VOL. I, NO. 3 MARCH, 1918

THE
WISCONSIN MAGAZINE
OF HISTORY

PUBLICATIONS OF THE
STATE HISTORICAL
SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN.

Edited by

MILO M. QUAIFE,

Superintendent

The Society as a body is not responsible for statements or opinions advanced in the following pages by contributors.

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

Cordelia A. P. Harvey

Hundreds of loyal women labored devotedly during the Civil War ministering to the needs of the northern soldiers. Of them all, none worked more effectively or earned a larger measure of appreciation and devotion on the part of those she served than Mrs. Cordelia A. P. Harvey, wife of Governor Lewis Harvey of Wisconsin. After his tragic death by drowning at Savannah, Tennessee, while engaged in a mission of mercy to Wisconsin’s wounded soldiers, Mrs. Harvey conceived the idea that it was her duty to carry forward the work that her husband had left unfinished. In September, 1862, Governor Salomon appointed her sanitary agent at St. Louis, and until the end of the war she continued in this service. Some idea of her methods and of their effectiveness may be gained from the narrative which follows. What the soldiers thought of her is sufficiently indicated by the title “The Angel of Wisconsin,” which they bestowed upon her.

The narrative we print is from Mrs. Harvey’s typewritten copy of a lecture which she delivered following the close of the war. This manuscript the owner, Mrs. James Selkirk of Clinton, Wisconsin, permitted the Wisconsin History Commission to copy a few years since, and it was made the basis, in large part, of chapters VIII and IX of Hurn’s Wisconsin Women in the War between the States, published by the commission in 1911. Prior to this the portion of the paper pertaining to President Lincoln was drawn upon by J. G. Holland in preparing his life of Lincoln. Thus the paper has twice been drawn upon freely for publication. Notwithstanding this, the complete story in Mrs. Harvey’s own words is sufficiently interesting and important to justify its publication at this time. In the preparation of the narrative for publication a few changes in punctuation and typography have been made, and one paragraph, clearly interpolated for the benefit of the lecturer’s younger hearers, has been deleted. These things aside, the story is now printed for the first time just as Mrs. Harvey composed it.

* * * * *

Perhaps it is not well to open too frequently the deep wells of past sorrow that we may drink the bitter draughts which memory offers. Still, we would not forget the past—our glorious past—with all its terrible trials, its untold sufferings, its unwritten history. The Christian never forgets the dying groans on Calvary that gave to him his soul’s salvation; neither can an American citizen forget the great price paid for the life and liberty of this nation. Next to love of God is love of country.

It is not my object to awaken any morbid feelings of sentimental sorrow, or to open again the deep wounds which time has healed. Neither do I wish to serve up to an unhealthy imagination a dish of fearful horrors from which a healthy organization must turn away. I would only ask you to look at the shadows a little while, that the life and light of peace and plenty which now fill our land may by contrast impress upon your hearts a picture more beautiful than any artist could place on canvas. Shadows always make the light more beautiful.

In the fall of 1862 I found myself in Cape Girardeau, where hospitals were being improvised for the immediate use of the sick and dying then being brought in from the swamps by the returning regiments and up the rivers in closely crowded hospital boats. These hospitals were mere sheds filled with cots as thick as they could stand, with scarcely room for one person to pass between them. Pneumonia, typhoid, and camp fevers, and that fearful scourge of the southern swamps and rivers, chronic diarrhea, occupied every bed. A surgeon once said to me, “There is nothing else there: here I see pneumonia, and there fever, and on that cot another disease, and I see nothing else! You had better stay away; the air is full of contagion, and contagion and sympathy do not go well together.”

One day a woman passed through these uncomfortable, illy-ventilated, hot, unclean, infected, wretched rooms, and she saw something else there. A hand reached out and clutched her dress. One caught her shawl and kissed it, another her hand, and pressed it to his fevered cheek; another in wild delirium, cried, “I want to go home! I want to go home! Lady! Lady! Take me in your chariot, take me away!” This was a fair-haired, blue-eyed boy of the South, who had left family and friends forever; obeying his country’s call, he enlisted under the stars and stripes because he could not be a traitor. He was therefore disowned, and was now dying among strangers with his mother and sisters not twenty miles away; and they knew that he was dying and would not come to him. Father, forgive them, they knew not what they did.

As this woman passed, these “diseases,” as the surgeon called them, whispered and smiled at each other, and even reached out and took hold of each others’ hands, saying, “She will take us home, I know her; she will not leave us here to die,” not dreaming that hovering just above them was a white robed one, who in a short time would take them to their heavenly home.

This woman failed to see on these cots aught but the human [beings] they were to her, the sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers of anxious weeping ones at home; and as such she cared for and thought of them. Arm in arm with health, she visited day by day every sufferer’s cot, doing, it is true, very little, but always taking with her from the outside world fresh air, fresh flowers, and all the hope and comfort she could find in her heart to give them. Now and then one would totter forth into the open air, his good constitution having overcome disease, and the longings for life so strong within him that he grasped at straws, determined to live. If perchance he could get a furlough, in a few weeks a strong man would return and greet you with, “How do you do, I am on my way to my regiment!” Who this stranger might be, you could never imagine until reminded by him of the skeleton form and trembling steps you had so recently watched going to the landing, homeward bound. But if, as was too frequently the case, he was sent to convalescent camps, in a few weeks he was returned to hospital, and again to camp, and thus continued to vibrate between camp and hospital until hope and life were gone. This was the fate of thousands.

On a steamer from Cape Girardeau to Helena at table one day when the passengers were dining, among whom were several military officers, I heard a young major of the regular army very coolly remark that it was much cheaper for the government to keep her sick soldiers in hospitals on the river than to furlough them. A lady present quietly replied, “That is true, Major, if all were faithful to the government, but unfortunately a majority of the surgeons in the army have conscientious scruples, and verily believe it to be their duty to keep these sick men alive as long as possible. To be sure, their uneaten rations increased the hospital fund and so enabled your surgeons generously to provide all needed delicacies for the sick, but the pay was drawn by the soldiers from the government all the same. Don’t you think, Sir, it would be a trifle more economical,” continued the lady, “to send these poor fellows north for a few weeks, to regain their strength, that they might return at once to active service?” The laughter of his brother officers prevented my hearing his reply.

This young officer was the medical director at Helena, where I found over two thousand graves of Northeners. Two-thirds of these men might have been saved, could they have been sent north. The surgeon in charge of the general hospital, when asked why he did not furlough some of the men from his over-crowded hospitals, replied that he had at one time and another made out certificates of disability for furlough for nearly every man in his hospital and for hundreds who rested on the nearby hill, but when sent for the signature and approval of the medical director, they had invariably been returned, disapproved; that he had also permitted the men themselves to go with their papers, only to have them severely reproved and ordered back to hospital, and, said he, with tears in his eyes, “many of them never returned, for, broken-hearted, they have lain down by the roadside and died.”

I once heard a person who had been instrumental in giving a dying boy back to his mother, that she might nurse him back to life, relate how it was done. The mother had succeeded in getting her son as far as St. Louis where his papers were to be sent. They came in the usual way to the medical director, were all wrong, of course—not made out according to army regulations and must therefore be returned to his regiment, which was somewhere with Sherman and could not be reached. The mother received the papers with that fearful word “disapproved” written upon them. There was nothing to do but to place her sick son in a St. Louis hospital, and leave him there to die; she must return to her family. She told her story with streaming eyes and a broken heart. The woman impulsively said, “Give me the papers,” and off she went to the medical director’s office. He was a man full six feet high, over fifty years of age, a head like Oliver Cromwell’s, a face stern as fate, and of the regular army. She entered his presence, seated herself, and waited to be spoken to.

Soon it came with, “What do you want?”

“To talk with you a moment, General,” she replied.

“No time for talking.”

“I will wait,” she said.

He wrote a few moments, then said, “May as well hear it now as ever—what is it?”

“I would like to ask you if you had a son in this volunteer service, sent up from the South as far as St. Louis, sick and like to die, and some ignorant, careless officer had made out his furlough papers wrong—”

“What do you want!”

“—would you not be glad, if you were away, if your poor boy could find a friend?”

“What do you want, I say? This is nothing to the purpose.”

“Do you not think that friend ought to do all she could to save your boy?”

“What is all this nonsense?”

“Only this: a poor mother is at the Soldiers’ Home with her dying son. The physicians say he may live if he is sent north, but will surely die if left here. His furlough papers have been sent on, and I have seen them, and know they are wrong. His regiment is with Sherman on the march. Cannot something be done for the boy—for his mother?”

“We have the army regulations, we cannot go behind them. You know if I do, they will rap me over the knuckles at Washington.”

“Oh, that your knuckles were mine. I would be willing to have them skinned; the skin would grow again, you know.”

“Where are these papers?” he said sharply.

“I have them here in my pocket.”

“Let me see them.”

The woman took them slowly out, blank side upwards, and gave them to him. He turned them and his face flushed as he said, “Why I have had these papers and disapproved them. This is my signature.”

She replied tremblingly, “I knew it, but forgive me. I thought maybe when you knew about it, General—and the mother was weeping with the skeleton arms of her boy around her neck—I thought maybe you would do something or tell me something to do.”

“Suppose I do approve these papers, it will do no good. The general in command will stop them and censure me.”

“But you will have done all you could and have obeyed the higher law.”

In the meantime this truly noble man had firmly crossed out his own words and signature, and rewritten under it words of approval, and in a quick, husky tone, said, “Take it and don’t you come here again today.” As the woman raised her eyes to thank him, she saw a scowl on his brow, but a smile on his lips, and a tear in his eye.

“The general in command,” said she in relating the story, “never went behind the medical director’s signature. The boy started for home that night with his mother, full of hope.”

Not long after this an incident occurred showing how easily man yields to the higher law when once he makes humanity his standpoint. An erring boy of nineteen, who had deserted from a Minnesota regiment, changed his name, enlisted in the gunboat service from which he again deserted, again changed his name, and enlisted in a Wisconsin regiment, a little unsteady to be sure, but still a soldier. He was wounded in a battle, honorably discharged from the service, and paid off. On Saturday night he reached St. Louis and found his way to one of her lowest dens, was drugged and robbed of everything he possessed. On Monday he was found tossing from side to side stricken by disease. His surroundings were terrible, and he was lying on an old, filthy mattress which had been thrown into the open hall by the frightened inmates. He was screaming with pain and was at times delirious. As soon, however, as he heard the soothing tones of a human voice, and recognized the hand of kindness on his burning brow, he cried, “Mother! Oh, Mother, forgive me, God forgive me! I have sinned. What shall I do! What shall I do!” Conscience and disease were doing their work.

Softly speaking to him words of comfort and hope, our friend released herself from his grasp, promising to return in half an hour to take him away. This was easier said than done. This soldier was now a citizen, and could not, therefore, be admitted into a military hospital. His disease was of such a nature that in all probability he must die—but his widowed mother, far away, must she know that her darling soldier had died in such a place? God forbid! An order must be had to place him in a military hospital.

The woman goes to her old friend, the medical director, and tells her story in as few words as possible, saying, “General, write an order quick to the surgeon in charge of the Fifth Street hospital, that the boy may be received. I also want an ambulance, mattress, and bedding, and some men to help me move him.”

“Yes, yes, but listen, I have no right, I can’t do it.”

“I know—I know, but please do hurry—I promised to be back in half an hour, and the boy will expect me.”

The general, calling a boy and imitating her voice, said, “Hurry, hurry, boy! Get the best ambulance we have, a good mattress and bedding, and some men and go with Madame and do whatever she bids you to do. Here is the order, what else do you want? Henceforth we do what you wish and no questions asked. It is the easiest way and I guess the only way to get along with you.” The mother mourned her son’s death, but not his disgrace. In after months, this worthy officer by daring to take responsibility performed many acts which will gladden his dying hours.

In this way, one could be snatched from suffering and death now and then, but Oh! the thousands that were beyond the reach of human aid, and the numbers that no private individual power could help—only the great military power! This conviction first led to the thought of providing, if possible, some place where invalids could be sent north, without the trouble of furloughs. The idea of northern military hospitals seemed practicable and so natural that we never once thought the authorities would oppose the movement. For nearly a year this question was agitated and urged with all the force that logic, position, and influence could bring to bear; but all in vain. Hope was well nigh dead within us.

This depression in the South because of the utter failure of the government to provide a way by which the enfeebled soldiers might be restored to strength at last suggested the thought of going directly to the head, to the President. By sending it up by one authority and another, by this officer and that one, we began to feel that the message lost the flavor of truth, and got cold before it reached the deciding power; and because it was so lukewarm he spued it out of his mouth. It is always best if you wish to secure an object, if you have a certain purpose to accomplish, to go at once to the highest power, be your own petitioner, in temporal as in spiritual matters, officiate at your own altar, be your own priest.

I am going to give you another chapter in my own experience, as it was, if I can do so, without the least coloring. There is not a more difficult task than that of relating simple facts in such a manner as to convey an entirely correct impression. The difficulty is increased when the relator is an interested party. I trust I shall not be accused of egotism if I give the exact conversations between Mr. Lincoln and myself, as taken down at the time, for in no other way can I so well picture to you our much loved and martyred president as he then appeared at the White House. As I said before, the necessity for establishing military hospitals in the North had long been a subject of much thought among our people, but it was steadily opposed by the authorities.

By the advice of friends and with an intense feeling that something must be done, I went to Washington. I entered the White House, not with fear and trembling, but strong and self-possessed, fully conscious of the righteousness of my mission. I was received without delay. I had never seen Mr. Lincoln before. He was alone, in a medium sized office-like room, no elegance about him, no elegance in him. He was plainly clad in a suit of black that illy fitted him. No fault of his tailor, however; such a figure could not be fitted. He was tall and lean, and as he sat in a folded up sort of way in a deep arm chair, one would almost have thought him deformed. At his side stood a high writing desk and table combined; plain straw matting covered the floor; a few stuffed chairs and sofa covered with green worsted completed the furniture of the presence chamber of the president of this great republic. When I first saw him his head was bent forward, his chin resting on his breast, and in his hand a letter which I had just sent in to him.

He raised his eyes, saying, “Mrs. Harvey?”

I hastened forward, and replied, “Yes, and I am glad to see you, Mr. Lincoln.” So much for republican presentations and ceremony. The President took my hand, hoped I was well, but there was no smile of welcome on his face. It was rather the stern look of the judge who had decided against me. His face was peculiar; bone, nerve, vein, and muscle were all so plainly seen; deep lines of thought and care were around his mouth and eyes. The word “justice” came into my mind, as though I could read it upon his face—I mean that extended sense of the word that comprehends the practice of every virtue which reason prescribes and society should expect. The debt we owe to God, to man, to ourselves, when paid, is but a simple act of justice, a duty performed. This attribute seemed the source of Mr. Lincoln’s strength. He motioned me to a chair. I sat, and silently read his face while he was reading a paper written by one of our senators, introducing me and my mission. When he had finished reading this he looked up, ran his fingers through his hair, well silvered, though the brown then predominated; his beard was more whitened.

In a moment he looked at me with a good deal of sad severity and said, “Madam, this matter of northern hospitals has been talked of a great deal, and I thought it was settled, but it seems not. What have you got to say about it?”

“Only this, Mr. Lincoln, that many soldiers in our western army on the Mississippi River must have northern air or die. There are thousands of graves all along our southern rivers and in the swamps for which the government is responsible, ignorantly, undoubtedly, but this ignorance must not continue. If you will permit these men to come north you will have ten men where you have one now.”

The president could not see the force or logic in this last argument. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “If your reasoning were correct, it would be a good argument.” I saw that I had misspoken. “I don’t see how,” he continued, “sending one sick man north is going to give us in a year ten well ones.”

A quizzical smile played over his face at my slight embarrassment. “Mr. Lincoln, you understand me, I think. I intended to say, if you will let the sick come north, you will have ten well men in the army one year from today, where you have one well one now; whereas, if you do not let them come north, you will not have one from the ten, for they will all be dead.”

“Yes, yes, I understand you; but if they are sent north, they will desert; where is the difference?”

“Dead men cannot fight,” I answered, “and they may not desert.”

Mr. Lincoln’s eye flashed as he replied, “A fine way, a fine way to decimate the army, we should never get a man of them back, not one, not one.”

“Indeed, but you must pardon me when I say you are mistaken; you do not understand our people. You do not trust them sufficiently. They are as true and as loyal to the government as you say. The loyalty is among the common soldiers and they have ever been the chief sufferers.”

“This is your opinion,” he said with a sort of a sneer. “Mrs. Harvey, how many men do you suppose the government was paying in the Army of the Potomac at the battle of Antietam, and how many men do you suppose could be got for active service at that time? I wish you would give a guess.”

“I know nothing of the Army of the Potomac, only there were some noble sacrifices there. When I spoke of loyalty, I referred to our western army.”

“Well, now, give a guess. How many?”

“I cannot, Mr. President.”

He threw himself around in the chair, one leg over the arm, and again spoke slowly: “This war might have been finished at that time if every man had been in his place that was able to be there, but they were scattered hither and thither over the North, some on furloughs, and in one way or another, gone; so that out of 170,000 men which the government was paying at that time, only 83,000 could be got for action. The consequences, you know, proved nearly disastrous.”

“It was very sad but the delinquents were certainly not in northern hospitals, neither were they deserters therefrom, for there are none. This is, therefore, no argument against them.”

“Well, well, Mrs. Harvey, you go and see the Secretary of War and talk with him and hear what he has to say.” This he said thoughtfully, and took up the letter I had given him, and after writing something on the back of it gave it to me.

“May I return to you, Mr. Lincoln?” I asked.

“Certainly,” he replied, and his voice was gentler than it had been before.

I left him for the war department. I found written on the back of the letter these words, “Admit Mrs. Harvey at once; listen to what she says; she is a lady of intelligence and talks sense. A. Lincoln.” Not, of course, displeased with the introduction, I went on my way to Mr. Stanton, our secretary of war, about whose severity I had heard so much that I must confess I dreaded the interview; but I was kindly received, listened to respectfully, and answered politely. And let me say here, as a passing tribute to this great and good man, that I never knew a clearer brain, a truer heart, a nobler spirit than Edwin M. Stanton. I have watched him by the hour, listening to and deciding questions of minor moment as well as those of greater importance—those upon which the fate of the nation depended, and yet he never wavered. Quick to see the right, he never hesitated to act. His foresight and his strength seemed at times more than human. His place as a statesman will not be filled in this century.

But to return to my interview with him. After understanding the object for which I came, he told me he had sent the Surgeon-General to New Orleans with directions to come up the river and examine all hospitals. In short, I understood he had started on a tour of inspection, which meant nothing at all so far as the suffering was concerned. I told Mr. Stanton, “Our western hospitals have never received any benefit from these inspections, and we have very little confidence that any good would result from them. Any person with discernment, with a medium allowance of common sense and humanity, who is loyal, and has been through our southern river hospitals, knows and feels the necessity for what I ask, and yet you say you have never received a report to this effect. The truth is, the medical authorities know the heads of departments do not wish hospitals established so far away from army lines, and report accordingly. I wish this could be overruled; can nothing be done?”

“Nothing, until the Surgeon-General returns,” Mr. Stanton replied.

“Good morning,” I said, and left him, not at all disappointed.

Returning to Mr. Lincoln, I found it was past the usual hour for receiving and no one was in the waiting-room. The messenger said I had better go directly into the President’s room. It would be more comfortable waiting there, and there was only one gentleman with him and he would soon be through. I found my way to the back part of the room, and seated myself on a sofa in such a position that the desk was between Mr. Lincoln and me. I do not think that he knew I was there. The gentleman with him had given him a paper. The President looked at it carefully and said, “Yes, this is sufficient endorsement for anybody; what do you want?”

I could not hear the reply distinctly, but the promotion of somebody in the army, either a son or a brother, was strongly urged. I heard the words, “I see there are no vacancies among brigadiers, from the fact that so many colonels are commanding brigades.”

At this the President threw himself forward in his chair in such a manner as to show me the most curious, comical face in the world. He was looking the man straight in the eye, with the left hand raised to a horizontal position, and his right hand patting it coaxingly, and said, “My friend, let me tell you something; you are a farmer, I believe; if not, you will understand me. Suppose you had a large cattle yard, full of all sorts of cattle, cows, oxen, and bulls, and you kept selling your cows and oxen, taking good care of your bulls; bye and bye, you would find that you had nothing but a yard full of old bulls, good for nothing under heaven, and it will be just so with my army if I don’t stop making brigadier generals.” The man was answered; he could scarcely laugh, though he tried to do so, but you should have seen Mr. Lincoln laugh—he laughed all over, and fully enjoyed the point if no one else did. The story, if not elegant, was certainly apropos.

As I commenced to tell you everything I remember of this singular man, this must fill its place. The gentleman soon departed, fully satisfied, I doubt not, for it was a saying at Washington when one met a petitioner, “Has Mr. Lincoln told you a story? If he has, it is all day with you. He never says 'yes’ after a story.”

I stepped forward as soon as the door closed. The President motioned to a chair near him. “Well, what did the Secretary of War say?”

I gave a full account of the interview, and then said, “I have nowhere else to go but to you.”

He replied earnestly, “Mr. Stanton knows very well that there is an acting surgeon-general here, and that Hammond will not be back these two months. I will see the Secretary of War myself, and you come in the morning.”

I arose to take leave, when he bade me not to hasten, spoke kindly of my work, said he fully appreciated the spirit in which I came. He smiled pleasantly and bade me good evening.

As I left the White House, I met Owen Lovejoy who greeted me cordially and asked, “How long are you going to stay here?”

“Until I get what I came after,” I replied.

“That’s right, that’s right; go on, I believe in the final perseverance of the saints.”

I have never forgotten these words, perhaps it is because they were the last I ever heard him utter.

I returned in the morning, full of hope, thinking of the pleasant face I had left the evening before, but no smile greeted me. The President was evidently annoyed by something, and waited for me to speak, which I did not do. I afterward learned his annoyance was caused by a woman pleading for the life of a son who was sentenced to be shot for desertion under very aggravating circumstances.

After a moment he said, “Well,” with a peculiar contortion of face I never saw in anybody else.

I replied, “Well,” and he looked at me a little astonished, I fancied, and said, “Have you nothing to say?”

“Nothing, Mr. President, until I hear your decision. You bade me come this morning; have you decided?”

“No, but I believe this idea of northern hospitals is a great humbug, and I am tired of hearing about it.” He spoke impatiently.

I replied, “I regret to add a feather’s weight to your already overwhelming care and responsibility. I would rather have stayed at home.”

With a kind of half smile, he said, “I wish you had.”

I answered him as though he had not smiled. “Nothing would have given me greater pleasure; but a keen sense of duty to this government, justice and mercy to its most loyal supporters, and regard for your honor and position made me come. The people cannot understand why their friends are left to die when with proper care they might live and do good service for their country. Mr. Lincoln, I believe you will be grateful for my coming.” He looked at me intently; I could not tell if he were annoyed or not, and as he did not speak, I continued: “I do not come to plead for the lives of criminals, not for the lives of deserters, not for those who have been in the least disloyal. I come to plead for the lives of those who were the first to hasten to the support of this government, who helped to place you where you are, because they trusted you. Men who have done all they could, and now when flesh, and nerve, and muscle are gone, still pray for your life and the life of this republic. They scarcely ask for that for which I plead—they expect to sacrifice their lives for their country. Many on their cots, faint, sick, and dying, say, 'We would gladly do more, but I suppose that is all right.’ I know that a majority of them would live and be strong men again if they could be sent north. I say I know, because when I was sick among them last spring, surrounded by every comfort, with the best of care, and determined to get well, I grew weaker day by day, until, not being under military law, my friends brought me north. I recovered entirely, simply by breathing northern air.”

While I was speaking the expression of Mr. Lincoln’s face had changed many times. He had never taken his eye from me. Now every muscle in his face seemed to contract, and then suddenly expand. As he opened his mouth you could almost hear them snap as he said, “You assume to know more than I do,” and closed his mouth as though he never expected to open it again, sort of slammed it to.

I could scarcely reply. I was hurt, and thought the tears would come, but rallied in a moment and said, “You must pardon me, Mr. President, I intend no disrespect, but it is because of this knowledge, because I do know what you do not know, that I come to you. If you knew what I do and had not ordered what I ask for, I should know that an appeal to you would be vain; but I believe the people have not trusted you for naught. The question only is whether you believe me or not. If you believe me you will give me hospitals, if not, well--”

With the same snapping of muscle he again said, “You assume to know more than surgeons do.”

“Oh, no! Mr. Lincoln, I could not perform an amputation nearly as well as some of them do; indeed, I do not think I could do it at all. But this is true—I do not come here for your favor, I am not an aspirant for military honor. While it would be the pride of my life to be able to win your respect and confidence, still, this I can waive for the time being. Now the medical authorities know as well as I do that you are opposed to establishing northern military hospitals, and they report to please you; they desire your favor. I come to you from no casual tour of inspection, passing rapidly through the general hospitals, in the principal cities on the river, with a cigar in my mouth and a rattan in my hand, talking to the surgeon in charge of the price of cotton and abusing the generals in our army for not knowing and performing their duty better, and finally coming into the open air, with a long-drawn breath as though just having escaped suffocation, and complacently saying, 'You have a very fine hospital here; the boys seem to be doing very well, a little more attention to ventilation is perhaps desirable.’

“It is not thus; I have visited the hospitals, but from early morning until late at night sometimes. I have visited the regimental and general hospitals on the Mississippi River from Quincy to Vicksburg, and I come to you from the cots of men who have died, who might have lived had you permitted. This is hard to say, but it is none the less true.”

During the time that I had been speaking Mr. Lincoln’s brow had become very much contracted, and a severe scowl had settled over his whole face. He sharply asked how many men Wisconsin had in the field, that is, how many did she send? I replied, “About 50,000, I think, I do not know exactly.”

“That means she has about 20,000 now.” He looked at me, and said, “You need not look so sober, they are not all dead.”

I did not reply. I had noticed the veins in his face filling full within a few moments, and one vein across his forehead was as large as my little finger, and it gave him a frightful look.

Soon, with a quick, impatient movement of his whole frame, he said, “I have a good mind to dismiss every man of them from the service and have no more trouble with them!”

I was surprised at his lack of self-control, and I knew he did not mean one word of what he said, but what would come next? As I looked at him, I was troubled, fearing I had said something wrong. He was very pale.

The silence was painful, and I said as quietly as I could, “They have been faithful to the government; they have been faithful to you; they will still be loyal to the government, do what you will with them; but if you will grant my petition you will be glad as long as you live. The prayer of grateful hearts will give you strength in the hour of trial, and strong and willing arms will return to fight your battles.”

The President bowed his head, and with a look of sadness I can never forget, said, “I never shall be glad any more.” All severity had passed from his face. He seemed looking backward and heartward, and for a moment he seemed to forget he was not alone; a more than mortal anguish rested on his face.

The spell must be broken, so I said, “Do not speak so, Mr. President. Who will have so much reason to rejoice when the government is restored, as it will be?”

“I know, I know,” he said, placing a hand on each side and bowing forward, “but the springs of life are wearing away.”

I asked if he felt his great cares were injuring his health.

“No,” he replied, “not directly, perhaps.”

I asked if he slept well, and he said he never was a good sleeper, and, of course, slept less now than ever before. He said the people did not yet appreciate the magnitude of this rebellion, and that it would be a long time before the end.

I began to feel I was occupying time valuable to him and belonging to him. As I arose to take leave, I said, “Have you decided upon your answer to the object of my visit?”

He replied, “No. Come tomorrow morning. No, it is [cabinet] meeting tomorrow—yes, come tomorrow at twelve o’clock, there is not much for the cabinet to do tomorrow.” He arose and bade me a cordial goodmorning.

The next morning I arose with a terribly depressed feeling that perhaps I was to fail in the object for which I came. I found myself constantly looking at my watch and wondering if twelve o’clock would ever come. At last I ascended the steps of the White House as all visitors were being dismissed, because the President would receive no one on that day. I asked the messenger if that meant me, and he said, “No. The President desires you to wait for the cabinet will soon adjourn.” I waited, and waited, and waited, three long hours and more, during which time the President sent out twice, saying the cabinet would soon adjourn, that I was to wait. I was fully prepared for defeat, and every word of my reply was chosen and carefully placed. I walked the rooms and studied an immense map that covered one side of the reception room. I listened, and at last heard many footsteps—the cabinet had adjourned. Mr. Lincoln did not wait to send for me but came directly into the room where I was. It was the first time I had noticed him standing. He was very tall and moved with a shuffling, awkward motion.

He came forward, rubbing his hands, and saying, “My dear Madam, I am very sorry to have kept you waiting. We have but this moment adjourned.”

I replied, “My waiting is no matter, but you must be very tired, and we will not talk tonight.”

He said, “No. Sit down,” and placed himself in a chair beside me, and said, “Mrs. Harvey, I only wish to tell you that an order equivalent to granting a hospital in your state has been issued nearly twenty-four hours.”

I could not speak, I was so entirely unprepared for it. I wept for joy, I could not help it. When I could speak I said, “God bless you. I thank you in the name of thousands who will bless you for the act.” Then, remembering how many orders had been issued and countermanded, I said, “Do you mean, really and truly, that we are going to have a hospital now?”

With a look full of humanity and benevolence, he said, “I do most certainly hope so.” He spoke very emphatically, and no reference was made to any previous opposition. He said he wished me to come and see him in the morning and he would give me a copy of the order.

I was so much agitated I could not talk with him. He noticed it and commenced talking upon other subjects. He asked me to look at the map before referred to, which, he said, gave a very correct idea of the locality of the principal battle grounds of Europe. “It is a fine map,” he said, pointing out Waterloo and the different battle fields of the Crimea, then, smiling, said, “I am afraid you will not like it as well when I tell you whose work it is.”

I replied, “It is well done, whosever it may be. Who did it, Mr. Lincoln?”

“McClellan, and he certainly did do this well. He did it while he was at West Point.” There was nothing said for awhile. Perhaps he was balancing in his own mind the two words which were then agitating the heart of the American people, words which have ever throbbed the great heart of nations, words whose power every individual has recognized—“success,” and “failure.”

I left shortly after with the promise to call next morning, as he desired me to do, at nine o’clock. I suppose the excitement caused the intense suffering of that night. I was very ill and it was ten o’clock the next morning before I was able to send for a carriage to keep my appointment with the President. It was past the hour; more than fifty persons were in the waiting room. I did not expect an audience, but sent in my name and said I would call again. The messenger said, “Do not go, I think the President will see you now.”

I had been but a moment among anxious, expectant, waiting faces, when the door opened and the voice said, “Mrs. Harvey, the President will see you now.” I arose, not a little embarrassed to be gazed at so curiously by so many with a look that said as plainly as words could, “Who are you?” As I passed the crowd, one person said, “She has been here every day, and what is more, she is going to win.”

I entered the presence of Mr. Lincoln for the last time. He smiled very graciously and drew a chair near him, and said, “Come here and sit down.” He had a paper in his hand which he said was for me to keep. It was a copy of the order just issued. I thanked him, not only for the order but for the manner and spirit in which it had been given, then said I must apologize for not having been there at nine o’clock as he desired me to be, but that I had been sick all night.

He looked up with, “Did joy make you sick?”

I said, “I don’t know, very likely it was the relaxation of nerve after intense excitement.”

Still looking at me he said, “I suppose you would have been mad if I had said no?”

I replied, “No, Mr. Lincoln, I should have been neither angry nor sick.”

“What would you have done?” he asked curiously. “I should have been here at nine o’clock, Mr. President.”

“Well,” he laughingly said, “I think I acted wisely, then,” and suddenly looking up, “Don’t you ever get angry?” he asked, “I know a little woman not very unlike you who gets mad sometimes.”

I replied, “I never get angry when I have an object to gain of the importance of the one under consideration; to get angry, you know, would only weaken my cause, and destroy my influence.”

“That is true, that is true,” he said, decidedly. “This hospital I shall name for you.”

I said, “No, but if you would not consider the request indelicate, I would like to have it named for Mr. Harvey.”

“Yes, just as well, it shall be so understood if you prefer it. I honored your husband, and felt his loss, and now let us have this matter settled at once.”

He took a card and wrote a few words upon it, requesting the Secretary of War to name the hospital “Harvey Hospital,” in memory of my husband, and to gratify me he gave me the card, saying, “Now do you take that directly to the Secretary of War and have it understood.” I thanked him, but did not take it to Mr. Stanton. The hospital was already named. I expressed a wish that he might never regret his present action, and said I was sorry to have taken so much of his time.

“Oh, no, you need not be,” he said kindly.

“You will not wish to see me again, Mr. President.”

“I didn’t say that and shall not.”

I said, “You have been very kind to me and I am grateful for it.”

He looked at me from under his eyebrows and said, “You almost think me handsome, don’t you?”

His face then beamed with such kind benevolence and was lighted by such a pleasant smile that I looked at him, and with my usual impulse, said, clasping my hands together, “You are perfectly lovely to me, now, Mr. Lincoln.” He colored a little and laughed most heartily.

As I arose to go, he reached out his hand, that hand in which there was so much power and so little beauty, and held mine clasped and covered in his own. I bowed my head and pressed my lips most reverently upon the sacred shield, even as I would upon my country’s shrine. A silent prayer went up from my heart, “God bless you, Abraham Lincoln.” I heard him say goodbye, and I was gone. Thus ended the most interesting interview of my life with one of the most remarkable men of the age.

My impressions of him had been so varied, his character had assumed so many different phases, his very looks had changed so frequently and so entirely, that it almost seemed to me I had been conversing with half a dozen different men. He blended in his character the most yielding flexibility with the most unflinching firmness, child-like simplicity and weakness with statesmanlike wisdom and masterly strength, but over and around all was thrown the mantle of an unquestioned integrity.

By Sipko F. Rederus

Dutch settlements have never been numerous in America or in any other country not flying the Dutch flag. The Hollanders, unlike their German and British neighbors, have no natural inclination to roaming and adventure; and being strongly attached to their native soil they have preferred attempting to improve conditions at home to hazarding their fortune in a foreign country. This love of country has changed the Netherlands from a boggy land to a beautiful, productive country with an intelligent, industrious, and artistic people now numbering about six millions.

Unusual conditions, political, economic, and religious, have, however, from time to time caused Hollanders to emigrate to foreign lands, and during the decade 1840-50 many set sail for the United States. After the fall of Napoleon the Netherlands had changed from a republican to a limited monarchical form of government. Belgium reunited with Holland under the name of Kingdom of Netherlands, with William I, son of the former Dutch stadtholder, as king. The union was not successful, and the rebellion of 1830, which resulted in the separation of Holland and Belgium, necessitated large armies which William I kept up for years in the hope of reconquering Belgium. Then in 1825 an inundation of the ocean swept away the dikes, devastated the land, and left thousands homeless and without resources. With the abdication of William I and the accession of his son, William II, conditions did not improve. War and flood turned the thoughts of the suffering lower and middle classes to emigration, and the period from 1840 to 1850 saw the great exodus of Dutch to America.

Religious difficulties arising at this time also caused the emigration of several distinct groups. With the separation of Holland from Spain came separation from the civil and religious rule of the Catholic Church and the adoption of the Reformed Church by the State. The Dutch Reformed Church was Calvinistic in doctrine and Presbyterian in government. German philosophy and French liberalism gradually influenced the lives of members of the State Church; and the monarch and other governmental officers being friendly toward the new thought, the church synods permitted certain changes in the service and doctrine. Again and again the orthodox party tried to overthrow the new order, and after many failures in such attempts left the established church to form a separate ecclesiastical body called the Free Separate Reformed Church.

The civil government, fearing that civil revolution would follow this religious upheaval, opposed the new church, forbade meetings, and fined ministers. With the accession of William II the organization was recognized as a corporate body, but many restrictions were imposed upon it and financial aid, granted other denominations, was refused it. A large number of the Separatists gladly accepted the terms imposed, but others, smarting under the restrictions and foreseeing no relief in the near future, resolved to emigrate to America.

Three separate parties, each under a prominent minister, were formed for the purpose of founding settlements in the United States. Rev. R. C. Van Raalte led his people to the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, where they founded settlements which later came to be among the prosperous communities of Michigan. Among them are Holland, where Hope College was founded, Grand Haven, Muskegon, and Grand Rapids.

Under Rev. H. P. Scholte a party of Dutch immigrants went to southern Iowa and settled a large tract of land purchased from the government. The city of Pella, where Central College is located, is the center of a number of communities, all of which have prosperous industries and beautiful churches of the Reformed faith.

The party led by Rev. P. Zonne secured by purchase from the government a section of country bordering on Lake Michigan, some twenty miles south of the present city of Sheboygan. The settlers arrived in the spring of 1847 after a stormy voyage across the Atlantic, making the journey inland by way of the Hudson River, Erie Canal, and Great Lakes. In settling this region the Zonne party had been preceded by other Dutch families. In 1844 Lawrence Zuvelt and his family settled in a locality four and one-half miles northwest of what later became the Zonne settlement, and in 1846 they were joined by G. H. KoltsÉe and John Boland and their families.

A tragic event marked the growth of this settlement. In 1848 the Mayflower, filled with immigrants to Wisconsin, including many Hollanders, had proceeded as far as Sheboygan when fire was discovered. When, in spite of the crew’s efforts, the flames seemed to be gaining headway, a panic ensued, and many lost their lives in the fire or in the water. Others were landed in pitiful condition on the shores of Wisconsin. Three Hollanders, Wilterdenk, Oonk, and Rensink by name, were among those rescued. Wilterdenk had lost his wife and six children in the catastrophe.

The Zonne community rapidly overtook the earlier settlement in size and development. Cedar Grove was the name given it by Reverend Zonne, because cedar formed the greatest part of the forest near by, in portions of which the Indians still lived. The land was ideal for the painter, poet, and hunter, but the matter-of-fact Hollanders, though belonging to a race which had produced great artists, writers, and explorers, had not come to dream, paint pictures, or follow the chase. The land was valued by the settlers as a means of material improvement; the forest was an obstacle and had to be removed. The work of destruction went on systematically from season to season, and in a short time large clearings could be seen on which were planted maize, wheat, and barley. All of these grains gave rich return, for the soil was fertile and not easily exhausted.

Clearing the ground for the first crop, however, was a difficult process. How to remove the trees after they had been felled with such difficulty was a problem. The settlers could not use all the wood for fuel nor could they convert the tree trunks into lumber. To dispose of the superabundance of wood, these pioneer farmers had to set it on fire, being careful to remove the immense pile to a safe distance from the forest and from the buildings already erected. The hardwood tree stumps remaining in the fields after the trees had been cut were a great obstacle to cultivation of the ground. Digging the stumps out of the field was a long process, and explosives or machinery for doing this work were not then available.

The forest, however, was a help as well as a hindrance. From the logs were made houses and barns, agricultural implements, wagons, and, to some extent, furniture. The forest possessed an abundance of game, wild blackberries, strawberries, wild grapes, and maple trees from which the settlers secured their sugar. Autumn brought a harvest of hickorynuts and walnuts. Cattle thrived in the woodland, and in certain parts flocks of sheep could be kept. From the wool the housewife knitted stockings and wove the homespun for the family clothing.

Communication with other settlements was extremely difficult. For many years the Indian trails and the pathways blazed by the settlers were the only roads, tortuous at all times but almost impassable in winter. The principal trading posts, such as Port Washington and Milwaukee, were far distant from the Zonne settlement—Milwaukee being forty-five miles away—and under the best circumstances the slow-moving oxen made a long journey of it. Often the wagons broke down in the middle of the forest and the men would have to leave their loads in the road and go back home or to the trading post ahead for assistance. The lack of communication was felt most during sickness and especially epidemics, for many a time the physician, after a long, hard journey, would arrive to find his patient dead or beyond help.

Such were the difficulties with which these Dutch pioneers contended during the first years of their colonization. Their energy and perseverance, however, defeated one after another. Gradually the farms were cleared, the newly established sawmills turned out lumber for better houses and barns; water power was utilized for the running of flour mills; and stores were established within easy distance. Artisans joined the settlements, although blacksmiths had been found among the original settlers. As the forest gradually disappeared, old trails were widened, roads were laid out, villages sprang up, and post offices were established.

But in the midst of their growing prosperity the black war cloud gathered on the southern horizon and cast its shadows over this peaceful community. Many of the men, whose fathers had obtained liberty after eighty years of conflict, were aroused, and leaving their plows took up the musket. Sad times now followed, for now and then the news reached the settlement that some son or father had died in battle; but after the years of sorrow the laureled heroes returned to their firesides and a greater prosperity dawned.

One of the men who was conspicuous in the conflict and even more so in the days of peace that followed was Peter Daan. He was born in the Netherlands, in the town of Westkapelle, Province of Zeeland, March 26, 1835. When he was seven years of age his parents emigrated to America and settled in the town of Pultneyville, New York. Later the family moved to Wisconsin and bought a farm in Sheboygan County, near the present village of Oostburg. Peter Daan was one of the first to volunteer on the outbreak of the war, and through his influence and effort caused many to follow his example. In 1867 he commenced his mercantile business on the Sauk Trail, two and one-half miles east of Oostburg. As that town developed, he moved his business there, built a large store, an elevator, a steam flour mill, and later founded the bank of which he became president. He held that office until his death. The people, having confidence in his ability and good judgment, several times elected him president of the town. For years he held the office of justice of the peace, and because of his amicable manner of settling disputes he won the title among the people of “the peacemaker.”

As a young man he became a member of the Presbyterian Church, and later was made an elder, an office which he held until he died. Several times his presbytery elected him delegate to the higher ecclesiastical councils. In 1873 he was chosen a member of the Wisconsin legislative assembly. His death occurred June 14, 1914.

After the Civil War the settlements entered a period of prosperity greater than any experienced before; in fact many of the farmers, receiving high prices for their products during the war, laid the foundation of their wealth in this period. The villages of Oostburg and Cedar Grove expanded, and the new town of Gibbsville was founded three miles west of Oostburg. There a large flour mill, driven by water power, was built, and remains in operation to this day. East of Cedar Grove, on the lake shore, was built a pier where the great vessels could land. The settlement of Amsterdam, which developed here, became an important trading place for a time but was abandoned when the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad entered the territory. Oostburg and Cedar Grove, in both of which stations were erected, received the benefit of the improved communication. Grain elevators and business houses of all kinds were erected, and residences increased and improved. In the country better farmhouses and more spacious barns rapidly replaced the primitive log buildings. The acreage of land cleared, fenced in, and cultivated, increased, and the herds of cattle and flocks of sheep became more numerous. Along the lake shore a profitable fishing industry was developed. Everywhere the result of hard work and thrift was seen. Luctor et emergo (I struggle and rise higher), the motto of the Province of Zeeland from which these Dutch settlers had come, represented the achievements of these people as well as those of their sturdy ancestors.

In the midst of their hard struggle for material improvement these people had not been neglectful of religious matters. Upon their arrival, under the leadership of Reverend Zonne they had organized themselves into a church and united with the Presbyterian organization. In the following year, 1848, Reverend Zonne built a house of worship on his own estate and gave it to his congregation. This church, built about a mile north of the present site of Cedar Grove, was the first of the Presbyterian denomination in that region. In the course of time another house of worship was built in the settlement later known as Cedar Grove by those who were not in harmony with Reverend Zonne. This congregation united with the old Dutch Reformed Church of America, founded in New Amsterdam (now New York) in the eighteenth century. This is the oldest and wealthiest (in proportion to size) of all ecclesiastical bodies in America.

In 1853 another Presbyterian church was built four and one-half miles north of Cedar Grove on the Sauk Trail. Reverend Van de Schurn was the first pastor and Peter Daan the first elder. This church with its large membership is flourishing today under the pastorate of Rev. C. Van Griethuizen. A Dutch Reformed church was later established at the same place, and others of the same denomination were erected in the settlement later becoming the village of Oostburg, and in Gibbsville.

All these churches were in the beginning unpretentious log structures; but as the people began to amass wealth, the old churches were replaced by substantial, attractive buildings surmounted by spires or towers for the church bells. Comfortable residences for the pastors have been erected on the church premises. All the congregations are flourishing today; and although they profess far more liberal views than their ancestors, the descendants of the early pioneers are equally devoted to these institutions.

Of all these churches, the one founded by Reverend Zonne has always been the most prominent, not only because it has the largest membership but because it possesses greater historic associations. The second edifice of this organization, a plain frame building without a tower, was replaced in 1882 by a much larger and more attractive building, the gift of a pioneer member, J. Lammers. The church is a picturesque landmark whose spire can be seen for miles. The interior has been considerably improved of late, and a pipe organ has recently been installed. An old churchyard is at one side of the church, and here lie the remains of the Reverend Zonne and many other early worthies of the church.

The organization has always had a prosperous record, but its greatest growth began in 1882 when Rev. J. J. W. Roth began his pastorate of more than thirty-two years. Reverend Roth was born in Capetown, South Africa. There he received his collegiate training; and, later coming to America with his father, he studied theology at the McCormick Institute at Chicago, where he was graduated and ordained in 1878. After serving two small churches in Minnesota and Wisconsin, he became pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Cedar Grove. During the first year of his ministry the present church was built, and under his pastorate the congregation became strong and prosperous. Since the young people had become deficient in the language of their fathers, the introduction of English into the services had become a necessity. Dr. Roth, educated to both languages, preached to his people in both tongues. On May 1, 1914, Dr. Roth was stricken by apoplexy and remained unconscious for some days. Although he recovered consciousness, he lost the power of speech and the use of his limbs, and was compelled to end his active services. Since his illness he has lived in retirement in Cedar Grove.

Dr. Roth is a man of scholarly attainment, being proficient in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, and an artist of some ability. The church societies, all of which he founded, are in a flourishing condition. He was for years the leading man in the Milwaukee presbytery, and was several times elected its moderator and delegate to higher ecclesiastical councils. He has been succeeded by Rev. P. Van Straten.

During the past twenty years the growth of the Dutch settlements has been remarkable. The village of Cedar Grove has grown into a thriving town with many prosperous business houses, grain elevators, and factories. It has a large public school, and a classical academy which is conducted by the Dutch Reformed Church of America. The bank of Cedar Grove is a flourishing institution founded some ten years ago. The deposits are over $300,000.

The village of Oostburg has likewise prospered. Peter Daan’s flour mill has been enlarged; implement, canning, cheese, and condensed milk factories have been built. Oostburg and Cedar Grove are connected with each other, Sheboygan, and Milwaukee by the hourly service of the Milwaukee Northern Electric Railway. Returns from the planting of wheat, to which the farmers had devoted their principal attention had gradually decreased, and barley and rye are being substituted, also peas and beans which are sold to the canning factories. Many of the farmers, however, have turned to cattle raising, dairying, and cheese making as principal agricultural enterprises. In the making of cheese the Hollanders of Sheboygan County are recognized as experts and their brands are among the best in the state.

Always interested in intellectual progress, the Dutch settlers have built and supported excellent schools, and many are sending their sons and daughters to colleges. Materially these people have prospered since the first band of settlers began to hew down the forest in 1847. The thoroughness with which they did cut down all timber is being regretted at present by those who possess land bare of all but a few trees. This generation, however, is planting trees which, it is hoped, will soon remedy that great defect.

In customs and manner of thinking the new generation differs greatly from the pioneers who started to develop the country. Their language is fast disappearing in public and in the homes, for only in the church is Dutch even partly used. This may be due to the similarity between the Dutch and the Anglo-Saxon languages which have a common factor in the Fresian tongue.

The similarity of tongues and, in addition, of the political, religious, and economic struggles of the Dutch and the English settlers in America has caused the Dutch to be readily absorbed into the earlier population. The special characteristics, in addition to those common to both English and Dutch, make the Dutch element one of the most valuable in the state of Wisconsin.

By Lucius G. Fisher

Edited by Milo M. Quaife

The first of January, 1837, I arranged with the Fairbanks to leave them and locate in either Louisville or St. Louis, and sell their scales and other goods manufactured by them at Pittsburgh, on commission. I returned to Derby and remained there until May, visiting my sister Emeline then teaching in Montreal. I left Derby the fifteenth of May for the South, leaving a few hundred dollars with the Fairbanks and taking some thousands in notes belonging to them to collect between Burlington, Vermont, and Buffalo, New York, and from which collections when made I was to take the money due me and remit to them the balance. I left with my father a fine span of horses, harness, and wagon with which to follow me with my sisters when I should get a home for them. My sister Rosetta had been lame for a year and was under the care of a physician and surgeon. I left home and friends with a sad heart, taking the stage for Burlington, my two most intimate friends riding the first mile with me. One was Stoddart B. Colby, who was afterwards the leading lawyer of Vermont and who died Register of the United States currency and whose wife was burned on the Swallow in the Hudson River; the other, Timothy P. Redfield, now one of the judges of the supreme court of Vermont and brother of my other very dear and most intimate friend, Fletcher Redfield, for many years Chief Justice of Vermont. I have never met either of them since. I had to get out of the stage the first day to steady it over snow drifts.

I reached Troy, New York, the third day and that evening the news came there that the banks had suspended specie payment in consequence of General Jackson’s order to the United States treasurer to remove the United States deposits from the United States Bank to the Sub-Treasury. All banks suspended specie redemption and for the time no paper money was current or debts paid. All confidence was destroyed between business men, and such a financial panic was never seen before or since in our country. When I reached Buffalo I had not collected a cent from $27,000 in notes against the best business men on the line of the Erie Canal. In Buffalo I collected in bank bills $70. Here I was with but little money and all business prostrated. I could not see in prospect a time when I could hope to engage in the commission business with success. I had nothing in Vermont to return to. I was lonely and desolate. Young men were being discharged from stores and factories in great numbers, and business men were failing everywhere.

I met at Buffalo a discharged clerk from a house in New York who was a native of Vermont, and was seeking employment. Neither of us knew what to do or where to go. We had been living at the Mansion House several days and on one Sunday morning we walked down to the wharf and saw a schooner there with her captain on her deck. I asked him if he was the captain and where he was bound. He said he was the captain, that he was bound to Chicago, that his schooner was a new one, etc. I asked the price of fare in cabin with board to Chicago. He replied $20. I turned to my friend Whitcombe and said, “Let us go to Chicago; we may as well go to one place as another.” He replied, “I will go with you.” I asked the captain when he sailed. He said, “At nine o’clock tomorrow A. M. if the wind is fair.” I said, “Book us as passengers and we will be on board in season.” We sailed June second. No steamboats had sailed for the upper lakes then, nor until some days later. There was no railroad west of Syracuse. The harbor was full of ice. Before leaving Buffalo, I arranged with a merchant who knew me and who was from Vermont (the father of Frank Fenton of Beloit) to furnish me with provisions if on my arrival at Chicago I should find any sale for them. We were four weeks and two days on the lakes, with head winds and rough weather most of the time. Captain Clement was a very agreeable gentleman, young like his passengers, and very social. Our voyage was so much enjoyed by me as to have left the most pleasant memories of it, although it was an aimless one. We were drifting into the dark future without any plans, yet we were happy, full of life, had that self-reliance on our own strength and mental endowments that took away all anxiety for the future, and enabled us to enjoy the present. The feeling was a desperate, devil-may-care one. As I look back upon the first year of my western life, I wonder that I did not become a reckless and ruined man. Captain Clement was, after this trip, a large owner of steamboats on the lakes, some of which he commanded; and for several years he has been the treasurer of the North Chicago Rolling Mills and a large stockholder. He landed us in Chicago the night of the third of July, 1837, and we celebrated the Fourth there. Daniel Webster was in Chicago for the first and last time in his life.

A delegation from Milwaukee came to Chicago to invite Webster to visit their city. He had left for the East, and I, finding no encouragement to go into business in Chicago, took passage in an old steamer with this delegation to Milwaukee.

WHAT I FOUND IN CHICAGO

In May, 1837, about a month before my arrival, Chicago had elected its first mayor, William B. Ogden. Its population was about 3,000 and was mostly north of the river. There was a Presbyterian church where the Board of Trade stands, in which Rev. Jeremiah Porter preached. The Russell House on the North Side was the grand hotel, built of brick. The Couch brothers had a small hotel on the present site of the Tremont House of the same name, and the City Hotel was built on the corner of State and Lake Streets. There were few buildings south of Lake Street. There was a cornfield running south from Washington Street and east of State Street. Lots were worth from $100 to $500 then, but had been worth as many thousands before the panic of 1837. John Wentworth had just started his paper, the Chicago Democrat, in a little 7 × 9 wooden building on La Salle Street north of Randolph.[98] I had a letter of introduction to him and there made his acquaintance. The first settler, Gurdon S. Hubbard,[99] was here, William H. Brown, and many other persons with whom I became acquainted, but most of whom have passed away. Some are here yet, and among them G. S. Hubbard & Son, S. B. Cobb, Jerome Beecher, and Mr. Carpenter. Chicago has now a population of 600,000.

I landed in Milwaukee the sixth of July, 1837. The boat could not land and we were sent ashore in the small boat, at the mouth of the river, then at Chase’s Point,[100] one mile below the present mouth. My friend, Ed Whitcombe, was yet with me and on the boat I made the acquaintance of John H. Tweedy[101] and formed a friendship which has endured the changes of the last forty-five years. He afterwards married a Fisher from Boston, who descended from the same ancestor that I did. I found Milwaukee with a population of about 1,000, the west side of the river mostly under water, many of the houses built on stilts, abandoned, and doors open, most of the population of 1836 having left the place by reason of the panic. I remember the Frenchman and first settler with a squaw wife was there.[102] I stopped at first at the Milwaukee Hotel, but soon crossed the river to the Leland House where I found my cousin, Dr. L. J. Barber, and remained with him at that house. We had not met since we were lads. We soon became warm friends. I had but little money and several young men boarding at the Leland House had often to borrow of me to pay for their week’s washing. All had been speculating in lots and were broke. None of us knew what to do or where to go.

I remained about a week and decided to cross the country to Galena and go to mining for lead. I started in company with two men, one by the name of Frink and the other Blood. We traveled the first day to Waukesha where was the first house, occupied by a Mr. Pratt.[103] It was small, built of logs, and two berths on one side. The under one was occupied by Pratt and wife, the upper one by Frink and me, and Blood slept on the floor. The next day we lunched at the second house from Milwaukee, at Pewaukee Lake, kept by Harrison Reed,[104] afterwards governor of Florida. We reached Oconomowoc that night, where we found two bachelors in a log shanty with a floor of bark and nothing to eat but dry beans, which they stewed for us and which we ate with a relish from a bark plate with a chip for a knife. The mosquitoes were very large and hungry and feasted upon us that night. We slept but little and left early in the morning on our Indian trail for Rock River, having learned that there was a camp there where we could get food. My feet had become very sore, and the morning’s walk of twelve miles in the rain without food, and almost gored to death by the mosquitoes, had so exhausted me that I was sick and could go no farther. Fortunately, at the river I found Charles Goodhue, Esq., and two of his sons from Sherbrooke, Lower Canada, an old acquaintance in the East, who had a fine camp and ten or twelve men and three women in camp. They bade me welcome and gave me to eat and to drink—the best they had and I was never happier than that day. I was soon refreshed and ready to travel again. Mr. Goodhue and sons had commenced building a dam across Rock River, and afterwards a saw mill was built to cut basswood lumber to raft down the river where new settlements were being made.

I remained with Mr. Goodhue and sons a few days and was persuaded by them to visit what was then called New Albany (now Beloit) before going to Galena, they representing it as a very desirable point for a town and offering me an interest in claims which they had recently purchased there. I accepted the proposition to visit Beloit. There was a large encampment of Indians on the opposite side of Rock River from our camp, of whom we purchased a large canoe, giving them $5 and a gallon of whisky. In it Mr. Goodhue and son George, Mr. Blood, Mr. Frink, and myself embarked for Beloit. Goodhue and I owned the canoe and Frink and Blood worked their passage. The river was very high and we went to Fort Atkinson the first half day and lodged that night with Alvin Foster in a log house, the only house there.[105] It had but one room of moderate size in which were domiciled that night Foster and his wife, mother, and niece, and seven travelers. The next day we reached Koshkonong Lake before 10 A. M., and the wind being high we divided, Messrs. Goodhue, Frink, and Blood going by land around the lake, while George Goodhue and I kept the boat, preferring our chances to drown to the tramp by land of six miles on a hot day over a marsh of some miles. We were to meet at the outlet of the lake. We in the boat had a rough voyage, bailing water part of the way to prevent foundering, and on our arrival at the outlet found none of our party and after waiting some hours we went on and just after dark we met them on the river bank about ten miles below the lake, muddy and tired. We took them [in] and soon reached Janesville, a village of three families, viz., Messrs. Bailey, Stevens, and Janes.[106] We remained there over night and next morning by 10 A. M. reached Beloit, where there was one family.

It was Sunday morning, the fifteenth of July, 1837. I found Caleb Blodgett[107] and family there in a log house and we slept upon the floor two nights while there, in the only house except a log hut which had just been vacated by an Indian trader, by name Thibault, whose wife was a squaw. The first day, Sunday, I took a walk up where the College now stands and on to the banks of Turtle Creek where I saw many Indian mounds, some of them still preserved and where I had an uninterrupted view of prairie such as I had never had before. I said to my friend with me that it was the most beautiful landscape view that I had ever seen. Quite a number of Indian wigwams were standing upon the prairie near the creek and hurdles for drying their corn, which had been raised for years upon the Turtle bottoms.

Beloit had been named by Blodgett “New Albany.” He with a large family of sons had located there in 1836 and built their house that fall and had claimed some three miles square by ploughing a furrow around and putting up several shanties. The Government was surveying the land; and as it was not in the market, no title could be obtained except a so-called squatter’s title, which was obtained by a settlement upon the land and which gave the settler the right to preËmpt 160 acres when it came into market. In February, 1837, Dr. Horace White visited Beloit as the agent of a New England company from Colebrook, New Hampshire, that had sent him out to select a home for them in the new West. He left Colebrook in January in company with R. P. Crane and O. P. Bicknell, who stopped in Michigan while White continued west exploring the Rock River valley and the valley of the Des Moines River, all then in the territory of Wisconsin. At Beloit he found Blodgett and sons (six of them) and John Hackett, a son-in-law, and being pleased with the place, he purchased one-third of all the interest or claims of Blodgett and sons, the interests being undivided. Blodgett had before bought Thibault’s interest for $500, who with his squaw removed to Koshkonong Lake, where I saw them both on my first voyage down the river and on a subsequent one in September. The following winter he was murdered by his squaw and her family.

The following are the names of the colony for whom White acted: Horace White, Otis Bicknell, George W. and Charles Bicknell, their father, Captain Bicknell, R. P. Crane, Messrs. Beach, Eames, and Alfred Field, and Israel Cheney, and one other whose name I forget, but who never came west.[108] In March, White returned east and O. P. Bicknell and Crane came to Beloit and built a shanty and occupied it. That spring a Major Johnson from Newburg, Vermont, and John Doolittle from Holley, Lower Canada, had reached Beloit and purchased 2/12ths of Blodgett’s claims and lived in the Thibault shanty. Charles Goodhue from Sherbrooke, Lower Canada, and his brother-in-law, Tyler H. Moore, had purchased 3/12ths before and had begun the race and a saw mill on Turtle Creek when I reached the place. The interests were as follows then: Blodgett and sons 3/12ths, New England Company (so-called) 4/12ths, Goodhue and Moore 3/12ths, Johnson & Doolittle 2/12ths. I found there Blodgett and sons, Johnson & Doolittle, Cyrus Eames, Bicknell & Crane. The lower bench of Beloit or between the bluff and river was still covered by heavy timber and underbrush, but little having been removed. The owners had broken some acres on the bottoms and were breaking 160 acres where Slaymaker now resides and 100 acres on the high ground south of him. On Monday after my arrival I purchased of Goodhue and Moore one-fourth of their interest for $400 and I paid for my share of the ploughing which was to be cultivated in common until a division of claims was made. I did not expect to locate there but bought on speculation.

On Tuesday, the seventeenth, I embarked in our canoe with Mr. Goodhue and son George, Mr. Frink, and Mr. Eames for Rockford, leaving Mr. Blood there. We remained at Rockford over night at the log hotel of Mr. Miller. There were several families there. Mr. Goodhue’s son Charles met us there with his team and took us to Belvedere where he had a little store and where half a dozen families had settled. It was called Squaw Prairie and a Mr. Doty kept a hotel or tavern. We left our canoe to the citizens of Rockford. After a night’s rest at Belvidere, Frink, Eames, and I started on foot for Chicago, stopping the first night at Spencer’s Grove. The next day I was quite sick and reached Tyler & Raustead’s house, four miles west of Elgin, about six P. M., and was so sick that I felt that I could go no farther and proposed to stay over night, but they would not keep me, fearing that I should be too sick to leave in the morning. They reluctantly gave me a cup of tea and I moved on, being virtually dragged by the arms the four miles by Messrs. Frink and Doolittle.

Here let me correct a mistake in dates and facts. Cyrus Eames was not at Beloit at this time, and it was not Eames who left Beloit in the boat with us, but John Doolittle, who returned to Canada with Mr. Goodhue at this time. We reached Elgin after dark, where I learned that I had an aunt and her husband and three children living four miles above Elgin on Fox River, and in the morning I parted with Frink, who started for Ottawa, and I hired Mr. Kimball, the landlord, to take me in a wagon to my Aunt Tyler’s, I being yet a sick man. Elgin had about ten families. I found my aunt and husband with three sons on a farm of 400 acres which George Tyler had squatted upon in 1835 and before the government survey. Aunt Tyler was the youngest sister of my mother, and married Noah Tyler of Claremont, New Hampshire, about 1803 and by him had eight children, four sons and four daughters. The family became Catholics and the four daughters became abbesses or superiors. The oldest son, George, went in early life to Georgia and emigrated from the South to this state and sent for his father, mother, and two brothers, who came to him. He married here at the age of fifty and is now a resident of Texas. The second son, William, died Catholic bishop of Rhode Island and Connecticut, in 1854, I think. The third son died at Dundee and the youngest is living at Elgin and has a large family of nine children. His name is Calvin. He was educated for the Catholic priesthood. One daughter, Sallie, is living in Detroit at the head of a Catholic nunnery.

My good aunt nursed me well and in three days I was quite well and was sent for by Mr. Goodhue to meet him at Elgin, which I did and he took me to Chicago with his team. For miles before we reached Chicago the prairie was on an average one foot under water. I remained but a day or two in Chicago, stopping at the Tremont House. I took an old steamer back to Milwaukee. I boarded at the Leland House on the west side until September, when I started again for Beloit by way of Watertown and was accompanied by a young man by the name of Sanborn, who was or had been a medical student but had come west to seek his fortune. (He afterwards returned to New England and finished his studies and became very eminent in his profession in Keene, New Hampshire.) We borrowed a horse or pony of Colonel Parks, receiver of the land office, and rode and tied to Watertown, and there we spanseled the pony and turned him out to grass. The next day the Indians had stolen him and he was found some weeks after at Green Bay. We stopped with a Mr. Johnson, the first settler there and then the only family there except one in Goodhue’s camp.[109] They gave us a bed separated from the bed of Mrs. Johnson and her daughter by a blanket hung between us. Mr. Johnson slept on the floor. The house was about 12 × 12 feet, in one room. We had for food salt pork, potatoes, and blackberries, and good appetites.

We remained one week and labored diligently with adz and axe in cutting down a basswood tree and fashioning a canoe from it, and at the end of a week we hired Mr. Johnson’s yoke of oxen and drew the canoe about a mile to the river. Neither of us were acquainted with the use of tools, and the canoe was not artistic. We launched it, and on entering it the first time it shot from under me and left me in the river. But we soon got the hang of it and we set sail. On entering Lake Koshkonong we found the wild rice so high and thick that we could not find a way out of it, and we returned to an Indian encampment on the river and hired two Indian boys to go before us and pilot us through the rice (about half a mile) to clear water. We reached the outlet about dark and it was then by the river about twenty miles to Janesville, and we knew there was a log hut with a man and wife in it somewhere before reaching Janesville.

We pulled on in a bright moonlight and reached the shanty about midnight, very tired and hungry. On landing we went to the house and found an opening with a quilt for a door, which I pushed aside and spoke to a woman whom I discovered in a bed with her head within a foot of the door. She answered with a scream and the husband enquired, “Who is there?” I replied, “A friend,” and made known our wants. He arose and struck a light and I found we were in a log room about 12 × 8 feet with no windows, door, or fireplace, the fire for cooking being made against the logs at one end and a hole in the roof for the escape of the smoke. The bedstead was made of two upright sticks with sticks, one end entering holes bored in the logs, the other entering holes in the standing pieces and slats on these supports. There were two berths of this kind, one over the other. We were given the upper one and slept until the party under us had breakfast ready. The man had been to the river and caught a fine catfish for breakfast and we had appetites that gave our food a fine relish. From there we went to Beloit in one day without accident. This was in September. Mr. Sanborn remained with me several days. He boarded with Mr. Blodgett in his log house, sleeping on the floor. Mr. Johnson, Alfred Field, and some others lived in the Thibault hut and the Bicknell family in a log hut near the paper mill or present dam, on the east side of the river. I remained about four weeks.

While there, a meeting of the settlers was called at the Beloit House, which was at that time enclosed and partly finished, to give a better name to the place. Major Johnson, Deacon Hobart, and myself were appointed a committee to report one and we proposed several and finally agreed to place the alphabet in a hat and see if we could not get a combination of letters that would give us a name that would be a new one. While proposing this, Mr. Johnson undertook to sound a French word for handsome ground and in trying he spoke “Bollotte,” and I said after him “Beloit,” like Detroit in sound and pretty and original I think. All sounded it and liked it and we reported it to the twenty or thirty who had sent us out and it was unanimously adopted; and it has ever since been Beloit and not New Albany.

While at Beloit Major Johnson and Cyrus Eames took the canoe that Sanborn and I made and floated down to Burlington where the first territorial legislature for the Wisconsin Territory was in session. The present states of Iowa and Wisconsin were called Wisconsin Territory then. At that session they obtained a charter for a female seminary in Beloit, it being the first charter for an institution of learning that was granted in the Territory.[110] While at Beloit in September, a Professor Whitney of Belvidere preached the first sermon in the Beloit House that was preached in the county of Rock. I remained into October and then returned to Milwaukee by the way of Watertown on horseback, riding one of George Goodhue’s horses in company with him and remaining over night in his shanty at Watertown. I remained in Milwaukee until February, 1838, having sprained my ankle in January, which confined me to crutches for three months.

My father and sisters, Jane and Amanda, reached Fox River in December, where my sisters remained with my Aunt Tyler until March. They left Vermont in October and came by land with a three-horse team. My father came on to Beloit, and learning there that I was confined in Milwaukee by lameness, he started for me with his team, expecting to find his goods shipped by water from Burlington, Vermont, but found that the vessel and goods had been sent near Mackinaw and that a friend of mine had started with me in a jumper for Beloit, where we met after three days. We rented one-half of the log house which Blodgett had just left to occupy a new frame house. We went to Dundee for my sisters in March and settled in our home with but little furniture. My father had brought with him two beds and bedding and clothing. Dr. White, father of Horace White of New York, occupied the other half of the house with his family. I met him in April and we soon became fast friends. He was a good physician and a man of great business capacity, one who had great command of language and would say more in the fewest words than any man that I have ever known. He was a man of sound judgment. He was a very [word illegible] and reserved man, making but few confidants. We were more intimate than brothers usually are. We had no secrets that were withheld by either from the other. He died in December, 1843, and I was left very sad.

In the summer of 1838 I bought four yoke of oxen and broke prairie for the crop of 1839 after seeding the 20 acres which was my share of the 320 acres, which was ploughed in two fields and paid for and owned in common by the colonists. My father and I harrowed in wheat and oats in March. Bread and meat were very scarce and dear, and some days we had nothing but suckers caught out of Turtle Creek. But most of the time we had meat and as soon as the vegetables grew we lived very well having plenty of hog product and bread. Our fall crop of wheat was good.

In the fall of 1838 I went to Milwaukee and arranged with a merchant for stoves, boots, and shoes to sell on commission, and with one team I drove them to Beloit and sold them at a good profit to the settlers who were coming in almost every day. In the winter of 1838-9 we lived in a part of Mr. Blodgett’s new frame house. In the summer of 1838 I made a claim of 160 acres on Rock River, two miles above Fort Atkinson, which was covered with timber, much of it basswood. In the winter of 1838-9 I hired four men to cut logs and rafted them in the spring to Beloit and had them cut on shares by Messrs. Goodhue and Moore. From the sales of this lumber I paid my men and from a part of it I built a comfortable house for my family. My sisters, Emeline and Rosetta, had been left behind, one in Montreal and Rosetta with an uncle in Burke, Vermont, under the care of a physician, having a sprained foot that she did not step upon for three years and which is not well yet. They came west in the fall of 1838, so in the new house we all gathered and were very happy.

In March, 1839, the first land sale took place in Milwaukee, and I was chosen bidder for all claimants in the south half of Rock County east of Rock River, the lands on the west side having been brought into market before at a land sale in Milwaukee. The claimants all secured their lands, they standing by me and permitting no one to bid but me on their lands, and I got all for them at the upset price of $1.25 per acre. Here I met the cousin and agent of Gen. Philip Kearney, and arranged with him to buy lands for the general and take the agency of the lands purchased. I made entries for him at Milwaukee and afterwards at Dixon land sale and subsequently entered some thousands of acres with Mexican soldiers’ land warrants on shares and managed his estate in the west for some years, and in 1856 I bought his remaining lands at $60,000 and closed my account with him. He visited me once in Beloit.

The first session of the territorial legislature was held at Belmont, Lafayette County, the second at Burlington, Iowa, and the third in Madison in November, 1838, after Iowa was organized as a separate territory. I attended that and succeeding sessions for several years as a lobby member. In 1839 I was appointed sheriff of Rock County by Governor Dodge and held the office six years, in one of which I took the census of the county and as sheriff collected the taxes of the county. I had my appointment from Governor Dodge two years, from Governor Doty three years, and the last year from the people, the office having been made elective. The statutes would not permit me to hold it again until after two years. My business was such that I could not afford to hold it longer, and I accepted the last election because the county was democratic and I was the only Whig that could defeat the nominee of that party. On the night of the election I went to Janesville to get the returns and found all but four towns reported and a tie. The next town came in a tie, also the next, and one more to be heard from and that a democratic one I knew. When I got the returns from that I had seven majority, and a great shout went up from my friends.

At the legislative session of 1840 I was appointed a commissioner to lay out three territorial roads—one from Beloit to Southport (now Kenosha), one from Beloit to Madison, the other to Milwaukee. Two others were appointed with me on each road. I spent much time on them and they are the roads of today with some slight changes. At the next session I was commissioned to lay a road from Beloit to Watertown.

In 1839 I met for the first time Miss Caroline Field, the daughter of Deacon Peter Field, who was at Beloit to visit her parents. We soon became engaged to marry and after a courtship of three years we married in June, 1842. I had built a house, into which we moved on the day of our marriage, where I lived until 1866 and where all my children were born.

In 1842 Horace White, Harvey Bundy, and myself formed a partnership in a general goods business and commenced building the stone flour mill on the Turtle Creek. We bought a stock of goods for another store, called the Mill Store. In December, 1843, Doctor White died and I was left with all the business and also his family to care for and his estate to settle, and my partner, Harvey Bundy, a worthless business man. All the wise ones prophesied that we should fail and White’s estate was or would be used up. We owed a large amount and the mill was about half finished. I felt that I might lose all—for I had not much to lose really beyond the land that I first purchased and a few hundred dollars earned. I settled the estate and saved it without loss, and kept the family together until Mrs. White married Deacon Samuel Hinman. Horace White of the Tribune once, and now the treasurer of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, was the son of Doctor White.[111]

In 1852 a railroad charter had been obtained for building a road from Racine to Beloit. Also, one from Southport to Beloit. The incorporators of each road came to me to assist them to build, and I chose the road to Racine and made enemies of the incorporators of the Southport road for the time being. It was through my influence that it was built. Fisher, Keep & Tolcott contracted to build it from Fox River to Freeport, and built it from Fox River or Burlington to Durand, when the financial crisis of 1867 failed the company and the work was suspended one year. I was appointed a receiver by the court and ran it a short time when it was restored to the directors and I became a director and the company built it to the Mississippi and sold it out to the bondholders.

Before this, in 1848 the Chicago and Galena Railroad had been built to Elgin and the funds of the company were exhausted, and William B. Ogden and other directors came to Beloit and offered to build a branch of their road from Rockford to Beloit, when their road reached Rockford, if the people of Beloit would subscribe $75,000 to the main line. I was selected by our citizens to take the subscription and in one week I got it—part of it without conditions, and part with my guarantee that if they would subscribe and pay five per cent, that I would guarantee the stock to be par when the second installment was called for. The installments were to be five per cent each month. Mr. Keep, Mr. Cheney, and myself took $30,000 and I took $15,000 for General Kearney. When the second installment was called for I had to take several thousand more that was given me on my agreement to take it if not at par. Before the third installment was due the stock was at five per cent premium and I sold most of it. The company built the road from Belvidere instead of Rockford, which gave us a shorter line. The next year the Beloit and Madison Railroad was begun, and I was elected a director in that and remained on the board until it was sold to the Chicago & Galena Company, which company soon after sold out to the Northwestern Railroad Company. I was a contractor on the Chicago & Northwestern Air Line between the Rock and Mississippi rivers. In 1856 I was one of the contractors for building the railroad from Clinton, Iowa, to Council Bluffs. The contract was for grading, ironing, and ballasting the road and amounted to about $13,000,000. The pay was a land grant of every other section ten miles in width, some cash, and some bonds and some stock. When we had expended about $400,000 in grading, the company failed in 1857. We got the first 100 sections of land and the franchise of the road, which we sold to Mr. Blair of New Jersey and got even with the company. We took the land grant and built the road some years after; Morris K. Jessup, Dean Richmond, Charles Reed of Erie, and Messrs. Morris & Courtright of New York were partners, also H. S. Durand and Wm. Allen of Racine. I also had a partnership with the last two and Judge Green of Providence, Rhode Island, by which the latter gentleman was to furnish $100,000 cash to be used by Durand, Allan, and myself in the purchase of lands and town sites in Iowa on the line of the road, the profits to be divided equally between Durand, Allan, and myself, party of the first part, and Greene and his associates, party of the second part. The crisis of 1857 ended that project. In 1852 I prevailed upon a party in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to open a bank in Beloit. In 1854 John M. Keep, A. L. Field, and myself bought the bank stock and elected Keep president and Field cashier. In 1856 I was elected president and Mr. Keep sold his stock. In the crisis of 1857 the bank failed and was closed and its charter sold to Davis & Martin. In 1856 I was elected to the legislature and served in 1856-7 and declined a reËlection, as at the time of election the next year, I had more business irons in the fire than I could attend to.

When the charter of the city of Beloit was obtained, I was elected an alderman from the second ward and served six years, and was two years county supervisor. I was a director in a gas company, also in a car company that went no further than organizing.

I was a partner of W. T. Goodhue in the purchase and ownership of considerable real estate. With Goodhue and R. H. Mills in the purchase and sale of real estate; also, with R. H. Mills in the purchase and sale of a large amount of real estate. In the settlement with Mr. Mills, he owed me over $15,000 which he could not pay, so I gave it to him. Mr. H. Cheney owed me as much more when he left for Colorado, where he died. Messrs. Mills, Brooks, and I purchased and sold much real estate. I was elected a trustee of Beloit College at its organization and have been to date, also one of the Executive Committee while I lived in Beloit, and gave much of the site or grounds. I have been a deacon in the Congregational church about thirty years. In 1861 I was appointed by President Lincoln postmaster at Beloit. He had been my attorney in defending the title to Beloit, which I did at my own expense mostly and won the suit, and saved the citizens from a heavy blackmail.

The president offered me any office that I thought myself competent to fill, through my friend, David Davis. I took the Beloit post office, as I could not leave my business interests in Beloit. At the end of four years I was commissioned again by Lincoln and was afterwards removed by Johnson for refusing to support his measures. In 1862 I was appointed by Secretary Chase to take subscriptions to the first or gold bonds issued to carry on the war, and was one of two appointed for Wisconsin and received subscriptions.

[97] Lucius G. Fisher, a native of Vermont, was born at Derby, August 17, 1808. His father was a substantial farmer of Derby, but due to business reverses the son failed to obtain the anticipated college education, a fact which he never ceased to lament. While still a youth he formed the design of migrating to the West, but the execution of this project was delayed for several years, first by reason of his disinclination to separate from his mother, and after her death by the necessity of assisting in the support of his father and sisters. After several years of school teaching and two years of service as sheriff’s deputy, Fisher in 1834 entered the employ of the Messrs. Fairbanks, of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, to travel for them and introduce their “recently invented” platform scales. The immediate inducement to this employment was the proffered salary of $500 yearly and all expenses; but the work was accepted by Fisher, as he reports in later life, in order to find, in his travels, “that better country” he had determined, when but sixteen years of age, to seek.

The employment with the Fairbanks company continued profitably for Fisher for three years. Then the panic of 1837 brought it to a disastrous termination, under the circumstances set forth in the narrative which follows. The manuscript from which these facts are drawn, and the greater portion of which we print, tells the story of the writer’s life from birth until the time of writing, at Chicago, in the spring of 1883. To summarize its concluding portion, Fisher left Beloit for Chicago in 1866, where with Ralph Emerson he built a block at the southeast corner of State and Washington streets on the site of the present Columbus Memorial Building. Although burned out in the great fire of October 9, 1871, Fisher prospered in Chicago and became comparatively wealthy.

The manuscript narrative of his career was presented to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin in January, 1917 by a grandson, William Scott Bond, of Chicago. Because of the valuable picture it presents of pioneer days in Wisconsin, and particularly of the early development of Beloit, in which Mr. Fisher played a prominent and creditable part, the narrative seems eminently worthy of the wider publicity and service which its publication in the Wisconsin Magazine of History involves. In preparing the manuscript for publication a uniform typographical style has been imposed, and certain minor lapses in composition have been eliminated; but these editorial changes affect in no degree the character of the narrative as it left Mr. Fisher’s hand.

[98] The Democrat, the first newspaper published in Chicago, was founded by John Calhoun in November, 1833. In 1836 Calhoun sold the paper to John Wentworth, who continued as its proprietor and editor until the Democrat was merged with the Tribune in 1861.

[99] Gurdon S. Hubbard, a native of Vermont, came west in 1818 as a youth in the employ of the American Fur Company, and was assigned to the Illinois Brigade. A number of years later he made Chicago his permanent residence and became one of the most prominent of the first generation of Chicago business men. He does not, however, deserve in any sense the title of “first settler” of Chicago.

[100] Chase’s Point was named after Horace Chase, a prominent citizen of early Milwaukee. Like the Chicago River, the Milwaukee has been subjected to a civilizing process which has resulted in the acquisition of a new mouth some distance to the north of the natural one.

[101] John H. Tweedy, a native of Connecticut and graduate of Yale, came to Milwaukee in 1836 as a youthful lawyer of twenty-two. He soon became prominent both in legal and in political circles, and throughout the territorial period was one of the leaders of the Whig faction in Wisconsin. In 1847 he was elected as territorial delegate to Congress. Upon the admission of Wisconsin to statehood Tweedy was put forward by the Whigs as their candidate for the governorship, but was defeated by Nelson Dewey. During the fifties Tweedy was active in the development of the railroad system of Wisconsin.

[102] Apparently the reference is to Solomon Juneau, one of the founders of Milwaukee, who settled there as an Indian trader in 1818.

[103] Alexander Pratt had removed from Milwaukee to Waukesha earlier in the year 1837. Although one of the very early settlers of Waukesha, he was not the first one, nor was his house the only one at the place at the time of Fisher’s visit. Pratt was unmarried at this time. He was a man of some means, however, and had in his employ a man and wife. Probably this couple is the one alluded to by Fisher.

[104] Harrison Reed had come west to Milwaukee in 1836, and in 1837 became virtually the first editor of the Sentinel. By an unfortunate quarrel a few years later he lost control of the paper and was ruined financially. After residences at Madison and Menasha, Reed in 1862 was appointed tax commissioner of Florida. He later (1868-72) served as governor of the state.

[105] The settlement of Fort Atkinson was begun in the autumn of 1836 under the auspices of the Rock River Claim Company. This company, organized earlier in the same year, had sent out an exploring party and made claims at several points, including Fort Atkinson. In order to make good the latter claim it was decided to locate a family on it, and accordingly a house was built and occupied by Dwight Foster and family, late in 1836. During the ensuing winter, Edward and Alvin Foster also came to Fort Atkinson, their houses being built about a mile up the river from Dwight Foster’s cabin. Instead of being the first house at this point, therefore, Alvin Foster’s was the second or third one built.

[106] The settlement of Janesville was begun by the erection of a log house by John Inman and others near the close of the year 1835. Two or three months later Henry Janes, for whom the town is named, staked out a claim here, and in the spring of 1836 brought his family to a cabin which workmen had already built for him. Several other families came during the following months, and Fisher is probably incorrect in saying there were but three at the time of his first visit in the autumn of 1837. The Bailey family, mentioned by Fisher, arrived in the autumn of 1836, and the Stevens family in the spring of 1837.

[107] Blodgett, a native of Vermont, had come west in search of a fortune, and in the spring of 1836 had bought Thibault’s squatter-right claim to all the land within “three looks” of his cabin for $200. Blodgett thereupon set up a claim to some ten sections of land, and fortified it, according to local histories, by building a log house and ploughing a furrow around it. Before becoming possessed of any legal title whatever, Blodgett began disposing of his extensive domain by selling to Goodhue his claim to one-third of it (one-fourth, according to Fisher) for the sum of $2,000. Goodhue in turn disposed of one-fourth of his interest to Fisher for $400. Meanwhile, in March, 1837, Dr. Horace White of Colebrook, N. H., had visited the place, and on behalf of the New England Emigrating Company had purchased one-third of Blodgett’s claim for $2,500. This coming of the New England Emigrating Company to Beloit may be regarded as the most important event in connection with its early development. At the same time Doctor White was instrumental in giving to Beloit her most famous citizen in the person of his three-year old son, Horace.

[108] The list of members according to Horace White included the following persons: Cyrus Eames, O. P. Bicknell, John W. Bicknell, Asahel B. Howe, Leonard Hatch, David J. Bundy, Ira Young, L. C. Beech, S. G. Colley, G. W. Bicknell, R. P. Crane, Horace Hobart, Horace White, and Alfred Field. William F. Brown, History of Rock County (Chicago, 1908), I, 133.

[109] This was Timothy Johnson, a native of Middletown, Conn., who came to Wisconsin in 1835. He stopped at Racine for a few months, going from there to Wisconsin City (now Janesville) at the beginning of 1836. Not satisfied here, however, he soon went up Rock River to a point about two miles below the site of Jefferson, where he built a log house and cleared a garden plot. Further prospecting soon led to the discovery of “Johnson’s Rapids” (modern Watertown), where he staked out a claim of 1,000 acres in the spring of 1836, bringing his family to the place in December following. He had thus been settled here about a year at the time of Fisher’s first visit.

[110] The charter was granted in 1837 for the establishment of a seminary “for young persons of either sex.” The school was not started, according to Horace White, until 1843 or 1844, when classes were held in the basement of the new Congregational church. Classes for girls were maintained separately in the “Female Seminary.”

[111] Horace White, widely known as a publicist, and writer on financial themes, was brought to Beloit by his parents as a child of three years in 1837. He was graduated at Beloit College in 1853, and in 1854 became city editor of the Chicago Evening Journal. From 1864 to 1874 he was editor and part owner of the Chicago Tribune. In 1883 he bought a part interest in the New York Evening Post and thereafter for twenty years was one of its managers, and for the last few years of the period its editor-in-chief.

THE CHICAGO TREATY OF 1833

With Introduction and Notes by Milo M. Quaife

The Chicago Treaty of 1833, with the negotiating of which the following documents deal, was an event of considerable importance, particularly in the history of Illinois and Wisconsin. From the first advent of the white man in this region the Potawatomi tribe of Indians had made its home in some portion of the territory adjacent to Lake Michigan. By the Chicago Treaty of 1833 the Potawatomi and allied tribes, the Chippewa and Ottawa, at length agreed definitely to leave this region and find a new home beyond the Mississippi. To the whites was surrendered their title to some 5,000,000 acres of fertile land in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, embracing the tract between Lake Michigan and Rock River and extending northward from an east and west line drawn through the southernmost point of Lake Michigan.

The circumstances attending the negotiation of the treaty were typical, probably, of those of Indian treaties generally in the first half of the nineteenth century. Yet two or three facts give to this treaty a somewhat special degree of interest. One is that we have left to us fuller and better descriptions of the negotiation of the treaty than is commonly the case. Another and more important one is that a larger sum of money was distributed in the form of gratuities more or less disguised, to facilitate the conduct of the negotiations. It is with this phase of the subject that the documents here presented deal. So far as known, no student of American history has ever seriously set himself the task of illuminating the subject of the process whereby the American government secured from the red man, in successive treaties, title to the greater portion of the land of continental United States.[112] A comprehensive study of this subject would reveal much of interest and value; it would be certain, too, to disclose much of a nature far from flattering to the American government and nation. That the Chicago Treaty of 1833 would afford some material of this sort for the construction of the narrative, it requires no hardihood to affirm. Charges of improper influences and conduct in connection with the framing of the treaty began to be made as soon as it was negotiated. Some of them, doubtless, were irresponsible and unfounded, but there is reason for supposing that this was far from being true with respect to all of them. The letter of Governor Porter is preserved in the Burton Library at Detroit, and acknowledgment is due to Mr. Burton for the copy we present. The charges against Porter are copied from a contemporary broadside preserved among the Martin manuscripts in the Wisconsin Historical Library. The two documents go hand in hand, for it is evident that the charges which Porter sought in his letter to Jackson to refute are identical with those stated in the broadside, although the latter seems not to contain all the material which had been submitted to Jackson and which was referred by him to Porter to answer. Readers who may be interested in pursuing the subject further may find a discussion of the Chicago Treaty of 1833 in the present editor’s Chicago and the Old Northwest 1673-1835, 353-66.

CHARGES PREFERRED AGAINST GEORGE B. PORTER

Detroit, December 12, 1833.

To Hon. the Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs in the U. S. Senate

The following are the charges and specifications preferred against George B. Porter, Governor of Michigan Territory, and Superintendent of Indian Affairs:

Old Mr. Kinzie, whose claims are placed on the same ground, died a subject of the King of Great Britain—he fought against this country in the late war—his own family only escaping at the massacre of Chicago. The heirs of Forsyth and Kinzie, are cousins, consequently the above claims are all in one family. Major Robert A. Forsyth, a Paymaster in the U. S. Army, and the individual above named, was one of the committee on claims who allowed the above sum of $42,516 to himself, his sisters and cousins—one individual only being associated with him. The Major, and all of his sisters, were born in the province of Upper Canada, and he to this day has never been naturalized. He is, however, the especial protege of the Secretary of War, and Governor Porter. A large amount of just claims were rejected by the Committee, to make room for the claims allowed above.

Roberson and Caldwell, the principal Chiefs of the Potawatamie Nation, half whites, and persons whom Robert A. Forsyth can control as he pleases, received $10,000 each, as a bribe to induce them to influence the other Chiefs of the Nation. It is allowed out of the $100,000 appropriated in lieu of reservations. Caldwell was the principal Chief at the massacre of the River Raisin. A Frenchman called Loranger, an Indian trader, was allowed by the committee on claims $5000, by assigning his claim to Robert A. Forsyth, to whom he was indebted $3000. The goods furnished by John H. Kinzie, Aid-de-Camp to Governor Porter, (and the individual named in the list of claims,) and Mr. Kercheval, (the husband of Maria Kercheval, named in the list of claims,) under former treaties, amounted to $100,000. The practice of Gov. Cass has always been to give the furnishing of goods to be distributed among the Indians, under a regulation of a former treaty, to the Indian Agent at the Agency where the goods were to be distributed, as a perquisite of his office. Had the precedent been followed in the present case, the Indian Agents at Green Bay, Chicago and Logansport, would have had the distribution of the goods. But Gov. Porter assigned, over and over again, as a reason for taking this perquisite from the Agents, that he was desirous of saving the per centage usually allowed them, and that in lieu of this per centage, he had engaged Kinzie and Kercheval only as agents to purchase the goods in New-York, and was to give them a per diem allowance for this trouble. Yet, in express contradiction of this declaration, Governor Porter, as can be positively proved, has allowed to Kinzie and Kercheval, 50 per cent. on the whole amount of goods furnished, making to them a profit of $50,000.

This amount of public money is put into the pockets of one family in the short space of six weeks. Is it not reasonable to suppose, that Governor Porter finds a strong reason for confining the patronage of the Government to one family, in the fact that he comes in for a share of the “plunder?”

In addition to this, Kinzie and Kercheval have received from Governor Porter, the contract to furnish the Indians with horses, from which they will undoubtedly realize $10,000.

Kinzie also obtained the exclusive furnishing of the goods at the forks of the Wabash, amounting to $40,000, and Kercheval at Nottawassippie, to the amount of $20,000.

It is a fact notorious among all who attended the Chicago Treaty, that the goods furnished at that treaty, were afterwards taken from the Indians in large amounts, and furnished at other places. Kinzie himself, used the goods which he furnished the Indians as a gag to those who complained of his conduct, by making them presents of cloth, &c.

Lucius Lyon, our Delegate in Congress, is in possession of all the foregoing facts, and will vouch for their correctness; and for their further confirmation, I refer you to Geo. W. Ewing, Logansport, Ind.; Alexis Coquillard, South Bend, Ind.; Thos. J. V. Owen, Indian Agent, Chicago; Peter Godfroy, Teunis S. Wendell, Wm. Brewster, Edward Brooks, and S. T. Mason, of Detroit; and Robert Stewart, Mackinac; and Col. Ewing, Secretary of the Commissioners. Most respectfully submitted for your consideration.

Your Obedient Servt.

LETTER FROM GEORGE B. PORTER TO PRESIDENT ANDREW JACKSON

Detroit, December 15th, 1833.

Gen’l Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States,

Sir,

After a fatiguing tour of more than three months, in performance of the several public duties assigned to me, I arrived here last evening, and have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, this morning, of your letter of the 2nd inst. with its inclosure.

Personal respect for you, Sir, restrains the expression of feelings, outraged and indignant at having been made the object of calumnies, so wantonly malicious and grossly untrue, as those contained in the paper laid before you, a copy of which you have transmitted.

I appreciate, with a proper sense of the obligation, the considerate justice which has offered me the means of confronting my accusers, whenever they shall declare themselves; and I thank you for the renewed mark of confidence in my integrity, thus indicated.

The statements contained in this tissue of fabrications, shall be met fully and fairly, by my own distinct declarations, which, if deemed insufficient, shall be sustained by ample testimony, incapable of refutation. And if in vindicating my honor from unmerited aspersion, the detail should prove tedious, I ask, not doubting it will be granted, your forbearance for a temper, smarting under a sense of undeserved injury.

I may be permitted to premise, that like other public men, I too, have my enemies. But for this peculiar and vindictive rancour that assails me, I cannot otherwise account, than by attributing it to that fruitful source of evil passions—disappointed expectations. If, in the endeavor faithfully to discharge my duties, it has not been in my power to accomplish all the wishes of all, it is but the common lesson which experience has taught, to others as well as to myself. The invidious feeling which these causes produce, seeks to gratify itself, by wresting from me the credit of having effected an important Treaty, and would willingly sacrifice to its object the best interests of the country.

To proceed then to the matters alleged against me.

The first proposition contains both an indirect and a direct falsehood. First, in stating, for the purpose of disparagement, that but three million acres of land are purchased, when in point of fact, there are nearly six millions; And Secondly, that the title not being in the Indians, “there was no necessity for a Treaty at all.” The declaration itself is utterly without foundation; but waiving this, I remark, that the province of determining this “necessity,” rested not with the Commissioners but with the President. In the present instance, it is well known that a cession of country along the Western shore of Lake Michigan was deemed of so much importance, that an appropriation for holding the Treaty was made at the last Session of Congress—Who could be ignorant of this fact? And yet, those who profess to understand this matter better than the President and Congress, and the Secretary of War, whose knowledge of these Indians and this region of country is minutely particular, assert that the land did not belong to the Indians ceding it, and that “a little investigation will satisfy any reasonable man that there was no necessity for a Treaty at all.”

It is stated also that to indulge my favoritism its objects always found it an easy matter to “persuade his Excellency to get up a Treaty.” The mendacity of the writer is equalled only by his ignorance. The power which assumes the ordering of Treaties does not lie with me. But without this, the charge is unfortunate in its application, for I appeal to my letters on file in the Department to show whether this appointment was eagerly coveted, or reluctantly accepted, by me. And the instructions of the Department under which the Commissioners acted, (an extract from which for your convenience I enclose), will show, that the Secretary was not only aware of the importance of the duty but directed us “not to abandon it till all hopes of success were exhausted.” That we succeeded in effecting all that was required of us and, in the opinion of every good and intelligent citizen with whom I have conversed, made a valuable Treaty, advantageous alike to the Government and the Indians, of importance to the surrounding country, and this in the most public and honorable manner, I had never heard doubted, until my return to this place. Since then, I have heard of boasts that I should be destroyed. And accordingly, during my absence, falsehood and aspersion were busy with my character and conduct. To destroy the confidence you repose in me, no means have been scruppled at.—First, it is boldly proclaimed that I cannot effect a Treaty—then it is denied that any credit is due to me, for having accomplished it:—and now, I am held exclusively answerable for the whole Treaty, and every circumstance attending it.

To my Co-Commissioners, and the gentleman selected by them as the Secretary of the Commission, who are all highly respectable Citizens of Illinois:—to the full Journal of all our proceedings:—to the many distinguished citizens of Illinois, Indiana and the surrounding country:—to every honourable man who was present during the Council, among whom are Mr. Daniel Jackson of New York—and Mr. Robert Stewart, the Agent of the American Fur Company at Michilimackinac, both of whom I understand to be now in Washington, and whose characters are known to you, I appeal with confidence, for a refutation of these slanders.[113]

The suggestion that extra allowances have been made to me for extra services is not disputed, being an usage of the Government from its first institution. The labors I have performed and the fatigues I have undergone, in this tour, over roads almost impassable, and during a continuation of the most unfavorable weather, teach me to believe that I have honestly earned all that the Rule of Department will allow: But the vile and mean insinuation appended, and which none but an utterly corrupt heart could generate, that I have sold my patronage, does not require an answer.

In reference to the claims or accounts contained in the Schedules annexed to the Treaty, to some of which particular exception has been taken, I proceed, in explanation, to state: That in furtherance of the policy of the Government to remove these Indians West of the Mississippi, the Commissioners refused to grant Reservations of land, although these were greatly preferred, but agreed, in lieu thereof, that a part of the consideration money should be apportioned among such individuals as the Indians chose to designate. In like manner another part of the consideration money, the amount of which was fixed, was to be applied in satisfaction of claims, which, on examination, should be admitted by the Indians to be justly divided. Who, so well as they, could tell whether they were indebted to an individual or not? But to protect themselves against unfounded claims, many of which were presented, the Chiefs and head men employed a gentleman of high standing and respectability, as their assistant, and asked permission that he might be present at the investigation of the claims. This gentleman was Richard E. Hamilton, Esq.,[114] of Chicago—in whom these Indians reposed unbounded confidence—They farther requested that Major Forsyth, for whom they professed a like regard, and who was familiarly known to them, should aid their friend Col. Hamilton in the duty confided to him. Impressed, as all were, with the character of the two gentlemen for integrity and honor, so reasonable a request was not denied.—In the presence of the Chiefs and those Assistants, the commissioners proceeded in the examination of the numerous claims, the decision on each claim being made by the commissioners; by all of them; and by them alone; and the amount allowed on each claim was then and there written down by the Secretary. So far as relates to the allowances, (so principal an object of animadversion), granted to the heirs of Forsyth & Kinzie, I aver, without fear of contradiction, that neither Major Forsyth nor any of the persons interested, had anything to do with the decision upon them; nor, to the best of my knowledge and recollection, were any of them present, when they were acted on—The Chiefs and Head men insisted upon these allowances, and the Commissioners, on hearing the representation of the Indians unanimously acquiesced in their justice. These with the several other claims allowed form, as I have stated, a part of the consideration money of the Treaty, and if it were possible, which it certainly is not, to preserve the Treaty, striking these out, the Individuals named would, I have not a doubt, suffer neither detriment nor loss—The whole Potawatamie Nation would, I am persuaded, restore the allowances at the Annuity table.

The name of Robert A. Forsyth, which occurs three times in the first statement of allowances, belongs to two different individuals, one of whom is a Merchant in Ohio,[115] and the other, the Paymaster. The extensive trade in which the Merchant of this name in Ohio is engaged will appear on reference to several Treaties lately made in Ohio and Indiana. Nor is this confusion of names mentioned in defence or extenuation—I am ignorant of any just ground of exception to my conduct, in the whole history of this transaction, but I note it, merely, as one of a series of deceptive statements. The jeering comment follows that “Major Forsyth of the United States Army, received his $3000 as an Indian Chief.” These falsehoods are almost too gross for refutation. The Treaty states the allowance. Does it say he received it as an Indian Chief? The Indians stated, themselves, and without any prompting on the part of the Commissioners, that there was due to Robert A. Forsyth a reservation, which had long since been promised by their nation, and which they had desired Governor Cass and Judge Sibley, Commissioners at the Treaty of Chicago in 1821, to grant him. This request has been reiterated at the Treaty of St. Joseph, in 1828, as can be attested by Gov. Cass and Mr. Menard, the Commissioners;—the land being then, and ever since, set apart for him by the Indians. It was not secured to him in either of these Treaties, because not included within the bounds of the lands then ceded. The Commissioners, in this, as in every other instance when it could be done compatibly with the policy of the Government, and with justice to Individuals and the Indians, conceived it their duty to obey their wishes.[116] The selection of persons to examine and adjust claims, as well for reservations as on account of losses, was made, not by the Commissioners, but by the Indians themselves. The claims were all subjected to the supervision of the Indians, or persons they themselves appointed to represent them;—It is notorious that they expressed at all times the most unhesitating confidence in their Indian Agent, Col. Owen, who was one of the Commissioners:—in Col. Hamilton, whom they specially deputed to act for them, and in the two persons scoffed at as “half whites,” Caldwell and Robinson.[117] With these was associated also Joseph, an influential Chief, who was present in every business transaction—Caldwell and Robinson have been nurtured with, and raised by, these Indians, one from childhood, and the other from his birth; they are identified with this tribe, and are Indians in character, in manners, in mode of life, in sentiments and conduct, and as such are regarded by them. By reference to the Treaty of 1829, it will be seen that they were then acknowledged as the principal men, and the Treaty was made with them. Whom could they trust if not these? After the assent to sell had been obtained, and the general preliminaries had been agreed upon, the Indians in open council, as will appear by the Journal, advised the Commissioners that they had confided the care of their interests, and all the details of the Treaty, to these, their principal chiefs; and the Commissioners, as I considered then and now, properly acquiesced. When these details were completed, and the Treaty reduced to form, it was read by Col. Hamilton in private Council to the Indians, and was again read before them in public Council, by myself, and unanimously approved. It is represented that old Mr. Forsyth never had $500 in property in his life. This can be disproved by a hundred witnesses, conversant with the fact, that he was extensively engaged in the Indian trade. So, too, the assertion that “old Mr. Kinzie died a subject of the King of Great Britain”, can be falsified by the records of the War Department, showing him to have been for many years after the war a Sub Agent of the Government. Equally and unqualifiedly false also is the declaration that “he fought against his country in the late war,” or “led the Indians in the Massacre of Chicago.” On the contrary he was a zealous and efficient partizan of the American party, and as the books of the American Fur Company will show, was their agent at his death.

Nor is the declaration that Major Robert A. Forsyth, a Paymaster in the United States Army, has never been “naturalized,” by which it is intended to be conveyed that he is an alien, less destitute of truth. The Father of Major Forsyth was an American Citizen, (born in Detroit), and has always resided in this country, and the accidental circumstance that Major F’s mother was, at his birth, among her friends across the narrow line which divided the Territory from Canada, did not, nor could, divest him of his national character. The law of nations recognize no such principle: Accordingly, the vote of Major Forsyth has never been challenged at an election; he bore a Commission, as a Cadet of the Military Academy, and subsequently as an officer in the Army of the United States. He has been elected to the Legislature of the Territory, and executed the trust; where the objection stated, if valid, would have been fatal. Finally, he has received from the President of United States, a Commission as Pay Master in the United States Army. Equally deceptive with every other feature of this malignant attempt to destroy me, is the perverse meaning significantly assigned to the trusts, confided to Major Forsyth and Mr. Kinzie. They are real, substantial trusts, created under circumstances of perfect notoreity at Chicago, and challenge scrutiny. In these, as in every other case, the appointment was made without consulting the individual, and in some instances against his inclination.

Major Forsyth is charged also with having bribed Caldwell and Robinson with $10,000 each, to influence the Chiefs of their Nation. This varies in nothing from the complexion of the other statements. It is a pure fiction. Major Forsyth had nothing to do with the matter. The Individuals cited, received, by the express direction of their people, the sum of $10,000 each, as the two head men of the nation, to whom the entire direction of their affairs had long before been committed,—on whom they not infrequently lived, and to whom they looked for relief in their necessities. A reference to the Journal will establish the fact of their appointment, because it is so declared in the speeches of the Indians, delivered in public Council. If the Indians, in open Council, declare what shall be done with a part of the consideration money of their land and, according to their custom, insist that their principal Chiefs shall be provided for out of it, why should it be objected to? As well might it be objected that $5000, a part of this consideration money, is appropriated at the request of the Chiefs to the students of the Choctaw Academy, of which sum the Honorable Richard M. Johnson is constituted Trustee.[118]

It is said also among other representations that a Frenchman called Loranger,[119] who never had goods in the Indian country, was allowed by the Commissioners on Claims $5000 by assigning his claim to Robt. A. Forsyth to whom he was indebted $3,000.

It is with difficulty Sir, that I can sufficiently command my feelings, or control the disgust with which I am affected, at these monstrous falsehoods, for while I would speak of them in the manner they merit, I would not forget the respect due to you. But in the above proposition of three lines, are stated three direct, unqualified untruths:—First—That he had had no goods in the Indian Country which could be refuted by a common clamor. Second—That he assigned his claim to Major Forsyth; and Third—That he was indebted to him for $3000.—I have already named Mr. Daniel Jackson, of the firm of Suydam, Jackson & Co., of N. Y. who are so extensively engaged in the sale of Indian Goods—Of him I would ask how long he has known Mr. Loranger to be in the Indian trade, and what has been the amount of goods sold yearly to Mr. Loranger—The claim of Mr. Loranger was much greater than the allowance—The balance is lost to him, because not presented at the Treaty in Indiana in October 1832, being due by that Band or Party of Potawatamie Indians—He has been in the Indian trade since 1804, and lives within sight of this town.

I had intended to close this communication here; but I cannot remain silent, while slanders are heaped upon the gallant dead. The characters and memories of John Kinzie and Robert A. Forsyth deceased have been wickedly assailed—and by whom? Their descendants would like to know—For the part each one of these individuals took, and the important services rendered by them to the American Government in the late war, reference is made to many of the first men in the country; Among those immediately around you is the Secretary of War, Major General Macomb, General Gratiot and Colonel Croghan.—Having considered it my duty to make inquiry I have obtained the following information and believing it to be strictly correct, I give it to you as such.—

Memoir of the late John Kinzie of Michigan.[120]

John Kinzie died at Chicago in 1828, aged 64 years; he came to this part of the Country when a boy and was in the Indian trade during the greater part of his life. He went to Chicago, Illinois, in 1803—was Sutler for the United States troops for several years, and was the first to take from Detroit the news of the declaration of War, to Captain Heald then commanding the Fort at that place.[121] On the eve of the massacre at Chicago, Mr. Kinzie with two friendly Indian Chiefs, called at Captain Heald’s quarters, and advised him not to abandon the Fort as was contemplated the next morning, but to remain as long as possible; for if he left it he would certainly be attacked by the Indians, who had collected to the number of five hundred warriors.—Captain Heald persisted in going—said he had orders from Genl. Hull to evacuate the post, and to proceed with his command to Fort Wayne. Captain Heald then requested Mr. Kinzie to accompany him, which he did, leaving his family with but three men to protect them on their way to St. Joseph (distant by water 100 miles). Mr. Kinzie’s family were taken prisoners a few hours previous to the massacre. Mr. Kinzie was in the battle, as well as one daughter, the wife of Lieutenant Helm, whose horse was shot from under her. She received a wound in the foot from the ball which killed her horse. Mr. Kinzie was taken prisoner with the surviving command of Captain Heald. Having been long a principal trader among these Indians, and much esteemed by them, he was next day by a Council held by the Chiefs, liberated, and his family restored to him.

He then prevailed upon the Indians to surrender to him Captain Heald and family, whom he furnished with conveyance to Mackinac.[122] Mrs. Heald now residing at St. Louis can prove all these facts.—Having lost all his property to a very considerable amount (it being a wholesale establishment) consisting of merchandise, furs and peltries and horses, etc., taken by the Indians, he went to Detroit. His influence while there was directed toward affecting a change in the views and feelings of the Indians at that time unfriendly to the American Government. This influence with the different tribes of Indians was very considerable and as a proof of it General Proctor commanding the British force in Detroit and its vicinity sent for Mr. Kinzie, and when he went to see him General Proctor immediately confined him as he said “for daring to prejudice the Indians against his Majesty’s subjects or forces, and would send him where he would not see an Indian in a hurry.”—Mr. Kinzie was twice rescued by several Indian Chiefs, and once in the presence of General Proctor himself. Mr. Kinzie was again taken by General Proctor and closely confined in irons at Fort Malden (as also a Mr. Jean Bte Chandonnois who subsequently made his escape and is now living in the St. Joseph country) and kept there for months. He was finally, to conceal him from the Indians, sent off in the night in irons—was treated in the most brutal manner by his guard, and was shipped for England for trial—Fortunately for him, the Ship lost her rudder, and she was obliged to put into Halifax, having on board a great number of American prisoners.—He thence made his escape in a crowd of paroled prisoners, and returned to his family in Detroit, after it had been taken possession of by General Harrison’s Army. Mr. Kinzie had not been long at home before he was called upon by Colonel Croghan, and accompaned the expedition under him to Mackinac, and was Captain of a party of Militia at the battle fought on the Island of Dousman’s Farm. Mr. Kinzie, after the close of the War, held the appointment of Sub Indian Agent for many years at Chicago.—He was well known to Generals Harrison, Macomb, Gratiot, and Col. Croghan.—During the time of hostilities, his energies were always devoted to the American cause.

Robert A. Forsyth was long and extensively engaged in the Indian trade.—His residence was at Detroit and his trading establishments in different places in the Indian Country. He not only enjoyed the confidence of the Indians but that of his fellow citizens. Every honest man then resident of Detroit can attest to his bravery during the late War. Such had been his conduct that, on the surrender of Detroit, he was marked as a fit subject for British vengeance.—He was torn from his family and with his only son, the present Major Forsyth, then a boy of about fourteen years, put on board the British vessels and carried off; his several infant daughters being left without a protector; their father’s house occupied by the British troops; and all his valuable property pillaged and carried away. Being landed on parol at Erie, Penn., the father and son soon afterwards found their way to General Harrison’s Army. This gentleman can attest to the many valuable services which they rendered. The father died in the year 1813, in the service of his country, without having been permitted to return to his family:—Being early enured to the hardships of trading among the Indians and being naturally active and brave the son frequently performed duties, from undertaking which others were deterred by their severity and danger. For the history of the son, the hardships he encountered, his important services before, and his gallant conduct during the war, I refer you to the Honourable Lewis Cass, who is familiar with its details.

I have now, Sir, I believe, with one exception, gone over the whole ground. That exception relates to the furnishing of goods by Mr. Kercheval and Mr. Kinzie, and as it has no connection with the Treaty of Chicago, being in fulfilment of the stipulations of previous treaties, and in the making of which I had no agency, and concerns myself exclusively, I shall make it the subject of a communication to accompany this.

The question so insidiously put, of whether “the Governor does not secretly reap a share of the plunder” I cannot, consistently with the respect due myself, answer.—Whether I have forgotten principle and character, and everything dear to an honourable mind, to defile my hands with the contamination of a bribe, is a question others must settle for me.—

In conclusion, I have only to add that, to the issue I have here made up, I commit without shadow of fear of the result, what is dearer to me than all else—my reputation and good name.

[G. B. Porter.]

[112] The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has under preparation a volume devoted to those Indian treaties which are of more direct interest to Wisconsin.

[113] Daniel Jackson belonged to the firm of Suydam, Jackson and Company of New York, large importers of goods for the fur trade. Robert Stuart was manager at Mackinac for the American Fur Company. Porter’s appeal to these men is not entirely convincing, since they were important representatives of the fur trade merchants who, as a class, profited most largely by the gratuities and allowances concerning which complaint was being made.

[114] Richard J. Hamilton came to Chicago in 1831 as first clerk of the circuit court of Cook County. During the next few years he held a large number of local offices of a legal or fiscal nature, much of the time holding several at the same time. He had much to do with the establishment and early administration of the public school system of Chicago.

[115] Robert A. Forsythe of Ohio was an early trader at Maumee City in Lucas County. He was probably the son of James Forsythe, an early merchant and tavern keeper of Detroit. He was one of the founders of the lower Maumee Valley.

[116] The pronouncement of Meriwether Lewis to President Jefferson on this point, given in a case which involved the same principle as the one here involved, is not without interest in this connection: “I am confident that, if the United States should never confirm the lands to the present claimants, it will not prove a source of disquiet on the part of the Osages; and should they be ever countenanced or receive confirmation, on the ground of their being Indian donations, it would introduce a policy of the most ruinous tendency to the interests of the United States; in effect it would be, the Government corrupting its own agents; for, I will venture to assert, that, if the Indians are permitted to bestow lands on such individuals as they may think proper, the meanest interpreter in our employment will soon acquire a princely fortune at the expense of the United States.” American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 767.

[117] Billy Caldwell and Alexander Robinson, halfbreeds, who were influential with the Potawatomi and the Ottawa.

[118] Unfortunately for Porter’s justification in this particular instance, the investigations of students have revealed much that is of questionable propriety in connection with Johnson’s conduct of his Indian school.

[119] Joseph Loranger was a fur trader in the River Raisin and before the War of 1812 had a store in partnership with Lafontaine. In 1817 he platted the town of Monroe, Michigan, of which place his descendants were prominent citizens.

[120] The correctness of this narrative is not above question in all respects. In general it may be noted that Porter was bent on presenting a favorable account of Kinzie’s career, and that he evidently drew his information from friendly sources. Nevertheless, it constitutes an interesting addition to our sources of information concerning Kinzie, the reputed “father of Chicago.”

[121] Kinzie removed to Chicago in 1804, the year following the establishment of Fort Dearborn. The statement that he brought the news of war to Fort Dearborn is incorrect.

[122] This statement is in contradiction with our other sources of information on the subject.

THE DISPUTED MICHIGAN-WISCONSIN BOUNDARY

Boundary disputes have ever constituted a fruitful source of contention between men and nations. Probably no people has more frequently engaged in them than our own, although, contrary to Old-World precedent, we commonly wage our boundary contentions verbally rather than with arms. Wisconsin, like others of the sisterhood of states, was early in its history a party to a number of boundary disputes, the fruits of victory commonly going, at least in local contemporary judgment, to her opponents. Since Wisconsin has become a state, boundary disputes have until recent years ceased. Two such have, however, arisen within the twentieth century and are still pending, one with the state of Minnesota, the other with that of Michigan. The former is in process of settlement by due governmental procedure, and accordingly no discussion of it would now be useful. The latter is at present in a state of quiescence; yet the boundary paragraphs of the constitutions of Michigan and of Wisconsin contain mutually contradictory clauses with respect to a strip of territory over which Michigan claims and Wisconsin exercises jurisdiction. Moreover, the overtures of our northern neighbor a few years since looking to a determination of the question met on our part with rebuff. Sooner or later, the issue will have to be determined; pending this, an historical rÉsumÉ of the points at issue may be of some interest, especially to Wisconsin readers.

The boundary between Michigan and Wisconsin was first determined in the act that in 1836 created Wisconsin Territory. In ignorance of the real geography of the region this act described a supposititious line, under the belief that the Montreal River had its source in Lake Vieux Desert. Two years later Congress appropriated $3,000 for the survey of the Michigan-Wisconsin boundary. The appropriation was considered insufficient and no attempt was made to run the line until 1841. Then, the matter having been transferred to the War Department, an army engineer, Lieutenant Thomas J. Cram, was detailed to undertake the survey. Cram spent the summer of 1841 in Wisconsin’s northern forests, ascertained many facts about the lakes and streams therein, and reported them to the department. Two years later Cram was again detailed to search for the true Wisconsin-Michigan boundary. He spent four months under conditions involving much hardship, in the attempt to determine the line as nearly as possible in accordance with official description. In the report which he made to the head of his department he recommended the abandonment of Lake Vieux Desert as a determinating factor in the interstate boundary line.[123]

The determination of the line rested until 1846, when, in the enabling act providing for the admission of Wisconsin, Congress established the line “to the mouth of the Menominee river; thence up the channel of the said river to the BrulÉ river; thence up said last mentioned river to Lake BrulÉ; thence along the southern shore of Lake BrulÉ in a direct line to the center of the channel between Middle and South Islands, in the Lake of the Desert [Vieux Desert]; thence in a direct line to the head waters of the Montreal river, as marked upon the survey made by Captain Cramm; thence down the main channel of the Montreal river to the middle of Lake Superior.” The constitution of Michigan, adopted in 1850, repeated the boundary article of Wisconsin’s enabling act with only slight verbal changes, including the omission of Captain Cram’s name. The fundamental laws of the two states were thus in accord concerning the line separating these states.

In the meanwhile, in 1847 a portion of the boundary was surveyed by William A. Burt, under the direction of Lucius Lyon.[124] Burt took the contract on April 27 and performed his work during the succeeding summer months. The field notes of his survey do not accompany his printed report, but Lyon stated that Burt’s notes would be forwarded later, and no doubt they are yet preserved in the General Land Office at Washington. From these field notes it might be ascertained why Surveyor Burt chose the eastern branch as the “main channel of the said Montreal river.” In so doing he assigned to Wisconsin 360 square miles of land that now include the towns of Hurley and Van Buskirk. Had he chosen the western branch, rising in the Island Lake as the Montreal’s headwaters, the jurisdiction of this strip would have rested in Michigan.

No one undertook to investigate the matter until quite recent years. Then Hon. Peter White of Marquette, Michigan, believing that his state was illegally deprived of the land between the two branches of the Montreal River, had a survey thereof made at his private expense. White’s surveyors ascertained, to their own and his satisfaction, that the western branch was the “main” channel of the Montreal River. Meanwhile Mr. White had interested in Michigan’s claims Clarence W. Burton of Detroit, the president of the State Historical Commission. Burton discovered that one of Burt’s surveyors, George H. Cannon, was still living, and arranged for the publication of an article from his pen supporting White’s contention that Michigan had been wrongfully deprived of a portion of her upper peninsula.[125]

Shortly after this, in 1907, Michigan held a convention to prepare a new constitution for the state. Burton was chosen a member of this body, and became chairman of the committee on boundaries. That committee, without discussion upon the floor of the convention, had the boundary article of the new constitution drawn to read: “thence in a direct line through Lake Superior to the mouth of the Montreal river; thence through the middle of the main channel of the westerly branch of the Montreal river to Island Lake, the head waters thereof, thence in a direct line to the center,” etc. This became part of Michigan’s fundamental law on February 21, 1908.

Meanwhile in 1907 two resolutions passed the Michigan legislature. The first, after reciting the mistakes in Captain “Cramm’s” surveys, authorized the governor to appoint a commissioner to visit Wisconsin in order to secure a joint commission for the adjudication of the boundary. In pursuance of this resolution the governor appointed Hon. Peter White to this office. He came to Madison twice, but could not interest the state’s officials in his enterprise, and was unable to secure any promise of participation in a joint commission. In June, 1908, Mr. White died, and so far as known no successor to him as boundary commissioner has ever been appointed.

The second Michigan resolution of 1907 authorized the attorney-general to direct a survey of the state’s northwest boundary, and also to institute proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction to secure a rectification of the boundary line. Acting on this authorization the attorney-general employed Professor J. B. Davis, of the University of Michigan, to investigate the survey and prepare a brief of Michigan’s claims. The result of Professor Davis’ investigation has not yet been given to the world. A chronicler of Michigan wrote in 1908 that “in view of the political excitement of the presidential year no active measures [concerning the disputed territory] are likely to be taken this season.” On another page the author expresses a doubt “whether the state of Michigan can ever occupy the territory justly hers.” He concludes with the observation that it “is believed to be the only instance in this nation where two sovereign states are occupying a dividing line of doubtful legality, merely by common consent.”[126]

Louise P. Kellogg.

AN EARLY WISCONSIN PLAY

In the collection of Mr. Henry Cady Sturges, of New York, there is a copy (the only one the writer has seen) of a play which, while it may not be the earliest, is certainly one of the first printed in Milwaukee. While the plot of the production is laid in New York and is largely local in interest, yet the fact that it was printed in Wisconsin, and the further fact that no other edition seems to be known, makes it fairly certain that it is the offspring of a writer who lived in Wisconsin.

The piece bears title as follows: “The Drummer, / or / New York Clerks / and / Country Merchants. / A Local Play, / in two acts. / (2 lines of verse.). / Edited by Mrs. Partington. / Milwaukee:/ Job Press of Cary & Rounds. / Commercial Advertiser Office/ 1851/” It has 73 + 1 pages and paper covers, the front cover bearing the same title as above.

A curious coincidence regarding the characters in the play is that the father of the present owner, Jonathan Sturges, is among them, his part being that of “Mr. Sturges, a New York Merchant,” that really being his occupation. “Mrs. Partington” is also among the characters.

This curious production was written at the time of the Jenny Lind excitement, and that great singer is mentioned in a number of places throughout the play. Her manager, P. T. Barnum, is there also, while some of the localities noted are Coney Island, Niblo’s, The Bowery, and Castle Garden. The first act takes place, first in a saloon on Broadway, and afterwards in the office of a first class hotel, also on that well-known thoroughfare. The second act is staged in Mrs. Partington’s parlor in the same hotel.

Some of the popular books of the period are mentioned, among them New York in Slices, while among the names of well-known New Yorkers are Horace Greeley and James Gordon Bennett, editor of the Herald. Milwaukee is hinted at, and Mr. Sturges is made to say by the playwright as he addresses his clerks, “Fourteen hundred dollars from Wisconsin. Extremely good. Wisconsin crops are nearly all destroyed, still the money is sure to come from that state. More goods are ordered, they shall have them.”

The play is interspersed with songs that are saturated with the alleged humor of the period, and sad to relate, one of these songs has been torn from the copy before me, probably because of its facetious nature.

It is doubtful if the writer ever intended to have his production staged, although the copy now described has several corrections such as are found in prompt copies.

I am inclined to believe that the statement on the title that its editor was Mrs. Partington (Benj. P. Shillaber) was simply put on to add to the humor of the occasion, as I doubt if Shillaber had a hand in its composition.

On page 73 is the statement that copyright has been secured.

From a perusal of the piece it seems evident that its author knew the metropolis very well, but the misspelling of proper names and other evidence makes it seem almost certain that it was the work of some one, who, while well acquainted with New York, was not a permanent resident of that city. Was he a writer from Wisconsin? If so, who was he, and why was he writing a play of this character, a piece whose plot was taken from a place so far from home?

Oscar Wegelin.

[123] Lieutenant Cram’s maps are reproduced in Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, XXXVIII, 386-87. His reports are found in Senate Documents, 151, Twenty-sixth Congress, 2nd sess., Vol. IV; ibid, 170, Twenty-seventh Congress, 2nd sess., Vol. III.

[124] Burt’s report, with accompanying map, may be found in Senate Executive Documents, 2, Thirtieth Congress, 1st sess.

[125] For the article see Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, XXXVIII, 163-68.

[126] Ibid. 167-68.

THE PROFESSOR AND THE FINGER BOWL

To tell a new Lincoln story is something of an achievement. Colonel Tom Brown, a former citizen of Badgerdom, who now resides in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has achieved this distinction, we believe, in relating the following incident. In view of the nature of our leading article, and of the local interest which attaches to Mr. Brown’s tale, we gladly give it such additional currency as lies within our power.

In some sections of southwestern Wisconsin during the Civil War, so the story runs, certain copperhead organizations, particularly the Knights of the Golden Circle, became decidedly outspoken in the expression of their sentiments—so much so that a group of loyal citizens decided to send a spokesman to Washington to acquaint the President with the threatening proceedings. The delegate chosen for this mission was a certain Professor Kilgore of Evansville Seminary. On his arrival at Washington he was invited to take lunch at the White House, where he was seated next to President Lincoln himself. At this time finger bowls were coming into fashion, but their advent had not as yet come within the ken of the simple western professor. Accordingly he was greatly perplexed by the little dish, containing a slice of lemon and some liquid, apparently lemonade, which appeared near the close of the meal. Observing his embarrassment, President Lincoln, leaning toward him, whispered, “Professor, don’t sip out of that bowl, watch me.”

Following this kindly instruction the pedagogue concluded the meal without disgracing himself. When, later, they found themselves alone together, President Lincoln confided to the visitor that he himself needed a servant to keep him informed about “those little things.”

We cannot vouch for the truth of the story, although it rests on better authority than most of the tales that are told about Lincoln. However authentic its details, it presents a trait of homely kindness, the possession of which constitutes one of the most attractive aspects of Lincoln’s personality.

THE PRINTING OF HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS

The last day of the year brings to hand the January, 1917, number of the quarterly Journal of a neighboring state historical society. What the local conditions may be which render it necessary to be a year behind with the publication of this periodical, we are unaware. Reference is made to it by way of calling attention to a practice which is all too common with respect to the issuance of historical periodicals and other publications. If a quarterly must appear six months or a year late it would seem to be a fair question whether its appearance at all is worth while. If such delays are due to the slackness or incompetency of the editor, the proper authorities should apply a much needed stimulant. If they are due to conditions beyond the editor’s control, reform (in the quarter responsible for the delay) is still desirable. We suspect that commonly such delays are caused by the state printers, by whom, at least in the Middle West, historical publications are generally issued. We speak the more feelingly on the subject because our own Society is not immune from the criticism under discussion. The printer dallied for a year over our most recently issued volume, while it required six months to get a forty-page bulletin printed. It avails little for editors to be punctual and businesslike in turning out their work, if it may then be hung up indefinitely by the printer, with the editor deprived of any means of amending the situation. Quite possibly state printers are themselves the victims of a system the amendment of which is beyond their control. Of this we have no particular knowledge. Wherever the responsibility may justly be placed, the manner in which most public printing is done in this country offers a severe commentary upon our boasted American efficiency.

IS WAR BECOMING MORE HORRIBLE?

There is an ancient story concerning a grave debate indulged in by a group of English philosophers during the Stuart period over the question why a fish does not weigh anything when in the water. At length it occurred to one of them to weigh a vessel of water with a fish in it, and again with the fish removed. As a result of this simple test the philosophers were forced to seek a new subject upon which to exercise their wits. At the present time it seems to be generally assumed that with the invention of new implements of warfare and of improvements upon old ones the horrors of war have steadily increased; in particular, that the present war is far more horrible to those who participate in it than any of its predecessors in the history of the human race have been. Such a belief as this entails obvious consequences affecting not only the peace of mind of our people but, in the last analysis, the success of the cause to which our nation is committed. For if it is indeed true that our young manhood is going to certain death under circumstances more awful than the pages of military history have hitherto ever recorded, our willingness as individuals to send our loved ones to meet such a fate must be seriously shaken by the prospect; while, collectively, the will of the nation to persist in the war upon which we have embarked will be similarly affected. In a word, such an impression gravely threatens the morale of the nation, including both those who go to war and those who send them forth. That our Teutonic foemen have not been unmindful of this is amply evidenced by the new and hellish connotation which in recent years they have succeeded in attaching to the word shrecklichkeit. To German shrecklichkeit we will pay our respects presently. Meanwhile we desire to deal with the question whether under the influence of modern science and invention the conduct of warfare has in fact become increasingly horrible.

SOME LEAVES FROM THE PAST

We believe it can be shown, on the contrary, that the direct opposite is true; that the warfare waged by primitive peoples and in ancient times was a far more horrible procedure than is that waged by civilized nations today. It may be taken as axiomatic that the horrors of battle, like the transports of love, increase as the distance between the parties concerned diminishes. All savage warfare, and all civilized warfare as well, until a very recent date, was waged at close range. In ancient and in medieval times men battled hand to hand with spear and sword and ax. The vanquished found slight opportunity to escape and the hand of the conqueror was stayed by no considerations of twentieth century humanity. The chronicles of the Hebrews, the Lord’s anointed, and the narratives of Alexander the Great and Julius CÆsar tell alike the same general tale of slaughter of the opposing warriors and the slaughter, rapine, or enslavement, as the case might be, of their dependents. In medieval times, it is true, under the influence of the institution of knighthood, certain rules foreshadowing the modern rules of war were developed. But these more humane rules applied only to the aristocracy, the commoner being excluded from their operation and benefits.

With the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries came two developments of much importance for their bearing upon our subject. The one was the application of gunpowder to the art of war, as the result of which war was democratized; the business of knighthood soon became as dead as CÆsar’s ghost, and as firearms improved, the distances at which opposing armies fought slowly widened. The other was an indirect result of the Dutch war for independence. Meditating upon the terrible brutalities to which his people were subjected by it, Hugo Grotius evolved the treatise on the laws of war and peace which by common consent has ever since been regarded as the foundation of modern international law. Grotius sought, in a word, to humanize warfare by securing the establishment by common agreement of rules calculated to prohibit its more debasing and awful manifestations. In the three hundred years ending with August, 1914, much progress was made, both along the lines laid down by Grotius and in other ways, looking to the minimizing of the horrors of war. At the same time, ever more ingenious and powerful death-dealing appliances were being devised for the waging of such combat as the rules of international law still rendered permissible.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMANITARIANISM

Notable progress, too, was being made along another line. Humanitarianism in its modern connotation is the child of the nineteenth century. To feel distress over the knowledge that famine or other ill afflicts a distant people is a purely modern accomplishment of which our forefathers of two or three centuries ago were wholly innocent. As applied to armies, the humanitarian impulse has worked a startling revolution. Organizations designed to care for the sick and the wounded have developed on an elaborate scale. The Red Cross was called into being only half a century ago as an indirect result of the horrors of the battlefield of Solferino. It was born too late to have any share in alleviating the miseries of our own Civil War but since that time it has constituted an ever increasing agency for the relief of human suffering, whether in peace or in war. Even the “unspeakable Turk” has been infected by the virus of humanitarianism and the Red Crescent plays for the Mohammedan world the rÔle fulfilled by the Red Cross among the nations of Christendom.

OTHER AGENCIES

The progress made in recent years in the fields of medicine and surgery has been no less striking than in that of humanitarianism; while the development of a new social consciousness (a concomitant, of course, of the humanitarian movement) has resulted in throwing about the soldier who wars for America in 1918 a set of safeguards, and in providing him with a degree of comfort such as no other warriors in the history of the world ever enjoyed. Against drunkenness and vice, twin plagues of army life since the beginning of the world, he is at least as well protected as is the civilian at home. Libraries and clubhouses and games and lectures are provided with unstinted generosity for his recreation and instruction. That his mind may be free from incidental worry, a system of life insurance on a scale hitherto undreamed of has been evolved; while the wife or other dependents at home are insured by the largess of a parental government against coming to actual want during his absence.

SOME FACTS AND FIGURES

All these things will avail little to comfort the soldier or his loved ones if it is in fact true that he is being sent to a certain and awful death—if his span of life, after reaching France, is limited to a few weeks, and after reaching the front line trenches to a few hours or minutes. Let us proceed, then, to weigh this particular fish. We can do it only approximately, for it is inherent in the nature of warfare that accurate, dependable statistics are commonly lacking, or extremely difficult to obtain. The testimony of such as we have, however, is all in support of the view that never before in civilized warfare has the individual soldier had so good a prospect of surviving the term of his enlistment and returning once more to the homeland as now. It is not contended, of course, that modern war is simply a pleasant pastime from which all will return unscathed, but merely that the current impression concerning its having become more awful and more fatal than in times past is incorrect. According to respectable authority the casualties in the entire French army in proportion to mobilized strength amounted, for the first six months of 1915, to 2.39 per cent. Since then the ratio has steadily decreased, the figure for the last six months of 1916 being 1.28 per cent. At the beginning of the war, for the battles of Charleroi and the Marne, when the French suffered more heavily than at any time since, the casualties were 5.41 per cent of the mobilized strength of the army. In other words during the period of greatest danger in the entire war but five men in every hundred received wounds, while, of these five, it is a safe generalization to say that only one died as a result thereof.

In view of the enormous numbers of men in the present war, the absolute figures of losses are appalling enough. Relatively, however, the losses are lower than in many previous wars. In no great battle of the war, probably, has the individual soldier stood so good a chance of being wounded or killed as did those—to mention a few cases only—who fought at Fredericksburg or Gettysburg, at Stone River or Chickamauga, at Waterloo, at Aspern, at Borodino, or Leipsic. At Fredericksburg, Burnside lost, in a few hours, one-tenth of his army, the loss in that portion actively engaged amounting to 16 per cent; at Gettysburg, in three days, one-fifth of the Union army and almost one-third of the Confederate army were killed or wounded; at Chickamauga and at Stone River over one-fourth of the Confederate forces engaged were lost, while the casualties sustained by Grant’s army in the seven-days’ wilderness battles amounted to the same appalling proportion. As to the Napoleonic wars, at Waterloo 40 per cent of the French army—30,000 out of 74,000—were lost in a few hours’ time; at Austerlitz, the French, although overwhelmingly victorious, lost almost one-ninth of the army in one day’s fighting, while the allies lost nearly half of theirs; at Borodino, in a single day, the victorious French suffered casualties of 22½ per cent, the defeated Russians casualties of 50 per cent of the armies engaged; at Aspern, a drawn battle, both French and Austrians lost, in killed and wounded, over one-fourth of the total armies engaged; at Albuera over one-fourth of the French and one-fifth of the allied armies were lost, but the British force, which bore the brunt of the allied fighting, lost 4,100 men out of a total of 8,000 engaged. In the present war, because of an unrescinded order, we are told, a Canadian detachment of 800 left 600 men on the field. But this is more than matched on both sides at Gettysburg, where with no mistake in orders one Confederate regiment lost 720 men out of 800, while a Union regiment lost 82 per cent of the men engaged. Sixty-two Union regiments in this war sustained losses in some single battle in excess of 50 per cent, a record equalled on the southern side by forty-three regiments. Those killed in action today are as irrevocably dead as those killed in any former war; but of those merely wounded (about four-fifths of all battle casualties) the prospect of recovering is incomparably better than in any previous war, while the prospect of death from disease incurred in service is likewise vastly diminished.

BRAVERY THEN AND NOW

It is a foible of most peoples in all generations fondly to picture themselves as braver and hardier than those of other races and times. So, in the present war, it is commonly assumed that greater demands upon the soldier’s fortitude and courage are made than in times gone by. In fact, however, bravery has been throughout the ages probably the commonest attribute of mankind. Soldiers are as brave today as in former times, but no more so. To contemplate a modern bayonet charge or a fight at close grips with gun-butt and knife is far from pleasant. But whereas such fighting is the occasional or exceptional thing today, of old it was the normal mode of fighting. The idea that combat should be waged at a distance was born only with the development of smokeless powder and high-power rifles. As late as Cromwell’s time the pike was the main reliance of infantry in battle. The favorite tactics of Napoleon were based on the idea of overwhelming the opposing army by the shock of mass formations. At Waterloo, for hours his splendid cavalry broke against the British squares, riding round and round at bayonet’s length, seeking to break their outer line. From fighting in the open in mass formation, armies have now largely taken to cover, even as the American Indian did; partly because of this, partly for the other reasons noted, the dangers and the horrors of war today have greatly diminished as compared with former times. Our people should be made acquainted with this fact, and both those who go to war and those who send them forth are entitled to such comfort as may legitimately be derived from it.

SCHRECKLICHKEIT

One general exception, however, must be taken to the comforting conclusions which have been reached. Broadly speaking, warfare among savages knows no rules and recognizes no limitations of action or honor. Prisoners of war may be slaughtered at once or reserved for the refinements of torture. No distinction of treatment is made between warriors and noncombatants. The lives, the liberty, and the possessions of the conquered social group are subjected to such disposition as the caprice or self-interest of the conquerors may dictate. Following in the path marked out by Grotius, slowly and painfully yet none the less surely, civilized nations have humanized warfare to a marked degree. The rules of civilized war distinguish between soldiers and noncombatants. The rights of the latter, both of person and of property, have been clearly established; even as between contending armies numerous rules have been established, all based on the general idea of regulating and refining war in ways calculated to eliminate its most horrible and debasing manifestations. In this work our own nation has played a leading part and the rules for the guidance of the Union armies adopted by President Lincoln half a century ago, still largely guide the conduct of nations in the waging of war.

With one awful exception, however. Moved by what atavistic influence we know not, in striking contrast to the trend of world development during the last three hundred years, the German government and people in the last half century have evolved the doctrine and subscribed to the principles of shrecklichkeit. As briefly characterized by Bismarck, this policy, or principle of conduct, aims to leave to the enemy nothing except their eyes with which to weep. It lays the ax to the very foundation of the structure of international law, slowly reared through three hundred years of effort. For the rule of right and justice it substitutes the jungle law of tooth and fang. Under its malign influence the whole circuit of the earth is filled with spying and treason, with fraud and strife. On the foul results of this policy, as applied to the conduct of armies, it is superfluous to dwell when addressing readers of the present generation. No sharper commentary upon the sad reversion of modern Germany to the customs and practices of savagery can be afforded than the fact that the rules promulgated by Lincoln for the guidance of the Union armies were drafted by Francis Lieber, one of the most notable men ever driven from reactionary Prussia to seek refuge in the United States. Shrecklichkeit, like revolutionary France in 1792, throws down the gage of battle to the remainder of the civilized world. In 1792, however, revolutionary France voiced the aspirations of the future against the dead weight of the past. Today imperial Germany challenges the civilization of the present and the hopes of the future in the interest of resurgent savagery. The world is too small to contain two such antagonistic sets of ideals and of conduct. Either Prussian shrecklichkeit or the American ideal of order based on reason and justice must prevail.

May we acquit ourselves like men and carry the fight to the finish.

The Wisconsin Historical Library has long maintained a bureau of historical information for the benefit of those who care to avail themselves of the service it offers. In “The Question Box” will be printed from time to time such queries, with the answers made to them, as possess sufficient general interest to render their publication worth while.

THE FIRST SETTLER OF BARABOO

I am not able to fix the exact date when Abraham Wood came to Baraboo. What is the opinion of the staff as to the time? He was supposed to be the first permanent settler. A line will be appreciated.

H. E. Cole,
Baraboo, Wisconsin.

We appreciate your difficulty in determining the time of the advent of Abraham Wood on your river, because of the conflict in the authorities. So far as we can determine, the account in the Wisconsin Historical Atlas seems to be the most authoritative. The sketches in this volume were carefully written, and were obtained from survivors then alive. According to that statement the first man who attempted settlement at the Baraboo Rapids in 1837 was Archibald Barker, who then lived at Portage. He was driven off by the Indians. Meanwhile the treaty at Washington had been negotiated, and there seemed more hope that a settlement might be made. In the spring or early summer of 1839 a man named James Alban discovered Devil’s Lake, and he went back to Portage and told Eben Peck, first settler at Madison. Peck had just sold out at the latter place to Robert Ream, and he and Alban set out up the Baraboo and marked out a site at the Rapids, including the water power. As Peck was going back (after a stay of some weeks), apparently he met Wallace Rowan and Abraham Wood, whom he had known well at Madison, coming up from Portage. They staked out their claim at Lyons, where Wood spent the winter.

In the meanwhile James Van Slyke came up from Walworth County in the fall of 1839 and determined to jump Peck’s claim. Van Slyke had had his claim at Lake Geneva jumped by other parties, and was in a bitter and retaliatory frame of mind. After staking out his claim to the rapids of the Baraboo he went back to Walworth and interested James Maxwell in a plan for a mill and persuaded him to furnish the irons and equipment. Van Slyke went up in the spring of 1840 and built a dam which was carried out by the freshet of June. Meanwhile, Peck had brought his claim before the court at Madison and obtained judgment against Van Slyke. The latter had already abandoned the enterprise. Van Slyke sold his irons to Wood and Rowan, who during the summer started a sawmill at the upper rapids.

There seems to be every evidence that the source of this account was the Peck family, who were in a position to know the facts. If this account is true, we suppose Wood might be called the first settler, since he remained in the vicinity during the winter of 1839-40; but no doubt he lived as the Indians did, if not with them, since his wife was a squaw. He was thus not much more of a first settler than Barker, Alban, Rowan, Peck, or Van Slyke.

To return to Wood. We are unable to discover when or how he came to Wisconsin. He was probably a free trapper or trader, one of the rough frontiersmen of Scotch descent from the backwoods of Canada. In the course of trade he came in contact with the Decorah chiefs and took to wife one of the daughters of the tribe. He had probably been on the Baraboo often before 1839, since his squaw’s native village was near its mouth, and there her father died in 1836. Wood was not then at the Baraboo, since he was wintering near Madison. He was not at this site in 1832, so sometime between that date and 1836 he set up his wigwam at Squaw Point on Third Lake opposite the modern city of Madison.

His neighbor at this place was Wallace Rowan, a rough, good-hearted frontiersman from Indiana with a white wife. There is a good account of Rowan in History of Dane County (Chicago, 1880), 382-83. Rowan seems to have permitted Wood to place his wigwam, or whatever kind of dwelling he had, on his claim, which he entered with William B. Long in 1835.

Wood was on Third Lake during the winter of 1836-37, and during the summer of 1837 he aided in building Madison, being employed as a mechanic on Peck’s log house. It seems probable that Wood spent the winter of 1837-38 at the same place, as there is no record of him at Portage before the spring of 1838. Probably he moved away from Squaw Point because Rowan that spring sold his claim and improvements to William B. Slaughter. Rowan moved to Poynette and opened his noted tavern. Wood went to Portage, where, no doubt, he had often been before with the relatives of his squaw.

In 1838 work was begun on the Portage canal, and Wood opened a house of liquid refreshment just below Carpenter’s on the Wisconsin River. There, probably in the spring of 1839, Wood killed Pawnee Blanc, a noted Winnebago chief. Wood’s brother-in-law, John T. La Ronde, tells the sordid story in Wisconsin Historical Collections, VII, 360. He does not give the date of the murder; Moses Paquette says (idem, XII, 431) that it was in 1837. Paquette probably remembered that it was after his father’s death in 1836; but it could hardly have been in 1837 since Wood was then at Madison. Our inference is that the death of Pawnee Blanc occurred in 1838 or 1839. Wood was probably anxious to leave Portage at this time; moreover in 1839 Winfield Scott went to Portage and held a council with the Winnebago concerning their removal from Wisconsin. Wood knew the Baraboo Valley would soon be open for settlement. He persuaded his old friend, Rowan, to go prospecting with him. But on their way out they found Peck and Alban had been there before them. Wood, not wanting to go back to Portage, spent the winter in the Baraboo woods; and the next autumn (1840) with Wallace Rowan began a sawmill, as La Ronde states (Wis. Hist. Colls., VII, 360).

The foregoing hypothesis appears to reconcile all the accounts except Moses Paquette’s date of the killing of Pawnee Blanc. The record of Wood’s trial may sometime come to light. Possibly it may be preserved in the records of the court of Brown County, still kept at the courthouse at Green Bay.

THE CHIPPEWA RIVER DURING THE FRENCH AND BRITISH RÉGIMES

Within a short time we expect to issue a special edition of our local paper that will cover the development of the Chippewa Valley. It struck me that possibly you could furnish me considerable data covering the early history of this section of the valley.

Al J. Hartley,
Cornell, Wisconsin.

Probably the first white person to pass the mouth of the Chippewa was Father Louis Hennepin, who ascended the Mississippi in 1630. He describes the Chippewa under the name of RiviÈre des Boeufs (Buffalo). It is probable that in his time the Beef Slough was part of the Chippewa channel, and the present Buffalo River an affluent of the Chippewa proper. In 1682 La Salle wrote a description of the rivers of Wisconsin in a letter, the translation of which is found in volume sixteen of the Collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society. He says “About thirty leagues, ascending always in the same direction [above Black River], one comes to the RiviÈre des Boeufs which is as wide at its mouth as that of the Islinois. It is called by that name owing to the great number of those animals found there; it is followed from ten to twelve leagues, the water being smooth and without rapids, bordered by mountains which widen out from time to time, forming meadows. There are several islands at its mouth, which is bordered by woods on both sides.” La Salle’s description was without doubt taken from the account of Hennepin.

The next visitor to this region was Duluth, who in 1680 rescued Father Hennepin from his captors, the Sioux Indians, and brought him down the Mississippi and by the Wisconsin-Fox route to Green Bay. Duluth has not left any description of the Chippewa.

In 1685 Nicolas Perrot was governor of all of this region. In the Proceedings of this Society for 1915 you will find an account of Perrot’s experiences and of the Fort Antoine that he built at the mouth of the Chippewa. Perrot called the stream River of the Sauteurs, which was the French name for the Chippewa tribe, whom they first met at the Sault, hence Saulteurs or Sauters. Perrot seems to have been the first person to use the name Sauteur or Chippewa for the river. It so appears on a very remarkable map drawn in 1688, and now in Paris. A facsimile of this is in the Wisconsin Historical Library, at Madison, and a photograph appears in L. P. Kellogg’s, Early Narratives of the Northwest (New York, 1917), 342. At Fort St. Antoine, Perrot in 1689 held a great ceremony, taking possession of all the Sioux country for the King of France. A translation of this document is found in volume eleven of the Wisconsin Historical Collections, 35-36.

The name of the river indicates that the Chippewa was the home of some portion of the Chippewa tribe. In the early eighteenth century this valley became the battle ground of the great feud between the Sioux and Chippewa Indians, which lasted nearly one hundred and fifty years. Much interesting material on this subject may be found in Minnesota Historical Collections, volume five, which is a history of the Chippewa tribe by a half-breed, W. W. Warren.

In the year 1766, three years after the French had ceded all this territory to the British crown, the noted explorer, Jonathan Carver, ascended the Mississippi and attempted to bring about a peace between the warring Sioux and Chippewa. The next year he returned from Mackinac, and with a stock of goods ascended the Chippewa River, at whose headwaters he found a Chippewa village of one hundred fine stout warriors. Their customs, however, were very filthy. This is, so far as we know, the first recorded voyage through the Chippewa valley. No doubt, however, many fur traders had preceded Carver, for he speaks of engaging a pilot to accompany him.

In the last years of the French rÉgime there was reported a copper mine on this river, which was then called for a time “Bon Secours” or Good Help River. Carver calls it the Chippewa River. About six years after Carver’s visit a British trader named Hugh Boyle was killed at this river. See Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVIII, 312-13. According to the court of inquiry ordered by the British officials, the affair was his own fault.

The British traders continued to trade on this river, notwithstanding the danger caused by the fierce intertribal wars. In 1805 the United States government sent Zebulon M. Pike, a young army lieutenant, to ascend the Mississippi and warn British traders that this was then American territory. It became so by the treaty of 1783, but the British kept the forts on the Great Lakes until 1796, and all had continued to act until Pike’s visit as if the upper Mississippi region belonged to the British. Pike found that the traders avoided the Chippewa River because of the danger of falling in with war parties of contesting Indians. He passed the river’s mouth about dusk.

In 1820 an American expedition headed by Lewis Cass descended the Mississippi, and from that time on there were numerous boats going up and down. The first steamboat ascended to the Falls of St. Anthony in 1823. Some very early logging expeditions in 1822 and 1829 are described in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, II, 132-41, and V, 244-54.

The earliest permanent settlers were the Cadottes. See Wisconsin Historical Collections, XIX, 171, and Minnesota Historical Collections, volume five.

THE CAREER OF COLONEL G. W. MANYPENNY

Can you give me any reference to any publication or record in your library relating to G. W. Manypenny, who was Indian commissioner in 1855 and in that year made a treaty with the Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin?

E. S. Gaylord,
Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Colonel George W. Manypenny, who was Indian commissioner in President Pierce’s administration, was not a Wisconsin man. He was born in Pennsylvania, and appointed from Ohio. His home was in Columbus, Ohio, and as early as 1835 he was editor of a prominent Democratic paper at that place. His appointment was no doubt a reward for journalistic services during the campaign; but he seems to have taken his duties seriously and to have undertaken the rÔle of a defender of the red men against the extortions of unscrupulous speculators. In doing this he incurred the enmity of a powerful political clique among whom was Senator Benton.

Manypenny went west in August, 1853, and made the series of treaties that opened up the territories of Kansas and Nebraska for settlement. It is claimed that he acted in the interests of the South with regard to the Pacific railroad. See Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings, 1912, 80. In 1855 Manypenny made the treaty with the Mississippi bands of Chippewa at Washington, whither their chiefs had been conducted by Henry M. Rice.

Manypenny retired from office in March, 1857, and returned to Columbus where, in 1859, he purchased a half interest in the Ohio Statesman and was its editor for three years. In 1862 he retired to become manager of the state public works, of which he was one of the lessees. His interest in the Indians continued, and in 1876 he was appointed a chairman of the commission to investigate the troubles that had led to the Sioux outbreak of that year. In 1880 he published a book entitled Our Indian Wards (Cincinnati, Robert Clark & Co.), which is a plea for more fairness in the management of Indian affairs, and a recital of many of their wrongs.

The date of his death we have not ascertained, nor whether he left descendants. An inquiry of E. W. Randall, secretary of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, at Columbus, would doubtless put you in possession of these facts.

TREATY HALL AND OLD LA POINTE

Will you kindly advise me what “Treaty Hall,” La Pointe, Madeline Island, stands for historically? When and by whom was it built? Some say it was erected in 1836 and others say 1857 or 1858. The treaties were signed before the latter date, so why call it “Treaty Hall”? Any information you can give on the subject will be greatly appreciated.

Mrs. Frank H. Jerrard,
Representative St. Paul Chapter, D. A. R.,
St. Paul, Minnesota.

The information we have obtained concerning the building on Madeline Island now called “Treaty Hall” does not give conclusive proof of the origin of the building. One fact seems clear—the name “Treaty Hall” was not applied to it until the eighties of the last century, and the building was not put up to accommodate the negotiating of a treaty. Whether a treaty was negotiated in this building or not is another question. As a rule Indian treaty proceedings were held in the open air; if any covering was desired, a kind of shade was built of boughs, or a circle was temporarily enclosed with poles, boughs, and mats. Nevertheless it is not improbable that in the northern region of Madeline Island, with the cold winds from the lake blowing in, a treaty might have been held under shelter, and that some appropriate building might have been thus used.

There were only two treaties held on Madeline Island, that of 1842 and that of 1854. The former was concluded October 4, 1842, and the commissioner was Robert Stuart, who had been for many years the representative of the American Fur Company at Mackinac. He was at the time of this treaty Indian superintendent at Detroit. The inference is strong that Stuart was on terms of friendship, even intimacy, with the American Fur Company’s agents at La Pointe. These were at the time of the treaty of 1842 Charles H. Oakes and Dr. Charles W. Borup, both of whom were present at the treaty. Moreover, Rev. Alfred Brunson of Prairie du Chien, a prominent Methodist missionary in early-day Wisconsin, was appointed Indian agent at La Pointe in the autumn of 1842. He reached his post of duty very late in the year and says both in his printed reminiscences and in unpublished manuscripts in our Society’s possession that there were no agency buildings, but that Dr. Borup had a large storehouse prepared for a council.

With regard to the Treaty of 1854, it was signed September 30 of that year. The commissioners were Henry C. Gilbert and Daniel B. Herriman. Among the witnesses was L. H. Wheeler, whose sons are among our correspondents. H. M. Rice was likewise present. We believe the Minnesota Historical Society is in possession of the latter’s papers. If so, something might be gleaned from them.

MORE LIGHT ON THE ORIGINATOR OF “WINNEQUAH”

As a medieval Madisonian, I protest against your summary termination of the activities of “Cap” Barnes at “1873 or 1874, perhaps later.”[127] He was positively an institution in and of Madison, and I positively remember him and his steamboat line at least as late as 1889. His steamboats, the Scutenaubequon and the Waubishnepawau, lent new terrors to the aboriginal tongues. His later divergence to Silenzioso bore witness to the liveliness, if not the expertness, of his linguistic imagination. No Madisonian of the Victorian age, so to speak, will recall “Angleworm Station” without a warming of the heart to the memory of “Cap” Barnes. His midwinter straw hat and his irrepressible gaiety are intimately associated with our tenderest Madison memories. Picnics? Madison was the home of them, and “Cap” Barnes and his steamboat, in combination, were preËssential to them. It was “Cap” Barnes who hit upon the first discovered practical use of the abortive capitol park driven well: “Pull it up, saw it into lengths, and sell it to the farmers for post holes.”

Statesmen, prophets, and nabobs, Mr. Editor, may pass into oblivion—but touch reverently on the memory of “Cap” Barnes. Madison would never have been the Madison of its golden age without him.

Charles M. Morris.

Milwaukee, January 7, 1918.

A HISTORY OF OUR STATE FLAG

I have just received the first copy of the new Wisconsin Magazine of History, and think it a splendid idea. Of course, I have not had time to examine it carefully, but I did run across the short article with reference to the state flag, which seems rather to carry the idea that Wisconsin had no state flag at any time prior to 1913.

I call your attention to a letter written by me to H. W. Rood, Custodian of Memorial Hall, under date of January 5, 1911, in which I said:

In response to your verbal request of a few days since, I have investigated the matter of the state flag of Wisconsin.

Chapter 215 of the Laws of 1863, published April 10th 1863, provided in part as follows:

“Whenever the state flags of the regiments in the service of the United States, from this state, shall have become so far worn and damaged by service that it is deemed necessary to replace them, and the officers commanding any of the said regiments shall inform the governor of such fact, and make requisition for new flags, the governor is hereby authorized to cause to be furnished to such regiments new flags; the state flag to be of the design, plan and material as adopted by this legislature, by joint resolution No. 44, Senate; and one of the said flags shall be inscribed with the names of the battles in which such regiments shall have taken an honorable part.”

I do not find that there was a joint resolution No. 44 of that year. Resolution No. 4, however, is evidently the one referred to and that provides as follows:

“Resolved, by the senate, the assembly concurring, that the following be and is hereby adopted as the design for a state flag for the state of Wisconsin:

“State Flag.—To be of dark blue silk, with the arms of the State of Wisconsin painted or embroidered in silk on the obverse side, and the arms of the United States, as prescribed in paragraph 1435 of 'new army regulations,’ painted or embroidered in silk on the reverse side; the name of the regiment, when used as a regimental flag, to be in a scroll beneath the state arms.

“The size of the regiment colors to be six feet, six inches fly, and six feet deep on the pike; the length of pike for said colors, including spear and ferrule, to be nine feet, ten inches; the fringe yellow, cords and tassels blue and white silk intermixed.”

This resolution was approved March 25, 1863.

Chapter 248 of the laws of 1864, published April 15, 1864, repealed chapter 215 of the laws of 1863, but provided in part as follows:

“The state flag to be of the design, plan and material as adopted by the legislature of this state by joint resolution No. 44, senate, at the session of 1863, and one of said flags shall be inscribed with the names of the battles in which such regiment or battery shall have taken an honorable part.”

Joint Resolution No. 6, approved March 3, 1863, read as follows:

“Resolved, that the superintendent of public property be and he is hereby authorized to purchase two national flags and two state flags, one each of which he shall place over the president’s chair in the senate chamber, and one each over the speaker’s chair in the assembly chamber, where they shall remain during each session of the legislature.”

I do not find any other laws or resolutions relating to this flag until the adoption of the revised statutes of 1878, section 4978 of which provides in part that

“The following acts of the legislature, passed in the several years hereinafter enumerated, shall be repealed, that is to say:”

Then follows a table of the laws thus repealed and among them I find chapter 248 of the laws of 1864. I believe that this ends the legislation in relation to a state flag and that the State of Wisconsin no longer has such a flag.

In the pamphlet published by Doctor Thwaites entitled Wisconsin’s Emblems and Sobriquet he refers to chapter 167 of the laws of Wisconsin of 1907 (section 633m of the Wisconsin statutes), which provides:

“The organization, armament and discipline of the Wisconsin national guard shall be the same as that which is now, or may hereafter be prescribed for the regular and volunteer armies of the United States.”

He seems to think that the state flag is now as provided in paragraph 222 of the United States army regulations for 1904—the colors to be of silk, five feet, six inches fly, and four feet, four inches on the pike, which shall be nine feet long, including spear head and ferrule. From this article I should assume that he considers that chapter 167 of the laws of 1907 is the law that repealed the prior law providing for a state flag. As will be seen from the references herein given, this law was repealed upon the adoption of the revised statutes of 1878.

This may not be of any particular importance, except that as a matter of historical accuracy, it should be noted that Wisconsin, in fact, did for several years have a State Flag.

Very truly yours,
Winfield W. Gilman.

Madison, October 24, 1917.

[127] See Wisconsin Magazine of History for December, 1917, 196.

THE SOCIETY AND THE STATE

During the quarter ending December 31, 1917, five new life and twenty-four annual members were added to the State Historical Society. The new life members are: Henry F. De Puy, of New York City; Walter S. Lacher, of La Grange, Illinois; Thomas E. Lyons, of Madison; Chester H. Thordarson, of Chicago; and J. Russell Wheeler, of Columbus, Wisconsin. The list of new annual members is as follows: Rev. A. S. Badger, Waukesha; George Banta, Menasha; George Banta, Jr., Menasha; Dr. Robert C. Brown, Milwaukee; Arthur J. Dopp, Waukesha; Emerson Ela, Madison; Judge Oscar M. Fritz, Milwaukee; Professor J. L. Gillen, Madison; L. H. Gingles, Waukesha; George Bird Grinnell, New York City; William G. Hanson, Milwaukee; George C. Holmes, Madison; John T. Kenney, Madison; Professor A. C. Kingsford, Baraboo; Gilbert L. Lacher, Chicago; Judge David W. Maloney, Ladysmith; Dean Lois K. Mathews, Madison; Carl E. Nord, Sioux City; Cyril A. Peerenboom, Appleton; A. L. Saltzstein, Milwaukee; Judge James E. Thomas, Waukesha; Frank J. Wilder, Boston; Edwin E. Witte, Madison; and Henry M. Youmans, Waukesha.

Dr. James W. Vance of Madison died October 31, 1917. Dr. Vance had been a member of the State Historical Society for thirty years. Mr. Walter P. Bishop, vice president of the E. P. Bacon Company of Milwaukee and since 1909 a member of the State Historical Society, died October 10, 1917. Mr. Michael A. Hurley of Wausau, a member of the Society since 1906, died September 25, 1917. Mr. Archie E. Wood, of Whitehall, died October 8, 1917.

Rev. Eugene G. Updike, of Madison, whose completion of a twenty-seven-year pastorate of the First Congregational Church was noted in a recent number of this magazine, died at the Madison General Hospital December 24, 1917. Dr. Updike was a life member of the State Historical Society, and throughout his long pastorate at Madison had taken an active part in civic and educational affairs generally.

Hon. Thomas E. Nash, of Grand Rapids, for sixteen years a life member of the State Historical Society, died at his home December 13, 1917. Mr. Nash was brought to Wisconsin in infancy by his parents. He had been engaged in railroad work for many years when in 1882 he was appointed by Postmaster General Vilas chief clerk of the post office department and the following year general superintendent of the railway mail service. In 1888 Mr. Nash organized the Nekoosa Pulp and Paper Company with which he continued to be prominently associated until ill health forced his retirement from active work a few years ago.

Volume XXIV of the Society’s Collections, entitled Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, 1779-1781, copy for which was sent to the state printer in December, 1916, at length came from the press in December, 1917, and was distributed the first of the year to the Society’s members and exchanges. The reading of galley proof on Volume XXV of the Collections was completed early in December. The contents of this volume, entitled An English Settler in Pioneer Wisconsin: the Letters of Edwin Bottomley, 1842-1850, differ markedly from those of any preceding volume of the Collections. The papers printed present a rarely intimate picture of the life and problems of the pioneer Wisconsin farmer and constitute, it is believed, a valuable contribution of source material to the history of the territorial period of Wisconsin’s development.

With the establishment of the Wisconsin Magazine of History it is no longer necessary, as it has been for upwards of a generation, to print historical contributions and discussions in the annual volume known as the Proceedings of the Society. Shorn of this supplementary historical matter, the official report of the activities of the Society and its auxiliaries for 1917 shrinks to a document of less than 100 pages. Copy for this was sent to the state printer in January. Should the Magazine prove, on sufficient trial, to justify the continuance of its existence, the scope and character of the contents of the Proceedings for 1917 will set the standard, presumably, for the issues of succeeding years.

A brief statement concerning four important editorial enterprises now being prosecuted may be in order. Work on the series of volumes designed to constitute a documentary history of Wisconsin’s constitution, which has been prosecuted intermittently by the Superintendent for the past two years, has now reached a stage where it seems likely that copy for one volume can be sent to the printer before the close of the Society’s present fiscal year. Probably four volumes will be requisite to complete the series. After the editing of the first one shall have been completed, the remaining ones may be expected to follow in fairly rapid order. Work on the second volume of the Draper Calendar series, mention of which was made in the Magazine for September, 1917, has progressed haltingly, due to the war-time disruption of the office staff. It now seems safe to predict that the copy will be ready for the printer by the end of the month. The other enterprises alluded to were both initiated in the autumn of 1917. Dr. Kellogg began work at that time on the preparation of a volume of source material pertaining to the Indian treaties and land cessions which are of more particular interest to Wisconsin. This project has long been in mind, but its execution was necessarily deferred until the search for documents in the Indian Office Files, begun three years ago, should be completed. Dr. Oliver began in September the editing of a volume of source material in the Society’s manuscript collection pertaining to Wisconsin’s activities in the Civil War. With this volume will be initiated a Civil War series of the Collections which will in time, it is hoped, run to many volumes.

A note may be inserted here concerning three items of lesser scope and importance than the foregoing, all of them bibliographical in character. A trenchant and thoroughgoing report on the state archives situation in Wisconsin, prepared for the Society by Mr. Theodore Blegen in the summer of 1917, was sent to the printer early in the winter. Copy for a supplementary checklist of the collection of newspapers in the Historical Library to list the accessions from the time of publication in 1911 of the Society’s monumental Annotated Catalogue of Newspaper Files down to January 1, 1918, has been under preparation for more than a year. It has at length been sent to the printer, and will appear in due time as one of the Society’s Bulletins of Information. Taken in conjunction with the Annotated Catalogue, this bulletin will afford a complete index to the Society’s splendid collection of newspapers, the second largest, it is believed, in America. It is hoped that in the future, annual supplements of the previous year’s accumulations may be issued in connection with the annual checklist of Periodicals and Newspapers Currently Received by the Library. In February, 1917, the Society began the publication of a monthly Checklist of Wisconsin Public Documents the contents of each number pertaining to the state documents issued during the preceding month. This publication has proved of much usefulness, apparently, and is in widespread demand by librarians, students of the social sciences, and governmental departments. A cumulative checklist of all state documents issued during the year 1917 has been prepared and will be issued as soon as practicable.

The project for the initial volume of the Society’s Hollister Pharmaceutical Series, made possible by the bequest of the late Colonel and Mrs. Hollister of Madison, has at length assumed definite and, it is believed, interesting form. According to the original plan, Dr. Edward Kremers of the University Pharmacy Department undertook to translate and edit for the Society Pierre Jartu’s notable treatise on the ginseng plant. In the course of the work this project has gradually enlarged until now, with the coÖperation of Dr. Richtmann, it is proposed to prepare a comprehensive treatise of the several aspects, pharmaceutical, commercial, and otherwise, of the history of ginseng. Such a volume should worthily initiate this unique scientific series for which the Society has long been planning.

Colonel John Hicks of Oshkosh, publisher of the Daily Northwestern and one of the best known newspaper men in Wisconsin, died suddenly at San Antonio, Texas, December 20, 1917. Colonel Hicks was much interested in Wisconsin history, in the making of which he had been for fifty years an active participant. At the time of his death, he was engaged in writing his reminiscences for publication in the Northwestern, and within a few days of his demise had taken up with the State Historical Society the question of possible publication by it of his reminiscences in book form. As a result of Colonel Hick’s public beneficence, statues of Chief Oshkosh and of Carl Schurz adorn his home city, while in several of the public schools are bronze busts of prominent Americans for whom the buildings are severally named.

Mr. William H. Ellsworth of Milwaukee, one of Wisconsin’s best known archeological collectors, died November 6, 1917. At the time of his death Mr. Ellsworth was vice president of the Wisconsin Archeological Society. To the work of that institution he had devoted a large part of his time and means. Valuable archeological collections made by him are found in the museums of Beloit College, in the Minnesota Historical Society, and in the Milwaukee Public Museum.

John F. Appleby, inventor of the Appleby twine binder, died at his home in Chicago, November 8, 1917. Mr. Appleby was one of the notable Wisconsin inventors who have contributed materially to the scientific and economic development of the country. During the decade of the fifties, when the great West was unfolding its agricultural riches, the farmers suddenly realized that the only limitation upon the amount of their wheat acreage was their ability to harvest the crop. The McCormick reaper had already made its appearance, but it served only to cut the grain, leaving it lying loose upon the ground to be bound by hand. Some device for holding the grain and binding it into sheaves was essential before the wheat acreage of the West could be materially increased. After years of experimentation in a little shop in Beloit, Appleby announced the construction of a mechanical twine binder. The original model of his invention, which is substantially identical with the device now in use on scores of thousands of farms in America and abroad, may be seen in the museum of the State Historical Society at Madison.

Mr. Christian Abrahamson, of Chicago, has recently painted a portrait of former Supreme Court Judge J. E. Dodge, of Milwaukee, for presentation to the State Historical Society. A replica of the portrait has also been prepared for the Supreme Court room in the Capitol.

Mr. C. E. Freeman, of Menomonie, Wisconsin, has presented to the Society an interesting document pertaining to the railroad farm-mortgage projects of the fifties in Wisconsin. Readers of Mr. Merk’s Economic History of Wisconsin During the Civil War Decade, published by the Society last year, need not be told how important was the rÔle played by the railroad farm mortgage in the economic and political annals of early Wisconsin. The document presented by Mr. Freeman is a contract between the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad and a farmer, whereby the railroad company agrees to cancel the interest on the individual’s farm mortgage in return for the relinquishment by the latter of his prospective dividends on his railroad stock. This was a central feature of the farm mortgage scheme, yet at the time of writing his Economic History, Mr. Merk was unable to uncover any direct documentary evidence concerning it. This hiatus in the Society’s collection of historical material pertaining to the subject of railroad farm mortgages is now filled by the gift of Mr. Freeman.

A fine bronze bas relief of Mary Elizabeth Mears, better known, perhaps, by her pen name, Nellie Wildwood, has been received by the Society from her daughter in New York. The bas relief is the work of another daughter of Mrs. Mears, Helen Farnsworth Mears, who was for many years prior to her death in 1916 one of Wisconsin’s most notable artists. The “Recollections” of Mrs. Mears were published in the Proceedings of the Society for 1916. The Madison Art Association has secured for hanging in the State Historical Museum a copy of Miss Mears’s Augustus St. Gaudens.

Colonel Michael Frank, “father of the free public school system of Wisconsin,” was born in New York in 1804 and died in Kenosha in 1895. He came to Southport (now Kenosha) to reside in October, 1839. Three months later, on January 1, 1840, he began keeping a diary. Upon its conclusion, December 31, 1890, this work had continued half a century and filled thirty-nine bound manuscript volumes. Throughout this half-century Colonel Frank figured as one of the prominently useful citizens of the territory and state. His voluminous diary has now come to the State Historical Society from its possessor, Mr. F. H. Lyman, of Kenosha, an old neighbor and friend of Colonel Frank. The diary is well preserved and written in an excellent hand. Although only a cursory examination has as yet been made of its contents, it seems evident that the work will prove a valuable aid to students interested in this period of Wisconsin’s history.

A collection of papers of Governor Nelson Dewey, consisting principally of a business account book and several annual volumes of his diary, has been presented to the Society by Mr. R. A. Watkins of Lancaster. The diary of Governor Dewey seems to have been widely scattered. Some volumes of it have long been in the Historical Library, and several more are in the possession of a resident of Cassville.

Several interesting additions of noncurrent newspaper files were made to the Library during the quarter ending December 31, 1917. Most interesting locally, perhaps, is a file of Lucifer, 1884-98, in fifteen bound volumes. Publication of Lucifer was begun at Madison in 1882; later it was continued at Milwaukee until the demise of the paper in 1898. Published in German, it was the organ of the Turner societies, and manifested a liberal and anti-Catholic viewpoint. To the Society’s slowly-growing file of photostatic copies of the Boston News Letter all known existing issues for the years 1726-29, inclusive, were acquired during the quarter. Other files of Massachusetts papers acquired are the Newburyport Evening Union (daily), January 1-September 18, 1851, and Russell’s Gazette (Boston, semi-weekly), January-July, 1800. Finally, two Ohio papers were added: the Cleveland Recorder, 1896-97, and July-December, 1899, in four volumes, and the Cincinnati Graphic, August, 1885-November, 1886, in two volumes.

From Captain George Jackson of Chicago the Society has received a rare volume possessed of much sentimental interest. It is “Dr. Mort. Luther’s Lesser Catechism,” published in New York in 1842. But one other copy of the book is known to be in existence and this is in private hands. The Lesser Catechism was the first book in the Norwegian language to be printed in America.

A scrapbook filled with clippings concerning the Kansas troubles and the Civil War has been presented to the State Historical Society by Louis W. Bridgman, son of Edward Bridgman, who died in Madison in August, 1915. Mr. Bridgman migrated to “Bleeding Kansas” from Massachusetts in the spring of 1856. Staking out a claim near Osawatomie, he soon took up living quarters with the brother of Susan B. Anthony, who was also a Massachusetts crusader in the cause of freedom. To their cabin one evening late in August, 1856, came John Brown with his band of tired followers. Here they spent the night and were having breakfast the next morning, when news arrived of the impending attack upon Osawatomie by a large band of proslavery Missourians. Leaving the unfinished meal, Brown and his men started to meet the invaders. Bridgman and Anthony followed as soon as they could pull their cooking utensils from the open fire. Thus Bridgman participated in Osawatomie, John Brown’s most notable battle, and lived to become probably the last survivor of Brown’s band of followers on that day.

A few years later, having returned to Massachusetts, he enlisted in the Thirty-seventh Infantry in which he served during the Civil War. A school teacher by profession, he wrote frequent letters to the press, both during his Civil War career and in later years, describing his experiences, and retailing his recollections. The scrapbook now presented by his son, and largely made up of such clippings, constitutes a valuable contribution to the Society’s collection of Civil War material.

The September number of the Magazine contained an account of the gift to the state of Perrot State Park, including in its limits Trempealeau Mountain and the site of Perrot’s “fort” or wintering place of 1689. It is gratifying to be able to record the gift at Christmas time of another splendid park site to the state. Mr. Martin Pattison of Superior is the donor whose enlightened generosity makes possible the preservation for public use and enjoyment of the Manitou Falls of Black River, some fifteen miles out of Superior. Mr. Pattison has been quietly at work for several years securing the title to some 600 acres of woodland around the falls, “Douglas County’s most cherished beauty spot,” in order to make this public disposition of it. Thus another bit of historic Wisconsin scenery gives promise of being permanently preserved in its virgin state for the enjoyment of future generations of Wisconsin citizens.

During the holiday season the State Historical Museum had on exhibit a small Christmas tree, decorated with patriotic emblems of all the allied countries. Diminutive flags representing the national colors, Red Cross flags, food conservation buttons, a miniature Red Cross service flag, tiny bundles of liberty bonds, diminutive airplanes, and machine guns were all displayed. Small gilt discs, representing each of the camps in which Wisconsin boys are training, were also displayed. All of the decorations were arranged so as to embody the red, white, and blue color scheme.

Mr. Charles E. Graves, formerly exchange librarian of the University of Illinois, became librarian of the Minnesota Historical Society at St. Paul, November 1, 1917.

During the closing months of 1917 the Minnesota Historical Society moved into its splendid new home which has been in the process of erection during the last two years. As the historical development of Wisconsin and of Minnesota has much in common, it is but natural that the relations between the historical societies of the two states should be cordial and intimate. That the further career of the Minnesota Historical Society shall be such that before many years the new home will prove to be as inadequate as the old one has long been, is the best wish we, in behalf of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, can extend to it at this season of congratulation.

The Michigan Historical Commission is actively engaged in a campaign to save the important state documents and archives of the commonwealth. Recently the original copy of the first Michigan constitution (1835) was found in the state capitol hidden away in an old tin can, where it had been placed many years ago. The ends of the document were so badly mutilated that the names of some of the signers could no longer be read. Appropriate treatment to insure against further deterioration of this priceless manuscript was applied, and it is now suitably housed in the capitol building. The preliminary step looking to the establishment of an archival department for Michigan has already been taken by the historical commission. Messrs. F. B. Streeter and J. H. Russell have been engaged to collect, arrange, and classify the archives of the state, and have already entered upon this important work.

SOME WISCONSIN PUBLIC DOCUMENTS
AUGUST-DECEMBER, 1917

In a bulletin published by the Wisconsin Highway Commission in September, 1917, on the state trunk highway law, the announcement is made that there is available from the federal government $128,361.07. During the next four years it is estimated there will be a total of $1,925,416.05 available for road construction in Wisconsin. The federal law provides that a state, in order to receive this appropriation, must set aside each year an amount at least equal to that provided by the national government. The money thus derived may be expended upon any public road over which the United States mails are now or may hereafter be transported. The State Highway Commission predicts that by the close of the year 1918 Wisconsin will have a system of travelable roads connecting all county seats and all the principal centers of population in the state. Wisconsin is already one of the leading good-roads states in the country; under the operation of the new law this position of leadership should easily be retained.

The Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, issued in September, 1917, indicates that the two years just closed have been the most fruitful and active in the entire history of public education in Wisconsin. The state educational staff has been increased by the addition of a supervisor of manual training, a supervisor of tests and measurements, an editorial and statistical secretary, and an additional supervisor of city and village grades. The report is particularly valuable in that it includes not only a compilation of all the data dealing with the public schools, but also a system of graphs, diagrams, and charts which set forth in striking manner the educational facts of the state. By these illustrations the reader is able to see on a single page all the facts relating to any one phase of education.

A most suggestive pamphlet entitled Illiteracy and Americanization, prepared by Amy Bronsky, was issued from the office of the state superintendent of public instruction in October, 1917. The vital importance of educating and Americanizing every person within our borders is well set forth. According to the census of 1910, Wisconsin had 57,769 illiterates over ten years of age, and 120,665 non-English speaking residents over ten years of age. Miss Bronsky adds that, notwithstanding the efforts made to reduce this number, it is probable that it has been growing larger rather than smaller since the year 1910. Wisconsin’s percentage of illiteracy (3.2) is lower than that of the country at large, but not so low as in two of our neighboring states, Minnesota (3) and Iowa (1.7). By the establishment of the continuation schools, night sessions, reading circles, and other allied agencies, it is believed that the next decade will show a considerable decrease in the percentage of illiteracy.

The Proceedings of the Wisconsin State Conference of Charities and Corrections for 1916 deal almost exclusively with the one problem of feeble-mindedness. Never before has the importance of this subject been brought so strikingly to the attention of the social workers of Wisconsin. The first report ever submitted dealing with these unfortunates in our midst was made at this conference. It reveals the fact, surprising to most people, that there are over 13,000 of them in the state. Of this number only 5,000 can be accommodated in the institutions that are now provided. The imperative need of securing additional facilities for their care and instruction was the chief problem dealt with by the conference.

The 1917 Annual Report of the State Horticultural Society shows that field work is now being conducted at eleven different points throughout the state. At Polar, Maple, Whitehall, Manitowoc, Sparta, Baraboo, Holcombe, Pewaukee, Gays Mills, Lake Geneva, and Weston experiments are under way. The supervision of trial orchards at the stations constitutes the major part of the society’s activities, and absorbs the larger portion of its funds. The trial orchard at Gays Mills is regarded as the best of its age in the state.

That the reading-circle movement has made great progress in Wisconsin during the last two years is shown by the report issued for 1917-1918, which reveals an increase of over 175 per cent in the number of persons who are doing work under the auspices of this organization. An increase of more than 300 per cent in the number of boys and girls reading under the direction of the Young People’s Circles is reported. Upwards of 2,500 teachers and more than 24,000 pupils did the required reading in their respective circles during the last school year. Fifty-four counties took part in the Young People’s Reading Circle, and fifty in the Teachers’ Circle. Of the cities that have taken the lead in the number of members enrolled in the Young People’s Circle, Janesville heads the list with 507. Marinette County leads in the number of seals and diplomas granted to teachers with a total of 158.

That the town mutual fire insurance companies in Wisconsin experienced their usual increase in business during the last year is seen from their Forty-eighth Annual Report issued in 1917. The insurance in force at the close of the business year in December, 1916, was $28,943,362 more than at the close of the preceding year. Practically the entire agricultural interests of the state are protected by some one of these mutual companies. The prediction is made that the territory will remain about the same in the future as at the present. The only change in business to be looked for will be the gradual increase in the value of rural property and improved conditions making for increased insurance. Only one new company has entered the field—the North Wisconsin Finnish Farmers of Marengo.

The December (1917) number of the Wisconsin Library Bulletin presents what is practically a first report of the work done in this state in raising funds for camp libraries. Wisconsin’s contribution to the million dollar fund was approximately $41,000. Since our quota, according to the basis of population, was slightly over $25,000, it will be seen that the state not only did her share but greatly exceeded it.

The Wisconsin State Board of Health Bulletin for September, 1917, reports that during the preceding three months 6,230 deaths occurred in the state. This corresponds to an annual death rate of 9.9 a thousand of the population. This record shows a decline of 422 in the total number of deaths when compared to the report for the same three months in 1916. It is interesting to note that during the three months covered by this report—July, August, and September—the death rate in the northern part of the state was only 8.6 a thousand, in the central counties, 10 a thousand, and in the southern counties, 10.4 a thousand.

The Proceedings of the Fifty-first Annual Encampment of the Department of Wisconsin Grand Army of the Republic, 1917, shows that at the beginning of the year there were only 4,247 surviving members left. The highest membership ever reached by the Wisconsin organization was in 1899 when there were 13,944 enrolled. Death claimed 420 of the veterans during the year from December 31, 1915, to December 31, 1916.

The Opinions of the Attorney-General of Wisconsin issued for October, 1917, shows that his advice was sought upon thirty-seven different questions. The uncertainties attending the statutes relating to the construction of bridges and highways brought forth the largest number of inquiries. The duties of public officers, particularly county officials, and the interpretation of the fish and game laws also required a large number of opinions to be handed down at that time of the year.

The Consolidated Annual Reports of the Wisconsin Dairyman’s Association for the annual meetings of 1913, 1914, 1915, and 1916 was issued in July, 1917. The report shows that since the organization of the association in 1872, the dairy products of the state have increased from $1,000,000 to over $120,000,000. Wisconsin now stands first among the states both in the value of dairy products and in the number of dairy cows. In July, 1917, there were 81 cow-testing associations. The total membership was 2,417, while the number of cows under test exceeded 38,000. The average cow in Wisconsin produces 175 pounds of fat a year, although there was one herd reported where the average reached 564 pounds of fat.

Fuel Conservation by the Economical Combustion of Soft Coal by Gustus Ludwig Larson is the title of Bulletin No. 888 of the University of Wisconsin issued in December, 1917. The author declares that many plants waste through unscientific firing and inadequate equipment as much as fifty per cent of the coal they buy. The criminal waste in the burning of coal in which many firemen engage is regarded as the most serious problem facing our people during the winter season. The question of proper combustion, both in the firing power plants and in domestic heating, and a discussion of the different devices for burning soft coal without smoke are set forth in a practical manner by Professor Larson. A table showing the characteristic analyses of soft coal available to Wisconsin buyers is included in the bulletin.

SOME PUBLICATIONS

Professor F. A. Ogg of the University of Wisconsin, and a member of the State Historical Society, is the author of a new volume entitled National Progress, 1907 to 1917. All students of American history are familiar with the monumental coÖperative history of our country edited by Professor Hart of Harvard, entitled The American Nation. This work in twenty-seven volumes was completed in 1907. Professor Ogg’s new book is designed to bring the work down to date by covering the history of the nation for the decade ending with 1917.

The recent volume by Dr. Kellogg, Research Associate in the State Historical Society, entitled Early Narratives of the Northwest 1634-1699, is reviewed in the American Historical Review in part as follows:

“If the early history of Wisconsin and neighboring regions is not adequately accessible to future generations, it will be through no fault of a group of zealous and competent students who, perhaps inspired by the examples of Draper, the collector, and Thwaites, editor and collector, continue the work in true historical spirit and scientific method. If Wisconsin is fortunate in her students, she is also abundantly rich in material for study. * * * For all of the journals Miss Kellogg’s abundant annotation is helpful. We wish she had added one more note, explaining Raddison’s wonderful word auxotacicae (p. 65). The clearly-penned introduction to each narrative not merely summarizes it, but informs the student of what printing it has already had, either in French or English, and makes plain the editor’s choice of text. Not the least interesting feature of the work is a facsimile of a contemporary map drawn to illustrate Marquette’s discoveries, here reproduced from the original in the BibliothÈque Nationale, Paris. A portion of Franquelin’s map of 1688 is also given. Few typographical slips are noted; even La Salle (Cavelier), recorded in more than one work as 'Chevalier,’ gets through safely here, with but one transformation into 'Cavalier’ (p. 164).

“The volume as a whole bespeaks scholarly care and regard for the needs of a large class of students to whom rare volumes or obscure texts may not be available; and admirably presents the essential original material of the first half-century and more, from the first known advent of the white man in the pays d’en haut.”

Wisconsin’s Social Democracy is a forty-six page pamphlet by Hon. Frederick W. von Cotzhausen, of Milwaukee, printed in advance from a projected volume containing the author’s “Historic Reminiscences and Reflections.” The pamphlet now issued consists of three parts written respectively in 1906, 1914, and 1917, and aims at “Sketching a few Episodes” in the history of Socialism in Wisconsin “which may be of future historical interest and of which I may speak from personal observation.” The tone and sentiments of the author are strongly antisocialistic in character.

Henry Baird Favill, A.B., M.D., LL.D., 1860-1916, is the title of a memorial volume, privately printed, to this noted son of Wisconsin. Wisconsin has produced many great physicians but of them all none has achieved worthier fame than did Doctor Favill. Born in Madison in 1860, the capital city continued to be his home until 1894. He then removed to Chicago where in a few years he gained recognition not only as one of the city’s leading physicians but also as one of the most industrious civic workers and useful citizens. The memorial volume, compiled by his son, contains two parts: one devoted to tributes and resolutions, the other to addresses and papers by Doctor Favill. The wide range of topics covered by the latter and the charm of style and breadth of vision manifested in their treatment afford a glimpse, at least, of the intellectual and human greatness of their author.

To the La Crosse Tribune for November 4, 1917, E. S. Hebberd contributes a proposal that the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Cadwalader C. Washburn, which occurs in 1918, be observed in fitting manner. The Washburn family is remarkable for the ability and the public careers of its members. All of the seven brothers achieved distinction. Four were members of Congress, each representing a different state. Two were governors of their respective states, and two, including one of the congressmen, were ministers of the United States to foreign countries. Wisconsin owes a debt of gratitude to C. C. Washburn, and it would seem fitting that appropriate recognition should be made of the centennial of his birth.

The Wisconsin Archeologist for July, 1917, has as its leading article a survey of Lake Shawano and the Wolf River, by George R. Fox and H. O. Younger. As a water route the Wolf River was long used by the American Trading Company in reaching its trading stations in northern Wisconsin. The survey here presented constitutes a valuable historical and archeological discussion of this region. The October number is chiefly devoted to a survey of Chetek and Rice lakes written by Charles E. Brown and Robert Becker.

Charles A. Eastman’s From the Deep Woods to Civilization, published by Little, Brown and Company, is a fascinating volume. The author, a full-blooded Sioux, began life as a barbarian of the plains, his family having fled to Canada after the Sioux outbreak of 1862 in Minnesota. The present volume tells the story of his life from the time when his father determined to dedicate him to a civilized career. It is interesting to note that from an enthusiastic believer in the superiority of civilized life as compared with savagery, the author has come gradually to doubt the correctness of his earlier view. Apparently the present world cataclysm, which has swept many another thinker from his accustomed moorings, has had some influence upon Mr. Eastman’s views concerning the respective merits of the civilized and the savage states. Wisconsin readers of the book will take special interest in the chapter “College Life in the West,” describing the author’s experiences at Beloit College, to which place the young neophyte in the arts of the paleface turned on leaving the Santee Agency Mission School.

Methodist Heroes of Other Days by Samuel Gardiner Ayer has been issued by the Methodist Book Concern. It is a slight volume containing some thirty-six short appreciative sketches of as many “heroes” of the Methodist Episcopal denomination. Wisconsin readers will be particularly interested in the short account of “Alfred Brunson, the Soldier Preacher,” one of the founders of the Methodist Episcopal church in Wisconsin. Readers of the Magazine will be interested still further, perhaps, to learn that a daughter of Reverend Brunson is at the present time engaged in writing a biography of her father for the State Historical Society.

The December, 1917, number of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review maintains the high standard of excellence which readers have been led, by the character of previous numbers, to expect in this periodical. The three leading articles are: “Howell Cobb and the Crisis of 1850,” by R. P. Brooks; “A Larger View of the Yellowstone Expedition, 1819-1820,” by Cardinal Goodwin; and “The Beginnings of British West Florida,” by C. E. Carter. Dan E. Clark contributes the annual review of historical activities in the trans-Mississippi Northwest, and to complete the number are departments devoted to “Notes and Documents,” “Book Reviews,” and “Notes and Comments.”

Announcement has recently been made of the resignation of Clarence W. Alvord as managing editor of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, in which capacity he has acted since the founding of the magazine in 1914. The Review, largely because of the efforts of Mr. Alvord, now ranks among the best of American historical publications. Its readers will greatly regret Mr. Alvord’s resignation.

The leading article in the October, 1917, issue of the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, describes the Iowa war loan of 1861. By reason in part of a doubtful provision in the state constitution, in part of the concerted efforts of the southern sympathizers living in Iowa, the state administration encountered greater difficulty in floating a war loan than was the case in any other northern state. Through the columns of the distant New York Herald the enemies of the loan conducted their campaign to defeat it. The manner in which Governor Kirkwood and his assistants overbore the opposition and saved the reputation of the state is vividly described.

The life of Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa’s war governor, by D. E. Clark, has been issued as one of the Biographical Series of the Iowa Historical Society. The study of Governor Kirkwood’s life takes the reader into the history of three commonwealths, but it is with the development of Iowa that his name is inseparably associated. As Civil War governor, United States senator, and secretary of the interior under Garfield, his name is perhaps more widely known than that of any other person in Iowa history. In preparing the biography, Mr. Clark had access to seven Civil War Letter Books and three letter books for the period when Kirkwood was secretary of the interior. Use was also made of a large collection of letters, covering the period from 1850-1890. From these sources the author has given us a sketch of Iowa’s noted war governor which is both timely and valuable.

In a two-volume work on Burrows of Michigan and the Republican Party published by Longman, Green and Company, 1917, William Dana Orcott has presented a detailed career of one of Michigan’s most famous men. As lawyer, college professor, military hero, and United States senator, Burrows gained an acquaintance that was nation wide. In ability he ranked with Blaine, Garfield, Reed, and McKinley; and had he not been so blindly devoted to the partisan principles which he represented, in all probability he would have occupied a higher office.

The Michigan Historical Magazine for October, 1917, contains an interesting group of Civil War letters written by Hon. Washington Gardiner while serving as a volunteer in 1863-64. The letters were all written from the front, and depict the conditions observed by this youthful soldier of sixteen years.

Those who enjoy reading a frontier narrative will welcome a little volume recently published, entitled A Soldier Doctor of our Army: James P. Kimball. The book was written by Maria B. Kimball, wife of Dr. Kimball, and is published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. Dr. Kimball served in the Civil War and later for a number of years at Fort Buford and other places on the western frontier. He was an intimate friend of General Custer, by whom he was chosen to act as the chief medical officer on the campaign which ended in Custer’s death in 1876. But for his inability to meet the appointment, his career would doubtless have terminated at the same time as Custer’s in the disaster which overwhelmed his army.

The Myth Wawataw is the subject of a brief dissertation, beautifully printed, by H. Bedford Jones of Santa Barbara, on the unreliability of Alexander Henry’s account of the events in the Northwest connected with Pontiac’s war. A brief discussion is also included in the booklet on the historical remains at old Michilimackinac.

The October, 1917, number of the Ohio Archeological Historical Quarterly has an article on Muskingum River pilots by Irven Travis which many of our members would take pleasure in reading. The palmy days of small river transportation have long since become a part of history, and any information bearing upon the part they played in our social and economic development is treasured by all students of pioneer days.

Two articles comprise the contents of the Indiana Magazine of History for September, 1917. The first, “Lincoln in Indiana,” is the first installment of an interesting and suggestive account of the obscure period in the great Emancipator’s life of which it treats. The second article is the concluding section of a history of the origin and rise of the Republican Party in Indiana from 1854 to 1860.

A history of Western Influences on Political Parties to 1825, by Homer C. Hockett, formerly of the University of Wisconsin, is the title of Ohio State University Bulletin, vol. 22, number 3, issued in 1917. Dr. Hockett sketches the growth of political parties in this country from about the middle of the eighteenth century down to the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth. Chief emphasis is placed upon the new political issues that arose out of western conditions during this period, and the manner in which they affected national policies.

Among the important historical periodicals of the country is the Catholic Historical Review of Washington, now in its third year of publication. Its sponsors are valiantly sounding a clarion call to their fellow religionists to awake to the importance of their priceless historical heritage, and to put the preservation and study of its records on a thoroughly scholarly basis. That these matters have been all too little attended to heretofore can hardly be gainsaid. If the campaign waged by the Catholic Historical Review shall meet with a reasonable measure of success, however, we may expect to witness in the not distant future a radical change in the attitude and actions of the adherents of Catholicism in America with respect to the cultivation of their historical domain. For the most part the writing of sectarian religious histories in the United States has been (and now is) conducted on a regretably low plane of scholarship. Historians of all the denominations (and, indeed, of whatever other social groups) would do well to take to heart the principles of scholarly procedure which the Review advocates.

The broadly objective viewpoint of this church organ may be concretely illustrated by citing two or three items from a single issue (that for October, 1917). It is argued that the records of the several dioceses be administered on a scientific basis, and be “easily accessible to all qualified students whether Catholic or non-Catholic.” A generous tribute is paid to the work of the several state historical societies in conserving the Catholic history of the land, notwithstanding the membership rolls of these societies contain “very few Catholic names, and very little Catholic generosity finds its way into their treasury.” In passing it may be observed that our own Society may appropriate to itself a fair portion of this tribute, for much has been done, from its earliest days, to conserve the history of the oldest of Christian denominations in Wisconsin. Again, a recently published meretricious life of George Washington, written by a certain priest, meets with castigation as thorough at the hands of the reviewer as any historical periodical free from church connections could have administered. The example of the Review may well be emulated by the historians of all religious denominations.

The preliminary report of the California Historical Survey Commission, issued in February, 1917, sets forth one of the most ambitious undertakings in the field of local history that has ever been launched in this country. An act passed by the legislature of that state in June, 1915, provided for the appointment of a commission of three members to make a survey of all local historical material in California. An appropriation of ten thousand dollars was made to cover the expense of the work. The work mapped out by the commission in its preliminary report includes a careful survey of the several county archives in the state, of the state archives, and of those of the local federal offices. Reports are also being gathered from all the public libraries, from the collections of historical societies and other similar institutions. Manuscripts in the possession of private individuals are being listed and the files of early newspapers, records of the religious and social organizations and large business concerns of the state are all being examined. Already archival records antedating the organization of the state government have been found, the existence of which had been hitherto unsuspected, while records pertaining to land claims under the Spanish and Mexican governments have been brought to light.

The Society as a body is not responsible for statements or opinions advanced in the following pages by contributors.

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

Charles A. Ingraham

On Monday, the twenty-ninth of April, 1861, fourteen days after President Lincoln’s call for 75,000 troops, a regiment composed of 1,100 men, uniformed and equipped, marched the streets of New York en route to the national capital. Riding at the head of the column was the Colonel, a young man of twenty-four, small of stature, with flashing dark eyes and with a look of authority and power upon his handsome features. The crowds along the line of march cheered enthusiastically as the regiment passed—a magnificent body of men who at his call had rushed in the space of four days to the colors. It was Ellsworth’s regiment of Zouaves, recruited from the firemen of New York City, and afterwards mustered into the service as the Eleventh New York Volunteer Infantry.

But whence came this wonderful youth who, as if by magic, had called into being this stalwart array—bold and fearless men, resenting restraint, but submitting cheerfully now to his iron discipline? Not many years before, he had been but an obscure country boy of northern New York, remote from the places of advancement and culture, a son of worthy parents, unable, however, to contribute of their limited means to the furtherance of the ambitious desires of their offspring. In the brief space of a year he had achieved national prominence; having had up to the summer of 1860 but a local reputation, confined to Chicago and its vicinity, he became the popular idol of the entire northern country. At the head of his United States Zouave Cadets he had toured the leading eastern cities and won distinction for the extraordinary perfection of drill exhibited by his command. Shining through all this historic expedition appears preËminent the attractive personality of the young captain—knightly, magnetic, winning, lofty of character, able to control every one of his cadets under the imperious rule of his native authority and undeviating rectitude.

On the morning of the twenty-fourth of May, less than a month from the departure of the Fire Zouaves from New York, Ellsworth was killed at Alexandria. Not in vain was his fall, for it caused the hesitating northern people to reach firmly at last for the rifle. “Ellsworth’s Avengers,” the Forty-fourth New York Volunteer Infantry, recruited from every county of the Empire State, with unusual physical requirements and moral standards, marched from their encampment at Albany for the front on October 21, 1861. Well did they fulfill the name they bore, for on many a battle field this somewhat Puritanical regiment, remarkable for the scholarship and worth of its rank and file, never forgot the assassination of Ellsworth as they carried their rent colors against the foe. Still another regiment of New York City firemen, the Second Fire Zouaves, or the Seventy-third New York Volunteer Infantry, was recruited under the inspiration of Ellsworth’s name and was mustered into the service on July 10, 1861. ReËnlisting in 1864, it had a continuous service to the close of the war and enjoys a magnificent history.

Thus Ellsworth had, to his immediate, demonstrable credit, the mustering in of three regiments, which constituted, however, but a small proportion of the multitude whose patriotic devotion was evoked by his death and who followed the flag into the service. Yet many believe him to have been but a rash and adventurous person, vain and superficial. My study of his life, however, convinces me of the error of such opinion and that he was a young man of extraordinary gifts, prudent thought, gentle, loving instincts, and one who had been baptized with a fervent spirit of patriotism. Abraham Lincoln recognized his wonderful abilities and admirable traits of character and loved him for them, had his stricken, cold body brought to the White House, and wept over his remains as he would have grieved over those of his own son. And John Hay, in two notable magazine articles, one written soon after Ellsworth’s fall, the other towards the close of Mr. Hay’s career, has nothing but eulogy for the noble youth whom he had intimately known and loved as a brother. Surely, young Ellsworth had in him the elements of greatness! Schooled in poverty, disciplined by hardship and disappointment, his life is yet a shining path of pure living, high purpose, devoted patriotism, and worthy fame.

The motorist who seeks the birthplace of Ellsworth leaves the city of Troy, crosses to the west side of the Hudson at the northern limits of the town, and follows the macadam road along the river northward fourteen miles to the city of Mechanicsville. Here he will leave the river and proceeding in a northwesterly direction over a fine state road will reach at a distance of nine miles the little village of Malta, Saratoga County, seven miles this side of the city of Saratoga Springs. At Malta, Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was born on April 11, 1837. The hamlet is much like thousands of others scattered over our eastern states; it claims its four corners, church, schoolhouse, and general store, but, with its spacious square, shade trees, and pleasant dwellings, it is more attractive than the average small village. The house in which Ellsworth first saw the light is yet standing, a well preserved, small, story-and-a-half structure, looking cheerfully out on the great road where thousands pass, ignorant of the honor which it possesses. It has been called “the low-browed cottage,” a characterization which is appropriate, for two small, oblong windows are suggestive of eyes peering out from under the eaves. Ephraim D. Ellsworth, Elmer’s father, a worthy citizen and a tailor by trade, in 1836 married Phoebe Denton who resided here, and employed himself at this place in the business of his calling. He was of English extraction, born in the town of Halfmoon, Saratoga County, New York, and a man of bright intellect. His grandfather, George Ellsworth, as a boy of fifteen joined the American army operating against Burgoyne, fought in the battle of Saratoga, and was present at the subsequent surrender of the British army. George Ellsworth was thus a yet-living influence to develop the patriotic and martial spirit of his great-grandson, and, added to the special interest he took in the exciting story of the boy-soldier’s adventures, was the realizing assistance afforded by the proximity of the battle field, nine miles away. Phoebe Denton could no more trace a distinguished ancestry than could her husband, and all that is available concerning her is that on her father’s side she had an English lineage, and on her mother’s, a “Scotch Presbyterian.”

The boyhood life of Elmer in Malta was isolated enough but was relieved somewhat by the nearness of Saratoga Springs, which in those times was a leading watering-place of the country, where the wealth and fashion of the land disported itself. Many costly equipages every season would pass through the village, bound to and from Saratoga, not a few of them belonging to the southern aristocracy and having ebony coachmen on the box. Only two miles east is the beautiful Saratoga Lake, with the charms of which he was familiar. He was a good student in the district school, but not at all precocious or remarkable as a scholar. He was cheerful, fond of and a leader in all games and sports, but his greatest enjoyment was in reading; he would become lost for hours in a book, heedless of the lapse of time. His mother was a pious woman and from her and the services of the Presbyterian church he derived deep religious convictions which he maintained throughout his life. He became, also, at an early age, a pronounced temperance disciple and, having heard a lecturer say that the devil dwelt in a cider barrel, wanted to take a “gun and cussion cap” and shoot him. His mother has left on record many interesting instances of his philosophical character and original sayings, but there is not room here to give them place. I may, however, be permitted to mention his purchase of his brother Charlie, the one other child in the family. Charlie was three years younger than Elmer, and the older brother conceiving a great fondness for him while he was yet a babe, and desiring him for his own, bought him of his parents for six shillings. From that time forward Elmer assumed a sort of guardianship over him and maintained that sense of obligation up to the day of Charlie’s death. At an early age he began to evidence a proclivity for military studies and employments by exhibiting a preference for books dealing with war and battles; when but nine years of age he drew with wagon-paints on one side of a window shade a picture of General Washington and staff, and on the reverse side one of General Jackson and staff. A natural aptitude for sketching was further developed as he grew older and was of practical help to him in his military occupations. Many of his sketches are still preserved and cherished. After he had spent a year as a clerk in the employ of a Mr. DeGroff, who kept a general store at Malta, the family moved to Mechanicsville.

The ambition which Elmer had cherished of entering West Point Military Academy might have been realized had there been at Mechanicsville educational advantages whereby he could have gained the proper preparation, but the village, then a place of about 800 inhabitants, had nothing higher than district schools, and his father had not the means to send him to an academy. He attended the school located on North Main Street, a brick building still standing and converted into an attractive residence. Mr. Ellsworth’s trade seems not to have afforded him a sufficient income, for he adopted various makeshifts in order to provide for his family, such as peddling oysters, netting pigeons, and other like employments. Elmer was sometimes sneered at by his companions on account of his father’s poverty and one day he whipped a boy soundly who had called him, “oyster-keg.”

All this made a deep wound in the proud and sensitive heart of the boy, and throughout his career, in his letters and diary, may still be read the ever-recurring refrain of his desire to remove his parents from lives of grinding toil and carking care. This absorbing thought had been observed by President Lincoln and was mentioned in his letter to Colonel Ellsworth’s bereaved parents as “conclusive of his good heart.” But Elmer had the great privilege while living in Mechanicsville of organizing and having under him a military company: the Black Plumed Riflemen, of Stillwater, an historic village three miles above Mechanicsville. At this time, although but fifteen, short and slight of build, he would go through the manual of arms with the heavy muskets of those days with wonderful ease and rapidity. Throughout his life he was ever of a strong, virile constitution; quick, active, alert, he became in after years an accurate shot and a fine swordsman. Illustrative of his strength and agility and as exhibiting his qualification to lead others in performing startling feats, it is still told in Mechanicsville that one day a clerk in Hatfield’s store (now the Mead Building) having heard a commotion in the second story, upon investigation, found that Ellsworth and the Black Plumed Riflemen had ascended there on a “human ladder”; the last ones were pulled up through the doorway from the sidewalk. Though Mechanicsville has grown to be a place of more than 8,000 population, the older parts of the town remain very much as when Ellsworth paraded the streets with his riflemen. The old home, a pleasant dwelling on Ellsworth Street in the southern part of the place, still stands amid surroundings practically unchanged. The premises front on the embankment of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad; in the rear flows the now abandoned section of the Champlain Canal. Just south of the home and on the rise of ground is the residence of Robert Sears, deceased, who was an intimate friend of the family and who accompanied the stricken parents to New York to meet the remains of their son. Elmer was a welcome visitor here, where he and his companion, Charles Sears, had many a happy romp in the fields about the homestead. It is needless to say that the remembrance of Colonel Ellsworth is still a sacred one in the Sears family and that his memorials are cherished in the white mansion on the hill where he was gladly entertained and duly appreciated; for even at this early age it was evident that he was a lad of superior parts. Certain of the citizens have suggested changing the name of the place to “Ellsworth” and erecting a fitting monument in the midst of the city, a commendable proposal, though there are already nine villages named Ellsworth in as many states of the country, and notwithstanding that a noble granite memorial to his memory, unveiled with elaborate and impressive ceremonies on May 27, 1874, stands in the Mechanicsville cemetery.

Elmer’s stay in Mechanicsville did not embrace above a year or more, and after having had considerable success in selling papers on the railway trains, he secured the consent of his father to leave home and try to make his own way in the world. He, therefore, in 1852, secured employment as a clerk in the store of Corliss & House, Troy, dealers in linen goods, where he remained about a year. The career of Ellsworth from now on to 1858 is difficult to follow in detail on account of the as yet scarcity of data from which to construct a satisfactory narrative. It is known, however, that from the time he left Mechanicsville to the hour of his death, his life, though in its last two years astonishingly prominent and in point of honorable fame highly successful, was throughout an experience of almost unremitting hardship and poverty; a beating about from one employment to another; a weary history of uncongenial labor and foiled ambition. It is probable that he was, to use his own words, endeavoring to “make a bold push for fortune,” that he might quickly relieve his parents of that toil and privation, the remembrance of which seems to have burned into his soul to remain smarting there through the long years. Perhaps it would be charity to allow the mantle of forgetfulness to remain upon this period of unrequited effort, though from the glimpses we have in it of Ellsworth he is smiling and cheerful through it all, ever maintaining the most scrupulous honor and unblemished character. But the American people will desire the uncovering of every detail of the life of this remarkable young genius and martyr, whose very gifts of mind and heart, like those of many another, made him the prey of fortune.

On August 2, 1917, there appeared in the Telegraph-Courier of Kenosha, Wisconsin, a letter from Charles H. Goffe, a former resident of the city, and among his reminiscences of Kenosha is the following concerning Ellsworth in the summer of 1853, Elmer being then sixteen years old. I have nothing with which to corroborate Mr. Goffe’s statement, but as it has the impress of truth and corresponds, though in an exaggerated manner, with what I have learned of Ellsworth’s traits of character, I am disposed to give it acceptance. It is my opinion that, having saved a sum of money from his salary as a clerk in Troy, he resolved to “plod along” no further but to “make a bold push for fortune” in the West, and endeavor to find by prospecting a more promising field. Mr. Goffe writes:

“There was also boarding at Mrs. Bell’s at this time, a young man of handsome features and fastidious ways, accentuated by a repelling hauteur and exclusiveness, so often found peculiar to genius. His associates were few and his disposition was not calculated to make intimates of those he came in contact with. No one seemed able to penetrate the mystery of his personality and yet there was something about the youth which arrested the attention of all. But he was obsessed with a penchant or habit born perhaps of idle vanity of writing (or scribbling) his name in a bold, flowing, and not ungraceful hand, upon every scrap of paper, on the weatherboards of the house, and on gate and fence posts, a name which a few years later was on every tongue, flashed in the headlines of the daily press, and stamped in deathless lines upon the history of his country—the name of Elmer E. Ellsworth…. In the fall of 1853, when the Kenosha High School opened for the winter term under Professor DeWolff, Mr. Ellsworth attended for a while, but was not satisfied with school life, and suddenly dropped out of view and was for a time forgotten.”

Mr. Goffe says that when, two years later, he went to Muskegon, across the lake in Michigan, he learned that Ellsworth had associated with and been adopted by the Ottawa Indians who dwelt in those parts. After describing how he had been created a chief among them, made the recipient of high honors, and adorned with unique and gaudy apparel. Mr. Goffe continues:

“But, alas, when the novelty of barbaric glory and display had become stale, and the craving for other conquests and other scenes, and perhaps dreams of awaiting glories had disturbed his vision, this eccentric child of genius suddenly disappeared from his tribe and had gone no one could tell where. His people waited long, but he returned no more, and the red-skinned maidens of the tamarack swamps waited and sighed in vain for the handsome young chief on whom they had doted, and for whom they had hoped and dreamed. And the seasons came and passed, and the moons had filled their horns many times only to wane and the white chief came no more.”

As stated before, it is probable that Ellsworth visited Kenosha and it is likely, too, that on his way home he stopped at Muskegon and was with the Indians for a brief period, but that he remained there a year or more, as Mr. Goffe was told, or that he made any extended stay among the Redskins is highly improbable, though I realize that in expressing this opinion I am throwing ashes on what purports to be a romantic episode.

Returning to Mechanicsville and casting about for employment, Ellsworth recalled that in one of his trips between Troy and his home he had met on the train a gentleman from New York who, evidently attracted by his intelligent and prepossessing appearance, drew him into conversation and impressed himself favorably on the youth’s mind and memory. Thinking that this transient friend might help him, he inserted a “personal” in the New York Herald which in due time brought a letter from the gentleman, who proved to be a drygoods merchant, and after a preparatory correspondence Ellsworth was made a clerk in his store. This was in 1853, the year of his visit to the West and Kenosha.

Concerning the two years that he spent in New York I have been able to secure but fragmentary and disconnected data. He remained but half of this period in the employ of the merchant referred to and when, in 1855, he went to Chicago, he did so in company with a party of engineers by whom he had been employed in improving the channel at Hellgate, not far from New York. This work was carried on by the aid of divers who deposited the explosive on the surface of the rock and this being fired by electricity and confined somewhat by the weight of water effected considerable execution. Just what part Ellsworth played in this work or how long he was engaged in it is not known. While in New York he was afforded an opportunity of acquiring a better knowledge of military tactics through the drills of the Seventh Regiment, which he attended on every available occasion.

He was eighteen years of age when, with his brother, he went to Chicago, hoping to make better progress in providing means for the ease, security, and happiness of their parents. For, while yet a little boy in Malta, having been pained by the cruel words of a companion who had sneeringly remarked that his mother wore “patched shoes,” he had told her that he would some day earn a lot of money so that she would be a lady as well as the best and “ride in a carriage.” This ambition for his mother, that she might “ride in a carriage,” was referred to hopefully in a letter dated Madison, Wisconsin, November 15, 1858. Though his brother, after remaining but a brief season in Chicago, seems to have given up the battle and returned home, Elmer held on and through the most discouraging experiences persevered and at last achieved a success which repaid him for all his suffering and humiliation.

Not long after his arrival in Chicago he engaged himself as a clerk to Arthur F. Devereux, of Salem, Massachusetts, who was in the patent soliciting business and who later became an officer in the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment. Ellsworth after a time became a partner with Mr. Devereux and the firm enjoyed prosperity when, through the defalcation of one whom they trusted, everything was lost and Elmer found himself without a dollar struggling again for the bare necessities of life. Three years had been passed in this business, as appears from Ellsworth’s own words. He writes: “In an evil hour I placed confidence in an infernal scoundrel, was robbed of everything in a moment, saw the reward of three years’ toil fade from my eyes when about to grasp it.”

The occurrence of this catastrophe brings Ellsworth’s career down to 1858, he then being of the age of twenty-one. Connected with the business of a patent solicitor are certain legal aspects that require attention, and having in this way in a manner been introduced to the law, he determined to prepare himself for the full practice of that profession. He therefore entered the law office of Mr. J. E. Cone as a student. The remuneration he received for copying legal papers was wholly inadequate; for a time he slept on the floor of the office, and suffered, not infrequently, the pangs of hunger. During these months of hard study, drudgery of copying, and abject poverty, he retained his interest in military affairs, though he had no active part in them for the reason that he could not afford the expense of belonging to a company. However, he joined a gymnasium and made the acquaintance of Dr. Charles A. DeVilliers, who was an instructor in fencing, evidently in that institution. Dr. DeVilliers was destined to play an important part in the military education and career of Ellsworth, for he revived in him his ardent martial spirit and encouraged him in his desire to acquire an intimate knowledge of the French Zouave system of tactics and uniform with a view to introducing them into this country. DeVilliers was competent for this purpose, having served with a French Zouave regiment in the Crimean War and was familiar with all the details of their drill and equipment. The name and system were derived by the French in 1830 from the members of a mountain tribe of Algeria, (Arab., ZwawÁ) who, arrayed in oriental costume, wide trousers, fez, and loose jacket, were in their rapidity of movement and ferocity of courage famed as fighters. Ellsworth, of a romantic nature and a lover of the novel and dramatic, was attracted by this now famous and spectacular system, and sent to France for books fully explaining it and set himself to acquire the language that he might read them. In the meantime, with Scott’s and Hardee’s books of tactics open before him, he perfected himself in the manual of arms, not hesitating to introduce improvements of his own where they seemed desirable, his endeavor being to bring ease, grace, and celerity into every movement. Under DeVillier’s instruction he became the best fencer in Chicago, while his “lightning drill” attracted attention as he exhibited it in the gymnasium.

His reputation having reached as far as Rockford, Illinois, he was engaged in the summer of 1858 to drill the Rockford City Grays, a company that had been organized two years earlier. The corps made good progress and in September went into camp on the fairgrounds, remaining four days, during which time military companies from Elgin, Freeport, and Chicago visited the encampment. During his stay at Rockford Ellsworth made the acquaintance of Miss Carrie Spafford, to whom he became engaged, and for whom to the day of his death he cherished the highest regard and the deepest affection. Her father, Mr. Charles H. Spafford, was one of the pioneers and a leading citizen of the place and with his family was attached to Ellsworth and befriended him more, perhaps, than any others outside of his immediate relatives. In his last letter to Miss Spafford he refers to her parents as “father and mother.” Mrs. Charles H. Godfrey, a sister of Miss Spafford, still resides at Rockford and occupies the dwelling where Colonel Ellsworth visited the family in 1858, and though she has no remembrance of him she cherishes the honor that her Christian name, Eugenia, was by him proposed for her to the family when he fondled her on his knee. Miss Carrie Spafford married Charles S. Brett, both of whom with their only son are deceased, Mrs. Brett having died in 1911 at the old home where the Colonel visited her. Not only did Ellsworth win the friendship and regard of the Spafford family, but his cordial manners and magnetic personality made him a marked individuality and a popular hero throughout the town.

In the following month of October Ellsworth went to Madison, Wisconsin, and was employed there in drilling the Governor’s Guard, a military company organized in February of that year and made up of the leading young men of the place. It is on record that on October 15, 1858, he was elected commandant of the Guard and began drilling the company, which at the beginning numbered twenty-five men, three evenings in each week. There is nothing to indicate how long he remained at Madison, though a letter to his mother, already referred to, bears date, “Capitol House, Madison, Wis., Nov. 15th, 1858,” and it is probable that he was with the Governor’s Guard in its parade of December 26 following, concerning which a Madison newspaper says, “They appear much improved in a military point.” The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has in its archives several interesting memorials of Ellsworth’s sojourn in Madison. There is some evidence that he drilled a company in Springfield, Illinois, at about this period, but the statements are so indefinite and inconclusive that I have refrained from giving them as facts. In a study of this kind it is necessary carefully to compare, weigh, and sift all the materials of information.

A definite landmark in the life of Ellsworth is his diary, commenced on his twenty-second birthday, April 11, 1859, and continued for a brief period.[129] This was in the spring following his agreeable and successful military employment at Rockford and Madison, but from which he seems to have derived no considerable emolument, for the entries in his diary relate experiences of his struggle with poverty. Concerning the purpose of the journal, he says: “I do this because it seems pleasant to be able to look back upon our past lives and note the gradual change in our sentiments and views of life; and because my life has been and bids fair to be such a jumble of strange incidents that, should I become anybody or anything, this will be useful as a means of showing how much suffering and temptation a man may undergo and still keep clear of despair and vice.” These pages afford an intimate view of his character and one which can be obtained from no other source; for they are even more personal and confidential than his letters to the members of his own family. They tell in easy, fluent style of his poverty, temptations, dawning success, meditations, and laborious study of the law in the office of Mr. Cone, to which he had returned after his engagement had expired in Madison.

Among the earlier entries in the diary is the account of his election on April 29, 1859, as commandant of the United States Zouave Cadets, of Chicago, a company superseding the National Guard Cadets, instituted three years previous, which company had become practically defunct. On abandoning the old name and armory the Zouaves made their quarters in the Garrett Block on ground now occupied by Central Music Hall. The drill and discipline of the corps grew to be more exacting and severe probably, than that to which any military company was ever subjected, for Ellsworth’s aim was to improve the men “morally as well as physically” and “to place the company in a position second to none in the United States.” The rules adopted and rigidly enforced proscribed drinking or even entering, without a valid excuse, a barroom, forbade visiting houses of vulgar resort, and gambling rooms, and prohibited the playing of billiards in public places. Ellsworth, himself, all his life was very abstemious; in a letter to his brother in 1858, he writes: “I don’t use tobacco in any shape whatever; I drink neither tea or coffee.” Running all through his career is the unmistakable evidence, especially visible in his private papers, that he was above all a moral champion: that his ethical principles overshadowed and governed his military ambitions. The proficiency of a cadet was no recommendation to his leniency: if he transgressed the rules, he must go: twelve of his best drilled men were expelled at one time for drinking; but such was his influence over his command that as they dwindled away there was never a stampede, even under the laborious drills and the prohibitory discipline.

On the Fourth of July Ellsworth, having had the cadets in training but little more than two months, gave a public drill in front of the Tremont House and at once won the admiration of hostile critics, who pronounced the exhibition unrivaled outside West Point. This success was all the more remarkable when it is considered that Ellsworth had acquired his military knowledge entirely from self-instruction, never having been a member of a company when he began the occupation of drillmaster. Moreover, he was still very poor, subsisting part of the time on nothing better than crackers; but he could write proudly in his diary on the night of the Fourth: “Victory, and thank God!”

At Chicago on September 15 of the same year, at the seventh annual fair of the National Agricultural Society, Ellsworth with his Zouaves won a stand of colors valued at $500, which had been offered as a prize in a competitive drill. Owing to the fact that only one other company drilled for the award, though the contest had been open to any militia company in the country, great dissatisfaction prevailed throughout the East and South that the Zouaves should under the circumstances be accorded such a distinction. The old military companies of the eastern cities scorned the pretentions of the “prairie boys,” and ridiculed the idea of their being able to compete successfully with themselves. For Ellsworth had added fuel to the fire by challenging any company in the United States or Canada to drill for the champion colors, offering to pay their expenses to and from Chicago and stating that, starting on the following twentieth of June, the Zouaves would visit the leading cities of the country for the purpose of meeting those companies which had not found it convenient to come to Chicago.

The discipline and drill, beginning early in February, became more exacting than ever, as it was felt by the company that in order to retain the colors the orders of the commandant must be scrupulously observed. Ellsworth told them that “everything except business and the company must be sacrificed” and that till the date set for the departure, drills must be held every evening, except Sunday, from seven to eleven o’clock. Associated with the drill, which was practiced with knapsacks weighing twenty-three pounds, were strenuous athletic exercises, while through the month of June the men slept on the floor of the armory wrapped in their blankets. The start was postponed from June 20 to July 2, owing to the death from smallpox of Ellsworth’s brother, who was a member of the company. This bereavement was a hard stroke for the commandant, who was already burdened with the care and discipline of the company and anxiety for the results. It was estimated that five weeks would be consumed in the tour and that the expenditures would approximate $7,000, but the funds were far from being raised when the day of departure arrived. Moreover, the company’s goods and chattels were attached by certain ex-members who had loaned it money and who were now smarting from the effects of Ellsworth’s severe discipline; but this difficulty was quickly relieved by the generosity of Chicago citizens.

The last reunion of Ellsworth’s Chicago Zouaves was held at the Wellington Hotel, Chicago, in November, 1910, at which eight members were present; five absentees were known to be living at that time. I have recently corresponded with Mr. J. M. DeWitt of New York, who is actively engaged in practical affairs, with Mr. Frank E. Yates of Chicago, and, through his family, with Mr. J. A. Clybourn, of the same city, who is in very poor health. This band of men, sifted out by Ellsworth and tried by the fire of his rigorous discipline and training, not only achieved the reputation of being perhaps the most perfectly drilled military company in history, but held important places in the army during the Civil War and multiplied the instructions and principles which they had derived from their commandant.

The Chicago Historical Society has in its Ellsworth collection a crayon sketch drawn by him and evidently designed to serve as copy for the printer in preparing memorials of the tour, to be presented to the members of the company. Upon it are inscribed in consecutive order the names of the cities visited and the military organizations by whom the Zouaves were escorted and entertained, though the dates do not appear in all cases. The itinerary follows:

Chicago, July 2, 1860; Adrian, Mich., July 3 and 4; Detroit, July 5; Cleveland, July 6 and 7; Niagara Falls, Sunday; Rochester, July —; Syracuse, July —; Utica, July —; Troy, July 12; Albany, July 13; New York, July 14, 15, 16, --, 18, 19, 20; Boston, July 21, 22, 23, 25; Charlestown, Mass., July 24; Salem, July —; West Point, July 26, 27; Philadelphia, July 28; Baltimore, Aug. —; Washington, D. C., Mount Vernon, Aug. —; Pittsburgh, Aug. —; Cincinnati, Aug. —; St. Louis, Aug. —; Springfield, Aug. —; Chicago, Aug. 15.

The Zouaves were accompanied throughout their tour by a band of eighteen pieces, the Light Guard Band of Chicago; but though the company went forth with fine melody and unique and brilliant uniforms, they were hardy soldiers with bronzed faces and wiry, agile frames, who lived abstemiously and slept each night on the floor of their quarters. Temptations to indulge in wines and liquors were before them daily, but they resolutely turned away to take up the arduous work of their program. They were very young and somewhat undersized; by no means a stalwart array, as might be expected; but the wonderful precision, celerity, and grace of their drill and evolutions astonished and thrilled every town they visited, and the accounts of their marvelous proficiency, telegraphed ahead, aroused widespread curiosity and brought great crowds to observe them wherever they went. Though the tour was made for the purpose of inviting competition, not a company ventured to face them, all cheerfully according them the palm of superiority.

The period in which the tour was made could not have been more opportune; a critical presidential election was on, with Abraham Lincoln heading the Republican party which stood for the nonextension of slavery, and with the avowal rife in the South that, should he be elected, war would ensue. Thus, the people were disposed to look with interest and enthusiasm upon military demonstrations. Ellsworth’s experience was not, however, entirely without anxiety, owing to the lack of funds, which, until New York City was reached, was a source of worry; but at this point and in Boston large amounts were derived from exhibition drills given before immense audiences, and henceforward no difficulty was experienced on this score. The company reached Chicago on Tuesday, August 15, was accorded an ovation irrespective of party affiliations, and escorted to the accompaniment of pyrotechnics and a torch-light procession, to the “Wigwam” where Lincoln had been nominated, which was filled with more than 10,000 people. Mayor Wentworth gave a congratulatory address which was briefly responded to by Captain Ellsworth, after which, it now being midnight, the company was banqueted at the Briggs House.

Not long after this triumphant return Ellsworth resigned his commission and the company disbanded. Its career having been brilliant, though brief, it was better, it seemed to him, that the organization should dissolve rather than deteriorate under less rigorous discipline. Ellsworth, without delay, seeming to realize that armed strife was at hand, organized a regiment of Zouaves in northern Illinois, officered it with men from his old company, and presented the force to Governor Yates to direct as he might deem expedient. Having become acquainted with Mr. Lincoln, he now entered his law office, not so much to pursue his somewhat neglected law studies as to promote a scheme which he was evolving of reorganizing the militia of Illinois and eventually of the whole country: to unify and bring the entire system more completely under the control of a central authority. Here begins to be manifest a wide grasp and a broad vision for which Ellsworth has never been given credit. To enjoy a reputation as a successful drillmaster and to control efficiently a company of fifty men was but the rudiment of his ambition and capacity; his mind went out firmly and sanely to broad fields, and he impressed his ideas upon Mr. Lincoln, who sought to give him an opportunity at the national capital to work out and put in operation these desirable measures. A start was attempted in a bill dictated by Ellsworth and introduced in the Illinois legislature while he was in Springfield, but though it was successful in the House, it failed in the Senate through causes other than a lack of merit.

During the autumn, Ellsworth employed himself on the stump, speaking for the Republican candidates, and exhibited decided gifts as an orator; a fine voice and presence, abundant humor and fluent expression gained him a ready hearing. In the meantime he had resumed his legal studies and later, passing a satisfactory examination, was admitted to the bar a few weeks before Mr. Lincoln started on his journey to Washington. The president-elect had invited Ellsworth to accompany him on the trip in the capacity of an officer to safeguard him by superintending the disposition of the crowds that everywhere met him. Arriving at the capital he was incapacitated with the measles, but when, on his twenty-fourth birthday, April 11, 1861, Fort Sumter was summoned to surrender, he soon shook off the lethargy of his convalescence, resigned his lieutenant’s commission, borrowed what money John Hay had at his disposal, and started for New York, resolved to raise a regiment for the service. In this he was promptly successful among the firemen of the city and in a remarkably brief space, at the head of the Eleventh New York Volunteer Infantry, was on May 7 mustered into the service in front of the Capitol at Washington and in the presence of President Lincoln. For a few days the regiment was quartered in the Capitol building, but as the command was acquiring a tendency to disregard the proprieties of the service, Colonel Ellsworth secured for it a camp on the south side of the east branch of the Potomac, on the high ground in the vicinity of the Insane Asylum, believing that here he would have the men under better control. An interesting, and to the Fire Zouaves a complimentary, event occurred while the regiment was in Washington. Willard’s Hotel having taken fire, Ellsworth and his men after vigorous efforts quenched the flames and saved the building, much to the gratification of Mr. Willard, who entertained them at breakfast and gave Colonel Ellsworth a purse of $500 to employ for the benefit of the regiment. This money the Colonel turned over to the committee that organized and equipped the Fire Zouaves, and it was eventually divided equally and applied toward the erection of monuments for Ellsworth and his successor, Colonel Farnham, who died of wounds sustained at the first battle of Bull Run.

On the evening of Thursday, May 23, the regiment was ordered to be ready to move at a moment’s notice, and at 2 o’clock A. M. of the twenty-fourth marched from its camp and boarded the steamers James Guy and Mount Vernon. In the bustle and stress incident to the departure, the busy Colonel found time to write two remarkable letters: one to his parents, the other to Miss Spafford, his fiancÉe. They breathe a presentiment of death and were found (at least the former, and I think the latter) upon his body. The letter addressed to Miss Spafford has not appeared before in print and has been read by but a limited number of persons. Colonel Ellsworth’s last act before leaving his tent was to look at her portrait and place it in his bosom.[130]

My dear Father and Mother: The Regiment is ordered to move across the river tonight. We have no means of knowing what reception we are to meet with. I am inclined to the opinion that our entrance to the City of Alexandria will be hotly contested, as I am just informed that a large force have arrived there today. Should this happen, my dear parents, it may be my lot to be injured in some manner. Whatever may happen, cherish the consolation that I was engaged in the performance of a sacred duty; and tonight, thinking over the probabilities of tomorrow, and the occurrences of the past, I am perfectly content to accept whatever my fortune may be, confident that He who noteth even the fall of a sparrow will have some purpose even in the fate of one like me.

My darling and ever-loved parents, good-bye. God bless, protect and care for you. Elmer.

* * * * *

My own darling Kitty. My Regiment is ordered to cross the river & move on Alexandria within six hours. We may meet with a warm reception & my darling among so many careless fellows one is somewhat likely to be hit.

If anything should happen—Darling just accept this assurance, the only thing I can leave you—The highest happiness I looked for on earth was a union with you—You have more than realised the hopes I formed regarding your advancement—And I believe I love you with all the ardor I am capable of—You know my darling any attempt of mine to convey an adequate expression of my feelings must be simply futile—God bless you, as you deserve and grant you a happy & usefull life & us a union hereafter. Truly your own, Elmer.

P. S.

Give my love to mother & father (such they truly were to me) and thank them again for all their kindness to me—I regret I can make no better return for it—Again Good bye. God bless you my own darling.

Elmer.

It was a beautiful moonlight night and the bayonets of the troops could be seen glittering as they crossed the Long and Georgetown bridges for the invasion of Virginia. The regiment arrived at Alexandria, seven miles below, at sunrise, disembarked unopposed, formed near the wharf, and Colonel Ellsworth with a squad of men from Company “A” started at “double quick” into the city, intending to seize the telegraph office and dispatches. Observing the Confederate flag flying from the roof of the Marshall House, he sent a sergeant with an order for Company “A” to come up at once. It was evidently his purpose to detail the company to remove the flag, for he then passed on; but, as if reconsidering, turned and entered the hotel. It should be stated here that the regiment had come to Alexandria under embarrassing circumstances; for not only had certain of the citizens expressed a desire that they should not be sent to the town, but General Mansfield, commanding at Washington, had threatened to muster them out of the service should they not conduct themselves in an orderly manner. This partially explains Colonel Ellsworth’s desire to obtain the flag without delay, fearing that it might enrage the men and lead to acts of vandalism. On the other hand, it is affirmed that before he left New York with his regiment, he remarked that “he would bring to the city the first secession flag he might encounter,” and that “he would not order any of his men to go where he would not go himself.” Just what was in the young colonel’s mind will never be known; probably a variety of motives impelled him to the act. He knew that the city of Washington would be looking for the lowering of the “bastard flag,” which for days had been flaunted as an insult and challenge to the capital city. President Lincoln at that very moment might be looking anxiously from the windows of the White House for its disappearance!

The Marshall House is an old landmark of Alexandria, constructed of brick and three stories high; it was famous as having entertained Washington. The flag was flying from a staff about twenty-five feet in length, attached to the frame of a rear dormer window, and was reached by ascending to the attic by a stairway which had a landing and turn at the middle. Colonel Ellsworth and his party, having left guards at proper intervals, secured the flag, and were coming down from the attic, when Corporal Francis E. Brownell, who was ahead, observed a man with a gun, who proved to be James W. Jackson, proprietor of the house, standing at the foot of the stairs. He immediately sprang below, and struck down the weapon but before he could prevent him Jackson raised his gun, a double-barrel shotgun, and fired at Colonel Ellsworth, who had come onto the middle landing and taken a step or two down, the charge entering his left breast. The Colonel cried “My God!” and plunged headlong to the floor below, uttering soon after but a low moan. He fell near the room that had been occupied by Washington, and the medal he wore, inscribed, “Non nobis, sed pro patria,” was wet with his blood. Brownell with great coolness and rapidity of action took aim and firing struck Jackson in the middle of the face and as he reeled to fall plunged his sword bayonet through him, the assassin’s second shot flying harmlessly over Brownell’s head. A scene of confusion followed the double tragedy, heart-rending cries of agony, as Jackson’s wife bewailed her loss, resounded through the hotel, while the Zouaves, fearing that they were trapped in a nest of secessionists, posted themselves so as to command the corridors and ordered all guests into their rooms on peril of being shot down. Company “A” soon arrived on the ground, however, and on a litter improvised out of muskets, the body of Ellsworth was borne to the river, placed on the James Guy, and conveyed immediately to Washington.

Among the many tributes that were published in honor of Ellsworth, none were comparable to the beautiful words sent by President Lincoln to his parents. He wrote:[131]

“In the untimely loss of your noble son, our affliction here is scarcely less than your own. So much of promised usefulness to one’s country, and of bright hopes for one’s self and friends, have rarely been so suddenly darkened as in his fall. In size, in years, and in youthful appearance, a boy only, his power to command men, was surpassingly great. This power, combined with a fine intellect, and indomitable energy, and a taste altogether military, constituted in him, as seemed to me, the best natural talent, in that department, I ever knew. And yet he was singularly modest and deferential in social intercourse. My acquaintance with him began less than two years ago; yet through the latter half of the intervening period, it was as intimate as the disparity of our ages, and my engrossing engagements, would permit. To me, he appeared to have no indulgences or pastimes; and I never heard him utter a profane or an intemperate word. What was conclusive of his good heart, he never forgot his parents. The honors he labored for so laudably, and, in the sad end, so gallantly gave his life, he meant for them, no less than for himself.

“In the hope that it may be no intrusion upon the sacredness of your sorrow, I have ventured to address you this tribute to the memory of my young friend, and your brave and early fallen child.

“May God give you the consolation which is beyond all earthly power.

“Sincerely your friend in common affliction.

A. Lincoln.”

Importunate words throng me for expression, but they cannot be accommodated further; the rage and grief of the Fire Zouaves and their hardly-prevented purpose of burning the city of Alexandria; the universal sorrow and demonstrations of grief all along the funeral route from Washington to Mechanicsville. I would like to tell of my acquaintance with and reminiscences of Ellsworth’s parents, of how the government provided liberally for them, of how their son Elmer fulfilled in death the desire that he had been unable to accomplish in life: that his mother might “ride in a carriage.”

The fame of Ellsworth is destined to live on and to increase, for he individualized those elements of character which are loved and admired by the race universally. There was a deep well of patriotism in his romantic, generous nature, informed and directed by a keen and comprehensive intellect. Though his life is almost like a fairy tale, it is steadied and rationalized by deep thoughtfulness, filial affection, and unaffected piety. The far generations will linger reverently over that final word of love to his parents and will shed a tear as they read of his last look at the portrait of the bride of his heart and of his going out to die. Ellsworth will yet come to his own and be appreciated and valued and loved for what he was: one of the noblest, purest, and ablest patriots who ever died for his country.

[128] This article, which is intended to serve as an introduction to a biography of Colonel Ellsworth which I hope to bring out, comprises but a fraction of the data bearing upon his life and times which I have in my possession. To those who have afforded me assistance in the collection of this material I am deeply grateful; in particular I desire to express my indebtedness to the following persons: Milo M. Quaife, superintendent, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison; Caroline M. McIlvaine, librarian, Chicago Historical Society; Eugenia S. Godfrey, Rockford, Illinois; Mrs. Jessie Palmer Weber, librarian, Illinois State Historical Society, Springfield; Isabella K. Rhodes, acting reference librarian, New York State Library, Albany; Jessie F. Wheeler, Reference Department, Troy Public Library; William A. Saxton, chief, Bureau of War Records, Albany, New York.

[129] Ellsworth’s diary has disappeared from view and there is a report which bears considerable evidence of being accurate that it was destroyed in later years by Ellsworth’s parents. However this may be, it was given, upon his death, to Corporal Brownell, who had killed Jackson, his assassin. John Hay seems to have had access to it at one time, for in an article by him in McClure’s Magazine, VI, 354, many citations from the diary are given. Prior to this, an unidentified writer in the Chicago Times of October 28, 1883, and in the National Tribune of October 15, 1885 cites so extensively from Ellsworth’s diary as to render it probable that he had possession of it either at that or at some prior time.

[130] The letter to Miss Spafford is owned by her sister, Mrs. Charles H. Godfrey, of Rockford. The letter to Ellsworth’s parents has been published in photographic reproduction in the Photographic History of the Civil War, edited by Francis T. Miller (New York, 1911, 10 vols.), I, 351.

[131] This letter is in the collection of Judd Stewart. It was privately printed in facsimile, with appropriate editing by Frederick H. Meserve, by the Quill Club of New York in 1916.

Seventy years ago the people of Wisconsin were deeply stirred over the issues connected with the framing of a constitution and admission to statehood. In the Wisconsin Banner, the first German newspaper in the state, was printed on March 20, 1847, a metrical argument of 168 lines in favor of “Die Constitution.” The recent posture of public affairs seems to render apposite the reprinting of a portion of this poem, which affords a fair idea of the attitude of Wisconsin Germans of the forties toward certain questions which the whirligig of time has again brought to the fore. We print the selection in the original German and in English translation. For making the latter, acknowledgement is due Dr. Charles Giessing, of Princeton, formerly of the University of Wisconsin.

Louise Phelps Kellogg

The colony of Massachusetts had successfully resisted the enforcement of the Stamp Act, and had forced its repeal by the British Parliament. None the less its rebellious attitude brought a measure of punishment—the ministry decreed that four regiments should be quartered in Boston, which had hitherto been free from the obnoxious presence of a garrison. The coming of the troops was awaited with apprehension; the majority of the townspeople considered their presence as a personal affront. However, the soldiers were disembarked at the long wharf and marched to the Common without any hostile demonstration on the part of the populace. The soldiers soon settled in barracks and entered upon a period of dull inactivity, broken only by occasional clashes with the rougher elements of the town’s population. After a year had passed away two of the four regiments were withdrawn, leaving the Fourteenth and the Twenty-ninth, which, after the events of the massacre, were nicknamed the “Sam Adams regiments.”

In the strained relations between the colonial authorities and the home government, the presence of the troops in Boston acted as a constant irritant. The ruder class of the town’s population, sailors, ropemakers, and apprentice lads, were imbued with the sentiments of the patriotic party, but lacked the restraint and self-control that marked its leaders. The soldiers became a constant butt for the rough witticisms of the lower town element; they were taunted with the epithets of “bloody-backs” and “lobsters” in derision of their uniform. They were constantly dared to fight, and continually reminded of the restriction that forbade a movement of aggression without the orders of a civil magistrate. Several times individual soldiers were provoked into fisticuff contests, and frequently came off second best in such encounters with the town roughs. Upon the whole, the troops showed commendable restraint, and, in spite of the bad blood between them and the populace, for nearly two years no open clash took place.

On the night of March 5, 1770, an incident occurred which, trivial in itself, led to momentous consequences. A guard stationed at the Custom House in King’s Square was set upon by a crowd of roughs, and assaulted with a volley of snowballs. Summoning assistance, the single soldier was reËnforced by a squad of six under command of Captain Thomas Preston. The town crowd, instead of dispersing, continued its insults, while its number was constantly swelled by fresh recruits. During the excitement someone rang the town fire bell, and the surrounding populace poured into the square to witness the nonexistent conflagration. The restraint of the troops reached the breaking point. In the mÊlÉe an order to fire was believed to have been heard. The soldiers leveled their fusees and fired into the crowd, the first volley killing four bystanders and wounding several more. Aghast at the consequences of their act, the offending squad withdrew to the near-by barracks, leaving the “town-born” to bear away their dead and wounded.

The excitement in the city grew apace throughout the hours of the night. The townspeople gathered in the streets, while as the news spread abroad hundreds flocked in from the countryside. The town committee met at once, and demanded of the governor that the troops be removed to the castle in the harbor. After much hesitation and parleying on the part of the authorities, the request was granted, and orders were reluctantly given to evacuate the city barracks. Preston and his firing squad were arrested and placed in the town gaol. The exasperation and resentment of the populace threatened dire consequences.

On March 8 occurred the public funeral of the victims, and the passions of the townspeople were fanned to a still hotter flame; it was said that fifteen thousand people followed the four coffins to their last resting place, and that threats of vengeance were openly expressed. The trial for murder of Preston and the soldiers in the colony’s civil courts soon followed. Excitement against the accused ran high. Nevertheless, to the honor of Massachusetts the indicted were given a fair trial, while two of the colony’s ablest advocates, John Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr., offered at the risk of their reputations and popularity to defend the accused. Under these circumstances Preston and all but two of the soldiers were acquitted. The latter received a light sentence for manslaughter.

In the meantime the town committee, fearing the adverse effect of this incident upon the British authorities, and dreading the probable misrepresentation of the facts before the British public, prepared a defense of the colony’s position which they published in a pamphlet entitled: A Short Narrative of the horrid Massacre in Boston, Perpetrated in the Evening of the Fifth Day of March, 1770. By Soldiers of the XXIXth Regiment; which with the XIVth Regiment Were then Quartered there: with some Observations on the state of things prior to that Catastrophe. Printed by Order of the Town of Boston, and Sold by Edes and Gill in Queen-Street And T. & J. Fleet in Cornhill, 1770.

Attached to this pamphlet was a folded plate, which, according to an inscription in the lower right-hand corner was “Engraved Printed & Sold by Paul Revere Boston.” Recently Mr. Frank J. Wilder, of Boston, a member of the State Historical Society, presented to its Library one of the early reproductions, now become rare, of this celebrated engraving. The receipt of this interesting gift, which now hangs in the military history room of the Museum, has directed attention to the history of the print, which proves to be of no less interest than is the print itself.

Paul Revere, later so prominently associated with the first struggle of the Revolutionary War, was of Huguenot descent, a native of Boston, and had for some time served the colony as a gold- and silversmith. His first efforts at engraving were confined to silver plate; later he began to produce engravings drawn on copper plates and printed on paper. One of the earliest of these productions was a view of Boston showing the disembarkation of the troops. Revere was an ardent patriot, and in all probability formed one of the crowd of spectators in King Street Square when the soldiers fired upon the populace. In the Boston Public Library is still preserved a sketch by his hand of the site of the massacre, with indications on the diagram showing where the victims fell. This drawing was no doubt used during the trial of Captain Preston and his soldiers.

Revere was likewise in close personal relations with Edes and Gill, the publishers of the exculpatory pamphlet, and he often prepared wood cuts for the paper they issued, the Boston Gazette and Country Journal. An interesting illustration of his work appears in the issue of this journal for March 12, 1770, where above the column devoted to an account of the public funeral of the victims appear four miniature black coffins. That these were the work of Revere we learn from an old account book, found among his papers, wherein, under the entry for March 9, is a charge to Edes and Gill of six shillings for “Engraving 5 Coffings for Massacre,” while pinned to the page is a paper pattern the size and shape of the tiny coffins appearing in the newspaper. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin possesses a copy of this old journal, and there may be seen the heavily black-leaded page, on which mourning is displayed for the Boston dead, and the prints of the “coffings” engraved by Revere, on each of which is cut a skull and crossbones over the initials of the victim. On that of the youngest of the four appear the words: “Ae. 17,” with a scythe and hourglass indicative of his having been cut off in the flower of youth. On the same page with the account of the tragedy and the funeral occurs the following interesting letter from Captain Preston:

Boston-Gaol, Monday, 12th March, 1770.

Messieurs Edes & Gill,

Permit me thro’ the Channel of your Paper, to return my Thanks in the most Publick Manner to the Inhabitants of this Town—who throwing aside all Party and Prejudice, have with the utmost Humanity and Freedom stept forth Advocates for Truth, in Defence of my injured Innocence, in the late unhappy Affair that happened on Monday Night last: And to assure them, that I shall ever have the highest Sense of the Justice they have done me, which will be ever gratefully remembered, by

Their much obliged and most obedient humble Servant,

Thomas Preston.

Let us now examine the picture which Paul Revere prepared to be presented, with the official pamphlet, to the view of the British public in order to affect its opinion of the action of the troops. The engraving is 8½ by 9¾ inches in size, and is colored by hand in red, blue, green, and brown. In the background is the Boston town hall, now known as the “Old State House,” with its graceful clock-tower rising into a pale blue sky. At the upper left hand is a chubby, cheerful-looking crescent moon. The public square is framed on both sides by its enclosing buildings, over the portal of one of which, at the right, is the inscription “G R (for Georgius Rex) Custom House.” Higher still, along the entire faÇade of the building stretches the imaginary and ironical designation “Butcher’s Hall.”

In the foreground of the picture, and in front of the Custom House stands in a menacing attitude the file of soldiers, very red of coats and black of boots. Each has his gun outstretched with its bayonet pointing to the crowd, while the clouds of smoke that roll around and behind the figures testify that the guns have just been discharged among the unhappy bystanders. At the extreme right of the line of soldiers stands Captain Preston with uplifted, menacing sword. Opposite the firing squad is the crowd of citizens, some of whom have fallen to the ground, or are being supported in the arms of their comrades. From the breasts and temples of the wounded streams of blood pour forth and dye the pavement roundabout. The crowd is in great agitation. One venturesome townsman lifts his hand as though he would push back an advancing bayonet. Another clasps his hands in horror to his breast. Some of the bystanders have turned as if to flee, but most of them are engaged in succoring their wounded comrades. One man in brown coat and green vest is being tenderly lifted by two friends; his head falls helplessly to one side while a bright red jet of blood pours from his breast over the green waistcoat. One of the victims lies on his back, his head drawn up as if he were in agony, one hand clasps his breast, from a wound in which a crimson stream flows forth. The boy victim lies motionless on the ground, a pool of blood from his forehead dyeing the pavement near his head. In front of this whole group stands a composed, indifferent-looking dog, quite unmoved by the tragic scene behind him. The quaint costumes and stiff attitudes of the actors in the picture, the shapeless, ill-drawn legs of the soldiers, and the stolid, expressionless faces of the participants indicate that the engraver was a tyro in his art. To the observer, however, these defects in some measure enhance the interest of the picture and give it the charm peculiar to primitive productions.

The inscriptions above and below the print add to its intrinsic interest. The passionate appeal for sympathy for the slain made by these inscriptions indicates the depths of feeling aroused by the massacre. Across the top is printed, “The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29^th Reg^t.” Underneath the picture is the following remarkable effusion, probably from the pen of Paul Revere himself, who frequently indulged in such attempts at literary effort:

The unhappy Sufferers were Mess^s Sam^l Gray, Sam^l Maverick, Jam^s Caldwell, Crispus Attucks & Pat^k Carr killed. Six wounded; two of them (Christ^r Monk & John Clark) Mortally.

Two hundred copies of the pamphlet were issued in the first edition, and for his work upon the plate the Revere papers tell us that the engraver received five pounds. A number of variants of the original plate appeared within a few months of its production. One was reduced in size to accompany an octavo edition of the pamphlet. This latter engraving was 4½ by 6? inches. It had no inscription at the top but underneath bore the following words: “The Massacre perpetrated in King Street on March 5^th 1770, in which Mess^rs Sam^l Gray, Sam^l Maverick, James Caldwell, Crispus Attucks Patrick Carr were Killed, six others Wounded two of them Mortally.” The different proportions of this plate give to the picture more sky and foreground than the one we have described above. The second edition of the pamphlet with the smaller engraving was reprinted without change in London by E. & C. Dilly and J. Almon in the same year that the Short Narrative appeared in Boston.

Two other London editions of the pamphlet were issued the same year by the publishing firm of W. Bingley in Newgate Street. One of these has for its frontispiece an engraving 8½ by 12 inches in size, with the following inscription across the top: “The Fruits of Arbitrary Power; or the Bloody Massacre, Perpetrated in King Street, Boston by a Party of the XXIX Regt.” Underneath is printed Revere’s original poem, without the accompanying names of the victims. On the left of the poem the following verse is surmounted by a skull and crossbones within a wreath: “How long shall they utter and speak hard things? And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage. Ps. XCIV, 4, 5.” On the right of the poem appears the design of a liberty cap in clouds from which issue forks of lightning and two broken swords. Underneath is printed, “They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Ps. XCIV, 6, 7.” Some of these prints have been found with only the two devices and without the scriptural quotations.

Still one more print appeared in London in 1770 which shows marked variations from all those previously described. These were all variants of Revere’s original plate, and differ only in size, proportions, and inscriptions. The print which we now describe is so different in composition and so much better in execution that it would seem to be the work of another artist than Revere. Not only are the proportions of the picture changed, but the handling of the perspective is much better, the drawing of the figures, and the expression of the faces show the handiwork of a genuine artist. The arrangement of the figures is the same, but the soldiers’ legs become quite possible members of their bodies, able to bear a man’s weight. The fallen figures lie in better and easier attitudes. The grouping of the crowd is less confused, and in the background appear the heads of two women wearing bonnets, that are not seen in the original Revere prints. Moreover, there is no dog in the foreground and no moon in the sky of this latter print. The question arises whether some other artist adapted Revere’s composition, materially improving it in so doing, or whether Revere himself secured his suggestions for his work from the author of this latter print. This is answered by a letter found some years since among the Pelham-Copley papers in the British Public Record Office and printed by the Massachusetts Historical Society in one of its recent volumes of Collections.

Henry Pelham was a young half brother of the famous colonial artist Copley, and the original of the latter’s lovely picture, “The Boy with a Squirrel.” Young Pelham lived in a family of artists and himself early displayed considerable talent. He learned engraving from his father Peter Pelham, one of Boston’s earliest engravers. The following letter was written by the younger Pelham to Paul Revere:

Thursday Morng. Boston, March 29, 1770.

Sir,

When I heard that you was cutting a plate of the late Murder. I thought it impossible, as I knew you was not capable of doing it unless you coppied it from mine and as I thought I had entrusted it in the hands of a person who had more regard to the dictates of Honour and Justice than to take the undue advantage you have done of the confidence and Trust I reposed in you. But I find I was mistaken, and after being at the great Trouble and Expence of making a design paying for paper, printing &c, find myself in the most ungenerous Manner deprived, not only of any proposed Advantage, but even of the expence I have been at, as truly as if you had plundered me on the highway. It you are insensible of the Dishonour you have brought on yourself by this Act, the World will not be so. However, I leave you to reflect upon and consider of one of the most dishonorable Actions you could well be guilty of.

H. Pelham.

In the absence of any defense by Paul Revere, and in the presence of the better engraving made along the lines and with the same general arrangement as that claimed by Revere, it would seem that we must convict the latter of the plagiarism with which Pelham charged him. Some of the latter’s prints were issued, since among his papers is the charge in March, 1770, of three pounds nine shillings by one Daniel Rea “To printing 575 of your Prints @ 12" Pr. Hund.” Pelham was a much abler artist than Revere; moreover, it should be noted that the latter prints upon his engraving only the words, “engraved, printed, and sold by Paul Revere,” all of which might have been the literal truth, had he utilized the design of the younger artist. None the less his appropriation without compensation of his young neighbor’s design is much to his discredit, and detracts from the interest and enjoyment with which we examine this most famous and interesting of Paul Revere’s engravings.

The vogue for this picture of the massacre has been very great from the time of its first printing until the present. We have seen how many editions appeared in 1770. These spread rapidly throughout all the English colonies in America. So popular did the prints become that as early as 1785 a new edition became necessary, while the original prints were much in demand, and formed part of early collections of Americana. Originals of 1770 are now so highly prized that single copies sell for anywhere from $750 to $1,000. In 1832 an excellent reproduction was issued, which has in its turn become rare enough to command $50 upon the market.

How much the publication of the original prints had to do with the profound sensation that the “Boston Massacre” awakened everywhere among the American colonies we have no means of judging. Certainly the representation was calculated to arouse intense resentment against the British soldiery, and this feeling may have contributed to the alacrity with which the colonists took up arms in defense of their liberty. From a trivial encounter between imperial troops and the Boston mob, the incident arose to a position of international importance. Its pictorial presentation, therefore, has become a part of our national history.

SOME LETTERS OF PAUL O. HUSTING CONCERNING THE PRESENT CRISIS

The advent of the world struggle which still rages between the forces of autocracy and democracy found our nation as a whole, and many of us as individuals, unprepared to meet the new conditions and to withstand the test of the new issues with which we were confronted. But it did not find the mind of Paul Husting wanting in the needful qualities of intellect, or his soul in those of courage.

In the brief period of service as senator from Wisconsin he revealed himself as one of Wisconsin’s greatest sons, and his untimely death in October, 1917, was a genuine calamity both to state and to nation in their hour of trial and danger. Not often does the opportunity occur to a historical journal to publish documents fraught at the same time with a high degree of historical value and of interest for their bearing on issues still current. Such an opportunity, we think, is afforded the Wisconsin Magazine of History in connection with the documents which follow. The letters speak for themselves and aside from certain minor typographical corrections we present them unedited. However, we cannot refrain, in concluding this introductory note, from calling the reader’s attention to the significance of the dates of the several letters: the first, following the sinking of the Lusitania; the second, at the time the embargo-on-munitions discussion was rife; the third, following our entrance into the world war.

Mayville, Wis., May 14, 1915.

—— ——,
——, Wis.

Dear Sir:

Your letter of May 10th, enclosing clipping from a Chilton newspaper, was duly received and read. The clipping which you have enclosed entitled “The United States, an Ally of England against Germany and Austria-Hungary” is a very coarse and vituperative and un-American attack on President Wilson and his administration. In this article, the President in substance and effect is portrayed as a weakling, a tool of England, a hypocrite, who pretends to be what he is not, and with sanctimonious phrase is trying to mislead the people. The administration is charged with being in a secret pact with England against Germany and winds up with asking the people of this country how long they are going to stand the disgrace of having such a government.

I do not believe that I have the honor of your acquaintance but, nevertheless, I feel that the article sent me and your letter should be replied to because there are other papers and other men engaged in carrying out this sort of propaganda.

There are, I know, a number of good and patriotic citizens of this country, who, because of lack of information, and because of their intense sympathy for relatives and friends now fighting in the old country, have permitted themselves to be misled in the belief that this country has unjustly, and, contrary to the laws of nations, permitted the shipment of munitions of war to European countries. There are, however, also, a number of men and newspapers who are merely repeating and spreading a propaganda originating in the old country with a design and purpose to weaken their own government and aid and strengthen one of the belligerent nations. I hope that I am addressing you as one who may be put in the first class mentioned.

Your criticism of President Wilson must be the result either of blind partisanship, of a lack of familiarity with the facts relating to our present foreign relations, of a failure to fully comprehend the exact meaning and difficulties of neutrality, or of a desire to plunge this country into [the] European embroglio without considering whether we have any cause or excuse for entering that awful conflict. Considerations of partisanship are so loathsome in times of great national crises that I believe you incapable of entertaining such and I freely acquit you of such base motives. The high-minded attitude of former President Taft ought to be sufficient to deter everyone from seeking to make political or partisan capital out of the present delicate situation. I cannot conceive that you feel yourself in closer allegiance to Germany than you do to this nation, for then your words would not be those of an American citizen but of one who is an alien, at least in thought, and not entitled to the protection or blessings of our free government. I assume that you are laboring under a misconception of the facts and upon the assumption that you have been misguided, I am writing you fully in reply to your letter.

I find no fault with American citizens or American newspapers (in this, of course, I include those printed in the German language) that sympathize with Germany as against England nor do I find any fault with the criticism directed against England’s war policy or methods. Our government has repeatedly remonstrated and protested to England against the interference with our commerce with neutral countries, in the shipment of non-contraband of war to belligerent countries, in the unlawful seizure of our vessels, and in the general interference with our rights as a neutral nation. I wish to add my objections and express my resentment against England for her studied and persistent violations of many provisions of the international law. We have protested and have done everything that we lawfully and justly could do to support and maintain our rights, short of going to war. Withal, however, no American ships or lives have been lost as a result of England’s operations upon the sea and no passenger boat carrying citizens of the United States has been sunk.

In the obstruction of our commerce and our dealings with foreign nations, Germany has gone as far as its ability permitted and is certainly subject, in this respect, to the same criticism and resentment that we have directed against England. It seems that England and Germany in the operation of the war in retaliation and in reprisal have set aside the international code and are justifying anything and everything upon the ground or plea of necessity. So long as this mode of warfare is directed against one another of the belligerent countries or their citizens, while we stand horrified and appalled, we may still have no just cause for interference. We have suffered these inconveniences and losses to our business because not only our government, but our people desire peace, and, furthermore, because we have no desire to interfere between the belligerent countries. Now, while at most, Germany can only claim that, in respect to the hindrance to our commerce, she has done no worse than England, yet, in addition to this, ships flying the American flag have been assailed and sunk by her and American lives taken without justification and now the world is appalled by the destruction of over 1,200 lives ruthlessly taken and men, women, and children have gone down to their death defenseless and undefended.

It is no defense or justification of this act as against our country that some other nation by its unlawful acts compelled the country at fault also to commit unlawful acts by way of reprisal.

It is no defense to say that American citizens who lost their lives were warned and that they lost their lives through their own contributory negligence. No warning to commit an unlawful act is a defense or justification of such unlawful act. Such warning, in fact, negatives the idea of accident and evidences premeditation and design to commit the unlawful act.

We know that the Lusitania was sunk, that more than 100 American lives were lost, and we must hold the country directly responsible for a deed which has shocked the civilized world and which appears to have been in violation of the law governing, and practices obtaining in, civilized warfare. Notwithstanding the horror and resentment aroused in the public mind, our President is still striving to avert war!

What would you now say if a German liner with Americans aboard had been sunk by an English torpedo under like circumstances and our President would not have counseled war against the offending country but would still have stood for peace? Would you not have said then that this country was favoring England and would you not have reiterated and repeated your slander that this country is an ally of England’s?

In the slanderous clipping sent me, it is charged that this country is pretending neutrality when in fact, by not forbidding the shipment of arms and munitions of war, we are violating the law of nations governing neutrals.

This slander against our country has been repeated over and over again by thoughtless men and by partisan newspapers. It originated across the sea with those who well know the falsity and hypocrisy of the charge and who have passed it on to a well-meaning and sympathetic, but over-zealous and mistaken, people and press for the purpose of accomplishing a selfish end. This slander has been fostered and given currency also by some designing men and by some designing newspapers who appear to have forgotten their duty to their country and who appear to be concerned more with the effect that the present war has upon some foreign country than with its effect upon our own country.

The laws of nations are the rules which determine the conduct of the general body of civilized states in their dealings with one another. Its doctrines are founded on legal, not simply on ethical ideas; since they purport to be rules of justice, not counsels of perfection, the foreign policies of a country are not founded upon feelings of moral rightness but upon precedents, treaties, and opinions of those recognized as authority.

International law is a part of the law of the land and, since the interest of the United States with foreign nations and the policies in regard to them are placed by the Constitution in the hands of the federal government, its decisions upon these subjects are obligatory upon every citizen.

The above are some of the elementary principles of international law. These nations which are protected by these provisions also are subject to corresponding duties and obligations. Those which invoke the law must obey the law. International law, being the joint product of civilized nations, adopted and made by the common and joint consent of nations, of course, can not be repealed or amended by any one nation but only by the mutual consent of all countries. If it were otherwise, each country would make its own international law to be amended or repealed at the will of such country and thus would have no effect either upon itself or any other nation.

Now we have an international law and its provisions are well defined and recognized. Now is there any provision in this law which forbids or makes unlawful the shipment of arms by citizens of a neutral country to a belligerent country or which gives a neutral country the privilege to forbid such shipment? No. Then why not? Because it has been the law since civilization began for citizens of neutral countries to engage in commerce as they chose and at their risk, subject only to the right of belligerents to intercept and seize contraband of war in transit to a belligerent enemy. In all the wars in which this country has been engaged, the citizens of the countries now warring in Europe have recognized and countenanced this practice of selling arms to our enemy while we were at war and we have neither protested nor complained against it, fully recognizing that the citizens of such countries were entirely within their rights, that we had no just cause for complaint. We recognized that it would have been a violation of international law if at that time the said countries had prohibited the shipment of munitions of war with a purpose clearly manifested to aid or benefit either ourselves or our enemy.

For scores of years those countries now engaged in the European war have been arming themselves and fortifying their country with the positive knowledge that sooner or later a conflict of the kind now raging would occur. England, France, and Russia did and so did Germany and Austria. They also well knew that, under the provisions of international law, the shipment of arms and munitions of war was permissible subject to the interception and seizure of them by belligerent enemies. Long before this war, which they knew was inevitable, started Germany and Austria had the opportunity and the influence to have changed the international law and there is no doubt that the United States would have joined them in this amendment. Far-seeing as its statesmen are and having well in mind the provisions of international law, yet, notwithstanding, Germany entered this war with the law as it now stands.

If international law had, at the beginning of the present war, prohibited the shipment of munitions of war from this country and the United States nevertheless had violated the rule and permitted the shipment of munitions of war, then it could be charged and convicted of a violation of the law and a breach of neutrality by the country adversely affected by such violation. Why? Because we would then have been guilty of an affirmative act unlawfully changing the established law to the injury and prejudice of a country with whom we are at peace without its consent. Such act would have been a breach of neutrality because, international law having been established by mutual consent, we would have no right to repeal and amend that law without the consent of those adversely affected by the change.

Now to prohibit and prevent the shipment of munitions of war by an affirmative act on our part, at the behest and for the exclusive benefit of one of the countries now at war, without the consent of the nations adversely affected thereby, would be a violation of international law and would constitute a breach of neutrality on our part which would be indefensible from the standpoint of good faith and good friendship to all on our part. Now it must be remembered that the United States government is not engaged in the shipment of munitions of war to other countries. A good many misguided and uninformed people have been led to believe that this country as a nation is thus engaged. It is true, that citizens of this country as a matter of business are engaged in manufacturing and selling to individuals, from whatever country they may come, munitions of war, as citizens of Germany, Austria, and other belligerent countries have done since time immemorial. President Wilson has not approved such shipments. It is entirely probable that, from a moral standpoint, he abhors the manufacture and sale of instruments and commodities to be used in the slaughter of human beings. He is a man of peace, and, if he had his way, wars in the future would be an impossibility.

But, as President of the United States,—a country which is in no sense responsible for this war—a country whose sole and passionate desire is to keep out of this conflict—Woodrow Wilson must execute the laws as he finds them and must maintain the neutrality of this country in accordance with the law of nations. This he has done patiently, persistently, and consistently, notwithstanding that blind and bitter partisanship, now on one side, now on the other, has done its best to shove him off his balance.

Permit me to say that you, and men like you, and newspapers publishing like articles commit a base and cruel slander on the President and on your country when you state otherwise. This country, of all the countries of the world, has kept its obligations and its poise.

In war-maddened Europe both England and Germany have attempted to annul the law to suit the exigencies of the moment. Our country, however, has contended, and, clearly within its rights, has demanded the observance of the law of nations and has refused to recognize the right of the warring nations to annul or to amend the same to our damage or in derogation of our rights.

How, then, in view of these facts, could we hold belligerents to their lawful duties if we were at the same time to violate the law and put ourselves in the same class with them. But this is what you and other critics ask this country to do. It is clear that you do not want this country to be neutral; you want it to take an affirmative and active part by governmental action to help one country and hurt another. Your and my government is endeavoring to maintain the status quo of a real neutrality. Those who are responsible for this movement which you approve of are endeavoring to shake and disturb it. Those who complain of our want of neutrality are complaining only because we have not become an ally of the country they favor.

If we listened to the insidious demands made by these countries that would have us violate our lawful obligation to respect the law of nations by affirmatively aiding and assisting their side, would we not be stopped from demanding reparation for the misconduct of the other countries who have been prejudiced by our unlawful and unneutral act? And would not such a flagrant breach of international obligation on our part justify reprisals against us, or worse than that, probably eventuate in a war with those countries who would thus be unlawfully and unfairly prejudiced by our act?

These countries who would have us place an embargo on arms and munitions with an eye solely to their advantage might well favor an act on our part which would plunge us into war with their enemies and thus make us their own ally. From the standpoint of their own material advantage, and owing this country no duty whatever, it is easy to understand the motive back of their wishes.

But what motive, I ask, prompts you or any other American citizen who, owing a duty only to this country, should have in mind at all times primarily the welfare of his own country, to aid and promote a foreign propaganda, which has for its object and end the plunging of this country into war with one side or the other.

I say I acquit you of any base motive and can only believe that your utterances and your actions are the result of a want of information and understanding and not a willful desire on your part to injure the country which you are bound to support.

You could not be either misguided or mistaken, however, if you had not blindly accepted as true the statement of facts and the statement of international law as promulgated by a foreign government and its emissaries rather than the statements of fact and the statements of law promulgated by your own government. What right have you to doubt the utterances of our President, who is serving this country with that singleness of purpose which has always distinguished the acts of our presidents?

What right have you to believe the utterances of emissaries, who have been sent from abroad with a singleness of purpose to serve their own government at whatever cost to ours by sowing discord and falsehood among our people and who are trespassing upon our forbearance and are violating obligations which we believe a visitor to our shores owes to our people?

To put it in another way, may I not ask you, as a citizen, what reason or right you have to believe or expect that a foreign country and its emissaries are safe advisers for the citizens of the United States to consult or follow? And may I not also ask you, what there is in the life of President Wilson as a man and his record as a president that warrants you or any American citizen or newspaper in believing or asserting that he is not a man to believe or a safe president and counselor to follow? These questions answer themselves.

This country is now confronted with a crisis. Notwithstanding the wave of popular indignation that has been aroused in this country, the President is straining every nerve to preserve peace and still maintain the honor and dignity of this country. You, and others that have been uttering the same charges that you have, have made the task more difficult than it otherwise would be. There appears to be a feeling in some foreign countries that our country is divided.

A short while ago, a prominent citizen of a foreign country, whose utterances are recognized as semi-official, stated in substance that, while his country was a unit, that that was more than could be said of the United States in all cases.

In the Milwaukee Journal of Wednesday, May 12th, a translated article from the Frankfurter Zeitung was quoted as stating “that because of the fact that we have naturalized German citizens and a number of natural-born Americans of German descent that a war between this country and Germany would be impossible because of the necessity of placing these citizens in the detention camp and that it would require our entire army to watch over them.”

These statements can only mean that the belief is entertained in that country that, in case of certain eventualities, this country would be divided and that certain of our citizens would side with Germany against our government. Such a belief if indeed prevalent in that country is a serious obstacle to a peaceful termination of our negotiations in the present crisis.

But to those of us who have read the history of the Revolutionary War, of the rebellion, and of every other war in which we have been engaged as a nation—those of us who love and admire our German friends and neighbors, who are familiar with their spirit of American citizenship and patriotism, who have lived amongst them and have felt and feel one with them, know that these statements are unfounded and we resent them as a base calumny upon some of our most respected citizens. It is an insult to American citizenship. It in effect amounts to a charge of disloyalty and treason against some of our best citizens. Such a statement should be publicly resented, however, first of all by those against whom this slander is directed, not because their loyalty and patriotism is doubted here, but because it is doubted elsewhere. It is necessary for the world to understand and know that America is united as one man. This will do more to keep us out of war than all the clamor and all the pressure that can be brought to bear upon our President to abandon our neutrality and to violate our international obligations.

Permit me to say that in a time like this it is your duty and the duty of every citizen of the United States to stand loyally and patriotically back of our government. Not only as a matter of law is it your duty but from a natural sense of obligation as a citizen of a great nation, whose benefits and blessings you enjoy, and whose existence you are at all hazards bound to preserve. We are fortunate indeed that we have a president like Woodrow Wilson at the head of our affairs at this time. A man less capable, less patriotic, less intelligent, less courageous might have precipitated us in the war before this. He is now standing four square to all the winds that blow, in an endeavor to preserve peace with honor, dignity, and safety to ourselves. Let all of us unite to do all we can to keep firm and [word illegible] any extreme and ill-considered speech.

In times like these, permit me to say that we should not only feel but act together. This is no time for petty partisanship or petty politics. This is a time for deliberation and moderation in thought, word, and deed. It is a time for the submersion of all our differences, sympathies, and feelings in a unity of purpose and desire for our country’s good.

In conclusion, permit me to say that all of us who may trace our ancestry across the sea no matter to what particular country, should be the first to speak out loudly and clearly that our undivided loyalty and allegiance is with America, always, no matter what may be our tie.

Yours very truly,
Paul O. Husting.

Washington, D. C., Apr. 1, 1916.

Rev. —— ——,

————, Wis.

Dear Sir:

Your letter of some time ago, expressing the disapproval of the pastors of the Lutheran Conference of the Iowa Synod held in Beaver Dam, in January, of my attitude on the embargo on munitions question was duly received. The letter appeared in the Milwaukee papers on the Saturday before and therefore its contents were familiar to me before receiving the same by mail. The reason that this letter was not answered was because it seemed to me that it called for no reply but that it was merely intended to give public expression to your disapproval by your Conference of my attitude and vote on these questions.

Now in reply to yours of the 20th inst. and also to that above referred to let me first say that I regret very much that any act or attitude of mine as Senator from Wisconsin should meet with the disapproval of any number of my fellow citizens. I am not insensible of the support that I received from many citizens of German extraction in the last campaign nor do I think that there is anybody representing the state of Wisconsin who is more anxious to please and to retain the confidence, respect, and good will of his fellow citizens of German extraction or ancestry, for that matter, than I am, provided that I can do so without acting inconsistently with my oath of office or my sense of duty.

In justification of my attitude let me say then that my vote and my attitude on our foreign relations are the result of deep-seated convictions based upon study and a great deal of thought upon this subject and I am maintaining such attitude and convictions upon the subject (notwithstanding that some of my fellow citizens disagree with me) because I am convinced that if I did otherwise I would be committing my country to a wrong and dangerous policy—a policy which not only might, but which probably would, force us into war and this is a result which I understand neither you nor any other citizen desires, if it can honorably be avoided. Holding such convictions (at least honestly formed) I feel that would be violating my oath of office and my duty as a Senator if I voted contrary to my convictions in order to please you or others. This I manifestly cannot and of course will not do. I consider it my first duty as a Senator and as a citizen to support and sustain my government in a crisis like this.

The criticism expressed in your letter is confined to two matters only, namely: First—My attitude on the embargo question. Second—My vote on the Gore Resolution. And you tell me that my attitude on the one and my vote on the other is not in accordance with the wishes or sentiments of the people of Wisconsin.

The substance of your criticism is contained in the sentence which I quote from your letter: “We therefore have a perfect right to expect that those men, whom we sent to represent our interests, whom we sent to represent us before the President we have elected, should vote as we would vote, if we had an opportunity to cast our vote. We know full well that you are not an instructed delegate, this being impossible, and yet you ought to vote as you know that your constituents require you to vote.”

Now let me ask you upon what you base your assertion that I am not voting the way the majority of my constituents “require” me to vote? The people of the state of Wisconsin have never yet recorded or had an opportunity to record their sentiment or opinions on these questions, and consequently I have no means at my command that will enable me to inform myself as to how my constituents would “require” me to vote. I believe that you will admit that you have no means of ascertaining or knowing how the people of Wisconsin would “require” me to vote and that you are merely assuming that all the people of Wisconsin feel as you and your associates do upon these matters. I believe furthermore that you will admit that sympathizing with Germany as you do that you are not an impartial and unbiased judge of the facts involved in the issue. I am sure that there are thousands of others in this state who believe and claim that the people of Wisconsin are overwhelmingly supporting President Wilson’s attitude on both of these questions. Of course these expressions of opinion come from many who also are not impartial and unprejudiced or unbiased in the premises although I may add that I have received scores and scores of letters from men of German ancestry who hold a like opinion to mine. With such conflicting opinions as is perfectly natural to be the case in a state of mixed population like Wisconsin even you must admit that the sentiment of the people of our state is by no means unanimous on the subject matter. At the beginning of and so long as our country was not in danger of being drawn into this terrible war, I also indulged myself in sympathizing with a certain side in this world’s struggle. But for over a year this country has stood and now stands on the very verge of a volcano and no one could, nor now can, know when we will be drawn into its crater. Consequently, ever since this danger has arisen, I have tried to dismiss from mind all interest in connection with the war except in so far as it affects or might affect the interests or rights of our people and our country and I harbor no motive in my consciousness in connection with my office other than to protect and promote our own country’s rights and interests. With such motive and such thought, I feel that I ought to be able to vote upon this European situation fairly and impartially as between the belligerents. I am at least conscious of this: That whatever attitude I take and whatever vote I cast is cast with reference solely to its effect on this country and regardless of its effect upon the welfare of any other country in the world.

Now under such circumstances do you think that I should allow your sympathies or the sympathies of your associates or my sympathies to outweigh and overcome my settled convictions, and that I should violate my oath of office as United States Senator and act and vote in direct contradiction to what I conceive to be my duty as a Senator and as a citizen of the United States? I cannot think that you would have me do so. I cannot in a letter repeat my reasons, which I have so often stated in public speeches and interviews, why I am opposed to our government placing an embargo on munitions of war and, consequently, I must refer you to such speeches and interviews for such information. I can only state that such action on the part of our country would in my judgment be a gross breach of neutrality which not only might, but probably would, involve us in a war with those foreign countries adversely affected by such action on our part. I voted against the Gore Resolution because I am opposed, by governmental action, to curtailing or abandoning the rights of our citizens upon the high seas or wherever they have a right to be, as an act unworthy of a great nation and of a great people, and, furthermore, because I am sure that with the passage of such a resolution our troubles in that respect would not have been ended but would have only just begun. With the abandonment of one right, we would soon have been called upon to abandon another and still another, and, having said “A,” we would not only have had to say “B” but we would have had to continue clear down the alphabet to “Z,” and we would finally find ourselves bereft of all rights cravenly and uselessly abandoned by us to wrong-doing countries. Personally, I would not now travel on the high seas unless I was obliged thus to travel and I would not ask or in fact advise any friend of mine to travel upon the high seas under present conditions, but what I am opposed to is that our government by affirmative action should warn our citizens not to travel upon the high seas and in effect then to license the world to kill and slaughter our citizens in the act of exercising their God-given and lawful rights so to do. Such authoritative action would be a puerile abandonment of the rights of our citizens and of our country and a cowardly withdrawal of the protection which our flag owes to our people and would not only invite the contempt and aggression of the belligerent nations but would bring us into contempt in the eyes of our own citizens themselves.

Now, in the sentence quoted, you characterized me as one of those “* * * whom we sent to represent our interests * * * .” Now let me ask you whether you or your associates have any interest which I am representing other or different in any degree from that of any other citizen of Wisconsin? You surely can have no interest, which I represent, in the success of any foreign nation in this war. You may have wishes or hopes in regard to the outcome of the war in Europe but as an American citizen you certainly have no interest in the result. The interests of our country, your interests, my interests, are identical and are limited to this: That we keep our hands off and let the warring nations fight it out according to the rules of international law and, if we can, protect the lives of our people and maintain their rights and the rights of our country and preserve our national honor. While it is not my duty to represent your wishes (which may stand in direct contravention to the dictates of our own national welfare), it is my duty to represent (and it is my conviction that I am performing that duty and am properly representing) the interests of the country, your interests, my interests, and the interests of all the people of the United States, when I take the attitude I am taking and vote as I have voted.

Now while I have grown up among people of German ancestry and have grown to love and respect my German-American neighbors, among whom I count you and many others of your cloth, I cannot and will not forget that as Senator I represent all of the people of Wisconsin regardless of ancestry or accident of birth and as such Senator I represent not only the people of Wisconsin but the people of the United States as a whole, and I want to say further that as long as I remain in the Senate I shall count the interests of my country first, wholly without regard to its effect upon my political fortunes or upon the fortunes of any foreign country.

While I have no authority to talk for anyone but myself, I believe that President Wilson is actuated by the same motives as I am. Can any man doubt that the President of the United States is doing what he does and acting as he acts with any thought in his mind other than the welfare of his country and of our people? Now you say in your letter, “I admit that we have not the insight into the inner affairs and for that reason leave it to the discretion of our representatives to cast their vote to the best welfare of the State”; and further you say in substance that you have taken a vital interest in this matter and that the consensus of opinion of your associates, the majority of whom are university men, is that an embargo should be placed upon munitions of war. Now you admit that your opinion is based upon imperfect, incomplete, unreliable, and (what at times must be) false information. You also inferentially admit, as you must admit (indeed as everybody knows is the fact) that the President and his Cabinet are in possession of the most perfect, the most complete, most reliable and most trustworthy information obtainable. Moreover, the President is also a university man (if that has anything to do with it) and is he not also a citizen of the United States who loves his country? Is he not a man of intellect, of integrity, of patriotism, of ability, of courage, a man possessing all those attributes that go to make up our idea of a good American citizen? As President, in the handling of domestic affairs, has he not shown himself mindful of the welfare of the masses of the people? In this world’s crisis has he not kept us out of war during the most trying times—under the gravest difficulties—when there was not a Congress in session and when there were no warning resolutions; when newspapers, politicians, partisans, and sympathizers were trying to provoke him into the most drastic action against one or the other side of this controversy? And this at a time when scores of incidents have occurred, each one alone of sufficient importance to have provoked us into war against one side or the other side of the belligerents, had the President been so minded. When you and I and all of us during the summer of 1915 were pursuing our peaceful occupations in Wisconsin, the President was left alone to carry a load that would have staggered and borne down any ordinary man! During all this time, in waking or in sleeping, has he had anything in his mind but the peaceful solution of his monumental task without dishonor to our country?

And now let me ask whether you ought not to admit that it is a little presumptuous on your part to think or claim that you are more patriotic, more desirous of doing, and better able to do justice between the belligerents of Europe—more desirous and better able to safeguard and protect the national honor and the welfare and rights of our people than our president, Woodrow Wilson? In other words, are you not willing to concede that, under all the facts and circumstances surrounding this vital matter, Woodrow Wilson ought to be better qualified in all respects to properly pass upon these questions and to protect our rights than anyone else who neither has the responsibility or the opportunity nor has devoted the thought and time to this matter, that he has?

Now would you and your associates, with all due respect to your learning and information, which at best (as you admit is, and which necessarily can be, based only on imperfect and uncertain premises) have me accept your judgment in this matter in preference to that of the President of the United States? Not only that, but would you have me under such circumstances disregard the judgment of the President and his Cabinet who are lawfully invested with the authority and business of determining these questions which as a matter of law is and as a matter of common sense ought to be final and binding upon the people of the United States and with this also abandon my own judgment and accept yours in lieu thereof? If each citizen of the United States would set his judgment and opinion above that of the President of the United States in our foreign affairs and refuse to abide by his conclusions in time of acute crises such as these, could anything but national chaos be the result? In domestic affairs that do not concern the life of the country we all have a right to insist upon our opinions and, even then, we must bow when overruled by the majority. Then how much more in foreign affairs must we lodge somewhere authority for determining matters affecting our national life itself. And where else shall we lodge them than in the hands of our President and Secretary of State, at least until all diplomatic means shall have been exhausted? Now I do not say that citizens have no right to express their opinions even on foreign affairs; but what I do say is that they ought not to so exercise that right and so conduct themselves as to embarrass and hinder our government in its diplomatic negotiations with foreign countries at times like these, and thus imperil, if not absolutely prevent, a peaceful solution of our difficulties, great enough in themselves, but made still greater by the utterances of some papers and persons which give color and basis for the claim and impression abroad that we are a disunited and demoralized people, a people who have lost their faith and confidence in their own government, and who will not give it their loyal and undivided support in all eventualities. We can maintain peace best by presenting a solid front to all nations to the end that they may know and understand that we are one and indivisible no matter what may come!

Now you further say: “As to the notion that under all circumstances the opinions of the President must be upheld, in order to be loyal Americans, that is pure and simple 'rot.’” Let me say to you that supporting the President under present circumstances is not “rot” unless loyalty to one’s country is also “rot”! Upholding the President under present circumstances does not mean the upholding of an individual in his opinion or judgment. For a Senator or a citizen of the United States to back the President and to accept his conclusions based upon known facts in foreign matters of gravest importance at a time of the nation’s peril like this is not a servile following of an individual and is not “rot.” On the contrary such backing and such acceptance is only supporting and maintaining one’s government. It is evidence of loyalty to one’s country. Such action and such acceptance is not merely supporting President Wilson as a man, it is supporting the United States—our government—our country, which the President for the time being represents and for which he is authorized to act and must act.

I quote further from your letter: “Our slogan is 'America first, last, and all the time, regardless of party lines, President, or representatives.’” Our President for the time being within certain limitations is America and he acts for America. And in my judgment it is the first duty not only of Senators but of citizens who are for America first, last, and all the time, to be for our government first, last, and all the time that for the time being is our government. No citizen can be against our government and still at the same time justly claim that he is for America. One cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.

Now there is another matter in relation to the Beaver Dam letter of Jan. 27 which was a communication entitled from the “pastors of the German Lutheran Church in Conference at Beaver Dam, Wis., Assembled.” It appears from this letter that you have assumed to put your church on record as opposed to the foreign policy of this government at a time when it was essential that the government should have the united support of its citizens and to make public your disapproval in your pastoral capacity, evidently for the purpose of bringing the President and the representative of your state into political disfavor with your church.

Now what I have to say in this connection is said in all friendliness to the members of the Conference, many of whom I personally know and respect. I acknowledge the right of any man, no matter what his profession or calling may be, to speak his mind freely on political matters and to vote as he pleases at elections and consequently every pastor has a right to express his own personal opinions on any subject that he may desire to speak upon and, furthermore, he has a right to express his own opinion without in any way injecting religion into politics so long as he merely expresses his own personal opinion and does not attempt to talk for his church or for the purpose, as pastor, of influencing the people of his church. I wish, however, to express my opinion that no matter what the merit or excellence of their motives or principles that may underlie such organizations or their actions, it will be an unhappy and unfortunate thing for the country and for the church when churches will be used as political organizations or utilities and when its pastors will become the heads of such organizations.

This country is and has been the refuge and the shield of all men who desire to worship God as they please. This is a country of freedom of religion as well as freedom of thought. We have been endeavoring for more than a century to keep our government and our politics divorced from religion. We have been endeavoring to permit these to run along parallel lines but at the same time to keep them separated and prevent them from impinging one upon the other. The separation of Church and State has been one of the keynotes in our arch and has thus far done much to strengthen and sustain our national structure. But in the last few years there has been a growing tendency to inject religion into politics. I have always steadfastly and consistently discouraged and criticized such tendency wherever I could. I consider it a most dangerous tendency—a tendency which bodes no good either to the nation or to the church. It is bad indeed to inject the Church into Politics. It is as bad or worse to inject Politics into the Church. If you inject the Church into Politics you will brush aside the traditions of our country since its existence and you will be laying the axe to the very roots of our government. And if you inject Politics into the Church you will also be laying the axe to the very roots of your religion. You cannot have politics in your church without having factions in your church and when you have factions in your church you will divide your church, which history shows has ever been the case when governments and churches mixed. Our Revolutionary fathers wisely profited by the experience of other nations and by the teachings of history when they provided that the State and Church should be forever kept separate. All good citizens will deplore anything that endangers our country; and all good people, regardless of religion, will deplore anything that will injure the Church—an institution [which] when properly separated from the government exercises an infinite influence for good in this country. For these reasons I hereby respectfully record my deep regret at the action of the Beaver Dam Conference because I fear that you may be setting an unwise precedent fraught with consequences of a dangerous character both to the Church and to the State in thus, as pastors, using the influence of your church in the manner attempted.

One thing to me seems certain; if we desire to continue the freedom of religion in our country, it can only be done by keeping it free from politics and if we are going to have freedom of politics it can only be done by keeping it free from religious interference. The one proposition is interdependent upon the other and the rule cannot be violated without lasting injury and damage to both Church and State. I trust that the great Lutheran Church and all of the other great churches of the country will never put themselves into the attitude of attempting to control the politics of the country. I most fervently hope that religious and racial influence and prejudices may never be permitted by any church or body of men to promote or prevent the election of any man to public office or to dictate to or to influence our government in its relations or negotiations with foreign nations.

Let me conclude by saying that in all of these troublous times we should remember that we are at peace—that we have been kept out of this war thus far by a president and an administration which have dedicated their efforts to promote the public welfare—that they are doing the very best they can to continue to keep us out of war if this can be done without loss of national honor or without surrendering or abandoning our national rights or the rights of our citizens. In this effort, the government should be sustained by all good citizens, regardless of race or religion. It is the duty of every citizen to sustain it! This is the country in which all our interests are centered—the only country to which we owe any loyalty or allegiance—the country which safeguards and protects us—the country which we in return are bound to protect and defend always. It is easy, of course, to be a good citizen in fair weather but it is in foul weather that the best citizenship is needed. It is in the storm and stress of national peril that loyalty and devotion to the public welfare is put to the acid test. Let us lay aside all of our differences, all of our sympathies, all of our prejudices, so far as they relate to other countries, and let us think and speak and act solely with regard to the good of our own country.

Very respectfully,
Paul O. Husting.

May 19, 1917.

Mr. —— ——,
————, Wisconsin.

My dear Sir:

Yours of May 16th was duly received and contents noted. In reply I want to say that your letter bears evidence of conscientious thought and your conclusions are, no doubt, honest. I assume you have written me not only for the purpose of giving your own views but also are inviting mine in return. And inasmuch as you have volunteered a doubt as to whether or not your German ancestry has colored or biased your judgment in the premises, I take the liberty of giving you my judgment on that point as I gather it from the context of this and your previous letter.

I believe your reasonings and your conclusions are from the German, not the American, standpoint. In other words, you are holding a brief for Germany and not for the United States. “How important a part” your “German ancestry plays” in this, it may be difficult for you to apprehend but your bias will readily be apparent to anyone who reads your letter. Now, you are an American-born citizen, I take it. You are an attorney-at-law and a member of the bar of Wisconsin. You owe a duty to your country which sympathy for Germany, no matter how genuine it may be, cannot diminish, much less nullify. Now the premises from which you as an American must reason are these: This country is at war with Germany. Your President, my President, our President, backed by a declaration of your Congress, my Congress, our Congress, has proclaimed that war exists. This was done for reasons which appeared sufficient to the President and the Congress to make this declaration imperative. The loyalty and the fidelity of the President and of Congress to the people of the nation has never been questioned or challenged and I do not understand you to challenge or question them now. You are merely attempting in your letter to set your judgment against theirs. Germany is now an enemy of the United States which means that she is your enemy, my enemy, our enemy. Now, it is plain, as the Vice President remarked in a speech some time ago, that we cannot have a hundred million presidents or secretaries of state, meaning, of course, that we can only have one of each at a time and that when these officers, to whom this power has been delegated, have, with the aid of Congress, committed this government to a war, that question to all intents and purposes of the war is settled for all men who are citizens of the United States. And when the status of our relations with a foreign country is once fixed as that of war, then the time for argument has ceased and there is no longer any room for controversy between citizens upon that question. The question then, for the time being, that is to say, during the pendency of the war, is a closed and not an open one. And for the sake of your peace of mind as well as in justice to yourself as an American citizen who does not desire his loyalty questioned or to have his honorable reputation permanently impaired, you should respect, obey, and support the mandate of your country in the spirit of true and devoted American citizenship.

Now, I assume you love this country and that you love it because it is a free country and that you are here practicing your profession because of your desire to live in and to practice law in a country where fullest and freest opportunity is afforded you to work out your own destiny in your own way. In short, I assume that you favor a republican form of government and that you are devoted to America and its free institutions. I am sure that you would not have anyone believe otherwise of you because that would impute to you disloyalty and moreover it would impute to you a lack of intelligent enterprise by your remaining in a country that according to your ideas is improperly governed instead of removing yourself to the jurisdiction of another country which more nearly squares with your ideas of good government. So, I repeat that I assume that you are here because you like to be here under a government that suits you and which you love better than any other government on earth. Now, it is evident in your letter that you love and sympathize with Germany but the question arises in my mind whether your love is for the German people or for the German government. You can easily put yourself to the test. If you love the German people then you must desire them to have as good a government as you enjoy here and it ought to make you happy that your country, if it prevails in this war, will make the German people as free and as happy as you are. If, on the other hand, you are mostly concerned in the success of the German government, that is to say, if you are mostly concerned in having the present Hohenzollern dynasty remain in power, then it would seem to be quite clear that your love is not for the German people but for the Hohenzollern dynasty and the German autocracy. In other words, your love would then be of the form and not of the substance. You cannot love this country and its institutions and at the same time love the German autocracy. These are incompatible and repugnant one to the other. They cannot both exist in the same heart at the same time. Your love for the German people, as is your love of mankind generally, is entirely compatible with your love of this country but it must be clear to you, as it must be perfectly clear to every American, that you cannot love your country and the German people and mankind generally and at the same time love the fearful German autocracy which is trying to impose or impress its system, its frightfulness, and its wish and will upon the world and which in its mad lust for power silences the promptings of conscience, scoffs at the weakness of love for human-kind, deafens its ears to the dictates of humanity, and which in pursuit of its fell purpose sets at naught all law human and divine. Now let me ask you to search your heart and see whether your love for the German fatherland is a love compatible with your duties as an American citizen—whether it is compatible with your love of liberty and humanity—whether it is compatible with the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence that all men are entitled to the right of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”! If such love is compatible with all these then your love for the German fatherland is a virtue and not a vice. But, if searching deeply into your heart you find that your love of the fatherland means that you love the relentless, ruthless, and despotic Hohenzollern dynasty and its system, pluck it out as you would a cancer, for it is a thing of evil and you cannot love it and be a good and true American.

You write “The President’s statement to the effect that the War is not directed against the German people never appealed to me.” For the reasons I have just given it should appeal to you as an American and as a lover of liberty and it should appeal to the German people themselves and their sympathizers in this country. It should appeal to lovers of liberty the world over—this statement that we are warring on a Power and not a People. We are warring on the Power because it has set its hand and might against the world and setting aside all laws of God and man it has outlawed itself and has no right to live. But in destroying this Power there is no intent, or disposition, or wish to destroy the People. The President’s statement means, as I interpret it, that the one thing that stands between peace and war with Germany is the Hohenzollern dynasty. Once let that obstacle be removed either by the German people themselves or by the arbitrament of arms and our troubles and differences with Germany are over. Now can an American citizen of German extraction who puts the welfare and happiness of the people of Germany ahead of that of the Kaiser or, in other words, ahead of the Hohenzollern dynasty and the autocratic system which that dynasty embodies and typifies, enlist himself, his sympathies, his resources, his life, in a higher and holier cause than to join in emancipating the German people from the thrall of the Hohenzollern dynasty and to save the German people whom he professes to love from a doom which an outraged world has pronounced and sealed against the ruthless and frightful Hohenzollern system? Now and here is the opportunity for all who love the German people to give proof of it. Let them all get back of the President and of their government and to the extent of their influence, ability, might, and power help to bring to their brothers in blood across the sea that priceless boon of liberty and independence which they or their ancestors sailed the perilous seas to find here in America. Let them make sacrifice and help and fight to give to their friends and kinsmen across the ocean that which was given to most of them here without cost or sacrifice on their part.

It is quite apparent to almost everyone that there can be no peace—no permanent peace—in the world so long as one power seeks to impose its autocratic straight jacket upon the world. Since the birth of the American Republic, the world has been marching away from autocracy and toward universal democracy, gathering irresistible momentum with the advance of time. All rulers, all statesmen, all men recognize this fact.

Even in countries autocratically ruled greater liberties and rights have been accorded the common people and it is only a question of time when the doctrine of the divinity of kings will become a tradition and the world will become one vast democracy. I repeat that the world is turning with irresistible momentum to a world democracy and the rulers of the world recognize that the logic of events is bound to substitute governments “of, by and for the people” in place of “of, by and for” kaisers, czars, and kings. There is practically one autocracy in the world which still has the power and efficiency to make that power felt in its attempt, its will and purpose upon the world; but one power on earth that today constitutes a menace and obstruction to the onward tread of democracy and that power is Germany! It is the Hohenzollern dynasty which is illogically, in indifference and contempt of the world’s sentiment, ignoring the teachings of history, unheeding the warnings of history with that fatuousness which always blinds the eyes of those who look only for their self-aggrandizement, that is trying to turn the world backward. It is the Hohenzollern dynasty that has thrown itself in the path of the onward march of liberty and progress, trying not only to stem the irresistible physical and spiritual forces of the world but actually trying to rout and drive them back into the dark ages of despotism. It must be obvious to every thinking man that this attempt will fail. No man or set of men in this day or age will be permitted to rule the world. Every ruler, every dynasty which unyieldingly places itself in the pathway of liberty and progress will be overthrown; every people, no matter how powerful or great, which blindly and absolutely places itself behind, follows, and clings to such ruler and dynasty, will inevitably sooner or later be crushed and utterly destroyed with it. And so the German autocracy which today menaces the world and obstructs its progress will be overthrown and the German people if they continue blindly and absolutely to cling to their dynasty will inevitably share the same fate. Whether Germany prevails in this war or not, there will be and can be no lasting peace until the inevitable end is reached. So that in the end, be it sooner or later, democracy will be established and autocracy will perish. The destruction of the autocratic Hohenzollern dynasty would be a blessing to the world. The destruction of the German people would be a calamity to the world. I do not believe that the German people are going to commit national suicide. I do not believe that they are long going to continue to sacrifice the substance for the form. I do not believe that they will deem it wise to suffer a national death in order to uphold the life of a government that is based on error, not on truth, which the world tried and found wanting, and which is responsible for the catastrophe which has befallen themselves and the world at large. It is unthinkable—it is unbelievable—that the German people are unaffected by the onward movement of democracy and that they alone will continue to hug the despotism and the system that is unsuited to the requirements and unworthy of a modern civilization. Wherefore, it would seem clear to me that all citizens of German extraction would be quick to realize and appreciate the force of the President’s declaration that we are not warring against the German people but against the German autocracy and would enthusiastically support their own government in a purpose which means freedom to the German people, and in thus giving their whole hearted support to their own government they would be discharging their duty, they would be true to their allegiance as American citizens, and at the same time they would be furthering the best interests of the German people and aiding them in the only way in which they properly can.

I have received a number of letters of the same purport as yours and I am going to publish my letter to you so that it may serve as an answer likewise to others who are minded as you are. I know that there are in our midst a number of serious, well-meaning men who hold the ideas and sentiments which you have expressed—sentiments which, it is perfectly clear, are incompatible with the duties and responsibilities of American citizenship in a crisis like this as well as incompatible with the intelligence and the character of the men entertaining them. In the various public speeches I have made and communications I have published during this crisis, I have sought to speak only in the furtherance of what I understand and conceive to be the truth of the matter and the welfare of our country. I have been animated solely by a purpose to dispel error and to promote the interests of our country and not by the slightest ill-feeling or malice toward any man. I have sought to express myself frankly and without reserve but, at the same time, I hope fairly, courteously, and without malice or feeling. Having lived amongst Americans of German extraction all my life and counting amongst them many of my best and dearest friends, I believe that I know their processes of thought, their sentiments, their prejudices, and their intelligence. I know that they would not prefer to remain in error if once convinced that they are in error. They do not want to be deceived. They do not want to be flattered into silence or apparent conviction. They like to hear straight, plain, blunt talk. Loving law and order and respecting authority, as I know they do, I have always believed that the great mass of our citizens of German extraction would never permit themselves to be placed in an attitude of hostility to the orderly and just administration of the law or permit their loyalty or fidelity to be suspected or challenged. I know that when once convinced they are quick to abandon a position once they see that it is untenable.

And so I have written this letter in the hope that I might be instrumental in showing you that your position is untenable and in the hope that you will abandon it for one which will reflect credit on your patriotism, your judgment, and your citizenship and which at the same time will afford you the best opportunity for advancing the interests and welfare of your kinsmen across the sea.

Very truly yours,
Paul O. Husting.

THE BEGINNINGS OF MILWAUKEE

Mr. B. F. Williams, of the firm of Williams and Stern, lawyers, of Milwaukee, visited the Historical Library in January in search of material concerning the building of the first courthouse in Milwaukee, to be used in an injunction suit to prevent the removal of the Milwaukee County Courthouse from its present site. A member of the Library staff assisted him in his work, and found among the Society’s manuscripts and pamphlets much material concerning the first days of American occupation in Milwaukee. The village of Milwaukee (east side) was organized in September, 1835, with Solomon Juneau as president; the village of Kilbourntown (Milwaukee west side) was organized about the same time with Byron Kilbourn as president. In January, 1838, the two villages were united by an act of the Wisconsin territorial legislature.

Morgan L. Martin, of Green Bay, was the real founder of Milwaukee. In 1833 he noted the advantages of the site for a harbor, and secured from Lewis Cass, secretary of war, an order for its survey. Meantime Martin made a proposition to Juneau, the only settler on the site, to take an undivided half of his claim, Juneau promising not to sell any of his share without Martin’s consent. Martin in this transaction evinced both wisdom and generosity—generosity in giving Juneau a chance to share the profits of the enterprise (for many men would have bought his claim outright for a small sum); wisdom in binding Juneau not to dispose of his share without advice. The result proved the value of Martin’s foresight. In 1834 the preËmption act made Juneau’s claim substantial. About this time Martin bought the preËmption right of Peter Juneau, which lay south of Solomon’s claim. The Michigan legislature, of which Martin was a member, erected Milwaukee County in 1834, and in 1835 organized the same, with the county seat at the village of Milwaukee.

In the meanwhile during 1834 many Americans visited the site of the future city and saw its possibilities for growth. Among these was Byron Kilbourn who secured a claim to the west side of Milwaukee River. Martin and Juneau, early in 1835, proposed to Kilbourn to unite their interests. Kilbourn ignored this offer, and proceeded to develop his town alone. Meanwhile both town sites were surveyed and their plats put on record. Martin and Juneau began to develop their property, by opening and grading streets. One block in the heart of the town was set aside for the courthouse, and nearly $12,000 (a large sum for that time) was spent in erecting a suitable building. The ground around the new public building was given to the village in perpetuity, for the use of the county courts.

A large number of letters from Juneau to Martin are in the possession of the State Historical Society, and are interesting as revealing the growth of the village, and the personality of its proprietors. Although Martin and Juneau had transactions involving many thousands of dollars, there never was any disagreement between them. Neither did they have a written contract, each one relying upon the honor of the other. And when hard times fell upon the little settlement in 1837 and later, each partner bore his share of misfortune cheerfully and without a word of accusation or disagreement. Even after the union of Milwaukee village and Kilbourntown in 1838, a considerable rivalry was maintained between the two parts of the town, which in some measure has persisted to the present day.

Louise P. Kellogg.

THE SENATORIAL ELECTION OF 1869

In 1869 Wisconsin elected a new senator to represent her in Congress. It was conceded on every hand that James R. Doolittle, whose term expired March 4, 1869, had misrepresented the state’s sentiment in his support of President Johnson during the impeachment trial, and that he had no chance of reËlection. This situation brought out a number of candidates, most of whom were “new” men. Among the tried and true candidates the most prominent were Cadwallader C. Washburn, then congressman for the southwestern section of the state, and Horace Rublee, vigorous editor of the chief Republican newspaper at Madison. Ex-Governor Salomon was also in the field, but his candidacy was not taken very seriously. The new men who were most prominently talked of were Otis H. Waldo and Matt H. Carpenter, both of them Milwaukee lawyers. Waldo was the elder of the two, a man of ability and power, and a Republican from the foundation of the party. Carpenter was of Democratic antecedents, a recent adherent of the reigning party. His strength lay in his brilliant oratory, keen wit, and deep knowledge of men. Erratic in his methods, but meteoric in his cleverness, he persuaded and enthralled his hearers when opportunity was afforded him for speech. Carpenter had made a national reputation by his arguments in the Supreme Court on the Reconstruction issue. The president-elect, General Grant, and his advisers were favorable to Carpenter’s candidacy, which gave the Milwaukee lawyer a strong endorsement with Wisconsin Republicans.

The senatorial campaign opened in June, and largely governed the elections for the ensuing Wisconsin legislature. By December the situation had become acute, and all parties were lined up for the contest. The preferences of every legislator-elect were canvassed and recanvassed; and each candidate presented his claims and qualifications to the prominent members of the coming legislature in personal letters. The State Historical Society has recently received a gift of a few letters relating to this campaign addressed to the Honorable Andrew Jackson Turner, of Portage, then an influential figure in Wisconsin politics. Three of these letters, written in the early winter of 1868-69, are from Carpenter, who bespeaks Turner’s support at the coming legislative session. Turner, however, had given his pledge to Horace Rublee, and had been by him chosen manager of his campaign. December 9, 1868, Carpenter wrote to Turner from Washington: “I rec^d your favor just as I was leaving home, postponing me in your affections to Mr. Rublee. But I think this will make no difference. I am sure the conflict will be between Mr. Washburn and myself & that he will be elected, if I am not. You say that you shall support me next to Rublee, and I desire to thank you for this.”

The most interesting letter of the lot is that of Rublee himself, written November 23, 1868. In it he canvasses the entire legislative personnel, telling of the predilections of each member and concluding: “In my judgement Carpenter cannot be elected, & I certainly think he ought not to be elected.”

As all the world knows, Rublee was wrong. During the legislative session, Carpenter’s manager arranged a public meeting in which all the candidates were to set forth their views on the questions of the day. This meeting was contemptuously dubbed by Rublee “A Spelling-down”; none the less, neither he nor any other of the candidates dared refuse the invitation to speak. Carpenter’s great powers as an orator stood him in good stead, and at the Republican caucus held soon after the speech-making contest, he was triumphantly nominated, and elected, in due course, by the Republican majority in the state legislature.

The intimate picture these old letters afford of the log-rolling days before the direct election of the senators by the people, gives them historical value for students of political methods, and lays bare the reasons that induced the modern revolt against “machine-made” representatives in the upper house of Congress.

Louise P. Kellogg.

“KOSHKONONG” AND “MAN EATER”

Lake Koshkonong is one of the most beautiful sheets of water in Wisconsin. In primitive times the region adjacent to it must have constituted a perfect paradise for the red man. Even yet, notwithstanding its settlement by whites for nearly three generations, this is one of the favorite resorts of Wisconsin sportsmen. The Indian name “Koshkonong” has usually been explained as meaning “the lake we live on.”[132] The letter which follows, recently presented to the State Historical Society by H. L. Skavlem, of Janesville, offers both a new rendering of the Indian name and a new interpretation of it. No less interesting to those who care for Wisconsin’s primitive history is the new rendition offered of the name of Man Eater, the Rock River chief who dwelt on the shore of Lake Koshkonong a century ago. Mrs. Kinzie, the author of Wau Bun, saw Man Eater or “Mee-chee-tai” on at least two occasions. Over against the sad picture which Peter Vieau paints should be set her description of him as “a most noble Indian in appearance and character.”

Portage, Sept. 2, 1900.

Mr. Buckley, Attorney, Beloit, Wis.

Dear Sir:

Having forgotten your initials I am compelled to address you as above.

Some months ago you wrote me concerning “Man Eater’s” village and why he was called “Man Eater.” I had no knowledge of the origin of his name, but the location of his village was easily ascertainable. Your inquiry aroused a desire to know more of the famous old Indian and I have made many inquiries myself, but without results, until the thought occurred to me to address a note to the venerable Peter J. Vieau, of Muskego, which I did through Mr. D. M. Fowler, of Milwaukee. I copy from Mr. V.’s reply, through an amanuensis:

“I never knew a lake of that name 'Kosh-ko-nong’ but I know 'Kosh-kau-no-nong,’ meaning termination of a lake or river, a dam or any obstruction making an ending, a stop, an absolute end.

“Well, then, I never knew a chief of that name, but I knew one of the name of 'Mee-chee-tai.’ He was not a full-blooded chief, but was considered as one among the Indian tribe. He was half Winnebago and Pottowatomie. He was a powerful man and a terror among the tribe. He was looked upon as a sorcerer, and lived at that time as I recollect in the neighborhood of Kosh-kau-no-nong. He used to do his trading with Jacques Vieau, my father, when my father opened his trading post in Milwaukee as early as 1795. It must be the same man Mr. Turner refers to 'Mee-chee-tai’; it means 'Heart-Eater.’ Now then the above statement can be substantiated by my sister, Mrs. May Vieau Lavigne, visiting with me at present. She knew him well, too.

“'Mee-chee-tai’ was killed by his son in a drunken frolic about the time of the speculation in Milwaukee in '35 or '36. He killed his wife and his son 'Shaw-gun-osh’ tried to save his mother, and killed the old man his father, and that ended his fearful career. He was considered a good Indian when sober. Father used to think much of him. He was honest in his dealings. He was a great juggler, performed great tricks, &c.

Yours P. J. V.”

Did you ever see any reference to this Indian in any place other than “Wau-Bun”?

Very respectfully,
A. J. Turner.

THE ALIEN SUFFRAGE PROVISION IN THE CONSTITUTION OF WISCONSIN[133]

According to the organic law of Wisconsin Territory, enacted by Congress in erecting the territory in 1836, only citizens of the United States were eligible to the franchise (section V, proviso). About the year 1840, immigrants from Germany, the British Isles, and Norway became an appreciable factor in the population of the territory; but the naturalization law requiring a five years’ residence disfranchised this large group of settlers. The situation grew tense by 1843, especially since the question of statehood was being discussed, and seemed likely to come to a head in 1844. Moreover, the matter was complicated by the Native-American agitation throughout the country. Many openly advocated a twenty-one year provision for naturalization, and Wisconsin’s foreigners grew restive under this possibility.

It seemed quite certain that the Wisconsin legislature of 1844 would pass a law providing for a referendum on the subject of statehood. In December, 1843, a large public meeting of German citizens was called at Milwaukee who drew up a petition for the right to participate in this referendum. This was signed by 1,200 persons, and was probably the largest petition ever presented to the territorial legislature. It became impossible to ignore the demand of the foreign settlers. The Whig and Democratic parties were struggling for the control of the territorial offices. Wisconsin was normally Democratic by an overwhelming majority, but the Tyler administration had appointed a Whig governor, and patronage went with the administration. The Whigs were accused of alliance with nativism; it therefore became them to prove the falsity of the charge. The Democrats felt certain of the foreign vote. The legislature, therefore, on January 22, 1844, passed “An Act in relation to the qualification of voters for state government and for the election of delegates to form a state constitution,” which provided that “all free white male inhabitants above the age of 21 years, who have resided in said territory three months shall be deemed qualified, and shall be permitted to vote on said question” and for delegates to a convention to frame a constitution.

The referendum vote which was taken in September, 1844, proved adverse to the question of a state government. There is no means of ascertaining how many foreigners voted upon the question, but the entire vote was very light, and the alien voters seem not to have influenced the decision, which was anticipated by all parties in the territory.

About the same time the territorial legislature passed the act above referred to, General Henry Dodge, Wisconsin’s territorial delegate in Congress, presented to that body a petition signed by 300 citizens in the western part of the territory praying for a repeal of the proviso in the fifth section of the organic law of Wisconsin, and for the passage of a law granting suffrage to every free white male inhabitant of the age of twenty-one years within the territory, foreigners included. This is the petition referred to by G. F. Franklin in his Legislative History of Naturalization. The names of the signers of the petition are not available. We conjecture that they were those of the Cornish miners of that region, rather than of the American settlers, because in after debates, the southwest section of the state opposed the law allowing aliens to vote.

The law of 1844 was at once attacked, and was made the basis of an attempt to defeat several prominent members of the legislature who had voted for it. This was especially true in the northeast section where the reËlection of Dr. Mason C. Darling, a prominent Democrat, was opposed because of his advocacy of the alien voting law. It was claimed that the law was unconstitutional, violating both the Constitution of the United States and the organic law of the territory. Dr. Darling came out with several long addresses on the subject, basing the right of aliens to vote on the twelfth article of the Ordinance of 1787, and on the inherent right of a sovereign state to form its constitution as it thought best.

Dr. Darling was reËlected, but the legislature of 1845 had hardly begun its session when a determined effort was made to repeal the law of the previous session. In the course of the debates Dr. Darling offered a clause on the declaration of intention as an amendment, and another member amended the three months to six months. Both of these changes were accepted by the friends of the bill as compromise measures to mitigate the opposition. Dr. Darling said in his argument that he considered the intention declaration as of no consequence, except as an evidence of actual settlement. This compromise saved the bill, and the amended act, approved February 8, 1845, reads: “No person shall hereafter vote upon the subject of state government, or for delegates to form a state constitution, who shall not have resided six months within the Territory, and as an additional qualification shall be a citizen of the United States, or shall have declared his intention to become such; as the law requires.”

Thus the matter rested until the legislature of 1846 arranged again to submit the question of a state government to the people. An attempt was made by the Whig party to amend the law of 1845 and allow only citizens to vote. The suffrage provision was complicated by differences concerning negro, half-breed, and Indian suffrage. On the test vote the law of 1845 was maintained by the strong majority of 19 to 7, nearly all the Democrats voting in its favor.

The constitutional convention met in October, 1846, and the question of alien suffrage was much debated. Upon the ground that the acts of 1844 and 1845 were both unconstitutional, petitions poured in, especially from the Southwest, to limit the franchise to citizens of the United States. The foreigners also availed themselves of the right of petition, and the able German delegates in the convention created a favorable impression for alien suffrage. As finally adopted, the article granted suffrage to one-year residents, and “all white persons not citizens of the United States, who shall have declared their intention to become such, in conformity with the laws of Congress for the naturalization of aliens, and shall have taken before any officer of this state * * * an oath to support the constitution of the United States and of this state.”

The constitution of 1846 was rejected by the people. In the discussion, then, of the provision for alien voters it played but a small part. The friends of the constitution set forth its liberality to foreigners and the fact that it acknowledged the equal rights nature bestowed upon foreign and native-born citizens alike. Opponents of the constitution set forth on the one hand the over-liberality to the alien element, and on the other hand the requirement of an additional oath as an illiberal burden to foreign residents.

In the constitutional convention of 1847-48 the subject of the foreign franchise occupied a large share of the time of the delegates. The delegates from the western counties came with a deliberate determination to limit the franchise to citizens of the United States. The admission of foreigners to suffrage placed the West in a permanent minority, as the lake-board and middle sections of the territory had the bulk of the immigrant population.

The original proposition as brought in by the committee restored the residence requirement to six months, retained the intention of citizenship clause, and omitted the special oath. The examples of New York, Ohio, and Illinois were cited. One member urged that the one-year requirement was necessary in New York to ascertain the permanent character of the residence, while all who came to Wisconsin came for permanent homes and six months was long enough to prove residence. The effect of the shorter period would be to encourage foreigners to file their intentions sooner. It was admitted that the six-months provision was carried in committee by a very narrow majority.

The attack on the article on alien suffrage was begun by an amendment to limit suffrage to citizens. It was alleged that the article as reported by the committee was unconstitutional and would cause Congress to reject the constitution. In reply the similar provisions in the constitutions of Ohio and Illinois were cited. The new constitution of Illinois was cited by both parties to the controversy; one claiming the change had occurred because of dissatisfaction with the more liberal provision; the other that Illinois’ new constitution had not yet been acted upon. Charges were freely made of demagoguery—that the Democrats were toadying to the foreign vote. In reply, the Democrats appealed to the liberality and progressiveness of their party policies, and declared that the aliens, being taxed, were entitled to vote. The citizen amendment was defeated by a vote of 53 to 16; and the suffrage article as originally reported by the committee was incorporated into the constitution. With the amendments required by the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the provision was part of the organic law of Wisconsin until 1912.

Louise P. Kellogg.

[132] So given by Mrs. John Kinzie in Wau Bun, The Early Day in the Northwest, (Caxton Club ed. Chicago, 1901) 252. Isaac T. Smith in Wisconsin Historical Collections, VI, 424, explains that the Winnebago name “Koshkonong” meant “the place where we shave.” He adds, however, that the Potawatomi name for the lake meant “the lake we live on.” This interpretation is also given by Rev. Alfred Brunson in Wis. Hist. Colls., I, 118.

[133] This rÉsumÉ was prepared in response to a recent request received by the Historical Library for information on the subject.

INCREASE A. LAPHAM AND THE GERMAN AIR RAIDS

The reader may well be excused if at first sight he is puzzled over our title. What possible connection can there be between the simple Wisconsin scholar, whose life of busy service for the betterment of humanity terminated almost half a century ago, and the baby-killing air raids upon London and other English cities with which the soldiers of Emperor William are accustomed to divert themselves?

Gentle reader, we propose to show you. Increase A. Lapham delved in many fields of learning, but chiefly he was a scientist and perhaps his greatest single achievement was his practical conquest of the secret of foretelling the weather. Now we learn, on the authority of the London Illustrated News, that the imperial German government has utilized Lapham’s discovery to insure the success (or at least to minimize the danger) of its air raids on London. “When the east wind blows beware of air raids.” Thus might a modernized English edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac read. Also, “When the night is moonlight, beware of air raids,” but frequently moonlight nights are enjoyed sans the nocturnal visitants. The twofold explanation is that the air raiders must have clear weather and it is desirable if not essential that they have the wind behind them on the outward raid and in their faces on the return journey, rather than vice versa. The Germans have control of Europe from the North Sea far into Russia and so it is possible for their meteorological observation posts to give warning for something like twelve hours in advance of any change in weather conditions coming down behind an east wind. As long, therefore, as there is a steady wind across Europe anywhere between northeast and southeast those in charge of the raiding squadrons in Belgium have full warning of what the weather is going to be like. Accordingly the fiendish flying brood can be sent forth in confident assurance that neither its arrival at its destination nor its return to the home station will be frustrated by stormy weather.

Increase Lapham labored for years to promote his great discovery because he had a vision of the service it would be to mankind. One of his most striking arguments for enlisting community action in the promotion of his work was a calculation of the number of lives and of vessels which annually would be saved from destruction on Lake Michigan alone. Happily for him he did not live to witness the spectacle of the world’s most efficient government perverting his great achievement to the promotion of the indiscriminate slaughter of the men and women, the mothers and babies of the world’s greatest metropolis.

SAVE THE RELICS[134]

The original of the letter written by Horace Greeley, sometime near the middle of the sixties, in reply to the application for advice of a discharged soldier boy, and in which occurred the famous phrase, “Go west, young man, and grow up with the country,” is supposed to have been destroyed, with other valuable historic papers, in a recent fire in Youngstown, Ohio.

It was superb advice profitably followed by thousands of young men, sires and grandsires of millions of the finest of western citizens of today.

But—Why was that historic document in private possession? That was not at all fit wit for our Youngstown friend to exhibit. In the safe custody of the Ohio Historical Society that precious letter justly belonged, and there it would repose securely now if prudence had but guided its owner.

Which raises the pertinent question—Have you an historical souvenir that is being endangered while you neglect to transfer it to the Wisconsin State Historical Society? Wisconsin homes contain many mementoes that rightly belong in the historical society’s fireproof building.

Are you playing safe? Let us not expose the lack of circumspection shown by the Youngstown antiquarian. Besides—Ten thousand persons can enjoy relics in the historical rooms where one does in a private home.

Therefore—Be warned!

THE NEWSPAPERS[135]

It is the glory of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin that Draper gathered into its collections the papers of the Ohio Valley migrations, that Thwaites added the records of the fur trade, and that neither forgot while pursuing these remote and unique sources to assemble day after day the current accumulations of the people among whom they lived. As the latter collector and editor loved to say: The history for tomorrow is preserved in the waste paper baskets of today. The society that lays aside the policy of accumulating accessions to devote itself to the conscious pursuit of particular treasures can never become more useful than its curators or wiser than its superintendent. The greatest libraries are those whose growth has been chiefly in the routine addition, from year to year of all that has been regarded as worth saving, and of much more whose immediate value has been doubtful.

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin has for so many years followed the practice of saving its daily newspapers, and adding to them as opportunity occurs, that it now owns one of the notable American collections. From the middle of the last century, when the state came into being, the development of its people can be traced in the detail which only the inquisitive county daily can follow. Its relations to the Northwest and to the rest of the nation can be checked in the selected files which have ever been cherished. Through the wise foresight of its founders it owns the great sources for all of modern history—for in our day the course of the historian is more and more fundamentally laid among the newspapers.

It has not been altogether easy to build up this collection. A metropolitan daily of today means twelve large volumes to be bound, shelved, and housed each year. The cubic contents of the sources know no limit. There is some room for fear that after they have been stored away they may rot in their bindings before any scholar uses them.

But no society which understands the course of modern history can fail to run the risk of dry-rot or to preserve such records as exist. For no period before the present is there such a factual reconstruction possible as we possess. No newspaper can lie and live—very long. The user must correct for bias, and careless error, and malicious misstatement, all of which occur in nearly every issue of any paper. But no student can read a continuous series of files for twenty years without knowing that he has before him the truth, and more of the truth than society has known in any earlier period.

In our judgment one of the great functions of any historical society today is to collect ephemeral literature, beginning with the newspapers of its immediate region and extending as far as its money and its shelves permit. No Society should be too poor for the town dailies and one New York file. Larger societies may take in the county, or the region, as the area for their collections, and may increase the selected list of remote journals to be preserved. All will be judged in the future by the intelligence and patience in this direction which their shelves may finally reveal. None can be permanently of greatest use with a policy such as is exposed in the journal of a sister society:

“The State of * * * has thousands of them [newspapers] in the Libraries of the State House. Many of them are bound, others are unbound, tied in bundles and carefully stowed away. Their day is done; rarely has any one in our knowledge asked to examine any of these newspapers for any date or facts. History has culled from them such truths as could point a moral, or hold out a danger signal to the world of the present time, and they are closed, perhaps never more to be consulted.”

REMOVING THE PAPACY TO CHICAGO

Possession of the faith by which mountains are removed is, we are inclined to think, the fundamental characteristic of the American spirit. To the American all things are possible because the true American takes it for granted that to him nothing is impossible. The manifestation of this spirit has its unpleasant—oftentimes its ridiculous—side, of course; yet the possession of it has made possible the performance here in the New World of miracles as astonishing as any set forth in holy writ.

By popular consent the metropolis of our inland seas has long since come to be regarded as perhaps the most striking exponent, among cities, of the characteristic American spirit. Throughout her history the supreme confidence of her citizens in the city’s present greatness and future development, together with the will to transmute the prolific visions of her leaders into present realities, has constituted her most valuable civic asset. We have seen no better illustration of this characteristic Chicago (and American) spirit than the one contained in a story which William J. Onahan, a Chicago Irishman of sixty-four years’ standing relates. Meeting Mr. Armour on a street corner at a time when, because of political turmoil in Italy there was talk of the Pope’s seeking an asylum outside the peninsula, the two stopped to talk for a moment, whereupon the captain of industry calmly proposed that the papacy be brought to Chicago. Onahan undertook to explain something of the magnitude of the Pope’s responsibilities, and the impossibility of the proposed removal from the Eternal to the Windy City, with the following result:

“Mr. Armour listened patiently to my harangue on the necessities of the Pope, and then proposed another conundrum to me: 'How much would it take to provide all these buildings?’

“I did not know; could not guess. Would it take ten millions—twenty millions?

“'Look here,’ he added, 'you undertake this affair. You know how to manage these things. You get the Pope to agree to come to Chicago. We can arrange and provide everything suitable for his needs.’

“'Why, how on earth could you do these things?’ I asked in bewilderment.

“'I’ll tell you my idea,’ he said. 'We will get a big tract of land outside Chicago, ten or twenty thousand acres. We will build necessary offices, a palace, a great Cathedral, whatever may be necessary. Half that land set apart and turned over to the Pope, don’t you see that we will make enough out of the other half to pay for the whole business?’

“I was dumfounded at the audacity of the idea, the ingenuity and method of carrying it out, and the characteristic Chicago aim—'there’s money in it.’ When, many years afterwards I saw the wonderful 'White City’—the World’s Fair—its marvelous architectural beauty, the vastness and symmetry of its buildings, the beauty of all the arrangements, I said to myself, Chicago could indeed, if put to it, build a new Eternal City.”

[134] Reprinted from the editorial column of the Madison Democrat, January 22, 1918.

[135] Contributed by Prof. Frederic L. Paxson.

“CAMOUFLAGE” AND “EATLESS DAYS” TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO

The war in Europe has revived, and brought into common use, in all languages, the term “camouflage,” denoting any contrivance to hide or disguise by one side to deceive and confuse the enemy. This term, if derived from the French camouflet, pronounced cam-u-flay, appears in the International Encyclopedia and is defined as: “A stinking compound in paper cases used in siege attacks to blow into the faces of sappers and miners to confuse them.” The word must have been buried, for I find no mention of it in any other encyclopÆdia. The use of the term in a wider sense appears in The Letters to Authors, of Voltaire, dated 1730, where he savagely characterizes a rival writer of that period thus in rhyme:

There is no set of Voltaire in English in Monroe, hence I translate without rhyme the French copy:

I find by the same author, under the title, Misfortunes of Charles I:

“Parliament ordered the public burning by the hangman of the tract written by James the First wherein he states that it is proper for people to have sport and amusements after divine service on Sundays. The same parliament names one day each week as a day of fasting and ordered that the value of the food thus saved be paid to help defray the expense of the civil war then raging.”

Yours truly,
John Luchsinger.

Monroe, Wisconsin.

DANIEL WEBSTER’S WISCONSIN INVESTMENTS

At the time of the appearance of the communications relating to Webster’s western investments in the first and second numbers of this magazine I chanced to see in the Personal Recollections of Robert S. Rantoul (Cambridge, Mass., Privately Printed, 1916) a reference to the same subject which seems worth calling to the attention of those interested in western history.

The author of the Recollections says that the early death of his father, Robert Rantoul, was in part due to the financial disaster which overtook him—he died at forty-seven—and proceeds to explain the circumstances. He had known that his father spent much time in the Middle West between 1845 and 1850 and that he had a high estimate of the economic and political possibilities of the upper Mississippi Valley; but it was not until long after his father’s death that he learned something of the speculations and reverses in that region which hastened it.

The facts were as follows: Rantoul, Rufus Choate, and Caleb Cushing were trustees in a scheme, in which Webster, Cass, and a few others were also concerned, to get control of the headwaters of the Mississippi, saw the lumber, and float it down to markets in the rapidly growing cities and towns of the Middle West. Cass had shown that such a plan was practicable; but the associates knew, also, that there was mineral wealth in the region of Fort Snelling. Indian implements of that vicinity were inlaid with lead and copper. They had ill-timed, if not over-sanguine, hopes of great gain therefrom. The trustees managed everything and issued stock certificates in December, 1845. They had received a charter the preceding August as the St. Croix and Lake Superior Mineral Company. Nothing but trouble followed. After a dam had been built at St. Anthony’s Falls their land titles were attacked and their logs were carried away by a spring flood. Cushing, who was to have been governor of the new territory, went to the Mexican War. Choate was too absorbed in his profession and too indifferent to business matters to pay attention to the management of the undertaking. The whole burden fell upon Rantoul and was too great for him to bear. After his death in 1852 Cushing gave some attention to the business but Rantoul’s executors would not coÖperate and his interest in the project lapsed with loss of the money and labor which he had devoted to the enterprise.

The son also remarks on the fact that his father was one of the incorporators of the Illinois Central Railroad, wrote its charter, and passed it through the legislature, where—as is well known—Abraham Lincoln was the opposing counsel.

Yours truly,
Asa Currier Tilton.

Madison, Wisconsin.

THE SOCIETY AND THE STATE

Twenty-one new members were added to the State Historical Society during the quarter ending March 31, 1918, eight to the life and thirteen to the annual membership class. In addition, two annual members of the Society, Col. Marshall Cousins, of Eau Claire, and Oscar G. Boisseau, of Holden, Mo., transferred to the life membership group. The new life members are: John S. Allen, John N. Cadby, Williard O. Hotchkiss, Edward J. B. Schubring, Halsten J. Thorkelson, Madison; Adam A. Beck, Rev. James M. McManus, William A. Roblier, of Coloma; John H. Tweedy, Jr., of Milwaukee. The new annual members are: Prof. John G. Callan, Peter J. Connor, Prof. Charles A. Smith, Miss K. Bernice Stewart, Mrs. Magnus Swensen, of Madison; W. I. Goodland, E. W. Leach, of Racine; Azel C. Hough, of Janesville; Andrew J. Hutton, of Waukesha; John B. MacHarg, of Appleton; Charles D. Stewart, of Hartford; R. E. Van Matre, of Darlington; John P. DeMeritt, of White Plains, New York.

* * * * *

Many interesting additions to the Library’s collection of non-current newspaper files were made during the first quarter of 1918. By far the most important is the Illinois Intelligencer, published at Kaskaskia and (later) Vandalia, for the years 1817-31. This paper was the first to be published in Illinois, its name in the beginning being the Illinois Herald. Through the courtesy of the University of Illinois Library our Society has been afforded the opportunity to make a photostatic reproduction of the file for the fourteen years included in the period noted. From the widow of the founder and publisher, Rev. I. L. Hauser, has been received the file for the first five years, 1869-74, of the Milwaukee Index, later and better known as the Christian Statesman. Other Wisconsin files acquired include the Algoma Record, 1910-18, and six issues (out of a total of ten published) of the Bugle Blast, Lake Mills’ first newspaper. From Minnesota has come a complete file of the short-lived Winona Daily News, published from September 14 to October 7, 1916. Other files from without the state include: Lawrenceburg Indiana Palladium, April-December, 1825; Indianapolis Locomotive, 1850-52; Logansport Journal, April-December, 1864; Cincinnati Brauerei Arbeiter Zeitung, 1910-17; Baltimore Manufacturers Record, 1916-18; New York Army and Navy Journal, 1902-10; New York Fatherland, 1914-17; Tokyo Japan Mail, 1915-17.

* * * * *

Through the agency of the historical committee of the Congregational Church in Wisconsin an important collection of yearbooks, church periodicals, pamphlets, books, and other material on Congregationalism, which had been gathered at the business headquarters of the church in Madison, has been turned over to the State Historical Society. Much of the collection thus received duplicates material already owned by the Library; it will go in due time to swell the resources of some sister institution which lacks and needs it. The remainder constitutes a welcome addition to our own important collection of material in the field of Congregational church history. Thus another step is taken in the process of making the State Historical Library the repository of all available material pertaining to the history of the several religious denominations of Wisconsin. For the latest acquisition particular obligation is acknowledged to Rev. John N. Davidson, Rev. S. T. Kidder, and Rev. Henry A. Miner, Congregational ministers, all of Madison. Their active and intelligent interest in making the sources of their denominational history accessible to scholars is worthy of emulation. Who will be next to “come across” on behalf of his own denomination?

* * * * *

Mrs. Anna Roberts Beagle, of Menomonie, has presented the Society with three interesting family heirlooms. One is a Welsh Bible brought to America in 1817 by her father, Richard Roberts, who in later life was for many years a resident and justice of the peace at Menomonie. Another is a sword carried by her father’s brother, Daniel Roberts, in the War of 1812. The third is an English hunting knife brought from England in 1817, which according to the tradition of the family has been in its possession for many generations.

* * * * *

From Fred M. Griswold of Lake Mills have been received six issues of the Lake Mills Bugle Blast, publication of which as a monthly was begun in December, 1863. Mr. Griswold states that the Bugle Blast was Lake Mills’ first paper, and that only ten issues were published in all. It was a modest sheet, put out, apparently, in spare time by the proprietor, who also played the rÔles of editor and devil as well. The annual subscription price was twenty-five cents at first, but before long the cost of materials compelled an increase to thirty cents. The file which Mr. Griswold has presented constitutes an interesting addition to the Society’s collection of Wisconsin newspapers.

* * * * *

During the month of March, a special exhibit of Dutch war cartoons, lent for the purpose by Prof. Arnold Dresden, was made in the State Historical Museum. They accompanied the issues of the newspaper De Nieuwe Amsterdamer, and are the work of the famous Dutch cartoonists, P. Vanderham, Willy Sluiter, and Jan Sluyters. The cartoons measure 12½ by 19 inches in size and nearly all of them are printed in colors. They deal with such subjects as the German war horrors, war conditions in Holland, the neutrals, and peace. The most striking of the latter class is one in which the Angel of Peace is seen stooping over the world, which, porcupine-like, is completely covered with protruding bayonets. The translated inscription reads: “I do not find a spot where I can take hold of him.”

* * * * *

The State Historical Museum, in order to complete certain of its collections, is especially anxious to secure samples of the following implements and utensils formerly in use in Wisconsin and other states: A pomace knife, mead stick, hearth brush, wooden-toothed rake, corn sheller, cheese tester, farrier’s shave, sheep yoke, goose yoke, milking stool, wool comb, tape loom or heddle frame, rundlets, wooden tankard, wooden dishes, stirring stick, butter molds, milk skimmer, earthenware foot-warmer, magnifier of the kind formerly placed in front of candles or sconces, fleam, wooden pitch pipe, and a wooden prism.

Samples of early American china are also desired, pewter ware, a hand lamp, miner’s lamp, tea canister, wooden sugar-box, butter bowl, mush paddle, hickory hay fork, old hand-made keys, and old-style door knocker. Gifts of such specimens will be greatly appreciated and will assist the museum in its work with university students and the public schools of the state.

* * * * *

In March, 1918, Magnus Swenson, chairman of the State Council of Defense, appointed a War History Commission for Wisconsin, and delegated to it the work of collecting for permanent preservation all the material that can be obtained relating to our state’s share in the Great War. The plan is the outgrowth of steps taken early in the war by the National Board for Historical Service in Washington to make a complete and monumental collection of the material pertaining to America’s part in this great struggle.

The commission consists of M. M. Quaife, Madison, chairman; W. W. Bartlett, Eau Claire, C. R. Fish, Madison, J. H. A. Lacher, Waukesha, W. N. Parker, Madison, A. H. Sanford, La Crosse, and Captain H. A. Whipple, Waterloo. John W. Oliver, Madison, was named director of the commission. At a meeting held in the office of the Superintendent of the State Historical Society on March 8, the commission decided to begin at once the work that had been assigned. The State Historical Library in Madison was selected as the headquarters for the commission, and from there the work is being directed. Local war history committees have been appointed in every county of the state, charged with the specific function of collecting and preserving all the records relating to that particular county’s activity in the war. By coÖperating with the county councils of defense, the public libraries, the local historical societies, and the schools, it is hoped that every record and news item possessing historical value will be saved for the use of future workers in compiling a final history of Wisconsin’s part in the war.

* * * * *

In line with the foregoing activity, a movement has been undertaken by the University of Wisconsin and the State Historical Society, working in conjunction, to develop at Madison a comprehensive war collection, which shall adequately serve the needs of future investigators. A special fund has been provided, deemed adequate to the purpose in view, and Dr. Asa C. Tilton, a trained bibliographer and historian, has been secured to serve as curator of the War Collection and direct the work of collecting. The special drive for historical materials thus put under way will be conducted in close coÖrdination with the ordinary work of the Historical Library and the library and other departments of the University. As a result of it, there should be developed at Madison such a comprehensive war collection for the use of students and research workers as the New York Public Library and one or two others are developing in the East. As far as known, nowhere in the West, outside of Madison, is such a collection being developed.

* * * * *

The forty-sixth annual meeting of the Outagamie County Pioneers’ Association was held at Appleton the latter part of February. A business program was held in the forenoon, a dinner at noon, and a literary and musical program in the afternoon. Addresses were given by Mayor Faville, Postmaster Keller, Judge Spencer, and others. Throughout the addresses the patriotic note was dominant.

* * * * *

The forty-third annual meeting of the Reedsburg Old Settlers’ Association was held February 15, 1918, under unfavorable weather conditions. A picnic dinner was eaten, and a miscellaneous program of songs, addresses, and instrumental music was given. The treasurer’s report showed a balance on hand of $191. Officers elected for the ensuing year were John P. Stone, president; C. M. Kester, vice president; Elsie Root, secretary; F. M. Baker, treasurer.

* * * * *

On March 26, in the Kellogg Public Library, the Green Bay Historical Society held a scheduled meeting. On the program were papers by W. M. Conway of the State Highway Commission on “Roads of Wisconsin and How They Can Be Made More Interesting”; by Mrs. W. D. Cooke on “Shantytown in 1820”; and by J. P. Schumacher on “The Site of the First Church Built in Shantytown by Father Mazzuchelli.”

* * * * *

An attractively printed program of the Sauk County Historical Society records a noteworthy list of activities for 1917-18, the organization’s thirteenth year. The annual meeting occurred October 5, 1917, the principal address being given by M. M. Quaife on “The Angel of Wisconsin.” On March 1, 1918 a second meeting was held, at which papers or addresses were given on the following subjects: “The Coming of the Circuit Rider in Wisconsin,” by Rev. W. R. Irish; “The First Murder Trial in Baraboo,” by R. T. Warner, of Everett, Washington; “The First Permanent Settler at Baraboo,” by Louise P. Kellogg; “Pioneer Occupations,” by N. G. Abbott, of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The program for the meeting appointed for April 5 consisted of the following papers: “When I 'Broke Into’ Sauk County Politics,” by John M. True; “Wisconsin Map by I. A. Lapham,” by H. E. French; “Additional Reminiscences of Ableman—A Sequel,” by Eva Alexander; and “Indians at Baraboo in Pioneer Times,” by M. H. Mould.

* * * * *

A pamphlet describing Wisconsin’s participation in the exposition held in Chicago in the summer of 1915 to commemorate the semicentennial of the emancipation of the Negro has recently been issued. Hon. S. A. Cook, Neenah, president, Hon. George P. Hambrecht, Madison, treasurer, and Samuel R. Banks, Madison, secretary, formed the personnel of the commission appointed by the Governor to represent Wisconsin. The creditable progress made by the black man along lines of industry and art was illustrated in convincing fashion by the exhibits. The report of the progress made along educational lines is no less worthy of note. A message from Governor Phillip on Wisconsin Day said: “Certainly they have done enough to merit our heartiest praise and coÖperation and to inspire the hope that the problem which confronted the white man when this vast population was given freedom will be solved by the help of the leaders of the race itself.”

* * * * *

At the time of going to press tentative arrangements have been made for a joint meeting of the State Historical Society and the Sauk County Historical Society to be held at the site of old Fort Winnebago near Portage on Labor Day, 1918. There will be a picnic dinner, but as the place is in the outskirts of Portage any who prefer to eat at the hotel may easily arrange to do so. A short historical address will be given, followed by visits to the site of the fort and the “Agency house,” the latter made famous by Mrs. Kinzie in her book, Wau Bun. Near by, also, may be seen the place of the famous Fox-Wisconsin portage, first crossed by white men, so far as our knowledge goes, by Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette in 1673, and the old United States military cemetery. Such a gathering should attract a large number of visitors from all the surrounding communities.

* * * * *

Dr. A. Gerend, of Cato, addressed the Manitowoc County Historical Society on the evening of March 8, on the subject, “The Indians of Manitowoc County.” Dr. Gerend is an industrious investigator in the local field of Indian history and archeology, and has supplied some interesting material to the State Historical Library.

* * * * *

On February 10, 1918, the First Baptist Church of Sheboygan Falls celebrated its eightieth anniversary. Organized February 11, 1838, this church is ten years older than the Commonwealth itself. The present church building was dedicated December 18, 1850, and like the organization which it houses, is one of the oldest in Wisconsin. In the eighty years of its existence the church has had twenty pastors, ten clerks, and six treasurers.

* * * * *

The Catholic diocese of Green Bay was created by a breve of Pope Pius IX, March 3, 1868. The semicentennial of its birth was celebrated throughout the parishes of the diocese during the first week of March, 1918. Upon organization fifty years ago the diocese had 26 priests, 27 parishes and 41 missions, 12 schools, and a population of 40,000. Today it contains 164 parishes and 75 missions with churches; 106 parish schools with over 24,000 pupils enrolled; besides 3 colleges for men, an academy for women, 2 Indian schools, 9 hospitals, and a population of 149,000.

* * * * *

The Mexican War ended seventy years ago, and but few active participants in it now remain alive. One Mexican War veteran was James Law, of Madison, who died January 30, 1918. Had he lived until February 21, he would have been ninety years of age. Mr. Law was one of Madison’s early stonemasons, and is said to have worked on the old Capitol building.

* * * * *

George B. Ferry, of Milwaukee, probably Wisconsin’s most eminent architect, died January 29, 1917. Among the notable buildings designed by Mr. Ferry are the Milwaukee Public Library, and the splendid home of the State Historical Society at Madison.

* * * * *

A joint meeting of the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters with the Wisconsin Archeological Society was held in the assembly room of the State Historical Society, April 11 and 12, 1918. Of the two dozen or more papers read, the following were devoted particularly to Wisconsin history: “Additional Wisconsin Peace Medals,” by Charles E. Brown; “The State Collection of War Posters,” by Ruth O. Roberts; “The Work of the Wisconsin War History Commission,” by John W. Oliver. The other papers were devoted chiefly to archeological and scientific subjects.

* * * * *

The Wisconsin Archeological Society held its annual meeting in the lecture room of the Milwaukee Public Museum on Monday evening, March 18, 1918. The meeting was well attended by members from Milwaukee and various other points in the state. At the business meeting the following officers were elected: Dr. Samuel A. Barrett, Milwaukee, president; Dr. E. J. W. Notz, Milwaukee, John P. Schumacher, Green Bay, A. T. Newman, Bloomer, Dr. F. E. Dayton, New London, and Charles G. Schoewe, Milwaukee, vice presidents. W. H. Vogel and William A. Phillips were elected members of the executive board, and Lee R. Whitney, treasurer. The secretary’s annual report, read by Charles E. Brown, shows that the society has been active in the field of exploration and publication.

* * * * *

De Have Norton of the Fourth Wisconsin Infantry (later the Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry) died at his home in Hingham, Wisconsin, February 20, 1918. From Mrs. Norton the Society has received about twenty-five Civil War letters written by her late husband to his parents from 1861 to 1865. Mr. Norton served from June, 1861, until the close of the war. He was an intelligent and entertaining correspondent and it is a matter for regret that so few of his letters have been preserved. The following citations from two of his letters written, the one at Camp Utley, Racine, on the eve of departure for the front in July, 1861, the other from Montgomery, Alabama, in May, 1865, afford a pleasing picture of the spirit which animated our Civil War soldiers. “I shall not see you again so good by Father & Mother. God be with you till I see you again. I think the cause which I go to defend is worth the sacrifice which I make, for I do make a great sacrifice. I leave home and all I love to stake my life for my Country. I go willingly, as for you, don’t fear for me I shall do well enough. If I never return you will know that I died in the cause of Liberty & truth”

* * * * *

And four years later: “I am safe and sound as ever. We have had a long and tedious march. * * * There was not a shot exchanged with the enemy. The rebels are all at home. the towns are full of them. we mix all together the best of friends. it looks nice to see the gray uniform and blue uniform together. Well father after four long years of blood and terror the war is over. You can imagine the feelings of the soldiers on the subject.”

THE DINSDALE PAPERS

Rev. Matthew Dinsdale was born at Askrigg, Yorkshire, England, July 14, 1815, and received his education at a boy’s school in his native valley Wensleydale. This school was on a foundation existing from the time of Queen Elizabeth, and one of its first trustees was Ivor Dinsdale, an ancestor of Matthew. The latter came to the United States in 1844 on the packet St. George, 1200 tons, one of the finest transatlantic steamers of its time. After a three months’ journey he arrived at Kenosha (then Southport), Wisconsin, on the eighth of October, and was soon among friends who had preceded him and settled at English Prairie just across the Wisconsin line in McHenry County, Illinois. A month later Mr. Dinsdale was received into the quarterly conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, having brought credentials from the Wesleyan Conference in England. The next year he joined the Rock River Conference and was assigned to Potosi circuit in the lead-mining district of southwestern Wisconsin. The succeeding year Mr. Dinsdale was appointed to the Lake Winnebago circuit, then a mission district including preaching stations among the Brothertown Indians, at Oshkosh, and other new settlements along the lake shore. He virtually lived in the saddle, going from cabin to cabin, and gathering the settlers together for a Sunday service. Often he slept by the roadside or in the woods. His health was impaired by the severe strain of his circuit-riding days, and in 1849 he joined a group of friends who visited the gold regions of California. After over two years in this pioneer work, Mr. Dinsdale returned to England, and there in April, 1853 he married Mary Anne Mann, of York. Returning to America with his young English bride, he applied once more for admission to the Methodist Church, and in 1858 entered the West Wisconsin Conference. Thereafter for nineteen years he served in many pastorates in the southwestern part of the state. In 1872 and 1873 he was preacher in charge at Madison. Four years later he retired from the active ministry, and spent his declining years at Linden, Iowa County, where, on April 15, 1898, he passed away.

His only surviving daughter, Mrs. Magnus Swenson, of Madison, has recently presented to the Historical Society many of her father’s papers. Among them are three diaries of considerable historical value. The first describes the voyage from England to America, the early days in this country, the work and events of pioneer life, “hewing bees,” house-raisings, rail-splittings, hog-killings, and the like, interspersed with descriptions of the weather, the climate, and the land.

The second, or California diary, is perhaps the most interesting of the number. Leaving Linden, Wisconsin, November 3, 1849, the traveler went via Milwaukee, Buffalo, and Albany to New York City whence he sailed December 1 for Panama. Thereafter we have a daily account until the landing, January 21, 1850, at the new city of San Francisco, which he thus characterizes: “San Francisco I think will become a great place. Its location is good convenient and pleasant and more still is healthy.” Thence the young minister sought the mining camps, digging during the week and preaching on Sunday. Here for example is a typical entry: “Sunday 19 Jany 1851. A Captⁿ (Sea) told me how he came to be in the mines. Lost his vessel and came to San Francisco to purchase another. There he took the fever and came to dig: Has made but little, Spoke of the misery caused to familes by the gold discovery. His case that of thousands. Leave all to mine and then make nothing.” Mr. Dinsdale’s case was not of this character. The fifth of June, 1853, the assay of his gold at the Philadelphia mint amounted to $4,094.13.

The third journal was written when in service as agent of the Christian Commission in the spring of 1865 in the vicinity of Nashville. The writer visited the camps and hospitals, distributed papers and Bibles, read and prayed with the soldiers, and in some cases took their dying messages.

In addition to the diaries, the papers include many letters of historical interest. All those written home to England from the time the young emigrant arrived at New York until he left there five years later for California have fortunately been preserved. The writer had a good command of language and a gift for clear and lucid expression, and he portrays his first experiences in the New World with delightful vigor and freshness. He relates his first days in America, the prices of commodities and the modes and discomforts of traveling. He had an especial fondness for natural scenery, and his descriptions even of so hackneyed a subject as Niagara Falls, do not pall upon the reader. More important are the accounts he gives of conditions in our Territory during its formative years—at first in the southeast, then in the more settled southwestern portion he pictures the life of the frontier with truth and vigor. Most valuable of all, perhaps, is the description he gives of the Lake Winnebago region when the rapid ingress of new settlers was at its height, and the Indians were retreating before the American advance. Among the experiences he details were those of a visit to a Menominee Indian payment on the shores of Lake Poygan, where his clear observation of conditions among the retiring race are of peculiar value to the historian of the tribesmen. In the letters of advice which he gave to relatives who intended to emigrate, nothing was forgotten, and their detailed narration presents a full picture of the difficulties and necessities of the early immigrants from Great Britain, and the courage required to undertake the long and oft-times dangerous voyage.

A series of later letters describes the writer’s experience in the work of the Christian Commission during the Civil War.

Taken as a whole the Dinsdale Papers are a valuable addition to the collections of our Society, illustrating as they so well do the experiences of an intelligent, educated immigrant during the formative period of territorial days. It is to be hoped that many more such groups of papers, now preserved in private hands, will ultimately find their way into our custody where they will be of value to the history of this state.

THE LADD PAPERS

Dr. Otto L. Schmidt, of Chicago, a life member of the Society, has presented an important collection of letters and documents received by Dr. Azel Ladd while serving in 1851 and 1852 as state superintendent of public instruction. For the most part they consist of appeals to the state officer to interpret the school law for local communities, and the resolving of disputes and difficulties between the teachers and the officials. Many of the letters are requests for information with regard to the allotments of school money, and a few have to do with the lease or sale of school lands. A considerable number carry the endorsement “Library returns.” These contain reports of the number of books in the school libraries under the law requiring one-tenth of the state allotments to be expended for books. Incidentally from these letters much may be learned of the early educational history of our state—the short terms of the schools, the qualifications and salaries of the teachers, the number and conduct of the pupils. From some of these letters may be seen the educational conditions among our foreign immigrants. Complaints are frequent of teachers that cannot write or speak English. One letter asks the question, later so pertinent in our educational politics, whether the reading of the Bible constitutes a breach of Section 3, Article 10 of the Wisconsin Constitution. Another writer, defending the character of his daughter, a school teacher at Moundville, sends the Superintendent a specimen of her efforts in verse, which have been much admired. There are nearly a thousand papers in the collection, which constitute an important guide to the early history of education in Wisconsin. Practically all of the letters belong to the years 1851 and 1852.

Holand, Hjalmar R., History of Door County, Wisconsin. The County Beautiful. (Two volumes, 459, 480, $21, Chicago, 1917.)

This is a good example of the type of county subscription history which flourishes in the Middle West. The author had at his disposal an unusually attractive storehouse of material from which to construct his narrative; the field was a virgin one, no history of Door County having ever been written before; the writer is a man of university education, a long-time resident of the county, and an enthusiast on the subject of local history. With such conditions prevailing it is not surprising that the work which has resulted should constitute a good example of the type to which it belongs.

The second volume of the two is filled with the usual collection of commercial biographies, for which the promoters of the work are responsible rather than the author of the history. Volume one, in which alone his name appears on the title-page, contains the history of the county which gives title to the work. It comprises fifty chapters and an appendix. The first nine chapters deal with the usual preliminary topics pertaining to geography, discovery and exploration, the Indians, and the French period. It is impracticable to classify the remaining forty-one chapters further than to note that they cover, along with many other subjects, sketches of the several towns of the county, and of the more important types of social and industrial activity of its people. Thus there are chapters on schools, banking, political organizations, churches, highways, newspapers, and industries. More unusual than these are those on lighthouses, Peninsula State Park, Rock, Chambers, and Washington islands, and the Sturgeon Bay Canal. Interspersed are several chapters (such as “A Man of Iron: a Tale of Death’s Door,” “David Kennison,” “The Sage of Shivering Sands”) which seem either to have no logical place in the book or to be given a prominence disproportionate to their importance. There is little perceptible logic about the order of arrangement of these many chapters, and one does not gain, from a reading of the book, any clear impression of the progressive unfolding of the county’s history and development.

The author possesses an unusual command of the English language, notwithstanding his birth on foreign soil, and the volume is entertainingly written. Both the history itself, and the style of the narrative would have been improved, however, if greater restraint had been imposed by the author. Journalistic throughout, at its best the style of the narrative is fascinating; at the opposite extreme it is oftentimes exuberant as to style and of questionable taste as to content.

* * * * *

The January, 1918, number of the Wisconsin Archeologist contains a survey of the Indian remains in Door County, made by J. P. Schumacher of Green Bay. The survey shows that these consist chiefly of village and camp sites and burial places, comparatively few mounds having been found in the county. The author states that several alleged mounds have proved upon investigation to be either grass-grown windfalls or sand dunes. One of the most valuable parts of the bulletin is the section devoted to place names in Door County. In preparing this, the author was assisted by Dr. Alphonse Gerend, of Cato.

* * * * *

Two timely military articles appear in the January, 1918, number of the Iowa Journal of History and Politics. Ivan L. Pollock concludes his paper on “State Finances During the Civil War,” and Cyril B. Upham has an especially interesting article on “Arms and Equipment for the Iowa Troops in the Civil War.” A reprint of the early reports by Captain W. Bowling Guion and Lieutenant John C. Fremont in 1841 concerning the Des Moines River is included in this issue.

* * * * *

The State Historical Society of Iowa has published a volume entitled Marches of the Dragoons in the Mississippi Valley, by Louis Pelzer. It describes the marches, campaigns, and military activities of the First Regiment of the United States Dragoons between the years 1833 and 1850. The services of this military unit during the period mentioned consisted of frontier defense work, garrison duty, marches, exploring expeditions, and enforcement of federal laws. For those who are interested in the army life and activities on our extensive frontier during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, the book has more than a local value.

* * * * *

Mr. Charles Freeman, of Menomonie, a member of the State Historical Society, is the author of an extended article on “Early Menomonie, Its Physical Appearance, Its Enterprises and Its Aims,” published in the Dunn County News, January 10, 1918.

* * * * *

During the early winter John Hicks of Oshkosh was publishing in his paper, the Oshkosh Northwestern, a narrative of his life under the caption “Fifty Years of Oshkosh—A Retrospect.” The last installment told interestingly of his diplomatic career in South America. At this point death suddenly interrupted the narration; the story will forever remain unfinished.

* * * * *

In the Phillips Bee of March 7, 1918, appeared a long article by John E. Herron entitled, “The Early Days of Phillips.”

* * * * *

Dr. Bernard J. Cigrand of Batavia, Illinois, is the author of a lengthy series of articles in the Port Washington Star under the general title “Parental Stories of Pioneer Times.”

* * * * *

A valuable series of articles on the “Development of Farming in Sauk County” was begun by William Toole, the “pansy king,” with the issue for February, 1917, of the Sauk County Farmer. In all a dozen or more monthly installments appeared, running from February, 1917, into the current year.

* * * * *

John S. Roeseler, of Superior, a life member of the State Historical Society, is the author of “Early Days in the Town of Lomira,” currently published in a large number of installments in the Lomira Review. Aside from its present interest to the community itself, the general historian of Wisconsin cannot fail to find such a detailed narrative as this of great value to him in his larger task of writing the history of the state as a whole.

* * * * *

Those of our readers who are interested in the publications of our Society dealing with the Lewis and Clark expedition will find in the January number of the Missouri Historical Review an article describing the great system of transportation that developed in later years along the route followed by these early explorers. The article is by Professor H. A. Trexler, of the University of Montana, and is entitled, “Missouri-Montana Highways.” A second article, dealing with the travel and commerce on the Overland Trail, is promised for a later number.

* * * * *

The January, 1918, number of the Michigan History Magazine contains a paper by Edward G. Holden on “Carl Schurz in Michigan,” the author having been associated with Schurz on the Detroit Post during the sixties. Other articles in this issue are: “Indian Legends of Northern Michigan,” by John C. Wright; “History of the Equal Suffrage Movement in Michigan,” by Karolena M. Fox; “Coming of the Italians to Detroit,” by Rev. John C. Visman; “Father Marquette at Michilimackinac,” by Edwin O. Wood; “Congregationalism as a Factor in the Making of Michigan,” by Rev. John P. Sanderson; “Historical Sketch of the University of Detroit,” by Pres. William T. Doran; and “The Factional Character of Early Michigan Politics,” by Floyd B. Streeter.

* * * * *

A worthy example of collecting and compiling history while it is in the making is the work that is now being done by Floyd C. Shoemaker, editor of the Missouri Historical Review. Two stimulating articles have recently appeared in the Review, one in September, 1917, the other in January, 1918, entitled “Missouri and the War.” The part played by the citizens of that commonwealth, the contributions made by the state both in men and in resources, the recognition for distinguished services won by Missouri men in the service, are being carefully collected up to the very latest report. Before filing these records away in the archives for the use of students of a later generation, the editor is utilizing them to give the readers of the Review a survey of the current activities of their state in the war.

* * * * *

The Nebraska State Historical Society began publication in February of a monthly news sheet entitled Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days. The editor states his aim to be to make the new publication “a piece of popular literature—as distinguished from academic.” A practical newspaper worker of long years’ experience, he should easily succeed in this endeavor. Judging from the indications afforded by the first issue, a thing really new under the sun has at last been produced—a history journal which is similar both in typography and in content to the ordinary newspaper. From another point of view the new journal may be described as a somewhat glorified press bulletin, belonging to a type with which, in humbler guise, the world has long been familiar.

* * * * *

The second number of the Louisiana Historical Quarterly, bearing the date September 14, 1917, was distributed in March. Since the first number was issued January 8, 1917, the Quarterly is hardly living up to the promise implied in its title. This is a matter for genuine regret, since Louisiana constitutes one of the richest fields of historical exploitation in America, one well worthy of vigorous cultivation at the hands of the local historical society. Aside from a brief paper on Lafayette’s visit to New Orleans, the issue of the Quarterly now at hand is devoted to two interesting items: the first is a valuable bibliography of the principal works published on Louisiana and Florida from their discovery until 1855, prepared by A. L. Boimare, and hitherto unpublished; the second, is a filial and somewhat passionate attempt at rehabilitating the reputation of General James Wilkinson, made by his great-grandson, of the same name.

* * * * *

The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania has launched a new quarterly publication entitled The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, volume I, number 1, appearing in January, 1918. The initial number contains the following articles: “Rev. John Taylor, The First Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church of Pittsburgh and His Commonplace Book,” by Charles W. Dahlinger; “The Boatman’s Horn” (a poem), by General William O. Butler; “The Trial of Mamachteaga, a Delaware Indian, The First Person Convicted of Murder West of the Alleghany Mountains, and Hanged for His Crime,” by Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge; “Diary of a Young Oil Speculator”; and an account of the eleventh annual meeting of the Ohio Valley Historical Association. One section of the magazine is devoted to notes and queries.

THE WIDER FIELD

The annual meeting of the Minnesota Historical Society was held in the new Historical building at St. Paul, January 14, 1918. The address was delivered by Lester B. Shippee of the University of Minnesota on the subject, “Social and Economic Effects of the Civil War with Special Reference to Minnesota.”

* * * * *

The annual spring meeting of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association is scheduled to be held at St. Paul this year; the formal dedication of the Minnesota Historical Society’s building taking place at this time.

* * * * *

On April 9, in the Jefferson Memorial Library, St. Louis, was unveiled a bronze Roll of Fame tablet in honor of the pioneers of Missouri from 1793 to 1826. There are 112 names on the tablet, among them those of Major Nathan Heald and Rebekah Heald, his wife. Major Heald was commander at Fort Dearborn from 1810 until its destruction by the savages in 1812. Most of Major Heald’s existing papers are preserved in the Wisconsin Historical Library.

* * * * *

Mr. R. C. Ballard Thruston of Louisville has secured possession of the manuscript report of the Illinois country made by George Rogers Clark to Governor Mason of Virginia in 1779. The document contains seventy-four pages 6½ by 8¼ inches, amounting to some 18,000 words. Mr. Thruston intends that it shall eventually go either to the Filson Club or to some other Kentucky historical organization. Although already twice put in print, it is a source of gratification to the historical fraternity of the Middle West to know that this interesting manuscript is to be permanently preserved and made accessible to the public.

* * * * *

A laudable undertaking having for its ultimate object the improvement of our relations with Mexico has been instituted through the generosity of Edward Doheny, of Los Angeles. He has given a fund for the study of social and industrial conditions in Mexico, in order that the American public may be given impartial and authoritative information about these matters instead of having to depend, as has been largely the case hitherto, on partisan or ill-informed reports. Twelve students have been at work on the study since October, 1917, having been engaged for the period of one year. The results of this work will be published in a series of reports. Members of the State Historical Society and Wisconsin people, generally, will be interested to know that Chester Lloyd Jones of Madison, a life member of the Society, is one of the scholars engaged in this important task of constructive research. Headquarters for the work have been established at the Bancroft Library, University of California, where Mr. Jones is spending the year in the capacity of research associate of the University.

* * * * *

The Illinois Catholic Historical Society has recently been organized, with headquarters in the Ashland Block, Chicago. William J. Onahan is president of the Society and Joseph J. Thompson editor-in-chief. From the preliminary announcement, which comes to us just as we go to press, the new society appears to have the backing of the more important churchmen of Chicago and Illinois. A magazine, the Illinois Catholic Historical Review, is to be issued.

* * * * *

As we go to press the program is received for a centennial meeting of the Illinois State Historical Society at Springfield, April 17 and 18. Addresses by Prof. Allen Johnson, of Yale, Elbert J. Benton, of Western Reserve, C. W. Alvord, of the University of Illinois, Charles W. Moores, of Indianapolis, Hon. Louis Aubert, member of the French High Commission, and Pres. John H. Finley, of the University of New York, are scheduled.

* * * * *

Francis A. Sampson, secretary of the Missouri Historical Society from 1901 to 1915 and bibliographer from 1915 on, died at Columbia, Missouri, February 4, 1918. From 1906 until 1915 Mr. Sampson was editor of the Missouri Historical Review. He was an inveterate collector of materials pertaining to Missouri history, and was largely responsible for the upbuilding of the society’s library of 60,000 titles.

* * * * *

The death of Father Arthur E. Jones, archivist of the Jesuit College of St. Mary, took place at Montreal, on January 19. Father Jones was one of the foremost authorities in America on the work of the early Jesuit missionaries and explorers. To the unrivaled opportunities afforded him for utilizing all the source material in the possession of his order he united a great energy and zeal in carrying his researches to the very scene of Jesuit labors, one of his many activities being the location around the Georgian Bay of the mission stations which were destroyed in the Iroquois onslaughts, so well described by Parkman. The researches that were carried on in this regard were fully described in the fifth annual report of the Bureau of Archives of Ontario, published in 1909.

The archives of St. Mary’s College, Montreal, of which Father Jones was custodian, comprise one of the most valuable collections of material on early Canadian and mid-west material in the Dominion. Marquette’s journal is there; so are the wonderfully minute linguistic writings of Father Potier, five large volumes dealing with the Huron language, now completely dead. When it is remembered that the Jesuits have been in America three centuries and that they are noted for the care they take of their records, some idea can be gained of the importance of the collection in St. Mary’s College.

In his later years Father Jones had given special attention to making his record of Jesuit service at the various missions as complete as possible. He had also done considerable work on the Potier writings which, but for the outbreak of the Great War, would probably have been reproduced in photo-facsimile ere now by the Ontario Archives Department. The project is only held up until such time as world affairs are less disturbed.

Though a portion of his life was spent in parochial work, the chief work of Father Jones was along educational lines. He is the author or editor of a number of valuable publications in his chosen field of investigation. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a corresponding member of several of the leading historical societies of the United States, including our own State Historical Society. He was a fine type of that mentality which the training of his order so often produces; a delightful friend and acquaintance and a thorough investigator.

* * * * *

The Wyoming Historical and Geological Society of Pennsylvania celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of its founding on April 12, 1918, commemorating at the same time the one hundred tenth anniversary of the burning of anthracite coal successfully in an open grate of Wilkes-Barre. Christopher Wren was elected corresponding secretary of the society, succeeding the late Rev. Horace E. Hayden.

* * * * *

The leading article in the March number of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review is on “President Lincoln and the Illinois Radical Republicans,” by Arthur C. Cole. It sets forth in interesting fashion the dissatisfaction felt by the radical wing of the Republican party in the early part of Lincoln’s administration with his conservative and temporizing policy. L. H. Gipson gives a clear account of the internal dissensions and other factors responsible for “The Collapse of the Confederacy”; Homer Hockett, formerly of Wisconsin, discusses “The Influence of the West on the Rise and Fall of Political Parties”; and Theodore Blegen, of Milwaukee, a member of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, tells of “A Plan for the Union of British North America and the United States, 1866.” Professor Alvord, whose resignation as managing editor of the Review was announced in our March number, has consented to continue in charge until the close of the war.

STATEMENT

of The Wisconsin Magazine of History published quarterly at Menasha, Wis., required by the Act of August 24, 1912.

M. M. Quaife, Editor.
Sworn to and subscribed before me this sixth day of April, 1918.
[SEAL] Iva A. Welsh,
Notary Public.
(My commission expires Jan. 11, 1920.)

• “Early Recollections of Lake Geneva (Big Foot Lake), Wisconsin,” by George Manierre, 142-48.
  • pioneers, 142, 143-45.
  • wild life, 144.
  • Fontana platted, 274-75.
  • Hay, John, relations of, with Colonel Ellsworth, 92, 351.
  • Hazelton, George W., state senator, 54.
  • Heald, Captain, experiences of, in Chicago Massacre, 300-301.
  • Heathcock, J., student at University of Wisconsin, 49.
  • Heg, Colonel Hans, suggestion for memorial to, 191.
  • Herjulfson, Bjarne, first white man to see America, 151.
  • Hicks, Franklin Z., sketch, 56.
  • High, James L., sketch, 45.
  • High schools, I. A. Lapham, father of Milwaukee, 10.
  • “Historical Publications, The Printing of,” editorial, 310-11.
  • History of Door County, Wisconsin, by Hjalmar R. Holand, reviewed, 445-46.
    • “of Our State Flag, A,” 327-29.
    • local, mission of, 123.
    • “Repeats Itself,” editorial, 187.
  • Hobart, Horace, buys land in Beloit, 74-75.
  • Holand, Hjalmar R., History of Door County, Wisconsin, reviewed, 445-46.
    • letter, 87.
  • Holt, C. Frank, student at the University of Wisconsin, 49.
  • HopokoÉkaw, “Glory of the Morning,” Winnebago chieftess, 93.
  • Hospitals, sanitation of, in Civil War, 234-40.
  • “How the Apostle Islands Were Named,” 96-98.
  • Howe, Asahel B., buys land in Beloit, 274-75.
  • Hubbard, Gurdon S., sketch, 269.
  • Hudson Bay, exploration of, 152.
  • “Humanitarianism, The Development of,” editorial, 313.
  • Hunt, Alice, indemnity claim of, 289.
  • Husting, Paul O., “Some Letters of, Concerning the Present Crisis,” 388-416.
  • Hutchinson, Buell E., sketch, 54.
  • Iceboat project of Norman Wiard, 72-74.
  • Iceland, discovery of, 150.
  • Illustrations: Increase A. Lapham, facing 1.
    • Map—A Forest Fire in Northern Wisconsin, facing 22.
    • Harvey Reid, facing 35.
    • The First Wisconsin Capitol at Belmont, facing 78.
    • Carl Russell Fish, facing 119.
    • House of William Reid at the Head of Lake Geneva, facing 142.
    • Title-page of Ole Nattestad’s “Journey to North America,” facing 167.
    • Cordelia A. P. Harvey, facing 231.
    • Peter Daan, facing 256.
    • Lucius George Fisher, facing 276.
    • Mary Elizabeth Mears, facing 334.
    • Colonel Ellsworth, facing 347.
    • Carrie Spafford, facing 347.
    • Birthplace of Elmer E. Ellsworth, facing 352.
    • Drawing made by Colonel Ellsworth, facing 358.
    • Colonel Ellsworth, facing 364.
    • Francis E. Brownell, facing 364.
    • Colonel Ellsworth’s Last Letter, facing 370.
    • Paul Revere Print of the Boston Massacre, facing 382.
  • “Increase A. Lapham and the German Air Raids,” editorial, 426-27.
  • Indians, Brothertown, 88-89.
    • Iowa tribes, 200-201.
    • Menominee, mills for, 88 Fisher’s recollections of, 270.
    • unites with Kilbourntown, 417.
  • Milwaukee County, erected and organized, 417.
  • Milwaukee-Downer College, founding of, 10.
  • Milwaukee Female Seminary, founding of, 10.
  • Minnesota-Wisconsin boundary dispute, 304.
  • Mitchell, Alexander, banking measures of, 1861-62, 30.
  • Mohr, Matthias, helps plat Fontana, 145.
    • pioneer of Lake Geneva, 145.
    • sketch, 143.
  • Monroe Doctrine, influence of, upon frontier problem, 129-30.
  • Montreal River, “main branch” controversy, 305-306.
  • “More Light on the Originator of ‘Winnequah,’” 327.
  • Morgan, J. Pierpont, financial aid of, in Civil War, 28-29.
  • Moore, Tyler H., buys land in Beloit, 275.
  • Morris, Charles M., letter, 327.
  • Morris, Seymour, letter, 95.
  • Morris, W. A. P., letter, 193.
  • Morton, John, lineage of, 153.
  • Mountain, Trempealeau, state acquires, 80, 81.
  • Muir, John, inventions of, 39.
  • Munitions, Senator Husting on embargo on, 393-95, 401-402.
  • Muskegon, stay of Elmer E. Ellsworth at, 357-58.
  • Munk, Jens, sketch, 152.
  Prairie, changed to Belvedere, 275.
• Stambaugh, Col. Samuel C., services of, in Black Hawk War, 98-99.
• Stanton, Edw. M., tribute to, 245.
• State Historical Society of Wisconsin, houses newspaper collection of note, 428-29.
  • I. A. Lapham’s connection with, 11.
  • new members, 101, 206, 330, 435.
  • survey of historical activities of, 101-17; 206-29; 330-46; 435-51.
• Sterling, John W., sketch, 38.
• Stewart, Isaac N., sketch, 52.
• Stewart, Robert, interest of, in Chicago Treaty of 1833, 291.
• “Story of ‘Glory of the Morning,’ The,” 92-93.
• Strong, Moses M., sketch, 43.
• Strong, William E., sketch, 53.
• “Suffrage Provision in the Constitution of Wisconsin, The Alien,” by Louise P. Kellogg, 422-25.
• Survey of Historical Activities, 101-17; 206-29; 330-46; 435-51.
• Swedes, early settlement of, on the Delaware, 153.
• Sylvania, old church at, 87.

• Taylor, Rev. Lathrop, sketch, 44.
• Tilton, Asa Currier, “Daniel Webster’s Wisconsin Investments,” 433-34.
• Transportation, project for iceboat line between Prairie du Chien and St. Paul, 72-74.
• Treaty, “Hall and Old La Pointe,” 325-26.
  • of 1833, The Chicago, 287-303.
  • commissioners, 289.
  • of St. Joseph, 1828, commissioners, 296.
• Tredway, J. Dwight, student at University of Wisconsin, 52.
• Trempealeau, Perrot State park at, 80-82.
• Trempealeau Mountain, state acquires, 80-81.
• Turner, Hon. Andrew Jackson, activities of, in senatorial campaign of 1869, 419.
  • C. C. Washburn’s letters to, 419.
• Tweedy, John H., sketch, 270.
• Tyler, Calvin, Elgin pioneer, 276.
• Tyler, Noah, Elgin squatter, 276.
• Tyler, Sallie, nun, 276.
• Tyler, William, Catholic bishop, 276.

• Ulfson, Gunnbjorn, Greenland discovered by, 150.
• United States, frontier problem in, 125-27.
  • Germany fosters discord in, 396-97.
  • military record of, 187-88.
• United States Zouave Cadets, disbandment, 367.
  • reunion, 365.
  • tour, 363-67.
• University of Wisconsin, diary of student attending in 1861, 35-63.
  • I. A. Lapham presents herbarium to, 10.
• Unpreparedness in the United States, 186-87.
• Upsi, Erik, visits New World, 151.

• Van Griethuizen, C., Presbyterian clergyman, 262.
• Van Raalte, R. C., leads Dutch settlers to Michigan, 257.
• Van Slyke, James, experiences of, at Baraboo, 320.
  • sketch, Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the end of the section in which the related anchors occur. Misspelled words were not corrected. Dialect, obsolete and alternative spellings were left unchanged. Obvious printing errors, such as duplicate words and backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters, were corrected. In the index, the entries for Kellog are not in alphabetical order.

    Punctuation, lack of final stops, and use of capital letters is haphazard in the diary and elsewhere; the text and punctuation was retained unchanged, except as noted below.

    Changes:
    Added em dash after dam—.
    Added close quote full of hope.“
    Moved close quote to end of sentence named for Mr. Harvey.”
    Added space to water power.
    Added space to Northwest 1673.
    Added close quote to Lesser Catechism,” published.
    Punctuation in the index was adjusted to be consistent among entries.

    
    
    
    
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