William Peters Hepburn

Front matter

AT

LOS ANGELES

LIBRARY

Author's Preface

The author counts it a rare privilege to have had the opportunity of writing the biography of a man so sterling in character and so rugged in personality, whose public career is a record of constructive achievement. It is hoped that in the pages which follow, the spirit of the man has been reflected as faithfully as his deeds have been recounted.

The most important years of Colonel Hepburn's public life were those during which he was a member of Congress; and it is his own estimate that the Congressional Record contains everything worth while that he ever did. The debates in Congress and committee reports have, indeed, furnished most of the material on his attitude in regard to public questions. Frequent quotations have been made to lend an air of reality and contemporaneousness to the narrative and to make the personality and chracter of the man more vivid — though the written words lose much of their force without the strong voice, the fiery eye, and the emphatic gesture that accompanied their utterance. If

X AUTHOR'S PREFACE

it appears that the well-rounded phrases and carefully balanced sentences of finished oratory are lacking, it should be remembered that all of his remarks in Congress were extemporaneous. He never printed a speech in the Congressional Record that was not delivered on the floor of the House, and very rarely if ever did he extend or amplify his remarks in the Record.

Newspapers have been consulted extensively for information concerning political campaigns and the attitude of the pubhc. A long biographical sketch written by Fred Davis and published in The Sioux City Journal on November 9, 1913, the data for which was supplied by the Colonel himself, contains information not elsewhere available. Of his services in the Union army the Rebellion Record furnishes indispensable data. A great many personal letters, typewritten and printed documents, newspaper clippings, and other papers which have been preserved form another important source.

To Mrs. William P. Hepburn and Mrs. Margaret Hepburn Chamberlain, the writer is indebted for valuable material that was used in the preparation of this book, for contributing much personal information particularly on the ancestry and youth of Colonel Hepburn, and

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xi

for carefully reading the manuscript. The work was undertaken at the suggestion of Dr. Benj. F. Shambaugh who not only edited the manuscript but offered encouragement while it was being written. The author is under obligations to his wife for assistance in revising the first draft. Acknowledgements are also due to Dr. Ruth A. Gallaher for many timely criticisms and to Miss Helen Otto who assisted in the verification of the manuscript.

John Ely Briggs

The State Historical Society of Iowa Iowa City Iowa

Contents

I. The Beginning 1

II. Preparing for Life 12

III. At Home in Marshalltown ... 19

II Preparing for Life

During the year that William Hepburn was in Lee County he returned to Iowa City for a short visit. This occurred at a time when his sister Catherine was recovering from a long illness during which she had made the acquaintance of Melvina Morsman, the nine year old daughter of Dr. M. J. Morsman.^^ The two girls had planned to visit Mavor and Pamela Sanders who lived across Ralston Creek; but the distance was too far for the convalescent Catherine to walk. Arrangements for a horse and buggy were easily made ; but William, after the manner of boys of his age, required a great deal of coaxing and commanding before he would consent to act as driver. Rather ungraciously he drove as far as the creek and then, pointing to the Sanders home on the opposite side, told the girls they could get out and walk the rest of the way. Such was the simple beginning of an acquaintance between Melvina Morsman and William Hepburn which culminated in more than sixty years of married life.is

PREPARING FOR LIFE 13

It was not long after this incident that William was persuaded to learn the printer's trade. A place was made for him in the composing room of the Republican — an Iowa City newspaper owned by Samuel M. Ballard with James Harlan as a contributing editor. For three years he worked steadily setting type for sound Whig editorials and vituperative attacks upon neighboring newspapers. At the end of that time he was a journeyman printer capable of earning ten dollars a week as pressman for the Capitol Reporter — the Democratic organ published at Iowa City.

Thoroughly grounded in the rudiments of the English language and well informed in history and the political doctrines of the time, William P. Hepburn always regarded the printing office as the best school he ever attended. There is a note of democratic pride in his own concise description of his early training: ** educated in the schools of the Territory and in a printing office". He was always pleased to be referred to as an artisan, a man who had served an apprenticeship and had learned a trade.^^

Whatever may have been William's plans for the future, his mother was ambitious to have him study law. Living almost in the shadow of the Old Stone Capitol where the eminent men of the State were accustomed to assemble, listening often to the debates in the legislature, and attending sessions of the Supreme Court — of which his step-father was clerk and to the bar of which was attracted the best legal talent of the country — William became interested in political questions and decided to acquiesce in his mother's wishes. As a boy he had been fond of reading anything he could find, and so the prospect of poring over law books was pleasing to him. It w^as with enthusiasm and determination that in the spring of 1853 he began to read Blackstone under the direction of William Penn Clarke.-**

Fortunate indeed was the young law student who received his training in the office of William Penn Clarke, one of the most widely practiced and successful members of the Iowa bar. A hard task master whose creed was thoroughness in the fundamentals of law, he also gave young Hepburn the advantage of his extensive acquaintance among politicians and lawyers — such men as James W. Grimes, Samuel J. Kirkwood, Henry W. Lathrop, Samuel F. Miller, C. C. Nourse, and Josiah B. Grinnell. Moreover, William Penn Clarke was a radical Free Soiler, chairman of the Kansas Central Committee of Iowa, and one of the secretaries of the first Eepublican convention at Pittsburgh in February, 1856. In such an atmosphere, and associated with the leading men of Iowa who were opposed to the extension

PREPARING FOR LIFE 15

of slavery, it is small wonder that William P. Hepburn became a strong partisan of the new Republican party.-^

In September, 1853, he confided to Miss Morsman that he was ''getting to like the study of law better every day". By that time he had finished Starkie's Evidence and had begun reading Stephen's Pleading, and he was proud of his ''clocklike regularity in attending to office hours. ' ' Sixty years later he recalled that he had been accustomed to spend at least five hours each morning in close application to reading law; in the afternoon he took care of the office until four o'clock; and then the study of Latin occupied him for two hours. The evenings were devoted to the reading of history and poetry. When Mr. Clarke had cases in courts outside of Iowa City he took his young assistant along to help in the trials.-^

Tall, erect, and very slender, William P. Hepburn at the age of nineteen was an unusually handsome young man. A very fair complexion was accentuated by his wavy black hair and dark, deep-set eyes under heavy black eyebrows. His features were clean-cut and regular: a straight nose, full cheeks, and a square chin. Endowed with grace and tact it is not surprising that he was popular with the young people of Iowa City. His letters to Melvina Morsman — "Melly" as he liked to call

16 willia:\i peters hepburn

lier — tell of the parties and balls he attended and relate the amorous adventures of their friends.'^

Sometime in the summer of 1854 when young Hepburn was in Illinois he chanced to meet Van H. Higgins of Chicago. Pleased with the appearance of the young man and confident of his ability, Mr. Higgins suggested that he be examined for admission to the bar. The examining committee reported favorably; and nearly four months before he was twenty-one years of age William P. Hepburn received the certificate wliich entitled him to practice law in Illinois. Almost immediately he was invited to accept a position as bookkeeper in the firm of Higgins, Beckwith, and Strother,^^ receiving as compensation his necessary expenses. This seemed to be an exceptional opportunity and in the latter part of September, just after his betrothal to Melvina Morsman had been announced, the young lawyer found himself in Chicago ' ' building air castles" in his dreams and "peopling them with fairies ' ' which would always take the form and name of "Melly".-^

Mr. Higgins, Avhom Hepburn described as ** rather a large man, but a very handsome one", received his new assistant in a kindly manner; while Mrs. Higgins and her daughter Hattie were as cordial as old friends in their greetings. It was not long before William felt at home in

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WILLIAM PETERS IIIiPBtRX

PREPARING FOR LIFE 17

liis strange surroundings. He lived on the lake shore with people he had known in Iowa City. Chicago was then an over-grown town of sixty-five thousand population w^ith badly kept, illlighted streets, any amount of mud, and a dirty river in which the current was scarcely perceptible. Hepburn's opinion of the elite people of Chicago was no more flattering than the city was attractive. At the first party he attended he did not '* recollect hearing a sensible remark", although there was a ''great deal of delightful music. "-^

Early in the summer of 1855 William Hepburn was once more in Iowa City among the friends of his boyhood. Although he had remained less than a year with the firm of Higgins, Beckwith, and Strother, he apparently succeeded in gaining the confidence of the lawyers and business men of Chicago ; and so when he began to practice law" in Iowa he became the agent of many of the Chicago firms doing business in his section of the country. On June 13, 1855, he was admitted to the Iowa bar and later in the same month he accepted the position of deputy clerk of Johnson County, in which office he remained until the middle of August, receiving as compensation all fees collected.-^

Happy in the prospect of being married in a few months and enjoying a comfortable job, the summer of 1855 was a very pleasant one for the young attorney. Being at leisure for a few weeks he was glad to accompany his friends Edgar and Edmond Harrison on a trip through some of the adjoining counties. A fortnight later he returned with his face swollen and disfigured, afflicted with an acute case of sore eyes (purulent ophthalmia). But the weeks during which he was confined to a darkened room were transformed into a period of felicity by the tender solicitude of his girlish sweetheart. During those dark days the affection between Melvina A. Morsman and William P. Hepburn deepened, so that their marriage on October 7, 1855, while the groom was still compelled to wear colored glasses, marked only the beginning of a love that grew deeper and more steadfast through all the years that followed. ^^

Ill

At Home in Makshalltown

Situated on high, ground overlooking the Iowa River, Marshalltown in 1856 was entering upon the third A^ear of its history. The town had been founded by Henry Anson, a man of remarkable energy, who foresaw the possibilities of the location and worked incessantly to make the enterprise successful. So when William P. Hepburn was looking for a home and a suitable place in which to begin the practice of law, Mr. Anson, who was a friend of the Morsman family, offered to give Mrs. Hepburn a piece of land if they would settle in the new town. To the young attorney and his wife this seemed to be a splendid opportunity, and so in February, 1856, they packed their household possessions and drove nearly one hundred miles across country to the frontier village,^'^

In turning their faces westward to seek fortune on the frontier this newly married couple followed the example and kept up the tradition of their parents and grandparents. In 1856 there were only a few scattered settlements in Marshall County, while in Marshalltown there were less than a score of dwellings. Thus far had moved the van of the hosts that won the West. To those who dared there was a chance to live in a land ''where the world is in the making", to find a home where ''a man makes friends without half trying ".^^ Although the residents of Marshalltown were few they were very jealous of the new community they sought to foster: each new settler was greeted with whole-hearted hospitality. It was a hearty welcome that "Pete" Hepburn and his wife received on their arrival.

With the proceeds from the sale of some land which Mr. Hepburn had purchased with savings during the last year of apprenticeship as a printer 2^ he bought enough material to build a small cottage. For several weeks he was busy hauling the lumber from Iowa City and then the construction of his house began. The building contained three rooms with a tiny porch in front. As one of the neighbors remarked, it had the appearance of a coffee mill with the drawer partially pulled out. Small as it was, however, there were few families in Marshalltown who possessed a better dwelling than the Hepburns, and although in after years they lived in larger and finer houses there Avere none with which they were so completely satisfied. Long before the residence was finished the young housekeepers moved in, and many even-

AT HOME IN MARSHALLTOWN 21

ings William Hepburn might have been found * nailing on lath by the light of a tallow-dip candle held by his wife.^-

Almost as soon as he arrived in Marshalltown, Hepburn found an occasion to practice his profession. The landlord of the tavern at which he stayed before his own house was built became his first client, and the case was a controversy over the sum of eight dollars. The amount of money involved, however, was no indication of the bitterness of the contest and the successful issue of the case brought as much satisfaction to the young practitioner as any of his later cases in which there was more at stake.^^

Those who read the newspapers of Iowa City in the summer of 1856 must have noticed that William P. Hepburn had located in Marshalltown and was prepared to act as an attorney, counsellor at law, and general land agent. He announced that he would make collections and secure claims ''throughout tlie State", while conveyances ''of all kinds" would receive prompt attention. It may be assumed that a large part of a lawyer's business in a country recently opened to settlers had to do with the location and sale of land. Until the middle of June, 1856, it seems that Mr. Hepburn cooperated with his step-father in the land agency business — at least he advertised that his Iowa

City headquarters were in Powell's block where George S. Hampton had his real estate office. Later in the summer he formed a partnership with William Bremner, a man educated in engineering and the law who had removed to Marshalltown from New Hampshire.^*

The law practice yielded a comfortable income from the start, and although Mr. Hepburn still suffered from weak eyes he was able to conduct his business with good success. Mrs. Hepburn helped in the preparation of cases by reading aloud from the law on the subject. Pleasant indeed were those months of close companionship when the young couple first felt the joy of achievement and the brightness of the future was dimmed by no cloud of trouble.^^

IV Frontiek Politics

Political affairs in the West between the years 1854 and 1856 were in a state of constant turmoil. Agitated beyond measure by the Kansas- Nebraska Act, men who had borne life-long allegiance to the old political parties grew restless and sought new affiliations in opposition to the extension of slavery. In Iowa many citizens were seriously affected by the anarchy in Kansas and Nebraska, and the feeling against the slave power grew more and more bitter.

Out of the common opposition to the extension of human bondage emerged the Republican party. Simultaneously with the meeting of the first national Republican convention at Pittsburgh on the anniversary of Washington's birthday in 1856, there convened in Iowa City an assemblage of about four hundred ''free citizens" representing nearly every part of Iowa. Pledged to the task of making "slavery sectional, and liberty national" these men undertook the organization of a Republican party in this State.^^

Having been intimately associated for several years with men who thoroughly hated slavery, this convention must have stirred the emotions of William P. Hepburn.^^ There in the hall of the House of Representatives in the Old Stone Capitol were men of every political creed, convened for the high purpose of resisting the spread of slavery. In that gathering were many friends of the young attorney. S. M. Ballard, from whom he had learned the printer's trade, had journeyed from far off Audubon County in the midst of winter. There was J. B. Grinnell of Poweshiek County, the co-worker with AVilliam Penn Clarke in behalf of unhappy Kansas. Among the delegates of Johnson County w^ere S. J. Hess, county clerk when Hepburn was deputy; C. H. Berryhill, his boyhood employer in a general store; and Tom Hughes, friend of the printing office days. In an inconspicuous place sat Samuel J. Kirkwood, clad in the labor stained garments of the farm and mill; while Governor James W. Grimes, father of the convention, might have been seen occasionally.^^

As Hepburn listened to a lucid statement of the principles of Republicanism written by Senator James Harlan to Henry W. Lathrop, he may have had a vision of the future greatness of the new political party that was there being founded. He may have thought of the portent of the larger convention in Pittsburgh

FEONTIER POLITICS 25

where his friend "William Penn Clarke at that moment was acting as a temporary secretary. Captivated with the sound logic and forceful oratory of man after man who took the floor to renounce allegiance to the old parties and advocate the limitation of slave territory, William P. Hepburn's political affections were fixed for a lifetime in this first Republican convention in lowa.^^

From the date of the convention at Iowa City, Hepburn was counted among the ardent supporters of the new party. Later in the year when the time came for the first meeting of the Republican organization in Marshalltown it was he who wrote the notices. Encouraged by the responses of the people, county and district conventions were held to select party candidates, and before he had lived five months in Marshall County the young lawyer found himself nominated for the office of prosecuting attorney, and on August 4, 1856, he was elected for a term of two years. Thus at the age of twenty-three he was giving "legal advice to the state and county officers" and appearing as counsel ''for the state and county .... in the district or county courts in his county". For these services ''his whole compensation" was an "annual salary" amounting to $200.^*^

As a prosecuting attorney Mr. Hepburn seems to have met with indifferent success. Without an extensive education in the law he was no match for such experienced lawyers as Enoch W. Eastman and Marcellus M. Crocker. In February, 1858, he was sure that he "would have been quite as successful" if he had 'learned practical engineering, instead of spending two or three years in acquiring the rudiments of a profession". Three months later the judge of Marshall County, who was at odds with Hepburn, declared that the prosecuting attorney had "failed to establish one State case in ten for nearly two years," and had lost sometimes "fifteen suits in succession ".^^

Whatever may have been "Pete" Hepburn's attainments in the office of prosecuting attorney his work in the ranks of the Republican party received favorable notice. When the Sixth General Assembly convened in Iowa City, December 1, 1856, George D. Woodin of Johnson County proposed the name of William P. Hepburn for the office of assistant clerk of the House of Representatives. Philip B. Bradley, secretary of the Senate in the Third and Fifth General Assemblies, was nominated in opposition. When the roll was called Mr. Hepburn received the endorsement of all the thirtynine Republicans present, while there were only seventeen votes for the Democratic candidate. ^^

As he performed the duties of his office Hepburn gained experience in legislative meth-

FRONTIER POLITICS 27

ods and observed the maneuvers of the politicians. There also on the floor of the House of Representatives the prominent members of the Republican party became familiar with the voice and figure of the young attorney. That he was esteemed and respected by his associates may be assumed from the fact that after the Sixth General Assembly had adjourned he was appointed by Governor Grimes as one of the men to investigate the accounts of a number of the county school fund commissioners,'*^

On January 11, 1858, the Seventh General Assembly met in the Old Brick Capitol at Des Moines. William P. Hepburn was appointed chief clerk pro tempore without opposition. In the election of permanent officers the following day, the Republican candidate for the office of chief clerk was Benjamin F. Jones, a man selected chiefly for his political influence in the northeastern part of the State. As chief clerk, however, Mr. Jones was incompetent, and at the end of the first week he tendered his resignation.

When the Republican caucus met to choose a new chief clerk Mr. Hepburn was nominated in preference to at least two formidable competitors — George G. Lyon of the Dubuque Times and Charles C. Nourse, chief clerk of the House in the Fifth General Assembly and secretary of the Senate in the Sixth General Assembly. In his own words the nomination was "a triumph of the most desirable kind. My opponents were, two of them at least men of position in the party, and known to be experienced and efficient officers. Indeed Nourse is said to be 'the best clerk in the west.' Besides this, the speaker of the House lives but 25 miles from our town & the assistant Clerk is from Poweshiek County which of course would operate against the chances of one who lived so near them. Yet in the face of this formidable opposition after discharging all of the duties for a week, giving every one a fair opportunity to judge of my competency I was nominated by a vote of 28, to 13 received by all the other candidates." The House endorsed the action of the Republican caucus on January 18, 1858.^'*

Arduous indeed was the work of the chief clerk. Besides keeping the journal of the House it was his duty to read the bills^ a task rendered difficult not only by the acoustic properties of the hall but enhanced by the necessity of first deciphering the handwriting. Furthermore, the assistant clerks were none too efficient — not nearly as good, Mr. Hepburn declared, as his wife had been during the previous session. But however difficult the situation proved to be, the chief clerk earned an enviable reputation during the Seventh General Assembly and from that time he took a prominent place in the Republican party organization.^^

V

The County Seat Contest

Intense loyalty characterized the people who lived in Marshalltown. There was some talk in the Seventh General Assembly, probably instigated by Marshalltown, of fixing the site of the State capital at that place. Although the capital had been permanently located at Des Moines both by statute law and constitutional provision, a resolution was introduced to remove the seat of government to Marshalltown. The proposition was immediately referred to the committee on charitable institutions and no more was heard on the subject.^*'

While Wilham P. Hepburn, the clerk of the House of Representatives, probably had little to do with the capital removal scheme, he did not neglect local interests. In the settlement of newly created counties in Iowa, it was a common experience for two or more rival communities to quarrel over the location of the county seat. Marshall County was no exception, and the young attorney at Marshalltown took a leading part in the contest.

In April, 1856, within two months after Hepburn had moved to Marshall County, the people voted by a majority of one hundred and thirty-four against changing the county seat from Marietta to Marshalltown. Decisive as this action seemed, it only served to spur the promoters of Marshalltown interests to greater efforts. With the expenditure of an enormous amount of labor a brick courthouse was erected, and in the summer of 1857 — under the supervision of Wells S. Rice of Marshalltown — the signatures of more than half of all the voters in Marshall County were obtained on a petition for a second election on the question of locating the seat of justice at Marshalltown. The poll w^as to be taken at the regular spring election on April 5, 1858.^^

At this juncture all of Marshalltown 's hopes might have been shattered had it not been for the alert chief clerk of the House of Representatives. The Seventh General Assembly had scarcely been organized before the friends of Marietta undertook to postpone the election by an act of the legislature. On January 20th Hepburn wrote home the news that the "Marietta folks are trying to spring a trap upon us in the shape of an act to prevent votes to be taken except once in five years, — if it passes it will kill our town as sure as fate." He sent a letter posthaste by special messenger urging G. M. Woodbury and Henry C. Henderson to

COUNTY SEAT CONTEST 31

start at once for Des Moines with documents to show the status of affairs in Marshall County. Although a bill to amend the law in relation to county seats was introduced toward the end of the session, it was referred to a special committee of one member and forgotten. ^'^

In the meantime the contest waged hotly in Marshall County. The friends of Marietta argued that it would be far better to allow the county seat to remain w^here it was than for the people to feel the * ' severe pangs of heavy taxation" in paying for the unlEinished courthouse in Marshalltown. Others claimed for Marshalltown the advantages of a more suitable location, larger population, a better courthouse to be deeded to the county free of cost, and brighter prospects for the future. Charges of corruption and insincerity were answered by counter charges. While neither town was eminently qualified to be the county seat, it may be said that the Marshalltown people conducted their campaign with much greater tact and thoroughness. The result of the election was a majority of one hundred and five votes for Marshalltown."*^

Although the majority of the voters were in favor of relocating the county seat, there was no record that the judges of election in Marion, Le Grand, and Greencastle townsliips had been sworn, and so the board of canvassers rejected the returns from those townships, giving the victory to Marietta by fifty-seven votes. This action raised a storm of protest from Marshalltown and the townships from which the votes were not counted. Wells S. Rice brought the case before the district court during the spring term, and a writ of mandamus compelling the county judge to recanvass the returns was issued. Judge Smith filed a demurrer and appealed to the Supreme Court.^^

Then followed a bitter newspaper controversy between the county judge and the prosecuting attorney. Hepburn wrote a long article filling four columns of the Central Journal (Albion) in which he charged William C. Smith with perjury for taking an oath that a previous act was illegal. Declaring that Smith had violated a pledge to appoint one of the canvassers from Marshalltown, he claimed that the rejection of the poll books from three townships was intentional, willful, wicked, and illegal; and he concluded with some comments upon the personal character of the county judge. To these accusations Judge Smith replied in his customary manner. He began by announcing that * ' a certain miserable enviousness" together with *'an increased arrogance and self-esteem, which he has acquired by reason of an office or two", had prompted the county attorney's article. After answering each charge of ''this im-

COUNTY SEAT CONTEST 33

mature scion", he delivered Mr. Hepburn "to the place for which his peculiar talents fit him, to-wit: an obscure oblivion. "^^

The case for Marshalltown was argued before the Supreme Court by William Penn Clarke, with the assistance of Henry C. Henderson and William P. Hepburn; and on November 6, 1858, the county judge was ordered to recanvass the election returns and to include the rejected votes from Marion, Le Grand, and Greencastle townships. That the board of canvassers had been empowered only to count the votes and not to judge of their validity was the chief ground upon which the court rested its decision.^2