Chapter IX: Part 9

In 1852 he gradually sank until on June 29th, 1852, he died. In him intellect, reason, eloquence, and courage united to form a character fit to command. It was the remark of a distinguished senator that Mr. Clay's eloquence was absolutely intangible to delineation; that the most labored description could not embrace it, and that to be understood it must be seen and felt. He was an orator by nature, and by his indomitable assiduity he at once rose to prominence. His eagle eye burned with patriotic ardor or flashed indignation and defiance upon his foes or was suffused with commiseration or of pity; and it was because HE felt that made OTHERS feel.

A gentleman, after hearing one of his magnificent efforts in the Senate, thus described him: "Every muscle of the orator's face was at work. His whole body seemed agitated, as if each part was instinct with a separate life; and his small white hand with its blue veins apparently distended almost to bursting, moved gracefully, but with all the energy of rapid and vehement gesture. The appearance of the speaker seemed that of a pure intellect wrought up to its mightiest energies and brightly shining through the thin and transparent will of flesh that invested it."

The particulars of the duel between Mr. Clay and Mr. Randolph maybe interesting to our readers. The eccentric descendant of Pocahontas appeared on the ground in a huge morning gown. This garment had such a vast circumference that the precise whereabouts of the lean senator was a matter of very vague conjecture. The parties exchanged shots and the ball of Mr. Clay hit the centre of the visible object, but the body of Mr. Randolph was untouched. Immediately after the exchange of shots Mr. Clay instantly approached Mr. Randolph, and with a gush of the deepest emotion said, "I trust in God, my dear sir, you are untouched; after what has occurred I would not have harmed you for a thousand worlds." The incident referred to above as 'occurring' was the fact of Mr. Randolph's firing in the air, thus publicly proclaiming his intention not to harm Mr. Clay at all events.

In person, Clay was tall and commanding, being six feet and one inch in stature, and was noted for the erect appearance he presented, while standing, walking, or talking. The most striking features of his countenance were a high forehead, a prominent nose, an uncommonly large mouth, and blue eyes which, though not particularly expressive when in repose, had an electrical appearance when kindled. His voice was one of extraordinary compass, melody and power. From the 'deep and dreadful sub-bass of the organ' to the most ærial warblings of its highest key, hardly a pipe or stop was wanting. Like all the magical voices, it had the faculty of imparting to the most familiar and commonplace expressions an inexpressible fascination. Probably no orator ever lived who, when speaking on a great occasion, was more completely absorbed with his theme. "I do not know how it is with others," he once said, "but, on such occasions, I seem to be unconscious of the external world. Wholly engrossed by the subject before me, I lose all sense of personal identity, of time, or of surrounding objects."

MARTIN VAN BUREN.

In the quiet little village of Kinderhook, New York, there was at the close of the Revolution, an indifferent tavern kept by a Dutchman named Van Buren. There his distinguished son Martin was born on the 5th day of December, 1782.

After attending the academy in his native village he, at the age of fourteen, began the study of law. His success was phenomenal from the beginning, and he has passed into history as an indefatigable student all through life. In 1808 he was made surrogate of his native county. In 1812 he was elected to the senate of his native State and in that body voted for electors pledged to support DeWitt Clinton for the presidency. He was attorney-general of the State from 1815 until 1819. Mr. Van Buren was a very able politician and it was through his influence that the celebrated 'Albany Regency,' whose influence ruled the State uninterruptedly for over twenty years, was set on foot.

In 1821 Mr. Van Buren was chosen to the United States Senate and was made a member of the convention to revise the State constitution. In the latter body he advocated the extension of the elective franchise, but opposed universal sufferage, as also the plan of appointing justices of the peace by popular election. He voted against depriving the colored citizens of the franchise but supported the proposal to require of them a freehold qualification of $250. In 1828 he was elected governor of the great State of New York and resigned his seat in the National Congress to assume this new position. As governor he opposed the safety fund system which was adopted by the legislature in 1829. In the month of March of the next year after assuming the gubernatorial chair he accepted the leading position in the cabinet of President Jackson but resigned two years later.

On May 22nd, 1832, he was nominated for the office of vice-president on the ticket with General Jackson, and was elected. The Democratic National Convention, which met at Baltimore May 20th, 1835, unanimously nominated him for the presidency, and in the ensuing election he received 170 electoral votes out of a total of 283,--73 being cast for his principal antagonist, General Harrison. The country was now plunged into the deepest pecuniary embarrassments, the result of previous hot-house schemes and speculations, rather than the result of the administrative measures of Van Buren. He had succeeded to the presidency at a most unfortunate time. Commerce was prostrate; hundreds of mercantile houses in every quarter were bankrupt; imposing public meetings attributed these disasters to the policy of the government.

On May 15th, he summoned an extraordinary session of congress to meet the following September. The president in his message advised that a bankrupt law for banking and other incorporations be enacted; and that the approaching deficit in the treasury be made good by withholding from the States the fourth and last installment of a previous large surplus ordered to be deposited with them by act of June 23rd, 1836, and by the temporary issue of $6,000,000 of treasury notes. He also recommended the adoption of what was called the independent treasury system, which was passed in the senate, but was laid on the table in the other branch of congress. The payment of the fourth installment to the States was postponed, and the emission of $10,000,000 of treasury notes was authorized.

Again the President in his next annual message recommended the passage of the independent treasury bill, but the measure was again rejected. Another presidential measure, however, was more fortunate, a so-called pre-emption law being enacted, giving settlers on public lands the right to buy them in preference to others. Van Buren's third annual message was largely occupied with financial discussions and especially with argument in favor of the divorcement of the national government from the banks throughout the country, and for the exclusive receipt and payment of gold and silver in all public transactions; that is to say, for the independent treasury. Through his urgent arguments in its favor it became a law June 30, 1840, and it is the distinguishing feature in his administration. The canvass of 1840 was early begun by the opposition, and became a bitterly contested one. The Whigs placed Harrison at the head of their ticket and as Van Buren had no competitor, he became the candidate of the Democracy. Never in the political history of the United States had there been such universal excitement as was displayed in the ensuing campaign. The great financial trials through which the government had passed were made the basis of all argument by the press and orators for the opposition.

Charges of corruption, extravagance and indifference to the welfare of the laboring classes were collected and dumped upon poor Van Buren. Thus was Van Buren represented, while the enthusiasm for Harrison was greatly augmented by log cabins, emblematical of his humble origin. This time Van Buren received only 60 electoral votes, while General Harrison received 234. His last annual message set forth with renewed energy the benefits of the independent treasury; announced with satisfaction that the government was without a public debt; and earnestly advised the enactment of more stringent laws for the suppression of the African slave trade.

In 1844 Mr. Van Buren's friends once more urged his nomination for the presidency by the Democratic national convention at Baltimore. But he was rejected there on account of his opposition to the annexation of Texas to the Union, avowed in a public letter to a citizen of Mississippi who had asked for his position on that question. Though a majority of the delegates in the convention were pledged to his support, a rule being passed making a two-thirds vote necessary to a choice, proved fatal to his interest. For several ballots he led all competitors when he withdrew his name and Mr. Polk was nominated on the ninth ballot.

In 1848, when the Democrats had nominated General Cass, and avowed their readiness to tolerate slavery in the new territories lately acquired from Mexico, Mr. Van Buren and his adherents adopting the name of the free democracy at once began to discuss in public that new aspect of the slavery question.

They held a convention at Utica on June 22nd which nominated Mr. Van Buren for president, and Henry Dodge of Wisconsin for vice-president. Mr. Dodge declined, and at a great convention in Buffalo on August 9th, Charles Francis Adams was substituted. The convention declared: "Congress has no more right to make a slave than to make a king; it is the duty of the federal government to relieve itself from all responsibility for the existence and continuance of slavery wherever the government possesses constitutional authority to legislate on that subject and is thus responsible for its existence."

In accepting the nomination of this new party Mr. Van Buren declared his full assent to its anti-slavery principles. The result was that in New York he received the votes of more than half of those who had hitherto been attached to the Democratic party, and that General Taylor the candidate of the Whig party was elected. At the outbreak of the civil war he at once declared himself in favor of maintaining the Republic as a Union. Unhappily he died before the close of the war and was thus deprived the satisfaction of seeing perpetuated the Union he so dearly loved. On the 24th of July, 1872, at his home in Kinderhook, he passed from death into life.

STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLASS.

One of the most noted statesman of the day was the subject of this narrative. Short, thickset, and muscular in person, and strong in intellect Stephen A. Douglass came to be known as 'The Little Giant.'

For many years he held a very conspicuous place in the political history of the republic. He was a native of the 'Green Mountain State,' being born at Brandon, April 23d, 1813. When he was about two months old his father, who was a physician, died, and his mother removed to a small farm, where Stephen remained until he was about fifteen years old. Having received a common school education he was very anxious to take a college course, but this being impossible, he determined thereafter to earn his own living. He accordingly apprenticed himself to a cabinet-maker, but his health would not allow the pursuit of this business, and he was compelled to abandon the undertaking.

When he was possibly able he removed to Illinois. Upon his arrival in Jacksonville his entire wealth consisted of the sum of thirty-seven cents. He determined to start a school at a place called Winchester, some fifteen miles from Jacksonville, and as he had little money, walked the entire distance. Arriving in Winchester the first sight that met his eyes was a crowd assembled at an auction, and he secured employment for the time being as clerk for the auctioneer. For this service, which lasted three days, he received $6, and with this sum he started a school, which occupied his attention during the day.

For two years previous he had studied law during his SPARE MOMENTS; much of his time nights was now devoted to the completion of his legal studies. Being admitted to the bar during the following year, 1834, he opened an office and began practicing in the higher courts where he was eminently successful, acquiring a lucrative practice, and HE WAS ELECTED ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF THE STATE BEFORE HE WAS TWENTY-TWO.

He soon became a member of the legislature, taking his seat as the youngest member in that body. He was the Democratic nominee for Congress before he had acquired the required age, however, his twenty-fifth birthday occurred before election, thus this obstacle was removed. In his district a most spirited canvass took place, and out of over thirty-five thousand votes cast, his opponent was declared elected by only five. He was appointed register of the land office at Springfield, but resigned this position in 1889. He became Secretary of State the following year, and in 1841 was elected a judge of the Supreme Court at the age of twenty-eight. This position he also resigned two years after to represent his district in congress where he was returned by successive elections until 1848.

He was recognized as one of the able members while in the national legislature, and his speeches on the Oregon question are models. He next became a Senator from his State, and supported President Polk in the Mexican war. As is well-known he was the father of the Kansas-Nebraska act, popularly known as 'Squatter Sovereignty,' carrying the measure through in spite of great opposition.

He was a strong candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1852, and his strength was still more developed four years later when he was the favorite candidate save one, James Buchanan, who finally received the honor. At the end of the next four years he was nominated by the convention meeting at Charleston, and was the unanimous choice of the northern wing of the Democracy, but bitterly opposed by the Southern faction, who nominated Mr. Breckinridge at a separate convention. This caused a split in the Democratic vote, and Mr. Lincoln was elected on a minority of the total vote cast.

Stephen A. Douglass however, like Webster and Clay, needed not the honor of occupying the presidential chair to make his name illustrious. He was remarkably successful in the promotion of his State's interest in Congress. To him is due the credit of securing the splendid grant of land which brought about the successful operation of the Illinois Central railroad which contributed so much toward the weakened resources of the State. As previously stated, Mr. Douglass was defeated by Mr. Lincoln, yet at the outbreak of the civil war his voice was heard in earnest pleas for the Union, declaring that if this system of resistance by the sword, when defeated at the ballot-box was persisted in, then "The history of the United States is already written in the history of Mexico."

He most strongly denounced secession as a crime and characterized it as madness. His dying words were in defence of the Union. To say that Mr. Douglass was a wonderful man is the least that can be said, while more could be added in his praise with propriety. As an orator he was graceful, and possessed natural qualities which carried an audience by storm. He died June 3rd, 1861, at the outbreak of the civil war. Had he lived no one would have rendered more valuable assistance in the suppression of that gigantic rebellion than would Stephen A. Douglass.

But it was in the great political debate between himself and Abraham Lincoln that Mr. Douglass gained his greatest notoriety as well as Lincoln himself. The details of this debate will be seen in our sketch of Mr. Lincoln.

ABBOTT LAWRENCE.

Solomon said: "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings,--he shall not stand before mean men." How true are those words; how often have we seen them demonstrated.

Abbott Lawrence, brother of Amos Lawrence, was born December 16, 1792, and what education he had he received at the academy in Groton. When about sixteen years of age he took the stage for Boston, with the princely sum of three dollars in his pocket. He entered the store of his brother Amos as clerk. After five years of faithful service he was taken in as partner, and the firm-style became A. & A. Lawrence.

The war of 1812 came on, and Abbott, who possessed less money than his brother, failed, but he was not disheartened. He applied to the government for a position in the army, but before his application could be acted upon peace was declared.

After the war his brother Amos helped him, and once more they entered into partnership, Abbott going to England to buy goods for the firm. About 1820 the Lawrence brothers, with that enterprise which characterizes all great business men, commenced manufacturing goods in America, instead of importing them from the old world, and to the Lawrences is due no small credit, as the cities of Lowell and Lawrence will testify. He was a member of the celebrated convention at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, whose recommendations to Congress resulted in the tariff act of 1828, which was so obnoxious to Calhoun and the Cotton States. In 1834 Mr. Lawrence was elected to Congress, where he did valuable service on the Committee of Ways and Means. He declined re-election, but afterward was persuaded to become a candidate and was again elected. By the advice of Daniel Webster he was sent to England on the boundary question.

President Taylor offered him a seat in his Cabinet, but he declined--later he was sent to England, where he became a distinguished diplomat, and was recalled only at his own request. At one time he lacked but six votes of being nominated for Vice-President.

On the 18th of August, 1855, Abbott Lawrence died. Nearly every business place in Boston was closed--in fact, Boston was in mourning; the military companies were out on solemn parade, flags were placed at half-mast, and minute-guns were fired. Thus passed away one of the merchant princes of New England.

ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.

This great statesman was born in Georgia on February 11, 1812, and was left an orphan at an early age. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1834, having the advantage of a college education. He entered upon the practice of law at Crawfordsville in his native State, and his natural ability and splendid education soon won for him a most lucrative practice.

Mr. Stephens early became a convert to the Calhoun school of politics, and he remained firmly fixed until death in the belief that slavery was the proper sphere in which all colored people should move. He believed it was better for the races both white and black.

Though physically weak he was wonderfully developed in personal courage. In 1836 Mr. Stephens was elected to the State legislature, to which he succeeded five successive terms. In 1842 he was elected to the State senate, there to remain only one year when he was sent as a Whig to the national congress, there to remain until 1859 when, July 2nd, in a speech at Augusta he announced his intention of retiring to private life. When the old Whig party was superceded by the present Republican party Mr. Stephens joined the Democrats. During the presidential canvass of 1860 Mr. Stephens supported the northern wing under Douglass, and in a speech at the capitol of his State bitterly denounced secession. As the speech so well illustrates his powers of oratory, so far as words can portray that power, we give the speech as follows:--

This step, secession, once taken can never be recalled, and all the baleful and withering consequences that must follow, as you will see, will rest on this convention for all coming time. When we and our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon of war which this act of yours will inevitably provoke, when our green fields and waving harvests shall be trodden down by a murderous soldiery, and the fiery car of war sweeps over our land, our temples of justice laid in ashes and every horror and desolation upon us; who, but him who shall have given his vote for this unwise and ill-timed measure shall be held to a strict account for this suicidal act by the present generation, and be cursed and execrated by all posterity, in all coming time, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this act you now propose to perpetrate?

Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment what reasons you can give that will satisfy yourselves in calmer moments? What reasons can you give to your fellow-sufferers in the calamity that it will bring upon us? What reasons can you give to the nations of the earth to justify it? They will be calm and deliberate judges of this case, and to what cause, or one overt-act can you point on which to rest the plea of justification? What right has the North assailed? Of what interest has the South been invaded? What justice has been denied? And what claim founded in justice and right has been unsatisfied? Can any of you name to-day one governmental act of wrong deliberately and purposely done by the government at Washington, of which the South has a right to complain? I challenge an answer.

On the other hand, let me show the facts (and believe me, gentlemen, I am not here the advocate of the North, but I am here the friend, the firm friend and lover of the South and her institutions, and for this reason I speak thus plainly and faithfully for yours, mine, and every other man's interest, the words of truth and soberness), of which I wish you to judge, and I will only state facts which are clear and undeniable, and which now stand in the authentic records of the history of our country. When we of the South demanded the slave trade, or the importation of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years? When we asked a three-fifths representation in Congress for our section was it not granted? When we demanded the return of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Constitution, and again ratified and strengthened in the fugitive slave law of 1850? Do you reply that in many instances they have violated this law and have not been faithful to their engagements? As individuals and local committees they may have done so, but not by the sanction of government, for that has always been true to the Southern interests.

Again, look at another fact. When we asked that more territory should be added that we might spread the institution of slavery did they not yield to our demands by giving us Louisiana, Florida and Texas out of which four States have been carved, and ample territory left for four more to be added in due time, if you do not by this unwise and impolitic act destroy this hope, and perhaps by it lose all and have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, or by the vindictative decrees of a universal emancipation which may reasonably be expected to follow.

But again gentlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the general government? We have always had the control of it and can yet have if we remain in it and are as united as we have been. We have had a majority of the presidents chosen from the South as well as the control and management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty years of Southern presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the executive department. So of the judges of the supreme court, we have had eighteen from the South and but eleven from the North. Although nearly four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the free States, yet a majority of the court has been from the South. This we have required so as to guard against any interpretation of the constitution unfavorable to us. In like manner we have been equally watchful in the legislative branch of the government. In choosing the presiding officer, _pro tem_, of the Senate we have had twenty-four and they only eleven; speakers of the house we have had twenty-three and they twelve. While the majority of the representatives, from their greater population, have always been from the North, yet we have generally secured the speaker because he to a great extent shapes and controls the legislation of the country, nor have we had less control in every other department of the general government.

Attorney-Generals we have had 14, while the North have had but five. Foreign ministers we have had 86, and they but 54. While three-fourths of the business which demands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the free States because of their greater commercial interests, we have, nevertheless, had the principal embassies so as to secure the world's markets for our cotton, tobacco and sugar, on the best possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the higher officers of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn from the Northern States. Equally so of clerks, auditors, and comptrollers, filling the executive department; the records show for the last 50 years that of the 3,000 thus employed we have had more than two-thirds, while we have only one-third of the white population of the Republic.

Again, look at another fact, and one, be assured, in which we have a great and vital interest; it is that of revenue or means of supporting government. From official documents we learn that more than three-fourths of the revenue collected has been raised from the North. Pause now while you have the opportunity to contemplate carefully and candidly these important things. Look at another necessary branch of government, and learn from stern statistical facts how matters stand in that department, I mean the mail and post-office privileges that we now enjoy under the General Government, as it has been for years past. The expense for the transportation of the mail in the free States was by the report of the postmaster-general for 1860, a little over $13,000,000 while the income was $19,000,000. But in the Slave States the transportation of the mail was $14,716,000, and the revenue from the mail only $8,000,265, leaving a deficit of $6,715,735 to be supplied by the North for our accommodation, and without which we must have been cut off from this most essential branch of the government.

Leaving out of view for the present the countless millions of dollars you must expend in a war with the North, with tens of thousands of your brothers slain in battle, and offered up as sacrifices on the altar of your ambition--for what, I ask again? Is it for the overthrow of the American Government, established by our common ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on the broad principles of right, justice and humanity? I must declare to you here, as I have often done before, and it has also been declared by the greatest and wisest statesmen and patriots of this and other lands, that the American Government is the best and freest of all governments, the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men that the sun of heaven ever shone upon.

Now for you to attempt to overthrow such a government as this under which we have lived for more than three-quarters of a century, in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domestic safety while the elements of peril are around us with peace and tranquility accompanied with unbounded prosperity and rights unassailed is the height of madness, folly and wickedness to which I will neither lend my sanction nor my vote.

This is one of the most eloquent appeals recorded on the pages of history, and had Mr. Stephens carried out his first intention as expressed, "I will neither lend my sanction nor my vote," in his subsequent career during that war he had so eloquently and prophetically depicted, he would to-day not only be recognized as one of the ablest and most brilliant of orators as he is known, but would have stamped his life as a consistent and constant legislator which is so laudable in any man. But only a month later, after delivering the great speech at Milledgeville in defense of the Union he accepted one of the chief offices in the Confederacy, and began to perpetrate the very wrongs he had so vehemently deplored, seeking by speeches innumerable to overthrow that government he had so eloquently eulogized.

At Savannah he spoke something as follows: "The new constitution has put to rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions--African slavery as it exists among us--the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and the present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast had anticipated this as the rock upon which the old Union would split. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation to the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle socially, morally and politically."

"Our new government is founded on exactly the opposite ideas. Its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man. That in slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first in the history of the world based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth. It is the first government ever instituted upon principles in strict conformity to nature and the ordination of Providence in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments have been founded upon the principle of enslaving certain classes, but the classes thus enslaved were of the same race and enslaved in violation to the laws of nature."

"Our system commits no such violation of the laws of nature. The negro, by nature or by the curse against Canaan is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect in the construction of buildings lays the foundation with the proper material, the granite; then comes the brick or marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best not only for the superior, but the inferior race that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the wisdom of his ordinances, or to question them. For his own purposes he has made one race to differ from another, as he has made one star to differ from another in glory. The great objects of humanity are best attained when conformed to his laws and decrees in the formation of governments as well as in all things else. Our confederacy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders 'is become the chief stone of the corner' in our new edifice."

By both of these speeches he was of great service to the national government. The first was used to justify the suppression of secession, and the second to excite the animosity of the world against secession. After the war Mr. Stephens was once more a member of the National Congress and Governor of his native State. On the 3rd day of March, 1883, he died at his home in Crawfordville. We have thus spoken of Mr. Stephens as a legislator; personally, he was a very pleasant man to meet, loved in society, was kind-hearted, and we believe sincere. His eloquence was at times wonderful, and was augmented rather than diminished by his physical infirmity. Those who have heard him will never forget the squeaking voice and haggard look.

According to Webster, the three cardinal points essential to true oratory are clearness, force and sincerity. In all of these Stephens was proficient. His descriptive powers were remarkable, and he could blend pathos with argument in a manner unusual. He was a warm friend of Mr. Lincoln, and one of the most characteristic stories ever told of Mr. Lincoln is in connection with Governor Stephens' diminutive appearance and great care for his shattered health. On one occasion before the war he took off three overcoats, one after the other, in the presence of Mr. Lincoln, who rose, and walking around him, said, "I was afraid of Stephens, for I thought he might keep on taking off clothes until he would be nothing but a ghost left," and speaking to a friend standing by, remarked further, "Stephens and his overcoats remind me of the biggest shuck off the smallest ear of corn that I have ever seen in my life." One by one the eminent men of State pass away. Their deaths make vacancies which the ambitious and active hasten to occupy whether they are able to fill them or not.

MILLARD FILLMORE.

Great, indeed, are the possibilities of our country. The subject of this narrative, thirteenth president of the United States, was born in Summer Hill, Cayuga county, New York, January 7th, 1800. The nearest house to that of Fillmore was four miles distant. Cayuga county was then a wilderness with few settlers, consequently young Fillmore's education was limited to instruction in reading, writing, spelling and the simplest branches of arithmetic. At fourteen he was bound out to learn the fuller's trade.

Think of it boys, what splendid opportunities most of you have; yes, all of you have, compared to that of Fillmore, for he had not the advantage of our glorious and complete school system, and at that was bound out when a mere lad. Yet at the age of nineteen he presumed to aspire to become a lawyer! He had two more years to serve in his apprenticeship, but "Where there's a will there's a way." "To think a thing impossible is to make it so," and he accordingly set to work contriving to gain for himself an education.

Contracting with his employer to pay him $30 for his release, that obstacle was overcome. He next made an arrangement with a retired lawyer, by which he received his board for services, and studied nights. This continued for two years, when he set out on foot for Buffalo where he arrived with just $4 in his pocket. Ah! methinks people who saw that boy must have felt that he was destined to be somebody in the world. "Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house."

How often are we so deeply impressed by reading the biographies of great men that it really does in a great measure rest with ourselves whether we amount to something, or worse than nothing, in the world. We have followed this man from childhood and have seen him overcome all obstacles thus far; will we then be surprised when we read that no sooner did he arrive in Buffalo than he succeeded in making arrangements with a resident lawyer, obtaining permission to study in his office and supported himself by severe drudgery, teaching and assisting the post master.

By the spring of 1823 he had so far gained the confidence of the bar that by the intercession of several of its leading members he was admitted as an attorney by the Court of Common Pleas of Erie county, although he had not completed the period of study usually required, and commenced practice at Aurora where his father resided.

In the course of a few years he acquired not only a large practice but a thorough mastery of the principles of the common law, and he rose to a place among the first lawyers of his State. In 1827 he was admitted as counselor of the Supreme Court of the State. In 1830 he moved to Buffalo where he continued in the practice of law until 1847, when he was elected Comptroller of the great Empire State.

He had previously been in the State legislature and in the national congress. In congress he rose gradually to the first rank for integrity, industry and practical ability. As a State legislator he particularly distinguished himself by his advocacy of the act to abolish imprisonment for debt, which was drafted by him, and which passed in 1831. In congress he supported John Quincy Adams in his assertion of the right of petition on the subject of slavery. He opposed the annexation of Texas, because it extended slave domain and advocated the immediate abolition of the inter-state slave trade.

At the death of President Taylor, Mr. Fillmore, according to the provisions of the Constitution in such cases, became President of the United States, and the poor boy who had entered Buffalo on foot now entered the National Capitol as the ruler of a mighty nation. During his administration a treaty with Japan, securing for the United States valuable commercial privileges, was consummated. His administration, as a whole, was a successful one, and had he not signed the fugitive slave law, he would, undoubtedly, have been the nominee of his party at the convention in 1852.

In 1854 he made an extensive tour in the Southern and Western States, and in the Spring of 1855, after an excursion through New England, he sailed for Europe. While in Rome he received information that he had been nominated by the Native American party in his native country for the office of President. He accepted, but Maryland alone gave him her electoral vote; however, he received a large popular vote. In 1874, March the 8th, he died in Buffalo, where he had resided many years in private life.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

A truly eminent American statesman, William H. Seward, was born in Florida, Orange county, New York, May 16th, 1801.

He graduated with much distinction when only nineteen at Union College, Schenectady, New York, then taught school in Georgia six months when he entered a New York law school, and was admitted to the bar in 1822; commenced the practice of law at Auburn in connection with Judge Miller, whose daughter he afterward married.

In 1824 he entered upon his political career by preparing an address for a Republican convention in opposition to the Democratic clique known as the 'Albany Regency,' thus commenced a contention which only ended when the association was broken up in 1838. He presided over a young men's convention in New York in favor of John Quincy Adams' re-election to the presidency. In August, 1828, on his return home he was offered a nomination as member of Congress but declined. He was elected to the State senate in 1830, when he originated an opposition to corporate monopolies which has since ripened into a system of general laws. After a rapid tour through Europe in 1833 he returned home to become the Whig candidate for governor of New York, being defeated by W. L. Marcy. But in 1838 he was elected over Marcy, his former opponent, by a majority of 10,000 votes.

Placed now in a position where he could exercise that mighty mind which he unmistakably possessed, he achieved National distinction in the measures he prosecuted. Prominent among these measures was the effort to secure the diffusion of common school education, advocating an equal distribution of the public funds among all schools for that purpose. Imprisonment for debt was abolished, the banking system was improved, the first lunatic asylum was established, and every vestige of slavery was cleared from the statute books.

He also became famous through his controversy with the Governor of Virginia. The latter issued a demand on Mr. Seward, as the Governor of New York, for the delivery of two men charged with abducting slaves. Seward maintained that no State could force a requisition upon another State, founded on an act which was only criminal by its own legislation, and which compared with general standards was not only innocent, but humane and praiseworthy. This correspondence between the two executives known as "The Virginia Controversy" was widely published, and was largely instrumental in bringing about his triumphant re-election in 1840.

At the close of his second term he once more resumed the practice of law, becoming a practitioner in the United States Courts. He was also a great criminal lawyer, and especially aided, not only by gratuitous service, but money also, in aiding people whom he thought unjustly accused. Becoming a United States Senator, he announced his purpose to make no further concessions to the slave power. In his speech on the admission of California, March 11th, 1850, the judgment of the man, his ability to forecast events, and his oratorical powers are displayed. Among other things he said:

"It is true, indeed, that the national domain is ours. It is true, it is acquired by the valor, and with the wealth of the whole nation. But we hold, nevertheless, no arbitrary power over it. We hold no arbitrary authority over anything, whether acquired lawfully, or seized by usurpation. The Constitution regulates our stewardship; the Constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defence, to welfare, and to liberty."

"But there is a higher law than the Constitution, which regulates our authority over the domain, and devotes it to the same noble purposes. The territory is a part, no considerable part, of the common heritage of mankind, bestowed upon them by the Creator of the universe. We are his stewards, and must so discharge our trust as to secure in the highest attainable degree their happiness." In another speech, delivered at Rochester in 1858, in alluding to the constant collision between the system, of free and slave labor in the United States, he said:

"It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slave-holding nation, or entirely a free labor nation." Thus, while others dodged this issue, William H. Seward came squarely out in language which could not be misinterpreted. When the Whig party had proved its incompetency to deal with the slavery question, Mr. Seward, in conformity with his past public career, withdrew and figured most conspicuously in the founding of the new Republican party.

In the last session of the 36th Congress, when the war clouds were threatening, and desertion of the Union cause became an epidemic, high above the breathings of secession was heard the voice of William H. Seward, exclaiming: "I avow my adherence to the Union with my friends, with my party, with my State; or without either, as they may determine, in every event of peace or war, with every consequence of honor or dishonor, of life or death." In conclusion he declared: "I certainly shall never directly or indirectly give my vote to establish or sanction slavery in the common territories of the United States, or anywhere else in the world."

His second term closed with the thirty-sixth congress, March 4th, 1861. In the National Republican convention he was the most conspicuous candidate for the presidency for 1856-60. He made quite an extended tour through Europe, Egypt and the Holy Land in 1859. Upon the accession of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency Mr. Seward was called to fill the seat of honor in his cabinet.

At the outbreak of the civil war Mr. Seward had already shown himself a very able man, but his management of the foreign affairs of our government during those trying hours indelibly stamped him as the most able of able Secretaries of State. He was one of the few men who have been conceded to be a great success in the office of Secretary of State. His management of the complicated Trent affair, the manner of his declination of the French proposal to unite with Great Britain and Russia in mediating between the Federal and Confederate governments, and his thorough reorganization of the diplomatic service abroad, thus insuring a correct interpretation by foreign powers of the issues before the government; in fact his management of the high office did him great credit, and more than once averted a foreign war.

When Mr. Lincoln had drafted his famous proclamation he submitted it to Seward for approval. Many people at the North were dissatisfied with some measures of the administration, and the rebellion had been characterized as a "Nigger war," even at the North, besides all this the Union arms had met with terrible loss, and Mr. Seward wisely saw the evil results which might follow such a proclamation at this time. Therefore, through his advice the paper was held until after the victory at Antietam, when the country was further educated and better able to understand and receive the real issue of the war.

Early in the spring of 1865 he was thrown from his carriage, and his jaw and one arm were broken. While confined to his bed by these injuries he was attacked by a would-be assassin, and very severely wounded, being cut several times with a knife--his son Frederick W. came to his rescue and was also injured. It was on the same night that President Lincoln was shot, April 14. The assassin escaped from the house, but was soon arrested and hanged with the other conspirators, July 7.

Mr. Seward's recovery was very slow and painful, and it is thought the shock given by the accident, and this murderous attack impaired his intellectual force, for when he again resumed his duties under President Johnson, he supported the President's reconstruction policy, becoming at dissonance with the party he had so satisfactorily served, until now. At the close of his official term in March, 1867, he retired from public life, and soon made an extended tour through California, Oregon and Alaska; the latter having been acquired during his secretaryship, and mainly through his efforts.

Accompanied by his family he made a tour around the world, returning to Auburn in October, 1871. He was everywhere received with honor and great distinction. The observations made during this extensive voyage are embodied in "Wm. H. Seward's Travels around the World," prepared by his adopted daughter, Olive Risley Seward. He died at Auburn, New York, October 10th, 1872, lamented by a nation.

HORATIO SEYMOUR.

One whose name and deeds are familiar to the people of the whole Union was Horatio Seymour, the most eminent and notable of the later Governors of New York. Born May 31st, 1810, at Pompey, Onondaga county, New York; a hamlet in what was then almost a wilderness.

When he was nine years of age his parents moved to Utica. His school education was obtained at the academies of Oxford and Geneva, New York, and Partridge's military school, Middletown, Connecticut. He studied the science of law, and fitted himself for the profession, being admitted to the bar in 1832, but the death of his father devolved upon him the settlement of a large estate. This withdrew him from his intended calling, but enabled him to give ample time and attention to reading, for he had an intense thirst for knowledge.

His public life began with his appointment as military secretary to Governor Marcy. Martin Van Buren is said to have seen with his keen eye the valuable qualities in the young man, and the appointment was made at his instance. Seymour held this place through Marcy's three terms, 1833-39, and being very young, he became enamored with public life. In 1841 he was elected to the State Assembly as a Democrat, was re-elected three times, and in 1845 was chosen speaker, which office he filled with dignity and courtesy toward all. In 1842, while in the assembly, he was elected Mayor of Utica for one year, and was especially interested in all public matters pertaining to the welfare of that city.

In 1850 Mr. Seymour was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of his native State, being defeated by his personal friend, Washington Hurt, by a plurality of only 262 votes. Considering the hopeless condition of the Democratic party at that time, and his majority of 20,000 over the same competitor two years later, we can imagine something of his popularity at this early period. His first term as the executive of New York was marked by his veto of the prohibitory law which had been passed by the legislature, but his action in regard to the speedy completion of all public works then in progress and the interest he manifested in the diffusion of public education was very exemplary. However, in the ensuing election he was defeated by a plurality, this time, of only 309 votes. In 1862 Mr. Seymour was again elected governor over Wadsworth by nearly 11,000 majority.

The breaking out of the civil war found Mr. Seymour allied to that element of the Democratic party which made its views formally known at what has passed into history as the "Tweedle Hall" meeting. He was one of the principal speakers at this memorable peace convention and employed his eloquence in behalf of concession and conciliation, and pointedly inquired: "Shall we compromise after war or without war?" His position was analogous with many of the great men in both parties at this time. When hostilities had really begun his tone changed, and in his inaugural address, January 1st, 1863, his position was clearly defined as follows: "Under no circumstances can the division of the Union be conceded. We will put forth every exertion of power; we will use every policy of conciliation; we will guarantee them every right, every consideration demanded by the constitution and by that fraternal regard which must prevail in a common country; but we can never voluntarily consent to the breaking up of the union of these States or the destruction of the constitution."

President Lincoln telegraphed Mr. Seymour asking if he could raise and forward forthwith 20,000 troops to assist in repelling the threatened invasion by Lee, of Maryland and Pennsylvania. Within three days 12,000 soldiers were on their way to Gettysburg. The draft riots next occupied his attention. The National government passed a conscription act, March 3rd, enrolling all able-bodied citizens, between twenty and forty-five years of age, and in May the President ordered a draft of three hundred thousand men. The project was exceedingly unpopular, and was bitterly denounced on every hand, says Barnes. The anti-slavery measure of the administration had already occupied widespread hostility to the war.

While Pickett's noble southern troops were assaulting Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, inflammatory handbills were being circulated in New York city, which brought on a riot July 13th. The mob rose in arms, sacked houses, demolished the offices of the provost-marshal, burned the colored orphan asylum, attacked the police, and chased negroes; even women and children, wherever found, were chased, and if caught hung to the nearest lamp-post. Two millions of dollars' worth of property was destroyed. The Governor immediately went to New York, and on the 14th he issued two proclamations; one calling on the rioters to disperse; the other declaring the city in a state of insurrection. He divided the city into districts, which were placed under the control of military men, who were directed to organize the citizens; and 3,000 stands of arms were issued to these and other organizations. Boats were chartered to convey policemen and soldiers to any point on the shores of the island where disturbances were threatened. The Governor visited all the riotous districts in person, and by persuasion, as well as by the use of the force at his command, aided in quelling the disturbance.

During his term Governor Seymour commissioned more than 13,000 officers in the volunteer service of the United States. In August 1864 he presided over the Democratic National Convention at Chicago which nominated General McClellan for the presidency. Four years later, much against his will, he was nominated for the presidency himself and was defeated by General Grant, as any nominee of the Democratic party at that time would have been. He then retired to private life, dwelling in elegant repose at his pleasant home near Utica, New York, until his death which occurred February 12th, 1886.