Presidential Candidates Part 8

JOHN BELL.

John Bell is a man of the old school in politics, an ancient southern Whig, who has preserved his whiggery intact, and has not been swallowed up in the Democratic party, but has rather sympathized to a great extent with the party in the North which has taken the place of the old Whig organization--the Republican party. Coming from a slave State, and himself a slaveholder, of course Mr. Bell does not belong to the Republican organization. He could not well do so without occupying an anti-slavery att.i.tude in Tennessee. But he has acted in concert with the Republicans on most issues in Congress, and upon many of the issues which slavery has raised, he has taken sides with the North. In this manner he has gained the respect of his colleagues who go further than he does in opposition to slavery.

John Bell is an honest, upright man, and has been for years one of the ablest members of the U.S. Senate. He has evinced the highest courage in taking his stand against measures which were either proposed by politicians from his own section of the country, or were expected to inure to the benefit of that section. He came out boldly against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the Kansas-Nebraska act, although in doing so he exposed himself at home, among his const.i.tuents, to the raking fire of his political enemies. He also opposed with great eloquence and vigor the Lecompton bill. For a southern senator to do these things requires pluck as well as principle, and we may be sure that John Bell lacks neither. His enemies will give him credit for both.

In his personal appearance in the Senate, Mr. Bell is noticeable.

Though his hair is grey, the fire of his eye is undimmed, and the freshness of his countenance is youthful. Few men in the Senate speak so vigorously as he. His voice is sonorous and loud, and the energy of his tone, his style, and his gesticulation remind one of an orator of thirty. We remember very well how during the Lecompton debate in the Senate, Mr. Johnson, Bell's Democratic colleague, was replying with great severity to his speech against the Lecompton bill. A portion of his remarks were very personal, and must have somewhat irritated the brave old senator. Johnson was fresh from the stump, and its phrases and language were so beaten into his mind that he could not shake them off. So, frequently in the course of his speech in alluding to Mr.

Bell, instead of saying "my colleague," he said "my _compet.i.tor_."

This was done several times, when Mr. Bell half-rose in his seat, his face flushed red with his indignation, and hurled out at his colleague, "_Compet.i.tor! I am not the gentleman's compet.i.tor!_" No one who witnessed the scene will ever forget it. The Senate was convulsed with laughter.

Mr. Bell was born near Nashville, Tennessee, in February, 1797; his father being a farmer in moderate circ.u.mstances. He--the son--was educated at what is now Nashville University--afterward studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1816. He then settled down in Franklin, Tennessee, from which place he was elected to the State Senate, in 1817, he then being but twenty years old. During the next nine years he forsook politics and confined himself to his profession, but in 1826 he ran for Congress, in opposition to Felix Grundy. He had the support of General Jackson, and triumphed by one thousand majority.

The canva.s.s was long and exciting, and Mr. Bell was justly proud of his victory. For fourteen consecutive years he remained in the House of Representatives from this district. When first elected he was a follower of Calhoun and an opponent of a Protective Tariff. He afterward, by reading and argument, saw fit to change his position in this respect, and has long been known as an advocate of the old Whig tenets--a high tariff, internal improvements, etc. etc. He was for ten years in the House, chairman of the committee on Indian Affairs, was once chairman of the Judiciary committee. The breach between himself and Jackson was on the question of the removal of the deposits, and the result was that Mr. Bell went over to the Whigs. In 1834, he was made Speaker of the House of Representatives, his opponent being James K. Polk. The Whigs and a wing of the Democrats who disliked Van Buren voted for Mr. Bell, and elected him. Mr. Bell opposed Mr. Van Buren for removing men from office on account of their politics, and he made a strong speech in the House against this policy. He refused to support Van Buren for the presidency and went in for Judge White, who carried the State of Tennessee. Mr. Bell was afterward relected to Congress from the Hermitage district, showing that the people even in Jackson's district supported him in the position he had taken. It was at this time that he had the courage to vote _in favor_ of receiving anti-slavery politicians, when many northern politicians voted to strike down this right of the people under the most despotic forms of government. He also voted _against_ Atherton's famous Gag Resolutions.

In 1841, Gen. Harrison made him Secretary of War, but he resigned when Tyler came into power. He was soon elected to the United States Senate, where he remained till March 4th, 1859.

Mr. Bell supported the compromise measures of 1850--was opposed to the annexation of Texas--and, as we have remarked, opposed the Kansas-Nebraska act and the Lecompton Const.i.tution. He is opposed to the _taking_ of Cuba or buying it at an extravagant price--opposes all kinds of filibustering. We make a few extracts from Mr. Bell's great speech against the Lecompton bill. Upon Popular Sovereignty he thus expressed himself:

"What is the true doctrine on this subject? I had supposed that there could be no disagreement as to the true principles connected with the rights and powers of the people in forming a State Const.i.tution; but since I have heard the speech of the senator from Georgia, I do not know what principle he agrees to. I say that in no disrespect; but I thought he was particularly wild, shooting _extra flammantia mnia mundi_, on those high points of doctrine which he, in some parts of his speech, thought proper to enunciate. Does any person here deny the proposition, that the people of a territory, in the formation of a State Const.i.tution, are to that extent--_quoad hoc_--sovereign and uncontrollable, though still owing obedience to the provisional government of the territory? Will any senator contend that the territorial legislature can either give to the people any power over that subject which they did not possess before, or withhold from them any which they did possess? The territorial legislature cannot dictate any one provision of the const.i.tution which the people think proper to form. Who is prepared to contend that Congress can do anything more in this respect than a territorial legislature?

It is usual for the territorial legislature, when the people desire to apply for admission into the Union, in the absence of an enabling act of Congress, to pa.s.s a law providing for the a.s.sembling of a convention to form a State Const.i.tution. But that is a mere usage, resorted to when Congress has not thought proper to pa.s.s what is called an enabling act. What is an enabling act?

Nothing more than to signify to the people of a territory, that if they shall think proper to meet in convention and form a State Const.i.tution, in compliance with certain forms therein prescribed, to insure a fair expression of the people's will, Congress is prepared to admit them into the Union as a State.

"But such an act gives no more power to the people over the subject of a const.i.tution than an act of a territorial legislature. But, suppose the people, either under an act of the territorial legislature or of Congress, meet in convention, by delegates chosen by the people, and form a const.i.tution, what then? Has it any vitality as a const.i.tution? Does it transform the territory into a State? Has it any binding force or effect, either upon individuals or upon the community? n.o.body pretends that it has any such force. It is only after the acceptance of the const.i.tution, and the admission of the territory into the Union as a State, that there is any vigor or validity in a const.i.tution so formed. Before that time, it is worth no more than the parchment on which its provisions are written, so far as any legal or const.i.tutional validity is concerned.

"But, upon principle, the people of a territory, without any act of the territorial legislature, without an enabling act of Congress, can hold public meetings and elect delegates to meet in convention for the purpose of forming a const.i.tution; and when formed, it has all the essential attributes of a valid const.i.tution, as one formed in any other way. Many senators contend that it is the inalienable and indefeasible right of the people of a State at all times to change their const.i.tution in any manner they think proper. This doctrine I do not admit, in regard to the people of a State; but, in reference to the formation of a const.i.tution by the people of a territory, there can be no question as to the soundness of this doctrine. They can form a const.i.tution by delegates voluntarily chosen and sent to a convention, but what is it worth when it is formed? Nothing at all, until Congress shall accept it and admit the territory into the Union as a State under that const.i.tution. It is worth no more in that case than in the case of a const.i.tution formed under a territorial act or an act of Congress; but it is worth just as much."

Upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the effects which followed the act, he remarked:

"Four years ago, when it was proposed to repeal the Missouri Compromise--to adopt the principle of non-intervention, and concede to the people of the territories the right to settle the question of slavery in their own way--it was said by the advocates of the measure, that, as soon as the principles of it came to be understood, all agitation and discussion upon the subject of slavery in the territories would be localized--excluded from Congress--and the country would be left in undisturbed repose. So boldly and confidently were these views maintained, that the whole southern delegation in Congress, Whigs and Democrats, with seven or eight exceptions, together with many Democrats from the free States, came into the support of the measure. How were these bold predictions verified? In less than one month of the time during which the Kansas-Nebraska bill was pending in Congress, nearly the whole North was in a flame of resentment and opposition. Old men, of high character and great influence, who had for twenty years opposed the policy and designs of the Abolition faction in the North, suddenly became its allies and coadjutors. Thousands of the best citizens at the North, who had exerted all their energies to repress all opposition to the execution of the Fugitive Slave law of 1850, became suddenly converts to Free-Soilism. The religious feelings of whole communities became frenzied. The pulpit was converted into an engine of anti-slavery propagandism, and hundreds of thousands of sober-minded and conservative people at the North, who had never countenanced sectional strife on the subject of slavery, evinced that they had thrown off their conservatism, and were ready to array themselves under the banner of any party leader or faction, to check the progress of the South in what they considered its aggressive policy.

"After that demonstration of opposition at the North, but little more was said in debate of the tranquillizing character of the measure. But its most influential supporters from the South, becoming inflamed and irritated by the fierce invectives with which the measure was a.s.sailed, both within and out of Congress, became, in their turn, reckless (apparently at least) of all consequences, and seemed only bent on victory--on obtaining a triumph by pa.s.sing the bill! It was in vain that they were admonished that they were adding largely to the abolition faction at the North; that they were increasing the free-soil element of political power in that section. They admitted no distinction between Abolitionists and Free-Soilers, and denounced all at the North who opposed the bill as Abolitionists and foes to the South.

Some gentlemen declared that the screams of the Abolitionists were music to their ears. It was idle to warn men in such a tempest of pa.s.sion, that, instead of sowing the seeds of peace, as they had promised, they were sowing dragons' teeth, that would spring up armed men. So intense did the feeling become on the subject, that some southern members of Congress, who had gone into the support of the bill on the idea that the Missouri restriction act was a violation of the treaty with France, and who would not have listened for a moment to the admission of aliens to the right of suffrage in the territories, lost sight of these views under the influence of the furor that was gotten up among the friends as well as the opponents of the measure; and they became even more determined champions of the bill when these grounds of their original adhesion were entirely swept away--one by the rejection of the Clayton amendment, and the other by the Badger proviso--than they were at the outset.

"There were, however, a few of the supporters of the bill who to the last contended that the intemperate demonstrations of opposition at the North were but the ebullitions of temporary excitement, which would subside as soon as the equitable and just principles of the bill should be exhibited in their practical operation in Kansas. On what flimsy grounds that delusion was indulged, and how soon and under what circ.u.mstances it vanished, I need not recount. The recollection of every patriot must still be painfully impressed with them. It is enough to say, that soon after these principles were put in operation in Kansas, disorder, anarchy, and civil war, ensued in rapid succession. It required the strong arm of the government of the United States and the interposition of the military force to sustain the territorial government; and even now, after the lapse of four years, we still find that the presence of a military force is necessary to maintain peace. So much for the effect of that measure on Kansas and the country. How has it been in Congress? Need I ask that question? Has not the subject of slavery in the territory been the absorbing subject of our thoughts and discussions at every session of Congress since the pa.s.sage of the Kansas-Nebraska act? And as for the character and temper of the debates upon this subject, have they not, in asperity and fierceness, far exceeded those of any antecedent period of our history?

"I now ask the attention of the Senate to the effect of the experiment of localizing slavery agitation in the territories, made in 1854, in changing the complexion of parties both in Congress and in the country. In the Congress which pa.s.sed the Kansas-Nebraska bill, we have seen that there was at the commencement of the session, in December, 1853, a Democratic majority of eighty-four in the House of Representatives, and only four Free-Soilers, and in the Senate a like number--so small, yet so distinct in their principles, that neither of the two great parties then known to the country knew well how to arrange them on committee.

"MR. HALE.--You left them off.

"MR. BELL.--The Whigs were afraid to touch them. Mr. Chase was a Democrat, and was so recognized by his brethren in the Senate, and was taken care of by them in arranging the committees; yet he was one of the gentlemen whom I have designated as Free-Soilers. Now, let us see what was the effect of the Kansas-Nebraska act on the elections which ensued in the fall of 1854, just on the heels of the adoption of that measure. One hundred and seven Free-Soilers were returned to the House of Representatives, and the Democratic party, instead of having a majority of eighty-four in that House, found itself in a minority of seventy-six; and in the Senate the number of Free-Soilers was increased to thirteen. Such was the complexion of the two houses of Congress in the 33d Congress, which a.s.sembled in December, 1855. Now, we find in the Senate twenty Free-Soilers. How many more they may have in the next Congress, will depend upon the disposition we make of the question _now before the Senate_. I call upon the senator from Georgia to say whether he will have that number limited or not. Does he want a sufficient number to prevent the ratification of any future treaty of acquisition? How long will it be before we have that number, if the southern Democracy persist in their present course?

They would seem to be deeply interested in adding to the power of the Republican party.

"I consider that the most fearful and portentous of all the results of the Kansas-Nebraska act was to create, to build up a great sectional party. My friend from Ohio, who sits near me, [Mr.

Wade] must allow me to say, that I regard his party as a sectional one.

"MR. WADE.--Is not the other side a sectional party?

"MR. BELL.--So far as they are confined to the South they are, but they say that they lap over.

"MR. WADE.--Lap over further South still.

"MR. BELL.--I consider that no more ominous and threatening cloud can darken the political horizon at any time. How formidable this party has already become, may be well ill.u.s.trated by the fact that its representative candidate, Mr. Fremont, was only beaten in the last Presidential election by the most desperate efforts; and I feel warranted in saying, that but for the imminent prospect of his success, which shone out near the close of the canva.s.s, Mr.

Buchanan would not have attained his present high position."

From these extracts the reader will readily perceive the position of Mr. Bell upon the great political question of the day.

JOHN P. HALE.

John P. Hale comes of good old New England stock. His ancestors were the men who founded those New England inst.i.tutions which are alike the glory of that section of the country and the whole nation. The grandfather of Mr. Hale--Samuel Hale--was a lawyer of ability and success, and he educated his son John--father of the present Mr.

Hale--to the same profession. The father of Mr. Hale married a Miss...o...b..ien, daughter of Capt. Jeremiah O'Brien. Of this ancestor Mr. Hale is justly proud. The following true story is told of his gallantry at the beginning of the Revolutionary War:

"When the news of the struggle with the mother country reached Machias, in Maine (then a province of Ma.s.sachusetts), on the 9th of May, 1775, an armed British schooner, the Margaretta, was lying in port, with two sloops under her convoy, loading with lumber in behalf of the king's government. An attempt was made to capture the officers of the Margaretta while they were at church, but they escaped on board, weighed anchor, and dropped down the river. On the 11th, a party of thirty-five volunteers was hastily collected, and, taking one of the lumber sloops, they made sail. The Margaretta, on observing their appearance, weighed and crowded sail, to avoid a conflict; the sloop proved to be a better sailor.

As she approached, the schooner opened a fire with four light guns and fourteen swivels, to which the sloop replied with musketry, and soon the Americans boarded and captured the Margaretta. The loss of life in this affair was not very large, though twenty men on both sides are said to have been killed and wounded. It was the first blow struck on the water in the Revolutionary struggle, and it was characterized by a long chase, a b.l.o.o.d.y struggle, and a triumph.

"There was originally no commander in the sloop, but previously to engaging the Margaretta, Jeremiah O'Brien was selected for that station. Transferring the armament to a sloop, he engaged separately, and captured two English cruisers sent out from Halifax expressly to take him, and carried their crews as prisoners to Watertown, where the provincial Legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts was a.s.sembled. His gallantry was so generally admired, that he was appointed a captain in the marine of the colony, and afterward distinguished himself as a continental officer. Two of his brothers, uncles of Mrs. John P. Hale, senior, were also noted for their nautical bravery."

Mr. Hale, the subject of this sketch, was born on the 31st of March, 1806, at Rochester, New Hamps.h.i.+re. When a boy he, like most New England boys, attended the common district school of his neighborhood.

When he grew up to be a young man, he was sent to Phillips Academy, at Exeter, where the well-known Dr. Abbott also educated Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Lewis Ca.s.s and other distinguished men. In September, 1823, Mr. Hale entered Bowdoin College, and graduated with high honors in 1827. Among his a.s.sociates in college were Hawthorne, Longfellow, Franklin Pierce, Prof. Stone, and S. S. Prentiss. In 1828, Mr. Hale selected his home, the town of Dover, where he now resides. There he went to study law in the office of D. M. Christie. He was admitted to the bar in 1830, and in 1834 his clients had become so numerous that he was obliged to take a partner. He was never so distinguished as a law-_student_, as for his popular argument with a jury. His forte was then, as now, in appealing directly to the hearts of men. By common sense, humor, pathos and sarcasm he won his cause. Mr. Hale was, we presume, a little more inclined to politics than to law, and if we may judge at all from his looks to-day, he was never over-fond of severe application, mental or physical, to labor.

In 1832, Mr. Hale was elected to represent Dover in the New Hamps.h.i.+re Legislature, and was a staunch Democrat. In 1834, General Jackson appointed him U.S. Attorney for the district of New Hamps.h.i.+re, an office which he filled creditably to himself. Mr. Van Buren continued him in this office, and he filled it till John Tyler removed him. This was a turning point in his history. He fell back to his old practice of the law; but in 1843, he was nominated and elected to Congress, to take his seat in the House of Representatives. A struggle was at that time beginning between the North and the South, and Mr. Hale, apparently to his certain defeat and humiliation, for New Hamps.h.i.+re was then overwhelmingly Democratic, took side with the North and freedom. He was renominated for Congress, but soon afterward he had the courage to come out in a letter denouncing the annexation of Texas. This, as a matter of course, brought down upon him the enmity of his old companions. The State Democratic Committee called a new convention in his district, set his nomination aside, and nominated John Woodbury in his place. It was at this juncture that Mr. Hale showed his nerve, and it is said that his spirited wife sustained him through the campaign with a courage and spirit second only to his own.

Suffice it to say, that after an arduous campaign, Mr. Hale triumphed so far as to prevent his compet.i.tor from being elected. A majority was required to elect, and no candidate could get that majority. The next year Mr. Hale was sent again to the State Legislature to represent the town of Dover, and he was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives. He presided so fairly and won so much upon the members, that before the adjournment took place, the Legislature elected Mr. Hale to represent the State, in part, for six years in the United States Senate! This was a great triumph. The man who had been set aside for his faithfulness to his own convictions of right, by party managers, was taken up by the State at large, and sent to represent New Hamps.h.i.+re in the Senate of the United States. His new position was an extraordinary one. He was about to take his seat in the Senate backed by no party, utterly alone, sent there for his individual merits, and not to advance the interests of any party.

A writer not agreeing or sympathizing with Mr. Hale in his peculiar anti-slavery views, speaks of this period of Mr. Hale's history in the following language:

"When Mr. Hale took his seat he was almost alone, and had to combat, single-handed, the political 'giants in those days.' Sometimes he was met with labored arguments, then subjected to bitter reproaches; at times those who were but 'his peers' would affect almost to ignore his presence, and again they would mercilessly denounce him as advocating doctrines dangerous to the liberties of the Republic. But the senator from New Hamps.h.i.+re was not to be intimidated or diverted from what he considered to be his duty. Adopting the _guerrilla_ tactics, he manfully held his ground, and with felicitous humor, pungent retort, or keen sarcasm, made an impression upon the phalanx against which he had to contend. So high were his aims, and so conciliating were his manners, that before the close of his senatorial term, Mr. Hale had beaten down the barriers of prejudice, and fairly conquered sectional discourtesy. He was thus not only the standard-bearer, but the pioneer of the North in the Senate."

In 1853, the Democracy were in the ascendency in New Hamps.h.i.+re, and Mr. Atherton took Mr. Hale's seat in the Senate. Mr. Hale was persuaded at this time to locate himself in the city of New York, to practise his profession. Luckily, he did not give up his house at Dover, his family remaining there, and he paying his poll tax there.

In 1855, he was again elected to serve New Hamps.h.i.+re for an unexpired term; and in 1859, was relected for another whole term of six years.

The same writer from whom we have just quoted, remarks further:

"Senator Hale is especially attentive to his const.i.tuents, and never neglects their interests for practice in the Supreme Court or other private business. He is, nevertheless, ever ready to address public a.s.semblages on subjects in which he takes an interest. The sailors will never forget his efforts in procuring an abolition of flogging in the United States navy, in commemoration of which they presented him with a gold medal.

"From the commencement of Senator Hale's career up to the present time, he has been the untiring advocate of whatever he viewed as powerful for good, as calculated to meliorate the condition of man, or as likely to advance the general interests of the American Union, without prejudice to the rights of the section which he represents. He has ever firmly refused to bow before counterfeited images, or to scramble for place in the arena of party, but he has never declined to a.s.sume whatever burden of duty his friends counselled him to bear.

"In person, Senator Hale is burly, bluff-looking, with a clear eye, and a hearty grasp of the hand for his friends. His colloquial powers are of a splendid order, and he is a rare humorist, genial, suns.h.i.+ny and kindly. He laughs with the foibles and shortcomings of the world--not at them; and his laugh is pure and silvery. Married in early life to Miss Lucy H. Lambert, of Berwick, Maine (a lady who combines rare attainments of mind, beauties of character, and personal charms), he has ever found his highest happiness in his own domestic circle, which is now graced by two accomplished daughters, just budding into womanhood. An evening spent with this estimable family is an event to be remembered with pleasure."

Mr. Hale has long been a favorite in the Senate with men of all parties. Whenever it is known beforehand that he is going to speak--no matter what the subject may be--he is sure to gather a crowded audience. He is one of the most popular men in the country, for his satire has never a spice of cruelty in it. His jolly humor, everlasting good nature, and natural love of fair play, make him friends wherever he is, no matter if he be among his bitterest southern enemies.

To gain any idea of the change which has taken place in the Senate since Mr. Hale took his seat in it, we must remember that then he stood up _alone_ the champion of anti-slavery--unless we make an exception in favor of Mr. Seward--while now more than twenty Republican senators sit with him on the "opposition benches." To get a faint idea of the condition of the Senate when Mr. Hale entered it, let us go back to the 20th of April, 1845. The famous Drayton and Soyers slave case had just occurred, and Dr. Bailey and his paper, the "National Era," had been at the mercy of a mob for three days. Mr.