Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs Volume I Part 21

XXVI THE MILITARY COMMISSION OF 1862 AND GENERAL FREMONT

In the month of May, or early in June 1862, I received a message from Mr. Stanton asking me to report in Washington, prepared to serve upon a commission at Cairo, Illinois. Upon arriving at Washington, I was informed that it would be the duty of the commission to examine claims that might be preferred against the Government, from the States of Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. These claims had arisen from the operations of General Fremont and they were of great variety. At the end the commission were of the opinion that he was an expensive commander. Charles A. Dana was chairman of the commission, and Judge Logan, of Springfield, Illinois, an old friend of President Lincoln, was my a.s.sociate. The health of Judge Logan soon failed, and he was succeeded by Mr. Cullom, afterwards Governor of Illinois, and a member of the United States Senate.

Our life at Cairo was disagreeable to an extent that cannot be realized easily. In the months of June and July the weather was extremely hot. The army of General Grant had quartered in and around the town during the preceding winter. The larger portion of the town inside of the levee, had been covered with water to the depth of several feet. Much of the refuse of the army, including some dead animals, had been left upon the surface of the ground. Sickness was general among the inhabitants. Health was the exception. We had our quarters upon the levee, and before a long time had pa.s.sed we organized a mess with General Strong, the officer in command at that point. For myself I drank only tea and water from Iowa ice. With this drink and a moderate diet, I preserved my health. It was our fate each evening to witness and endure a collision of the thunder showers, one coming down the Mississippi, and the other down the Ohio.

Late in the afternoon we had the benefit of a trip upon a Government boat up the Ohio as far as Mound City. Once of a Sunday we made a trip to Columbus, Kentucky, then in command of General Quimby, of New York. We there met General Dodge, afterward a member of Congress from Iowa and subsequently a successful railway operator.

At Columbus we had a collation on the boat, where speeches were made by officers and civilians, in support of the war and for emanc.i.p.ation.

On our return to Cairo, we were met by the customary evening shower, an unwelcome attendant upon a steamboat excursion.

My acquaintance with Mr. Dana gave me a high opinion of his business habits and faculties, and when General Grant became President and I was in charge of the Treasury, I urged the President to appoint Mr. Dana collector of the port of New York. The President had already selected Mr. Grinnell, but whether he had communicated the fact to Mr. Grinnell I never knew. Moreover, the President had formed an unfavorable opinion of Mr. Dana, arising from some intercourse during the war.

Consequently, my advice was unavailing. The President said, however, that I might offer him the post of chief appraiser of the port of New York. The offer was declined; and from that time forward Mr. Dana was the President's bitter enemy. As another result, there was no further communication between Mr. Dana and myself. Once I saw him upon a steamer, but we did not recognize each other. In the year 1887, in consequence of a paragraph in the New York _Sun_ in which my name was mentioned, not unkindly, I wrote a brief note to Mr. Dana. Without delay I received from him a long and almost affectionate letter, in which he urged me to let him know when I was in New York, that he might call upon me, and talk over some things old, and some things new.

I called upon him in New York at his office, where we had a pleasant chat of an hour. His office was plain, without carpets, the floor was worn rough, rather than smooth, and the appearance of the rooms was a striking contrast to the editorial rooms of prosperous journalists generally.

My experience at Cairo gave me a poor opinion of Fremont's qualities as a business man, but in the early part of his career he had exhibited capacity of a high order as a bold and successful explorer of the then unknown regions of the Rocky Mountains. He had also exhibited genius as a soldier, which led to high expectations which were not realized when he came to important commands in the Civil War. My studied opinion of General Fremont is contained in an article that I prepared for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which society he was an honorary member:

ARTICLE ON GENERAL FREMONT

It is a singular circ.u.mstance in the career of John C. Fremont that his important services as an explorer and his contributions to science were brought to a close when he was scarcely more than thirty-four years of age. He was born in the State of Georgia in the year 1813, and from the year 1842 to the year 1846 inclusive, he undertook and carried to a successful result three expeditions from the Mississippi River across the plains, and finally over both chains of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Jefferson, during his administration had realized the importance of securing "open over-land commercial relations with Asia," as stated in one of his messages to Congress, and, as a preparation for establishing such relations with Asia, he originated and organized the expedition of Lewis and Clark, whose duty it was to trace the affluents of the Columbia River now known as Snake River and Clarke's Fork.

Fremont's early education was obtained under the charge largely of Dr.

John Roberton, a Scotchman, who had been educated at Edinburgh, and who had established himself at Charleston, S. C., as a teacher of the ancient languages. Dr. Roberton says that in the s.p.a.ce of a year Fremont read four books of Caesar, six books of Vergil, nearly all of Horace, and two books of Livy; and in Greek, all the Graeca Minora, about half of the Graeca Majora, and four books of Homer's Iliad. At the end of a year he entered the Junior Cla.s.s of Charleston College, where he gained high standing for study and in scholarship; but for insubordination he was expelled from the college.

In 1833 he was appointed teacher of mathematics in the Navy, and made a cruise to South America, which occupied about two and a half years of time. While absent, a law was pa.s.sed creating the office of professor of mathematics in the Navy, for which Fremont upon his return was examined, and appointed. Without entering upon the duties of the place, he declined the position, and accepted the post of surveyor and railroad engineer upon the railway line between Charleston and Augusta.

In 1838 and 1839 he was a.s.sociated with M. Nicollet, a Frenchman and a member of the Academy of Science, in an exploring expedition over the Northwestern prairie and along the valley of the Mississippi. During his absence, he was appointed by President Van Buren a second lieutenant in the corps of topographical engineers. Upon his return from the Upper Mississippi, and for the period of a year, he was engaged with Nicollet and Mr. Ha.s.sler, then the head of the Coast Survey, in the arrangement of the scientific materials that had been collected during the expedition, and in the preparation of a map and a report. In 1842 he was directed by Colonel Abert, the chief of the topographical corps, to make an exploration of the Northwestern frontier of the State of Missouri to the Rocky Mountains, and with special reference to an examination of what was known as South Pa.s.s in those mountains. This expedition was on a small scale, consisting of twenty-one men only, most of whom were of French extraction. In this expedition he traced the waters of the Platte to the South Pa.s.s, which he reached the 8th of August. It was stated by Dr. Linn, then a Senator from the State of Missouri, that "over the whole course of the road barometrical observations were made by Mr. Fremont to ascertain the elevations both of the plains and of the mountains, astronomical observations were made to ascertain lat.i.tudes and longitudes, the face of the country was marked as arable or sterile, the facility of traveling and the practicability of routes noted, the grand features of nature described and some represented in drawings, military positions indicated, and a large contribution to geology and botany was made in varieties of plants, flowers, shrubs, trees and gra.s.ses, and rocks and earths, which were enumerated." The second expedition of May, 1843, was upon a larger scale, and it was not completed until the month of July, 1844. He was directed to extend his survey across the continent, on the line of travel between the State of Missouri and the tide-water region of the Columbia.

In its execution, much more ground was covered than had been contemplated in the order. Fremont was the first person that visited the basin of the Great Salt Lake who was able to furnish a scientific and accurate description of the region. Von Humboldt, in his work ent.i.tled "Aspects of Nature" (pp. 32-34) has given a summary of the results reached by Fremont in his first and second expeditions, as follows:

"Fremont's map and geographical researches embrace the immense tract of land extending from the confluence of the Kansas River with the Missouri to the cataracts of the Columbia, and the missions of Santa Barbara and the Pueblo de los Angeles in New California, presenting a s.p.a.ce amounting to 28 degrees of longitude (about 1,300 miles) between the 34th and 35th parallels of north lat.i.tude. Four hundred points have been hypsometrically determined by barometrical measurements, and for the most part astronomically; so that it has been rendered possible to delineate the profile above the sea's level of a tract of land measuring 3,600 miles, with all its inflections, extending from the north of Kansas to Fort Vancouver and to the coasts of the South Sea (almost 720 miles more than the distance from Madrid to Tobolsk). As I believe I was the first who attempted to represent, in geognostic profile, the configuration of Mexico, and the Cordilleras of South America,--for the half-perspective projections of the Siberian traveler, the Abbe Chappe* were based upon mere, and for the most part on very inaccurate, estimates of the falls of rivers,--it has afforded me special satisfaction to there find the graphical method of representing the earth's configuration in a vertical direction, that is, the elevation of a solid over fluid parts, achieved on so vast a scale. In the mean lat.i.tude of 37 degrees to 43 degrees, the Rocky Mountains present, besides the great snow-crowned summits, whose height may be compared to that of the Peak of Teneriffe, elevated plateaux of an extent scarcely to be met with in any other part of the world, and whose breadth from east to west is almost twice that of the Mexican highlands. From the range of mountains which being a little westward of Fort Laramie, to the farther side of the Wasatch Mountains, the elevation of the soil is uninterruptedly maintained from 5,000 to upwards of 7,000 feet above the sea level; nay, this elevated portion occupies the whole s.p.a.ce between the true Rocky Mountains and the Californian snowy coast range from 34 degrees to 45 degrees north lat.i.tude. This district, which is a kind of broad longitudinal valley, like that of Lake t.i.ticaca, has been named the _Great Basin_ by Joseph Walker and Captain Fremont, travelers well acquainted with those western regions. It is a _terra incognita_ of at least 128,000 English square miles, almost uninhabited, and full of salt lakes, the largest of which is 3,940 Parisian (or 4,200 English) feet above the level of the sea, and is connected with the narrow Lake Utah,** into which the 'Rock River' (_Timpan Ogo_ in the Utah language) pours its copious stream."

Fremont's third expedition was commenced August 16, 1845, under instructions to explore the interior of the region known as the Great Basin, and the maritime ports of Oregon and California. The first important incident of that expedition was the message of General Castro, ordering Fremont to leave the Territory. This was in the month of March, 1846. At the moment, Fremont refused to obey the order, and proceeded to fortify his camp, where he raised the United State flag, and remained for about three days. On further consideration, however, he left his camp and proceeded north towards Oregon. In the early part of the month of May he was overtaken by a messenger named Neal, who informed him that Lieutenant Gillespie, an agent of the Government at Washington, was on his way, charged with the delivery of letters, and with verbal instructions from the authorities. Upon receipt of this information, Fremont changed his course, and on the second day met Gillespie, who brought only a letter of introduction from the Secretary of State, Mr. Buchanan, with letters and papers from Senator Benton. From Gillespie he learned that it was the purpose of the authorities to ascertain the disposition of the inhabitants of California, to conciliate their feelings in favor of the United States, and to counteract as far as possible any designs of the British Government upon that Territory. Fremont made his way to the settled parts of California, near Monterey, where he found Commodore Sloat in command of a United States fleet. In co-operation with him and largely through Fremont's agency, the Mexican authorities were dispersed, the flag of the United States was raised at Monterey and other points, and all was accomplished before information was received of the existence of war between the United States and Mexico.

These proceedings were justified by the Government of the United States. In the month of December following, Brigadier-General S. W.

Kearny arrived in the Territory, and ultimately there was a conflict between him and Commodore Stockton, who had succeeded Commodore Sloat, as to the command of the forces in California. Until the arrival of Kearny, Fremont had been acting under the orders of Commodore Stockton, had raised troops, and had received from him the appointment of Governor of the Territory. General Kearny, in a.s.serting his authority as commander-in-chief, ordered Fremont to raise troops and submit himself to his orders. This Fremont declined to do, giving as his reason that he had acted under Commodore Stockton, that it was their duty to adjust their differences, and that until they had done so, he should act under the orders of Commodore Stockton. This course on his part led to his arrest while on his way to Washington, and his trial by a court martial upon three charges: "1st, mutiny; 2nd, disobedience of orders; and 3d, conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline." On these charges he was convicted, and sentenced by the court martial to be dismissed from the service. Six of the officers who were of the court recommended him to the clemency of the President.

The President disapproved of the findings of the court as to the charge of mutiny, but expressed the opinion that the second and third charges were sustained by the proofs; but that, in consideration of the valuable services of Lieutenant Colonel Fremont, the penalty of dismissal from the service was remitted. When the findings of the court were announced, and the action of the President was made known to Fremont, he wrote a letter to the Adjutant-General resigning his commission as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Army, and giving as a reason that he could not, by accepting the clemency of the President, admit the justice of the sentence.

It is not easy, from a legal point of view, to justify the action of the President. If the conduct of Fremont in refusing to recognize the authority of General Kearny was an offence, it must have rested upon the fact that Kearny exhibited to him evidence which should have satisfied a reasonable person that he had authority from the President to take command of the military forces in California; and if such authority was exhibited to Fremont and he refused obedience, his refusal const.i.tuted the crime of mutiny. The other offences charged against Fremont would have followed as a matter of course; but in the absence of proof that he was guilty of mutiny, there was no evidence whatever on which the minor charges could be sustained. Thus ended Fremont's military services and his career as an explorer when he was less than thirty-four years of age.

Fremont's subsequent career may be considered under three heads.

First, in business affairs, in which, apparently, he was unsuccessful.

Next, he was the first candidate of the Republican Party for the office of President of the United States. His acceptance of the nomination, and his letters and statements touching the policy and purposes of the new organization were not merely formal, but they were p.r.o.nounced declarations in favor of the movement, with clear expressions in harmony with the object of the party, which was the prevention of the extension of slavery in the Territories. Although a Southern man by birth his devotion to the freedom of the Territories was as ardent as that of Lincoln, or any of the other leaders of the time. Finally, in the Civil War, he made a tender of his services to the Government, and as Major-General, and in command of the forces in the Department of Missouri, he issued a proclamation of emanc.i.p.ation of the slaves within his jurisdiction. This proclamation was countermanded by the President, and for the sufficient reason that he reserved to himself the absolute control of the question of the abolition of slavery in the seceding States and within the lines of our armies. It cannot be said that Fremont's military career was marked by any signal successes, but there can be no doubt of his ardent devotion to the cause of his country.

[* Chappe d'Auteroche, "Voyage en Sibirie," fait en 1761, 4 vols., 4th ed., Paris, 1768.

** Fremont "Report of the Exploring Expedition," pp. 154 and 273-276.]

XXVII ORGANIZATION OF THE INTERNAL REVENUE SYSTEM IN THE UNITED STATES

Before the work at Cairo was finished I received a message from Mr.

Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, asking me to come to Washington and take charge of the Internal Revenue Office, or rather, to organize it under a statute then recently pa.s.sed, but which I had not seen. After a conversation with Mr. Dana, who advised me to accept the place, I returned to Washington, where I arrived July 16, 1862. After an interview with Mr. Chase I took the oath of office before Mr. Justice Wayne of the Supreme Court. He was then aged and that fact may have deterred him from following the example of his younger a.s.sociate, Justice Campbell, who resigned his office, and joined in the work of secession. Judge Wayne was disposed to conversation, but he made no allusion to the war and the issues involved.

I was a.s.signed to a small room on the first floor of the Treasury building, on the right of the lower door fronting on Pennsylvania Avenue. First, I read the statute and formed for myself an idea of the process by which the machine was to be set in motion. The statute was a remarkable exhibition of legislative wisdom under the circ.u.mstances, but it was incomplete in parts rather than imperfect in plan. In the course of two or three days Mr. Chase a.s.signed to me three clerks from other offices in the Treasury, and all of them were very competent a.s.sistants--Mr. Estes, Mr. George Parnell, and Mr. A. B.

Johnson. The order of a.s.signment I do not recall. Mr. Estes went to New York in a few months, where he engaged in business. Mr. Parnell remained in the department many years and until his death. Mr. Johnson was subsequently transferred to the Lighthouse Board, of which he is the chief clerk.

We first considered what blanks would be needed to enable a.s.sessors and collectors to perform their duties and make proper records and returns. Then we devised the books for the local offices, and for the offices in Washington. There was but one error as tested by experience in the preparations of the blanks and books, and the forms were followed in the department, except so far as changes in the law required alteration. Thus far there has never been a fraud or defalcation that was attributable to inadequate checks in the system.

While I was at the head of the office, Mr. Chase never required me to retain a clerk who was incompetent or untrustworthy. There were times, however, when he looked to appointments with reference to Presidential preferences, and he always considered himself in the line of succession.

Mr. Chase's mental processes were slow, but time being given, he had the capacity to form sound opinions. Not infrequently, when I called at his office for conference, he would say: "My mind is preoccupied-- you must either decide for yourself, or call again." As a result, he never gave an opinion or tendered any advice in relation to the business of the Internal Revenue Office while I was at the head of it.

Mr. Chase had only a limited knowledge of the business of the department. Indeed, only a very extraordinary man could have administered the business of the department systematically, with a daily or frequent knowledge of the doings of the many heads of bureaus and divisions, and at the same time have matured and put into operation, the financial measures which were required by the exigencies of the war.

Mr. Chase's three great measures were the Abolition of State Banks and the subst.i.tution of the National Banking System, the issue of the United States legal tender notes, and the issue of the Five-Twenty Bonds. In combination, as a financial system, they enabled the country to carry a debt of three thousand million dollars, and it is probable that a debt of six thousand million would not have paralyzed the public credit. It is an instance of the frailty of human nature, when men are in the presence of great temptations, that when he became Chief Justice of the United States, he announced the opinion that the issue of United States legal tender notes was unconst.i.tutional. That measure was the key to his financial system, and a measure indispensable to the prosecution of the war. It was a forced loan, but in an exigency a government has as good a right to force capital into the public service as to force men. If in 1862 Mr. Chase had acted upon the doctrine set forth in his judicial opinion in the Hepburn and Griswold case, the probability is that the government of Mr.

Lincoln would have been reduced financially to an equality with the government of the Confederate States. The ultimate reversal of that opinion is the most important act of the Supreme Court. It gives to the political department of the Government, the power to convert all the resources of the country into the means of defence in time of war, foreign or domestic.

While I held the office of commissioner of internal revenue, I had occasion to consult Mr. Bates, the Attorney-General. He was a kind hearted gentleman, but lacking in vigor and official independence.

There was no provision in the statute for a cashier. The law contemplated that the money would be paid to the commissioner. As it was impossible for me to perform that duty personally, I asked Mr.

Chase for authority to appoint Mr. Marshall Conant, who had been and perhaps then was princ.i.p.al of the Normal School, at Bridgewater, Ma.s.s., a clerk in the office, and a.s.sign him to duty as cashier. He was appointed to a twelve hundred dollar clerkship, from which he was advanced to fourteen and then to sixteen hundred dollars. From September 1, 1862, to March 3, 1863, he collected and accounted for about thirty-seven million dollars, without any other security than his own good name, and all for a compensation of about eight hundred dollars. I urged Congress to make some adequate compensation, but the request was neglected. When I was in the Senate, I renewed the effort in behalf of his widow, but the attempt was a failure.

The organization of the office was effected by systematic processes.

From manufacturers, from a.s.sessors and collectors, and from other interested parties numerous inquiries came to the office. The letters containing these inquiries were thrown into a basket, and reserved for the evening sessions, at which the heads of divisions--as divisions were created--were required to attend. These letters were read at the conferences, and when a conclusion was reached, the letter containing the inquiry was put aside for answer. The other letters were held for further consideration. All unanswered letters were read and considered every evening. Letters often remained unanswered for days, and perhaps for weeks, but at length the answer would be reached. By this process the decisions were rendered harmonious. I had the aid of two short- hand writers, and between 8:30 and 10 A. M., I was able usually to dictate the answers and in sufficient quant.i.ty to occupy the short-hand writers till 3 o'clock P. M., when the answers were submitted to me.

These I read, corrected and signed. They were then referred to the respective divisions for future guidance. Thereafter all inquiries which had been so answered, were treated as routine business, and the letters in reply were signed without inquiry by clerks or by myself.

Thus it happened that we were not often compelled to reverse our rulings, and generally they were sustained by the courts.

Mr. S. M. Clark, then superintendent of the Bureau of Printing, was greatly disappointed when I decided to reject all his designs for stamps, and required him to introduce the likeness of Washington after Stuart into each stamp. As far as I know, the internal revenue stamps were never approved or criticized by the critics nor by the public.

After advertis.e.m.e.nt a contract was made with Messrs. Butler and Carpenter, of Philadelphia, to furnish the stamps of all sizes, and to meet the expense of the engraving, at the rate of thirteen cents per thousand. In the year 1873 I received from Mr. Carpenter an alb.u.m which contained proof specimens of every internal revenue adhesive stamp, public and private, engraved and printed, previous to March, 1873. This volume may contain the only complete collection of stamps issued from the Internal Revenue Office previous to that year.

When we were about to make appointments of a.s.sessors, and of collectors of internal revenue, Mr. Thurlow Weed called at the office, and said that if I would allow him to see the New York papers he would give me his opinion of the qualifications of the candidates, and any facts within his knowledge. This he did, and with entire fairness, as I now believe. He distinguished between the Seward men and the opponents of Seward, treating their merits and weaknesses without prejudice or feeling. Again, when the collectors' bonds had been filed, he examined them, and under his advice, the princ.i.p.als, in several cases, were required to add to the strength of the security. Mr. Chase took no part in the appointment of collectors and a.s.sessors, beyond the designation of two collectors, one in Ohio, and one in Ma.s.sachusetts, with whom he was acquainted. Mr. Lincoln also designated two, one in Illinois and one in California, and for the same reason. Of these, three proved unworthy. They may have a.s.sumed upon the way of their appointment, as security against discipline or removal. The rest were appointed upon written recommendations, and for the most part the duties were well performed to the end of their terms, and some of them held their places for more than twenty years. The appointments were made in August and September when visits to Washington were not agreeable. In a number of recommendations for a candidate, if he is not entirely worthy, some of the letters of commendation will indicate weakness. The whole ground will not be covered, or there will be qualifications. A candidate so weakened should always be pa.s.sed by.

Letters are the safest basis of action in appointments to office.

Personal appeals are made most usually by interested parties.

At the time of the disasters to Pope and McClellan, Mr. Chase was demoralized completely. He said to me:

"We have only to wait for the end."

He took me to the President, and said that he could take no part in the appointments. In that period Mr. Chase was very bitter in his criticisms of the President. He thought him very slow in regard to emanc.i.p.ation. Of this opinion there was a formidable knot around Washington, Mr. Chase and Mr. Sumner being at their head. Indeed, their opinion in that particular was shared by many, myself among them, but I never lost confidence in the purposes of Mr. Lincoln, and I well knew that the way of safety was to maintain the closest relations with him. No one who knew him had any ground to doubt his good intentions.

The truth was, that Mr. Chase was a candidate for the Presidency whenever he had the courage to believe in the preservation of the Government.

From July to the end of December, 1862, I went to the office before breakfast, then during the day, and then again in the evening. My only exercise was a ride on horseback after office hours and before dinner.

When Pope's army was driven within the entrenchments of Washington, General Banks was made military commander of the district. I was then living in a house at the corner of G and Twenty-first Streets, which my friend Mr. Hooper tendered me during the recess of Congress upon the condition that I would retain, pay and maintain his servants. Among them was his cook, Monaky, who had been cook for Mr. Webster. When Fletcher Webster was killed, she was in great grief. I invited General Banks to make his quarters with me, and I had thus some means of knowing the condition of affairs in the army and around the district.

While he was with me, we called upon General Hooker at the asylum, the Insane Hospital, on the east side of the east branch of the Potomac River, to which place he had been sent to be treated for a wound in his leg, which he had received at the Battle of Antietam. He was violent in his denunciation of McClellan for not using his entire force, and for not following the enemy--claiming that the whole body might have been destroyed. Barring his violence of language, and the impropriety of criticising his commander, there can be no doubt of the justice of what he said. McClellan retained upon the left bank of the Antietam, a body of men whose partic.i.p.ation in the battle at the opportune moment would have changed a qualified victory into a rout of the enemy. Lee was saved at Antietam and at Gettysburg by the incompetency of McClellan and Meade.

The movements by Lee in crossing the Potomac in 1862 and again in 1863 were most unfortunate for the Confederacy, and with Grant, or Sherman, or Sheridan, or Logan in command of our forces, must have resulted disastrously. It was the necessity of the situation that we were compelled to go to Lee, wherever he might choose to place himself.

When he a.s.sumed the offensive, and abandoned his base, he exchanged positions, and greatly to his disadvantage. That he escaped destruction was due to his good fortune and to our incompetency and not to his own merit as commander.

The Sunday morning after Pope's defeat, David Dudley Field called at my office at the Treasury, and after some conversation upon the condition of affairs, he said he wished to see the President. I aided him in securing an interview. What was the object of this interview with the President I cannot say, but his conversation led my mind to the conclusion that he thought himself qualified for the command of the army.