“feeling of friendly union”

Posted on May 30, 2024 by SUMPTER

According to a northern newspaper 150 years ago, that year’s Memorial Day was going to be more inclusive – Confederate dead would be honored along with those who fought for the Union. The paper saw a similar spirit in a speech from Montgomery, Alabama on Confederate Decoration Day . From the June 6, 1874 issue of Harper’s Weekly:

DECORATION-DAY.

“First Lieutenant Thomas Goode Jones, C.S.A”

THE observance of Decoration-day will this year be peculiarly marked by tender mention of the soldiers in gray. There has never been any tone of asperity or hostility in the memorial addresses, but affection and reverence were naturally given to those whose cause was also ours. The inclusion of the dead of the lost cause in the pious services of the day will be one of those little but powerful bonds that draw the whole country together for its healing. It was the forecast of this sentiment which led Mr. SUMNER to move the erasure of the names of domestic battles from the flags of the regular army; and he did so, it will be remembered, in the second year of the war. This fact will not be forgotten in the earnest addresses which this beautiful day always calls forth. But none of the orators will express this feeling of friendly union in respect for the memory of the dead of the war more eloquently than a soldier of the other side, Major THOMAS G. JONES, who said on the late Confederate Decoration-day in Montgomery, Alabama:

“And while we ponder thus the mind carries us Northward, where the tombs — not of our dead — are whiter than the sands of the sea and more numerous than the stars in the heavens. In them lie men of the same race as ourselves — who spoke the same language and worshiped the same God. Fond mothers sent them to battle, and tender tears and agonizing prayers watched their pathway. They followed a flag that was as dear to them as was to us the ‘star-crossed banner that has long since taken its flight to greet the warrior’s soul;’ and he that worthily speaks for the dead or living must say that no feeling of hate to the Northern dead, or those who mourn them, pervades this Memorial Day! One touch of pity makes the whole world kin. From scenes like this, where the warring sections mourn their dead, let the statesman draw inspiration to guide the living.”

In its June 13, 1874 issue Harper’s Weekly highlighted a feature of Decoration Day in New York City:

DECORATION-DAY.

LINCOLN POST, No. 13, was detailed by the Grand Army of the Republic to open the ceremonies of Decoration-day in this city about the statue of ABRAHAM LINCOLN in Union Square, as represented in our illustration on page 493. The members of the Post, with a large concourse of interested spectators, assembled in the square at sunrise. The base of the statue was completely hidden in fresh foliage and flowers, with which the vases recently placed around it were also filled; and in letters of flowers were displayed the memorable words, “With charity for all, with malice toward none,” which to all future time will speak the noble and generous nature of LINCOLN. The memorial ceremonies consisted of addresses and a solemn dirge, and closed with the crowning of the statue with a wreath of laurel.

Fortunately the day was unusually fine, and in every city, town, and village throughout the length and breadth of the country the people gathered to pay their touching and beautiful tribute to the dead.

and less malice

In its May 311, 1874 issue the Nashville Union and American summarized some national Decoration Day ceremonies from a few cities around the country. Confederate graves were decorated along with those of the Union dead at New York City [06/03/2024: actually Brooklyn, which didn’t become part of NY City until 1898], Arlington, and St. Louis. President Grant attended the ceremony in Arlington; Joseph R. Hawley delivered the oration.
According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, Thomas Goode Jones “entered the Virginia Military Institute in the fall of 1860. Like his father, Jones supported the Confederacy, drilling volunteers in Richmond, serving with Stonewall Jackson in the Valley Campaign, aiding Georgia’s John B. Gordon, and finally marching with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. He was wounded several times, earned promotion to major, and survived to carry a flag of truce through the lines at Appomattox.” His post-war career included stints as a state legislator, governor, and federal judge.
Wikipedia says that Confederate Memorial Day “s a holiday observed in several Southern U.S. states on various dates since the end of the American Civil War. The holiday was originally publicly presented as a day to remember the estimated 258,000 Confederate soldiers who died during the American Civil War.”

Nashville Union and American May 31, 1874 part 1

Nashville Union and American part 2

Joseph R. Hawley

The material from the June 6 and June 13, 1874 issues of Harper’s Weekly comes from HathiTrust.I got the photograph of Thomas G. Jones as a Confederate soldier from Wikipedia. From the Library of Congress: the May 31, 1874 issue of the Nashville Union and American; General Joseph R. Hawley; Carol M. Highsmith’s 2010 photograph of the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabamatitle.

State capitol in Montgomery, Alabama

Posted in 150 Years Ago, 150 Years Ago This Week | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Laurels to the Chief

Posted on May 15, 2024 by SUMPTER

Harper’s Weekly May 9, 1874

The Panic of 1873 led to a long-lasting depression in Europe and North America. In early 1874 Congress passed a bill that would expand the supply of paper currency not redeemable in gold. On April 22, 1874 President Ulysses. S. Grant vetoed the measure. In its May 9, 1874 issue Harper’s Weekly lauded the veto:

THE VETO.

THE President’s veto of the inflation bill is the most important event of his administration. It saves the national honor, it redeems the pledge of the great popular majority which elected him, it renews the hope of the Republican party, and it restores the old regard of the country for the citizen whom it had so gladly honored for his great service in the field. The message has been every where considered and discussed. Every body has remarked its directness, cogency, and simplicity. It rests the objection to inflation upon the true ground. The bill sought inflation; inflation was a deliberate violation of the national faith solemnly pledged, and that faith must be maintained at all hazards. This is the clear statement of the message, and it comes from a President who has constantly urged speedy resumption. That the message was a surprise even to many of the President’s best friends is undeniable. His recent close association with many of the leading inflationists; his apparent impatience both with the New York and Boston delegations; the fact that he is a Western man, and that popular sentiment in that part of the country is represented to be strongly in favor of inflation; the fear of party results should he veto the bill — these and other considerations made his disapproval very doubtful.

The veto will have two kinds of results, political and commercial. The latter can be only good, for the reason that inflation would necessarily have destroyed confidence, and excited only a morbid and dangerous speculation. The rich man could take the risks of the game. The poor man was sure to suffer. The veto shows the President to be the friend of labor and of the producing class, whose interests are always served by financial confidence and steadiness. The political consequences are more obscure. Yet it is observable that while the inflationists have declared that expansion and irredeemable paper were the cause of the people, the great and warm expressions of public opinion, whether in public meetings, or in the press, or in the resolutions of boards and societies, and indeed in all the forms in which the feeling of a great country manifests itself, have been resolute and eloquent against inflation. The angry exclamations of some members of Congress upon the reception of the message were the natural expressions of the disappointment of warm advocates of a frustrated scheme. The debate in the Senate and the vote upon the veto are yet to come. It may show a feeling from which grave political consequences will follow. Doubtless it will be complicated with personal ambitions and rivalries, and hearty party co-operation between those who differ so radically upon so vital a point of public policy would seem to be impossible.

But the President has the happy consciousness that he is sustained by the deep conviction of the best men in his own party, by the sound and intelligent sentiment of the country, and by the recorded wisdom and experience of Christendom. At a dark and critical moment he has again served his country as few men in her history have had the opportunity to serve her. His action gives another glimpse of that quality in him which has drawn so many men toward him, and held them fast in spite of many discouragements and doubts. And if elsewhere in this paper we plainly criticise portions of his official conduct in which he seems to us to have failed, it is not with any doubt of the conviction that we have always expressed, that, whatever his failures, he is animated by a sincere and patriotic desire to do his duty.

There’s quite a bit of information out there about the Panic and resulting long depression, including from The New York Times and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The trigger for the Panic in the United States was on September 18, 1873 when the Jay Cooke & Co. bank suspended withdrawals for depositors at the bank’s New York City and Philadelphia houses. By the next day other financial firms failed. Although the government announced it would buy $10 million in bonds, on September 20th the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading for the first time in its history. The next day President Grant and Treasury Secretary William A. Richardson went to New York City to work out a solution. Many businessmen begged the president to do everything possible to increase the amount of currency in circulation. The government ended up buying $13 million in bonds.

leave it for the sweeper

Harper’s Weekly October 11, 1873

Harper’s Weekly October 18, 1873

Although the Panic subsided after about 40 days, the depression lasted for at least 5 years. The government tried to address the problem. In his December 1873 annual message to Congress, President Grant discussed the Panic in the section about the Treasury Department. I’m confused by the economics, but Grant did stress the importance of hard, metal-backed money:

“The revenues have materially fallen off for the first five months of the present fiscal year from what they were expected to produce, owing to the general panic now prevailing, which commenced about the middle of September last. The full effect of this disaster, if it should not prove a “blessing in disguise,” is yet to be demonstrated. In either event it is your duty to heed the lesson and to provide by wise and well-considered legislation, as far as it lies in your power, against its recurrence, and to take advantage of all benefits that may have accrued.

“My own judgment is that, however much individuals may have suffered, one long step has been taken toward specie payments; that we can never have permanent prosperity until a specie basis is reached; and that a specie basis can not be reached and maintained until our exports, exclusive of gold, pay for our imports, interest due abroad, and other specie obligations, or so nearly so as to leave an appreciable accumulation of the precious metals in the country from the products of our mines.

“The development of the mines of precious metals during the past year and the prospective development of them for years to come are gratifying in their results. Could but one-half of the gold extracted from the mines be retained at home, our advance toward specie payments would be rapid. …”

You can read President Grant’s veto message of the Inflation bill at The American Presidency Project. The president made it clear that he thought it was necessary to eventually return to hard money. For example, he quoted his own first annual message to Congress in December 1869: “Among the evils growing out of the rebellion, and not yet referred to, is that of an irredeemable currency. It is an evil which I hope will receive your most earnest attention. It is a duty, and one of the highest duties, of Government to secure to the citizen a medium of exchange of fixed, unvarying value. This implies a return to a specie basis, and no substitute for it can be devised. It should be commenced now and reached at the earliest practicable moment consistent with a fair regard to the interests of the debtor class. Immediate resumption, if practicable, would not be desirable. It would compel the debtor class to pay, beyond their contracts, the premium on gold at the date of their purchase, and would bring bankruptcy and ruin to thousands.”

President Grant’s veto was sustained. In 1875 Congress passed the Species Resumption Act, which required the government to “retire Greenbacks (currency not backed by gold) and committed the government to reinstate the gold standard in four years” (Liberty Street Economics). “By pegging the dollar against hard currency, the act helped curb inflation, tame speculation and produce a stable dollar. It turned the Republican Party toward a stance of conservative fiscal policies” (The NY Times article).

Tompkins Square riot

Harper’s Weekly May 9, 1874

Harper’s Weekly May 16, 1874

The best I can make out is that people referred to the legislation as “the inflation bill” because its purpose was to increase the money supply. In his December 1873 message, President Grant was concerned that the increased money supply could lead to price inflation: “To increase our exports sufficient currency is required to keep all the industries of the country employed. Without this national as well as individual bankruptcy must ensue. Undue inflation, on the other hand, while it might give temporary relief, would only lead to inflation of prices, the impossibility of competing in our own markets for the products of home skill and labor, and repeated renewals of present experiences. Elasticity to our circulating medium, therefore, and just enough of it to transact the legitimate business of the country and to keep all industries employed, is what is most to be desired. The exact medium is specie, the recognized medium of exchange the world over. That obtained, we shall have a currency of an exact degree of elasticity. If there be too much of it for the legitimate purposes of trade and commerce, it will flow out of the country. If too little, the reverse will result. To hold what we have and to appreciate our currency to that standard is the problem deserving of the most serious consideration of Congress. …”

The Emporia News May 15, 1874 part 1

The Emporia News May 15,1874 part 2

I got all the Harper’s Weekly material from Hathi Trust, 1873 and 1874. John A. Dix is mentioned in the top cartoon. According to Eric Foner, he was a hard money man: New York’s “elderly Gov. John A. Dix, a hard money fanatic who carried a few gold coins in his pocket, ‘occasionally refreshing himself with a look at them.'” [Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: HarperPerenial ModernClassics, 2014. Page 522.] Also according to Mr. Foner, most business interests favored Grant’s veto of the inflation bill, but “among Eastern ‘men of note,’ only the iconoclastic Benjamin F. Butler voiced dissent.”[Ibid.]. Grant as guard dog showed him protecting the U.S. Treasury from Wall Street.
President Grant’s Fifth Annual Message and his message vetoing the Inflation bill are available at Project Gutenberg (A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 7, part 1: Ulysses S. Grant (if you search “inflation” you will find his December 1873 annual message).
From the Library of Congress: the sweeper from the September 29, 1873 issue of The Daily Graphic; I got the image of the Tompkins Square riot at Wikimedia – they got it from the Library, the image is from Frank Leslie’s illustrated newspaper, 1874 Jan. 31, p. 344, the image’s caption is “The red flag in New York – riotous Communist workingmen driven from Tompkins Square by the mounted police, Tuesday, January 13th”, the riot involved many of those unemployed by the Panic. In its May 15, 1874 issue The Emporia Times referred to the Cincinnati Gazette as saying that the inflation that was needed was not in paper currency but in the amount of crops grown by U.S. farmers – Europe would be a ready market for any surplus production.

Harper’s Weekly May 9, 1874

Posted in 150 Years Ago, Postbellum Politics, Postbellum Society, The Grant Administration | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

no foolin’

Posted on April 12, 2024 by SUMPTER

April 1865: Libby prison in Richmond

Libby Prison was one of the places in Richmond. Virginia where the Confederate government housed Yankee prisoners. Last year I was surprised while glancing through a newspaper at the Library of Congress. I noticed what seemed to be an advertisement for Libby. The paper was published 28 years after the war ended. How could that be?

The National Tribune July 20, 1893 on page 3

As it turned out, the ad was for Libby Prison Museum in Chicago. And the museum was really Libby Prison, the same building that was in Richmond during the war. According to Chicagology, a group of Chicago businessmen bought the prison in 1888. They had it disassembled (600,000 bricks), shipped to Chicago, and then reassembled on Wabash Avenue. The museum housed Civil War artifacts and memorabilia, as well as some other exhibits. The museum operated until sometime in the late 1890’s when Libby was again disassembled. A new coliseum was built on the museum site.

c1992: Libby Prison in Chicago

According to the Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal one of the leaders of the Libby project was Charles F. Gunther (aka “The Candy Man” and “The P.T. Barnum of Chicago”). When he was a boy, Gunther and his family moved to the United States from Germany. The family originally lived in the north, but Charles moved to Memphis around 1860 when he was about 23. He worked for an ice dealer, but

“Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he was employed as purchasing agent and purser of the steamer “Rose Douglas” in the Confederate Service. Being captured when blockaded in the Arkansas River by Federal gunboats in Van Buren, Arkansas, ‘he was released in a prisoner exchanged and made his way north until he finally reached Peru [Illinois].'”

Mr. Gunther gradually became involved in the candy business and became a confectioner. Although his original building (with some rare artifacts) was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire, he eventually became very successful and purchased more Civil War (and other) memorabilia. Many of these artifacts were displayed in the Libby museum until Gunther decided to build a new coliseum on the museum site.

at the museum – tree stumps embedded with shells

shot and shell on display at Libby Museum

The Candy Man

There is a lot of information out there about the prison museum. Here are some examples. In a November 1994 American Heritage article William B. Meyer is critical of the commercial nature of Libby museum venture. You can see more photos at James E. Arsenault & Company; one of the pictures presumably shows a tour guide. The Chicago Time Machine – “The museum hired Civil War veterans as guides and displayed genuine Civil War artifacts alongside items of potentially dubious provenance – such as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (said to be the home of the character that inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe), or what was alleged to be a snakeskin from the Garden of Eden.” Chicago History Resources’ The Bloody Evidence includes a bit more about Charles Gunther’s service on the Rose Douglas.

1889 museum catalogue

“132 twenty-ton cars”

just a few of the artifacts

From the Library of Congress: Libby photographed in Richmond April 1863; the July 20, 1893 issue of The National Tribune – the Libby ad is on page 3; the c.1892 photo of the street view of the museum from Views of Chicago – Libby Prison is behind the castle-like wall, the photo is number 99 in the book; War logs; Prisoners Reception Room’s shot and shell; there are three museum catalogs at the Library – the thumbnails above are from the 1889 catalog – cover, describing the move, partial list of the artifacts; the prison museum

From Wikipedia: the image of Charles F. Gunther

On Wabash Ave – prison behind the castle front

Posted in Aftermath, American Culture, Civil War prisons, Postbellum Society, Veterans | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Cold Easter

Posted on March 31, 2024 by SUMPTER

Easter was on April 5th in 1874. In its April 11, 1874 issue Harper’s Weekly observed the holiday like this:

Arbutus: Spring’s offering for Easter-tide

Happy Easter!

Alice Arnold Crawford “was a 19th-century American author of poetry and short stories. She furnished articles in prose and verse for the leading publications of the day.” She died in September 1874 at the age of 24. She was born and buried in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. After her death A Few Thought For A Few Friends was published. It includes “The Forest Easter” and an ode to the “Arbutus.” The book is available at the Internet Archive
You can see the April 11, 1874 issue of Harper’s Weekly at HathiTrust.
Posted in 150 Years Ago | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Staunch in the Senate

Posted on March 11, 2024 by SUMPTER

150 years ago today U.S. Senator Charles Sumner died in his Washington, D.C. home. He had represented Massachusetts in the Senate since 1851. In its March 28, 1874 issue Harper’s Weekly praised Mr. Sumner for his strong anti-slavery leadership:

wouldn’t be co-opted

CHARLES SUMNER.

MR. SUMNER leaves no public man behind him with so close a hold upon the heart of the country. He was the last of the great triumvirate of antislavery Senators who succeeded that other trio of the earlier and darker epoch of which we speak in another column of this paper. The work of the later three, SEWARD, CHASE, and SUMNER, was incomparably greater and more beneficent than that of WEBSTER, CLAY, and CALHOUN. It is a curious fact that Mr. SUMNER took his seat in the Senate on the day that Mr. CLAY, the last of the elder three, left it forever. The two men typified the two eras of our politics. HENRY CLAY was the great compromiser. CHARLES SUMNER was one of the most uncompromising men that ever lived. The courtly, gay, plausible, fascinating cavalier, “HARRY of the West,” broken, saddened, and disappointed, faltered out of the chamber, and CHARLES SUMNER, young, towering in form, dauntless in mien, the indomitable Puritan, conscience incarnate in politics, entered, and the new and better Union entered with him. The very qualities in him that so often offended were indispensable to the time and the work. Iconoclasm like his was as much needed among the long-worshiped idols of the old temple of slavery as ever it was among the images upon which CROMWELL’S Ironsides fell.

That stern refusal to wince or bend, which opposed itself to the slave power as a cliff of granite fronts the wildest sea and dashes it into futile froth, was the great and memorable service of CHARLES SUMNER to his country. When slavery in Congress encountered him, it met for the first time that North, that American conscience, that American will, which was at last to overthrow it utterly, and redeem and regenerate the country. For the first time in the national arena slavery found itself opposed by a spirit as resolute and haughty as its own. It tried every means to subdue it, and tried in vain. By culture and taste and temperament Mr. SUMNER was peculiarly sensible to that social blandishment in which Southern society excelled, and which made Washington a Capua to many hardy Northern warriors. They came, perhaps, from some secluded rural home, unused to the charms and forces of society. Bashful in the new scene, and ill at ease, they found the most welcome relief amidst the graceful delight of drawing-rooms and in the frank hospitality of dining-rooms in which their pleasure and comfort seemed to be the chief study. In those magic circles the lines of political duty, the sense of right and wrong, which in the quiet home or among cool New England hills were so clear and positive, wavered and shifted, and often glimmered quite out of sight. The lotus was eaten at those feasts, SAMSON was shorn, and honest folks at home wondered what nepenthe in the air of Washington drugged the Northern brain and dulled its conscience. No man was more thoroughly equipped to enjoy all this to the utmost than SUMNER, and no influence in public affairs is more subtle and effective with men of his temperament. But he knew the Lamia, and he did not yield.

wouldn’t be terrified

And as it could not seduce, neither could it terrify him. He stood for years in the capital of the country – to our bitter shame a slave city – and he thundered against slavery words which were blows. His speeches were not bursts of rhetoric; they were, like those of DEMOSTHENES, orations. The trained advocates of slavery and its mere attorneys were amazed at the comprehensiveness of discourses that left them no escape, left them, indeed, only rage and denunciation. And long afterward, when the ablest lawyer in the Senate, REVERDY JOHNSON, was preparing the speech in which he justified his vote upon emancipation, he carefully studied all of SUMNER’S orations as the completest body of history and argument upon the whole subject. The hostility of slavery took its natural form. Often for months it was known, and Mr. SUMNER knew, that his life was in constant danger; and during the heat of the Kansas debate a few friends from Kansas then in Washington, who were aware of his personal peril, unknown to him, daily followed him when he left his house, armed – as he never was or would be – for his protection. At last slavery, by the hand of PRESTON BROOKS, struck him the blow that it hoped would be fatal. But after a long and weary struggle his sturdy constitution seemed to have thrown off all serious effects of it, and after resuming his seat in the Senate with a speech that showed all the old vigor, he bore his part in the great and final conflict. But although he lived eighteen years after BROOKS’S assault, it was clear to him toward the end, and to his friends, that he had never wholly rallied from the blow.

polarizing

The hostility of foes was not all that he withstood. His political and even many of his personal friends were impatient with him for the injury to the common cause which they feared from what they thought his want of moderation and tact. But those were his inestimable qualities, for they not only showed to slavery, as we said, the face of its real foe and future victor, but they stimulated and confirmed Northern sentiment by the spectacle of its uncompromising personification. There were censures of his taste, of his epithets, of his rhetoric, of his style, while he was doing a giant’s work in rousing and saving a nation. How many a critic points out the defects of St. Peter’s! And St. Peter’s remains one of the grandest temples in the world. He loved duty more than friendship, and he feared dishonor more than any foe. He measured truly the real forces around him, and he saw more clearly than any American statesman that ever lived the vital relation between political morality and national prosperity. The great acts of Republican legislation are thoroughly informed by the spirit of which he was the most fervent and comprehensive political representative. “Why, Mr. SUMNER, I am only six weeks behind you,” Mr. LINCOLN said to him, during the war. It was most fortunate for him that his career was cast at a time and upon a scene for which he was especially fitted, and he lived for a quarter of a century in the full view of friends and foes, doing his duty without a stain upon his fame. CHARLES SUMNER hated slavery, and slavery hated him. And because, in the long and terrible contest, he was so true and so steadfast, panoplied in principle, armed at every point, strong as conscience and pure as childhood, his name will be honored in the land so long as the descendant of a slave remains, or America loves liberty.

“Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
Looks forward, persevering to the last,
From well to better, daily self-surpast;
Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
Forever, and to noble deeds give birth,
Or he must fall,to sleep without his fame,
And leave a dead,unprofitable name,
Finds comfort in himself and in his cause:
And while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven’s applause.”

deathbed wish

In Richmond, Virginia the Daily Dispatch reported Mr. Sumner’s death om page one of its March 12th issue. The TIMON correspondent telegraphed the news. The senator apparently suffered from organal pectoris and was in such great pain from about 11:00 PM on March 10th that his doctors kept him on opiates. Most members of Congress called at his house during March 11th. According to TIMON, about the last words Sumner spoke were to Representative Dawes: “Tell Emerson I love and revere him.” The Harper’s Weekly portrait of Sumner above shows that on his deathbed he also said something like, “Do not let the civil rights bill fail.” This is backed up in a paragraph from the March 13th issue of the Daily Dispatch, which said Senator Sumner spoke the words to Representative Ebenezer R. Hoar. The Dispatch considered the civil rights bill a “new firebrand.”

Probably the most notorious event in Mr. Sumner’s Senate career occurred during the Bleeding Kansas debate. On May 19 and 20, 1856 Sumner delivered his “Crime Against Kansas” speech in which he denounced the Kansas – Nebraska Act and his colleagues who wrote the legislation – Stephen A. Douglas and South Carolinian Andrew Butler. Sumner said Butler’s mistress was the harlot Slavery and made fun of Butler’s speaking ability. Butler had recently suffered a stroke. Senator Butler was not present during the speech. Congressman Preston Brooks, Butler’s cousin, took offense, and on May 22nd Brooks severely injured by repeatedly caning Sumner on the head . It is said the incident further polarized the United States in the run-up to the Civil War. In its March 14, 1874 issue the Daily Dispatch criticized northern newspapers that used their eulogies of Sumner to rehash the caning and to stir up the North against the South.

Richmond’s Daily Dispatch March 12, 1874 (page 1)

Richmond’s Daily Dispatch March 13, 1874 (page 2)

Richmond’s Daily Dispatch March 14, 1874 (page 2)

In its April 4, 1874 issue Harper’s Weekly provided extensive coverage of Charles Sumner’s funeral and burial:

Sumner’s Senate chair

death and procession to the Rotunda

at the Capitol

library at the senator’s D.C. residence

lying in state in Boston

over the Charles

entering the cemetery

burial

I think Harper’s Weekly made a mistake about the date Sumner’s body was transported to the Capitol Rotunda. Based on telegraph reports printed in the March 14, 1874 edition of the Daily Dispatch (page 1), it looks like that happened on March 13th. The lavish illustrations in Harper’s April 4th issue reminded me of Life magazine when I was growing up.
Senator Sumner’s deathbed wish was granted. A version of the bill was enacted in 1875. The Supreme Court ruled that parts of the act unconstitutional in 1883.
I got all the material from the March 28 and April 4, 1874 issues of Harper’s Weekly from HathiTrust.
From the Library of Congress: the front page of the March 28, 1874 issue of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper; the deathbed scene per Currier & Ives – a Mr. Wormley was is one of the men pictured, read more about James Wormley at Streets of Washington, the hotelier was close friends with Charles Sumner;1874 issues of the Daily Dispatch – March 12th, March 13th, and March 14th; the statue at Boston’s Public Garden
From Wikimedia: the caning cartoon which has a “Factual error: In this print Brooks holds his gutta-percha cane by the knob. According to eyewitnesses, he repeatedly hit Sumner’s head with the massive gold knob, instead.”

at Boston’s Public Garden

Posted in 150 Years Ago, 150 Years Ago This Week, Postbellum Politics, Reconstruction | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

house still divided?

Posted on February 12, 2024 by SUMPTER

January 6, 1874

150 years ago Harper’s Weekly published a brief bio of a member of the 43rd Congress. From its February 14, 1874 issue of :

THE HON. ROBERT B. ELLIOTT.

Robert Brown Elliott

The South Carolina district that for many years sent JOHN C. CALHOUN to Congress is now represented in that body by the Hon. ROBERT BROWN ELLIOTT, who is of unmixed African blood. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1842, received his primary education at private schools, and afterward studied at Eton College, England, where he graduated in 1859. From Massachusetts he went to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1866, and began his new career there as a type-setter in the office of a newspaper edited by his present colleague, Mr. RANSIER. He has a natural gift for oratory, which has been cultivated by large experience on the stump. “His voice,” says one who has listened to his oratory, “is full and agreeable, and in his pronunciation he displays far less of the peculiarities of the negro dialect than many of the Southern white members. His sentences are constructed with an obvious regard for euphonious sound, and if any fault were to be found in his manner of speaking, it would be that he falls into too much of a cadenced delivery.”

Mr. ELLIOTT’s name was brought into prominence by his speech on the Civil Rights Bill, delivered on the 6th of January, in reply to Mr. HARRIS, of Kentucky. Those who heard him declared the speech to be the most remarkable effort yet made by a colored member of Congress. He read his remarks from manuscript, but this did not detract from their force as from that of Mr. STEPHENS’s speech of the day before, for he made use of all the orator’s art, voice, and gesture. He got a much more attentive hearing from the House than did the great Georgian, and was more than once applauded by the members, whose hand-clappings were at once echoed from the galleries, packed with colored people. When he sat down the applause was deafening, and many members rushed forward to shake his hand and congratulate him. A portrait of Mr. ELLIOTT is given on the preceding page.

According to the South Carolina Encyclopedia, Peggy Lamson, the modern biographer of Robert B. Elliott, “believes that he was born on August 11, 1842, in Liverpool, England, of unknown West Indian parents. Contemporary accounts state that he was born in Boston, educated at High Holborn Academy in London, and graduated from Eton College in 1859, although no evidence survives to corroborate these claims. It does seem likely that he did enjoy a substantial degree of formal education, since Elliott was universally acknowledged to be highly literate and learned.” Also regarding the Harper’s piece, I don’t see a Mr. Harris from Kentucky.

Stephens and Elliott were debating the legislation that would eventually become the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The original original bill was introduced in 1870 by Charles Sumner and “outlawed racial discrimination in juries, schools, transportation, and public accommodations.” The Republican leaders had to weaken the bill’s provisions to get enough support for it. The 1875 law “- which only passed after all references to equal and integrated education were stripped completely — failed to have any lasting effect. The Supreme Court struck down the 1875 Civil Rights Bill in 1883 on the grounds that the Constitution did not extend to private businesses.”

You can read more about the Stephens-Elliott debate at the Library of Congress. On January 6, 1874 Elliott directly responded to Stephens’ speech the day before:

Now sir, recurring to the venerable and distinguished gentleman from Georgia, [Mr. Stephens,] who has added his remonstrance against the passage of this bill, permit me to say that I share in the feeling of high personal regard for that gentleman which pervades this House. His years, his ability, and his long experience in public affairs entitle him to the measure of consideration which has been accorded to him on this floor. But in this discussion, I cannot and I will not forget that the welfare and rights of my whole race in this country are involved. When, therefore, the honorable gentleman from Georgia lends his voice and influence to defeat this measure, I do not shrink from saying that it is not from him that the American House of Representatives should take lessons in matters touching human rights or the joint relations of the State and national governments. While the honorable gentleman contented himself with harmless speculation in this study, or in the columns of a newspaper, we might well smile at the impotence of his efforts to turn back the advancing tide of opinion and progress; but when he comes against upon this national arena, and throws himself with all his power and influence across the path which leads to the full enfranchisement of my race, I meet him only as an adversary; nor shall age or any other consideration restrain me from saying that he now offers this Government, which he has done his utmost to destroy, a very poor return for its magnanimous treatment, to come here and seek to continue, by the assertion of doctrines obnoxious to the true principles of our Government, the burdens and oppressions which rest upon five millions of his countrymen who never failed to lift their earnest prayers for the success of this Government when the gentleman was seeking to break up the Union of these States and to blot the American Republic from the galaxy of nations [Loud applause]. (Congressional Record, House, 43rd Cong., 1st sess. (6 January 1874): 409.)

Sir, it is scarcely twelve years since that gentleman shocked the civilized word by announcing the birth of a government which rested on human slavery as its corner-stone. The progress of events has swept away that pseudo-government which rested on greed, pride, and tyranny; and the race who he then ruthlessly spurned and tramped on are here to meet him in debate, and to demand that the rights which are enjoyed by their former oppressors – who vainly sought to overthrow a Government for which they could not prostitute to the base uses of slavery – shall be accorded to those who even in the darkness of slavery kept their allegiance to freedom and the Union. Sir, the gentleman from Georgia has learned much since 1861; but he is still a laggard. Let him put away the entirely false and fatal theories which have so greatly marred an otherwise enviable record. Let him accept, in its fullness and beneficence, the great doctrine that American citizenship carries with it every civil and political right which manhood can confer. Let him lend his influence, with all masterly ability, to complete the proud structure of legislation which makes this nation worthy of the great declaration which heralded its birth, and he will have done that which will most nearly redeem his reputation in the eyes of the world, and best vindicate the wisdom of that policy which has permitted him to regain his seat upon this floor.
(Congressional Record, House, 43rd Cong., 1st sess. (6 January 1874): 410.)

This Library of Congress article provides links to Elliott’s full speech in the Congressional Record and an article about the 1875 Civil Rights Act. You can read Alexander Stephens’ January 5th speech that starts here in the Congressional Record.
According to Eric Foner, “Seven blacks sat in the Forty-Third Congress, and all spoke with vigor and eloquence, on the Civil Rights Bill. Before galleries crowded with black spectators, their speeches invoked both personal experience and the black political ideology that had matured during Reconstruction. Several related their own ‘outrages and indignities.’ Joseph Rainey had been thrown from a Virginia streetcar, John R. Lynch forced to occupy a railroad smoking car with gamblers and drunkards, Richard H. Cain and Robert B. Elliott excluded from a North Carolina restaurant, …” [Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: HarperPerenial ModernClassics, 2014. Pages 399-400.]
From the Library of Congress: The Shackle Broken, “South Carolina representative Robert B. Elliott’s famous speech in favor of the Civil Rights Act, delivered in the House of Representatives on January 6, 1874, is memorialized here. The Act, which guaranteed equal treatment in all places of public accommodation to all people regardless of their “nativity, race, color, or persuasion, religious or political,” was passed on March 1, 1875. The central image shows Congressman Elliott speaking from the floor of the House of Representatives. Hanging from the ceiling is a banner with a quotation from his speech: “What you give to one class you must give to all. What you deny to one class. You deny to all.” Above are two Civil War scenes of black troops in action. On the left is a full-length statue of Abraham Lincoln, holding a bundle of arrows and his Emancipation Proclamation, standing before the U.S. Capitol. On the right is another statue, of Civil Rights advocate Charles Sumner holding the “Bill of Civil Rights,” in front of Faneuil Hall in Boston. Below Sumner are his words, “Equality of rights is the first of rights.” Beneath the central scene is a view of a small farm with its black owner, family, and laborers. The caption below is “American Slave Labour is of the Past – Free Labour is of the Present–We Toil for our Own Children and Not for Those of Others.” At the far left are two black soldiers, and on the right black sailors. Below them are Lincoln’s words, “Of those who were slaves at the beginning of the rebellion full one hundred thousand are now in the U. S. Service” and “So far as tested, it is difficult to say they are not as good soldiers as any.” The words “Army,” “Navy,” “Jury,” “Ballot,” “Liberty,” and “Equality” are inscribed in the borders. Further extracts from Elliott’s speech appear throughout.”; you can read more about it at the Smithsonian, its National Museum of African American History & Culture.

R.B. Elliott on far right

Harper’s Weekly January 24, 1874

no discrimination, even in cemeteries and public schools

Also from the Library of Congress: the Currier & Ives 1872 image of “The first colored senator and representatives – in the 41st and 42nd Congress of the United States”; Frederick Douglass and other Distinguished Colored Men, c1883 – according to the New York Public Library, Frederick Douglass wrote to a newspaper when Elliott died, “…I, with thousands who knew the ability of young Elliott, was hoping and waiting to see him emerge from his late comparative obscurity, and take his place again in the halls of Congress. But alas! He is gone, and we can only hope that the same power that gave us one Elliott, will give us another in the near future. Frederick Douglass, Washington, D.C. Aug 30.” ; an editorial on page 2 of the January 19, 1874 issue of The Democrat in Weston, West Virginia, which saw the Civil Rights legislation as “The Beginning of the End.”
I got the Harper’s Weekly article and image from HathiTrust on pages 149 and 150. I put the portrait from page 150 in the first paragraph of the article.

The January 1874 clipping also comes from the same link at HathiTrust.

R.B. Elliott on upper left

Posted in 150 Years Ago, 150 Years Ago This Month, Postbellum Politics, Postbellum Society, Reconstruction | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on house still divided?

a good word

Posted on January 22, 2024 by SUMPTER

for a bête noire

There was a report 150 years ago last month that the ex-Vice President of the Confederacy admired the incumbent U.S. President, U.S. Grant. From the December 25, 1873 issue of The Valley Virginian (page 1):

Alexander H, Stephens does not indulge in the average Bourbon estimate of President Grant. Here is what he said, in conversation with a friend, a few days ago, concerning this bete noir of Democracy: “When I first met him in 1866, I made up my mind that Grant was one of the most remarkable men of the age. I said so, and wrote to that effect, before Grant was even thought of for the Presidency, and every year since has strengthened my conviction. He has shown a wonderfully clear conception of his duties nod powers as President. He has executed the laws as he has found them and is as little inclined to usurp power as any President we ever had; in this respect he is a great contrast to Jackson, who had an imperious will. Even in the Louisiana troubles he has illustrated his character. He enforced the decrees of the United States court, and when asked to send another Judge to New Orleans in place of Judge Durell, he replied that he could not interfere with the assignment of judges made by the Supreme court. Not much Caesarism in that.”

Caesar-like

law-abiding

Judge Durell

Before the war Mr. Stephens represented a Georgia district in the U. S. House of Representatives. On December 1, 1873 he returned to the U.S. Capitol as a representative from Georgia. From the December 20, 1873 issue of Harper’s Weekly:

ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.

THAT was a very striking scene in the House of Representatives when ALEXANDER. H. STEPHENS, of Georgia, appeared and took his seat. The ex-Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy entered the hall on crutches. He looked feeble and emaciated, but no more so than for several years past. Few of the members recognized him, and of all those in the hall there were probably not more than five or six who were his contemporaries during any part of the fourteen years when he sat in the House, from 1843 to 1857. By a proper and graceful courtesy, Mr. DAWES, as the senior member of the House, and Mr. STEPHENS, on account of his age and infirmities, were allowed the privilege of the first choice of seats; the others had to abide the chance of the lottery. Mr. STEPHENS selected a prominent seat in front of the Speaker’s desk.

During the swearing in of members Mr. STEPHENS stood leaning on one crutch, supported on the other side by Mr. P. M. B. YOUNG, ex-major general of the Confederate army. “Baring his white head,” says a spectator of the scene, “and lifting his thin, ghostly hand, his eyes seemed to burn with a strange light as they were fastened on the Speaker.” He is the first really conspicuous Southern statesman of the period before the war who has returned to the national legislature. What memories must have crowded upon his mind while he stood there to take the oath! He had striven earnestly to prevent secession and avert war. With impassioned eloquence he had warned the people of the South against the folly into which they were rushing with blind and headlong haste, and pictured in glowing colors the greatness and growth of the nation, which, he said, was “the admiration of the civilized world,” and represented “the brightest hopes of mankind.” Drawn into the secession movement against his better judgment and against his choice, he was distinguished by the bold candor with which he avowed the principles on which the new government was to be founded. He denounced as fundamentally wrong the idea of the equality of the races. “Our new government,” he declared, in his well-known speech at Savannah in March, 1861, “is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas. Its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that 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 philosophical and moral truth.” This frank avowal had even more effect at the North than at the South, and served to quicken and strengthen the spirit of patriotism which saved the Union. Not the least strange of the circumstances under which Mr. STEPHENS takes his seat in Congress is the presence of several representatives of the very race whose subordination to the whites he so forcibly affirmed.

Mr. STEPHENS was born in Taliaferro County on the 11th of February, 1812, and is consequently nearly sixty-six years old at the present time. A newspaper correspondent writing from Washington says of him: “Mr. STEPHENS is afflicted with rheumatism of the severest type, which has thrown one hip out of place, and though he can hobble about a room with the aid of a cane, he has to use crutches on the street. Physically he is very feeble, but his intellect is as clear as ever. He eats animal food very seldom, and then sparingly. He is fearfully emaciated, and so colorless that his slender fingers seem almost transparent.”

“ghostly hand” with “slim fingers”

assisted Mr. Stephens at swearing in

dressed for Russia

I don’t think his age is right in the Harper’s piece. According to Wikipedia: Alexander H. Stephens was born on February 11, 1812 and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1843 until 1859 and then from 1873 until 1882; Pierce M. B. Young rose to the rank of Major General in the Confederate army, represented a Georgia district in the U.S. House from 1868 until 1875, and then represented the United States in Russia, Guatemala, and Honduras; Edward Henry Durell resigned from his federal judgeship in Louisiana in 1874 after the U.S. House Judiciary committee recommended he be impeached because he was “accused of irregularities in bankruptcy proceedings, corruption and drunkenness.” According to the Library of Congress, The Valley Virginian was published in Staunton, Virginia from 1865 until 1891.
Mr. Stephens didn’t see President Grant as another Caesar, but, according to Emerging Civil War, he had a different opinion of Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln and Caesar were both kindhearted and esteemed for many good qualities, “But in public life the two men were alike in that they could be ‘looked upon as the destroyer[s] of liberties…’” This information is from Stephens’ The War between the States, Volume II.
In a section about plantation owners’ loss of political and economic power in the post-war South, Eric Foner wrote that emancipation and loss of land values meant plantres’ wealth was sharply reduced after the war. Milledge Luke Bonham had trouble making ends meet despite owning two large cotton plantations. “Alexander H. Stephens and Gen. John B. Gordon were reduced to earning money by writing testimonials for Darby’s Prophylactic Fluid, a medicine manufactured in New York. (‘No family should be without it,’ declared the Confederacy’s Vice President.)” [Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: HarperPerenial ModernClassics, 2014. Pages 399-400.] John M. Darby “was an American botanist, chemist, and academic.” The ad is from the June 26, 1869 issue of The Charleston Daily News (at the Library of Congress (image 4).

“most wonderful”

The 1873 Harper’s Weekly content is from Hathi Trust; the section reproduced above is on page 1140.

From Library of Congress: Andrew Jackson portrait; a white-haired A.H. Stephens; Capitol statue
The image of Pierce Manning Butler Young that identifies him as U.S. Minister to Guatemala and Honduras is from The New York Public Library. He was Consul General in St. Petersburg, Russia before his stint in Central America.
From Wikimedia: Henry Ulke’s 1875 painting of Ulysses S. Grant – the official White House portrait; the image of Edward H. Durell; the photo of Pierce Manning Butler Young in the Confederate uniform;

Stephens’ statue at U.S. Capitol

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new governor

Posted on January 1, 2024 by SUMPTER

Governor Walker

Governor Kemper

It was a new year with a new governor for Virginia. 150 years ago a Richmond newspaper looked back with appreciation on the exiting governor – even though he was a northerner – and looked forward to the incoming governor – a native son. From the January 1, 1874 issue of the Daily Dispatch (image 4):

THE GOVERNORS.

The Constitution of Virginia fixes to-day for the commencement of the term of service of the Governor-elect, General KEMPER, and should the process of counting the vote for Governor not occasion unexpected delay the change of executive officers will accordingly take place this day.

Harper’s Weekly July 24, 1869 p478

In the retirement of Governor WALKER we are sure he carries with him the good wishes of the people of Virginia. He has made them an excellent Governor under circumstances which doubly increases their grateful sense of his services. He came to the office a stranger from a distant State, but very partially acquainted with us, our wants and dispositions. He was elected at a time when it was questionable, from the state of things, whether we could elect one of our own well-known statesmen. Liberal in his views and opposed to further oppressions of the South, after solicitation became the Conservative candidate for Governor, and was elected by a very large majority. The friends who knew him pledged themselves for him that he would faithfully administer the office of Governor, and his frankness and honorable bearing readily won the public confidence. He has fulfilled all the promises of both himself and friends, and faithfully and courageously held the helm of the ship of State in her passage through perilous waters.

It has been the lot of few men to hold important offices under such circumstances. His reflections upon the conclusion of his term must be of themselves a happy reward for his devotion and fidelity to the people of Virginia. But the added satisfaction of the assured good-will and gratitude of those people unquestionably makes the occasion one more than ordinarily felicitious. As no Governor in this country ever retired from his office under just such peculiar circumstances, we imagine none before have felt such satisfaction as is the reward this day of Governor WALKER. The good wishes of us all are tendered him for happiness and success in life.

The chair thus vacated by the generous native of another State will be occupied at once by JAMES L. KEMPER, who is elevated to the office of Governor by the largest popular majority ever given to a candidate for the position. A son of Virginia, who has been tried as a statesman and a hero, and who has proved his capacity and fidelity in every field and under every trial, he enters upon the duties of the chief executive office of Virginia with the unqualified confidence and affection of the people.

Governor KEMPER will discharge his duties with good judgment and integrity. He will bear himself with dignity and exercise his authority with impartiality and justice. Above all, he will exert his official sway with that calm consistency and resolution that will tend to allay causes of irritation, and as far as possible facilitate the subsidence of the unamiable sentiments and feelings which have for so many years so sadly vexed our country.

The State welcomes Governor KEMPER to his post, and bids him good speed in his administration.

A northern paper published a brief biography of the new governor. From the January 17, 1874 issue of Harper’s Weekly:

Governor Kemper

GENERAL JAMES L. KEMPER.

GENERAL KEMPER, who took the oath of office as Governor of Virginia on the 1st inst., is a native of Madison County, which is in that section of the State known as Piedmont Virginia. He is in his fiftieth year, having been born in the month of January, 1824. He received his education at Washington College and the Virginia Military Institute (both located at Lexington), taking the degree of M.A. at the former institution, now known as the Washington-Lee University.

After he attained his majority he entered the law office of Judge GEORGE W. SUMMERS, in Charleston, Kanawha County, and while worrying over COKE and BLACKSTONE, was commissioned a Captain in the volunteer army by President JAMES K. POLK in 1847, and joined General Taylor’s army just after the victory and capture of Buena Vista, too late to see active service.

Upon his return to Virginia, and while engaged in the practice of his profession, Captain KEMPER was elected to the Legislature as a Delegate from his native county, and was elected successively from 1852 to 1862. For a number of years he served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs; he was also president of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute, and Speaker of the House of Delegates in 1861, which position he resigned to enter the Confederate army, as Colonel of the Seventh Virginia Infantry, May 2, 1861. He participated in many engagements, and was early promoted to the command of a brigade. He was severely wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, where he was taken prisoner, and held as such for three months, when he was finally exchanged.

After his exchange and return to Virginia he was for a long time unfit for any duty, but was assigned to command the local defense troops in and around Richmond, and commissioned a Major-General June, 1864, which position, he held until the evacuation of Richmond, April 3, 1865. Since the close of the war General KEMPER has been engaged in the practice of his profession in his native county, Madison. In the last Presidential contest he was a GREELEY and BROWN elector for the State at large.

Kemper’s right exposed to Vermonters

You can read a full account of Kemper’s brigade during the July 3rd attack at National Park Service History. (This is not a National Park Service site).

According to The Horse Soldier, Kemper’s:

“brigade was one of the main assault units in Pickett’s Charge, advancing on the right flank of Pickett’s line. After crossing the Emmitsburg Road, the brigade was hit by flanking fire from two Vermont regiments, driving it to the left and disrupting the cohesion of the assault. In spite of the danger, Kemper rose up in his stirrups to urge his men forwards, shouting “There are the guns, boys, go for them!” He was wounded by a bullet in the abdomen and thigh before being captured by Union troops. However, he was rescued shortly thereafter by Sgt. Leigh Blanton of the First Virginia Infantry Regiment and carried back to the Confederate lines.

“During the Confederate Army’s retreat from Gettysburg, Kemper was again captured by Union forces. He was exchanged (for Charles K. Graham) on September 19, 1863. For the rest of the war he was too ill to serve in combat, and commanded the Reserve Forces of Virginia. He was promoted to major general on September 19, 1864.”

The Historical Marker Database shows the Kemper’s Brigade marker at Gettyburg.
The South’s Defender mentions General Kemper a few times, including the Daily Dispatch’s publication of General Beauregard’s report on First Bull Run – Beauregard was grateful that Colonel Kemper did an excellent taking over quartermaster duties. Also, there is another Daily Dispatch report about Gettysburg’s aftermath:

P. S.–The numerous friends of Gen. Kemper will be gratified to learn that his family, who reside in this place [Madison Court House], are in receipt of very recent information from the North stating that he had passed the crisis of his case, and is in a fair way of recovery. His lower extremities were paralyzed from the effect of his wound — received in the groin — but no doubt is entertained by the surgeon that he will recover the use of his limbs.

new executive in the mansion

Gilbert Carlton Walker was born in Binghamton, New York and spent most of his early years in the state until he moved to Chicago in 1859. In 1864 he moved to Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk surrendered to Union forces in 1862 and remained under martial law for the duration of the Civil War. You can read about the fall of Norfolk at The Civil War Months. According to Eric Foner in Reconstruction, in 1869 Southern Democrats tried to appeal to the political center by working with some disaffected Republicans. They did not oppose black suffrage but supported voting rights for former Confederates. In Virginia William Mahone was the main financier of a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans who supported the new constitution, except for the section disenfranchising the ex-Confederates, and supported Mahone’s plans for consolidating Virginia’s railroads to better compete against the Baltimore & Ohio. The group ran Gilbert C. Walker, a Republican with no “association with secession,” in the 1869 gubernatorial election. Walker defeated Henry Horatio Wells, a Radical Republican. The Grant administration didn’t help the Wells campaign very much because they saw a Walker governorship as a chance to make Virginia political parties non-racial. Walker’s supporters also won control of the legislature in the 1869 election. Mr. Foner writes that Virginia was “the only Confederate state to avoid a period of Radical Reconstruction.” [Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: HarperPerenial ModernClassics, 2014. Print. Pages 412-413.]
According to the Wikipedia link above, William Mahone’s brigade was in A.P. Hill’s corps from May 1863: “At the Battle of Gettysburg, Mahone’s brigade was mostly unengaged and suffered only a handful of casualties the entire battle. Mahone was supposed to participate in the attack on Cemetery Ridge on July 2, but against orders, held his brigade back. During Pickett’s Charge the following day, Mahone’s brigade was assigned to protect artillery batteries and was uninvolved in the main fighting. Mahone’s official report for the battle was only 100 words long and gave little insight into his actions on July 2. However, he told fellow brigadier Carnot Posey that division commander Richard H. Anderson had ordered him to stay put.”
From the Library of Congress: Richmond’s Governor’s Mansion in 1865 – it’s better known as the Executive Mansion and “it is the oldest occupied governor’s mansion in the United States. It has served as the home of Virginia governors and their families since 1813.”; Currier & Ives c1876 greeting
The Internet Archive has the July 24, 1869 issue of Harper’s Weekly, which contains the image of Gilbert Walker and the article about his election.
The material from the January 17, 1874 issue of Harper’s Weekly comes from HathiTrust.
From Wikimedia Commons: Governor Walker via Harper’s Weekly; General Kemper; Hal Jespersen’s map, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. I didn’t make any changes;
Happy new year (New York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1876.; LOC: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002695831/)

wishing you a very good 2024

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, Aftermath, Postbellum Politics, Reconstruction, Southern Society | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In a manger

Posted on December 25, 2023 by SUMPTER

Institution of the Crib at Greccio

Saint Francis of Assisi is given credit for creating the first live Nativity scene in Greccio, Italy 800 years ago this Christmas. St. Francis used live people and animals, I think, for the Bethlehem manger scene. This is how St. Bonaventure summarizes the event in his biography of Francis (Chapter X, paragraph 7):

7. Now three years before his death it befell that he was minded, at the town of Greccio, to celebrate the memory of the Birth of the Child Jesus, with all the added solemnity that he might, for the kindling of devotion. That this might not seem an innovation, he sought and obtained license from the Supreme Pontiff, and then made ready a manger, and bade hay, together with an ox and an ass, be brought unto the spot. The Brethren were called together, the folk assembled, the wood echoed with their voices, and that august night was made radiant and solemn with many bright lights, and with tuneful and sonorous praises. The man of God, filled with tender love, stood before the manger, bathed m tears, and overflowing with joy. Solemn Masses were celebrated over the manger, Francis, the Levite of Christ, chanting the Holy Gospel. Then he preached unto the folk standing round of the Birth of the King in poverty, calling Him, when he wished to name Him, the Child of Bethlehem, by reason of his tender love for Him. A certain knight, valorous and true, Messer John of Greccio, who for the love of Christ had left the secular army, and was bound by closest friendship unto the man of God, declared that he beheld a little Child right fair to see sleeping in that manger. Who seemed to be awakened from sleep when the blessed Father Francis embraced Him in both arms. This vision of the devout knight is rendered worthy of belief, not alone through the holiness of him that beheld it, but is also confirmed by the truth that it set forth, and withal proven by the miracles that followed it. For the ensample of Francis, if meditated upon by the world, must needs stir up sluggish hearts unto the faith of Christ, and the hay that was kept back from the manger by the folk proved a marvellous remedy for sick beasts, and a prophylactic against divers other plagues, God magnifying by all means His servant, and making manifest by clear and miraculous portents the efficacy of his holy prayers.

The Chapel of the First Live Nativity in Greccio

Francis of Assisi lived from 1181-1226. I read someplace that Saint Bonaventure’s (1221-1274) based his biography of Francis on an earlier work by Thomas of Celano (c1185-1260). You can read Thomas of Celano’s biography at Franciscan Seculars. Part I, chapter 30 describes the 1223 nativity scene.
This year’s nativity scene at the Vatican honors St. Francis’s 1223 creation in Greccio.
From Wikimedia Commons: Fiat 500e’s photograph of the Chapel of the First Live Nativity -“licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.” I didn’t make any changes; the fresco of St. Francis setting up the nativity scene at Greccio, part of the Saint Francis cycle in the Upper Church of San Francesco at Assisi – the cycle has traditionally been attributed to Giotto di Bondone, but the actual painter has been disputed by art historians since 1912; G.dallorto’s photo of the simple nativity scene from a 4th century sarcophagus
From the Library of Congress: Currier & Ives’ 1876 lithograph;

Infant Jesus with ox and ass from 4th century sarcophagus

Merry Christmas (New York : Published by Currier & Ives, 125 Nassau St., [1876])

to you and yours

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bicentennial

Posted on December 23, 2023 by SUMPTER
visit from st nick (A reprint of the first [sic] publication of "A visit from St. Nicholas." [n. p., ca. 1919].; LOC: https://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.11804300/?q=a+visit+from+st.+nicholas)

Illustration accompanying c1830 broadside of “A Visit from St. Nicholas”

“A Visit from from St. Nicholas” was first published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel on Dec. 23, 1823. The poem was later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore and has become more widely known as “The Night Before Christmas.” According to Rebecca Sicree, writing in the November/December 2023 issue of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, “It is impossible to overestimate how much Moore’s poem has influenced the celebration of Christmas in the United States. Before Moore, the newly independent country had no common American Christmas traditions. After the advent of Moore’s poem, pictures of Santa Claus showed him short and fat, like one of the Seven Dwarfs, though he eventually regained his adult height.” Rebecca Sicree points out that Clement Moore’s poem encouraged the transition from saint to modern Santa Claus because of these lines:

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself. . . .

Fifty years after the poem, Harper’s Weekly clearly identified a plump, shortish night visitor as Santa Claus:

“He knows when you’re awake”

Based on the poem accompanying Thomas Nast’s illustration, it seems that Santa really likes his privacy and history … but if you’re 1500 years old, the arctic explorers might be more like current events:

Ho! Ho! – reindeer too fast

In her article Rebecca Sicree explains that everyone assumed Santa was pretty much a lone elf until a poem in the December 26, 1857 issue of Harper’s Weekly. “The Wonders of Santa Claus” includes this stanza:

In his house upon the top of a hill,
­And almost out of sight,
He keeps a great many elves at work,
All working with all their might,
To make a million of pretty things,
Cakes, sugar-plums, and toys,
To fill the stockings, hung up you know
By the little girls and boys.

The same poem revealed Santa Claus’ true identity:

But it were an endless task to tell,
The length that the list extends,
Of the curious gifts the queer old man
Prepares for his Christmas friends.
Belike you are guessing who he is,
And the country whence he came.
Why, he was born in Germany,
And St. Nicholas is his name.

big employer of elves

According to Wikipedia, Clement Moore’s famous poem had a precursor:

“Old Santeclaus with Much Delight” is an anonymous illustrated children’s poem published in New York in 1821, predating by two years the first publication of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (Twas the Night before Christmas). It is the first publication to mention (and illustrate) Santa Claus’s reindeer and his sleigh, as well as being the first to describe his arrival on Christmas Eve. The accompanying illustrations are the earliest published artistic depictions of a Santa Claus figure.

“steady friend of virtuous youth”

“O’r chimney tops, and tracts of snow”

“various beds and stockings seen”

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Old Santeclaus did leave the stockings and presents in the children’s bedroom. Bad children didn’t receive a lump of coal – they received a stocking with “a long, black, birchen rod” for parental application.

Harper’s Weekly and its cartoonist Thomas Nast had a lot to do with Santa’s development, even during the American Civil War. Read about it at American Battlefield Trust.

SANTA CLAUS IN CAMP (by Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly, January 3, 1863)

patriotic (Union) Santa

Christmas Eve, 1862 by Thomas nast (Harper's Weekly, January 3, 1862)

“Up on the house top, Click, click, click”

So Santa Claus has evolved over the centuries.

saint

elf

modern

Rebecca Sicree’s article, “The Evolution of Elves,” is published on pages 19-21 in the print magazine. You can also read her article online.
You can find the January 3, 1874 issue of Harper’s Weekly at Internet Archive. I believe the poem refers to arctic explorers Sir Sir John Franklin and Charles Francis Hall.
The December 26, 1857 issue of Harpers Weekly is at Internet Archive, the Santa poem is on pages 820-21 ;
From the Library of Congress: the c.1830 illustration for Clement Moore’s poem – “Photostat copy of a reproduction of the broadside illustrated by Myron King and published at Troy, N. Y., about 1830. The poem was first published in the Troy Sentinal on Dec. 23, 1823.”;
Both Civil War illustrations were published in the January 3, 1863 issue of Harper’s Weekly – I probably got them from Son of the South. The second image shows Santa and reindeer on the roof. In 1864 Benjamin Hanby wrote “Up on the House Top”, which is considered the second-oldest secular Christmas song. You can see sheet music at Otterbein University – the lyrics have apparently been very malleable over the years.
You can find the image of the elfish St. Nick working at the fireplace in Twas the Night before Christmas at Project Gutenberg.
From Wikimedia Commons: the three images from “Old Santeclaus with Much Delight” – in green, chimney, and stockings; Saint Nicholas of Myra icon from Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, created first half of the 13th century; Santa and reindeer at Hershey Park December 23, 2021 – Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s photo “is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license” -I didn’t make any changes – here’s the description: “Santa and his reindeer. Governor Tom Wolf was joined by Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding and Pennsylvania State Veterinarian Dr. Kevin Brightbill to meet Santa and his nine reindeer at Hersheypark Christmas Candylane to announce that the reindeer have received a clean bill of health and are cleared for take-off on December 24. Hershey, PA – December 23, 2021″” Gerardus Mercator’s map of the North Pole and surroundings – the map was published posthumously in a 1595 atlas.

He’s on the top of the world

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