CHAPTER VII. 1856-1857. Kansas-Naturalization-Presidential Election-Claims of Revolutionary Officers -Letters-G. T. Curtis to Crittenden, Crittenden to his Wife, Letcher to Crittenden-Senate, February 4, 1857, Pay of Lieutenant-General-Heirs of the late Colonel John Hardin-Letters-In Senate-Land Route to California-Letter to Hon. R. C. Winthrop as to the Degree of Doctor of Laws just conferred by Harvard-Letter to J. R. Underwood as to Senatorship. ΟΝ N the 10th of June, 1856, Mr. Crittenden offered the following resolution in the Senate: Whereas, dangerous popular disturbances, with insurrection and obstructions to the due execution of the laws, unhappily prevail in the Territory of Kansas; and whereas, it is of great importance that the military forces which may be employed for the suppression of these insurrectionary disturbances, and for the restoration of law, peace, and protection to the good people of the Territory, should be conducted with the greatest discretion and judgment, and should be under the command of an officer whose rank and reputation would render his services most useful and beneficial to the country in the present crisis, -a crisis requiring firmness, prudence, energy, and conciliation; be it therefore Resolved, by the Senate of the United States, that the President be, and is hereby, requested to employ the military services of Lieutenant-General Scott in the pacification of Kansas, and the immediate direction and command of all the forces to be employed for that purpose, under such instructions and with such authority and power as the President can and may think proper to confer upon him. Mr. Crittenden made a few remarks on presenting this resolution. He thought the high station and character of General Scott would enable him to do more than any other man. The spectacle which existed in Kansas was enough to make us ashamed of our country. It might, indeed, be called civil war, and no effective step had been taken to remedy the disgraceful evil. The peace of the whole country was seriously threatened. ( 125 ) We had had enough of debate. It had been rather of a character to irritate and provoke than to contribute to impartial judgment. The great question could not be thrown off on the State government. The Senate was responsible. It was useless to show the measure of wrong done, on one side or the other. The aim should be to give peace to the country, North and South. Was the arm of the people of the United States paralyzed? Had they no power to assert the majesty of the laws? -then let them no longer wear a crown which only deludes while it promises protection. "All know," said Mr. Crittenden, "on which side of the controversy my sympathies are. They are exactly where my education and the habits of my life would naturally place them; but I am no partisan; I have lived to learn, through the course of a long and active political life, something more of forbearance, something more of prudence, more, I hope, of patriotism than is prevalent in these days of active party strife. General Scott, in going to Kansas, would carry the sword in his left hand, and in his right hand 'peace,gentle peace.' His great name would speak trumpet-tongued for peace, his words of reproof would be sharper than the sword to the refractory and rebellious, and his words of cheer would comfort and strengthen good men, who had been drawn unwillingly into this strife, or made its victims. His character is marked with integrity, impartiality, and justice. Those who are lost to a sense of duty will know that they will be made to feel the power of the sword of this great people in his hands. He is a man of conciliation, and has been as successful in quieting the minds of the people, thus making peace, as he has been in the field of battle. It would be better to employ the name of a great warrior to make peace than the sword. If there was any justly obnoxious laws in Kansas they should be repealed." In 1856 there was considerable excitement throughout the country on the subject of the naturalization laws. Many were opposed to the facilities of access to citizenship which these laws afforded to aliens. Mr. Crittenden considered it a priceless boon, not to be lightly bestowed upon all who asked it. He declared that a great foreign influence was already exercised in our elections. The candidates for the Presidency were voted as stock in market. Who is the German vote going for? One day it was said for Buchanan, the next day for Frémont; and this was the scale by which the chances of a presidential election were rated! He considered this a shame to our Americanism. As long as a foreign population could be absorbed in our own, and be identified with it, all might go well; but it was already with us a distinct element, and dangerous. The great armies engaged in the Eastern war were about to be called home and disbanded. These men,-many of them,-imbued with the spirit of bloodshed, and begrimed with the dirt and vice of a camp, would be pushed off upon us. They were instruments of war, and not of smiling peace. Foreign nations, inimical to our government, might see the practicability of destroying our institutions by pouring in this worthless horde of paupers to become citizens. Mr. Crittenden was opposed to this not on any party ground, but because Providence had assigned to him the lot of an American citizen with all its grand rights and privileges. We were now about to enter upon a national contest for President, and slavery and anti-slavery were the watchwords,—nigger worshipers, as they were called on one side, and some term of reproach on the other. These were the sounds of the mighty contest. Should a great national question be conducted under such auspices? Mr. Crittenden thought our fellow-citizens of the North should take a more conciliatory view of this subject. Unquestionably the assault, or the men who led it on, came from the North. Who of their representatives had been heard to say to his brethren of the North, "Be reconciled to thy brother?" Mr. Crittenden was for dealing in a large and liberal spirit with all those who had just claims upon the government, and above all others he advocated the claims of the old soldiers of the Revolution and their descendants. Congress, under the advice of General Washington at the crisis of the war, passed a law promising the officers of the army who continued in the service until the end of the war half pay for life; subsequently these officers were authorized to commute this claim of half pay for life to full pay for five years, and for that Congress agreed to grant them a certificate of debt, payable ten years afterwards with interest. The war had closed before this last offer was made and the country was exhausted. The officers were without means, almost without hope, and many of them agreed to accept this commutation. In 1856 a bill was introduced to place those who accepted the commutation upon the same footing with those who did not commute, deducting the amount of the commutation from the half pay for life. This bill met with considerable opposition. Many contended that it was a mere debt of gratitude-a gratuity. Mr. Crittenden spoke eloquently in favor of the bill. He contended that it was a moral obligation to make good to the uttermost obligations, founded on such meritorious considerations, so soon as we were able to do so. These officers came out of the war victorious but naked, triumphant but penniless. This tempted them to receive the commutation. If credit was given for that on the account, there was no restraint in the Constitution to prevent the government from satisfying their sense of moral obligation by paying the full balance, now that the country was prosperous, and able to pay. No national debt is recoverable by law; the creditor must depend on the sovereignty and on the gratitude of the government. There is a high obligation to satify this debt of the Revolution; from that we derived our being as an independent government. The transactions of those days were hallowed. It was a sacred generation, a period sacred to liberty; everything belonging to it should be sanctified to our feelings. We should make good to these old soldiers every farthing to which they are entitled. It was in 1783 that this commutation of five years was accepted, and ten years were to elapse before the principal was to become due. The country was a confederation-the government weak and impoverished. The wisest men could not foresee what was to be its destiny; it might fall to pieces from inability or want of cohesion at any time; it had no credit. What was the value of these certificates payable ten years afterwards? What did the needy soldier do with them? Sold them for a merely nominal price; they depreciated day by day. We should make to these officers some indemnity for the losses sustained. I will oppose any amendments to the bill: I go for it as it is. If sent back to the House, want of time will be fatal to it. (J. J. Crittenden to his daughter, Mrs. A. M. Coleman.) WASHINGTON, July 4, 1856. MY DEAR DAUGHTER,-I inclose this in a letter to our minister in Paris, the Hon. John Y. Mason, in which I have apprised him of your trip to Europe, its objects, etc., and recommended you to his kind attentions and to his official aid and protection in any way that may be useful to you, and under any circumstances of difficulty that may possibly occur to you. I have said to Mr. Mason that I had told you to appeal to him in any case of difficulty. The day we parted I left New York for Washington, and have since been so much engaged that time has stolen away from me, and I fear my letter will not reach Paris in time for you. My thoughts and wishes have been about and with you every day and night since you sailed, and if they could propitiate the sea and the winds for you, you would have a safe and pleasant voyage. Whilst I write, you are in the midst of the mighty ocean. Its mysteries and its terrors are, to my imagination, like those of eternity. May it be calm and kind to you, and waft you and your children safely to your destined harbor. You do not know, my dear daughter, the anxiety with which my thoughts follow you and will rest upon you during your absence. You will be in a strange land, among strange people, with strange habits, and without any experience of European society to guide you. You will have many difficulties, many trials, which will require all your prudence and all your intelligence. I have great confidence in you,—I could not have more; but I do not know the dangers and difficulties that may surround you in your new and untried situation; therefore I am most anxious about you and your children. Your mother sends much love to you and to the children. Accept for yourself and them my love also. Farewell, my dear daughter, and may God bless and protect you. Mrs. ANN MARY COLEMAN. Your father, (J. J. Crittenden to R. C. Winthrop.) WASHINGTON, July 6, 1856. MY DEAR SIR,-Your letters are always acceptable, but that was particularly so in which you suggested the propriety of sending General Scott to Kansas to restore peace to its troubled borders. This letter was received while I was diffidently contemplating the same thing, and it at once determined me to attempt it, and to offer the resolution which I moved in the Senate; and when it was first offered it appeared to be received with general favor; but the reflections, and, I suppose, the con VOL. II.-9 |