Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, Samuel P. Bates, 1876 - Part 3, Chapter 1, 955-
987

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                         MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
                                       by
                                SAMUEL P. BATES.

                     PHILADELPHIA: T. H. DAVIS & CO., 1876.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 955

                       PART III.  CIVIL AND MISCELLANEOUS.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 956 [blank]

MARIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 957 

                                  CHAPTER I.

                              EMINENT CIVILIANS.

ANDREW GREGG CURTIN, Governor of the Commonwealth from 1861 to 1866 - covering 
the entire period of the war - known at the front as the SOLDIER'S FRIEND, was 
born at Bellefonte, on the 22d of April, 1817. He was the son of Roland Curtin, 
a native of Ireland, a man of intelligence and refinement, having been educated 
in Paris, and one of the earliest settlers of Centre county.  His mother was a 
daughter of Andrew Gregg, for many years a member of both the House and Senate 
of the United States, Secretary of State of Pennsylvania, and candidate for 
Governor in 1823.  He was educated in the celebrated school of the Rev. Dr. 
Kirkpatrick at Milton, and in the law school of Dickinson College.  In 1839 he 
was admitted to the bar and commenced practice at Bellefonte in partnership with 
John Blanchard, subsequently a member of Congress.  He took a leading rank as an 
advocate, and soon distinguished himself in debate.  As early as 1840 he entered 
the political arena, championing General Harrison for the Presidency, and aiding 
by his youthful and impassioned eloquence to create a sentiment which carried 
the Farmer of North Bend to the highest place in the gift of the American 
people.  At the next Presidential election he labored with equal zeal for Henry 
Clay, and in 1848 was placed upon the electoral ticket, giving powerful support 
to the hero of the Rio Grande.  He was again upon the electoral ticket in 1852, 
and advocated the cause of General Scott.
  He was now looked upon as one of the most influential young men of the State 
and acknowledged as a leader.  In the contest for Governor in 1854 he was made 
Chairman of the State Central 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 958

Committee, which had in nomination James Pollock.  The ticket was successful and 
Curtin was selected for Secretary of State, which also embraced the duties of 
Superintendent of Common Schools.  He came to the office at an important and 
critical era in school legislation and school management.  In his report of 1855 
he says: "It is undeniable that the common school system had lost the prestige 
and hopes of its earlier years, and had disappointed the expectations of its 
friends. Its failing energies and want of adaptation to the great objects of its 
creation seemed to portend its ultimate decay, unless animated by a thorough 
reform and an infusion of fresh vitality."  To the infusion of the needed 
vitality he addressed himself with that enthusiasm and energy which were his 
most marked characteristics.  He rightly appreciated the value of public 
education in a free State.  "All the principles," he says in his report of 1857, 
"that tend to the amelioration of humanity, every step in the progress of 
civilization, and all institutions founded in benevolence, have come from the 
intelligence of the common mind.  The great principle of universal suffrage, 
which lies at the foundation of our theory of government, can only be protected 
from abuse by the education of the masses, and without it they are insensible to 
its perfection, and can have no just appreciation of the value of perpetuity."
  Important legislation had been secured in the last year of the preceding 
administration, but for several causes violent opposition had arisen and there 
was imminent danger of its most important feature, that of a county 
superintendency which secured a due supervision of the qualifications of 
teachers and the expenditures of money.  This he labored zealously to maintain 
until the fruits of its maturity should be a sufficient guarantee for its 
preservation, and this he was successful in accomplishing.  He ably argued in 
his report the necessity of having a corps of trained teachers and sketched a 
plan for a system of State Normal Schools, which was the basis of the law passed 
at the succeeding session of the Legislature, now working such excellent 
results.  While laboring thus for the upbuilding of the school system he did not 
neglect the duties of his office proper, exemplifying the principles of sound 
statesmanship.  He never lost sight of the fundamental condition which he 
enunci-

ANDREW G. CURTIN - 959

ated near the close of his report of 1855: "Our preeminence amongst the nations 
of the earth does not result from the fertility of our soil, our free form of 
government, and abundant physical resources.  These constitute powerful motive 
forces, but the great leading power is the universality of education."
  At the close of Governor Pollock's administration, Curtain returned to his 
home in Bellefonte, and resumed the practice of his profession; but was not 
suffered long to remain in retirement.  In 1860 he was nominated and elected 
Governor of the Commonwealth, by a large majority, though in the face of violent 
opposition.  The canvass was all the more animated from the fact that a 
presidential election was to occur a month later, and this was held as settling 
which side should triumph.  Pennsylvania has ever been regarded as the keystone 
of the Federal arch, not only from its location midway between the States of the 
North and those of the South, but because of its magnitude and power, the 
observation being current previous to an election, "as goes Pennsylvania so goes 
the Union."  Now more than ever was it looked upon as the battle-ground: for as 
it should range itself on the one side or the other in the great sectional 
contest, so would the decision be rendered.  Even a lukewarm support of the 
National cause would have made doubtful the issue.
  Of all the public men in the nation no one would have gone farther in the path 
of honor to have preserved peace and tranquillity than Governor Curtin.  He 
sincerely deprecated war and bloodshed, and when, in response to the resolve of 
the Virginia Legislature, Congress asked that commissioners be appointed from 
the several States to devise a plan of pacification, he selected as one of the 
members of the delegation from Pennsylvania his old friend Governor Pollock, who 
he knew would labor with a Christian's zeal for an honorable peace.  But when he 
saw all hope of reconciliation shut out, and the madness which ruled the hour 
triumphant, he met the danger with no timid hand nor trembling front and 
hesitated not for a moment to take up the red gauntlet of war and declare: "No 
part of the people, no State, nor combination of States, can voluntarily secede 
from the Union, nor absolve themselves from their obligations to it.  To permit 
a State to withdraw at pleasure from the Union, without

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 960

the consent of the rest, is to confess that our Government is a failure.  
Pennsylvania can never acquiesce in such a conspiracy, nor assent to a doctrine 
which involves the destruction of the Government."
  The exigencies of war precipitated at a time of profound peace, with no 
preparation for, or even expectance of its coming, imposed great labors and 
grave responsibilities upon the Executive.  Everything in the nature of war 
material was wanting and had to be improvised.  But never for one moment did he 
falter.  He was especially popular with the young men, and to his call they 
rallied with a unanimity and an enthusiasm rarely witnessed.
  The first levy had scarcely been enrolled before the threats of invasion were 
freely uttered, and a hostile flag was flaunting almost within hailing distance 
of the southern border.  He keenly felt the dangers to which the State was 
exposed, and called together the Legislature in extra session to grant authority 
for raising a corps for home defence.  His plan was adopted, and the power to 
act and the means for its accomplishment were placed at his disposal.  The 
Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps was the result.  It consisted of fifteen 
regiments - thirteen of infantry and one each of cavalry and artillery.  But 
while still in camp and before its drill was perfected, the disaster a Bull Run 
caused the Government to tremble for its own safety, and to the earnest appeals 
to have this corps sent to the reinforcement of the shattered army of the Union 
a prompt response was accorded, and it arrived at the time of dire need, and 
when few troops from any quarter were ready to be thrown into the breach.  Once 
incorporated in the National army it never returned to the special duty for 
which it was created, but wherever the Army of the Potomac fought, there was the 
Reserve corps battling with the sternest, until the very day on which its full 
term of three years expired.
  Call after call for troops came, and the population was drained of the young 
and hardy and zealous.  Still the industries of the State were not suffered to 
languish, and no abatement of heart or hope was felt.  Early in 1863, having 
indicated his disposition not to be a candidate for reelection, President 
Lincoln, recognizing the great service which Governor Curtin had rendered, and 
being aware that his health was broken by his severe labors

ANDREW G. CURTIN - 961

and anxieties, thoughtfully tendered him a foreign mission.  But his fidelity to 
his great trust and his personal popularity caused him to be nominated for a 
second term, and he was triumphantly reelected.  The spring of 1863, when the 
disasters of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville were bearing with a fearfully 
depressing weight, was the most gloomy and hopeless of the whole war.  But 
Governor Curtin accepted the nomination, and bore aloft the standard of the 
Union with the same courage and enthusiasm as had characterized him in his most 
sanguine and prosperous hour.  His own spirit was infused into the people of the 
entire Commonwealth, and as at the beginning the loyal States turned with 
anxious look to the attitude which Pennsylvania should assume and were not 
disappointed in their hopes, so now were they gladdened by the voice of its 
millions proclaiming their devotion to the unity of the nation.  In closing his 
annual message of 1863, he said: "It would be unjust to omit referring again to 
the loyal spirit of our people which has been evinced in every mode since the 
war commenced.  Not only have they sent 277,409 men for the general and special 
service of the Government, and supported with cheerfulness the burdens of 
taxation, but our storehouses and depots have literally overflowed with comforts 
and necessaries spontaneously contributed by them, under the active care of 
thousands of our women - faithfully unto death - for the sick and wounded 
prisoners, as well as for our armies in the field.  Their patriotic benevolence 
seems to be inexhaustible.  To every new call the response becomes more and more 
liberal.  When intelligence was received of the barbarian starvation of our 
prisoners in Richmond, the garners of the whole State were instantly thrown 
open, and before any similar movement had been made elsewhere, I was already 
employed on behalf of our people in efforts to secure the admission through the 
rebel lines of the abundant supplies provided for the relief of our suffering 
brethren. . . . We are fighting the great battle of God, of truth, of right, of 
liberty.  The Almighty has no attribute that can favor our savage and degenerate 
enemies.  No people can submit to territorial dismemberment without becoming 
contemptible in its own eyes, and those of the world.  But it is not only 
against territorial dismemberment that we are struggling, but against

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 962

the destruction of the very groundwork of out whole political system. We have 
during the past year made mighty strides towards such a solution, and to all 
human appearance we approach its completion.  But whatever reverses may happen - 
whatever blood and treasure may still be required - whatever sacrifices may be 
necessary - there will remain the inexorable determination of our people to 
fight out this thing to the end; to preserve and perpetuate this Union.  They 
have sworn that not one star shall be reft from the constellation, nor its 
clustered brightness be dimmed by treason and savagery, and they will keep their 
oath."
  The sympathy of Governor Curtin for the distresses occasioned by war was 
unbounded, and prompted him to constant acts of personal kindness and executive 
amelioration.  He knew full well that war, even when conducted according to the 
most humane and Christian usages, was a source of constant suffering.  It was 
not in his nature to repose when there was aught to be done which could promote 
the comfort of the humblest private.  The midnight hour often found him still 
hard at work in the Executive chamber, and he cheerfully left his bed at night 
to face the winter's blast, that some act of executive duty that could speed 
waiting troops on their way, or a parent hastening to a perishing son, might be 
performed.  He was often at the front, and never neglected an opportunity to 
visit the soldiers in their camps or bivouac; and where he could not go in 
person he sent faithful and competent representatives.  The hospital and the 
field were thus constantly under his supervision, and if suffering or want was 
to be alleviated, there was the hand of the commonwealth outstretched to 
administer relief.  When the soldier, rendering willing obedience to the 
mandates of the Government, cheerfully volunteered, Governor Curtin extended a 
promise in behalf of the State that his family should be protected, and if he 
fell in battle his children should be provided for.  That promise was not 
forgotten.  His messages abound in recommendations for the relief of the needy 
and those despoiled by the ravages of war; and the statute books through all the 
years of battle show that his suggestions were promptly heeded.
  In the Gettysburg campaign parts of the border overrun by

ANDREW G. CURTIN - 963

the two armies were completely ravaged, and many families found themselves 
reduced from competence to beggary.  To ameliorate their condition, and to 
secure suitable remuneration for their losses, was an object of his care.  Nor 
were his sympathies alone excited by the needs of his own people.  When it was 
announced to him that the loyal inhabitants of East Tennessee were suffering and 
dying from want, his heart was moved to tenderness, and he embodied the 
following recommendation in his message of 1863: "The condition of the loyal 
people of East Tennessee is represented to the most deplorable, and appeals with 
irresistible force alike to your sympathies and your sense of justice. Their 
whole country has been laid waste by the contending armies of the Government and 
the rebels. Four times large armies have passed over that district, destroying 
or carrying off all that had been gathered for the approaching winter, and now 
the women and children are left in a state of destitution.  Representations made 
by gentlemen of the highest respectability, from that State, are of the most 
heart-rending character.  Starvation, actual and present, now exists.  Can we in 
the midst of affluent abundance for a moment hesitate as to what our action 
shall be towards the people whose only crime has been their loyalty to the 
Government? Even if a portion of our charity should reach the starving families 
of those in sympathy with the Rebellion, better it should than that those 
devoted, self-sacrificing people who have so unhesitatingly adhered to the 
Government be left to suffer.  Whenever pestilence and famine distressed any 
portion of our country, we have always been foremost in relieving it, and the 
people of Pennsylvania have extended their open-handed benevolence and broad 
charity to the starving of foreign countries.  Shall it be said that the appeals 
of these people for bread fell upon the heart of Pennsylvania in vain, and that 
we who have so recently given thanks for our abundance have no relief for them 
in their extremities?"
  But the subject which was nearest his heart, and upon which he was most 
eloquent and earnest, was that of the care of the orphans of soldiers.  Through 
his appeals and personal influence a system has been adopted in Pennsylvania to 
which, for efficiency and completeness, no approximation has been made in any 
other 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 964

State of the Union.  The orphans are clothed, fed and instructed in Homes where 
they are under the kindest and best of influences, and are trained to useful 
employments.  Seven thousand three hundred and ninety of these pupils have been 
the children of the State, and the aggregate expense thus far reached the sum of 
$4,322,298.34.  The manner in which these schools originated and the system was 
wrought is of peculiar interest, as it strikingly illustrates of what heart and 
spirit Governor Curtin is.  In accordance with a time-honored custom the chief 
magistrate had, early in November, 1863, issued his proclamation setting apart a 
day, and recommending its observance as one of thanksgiving and praise.  On the 
morning of that day there came to the Governor's door two small children, 
scantily clad and apparently pinched with hunger, begging food.  Upon inquiry he 
found that their father had been killed in the battle of Gettysburg, that their 
mother had since sickened and died, and that they were friendless and alone in 
the world.  He called a servant and relieved their immediate wants, and as he 
returned to his cheerful and comfortable apartments he exclaimed, "Great God! 
Can it be that the people of the Commonwealth in the midst of their abundance 
are this day to feast and revel in profusion, while the children of the soldiers 
who have yielded up their lives upon the altar of their country, homeless and 
friendless, are begging bread!"
  With a heavy heart he went at the appointed hour to join in the service to 
Almighty God;  but burdened with the feelings which the experience of the 
morning had awakened, his heart was not in the worship.  For several days he was 
much oppressed, eagerly devising some plan by which he could arouse the feelings 
and conscience of the Commonwealth in behalf of these unfortunate orphans.  
Sooner than he anticipated, and in a way he had not discerned, the occasion 
came.  Henry Ward Beecher had just returned from his mission to England, where 
he had effectively plead the interests of his country, and he had been invited 
to speak at a public reception which was accorded him in the Academy of Music at 
Philadelphia, to be held in behalf of the United States Sanitary Commission, and 
Governor Curtin was invited to preside and introduce the speaker.  

ANDREW G. CURTIN - 965

When the request was made to his Excellency he exclaimed: "This is my 
opportunity!  Yes, I will come."  A brilliant assemblage greeted him as, with 
the reverend orator, he appeared upon the platform, and in his brief address on 
taking the chair said: "We meet amid the comforts of home, and the enjoyments of 
civilized and peaceful life, to aid a great association for the beneficent 
object of following the soldier of the Republic, sick or dying - of being with 
him after every battle, to bind his wounds, slake his fevered thirst, and pour 
into his ears as life ebbs the consolations of religion; and, if no other good 
can be done, to bear his lifeless remains back to those to whom in life he had 
been nearest and dearest....I fear that we have not done what we ought for the 
comparatively uncared for, who have been left at home by gallant fellows who 
have gone forward.  I assured thousands of them, as I committed to their care 
the sacred charge of guarding our country's flag and honor, and placed in their 
hands the national ensign, that those of us who remained at home would guard, 
protect, and cherish the households they left behind them.  I fear that we have 
not done our whole duty in this particular, that out of our abundance we have 
failed to render a just share to the surviving relatives of the slain, and to 
the families of those who, maimed and wounded have become helpless.  Indeed, I 
am certain that the orphan and widow have not been cared for as the priceless 
treasure of a life surrendered for the country should have demanded.  Coming, as 
these claimants upon our patriotism and benevolence usually do, from the humbler 
walks of life, their modest and unpretending wants are hardly recognized amid 
the clamor and excitement of the times, and the soldier's widow turns with a 
natural pride from what might be considered the condition of a mendicant or the 
recipient of charity.  My friends, let us not longer fail in the performance of 
our solemn duty, but let us make the position of these and honorable one, and 
not one of degradation.  Let the widow and her dependent offspring become, in 
fact and in truth, THE CHILDREN OF THE STATE, and let the mighty people of this 
great Commonwealth nurture and maintain them.  Let this not be a mere spasmodic 
effort, but let us now at once lay the foundation of a systematic and continuous 
work,

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 966

which will enable the defender of the Constitution to know, as he paces his 
weary vigil upon the cheerless picket, that living, his family at home is cared 
for, and that dying, the justice, not the charity of the country has provided 
for the helpless survivors." In his message delivered soon after he said: "I 
commend to the prompt attention of the Legislature the subject of the relief of 
the poor orphans of our soldiers who have given or who shall give their lives to 
the country during this crisis.  In my opinion their maintenance and education 
should be provided for by the State.  Failing of other natural friends of 
ability to care for them they should be honorable received and fostered as 
children of the Commonwealth."  But the Legislature did not at once feel the 
force of the Governor's suggestion, and the Act which he had caused to be 
prepared and offered was defeated.  Some time previous, the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company, in that spirit of independent and manly generosity which has 
ever characterized it, presented the Governor $50,000 to be expended in raising 
and equipping troops, or in such way as the Legislature should direct for the 
benefit of the soldiers.  Seeing his benevolent designs in behalf of the orphans 
about to fail, the Governor bethought himself of this fund, which had not been 
disposed of, and near the close of the session secured the passage of a 
resolution authorizing him to appoint a superintendent and gather orphans into 
suitable schools.  That resolution of a few lines served to inaugurate the 
system, and to found a charity before which the most imposing are dwarfed.  His 
end was compassed, and his heart was made glad.  Hon. Thomas H. Burrowes, a man 
who had devoted his life to education and was peculiarly gifted with the power 
of organizing, was made superintendent.  Institutions in convenient parts of the 
Commonwealth were selected, and intelligent and efficient supervision was 
provided.  The next Legislature seemed as little inclined to make appropriations 
as the preceding, and again was the cherished purpose in imminent peril.  In 
this extremity the Governor had recourse to a flank movement which for tactical 
skill and overwhelming success was never excelled by Grant or Sherman in their 
palmiest hours.  He sent out and had the orphans from a few schools summoned to 
Harrisburg and on an appointed day the offspring of heroes 

ANDREW G. CURTIN - 967

sacrificed on their country's altars came and were quartered among the citizens, 
the Governor himself receiving twenty into his own home.  With fife and drums 
and diminutive banners they marched to the capitol, and in presence of the 
assembled members they had recitations and sung songs, and one brave little 
fellow told the story of his father's life, and how he had fallen on the first 
day at Gettysburg, how his mother had died and he with his young sister was left 
along in the wold, until by the efforts of the Governor and the representatives 
of the people they had been provided for in the orphan school, had been 
furnished with warm clothing and given the care of kind teachers.  The recital 
excited profound emotion; tears rolled down cheeks where tears were strangers, 
and the breasts of strong, rough men were bowed with tenderness.  Addresses were 
made by the Governor and by members; but they were dull and tame in comparison 
with the simple story of that boy whose lips would never more be pressed in 
parental affection.  The bill for the support of Soldiers' Orphans was promptly 
passed, and ample appropriations without further question made, all parties 
uniting and ever after persevering in their support of the measure.  Thousands 
were thus gathered and placed under the charge of experienced and kind-hearted 
educators, and were treated as children of the State.  The policy was wise and 
just; for it not only discharged a debt due the fallen soldier, but it preserved 
in the paths of honor and usefulness a class of children, who failing of 
protection and care would have been ready subjects of temptation and vice.  The 
zeal and earnestness which Governor Curtin displayed in this enterprise, and the 
success which crowned his efforts, will constitute his strongest claim to 
gratitude and remembrance by future generations.
  A consideration of the perishable nature of the records of troops while in the 
field induced the Governor to recommend the preparation of a more permanent 
account of every soldier who went out from the Commonwealth to do battle for his 
country, that the patriotic and faithful might point to with pride and 
satisfaction.  The authority was duly granted, and a compendium from all 
official and available sources was made and published, filling five large octavo 
volumes, in which each has at least one line, embracing

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 968

the chief items in his record, besides a condensed account of the part taken by 
the regiment or organization to which he belonged.  
  The winter of 1864-'65 was spent by Governor Curtin in Cuba, his physicians 
enjoining it as the only alternative to saving his life, he having been much 
reduced by sickness and having in the previous year been under the care of an 
eminent physician in New York.  He was prominently named near the close of his 
gubernatorial office for the United States Senate, and a large number of his 
political friends in the Legislature were eager to place him there.  He was also 
named for Vice-President on the ticket with General Grant, and soon after the 
latter had been elevated to the chief office, he appointed Governor Curtin 
Minister to Russia, a compliment no less graceful than merited.  His residence 
at St. Petersburg was in an eminent degree pleasant to himself and agreeable to 
the royal family, he being highly esteemed for his high public position, but 
more especially for his personal worth, his courtly bearing, and his unsurpassed 
conversational powers.  Early in 1872 he resigned his office and returned to 
this country.  Parties were at the time in a state of turmoil and mutation.  His 
old political friend and associate, Mr. Greeley, was a candidate for the 
Presidency, in opposition to President Grant.  It is a striking mark of the hold 
which Governor Curtin had upon the popular heart that he should have been 
strongly urged in the convention of the Liberal Republicans, and in that of the 
Republicans also, for Vice-President in that year.  In the struggle which ensued 
he gave his support to Mr. Greeley.
  Allusion has been made above to Governor Curtin's rare conversational power.  
Those who have been favored with his intimacy know how irresistible is its 
charm.  Never monopolizing the attention of the company with Johnsonian 
arrogance, he yet never suffers conversation for a moment to lose its interest, 
and his sallies of wit, his matchless caricature, the display of keen insight 
into the springs of human nature, his affinity for the lofty and ennobling, his 
unrivalled power of description and delineation, and withal a mind of never-
failing resource, combine to make him a princely companion.  His oratorical 
powers are of a rare order.  The political rostrum has been the scene of his 
most frequent triumph.  There were his 

SIMON CAMERON - 969

earliest attempts to wield that mysterious influence which sways the heart, and 
there, in the full maturity of his powers, with mater hand, touching that potent 
instrument,

      "In varying cadence soft or strong
       He swept the sounding chords along."

  A striking example of Governor Curtin's power in blinding personal attachment 
occurred in his last election as Governor.  The soldier, Birney, after having 
displayed the most exalted heroism and courage at the front, was stricken with a 
mortal sickness, and was being brought home to die.  On arriving in 
Philadelphia, knowing that it was the day of the gubernatorial election, and 
filled with the fervor of a stern and uncompromising patriotism, he insisted on 
being taken to the polls.  His friends, knowing his weakened condition, 
endeavored to dissuade him.  But with that determined voice so often heard in 
the thick of battle, he answered: "I must vote, sir; I must vote! Governor 
Curtin may be defeated for lack of my vote." So weak was he that he had to be 
lifted from his carriage, and to aggravate his peril his vote was challenged.  
But not till that vote was accepted and recorded would he turn away.
  Governor Curtin is in person kinglike, a head taller than the people, and of a 
dignified and commanding carriage.  His head is broad and massive, and his face 
indicative of high resolve and kindly emotion.  He married Catharine, daughter 
of William J. Wilson, M.D.  The issue of this marriage has been one son and four 
daughters.

SIMON CAMERON, SECRETARY of WAR during the early stages of the Rebellion, was 
born in Lancaster county, on the 8th of March, 1799.  He received a fair English 
education, and early learned the art of printing, working as a journeyman in 
Lancaster, Harrisburg, and Washington, and subsequently editing newspapers in 
Doylestown and Harrisburg.  He was largely interested in banking and railroad 
construction in the central portion of the State, and was for a time Adjutant-
General.  In 1845, he was elected United States Senator, in which capacity he 
served until 1849.  In 1857 he was reelected for the full term of six years, and 
was a participant in the stormy sessions of that 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 970

body preceding the opening of hostilities, advocating peace and a fair 
settlement of questions in dispute with an earnestness and pertinacity which 
seemed almost at variance with his support of the principles on which the 
Republican party was built.  In the national convention which met at Chicago in 
1860, he was presented as a candidate for President, having strong support, and 
when Mr. Lincoln was nominated, it was generally conceded that Pennsylvania 
should be accorded the Vice-President, in the expectation that Mr. Cameron would 
be named; but the delegation being unable to harmonize, Hannibal Hamlin of Maine 
was selected. 
  Recognizing Mr. Cameron's great executive ability, President Lincoln 
designated him as a member of his cabinet, assigning him to the Department of 
War, which necessitated his resignation as Senator.  When once the alternative 
of a resort to arms was forced upon the Government, Mr. Cameron advocated the 
prosecution of the contest with relentless vigor.  When Mr. Lincoln decided to 
call seventy-five thousand men, his voice was for a more decided policy.  The 
status of the slave, which was at the foundation of the struggle, early claimed 
the Secretary's attention, and when General Butler wrote asking instructions, 
and proposing to treat fugitives as contraband of war, he enunciated the general 
principles which should govern throughout the entire Union army.  "The war," he 
says, "now prosecuted on the part of the Federal Government is a war for the 
Union, and for the preservation of all the constitutional rights of the States 
and the citizens of the States in the Union. . . . In States wholly dependent on 
the execution of the laws temporarily fail. . . . To this general rule rights to 
services can form no exception. . . . Under these circumstances it seems quite 
clear that the substantial rights of loyal masters will be best protected by 
receiving such fugitives as well as fugitives of disloyal masters into the 
service of the United States, and employing them under such organizations and in 
such occupations as exigencies may suggest or require." "A record was authorized 
to be kept of such fugitives with a view to compensating loyal masters.  But as 
complications multiplied and dangers thickened, to his keen practical sense it

SIMON CAMERON - 971

was evident that, if the Government was ever to conquer a peace, the fugitive 
should not only be treated as a contraband, but that his services should be 
actively employed in the national armies.  On the 13th of November, 1861, 
Colonel John Cochrane, in presence of a large concourse of citizens and 
officials high in the service of the Government, spoke to his regiment, the 
First United States Chasseurs.  His words throughout breathed a determined 
spirit, and upon the subject of the slave he said: "Suppose the enemy's slaves 
were arrayed against you, would you, from any squeamishness, refrain from 
pointing against them the hostile gun, and prostrating them in death?  No, that 
is your object; and if you would seize their property, open their ports, and 
even destroy their lives, I ask you whether you would not use their slaves?  
Whether you would not arm their slaves and carry them in battalions against 
their masters?  If necessary to save this Government, I would plunge their whole 
country, black and white, into one indiscriminate sea of blood, so that we 
should in the end have a government which should be the vicegerent of God.  Let 
us have no more of this dilettante system, but let us work with a will and a 
purpose that cannot be mistaken.  Let us not put it aside from too great a 
delicacy of motives.  Soldiers, you know no such reasoning as this.  You have 
arms in your hands, and those arms are placed there for the purpose of 
exterminating an enemy unless he submits to law, order, and the Constitution.  
If he will not submit, explode everything that comes in your way.  Set fire to 
the cotton.  Take property wherever you may find it.  Take the slave and bestow 
him upon the non-slaveholder if you please.  Do to them as they would do to us.  
Raise up a party of interest against the absent slaveholders, distract their 
counsels, and if this should not be sufficient, take the slave by the hand, 
place a musket in it, and in God's name bid him strike for the liberty of the 
human race."  In response to this sentiment Mr. Cameron said: "The doctrines 
which he (Colonel Cochrane) has laid down, I approve as if they were my own 
words.  They are my sentiments - sentiments which will not only lead you to 
victory, but which will in the end reconstruct this our glorious Federal 
Constitution.  It is idle to talk about treating with these rebels upon their 
own terms.  We must meet them as our

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 972

enemies, treat them as enemies, and punish them as enemies, until they shall 
learn to behave themselves.  Every means which God has placed in our hands it is 
our duty to use for the purpose of protecting ourselves."
  But, Mr. Cameron was not a man to be satisfied with proclaiming his sentiments 
and allowing them to end in idle vaporing.  He was a man rather of few words, 
and chiefly powerful in deeds.  General T. W. Sherman was at about this time 
sent to have command in the Department of the South.  In preparing his 
instructions the Secretary inserted the following: "As special directions, 
adapted to special circumstances, cannot be given, much must be referred to your 
own discretion as commanding general of the expeditions.  You will, however, in 
general, avail yourself of the services of any persons, whether fugitives from 
labor or not, who may offer them to the National Government; you will employ 
such persons in such services as they may be fitted for, either as ordinary 
employs, or, if special circumstances seem to require it, in any other capacity, 
with such organization in squads, companies, or otherwise, as you deem most 
beneficial to the service.  This, however, not to mean a general arming of them 
for military service."  Mr. Greeley, in His "History of the Rebellion," in a 
note relative to the concluding sentence of the above extract, says: "It is well 
understood that this was inserted by the President in revising the order."  But 
Mr. Cameron was not content with issuing the instructions.  He caused to be 
prepared a quantity of gay uniforms in which the bright colors suited to please 
the susceptible and imaginative negroes predominated, and sent them to General 
Sherman, well knowing that the commander would understand for whom they were 
intended.
  In his annual report, submitted to Congress in December, 1861, as he 
originally prepared it, the Secretary argued the right to seize and arm the 
slave as undisputed, but by direction of the Government it was materially 
modified.  In his first draft he had said: "War, even between independent 
nations, is made to subdue the enemy, and all that belongs to that enemy, by 
occupying the hostile country, and exercising dominion over all the men and 
things within its territory. . . .  Why should this (slave)

SIMON CAMERON - 973

property be exempt from the hazards and consequences of a rebellious war?. . .  
While the loyal States have all their property and possessions at stake, are the 
insurgent rebels to carry on warfare against the Government in peace and 
security to their own property?  Reason, and justice, and self-preservation 
forbid that such be the policy of this Government, but demand, on the contrary, 
that being forced by traitors and rebels to the extremity of war, all the rights 
and powers of war should be exercised to bring it to a speedy end. . . The 
Government has no power to hold slaves, none to restrain a slave of his liberty, 
or to exact his service.  It has a right, however, to use the voluntary service 
of slaves liberated by war from their rebel masters, like any other property of 
the rebels, in whatever mode may be most efficient for the defence of the 
Government, the prosecution of the war, and the suppression of the Rebellion.  
It is as clearly a right of the Government to arm slaves when it may become 
necessary, as it is to take gunpowder from the enemy and use it against them. . 
. .If it shall be found that the men who have been held by the rebels as slaves 
are capable of bearing arms and performing efficient military service, it is the 
right, and may become the duty of this Government to arm and equip them and 
employ their services against the rebels, under proper regulations, discipline 
and command.  But in whatever manner they may be used by the Government, it is 
plain that once liberated by the rebellious acts of their masters, they should 
never again be restored to bondage.  By the master's treason and rebellion he 
forfeits all right to labor and service of his slave; and the slave becomes 
justly entitled to freedom and protection."  This, at the very outset of the 
war, was considered bold doctrine, and apparently not entirely in harmony with 
the declarations of the President in his messages, as to the purposes of the 
Government, though the course here pointed out was at a later period actually 
adopted without incurring any imputation of inconsistency, the necessity for 
preserving the life of the government overriding every other consideration, and 
might from the first have been adopted had public sentiment have been prepared 
for it.  At the suggestion of the Government, however, Mr. Cameron's argument 
was

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 974

so modified as simply to say: "Their labor may be useful to us; withheld from 
the enemy it lessens his military resources, and withholding them has no 
tendency to induce the horrors of insurrection, even in the rebel communities.  
They constitute a military resource, and being such, that they should not be 
turned over to the enemy is to plain to discuss.  Why deprive him of supplies by 
a blockade, and voluntarily give him men to produce them?"  The publication of 
the original draft subserved the important purpose, at the time, of 
familiarizing the loyal people of the course which the Government might be 
compelled to adopt, and at the same time gave the disloyal a strong hint of what 
they might eventually reasonably expect.
  On the 11th of January, 1862, Mr. Cameron resigned his position as Secretary 
of War, and was immediately tendered by the President and accepted the place of 
Minister of Russia.  He undertook this important mission at a critical period in 
the national history.  Complications with foreign nations were then hourly 
thickening.  Several first-class powers were earnestly discussing the question 
of recognizing the Southern Confederacy.  Napoleon was maturing his schemes for 
the occupation of Mexico.  Southern emissaries were laboring at every European 
court to gain favor for their newly formed government, and seeking to create a 
sentiment at variance with that of the United States.  In the midst of these 
portents of evil, to preserve and cement the friendship of so powerful a nation 
as Russia was of the first moment.  To Mr. Cameron was committed this all 
important duty.  How well he executed his high trust the sequel of events 
proved.  As the winter of 1863 drew on apace, and the prospect of ultimate 
triumph seemed more and more remote - the western nations of Europe supporting 
the rebels not only with their sympathy but with material aid - there suddenly 
appeared, one bright morning, in New York harbor a fleet of the most powerful 
was vessels in the Russian navy, and there they remained during the entire 
season.  No word was spoken as to their destination or purpose, and ostensibly 
they were seeking a safe haven.  But European nations, hostile to the government 
of the United States, were not slow in reading the import of the act.  In tones 
which echoed across the Atlantic, it uttered the condemnation of

SIMON CAMERON - 975

intervention, and proclaimed: "Gentlemen, in this struggle of the American 
nation, hands off!"  It was a call to keep the peace which the nations of Europe 
chose to respect.
  On the 30th of April, 1862, the United States House of Representatives passed 
a resolution censuring the conduct of Mr. Cameron, while Secretary of War, in 
investing Alexander Cummings with public money without taking security therefor, 
and in other ways involving the Government in large outlays.  This resolution 
had no sooner met the eye of President Lincoln than he prepared a message to 
Congress, in which he stated that at the crisis in April, 1861, when 
communication with the North had been cut off, and the Government itself was in 
imminent danger of immediate overthrow, he sent orders to the commandants of the 
navy yards at Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to purchase each five war 
vessels for defence, had empowered Governor Morgan and Alexander Cummings of New 
York to provide for the transportation of troops, no security being required, 
and had directed the Secretary of the Treasury to advance $2,000,000 to Messrs. 
Dix, Opdyke, and Blatchford to meet necessary expenditures.  "I believe," The 
President continues, "that by these and other similar measures taken in that 
crisis, some of which were without any authority of law, the Government was 
saved from overthrow. . .Congress will see that I should be wanting equally in 
candor and justice if I should leave the censure expressed in this resolution to 
rest exclusively or chiefly upon Mr. Cameron.  The same sentiment is unanimously 
entertained by the heads of departments who participated in the proceedings 
which the House of Representatives has censured.  It is due to Mr. Cameron to 
say that, although he fully approved the proceedings, they were not moved nor 
suggested by himself, and that not only the President but all the other heads of 
departments were at least equally responsible with him for whatever error, 
wrong, or fault was committed in the premises."
  After accomplishing the purposes of his mission to the court of the Czar, Mr. 
Cameron resigned and returned to his home in Pennsylvania, where he remained 
until 1867, when he was again elected to the United States Senate, and was 
reelected in 1873,

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 976

and should he serve out this term he will have been twenty years a member of 
that body.  Upon the retirement of Mr. Sumner from the chairmanship of the 
Committee of Foreign Affairs, a place of great dignity and responsibility, Mr. 
Cameron was selected for the position thus made vacant.  He has always held a 
place upon some of the most important committees, in which he has ever been 
attentive, and swayed a controlling influence.  In debate he expresses himself 
clearly, forcibly, and cogently, but with no attempt at display.  In a 
deliberative body and in a popular canvass he is never failing in resource and 
remarkable successful.  Few men have been more so, and much of the antagonism 
which he has encountered has arisen from this cause.  In person he is over six 
feet in height, broad-shouldered, and though now in his seventy-sixth year is as 
erect and lithe as a youth of twenty.  Mr. Cameron married Miss Margaret Brua, 
who died in 1873.  Both were of Scotch descent.  The issue of this marriage was 
three sons and three daughters.

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War during the greater part of the Rebellion, was 
born in Steubenville, Ohio, on the 19th of December, 1815.  His great-
grandfather was a Quaker, who settled early in the history of Massachusetts 
colony on Nantucket Island.  His grandfather moved to North Carolina, where he 
married a Miss Norman from Virginia, and whence he afterwards moved to 
Steubenville, where Edwin M. was born.  He entered Kenyon College, but on 
account of the straitened circumstances of the father, only remained a few 
months, and then went to Columbus, where he was engaged in a bookstore.  During 
his leisure moments he applied himself to the study of law, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1836.  He commenced practice at Cadiz, and was for one term District 
Attorney for Harrison county; but at its expiration removed to Steubenville.  In 
1839 he was elected by the Legislature of Ohio, reporter of the Supreme Court, 
which position he held for three years. In 1842 he defended Mr. McNulty, clerk 
of the House of representatives, charged with defalcation, winning a national 
reputation by the ability displayed.  In 1848 he removed to Pittsburg and 
entered into a law partnership with Charles Shaler and 

EDWIN M. STANTON - 977

Theodore Umbstratter, at once taking a leading rank, his practice extending 
beyond the limits of the State.  He had some time before been called to the 
Supreme Court, and here some of his most important and lucrative practice was 
found.  The case of the Wheeling Bridge Company in which he engaged involved 
large amounts and attracted wide attention, as did also the defence of Sickles 
for the killing of Key.  In 1858 he was appointed by Attorney-General Black to 
represent the United States in the celebrated California land cases.  He 
accordingly proceeded thither, and after a protracted and determined contest 
succeeded in overthrowing the titles under the Mexican grants and established 
those of the rightful claimants.  
  With this exception he had held no public office until December, 1860, when, 
to fill the vacancy occasioned by the transfer of Mr. Black to Secretary of 
State, he was appointed to a cabinet office under Mr. Buchanan.  He advocated a 
determined and vigorous policy; but Mr. Buchanan's ear was heavy, and he only 
sought to retire without a conflict.  When Mr. Lincoln was installed, Mr. 
Stanton resumed the practice of his profession, but civil life was now 
overshadowed by military, and he did not remain long in retirement; for when Mr. 
Cameron was sent to Russia, Mr. Stanton was nominated to the place left vacant 
in the cabinet.  Some surprise was manifested by the leaders of the Republican 
party, that he, a pronounced Democrat, fresh from the cabinet of Buchanan, 
should this signal mark of honor, the War Office - in view of the magnitude of 
military operations to be carried on, the most important in the Government.  
With so firm a hand and with such relentless vigor did he execute the trust that 
he was justly styled the American Carnot.  An editorial of the New York Herald, 
in an appreciative estimate of his character, says of him at this period: "An 
honest, earnest, active, firm, resolute, decisive and efficient man was Stanton 
in the War Office - the man of all men for the part he had to play.  It may be 
said that he was rough, imperious, despotic, cruel, and offensive in many 
things.  Measured, however, by the hatred of the implacable adherents of the 
Rebellion, in his services to the Union, he stands first in the list of the 
great champions of the cause."  Better than any description or

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNYLVANIA - 978

Analysis of his character are incidents which show him to the life.  In an 
article contributed to Harper's Magazine by Mr. T. B. Thorpe is the following: 
"Mr. Stanton, with an amanuensis, made his appearance punctually at eleven 
o'clock.  His approach was heralded by the noise of the rapidly disappearing 
feet of messengers and idlers, who were by some fascination hanging about the 
War Office. . .Instantly a tall gentleman supported by a bundle of papers, 
fawning and gushing, but with very weak knees and a stereotyped smile, would 
approach, and with a vulgar salute of presumed familiarity would hurriedly 
utter, 'Good-morning, Mr. Secretary; fine morning, sir.'  Mr. Stanton would give 
a nervous twitch, as the familiar voice met his ear, and turning abruptly to the 
speaker would growl between his teeth: 'Sit down, sir; I'll attend to you by-
and-by,' and Mr. Senator Mealymouth, with papers about some 'job,' would 
suddenly disappear.  Next in presumed importance, a gentleman with a brand-new 
suit of military clothing, glistening like an ignited pinwheel, with stars and 
stripes: 'My card, Mr. Secretary-Major-General Brassbuttons.'  Mr. Stanton would 
turn on the new speaker like a tiger at bay, would examine the caricature of 
Mars from head to foot, would thunder out: 'Come, sir, what are you doing in 
Washington?  If you are not needed at the front I'll see about mustering you 
out.'  General Brassbuttons would gasp for breath, and his capacious boots, less 
sensitive than the man, would carry the discomfited officer out of the room.  
Consternation would now reign in the audience room.  Even the widows and wounded 
soldiers would grow pale.  When they beheld such great men as Senators and 
Generals in good health suddenly squelched out, they naturally asked themselves, 
'What is to become of us?'  By this time Mr. Stanton literally had his audience 
in hand; no one was now venturesome enough to obtrude especially himself or 
wants upon his notice; so at his leisure he would glance around the room then 
suddenly stopping to examine a sick or wounded soldier, the poor fellow would 
attempt to rise from his seat in acknowledgment of the honor, when Mr. Stanton 
would mildly, musically say, 'Keep your seat, my good man," and the iron 
Secretary would leave his place, would walk over to the silent but eloquent 
applicant for relief,

EDWIN M. STANTON - 979

and taking him kindly by the hand, would ask, 'What brings you here?'  The story 
was the same so often told.  Soldier in one of the Washington hospitals, 
suffering from a severe wound; cannot identify himself, as his regiment is on 
the move, and no descriptive list can be obtained.  Can get no pay, draw no 
clothing; wants a furlough to go home.  The hospital regulations keep him with 
the strictest severity in the narrow whitewashed walls now worse than a prison.  
Order from Mr. Stanton: 'Advance of two months' pay, transportation home, and 
thirty days' furlough.'  Soldier retires, his face beaming with satisfaction, 
and realizing keenly, for the first time, that he has a country worth fighting 
for and men in the Government who care for its defenders."
  General Sedgwick, the gallant commander of the Sixth corps, having gone  
immediately to the front on coming to Washington from the frontier in 1861, had 
never met Mr. Stanton till late in 1863, when he was summoned to the capital to 
testify before the Committee on the Conduct of the War.  On his arrival as was 
his duty he went immediately to the War Office to pay his respects to the 
Secretary.  Though entering early, Mr. Stanton studiously ignored his presence 
until every one in the room had been received.  "The two alone," says Thorpe, 
"Mr. Stanton turned toward his imperturbable visitor, and, looking him full in 
the face, ejaculated, 'Well, sir?'  To which came the reply: 'Mr. Secretary, I 
am General Sedgwick; I have called to pay my respects to you as the head of this 
department.  I have neglected this duty up to this time because I have not been 
here since I came from the frontier in 1861, and,' Sedgwick added, with some 
emotion, 'I shouldn't have been here now, sir, if I had not been ordered to do 
so by a committee of Congress.'  The Secretary's face instantly changed.  The 
harsh voice that put the equivocal 'Well, sir?' softened into a cheerful 
greeting.  'Give me your hand, General,' said Mr. Stanton, his face beaming with 
pleasure.  'I am glad to see you - I would be glad to see more soldiers like 
you.  Come into my private room; I don't see you very often.'"
  Mr. Stanton saw many dark and wearisome days when disaster followed disaster, 
and when for a long time the result of the contest hung trembling in the 
balance.  A friend visited him

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNYLVANIA - 980

when upon his dying bed, after the triumph had come, and he was about to yield 
up his life.  It was thus described in Wilkes' Spirit of the Times: "The day was 
tempestuous and gloomy, and the wind howled violently around the angles of the 
building.  After some conversation, we noticed this by saying, that doubtless 
such dismal noises had the effect of making him feel unusually sad.  'Oh, no,' 
he answered, 'not at all; on the contrary, I derive a peculiar pleasure now in 
listening to the howling of the winds.  There was a time when it would make me 
dreadfully nervous, and keep me awake for hours in the night.  Then there were 
thousands of our boys afloat on the Atlantic coast; others were on the 
treacherous bosom of the Gulf; others were exposed on the surface of the 
Mississippi, and thousands upon thousands lay drenched in camp, or shivering 
upon picket duty; but' - and here the speaker's eyes exhibited reviving light, 
and his voice strengthened into joyful volume - 'but the boys are all home now; 
all home now; out of the reach of the storm!'  It is impossible to describe the 
exquisite tenderness with which this was said, or to explain the emotion which 
we felt when, as he concluded, we saw a tear break from each lid and quietly 
roll down his cheeks."
  Mr. Stanton was retained in the War Office under President Johnson, and for a 
time the immense business of bringing home the armies and returning them to the 
pursuits of peace went smoothly on.  But when the subject of reconstruction of 
the revolted States came to be settled, the president enunciated views which 
were at variance with those entertained by Mr. Stanton, and the party which had 
placed him in power.  The Tenure of Office Act rendered it possible for him to 
remain in office in spite of the will of the President.  The Republican party, 
being in the ascendency and responsible for the government of the country, was 
desirous of shaping its own policy.  At the urgent entreaty of the leaders of 
that party he was induced to hold the position after his successor had been 
named by the President, barricading and making his office a citadel.  When the 
impeachment of the President failed - regarding that as decisive of his party's 
authority - he quietly retired.  The great strain upon his nerves had left his 
system weakened and shattered; but

THADDEUS STEVENS - 981

he resumed the practice of his profession with the zeal of youth, appearing in 
several important cases before the Supreme Court.  His labors, however, were of 
short duration, and on the 22d of December, 1865, after a short illness, the 
great Secretary quietly breathed his last.  A short time before his death he was 
nominated and confirmed an associate Justice of the Supreme Court, but he lived 
not to take his seat in that grave place of honor and renown.  The writer above 
quoted from the Herald, in closing his summing, says: "Eminently distinguished 
in the character of Carnot, he has left the additional fame of a lawyer fully 
qualified for the high position to which he was but the other day appointed and 
confirmed, as a Judge of the Supreme Court.  His name will live, and his memory 
will be revered, while the enduring principles of the Union, liberty, equal 
rights and law survive in the minds of men.  His friends, in view of his 
services as a public man, are millions in number, while the enemies he leaves 
behind him with a few exceptions are the unhappy mourners over the 'lost 
cause.'"

THADDEUS STEVENS, "The Great Commoner," was born in Peacham, Caledonia county, 
Vermont, on the 4th of April, 1793.  He was a sickly child and club-footed, and 
his parents being extremely poor he had small prospect of eminence.  His father 
appears to have been what is commonly termed a "good-for-nothing," but his 
mother having strong native sense and great tenderness for her unfortunate boy 
labored assiduously to gratify his desire to learn, in providing decent clothing 
and keeping him in the rural district school which for a few months in each year 
was in operation.  An old lady who was a schoolmate in this humble situation 
says: "I remember him as it was yesterday.  Folks never supposed they would ever 
be able to raise him; but they did.  He was still and quiet like, different from 
the rest of the boys, and they'd laugh at him, boy-like, and mimic his limping 
walk.  They didn't mean any harm; but Thaddeus was a sensitive little fellow, 
and it rankled him.  I've always thought that's the reason, perhaps, he has 
never been back to the old homestead."  By close application he prepared for 
college, eking out the necessary means by teaching school in the intervals of

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 982

study, and graduated at Dartmouth in 1814.  Soon after he removed to York, 
Pennsylvania, which State became his permanent home, where he taught school and 
studied law.  Known only as a school teacher, when at the end of two years he 
was about to seek admission to the bar, the members of the profession actuated 
by pride and prejudice refused to recognize Stevens as a law student, and 
actually passed a resolution providing that no person who pursued any other 
avocation than that of the regular study of the law should be eligible to 
membership.  Stevens was not a man to be foiled in a way like this, and changing 
his residence for a month or two to a neighboring county in Maryland he was 
admitted, when returning to Pennsylvania he had the satisfaction of coming to 
the bar in spite of the narrow-minded policy by which he had been met, and soon 
rose to the front rank as a practitioner.  He eschewed politics for a time but 
in the exciting campaigns following the advent of John Quincy Adams to the 
Presidency he could not remain a quiet spectator, espousing the cause of Adams 
and subsequently of the Whigs.  In 1833 he was elected to the Legislature, and 
was returned in '34, '35, '37 and '41.
  It was during his membership of this body that Mr. Stevens made his noted 
speeches on the Common School System and the act for establishing a School of 
Art.  From 1809 to 1834 a system of educating the poor gratis had been in 
operation in the State, a system which had become odious, as it could only 
benefit those abject enough to have themselves recorded as paupers.  After long 
efforts a bill was drawn in that year, during the administration of Governor 
Wolf, providing for the establishing of a complete system. "It was believed," 
said Mr. Stevens, in a conference upon this subject with the writer, "that the 
best way to pass it was not to have any public discussion, but to canvass the 
members individually.  So successful was it that it passed the House of 
Representatives with but one vote against - Mr. Grimm's, of Lehigh.  When the 
law was published and sent out for execution, it caused an excitement throughout 
the State which I have never known equalled in any political contest.  The 
members were denounced as usurpers, and the people were warned that their 
liberties and rights were in danger.  Very few of the old 

THADDEUS STEVENS - 983

members were returned at the next election except such as recanted and promised 
to vote for the repeal.  At the meeting of the Legislature petitions for the 
repeal poured in until the signatures amounted to about fifty thousand.  Very 
few remonstrances could be got up, though considerable effort was made.  The 
Democratic party held a caucus and advised Governor Wolf to yield to the storm 
and not oppose the repeal, as it would not be possible to reelect him if he 
vetoed the bill, which was sure to pass.  This was the condition of things when 
I went to Philadelphia on a committee of investigation and was absent, I think, 
about two weeks.  When I returned, my colleague, Mr. McSherry, a most estimable 
man and a great friend of the law, called and informed me that a bill had passed 
the Senate repealing the school law, with but eight dissenting votes; that a 
vote of reference, which was made a test vote, showed that there was a majority 
in the House for the repeal of over thirty; that the friends of the law had 
consulted and agreed that it was useless to oppose the repeal.  He said that he 
thought that we were bound to vote for it, as he had ascertained that three-
fourths of our constituents had petitioned for the repeal.  I inquired and 
learned that the Governor, a fast friend of education, had answered the 
committee that he would veto the bill if he did not get a vote in the State.  I 
informed my colleague that whilst I would not ask him to vote against his 
judgment, I would make an effort to save the original law.  The Senate bill to 
repeal it came up on April 10th and 11th, and I moved an amendment to strike out 
the whole of the bill but the enacting clause, and insert a supplement to the 
Act to Establish a General System of Education by Common Schools."
  Upon this motion Mr. Stevens made his noted speech.  Great expectation had 
been aroused, and most of the members of the State Government and the Senate 
were present.  He was then in the prime of manhood and in the full strength of 
his great intellect, and its effect was electrical.  Mr. M. B. Lowry, who was 
then a member of that body, describes the attitude and bearing of Mr. Stevens as 
he appeared in the fervor of debate as that of a descended god.  The vote was 
taken immediately after its close, and, says Mr. Stevens, "I was both surprised 
and grati-

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 984

fied to find, I think, for I speak from memory, about fourteen majority for it, 
and on the vote to agree to the bill as amended it carried by over thirty.  It 
was sent to the Senate and at once concurred in."  It is not often that a speech 
in a deliberative body influences many votes; but this undoubtedly had the 
effect to sway both branches of the Legislature from strong opposition backed by 
an excited and almost unanimous population, to the support of his bill.  He was 
throughout severe but lofty in his sentiment.  In speaking of the old law for 
educating the poor gratis, he said: "Sir, hereditary distinctions of rank are 
sufficiently odious; but that which is founded on poverty is infinitely more so.  
Such a law should be entitled 'An act for branding and marking the poor, so that 
they may be known from the rich and proud.'"  In the progress of his argument 
upon the great boon in the Common School he said: "Sir, when I reflect how apt 
hereditary wealth, hereditary influence, and perhaps, as a consequence, 
hereditary pride are to close the avenues and steel the heart against the wants 
and rights of the poor, I am induced to thank my Creator for having from early 
life bestowed upon me the blessing of poverty.  Sir, it is a blessing; for if 
there be any human sensation more ethereal and divine than all others, it is 
that which feelingly sympathizes with misfortune. . . .  What renders the name 
of Socrates immortal but his love of the human family, exhibited under all 
circumstances and in contempt of every danger?"
  "Pennsylvania's sons, "he continues, "possess as high native talents as any 
other nation of ancient or modern time!  Many of the poorest of her children 
possess as bright intellectual gems, if they were as highly polished, as did the 
proudest scholars of Greece or Rome.  But too long, too disgracefully long, has 
coward, trembling, procrastinating legislation permitted them to lie buried in 
'dark unfathomed caves.'"  But the passage of this speech which made the 
greatest impression, and which is even now recalled with a feeling of delight, 
was that in which he referred to Governor Wolf.  The Governor was opposed to him 
in politics, and sharp passages in public matters had passed between them.  But 
upon the subject of education they were at one, and upon this he said: "I have 
seen the present 

THADDEUS STEVENS - 985

chief magistrate of this Commonwealth violently assailed as the projector and 
father of this law.  I am not the eulogist of that gentleman; he has been guilty 
of many political sins, but he deserves the undying gratitude of the people for 
the steady, untiring zeal which he has manifested in favor of common schools.  I 
will not say that his exertions in that cause have covered all, but they have 
atoned for many of his errors.  I trust that the people of this State will never 
be called on to choose between a supporter and an opposer of free schools.  But 
if it should come to that - if that should be made the turning point on which we 
are to cast our suffrages - if the opponent of education were my most intimate 
personal and political friend, and the free school candidate my most obnoxious 
enemy - I should deem it my duty as a patriot, at this moment of our 
intellectual crisis, to forget all other considerations, and I should place 
myself unhesitatingly and cordially in the ranks of HIM WHOSE BANNERS STREAM IN 
LIGHT."
  In 1836 he was a member of the convention to revise the State constitution, 
and took an active part.  Previous to this the constitution recognized the right 
of suffrage without distinction of color; but a majority favored restricting it 
to white male citizens above a certain age.  This he opposed with great vigor, 
and when the labors were concluded he refused to sign the instrument.  In 1838 
he was appointed Canal Commissioner, then one of the most important offices in 
the Government on account of the vast expenditures being made for internal 
improvements.  At the succeeding election for Governor a fierce struggle ensued 
for the supremacy, and parties being pretty evenly balanced, both candidates 
claimed to be elected.  The military were called out, the President was applied 
to for aid, and from the fact that a Government storekeeper in Philadelphia sent 
to Harrisburg an immense amount of buck-shot, it was called the BUCK-SHOT WAR, 
though it ended in compromise without bloodshed.  Mr. Stevens championed 
Governor Ritner's cause, which was the losing one.
  In 1842 he removed to Lancaster, where he pursued his profession, and engaged 
largely in the manufacture of iron.  In 1848 he was elected to Congress and was 
reelected in 1850, serving through that exciting period when the admission of 
California,

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 986

the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the Kansas-Nebraska embroglio were 
debated by the giants of the American forum.  In 1858 he was again elected, and 
remained a member till the day of his death.  He was among the earliest to 
declare the abolition of slavery the only alternative of the Government, and 
presented the Indemnity Act, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and 
advocated the arming and disciplining one hundred and fifty thousand colored 
soldiers.  In the Thirty-ninth Congress he was chairman of the Committee on 
Appropriations, and a member of the Committee on Reconstruction, giving himself 
unreservedly to the preparation and advocacy of all those measures adopted to 
settle the affairs of the distracted country.  He assisted in drafting the 
articles of impeachment against President Johnson, and was chairman of the 
committee of seven who managed the case on the part of the House, preparing an 
argument justly regarded as a masterpiece for cogency and power.
  One of the most striking characteristics of Mr. Stevens' oratory was his 
allusions to the Bible and to the classics of antiquity.  In answer to the 
argument that the negro was a different order of being from the white man he 
said: "I have listened to the golden-mouthed gentleman from New York, Mr. 
Brooks, in his attempt to prove the Bible a lie.  That book says God created of 
one blood all the nations of the earth.  The gentleman, however, contends that 
there were several different varieties, and that all nations were not created of 
one blood.  The question at issue between the gentleman from New York and the 
Author of that sacred volume I shall not attempt to decide - it is too high for 
me."  When Mr. Johnson, then President, on one occasion, while the Fourteenth 
Amendment was under consideration, came into the capitol and told a member that 
the amendment was not needed, and then had the conversation published, Mr. 
Stevens said, in alluding to it, "This authorized utterance was made in such a 
way that centuries ago, had it been made to Parliament by a British king, it 
would have cost him his head.  But, sir, we pass that by: we are tolerant of 
usurpation in this tolerant Government of ours."
  Mr. Stevens' mind held out in all its early strength and vigor long after his 
poor feeble body was exhausted.  One of his last 

THADDEUS STEVENS - 987

speeches is thus described by an eye-witness: "He spoke for about ten minutes, 
at first with noticeable difficulty.  Nearly the entire house gathered into the 
aisles and areas within twenty-five feet of him.  Of the first half of his 
remarks not a word was heard in the galleries.  Then like a candle dying in its 
socket he flamed up with an energy that carried his utterances to the listener 
in the remotest corner of the chamber.  It was a wonderful exhibition of will 
and determination.  It could not last.  The physical forces of the old body have 
gone away, and three or four minutes completely exhausted it and dropped Mr. 
Stevens back into his chair paler and more emaciated, seemingly, than ever 
before."  He conversed freely about his approaching end and seemed to welcome 
it.  He refused to be buried in the beautiful cemetery at Lancaster, because its 
managers would not allow people of color to be interred in it.  He desired only 
a simple tablet laid over his grave, and remarked in relation to it, "I suppose, 
like the rest of the fools, we shall have to get something stuck up in the air; 
let it be plain."  He died at midnight of Tuesday, August 11th, 1868.