All the Powers of Earth Read online

  Galusha Grow, Pennsylvania, Republican

  Thomas Harris, Illinois, Democrat, friend of Douglas

  Philemon Herbert, California, Democrat

  Laurence M. Keitt, South Carolina, Democrat

  Edwin Morgan, New York, Republican

  James L. Orr, South Carolina, Democrat, Speaker of the House

  Roger Pryor, Virginia, Democrat

  William Richardson, Illinois, Democrat, friend of Douglas

  John Sherman, Ohio, Republican

  Alexander H. Stephens, Georgia, Whig/Democrat

  Thaddeus Stevens, Pennsylvania, Whig/Republican

  Eli Thayer, Massachusetts, Republican, founder of New England Emigrant Aid Society

  Robert Toombs, Georgia, Whig/Democrat

  Clement Vallandigham, Ohio, Democrat

  Elihu Washburne, Illinois, Republican, friend of Lincoln

  David Wilmot, Pennsylvania, Democrat/Republican

  Robert C. Winthrop, Massachusetts, Whig, Speaker of the House

  ALABAMA

  John Forsyth, editor of the Mobile Register

  William Lowndes Yancey, fire-eater, author of the Alabama Platform

  ILLINOIS

  William B. Archer, former state legislator, Whig/Know Nothing/Republican

  Edward L. Baker, editor of the Illinois State Journal

  William H. Bissell, former Democrat, first Republican governor

  Orville Hickman Browning, lawyer, former state legislator, Whig/Republican

  Jacob Bunn, merchant, funder of Lincoln’s campaigns

  John Whitfield Bunn, merchant, funder of Lincoln’s campaigns

  Theodore Canisius, editor of the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger secretly owned by Lincoln

  J.O. Cunningham, editor of the Urbana Union, Republican

  David Davis, judge of the Eighth Circuit, Lincoln’s convention manager

  T. Lyle Dickey, judge, Whig

  Adele Cutts Douglas, wife of Stephen A. Douglas, grand-niece of Dolley Madison

  Jesse K. DuBois, former state legislator, Whig/Republican, state auditor

  Zebina Eastman, abolitionist editor of the Free West

  Jesse W. Fell, lawyer, publisher of the Bloomington Pantagraph, educator, abolitionist, Whig/Republican

  Joseph Gillespie, former state legislator, Whig/Know Nothing/Republican

  Jackson Grimshaw, lawyer, Republican

  Ozias Hatch, former state legislator, state secretary of state, Republican

  Friedrich Hecker, German revolutionary, Republican presidential elector

  William Henry Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner

  Abraham Jonas, former state legislator, Lincoln law associate

  Norman Judd, state senator from Chicago, chairman Republican State Central Committee

  Gustave Koerner, German American leader, former judge on the state Supreme Court, lieutenant governor, Democrat/Republican

  Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln law associate

  Stephen Trigg Logan, Lincoln’s former law partner, Whig/Republican

  Owen Lovejoy, abolitionist, Republican and congressman

  James H. Matheny, Springfield lawyer, Lincoln’s best man at his wedding, Whig/Know Nothing

  Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago Tribune

  Richard J. Oglesby, lawyer, planner of the Illinois Republican convention 1860

  John M. Palmer, former state legislator, Democrat/Republican

  Ebenezer Peck, state legislator, Republican

  Henry B. Rankin, Lincoln-Herndon law clerk

  Charles H. Ray, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune

  George Schneider, editor of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung

  John Locke Scripps, reporter for the Chicago Democratic Press, records Lincoln’s autobiography

  James W. Sheahan, editor of the Chicago Times

  John Todd Stuart, Lincoln’s former law partner, Whig

  Leonard Swett, Lincoln law associate

  Leonard Volk, sculptor

  John “Long John” Wentworth, mayor of Chicago, Democrat/Republican

  Henry Clay Whitney, Lincoln law associate

  Richard Yates, congressman, governor, Whig/Republican

  KANSAS

  George W. Brown, editor of the Herald of Freedom

  John Calhoun, proslavery surveyor general

  Mark Delahay, free state newspaper editor, Lincoln’s distant cousin

  John W. Geary, third territorial governor

  Samuel Jones, proslavery sheriff

  Samuel Lecompte, proslavery judge

  Andrew Reeder, first territorial governor

  Charles Robinson, free state governor

  Sara Robinson, wife of Charles Robinson

  Wilson Shannon, second territorial governor

  Frederick P. Stanton, deputy to Governor Walker

  Robert J. Walker, fourth territorial governor, former U.S. senator from Mississippi, former secretary of the treasury

  MASSACHUSETTS

  Charles Francis Adams, Conscience Whig, son of President John Quincy Adams

  John A. Andrew, lawyer, Republican, governor

  Frank W. Bird, businessman, Republican power broker

  Caleb Cushing, Pierce’s attorney general, chairman of the Democratic national convention 1860

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, philosopher, abolitionist

  Edward Everett, former governor, senator, and president of Harvard

  Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Unitarian minister, member of the Secret Six

  Samuel Gridley Howe, social reformer, member of the Secret Six

  Abbott Lawrence, industrialist, influential Whig

  Amos A. Lawrence, industrialist, funder of the New England Emigrant Aid Society

  Theodore Parker, Unitarian minister, member of the Secret Six

  Benjamin Roberts, African American lawyer

  George Luther Stearns, industrialist, abolitionist donor, member of the Secret Six

  Henry David Thoreau, writer, abolitionist

  George Ticknor, Harvard professor, social arbiter of Boston

  NEW YORK

  August Belmont, U.S. head of Rothschild bank, uncle of John Slidell’s wife, Buchanan’s campaign manager 1856

  John Bigelow, editor of the New York Evening Post

  William Cullen Bryant, editor of the New York Evening Post

  Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune

  James S. Pike, reporter for the New York Tribune

  Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times, lieutenant governor of New York

  Dean Richmond, cochairman of the New York Central Railroad, Democratic power broker

  Henry Villard, reporter for the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, New York Tribune, and New York Herald

  Thurlow Weed, editor of the Albany Evening Journal, Seward intimate, Whig, and Republican political boss

  Walt Whitman, former editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, author Leaves of Grass

  Fernando Wood, mayor of New York City, grand sachem of Tammany Hall

  SOUTH CAROLINA

  Christopher G. Memminger, commissioner for secession

  Robert Barnwell Rhett, editor of the Charleston Mercury

  VIRGINIA

  John Minor Botts, former congressman, Whig/Know Nothing, Unionist

  George Fitzhugh, editor of the Richmond Enquirer, author of Sociology for the South, or The Failure of Free Society

  Edmund Ruffin, fire-eater, author, agronomist

  Henry A. Wise, governor

  SLAVES AND FREE BLACKS

  Mary Mildred Botts, child emancipated by Charles Sumner

  Anthony Burns, fugitive slave captured in Boston

  Frederick Douglass, fugitive slave, author, abolitionist, confidant of John Brown

  Margaret Garner, fugitive slave who killed her child rather than submit her family to slavery

  Polly Mack, free black in Springfield who sought out Lincoln to free her son about to be sold as a slave in New Orleans

  John Shelby, free black from Springfield, he
ld captive in New Orleans to be sold as a slave, his liberty purchased by Lincoln; son of Polly Mack

  ABOLITIONISTS

  Gamaliel Bailey, editor of The National Era newspaper in Washington, D.C.

  Henry Ward Beecher, pastor of the Plymouth Church of Brooklyn

  Lydia Maria Child, Boston abolitionist, poet, author, journalist

  Margaret Douglass, Virginia schoolteacher jailed for educating blacks

  William Lloyd Garrison, editor of The Liberator

  Julia Ward Howe, abolitionist, wife of Samuel Gridley Howe

  Wendell Phillips, Boston abolitionist

  Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin

  Theodore Weld, assistant to Congressman John Quincy Adams, author, organizer

  JOHN BROWN’S RAID

  Jeremiah G. Anderson, white member of Brown’s band, killed

  Osborne Perry Anderson, free black member of band, escaped

  Fontaine Beckham, mayor of Harpers Ferry and B&O agent, killed by Brown’s men

  Thomas Boerley, grocer, killed by Brown’s men

  John Brown, revolutionist, executed

  Oliver Brown, son of John Brown, member of band, killed

  Owen Brown, son of John Brown, member of band, escaped

  Watson Brown, son of John Brown, member of band, killed

  John Edwin Cook, white member of the band, executed

  John Anthony Copeland, Jr., free black, student at Oberlin College, executed

  Barclay Coppoc, white member of the band, escaped

  Edwin Coppoc, white member of the band, killed Mayor Beckham, executed

  Hugh Forbes, English soldier of fortune

  Shields Green, fugitive slave member of the band, executed

  Albert Hazlett, white member of band

  George H. Hoyt, Brown’s defense attorney

  Thomas Jackson, major and professor, Virginia Military Institute

  John Henry Kagi, white member of the band, killed

  Lewis Leary, free black member of the band, killed

  Robert E. Lee, colonel of U.S. Marines

  Willie H. Leeman, white member of the band, killed

  Francis Jackson Meriam, white member of Brown’s band, conduit to the Secret Six, escaped

  Dangerfield Newby, black member of the band, killed

  James Redpath, reporter for the New York Tribune

  Franklin Sanborn, secretary of the Massachusetts Kansas Aid Committee, member of the Secret Six

  Hayward Shepherd, black railway porter killed by Brown’s men

  Gerrit Smith, funder of abolitionist causes and John Brown, member of the Secret Six

  Aaron Stevens, white member of Brown’s band, executed

  J.E.B. Stuart, lieutenant of U.S. Marines

  Stewart Taylor, white member of band, killed

  Dauphin Thompson, white member of band, killed

  Will Thompson, white member of band, killed

  Charles Plummer Tidd, white member of band, escaped

  Lewis W. Washington, great-grandnephew of George Washington, held as hostage

  REPUBLICANS

  Edward Bates, St. Louis lawyer, Whig/Know Nothing, candidate for Republican presidential nomination 1860

  Francis Preston Blair, member of President Andrew Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet, founder of the national Republican Party

  Lewis Clephane, business editor of The National Era, organizer of the Republican Club of Washington, D.C.

  Andrew G. Curtin, Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, Lincoln supporter

  William Dayton, former U.S. senator from New Jersey, Republican candidate for vice president 1856

  Jessie Benton Frémont, daughter of Thomas Hart Benton, wife of John C. Frémont, campaign manager

  Hinton Rowan Helper, author, The Impending Crisis: How to Meet It

  Henry S. Lane, Republican candidate for governor of Indiana 1860, Lincoln supporter

  Alexander K. McClure, Pennsylvania newspaper editor and Curtin’s campaign manager

  Carl Schurz, German language newspaper editor, friend of Lincoln

  Caleb Smith, former congressman from Indiana, Lincoln supporter

  Gideon Welles, editor of the Hartford Press, Democrat/Republican, Lincoln supporter

  DRED SCOTT CASE

  Montgomery Blair, son of Francis P. Blair, Dred Scott’s attorney

  Taylor Blow, son of Dred Scott’s original owner, who emancipated him after the decision

  John Catron, associate justice of the Supreme Court, friend of James Buchanan

  Benjamin R. Curtis, associate justice of the Supreme Court, dissenter in the Dred Scott case

  Robert C. Grier, associate justice of the Supreme Court, friend of James Buchanan

  Reverdy Johnson, defense attorney in the case before the Supreme Court, former attorney general

  John McLean, associate justice of the Supreme Court, Republican candidate for president in 1856, dissenter in the Dred Scott case

  John Sanford, owner of Dred Scott

  Dred Scott, slave who sued for his freedom

  Harriet Scott, slave, Dred Scott’s wife

  Roger Taney, chief justice of the Supreme Court, author of the Dred Scott decision

  THE BUCHANAN ADMINISTRATION AND ENTOURAGE

  Samuel L.M. Barlow, Wall Street financier and political funder

  Jeremiah Black, attorney general, former judge on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court

  John C. Breckinridge, vice president, former member of Congress, presidential candidate of the National Democratic Party 1860

  Lewis Cass, secretary of state, former senator from Michigan

  Howell Cobb, secretary of the treasury, former governor of Georgia, former Speaker of the House

  John B. Floyd, secretary of war, former governor of Virginia

  John W. Forney, Pennsylvania newspaper editor and political operative

  Harriet Lane, niece of Buchanan and acting first lady

  Jacob Thompson, secretary of the interior, former congressman from Mississippi

  Isaac Toucey, secretary of the navy, former congressman from Connecticut

  LINCOLN’S FAMILY

  Ninian Edwards, Jr., brother-in-law, married to Mary’s sister, Whig/Democrat

  John Hanks, cousin

  Mary Lincoln, wife

  Robert Todd Lincoln, son

  Thomas “Tad” Lincoln, son

  William Wallace “Willie” Lincoln, son

  PART ONE

  THE PRESENT CRISIS

  “We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great . . .”

  JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, “THE PRESENT CRISIS”

  CHAPTER ONE

  THINGS FALL APART

  In 1850, the Union was proclaimed to have been saved again in a great compromise that removed slavery as a controversy from national politics. President Millard Fillmore declared it nothing less than “the final settlement.” The issue tearing the country apart, whether the vast territory conquered in the Mexican War would be slave or free, was no longer to be a matter of debate. “We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis,” Franklin Pierce announced at his inauguration on March 4, 1853.

  Franklin Pierce

  The Compromise of 1850 admitted Texas as a slave state and California a free one, and avoided determining the status of New Mexico until far into the future. Only a few agitators trying to shield fugitive slaves from being returned to their masters under the new federal law continued to be nuisances. Slavery as a question that would divide the country was now safely consigned to the past as it had once before.

  Most importantly, this new compromise left sacrosanct the Compromise of 1820, the Missouri Compromise, the original “final settlement.” The Missouri crisis had aroused all the issues and arguments revived in the crisis in the aftermath of the Mexican War. The admission of Missouri as a state would increase the proslavery bloc in the Senate to a four-seat majority. Its admittance would also establish a precedent for admitting fu
rther Western states as slave states. The Northern objection was mirrored in Southern fears that the entire West would be denied to slavery and the balance of power inevitably shifted. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary that the Missouri problem was “a flaming sword . . . a mere preamble—a title page to a great tragic volume.” He believed it was based in the Constitution’s “dishonorable compromise with slavery,” a “bargain between freedom and slavery” that was “morally vicious, inconsistent with the principles upon which alone our revolution can be justified.” He prophesied that “the seeds of the Declaration are yet maturing” and that its promise of equality would become “the precipice into which the slave-holding planters of his country sooner or later much fall.” In the Senate, the Southerners’ anxiety that slavery might be prohibited in the territories assumed a hostility congealed into ideology against the egalitarian premise of the Declaration of Independence. Senator Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, the former Speaker of the House, posed the question, “A clause in the Declaration of Independence has been read declaring that ‘all men are created equal’; follow that sentiment and does it not lead to universal emancipation?” The Declaration, Macon stated, “is not part of the Constitution or of any other book” and there was “no place for the free blacks in the United States.” Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky managed to hammer together a narrow majority for a compromise that brought in Maine as a free state to balance the slave state of Missouri and established a line restricting slavery north of 36°31’ latitude excepting Missouri. The debate inspired a sense of panic in Thomas Jefferson retired at Monticello. “This momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union.”

  Jefferson’s nightmare hung over the Senate debate of the Compromise of 1850, filled with frightful images of death, premonitions of catastrophe, and curses of doom if slavery were allowed to persist as a vital issue. The Great Triumvirate of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun, the representative political men of their age, hurled lightning bolts from their Olympian heights. Henry Clay, young Abraham Lincoln’s “beau ideal of a statesman,” who invented the power of the Speaker of the House, who as a senator crafted the Compromise of 1820, who served as secretary of state, and who was nearly elected president, warned that the nation stood “at the edge of the precipice before the fearful and leap is taken in the yawning abyss below, which will inevitably lead to certain and irretrievable destruction.” Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, the Godlike Daniel, the voice of “liberty and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever,” whose framed picture hung in Lincoln’s law office, cautioned, “Secession! Peaceable secession! Sir, your eyes and mine are never destined to see that miracle. The dismemberment of this vast country without convulsion! . . . Sir, he who sees these States, now revolving in harmony around a common center, can expect to see them quit their places and fly off without convulsion, may look the next hour to see the heavenly bodies rush from their spheres and jostle against each other in the realms of space without producing a crash of the universe.” John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, whose stunning career included every office—congressman, senator, secretary of war, vice president, secretary of state—but the one he coveted most—president of the United States—sat wrapped wraithlike in a black cape on the Senate floor. The great nullifier, who insisted the states had preeminent authority over the federal government, objected to any compromise that would thwart the extension of slavery anywhere in the country, an “injustice” which he called the “oppression” of the South. “No, sir,” he prophesied, “the Union can be broken.” Calhoun’s acolyte, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, in opposing the admission of California as a free state, threatened, “If sir, this spirit of sectional aggrandizement, or if gentlemen prefer, this love they bear for the African race, shall cause the disruption of these states, the last chapter of our history will be a sad commentary upon the justice and the wisdom of our people.” Calhoun died less than a month after his final appearance in the Senate. Clay and Webster were dead within two years. The old order passed. By then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was the power behind the president.