CHAPTER XLVI

THE STAND AGAINST DISUNION

The Indian treaties confirmed, Governor Stevens was more determined than ever to secure the payment of the Indian war debt. This had been thoroughly examined and audited by a commission appointed by the Secretary of War, consisting of Captains Rufus Ingalls and A.J. Smith, of the army, and Mr. Lafayette Grover, the brother of Lieutenant Grover and afterwards governor of Oregon, and their report had been referred by the last Congress to the third auditor. It was a long time before he reported, and his report, when made, was a very unjust and condemnatory one, manifestly tinged with the prejudice so widely spread by Wool's slanders. The friends of the debt for some time were unable to get it before the House, and had to content themselves with enlightening individual members and the public.

The governor followed up the various matters in behalf of the Pacific Northwest with his usual energy this session. He spoke on the Pacific Railroad, on steam vessels for Puget Sound, on Indian appropriations, military post on Red River, appropriations for surveys, separate Indian superintendency for Washington Territory, etc. He succeeded in obtaining an appropriation of $100,000 for the military road between Fort Benton and Walla Walla, which Lieutenant Mullan was now building, $10,000 for a military road between Steilacoom and Vancouver, $4500 for the boundary survey between Oregon and Washington, $95,500 for the Indian service, and secured a new land office and district for the southern part of the Territory. During the session he offered thirteen bills, eight resolutions, and two memorials.

His chief interest and labors, however, were on the Northern Railroad route. He was indefatigable in making known its great national advantages. On April 3 he addressed an elaborate letter on the subject to the railroad convention of the Pacific coast, held at Vancouver. In this he again advocated three routes; showed the national importance of the Northern route, its advantages for securing the trade of Asia, and the danger, if that route were neglected, that the British-Canadians would build a line to the Pacific within their own borders, and thereby forestall this country in developing its Pacific ports and securing the Asiatic commerce. He declared that the explorations thus far made were simply reconnoissances; that two years would be required to complete the surveys, and probably ten years to build the road. He urged the convention to reject absolutely the compromise in the shape of a branch line from some point on the central route to the Columbia River and Puget Sound, which had been urged in Congress and elsewhere, and firmly to insist on the Northern route as a great national work. As published, this letter makes twenty-four printed pages, and Mr. Smalley, the historian of the Northern Pacific Railroad, already quoted, says of it that--

"he gave so clear and condensed an account of the Northern route, its distances and grades, as compared with the line then projected to Benicia, California, its advantageous situation in relation to the China and Japan trade, and the adaptability of the country it would traverse for continuous settlement, that the document, printed in pamphlet form, became a cyclopedia in miniature, from which facts and arguments have ever since been drawn by the friends of that route."

Governor Stevens had now become the recognized authority on the Northern route, and the acknowledged leader of its advocates in Congress. He was ably supported by General Lane, and by the Minnesota senators, Rice and Ramsay, and was indefatigable in furnishing them with data and points for use in debate. At a dinner party on one occasion, Senator Gwin openly taxed the governor with writing the speech which a certain senator had just delivered in behalf of that route, and which made some stir, declaring that no one could mistake the governor's style and ideas; and the charge was well founded.

During Governor Stevens's first term in Congress great efforts were made by the friends of the Central route to pass a bill granting a subsidy in lands and bonds to that route, and the bait of a branch from the vicinity of Salt Lake to the Columbia River and Puget Sound was held out to placate the adherents of the Northern route. Governor Stevens strenuously fought this scheme of a branch instead of the through Northern route. The proposed bill failed.

In the next Congress the adherents of the Central and Southern routes joined forces. The extreme secessionists, on the eve of withdrawing from Congress in order to break up the Union, were ready enough to vote subsidies to the united routes, and the Union sentiment was invoked by the argument that the aid extended to the Southern route would help satisfy the South and strengthen the Union. By this combination the House, on December 20, 1860, passed a bill for a land grant and subsidy to both the Central and Southern routes. The Northern route was completely ignored. An amendment offered by Governor Stevens, granting ten sections of land per mile for a road from Red River to Puget Sound, was rejected. But when the bill came before the Senate, an amendment was offered by Senator Wilkinson, of Minnesota, and adopted, the New England senators aiding those from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Oregon, giving a subsidy of twenty-five millions for a railroad from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, and a land grant of six alternate sections per mile on each side of the track in Minnesota, and ten alternate sections for the rest of the way. The amendment created the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and empowered Charles D. Gilfillan, of Minnesota, Nathaniel P. Banks, of Wisconsin, and Isaac I. Stevens, of Washington Territory, to act as a board of commissioners to organize the company. The bill thus amended went back to the House for concurrence, but the session was almost at an end, and repeated efforts to take the bill from the speaker's table, to get it before the House for consideration, failed for lack of a two thirds vote.

Governor Stevens rapidly overcame--lived down--the prejudice excited by the charges and reports against him, and won the respect of his fellow members. Several of them expressed to him their surprise at finding him so different a man from what they had been led to believe. Said one gentleman, "I expected to find you a loud-voiced, tobacco-chewing, drinking, swearing, violent man, and instead I find a gentleman of quiet manners, education, ability, and high aims and ideals." The governor used to regard this change of opinion, which he personally made upon members, with a good deal of satisfaction.

He usually rose early, and spent the two hours before breakfast at work in his office. After breakfast and until noon, when Congress met, he would spend in visiting the departments. He kept a light carriage with one horse for this purpose, and for going to and from the Capitol, having the colored servant Bob drive it, or driving himself. He had unbounded influence in all the departments. The clear, lucid way in which he presented his cases; his brief, prompt, business-like methods; the fact that he never asked anything that he did not believe to be right, and called for by public interests, and that he would not submit to delay or neglect, but would follow up his matters until they received due attention, even to the President himself if necessary,--made him respected and somewhat feared, while his uniform courtesy and consideration for the clerks and subordinates won their goodwill.

He acquired great influence with President Buchanan. His son Hazard was desirous of entering West Point, and he took the youth to call on the President and ask an appointment for him. Mr. Buchanan very naturally asked the governor why he did not give his son the appointment within his own gift as a member of Congress. The latter declared he could not do this with propriety, and pointedly requested the desired appointment, which the President seemed reluctant to make, pleading the many claims upon him for the few cadetships at his disposal. But finding the governor still firm in his request, he promised unequivocally and positively to appoint his son. The governor carefully refrained from advising or influencing the latter in the choice of a profession, telling him that he had better decide the matter for himself. An uncle, however, very strenuously urged him not to go to West Point. At last the young man besought the advice of his father, who simply said that he would not advise him to enter West Point, or adopt the army as a profession, but told him to decide according to his own judgment and inclination. Under these circumstances he concluded to give up West Point. Within a year the rebellion broke out, and he was carrying a musket in the ranks of the Union volunteers. How little can we foresee the future!

The governor appointed Robert Catlin as cadet to West Point from Washington Territory.

He dined at six, and spent the evening in social intercourse. Sometimes he would make the rounds of the hotels, meeting old friends and acquaintances, and frequently would work late in the night on some matter that engaged his attention. Like all rising and influential men, he was more and more sought after in behalf of all sorts of people and schemes. Mrs. Stevens relates that on one occasion, when she was reading in the rear end of the large double parlors and the governor was receiving two gentlemen in the front room, she was startled to see him suddenly spring from his chair, face his visitors with upright, soldierly bearing and head erect, exclaiming in a stern and indignant voice, "Look at me, gentlemen, and tell me what you see about me that you dare intimate such a proposition! Leave my house!" They slunk off without a word.

The governor delighted in hospitality, and was never happier than when entertaining his friends. While in Washington he was visited by many of his own and Mrs. Stevens's relatives.

Governor Stevens was preëminently a national man in all his ideas and sympathies. His Revolutionary ancestry, his West Point training, his participation in large national interests,--as the Mexican war, the Coast Survey, the exploration of the continent and upbuilding of the Pacific Northwest, together with the natural bent of his patriotic nature and comprehensive, far-sighted mind,--strengthened his love for and pride in the great Republic, and made sectionalism or disunion utterly abhorrent to him. Like Webster, he regarded the Union as the palladium of national liberty, life, and power, and its preservation the highest patriotic duty.

There was an aggressive disunion faction, in the Southern tier of slave States, seeking to disrupt the Union by magnifying Northern encroachments against the Southern institution of negro slavery; but the great bulk of the Southern people still held fast to their ancient moorings. Governor Stevens firmly believed that to maintain unimpaired the compromises of the Constitution in regard to slavery was not only the highest statesmanship looking to the preservation of the Union, but a matter of justice and good faith to the Southern Unionists. He believed that as long as the Northern Democracy stood by the constitutional rights of the South, they would continue to hold fast to the Union, and defeat the Secessionists, and that thus, by the league of broad-minded national men both North and South, the extremists could be kept down and the Union maintained.

The political issues of the day sprang up over the question of slavery in the Territories. The Republican party held that Congress had the right, and it was its duty, to prohibit slavery within them; and its more progressive leaders openly expressed the belief that the institution, if debarred from extension and confined to the existing slave States, would ultimately become extinct. The Democratic party was divided between two doctrines on the question. The majority of Northern Democrats upheld the "Squatter Sovereignty" doctrine of Stephen A. Douglas, to wit, that the people of each Territory had the right to decide for or against slavery; while the Southern Democrats and a large part of those in the North, including many of the oldest and ablest leaders and public men, held that, as the Territories had been acquired by the blood and treasure of all the States, neither Congress nor the citizens of a Territory could lawfully prohibit slavery therein as long as they remained Territories; but when they assumed Statehood, the people could prohibit or establish slavery, as they saw fit. The latter doctrine had the support of a dictum of the Supreme Court. Moreover, well-informed men knew that, as a practical matter, there was no probability that negro slavery could be extended into any of the existing Territories, for both natural conditions and the great preponderance of Northern emigration to the West were adverse to it. A few brief years would settle the question in the Territories, and remove it from national politics; and meantime, if the Southern people, the great majority of whom were Union-loving and patriotic, could be reassured that their constitutional rights as to slavery would be respected, the disunionists would become powerless, the dangerous controversies over slavery would die out, and the Union would be saved, stronger and more glorious than ever. Such were the views of Stevens and many of the ablest Democratic leaders, the same views that actuated Clay and Webster and their compatriots when they allayed the storm of an earlier strife over the same subject. No spirit of subserviency to the South actuated them, but a strong sense of justice to the weaker section, of fidelity to the Constitution, of loyalty to the Southern Unionists, and, above all, a broad-minded national patriotism. Thus it was that the men of whom Governor Stevens was a type, after striving to the utmost to safeguard the Southern constitutional rights, when sacrilegious hands assailed the nation's life, and the Southern people, frenzied with the madness of the hour, were swept into the maelstrom of the great rebellion, were foremost in defense of the country, in self-devotion and self-sacrifice for her sake. In this school of patriots are numbered two members of Lincoln's cabinet, Edwin M. Stanton, the great War Secretary, and Joseph Holt, the Attorney-General; General John A. Dix and Daniel L. Dickinson, of New York; Generals Grant, Sherman, Halleck, Sheridan; Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts; John A. Logan, of Illinois; and many others, all of whom supported Breckinridge and Lane.

Although deeply immersed in the important practical measures for the advancement of the Northern route and the Pacific Northwest, Governor Stevens was as earnest and decided in his political views as in everything else he undertook. He attended the Democratic National Convention, which was held in Charleston, S.C., April 23, as a delegate representing Oregon, the Territories having no representation. He ardently advocated the nomination of General Lane, his friend and co-worker in behalf of the Pacific Territories. General Lane had achieved much distinction in the Mexican war, was a man of broad, statesman-like views, sound judgment, upright, high-toned, generous, and considerate of others, and universally esteemed. He was just the man for a compromise candidate, and his chances were good for the nomination after the more prominent candidates should defeat each other. But the convention split upon the platform, the Northern delegates insisting upon the squatter sovereignty doctrine; whereupon the representatives of nine extreme Southern States seceded from the convention, which, without making any nominations, adjourned to meet at Baltimore on June 18. In the few ballots taken, General Lane received six votes; but the opportune moment for which his friend hoped never arrived, owing to the disruption of the convention.

The Baltimore convention served but to emphasize the irreconcilable difference between the two doctrines and wings dividing the Democracy. Douglas's doctrine was adopted, and himself nominated, by a reduced convention; while the delegations of eight more States, withdrawing from it, met in separate convention on June 28, in the same city, and nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for President, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for Vice-President, on a platform declaring the other doctrine, and assuming the name of the National Democratic party.

President Buchanan and the entire influence of the administration supported the latter, and, as the election showed, not only the majority of the foremost public men of the Northern Democracy, but one third of its voters.

Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin were nominated by the Republican party on a platform opposing the extension of slavery in the Territories; and a convention representing the old Whigs, and many moderate men and Unionists in both sections, nominated John Bell, of Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, on the bare declaration of "The Union, the Constitution, and the Enforcement of the Laws."

The National Democratic party, thus launched into the struggle, was destitute of any national organization, so essential for carrying on a presidential contest. The leaders, including the nominees and members of the cabinet, after full consultation, besought Governor Stevens to accept the position of chairman of the National Executive Committee, organize it, and carry on the canvass. Ever ready to devote himself to any cause in which he was enlisted, the governor undertook the herculean task. In a single night he wrote the party address to the country,--an address covering a whole page of a large metropolitan newspaper, a feat for which General Lane years afterwards expressed unbounded admiration and astonishment, both for its ability and for the ease and rapidity with which it was dashed off.

During the next four months Governor Stevens drove on the canvass with his accustomed energy and ability. Headquarters were opened in New York, contributions collected, meetings organized, and large numbers of speeches and documents circulated all over the country. On September 5 he entertained at dinner, in Washington, General Lane, Secretaries Howell Cobb and Jacob Thompson, of the cabinet, and a delegation from New York. The situation seemed by no means hopeless to the adherents of Breckinridge and Lane. The Republican vote at the last presidential election was far in the minority, even in the North; and now, with four candidates in the field, it seemed probable that there would be no popular election. In such case the choice of President would devolve upon the House of Representatives, voting by States, and the Democratic members controlled a majority of the States, and could therefore choose one of the Democratic candidates. In the event that the House failed to elect, owing either to dissensions among the Democratic members, or the abstention of enough members to break a quorum, which the Republican members could bring about, as they had the numerical majority, then the Senate had the election of Vice-President, who would act as President, and that insured the choice of General Lane, because the majority of the States were represented in the Senate by senators who supported Breckinridge and Lane.[13]

The election of Lincoln in November overset all these hopes and calculations, and the drama of the great rebellion, which was to humble the arrogant fire-eaters of the South, free the land from the curse of slavery, and vindicate the Union by the sword, the last argument of kings and nations, was ushered in.

At the last session of this, the 36th Congress, the bill to pay the Indian war debt was passed, notwithstanding the most strenuous and bitter opposition, led by a member from New York, General Wool's State, and inspired by him. The report of the third auditor, which greatly and very unfairly cut down the award of the Ingalls commission, was made the basis of the bill. Governor Stevens, in his speeches in Congress, severely criticised and exposed the mistakes and unfair findings of the auditor, without impugning his honesty. He was a well-meaning but narrow man, who had allowed himself to be prejudiced against the volunteers. Other advocates of the bill were less considerate towards him. On one occasion he thanked the governor with great warmth and sincerity for always treating him, and referring to him, as an honest man and well-meaning public servant, much to the governor's surprise.

He also succeeded in having his Territory made a separate Indian superintendency, and his friend W.W. Miller appointed superintendent. He also increased the mail service on the Sound from weekly to semi-weekly, and secured appropriations of $59,700 for the Indian service, $61,000 for general expenses, and had Lieutenant Mullan's report on building the military road across the mountains printed. He offered five bills, six resolutions, and four amendments, and spoke on the Northern Pacific Railroad, in defense of the Coast Survey, Indian war debt, increased mail service on Puget Sound, military post on Red River, etc.

During his congressional tour the governor was particularly indefatigable and successful in establishing new post-roads, and increasing mail facilities in all parts of the Territory. Years afterwards General Miller declared that the government had done nothing since his death but to cut down the mail service, and abolish the post-offices and routes he had caused to be established.

The military road between Fort Benton and Walla Walla, which the governor caused to be opened, and in charge of which he had placed Lieutenant Mullan, known as the Mullan road popularly, was for a number of years the highway across the Bitter Root and Rocky Mountains, traversed by thousands of trains, and the great artery for communication with and supply of thousands of settlers and miners in Montana, until superseded by the railroads.

The payment of the Indian war debt was a great triumph for Governor Stevens, and completed the vindication of his course, as the confirmation of his treaties vindicated his Indian policy.

During the last seven years, what severe and unremitting labors he had undergone, what great results he had achieved, and what tremendous obstacles and opposition he had overcome! He had made the exploration of the Northern route the most complete and exhaustive of all; had demonstrated its superiority, not simply as a transcontinental line, but as a world route for the world's commerce, and had made himself the authority and exponent of that route. By his Indian service he had treated with over thirty thousand Indians, extinguished the Indian title to a hundred and fifty million acres, established peace among hereditary enemies over an area larger than New England and the Middle States, and instituted over thousands of savages a beneficent policy of instruction and civilization. By calling out volunteers and waging an aggressive war against the savage foe, when all was gloom and terror, and the settlers were not only forsaken but vilified by the military authority, whose duty it was to protect them, he saved the settlements of his Territory from extinction, and the progress of the Northwest from being set back for years. And his firm and patriotic stand against British aggression saved the San Juan group to the United States.

Entering Congress vilified by high and low, with the censure of his territorial legislature and the disapproval of the President recorded against him, he had so ably demonstrated the wisdom and rightfulness of his course that he secured the ratification of his Indian treaties, the payment of the Indian war debt, the reversal of the reactionary policy of Wool, the opening of the interior to settlement, and the punishment of Indian murderers.

During his brief career up to this time he disbursed over three quarters of a million dollars for the government, as follows:[14]--

As an officer of engineers, the larger part on Fort Knox $278,108.29 As Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs 386,642.66 In the Northern route exploration 114,103.56 ----------- $778,854.51

Events followed fast that winter in the great national drama. The ultra-secessionists in the cotton States had it all their own way; and the Democratic leaders throughout the South, regardless of their Northern allies, who had stood by them so bravely and against such odds, were only too ready to follow in the same treasonable path, some accepting Seward's doctrine of an irrepressible conflict between slavery and freedom, and believing that separation and an independent government were the only means by which slavery could be maintained; while others, furious at the loss of political power, like Lucifer, would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven,--would ruin where they could no longer rule.

Great efforts were made by the moderate men, especially of the border States, to heal the breach; the Republican leaders, frightened at the storm, displayed a conciliatory spirit; and it seemed for a time that the differences might be compromised, the fears of the South allayed, and the Union peacefully preserved. Governor Stevens clung to this hope to the last. He thought that if a constitutional convention could be held, the breach could be healed; that the strong Union sentiment in most of the Southern States would cause them to adhere to the Union; and that the few seceding States, isolated and helpless, would soon be glad to resume their places. It is altogether probable that this view was correct, but one essential condition of such a plan was that no overt act of hostility should be committed. The secessionists, by violently seizing the national forts and property, and beginning hostilities, rendered peaceful adjustment hopeless.

Governor Stevens was firm and decided in his opinion that it was the duty of the President to protect the national property and forts and enforce the laws. The following sentences culled from his correspondence show his views and feelings at this trying and momentous crisis:--

December 10. Should Carolina attack the forts, or seize the revenue, there must be collision. The government must protect its property and execute its laws.

Let all men agree to a convention of all the States. When the delegates meet, I am sure it will be found easier to unite than to separate. If Union seems to be accompanied by occasional discord, separation will threaten perpetual war. If in Union there is not always harmony, in separation there will never be peace.

December 17. That the President will protect the public property and execute the laws, no one can doubt. That he has troops in readiness to embark at a moment's warning to succor the forts in the event of their attack by South Carolina cannot be doubted. I do not believe that the authorities of South Carolina will make any attack of the kind, or resist the collecting of the revenue, at least until ample notice has been given. When the case arises will be the time for the President to act. That he will act decisively I do not doubt. But the great problem to be solved is to vindicate the laws without collision. The only hope of reconciliation is in avoiding collision. Never were wanted more the qualities of forbearance and moderation in connection with those of decision and of action.

January 3. The blow of the secessionists in seizing the arsenal and forts at Charleston has been followed up by the seizure of the arsenal at Augusta, and of the forts on the Savannah River. There is no doubt that the secessionists here sent word South some time ago to seize all the forts on the Gulf, and most if not all are probably now in their hands.

The mad, headlong, and unjustifiable course of the Southern States is tending to unite the North as one man. The firm course which the President is taking will rally around him all true, Union-loving, conservative men.

When secession raised its treasonable head among his political associates, Governor Stevens denounced it, and broke with them at once and forever. He took an active part in urging President Buchanan to withdraw his confidence from the Southern members of his cabinet, and take a positive stand in defense of the government and country. He called on Mr. Buchanan repeatedly, and strongly urged this course. His recent position as chairman of the National Democratic Executive Committee added strength to the personal influence he already had, and aided much in bringing the President to the firmer attitude which distinguished the last days of his administration. The governor respected Mr. Buchanan, while he pitied his lack of firmness and moral courage. He said that for a time Mr. Buchanan presented a pitiable spectacle of indecision and lack of firmness and courage. He even feared personal violence, and had been threatened with it by some of the Southerners.

During the winter Washington was filled with alarming rumors that the secessionists were plotting to seize the capital, to assassinate the President-elect, to prevent his inauguration, and there was considerable foundation for them. To guard against such dangers, Governor Stevens aided in the organization of a regiment of District of Columbia militia, and was one of the chief advisers and supporters of Colonel C.P. Stone, who raised and commanded it, assisting him in procuring arms and equipments. Colonel Stone was the General Stone who was so unjustly persecuted for the disaster at Ball's Bluff. The governor personally urged Mr. Buchanan to sustain Major Anderson in his bold move of occupying Fort Sumter, to give his entire confidence to General Scott, and approved and defended his bringing regular troops to Washington. In these matters Governor Stevens was intimately associated and acted with Holt, Stanton, Dix, and other Democrats, most of whom had been supporting Breckinridge and Lane, and who rescued Mr. Buchanan from the hands of his secessionist cabinet, and inspired him to assert the national authority.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] Alexander H. Stephens, _The War Between the States_, vol. ii. p. 276.

[14] The accounts for this vast sum were all found correct, and were all passed by the accounting officers of the treasury, except some of the expenditures on the exploration, and it is instructive to note these items as an example of how great injustice the rigid rules, or notions of accounting officials, ofttimes inflict upon the most scrupulous and careful officers. Governor Stevens was charged with a balance of $8856.14, the largest item in which ($2626) consisted of the payment to ten regular officers on the exploration of one dollar per diem each, while engaged in topographical duty, according to an established regulation. Other items were for payments for subsistence and transportation; for compensation paid civil employees; for interest on the protested drafts, which were necessary to continue the survey, and for which Congress made appropriation; for articles and animals necessarily lost or worn out in so widespread and extended a service; and even for recompense paid certain of the party who had to abandon their clothing and effects in the mountains in a snowstorm. No compensation was ever allowed Governor Stevens for his services in conducting the exploration and preparing his final report. Although the disallowed items were referred to Captain A.A. Humphreys (General Humphreys) for examination, and he reported in favor of Governor Stevens, and recommended the allowance of nearly every item, no action was taken before the latter fell at the battle of Chantilly, the following year. Since then application has been made to Congress, resulting in one bill passing the House and another the Senate at different times, but neither passed both branches. And General Stevens, after serving his country so faithfully, and accomplishing so much in her behalf, is accounted a _debtor_ to the government.