no gift

Posted on September 2, 2024 by SUMPTER

Recently, when I was searching the Library of Congress for “Labor Day,” the September 3, 1921 issue of The Labor World caught my attention. The paper headlined the ‘greatest Labor Day in history;’ and the masthead mentioned Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin, the Twin Ports, way out at the end of the Great Lakes system. I remember reading about Samuel Gompers in high school social studies (I think) – the first president of the American Federation of Labor was featured in several stories in the newspaper.

The Worker

It was a big newspaper for a big Labor Day. Most issues of The Labor World were six pages at the time. The September 3rd issue was thirty-six pages full of articles, cartoons, and advertisements. A couple topics were the large number of unemployed World War I veterans and the paper’s opposition to open shops. The opinion page included a history of the holiday (image 36 at the Library of Congress) – Labor had to labor to get the holiday:

History of Labor Day

Labor Day, 1921, is the twenty-seventh annual celebration of Labor Day as a legal national holiday.
The history of Labor Day is significant of the increasing strength and progress or [sic] organized labor.
Labor Day evolved from the aspiration of the labor movement; it was-not handed down as a present. Its recognition as a legal holiday was won by labor; it was not given to labor.
The united voluntary efforts of the workers themselves established Labor Day as a national holiday long before any state legislature or the national legislature enacted the custom into statute law.
But the history of the statute law is in itself significant; it indicates the ever-increasing influence of the economic organizations of labor over the deliberations of law-makers.
The Labor Day idea was originated by P. J. McGuire, for many years first vice-president of the American Federation of Labor.
At a meeting of the New York City central labor union, held on May 8, 1882, McGuire urged the propriety of setting aside one day in the year as a general holiday for the laboring people. He suggested that it be called “Labor Day.”
The idea was adopted by the central labor union, and it staged a Labor Day parade and festival on the first Monday in September, 1882.
The A. F. of L. endorsed the national Labor Day holiday at its 1884 convention, held at Chicago.
The convention unanimously adopted the following resolution, introduced by A. C. Cameron, delegate from the Chicago trades and labor allianace [sic]:
“Resolved, That the first Monday in September of each year be set apart as a laborers’ national holiday, and that we recommend its observance by all wage workers, irrespective of sex, calling, or nationality.”
Through the activity of the state federations of labor and the central labor bodies the Labor Day demand spread from city to city and state to state.
Many municipal councils and state legislatures made it a legal holiday.
Oregon was the first state to accede to labor’s demand that Labor Day be made a state holiday. The Oregon Labor Day law was signed by the governor on February 21, 1887. The legislatures of Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York also made Labor Day a state holiday in 1887. Connecticut, Nebraska and Pennsylvania followed in 1889; Iowa and Ohio in 1890; Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington in 1891; Alabama, Louisiana, Utah and Virginia, in 1892, and California, Delaware, Florida, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Texas and Wisconsin in 1893.
In the meantime A. F. of L. officials sought congressional legislation to make Labor Day a legal holiday, in conformity with the resolution of the 1884 convention. The bill became a law ten years later. It passed congress on June 28, 1894.
On June 29,1893 [sic], President Cleveland signed the Labor Day law in the presence of Amps [Amos?] J. Cummings, representtive [sic] in congerss [sic] from
New York city. Mr. Cummings presented the pen and penholder used by President Cleveland to President Gompers.
In his annual report to the 1894 A. F. of L. convention President Gompers said:
“National Labor Day—It affords me pleasure to be able to report that the demand by the A. F. of L. for making the first Monday in Septemper [sic] of each year a legal holiday passed congress and was made a law on June 29,1894.”

Peter J. McGuire

Samuel Gompers

Amos Cummings

Here are a few clippings from the same issue of the newspaper:

closed shop secures pie

out of balance

progressive and practical labor movement

“Duluth’s oldest union man”

whole world in Labor’s hand

at Duluth’s Labor Day

According to Wikipedia, Amos J. Cummings served in the Civil War as a “sergeant major in the 26th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He earned the Medal of Honor on May 4, 1863, at Salem Heights, Virginia. His official citation reads: “Rendered great assistance in the heat of the action in rescuing a part of the field batteries from an extremely dangerous and exposed position.” His medal was not awarded until several decades later, on March 28, 1894. He was mustered out in June 1863.” According to Wikipedia, the 26th New Jersey fought in the Second Brigade, Second Division, Sixth Corps in the Army of the Potomac during the Battle of Chancellorsville. He served as a Congressman from the New York City area.
In its biography of Samuel Gompers, the AFL-CIO stressed that his racial attitudes are not accepted today: “Samuel Gompers stood for white workers of his time, often pitting them against black and Chinese workers. Under his leadership, the AFL actually reversed its position on race, disallowing black members, despite explicitly pledging to welcome them at its founding.”
I found out at the National Park Service that there is an actual “The Worker” sculpture in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Duluth’s Labor World Newspaper still exists. There was a picnic this year, too! You can read a history of The Labor World at the Library of Congress.

Samuel Gompers memorial in Washington, D.C.

From the Library of Congress: Samuel Gompers; the c1915 Bird’s-eye-view of the Twin Ports, a “Perspective map not drawn to scale”.
From Wikimedia: Peter J. McGuire and Amos J. Cummings; Bestbudbrian’s 9 May 2015 photograph of the Gompers’ memorial is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license, no changes made – here’s more about the memorial.
All the [sic]s in the article about Labor Day history above are from me.

the western end of Lake Superior

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GAR reunion

Posted on July 31, 2024 by SUMPTER

reunion site

Dr. Benjamin F. Stephenson founded the Grand Army of the Republic on April 6, 1866 in Decatur Illinois. The GAR was a fraternal organization for Union soldiers, sailors, and marines who served during the Civil War. Its guiding principles were “Fraternity, Charity and Loyalty.” Many local posts were opened throughout the former Union states. On July 22, 1874 a GAR reunion was held in Paterson, New Jersey. Harper’s Weekly covered the big event in its August 8, 1874 issue:

REUNION OF VETERANS.

THE reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic took place, July 22, at Paterson, New Jersey. President GRANT, Secretary ROBESON, Governor PARKER, the Hon. W. W. PHELPS, Mayor TOWNSEND, and many other prominent public officers took part in the exercises. There were 50,000 visitors in the city, and the enthusiasm of both guests and residents was very great. There was a procession of the militia, which was lengthened by the carriages containing invited guests; 10,000 men were in line. In the afternoon there was a banquet, at which Governor PARKER, President GRANT, the Hon. W. W. PHELPS, and others made addresses, and in the evening there was a pleasant reception at Washington Hall. Our illustration on this page will give the reader a graphic idea of the procession as it passed through the principal streets of the city.

Harper’s Weekly August 8, 1874

Other newspapers acknowledged that President Grant attended the reunion and said a few words – a very few words, but other politicians took up the slack. It was intrastate trip for the president, as he arrived in Paterson from his summer retreat in Long Branch. He headed back to Long Branch the next day for a meeting with Treasury Secretary Benjamin Bristow. [August 3, 2024: I realized a couple days ago the trip wasn’t all intrastate – it was reported that President Grant stopped in New York City on the way to Paterson]

Richmond’s Daily Dispatch July 23, 1874

Worcester Daily Spy July 23, 1874

Worcester Daily Spy July 23, 1874

New Jersey railroads c1869

relaxing at Long Branch c1872

Long Branch beach ca. 1865

The paragraph and image from the August 8, 1874 issues of Harper’s Weekly comes from HathiTrust. FirozAnsari’s July 30, 2016 photograph of the Great Falls of the Passaic River in Paterson is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
From the Library of Congress: Bird’s-eye view of Paterson, New Jersey in 1880; the July 23, 1874 issues of Richmond’s Daily Dispatch (page 1) and the Worcester Daily Spy (pages 1 and 2);New Jersey railroad map c1869 – I circled Long Branch and Paterson; part of the first family at Long Branch cottage by G. W. Pach, c1872; the surf at Long Branch, N.J. by George Stacy, ca. 1865.

The Great Falls of the Passaic River in Paterson

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Columbia’s champs

Posted on July 20, 2024 by SUMPTER

race venue

Columbia College was in the news 150 years ago this summer as its varsity rowing team won its race at an intercollegiate regatta on Saratoga Lake in New York state. The race had to be postponed twice because of choppy waters, but third time was a charm – at least the race was successfully completed, but, as Harper’s Weekly explained in its August 1, 1874 issue, the number of spectators was much smaller for the third try:

THE COLLEGE REGATTA.

THE pleasure of the Inter-collegiate Regatta this year was marred by two disappointments, one of which might have been prevented by proper management on the part of the committee. The afternoon of July 16 was the time chosen for the grand race, and long before the hour appointed for the start the shores of the lake were thronged by thousands of enthusiastic spectators, who waited impatiently for the boom of the signal-gun. Every vehicle in Saratoga and the surrounding country was pressed into service, and the hack-men and farmers made the most of their opportunity. But as the hour named for the start drew near the wind became fresh, and so roughened the surface of the lake that it was considered imprudent for the light shells to venture out. After waiting until long beyond the starting hour, the race was reluctantly postponed until the following day. The committee made the mistake of fixing upon the same hour in the afternoon, instead of choosing an hour in the forenoon, when the lake is almost always as smooth as glass. The consequence was another postponement, on account of rough weather, until darkness put an end to all possibility of a race. Warned by two failures, the committee fixed upon ten o’clock Saturday morning as the hour for starting.

a big draw

In consequence of these two postponements, there was very little interest manifested in the race on Saturday; and although the day was fair, and the lake smooth as a mirror, there were not more than fifteen thousand people present to witness the contest, and the shores of the lake wore a comparatively deserted appearance. A fair start was made at forty-six minutes after ten o’clock, all the boats getting off in good form; and after a most gallant and exciting race, Columbia came in the winner in 16 minutes 42 seconds. Close behind came the Wesleyans, in 16.50; the other boats in the order indicated in the map on the next page. There was an unfortunate collision between the Yale and the Harvard boats, in which the former lost her rudder and broke an oar. It is yet undecided where the blame lies; but the bitter feeling manifested by both crews can not be too strongly regretted. By this accident Yale was thrown out of the race. The excitement of the crowd as the winning boat crossed the line was indescribable.

The whole concourse of spectators rose on tiptoe, and cheer upon cheer went up, while the fellow-collegians and the backers of the winning crew manifested their delight by flinging up their hats, waving handkerchiefs, and cheering. The names of the winning crew are as follows:
Stroke. — B.F. REES, New York city; age, 20; height, 5 feet 8½ inches; weight, 153 pounds.
2. R.C. CORNELL, New York; age, 21; height, 5 feet 9 inches; weight, 171 pounds.
3. EDWARD S. RAPALLO, New York; age, 21; height, 6 feet; weight, 158 pounds.
4. G. GRISWOLD, New York; age, 18; height, 6 feet; weight, 158 pounds.
5. J.T. GOODWIN, New York; age, 24; height, 5 feet 11 inches; weight, 157 pounds.
Bow. — P. TIMPSON, New York; age, 22; height, 5 feet 11½ inches; weight, 158 pounds.
Averages. — Of weight, 159 pounds; of height, 5 feet 10⅔ inches; of age, 21.
Columbia’s boat is newly built, by FEARON; 49½ feet long, 21 inches wide; weighs 145 pounds. The racing dress consists of blue tights and white handkerchiefs. …
[ On July 15th Princeton beat Yale and Brown in the freshman race, and then Ansley Wilcox from Yale won the single sculls race against one Cornell oarsman and one from Harvard.]

at the finish line

In its August 8, 1874 issue Harper’s Weekly reported on a big celebration greeting the victors on their return to New York City:
THE COLUMBIA. BOYS.

Columbia champs

The Columbia boys met with an enthusiastic reception at the railway dépôt on their return from Saratoga. Crowds of eager Columbians and sympathetic friends were gathered to bid them welcome. The favorite colors, blue and white, were worn by two-thirds of the people present. When the train steamed into the dépôt the cheers of the students and their friends pealed forth in ringing tones, and the college cry, C-O-L-U-M-B-I-A, came in at the close with resonant emphasis. After the first hearty greetings and hand-shakings, a procession was formed, headed by a band of music.

The crew carried their oars aloft, each man’s name appearing on the blade of the trusty weapon which he had borne so well in the late struggle. The absent oarsman, Mr. GRISWOLD, who remained at Saratoga, was not forgotten, and his oar, garlanded with the victor blue and white, was carried along with the rest. Outside the dépôt the crew took their seats in President BARNARD’s carriage, which was waiting to receive them. It was their triumphal car, and they themselves were the heroes of the hour. Yet they bore their honors with becoming modesty, even if they were secretly proud of the ovation tendered them. The procession took its way up Forty-second Street amidst the plaudits of the spectators and the answering cheers of the Columbia boys. When near Fifth Avenue the horses were unhitched from the carriage, ropes were attached, and the eager students drew their victorious mates in triumph to the college. From the balcony President BARNARD bade the young victors an earnest welcome. Here the demonstrations were most emphatic. The college was decorated with the Columbia colors, and flags of blue and white were displayed from all the private residences in the vicinity.

After this ceremony the procession re-formed and proceeded to the Windsor Hotel, where a very pleasant reception was held. A social evening closed the triumphant festivities of the day, the various scenes of which are depicted by our artist in the illustration on the preceding page.

the preceding page

The 1874 regatta is included in A history of American College Regattas at the Library of Congress. Concerns about Saratoga being a bad choice for the regatta because of “its bad moral influence and its extravagant gaiety” were frivolous.

field expanded

course mapped

Harper’s Weekly also covered a nascent professional sport during the summer of 1874. The paper’s July 25th issue noted that two of the most successful teams from the first fully professional baseball league – the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players – would be heading to England to take on some of the best players over there. The American teams were from Boston and Philadelphia. The thumbnail below includes the base-ball paragraph and a description of Saratoga. Actually, it seems the two teams played against each other on at least one occasion in England.

Harper’s Weekly July 25, 1874

Boston champs

Athletic of Philadelphia

According to Wikipedia: 1) Rowing “is the oldest intercollegiate sport in the United States.” 2) Columbia was called King’s College from its founding in 1754 until 1784, and the college became a university in 1896. 3) Intercollegiate sports at Columbia “date to the foundation of the baseball team in 1867. Men’s association football (i.e. soccer) followed in 1870, and men’s crew in 1873. Men’s Crew was one of Columbia’s best early sports, and in 1878 the Columbia College Boat Club was the first foreign crew to win a race at the Henley Royal Regatta—considered to be Columbia’s greatest athletic achievement.” (“Columbia won the Visitors’ Challenge Cup, becoming the first foreign winners of a Henley trophy”)
From the Library of Congress: bird’s-eye view, which was used in the July 25, 1874 issue of Harper’s Weekly. I got all the other 1874 Harper’s Weekly content for this post from HathiTrust.

Posted in 150 Years Ago This Week, American Culture, Postbellum Society | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spirit in St. Louis

Posted on July 4, 2024 by SUMPTER

memorable bridge day

July 4, 1874 was a big day in the St. Louis area. People celebrated the official opening of a new bridge that connected Missouri and Illinois. The Eads Bridge was the first bridge to span the Mississippi River after its confluence with the Missouri River and “pioneered the large-scale use of steel as a structural material, leading the shift from wrought-iron as the default material for large structures.” During the the huge gala on the Fourth, the bridge’s designer and builder, James Buchanan Eads, was one of the passengers on a train that crossed the bridge from the Illinois side. On the Missouri side a procession of 100,000 people met the train. There was a magnificent fireworks display in the evening. Here’s the beginning of a very long article about the bridge and the celebration from the July 5, 1874 issue of The Chicago Daily Tribune:

ST. LOUIS BRIDGE.

Formal Inauguration of the Great
Structure Yesterday.

The Bridge a Marvel of Modern
Engineering.

A Hundred Thousand People In the
Grand Procession.

The Great Bridge Illuminated with
Fireworks at Night.

The River Crowded with Steamer-Loads
of Spectators.

History of the Enterprise—Do-
Description of the Work.

THE INAUGURATION.
Special Dispatch to The Chicago Tribune.
St. Louis, July 4.— Throughout a hundred years of lazy indifference and substantial prosperity, St. Louis has known no such gala day as this has been. Never before was there such universal enthusiasm and such a spontaneous outpouring of the people to do honor to any passing event, or to publicly rejoice over real or imaginary glory. Although the confidence of the St. Louis people in the ultimate success of the bridge enterprise has remained unshaken ever since the work was inaugurated, still no great public enthusiasm manifested itself until the completion of the first arch, since which time no topic of conversation has been so general as that of the bridge project, and as the work continued steadily to go on, and the huge superstructure gradually assumed a symmetrical form, and began to exhibit indications of tho ultimate grandeur of this groat triumph of modern engineering skill, local pride was increased proportionately, and kept on growing.

work in progress

THE CULMINATION
occurred today. For weeks past preparations have been making on a most elaborate scale for a formal opening of the bridge, and an appropriate celebration on the great national holiday. The peculiar adaptability of the bridge for the exhibition of the fireworks seems naturally to have suggested the advisability of an entertainment of this character, and arrangements were accordingly effected some weeks ago for a grand scenic display of pyrotechnics on the evening of the 4th. Soon after the adoption of this enterprise, was conceived the idea of a

A GREAT PROCESSION,
comprised of representatives of each and all of the diversified industrial interests of tho city, together with a full turn out of the various military organizations, societies, clubs, and the fire department; in a word, to have represented everything calculated to make the pageant more imposing or to do honor to the occasion. This suggestion was seized on with avidity by the public, and the various members of the Merchants’ Exchange, as also numerous private citizens of energy and liberality, which have for some days been industriously engaged in perfecting a plan of organization for the procession and the general details of the celebration. But not in St. Louis alone was this great interest felt in the bridge. For several days past the railroads and steamers have been bringing crowds of our country cousins and friends from other cities. It is thought that
FULLY 30,000 STRANGERS
are in the city to-night.

bird’s eye view of new bridge

The sun rose this morning to shed its light upon a perfect sea of bunting. Fourth street, Fifth street, and Washington avenue, and the principal thoroughfares, presented a truly magnificent scene, being hung with garlands, flags, mottoes, and inscriptions arranged in most attractive shape. The crowd began to assemble upon the streets at a very early hour, and at 9 o’clock it is no exaggeration to state that
THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND PEOPLE
were rushing and surging up and down the streets, pushing their way into the track of the procession, and being driven back by the police, only with truly American perversity to seek another locality and being driven back by the police, only with the American perversity to seek another locality in which to elude the vigilance of the officers and get under the hoofs of the horses or the wheels of the carts.

Tho procession formed on Washington avenue, and at 0 o’clock moved toward the bridge, led by the Marshals and a United States military company. Nearly every branch of industry, every commercial interest, seemed to have an appropriate representation. It were idle to attempt enumeration. Also all the leading societies,
clubs, and local organizations were represented.
MOTTOES, BANNERS, AND DECORATIONS INNUMERABLE
were displayed to an excited and enthusiastic throng who, from the streets, the windows, and the [t]ops of tho loftiest houses, cheered the pageant as it steadily illed [filed?]past. At the west approach of the bridge the head of the column stopped. In the meantime

A TRAIN OF FIFTEEN PULLMAN CARS,
drawn by three engines, had crossed from the east side, bringing a number of distinguished persons, [including many politicians, Capt. J. B. Eads (“architect of the bridge”), and Gen. W. S. Hancock]. Upon the meeting of the train and procession, Mr. G.B. Allen, President of the Bridge Company, introduced Mrs. Julius S. Walsh, who
CHRISTENED THE BRIDGE,
making the following remarks:

With the waters of the Atlantic, tho Pacific, the Gulf, and the Lakes commingled, emblematic of the union effected by the might spans, I christen this structure the Illinois & St. Louis Bridge, and invoke the blessings of the Almighty on it, its builders, and the commerce to which it is henceforth and forever dedicated.

After which she
SPRINKLED THE STRUCTURE
from six silver pitchers containing the various waters referred to. Water from the Northern Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans had been forwarded from Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, and New Orleans by the respective Postmasters of those cities.

After the christening came the speeches. After the addresses of welcome by Mayor Brown, Messrs. Beveridge, Woodson, Hendricks, Senator Ferry, of Michiganand others, offered appropriate remarks. Tho procession then moved on, occupying some four hours in passing, and extending in length from 12 to 14 miles.

THE FIREWORKS.
In the evening, soon after dark, the display of fireworks from the bridge began. Tho roofs of all the high buildings within three or four squares of the river were covered with people, seats having been arranged for their convenience. The levee, wharfboats, lighters, and barges were thronged with humanity, while a fleet of thirty-one river steamers and innumerable smaller boats, extending about a third of a mile below, afforded an opportunity to thousands to view the exhibition without interruption. There is no doubt that this display of pyrotechnics is the grandest thing of this kind that has been witnessed in America, and but very rarely have attempts been made in Europe to produce so grand a sight. This evening the whole heavens were at one instant aglow with a ruddy light, the next as bright as day with the most brilliant flashes, when a heavy black cloud of smoke from the fleet below, wafted by a gentle breeze from the south, cast a gloomy shadow over the whole until it passed away, and the air was again filled with thousands of particles of fire, as varied in color as the rainbow, and seemingly not less beautiful. Shortly after 9 o’clock the display from the bridge ceased, the fleet returned to the wharves, and the throng dispersed. …

spanning the Mississippi

Bridge designer and builder James B. Eads grew up in St.Louis. According to William M. Fowler, Jr., James Eads was “an expert salvager:

During the 1840s river navigation was a hazardous business and wrecks were common. The young Eads, alert to opportunities, had started a salvage business. Although he had no formal training in engineering or design, he invented and patented a diving bell and a floating pump device. These ingenious new machines allowed him to lift apparently unsalvageable wrecks. By the mid 1840s James Eads was one of the best known and wealthiest rivermen along the entire Mississippi.

Mr. Eads also contributed to the Union Civil War effort. As James M. McPherson wrote,

Eads contracted in August 1861 to construct seven shallow-draft gunboats for river work. When completed before the end of the year, these craft looked like no other vessel in existence. They were flat-bottomed, wide-beamed, and paddle-wheeled, with their machinery and crew quarters protected by a sloping casemate sheathed in iron armor up to 2.5 inches thick. Because this casemate, designed by naval constructor Samuel Pook, reminded observers of a turtle shell, the boats were nicknamed “Pook’s turtles.” Although strange in appearance, these formidable craft each carried thirteen guns and were more than a match for the few converted steamboats the South could bring against them.

four Pook’s turtles under construction by Eads’ company

working on deck of one of the four

finished product: USS Carondelet

It was a different story on Independence Day 1874 for a bridge in Lewiston, Pennsylvania. According to documentation at the Library of Congress, the bridge was destroyed by a tornado on that day.

Missouri and Mississippi rivers join

James Buchanan Eads

PA bridge collapsed on the Fourth

James Buchanan Eads is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. You can read a good post about James B. Eads at The Civil War Navy Sesquicentennial. A bio at PBS’s American Experience notes that “In July 1884, Britain’s Royal Society of the Arts awarded Eads the Albert Medal for ‘services he had rendered to the art of engineering.’ He was the first American to receive the honor.” The Wikipedia link in first paragraph explains that James Buchanan Eads was “named for his mother’s cousin, future President of the United States James Buchanan.” According to HistoricBridges.org, the Eads Bridge is a National Historic Landmark. HistoricBridges provides much information about the bridge, including a link to a site with even more information – Eads Bridge by David Aynardi. The bridge was damaged twice by tornadoes. See a picture of the 1896 damage here
Citations for paragraphs by Fowler and McPherson: [Fowler Jr., William M. Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War. Bluejacket Books, 2001. Print. page 130.] [McPherson, James M. The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. Print. page 393.]
From the Library of Congress: bridge memorial – I don’t see any evidence that President Grant was on hand for the festivities; the July 5, 1874 issue of The Chicago Daily Tribune – the bridge article is on pages 1 and 12; ribs completed; the bird’s-eye view; the completed bridge at St. Louis; upper-left section of Lloyd’s 1863 map of the Mississippi from St. Louis to the Gulf – the confluence with the Missouri is a few miles upstream from St. Louis; the portrait of James B. Eads; the collapsed bridge in Lewiston, Pennsylvania;; the great St. Louis bridge
From Naval Heritage and History Command: four boats under construction in St. Louis; working on the deck of one of the armored gunboats; USS Carondelet

still standing today

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

“feeling of friendly union”

Posted on May 30, 2024 by SUMPTER

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

DECORATION-DAY.

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

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

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

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

DECORATION-DAY.

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

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

and less malice

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

Nashville Union and American May 31, 1874 part 1

Nashville Union and American part 2

Joseph R. Hawley

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

State capitol in Montgomery, Alabama

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Laurels to the Chief

Posted on May 15, 2024 by SUMPTER

Harper’s Weekly May 9, 1874

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

THE VETO.

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

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

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

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

leave it for the sweeper

Harper’s Weekly October 11, 1873

Harper’s Weekly October 18, 1873

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tompkins Square riot

Harper’s Weekly May 9, 1874

Harper’s Weekly May 16, 1874

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

The Emporia News May 15, 1874 part 1

The Emporia News May 15,1874 part 2

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

Harper’s Weekly May 9, 1874

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

no foolin’

Posted on April 12, 2024 by SUMPTER

April 1865: Libby prison in Richmond

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

The National Tribune July 20, 1893 on page 3

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

c1992: Libby Prison in Chicago

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

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

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

at the museum – tree stumps embedded with shells

shot and shell on display at Libby Museum

The Candy Man

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

1889 museum catalogue

“132 twenty-ton cars”

just a few of the artifacts

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

From Wikipedia: the image of Charles F. Gunther

On Wabash Ave – prison behind the castle front

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

Cold Easter

Posted on March 31, 2024 by SUMPTER

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

Arbutus: Spring’s offering for Easter-tide

Happy Easter!

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

Posted on March 11, 2024 by SUMPTER

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

wouldn’t be co-opted

CHARLES SUMNER.

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

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

wouldn’t be terrified

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

polarizing

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

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

deathbed wish

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sumner’s Senate chair

death and procession to the Rotunda

at the Capitol

library at the senator’s D.C. residence

lying in state in Boston

over the Charles

entering the cemetery

burial

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

at Boston’s Public Garden

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

house still divided?

Posted on February 12, 2024 by SUMPTER

January 6, 1874

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

THE HON. ROBERT B. ELLIOTT.

Robert Brown Elliott

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

R.B. Elliott on far right

Harper’s Weekly January 24, 1874

no discrimination, even in cemeteries and public schools

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

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

R.B. Elliott on upper left

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