Something of Men I Have Known
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Transcriber's notes:
The diaeresis is transcribed by a following hyphen.
The contraction "n't" appears both as a separate word and as a
suffix in the text. Since this seems to be the choice of the
Linotype operator, not the author, it has been changed to modern
usage. Differing spellings of "Lafayette" and "judgment" have
also been standardized. The author's spelling of "Pittsburg" and
"Alleghanies" has been retained.
Hyphenations at the end of lines have been eliminated wherever
possible. Those remaining are words that are hyphenated
elsewhere in the text, or in general usage.
A few corrections of punctuation and of single letters have
been made.
This transcription was typed into MS-DOS Editor under Windows
XP, spell-checked in Word Perfect, and examined with Gutcheck.
SOMETHING OF MEN I HAVE KNOWN
With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and
Retrospective
by
ADLAI E. STEVENSON
Fully Illustrated
Second Edition
[Frontispiece]
[Publisher's logo]
Chicago
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1909
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1909
Published October, 1909
Second Edition, December 17, 1909
The Lakeside Press
R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company
Chicago
TO MY WIFE
Letitia Green Stevenson
THE PATIENT LISTENER TO THESE
"TWICE-TOLD TALES"
FOREWORD
To write in the spirit of candor of men he has known, and of great
events in which he has himself borne no inconspicuous part, has
been thought not an unworthy task for the closing years of more
than one of the most eminent of our public men. It may be that
the labor thus imposed has oftentimes enabled the once active
participant in great affairs submissively "to entertain the lag
end of his life with quiet hours."
Following the example of such at a great distance and along a
humbler path, I have attempted to write something of events of
which I have been a witness, and of some of the principal actors
therein during the last third of a century.
My book in the main is something of men I have personally known;
the occasional mention of statesmen of the past seems justified by
matters at the time under discussion.
With the hope that it may not be wholly without interest to some
into whose hands it may fall, I now submit this slight contribution
to the political literature of these passing days.
A. E. S.
BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS,
_August 1, 1909._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. ON THE CIRCUIT
II. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
III. AGAIN IN CONGRESS
IV. THE VICE-PRESIDENT
V. THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
VI. A TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN
VII. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS
VIII. THE FIRST POLITICAL TELEGRAM
IX. ALONG THE BYPATHS OF HISTORY
X. THE CODE OF HONOR
XI. A PRINCELY GIFT
XII. THE OLD RANGER
XIII. THE MORMON EXODUS FROM ILLINOIS
XIV. A KENTUCKY COLONEL
XV. FORGOTTEN EVENTS OF THE LONG AGO
XVI. ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
XVII. A CAMP-MEETING ORATOR
XVIII. CLEVELAND AS I KNEW HIM
XIX. THE UNANIMOUS CHOICE FOR SPEAKER
XX. A LAWYER OF THE OLD SCHOOL
XXI. HIGH DEBATE IN THE MOUNTAINS
XXII. THE SAGE OF THE BAR
XXIII. "THE GENTLEMAN FROM MISSISSIPPI"
XXIV. AN OLD-TIME COUNTRY DOCTOR
XXV. A QUESTION OF AVAILABILITY
XXVI. A STATESMAN OF A PAST ERA
XXVII. NOT GUILTY OF PREACHING THE GOSPEL
XXVIII. AMONG THE ACTORS
XXIX. THE LOST ART OF ORATORY
XXX. THE COLONELS
XXXI. REMINISCENCES
XXXII. A TRIBUTE TO IRELAND
XXXIII. THE BLIND CHAPLAIN
XXXIV. A MEMORABLE CENTENNIAL
XXXV. COLUMBUS MONUMENT IN CENTRAL PARK
XXXVI. A PLATFORM NOT DANGEROUS TO STAND UPON
XXXVII. ANECDOTES OF GOVERNOR OGLESBY
XXXVIII. THE ONE ENEMY
XXXIX. CONTRASTS OF TIMES
XL. ENDORSING THE ADMINISTRATION
XLI. ANECDOTES ABOUT LINCOLN
XLII. FIRST LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY IN AMERICA
XLIII. A NEW DAY ADDED TO THE CALENDAR
XLIV. A MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
XLV. DEDICATION OF A NATIONAL PARK
XLVI. A BAR MEETING STILL IN SESSION
XLVII. THE HAYNE-WEBSTER DEBATE RECALLED
XLVIII. IN THE HIGHLANDS
XLIX. ANECDOTES OF LAWYERS
L. OUR NOBLE CALLING
LI. THE "HOME-COMING" AT BLOOMINGTON
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
[facing] PAGE
ADLAI E. STEVENSON _Frontispiece_
ADLAI E. STEVENSON AT 30 8
JAMES S. EWING 9
GEORGE F. HOAR 12
SAMUEL J. TILDEN 13
JAMES G. BLAINE 18
ROBERT E. WILLIAMS 19
JAMES A. GARFIELD 22
NATH. P. BANKS 23
WILLIAM R. MORRISON 26
WILLIAM M. SPRINGER 27
SAMUEL J. RANDALL 30
ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS 30
LUCIUS Q. C. LAMAR 30
JAMES B. BECK 30
DAVID DUDLEY FIELD 31
HENRY WATTERSON 33
SAMUEL S. COX 34
LEVI P. MORTON 48
JAMES A. McKENZIE 49
WILLIAM McKINLEY 56
SENATE TESTIMONIAL TO MR. STEVENSON AS PRESIDENT
OF SENATE 57
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 82
ANDREW JOHNSON 83
ULYSSES S. GRANT 100
HORATIO SEYMOUR 101
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS 126
SAMUEL F. B. MORSE 127
WILLIAM M. GWIN 170
JAMES SHIELDS 171
JAMES SMITHSON 174
JOSEPH HENRY 175
JOHN REYNOLDS 196
JOSEPH SMITH 197
R. G. INGERSOLL 226
PETER CARTWRIGHT 227
CLEVELAND AND STEVENSON 240
WILLIAM FREEMAN VILAS 241
WILLIAM M. EVARTS 262
JOE WHEELER 263
DAVID DAVIS 286
S. S. PRENTISS 287
EDWIN BOOTH 304
JOSEPH JEFFERSON 305
RUFUS CHOATE 312
ISAAC N. PHILLIPS 313
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 316
W. H. MILBURN 317
R. J. OGLESBY 346
JOSEPH W. FIFER 347
LAWRENCE WELDON 352
THOMAS F. MARSHALL 353
MATTHEW T. SCOTT 372
ADLAI E. STEVENSON 373
LYMAN TRUMBULL 382
HOME OF ADLAI E. STEVENSON, BLOOMINGTON, ILL.
383
SOMETHING OF MEN I HAVE KNOWN
I
ON THE CIRCUIT
DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY AFTER THE CIVIL WAR--SLAVERY THE APPLE OF
DISCORD BEFORE THE WAR--LINCOLN AS A COUNTRY LAWYER--SOCIABILITY
OF THE LAWYERS OF THE PERIOD--THEIR EXCELLENCE AS ORATORS--HENRY
CLAY AS A PARTY LEADER--EULOGIUMS ON LAWYERS--LINCOLN'S ADMIRATION
FOR GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT--THE WRITER'S ADDRESS ON THE LAW AND
LAWYERS.
The period extending from my first election to Congress in 1874,
to my retirement from the Vice-Presidency in 1897, was one of
marvellous development to the country. Large enterprises were
undertaken, and the sure foundation was laid for much of
existing business conditions. The South had recovered from the
sad effects of the Civil War, and had in a measure regained its
former position in the world of trade, as well as in that pertaining
to the affairs of the Government. The population of the country
had almost doubled; the ratio of representation in the Lower House
of Congress largely augmented; the entire electoral vote increased
from 369 to 444. Eight new States had been admitted to the Union,
thus increasing the number of Senators from seventy-four to ninety.
The years mentioned likewise witnessed the passing from the national
stage, with few exceptions, of the men who had taken a conspicuous
part in the great debates directly preceding and during the Civil War
and the reconstruction period which immediately followed. By
the arbitrament of war, and by constitutional amendment, old
questions, for a half-century the prime cause of sectional strife,
had been irrevocably settled, and passed to the domain of history.
New men had come to the front, and new questions were to be discussed
and determined.
To the student of history, the years immediately preceding the
Civil War are of abiding interest. In some of its phases slavery was
the all-absorbing subject of debate throughout the entire country.
It had been the one recognized peril to the Union since the formation
of the Government. Beginning with the debates in the convention
that formulated the Federal Constitution, it remained for seventy
years the apple of discord,--the subject of patriotic apprehension
and repeated compromise. The last serious attempt to settle
this question in the manner just indicated was by the adjustment
known in our political history as "the compromise measures of 1850."
These measures, although bitterly denounced in the South as well
as in the North, received the sanction in national convention of
both of the great parties that two years later presented candidates
for the Presidency. It is not doubt true that a majority of the
people, in both sections of the country, then believed that the
question that had been so fraught with peril to national unity from
the beginning was at length settled for all time. The rude
awakening came two years later, when the country was aroused, as it
had rarely been before, by impassioned debate in and out of Congress,
over the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. It was a period of
excitement such as we shall probably not see again. Slavery in
all its phases was the one topic of earnest discussion, both upon the
hustings and at the fireside. There was little talk now of
compromise. The old-time statesmen of the Clay and Webster, Winthrop
and Crittenden, school soon disappeared from the arena. Men hitherto
comparatively unknown to the country at large were soon to the
front.
Conspicuous among them was a country lawyer whose home was at
Springfield, Illinois. With the mighty events soon to follow, his
name is imperishably linked. But it is not of Lincoln the President,
the emancipator, the martyr, we are now to speak. It is of Lincoln
the country lawyer, as he stepped upon the arena of high debate,
the unswerving antagonist of slavery extension half a century
and more ago.
His home, during his entire professional life, was at the capital of
the State. He was, at the time mentioned, in general practice as a
lawyer and a regular attendant upon the neighboring courts. His
early opportunities for education were meagre indeed. He had been
a student of men, rather than of books. He was, in the most
expressive sense, "of the people,"--the people as they then were.
For,
"Know thou this, that men are as the time is."
His training was, in large measure, under the severe conditions to
be briefly mentioned. The old-time custom of "riding the circuit"
is to the present generation of lawyers only a tradition. The few
who remember central Illinois as it was sixty years ago will readily
recall the full meaning of the expression. The district in which Mr.
Lincoln practised extended from the counties of Livingston and
Woodford upon the north, almost to the Indiana line--embracing the
present cities of Danville, Springfield, and Bloomington. The last
named was the home of the Hon. David Davis, the presiding judge of
the district. As is well known, he was the intimate friend of Mr.
Lincoln, and the latter was often his guest during attendance upon
the courts at Bloomington. At that early day, the term of court
in few of the counties continued longer than a week, so that much of
the time of the judge and the lawyers who travelled the circuit
with him was spent upon horseback. When it is remembered that there
were then no railroads, but few bridges, a sparse population,
and that more than half the area embraced in that district was
unbroken prairie, the real significance of riding the circuit will
fully appear. It was of this period that the late Governor
Ford, speaking of Judge Young,--whose district extended from Quincy,
upon the Mississippi River to Chicago,--said: "He possesses in
rare degree one of the highest requisites for a good circuit judge,
--he is an excellent horseback rider."
At the period mentioned there were few law-books in the State.
The monster libraries of later days had not yet arrived. The
half-dozen volumes of State Reports, together with the Statutes
and a few leading text-books, constituted the lawyer's library.
To an Illinois lawyer upon the circuit, a pair of saddle-bags was an
indispensable part of his outfit. With these, containing the
few books mentioned and a change or two of linen, and supplied with
the necessary horse, saddle and bridle, the lawyer of the pioneer days
was duly equipped for the active duties of his calling. The lack
of numerous volumes of adjudicated cases was, however, not an
unmixed evil. Causes were necessarily argued upon principle. How
well this conduced to the making of the real lawyer is well known.
The admonition, "Beware the man who reads but one book," is of deep
significance. The complaint to-day is not of scarcity, but that
"of the making of many books there is no end." Professor Phelps
is authority for the statement that "it is easy to find single
opinions in which more authorities are cited than were mentioned by
Marshall in the whole thirty years of his unexampled judicial life;
and briefs that contain more cases than Webster referred to in all
the arguments he ever delivered."
The lawyers of the times whereof we write were, almost without
exception, politicians--in close touch with the people, easy of
approach, and obliging to the last degree. Generally speaking,
a lawyer's office was as open to the public as the Courthouse
itself. That his surroundings were favorable to the cultivation
of a high degree of sociability goes without saying. Story-telling
helped often on the circuit to while away the long evenings at
country taverns. At times, perchance,
"the night drave on wi' sangs and clatter."
Oratory counted for much more then than now. When an important
case was on trial all other pursuits were for the time suspended, and
the people for miles around were in prompt attendance. This was
especially the case when it was known that one or more of the
leading advocates were to speak. The litigation, too, was to a
large extent different from that of to-day. The country was
new, population sparse; the luxuries and many of the comforts of
life yet in the future; post-offices, schools, and churches many
miles away. In every cabin were to be found the powder-horn,
bullet-pouch, and rifle. The restraints and amenities of modern
society were in large measure unknown; and altogether much was to
be, and was, "pardoned to the spirit of liberty." There were no
great corporations to be chosen defendants, but much of the time
of the courts was taken up by suits in ejectment, actions for
assault and battery, breach of promise, and slander. One, not
infrequent, was replevin, involving the ownership of hogs, when by
unquestioned usage all stock was permitted to run at large. But
criminal trials of all grades, and in all their details, aroused
the deepest interest. To these the people came from all directions,
as if summoned to a general muster. This was especially true if
a murder case was upon trial. Excitement then ran high, and the
arguments of counsel, from beginning to close, were listened to
with breathless interest. It will readily be seen that such
occasions furnished rare opportunity to the gifted advocate. In
very truth the general acquaintance thus formed, and the popularity
achieved, have marked the beginning of more than one successful
and brilliant political career. Moreover, the thorough knowledge of
the people thus acquired by actual contact--the knowledge of their
condition, necessities, and wishes--resulted often in legislation of
enduring benefit to the new country. The Homestead law, the law
setting apart a moiety of the public domain for the maintenance of
free schools, and judicious provision for the establishment of the
various charities, will readily be recalled.
Politics, in the modern sense--too often merely "for what there is
in it"--was unknown. As stepping-stones to local offices and even
to Congress, the caucus and convention were yet to come. Aspirants
to public place presented their claims directly to the people, and
the personal popularity of the candidate was an important factor
in achieving success. Bribery at elections was rarely heard of.
The saying of the great bard,
"If money go before,
All ways do open lie,"
awaited its verification in a later and more civilized period. As
late even as 1858, when Lincoln and Douglas were rival aspirants
to the Senate, when every voter in the State was a partisan of one
or the other candidate, and the excitement was for many months
intense, there was never, from either side, an intimation of the
corrupt use of a farthing to influence the result.
No period of our history has witnessed more intense devotion to
great party leaders than that of which we write. Of eminent
statesmen, whose names were still invoked, none had filled larger space
than did Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson. The former was the
early political idol of Mr. Lincoln; the latter, of Mr. Douglas.
Possibly, since the foundation of the Government, no statesman has
been so completely idolized by his friends and party as was
Henry Clay. Words are meaningless when the attempt is made to
express the idolatry of the Whigs of his own State for their great
chieftain. For a lifetime he knew no rival. His wish was law
to his followers. In the realm of party leadership a greater than
he hath not appeared. At his last defeat for the Presidency strong
men wept bitter tears. When his star set, it was felt to be the
signal for the dissolution of the great party of which he was
the founder. In words worthy to be recalled, "when the tidings
came like wailing over the State that Harry Percy's spur was cold,
the chivalrous felt somehow the world had grown commonplace."
The following incident, along the line indicated, may be considered
characteristic. While Mr. Clay was a Senator, a resolution, in
accordance with a sometime custom, was introduced into the Kentucky
House of Representatives instructing the Senators from that State to
vote in favor of a certain bill then pending in Congress. The
resolution was in the act of passing without opposition, when a
hitherto silent member from one of the mountain counties, springing
to his feet, exclaimed: "Mr. Speaker, am I to understand that this
Legislature is undertaking _to tell_ Henry Clay how to vote?" The
Speaker answered that such was the purport of the resolution.
At which the member from the mountains, throwing up his arms,
exclaimed "Great God!" and sank into his seat. It is needless
to add that the resolution was immediately rejected by unanimous
vote.
Two-thirds of a century ago the Hon. John P. Kennedy wrote of
the lawyers of his day:
"The feelings, habits, and associations of the bar in general, have
a very happy influence upon the character. And, take it altogether,
there may be collected from it a greater mass of shrewd, observant,
droll, playful, and generous spirits, than from any other equal
numbers of society. They live in each other's presence like a set
of players; congregate in courts like the former in the green room;
and break their unpremeditated jests, in the intervals of business,
with that sort of undress freedom that contrasts amusingly with
the solemn and even tragic seriousness with which they appear in
turn upon the boards. They have one face for the public, rife with
the saws and learned gravity of the profession, and another for
themselves, replete with broad mirth, sprightly wit, and gay
thoughtlessness. The intense mental toil and fatigue of
business give them a peculiar relish for the enjoyment of their
hours of relaxation, and, in the same degree, incapacitate them
for that frugal attention to their private concerns which their
limited means usually require. They have, in consequence, a
prevailing air of unthriftiness in personal matters, which, however
it may operate to the prejudice of the pocket of the individual, has
a mellow and kindly effect upon his disposition. In an old member
of the profession, one who has grown gray in the service, there is
a rich unction of originality that brings him out from the ranks
of his fellowmen in strong relief. His habitual conversancy with the
world in its strangest varieties and with the secret history of
character, gives him a shrewd estimate of the human heart. He
is quiet, and unapt to be struck with wonder at any of the actions
of men. There is a deep current of observation running calmly
through his thoughts, and seldom gushing out in words; the confidence
which has been placed in him, in the thousand relations of his
profession, renders him constitutionally cautious. His acquaintance
with the vicissitudes of fortune, as they have been exemplified in
the lives of individuals, and with the severe afflictions that have
'tried the reins' of many, known only to himself, makes him an
indulgent and charitable apologist of the aberrations of others.
He has an impregnable good humor that never falls below the level of
thoughtfulness into melancholy."
A distinguished writer, two generations ago, said of the early
Western bar:
"Not only was it a body distinguished for dignity and tolerance,
but chivalrous courage was a marked characteristic. Personal
cowardice was odious among the bar, as among the hunters who had
fought the British and the Indians. Hence, insulting language,
and the use of billingsgate, were too hazardous to be indulged
where a personal accounting was a strong possibility. Not only
did common prudence dictate courtesy among the members of the bar,
but an exalted spirit of honor and well-bred politeness prevailed.
The word of a counsel to his adversary was his inviolable bond.
The suggestion of a lawyer as to the existence of a fact was accepted
as verity by the court. To insinuate unprofessional conduct was
to impute infamy."
I distinctly recall the first time I saw Mr. Lincoln. In September,
1852, two lawyers from Springfield, somewhat travel-stained with
their sixty miles' journey, alighted from the stage-coach in front
of the old tavern in Bloomington. The taller and younger of the
two was Abraham Lincoln; the other, his personal friend and former
preceptor, John T. Stuart. That evening it was my good fortune to
hear Mr. Lincoln address a political meeting at the old Courthouse
in advocacy of the election of General Winfield Scott to the
Presidency. The speech was one of great ability, and but little
that was favorable of the military record of General Pierce remained
when the speech was concluded. The Mexican War was then of recent
occurrence, its startling events fresh in the memory of all, and
its heroes still the heroes of the hour. The more than half-century
that has passed has not wholly dispelled my recollection of Mr.
Lincoln's eloquent tribute to "the hero of Lundy's Lane," and his
humorous description of the military career of General Franklin Pierce.
The incident now to be related occurred at the old National Hotel in
Bloomington in September, 1854. Senator Douglas had been advertised
to speak, and a large audience was in attendance. It was his first
appearance there since the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill.
The writer, then a student at the Wesleyan University, with his
classmate James S. Ewing and many others, had called upon Mr.
Douglas at his hotel. While there the Hon. Jesse W. Fell, a
prominent citizen of Bloomington and the close friend of Mr.
Lincoln, also called upon Mr. Douglas, and after some conversation
with him said in substance, that inasmuch as there was profound
interest felt in the great question then pending, and the people
were anxious to hear both sides, he thought it would be well to
have a joint discussion between Judge Douglas and Mr. Lincoln. To
which proposition Mr. Douglas at once demanded, "What party does
Mr. Lincoln represent?" The answer of Mr. Fell was, "the Whig
party, of course." Declining the proposition with much feeling Mr.
Douglas said, "When I came home from Washington I was assailed
in the northern part of the State by an old line abolitionist,
in the central part of the State by a Whig, and in Southern Illinois
by an anti-Nebraska Democrat. I cannot hold the Whig responsible for
what the abolitionist says, nor the anti-Nebraska Democrat responsible
for what either of the others say, and it looks like dogging a man
all over the State." There was no further allusion to the subject,
and Mr. Lincoln soon after called. The greeting between Judge
Douglas and himself was most cordial, and their conversation,
principally of incidents of their early lives, of the most agreeable
and friendly character. Judge Lawrence Weldon, just then at the
beginning of an honorable career, was present at the above interview,
and has in a sketch of Mr. Lincoln given its incidents more in
detail.