CHAPTER V. THE IMPENDING CONFLICT. THE THIRTY-SIXTH CONGRESS-WHAT BECAME OF THE MEMBERS -HOW THEY T GUNS OF HE object of this chapter is to give something of the after-life of members of the Thirty-sixth Congress who were conspicuous in defending or resisting the doctrine of secession, which led to such lamentable consequences. "There were giants in the land in those days"; not a few "mighty men, which were of old, men of renown." They have almost passed away with their day and generation. The Thirty-sixth Congress met on the 5th of December, 1859. Considered by results, it was, perhaps, the most important congregation of men that ever assembled upon our continent. It held the destinies of our institutions and races in the hollow of its hand. The Senate was presided over by John C. Breckenridge, Vice-President of the United States. Its members became famous in the two subsequent decades. Hannibal Hamlin became Vice-President, and William P. Fessenden, Secretary of the Treasury. They were Senators from Maine. John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, was a man of abundant wit and juiciest humor. He became Minister to Spain in President Lincoln's administration. He returned home health-broken and spiritbroken, in 1869, because of the attacks of a New-York paper. Of the other New England members, Jacob Collamer had been Postmaster-General, and Henry B. Anthony became presiding officer of the Senate. The death of Senator Anthony has recently been deplored with most fervent and sympathetic eulogy. Lafayette S. Foster, of Connecticut, preceded him as President of the Senate and Vice-President ex officio. Massachusetts had Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson as its tribunes. They were fit repre THE SENATORS IN AND AFTER THE WAR. 87 sentatives of the Puritan and progressive element for which New England has been celebrated. New-York had Preston King, who was known, when in the Democratic ranks, as a devotee of anti-slavery, and William H. Seward, than whom no greater Foreign Secretary has appeared since Jefferson's day. Simon Cameron, Senator from Pennsylvania, became Secretary of War, and afterwards Minister to Russia. He lives to a ripe old age, not so much in his son, who is his senatorial successor, as in the generosities of his nature. He was indefatigable in organizing our war forces. He initiated the policy of enlisting colored soldiers. James A. Bayard, the irreproachable Senator from Delaware, died long since, but he survives in his gifted son, upon whom the senatorial mantle also descended. James M. Mason, of Virginia, is most widely known by his association with John Slidell in the affair of the Trent. Robert M. T. Hunter, of the same state, than whom no man was more sedate in judgment, survives in venerable age. He became Secretary of State in the Confederacy. He is now a poor man, but is not the less honored by his state and by his record. Since the close of the war he has served his state in some fiscal relation. He will be known to those who care to look into his life and service as one of the best economists, theoretically and practically, known to the decade which preceded the war. Among other Confederate Cabinet officers, he was for some time a prisoner at Fort Pulaski, Georgia. He had been a short time before a member of the commission that met at General Grant's headquarters for the purpose of considering terms of peace. Had he but exercised the immense influence which he had in the South, he might have been more potential than almost any other man- not excepting Jefferson Davis-in the Confederacy. Thomas L. Clingman, of North Carolina, became a Confederate general. He still lives, though suffering from many wounds. He gives his time to science, and his memory to politics. James H. Hammond, of South Carolina, was a man of splendid ability and rare oratory. He was the author of The Pro slavery Argument. He long since preceded his colleague in that Senate, James Chesnut, Jr., to the other world. The latter became an aid-de-camp on the staff of Jefferson Davis, and afterwards a general of brigade. Alfred Iverson, of Georgia, was then an old man, but strong of will. His name indicates that he belonged to the Norse race, whom no disasters by sea or land could intimidate. He served as colonel and brigadier-general in the Confederate army, and his son commanded a Confederate regiment. Robert Toombs, his colleague, was the first Confederate Secretary of State. He retired from that office in July, 1861, to enter the Confederate army. He commanded a Georgia brigade in Longstreet's celebrated fighting corps. He had some differences with Jefferson Davis. He is a man as opulent in purse as he is generous in disposition and able in oratory. Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, retired from the Senate a few months before the war began. He was a plain, old-fashioned miller, and not a man of conspicuous ability. He had not the audacity peculiar to men of dash and skill, like his colleague, Clement C. Clay, who also withdrew from the Senate about the same time. The latter was a gentleman of elegant and dignified presence and calm elocution, but of defiant attitude upon questions affecting Southern policy. Mr. Clay became a Confederate Senator. In 1863, he went on a foreign mission for the Confederacy. In 1865, he was arrested and for some time imprisoned at Fortress Monroe. Of the Senators from Mississippi, one was Jefferson Davis. He retired from the Senate on Jan. 21, 1861, and became President of the Confederacy. His record forms a large chapter of American history. He is more widely known than any other man connected with that Congress. Albert G. Brown, the other Senator from Mississippi, raised a military company. He became its captain and fought at Leesburg. He was afterwards elected to the Confederate Congress. When the war was over he returned to his plantation. He was foremost in advocating and advancing the acceptance of the legitimate results of the war. In season and out of season, he opposed all ineffectual efforts to continue the conflict. He opposed all policies that were contrary to public or personal liberty and to the progress of new opinions and new elements in his state. He died in 1883, generally regretted. The Senators from Louisiana were John Slidell and Judah P. Benjamin. The career of each had its romantic side:- Slidell became the Minister of the Confederacy to France, and gave tone to a certain class of society in the French capital. Benjamin was an Israelite. He was the first Attorney-General of the Confederacy; afterwards he became its Secretary of War and Secretary of State. He was thoroughly educated in the canons and practice of the civil law. After the war was over he betook himself to London. There he became one of the most successful, as he was one of the most accomplished, of the solicitors and advocates of the British bar. He died recently in Paris, long after the ardors of his young ambition had been burned out. Of George E. Pugh, of Ohio, the writer has already spoken. Benjamin F. Wade is best known as a man after the Cromwellian type. He was of rugged, fierce, and vindictive feeling. His climax as a politician was reached when he failed to take the place that would have been vacant by the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Kentucky was well represented in that Congress. John J. Crittenden had been twice Attorney-General of the United States. He had been the governor of his state, and been four times elected to the United States Senate. Afterwards and during the war he became a member of the House. He was a fervent patriot and a leading light in the Union cause. Lazarus W. Powell, Mr. Crittenden's colleague in the Senate, was a man of large and stalwart frame, whose heart was co-extensive with his body. He is best known by his wonderful speech against military interference in the elections THE SENATORS IN AND AFTER THE WAR. 89 of the people. It is a monument of which his children may be proud. It is worthy of the state of Henry Clay. It is worthy of a state which has produced a galaxy of men each one of whom would have been a conspicuous star, but for the varied lustre of other stars of primary magnitude. A. O. P. Nicholson, of Tennessee, had been a devotee of the Union. He had been a writer for the Washington organ of the Democracy. Andrew Johnson was well known for his devotion to the Union in peace, in war, and in reconstruction. Graham N. Fitch and Jesse D. Bright were the Senators of Indiana. Both were intense in their notions of duty. They had an inclination toward the South, but with no loss of steadfastness toward the Union, which they thought could not be preserved by coercion. Trusten Polk, of Missouri, was a man whom it is pleasant to recall for his amiable disposition. His name is associated with many heroes,-clerical, executive, and legislative. James S. Green, the other Senator from Missouri, although he sank into comparative obscurity after the war, was a champion for the vigor of the Constitution in its relation to slavery. He competed with Douglas for the honors of the great debate on territorial power over that subject. Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan, was afterwards Secretary of the Interior. He was the third of his name and family in the Senate. Kinsley S. Bingham, his colleague, died in October, 1861. Stephen R. Mallory, of Florida, became the Secretary of the Navy of the Confederacy. He had been chairman of the Naval Committee of the Senate before the war. After the close of the war he was arrested on a charge of treason, and confined for a short time at Fort Lafayette. David L. Yulee now resides in Washington City. He lives in elegant leisure. He was the companion of Mr. Mallory in the Senate, from Florida. He was also a companion of Mr. Hunter in arrest at Fort Pulaski. Mr. Yulee is a man of wealth, which he accumulated by foresight and skill in the management of railroads. At the end of that Congress there was only one Senator from TexasJohn Hemphill. He died at Richmond, as a Confederate Senator, in the early part of the war. Lewis T. Wigfall, his colleague, participated in the bombardment of Fort Sumter. He was for a short time a brigadier-general in the Confederacy, and afterwards a Senator. James Harlan and James W. Grimes represented Iowa. The former has since been Secretary of the Interior. He is now connected with the Alabama Claims Commission. Senator Grimes was a man of clear intellect. He was a leader in the business of the Senate. He has long since deceased. He, too, was a man of wealth. Charles Durkee was known for his hostility to the fugitive-slave law, which Wisconsin had resisted almost as persistently as Ohio. James R. Doolittle, his colleague, was then a Republican Senator, but the excesses of his party after the war was over, and especially in connection with reconstruction and impeachment, drove him to his early love, which was the Democratic party. He is a prominent man now in the resumption of power by that or ganization to which he gave the devotion of his earlier years. The only prominent Senator from California in that Congress was William M. Gwin. He is a native of Tennessee. He is a man of herculean build. He was early associated with Southern sympathy and interests. He gave his whole heart to the cause of the Confederacy. In many relations with politics, before and since the war, he was a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, upon our extreme western coast. When the Thirty-sixth Congress met, Minnesota had but one Senator. Henry M. Rice is specially remembered, because it was by his side, when he was a Delegate from Minnesota before the state was admitted, that the writer sat in the old hall, on his first entrance into Congress in 1857. Oregon was represented by Gen. Joseph Lane and Gen. Edward D. Baker. Both were heroes of Mexican fame. General Lane was known to every part of the country as the associate of Mr. Breckenridge upon the Southern ticket. His name recalls a pleasant incident. In moving into the new hall and drawing for seats, General Lane was awarded the seat that had been temporarily occupied by the author. When the name of the latter was called, although the youngest of the members, General Lane escorted him, amidst the cheers of the House, to the new seat, since so often occupied by him, saying at the same time: "I have no need of a seat, sir; but I expect you to vote very soon for the admission of the State of Oregon. I am but a Delegate, and you are a member. You may survive me in the work which is here to be done. I go to another sphere. As soon as the vote on the admission of Oregon is taken, I shall be its Senator." At the outbreak of the war General Baker took command of the "California" regiment, and fell at Ball's Bluff in October, 1861, while gallantly commanding a brigade. In the House of Representatives of that extraordinary Congress there were 109 Republicans, 101 Democrats, 26 "Americans," and one known as a Whig. Of the State of Maine, the three leading men were: Ezra B. French, who became Second Auditor of the Treasury; Freeman H. Morse, who went abroad as Consul to London, and Israel Washburn, Jr., who became governor of Maine. New Hampshire gave to the army of the Potomac Gilman Marston and Colonel Tappan, each of whom led well equipped regiments to the field and served conspicuously during the war. Their splendid records may be found in the volume of Major Otis T. R. Waite, entitled, New Hampshire in the Great Rebellion. They both live, full of honors. Vermont had Justin S. Morrill, who still survives as the venerable Senator from that state. He is known for his peculiar activity in the formation of protective tariffs. Massachusetts, among other members of rare talent, had Anson Burlingame. He was noted for his famous escapade in the Brooks-Sumner trouble. He became our Minister to China, and afterwards an ambassador of that power. Alexander H. Rice became governor of the state. John B. Alley survives many not so rich as him |