James Harlan

Front matter

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Author's Preface

A STUDY of the life of James Harlan reveals a man of rugged sincerity, a statesman of rare forensic and constructive ability and large capacity for leadership. The story of his youth and young manhood is one of privation and of resolute struggle for the attainment of an education. His career as a statesman is interwoven with the anti-slavery agitation and legislation immediately preceding the first election of Abraham Lincoln, with the history of the War of the Rebellion, and with the confused and trying period of Reconstruction. The years of his retirement — years full of usefulness in public and semi-public service and correspondingly full of honors — present a pleasing contrast to the concluding years in the lives of not a few of his contemporaries.

In the writing of this biography the author's purpose has been to follow, as far as practicable, the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers which James Harlan himself prepared and arranged. Mr. Harlan began the prep-

X AUTHOR'S PREFACE

aration of this valuable work early in the nineties, his original purpose evidently having been to write an autobiography. But later that purpose gave way to another, which was to gather in chronological order all the letters and papers which he had retained and to make such running comment on them as was deemed necessary, with a view to leaving the entire collection, along with the autobiographical chapters, as so much material for a biography which he must have known would at some time be attempted. The unfinished autobiography, the letters and papers, the original manuscripts of addresses and speeches, together with the published record of his Congressional career, constitute a wealth of source material which has been found extremely satisfying and at the same time embarrassing because of its abundance.

Concerning his career as Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Johnson there is little data beyond Mr. Harlan's one official report and his later letters and speeches defending his official course from misrepresentation and false charges. But the high purpose which prompted him to respond to President Lincoln's call and to remain in the

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Cabinet for a time under President Johnson is fully developed in his correspondence.

Although the Autobiographical Manuscript would doubtless have been revised by Mr. Harlan had he lived to complete his task, it has not been deemed wise to attempt alterations in the text of the numerous passages quoted in the following pages. Statements of fact have been verified by comparison with newspapers and other contemporary sources. In dealing with Mr. Harlan's career in Congress the author has depended chiefly on the published record as found in the Congressional Globe. Newspapers were also freely consulted to learn the attitude of the public, both in Iowa and in the Nation at large, toward Mr. Harlan during his public career.

The author of this biography was not favored with an intimate personal acquaintance with James Harlan. In his youth, however, it was his privilege to hear the Senator's White House speech on Reconstruction, immediately following the last public utterance of President Lincoln. Ever since that memorable occasion the name of James Harlan has been indelibly associated in the author's mind with that of Abraham Lincoln — an association which has xii AUTHOR'S PREFACE

imparted an added zest to the later study of the Iowa statesman's career. Years afterward (early in the nineties) it was the author's pleasure to know Mr. Harlan personally, and to hold a somewhat extended correspondence with him. In response to his request Mr. Harlan prepared a paper for the Midland Monthly on The Iowa Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument and partially promised to write for the same publication his recollections of Abraham Lincoln. Thus the author's early impressions were strengthened and deepened by later association.

Fortunately for his biographer and for future students of history, James Harlan left the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, to which reference has been made, in the care and custody of his daughter, Mrs. Eobert T. Lincoln of Chicago, who, through the kind offices of Judge W. I. Babb of Aurora, Illinois, and of his son, Mr. Max W. Babb of Milwaukee, kindly placed these valuable papers at the author's disposal in the writing of this book. Thanks are due, therefore, first of all, to Mrs. Eobert T. Lincoln, Judge W. I. Babb, and Mr. Max W. Babb.

To Professor Benj. F. Shambaugh, editor of

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xiii

the Iowa Biographical Series and Superintendent of The State Historical Society of Iowa, the author is under many obligations for helpful encouragement and counsel.

Among the many others who have rendered valuable assistance mention should first be made of the laborious and keenly critical preparation of the manuscript for the printer and of the careful preparation and verification of the notes and references by Dr. Dan E. Clark, Assistant Editor in The State Historical Society of Iowa.

The author is under obligations also to Mrs. Alice L. Taylor, Mr. W. F. Kopp, and Mr. Geo. B. McKibbin, and to the editors and publishers of Mt. Pleasant newspapers for kindnesses extended during his visit to Mr. Harlan's old home, and to Mr. Edgar R. Harlan and his associates in the Historical Department of Iowa for access to the wealth of material in the newspaper files in that department. Mention should also be made of the generous aid and counsel of Hon. Charles Aldrich, Dr. William Salter, Mr. C. M. Snyder, and Miss Mary R. Whitcomb — all of whom have departed this life since the writing of this biography was begun in 1906. The appreciative response to xiv AUTHOR'S PREFACE

letters of inquiry received by the author from Hon. Jacob Rich of Dubuque, Hon. George D. Perkins of Sioux City, J. L. Waite, Esq. of Burlington, and the late Dr. Andrew S. Draper of New York, should not be overlooked in the author 's acknowledgment of indebtedness. The exhaustive index was compiled by Mr. Jacob Van der Zee, Research Associate in The State Historical Society of Iowa.

Johnson Brigham

The State Library Des Moines Iowa

Contents

I. Pioneer Life in the Woods op Indiana 1

II. Boyhood and Youth 7

III. College Life 16

II Boyhood and Youth

DuKiNG the spring and summer of 1825 James, now a ''husky" lad of five years, took his first lessons in husbandry: dropping corn and pulling weeds. And as the years went by he became more and more useful to his father as an assistant ''in all manner of farm labor", and "attained a degree of skill and efficiency quite equal ' ' to that of his youthful neighbors.^

When, late in life, James Harlan recalled the scenes and events of his boyhood he paid grateful tribute to the "persistent patience" of his mother in her efforts to teach him to read. Progress was slow and uncertain since the library in the Harlan home at this time consisted of three volumes — the Bible, Hervey's Evening Meditations, and an Almanac, none of which appealed strongly to the childish interest, unless it was the last which was embellished by a number of wood cuts. But apparently the boy learned the first rudiments of the language at a very early age.^

Soon after the Harlan family had established itself in ''The New Discovery" other emigrants arrived, and in the course of a few years all available land in the vicinity was purchased and occupied by settlers. Then there appeared upon the scene that interesting frontier figure, the circuit-rider.

One morning in early spring while James and his father were at work in the clearing not far from the cabin they saw a stranger on horseback ride up to their gate, dismount, and enter the house. Shortly afterward a blast from the dinner-horn summoned the father, and on his return he informed James that the man was a Methodist preacher, that he had asked permission to hold services at their house four weeks from that day, and that permission had been granted. Silas Harlan "was not at this time a member of any church ; he had been brought up a Quaker ; but marrying out of the Society, and refusing to express his regrets for this breach of discipline" he had been dropped from the membership roll of the Society.

The circuit-rider was one William Smith who was "organizing a four- weeks circuit, in the scattered settlements on the east side of the Wabash river .... And on the day appointed, true to his engagement and punctual to the hour he again rode up " to the gate of the Harlan homestead. Here the neighbors were gathered to listen to the first sermon some of

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 9

them had heard in many a year. The "preachings" thus inaugurated were continued periodically throughout several succeeding years, and the Harlan home was * ' a preaching place, and a home for Methodist Preachers" until James was a youth of eighteen years, when a rude church was built. The presence of these itinerant ministers was looked upon as a privilege and a pleasure rather than as a burden. They were often "men of excellent information, — some of them highly cultured, of pleasant manners, easy address, strong common sense and practical ability", and the boy James, "cuddled down in the chimney-corner", listened attentively to their conversation.^*'

Along with the circuit-rider and the preaching of the Gospel came the pioneer school-master, who, true to the spirit of the Ordinance of 1787, pushed out into the borderland wherever there were children to be taught. When James Harlan was seven years of age a rude log schoolhouse, with its split-bottomed seats and oiled paper windows, was erected about one mile from the Harlan home. Here and in other schools of a similar character the lad was a pupil for periods of three months at a time until his thirteenth or fourteenth year, when he was given to understand that his education was complete. An accident, however, soon disabused his mind of this idea.

One day while in Eockville, the county seat, where he had been sent to purchase certain necessaries for the home, he entered a drug-store, and there '' beheld with amazement" what seemed to him to be ' ' an immense number of books .... displayed on shelves around nearly one-half the store room ' '. He innocently asked if they were all school books, and was informed ''that a part of them were; and that the others constituted the public library of Park county." A new world was opened to the boy and he spent an hour or more in examining the wonderful volumes. Hume's History of England, which was especially attractive to him, was rented for a month; and he purchased and took home with him Olney's Geography and Atlas, an elementary work on chemistry, a work on mechanics, a small book entitled Natural Magic, and Walker's Dictionary.

That was a red-letter day in the life of James Harlan. Hume's history proved to be wonderfully interesting, although frequent reference to the dictionary was necessary during its reading. Natural Magic was soon laid aside; but the geography, the chemistry, and the work on mechanics were studied with absorbing interest. He was wont to snatch a few minutes ' time for reading before breakfast and at dinner time, and to spend his evenings in study, ''utilizing the light from an open fireplace, made satis-

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH H

factory by a supply of dry hickory bark and splinters" which he had gathered for the purpose. ''I seemed to myself a new being," he writes, *'and to have entered on another existence." Thereafter, as opportunity offered, he added other books to his library.^^

This craving for knowledge received decided encouragement when, in the youth 's seventeenth year, Jeremiah Terry from Kentucky came to teach the district school, and became a boarder in the Harlan home. Terry was ' ' a lawyer, by profession, a thorough scientific scholar, a good writer and an eloquent speaker", and in spite of the difference in their ages a warm friendship sprang up between him and James Harlan. Through him the boy acquired some knowledge of surveying and the use of logarithms, and learned to calculate eclipses and the movements of heavenly bodies. He also received instruction in forensics and composition, his first public appearance being in an essay read before ''The Lyceum", a typical frontier institution of which Jeremiah Terry was the founder.

The intellectual uplift which was stimulated by the companionship of the Kentucky school teacher was followed by a religious awakening. There was at the time no revival in the neighborhood, nor was any other unusual pressure brought to bear upon his mind. He had simply reached that period in life in which come profound thoughts and undefinable intimations. Years afterwards he bore frequent testimony to his early belief in God's superintending providence, a belief dating from his earliest recollection of his mother's earnest prayers and testimony. But in order to test the strength of his convictions he read a number of books, including the works of Hume, Voltaire, and Paine; with the result that he found nothing therein to shake his belief.

After passing his eighteenth birthday James Harlan entered upon his career as an educator by teaching a district school four miles from his home. This was the first test to which he had put his meager attainments, and he seems to have given a fair degree of satisfaction both to himself and to his patrons. This winter, however, was a sad one for the young man. In October, 1838, his two brothers, Aaron and Cyrus, the one nearly eight and the other three years of age, succumbed to the dreaded disease, diphtheria ; and four months later a little sister, Mary, was stricken with the same malady.

In the autumn following the close of this term of school young Harlan, accompanied by a school-fellow, made a journey on horseback to Lamotte prairie in Illinois, the place of his birth. "This trivial incident is remembered vividly," he afterward wrote, ''probably only because it was my very first experience of the

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 13

kind. ... To find the right way on roads that neither of us had ever traveled, to ferry broad streams, to negotiate with total strangers for the necessary accommodations for ourselves and horses at rude roadside inns, on what seemed to us a very long journey, was an exhilarating experience".^-

Keturning from this journey Harlan again taught school during the winter, receiving twenty-five dollars a month as compensation, a salary which was considered quite munificent at that time. Expenses, however, ''were correspondingly light; boarding and lodging costing .... only seventy-five cents per week. ' '

The picturesque and boisterous "hard-cider" campaign of 1840 brought to James Harlan his first real knowledge of politics. By instinct and education a Whig, he attended many of the rousing mass-meetings and joined vigorously with the youths of the neighborhood in singing ''Tippecanoe and Tyler, too". It was a campaign of unparalleled enthusiasm. Men in all walks of life dropped their work and journeyed long distances to attend the great political gatherings of the year. In his Autobiographical Manuscript Harlan relates how he and a number of friends made a pilgrimage to the battle-field of Tippecanoe, "where it was estimated that more than one hundred thousand people encamped for a week to listen to speeches" by the great orators of the Whig party. ''For us country boys", he says, ''this countless mass of living human beings, covering the fields, filling the adjacent woods, and thronging the roads in every direction, was a great sight, the like of which had seldom been seen by anyone anywhere in this country. Here, I saw and heard, for the first time many of the most distinguished political orators of the nation. "^^

During the autumn of this year of political excitement young Harlan became a pupil in Park County Seminary at Rockville, seven miles from his home, where he was destined to learn a lesson not found in books. "I noticed at once an unmistakeable difference between myself and a large majority of my fellow students", he declares, "in that indescribable something which distinguishes a town-bred from a countrybred boy; a sort of silent assumption on the part of the town-boys .... of a consequential superiority over their country cousin".

The experience was new and unpleasant to the farmer lad, who had supposed that social distinctions could find no place in democratic America, but were characteristic only of the royalty-ridden lands of Europe and the East. However, he soon forgot his first chagrin in the pleasure of his school work, and in the home of a cultured family he found the companionship

BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 15

which he craved. The lesson, moreover, was "not without its utility", for he ''then and there learned of the existence of this fact which would have to be encountered in greater or less strength everywhere in society ".^^

Another three months as the teacher of a district school and work on the farm during the succeeding spring brought James Harlan nearly to his majority, the time when he would be called upon to take serious thought concerning his own future. One day in May, 1841, while they were at work in the field, Silas Harlan surprised his son by inquiring if he had decided upon any line of work for himself. He told the boy that if he had come to any decision, he need not wait until his twenty-first birthday to feel at liberty to enter upon his chosen work. But he suggested that the matter should be given thoughtful consideration.

Brought face to face with the greatest problem of his life thus far, the young man pondered the subject in his mind for several days. At the end of a week he astonished his father by announcing that he had decided ''to go to college ' '.

Ill

It was about May 31, 1841, that James Harlan packed his few belongings and set out to seek further education at Asbury University (now De Pauw University) located at Greencastle, Indiana, some eighteen miles eastward from his home. ''My first appearance in Greencastle, in search of the University was not imposing", is the autobiographical comment written in later life. ''I walked across the country, along a newly made public high-way, at that time but little traveled, cut through a dense forest, for the most part uninhabited, carrying a fair sized bundle, made up of wearing apparel and several school books which I supposed I might need, adjusted to my shoulders on the end of a walking stick. "15

But the venerable statesman apparently had little relish for the "stories composed in some small degree of facts buried out of sight with fiction", which had been told about his early strivings after knowledge, even though these stories were told for the purpose of stimulating other youths to similar endeavors. Hence he took occasion to explain that his manner of traveling was adopted through choice and not through necessity. It was simply ''more convenient, more economical, and less bother every way to walk" the eighteen miles, a distance by no means long for a farmer boy accustomed to following the plow all day across his father's fields.

President Matthew Simpson ^^ received the embarrassed young man with kind cordiality, plied him with numerous questions, and instructed him as to the formalities of registration in the university. In order that he might have the healthful exercise of a long walk, he advised him to secure room and board with a family living three miles in the country, where other students were already boarding. Acting on this advice Harlan shouldered his bundle and added three miles to the eighteen already covered by him, thus ending his first day at ''Old Asbury".

Rooming in the country, however, soon proved unpleasant. While the farm-house was comfortable, the table "well supplied with good palatable and nourishing food", and the members of the family agreeable, Harlan found that all of the desirable rooms had been taken before his arrival. The room assigned to him was in the attic directly under the roof, and was consequently hot and stuffy. The young man's dissatisfaction was doubtless increased by a desperate attack of homesickness which so ''took the starch out of" him that one day he sought a secluded spot and "blubbered" like a heart-broken child. The outcome was that he decided to move into town. Finding unoccupied rooms on the third floor of the college building, he and a student friend converted them into bachelor quarters.

Harlan 's first college term at Greencastle was marked by hard study and slow progress. His previous studies had not been in direct preparation for college, and he found himself in competition with young men from all parts of the State, a majority of whom had had better advantages than himself. But he applied himself diligently to work, and owing to the fact that he recited with nearly every class in the college, he soon became acquainted with each of the eighty or ninety students in attendance. He early joined one of the two literary societies, thus receiving training in public speaking which proved of great value in later life. In the close intimacy of this society there also sprang up many strong and lasting friendships.

A perusal of the journal entries and letters of James Harlan during this period explains the influence which ''Old Asbury" had on the public life of Indiana. It soon became evident to the young man that the learning of lessons would constitute only a small part of his college work. Declamations, orations, and debates came thick and fast, and those who developed ability in these directions were the college heroes. ^"^ Having tremblingly survived the first ordeal of declaiming in his turn at the morning chapel exercises, Harlan rapidly acquired that self-poise and confidence which in after years brought him to the front as an orator and debater.

After two months in bachelor quarters, arrangements were made which were still more to Harlan 's liking. Two of his sisters, Lydia and Jane, joined him in Greencastle, and became pupils in a school for young ladies. The three, therefore, "kept house'' in rented rooms, depending for the most part upon furniture and provisions brought from home.

Thus the summer passed rapidly in the round of studies and *' miscellaneous college and literary society work", in addition to which the young man ''had commenced to write articles for newspapers; and was occasionally called out to speak at public meetings". A month's vacation in October was occupied chiefly in work on the farm and in "collecting some small debts". November found him and his sisters again at Greencastle. But about the middle of December there came news of the serious illness of their father, and in the midst of a heavy rain-storm James set out for home, swimming his horse across swollen streams and plunging through roads almost impassable. On the morning following his arrival at home he was prostrated with a fever, induced no doubt by the exposure of his journey, and he was confined to his bed for nearly three weeks. This illness afforded him an opportunity to experience the "inhuman medical treatment" of the time. "I was visited every day by our family physician .... and bled copiously — until I fainted from the loss of blood — four several times," he writes, ''and was otherwise subjected to the drastic treatment common with alopathic physicians ".^^

The patient's strong constitution finally triumphed over the disease, and the treatment, and early in January, 1842, he resumed his student life. Soon afterward he achieved his first notable success as a debater. He was chosen by the Platonean Literary Society as its representative in the annual debate w^ith the Philological, the rival society. The honor was a coveted one and was especially complimentary to Harlan, since he had been in college less than a year "and was still pursuing studies chiefly in the preparatory department".

With many misgivings he resolved to do his best to justify the choice of his friends and to uphold the reputation of his society. The debate occurred in March, on the last day of the winter term. The subject, clumsily expressed, was : "Is a Republican Government better calculated for durability than a monarchy?" and Harlan spoke on the negative. That he was not carried away by his success is to be inferred from his modest journal entry on that date : "Performed on debate in the joint exhibition of the Platonean and Philological societies: took dinner at Mrs. Burton's: started home on foot".!^

Harlan had now exhausted his slender resources, and although he had received urgent offers of assistance from two fellow-students, he returned home for the purpose of earning sufficient money to enable him to continue his studies. During the spring and early summer he was engaged in farm work, and from August to November he taught a district school. Meanwhile, he found time to meet with the "Park County Riflemen", of which volunteer military company he was First Sergeant, and to make a number of "public addresses at temperance and sabbath-school meetings ' '. In July he acted as clerk of a township election, and cast his first vote.

The event of this period which made the most lasting impression on the mind of the future statesman, however, was a speech delivered by

Henry Clay at Indianapolis, which Harlan and a number of his friends journeyed ''sixty or seventy miles, in a common farm- wagon" to hear. The speech was delivered in a large grove, and the young man secured a position where he had a full view of his hero. Here he remained throughout the two hours of the speech, ''transfixed to the spot . . . . earnestly looking at him and intently listening to every word he said, and involuntarily approving the justice and wisdom of all his conclusions." So vividly was every detail of this speech pictured in his memory that more than forty years later he was able to write the following description:

Mr. Clay's personal appearance and bearing were of equal interest to me with his speech. He was driven up to the steps of the stand in an open barouche drawn by four splendid horses. He wore a suit of black cloth clothes, that, on his first arrival, were white with dust. This was before the construction of rail roads had been commenced in the West. And Mr. Clay, I was informed, had been driven in this vehicle, that morning, from Richmond to Indianapolis, Ind., a distance of perhaps sixty miles ; meeting with a perfect ovation, by masses of people, every mile of the way. . . .

His approach to his audience, when he commenced his speech, was as genial and cordial as the sunshine ; his movements were as simple as those of an unspoiled child, and as gentle as those of a cultured woman, and his elocution was only earnest and most delightful conversation, — and yet so clear, and harmonious, and distinct as to be easily heard, apparently, by everybody.2o

Early in November, 1842, James Harlan returned to Greencastle and resumed his studies, joining with a number of his fellow-students in keeping ''bachelor hall". They rented *'a small hotel, which happened at the time to be unoccupied, and apportioned out the rooms to small messes of from two to four students in each mess; each student furnishing his own room ; and, for a time, each mess supplying its own table". After a time they all joined in one mess ''and hired a family" to cook and serve the meals, one of the students being detailed each week to act as steward. By this arrangement the cost of living was reduced to less than one dollar a week for each member of the group.

Sunday now became the busiest day in the week for Harlan. He was an active member of a missionary society, which, dividing itself into small groups, organized and instructed Sabbath schools in rural neighborhoods around Greencastle. Early every Sunday, with two colleagues, he walked three miles to a country schoolhouse and taught a class, returning to town in time for church services at eleven 0 'clock. In the afternoon came a lecture in the college chapel, followed by another church, service in the evening. "The faithful fulfillment of these engagements, with a reasonable amount of Sabbath-day reading," and the writing of synopses of sermons and lectures filled every hour of a long day.

The college year of 1842-1843 passed in much the same manner as the preceding year. A number of incidents reveal the developing ability of James Harlan and his growing influence in the student body. As the spokesman of a movement to erect a monument in memory of a deceased student he succeeded in overcoming and disarming the opposition of a faction led by Mark Smith, whose father was at that time a United States Senator from Indiana. He was again chosen by the Platonean Literary Society, of which he was President during a portion of the year, as one of its debaters in the annual contest. He successfully defended a member brought to trial for alleged offenses against the society's laws; and caused the defeat of a motion to confer honor upon a member who had been publicly dismissed from the university for violating certain rules of the institution.-^

During the spring vacation the young orator took an active interest in politics. He wrote a number of articles for a Rockville newspaper, ''took part in several political debates in the county, attended the county Whig convention, and was appointed a delegate to the Whig Congressional convention". In fact, he became so much interested in politics that when, several months later, he received a letter from a friend urging him to take the stump in Park County and seek political office, he found the temptation strong. Nevertheless, he recorded in his journal: ''I take part sometimes in political discussions,— but I have no desire for official stations. I think I will be a farmer. "^^