Robert Lucas

Author's Preface

The life of Robert Lucas presents an outline of intense convictions and strong assertive action. Set in a background of pioneer conditions, it partook distinctly of the characteristic vigor and ruggedness of that great westward movement. Robert Lucas was one who made up his mind definitely and positively; and when once convinced of the righteousness of a course of action, no power could divert him from it. His determination amounted in some cases, perhaps, to stubbornness. The intense earnestness with which he pursued what he deemed to be right -aroused hostilities which a man of greater tact and less strong convictions might have avoided. But the aggressive strength of character of an Executive like Robert Lucas was greatly needed both in the formative period of the State of Ohio and in the period of the organization of the Territory of Iowa. This volume is written in the hope that it may lead to the better appreciation of the life of one who, though sorely

X AUTHOR'S PREFACE

buffeted, kept to tlie end his energetic patriotism and adherence to the principles of civic righteousness.

The most important source of information from which this biography was written is the collection of letters and papers of Robert Lucas, preserved through half a century by his descendants and heretofore unknown to the student of Iowa history. The discovery by Professor Benj. F. Shambaugh of the original manuscript of the Executive Journal of loioa^ 1838-1841, covering the term of Governor Lucas, strengthened the belief that there must be papers in the possession of the descendants of the Governor which would add materially to the knowledge concerning his career. Inquiries were made, and through the kindness of Robert Lucas, of Iowa City, grandson of the Governor, a collection of perhaps two thousand manuscripts was placed at the disposal of the author. These included speeches, military commissions and reports^ and letters written both in Ohio and in Iowa, bearing dates from 1803 to 1853. Without this material an adequate treatment of the life of Robert Lucas would have been impossible.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xi

The utmost gratitude is therefore due to Robert Lucas, the grandson, not only for this first great assistance, but for his many subsequent kindnesses in furthering the work.

Aside from this source, valuable material was gathered in Ohio and elsewhere. In the use of quotations the author has followed the practice of editing with exactness, following the original in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Citation to authorities and additional items of information will be found under Notes and Heferences at the close of the text.

To the editor of the series, Professor Benj. F. Shambaugh, the author desires to make especial acknowledgments. It was at his instance that the work was undertaken; and in the collection of material he has rendered valuable aid. He read the entire book both in manuscript and in proof, making helpful suggestions in many ways. In particular, for his inspiration and constant personal interest in the work the author is sincerely grateful.

John C. Parish

The State University of Iowa

Iowa City Iowa

Contents

I. Early Life 1

II. Military Matters 8

III. Political Beginnings 16

II Military Matters

The opening of a new century found Robert Lucas just entering upon Ms years of manhood, with the instincts of a Virginia gentlemail and the reckless vigor and spirit of a frontiersman. His training under the Scotch schoolmaster in Virginia was just such as would fit him for life in this new country. Land was unsurveyed, claims were indefinite, and boundaries were in dispute. In December of 1803 he was appointed Surveyor of Scioto County; and in this capacity, in connection with Nathaniel Beasley, of Adams County, he ran the line between the two counties of Scioto and Adams. ^^

In these early days, too, he became interested in the militia movement which throughout his life enlisted his most intense sympathy and support. His military career began in this wise. In the year 1803 was consummated the treaty between President Jefferson and Napoleon for the purchase of the Territory of Louisiana. Now this territory had been only a few years before

MILITARY MATTERS 9

ceded to France by Spain and was still in possession of the Spanish officials. The treaty between France and Spain, moreover, expressly forbade the transfer of the country by Napoleon to another power. So when the perfidious Napoleon made arrangements to break his agreement and sell to the United States, Spain immediately entered protest. With SjDain in possession of the territory and in a bad humor over the matter, the state of affairs was somewhat critical. In view of the anticipated refusal of Spain to give up possession of the recently acquired territory the President deemed military precautions advisable. As a part of this plan Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, on October 31, 1803, issued to Governor Tiffin of Ohio, a request for the assemblino; of five hundred men of the Militia of Ohio to be formed into a reo^iment of eio:ht companies. In compliance with this request, Governor Tiffin appointed various men in the State to raise enlistments of ten, twenty, or thirty men each. Commissions as ensigns, lieutenants and captains respectively were to be given upon receipt of the muster roll of these enlistments. Robert Lucas received a commission to recruit twenty volunteers. The active service of these troops was not required, however, for Spain withdrew her protest at the dictation of

Napoleon and the transfer was peacefully consummated. On May 24, 1804, Lucas was commissioned Lieutenant of the third company of militia in the county of Scioto, in the 1st Brigade of the 2d Division of the Ohio Militia. ^^

On November 2, 1804, he was made Brigade Inspector of the 1st Brigade with the rank of Major, and on the same day resigned his lieutenancy. In the year and a half that followed little is known of his military life, but he must have retained his interest and enthusiasm, for on February 14, 1807, he received a commission as Lieutenant Colonel Commandant of the 2d Begiment, 1st Brigade, 2d Division of the Ohio Militia. This command of a frontier brigade soon brought him into a position of special opportunity.

Relations between England and the United States, and France and the United States were, in the spring of 1807, in a very critical condition.^' The alternate decrees of England and France regarding neutrals had inflicted great injury upon our commerce. For months Monroe, joined by Pinckney, had been laboring at London to negotiate a treaty on commercial lines. But the action taken by England in May, 1806, blockading the European Coast, could not pass unnoticed by Napoleon and his retaliatory Ber-

MILITARY MATTERS H

liii decree which on November 21, 1806, blockaded the British Islands, practically wrecked all hope of bringing negotiations to a favorable conclusion. England and France pursued their struggle regardless of the right of neutrals and only now and then paused to throw out a worthless promise or an unauthorized negotiation as a sop to the feeble protests of the American administration.

Thus matters stood when the Chesapeake affair occured in June, 1807. It was only the culmination of a lono; series of insults offered to America by British officers on our eastern coast. On the morning of the twenty-second of June the United States ship Chesapeake left Norfolk and sailed out of Hampton Roads on her way to the Mediterranean. The English ship Leopard followed her out upon the high seas, spoke her, and demanded the right to search her and carry off certain seamen claimed to have deserted from English ships. This was refused by Commodore Barron; w^hereupon the English commander opened his broadsides upon the American vessel. The Chesapeake was in every way unprepared for conflict; ammunition was misplaced; some of the guns were off their carriages, rammers were missing; not a match was to be found on shipboard and only by means of a live coal from the ship's galley could a single return fire be made.

After the hold of the Chesapeake had been perforated by the enemy and her masts and rigging broken and torn, her commander was forced to haul doAvn the -American flag and surrender to the British. The English commander did not accept the prize, but left the wreck to make its way, with every pump going to keep the water from the hold, back to Hampton Roads.

The result of this outrage was an almost instantaneous outburst of excitement and indignation from one end of the United States to the other. Mass meetings were called, resolutions Avere passed, proclamations issued; and conditions seemed ripe for an immediate war.

President Jefferson sent a proclamation to England demanding an explanation and redress for the outrage and at the same time decided to call upon the Governors of the States for their quota of 100,000 militia, having in contemplation a wdnter campaign against Canada. In accordance with this call Robert Lucas was, on August 1, 1807, ordered to take effectual measures for detaching a company of fifty-four men from his regiment to make up part of the quota from the State of Ohio.^^ This company was to hold itself in readiness for immediate call to ac-

MILITARY MATTERS 13

live service and might be mustered eitlier by voluntary enlistment or by a draft. The proximity of the Canadian border made the need of precautionary measures apparent, and the enthusiastic patriotism of the Ohio pioneers rendered a draft unnecessary. In a few days a volunteer company was organized which chose Robert Lucas as Captain, his commission as such from Acting Governor Thomas Kirker being dated August 25, 1807.

Great events in the life of Robert Lucas seemed to call out efforts at verse; and on this occasion, fired with patriotic enthusiasm, he com230sed a song of ^ve stanzas, in which he exhorted the heroes to march on to Canada and pull down the British standard, to follow the example of Washington and redress the insults offered to Columbia's sons. He ends with the following sentiment — perhaps more patriotic than poetic:^'-^

Tho sundry snares has oft been spread To catch our freedom from us

All conspirators should be lead And hung upon the gallows.

The song was sung on this occasion to the tune of Soldier\s Return; and under the inspiration, perhaps, of its martial strains the company drew up the following tender of their services to the President of the United States:

To the honorable Thomas Kirker Esquire acting Governor of the State of Ohio:

Sir:

We the undersigners do hereby voluntarily

enroll ourselves in a volunteer Company, to serve as such, on any Expedition the president of the United States may think proper to Call us to — In Conformity to an act of Congress in that case made and provided — and to abide the orders thereof, in such matters as is relative thereto, — in assisting to Expell all foreign and Domestic Envations and to defend the great wrights and Liberties, of a free and Independent Nation — respectfully we are your Excellencies most obedient and very Humble Servants. 20

Following this statement is the list of the signatures of the members of the company headed by the peculiar autograph of Robert Lucas as their commanding officer. This patriotism was commendable; but, as events transpired, it was a matter of over four years before the field of battle actually required their service.

Meanwhile the proclamation of Jefferson with his demands for reparation had reached England. After much beating about the bush the English ministry sent a commissioner, named George Henry Rose, to America to discuss the matter. Upon being received by Jefferson in January, 1808, he assumed the attitude of one expecting an apology from the American administration for the demands they had made in the proclama-

MILITARY MATTERS 15

tion. Of course the negotiations came to naught, Kose returned to England, Jefferson swallowed the insult of the Chesapeake outrage as best he could and turned to the policy of an embargo. The administration meekly and cringingly accepted the insults heaped upon it and plodded on in desparation until four years later it was forced into the war which it had striven so long to avoid.

Ill

Military matters, however, did not keep Robert Lucas out of civil office. As early as the 16th of December, 1805, he was commissioned by Governor Tiffin a Justice of the Peace for Union Township, Scioto County, and on the following day took the oath of office before Elijah Glover, another Justice of the Peace for Union Township who a few years later became Lucas's most bitter enemy. At this time an important function of "the Squire" was solemnizing the bonds of matrimony. Indeed, nearly all marriage ceremonies were performed by the Justice of the Peace — owing perhaps to the fact that the exponents of the law were much more in evidence than exponents of the gospel. 'No town could be long without its tavern; so in the town of Portsmouth at the mouth of the Scioto, a little man with a 23eppery temper and the sturdy name of John Brown opened the first tavern or hotel. It stood on the street fronting the Ohio, where the patrons might look out across the river and enjoy the beautiful scenery of tlie Kentucky liills beyond. It so happened that this landlord had two attractive daughters, Elizabeth and Rachel; and the records show that in 1806 llobert Lucas in his capacity as Justice of the Peace united in marriao:e William Kendall and Rachel Brown. The fact is interesting in the light of after events; for Robert Lucas four years later married the other daughter, Elizabeth, and made his home at the tavern, while William Kendall, his brother-in-law, became his most constant rival for political office. ^^

The 4th of July, 1808, is memorable for a great farmers' celebration held on the farm of Major Isaac Bonser near the mouth of the Little Scioto River. It was by no means a local gathering. From forty and fifty miles in every direction the crowds gathered. Some came across country in wagons, while others floated down the rivers in boats. JN'ot having a fieldpiece at hand they improvised a cannon by boring out a log and banding it with iron. Their enterprise and effort were worthy of better results than followed; for this home made instrument of warfare burst during the firing. More successful, however, was the literary program. The speaker of the occasion was Robei't Lucas, who, after reading the Declaration of Independence, delivered an oration to the assembled crowd.^'-

Whether or not this oration had any political significance we can only surmise; but in the fall of that same year Robert Lucas was elected by the people of Scioto County to represent them in the lower branch of the Ohio legislature. The session convened at Chillicothe on December 5, 1808, and adjourned on February 21st of the next year. Lucas was appointed on a committee which had to do with the reo:ulation of fees of civil officers; and he seems to have performed his part satisfactorily in the session, although from the records in the Journal of the House he does not appear conspicuously prominent in the proceedings.^^ After the adjournment he resumed his private life and not until five years later does he again appear in the legislature of the State.

An act, however, was passed by this session which was of a distinct interest to Robert Lucas. This was an act for disciplining the Militia of the State, which became a law February 14, 1809. It reorganized brigades and divisions so that the regiment from Scioto County, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robert Lucas and formerly a part of the 1st Brigade was attached to the 2d Brigade, 2d Division. The law also provided that all officers holding commissions as Lieutenant Colonels should be commissioned as

Colonels, so that Robert Lucas received a commission dated February 20, 1809, making him Colonel of the 1st Recfiment of the 2d Brigade of the 2nd Division of the Ohio Militia.

Let us follow his military advancement one step further. Lucas had at this time a firm friend in the person of Duncan Mc Arthur, Major General of the 2d Division. McArthur had been in the Senate the year Lucas was in the House, and as Senator his term of office extended over the following year. In February of 1810 he wrote to Lucas in regard to the latter' s candidates for Associate Judges of Scioto County — to be appointed by the legislature — and closed his letter with an expression of his regret at the ' ' loss of that social enjoyment which 1 experienced last session in the representative from Scioto." In July of the same year McArthur informed Lucas that by the resignation of Jeremiah McLene, Brigadier General of the 2d Brigade, the duties of that officer would devolve upon Lucas until a Brigadier General could be elected and qualified. '^ While no pi'oof in the way of a commission has been found to show that such election resulted in the choice of Robert Lucas, yet the fact is evidenced by the letters of Major General McArthur, addressed in the following year, to General Lucas^ and by a letter from Lucas to the Secretary of War at Washington, which he wrote in 1811 and signed:

Robert Lucas, Brigadier General, 2d Brigade, 2nd Division of Ohio Militia.

Life in a frontier country is fraught with many drawbacks and disadvantages. Here the temptations to lawlessness are great and constant. The spirited temperament that is fostered by the dangers and hardships of such a life is not a tem. perament that lends itself easily to restraint or check. Journeying with the westward movement of the border, living in an atmosphere of excessive freedom and intensity, men were developed in whom energy and vigor rather than self-restraint were the prominent characteristics. Men of the frontier breathing daily the freshness of unrestrained freedom and ever courageously facing the dangers of the wilderness did not always possess that sense of order and control of self which gives poise and character to life. This is not true of all, but it is the case with a large number. It was so especially with many of the early settlers of Ohio and the Territory of the Northwest.

Robert Lucas inherited from his father, in spite of his Quaker antecedents, an intense military spirit. Brought up on the border line of Virginia, in a slave-holding family, he imbibed the high-striiiig temperament of the Virginian. Moving from there to a still newer country before maturity had brought him wiser consideration, and thrown with others of a kindred mould, the result was but natural that he should have been in the days of his early manhood one whose rugged self-assertion had in it more than a tinge of recklessness. Because of this prevalent tendency in the early communities of Ohio, the county Sheriff was a personage of no mean importance and of no infrequent duties. Indeed, among the best of families and the most prominent persons of the community arrests were not of unusual occurrence.

And so it is not a matter of surprise that in 1810 a suit was brought against Robert Lucas. The Sheriff of Scioto County attempted to take him into custody. Lucas, however, was not one to submit tamely to arrest, and successfully resisted the officers of the law. He was a formidable and determined man, a prominent officer of the militia, and with many friends in the community. The Sheriff, rather than endanger his life, resigned his office. His duties then devolving upon the Coroner, he also resigned. Then Lucas swore vengeance upon the Clerk who had issued the writ, and he too resigned.

The situation was an interesting one — a refractory militia-man defying the laws, and seemingly no one with courage enough to execute them. But at this j uncture a young school teacher named John R. Turner appeared, and agreed, if made Clerk, to issue the writ. At the same time Elijah Glover undertook the responsibility of making the arrest if appointed Sheriff. These two — John R. Turner and Elijah Glover — received the appointments. The writ was issued; and Glover, reinforced by his brother Nathan and three others as a posse comitatus, proceeded boldly up the street of Portsmouth in the performance of his new found duty.

Early in the year Robert Lucas had married Elizabeth Brown, the daughter of John Brown the tavern keeper, and was himself at this time living at the tavern. Accounts differ as to his reception of his visitors, some claiming that he made no resistance, while Glover himself, some years later, says that he met Avitb resistance in the shape of a billet of wood. However that may be, the arrest was accomplished and the procession started for the jail.

But John Brown, though insignificant in stature, was a man of fiery disposition. In his wrath he followed them from his tavern and made some demonstration as if to rescue his son-in-law from the long arm of justice. But he reckoned without liis host ; for Nathan Glover, a man of enormous frame, picked the little man up bodily and rudely threw him into a clump of jimson weed. No more resistance came from the father-in-law.^-^ Lucas, lodged in jail, was restless, and the militia seemed to him to offer a loophole for escape. To various officers he wrote letters or orders, looking toward a forcible release of their unfortunate commander. Eighteen years later, in a senatorial campaign between Lucas and Kendall, the following was printed in the Western Tlmes^ as a copy of one of these letters:

Portsmouth, Sep 15, 1810 26 Captain Lindsay: — You are requested to attind at Portsmouth immediately, armed and as many of your neighbors as are willing to support the Constitution, as the revolutionist party has, by violence fourced me into prison. If you respect the constitution of your country, which you are sworn to support, you will attind immediately and defend your constitutional officers.

You will pleas attend at Mr. Brown's as soon as possible, as there will doubtless be a number in town by that time that will unite with you in supporting the constitution of the State. I am with every sentiment of respect, your obedient and very humble servant

Robert Lucas.

Capt. John M. Lixdsay.

On the fold of the letter was the following endorsement:

Elijali Glover |

> The dam

Nathan Glover j

> raskels

Nimrod Hogue j

1 that

Alexander McClane ]

[ mobbed

John H. Thornton ]

J me

The Sheriff, however, quelled any attempt at jail breaking and Lucas paid the penalty of the law. From this time on, the Lucas and Glover families were in a state of feud, constant arrests and law-suits taking place for years. ^"

On April 4, 1810, Lucas had married Elizabeth Brown and since that time had made his home at the inn of his father-in-law. In 1811 a daughter, Minerva, was born to them. This daughter grew to womanhood and married Mr. Horatio N. Sumner, a younger brother of Lucas's second wife. Friendly Sumner. Robert Lucas became, therefore, the brother-in-law of his own son-in-law. At the tavern he seems to have turned his attention to mechanical pursuits and amused himself, as tradition relates, by experimenting with the construction of a perpetual motion machine which greatly excited the curiosity of the people of Portsmouth and was a point of interest to which all visitors in the town were referred. ^^

IV

KoBERT Lucas was no less a soldier tlian he was a pioneer. Away back in tlie days of the Cavaliers and Roundheads an ancestor had fought under the standard of Oliver Cromwell; and, in the generations that followed, the heritage of military talent had not been lost. The War of 1812 found Lucas in his thirty-second year and a Brigadier General in the militia of a State which from its geographical position was sure to assume a prominent part in the coming hostilities.

It is not necessary to detail the events leading to the second war for American independence. In the five years preceding 1812 the Administration had exhausted every expedient known to its diplomacy and had suffered countless insults from both Eno^land and France in an effort to avoid war. For over four years the Chesapeake outrage had passed without reparation. The interference with neutral trade in American vessels had been unremitting; and the impressment of American seamen by British commanders had been continued on a constantly increasing scale.

The Congress that convened in November, 1811, was strongly Republican in both houses, and the infusion of new members made a distinct change in its attitude toward the war. Young men like John C. Calhoun, William Lowndes, and Langdon Cheves gave an aggressive character to the whole body of legislators. Under the leadership of Henry Clay, who was chosen speaker of the House, a declaration of war seemed almost a foregone conclusion. The President's message rang with a more warlike tone, and debate on measures looking to preparations for a conflict at once began. On January 11, 1812, a bill was passed increasing the regular army to twenty-five thousand, and on February 6th the President was authorized to receive volunteers from the State militias to the number of fifty thousand. An invasion of Canada was of course the object for which these warlike preparations were being made.

Out in the Northwest, meanwhile, affairs were assuming a critical aspect. For years the British traders across the Canadian line had been heaping presents at the feet of the Indian warriors and encouraging and abetting them in their efforts to unite all the tribes into a confederation under Tecumseh. Smarting under the blow inflicted at Tippecanoe by General William Henry Harrison in 1811, the Red Men embraced the opportunity to make common cause with the English and to widen their confederation among neighboring tribes. Their fiercely eager desire to fall at once upon the Americans was, however, curbed by the traders, who, not without some difficulty, held them in leash until a more opportune time.-^

Notwithstanding the protestations of peace made by the wily Tecumseh, the settlers of the Northwest generally understood and appreciated the situation, and already in the early months of 1812 held themselves in readiness for instant defense. In April, isolated murders were committed by Indian bands, followed by symptoms of panic among the inhabitants of Indiana and the western border line of Ohio. It was in this same month of April that Congress authorized the President to call out one hundred thousand State militia and that Return Jonathan Meigs, Governor of Ohio, took immediate measures to raise the quota of volunteers apportioned to his State.

Robert Lucas was then Brio^adier General of the 2d Brigade of the 2d Division of the Ohio Militia. Accordingly, in April he received orders through his friend. Major General Duncan McArthur (at that time commanding the 2d

Division) to transmit without delay from liis brigade its proportion of the twelve hundred men required of the State. The volunteers were to be organized to march immediately to Detroit. These orders placed Lucas in a rather peculiar position. For some time he had been desirous of entering the United States Army; and mainly through the efforts of General McArthur and Alexander Campbell, United States Senator from Ohio, he had received a commission as Captain in the 19th United States Infantry. This office he had accepted only a few days before receiving the brigade orders. Moreover, he had not yet received orders of an assignment as a United States Army officer. After some deliberation he concluded that the urgency of the call for volunteers necessitated his attending to his duties as Brigadier General; and so without delay he set about recruiting volunteer companies from his brigade.

At this point, April 25th, Lucas began an exceedingly interesting daily journal which he carried with him throughout the Hull campaign and to which constant reference has been made for the facts herein given.^^ The board covers of this unique record are broken, and the pages are yellow with age ; but despite its almost one hundred years the writing is as legible as ever and tells a story of wonderful interest to the student of American history.

In Portsmouth, Lucas began his recruiting; and gathering together two companies — a volunteer company and a rifle company — from Scioto County, he started on his march northward. David Rupe had been chosen Captain of the rifle company; and on the morning of the 29th of April the volunteer company held an election and chose as their Captain, John Lucas, a younger brother of Robert. That night they encamped at Chillicothe, and spent the next day getting together camp kettles, wagons, and other supplies for the trip to Dayton, the place of their rendezvous. When, after a four days' march, they reached Dayton, they found the town rapidly filling up with the gathering volunteers. Three other companies of Lucas's brigade were there. These, with the two companies which he had brought from Scioto County, he proceeded to organize into a battalion which chose James Denny as its Major. A battalion was also organized from the other brigade with Major William A. Trimble as commanding officer. ^^ At the same time Duncan McArthur was unanimously chosen Colonel of the volunteer regiment thus formed from his division.

Two other volunteer regiments were organized at this time under Colonels Lewis Cass andJames Findlay. Before starting for Detroit the Oliio volunteers were joined by Lieutenant Colonel James Miller and liis veteran 4tli Regiment of regulars from Port Yincennes.

Robert Lucas could undoubtedly have had the command of the battalion recruited from his brigade if he had so desired; but, in order to encourage enlistments at the start, he had volunteered as a private in his brother's company.^^ His position was certainly unique. At one and the same time he was Captain in the United States army, a Brigadier General in the Ohio Militia ^ and a private in a volunteer company. And in addition the records show that he was constantly performing the independent duties of scout, guide, exj)ress messenger, and staff officer.