Hidden Treasures Part 21

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE.

Robert E. Lee was born in Virginia, at the town of Stafford, June 19th, 1807. He was son of Colonel Henry Lee, of revolutionary fame. He had a commanding military bearing, was a most graceful horseman; he came from good "fighting stock," and as there never was a braver man drew sword, he was well calculated to become the beau-ideal of the Southern Confederacy.

When eighteen years of age he entered the military academy at West Point, where, after a four years' course, he graduated. One thing, General Lee, as a cadet, was an example well worthy of imitation, as he, during his whole four years' course, never received a reprimand, and graduated second only to one in his cla.s.s. From 1829 until 1834, he served as a.s.sistant engineer in the building of forts in the South, and later was a.s.sistant astronomer; aiding in determining the boundary of Ohio. When the Mexican war broke out he was appointed chief engineer for the army under General Scott.

During this war he served with great distinction, being successively breveted major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel, and was wounded once; certain it is that Robert E. Lee gave ample proof of his ability in the Mexican war. In the interim between the Mexican and Civil wars he served his country in various ways, being for some three years superintendent of the West Point Military Academy.

In 1855 two new regiments were formed. Of the second regiment Albert Sidney Johnson was made colonel; Lee, lieutenant-colonel; Hardee and Thomas, majors; Van Dorn and Kirby Smith, captains; among the lieutenants were Stoneman and Hood. One can see that the officers of that regiment were composed of men of no small calibre. When Lincoln was elected Lee was in Texas, but he obtained a leave of absence and hurried to his home in Virginia. General Lee was held in very high esteem by General Scott, who was then at the head of all the Union armies. General Scott was getting very old, too old for active service, and it is stated that he felt strongly inclined to name Lee as his successor, but Lee had other views on the question and he joined his fortune with that of the South.

Perhaps a letter written to his sister will more clearly portray Lee's convictions and motives at the breaking out of hostilities than anything that can be found elsewhere in history:--"The whole South is in a state of revolution into which Virginia has been drawn after a long struggle; and though I recognize no necessity for this state of things and would have forborne and pleaded to the end for redress of grievances, real or supposed, yet in my own person I had to meet the question whether I should take part against my native State. With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home."

These were the words of General Lee to his sister. The idea of certain power reserved from the "central power," as they termed it, had been inculcated since Jefferson and Madison drew up the Kentucky and Virginia resolution in 1798. Upon these did Calhoun claim authority to rest justified when he fostered the idea of State Rights. Had it not been for a sudden wave of popular politics which swept Jefferson into power it might have been Thomas Jefferson or James Madison who would have been known in history as the author of the Nullification Acts which did not come until Calhoun's day.

This doctrine had been taught in the South for several generations, and had enlarged with rolling. The profitable use of slaves helped to sustain it, and it is no wonder, to a careful observer, that these people were carried away by rebellion, when he takes into consideration these things, the characteristics of the people, etc. As it was with Lee, so it was with the South, and despite a.s.sertions to the contrary, we believe that Robert E. Lee was sincere, and not looking after glory any more than other officers of recognized ability, who cast their fortunes with the North.

Then, too, Lee gained his position at the head of the Southern army only after one general had been killed, another wounded, and another stricken with a paralytic stroke; he coming fourth in order.

On June 3d, 1862, Lee received his commission, and immediately launched out upon a series of battles known as the seven-days battle, in which he succeeded in driving McClellan from before Richmond. Pope was now placed in command of the Union forces, and Lee signally defeated him in the second battle of Bull Run. Now he attempted his first invasion of the North, and was forced back in the battle of Antietam. Retreating into Virginia, he ma.s.sed his forces at Fredericksburg. The North being dissatisfied with the slow manner in which McClellan was following Lee, placed Burnside in command, who attacked Lee in his position, but was signally repulsed by the Confederates. He next met Hooker at Chancellorsville, and again success attended the standard of Lee.

Flushed with the great victories of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Lee once more started on an invasion of the North. Meade was now put at the head of the Union forces, who at once started in pursuit. They met at Gettysburgh, Pennsylvania. Three long days of terrible fighting resulted in the repulse of Lee, and he retreated south in good order.

When he reached the Potomac he found it impa.s.sable. If Meade had followed Lee up now he might have gained a glorious victory, but he allowed Lee to escape into Virginia.

General Grant was now placed at the head of the Union forces and Lee found he had other metal with which to deal. Grant was not only made of different material but he could profit by the experience of his predecessors. Then, too, Grant had the great resources of the North behind him and the confidence of President Lincoln. Lee could never replace the 30,000 veterans lost at Gettysburg, but Grant could lose later 80,000 and the government was amply able to replace three times that number. Grant now commenced to starve Lee out, to wear the Confederacy threadbare. The history of the war from now until the close of the war is a series of flanking movements carried on by two most skillful generals. At last Lee was obliged to surrender on the 9th of April, 1865.

After the war he became president of Washington and Lee University, his great popularity and good management gaining for it a large patronage.

He died on the 12th of October, 1870.

HENRY WILSON.

Great honor is due any man who rises from the shoe-maker's bench to be Vice-President of the United States. Such a man was Henry Wilson, who was born at Farmington, New Hampshire, February 16th, 1812. When yet a mere child he was apprenticed to a farmer, whom he was to serve until of age. Eleven long years did he serve this man, receiving only about one year's schooling during that time, but he borrowed books and read nearly one thousand volumes during the "wee sma' hours" of his apprenticeship. Upon obtaining his majority he started on foot for Natick, Ma.s.sachusetts, and entered the town with all his worldly possessions in a bundle. Obtaining employment as a shoemaker he was thus occupied for the next two years. His course of reading, so faithfully followed, had made him proficient in history, but thirsting for additional knowledge he decided to attend school with the money he had saved. About this time he went to Washington, when the sight of slaves bought and sold excited his sympathy, and he decided to forever oppose with all his might the inst.i.tution of bondage, which he always did, no matter how found. Upon his return he found his earnings swept away by the failure of the man to whom he had intrusted them. Accordingly he resumed the shoe business, but his light was beginning to be seen. He was invited to partake in the anti-slavery meetings, then so frequent in Ma.s.sachusetts, and actively engaged in the campaign in which Harrison was elected President, making over sixty speeches.

In 1843 he was elected to the State Senate. Also manufactured shoes on an extended scale for the southern market. The old Whig party, with whom he had been so earnestly allied, proving itself unable to cope with the slave power, by rejecting the anti-slavery resolutions at the convention of 1843, he withdrew from it. Later, he was a conspicuous figure in the organization of the new Free Soil party, being the Chairman of the committee in his State, and editor of the _Boston Republican_. In 1850-52 he was president of the State Senate, and in '52 presided at the Free Soil contention at Pittsburgh. The next year he was the Free Soil candidate for Governor of Ma.s.sachusetts, but was defeated. In 1855 he was chosen United States Senator, where he distinguished himself. When his colleague, Mr. Sumner, was attacked by Preston S. Brooks, Mr. Wilson fearlessly denounced it as a cowardly, not to say dastardly a.s.sault. He was immediately challenged by Mr. Brooks, but declined on the ground that dueling is a barbarous custom which the law of the country has branded as a crime. He was one of the leaders in the new Republican party movement.

During the civil war his labors were indefatigable for the Union, and in 1872 he was elected on that ticket with Grant by an overwhelming majority.

He died in office, November 22nd, 1875, and the boy shoemaker was mourned by a great nation. Truly, the price of success is patient toil.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

If one reads the life of Abraham Lincoln they are thoroughly convinced that the possibilities of our country are indeed very great. He was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, on the 14th day of February, 1809, of very poor parents, who lived in a log cabin.

Scarcely a boy in the country will read these lines but has tenfold the opportunity to succeed in the world as had Abraham Lincoln. When he was still a little boy his parents moved to Indiana, which was then a wilderness. Here, in a log cabin, he learned to read under the tuition of his mother and afterward received nearly a year's schooling at another log cabin a mile away,--nearly a year's schooling and all the schooling he ever received from a tutor!

But he loved books, he craved knowledge and eagerly did he study the few books which fell in his way. He kept a sc.r.a.p-book into which he copied the striking pa.s.sages and this practice enabled him to gain an education. Here he grew up, becoming famous for his great strength and agility; he was six foot four inches in his stockings and was noted as the most skillful wrestler in the country. When he was about twenty years old the Lincoln family moved to Illinois, settling ten miles from Decatur, where they cleared about fifteen acres and built a log cabin.

Here is where Lincoln gained his great reputation as a rail-splitter. He had kept up his original system of reading and sketching, and from this period in his life he became a marked man--he was noted for his information. It makes little difference whether knowledge is gained in college or by the side of a pile of rails, as Lincoln was wont to study after his day's work was done.

In 1830 he took a trip on a flat-boat to New Orleans. It was on this trip that he first saw slaves chained together and whipped. Ever after, he detested the inst.i.tution of slavery. Upon his return he received a challenge from a famous wrestler; he accepted and threw his antagonist.

About this time he became a clerk in a country store, where his honesty and square dealing made him a universal favorite, and earned for him the sobriquet of 'Honest Abe.' He next entered the Black Hawk war, and was chosen captain of his company. Jefferson Davis also served as an officer in this war. In the fall of 1832 he was a candidate for the legislature, but was defeated. He then opened a store with a partner named Berry. Lincoln was made postmaster, but Berry proved a drunkard and spendthrift, bringing the concern to bankruptcy, and soon after died, to fill a drunkard's grave, leaving Lincoln to pay all the debts.

But during all this time Lincoln had been improving his spare moments learning surveying, and for the next few years he earned good wages surveying.

He now decided to become a lawyer, and devoted his attention, so far as possible, to the acc.u.mulation of a thorough knowledge. At one period during his studies he walked, every Sat.u.r.day, to Springfield, some eight miles away, to borrow and return books pertaining to his studies. These books he studied nights, and early in the morning, out of working hours.

In 1834 he was once more a candidate for the legislature, and was triumphantly elected, being re-elected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. In 1837, when he had arrived at the age of twenty-eight, he was admitted to the bar, where he soon became noted as a very successful pleader before a jury. He was a Whig of the Henry Clay school, a splendid lawyer, and a ready speaker at public gatherings.

In 1836 he first met Stephen A. Douglas who was destined to be his adversary in the political arena for the next twenty years. Stephen A.

Douglas was, or soon became the leader of the Democracy in Illinois and Lincoln spoke for the Whigs as against Douglas. In 1847 Lincoln was sent to Congress, being chosen over the renowned Peter Cartwright, who was the Democratic candidate. In Congress he vigorously opposed President Polk and the Mexican war, and proposed a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, provided the inhabitants would vote for it. In 1855 he withdrew from the contest for the United States Senatorship in favor of Mr. Trumbull, whom he knew would draw away many Democratic votes and to Lincoln was due Trumbull's election. During the canva.s.s he met Stephen A. Douglas in debate at Springfield, where he exploded the theory of 'Squatter Sovereignty' in one sentence, namely: "I admit that the emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to govern himself, but I deny his right to govern any other person without that person's consent."

In 1858 he had his great contest for the United States Senatorship with Douglas. At that time Judge Douglas was renowned throughout the nation as one of the ablest, if not the ablest of American speakers. Horace Greeley well said, "The man who stumps a State with Stephen A. Douglas and meets him day after day before the people has got to be no fool."

The tremendous political excitement growing out of the 'Kansas-Nebraska Act,' and the agitation of the slavery question, in its relation to the vast territory of Kansas and Nebraska, convulsed the nation. The interest was greatly heightened from the fact that these two great gladiators, Stephen A. Douglas, the great mouth-piece of the Democratic party and champion of 'Squatter Sovereignty,' and Abraham Lincoln, a prominent lawyer, but otherwise comparatively unknown, the opponent of that popular measure and the coming champion of the anti-slavery party.

The question at issue was immense--permanent, not transient--universal, not local, and the debate attracted profound attention on the part of the people, whether Democratic or Free Soil, from the Kennebec to the Rio Grande. Mr. Douglas held that the vote of the majority of the people of a territory should decide this as well as all other questions concerning their domestic or internal affairs. Mr. Lincoln, on the contrary, urged the necessity of an organic enactment, excluding slavery in any form--this last to be the condition of its admission into the Union as a State. The public mind was divided and the utterances and movements of every public man were closely scanned. Finally, after the true western style, a joint discussion, face to face, between Lincoln and Douglas, as the two representative leaders, was proposed and agreed upon. It was arranged that they should have seven great debates, one each at Ottawa, Freeport, Charleston, Jonesboro, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton.

Processions and cavalcades, bands of music and cannon-firing made every day a day of excitement. But the excitement was greatly intensified from the fact that the oratorical contests were between two such skilled debaters, before mixed audiences of friends and foes, to rejoice over every keen thrust at the adversary, and again to be cast down by each failure to 'give back as good,' or to parry the thrust so aimed.

In personal appearance, voice, gesture and general platform style, nothing could exceed the dissimilarity of these two speakers. Mr.

Douglas possessed a frame or build particularly attractive; a natural presence which would have gained for him access to the highest circles, however courtly, in any land; a thickset, finely built, courageous man, with an air as natural to him as breath, of self-confidence that did not a little to inspire his supporters with hope. That he was every inch a man no friend or foe ever questioned. Ready, forceful, animated, keen, playful, by turns, and thoroughly artificial; he was one of the most admirable platform speakers that ever appeared before an American audience, his personal geniality, too, being so abounding that, excepting in a political sense, no antagonism existed between him and his opponent.

Look at Lincoln. In personal appearance, what a contrast to his renowned opponent. Six feet and four inches high, long, lean and wiry in motion; he had a good deal of the elasticity and awkwardness which indicated the rough training of his early life; his face genial looking, with good humor lurking in every corner of its innumerable angles. Judge Douglas once said, "I regard Lincoln as a kind, amiable and intelligent gentleman, a good citizen and an honorable opponent." As a speaker he was ready, precise, fluent and his manner before a popular a.s.sembly was just as he pleased to make it; being either superlatively ludicrous or very impressive. He employed but little gesticulation but when he desired to make a point produced a shrug of the shoulders, an elevation of the eyebrows, a depression of his mouth and a general malformation of countenance so comically awkward that it scarcely ever failed to 'bring down the house.' His enunciation was slow and distinct, and his voice though sharp and piercing at times had a tendency to dwindle into a shrill and unpleasant tone. In this matter of voice and commanding att.i.tude, the odds were decidedly in favor of Judge Douglas.

Arrangements having been consummated, the first debate took place at Ottawa, in Lasalle county, and a strong Republican district. The crowd in attendance was a large one, and about equally divided--the enthusiasm of the Democracy having brought more than a due proportion of their numbers to hear and see their favorite leader. The thrilling tones of Douglas, his manly defiance against the principles he believed to be wrong a.s.sured his friends, if any a.s.surance were wanting, that he was the same unconquered and unconquerable Democrat that he had proved to be for the previous twenty-five years.

Douglas opened the discussion and spoke one hour; Lincoln followed, the time a.s.signed him being an hour and a half, though he yielded a portion of it. It was not until the second meeting, however, that the speakers grappled with those profound public questions that had thus brought them together, and in which the nation was intensely interested. The debates were a wonderful exhibition of power and eloquence.

In the first debate Mr. Douglas arraigned his opponent for the expression in a former speech of a "House divided against itself,"

etc.,--referring to the slavery and anti-slavery sections of the country; and Mr. Lincoln defended those ideas as set forth in the speech referred to. As Mr. Lincoln's position in relation to one or two points growing out of the former speech referred to, had attracted great attention throughout the country, he availed himself of the opportunity of this preliminary meeting to reply to what he regarded as common misconceptions. "Anything," he said, "that argues me into the idea of perfect social and political equality with the negro is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words, by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse. I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the inst.i.tution of slavery in the States where it now exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and black races. There is a physical difference between the two which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together upon a footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a matter of necessity that there must be a difference I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong, having the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not ent.i.tled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuits of happiness. I hold that he is as much ent.i.tled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects--certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral and intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread without the leave of any one else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man."

Touching the question of respect or weight of opinion due to deliverance of the United States Supreme Court--an element which entered largely into this national contest, Mr. Lincoln said: "This man--Douglas--sticks to a decision which forbids the people of a territory from excluding slavery, and he does so, not because he says it is right in itself--he does not give any opinion on that, but because it has been decided by the Court, and being decided by the Court, he is, and you are bound to take it in your political action as law; not that he judges at all of its merits, but because a decision of the Court is to him a 'Thus saith the Lord.' He places it on that ground alone, and you will bear in mind that thus committing himself unreservedly to this decision, commits him to the next one just as firmly as to this. He did not commit himself on account of the merit or demerit of the decision, but is a 'Thus saith the Lord.' The next decision, as much as this, will be a 'Thus saith the Lord.' There is nothing that can divert or turn him away from this decision. It is nothing that I point out to him that his great prototype, General Jackson, did not believe in the binding force of decisions--it is nothing to him that Jefferson did not so believe. I have said that I have often heard him approve of Jackson's course in disregarding the decision of the Supreme Court, p.r.o.nouncing a national bank unconst.i.tutional. He says: I did not hear him say so; he denies the accuracy of my recollection. I say he ought to know better than I, but I will make no question about this thing, though it still seems to me I heard him say it twenty times. I will tell him, though, that he now claims to stand on the Cincinnati platform which affirms that Congress _cannot_ charter a national bank, in the teeth of that old standing decision that Congress _can_ charter a bank. And I remind him of another piece of history on the question of respect for judicial decisions, and it is a piece of Illinois history belonging to a time when the large party to which Judge Douglas belonged were displeased with a decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois, because they had decided that a Governor could not remove a Secretary of State. I know that Judge Douglas will not deny that he was then in favor of oversloughing that decision by the mode of adding five new judges, so as to vote down the four old ones.

Not only so, but it ended in the judge's sitting down on that very bench, as one of the five new judges so as to break down the four old ones." In this strain Mr. Lincoln occupied most of his time. But the debate was a very equal thing, and the contest did not prove a 'walk over' either way.

At the meeting in Ottawa Mr. Lincoln propounded certain questions to which Judge Douglas promptly answered. Judge Douglas spoke in something of the following strain: "He desires to know if the people of Kansas shall form a const.i.tution by means entirely proper and un.o.bjectionable, and ask admission into the Union as a State before they have the requisite population for a member of Congress, whether I will vote for that admission? Well, now, I regret exceedingly that he did not answer that interrogatory himself before he put it to me, in order that we might understand and not be left to infer on which side he is. Mr.

Trumbull during the last session of Congress voted from the beginning to the end against the admission of Oregon, although a free State, because she had not the requisite population. As Mr. Trumbull is in the field fighting for Mr. Lincoln, I would like to have Mr. Lincoln answer his own question and tell me whether he is fighting Trumbull on that issue or not. But I will answer his question. In reference to Kansas it is my opinion that as she has population enough to const.i.tute a slave State, she has people enough for a free State. I will not make Kansas an exceptional case to the other States of the Union. I made that proposition in the Senate in 1856, and I renewed it during the last session in a bill providing that no territory of the United States should form a const.i.tution and apply for admission until it had the requisite population. On another occasion I proposed that neither Kansas nor any other territory should be admitted until it had the requisite population. Congress did not adopt any of my propositions containing this general rule, but did make an exception of Kansas. I will stand by that exception. Either Kansas must come in as a free State, with whatever population she may have, or the rule must be applied to all the other territories alike."

Mr. Douglas next proceeded to answer another question proposed by Mr.

Lincoln, namely: Whether the people of a territory can, in any lawful way, against the wishes of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a State const.i.tution. Said Judge Douglas: "I answer emphatically, as Mr. Lincoln has heard me answer a hundred times from every stump in Illinois, that in my opinion the people of a territory can, by lawful means, exclude slavery from their limits prior to the formation of a State const.i.tution. Mr. Lincoln knew that I had answered that question over and over again. He heard me argue the Nebraska Bill on that principle all over the State in 1854, in 1855 and in 1856, and he has no excuse for pretending to be in doubt as to my position. It matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract question, whether slavery may or may not go into a territory under the const.i.tution, the people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour unless it is supported by local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be established by the local legislature, and if the people are opposed to slavery they will elect representatives to that body who will, by unfriendly legislation, effectually prevent the introduction of it into their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it their legislation will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the people to make a slave territory or free territory is perfect and complete under the Nebraska Bill."

It was with great vigor and adroitness that the two great combatants went over the ground at the remaining five places of debate, all of which were attended and listened to by immense concourses. On both sides the speeches were able, eloquent, exhaustive. It was admitted by Lincoln's friends that on several occasions he was partly foiled, or at least badly bothered, while on the other hand the admirers of Douglas allowed that in more than one instance he was flatly and fairly floored by Lincoln. It was altogether about an equal match in respect to ability, logic, and eloquence. Both of them were self-made men; both of them were able lawyers and politicians; both sprang from obscurity to distinction; both belonged to the common people; and both were strong and popular with the ma.s.ses.