The presidential campaign of 1860

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Preface

Presidential campaigns in the United States are great popular debates, in which different sections of the country and different political parties join in discussing concrete propositions of national policy from various points of view, and sometimes pass judgments of far-reaching importance ; almost invariably, the contests, with their divergent moods and appeals, well merit close study. Yet, strangely enough, they have hitherto been neglected as subjects for historical investigation, so that the present volume, as far as the author's knowledge extends, is the first serious work done in the field. My attention was first directed to the war elections by Professor Edward Channing, to whom I am glad to render cordial thanks.

The publication of the party platforms in the Appendix is self-explanatory ; the four typical campaign speeches, hitherto not readily accessible, are printed because of the valuable light which they throw on the arguments offered to the people in the crisis.

EMERSON DAVID FITE.

New Haven, Connecticut, October, 1910.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction ix

CHAPTER

Introduction

There have been more exciting and enthusiastic political campaigns in the history of the country than that of 1860, such as those of 1840 and of 1856 ; one at least has involved equally important issues, that of 1864 ; but never has a campaign been waged in which the people of the whole nation have taken a more calm, serious, and intelligent interest.

The most characteristic feature of this campaign was the strong control over the political situation in the North exercised by the masses of the people; in the South it was more of a battle of leaders. From the moment of John Brown's raid and the dramatic importance suddenly given in the House of Representatives to Hinton Rowan Helper's Impending Crisis to the day of the election, there was no moment when politics were not under popular domination ; compared with the point of view of the people, and their words and deeds, the platforms and utterances of leaders were of minor importance. The Harper's Ferry raid was not "a mere episode, a spectacular incident, without consequence " ; everything would not " have happened just as, in fact, it did happen, if Brown had never lived, and never been hung." ^ The tide of the " irrepressible conflict " had, indeed, by that time already set in, but the Charlestown drama further agitated the fury of its currents, added to their volume, and immeasurably accelerated their speed. The resulting popular reaction against slavery far

1 This quotation is an opinion expressed in the Atlantic Monthly, November, 1910, p. 667, by John T. Morse, Jr., in a review of John Brown: A Biography Fifty Years After, by Oswald Garrison Villard, Boston, 1910.

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X INTRODUCTION

exceeded any ever before known. Herein, and not in the mere trial and execution, must be sought the real significance of the event. The South now with new hatred expelled from its midst suspected Northerners, and the stories of the victims aroused new animosities in the North against the South ; by countless fresh aggressions, one following closely upon another, and persisting throughout the canvass, the flames of sectional hatred were fanned brighter and brighter.

Homely, almost unnoticed events among the people reveal the full influence of the speakership contest and of Helper's Crisis. With suddenness and amid unusual excitement political parties were led to commit themselves to opinions from which there could be no retraction, with the nominating conventions and the summer's campaign close at hand. Conservatives stiffened in their conservatism, the radicals became more sturdy and uncompromising, while between the two surging currents William H. Seward, not knowing which way to turn, trembled and fell, and lost the prize of a presidential nomination. This was but one of the effects of Brown's raid, wrought through an aroused people.

The popular judgment of slavery dictated the party platforms, and later, when the deceptions and evasions of these documents became apparent, practically determined the issues of the campaign itself, "slavery" or ''no slavery," "union" or "secession." As if to recognize this control of the people and helplessness of the leaders, the Republicans held their convention in a large hall before ten thousand spectators, and welcomed the active interference of the crowd in that body's proceedings, unconsciously setting a precedent pregnant with evil for the future ; significant, too, is the fact that the most unique demonstration of the campaign, the activities of the Republican marching clubs, the Wide-Awakes, arose spontaneously from the people.

INTRODUCTION xi

With their supreme control the people were serious-minded ; physical violence and offensive personaUties, as a rule, were conspicuously absent ; campaign speeches far exceeded in number those delivered in any previous contest, and were characterized by an intellectual tone and historical breadth of view that were remarkable. The whole history of the country, and its social, legal, and governmental institutions, were searched for proof and refutation ; contemporary society, manners, and customs were rigorously held up to view, analyzed, and judged. Rarely has the nation taken a broader view of itself.

Heckling of speakers on the stump, the natural expression of a serious-minded electorate and at the present day common in English political life, although lacking in the United States, was now prominent. Douglas' frank answers on secession and coercion, Breckenridge's evasive answers on the same topics, Yancey's evasions on secession, and Douglas' on the morality of slavery were marked and influential features of the struggle.

Every party was guilty of hedging on some subject. Both Republicans, and Breckenridgeites to some extent, kept clear of the subject of secession, the latter because their desire to secede was better concealed for the moment, the former because while opposing secession they did not care to enhance the timeliness of the subject by discussing it. Republicans, too, generally refused to meet Douglas in the oi5en on popular sovereignty ; Douglasites would not commit themselves on the morality of slavery, while the Bell-Everetts hardly knew what they believed on any topic. Except for their Border state leader, who was forced to trim in order to carry his home communities with him, the Breckenridgeites were the most open of all the parties.

Commercial considerations, although not usually recognized as one of the factors that went to make up the popular judgment of 1860, were yet of considerable weight. Northxii INTRODUCTION

erners, following the lead of Helper, expressed in the Crisis, and of Senator Sumner in his speech on ''The Barbarism of Slavery," were fond of boasting of their own commercial prosperity and of taunting the South with commercial inferiority; only rarely did a Southerner attempt an answer, and then with sorry results, as witness William L. Yancey, in his New York speech. Yet the single crop of cotton, although it could not stand in comparison with the diversified industries and pursuits of the North, was sufficient cause for boasting. But it is almost pathetic to behold the strange infatuation that prompted Southerners to stake their hopes of European intervention, and through this, their hopes of an independent Southern nation, so largely upon the world's dependence on King Cotton.

In the last analysis the one complete justification of secession was the imperative necessity of saving the vast property of slavery from destruction ; secession was a commercial necessity, designed to make these billions secure from outside interference. Viewed in this fight, secession was right, for any people, prompted by the commonest motives of selfrespect and self-defense, and with no moral scruples against slavery, would have followed the same course. The present generation of Northerners, born and reared after the war, must shake off theu- inherited pofitical passions and prejudices, and pronounce the verdict of justification for the South. Believing slavery right, it was the duty of the South to defend it. It is time that the words "traitors," ''conspirators," "rebels," and "rebellion" be discarded. But the North was no less right in opposing slavery, for theirs was a course springing from the natural promptings of morality. History, then, must adjudge that both sides in the controversy were right, and that the war was bound to come when the opposing sides conscientiously held, the one to the WTong, the other to the right, of slavery.

How the two sections came to hold opposite views on

INTRODUCTION xiii

slavery is a problem hard to solve, though Douglas' famous dictum would seem convincing. ''Slavery, therefore, does not depend on the law. It is governed by climate, soil, and productions, by political economy."

Commercial factors, in this early day of the Republican party, when moral principles hav^ generally been reckoned its sole stock in trade, had a determining influence on the dominant party. The tariff, internal improvements, a Pacific raihoad, a Pacific telegraph, and a Homestead Act, were not mere subterfuges to cover up offensive tendencies of antislavery; they were as well a recognition of the industrial needs of the country. The West, after a decade of rapid expansion, now loomed large in the pubhc eye; already the way was prepared for that diversion of markets and transportation routes to the new section that characterized the succeeding war period. Develop the West was the cry, fill it with antislavery immigrants from the East and from Europe, pass the Homestead Act, and the slavery question will be settled.

The interested student of poHtical science finds much to attract him in the year's happenings ; indeed, his is the best point of view from which to study the national conventions, the principle of availability and of the dark horse in the Republican convention, which gave the nation its greatest president, not for his own known qualities but for the conscious purpose of defeating another, and the wrangling of the Democrats over the unit rule, the two-thirds rule, convention representation, bolting, and the powers of convention committees, presiding officers, and national committees. He may study fusion in its practical workings, the customary powers of presidential electors, the possibilities involved in a presidential election in the House of Representatives, and the working of the spoils system at the height of its power.

presidein^tial campaign

Chapter I

ON the morning of Tuesday, the eighteenth of October, 1859, the leading New York papers and a few in other cities printed vague rumors of an uprising of slaves at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and almost immediately full confirmation of the story followed the first dispatch, as detail after detail was laid before the country. On the preceding Sunday night, the sixteenth of October, between eleven and twelve o'clock, a band of twenty-two men, each armed with a rifle and pistols, rushed across the Potomac River from the opposite Maryland shore and took forcible possession of the little Virginia village of Harper's Ferry, first of the streets, then of the engine house and the government arsenal itself, and finally of the armory a half mile away. In an immediate attempt to liberate slaves, armed parties of the raiders scoured the surrounding regions and still under the cover of darkness brought in as prisoners three or four gentleman slaveholders with their slaves

Within two hours a passenger train, arriving on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was arrested at the bridge, but was soon allowed to go on its way, — the bearer of the first inteUigence of trouble to the outside world ; in the darkness and confusion at the bridge a negro porter in the employ of the railroad was killed, although the village itself was not disturbed. When the villagers stirred at daybreak, workmen coming to the government works were fallen upon and imprisoned, until the number of prisoners in the hands of the attacking party totalled over forty. Even then, Monday morning was far advanced before the real situation was well known to all the citizens. . From the nearby towns of Charlestown and Martinsburg, ten and twenty miles away, armed relief parties set out, but before their arrival the inhabitants of Harper's Ferry recaptured the outlying armory after bloody fighting and forced the surrender of many prisoners at the arsenal. Ten leading hostages, however, still remained in the engine house under the close guard of eight or nine of the invaders, and were not released until this stronghold was carried by storm by United States marines under the command of Robert E. Lee, troops sent posthaste from Washington by President Buchanan at the urgent request of the Governor of Virginia. In the entire encounter, from the midnight attack until the final surrender, four of the inhabitants of the town were killed and ten of the conspirators, while seven of the latter suffered arrest and five escaped. Not a slave left his master,^

The leader of this ill-fated expedition, John Brown of Ossawatomie, and all his followers, were militant antislavery crusaders, who had but recently arrived from the war-ridden territory of Kansas, where in the support of their principles they had been guilty of many dastardly crimes, including robbery and murder ; it was there in the West, in fact, that they had planned the Virginia raid, which was to be simply a repetition of the nigger-stealing raids which the band had carried on from Kansas into Missouri.

Despite his record Brown proved to be a remarkable man, as even his enemies admitted. An unsjrmpathetic Ohio Congressman, who visited him in prison before his trial and while his wounds were still fresh, reported : ''It is vain

1 U.S. Senate Reports, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 278.

to underestimate either the man or the conspiracy. Captain John Brown is as brave and resolute a man as ever headed an insurrection, and in a good cause and with a sufficient force would have made a consummate partisan commander. He has coolness, daring, persistence, the stoic faith and patience, and a firmness of will and purpose unconquerable. He is the furthest removed from the ordinary ruffian, fanatic, or madman." ^ Governor Wise of Virginia said: ''They are mistaken who take him for a madman. He is a man of clear head, courageous fortitude, and simple ingenuousness. He is cool, collected, indomitable ; and it is but just to him to say that he was humane to his prisoners ; and he inspired all with great trust in his integrity and as a man of truth. He is a fanatic, vain and garrulous, but firm, truthful, intelhgent." ^

In an interview with a reporter of the New York Herald and others, Brown himself explained his purposes in words the simple grandeur of which went straight to the Northern heart. ''Mr. Mason. How do you justify your acts? Mr. Brown. I think, my friend, you are guilty of a great wrong against God and humanity. I say it without wishing to be offensive, and it would be perfectly right for any one to interfere with you, so far as to free those you wickedly and willfully hold in bondage. I do not say this insultingly. Mr. Mason. I understand that. Mr. Brown. I think I did right and that others will do right who interfere with you at any and at all times ; I hold that the Golden Rule, 'Do unto others as you would that others should do unto you,' apphes to all that would help others to gain their liberty. A Bystander. Do you consider this a religious movement? Mr. Brown. It is, in my judgment, the greatest service that a man can render to God. Bystander.

^ The American Conflict, by Horace Greeley, Hartford, 1864-1866, 1, 294. 2 History of the Rise and Fall [of the Slave Power in America, by Henry Wilson, Boston, 1872-1877, II, 595.

Do you consider yourself an instrument in the hands of Providence ? Mr. Brown. I do. Bystander. Upon what principle do you justify your acts ? Mr. Brown. Upon the Golden Rule. I pity the poor in bondage that have none to help them; that is why I am here; not to gratify any personal animosity or vindictive spirit. It is my sympathy with the oppressed and the wronged, that are as good as you and as precious in the sight of God. . . . Mr. Vallandigham. Who are your advisers in this movement ? Mr. Brown. I cannot answer that. I have numerous sympathizers throughout the entire North. ... I want you to understand, Gentlemen, (to the reporter of the Herald) — you may report that — I want you to understand that I respect the rights of the poorest and the weakest of the colored people oppressed by the slavery system, just as much as I do those of the most wealthy and powerful. This is the idea that has moved me, and that alone. We expected no reward except the satisfaction of endeavoring to do for those in distress and greatly oppressed as we would be done by. The cry of distress of the oppressed is my reason, and the only thing that prompted me to come here. ... I wish to say further, that you had better, all you people of the South, prepare yourselves for a settlement of this question that must come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it. The sooner you are prepared, the better. You may dispose of me very easily. I am nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled, this negro question, I mean ; the end of that is not yet." ^

With such eloquence Brown won the heart of the North and made of himself a hero, whose trial, following within a few weeks, became in reality a trial of the antislavery North by the state courts of Virginia. Every act done, every word spoken in the drama in the Charlestown Court House was reported and read throughout the country, the prisoner's The Liberator, October 28, 1859.

perfect frankness in admitting everything, his uniform courtesy to the court, his patience while lying on the bed of pain before judge and jury, with many wounds still gaping and fresh, and finally the undue haste of the whole procedure. Neither for securing sympathetic counsel for the accused nor for summoning distant witnesses was ample time allowed. All was haste.

When, on November first, after a verdict of " guilty of treason and conspiring and advising with slaves and others to rebel, and murder in the first degree" had been suddenly reached, Brown was brought into court and asked if he could give any reasons why sentence should not be passed upon him, though surprised and confused, he spoke as follows: ''In the first place I deny everything but what I have all along admitted, the design on my part to free the slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter when I went into Missouri and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have done the same thing again on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intend murder or treason or the destruction of property, or to incite or excite slaves to rebellion or to make insurrection. I have another objection, and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right, and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than of punishment.

''This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the vahdity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here, which I suppose to be the Bible or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things 'whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them.' It teaches me further to remember those that are in bonds as bound with them. I endeavored to act upon that instruction. I say that I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I have done, in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now if it be deemed necessary that I should forfeit my Ufe for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country, whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit — so let it be done. . . ." ^

For one month more, till the day of execution. Brown languished in prison, denying himself to all callers and interviewers, refusing the hundreds of requests for his autograph, devoting himself, rather, almost entirely to voluminous correspondence. Many of his letters were published, and for loftiness of thought, appropriateness of diction and sentiment, and sweetness and tenderness of spuit, they may be ranked among the world's great letters. Where did the untutored man learn the English language? Where, if not in the same school as the great War President, Abraham Lincoln ? Letters of sympathy were answered, gifts acknowledged, the care of his wife and family recommended to friends, a "perfectly practical" education outlined for his children. In many letters he sought to comfort his family. ''Dear wife and children — every one," he wrote; "I will begin by saying that I have in some degree recovered from my wounds, but that I am quite weak in my back and sore about

* The American Conflict, by Horace Greeley, Hartford, 1864-1866, 1,294.

my left kidney. My appetite has been quite good for most of the time since I was hurt. I am supphed with almost everything I could desire to make me comfortable, and the little I do lack (some articles of clothing which I lost) I may perhaps get again. I am besides quite cheerful, having (as I trust) the peace of God, which 'passeth all understanding' to 'rule in my heart,' and the testimony (in some degree) of a good conscience that I have lived not altogether in vain. I can trust God with both the time and the manner of my death, beUeving, as I now do, that for me at this tune to seal my testimony (for God and humanity) with my blood, will do vastly more toward advancing the cause I have earnestly endeavored to support than all I have done in all my life before. I beg of you all meekly and quietly to submit to this, not feehng yourself in the least degraded on that account. Remember, dear wife and children all, that Jesus of Nazareth suffered a most excruciating death on the cross as a felon, under the most aggravating circumstances. Think, also, of the prophets and apostles and Christians of former days, who went through greater tribulation than you or I ; and (try to) be reconciled. May God Almighty comfort all your hearts, and soon wipe away all tears from your eyes. To Him be endless praise. Think, too, of the crushed mdlUons who have no comforter. I charge you all never (ui all your trials) to forget the griefs of 'the poor that cry and of them that have hone to comfort them.' . . . I greatly long to hear from some one of you and to learn anything that in any way affects your welfare. I sent you ten dollars the other day. Did you get it ? I have also endeavored to stir up Christian friends to visit and write to you in your deep affliction. I have no doubt that some of them, at least, will heed the call. Write to me, care of Captain John Avis, Charlestown, Jefferson County, Virginia. 'Finally, my beloved,' 'be of good comfort.' May all your names be written in the ' Lamb's Book of Life,' may you all have the purifjdng and sustaining influence of the Christian rehgion, is the earnest prayer of your affectionate husband and father,

John Brown.

''P.S. I cannot remember a night so dark as to have hindered the coming day, nor a storm so furious and dreadful as to prevent the return of warm sunshine and a cloudless sky. But, beloved ones, do remember that this is not your rest, that in this world you have no abiding place or continuing city. To God and His infinite mercy I always commend you. J.B."

Slaveholding and slavery-supporting clergjnmen of the community, seeking to comfort him, he summarily repulsed. To one who sought to harmonize Christianity and slavery he replied: "My dear sir, you know nothing about Christianity ; you will have to learn the A B C's in the lesson of Christianity, as I find you entirely ignorant of the meaning of the word. I, of course, respect you as a gentleman, but it is as a heathen gentleman." Here the argument closed.^

The day of execution was Friday, December 2. Brown stepped from the jail with "radiant countenance" ; passing a little negro baby he stooped tenderly and kissed it ; at a negro woman, exclaiming as he passed, "God bless you, old man ! I wish I could help you, but I can't," he looked in silence with tears in his eyes. Attended by militia he rode alone in a wagon to the gray stubble field on the edge of the city, the place of execution, where thousands of soldiers were drawn up in waiting. "It has been a characteristic of me from infancy not to suffer from physical fear. I have suffered a thousand times more from bashfulness than from fear," he declared on the journey. Almost his last words

1 The American Conflict, by Horace Greeley, Hartford, 1864-1866, I, 296.

were to his jailer : " I have no words to thank you for all your kindness to me." ^ Thus the felon's death was turned to triumph, and in the North the same spirit of triumph marked the many celebrations in honor of the event, mingling with the tone of sadness and transforming it.^

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly published a striking full-page picture of the execution. At a public meeting in Cleveland the martyr's words were hung up in banners : "John Brown, the hero of 1859," ''Remember those that are in bonds as bound with them," "If I had interfered in behalf of the great, the wealthy, and the wise, no one would have blamed me," "I do not think I can better serve the cause I love so much than to die for it." In Newburyport, Massachusetts, stores were draped in mourning and bells tolled; in West Newbury a factory draped ; in Amesbury the flags of the mills kept at half-mast, the bells tolled, many stores and offices draped, and a public meeting held in the evening ; in Haverhill, Georgetown, Danvers, and Lynn there were the same demonstrations. In Albany, New York, one hundred guns were fired. In the Massachusetts State Senate a motion to adjourn at the hour of execution was lost by only three votes. Thousands of Brov/n's pictures were sold, and also thousands of copies of his prison letters bound in pamphlet form. Within four weeks Redpath's life of Brown was out, and in Massachusetts alone twenty thousand copies were quickly sold. Numberless church services and public meetings were held, called by the abolition societies "for the furtherance of the antislavery cause, and renewedly to consecrate themselves to the patriotic and Christian work of effecting the abolition of that most dangerous, unnatural, cruel, and impious system of slavery, which is the fruitful i source of all our sectional heartburnings and conflicts."

1 The American Coyiflid, by Horace Greeley, Hartford, 1864-1866, 1, 296. ^ In all, seven of the conspirators were executed, some two weeks aftel Brown and some as late as March of the next year.

At one of these meetings in Boston William Lloyd Garrison passionately cried : ''I do not rise on this occasion to define my position {laughter) ; that I believe Virginia and the South clearly understand, and I as clearly understand theirs. Between us there is an 'irrepressible conflict' {applause); and I am for carrying it on until it is finished in victory or in death {renewed applause). For thirty years I have been endeavoring to effect by peaceful, moral, and religious instrumentalities, the abolition of American slavery ; and if possible, I hate slavery thirty times more than when I began, and I am thirty times more, if possible, an abolitionist of the most uncompromising character {loud applause). ... A word or two in regard to the characteristics of John Brown. He was of the old Puritan stock, a Cromwellian, who believed in God and at the same time in 'keeping his powder dry.' He beheved in Hhe sword of the Lord and of Gideon,' and acted accordingly. Herein I differed widely from him. But certainly he was no infidel, oh, no ! How it would have added to the fiendish malignity of the New York Observer, if John Brown had only been an infidel, evangelically speaking ! The man who brands him as a traitor is a calumniator {applause). The man who says that his object was to promote murder, or insurrection, or rebellion, is, in the language of the Apostle, 'a Har, and the truth is not in him.' John Brown meant to effect if possible a peaceful exodus from Virginia. But, it is asked, ' Did he not have stored up a large supply of Sharp's rifles and spears ?