strangled victim, who found a swift emetic rather than a pleas-
ing elixir. It was one of those practical severe jokes which few
could better devise and none more heartily enjoy than the dignified
doctor, who said the ludicrous treatment of his parishioner and
patient was salutary, the man never afterward being accused of
drinking behind the door.
THE SEMINARY.
It was the judgment of the Faculty that my knowledge of
New Testament Greek and of the Hebrew would allow entrance
into the Junior class. I graduated after two years, resisting the
opiate of caution and breath of praise by the good, but conservative
professors. Their kindness was not undervalued, yet the student
did not adopt the role of policy, ambitious as he was to perform
public service. With fatherly concern on their part, I was told
that my ideas were too radical for the times; 1.8., it was consid-
ered wise not to discuss the position of missionaries among the
Indians, then receiving slaveholders into the church. A cargo of
46
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
rum might possibly be overlooked, when sent out by those who gave
liberally to foreign missions. Then the friction between the old
and new schools I caricatured— the old school holding children
are sinners when they were born; the new school, sinners when
old enough to know how. The professors, Drs. Henry Mills, Bax-
ter Dickinson and Laurens P. Hickock, were all able men, the
losopher of celebrity; but there was the voice of Presbytery to be
heeded, and the old paths only were held as safe and sacred.
Conservatism and all, this was truly a serviceable school of the
prophets, located in lovely Auburn, the home of Judges Conkling
and Blatchford and the then eminent Ex-Gov. Seward, who was
heard frequently in great cases like the Freeman murder case,
where his opponent was “Prince" John Van Buren. attorney
general.
Its alumni were numerous. Distinguished as associates I
recall the noble missionaries, F. E. Williams and Charles Little;
Dr. Henry A. Nelson, professor, theologian and writer; Dr. Henry
W. Parker, poet, artist, naturalist and professor in Iowa College,
late author of “The Spirit of Beauty," a volume of the highest
original and literary character. Prof. Parker wedded Miss Helen
Fitch, a gifted authoress and the belle of Auburn, tenderly remem-
bered as long a sufferer from a frightful casualty. Revs. H. A.
Strong, Job Pierson, Edward Taylor, E. F. Williams and others,
still honor the pulpit; while J. H. Kasson, my townsman and
friend, and Robinson, the devoted and ardent, have passed away in
varying service not to be forgotten.
War truly emancipated theological seminaries, as it did politi-
cians. The vassalage and pulpit circumspection of that day, I set
out in a scrap found among the old papers — of course, sarcasm.
Sample sermon skeleton, advisory to the class of 1847. The
text, “Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
· I. What the characteristics of the serpent?
(a) Fertile in promises to mother Eve.
(b) Has eye of a charmer --- the bird falls.
(c) Coils in danger — circumspection.
(d) Crawls when pursued.
II. In the symbol of a dove.
(a) Harmless in flight.
(b) Gentle in cooing.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
47
(c) Instinctively in storm takes refuge in a cote.
Remarks. Gentlemen, advisory to your congregations, say on
Fast and Thanksgiving days, we
1. Deprecate the California gold fever.
2. Denounce fanatical Mormon crusaders.
3. Execrate the bloody Mexican war.
4. Commiserate black men — leave slavery to Providence.
5. Study the symbols of the successful minister— the serpent
of the earth, the dove of the air.
A CALL.
Union village, thirty miles north of Albany, was the place of
my first settlement. It was a village romantic in nature, of attract-
ive houses, a refined people, of radical, diverse opinions on the
great issues of slavery and temperance. The Congregational
church had come out from the Dutch Reformed, refusing to fel-
lowship any church tolerating a rumseller or a slaveholder— a pro-
test only a quarter of a century in advance of Presbyterian and
Methodist orthodoxy and ethics. It required heroines and born
cavaliers to stem a tide of funkyism, a cowardly pulpit and social
intolerance.
That church was equal to the occasion in that locality; erecting
a fine edifice, and with ample means and high social culture, enlist-
ing thought, not less than awakening admiration. As a young
minister I had no high advanced standard to urge; it was rather
an effort to keep up with the procession on a stern, rugged march,
entered upon by a noble people in calm resolution. Certainly their
high social standing and kindly spirit, with the heart of true
reformers, made them a peculiar people.
In politics, new issues were met confronting the slave power on
the election of Gen. Taylor, who, though really a kind-hearted
man, was the hero of a war severely denounced.
The liberal party, headed by John P. Hale, received, I think,
the entire suffrage of the voters in our Society. In the eyes of a
gross sentiment there was the greatest scandal in the abolition of
the corner negro pew, yet more so in name than in resulting fact.
The families keeping house-servants and coachmen, found their
employes in church, without pressure or command, occupying not a
corner, but a side of the church; they were so numerous that a
48
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
colorphobist asked the usher on entering to do him a favor by giv-
ing him a seat not "on the shady side of the house." The name
of Negro church was a by-word, but there was only a toleration of
a class in worship as ready as that of the nurse or the drivers on
duty, and defended without an idea of the social quality as degrad-
ing; it was a salutary, kind effort to uplift a class, yet wearing the
badges of the slavery of their fathers; in a word, a Christian rec-
ognition of the oneness of the race.
I give an incident. Rev. Mr. Fillmore, of Cambridge, a popu-
lar pastor, a relative of the then President Fillmore, proposed an
exchange. On the way, accosted by a parishioner, he was asked
as to his mission. «Going to exchange with Grinnell, to preach to
nabobs and niggers” — a hyperbole at least, it was in no sense
true. The audience was not of nabobs, but of cultured people,
tolerating a class to whom the low designation of “nigger" was
never applied. The families could afford to be singular, equally
with the affluent Quakers in plain colors far out of fashion. Still,
in a “one idea" they found no cardinal virtue or excuse for minor
neglects. The first ladies sang in the choir. The rich man's
daughter played at the organ— thus music, Sabbath-school, tem-
perance and reform, filled the church, and there were added to its
numbers on one day near half a hundred by profession.
The monthly concerts for missions drew Quakers, skeptics, and
the late witty E. D. Culver, member of Congress, all bearing a free
lance. The warfare against the saloon was only less than against
slavery, seemingly more effective. Reform men, the wood-sawyer,
the Mohawk Dutchman, aided in keeping back license for a time,
and liberal citizens erected a temperance hotel, only to lose its
peculiar standing after a few years. As to the tipplers, I recall
two ludicrous incidents.
McDonald was a reformed Irishman, but on the death of a
daughter fell into grief, and I made a special effort to keep him
sober to attend the funeral. At the cemetery what was my sur-
prise when he stepped out in front of the company to speak, and
this was his bull which afterward stung his proud spirit, and led
to a permanent reform: “Friends, I thank you for your presence,
and for burying my dear child, and hope the time is not far distant
when I can in like service return your kindness."
Another inebriate was brought to reform — a kind of a pill doc-
tor— by a laughable experience. Coming home late at night,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
49
hungry and thirsty, he called to his wife up-stairs, for milk and a
bowl of blueberries. Their location in the pantry was pointed out,
only a dim moon shining. During his absence she had made a
batch of pills, and had left them near the berries. Presently he
called, in the midst of profanity, “Are there none fresher than
these?” — they had made him sick. Horrors ! horrors ! and the
reply, as she took in the situation, was, that instead of the berries
he had taken the bulk of those pills. The ridicule which followed
the maudlin episode ended the career of a medical practitioner,
and caused his reform.
Time has not dimmed my recollection nor lessened my admira-
tion for the heroism of that congregation, as I recall Dr. Corliss,
the Moreys, Holmes, Masters, Gibbs, Bigelows and others, for all
of whom save one, epitaphs have been written.
· I mention President Arthur, whose personal opinions he gave
me at the White House. "I lived in Union Village at the found-
ing of that church. George H. Corliss, the son of Dr. Corliss, was
my playmate, now the great mechanic decorated by the kings of
Europe. Not long ago I told him, sitting in that chair, that he
would be remembered and his name mentioned long after some on
the Presidential roll.” Then added, “Young William Holmes had
ten chances to one of mine for a rise in the world. He had fine
dress suits, carriages and horses at command, and I was only the
son of a poor Baptist ininister.” Knowing that Holmes lived in
reduced circumstances at Grinnell, my Iowa home, he invited him
to visit the White House. Learning of the family he rang his bell,
asked by a note that the youngest son should have an appointment
by the Postmaster General to the next railroad mail vacancy,
which was soon filled by Mr. Frank S. Holmes. In further evi-
dence of a statesman who never forgot his friends, is the fact that
his high station did not prevent, on the death of Mr. Holmes, a
telegraphic message of sympathy to the family.
My stay with this people was a pleasant one, with a full house
and the church doubling in members. On most fair Sundays I
spoke three times a day — the afternoon in the country. A con-
viction came that a change would inure to the benefit of both par-
ties, though I did not seek invitations, for they were at hand.
Was there a divinity shaping the future, bringing burdens and the
sad separation of friends ? My mother, for a long time in feeble
health, was at Union Village treated with the kindest attention.
50
She died at the old home, sundering the link keeping me from the
West, which had bound me nearer home, to witness at the bedside
wasting and death.
The following letter is expressive of a mother's loss :
Mother is dead! Yesterday I replied to an inquiry, “Sho yet lingers," and
this is the first time I write the mournful sentence - a truth I could not speak.
From friends I have often heard the expression, "My mother is not living," but I
little understood that loss as I now do, which stirs the soul to the depths of feeling,
and is the occasion of extreme pain. We are called but once to suffer it during
the longest life, and it is a loss for which no earthly blessing can give return.
A suffering mother was mine. For a period of years she had not known an
and all her years of wasting furnished lessons of patience. There was pain in the
thought that the kindness of friends could not be requited, and when the lips could
not utter the words the heart indited, often her fast falling tears were the only
expressions of gratitude.
A widowed mother. When a child twenty years agone, my father passed away,
commending us all to the God of the widow and tho Father of the fatherless. Now
I recall the lonely sigh, and her careworn, saddened look has a new impression
after many years, and her devotion to us is explained. Sho lived in us and for us.
Tho youngest of our little circle, so full of promise, passed away ; the eldest, far
from homo among strangers, was cut down in manhood ; yet the fountains of her
heart had not been so dried up, or exhausted, that at the mention of father, they
did not flow. Oh! holy as hoaven is the widowed mother's love.
"The lovo of many prayers and many toars,
Which changes not with dim declining years."
So she was endeared to us until her last breath.
She lived and died a Christian mother. Christ was tho anchor of her soul;
heaven sho looked forward to as her home, and tho voice of duty was heard as the
voice of God. May those prayers and counsels meant for us that we might be use-
ful, never be forgotten. May her expression this morning, "a blessed Sabbath,"
and her last words, “ Christ is precious," bo linked with her memory and magical
words, until we have crossed the melancholy Dood.
CHAPTER IV.
Washington Society — Its Intolerance — The new Congregational
Church - A Liberal Club — Distinguished Reformers — Dr.
Bailey's National Era-Radical Legislators.
PRESIDENT ZACHARY Taylor died in Washington on the 9th
day of July, 1850, much lamented for his sterling honesty, though
taken up as a candidate on the score of availability. I attended
his funeral, although too ill to see little more than the formality
of an official pageantry so common at State burials; and the old
horse, a gray charger of the Mexican war, following in the rear,
seemed about all the cortege, brute or man, in becoming solemnity.
It was very offensive to my taste that the cavalry and flying artil-
lery returned from the burial with the quick motion of a retreat,
and that before sunset the artillery "played war” on the mall in
front of the White House, clad in mourning for the death of the
President.
The Washington then and of to-day, how unlike! Impure
water, muddy roads, squalor which sat in poverty, and the Avenue
in a general dilapidation, and as if the angels of destruction had
come to hover over the 40,000 people, ignorant, and massed as
servitors of officials, at the National Capital. The place, however
beautiful in nature, required the removal of the curse of slavery,
and an infusion of new blood and capital, to make the city of
to-day attractive to its 200,000 residents.
On my second street walk I saw a family in chains, coming
over from the Island slave-pens, where it was said there had been
an auction-block sale of humanity. My blood boiled, and I did not
suppress indignant speech, while the Northern clerks whom I met
said, “Talk low, you will get us all into trouble." All seemed to
be dumb in the shadow of the great outrages. There was an open
alliance of politicians and the Church, to keep still, little less
shameful than the league to uphold slavery itself. A free pulpit
—there was none, and the only light which gave me hope was
52
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
1
from Dr. Bailey's National Era, and the social gatherings in his
parlors, with the possibility of a Church not chained to the dead
corpse, too offensive for concealment, corrupting the very air.
Slavery struck with paralysis the otherwise manly spirits, by its
subtle exactions and divisive plots.
A CHURCH.
Humanity found no voice in the sanctuaries, nor was there a
free platform for religious protest against the open barter and pub-
lic sale of men. It was no caricature that our fustian flag
“In splendid mockery waves
O’er a land of slaves."
Messrs. Bigelow, Prentice, Stevens and others advised me that
old Trinity Church on Judiciary Square was to be sold when vaca-
ted by the Episcopalians for their new one. It was their opinion
that the Catholics would be sure of the edifice, certain that the
trustees would not incur odium by making a sale to radicals like
Dr. Bailey. It was not long before quietly I had a contract for
the purchase of the edifice, paying a small sum down to keep an
option for a few months. Property was very low, and the price
was seven thousand, five hundred dollars, now worth many times
that sum. In the effecting of a purchase my plan was to sell the
pews in the North, and I recall that Henry C. Bowen (of Bowen &
McNamee, then the silk merchants, with national distinction of
having goods for sale and not principles), now proprietor of the
New York Independent, took the first pew, for which he paid a
hundred dollars. Supported in the enterprise by the commenda-
about five thousand dollars, which was paid of the purchase money,
and we took possession of the church in November, 1851.
My sermon on the occasion was printed at the request of the
members of the congregation, and, of the listeners on that day, I
recall in the congregation, Senators Chase, Hale, Durkee, and Rep-
Massachusetts, Root, Giddings and Townsend, of Ohio, with the
ever present Dr. Bailey, ready then, as afterward, to face political
and social ostracism.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
53
The air at that day was filled with the poisonous, miasmatic
breath of slavery, and the friends of our church holding office
were truly imperiling the bread of their families in the presence
of hirelings and spies. Caste in India, or the hate of bigots in
Mexico for Protestants, was only less vengeful than that of the
respectables of Washington. Mobs had only just been dispersed,
timid and chained to the conservative car, while the escaping of
slaves led a free Church to be regarded as a menace, with all the
horrid apparitions of a nightmare. The surface of society was
truly all placid, but like sea gulls whose gyrations presage a
storm, there were ominous crowds on the corners and in dram
shops, with no seeming employment but that of lackeys, too lazy
for work, too timid for crime, and only when maudlin with drink
and provoked with rage, were in their true role the tools of slav-
ery. Their language was gross, and their oaths loud against negro
equality, and judging by their invectives they would have drank
vile whisky from human skulls as a pastime. I regret to say those
denounced as Jesuits were not so venomous as Protestants; even
clergymen, whose standing depended upon “Court favor," when
they learned that members were to leave their church for the Con-
gregational, brought nothing of fraternity, rather hovered and
watched like birds of evil omen waiting for their prey. Finesse
more becoming a ward caucus than the fraternity of churches
measured the pulse and purpose. A few were not lost to shame in
the all abounding recrearcy.
From the sermon in the church, November 25, 1851, the fol-
lowing excerpts are historic as to the occasion :
The establishment of a Congregational church in this city, as a new denomin-
ation, requires no apology; but a brief explanation may be proper, for the sake of
those who may be ignorant of our motives and designs.
No efforts are intended in depreciating those Christians who have hero set ap
their banners. All truth is not found in ono polity or creed; nor is perfection
claimed for any Protestant form of worship. The carnest Christian has not the
time to give in criticism of educational preferences, natural affinities, and the non-
essentials which separate, in name, the great Protestant family; and it is rather
becoming the zealous to “provoke to good works," still cultivating the unity of
spirit and the bond of peace. The field is wido, a large portion of it being unculti-
vated -- and a spirit of rivalry or words of railing would work only evil, while
duction of a foreign grain of a new name, by the husbandman, is not a signal for
decrying all others, indigenous to the soil, which have brought "seed to the sower
and broad to the eater”; nor does it become one branch of our Father's grcat fam-
54
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
ily to depreciate their brethren by endeavors to prove themselves more worthy of
peculiar consideration and divine favor. This new standard is set up for far differ-
ent purposes.
The best methods should be chosen for the defense of the truth and the salvation
of men.
There is a choice in the ways discovered in reaching our distant El Dorado,
there being a route by the cape, by the isthmus and overland. Marked changes
have taken place in the modes of warfare in bloody and national disputes, by a
substitution of science, flying artillery and fleets, for the cross-bow and trial by
single combat, and the pen for the sword in diplomacy. Ever giving to God's
methods - especially the foolishness of preaching, and the sovereignty of the
Spirit, their place, we are not to forget that proper means, and not miracles, are
employed for the defense of truth and the attainment of certain ends. They who
are the teachers of ethics, and are set for the defense of the Gospel, should have in
mind that we live in a time of conflicting sentiments — in an age of great freedom
of opinion, and that the abuse of an errorist is not an answer to his argument.
Errors are multiform, and a change of tactics in dealing with infidelity, to meet its
new phases, becomes necessary, except to those denials to which God has furnished
stereotyped answers. We are pointed to men who would overthrow the church, be-
cause across their pathway, and supposed in their power. To such we must dem-
onstrate its worth to them and their children, and revive its ancient spirit when
known as on the Rock, sending forth its light high in the heavens, and its savor
through the earth. To the mass, the age is utilitarian — fruitbearing; and in
showing to gainsayers what God's truth is, in its all-comprehensiveness and virtue,
marked simplicity, cheerfulness and practical deeds, which will reach men in their
immediate wants, will become more effective than simple forms of worship, or pro-
fessions of orthodoxy.
This immediate field is wide, and promises richly to repay cultivation. We
are placed in the center of controlling social and political influences, meeting on
every street the servants of the people, who here assemble to frame the laws, which
bind together this republic of states. This city has emerged from obscurity, becom-
ing populous and beautiful, the very name of which should stimulate you to make
it what the Father of his Country would desire, were he permitted to communicate
a wish from that home to which he has gone.
You appear, not as innovators, either in church polity, or with peculiar theol-
ogy, on this soil, held in common by all the states. The state has adopted the
republicanism of our church, the germ of which was brought to the new world in
the Mayflower two hundred years agone. Your theology, with its cognate princi-
ples and spirit, was never more welcome to the scholar and Christian-never more
diffusive than now; pot bounded by state lines, it marches with the “Star of
Empire,” on, and beyond the “Father of waters," where the Oregon sweeps by, to
find a local habitation and a name in the land of gold, where the Pacific laves the
shore.
Our common heritage is the theology of those divines whose works are read
approvingly by the Christians of many nations. We have treasures in the memory
of Elliot and Brainerd, the eminent apostles to the Indians - joy to know that
Beecher and Hewitt, the early champions of temperance, are of us; and we take
pleasure in our Christian relationship to those in our country who first engaged in
the work of home and foreign missions; who have given system and efficiency to
Sabbath-schools, and bible and tract circulation. All about us there are those
who lend their sympathies, and will join us in labors. Be joyous, then, my breth-
ren, to-day, because the pilgrim spirit has not fled, but walks in noon's broad light:
labor and pray that it may abide and burn eyen here--
REMINISCENCES OF FORT, YEARS.
“Till the waves of the bay where the Mayflower lay,
Shall foam and freeze no more."
There is much of labor before us; and however feeble our beginnings may be, if
we go to God for counsel and for strength, we shall learn that with Him there is
no restraint "to save by many or by few.” If a prophet of evil and a foe say, “If
the foxes but run upon these walls, they will fall down,” heed it not, for the words
to his church are, "I have graven thee upon my hands—thy walls are continually
before me!" With a worm He can " thrash the mountains and beat them small,
and make the hills as chaff.” Oh, then, go to Him when doubting and weary, and
He will be a counsellor, and sinew you with the strength of a wrestling Angel.
He will here raise up a people in sympathy with all that is good — a church which
shall be with her children in the divine economy of preparation- a quarry for the
chiselling of marble--a forest for the felling of cedars, to be borne henco by the
Master Builder, and have a place in that temple going up in the heavens.
This leads to personality. The new church for freedom had
not been offensive, but the occupant of the pulpit was "shaded,"
and finally charged with giving a young mulatto couple a lesson in
astronomy, especially the location of the North star. I think a
trap had been set for me by visitors at Gilbert's, where I boarded.
It became a serious charge. I could not prove a negative, and
with my enemies perjury was nothing. My throat gave signs of
failing me, and there was a good excuse for a Northern trip;
besides, I had a pleasing early matrimonial prospect which I did
not desire to have clouded by violence, or by the lips of base
informers.
I left Washington, but with the mockery of a good-by from
so-called gentlemen accompanying me to the cars, whom I advised
that they would “see me later” —as they did from the gallery at
the Capitol, when I gave the vote to confiscate the property of one
of them with that of others, for disloyalty. I looked them boldly
in the eye, having found poetic satisfaction at least, waiting on the
true verdict in time's just awards.
The church kept on its way until a council for the settlement
of a candidate not very acceptable, and with Prof. Stowe as mod-
erator, was called early in 1854. It was the largest of the kind
ever convened in this country. Dr. Edward Beecher was the main
questioner. Was there ever a candidate (whose name I withhold)
placed under the eye of hyper D. D.'s in such a theological pil-
lory? He was bold in assurance, but not very orthodox. Henry
Ward Beecher preached a sermon to a great crowd, even Senator
Sumner standing, and, by a special invitation of Mrs. President
56
REMINISCENCES OF TORTY YEARS.
.
her son. The President, one of the most urbane of gentlemen,
received all the council with great cordiality.
The church, later, recovered from the wounds their chosen pas-
tor had received, in deprecation and fear of his loose theology,
and he left. Varied measures and expedients, with results it does
not become me to criticise or recount, were taken. War brought a
new element to Washington, and the pestilential breath of slavery
ceased to enfeeble moral purpose and to invite social ostracism.
Dr. Boyington became chaplain to Congress — a preacher of cour-
age and ability — and there arose new friends, like Gen. 0. O.
Howard, whose name is a synonym for a hero and Christian, and
Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, domiciled in Washington, who
became pillars in the new and model edifice, where one of the larg-
est of our societies holds its place, rising in troubled days of the
new epoch; from it vigorous colonies go to organize in the new
portions of the city and vicinage. The death of slavery was truly
the life of the Congregational church, free and aggressive, and the
new Washington.
WASHINGTON CHARACTERS AND LIFE — DR. BAILEY.
Dr. Gamaliel Bailey may be little known by this generation,
for I am not aware that he has a biography, yet his career fur-
nishes choice materials. No man of his time gave truth a more
hospitable welcome, nor were there any less disturbed by tempo-
rary failures and threats.
Into the Ohio river his press was thrown three times, and a
bonfire made of his paper list. For him assassins lay in wait, sure
to gain the praises of the “Union saviors" on the border. His first
years in Washington, publishing the Era, were perilous to property
and person, and as late as 1848, his office was for three days in a
state of siege by a mob that swore in the singular and plural that
they would neither eat nor drink until the quiet-disturber was
slain. The intrepid and yet mild defender looked out upon the
crowd (with their murderous intent) unblanched by fear, to gain,
when the peril was over, the regard of gentlemen who were ready
secretly to promote the continuation of the National Era. Aban-
doned as a losing concern by its projectors, Dr. Bailey personally
launched the craft freighted with precious principles, never left to
chance by an accomplished pilot with genius to devise and courage
to command.
S
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
57
11
I recall his philosophy as but a story of yesterday. The cause
wants an elevated plane where the sordid will find no company,
and great truths and association with literature, and even
romance; to one great idea alone the masses are not won except
by shame, or the hope of early and easy redress.
From the wrongs of black men you could turn to columns of
bright reviews of books, letters unique from cities, and charming
views of Washington society, all culminating in the good fortune
of the manuscript of Harriet Beecher Stowe and the immortal
“Uncle Tom's Cabin,” later circulated by Jewett, of Boston, and
others by the hundred thousand, and reprinted in many languages.
Sumner's “White slavery in the Barbary States," Hildreth's
“White slave," and the best ideas of jurists and reformers had
better than waste-basket fortune; noted and praised as only an
advance to the future camping ground of all moral heroes. Judge
William Jay was never so well known as a worthy son of the great
Chief Justice, John Jay. The Quaker poet, Whittier, for two
years was a special contributor, and his verse was never before set
in so elegant a frame as by the National Era, and candidates for
literary honors found it worthy a generous patron.
Then, in 1850, the philosopher of reform opened his elegant
parlors to counteract the social ostracism of Washington, which,
though coarse in show, was relentless as the grave, backed by
the hundreds of millions investment in human chattels. A man
with an idea, if not a boor or a bore, knew where he could find an
introduction to a company, after having seen the editor of the
Era. Such worthy peculiar gatherings of people may have never
been seen before. Will they ever be again, where such great
schemes were voiced and national actors were seen, the ultra Gods:
of the time, in promenade, and sipping creams with common
mortals ?
It is quite safe to speak of those who have passed away.
There was Miss Matilda Miner, advertised by a Congressman as a
“doubtful lady coining to the city ostensibly to teach darkies, but
really to aid in stealing nigger's." What was the next sensation ?
The lady had hired a school-room next to the congressman, who
had in vain offered hundreds of dollars for the lease. That was
finesse and a fact exciting; even a mile-stone set up by the way,
by a woman in strategy - the peer of Brooks, the Congressman
and editor from New York.
V
58
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Cheap postage had long been like the red flag planted before
slaveholders, who made reading by servants a crime, and Barnabas
Bates, of New York, once acting postmaster of that city, con-
densed his figures and philosophy as another startling force in the
parlors, where that most able writer and reformer, Rev. Joshua
Leavitt, had found a hearty welcome as a postage reformer-
equipped later as the editor of the New York Independent — a
statesman also. Who is the brusque, broad, solid millionaire, gray
with the crown of sixty years? It is Asa Whitney, of New
York, the first and bold projector of a railway to the Pacific coast.
How firm he stands, and with eye lit up in optimistic glow, fore-
casting the day when gold shall be mined at less then half its cost.
Disunion was averted, and the Pacific Railroad became more than
a Golden gate to the west, a road for ships freighted for the Indies.
He won his case in the Bailey parlor forum, but that year of
Congress under Southern rule was dull, and the rivalry as to the
eastern terminus was bitter. Col. Benton was then an advocate of
the Smoky Hill Kansas route, which he asserted was indicated by
the track of the Indian, and still plainer by the animal instincts of
the buffalo. Though more than ten years elapsed and Southern
chairs required to be vacated before the work began, yet Whitney
was the able, bold projector of the great work of the century.
THOMAS H. BENTON,
the author of the “Thirty Years in the United States Senate," was
one of your broad-chested, robust men of mark, best recalled and
delineated in personality when expunging the Senate Jackson-
resolutions of censure. "Solitary and alone I set this ball in
motion.”
I heard him on the Compromise Measures in 1850, especially in
opposition to the propositions championed by Senator Foote, of
Mississippi. His speech was slow, words measured, argument
elevated, and fortified with historical allusions and figures in com-
bative array. “You cannot,” said he, “by quackery stanch these
bleeding wounds. Here I throttle the device as I hold up the
measures, and crush them, as I mutilate the paper in my hand
which prints this delusion." The ambitious factions displaced
him from the Senate on the grounds that he lived in Washington,
was not a hearty slavery propagandist -- not even a moderate fire-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
59
eater; but St. Louis sent him to the House of Representatives a
term, in rebuke to the state where his counsel was coveted; the
Pacific railway was brought into great prominence, and objections
were met with the power and skill of an adroit debater.
In 1853 I called at his residence in St. Louis, a very plain, low
brick house, its walls decorated with maps and geographical lines,
the promise of the future railway to the Pacific, then an absorbing
public topic. “The route," said he, “was made before the com-
pass, and the line is traced by the buffalo so plain that modern
engineering has little to do, save in details.” “Every dollar,"
said the statesman, “ taken from the mines has cost two, and rail-
way transit will save half in mining, building Orient and Occident,
and millions in taking care of Indians."
On the slavery question he remarked, “ Missouri once, I urged,
could afford to be taxed to pay for every slave, and then make
money by the increased value of lands," which he pictured as rich
in soil, and richer in coal, lead and iron. “I am a nominal slave
owner, but can only say, not in pride, that I am not the first
man whose practice and theories were divergent.”
There was a suggestion and a hope that he might be a national
candidate. No, the fire-eaters are exacting, and the North can
furnish candidates with principles equal to the requirements of
conventions. “The Old Roman” he was called — clouded in repu-
tation by the duel, but courageous and defiant when he opened his
vest in the Senate Chamber, and said to the pugnacious, noisy
Foote, "Shoot, shoot!”
Clay and Webster, his compeers, whom I saw, were every way
unlike the opinionated Missourian, who did not conceal his vanity
on my praising a Senatorial speech against “Hangman Foote,” and
on Compromise. He was a fearless and a bitter opponent, but
truly kind of heart, saying of his old enemy, Calhoun, wasting on
life's verge, “When God lays his hands on a man I take mine off.”
He sleeps well.
David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, had just reached fame by a
proviso restricting slavery in the Territories. When in Congress,
I was asked to introduce strangers to him. He was a short, rotund
person, with a round head, and bore himself as a lion on many
occasions, with dignity, as the author of a most radical proviso,
rescuing a not over brilliant statesman from the oblivion of
mediocrity.
CU
60
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Preston King, of New York, afterward Senator, flabby in face,
obese, and more than aldermanic in form, was for the liberal issue
too early removed, having, while a government officer, drowned
himself in the bay of New York.
George W. Julien, of Indiana, Representative, John P. Hale,
Senator from New Hampshire, with Charles Francis Adams, of
Massachusetts, were a trio of note, once candidates for the Presi-
dency and Vice-Presidency.
Julien was a Quaker, save as to hat and soft 'speech-verbal
excoriation of a dough-face was to him a fine art — but in the par-
lor he was a dry story-teller; a Greeley liberal of 1872, when he
lost his place in the Republican procession by the hate of land
sharks, whom he sought to punish as a Democratic land office in
iticians in long and turbulent career.
Mr. Adams was of the family type—not unlike his father,
with short, fair, small features, delicate and refined in expression,
the son's features true to a royal line, yet cool in blood, his con-
Charles Francis and all the Adamses of rank have eulogists, and
Dr. Bailey, in whose house he was a guest, was often called "an
Adams," as he was in refinement and subdued speech.
John P. Hale, Senator from New Hampshire, with so hearty
and ominous a smile that you were impatient for a scintillation of
wit in the Senate Chamber, more feared than the logic of debate
by his foes, was the character of chief interest to the gallery vis-
itor. Speaking for the country, he imparted courage — even
audacity of speech to time-servers, and alone he stands of the
Spartan Senatorial band who could never give a second reply on a
question of political ethics.
Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, joined in the merry circle, happy in
relaxation. In form he was a model man, crowned by a Webste-
rian brow. As a speaker he was slow and logical, and, with a
husky, ill-toned voice, poorly enforced the strong Saxon which
gave the argument of the case unembellished. An honest, ambi-
tious, lucky politician in his designation; worthy of the place as
Minister of Finance, and Chief Justice, though soured on failing
to reach the Presidency, to which I know he actively aspired. If
the Senator was the victim of imposition, let it be charged to fear
of injustice to a friend, and not to mercenary motives or political
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
aspirations. Years after, just seated in the chair of Secretary of
the Treasury, on my call, and expression of cheer and good wishes,
Mr. Chase replied, “It is the last place I should have accepted -
one of details and denials for which I have little aptitude." I
named to him Dr. Bailey, deceased, and his family, whereupon he
sent a messenger, who secured for his son the first official favor,
and it was consonant with a generous spirit that was refreshed on
my praise of the Era and its editor.
Other notables like Horace Mann, Seward, Giddings, and their
class, have found biographers in warm and just praise.
Ladies were welcome. The Misses Carey, risen to fame, Mrs.
Southworth, one of the most prolific of novelists, the author of a
half hundred volumns, and still vigorous, though past seventy
years of age, and the dark-eyed, pensive Grace Greenwood, Mrs.
Lippincott (who has never been so far out of sight or thought as
now in a Colorado home), pleasantly lured their sex into the cir-
cle of the social plans of the time.
What of the frolics? In the old games of youth the bow was
unbent, and a chance Southerner was left to wonder how, with the
only stimulus of coffee, there could be such cheer. It was spon-
taneity without formality, and a social protest against reigning
shams at slavery's capital. There were promenade trips to music,
ballads, with a grand finale in a game of blind man's buff, entered
into with special zest by the veterans of propriety. Horace Mann
is blinded, and less adept at identifying his captive lady than in
tracing a word to a Saxon root. Then Giddings or Senator Hale.
The occasion was both boisterous and ludicrous, in the ruffle of
silks, and the sallies of wit. Young life was recalled, when, by a
trip, the venerable Giddings and Grace Greenwood, by a collision,
fell to the carpet, making à tableau which nearly forty years can
not efface.
This was the plotting, and here was the heart and policy of the
great editor, Bailey, who kept in the line of England's great lady
of rank, pleading with cold-blooded lords for an emancipation vote.
Garrison was just emerging from a garret, unmerchantable eggs
were in less demand, and the great cause, escaping obloquy, gained
a new status by the gifted pen and parlor assemblies of one who
fell, alas ! too early, breaking the chains of the bondmen by peace-
ful means, in preparation for the fateful lightnings of war, fol-
lowed by the emancipation pen of Lincoln.
62
OS
REMINISCENCES OF TORTY YEARS.
THE FORUM OF DEBATE.
Past discussions up to 1850 and 1851 seemed tame compared
to those on the compromises reported for the staunching of politi-
cal wounds. I took in from the galleries the groups forming an
epochi in our history, and made notes which I do not care to revise,
only elaborate. Webster was under a cloud by his 7th of March
speech. Henry Clay spoke his last words with tearful emotion, to
wliich I listened. J. C. Calhoun, long the praised logician, and
oracle of secession, had a successor in Mr. Rhett, a politician of
another type, really a Jacobin inviting a bloody conflict.
Senator Butler, a man of emotion, great in stature, powerful in
declamation and a cultivated, classic orator, was moved to tears on
the mention of the name of his dead colleague. He was nursing
his hate for the Union and .seemingly happy over any ill-timed
remarks by a Senator or the Press, on which he could emphasize
his secret enmity to the North, culminating in open disunion.
“Hangman Foote," of Mississippi, had descended as an extrem-
ist to become a compromiser. No man had so pompous a bearing,
wearing the plumes of the orator at the laying of the corner-stone
of the Washington monument; dodging from seat to seat, fertile
in injective, exasperating speech. He earned my contempt by car-
rying a pistol and drawing it on Senator Benton (known to be
unarmed) in the Chamber, like a gaffled fowl in a cock-pit waiting
provocation. He was entitled to expulsion, but Benton showed
the hero when, refusing to give bonds on the requirement of Mr.
Clay to keep the peace, he said, “No! he would rot in jail first."
Then there was a hack driver, the picture of the “hangman Sena-
tor," save a little darker, following the slave status of the mother,
an unquestioned Foote, they having one father. It was rumored,
on Col. Benton's ridicule of Foote's “abhorrence of negroes” as
being a recent family aversion, there was a threat of revenge, to
heal wounded honor. It would have been gained only by assassin-
ation, for Col. Benton had fought his last duel.
T
DU
JEFFERSON DAVIS
I studied, as one coveting the mantle of the dead Calhoun—an
ornament he was not born to wear with a military West Point air
rather than as a votary of the classics. Davis ran away with the
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
favorite daughter of President Zachary Taylor, and the ambition
to run ahead of somebody was a charitable conjecture in regard
to the Senator. A very sharp nose, high cheek bones, compressed
lips, haughty mien, and measured words in defiance, gave a picture
of the man ten years before the act of open perjury, and at the
head of a great rebellion. His speeches were as juiceless as his
Presidential messages, and colder than his affection for his com-
rades in the war. For some word from a radical like Hale or
Chase, there was a morbid impulse, on which he might hang a
threat or hurl an invective. He seemed envious of Senator Soule,
of Louisiana, dark as a Creole, a really eloquent fire-eater. Davis
would make quick step out of the Chamber when Benton, “Old
Bullion,” spoke like a patriot.
Senator J. M. Mason, of Virginia, was a pompous example of
F. F. V., seeming to pass radicals in scorn— whom he was too dull
to answer. I had a chance to meet him after John Brown's raid
in Virginia, and gained a low opinion of his honor as a man, and
of a courage that imbibed bourbon to match his Bourbon politics
as a slave breeder.
Slidell, his confederate from Louisiana in escape, who came
near bringing us into a collision with England, was a solid man,
and proved his high order of legal ability by gaining a great law
practice in Europe, after a world-wide advertisement by reason of
his capture on the British steamer “Trent,” and release from Fort
Warren on an interpretation of law quite humiliating to the patri-
otic masses, yet saving a rupture with Great Britain.
Around these kindred spirits seem to revolve like satellites
great talkers who were only of service on roll-call. The conserva-
tive Democratic aspirants for the Presidency became a study, not
the least ambitious of whoin was Senator Houston, of Texas, the
hero of San Jacinto, with truly a romantic career at home, in the
camp of the savage, and as Governor of Texas. The window pic-
tures of a tall, long, plain face were not caricatures. The leopard-
skin vest was a reality, sported as the trophy of a Nimrod, and his
occupation was to sit, with head bent without dignity, in seeming
reflection, whittling pine sticks, when not listening to personali-
ties, or discussions in which he was to take a part. I never saw
him at his desk reading or writing like his fellows.
Gen. Houston was under the ban of Southern opinion, and
passed from sight as a Presidential candidate. Not so with Gen.
64
.REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Lewis Cass, and Senator Stephen A. Douglas. They sat opposite,
and each watched the other's movements with more interest than
rival bidders at a great auction sale. Cass was defeated in 1848,
but hope sprang anew for 1852, before the entry of Pierce, the
dark horse.
The general wore a wig which did not conceal his age, was
obese, wheezy and rapid in speech; resting in the halo of a sol-
dier of the war of 1812, who broke his sword across his knee on
the surrender of Gen. Hull. A pioneer in Detroit. he had become
rich in lands, but was distrusted by the party slate-makers for hon-
esty, and not strong with the “bohoys."
Wine at dinner was then a common beverage at the St. Charles
Hotel, where I saw Gen. Cass send down for the undrained bottle,
when his admirers no doubt would have been delighted with a
taste in compliment rather than the illusory mild aroma. I
remarked, “He will never be President," not on account of his bev-
erage, rather because he did not pass it around. Had it been
Douglas, stranger and friend would have touched their glasses
until many brands had been tried, regardless of costly corkage, and
the clinking had become both feeble and monotonous. Both aspir-
ants had opposed the Wilmot proviso, and approved the main feat-
ures of the odious Fugitive Slave Law. Gen. Cass in society was
urbane and truly American, and to him I was drawn for his bold
speech on the reception of Kossuth, personally regretting the elec-
tion of the “dark horse" candidate Pierce in 1852.
Stephen A. Douglas was quite another character, a Vermont
tary career, like his rival. The world knows of the great debate
with Lincoln, and that he went down before the treachery of the
South, to whose interests he had been loyal, if not subservient.
The author of “Squatter Sovereignty” was supreme in sociabil-
ity, fertile in expedients, eloquent and fervid in discussions, and
aptly mentioned by Mr. Blaine as one of the three Parliamentary
leaders in our history. Was he not the generous rival who held,
as I saw him, the hat of Lincoln at the inauguration ? Did not
his endowment of Douglas University in Chicago with land, by
the dashings of the lake where he loved to linger, and with money
for its maintenance, raise him to the fraternity of scholars? That
failure which has passed these gifts, which are a monument to his
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
65
imprudence or a betrayal of trusts, yet in no sense a disparage-
ment of the giver, who was a liberal friend of higher education.
His speech for the Union on the firing on Fort Sumpter broke
the last link which had bound him to the car of ultraists, and
stamped his sovereignty doctrines as only the dragon's teeth from
which sprang John Brown, armed men, and the Border war.
That he was a national idol this incident will be in proof.
When on his sick bed at the Tremont House, in Chicago, then
being brought up to a new grade by the aid of swarms of men, a
burly laborer came to the superintendent asking for a day's lay-off.
“No! I want more men. What is your trouble ?” The brave
man wept silently, and said, “Sir, how can I work below when my
great friend is up there dying ?" It was then and there that
Douglas died with a patriotic prayer for the success of our arms.
And his words of counsel were more effective for the Union than
the service of a general in the field; he was perhaps a greater
character in our history than if President.
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
is remembered for characters passed into history as bold agitators.
Georgia sent out Toombs and Stephens, exact physical and mental
antipodes. Toombs threatened, tossing his hair with coarse defi-
ance and pugilistic airs. Alexander Stephens, a wan, pale-faced
skeleton of a man, piped in impassioned strains praises of the
Union, deprecating as in later years, when a rebel Vice-President,
the arbitrament of the sword. Brown, of Mississippi, Lamar, now
Justice of the Supreme Court, were pronounced fire-eaters; while
Garrett and R. M. Pryor, of Virginia, voluble in satire and fiery in
invective, gave assurance that the day of collision was not far in
the future. Mr. Pryor I have often met in New York since the
war, the same nervous, sharp-featured, tawny-complexioned Virgin-
ian, who is said to pride himself on Indian blood, as one of the
large traditional family of Pocahontas.
I was present at the acrimonious debate between this Virginian
and Potter, of Wisconsin, resulting in a duel challenge. If any.
thing could be called more barbaric than slave-breeding and the
code in Old Virginia, it might be Potter's choice of a broadsword
as the weapon, which his challenger declined. It more than
repelled a sneer for cowardice at the North, and was a salutary
lesson for braggarts.
66
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
That legislative hall was like a tinder box, a miniature arsenal,
many of the leaders armed with a pistol or a bowie-knife, ready
for an emergency. The North was to be bullied, and malcontents
were jeered, even Democrats, if not shouting the party shibboleth.
James H. Lane, of Indiana, afterward Senator from Kansas, said
his fall by a duel or by assassination was only a question of time.
Not toleration, but disunion or war was in the air.
THE RADICAL GROUP.
For years Clay, Webster and Calhoun were in public esteem
the Senatorial triumvirate. Now the charm was broken, and who
were to be their successors in national fame? There were three,
bold and able, with national repute, by an overruling power to
enlighten the North, while staying the progress of the slave prop-
agandists. These were Senators Seward, S. P. Chase (whose per-
sonality and service I have given elsewhere), and John P. Hale of
New Hampshire.
Could there have been statesmen whose words were better
enforced by an honored, national, public career, or blessed with
more varying adaptations by native gifts for grand and decisive
debate ? Senator Hale broke the shackles of party on the admis-
sion of Texas, and had enjoyed the honors of a Free Soil Presi-
dential candidate. Jovial in social life, apt in repartee and story,
without fear, and free from party shackles, his presence was an
expectation. There was humor in the flashing eye, and power in
the sarcastic tongue, which gave him all the qualities of a minor-
ity leadership. His wit was perennial, and powerful in repelling
attacks.
Senator Seward's speeches taught the people, while he was
held to be an artful Machiavelli by those across the chamber.
Always in good temper, and never prevoked to personal retort.
S. P. Chase was ready with the law, and spoke with solemnity
on great themes which he had studied, not in threat, but in a spirit
of statesmanship, which was above slave laws, and codes, and in
defiance of creed enactments. A towering brow and great purity
of character were only tokens of a conscientious statesman.
I think the picture of Mr. Chase, standing while reading the
Emancipation Proclamation, and his face on the greenback which
was our financial savior, striking portraits of the great Senator.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
67
With a greenback in my pocket I felt that I carried good money,
and the image of a true man whose nature was hearty, loyalty
unquestioned. Chase was eminently a lawyer rather than a gifted
orator. He was denied the gift of humor, but the solemnity of
manner in appeal to great principles, became a prophesy of his
future. He was afterward Governor of Ohio, Secretary of the
Treasury—our second Hamilton—and elevated to the chair of
Chief Justice, where, by the testimony of the great lawyers of that
bench, he never had a superior.
He was a great student fortified to assault, and a severe judge
of measures, which later perplexed Mr. Lincoln. The Minister of
Finance was not second to the Minister of War, and delays with
failures in the field were reprobated at least by indirection, and
Radical leaders would have made him the successor of Mr. Lincoln
after his first term. What was his ambition but honorable ?
Others were sowing and reaping where he had prepared the soil.
A .Cabinet adviser was only a name, and there was no ear for a
Radical suggestion in prosecution of the war, and a promotion to
the Chief Justiceship was looked upon as an expedient to placate a
rival who personally was in accord with the radical politics of But-
ler and Fremont, and Gen. Phelps, the Louisiana radical.
Charles Sumner, after a contest of national import, was elected
Senator in place of Mr. Webster. Bearing state seal and commis-
sion, he was never a place seeker; was a student and companion of
Justice Story, and the author of the “ True Grandeur of Nations,"
which has linked his fame with the world's savants and orators.
Mr. Sumner was the scholar of the body, and in his first term
an orator unapproached in the beauty of language and fervency of
appeal. If unlearned in parliamentary law, he was an authority
in international law, and our statutes and their interpretations
were quoted as readily as the most familiar maxims. It was an
error that he was engrossed with a single idea. The wants of
incohate states found in him an advocate on a high plane of states-
manship. The wrongs of sailors and soldiers were not overlooked,
and the world never saw the Fugitive Slave Law in its full
deformity until exposed by Sumner. That he was out of the line
of a Presidential aspirant lent power to his utterances, and pre-
pared the country for an execration of slavery in the crime against
Kansas, and the assaults of an assassin.
In native personal endowment there were attractions, added to
68
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
the culture of a scholar and marked colloquial vivacity, which
caused him to become the envy of tread-mill conservatives, as well
as the idol of young Americans. I forget his antagonisms with
Grant, social scandals, infelicities, and that temporary clouding of
his fame on the fraternal battle-flag resolutions. All of calamity
incident to a great actor, including a murderous assault, is not to
be mentioned in the view of an obverse bright shield more than
heraldic. The fame of a Nestor in the Senate was reached. The
industry and unfaltering devotion of a public servant was found in
volumes, making the richest contributions to our national history,
by a statesman; and apart from petulance and pedantry, so-called
by indolent inferiors, his career stands unchallenged by the critics
of the world.
It was my fortune to hear his first Senatorial speech -- which
was in debate on a welcome to the patriot Kossuth. It was of all
the efforts brief, pathetic and classic, a prelude to a rich flavor in
debate, with an elevating tone in discussions, led by a supreme
master of assemblies. How clear the tones in fascinating cadence:
“Our guest waits at the door for a boon of hospitality which tyr-
anny denies. An expatriated hero who has passed the Bosphorus
to meet the perils of the ocean on a patriotic mission sublime as
that of Lafayette. Millions wait on your deed, doubly valued by
a spontaneous welcome.” All the previous speeches seemed as
cold, studied declamations, contrasted with this effort, with a Sen-
ator, a man and soul behind it. The status of an orator was fixed
beyond cavil, as that of a never-setting star in the heavens.
With all the early caricature of Mr. Sumner as a looking-glass
declaimer, one never found him in an encounter trivial, but learned
and powerful as an antagonist.
After the Brooks assault on Mr. Sumner, Massachusetts, to her
honor, kept a seat for the wounded Senator while in Europe - par-
tially restored to see decades of service after the great traitors had
fled the chamber, and brutal Brooks had, while yet a young man,
been called to his final account.
Senator Ben. Wade, of Ohio, comes on the stage. A rough-
spoken, reputed profane man. He took a full measure of men,
and bluster only set him in defiance of fire-eaters, who never made
a second attack. It was known that he was a good shot, and quite
a stranger to fear. In our war he was a large figure; not popular
in the chamber, yet brave, and an oracle with the masses down
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
69
through the Johnson impeachment trial, when Wade might have
been a successor of the false “Moses."
In the House there was a small Radical force, but effective for
attack. The old man eloquent, John Quincy Adams, had passed
away, but the venerable Horace Mann, of national fame, had
appeared as his successor. Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, was a
bold speaker, and in the use of stern logic called out barbarous
imprecations, and an expulsion by the slaveholders, which gave
him greater power and fame on a re-election. George W. Julian,
of Indiana, the Quaker, became a progressive educator. Gen. R.
C. Schenck, then a flaxen-haired youth, was often on the floor, in
service with bold and bitter retorts.
Thaddeus Stevens I then saw for the first time, and heard in
debate, to be assured that in a majority party he would become a
dauntless color-bearer. The “Old Commoner” was a born leader,
more than able, of rare perception in the analysis of character,
happy in assault, firm as a rock to resist the Hotspurs of the day,
and the evil ambition which culminated in treason and war. In
the overthrow of slavery was he not a potent helper of the great
War Minister Stanton, and our great army captains ?
I have pictured him down to the war era, execrating rebels,
later drawing the greenback bill, and securing the law for the issue
of hundreds of millions of bonds, certain they would never be dis-
honored, so abiding was his faith in our cause and the Nation.
m2
CONSCIENCE WHIGS
was a party designation of the time, occasioned by a bolt upon the
nomination of President Taylor, who had earned the confidence of
Liberals, while they distrusted his successor Fillmore, who signed
the Fugitive Slave Bill. Daniel Webster seemed the especial
aversion of Charles Allen, of Worcester, Massachusetts, leading in
denunciation of Mr. Webster for receiving a subscription of tens
of thousands of dollars in Boston, through the agency of Peter
Harvey, which was held up as an act pensioning the betrayer of
Massachusetts. I listened to the defense of Mr. Webster by
George Ashman, of Springfield, Massachusetts, and by Mr. Hill-
iard, of Alabama, which created a great sensation. My predictions
at that time came to be history. The Supreme Court of the
United States was struggling to conceal its spirit in the Dred
70
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Scott decision. I could see no settlement of the slavery question
in the compromise measures which precipitated the great Kansas
struggle, involving a great issue, which it required civil war to
decide. Southern Senators from the different states seemed to
hunt like beasts of prey, in couples; while the Radicals on the
defensive brought to their aid powerful recruits like Wilson of
Massachusetts, Fessenden of Maine, and Chandler of Michigan.
The lapse of forty years sweeps every one of these great actors
mentioned from the legislative halls, and I can think of none of
the number conspicuous who have not passed over to the silent
majority, save Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts, Hannibal
Hamlin of Maine, and George W. Julian of Indiana.
In retracing the Radical actors of four decades agone, I am
moved with devout gratitude to God for the legislators who
became instructors by speech and example to the nation. I hold
whose cheeks did not blanch before threats and violence, and were '.
never suspected of venality in the marts of business, or in the
counsels of the political caucus. All men have not a price for
recreancy to principle or a trust.
A biographical estimate of the foes of liberty in the halls of
Congress, in a study of those who lost station and honor, is a
measure of the losses by perjury, not less than of lives clouded by
defeat in an unholy cause, and sorrows of war, anew enforcing the
Divine admonition: “They that take the sword shall perish by
the sword.”
CHAPTER V.
Garrison— Whittier — Simms, the Fugitive— U. S. Marshal Dev-
ens — Caleb Cushing — Henry Wilson-- Anson P. Burlingame
- Theodore Parker.
RADICALS O
REFORMERS and agitators in 1851 in the vicinity of Boston I
have grouped from personal knowledge gained by eye and ear— to
me valued impressions not dimmed by strife nor lapse of time.
Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, had given a striking nar-
rative, couched in elegant language, and with fire contrasted with
which his later speeches seem tame. His long career, and counsel
to his race to put money in the purse, which he followed person-
·ally, has fully justified the prediction of his most ardent friends of
fifty years ago, who have traced his course with delight, winning
honor as an official in Washington and a diplomat. The general
denunciation of the time was bitter; to be met by the press voic-
ing the religionists, contending for their church, while politicians
cared not to peril their platforms before competing slave-holders.
Non-voters were deemed fanatics less dangerous than the Birney
and Hale men, who chose at first between the then two great
debauched parties.
William Lloyd Garrison could by right wear the decorations of
a general, for he led in a long campaign under fire. In time, he
was early; radical in utterance, persistent and uncompromising
until fairly a victor, and the weapons of his foes were broken and
scattered like the arms of the vanquished on retreat from the
field of carnage. The most brilliant press contemporaries were
obscured by the editor with the ready pen and the speaker incisive
and logical in debate, terrible in denunciation, culling the burning
words of the old Prophets and the woes.uttered by the God-man
with a solemnity and force sure to win the hearer, or arouse doubt-
ers in frenzied hate. A voice whose solemn cadence, with a pleas-
72
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
ant, wooing countenance, often banished prejudice engendered by
slurs, epithets, and common vengeful imprecation. Was there
ever a more benevolent face? Or a spirit calling up in likeness
the mildness of reformers and intrepidity of martyrs ? The man
dominated the scene and turbulence and hisses; mobs only charged
higher the battery which shocked to paralysis the demoniac spirits
rushing out to assault, but never subdued to hear. I saw him in
the New York Tabernacle mob, and Captain Rynders was reported
to have said: “I don't care a den for the cold prophets,' but it
is the solemn tone of old bald-head that stirs h-1 in me.” The
clubs. There were screams, blanched cheeks, sudden exits midst
the howling of the mob, yet Garrison stood erect and spoke with-
out a tremor. Benignant in smiles while lashing in execration the
cohorts of slavery, foiled by a mysterious impersonation of the
boldness of a warrior avowing almost satirically only a mission of
peace. Then strangers found a key unlocking the heart and brain.
He showed no fear nor uttered a murmur when drawn by the
neck, a few years before, through the streets of the city of Boston,
at the behest of a slave-holding mob. History tells how the
shackles fell by the enginery and horrors of war waged for dis-
union. But what mind can grasp the educational force of Garri-
son and his Liberator, nor can any save a witness realize his social
ostracism, taunts by the press, and the misnamed, pious resolves
by the Ecclesiastics, and solemn official bearers of the holy ark.
Where are his revilers now? What child is proud of blood
poisoned by sordid trade, and the venality of dough-faces, whom
charity forgets and turns from their deeds with averted face.
Revilers sleep in unhonored graves. The valiant once outcast,
with a price on his head, smiles in artistic bronze on Common-
lesson of his life. I saw the plaster cast in the artist's studio and
gave only the counsel of a novice — make it say, with the benig-
nant face of John Oberlin, “ I will be heard !” The sons take up
« love's work” to embalm by incident, and the whole record of the
life of the man around whom rich and classic compeers revolved as
satellites, in a day when the vision of seers was clouded and the
multitude sent out the hisses of hate.
About the year 1850 the cloud of obloquy was rising, as I
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
73
recall by an incident. An anniversary was observed, on the found-
ing of the Liberator, and politicians of the class of Henry Wilson
were present. I came with Thomas Russell, afterward the hus-
band of a daughter of Father Taylor, who said, “I don't know that
he was a Christian, but he was a sweet sinner.” Certainly he
was a genial friend and an elegant speaker, afterward politician,
diplomat and able judge.
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, wife of Dr. S. G. Howe, the philan-
thropist, I met, then known by the eminence of her husband, and
ten years later distinguished as the author of the “Battle Hymn
of the Republic."
I was in association with the Orthodox clergy, but could not
admit that the Rev. Dr. A. Adams represented the church, only
filial recreancy, when declaring in an emergency, and to meet a
barbaric behest, that he would send his own mother back into
slavery. Dr. Kirk, whom his friend and student, Dr. D. O. Mears,
has justly extolled in a biographic volume, seemed very cautious in
the pulpit. The eloquent pastor of Park Street Church, Dr. Stone,
later of San Francisco, was in sympathy with the Washington
church movement, while the Rev. Henry M. Dexter preached defi-
antly against the mandates of the Fugitive Slave Law, as truly in
sympathy with the radical utterances of the times as Dr. Blagden,
of the Old South, was the dispenser of the gospel of union-saving
and silence. To him I was introduced by his brother-in-law,
Wendell Philips, and was honored with an invitation to preach in
the Old South Church, under a sounding-board, making my first
and last effort in the historic church, where its galleries made
sleeping apartments in the Revolution, and the soldiers trained
their steeds on the ground floor. Yet this was a less novel occur-
rence than the fact that it was one person, myself, who was intro-
duced by the high-born ornate Edmund Quincy, presiding at a
memorial anniversary of the founding of Garrison's Liberator.
It was the talk of the time that there would have been less
than the usual sleep in the Old South, even open-eyed gaze, had
they guessed that the author of the Sunday sermon was to be the
eulogist of Garrison on Monday. I was thus reported, in the
MR. CHAIRMAN.- Although called at this time a “ Cosmopolite,” it pleases me
much at such an hour as this to have a locality. I have been a pastor, with the
privilege of being associated with men whose lives were linked with glorious
74
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
causes. I call to mind one, in all places a man, who has gone to his great reward.
Living, he was reviled, but at his death there was such universal lamentation as is
never manifested at the death of those selfishly prudent, and ever “floating with
the currents.” The sundering of the “little thread” reveals what is in the hearts
of the living, and there are many who must die, before the world's decision will be
given in full. Mr. Garrison, the honored one of this brilliant assemblage, is such
a personage. For him there are to be trumpet-tongues, and truth-telling speech.
(Applause.)
Differing from him in many things, I have heard the say of all classes. Years
agone, when a lad, I heard his name and paper mentioned in association with all
that is dishonest, indecent and intolerable. He was under the foot of public opin-
ion. Like the lion in the fable, he had no painter. But he has had them here,
this evening, out of the ranks of Free Soil men- all professions - even the cau-
tious of the Orthodox often associate our guest with integrity, heroism and true
humanity. From the speech of slaveholders in private, I am led to believe they
will covet the honor of furnishing his biography. (Cheers.)
Orthodoxy talks of hell. But who finds it? They surely who resist their
convictions. I have said it, and I believe, that the reformer, unselfish, asking
Divine guidance, going out in plans, labors and devotions, with his very self for
human weal and for God, cannot find a hell. Disregarding sectarian lines in this
day of compromises and moral bankruptcy, it little becomes us to make consign-
ments for eternity, when Heaven will ask of all as concerning our honored friend,
Wm. Lloyd Garrison, "What did he do, and what will he become ?” (Applause.)
As the hands of the clock admonish us that we are near the morning hour, I
will sit down, Mr. Chairman, by saying that I have slept in a cabin in Wisconsin,
on a high point of land, where the falling rain on one side flowed into the Fox
river to make the leap of Niagara, and then to pass on down the St. Lawrence;
and where, on the other side, the rain coursed through the Wisconsin down to
widen the “Father of Waters.” A strange place, and the beginning of mighty
forces-- finding a parallel in the brain before me, which, for twenty years, has
made highways to hearts, North and South, of more value to humanity than are
the ways of the rivers to the ocean for commerce. May that brain continue to
work, moving a right arm to beat down slavery, and a left to raise up the degraded
at home. Let us pray and labor for that day, when the Pulpit and the Politician
shall be joined in hand with our guest, the hero of the press, that a national ejacu-
lation may be heard in song, “ Jehovah has triumphed, his people are free.”
(Cheers.)
The company separating, Edmund Quincy said, “As you are a
partial stranger in Boston, will you be my guest at Dedham, where
my carriage will be at the depot? To my thanks and plea for
excuse, he said, “I not only live near a most venerable orthodox
D. D., but you shall sleep on the bed occupied by Lafayette,
twenty-five years ago a guest of our family, and on the pillow
where he rested his princely head, and as your name indicates a
Frenchman, I venture to urge you." So I went and began an
acquaintance with a most accomplished agitator, and son of one of
the first educators and statesmen of Massachusetts, whose figure, a
real Harvard president, in bronze, stands near the Boston City Hall.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
75
John G. Whittier was present, with. poetic inspiration, lending
cheer and dignity. Several times we met in the winter at the
Marlboro Hotel, and the glance of that keen eye, sober mien, and
benevolent face, has been an ever-present picture, and his every
line seemed more than poetic revery—a gushing, exhilarating flow
as from a source of purity for the cheer of the timid and the
In a picture of 1849, “ The Champions of freedom,” by Brain-
ard, the editors, orators and statesmen, have all gone save the
crowned poet of humanity. Is it vanity to mention his letter of
congratulation upon my birthday ? It is in honor, rather, of the
writer than of the recipient, but time will only add to its value to
the possessor. It is a pleasant souvenir that I should be known in
Iowa and approved in a public career of forty years. I saw the
poet later, to find a cordial reception at his home, and this was
the visit, as described at the time:
John G. Whittier I have just seen at his winter residence on Oak Knoll,
Danvers, Mass. Just 37 years ago I was introduced to him by a gallant friend,
Anson Burlingame, then a senator, while we were all guests of the old Marlboro
Hotel of Boston. Mr. Burlingame he mentioned with affection, still warm in
praise, like that exhibited in his verse, so often the nurse of volor and a perpetual
reminder of good deeds by those temporarily under the ban of public opinion.
There has ever been mingled balm and blessing for an actor enlisting his muse.
Thus, now past eighty years, he stands alone the poet of the people, and still offers
fresh and mellow fruitage. Who is first named as boldly sweeping the lyre when
clanking chains sounded out our shame? What name is first invoked to celebrate
our second century under the Constitution in the congregation of states and the
world's savans, on the 30th of April ? To ask for the poet is to name one solitary
in the just accord of the living to genius, patriotism and virtue. Mountains in
the journey, his peers in renown, have passed beyond embrace.
Sumner, which sat in front of him while conning his great philippics, an elegant
portrait of Bryant, numerous memoirs of the slavery struggle, the unloaded Quaker
gun in the corner, a John Brown musket facing it--once loaded. The most
attractive to me is the poet of 40 in life form, forid face and full muscle, inviting a
contrast with the eye that has now lost its brilliancy, the ear duller than in youth
to the melodies of song. Here are the plaintive and sad pictures of comrades and
heroes. In conversation without a thought of privacy, he extols my idol of reform,
Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, of Washington, and the National Era. He was a brave
social educator, a refined gentleman, who could lend his home and purse in rarest
civility and welcome, to reforiners gathered from many classes and lands, waiting
for a voice and a friend. I ventured the name of Wendell Phillips: “Yes," with
a sad cadence, “my lifelong friend - one of the grandest of men in every respect of
a wonderful career.” After an indirect mention of various persons by incident and
comparison, it could not be concealed that he held a different position from Garri-
son on the Sabbath question. But John Brown was the striking figure in the cen-
76
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
tury, and Wendell Phillips in his oratory and a life devotion to an unpopular cause,
had won his way to the hearts of the people, and left no doubt as to his position in
the world's history of heroes.
At the Garrison meeting, there were many persons then claim-
ing to belong to the royal family of Radicals — the Jacksons, the
Mays, Bowditches and Follens, scholars in a welcome to plebeians.
Stephen S. Foster was launching invectives like poisoned arrows.
His wife, the Quakeress, Abby Kelley for years, plain in speech
and in person, cornered the good Friends with so many “buts,"
yet the butt made of the tree the biggest end. Ellis Gray Loring
was “throwing himself away” in his profession, and smirching the
family in a popular view. Rev. Samuel J. May, the persistent
agitator, smooth in speech and captivating in address, was only
typical of a class true in service, but less conspicuous in the stormy
Boston years of 1850 and 1851. The Fugitive Slave Law had just
been enacted. Sharadeck, the slave, had been rescued from the
officers, and on trial had caused chains, in fear of the people,
to be thrown around the court-house under which I saw judges
crouch in shame to reach their bench. Webster's speech of March
seemed all the talk, and in solemn tones to be reverberating among
the hills, meeting the anathemas of orators, bringing on a conflict
not in theories alone, but by great actors. Devoted friends wept
over a bid for the presidency — trade applauded.
It was an educational era. All tradesmen and professional
dependents were dumb, but off the pavements the freemen of
Massachusetts had broken the shackles of party, and one great
name for senator became a source of inspiration. It was Charles
Sumner. Could he be elected ? Nathaniel P. Banks was made
speaker, and the opening speech on taking the chair, was proof of
a born parliamentarian and orator, who later graced the speaker's
chair in Congress. He then directed with fidelity and courage a
canvass which was of national import—a graduate in Taunton of
his college, under which there was a water-wheel.
The captive, Simms, became an object lesson in trial and rendi-
tion; soldiers with national arms I saw drilling ready to march on
an enraged populace; judges of the high courts, morose, listless,
like official servitors, detesting the cruel statute they had sworn to
enforce; then minor officers had the downcast, sullen look of lack-
eys. The Marshal of the United States, Charles Devens, I pitied
in his vassalage—young, elegant, comely — guarding the return
of Simms as he passed him down to the boat at the wharf for a
Southern prison-house, stealthily at midnight, when friends were
in slumber and the stars seemed to have gone out, ashamed to wit-
ness the deed. This generation forgets that the young Marshal
Devens, so captivating in person, was later a fighting major-gen-
eral, cabinet officer, and the present learned judge and popular ora-
tor. I do not. Socially and playfully, twenty years after the
Simms rendition, I recalled my impression that he was the most
captivating gentleman I had ever seen in such base, official service.
“Yes, come around, and I will tell you more in sequel. I was an
official, young, perhaps with common aspirations, but not in sym-
pathy with the law, nor had I a doubt as to the future trend of
opinion. The slave, Simms, I bought, and gave him freedom as
soon as I could do it.” Thus the State and Nation comes to
regard Mr. Devens the man, and forgets the vassalage as an
official.
On the occasion I was an eye-witness, being called out at mid-
night by Thomas Russell, afterward diplomat and judge. Theo-
dore Parker was a looker-on, not like Paul, standing by, assenting.
A hymn was lined,
“Oh! there will be mourning," etc.,
which Rev. Mr. Foster, of New Hampshire, later a soldier, sung,
as if voicing with solemn bass the just mockery due to this base
deed which the city only learned by the morning press. Boston
has not been good slave-hunting ground since this compound polit-
ical blunder and crime.
Sumner was now the idol. Before the Judges in Chambers I
saw him appear in habeas corpus appeal, captivating by dignity,
euphonious voice, and bold denunciation of the Fugitive Slave
Law. For weeks the excitement was intense. Mr Sumner had
a card with Daniel Webster's autograph of a few years before, to
be shown at the U. S. Senate door:
“Admit the bearer, Charles Sumner, always.
D. WEBSTER.”
of the people become his card of admission to a seat Webster has
78
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
vacated ? Sumner, personally, was not a candidate even; so sen-
sitive that he could not be induced to modify an opinion, or even
attend a social party, keeping country appointments as a lecturer
in the midst of the contest.
I think Caleb Cushing, far from the status of a “Free Soiler,"
with a few personal adherents, held the senatorial key. The illu-
sion that he was a fortunate dark horse in the senatorial race, was
early dispelled. He was feared and not without reason. A Tyler
political marplot in Congress, soldier in the Mexican war, a restive
spirit, and, as I saw him later, an advocate in the Supreme Court,
bland, yet persistent in great cases like that of Mrs. Gaines, con-
tending as the heir of hundreds of millions. Dead, there is
recalled an elegant face, the man like a race-horse champing the
bit, kept from a start; his unconscious lips were in motion as if
conning his speech; but he never filled so large a space, nor
uttered words that caused louder shouts than when on the Senato-
rial call, he responded, “Charles Sumner.” That settled the ques-
tion, and a curtain falls on the State House drama, transferring the
actors to the streets, whooping in glee, and weeping and embrac-.
ing with the fervor of Mexicans in parlors and club rooms, to a
late hour.
HENRY WILSON, THE COBBLER.
Wilson was the busiest, ever-present, public character in Bos-
ton at this period — editor, caucus manager, and president of the
Senate. He was a real shoemaker in his early days, and named
the “ Natick cobbler”. Webster had publicly praised his political
speeches, and they were warm friends up to the revolt of the
“Conscience Whigs” in 1848, going for Van Buren, free-soiler,
Adams and liberty. “That was the trial of my life,” said Wilson.
“I was poor, but had an ambition for promotion within my reach."
It may not be credited, still it is a truth, that native American
ideas and plans were important factors at this crisis. Foreigners,
as a rule, were democratic. “None but Americans on guard,"
was a popular and square issue. Certainly the head men of the
order were jubilant in seeing Mr. Wilson president of the Senate.
It was curious how I came to know Mr. Wilson so well. The
Sumner Free-Soil caucus would be held far into the night, and,
quite a night-hawk myself, at the Marlboro Hotel, with not a
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
79
vacant room in the house, I invited my new friend to share a bed
in emergency. Would he never sleep! The outlook of men and
ways at Washington prompted questions for hours. There was
not one but frequent rests in my room, on the train having gone
and the house being full. In frankness he said: “My chances for
Congress are gone. I am too early by ten years, and I shall go to
the rear and give room to adventurers with family and money, of
which I have neither.” Nothing is more creditable to the spirit of
the time than his election to the United States Senate and Vice-
Presidency by the aid of scholars, soldiers and millionaires. He
had a rare fund of good sense; of temperate habits, turning down
his glasses at dinners when others drained them; and in truth
could, in the latter part of his political career, refuse thousands in
his poverty — a tribute to unquestioned probity maintained amidst
the great opportunities of the Civil War. He had little love for
sharp debate, yet did not shrink in contest with Judge Black on
the legal status of Secretary Stanton, his friend. Truly, a simple,
great-hearted patriot. While sitting in the president's chair in the
senate, he sent down his card, as I was then a visitor from Iowa,
asking me to meet him in the marble room. There he presented
me his volumes, “Rise and Fall of the Slave Power," with the
regards of the author. He sighed for an escape from enforced
silence in his chain. “I have no money, nor any prospect of ser-
vice soon. How I wish I was West, an owner of stock and farm,
away from the voice of a coming storm.” While loyal to Grant,
there was no praise for his personal rule nor sympathy in his treat-
ment of Senator Sumner.
Let it be told, Vice-President Wilson aspired to be Grant's
successor -- this is not a guess, but a weak and wild ambition,
indulged after a partial period of paralysis which impeded his
speech. In fact, he never was a fluent orator-measured and
slow, with thoughts too heavy for tongue, like Webster — an invol-
untary assimilation to one of whom he was proud to be called a
protégé.
As to persons, parties and national history, he was the best
informed Senator of his time, and a story-teller of great resources,
hearty in laughter.
The mortification in his Senatorial career was on the advent of
the “ Black Crook" theatrical troupe. By repute, it was a poorly- ·
dressed company, and on a banter, thoughtlessly, cheap gallery
80
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
tickets were procured for several Senators and Representatives.
The theatre manager was apprised of their arrival, and ordered
them to be conducted in a body to the most conspicuous seats. It
proved to be more than a boyish — a Senatorial lark — when the
usher, with the lungs of a Senator, announced the Honorable Sen-
ate of the United States. In later years Mr. Wilson, recounting it,
said, “It was the worst sell of my life, and my first and last visit
to the antics of shameless “Black Crook' performers. To have
left the house would have made the trick more conspicuous, which
was played by one of our company, but never forgiven.”
In the last years of his public life he visited Iowa to see a prai-
rie for the first time. At Des Moines the citizens proposed a ban-
quet in his honor. “No; if I have another night in Iowa, it will
be spent with Grinnell, with whom in an emergency I used to
lodge in Boston, when both beds and money were scarce.” He
was given, in my house, the bed that had rested John Brown, and
at a meeting in the park he spoke to a crowd of admirers, and not
long after died by a paralytic stroke in the Vice-President's room
at Washington. A man of courage, but holding that the duel code
was a barbarism. For stimulants there was a hereditary taste, but
his temperance career was brilliant as a speaker, and as President
of the National Temperance Society, he rendered exemplary serv-
ice, aided by the finances and intrepidity of the late William E.
Dodge.
ANSON P. BURLINGAME,
then Senator, was the personal antithesis of Wilson, and in the
Sumner campaign marshal of the young political cohorts, cultured,
magnetic as an orator, genial, the facial Adonis of the Senate.
Of much of his history this generation knows little.
He married the daughter of Isaac Livermore, the financier of
Charleston. Night work and full rooms made him often a bed-
fellow at my rooms in the Marlboro. Then there was no conceal-
ment of his ambition to go to Congress, as he did, rising to the
rank of treaty maker, as diplomat, and at last the honored plenipo-
tentiary servant of China.
Poverty had given him stamina, and a residence on the frontier
in Michigan cultivated the taste of a sportsman, in which was
found recreation. On the assault of Senator Sumner, in Wash-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTL YEARS.
81
M
ington, by “Bully Brooks," of South Carolina, Burlingame was
with one voice chosen to execrate the murderous deed, and speak
for insulted Massachusetts. A finer philippic in indignation and
arraignment under . parliamentary law, can not be found in the
language.
Burlingame, with towering indignation, said of Brooks' cow-
ardly act, “I denounce it in the name of the sovereignty of Mas-
sachusetts, which was stricken down by the blow; I denounce it in
the name of humanity; I denounce it in the name of civilization,
which it outraged; I denounce it in the name of that fair play
which even bullies and prize-fighters respect. What! Strike a
man when he is pinioned — when he cannot respond to a blow!
Call you that chivalry? In what code of honor did you get your
authority for that?" It stung the assassin; and the reputed high
blood, taken with the wounding of the pride of South Carolina,
required a resort to the code duello. Burlingame received the
challenge and accepted it, naming Canada by Niagara Falls, as the
place, and the weapons rifles, and the range so near that the shots
must be fatal, and on neutral soil with less fear of arrest. The
coward did not accept; expelled from Congress, he died with the
brand of personal infamy, and a disgrace to the chivalry of his
state. What was the status of Burlingame ? Praised for his
matchless speech, feted for courage, even admired by moralists
who were happy in the explosion of an idea that the North had
only the blood of “craven agitators.” It ended challenges for
words in debate by the South, under their code.
Burlingame I met at the Chicago Convention on the nomination
of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, both being delegates, and that was the
scene of an ovation. Judge William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania,
late Nestor of the House of Representatives, had spoken from a
stand for receiving the delegations in open air. Also, that great
stump orator, Henry S. Lane, of Indiana, who began, “I am the
next Governor of Indiana, and I see you are glad to see me, and
the feeling is heartily mutual.”
I hinted by a whisper to the chairman that Burlingame, of
Massachusetts, would stir up the boys.
“Bring him near and introduce him; my voice is all gone."
I need not say that the orator was loaded for that occasion.
This was my introduction as reported:
“The nation has heard of an invitation made to one Brooks,
82
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
the cowardly assailant of Sumner, to cross the Canadian border;
there would have been no farcical arrest; no burlesque of coffee
and pistols, but rifies at short range. Where was your chivalry,
declining before the high blood of a Puritan cavalier of Massachu-
setts ? He is here to speak.”
How his voice did ring out; only drowned by cheers as he
mace Gov. Banks his candidate - the schooled mechanic, Speaker
of Congress, the “iron man”. That crowd would have nominated
Burlingame before Banks or Lincoln. I dined with him in 1861
in Washington, and recall this : “I am a restless spirit and have an
ambition to see the world and serve abroad." He was early made
Minister to China by Mr. Lincoln, and in 1867 became the Ambas-
sador of China to this country and to all the powers of Europe, a
post which he held until his death in 1870. If it was a distinction
to draw a larger salary than received by any American, there was
a higher honor in diplomatic service for hundreds of millions of
people whose gates have been barred against the English people
for centuries. He had his faults and foibles, but what American
was not happy for the fortunes of a gentleman of culture who low-
ered the plumes of southern chivalry, and won officially more than
a President's power, and at his death a wreath of honor which the
subjects of Kings had striven for in vain ?
THEODORE PARKER.
While on the Radical list, I do not omit Theodore Parker, a
by-word name, being by the popular say an infidel and a Garrison-
ite. To me he was logical in debate, yet heavy as contrasted with
Phillips. He was a Harvard scholar ---a theological debater and a
living protest against the Unitarian Church which disowned him,
but could not keep the curious boys from his people's church,
where were the blendings of heresy and caricatures of doxy and
conservatism, inost shocking to philosophy. He was rather deep
than clear to the masses, and the multitude of his volumes and his
linguistic erudition made him the peer of scholars. His sermon on
Immortality” eclipses all in freshness and vigor. For inciting
the rescue of a detained fugitive, he had the honor of an indict-
ment by jury, yet not a burlesque trial. He was a rare scholar,
greatly missed by his intimate friends, who lamented the cool,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
83
brave spirit holding forth to crowds in Music Hall, until a fatal
disease drove him to Florence, where he died. He was vigorous
and original in thought, inciting the schools and the calmer speech
of Boston in praise for the gift of a library of 13,000 volumes.
This act softened the enmity against the dead patriot and
reformer.
CHAPTER VI.
“Go West, Young Man, Go West” — Out-door Speaking in New
York — Failure of Voice— Horace Greeley's Advice — Copy of
Greeley's Letter -- Proposed Colony - Turned from Missouri by
Slavery- Protégé of Henry Farnam— Railway Magnate-
Fortunate Location of the City of Grinnell.
INTEREST attaches to those incipient public acts which have
brought beneficent results. The story of the Genesis of Grinnell
has been told in consecutive letters to the children. Their study
will be of value to living cotemporaries, possibly stimulating
co-operation in efforts for organized emigration.
Conspicuous failures in attempts at organized emigration have
been many, but in common association with sordid grasping and
the strife of ambitious leaders, wḥich should not detract from the
policy in the founding of settlements like that described in this
simple narrative. There was Marietta in Ohio, founded in patri-
otic protest against slavery, from which Marietta College sprang.
Oberlin, Ohio, came to be through the agencies of capitalists and
devoted men, in a land-purchase and college, the result of labors of
pioneers gone to their reward, whom later generations can never
forget. Their fortitude, and consecration to principle and a great
educational scheme, require no monument for perpetuation. Gales-
burg, Illinois, had a land company investing in rich soil, and a
college scheme, the product of capital, experience and devotion.
The city of Greeley, Colorado, can be cited with a charmed his-
tory. Enriched by water supply, with rare attractions of climate,
it had oneness of moral sentiment, with union in labor, while under
the ban of intolerance and ridicule. These cities had the details
of action, and corporate powers, with names now noted in philan-
thropic, wise purpose. What there was in the founding of Grin-
nell was an unwritten purpose under the hat of one man, waiting
on opportunity. Formal unity in action there was none. The
whirl of the horses to the carriage, and striking alone for the land
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
85
office while his comrades debated localities, was an assumption,
and the decisive act which led to what follows of incident or story.
It is a fresh version of sacrifices and successes, related to the epi-
sodes and romance of thirty-six years ago, and much like the devo-
tion of the founders of Denmark Academy, and the heroic personal
and pecuniary sacrifices of our brothers of Tabor College on the
west, worthy to be written in letters of gold. Here are the
letters :
My Dear Children:
With pleasure, and I trust with profit to the great cause of the Master, I was the
pastor of the Union Congregational Church of the city of New York for three years.
Devoted and noble as were the people, with large plant for church extension and
removal, I was to leave them. It came about in this way, under God's providence.
Speaking intemperately in the open air at the ship-yards in New York, in 1852–3,
was indirectly the occasion of my expatriation to the West.
William H. Webb, the great ship-builder on the East River, furnished timber
for comfortable seats occupied by non-church goers, and workmen coming out
with their families, where there was good singing, order and spirit, which lent to
the service at least the charm of novelty.
there were Hon. William E. Dodge, the eminent Christian philanthropist; also,
ex-attorney general of the Uuited States, Benjamin F. Bntler. He was a specimen
of a courtly "elect Democrat”, whose Sandy Hill "stated preaching" correspon-
dence while of the Van Buren regency of an early day, was the occasion of irrever-
ent talk. William Allen Butler, author and satirical poet in “Miss Flora Mc
Flimsey," is a son who perpetuates the name of a father not less distinguished as a
Christian gentleman than a lawyer.
The following letter furnishes an historic and ludicrous inci-
dent of the times, related to a distinguished character:
The boy's school in my charge on Sixth street is crowded. It is composed of
strolling, poorly-clad orphans, and venders of newspapers, a smart but rough set.
They demand a varied entertainment, and I secured the promise of an address from
the great lawyer and politician, Benjamin F. Butler, once attorney-general of the
United States under Gen. Jackson. I had the promise of quiet and correct deport-
ment in his honor. Mr. Butler, a pleasant, venerable gentleman, was presented, to
be heartily cheered. He asked, “ Boys, what shall I speak about ?” “Anything!”
“How long ?” “Twenty minutes, thirty if awful good," shouted one. “Call it
“And I will time you, boss," said a leader, upon which there was a show of
watches. This seemed to occasion a little nervousness on the part of the speaker.
A simple and elegant address was made, but the application was not reached
when the shout went, “Time's up! Time's up!” “But I have a concluding story
for you." "No, no! A bargain is a bargain if it is Sunday." I came to the res-
cue, saying that this venerable gentleman was not used to such rudeness. The
reply was, “We keep our contract; time's out. No stories.” Mr. Butler arose, a
86
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
louder shout, “Time's up!” drowning all words of persuasion, with a threat of
going to dinner, and causing such a tumult that Mr. Butler, a picture of mortifica-
tion, sat down, and fearing a second guy as to time, left the superintendent help-
less, and the boys masters of the situation.
In the morning I went down to the lawyer's office to take the apology of the
school, and the promise of less rudeness on another visit, also my own regrets.
“No second visit!” I was mortified. “Before thousands I have spoken in open
air; in our higher court for years, with toleration at least; but I never met such a
rebuff in all my life, and I am clear of another exposure before the vagrants. It
was a blunder of course in the fixing of the time, and I had not got to the story.
Let it pass. They had too many bull's-eye watches, and it was both the sharp and
rough experience in my career as a speaker, for which I blame no one but
unwashed Young America."
Mr. Horace Greeley, the great editor, was often a speaker on
temperance, with others less known to fame. The meetings came
to be the resort of curious gentlemen in their carriages, and even
the notorious Tweed, afterward the convicted plunderer, then an
alderman, would be present and slyly hand out a golden eagle
in compliment to the service. One Sunday I quite broke down
with hoarseness. Mr. Greeley was in the rear of the crowd, but
he did not come forward to my relief, as was his custom at various
meetings, when called upon for the closing words.
I made my way to the Tribune office the next morning to chide
Mr. Greeley for not coming to my aid in an emergency, saying my
last effort was made. “Well,” said he, “the crowd was large, and
I did not like to push through it; but you are laid by, no doubt;
only don't get ready for a fashionable European health trip, or to
lounge in the city, which is no place to stay except with occupation
and good health. Go West, young man, go West. There is health
in the country, and room away from our crowds of idlers and imbe-
ciles.” “That," I said, “is very frank advice, but it is medicine
easier given than taken. It is a wide country, but I do not know
just where to go.” “It is all room away from the pavements. I
want some one at once to take a trip for the Tribune, and write me
from the Illinois State Fair, at Springfield. You can do it. Solon
Robinson, the agricultural editor, says you have knowledge of ani-
mals. I doted on the trip myself; but you make the best report
you can. I will see that you have railway passage, and will write
you a letter which will secure you attention and a chance to do us
service, and make a spread in your own way.”
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
87
This is the letter he handed me:
New York, Sept. 25, 1833.
Mr. J. B. Grinnell of this city visits the Illinois Agricultural State Fair at
Springfield, Ill., and will report therefrom for The Tribune. I pray you to show
him whatever courtesy you may fairly do, and enable him to give us a full report
of the Fair.
Yours,
HORACE GREELEY.
To the editor of the State Journal, Springfield, Ill.
I had a fine time every way, and made a lengthy report which
was acceptable, and opened the way indirectly for much that fol-
lows in narration.
This answers the queries and gives the facts in regard to the
more than legendary counsel, “Go West, young man, go West” —
a shot at thousands of dullards since my day; I was the young
man whom Mr. Greeley told to go, and I went. I have never
found occasion to regret the fact that I was a protégé of his —a
life-long correspondent and friend. I record the warm tribute of
my heart to the greatest American Journalist, who not only made
public my “Badger” letters, but received and printed what would
be equal to a volume, in praise of Iowa. On his last visit to our
state he wrote that he had seen the model city, in respect to mor-
als and education.
THE PLAN OF SETTLEMENT.
My voice being impaired, the delicacy of my child requiring
the tonic of country air, furnished strong and added inducements
to make plans for western emigration. On returning from my
western and Missouri trip, I elaborated a scheme which the stu-
pidity of another, with several casualties, would not allow to go
into full execution. In the New York Tribune and New York
Independent I advertised for correspondence with parties desirous
of educational facilities, and of temperance and Congregational
affinities, who wished to settle on some new western railroad or
one projected.
“Colonist” was my address, and both Mr. Greeley and Joshua
Leavitt had vouched for the character and good faith of “Colo-
nist.” Then I wrote short articles in the line of my project,
against isolated emigration and in favor of associating for frater-
nal social good.
88
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Each year of my western stay has confirmed its philosophy,
and, had I met a failure, the advantages of homeogeneous settle-
ment could not be gainsaid. It brought a legion of answers, with
troops of professionals and aspiring marshals, as if sure of the
privates for troops. I wish they were at hand in refutation of
Bellamy and his Utopian romance, “ Looking Backward,” before
a possible new edition - a burlesque on the facts in human nature
as revealed by my project.
Those comfortable in riding are not found voluntarily taking a
walk, or drawing a load in traces, if having honestly earned and
paid for an easy passage. Our scheme was a plain rural life, with
patience to wait and grow, like the products of agriculture, to the
stage of fruit, shade, culture and repose for age. My scheme I
knew was not Utopian, but broad, generous and beneficent; and I
now see that it was by an unseen hand I was led and upheld.
The following, from The Independent, was one of the articles to
which I refer:
An advertisement in The Independent relating to a Western enterprise, seems
to furnish occasion for a brief discussion of a topic with manifold relations.
The tide of emigration westward, whether for good or for ill, can no more be
stayed than the course of the gulf-stream. The late census returns furnish proof
of the general health of the western states. Owners of stocks valued at a hundred
millions of dollars, invite the enterprising to make a home on new soil, to subservo
the interests of both capitalist and producer. The last year, the present and the
next, will span the prairies and groves, hitherto almost without an inhabitant, with
more than a thousand miles of railroad; so that the hardships of frontier life shall
no more be brought to mind by the multitudes of pioneers "ticketed through"
to the cheapest and most fertile lands on the continent. Landholders in the east
are buying out the small proprietors; and while the vocation of a farmer is yearly
becoming more profitable and honorable, rich soil westward, only a two days' jour-
ney distant, will be purchased at $5 the acre, rather than inferior soil eastward at
$50. Economical considerations, combined with the adventurous spirit and mod-
ern facilities for traveling, will secure the transfer of a numerous people to new
homes on the course of “the star of empire".
Not those alone of undefined opinions, and wanting position in the home of
their youth, will change their abode. Churches now weak are to suffer a severe
depletion. A Presbyterian minister in western New York writes me: “I am
almost discouraged; my most enterprising men, and the very best families are going
West.” A letter received last week from a pastor in Berkshire County, Massachu-
setts, contains the following passage: “The course of business is such in our coun-
try as to be steadily draining the very life-blood out of these mountain districts.
We are steadily losing ground, and I see no practicable way of helping it. Almost
all of our enterprising youth of both sexes leave us when they reach maturity, and
our best families are emigrating to the West."
How, then, should such persons go West? Observation in the West, and a
careful study of the whole question, prompts this answer: In companies, with
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
89
persons of congenial, moral and religious sentiments, embracing mechanics, and
pecuniary ability to make the school and the Church paramount and attractive
institutions from the outset. To name the reasons for this opinion is enough. It
will contribute to the protection of those emigrating. In the northwest, there are
thousands of persons lost to the Church by removal. They have made a home dis-
tant from their denomination, and are seldom in church; or they are surrounded
by denominations with whom they do not choose to unite while there is hope in
the future of enjoying their own. “Hope deferred” relaxes exertion; and soon
the once fair and flourishing professor is seen relapsing in his principles, and with
perverted taste, conformed to the irreligious habits of frontier life. Observation
has proved that those who are strangers, and do not in their new home from the
first avow their religious convictions, may never do it. Their excuse “that they
find nothing in the Church as it used to be at home," may not be valid, while
their removal from the presence of congenial friends, will prove the shipwreck of
their principles.
“My people are so scattered!” is the mournful expression of many a home
missionary; for well they know that a monthly hearing of the Word ordinarily
fails to secure the fruits which the pastoral relation contemplates. This is the
condition of thousands of families, which cannot at present be remedied, since a
change of home is not so easily made, and there is a lack of ministers even to sup-
ply the organized churches.
If it be said that the Christian should be a light everywhere, and as leaven
among the ungodly, the position will not be denied; but the facts are, the few
yield to the many, and a single Christian family or a few poor families can effect
but little in a community where there is a strong preorganized irreligious senti-
ment. A weak society may be formed with the best of principles, but, from its
pecuniary dependence, only to be led and perverted by designing men, to the dis-
honor of religion, and, as numerous localities evidence, inflicting a blow on a
given denomination, from which it will require years to recover.
The Bishops of Ireland complain that one-half the Catholics ernigrating to
America are lost to the Church; and having studied the causes of this loss, Rome
prefers that her adherents should dwell near to the priest and the Church in pov-
erty, rather than with plenty and distant from the Church. Protestants may
learn from their enemies the methods in order to preservation and power. A les-
son may be known from towns in Vermont, New York, Ohio and Illinois, which
were settled by a heterogeneous people, distracted by numerous sects, and which
still lack that absorbing element of influence which in towns adjacent, settled by
congenial spirits, has sustained schools and seminaries, and an able ministry, all
contributing to a still greater assimilation.
Organized emigration becomes a Christian duty, if a new home is sought.
There is a natural proclivity to the strong side, and a horror of minorities. Bad
men in new neighborhoods, in the presence of strong Christian men, have often
given up controversy, and from motives of peace and policy, have placed them-
selves within the reach of the minister's voice, which has eventuated in their
conversion.
In the time of rebellion, government is respected according to the number and
character of forces sent to quell the outbreak; and the force and position of Chris-
tians in the frontier States, determine their influence on the all-abounding errors,
and whether Clirist's triumph shall be early and complete, or delayed indefinitely.
Government erects the light-house at such a height, and with a given number of
lamps. Fitful, chance lights on the shore will not suffice in the nights of dark-
ness and storm; no more will single Christians, mostly poor, and of necessity secu-
lar in their pursuits, scattered through the West, effect that which requires to be
90
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
done by a combination of influence. If Christians, then, would unite to this end
“the solitary place shall be glad for them," and the report would go out through
the land, “there are the profits of godliness and conquests for Christ.”
There are social and material bearings of this question, which deserve a brief
mention. We are made for society; society is not “got up to order," like a mili-
tary company for an emergency. But persons with a common aim, of the same
faith, and with a free will, embarking together, will find a variety of pleasing cor-
respondence in a new home, where all are called to the same trials, and inspired
with kindred hopes. We remember the glowing countenances of our fathers,
rehearsing the story of days when, with a brother's spirit, they laid the founda-
tions which are now justly their children's pride and joy. The trials we need not
know in full, borne, as we may be, by steam to the prairies, long smiling with invi-
tations for the stranger; but enongh remains of toil and devotion to the genera-
tions that come after, to perpetuate friendship through prospered years to old age.
Constructing a social and religious habit, and not complaining over that which
cannot be remedied, is the proper employment, and contributes to real affinity, hap-
piness and strength of character.
The economies of this question are evident. Where there are numbers, the
pecuniary burdens of the Church and school are divided, and every valued institu-
tion rendered really more valuable. Lands adjacent to the Christian colonies are
held in the market at a much higher price than those in the vicinity of a medley
class of people.
A number of families in one company may purchase merchandise and mate-
rials for house-building at much lower rates than the immigrant alone; and public
spirit, in the laying-out of grounds, and in ornamental culture, will affect, at a lit-
tle expense, that which individual enterprise could not achieve
Persons with a common interest, settled by the stream of water, or near a coal-
bed, can, with economy, establish those factories which every consideration of
Political economy requires in the West. The farmers, uniting their funds, can
purchase patent reapers and mowers, and other great labor-saving inventions of
this age, yet beyond the reach of the isolated farmers. Stock and wool-growers, at
a small cost to each, can secure the best bloods, and such advantages from their
introduction as are now only known in a few wealthy localities.
We forbear to enumerate advantages further. If it be said that some may
leave the company, wė answer, their vacancy will invite good rather than bad
men. If failures are in memory, the answer is, not on virgin soil, in a free state,
in this day of railroads.
J. B. G.
HOW CAME THE LOCATION ?
A slave state - Missouri — I hinted at, as we had an estate
there of 640 acres. That cooled the ardor of correspondents.
One wrote that he proposed to keep his sentiments but “learn his
trade without prison stripes on him.” The decision not to go to
Missouri came in this way: I had made proposals for a land pur-
chase forty miles west of Hannibal and had friendly answers, and
a welcome from slave owners, provided I did not meddle with
their property.” I shook hands with a gallant colonel over what
I now see was a deep chasm as we parted; for this colonel, after-
91
ward an M. C., was soon found presiding at a pro-slavery meeting,
with resolves that only people embracing sentiments loyal to slav-
ery were to be tolerated. That I read on reaching New York, and
it made my land worthless as a home, and ended all talk of
Missouri.
There was then, in 1853, no railway as far west as the Missis-
sippi River, and, leaving the stage going east, at Sheffield, Ill., for
the railway coach, I was confronted with a brace of wordy slave
hunters, or their kin, cursing the North as made up of cowards
and nigger thieves. I kept silence until I was challenged as to
my sentiments, and I then hinted I was in a free State, where the
law relating to gentlemen was observed.
Threats, oaths and drawn pistols were in the order of use, and
if a Yankee I was advised to drop off at the next station. I can-
not tell all that passed in debate, up to the time the conductor in
fear went forward to give the alarm that a passenger's life was
threatened. A venerable, fine-looking gentleman came in, who
proved to be the builder of the Rock Island road, Henry Farnam,
Conn. He was shocked at the gross profanity, and alarmed for
my safety in presence of desperadoes armed in defiance; yet they
left the train at La Salle, fearful of arrest, which Mr. Farnam
had ordered by wire.
This meeting began a warm friendship, with compliments
received on “standing my ground”, and with advice not to think
of settling in Missouri, where you would not be allowed to live a
month. “Go to Iowa," said he, “a free State, which I have just
come from; and I am to build a railway across to the Missouri
River, an extension of the Rock Island Road.”
I answered, “I do not know a man in that State, nor have I an
idea where to go."
“But you know Dr. Leonard Bacon; his son, just out of col-
lege, is one of my Iowa engineers, and he can and will, under my
direction, tell you all you want to know.”
I accepted his kind offer, which was that I should have infor-
mation as to the preliminary survey of the country, with only a
request that I would keep the facts from the public.
Thereupon Bacon wrote fully in several letters, and with the
clear opinion, summed up after reaching Council Bluffs, that in the
western part the land was too rolling, and in the eastern portion
92
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
the best lands were taken up. Town eighty, Range sixteen west,
near Lattimer's Grove, offered the best choice of all —a well
watered prairie; and the topography of the country, in opinion of
the engineers, indicated the line of a north and south road, if there
should ever be one, and a Junction station at section sixteen, on a
natural grade between the Iowa and Des Moines Rivers. He
added, “Lose no time, for there will be a rush for land and the
best will be taken—the boys mean to take it up."
Here I would not suppress the names of Mr. P. A. Dey, for
years our State Railway Commissioner, and Gen. G. M. Dodge,
financier, and since Major-General and a great character in our
Civil War, who were Mr. Farnam's locating engineers; and their
judgment I gained indirectly through Mr. Bacon, whose independ-
ence, with lack of caution, came near costing the ambitious youth
his life.
A PIONEER INCIDENT.
It was in this way: Bacon thought that on the vast, untracked
prairie he could shorten his way to the camp, one bitter cold
night, and became lost on his return. The whole engineering
force went out on a hunt for the young flagman. At break of day
an object was seen just moving, which proved to be Bacon, hob-
bling with a cane, numb and frozen, who, when hearing a distant
call, fell as if dead. That episode came near ending his life; and
Dr. Bacon, glad of the rescue of his son, said to me afterward, “I ·
feared for him, a frail, college boy, just what happened, a narrow
escape.” A letter from the boy was brought out and read with
deep emotion - I recall the first laconic sentences, Dr. Bacon
reading: “Dear Father: I have seen the elephant with the kiver
off.” Then followed a recital as to the night tramp, frozen feet,
etc. Mr. Bacon closed his engineering and married a daughter of
Gov. Selden of Rochester, N. Y., where he is in the practice of the
legal profession. I have seen him but once since then, when we
met as delegates at the National Liberal Convention in 1872.
One Monday, after receiving the final letter urging haste, I set
out for Iowa and collected at Chicago a few friends of my enter-
prise, spending Sunday in Davenport, speaking in church, and the
next day taking a private hack for Sugar Grove, one hundred and
twenty miles west, thus beginning the first novel trip of discovery.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
93
Í studied to seek information by questions on the way: “Well, my
friend,” said I, “where do you live, may a stranger ask ?" Leis-
urely he drawled out— « Live nowhere I am like a stray dog,
without a home or a master."
Many times I have thought it a most original picture of a
tramp of later days.
“Please, sir, where can we stop to-night?” I was answered,
“At Sourwines I allow, or Danskin's I reckon. Young Sickafoose,
mighty clever—or old Frizzle will set out the whiskey!” That
was border talk. Such a string of names wanting in euphony, I
do not since recall; they were real and I never heard of a court
application for a change.
Lattimer's Grove was reached across a twenty-mile prairie
where there was only one house. We took dinner and set out for
the flag, four miles away, at the railway summit, beautiful in
topography. The black, burnt grass and chill March wind, with
not a stone or shrub near, were devoid of attraction. I just dis-
cerned the tops of trees north four miles, which the engineer said
was only brush.
Then to find shelter for the night we struck for Evan's Grove,
spoken of as distant four miles, where there was said to be a
cabin.
Gulches were encountered; a few stars were studied to guide
us; we were several times lost, and only late at night we heard a
dog bark, which proved to be a watchful canine resisting our
entrance to the cabin. The engineer made a plea to stop over
night, and the shout was, “No! No!”
Dr. Holyoke tried his hand and retreated under flashing eyes.
Mr. Hamlin, really sick, tried if he might move top pity. “No
room — man gone-girl frightened — nothing to eat.”
It was dark, cold, and, being the author of our calamity, I said,
“We would stay if we had to kill the dog; and if the woman had
fits, the doctor could bring her out.” I went in and boldly took a
seat, asking no place to sleep or anything to eat, but saying we
must stay or freeze; if you take us to be robbers or thieves, take
this purse of gold from gentlemen.” It meant a pledge to pay in
advance. I saw relenting - a glance of pity, and heard a low
whisper in the corner, “They don't look bad," and the woman said
with some doubt, “ You can stay."
The next day as the season was late and cold, the party was
94
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
discouraged from going much further ; but I resolved to see and
know for myself. By a fortunate persistence I found the novelty
of an Indian wigwam, just vacated, in view of a group of deer rest-
ing on the hill-sides, and acres of majestic oaks, bordering on Bear
Creek, several miles north of our present city. This, the first
entry of land which I made, was of great value, and became a part
of a gift of two hundred acres to my children many years later.
THE HOUR OF DECISION.'
In the morning there was a council near the red railway
flag on the summit of the road, and agreement as to a location
was found impossible. These were the objections. This summit
embraces the school section, which we cannot buy; there is a want
of timber; and, in the view of Dr. Holyoke from Maine, Iowa
County offered a location near the Iowa River with timber and the
possibility of a county-seat. Mr. Hamlin pictured Des Moines as
the possible future capital and place for profitable investment, and
plead to wait. My mind was made up as to the value of this loca-
tion, and I said I thought little of county-seats, and had no taste for
city-lot speculation. Being the driver, I said, “Who goes East ?”
They remained reluctantly, and I struck for the Land Office at
Iowa City, sixty-five miles away, which I reached at sunset. The
Land Office officials were hunted up, and I closed save as to details
the entry of some five thousand acres of land before Sunday, sug-
gesting to the receiver, Mr. Gilman Folsom, that I had engaged to
preach in the Presbyterian Church in the morning and asked to be
excused as Sunday was near. Mr. Folsom responded with an oath,
“I have not been to church for years, but you will find me in the
Amen corner if you are to preach.” True to his word, he was pres-
ent and created a sensation by a stride down the church aisle,
with a wild air and unkempt locks, to annoy the speaker not a lit-
tle, by a conspicuous nodding of assent during the sermon. This
episode and the merriment created were apologized for by Chief
Justice George Green at the Hotel, who said that Folsom was
esteemed a man of great brilliancy, but convivial habits might be
his ruin.
Thus we were never a Colony but in name. I made the land
entries in my own name and took the risks, yet on return treated
those I wanted and had invited with equity. Some, later, bought
land in their own name. I asked of the late arrivals, on the
و مناسب میبد
( ال

۔ ک
به
هم
-
ده
-
|
مه
*
ح ال
راه
مع جده
رد
زن
عربی
سید با
معه
ها -
عمر
نیست
محمد
با ما
خود
مجمع
بي
به
مممممممم
ام
1
سمی
یا
ع جينتش
پرونده
مد
اس '
بيمص
ا هم
سی
سس ششم من
.
مها
امام
پنیر
با ما
:hi
It!!
صمم
صد
iii
م مممم
مر
ایم
مي
.
به
SNN
اج
ملے ۔
مایع
جنسی
سرسر
عام
مردم
همسرم
ده
ام
رم
-
به
سیم
"
سا
مریم
وه
جمجمه
تمام
مه
مي
Il
میرا
اسم محمد
ويها
ميامي
بصمه
م
ست
جمعی
ممکن است
مت
محاسب
واسعه ..
زم
جو ہم
معه ه ی
جسمی
مه
/
عم
الا
مر
تسمه
جمه
/
مي
و
م
SN
بهم
مس
جی
مهر
//
S
مي
اس
في
سد
بسته
با ما
محمد111
8
.
المطاعم
زه
عيد
سعید
ج
بوو
سسسسسسسسسه سر
محمد محمد
عد
ماه
امیری
و
مممممممم
مساب
هی
میمه
ده
دهد
سابع
اور
ة
شماره
دیت
و بودجه
علمی و
==
دهد
.
بی
او
دوومانه
مجسم
جم
مممممممممم
مممممممممصصه
معلم
او
اموال
*
به
ام حمله
حمد
د
م
سيد
کی بیمارة
*
ت اور
میری
او
=
ماس
وی در
ا
ممممممم
نم
_
.
. ج
. ام
عند
مها محمد
م
مسی
ص
-
\
اتیسم و
ارد
:
مجسما
این
و
عکس
=
.
.
مهر به نام
فضا
ار
امین
..
به
-
اسرا
مرور
مي *
.
و
ش دن
وه
مسموم
به جست و
میرمحمد
و .11
-
م
ه
.
، ا حسه
:
و
هده ممتعه
همه
سات
داده
وا
اج
ه
ا ، ا
-
و
مه
صححد
149 ا
اهد
.
مج
م
به
ع دم = ت
مممممال
مي
میسر
ته
ام
نما
بسم
-
مقالات
من
11
اعت
بسم
و
م
و می
سمسم
م
بعد
متجسس
سه
هستید
و
پیام
-
و
ممد
مر
ا عماله
م
من مرة
\
ت ولید
جلسه د معصم
و
من
ممتعة
امام کی
111
شد
ا
II
- دا
-
مه
:
است
و
ما
روسیه می
م
"
د
به حیصه
خو
جی
FT
ا
مس
مس
مممممم
محمد
مس
مممممممم
رام
مع
ی
همه
*
|
ا
بیحد
سلام
*
ته هو معه
.
ه
م
ت
به له
مد
:
ج
ست
.
ة
ولد
اره ما
می دهد. در
های
و همه هم
"
مر
نرم
جد
4
|
//
ن یمه
ا
|
|
و
ارد
علم
بال
سمیت
ج
دان
دوم و
مفهو
|
مجرا *
|
ست
محمد
مد
زک
مه
.
قص
ا مام جمعه
م
جی
الهی
بم
سعی
مد
مجسمه
مد
نور محمد
وه
اهد
.
و
و
ر ده
به عرصد
فر
".
عصم
.
]
ما
"
مع دل
کسی
خه
مد
و
رد
فر
جمه
اخت
,
.
در
\
+
TIT
1
.
1
.
عمر
: وی
مدافع
مي
***
\
*
م
.
!
.
مال
"
*
یه
.
=
خام
.
1
=
=
*
:
ع مر
=
"
1:
11
"
هااااا
جوانه
11
ا
:
جد
جاء
الب
111111
ای
.
وا
ما
مر
من
1
مم
1
عدة *
:
1
سه |
ود
مت
مو
*
1
نی
*
صمیم
و
همه HTF
معه
۔
میری
وهدا و
::
فیصد
ما است
-
من
a
و
"
هم
ا پنی
اه
.
{;
هر
1
حه
مواد
//
ه
- ها
سا
م
ة
1.
طلب
روعه
مه
ها
ما
ت
د
"
مه
II
ما
مص
-
تهیه
ما -
1
ا
رم
!
:
محمد
و
14 -
IIIII
.
م م
م
محمد
==
.به
و
مس
سم
مم
هي : 1
س
:
:
"
ت
ا
ا
.
خیر
است •
7
ا بد
مارا
:
م
عجیسے
اممممممممم
/
*
ده
بسم
جمع
-
همه
ما
114 :
ا
به
1
-
ومد
::
دانه
.11
و
" : اجعه
مر
مید
* اردو
:
*
اسم
مسعد
:
سا
ه مع
ما
ن
سه ملی
الجديد
ا
ا
. -1
م
-
مسيحية
"
و
و
ا مه
ا ست
1
رسم
ها
:
1
ه
سری
.
هه يه
و
۱۹۱، قم
11
مد
4
T
ا
می
II
:::::::::
.
"
IITE
ره
- و
م ة
اے مرد
*
1
به
و
و
سية
اور ا ردو
ده
مرده
ناااا
ها را
م ست *
ب ره
محمد
مهم
وه
5
مردم ما
.
ن و
:
.
:
.همه
حدد
ماه :
مريم
سیم
،و جهان
اسم
7
و
و
نم
را
.
" . "هوا
*
مجید جسمی
زل
==
مشهد
مهمي
مسجد
مس
,
با ما
=
د
سے 4 اهو
یا
=
سی
اعضا
مردة
س لام
لها
۱
=
4-
و خو
مة ج
- بس
.
ع
مصر
*
امه
جسم
هم
لعب
م
....
وحده
محمد
تنبيه
**
امام
حجم
مهدی
و
من
11
م
.
مه
ما
یا
دی
۱۰,
سسسسسسسسس
M11
بی
بی
مها
*
عدم
صمت
.
ع
"
اس سے
=
+
مس
با
م
سعر
را
ا
بهم
میر
شایعه یا
//
تا جمع
ما
همه
مه
با
می
مه 1
=
می
در
اع
اس ام
در
مغز
=
=
الا
ع
تور
م
مه
و
مام
اما
کرد
ما
ة
عدد
:
همه
در
هه
14
الم
موسسه
1
الا
اس
I
IIIIII
:
(
:
LITT
1
P
558
:
THEY
اه
ميع
*
شما می میر
می بعد
"
في
)
مت
imurill
زم
:
مه
مدیسه
7
I'
.
در مورد
l
N
1.1
.. و
'
1
ا سم
.
IIIIII
:
.
}}}}}}}}}}}}
}
.
تصميم
.
مرور
/
ایحاد
بعد
م حمد
1
18
مهم
!
موزه
!
ر
جلد =
ہو۔
ns
ا می
Y
IIIIIII.
!
با ما
استان :
alla
||
:
}
لات
مور
يساعدهم
به
مدح *
ا
رة
لالا
مراجعه
ه ه ه
ده
'
مشهد
را می
مرحله
.
پنجم
زبرد
اسے
.و ه
.
با
1
با ما
داد
امت
11
که ام
Hية
۲
فی
و
مس
ا
موعة
مقاله
f
با
مطعم
اند
اسعة و
ما
.
المهم
يونيو
المعهد
ابر
مه
S
"
مه
S
وحید
و
ما را
جا
سام
.
=
=
=
امام
.
ان کی
هم داد
و در
حض
ا لسابع
و هم
1
مل
ہ
ه
ا
ا
مهم
عفو
والے
ارما
.
دا -
(
سمجهه
بع
جعبه
|
م
ا
ا
=
مدرسه
بالفع
'
اد : 111
. ع*۱
۰۱۱
م
عدد
و
مت
او په هم
پاسخ به
م یر
ومهمه جا
عمر
با
ما
،
. الا
هوا
م
و...
اسم مه،، . م. م ا
.ادام
ر
ا
اما مويه :NS
1
نی
.
است
T
م
و
مد
عمار می
وجهه
'
جمجمته
Ata
ہ
/
1
و
:
مو -
د
و
مید
اور
تجربه
جميعهم
جامعه
هما
شد
مم میشه
::
جمعیت
م
ممممممممممم
هجمه
*
محمد
مه
عدم
أميري
اخمو
محمد بن
میده
ميه
1
م صمیم
مممممممممجید
م
وما
مدت
ا
V
همزمان
:
- م
همه
انا
مم
\
ممممم
رسمی
و شهر
=
قسم
میری
مات و
د م يه
سیم
خاو
-
مر
1
امم
،
سه
بها
7
ملی
سويحبس
همسة
ا
)
د
*
مو
///////
حد
=
=
=
مگو =
. هر
!!
له
,,
حمام
ميمي
من میدم و
هيم
س هم
وه
مرور
1111
.
-
مر
-
صد
جیت
عال
اهای
:
I
1
که میان
HT
"
/
الله عنها
مممممممممم
وم
a
:
مج
1
S
با
ہے اور
ام ال
, میں
!
مع
سم
ط
S
ابراهیمی
باب
می
رای
هم
اسم
مريم
ب يعه
محمد
ا ور
مم مممممممممممممم
به
مه
سی
-ند
و
و
امی
رسمی
صحت
-
شما
:
یستم
-
کاسه
:
میبی
محمد
ال(
نوو
مر
، ،
تاسیس سعید خد متم
لی
مي
۳
.
IIIII
.
الا
می با
مر
تصميمي
عمران
-
مد
عر
.
صنعت
کد
1
|
f
5
لیے
میرے
جد
S
م هم در مورد
*
بعيد
خه
(
مج
سید
مي
|
=
|
و
بير
سام
م
7
=
م
*
۰/mر
الميديا
|
.
می
الصوم
مم
مح
أسهم
.
سی
يج
: سیستمی
:: م ه به
مدد
MR. GRINNELL'S PIONEER LOG CABIN HOME.
(From an old sketch.)
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
95
transfer of land at cost, a pledge of money for our Literary Treas-
:ury. In my plan for taking up some 20,000 acres I was thwarted
by my New York agent, who failed to purchase the Virginia land
scrip, because it had gone up a few cents an acre after I left; he
most stupidly wrote to me to know if she should fill the order”.
It was then too late for the purpose, as on my location the land
contiguous was at once taken up, and the great scheme was
frustrated.
Mr. Farnum, of whom I have spoken, pleased with my choice,
gave me courage by railway passes, and said he should counsel his
sister and the Parks family of New York to be my neighbors, as
they soon were. I received a complimentary check from him of a
few hundred dollars three years after, when dollars covered the
orb of a cart wheel, for attending and speaking on his behalf at a
railroad meeting at Oskaloosa. I also was by him made a
Director in his Iowa extension of the Rock Island Railroad, which
office I held for several years. On our memorable tornado calam-
ity he sent à large sum of money to the poor, and gave a thousand
dollars toward our new college buildings.
When new surveys and intrigue threatened to change the line
of the railway, he stood by me personally in words too compli-
mentary for repetition, but not in too high praise of the people.
Indeed, he was more than an incident in my unmerited good for-
tune, which I should be ungrateful not to acknowledge. His liber-
ality in New Haven gives him great material fame. Personal
favors will leave forever with me the impressions of a generous,
noble gentleman, a wit, a Christian, the charm of any circle fortu-
nate in his company. A most entertaining memoir has been writ-
ten by his son, Professor Farnum of Yale College.
The critical epoch in our affairs was on my return from New
York, in May. The new cabin was built, but I was strongly
tempted by a large offer to part with the land; my throat was
improved, the hoarseness lessened. New York friends had pro-
posed with my aid to start a new Congregational Church by a
removal to the fashionable Murray Hill. I have had good fortune
in Iowa; New York is a possible maelstrom.
A LEGAL DISCOVERY.
land, come
George H. Norris of Illinois had bought the most desirable
land, where West Grinnell now stands; and there was but one
West Grinthe now stand spend the remote controle
96
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
opinion, that the school section, sixteen, could only be had at a
regular sale and advertised; such was the judgment of Mr. Barnes,
School Fund Commissioner. On a rainy day, looking up law
points, I found a statute which allowed pre-emption of school land
as under the old territorial law. The discovery I kept to myself
until we could, by the letter of the law, begin as pre-emptors on
the four quarter sections, and ask for an appraisal. Thereupon
we crossed some poles and laid down a few boards for a camp on a
chilly night, H. Hamlin on one, H. M. Hamilton and Dr. Holyoke
on the others, and I by right of discovery slept on the north-west
quarter, where nature had predetermined the railway station,
there being a steep grade either way for miles.
Armed with affidavits according to law, Mr. Hamilton and
myself found Mr. Barnes, the School Officer, who was surprised to
read the law, but, long hesitating, made out an order for an
appraisal; and, on the return of Squire Pierce, we gained the land
for less than $2.00 an acre, for which as a town site I could have
taken from a land syndicate many thousand dollars. Then came
the new Plot, and my clear gift to the proposed university, after
expenses of all kinds, as will be found in the recorded Genesis of
our city -- one hundred and sixty acres, divided into three hun-
dred and forty-eight lots (not including the park) dedicated to the
public. Next come the details of settlement.
CHAPTER VII.
Prohibition of Saloons -- Pioneering Incidents – Rattlesnake Ser-
mon— Our Mail Service- First Law Suit - The Long Home-
Foibles of an Enthusiast -- First Fourth of July --- First Ceme-
tery Burial — A Bell on the Prairie -- The Church.
THAT the writer was an enthusiast, devoid of worldly-wise phi-
losophy, was a common saying. He certainly did not choose the
wisdom of returning to New York with great profits as a shrewd
speculator.
It must be a confirmed fanatic, they said, that made, on sale of
lots, a proviso against a saloon, namely, a reversion of the land to
the maker of the deed, by the sale of strong drinks on a lot. The
taunt was common, “You have laid out a one-horse town, but I
will give three prices without the whisky proviso." Then judges,
called very wise, caviled that "inhibition will not stand in law”.
I was immovable and confident that I had a right to make a sale
with conditions not opposed to public policy and morals. Then a
gift, virtually to trustees of education, made a stronger case. The
sequel is well known. The supreme court of the United States
decided a case arising in Greeley, Colorado, which made my heresy
sound in morals and finance — even good law.
It was the knowledge of a young city without a saloon, which
attracted eminently a class who are the best elements of society.
They enhanced the value of property, while holding up more than
a rush-light in darkness, where, in all the region, whiskey was
plenty at twenty cents a gallon. We were a target for the sharp
practice of a brood of revilers, up to the year of demonstration
that we were not a “one horse city”, but could support a college,
and lead the way for a decisive prohibition majority in framing a
state policy. Our radical plumes were honestly won, and are now
proudly worn as the trophies of pioneers with conviction and
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
THE CABIN.
Look at that shanty. It provokes a “twice-told tale”. Profes-
sional, educated gentlemen asleep on poles, covered with slats and
straw ticks. A Nimrod bringing game, and the inerchant a cook,
as well as retailer of goods for the grove men. Food was never
better relished, nor repose sweeter. We lived in anticipation of
spring, the singing of birds, and removal to the prairie summit,
where, without the fame of Romulus, or modern founders, we were
to have home, city, school, church, and all accessible good with
very little ready whiskey.
The house of Perry Matteson, Esq., near the grove where he
now resides, was the rendezvous of the pioneer party until the
erection of the first house-shelter, which was located in the grove
near Sugar Creek. This deserves to be particularly noticed —an
artist and an engineer, Mr. C. W. Irish, of Iowa City, having
drawn it in correct outline, which is still preserved, as the home of
the real spirits of an embryo town, preparatory to their removal to
the noted house on the prairie called the “long home”, which will
be hereafter noticed.
This first cabin was built of dead logs which Hamlin chopped,
Hamilton drew with oxen, and Dr. Holyoke as chief architect
hewed into place; Griswold drawing the lumber for covering from
a water-mill east of the present Brooklyn, of this county. Its
dimensions were about fourteen by sixteen feet, and it served as
cook-room, dining-room, land-office, hotel and sleeping-room for ten
or twelve persons, the bed frames supported in tiers by pins, which
were driven into the logs and covered by painfully gaunt straw
beds. Amos Bixby, Esq., and Sumner Bixby; from Maine, Henry
Lawrence, from Milan, Ohio, and A. F. Gillett, late of Western
Reserve College, were soon added to the company. The next
necessity was lumber, and a horse saw-mill was secured, which was
set near by, on the land now owned by Mr. Marvin. This rude
mill sawed out néar 100,000 feet of lumber, owned by Mr. McDan-
iels. I was at this time acting commissary, and at Burlington,
Iowa, bought the first bill of goods ever brought to the town, of
Hon. W. F. Colbaugh, later President of the Union National Bank
of Chicago, having been introduced by Geo. F. Magoun, late Presi-
dent of Iowa College. The full and heavy load was wagoned home
by the purchaser and welcomed with a shout. It consisted of
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
99
sugar, coffee, saleratus, crackers, cheese and a choice assortment of
fruits and delicacies. The truth of history requires the admission
that several kinds of tobacco figured conspicuously, which the
natives in seeming agony often inquired for, and the thought was
indulged that the previous settlers in the timber', known as
Hoosiers, might be innocently propitiated, they being quite suspi-
A store-room was extemporized with rough boards under the
eaves of the cabin, and Lawrence, who was a graduated merchant,
took charge. Hungry swine, cattle and roving dogs were an
annoyance, frequently unroofing the store in attempts at appeasing
their hunger; but Lawrence would give them credit, voracious as
they were, for never disturbing even a paper or plug of tobacco.
The horse saw-mill in place, with a buzz and ring, was sweeter
than parlor music; violets peeped out gaudily under the leaves;
and whip-poor-wils and all the grove songsters allured us to tarry;
but we were for the “Unshorn Garden”. What a doleful pros-
pect !- to be smitten by the sun in the day, and swept by gales in
the winter, which none of us, tender feet, had endured. Would it
close out the Yankee settlement? Let us see. Food we had, and
the next want was shelter; and this was
THE LONG HOME.
This edifice was not honored by a picture, not even the product
of an architect; but it shall have a chronicler. It was called the
longhouse, hulk, ark, prairie canal-boat, Grinnell's Tavern. It
stood in what is now Broad Street, between the residence of D. O.
Harris and that of Professor Edson. In dimensions it was sixteen
feet wide and eighty long. It was constructed of green lumber,
sawed by horse-power, the boards bent with a supposable curve to
shed the rain; yet it was only an illusion of protection in driving
storms. This was a rude necessity, for there was no house or
shelter within three miles, and eastern women and children were
not used to the prairie schooners” (only canvas-covered wagons)
suited to the necessities of adventurous land-hunters.
In it were stored household goods, and temporary beds were
made for the night. It soon became a land office, hotel, hospital,
and council-room for rainy days and Sunday meetings. In it the
land hunter, the traveler, the sportsman and families had a wel-
100
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS:
come according to pre-empting right and free occupation. It was a
fine summer resort for the occasion, when in the corners of the
building we made the men with their wives privileged occupants,
curtained off, and the sleepers for the night were arranged, their
feet nearly touching, with a narrow alley between, on either side
of which could be counted as high as forty persons in calm repose
with all the musical variations of a sonorous company. The hot.
sun soon warped the roof and shrunk the green lumber, so that
the rains dripped freely and the autumn winds whistled through
the sides. One by one people vacated it, till it was left as a black-
smith shop at one end and a horse stable at the other, the rest free
for occupation by those who had no home elsewhere. It was the
T
most social convocations of well-bred people, who deemed them-
selves “out of sight of land” — land everywhere without an
inhabitant. This was my first building and I remember the mice
peeping through the cracks in the floor (a diversion to youngsters
Sunday), and that good appetite, with the clatter of dishes and the
music of knives and forks, was followed by sound digestion. The
vacating of the building was like a departure from an old home.
Then a store was improvised of green lumber, sixteen by twenty-
four feet, for Mr. Anor Scott, the first merchant, with a room
above for lodgers. The display below of goods was equal to the
occasion. There we held meetings on Sundays.
Then occurred the rattlesnake episode. The building was
boarded tight to the ground to prevent a hiding-place for vermin,
sequestered retreats for dogs and resort for snakes. One Sunday
morning the earliest visitor was a large, yellow rattlesnake, dis-
covered coiled in front of the door, from which one of the ladies
ran in terror. I happened to be near, and, having a taste for a
safe study of natural history, prevented the dispatch of the snake
and teased it with a stick at a safe distance. The first thing I
learned was that it was blind, it being August; that, as I found on
later study, was the normal condition of the reptile at that season.
On being touched, it would make an unmusical buzz with its seven
rattles and strike out half its length. On further provocation it
would bite itself, and quickly be swollen where the fangs had
entered. The bystanders incurred little danger because the reptile
could not see its tormentors. So we studied the buzzing reptile
until the last church bell rang, and one of the travelers remarked
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
101
they had come to hear a sermon and not to a snake-killing, and
dispatched him, leaving in sight his extremity still waving and
buzzing, perhaps until after sundown, as tradition says. His
snakeship having been a revelation to many as well as a terror, I
was moved, as the most conspicuous actor, to improve the occasion
in the sermon.
The following report, with sundry variations, found its way
into the newspapers. The text was, “ Now the serpent was more
subtle than any beast of the field.” The points made were: The
first appearance of Satan in the form of a serpent, not keeping his
place in the jungle, but confronting the woman as her tempter.
This one confronted us in the sunlight on a Sunday morning.
This one was blinded, and poisoned by his own virus. He
attacked himself when he could harm no one else. That is the
Satan of old and of to-day. The instinct of destruction to our foe
survives the fall; it was meted out to Satan, his prototype. Learn
of the reptile to be warned of a more insidious enemy. Beware
of snakes in boots', for the devil strikes before, not after an
alarm rattle. He charms the bird that becomes his prey. It has
a siren song that it is death to hear. Resisted, Satan retreats,
and, with the venom of Milton's archangel, poisons and lacerates
himself to be fitted for the accomplished fiends' abode. Your
whiskey may be an antidote to the reptile's bite, but it is evil
destroying itself in another form. Only grace can avail to destroy
the virus which sin injects by the fang of the great destroyer.
OUR MAIL SERVICE.
We begin to make history under the unlucky star of Franklin
Pierce, a Democratic administration. Why should abolitionists
have a post-office ? Not one of our number had principles on the
market, and an imported partisan became our servant under the
law of demand and supply. I had obtained a legal mail route, but
that was only a myth without stage service, which was only
secured after a gift of lots was made to the not over-virtuous com-
pany stage-agent, embracing a plat of ground on which is built Mr.
Christian's residence, and that of Mr. Rawson..
For months we were four miles from Sugar Grove post-ofice,
a most irritating neglect and partisan punishment, yet it was a
test of loyalty and decisive principles that, years after, a posted
102
REMINISCENCES OF TORTY YEARS.
speaker not only failed to have a partisan meeting, but reported
that for his evening diversion he could not here find Democrats
enough to play a game of euchre.
Mail arrivals and departures were regulated by uncertain
chance and public charity. Capacious pockets were at first used,
then handkerchiefs, and when government allowed a locked mail
sack it was regarded as special lenity to a people not loyal to
slavery. The safety of money in letters by mail was about equal
to the certainties of law or medicine, and on one occasion a large
draft came near being a loss to the mail carrier. John B. Wood-
ward, as post-rider for the day, on opening his private mail, found
a large remittance, and on the way it was with other packages
jostled from his pocket, but the loss was undiscovered until he
reached home. Mortified by his carelessness, and returning in
haste, he espied the swine in the grove tearing to pieces sundry
newspapers, or with mouthfuls softening their nests, and, continu-
ing his search for the valuable letter, at last found it in the jaws
of a fleet and maternal porker, which he managed to run down and
force to drop the prize, bringing it back exultingly, in a mutilated
but negotiable condition -- on which lie was advised to explain in
writing to the bank: “Snatched by an Abolitionist from the swine
on account of this paternal pro-slavery government not giving us a
Post Office."
But there was a welcome mail with the first stage, bringing
Captain Clark's family; and a cheer went up from a corner
crowd.
A LAW SUIT.
To the honor of the first settlers, I can recall no suit where
they were personally litigants. How much time and money was
saved! What an exemption from bitterness, cold-blooded social
strategies, and flippant perjuries in mockery of oaths! This did
not come by chance, for there was a verbal compact that we would
not promote a lawsuit. We avoided the scandal, among them-
selves, but "offences came”. Agents and stage drivers took more
than a passing interest in the political contests of the day; and it
was then deemed safe to trample on the rights of citizens. It did
not so prove in the case of Amos Bixby, Esq. The stage drivers
thought it a better road to cross his fenced field, about where Dr.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTS YEARS.
103
Cravath now lives, than to pass the road by Rev. Mr. Rouse's land,
now Rev. Mr. Brainard's farm; besides, they could make a shorter
distance by the hypothenuse. Bixby protested and forbid, but the
drivers reviled, showed their guns with warlike demonstration;
and the exasperated owner, seeing his wheat destroyed by cattle,
presented himself at the fence, which was thrown down as usual,
and while the stage was passing through, Bixby drew his rifle,
which sent a bullet to the heart of one of the lead horses, so far
worn out that his sudden “ taking off” was not a great pecuniary
loss. A fresh horse was secured, but the fence and the field there-
after were left, inviolate. What should be done? The great
United States mail had been stopped, a horse had been shot; and,
inspired by a prejudice and accompanying 'whiskey, it was not
hard to stir up indignation against the abolitionists. No such
wanton act had been perpetrated, it was said, in the history of the
state, and the stage company, and its friends, promised the
offender a prison and the extreme penalty of the law.
The day for the trial came, and Bixby waved all proof as to
the identity of the one who shot. The trial was a most exciting
one; E. W. Eastman, of Eldora, since Lieutenant-Governor, was
defendant's council. But few witnesses were examined, yet a vast
annount of law and precedents were read to the jury by the prose-
cution. Bixby rose, and with earnest, thrilling speech, said:
“Gentlemen of the jury: I am the guilty man, if there is one, I
did the shooting; and what would you farmers have done? I am
one of you, my growing wheat was the bread for my family,
which the cattle let in were destroying. Had I not a right to my
own land and crops which my own hard labor had fenced ? Then,
gentlemen, the ruffians, on my own soil, raised a stake to strike me
down and pointed a gun at me in a threat; was I to endure this?
No; I had no enmity toward the driver and would not harm him,
and I chose the most effective plan of reaching the company to
turn back the trespassers, by dropping an old horse about ready to
die. My crop was saved by the best method of defense within my
reach. I followed my convictions of right, and am ready to suffer
if guilty of any wrong. Gentlemen, you, with the spirit of men,
would have defended your property. I had no other certain rem-
edy - I would do so again, and now ain not afraid of your ver-
dict.” Judge Stone, since Governor, gave a favorable charge,
asserting that the right to defend property, without malice, was
104
REMINISCENCES OF TORTY YEARS.
unquestioned; did this act in an emergency constitute a crime?
Did not the trespass of the company invite violence ?
The jury at once gave a verdict of not guilty, and the court-
house rang with cheers while the prisoner was overwhelmed with
congratulations. Thus ended an exciting trial, the first and the
last of note in which the old settlers have had a part. Mr. Bixby
and family, to the regret of all, settled several years since in Colo-
rado, where he is an esteemed citizen.
FOIBLES OF AN ENTHUSIAST.
It is pleasant to recount what may be deemed extravagancies,
in the broad plans for the founding of a model social fabric. It
was a conviction that not only tree-planting for shelter and beauty
should engage the pioneer, but that fruit should be sought at an
early day, as it had been proven that apples of a rare quality could
be grown on the Iowa prairies. Fruit trees we would have, and my
first order in that line was for four bushels of apple seeds from
New York. Before a return, a letter had been sent to a Post Mas-
ter to learn who I was, and if crazy? The answer came back
“Safe to send the seed, but man a little crazy.” This is the way I
was out. I had the seeds frozen in sand, and then planted in a
nursery, which made me ready to offer seedlings free to all neigh-
bor passers-by, and for those of the class who prayed for daily
bread and would accept that “only baked”, I gave the grafted seed-
lings, having filled my cellar and found occupation for myself and
expert during the winter. It was figured that the seeds would
have made, grown into trees, orchards equal to an area of 100,000
acres. They did not all make hardy trees, only a small fraction,
but in later years I find an antidote to that derision in seeing trees
laden with fruit, and accepting frequent invitations, as I passed, to
eat freely of the fruit and take a basket home. I had the fame of
an amateur fruit grower, and later wore the honors in securing an
Iowa Gold Medal (Mark' Miller, the active agent) from the
National Agricultural Society, while President of the Horticultural
Society whose work enlists my love and enthusiasm.
A CRAB APPLE PURCHASE OF “WHAT A MAN HAD".
In Vermont it was a cellar of apples and cider, and thinking
only of apples, forgetful of crabs as a variety, I made a huge pit
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
105
for the winter, the fruit costing fifty cents a bushel. The loads
brought I cannot give, but they were as free as cider of old, and
there was a drawback in the cost of reloading and carting out what
would not survive the season. I never bought any more crabs, and
only once besides “what a man had", and that was in laying in
pork hams for the winter.
There was a rap after dark, and a challenge, “Will you buy
some pork hams? First class, and I reckon you have not laid in
your meat.” “Yes, we have men and they are bungry — how
much a pound ?" "Two cents.” (It was in the fall of 1854.)
“How many ? I guess I will take what you have got.” There
proved to be a string of wagon loads, but the price was so low I
said nothing about the quantity. The meat was deposited in Mr.
Phelps' cellar, and the evening diversion for weeks was rubbing
salt and sugar on the hams, and in daytime making visiting traders
in the town welcome to ham. There was no virtue in this, for I
became weary of the cost of handling, and on the approach of
spring learned the best receipt for keeping hams in the summer
was to eat them in the spring. But there was a fortunate stand-
off to this hasty bargain— the names of those to whom I gave
meat were not socially known to me, but one appeared later, a
stranger, who rendered novel and actual service. Even a Bourbon
Democrat advocated my election as State Senator in 1856.
FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION IN 1854.
• It sprang from the germinal thought that between the bell and
a new hoisted flag, the people, though with no tracks to guide save
Indian trails, could tell where the city was to be. A three hun-
dred mile trip to Chicago was made on behalf of the children of
the country, for candies and lemons, also for powder, the cabin set-
tlers furnishing chickens and bread. Dr. Sanford was an imported
orator; and, in regard to other utterances on the occasion, I do not
recall such screams by our proud, mountain bird, nor soaring
speeches that made a sweep earthward with so little fitting plum-
age left for another patriotic occasion. This was a feast rounded
and spiced with toasts, and responses from a lumber wagon, fol-
lowed by songs, cheers and the rolling drum. Where had this
crowd come from? What their nativity ? This was learned by a
call. Native Americanism then was popular, and a never-to-be-for-
.106
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
gotten incident must here be related which will illustrate the spirit
of the times. A roll-call of states revealed the fact that more
than twenty were represented, also Canada, England and Scotland.
Ireland was called and there being no response, it was called again
and again; thereupon an ardent American answered, " There is not
an Irishman within ten miles of here”; upon which a still more
ardent politician and Methodist brother jumped up and clapped
his hands shouting, “Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord !” which,
with ludicrous gesticulation, so convulsed the crowd that good
order was not again restored. Not long after I visited my old
home in New York City, and was an invited guest at an open
speaking meeting of the Native American Order. I related the
"Bless the Lord” response. So high was the feeling that they
swung their hats, shouting, “By the gods, let us emigrate.” Of
course a vulgar prejudice, but it showed the spirit of the Order
east and west.
OUR CEMETERY AND THE FIRST BURIAL.
In after years many may take a deep interest in the founding
of our town, especially as the incidents are related to its character,
and, I trust, its high future.
We had many discussions as to the place for our dead. Prop-
erty holders did not deem à near location to them desirable.
Some wished an embowered grove selection, three miles away-
others quite near on the main road. I favored the place now occu-
pied, covered with a clump of hazel, off from the highway,
abruptly rolling, and overlooking our projected city. Of course
I had the opportunity of donating the ground, some thirteen acres,
which I did, without conditions or reserve. Since its occupation,
there has been but one opinion as to the beautiful locality, with a
sunny slope, ravines made by water courses, and a natural adapta-
tion for ornamentation which found a helpful hand and artistic
brain in Hon. H. G. Little, to whom with J. G. Dodge, surveyor,
and R. M. Kellogg and others, builders of the Lodge, we are
greatly indebted. They are of a group who, with cultivated taste
and sacrifice, are not to be forgotten. It is now backed by the
town finances, and is in charge of the “ Ladies' Cemetery Associa-
tion”, which gives promise of future care and further ornamenta-
tion. It was twenty-five years before there was an enlargement,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
107
have acre, a 7. W.
1
and that by the Order of Odd Fellows, who have joined a fine
tract of ground at a cost of one hundred dollars an acre, and laid
out according to a landscape-gardening plan by Professor H. W.
· Parker. There was no locality set apart as a reminder of negro
slavery, nor a pauper's neglected corner; may it be so, the rich and
poor dwelling together, even as they may come forth, let us hope,
in kindred immortality to recount a pleasurable life-journey.
. I witnessed the first burial on the plot, in 1856. It was that
of Mrs. Jane Patterson, the mother of a large family; her husband
was a Scotch miner, living near the North-west grove. She was
one of the charter members of the Congregational Church. She
died suddenly at home with her family, and the whole community
followed her to the burial. The lonely spot is associated with the
rumored disturbance of the grave, but the suspicion was removed
by proof that prowling wolves had disturbed the mound. They
were trapped, and the incident kept in mind by their fur, which
was worn by the adventurous hunters of the early day.
Hundreds of funerals I have since attended there, but none
were so solemn as the first, in the opening of the virgin breast of
earth, and the vision of a home none of us seek, but must all ere
long inhabit. I visit it to-day to read lessons nowhere else learned
of change, decay, families dispersed; there are the tributes of grief
in cold marble, and, like the sable garments of the sorrowing, the
swaying evergreens and moaning pines, even more som.bre in win-
ter, and suggestive in the eolian strains which the bleak winds
ever inspire, but never to lull in forgetfulness for the dear ones
who have charmed the households, and our companions who had
feebly leaned on the staff of honored age.
A CHURCH BELL.
Since it was not at my expense I mention another foible, so
called. A bell, when no church or people !— yes, a real Meneley
- G tone, weighing mounted a thousand pounds, and costing a few
hundred dollars. It was a loud, wonder-voice to the pioneer grove
residents, and I count it an investment by indirection, better than
a wide spread of ink as an advertisement. It meant a church some
day, and tolled out an invitation every Sunday before a building
was erected. Gallants made journeys, with the inamoratas, to
hear plainly what only feebly echoed through the grove. Mothers
108
REMINISCENCES OF TORTY YEARS.
hushed juvenile sobs and put a whole family on good behavior, by
promise that they should see and ring the Grinnell bell. So it
stood a free toy and plaything for boys who would strike the bell
tongue and stop their ears or run. It could not mean a fire-alarm,
for there were no dry houses to burn, nor did it toll for a funeral,
for a robust people were said to be too busy to die or think of it.
The bell, for two years, until placed in the tower of the new
school-house, had many good uses for the belated hunters or trav-
elers on dark or foggy nights, its clear tones would give a course,
and it is said to have saved many from a chilly sleep on the home-
less prairie, and, on good authority, to have been the fortunate
sound that rescued an eminent citizen from death in a blizzard. A
country girl, some time after, when uniting with the Church, stated
that she was lost with her companion on the way to a hotel dance,
and she was kept not only from the dance but from a snowy
shroud, by the bell which rang for the weekly prayer meeting.
If this was only a legend it was the truth that the bell was the
musical mentor of our time, ringing us up in the morning and an
inviting signal to our beds. For tardy school boys there was no
excuse; and it struck the age of our dead, and tolled the funeral
march to burial. Alas! that so sweet-toned a friend was to be
melted in the school-house fire after twenty years of service. It
found mourners in several poetic effusions. From one by Rev. J.
H. Kasson we quote two verses.
THE OLD BILL.
Farowell, farowoll,
O voiceloss boll!
And art thou but a cindored mass,
A shapeless thing of molton brass ?
Why fool I yet thy power
At flush of morn, or ovoning hour?
Why steal thoso ochoos soft and cloak
Thnt linger on my ravishod car,
As if thou still had'st power to stir
My spirit from thy sepulchro ?
Thou art bocomo historic now !
Thy glorious oxit shall endow
Theo with a lustro all thino own;
Others may ring with a deopor tono,
But to our peoplo thou art oldest born,
A star in all the beauty of our morn;
For whon the Fathers first thoso prairios trod
Thou cainost liko a messenger of God;
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
109
More procious, as the priceless boon
Of him, * who sent to search the frozen zone
For Franklin's fatod band, his name, his place
Among the benefactors of the race.
Daughter of music ! on the Sabbath air
Thy notos descondod, like the soft refrain
Oſ somo angolic strain,
Gontly persuading to tho House of Prayer,
So liko a voice of Love,
No othor bell
Can mako the heart with rapturo swell
Liko theo, celestial Herald of Grinnell.
NA
THE CHURCH.
1
The outgrowth of our Christian colony is the largest Protestant
Church in the State, and the finest auditorium, befitting the cour-
age and liberality of the members. It was not stimulated by
rivalry or city adornment, but to attract and blend in Christian
fellowship those otherwise strangers, on the prairie expanse.
Early plans were broadened and adapted to growth, and to the
laudable ambition of a people in love with the old ways. The
memorial of their labors is here, a Church numbering more than
eight hundred members, a Sabbath school of five hundred, and
benevolence in correspondence with the excellence of an edifice of
stone, costing, including organ and furniture, fifty thousand
dollars.
Who should write this history, in fidelity to the memory of a
long list of fallen comrades and in honor of the living, but he who
wrote the Church creed and was the first to sign it—the minister
by voluntary unpaid service for years, who donated the site for the
edifice and made a contribution of thousands of dollars toward its
erection. This is the plain narrative. The first Congregational
Church of Grinnell had its inception in the worship of eight per-
sons in the log cabin of Perry Matteson, in the grove; the second
place of meeting, with a larger congregation, was in the shade of
the native oaks, at Mr. Oakley's; then came a removal of the
actors to the “Long Home”, which was a long, rough, board shanty,
vocal with praise and prayer, while yet one end was opened to the
storm. The next resort for service was Mr. Anor Scott's store,
the goods removed from the counter, where men sat with feet sus-
pended, and the centre of the room filled with chairs from houses
* Henry Grinnell, of Now York.
110
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
and wagons—the minister making a barrel, surmounted by a can-
dle-box, the pulpit.
In the winter the upper part of the first hotel, a gaunt house,
afforded fair quarters. Then there was a circuit of the houses,
and a church organization in Mr. L. C. Phelps' parlor, composed of
twenty members, of whom only six at present survive. .
What will be the best church location? It being chosen, it
was donated; and, without a building, it would be worth now fif-
teen or twenty thousand dollars. How could we have temporary
quarters for Sabbath school, day school and church services ? By
a subscription, and giving the contract to the lowest bidder. The
minister, at a formal meeting, got the bid for a building, seated,
eighteen by thirty feet, for less than $200. A deacon urged that it
should be completed in a month or two. The contractor responded
(it was Monday night) “Next Sunday!" “No! it is not possi-
ble.” The lumber was growing in the tree, only a horse-mill was
near, and hardware sixty-five miles distant; yet in a time of mud,
and locomotion by stage at four miles an hour, the edifice was
ready for the next Sunday service, and was dedicated by song and
sermon. It was without the columns and arches of modern archi-
tecture, and was innocent of paint or plane, — save the windows
and cases imported — but it rendered good service for a crowded
and thankful congregation, bringing equal elation with the occu-
pancy, twenty-five years later, of the artistic stone church. There
was no night so dark or storm so severe as to prevent a weekly
prayer-meeting, until the warping, green boards let in the rain,
even, as was said, moistening the sermon on the desk, “ too much
to be laid up in the barrel."
The next church occupancy was the upper room of the new
school-house. This was a pretentious building forty feet square,
and here was held the State Association of 1856, the room only
lathed ready for plastering.
There are two mysteries : how the state ministers and dele- .
gates came to accept an invitation, and how our people came to
give it. The nearest railroad was sixty-five iniles east; stages
were crowded, and springless lumber wagons, offered for the occa-
sion, furnished the best means of travel. These wagons were free;
but what a weary, unromantic trip for the visitors, society agents,
and venerable D. D.s, like Dr. Tappan of Maine, who preached the
sermon. It was bravery and devotion.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
111
AN INCIDENT.
In the midst of the sermon there came up one of those fright-
ful summer storms, with rain, thunder and lightning, which scat-
tered the congregation, leaving only a score, all vexed with the
persistency of the preacher who should, in the tumult, have cut
short his message.
“No,” said Dr. Tappan, “I came fifteen hundred miles to give
the sermon, and no rain or thunder, nothing short of a lightning
stroke, was to stop me!” The unrest of that hour to the audience
when no one could or would hear, is still in memory. It was the
first of four state meetings held in Grinnell, and none have been
more welcome, even if every resident offered to sleep on the floor
to give the guests a bed; and the discomfort of a rude wagon ride
was a painful necessity both to guest and host, so long before the
pleasures of a Pullman car.
The Grinnell church imparted cheer, asked no foreign aid, and
stimulated pecuniarily the organization of churches within a radius
of fifty miles, where then we had none. We helped not only
in church councils, but gave cheerfully for the rearing of their
edifices.
If it is supposed that a great church sprang into being and was
perpetuated in power on the virgin prairie, as an incident merely
to emigration, no greater delusion could be indulged. There was
manual toil and even sacrifice in making a church house. There
was no money to pay the first minister had he demanded it; and
there came the free and able sermons, after two years, by S. L.
Herrick, L. C. Rouse and Rev. Samuel Loomis, a young man of
education and fine spirit, seeking health. At that time only strat-
egy and firmness prevented the religious people from discussions
and frictions which, in our weakness as to numbers, would have
made the race and frictions of sects a burlesque before the world.
The Catholics made their usual church purchase of land costing
$1,000; but it was only after twenty-five years that our city peo-
ple, on another location, gave for their church building. There are
now strong Methodist and Baptist societies, which only a blind;
religious zeal would have established earlier and for mutual harm.
Ministers were met of all denominations and heard with a frater-
nal spirit, but with decided convictions as to the impolicy of many
churches, before there was occasion for more than one. There
112
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
were Baptists, Methodists, three kinds of Presbyterians, yet a
creed in the founding of our first church was so catholic that real
Christians were at home in one assembly; thus' everything repel-
lent was avoided, and a resort had to the best devices for cohesion
on the basis of “unity in non-essentials”. This was the spirit of
the creed, and a departure from its catholicity would have been an
offense.
It was a very old school Pennsylvania Presbyterian, a chance
supply and a speaker in Sunday school, praising the reprint of
«the shorter catechism”, and expounding it in the words of the
New England primer, “In Adam's fall we sinned all”; then
appealing for approval to me, I said, “I was not there— presume I
should have sinned if I had been, but was not.” He looked a Sun-
day dagger at me.*
Another ardent visiting minister said, “We must stand by our
guns and have a church.” The sequel of his appeal was, his little
sect did not even come to sit and see him fire. His was a sample
of the mission of zealots not confined to one sect.
The Methodists, like the others, now prosper. Churches
waited their time to find welcome and sympathy. Charles Allen,
of Blue Point, a local preacher, on my invitation preached the first
Methodist sermon.' He was a good man, but his erudition is
known by this incident. Motioning to me he said, “Please,
brother, come up and read the hymm; I cannot. You know down
South there were not many schools for white or black, when I was
young. You are a kind of Yankees, I see, that speak the Gospel
as well as read it. We don't want any church now, but when
you're full let there be a Methodist swarm”—and there was,
* Our Congregational creed of 1883 was not then written : “Sin is the act of
the creature alone.” This relieved the old Adam, confusing if not hushing the
discussions of the schools, old and new, which did not disturb me. I was perhaps
rudely opposed to encouraging the organization of what would be a starveling
church, in a community of a few hundreds. Derisively, I held the room was not
hcre, no more than for ague or milk sickness, which could be found further on;
and it was said that I “coaxed good men, wishing to start rival churches, to move
on, by paying their stage fare" - all of which is too late for explanation or
denial; whether it was an act of pious strategy or of sectarianism is a question for
others. In majorities I can rest with the belief that the day of Christian comity
and regard for religious endeavor, unheedful of mere sectarianism, will have the
approbation of all good men. In one rather typical western town not far from us,
there were recently thirteen religious organizations, and but thirteen hundred
inhabitants.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
113
under good and able leaders, if not a swarm, a church large and
prosperous. There was a Seventh-day Baptist, sure to chop on
Sunday, who long carried a theological chip on his shoulder, wait-
ing for discussion. We were too busy to find the time, and if
there was chopping it came to be done quietly in the grove; and
later, by toleration, his opinion was, “Sunday is as good a day
as any, and I will keep theirs, as they don't quarrel about
mine."
The so-called liberals from the east were numerous and strong
at one period in our church history, but the policy of silence as to
differences was a blow at negations. Not that the fundamental
truths were suppressed, but debate and sharp criticisms were
avoided. Thus the tree of real toleration took root and its
branches came to bear fruit, in church building and social fellow-
ship, rather than in divisive congregations. It gave strength to
the college, no less than to the church, whose founders had seen
the poverty and losses by many sects and congregations, where
true religion demanded but one, and one able to give substantial
aid to surrounding settlements.
AN EPISODE.
. It was at an early day, that an Englishman, a stammerer, pro-
fane, and a grog-seller, accosted me for help that his large family
and the neighborhood might have a summer Sabbath school.
“Well, what do you want?” “We have nothing but the people, no
school-house or shade.” I could give but one response to his unex-
pected plea. “We will get you some books to sing from and help
you to get started,” and the response was, “I will see that a
bower is built, and get a good congregation.” The books were
sent, but there was a failure to attend by the parties who were to
assist on the opening day. After long waiting, the projector of
the school said, “The books are here, the whole country is here
seated; now, what shall be done?” Another waiting. “Must we
break up? What do you say?" The reply was, “No, hold on
longer.” After another pause: "I hate to give up. As I under-
stand it, these Sabbath schools are opened with prayer. Let us
not be dependent on Mr. Grinnell.” The stammerer stood up, and
called, with a motion to each in the circuit, commencing at the end
seat, “Will you pray, sir?" And so he passed along to every
1
114
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
seat, receiving only a negative nod. “Well, that is too bad, no
Christian here to pray, but we'll not give up. This Sabbath school
shall be opened by prayer, if stammering Bob has to do it him-
self.” There was mingled surprise and merriment as he knelt
down upon the grass to make his first audible prayer. Strange to
say, the stammering tongue was loosened. He plead for the chil-
dren, and for himself. It was the beginning of a new life. The
prayer of the profane seemed to have been answered. The stam-
merer became fluent, and, encouraged by a prosperous Sabbath
school, there was a foundation laid for a church on the prairie near
the spot where the bower was erected, and dedicated under the
leadership of one who was no longer, as formerly, with a clogged
Of the Grinnell Church, there have been three settled pas-
tors - Dr. Samuel D. Cochran, now of Normal, Ill., Dr. W. W.
Woodworth of Berlin, Conn., lately deceased, and Dr. J. M. Stur-
tevant, of Galesburg, Ill. They were happy and prosperous, giv-
ing valuable service, yet none were wedded to the theory that a
long pastorate is essential to the best interest and good of both
parties. Dr. Cochran, once of Brooklyn, N. Y., later President of
Thayer College, Missouri, is the author of an able theological work.
Dr. Sturtevant, of Denver, late of Cleveland, O., is a son of Pres-
ident Sturtevant of Illinois College. Rev. H. M. Tenney, late of
Cleveland, is now the devoted acting pastor.
With the masses there was a single purpose never lost sight of
in the dark days of war and the trying time of sacrifices in church
fice than the large, noble, gothic stone edifice of 1879. A pittance
for the first salaried minister was gained by an extreme effort com-
pared to the annual raising of $2,000 for the last, and a larger
sum now.
Debts and contracts were made in faith without special knowl-
edge. There was an abounding stream in varied charities, and the
monthly missionary collection was never omitted. The leader, on
one occasion, furnished an incident in point. Leaving the house,
my wife said, “I have no money for the box - have you ?” “Not
a cent.” “Well, there will have to be one failure.” The same
person in church said that for every good cause in some way there
had so far been a provision, but to-night the rule for him must
have an exception, for neither in the pocket nor in the family was
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
115
there any money. He was about to sit down when the habit of
placing the forefinger in the vest pocket, brought forth a discov-
ery of a roll of bills, in amount far above the usual contribution,
which was exhibited in surprise and amid great merriment. It
was more than a telling incident, an appeal for that trust which
has ever been with the Grinnell Church.
It was a glad day, when from the old church, three times
enlarged, there was the occupancy of the new stone church.
There was a farewell service held in the old building. The follow-
ing is an extract from the historical speech, reported in a news-
paper at the time :
THE HISTORIC CHURCH.
Mr. Grinnell, called upon to speak on “what had been said in the old
church," said: The eloquence of song in secular and sacred strains and lays who
can ineasure! To the choir must be added amateurs, professionals, old style and
modern, including the renowned Hutchinsons, the family of John and Asa;
Fessenden, Camilla Urso, Mendelssohn Quintette club, Phillip Phillips, and
Queens of song without number. Poets, with the enchanting verse of H. W.
Parker at sheep-shearing festival, J. G. Saxo with wit and pun, have stood here.
Benjamin F. Taylor, poet and word painter, is reinembered yet, and Bayard
Taylor, deceased diplomat, not again shall repeat the Bedouin song,
“From the desert I come to thee,
On a stallion shod with fire ;
And the winds are left behind,
In the speed of my desire."
Readers of the American classics, with the versatility of Mrs. Potter, the his-
trionic recitations of Scott Siddons and the unequaled Prof. Churchill, have here
bowed acknowledgements. Ladies of national fame- Mrs. Livermore, Lucy
Stone, Anna Dickinson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and missionaries from many
lands have by public addresses indicated a difference with the Apostle as to
woman-speaking. Temperance advocates Vinton, Jessup and Francis Murphy
have given counsel. Thomas Nast has drawn to the life and in cariacature on
these walls.
Apostle Moody preached his lay sermons here, and Robert Burdette, after con-
vulsing cities with his wit, has here plied us with unique manner and artistic
speech.
Speakers with more than national fame have won our hearts from this plat-
form: Frederic Douglas, the escaped slave and American prodigy; Henry
Vincent, of London, thrice has charmed us with great thoughts and dramatic
speech ; Vice-President Colfax has told his story of the martyr Lincoln ; Joseph
Cook, theologian, lecturer and author, here won the thinkers; Horace Greeley,
the great editor and philanthropist- asking on his tombstone the modest in
meinor'iam — "The founder of the New York Tribune," is yet embalmed in mem-
ory; Wendel Phillips, the silver-tongued orator, matchless in diction and grace on
every platform where truth was to be championed, was here thrice welcome;
Henry Ward Beecher, the versatile literary genius of the century and great
116
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
preacher, talked of "hard times," of which he knew so little. Phillips, Beecher
and Greeley will longest be remembered by the special trains which their fame
chartered, packing this old ark, in the language of the time, like dried boxed her-
ring, and bringing thousands of dollars to the treasury of the Young Ladies' Social,
which has lighted, cushioned and carpeted the beautiful church house which we
are eager to occupy ; and for these intellectual banquets we are indebted to the
ladies of the Social Circle.
Here the Iowa State Congregational Association has met, bringing hundreds
of delegates and divines for deliberation and speech, and we have here listened to
Dr. Swing, Secretary Alden, Secretary Clark, Drs. Goodell and Robbins, Ray
Palmer, D. D., and others.
• Iowa College has drawn here presidents of Colleges - Sturtevant, Fairchild,
Bascom, Thatcher, Welch, Pickard and others — eloquent and profound. Seven-
teen College Commencements have been held here—" great day for which all
other days were made" to students with oratorical contests and graduation
speeches and baccalaureates.
Here politicians have been particularly at home. Most of our Supreme Judges
in the state have spoken here. Every Governor elected for the last twenty-five
years, and every member of Congress from this district, and our United States
Şenators have given us the benefit of their oratory and wisdom. The more than
casual speakers I need not name. One now in advanced age fills Cowper's descrip-
tion of the man of God -- he is here. A faultless rhetoric in earnest manner indi-
cates him I need not name, President and Preacher, Dr. Magoun. The pastors
called from our service, Cochrane and Woodworth, logical, learned and devoted,
on whose departure many cried in spirit, “The chariot of Israel and the horsemen
thereof." They ploughed deep and sowed beside all waters in preparation for one
with courage and adaptive skill, the excellencies of whom I am forbidden to men-
tion by his presence.
Patriotic captains have here addressed numerous war meetings, enlisting sol-
diers never returning, and ministers of peace have found audience. Pathetic sto
ries of escaped slaves, and Mormonism exposed by a victim, with Woman's Rights
logically taught, with the wronged taxed without a voice or ballot, have been wel-
comed in variety. Of our dead whose sacred dust sleeps in our beautiful cemetery,
I recall Missionary Crain, Rev. and Father Rouse, Cushman, eccentric and bener-
olent, Hamlin one of our city founders, leaving secular toil for the sacred office,
the devoted J. H. Kasson, minister, logician and poet.
I see the flags unfurled at the head of military columns while drums are beat-
ing; I hear the shouts on the news of victories of our arms and sighs for the fallen .
brave. Nor would I obliterate the plighting of hearts at the marriage altar, the
consolatory words when last looking on the face of the dead, or the solemn vows
made to God and man in church covenant.
Good-by, old church, whose walls have echoed the voiced wants of society for
peace and culture, and the woes of a nation !
Farewell, with the loves of a child for the paternal roof. We pass to yon
beautiful walls to enjoy the ministeries and pure devices of modern art. Yet
though the new may be spared for hundreds of years, so many of the notable of
earth may never find audience as those in this old pioneer edifice. No cathe-
dral with storied window casting “a dïm, religious light," or modern Puritan
church has evoked nobler deeds or inspired abler ministers. Removed this must
be, but not by vandal hands; rather let time's effacing fingers destroy this land-
mark, Lyceum Hall, Lay College, our Prairie May Flower, for the education of
the people, who have here learned of duty, and the wants of man and country,
and the claims of God.
CHAPTER VIII.
State Senator - Free School Law -- Congressional Canvass— How
This practical chapter will be opened by a colloquy in 1856.
An Eastern neighbor visited me as a guest. "Well," said he,
"you are out of the old Eastern ruts, and I trust can rest happy in
your possessions and prospects." The reply was, “ Far from it, I
am in the centre of a paradise of poor people. The soil in great
tracts, is largely owned by non-residents, and sordid bachelors.
The father of a large family has the burdens of educating, feeding
and clothing, while the schools should be free, to add value to the
land and make a model country. Please, my friend, do not flat-
ter us with the delusion that we can raise grain and feed the world
with profit, so long as we have but fifty miles of railway in the
state, and grain is worth nothing, hundreds of miles from where
the consumer of our supplies lives. We must have sheep to raise
wool, and factories by our coal fields, and water-power.” The
friend replies, “These are matters of time; you have good soil, and
not the fight of your Kansas neighbors on hand. You will enlarge
your school-houses, get railroads, and drink less whiskey, by and
by."
I said, “We can't keep out of the Kansas fight, and I am sick
of the debauchery going on where cheap whiskey is freer than milk,
and, despite the resolve to keep out of politics, I find myself in the
whirl, and here is my platform: No Liquor Shops; Free School
for Iowa; No Nationalizing of Slavery. In public or private, in
youth and age, failure or not as a citizen, these will be planks on
my political craft until we get from under the dark clouds of
to-day."
The New Yorker replies, “Very well, but is it not perfectly
clear that your standard is too high for the frontier? I want to
see you senator from a gem of a city, but you array money, politi-
118
REMINISCENCES OF FOTRY YEARS.
cians, and all the power of the nation, with Old Buck' against
you. Wait."
Nothing more is written as to this visit than a remark, “We
shall strike high, and win with an issue which we can carry in
debate; and, if our people are not ready, we can get a new railroad
for coal, import sheep, set out trees, school the children at our uni-
versity, and have self-respect at least while waiting for the good
time coming?"
It is with this spirit that the actor tells, in reminiscences as
taken from the local press, of the road to an election as state sen-
ator, member of congress, and his part in a free school law, beer
exemption, John Brown's visit, and the live questions ante-bellum.
The town well advancing, and novelties of pioneering recounted
even to satiety, and Grinnell University more than projected, what
next? Here was Iowa inchoate, the rudiments of empire warm
and ready for moulding, and a nation in the midst of heated dis-
cussion, and on the eve of critical events related to territorial
slavery-extension and to war.
At a state convention of republicans in Iowa City, where hund-
reds met as strangers, there was a delicate task in harmonizing a
temperance element, very decided; also in an accretion of the
American recruits (“know nothings”), all to be moulded with the
old whigs for an advancing column, to keep state control and a del-
égation in Washington, up to our ideals of progress. The discus-
sions were sharp and able, with a harmonious result securing the
election of a free-soil state ticket, in the line of a political faith
held in Iowa without waver or “shadow of turning” for more than
thirty years.
I was chosen to write the state address by a vote of the conven-
tion. It was a delicate task, but I availed myself of the light shed
by discussion and took up boldly the plain features of our national
issue. Governor S. P. Chase of Ohio, sent me a letter in praise of
my effort, too flattering for the public eye. We had many encour-
agements from abroad as well as at home. Our state seemed
about to repel Bourbon ideas as to freedom and education, under
the guidance of leaders like Senator James Harlan and Governor
Grimes.
Frankly I was more than willing to be state senator from the
four counties of the district, if I could stand on the three planks.
The nomination and platform was accorded me, and I still deem
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
119
my ambition honorable in presence of great issues; as when, later,
I aspired to go to Congress (not being accepted as a soldier) at the
time the national honor and life were in peril by the treacheries of
ambition and assaults of war.
I was unanimously nominated for senator without a canvass;
and Reuben Michel, a lawyer-banker of Montezuma, was named
by the democracy. Soon, according to the usages of the county, I
challenged him to a debate. The preliminaries were settled. For-
est Home, in my county, was the first place of meeting, which
attracted the people in a circuit of many miles. It was my lot to
open with an hour and close with a half hour, leaving Mr. Michel
an hour and a half. The most that I now remember is an assault
on his party for its hypocritical professions, now on its knees to
the South, encouraging outlawry in Kansas, belying Jefferson in
the state and Wesley in the church, who had pictured slavery in
its true colors. Iowa democratic resolves I took up, asking, as I
passed along, a vote on them, and the opinion of my opponent,
which he was slow to give. I then held up the democratic whis-
key law, fallen with dishonor in the streets; public schools a bur-
lesque; old bachelors and great land holders exempt, while for the
children of the poor there was a daily roll-call for taxation — a dis-
grace to the age. I ended with bold questions to be answered, and
a promise to do what I saw by their welcome I was to do as
their senator.
Mr. Michel was personally popular, mild in manner and knew
how to play on prejudice and ask sympathy. He did not wish to
deny, in fact did not understand my statements, had not read so as
to answer my questions. For politics he had little taste and knew
of few facts, but could learn. I saw at once his patronizing way,
but he had blundered in a tilt at Yankees, “as good traders but
never giving, yet liberal at public expense”. This was branded as
a lie in a sharp retort from his coterie of professional friends, for
I had the previous winter, as already narrated, given away in a
very promiscuous manner the loads of pork hams, perhaps more
easily disposed of than kept—an act trivial in itself, yet it was in
outcome as bread “ cast on the waters”.
At the close I asked certain questions — among them — “Is
not my competitor rather old to learn ?. He answers neither yes
nor no. Whom will you prefer, one who knows and is ready to
answer, or a candidate that don't know?” The shout went up,
120
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
“Nary know nothing,” etc. It was plain where the crowd stood
after the fatal admissions of Mr. Michel; yet he stood high per-
sonally, and later he was the master-mason of the state, wealthy,
but meeting reverses in mining, and drifting to the Pacific coast,
where he was assassinated at sixty years of age. Not one of his
many appointments in this campaign did he fill, but pushed out for
the discussion an M. D., with less character and more tact than the
would-be senator. The people were for free Kansas, and through
the district it was held that lands should be taxed for schools, and
the large bachelor land-holders made to pay for the general good,
if not rushing into matrimony with a probable direct interest in
free schools.
Iowa at this date, 1856, had but one fourth its present popula-
tion; only fifty-five miles existed of railway of our present eight
thousand miles; and no institutions fit for mention save a state
prison (a necessity by free whiskey), and a place for Indian half-
breeds at Fort Madison. For all the charitable institutions now
our pride, I was an advocate, especially in favor of the lunatic asy-
lum at Mount Pleasant, held by the Bourbons to be large enough
by the plan to "house all the voters of Iowa”; yet it was soon
full, and an early call made for two buildings in addition. I inau-
gurated a free local town system of voting, as a step toward state
free schools. The next winter after the removal of the Capitol to
Des Moines under a constitutional provision, the question came up
of a land appropriation by the general government for an agricul-
tural college, for which I had the honor of being the first in the
Senate to circulate a petition, resulting in the great institution at
Ames, Iowa.
The State University at Iowa City was treated with liberality,
the legislature making me a regent, after service as chairman of
the committee on schools and state university. It was no small
task to bring to light, and save losses by the Dr. Eads' loan of the
school fund. Next in importance to the election of Governor
Grimes as United States Senator, was that of securing the passage
of a state free school law. The Lieutenant-Governor, Oran
Faville, had been for long years a teacher and college professor
East, and had made an educational canvass in a circuit from
Mitchell county in the North. He wrote the following note on
the issue before the committee of which I was made chairman:
“My dear Governor Grimes : – You take so lively an interest in
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
121
the passage of this Free School Law that I wish you to advise me
as to the chairmanship of the senate committee on schools and uni-
versity.” This was the reply, “Grinnell, of Poweshiek County,
was elected on the school issue. He will take charge of the bill
and knows no such word as fail.”
It did look like a failure. It was “Wait, correspond; too high
notions for a new state with log houses, mortgages and poor
roads." Mine was a missionary work, holding back radical ideas
to win by suasion those members who were jealous of Yankees.
In a local storm. centre I assented to elimination and revisals to
avoid failure.
It is due to the facts of history that I should give credit to the
commissioners selected by Governor Grimes — Hon. Horace Mann,
chancellor, Mr. Dean of New York, and Hon. Fred E. Bissell of
Dubuque. These names should have been the potential argument,
yet were decried as those of theorists, though it was true that our
Iowa Mr. Bissell had given more attention to politics than the
scheme of a board of education. To that law I gave my thoughts
made, as was said by Mr. Thaddeus Stevens many years later, " for
children without voice or vote, and posterity beyond human enu-
meration.” My general neglect in sınall matters prevents a possi-
ble infliction on the reader, of a speech, on which I laid myself out,
and which, by a common assent, hushed the slurs of “the Hairy
Nation” obstructives. Mr. Amos Dean was an eminent lawyer
and a disciple of John A. Dix, the latter a noted general and gov-
ernor. Mr. Dean used Iowa as a stepping-stone to a larger place
in the affairs of New York, with a very common and human idea
as to calls and collaterals at cross roads, for all of which he was
far from blame and is worthy of a place in our educational annals.
a fixed star in the educational horizon. I first heard him at a
state gathering in Utica, New York — pale, nervous, with a broad
almost deformed brow in massiveness. The speech was fresh in
every line, even electrical, as he painted ignorance in all its
deformity. I next knew him in Washington, the successor of
John Quincy Adams, too stern for a popular member, but an edu-
cator by speeches, sent home to stay a retreat toward the castle of
“ Union Saviors" by profession, and the conservative worship of
Mr. Webster after his 7th of March speech.
122
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
For Congress as a bear garden there was intense disgust, yet in
the parlor he had a child's simplicity, and no aversion to those
games in Dr. Bailey's parlors which I have described. Was he
of idols dethroned on his march? His correspondence was a great
help in our school law discussion, for, while set in opinion, he was
in minor matters pliable like willows bent by river currents in
flood time. Mann was the equal of Webster in public service, save
the senatorial.
The State of Massachusetts placed his statue in bronze oppo-
site that of the great expounder of the constitution, in front of the
State House, and I take off my hat in the great presence, and hope .
that, like myself in devotion to a friend and counsellor, a cheer
may leap from the heart of all Iowans for so true and good a man.
Leaving this tribute it is in line not to be forgotten that our
Free School Law became a notice to the world of rich Iowa on an
educational march. Farms adjacent to school-houses rose rapidly
in value.. The childless were solicitous to take on incuinbrances,
to clothe and feed those whom the state was pledged to educate.
Free to the poor as air and sunshine is education in Iowa. The
friction under a new system, and the burdens of a state legislative
has grown in favor, on amendment, until the fact of less illiteracy
than any state in our Union is a proud statement, and one so well
known as to be no longer mentioned as news — a fact cognate to a
conservative maxim— a nation's wealth should educate its youth
rudimentally for good citizenship.
THE EARLY DAY.
The city of Des Moines in 1858, with no such paper as the
Iowa State Register, nor gas, water-works, fine church buildings,
only chapels, and with the honors of a state capitol, had less than
eight thousand people, over against its sixty thousand in 1890.
All was rude, with stumps of trees, perilous ravines and walks
cated by a surveyor's stake, or by a path through mud of various
consistency, according to the weather, in which were planted and
lost sundry odd overshoes without a suggestion of a search there-
for. It is no legend that by lanterns and blazed trees we made
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
123
our way at night near Capitol Square, then decked with a grove of
second growth. The song, “Woodman spare that tree," did not
prevent the chopping a sapling, to be shouldered by moonlight by
residents short of fuel; and the hitching of horses by countrymen
mutilated the trees to such a degree that, in one of the most practi-
cal resolves of the session, I asked for “a plain, cheap, strong
board fence” around the Capitol Square. Iron savored too much
of extravagance to be mentioned, and we had not reached the lawn
era and discarding of fences.
DRINKING USAGES AND LEGISLATION.
It was the spring of 1858, when by a hasty adjournment the
Des Moines valley folks were able to return to their homes by a
steamboat, the last of those exploits. This boat would not tarry
for legislators, in fear of low water which might cause the steamer
to be aground before night. The log-book of that craft did not dis-
close all the perils by water, from failure in morally educating a
pilot and a captian, said to be quite too full for duty. As I have
learned, the officials were not singular in inebriation, for there was
quite a return cargo in fluids. Here a confession should preface
the records of facts. Most of the public men at that time drank
beer. It was on the dinner table, and members called for it to
treat friends without regard to time or ceremony. I drank it,
soon overcoming an aversion to its bitter taste. The lager was not
deemed intoxicating, but with hop flavor, a welcome tonic. It
was only by age and excessive use that effects were visible. These
were drowsiness, then petulance reaching to blows, followed by the
now called "beer face” and aldermanic corpulence. Members
grew out of their suits, and became in love with beverages which
prepared the way for decisive legislation. Native wine and beer
were exempted from the provisions of the prohibitory liquor law.
If, as said, my vote, long uncertain, legalized the home product,
these facts must be my vindication. Of the common beer I had
drank without harm, and had no knowledge of the lager which
Senator Reuch, a fine German citizen and scholar, assured me was
not, when fresh, an intoxicant. Then, grape raising for wine was
a promising industry, to furnish a substitute for whiskey without
imbruting the user, if pure and used in moderation. It was the
abuse under the law, and adulteration, which gave a refuge for the
124
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
vilest drinks under cover of a beer saloon. This made a demand
for strong stimulants, which soon exposed our relapse from a high
standard, securing an affirmative vote for constitutional prohibi-
tion in 1882.
That is not all. The war cloud was gathering blackness, and,
to keep the Union together, it was necessary to have all the free
states in line for an emergency. Here we were met by the Ger-
mans, protesting that they were made criminals by a harmless
usage; and the condition of their allegiance to the party of free-
dom was an adoption of the wine and beer clause. The national
cause loomed high, and Iowa must be kept in line, and it was duty
to waive, for the time, a sentiment for a great principle like the
nationality of freedom. Thus the millions of black men enslaved
were set over against the freemen depraved by appetite. Again I
turned a deaf ear to democrats, who appealed to my temperance
standard as a bond that I would enhance their prospects of power
by voting against repeal. No! I took counsel of friends, and the
call to duty with a good purpose, however great the mistake in the
view of those not broadened to an exigency in the nation before
unknown, and which may never have a parallel.
· That I was under ban for a time, on account of my vote, and
incurred the hate of the whiskey party for not accepting their
beverage, did not disturb me. Time proved that however great
the frauds practiced under beer and wine exemptions, a united
loyal party in Iowa was a desideratum linked to the fate of the
Union.
Senator Grimes would have secured for me on Mr. Lincoln's
inauguration an honorable post abroad, but for this position I had
no taste, and accepted an appointment as special agent of the Post
Office department. It was a place of high trust, giving large con-
trol in Chicago and supervision in Iowa and Minnesota, allowing
brief periods at my home for writing and in care of business mat-
ters. It was a congenial service, in the company of gentlemen,
and of aid to localities as to increase of mail routes and lessening
the purloining of money letters, sent to meet taxes in our new
counties. Indirectly, I encouraged enlistments of volunteers,
spoke at company departures and in churches, to fan the fires of
patriotism too feebly burning in many localities. Home business
was neglected; ploughed fields were left to weeds, and in Franklin
county where I had laid out a town, there was only stagnation
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
125
after every man fit for a soldier had gone, with a like decimation
in the county.
GOING TO CONGRESS.
This was not an unworthy or vain ambition, and the candidacy
was not a draft on energy or purse to a considerable degree—two
dollars and forty cents was the cash outlay. I had no press as an
organ, nor friends at the convention only as they came on their
own charges, however they returned.
About fifty ballots were required to make a nomination.
Judge William M. Stone of Knoxville, an editor, coming to the lib-
erals on the know-nothing wave and anti-slavery issue (since gov-
ernor, and now holding a high official position), was ready for a sac-
rifice on the nomination altar. Rush Clark, later M. C., years ago
crossing to join the “pale nations”, was speaker of the legislature,
and by report had mapped out a district favorable to his aspira-
tions and was a candidate on the list to stay. Attorney-General
Samuel A. Rice, of Oskaloosa, readily enlisted his legal brothers,
and was every way equipped to win that upon which, after due dil-
igence in a well-cultivated field, he had set his heart. There only
seemed wanting unity and a cordial support by the Mahaska dele-
gation, in which was found the Quaker element, not willing to be
counted before courted. Many a true man has lost by too much
reserve in a crisis. The peacemakers of another day were pleased
with nothing less than a candidate without caution in entertaining
John Brown, and ready to face the issues. It was in vain that I
urged my friends voting to change for Rice, a personal friend, and
a reliable ardent patriot. The convention dispersed. I did not
sleep until I had made a journey to Iowa City, and had secured a
pledge from Gov. Kirkwood that my friend should be made Col-
onel, as he was of the Thirty-third Infantry, doing fine service as an
organizer, but receiving a wound in battle of which he died. He
was early promoted a general; and in mortuary service and remem-
berance he was extolled as a citizen of great worth in peace, and a
hero in war for the Union.
Next in order, the candidate must challenge his opponent to
discuss the issues. Mine was Henry M. Martyn of Marengo, a
member of our legislature, with a fair democratic record, and a
lawyer of repute, shrewd, and a popular orator. Douglass was his
126
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
idol; and much did he inspire the voters to put down the rebell-
ion by resolves, yet was chary in advice on enlistments, not yet
certain whether the war was waged for the double purpose of abol-
ishing slavery and perpetuating the republican party. McClellan
was his ideal soldier, as he was my aversion. Fremont I more
than tolerated in his order, while relegated to the family of fanat- .
ics by my opponent.
The warning conditional proclamation of emancipation by Mr.
Lincoln of the twenty-second of September, 1862, giving the insur-
gents to the first of January for reflection and allegiance, was the
signal for sharp debate, bringing fire from oratorical flint and
steel. I advocated the arming of blacks, and predicted what came
a carriage when a stage driver brought out a telegram with a
message. It was to Mr. Martyn conviction as strong as proofs of
Holy Writ that war was to enslave the South, and Lincoln had
destroyed the Union. “All of which,” said he, “assures my elec-
tion.” From that time on there was no lack of crowds, a sharp
issue and cheers by excited partisans.
His role as a candidate was to prevent enlistments in a “negro
war”, and restore the Union as it was. I plead that a man who
could take as good sight under tufts of wool as under a crown of
blonde, should spare our own race, while the black man could gain
partial redress for injuries and make liberty and not slavery na-
tional after January, 1863. The Fourth District had sent a larger
number of soldiers into the field than any in the Union, save that
embracing Chicago, and we both sought to secure the soldiers' vote,
to be taken in camps by commissioners. Appeals to prejudice did
not move those in camp, pining for action and an early close of the
war, and I received about four-fifths of the whole number of votes,
while of the home vote I lacked an election, but counting the
soldier vote had fourteen hundred majority. Here appeared a
vote, although Mr. Martyn as a legislator helped frame the Iowa
law. It was a bitter contest up to the affirmative decision of its
legality by the supreme court, and a contest in Congress which
salary of a contestant as by the latter usages. A favorable issue
of the war placed under the ban one well endowed for public serv-
ice, and for years, in the city of Davenport, a lawyer of good
.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
127
practice. By the casualty of a broken limb, near the Rocky
Mountains, his life was ended, calling out many tributes to a gen-
erous heart.
In 1864 I was again nominated for Congress, and, without an
effort, or a possible ground of contest like that before, my major-
ity was six thousand votes. My opponent shall be nameless, for,
however convivial in practice and disloyal in denouncing the war
a failure, he rose to a high social plane of life as a Christian min-
ister in another state, and recast his political creed, regretting both
his infirmities and the evil of disloyol association.
I lacked but a few votes of a third nomination, which was not
sought, for I kept my place at the capitol that there might be no
partiality to a contestant. Washington air I never liked, causing
seasons of protracted illness; and, the war over, with the constitu-
tion amended, retiring brought rest and pleasant and profitable
home and public occupation, of which I make full mention later.
Politics alone can engage the ambitious only, except in a great
formative and war crisis. Then there comes the reward, and the
just pride in recounting one's part in framing laws that posterity
commends, and giving authority to those who shall be their faith-
ful executors. It was enough that I had seen the Congress of
1850, with later ones, in the midst of the taunts and excesses in
debate before traitors had executed their warlike threats, and the
still later war Congress, under the rule of a party charged with
duties in which I shared, and under leaders before held in aversion.
It is an incident to this narration that I became enlisted as
president in a railway north and south, to bring us coal and lum-
ber; and that the revulsion of 1857 brought a paralysis in busi-
ness, and arrested railway building and public enterprise, while
clouding with disastrous defeat most laudable schemes. The
with the owner of farms it was common to roast corn for dinner
and pay the lady ten cents for seasoning, with use of dishes.
Coffee gave way on our tables to a substitute made of rye, sweet-
ened with sorghum. Sugar was a luxury, as was fine flour, when
wheat brought the farmer but forty cents a bushel. Taxes were
unpaid for years, drawing heavy penalties, while hundreds of thou-
sands of acres were abandoned to tax-title purchasers. There was
brooding a financial cloud of inky blackness -- no credit and poor
money, up to the mad treason of 1860: Being “land poor” was
128
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
not a figure of speech; and to introduce sheep was my device, and
let the plough rest. In the meantime occurred a perhaps ludicrous
interlude in my pioneer life, which may be here narrated.
HOW AND WHY I BECAME A LAWYER.
On going to Iowa there was. much legal business at hand, mak-
ing bonds, deeds and special contracts, and I scouted the old forms
as long, wordy, without reason, and their continuance a reproach
to the age. At a social evening gathering of court lawyers, about
1858, Judge Stone being present, I ridiculed the useless forms, and
was answered, “That would do for an unprofessional," etc.
Attorney-General Samuel A. Rice, afterward Brigadier-Gen-
eral, who died of his wounds, said I was in the main right, and, if
I so wished, he would propose me for admission to the Iowa Bar.
That was what I meditated as a convenience in the future, for I
did own a Blackstone and the code, drawn as a senator, and in
discussion of the session laws had often heard what was "common
law,” enforced as very uncommon law in perversion of statutes.
The learned young chaps who mouthed often great words which
Blackstone seldom used, were eager for such game in the examina-
tion as I promised to be. On my name being presented for admis-
sion the court appointed our first lawyer chairman of the com-
mittee, General Rice. He had but few elementary questions,
while the committee boys seemed stirred with deep excitement,
asking questions, and I gave the aptest burlesque replies at com-
mand, which they hinted were not plain; and I fell back on the
privilege of counsel that I had high authority for the opinion that
the “use of language was to conceal thoughts”. In the next resort
I availed myself of the usage of the court, “reserving an opinion”
until consulting the authorities; or I bandied the eager young
gentleman with an answer in Latin, which he said he did not
understand, to which I replied I did not doubt it-an easy extin-
guisher. After long and mutual merriment, Rice in seriousness
came to the rescue, saying, “The lawyer determined his fitness by
taking good cases, and honorably prosecuting them, and he was sat-
isfied to report on my giving a satisfactory answer to one constitu-
tional question, viz.: Whether in my reading and reflection it is in
violation of our Constitution to make a practical and personal
appropriation of bivalves at this season of the year ?" On a neg-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
129
ative answer to this question, he felt called upon to recommend
an admission as following a well-established precedent if not stat-
ute law. Of course, a supper was eaten after admission, by as
hilarious a company as ever sits down, wanting the usual fluid
excitement.
There soon came to me two offers of law partnership, and the
proffer of collections, which were declined. Once a draft of two
hundred and fifty dollars came just at the right time. I was coun-
sel on the right side of the largest case in our county, and it
is not vain for me to mention that I secured' a proposal to the
county of settlement of railway indebtedness, which would have
saved us more than fifty thousand dollars had not the advice
of lawyers in ignorance or with motives I will not name, been
followed.
At that time admission to the Bar of course was a burlesque,
but, written in the briefest language, my legal papers have stood
the test, while many words have been fruitful of litigation,
whereof only the hungry lawyers were gainers. A fortunate inter-
pretation of contracts in the legal affairs of the Central Iowa Rail-
way saved thousands of dollars to the company, and, before the
Supreme Court of the state and the Supreme Court at Washington,
I became a practitioner in matters of personal interest leading to
equity, and I found mingled pleasure and success. The cases
which I have caused quietly to be compromised were many. The
first device was to subdue the temper, and the second to show that
success even, in many cases, involves friction and pecuniary loss.
This required delicate treatment to bring victims from the coils of
counsel who liad more regard for notoriety and fee than for
justice.
There may be honor, which I doubt, among thieves, but little
when robust clients are to be plucked or a pound of flesh taken
regardless of blood. A class of idle loungers stir up canines on
the corner for a fight, nursing brutality; a class of pettifoggers in
legal business stir up litigation more degrading than any brute
warfare, and then laugh at their dupes, traducing the judge as the
author of defeat, or a jury which they irreverently send to another
and warmer realm. Honorable and strictly honest counsel will
make our court dockets slim, for there is not in the West legiti-
mate business for one out of five of the lawyers, seeking practice
by technical arts and fictitious pleas too long tolerated. Business
130
REMINISCENCES OF FORTS YEARS.
demands but few, plain words, and I hold in high honor those who
study peace, and practice in emergencies with fidelity. Bribery in
official station so often talked of, I have never known, but legal
collusion in secret, and open words like daggers, both of which
must excite disgușt even in the lower regions. Such shysters are
in love with grand juries, and can coach or corner a witness on
the stand with grimace and snakish eye. Filth to them is like
nutritious food; they are crazy on constitutions, and in .spasms of
assumed virtue on a human suggestion not written in law. They
have no God, nor one fit to be written with a small g. Human
gad-flies —! Vale!
My examination for the Bar reminds me of the early Oxford
examinations for degrees. Professor Bryce, addressing the stu-
dents of Iowa College, alluded to an eminent scholar years ago, not
yet tested in his literary talent. While a candidate he was asked
but one question, and that was, who founded Oxford University.
His reply was, “I am not certain, I think it was King Alfred.”
His answer was wrong, but he obtained the degree, as I did an
admission to the Bar, without regard to qualification. Thirty
years have changed the conditions of admission to legal practice.
CHAPTER IX.
The War Congress—1863–5 — A Seat Episode-- Wilson, Kasson,
Price, Allison, Hubbard, E. C. Ingersoll, Lovejoy, Henry Winter
Davis, Oakes Ames, President Hayes, President Garfield, Col-
fax, Blaine and others - The Opposition Leaders, Hendricks,
Voorhees, Brooks, Wood, Cox, etc.— War Days at Home.
I TOOK my seat in the Thirty-eighth Congress assembled in
December, 1863. It was charged with the gravest duties ever
intrusted to statesmen of any country or age. Gigantic war car-
ried on in new methods, and a financial policy involving thousands
of millions of dollars, were of equal concern — all related to the
issue of battles. There was the arming of the blacks, the act of
emancipation, and confiscation — topics of stern debate and of
momentous import, watched as we were by jealous enemies abroad,
and more exposed to dangers from much of the professed loyalty
at home, which the sequel proved was for the defense and restora-
tion of a disloyal party to place and power. .
A SEAT EPISODE.
I must give in reminiscence how I came to be favored by a
number of the chief actors in this grand epoch. There is a great
choice in seats in the Representative Hall, which was built with
regard to show, rather than business and acoustic qualities. Those
in the front are disliked, and those in the rear are obnoxious on
account of distance and intrusions by a cloak-room lobby, where
there is noise and confusion.'
This is the method on an occasion to which there is attached
a deep interest by the old members, who know the advantages of
a good location to hear readily and gain an audience in times of
excitement. The names of all the members are written on slips of
132
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
paper and placed in a box, from which a blinded page draws the
names, and the early called get the choicest seats. It was my for-
tune to draw third, and I chose the best locality in the Ways and
Means circle next to Mr. Stevens' old seat, long held by him—the
Nestor of the House. Nearing the end of the called list, à mem-
ber from New York, amid hisses, took Mr. Stevens' long reserved
seat, saying, “This is a body of equals." Nearly the last member
to draw was Mr. Stevens, and all but the very rear were taken,
from which he could not be heard, besides being unfit locally for
the leader of the House.
Soon the feeble old man, with a club-foot came hobbling up
the aisle. As he passed along, I stepped out and touched his
shoulder, saying, “This is the seat for you, which I yield to the
venerable.” “No, I cannot take it, for it is worth more than
money.” But, without rudeness, I placed him in the seat aided
in entreaty by his old friends. Though deserving no credit, I was
as much praised as the other was blamed, whose greed got the
better of his judgment. I call no name, but he lost caste — was
never listened to without a private gibe or a severe press notice.
He failed of renomination and sank out of political view by this
trivial act—if nothing else; a political blunder, next to a crime.
A bright page found me a good, overlooked seat, and the
acquaintance made with the old Commoner was of more value than
one term in Congress. I had only to hint to Mr. Stevens to learn
the order of bills, with the privilege of amendment and frequent
yielding of time in debate. He said, “If we live, time will bring
us side by side in the next Congress.” My good fortune in sitting
by Mr. Stevens in the Thirty-ninth Congress, to be referred to
later, further illustrates his character.
From Iowa we were all new members, save James F. Wilson-
now and for eight years United States Senator. He was the young-
est member of the great Committee, the Judiciary, in a previous
Congress, also at its foot. In the new Congress, Mr. Wilson was
the only republican returned of the former cast, but there were
older lawyers aspiring to the chairmanship, and with others I did
not choose a speaker without an assurance that our colleague was
not to be jumped. Mr. Wilson became a leader, while his col-
leagues were Judges Bingham, Williams, and Ex-Governor Bout-
well, who served in this capacity with honor during the impeach-
ment trial of Andrew Johnson. While this may be no time to

W!!!!
..
.
...
.
.
IT
.
+ +
-
+
-
-
-
.
+
---
1
.
A
11
MAUW
M1
.11
..
4
.
.
.
*
VISU
.
.
6
I
.
.
ELET
.
LE
UL
.
.
7:
Rink
NUMBA
SK
V
P
W
? 10
<
.
.
TA",
Visi
X2
Law
.
A
.
1
.
12
29-
TAI
ire
1
INT
200
IURE
01.
LE
bits
.
.
/
/
.
..4...
124
OLU .. .
% 2
Sat,.11n
ATICA
..
.
.
.
VIONS
for,.
SUZ
.
IN
SE
V
X
Ot
ADE
.
ty
.
XVI
.
TV
S.
L
Coo
.
V
2
VI
.
VO
.
DU.1.1/10
.10.
UL.
105
SON)
.
duit
.
PLOS
81316
itwa
1
Art
...iiii.
.
.
1
.
O
1
.0.1.1
No.
STIR
2
.
Why
HO
0:
01
ZA
YO
..
.
SA KO
Anwa
.
01 YYYY
.
C
01..
4 , 1 .
2
.
TI
H
.
.
TILL
.
.
.
WY
1010
*
I.
.
1
.
.
U10
Wiene
.
1511
vuod
.
.
.
.
.......
V
.
1010
.
4
i
.
..
.
.
n
TASS
S.
OLU
.
S.
dy
TE
.
.
. . UNUT
uur
'
..
Y
.
'
1
.1
OK
c.
.
.
NXXH
A
.
WY
.100
LALA
.
:
119
SA
AY
.
VC
.
Er
W
.
A
SONYX
Or
2
MNA
VIII
.
l
ON
.
Ni
AI
-
.
II
.
15
1
.
1
wwwwwww
MR. GRIXXELL WIIEX IX CONGRESS.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
133
praise the living, it will serve my purpose later in showing the
high regard of President Grant for Mr. Wilson, who was offered a
cabinet position; and indirectly my interest in a person truly the
pride of his state, whose history he has adorned while declining
John A. Kasson of Iowa, then in the House, has since been
known in high rank of public trusts, negotiating postal treaties,
and his career culminating in diplomatic service to Berlin and
elsewhere. Hiram Price, also with more than national fame, was
transferred from Congress to the important post of Commissioner
of Indian Affairs, rendering great service to the country and to our
dusky wards of the reservations. William B. Allison, still more
widely known, and serving near three terms in the United States
Senate, declined cabinet position under both Garfield and Harri-
son; he was strongly put forward as a presidential candidate in
1888, and holds no second place in our Senate. Nor can we for-
get A. W. Hubbard, who, depressed in service by ill health, died
some years since with a most honorable record. Sioux City was
his home, which he did not live to see rise to the measure of his
prediction; it is now the refined grand city of growth and the com-
mercial metropolis of our rich new North-west. It was a harmoni-
ous delegation with divers tastes but well assigned on committees,
for peculiar service that gave it reputation as the strong "Hawk-
eye team”. I was on the committee on Post Offices and post
roads, which gave me a desired opportunity to serve my district,
long neglected; also on other committees of importance..
On the death of Owen Lovejoy of Illinois, who had earned his
way near the head of one of the most desirable committees, that
of Territories, I was appointed to the vacancy, a compliment
which I had not earned by any real service, but made on the
request of Mr. Thaddeus Stevens. Mr. Eben C. Ingersoll, a
brother of the since well-known Robert G. Ingersoll, was Mr.
Lovejoy's successor from Illinois. He was much depressed by the
routine before him, in not finding a proper place on committees.
I resigned in his favor, in honor of the district and its representa-
tion, and in aid of the successor of my good friend. I received
the following letter, hereafter mentioned in criticism of Robert G.
Ingersoll.
134
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
My Dear Sir:
I am informed by my brother, lonely and disgusted with his congressional life
on the tail of committees, with nothing to do, that you have come to his relief. It
is a high place he fills by your resignation, he tells me. If I have judged Congress
made up of mortals akin to the lower animals in pushing for the full end of the
trough, I make an honorable exception. I thank you, and we may meet, when it
will be a pleasure, if in my power, to reciprocate the act of a gentleman.
Yours Truly,
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
Hon. J. B.. GRINNELL, M. C.
OWEN LOVEJOY.
On the personnel of that House, I first name the lamented Love-
joy. We were in sympathy, pioneers, farmers, radicals. He was
the boldest of congressmen, fiery, eloquent, invincible in debate,
an historic character, with no stain upon his reputation. At the ·
congressional mortuary services in these decades there never has
been shown more of emotion and the grief of colleagues than on
the occasion of his death. Even Pendleton, one of the bulwarks
of Democracy, surpassed radical comrades in warmth of eulogy.
The following was reported in the Globe — one of the brief eulogies
on the deceased statesman in the House of Representatives :
MR. GRINNELL. Mr. Speaker: I have just returned from a long journey, and
it is only since I came into the Hall this morning that I received an intimation
that I was to speak on this mournful occasion. My few words shall be the sympa-
thetic utterances of a mourning friend rather than those of a classic eulogist. I
had the honor of an intimate acquaintance with the deceased, having shared the
bounteous hospitality of his western home, and at his bedside in this city I strove
to drink in the inspiration of his spirit.
But a few weeks since, in his sick-room, I expressed fears for his recovery. I
saw the tears course down his manly cheek as he said, "Ah! God's will be done,
but I have been laboring, voting and praying for twenty years that I might see
the great day of freedom which is so near and which I hope God will let me live to
rejoice in. I want a vote on my bill for the destruction of slavery, root and
branch.” He saw the sun of national liberty, but in its rising, when he hoped
to gaze on it with raptures in its midnoon splendor; but mysteriously has God
called him above the storm-clouds of war, bringing rest to his weary spirit, and
new vision, with an exchange of the sorrows of earth for the joys of heaven. A
Christian and a hero has gone home, where there will be a multitude to welcome
and no one wronged to confront him.
As I review his eventful life I am constrained to believe that had he died
thirty years ago the world would have said, We have lost a promising scholar.
Had his decease been twenty years since he would have been called a fanatic by
almost universal acclaim. Had he left the world ten years since, the narrow circle
in which he moved would have felt the loss of an obscure free-soil candidate for
Congress and a Congregational minister. But what have ten years of noble, heroic
devotion to freedom achieved! The clergyman, by leaving his flock for the prom-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
135
ising field which invited his labors, is justified. A man and a citizen before a
minister, he proved that his politics were consistent with and not derogatory to
Christian and ininisterial character, following the example of Mayhew, Cooper
and Witherspoon of our early days, who were not more eminent in the pulpit than
learned and useful as legislators, neither of whom made apology for a change of
vocation when they might speak for a nation in the forum, and espouse the cause
of liberty for the world. Our friend loved peace, and accepted the arbitrament of
the sword only as a dire necessity. In his holy hate for the rebellion, and slavery,
its cause, he was -
“For the peace which rings out from the cannon's throat,
And the suasion of shot and shell,
Till rebellion's spirit is trampled down
To the depths of its kindred hell."
Then for this country there was the ideal of the church,“beautiful as Tirzah,
comely as Jerusalem, and terrible'as any army with banners," to which he was
consecrated. The witnesses of his early and later devotion made him as eyes to
the blind, feet to the lame; and the cause which he knew not he searched out.
His home was his castle, where he gave assurance of shelter and defense to the
escaped from the southern prison-houses, who were thousands, and he caused the
widow's heart to sing for joy, while the blessing of many ready to perish fell on
him.
Mr. Speaker, it is too early to pronounce the eulogy on our deceased brother.
Respice finem: wait till the ripening of that of which he sowed the seed. Give
time to gather up the great thoughts first expressed in the log school-house, which
gathered volume, re-echoed from the pulpit, and, taken up by the telegraph and the
press as from the statesman, true to his convictions, and the fearless unapproached
orator. The glory of his life and the grandeur of his character will be unappre-
ciated until the last shackle falls from the slave and the muse of history asks for
those who were of the first to strike for the poor and end their life with humane
and Christian devotion.
It is well expressed, Owen Lovejoy was no ordinary man. In the stern period
of our history, breasting prejudice and obloquy, he rose to that proud distinction
to which the impassioned eloquence of this morning is a fitting accord. His
marked characteristics were evinced in firmness like his native mountains, and
there was a scope of mind which seemed to borrow breadth and beauty of imagery
from the expanse of his prairie home, carpeted with floral decoration. Above all,
he died a Christian. With more than the honors of a conquerer will his dust rest
in sepulture among the people by whom he was so ardently loved, and his soul,
ascending to his God, would, if it might speak to us, counsel, Love your country,
remember her despised poor, and if you would rescue anything from the wreck of
time, lay it up in God.
It should be added that Mr. Lovejoy made the boldest replies
to the maligners of President Lincoln; and the art of standing
undaunted in front of a howling, profane crowd of rebels, placed
him high in a niche in “Freedom's Holy Fane”. He is remem-
bered still for his bill which was to stamp out slavery, root and
branch, not waiting for the arbitrament of war, or constitutional
fiats in amendments.
136
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Henry Winter Davis of Maryland, was the great orator. He
had shocked even Chicago by his Fourth of July oration, declaring
that honor, safety and statesmanship would give the black man the
vote everywhere under the flag. This gentleman was the chairman
of the committee of foreign affairs. He suddenly died in 1865 —
too early for his state and the nation. He was, by the universal
verdict, the popular, magnetic speaker of Congress. His father
was a clergyman, and the son had enjoyed the best classical train-
ing as a student, and the discipline of the professor. Every
subject he handled was with the grace of a gentleman and the cul-
tivation of an orator. His true picture hangs near me, the type
of a brave, restive agitator, having faith in the triumph of the
noblest principles and of the Christian religion. His encounters
with General Frank P. Blair, jr., a soldier, attested his prowess;
and his sad demise brought mourning to all the higher circles of
civilians.
His speech of April 11th, 1864, was the notable effort of the
time, and my best tribute to his genius will be found in this quo-
tation, ending in a climax - a plea against all compromises with
rebels:
“It is because the people of the United States, rising to the height of the
occasion, dedicated this generation to the sword, and pouring out the blood of their
children as of no account, and vowing before high Heaven that there should be no
end to this conflict but ruin absolute or absolute triumph, that we now are what
we are; that the banner of the Republic, still pointing onward, floats proudly in
the face of the enemy; that vast regions are reduced to obedience to the laws, and
that a great host in armed array now presses with steady step into the dark regions
of the rebellion. It is only by the earnest and abiding resolution of the people
that, whatever shall be our fate, it shall be grand as the American nation, worthy
of that Republic which first trod the path of empire and made no peace but under
the banners of victory, that the American people will survive in history. And
that will save us. We shall succeed, and not fail. I have an abiding confidence
in the firmness, the patience, the endurance of the American people; and, having
vowed to stand in history on the great resolve to accept of nothing but victory or
ruin, victory is ours. And if with such heroic resolve we fall, we fall with honor,
and transmit the name of liberty, committed to our keeping, untarnished, to go
down to future generations. The historian of our decline and fall, contemplating
the ruins of the last great Republic, and drawing from its fate lessons of wisdom.
on the waywardness of men, shall drop a tear as he records with sorrow the vain
heroism of that people who dedicated and sacrificed themselves to the cause of
freedom, and by their example will keep alive her worship in the hearts of men till
happier generations shall learn to walk in her paths. Yes, sir, if we must fall, let
our last hours be stained by no weakness. If we must fall, let us stand amid the
crash of the falling: Republic and be buried in its ruins, so that history may take
note that men: lived in the middle of the nineteenth century worthy of a better
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
137
fate, but chastised by God for the sins of their forefathers. Let the ruins of the
Republic remain to testify to the latest generations our greatness and our heroism.
And let Liberty, crownless and childless, sit upon these ruins, crying aloud in a
sad wail to the nations of the world, 'I nursed and brought up children and they
have rebelled against me!.”
Oakes Ames was one of the quiet but potent factors in the War
ciers. In the great war epoch, no man's opinion on finance was
more sought for, and on a close vote a quiet appeal was of greater
service than vociferous speech. Mr. Stevens would say to me, “I
wish I knew without asking how Ames stood. He can be relied
on to kill what is not worthy of support, for he is a man of affairs,
doing more for a great enterprise, which may bring only curses,
than any man in Congress.”
A brief tribute was paid to him in my “Cattle Industries of
the United States”. I stood by his monument at Sherman, Wyom-
ing. This monument is of native granite, forty feet square, one
hundred feet in height, and costing one hundred thousand dollars.
Oliver Ames, the conservative brother, in a granite bust, faces east-
ward; Oakes Ames, the congressman, has his face westward. He
was the animating soul.
“We all stepped from the cars and cheered, amid the waving
of handkerchiefs by ladies, in honor of a name beyond the reach of
calumny, high on the roll of American benefactors. The writer
could not suppress his emotion in regret that he, so brave and
devoted, was not spared to witness more than the fruition of his
fondest hopes; to know that his fame is alike assured with the
sages who wrote and the warriors who have bled’; and, without
the commemorative monument, the herdsman by the mountains,
and travelers in journeys from ocean to ocean, and all just Ameri-
cans will honor his name down the ages, 'till the sun grows cold
and the stars are old”.”
The State of Massachusetts, by the clear voices of her scholars
and patriots may well ask – it does — that the resolution of cen-
sure be expunged. It will be in due time, when the feeble tributes
of to-day will be forgotten amid the thrilling plaudits of brave,
I might enlarge in further personal mention -of the actors in
the War Congresses. Their names and promotions are suggestive
of the noblest manhood, and in association with immortal deeds.
138
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
I notice a few names from the civil and military lists promoted to
senators, governors and well-equipped diplomats, but a failure to
mention a longer list does not imply less patriotic devotion on
their part to the country's weal. Many, with an aversion to poli-
tics have been found engaged in private affairs, and in public
enterprises congenial to taste and bringing greater profit.
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
was a quiet, modest gentleman in personality, a soldier patriot,
and a decided statesman president. He is gaining a larger place
in the hearts of his countrymen by the hearty and beneficent serv-
ices of a private citizen, when human elevation and want ask a
friendly voice or wise counsel.
A brief congressional career was closed by the nomination for
governor of Ohio of this quiet man, before known to the House by
a speech on a resolution. A question of one of his sagacious col-
leagues I repeated for the merriment of the fortunate president at
the White House. “Do you know that man next to Colfax — a
smiler-how tasteful in dress, always writing, never inaking a
political record; he has the common sense to win. Watch and
cultivate him. He will be president of the United States.”
JAMES A. GARFIELD.
President Garfield was quite another statesman. A frequent
speaker and a leader in debate, learned, fervid and electrical. He
appeared in the apt moment to win the votes for a nomination by
a fine civil and military career and captivating eloquence. What
member spent so many hours in the library and who of the Presi-
dents was his peer in scholarship. Nor was he wanting socially
in gentlemanly spontaneity. His mind was a storehouse of facts,
not less than his heart of desires and plans for the education of
his generation. Thus I recall the pleasant good-morning slap on
the shoulder: "Well, Josiah, how is Iowa College? I envy you
and wish my people were up to your standard. The best service
now I could render my people would be in an educational line
week days, and good words and a higher life on Sunday. For
Hiram Institute I have plead by day and dreamed by night in
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
139
anxiety, for a higher education and practical is the work near to
us, since the drum-beat of silence.”
Vice-President Wheeler was a quiet New York statesman.
Schuyler Colfax, the pet of the press, and a gentleman urbane,
high-toned and exemplary in life, rose to the second place in the
government, but passed under a political cloud which cast its
shadow over him, I truly and charitably believe, not by evil com-
plicity on his part with the “ Credit Mobilier” scandal, but by a
possible mistake of one of the parties, perhaps never to be
explained. Most cheerful was Mr. Colfax as I met him in Denver,
happy out of the political whirl, and gladly leaving his fame to a
later generation.
This war Congress also furnished James G. Blaine as speaker,
who, notwithstanding the trials of a candidate, is extolled even
by enemies as a great statesman, even if failing to reach the
high position to which he was believed to have been elected in
1884.
War legislation and army experiences educated the following
gentlemen of national repute, giving the responsibilities of senator
or governor. The State of Iowa has wisely kept William B. Alli-
son and James F. Wilson in the Senate; of them I have spoken.
Cornelius Cole appeared from California; J. A. J. Cresswell was
cabinet minister as well as senator; Gov. George S. Boutwell and
Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts were senators; E. H. Rollins
and J. W. Patterson of New Hampshire, Justin S. Morrell of Ver-
mont, T. W. Ferry of Michigan, Roscoe Conkling of New York,
Philetus Sawyer of Wisconsin, Shelby Cullom of Illinois, and the
lamented William Windom of Minnesota, reached political fame
without scandal.
William B. Washburn and Alexander H. Rice of Massachu-
setts, and Sidney Perham of Maine, became governors, while there
were, distinguished in the diplomatic service, Elihu B. Washburn,
Gen. Robert C. Schenck, and John A. Kasson, all united in convic-
tion that the constitutional amendments were necessary as anch-
orage in reconstruction. Fiercely opposed - leading spirits in
the democratic party, yet finding distinction, were Brooks, Cox,
Pendleton, Kerr, Vice-President Hendricks and Fernando Wood.
These have closed their career, leaving Kernan, Holman and Voor-
hees in meditation upon perverse action and false prophecies of ill
success in reconstruction, which they jeopardized by sympathy
140
IL
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
with the vanquished, and in a desire for the domination of the
party recreant to principle and lacking capacity to govern.
In the Senate were our bold colleagues, the bulwarks of the
Union, strengthening the armed cohorts. It is a fashion to talk of
the “better days of the republic” and to depreciate living actors.
In this there is no reason. A better organized heart-and-brain-
equipped company of statesmen, of genial, radical co-laborers, will
never be raised up to confront traitors. What jointly had we to
do? To defend and enforce the draft in the presence of the
Knights of the Golden Circle, one of the most secret, wicked,
powerful and cruel organizations to be found in all the chapters of
time — unmasked by ex-cabinet Minister Joseph Holt, who with
almost inspired denunciation placed it as on its final gibbet.
Then there was the greenback, virulently attacked in both houses,
a financial device based on the credit and character of our people,
assailed at every step as an unconstitutional issue of money.
Then the internal revenue scheme, which stamped a burden on
business, yet a necessity in raising revenue, was a fit subject for
the constant jeer of those only that may be likened to a Nero, who,
if not the author of the conflagration of a city, could at least fiddle
and smile over its ruins. Greater than all was the protective tar-
iff, its success, next to emancipation, inspiring hate for the eastern
states, and plots to alienate the West, as if both sections were not
bound together in the issues which these great measures embraced.
I name these senators not in the order of their potency. Wil-
liam Pitt Fessenden, the son of Samuel Fessenden, an old aboli-
tionist at whose hospitable table I have sat in Portland, Me., was
cool and logical. Senator Lyman Trumbell, of Illinois, in draft of
bills and analytical debate had no peer, as his colleague, Ex-Gov-
ernor Yates, who fell so sadly by intemperance, had no equal in
brilliancy, as was evinced in his championship on many subjects.
John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, was earlier on the ground, the
wit and patriot for a decade, the pride of the North and a foe in a
well-clad mail which the chivalry of the South could not pierce.
Senator Zachary Chandler of Michigan and Senator Wade of Ohio,
were rough in expression, bolder in action for having made an
exposure on the “Conduct of the War" as waged by the craft and
inaction of General McClellan. These senators wore his military
scalp dangling as a trophy, which I now believe was more than an
incident to the unfolding of a political conspiracy, and the destruc-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS. ..
141
tion of slavery and the restoration of the Union. Sumner of
Massachusetts, the scholar, and Wilson the Natick cobbler, with
Iowa's eminent and alert senators, I have elsewhere sketched, to
whom might be added a list composed of Reverdy Johnson of
Maryland, a late convert, John Sherman of Ohio, and Solomon
Foote of Vermont, whom I have placed on a pedestal with the
loyal Vermonters at his funeral obsequies in the capitol.
Of the opposition, the genial Hendricks of Indiana, was not so
far party-blinded as not to admit his mistake ten years later.
McDougal of California, was seldom sober enough to represent
either himself or his loyal people; while Garrett Davis of Ken-
tucky, had a whining refrain, disgusting his Senate colleagues and
the country with harangues only remembered by their days of
duration, there being no previous question to arrest his garrulous-
ness in debate.
Senator D. W. Voorhees of Indiana, was the bitter, impassioned
orator and opposition leader. He dared to be bold in figures and
dashing in rhetoric. The late Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania,
also a democrat, I saw in his incipient greatness; he was social,
genial, ambitious, tolerant, an honest advocate of the American
protective principle, and of him it will be said when his life is
written, “He was the ambitious partisan who saved his party from
defeat, and in whose sad demise there is a tear for a foe who
had no enemy, and a statesman without a price, yet with an unen-
viable war record.”
The late James Brooks of New York, triplex in the gifts of
orator, writer and historical statesman, of the democratic party,
went down under the same cloud and by the same agencies as
Oakes Ames of Massachusetts. Mr. Brooks in temperament was
fitted for a revolutionist, and in the American Congress, with pro-
fessions of loyalty, was one of the ablest and most dangerous of
the obstructionists of his party who held sway in the city of New
York. He was unseated by the model philanthropist and states-
man, William E. Dodge, whose memoirs by his son, D. Stuart
Dodge, should be read by every person seeking the highest loyal
type of manhood.
Some, in the House, not only whispered their sympathy with
treason, but like Benjamin B. Harris of Maryland and Alexander
Long of Ohio, declared our war a barbarism; and success, they
fervently hoped, would be impossible. Resolutions of censure
142
*REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
were passed, but not a two-thirds vote could be obtained after a
lengthy and bitter discussion. This fact gave comfort to the
enemy and proved the status of at least sixty democrats in the
House. The discussion itself was salutary, educating up to a high
plane of loyalty at home, nursing the valor of the soldiers in the
field, while awakening detestation for peace democrats, who were
called Copperheads, really the most dangerous foe to a restoration
of the Union, whatever their professions. Fernando Wood of
New York, the ex-mayor, was a cunning rebel, but not more in
favor than the more frank and bold sympathizers with the South.
Pendleton of Ohio, was the cool statesman, who added nothing to
his permanent fame by the championship of civil service reform.
Yet, I could praise him for his eulogy of Lovejoy, remembering
how frank were his expressions and genial his nature; but this
could be no atonement for a failure to support the constitutional
amendinents.
Of S. S. Cox of New York, deceased in 1889, I said:
He was alert, almost ubiquitous, voluble, ready in debate, witty in retort, and
an able parliamentarian. His industry as a legislator and his classic tastes always
won respectful and delighted hearers, while he lacked that power to which learn-
ing, eloquence and thirty years' service gave him title. As a man he was social
and attractive; the delight of the galleries, with the suave ways of a “ Buckeye'
and refinement of a savant and fortunate traveler. He was cautious and wary in
public gaze and discussion, as evinced in declining debate with the elegant and
bold Henry Winter Davis, especially avoiding the old commoner wielding a Damas-
cus blade - Thaddeus Stevens. Once, in a thoughtless hour and mood, on hurl-
ing a question at Ben Butler, I saw a wave of the hand in disdain and heard an
echo, the street song of the boys -
“ Shoo fly, don't bodder me.”
This, taken up by a prolonged shout of the house, was one of the most effect-
ive rebuffs on record. Mr. Cox was the best equipped and ablest politician of his
party, yet never fully trusted. He incurred the dislike of Pendleton and Randall,
and was quite too conspicuous for the fame of younger and ambitious partisans.
It was a cold and unfeeling part which he played on the Freedman's Bureau Bill,
and after the war naming Republicans miscegenationists, as more offensive to the
“groundlings" than that of Abolitionists. His “Anti-robber” tariff speeches
were numerous and illusory, adapted to free-trade New York, while he well knew
that protection was the safer policy, and matured conviction of the West. His
peculiar friends may hold that in the war, like Douglas, he forgot party to be a
patriot. But he was the bitterest foe of the great amendments and our national
currency; and ablest generals in the field he satirized without reason. The biog-
rapher will note that he did not attain the power or place to which an author, a
scholar and wit gave title. This may well be the solution of the failure— lack of
courage and conviction - a politician in search of mere majorities.
The blacks, their position in the war, and their future, was a
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
143
question which loomed high and was the occasion of many a threat-
ening storm. Even if egotistic, I must say that the first resolution
which I ever offered in the American Congress and which was
adopted, gave focus to an opinion and was in these words:
Resolved, that a more vigorous policy to enlist, at an early day
and in larger numbers, in our army, persons of African descent,
would meet the approbation of the House. More than a mere sen-
timent, it was heeded by land and by sea. There were new enlist-
ments, and the policy of enrolling the black man as a sailor and a
soldier was defended from the highest plane of statesmanship.
A résumé of the actors and the deeds furnishes a remarkable
chapter in our historic annals. Has a nation raised up men more
worthy of their mission than the loyal congressmen? Have there
been achievements, military or civil, to bear comparison with those
of the war epoch? The loyal legislators made history. They
invoked the criticism of the civilized world, not less than its admi-
ration for heroism and the soundness of their conclusions. Cour-
age and sacrifice were the first requirements, then patience, and
broad statesmanship in reconstruction. Was it not an honor to be
associated with the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses -
1863–1867 — marshaling armies, upholding credit, confronting for-
eign enemies, silencing in the rear the guns of the Knights of the
Golden Circle, restraining a president in his divisive plots, bring-
ing life into new states and harmonizing by an industrial policy
millions estranged by war into homogeneity ?
To sum up the brilliant record of this War Congress would be
to reprint the bold speeches of Thaddeus Stevens, on the con-
quered states held as territories, and his defense of our financial
system in the revenues it brought and in the credit of the country
which it maintained. None wished to meet Stevens, nor Sumner,
nor Trumbell, nor Harlan or Grimes in the open field of debate.
Our enemies rested in the vain delusion that the northern people
would waver in the presence of debts, personal alienation, and in
the flow of rivers of blood. The star of Mr. Lincoln rose high, the
valor of our patriots was assured to the world, and to the credit of
Iowa, James Harlan in a speech in reply to Senator Saulsbury, bold
in statement, clear in the light of religion and history, declared
that no class of men were made for slavery, and that they who had
enslaved, would, in their overthrow, learn a lesson by the ven-
geance which the God of this nation would visit upon the disloyal.
144
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
He lives crowned with years and honors ; his colleague, Senator
Grimes, has passed away, with national tributes to the memory of
him, who, impatient with false leaders, was a mighty factor in
making the navy a powerful arm of our national service, securing
victories that overwhelmed pretended patriots in Congress, and the
millions misled by their example.
DARK WAR DAYS AT HOME.
From the War Congress of 1863–5 we may turn to some local
Iowa Scenes of 1864. War came to our doors. There was menace
in the “Knights of the Golden Circle”; a spy often in the house;
traitors in jury boxes, and judges with the heart of a Jeffreys on
the bench in our cities. Even Mayor Wood of New York, proposed
secession for that city. Ex-President Pierce gave his opinion to
the world, by an intercepted letter, that there would be fighting
among the dwellers on both sides of the Mason and Dixon line.
Citizens of Iowa were in prison on charge of aiding rebels, and
justice was then but partially meted out.
This was a dark hour when the loyal pulse beat feverishly.
Gold was worth a premium of one dollar and eighty cents. Banks
were closing and capital hieing away into vaults, or passing to the
Old World for safety in the emergency of disunion. The great
city of New York in the hands of traitors, a colored orphan asylum
in flames by the fury of a mob, Governor Seymour making a timid,
perhaps a politic address to a mob, addressing it as “My friends!.”
Our union forces in the field met defeats, and orders were given to
draft for the military service. This brings up local history of a
war incident, far from our battle-fields. .
The Provost Marshal's office, occupied by Captain James
Mathews, had been established at Grinnell and loyal speakers held
meetings to fill up the ranks, in hope to save us from disgrace of a
draft. Sugar Creek township in the south-west corner of this
county was behind in its quota. I had an appointment with
Judge H. S. Winslow to speak south of Lynnville, in hope that
enlistments could be secured from a section in default of its
quota. Meantime the same fatal Saturday was a drill day for the
copperhead disloyal circle. Captain J. M. Woodruff and John L.
Bashore, soldiers on temporary leave, had notification papers for
the arrest of three persons not appearing, called for by the draft.
· REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
145
They took a buggy, and, well armed, struck south about fifteen
miles to execute their writs. At Mr. J. A. Craver's, who was
truly loyal, but cautious — father of Hon. C. F. Craver— they
took dinner, and then learned that part of a company had passed
that way for drill day. There the parties wanted might be found
bearing arms, and, before facing the disloyal cohorts, it was
deemed best without risk to report the situation at head quarters.
Without a suspicion or fear of an assault, they met an Irishman
by the name of Pat Gleason, apparently well disposed to answer
questions as to a return road through the grove. At that moment
two men, the Fleener brothers, in ambush or on the way from the
drill, fired upon the marshals from the rear, inflicting fatal
wounds. The venom of an enemy appeared in the mild-mannered
Gleason breaking his gun over the head of Bashore, but him-
self received a shot which broke his leg, so that he was left a
forced witness by the blood-thirsty Fleeners, who fled westward.
duty.” A courier from Craver's, where the dead marshals had
been borne from the brush, was sent to Grinnell, and the order for
the arrest of the company and a proclaination of martial law was
made, to protect the office records while drawing the lines of deep-
seated treason into bolder relief. The drilling company dispersed,
and their guns were concealed rather than hung up for handy use
as of old in the kitchens. Meantime, while making my way home
after dark, my horses, quick under the lash, were in a fright, and I
heard a shout, “It is him, by GM," and the lash soon brought me
beyond the lurking assassins whose threats had come to me.
Fearing a second call, I hurried on to Mr. Kenworthy's, where I
passed the night, yet only later aware of my real peril and narrow
escape from assassination.
It was a quiet Sabbath morning, when, nearing our city from a
west road, I was challenged by soldiers and forbidden to pass with-
out an order from the provost marshal. This was the first shock
on the news of assassination, and the fear that treason might lay
the town in ashes. Every loyal man seemed a marshal, and the
riding through Sugar Creek and the borders of Washington town-
ship, the secret lurking places of suspected criminals, would make
a long and exciting chapter.
· I hastened to the scene of treason and murder. The Irishman
Gleason I found in his cabin, and about to be strung up by a rope
146
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
fastened to the rafters, so infuriated were our townsmen at his
silence and stolid indifference to the murders which he had wit-
nessed, if not a party thereto. Great was his surprise on seeing
me, for months after he told me that they were after “larger
game” than hireling strangers they had vowed to die before
going to help put down a nigger war. I protested, as the rope was
about to be drawn, against hanging a man with a leg broken, and
he could give us testimony perhaps important if left alive. He
raised his head with a gleam of hope and said, “I will say some-
thing if you will all leave the room and let me whisper to Grin-
nell. This was his story: “I did not belong to the company; it
was the two Fleeners who fired, and I came up and was shot.
They went for you, and how did you escape ? Let me live and I
will tell the truth. I know my guilt but don't want to die. I am
no murderer.” The crowd yielded as I came out, and Gleason was
spared to be tried, and found guilty, and sentenced to be hung, his
execution only arrested by a life imprisonment at Fort Madison
(by order of President Johnson), where he died years after — I
trust penitential, certainly a very good loyalist talker; and in
prison he admitted that I saved his life in the cabin. If it was
a cold-blooded refusal to sign the petition to prolong life, I felt
there was an occasion for swift retribution to traitors of the "fire
in the rear” order.
· My next office was intercession for a liberation of a portion of
tlie thirty suspected, under guard in my wool house, making a bed
of the sacks soft with wool stored for market. Some of the
number had the crown of years and a record of good behavior,
while others could not be punished, for lack of an overt act. It
was used as a most opportune occasion for advice to the doubtfully
loyal. The corpses of the officers I accompanied to Oskaloosa,
where crowds assembled. At Knoxville, the home of Capt. Wood-
ruff, I addressed an immense crowd at the court house, picturing
treason near home and the issue of blood in crimson flow at the
South. It was an occasion to hush secret enemies, and it not only
buoyed up the loyal but facilitated enlistments in protest to das-
tardly assassination on Iowa soil. The state offered a reward of
$500 for the capture of the Fleeners, returned dead or alive,
which I duplicated, so positive were we of the guilt and deserts of
those men, never arrested. They had farms, and kindred suc-
ceeded them in occupation. Perhaps twenty years had elapsed
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
147
before they dared pollute our soil. It was in 1886 that I heard of
their abode in the West, and there came a proposal for their arrest
if the award was held good. The statute of limitations forbade
their trial for murder, and a return to Iowa would have brought to
them death by the enraged relatives of Bashore and Woodruff.
To assassination I could not be a party, and those deserving death
were left undisturbed after twenty-three years of expatriation in
Kansas. So ends a chapter of home war history, and the days
bringing joy but never mitigating the disloyalty of the ignorant
dupes of the Knights of the Golden Circle, an order of which Val-
landigham and reputed statesmen of his rank were secret leaders,
only waiting for reverses in the field to hoist the flag of cowardly
concession or disunion.
Two noble lives on duty were worth a regiment in awakening
patriotism in Iowa and unfolding the deep plots of traitors in the
county. In company with the governor, the comrades of Bashore
and Woodruff came down from Des Moines, so enraged that they
asked permission for the privilege of taking care of the assassins,
saying they would have fifty funerals in as many hours. This
was not tolerated. Professor S. J. Buck of Iowa College, being
captain at the head of many citizens and students, was quietly
making arrests and unearthing the treasonable conspiracy that
had ordered large shipments of muskets into the county. Those
drafted who failed to report and for whom the officers held orders
for an arrest, were Joseph Robertson, Thomas McIntyre and San-
uel A. Bryant.
CHAPTER X.
Thirty-ninth Congress, 1865–7 — Financial Problems - Red Tape
-- Whiskey Tax— The Thirteenth Amendment — Reconstruction
- Review of the Times - The Press Reporters.
It was under a brighter sky that I took my seat in the Thirty-
ninth Congress. There had been sent up a body of legislators
fresh from the people, demanding an unconditional surrender of
the armed rebels. Only three states -- Delaware, Kentucky and
New Jersey - dissenting in the election of Mr. Lincoln. It is not
to be assumed that the majority were in absolute harmony. A
class like Senators Wade, Chase, Stevens and Davis, called “push-
ing radicals”, had a policy in the treatment of contrabands. But
they joined in the re-election of Mr. Lincoln, and on the surface
there was political harmony.
The following family letter is in marked contrast by its spirit,
to that written on the meeting of the previous Congress. Then I
was a stranger, my seat contested, and the country was under a
war cloud of gathering blackness and bringing the throes of revolu-
tion. Now, nothing could dim or hide the victories in the field.
My seat, before contested, was now secured by a popular majority
of six thousand votes. The letter is here given as narrating an
incident in the life of Thaddeus Stevens rather than my own, and
as expressing the universal joy of the loyal:
i
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON, D. C.
My Dear Wife:
Well, I am in my seat, and it is by invitation at the side of Mr. Stevens, the
leader of the House. His name was in the top of the box for drawing, and on a
full half-sheet of foolscap, which gave him the first choice, and his hat preempted
the coveted next seat, which was reserved for me. It was in vain that I said it
belongs to an older member of your committee. “No, no. It was generosity in
the last Congress that kept me from the noisy rear, and I want you right here, if
you can endure trembling senility, and the adjoining profanity, for General –
is next on the left." A seat in this great noisy chamber is not a small affair; then
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
149
to know the order of business, and listen to the wits, as they hover near, is a great
return for an act of civility.
So with a good seat, not one contested in want of a home majority, as before,
and buttressed now by six thousand majority, and with news of victories all along
our lines, with fewer copperheads to face, I ought to be happy. I am at least con-
tent, unsuited as Washington air and ways may be to my health, and so unlike
home associations. Many of the ambitious in the home district covet my seat, and
they will not find me in the way, by efforts to retain it if I can see the war over.
Yours,
J. B. GRINNELL.
This and the previous Congress had to deal with such financial
problems as never had confronted a people. Hundreds of millions
of a war debt had been contracted, and enemies at home and
abroad pictured repudiation. The loyal, despoiled, clamored for
pay; railways sought relief from the harsh exactions of war, as
common carriers in times of peace. Internal taxes seemed heavy.
Wounded soldiers asked relief, and like those in the field desired
larger pay and bounties for enlistment. Added to just appeals,
the demoralization of war was exhibited in stronger colors and
with more repugnant facts. Plucking the government in many
quarters was regarded as a pastime or a fine art. In disgust I was
glad at last to close my congressional service.
Oh, the red tape! It dangled from the limp fingers of rollick-
ing clerks, was in bows and knots, starched and plaited. It was a
disgraceful burlesque to hunt in pigeon-holes, to aid a quartermas-
ter or a postmaster in a trivial claim or correction. War had con-
taminated the civil service with suspicions and obstructions, and
it came to be, with an anathema, an opinion that it was easier to
hole a lie than to recover a paper from a clerk's pigeon-hole.
The day would open with letters in oppressive numbers — for
example:
A post office complaint.
Notice of delicacies sent for delivery to boys in prison at Libby
from home — many appeals before forwarded.
Error in description of land patent.
Soldier hears nothing of promised promotion.
Contestants for bank charter.
This is only a sample of demands that led an M. C. to draw the
line of public service at taking in washing. It was unsafe to be
absent, with only a small political margin in votes on vital ques-
tions. The policy of a high whiskey tax for revenue was joined to
150
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
one more than a collateral, a direct good in decreasing consump-
tion by increasing the cost. City members, with those indifferent
to the temperance cause were for a low rate. A heavy tax was
adopted, after long discussion, bringing a wise solution of a great
question in a revenue of a hundred million of dollars annually. I
am glad to remember that I had an active part in effecting this end.
It was a further duty to keep up courage at home. To repre-
sent and respect the patriotism of our people, with eight thousand
7
my resolve for more currency. The West had need, as we were
of the debtor class. The war party had the power of issuing
sinews of war and maintain the national credit.
But the great aspiration of the country was the entrenching of
an emancipation edict as a war measure in the bulwarks of the
constitution. A few votes were lacking to pass the Thirteenth
Amendment, which was an occasion of grief to Mr. Lincoln not
less than to the loyal soldiers and citizens of the North.
Time, however, brought its conpensations after the democratic
party had promulged the great war-failure lie, and made McClel-
lan and Pendleton its standard-bearers. This left a square issue
in the selection of members of Congress undaunted in spirit, and
pledged to the great amendments by promises early redeemed.
The proclamation did not, as Senator Cameron proved, “lose us the
next elections". History may record it as the great crisis, and in
association with deeds which time cannot dim in congressional
halls, only less brilliant in debate than victories in the field. :
A meeting of the loyal war governors was held at Altoona on
the 22d of September, 1864, and an address made which was often
quoted and gave backbone to feeble patriots; also, a reassuring
voice to soldiers tired of the camp and fearful of the "fire in the
rear", which encouraged a prolongation of the war, permitting a
cruel delusion at the South, and inviting murder at the North.
In Congress, Alexander Long of Ohio, expressed his treason in
the belief that we could not conquer the South, for we were in the
wrong, and Benjamin G. Harris of Maryland, bolder than his
party, said he would not vote a man or a dollar for the war. The
effort at their expulsion revealed the desire of the hearts of those
persons in Congress who were in their sympathy but too late to be
effective.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
151
Again “the wrath of man was made to praise Him”. It was a
tonic to our soldiers in the field, when they were lauded for brav-
ery, bounties proffered, and thousands of new recruits sent for-
ward to close the war. It was the welcome to colored troops, and
a widespread knowledge of victories in the camps begetting scorn
for pretended patriots and blending the army for its triumph.
Not so can I dismiss the carpers, cold blooded traitors. Here I
class Fernando Wood of New York. He was in Congress, skilled
as a leader, and adept in awakening prejudice against the colored
people. They were held to be too cowardly for soldiers, and quite
beneath the care or thought of Congress as proposed by General 0.
0: Howard, who was of course offensive to the disloyal as a soldier
losing an arm in the decisive battle of Gettysburgh, and now
chosen for his great heart and probity for service involving
humane treatment to the poor, education for the children and
enlistment of adults. It was a blow aimed by Wood at Grant pri-
marily, but looking to awakening prejudices that would stir the
lower classes and lessen the colored enlistments. It was 'the
device of one who had hoped, as mayor of New York, chat his city
would go with the South. Defeat of his resolves does not lessen
his perfidy nor atone for the prejudices aroused and evils caused
by delays in securing legislation, alike demanded by the honor and
justice of the nation. For the House a more radical Senate had
led the way by a vote of thirty-eight yeas to six nays. Now West
Virginia had a voice on the right side by her loyal Willey and
sturdy Van Winkle, and Maryland sent the venerable Reverdy
Johnson to admit the evil of slavery in a state, and the policy of
its inhibition forever. The longer sessions in that body having no
previous question, permitted my hearing Senator Wade of Ohio
with sledge hammer blows, Wilson of Massachusetts in pleas like
a plebeian for the poor, and Charles Sumner on a broad plain of
right for the nation, and a policy to save honor and the union.
James Harlan of Iowa made one of the effective speeches of his
life in reply to Saulsbury, who plead a Bible sanction for early slav-
ery and the morality of the American system. Senator Sherman
treated the divine right theory in this age as a nauseous defense
of it; and he did not convey a hint that those who resorted to these
pleas were clouded in their intellect. I must, being true to my
perceptions, affirm that Senator McDougal from California, and
Saulsbury, were by their habits unfit for legislation. So charitable
152
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
a plea could not be made for Hendricks of Indiana, who, late in life
before reaching the Vice-Presidency, admitted his error. Riddle
of Delaware, kept the traditions of his state, and Powell of Ken-
tucky, with Senator Davis of the same state, clung to their delu-
sion of an old union with a slavery corner-stone; and Davis not
only spoke hours, but days, after his squeaky voice and garrulous
habits had emptied the galleries and put members to sleep in dis-
gust; the officials only remaining on duty to make an audience.
In the House there was the now veteran Holman, ever an
objector. Of Fernando Wood, Thaddeus Stevens spoke as one who
for mere party could never hope to be ranked among statesmen.
“Nay, sir, he will not even rise to the dignity of a respectable
demagogue.”
S. S. Cox with the voice of Jacob could be seen with the hand
of Esau indirectly, on economic questions, to arraign sections, to
weaken the nation's power, unfairly using figures in delusive
array. It became my duty to answer that there were no words fit
to execrate the attempt, in time of war, of alienating people in a
struggle for their flag.
Mr Randall of Pennsylvania had described the constitution
sought to be despoiled as a tree which sheltered him in youth, and
it was no time now to touch a single bough. General J. F. Farns-
worth of Illinois, had come in from the war, and with fresh appeals
and sharp retorts was the lieutenant in service of James M.
Ashley of Ohio, who called the vote of the house only after he had
polled it to learn that a few, recreant to their constituents, would
prevent the adoption of the great measure under discussion. He
changed his vote to ask a reconsideration, coolly saying, “The
record is made up and we must go to the country on this issue
presented.”
Concluding this narration I would not omit another mention
here of Owen Lovejoy, a brother of the Alton martyr, one of the
first to confront, and daring in assault, having framed a bill antici-
pating the great amendment. Too early for his country he died.
And I may add in passing, that, as an unmerited compliment, I
took the places vacated on committees held by the deceased.
Small to the historian will appear the space allotted to most of
us in freedom's majority, but the heads of the great committees
like Stevens, Morrill, Wilson, Schenck, Davis, Boutwell and others,
will appear without a stain on their legislative garments — bold,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
153
yet tolerant; the friends and admirers of our martyred chief, Lin-
coln, not as a God dwelling among mortals, but as one waiting and
moved by the divine hand.
On the constitutional amendments Mr. Lincoln leaned in hope
for their early passage. It was the forecast of statesmanship and
shall be forever in memorial. His hope was realized. For the
Thirteenth Amendment there were one hundred and twelve, lack-
ing two votes to carry it. There were in opposition fifty-six. In
the Senate there was the requisite two thirds in favor of the
measure. There was an adjournment waiting for the verdict of
1864— Lincoln versus McClellan. It was glorious. The union
was saved if the ballots were decisive, and January 31st, 1865,
the rejected amendment was passed by the same Congress that
waited to hear from the people.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.
The Thirteenth read: Section 1st — Neither slavery nor invol-
untary servitude except as a punishment for crime, whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United
States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2d— Congress shall have power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation.
The presidential vote in 1864 gave such potency to the popu-
lar voice as swept Mr. English, a Connecticut democrat, and Mr.
Ganson of New York, into the majority current, voting aye. On
the taking up of the question there was profound silence, crowded
galleries and the intensest emotion, while with solemnity Mr.
Thaddeus Stevens said, “We are about to ascertain the national
will, by another vote to amend the constitution. If gentlemen
opposite will yield to the voice of God and Humanity, and vote for
it, I verily believe the sword of the destroying angel will be
stayed, and this people be reunited. If we still harden our hearts,
and blood must still flow, may the ghosts of the slaughtered vic-
tims sit heavily upon the souls of those who cause it."
In the sequel, on the passage of the amendment in the House
without a vote to spare, it was a happy thought of Hon. E. C.
Ingersoll, the successor of Mr. Lovejoy, to rise and move that in
view of this sublime event this Congress do now adjourn. It was
a scene of hand-shaking, caressing, throwing of hats in the air, lift-
154
1
REMINISCENCES 12
.
OF FORTY YEARSing a great burden from the loyal heart. The contagious joy
reached the White House, where Mr. Lincoln was serenaded and
congratulated upon this amendment vote, which would be read
around the world as a great moral victory. The votes of three
fourths of the states soon followed and made the amendment a
part of the Constitution of the United States. The Fourteenth
and Fifteenth Amendments were the natural sequences to the Thir-
teenth. They become a study in the light of subsequent history
and a necessity in carrying out the great purposes of the founders
of our government, denying a state the power to deprive any per-
son of life, liberty or property, without due process of law. It
apportioned representatives among the states, according to the
number of persons, excluding Indians not taxed. It required a
vote of two thirds of each House to remove disability, before per-
sons who had taken an oath to support the Constitution of the
United States, and had been engaged in the rebellion, could be
qualified again to hold office. It asserted the validity of the pub-
lic debts contracted in the war, and made provision for pensions
and bounties, and denied all obligations as void in an insurrection
or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or
emancipation of any slave. It gave Congress power to enforce the
amendment by appropriate legislation.
RECONSTRUCTION.
I meet to this day idle, floating reproofs of my policy in the
solution of the great questions related to the civil war. For my
vindication I could confidently appeal to the opinions of colleagues.
“Why," it was asked, "did you not adopt Mr. Stevens' theory of
the death of the seceding states by treason, and the confiscation
of Rebel property to lighten the war debt ?" The answer is easy.
These schemes could command only a majority of the war party.
The cities desired a restoration of trade. Those who had seen
the South in war desired to upbuild it in peace, looking to large
gains and the welcome of the banished poor people; and their cry
was “forgetfulness and fraternity”. A majority of loyal congress-
men would have placed every rebel in arms on political probation,
and given a vote to the loyal black man, and to the white man,
who could read his ballot. There was on the surface a good
answer to this scheme, that it would alienate venerable patriots
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
155
whose ignorance was not their fault. It would leave the loyal
black man to suffer for the crime of his master who had inhibited
the spelling-book and Bible. These questions would not wait on
discussions in a political canvass; for the wastes of war, certain
high taxes, and a large standing army to enforce peace in the
South, all conspired to prejudice the timid, tempt the sordid, and
the promise of an anti-bank and anti-tariff cry as means to
secure the domination of the old party.
It is true, ballot-stuffing, intimidation and unholy alliances
have tended to discredit the wisdom of all the reconstruction acts.
Still, courage and decision for the right, and an honest administra-
tion may, in the light of a most wonderful exploit in the manage-
ment of our war debt and the accretion of thousands of millions of
dollars to our national wealth, secure a candid recast of opinion
as the ratification of the acts of a memorable War Congress.
My humble acts were based on decided convictions. All in my
power in aid of high whiskey-excise duty, as a joint economic and
temperance measure, was done. The encouragements of enlist-
ments of colored troops under my resolutions, came to meet with
favor. A larger volume of greenback currency for the West as the
debtor states, was a measure of justice which I sought to push
with vigor. It is a fond hope that General 0. 0. Howard, the
Christian soldier, named the Havelock of our war, will not forget
my intercession with the Secretary of War, or the Freedmen's
Bureau and its commissioner.
The following excerpts from a reconstruction speech, are deci-
sive as to my radical convictions :
Sir, we are acting in sublime concert with the peoples of the world now over-
turning the wrong and remodeling institutions as never before to insure popular
rights. The plea and demand for suffrage hap the charm of an inspiration and is in
alliance with the power of Omnipotence. It gives that charmed eloquence to
England's great reformer which sways multitudes like the forests bent by storms,
and rocks the chief power of Europe to its base. The victorious arms of Prussia
have enlarged the sympathies of her nobility, and the liberal ideas of King
Frederick William have given universal suffrage to his Germanic dominions.
Spain, in preparation for this boon, assures a free education. Alexander of Russia,
more considerate than the late “patriarchal masters” of our Republic, builds
school-houses for those born in slavery and gives them a homestead. Bold and
timely action in behalf of our states will send cheer to millions in the old world;
while a deferring of impartial suffrage will leave our people of the boasted “free
Republic" beneath the subjects of king or autocrat.
156
REMINISCENCES OF FORTS YEARS.
“Let us alone,” they cry. That has been the criminal's supplication in all
time. “Give us peace and guano," they ask. No, that is not their great want,
but the humility which is one of the first evidences of sorrow for crime and the
humanity which will raise up the lowly who have been the victims of their des-
potism. To become coequal members of our political family they must open their
eyes upon the party wrecks, the strewn and broken timbers which tell of the
ignorant conservatism of captain and pilot. Conservatism! That of to-day offers
neither a retreat for the man nor a pledge for the growth and virtue of his party.
The idolaters of fossils, who on all occasions and with prolonged speech shout
Constitution are akin to that class described by the Virginian who declared unwit-
tingly that when they said Union they meant nigger three times. They propose
to save nothing good which is really endangered; and having intrusted their loco-
motion and progress to that very conservative steed, with eyes turned backward to
his load and a facility for breeching labor rather than with the collar they make.
only such down-hill strides as are easy and convenient to that memorable abode of
the chief conservatives of our time, the slough of despond. All compassionate
generals, sparing of ammunition, fearful of the temper of their sword-all neutral
states and political constitutional saviors have their day, and are to sleep with the
Bourbons of all nations.
Will the party that has amid the throes of civil war become strong, heed the
prejudices of ignorance, fearing its vinous inspiration, and dare to be unjust by
neglect of those now imperiled who, in great numbers, without the hope of pro-
motion, went from under the lash and stole away from the slave-pen, or broke from
the coffee-gang to nurse our sick, pilot our armies, or take their place in the ranks
of our brave soldiery? Then it will be denied the pleasure of gleaning from these
fields "where the red rain makes the grass grow"; then the humble laborers who
have made our majorities at the polls, remembering that the royal arms of Lilliput
were an angel liſting a lame beggar from the earth, will retire in sadness and
abjure your party creed. Those religious denominations, representing the con-
viction and zeal of millions, have, in their late annual gatherings, spoken with
united voice for that comprehensive justice which no constitutional amendment
now proposed will assure, and the conditions of their future cooperation must be
our adherence to principle and the recognition of a God in our history.
Mr. Chairman, I do not despair of the adoption of a safe and radical policy.
Our long marches and decisive battles have a parallel in mighty civic victories
which have a voice for the timid.
“Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed.”
That clemency of the conqueror to rebels, as shown by president and Congress,
has brought out a timely development of the proud unsubdued spirit which would
dictate the terms of restoration. I regard it as related to a wonderful chain in
God's provinces. Our first Bull Run defeat, which menaced this capital, awak-
ened the moral sense of the nation to its crimes, and pointed out our dangers and
duties. It was preparatory to the warning proclamation of President Lincoln in
September, 1862, which traitors in arms would not heed, and was followed by the
loss of slavery, that for which they began the war. And now when they scorn the
mildest terms of conciliation ever made to rebellious spirits, the question of rights
and ballots for the long degraded and defenseless, need not be committed to the
caprice or love of power reigning with the dominant class. Let history speak with
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
157
her trumpet tongue from the graves of nations that consented to the degradation
of their meanest subjects, and if wise we shall be warned by the fatal compromises
made by our fathers, and now about to shape the destinies of millions shall not
forget His paternal care of those who survived the slavery of Egypt, the perils of
the sea, and wanderings in the wilderness, in giving them homes, protection
from enemies, and wise and devoted friends.
I regard it as a delusion that representation here by the rebel states will
strengthen or assimilate the nation. Congeniality of spirit is a prerequisite. Let
the disloyal spirit just evinced at a fair held in this city be exorcised, where the
ballots for the rebel general, Lee, were as six to one for our great captain, General
Grant; let rebel airs no longer on festive occasions drown our national song, and if
there be a loyal pulsation let it bring out the stars and stripes so long overlain with
the rattlesnake flag; unlock the cemetery gates closed against the sable patriots
who would strew the flowers of affection on the graves of their comrades; bid the
Lone Star State desist in her demands for the removal of our dead from their
graveyards, that the dust of "hireling soldiers” mingle not with that of her
“noble and heroic dead”; make political preferment in city and county possible to
a Unionist, and, for the time, penitents should detain their sons from the college
lectures on moral philosophy by ex-pirato Semmes,
"The mildest mannered man
That ever scuttled ship, or cut a human throat';
and at least when safe and convenient arrest defiant murderers at large, that the
cry "I am a loyal American citizen” be no more the signal for a visitation of
cruelty if he be an American citizen of African descent.
Demons stood aghast at the cruelties unatoned for endured by our prisoners,
and hell doubtless waits for the coming of those leaders in rebellion whom we
seem to have no laws to punish. Strange that they should desire a return on any
terms, and more strange our leniency, and that we have not met the expectations
of the country and made impartial suffrage a condition. This withheld, my vote
for their return will not be given. Never, never !
The shame of so-called patriots in opposing the policies of the
war party should have brought confession, but rather angered
those who had been defeated at every step. Those amendments
which were designed to forbid slavery and to protect the poor were
not supported by the anti-war party. This alone was enough to
place obstructionists at the North under suspicion as to future
acts. Not as prodigals, then, did the South.come back, but to affil-
iate with the most dangerous foes of the Union at the North.
Trade and commerce wanted peace and outvoted the radicals.
There was an unholy combination, a purpose to depreciate loy-
alty and place at the head of the table the McGregors, conferring
honor on future dispensers of power. The bugbear of carpet-bag-
gers at the South was kept up after their offenses ceased. Then a
cry of civil service was taken up by the artful as a species of Phar-
158
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
asaic cant to aid a few, too cold-blooded for the crisis, to hold the
balance of power and to care for the few of the clan, a minority
able to mass their forces in aid of Bourbonism. It was to copy
England; keep in the old paths and fill places of trust in disregard
of party policies and service under the flag.
It is a part of the history of the last twenty-five years that the
fears of radical reconstructionists of the war period have been real-
ized, under the temptations of political power and a morbid idea
that the elevation of ex-slaves to positions of honor would be for
the degradation of ex-masters. I am not unmindful of a low prej-
udice North fanning an unholy flame which nothing less than jus-
tice and the highest dictates of religion will suppress. In 1872,
joining the liberal movement that nominated Horace Greeley, and
putting behind me promotion in my own party, I made a conscien-
tious sacrifice to test and win our late enemies, and I now the
more regret, in the light of false counts, terror and assassinations,
that there had not been a territorial probation before an admission
of states to full fellowship in the family. For reasons which are
public we detained Utah, knocking for admission Statesmanship
would have kept the reins of power with the party that had saved
the union, until time should blend as equals the sons of those who
upheld and those who trampled on the flag.
It is too late to moralize, but not for thanks that a tariff, a
basis of hope for the soldiers, returned to industrial pursuits, has
not been destroyed. The wordy goodyism of the southern Gradys,
when avowing the place of a colored man to be under the yoke of
sham patriots, does not find a response from those who have
trusted in the act of Congress which forbade slavery or involun-
tary servitude in any of the territories of the United States, or on
any soil of which the nation should hereafter become possessed.
This greatly embittered the border and democratic representatives,
while making appeals to the country which only malignity could
inspire.
The curtain falls and the second War Congress disperses. Cau-
tion like fear has given way to rapture. The value of the black
man as a soldier has been recognized. He has become assured of
personal liberty and the ballot, by the devices of Congress and
the passage of the constitutional amendments. A great financial
scheme and an anchor is found in the national banking system.
The American protective policy survives the assaults of ex-rebels
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
159
and free-traders. Foreign intervention came to an end with the
overthrow of the French in Mexico, and the execution of Arch
Duke Maximilian. Victories on land and sea drove the “Knights
of the Golden Circle” into secrecy, placing the leaders in the roll
of reprobates and in pillory to the scorn of the world. Their favor-
ite for the presidency received but the votes of the states of New
Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky, a total of twenty-one votes, leav-
ing one hundred and ninety-one as Mr. Lincoln's electoral major-
ity. The most conspicuous members of this Congress were
re-elected. The rebellion was soon crushed, but there was a sad
hiatus in the apostasy of Andrew Johnson, vice-president on the
assassination of Mr. Lincoln, April 14th, 1865.
THE PRESS REPORTERS.
As the able press reporters, more influential than many who
had seats on the floor, are an important adjunct of Congress, they
fitly come in here for some notice. My sympathy with the men of
the press has always been strong. Indeed, among my escapes, I
came near being an editor. Early, after much hesitation, I
declined a newspaper partnership offered by one who had knowl-
edge of my tastes. It has been my lot to write the salutatory for
two newspapers, and a valedictory for one, while freely indulging
a pen for the airing of imy opinions, and pushing on social and
political schemes, not to mention the calls for contributions by the
various reformers who have arisen the last thirty years..
It is the habit of the press to claim that out of very poor
material it has made conspicuous actors, and that it never has been
repaid for the blunders it has averted, and the venality of public
officials it has exposed. I think I could name a score of public
characters whom the scribblers claim to have “got up”. Long
before entering Congress, while but a visitor, passing down the
capitol ground, I heard this colloquy:
“That speech of yours this morning was the best effort of your
life, but I thought of some things you could have hung on to it, to
brighten the points.” The M. C. answered, “Glad you think so;
I had not much preparation and am going out of town. Here, I
trust you (handing over a gold piece) to fix it up for the Morning
Globe.” I judged it was a cheap but good investment by the
praise which the speech, revised, brought to the author. He is yet
160
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
alive, too indolent, it is said, to correct. his speeches, but for forty
years in the line of special favors.
Popular speech-makers are as rare as born poets or model legis-
lators, and, when a constituency demands an utterance by their
member, he must speak; and then appears, not the man tailor, but
the professional literary aid, to astonish the readers with the
speaker's gifts, until then undiscovered. This is not of necessity a
vicious method in moulding public sentiment, since it is often true
that a correct thinker, a royal man, often lacks the skill to clothe
his opinions in their proper garb.
Time makes new demands. He was once regarded as a genius
who could report a speech in its spirit, before the era of short-
hand. The great debaters did not indulge in written speeches, and
the polishing by a reporter was a welcome aid. The newer art,
which a dull boy with an acute ear can learn, makes less the
scholar and rhetorician who is a reporter. It is now the question
who can best grasp the subject, group the headland facts, report
graphically the actors, and outline future skirmishes and the issue
of debates. In conversation with Mr. Greeley, I remember that he
said it was his most difficult task to get the right man to sit in the
galleries, and one who also had a welcome at the departments to
find the freshest news.
From those with whom I became personally acquainted I could
make a list. They would make a roll of claimants to a large share
of honors, especially in the exposures of the base in politics. If
an ambition to reach a seat in Congress cannot be gratified there
is another school of opportunity and service in connection with
the press. Was it D’Israeli, while a member of Parliament, who
said, “I am myself a gentleman of the press and have no other
escutcheon”?
Ben Perley Poor, not long since deceased, was a Senate official
for thirty or more years, and an amateur Massachusetts farmer,
while holding a veteran's rank in Newspaper Row. His conceits
were pardonable, for he was loyal to his convictions, if seemingly
intolerant. General . V. Boynton, of the Cincinnati and West-
ern Press, had the rare gifts of a Washington correspondent-
perseverance in a hunt, and a talent for sharp criticism, but not
always of mature and impartial judgment.
Dr. George Alfred Townsend with the nom-de-plume of “Gath”,
'has for a quarter of a century startled the public by discovery, and
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
161
been feared and berated as the Bohemian of his time. I think he
commanded the largest pay by the column of any correspondent,
for his original researches, brilliant sketches and political predic-
tions as to success or defeat. Levi P. Morton, our Vice-President,
found in him an elegant biographer and friend, whose rare gifts
and delineation are known without passing through a forest of ver-
biage. Mr. John Bigelow of New York, who was a quiet looker-on
from the gallery in the service of Bryant's Evening Post, later
became minister to France, serving his country with the skill of a
- diplomat, and the protégé and executor of his personal friend, Sam-
uel J. Tilden.
Horace White, after college graduation, became a Senate com-
mittee-clerk and correspondent in Washington, and later the man-
aging editor of the Chicago Tribune, especially conspicuous in the
Liberal Greeley campaign, together with Whitelaw Reid, and Sam-
uel Bowles of the Springfield Republican. On the death of the
poet, William Cullen Bryant, of the New York Evening Post, Mr.
White became the purchaser of that sheet, amassing a fortune
while retaining the editorship, with the rank of a severe critic
rather than a trusted party leader. Colfax of Indiana, Baldwin of
the Worcester Spy, and Wood, Brooks and Raymond of New York,
sent out editorials from Washington, quoted as of high authority.
Horace Greeley of the Tribune had the sagacity to select and
retain as correspondent that accomplished gentleman J. L. Pike of
Maine, later our minister to the Netherlands. Samuel Wilkinson,
who married the sister of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had held for
many years the pen of a graphic writer, and for twenty years was
secretary of the Northern Pacific Railway; he was widely copied
as a skillful delineator of great characters and passing events.
“Richelieu" was the nom-de-plume of the young Irishman Robinson,
nearly forty years ago, a severe caricaturist, and taking especial
delight in “twisting the tail of the British Lion” for the New
York Tribune. With a residence in Brooklyn, he became a sensa-
tional democratic member of Congress, where he took little pride
in his position, and, as he told me, found less pleasure than in a
hunt for news and the characters whom he could describe without
a fear of a call to order. His collisions were sharp and frequent
on the floor.
“ Agate” was the best known, sharp, learned and courteous
correspondent of the New York Tribune in the war epoch. He
162
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
found easy promotion to the chair of assistant editor. On the
death of Mr. Greeley he became a large stockholder and its manag-
ing editor; and this “ Agate” was Whitelaw Reid, our accom-
plished minister plenipotentiary to France, whose official service
has won for him higher honors than the delicate attentions to the
wants of his countrymen and his elegant hospitality. He magni-
fied his journalistic office in long service as well as in his verse:
“Ah, no! to the day-dawn of knowledge and glory,
A far brighter noon-tide refulgence succeeds,
And our art shall embalm through all ages in story,
Her champion who triumphs-her martyr who bleeds;
And proudly her sons shall recall their devotion,
While millions shall listen to honor and bless,
Till there bursts a response from the heart's strong emotion,
And the earth echoes deep with “ Long life to the Press ! ”
· It is now my conviction that no vocation in war time gave
better opportunities than the reporter's for the mending of weak
points in our political harness, or the detection and exposures of
the lapses and weaknesses of public servants. I have no defense
of mere sensationalism, nor can I deny that some reporters at
Washington retired rich, and not by legitimate methods.
CHAPTER XI.
A Personal Assault — Freedman's Bureau the Occasion with the
Apostasy of Andrew Johnson—James F. Wilson— Freedom of
Speech-General Rousseau reprimanded by the House— His
Death.
A PAINFUL congressional episode cannot well be omitted. It
throws light on a period of intense bitterness, and was connected
with the relapse of an accidental president. It is also an exposure
of the barbarism of slavery, depicted by Jefferson, and is of a
piece with the cruel inhumanities of later periods. We all are
interested in the defense of free speech against the assaults of vio-
lence. There was no ground for the loose assertion of the unthink-
ing that an unarmed man of peace should, in return, have killed in
cool blood his assailant. The action of Congress reflects credit
upon the body, in the infliction of a non-partisan punishment, and
verifies the sentiment of the wisest, that “He that ruleth his own
spirit is greater than he that taketh a city". To the honor of Con-
gress it may be said that there has been no repetition of a kindred
assault in the last twenty-five years.
It is personally distasteful to call up the incidents of an assault
for words spoken in debate. Still, the hasty public judgment that
I should have fought my assailant, and, without his apology, taken
the life of a criminal, required a statement of facts with legitimate
deductions even after the lapse of twenty years.
I never saw a man struck by another with a blow in anger until
I was called to in a friendly voice on the porch of the capitol of
Washington, and assaulted by a cane in the hands of General Rous-
seau of Kentucky. He was a pugilist, over six feet in height,
weighing fully two hundred pounds, and armed with pistols. I
had not even a pen-knife by me, and was physically unable to
résent his assault. The sequel will show how fully afterwards he
was in my power, that heavy drinking was held to mitigate the
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
offense, and that on his death-bed not long after he sent me a
frank, if late, apology.
POLITICS THE OCCASION, NOT PERSONAL HONOR.
It was early in the year 1866, and Andrew Johnson, relapsed
from professions of friendship for the colored people of the South,
had become their enemy. The Freedman's Bureau, in charge of
General 0. 0. Howard, became to ex-slave owners an intense object
of aversion. Mr. Rousseau had the credit of a membership in the
6 back-stairs cabinet"; also of a failure as a legislator. He sought
notoriety in another role, and was prominent in the convivial circle
whereof the president was a disgraceful oracle. He antagonized
every law which looked to a just protection of the colored people.
lican party from their accidental president, who turned to mass
the South, before his bitter enemies, into serviceable political
cohorts. Denunciation of the North was powerless to do what an
assault, on the plea of avenging wounded honor, might effect in
drawing sectional lines and giving power to Johnson in a dissi-
pated career.
This is, in part, the record. The House having under consider-
ation the bill to enlarge the powers of the Freedman's Bureau, I as
a member of the special committee and selected to lead in the
debate, said: “This bill has been carefully considered in commit-
tee. It is endorsed in its main features by General Howard of the
Bureau, General Grant and Secretary Stanton.” I showed the
abuses of the colored people in Kentucky and the desperate opposi-
tion of the delegation from that state, headed by General Rousseau.
I denied that it was a partial bill, and declared that it was framed
to reach those in want, even the White Mountain refugees, espe-
cially the poor and homeless. The long-enslaved were our friends,
yet had been kind and considerate in long and abject service to
now cold-blooded masters. Continuing I said:
It is the Christian duty of this government, as it has been the duty of the
various philanthropic societies and religious associations, to take care of these peo-
ple. At the homes of the sons of the pilgrims on our remotest prairies contribu-
ions are made for the refugees and freedmen; and the Society of Friends, who
have gauged the numbers and wants of these suffering people, hid among the
mountains in camps and hospitals, have set us an example of fidelity. They could
not take up arms with a good conscience, yet they were the first in the hospitals
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
165
and the longest there, refusing to receive compensation, munificent in their quiet
charities; and now they come to us from Maryland and all our states, asking pro-
tection for their agents and schools. Their school-houses, have been burned since
the sitting of this Congress, and so near to us that the very flames of the conflagra-
tion might have lighted up this capitol.
Mr. Speaker, there is to-day devolved upon us - I care not who decries it; I
will not evade it- a high, solemn and religious duty. We should be worse than
barbarians to leave these people where they are, landless, poor, unprotected; and
I com.nend to gentlemen who still cling to the delusion that all is well, to take
lessons of the Czar of the Russians, who, when he enfranchised his people, gave
thern lands and school-houses, and invited schoolmasters from all the world to
coms here and instruct them. Let us hush our national songs; rather gird on
sack-cloth, if wanting in moral courage to reap the fruits of our war by being just
and considerate to those who look up to us for temporary counsel and protection.
Care and education are cheaper for the nation than neglect, and nothing less than
tliis bill will meet the demands of statesmanship and humanity.
I am ready to yield my preferences and co-operate with all sections, knowing
that we rise or fall together in national character. I would have nothing partial
or sectional, nor by a word or act hinder a state in the march to the noble position
wbich her generosity or heroism may give title. To even that state which is so
unwilling to receive a nation's dispensations to her poor, I would give a proud and
commanding position among our commonwealths.
Near the conclusion of an hour's speech I said: “This discus-
sion is plainly not promotive of the most commendable temper.
The honorable gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. Rousseau, declared
on Saturday, as I caught his language, that if he were arrested on
the complaint of a negro, and brought before one of the agents of
this bureau, when he became free he would shoot him. Is that
civilization ? It is the spirit of barbarisin that has long dwelt in
our land; the spirit of the infernal regions that brought on our
war."
On a challenge of my statements, I used this language, which
gave offense; proposing to extract or qualify it, if not true:
MR. GRINNELL. History repeats itself. I care not whether the gentleman
was four years in the war on the Union side or four years on the other side; I say
that he degraded his state and uttered a sentiment I thought unworthy of an
American officer when he said that he would do such an act on the complaint of a
negro against him.
After Mr. Rousseau had risen to a question of privilege and
attempted a denial of the language as reported in the Globe, I said:
"I give the member the full benefit of an explanation of his
declaration that he would kill a white officer acting under oath and
in the discharge of his duty, if that is a less unworthy act than
to shoot an American citizen of African descent. That may not
166
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
have been degrading to his state, and whether it was, as I said,
language unbecoming an American officer is a question which I
shall refer to the gallant soldiers of the State of Iowa who never
fought, thank God! but on one side, and it may properly be
decided by the code of the first of American generals, and referred
to the greatest of American captains, the Lieutenant-General of
the United States.*
“I have nothing more to add, only to repeat that my animus
toward the member was the kindest. I criticised barbarous laws
and his language from a sense of duty, and I have given his own
language in justice to him, although he first used the unparlia-
mentary language toward me, which, as I repeat, I regarded as no
personal offense.”
The friction between the president and Congress increased, up
to the time General Rousseau in New York alluded to the member
from Iowa as “a pitiable politician", and my rejoinder in ridicule
and denial of his pretensions in leading Iowa soldiers, is not mate-
rial. The "fire eaters” demanded from him a speech or blows.
He called me to halt under the guise of a friendly voice.
A TRIAL.
This being the second offense of the kind in the history of the
government, a select committee was appointed to investigate and
report, which they did, the majority proposing a reprimand for
both. The House vote was a reprimand for my assailant, but none
for me.
The special committee for the investigation of the assault by General
Rosseau upon Mr. Grinnell, held a meeting yesterday. The evidence taken
conclusively established the fact that Rosseau formally informed one person of
his intention to attack Mr. Grinnell on Thursday morning, and asked him to act
as his friend in the matter, but that no less than three persons were present, armed,
on his side. Two or three persons, one of whom was Colonel Pennybaker of Ken-
tucky, admitted that they were armed with loaded pistols. This testimony tends
to show that Rosseau and his party were bent upon bringing on a bloody affair,
and that bad Mr. Grinnell offered the slightest resistance, he would have been
killed without doubt..
The following is a statement of Mr. Grinnell before the committee on the
evening of the 19th:
As I was passing out of the rotunda I was seized by Mr. Rosseau, who, swear-
ing, said, “I want an apology.” To which I replied, “You are the one to apol-
* While the papers were discussing the assault, General Grant said to me,
“The cowardly assault is reprobated by every honorable soldier, while your criti-
cism was seyere but just."
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
167
ogize; you began the attack; I have no apology to make." Placing his hand on
his breast, to draw a weapon, I seized him by the collar, when he struck me five
or six times over the face with a cane having an iron end, until it was broken. I
said, “You have assaulted me in the House, but I have no desire to hurt you."
He said, “You d-d coward, I want to disgrace you." I said, “You cannot do it.
I only defended myself in debate.” He continued swearing, when I said, "If the
crowd is done with me, I will leave," and picked up a piece of the cane and
walked away. I was alone and saw him surrounded by friends. I did not resist,
presuming there was a purpose to assassinate me. I have suffered considerably
from injuries in the face and on the shoulders, received from the iron point of the
cane.- Washington Correspondent.
My treatment of the blustering general was salutary. It ended
his retort, “When were you in the war ?" and my reply was pleas-
ing to generals of real fame. Of those who stood up in my defense,
were the Hon. James F. Wilson, Thaddeus Stevens and Generals
Banks and Garfield, who spoke against the assaulting party and
asked for an expulsion. These points were made by Mr. Wilson
in his arraignment: that there had been in the assault a flagrant
violation of the constitution; that honors were easy as to the use
of language in personality, but the gentleman from Kentucky had
been wounded and worsted in debate, and had fallen on the shield
of his military record. Mr. Wilson, amid frequent interruptions,
carried the house in his arraignment of mock chivalry so fully
that no one cared to reply; and, on a call for my reproof, there
was not a member to call for a vote of the house. This was the
conclusion of his argument:
“Sir, we have had too much 'impression about this case already; altogether
too much 'impression'. Instead of being guided by the imprint which the official
types have made upon the official records of this House, the impressions of gentle-
men have been resorted to. This is the case so far as the words used in debate
are concerned. But I am not ready to yield the case to the gentleman from Ken-
tucky yet. There is one other thing worthy of our attention. After my colleague
had responded to the gentleman from Kentucky, the gentleman from Kentucky
sought the floor again to reply. He did reply to what was said on that occasion by
my colleague, and he closed his reply in this language:
“I hope now that I have heard the last of the member from Iowa. I hope I
shall never have occasion to recur to the subject again. Whatever glory he has
gained in this contest I am content he should wear.'
“Such, sir, was the parting language of the gentleman from Kentucky to my
colleague. He in effect declared that he desired to hear nothing more in relation
to the case; that he desired to have nothing more to do with my colleague. With
that declaration imprinted upon the records, the member from Kentucky deliber-
ates for four days --'expecting an apology,' though he had not notified my col-
168
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
league that he would not receive ones and closing in the House with the remarks
I have just quoted, again notifying my colleague that he wanted nothing to do
with him, the belligerents retired from the field. All was at peace so far as that
ogy. The storm is over. I am satisfied with what I have made, and if the gentle-
man from Iowa is satisfied with the laurels he has won, let him wear them; I am
content.' Four days passed; and what then do we find? The gentleman from
Kentucky seeks my colleague on the eastern portico of this capitol, and there
administers to him a caning --for what? Why, sir, as the record shows, for lan-
guage used in dehate in this House, for which the Constitution which the member
from Kentucky swore to support and maintain, declares no member shall be ques-
tioned elsewhere. Now, it may be that there is nothing but sunshine on that side
of the case; but I want to know from members whether they are to be driven or
coaxed away from their duty of maintaining sacredly the privileges of this body
by any sympathy that persons may seek to create here in behalf of the gentleman
from Kentucky, who seems to be so abundantly able to take care of himself, and
who refuses apologies when tendered. Why, sir, from the nature of the discussion
we have had it seems that in this country no man's character is worth anything
unless he has been a military man. You may charge a man with being a 'liar', a
'mere thing','a pitiable politician'; you may use all kinds of opprobrious epithets
toward him; he is nobody. But when a gentleman like the gentleman from Ken-
tucky comes in here from the military service - and whether he performed his
duty well or ill, I am not going to question - when such a gentleman comes in
here and uses unparliamentary language like that I have read from his remarks,
attacking the character of other members of the House, he is to be shielded
by that immunity which his service in the army throws about him. Sir, I trust
it will be very long before this House will adopt that doctrine.
“Why, sir, the character and reputation of a civilian are as dear to him as the
it is certainly quite as much a provocation for a return of the attack in the body
where the attack is made as language uttered by another is provocation for the
military gentleman to change his base outside of this Hall, and make his attack
there.
“Now, sir, I have occupied the attention of the House longer than I had
intended when I sought the floor; but I desired to present, at least in an imper-
fect manner, the side of the case to which very little attention had been given dur-
ing this discussion. I wish, also, before I conclude, to remind the House of the
circumstances attending this assault. The gentleman from Kentucky had been
thinking over it for four days. It was a deliberate, malicious assault upon a mem-
ber of the House for words spoken on the floor. It was not only deliberate on the
part of the gentleman himself, but his purpose was conveyed to at least one other
person, whom he invited to be present, and who by some cunningly-devised means
managed, without formal invitation, to have one other there, both of them being
armed. The second one testifies that he did not arm himself for the purpose of
taking a part in this difficulty; that he did not know the difficulty would occur.
But by some means this man Pennybaker, who was notified of the assault, pro-
cured the attendance of these other innocent men, who did not know anything
“Now, of course, these parties were all innocent, and this congregating together
of three or four persons to assault a member of Congress amounts to nothing. I
suppose, from the course this case has taken, that the privileges of this body
amount to nothing; that the independence of the representative character, the
independence of the legislative body of this nation amount to nothing, if you only
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
169
have its privileges infringed upon by some, gentleman who comes here surrounded
by military glory such as is claimed for the gentleman from Kentucky.”.
Mr. Allison in finale called up the resolution and order of the
House. Speaker Colfax said:
" General Rosseau : The House of Representatives has declared you guilty of
a violation of its rights and privileges in a premeditated assault on a member for
words spoken in debate. This condemnation they have placed upon their journal
and have ordered that you be publicly reprimanded by the speaker.
“No words of mine can add to the force of this order, in obedience to which I
now pronounce upon you its reprimand.”
There are incidents outside of the official debates, and the
action of the House, to be noticed. I was deeply interested in this
Freedman's bill, having had interviews with General Grant as the
head of the army. Prominent colored people, also, and General
Howard, looked to me as a champion of the bill. In the discus-
sion in committee of the whole I was chairman a portion of the
time of the speaker's call, and listened to all the debates. I was
further pushed to the verge of personalities by the overbearing,
pompous manner of the member from Kentucky, and the frequent
boast of his military record and the taunting sneer, “When were
you in the war?” This was offensive to real soldiers, who were
happy in seeing his plumes lowered on the field he had chosen for
the false estimate of his ability. The remark that "he would
shoot a soldier on duty” General Grant assured me was regarded a
disgrace and unsoldierlike. The civilian, loyal, and on duty at
home and in Congress, I deemed as honorable, if less noted, as the
soldier, and the code of ethics and taste which made severe lan-
guage fit for a general, I regarded as suited to a civilian. Still,
my peaceful course in waiting for the action of Congress did not
meet the favor of belligerent spirits. I had with the spirit of a
man, on my way down the avenue, stepped in and asked for a pis-
tol, but it did not suit me. On entering my lodgings, I met Sena-
tor Howard of Michigan, who asked what was the matter with my
face. And on the reply, “Not much," said he unust know, and I
gave the facts in a few words, saying, “I will go to my dinner.”
“Dinner! Shoot him before you eat. It is a cowardly conspiracy
backed by Johnson and traitors.” Soon he came to my side at
dinner, saying, "I gave you wrong advice, it is too late for vio-
lence, you cannot afford it. They were drunk, while you are cool
170
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
and sober.” On going up to my room I found Senator Grimes of
Iowa, Senators Wilson and Sumner, also meinbers of the Iowa del-
egation, to restrain me from shooting my assailant, which would,
they said, involve regret, and end in assassination. The time had
passed to use a deadly weapon, except in self-defense. My Iowa
friends in the department made me a present of a heavy cane with
an iron head from a bolt in the historic Monitor, and this I carried.
By a resolution of the House, the parties in this affair were sum-
moned before a committee called to meet in a high by-corner of the
capitol, reached by winding stairs. I was the first to arrive and
stood alone by the stair, when Rosseau appeared. Seeing me only,
as, standing over him with the iron-headed cane, he could not
retreat without exposing himself to a blow which would have
pale. I said, “I have you in my power, but I will not kill you."
Not a word further was spoken, and I give him credit for a frank
relation of the circumstances that I did not use my power and
advantage to take his life. Great as the provocation was, I have
not imitate him, which I could have done with a deadly blow, in
safety, when alone.
General Rousseau, leaving Congress, was appointed an officer in
the regular army, by President Johnson. While on duty in New
Orleans, after two or three years' service, he died. I hear that he
has a family living, and I would not mention rumors or facts as to
his career which might be an uncharitable reflection on the unfor-
tunate dead. While in New Orleans, I met an acquaintance who
was with the general in his sickness, and learned that when near
his end, he said he regretted the assault, for while I wounded his
pride by severe words, he wished to live to make reparation by an
apology, for I had spared his life.
Fair debate without personalities is a practice to be com-
mended, however great the provocation to bitter retort. For many
years I was thrown where there was sharp debate, and suspect
myself of a bitterness, which I must charge to indignation toward
a cruel pretender. Severe words should not be indulged except on
the greatest provocation, is the lesson of an unhappy affair. I
would be one in the role of peacemakers, who are on the best
authority blessed.
CHAPTER XII.
Lincoln's War Cabinet — Salmon P: Chase - Edwin M. Stanton-
William H. Seward — General and President Grant.
The Emancipation Cabinet I knew well— Mr. Chase, Mr. Seward,
Mr. Bates of St. Louis, a quiet gentleman of the old school;
Montgomery Blair, son of Francis P. Blair, the eminent admirer
and eulogizer of General Jackson; Caleb B. Smith of Indiana, a
speaker of ability and local fame; and Mr. Stanton the War Min-
ister. Abraham Lincoln, of course, was the great figure who
humorously describes himself on duty, “Keeping his cabinet in
order and from quarreling.” How little they had in common in
native endowments, and even less in environment and birth, yet all
favorable to the attainment of world-wide renown. :
It was in 1861 that I first met the president. Waiting, on his
request, I took from the marble mantle a volume by Orpheus C.
Kerr. It was a light, witty burlesque, and, while holding it in my
hand, Mr. Lincoln said, “Don't judge your friend by that book of
fun and romance. I read it when my brain is weary, and I seek
relief by diversion, which this promotes. I have hours of depres-
sion, and I must be unbent. When a boy, the owner of a bow and
arrow, I found one must let up on the bow if the arrow is to have
force. Read Kerr and then pity me chained here in the Mecca of
office-seekers. You flaxen men with broad faces are born with
cheer, and don't know a cloud from a star. I am of another tem-
perament. But, drop the book, and if the country will get up as
much fever in enlistments as there is strife for the offices, the
rebel leaders will soon have a collapse."
Months later I called, and met his salutation, “How is Iowa;
with whom did you leave those few sheep (a few thousand) in the
wilderness ?” “Not much, Mr. President, of shepherd David's
wilderness - all prairie. Will you please tell me, how did you
know I kept sheep?" "I remember men by association, and know
172
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
you a tariff man and sheep owner by a picture of one of your flock,
in the United States Agricultural report. It was his Satanic
majesty, clipping the hog, that founded the old proverb, “Great
cry and little wool’; but the war demand should make you sheep-
farmers very happy and patriotic.” I soon passed to business,
which was asking for the promotion of the gallant Eliott W. Rice
to the rank of brigadier in the army, for heroic service. “What
does Stanton say?" he asked. “Nothing, will not even look up
the papers.” “Yes, I know the cases like yours are hundreds, and
it disturbs him, even my hint that we may move up the boys and
encourage enlistments. It is a very delicate question. Don't be
impatient, but get on the right side of a very good officer.” On a
second call, Mr. Lincoln anticipating me said, “Stanton was fairly
mad on the suggestion of promotion by civilians or members of
Congress.” My answer was, “I base my claim on the recommend-
ations of superior officers in the field.” “You get the facts,” said
he, “and quietly say the president hopes your request will be
granted.” When we next met I was accosted, “Have you not gone
home yet? Let us walk; I am weary and depressed by many
things I cannot talk about.” After a renewal of my argument in
behalf of the fourth district of Iowa, and pleading the gallantry
and number of her soldiers, he said, “I cannot attempt to make
Stanton over at this stage. You will win, if patient.” With a
nod of doubt, he said with his hand on the knob of the White
House door, “Have you a slip of paper ?” And while resting
against a column wrote:
“Sir: Without an if or an and, let Colonel Eliott W. Rice be made a brigadier-
general in the United States army.
"A. LINCOLN
“To E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.”
He took my hand with a parting good-by and said, “Report, if
necessary, from the War Office.” It is in sequel elsewhere, the
successful issue in promotion by Mr. Stanton.*
* From Colonel Byers' history, “ Iowa in war times.” Hon. J. B. Grinnell,
on being elected to Congress, insisted that the gallant Col. E. W. Rice, who had
been promoted for gallantry at Donelsoni, be made a brigadier-general. Mr. Stan-
ton refused to talk with civilians on the subject. He would not permit interfer-
ence with army appointments. Mr. Grinnell still importuned, urged that Rice
deserved this, that all the officers of his company approved it, wanted it, and that
Le, Grinnell, personally had come to Washington to demand it. "No use, sir,"
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
· 173
At another visit to the White House, in company with several
Iowans, I called, urging the appointment of Secretary Chase as
chief justice. Later, seeing Mr. Lincoln alone, he quizzed me
with questions. “Are you sure the seat of a chief justice will
not heighten rather than banish political ambition? It ought to
banish it; so high and honorable a place should satisfy and engross
any American. Well, you are of good hope on the outside, but I
must do the right thing in this critical hour.”
Mr. Lincoln was met by the assassin in the theatre, and I
think it was the need of relaxation more than the attractions of
the stage that made him a witness of the best actors, though he
was an ardent admirer of Shakespeare. I once said, “Mr. Presi-
dent, I see that you with some of the rest of us were out last
night.” “Yes, and they said my coarse laugh was very audible.
from his chair and stepped out from behind the table, struck an
world is given to lying.” “We had some good war news yester-
day,” he continued, “and I was glad to unbend and laugh. The
answered the secretary, “your case, sir, is like thousands. What we want now is
victories, not brigadiers. We are in a crisis. I refuse, sir, to make a promise even
to consider the wish of a civilian at such a time. I am sorry. My desk is loaded
with business; I must say good-morning." A second call ended as abruptly as the
first. “No use in a civilian's talking to me on the subject, sir." "Neither can I
waive a civilian's rights," added Mr. Grinnell. “Then go to the president,” said
the secretary sharply. “That would be an offense; my regard for the Secretary
of War would make that step a last resort.” “Get your request granted and I
will resign,” said Stanton angrily. One more trial, and Mr. Grinnell did see the
president. After returning from a walk and hearing the full details as to Rice's
strong endorsements, Lincoln asked for a bit of paper, leaned against one of the
pillars of the White House, and wrote, “Without an if or an and, let E. W. Rice
of Iowa be made a brigadier-general. A. Lincoln.” The bit of paper was handed
to the secretary. "I will resign," he said, crushing the paper and tossing it into
the waste basket. Mr. Grinnell was about to go. “Wait,” said the secretary,
smiling for the first time in a month; "wait, Mr. Grinnell; come over and take
dinner with me." Mr. Grinnell was compelled by engagements to leave the city
at once, but shortly he was tendered the colonelcy of a regiment. Eliott W. Rice
was made a brigadier; was later made brevet major-general and continued what
he had always been, a brave and competent officer, whose deeds added luster to the
state. His commission, by mistake, was made out in the name of his brother,
Samuel A. Rice; but, as the latter was also being urged for promotion at another
part of the army, no harm was done. The brothers both got the stars they had
earned, and both were popular officers, the elder brother giving his life for the
cause.
174
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
acting was good, and true to the case, according to my experiences,
for each fellow tells his own story and smirches his rival.”
Mr. Lincoln was especially considerate of democrats, as I
learned while calling with a complaint. There was in the Interior
Department a constituent of mine, who was frequently insulted by
a department clerk, a real rebel, and the more bold because he had
a brother, a member of Congress, whom the Secretary would be
slow to offend. As I opened my grievance, Mr. Lincoln laid his
hand on my shoulder and said, “Don't ask me to strike so low; I
have to do with those whom I despise, for we are at war. Demo-
cratic aid we must have if possible, and I conciliate to avoid all
friction. There is General McClernand, from my state, whom they
say I use better than a radical, and the devotees of the dead Doug-
lass I honor and praise often, as I would have promoted their chief
had he lived. There is too much of mixing war and party in the
field, when real fighting out of the trenches would better suit the
case." I knew he was alluding to McClellan's imprudent advisory
letter.
General Fremont's proclamation was, as I had good occasion to
know, a severe trial to Mr. Lincoln. On the opening of a budget
of my grievances, he said, "Don't mention them. I meet insults,
standing between two fires, and the constant blazes of anger.
Why, not an hour ago, a woman, a lady of high blood, came here,
opening her case with mild expostulation, but left in anger flaunt-
ing her handkerchief before my face, and saying, "Sir, the general
will try titles with you. He is a man and I am his wife. I will
tell you before you guess. It was Jessie, the daughter of old Bul-
lion, and how her eye flashed! Young man, forget your annoy-
ances! They are only as flea-bites to mine. They are serious
comedy, while I am in the focus of tragedy and fire. You folks
up on the hill must aid me in placating those congenital demo-
crats, whom we want to keep fighting for us if they will. We
must coyly give rope if we have to make a short turn later. I
remember, of the New York · Barn-burners', it was charged that
to get clear of the rats they burned the barn. We must put up
with vermin intrusion, to save the barn. By the way, your Sena-
tor Grimes, I met smiling. The navy is sending up such good
news I was glad to see his cheer. The croakers are getting hoarse,
the spies scarce, and the maligners well-known.”
These are a few of the treasured words by one whose grand
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
175
position in history requires no disparagement of his cotemporaries
and former political rivals, equal in service and ability if in a
lower scale of action. The historians of the martyr have placed
their god on a solitary pedestal, and there should be no inference
drawn from the frailties of a Seward, Chase and Stanton, that they
had not grand parts in the drama of war and reconstruction. I
think them safe, each on his own historic pedestal, and not to be
clouded by the shadow of their chief. Our grief on his assassina-
tion was deep beyond expression. For the first time in my life, on
a bright Sabbath morning, I fainted on the porch of our pastor,
Dr. Cochrane, on breaking the news of the assassination, and in an
attempted public eulogy, my personal sorrow and gloom forbade
audible and coherent expression.
SALMON P. CHASE,
the minister of finance, attained a fame kindred to that of the pres-
ident. I had every occasion to like him personally. He attended
regularly the Congregational Church in Washington, so long as I
stood in the pulpit. He would bring his friends, and while by
profession an Episcopalian and a nephew of Bishop Chase, lent his
sympathies to the bold progressives of our church. On my leaving
Washington he sent his regrets, with the hope that there would be
a free and untrammeled church at the capital soon, and he cared
little for the name. On my writing the State Republican Address
for Iowa, he sent me compliments while Governor of Ohio, which
served to mitigate regrets that I left Washington under a cloud of
suspicion because not loyal to slavery. He was a bold man as he
stood undaunted in the Senate, a great lawyer as shown in his plea
in the Van Zandt slave case. Fluent as a speaker he was not, nor
did he interest the galleries as did Hale and Douglass. It was his
directness and measured language which carried power, and gave
confidence to his friends that he had an eminent future. Among
the guardians of liberty in the Senate and at the social gatherings,
he was a model gentleman,' tall, rotund, comely, with a benigu
countenance and a broad brow. There was dignity in his deport-
ment, and an air of gravity, which forbade rudeness in his pres-
ence, but not imposing undue restraint. If there was ever a better
equipment by temperament and natural endowment for a finance
176
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
minister, or a chief justice of a great court, that character I have
I know he was ambitious, for he asked me, as I complimented
the national banking law, if I thought it would give him political
favor in Iowa. “You will see that your cattle and your lands are
to bring more money. You will find, if we can only have victories
in the field, that in finance our policy and success will bring the
enforced admiration of the world.” When sitting in the secreta-
ry's office, he said, “Don't be afraid to talk frankly." Thereupon I
mentioned Dr. Bailey's family as that of his friend, whom I hoped
he would remember. "Certainly,” said he, “and that son I will
take care of to-day.”.
Months later, under a bureau conspiracy to exalt favorites, and
degrade men who carry a free lance, one of the clerks, a friend of
mine, was about to receive a stab; and, on my calling to protest
that that was one of the things not safe to be done, the secretary
said, “I will take your advice, without knowing the details, for
you are my friend.” Afterward he thanked me for the advice,
which was a prevention of a wrong. I knew more of him through
Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, with whom he was often in consultation.
They were wholly unlike, but of radical and advanced views.
hope that McClellan would move, or Lincoln get mad. With arins
folded, lips compressed, and firmly standing, I saw the man wor-
thy of the eulogies bestowed upon Necker the Frenchman, and our
idolized Hamilton; and during these years, whenever holding a
bank-bill, with his benevolent face and broad brow engraved
thereon, I have been moved to revere one who made enlistments
easy, comforts for the soldiers possible, with victories for our arms.
I am deaf to the insinuation that he was a marplot, if a severe
critic of his chief. His radicalism cannot be judged fully, for his
friends had no power to test it amidst civic strifes and military
jealousies.
But, it is asked, did he not in later years disavow his earlier
professions ? No. He was true to the freedmen; he was a friend
of all the great constitutional amendments, silent when the shafts
from political rivals and detractors were hurled, and in the dis-
charge of his duties as chief justice without bias, fear or weak-
ness. “Did you like his presiding at the Johnson impeachment
trial ?" I am asked. I regretted that he was against the impeach-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTT TEARS.
177
ment policy, and that he did not conceal his animus. It is possi-
ble, as his enemies assert, that he believed the issue would call
him into the presidential chair by the aid of deinocrats. It could
not. The leaders knew his early history, and there was the record
of a pure life without a scandal, and the poise of a great jurist.
And so I leave my friend with the declaration of the late Justice
Miller, "Democratic politics and presidential slate-makers had no
use for him, for in my opinion he was incorruptible, and the great-
est man that ever sat on the Supreme Bench.” This was from a
colleague with a close intimacy of twenty years — a compliment
for one who found the highest appreciation where best known.
EDWIN M. STANTON.
1
It was a popular belief in the war epoch that to get a hearing
with Stanton you must become a sycophant or win in a fight. His
reputation for dispatch in business was no less the admiration of
the war party than was his radicalism an offense to the bourbons,
while some like Attorney-General Black, Mr. Cox and others,
insinuated that he was disloyal in speech and a rebel at heart.
On the contrary Senator Henry Wilson and his class were happy
over his late loyal conversion, and pointed to acts that were giv-
ing full proof of the wisdom of Mr. Lincoln's selection.
Mr. Stanton, standing at his desk, short, broad, with smooth
brow and long, dark beard nervously stroked, was a study. Two
and sometimes three clerks were required, taking down directions
and orders for business as the visitors came up in single file.
Compliments and smiles were waived, while occasionally there
would be an invitation to tarry in the next room after congressmen
had found a hearing. The sequel to my conflict in a struggle in
behalf of Colonel Rice's promotion was a most warm welcome, and
I cannot deny the justice of others' experience, that he was gall to
enemies, honey to friends. A bill had just passed which opened
the way for a recast of officers and additional appointments in reg-
ular service by Mr. Stanton. At an early day I was in the next
room, but with the door ajar could hear the members, including
my colleagues, asking for appointments. The reply would be
"No", or an evasion. After the crowd had passed, I appeared
and said I had overheard and assumed it was no time to ask favors
for my constituents. His answer was, “ Did I ever say anything
178
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
but yes, to you, save once? What do you want? Colonel, take
down Mr. Grinnell's requests.” They were Captain C. V. Gardner,
to be captain in the regular army; George B. Hogan, paymaster;
the grandson of Mr. Hawley of Ottumwa, cadet at large.” “Any-
thing more?” said Mr. Stanton; "your requests shall be granted”;
and the appointments were made. This will suffice in proof that
time has found an estimate of one neither boor nor beast, bearing
Quaker birth, and studying law with Senator. Tappan of Ohio, and
being as much of an abolitionist when a law-student as the Tap-
pans of New York. Good news he was swift to impart, up to the
line of official privacy, to his friends. He was not tardy in extol-
ling favorites. Joseph Holt, who exposed the “Knights of the
Golden Circle”, had a good word from the war secretary. Matt
Carpenter, senator from Wisconsin, was his favorite in the legal
profession for a specific case, for, said he, “He has dash, persist-
ency and an heroic spirit, which captivates and wins like an astute
genius." Of Henry Ward Beecher he was very fond, saying,
“You see your friend and mine goes to Charleston when the old
flag goes up on Sumpter again. I know you will like his going,
for the public had made the choice without the formality of vot-
ing. The first preacher of his time, the orator who subdued the
British Lion, is the man to speak— one who honors the flag and
honors his race."
Such in dim outline was the iron man of the cabinet and the
organizer of victories. That he was quick in temper, desperate in
his hates, there is abundant proof. He was a keen detecter of
shams and had the open heart of a lover in treatment of those true
to their convictions and heroic and loyal in the field. Success
became an inflaming passion, and timidity his aversion. “I have
myself to read the stabs of knaves and cowards, whom I have
been compelled to place under the ban of condemnation. I have
my days of depression and don't know how long I can endure it
here.” It is true his days after retirement were few, but he was
not, as his enemies aver, a suicide. Doubtful acts are to be meas-
ured by a call for desperate remedies. So will the honor of
the great secretary be unchallenged by the biographer of the
future.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
179
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK IN 1837.
Senator William H. Seward was from my boyhood romantically
admired; he was one of the idols of young men. He had been a
leader, and while temporarily out of the public gaze was earning
fame as an able patent lawyer, and otherwise, as in the great crim-
inal railway conspiracy by farmers in Michigan.
In 1846, the case of the colored man Freeman, who was the
murderer of several persons in Auburn, New York, brought out
the astonishing resources of Mr. Seward, not less than bravery in
defense of one whom all execrated, but whose brain was found, on
post-mortem examination, to have suffered from an old injury.
The defense set up was the famous one of “moral insanity”. In
company with Mr. Wilder, a law student, I was a fortunate list-
ener to his free office talks in the evening, when relaxing after
court hours. “Prince John” Van Buren was the attorney-general
in prosecution, in regard to whom Mr. Seward said, he would art-
fully draw out more law and opinions by doubts, than his habits
and the industry of a genius could otherwise gain. All Mr.
Seward's arguments and speeches bore the marks of close study
and a fine mind in grasp of great themes.
Natural gifts, culture, forecast as a statesman, persistence, prob-
ity, with an honorable ambition, made him senator, and like the
morning star of hope in the presidential race of 1860. The most
unprepossessing figure in the chamber — thin, pale, eye-sunken, a
retreating forehead hidden by a shock of dishevelled hair, voice
high-keyed and almost repulsive, said to have been impaired by the
use of snuff - this was the first impression of an actor, grand in
rhetoric, learned, philosophic, undaunted, not only the oracle of a
great state, but the prophetic voice of a nation. He takes the
floor, clenching the chair with one hand - the other seldom
raised — with the calmness of Plato and the spirit of Girondist,
for a strictly impersonal speech enlivened neither by incident nor
story. The page boys are hushed and fire-eaters pay the tribute of
attention to one in whose manner there is the composure of a vic-
tor and philosopher, the bold challenge of a denial.
Webster in cool derision styles the slavery agitation only a
"rub-a-dub”. Seward announces “an irrepressible conflict” — the
talismanic truth of a great epoch. Union saviors ask his adher-
ence to the constitution and an assent that, “What the law makes
180
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
property is property.” He can answer, “The law before which I
bow is an emanation from the bosom of God.”
The Fugitive Slave Law claims his adherence. When gov-
ernor, he scouted the perjury of Virginians and the alleged comity
due to slave claimants on free soil. Now must he become the
agent of oppression ? No-"I defy the mandate, and accept the
penalties of treason.” Thus in 1850 he struck the highest note in
peaceful rebellion, and made the North unsafe ground for hunting
was his plea. In vain he urged the impolicy of a statute sure to
incur the odium of the world.
Why not president? Mr. Seward led all candidates at Chi-
cago in the support of the press and leading partisan, but there
were wings to the party; all conservatives on the border had a
vote. Horace Greeley, since the formal dissolution of the firm of
Seward, Weed, Greeley & Co., had favored a Western man without
political scars, and Mr. Weed was the assumed advocate of Mr.
Seward's nomination, but had the voice of Jacob with the hand of
Esau. I give a fact, whatever the conclusion. I was a delegate to
Chicago, fully advised of the part New York was to play with her
seventy votes and dramatic announcement of the train of cars to
be loaded with all the devices and displays of art, and a sumpt-
uous outfit, where Moses H. Grinnell and Governor E. D. Morgan
were jointly commissariat and captain.
Business calling me to New York, I was quite ready to be one
of the party on the westward trip. When going East I called at
Auburn and, as Mr. Seward was just leaving for New York, I
became his company. To my inquiry as to the situation the
answer was, “ The skies seem clear -- Mr. Thurlow Weed I am to
meet at Albany, and he will talk with you freely." Mr. Weed I
quietly interviewed to further strengthen my faith in Mr. Seward.
My ardor was soon cooled -- the so-called slate-maker, a very War-
wick in our politics, was courteous, and seemed to be weighed
man of the nation that he is, lean on me. Greeley is on a rampage,
and an availability is the cry of the West. We must have the
next president to save the country — our party took Taylor for
victory, and the democrats won with Pierce, for there was nothing
known about him. Now this is not for the public or even for
your own delegation; it is a grave question whether the greatest
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
181
and most conspicuous man of the nation is the best candidate to
win. The Journal knows but one candidate, but serious confiden-
tial advice is another thing."* I always pitied Mr. Weed in his
personal conflict— devotions vs. politicians.
I returned from New York to my home alone rather than in
the crowd as a guest of the Seward company, involving an allegi-
ance which I could not avow by my vote. Was Mr. Seward less
in the esteem of his country, wounded in the house of his friends,
afterward secretary of state and the optimistic yet great diplomat
of the war era ? Not to me. I saw him in 1850, calling on Mr.
Henry C. Bowen, the merchant that advertised that "he had goods
for sale, and not principles". I further recall that he said the
firm whom I honor had made a speech more courageous and wider-
spread than that made by any senator. If devotion is the meas-
ure of the virtue of an idol, then the griefs for Mr. Seward were
the sublimest of human tributes. I met Mr. Moses H. Grinnell at
the Tremont House, with his face covered, sighing audibly, “We
are beaten,” and his company were like him, only able to utter,
“ The greatest of Americans has gone down before treachery.”
Five years passed, the witness of service as secretary of state in
the highest position of honor. The maimed veteran, with face
mutilated by the blows of a coward on the fatal night of the assas-
sination of Mr. Lincoln, I recall, and the offer of the Virginia rebel
of fifty thousand dollars for his head. He makes a voyage of the
world, to gain the homage of nations, and honors which politicians
had denied at home, and ended a life of probity, with the career of
a statesman having the vision of a seer and the soul of a patriot,
in the rural seclusion of his home in Auburn, New York, in 1872,
enjoying the loving ministries of his family and awakening a
nation's grief.
GENERAL GRANT.
The great soldier and president has found so many eulogists
that I condense my acquaintance in an extract from a newspaper
* It is said that Mr. Seward came to doubt the loyalty of his friend. They
were riding in Central Park, New York, in presence of the statue of Lincoln.
Mr. Seward said, “Weed, if you had been true to me, I should have been on the.
pedestal.” “Would you prefer to be alive or dead, with your head in bronze up
there?” was Weed's answer.
182
REMINISCENCES OF TORTY YEARS.
interview, and my appreciation of the patriot in passages from a
eulogy before the Grand Army of the Republic, at his death:
The following interesting reminiscences were brought out in an interview with
Hon. J. B. Grinnell, who knew Gen. Grant personally. In reply to a question, he
said:
“Hon. E. B. Washburn, M. C. from Galena, had more to do with his gaining
position for military and civil power than any person living, and on resigning a
cabinet position as Secretary of State had a distinguished career as minister to Paris
in the time of revolution and war; yet for some reason not known to the public,
Grant, the protege, and Washburn, a political Warwick, were not in the last ten
years in social and loving accord; but of the occasions for this it is no time to talk."
Under what circumstances did you see General Grant?
“It will involve a little personality, and my neighbors and good fortune gave
me opportunities, and I will answer: I first met the general with a request that he
should give James F. Wilson, now our senator, a place in his cabinet. He said I
could talk with Mr. —, but there was no need of any state or political expression.
The second meeting was in the White House, after his inauguration, with this
message to him as he met me and we looked out of the window, 'I know Wilson
has declined to go into the cabinet on the ground of poverty, but I have engaged
that house' (to which I pointed)' on the square, as a friend and citizen of Iowa, and
hope it will aid in meeting his objection, if not too late.' The reply was, 'I am
very sorry you were not here early this morning. I set my heart on having your
friend Wilson near me, but he declined three positions, and the secretary has just
left for the Senate waiting for the names of cabinet sent for confirmation. Too
late! too late! I regret to say.'
“Until then I did not know that more than one place had been tendered, nor
was I aware of all the diplomatic talk incident to the occasion.
was about to leave for Iowa. He said, 'You have not been in to see me as I asked
you.' 'No,' I replied, 'the last thing you want is more company, and by the press
you can't please half who do come.' "That is true, and I shall be called a dull,
slow politician. Iowa complains, I presume, and I want to know about some
things.'
“At this point an artist was announced, who was touching a portrait, and was
ready for a sitting. 'Come along,' said the general. 'We can talk while I am the
victim. It is one of the penalties for notoriety that I would swop off without a
word.' "Talk on,' said the artist, the more vivacity the better,' and Grant was
the 'silent man' no longer.
“Grinnell, do you know what you had to do in bringing my troubles on?
Washburn said, the other night, as we talked over political events, that you were
president, but it was no real kindness.' I could only answer that, 'When Wash-
burn so often shouted General Grant, with a very emphatic broad, long a, that I
was for the man who came out ahead, and did not care for his politics, and being
badgered by democrats to name him, said amidst some applause, that it was this
hour Grant, and to speak frankly, I was afraid you would be captured by the demo-
crats; so very many I could name.' (The colloquy is in the Congressional Globe,
and after near 20 years, I forget the details). 'I have,' said the general, 'heard
that before, as to the fear of a democrat, if I had any politics, but the scare is all
over.' Then he launched off on horses and Indians, saying, 'Every reservation
was deemed a paradise and coveted by white men, but they were as a rule over-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
183
rated; not half as good soil as Illinois or Iowa. You are leaving Congress, what
do you expect from the administration ?' 'Nothing,' I answered. 'For near ten
years I have been in state and national service, and have a family and cares at
home, and you will not have places for all who want them.' 'Don't you know
that the senators have you in mind, and have asked me to wait,' etc., etc. “It is
news to me, and on my account there need be no delay. If I can get favors for
friends, let me be a cipher.'
“The rest I will not mention, and would not this had it not been said, when
for the next term I was for Greeley, that I was offended, it not being true, as Sena-
tor Harlan and many others know.
"The fourth meeting was at Des Moines, at the Army of the Tennessee meet-
ing, I think in 1874. There was a grand greeting in the parlors of the Savery
House, but I was not in the house, remembering the active part in the Greeley
campaign, and that a Chicago paper had made me say harsh things of the general,
never spoken, and that he asked an Iowa man what was the matter with me when
he knew no cause for my course, to gain this reply: 'Greeley had long been a par-
ticular friend.' Still I am ashamed, not of my company, politically, at that time,
nor of my words, but that I distrusted and feared coldness from one who met me
half way across the room with a cordiality that was marked by the company, and I
confess was an embarrassment, added to which was a compliment later to my din-
ner speech on The Navy. Pardon this, but it was an incident which stamped the
great hero as one of the most generous of mortals, and brings him near to my heart
in grateful emotion.
“I cannot help the conviction, that he would have been a grander figure in
history if president once, rather than a second or third term candidate. That I
think was his private opinion, and of non-partisans the world over. Still his life
stands for courage, simplicity and patriotic devotion. No American had such
favor by circumstances in military and civil life, and with one acclaim he will find
honor with Washington, for he was not venial, nor coarse in speech. In later
years he abjured profanity as vulgar, strong drink as corrupting, and held implicit
faith in the value of religion as divine, and our debt of gratitude to a common
Saviour he acknowledged."
MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
Towers are measured by their shadows, and the resounding crash tells of the
fall of the majestic oak. Did ever the raven wing of mourning cast so dark and
broad a shadow, or the fall of a mortal send so deep a sigh around the world, as the
demise of Grant, the nation's idol?
Soldiers of the Grand Army! You have peculiar pride in a comrade, and none
shall chide you for tears and a kinship in idolatry to the worship of a God. Alex-
ander, the Grecian warrior, moulded but six hundred thousand men less than the
army your great captain vanquished. The Roman Cæsar clouded his fame by the
destruction of a million of men in conquest; Grant commanded a million for union,
with the genius of a soldier and the heart of a peacemaker. Greatest of the
marked figures in military service were either slain for their ambition, a prey of
corrupting vices, or escaped dying like a hermit, or banished to solitudes where
only moaning winds and dashing waves voiced in sad refrain the shouts of con-
quest, while it is left for you to admire and inourn one whose later life was a climax
disease, and the calmer, bold meeting of the King of Terrors, from the mountain
height where the weary spirit ascended to its home in the bosom of God.
184
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
A MISJUDGED HERO.
I have pleasure in the recollection of voting in Congress the gold medal, and
to create the rank of lieutenant-general, only held by Washington, for Grant; yet
language fails me in fit mention of the envious, cool maligners of his fame, those
carpet knights and military shams of doubtful loyalty, feigning the scream and
flight of eagles, while noisy, hungry and of evil omen. We were regaled with
slanders specific and distinct as the odors of the famed city of Cologne, while com-
rades were silent, and the great soldier-president was too busy and too great for an
abasement in denial. I, with thousands of his party, would not, did not, question
his generalship, yet deemed his administration personal rather than broad — his
associations more repulsive than inspiring. We were ignorant of the man. The
reports of his coarse texture as a mortal, profane speech and intemperate habits,
had made the circuit of the world, with all the gross, morbid begettings of false-
hood. I bow my head in confession of ignorance, and of an honest but unfair
judgment of his personal worth, gladly to join in the praises of clouds of witnesses,
to aver he adorned those virtues in which he was held to be wanting, and emerged
from the passing cloud to shine brighter, as do the lights of heaven for temporary
obscuration, and like a sun our hero will shine in the radiation of cardinal virtues
through the ages.
Confiding boldness was the key to minor faults, and the grand solution and
secret of supreme power. Character in the soldier he read like an open book, and
dared to trust. Generous in praise for corporal as for captain; cordial and gallant,
returning the sword of the vanquished Lee, a new leaf was added to the page of
chivalry, and a character you search for Vainly in the Iliad of Homer or in the
annals of modern warfare. The cautious have only lean virtues, and in war are
allied to show, and sink with mediocrities. They are the old side-judges, wise
only in their silence; pulpy and fair in the shade, but clever, pompous negations.
This was not Grant in robust manhood. He feared neither petty thieves, the
assassin's bullet, nor the rising fame of a ranking general. A silent tongue left
his fame to the candor of the world, and warm blood pulsated in his mission, leap-
ing like a cataract rushing to the ocean. Like a Cromwell, he trusted a God “to
cover his head in the day of battle" - never planned for defeat, but for victory,
sounding the trumpet-call from Cairo to Richmond — forward! forward!
My countryman, with bold actors, God's confiding agents, there may be seem-
ing errors, but they are forgotten at the tomb, and it were as profane in their men-
tion to-day, as the illusion of Washington that Arnold was a patriot, or that the
traitorous kiss of Judas discredits the purity of the world's Savior.
A PROVIDENCE.
The world can add to its providential deliverers, Gustavus Adolphus, Wash-
ington, Cromwell and Moses, another wondrous personage under the divinity that
shapes national existence. What agonies for his coming, in camp, amidst prison
horrors, city mobs and wasting credit! I saw the General McClellan, skilled in
entrenchment, and in grand parades. Into the face of the gallant Hooker I looked
to discern the dashing eye under too narrow a brow to gauge the campaign. The
hand of Burnside we took in sorrow as he, with modest distrust, threw aside a
commander's commission. Who next? The voice of the great war minister and
the wisdom of Lincoln pointed to the hero of Donelson and Vicksburg; late an
obscure clerk and poor wood-chopper, now to guide our destiny. He is a dull stu-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
185
dent of Providence who does not see him held back and in reserve for the blows
that destroyed slavery, an armed rebellion, collossal in malignant power, and for
stern splendid statesmanship, on the death of the martyr Lincoln by the assassin's
bullet.
We were drifting like a dismasted ship on the breakers. Victories in the
West were counterbalanced by rebel success in the East. Drafting was resisted,
soldiers were discouraged. The great powers of the earth were in secret leaguo
with our enemies. Repudiation threatened the national credit. Oh! what gloomy
forebodings. of border warfare blackened by pillage, the crimes of assassination,
bloody insurrections and a race war, with the woes in apocalyptic vision, "blood
flowing to the horses' bridles."
WHAT CAME ?
The virtues and blessings of peace can never be pictured but in faintest out-
line, in praise of our dead chieſtain. A million soldiers returned to their families;
slavery dead; thirty-eight great states revolving like planets, smoothly in their
orbit, not twenty-eight weak in dissension and barricaded for war. American, sig-
nificant of unity, renown and power. A home where three per cent. bonds are at a
premium, as in the great money marts, our credit leading all nations. Of a people
rising from wealth in the sum of sixteen thousand millions of dollars in 1860 to
fifty thousand millions in 1885, and surpassing in growth of population in each
post-bellum decade every rival; the envy of monarchs.
The ex-president becomes a guest of the nations. How responded and bore
our guest? In cultivation of fraternity which gave us fifteen millions by arbitration
from England. Asking not for his country honor by prowess on the sea, nor a
standing army, rather one hundred millions annually to the families and soldiers
sick and maimed by war. Our free church and free schools were held up as our
crown jewels, with the fervor of an advocate.
There was unfolded in later years a personal character more to be admired
than a public career at home or abroad. He was greater in poverty, and facing
the storm of detraction, as he who rules his own spirit is greater than he who taketh
a city. Then the knowledge of fatal disease brought no murmur. “Self-schooled,
self-scanned, self-honored, self-secure." Mortals could not add to his renown.
Friends, behold the silent, pale, great captain! He has given testimony to
the value and divinity of the Christian religion and bravely welcomes bis last
enemy, the “King of Terrors”. Mightier than the famed shield of Achilles is his
protector, bearing the loves of this world, and awaiting the welcome of patriots and
comrades, Lincoln, Rawlins, Reynolds, McPherson, Thomas, and a cloud of gallant
spirits passed before. The glow of the camp fire is dimmed in the brightness of
the coming of the great deliverer for whom the lips move, and the voice breaks
forth in praise. That spirit invincible on earth, is at rest in a higher realm- it is
the peace of God.
CHAPTER XIII.
Thaddeus Stevens — Schuyler Colfax — John A. Logan- Gratz
Brown - David Davis — Henry S. Foote- Jefferson Davis -
Gen. Winfield Scott — Henry Clay — Daniel Webster.
THADDEUS STEVENS.
It is unusual for men of mark to obtain their just rank while
living. Mortuary service is fittingly sympathetic, adulatory; but
stirring, fierce partisans mould events which conspire to delay a
just verdict long after the death of the actor.
Since the death of Thaddeus Stevens there has been ample time
to temper the praise of ardent admirers, and to blunt the shafts of
enemies. Having enjoyed the favor of his friendship, and rare
opportunities to know him in the national House of Representa-
tives during the late war, I attempt with the admiration of a
friend to compress ample material for a volume into this article in
vindication and illustration of a great character.
Did not our last quarter of a century, fruitful of forces, pro-
duce one great American commoner? The British House of Com-
mons may represent our House of Representatives, from which
only a leader in alliance with popular measures, an American com-
moner, may spring. Mr. Blaine in his eulogy on Garfield before
Congress, so justly praised, cites three parliamentary leaders, Mr.
Clay, Mr. Douglass and Thaddeus Stevens. Generosity to one of
another political school, it is fair to infer, moved to the naming."
He graduated at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, not far
from his home, and was soon engaged as a teacher in the Academy
at York, Pennsylvania, for which position his discipline, clear per-
ception and enthusiasm made him of service in giving impetus to
many students, later conspicuous and able in the higher pursuits
of life. No one had a higher contempt for the exploits of a mere
genius or the profundity of mere impromptu speeches, which had a
preface in boast of ignorance of books.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
187
A mind trained by thought, severe study and wide reading,
made him invincible in debate. Taking evidence in trials of great
nor was he ever confused with a manuscript, save in the prepara-
tion of state papers and the drafting of bills. Having derived so
much aid from a classical education, he was the friend of the col-
lege and patron of poor students, struggling and weary on the road
he had traveled.
gested a push of the head from a graceful position. The club-foot
forbade facile locomotion and dwarfed the whole man save brain
and imprisoned vivacity. He had an ambition at war with the
restraints of sedentary life; business was rest, and fox-hounds a
diversion in the chase of a bold rider. That head, in later life,
covered by a sandy wig, was a study — wide and bulging above
the ears, high in front, prominent above the eyes, which were deep
set and radiant. The facial muscles were strong, and a broad chin
sent up lips, the lower projecting, that were an index of a character
determined in repose, and to be dreaded for their uses in those con-
tests where giants drew upon every weapon at command.
With humorous reply he would say, My organism is not favor-
able to retreat, and must leave to my friends the honors to be .
won by the arts of locomotion backward. There was no native
melody in voice; it was on a high key, capable of winging sarcasm
and scorn with stinging effect on a venturesome opponent. To a
critic of legislators there was galling autocracy in his leadership,
and a verdant legislator would seek by artful attack to question
the veteran's right to lead; but there is no record of a second
attempt by the same person. “I hope," said he, “I may be cred-
ited with virtuous silence on this occasion; let the wounds made
by the gallant foe, wide, gaping, plead my cause”; which conveyed
sarcasm effective above any formal reply; still there was alertness
in a question of motives or war policy, and always a victor who
left the impression of a courageous, learned and adroit leader of
men in the seas of strife.
Legislative tricks were his great aversion, and justice and full
credit to his adversary was his shield in the forum of debate.
This called for compliments, and led him to ask an opponent if it
were not a better policy “to proceed with arguments, if he had
any, rather than sickening his chosen victim with honey”. Fail-
188
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
ing to vote, or questioning a majority edict, brought such glee to
democrats that in the midst of the plaudits for a brave man, he
shouted, “I can stand reproaches, but the praise you bestow has an
offensive odor.”
Petty points were his great aversion, holding that the smallest
of mortals were equal to an objection or a technicality; and order-
sticklers were the least reliable when true men were in demand.
“There was an hour lost in a wrangle over order and the manual
which a school-boy of common sense might have settled, I hear,
but I slept in blissful ignorance and am ready for business if the
skirmishers will allow it."
Contested election cases were treated as a side show, settled as
a rule by the political complexion of the jury, but so often had he
broken from party moorings that fervent appeals were made for
help. “No, no—I cannot speak, when we come to vote.”
“But,” said the pleader, “he is a scoundrel.” “They say the
other is,” was the reply, “and I must know which is worse. Don't
count me where I judge you have more than a legal quorum."
He was a trusted guide in storms, which neither pacific policy
nor compromise could avert; a constructionist and blender of a
nation, riven by sectional strife and the crime of slavery. Clay,
with the rarest endowment of an orator, closed his grand life in
tender, yet unavailing persuasion. Douglass piloted the party ship
on à rock, “squatter sovereignty,” and was only kindly spared to
counsel loyalty to the flag before his lamented death. In nature
the « triumvirate” had little in common save obscurity of birth.
Their providential mission, too, was unlike; the times determining
for the earlier sages the role of conciliation in the way to the pres-
idency, while eternal right and the subjugation of traitors was the
absorbing thought of Stevens, regardless of smiles or frowns.
Thus it was that he was fitted by education, converse with men
and undaunted courage, to spring to the front by the only divine
right known to man, when rebels were confronted in speech,
national credit maintained, amidst the clamor of party aspirants
and untold wastes in war. Hence he was for many years a trusted
leader holding without a peer supreme control in the republic.
The eccentricity, brusque manner and witty sayings of Mr.
Stevens enveloped his character in a cloud of prejudice and made
his name a conduit, for years, of doubtful story and legend;
because of which he is to-day judged at a disadvantage. To be
189
specific, he was thought to be wanting in refinement; coarse, a
stranger to generous emotion, malignant without reverence, infidel
and blasphemous.
These are allegations, alike unjust and cruel in the light of the
Stevens, with filial devotion made an annual journey of hundreds
of miles to his native Vermont to comfort and support the mother
of whom he said: “It is the great joy of my life to be able to give
to my mother a well-stocked farm, and an occasional bright gold
piece which she loved to deposit in the contribution of the Baptist
church which she attended. She worked day and night to educate
me, for I was feeble and lame in my youth. I tried to pay her
afterward, but the debt of a child to his mother is one of the debts
we can never repay.”
The child was father to the man, and one of the last acts of his
life was making provisions in his will whereby the sexton was “to
keep his mother's grave in good order and plant roses and other
cheerful flowers at the corner of said grave every spring”. A
bequest was also made of one thousand dollars toward the estab-
lishment of a Baptist church to which his mother belonged, near
the old home, and with this reason: “I do this out of respect to
the memory of my mother to whom I owe what little of prosperity
I have had on earth, which, small as it is, I desire most emphatic-
ally to acknowledge.” This is an index to a character of delicate
sensibility. Of his limited means he paid a surgeon for restoring
a poor lame boy to soundness, an act which offered so much pleas-
ure that he enjoined the doctor to treat any poor, deformed, disa-
bled boy whom he should meet, at his expense. On a reverse in
business partial friends proposed a gift of one hundred thousand
dollars — a gift delicately declined in further proof of a sensitive,
rather than of a sordid nature.
Women, notably the Sisters of Charity, were the largest dispens-
ers of his charities, whose abundance was known only by the poor
and their Maker. Pledges were often made when money was not
at hand. An incident is given by an irreverent friend without a
personal guarantee of its authenticity. It is the story of gain of
money at a game of chance. When nearing the capitol the party
was accosted by the ladies holding his pledges, whom he surprised
with a roll of bills, saying with a smile, “God moves in a myste-
rious way his wonders to perform.”
190
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY FEARS.
Never marrying, his bachelorship, like that of President Bu-
chanan, was the occasion of many a comment, but often cruel, for
there is a story of delicate sensitiveness to the allurements of love
and beauty which has more than a tinge of sad, youthful romance.
It is of a death that brooded over him with raven wing. The ideal
beautiful girl at his early home was ignorant of his emotions, and
passing to and returning from the boarding-school found only a
formal greeting from him, so great was the disparity in their con-
ditions -hers of afluence, his of poverty; thus he withheld marked
attentions, and hesitated to proffer his hand until he should have
gained a name to reflect honor upon a bride. He retained the
secret, and at length disclosed it, only too late, to the ideal of his
heart, who, to his great grief was pledged to another, and who
removed to the old Pine State, where his earliest and latest love
found a grave.
The policy of confiscation brought upon him the charge of a
vindictive spirit. It was this political measure of which Mr. Hor-
ace Greeley designated Mr. Stevens as the author in his Richmond
speech of 1867, in conferring a warm compliment upon him as the
leader of his party. Congress had sanctioned the law supported
by precedent and the authority of eminent publicists; and it is not
denied the measure was pressed with vehemence as a policy prom-
ising land to the slaves which would bind them more firmly to the
Union.
Abduction and even his assassination had been planned by ene-
mies at the capitol, the former only averted on a certain occasion
by the threat of sure death in the city suburbs if the hireling did
not halt and return. Andrew Johnson, in a public speech, had des-
ignated Wendell Phillips, Sumner and Stevens as fit for a gibbet.
In face of all Mr. Stevens hesitated to frame articles of impeach-
ment lest he should be judged vindictive.
The Hon. Mr. Julian in his “Political Recollections”, says:
“The profane words of Mr. Stevens, always the central figure of
the House, were frequently carried on the shafts of his wit and
lost in the laughter they provoked.” Facts will discredit this
judgment, giving another tone and hue to current stories. On a
recess in the House Mr. — addressed Mr. Stevens with an oath-
addressed with such blasphemy as by G-d', etc. I deny that I
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
191
for the provocations are great. It is war time; but the counsels of
my childhood will not allow me the use of a blasphemous word.”
The great Commoner, if not a saint, was far from an infidel.
Mr. — was introduced, who said: “Mr. Stevens, I believe I
have the honor of your company as a Free Thinker.” “Yes," was
the reply, “ rather free until I submit to your dogma, if you have
one. My mother was a soft-shell Baptist, a reputable thinker in
her time, and, as I remember, held the Ten Commandments good
law and the Sermon on the Mount as orthodox. I am one of her
poor disciples; good morning, sir.” In derision of a speaker he
said: “How he hugs the delusion of no hereafter; he would write
God with a little g', but don't criticise brutal ideas if he has a
brute's end to match.”
The notorious inebriation of Andrew Johnson brought up Mr.
Stevens' opposition to the use of alcoholic drinks. “I became ter-
ror stricken,” he says, “on the death of my particular friend, who
found his way, inebriated, to his home but died in the hallway,
unable to find the way to his room. Thereupon I demolished
every keg and bottle of liquor in my cellar. We were in the
whirlpool together thirty years ago when I made the short turn.
At the national temperance meeting in the capitol I sent over my
adherence by Mr. Dodge, and I am complimented, as I see by the
paper, that my declaration brought out applause. I vote for a
Mohammedan against drunkenness before an orthodox Christian
liquor dealer. Slavery's twin — the dram shop—will stir the
nation next. They come so near to me that I am saddened to
think of them.”
I could quote many of his memorable sayings, public and pri-
vate; but none are more eloquent than his choice of burial-place.
It was sympathy for the poor victims of prejudice, which led to
the characterization of the exclusion of the colored race from the
cemetery as an impious act. To strike impressively at this vulgar
inhibition, he chose a new spot without the odious restriction as
his place of burial, with this protest to be read on his tombstone
until time's effacing fingers have abolished his name from marble:
“I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural
preference for solitude, but finding other cemeteries limited by
charter rules as to race, I have chosen it that I might be enabled
to illustrate in my death the principles which I have advocated
through a long life — equality of man before his creator.”
192
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
SCHUYLER COLFAX.
This statesman I have briefly mentioned in Chapter IX., but it
would be unjust to his memory not to speak more fully of him.
Before his death, we met in Denver, where his sister resides, and a
more jocund spirit could hardly dwell in manhood, with a rose on
the full cheek and the elastic step of youth. His devotion to the
fortunes of Blaine was not more intense than a conviction that
he would be elected and astonish the world with a brilliant
administration.
In the year 1863, Colfax was the favorite of the nation, win-
ning fame as an editor in the West, reclaiming a congressional dis-
trict, and becoming well-known as .chairman of the committee on
post offices and post roads —-alert, incisive in speech, broad in
policy; a parliamentarian, and upheld by President Lincoln, and
Greeley, of the Tribune. There was no secret in his elevation to
the speaker's chair. Favor to Iowa was so marked as to occasion
remark if not provoke jealousy. Diplomacy in securing positions
on committees is that of which the great public are but little
aware. We were five new members, and but one — James F. Wil-
son - knew of service, and that at the foot of the judiciary com-
mittee, and by good fortune those once before him were not of
this Congress, yet a score of "great lawyers” loomed up for chair-
man and Wilson was to be jumped. Colfax was seen, and Wilson
presided in war time and reconstruction over the great committee
of Congress. Did the speaker ever forget Iowa and her new dele-
gation ? Price was made chairman of the Union Pacific Railway
committee, Kasson was on ways and means. Later, Allison, Hub-
bard and the writer were well placed, the latter surprised by pro-
motion to the places made vacant by the death of Owen Lovejoy.
It was a feeble return for favor to Iowa that I made, indicating
Colfax as the name for the prosperous health resort near us. A
sister with her family came to Jasper county, as farmers, on his
advice, and when the husband and father, a mail agent, was kept
from degradation by the humane perception and acts of that most
able and exemplary gentleman and jurist, Judge Love, who would
not ask "an insane man to plead in his court”, a new bond of
attachment was formed, never sundered but strengthened by a
hundred welcomes on our soil as orator and eulogist of Lincoln.
By whom did he rise but by himself — an expert journalist,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
193
adventurous overland stage tourist to the Pacific coast, temperate,
dashing and chivalrous in debate. He was by nature vivacious,
and had cultivated the arts of magnetism, which availed him in
gaining place near abler men, but lacking his tact and industry.
Law he had never studied, nor could he have passed a prescribed
the
measured with such precision that he never blundered as an Indi-
ana politician. He avoided a conflict in Congress with his superi-
ors in debate; was an apt prompter to the abashed new member, so
that when the time arrived for a speaker's campaign the press was
in line of service, and cohorts, all loyal, moved at the command of
their captain.
In the stormiest periods of our national history he dicided
great questions in the House and in the Senate with promptness
and clear perception, winning the favor of extremest partisan foes
as a model' parliamentarian.
The secrets of his lapse into private life were two: a modest
letter while vice-president that he was not a candidate for re-elec-
tion, and, though so far reconsidered that his name was used,
Henry Wilson gained the honor after a sharp contest and by a few
votes. This was no damper to a generous spirit, nor did it lose
him prestige or favor as a worthy and astute leader.
The Credit Mobilier scandal, like a tempest in the forest that
bears down the tallest trees, struck some of the first of our public
servants as with the breath of a political sirocco, and among the
number was Colfax, in proof that detraction like death “loves a
shining mark”. Oakes Ames, who parceled out the stock to
friends at a cash value, was arraigned for seeking to corrupt by
the sale of thousands of dollars worth of this property to eleven
members of Congress. There was a morbid thirst for scandal, and
a victim, as in the days of Pontius Pilate, was demanded and two
collossal fortune - millions to join the two oceans by iron rail, and
had become poor, and James Brooks of New York, a veteran editor,
congressman and orator for democracy, were expelled — Ames to
die of a broken heart because of injustice, and Brooks later, never
recovering from the hasty verdict which clouded a brilliant career.
In the sequel there has been a revolution in public opinion in
regard to Oakes Ames' motives, as evinced by the unanimous
request of every senator and representative in the late General
194
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Assembly of Massachusetts, together with that of thousands of our
their resolution of censure.
Colfax, who was alleged by the testimony of Ames to have
profited by the stock held in the sum of one thousand dollars,
made a denial, but being out of office, there was no formal verdict
in the case. Colfax's denial, with explanations and strong corrob-
orating facts in his favor, were held as conclusive evidence of his
integrity, by friends. The act of holding stock was no longer
deemed a wrong, for accepting bribes was not charged, but it was a
denial which involved a contradiction of Ames' book and verbal
testimony. This is a brief historic record, which outlines facts
leading to the conviction that a confiding trust and not a timid dis-
trust would have saved a great character from political expatria-
tion from the councils of statesmen. There is left but a charitable
construction to be put on the deeds of both, involved in this con-
troversy — a mistake by each in the multiplicity of vexatious cases,
rather than an untruth, which, unconfessed, no matter of charity
can cover.
This Colfax said and could afford to say: "I seek no political
recognition, and ask neither party nor friends to bear this load of
that I have not been unworthy of the honors received at the hands
of my countrymen.” So I remember his words, which were in
accord with a life, charitable to the unfortunate and to enemies,
radiant in words and deeds, to outlive one of the incidents to noto-
riety and fame. The severest wintry blasts did not prevent the
gathering from far and near of multitudes on the sad funeral occa-
sion at South Bend, over which city sorrow brooded.
The life of Schuyler Colfax was a personal protest against
grossness, profanity, intemperance and infidelity; a shining exam-
ple of filial devotion, of industry, political sagacity, generous
impulse and consummate generalship.
GRATZ BROWN.
He was caricatured as a tag on the coat-tail of the great editor,
Greeley. And what are the facts ? Gratz Brown was of a fine
family. He was a student, a graduate with high honors. Then
he electrified the nation as a member of the Legislature of Mis-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
195
souri, when about thirty years of age, with eloquent and earliest
me in 1853, in St. Louis, that Brown was a doomed man, either to
die by ruffianism or become a conspicuous actor. Southern people
remember his career as a writer for freedom. At the breaking out
of the war he was commissioned an officer; then he became a
trusted friend of Lincoln, arm in arm with General Frank P. Blair,
a cousin; then governor, later United States senator, it is true
depressed with poor health but self-poised, a statesman of thought
On one occasion Senator "Grimes said: “Gratz Brown has the
floor for a speech, and he is never common, but worth hearing;
original as a student of affairs." Then he was a candidate on the
Liberal ticket for vice-president with Greeley in 1872, a place he
did not seek, but did aspire to the first place, supported by warm
personal friendships. How absurd that he went out of sight by
that hireling, rude, professional Nast! I saw him in the cam-
paign, and know he was calm, cheerful, yet not confident of suc-
cess after tokens of treachery by the southern wing of the party.
Pictures, or jealousy, or defeat, never disturbed one so gallant,
who wore all his many honors with Christian modesty and
forgiveness for enemies; a great favorite where best known, in the
circle of the literary; besides, a real hero on his own soil in
denunciation of a slave system where he was cradled. A wonder-
ful intellect sank in a frail tabernacle, after a grapple with great
questions and high official stations held without a hint of dishonor.
A solution of his quiet retirement behind the political curtain
is found not in caricature or defeat, but rather from excessive
stimulation for a time; the bane of such a genius often; a habit
he overcame to become a champion of sobriety and the cheerful
citizen, attracted by an endeared family, rather than the allure-
ments of politics, until he was suddenly called hence. In the roll-
call of pioneers and champions of freedom, there may be no peer
to the magisterial Benton of Missouri save Gratz Brown, who car-
ried the lance of a knight, never consulting political weather, nor
relying on adepts in caucus “round-ups”. Numbers did not abash
him, and it is cruel calumny that he was angered by derision, or a
stolid misanthrope. The verdict of the gods would be (if as of
old in judgment) — a man who abjured sordid maxims in the road
to fame, evinced the brain of a statesman, the courage of a soldier,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
and sounded the bugle call of emancipation on slave soil amidst
howling mobs, the jeers of an apostate clergy and bold threats of
assassins.
DAVID DAVIS.
Many in Iowa were in sorrow when Illinois laid away in sepul-
ture at Bloomington an eminent jurist, statesman and devoted
friend. Those who knew him best, the Weldons, Funks, Fells,
and pioneers of forty years ago, were the saddest mourners. Rob-
ert Lincoln was chief pall-bearer, the son of the martyr, in a sad,
reciprocal service, recalling anew the favor which made the jurist
a justice of our great court, and the honored executor of the great
emancipation.
I came to know Mr. Davis in business, as an Iowa land owner
twenty-five years ago, and to learn that his estate, near the town
of Newton, came, like many other tracts, as a retainer, but an inci-
dent in his profession, which nursed a love for the soil, and made
him the favorite of agriculturists and the largest possessor of real-
ity in the region, if not affluent above all our pioneer land owners
—a farmer rather than a speculator.
There was nothing strange in his political ambition, nor was
there one repellant feature in methods or leadership. He desired
the nomination for the presidency in 1872, which was given to Mr.
Greeley. He was an ornament to the bench, and not less a favor-
ite with the patriotic masses than with those of the class of the
late J. M. Walker, of the C., B. & Q. Railway, whose ardor was so
great that on the way to Cincinnati he avowed to me it would be a
pleasure to make the journey on foot to the Queen City if neces-
sary to secure the nomination of a liberal sure to sweep the coun-
try. Mr. Greeley, I know, preferred Davis' nomination to his own,
but the candidacy of Senator Trumbull was active and fatal to Mr.
Davis. I mentioned his probable presidential nomination later, to
which he replied: “It is idle to use my name. The labor party
nomination has given me no absolute strength. Once I had
expectations, perhaps desire, as a liberal, and that was my time if
ever, but despite devoted friends it was not to be.” The head-
lands of later political history are well known. Democrats and
independents made him senator. The repute for judicial integrity
made him a member of the presidential commission, but a high
REMINISCENCES OF TORTY YEARS.
197
sense of honor forbade a service which partisans still hold cost Til-
den the presidency, and then followed a culminated honor in the
selection of acting vice-president by the republican senators with
whom he was often in opposition.
Mr. Conkling had made a thrust at a senatorial “fence rider
with doubtful proclivities”, which called forth a reply, at once a
model in diction and with candor and emotion to make the impress
of a patriot and fix his station among statesman, even beyond tem-
porary obscuration. It was at the old National Hotel at Washing-
ton that he won by simplicity and cordiality the masses. There
he occupied the rooms vacated in death by his political idol, Henry
Clay, whom he resembled in nothing save in political aspiration
and failure to reach the goal. Party exactions were too great for
the gallant leader, and independents were but blindly-led cohorts
fatal to Davis, who trusted in conservative methods and timid
counsels.
The deceased in presence was colossal; twice the weight of an
average senator, causing him to be sensitive to caricature and fre-
quent mention of abnormal size. In the broad face and cheery
countenance, coupled with a hearty welcome, there was an attrac-
tory and achievements, there is a refutation of common opinions
which limit such endorsements to mediocrity. Tried by the asso-
ciates of eminence and many stern conflicts, he must be placed
higher in the world's esteem by the lapse of time.
JOHN A. LOGAN.
Americans should be drawn toward this statesman-soldier,
especially in view of his political environment in the Egypt of the
North, where he was surrounded by the peculiar allurements of a
dominant power in his early manhood, but from which he broke
away to recast of opinions. He became as bold for the right in
later years as he was subservient in youth to the baser intolerant
party edicts.
“Dirty Logan" was the earned title of the champion of Illinois
black-laws. His eye was not opened to the degrading exactions of
the slave-power, until Douglass had in the name of friends been
betrayed, and fire-eaters in speech blossomed into open traitors to
the flag.
198
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
He was a soldier—the victim of a lurking suspicion by radi-
cals, while touched by the poisonous breath of old comrades, jeer-
ing him; but he was not reached by flattery nor allured by bribes.
Using his own language ten years after the war—“I was left to
fight my way to confidence, and the post of danger was welcome --
while silent and calm under provoking injustice in the field.”
Time became his vindicator as a soldier, and impartial history
will ever associate his name with the first honored civilian-general
of the war. A violent temper, coupled with ambition, could but
alienate some, and retard his career. Cautious generals sneered at
his rank, and the press was cruel in criticism, and made much of
the rhetoric of one not fortunate in enjoying the early culture of
the schools. Still, he was apt in story, bold in figures, merciless in
invective. I bought his book on the Rebellion, which I praised as
liberal and trustworthy though I knew that I had found no flattery.
and no mean compliment. He had a dark, keen eye, firm-knit
frame and proud tread. Did he, in the Mexican war, seek the
bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth ? He was fair to his
foes. Too generous was he not to credit his foe in battle with a
devotion that showed the stuff for real heroes.
We met socially at the Yellowstone Park, and I loved the man
more the nearer an approach. Indulging in severe judgments of
men and compeers, his loves were strong. Without pretence, or
defense of inconstancy as a church member, he carried a confid-
ing trust in man's immortal Captain and Guide. But "he was
ambitious, and a political slate-maker!” Grant all, and his ambi-
tion was legitimate and open, and it was the presence of rivals less
open that made his acts, and the choice of confiding friends, a
necessity. There was neither the taint of duplicity, nor of venal-
ity, though he was often depressed in want of the sinews of a
political campaign.
It might have been vanity, yet there was no concealment that
he might, heading the presidential ticket in 1884, have been
elected, and an impression prevailed that the soldiers, and Illinois
with emphasis, would make him the leader in 1888; but suddenly
He leaves the “Great Conspiracy”, a volume of facts and bold phi-
losophy, as a rich legacy to his countrymen, yet not of equal value
to his personal career as a soldier and friend.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
199
HENRY S. FOOTE AND JEFFERSON DAVIS.
Long ago, from my gallery seat, I made a study of the Missis-
sippi senators, Henry S. Foote and Jefferson Davis. What they
had in common beyond professed hate of free soilers it was not
easy to discern. Toote was a dark-faced, baldheaded man, reputed
in the streets to have blood that suspiciously tinged his skin under
the eye where you locate the Crow-foot. Whether the Indian or
the African color, they will say, “Let him soar, for he is a gor-
geous southern orator.” He was peripatetic and merry as a page
boy. With all his bluster and dramatic beatings over the place
where a heart is supposed to be located, the fire-eaters really held
him in contempt as a compromiser - staunching wounds on behalf
of “Union saviors”.
Mr. Davis was his antipode in every aspect, certainly an
unmixed Caucasian. He eloped with General Taylor's daughter,
and I dare say from his hauteur he has never begged pardon for
the offense. Wherein he was very lovable I did not discover.
Cheek-bones high, nose very sharp, cheeks gaunt, lips compressed
as if in anger, undergirt with a chin which meant a welcome to a
fight under any conceivable provocation. The air of a West Point
officer he carries, and affects the importance of one who won a
title in the Mexican war, but is too thin in person to look well and
far too stilted for plumes won in a doubtful war.
He detests compromise, and I liken him to the shallow pugil-
ist with a chip on the shoulder. How he listens when a radical
like Hale or Chase speaks, having, as I read him, a morbid desire
for some lapsus linguce on which he can hinge a speech fit for the
cotton growers, or allow an indulgence in threats and in speech on
the worth of the Union, provided it has a Calhoun slavery corner-
stone. As a speaker he had neither the fluency or the real sublim-
ity of Foote. Did he ever smile? There is no record that Cataline
did. He had not wit like Hale, nor the poise of Seward, yet, I
thought, he will do to watch, even though a gentleman senator of
good habits.
GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT.
This venerable historic soldier was little seen in public up to
the firing on Sumpter, save on grand occasions. Who would not be
vain! The hero of Lundy Lane, and of the Mexican war, bring-
200
REMINISCENCES OF FORTI YEARS.
ing great gains in treasure. He was tall, rotund, well-moulded
without the device of padding; none better than the old general
could feel that, like Napoleon in his glory, "To be a god you must
not be too common among mortals.”
Had he said, “Let the erring sisters go in peace ?” It was
rather an opinion than high philosophy. He oft ate and drank
with the fire-eaters. Fratricidal war, and "garments rolled in
blood”, had less attraction for him than for younger bloods never
in the smoke of battle.
In 1861 he was not doubted in loyalty, but regarded unequal
by age for the crisis. Governor Grimes suggested to us, a group
of Iowans in the city, that we call on the chief and take home the
best news to our anxious people; for the war was on, and it was a
sad prospect of more than a sixty days' conflict. .
It was a sight-seeing, curious company, headed by the governor,
that, after halts, skirmishing and sulphurous execration of red tape
lines, were ushered into the old general's presence - truly august.
To all save reminiscences he was dumb, and on an effort to find
cheer in a military horoscope, he shut his eyes in blind noncha-
lance and mystery. He did say that many good soldiers were
· buried, victims of the cholera in Rock Island in 1833, in the Black
Hawk war, where he was stationed, before Iowa was. So husky
was his voice and dull the eye, that one of our company sought to
interject a western opinion, and our general not only nodded
assent, but fell into a sleep at mid-day. So we retired guying our
spokesman on the speech and its soothing effects. This report to
Senator Grimes only confirmed an opinion that, with an old, imbe-
cile head, there was more than protracted war - disunion. Before
night Mr. Lincoln, by the senator's visit, was advised of this spir-
ited reception given to the senator's constituents.
Mr. Lincoln said to me, later, “You stirred up Grimes to swear
in madness over the incapacity of our general. Now, candidly, did
he color it?"
I answered, “He did sleep, and we retreated, not on a bugle
call, but before he snored out in prologue.”
It was not long before there was a hail to the new McClel-
lan, chief of the army, but late in the refrain, “who in triumph
advances”.
This is no reflection on an old soldier of seventy-four years,
but a fact of the times; a key to the boldness of traitors and
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY FEARS.
201
another evidence that our president had not only to create an
army, but a delicate task in dealing with senility, sporting the
plumes of youthful victories long after the stamp of raven feet,
under once brilliant eyes, should have been a signal for a less vain
hero to retire without an official invitation by the kind-hearted
Lincoln.
HENRY CLAY.
These sketches of eminent leaders may be closed with more
distant, but not less vivid, recollections of the great Kentuckian.
It is many years ago that I exchanged salutations with Henry
Taking the chair at call of “next”, a tall, venerable gentleman
opened the door, whom I recognized as Mr. Clay, and to him I
said, “It will be a pleasure to give you my turn.” After some
“May I know the name of the gentleman to whose politeness I am
indebted, while I have visitors above waiting ?” This prepared
the way for his warın expressions of devotion to my kindred by
name in New York, and gave me a chance to say that as a Ver-
monter, when the stages were full, I was compelled to walk near
twenty miles to hear him speak once at Burlington. To this he
replied, “I was called the lion of the occasion, but the roaring was
very poor pay for so long a walk; but come up to my room at
any time after dinner and we can talk at leisure.” Of course I
accepted the invitation, for it was at the time of heated discussion
on the compromise measures, and it required a senatorial pass to
gain admission to the small Senate chamber, now occupied by the
Supreme Court.
I heard Mr. Clay make his last public speech, but after a pecul-
iar outside colloquy. Webster had made his 7th of March speech,
on the questions of compromise. Extreme fire-eaters like Jeff
Davis, were with free-soilers, like Seward, Hale and Chase, on
one side, while Clay and moderate democrats like Douglass and
Dodge and Jones, from Iowa, were on the other. In the midst of
a great rush for seats my senatorial card was of no avail, and only
the "privileged” could find admission.
The door-keeper, C. H. Brainard, I knew well, and in the pres-
ence of an anxious, waiting crowd I touched the door to go in.
“No, not unless you are a privileged member. Are you? There
202
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
are new orders; the Senate chamber has been like a rushing mob.
Are you privileged ?" and, bowing with hesitation, he asked:
"A judge ?" "No." “Ex-member?" "No." "Governor ?"
"No." "Minister ?” “Yes." "Pardon my inquisitiveness, from
what court, sir, if you please?" To carry out my part of the
comedy I solemnly pointed up. Thereupon Brainard, the wit, said,
“I regret to inform you, my friend, that will not avail and bring
you under the rule, for this government has had no intercourse
with that foreign power for many years.” An original retort which
scattered the merry throng, and, after a brief delay I came back to
find admission.
It was near the close of the great debate of the century. Jeff
Davis was bitter. Senator Benton clutched the resolutions, hold-
ing them up, shouting, “So would I strangle the propositions
worthy only of derision.” Mr. Clay, pale and emaciated, passed
up to the president's desk either for a pinch of snuff or to talk
with the clerk on an amendment, and it was then in order that he
said “Mr. President” with a bland expression, senatorial dignity,
and unusual cadence that hushed the chamber into the stillness of
sepulchre. One hand rested on the marble desk, his cloak was
hung loosely, while a trembling hand was raised in solemn ges-
tures, or oftener in wiping emotional tears which could not be hid
while making a last appeal to the Senate and his country. That
occasion revealed the secret of his power; a suave manner, melodi-
ous voice, sublime expression and patriotic appeal, with the pre-
monition of a dying speech the most touching appeal to which I
ever listened.
I think there is but one person on Iowa soil besides myself
who heard that farewell of the great Commoner, and that is Hon.
George W. Jones, now of Dubuque, one of Iowa's then United
States senators. There is no senator now serving who was in that
body in 1851 and 1852.
Has time, civil commotion, bloody war, the edict of emancipa-
tion and the fierce debates of reconstruction brought into that
chamber - draped in mourning on the 29th of June, 1852, for the
gallant leader — a peer? Mr. Blaine names but two parliamentary
leaders in his history, after Clay. Douglass excelled in mere
animal force and demonstration, which moved the lower stratuin of
society to admiration for audacity linked to ambition which gave
promise of power in a popular and gallant forensic challenge in
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
203
high forum. Thaddeus Stevens was a keener wit, more learned,
subtle, clearer in ethical perception and bolder in enunciation, but
wanting those native gifts in voice, endowment of person and
frank address so conspicuous in Clay, for whom by popular verdict
there have gone up oftenest the rude, loud huzzah at the hustings,
and in whose honor scholars and patriots for a generation at the
festive boards, with the spontaneity of lovers, quaffed their wine
to the toast— «Here is to Harry Clay!”
What of the striking personage whom an impressible young
man saw from the Senate gallery! Seated, there was nothing in
the wan cheek and sunken eye that suggested greatness; only pity
that a gallant and great patriot had not reached the goal of his
ambition. He rises, and there is nature's nobleman; tall, unbent
by the toil of seventy-five years, erect, firm and graceful in move-
ment on that floor where he held a kingly sceptre. The page boys
have a benign recognition, old rivals court a smile as a benediction,
and the president announces the senator from Kentucky.
How fine the modulations in clearest tones and of astonishing
compass and power. You cannot escape the spell of his magnet-
ism, nor be unmoved by that sublimity which is the climax of
oratorical expression. There is no longer wonder that he is the
senatorial idol, the gentleman with the “five-fold blazon”, the last
and greatest of the "historic triumvirate". So I remember the
man; and in review of all his triumph, he is to be ever remembered
as “the father of the American system of Protection”.
Daniel Webster was Clay's antithesis ---- dark in complexion,
phlegmatic temperament, rotund in form, slow and studied in
speech. Reading Clay's speeches, his reputation was a mystery;
hearing Webster in ordinary debate you would wonder at his fame,
there being a dry flow of words with measured periods, inciting
the wish that he would break the monotony and give you evidence
of that power which gave him the rank of the great orator and
matchless rhetorician. He was the orator for great occasions
where his sympathies were enlisted and“ there was the challenge of
a foe worthy of his powers. His business and financial speeches
are seldom quoted. His set orations are chaste and classic, and
unequalled. That he was under the cloud of the 7th of March
speech may account for what was peculiar in his later life, when
he was less free in manner and wanting that jocundity made
attractive in the parlor and by the sea-side.
CHAPTER XIV.
Our Notable Guests — Wendell Phillips — John Brown--Horace
Greeley - Henry Ward Beecher.
WENDELL PHILLIPS.
THIS great character calls up thirty or more of his letters on
social, business, reformatory and political matters, addressed to
myself and family. My eye rests on his portrait, the best in art-
istic skill of all the pictures of the comely, princely, classic face of
the renowned American. It is said that Wilberforce was "the
most learned and respected person in all England”. Has not the
grave just closed over the peer of that great philanthropist in long,
heroic and devoted service; one as eminent and forceful in endow-
ment, meeting the demands of a grand epoch? Wendell Phillips
is not a name to be forgotten, nor will it ever be mentioned by
those who knew him personally without the deepest emotion. I
shall only trace him briefly in the by-walks on his journey, rather
than follow his public eulogists. It is near forty years since he
charmed me with his eloquence. A debut in Iowa in 1856,
described, may have the merit of interest in a state where he was
a great favorite. He was to speak, on his first visit, by special
contract at Iowa City —the state capitol — on the Lost Arts.
Governor Grimes, state officers, members of the legislature, and
the leading minds of the city were present. These were the stormy
days of 1856, and anticipating a desire to hear him on political
topics, I suggested to Mr. Phillips a change of the lecture, to
which he replied, “I think our timid friend the presiding officer
would faint at the suggestion.” The “ Lost Arts” was in the
orator's best vein, but previously a note had been handed to the
governor and others suggesting a call for the 'agitator. On an
agreement to second the call, a request was made at the close for a
supplement without “bit or bridle”. The chairman said, “The
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
205
lecture is over; we have no further responsibility.” (A mob had
been hinted.) On a shouting vote for a new speech, the excite-
ment began. Mr. Phillips said he would not take time to deny that
he was, as he said, the incendiary fanatic, lighting up his way with
burning parchments and constitutions. He first tortured half-way-
house republicans with such keen wit and severity —those "who
tempted their gods that fell to be foot balls” —that democrats
shouted; then he bid them repress their glee, for, with the logic of
a political outlaw, he would have in reserve medicine for the party
rich in professions of Jefferson and profuse in the apostasy of the
early Julian. Their time came and the other side cheered with
great vociferation at these words : “Democracy which will assas-
sinate Douglass and every northern man who cultivates his back-
bone. The last doughface is being moulded to have equal place in
politics with the mummy of Egypt. Garrison has no halter about
his neck; Sumner is in the Senate; your load is the heavy corpse
of slavery."
His figures of speech were fresh, pathetic and eloquent, and he
was urged on after repeated attempts at pausing, by cries of “Go
on,” “Go on," which carried the dramatic scene until after mid-
night. The local press was full of it. Governor Grimes, writing to
his wife, called it a most exciting and enjoyable treat by the silver-
tongued orator. Mr. Hepburn, M. C. from Iowa, said a few days
since, that this was the speech above all others he had ever heard
he best remembered, though delivered thirty-five years ago.
Years later, on my recalling that the Lyceum president, with
protest and avowal that "he would not be responsible for a possi-
ble mob”, Mr. Phillips said, “You capped the climax in ridicule by
saying that 'your responsibility is not of the least consequence?."
I wonder if such a picture of a human spaniel has recovered from
a fright in fear of billets of wood and possibly accompanying stale
eggs. Now and then such a specimen of fraud glides into notice,
thinking that he controls sentiment, when he is only a poor show
of a weather-cock gilded above where live roosters learn to crow.
At best, he was but an engineer building bridges for retreat. Well,
it's a part of the compensation in my journeys among. strangers
that such fellows produce healthful merriment.
Mr. Phillips' generosity, the spontaneity of a great heart, was
well known. For labor, impartial sufferage, and many organiza-
tions, his words were free. On the request for a lecture his
206
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
answer often was, “If I choose my subject, probably Slavery',
only expenses; if you choose my subject, one hundred dollars and
expenses.” I give a fact in further illustration. At an early day
I made investments on his account. Delinquents in principal or
interest he would not allow to be sued, but would rather apologize
for reminding as to the debt. There was the case of a soldier of
throwing off a few hundred dollars ? I cannot afford to be push-
ing, and had rather lose than bring pain to worthy people." There
was a Kansas debtor. “If he is true to the free state men, and
has a spark of the courage of Jim Lane and John Brown, let him
go! Kansas has good soil but no certain value, until the issue of
blood and war is over.” It was his conviction that time with
lenity brought greater gains than litigation. And in the issue of
his western affairs his philosophy was a true one.
The theological opinions of our friend were far from loose, with
a creed not atheistic, as commonly held. He was orthodox. “I
know of no theological divergence from my brother-in-law, Dr.
Blagden, minister of the Old South. It is possible that there are
deductions and doxies of which I am ignorant, but this is not a
painful reflection when on the march and in assault.” As late as
1880 I received from him an account of a heated discussion in a
circle of liberal authors and theologians, when he, like the histo-
rian Bancroft, gave an approval of Jonathan Edwards, the theolo-
gian, in these words: “He was a great force in New England and
the 'gods of the Connecticut valley grew up under such preaching
as his. In high character, devotion to public interests and great
self-sacrifice, they were as good as anything we have to-day.”
It is many years since, on my proposal to make a loan of his
money on hand to an orthodox church, that a good lady doubted if
so much of an “infidel would like it”. Long after the use of his
money there was a fine stone church being completed in the city of
Grinnell. Casually there came to view a fact as to his liberality.
The mention that this is the ground on which he once held a mort-
gage, recalled that his clerk said he was not certain of its dis-
charge. On inquiry, the trustees had for years forgotten both
interest and principal. “Bring me the facts, and a blank,” said
To the surprise of both parties, the indebtedness amounted to
seven hundred and fifty dollars. This Mr. Phillips said it gave
REMÍNISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
207
him great pleasure to donate in compliment to the enterprise of
the church and its sturdy faith. At the time of the tornado, in
1882, the first notice by telegram of a few hundred dollars by
“draft on the way" was from our friend, soon followed by a letter
requesting me to come on, and, should he be short of money, he
would find a Phillips who wasn't. Thus one thousand dollars
came by a simple suggestion to aid in rebuilding the college halls
Civil Service as a political plank, I heard hiin often deride, and
long before its late bogus exemplar was in office. These are his
exact words in a letter before me, written just before his death :
“As to this cry about Civil Service, I am against creating what
they have in England--a set of life-offices eaten up with esprit du
corps and imbued with aristocratic ideas. The worst element I
ever saw in this country was the close corporation of fellows who
had been office-holders in Washington for thirty or forty years,
and were, in 1861, the worst 'secesh'—all dead against Lincoln.
My civil sevice is going a stride ahead toward more democratic
institutions. This was enforced with a question, “Why should
not the patrons of post offices and custom houses elect their ser-
vants under certain limitations ? This will be effectual reform.”
In this connection, I mention that he was emphatically opposed to
the free trade policy with which as a student he was enamoured
theoretically, but found that in practical business concerns an
American policy of protection proved to be the highest states-
manship, intimately related to our national growth and financial
preeminence.
John Brown of Ossawattomie came up in association with our
Liberty Room (once the parlor), where the old hero stacked his
arms and his company of fugitives slept. "Don't mar it or part
with it, for every year will lend interest to the room and your
guest, who with courageous blood dared to strike the great blow of
the century.”
On my referring to the long, dreary burial trip of his friend,
among the mountains, he said, “No, no! I was not at the heels of
a mailed warrior, or a dead prince. It was not my purpose to
keep from the funeral. Don't think me peculiar in my admiration,
for I could surprise the world by telling what I know of the deep
convictions of able, but very cautious surface people. There are
now many strains of blood that are red and with full bead, as in
208
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
other days.” Soon in our history. it was developed, only more
than he saw in vision. When a biographer comes to picture to
the life the man of soul, Brown, who lighted and alarmed with
rockets in our drear dark night, Phillips will be in the foreground
at the burial of the victim of the gallows, in the shadow of the
forests, in the solitudes of the mountains. None but an inspired
pen may touch the theme. This will be the epitaph of the hero,
who was of Revolutionary blood:
· I GAVE MY SWORD
TO THE
SLAVE MY FATHERS FORGOT.
The Phi Betta Kappa oration at Harvard was bold, revolu-
tionary in mention of dynamite and dagger as a way out of the
slavery of the Czar. He said: “It is not to be modified. All I
could not enforce. Demand a whole loaf, if you will get half of it.
This is the issue of reform that only when striking high will you
bring game worth bagging. They will stop often at a half-way
house for rest. Place our people in the shoes of the banished mil-
lions in Siberia, and fearful, for their children, they would say
Amen’. Nothing heats blood like the thought of victims in our
own family. The virtue of a radical idea is in making the masses
think. Yes, they complain that I did not give my Alma Mater
credit. They of Harvard know all its good, and it was my painful
duty to remind of what it was all along their pleasure to forget."
. At our last meeting in Boston he said, “Come up, and call with
me on our Governor Butler; I have an errand and he will be glad
to see you." While on the way across the old common, these
words fell, “I don't forget a general who took our first regiment to
the field in face of Baltimore assassins, when noisy and sleepy
patriots, with hands in their pockets, only looked wise. If Butler
is not your leader in full uniform, he will be mentioned long after
mere respectable idle patriots are forgotten. Your party should
.
call him a mere cipher, with a cultured good stock of brains and
immense vitality for emergencies."
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
209
On the State House steps and in the hall, varied humanity
swarmed about Phillips like insects over honey. As near as I
could learn they wanted a place and “were broke”, if the passing
out of bills from their friend's pockets was a fair indication of the
pleas in poverty. In regard to all he said, relieved of the crowd,
"I am almost doomed to hermitage, for there is a delusion as to
my influence and pecuniary ability.” I could then guess why he
who was an heir to a fortune, a great income and with frugal
habits, had little wealth, as discovered at his death.
For his home, which I often visited, I have but a word. Nei-
ther of his residences, that on Essex street which he left sorrow-
fully, at the demand of the city for improvements, or that on Com-
mon street, were worth more than ten thousand dollars each.
Their interior finish was even plainer than the exterior. I saw no
canine of any degree seeking his caresses; nor did canary or mock-
ing-bird break the silence in window, hall or library. His interest
was devoted to the higher, not the lower brute order of creation.
His library was truly a work-shop. Newspapers were strewn,
clipped and marked, with no semblance of order, save to him who
knew all his tools as readily as the tropes and quotations leaping
to his tongue in artistic form and apt array in debate. There were
rare gifts in pictures, and embossed souvenir volumes from many
lands. Only a poor library, by count, yet rich and rare in quality
for reference and in our standard literature.
Whittier, his quiet Quaker poet and delight, was most conspic-
uous on the wall, both in robust youth and later in pensive mel-
lowed age. Sumner's statue, by Miss Whitney, awakened my
interest and was admired by the owner. The bust of Garrison and
miniature pictures of Theodore Parker, and of John Brown in
martyr Phillips linked his name in the mingled pathos of tears
and enchantments of eulogy.
On the occasion of my last call at his house, these were the
last words heard from his great, warm heart: “Though I am an
old man you won't forget me, will you? Good-by." How would
it be possible for those who knew him ever to forget him ?
To live in hearts we leave behind
210
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
JOHN BROWN OF OSSAWATTOMIE.
A ring at my door, March, 1859. “Good evening, sir. I am a
stranger here - pardon me — is this Mr. Grinnell ?” “That is my
name.” “I have heard of you and do not feel like a stranger, for
you married a daughter, I am told, of my old friend, Deacon
Chauncey Chapin, of Springfield, Mass., where I once resided.”
“Will you come and see the daughter?” “ Yes, I am chilly
riding, and wish to open my errand privately.”
Captain Brown was not slow in making his way by a mention
of his dear old friend, Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood; and he said that
his Sunday timepiece was "the passing of your father's carriage on
the way to church, and I would tell my group of children to hurry
or we should be late to church.” He accepted an invitation to tea;
and his attentions to the little girl, our prattling Mary, soon
brought her playfully to his knees.
“Let me see you in the hall a moment; I am not here for a
social visit - I am the “awful Brown' of whom you have heard --
Captain John Brown of Kansas.” “Yes, and I was reading just
now in the New York Tribune that you were leading a company of
fugitives through Iowa to Canada; that there was a large reward
offered for your capture, and the United States marshals were sure
to capture the party.” “Please let me see the paper,” and on
reading, he said, “My company is just back here in the grove, and
I am only a scout. Don't put yourself and family in jeopardy -I
came for advice. I was in the 'wool business', and am still, they
say derisively, and I hear you are openly. We are sixteen per-
sons, with horses, and man and beast must be fed, and stop with
friends if we can, and not spies. Then, it is Saturday and we
want rest. I make it a rule not to travel on Sunday if it can be
avoided, and to save expense we can cook our own food; and we
need a rendezvous to stack our arms. What do you advise?" I
opened the door into the parlor, since called the “Liberty Room",
to say, “This is at your service, and you can occupy the stalls at
the barn not taken. Our hotel will be as safe as any place, for a
part of your company, and there is no occasion to wait until night,
for you have too much of an outfit for concealment.” My guest
I followed to the door, the sun shining full in his face, his head
uncovered with a light and facial expression an artist might covet
as a subject.
D
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
211
He stood very erect for a man nearing sixty years, and wore a
full, long beard, almost white, with hair parted and standing up,
suggesting Andrew Jackson as pictured. The chin was broad, lips
compressed, the eye was a keen, light gray, deep set and mild, only
flashing in moments of excited action, or when crossed in debate.
Charles Sumner's opinion is mine, that, after seeing his bust, there
is nothing the sun shines upon so like Michael Angelo's Moses.
There were no spurs on his boots, and he was only clad in a plain,
well-worn suit, with nothing to suggest border warfare save a wide-
rimmed hat and half-concealed pistol.
He afterward explained his pistol being in sight, for there was
a law against carrying it concealed : “But mine,” he said, “is not
fully concealed, and there shall be no pretense for arrest on my
peaceful journey."
He went to Mrs. Reid's hotel and engaged stalls for the horses,
and supper for the women; then went back to meet his company.
The news had spread as to Brown's arrival, and the town was out
in good numbers to see the outfit. Couriers, making as good a dis-
play as possible, were glistening with spurs, and there was a clink
of swords and in sight Sharp's six-shooters, which Mr. Beecher's
church had purchased. There were canvas-covered wagons fol-
lowed by horsemen, altogether a novel affair before the civil war
era. Sentinels were placed by strict military precaution, and my
parlor in the corner was a deposit for small arms, ammunition,
swords and rifles, some having been brought from concealment
under the canvas.
Soon there were calls from curious neighbors, the most of them
to cheer, and to propose an evening reception for the guests in the
large audience room used for a church. One, more conservative,
said, “The town will be burned – it had been threatened, and
every man should be at home to defend his property Spies were
about and the United States marshal could easily make an arrest.”
This nervous, good man I did not bring into Captain Brown's com-
pany, but told him of dangers. It was then that he disclosed his
defense. “We can shoot sixty times a minute, and every one,
even of the women, is a practiced dead-shot. My men have seen
service on the border, and one or two have a military education.
Never fear! I have found that cowards and ruffians are one fam-
ily. Then I have many times been a fair mark for their lead
while defending freedom, but they only touched my hair. But
212
REMINISCENCES OF FORTS TEARS.
what shall I talk about to-night?” “Tell your story of Kansas,
and, if you feel safe, strengthen the back-bone of our weak peo-
ple— good men, but cautious.”
It was a large meeting of several hundred persons, many from
the groves, brought, not by sympathy, but by curiosity. Captain
Brown was calm in manner, but full of emotion as he pictured the
assassins from Missouri, and the death of a son, shot by outlaws in
open day, and another tortured to madness — a worse fate than
death — driven and chained like a dog, charged with no offense.
For his part in the Kansas struggle he made a formal defense,
and said that in the taking of life there was only self-defense.
"The drop' was in gaining the first shot, and if you are right and
your life is worth more than that of a man with murderous intent,
save your own. Kansas is the home of bandits — I am, with
Union men, alive to tell the story, because we got into their camp,
shot. My soldiers got the drop - only strategy—and the violence
only proved that - this is good Bible-- "They that take the sword
shall perish by the sword. “I went to Kansas for peaceful set-
tlement and to save a great state from slavery. Those that went
there to forge fetters became murderers and deserved to die. I am
not a man of blood, but when God sends me on an errand I don't
wait for my enemies to choose the battle-ground, and if I ordered
men shot it was because they had planned murder. There is no
law on the border. But there will be — the hirelings, backed by
Buchanan, cannot face lead.”
: « Tell us about your company!” one called out.
“ They call me a "Nigger Thief'. Am I? I delivered the
poor that cried, and there was none to help."
“But, Captain, are not your black people from Missouri?"
“Yes -- and I tell you my company were to be sold; we saw
them in jeopardy, not charged with crime, to be sent South as cot-
ton hands, or to the cane fields. They called to me and I rescued
them. I have never counseled violence, nor would I stir to insur-
rection which would involve the innocent and helpless. Twelve
was the number rescued, and led out from Missouri, a kind and
grateful but ignorant company. They were trained for defense
and would have been obedient to command.
“Now I am in the role of a strategist, to keep the slaveholders
away from Kansas, busy with their home affairs. They are learn-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
213
ing that they have enough to do in Missouri without burning out
and killing free state men in Kansas. What I have got along
would have sold for ten thousand dollars, and that is double the
reward I hear offered for my head. The underground railroad is
doing a great business, and there is a great demand for means of
transportation, but my people brought their own. We don't steal
horses. They take those raised by their care, and sell them to get
what is kept back by fraud'. Now on Monday there will be
shown soine of our surplus horses for sale."
“What title can you give ? " called out one.
“The best — the affidavit that they were taken by black men
from land they had cleared and tilled, taken in part payment for
labor which is kept back.”
A call again, “Was not that stealing ?” “Stealing by a thing!
a right to a reward for labor, and I have made them men, and they
want to trade the fruits of their industry for clothes and food. I
don't wish to debate, but deny that there can be no good war, and
no bad peace? Old men, if you have got any good blood, you
sprang from rebels that met the foes of God and your country as
we do in Kansas. I am told spies are in this room, as they were,
advocating peace, at Tabor. They are your peacemakers, but only.
assassins of the Kansas stripe. We are far on our journey, ready
to die in an open field, but to go back never, white or black, in
charge of a Buchanan marshal into worse than slavery.”
J. H. Kagi spoke, but not with the solemnity of Brown, saying,
(The half of border warfare had never been told. Kansas was a
fine country worth a struggle, and Col. Jim Lane and his crowd
were ready to meet in the right time twice their number. Cap-
tain Brown would be hunted as a wild beast, and the loss of his
property, exposure to hardship, and the death of sons, would have
driven any other man to madness. Canada is a good breathing
place for men of color, and, from my leader who has struck terror
on the border, you will hear again." This, no doubt, had reference
to the Virginia constitution, a part of which was written in my
house, and to his Virginia raid the next December. Thus we saw
Brown in public, skilled in repartee and effective in narration, with
a purpose.
In prayer, there was a supplication for enemies, and the poor
fighting our battles on the border. On my asking for details in
214
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
his experiences, he said, “I have an aversion to talking about it; .
the deeds were so horrible and my brain almost reels over the pic-
tures, but if there is a God — and there is – He will avenge.”
The old prophets were often quoted on that Sunday, and great
truths worthy of the renowned sages fell from his lips, which I
took down at the time, and from memory gave to the press. They
are to be found in Brown's life by Redpath.
Captain Brown was an expert in the wool-trade. In my sheep
barn and wool loft he lingered, saying that it was by honest sort-
ing that he helped the trade, and by his independence that he
became a poor man. “Grease and filth will not make cloth. I
can with my eyes closed, tell of the texture of a fleece, and by the
touch if strong or weak, if grown on a poor or fat animal; and
honest selling on merit was my aim. I made a standard, and
shipped to England a fine clip just as the price went down. There
is no discounting my Canada and English trade in fleecy locks now,
though disaster is predicted. Somebody, like many an inventor, has
to fail. It is a question whether a dead man is a failure when
living ones climb over him easier to scale the wall. I am under
the law of fate which I cannot read. I like a quiet home and
children, but there is no rest for me. Springfield, madam,”
addressing Mrs. G., "is a beautiful city, and Doctor Osgood was a
sample minister above his profession, and he would urge me to
quiet as you do. Yes — wife, boys and all are full of fear, but
they don't know my mission—it is direct from God Almighty, and
I am discharging it.”
That gave me the first indication of a kind of insanity, and I
appealed to him to “take rest or your losses and severe sacrifice of
your boys will drive you to madness”.
"No— the battle is raging, and I must fight, much as I like a
home, and play with children.”
J. H. Kagi appeared with a large bundle and sat in my library
writing, while a sentinel was near. As the door was ajar, I heard
Brown say that “he would not have it—the article must be
drafted over". There was a long reading and discussion, there-
upon a remark, to me, “I can trust you, and as a friend, if you
overheard anything, I pray you regard it a profound secret.” A
part of the draft of the Virginia constitution I have no doubt was
made then, yet was ignorant of his emancipation plot, which cost
his life.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
215
The Sunday evening meeting had been noticed in the morning,
and it was more solemn than exciting. Captain Brown spoke
without any spirit of revenge, and like a statesman.
“Slavery is a crime, and a real lover of his race and country
will put a wall of fire around it. Some will dare to die yet, as so
many have done on the border. You have a college started, and I
hear your prayers, and this spirit will save the country. Slavery
cannot endure a college, or a prayer that goes above the roof.”
Three clergymen spoke kindly, and prayed for the safety of the
company and Kansas. A collection was taken, and an offer of
food to take on the way. The sentiment was far from a unit.
Tabor had deprecated the raid; and, to save burning as a town and
fines, that would be a wise course for Grinnell; but, the counsels
of age and a dash of strong talk overcame all, leaving the hero and
company to shake hands, and a parting “God bless you”. It was
an educational meeting of a high order, bracing for a feared con-
flict between the marshal and Brown's company.
Reaching home I found a stage agent or driver, with a message.
Here we have the hero outside the church. The marshal, Mr.
Workman, of Iowa City, was an ex-senator, postmaster, and a per-
sonal friend in securing a right of way for the railroad of which
I was a director. He wrote, “You can see that it will give your
town a bad name to have a fight there; then all who aid are liable,
and there will be an arrest or blood. Get the old Devil away to
save trouble, for he will be taken, dead or alive.” Of course it
was my first duty to tell Brown the situation.
“Yes, I have heard of him ever since I came to the state, and
perhaps I better leave the house and take to the barn, but I tell
you all such soldiers are cowards, and can be stampeded like cattle.
My word is, tell him we are ready to be taken, but will wait one
day more for his military squad.” . Going over to the hotel to send
the message by the stage, à plausable democrat gave me some
advice, and said he might be enrolled to kill a nigger thief,
but didn't want me hurt. At home I found the door ajar to the
room that contained the arms. “There be six Richmonds in the
field" — no, six on the floor, sleeping on their arms, grasping a
weapon on the first sound. Brown was up stairs asleep, well
armed, and came down to breakfast in good cheer and talkative.
“We are prepared, and you see we cannot be surprised. Raw
recruits shoot too high; the body is a larger mark than the head,
216
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
and men wounded in the bowels or breast make a greater panic
than dead ones. I advise that we take the hind sight of our
guns, then reserve fire. Don't think of volunteers among your
people— nothing but spies and thickets trouble ine. I do wish
that we had co-transportation through Illinois, to save time and
perils to my company. If I dared I should report to Dr. S. G.
Howe of Boston, or friends; there is no trusting the Post Office
and I use a cipher."
Here was the hero in the possible meeting of a drilled company
-- thought to be three to one—and allured by glory in democratic
service and thousands of dollars in reward.
Good as his word, Brown waited, and then loaded the women
and chattels, with the baggage, into the canvas-covered wagons,
led by dashing riders, and a rear guard armed like moving arse-
nals. The young child (named after him) was in his arms on the
front seat, the mother still ill, and he lifted his hat, waving a
cheerful adieu, and the company passed out of sight, bound for the
Quaker settlement in Cedar County. A lively discussion was kept
up in the town, until the return news came that they were to be
sent in a car as stock; secretly, from West Liberty to Chicago.
The circumstances were these: I had meanwhile gone to Chicago,
as a wool-shipper, and from the late John F. Tracy, superintend-
ent, engaged a stock car for the fugitives from West Liberty to
Chicago at fifty dollars. The kind of freight was not named, and
the democratic manager, while suspicious, was kept in ignorance.
When too late the permission was withdrawn, for the outfit had
filled the car, and Brown was so fully aware of the value of cau-
tion that there was only a secret unloading in Chicago. It was in
vain that I offered the freight money, Mr. Tracy saying, “I would
not accept it for ten thousand dollars since we miglit be held for
the value of every one of the niggers.” Yet, it was true that the
real owners of the railway property were not averse to the new
species of freighting.
Where was the valiant Marshal Workman? That radical of
the time, William Penn Clark, with Dr. Jesse Brown, were also
engaged in securing transportation, and tauntingly urged Workman
to get out his company, less valiant the more they heard of Brown.
The old hero had gauged the slave hunter. Reed's Johnson
County History has the following:
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
217
“It immediately became street talk in Iowa City that Brown, with a large
party of fugitive slaves, was in the vicinity; and, as a reward of three thousand
dollars had been offered by the authorities of Missouri for the arrest of the negroes,
the disinterested advocates of the rigid enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law
began to discuss the propriety of collecting a mob and marching on Pedee and cap-
turing Brown and his party. Sam Workman, then postmaster at Iowa City, was
the captain of the gang organized for this purpose, but Browu having returned a
reply breathing quiet defiance to Workman's threat of capturing him, the postmas-
ter, after consulting his friend Captain Kelly, an Irish gentleman of great emi-
nence — that is to say, six feet and seven inches tall- deferred the undertaking."
The account in Sanborn's Life of John Brown I assume to be
true. It is only the truth that Grinnell had been a station on the
underground railway, but the departures had been in the night and
the adventurers not generally known. Certainly the event had
found no local publicity, attended with cost if not personal peril.
The "broadbrims” were usually conductors of a covered wagon.
Now and then a daring, safe driver would have at his side a broad,
double-faced bull-dog, a device which kept curious persons from
investigating the quality of the freight. At an early day there
were quiet camping places for the day, and rest for a resumption
on the journey at dark.
The great railroad manager, H. M. Hoxie, now dead, showed
his early spirit and aptness when in the family of the founder of
Mitchelville, near Des Moines. “Uncle" and Hon. Thos. Mitchell,
now under a whitening crown, can invite the statute of limitation
as a bar to his youthful lav breaking, for he taught what he
practiced with the ardor of a new convert and the efficiency of a
field marshal. The late and lamented H. M. Hoxie was a protégé
of his, and the pleasure and excitement of. “helping on a darky"
was only heightened, even after he became county clerk, by a
knowledge that with his native adroitness he had got the pursuers
on the wrong track.
This is a sample of the ciplier messages of the time, and a judi-
cious device, as both Mr. Mitchell and I raised sheep. We were
afraid of the mails and the following letter was delivered by a
trusted stage passenger:
“Dear Grinnell: Uncle Tom says if the roads are not too bad you can look
for those fleeces of wool by to-morrow. Send them on to test the market and price,
and no back charges.
Yours,
They came at night, and were the darkest, saddest specimens of
218
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
humanity I have ever seen, glad to camp on the floor, while the vet-
eran was a night guard with his dog and a miniature arsenal, ready
for use on alarm. Breakfast over, for obvious reasons they chose
a refuge in the barn until dark, and while filing out, one observed
a colored picture on the wall, representing the Saviour on a cross,
and shouted, “Marsa, what they doing with that fellow up thar?”
The reply was, “Crucifying the Saviour.” “What's dat?" "Tak-
ing His life — it is Jesus.”
The later career of Brown, with the safe arrival of his spoil
from the southern prison house, in Canada, came to be well known.
It is described in volumes by Redpath and Webb Sanborn, with
the Virginia invasion, capture at Harper's Ferry, and execution
at Charlestown, Va., after a show of trial in December, 1859.
There is a personal item not to be forgotten. Captain Brown
wrote me of his safe arrival among the Quakers and in Chicago, to
which I replied with good wishes.
From Springdale, the following letter was written, as appears
in Sanborn's life of the hero, headed, “ Reception at Grinnell, Iowa,
compared with Tabor”:
1. Whole party and teams kept for two days free of cost.
2. Sundry articles of clothing given to the captives.
3. Bread, meat, cakes, pies, etc., prepared for our journey.
4. Full houses for two nights in succession, at which meetings Brown and
Kagi spoke, and were loudly cheered and fully endorsed. Three Congregational
clergymen attended the meeting on Sabbath evening (notice of which was given
from the pulpit). All of them took part in justifying our course and in urging con-
tributions in our behalf. There was no dissenting speaker at either meeting. Mr.
Grinnell spoke at length and has since labored to procure us a free and safe con-
veyance to Chicago, and effected it. Contributions in cash amounting to $26.50.
Last but not least, public thanksgiving to Almighty God offered up by Mr. Grin-
nell in behalf of the whole company for His great mercy and protecting care, with
prayers for a continuance of these blessings, etc.
Our reception among the Quakers here has been most cordial. Yours truly,
JOHN BROWN.
On his capture a hundred letters or more were found in his
possession, mine with others, supposed to indicate a political con-
spiracy, and punishable by fine and imprisonment. Senator J. M. ·
Mason of Virginia, author of the fugitive slave law, at the earli-
est moment introduced a resolution to investigate with large
powers. The Satanic press gloated over the character of the cul-
prits, prejudged, and northern timid partisans were nervous, even
malignant in spirit.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
219
1
Senator James W. Grimes from Iowa, by letter advised me at
once that I should get out of the way or have the company of a
marshal to Washington. It would not be just to name friends
who advised a visit and stay in Canada until the storm was over,
or to mention the fears of those who held that the party would
suffer by my radicalism, for I was then a state senator. There
was no time for delay, and, secretly to my nearest friends, I left
for Washington, to answer, passing the United States marshal,
with his requisition, as I learned, at Pittsburg. I called on Sena-
tor Grimes first, and by his advice reported to Senator Mason.
“Where is the officer ?" Said the pompous senator, “I can-
not say when you will be wanted. Can you give a bond to
appear ?"
“No, sir; but I am here ready to answer, and have escaped
the company of an officer to meet a scowl.”
I wrote a note to my senator, urging that I had staid long
enough, after a week, but should not leave secretly, and asked for
my rights and an early examination.
The witnesses called, and escapes of the suspected, is a part of
the great sensational drama, and I retired only after a long delay
and a threat by Senator Grimes to bring my case up before the
senate, if not early heard or discharged. Mason, by his clerk, said
I was too willing a witness, and could go, but I could have no let-
ters of my own writing, and there were no fees, and pride as to my
company would lose my railroad fare.
Recounting all relating to the Brown tragedy, nothing is so
strange as the revulsion of public sentiment in the conviction that
the hero of the century appeared as the mighty agent in awaken-
ing public sentiment to the enormities of that system for which a
man “dared to die”. Mistakes are easily named after the battle is
lost. The place was unfortunate, and there was vain trust in the
spirit of the slave, afraid to strike for his liberty. But the valor
of the man and cowardice of oppressors made it true that they exe-
cuted a hero not for a crime but for the exposure of cowardice.
I long since put in the flames letters of commiseration and
excerpts from the warnings against my delusion. Now I can
name Seward, who placed the martyr's picture beside heroes, to
remind of duty and God. Brown's life becomes majestic by the
highest standard; more pathetic than romance, stranger than his-
tory, than all legendary tales; a compeer of lion hearts who have
220
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
honored a scaffold. He is immortalized, the soul marching on
with the legion of soldiers, inspiring them in the camp, on the
march and in assault. "His soul is marching on."
HORACE GREELEY.
Horace Greeley was the unquestioned great journalist of the
century. I knew him forty years ago, ever the object of curiosity
in public assemblies — the prolific subject of caricature by the nov-
was bent, and, with a wabbling gait, flowing flaxen locks, old white
coat, banged hat, neck-tie awry, he was a distant remove from that
semblance of a tailor-made man - Carlyle's clothes dummy; but
the touch of that soft, delicate hand and the parian-white, comely,
massive head, the very impersonation of beauty and power, was
never jeered save by shallow sacrilegious scribblers, too obtuse to
see set on that brow “the seal of a god”.
It is well known that Mr. Greeley avowed in public, in private
by letter, and speech, that he had wasted breath and entreaty on
thousands to gain free air and independence out of the city, and
that I, as before narrated, was the young man who heeded “Go
West, young man! Go West!”
From the city of Grinnell, in 1871, he wrote a letter quite too
profuse in praise, yet a picture of the seat of Iowa College, an insti-
tution of five hundred students, and of the beauty of the place, to
which, without reservation, I subscribe. I could make only a fee-
ble return to his compliments by a dinner party in his honor at St.
Nicholas Hotel in New York. I indulge here in personal reminis-
cences which have the merit of freshness rather than of worn
stories or doubtful legends.
His fidelity as a historian of the war is proven by an incident.
There was a wide and warm discussion as to the positions and
behavior of a certain general in battle, and the issue. To gain the
truth apart from officer and romancer, he wished to hear the story
of a private regular soldier on duty, then miles away from Wash-
ington. He asked ine to accompany him, he being in disguise,
with a pretext to call out the soldier, and guage the witness in the
honesty of a simple, social narrative. To military men it was a
secret, but all related to his history of the actors, the issue and
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
221
strategy of war. He gained what he desired, only by a cold,
muddy ride of six miles.
Mr. Greeley was too thoughtful for idle questions, yet would
occasionally unbend. Once I said to him, “ There is a plot to get
your white coat as a joke.” “I know it,” he said, “the sneaks
have been on my track for years, but money wouldn't buy it, and
I should never hear the last of it if stolen.” During his stay in
Iowa, while awake, the coat was never out of sight, and at night
was by his pillow, though he could not have suspected us as in the
conspiracy. He had explained his attachment to old things — hat,
shoes, that were suited to him, and like old friends not to be
parted with.
The overland stage ride to California evinced his courage, as
well as invited hardships, to give the public the best views of the
new El Dorado. Blessings did brighten on the frontier as they
took their flight, and while stories of the journey became laine in
traveling, yet many of them were authentic. “How was it about
that perilous ride with the driver?" "That's true — I never could
express my fright; and my comrades, passengers, were, in the lan-
guage of the Irishman, 'past shpaking?."
It was the most courageous adventure of a great editor, mock-
ing the dangers incident to stage robbery, uncomplaining, con-
fronted with hardships, awake while others slept, writing — his
knees or a cracker box for a table — while companions cracked
jokes, drawing on their bottles for exhilaration. They were dole-
ful in laments for a people doomed to live in such a country, and in
doubt of the wisdom of a Ruler who tolerated such wastes, depre-
ciating the might of a World-maker. Mr. Greeley saw in future
years the water locked in reservoirs, the lands irrigated, gold mined
by new processes, and homes of comfort and content by the
mountain.
« Across the Continent.” This volume of travels is the lumi-
nous track made by the pen of an unarmed crusader. The notes
were made not for revision, and to be graced by wit and rhetoric,
but thrown off warm for a hungry people, readers of the New York
Tribune, scientists, political economists and philosophers. It was
a new page of facts, an unvarnished tale, then read as romance,
now read by later travelers on a Pullman car, as the forecast of a
keen observer, the vision of an ardent American. He wrote more
truth than all before him saw, and gave the headland pictures for
222
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
imitators who came after him, not blurred by change or time.
John Brown and his battles, the Kansas border war, politicians in
conventions, the argument for the Pacific Railway, and the route,
Indians, Brigham Young and Mormons, mining in Nevada and Cal-
ifornia, the people in character and aspiration, the Golden Gate
and white-winged commerce—all these were taken in by his pene-
trating and comprehensive eye.
I give only samples, laconic records of pioneer, border simplic-
ity in 1859:
“May 12th. Chicago. Chocolate and morning newspapers last
seen at breakfast.
23d. Leavenworth. Room bells and baths make their final
appearance.
24th. Topeka. Beefsteak and wash-bowls (other than tin),
last visible. Barber ditto.
26th. Manhattan. Potatoes and eggs last recognized. Chairs
ditto.
27th. Junction City. Last visitation of boot-black, with dis-
solving views of board bedroom. Bedsteads a good-by.
28th. Pipe Creek. Benches at meals disappearing, giving
baggage, which supplies us with lodgings at night.
As to the Indians Mr. Greeley in private as well as by pen
children — they made no progress, were feared and hated, wasting
in huts, on the limits of human existence. Pontiac and Tecumseh
were no doubt noble fellows, but the race has disappeared.
“Well, about the whiskey and water at the station?" "Yes,
yes, I remembered it—we drank together — he took the whiskey
and I took the water. The scribblers are anxious to get a fresh
goose to pluck; that is a part of the trade, and I have compassion-
ated many a poor devil in my leisure as a news-hunter.”
His characteristic stories are without number; I give one —
that of a hand-car ride.
“I had to reach an Indiana appointment for a lecture, but the
locomotive failed us. I told my introductory story with an apol-
ogy for my delay, which brought out the only laugh heard from
that audience. I placed the hand-car boys under good pay, yet,
getting weary and myself chilled on the car, proposed to help. I
took off my hat, and, with hair streaming, coat-skirts in the wind,
1
LUZ
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
223
I did duty, reminded of the monotony of turning the grindstone
when a boy, before breakfast. Soon my hands began to burn, with
blister's swelling my fingers — they were painful, and all occa-
sioned by forgetting to let the handle turn freely. The audience
was good natured, but I was weary and crippled, and hinted that I
might want a small boy to turn the leaves; but, in the humor of
narration, pictured myself and the painful outcome. "Friends,' I
said, 'I will now proceed with a single reflection suggested by a
lame back, palsied fingers and general debility. As for hand-car
rolling, whatever may be said of it as an exercise, I don't conscien-
tiously recommend it for an amusement.' This, I judge, they took
for a clever jest by the cheers it brought out, for they were the
first and last of the evening."
One day he said, “I know I am no orator, and why do they
keep me on the go ?” My answer was, “It is your fame as an
editor, and a tone with accent far more novel than entertaining.
Now there's your lecture on poetry —long, deep, and that high
key and round powetry' falls into the ludicrous.” “If that
makes a laugh I'll burn the thing."
Farmers' and State Fair Meetings were his delight, and these
are incidents connected with his speech at Des Moines, Iowa, in
1871. Mr. J. S. Clarkson, editor of the State Register, late assist-
ant postmaster-general, called upon him in my company for his
address in full, or the heads. Mr. Greeley answered; “I like your
enterprise, but I don't know a word I am to say, I hope your
reporter may learn that I talked about deep plowing-I must have
one hour for sleep, and then one for dinner and to get ready." He
marked 1, 2, etc. and with each number a word or a sentence to
guide his thoughts; as fast as used it was his habit to lay them
down in their order. He spoke from a new wagon, to a great
crowd, saying to me, before speaking, “As I am very stupid, if I
word if you think the case requires it.”
Near the close, in this office of mentor I said, “trees,” and there
was a brilliant passage; later, “farmers' education," and he
branched out to say, " Lands held by ignorant owners were worth
no more by the acre than lands in Sodom.” The “ city” was men-
tioned, and response came, “Des Moines has a great future, but
you are proud enough now without my flattery.” The speech was
224
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
a great success, and confirins his fame for versatility and the poise
of a great educator.
His was a warm heart, decrying capital punishment as a cruel
barbarism. Yet he would, without the least compunction, by the
merciless strictures of his pen, inflict greater pain than caused by
a gibbet. Shams, the idle, dissipated society, felt his keen lance,
yet unfortunates, like young Vanderbilt, personally without money
or credit, could gain thousands by Mr. Greeley's indorsement, a
sample in a long role of dependents living on a good nature which
rendered him poor, while he might honestly have been nearly a
millionaire. There was, too, a sample of his paradoxical nature,
when, doubting orthodox punishment in the hereafter, he would
with towering indignation consign villanies and villains to the
penal abode of hell in the "old version”.
Mr. Greeley was in certain moods a fine talker, with positive
convictions as to men. Speaking of early men, and newspaper
writers, he said: “On the New Yorker, merged in the Log Cabin of
1840, I did my best and most satisfactory campaign service. I
detested mere partisanship, and strove to elevate the masses, and
strike at pretenders ready to sell or bow to the South on smooth
promises and half pay. You cannot make a good bargain with
Tammany cohorts and southern allies. Union meant slavery
sacred. I never want to engage in the pack-horse business to take
along luggage, better to be dumped in the sea or burned.”
On another occasion, there was a gathering of friends on return
from a Texas visit. On the next morning we met. Said Mr. Gree-
ley, “Did you look in the eye my best friend who called the
guests?" "Yes, a fine, genial man you mentioned often as Chaun-
cey.” “Well, keep track of him. He, as the tailors say of the
cloak, has the making of a good coat. You will hear from him as
rich in wit, a scarce article, and the rising orator of the day. It is
safe to say what Chauncey M. Depew ought to be in the nation."
A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE I)
It has often been said, but not with truth, that he sought the
liberal nomination. From his letter to me, a delegate at Cincin-
nati, I extract:
“Leave my name out of the question as a candidate. We ought
to unite on Judge Davis of Illinois — the old friend of Mr. Lin-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
225
coln. Of Grant say, his nepotism is a scandal — surroundings any-
thing but fragrant. Now is the time to strike for the one-term
principle-give full credit, as I do, to our military president, when
preferring a civilian for a change. Write full news as to friends —
your letter cheers me.”
At his office, in company with Ex-Governor Fenton, the follow-
ing conversation was had: “I read that account of the state polit-
ical fusion of Des Moines, and the funeral services on the burial of
the old democratic party. Mr. Irish (Hon. John P. Irish, now of
California) was really eloquent for a Bourbon, but I doubt if the
remains' will allow the grave to sod over, even with extra atten-
tion of a sexton at the genteel burial.” This was in anticipation
of a revolt, and a clear political forecast of the Bourbons who lay
in wait to compass his defeat. It was at his desk in the heat of
the convass, when a score of political letters were passed over to
ley commented:
“The theoretical free trader wants me to modify on the tariff
to help our cause—then a distiller thinks a few soft words would
take out the sting and hold the democrats. It would be policy for
the South to mildly discount the abuse of Jeff Davis. There is no
end to the slurs from the North on account of my going on the
Davis bond - if I did help get a big elephant off our hands. He
had a right to a trial after a long imprisonment, if not to be hung,
demagogue would have seen it. These hints and advice I burned
unanswered. What do they take me for? The penalty of a nom-
ination is silence, and diluted opinions I shall not put on the
market, for I haven't any for the occasion. It is out of the ques-
tion to rise above the dignity of a jumping-jack.” Turning to Gov-
ernor Fenton, he said: “Can you suggest any creature in my place
for vicarious suffering? I am in a straight-jacket, but if it were
you, you could have worn it without exposing political foibles, as a
pleasant irritation. The machine is under full steam, and there is
a money scare which will array the timid and sneaks against us;
but I am going among the people for country air and to speak.”
He did gó.
The political addresses by Mr. Greeley, in number, vigor and
depth, were an astonishment to the crowds who listened. In
Indiana especially, the home of great stumpers and politicians,
226
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
there was nothing worthy of comparison intellectually to the phi-
losopher candidate. The canvass was then bringing on insomnia
and nervous debility, prompting the remark that “if I should be
elected president I could never serve”. He was conscious that he
was making the last draft on a colossal, weary brain. He was
adjuring his country to lay party on the altar of fraternity, to
insure peace, the end of sectional strife, and national oneness; and
truly his words were like the song of the dying swan, singing
sweetest in the death-notes. It was too late for arguments.
Venality had a price; senility, a refuge; youth, a yearning for a
victory shout. The bright stars which shone over the liberal party
in August were obscured by the dark, ominous clouds of October;
and a caricatured, maligned servant of his party, for thirty years,
plainly read defeat at the watching by the bedside of a sick wife
and with the added premonition that he was soon to follow her.
THE END.
I never indulged in severe denunciation of General Grant, but
expressed my opinion that we had use for a civilian, and that the
general's fame would be more assured by one term than by two.
Thus it was not defeat as a partisan, but sorrow for Mr. Greeley in
his domestic grief, and his defeat, that made me a caller on him
before a full return of the presidential canvass. The public had
faint hints as to his health, and it was only as a personal favor that
I was admitted to the editorial rooms of the Tribune, to witness
the culmination and close of the sad visits for twenty-five years.
Mr. Whitelaw Reed, managing editor and ever a gentleman, was
cordial, and we held conversation unnoticed by Mr. Greeley, who
was writing. To engage his attention Mr. Reed said, “Mr. Grin-
nell of Iowa calls to see you.” The pen was dropped, and I
entreated him not to rise, being shocked by his limp, bony hand,
sunken eye and wan expression. The voice was off key, tremu-
lous and low, and I ventured to express admiration for his speeches
in the canvass, and hoped that he would soon find rest. Oh, the
despairing look! “No-all is gone! I am worn out watching
by my sick wife! It's all lost- nothing left-a rout-friends
stranded who have done everything—and nothing left but honor,
in the wreck where I go down.” He took up his pen tremulously
to finish an article he was writing, when soon there was a call and
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
227
notice that the carriage was waiting; then, with a wild stare, he
said, “I will go !” casting with a sigh the last glance upon his
desk. I accompanied him down the stairs through the office, where
in the countenance of the employees you read sorrowful apprehen-
sion; and the remark was confirmed, “This is our last look on Mr.
private medical retreat which he never left; and thus I saw him
write his last editorial lines, and this was a sad farewell.
That his death was by political disappointment is only a cruel
suggestion, repelled by every intimate friend of the great journal-
ist. His work was done. Long and severe tension weakens the
toughest metals — mental strain and anguish heated a brain in a
fiery alembic, "loosing the silver cord.” Not by political assas-
sins, but by excessive toil, the brain was softened - clouded, to be
emancipated for a higher realm. A great heart, strong and warm
in pulsation for sixty-one years, ceased to beat.
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
Mr. J. B. Pond, for many years Mr. Beecher's agent and travel-
ing companion, said that my house in Grinnell, where he staid,
was the only house where he became a guest during all his years of
journeying while lecturing. This fact, with the civilities and com-
pliments exchanged in correspondence, give occasion for the follow-
ing biographical incidents. They become a key to open to me a
unique chapter in the phases of personal life for more than forty
years. They will furnish more than mere incidents to that full
biography which yet remains to be written. No statesman, presi-
dent or general, has been so often mentioned by his countrymen
for the last forty years, and with a distinction for which there
were obvious reasons. He held the office of an educator, conspicu-
American life. The very hill-tops and mountains of thought were
climbed by him, far above the quiet beaten paths of the serene
valleys. He was a pioneer in service in every sphere where bold-
ness summoned and a genius like his was attracted. Indifferent to
personal reward, he was fearless in the forum of his choice.
Do I hear the cavil on the mention of his fame: "He left no
system of theology, though a divine?" Granted. He removed
cobwebs and dust from the volumes of the old, stimulating inde-
228
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
pendent thought and warming the cold and repulsive, while leav-
ing truth in a new dress. From nature's armory he drew weapons,
useless with the rust of neglect. This was an estimate of my
friend on hearing the sad news of his illness :
"If he is dead, he has passed away according to his often-
expressed wish, that he might not tarry on the shore between the
living and the dead'. Here in Grinnell he has often spoken-
three times my guest and myself much oftener his during the last
forty years. For Mr. Beecher there will be to-day thousands of
tributes from all over the civilized world. Those only will give
the full measure of a great career that do not magnify the blunders
of a bold genius and thinker, the frailties of a humanitarian, yet
innocent of the vices with which jealousy, craft, and the unchari-
table without investigation, have associated his name. Since the
Tilton and Moulton conspiracy ten years ago, he has achieved
more than any one of the suspicious brothers'; he has held as by
hooks of steel the brave, great friends of forty years, and the sec-
ond largest congregation in the United States, in a missionary
location far from the abodes of fashion.
“He will live as one of the boldest, most genial and great-
hearted of men. Liberal with a reason, fraternal in practice, fear-
less in the use of language, with a child's simplicity and a giant's
strength. All the flowers that bloom and the trees that wave he
could call by name. In his brain were the world's battlefields, and
for all the great captains he had a biography. No one but him
abashed a foreign rebel mob. His lectures to young men, written
at thirty, have never been equaled. Speaker for all classes, and
preacher, his printed words would fill one hundred volumes —
twice the product of any American clergyman, with only a rare
repetition of incident or figure, at once fresh, warm, poetic, emo-
tional and grand, all free from pedantry, simulation and cant.
Who held a warmer place in the hearts of the million ? Who
more endeared, or with a higher claim to the generous judgment of
mankind ?"
He had a memory for generalization which was a most remark-
able accomplishinent, yet to quote poetry or philosophy with verbal
correctness, or to give exact dates, was quite out of the question;
but a story once known the spirit was forever his. I give this inci-
dent in proof that he was one of the widest readers of men, with
all the aptitudes of a philosopbic historian:
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
229
Over thirty years ago I was present at his house when a mili-
tary committee of the soldiers of 1812 called on him to make the
annual oration in Broadway Tabernacle. He said: “I am busy.
Give me a few days to decide.” “Ah, but the meeting is to-night.”
To which Mr. Beecher replied: “You wish me to speak to thous-
ands of people on three hours' notice. Do you take me for a race
horse, to go at the tap of a drum, or a hand organ, to bring forth a
tune upon winding? But I see you are in a lurch, tell me all
about it?" Amidst the blushes it was made known that General
Dix, the orator, was sick, and his military substitute was at sea.
“And now," said Mr. Beecher, “you wish to decoy a peacemaker
into showing his ignorance, and to applaud a war which honest
diplomacy would have avoided; but if you will take the risk, I will
come.” At which the grateful generals departed.
I then remarked, “Mr. Beecher, I fear you cannot afford the
effort; time is short, this is not in your line of thought, and a
mighty crowd of the cultured military circles will be present.”
“Yes, yes, I know, and mother (Mrs. Beecher) frowns at my ven-
ture. Let us go to dinner and talk it over, while I draw from
your deep wells and see if I come up with empty buckets.” The
sequel confirmed what the orator said. “The map recalls every
battle by land or by sea, the generals and admirals, the actors,
their prowess, their failures and their part in our politics since.
You corner me on a date, I see, but not on a man."
I was an auditor that night at the Tabernacle, and such mirth
and cheers! He spoke of war as a method; the actors; General
Cass breaking his sword; the tars on Lake Erie; Jackson behind
a cotton bale at New Orleans; and all with compliments that made
“the braves” both blush and be astonished at their own 'valor.
The Morning Press with columns of reports, said, “It was the
most learned, witty and apt oration of the century on warriors at
peace.”
The dinner of the New England Society of New York has for
a balf century been held as the grand oratorical feast of the nation.
An after dinner speech few orators are equal to, but there the great
preacher shone. Wit flowed like water babbling from a mountain
spring. It was spontaneity. General Sherman exclaimed, “There
is punishment again after Beecher.” I don't think it was any bet-
ter to go before him. Two of the presidents remarked to me that
out of the hundreds of speakers Beecher alone more than met
230
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
expectation” - not in the line of General Porter and Depew, the
princes of table orators, whose real and convulsive wit is efferves-
cent, but in deep currents, beautiful flights and mirthful incidents,
given with a pure Saxon in pleasing cadence that for many years
made his absence from the dinner like the play of Hamlet with
Hamlet left out. On one great occasion at the conclusion of a fine
speech, when complimented, he said, “I had all the advantage of
a surprise.” On his first visit to New York, he came to make one
platform speech, but made many with astonishing climax, and
when called upon by a thousand voices to “Go on,” “Go on,” he
paused to say, “You would with your force-pumps make even your
Hudson dry at a low stage of boating.”
After the great church council, before the conspiracy was
unmasked, the largest ever convened on this continent, I said
to Mr. Beecher: “Do you know what had more to do than all
speeches or witnesses or records with the unanimous vote? It
was your Sunday morning sermon, Under God'. That ended
doubts and ripened friendships in a dark hour."
“I moulded it in an hour after breakfast." Later, being asked
why he did not rest, as he was now past seventy, he said: “To
keep still would be death. The reviled Jew, with the only real
pedigree, has a claim on me. Also Catholics — I am not one, but
the thoughts and heroism of their saints make me forget the Inqui-
sition, remembering jealous Christian inquisitors who would gloat
over my oozing blood. Let me die early if I make no protest
against dogmatic intolerance and fail to ask the breath of God to
stir the stagnant pools."
His England speeches for our Union made a fitting topic of
thought for the civilized world. He saved our cause with more
than the skill of a diplomat, and the courage of a field marshal in a
Napoleonic charge. It was a necessary conflict on a foreign shore,
and it was easy to call out the great orator in review of that single
combat, regarding himself as sent by God in personal service to his
country in the war for freedom and unity. The last European trip
brought out this dinner talk just before his departure. “Will you
take part in the Irish discussion ?” “No; I go to see and speak
—not as a partisan. Before, during our war, God sent me, and I
loved to fight. I want to see and hear Gladstone, the greatest of
living men. I am for Ireland.” “I know you do not surrender
your Americanism.” “Don't be alarmed, my dear boy; if I am an
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
231
ignorant theorist here, it will be a pleasure to say we can teach an
old mother tenderly. Our industrial North has the finest villages
and the happiest people on earth, in the sound of the hum of Yan-
kee machinery.” “That will be like you, in memory of your father
who taught the nation on protection," I said. “But you cannot
allow any speculation, because I am a financial failure, and I do
not forget your introduction while West, that I was going to talk
about a subject on which I knew nothing. The financial question
is deep and dark, but I am too old to wear a straight-jacket. Free •
trade is a good way off, but John Bull, to whom we owe so little,
Beecher was true to his word and spoke with cool judgment
abroad, like a true American, refusing to be caught by the free
traders' blandishments or to side with the landlords. At this time
he would be called only a pro tem democrat. “I am for real prog-
ress, and my old friends will find that I have burned no bridges to
prevent a return, and I have not a drop of mugwump blood, if that
means a sluggish flow."
I do not forget that late in life he was allured from a holy mis-
sion, by zealous friends and constant importunity, to speak from a
lower plane on fiscal science, in favor of the theories of free trade.
Yet it was his sober opinion that he was a child in finance. An
army of figures and a thousand conflicting theories were not suited
to his mental calibre. A pardonable weakness, for, however tena-
cious in theory, he was outspoken abroad in declaration that our
factories and forges held an intimate relation to our advancing
wealth, and to fair wages and comforts for the laborer.
With his warmest friends in our sorrow, I never mentioned his
political lapse, and his apology for his presidential choice. To
mention the peculiar occasion of his hostility to Mr. Blaine would
only be to recall the weaknesses of great men, forgotten in the halo
of eminent service which tempers and recasts public opinion. He
said at his own table, the last time I ever heard him mention the
great name, “You worship brilliancy. I do not denounce but dis-
trusted Blaine as a president, the more so as his magnetism pos-
sessed our sober people," mentioning a half dozen prominent in his
church.
A deep emotional nature was a rare gift. It was brought out
in the grief of others, as the brilliancy of stars when skirted with
the dark clouds. I mention without coloring a tribute most honor-
232
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
able to the parties. There was a great national religious council
called in the city of Washington in 1853, embracing many of the
most eminent laymen and divines of the country. It was my lot
to be appointed one of a committee to notify the then president,
Franklin Pierce, that it would be agreeable to call upon him in a
body at the White House. We were welcomed by the accomplished
president, who set an hour for our reception. As I was about
closing the door to leave, the president said, “I should be happy to
,, have you wait a moment and speak to Mrs. Pierce.” He returned
soon to say that Mrs. Pierce said at breakfast this morning she
saw Mr. Beecher was in the city and she hoped to see him, and
added, "If you will convey to him our compliments and say Mrs.
Pierce would be glad to see him personally, I will esteem it a
favor.” The council called in a body, the president quietly taking
Mr. Beecher's hand as the company left, and he was shown to Mrs.
Pierce's room. The interview was a most remarkable one, the
great preacher subsequently saying privately that he was never
so overcome by the outpouring of an apparently broken heart.
Their son, the only child in the family, was killed in a railway acci-
dent, and the mother had scarcely smiled since the occurrence, and
almost refused to be comforted. The counsellor ventured the hope
that she would be lifted in her despondency, as she soon after was.
The president himself afterward said he had no words to express
his gratitude to the council for their call, and the soothing words
of Mr. Beecher had a remarkable effect in dispelling the dark cloud
which always seemed to hover over them, since by the death of
their dear boy they were childless.
Often when listening to his public prayers, I have thought that
Mr. Beecher's supplications, so subdued in tone and in simple
child-like entreaty, became his most effective appeal. Time did
not lessen the impression, nor abate the novelty which forbade crit-
icism of poetic outbursts, comforting and sweet to those in mourn-
ing, who, like Mrs. Pierce, found solace in sorrow and a new
occasion to hope. I once said to him in the West, “I was glad
you made that long prayer.” “Long, was it? I am not conscious
of it, nor can I recall anything I said, but if taken up in any good
sense out of myself, I ought to be glad.” He was as tender as if
with tears flowing and voice often broken-an advocate before the
great throne with such an effect on hearers as I have never seen
elsewhere. This colloquy was overheard by two young revilers
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
233
returning from Plymouth church: “How would you like to have
Mr. Beecher pray for you?" "I don't know. I looked about and
saw a large number crying, and, but for you, I should have wiped
my eyes like other people.” The reply was, “That is just the way
I felt."
There were staying at the St. Nicholas hotel, New York, two
railway magnates from the West, who debated about calling a car-
riage at so late an hour to hear Mr. Beecher. The remark was
made, “If the prayer is not over by the only man I ever heard
pray, I do not care.” I happened to be at the table on their return,
when one of the company said, “I think Beecher knows how to
talk with God. I never listened to such pathos. Talk about
Shakespeare's sermons in brooks, etc., and the like, I can remem-
ber more of that prayer than any play of Shakespeare or sermon
since I was a boy. Yes, I will give a thousand dollars a year, with
as little religion as I have, to hear him pray in our city, to say
nothing about his preaching.” All in proof that it was not a vain
story that the way to find Beecher's church was to follow the Sun-
day morning crowd from Fulton Ferry. The prayer welling up in
words from the depths of a burdened spirit was only less effective
than the Bible reading, in a subdued tone and with a solemnity
that became worship, far removed from stage effect. It was fasci-
nation in the presence of individuality so alluring. The imitators
paid an unconscious tribute to devout genius.
I give this as an instance of his emotional nature: At his last
visit to my house in Grinnell, he wandered into my Liberty room,
so called from its occupancy by John Brown and the adornment of
the walls with historic characters. I found him standing before
Brainard's picture, " The Champions of Freedom,” as they were in
the public mind thirty years ago, including the statesmen Seward,
John P. Hale, Chase and Sumner, the editor Horace Greeley, the
poet John G. Whittier, and Henry Ward Beecher. “The fallen,
my friend,” said he, “are immortal. None left but Whittier and
myself,” tears falling with the remark. “Why am I spared to
keep company with the Quaker, whose verse has touched millions
of hearts, born of a spirit etherial that cares not to tarry; but I
shall go first. To be set in that galaxy is beyond the honor of a
crown. These heroes fell short of their ambition, but I who have
been wading as through streams of sorrows rising to billows, am
left, but I shall go next, and if it please God may it be soon.
234
REMINISCENCES OF FORTI" YEARS.
May I not linger, with a brain clouded, an imbecile long on the
shore.” Then burying his face and sobbing almost convulsively,
he said: “I never felt so much alone nor so old. Then I was
auburn, now gray. Then only imps and the sordid reviled; since
I have had the companionship of dragons and the brotherhood of
owls." I tried to cheer him as one of the most fortunate of mor-
tals. “Yes," said he, “you are thinking of the council in which
you had a hand. What about Chamberlain (J. M.) of your college,
whom I must see; also Merrill (J. H.), your Des Moines banker,
and Doctor Salter of Burlington, and Doctor Beardsley, who came a
thousand miles to help a poor, sympathetic fool out of trouble.
They did it, and them I shall remember as my song and salvation,
thwarting Satan with the new devotion of friends that hellish
devices cannot alienate."
me from being present where my children were, at the sad obse-
quies, paying a tribute to one who was enveloped in flowers, the
aroma of which was his breath, and amidst the griefs of the people
in Plymouth Church, who for near half a century felt for him an
almost pardonable idolatry. I write in near view of the “Beecher
elm”, whose grateful branches salute me almost at the window. It
is named for him who deemed it fitting that under our clear west-
ern sky man might stand shoeless, like Moses on the holy ground,
and with brow uncovered. Did he say that the chief use of the
farm was to lie down upon? It may have been of more value to
him for contemplation than to its owner in fee. So is the tree to
me, which inspired him who never touched nature but to deck it
anew. I see him in raptures, reclining on the green sward on the
hallowed Sunday of rest. We watched the flitting clouds, and
poetic waving of the leaves of the elm his pen has immortalized,
standing in a native grace which forbids mutilation. Birds twit-
tered and flitted above him in a new song, and there were kaleido-
world as he broke forth: “See, there is the city of God. There is
no picture of Jerusalem, there never will be a mirror of infinity,
where the bounding heart is still and the brain at rest, that will
compare with these glimpses in the heavens with the far beyond.”
It was more than a revery; the reporter could not reproduce it;
remembered as so great because he drank at the sweet fountains of
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
235
Nature, and turned so many thousands of the thoughtless and err-
ing by the sorceries of his great heart in the promulgation of a
gospel on a higher plane of life. He breathed the Christian
beatitudes, while holding the white banner of charity to shame
intolerance. Every recollection of him unlocks the fresh tears of
personal friends and inspires warmer tributes to his genius, great
heart and heroic life.
CHAPTER XV.
Some people I have met - John G. Saxe-- George H. Corliss —
Alpheus Hardy - Arthur Sherburne Hardy - Father Clark-
Son — W. F. Story— Edgar W. Nye-Joseph Cook — John B.
Gough-- Robert G. Ingersoll.
JOEN GODTREY SAXE.
It was at Middlebury College in 1838, at a junior exhibition,
that I heard the genial speaker. In 1839 I was at his graduation.
The young miss, who was my attendant, with our company in one
of the sheep-pen gallery pews, marked our favorites, and the poeti-
cal Saxe of a large class was mine.
He was tall, and without apparent effort in the line of oddity
and wit, in the colloquy where loud laughs followed the bits.
Often we met during thirty years, he a versifying editor of a dem-
ocratic newspaper and a lecturer. Fame he won as poet, and the
chief of our best punsters, the public demanding forty editions of
his works. As an editor he was jovial, brilliant in conversation,
and making pleasure of his office work.
If it is fame to be quoted, Saxe reached his goal. At my home,
he was a refreshing story-teller. In the lecture room, we hung on
bis lips for the gems sparkling in the verse which his softened
brain could not repeat years before his death in the city of Troy.
But a friend or a kindness were never forgotten, before his final
brain disease. The ripped coat which my wife mended after sup-
line from Shakespeare, or a stanza from Longfellow.
GEORGE H. CORLISS.
The world knows George H. Corliss, of Providence, Rhode
Island, master mechanical genius, who expended fifty thousand
117
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
237
dollars in building and setting up the enormous centennial engine,
now moving the wheels at Pullman, Illinois. Mr. Corliss' name
and portrait are in our college museum, to which he readily gave
twelve hundred dollars for the purchase of Professor Ward's entire
series of geological casts; this in addition to previous liberal gifts
to the college. His name is blended with an honorable career in
gifts, labors and achievements. Medals in gold, decorations by
crowned heads I did not ask to see, when I called on him, but the
ten acres of buildings, the work of a brain that cannot rest but in
the construction of models which will push mechanism ahead a
century, cheapening power and diffusing benefits over the civilized
world. This hint is all I can give, and when I see one man mov-
ing sixty tons on an axis by a hand, I am prepared to hear of
exploits that will astonish men everywhere. There is no cry of
strike about this colossal home of Vulcan—the god of smiths.
The men are paid far above the scale of wages in the old world,
and, none the less, their employer avows indifference to foreign
competition. He is a high class, practical engineer, and the two
hours he gave to us, amidst the wonders, we regarded as a compli-
ment to the Iowa he admires but has never seen. His views of
men and national affairs are as clear and incisive as a perception of
the demands of his great and exacting profession, whereof he is
king and servant in all details. He was originally from Green-
wich, New York, where, as resident for some time, I learned of his
early history. He was a schoolmate of President Arthur, who said
to me, “The Presidency is nothing, contrasted with the fame of
Corliss.” He died in 1888, overworked in a complete reconstruc-
tion of his great plant of machinery, on new and improved plans.
ALPHEUS HARDY.
Alpheus Hardy, of Boston, died of blood poisoning. He was
leisurely clipping off coupons with sharp shears, which fell from
his hand with a painless stab in his thigh, discovered by a pool of
· blood and a gash, which was closed with the best surgical skill.
Such was the slight casualty which ended the life of one of New
England's best known and esteemed citizens and business phi-
lanthropists. His wealth came by ships, and connection with the
C., B. & Q. R’y and western land investments; many of these were
in Iowa, whose people and soil won his praise. He was a patron
238
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
of Iowa College, his distinguished son, A. S. Hardy, residing in
Grinnell for years as professor, now in Dartmouth with national
fame as an author.
Mr. Hardy was trustee of Dartmouth College and of Andover
Theological Seminary, sustaining the liberals in demand for toler-
ation in the church where he has been a light for near one half a
century, and a pillar in the "Old South Church” of Boston. I
regret that I cannot make public recent social letters received,
which become a full justification in declining his election at Des
Moines as a member of the Prudential Board of Missions, where
he had been the honored chairman for many years. He has left a
great vacancy by service and devotion, begetting a spirit of toler-
ation which will long survive his sad demise. The custody of the
Sears estate, which brought the largest wealth to the young heir,
Mr. Montgomery Sears, of any Boston boy, also brought wide repu-
tation to Mr. Hardy, the administrator; but this is quite over-
shadowed by the liberality, dignity and wisdom of a Christian pat-
riotic statesman. He was a gentleman, affluent in gifts, a trusted
friend, model citizen, and humble servitor of a city and a church,
where the name of the veteran Hardy will be the synonym of high
character which eulogy can hardly exalt.
PROF. ARTHUR SHERBURNE HARDY.
This gentleman is a son of the late Alpheus Hardy, and was for
several years a professor in Iowa College. He was a casual writer
of poetry and is now the noted author of abstruse mathematical
works, also of the novels, “But Yet a Woman,” “The Wind
of Destiny,” and biographer of the famous Christian Japanese,
Joseph Neesima, of whom his noble father, Hon. Alpheus Hardy of
Boston, was a patron. His life is quiet and unpretending, and he
is now a professor in Dartmouth College. His ready mounting of
Pegasus is in mind. I secured from Governor Merrill an invita-
tion for him to write a poem for the laying of the corner-stone of
the Iowa capitol in 1872. I was to read it, he had not the cour-
age, he said. When it was brought to me at night for suggestions,
occasion, you shoot over your auditors.”
“I am glad of the fail-
make a suggestion.”
I made several, but received no reply, only a
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
239
moonlight salutation, as he left my door. The next morning he
appeared with the manuscript, fresh and adapted to win the praise
of lovers of classic lore, as it did when I read it amidst hearty
applause. The state magnates were full of admiration for his
versatility as a West Point graduate. This was at least a happy
augury of a brilliant future.*
ELIHU BURRITT.
Few receive such honor as this noted linguist by a personal
mention in the message of Edward Everett, when governor of
Massachusetts. It was a learned blacksmith attracting the world
by genius; a linguist, a peacemaker, advocating the policy of
arbitration. A traveler he was, too, exposing the wrongs of the
English factory system. All he touched was with a picturesque
pen and cultured imagination, in testimony of the value of the clas-
sics to the writer of English.
Novelty as a learned blacksmith was supplemented by the
broad, eloquent speaker on many themes. I sat in the enchant-
ment of a mechanic who could read fifty languages.
In person, he was spare, forehead retreating, nose almost
deformed in aquiline shape, voice shrill, but the whole bearing that
of a simple-hearted teacher, a prophet of good, tolerant of all labor-
ers, without egotistic assertion. You would love the man, as you
had been drawn to the editor and statesman. He was a living
example to our youth, furnishing testimony in the praise of a life
pion of penny. postage, the dismantling of war guns, rum shops
*The versatile genius which enables a man to write in two consecutive sum-
mers the most widely sold novels of the season and then prepare an exhaustive
text-book on “Quarternions”, is indeed rare. The ordinary mind sees nothing in
common between fiction and the abstruse figures of geometry and naturally asks,
How is it possible for the student who enjoys working all night over the dry mys-
teries of conic sections to wield the light pen of the writer of pleasing romance ?
Still another strange fact is, that while Professor Hardy stands at the head as an
authority on higher mathematics he abhors anything pertaining to arithmetic.
Illustrative of this he said to a friend recently: “I never knew anything about fig-
ures, and of all books in the world I. abhor an arithmetic, so I sent the books back.
My old professor at West Point was as deep a mathematician as I ever saw, and
yet he would stand at the blackboard day after day and, nervously snapping his
fingers in the midst of a 'sum', call out, 'Come, now, eight times seven, how
much, how much is it?'" Professor Hardy is the choice of the Alumni to succeed
President Bartlett, the present aged head of the college. — Newspaper.
240
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
outlawed, ignorance banished by universal education. Mr. Burritt
was repulsed by a lady and never married, but can claim kinship
to a great family of the truly noble, and his intellectual children
are thousands.
"FATHER CLARKSON."
The sturdy senior Clarkson was known. generally as “Father”,
but not because he was parent of the two brothers, noted as editors
of the Iowa State Register — one of them, “Ret” (James S. Clark-
son), of late often mentioned as chairman of the republican
national committee, and as assistant postmaster-general. I used
to meet the father at his post-office town, Eldora, while on my way
up to my new farm in Franklin County. The young men in ante-
war times were on the “Melrose farm”, two of whom are now
known as “Richard the Third” and “Ret". I met the father at
the Chicago National Convention in 1860 as delegate from Iowa.
We had such conservative notions as to cast our first votes for
Judge McLean of Ohio, and next for Mr. Lincoln. At that time
we were opening farms of which we talked, and were especially
anxious for railways to come nearer to us. Small purchases were
made in our line. His, perhaps, a saddle for the boys. I remen-
ber mine to have been Yankee sheep shears. Next I found myself
speaking in the political canvass when the elder Clarkson was
elected state senator from Grundy, his district embracing several
counties. In his place at Des Moines he soon became from a
stranger a man of mark; eminently practical, and so firm in the
way of certain specialties as to be deemed perverse and obstinate;
certainly it was a futile attempt to drive him in committee or on
the floor of the Senate from any well-considered opinion or policy,
and his moulding power in the body is alike conceded with the wis-
dom of his counsel. I cannot specify all his acts subsequent, for
he was never idle where the rude elements of empire were woven
and moulding into form.
Soon he gave himself a local habitation and wide name by the
farmer's letters to The Register. These I read closely and admired,
for I was then writing for Mr. Greeley and the New York Tribune,
and could make apt quotations if not affluent in original ideas.
And it was no surprise that these letters expanded with a natural
acorn growth into the agricultural department of The State Regis-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
241
ter—a luxuriant tree under whose graceful branches the weary
sons of toil have shade and repose, and leaning against the stalwart
trunk have for these years plucked pleasant and nutritious fruit.
I do not indulge either in idle compliment or rhetorical figure, for
this is the fact, I am told—I never counted them- that from
forty to fifty newspapers are placed on our family tables weekly,
and of the number The Register's agricultural page of Wednes-
day's issue is most eagerly sought and first read. Nor am I alone,
and if it is the high ambition of the editorial gods to be quoted
and copied, and even to be gratuitously reviled, then the elder
Clarkson can be proud of a successful career. His articles will
be found eminently common sense, and so far saturated with per-
sonality as never to suggest plagiarism. The role of a pioneer
farmer he had a right to assume, and none ever doubted that he
had the courage of his convictions, and was an adept in puncturing
bubbles, and took particular delight in kicking shams into obscur-
ity; and even found use for dogs in hastening the retreating steps
of foreign tree peddlers and oily-tongued patent right venders.
At the state gatherings he was a central figure, reading his
papers with the deliberation of a judge, and enlivening the debates
with repartee, and from his storehouse of personal experiences
becoming a valued instructor. I remember the applause that fol-
lowed his sharp paper on “The Coming Steer”, a plea “that his
living statuary may ornament every farm and add beauty to the
landscape on every hill and in every vale of Iowa's wide domain”.
The “Farm Literature”, which was read at the state meeting of
stock breeders, at Grinnell, was a generous tribute to the writers,
not among the living; and plain truth for the conceited writers of
the time, who raise such crops on paper as the ploughman and
grazier of early days never anticipated in their wildest dreams.
At the quarter centennial celebration at Grinnell, he gave a stud-
ied and able speech on the advance of agriculture.
Commend me to the man that dares to be singular! He at
least prevents a dead sea calm, and can seldom be charged with
stupidity. And this is Mr. Clarkson. In face of the wise prairie
farmers he would “spoil” his acres by deep ploughing and lo! corn
cribs full and the compact sod of rich grasses. It was a waste of
time to plant evergreens in this clime, but the fine grounds at Mel-
rose Farm give, through clumps and lines of vigorous native pines,
music to their owner sweeter than the air breathings through the
1
242
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Æolian harp. The brawny-muscled, broad-brained horses were the
Norman bloods, strong and docile for the farm, and they were
reared and grazed at “Melrose”. It is not to be forgotten that he
would not take up the refrain of the theoretical, bookish free trad-
ers, and be a leader of the Iowa farmers in rebellion against the
American system.
W. F. STORY, EDITOR.
The founder of the Chicago Times, who built up what was at
once an organ and a power with the masses, was Wilbur F. Story.
Nothing more truly illustrates the mutations of the times than his
career.
He was a born journalist, with so keen a scent for news, and a
talent for gaining notoriety, that great wealth came, and the double
coveted honor of one both feared and quoted. In the war, a verg-
ing toward treason caused a temporary suppression of his sheet,
which gained him notoriety and facility to feed a public morbid
appetite for pictures of persons it was safe to scandalize. Essen-
tially bad, a life's ambition was attained — to found a great house
and a paper reaching a million of people and worth as many
dollars. His financial and social troubles, and the lapse into for-
getfulness, which is the doom' of sordid expediency, are well known.
Mr. Story began life near my Vermont home, in the shadow of
Middlebury college. He was clear in perception, wide-read, and
audacious and malignant in attack; but with soine redeeming qual-
iteis which on cultivation would have saved his name from early
forgetfulness.
In 1872 we were standing on our platform to elect Horace
Greeley president. By Story's secretary I was invited to call.
“Sit down,” said he, “and let me tell you how many years I have
lampooned you and the radicals. My point is gained, and no more
will The Times say how bad you are. Its columns are open to
you." And so I learned a lesson of charity.
EDGAR W. NYE.
“Bill Nye, who was he?" asked a citizen. “You must have
met him.” My answer was, I have, and was introduced to him on
the train as the young man who received the advice to “Go
met him." My answer was, I have, and was introduced to him. on
REMINISCENCÉS OF FORTY YEARS.
243
West”. We had a pleasant chat of a few hours, and the 'next I
knew of his writing was a humorous chapter on “Men I have
saw”. The picture of myself was so ludicrous as to forbid anger
or resentment at his sarcasm relative to my efforts for constitu-
tional prohibition, also the impossibility of adjusting my voice to
the accoustic demands of Church and salary in New York City;
but this personal mention was trivial compared to the mirthful
suggestions in regard to others in the same chapter. Bill Nye is a
man about fifty, not the spectacled, cadaverous old man his artist
represents him to be in wood-cuts. He is genial as a story-teller,
hearty in laughter, terse in reply, whose scintillations of wit seem
like the sparks from a highly-charged electrical battery. He
touches follies and facts with the hand of a master. He asked
me if I had ever met Doctor Mary Walker, and, to my surprise,
the facts I gave appeared in his article, seasoned with his humor.
She wore a gentleman's suit, flourishing a "cane, with hair shin-
gled, and was a frequent visitor in the Washington departments,
where she was an applicant for an office, contrary to the presump-
tion that she enjoyed a lucrative medical practice. Her role
seemed to be rating man for his assumptions, and venting her com-
plaint against her Maker because she was a woman.
JOSEPH COOK.
Joseph Cook appeared in Nye's same article, with an illustra-
tion. He was in the attitude of holding an oil-can, apparently
lubricating the planets in their revolutions, explanatory of his
directing and moulding the theological thought of the age. But
I: disclaim any responsibility for the picture. Dogmatic as Mr.
Cook is, like other great men, he is a great reader and deep
thinker. Depreciatory letters having been sent abroad in regard
to his waning influence; it will not be egotism for me to mention
that I was invited to speak with him at the lecture hour in the
great Tremont Temple. While the windows were crowded and
aisles thronged, I could but say, repelling his enemies, that I
thought the volumes 'evoked and the audiences gathered had made
the indelible mark of a great American thinker. This is not say-
ing that all great reformers and thinkers are lovely, above compar-
ison and without fault, in contending for the faith,
244
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
John B. Gough I cannot omit. I first heard him in the begin-
ning of his career as a temperance orator. It was a .magnificent
outpouring of genuine eloquence from the heart—from the depths
of his wretched experience; and all his native and cultivated stage
arts were then unconscious accessories to the impassioned effort.
In private, too, he was simple and hearty, with none of the man-
and at home. Those who heard him only in his later years, when
his frequent repetitions on the lecture-platform had given an evi-
dently mechanical character to his finest outbursts and best stories,
could form no idea of the overpowering impression made by his
earlier addresses.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
In a congressional chapter preceding, it was mentioned that I
surprised Eben C. Ingersoll by resigning in his favor, and that he
was placed high on the committee on territories, which was much
sought after at that period of organization and lucrative appoint-
ments. This not only brightened the future of Mr. Ingersoll, but
· his brother the orator, apprised of his good fortune by the resigna-
tion, wrote the already quoted letter, incipient to a long and pleas-
ant acquaintance. He never forgot this little act on behalf of his
brother, at whose grave there fell words softening the sharp asper-
ities of critics. I was made welcome to his ranch in the moun-
tains of New Mexico, and could not prevail on him to accept a legal
fee in the matter of counsel to me as railway receiver. His failure
to accept a personal invitation to speak in Grinnell is explained by
his remark that as “the audience room was a church, he might
wound the brethren".
It is too late now to assume that the renowned skeptic is a
common man, or that the thousands who have essayed answers to
his philippics, have succeeded fully, when bishops, publicists, and
even Gladstone step into the arena of debate. What, then, is the
secret of his attraction ? He is an agnostic - an abnormal product
by the repulsions of systems of theology couched in terms now in
disuse. But is he an infidel with the bridges destroyed behind
him, when he can say, “In the dark night of death hope sees a
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
245
star, and listening love may catch the rustle of a wing" ? Is it not
possible that, on a sober recast of opinion, he might be a pulpit
successor of Beecher, to whom he is allied in transcendant gifts ?
But what are the hidings of his power? He talks with his
fingers, begets mirth with the twinkle of his eye, winning in pan-
tomimic facial expression and forcing conviction with the swaying
of arms and gesture on the platform, and all with the mobility of a
rotund, rollicking gentleman, schooled in cadence and the devices
of speech. His voice is of great compass and thrills with emotion,
laden with fresh and startling conception and sublime imagery,
bringing into service flowers, the air, earth's wonders, the stars,
man and the gods. Judges and jurors are entertained by a wit
and a pleader, with the resources of the severest student of books
and men. Has his fervid rhetoric in the nomination of Blaine
ever been equaled ? Did the surviving patriots of our war ever
listen to such an address as that before the Grand Army of the
Republic at Indianapolis ? It hangs in golden letters in my parlor
to remind of genius, pathos and matchless oratory.
The "one hundred” tributes to the lamented Beecher are before
me in a volume. All the honored professions from many lands
bring their myrtle wreaths, yet there is but one full, felicitous
delineation, and warmth of eulogy — a smiting of the rock for
freshness — a successful draft on genius to illumine the career of
his friend. In the sorceries of a casuist, and power in irreverent
declamation where he stands without a peer, I hope he may have
no rival in the ranks of men now living, and mine is a fervent
prayer that he may be no more clouded with doubt, nor be occu-
pied in cavil, but prove that the highest and holiest mission of an
orator and the sublimest service of genius is to lead, in a world of
darkness and doubt, following in the footsteps of the God-man.
The author, on the delivery of his New Haven, Vermont, ora-
tion, mentioned the father of Mr. Ingersoll studying theology
there, saying, “The son was one who by the latest advices did
not gain and does charge his theology to tradition.” Thereon is
founded the occasion of the following correspondence:
NEW YORK, March 15, 1887.
My dear Mr. Grinnell:
With great pleasure I read your oration, and it took me back amid the dead
years. I have heard my father speak of Dr. Hopkins a thousand times. What a
dreary life it must have been in Vermont some seventy-five years ago with the
246
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS:
snow several feet deep, the mercury down in the bulb, and nothing of a cheerful
nature except the theology of Hopkins.
Nothing gives me so much pleasure as to watch the decay of the old, cruel and
malignant creeds. What the preachers do not say is what pleases me. They are
Now, I want you some day when you are at leisure to think this business over,
and if you will think, you will see how sad and terrible the religion called evangel-
ical is.
I hope to see you converted — hope to see you a free man with the dust brushed
off your knees.
Thanking you for the oration, I remain yours always,
R. G. INGERSOLL.
NORMAL, ILLINOIS, February 4, 1888.
My dear Mr. Ingersoll:
I have just returned from a winter visit to the city of Mexico and California
and find your welcome letter. My Vermont oration did not require an acknowl-
you say your “father spoke of a thousand times”, was a character in that day, and
it is a pleasant reflection that my ancestors enjoyed his friendship, and that he
moulded a community of rare qualities, you would say save as to their theology.
I hear a fresh story which reminds that there was good orthodox perception in
the father you mention as a student. I judge he did not bite his thumb in the
morning to find whether he was "in the me or the not-me world”. Like his son
he was a revivalist, but of another order. At the conclusion of the sermon a com-
with a decollete dress even below the fashion, caused the advice that “if she
wished to become a Christian, she had best go home and cover up". I regarded it
as more than a legend--a fact which does credit to the family. .
It is said that the speculations and doubts of the author of "The Gods"
as to the Holy Land and its Christ, expressed in the campany of General Lew Wal-
lace, led to the volume “Ben Hur", insuring to the author competence, and to his
readers delight and confirmation of our sacred history. If this be truth, I might
quote a maxim, if not in fear that it might be offensive. As it is, a thousand times
publicly expressing my admiration for the boldest rhetorical figures, and eloquence
in every nerve and intonation, I frankly say that without so noble a purpose, you
have, by impetuosity in attack, given an example which has hushed the rattle of
the dry bones in the pulpit and sent swift, healthful life-currents down the chan-
nels of modern thought. Bad as you are painted, and in error as I think you,
there may be time to correct the sheet being kept, and to be balanced on the entry
book, “ Cr. - A recast of opinions in orthodox orations by Robert G. Ingersoll."
Now as to your advice that I should "brush the dust from my knees”. It sug-
gests on my part supererogation, which might possibly be in the line of virtues to
be modestly cultivated in the porch of the theological temple which you invite me
to enter for reflection.
Then you “hope to see me a free man” and “converted”, etc. I am insensi-
ble to bondage. For many years I have been an unofficial character; any doctrine
I have proclaimed has been one unpaid for; perhaps its saving quality was that it
was cheap.
To what shall I be converted, being now a Protestant of the liberal school?
You are a theological doubter, a charged battery of negatives, silent when I ask
for your church, and about the crossing of the “ melancholy flood" with a better
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
247
ferryman than mine, and without a friend in the God-man, who has so long buoyed
up so many of the sad with the promise of a royal welcome. If this is a delusion,
so let it remain. I confide in the Man of men; the voluntary sacrifice of the Son
of the highest. Never shall I escape the bias, nor the guilt of my ancestor on
trial and free, who fell.
With my ancestors He was persecuted in France - the Huguenots poor and in
exile. To many generations He has been a high model and a solace in death.
Now in the strifes for mastery over evil I am as conscious of His presence as I am
of my existence. So, while regarding theology as a science, I join you in delight
on the abandonment of dogmatism and pharasaic cant, but any system which
denies the need of a mediator, and one that came with the zeal of a martyr and the
love of a God to fight the great plenipotentiary battle for the race, is opposed to
early and most sacred trust, and does not commend itself to my judgment in
advanced years. Religion, its own evidence, I find not alone in theologies and
books, but in the heroism of the high, and rich experiences of the humble and
poor.
And now, my dear Ingersoll, even in humble station and not hovering in
doubt, I express the conviction that my unalloyed confiding trust in the great fun-
damental truths of the Christian religion and Christ as exemplar, brings me in a
single hour of reflection greater joy than all the speculations in which you can
indulge and the breath which comes in the applause of those waiting on your lips
of genius. Hence you will pardon the hope that my joys may be yours, ecstacies
possible to one with gifts and opportunities to change the currents of thought of
millions; and oh, what service you can render to Him (whether only man, martyr
or the missionary of a Creator) and to a world demanding an example which has
brought much of blessing and waits to fill this and all worlds with the beatitudes
of a living Saviour.
Yours truly,
J. B. GRINNELL.
CHAPTER XVI.
Iowa and Iowans - Col. S. H. M. Byers, our war historian-
Charles Aldrich-D. N. Richardson-Hon. Ezekiel Clark -
John L. Coffin— Generals James B. Weaver, N. B. Baker, John
M. Corse, Samuel R. Curtis, G. M. Dodge, J. M. Crocker and
William W. Belknap — Governors Grimes, Kirkwood, Stone,
Merrill, Carpenter, Gear, Sherman and Larrabee - Judges
Wright, Nourse, Miller, Dillon, Love and McCrary— Hons.
Graves, Moninger, Howell and McDill — Henry Clay Dean.
Iowa has no state historian, as yet. It is not because she had
prolific in book-makers. No state, in a half century of progress,
has made equal national advances. None has a more honored
civil and military record, worthy to beckon millions to her prairies.
Governor Grimes well named her " the fair and only free child of
the Missouri Compromise". Bounded on the east and west by two
great rivers — «The Father and Mother of Waters” —she has been
called the Mesopotamia of the West. Excluding the northern
third of Maine, a wilderness, her area equals that of New England;
and her free principles, intelligence and high moral and religious
tone, have made her known as the New England, and the Massa-
chusetts more especially, of the states of the great valley.
We have no historian, and can wait his appearing until at least
nine tenths of our virgin acres have burnished the plowshare. Let
him bide his time until our valleys are musical with the sound of
mechanism, and our homes become beautiful in the glow of refined
civilization. Let him celebrate the courage of pioneers, who
brought to our commonwealth select affinities, free schools and a
high social and literary rank. Defer biography and statues of
benefactors until the issue of a war against the shaineless social
enemies, whose cohorts and leaders are in ambush. This delay
may not obscure the grandest agricultural achievements, and nei-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
249
ther silence nor time will avail to dim the recorded deeds of men,
to pass into material for historic pages.
It was an opinion of Webster, and to the credit of New Hamp-
shire, that if the state was poor in soil and cereals, she was rich in
the product of men. Where is the limit of praise, then, to a
double production of comely herd and cultured owner, on farms
hospitable to skill, to domestic bloods and to factory ? Figures
often bewilder, while comparisons with the well known are a good
basis of opinion.
What are some of the facts which are the boast of our rural
people? Iowa with its annual average production of two hundred
millions of bushels of corn; surpassing any state as the basis of
meat — pork and beef-for this and foreign countries -- a sum
total of two millions of bovines, embracing more beef-animals and
butter-creameries than any state - millions of swine in excess of
her rivals, reared with profit under natural farming conditions,
and shipped to many countries, facilitating exchanges and helping
a fine trade balance. Yielding the palm to newer states in wheat
growing, Iowa is only second in the product of oats and flax, and
is coming to the first rank in amount of native and cultivated
grasses for home use and export, broadening the farms and attract-
ing an industrious and moral people to a home on the remaining
ten millions of acres, rich in soil and fine in topography, yet
untouched by a plow. Nature has given bracing air and ample
drainage, to exempt from malaria in a great degree, and give vital-
ity and health to the electric, courageous spirits from many states
and lands. Groves of trees which rise to beauty, for protection
and fuel, are readily grown in a decade. Coal, discovered in
purity and fabulous quantities, has dispelled all doubts as to want
of fuel for home, and for steam manufactory and locomotive
demands.
In railway mileage Iowa is third in the Union, having eight
thousand miles, reaching every one of the ninety-nine counties,
with a station but a few miles from every farm. Five trunk lines
across the state attract the bulk of the interoceanic trade of the
country, added to which is the distribution of fruits and products
indigenous to other countries, by a net-work of steel tracks joined
to the great arteries, now harmonious and by increasing comity
giving promise of celerity, cheapness and safety to the patrons,
and reward to capital and enterprise.
$250
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
. NO FAILURES.
. I have seen but one failure in a conspicuous Iowa project. It
was the daiming of the Des Moines river for slack water navigà-
ition, and indirectly furnishing hydraulic power. As stated in the
sarcasm of the governor's message to a third House, six dams were
built and only fifty remained to be constructed. The power is now
partially utilized by private capital, while a commercial waterway
as a national device is abandoned, after great expenditures of time
and money. Even this was more of an engineering, governmental,
political scheme than a policy of the people. There were many
incidents contributing to failure, but the chief was a rival in the
railway system — an all-the-year-round servant in place of boats
subject to the vicissitudes of ice and drouth. A basis of value was
made on the transportation of grass products to the great river, to
be floated to the Gulf for the feeding of hungry nations by the ser-
vice of ships. Then came the policy of condensing grain values into
animals, and the establishing of home industries, promoting easy
exchanges and making home commerce more profitable than for-
eign trade. “Wait for the wagon.” No, that was in song, nor can
we wait on slack water from Keokuk up for two hundred miles to
the Raccoon Forks. This was a resolve never more to be reconsid-
ered, in an age of steel and steam, pushing on the flyer and can-
non-ball trains fleet as the wind. It is a cheering fact that, with-
out scandal against officials and the abandonment of the “feeding of
the world theory” (a favorite theme of middle men and ship own-
ers), a more promising field for skill and enterprise was opened.
Wool growers temporarily went to the rear, but other animal
industries came to the foreground of every rural district, where cli-
mate and soil and the skill of the owners give assurance of that
proud supremacy to which Iowa has attained.
Is the state well worthy of higher honors ? Her institutions
are her crown jewels, reformatory, educational, humane and chari-
table. They rose in our Civil War amidst the anathemas of not
all loyal tax-payers, hushed now in non-partisan support, and a
pride becoming to honored citizens. To name each — from a
capitol unrivaled in the West for splendor, with the less preten-
tious edifices, down to the last — a completed soldier's home in
order of beneficence—to name each would include an array of
institutions of just state pride in making liberal appropriations.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
251
" The product, in all matters material and aesthetic, reflects the
brain and hand of the maker. By this aphorism, we place the fair-
est product earth holds up to its Maker- man, the conservator and
builder, on a pedestal, in tribute to personal devotion and leader-
ship in whatever things are in the realm of citizenship “lovely and
of good report”.
All before 1854 as hearsay I leave, seeking headlands in per-
sonality of which I can safely speak. Of the veteran “ Father
Clarkson”, who properly belongs in this chapter, I have already
spoken, as well as of senators Wilson and Allison, and others, as
the narrative brought them into mention.
THE WAR HISTORIAN.
Col. S. H. M. Byers, with scholastic culture, the genius of a
poet and the fervor of a young patriot, found himself enlisting in
the Fifth Iowa regiment, and finally captured as a prisoner, being
one of sixteen out of sixty spared to tell the story. His volume
on the late war bears the marks of an historian, and does honor to
our soldiery in depicting the battles in which they were engaged,
while giving due credit to the citizens who sustained them. It is
illustrated with taste, abundant in details, and evincing versatility
and elegance in description. Our public men in the war era are
eulogized, and the conspicuous characters in regimental history are
noted with accuracy. An elegant book of six hundred pages,
printed in Des Moines, commends the author and his product to
every loyal citizen, to make no mention of the wider fame acquired
by his poem, "Sherman's March to the Sea". Colonel Byers
reflected honor on his appointment to a consulship in Switzerland,
and his subsequent service as consul-general at Rome. Our college
is especially indebted to him for an expensive set of Swiss school
apparatus, illustrating science and industries by charts and
specimens.
HONORABLE CHARLES ALDRICH.
Honorable Charles Aldrich, of Webster City, is placing our peo-
ple under increasing and lasting obligation. He had rank in our
late army as an officer, high repute as an editor, and became one
of our state legislators. By correspondence, foreign travel and
252
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
extensive acquaintance with authors, he has for years been an
enthusiastic collector of autographs, manuscripts and pictures of
historical characters, which form a rare cabinet, which he placed
at the disposal of the state, without reference to reimbursement.
The Iowa state capitol, wanting in costly pictures and marble
busts, has thus a unique and attractive collection in the useful trib-
ute of citizen Aldrich to the name and fame of our most noted
citizens and the great actors for centuries. Thousands of visitors
make mention of this collection, and Governor Larrabee, retiring
from the chair of state, suggested money testimonial to the author,
which has been appropriated, though in no sense a reward for
years of unselfish acquisition of the treasures now made the prop-
erty and instructive entertainment of the public. Thus has taste,
liberality and devotion to the state made a name enshrined in mem-
ory while the commonwealth has a beautiful capitol. In the same
generous spirit, Mr. Aldrich's charming pen has many times been
employed in making known to the people, by contributions to our
newspapers, the claims of institutions, men and measures, too
little appreciated. He is the eloquent friend of all merit and
refining enterprise.
OTHER NOTABLES.
D. N. Richardson, of Davenport, a native of Vermont, cultiva-
ling rural tastes as a gentleman cattle farmer, developed genius in
amassing a competence while a democratic editor and newspaper
publisher in a republican state. Well has he answered the ques-
tion, "Where is the literature on Iowa soil?" A cultivated taste
seen in original felicitous description as a journalist, inspired a
world-round trip, with timely accessories of cash, leisure and com-
pany. After his return the Chicago press brought out a volume
that is innocent of platitudes. It is a new, fresh vein of story-
telling, description and adventure. The volume has hung before
me pictures drawn by a master, in a story of peoples and lands
the million may not visit, but may see through another's eye in a
pleasing illusion that they are there.
Hon. Ezekiel Clark, of Iowa City, was an early settler, an able
state senator, an esteemed worker in our state politics, and a
trusted citizen. He was the first employed to purchase clothing
for our soldiery. His enterprise was not limited to his farm, to
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
253
bank, mill, railway extension or coal mining. Cool in action,
sagacious in advice, he can never pass out of memory for a great
heart, beating effectively in time of calamity for the unfortunate.
To meet the wants of the suffering in the great Grinnell tornado
of 1882, he left his home to minister personally to strangers,
besides giving the first check for five hundred dollars, mentioned
elsewhere, not only to restore the desolation, but to remind how
imperative are the obligations which rest on prosperous citizens.
Truly the note of liberality was struck high, and vibrating
responses brought prompt and large benefactions which have few
parallels in the annals of relief afforded to the poor and houseless
wasted by storm.
: John L. Coffin, of Fort Dodge, with a kindly heart, and noble
ambition to step out of rather than into the political procession,
has won more than my respect. A railroad commissioner by
appointment, he was at a post of observation which he well
improved. Officially, he dared make a plea for rest due to railway
employees on Sunday. It was a John the Baptist cry in the wil-
derness, where capital, greed and official stolidity dominated and
slept. The echoes of his argument will be loud and potent in sec-
onding the great-hearted William E. Dodge, and those who are
friends of laborers, in demanding for them rest on Sunday, and
honor to Him who commanded amidst the thunderings of Sinai.
Safety for brakemen on cars is also the desire of Mr. Coffin,
enforced by appeal to humanity and law. No mere moral knight-
errant is he, but a warm-hearted pleader for humane improvements,
which will insure immunity from maiming for the men, added to
the birthright of rest for toilers. Mr. Coffin is under seventy
years, has courage, competence, and a great cause to impel his :
fame far into the future.
Gen. James B. Weaver's arrival for a speech in our town was
somewhat suggestive of circus day. What of Ex-Congressman
Weaver ? Pictures on the bill-boards, large and artistic, and well
tinted, have invited the people to come and hear their servant's
execrations of monopolies, and behold a spectacle of rivals laid
low, even biting political dust. Up to the Waterloo defeat of
1888, opera houses were too narrow for his admiring crowds, and
with story and eloquent periods. Never dull in mimicry, vivacious
“254
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Weaver was short a few votes, and charged a betrayal in the nom-
ination for governor by republicans. Never daunted, a soldier,
temperance advocate, an incessant laborer with an instrument
never dulled by use, only by age, it was easy to champion the peo-
ple vs. banks, and the like. A wit of celebrity, asked if he finished
three bottles of port without assistance, replied, “I had the assist-
ance of a bottle of Madeira.” The general in like manner could
answer, “I had, besides favorite allies — my bottles of port--the
assistance of a bottle of Madeira — the democrats.”
GENERAL BAKER.
Iowa citizens in a further mention will include some of our
generals--among them Adjutant-General N. B. Baker. He came
to Iowa, after having been elected speaker of the House of Repre-
sentatives and governor of New Hampshire. Here he was a mem-
ber of the war legislature, first in loyalty as a Douglas democrat,
and, with able executive gifts, was called to the post of organizer
and sagacious reader of men. His official life was a model of ser-
vice, untiring up to his sad demise. For him the state mourned —
a genius in execution, a leader of patriot hearts in our darkest
hours.
Major-General John M. Corse, now postmaster of Boston, is a
conspicuous human Iowa product, the son of a reputable book pub-
lisher of Burlington. Beginning his military career as major, he
rose to the honor of a general's command of a division, only by
such aids as gallantry could reinforce in a soldier of resource and
the dash of a born leader. To the rear he never went, but was
borne from the field with wounds supposed to be mortal. I take
pleasure in private chats in his Boston office, where order reigns,
showing that progress in methods for the public weal which distin-
guished this civilian. His war despatches had not a Pope flavor,
but exhibited such qualities that, if the war had been prolonged,
his dash, which had attracted his superiors, would have made him
even a more conspicuous hero among veteran heroes. In Boston
he has a welcome in society where the family of Ex-President
Pierce, with whom he is in alliance by marriage, were favorites.
Gen. J. M. Tuttle, leaving the boat at Keokuk as a survivor of
Fort Donelson, I had the honor of aiding to the cars, everywhere
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
255
welcomed a hero. To the head of the G. A. R. in Iowa, he rose as
a fighting rather than a boisterous patriot.
MAJOR-GENERAL SAMUEL R. CURTIS.
He furnishes a fitting head-line to emblazon Iowa by her sons
in the late civil war. Educated at West Point, serving in Iowa as
a civil engineer, and evincing a public spirit to win respect, even
admiration, he became twice a representative of one half the state
in Congress.
By nature of a heavy mould, conservative by association, it was
not easy in the political canvass for him to anticipate the crisis of
rebellion, even as late as 1860. The gun at Fort Sumter startled
him, and, while holding high rank as a legislator, he resigned for
the field, leaving the championship of the Union Pacific Railroad
to others, who had less zeal and engineering knowledge. He hac
served in Mexico, being colonel of an Ohio regiment in 1847. He
was chosen colonel of the Second Iowa Infantry, and earliest in
the field winning the first star accorded to an Iowa officer, achiev-
memorable occasion to test the skill of our officers, and in proof
that there was iron in the blood of our soldiers.
At St. Louis he was given command in a day of spies, more to..
be dreaded than open foes. The frontier was his home, and the
department of Kansas gave him at Fort Leavenworth the rest he
needed, still hoping for a part in the colossal schemes of internal
improvements of the West. Early his career was ended, poor in
purse, but rich in honors well won. Time will not dim his mem-
ory in my mind who knew him a guest, friend, and a man of emi-
nent public spirit. It is a wide opinion that he died poor, yet the
family have, like his state, a goodly heritage in a patriot's career.
MAJOR-GENERAL G. M. DODGE.
There is a peculiarly appreciative and able sketch of this gen-
tleman by Colonel Byers in that standard volume, “Iowa in War
Times”. It is an artistic outline picture, but not too brilliant for:
the deeds which emblazon the man. I knew him thirty-five years
before he was a general, railway magnate, builler and capitalist.
He was a protégé of Henry Farnam, the builder of our Rock Island
256
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
road, he, or his brother, N. P. Dodge, having the honor of setting
the red flag as a surveyor on the summit line, a stone's throw from
our window where I write. To give the incidents and name the
steps upward in his career would be a long, often-told and adven-
turous story. The boy must have been restless, if "the child is
father of the man”. He was at the Vermont Military School, the
nurse of patriots unlike the Confederate brood of full-grown West
Pointers, only nurtured to sting the old mother who had fed and
clothed them. The war found plain Mr. Dodge the animating
spirit in making a city of Council Bluffs, and the soul of honor
joined to wisdom which made him the counsellor of capitalists and
the confidant of learned engineers. The organization of the Fourth
Infantry which he led as colonel, was not earlier in time than
effective in service, choosing a martial band in our little city of
Grinnell, which he as commander would have, if maintained from
his not then over-pletheric purse. Did he save the battle of Pea
Ridge? That is the military verdict. Was he the greatest adept
of the time in destroying the railroads of the enemy, and building
our own lines and bridges ? This is accorded by even jealous West
Point rivals. Did the first wound retire him from the field, the
second blanch his courage as well as his face, or the third, maiming
for life, dampen his ardor ? Never. And it was this with a thou-
sand minor achievements which earned the compliments of General
Sherman without reserve, and inspired the confidence of Grant,
who urged in vain the removal of General Rosecrans and the sub-
stitution of Dodge. On Grant's choice General Dodge could have
been at the head of the war department, but ill health and busi.
ness forbade the sacrifice.
In 1864 we find the soldier of Iowa nominated for Congress
over a most gifted civilian, and elected amidst a chorus of shout-
ing. He declined a second election, and I think this was his first
and last office held in the civil list. Why? I heard him mention
the duties of errand boy in Washington with only less disgust than
his weariness in listening to political platitudes. He had enough
of battles, but could with pleasure gaze on his pictured walls, with
such paintings as "Johnnie coming marching home”, in a gallery
and art collection which his wife freely loaned. in aid of charity
and for the culture of citizens at his home.
Facile locomotion and development of the country by railways
has been an engrossing labor and ruling passion. For .years he
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
257
has been a director of the great Union Pacific Railway system, and
one of its ablest counsellors. He is credited with projection and
10
south, interstate and international in relation. With our greatest
capitalists he dines and counsels, and that he pauses to aid our
Iowa College by a thousand-dollar gift confirms my regard for him
as a friend.
General Crocker, of Des Moines, I knew as having the glamour
of a story-teller and the adroitness of a criminal circuit lawyer.
He was a West Point graduate, and events indicated that he had
found his place in leading and inspiring our soldiers. He was the
choice of our great captain for the command which embraced the
Crocker brigade. Though reared a democrat, there was no ques-
tion that he was for the war without an if, or reserve. A lung
malady developed after brilliant service, and he returned to Des
Moines on a furlough. His nature forbade rest, and a suggestion
was made that he could be nominated for governor in the repub-
lican convention by acclamation. To all this he was deaf. “I am
in for the field at the earliest day, and nothing can tempt me into
politics while the war is on."
How deafening the cheers as he quietly entered the convention,
pale, and with feeble lung power tested when called on for a
speech. It was courageous in tone and adroit as patriotic. “Do I
look in the eyes of a fire-in-the-rear democrat? God forbid! they
are more dangerous than rebels in front. I am not fighting to save
slavery and democracy. One is about dead, and — well you know
how our old party can be damned. Fill up the ranks. Belch out
the shot and shell, which the masked incarnate devils must have.
Read Douglas' immortal farewell, you democrats, and if you must
take a glass I have to indulge a little for throat trouble [great
cheers] - drink to the health of Grant, an old democrat, now the
patriot's pride, organizing victory." With a twinkle of the eye he
said, “I cannot tell a story, but in a poetical line I can give the
epitaph of democrats weak in back and black at heart. Down in
Keokuk county a widow had no earthly possessions but a pet pig.
It died, and the emotional lady had the animal buried, and I, a
youngster, gave the epitaph. I can in my manhood give it for every
258
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
halting sick patriot, and for democracy, if it leaves its colors in
1863. This for the pig:
“While I lived I lived in clover,
When I died I died all over."
It is long since we bade farewell to the hero seeking health, as
• an official in New Mexico, and ending his life in Washington, in
1865.
MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM W. BELKNAP.
well earned his rank, and by an army address of high tone and
eloquence captivated President Grant, who made him Secretary
of War. That he was under a temporary cloud by the acts of
another, nameless, does not debar my tribute to an officer who
served his country with a devotion that reflected the highest
In the autumn of 1890 he was
tunes at the national capitol.
called hence.
GOVERNORS.
Iowa has seven living ex-governors, all of whom it has been my
privilege to know, and to receive at their hands official compli-
ments. To be blind to their foibles was a study, an occasion for
sharp criticisn not having arisen. I can hope that the time for.
mortuary praise is far in the future. Hon. Ralph P. Lowe, of
Keokuk, the deceased chief justice, had a personality to endure:
every test that could be applied, and the firm, triumphant faith of
a patriot and a Christian.
GOV. JAMES W. GRIMES.
Deceased in 1872, he was a half century ago territorial legisla-
tor. Then he, governor for two terms, and twice elected United
States senator, resigned to escape from duties which it was feared
would bring on a disease premonitory of certain death. His mental
chapter on reconstruction, and only add that in public service he
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
259
was conspicuous for tact and power in a minority; for political
combinations which made him governor, after the most earnest and
eloquent state canvass in our annals; a free school law for this state
found in him a friend, while the state and sovereignty which would
allow the assassins of liberty to cross our territory to enslave
Kansas found in him an enemy. The navy became not a hobby,
but engaged his deep interest as a patriot; while during the war
era at the head of the senate committee, he became the counsellor
and confidant of admirals. He, with personal grief, voted against
the majority of his party on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson,
which act illustrated his forecast and independence as a statesman.
Mr. Grimes sprang early into favor with agriculturists as a
writer, and was a large land owner of soil, rich in contrast with
that of his native New Hampshire. He first came on the emigra-
tion wave to the city of Burlington, where he now lies buried. By
sagacious investment he attained large wealth. He left a tract of
land to Iowa College, and a library to his city, but his greatest
legacies were his life and character, described in Dr. Salter's
memoir, and which will enrich Iowa's history when a volume
worthy of its men is written.
GOV. SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD,
State and United States senator, and twice governor, was cabinet
officer under the lamented Garfield, on whose death he retired to
private life in Iowa City, now nearing seventy-six years. Radicals
have ever been hospitable to “born democrats ", and the “plough
handle” candidate was one; and he was fortunate and strong in
free soil allegiance as to time, and the strong and vigilant support
of Ex-Senator Ezekiel Clark, his relative and business partner,
with the will and skill of a political genius. Mr. Kirkwood was
never a favorite in the religious circles, though indicting the most.
religious, orthodox messages, nor with the clans that were tolerant
of the saloon in the state or nation. Of a kindly heart, he was not
wanting on occasion in combative force. A war governor had
opportunities, and Kirkwood well improved them, and later kept
in sympathy with the agricultural masses, before whom for years
he has been a plain but favorite speaker in championship of econ-
omy, higher education and the policy of a tariff. With a tempera-
ment seeking ease rather than the theatre of adventure, or the
260
REMINISCENCES OF FORTJ FEARS.
mingling in political strifes, he will be held in esteem for sturdy
honesty as an official, and a calm, clear perception of duty, not less
than for eminent patriotic service as our state executive in perilous
times when home traitors were in ambush, held by unseen links
and oaths to the Knights of the Golden Circle, one of the most
dangerous organizations of the century.
GOV. WILLIAM M. STONE.
Governor Stone was district judge in the war era, and
resigned for the military service as major, until appointed colonel
of the Twenty-second Iowa infantry. In charge of a brigade he
was wounded in the arm, and when on a furlough was tempted into
wood, and having rivals in the astute politician who was secretary
of state, and the brilliant Fitz Henry Warren. After a most excit-
ing struggle, in which Warren showed the greatest magnanimity,
Colonel Stone was nominated.
The cool home critics of one who left the field of danger for
effective in jeering copperheads and eloquent in appeal to patriots.
The loyalty shown by the soldier vote was also in high compli-
ment of a gentleman who as executive never forgot his army com-
rades, and in private life has merited the favor of pensioners, his
later acts supplementing his liberal policy as state executive,
More of an orator than a financier, he has, under President Harri-
son, won an appointment as first assistant officer in the national
land department, where great cases will have a fair hearing by an
intelligent and upright officer.
GOV. SAMUEL MERRILL,
Governor Merrill was a state representative and a merchant of
McGregor, at the breaking out of the Civil War. Business was
dropped cheerfully and he bade adieu to home on accepting the
colonelcy of the Twenty-first Iowa, a regiment noted for gallantry
alike with its commander. He was supposed to be mortally
wounded at the battle of Black River Bridge, where he gained the
to leave the field”. From the rebel rain of lead and iron shot he
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
261
never recovered, and passes a well-earned pension, it is said, over to
the poor in the city where he prospered and the capitol of a state
delighting to do him honor. It is only an incident that I had a few
hundred votes in the convention, but felicitate myself not only on
making his nomination unanimous, but in loyalty to a business cit-
izen and worthy official.
In a broad view of our wants as a state, he laid the corner-stone
of our new state capitol and was liberal in plans to encourage pub-
lic improvements by the enlistment of capital. State institutions
were especially befriended, and his gifts in advancing higher edu-
cation were many and liberal, culminating in the endowment of
a professorship in Iowa College ($20,000), of which institution he
was a trustee. His success as a bank president and in railway enter-
prises were in entire accord with his well known probity and
forecast. Ill health in his family led to enforced removal to Cali-
fornia, where his wife died. His enlistment in business schemes
there, it is hoped, require only a temporary absence from a people
only less profuse in honors than hearty in wish for his permanent
abode on our soil.
GOV. C. C. CARPENTER.
As register of the state land office after the close of the war,
Colonel Carpenter was a resident of Fort Dodge. It is not an
assumption that because he had a morbid dislike of the smell of
gunpowder, he became a commissary of subsistence. General
Logan sought out the wide-awake officer of probity, to render ser-
vice of more value in an emergency than that of a field marshal.
In 1871 the repute of a wise legislator and faithful staff officer
in the field, taken with the vocation of a farmer, not a trivial cir-
cumstance in political slate construction, smoothed the road to a
nomination to governorship in easy transition, and an election even
more facile.
We meet him as an officer and cattle superintendent at our
state fairs, where, I have little doubt, the smell of the breath of
our fancy bovines is more welcome than the fumes of alcohol and
the jostle of political caucuses. One of the most forcible of our
public speakers, rendering good service in Congress, he has by his
address on “The Skeleton in the Corncrib”, stimulated farmers to
adopt high feeding to condense values, at the same time encourag-
262
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
ing domestic exchanges in the line of our farmers' policy and road
to wealth.
GOV. JOHN B. GEAR.
Honored as mayor of the city, a wholesale merchant and state
legislator, rising to the speakership, Mr. Gear's election as gov-
ernor broke the royal military line of governors. Fort Snelling
was a military post on the Mississippi, where, as a son of a post
chaplain, he was born. He figured as a manufacturer, and served
on the ways and means committee in Congress, but he has gone
into retirement temporarily, with others, whose offense in support-
ing the McKinley tariff bill is yet to be held as a high honor.
GOV. BUREN R. SHERMAN.
In ante bellum days, he was a county official, but left all to
graduate from the army with honorable life scars, earning promo-
tion by the lead yet corroding in his person. He was often in the
range of the fire of our foe. . “He was shot nearly to pieces,” says
Byers, “at the battle of Shiloh.”
The repute of an able orator placed him at the head of a party,
bodies meant domination to be met, bringing the baptism of fire in
those of his own household”.
The public needs of our unfortunate and dependent classes
touched to move a sensitive nature. In the line of public service
the governor became an open and brave advocate for the prohibi-
tion amendment of 1882. His ear was never dull to entreaty, nor
his purse closed to charity, and at the end of his term of office he
was found poor in all save the priceless tributes to his fidelity, his
eloquence as a debater, patriotic pride in his state, and love for our
national defenders.
GOV. WILLIAM J. LARRABLE,
A native of Connecticut, of quiet tastes, a sagacious financier and
of long legislative experience, might be expected to be conserva-
tive. No predecessor was better equipped for a successful admin-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
263
istration, and to Governor Larrabee's credit stands a repute for
the closest attention of a financier, and an unbending purpose to
promote the public weal. The saloons will never forgive his proph-
ecy that they can never again have legal toleration in Iowa. Exec-
utive documents and official declarations in favor of upholding our
prohibitory enactment, have sent out a swarm of peripatetic revil-
ers, stimulated by the flask and assisted in the pouring out of vials
of wrath by even the sordid employer across state lines. Whatever
the issue, it will be found that the chair of state was filled with
rare personality.
Factions on the transportation question there were. They are
not now in array for criticism; the pipe of peace should be smoked.
If the flames of strife were fanned by honest or by designing men,
the former as lovers of comity were too seldom united, and a suc-
cessor governor reaps where he had not sown. Dr. Johnson said,
“Where you undertake to kill, let it be only your enemies.” Scat-
tering fire often sends the most fatal shots. Reproaches for this
political result will be hushed, before the untarnished fame of a
state with high credit and no debt, and with no scandals, even in a
whisper, and with hearty encomiums for the fidelity and courage
of the farmer governor.
GEORGE G. WRIGHT, OF DES MOINES.
UL
Nearing seventy years, Judge Wright is yet young in spirit
and abounding in railway service and local financiering, while
maintaining the more congenial social amenities of a pioneer glee-
ful story-teller, and emotional table orator. For the period of a
generation in the circles of farmers, at the bar, at educational and
political gatherings, he has found a welcome. For epigrammatic
taste, exuberance of wit, strong Saxon, apt comparison and close
logic, while devoid of limpid fluency, he is in just repute. His Bar
address just delivered before the jurists in national convention at
Saratoga, evinces learning and fine conception as a lawyer and
statesman. Few have had like rare opportunities, as a pioneer
counsellor, a judge, a chief justice, wearing the unspotted ermine
long years until called to be United States senator, to take rank with
a deceased brother, statesman and diplomat, Joseph Wright. As
senatorial candidate, he had but to intimate, and troops of friends
made his cause their care. The acceptance was by some deemed
264
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
ill-timed in view of his adherence to a pledge to the American pol-
icy learned in the school of Clay, but time has justified his educa-
tional speeches and persistent voting for a protective tariff.
OTHER LAWYERS.
Judge C. C. Nourse and N. W. Hubbard are gentlemen of
fame, not finding congenial duties at the bench but at the bar. In
this forum there is found the play of exuberant fancy in wit,
which, added to legal learning and oratorical gifts, have brought
large fees and honorable successes. Judge Hubbard, before in the
employ as solicitor of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Co.,
gave one of the grandest philippics against the saloon on record;
and Judge Nourse, often and by choice an anti-corporation lawyer,
has been for a quarter of a century a standard prohibition orator
with a national fame. Both gentlemen have written in a grace-
ful, eulogistic style of our state and her people, on many occa-
sions, and were often famous dinner speakers and orators for set
occasions. I think the twain owe more to native than to cultivated
resources. They are witty and wise, which is better than to be
otherwise, for thereby has come employment and competence as sol-
ace in life's evening. With Judge Nourse there is an anticipatory
gleam before the explosive speech, but none the less spontaneous.
Judge Hubbard lightens unexpectedly, without an intimation of
the pun or merry puncture which brings the laugh in or out of
order.
OUR FEDERAL JUDGES.
Our state is not of an age to boast of many jurists and officials
“to the manor born”. Justice Samuel R. Miller, born in Ken-
tucky, after thirty years' service, has reached an age to retire with
a claim on the nation's exchequer and the people's benediction of
“well done”. He belongs to Iowa, for here he practiced law, and
from the state bar he rose to the bench (though originally by
profession a physician), to attain a peership among judges ---an
eminence traced to a high order of gifts, industry and well-
grounded opinions.
On his western circuit I had occasion to study the judge, and
observed how impatient he was with showy-talking lawyers, and
how great his aversion to shams. The stuffed advocate be first
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
265
took from his base as a child takes up a doll, and then shook the
bran out of him. He placed men on the rack by an inquiry. So
fearful was à nervous lawyer about to open a case, that he said
there was clear sailing if Miller did not ask him a question. There
was a scowl until the point of the case was in bold relief, and ver-
bal repetitions only brought nervous unrest, while many of the
In paying my regards as a citizen, I was conducted into a work-
shop of the judge, where piles of volumes and legal lore in tons
avoirdupois engaged at late hours the servant of the nation, in that
new era of jurisprudence involved in acts of treason, war and recon-
struction. I think a reporter never unlocked him, but to an Iowan
he was frank in opinions. I could mention how and where he
would have been in a collision with our “Moses”, Andrew Johnson.
retary of the treasury and chief justice, Chase, laid the country
under deep obligation, there would be small chance of dissent. It
was an honor to the state of his adoption to be chosen the orator
at our great centennial constitutional convention at Philadelphia.
Does it lack in a popular style of address, it is yet profound, a fit
study for a people, impatient alike with quotation and declamation.
Master of the instrument he so faithfully expounded, it detracts
nothing from his fame that he enlarged on Iowa details, while set-
ting the state in a picture that shows him an artist in eulogy. To
him a high niche is assured.
Judge John F. Dillon was early an orphan, but grew on our
soil in the mould of a true gentleman. With limited literary
advantages in youth, he was a student of books while winning the
honor of men full of business, and ready to confide and extol a
promising legal light. This was the firm of Cook & Sergent. Mr.
Dillon was eminently social, but neither friendship nor sympathy
warped his judgment in the interpretation of laws while a practi-
tioner or subsequently. He early received local judicial honors,
then the seat of a chief justice by a popular vote, later a Federal
appointment in a district embracing many states, loyal, semi-loyal
and one a traitor to the flag. His office was far from a sinecure,
and gave occasion for study in solving new points of law, involving
great principles and vast sums. Litigants in their impatience and
anger could not move one who found, like the great English jurist,
“popularity which follows, rather than that which is run after".
266
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
To a relative his decisions seemed in corporate matters too impar-
tial if not cruel, but it was this evidence of the strictest judicial
integrity which later brought large gains and honors well known to
the legal profession.
Great industry, combined with literary taste, early brought him
into notice as a publicist and author— the work on municipal cor-
porations being a standard authority not only in the West, but
found on the desks of our ablest jurists everywhere.
In the chapter on railroads I have narrated how Judge Dillon
was called from Iowa. Friends at the bar parted with him reluc-
tantly, as did the state with reluctant adieu. His law lectures
found in the students of Columbia College eager listeners, appreci-
ating literary finish, and high tone on questions of corporate and
national obligations. But he was soon allured from the college
to be the chief counsel of the Union Pacific Railway, and later add-
ing the duties of an attorney for the railway magnate of the
age — Jay Gould. Mr. Dillon is welcome to the best literary and
social circles of the great city. He is well conditioned at sixty,
with a competence and that content found in professional eminence.
Judge James M. Love was a resident of Keokuk, the abode of
not a few famed citizens. It has furnished in my time a congress-
man, United States senator, two cabinet ministers, and three
judges with national fame, besides eminent army officers. Judge
Love was a democrat before the war era, known to me as a partisan
state senator, and for the life of a generation a non-partisan jurist.
It is the fact that no suitor or counsel could wish a change of
venue on the ground of prejudice, and as true that no suitor feared
that politics would occasion a bias in a trial. A kind heart exe-
crated the proposed indictment for crime of one who had the stare
of a lunatic. Judge Love's consideration for young practition-
ers won life-long friendships. He was a patient listener on grave
criminal trials, and begot the respect even of the guilty receiving
a meted sentence.
A southerner might have been extreme as a state-rights theo-
rist. Principle was shown in his regard for the opinions of our
state court. Thus there has been observed a pleasant comity and
harmony of Federal and state courts so honorable to each. The
state retains him at the University Lav School as a lecturer.
Clear in statement, an oracle, and genial, he charms with his schol-
arship shown in leading cases not less than in occasional addresses,
REMINISCENCES OF TORTY YEARS.
267
einbellished with a high order of rhetoric. It is high compliment
that the regard in which he is held as a citizen is only exceeded by
so wide and universal esteem that nothing save party edicts has
delayed service as a Federal judge beyond the boundary of state
lines.
Hon. George W. McCrary is another jurist, hailing from Keo-
kuk, who claims as a birthright the name of Hawkeye. No Iowa
citizen has passed to eminence on more varied rounds of service.
A state representative, repeatedly a member of Congress, rising to
an authority and authorship on elections. Cabinet minister under
President Hayes until a resignation to accept a circuit judgeship in
place of Judge Dillon, he vacated the office for the lucrative and
responsible duties of counsel of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fè Railways. Of a phlegmatic temperament, and utterly devoid of
show in manner, of pretence in his profession, he became a univers-
ally trusted friend and a safe counsellor. His career is a living
refutation of the opinion that in the wild West pretension is the
only road to success. At the bar his subdued voice was suggestive
of an apology for an appearance, and counsel were so far won by
his urbanity on the bench, that if their case was lost, they had at
least made a sympathetic friend. In great contests for a seat in
Congress (often provoking, by charges of fraud, the question by
Mr. Stevens before a vote, “Which is our scoundrel ?") it was a
remark, “He is not of my politics, but I shall shut my eyes and
follow McCrary, the chairman.” Such impressions, begotten by a
mild eye, clear and calm statement, gave eminent fitness for a cor-
poration lawyer. Jurors forgot their prejudices to listen, and
judges indulged only confidence in counsel who never misled by an
authority, or asked a verdict on trivial technical points of law.
HON. J. K. GRAVES.
J. K. Graves, a resident of Dubuque, has just passed the mile-
stone of a half century. A cheery face represents a brilliant wit,
great enterprise and laudable ambition. He was not a soldier in
the war of the rebellion, but claimed the honor of cashing drafts to
the amount of thirty thousand dollars to clothe our volunteers,
while our state treasury was empty. The era of peace found him
with personal engagements and business associations, but attract-
ing thousands of voters to make him a radical republican senator
268
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
from a democratic district. His financial career may not be one of
unvarying good fortune, but business enterprise in his own city,
liberality with a plethoric purse in removing an incubus of debt
from churches in his city, making unasked a liberal draft to a
worn-down educator, Dr. George F. Magoun, bidding him travel in
foreign lands—these are a few of many good deeds that "shine in
a naughty world”, reflecting the nobility of manhood.
HON. D. M. MONINGER.
Our national herding domain has given to their owners the
name of cattle kings. More. eminent than the oriental chiefs, or
cattle barons by virtue of capital and enterprise in pre-occupancy,
breeder and feeder, Hon. D. M. Moninger, of Galvin, Iowa.
It is a day of specialists and noble rivalries when a showy voca-
tion awakens admirers, but the age is often oblivious to the claims
of heroes in humble callings. Years and sharp rivalries have not
left out from bovine literature the names of Booth and Bates as
benefactors, by their skill and devotion to the brute related to the
vocation of rural life. To be the painter of an animal has earned
a bestowment of medals and won the company of savants and
princes. Should not the rearing of fine breeds receive honor?
Iowa has a citizen, Moninger, justly the rival and peer of cattle
fanciers in the new and old world. This is his distinction-with-
out a great cash outlay, or wealth gained in selling bloods, he
becomes an educator of the masses by his prize herd of steers for
beef, and points the way where the farmers may follow, not by
extolling pedigree, rather by the animals crossed with the eye of an
artist, and the skill of a breeder and care of a feeder.
Hon. J. D. Gillet, deceased, of Illinois, the great feeder, was the
examplar by his stock in the line where the Iowa pupil surpasses
his master. Together they had aimed to establish a beef breed, as
I urged years ago, but, failing of the money in that venture, there
is left the fame founded on the best beef, heaviest weight for age,
and comeliest animals known to eye tests, butcher's block and epi-
curian tastes. Not that the world-renowned steer bore my name,
and that Presidents have dined on the loin, do I rejoice, but for the
elevation of agriculture and the wealth brought by patterns of
excellence. The modesty and integrity of Mr. Moninger, the still
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
269
successful breeder for the millions, I cannot fail to notice. In his
home, overlooking the Minerva valley of corn and cattle, there is
an Iowa gentleman as fortunate in competence and family as an
honor to his state and vocation — Moninger of the short-horn crim-
son herd—a patron and friend of Iowa College, and high on the
roll of her rural nobility.
HON. J. B. HOWELL, OF KEOKUK,
A veteran journalist, filled the Grimes senatorial vacancy with
honor. Appointed later a judge on the court of claims, he served
for years with fidelity while struggling with a disease that, before
advanced years, ended the life of a courageous, upright and able
citizen and political journalist.
HON. JAMES W. MCDILL, OF CRESTON,
held a short senatorial term also, having been for years familiar
with political affairs in Washington in clerical service. On return-
ing to Iowa, he became a judge of marked ability. For years he
was the legal member of the Iowa state railway commission, and
is now an extensive farmer, with a law practice in the locality from
which he rose to the stature of an official and citizen of high
repute.
THE LATE HENRY CLAY DEAN.
The press of Iowa, especially the State Register, has spread a
beautiful and broad mantle of charity over the eventful and erratic
career of Henry Clay Dean, just closed. It is quite a safe assump-
tion that he, the subject of unstinted praise as an orator and of
merciless satire as the “great unwashed”, would have prized the.
elegant, tender tribute of Clarkson ante mortem, more than now, if
in that sulphurous abode to which he was so often consigned by
the free-hand editorials of the last quarter of a century.
Preliminarily, I do not conceal the fact of an intimacy which
grew out of compliments by Dean on my espousal of Greeley for
president fifteen years ago. Old partisan friends found no words
fitting to represent a republican who could win the praise of so
“unsavory a rebel”. This moved to hearty condolence by letters
270
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS:
and personal visits, and though unavailing to blunt the pen of par-
tisan censors it caused me to know and study one of the eccentric
great characters of our time.
Dean died last month at Rebel Cove, Missouri, a name of his
own choice, hardly a misnomer in the light of personal history.
His age was sixty-five years. The public has little knowledge of
his life in a Pennsylvania cabin, and of a poor family imbibing a
slave-holding spirit from Virginia residents on the border, until the
flattery for the inchoate young orator bore him, in 1849, on the
emigration tide to the then new state of Ohio. Here for nearly
forty years he has been known - preacher, politician, publicist,
farmer, lecturer and lawyer. Charity often brought him food, and
chance occupation and residence, until called by Senators Dodge
and Jones, of Iowa (in reward, so called, for political service), and
the warm friendship of Stephen A. Douglas, to be chaplain of the
United States Senate. The honored circuit rider did not lose his
balance; adjusting those unkempt locks and concealing his corn-cob
pipe, shedding his brown shirt and patched suit of jeans for a
"splendid fit” by a Hebrew certificate, and appearing in the Sen-
ate, he was less a boor on duty than he had been heralded. Moved
to compensate by utility what he lacked in ornament in the “grand
forum”, he corrected and wrote speeches for his especial political
friends, giving some verdure to the mental wastes of mediocrities.
Crowds gathered around him, wherever chaplain Dean held sway
ing coarse powder in pyrotechnic displays which became monoto-
nous. But the Sunday attendance was meager, and sparseness of
numbers at the morning prayer made the service almost a bur-
lesque. This I remember as his description — «The vice-presi-
dent dull as the wooden mace he used, calling to order a straggling
senator or two, a clerk busy fumbling his journal, page boys beck-
oned into silence by the door-keeper, cloak men and barbers look-
ing out for customers and quarters. Oh, what a crowd to make
a prayer for! A creaking heathen prayer-mill on the cupola
would have been as serviceable to most of the senators as the
chaplain's prayers.” So he stepped down from the marble desk
and retired to his Iowa home, to find that he was less than a god
among the brethren to whom he had sent his Parthian arrows,
and in disfavor with the Bishop whose appointment had been
declined.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
271
From this time we date his career of bitterness and misan-
thrópy. Washington society was hollow, Iowa was fanatical, his
church cowardly, giving the “fine-haired sprigs of divinity a
chance to scatter the good congregations, and no place for a loyal
democrat but on Skunk river flats”. To be forgotten was dire
punishment, hell itself. To escape this and heal the wounds of
neglect, and also to repel assaults, he wrote for the press, lectured,
and took up cases in court, which might make him the poor man's
advocate; by his anathemas he would be the terror of corpora- .
tions; and, in the defense of the Union, receive the honors of a
patriot. The flag no doubt he loved, yet saw only its enemies in
free soilers who disputed the policy of Douglas, and the party that
called to arms against traitors. Threats of fire-eaters he echoed
with au abandon that caused taunts and threats of violence, which
culminated early in the war in an arrest and the soldiers' resolve
that he should be hung for a reviling assault on Mr. Lincoln and
the “Union hirelings". A march in the gleam of bayonets held
by the jeered cohorts caused so little alarm for his personal safety
that an intercession and rescue by Union friends failed to secure
a thankful recognition, rather the cool remark that his blood was
worth more shed then by fanatic violence for the world, than in
sluggish flow to old age. Disdaining a mask, he would hold mere
policy as the last resort of an imbecile; and he was elated by rebel
victories, and predicted that the South would never submit. The
declaration by the national democracy that “the war was a fail-
· ure”, found no warmer advocate, nor one so bitter in denunciation
of the war democrat- a tory away from home. The press at the
South printed with compliments his disunion philippics, which min-
istered to his vanity, while the coldness of his party adherents at
the North refused a fair recognition of the claims of the most elo-
quent'advocate of the cause daily becoming more desperate.
The sky to Dean was leaden, starless, and himself fated to
obscurity if not derision and contempt. Only the past became
eloquent; the present tame, linked to the sway of corporations and
tyrants dominating in a drear future. He had such a chronic hatred
of corporations that a ride in a luxurious railway coach brought
no pleasure. The solace found in a Havana segar was a delusion
contrasted with what he gained from the corn-cob pipe around the
log cabin hearth. All was degeneracy. Since Clay and Webster,
the Senate had been bereft of orators. We have no genius that
272
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Shakespeare will not eclipse in the realm of thought for all time.
Incredulous as to modern invention and discovery, he was enthu-
siastic over the lost arts and charmed with ancient literature and
doubtful legends. The world generally was awry; society retro-
gressive, with exceptional persons reflecting man in the morning
of creation for whom he yet avowed nobility.
Thousands will remember him for matchless description of the
race fresh from the hands of the Creator. We listened to a genius
and preacher who had found a theme worthy of his great powers.
You saw all the elements in nature under law upheld for man; the
ark floating; the tragedy on Calvary; the stars going out and the
sun turned to darkness only when the last born of the benighted
had entered on an endless career of fruition. He ejaculated with
deep emotion, “Poor man, look up; proud rebel, kneel; scorning
infidel, hush, or be damned!” His personal appearance of unclean-
liness was a real case of hydrophobia in a figure without the vio-
lent spasms. An apology that clothes did not make the man did
not meet the demand of society for comeliness. A brain that
bulged with combativeness gave little control to a tongue when set
on fire, endangering in turn his friends and everyone whom he
encountered. Personal following he had little, and could be
quoted for brilliancy rather than for safe counsel. Without a
great purpose, he was floating without pilot or rudder to an uncer-
tain harbor.
The theme of immortality in a sermon thirty years agone by
Dean left impressions yet vivid, and moves to pity that education
was denied in discipline to such noble elementary forces. It
excites wonder that an Ishmaelite career should develop the rarest
fruits of generous culture, an historian of ability, a gifted orator,
most pathetic in appeal and sublime in imagery, ranking him the
peer of rhetoricians and a master of assemblies. Apart from his
accomplishments so well known in Iowa, I do not close without
noting those redeeming virtues not to be obscured by political
offenses. His verbal promise carried the value of a bond.
Concluding these words on Iowa personages and friends, I have
a presentiment; it is that no more of faint praise or warm admira-
tion will fall from my pen. For the fallen by the way I could
only offer a laurel sprig prepared by affection, and for the living
few actors and thousands more humble, but not less worthy
patriots, soldiers with stars and scars, Christians valiant, a sigh.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
273
Xerxes at the head of his army, crossing the Hellespont into
Greece, was seen to shed tears in thought that in one hundred
years not one of the braves would be alive. Far less is my limit
of allotted years, and that of comrades, but my grief will be
assuaged in hope that we are all not to be forgotten by the children
sporting on the grass, which may be green over the mounds where
our ashes repose. If there be no inscription to tell where we fell,
there may be a record of deeds to ally us with a heroic age, counsels
and blood which will long survive our departure.
CHAPTER XVII.
Indians -- The Sacs and Foxes in Iowa - The Friend of the Indians,
John L. Davenport - Indians and the Cattle Husbandry - The
True Policy of the Nation toward its Wards.
SINCE my entrance into public life, I have been interested in the
peculiar phases of the Indian problem. I find that our American
policy has wanted advocates bold to suggest and rigorous to per-
form. The national cost for protection on the frontier has been
so great that it would have been economy for the government to
have maintained the various tribes at academic halls and first-class
hotels, rather than to incur the expense of wasted annuities and of
soldiers in sufficient numbers to protect against the “braves” on
the war path. Meantime frontiersmen have maintained that “the
only good Indian was a dead one”, and Eastern philanthropy has
asserted that fraudulent treaties and bad faith were sins "crying to
heaven.” With an eastern birth and education and a western resi-
dence, I cannot coincide with either party, believing that a radical
policy of government will remove the scandals of the past, and
elevate the living remnants of barbarism in the scale of humanity,
to become aids to a higher civilization. It is within the memory
of residents of Iowa that all its soil was claimed by some twenty
or more ambitious tribes. These are reduced by extinction and
emigration to the remnants of one tribe, the Sacs and Foxes.
THE SACS AND FOX INDIANS.
At Grinnell, from the college telescope tower, you can see the
smoke from the wigwams of these Indians twenty miles north-east,
by the Iowa River. They number about four hundred, and are
truly an object lesson near home, cognate to history, which confers
slight honor on their neighbors, the pale faces. I do not judge the
whites harshly. The Indians have been held the wards of the
• REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
275
money, which draws five per cent. interest and aggregates from
$13,000 to $15,000 annually.
I knew them only by roving hunting bands up to 1856, when I
was a senatorial condidate, and it was rumored that he who would
shelter black runaway slaves would favor the Indians, petitioning
the state to remain here on their old hunting grounds. To this
charge I made no answer, and on investigation became their friend.
By an interpreter it was learned that after their removal to a res-
ervation west of the Missouri River, a tribal war broke out which
threatened the extermination of the weaker party. Their only
way of escape was to old haunts on the Iowa River, near which
are ancient mounds marking the burial place of ancestors. One of
City, brought me a petition from many of their neighbors, my con-
stituents, asking permission for them to remain in the state while
peaceful. This was endorsed by Governor Grimes as humane.
Then followed the passage of a law which allowed them to remain
in Iowa while peaceful, and to become owners in fee of lands which
they have since owned, above one thousand acres. From my inter-
est in their welfare, as they passed, painted and forlorn, not in
compliment they were called “Grinnell's Indians”, and their intru-
sion by calls for food at my house was varied by a fire set in the
street and whoops and war dances for my home entertainment.
These professions of regard I improved by calling out “shame”,
when I met the braves riding ponies and the squaws on foot.
Then they were made to know that a condition of my friendship
and an effort to secure the payment of annuities in Iowa, was that
they would send their children to school; only responded to by
scowls and a deep ugh! ugh! I called on them one pleasant after-
noon autumn feast-day, and on the mention of school, the bucks
hied away one by one in the bushes, leaving my entertainment to
the squaws. The children I could no more fondle than their wild
game; yet they were in line, objects of maternal solicitude, first by
hasty washing, followed by head-clearing devices — a most disgust-
ing episode in a show of celerity in destruction of vermin, most
commendable, yet cutting short as fruitless my educational call on
the dusky tribe.
They were poor, morose, frequent beggars, and became intox-
icated whenever a white whiskey dealer was sordid and base
278
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
dent, capitalist and railway director, ranking with millionaires.
One reverse had followed another in quick succession-partial
deafness, family bereavement, loss of property; and he was ready
to accept a small salary as agent for the remnants of tribes who
were his playmates in childhood. He was Prince George, the
great heir, feted by Black Hawk, and made welcome to their
camps and sacred feasts. Thirty thousand souls have become
reduced to hundreds, the elder of whom talked of fleet ponies,
arrows tipped with poison, war whoop and scalping enemies.
Helpless to control but warm in the affections, he was devoted in
his mission, but utterly impotent in attracting the children to
school, and in arrest of the career of hereditary nomads. To the
poor old man they were loyal, cheerfully hieing away to their
camps, after daily embracing with tears one with only the thread-
bare garments of fallen royalty.
It was a touching historic picture of human vicissitude, while
the devotion of a Davenport is a tribute to his manly heart. Said
he, «They talked of hunts and races fifty years ago, of their braves
fallen, and they prayed the Good Spirit that I might never be
weary or thirsty, while the Iowa river rolled and they had a hand
to steady a rifle to bring down the game. I am renewing my age.
The down from the birds they pluck for my pillow, and bring the
daintiest food for my table, but they are only grown-up savages,
ready to die for me if I would but be indulgent to their modes of
life, which I cannot be."
In the sequel it was not as I wished, that their friend might
long live to mould and inspire to a new life. He said, “They talk
of following me in song and death-march, and say that their last
and earliest prayer is to the Great Spirit for me, and that they will
carry my game in the good hunting-grounds." The old man did not
repel their wish to be his pall-bearers, or slight the medicine man
and spiritual incantations. Mr. Davenport fell prematurely and
brought wailing on the reservation; and not his dusky playmates
only, but his Iowa neighbors also, mingled their tears of regret
that a true friend was cut off from a loved and promising agency for
the Sacs and Foxes — a tribe once claiming land ownership from
the father to the mother of waters.
Tribal frictions, war and disease have reduced their majority of
thousands to that of but one in five hundred of our state population;
and their present limit of land ownership to three acres each,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
279
points to a near day of extinction, if not an absorption. Let them,
with other tribes, be governed, as are our children and the unfortu-
nates; and an equal share will give one hundred and sixty acres
of land to a family. Their presence will then no longer be an
policy, would be a substitute for the burlesque methods of to-day.
From the school-house might come forth a subject for the pen of
the romancer. Art might develop a painter, and a sweet voice
might attract the lovers of melody; virtue might find its noble
exemplars and the novelist many a hero. Then we should hear no
more the rude jeers for poor Lo!" returning from his hunts on
the low-necked, reeling pony, and with an acute ear for an alarm
locomotive whistle which brought the glee of a coast wrecker, in the
promise of fresh beef mangled by the railway trains, eking out a
subsistence maintained by the sale of peltry and by begging, until
the migration of fowls and the unlocking of the streams offered
chances for food.
While officially studying our cattle industries on the border I
made an examination of the Indian question and made a report to
remarks.
THE INDIAN AND CATTLE HUSBANDRY.
Our dusky wards may be valuable scouts, but have not the
qualities of good herdsmen. They are never out of mind on the
frontier and will not be overlooked in this discussion. Just return-
ing from the western borders, the writer may be charged by some
with imbibing the common frontier sentiment that “the only good
Indian is a dead one”. To that he demurs, having sat at the hos-
pitable table of the Creek by the Arkansas, employed the Cherokee
as a faithful guide, and camped with the Choctaw, finding safe
repose in the rustle of his cornfields; and, nearer home, by our
Iowa river the Sacs and Foxes offered him, in return for supposed
favors, the compliment of rude songs and the war-dance.
The Indian has few friends on the cattle-ranges, is commonly
under suspicion as a cattle-thief and is a menace and terror to
unprotected families. His red blanket is a convenient device for
inciting a stampede of cattle, in which he takes grim delight, and,
on a denial of tobacco or whiskey, secretly starts the devastating
280
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
fires which in dry seasons sweep uncontrolled for hundreds of
miles, driving, for his purpose, the buffalo into the gorges to await
wanton slaughter, and leaving the ranchmen the alternative of a
roving, starving herd, or a drive to grass on an unburned district.
Such acts provoke retaliation, and the only valid excuse for even
our small army is his presence, and a fear that on the least provo-
cation he may take to the war-path. These are our wards, scat-
tered and uncontrolled, tolerated in indulgences and idleness which
are the nurses of imbecility and treachery.
Is not the nation, their self-appointed guardian, most at fault in
allowing them the dignity of equals in treaty-making, and then
treating them as dependent children to be fed and maintained in
idleness under threats, to the disgust alike of every circle around
the camp-fires on the plains (the miner who holds a white man as
good as an Indian, if as well-behaved,) and every owner of a herd
beyond the reach of military protection ?
The Indian tribes embrace three hundred thousand souls, not
half the average population of a medium state; yet they set up
claim to hunting-grounds and reservations equal to the area of five
of our large states with twenty times their numbers. They have
imperiled the emigrant, turned back surveying parties, massacred
ühe defenseless, and, beyond all the moneys disbursed of trust
funds, have, by military defenses and actual losses, cost the govern-
ment in the last half century hundreds of millions of dollars above
the sum expended by any nation in any historical epoch on an equal
number of subjects; and all, with rare exceptions, in worse than
them in the Indian Territory. Leave undisturbed the Creek,
Choctaw and Cherokee tribes, that, localized, have made substan-
tial progress.
Of the thirty-five million acres let one hundred and sixty acres
of well-watered, fertile lands be set apart for each Indian family,
which would leave many millions of acres for the children, to be
conveyed and held in fee on their reaching manhood. Then dis-
pose of the reservations, great and small, under a graduated system,
at their full value to herdsmen and farmers, and place the proceeds
to the credit of our wards, to be expended for their benefit on their
new homes in education and improvement. You have then made
the roving savage richer than the average pale-face — compelled
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
281
the wards, like their fated guardians, to work or endure hunger.
This plan will substitute a cheap local and effective police for an
ineffective, costly standing army, solving in ten years one of the
great problems of our time in the interest of humanity. Thus we
may discharge an imperative obligation by rescuing the Aborigines
from decimation, and providing for their elevation to the rank of
civilized man.
Is it objected that this destroys his natural rights and places
him in slavish subjection? What are his actual rights, and is he
placed under more absolute control than the minor ? If he has a
right to a home, it is accorded to him; if to property, then in that
he should have the protection of a powerful nation. If he claims
millions of acres, over which to roam as hunting grounds, where
did he get his title? If afraid of the tyranny of his guardian gov-
ernment, let him rise to the plane of citizenship and take part in
making our laws, there being nothing in race or previous condition
to hinder, and assert his independence. Encouraged to abandon
the precarious pursuits of hunting and fishing by the incitements
to home improvement and the certainty of protection, it is possible
his seeming doom may be averted. It is stern history that he
has no power to arrest the natural encroachments of civilization,
and there is far more of mere sentimentality in the defense of his
ownership of our country than of good law - deemed the first
product of a great nation. I am with the herdsman who innocently
drives across the reservation and consumes the grass where burned
for centuries. He has a precedent, and the example of the fathers,
who appropriated what the savage would not, causing in their
journeying westward “the wilderness and solitary place to be glad
for their presence”.
I cite a paragraph from an oration by Ex-President John
Quincy Adams, eighty years ago, in defense of the fathers, and
their sons, who simply assert their equality as herdsmen with the
nomadic hunter and the savage, where Nature has spread gifts
with a lavish hand that are unused:
The Indian right of possession itself stands, with regard to the greatest part of
the country, upon a questionable foundation. Their cultivated fields, their con-
structed liabitations, a space of ample sufficiency for their subsistence, and what-
ever they had annexed to themselves by personal labor, was undoubtedly by the
laws of nature theirs. But what is the right of a huntsman to the forest of a thou-
sand miles, over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey ? Shall the
280
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
fires which in dry seasons sweep uncontrolled for hundreds of
miles, driving, for his purpose, the buffalo into the gorges to await
wanton slaughter, and leaving the ranchmen the alternative of a
roving, starving herd, or a drive to grass on an unburned district.
Such acts provoke retaliation, and the only valid excuse for even
our small army is his presence, and a fear that on the least provo-
cation he may take to the war-path. These are our wards, scat-
tered and uncontrolled, tolerated in indulgences and idleness which
are the nurses of imbecility and treachery.
Is not the nation, their self-appointed guardian, most at fault in
allowing them the dignity of equals in treaty-making, and then
treating them as dependent children to be fed and maintained in
idleness under threats, to the disgust alike of every circle around
the camp-fires on the plains (the miner who holds a white man as
good as an Indian, if as well-behaved,) and every owner of a herd
beyond the reach of military protection ?
The Indian tribes embrace three hundred thousand souls, not
half the average population of a medium state; yet they set up
claim to hunting-grounds and reservations equal to the area of five
of our large states with twenty times their numbers. They have
imperiled the emigrant, turned back surveying parties, massacred
ühe defenseless, and, beyond all the moneys disbursed of trust
funds, have, by military defenses and actual losses, cost the govern-
ment in the last half century hundreds of millions of dollars above
the sum expended by any nation in any historical epoch on an equal
number of subjects; and all, with rare exceptions, in worse than
fruitless efforts for their civilization. What, then, is the correct
policy for the nation and right to the pioneer ? I answer: Locate
them in the Indian Territory. Leave undisturbed the Creek,
Choctaw and Cherokee tribes, that, localized, have made substan-
tial progress.
Of the thirty-five million acres let one hundred and sixty acres
of well-watered, fertile lands be set apart for each Indian family,
which would leave many millions of acres for the children, to be
conveyed and held in fee on their reaching manhood. Then dis-
pose of the reservations, great and small, under a graduated system,
at their full value to herdsmen and farmers, and place the proceeds
new homes in education and improvement. You have then made
the roving savage richer than the average pale-face -- compelled
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
281
the wards, like their fated guardians, to work or endure hunger.
This plan will substitute a cheap local and effective police for an
ineffective, costly standing army, solving in ten years one of the
great problems of our time in the interest of humanity. Thus we
may discharge an imperative obligation by rescuing the Aborigines
from decimation, and providing for their elevation to the rank of
civilized man.
Is it objected that this destroys his natural rights and places
him in slavish subjection? What are his actual rights, and is he
placed under more absolute control than the minor ? If he has a
right to a home, it is accorded to him; if to property, then in that
he should have the protection of a powerful nation. If he claims
millions of acres, over which to roam as hunting grounds, where
did he get his title? If afraid of the tyranny of his guardian gov-
ernment, let him rise to the plane of citizenship and take part in
making our laws, there being nothing in race or previous condition
to hinder, and assert his independence. Encouraged to abandon
the precarious pursuits of hunting and fishing by the incitements
to home improvement and the certainty of protection, it is possible
his seeming doom may be averted. It is stern history that he
has no power to arrest the natural encroachments of civilization,
and there is far more of mere sentimentality in the defense of his
ownership of our country than of good law - deemed the first
product of a great nation. I am with the herdsman who innocently
drives across the reservation and consumes the grass where burned
for centuries. He has a precedent, and the example of the fathers,
who appropriated what the savage would not, causing in their
journeying westward “the wilderness and solitary place to be glad
for their presence".
I cite a paragraph from an oration by Ex-President John
Quincy Adams, eighty years ago, in defense of the fathers, and
their sons, who simply assert their equality as herdsmen with the
nomadic hunter and the savage, where Nature has spread gifts
with a lavish hand that are unused:
The Indian right of possession itself stands, with regard to the greatest part of
the country, upon a questionable foundation. Their cultivated fields, their con-
structed liabitations, a space of ample sufficiency for their subsistence, and what-
ever they had annexed to themselves by personal labor, was undoubtedly by the
laws of nature theirs. But what is the right of a huntsman to the forest of a thou-
sand miles, over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey ? Shall tho
282
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
liberal bounties of Providence to the race of man be monopolized by one of ten
thousand for whom they were created ? Shall the exuberant bosom of the common
mother, amply adequate to the nourishment of millions, be claimed exclusively by
a few hundreds of her offspring ? Shall the lordly savage not only disdain the
virtues and enjoyments of civilization himself, but shall be control the civilization
of a world?
This is the philosophy of Grotius, Pufendorf and Vattel; the
latter authority, in his “Law of Nations”, says:
A nation may lawfully take possession of a part of a vast country, in which are
found none but erratic nations, incapable, by the smallness of their numbers, to
people the whole. The earth belongs to the human race in general, and was
designed to furnish it with subsistence. If each nation had resolved from the
beginning to appropriate to itself a vast country, that the people might live only by
hunting, fishing and wild fruits, our globe would not be sufficient to maintain a
tenth part of its present inhabitants. People have not, then, deviated from the
views of nature in confining the Indians within narrow limits.
I would not be understood as recommending the defrauding
even of a savage of that which he properly appropriates, or which
promises to be a probable advantage to his posterity. I would
change his mode of life, now dangerous to neighbors, and the nurse
of immoralities. I would take them as children into the great
family, subjected to wholesome law, and localized where their
interests can be guarded, education and industry enforced, with a
visitation of the punishment of a court rather than the border
retaliation.
Had this policy been adopted during the last thirty years, we
should have reared worthy specimens of the race — not barbarians
with beastly instincts, relying on a gun for food, and a dog for a
companion, except when slain in the extremity of hunger or carved
for a religious feast. This fostering of imbecility, ignorance, idle-
ness and the grossest animalism, leaves the dusky characters as
they were a century ago, for our reproach.
NATIONAL ABSOLUTE CONTROL.
This policy is the dictate of humane statesmanship, calling but
for a few chapters of national legislation, relegating the whole
question to a mutual council rather than to the caprice and false
precedents of doubtful friends. The object of the commission
should be, the breaking of the bonds of woman's serfdom; com-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
283
pelling a selection and occupancy of lands by the adult males, with
bread and liberty contingent upon work. Education should be
absolutely compulsory, as in our state reformatory institutions.
There is nothing in the magnitude of the numbers involved to
discourage. After the adults have taken the land in severalty,
there will not exceed twenty-five thousand men under compulsory
law, and thirty thousand children of a school age will be a high
estimate of the number falling under treatment as infants and
youth. This scheme is a far remove from maudlin sympathy and
a toleration of idleness, when work should be the demand to save
from the pangs of hunger; obedience and decency would be the
conditions of governmental control and protection. The benign
forces of this century wait on the culmination of so beneficent a
scheme.
The last sands of the memorable 1890 are falling, and General
Booth, of the Salvation Army, proposes to the world a humane
scheme for London's unfortunates—« In Darkest England and the
Way out.” American philanthropy can no longer be indifferent
to the miseries of our Indian tribes. Mothers wait for emancipa-
tion from serfdom. The haughty, oppressive lords require a gov-
ernmental exaction of labor as a condition and practice to exempt
from hunger. Neglected children and youth call for compulsory
education. Who will have part in the coloring of this picture — a
symbol of the beneficence of millions of hearts who will it?
Where are the leaders who will execute, and the artists who will
paint a matchless testimonial to a great thought embodied in sub-
lime reality ? — “The American Indian rescued from barbarism, in
the family of civilization -a man!”
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Prohibition Temperance Issue— Skirmish Line Demonstrations
- The Political Status — Prohibition Party — An Address--
The Iowa Churches - George C. Haddock -Laws of Heredity-
Revenue from Whiskey.
I
A LONG public contest is not necessarily monotonous. Great
issues are replete with varied and lasting interest. From the mid-
dle of the century to 1882, and since, there was heard in Iowa
the clangor of arms on a great moral battle-field. The lines were
daily becoming more distinct between the combatants. It was the
lovers of order, economy, patriotism and virtue, against the most
dangerous foe of the race, drunken with victories and stimulated
by sordid strife for gain. Its cohorts, unchecked, will make an
easy prey of the millions debased by appetite and blunted in their
moral sense. Drinking usages cost more than bread. Drunkenness
is the prolific mother of criminals; and it has a death-roll of vic-
tims greater than that charged to the other two great grim angels
of destruction— disease and war. Can there be an excuse, then,
for indifference or for silence ?
Of the writer said one: “Let him speak, who defied the saloon
in his own city by à prohibition proviso; who staked political suc-
cess on a temperance plank, and inspired, so says popular opinion,
a state to march by the light of the torch of progress, which was
held up in Grinnell with ever increasing courage and with brighter
radiation for nearly forty years. Far was he from a professional
reformer; and, though in continued demand as a speaker and writer
on decisive occasions, yet he was never the recipient of a dime in
the discharge of a duty linked with the pleasure found in pushing
on a noble cause."
The law of heredity predestined me for a radical actor on many
lines. My venerated father left for the children the evidence of
his spirit in a journey on foot of one hundred miles, in attendance
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
285
at the first national abstinence meeting at Saratoga Springs, N. Y.
Then it is the record of that day, that in the shadow of a distillery
and a mammoth cider-press, himself the owner of the latter, Mayor
Grinnell, at his own home, gave the first address in the town
against the gigantic curse. At the head of the list of signers to
the local temperance pledge is his name, with a John Hancock
chirography. Then, what I saw of the baleful effects of the cider-
drinking habits in brutal fighting at public gatherings, and the
debauched condition of crowds returning from barn-raising and
shooting-inatches, near my old home, left their vivid impression.
The years of my residence in cities presented a picture of degrada-
tion and woe which forbade indifference when on the great theatre
of public life I became an actor.
To found a temperance town in the West was a cherished aspi-
ration on leaving New York in 1854. None were wanted as neigh-
bors who would tolerate a saloon. In fact they were repelled with
decision, if not rudeness, while there was a warm welcome to a
large class who came here to escape temptation in a struggle for
reformation.
SKIRMISH LINE DEMONSTRATIONS.
The first time I crossed our wide prairie between the groves in
a distance of twenty miles, where there was but one house, my
party, on stopping the carriage, saw me destroy a whiskey sign,
with a finger pointing, which said, “Whiskey for Sail.” I knocked
off the rude finger board, and took it into the hack, my company
protesting that we should get into trouble. My apology in reply
was, that the word “for sail” had some nautical meaning, out of
place on a prairie. I threw the sign into a little creek, to float
down the great river to the Gulf, lest it should entice travelers to
drunkenness.
Contracts were to be made for breaking prairie by the native
ox drivers, most of whom carried a supply of whiskey, costing
twenty cents a gallon, and mingled their drinks with most offensive
profanity. It came to be a story of the time and had a salutary
influence, that I actually made large contracts with the prairie-
breakers with the proviso that I should do personally “all the
swearing done on the job, and drink all the whiskey required.”
Big contract !
286
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
On the laying out of the City of Grinnell, the proviso against
saloons was a grave affair. It was on the consideration of one
dollar that I gave the net proceeds of sales and city lots in trust
to the cause of education, with the usual warranty title, and “pro-
vided that ardent spirits were not sold thereon as a beverage,
unless by my consent or that of my legal representatives". The
guys, the buffetings and derision, with the predictions of a "one
horse town”, taken with the scare of conservative friends, and the
opinion of lawyers, esteemed very wise, that the proviso would not
stand in the courts of law, was a test of my firm belief in the
policy of inhibition. Time proved it, every way, a salutary step,
bringing together a people in accord and regard for education and
temperance. No one jeopardized his realty by public sale of
liquors, and the Supreme Court of the United States, in a case
brought from Greeley, Colorado, sustained the principle and legality
of such a proviso by a unanimous opinion. The growth of Grin-
nell under the assumed cloud of title, was great and phenomenal.
It became apparent that the high repute for good order, without a
saloon, moved other towns to imitate, followed by the activities of
county officials. Then came a state policy, after the building of
railroads and the influx of population, stimulating an advance to a
constitutional temperance amendment.
No saloon was one of the three planks in my platform, on
which I stood when elected state senator in 1856. It was my
policy that the whole state should enjoy what our town had
found beneficial. Under the state law of 1855, lager beer and
native wine were prohibited. These beverages I voted to exempt
in 1858. Of the beer in its use I knew nothing, and the growth
of the grape I would encourage; besides, a large and intelligent
class of Germans were republicans, who promised, on this exemp-
tion, their support of the general law, threatened by repeal. It
was a case of “a part of a loaf or no bread”, and, to keep the
party intact on the great slavery issue, was in mind. This honest
expedient, with all the light then attainable, did not prove a wise
policy. Beer and wine soon became a cloak for the sale of all
intoxicants, and built up in most of the towns defiant saloons.
The constitutional prohibition amendment of 1882 was a sweep-
ing protest against the whole nest of vipers. It only failed by
a clerical omission, and for it statutory prohibition was sub-
stituted with public approval, bringing an unquestioned boon to
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
. 287
the state. Iowa, judged by statistics in regard to illiteracy, is
more than the Massachusetts of the West, besides boasting of a
small percentage of criminals, and of an average of fifty county
jails vacant within her borders for some years past. There is not
an employer of men who has not been benefited, nor a city which
is not rendered more attractive and richer for the destruction of
the liquor traffic, not to mention the tens of millions of dollars
added annually to our wealth, and the repute of her citizens, min-
istering to state pride and attractive to the best people of the
Republic seeking homes.
THE POLITICAL STATUS.
A practically united republican sentiment saved the state from
the delusion of high license. That party, in order to self-preserva-
tion, was compelled to oppose à "third-party” candidate, a meas-
ure supported by well-meaning citizens, but especially pleasing to
saloonists, who regarded it as a scheme to divide the dominant
party, yet impotent in assaults upon their ranks. It was upon
this ground that Iowa temperance people were impatient with the
devices and advice of those outside the state, ignorant of our real
status, and of the true metal of the temperance legions.
Persistency in demanding a national adoption of our principles
was suspicious. Democracy, in the platforms, and in the spirit
and practice of its adherents, was opposition to "all sumptuary"
action. Certain republican states had espoused prohibition, and
the national party in convention had entered a resolve in favor of
temperance and the home. It is well known that only educating
influences, and the burdens and crimes brought by the saloon fully
exposed, will cause a prohibition plank to be else than political
suicide. The republican party is not so demented as to take coun-
sel with foes. This maxim I regard as practical good ethics,
“There is personal responsibility for the existence around us of an
evil which we might have prevented.” The statesman reformer
says, “Save your city or your state, if without power to control
the nation.” Thus I defend the republican party of my state,
and am in accord with its action.
When honored with an invitation to become a prohibition party
candidate for governor, I replied in a letter, of which the follow-
ing are extracts:
288
GRINNELL, IOWA, Aug. 30, 1884.
My dear Sir:
I accept the implied compliment in the term " Independent Prohibitionist",
but must distrust your judgment if you advise an electoral ticket in Iowa, with
myself either at the head or tail. Independent notions, and the support of the
lamented Greeley, brought, I know, the designation of an “assistant Democrat”;
but this year I beg to be excused. Real Democracy deserves a better fate than
being caught in an expediency trap, and it should now be occupied with a more
elevating occupation than that of the fox in the fable losing his tail, and going
about to counsel all other foxes that it was fashionable to go without that append-
age. There are no absolute rules of military warfare in capturing a fortress, more
than in moral conquests, but there is one that commends itself to even the novice
in combat, viz: Never heed the counsel of your enemies. The party that places
free whiskey in its platform just as dishonestly tells us vote for St. John, and
This year under both Blaine and Butler it is the protection of labor and Ameri-
can ivdustries vs. a British policy and lower wages, with Cleveland as a leader.
There is a plain issue. . . . . The St. John vote will cut a small figure in
Iowa. I aspire neither to leadership nor to be counted with the "scattering”, to
shorten the pilgrimage of a party, cold and hungry for twenty-four years, which
has, if there is any analogy in historic judgments, sixteen years of the forty yet to
journey before reaching the promised land, for a greater crime than the worship of
a golden calf.
Yours,
J. B. GRINNELL.
AN ADDRESS.
As a part of history, I may here insert an address, written by
me for the temperance leaders of the state in 1886. It was an
appeal which voiced the situation then, and has an historic relation
to the political victory of that year:
"Preliminary discussion educated the masses up to a high plane of thought
and statesmanship, and led to a courageous act born of deep conviction. Party
lines were broken. Capital saw its opportunity; railway managers saw a device
for the safety of property and persons; fabricators and farmers spoke for the
imperiled laborers; doting fathers, for sons on the road to shame; victims of the
cup, for a removal of dazzling allurements; educators held our state banner for
literacy more firmly, fearing no rival. The five years of discussion and restriction
furnishes a proud epoch. In the period of national depression every great material
interest in Iowa has gained a new impulse. Domestic animals have increased in
value and number without a precedent. The supremacy of corn as king has been
vindicated as in no other state, without alcoholic inspiration; state credit has
appreciated; population has increased in five years by 600,000; many thousands
allured here by the legal inhibition of the saloon. We are the envy and admiration
of our near sisters, alike fortunate in native resources and settlement, yet never to
be our successful rivals, so long as they are contending with wastes and burden-
some taxes incident to the saloon system.
Eighty counties in the state, out of the total ninety-nine, no more gild a sign of
welcome to revel and debauch, but drive the illicit traffic into the filthy recesses of
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
289
darkness, fixing the brand of infamy on abettors of law-breakers, and giving no
escape for the guilty from fine or imprisonment save by perjury, or in the device of
a change of court for delay. The number of grog shops has decreased by 500, and
the number of arrests by thousands. A decrease in the consumption of whiskey
and beer has been so marked that makers and vendors declare their business on the
verge of ruin; a confession which is an unwitting tribute to the efficacy of a law,
enacted for a noble purpose, only requiring the support of courage and honest offi-
cials for its vindication as beneficent to a people happy in exemption from taxes
and vices cognate, which are the direct result of a free traffic or one honored and
sanctioned by official license.
What is involved in the democratic demand for repeal?
A status of respectability for the liquor traffic, not enjoyed in Iowa for the last
quarter of a century. Indifference to the warnings of the medical profession, which
are prompted by a survey of humanity degraded by inebriation. A welcome and
popular toleration of the public sale of beverages, now deprecated by the statesman
of all lands as the most potent agency in enslaving the weak and blunting moral
sensibility for the commission of every offense in the calendar of crimes. It is the
blunder of the time, early heaping shame upon the actors; a proposal which rises
to the rank of a science in debasing servility to the saloon.
Let me be specific to be plain. Repeal makes no exception of community,
county, city or town. The privilege is not asked as a favor, but as a birthright.
The traditional yet satirical testimonials of good moral character must be waived.
Hearing a petition would be a farce, like bonds for good behavior. The old
demand for protection to society against despoilers is drowned in the cry and
uproar for personal liberty. You reverse the shield which guarded the weak to
emblazon state sovereignty and protection for an avocation outlawed. Henceforth
drunkard-making shall be as legitimate an avocation and enjoy equal honor with
mechanical trades and mercantile ventures. Is there any just plea for this new
departure to enthrone and make universal that so long outlawed ?
Where will the party look for company in its abasement? Is it to the states
like Missouri or Georgia valiant in democracy? No, nor to New York or New
England. Gallant lowa must furnish the soldiers for retreat before the fumes of
whiskey and frothy beer, and call for a dismount from political steeds, and a back-
ward movement, lines broken and the picture of a crab engraven on our coat of
arms. Such is the abandon of law-breakers and the mercenary; a reproach to
civilization in a blunder neither early forgiven or to be forgotten by posterity.
Is there no exception to this toleration and protection ? Yes, it is found in
two hundred and fifty dollars, or in one thousand dollars as the extreme cost of
indulgence. This is no option, rather a command to every community - conquer
your prejudices, repress conviction, waive local protection for your sons, down with
majorities; relegate local government to political jugglery; you may vacate your
home, rebel against the slaughter-house on the corner, but the strolling vendor of
drinks is guarded in his sovereign right to despoil. The flaming swords at the gate
of Eden gleamed with the purpose of a God; in a model state they are sheathed by
a party edict for the protection of vice on the payment of money! I join in a wide
opinion that this license fund is blood-money, taken from the poor wives and chil-
dren of saloon victims who have brought gain to the vendor, and has no proper
place in the city's bank, more than the silver pieces held by Judas, had in the
Lord's treasury. So, too, the large sum cannot be weighed by a virtuous state in a
balance against a wrong. It does not mitigate an offense, but gives a moral prop
to the actor's respectability, to more effectually delude and debauch. Shall we be
forced to drink this cup of degradation, and the clanking of our chains be the
mockery of that social and political independence for city and town, now our joy
290
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
and pride? I remember a parallel blunder by the same party, and from that grand
historic issue let us gather strength and inspiration in this crisis. It was thirty
years after the Missouri Compromise that the minions of slavery sought to break
the compact and carry their crimes into Kansas. It is thirty years since the
dominant party in Iowa denied a saloon protection by common law, and now asks
for it sovereign toleration and protection. Senator Douglas appeared with
squatter sovereignty as a panacea, being the local option device of this political
crisis, but it was as offensive to the slave power as option now is to vendors and
political aspirants, demanding their feigned natural rights without question. It is
history that theft of ballot boxes, fire and slaughter, could not stay the march of
heroes for liberty, who were led in spirit by John Brown, and made Kansas for-
ever free. The arrogant demand ruptured the party, brought derision to conserva-
tive leaders, and left it in a disgraced minority, only after a quarter of a century
to regain power by accident.
That earlier meditated crime was against the colored race, to nationalize slav-
ery; this democratic device in Iowa imperils all races by license and by a confes-
sion that a small minority may dictate a policy; it declares that state sovereignty
shall never be enforced for the suppression of wrong, and its only service is in
ensuring toleration. The moral status of slavery in the nation is no better than
that of the saloon in Iowa. Our fathers erected the national barriers, and they
who reinoved the landmarks lost their cause. We of a state, by argument, and
standing on the shoulders of the pioneer fathers, made the saloon an outlaw like
the burglar and polygamist, and this is the question — will we, proud of our schools
and progress, firm in our convictions, turn back the hands on the dial plate of
time, a sign to all the world of party servility and moral retrogression ?
· Fellow citizens of Iowa, let me enforce the appeal which my voice forbids me
to speak, based on the convictions and observations of thirty-one years' residence
in the state; a student of its progress and cognizant of what sobriety brings of
thrift, safety and honor, to the farm, corporate affairs and the town. I entered
public life twenty-nine years ago, the friend of democratic legislation now sought
to be repealed with all supplementary enactments. Under the national war cloud,
against my better judgment, I voted in the senate for the beer and wine clause
cxemption. It did not propitiate, rather was the occasion of the arrogant demands,
never gaining audience until now, and to be spurned by a people who prize their
honor above the gains of greed and political success. The fear of the incendiary
torch and assassin's blow prevents now the local enforcement of salutary law, and
nothing can be gained by submission to a debaşing demand that political effrontery
proposes in no other state. You cannot quiet this horse-leech cry, give, give, no
more than you can quiet the enraged wild beast, athirst for a victim, by a friendly
caress.
Be not deluded, you who care for the altars of home and state honor, by the
rebellion device in the “rural districts" against the platform. It will be impotent
now in effecting reform, for it is too late to cast the purifying salt of opinion into
the great convention fountain. Shackled by party you have no option in the
current, more than the loose planks to stay the rush of waters, and your place will
be that of driftwood in the eddies below. The democratic revolt against party
made honored heroes in early days; it embalmed their memories and left a rich
heritage to their children. Such is the opportunity of patriots now; it is the last
recourse for the young voters imbibing the spirit of a higher civilization, who
would care for the honor of their state and march in the bold vanguard rather than
with expediency protestants in the rear. The plot. cannot be concealed nor the
issue be evaded. The supremacy of law means order and virtue for Iowa; repeal,
the domination of all the elements of evil and the cohorts of crime.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
291
THE IOWA CHURCHES.
· These, in a warfare against the saloon, have a most honorable
record. On the adoption of the amendment of 1882 there were
in the state two hundred and twenty Congregational clergymen,
and of this number only one (and he afloat) was known in opposi-
tion to the constitutional inhibition. Later there has been great
unanimity in support of the party true to its pledges, which,
joined to educational forces, will ensure a higher plane of action,
rather than a surrender to the license system. “Moral support
or legal sanction of the evil is wrong," is the watchword. The
partisan action it has been an auxiliary, and is full of promise for
the future.
The Methodist Church, equipped for pioneer advances, has ren-
dered service worthy of praise and close imitation. She is richer,
and the cause much stronger, for the life and fate of her martyred
son in 1886, at Sioux City. That city, breathing the spirit of him
who was assassinated, drove out the saloon, thus adding to the
repute of her citizens, who have witnessed marked progress, mate-
rial and social. A memorial service was held on the death of
Rev. George C. Haddock, in most of our towns. At the meeting
in Grinnell, which was large and sympathetic, this report was
made of one of the speeches :
Hon. J. B. Grinnell addressed the congregation briefly as follows:
Fellow Citizens :
Since the founding of our city we have not been called to such a service as
this. By an heroic act in Christian devotion Rev. George C. Haddock wears the
crown of martyrdom. He was field marshal leading the army of law and order in
Sioux City, and on the 3d of August was shot down at the behest of cowards and
criminal saloonists. Through the cycles of the ages he will stand unchallenged on
the roll of the army of martyrs. He fell not in any brawl; not provoking by a
defiant word nor brandishing deadly weapons; but seeking to uphold the sover-
eignty of the law in the interest of honor, peace and virtue. And night was the
fit time for the assassin's deed, when the very clouds for shame obscured the light
of the stars. In the calamities of the world there is often neither balm nor com-
pensation; not so in this tragedy. It is for us a bloody hiatus when the gallant
soldier falls, and we of the rear rank are summoned to rise o'er the sainted form
the easier to climb the battlements of the enemy and hasten for the cause a victori-
ous shout.
I have returned from spending days in Chicago at the trial of the murderous
anarchists, to learn, as in Iowa, the saloon is anarchy and death. Let us press
292
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
this new count in the indictment of the saloon -- assassination! Let us hold up
the priceless value of a courageous man! Though he die, the red rain from his
brave heart invigorates the prohibition tree, that can never die in our soil, but will
be stronger in branch and richer in foliage for the blood which has flowed. High
as Heaven is the prohibition martyr above our charities. He has gone with St.
Stephen “whom they stoned”, Christians expiring in flames; the slain in the
valleys of Piedmont; Lovejoy by the banks of the Mississippi; and Lincoln at the
national capital, all enrolled with the immortal. It is ours to take up and finish
the work he began with new inspiration, whether the saloon calls few or inany to
seal their devotion with their lives. That God, who gave a convoy to his Elijah in
a chariot of fire will care well for the fame and the souls of the martyrs, and it will
be ours to care for the orphans and widow with a generosity reflecting gratitude
and devotion, if we are akin to Pilgrims, Puritans, Covenanters and Huguenots,
that have enriched so many fields with their blood. I know that we are coveting
the piantle cf the fallen. Let us by gifts and acts make him we have met to honor
more eloquent in a bloody tragedy than possible in a long and courageous life.
THE LAWS OF HEREDITY.
A study of interest is the entail of vicious appetite. On a
recent visit to my native town in Vermont, an investigation start-
led me with facts to confirm the newer theories. I looked over
the accounts of Deacon Solomon Brown - the merchant and Revo-
lutionary soldier — which were kept between the years 1798 and
1802. They comprise dealings with sixty patrons, charging flour,
salt, tobacco, codfish, rum, etc., with near ten thousand items, and
near three thousand for rum, by the gallon, pint or drink, and when
quaffed with the luxury of sugar, an additional charge of two
pence.
Who were they? Names to be remembered if not spoken.
The records of that day point to the enslaved victims of appetite,
poisoned in blood, enfeebled in purpose, by the cruel sorceries of
rum. Their children no fathers loved more, but visited on them the
Nemesis under the law of heredity impossible to flee from ; aye,
the edict of a God visiting the habits of the fathers upon the chil-
dren, "unto the third and fourth generation”. You have seen the
boy, the real son of his father, whose thirst for drink was no sur-
prise, never divested of that fiery blood, which only a long absti-
nence could cool. It leaped in the veins, mounted the cheek of the
companions of my youth, and under strong temptation in convivial
circles, our born noblemen became limp, irresolute, and bent the
bow of life with timid, uncertain aim. The law of descent is insep-
arable from success in rearing the brutes, as is the ideal of a God
in perfecting a race in His image. What, then, of equal concern to
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
293
those habits, the basis of hope for your children, or to mar with
morbid appetites, crying, give! give! to slake a raging thirst;
potent alike to lift from a gulf of despair or nerve for unnatural
criminal deeds. In nature we may give strength and character to
the blood, as sun and air give fragrance and color to the rose.
Thus I find the habits of the fathers often poisonous to the blood
in my Iowa home, the witness of desperate struggles in reforma-
tion; agonies to regain manhood lost on the swift currents sweep-
ing on with hereditary taints.
A REVENUE FROM WHISKEY.
On this question of taxation, I think there is a popular misap-
prehension. Increase in the cost of intoxicating drinks decreases
consumption, especially with the middle classes of society. Hence
a high revenue tax is in the interest of temperance, leaving out of
discussion what fashionable usages and a vicious thirst will com-
mand. The tax becomes a restraint, yet not tainted with greed,
nor does the law, as in liquor-licenses, involve the citizen as an
accomplice or an abettor of crime. As an individual I am not con-
scious of the least complicity with the whiskey dealer, because I
vote for a law to make his occupation most costly, nor can the
nation be called to an account that, by a wise apportionment of
taxes, replenishes its treasury, while impotent to reform the
vicious. Our state republican platform of 1888, I regarded as a
blunder at least. It was on the theory that cheap intoxicants do
not promote intemperance, and gave to our enemies a weapon for a
deceptive use, rather than a legitimate argument used for the
repression of evil by civilized nations.
The following are excerpts from my speech in Congress in
1864:
I move to amend the amendment of the gentleman from Illinois, by increasing
the tax to one dollar and twenty cents per gallon.
The proposition which I now submit increases the tax twenty cents a gallon
beyond the rate proposed by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lovejoy.] Now,
sir, I am sincere in this amendment. I think it ought to prevail, and I will not
say that I think it ought to prevail upon the ground alone that we are to require
a heavy tax for the purpose of carrying on this war; not at all. I lave nothing to
say to propitiate the whiskey interest of this country, or the drinking interest of
this country. I believe we owe it to ourselves to increase largely the tax upon this
article which is vicious in its tendencies, and which is unnecessary. If, as sug-
294
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
gested by the chairman of the committee of ways and means, men will have it,
let them.pay for it.
I am willing that my party, if I have a party which is in the habit of drinking
whiskey, shall pay a tax of three or five dollars a gallon for it, if they will drink it
as a beverage.
I can conceive very readily how natural it is for the gentleman over the way
[Mr. Fernando Wood] to oppose this high tax upon whiskey. It may be true, as
was asserted by an eminent subterranean democrat of the city of New York, whose
naine I cannot recall, it was so many years ago, that these corner groceries are the
indispensable nurseries of democracy. [Laughter.] I do not stand here to dispute
that assertion. I believe that the corner groceries of our cities are nurseries of
democracy; they are, at any rate, nurseries of a certain kind of democracy, and I
would like to see them swept from the face of the earth.
Then, sir, will the raising of this tax reduce the consumption of whiskey in the
country? I believe it will reduce that consumption; I believe, if you will levy a
high tax upon whiskey, there will be a less consumption upon the part of the thou-
sands and millions of the people of the country than is customary now. This belief
will govern my vote upon tliis article, in respect to the taxes ve are to levy upon
it, and apply to other articles which cannot be classed among those of absolute
necessity. The consumption will be less in proportion as the tax is greater,
because men cannot spare the money to purchase if the cost is high. The laboring
people, who the gentleman from New York says drink whiskey, do it because they
cannot procure the money to purchase brandy. They have not the money to buy
brandy, and therefore they consume poisonous whiskey. And thus, if the cost of
whiskey is increased the consumption will be less.
The gentleman says that with a tax of two dollars and a half per gallon in
Great Britain the consumption has increased. I do not think the tables so speak.
I think those best qualified to speak in Great Britain are of the opinion that if the
tax upon alcoholic liquors was made less the consumption would be greater than it
is at the present time.
There is another reason why. I wish to have a high tax upon whiskey. In the
midst of an precedentedly severe winter we find ourselves needing all the grain
that can be furnished for the purpose of feeding our stock and supplying the army.
If we stimulate the production of whiskey we shall not have corn enough left for
feeding the stock in the western states. I would rather that the corn and rye
should be used for stock than for the production of whiskey, and the people, I am
sure, would rather gain than suffer thereby. We are informed now that there is a
deficiency in the supply of the one article of corn of more than one hundred million
bushels. What should we do as wise men, then, but reduce as far as possible the
production of whiskey? If I had the power I would issue an order to prevent
altogether distilation for drinking purposes. I would vote with any man that dur-
ing this war not one bushel of corn or rye should be used for the manufacture of
whiskey. There should be no more of that common, miserable stuff which has a
name in my country that I will not repeat; there should be no more of that dread-
ful poison which is damaging so many of our soldiers and officers.
I wish to do injustice to no one. I did not mention any name. If it be not
true as I have stated, it still does not militate against the position which I assumo,
that whiskey has been of great injury to the service. It has been stated that high
officers of the military department have been incapacitated from duty because of
drunkenness. I can call not only the name of one, but of many who have informed
me that such is the fact. This evil, then, is one which affects both officers and
soldiers; and I would raise the tax upon whiskey, and of course the price, so high
REMINISCENCES OF FORTS FEARS.
295
that it could not be brought within the reach of the soldiers. The government
should supply their real wants.
Yes, Mr. Chairman, I would not care if the constituents of the gentleman
from New York [Mr. Fernando Wood] never obtained another drink of whiskey.
(Laughter.] If that were to be the case, I think that we should soon have a
political reformation in this district. (Laughter.] I would have his constituents,
when they stretch their necks for a drink to-night, stretch them long, knowing
that it would be their last villainous drink. It is true that a gentleman must
make an argument for his own constituents, and that the gentleman from New
York takes care of his. But I have no such friends to propitiate. I know that it
was said liquor was poured out by the barrel against me in my district during the
last election. Thank God, I have no desire to belong to a party that cannot come
into power except upon a whiskey barrel. [Laughter.] I believe that when
whiskey is abolished morals will flourish. We can do without it. All that we
want is God and the flag and our glorious soldiers. We carried the election in
Iowa, where the gentleman from New York [Mr. Wood] did not choose to fill his
appointments, against the hero of Fort Donelson by thirty-two thousand majority;
The quiet of a retired life invites a recast of opinions. Time
has only intensified my conviction as to the duty of the state
toward the tempted, and the victims of appetite. I have stood on
the platform with the eloquent Marshall, and with Governor and
Senator Yates, at the national meeting at Washington, entranced
by their eloquence, and later have mourned their fall. More than
thirty of the most promising and noble-born of the citizens of our
state, I have seen borne out with the fate of drunkards, to the
bitter grief of their family and friends. The tornado strikes with
most resistless force the tallest and broadest trees of the forest,
with not greater fatality than, under a license system, the drink-
ing usages have swept down the generous and high-born of our
friends in a struggle with convivial habits and debased appetite.
Prohibition in Iowa, with its unmeasured good, can never be
treated as a failure. It reduced crime in the state in five years by
one hundred per cent. It reduced the cost of criminal prosecu-
tions for the same period seventy-five per cent. It reduced the
state prison convicts by thirty per cent. The savings banks, in
evidence of thrift, more than doubled their deposits in five years.
School-houses and churches in the line of culture and moral prog-
ress, increased fifteen per cent. It is thus a living question of
to-day, shall blind conservatism and a debauched party bring con-
fusion and defeat? The early defenders of slavery, that twin of
the saloon, are passing into the shadows of forgetfulness. In con-
I
296
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
the high niches of just fame, and require no monument to perpetu-
ate their memories; and so it has been and will be with the apos-
For the wise treatment of our great vice there must be rudi-
mental education, patient waiting and a cheerful toleration of
opinions, while never offering a truce to the conservatism of com-
promise or of silence, which is more dangerous than the blind fury
or the blandishments of an open enemy. It will be no pastime to
deal with a curse that brings sixty thousand men to their graves,
annually, and marshals an army of drunkards outnumbering any
army that ever a Grant or a Napoleon commanded. Was it the
fancy of Dean Swift that “the royal arms of Lilliput were an angel
lifting a lame beggar from the earth ?" Early may it be the fact
that the American coat of arms represents the good Samaritan,
linked in purpose with the majesty of the law-giver, rescuing the
tempted from the despoiler.
CHAPTER XIX.
Railroads - Personal Work —— Central Railroad of Iowa— Receiver-
ship and Superintendence — Malicious Litigation—Vindication.
A LABOR strike, obstructing travel and trade for a week, first
directed my attention to the value of railroads. Celerity, safety in
travel, and power to move the world's produce cheaply, is the prov-
ince of our railways. ..
Memory carries me back to the day when there was but one
New England railway — that employed in freighting granite from
quarry to dock, at Quincy, Mass.; and my first ride on a rail-
road was given me by a showman in a ball-room on a miniature
locomotive.
A Vermonter laughed at the predictions that eventually we
should ride on an iron rail at the rate of ten miles an hour. That
prophet saw with a dim eye in the misty valley, not on the mount
of far vision. He was in advance, however, of the Massachusetts
committee of the state legislature, that reported in favor of a rail-
road survey from Boston west to Newton, that town being as far
west as the road would probably ever go. Rocky hills, mountains,
deep valleys and streams, were the barriers of nature, and tavern
keepers, raisers of horses and grain had no welcome at an early
Now, one hundred and eighty thousand miles of railroa'd is not
only the greatest material fact of the century, but one of the solu-
tions of our mysterious progress, to which the capital and genius
of countries boasting of the oldest civilization are awakening.
The iron rail has achieved far more for the new West than for
the older states. It has invited refined society where before pas-
toral life was only congenial to a people with nomadic habits. It
has rendered that expanse which before had only the value of a
clear sky, the home of contented and prospered millions. It has
determined the value of farms by proximity to a clepot, and pro-
298
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
moted the social unity of the people, who have found easy and
swift ways of travel. In the facilitation of exchanges of products
and speed of locomotion, human life at every locality distant from
seaboard, or crowded city, has been lengthened one half. The
accomplishments at fifty years by the fathers are easier attained by
their children at forty years.
Land grants to aid in the construction of railroads through new
states and territories, have furnished a prolific theme for shallow
policy of which Stephen A. Douglas, a democratic idol, was the
early champion. It was statesmanship to give treeless prairies
value, and place a double price on alternate sections held for sale
by the government. Roads by tens of thousands of miles were
secured early by aid of the land where this policy secured their
construction. The alleged great gains of the companies with a
land donation are, as a rule, mythical. They anticipated business
and waited years for population and profits. Local trade, and not
long hauls through sparse settlements, furnished the secret of good
dividends. Thus the lands became a necessity to secure an invest-
ment, and there came a consideration and an approval of a device
in high statesmanship rather than reprobation by pessimists.
Government doubled the price, and one half was of value, where
before all was worthless as a home.
PERSONAL RELATIONS,
I went to the New West in anticipation of railroads, to enjoy
their benefits, but was caught in the fervor of a pioneer, and later
in the currents of enterprise in construction. Between my home
and Davenport, one hundred and twenty miles, and Iowa City, six-
ty-five miles, the nearest terminus, I wasted years and vitality by
nearly a hundred stage and hack trips to bring the Rock Island
west. I made great efforts, and by Henry Farnam, the builder,
York without pay. On going to Washington I resigned my place,
but was never a party to passing our stock over to the Chicago
Trunk Line at sixteen cents on the dollar; and I kept the certifi-
cates, which I would not place in the pool, costing me par, but
now only valuable for a picture of the Mississippi river bridge and
the autographs of two great men--- A. C. Tlogg, treasurer, and Gen.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
299
John A. Dix, president, whose successors are also able railway
managers. The policy of a thousand miles in extensions on the
frontier invites discussion by the owners and managers, but is for-
eign to my personal narrative. Our county gave aid in the sum of
one hundred thousand dollars voted, and the stock could have once
been sold for a good sum; and but for a knowing attorney, now
deceased, our debt could have been compromised so as to save over
sixty thousand dollars. The voting aid was not then bad policy,
farms and building up towns.
In 1870 I ventured what money I had, and used my credit to
its limit, in building a road from Albia to Knoxville, near to the
great coal fields of Marion county. Later, by a breach of faith as
to a tax at Albia, I changed my plan from Oskaloosa west in con-
nection with the Chicago, Clinton, Iowa City and South-western-
a rational, grand pioneer scheme which was set back by the finan-
cial reverses of those who had invested their money previous to
the Chicago fire of 1871. For five years I was the owner of miles
of grading, piling and bridging, until I made a sale to Ex-Governor
Merrill, who, after the road was built, conveyed all to the C. B. &
Q. Railway Co. Even after the sale, my loss was many thousand
dollars under a contract with a Chicago capitalist. My judgment
in court against him on account and for franchise was $47,000,
which I never sought to enforce by execution, his losses by the
great fire were so great; and I took off a burden which made it
possible for him to rise. He did rise, but never to lessen my loss
by the Chicago fire at near $50,000.
By solicitation, I was engaged in securing a road from Clinton,
down the Mississippi river to Muscatine, for the West. After
spending money and time, want of local aid led to its abandonment,
to be resumed later by a strong company.
I hold the first share of stock issued to me as president of the
Iowa City and English Valley Railroad. It was a scheme to reach
the What Cheer coal mines, and, aided by Hon. Ezekiel Clarke, was
full of promise, but it was clouded by a stringent money market,
and I gave way, in want of courageous friends, to the B. C. R. &
N. Railway, since completed to Montezuma.
The Grinnell and Montezuma Railroad, of which I was presi-
dent, was built under my contract. It kept the county-seat where
the people were mainly liberal, and, despite the bad faith of a few,
300
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
did not bring the predicted losses. The sale was to the Iowa Cen-
tral, which finds it a good feeder and not a local foe to its business.
The Grinnell and State Center Railroad I secured by franchise,
pecuniary aid and right of way, then passing all over to Ex-Gov-
ernor Merrill and his brother, Mr. J. H. Merrill of Des Moines.
It was a good local enterprise, of value to the people and a natural
and brought gain rather than loss to all the parties.
These five enterprises were of less concern, great as were their
drafts on my credit and years of time, than
THE CENTRAL IOWA RAILROAD.
Few, if any, railroads in the country have had so checkered a
history on the stock board, in the frictions which befell its man-
agement, and in the sharp personalities of which it was the prolific
occasion. It is my purpose to give its origin, mention its utility
and management, omitting a vindication of my official service.
That may be done by another, if at all, after a submission of facts
is given. The inception of the road came by a demand for good
coal found in southern Iowa, and for lumber cheap at the great
market of Minneapolis. Central Iowa had little timber and as lit-
tle coal, which now costs two dollars and a half a ton; then costing
from five to six dollars. Lumber rates were high, there being no
competition, and building material was a necessity.
As early as 1858 I was elected president of the chartered com-
pany, to coustruct a line from Albia on the south to Mitchell near
with a line to St. Louis and to St. Paul. Oskaloosa, Grinnell and
Toledo were among the points. This line was direct, natural and
without deflection in its line; on its merits it was a scheme that
would have been not only a credit, but a source of profit to the
builders. But the poor money of that time, low prices of farm
products followed by the war, left the dirt grading to be overgrown
by weeds. Under a new combination by Charles C. Gilman of
Eldora, Iowa, the building of a road to reach the coal banks at
Steamboat Rock from Ackley, there came to be a road via Mar-
shalltown and Eldora, taking up the old project to reach the Oska-
loosa coal banks. It was here that I could only count up the
money used in surveys and time given for the old line, and I was
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
301
left to accept the place of a director, and to be one of a construc-
tion company for the new project, under a bold leader and with
capitalists as allies. The towns were liberal and enterprising, and,
without depreciating any points, Grinnell gave all that was asked,
some $80,000, for which stock was to be issued.
My subscription was work in grading two miles of road, or cash
$5,000. Then I paid in cash $7,500 for construction stock that
would have brought a good premium while work was going on.
Iron was $70 a ton, against $30 now. Labor was high, and this,
after the Chicago fire and the depression of 1873 and '74, was my
personal financial relation in 1875:
Cash paid out, $12,500; interest, $6,000. Market value of
stock $1,500; leaving my loss at $17,000.
The road had defaulted in its interest, and there were sharp
recriminations and frictions, with legal devices for the control of
the property, and the road, under a foreign superintendent, had
lost in business and was reputed unsafe for transit, if the accidents
and public rumor were any indication. Rival roads and coal com-
panies and localities were fertile in expedients and loud in com-
plaint before the United States Court, held by Judges John F.
Dillon and J. M. Love.
With neither of the judges had I ever held conversation as to
the road, nor had we ever had any business relations to induce the
selection of myself as receiver -- leading, I regret to say, to an
experience of the bitter and disgraceful attacks on the part of
certain owners and employers, foiled in their schemes for personal
aggrandizement, and resulting in the obstruction of a great trust,
representing in stock and bonds from ten to twelve millions of
dollars.
It was at this stage that I received this telegram from Edward
R. Mason, clerk of the United States Court: “Judge Dillon wishes
to see you officially at Des Moines, if you will come up to-day.”. I
did not dream of his desire until in his presence, never having a
thought but of my losses, and not of the management of the rail-
road property. What follows would be without interest only as a
key to my action, and related to the most bitter assaults and basest
methods in regard to the court, trustee of bondholders, and myself
as receiver.
· The following is the order and basis for large discretion
exercised :
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
ORDER OF HON. JOHN F. DILLON, JUDGE OF U. S. COURT.
Hon. J. B. Grinnell:
For some time a suit has been pending in this court to foreclose mortgages
against the Central Railroad Company of Iowa, amounting to six or seven million
dollars. Owing to conflict of opinion among the different classes of bondholders
of the same class, a final determination of the case was delayed until October last,
when a decree of foreclosure was rendered, which it was supposed would be satis-
factory to all parties.
Bondholders to the amount of $200,000 are dissatisfied with the decree, and a
few days since the court allowed these parties to appeal to the Supreme Court of
the United States on giving security in the sum of $1,000,000. This appeal will tie
up the property for some time, and it is important to the public and to the parties
in interest that it should, meanwhile, be administered with impartiality toward
all, with economy and good judgment. No permanent receiver has ever been
appointed. To prevent complications by reason of an apprehend appointment of a
receiver by other jurisdictions after the suit was in this court, we of our own
motion named Mr. Pickering, the superintendent of the company, as provisional.
receiver, and he has since acted in both capacities.
If no apppeal had been taken no change would have been made in the receiver,
hands of the purchasers or the new company organized by the trustees. As it is,
the court feels that the responsibility for the proper administration of the property,
pending the appeal, rests upon it, and we both think, in view of the peculiar cir-
cumstances of the case, that it is better for all interests that the receiver and super-
intendent should be different persons, and this conclusion does not rest upon any
doubt we have as to the capacity of Mr. Pickering, or as a result of any investiga-
tion of the complaints made against his administration. The court has appointed
you, of its own motion, in order to give assurance that the railroad will be judi-
ciously and economically operated, and the rights of all the parties preserved. The
court desires the receiver to understand that he is the officer of the court, and
expects him to administer the trust committed to him in the fullest confidence
that we will sustain him in whatever he does that is right, whomsoever it may
please or offend.
The railroads in the hands of the court-and in the circuit there are eight or
ten- have all been run with less expense and have made more money, than when
they were operated by the companies; and we hope and believe under your super-
vision, that this road will prove no exception, and that the property will be worth
attention is called to the report of the Hon. Hiram Price, special commissioner, on
file, and you will proceed to carry out his recommendations as far as practicable,
and you will make monthly detailed reports of all receipts and expenditures.
This was on the 14th of January, 1876. Business was light,
and over fifty thousand dollars due the employees, with a large
demand for money to be expended on the road and to improve the
rolling stock. The superintendent I retained until he sought to
thwart my enterprise in sending ice, plenty in Iowa, to St. Louis
where there was none. His criticisms I closed by a dismissal froin
service, and the ice trade resulted in a profit of $50,000. which
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
303
money was used to quiet laborers who were becoming reckless.
Full control I assumed with an address to the employees, reducing
the number not employed on the track to thirty-seven persons.
For Sunday work in the last month two hundred on the pay
roll had received extra compensation. That I stopped by an order,
and limiting Sunday service to an absolute necessity. The follow-
ing was none too radical an order for the emergency: “Any person
in the train service carrying intoxicating drinks stealthily for others,
or any employee using the same, will be dismissed for this offense;
also for the use of profane or ungentlemanly language to the
patrons of the railroad." These were reductions and radical meth-
ods from necessity, and to enforce a policy which brought by pub-
lic admission great good. An order giving, by a new time table,
to conductors the privilege of being with their families on Sunday,
and prompt payment, secured the loyalty of my most trusted men.
At this stage I made a plan for extensions to increase business,
and Mr. Russell Sage, of New York, and his associates proposed to
furnish the money and take the receiver's certificates. The scheme
was for a few miles on the north to secure connection with a St.
Paul line, and south-east to the “ What Cheer” coal mines, a
branch being graded to Grundy Center. Owners, Attorney Judge
Grant and the court approved, but waiting for a court order there
appeared a scurrilous attack on the parties, the court especially.
Thereupon Judge Dillon declined to make any order or sanction,
outside the narrow range of my' service. This, by the opinion of
owners and sagacious Iowa men, depreciated the property millions
of dollars and invited what occurred -an occupancy of the terri-
tory by rival companies. The Central was doomed then to be only
a local road without power of self-assertion.
To Mr. A. Russell I committed details in operation of trains
and the purchase of materials for restoring the road to a physical
condition of safety. An outlay advised by Mr. Sage, equal to two
hundred thousand dollars, was made. Spies and perjurers were
numerous, with a purpose to blacken the administration, to restore
those dismissed from service, and advance schemes of jobbery by
combinations which later were developed with well-known adverse
results.
I forbear to give names of the Bohemian-writer inspirers in
Iowa and circulators of ten thousand sheets, for they have either
died, become demented, or been punished for unprofessional acts.
304
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
The assaults upon the court were the basest, and the record of
perversions appeared in a large pamphlet and a defense most hon-
orable by the bar of Iowa. In private a non-resident party made
no concealment of the oath he had taken to drive the judge from
the bench in disgrace, little anticipating that he would show to the
jurists of the country how spotless was the ermine of the assailed.
An eminent judge in New York, Mr. Blatchford (since of the
United States Supreme Court), reading the assaults, and in virtu-
ous reprobation, came to inquire if that was not the judge to
lecture as professor in the Columbia Law School of New York.
There came a relief from the duties of a laborious circuit to a
gentleman of scholarly tastes, securing fees as counsellor to able
litigants and corporations.
To Judge John F. Dillon that reviler brought the greatest ben-
efits indirectly. Would the chief counsellor for the great railway
magnate and the great corporations have made such advancement
but for the notoriety brought by foiled. cunning, by defamers and
marplots? Judge Love was loyal to his colleague and to duty as
always, though not of the popular, dominant political faith of
Iowans, and has shone in his profession with the increasing luster
of a gentleman and a jurist. Every year he has added to a long
and brilliant career, now popular as a law professor in the State
University, and as presiding district judge.
I resigned as receiver after nearly three years of service. The
debts were paid off, and two hundred thousand dollars extra above
ordinary outlay were expended on the track, besides the advancing
of eighty-seven thousand dollars in operating expenses. For this
there was commendation from the bench, and I turned over to
my successor fifty-three thousand dollars. First mortgage bonds
which were, at my appointment, on the market at thirty-two cents
on the dollar had risen to seventy cents, and, on an upward rise
of value, reached above par.
The fatal stab at the property has been mentioned as incited
by a quarrel for which I was not responsible, nor was I for a series
of reverses in depreciation of securities, on which there was a good
basis for their issue. The confidence in their appreciation under
late combinations certainly related to faith in the property, and to
confidence in the resources of our country and trust in the good
time coming".
In personal vindication I will not repeat the praises of railway
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
305
patrons and commissioners, but only the official request of Judge
James Grant, attorney for the trustees, asking for the discharge of
my bondsmen:
U. S. CIRCUIT COURT, DISTRICT OF IOWA.
FARMERS' LOAN & TRUST CO.
vs.
CENTRAL R. R. OF IOWA.
In asking for the confirmation of the report of the master and consenting for
the plaintiff to the discharge of the bond of Mr. Grinnell as receiver, I think it
my duty to him, and to the court, to say that I believe that in the administration
of his trust he has been strictly honest and upright, and actuated solely by a desire
to promote the welfare of the owners of the property. I believe that he has given
to his duties in addition to his integrity, his utmost care. His ability has been
devoted to the duties which he assumed when imposed upon him without his
application.
Upon his surrender of the property, I concur entirely in the opinion of the
State Commissioners that he has very much improved the condition of the same,
and he left in far superior condition to that in which he received it.
JAS. GRANT, Solicitor for Plaintiff.
A FINALITY.
The attempt at blackmailing to which I was exposed by a greed
for fees, and the motive of those foiled, and fallen in a pit dug for
another, I need not detail. Yet, on a deliberate attack made on
my accounts and loose threats to sue my bondsmen on my default,
I met all with a demand for a trial on the merits. More for my
vindication, I asked an increased compensation for double service
as superintendent with that of receiver. Days were taken before
the master in chancery. It was proven that more than one mill-
ion, seven hundred thousand dollars had passed through my hands;
that the per cent. in operating expenses had been lessened; the
morals of the employees — numbering six hundred — had been
improved; that since the repairs of the track and for a period of
two years not a wheel had been off the rail on the main line; and
my compensation was increased above the sum fixed by Judge
Dillon.
This is found in the United States reports by Judges McCrary
of Iowa and Greer of St. Paul. Here the case ended, but for an
appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, costing the
plaintiffs thousands of dollars, and serviceable only to the attorney
and a gratification of the malice of a party not content with wreck-
ing the property, yet persistent in burdening the court with a
306
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
sham appeal. It was by the court's own motion that I served the
corporation, and had been sustained in every branch of my adminis-
tration. A good fortune I attribute to good maxims. The wheels
must be kept moving; time was not to be made up on freight
trains; drinking intoxicants was not compatible with safety to
property or persons.
The finality was on my motion before the Supreme Court of the
United States to dismiss the appeal at plaintiff's cost. The motion
was granted by Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite.
This opinion of a leading journalist was widely copied by the
press:
THE VINDICATION MADE COMPLETE. The action taken by the United States
Circuit Court at Des Moines, on Friday last, in relation to the issue concerning the
Central Railroad of Iowa, and particularly as to the connection of Judge Dillon
therewith, must be everywhere accepted as completing the triumphant vindication
of that honored judicial officer from all the charges made against him by the Cate
faction and their editorial abettors. From the bench, under all the liabilities and
sanctions of his position as Judge of the United States District Court, sitting with
Judge Dillon in the Circuit Court, Judge Love avowed his full co-ordinate respon-
sibility for every decison rendered by Judge Dillon in relation to the Iowa Central
and the litigation of its bond holders. Not content with thus avowing to all con-
cerned, that if there had been any mal-administration of justice by the court, in .
any particular, in connection with the Central Railroad of Iowa, himself had been
with Judge Dillon equally culpable, Judge Love cited attention to the records of
the court, there and then open to the inspection of all, as directly contradicting all
the charges and as thoroughly rebuking all the aspersions made concerning the
acts of Judge Dillon in the premises.. Nor was this all. The members of the Bar
recognized the fact that they, too, had a duty to perform. They not only adopted
a series of resolutions expressive of their sense of the outrage to the judiciary per-
petrated in the libels uttered against Judge Dillon, but they took steps to at once
arraign the authors of those libels before the tribunals of their country, for just
condemnation and punishment. This action, if pressed forward to a legitimate
conclusion, will, we may certainly hope, secure just the results now alone needed.
Judge Dillon is fully exculpated from even the shadow of suspicion in any partic-
ular. In his behalf not another word need be said. But the interests of justice and
due regard for the honor of the judiciary, demand that the originators of the
slanders against Judge Dillon and the United States Court be ferreted out and
punished as they deserve.
It is also worth while to observe, and with due particularity, the thoroughness
of the vindication secured to Hon. J. B. Grinnell, the much maligned receiver of
the Central Railroad of Iowa. The report made to the court on Friday, by the
master appointed to make a thorough examination into the management of that
road shows that Mr. Grinnell has not only honestly, but wisely and well, adminis-
tered the entire charge committed to his hands. As an honored citizen of Iowa
which is now only made the more conspicuous by reason of the assaults upon his
character, now shown to have been entirely groundless. and unjustifiable.
CHAPTER XX.
Agricultural Affairs — Wool-Growers' Association — National Dairy-
Society - Commissioner on Pleuro-pneumonia among Cattle-
State Horticultural Society -- American Agricultural Associa-
tion — State Fair of 1890 — Arboriculture - Fences - Protective
Tariff
THE IOWA WOOL-GROWERS' ASSOCIATION.
THE formation of this society was stimulated by addresses and
facts related to sheep husbandry. This was the argument— wool
is high; millions of acres covered with nutritious grasses are
annually burned over; the freighting of grain as a gross product,
worth a cent a pound, is costly, while wool, worth fifty cents a
pound, incurred but a small per cent. of its value in finding a
market, besides stimulating the establishment of local woolen fac-
tories. I led in this enterprise, profitable in war days.
The sheep shearing festival at Grinnell, in 1865, was a notable
event. There were competitors for premiums in shearing, and I
was bantered to enter the list with shears, which I did. It was a
dignified employment, not disturbed by the political correspondent,
who reported that the honorable member of Congress was dipping
sheep in tobacco juice. It was rather a compliment gained with-
out cost, and the competitive sheep-shearer was the president of
the State Wool Growers' Association. He was able to show won-
derful blood in his flocks, and the largest and most valuable fleeces
grown. The awards made are not material; the winners are dead,
and most of the flocks have moved on westward, where there is a
dawn of an interest which I had done all I could to promote by
precept and by example, as the owner of as high as six thousand
sheep, and the importer from other states of many times that
number.
Here may be introduced some compliments to the sheep, occa-
308
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
0
sioned by my national prize essay. Dr. J. M. Sliaffer, long the
efficient secretary of the Iowa State Board of Agriculture, in his
address on the subject, said, “The Hon. J. B. Grinnell, of Powe-
shiek County, Iowa, has written an excellent treatise on “Sheep on
the Prairies', which may be consulted with profit by every man
that owns a sheep in the north-west. Being a practical wool-
grower, his instructions are of incalculable benefit. He does not
indulge in fanciful speculations, but details experiences, summons
figures, and makes deductions which a wayfaring man need not
misunderstand.”
In recognition of service and study connected with this indus-
try, I was appointed special commissioner to classify wools, in the
New York Custoin House. It may be added here that, after the
fall in the price of wools, I released all my renters from their con-
tracts, which, if enforced, wonld have realized large sums.
At the sheep-shearing festival above mentioned, a poem was
given by Prof. H. W. Parker, of the college — an apt effusion of a
genius, applauded by the crowd. It was as follows:
POEM ON THE SHEEP.
My merciless friend, our worthy M. C.,
Has assigned a few rhymes on sheep to me,
Which, for obvious reasons-name and pluck -
Had better been laid on our neighbor B-k.
Of him, without doubt, my friend was shy
From fear of some ifs and butts in reply-
So called for my Pegasus, formerly gay,
Now quite too steady to ever say neigh.
Thou muse — who erst on Arcadian hills
Breathed through the pastoral pipe in trills
That drew the flock, or in later time
Inspired sweet Maro's bucolic rhyme
(I mean rhythm) — with thine my spirit steep,
Who fain would sing of the innocent sheep.
All ages past have sounded their praise ;
What more can we do than to echo the lays ?
What note of discordance was ever heard --
What but a single unfortunate word -
The epithet "sheepish”-and that is a slur
That rightly belongs to the villainous cur--
The shepherd's pest, the world's disgrace,
The dog, with conscious shame in his face,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
309
Slinking away from his bloody feast.
Away with the treacherous cowardly beast!
Hound, spaniel, terrier, mastiff and all.
I would that our nation's powder and ball,
Not needed to free us from something worse,
Might be spent to remove our canine curse,
Except, of course, the shepherd's help
Which is never a sly and scoundrel whelp.
There was another opprobrious phrase -
“Woolly-head” – uttered in by-gone days
When men were counted no better than sheep;
We will not revive it, but let it sleep.
Yet, one little truth the people should heed -
That black was no doubt the original breed;
And the dusky lamb but reverts to the type
Whence came our fine flocks of every stripe;
And even the Merino's wool is known
To change to hair in a foreign zone.
Ah! gentle muse! this doggerel strain
Wakes not the soft melody of old again.
Can'st not discourse of the Golden Fleece
Which led afar a brave youth of Greece,.
The world-famed Jason? No song of the flock
But must have that for its capital stock.
Say, who was Jason? What was the prize
That shone at last to his wishful eyes?
And where did he roam in his valiant quest?
Where wandered save here in the glorious West?
For here is the Eden of pasture ground,
The broadest and richest that man has found;
And here the grass shall turn to gold,
And be in full fleece together rolled;
Here in the land of the setting sun,
Each. fleecy cloud, when the day is done,
Is a glowing sign of our wealth's increase,
And marks the home of the Golden Fleece.
Then down with the lordship of cotton and oil,
And down with shoddy and ill-gotten spoil!
And long live the true nobility of wool,
Its escutcheon adorned with the shearing tool;
And long live the sheep with his precious fleece,
The emblem of innocence, wealth and peace-
The symbol, still more, of a higher life,
In a world where crime is unknown, and strife;
There in green fields the Good Shepherd leads
The Flock that on heavenly pasture feeds.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
THE NATIONAL DAIRYMEN'S FAIR.
This was held at the American Institute, New York, in 1879.
It developed into a proud day for Iowa in taking prizes for cream-
ery butter. The following are outlines from the New York Trib-
une, of my impromptu speech, which was commended by the
agricultural press. It was intended as at once a blow at the bogus
article, oleomargarine, and in praise of Iowa products and men:
I regret that on so short a notice you have called me to stand in the place of
Mr. Evarts, the distinguished secretary of state. But I am not vain enough to
attempt to fill his place. It would have detracted nothing from the fame of the
learned cabinet officer had he advised you of his ability to maintain his Vermont
farm by the aid of his salary. Many diplomats and quasi farmers have even failed
to prove Ben. Franklin's maxim: “He that by the plow would thrive, must either
hold or drive." Theorists, however, have made able contributions to rural litera-
ture, and have in life's evening gladly hied away to the farm to find pleasures
denied a public servant, thus following the example of the historic sage and
ploughman.
The first impression here no orator can describe in speech. It is dark night
without, and you could only learn it by consulting your watch, for these electric
lights as a modern wonder outshine the sun at mid-day, showing plainly the apex
of the cheese obelisk, though forty feet high, and the longest "Dairy-maid's
needle" ever pointed heavenward. The texture of the butter is seen without a
microscope, to give conjecture how exquisite must be its taste, and the girls in
attention to their little industries connected with the rural arts, have not spilled
the milk which the old spelling book pictured, on the ground, blasting the hopes
plies his trade with more than the skill of an amateur. All the kine are glossy in
this magic gleam, and the water jetting and music can only briefly cease their flow
for the prose of speech.
The learner here passes from theory to accomplishment, seeing the best of one
of our great industries from many states — a farmer's college with short sessions
and enthusiastic professors taking you to the original sources; the very cows of
most approved grades, and genteel manners, are proof that kindness conquers all.
It is common in this too suspecting world to ascribe sordid or bad motives to
good acts, and lest I forget it let me now say, they who furnish rational entertain-
ment are public benefactors. So I would have remembered the inaugurators of
this Fair, and their generous premiums, and entertainments, bringing our rural
people near the commercial heart of the nation.
You ask little of us in the far West, but Col. R. M. Littler, of my state, needs
no introduction as a gentleman of genius and enterprise, acting as an officer and
orator, as a pastime. He is worth an army of philosophic dreamers, whom Emer-
son describes, “Biting their thumbs in the morning to find whether they were in
the me or the not-me world”; and our other representatives from Iowa are the
exhibitors who have taken the premiums. I have wired the press of my state that
any other state, “Excelsior" New York not excepted. It is my fortune to control
that sweepstakes butter package made by John Stewart, of Anamosa, Iowa, whom
you have just cheered, and here it will be eaten with an epicurean smack, saying,
“I know what is what, I know on which side my bread is buttered”. It will be
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
311
found genuine, a rich conscription from our soil, where the “paths drop fatness",
growing nutritious grasses, and the corn which imparts flavor and richness to the
fluid by the kine, which tidy hands and practiced labor and skill bring to your
senses as the coveted golden creamery product — the gild of our commonest food,
bread the staff of life. Competitors, courageous and honorable, though defeated,
know these excellencies are not of chance; pains and gains are usually brothers.
The West may have learned neatness through Eastern lineage, also to labor for an
end. Then a proper temperature is a necessity, and salt the purest, but, whether
in limestone or sandstone district, ample corn food will impart a rich color, flavor
and substance, which is wanting where this cereal is unused as food.
So say the experts, and there is a promise that our Iowa, raising one-seventh of
all the corn in the nation, will not be left out. She has a welcome for dairymen,
now on lean soils, and with leaner kine, to settle on her ample area in the dairy-
man's paradise — the Mississippi valley, where are cheap lands, ample grasses and
grains, a healthful home for the valued animal races, and the coveted conditions
for even better qualities and larger quantities.
Oleomargarine, the bogus article, claims a word. I hear, as now shown and
tasted, that it will glut the butter market. No doubt it is an ingenious counter-
feit, and that by admixtures and chemical science it may challenge detection, for
it is a divine prediction that the time will come when the false will possibly
“deceive the very elect". Good citizens are engaged in the fabrication. Yes,
Brutus is "an honorable man", but the impression depends on the accent. Good
food-maker, he may be of a class; not so of his imitators, and the dealers; they will
be tempted above what they are able to bear; and only a law against the bogus, or
the aid of experts, will be able to separate the precious from the vile. Then there
will be less used of the genuine. An immemorial confidence in that which was
called butter will give way to distrust, and a gentleman must use well his olfacto-
ries and palate, or call in an expert, before he seats his table guests, in fear of
imposition, or that his steward is in corrupt league with the grocer.
I am asked, “Why decry without knowledge?” Who wants a substitute for the
traditional articles distilled by natural processes, like the pure water by the clouds
- heaven's distilleries. The name means nothing. May you never learn to pro-
nounce it. It is not found in dictionaries, and the first of linguistic scholars can
only affirm Ole is for oil, margarine may be suet, lard, or a conglomoration from
where the unadulterated creamery in the realm of table food has no rival luxury.
Our delicious, flavored coffee is no more sipped as the “nectar of the Gods", when
ground with peas, and tinctured with chicory. No longer is he deemed a well-
dressed gentleman in shoddy, which is but worn picked rags, the counterfeit of
strong wool. True, sordid contractors framed excuses in giving good enough for the
price in time of war, but the apothecary adulterating drugs, and the butter-maker
est makers and legitimate trade, and with all their professions of honor they invite
the execrations heaped on the shallow hypocrite of the early time, shouting, “ Tom,
have you watered the rum?” “Yes sir." "Sanded the sugar?” “Yes sir.”
“Then turn the key and come to prayers." I forbear. These skillful attempts in
counterfeiting only prove the value of the genuine.
The farmer feeds all, and competitive fairs like this stimulate the production
of those articles which bring national wealth and the balance of trade. We are
illustrating what can be done by industry and skill, on a scale which will be a fur-
ther astonishment to the older nations. No people in this century have added so
much per capita to their wealth as ours in this eventful '79, and contributing most
to it has been the economy and industry of the farmers.
312
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
DISTRICT FAIR.
1
The great district fair at Cedar Falls, in 1859, brought out the
following address, the first I ventured upon, of that class printed
and circulated by order of the state in a volume:
“The first three men of the world were — a gardener, a plough-
man and a grazier; and these vocations were not of choice, but
were themselves the symbols of honor, and suggestive of man's
necessities. The ploughman became a murderer, and the man was
marked with the brand of enduring infamy; but his vocation has
become more honorable, from the day Ceres instructed Triptolemus,
and gave him her chariot that he might travel over the world and
give instructions in agriculture to a rude people, who, until then,
had lived upon acorns and the roots of the earth. The old Roman
Cincinnatus, who laid by the sceptre of power for the plow, though
finding but few imitators, is associated with the brave Putnam,
who left his plow in the furrow at the call of his country, and that
model farmer, 'the father of his country', refusing a crown that
he might enjoy the quiet of home and that profession which his
example almost canonizes.
“Rude agricultural life had its attractions and privileges, but
for us there are substantial benefits, advantages and acquirements,
in the legacies of experience and the contributions of science,
which the enthusiasts of earlier days did not, in their wildest
reveries, dream of as the heritage of later generations.
“Utility should not yield to ornament; of this there does not
seem to be immediate danger. Passing most of our farms, you
would judge there was only a rage for wide fields, and large wheat
and corn crops. The farm, the house and surroundings, seem to
furnish evidence of a lack of those efforts which would cause the
home to be parted with in regret. Noble trees are felled when
they should have stood as ornaments; the prairie is as naked as in
nature; root crops, because they can be eaten, usurp the place of
fragrant flowers in yard and garden. The house is as innocent of
paint as mother Eve was of rouge or silks. Random shooting and
juvenile sportsmen drive away every bird that comes to build its
nest in proximity to the home, promising morning music gratis.
Plant trees, cultivate flowers, and make the birds óso brimfull of
gladness and love', at home! The trees will soon shelter yourself
and dwelling, and in evening murmur forth the music of friends;
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
313
and when the pioneer and roaming spirit burns in the bones, the
graceful trees, clustering vines reared by your own hand, caroling
birds at the window, and the music of sweet home within, will
exorcise the spirits which picture a paradise in some distant
Nebraska or Utah, and banish those enemies and demons of unrest
which demonstrate so often in our state, that 'three moves are as
bad as a fire'. Home attractions will secure permanency of abode;
and the children will sigh for no other home, finding contentment
where a church, school and elevating associations are found.
“The simple roller and the drill can nowhere be used with such
satisfactory results, as on the loose soil of the prairies. We owe a
debt of gratitude to the inventors of numerous reapers and mow-
ers, which later generations will more fitly express than we who
are yet gazing with delight upon their almost magical achieve-
ments. The harvest song is yet unwritten which is fit to be
re-echoed to the music of a reaper, which makes a mock of acres,
causing the farmer's long days of drudgery, in gathering grain, to
be changed into a brief pastime.
“Those wind-mills which harness the air, dispensing with an
engine, while they send to the surface the flowing, perpetual
springs, and furnish motive power to flour our wheat, are quite
sure to become favorites on our prairies, where Æolus of the winds
may continue his reign, never out of season, more prized for utility
than the bland air of the morning for pleasure.
“The lords of creation are not alone in the appropriation of
inventions. Sweeter than parlor music to mothers and daughters,
on whom the monotony and toil of pioneer life falls heaviest, is
the merry click of the sewing machines. Such blessings they
dispense, giving to the fair of our households time for relaxation
and mental culture. Let the machine, beside the piano, indicate
woman's emancipation.
It becomes a duty to seek a broad and liberal culture and create
a sentiment which will dignify labor. Our schools must be cher-
ished, and that great principle that property should educate our
youth. The power of a people lies in its mind; their forces will
be proportioned to proper cultivation. No brave of the Indian
race has been an inventor. The barbarian or semi-civilized have
not added to our stock of ideas during this century. I deem it a
more practical work to adorn and build school-houses, than to sing
peans to our union. A people with generous culture will be fore-
PTT
314
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
warned of danger to their institutions, and strike at the evils which
threaten, rather than be thrown into a frenzy by passionate and
mercenary appeals. It is not enough to be the equal of those
whom we have left of the brotherhood in the older states. We
are moulding institutions, rather than founding where there are
none; and there should be such that 'heaven will look down to
see'.
"All about us are the emigrant races, expecting to do more for
their country and themselves, in a brief lifetime, than is achieved
in the staid communities where men die full of years, unsubjected
to our excitements and trials. A change of the tree from a sterile
soil to ours rich and deep, implies improvement; and ought not
intelligence to be advanced, insuring power in every right direc-
tion, standing on these summits of opportunity in this promised
land'? I know that school-houses have not as a rule been superior
to barns for the brute, in architectural taste and comfort, and that
labor is called menial service. But productive labor is esteemed
honorable where a community is aroused to the worth of practical
education for man with his varied wants; and proper, attractive
school-houses and institutions of learning, are soou to supplant
those which are a burlesque on our vaunted progress. And still
it is for the people to demand.
“The governments of the old world are more liberal patrons of
agriculture than ours; yet $1,000,000 is not a large appropriation
for a city custom house, and tens of millions annually hardly suffice
for the army and navy—those "horse-leeches' of the treasury. It
becomes a duty to create a public sentiment which will not allow
the agricultural and mechanical interests of our people to be over-
looked at Washington. Diffuse intelligence in regard to our
Farmer's College, that it may be tested and become, what it may
become, a boon to us and our children."
IOWA FINE STOCK BREEDER'S ASSOCIATION.
With this I was associated, as donor, speaker and president.
The state prints officially its proceedings; cities are clamorous to
entertain by banquet and honors the first gentlemen of the state,
who have brought renown and assistance to the vocation of our
farmers.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTT YEARS.
315
Of one of the meetings of the association, my reminiscences are
assisted by the following extract from the report published:
Mr. Grinnell, inclined as he is to always look on the sunny side of this world's
life, had prepared a paper on, “ The Bright Side”, and attention was given it at
this time. It was too long for use in full in these columns, but the “cold facts”,
on which the eloquent enthusiasm of the paper was founded are herewith appended:
“I have no purpose to explain the cause of the present stagnation and bad
market, nor to mention the omens of a brighter day for our animal industry, but I
shall by the mention of certain facts seek to prove that we have greater occasion
for good cheer than for despondency. First I notice the favoring conditions: The
debtor class is found in the enterprising West, and money was obtained by the
borrower on the surety of farm and stock at a very much higher rate fifteen and
twenty years ago than now. Necessary haying, harvesting and cultivating machin-
ery was bought years ago at fifty per cent. higher rates than now. Staple fencing,
which is barbed wire, cost more at the factory by one hundred and fifty per cent.
twelve and fifteen years ago than now. Necessary clothing cost more by fifty per
cent. fifteen and twenty years ago. Heavy wagons now at sixty dollars, horse shoes
at sixty cents for a span of horses, and steel nails at three cents per pound by the
keg, cost fifty to seventy-five per cent. more fifteen years ago than now. Articles
common to the farmer's table-salt, sugar, tea and coffee - cost more by from
thirty to fifty per cent., the average quotations, for the last fifteen years, than now.
Transportation rates on railways are reduced on the average allowed granger tariff
in 1870 and 1871 from two cents and a fraction to one and a fraction per ton per
mile in 1884, showing that the maximum rate was ninety-four per cent. higher than
the present. This mention does not imply that stock rates to Chicago are not now
burdensomely high. On interstate freight originating in lowa, live stock and the
like, finding a market at the seaboard, the charges fourteen years ago were greater
by ninety-five per cent. than those of 1885. Second, the discoveries of the last fif-
teen and twenty years have materially reduced the cost of raising animals. Our
grass crop is heavier by the mixture of many varieties on the same soil - instead
of one, six — thus adapting our pastures to extreme seasons and to the epicurean
tastes of the animals. Another is the greater profits found in the early maturity of
bovines and swine for the shambles. Third, the possibility of protection by timber
belts and artificial groves is a discovery which tempers the cold for safer and more
profitable animal development. Arboriculture at Mason City brings equal com-
fort with natural woody shelter at Ottumwa, thus extending the area of animal
husbandry by millions of acres and adding to their value millions of dollars.
Fourth, the late practical inhibition of the saloon in our rural districts has secured
better and more faithful service with less risk to the flock. To the keepers of herd
and the stud, inebriation meant imminent danger and often gross neglect with
great losses. I forbear a further mention of substantial facts and pleasing dis-
coveries. ... The animal industry is not alone depressed, and what vocation
gives fairer promise? The conditions of the equine industry are fair, and returns
for improved stock remunerative. Are there ills in our industry? 'Rather bear
the ills we have than fly to those we know not of'. Has the wheat-grower of tho
North or by the Pacific found a bonanza or independence at fifty cents a bushel ?
But the ranges! There is the bovine paradise, and the refuge for the poor and
desponding herdsman! Alas! that overcrowding has killed the native grasses;
that strife for occupation of springs and sheltered valleys has bred hatred and
violence. Brave early pioneers have realized fortunes in nomadic life on a rising
cattle market, but in this day of depression, the want of care, close feeding of
316
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
grass, drifting before storms, and the cost of 'round-ups', not only have cut off
the profits of earlier days, but brought humanity to face suffering and losses which
appall. ... Fellow-farmers, look up! The clouds are breaking. The care of
a granger, the courage of a patriot, and the pluck of a man will early win success
for our animal industry.”
Discussion was general on this paper, the optimistic views expressed by Mr.
Grinnell not meeting with a great deal of favor at the hands of those who spoke.
Indeed, while the facts as stated were admitted to be substantially correct, there
was such a recital of grievances suffered by the farming community that one might
almost imagine it to be an echo of the mutterings of discontent at the existing
state of affairs beard at meetings of a certain class confined chiefly to large cities.
The attempt was made to figure out what became of the difference between the
selling price of the raw material as produced by the farmer, and the cost price of
the finished product as laid before him for purchase. In the case of wheat and
flour, one or two expert mathematicians figured out cloarly that the miller was the
man who was absorbing these large margins, which brought two millers to their
feet, and, amid considerable amusement, with hands on their pocket-books, they
solemnly declared that the large profits spoken of were not there, and with com-
plete unanimity shifted the charge from their shoulders to the middleman, who
sells the flour. Here it was finally left, probably because none of those much-
abused middlemen were present to defend themselves.
As president of the Fine Stock Breeder's Association of Iowa,
I had reasonable pride in the fact that a needful gift, and the cheer
of speech, lifted the society from a rut up to the front rank. It
enlists the best writers, talkers and active stock raisers. The state
publishes its annual proceedings, even the banquet speeches, and
the reports are in great demand. This is gratifying to me as the
one who brought the first Devon to this state, and introduced the
Normans and Clydes, the highest prized of stock in the state.
AN UNSOUGHT NATIONAL COMPLIMENT.
1884, and presided over by United States Senator Williams of
Kentucky. There was feverish anxiety in regard to the pleuro-
pneumonia among cattle, threatening a thousand millions of prop-
erty, and making a demand for national legislation.
Who should conduct the committee and secure the passage of a
bill in the crisis ? I was not in the convention to decline the first
of all compliments by my countrymen. It involved a bill, which
provided a commission and an appropriation of a hundred thousand
dollars. To it I gave months of time in Washington, and many
expenses from my own purse. Oh, what delays and vexations!
But I was permitted to serve our great industry still further by a
complimentary appointment from the cominissioner of agriculture,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
317
to the first position of honor and responsibility and of Western
observation, held with pleasure up to the time of Cleveland, when
I resigned. The action taken and the reports made, from time to
time, in fulfillment of this important trust, are on record and need
not be repeated here.
THE STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
To the proceedings of this society I refer for contributions on
topics related to its aims, especially certain essays on tree-culture
and fence-economy, which were widely copied, East and West, as
taking advanced positions on these subjects. Not professing to be
an expert in fruit-culture, I can claim to have been the first to sup-
ply my vicinity with abundance of apple-seeds and laboriously
grafted stock, as already mentioned. The first whose name appears
on the role of the Iowa society's life-members, as president I was
fortunate in securing for Iowa the gold medal for the best apples
exhibited by the national society at its Richmond meeting. Mark
Miller, as secretary of our association, was fitted out to make the
collection from our fruit-growers, and it cost me less than two hun-
dred dollars, while the result was worth many thousands of dol-
lars in advertising our state.
In this connection, I cannot omit a deserved tribute to our
devoted and eminent horticulturist, the late Suel Foster, of Mus-
catine, as published by me at the time of his death:
Truly one of our historic personages has fallen, worn with dutiful toil and
crowned with honor. Before the advent of railways, heat, nor cold, nor storms,
deterred him from long journeys where the trees, flowers, farm, education, moral-
ity and religion were to be discussed, and plans laid for the advancement of the
state and the weal of our race. He labored with enthusiasm for the Agricultural
College as an officer; made fruit-growing and tree-planting an honored vocation
by his writings, example, and his broad views as president of the State Horticul-
tural Society; a lecturer without pay; a critic of shams in fearless exposure; in
feeling, a radical democrat save in politics. He won the favor of true gentlemen
in the ranks of advanced science and progressive thought.
As an early writer, I associate him with the lamented Governor Grimes, Mark
Miller and others, and even their superior in originality and practical results at
his beautiful home; with national association as the champion of the Wealthy
apple and the vigorous, beautiful Catalpa; commemorated by ten thousand fields
which may sing his praises by the soft breezes in the branches of the arboreal
blessings he above all others has brought to our state.
I cannot say he made no mistakes; that can without praise be said of those
who attempt little, but his forecast as a citizen, patriotic ardor and generous emo-
tion, flowing from his pen, and gems of wit and thought in conventions, would,
318
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
gathered in a volume, be historic. He was an enthusiastic scientist; one bold to
lead where others were asked to follow.
THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.
At the New Orleans meeting in 1885, I received an unexpected
election to the presidency at this association. It was promotion
from vice-president and director. The following resolves were
passed, which great losses on the ranges have proven timely, if
unheeded by the government. In introducing these resolutions, I
said:
We are owners of not less than 500,000,000 acres of pastoral, non-agricultural
lands, being in Colorado and Nevada and the Territories of Montana, Idaho, Utah,
New Mexico, Wyoming and Arizona. Want of water invites reservoirs, irrigation
and windmills, to aid in the support of 5,000,000 of people instead of 1,000,000, and
20,000,000 of cattle instead of 5,000,000. The friction of the small herdsmen and
large owners under a grasping spirit, occasions bad blood, violence, loss to both
parties, and a border warfare to be more dreaded in the crowding, which involves
loss to both parties.
This domain invites skill and capital in the application of water. Thirst pro-
motes fever, followed by death. The want of irrigation, and of prepared food, like
the Alfalfa, for days of storms, bring great losses, while the dry storm cures the
grasses for rich food, to be of more value than the pampas grasses rising in the
moisture of South America or the verdure on the steppes of Russia, longer covered
by winter snows.
The pioneer, with few cattle, by the end of winter is eaten out, or his herd
swept with the thousands before the storms. Large corporations, without title or
lease, fail to make homes, shelters, or to econoinize, or raise the water for herds.
They could afford to pay a lease of a few cents an acre. Good society and social
order are involved in an apportionment of these lands by natural divisions and
value as to water, shelter and grasses. The rights of pioneers and pre-emptors may
be of value under a lease of lands not worth government price.
A revenue of millions may be raised, giving the herdsmen a better profit by
assured possession. Humanity that regards the brute invites care and new meth-
ods. An area larger than the old thirteen states invites statesmanship and a
liberal system of leasing, in which every beef-eater and good citizen has an
interest.
I move the following resolution, [which was adopted after considerable
discussion]:
Whereas, the national cattle ranges of the country not adapted to agriculture,
occupied by pioneers, pre-emptors and cattle companies, are held under conflicting
interests, which are a bar to permanent improvements and the proper division of
the water and soil, involving loss to both parties; therefore
Resolved, That these lands should be held as a national trust under law and
order, and that, with a just supervision by a board of commissioners elected by
state or territory, a leasing system may be established of tracts in natural divisions
for limited periods to favor development and prevent the friction of interests and
monopoly.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
319
STATE FAIR, 1890.
From thirty thousand to thirty-five thousand persons, one day,
were in attendance. It may be my last speech on such an occa-
sion, and I may therefore be permitted to quote from the State
Register's report:
Mr. Grinnell's remarks were the bit of sentiment that added beauty to the
exercises. He said it was the thirteenth annual fair he had attended in Iowa.
He had hardly expected to attend this one, but he thanked providence for the
privilege. He made some touching remarks in regard to the connection of Father
Clarkson with the agricultural society, saying:
“After nearly five months of sickness, I can, with sensations of sadness, cast a
laurel sprig on the yet unsodded grave of the lamented Father Clarkson, whom a
year ago we greeted with applause. Fittingly have President Hayes and Judge
Wright paid a tribute to our exemplary farmer, our ablest writer, fearless critic
and educator by the press for a fourth of a century. Time will only add luster to
his character, so conspicuous in devotion to his state and the weal of his race, by
an illustrious example of manhood and religious trust. Without partiality and
with just pride, even with gratitude, I can speak of our state society, the people's
college, in its progress, for this (too often a speaker) is my thirtieth visit on the
grounds. What changes! In early days few exhibitors and small premiums were
paid often; now, ten thousand entries and thirty-five thousand dollars to be paid
in premiums.
“Last year there were murmurers over small prices incident to over-production.
They are no more. Under favoring skies Iowa will have more dollars for a smaller
crop than last year for a large one. She will surpass any state in the number of
bushels of corn, and can show in value of the pig — the 'gintleman that pays the
rint', a larger value than any other state. So of the equine, not only by the race
of Axtell, and owner Williams, but the broad, heavy-breasted steeds. Nor does
the state forget our Moninger of short-horn fame, and the leaders sending our state
far in the front rank in animal industry of all our states. An enemy of our statu-
tory prohibition gloated over Iowa's loss of population, when our real gain after
peopling the Dakotas, Kansas and Nebraska has been three hundred thousand in
the last decade, more than twenty per cent. The education of our agricultural
classes has been even greater under most favored moral and intellectual instruc-
tion. No civilized state has so small a per cent. of her people in jails, poor houses
and prisons. Even greater than in advancing the animal races has been the prog-
ress in the education of their owners. Temperance has played its part. Free
schools, and our state fair, the people's college, with which there has been no
scandal, in charge of a line of gentleman from President Hayes and Secretary
Shaffer backward, worthy to be in the line of princes. Here is the result-scene
of recreation, sport and instruction, in honor of man's first and noblest vocation
under fortunate skies, where restrained by laws wise and lenient to the good and
severe to the evil-doer.
“Happy for Iowa and the city of Des Moines, in joint contribution they have
ornamented these romantic and embowered acres where so recently the Indian
whooped. The people will be here to witness magic gains in all engaging the
huinan brain and heart. Gratitude should move to extend the hand to the less
fortunate on our northern and western borders by loss of crops. The year 1890 adds
a bright page to our history, with the melodies of the harvest song. We are proud
320
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
of a commonwealth, endowed by nature, and of gentlemen conspicuous for skill
with the animal races, as the officers of a noble fair in entertaining the hundreds of
thousands with the best attractions of a gala day.
"I saw no intoxicated man on these grounds,' said a visitor last year. May
there be none this, and owners of bloods will have new courage for generous rivalry.
The young man will learn of honor and independence in the vocation of statesmen
in life's evening, and a product of rural life here will be man, the consummate
flower that looks upward to his Maker."
ARBORICULTURE.
One of my early ventures, after coming to prairie-land, was
sending word to my friend of the Bacon family, New Haven, Conn.,
for elm-seeds. Now the trees abound in the streets of this college
town, reminding of the classic shades of the city whence came these
children of strength and grace. At first, indeed, for rapid growth
and for use as timber, nurseries and waysides were planted with
the locust, but the great army of locust beetles, pretty in black and
yellow livery, moving westward at, I believe, about thirty miles a
year, struck us about 1866, ruining the trees by their grub-boring.
The beautiful silver maples are favorites for speedy growth and
cleanliness, but are fragile in prairie storms. For rich verdure we
admire and transplant or sow our native box-elder. The ever-.
greens here and there do well, but for the most part have a hard
and short life, exposed to drying winds. Long be the life of our
“Beecher Maple”, planted by the hand of the orator himself, and
our “Lincoln” and “Garfield” elms, planted on the respective
days of the death of each.
On a late visit to my son-in-law, Prof. R. D. Jones, at Normal,
Ill., I was freshly reminded of a tree-culturist whose name should
not be forgotten. In the literary city of Bloomington, of which
Normal is a suburb, there lived the late Jesse W. Fell, an arbori-
culturist and savant of eminence thirty years agone. Millions of
birds skip on the fruit and ornamental boughs which adorn this
country, and for him I seem to hear the plaintive refrain to his
memory on the opening of the buds, to lend variety to luxuriant
evergreen sentinels waving in grace on the prairie expanse.
I know of nothing to so effectually drive away discontent and
the demon of unrest, as the tree-embowered rural home. Let, then,
Nebraska and Iowa plant and cherish trees in generous rivalry.
Gentle rains shall fall in reward from heaven before as brass.
The brute shall articulate gratitude to his master for shelter and
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
321
shade; and our children, for the trees we left in arbor, orchard
and field, will find incentives to cherish the paternal legacy, speak-
ing as by the Æolian harp long after they who planted sleep in
sepulture.
FENCES,
Fences may be regarded from both an esthetical and a financial
standpoint. Next to the soil in cost is its enclosure. In a Vir-
ginia worm fence there was no beauty, only the toleration of a
necessity. The very thought of great trees to be felled and split
for rails, brings perspiration, and the memory of their laying up
be accepted as a gift for fencing, when wire can be had, strong,
barbed to intimidate, and less costly than wood, protecting, not
wasting the soil, and set with legal exactions that avoid law-suits,
without appeal to the Arkansas standard — "mule-high, bull-strong
and hog-tight”- conditions repellant and impossible on the prai-
ries where the barbing of wire has added tens of millions to the
value of our acres.
Town fencing was another question, and on the fenceless policy
I doted — while in Washington asking for the removal of the high
barricade of iron around the capitol and public grounds. I heard
of the trees, defenseless, planted by the hand of Washington, turf
spoiled, and flowers plucked; but the fences are now gone! Confi-
spirit and taste have established the green-sward in its beauty and
secured protection. Fashion will not again mar with urban or
rural barriers, a mockery of the trusting hospitality of neighbors.
In our own beautiful city, once a bare.prairie, now a grove, the
bristling war-like pikes of fences are fast giving way, as elsewhere,
to open lawns, defended by their unarmed beauty. Time was
when even affluent owners insisted on their cows and horses hav-
ing nightly freedom of the streets, after being driven in at evening
from the prairie - defiling the walks, and endangering border
plants accessible to the long necks of horses. There has been
many a hard and long contest in western towns against this nui-
sance, and in places it is still being waged. But civilization will
yet be civilized, everywhere.
.
322
A PROTECTIVE TARIFF POLICY.
MT
Y
As things are, farmers must have fences, and they and others
must have a tariff fence also. It was before college days that I
found myself an American Protectionist. I could quote the com-
mon-sense words of General Jackson, who showed that the farmer
wanted a near market, to be attained by the multiplication of fac-
tories where were cheap raw material, food for the operative, and
motive power in coal mines, and water power ready to turn the
wheels. Our government should defend enterprise, he believed,
against the cheap labor of the old world, deluding us with the
philosophy of raising the raw products while the cities, carriers
and foreigners used the profits of fabrication.
Henry Clay, the most popular American statesman, not only
echoed Jackson that "it was time to be a little more American”,
but was the eloquent defender of a tariff system which no pres-
ident arraigned, down to Cleveland. In Vermont we were wool
growers, and certainly partial to the rate of duty which brought
gain to the flock master, the building of factories and the lessen-
ing of the price of goods, besides securing our independence of
other nations.
Under even a high war tariff, no nation has so easily removed
a colossal war debt and in a given period so enhanced its wealth
as ours, winning the admiration of the statesmen of the world,
the exceptional opinion of a Gladstone standing for a country too
limited in area to furnish soil for the raw products, and food for
the laborers.
A sharp, clear issue is near; duties levied for revenue only,
or to give such protection that capital will unlock our native
resources, enhancing the value of lands and securing better reward
for labor. Our natural rivals would keep us in vassalage to the
forge and the loom abroad, while burdening the producer with
heavy freight charges, while the fabricator reaps large net profits.
Mere book and college theories will not long mystify the masses,
while in the study of personal interest and the road to the highest
social independence and national wealth.
It is the world's common law that the land owner may protect
his fields against the trespasser, and it is not less plain that a gov-
ernment may establish conditions on which rival nations may enter
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
323
waiving of a policy. Advantages must be equalized, and the avoid-
ance of all which savors of favoritism. To invite capital there
must be stable legislation. I am asked, “Did you see the catalogue
of the millionaires, by Mr. T. G. Shearman ?" I did, and the
names allied to manufacturing as the source of wealth could not be
found, to brand manufacturers as the great robbers. Invention, oil
lands, coal and railway combination, gave an answer to the ques-
tion, “How came these colossal fortunes ?” It is not denied that
high prices in war times added to the fortunes of millions, but the
benefited class embraces farmers, bankers, railway builders and
groups of citizens moving on with enterprise and hope. Monopoly
is a canting terror used without reason.
Grave matters of public concern demand a fixed conclusion, not
only by the reasoner, but a formulation to guide to a safe and prac-
tical legislative policy. It is a discredit, perhaps, to human nature
that we fail to rise above the caprice of the hour, and a low grade
of selfishness, to the broad plane of generous comity and enlight-
ened statesmanship. Outside of political bias, personal interest, or
pride of opinion, I have reached this conclusion, that a national
policy should be as devoid of party strifes, as is the question of
birthplace in the determination of true patriotism.
Reading, reflection and business experience, have all conspired
to exalt the Hamiltons, the Jacksons, the Clays, the Greeleys,
Henry Careys and Blaines, as financial leaders, if not demi-gods, to
be studied and followed with the pride and ardor which pertains to
American loyalty. What! do you give no credit for honesty and
fidelity to conviction to those who advocate free trade? I assume
that the New York press for the most part writes and prints for
pay, and in the interest of a commercial city, which seeks to be the
thoroughfare and port of commerce for a hundred millions of peo-
ple. And I have no agreement, if conceding honesty, with the
paid teachers of political science, who argue directly against the
interests of wage-workers, and the farming classes. My contempt
is beyond expression for the pretenders, with their money gains in
bank or bonds, that declaim against American protection as a
denial to buy where they can purchase the cheapest and sell their
gold at the dearest rates. What are they but creatures who have
turned their backs to the masses, for personal inordinate gain ?
The poor may have an excuse for a blind experiment, and a depres-
sion of prices to sate his hunger or clothe his body, but this does
324
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
not apply to those inheriting money or living upon fixed salaries.
In a call for a verdict by the people on this question, the privileged
be met with a becoming derision, as the mockery of patriotism.
Ah! but what will you do with the great preachers of universal
brotherhood, who are for free trade as the normal condition and for
the best welfare of nations ? They are but theorists. It was my
fortune and duty to tell the lamented Beecher, a great heart has
muddled the financial brain that has a clear perception of parental
duty, toward a child or family, involving more in providing for
his own than for another household and nation. Fellow-country-
men, banded for protection and fortified against assault, have the
first claim, else patriotism is a delusion, and natural affection a myth.
. We might well listen to the opinion of a Bismark, who sees in
our protective policy the solution of the problems with which the
wastes of war and debt confronted us, and the way by which
we attained, in credit, wealth and power, the first place among
nations. It is left for the politician to study the question of
cheap foreign goods, linked with idleness at home, contrasted with
an era of activity, expansion and independence, such as no other
nation has achieved. The practical question will appear, to a rural
people, shall the ore in the mountains, and coal, and all the powers
and incidents to invention, be developed at home, under economic
laws, or shall we be a dependent nation, dealing at arms-length
with powerful rivals ?
I must stand by my speech in Congress, without variableness
or shadow of turning. I showed that, against all the rules of
domestic and political economy, the raw material, like the hide of
a beef, which left the prairies, passing through from six to ten
handlings and commissions, would be proof of vassalage. The
alternative was the fabricator, with his family, to move under
fairer skies and where there was cheaper fuel and food, obtainable
without the intervention of middleman. .
The glove factory at Grinnell, the shoe-shops springing up in
the West, the various factories, are the arguments for that policy
which brings wealth to the nation, and must become the standing
argument for the thoughtful farmer, who takes pride in the state
of his adoption, and desires that standard of wealth and refinement
which it has never been the fortune of a simple agricultural com-
munity or nation to attain.

M
USB
'
'
14
atli
is
.
.
..
T
1001
.
TV
R
.
..
-
ULINI
.
.
NE
.
101
.
VI
IN
2
WU
.
TD
..
*
0
.
•
YA DAY
.*
:
'
1
KAT.
u
!
W
..
Indicar
Vi
Kina
SEDEX
VI.
II
LV2X
nr.
.
2.
.
11
AT
12
10
.
I'
,
:
www
w
Haarmanna
o
T1
TENNIS
Y.
!
P
OS
.
.
.
YA
N
.
2
.
DRUGI
11'
.
.
MA
.
U
...
ta.
12
to
PIA
.
1.
2
.
PAL
.
74
MAS
.
OTTI
PW
.
EN
AM
AZ
.
.
IN
C:
//
.
I
.
IIIIII
.....
II
.
V
.
I
.
P
Y.
.
.
.
0
.
I
TIMISOARA
.
.
tuu.
.
w
tel
**
.
Verwen
*
DIV
nu
.
Z
........
.
V
Hiling
ge
I
ho
S
.
:
.
.
AG
SIY
***
* **
.
. .
**
Virth
- - -
.
I
IRINA
NANY
ING
WS
Uru
www.
ww
w
AN
KWI
NA
.
.
--
..
V
TUBETA
..
OF
ON.
1
.
... 1°
1:51....
-
14
V
.
SU'.
TA
WWW
+
.
XX
VIA
*
:.
N
.
TA
INI
.
.
map
.
ni
VAN
I
X
NA
Il
IT
ko
SERT
ilar
11
SRL
.
.
us
INNUVIII,
.
.
00:
SONY
.
S
NE
TUIS
1111
on
be
159
lo
A
VA
.
1. An
.
.
ATE
.
2
.
2
F
.
-22
2117
INICIMA
--
N
JIH
-
-
1.
-.-.-
Sikili
VUI
E
GOOD NOW
- HALL
w
222
.
VINA
.
.
Illllll
.
"
.
2
Na
W
.
LETNIMKEther
Y
turu
VO
.
C
CIV
.
www
.
.
WA
WWW
LI
V
t.
..
.
SS
V
.
ther
O
ZI
I
I
Cm
Us
.
.
19
Bora
RE
YA
27l
ur
UN
11
..
"
19
.
LEN
.
S
1
RESES
2
xi
..
1
X
.
.
0
VE
7
..
.
If
TAGE
O
.
V
JOY
41112
y
VIC
La
.
OON
IWC
.
.
-
-
TO
.
:-*.
1
..
hrer
T'.
P
2
Tv
!
.
ALUMNI
HALL
TY
1
NU
1
V
11
.
ww
IOWA COLLEGE BUILDINGS.
CHAPTER XXI.
Grinnell University and Iowa CollegeTheir building - Progress
-- Fire-- Tornado Benefactors -- Tribute to their Memory-
Other Benefactors — Use of Trust Funds.
From a mass of material is gleaned what is most worthy
of presentation, related to Grinnell University and Iowa College.
The facts may be of service to the future historian of the college.
A part is from the pen of President Carter, of Williams College,
Dr. Magoun, and others, tributes to the early friends of education.
After the losses by fire and the tornado, a visit to personal and
business friends distant secured large sums from those outside the
church, toward the erection of buildings; and for their liberality
there is, if late, a becoming tribute.
There will be found neither a defense of my acts as trustee
for thirty odd years nor a criticism of administration — rather a
welding of the links in a providential chain, in keeping with an
optimistic spirit that studied and looked for a rainbow, rather
than the lightning's flash. If the task is a delicate one, the reader
will ask no apology from the only living person who participated
in all the events. I saw the string of oxen turning over the vir-
gin sod, for a cornfield; later the imbedding of granite corner-
stones for the first prairie edifice, the burning of which was the
promise of one more comely; then, in the path of destruction by
the tornado of 1882, there has risen from ashes the noble edifices,
due to the generosity of friends and to the tasteful ministries of
art.
The pictures opposite represent only the buildings which
immediately rose after the tornado, and are the delight of our citi-
zens and visiting friends; their erection and use, with a mention
of the benefactors by whose liberality they were reared, will be
more than a study of local import and interest.
Our artists have not well represented the beautiful, natural
campus, nor have they more than hinted the landscape features,
326
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
generously planned by Donald G. Mitchell, and supplemented by
the grading and planning due to the elegant taste of Professor H.
W. Parker. It is evident that so comely a group of edifices are
the products of artists of the highest repute, with a view to util-
ity as chapel, class-rooms, laboratories, library halls, and museum-
galleries. More than $100,000 are placed in these walls, voiceless
as to the benefactors whose names will here find a grateful mention,
in the hope that students in temporary sojourn not less than grad-
uates will appreciate those rare facilities in acquiring an education
which were denied their fathers. There should be a mention of
the devotion to sound learning of those who planned Iowa's first
college on the banks of the Mississippi. The forecast and wisdom
in its removal, with a hospitable generous welcome, to the prairies,
will appear more than a mere incident, since all are interwoven
with the most impressive evidences of Divine care in a history of
seeming reverses, now read as blessings in the open book of God's
providences.
I cheerfully comply with the request to write out some facts
pertinent to the founding of Grinnell University and Iowa College.
It is a delicate service, for I shall not attempt concealment of an
early ambition to be allied with a good academy or university at
my western home, when not anticipating so long and honorable an
association with persons who were and are truly the devoted pio-
neers of the age. .
IOWA COLLEGE.
In March, 1844, while Iowa was yet a territory, our college was
planned at Denmark by the well-known Iowa Band, by the prompt-
ings of Rev. Asa Turner, Rev. Julius A. Reed and Seth Richards,
Esq., since the generous founder of a professorship in Iowa College,
and James Houghton, Esq. A committee was appointed on the
location of the college, and in 1846 Davenport was selected as the
site. Rev. Asa Turner was appointed in 1844 to go East as an
agent to secure funds, and returned with little money but with a
profusion of vague promises. A home subscription was started
with a liberal response, and Rev. J. J. Hill, of the Iowa Band, put
the first dollar in the treasury before the birth of his sons, three of
whom have graduated at Iowa College. Of these sons, Dr. Ger-
shom Hill, now a trustee, and Rev. J. L. Hill, pastor at Medford,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
327
Mass., joined in giving rhetorical prizes; and the other, George H.
Hill, I found emulating his father by making the first donation to
the new college at Pomona, Cal. The portrait of Rev. J. J. Hill,
whose father was an educator and member of Congress from
Maine, greets you in welcome as you enter the college library in
Goodnow Hall. It has an inspiration in a seeming smile of satis-
faction on the growth of the institution, which found in him an
early friend, and gains in rich and later benefactions by his
children.
The particular gifts and early devotion of the Iowa Band with
other friends, I need not detail, but as a trustee of the college for
thirty years, I am a witness of their gifts to its treasury and their
abounding service. Nor are the reasons for a removal from Daven-
port to Grinnell pertinent to iny narration. I cannot forbear to
make mention of professors Erastus Ripley, Daniel Lane and H.
L. Bullen, with others, gone to their reward, who labored hard and
lived on meagre salaries, laying a foundation for a happy blending
of interests in a more central location and in the midst of congenial
society. The gift of town property to education at Grinnell
attracted a class of settlers of intelligence, having families in wait-
ing for the formation of college classes, and able to furnish student
homes in want of dormitories and commons.
The property held by the Literary Fund for Grinnell Univers-
ity was no chance-incident affair. It came by profits on land sold
outside the town, and from donated lots rising in value, backed by
the gift of a campus of twenty acres, and local subscription of
about $5,000, gathered in the gloomiest period of our financial his-
tory. A comely brick building, spacious for that day, was not
completed before the later union for want of time; not because of
lack of courage, or money. It represented sacrifice in drawing the
granite for the foundations from a distance, and night service by
humble citizens, and ardent women holding candles for light in
lathing the college.' Their names may be forgotten, but their zeal
was like a contagion; and the labor and gifts were the promise of
a college, whether united with Iowa College or alone in sacrifice.
That cordial service rendered by Rev. S. L. Herrick and Rev.
Julius A. Reed, and others, should have recognition, if without col-
lege record. Then, Prof. L. F. Parker and wife were laborious,
cheerful and efficient in laying foundations, and on these they are
still building with large material gifts and welcome professional
328
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
services. Well named the man of all work and professor, he gave
the Latin address on behalf of the faculty as Carter Professor of
Languages, commencing — « Plena momenti est vita”, at the inau-
guration of the first president, Dr. George F. Magoun.
THE GRINNELL UNIVERSITY.
This is mentioned as the “so called” in later days. Was it
not a reality? It had enlisted professors of rank, had a larger
number of students than Iowa College, more property, and made
an unreserved surrender of its charter, good will and building prop-
érty, estimated on a low cash basis at $25,000. This was a larger
sum in reality, not prospectively, than that of the college fund in
Davenport, rising by actual sales and value of lands to $75,000.
This gift must ever be in association not with one, but with a peo-
ple joined in purpose while pioneers, many of them gone to their
reward, yet who have left children with a friendship and unfalter-
ing trust in the college which reflects the virtues of their fathers.
The union of Grinnell University and Iowa College was more
than a sentiment. One of the parties, not a mythical character,
the university president, gave the following address at the inaugu-
ration and nuptial ceremonies:
Mr. President :
It is a pleasant duty with which I am charged on this occasion, in formally
recognizing a union now effected, which virtually secures the coalescence of Grin-
nell University in Iowa College.
Coming to you in our youth, wearing the simple blushes of a maiden on the
occasion of marriage proposals, we make no apologies for the natural and coy
advances of a yearning heart, nor for the seeming indulgence of leap-year privi-
leges; for, so blissful is the union, that had you known more of us we know that
earlier you would have taken us“ for better or worse".
Permit us, then (with a parenthesis, that we may be reassured of the consider-
ation due to so unassuming a bride), to remind you that our contribution to this
union was an untarnished reputation, two professors, a half hundred of students,
the good-will of a community, and a considerable dowry of the value in college
building, land and cash, of twenty-five thousand dollars.
Let these currents of influence — widening and deepening as they flow, with
the products of common toil consecrated to sound learning-- be one. The stream-
let that was by the “Father of Waters”, and shares the loves of the Alumni, wel-
comes, we know, this prairie rill that mingles with the glee of our youth to-day its
murmurs in salutation to you, our pilot and president, in this conflux. Hundreds
of churches, the guardians of our common schools and sagacious statesmen, indulge
the hope that by this fountain of learning, the first made free to the poor and
maimed of our gallant soldiery, there may grow the trees of knowledge whose
gilded leaves, graceful boughs and golden fruit shall be at once an attraction and a
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
329
blessing to many generations dwelling on these “unshorn gardens”. All is
auspicious.
Let me, then, most heartily, in behalf of the founders of Grinnell University,
her trustees, the beauty and virtue of her daughters, and the well-proven chivalry
of her sons, surrender to your keeping her all.
The youth of our commonwealth we know are your pride. You have the ripe
culture and the educational experience of one who may make his motto, Aut viam
inveniam aut faciam, and God being your counsellor, we are confident of wide and
glorious results.
The college has continued to flourish notwithstanding the deci-
mation of numbers by the civil war, and the loss of its buildings,
first by fire, again by tornado, and on both occasions, the destruc-.
tion of library, apparatus and fine museums. I gave an address in
June, 1882, amidst the crumbling walls of the first college, and in
sight of the yet smoking ruins of the second and third. It was at
trees would let in the light, the trimming of the clumps was thor-
ough, if not artistic, and the wastes of the storm would awaken
practical sympathy, causing statelier buildings to rise; the college
would be better known, and stronger and larger in every desired
recited a beautiful poem, and the words of our president were faith
and supreme trust in Him who had sent but a temporary, blighting
hope, for the clouds of adversity were now rising.
Our first president resigned, after having served above twenty
years with ability and fidelity. So far as I am aware his opinions
as to the accepting of faculty resignations and the filling of vacan-
cies in the board of instruction were recognized and adopted.
And I am reminded here that, when I first visited the West, the
now venerable ex-president of Iowa College, Geo. F. Magoun, D.D.,
with the flush of youth and enthusiasm, was an academy prin-
cipal at Plattville, and later was in Beloit at the founding of the
college, to which institution my own first educational gift was
made. Beloit College was then but a dream. At the corner-stone
laying of its first building, I first became acquainted with Dr.
Magoun; and it is an oft-repeated remark that this was the begin-
ning of forty-six years of varied public and eventful service, more
or less in co-operation. He has long been honored, not only as our
presiding officer, but also as an Andover lecturer; a writer of mas-
terly ability in reviews and other journals; the model biographer
of our model pioneer ankl trustee, Father Turner; and as conspic-
330
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
uous in ecclesiastical, missionary, réform, and even political con-
ventions, not omitting his representation of this country in foreign
church assemblies, and conferences on international law.
There seemed, indeed, to be a fatality, when we found able
instructors, in their being attracted elsewhere, examples of which
we have in Prof. John Avery, the distinguished philologist, now
deceased; Prof. Henry Carmichael, chemist, afterward of Bowdoin
College; and Prof. Arthur S. Hardy, called to Dartmouth, and ris-
ing to eminence not alone in his profession, but as an author of
celebrity. Prof. L. F. Parker left temporarily for the State Uni-
versity, after twenty years of service, and returns as professor of
history. Prof. H. W. Parker, now of New York, returned after
nine years in the Massachusetts Agricultural College. He has left
the evidences of his genius and energy in our model cabinet as a
naturalist, besides adding, in supplement to his volume of poetry,
a prose work attracting the warmest praise of scholars, entitled,
“The Spirit of Beauty”. Thus has the college suffered by with-
drawal of able instructors, and more recently has had occasion to
accept the resignation of Prof. Fisk P. Brewer and J. M. Crow, of
more than local repute as linguists, who amidst universal,commend-
ation and sorrow have closed their earthly career.
The Catalogue of 1890-91, after two years of full service by
the new president, Geo. A. Gates, shows a full corps of instructors
in longer and briefer periods of able service, in harmonious and
enthusiastic co-operation. The total attendance of students is
nearly six hundred, being much above that of the three years pre-
vious. The modern idea of self-government is adopted with pleas-
ing results. The games and sports on the campus give promise of
health and muscular development, as yet in no way detracting from
studious habits, and from the deportment becoming gentlemen.
The buildings are mainly warmed by steam from a single plant, in
avoidance of dust and exposure to fire, and with a lessening of
expense. Electric lights gleam on the campus, and symbolize the
progress that gives the.college a more flattering prospect of a thou-
sand students, at an early date, than it had for hundreds, twenty
years ago.
Our sad tornado history is interwoven with the names of many
generous friends in the restoration that reared five stone and brick
edifices, where by: the recent calamity there were only the ruins of
a night.

,
--
IOWA COLLEGE BUILDINGS.
t
^
47岁​/
子
​。
三是
​- Mon
….
CHICAGO HALLO
…
RAIR HALL··
..….moyu
……
..…
Terrive…
4
-
一学年
​一一一 ​m -
-
- - - -
一一一一一一
​立起了一下​。
--
-
中​,
,
"
-
-
-
-
-
-
/
-
-
=
-
-
F
-
=
-
-
二
​二
​-
-
為得
​-
-
.."url..
二一
​-
|
-
-
-
1.
--
他
​-
- --- ”
一
​事​,一一一
​二二二一​!
1 Lif
士学​,
是
​一一一一一一一
​HTT描
​MBT
MINI-
1等​"一
​第一
​第一一一一
​書本​,
/
-
III
11
*
-
-
-
為了看書​。
-
41
-
-
*
.
重量​,
iff
世事III
IIIII
--
-
|
地的
​|
过把
​严重量​,
中學
​.
無量​。
是
​*
「
事​。事事是鲁一鲁
​!」
ETF
广 ​和事
​.
本身
​書
​| |-
人事考
​-
有高
​,
量
​当
​1
。
事​,事事
​- 學生
​一一一一一一
​一个善​。
一一一一
​,
一一一一一章
​、
一
​%
「
車事
​等​;
電子書
​一下​,再
​WEST、
一一一
​有了
​重量 ​重要事某事
​y.
A
年
​多名
​車重
​11”重
​,
|
11
由于上
​卡
​,
,
-
单
​事
​會
​「
4
中
​.
事重重
​重
​-
,
,
产事​,
「
LINE IN-
一一一
​,
事事非​,畢
​-
星
​-
重量
​-
的
​青TAT
,
事看事事​,
重重重重重
​是的
​事​。
,
-
WNS:
「
哥
​-
,
:
華
​是
​本
​- 畢畢看
​,
,
「
-
-
1
11
.
事
​重量单
​善事事學書畫會
​事
​了
​-
。
1.
)
。
位
​-
。
-
,
-
事III
华事
​等等
​青春​,
单单单单单是鲁鲁​,
NT:
1
t
對
​.
{}}
事
​141章
​。
-
-
单
​华鲁鲁
​鲁鲁t
本事​,事事有一
​事​。
事
​,于2014
1
||||
是重
​上
​班级
​*
上
​军事
​工事
​年者​,
11事事
​中一學
​事重重重
​了
​,
畢書上看
​。
;
善事是一事​。
11
为一体​。
“这
​非事事事​,鲁鲁
​营重重
​主是
​比
​有一
​重重重重重疊事业单
​F114
,
个
​「華華
​单14年
​「事事业
​“事主其
​- 帶事革r
-
,鲁鲁
​-
-
11.1
青
​生
​1
重量
​11
A
-
,
了
​“
一年一
​身高​:
1"
了​,事事事事是一事無
​!
ltd
-
NS2
-
。
-
生理变革​”是
​在
​畫
​,
其中
​.
{
中国重
​4
「
t
it
-
量
​,
.
产
​其中​,
中
​后
​企
​-
}
8
三
​其中​,
..
以
​=
事事
​1.
重
​...
}
。
重建
​RE:
Chia
,書畫
​-
.
鲁
​1、当事
​接
​:
--
“
,
GETAIN
,
III
_
「
httl
___Ini
t
,
4.一一一
​-
{"
UNII1HDM
,
*
ti::
*
Hits.
ht:
,
,
-
-
,
F111
,
,
-11
=ht
ii
-
|
*
.
**
#
trl+inflir-
fu
#
fi
A
#
,
孝t
F41E-
*
T
1
鲁鲁大学
​-
中中中中中14:
,,,
,
/
*
-
1
"
SS
1
5
,
,
1T
11.ti
打
​--
*
:
,
第41
将代
​*
I
事事非非
​THERE
*
,
-
t
t
必发
​看
​- -
h
traph
-- -
:
,
法
​单查
​,
RSS
看看
​重重重者​。
771
.
,
51
上一
​,
*
了
​:
"
了​。
-
:
作者
​一是
​..
「-军
​14
-- : ; "
:
GIF
全書
​第一​,重看一半
​-
4
是重
​-
,
N
事是一事​,
+
-
-
w
TTL
!
*
WW
the
-
LIMIN
“书
​-
-
三
​+
中事件
​重重重重​,事事利普​.
重要事事严重量是一輩子
​鲁
​”,“
一 ​” ,
| 賽事重重
​重重​,
fir.
HP
-
:
:
NOS
》
更重声鲁鲁三事
​WWWNNNNNN
,
EN
」
-
-
-
!
了
​,
在中​:
;
FLY
Fre
1,11
。
:
"t件
​YungK
%A
:
-
,
+
不是一
​事件
​:
.重傷
​書
​中市
​密湖國​,
:
:
6
#
事​,
:
有
​17
畫
​*。
His
it
其中​,
.
GENEG
S
…
YIW
ITTITTPS:
一
​44
4
TELY
鲁鲁
​SIMONT
f
,
三分
​、
:
事
​。
1.
.
《
,
.
此一
​A
。
重要
​重11
II
學畢看看
​"
事
​「車上一些事情一事​,
s","
·
-
。
*
*
"
*
--
有重重​。
一一一
​.
-
--
畫事
​看看​,
有事
​学得​,
\\
/
\
^
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
331
BLAIR HALL AND GOODNOW HALL..
The Hon. John I. Blair, for whom Blair Hall was named, gave
over $16,000 toward its erection. He was mentioned in befitting
oil painting of himself seems to smile in satisfaction from our
library walls. It was here, too, that he offered counsel in a speech
to the students, of even greater value, if heeded, than his liberal
money benefactions.
Blair Hall is the central and largest of the college structures,
built of stone, gothic in architecture. Its two wings are occupied
by the chemical, physical and biological departments, the first-
mentioned occupying the three stories of one wing. The central
part contains the museum hall, thirty by sixty feet, and fifty-two
feet high, with two encircling galleries —— undoubtedly the finest
and completest museum in design and contents to be found west of
New York or Michigan. It includes the $1200 set of Ward's
casts given by George H. Corliss, a $7,000 collection of mounted
mammals and birds formerly exhibited in Central Park, New York,
and a $500 series of invertebrates presented by Morris K. Jesup,
the New York banker, besides countless other specimens illustrat-
ing all the kingdoms and classes in nature.
GOUDNOW LIBRARY HALL.
This edifice is a most artistic and beautiful stone structure. It
was named in honor of Hon. E. A. Goodnow, of Worcester, Mass.,
who gave $10,500 toward its erection. Its library alcoves are
ample. Its reading-room and offices are spacious, while, with an
enlarged plan, there is added a telescope tower, both. for use and
architectural harmony. The dedication oration was by the friend
Republic of Books". An historical address was delivered on the
occasion, June 23, 1885, by the writer, as follows:
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
Goodnow Hall we formally dedicate to-day. Its corner stone was laid in the
last autumn with commemorative service of song, oration and prayer, in the pres-
ence of a large and happy gathering of citizens, students, faculty, trustees and
friends of Iowa College.
To-day, awakening our admiration, and ready for the dome, is an edifice ele-
332
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
gant in design — the work of genius, and a modern classic in art, a product of the
handiwork of skilled artisans who have moulded with chisel, perfected and shaped
with hammer, steam appliance and heat, the best of Iowa and Missouri sand and
limestone; the rare, red-tinted quartzite of the Dakotas; slate from the quarries of
New Jersey; copper from the mines of Lake Superior; chaste. and enduring pine
of the South, deftly framed with iron girders, a combination in material for
strength, beauty and utility.
It is the gem on our ample oval campus, crowned with Alumni, Chicago and
Blair Halls, at once the joyous delight and mystery to the sad throngs of visitors
who witnessed the terrible tornado desolation of three years agone. Not uuto us
shall be the praise, for it was not by us they arose. Many thousands came by the
Chicago & Rock Island Railway, and not less than fifty thousand dollars beyond
the circle of our Congregational order, with a spontaneity that discredits the
theories of total race depravity, and with rare munificence that shall evermore
express a regard by the people for collegiate education and for Iowa College, eldest
and honored of our state institutions.
In the inception there was only a library hall. The plan adopted presents an
edifice majestic in proportions, combining utility, symmetry and strength. A
lower hall is a reading-room with an annex for an art collection. The second story,
in gallery and alcoves, has a capacity for fifty thousand volumes, connected with
an office, or more quiet retreat for thought and consultation, and with easy access :
to the telescopic tower, which is so solid in structure as never to be moved by storm
or tempest; fully equal to the latest demands of science, it will lend new interest
to the students of the world's starry wonders. The architect is Mr. Stephen C.
Earl, of Worcester, Mass., whose fame is as wide as the renown of the guild.
Our honored patron was to have been a guest of the college to-day, but he is
not here to share in these festivities, and I can only voice your hearty welcome;
that of grateful children of the new West to an elderly, modest Christian gentle-
man; that he may yet come to grace a banquet in Iowa in honor of a name
endeared in the heart of the Old Commonwealth and linked with graceful, munifi-
cent charities around the globe.
Should the delicate sensibility of the orator of this occasion, Dr. Mears, omit
his prime agency in tuning the heart of our patron philanthropist here, I should
be derelict in duty and in historic fidelity, not to make this mention. He gave
cheer amidst our desolations by storm; was a helpful friend in restoration and the
Seer with a more delicate touch than that which early smote the rock to open the
fountain; he touched the heart that gives an earnest and hopeful augury of a
perennial flow that shall enrich our treasury, for the growth and efficiency of
departments in learning, to flourish as trees of the garden by the fountains of
waters.
It is more than witicism-a modern opinion – that in certain Boston circles it
is neither respectable nor safe to die without leaving a legacy for Harvard College.
We supplicate that spirit in hope that westward, like the Star of Empire, it may
"take its way”, shedding radiant and benign gifts from full coffers and affluent
hearts on this college, a child of devotion, a growth by sacrifice, and enjoying an
almost miraculous resurrection. Hail! and forever welcome our thousand bene-
factors and your children to the halls you reared, and to hearts buoyant in hope
to-day, in the dedication of our latest material treasure.
Students and college patrons will visit and revisit, in ever-increasing numbers,
our campus, to receive the inspiration of a classic retreat, lingering in the sun of
the morning as it sheds its prismatic gleam on the volumes which reflect the
wisdom and thought of the ages; ascending the tower, a telescope which invests
with new interest a study of the starry world, will awaken gratitude, while to bo
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
333
read in a rich golden sunset, chiseled in marble and in bold relief on the tower, is
the name to abide the wastes of time, and for us and our children the synonym of
Christian generosity- that of Hon. Edward A. Goodnow.
THE MARY GRINNELL MEARS COTTAGE.
There had long been earnest discussion in regard to rooms for
ladies, where supervision and the best accommodations could be
had. Only a few thousand dollars for this object were in the
treasury, when, by a glad and second surprise, the donor of Good-
now Library Hall made a gift of $5,000 to a building to be known
as the Mary Grinnell Mears Cottage. On acceptance of the condi-
tions, Rev. J. M. Chamberlain and wife gave a block of land join-
ing the campus, a most valuable and opportune place for the cot-
tage; the corner-stone being laid with appropriate ceremonies and
addresses by Rev. Mr. Chamberlain, Mrs. Crow, the lady principal,
and Mrs. Mary G. Mears. The building is tasteful in all its
appointments, and fully occupied.
EDWARD A. GOODNOW
is a venerable citizen of Worcester, Mass., a late but most sery-
iceable friend by gifts which have secured the building of Library
Hall and the Mary Grinnell Mears Cottage. Our tornado calamity
first engaged his sympathy, and later an “alumna” of the college
won his attention to our wants, which led to the securing of the
“ Ladies' Cottage”.
The following was the tribute given by the lady for whom the
cottage was named, at the laying of the corner-stone of the cottage,
June, 1888:
“The genesis of this Ladies' Cottage was in the warm pulsations of the 'Heart
of the Old Bay State Commonwealth', in the person of the eminent financier and
philanthropist -- Hon. E. A. Goodnow, of Worcester, Mass. I bring to you to-day,
a message of interest and affection from him- from one who has never trod the
soil of our Iowa—'Beautiful Land', but who has given more than fifteen thou-
sand dollars to enrich our college.
“Could you go with me to the private office of this banker, you would find a
notable art gallery. The pictures were not wrought by the skillful hand of a Van
Dyck or a Titian; they were not produced by brush and canvas at an expense of
thousands of dollars, but are simple photographs, representing in stone and brick
the results of a continual flow of blessings falling from his hand upon the daugh-
ters of benighted Africa, the red men of the forest, 'our brother in black', the
classic haunts of Holyoke and Wellesley, and upon the schools of the Evangelist
334
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Moody. But these pictures cannot represent a tithe of the Christian benevolence
which has flowed from this quiet office. A tribute to the martyr John Brown
blessed Washburn College, in Kansas; the library hall in Princeton proclaims
with silent eloquence his loyalty to his early home; nor in this presence can we
ever pleased the eye of artisan, architect or artist.
“Besides all these, Mr. Goodnow speaks to the world through scores of trained
minds in our own and other colleges, who but for his kindly aid might have been
denied the possibility of the highest development. Thus while keeping his own
heart warm, he is in the line of the highest philosophy, transmuting the perishable
treasures of earth into eternal gold, beyond the reach of Time's effacing fingers.
"As for his bounty there was no winter in't.'"
JACOB HAISH,
of De Kalb, Ill., placed a sum of money in my hands to be used at
personal discretion, to which, after years of accumulation, was
added smaller sums by Col. S. F. Cooper, J. H. Merrill and others,
resulting in the securing of an Alvan Clark telescope, already men-
tioned. At the dedication, this most thoughtful benefactor was
extolled in verse by Prof. H. W. Parker, also in an eloquent pane-
gyric and dedicatory oration by Rev. Wm. R. Scarritt, with com-
mendation by the Professor of Astronomy, S. J. Buck.
It is not in idle boast, but with grateful emotion in regard to
our benefactor, that I mention this telescope as the first in size
and modern appointments in Iowa. It makes the sublime study of
astronomy, with all cognate topics, practical for the college student
and specialist, making the college equal to the best, in this respect.
In the gifts of Mr. Goodnow, Mr. Haish and similar benefactors
will be found no application of the reproach by Dean Swift that
“reputations for benevolence could be gained by the laying out of
five pounds a year". Our friends were mainly silent givers, nor
could they be classed with ambitious townsmen, or sectarians, giv-
ing as a money investment or ministering to state pride.
AARON BENEDICT AND CHARLES BENEDICT.
These were among our earliest and noblest benefactors. The
following facts are furnished by Ex-President G. F. Magoun, D. D.:
« The Benedict Professorship of Latin in Iowa College was
founded and endowed by Deacon Aaron Benedict, of the First Con-
gregational Church, Waterbury, Conn., and Deacon Charles Bene-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
335
dict, his son, of the Second Church. Nearly twenty-five years ago
opened the way for my visiting them under the sanction of that
society. On Monday morning, after preaching in both churches
upon the Sabbath, I found them at the counting-room of the Ben-
edict & Burnham Clock Factory, the father having resigned the
oversight of the great industries he had built up to the son, but
still retaining an active interest in them. After describing the
condition, needs and opportunities of the college, Deacon Aaron
said with a smile, “I guess you had better give him, Charles, one
thousand dollars for his preaching yesterday.' My proposition to
them was to complete the endowment of the chair of ancient lan-
guages, these including Greek and Latin, the endowment of which
his death. On subsequent visits to Waterbury, other gifts were
T
assuring me once that I should always earn at least one thousand
dollars for the college by preaching in the two churches of Water-
bury. Ere long I ventured to propose the division of the lan-
guage chair, as originally contemplated by Deacon Carter, who
wished his money in that case to go to the Greek endowment, and
the creation of a Benedict endowment of Latin. The elder Bene-
dict always deferred to the judgment of his admirable son, and,
this plan being accepted, I received at one time as much as four
thousand dollars in one sum to complete ten thousand dollars for
the new chair. The evening before my marriage to the lady prin-
cipal of the Waterbury Seminary for young ladies — since St.
Margaret's' — Hon. Charles Benedict gave me for his father and
himself, ten thousand dollars to complete the endowment of twenty
thousand dollars.
“These were men of mark, capable of planning and doing large
things. Hon. Charles Benedict, a man of noble presence and spirit,
became in his last years president of the Western College Society.
Other colleges besides ours shared in his hearty and practical benef-
icence. A man of very few words, but of great administrative
ability, and steady energy, he gave as careful scrutiny to matters
of benevolence and Christian usefulness as to those of business,
and his discernment and sagacity were counted by all who knew
him of very superior value. It was the mechanical skill and
inventiveness of his father which created so much of the manu-
336
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
facturing enterprises of the beautiful city which owes so much to
them."
SAMUEL WILLISTON.
This gentleman, a resident of Easthampton, Mass., was the
largest giver to our college in one sum, $30,000. He was held in
honor as founder of Williston Seminary, a liberal patron of Mt.
Holyoke Seminary, Amherst College and other institutions of
learning. Service as a legislator, and in the governor's council,
was only. incident to his career as one of the intelligent manufac-
turers of New England. He was the pioneer button-maker, and
led in the fabrication of rubber goods, while persistent in efforts to
establish for Americans an ideal spool thread. The story of his
contest with a foreign article is one of heroism and sacrifice, only
relinquished when five hundred thousand dollars had been
expended to meet the demands of Americans. His better pay for
labor and high-interest account did not furnish the full occasion of
the failure. It was rather a colossal foreign combination which
led to his defeat. Still, he enjoyed the well-sounded fame of a
manufacturer, whose wealth was bestowed in the spirit of a broad
philanthropy. Childless, his great heart adopted the homeless,
who have gone forth in numbers to reflect the highest social
virtues.
His interest in Iowa College was first awakened by Dr. J. C.
Holbrook, octogenarian, now of California, who early told the story
of our college, seeking an endowment of fifty thousand dollars.
Mr. Williston had knowledge of one of its founders, and had culti-
vated the zeal of an apostle of Christian education; and from his
broad brain and warm heart there was a constant flow in benefac-
tions. The first pledge was a conditional one of twenty thousand
dollars, but knowing how sound were our president's views on the
tariff system, and the high temperance standard of the town, in
the centre of the state, he cheerfully made his gift absolute. Later,
on visiting Grinnell, mingling with our students and people, he
said no gift of his life had afforded him more pleasure, adding, “If
my business will allow I shall increase the endowment to thirty
thousand dollars." This was at a critical epoch in our history,
when he attested his devotion to the college, notwithstanding his
great losses. Since I had nothing to do incipiently in enlisting our
REMINISCENCES OF TORTL YEARS.
337
great benefactor, I will add, though it may seem egotistical, that I
sent my speech in Congress to him in favor of our tariff, contain-
ing an answer to the rebel threat that New England was to be
“left out in the cold”. In acknowledgment he said, “I have
decided, so well.pleased am I with your views, to add ten thousand
dollars to my original investment, which has given me unalloyed
pleasure.” Thus another benefactor needs no monument, for he
lives in the hearts of those whom he would elevate, and by the
memories of a noble citizen, a patriotic American, and an exem-
plary Christian.
J. P. WILLISTON,
of Northampton, was his brother, an example in humble giving
which inspired others; and he became an eminent example by his
gifts to our college and to others. He was a man of eminent self-
sacrifice, living plainly that he might gladden the hearts of the
poor and encourage young Christian institutions on the frontier.
WILLIAM E. DODGE.
This name recalls the lamented philanthropist, who was a
Christian laborer and munificent giver; I have on another occasion
held him to be the model Christian statesman.
I pause before his elegant full likeness in bronze, on Broadway,
New York, erected by the Chamber of Commerce, over which he
so long presided. I visit the spacious Home for Inebriates, which
he endowed, and read the instructive biographic volume by his
son, Dr. D. Stuart Dodge, which should be in every library,
refreshing to young and old in review of the life of a princely mer-
chant, patriotic congressman, and the dispenser of millions of dol-
lars for the education and elevation of our people.
It was about twelve thousand dollars which he gave to Iowa
College in its dark hours, but as drops to the ocean in comparison
with the measure of his charities, to be the more esteemed in asso-
ciation with the counsels of his life and the prayers which fol-
lowed his gifts. I have no doubt that the Dodge Professorship
would have been fully endowed had his life been spared to make a
desired visit to Iowa, whose people, in their intelligence and pro-
hibitory temperance legislation, won his admiration. From the
338
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
surviving members of the family the college is still the recipient
of money gifts, prompted by the same spirit which helped forward
a college on the Bosphorus and in most of our States in the Union.
The temperance cause has lost its most ardent advocate as well
as its most liberal patron, the national organ having been sustained
by him financially for many years; and there will be found what
is not known to the public, that there is a fund, secured by his
liberality and solicitation, amounting to sixty thousand dollars, the
interest of which will be used for the suppression of intemperance.
Whatever may be said of the colossal wealth of the deceased, his
warm living hand has disbursed charity in millions of dollars,
being the patron of colleges, seminaries and academies here and in
all lands beyond the ocean, and more than thirty men are ministers
of the Gospel who gained their education by the benefactions of
the lamented William E. Dodge. Though a Presbyterian, he was
the vice-president of the American board, and the largest contribu-
tor annually to missions, which was an index to a character never
moved by clamor and built up in adherence to sacred principles.
Thus in our rebellion he was a patriot. In Congress the friend of
labor, and an advocate of a tariff in seeming opposition to his pecun-
iary interest as an importer. His last public speech was in Cooper
Institute, with Peter Cooper and Evarts, in support of the American
system.
Mr. Dodge was a most accomplished presiding officer, sagacious,
quick in execution and genial. Facts in moral and financial dis-
cussions he marshalled with adroitness, and used them with the skill
of a persuasive orator. He never wearied; nor faltered under the
heaviest load and the darkest cloud, but as a great-hearted friend
he will longest be remembered.
OAKES AMES.
It was by a casual remark on leaving Congress, and in response
to the good wishes of Mr. Ames, that I said he could best show his
regard for me by endowing a professorship in Iowa College. His
reply was, “What! would you advise me, a large borrower of
money and with the Pacific Railroad on my back, to pledge money
to a college? But I will think of it.” He set out after years of
accumulation to carry forward a great work, which I hoped might
keep our name to be remeinbered with honor; but there was some
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
339
doubt in the midst of capricious enemies. I took a hopeful view
of the Pacific Railroad scheme. The next day at lunch he took
out his memorandum book, and wrote, “I propose to place in the
hands of Mr. J. B. Grinnell six thousand dollars, as the beginning
of a professorship in Iowa College at Grinnell.”
Years passed, and knowing of his troubles by false and timid
friends, and observing as we met in Boston that not only was his
credit gone, but that he was sinking under his misfortunes, it was
no surprise that there was an announcement that the great-hearted
Ames, on being clouded in his reputation by a vote of Congress,
had died of a broken heart. Later, his son, Oliver Ames, since
and for several terms an honored governor of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, wrote me as follows: “I find a pencil memorandum
made by my father some years ago, proposing to give six thousand
dollars toward a professorship in Iowa College. You know of his
decease, and I regret to inform you that he left no money or avail-
able assets to meet the wishes indulged in time of prosperity. If
there should be a turn in affairs and it is found possible to do any-
thing, I will advise you."
It is a happy sequel that, before he was a candidate for gov-
ernor, he wrote, “I think I can pass to your treasurer bonds to the
amount of six thousand dollars, if you will accept them.” Later,
he sent word that it was his pleasure to cash the bonds in honor of
his father and pay the interest in full if desired.
• This act, the prompting of generosity, I made public in honor
of father and son; and I united in a volume with the leading men
of the nation in vindication of the motives of Mr. Ames in regard
to the “Credit Mobilier”, and, later, called out the car-loads of
passengers to cheer in the shadow of the monument in Wyoming,
erected in honor of the brothers, builders of the Union Pacific
Railroad, saying that their names would be remembered with
gratitude -
“Until the sun grows cold,
And the stars are old.”
MRS. DANIEL P. STONE.
By solicitation of President Magoun, this liberal lady, faithful
to the benevolent wishes of her husband, gave twenty-five thousand
dollars for the express purpose of endowing a chair of natural his-
340
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
tory for Prof. Henry W. Parker. She acted in consultation with
her relative and wise adviser, Rev. William H. Willcox, D. D., who
by request writes the following: .
“ Mr Daniel P. Stone, a Boston merchant, died in 1878, leaving
an estate of about two millions. After making liberal provision
for his few kindred, he gave the great bulk of his property to his
widow, “to do with it whatsoever she saw fit'. She at once made
large gifts to her relatives, in anticipation of bequests they would
otherwise have received through her will, and then proceeded to
give away the remainder to needy individuals and institutions. I
was at the time pastor of a Congregational Church in Reading,
Mass., but, having married a dearly-loved niece of Mrs. Stone, she
invited me to relinquish my parish and become her confidential
adviser in the distribution of her fortune. It seemed such a prov-
idential call that I could not refuse. I at once decided that no
wiser use of the money could be made than by appropriating it
mainly to the cause of Christian education. Mrs. Stone readily
accepted my advice, and the funds of our colleges and seminaries
were increased by nearly a million dollars."
CORNELIUS B. ERWIN, OF NEW BRITAIN, CT.
In his munificent charities Mr. Erwin remembered Iowa Col-
lege, with others made the residuary legatees. The manager of
the estate predicts that our share of the fund will be at from
$25,000 to $50,000. It is an instance of forecast by a great man-
ufacturer and warm friend of the American system.
Mr. Erwin truly lent dignity to the manufacturer, personally
won the hearts of his townsmen, and made the church with which
he was associated and many educational institutions his debtors
for gifts never to be forgotten.
OTHER BENEFACTORS.
Most fortunate is our state, so rich in nature and advancing
with rapid stride under high social and moral conditions, in enlist-
ing so eminent a roll of benefactors, for its first Christian college.
I shall mention the names of many, in the hope that their spirit
may be contagious, and in further belief that we have been derelict
in recognition of our obligations to those who have not only given
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
341
of their abundance but of their limited income. The small gifts
of those omitted may outweigh the donations of thousands, while a
mention of names will be proof that the college would honor the
children by a remembrance of the good deeds of their fathers, gone
to their reward.
First and worthy of recall are those early associated with the
founding of professorships, in an institution which they had never
seen and a thousand miles from their homes.
Preserve Wood Carter, a native of Wolcott, Ct., and an extens-
ive manufacturer in Waterbury, Ct., was the founder of the Carter
Professorship. His son, Franklin Carter, now the distinguished
president of Williams College, wrote me, during the last year,
facts from which I glean the following:
“Rev. Ephraim Adams, Prof. Erastus Ripley and Rev. Julius
A. Reed, men of Davenport, Iowa, awakened his interest in Iowa
College, which led to a gift of five thousand dollars, while his
entire property was not worth over fifty thousand dollars. He
enjoyed giving, but never gave so large an amount to any other
institution. He gave to Yale, to home missions, to foreign mis-
sions, to churches and local charities. Everything that related to
the West interested him. This gift was a great thing for him,"
says this son, “and I always feel that I have inherited a right to
beg for this college. He was a whig and republican. My earliest
remembrance of politics goes back to the campaign of 1844, and I
remember standing by him as he read the New York Tribune, giv-
ing the details of Clay's defeat. He gave utterance to the feeling
that no more good could come to our country. He was of an ardent
nature, a profound believer in Calvinism, and named his eldest son
Calvin. Neither of his sons has accomplished as much, consider-
ing all things, as he accomplished. I am very glad he gave that
money to your college, but he died worth only about seventy-five
thousand dollars, leaving a widow and three sons. I am the last
of the family and I thank God for such a father and mother as I
had.”
Ebenezer Alden, M. D., of Randolph, Mass., father of Secretary
Alden, of the American Board, gave anatomical models, and, after
the tornado, replaced the set with a more valuable one; also, made
bequest of $5,000 to the college, to be increased by part of the
interest to $10,000, as an Alden fund.
In the East, from the estate of John C. Whitin, of Whitinsville,
342
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Mass. ($5,000), and Dr. E. Alden, of Boston, money came for the
Museum, supplemented by gifts, already mentioned, from Morris
K. Jesup, the benevolent banker of New York, and the late George
H. Corliss. Wendell Phillips found his “next friend” with a
thousand dollars, while Deacon David Whitcomb, of Worcester,
Deacon E. Farnsworth and Samuel Johnson, of Boston, and Wil-
liam Hyde, of Ware, Mass., on more than one occasion in extremity
came to our relief.
· The burning of East College was a heavy blow which enlisted
new friends, among whom were James F. Joy, of Detroit, Nathaniel
Thayer, of Boston, and B. F. Allen, of Des Moines, each giving a
check for a thousand dollars, followed by smaller sums from J. W.
Brooks, John N. Dennison and H. H. Hunnewell, of Boston.
How many of our benefactors have passed away — some whom
I have mentioned, and others who were also large givers. How
W. E. Dodge, David Dows and S. B. Chittenden, of New York,
John F. Slater, of Norwich, Ct., Ethan Rogers, of New Jersey,
Wendell Phillips, J. Nickerson, Deacon David Whitcomb and Dea-
Vermont, have during the last eight years gone to their reward.
. IOWA BENEFACTORS.
These are numerous. The earlier gifts were by self-denial, the
later meaning less of sacrifice, but prompted by confidence in the
college and a conviction that a religious college was one of the
chief demands of the state. The zeal of our patrons is not to be
estimated by small subscriptions, but in association with numer-
ous other gifts and enlightened Christian zeal.
SENATOR AND GOVERNOR JAMES W. GRIMES
was peculiarly an adviser and friend, supplementing his interest in
popular education by the gift of a valuable section of land, to
which Mrs. Grimes has added money, making a total sum of ten
thousand dollars. Governor Grimes was pleased with the rural
central location of the college, and predicted that it would at an
early day rival our best eastern institutions. He provided that
promising students should be aided by his gifts, in perpetuity.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
343
REV. JOB CUSHMAN
was a lineal descendent of Robert Cushman, deceased in 1625, who
preached the first sermon printed in America. Its subject was
“The sin and danger of self-love", and it was dated 1621. It was
at an early day that he came to Grinnell, and he is remembered as
a singular character, of warm attachments and decided conviction.
In the East a pastor for nearly a half century, he had witnessed
the struggles of poor clergymen, and was pained at their neglect
in old age. In the town of Chester, near Grinnell, he made an
entry of a large tract of land, from the profits of which he estab-
lished a fund for poor ministers. Iowa College, later, awakened
his sympathy, and he gave a liberal sum toward ornamenting the
campus, and other moneys amounting to six or seven thousand
dollars, in bequest on his death. Old age ended his career and he
was buried in our cemetery after affectionate care for him in his
sickness. The college erected a suitable marble testimonial to his
memory.
CHARLES F. DYKE.
This gentleman, an eastern manufacturer, fortunately for Iowa
College married the daughter of the Rev. S. L. Herrick (now Mrs.
J. M. Chamberlain), early a professor and for a quarter of a cen-
tury a trustee of the college. Mr. Dyke was a large-hearted
philanthropist, and the needs of the colored people at the South
awakened his attention while living, and, at death, his bequests
amounted to a large sum. His stay in our city was not long, ill-
health requiring a change to the Pacific coast. His dust, however,
reposes here in Hazelwood Cemetery. He was a noble character;
and some seven or eight thousand dollars came from his estate to
our almost empty treasury. The kindly offices of Mr. Herrick and
his daughter, Mrs. Dyke, here deserve grateful mention.
REV. J. M. CHAMBERLAIN.
Apart from gifts, there are few persons who have been longer
associated with the institution, and none in more honorable service,
than Rev. J. M. Chamberlain. For nearly twenty years he was
treasurer, and now is acting librarian, not prompted by a salary,
344
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
rather by the impulses of a scholar. On the board of control for
twenty-five years his counsels have been marked by conservatism,
together with vigilance and wisdom.
The scheme for a circle of ladies' cottages was especially cham-
pioned by Mr. Chamberlain, but involved a plat of ground which
the college did not own. The tornado wrecked his home in the
midst of a vacant square adjoining the campus, and he transformed
be improved and occupied. The gift was large and opportune, and
a reflection of the generosity of one who at the corner-stone dedi-
cation, in clear and winning speech, won most hearty plaudits.
The generosity of our friend and his wife will find a heartier appre-
ciation in the lapse of time, when a fine group of buildings in good
service shall crown the aspirations of the givers.
SETH RICHARDS.
This gentleman of Yankee birth was broadened by the pioneer
activities and environments related to an eventful career. It is
thirty-five years since, on a Sunday morning, he left the stage-coach,
walking miles to reach our prairie school-house in sight, to become
a worshipper rather than a stage-traveler. He became my guest,
will have a church, and the model state a Christian college."
This was in keeping with his early agency in determining a site for
the college, eventually located at Davenport. The public is in
doubt, alike as to the sum of Mr. Richards' benefactions and of his
total wealth ; but it is no mere guess that his gifts have been large
and discriminating, and that he is one of the few wealthy men of
our state. Bentonsport, Iowa, has for near fifty years been nom-
inally his home. Later, in Oakland, Cal., he has erected a mansion
(from which his esteemed wife has just passed away to her reward),
in view of an institution of learning, which is said to have shared
largely in his benefactions. I do not even venture an opinion as
to the measure of his charities, but recall how welcome was the
announcement that the gift of the Christian philanthropist was
$20,000, the income of which was to be used in perpetuity for
the Richards professorship of Iowa College. Bravely does our
friend meet the infirmities of an octogenarian, while maintaining
a lively interest in our temperance issue, and the success of that
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
345
financial policy, not less than to its constitutional guarantees for
the freedmen.
The interest of these brothers in Iowa College dates back to
ante-bellum times, when residents of MacGregor, Iowa. After the
tornado, Mr. J. H. Merrill, a Christian financier of the highest
rank, aided in restoring our wastes in the sum of $5,000, since
added to by liberal amounts and expenditure of time and thought
in the interests of the institution, of which he has long been a
trustee, and from which his son and daughter have graduated
with honor. At a late day the Ex-Governor handed me a proposal
and obligation to found a professorship in the sum of $20,000.
Bonds and stocks have been passed to the treasury as an earnest
of the good faith of the donor. Mr. Merrill served the state
officially with great credit, and has been successfully engaged in
railway construction and as president of the Citizens' Bank, Des
Moines. The precarious health of Mrs. Merrill, deceased, and of
their son, required a change of climate, and he is, we trust, only
temporarily a resident of Rialto, California.
EDWIN MANNING.
The name of this gentleman, a resident of Keosauqua, Iowa,
has been as a household word in the Des Moines valley for nearly
fifty years. My first vote in Iowa was cast for him as a state
officer. It was his last official trust, for he often declined promo-
tion, while in the varied roll of pioneer land-owner, merchant and
banker, his policies have been wise, and in executions of great
trusts he has shown that fidelity and broad patriotism which gave
him high rank as a war-patriot. The millionaires of the dark
hours among whom he is classed, were esteemed the cautious.
Not of this class was Mr. Manning, who offered of his money and
his credit to equip the soldiers, when compelled to decline a field
office in our late war. Mr. Manning, now passed his four-score
years, is full of vigor and takes a lively interest in the great moral,
social and financial questions of his time, being an ardent repub-
lican. Repeated have been his gifts to Iowa College, now
346
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
expanded to a tract of land in Iowa of the value of $20,000,
which the guardians of that institution will regard the more highly
for the eminent character of the donor.
LEONARD F. PARKER.
It was by a good fortune before mentioned, that Professor and
Mrs. Parker became associated with Grinnell University, and later
with Iowa College. The invitations to become a professor in the
State University at Iowa City were earnest and prolonged, resulting
in an absence of twenty years, greatly to the advantage of another
institution, while our loss was in corresponding measure. He
returned to us with native enthusiasm, to fill the chair of his
choice. Was it in memory of labors and sacrifices here, that here
in our cemetery reposes the sacred dust of his children, and that the
warm devotion of long and partial friends overcame all obstacles
to a return, to take up the congenial labors of his early life. Such
may seem the three-fold cord to allure and bind. There are other
facts, not now for the public, which are significant of the generos-
ity of a friend and his devotion to the college. Professor Parker,
in addition to faculty service, is officially appointed to write an
educational history of Iowa, which can but be of interest to her
youth and their guardians, while the freshness and vigor of his
occasional addresses and sermons, cause an exhaustive demand upon
his time.
The Leonard F. Parker professorship is as assured as the solid-
ity of our finances and the perpetuity of our institution.
ALONZO STEELE.
If true that “a prophet is not without honor save in his own
country", it is not always true that a college is not held in honor
at home.
Mr. Steele, of Arcade, N. Y., a farmer and manufacturer, was
attracted to Grinnell by the college, on which he has bestowed. a
gift of $20,000. This home endorsement is of peculiar signifi-
cance and value, for its founders were his friends; the finances
were managed with business care, while a corps of able professors
won his regard not less than the students and graduates.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
347
Our friend is yet robust, at over seventy years, and takes a
lively interest in public affairs, while the prosperity of the college
is a welcome theme. Says the generous giver, “When I saw
plainly the path of duty I had the decision to walk in it. Leav-
ing large amounts to children often brings more evil than good.
I was not permitted to have a liberal education, and have often
felt the 'want of it, and it will be a pleasure while I live, to see the
graduates starting out, and to know that they can speak and act
well, after we have passed away.”
The name of the professorship is only an incident to its found-
ing and value, yet most appropriate. There was a daughter, Myra,
a lovely character, who passed away when budding into the beauty
of womanhood. Her life was a cherished memory, now enshrined
in the endowment of the Myra Steele Professorship.
Other townsmen might be added to this list if it were permit-
ted to mention their names. Mr. L. N. Sherman is not spared in
life to protest, and his memory is fragrant in association with early
gifts, and a later one of $1,000, supplemented by a generous pro-
vision of his will, which in a contingency leaves a large sum to
the college. He well represented the many intelligent and noble
people of our adjoining Christian town of Chester, which has not
only given material aid in our needs, but also sent hither many of
our best students.
LADY DONORS.
The “Lords" are not alone the recipients of the honors of wise
stewardship.
Mrs. Rand, of Burlington, Iowa, is one of our later but not less
valued friends. Her husband, the late Hon. E. D. Rand, held the
place of one of Iowa's most liberal givers to the church; and as
legislator, financier, was one of our noblemen. Iowa College was
in his thoughts, but he could safely leave the disposition of prop-
erty to one so long of his spirit, and who, on the death of a favor-
ite grandson, has made a gift in memorial for the founding of the
Gear Professorship, the sum being $25,000. Coincident it is our
further good fortune to elect the son a trustee. He brings the
guarantees of the career of an educated gentleman that the fam-
ily trust-fund will be well expended, and the weal of the college
promoted.
348
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
MRS. LAVINIA PIERCE.
This lady was of Cummington, Mass., and twenty years ago
gave $1,000 for a ladies' educational fund, from which has flowed
a rill refreshing the spirit and smoothing the way for indigent
but worthy lady students.
This generous benefactor has supplemented the $10,000 given
by her husband in the sum of $1200, the income of which is
appropriated to students of promise.'
MRS. R. D. STEPHENS.
The widow of an honored trustee, to whose place she was
elected, she, with the same spirit, has made repeated and liberal
gifts. Her home is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
MRS. HARRIET B. SCOTT,
the wife of one of our early pioneers, and now at an advanced age,
has seen great good flowing from the early generosity of herself
and her husband, Mr. Anor Scott, and has made the college a gift
of several thousand dollars.
In concluding the names of our noble friends, there is one, a
character whose name, if I were permitted to write it, has a sacred
designation in doing “ more than they all”. The long roll given
mainly represents those who have given of their abundance, while
the founder of the Ellwood fund gave of his living. But who is
he? His name and benefactions must be unknown until the ear is
deaf to human praise. Bowed with years and trembling, he leans
on a staff. In the circle of prayer he is heard in broken emotional
accents. Copious tears flow on the mention of good news for the
college. He waits patiently to end his pilgrimage, following his
suggestion, and in the reflection that a feeble old man had long
rested on a Divine arm, and that home bereavement made it possi-
ble in the exercise of faith to link the departed Ellwood with those
who should preach that gospel which for more than a half century
had been the giver's solace and trust. This is the Christian
REMINISCENCES OF FORTS YEARS.
349
mechanic whose poverty compels frugality, and whose threadbare
clothing hides the heart of a nobleman, never weary in the men-
tion of the love of Christ, nor fearful of hunger though made poor
by pecuniary sacrifices which in the education of others may bring
delight to him and honor to his Saviour.
OUR RELATIONS TO THE STATE UNIVERSITY.
: As the oldest collegiate institution this side of the Mississippi,
Iowa College has a right to exist, and independently; and it will
so continue. There is room for the State University, with post
graduate and special courses, in accord with the popular ideas.
There is, also, a field large enough for denominational colleges. It
has been cultivated without unseemly rivalry and friction. With
these advantages, tax-payers are restive under their indirect
certain schools of medicine, when the public demand may be met
without state aid. The present policy savors of favoritism and
cannot in reason long survive the edicts of popular opinion.
Then there has emanated, from those enjoying state patronage,
an unseemly decrying of the colleges, with a proposition to mass all
in an overshadowing university to lessen cost and gain the fame of
an Oxford. Without questioning the motives of the agitators, I
deprecated the scheme as utopian, using this language:
"It must be only a wild and chimerical scheme, the bringing of
four thousand students together, involving an appropriation of a
million of dollars for buildings, and tens of thousands annually for
instructors, which could find no advocates save in a locality, or by
those depreciating the scholarship in the colleges and indifferent
save in the advocacy of a scheme where there should be no relig-
ious basis.
“The suggestion is at once chimerical and revolting. Fathers
and mothers ask not how cheap is the college, but what strength
will it bring; how high a standard in morals, and what perils will
be escaped. Iowa colleges are founded in the philosophy of the
fathers, and have been and will be cherished with the devotion of
Christian patriots. As a rule the attractions of education have
secured electic affinities, the localizing of families whose virtuous
execration, joined with instincts of self preservation, have made
the saloon and correlated infamies to share the fate of hated
.
350
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
exotics. No, no, owls and bats shall never occupy our vacated
college halls at the behest of jealously false economy, or the dic-
tation of pedantry and shallow statecraft. Founders, who watched
college growth with a devotion kindred to that felt for their chil-
dren, shall not live to witness such perversity, nor will the van-
dalism toppling the shafts in the cemetery and defaming the
names of our honored dead, be imitated by even grosser acts of sac-
rilege in razing the college walls made vocal with the grateful
praise of occupants, fitted and schooled therein for life's toils by
the generous founders of professorships, whose fame and fortune
can never be clouded and absorbed in a state pool.
“But this is the crowning consideration and fatal to the
scheme. You cannot hide the deformity of the old lie, that there
can be the highest and completest education without a thoroughly
religious influence. Sectarianism, often unjustly charged upon
Christian colleges, is another thing, and has been carefully avoided
by Iowa College.”
A COLLEGE TRUST.
I may be somewhat singular in the views I here offer, but it is
more than a conviction; it is a fact that ninety-nine hundredths of
our funds came from the adherents of a national protective policy,
who believed that their prosperity was due to it. What trustee,
remembering this, can be indifferent to a palpable, implied obliga-
tion? Where can be found a real excuse for a divergence until
there is an essential change in our commercial relations ? What
else would it be than a grave dereliction and reproach to the dead,
and an offense to their kindred.
It does not meet the case to say, “There is a toleration of the
silent patrons and we give all sides”. No! he that is not for is
against, in a sharp issue. Certainly there has been no doubt as to
the instruction in political economy in Iowa College in the past;
it must have been a great controlling fact in the minds of some of
our benefactors. Strict fidelity, then, in the use of trust funds will
not overlook the known wishes of testator and friend, though not
written. There will be more than respect for the prudent and
sagacious patrons who, if permitted to speak, would execrate a
departure for which there is no excuse found in radical and
changed economical relations.
CHAPTER XXII.
The Tornado of 1882— Descriptive Incidents — Relation to the
Town— Visit to Princely Givers — Personals.
PEMINISCENCES of the Grinnell tornado may be prefaced with
one of the most vivid descriptions, of which there were hundreds,
of this direful storm. It is from the pen of Rev. David O. Mears
D. D., of Worcester, Mass. He, as the Iowa college orator for
that year, was on the ground, and not only witnessed the desola-
· tion, but stimulated the courage of those who were enlisted in the
work of restoration.
THE TORNADO.
“The 17th of June, 1882, in Grinnell, was a day of terror
and of death. All through the sunshine the sky seemed a cur-
tain, above which the intolerable heat could not find a vent. Not
a breath of air moved even the topmost leaves of the highest trees.
The grass, parched by the burning heat, rustled like silk, beneath
the tread of men who ventured upon their errands. Even the chil-
dren gave way to the oppressiveness of the day, and waited for the
sun to set. The cattle sought the shade of the trees, but panted
for breath, as if between them and the sun there was no foliage.
They sniffed the air in fear of what men did not see. The birds
winged a hurried flight before the storm-clouds for safety.
“The evening gave no rest. From an hour before sunset, hurry-
ing clouds banked the western sky. These clouds, colored with
green and yellow and crimson, swayed to and fro in malignant
shape, arresting attention through their fantastic changes. As if
to keep company with such furies, a rising gale swept the heated
streets and homes. At eight o'clock, after the sunset, the huge
clouds put on their deepest black, as of mourning for what was to
352
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
come. Following a fierce thunder-gust of rain, and a brief, deathly
calm, at a quarter past eight, the black funnel-shaped cloud was
seen making its awful course. Within its sable folds the caged
lightnings were at their horrid play. Almost in a moment of
time there was the fearful terror of blackness and the deadly
roar—and all was still as if the shrill whistling train of death
were passed.
“There was only death and ruin left in its track, save where
people had hidden in cellars, some of whom were yet prisoners
beneath the debris. Buildings had been tossed like egg shells
from their foundations. Freight trains with many cars had been
seized by the fiery hands and tossed off the track. The ponderous
locomotive had been lifted from its standing place as children toss
their toys. Trees within its track were twisted from their roots,
some one way, and some another, by the electric forces in their
1
hubs by a process no man has discovered. Carriages were lifted
from the street and lodged in the tops of trees. Human beings.
were seized by the terrible blast and carried away hundreds of
feet, and left among the ruins that had covered from sight the
streets and gardens. Huge timbers were driven deep into the
earth as no ponderous hammers could drive them. The college
buildings of stone and brick were crumbled under the crunching
hand of destruction. For the width of a quarter of a mile, the
prostrated ruins were a monument of death. Thirty-two dead
bodies were left as its evidences, while nearly a hundred persons
more were seriously wounded. Soldiers, who had seen the field
after the battle, declared the tornado an avenger even above war
itself. The City Hall, as a morgue, revealed a power putting the
pestilence as mortally slow."
Never was destruction so met by sympathy from all sources.
The position of the city upon the question of morals and educa-
tion, was a reason for quickening the responses for help the coun-
try over. Nearly a quarter of a million dollars was given in funds
to relieve the town and the college.
The dead were not buried when the founder of the town started
out for assistance. City and college were on his heart. Before
the boards of trade in Chicago and New York he made his
plea for the people whose interests seemed his own. Among the
prominent churches of the land, he plead their cause. He was
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
353
introduced to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, by Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher, whose words were reported in a daily paper.*
The greetings of the churches of the country were hearty and
emphatic, like that of the Plymouth Church. The first substan-
tial messages of sympathy were from the writer's life-long
friends, William E. Dodge and Wendell Phillips. The spirit of the
business men was signalled by that of John V. Farwell of Chicago,
who said to his clerk, “If Grinnell does not come around for help
to-day, send him a thousand dollars to-morrow.” In Boston, it
was the same as in New York and Chicago. Over the stricken
city, there was a common sympathy from those whose names were
and are a tower of strength. Autograph-seekers would find great
joy, could they only get the signatures of the generous contribu-
tors to the relief of our suffering town. It is somewhat indicative
of the power of sympathy over merely church lines, that of some
forty thousand dollars raised by the writer among his business
acquaintances, for Iowa College, in a few months, not more than
ten thousand came from members of the same denomination as the
College.
Such a universal sympathy gave courage to the desolated town.
Upon the following week was to occur the college commencement;
what should be done? In reply to a telegram of inquiry from one
who had been invited to deliver an address upon the occasion, Mr.
Grinnell replied: "Come, and speak; church not destroyed. Col-
lege will go on with buildings destroyed.” In the city shadowed
by the awful event of the week before, the friends of the College
**Not long after I came to Brooklyn I was associated with a preacher who is
now on this platform, who was, however, obliged on account of failing health to
remove from the East to the then hardly settled State of Iowa, and purchased
large landed interests there. Mr. Grinnell has devoted his life to the welfare of
of his ancestors in New York and Massachusetts. In that city Mr. Grinnell has
college trustee, inember of the state Senate, member of Congress, president of the
University, but I think not anything military; but he has been a farmer, a lawyer,
a preacher, and everything by turns- a thoroughgoing Yankee. Largely owing,
perhaps wholly owing to his zeal and enterprise, the college was founded in the
city of Grinnell, and his influence has been felt for good all over the city and in
every part of the state, and we are only waiting for him to die to make a very
remarkable man of him; and I hope we may wait a great many years. He comes
before you this evening to speak, at my request, of the great temperance victory
that has been won in Iowa, and also of the tornado disaster that has befallen that
state, and I have much pleasure in introducing to you J. B: Grinnell, of Iowa."
354
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
met to leave no broken commencement. The students left the
bedsides of the injured to perform their parts. Papers of the
injured were read by those able to do them such a service.
Without a building upon the campus, there went forth the
invincible spirit that of itself invited new students in good num-
bers the coming term. While the fires were smouldering beneath
the ruins of one building, a new cornerstone was laid with impres-
sive services. A poem by Professor Parker was given, also an
eloquent address by President Magoun. Then the writer was
introduced, as a speaker. He had just returned from Chicago,
cheered by the responses there. He declared that this was no
time for groans. He reminded that only God had been here, who
tempers the winds to the shorn lamb. He saw in the desolation a
new advertisement for the college. He spoke of the older build-
ings that were in ruins; and reminded them that the new shall
exceed the old in beauty. With a thought of the humorous, he
said that there were less trees on the campus than formerly. It
seemed a rude act in the sight of some to cut away any of the
trees; but now the storm has given sunlight. But not alone the
sunlight, the speaker referred to the hand of the Almighty in
this great stroke. At the same time he wished it distinctly under-
stood that there was not one chance in twenty-five millions of a
tornado ever striking the same place again. Heroism in the line
of duty was stirred to its depths by his recital of the fact that the
only uninjured thing in all that devastation was the slab, in one of
the destroyed buildings, on which were chiselled the names of the
dead soldiers who had left the college for the war.
. Under the azure of that beautiful sky which only a few days
hefore had been swept by the terrible tempest, the resurrected col-
lege came into view. The famous words of Marius have been
handed down the centuries, words sent back to Rome as a confes-
sion of his weakness : “Tell the Prætor that you have seen Caius
Marius, a fugitive, sitting on the ruins of Carthage." A sentiment
like this found no place either in the city or college of Grinnell. It
was rather the heroism of the Pilgrims by the side of the returning
the lives not already sacrificed.
My diary of the electric tornado of June 17, 1882, is not a
brief one. Never in our nation's annals has there been recorded
a more devastating track by a storm. In chronology it is the day
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
355
and the month of the historic battle of Bunker Hill, June 17.
saloon policy, I was West at the city of Atlantic that night, con-
tending against oppressive heat, in ignorant unconcern for our peo-
ple, where houses were wrecked and the occupants, a hundred or
more, were maimed, and forty meeting death by the storm. A
trivial loss was our college buildings, the pride of the town, com-
pared to the sad fate of two noble students buried in the ruins,
and others seriously maimed. Mr. Royce, superintendent of the
Rock Island Road, dispatched a train for me, giving but an inti-
mation of the extent of the ruin. While the train was making
fifty miles an hour, my agony in fear for the fate of my family
can better be imagined than described. Not until I reached Des
Moines could I hear of their safety.
It was Sunday morning when I reached home; but few were
the religious services in central Iowa on that day. Special trains
on the four roads brought physicians, nurses, and thousands of the
curious, to crowd the blocked streets from which the maimed, the
dying and the dead were being removed. The part of the town
destroyed was much like a half moon, and for three quarters of a
mile one could walk on the debris. A hundred photographic views
were taken of the ruins, but none nor all could depict it fully.
Some were rescued with broken bones; others carried into the air
to fall lifeless. Hospital care and the burying of the dead were
the first services — an occasion of touching scenes never to be
pictured. Great was the gratitude of those who had escaped, and
the opening of a brother's heart to the unfortunate, homeless and
bereft of child or parents. Next was the proffered aid by hund-
reds of strangers, supplemented by telegrams from distant friends
advising of drafts on the way, and words of cheer. In a mention
of the sufferers, there was no regard to property or station —some
of the best houses utterly destroyed, and their treasures scattered
to the winds. Several of the well-known and substantial citizens
were maimed, but the deaths were mainly the young and of those
less known in society. I make exception of Deacon William Ford
and wife, he above seventy years, remarking but a few days before
that his work was done and he was ready to go. The venerable
couple were borne into the air while watching the storm, falling no
doubt lifeless.
The front of the house of our venerable ex-mayor, L. C. Phelps,
356
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
was entirely removed, with the rich contents of the rooms, save a
portrait of the absent son, Prof. L. A. Phelps, of the Chicago Musi-
cal College. That face, unremoved on the wall, lent a smile of
hope and was an omen of cheer brought by his early presence and
that of devoted and liberal kindred.
Twenty-nine were borne from the Congregational church to
Hazlewood cemetery in one day. There was no lack of the best
medical aid for the maimed; and those engaged in the work of
restoration began making shelters for the homeless.
The Clarkson Brothers, of the State Register, gave a most full
and graphic account of the disaster, and, like most of the press,
sent liberal contributions in relief. Governor Sherman made a
state and national appeal. Even early in the morning, Hon. Eze-
kiel Clark, of Iowa City, with emotion and tears said, as we met,
"Here is five hundred dollars”. This, by one so well known, stim-
ulated bankers, cities and companies of farmers to great liberality.
Nearly one hundred and fifty thousand dollars came into the hands
of Mayor Perry anıl the committee. This is a larger sum than all
the kindred calamities in the West for years before or since have
received in charities for like sufferers. For this no one person can
take the credit- it was sweet charity, and a tribute to the charac-
ter of the town with a temperance history, and the seat of Iowa
College attractive to elevated citizenship. There was no scandal
in the collection or disbursement of funds, and I think no one made
a charge for financial agency in their collection, which reflects the
highest honor on the part of the local committees. Our maimed
and the dead can never pass out of the thought of the living, nor
can the spared cease to wonder that so beautiful homes could so
soon rise on the ruins. It is a great fact that the greatest era of
the city's prosperity dates from the restoration of homes and col-
leges. This was not possible without the courage inspired, not by
words of sympathy alone, but by the great charities, never to be
forgotten by the recipients. I only instance the well-built and fur-
nished home of Professor Buck, which was in ruins. Scholars and
brother professors said it should be restored. It was. The orator
at commencement, Doctor Mears, gave cheer in his oration, which
hastened the laying of the granite corner-stone for Alumni Hall
before the weeping Jeremiahs ended their grief.
The orator asks: “Am I wrong in saluting Iowa College a child,
both in spirit and deed, of Pilgrim and Puritan? Its early history
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
357
will rank with that of Harvard and of Yale; and as history repeats
itself, I stand, in this time of your losses and your griefs, to say
that in the remembrance of the dead, for every hand that built
those now ruined walls there will be two to rebuild, and for every
hard-earned dollar of the fathers and mothers giving it foundation,
the children of such parents will sacrifice two."
Mr. Thomas H. Dodge, of Worcester, Mass., then a new,
and sent a message from his own burdened heart.*
It becoming evident that the generous contributions could
restore the homes of the indigent, and that the maimed would be
well cared for, the situation of the college made a moving appeal
for liberal aid in the restoration. There were many reasons related
to financial and personal matters, especially prostration by nervous
debility, which required quiet rest for me at home; but it was the
time for action. The visit to the board of trade in Chicago, and
encouragement from the East, caused excuses to pale before imper-
ative and public demands.
THE CHICAGO VISIT.
It was Hon. John V. Farwell who showed the worth of a great
man in the time for decisive action. The week previous I was in
his company, visiting the herds at his Iowa farm near Montezuma.
We had a severe yet laughable experience on the muddy roads, and
*The following was his telegraphed message:
LELAND HOTEL, CHICAGO, June 23d, 1882.
President Magoun, Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa:
Millions of tearful eyes and sympathetic hearts will be drawn toward Grinnell
by your heroic action on the morrow.
Transmit to me copy of the Oration as soon as delivered, and I will have an
edition printed for your use, that the words thereof may go forth with clarion voice
to proclaim the great truth that the Model City of the West and Iowa College
ever faithful to her high and lofty mission-are not destroyed, but still live, and
will rise again, though bowed in grief and baptized in blood, to complete their
high and holy destiny in promoting learning, religion and good government in the
great West, thereby rendering the name of your loved city, “Grinnell”, like the
sacred soil of “Piedmont”, emblematic of sanctified Christian faith and undying
courage, in the Master's work.
Then followed an elegant edition of the historic college oration, giving a wide
knowledge of Iowa College and an eloquent plea for a restoration both in promiso
and prophecy.
358
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
I detained him over the Sabbath to speak to the great congregation,
which won his friendship for the college and the town. “Visit me
in Chicago," said he. “I will cheerfully,” was my answer, but the
promise was fulfilled under a dark cloud. Overlooking his build-
ing, he hailed me in the distance, to say, “Come on, I have
heard of your calamity. What can I do besides a money check."
“Please go with me to the board of trade," was my answer.
“I will.” As we entered, Mayor Harrison, and Mr. Dunham,
president of the board, said, “You have struck it. Get Mr. Far-
well to speak.” This was his speech:
“Gentlemen, our neighboring state has been visited by one of
the most dreadful storms on record. I was at the beautiful city
of Grinnell last week, founded by the gentleman who is at my side.
It is a model college town. It must not suffer by our neglect.
This is no time for speeches, but for sympathy which reaches the
pocket. I must go, but here is my check for one thousand dollars,
with regrets that I must leave to keep a distant appointment.
Iowa did not forget Chicago in ashes, and we must cheerfully
reciprocate.”
The following is the substance of the Press report:
MAYOR HARRISON
said that on the floor of that board it was said that corn was king, but in Iowa the
storm had ruled it over corn. They could not succeed there if Iowa was in dis-
tress. They owed it to themselves to respond liberally to the cry that came to
them for help. They had the reputation of being enterprising and large hearted,
and for nothing had they a better reputation than for charitable deeds. By the
tornado $500,000 had been destroyed, forty men, women and children had been
killed and 100 were dangerously wounded. He had been requested to introduce to
them a gentleman from Grinnell. It was true Iowa was another state, but the
people of Chicago recognized no state line. He had told Mr. Grinnell that the
proper way to get the thing started was to get the board of trade started, and
then there was no danger of failure. If there were failure let it be charged to him.
He had great pleasure in introducing to them
HON. J. B. GRINNELL,
of Grinnell city, Iowa, who said:
I thank the president of the board of trade and the honorable mayor for
their kind introduction and cheering words. The words of sorrow are few. I
come from an appalling calamity by a tornado in Iowa, desolating everything in
its way for 200 miles, centering its fury on the city of Grinnell, a place of 3,000
people, 300 miles west of Chicago. One hundred and twenty buildings were
swept down in the tempest, many of them homes of taste and comfort, a large
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
359
portion homesteads and representing with household goods the entire property of
the owners — the two spacious college buildings with their contents, libraries,
cabinets, etc., representing more than $100,000. But all this is trivial to the loss
of life and the maiming of 100 persons, causing our city to be a hospital, while
many brave spirits with broken limbs and bruised bodies hover between life and
death.
I will not stir your blood with harrowing details. My voice fails me. His-
tory furnishes no such desolation of a city in an hour, causing a loss of from
$400,000 to $600,000. My plea is for the maimed, the homeless and the poor, beg-
gared in an hour, and they are hundreds, good citizens, and even brave in the
midst of the loss of property and of their loved ones.
I come to brave Chicago, risen from the ashes. Your desolation, which moved
the world, was not like ours. There were treasures in your safes; you had insur-
ance. We had none. Our losses by death and maiming were greater than yours,
and I do not forget that in the midst of your sorrow the good people of my city
never slept until they loaded cars for the relief of your poor.
Our interests are blended by an annual trade of hundreds of millions, and we
cannot turn a furrow that is not to your commercial interest. The Des Moines
State Register has made an eloquent appeal to the nation, and Governor Sherman
has made a touching call for aid, and I leave all to your generosity, in ministering
to the unfortunate who are dumb. We want a hundred car-loads of lumber, nails,
hardware, furniture and clothing of all kinds, and one hundred thousand dollars
in cash at once. May Heaven move generous Chicago to aid us in our purpose to
rebuild the college, and never rest until every family has a home reared on the
desolation. I trust you will burden the railway trains, on their generous offer
to bear your benefactions free to the wounded and unfortunate poor, and my beau-
tiful city and all on the track of the tornado will take heart under the raven wing
of desolation and horrors I cannot relate.
Great as was our indebtedness to other cities, like Minneapolis
and Des Moines, the $500 by Hon. Ezekiel Clark, of Iowa City,
was the key-note for Iowa; and $1,000 by Mr. Farwell, of Chi-
cago, became an inspiration. Hon. W. J. Pope, grain-broker and
merchant, was most active and efficient in the lead and direction
of committees, which ensured nearly $20,000 from Chicago for the
sufferers. Then the fire insurance companies, with risks on our
colleges, generously waived technicalities, and for loss of the
contents of the colleges, passed to us several thousand dollars.
They could have shielded themselves under court decisions that
exempted them from lịability when buildings take fire after
falling. Of citizens, H. W. Parker alone had tornado insurance.
COLLEGE RESTORATION.
I am to mention friends. If he gives twice who gives promptly
then by the record Mr. R. E. Sears, of Marshalltown, à college
trustee and graduate, who gave the first $1,000, has special honor.
360
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
He was then engaged in a large manufacturing business, and has
since been in honorable association with gentlemen in securing the
Soldiers' Home at Marshalltown, and now with capitalists in the
control of large coal properties, which give promise of competence.
Hon. William E. Dodge, of New York, and Wendell Phillips; as
already said, sent words of cheer by wire and advised of drafts on
the way. On their warm invitations to come East, I started.
Mr. Ethan Rogers, of Ocean Grove, New Jersey, I found at his
home, and he gave me his dividend in our Grinnell Bank, for about
seven hundred and fifty dollars, most cheerfully. Mr. Dodge,
anticipating my visit, had left word at his office that I should fol-
low him and spend the night at Irvington, his home on the Hud-
son. It was my good fortune to meet Mr. and Mrs. Dodge at
the station. Their welcome, charming society and elegant home,
beguiled away the hours, in talking of our great calamity. Some
years before he had become interested in the college, and had
passed through Iowa to admire our town. Its temperance stand-
ard was of especial interest to him.
Mr. John I. Blair, his business associate and my friend, I men-
tioned as not to be found. “He must be seen,” said Mr. Dodge,
“and please excuse me.” Soon returning, he read a letter to Mr.
Blair which was truly an emotional, grand appeal. "It will do
our friend so much good,” he remarked, “to give, and I have read
this to Mrs. Dodge, and we have prayed that you may be spared to
hand it to him, and I have asked for it God's blessing.” After
evening prayer, he said, “I retire early, but I am up with the birds
and the sun, to look out on our Hudson, so refreshing to me in its
scenes and stories of an early day; and the berries you must join
me in picking, the best, I think, you ever saw.”
· Long were the night watches, and, burdened with my mission
and thought of home, there was little rest; yet I joined Mr. Dodge
in the morning, who delighted me with his cheer. No word had
he intimated as to his personal gift, and at the table he bade me
look up, for God reigns. On a removal in exchange of the first
plate, I had occasion to credit it, with a smile, in recognition of a
check of $5,000 for the college, found under a napkin. Mrs.
Dodge, with her warm motherly heart, said, as the strawberries
were passed, “Large as they are, they may relish better if sweet-
ened by my joining Mr. Dodge with a thousand dollars, to help the
worthy young girls." Her gift was twelve hundred, the interest of
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
361
which is to be in perpetuity for lady students. This sum she sup-
on solicitation of Mrs. Professor Crow. To their generosity I was
dumb, but the visit resulted in lifting a cloud which hung over me,
drear and dark up to that hour.
Henry Ward Beecher I had missed, but his warm welcome to
visit his church and speak he had committed to my long-time
friend, S. V. White, with whom I had often been a guest. He was
a former Iowan, now with national fame as a stock-broker and a
member of Congress. On Brooklyn Heights he maintains a pri-
vate observatory and telescope, and has the refined tastes of a
scholar, savant and patron of education. His gift of $1,000, with-
out solicitation, had in it far more than the face value of that sum,
for it gave me the desired entrec to a circle of millionaires. I was
quite safe in the wake of his example, if not in the arena of bro-
kers and bankers, whereof our friend is a bold leader.
Mr. Beecher, if singular in his theological evolution ideas, was
peculiar in the warmth of an invitation to his pulpit. I made an
address in the evening at Plymouth Church, after his introduction
before noticed, which I regarded as a facetious offset to my intro-
duction of him in Iowa with his subject “Hard Times", of which
he knew nothing, of course, personally, yet a fit theme to display
his imaginative genius.
The following was the address, as reported:
The recent tornado was a terrible visitation. It was heralded by a few
moments of rumbling, sounding not unlike the moving of a heavy train of cars,
with immense clouds seen forcing their way for an hour or two, to leave in its way
desolation and death. Its course was from the north-west in a track a quarter of a
mile wide, and swept on south-easterly for about two hundred miles, and it is
believed that the destruction will cause a loss of about two million dollars. The
greatest destruction was in my immediate vicinity. Horses and cattle were taken
up and borne away in the air. When it struck my own town it tore down ono
hundred buildings. There were one hundred persons wounded, their limbs broken
and so bruised and mutillated they could scarcely be recognized by their friends.
Thirty of my neighbors, my dear friends, were buried in a single day, and when I
left my home it seemed as though I left a hospital, so many were wounded. All
our homes are crowded, for three hundred persons were left homeless, but they had
But such horror! such desolation! Oh, I have no heart to speak of it! Men and
women of advanced years were whirled through the air for one hundred feet or
more and dropped dead. The air was filled with electricity, and the very watch
springs were broken by the force of the electric fluid. The colleges, the pride of
my heart, where were gathered three hundred and fifty brave boys and beautiful
girls, were swept down. Forty persons were killed, not to mention those who may
362
REMINISCENCES OF TORTY YEARS.
have gone to their long rest in my absence. This is a matter of grave and serious
concern to me, and I never expect to rest until our poor are housed, until the
maimed are provided for, and until those colleges are rebuilt. I cannot do it. We
cannot do it. God does not ask us to do it. We sent out our appeal, and before I
left home I signed over seventy responsive checks and drafts. The employes of
the New York Herald sent a bountiful sum, and many publishers of other papers.
Mr. Beecher. — Tell about your own town. There has not been any liquor sold
there for twenty-eight years.
Mr. Grinnell.-I don't deny that I am the man Horace Greeley told to go
West. I took up a large tract of land; but not from mercenary motives. My first
business was to lay out a town and I deternzined that no intoxicating liquors
should be sold there, and up to this time I may say that not one drop of ardent
spirits has ever been sold upon that tract of land. I began three miles away from
any house, and three years ago when we had our quarter centennial celebration,
we made the declaration that God had been wonderfully with us. No fire had
desolated a human habitation, no man had found his way to the poor house, not
one had gone to the jail, and not one to the state prison. [Applause). And hap-
pening to be mayor of the city for the last two years, I will say there was only one
person brought before me and fined for drunkenness, and during the campaign
which has just closed we were made a special point of attack by the enemies of
temperance. Money was sent there and transient persons who had no visible
means of support, but they could not demoralize our people.
Mr. Beecher. - Do not forget the Chinese.
Mr. Grinnell. — No, we received a draft for three hundred dollars from China-
men for the poor sufferers iu Grinnell. [Loud applause.] Mr. Beecher shouted,
“Put them out. What business have the almond-eyed heathens here giving their
money in charity?" (Cheers.] It is a great work we have undertaken, but I
believe that beautiful city will, with God's blessing, be rebuilt. Those who have
been temperate, honest and frugal, they shall be cared for. Hundreds of persons
escaped by going into their cellars, and when the college fell it engulfed two boys
and one beautiful girl, who were preparing for work. Let me close by saying that
my great friend here (Mr. Beecher) and the nation's church shall be allied with
the resurrection of that place. And let it be known on earth and in Heaven that
Plymouth Church and its people have not forgotten those whom storms have
desolated. [Loud applause.]
The meeting was a success. It advertised the calamity and my
mission, apart from a generous collection taken and the $1,000 by
Mr. White, supplemented by other sums from Mr. Moses S. Beach,
William Marshall, General Duryea, and others.
RAILWAY MAGNATES.
Fortunately an early connection with the Chicago and Rock
Island Road, and later with local enterprises, gave me an easy
access to friends. While in Chicago I solicited through Superin-
tendent Riddle, as our college is built on his line of road, five or
ten thousand dollars in freighting. He referred me to Mr. David
Dows, of New York, chairman of the board, whom I had known
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY FEARS.
363
many years, having sent my clips of wool from Iowa to his com-
mission house. By Mr. Dows I was received with great cordiality,
and he said
"I favor your request, and I will see the committee, but just
let me give you a thousand dollars, as I do not choose to ask the
company to do what I will not aid personally.”
The Rock Island Company's donation was $5,000, afterward
increased to $6,000, besides freighting large donations without
charge.
I next called on President C. P. Huntington, of the California
and Central Railroads. It was not possible to gain an audience at
the rooms in the Mills Building against the denials and rebuffs of
the door-keeper, yet a promise that sometime Mr. Huntington
should see my card. While the door was ajar, on the retiring of
some official, I continued the plea with some persistency that my
presence should be known there.
“I know that voice," called out Mr. Huntington. "Let him
in — certainly. They say men have their prices, but I never heard
that you had one,” referring, I presume, to scandals in Washington,
and the railway lobby. "What a wicked set you inust be out in
Grinnell, to need such a storm!”
Of course I could only reply that it was from the West, and if
there was anything in desert, California would have a visit.
“Nothing in it, nor true that lightning don't strike twice in one
place-I know it does,” said Mr. Huntington. “You have a
beautiful city, seen as I have been through Iowa, and had I known
who it was at the door, my messenger would not have detained
you. Let me give you some help in building the College” —and
his name and check were for $1,000, with an apology, saying
that I could call again.
Gen. G. M. Dodge, as an Iowan of high fame, with character-
istic promptness made his check for $1,000. Hon. Russell Sage,
well-known, one of the largest operators in New York, who has
railway interests in Iowa, followed General Dodge with $1,000.
My business relations with him had been large and pleasant.
I was not fortunate in finding others known to me in the city,
and proceeded to Worcester, Mass., by invitation of Messrs. Wash-
burn & Moen. To the country they are known as the most
extensive manufacturers of steel wire in the world. They gave
$1,000 for the town, and $1,000 for the college. Their interest
364
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
was further shown in handing me an introductory letter to Mr.
J. F. Slater, of Norwich, Conn., whose princely gift of $1,000,000
for the education of the poor in the South had just been made
public.
I esteem it a good fortune to have conversed with so calm and
sympathetic a stranger. His philosophy of giving was original.
“Let me put down $1,000 — if I were to make the sum larger it
might keep back others who should have a share in restoration for
their own good, apart from aid to the College.” Rising, he said,
“I have two friends in the library — please let mne call them -
you want the blessing to go round.” They were Mr. Moses H.
Pierce and Henry B. Norton, who without solicitation added $500
to the gift of Mr. Slater, he urging me to partake of his hospitality
then or any time.
I omitted to say that Deacon David Whitcomb, a noble soul of
Worcester, had, on hearing of the tornado, sent on $1,000, and
later gave $600, to aid ladies who had suffered by the storm.
From Boston, Deacon Farnsworth, of Park Street church, and
Mr. Samuel Johnson, of the Old South, had forwarded a handsome
sum, as did Mr. John N. Dennison, increasing our obligation to
a noble philanthropist. Thomas Nickerson gave me $500, also
Mr. H. H. Hunnewell, in continuation of personal friendship for
years.
Hon. Frederick Billings, of Vermont, I met in New York.
I am reminded of a check held in his hand, being a part of the
$100,000 given for the finest library building in the country to
the University of Vermont, at Burlington. I could not ask his
aid in the presence of such benefactions, yet he made me a check
for $500 without solicitation, just like the nobleman he was.
Hiram Sibley, of Rochester, N. Y., made me welcome. He was
one of the largest farmers of Illinois, and the most noted producer
of garden seeds in the world. A great patron of Cornell Univers-
ity, he was thought to be too liberalistic to have sympathy for an
orthodox college. But he has been a free giver, and I brought
home from his warehouse seeds to the value of $1,000, the pro-
ceeds of which were for restoring the college museuin.
I returned to Chicago with good fortune in meeting with Hon.
John I. Blair, of Blairstown, N. J. It was on Sunday and after
church that I heard his name, for it had become his habit in order
to escape observation to place his name on the hotel register on
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
365
departure and not on arrival. Mr. Blair, while over eighty years
of age, bears the marks of but sixty, such is his agility in the busi-
ness activities of a many-times millionaire.
“That tornado of yours is surely dreadful,” he remarked. “I
received Mr. Dodge's letter; he has been my business partner for
thirty years, and the world has never known a warmer heart and
such a giver! I do well to keep half way up to him, yet of late
have had Blairstown Seminary, Princeton and Lafayette Colleges,
besides other things I dare not name, which make me out or in
near a million of dollars; still I must follow Mr. Dodge if it is a
good way off. But what did he do?" I answered, “Mr. Dodge
had before given $5,000 to the college, and for our rebuilding
gave another $5,000, to which Mrs. Dodge added $1200 for the
girls.” “Just like them — they are never so happy as when mak-
ing checks in charity; and he will perhaps expect me to equal his
sum in rebuilding.” Just then there was a caller, and, on learning
that Senator William B. Allison was in the house, he said, “Bring
him in”. I knew that Mr. Blair thought as highly of Mr. Allison,
perhaps, as of any man living. It thus became my policy to seek
his good offices with Mr. Blair. The senator said, “Let me put
down $500 before I ask him for $50,000, which I hope he may
give, having so large an interest in Iowa". Mr. Allison met a
hearty greeting by his old friend, who remarked, “I have had no
breakfast, and let us go to dinner and then talk up tornadoes with
Grinnell”. Senator Allison gently interposed, “Let us talk calam-
ity, Mr. Blair, before dinner, for when you get in sight you will be
set upon, you know well, by a crowd.”
“I think if I follow Dodge you will call it good sauce for
dinner."
"Please don't think of less than $50,000 for that great
calamity!”
“You will beggar me- where's the book ? I must have some
dinner.”
“ But,” said the senator, "you have twenty times my interest
in Iowa.”
“Well, $10,000.”
“Don't say less than $25,000, and enjoy a dinner after one
good Sunday deed, as you haven't been to church.”
The book is taken and $15,000 was put down, then a hurried
retreat to the dinner table. I thought the old gentleman gave a
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
sigh of relief on escape from appeals, yet he cheerfully proposed to
keep us in inind and interest friends in the college. This generous
gift without condition was supplemented by a donation of slate for
the covering of two of the colleges; then, at my request, he sat for
a bust in plaster, to be presented to the college, and also gave an
oil portrait, life-like, which smiles a welcome on entering Goodnow
Library Hall. Later we met by appointment in New York, mak-
ing a call on Mr. Jay Gould, Mrs. Gould's father having been his
early friend, and he recalling her as a child. Mr. Blair said
blandly, “Here is a plea which has interested me in calling with
Mr. Grinnell. Meantime, will.you say to Mrs. Gould, "It would
please an old man to see the daughter of my old friend, for I knew
Mrs. Gould before you did, when a child'?” “Certainly, Mr.
Blair,” and Mrs. Gould came in, and there was mutual entertain-
ment in reminiscences of early days. Pleasantly Mr. Gould had
replied, “I shall be happy to aid the college in proportion to your
Iowa interests and liberal gift, Mr. Blair". He made it a thou-
sand, thanking us for the call with the manner of a true gentle-
man. It was a very quiet scene—no satins, diamonds, show or
formality, more than in the library and parlor of the plainest
people.
“Vanderbilt we must see to-night," said Mr. Blair. We called,
to learn that the indoors were closed and Mr. Vanderbilt had
retired. Thereupon a note was left with a request for an audi-
ence in the morning. This meeting was frustrated by a telegram
received, calling for Mr. Blair's early departure from the city, and
I made the venture alone. My reception by the messenger was a
cool one, for Mr. Vanderbilt had been trying to get ready to leave
town. “My orders are to admit no one less than the Almighty."
“Well,” said I, “that bars me, but can you take my name and
an old friend, Mr. J. P. Chambers, an officer of high rank in the
Central Road, who cheerfully proposed to get my subscription
book under Mr. Vanderbilt's eye, and sent it to the house by the
hands of a messenger. After two days I called to learn the issue,
and the word came back, “No one has seen the book, but his clerk
was to make a good search". Then another call and no discovery,
and the loss being a serious one it made by rumor no small storm
in the house. At last Mrs. Vanderbilt came out with it, being the
custodian of requests, which I judge were placed where most con-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
367
venient to be forgotten. On the door-keeper bringing out the
found book-treasure, sent by Mr. Chambers, I was curious to see
the result in dollars of this exciting episode. Nil.
Mr. Chauncey M. Depew's name, the counselor of Mr. Vander-
bilt, struck my eye, and I resolved to seek cheer by a call on my
genial friend. If failing to get money, the loss of my book was at
least suggestive, and I asked Mr. Depew “if the case of the circuit
rider out West was not much like mine.” “Tell it, and I'll see.”
“The preacher informed his Sunday congregation that it was nec-
essary that the steward should pass the hat for a collection - chil-
dren out of shoes, and no oats for his horse. It was observed that
in the circuit of the hat there was not a cent dropped in. Where-
upon, the minister played his part well, in reproof and in mitiga-
tion partially, for his disappointment. The hat was turned down
with gravity and the sarcastic remark, “Bless the Lord, brethren, I
got my hat back from the congregation?” Depew laughed and said,
« That isn't your case”. “Yes, I passed the book, waited three
days, no draft and no name.” Then he said, “That story of yours
I'll tell to Vanderbilt to-day". I am confident he did tell it, with
ornamentation, for a telegram came from the office before I reached
Worcester, asking me to call as I came back. I did call, and a per-
sonal regret had been left at not seeing me, and there was also a
draft of $1,000.
In Boston, Mr. Blair with a spare hour called with me upon
ing into a new house on Commonwealth Avenue. The affluence of
the owner seemed in keeping with artistic decoration, spacious
halls, alcoves, with orchestra, and all in the most tasteful devices.
Mr. Blair hinted to his business friend that the music from those
orchestra seats would not be in time for him, but as the house
couldn't be taken in in one day, he would call again. Meeting
Mrs. Ames, with her apologies for the confusion, having had but a
week to settle, Mr. Blair said, “Excusable, madam — certainly; I
assume you have not been over the house yet, for I am a fair pedes-
trian and weary enough to halt”. Mr. Ames gave $1,000 freely,
without solicitation, a gift which I associate with the wit of Mr.
Blair, and a view of one of the elegant American abodes which
an Ames can adorn.
Hon. S. B. Chittenden, of Brooklyn, gave a few hundreds; a
repetition of like sums. He is a great patron of Yale. Other
368
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
names I may not give, making an aggregate of over $40,000,
three fourths of which was “from the world", at least outside
of our denomination. The smaller, constant givers I avoided,
and certainly “burnt over” no ground that promised a harvest to
another in the churches or by personal appeal. Scowls did not
meet me—smiles greeted me, while I helped the blood circulation
of men-- not the "worms of the dust”. That phrase I strike out
depravity. I only did my duty, and am grateful for a view of a
more elevated plane of life, and have greater detestation of a
vicious custom and common habit in ascribing bad motives to
givers in great acts of charity. Against this low view, hundreds
and thousands to distant strangers and the poor testify. The
world has its more quiet givers, some of whose names I am not at
liberty to mention. They were pictured by Job: “when the ear
heard, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it gave wit-
ness to me”; and for us a deliverance came to the poor that cried,
and the fatherless who by the desolations of the storm had none to
help them.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Historical Address at New Haven, Vt., 1887 — Distinguished Ver-
monters -- Iowa Vermont and New England Associations -
Eulogy on Senator Solomon Foote-- Shorter Catechism.
THE OLD HOME WELCOME IN NEW HAVEN, VT.
It was in compliment to our pioneer family. As a boy I was
hardly remembered; as a man, appreciated ever far above my
deserts for any personality or the public service to which distance
might lend enchantment. There was for me an inspiration and
deep emotion for which written words were but a mockery of the
occasion. The welcome was given in the great church, the posts
and beams of which were drawn by my ancestor in the year when
resting the soil as before described. On the front row of seats sat
a score of veterans who knew my father, and their children of the
third generation had smiles of welcome and cheers for the guest
visiting after fifty years' absence.
From the pamphlet of proceedings, notes of eminent Vermont-
ers and pioneering incidents are elsewhere given. Such a recep-
tion brought more than recompense for the trials of youth and a
struggle, away from home, to honor our name. It occurred Sept.
5th, 1887, in accordance with an invitation from citizens of New
Haven, Vt., saying, “While you are East and setting up a memorial
for ancestors in New Haven, your birthplace, permit us to request
that you will consent to make an address upon the history of your
town, and give us such information as you may possess with regard
to those who have gone out of it”. Hon. E. A. Doud presided;
and after my address (afterward printed, by request of the audi-
ence, and to this volume supplying memoranda used in other
chapters), speeches were made by a former pupil of mine, now
Hon. L. D. Eldridge, of Middlebury; my kinsman, Prof. A.*P.
Grinnell, M. D., of the Vermont University ; Rev. W. B. Hogue;
Judge William S. Wright; Hon. Luman Pease, of Ilinois; and
370
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
George W. Brown, Esq., of Boston, the only surviving son of the
veterans of Lexington--his father, Deacon Solomon Brown, a
merchant, having moved to New Haven, probably soon after the
Revolution. He it was who, it was abundantly proved, fired the
first shot of the Revolution, and the very musket is preserved by a
grandson in the old New Haven home.
VERMONTERS.
It was no uncommon occurrence for the writer of these pages
to be rallied on his enthusiastic praise of Vermonters. The answer
would be, why not? There is no fiction in the distinguished part
which the state has borne, never too highly colored, and there leaps
to the tongue the old quotation, “Breathes there a man with soul
so dead”, etc. A eulogist of the fortunate dwellers in the Switz-
erland of America has said: “There has been to me a transmis-
sion of blood in living currents under the laws of heredity. The
spirit of Vermont ancestry is mine without cultivation. In youth
I was a listener to the stories of the Revolution and of hated
Tories fleeing to Canada, and of their children across the line,
expert smugglers. The state craft of New Hampshire and the
cupidity of New Yorkers, with a design to absorb and divide the
state, stirred the blood of my ancestors, and there was fire in the
spirit of my father, a volunteer with a musket, making a march of
forty-five miles in a day to take part in the battle of Plattsburg."
This generation is rich in such an inheritance, and joins in voice
with a challenge in Whittier's verse, read in the shadow of the
statue of Ethan Allen:
“Come York or come Hampshire, come traitors and knaves,
If you rule o'er our land ye shall rule o'er our graves;
Our vow is recorded, our banner unfurled,
In the name of Vermont, wo defy the world!”
I have often asked, what town of twelve hundred rural inhabit-
ants, has produced so many eminent persons as New Haven, Vt. ?
I have found no answer and support my claim with specifications.
New England has furnished but one citizen knighted by a Brit-
Company, who endowed the Mills School, the honored Sir Curtis
Lampson, of London, a native of New Haven, Vt.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
371
The distinguished enterprise in building more miles of railway
than any American, is reserved for a late citizen of New Haven,
Hon. R. B. Langdon, of Minneapolis.
That man in Chicago, who has by his steam elevator tolled and
stored more grain for twenty years than all the consumption of
Vermont for that period, is Hiram Wheeler, proud of his New
Haven birth.
For years, and not long ago, another New Haven boy annually
sold groceries, not intoxicants, equal to the consumption of the
entire population of Vermont, Wm. M. Hoyt, of Chicago, whose
wife honors her Phelps and Langdon blood.
. That corporate wonder of the West, the North-Western Insur-
ance Company, has a bank president for its treasurer, who survived
the New Haven flood, and is one of her fortunate sons who daily
turns his key on over twenty millions of cash and securities, equal
to the banking capital and saving deposits of the State of Vermont
- Charles D. Nash, of Milwaukee.
Another favorite son, philanthropist, savant and gentleman, the
companion around the world of President Fillmore, the only New
Haven boy presented to the Pope at Rome, and waiving the saluta-
tion by a kiss of the toe of his Holiness — was Elam R. Jewett, of
Buffalo.
Then there are clergymen, natives of the same town, whose
memories are yet fragrant: Doctors Miles P. Squire, Milo J.
Hickok, the brothers Dr. Ovah P. and Otto S. Hoyt, Smith, Hall,
and others, to which may be added a long list of teachers of just
distinction and fame, without a mention of bankers and legislators.
The residents of Grinnell, born in my native town, pushed
out like eaglets from the crowded nest, are prominent citizens
whom I may recall in every profession. Herrick, of the clerical,
erect at eighty years; his son, an ex-mayor, merchant, leading the
choir; and Brainerd, retired from the pulpit, a brother of a Ver-
mont U. S. Senator; Phelps, an ex-mayor, one of his sons a lawyer,
in the choir, and another a distinguished musician in Chicago;
Whitcomb, the eldest deacon, whose family are honored in Chicago,
Texas and Montana ; Marsh, a relative of the venerable diplomat,
proud of a son in European-Turkey, educator and minister; Kellogg,
architect and builder, kin of a late eminent judge; Blakely, an edu-
cated shepherd farmer ; Preston, civil engineer, and general in the
army; Hatch, ex-mayor and merchant; with others alike worthy
372
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
representatives of our old home, rounding a circle of virtue and
intelligence, including my family physician, Dr. E. W. Clark; the
ident of Iowa College. Vermont had no seaport, and, if not the
nurse of sailors, it had a loyal military school at Norwich, where
so many began their career of distinction in education for the army;
yet not more brave than thousands who fell dead from their Mor-
gan steeds, or came home with torn flags and mutilated limbs.
General Phelps, the emancipator, is not to be forgotten. Generals
Richardson, Moore, Ransom, Stannard, Smith, Seymour, Hawkins,
Babcock, with General L. A. Grant, now the popular assistant-sec-
retary of war — these are but a few of the distinguished whose
names are found in the military archives of Vermont.
In the railway service there are most marked examples of gen-
ius and enterprise. General G. M. Dòdge, railway magnate of
national military fame, gained his education at Norwich, Vt.
Charles Paine, of the Lake Shore, Frederick Billings, of the North-
ern Pacific, Wm. B. Strong, of the Santa Fe, J. C. Gault, of the
C. J. Ives of the Burlington, Johnson, Dunlap and the Wheelers,
of the North-Western, H. F. Royce, of the Rock Island, with
Nutt, Baxter, Crittenden and R. B. Langdon, form a group in chal-
lenge for rivals to the boy-coasters, sleigh-riders and mountain road
builders of Vermont to-day, who, like them, may drift into railway
The press, too, is honored by the sons of Vermont, such as our
Dunham, and Ex-Postmaster General Hatton, of the Hawkeye; and
Richardson, as well as George Jones, of the N. Y. Times ; Story, of
the Chicago Times ; Eastman and Saxe, poet editors, and Walter
Colton, the pioneer of the California press.
Publicists and authors were George Bush, T. M. Post, W. F.
Shedd, 0. A. Bronson and Hooker. In politics, two of the parlia-
mentary leaders of a century, Stephen A. Douglas and Thaddeus
Stevens, sprang from our evergreen home, the paradise of school-
masters.
Early the missionary spirit found a welcome in Vermont, to
be cultivated and heroically illustrated in the persons of Green,
Fiske, Munger, Levi Parsons and Brigham. I have yet to travel
or listen on the prairie, or in the crowded cities of the East, or by
the dashing waves of the Pacific, where honored missionaries from
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
373
Vermont are not mentioned—in all lands-teaching the Indian in
ted Turk, and holding up the beacon light of Christianity to the
millions of Japan. Dr. Hiram Brigham was the missionary his-
Horace Greene was long the leading medical authority in the
Metropolis; and Rev. Dr. T. N. Post, the eminent veteran of a St.
Louis pulpit.
Before the political lapsus of '84 (Rum, Romanism and Rebell-
ion), Vermont furnished president, senate president, a senatorial
master in finance and head of the judiciary, and three foreign dip-
lomats of a high class. To-day, Phelps at the court of St. James
is exchanging civilities with Sir Curtis Lampson -- the only Amer-
ican knight, a Vermonter.
There is one unmentioned. When clouds of sorrow hung over
us drear as night in the loss of our beloved President Garfield, our
fears for the nation's future were quieted in the known character
of a successor, a gentleman educated in the school of patriots,
ample in the resources of knowledge, a reader of men, with the
skill of statesmanship, of whom we are proud in his eminence
a Vermonter president — Chester A. Arthur.
Diplomacy has rounded eminent civil service when a Ver-
monter's son spoke for our nation in a European capital, while
Stoughton was minister at St. Petersburg, Kásson at Vienna and
Marsh at Rome, the latter longer in diplomatic service than any
American.
In art, our painters have made respectable attainment in land-
scape, while in sculpture, Mead and Powers have no American
superiors, the latter the restorer of glory to marble in the Greek
Slave.
Under the inspiration of our poets, you long for the mountain
air, and a stroll by the trout brook. Saxe mounts his pegasus, and
all the Saxon race laughs. Hudson recites his conceptions of the
ized a New England Society absorbing the Vermont. In a copy of
my valedictory I find these words :
I am one of those tramps, born by the mountains with no expectation or desire
of being born anywhere else. In this we are kin, protesting that the down-South
prodigal adventurer, with several outs to one in, who, after filial invitations, came
374
REMIVISCEVCES OF FORTY YEARS.
to himself and on the way wired liis father, “Fatted calf for one”, was not a Ver-
monter. They return home with a trophy, a seal skin caught in exploring for the
north pole, a robe won in a buffalo hunt on the plains, gold from the gulch, or with
an honorable scar or well-earned star from battle-fields, or a medal of honor. If
clouded by misfortunes, they indulge in the charities and chances of cold victuals
and cider elsewhere. Every child was born with bright expectations, and the war-
fare and early trials of the pioneer left an impress with posterity.
Nature was our mentor, in solitary grandeur, and a symbol of character in a
backbone of granite the length of the state; for in the stern tests of principle none
to the manor born or the true sons abroad called in any Dr. Appalacca as cosmetico
for a curvature of the spine.
It is the day of unions and leagues. Let us in our western home, emulous of
the fame of our mountain comrades, spread the table for brother east of the Hud-
son, embracing the noblest of yeomanry in the world's history, not forgetting mari-
tal adoptions and exchanges, unifying a people akin in origin and blended in labor.
It is related that a shepherd dog, hunting all night in cold and storm on the
mountains for the lost sheep, moved the admirer of canine fidelity to the inelegant
comparison “that all there is of good in man is the dog that is in him". If we
have spoken in earnest praise of our old home and the fathers, it is not a just con-
clusion that most of the good in our national family is the Vermont blood in it,
when the bald truth is, we have given and gotten, exchanged our jewels and been
fortunate în matrimonial ventures.
Hail, old mountain home! A tear for the veterans dead in the valleys, grati-
tude for memories of her, grand in history, rich in every animal production save
the mugwumps.
Hail, Vermont mothers, the Cornelias whose jewels are the Gracchi sons,
founding states afar from the old hive. Our marble is white and finer the deeper
quarried, so shall the deep study of the virtues of our mothers, as well as fathers,
deepen our love and admiration for them and the home of our childhood. They
are the true mothers of sons who moistened many a battle-field with their blood;
and whenever led by generals worthy to lead them and determined for victory, the
soldiers of New England, whether at Bull Run, in the swamps of the Chick-
ahominy, with spade or gun, or fighting above the clouds on the mountains of Ten-
nessee, were true to the flag, true to their ancestral fame, and true to their God:
“Right in the van,
On the red rampart's slippery swell,
With hearts that beat a charge, they fell
Foeward, as fits a man.”
SOLOMON FOOTE.
The Hon. Solomon Foote, for thirty years a senator from Ver-
mont, was a friend of my father and taught school in an adjoining
district. Being chosen by the Vermont representatives, to speak
at the funeral obsequies in the capitol, April 12th, 1866, I said:
1
It is a pleasing reflection that my early years were spent near the mountain
home of the lamented senator. He gave me assurance of his friendship, and that
he cherished the memory of my dearest deceased kindred furnishes me an occasion
to pay a brief and sorrowful tribute to his character and yirtues.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
375
That biography which follows the eulogistic sketches in the forum will place
the deceased in the front rank of our American gentlemen and statesmen, the
measure of whose success should be unseparated from the associations and means
by which it was attained. The grave senator ever with emotion and pride spoke
of the rural town of Cornwall, Vermont, where he was born. Its population is not
a thousand souls, and less at the beginning of this century, yet has the distinguish-
ing honor, in addition to an intelligent yeomanry, of furnishing thirty-six educated
clergymen, eighteen lawyers, twenty-three physicians and fourteen professional
teachers. Its town institutions were the church, the lyceum and the school. In
the church young Solomon was baptized; at the lyceum he spoke, to give promise
of future eminence; and the school he left to become a teacher and college gradu-
ate, later tutor, and founder and head of an institution of learning. He honored
the vocation of the schoolmaster and never wearied in giving this humble profes-
sion credit for its devotion to a refined civilization and the general welfare. With
truly American simplicity he taught our youth self-reliance, and for himself, who
owed nothing to wealth, the partiality of friends, or the issue of campaigns, he
regarded it as fortunate that he was called in discipline to tread the hard, rough
paths of life. He was proud of his origin; and that filial affection of a fatherless
boy for a doting and devoted mother was an augury of future fidelity and devotion
to the national weal, most fortunately realized in more than a quarter of a century
of service, and ending in one of the most glorious tributes on record to the worth
of parental instruction and the reality and value of the Christian religion.
As husband and father he was doting and beloved; a scholar without ped-
antry; a gentleman free from the arts of the courtier; brave in action without
bravado; matchless in volume and sweetness of voice; persuasive in eloquence,
yet abstemious in speech; genial as a companion, unwavering in friendship; in
society
“Pliant as reeds where streams of freedom glide";
a senator and statesman,
“Firm as the hills to stem oppression's tide.”
Bereaved and gallant people of Vermont, millions are mourning with you
to-day. It has been your fortune to furnish a noble exemplar for the nation,
reflecting in character the grandeur of your evergreen mountains and the clear
waters distilled in the rugged cliffs.
In the shadow of the shaft of the purest marble which will be reared to com-
memorate his virtues in the chosen place of his burial, he shall sleep with the
honors of a hero, for here he met a mightier than earth's mailed soldier, the "king
of terrors", and with a smile. With a premonition of an early dissolution, he was
raised from his pillow to gaze once more upon this Capitol, and then, with mortal
vision ended, to bebold in its brightness the city of the living God, the home of the
ransomed soul.
In the address to my fellow-townsmen in Vermont, I summed
up some of the celebrities of that state in the following
SHORTER CATECHISM.
of biographic mention, which will have the merit of brevity and
verity, giving the names of a few eminent in our annals:
Who, in recognition of the God of Armies, in laconic speech,
376
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
demanded in the name of God and the Continental Congress, a
surrender of the key to the fortress of American Liberty at Ticon-
deroga ? - ETHAN ALLEN.
What jurist, in a fugitive slave case, first trampled on the
traditions and laws of human chattelship, in demanding before à
surrender of a slave which was held for return, a "bill of sale
from God Almighty”? The first Vermont judge — THEOPHILUS
HARRINGTON.
Who was the general in the late rebellion who first (in Louisi-
ana), comprehending the value of the slave, without orders enlisted
colored troops ?-GENERAL J. W. PHELPS.
What law-maker and leader of the American Congress, by his
eloquence and courage, gained the title of the “Old Commoner”?
A native of Peacham, Vt. — THADDEUS STEVENS.
Name the veteran diplomat and first in the rank of linguistic
scholars and critics, and it is a Vermonter, with more than national
fame!- GEORGE P. MARSH.
The Christian philanthropist who gave the library of this great
scholar to the University of Vermont, and one of the chaste edi-
fices of the world to his college— the peer of princes, also a Ver-
monter-- FREDERICK BILLINGS.
The only idol of the democratic party loyal to the flag since
General Jackson, the "Little Giant”, born in Brandon, Vt. — STE-
PHEN A. DOUGLAS.
Before what Vermont sculptor has the world paid homage in
recognition of that master-piece of high art, the Greek Slave?—.
HIRAM POWERS.
What other American has chiseled his genius in marble and
immortalized it in decorative bronze, in our parks and galleries,
until rising to national fame? The Brattleboro boy (though born
in New Hampshire) — LARKIN G. MEAD.
Who has thrown upon the canvas the beauty of the valleys
and grandeur of the mountains of his native land better than our
“Beech Hill Painter" ?
Where an Anglo-Saxon the equal in puns, smoother in verse,
more brilliant in wit, than our lamented -- JOHN G. SAXE.
None but the Almighty may “weigh the mountains in scales,
hills in a balance”, but next, by the world's acclaim, decorated by
kings, is the exact weighing of earth's jewels and products by the
late governor - ERASTUS FAIRBANKS.
REMINISCENCES C
377
C
OF FORTY YEARS.
If Vermont gave to the world Joe Smith and Mormonism, with
many wives, it was reserved for your senator to crush the monster
Hydra --GEORGE F. EDMUNDS.
The highest ranking minister, save him who holds intercourse
with the “King of Kings”, is a Vermonter, at St. James Court, in
London - EDWARD J. PHELPS.
What American divine filled one of the first places west of the
Mississippi river? The lamented veteran of St. Louis-Dr. T.
M. Post..
First of emancipation orators, deceased in New York, was—
ALVIN STEWART.
Who presides at the Centennial celebration at Philadelphia, in
memory of the adoption of the National Constitution? ' A Ver-
mont diplomat - JOHN A. KASSON.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Cherokee Neutral Land Purchase— Emigrant Aid Company -
Vindication of Secretary James Harlan -- James F. Joy-- First
Bridge across the Missouri -- A Texas overland Trip-Journey
to Mexico.
In 1868, after leaving Congress, I had connection with a great
land sale. It drew on the chief actor a deluge of epithets by
the envious, and loaded the press with crude and false surmises.
This will be my apology for the narration of an agency resulting
in honor to all parties interested.
The Cherokee Indians were, as far back as the time of Presi-
dent Jackson, a disturbing factor in society and politics, especially
in the state of Georgia, where in “Old Hickory" for a time they
found a friend. It was in the interest of slavery that the tribe
was forcibly removed in 1838 by General Scott to the Indian Ter-
ritory. Beside an exchange of land, they made a purchase of
800,000 acres in south-east Kansas, now embraced in the counties
of Crawford and Cherokee. The majority of the tribe in the
Indian Territory were making progress in agriculture, but gaining
only a trivial income from their reservation, the neutral. lands
being fast occupied illegally by defiant squatters. The Indians
feared that the government would fail to protect their rights, when
they became powerless by the occupation of their reservation. It
was a fair tract of land with an abundance of coal. Then the rail-
road extension from Kansas City, south, devised a right of way of
fifty miles, and a law to facilitate settlement.
Judge D. N. Cooley was commissioner of Indian affairs, and
Ex-Senator James Harlan, of Iowa, was secretary of the interior.
It was Mr. Harlan's judgment that the value of the land at inter-
est would be worth more to the Indians in the present and pro-
spectively than the title to the land, in jeopardy and without
revenue.
A treaty was made with the nine chiefs called “head men”,
379
persons of business sagacity, whereby the secretary was authorized
to make treaty stipulations and to sell the land. A sale was
effected to the American Emigrant Aid and Land Company for the
sum of $800,000, on which the company was to pay five per cent.
for the use of the money. Scandals were at once set afloat by pro-
fessional black-mailers, as to bribes. Squatters on the land held
meetings to resist any law which would compel the payment of
money, even on the land illegally occupied.
Hon. James F. Joy, of Detroit, representing Boston capital,
was building a bridge at Kansas City in contemplation of a trunk
line of railway southward through Kansas and the Indian Terri-
tory, possibly through Texas to the Gulf. This tract of land was
on the line, but had passed beyond their control; and the late
purchasers set a high price on the contract under Mr. Harlan.
Andrew Johnson, no longer the “Moses of the colored man” to
lead them out, would not tolerate radicals, and Mr. Harlan, secre-
tary of the interior, resigned. O. H. Browning, of Illinois, was
his successor, and, taking legal advice, abrogated the sale made to
the emigrant company on the ground that time payments did not
for cash, in the interest of Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Rail-
road, but the title of course was clouded by the previous sale, and
only the courts after long delays could determine the status of the
parties. Every hour of delay in adjustment attracted new and
defiant settlers to the land, in dispute as to ownership.
A PURCHASE.
At this stage, and in prospect of litigation, I became interested
in the purchase; it not being true that I had part in the negotia-
tion or was even privy to the sale under the treaty. The owners
held the purchase by tenths. They could not part with a tenth
without the assent of a majority. Mr. Dewitt C. Wheeler, of New
York, about to leave for Europe, had one tenth, paying down
$25,000, and proposed a sale of his interest, and a majority of the
company had urged me to take his place, which I did. This was
after a full knowledge of the field notes of the land by a late sur-
vey and a private personal inspection of the tract. Becoming the
agent of the company in this transaction, I called on Mr. Joy at
Detroit to enjoin him from assuming any acts of ownership, but
380
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
first indicated that, after years of litigation, there would be only
loss for both the contestants. Well-formed as his head is for stern,
legal controversy, and being then the great railway magnate of the
time, he was ready coyly to listen to a compromise which was
made on condition that his purchase should be officially ratified.
That could be done only in the most quiet manner, and by a sup-
plemental treaty noticed hereafter.
The following attack, enlarging into many scandals, was made
in a western paper and a reply by Mr. Joy followed:
HARLAN AND GRINNELL.
"Mr. Grinnell was a member of Congress. He was also Mr. Harlan's middle
man in the dealings with the Connecticut Emigrant Company, and their assigns,
Mr. Joy and his friends, in the Cherokee treaty. After Browning had set the ille-
gal treaty of Harlan aside and sold the lands to Joy, Grinnell was then the man
who managed the payment by way of compromising with the Connecticut Com-
pany, and in getting the subsequent supplemented treaty through the Senate, after
Mr. Harlan got back there, for which over $50,000 was paid into Grinnell's hands
at one time, a very considerable portion of which, said to be three tenths, was
placed at the control of Senator Harlan or his family. Grinnell is still the active
middle man and lobby agent of the enormous fraud on the part of government offi-
cials. Mr. Joy played only the part of getting as good a bargain as possible from
them."
In reply to this, Mr. Joy's letter is here given in justice to Sen-
ator Harlan and myself:
MICHIGAN CENTRAL RAILROAD Co.,
PRESIDENT'S OFFICE, DETROIT, Dec. 30, 1869.
“My Dear Sir:
Gazette relative to Messrs. Harlan and Grinnell touching the negotiations for the
only say that there never was $50,000 paid into Mr. Grinnell's hands in any
form. That amount was paid to the American Emigrant Company, of which
$25,000 was to reimburse it for the same amount which had been paid to the secre-
ing the lands had the benefit of as a payment on its own contract. The other
$25,000 was paid as being the difference in value between a contract on time at
five per cent. interest and a cash contract. We therefore deemed that we were
receiving full value for that amount of money which was paid that company.
There was no other $50,000 paid, nor the half of any such sum, for all expenses
connected with this matter at Washington, accounting everything. The money
paid did not go into the hands of Mr. Grinnell, but was paid to the treasurer of
the Emigrant Company. Of course Mr. Harlan did not, and could not receive
any part of it from him, nor could any of his family. This correspondent is there-
fore in these particulars wholly mistaken. There was no money used iu Washing-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY FEARS.
381
ton with any authority of mine to promote the passage of the treaty. At that
time we cared not enough about it to lavish money to acquire these lands.
"As to Mr. Grinnell's being the active middle man and lobby agent of this
enormous fraud', I have to say he is not now, and never has been, the agent in
any sense of myself or the Railroad Company, whether in the lobby or otherwise.
“These statements being due both to Mr. Harlan and Mr. Grinnell, you may "..
make such use of this as you please.
“Yours truly,
J. F. Joy.
“HENRY STRONG, Esq., Burlington, Iowa."
5
The above states the conditions of the transfer. There could
Indian department, if the affair had been made public.
Mr. Harlan was in his old seat in the Senate and held in lionor
for his personal and official integrity. He desired a settlement of
the question in the interest of owners and purchasers outside the
courts. Secretary Browning personally was favorable to an early
settlement, aside from his well-founded doubts as to the legality of
the second sale.
It was here that I entered upon the most delicate and difficult
service of my life. I began at the lower stratum, after the man-
ner of starting a coal fire. My first week's study was with the
chiefs, to learn of whom to make a confidant for quiet work; not a
council with speeches was necessary; the open course would have
awakened an army of half-breeds, outside lawyers and agents, end-
ing in complication and defeat. By strategy I kept “Big Indian”
from the saloons, and isolated and sworn not to divulge the sign-
ing of a request. All assenting, there was but one party entrusted ,
with the secret, viz: the commissioner of Indian affairs. Ex-Gov-
ernor Morrill, of Maine, was chairman of the Senate Indian com-
mittee, and, with all his caution, came near giving away the device
for settlement.
Fair as the prospect was, and for mutual interests, the long
speeches in executive session to kill the treaty are known. I did
not shorten them, and if a Kansas City capitalist did, it was not
by my money or sanction.
In the White House there was a long hitch and actual peril.
The president, I dare say when not sober, had declared the treaty
should never be signed by him, and there was a rumor that his
son, his private secretary, demanded so much, saying a certain sum
would get the “old man's name". I was powerless with the presi-
dent, I am happy to say, having no standing at the White House;
382
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
and weeks passed with no word as to the treaty. What local cap-
italists may have done to avert bankruptcy I do not even guess;
nor will I start a rumor related to official depravity in the demand
of one person, limited in means in a career of dissipation. The
president was still unyielding, soured by the impeachment trial
and suspicious of all.
Senator Grimes was apprised of the steps to sustain Mr. Har-
lan, his colleague, and of the interest his personal business friends
took in the ratification of the treaty, and was slow in crediting
rumors of venality and the obstinacy of President Johnson. It
was difficult to impress the senator with the peril, and more diffi-
cult to assure him that he was the only man who could bring us
success. A good and just status he has maintained, refusing to
vote on the treaty because as a railway stockholder his road might
have an interest in the neutral lands. At last, on advising with
his personal friend, Senator Fessenden, he made a formal call on
the president, the first since he had voted against impeachment.
The gratitude of the unimpeached is assumed, also the diplomacy
of his caller, who had an incidental errand—it was to inform as to
the scandal in opposing that treaty, against which there were only
four senatorial votes. The president said, “I hear there is a pile
of money back of it, and I am waiting to see Browning, for Culbert
says there are millions at stake”. Grimes' answer was, “Culbert
was an outside Indian, no doubt, and if your secretary is a party to
a job the sooner you know it the better. I did not vote for it on
account of a possible contingent interest, though not holding stock
in this railroad scheme." The bell calls. Bob, the son and secre-
tary, is summoned, and an order given to bring the treaty. it was
not at hand, and there was a suspicion of theft or concealment.
Senator Grimes left, receiving a pledge that soon he would hear
from the treaty. What followed as to the cost of finding and
securing a signature, is related to a scandalous rumor. The fact is,
no one could have saved the supplemental treaty but Senator
Grimes; and to him outsiders said there would have been a deaf
ear, but for the favor of an anti-impeachment vote. This is his-
tory, and complimentary to the sagacity and integrity of one who
was above casting his vote to secure an official favor. Angry set-
tlers were on the neutral lands. They had, by delays, become a
formidable party, resorting to law; and belligerent threats came
forth in resolves. “A railroad engineer would require a coat of
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
383
mail for protection; and Joy, Grinnell and Coates, might grace a
tree by suspension.” A more unreasoning border community bent
on violence, has not been known.
I happened to be in a small town on my way to Baxter Springs,
where, while the mail was changing, a band of settlers had met.
They raised a stage coach curtain to say they were on the look for
enemies, but guessed the men they wanted were not along. I was
unarmed, and the second on their list marked for violence. It was
not safe to return the same road, so bent were they on taking the
life of one in reality aiding their good fortune.
On the failure of the treaty, the squatters would have been
removed before the bayonets of regular troops. The first step
toward a settlement was taken in appraising the lands, improved
in good faith for homes, and commissioners had the protection of
soldiers. These lands were choice selections and only priced at
about $1.80 an acre, on which time was given for payment. The
next device toward a peaceful settlement was an offer of a double
price for the lands where a railroad should be built. Mr. Joy,
denounced as their great enemy, soon came to be regarded as a
friend. Welcomes took the place of threats, and the honors paid
and homage felt were illustrated by a ludicrous incident connected
with Mr. Joy, whom I am later to set in a biographical picture.
THE MAYOR BLACKING BOOTS.
We paused at Paola, Kansas, a young city in the agony of
expectation, the citizens happy over Mr. Joy's arrival, and I was
the “next man” who got up the treaty, preparatory to a railroad.
Going down in the morning first, I returned to inform Mr. Joy
how much of a lion he was, and that even the city's Mayor was
radiant with smiles, ready with a coat-brush and to black his
boots. “Nonsense! I'll submit to no such thing.” “But that is
what the landlord says, and they may have, like some of our
northern cities, a very common mayor.” On going down and wait-
ing for the obsequious official, a light mulatto man presented him-
self with a "Fine morning” salutation, ready to give a shine. I
had taken in the compound truth and joke, and said, “ Mr. Joy, we
are on the border, with new experiences, and among people not
bred to high notions, but hearty friends and obliging dignitaries”.
“Yes, I see our man is here, an artist with a brainy head.” “ Yes
and it is no illusion of mine that you are now complimenting the
384
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
city mayor — I dare say as good in giving a polish as in gaining
votes.” The job was done, and Mr. Joy held out a quarter. “No
sir! I want no pay. We want a railroad, and you are the man to
· bring it. It is your kind of gentlemen that I like to serve.” At
this point I quietly suggested, “This is more than the freedom of
the city, granted by eastern mayors to distinguished visitors”.
Mr. Joy, still doubting, asked, “But, are you the mayor, sir ?"
“I think the landlord here will tell you that I had a good major-
ity. But this was my old trade down in St. Louis, and shoemak-
ers stick to their lasts. And this is a mighty dirty country, sah,
so I hold on to de brush. Color don't go far, down in dese parts,
if the people set out for sport.” “ Then you were elected ?"
“ Certainly; but I ain't doing very much in the mayor business.
There's not much to do, and I turn it over to a white man, so I can
wait on you gentlemen.” “Is that the reason ?" "To tell the
truth, sah, I was mighty popular. But railroad coming, Mr. Joy
and other big people, I thought best to wait and serve big inen,
and our big city by-and-by.” “Didn't you take the oath of office
to serve ?" "Not yet.” “Why didn't you, if a legal, fair elec-
tion ?” “They call this a white man's country about here, and I
didn't, for I was afraid they would take an appeal on me."
The laugh on “taking an appeal” was boisterous. Mr. Joy was
convulsed, saying the humorous jest of the man in his fear of an
appeal was up to the best stories of the jurists at the bar. In the
carriage on a long tour, “taking an appeal on him” was the signal
for a round of stories enlivened with the appeal episode.
The Jay Hawker tale, told by Gen. Blunt, may here be in place.
This neutral land had, like the Indian Territory, been swept of
food, stock and homes, first by one party, and then the other, led by
Kansas adventurers, and every grade of Jay Hawkers. Their char-
acter and occupation was set out by Gen. J. G. Blunt, a bold fighter
and an ardent Union patriot. The Indians and border whites were
divided in politics, and their homes were alternately burnt by the
foraging war parties. If there was honor among thieves, it was
drawn at the line of loyalty giving absolute protection to your
own clan, and impoverishing secret enemies. Where one party
had left stock, goods and food, it was a sign of disloyalty, and a
signal for consumption or destruction by the other. He was a
hero that despoiled most, and that raid only a success which left
nothing behind for an enemy.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
385
This was General Blunt's story. The last chicken was plucked,
pig roasted, and pony mounted for an adieu, when a store with col-
ored blinds was opened, it being that of a small grocer with a stock
of drugs. The tobacco and sweets were soon pocketed and coffee
distributed, but what of the glass jars and jugs? Here was a test
of the passion of destruction and appropriation. Jars and bottles
were musical in breaking; but what of the contents ? It could
not be left to an enemy, and there was a scramble and ludicrous
swallowing of a materia medica outfit. Salts, jalap, quinine, and
everything with a whiskey component was devoured with especial
avidity. “Heavens !” said he, “what have you done in your
raids ? Not content with the last fowl, you have swallowed a drug
store!” I think he burlesqued the affair by an order that the pre-
scriptions hereafter should be made by the surgeon, and it would
be against the army regulations to swallow another drug store even
to prevent its falling into the hands of an enemy.
What was this land scheme treaty to the parties ? Every way
beneficial. The trespassers came to have a legal claim to home
and realty. From a threatening and blood-thirsty company they
rose to the standard of peaceful citizens, and friends of order and
capital. Their titles were perfected under the sanction of a treaty,
and company warranty. A railroad, first class in all appoint-
ments, brought life where before was stagnation, although in prox-
imity to an extensive coal domain. It was possessed of timber for
ties and bridges without purchase, and had control of coal mines
hitherto undeveloped for want of capital, and means of freighting.
Lands were graded according to quality and proximity to a depot.
Freighting of cattle from the Indian Territory and Texas became a
source of revenue, and stimulated a profitable cattle industry. By
a mistake in making the south terminal at Baxter Springs rather
than in the Neosho valley, the franchise across the Indian Terri-
tory, by a technical ruling of Secretary Cox, was lost. A more
profitable device was found in extending the road to Springfield,
Missouri, and later on to Memphis, a distance of six hundred miles
from Kansas City.
HON. JAMES HARLAN.
This man deserves here more than a simple defense. He has
been an honored, able servant of Iowa and the nation. A gentle-
man of education, he was elected territorial superintendent of pub-
386
lic instruction. Then he was president of the Methodist College
at Mt. Pleasant, until called to the United States Senate, to which
he was four times elected, filling vacancies and full terms.
Education and probity well equipped him for the secretaryship
of the Interior, to which he was appointed on Mr. Lincoln's second
term. His daughter has since married the surviving son of the
president, Robert T. Lincoln, secretary of war under President
Hayes, now our British minister. There was nothing held in com-
mon by President Johnson and Mr. Harlan, who resigned as cabi-
net minister at an early day. Mr. Harlan served several years as
judge on the court of claims, and everywhere has maintained a
high character. Reference is often made to a check of several
thousand dollars found by a voucher, for money used in a political
Iowa campaign. It came by an agent of the Union Pacific Rail-
road, but there was no evidence that Mr. Harlan disbursed it, or
that it was used for any but legitimate odjects incident to the
efforts of partial friends in an exciting campaign like that for sen-
ator in Iowa. The cry of great wealth gained while in public life
is also a baseless aspersion. Mr. Harlan, after thirty years of ser-
vice, had only property to bring a moderate income, and has never
been charged with extravagance or speculation. Mrs. Harlan and
to the company of Mrs. Lincoln, his daughter, between whom in
Chicago and his Iowa home he passed the days of quiet and hon-
ored age with wide and warm friendships.
JAMES F. JOY. LL. D.
The City of Detroit has a citizen eminent in affairs, and alike
noted for versatility and the youthful, firm bearing of one over
public recalls no single conspicuous failure, not even in the nomi-
nation of Blaine for the presidency at Chicago in 1884. The first
of the “Plumed Knights” were sagacious as to a spokesman - one
who has the fame of a financier and the poise of a sedate gentle
man. It is no just reflection on the orator that (in mental lapsus)
there was a mirthful pause, when on reaching the climax of praise
he had to seek in sotto voce a prompter for the name of his hero,
James G. Blaine.
It is near fifty years since Boston capitalists sought to pur-
chase of the state of Michigan its pioneer Central Railroad. The
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
387
capitalists sought the famed lawyer of Harvard, asking his efficient
assistance in a draft of the contract. On this, there was a rare case
of self-abnegation in commending Mr. Joy, a graduate, and equal to
any legal occasion. Besides, he was on the ground and well versed
in Michigan statutes. That legal service was soon rendered by
Mr. Joy, and was in the line of that eminence which brought the
rare autocratic prerogatives of a railway magnate, of whom it was
to be true that neither chance nor charity had anything to do
in future promotions. The Michigan Central was soon engaged,
and the C., B. & Q., with lines into Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas
and Nebraska, numbering from fifteen to twenty; their inception
mainly traced to the broad brain without a peer in repute and
authority a few years since, not only in the use of capital but in
delicate combinations based on the natural growth and the most
sanguine predictions of the West.
The first bridge across the Missouri river was by him located
and built at Kansas City — a commercial strategic key. I read a
poem by Prof. H. W. Parker, of Iowa College, at the dedication.
The following extract from the poem may be appended, premising
that the builder's name was Chanute:
"O Missouri wild, the mountains' child,
Uufettered since man began!
You have learned to stray in a devious way,
And have laughed at the power of man.
But a wooer bold, of a mighty mould,
Your roving will shall bind;
With his girder arıs he clasps your charms,
And tames your wayward mind.
Then sing of the Bridge, the first to invade
The heart of the mountain maid.
Old King Canute, he thought he was cute
When he sat on Britain's strand,
And looked for the tide to humble its pride
Through fear of his royal command;
But a wiser than he to-day we see-
Chanute, our builder brave,
Whose master brain, with Xerxes' chain,
Has bound the careering wave.
Then sing of the Bridge, the first to girth
The proudest river of earth.
Let the King of yore, on oblivion's shore,
Recline in his golden chair;
The future shall sing the railroad King
Who dwells by the Lake St. Clair.
388
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
With harvests glad the wilds shall be clad,
And a scene of Joy shall reach
From the land of the pine to the seething brine
That breaks on the Texas beach.
Then sing the Bridge, the first to unbar
Our way to the bright Lone Star.
Great river, flow, from the peaks of snow
A thousand miles away!
A mightier stream we see in the dream
That floats before us to-day-
A river of souls and wealth that rolls
Across the flooding tide;
Lo! onward it steams along the beams
That span these waters wide!
Then sing the Bridge, the first to stride
The glorious Missouri's tide."
A road southward toward the Great Gulf, to appropriate, under
treaty, the Cherokee neutral lands for the benefit of all parties
and for developing its coal fields, rich and wide, was a most happy
scheme. To this was connected by sagacious investors other Kan-
sas and Nebraska extensions in sober pace with population. Later
reverses are not the sequence of his conservative management, and
it is the sentiment of financiers that the compensation given a
national president would have been a cheap return for his wise
counsel.
Mr. Joy was a classical scholar of Dartmouth, tutor of some
most eminent Americans, an advocate in the high courts, a finan-
cier, long trusted custodian of money, and prince of adventure in
the West. When securing on the prairie a right of way, or when
a visitor incog. on the border, a pocket edition of some favorite
Greek or Roinan classic would be found in his hand. Divert him
from reading ? No! So ardent were his friends, who knew of his
learning and probity, that Mr. Lincoln endorsed a long and able
Bar petition for him as justice of the Supreme Court. This fine
compliment to the fame of the jurist found an approval at the cab-
inet meeting. It was then that Mr. Lincoln spoke. "I assume it
is all right; but somewhere I have filed away a letter from this
gentleman which I had forgotten.” Mr. Joy, as executive of the
C., B. & Q. Railway had, in a local legal contest, asked Mr. Lincoln
to appear for his company. On a rendering of a court decision,
Abraham Lincoln sent his bill, which was so large that Mr. Joy
asked to have it cut down. The answer came, “Mr. Joy, no reduc-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
389
tion!” to which there was a reply, “It is out of reason for a coun-
try lawyer to make such a charge; it is next to extortion, but I
will pay it and this will end our business.”
As a bird of the air gives the news, Mr. Lincoln only said,
“Our would-be justice in his economic mood was rather severe on
the country lawyer". The remark was followed by silence; no
one made a motion. The court lost a brave, learned justice, but in
the language of Mr. Joy, “I escaped routine, and an elevation
which would have caused restiveness, pecuniary loss, also loss of
physical vigor, now only maintained by the activities of a business
life”.
Thus, in service as trustee, manager, magnate, disburser of a
hundred million of dollars, with autocratic prerogatives, he has
escaped even well-grounded suspicion of dereliction in duty, or dis-
loyalty to noble purposes, in the fiscal concerns of our great era of
railway construction, conservation and combinations. With admi-
ration for the youthful professor, ripening in cultured tastes, abste-
mious in habits, now graceful with age and the optimism of youth,
I feel sure that the great scheme of a tunnel under the Detroit
River, of which he has long been the champion, is certain, by his
advocacy, of ultimate success. And when the Canadas shall come
to us, falling gently like ripened fruit, I name James F. Joy as the
minister plenipotentiary, to arrange the conditions of the nuptials
and union, not doubting that his agency would be exercised with
tact, probity and honor.
A TEXAS OVERLAND TRIP.
My service in the neutral land treaty came to be germane to a
larger scheme in railway extension, through the Indian Territory,
to Galveston, or to Bolivar's Point, deemed a better harbor on the
east.
I set out on this trip incognito, April, 1869, with letters from
the war department asking military escort if necessary. Inci-
dentally I visited points where there was illicit distilling; yet
openly I was a traveler, with an eye to railroad building in which
William E. Dodge, of New York, was interested; and there were
suspicions as to persons in his employ — names and particulars
not public.
My company was chosen for a thousand miles of exploration,
where Indians, ex-convicts, counterfeiters, and every degree of
390
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Texas outlawry, brought such dangers that General Sheridan
sought to dissuade .me, saying he would rather take his chances
in any battle in which he was ever engaged, than trust his life on
such a trip. I was to go; and did, unarmed. My company of five
was reduced to one, on hearing of assassins and murders. It was
Major John Delahoyde, who had seen years of service in our war,
and bore wounds as the marks of service, who was my sole com-
this journey.
In the course of this journey, we found the doors were without
locks, and dogs, numerous as they were and energetic with fleas,
seemed too stupid for alarm; and we slept only by turns in watch-
ing, for there was a suspicion that spies, neutral land avengers,
were on our track for robbery or revenge. There was more than a
suspicion. The mail stage refused to take more than one of us;
the other, to divide the loadl, was to go by another conveyance. I
took the first hack, the other to follow. After some delay it did
not start, and the major engaged a buggy and driver at almost the
value of the horse, and followed. I was in the company of one of
the most desperate of the border ruffians, and on a by-road I was
to be an easy victim. A stop on a false pretence was made, and I
was about to conceal myself in the thicket when my companion
came in sight, with a horse able by rapid driving to go faster. I
left my company fortunately, waiving hack fare and compliments.
There was a plot, and the hotel people, back thirty miles, expected
only to hear of murder; and an officer was even indulging a hope
of fees on the return of the driver and his accomplice. It was
then I recalled Sheridan's caution, and only realized the good for-
tune in my escape when at Red River the military commandant
gave an opinion that it was a close call, on a route where so many
adventurers ended their lives or were never heard from..
At Fort Gibson I spent Sunday. It is a delightful location on
the Arkansas river, and assumed importance as a military post
during the war, with fine store-rooms now empty, and a neat white
was a queenly half-blood who took no sides in the “wah”, and
entertained me with stories, little regarding Sunday, which she
held to be as good as any other day. “A heap of people used to
go in thar -- it is Piscopal now; nobody owns it-mighty fine."
I asked if there were not enough to fill the church. “Laws, yes,
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
391
but no chaplain, and travelers don't often stay over. The wah
ruined everything." The street porcines were numerous and act-
ive, stirred by hunger. Soon a mother swine appeared with a
large litter of pigs in her train, walking up the steps and passing
through the door. Venturing the remark that if numbers made a
congregation there was a good start— “That is nothing”, said my
hostess, “stragglers and the drinkers make the seats a bed, and
may drop some crackers which the hogs will eat”. A couple of
hungry goats soon went up the steps to compose a mixed gather-
ing, and the swine came out of the other door in a race before
their pursuers. They were not more than in full possession before
a lank, belligerent-faced dog entered the church, and the bleat of
distress and the bark stirred my curiosity to look into the church,
so attractive to the animals. Billy-goat had taken to the pulpit,
and his ample horns resisted an assault in the canine push for
supremacy. Another herd of. swine came on in the rear, to
enliven the scene in a Sunday tableau. It was a ludicrous scene,
and the sacrilege led me to interpose; and, before my.cane, pigs,
goats and dogs retired in the order of their entrance with reluctant
speed, while I both mused and laughed over the animal inci-
dents --a most impressive lesson on the wastes of war, and the
decline toward barbarism of one of the most beautiful of all Amer-
ican regions, in a clime “where every prospect pleases and only
man is vile".
In: my travels I recall only one parallel relapse toward barba-
rism seen in the occupation of a public building. In 1853 I was
figuring on the value of a tract of land (forty miles west of Hanni-
bal, Mo.) which by the map was near Marion College, to which our
family had made a contribution of money; and this institution was
supposed to enhance the value of our land. Nearing the spot as
laid down by the map, I made inquiries, but got no light. At last
I directed my questions to a polite colored man, who wanted to
know what a college was. It was a brick edifice I was sure; and
he said, “You turn down such a road in the brush and you will see
a mighty long house". The college was found after a short ride.
What a campus! Tall weeds had sprung up where the plough had
been, and open windows indicated vacant rooms and anything but
a seat of learning. We hitched the horses to a tree, and resolved
to go through a Missouri college. The doves, frightened, came out
from the upper story of a long brick edifice, in great numbers.
392
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
Nearing the door, or the place where there had been one, out
rushed a flock of sheep from the lower story, where they had quar-
ters in an escape from flies and heat. The vaste by slavery I
had only read of in old Virginia. Here I had seen a new state
driving out northern enterprise, clinging to barbarism, and a spa-
cious college building vacated by students, and only of value as the
home of brutes, enforcing the adage that "no grass grows where
the devil dances".
The journey continued, was not barren of incidents, after cross-
ing Red River, the northern boundary of Texas. Reconstruction
had not perfected society, and the great need was the revival of
muscular inspiration in the towns. There came from every corner
the ejaculation, “The d—n nigger must work”. It would leap to
my tongue, “Suppose you set him an example or give the courage
of a partner.” At Sherman, Texas, the military held a check on a
populace mad on loss of slavery and belligerent by the use of pois-
oned whiskey. The country in nature was rich and inviting to
farmers, but with a drawback in bad roads, the worst I had ever
seen. I paid just twenty-five dollars for a hack ride twenty-five
miles, from Sherman to McKinney, and my livery man had the
worst of the bargain, exhausting three teams and giving the ser-
vice of a day and a night, dislodging mud from the wheels to make
locomotion possible. It was my first experience with “hog wal-
lows”, the dread of southern travelers. They consist of holes
apparently made by scooping out the earth from a few inches. to a
foot in depth, leaving no sod to hold up a wheel, and clay soft and
like paste in its adhering qualities — holes and hills to be passed
through and over.
My journey was at the wet season, and seemingly crossing the
swollen and roaring streams lengthwise. At Dallas on the Trinity
River, the ferry-boat made a trip of miles to reach the high land
on the shore. The weariness and monotony of the journey by
hacks and stages southward from Kansas City for twenty-five days,
was only relieved by my escapes, and by tales of robbery and the
crossing of “dead lines”, the haunts of assassins and the witness
of daring defences by drivers, the voluble historians of escape and
tragedy.
Contracts to carry mails with celerity and safety were not
made. I could forego a dinner or breakfast to jump on a pony, to
get a view of a flock of sheep, and hold a brief chat on vool-grow-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
393
ing with the shepherd, which I reported to Hon. Henry S. Randall,
of Rochester, the most able writer on sheep husbandry of our time.
His compliments are not material, but my predictions as to wool-
growing in that country and the need of care with flocks, have
been more than verified in poor results, due to lack of care and the
delusion that wool is a "raw material”, which will not soon find
an echo in an official message after 1888. Nearing the terminus
of the railroad, then at Byron, one hundred miles north from Gal-
veston, there were hours of ecstatic expectation. The boom of the
age in locomotion can only be appreciated after snail-like move-
ments for weeks, and attendant fears, aches, delays and night
inhaling of miasma, contrasted with safety and celerity, inspiring
the sentiment of Saxe— “Bless me, this is pleasant riding on a
rail.”
The scream of the locomotive heard in the distance was a
friend's welcome, and the headlight hurrying in a race after it was
like the shining of a good deed in a naughty world. It was a
truthful engineer who said, I kissed the steam box, but I was not
a crazy man. Not an earthly object, so said the reporter at din-
ner, save woman, seemed so comely and lovely in promise of min-
istries to a weary, forlorn traveler. Houston, a city of twenty
thousand people, had, by a mayor and council, tendered me a din-
ner, on the rumor that I was a protégé of railway capitalists; not
the first time that fictitious heralding has brought notoriety. The
only incident related to this affair, was my excuse for leaving
before the last glasses were drained. I apprised the mayor that
the citizens of Grinnell were supporting a lady teacher in their
schools, and I was to visit her. “I regret the occasion, but I do
not know the lady.” It was only by a call on several colored driv-
ers that the location of the school-house was learned, and I was
driven to it. Approaching the church turned into a school-house,
I saw a row of colored men leaning against the building. I should
not have known pupils from sentinels -— many in faded American
blue coats — but for a book in hand. They were voluble, and
rivals in the service of introducing the white man to “missus”.
An accomplished lady made me very welcome, having been advised
of my visit. What a school-room and how ludicrous the position
of the occupants! A juvenile row of spellers were toeing the
crack, everyone barefoot. On benches the pupils were at full
length. The elevated pulpit platform was covered with sleepers,
394
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
black, yellow and dubious shades, like mosaic in color. An apol-
ogy was soon made for the position of the pupils in slumber-
that after a walk of from two to six miles to the school, there was
weariness which forbade study without rest. The success of these
schools is a high tribute to the teachers from the North, socially
the incidents of my visit to the mayor, who was surprised that we
were educating colored people, in charge of a lady of whom he had
never heard. “I will call upon her," he said, and did, to appre-
ciate her service and lift the cloud of social neglect. By hearty,
yet not quite official recognition, he brightened the days of a
stranger engaged in the good offices of a teacher, in the line of
service under the Freedman's Bureau.
Galveston was the city on the Gulf, putting on the airs of a
mistress without a rival in the state. It escaped from the burdens
of civil war, and the discouragements which clouded so many in:
commercial pursuits who were waiting on northern capital and
enterprise, which, however, up to this date has neither been appre-
ciated nor always rewarded by fair returns from liberal invest-
ments. The last days of April were most oppressive with heat,
and a breeze at night from the Gulf the most refreshing cordial I
recall on many journeys. The wind was welcome, though furious,
and the novelty of the morning view was a vessel, full rigged, in
mon on the Gulf. Bolivar Point, by reason of bad title or official
silence, was not the great natural sea-port, not even a rival to Gal-
veston, with deep water and natural harbor. My errand of obser-
vation, relating to a bonus held out by a railroad corporation, was
restricted, yet I left for New Orleans after a gathering of facts of
use to other parties and with a large accumulation of valued
experiences.
MEXICO.
It has been my fortune to travel in all parts of the western
United States and Territories, and to Mexico. To the land of the
Montezumas I went in part for health, but chiefly as one invited to
go on a tour of observation. Some notices of the social, indus-
trial and agricultural condition there in 1887, with an estimate of
President Diaz, and a visit to Protestant missions, may have more
than a personal interest.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
395
The country has an area twenty times the size of New Eng-
land, and the grand mountain, burning Popocatepetl, rising three
miles with his white crown, fills an American with wonder. My
nearest view was from the ancient Chapultepec, three miles from
the city Plaza. It is a fortress in nature, girded by art and beau-
tified by all the skill of arboriculture, decked with memorials of
the ill-fated Maximilian, on whose couch I leaned, with a tear for
Carlotta, the ambitious bride, giving room to the young wife of
President Diaz. Blessings on his reign! He made me welcome
where he dines in state, and I bore away a bouquet from the spray
of the fountains where Montezuma wept three hundred years ago.
The city is mainly of adobe buildings, giving little indication of
such luxurious life as I found at General Frisbie's, and other east-
ern-born and western-reared gentlemen, whose fountains, flowers
and paintings are a reflection of artistic tastes and generous hospi-
tality. The city is in a basin 7,000 feet above the sea, but is to
be drained, under Colonel Harris, an American engineer, at an
expense of millions of dollars. One can linger long in the cathe-
dral, the largest on the continent, and nearly a hundred years in
rearing. In the museum and art galleries, all the gods in stone
have a place for money, as plain as the channel for the flow of
blood from the “sacrificial stone”, which, by tradition, had an
office for hundreds of years, and on which millions laid their heads
for sacrifice. Mexican painters have not held a high rank, but
there are traces of genius on the walls, and no doubt. it is an
honest portraiture of the generals and presidents, some of whom
I have seen in Washington. Juarez has a strictly Indian face, and
answers to our martyred Lincoln as president and friend of good
order and progress; honest, and for the last thirty years no friend
of a state religion.
Oh, the cloud that hung over Mexico for three hundred years !
What slavish toil, blood and death were in religious despotism, for
which so many millions now nurse their hate. The priestly livings
are gone, but a thousand cathedrals are occupied by the Catho-
lics at the will of the President. Indeed, in rides of two thou-
sand miles, I estimate the cost of the churches more than that of
the homes of the people. Yet there are lessons we can learn from
the inhabitants. They post your letters at once in the sight of all.
The car and hack service is swifter, prompter and costs less than
in the United States. The policeman is never, save by an alarm,
396
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
0
more than fifty feet from his bright lantern in the center of each
street corner. Of drunkenness and violence in the streets I saw
none. In fact, in the interest of labor and sobriety, they close up
the beer-saloon at six o'clock P. M. Their hand-shaking, bowing,
embracing, is not mere fashion, but the spontaneity of a race only
waiting for a free religion and an elevating civilization to take that
high place of which so many of the land of Cortez gave promise.
A new era dawned with the introduction of railroads, six years ago,
and no passenger has yet lost his life in traveling over them.
I should have larger hope for the Republic could there be a
colonization upon the rich, well watered lands. Hundreds of thou-
sands of acres can now be purchased cheaply. Then our better
methods of labor, rearing stock and making cloth, would be a
study and inspiration; brute muscle would be in service in place
of slavery, and the way would open for an introduction of the
Protestant faith.
The best of American horses are driven or ridden in these
streets. Cattle are seen in great droves on the plains, where new, .
fresh blood will be infused from the north ; and Mexican sheep,
white and fat, will be crossed for wool, where good pastures abound
and mutton is the popular food. Swine are almost unknown, yet I
have seen a fair specimen held hy a string in the hands of a Peon,
while grazing. I saw fifty-seven yoke of oxen in one field, at
pronged wood ploughs, drawing by the horns, yet steel ploughs are
coming. Coal and iron ore from Durango are to meet, that money
may be made in mining, food better cooked, and a new civilization
known. Man has yet to do his part among a people, active,
artistic, brave and devout, where God has sent balmy air, grand
scenery, a soil rich in producing good crops of corn for hundreds
of years, and the finest grass, not one blade in a thousand used for
food.
Mexico, as I have seen it for 1225 miles, is mainly dry and
sterile, yet never out of the shadow of mountains and of the grand-
est scenery of the world. The valleys are rich and have two crops
a year. Beans and corn are the staple food, the latter soaked
and rolled by women into paste, which is eaten by Peons — four-
fifths of the people ; coffee being their drink, or pulque, like milk
and water in color, and having, say, four per cent. of alcohol. The
laborers live on less than seven cents a day, including their cheap
soup, sugar and coffee.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
397
The mining towns, of which there are more than 100 in Mex-
ico, are full of life — street railways, elegant riders showing off the
finest of American horses under the saddle, and gay families in the
glitter of jewels and rustle of silks, in great glee, in coaches, this
city of Mexico furnishing the climax -- a full view of show, gay-
ety and squalor. The laden donkeys are quite as numerous as the
laborers you pass — all courteous and civil in the profusion of
hand-shaking.
The power of the Church is broken, and since Maximilian was
shot, the Catholic usurper, religion has been free, and the advances
for twenty years are a marvel. Dr. Butler, of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, is a representative Christian laborer, with our towns-
man, Rev. Samuel F. Craver, with his accomplished lady and two
boys, at Queretaro, a city of 40,000 people, 150 miles north of
Mexico. He is florid and stout, and you may guess the welcome
by a noble son of Iowa College, and missionary of manly devotion,
to the only person from Grinnell greeted at his home and foreign
residence for twelve years! The Mexican adobe house of the fam-
ily-property of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has as much
room as the elegant residence of his brother, Charles F., besides
school-rooms and chapel under one roof, with open promenade on
top and a court with trees and flowers in the rear, all barricaded
by the custom of the country with bars, heavy locks and huge
doors-on two or three occasions of service, to repel fierce and
angry religionists, now quiet, in sullen toleration. This house is
not unlike an hacienda-farm-house - barricaded, with port holes,
like castles and cathedrals, all evidences of fierce barbarisms and
fear of hostile invasions.
I attended a chapel meeting, where dogs in concert, martial
bands in the street, and the peal of loud cathedral bells could
not drown the quiet voices of Protestant singing of Mexican girls
in • Hold the Fort”, etc., nor break the solemnity of a circle in
prayer. Mr. Craver has some seven preaching stations, and in
rearing churches and in missionary labor has rode this year 12,000
miles. As I named rest, and yielding for a time to younger
recruits, the reply was, “No! A visit would be pleasant, but this
is the place of duty if separation from home costs us tears of
regret. It is better to follow the Master and die among these peo-
ple, long degraded and the victims of bigotry, than to accept ease
and refined society in Iowa.” This is courage and devotion which
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
shamed me, and what amend can we make for our coldness but to
send, at least, dollars to cheer the hearts of the devoted in this
rude society where an American cheer and vernacular has almost a
benediction.
The city has 40,000 people, street cars, but not any more busi- ;
ness than Grinnell with 4,000 people. It takes for the daily pota-
tion thirty to forty barrels of pulque (their beer) from the cars
doled out around the floral-decked Plaza and fountain; but a limp
mail boy brings the letters for a capital city, and there is only one
bank near this last city of refuge for the ill-fated Maximilian-
shot twenty years ago by the liberals after being cut off from food
and water, having impotently declared the death of any orator, or
soldier, that opposed his reign. The mockery of his career I found
in the Mexican museum--a carriage—the gaudiest of earth, a
huge bust, and the Emperor in oil, full size, on a blooded steed.
Mexico — beads, bulls, beggars, burros and banquets, have been
minor studies, all overshadowed by the country as God made
it, in an air of balm, soil rich, and mountains to kiss the sky.
The best as the worst of society is here—say one-tenth seeking
power— civil or ecclesiastical; another tenth pleasure any way,
and 10,000,000 eager for a bare animal existence, nominally free,
but bound to the soil by the bigotry of priests and the poverty of
serfdom—yet some very good. . But all are rising under the iron
ruler Diaz, the visitation of railways, American enterprise and
devoted Christian teachers — only one where hundreds could work,
perhaps with earlier results in Christian colonies engaged in manu-
facturing and on the soil.
colony of the City of Mexico —a grand spread, where we sat three
hours, in honor of Thanksgiving Day, nursing the loves of the two
republics. President, mayor, minister of war, U. S. Consul Moore,
bankers of Kansas City, generals of both republics, warmed with
the flowing cheer and clink of glasses; yet there was decorum
without excess, only less joviality than at our annual banquets.
and tribute to the liberality of Americans, spending one hundred
millions of money to reach this oldest capital of America, fragrant
with the aroma of the flowers of the tropics — a profusion which
recalls the fairy tales of childhood and a mirror of Eden, the gar-
den of the Lord.
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
399
It is asked, what of Diaz, the president? We shall look to
him in vain for high, moral restraining force. He is virtually an
uncrowned king, while the constitution confers a ballot for presi-
dent. The June election, 1888, revealed that he has no rival; for
the press has one voice, re-echoed by the army of forty thousand,
taken up by miners and railway capitalists, favoring even despotic
powers to avert the wastes and woes of anarchy. He manifested
a diplomatic turn in taking for his bride the young daughter of a
Catholic official. A lawyer, he gained repute at the bar; in the
field, the honors of a leader in battle; and he drank the dregs of
want as a fugitive while chieftains thirsted for his blood. No
ruler of our times has been taught in so many schools of adversity,
and I confess admiration for the political wisdom of an Indian of
unmixed blood. If plunderers and assassins in the evening are
shot at break of day, it is to promote order and give that rare secu-
rity to life and property, especially railway property, in Mexico
now enjoyed. If the army seems large and costly, it is an econom-
ical device to prevent the cost and waste of revolution, which
would be destructive to credit and to a wise system of internal
improvements now attracting immigration, and soon to bring coal
and iron ore together, insuring domestic fabrications for the miners,
and hardware-making, that there may be here more of the comforts
of home. His rule is not measured by the area of an American
state, for Mexico is a hundred times as large as Massachusetts.
A homogeneous people are not his subjects, but those vexed
by European rule, princely adventurers, American rascals of low
degree on the border, chieftains of the blood of Cortez, and the
large majority of natives, only for thirty years released from under
the yoke of slavery. If he wins the stranger by the suavity of a
real gentleman, he has a broader claim to the regard of his people
by the compulsory education of the children of the republic — a
late enactment by the local government of a city of three hundred
thousand people, where a supreme presidential voice insures per-
sonal safety and protection to property equal to that enjoyed by
us. Of my other journeys, to every Western state and territory -
once with a memorable company to Yellowstone Park and to see
the silver spike driven on completion of the Northern Pacific Rail-
road— I have no time and room to write.
CHAPTER XXV.
Grinnell Quarter Centennial Celebration-- Silver Wedding — A Ser-
mon on Sermons — The Home Library — Tribute to a Life's
Companion — Money Making — Words to Children and Grand-
children— Memorial of Faith.
THE first quarter centennial of the founding of our town
occurred in 1879. It was computed that there were 10,000 per-
sons present — a park full, cheered by bands of music, and the
scream of locomotives. There were social feasts which our people
are famous for spreading, making bountiful contributions from the
larder and farm, and the best and rarest fruits from many lands.
The late venerable C. F. Clarkson, of Des Moines, gave a grand
address on the western advances in the last twenty-five years, and
in special compliment to a model town that has no timber, coal,
water power, nor a central county-seat location.
It became my office to draw a picture of the changes since the
never could be a city, by reason of wind exposure and other disad-
vantages. Then we were found by the Indian trails; now we are
reached pleasantly riding on the rail. The deer in herds, whose
haunts I disturbed by the grove, are scattered, and prowling
wolves no longer howl at night. Walk about the brick blocks,
colleges and churches to discover the American pirit, content to
draw from the earth by husbandry the luxuriant grains and comely
farm-stock. The wide, unshorn prairie garden has given place to
homes of taste and business blocks, where tradesmen make facile
exchanges with mechanic and farmer, replenishing stocks from the
Jubilation over material progress did not alone invite the long
joyous shout. There was felicitation for intellectual and moral
advancement. The roll-call of school pupils whose presence levied
a tax on parents only, was ended. A payment to education was no
longer assessed by the affluence of a patron in the number of chil-
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
401
dren, but rated by the acres, stocks and money. A state public
school policy had made education to the poor as free as air and
sunshine.
Hear and answer! I said. What house in our township has
gone up in flame during the last twenty-five years ? I recall none;
do you? No answer. A college building was burned by the neg-
lect of a student, and a mill by fault of an engineer. Who of all
our citizens has occupied the county poor-house? I know of none
so unfortunate. “None!” was the response. - None of us rich,
yet not objects of public charity.”
We have in later years a jail for suspects, tramps and the
vicious; but have one of our number looked through the bars ?
Proud I am that I am oblivious of one exception — one who here
had birth or domicile. He escaped. “Too smart to be caught,"
was the response. Not one of our people has worn the stripes of a
criminal in our penitentiary. Far are we from claiming to be a
people without common passions and temptations. What, then, is
the great secret of exemption from society ills ? It is the inhibi-
tion of a saloon, never tolerated in our city. Had it been, I could
not have challenged you to name the victims of crime. I should
not have asked you to look at these homes of taste and comfort, a
community strong in moral affinities, saving hundreds of thousands
of dollars which dram-shop licenses would have sunken. It is a
moral and social status which is the pledge of a still brighter halo
encircling our homes when our semi-centennial shall be observed
by our children, who, let us hope, will not omit just praise for the
virtues of their fathers, acknowledging the Divine hand which led
them here.
SILVER WEDDING.
The second notable occasion of home festivity was a Silver
Wedding celebration, Feb. 5th, 1877. There was a spontaneous
inpouring of citizens and friends from neighboring towns and sev-
eral cities, on special trains, making an aggregate of one thousand
guests welcomed at the Home, of whom seven hundred partook of
a banquet at the new hotel. On this occasion, Prof. L. F. Parker,
of Iowa City, on behalf of the guests, presented the very numerous
silver and other gifts, and made an historical speech; poems by
402
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
lege graduate, S. Henderson Herrick, Esq., of Grinnell, were read.
Conspicuous among the gifts was a Wooten's patent extra grade
desk from citizens of the town and officers and employes of the
Central railroad, of which gift the recipient in response spoke as "a
Centennial product and wonder with one hundred compartments,
that may serve a like office to the fortunate user, in business facil-
ity and order, to the one hundred gates which gave protection and
renown to the city celebrated in immortal song”.
It is gratifying that the fairer of the two recipients of this ova-
tion received deserved compliments in the speeches made, for her
well recognized worth. As for the other, without recalling to his
disadvantage the story of the preacher who boasted that his ser-
vice cost the people nothing, and was answered that perhaps it
was worth nothing, the following volunteer toast from Mr. John
W. Cheshire may be quoted as showing that some gratuitous ser-
vices are recognized as such:
“Here is to the citizen that gave a town for education, ground
for a "college-green', and à cemetery for the dead; a preacher
without pay; a university and bank president without salary;
president of the State Society of Wool Growers, with the honors
of a competitive sheep-shearer at the festival, and paying the
awards ; of the State Horticultural Society chief officer, gathering
by proxy the fruits of the orchard, securing the national medal
and award for Iowa, and meeting the bills; a lawyer, waiving fees
to make settlements and friends of litigants; lecturer and occa-
sional orator, as a merry pastime; projector and president of rail-
roads — only reward given, cheers, resolutions, and an occasional
walking cane; spurning combinations to put him in the national
Senate, or a governor's chair; a liberal Orthodox in church ; an
enigma in politics; a devotee to pure blood in animals; a pardon-
able weakness for the fair and a teetotaler in habits. From silver
goblets on this silver wedding day, here's to your health in the
cloud-distilled, fashionable beverage of Grinnell.”
A SERMON ON SERMONS.
A sermon is a religious discourse with an inspired text. I
have many, uncounted, perhaps equal to filling the traditional bar-
rel. They will not find a mention by will or codicil. There are
also skeletons preserved, very dry bones of discourses which can
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS..
403
never be "clothed upon", but rather left unused, like a last year's
bird nest scorned by the robin or the swallow; all the material is
there for an incubation, but the wise bird prefers a new nest, at
once sweet, strong and plastic.
To me all sermons have value if the products of the preacher's
best thought, and begotten of an inspiration to instruct and per-
suade to a new and higher life. My ideal was the picturing of
Christ as an exemplar, and enforcing truth by drawing on the infin-
ities of two worlds for motives. I was averse to the sermon of a
century ago, long, turgid, then hortatory by fixed method, joined
to the seeming inexorable spirit of a criminal court judge, pro-
nouncing sentence. We have escaped the penance of a cold church
and the elongation of a catechism recital. A dictatorial pulpit
where there is no permission of debate or denial is an affront to the
pews, if not an impertinence. Minute exegesis involves as a rule a
muddle, raising doubts. Where before there was credit given to
King James' scholars and the new versions, now incredulity is
begotten by a clerical critic, who, instead of anchoring, has driven
out at sea on theological breakers.
Party politics are without the range of a Sunday sermon before
an audience of diverse opinions, but such politics do not monopo-
lize great principles. No denial of political preferences, held by
the man after a minister, is manly, for he is never less than a
man; he has the prerogatives of a citizen. An essay is not a ser-
mon, nor is an exhortation alone the full measure of expectation
and demand. Debate with man or his theory, as an antagonist, is
an eclipse of the faith once delivered to the saints". It involves
pride in victory and that ambitious personality which begets praise.
The sermon of to-day should reach and attract the uttermost.
Good people become auditors from a sense of duty, and since the
great Preacher came not to call the righteous but sinners to repent-
ance, his successors may be imitators. The modern model sermon
must be soul speaking to soul, not only through the voice, but also
the eye — the window of the soul wide open, not possible in read-
ing. It must be a message without an apology, from the great
King. It must come with a fervor which arouses all the forces by
gesture and emphasis, and with directness, “thou art the man”,
calling out the responsive confession, I am the man. Abstractions
are not enough, nor excusable, when the wise use of current facts
and providences can be made to intensify religious emotion and
404
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
awaken hope. The falling sands of the hour-glass are no longer
the measure of a discourse. It is the quickened pulse of the cen-
tury, the condensing of decades into years, which is the foe of pro-
lix reasoning, and the friend of condensation. A mild essence
once met the demand, now it is the quintessence. Dynamite sup-
plants powder. Brevity in story, editorial and preface, becomes
the demands of the day. The ideal sermon of thirty minutes is
extemporaneous in language; a pendulum of hope which vibrates
between a sinile and a tear; love the basis of persuasion; figures
of beauty and sublimity inspired by the subject; the solemnity of
an ambassador from Heaven's high court the impersonal sermon-
izer awakening, convicting, by light, power, Divine afflatus. The
greatest result of a sermon is the response, “I will arise and
go unto my Father". A sermon is a plea, not doubt, denial or
apology
Is this caricature -- the dialogue of the clergyman and trav-
eler? Says the minister in pain and surprise, “I've lost my port-
maneau". Traveler responds, “I pity your grief”. “Oh,” says
the clergyman, “all my sermons are in it”. This was the trav-
eler's reply, “I pity the thief”.
I recall how, like a bad boy, I slept or smiled from the old
church gallery, when a strange minister read from leaves dimmed
by age, wanting in a fresh suggestion; yet not a sleeper, or
exchanging glances with rude girls across the gallery, when the
minister through his eye had a message -an appeal, a sermon for
"to-day".
Once, in after years, I was caught without a note or a thought
of a sermon, by a congregation asking supply from me, a stranger.
I resolved to open the Bible and lean on the Inspirer of all good
sermons. My eye struck these words — “Truth shall spring out of
the eartlı and righteousness look down from Heaven”. I put into
use earth in its teachings, and the order of the planets with their
rays of light, glowing and more refulgent in study, the mirror of a
Maker, whose glory is reflected in his Son, more attractive than
the sun of the universe to those waiting his beams. If there was
a want of order, there was a heartfelt rhapsody in appeal which
did not tire; and not the educated men alone in the audience said,
“Good, you never want a line written”. That was only once.
When preaching in New York I exchanged with the late Dr.
Patton, of Hartford, Conn. Only at my late retiring did I discover
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
405
that with some car traveler I had exchanged satchels - no pulpit
suit or sermon, and I advised the elder Dr. Patton of my loss and
that he must preach. “No, no, I will get you a clean collar, and
you can take a text like this — . . . ." There was no evad-
ing, and he said, “Better than any sermon you lost". The even-
ing audience was a compliment in numbers and attention. From a
heart reservoir I drew, and they were not essays, but living ser-
mons at least.
THE LIBRARY.
In my early home, so far from a library, there was a shelf and
that not loaded. With my first little book there was a nucleus for
a cherished hope and ambition, a library. It was in my house plan,
here on the prairie, and in the grove I selected the best trees —
black walnut. I beheld the logs sawed, and guarded as a treasure
what came to be a room elegant in finish, and so ample and preten-
tious that Governor Grimes spoke of enterprise beginning a town
with the finest library room in the state. Horace Greeley at my
table, pleading against the demolition of the pioneer cottage, and for
an addition, said, “You will never want a better room; far better
than I ever owned or expect to own”. He, as a guest, drew a dia-
gran, and saved me from the blunder of building on a spacious
plan, which I shall not forget.
For the owner of a library able to boast of elegance, allowing
only the use of keys and no removal, there is respect, but not the
emotion awakened for the florist who is profuse in bouquets to vis-
itors as the best gifts of his heart. My library had no guard. To
it the people have found a welcome. It has been deranged, out of
order, and we have met losses. There are broken sets — an odd
volume of Kitto, a fine one of Shakespeare, and others are missing.
True, they can be replaced, and the cost may be better than the
denial to others of use and inspiration. For the bibliomaniac
there may be excuse, in guarding his old and rare editions, but :
there is none for the library owner who only wins praise for the
bindings, and for the cases. My esteem for the gardener with
the ugly dog at the gate, and my regard for one with volumes
which he deems to be for show, is on an equality. He who said
“Welcome” to his library, when I had none, was a friend to me
and my children. I crave for them a library, but I shall deprecate
406
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
the fear of loss which denies loaning. The great Father has made
a free library of worlds, to be the grand study of all minds, even
the humble and the poor.
MOTHER: A WORD TO MY CHILDREN.
The portrait to be left out of "Reminiscences” is certainly not
your mother's; and all she has been to us is better known by the
ministries of thirty-eight years than by any pen-delineation or por-
trait. Of my early romances I have given no details, but it is fit-
ting you should know that this is my matured Bible conviction,
"A prudent wife is from the Lord”. While endeavoring to found
a Congregational Church in Washington, D. C., I preached in the
First Church, Springfield, Mass., Dr. Osgood's. Later I sought the
aid of his senior deacon, in whose home I was entertained. It is
truer than romance; it was the woman from the Lord who opened
the door of a plain, spacious, brick house, in the shadow of a cen-
tury's growth of elms. The welcome was that of a true lady, you
can guess. How little had I to do with this meeting? What had
she who became your mother ? Nothing. There are records of
an epistolary correspondence without a hiatus or cloud — an ante-
nuptial disproof of the adage that " the course of true love never
runs smooth”. It did once.
You know I think myself to have been one of the most fortu-
nate of mortals in the family and the simplicity of my bride-
every year adding a golden link in life's charmed chain. All that
she has been to you and to me I could not tell you, enjoying the
affluent affection of one who has made us all the happiest of mor-
tals, emitting a fragrance in the household by the ministries so
long a solace. It is my testimonial that you my daughters have
received from your mother the best example and benedictions of a
home life, whatever from him who can use no language flattering
or even in just compliment to the voyage of thirty-eight years of
experiences made blissful. Each fifth day of February since 1852,
recalls plighted love which time ripens, and which it will require
an eternity of years to unfold.
MONEY MAKING.
The writer remembers that he was early disgusted with a sor-
did passion for money, corroding like a canker, or, to change the
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
407
figure, making an immortal to become like a stagnant pool, rather
than a clear stream from a charmed reservoir of power, waiting for
a dispersion to gladden all around. Wealth, as an end, is crim-
inal, but gained as a wayside flower in a noble career, it is to be
prized for use. A miser has a poor repute in this world and will
find no eulogist in the next. There is no secret in being rich.
Industrious saving, hoarding and compounding interest, tells the
prosaic story of a life closed usually with a tearless funeral. The
richest persons, save those by inheritance, have as a rule, sacrificed
cardinal virtues, and cultivated only negative virtues.
I could have been rich in dollars, adding ciphers on the right
hand of my figures. By lucky purchases and favored associations
in business, I might have been the envy of neighbors, and the
recipient of many thousands annually, requiring for the last will a
frequent codicil. With injustice to no one I could have taken for
my Iowa land purchase twenty-five thousand dollars (from which
the College gained several times that amount); that at compound
interest would have been, assuming that I could otherwise support
myself, two hundred thousand dollars. Unallured by public rail-
way enterprise, in the Iowa Central, I could have saved, from a
loss, with interest, of twenty thousand dollars. In the surrender
of sheep contracts, on the wool collapse, there would have been
twenty thousand. Much in gifts I could have withheld, with no
loss of respectability; and the amount saved by refusing endorse-
ment and indulgence to others, would have been a large sum that,
lost, must be added to a retrospection of verdancy, perchance with
an unseemly boast of kindness that came by heredity and not by
cultivation.
If there are regrets for incapacity to do what dollars would
accomplish, there is a reflection that I have not worshipped the
golden calf which many of my cotemporaries have set up far from
the echoes of Sinai.
With exceptions, the dolts of this age who strike for money, as
an arrow goes from the bow to the mark, have large éstates. But,
some inherit thrift. Hence, there is a related question - What
of the succession? The children of wide-awake God-fearing ances-
try have every advantage in the line of example and heredity. I
was reminded in reading the history of Roxbury, now a part of
Boston, that the rich and stilted names were gained in the royal
line of a chance sterling few; also reminded that my ancestor on
408
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
the maternal side, John Eliot, could be mentioned in no words that
can be held extravagant in commemoration of his virtues.
If these statements should not be of use as a mollifying oint-
ment in binding up the wounds of regret, it is yet a true explana-
tion of the fact that my pioneer work brought only a competence.
It is certainly a solace that yearly I have released from obligation
some unfortunate dependants. I would not push out the home-
less; I could not unfeelingly make a levy of costs for the poor, nor
use the courts for gains. The last year I remitted for the family
of an old friend hundreds of dollars; to parties on the frontier I
have relinquished my rights, if not to insure the praise of the
widow and orphan, yet to keep a good conscience. I dare not say
there has been no absolute yielding to temptation in the strife for
gain, but I commend to all who come after me an avoidance of the
meshes of the law plots which are the occasion of boast. Thus
am I a believer in the philosophy that only kindness, fair dealing,
even charity to the poor, is the way to that true wealth not
attained by the misers, who forget the relations of a Christian
people in building up an elevated society and cultivating cardinal
virtues of our religion.
So, at the going down of my sun, with regrets in the memory of
so few kindnesses, I can commend a small estate gained in the way
of Christian citizenship as more to be envied than a great one
amassed for show, personal pleasure, or by extortion. The good
which one has kept and that bestowed upon self may be loss, and
bring reflections to embitter the last hours in reminiscence, while
gifts in charity and to churches, and little regard for show, furnish
pleasure rather than an occasion for apology.
THE GRANDCHILDREN.
Our natural love for kindred has, of course, no virtue. I have
regard, even a heart overflowing with affection for the grandchil-
dren, but did not know its depths until this time of reflection
in sickness. This moves me to dictate some thoughts retrospect-
ive, and amounting to convictions.
I have seen the ups and downs, individuals rising into heroic
men though born in humble life; also the stilted on the backs of
ancestors of renown, or rich in dollars by bequest. I have seen
pretension and masquerade of superiority, only clothed in the rags
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
409
of fallen royalty with few to pity for the issues of indolence.
These had less concern for the future than the animals that lay in
store for winter, without the instincts leading the fowls of Heaven
to seek a winter home. That want is a blessing, I do not say, for
that is not the heart's choice in the love we bear to those who
come after us. Still, it is not romance that poverty is the good
angel hovering over the cradle and casting a shadow on our way,
to be brightened by toil. Let that blessing be only brief on the
road to competence and honor. Let us escape the delusion that
only the poor know what gratitude is, and that they only are the
honest. The temptation of poverty I do not covet for any, nor a
surfeit of riches to beget a denial of the great Giver of all; rather
the product of saving in ways of self-denial, to avert slavish
dependence and want incident to poverty. Nature's demands in
perils and the weakness of decrepit old age are realities. Pride is
the twin beggar of want. Perhaps less entitled to relief is pride
than the victims of calamity. It is out of fashion to save; yet
what but unreason to squander earnings or heritage to become a
companion of the sluggard, begging in vain in harvest.
: A great delusion of the time is, that most of those who are
envied came to their estate of honor or wealth by smart trickery.
A student by deception of his instructor brought high markings;
duplicity insured voters; and hard bargains great wealth, whereas
it is a life-lesson that all out of line with probity and justice is
loss in the final result. A tainted reputation is more than a
canker to the tongue and rust to money; from such a character
society should fee as from a viper or as when in the vicinage of
contagion. A professional “trader”, alas, is the prey of the
tempter as a rule. A place hunter who must rise on the deprecia-
tion of rivals, has achieved only a cheap, brief honor, nothing for
his children in the royal line of heredity. Sleight-of-hand perform-
ers are for "one night only”; tricky buyers, sharp lawyers, mis-
leading courts, enjoy only ephemeral success, becoming a company
of despised conspirators, savoring of hypocrisy in deeds which late
repentance can only extenuate — not fully atone for.
I have seen the literary plagiarist-how proud until discov-
ered; the doctor famed by the professed cure of a malady, when
the specific disease was only a myth; the lawyer with the plumes
of a fraud in plea; and shyster, hard even to impoverishing wid-
ows and orphans, rich by estate settling, with almost ghoulish glee
410
REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
over the fat pickings of the dead. Their repute was a worthless
veneering. They preferred the false fruit golden to the eye, but
ashes to the taste— the foretaste of dregs from the cup of woe,
which I fervently hope none by me known and regarded may
drink!
Then open honest gains — no dagger hidden for the dark cur-
tain of night, but becoming what we wish to appear on the road to
success by fair, frank ways. Let there be decoyer for the fish, a
trap for a bird, but never brutality in use of strength or finesse or
fraud in dealing with rivals; only the love born of the Great
Exemplar, and holding precious the words, “that mercy I would
show to others, show thou to me!”
MEMORIAL OF HIS FAITH.
Mr. Grinnell left for his children a dictated expression of sick-
room experience, which will remain to them a precious memorial
of his faith. In this he speaks of the dread of the disease which
fastened upon him and the final liberty from fear which he gained
through the thought of how little he was suffering in comparison
with the Saviour. This is the memorial in full:
So, my children, the religious trust of my parents, so far from
being a delusion, is my joy and trust. For you all I wish broader
acres, a larger bank account and honors; but the commendation of
a life of virtue, mingled with gratitude and trust in the great
Father is worth more than all. The garment of my profession I
can not make white. Thoughtless words may never be recalled,
but a confiding trust in my Saviour I express with the pleasure of
one who has received so much and can leave with cheerful trust
kindred, the church, my country and all in the hands of that Provi-
dence who, I believe, will never leave or forsake his own. Then
in the last words, confidingly, the Bible is our guide, providence a
study, Christ the exemplar, who will bring inconceivable joy, even
in hours of pain; and if at last there should be a delusion there
will be no regret that I was sent forth on this mission, but pleas-
ure, with a dying breath to mention my Saviour, the world's cap-
tain, a physician for the sick soul and His example to be a perpet-
ual study and imitation. I know these may be mere words, but
they express convictions; they may want the enforcement of life
but they are the honest thoughts I would have in association with
| REMINISCENCES OF FORTY YEARS.
411
an unworthy life; and the only sermon falling from my lips for
which I crave a remembrance and heed by those who shall ever
care to inquire, “What did he do? What did he become? And
to what did he aspire ?" Ah! that I had a gift of tongue to leave
a conviction of what I feel. Ah! that if spared days in the
encounter with disease I may give a new test of my loyalty to
Christ; that it may be a reassurance that houses and lands and all
earthly goods are of trivial concern contrasted with a fitness to
meet and worship with the King of glory through all eternity.
APPENDIX.
THE circumstances of Mr. Grinnell's death, the addresses at his
funeral, and the subsequeut memorial meeting, together with a few
testimonials by persons not present on these occasions, are here
appended:
Hon. J. B. Grinnell died last night at 10.30 o'clock. The sufferer was in
a chair and leaning forward on a pile of pillows, apparently sleeping restfully.
His attendant, Mr. Newman, said he was resting better than he had for some time.
Mr. Grinnell awoke and said he was free from pain, speaking in a firm voice. He
could not be induced to lie down and died in his chair. He was conscious to the
last. Mr. Grinnell had been in failing health for about two years, from bronchitis
and asthma, with intervals of release from suffering, in which his energy of char-
acter at times carried him beyond his physical strength and aggravated the
relapses. Professor Jones, of Normal, Ill., and Mrs. Grinnell were at Mr. Grin-
nell's side when he passed away. Mr. Grinnell was fully conscious of his approach-
ing end. He passed away without suffering.
Mr. Grinnell was married Feb. 2, 1852, to Miss Julia A. Chapin, of Spring-
field, Mass. They had two daughters - Mary Chapin, now the wife of Rev. Dr.
D. 0. Mears, of Worcester, Mass., and Carrie Holmes, now the wife of Professor
R. D. Jones, of Normal, Ill. - Iowa State Register, April 1st.
FUNERAL SERVICES.
The citizens united in doing honor to his memory. The restless, tireless spirit
of the city's founder beats for her no more. His soul has gone to its reward; his own
unostentatious spirit of generosity will live on. It was one of his requests that
there should be no mourning for him — quite in keeping with his public life — and
the ordinary symbols of mourning will be omitted. No robing in black at his
death. He has gone where is joy and comfort and peace.
The funeral was held at the house at 2 P. M., a small number being present,
and all arrangements under direction of R. M. Kellogg, a long and trusted friend
of the family. The exercises were brief, consisting only of a prayer.
Then the funeral procession took up its march to the church. It had been
preceded by Gordon Granger Post G. A. R., a very graceful and appropriate thing
for the post to do. Then came sons of early settlers, the active pall-bearers, fol-
lowed by the honorary pall-bearers; after them the relatives and friends. As the
procession passed down the church aisle Professor Kimball played on the organ
414
APPENDIX.
Beethoven's funeral march. In appropriate places in the church were seated the
mayor and city council, officers and directors of the various banking institutions,
the college faculty, trustees and students. All available space in the church was
occupied by friends, the city seeming to have turned out en masse to do honor to
the memory of its founder. .
Prayer was first offered by Presiding Elder T. B. Hughes. Rev. J. F. Heilner
announced the opening hymn, “ Shall We Meet Beyond the River".
Mr. Tenney then read a few selections from Scripture and proceeded with the
opening address, giving his personal impressions of Mr. Grinnell's individuality
and character. Among other things he said: First, he was of an essentially poetic
temperament. His conception of things was not simply as they are, but as they
might and ought to be. He caught the ideal'in every situation and with the ardor
of glowing hopefulness set about attaining it. This element characterized his
writings and public addresses. His thoughts, tinged with poetic glow, rushed out
into expression sometimes faster than logic could arrange them and sometimes
they seemed to mingle in inextricable confusion, but almost invariably they
emerged in some telling climax that justified all that had gone before. There was
a real Carlylian strength in his style when at his best, and many times his grasp of
the situation in public speaking, and the aptness of his illustrations and telling
quality of his humor, gave him striking oratorical power. This poetical ele-
ment showed itself in his deeds. Seeing what ought to be done, he many times
attempted what to cold prudence seemed impossibilities, and his courage and hope-
fulness carried him through to successful issues where a faltering, distrustful man
would have made utter failures.
A second distinguishing characteristic was a large-hearted generosity. He
thought not only of his own things but also of the things of others, yea, many
times he seemed to forget about his own that he might think and care for others.
This element made him a man of notable public spirit. He lived for his state and
town, for Iowa College and his Church. Their reputation was as the apple of his
eye; their prosperity his highest earthly ambition, and for their interests no per-
sonal sacrifices were too great.
And this same spirit he carried out in his relations to individuals who needed
his help. There is an unwritten history of personal helpfulness to multitudes in
his life which would prove him to be in the largest measure a lover of his
fellow-men.
In his religious thinking he would be considered progressive rather than con-
servative. He held unflinchingly to the grand essentials of the Christian faith,
but he was nobly tolerant in his attitude to every sincere searcher after the truth.
He was ever ready to welcome the new light which was “to break out from the
word”.
In his personal faith and hidden religious life he ripened in these last years of
experience, and evinced a humility and simple trust which was an inspiration to
all who came into contact with him.
He left for his children a dictated expression of his sick-room experience,
which will remain to them a precious memorial of his faith.
After Mr. Tenney had closed his address, Rev. Wm. Wright announced the
second hymn,“We Shall Meet Bye and Bye.”
Professor L. F. Parker, whom Mr. Grinnell had asked several years ago to
give the address at his funeral, then gave a biography of the deceased, speaking
eloquently, tenderly of his hopes and his fears, his struggles, his aspirations and
his successes as a cultured, refined man and as an enterprising citizen. From the
address we extract one passage and the conclusion. “Naturally, as the magnet
draws iron, once here he could not be unseen or unheard. The first waves of pop-
APPENDIX.
415
ulation had flooded in from the south and the southern portion of the free states
west of the Alleghanies. These pioneers were all along our rivers, through all our
groves, brawny men, industrious, hardy and fearless as Daniel Boone, often more
unfriendly to abolitionists than to slavery itself. Eighteen hundred and fifty-four
was memorable in Iowa for the large inflow from the more northern and New Eng-
land states, for the distinct political issue of opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska
bill, and for the election on that platform of James W. Grimes to the governor-
ship. It was the state after Mr. Grinnell's own heart. The beauty of its ocean-
like prairies was fascinating to him, but most fascinating of all was the industry,
the intelligence and the aspirations of its people. Its possibilities seemed bound-
less. Into the discussions of 1854 he dashed as Sheridan flew where bullets fell
thickest. It was his introduction to the state. Thenceforward his name was a
household word in all our Mesopotamia, his colony an object of widespread inter-
est. His facile and felicitous speech, quick repartee and measureless energy were
in demand in all campaigns, and his profound thought was called for in official
life. He was made state senator from 1856 to 1860 and was efficient in all the bet-
ter legislation of the time. The fair historian of all interests will be compelled to
write his name more than once in the legislative progress of the time, for example,
1858, the Iowa school legislation.
Of our friend's life from 1850 to 1870 I can speak with the perfect assurance
derived from daily conference and confidence. During that time the town
seemed more than his lengthened shadow. There is but slight figure of speech in
the statement that it was the man himself. More than one man not in harmony
with his central purpose was advised to move on; those who remained were
quieted both churchward and collegeward by contrast with him.
Wieland once said of the German poet Goethe: “Since the morning I first.
met him my soul has been as full of Goethe as the dewdrops of sunshine." In
that elder day Mr. Grinnell's magnetic personality so impressed strangers through
the state that he who took his hand or heard his speech could not forget him. It
was natural, then, that we who were in daily contact with him should soon learn to
second all his thoughts, his plans at home, and to make him on all occasions our
chief representative abroad.
Those who have met him only in the late years, when disease was sapping his
wonderful vital force and making it less possible for him to take an active share in
all our multiplying interests, can scarcely appreciate the universality or the stimu-
lation of his earlier presence. Those of that time will cheerfully accord to him a
greater influence toward all that we most value in town life than to any other;
some of us would say more than to all others. It was then obvious indeed that he
who would carry any public measure must first secure our friend's co-operation.
Even if his plan did not seem to some of us quite the best, his personal effort
would certainly make it the most feasible.
In church influence and church building he was not limited to externals. In
addition to his early mass of business affairs he was the first and long the only pas-
tor in the town, and always without compensation. His preaching was always
fresh, fraternal and hopeful. It was fresh, for it had the tone of the West about
it, of the newest West that was growing up about us. He talked little of the con-
dition of the Jews, more of the work of the early Christians, but most of all of the
things done and to be done there and then. That preaching was eminently broth-
erly. His religion and his expression of it was largely, very largely philanthropic.
Truth came to him as it has been said to reach the mind of the late Dr. Goodell, of
St. Louis, from sympathy rather than by a painful process of learning. He was
humane because he was so thoroughly human. He found duty in benevolence, in
416
good willing, in thought and in practice. His words impelled to all generous
kindness, his acts attracted to it. The bereaved, the sick and the unfortunate
always expected to hear his quick coming footsteps and were never disappointed
without imperative reasons. It was no strange thing for groceries, a pair of shoes,
or even a stove, to be ordered at the salesroom, or sent to those in want from his
own home. With such preaching in our pulpit and such practice out of it, help
and self-help was very easy in those days in our little community.
was so influential; that his preaching was helpful? The preacher seemed to adopt
Pope's maxim in our community life and to assume that “whatever is is right”.
Complaint on his lips was strange; praise was easy. In turning to the future, both
near and remote, it was the radiant side he saw. Henry Ward Beecher once told
his congregation that whenever he wanted to study the doctrine of original sin he
studied them. Whenever our first pastor wanted to study the basis of terrestrial
hope he studied himself. On that deepest tablet he found the one word "hope"
written, boldly written. He repeated it to us in ever varying phrase and never
varying confidence. He believed in us and in our future until we, too, dared to
believe in both. His liope was contagious, victorious, everything vanished before
it. It filled the place with happiness and harmony.
The college has ever been the object of his highest hope and of his most con-
stant effort. It was in his New York plan, in all arrangements here before Iowa
college became our own, in his successful effort to try it here, and in all his later
thought. If the name of the givers and of the agent who received the gifts were
written on all donations of the college, his name and that of his family would have
no parallel in library and cottage and college building. Blair Hall stands to-day,
and long may it stand, the one great monument to his greatest success in obtaining
a single donation for a college building after the tornado.
The entire city voices its memory and its gratitude to-day. The city flag at
half mast, words of the city council, the resolutions of the business men and their
closed doors, the silence in our school-rooms, this great assembly, and not least of
all, the request of the “boys in blue" to be permitted to bear this sleeping dust to
its final rest, tell how very near our friend came to the common weal and heart.
The soldier never had a better friend than lie, the town cannot have a nobler ben-
Yonder park may yet bear some formal monument, but to him who would see
him completest we would say, "Behold! the town itself, Grinnell in its material
form, its educational institutions, its moral life.” His face and his deeds are pho
tographed on grateful hearts here and elsewhere. His beneficiaries in ordinary
want and in the tornado disaster bless his inemory and some have welcomed him
on the other shore. If we should utter a word here of sympathy with the kindred
bereaved, we should say that we who speak and we who are silent feel most like
gone would not have you wear a badge of mourning for him; he would not havo
us remember him with tears of pain. Privilege and duty alike demand that we
should permit his life work to be an inspiration and his hope to be our crown of
joy. It is a rich legacy of joy, it will remain a ceaseless benefaction to us. His
sickness was long and at times through agonies worse than death. He closed his
eyes at last under the clouds and in the night. Morning came to us and it was
golden sunshine. Light came to him, and it was the radiance of heaven.
“Beloved dust, farewell,
Hail, beloved brother!"
At the close of Professor Parker's address Dr. Magoun alluded briefly to his
APPENDIX.
417
acquaintance and friendship with Mr. Grinnell. He said it was in 1848 that he
first met Mr. Grinnell. He was introduced to him at Dubuque while a Fourth of
July celebration was in progress. He was at that time, as he always was, a demon-
strative, enthusiastic man. He grasped every situation and made the most of it.
His young heart was buoyant and full of hope. In the employ of the American
Tract Society he was the most useful man ever engaged by that great truth distrib-
uting organization. He could see more people and say more in a day than any
man he ever knew. He was a herald of light and truth to the early villages of Iowa
and Wisconsin. It was at that time and while riding over this western country that
he first conceived the idea of a moral educational town to be founded somewhere
on the open prairies--a place that should be as a beacon light for all far and near.
It was some time until he met Mr. Grinnell again, but afterward he saw much
of him, and it was his good fortune to become intimately associated with him in
carrying out some of his great life thoughts. He had often thought that in that
first meeting he had learned to know Mr. Grinnell as well as he had learned to
know others in years of acquaintanceship. The frank, easy, open and spontaneous
nature of the man left nothing hidden after that, to him, memorable meeting.
After giving these facts, Dr. Magoun paid a beautiful tribute to the noble
Christian life of his friend and fellow-worker. It was full of eloquence and
pathos, and left a deep impression upon the audience.
The closing musical selection was “ Gathering Home”, soprano solo by Mrs.
Geo. M. Christian. It was one of the most touching things of the afternoon. The
beautiful words, rendered so faultlessly by the gifted singer of the city of Grin-
nell, went home to the hearts of all, and many eyes were dimmed with tears as
the words “One by one" fell from the singer's lips.
The exercises closed with prayer by Rev. Mr. Chamberlain, of Iowa College.
Hundreds, if not thousands, filed past the flower-laden casket, and many lingered,
showing how hard it was to part with one who through many years had endeared
himself to all.
The warm weather followed by the cold spell of the night before had left the
roads in a practically impassable condition. It was thought best not to drive the
hearse or any carriages to the cemetery. The members of Gordon Post, G. A. R.,
of nearly a mile. The offer was accepted, and the old soldiers, for the love they
bore him while living, with bowed heads carried the burden. Nothing showed
more tenderly the devotion to the good man, the noble pioneer and distinguished
citizen who now lies buried near the city that will perpetuate his name. - Grin-
nell Herald.
MEMORIAL SERVICES.
The following Sunday afternoon, in the Congregational Church, was given to
memorial services of a free, spontaneous character in honor of Mr. Grinnell, of
speeches, full of reminiscences and warm tribute, were made by Rev. T. G. Brain-
erd, Col. S. F. Cooper, H. G. Little, Rev. J. M. Chamberlain, J. P. Lyman, Prof.
J. Macy, R. M. Kellogg, Mr. Clark (son of an early settler), Ex-President G. F.
Magoun, D.D., Prof. R. D. Jones, Rev. D. O. Mears, D. D., of Worcester, Rev. H.
M. Tenney; letters were read from Ex-Governor Larrabee and Mrs. President G.
A. Gates (in the absence of her husband East), and resolutions of condolence by
the Gordon Granger Post, G. A. R., the preamble of which says of Mr. Grinnell:
“In spirit he was always with us and for us; the fighting for the Union was not
418
APPENDIX.
always done at the front; there were enemies in the rear, and the moral conflict
was not less than the physical."
TESTIMONIALS.
Resolutions by the Grinnell Board of Trade, by the directors of the Savings
Bank and the First National Bank, and by the Faculty of Iowa College, testified
to Mr. Grinnell's worth and pre-eminent services; also by the executive commit-
tee of the State Temperance Alliance, of which he was a prominent member and
officer.
In a published interview, Hon. Charles Aldrich, of Webster City, Ia., legislator,
and formerly Chicago editor, said, “I believe that he did more with voice and pen
to make the resources and advantages of Iowa known in the East than any twenty
other men.” Postmaster Brandt, of Des Moines, said, "He was a grand man.
Foremost in every good work, he has been a mighty force in the moral, intellectual
and material history of Iowa, and to his influence we owe much of our proud
position."
Rev. James L. Hill, D. D., of Medford, Mass., editor of The Golden Age, and
former student of Iowa College, wrote:
“Iowa's present greatness did not happen. Let us cheerfully accord honor to
whom honor is due.... I remember most vividly of all the patriotic meet-
ings in which Mr. Grinnell was the chief speaker during the war. Since then I
have felt the cradle of liberty rock. I have heard the best American orators in
Faneuil Hall, and Gladstone and John Bright in impassioned addresses in parlia-
ment, but it was no such event to me as when the eager, expectant citizens at
Grinnell came together in the church to give evidence at the slightest touch of the
magic orator of the depth of their pent-up emotions. For the sake of brevity let
me only catalogue three out of many things I would like to number for which the
citizens of Grinnell ove their founder never-ending gratitude.
"1. He honored the church and its Sabbath in the eyes of the whole commu-
nity. It will be impossible for me to forget how he held up to public scorn any
man in the colony who had not respect enough for the Lord's Day'to get up and
put on a clean shirt and go to meeting'. He did stand up manfully for the decen-
cies of life. He did create a sentiment in favor of respectability. By reason of his
words and influence the hard-worked somnolent farmers would in harvest time
direct their teams, followed by playful colts, toward the village church. If no one
else would preach he would preach. Our preachers dealt mostly in 'canned goods'
in those busy days; we thought we were honored to have a sermon preached to us
that by its local allusions had evidently been inspired by the occasion.
"2. It was worth a lifetime to have given such testimony to temperance.
Those of us who, since graduating at the college, have resided in places that have
no scruples, even about license, see with great distinctness how far in advance of
his time was the man who so many years ago laid the foundation of a prohibition
town in the remote, unbroken West. His influence made it impossible to traffic in
intoxicants upon those acres. His spirit has touched thousands who from that
municipality have been called to a life work in other communities.
"3. He is remembered by us for the encouragement he gave to labor. Some of
us who were working our way through Iowa College, without ever receiving a dol-
lar from home, cannot forget the inspiration of his words. When we read Robert
Burns' poem 'Is There For Honest Poverty ?' we would get an incitement that
only words from J. B. Grinnell would surpass. On the Fourth of July, at the cele-
bration on the Common, he would drag us up on the stage and make us frightened
APPENDIX.
419
youngsters honor the American eagle. We for a few bewildered moments would
forget how ill-dressed and tanned we were, and go home resolving that we would
by dint of study and practice make ourselves worthy of the recognition he had
given us. Having great facility of speech himself, acquired by long years on the
platform and stump, he was merciless on those who would not try.
“If all who love him and honor him had been allowed to follow his bier the
line would have reached the cemetery long before some who composed it had left
their town. He was an unselfish man. He was a public-spirited man. Currents
that were set in motion by him have changed the course of many a life. His
imagination was quick, his sympathies sensitive and strong, his wit ready and his
sense of pleasure always alert. It was like an instinct with him to be in good
cheer. The sight of a multitude would kindle his whole being. He had a great
capacity for genuine good fellowship. He was an age maker."
At the 35th Annual Meeting of the Congregational General Association of
Iowa, 1890 (making it a rule to attend as Mr. Grinnell did, notwithstanding his
many occupations, and present on this occasion though an invalid), he summed up
his life work and aspirations: “ The soil was consecrated to temperance, education
and religion, sending forth lights which we pray may never be dimmed; and may
these successes be an augury and prophecy of the conquest of our beloved Iowa
for Christ."
INDEX.
$ Sign of sections.
Adams, Rev. A. A., 73.
Adams, Charles F., 60
Adams, John Q., 281.
Agricultural affairs, 307; Association,
American, 318.
Albia and Knoxville, Ry., 299.
Alden, Ebenezer, M. D., 342.
Aldrich, Charles, § 251.
Alger, Mrs. Gen., 15.
Allison, William B., 133, 365.
Ames, Oakes, 137, 193, § 338.
Ames, Frederick A., 367.
Amistad mutineers, 27.
Apples, crab, 104; seeds, 104.
Arboriculture, 320.
Arthur, President, 49, 237.
Ashley, James M., 152.
Assassination in Powshiek Co., 145.
Auburn Theol. Sem., 45-6.
Bacon, Leonard, and son, 91-2.
Bailey, Gamaliel, 56, 61, 75, 176.
Bailey, Wesley, 35.
Baker, Gen. N. B. $ 254.
Bashore, John L., 144.
Bates, Barnabas, 58.
Beer and Wine, 123.
Beecher, Henry W., 178, § 227, 353.
Belknap, Gen. W. W., $ 258.
Benedict, Aaron and Charles, $ 334.
Benton, Thomas H., § 58, 195.
Bigelow, John, 161.
Billings, Frederick, 364.
Bissell, Frederick E., 121.
Bixby, Amos, 102.
Black, Attorney-Gen., 171, 177.
Black Crook, 79.
Blagden, Rev. Dr., 73.
Blaine, James G., 186, 231.
Blair, Frank P., 136.
Blair, John I., 136, 331, 364-5.
Blunt, Gen. J. G., 384.
Boston Radicals, 71.
Boutwell, George S., § 139.
Bowen, Henry C., 52, 180.
Boynton, Gen. S. V., 160.
Brewer, Prof. Fisk P., 330.
Brainerd, C. H., 201.
Brooks, James, 141.
Brooks, J. W., 342.
Brooks, Preston S., 81.
Brown, Gratz, § 194.
Brown, Dr. Jesse, 216.
Brown, John, 207, $ 210.
Buck, Prof. S. J., 147, 356.
Burlingame, Anson P., $ 80.
Burritt, Elihu, $ 239.
Butler, Benjamin F., of New York,
85.
Butler, Senator, of S. C., 62,
Byers, Col. S. H. M., § 251.
Cabin, first, 98.
Cameron, Senator, 150.
Carpenter, Gov. C. C., § 261.
Carpet Baggers, 157.
Carter, Preserve W., 341.
Carter, Pres. Franklin, 341.
Cass, Lewis, 64.
Cemetery, Hazelwood, 106.
Central Ry. of Iowa, 300.
Chamberlain, Rev. J. M., 234, 333,
$ 343.
Champions of Freedom, 75, 233.
Chandler, Zachary, 140.
Chase, Salmon P., 60, 66, 173, § 175.
Cheshire, John W., 402.
Cherokee Neutral Lands, 378-379.
422
INDEX.
Devens, Charles, 76.
Dexter, Rev. H. M., 73.
Dey, P. A., 92.
Diaz, President, 399.
Dillon, Judge J. F., § 265, 301-2, 304.
Doctor, studying to be, 20.
Dodge, Gen. G. M., 92, § 255, 363.
Dodge, N. P., 256.
Dodge, Thomas H., 357.
Dodge, William E., 80, 85, 141, § 337,
360; Mrs. W. E., 348, 360,
Donation party, 8.
Door-keeper anecdote, 203.
Douglas, Stephen A., 64, 174, 202.
Douglass, Frederick, 71.
Dowes, David, 362.
Drinking Usages, 123.
Dyke, Charles F., § 343.
Children, a Word to, 406.
Chittenden, S. B., 367.
Church, first in Grinnell, 109; in
Union village, 47-8; in Washing-
ton, 52.
Cider-drinking, 10.
Cinque, Martin, 27-8.
Civil Service Reform, 157-8.
Clark, Ezekiel, 252, 356.
Clark, William P., 216.
Clarkson, C. F., $ 240, 400.
Clarkson, J. S., 223.
Classical schooling, 23.
Clay, Henry, $ 201.
Cochran, Samuel D., 114.
Codding, Ichabod, 39-40.
Coffin, John L., 253.
Colfax, Schuyler, 139, § 192.
Colony proposed, 88.
Congress of 1863-5, 148; of 1865-7
148; nomination to, 125.
Conkling, Roscoe, 139, 197.
Conscience Whigs, 69.
Constitutional Amendments, 150, 153,
157.
Cook, Joseph, $ 243.
Cooper, Col. S. F., 334.
Corliss, George H., 49, § 236, 331.
Corse, Gen. J. M., 254.
Cox, Samuel S., 142, 152.
Craver, J. A., 145.
Craver, Rev. S. F., 397.
Credit Mobilier, 139, 193.
Crocker, Gen. J. M., § 257.
Crow, Prof. J. M., 330.
Curtis, Gen. Samuel R., § 255.
Cushing, Caleb, 78.
Cushman, Rev. Job, § 343.
Edwards, Jonathan, 206.
Ellwood Fund, Founder of, 348.
Erwin, Cornelius B., $ 340.
Fair, Dairymen's National, 310; Dis-
trict, 312; Fine-Stock Breeders',
314; State, 1890, 319.
Farnam, Henry, 91.
Farnsworth, Deacon, 364.
Farnsworth, Gen. J. F., 152.
Farwell, John V., 357-8.
Faville, Oran, 120.
Federal Judges, & 264.
Fell, Jesse W., 320.
Fences, 321.
Fessenden, William P., 140.
Fine-Stock Breeders' Assoc., 314.
Fleener brothers, 145.
Folsom, Gilman, 94.
Foote, Henry S., 59, 62, $ 199.
Foote, Solomon, 141.
Foster, Stephen S., 76.
Foster, Suel, 317.
Fourth of July, 1854, 105.
Freedmen's Bureau, 155, 164.
Freeman murder trial, 179.
Free School law, 120.
Fremont, Gen. J. C., and wife, 174.
Friend of Man, 35.
Fugitive Slave law, 180.
Funeral of J. B. Grinnell, 413.
Dairymen's Fair, National, 310.
Dark Days at Home, 144.
Davis, David, $ 196, 224.
Davis, Garrett, 141.
Davis, Jefferson, 62, $ 199, 225.
Davis, Henry W., 136.
Dean, Amos, 121.
Dean, Henry Clay, $ 269-273,
Decollete dress, 13.
Delahoyde, John, 390.
Dennison, John N., 364.
Depew, Chauncey M., 224, 367.
Des Moines in 1858, 122; River Im-
provement, 250.
Galveston, 394.
Gardner, Capt. C. V., 178.
INDEX.
.
423
Holmes, William, 49.
Holt, Joseph, 140, 178.
Holyoke, Dr., 93, 96.
Hopkins, Rev. Josiah, 7, 8, 44-5.
Horticultural Society, State, 317.
Houghton, James, 326.
Howard, Gen. 0. O., 56, 151, 155.
Howe, Julia Ward, 73.
Howell, J. B:, $ 269. . ...
Hoyt, Jonathan, 15.
Hoxie, H. M., 217.
Hubbard, A., W., 133.
Hubbard, Judge N. W., § 264.
Hunnewell, H. H., 364..
Huntington, C. P.., 363.
Indians, 274; national control of, 282.
Ingersoll, Eben C., 133.
Ingersoll, R. G., 133, § 244, 246.
Iowa and Iowans, 248..
Iowa Band, 327.
Iowa College, 326; first teachers, 327 ;
later teachers, 330; benefactors,
331-348.
Irish, John P., 225..
Irishmen, absent, 106.
Jesup, Morris K., 321.
Johnson, Pres. A., 146, 176, 190.
Johnson, Reverdy, 141, 151.
Jones, George W., 202.-
Joy, James F., 379-381, § 386.
Jug-story, 45.
Julien, George W., 60.
Kansas Bridge poem, 387.
Kasson, John A., 133.
Kasson, Rev. J. H., 108.
Kelley, Abby, 76.
Kelley, William D., 81.
Kellogg, R. M., 106, 110.
Kerr, Orpheus C., 171.
Garfield, President J. A., § 138.
Garrison, William Lloyd, 71.
Gates, Pres. G. A., 330.
Gear, Gov. J. W. $ 258.
Giddings, Joshua R., 69.
Gillet, J. D., 268.
Gleason, Pat., 145.
Golden Circle, Knights of, 140, 144,
147, 159, 178.
Goodnow, Edward A., 331, $ 333.
Gough, John B., § 244.
Gould, Jay, 366.
Governors of Iowa, 258.
Governors' war-meeting, 150.
“Go West, young man,” 86-7.
Grandchildren, addressed, 408.
Grant, President U. S., 169, § 181,
*183.
Graves, J. K., § 267.
Greeley, Horace, 86, 87, 158, 180, §
220.
Green, Beriah, 33-35.
Greenback currency, 155.
Greenwood, Grace, 61.
Grimes, Gov. J. W., 195, 219, § 258,
342, 382.
Grinnell family, 1-7; Mrs. J. B., 406;
children, 413.
Grinnell city, founding of, 84; tem-
perance proviso, 97; quarter cen-
tennial, 400; church in, 115.
Grinnell University, 325, 328.
Grinnell, Moses H., 3, 180-182.
Guardianship in boyhood, 16-17.
Haddock, Rev. G. C., 291.
Haish, Jacob, 334.
Hale, John P., 60, 66, 140.
Hamilton, H. M., 96.
Hamlin, H., 93. 96.
Hams, purchase of, 105.
Hard times of 1857, 127.
Hardy, Alpheus, $ 237.
Hardy, Prof. Arthur S., § 239.
Harlan, James, 143, 151, 378-382, §
385.
Harris, Benj. B., 141, 150.
Harrison campaign, 1840, 21.
Harrison, Mayor, 358.
Hayes, Pres. R. B., § 138..
Historic church, 115.
Hogan, George B., 178.
Holbrook, Rey. J. C., 336.
Lane, Henry S., 31.
Larabee, Gov. W.J., § 262.
Lawyer, how I became a, 128.
Lawyers, species of, 130.
Lawsuit, first, 102.
Leavitt, Dr. Joshua, 58.
Lewis, Rev. John, 40.
Library, Home, 405.
Lincoln, Pres. A., 148, 153, 171, 173-4.
424
INDEX.
Osgood, Rev. Samuel, 210, 214.
Logan, John A., $ 197.
Long, Alexander, 141, 150.
Long Home, the, 99.
Loomis, Rey. Samuel, 111.
Loring, Ellis G., 76.
Love, Judge J. M., 192, § 266.
Lovejoy, Owen, 133, § 134.
Lowe, Gov. R. P., 258.
Pacific Railway route, 59.
Parker, Helen Fitch, 46.
Parker, Prof. Henry W., 330.
Parker, Prof. Leonard F., 327, 330, $
346, 414.
Parker, Rev. Theodore, $ 82.
Patterson, Jane, 107.
McClellan, Gen. G. B., 140, 159.
McClernand, Gen. J. A., 174.
McCrary, G. W., § 267.
McDill, James W., § 269.
McDougal, Senator, 141, 151.
Magoun, Pres. G. F., 98, 329, 335, 416.
Mann, Horace, 121-2.
Manning, Edwin, $ 345.
Marion College, 391.
Martyn, Henry M., 125.
Mason, J. M., 63, 218.
Matthews, James, 144.
May, Samuel J., 76.
Mayor bootblack, 383.
Mears, Rev. D. O., 331, 351, 356;
Mary Grinnell, Cottage, 333.
Memorial of Faith, 410-411.
Merrill, J. H., 234, 345.
Merrill, Gov. S., $ 260, 345.
Methodist Pioneer, 112.
Mexico, 374-399.
Michel, Reuben, 119.
Militia training, 12-13.
Miller, Justice S. R., § 264.
Miner, Matilda, 57.
Missouri colony project, 90.
Mitchel, Thomas, 217.
Money-making, 406-8.
Moninger, D. M., § 268.
Morgan, Gov. E. D., 178.
Mother, death of, 50.
Phillips, Wendell, $ 204.
Phrenology, 14.
Pierce, Pres. Franklin, 144, 232.
Pierce, Lavinia, 348.
Pierce, Moses H., 364.
Pike, J. L., 161.
Pills vs. blackberries, 49.
Pomeroy, Samuel C., 56.
Poor, Ben Perley, 160.
Pope, W.J., 359.
Post Office special agent, 124.
Potter, Representative, of Wis., 65.
Pleuropneumonia, cattle, 316.
Plymouth church, 361.
Prairie fire, 43.
Presbyterian, Pennsylvanian, 112.
Press reporters, 159. -
Price, Hiram, 133.
Prohibition, amendment, 286; nom-
ination declined, 288; in Iowa,
Protective tariff, 322-4.
Pryor, Roger M., 65.
401.
Quincy, Edmund, 73-4.
National Era, 56.
Negroes, enlistment of, 143, 155; in
Radicals of 1851, 71.
Railroads, 297 ; personal relations to,
church, 48.
New Haven, Vt., 4 et seq; 369, et seq.
New York, first visit to, 23.
Nickerson, Thomas, 364.
Norton, Henry B., 364.
Nourse, Judge C. C., § 264.
Nye, Edgar W., § 242.
298; Central Iowa, $ 300.
Rand, Mr. and Mrs. E. D., 347.
Rattlesnake sermon, 101.
Reconstruction, 154-5.
Red tape, 149.
Reed, Rev. J. A., 326-7.
Reid, Whitelaw, 162, 226.
Reporters, Press, 159.
Richards, Seth, $ 344.
O'Connor, Charles, 25.
Oneida Institute, 29-31, 38.
Rice, Gen. Eliott W., 173.
Rice, Gen. Samuel A., 125, 128.
Ride, without spurs, 11.
INDEX.
425
Stevens, Thaddeus, 69, 132, 148, § 186,
203, 276.
Stewart, Alvin, 32-33.
Stone, Mrs. D. P., 339.
Stone, Gov. W. M., § 260.
Stone, Rev. William L., 73.
Story; W. F., § 242.
Sturtevant, Rev. J. M., 114.
Sumner, Charles P., 67, 68, 78.
Tabor, Iowa, 85, 215, 218.
Tappan, Arthur and Lewis, 27.
Tappan, Rev. Dr., 111.
Tariff Policy, 322-4.
Taylor, Pres. Zachary, 51.
Teacher, juvenile, 17.
Temperance, 284; ploughing, 285; and
Republican party, 287; address in
1886, 288; and lowa churches,
291; and heredity, 292.
Tenney, Rev. H. M., 114, 414.
Texas Overland Trip, 289.
Thayer, Nathaniel, 342.
Theological study, 44-46.
Thirty-eighth Congress, 131.
Thirty-ninth Congress, 148.
Tornado of 1882, 351.
Townsend, George A., 160.
Tracy, John F. 216.
Trumbull, Lyman, 140, 196.
Trust Funds, 350.
Tuner, Rev. Asa, 326, 329.
Tuttle, Gen. J. M., 254.
Union Village, N. Y., 47.
Ripley, Erastus, 28.
Robinson, “Richelieu", 161.
Rock Island Ry., 298.
Rogers, Ethan, 36.
Rouse, Rev. L. C., 111.
Rousseau, Gen. L, H., 163, 166.
Royce, Supt. R. I. R. R., 355.
Russell, Thomas, 73.
Rynders, Capt., 72.
Sacs and Foxes, § 274.
Sage, Russell, 363.
Saloon, proviso on lots sold, 286; in
candidate platform, 286.
Salter, Rev. William, 234.
Saulsbury, Willard, 143, 151.
Saxe, John G., § 236.
Scarritt, Rey. William R., 334.
Schenck, Gen. Robert C., 69.
School-house, demolition of, 18.
Scott, Anor, 100.
Scott, Harriet B., 348.
Scott, Gen. Winfield, § 199.
Sears, Edward R., 359.
Seat episode, 131, 148.
Sermon, on serpents and doves, 46;
first in Washington, 53 ; on rattle-
snakes, 101 ; on sermons, 402-405.
Sharadeck (Shadrach ?), 76.
Sheep, washing, 10; shearing festi-
val, 307; poem on, 308.
Sherman, Gov. B. R., § 262.
Sherman, L. N., 347.
Sherman, Gen. W. T., 229.
Shorter Catechism, 375-7.
Sibley, Hiram, 364.
Silver wedding, 401-2.
Simms, fugitive slave, 76.
Sioux city, 133.
Slater, J. F., 364.
Slidell, John, 63.
Smith, Gerrit, 31-32.
Soldier vote, 126.
Speakers from abroad, 115.
Spring, Rev. Gardiner, 24.
Stanton, Edwin McM., § 177.
Stammerer's prayer, 113.
State Register, Iowa, 240.
State senator, nomination, 118-119.
State University, 349.
Steele, Alonzo, § 346.
Stevens, Mrs. R. D., 348.
Vallandigham, Clement L., 147.
Vanderbilt, Cornelius, senior, 25.
Vanderbilt, William H., 366-7.
Vattel on erratic nations, 282.
Vermont and Vermonters, 369-377.
Voorhees, Daniel W., 141.
Wade, Benjamin F., 68, 140.
Walker, J. M., 196.
Walker, Dr. Mary, 243.
Wallace, Gen. Lew, 246.
War days at home, 144.
War Congress, 131.
Washburn, Elihu B., 182.
Washburn, William B., 182.
Washburn and Moen, 363.
Washington, in 1850, 51; first Con-
gregational Church in, 52.
426
INDEX
Weaver, Gen. James B., 253.
Webb, William H., 85. '
Webster, Daniel, 69, 76, 77, 203.
Weed, Thurlow, 180.
West, first visit to, 38.
Wheeler, Vice-Pres. W. A., 139.
Whiskey, tax, 150, 155; “For Sail,"
285; revenue from, 293.
Whitcomb, David, 342, 364.
White, Horace, 161.
White, Stephen V., 361.
Whitney, Asa, 58.
Whitin, Jolin C., 341.
Whittier, John G., 75.
Wilcox, Rev. William H., 340.
Wilkinson, Samuel, 161.
Williston, J. P., § 337.
Williston, Samuel, § 336.
Wilmot, David, 59.
Wilson, James F., $ 78, 132, 167, 182.
Winslow, Judge H. S., 144.
Wisconsin in 1844, 38, 41-3.
Wolf-hunt, 44.
Wood, Fernando, 142, 144, 151-2.
Woodruff, Capt. J. M., 144.
Woodworth, Rev. W. W., 114.
Wool-growers' Assoc., 307.
Workman, Marshal, 215.
Wright, Judge G. G., $ 263.
Yale College, 28.
Yates, Gov. Richard, 140.
2

?
M
RE
-REY.
-----
-
-
....
..
..
HE
III
3 9015 09027 8873
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
24
-
ܕܝܐ

;,
-1 .
. ܂
܂ .
ܕ
]
ܕ
r
'
ܪ17
ܘ
܂
:܂
܂
*
ܘ
*
ܬ
ܕܐܐ .
--
܂
.
|
܂
ܘ
1
ܝ
ܫܙܫ
ܪܬܕܪ
.܀
ܐܐ
܂
ܕ
܂
ܙ
.
ܝ
*
,
܀
܀
܀
܀
܊
ܕܼ ܃ ܂ ·
°
ܕ
ܗ
:
V
v
ܕ
1
܇
ܝ
ܙ
ܕ
:
ܙ
܂
.
-܀
ܕ.
، ܐ ' ܂ ܙܝ܂
ܘ
ܗ.܂
܂-
:
. .
ܟ
;.m
. .
ܙ
ܝ
.
ܫ: ܂
.
' ; .
ܫ
.
'
:.
."**
ܕܤܗ
*
*
ܐ ܀
.'
ܙ
ܕ
܀
܂
.
܂
ܐ
ܐ
.
܂
ܐ
,
ܬܕܐܕ .
ܚ .ܫܙܗ
.
.ܫܗ ܫ
ܚܘ
ܘ
- :, *
.
ܕ
°
ܙ
ܕ
; ܪܕ
ܘ ܂
'
܂ ܂
܃ ·
'
7
܃ ܃
. ܙ
܂
ܗ
ܝ
ܕ
܂
7';
ܚ ܪܗ
.
܀
܀
-
*
܂
ܝ
ܗ
;
;
;
* ;
;
*:
܂
ܕ
.F
܀܀ ܀܀
ܙ
-
10 :
ܢ ܪܗ
ܠܐܕܪܫ
ܗ ܝ ܢܐ
܀
܀
ܙ
܂
܂
ܕ
܂
.
܂
ܐ ;
-
;
ܪ
ܨ
ܘ
ܕ
.
: .ܘ
܂
ܙ. ܟ
܀ ܙ ܗܘ
;d
f ܙܪܝܕ ܝܟܕ ܂
ܗ *
;
:
,ܗ
ܝ
ܕ
>ܝ
ܗ ܀
ܕ
ܚ.
r *
ܕ
܀ ܝ.
ܢ
1
.
ܢ
.. ܢ.܂
ܢܐ
ܕ
.. ܙܝ
ܕ ܝܝ : ܗ .
ܕ
܂
܂
ܐ
.
ܗ
܀
ܕ
i
.
ܢ ܪ ܕ ܙܗ
ܪܝܟܝ ܪ :,
܀
"rr
܀
ܙܕ
7
܀
::
1
[
-…܂
x
ܙ
"
ܝܐܐܝܪ
ܙܙ ܀
* .
*
ܪ
:: - ,
܀
ܚܫܐ ܟܪܬ. ܪܫ
'
܂
ܐ
ܪ
* ,,
܀
-
*
ܝ
ܪܡܪ
ܕܪܢܪܝܝ
-
܀ '
ܕ ܫ7
ܒܟܐ
ܘ. ܚ
ܙ:
܂
܂
܃
܂
܂ ܪܕܕܕܕ
ܙܐܶܢܳܬ ܂
܀
܀
܃
܂ -
ܟ
14
ܬܕܕ ܘܪ ܙ *
܂
ܕ
ܝ
.
:
°
.
ܛܕ.
܀
ܐ
ܙܫ
܀
܂
;
ܐ
܂
܀
ܙ
،
܂
:
[ :
܀ ܀ ܀
܀
..
*
܂ .
ܕ
ܐ
ܫܕܐ
ܕܗܗܙ
ܫܘܢܪ ܫܙ
.
.
܀
ܐ ܕ܀ ܙ:
ܗܝ ܀
1
.
n
: '
ܕ
ܣܤܝ..
ܝܺ
.ܐ
ܢ
.
ܝܕܪܝ *
܀
ܙ ܂܂
*
ܝ
ܝ
ܪ
,
.
܂
܂
܂
ܕ ܇
ܕ
܂
܂
܂ '
ܝ ;
ܚܕ
-
܀ ܪ
[:
ܐ
:
.
ܗ
ܪܐܐܪܪ
ܬ
܀
.
܀
܀
ܘ
܀
܂ .
ܝ '
ܝ
ܝܚ
.
.ܕܝ
.
ܟܕ
.
.
ܕܕܐ
܀
܀
ܕܪܪܪ
.
ܘ.
' .
܂
ܪ
ܝܕܙܥܢܘܐܝ..ܢ. ܕܫܢ
܀
܂
܀ ܀
, ܕܐܟܝܫܝܪܪܬܐܠܕܪܬ
7
.
܀
.
܇ ܀
.
ܪ
ܗܕܕ
܂
ܪ
ܙ
ܪ
ܢ ܙ ܂ ܚܨ
.
ܫ
ܘ
ܪ
ܚ
:
܀
ܙ܂
ܠܐ
ܙܝ ܢܙ 1 ܀
ܕ
ܗ
ܐ
ܙ
ܐܢ *
܂
ܕ
܃
.
ܝ
ܕ
܀
ܫ
܃
ܫ **
:
4
ܝ
ܝ
܂
ܚܫܙܝ
܂
ܕ
ܝ
ܗ
- ܨ ,;
ܙܝܝܝ
ܝܣ ܀
-܀ .*
ܙ
ܠܙܙܕܫܡܲܝܵ
ܕ ܘܪ
ܙ
100
. . ' ,
.ܫ:
܀
܀
܂
ܪ
܃
ܝܚ ܕ - . '
܂܂
ܐ ܀ 1ܪܳܙ
ܢܐܢܶ ܂
..
܂ ܂
; .
*
ܙ
܂
'. ܟ
r*
*
..
'
ܗܿ܂
ܕ
܂
.
ܕ
ܨ ܝܟܫ
:
-
; *
:
ܕ ܩ ܕ
;
ܝ
ܝܙܙ ܝ
ܪ
܀ ܪܝܪ
܂
.
܀ ܀ ܀
ܕܬ
ܢ
܀
܀
ܙ
ܗ
܂
ܕ݁ܕ݂ܰܕ݂ܕ݂ܟܬܕܕܕܕܕܕܐܕܕܕܕ
ܐ *
܀
ܪ
܀
.܂
-8 A ܝܙ:
3
ܐ
ܗ
ܚܕ ܕ
:ܐ
܂
܂
.
ܕ
ܢ
ܝ8-
܀
ܨ
.
r
: :
ܗ
11
-
.
ܝ
-
-
A
,
*
-
:
;
t
_
ܫ
ܢܢ , :
܀
, '
ܕ
;
..
ܐ
ܙ
0
ܗ
܂
܀
.
ܢܝܢܙ
ܫ
ܘ
ܙ
'
ܝ
.
ܝ
܂
!.
f
܃
܀
܃
܂
1
ܪ
܂
. .
!
ܕ
*
;
ܗ
ܚ
ܙ
ܝ
ܕ
܂
ܐܐܕܢ
ܝܐ
ܕ
܀
܀
܀
1
ܙ
;
.
ܙ
܂
v'
:
܀
. .
;,;
܂
T
ܙ.܂
.
.
ܢܶ
܀
?:::ܪܟܪ̈ܕ݂ܝܰܬ݂ܳ
܀
1 .
܀
- .
܆
܀
*
.
܂
ܙ
ܙ
ܕ
?
ܪ
!
ܟ ܟ 14
ܝܕ
.܂
**:
.*
.ܙ ܀.ܕ
f '
ܕܪܐܪܕܪ
܃
icaܝܼܬܵܪܝܼܟܼܲ
܂
'
܂
ܝ
ܐ,:
;
;
܂
ܙ
ܙ
, ܂
i
܂
܀
.
.
,
܀
ܘ
*
ܙܨܐ ܀
.
.' J
.
ܟ
ܨ
. ܝ ܀
܃ ܂
܃
܃
܀
.:
ܕ
܂
ܝ
ܕ
ܚܫܕ
܀ ܀ ܀
r
'
.
.
ܙ
ܐ
ܐܐ
'
܂
ܙ
.
ܕܪ ܡܢ
;
.
ܕܬܙ
ܝܘ
.
. . . . . .
. ܂܂ ' ܀ . .
. .
. . ' .
. .. ...
܂
܂
.-. . . ܇܇܇
ܕ
ܙ
ܝܙ܀
ܪܙܙ ܙܗܐܐܪ
ܪ ܐܐ