Ohio History Journal

John A. Bingham.                 331

 

JOHN A. BINGHAM.

ADDRESS OF HON. J. B. FORAKER ON THE OCCASION OF THE

UNVEILING OF MONUMENT IN HONOR OF HON. JOHN A.

BINGHAM, AT CADIZ, OHIO, OCTOBER 5, 1901.

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens:

The private life and character of John A. Bingham were

the special possessions of this community.

You were his neighbors and friends.

He came and went in your midst.

You were in daily contact with him.

You knew him under all the varying circumstances of his

long and eventful career.

You saw him tested by the trying vicissitudes of the tem-

pestuous times with which his most conspicuous public service

was identified.

You knew better than anybody else can his private life and

character, and time and again you honored him with your con-

fidence and attested your high estimate of his personal worth,

his integrity, and his splendid qualities of nature and heart.

It would be almost out of place for me to speak of him on

these points in this presence.

As to his public life, it is different. It is the common prop-

erty of the whole country -mine as well as yours. This monu-

ment is in its honor and this occasion calls for its review.

The first twenty-five years of his life were spent in prepara-

tion; the last fifteen in retirement.

The other forty-five years that he lived were devoted almost

exclusively to the public service.

He entered upon his career with a mind all aflame with zeal

for the great work in which he was to engage.

He dealt with all the economic questions of his day-

finance, taxation, national banks, the tariff, and public improve-

ments; but the subjects with which his fame is linked were

slavery, secession, rebellion, and reconstruction.

To intelligently appreciate his work, we must approach it

as he did.

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332      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.   Slavery was a disquieting subject when the Union was or- ganized and the Constitution was adopted. It was only by com- promise, aided and made possible by the hope, then generally entertained, that slavery would somehow be soon abolished, that success was achieved. But slavery did not perish, as anticipated. On the contrary, it grew in strength.

The development of the cotton industry and the adaptability to it of slave labor gave the South a new and an increased in- terest in the maintenance of the institution. As a result, it soon became a political question. It assumed threatening proportions when the admission of Missouri as a State to the Union, with a slave constitution, was proposed in 1818. The debates that ensued took on a sectional aspect which was made permanent and intensified by the Missouri Compromise, effected in 1820, according to which both Maine and Missouri were admitted-one free and the other slave; and it was stipu- lated and enacted that never thereafter should any State be admitted with slavery north of 36o 30' north latitude.

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John A. Bingham. 333

Both Democrats and Whigs undertook to treat the line so

drawn as a permanent settlement of the territorial rights of

slavery, and a period of comparative political peace followed.

For twenty years both Whigs and Democrats devoted them-

selves to business questions, and, so far as they were concerned,

succeeded in keeping slavery effectually in the background.

But God was marching on.

While Clay and Jackson and their respective adherents were

battling over the issues they saw fit to make with each other, a

new political force was entering the arena, at first weak and un-

noticed except to be despised, but destined to grow strong enough

to overthrow both parties and compel reorganization on new lines

that had direct reference to slavery.

This new force assumed a party name and made its first ap-

pearance as a national organization in 1840, the same year that

Mr. Bingham was admitted to the bar.

He was then twenty-five years of age, and blessed with a

thoroughly sound mind in a thoroughly sound body. His life

had been one of struggle and endeavor. It had strongly devel-

oped his great mental powers. He had a natural aptitude for

public affairs. This quality was intensified by the discussion of

the times. Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Jackson, Van Buren, Ben-

ton, Marcy, Corwin, Chase, and their associates were the political

leaders then on the stage of action. When they spoke they

challenged attention and aroused all the mental activities that

men possessed.

The preparatory steps could not have been better ordered if

they had been taken with special reference to the famous log

cabin, coon-skin, and hard cider campaign that marked the year

of Mr. Bingham's first appearance in public and made the hero of

Tippecanoe President of the United States.

There was intense excitement everywhere. All classes of

people talked politics and little else.

Mr. Bingham's tastes and acquirements were such that he

would have doubtless drifted into the discussion if conditions

had been normal, but under the circumstances that obtained, he

could not have kept out if he had tried.

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334      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

He actively participated and at once attracted attention and

commanded respect for his ability, logic, and oratory.

That campaign, with all its excitements, was not, however,

of a character to call forth his full powers. The Whig party, to

which he belonged, had no platform except their candidate, and

only economic questions were involved in the discussion.

The great moral question that was so soon to absorb all at-

tention was kept in the background.

It appeared in the contest, but only as a little cloud on the

horizon no bigger than a man's hand.

It was represented by the Abolition party which then, for the

first time, placed a candidate in the field; but he received from

all the States an aggregate of less than 7,000 votes. This did

not affect the result. It showed less strength than had been

conceded. It was thought the result would discourage the cause,

but its champions were resolute, determined men of a high order

of ability, who, acting upon conviction, had no thought of sur-

render.

Ridicule, derision, and mob violence-to all of which they

were subjected - only inflamed their zeal. The names of Owen

Lovejoy, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, and many

others associated with them as leaders in this movement, were

soon to become familiar to the American people.

They were commonly abused, maligned, hated, and detested,

but they held steadily to their work, commanded attention, and

constantly increased their followers.

Events helped them.

Harrison was dead and Tyler had succeeded to the Presi-

dency. He quarreled with the Whigs, who had elected him, and

undertook to secure the support of the Democrats by making John

C. Calhoun his Secretary of State. Calhoun disliked him, but

two considerations moved him to accept; one was the opportunity

it gave him to serve the South by bringing about the annexation

of Texas and thus adding to the area of slave Territory, and the

other was the chance it thereby gave him to overthrow Van

Buren, to whose leadership and candidacy for renomination as the

Democratic candidate in 1844 he was openly and bitterly opposed.

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John A. Bingham.                 335

 

He was not long in solidifying the South in favor of annexa-

tion. That brought the slavery question at once to the front and,

with singular fatality, destroyed both Clay and Van Buren.

To hold his strength in the North, Van Buren announced that

he was opposed to annexation. The result was that while he

had a majority of the delegates, the South controlled more than

one-third of the convention and; consequently, under the two-

thirds rule, his nomination became impossible, and James K.

Polk was made the nominee and Van Buren's leadership was

ended forever.

Mr. Clay was under the same compulsion. He could not be

elected unless he could hold his northern strength, and therefore

he opposed annexation. This gave him the nomination, and un-

doubtedly would have given him also the election if he had not,

in the midst of the campaign, to mollify the dissatisfied Whigs

of the South, written his famous Alabama letter, in which he

virtually retracted his former declaration, by naming conditions

under which he would favor annexation.

Until the writing of this letter, his position was satisfactory

to all the anti-slavery Whigs of the North; but his letter was

regarded as a virtual surrender of what had become the all-

absorbing question of the contest, and, as a result, thousands of

men who had become hostile to slavery broke away from a party

that no longer gave hope of earnest opposition to its aggravating

pretensions.

The result of the election depended on New York, and the

defection was so great in that State that, with the loss of the

heavily increased Abolition vote, the Whigs were defeated. The

electorial vote went to Polk, and he was made President of the

United States, in the interests of slavery, by the combined vote

of the Abolitionists and the slaveholders and their sympathizers.

The result was strangely and almost mysteriously reached,

but it was of most momentous character.

Clay was defeated, and the hearts of his followers were

broken. It seemed to them a strange and unjust dispensation of

Providence. They could not understand it, and for a time re-

fused to be reconciled. Men who had been watching, hoping, and

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336      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

praying for the decline and extinction of slavery as necessary to

the peace and preservation of the Union, viewed the acquisition of

Texas with alarm and despair.

But the hand of God was in it all, and what was then so in-

comprehensible has been made plain by His unfolded purposes.

Except only then and in the manner in which it was effected,

Texas probably never could have been peaceably added to the

United States. But however that may be, its acquisition was

the beginning of the "irrepressible conflict."

The issue was joined and the battle was to the death which

was to determine whether this country should be all slave or

all free.

The war with Mexico accentuated the dispute and made sec-

tional differences irreconcilable.

Although slavery was all the while at the bottom of the con-

troversy, yet it from time to time took on various forms of dis-

cussion.

Thoughtful conservative men taxed their powers and their

ingenuity to devise methods and measures to allay discussion and

appease the demands of public sentiment, but no sooner was one

question settled than another arose, and thus the tide, although

at time apparently subsiding, was constantly rising until, finally,

sweeping all before it, the dread alternative of arms was reached

and the ultimate settlement was made in blood.

The South, foreseeing that the North was outstripping her

in the growth of population and political power, and that the time

would inevitably come when she could no longer retain control

of the Government, espoused the doctrine of secession, according

to which any State had a constitutional right to withdraw from

the Union whenever it might see fit to do so. She intended by

this rule which she could and then destroy when control was

lost and on the ruins build anew with slavery as the chief corner-

stone of her structure.

At the same time arose the question of the rights of slavery

in the Territories, and John C. Calhoun, to give it a status there

and make more slave States possible, advanced the doctrine, of

which we have recently heard so much, that the Constitution fol-

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John A. Bingham.                 337

Vol. X -22

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338      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

lowed the flag, and hence gave the same protection to slave owner-

ship there that it gave in the States.

The Wilmot Proviso, the Lecompton Constitution, squatter

sovereignty, the Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred Scott Decision,

the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the Kansas-Nebraska

Act are names and phrases that suggest the varying and succeed-

ing phases of the discussion and subordinate questions and propo-

sitions, about which there is no time to speak adequately within

the limitations of this occasion.

It is enough to say they mark the character and the progress

of the political debates in which Mr. Bingham became an active

participator.

It is no exaggeration to say that they were the greatest ques-

tions the American people had dealt with since the Government

was organized, and the men who conducted the debate were the

ablest since the formative period of the Republic.

To attain prominence and distinction among them and be a

leader of such leaders was the uncommon honor Mr. Bingham

achieved.

In 1848, when he was but thirty-three years of age, he was

made a delegate to the National Whig Convention at Philadelphia,

and, by what seemed at the time a fruitless effort, made for him-

self, at one stroke, a national reputation.

It was known before the convention met that General Taylor

would be its nominee, but its platform declarations had not been

determined.

The slavery question was uppermost in the minds of all;

yet both the Democrats and Whigs were anxious to evade it-

the Democrats, to save their strength in the North, and the Whigs

to hold their strength in the South. Accordingly, to the keen

disappointment of thousands of their respective followers, both

conventions practically ignored the whole slavery question.

The Whigs were saved at the election by the Free Soilers,

who drew largely from the Democrats but only slightly from

the Whigs because of their dislike of Van Buren, who headed

the movement as its candidate.

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John A. Bingham.                  339

 

Taylor was elected, but his party was incapable because it did

not have the courage of its convictions.

It went to pieces while in power, as all such parties will, and,

with the humiliating defeat of General Scott in 1852, gave way

to the Republican party born of the people to do their will.

"All is well that ends well," and, therefore, measured by

what followed, it is well that the Whig party perished.

But if Mr. Bingham had been allowed his way, the Whig

party need not have died. It might not have elected Taylor, but

it would have marshalled later the triumphant forces led by

Lincoln.

He showed his grasp of the situation and his knowledge of

its requirements, as well as his convictions of right and his cour-

age to maintain them, when, in that convention, he offered the

famous resolution which you have carved on his monument, that

it may be linked with him in death as it was inseparable in life

 

"NO MORE SLAVE STATES; NO MORE SLAVE

TERRITORIES- THE MAINTENANCE OF FREEDOM

WHERE FREEDOM IS AND THE PROTECTION OF

AMERICAN INDUSTRY."

These sharp, decisive sentences, going to the very marrow

of the political contentions of the time, were rejected by the con-

vention, but they cut into the hearts of men and made the name

of John A. Bingham dear to every enemy of slavery.

They crystallized a sentiment and formulated a policy.

They appealed to the conscience and gave an intelligent and

inspiring purpose to political action.

It is difficult for us, in the light of the present, to realize the

full measure of credit to which Mr. Bingham is entitled for the

courage he displayed in thus firmly and explicitly taking such a

stand.

The evil of slavery, the curse it was to the country, and the

blessings that have resulted from its extinction, are all so manifest

that we are not surprised to learn that men were then opposed to

it; on the contrary, it seems so natural that it should have had

opposition that we wonder rather that anybody should have de-

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340      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

fended it; but prevailing public sentiment on the subject was then

radically different from that which it was destined soon to become.

The institution was recognized and protected by the Constitu-

tion. It could not be interfered with in the States without violat-

ing that organic law and also numerous statutory provisions that

had been enacted in its behalf.

It involved great moneyed interests and was upheld by

prejudices in its favor throughout the North as well as in the

South. It was like striking at the law, order, and peace of the

nation to attack or criticise it.

Some idea of the sensitiveness that prevailed with respect to

it is given by what has been said as to the disposition of the two

great parties and their respective leaders to keep it out of the

politics of the times.

Bingham had to brave all this and did.

He took the lead, while change of sentiment was inaugu-

rated by the discussion he provoked, yet four years later, when

1852 came, so little progress had been made that the Whig party

approved in its platform all the pro-slavery legislation that had

been enacted, expressly including the iniquitous fugitive slave law

"as a settlement in principle and substance of the dangerous and

exciting questions" that had been raised in regard to slavery,

and pledged itself to "discountenance all efforts to continue or

renew such agitation, whenever, wherever, or however the attempt

may be made; and we will maintain the system as essential to the

nationality of the Whig party and the integrity of the Union."

These declarations were intended to suppress the Binghams

and all the other troublesome agitators. They failed in their

purpose, but they show the deplorable state to which the Whig

party had been reduced by the cowardice of its leaders in the

presence of that great question.

They also show how far Mr. Bingham was in advance of

public sentiment and to what extent he was defying it; they

show, too, how he was at variance with his party and practically

in rebellion against it.

It is easy for a young, ambitious man to go with the current

and stand in line with his party, but only the man with clear judg-

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John A. Bingham.                   341

 

ment, conscientious scruples, and approved courage will disregard

these considerations and stand by his conceptions of right, truth,

and justice.

That is what Mr. Bingham determined to do, and he did it.

He did not have to wait long for the reward of vindication.

It came with the birth of the Republican party, which espoused

the sentiments he had avowed and sent him to Congress in 1854

at the early age of thirty-nine years.

His record there covers sixteen years of service so faithful

and so distinguished that its history is for that period by the

history of his party and his country.

He served on the most important committees and held the

most important chairmanships. He gave diligent and unremitting

attention to all the work assigned him. He participated in all

the debates that occurred and always showed a learning, a re-

search, an ability, a readiness, and an oratory that gave him a first

rank among the great men of that great time. He was a veritable

pillar of strength to the cause of freedom, the cause of the Union,

and the cause of reconstruction. His speeches were so numerous

and so notable that anything like a proper review of them in detail

would require a volume. But, as showing the political atmos-

phere by which he was surrounded, the spirit of bitterness that

entered into the debates in which he participated, and also to

show his ability, his eloquence, and his intense earnestness, one

of his earliest efforts may be mentioned.

The first session of Congress in which he sat as a member,

commenced in December, 1855.

The struggle of the slave power to capture Kansas and Ne-

braska was then ripening to its climax.

The question entered into the organization of the House of

Representatives, and many weeks passed, filled with angry debate,

before Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, was finally chosen

to be Speaker over William Aiken of South Carolina.

Mr. Bingham took a modest, yet, for a new member, a very

prominent part in this struggle.

It was scarcely ended until he made his first formal speech.

Kansas was his theme, and it is enough to say that he did the

subject justice.

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342       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

But a few weeks later, he thrilled with pride and enthusiasm

the hearts of his associates and followers throughout the nation

and correspondingly angered and inflamed his opponents by his

burning words of denunciation of slavery spoken in the debate on

the resolution to expel Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, from

the House of Representatives, because of his brutal attack on

Charles Sumner, whom he struck down and beat almost to death

with his cane on the floor of the Senate for words spoken, as a

Senator from Massachusetts, against slavery and its aggressions

in the Territories.

This debate was one of the most bitter that preceded the war.

Mr. Bingham took the floor to make immediate answer to Mr.

Clingman of North Carolina, who, in common with his fellow

members from the South, who participated in the debate, had

most abusively spoken of Mr. Sumner and of all who sympa-

thized with the doctrines enunciated by him in the great speech

that provoked the assault.

The brutal character of this speech, added to the brutal as-

sault, had thoroughly aroused Mr. Bingham. It stirred him to

his very depths. As a result, he rose to the highest flights of

eloquence.

An extract will show not only his ability, his oratory, his elo-

quence, his fearlessness, and his powers of vehement invective,

but also the general character of the discussions of that time.

In the course of his speech he said:

"The brilliant and distinguished Senator from Massachusetts is

the subject of this assault-that Senator who, notwithstanding the

attempt of the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Clingman) to

defame him, holds now, and will hold, a large place in the affection and

admiration of his countrymen. That Senator, sir, denounced the auda-

cious crime which is being committed in Kansas. In his place as Senator,

he made a powerful and convincing argument against the unparalleled

conspiracy which is subjecting that young empire of the West to a cruel

and relentless tyranny -a tyranny which inflicts death on citizens guilty

of no offense against the laws; which sacks their towns and plunders

and burns their habitations; which legalizes, throughout that vast extent

of territory, chattel slavery, -that crime of crimes, -that sum of all

villainies, which makes merchandise of immortality, and, like the curse

of Kehama, smites the earth with barrenness--that crime which blasts

the human intellect and blights the human heart, and maddens the human

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John A. Bingham.                       343

 

brain, and crushes the human soul-that crime which puts out the light

and hushes the sweet voices of home--which shatters its altars and

scatters darkness and desolation over its hearthstone--that crime which

dooms men to live without knowledge, to toil without reward, to die

without hope--that crime which sends little children to the shambles

and makes the mother forget her love for her child in the wild joy she

feels that through untimely death inflicted by her own hands, she has

saved her offspring from this damning curse, and sent its infant spirit

free from this horrid taint, back to the God that gave it.

"Against this infernal and atrocious tyranny upheld and being

accomplished through a tremendous conspiracy, the Senator from Mas-

sachusetts, faithful to his convictions, faithful to the holy cause of lib-

erty, faithful to his country and his God, entered his protest, and uttered

his manly and powerful denunciation.

*    *  *    *

"That Senator, sir, comes from Massachusetts, where are Lexington

and Concord and Bunker Hill and the Rock of the Pilgrims--'where

every sod's a soldier's sepulchre' -where are the foot-prints of the

apostles and martyrs of freedom--that State which allowed a trembling

fugitive, fleeing only for his liberty, to lay his weary limbs to rest upon

Warren's grave_--that State whose mighty heart throbbed with human

sympathy for the flying bondman who, guilty of no crime under the

forms of law, but in violaton of its true spirit, walked in chains beneath

the shadow of Faneuil Hall, where linger the sacred memories of the

past and the echoes of those burning words, Death or deliverance."

It would be a pleasing task to cite and dwell upon many other

of the great speeches he made, but time will not permit. His

many important public services as counsel for the Government in

the causes he tried as Judge Advocate General by appointment

of Abraham Lincoln, whose confidence and friendship he enjoyed

to the fullest degree, must be passed over unmentioned for the

same reason.

So, also, the important and conspicuous service he rendered

as manager on behalf of the House of Representatives in the im-

peachment of Andrew Johnson.

This may be done with much less regret, because, notwith-

standing their distinguished character, they were transient in

their nature. His many permanent services are all important.

None can be mentioned and analyzed except with interest and

profit; but one will suffice. It is undoubtedly his most import-

ant; it is also characteristic of the man and representative of the

high plane upon which he labored.

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344      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

The great purpose of his resolution of 1848, had been fully

accomplished. The further extension of slavery had been stopped

by the advent of the Republican party to power, and the system

itself had perished amid the flames of war. That result had been

sealed by the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution

of the United States.

The war was ended. Secession was dead and all men were

free, but it seemed as though statesmanship had but reached the

beginning of its troubles.

The changes wrought had given birth to new and most per-

plexing problems. Were the States that had been in rebellion in

or out of the Union ? And whether in or out, how were they to be

restored to their proper statal relations to the general Government?

Under the Constitution as it existed before the war, slaves could

not vote, but, in determining the basis of representation in Congress

and the Electoral College, five slaves were counted as three voters.

There were no more slaves. They were freedmen-a new

class. Should they be allowed to vote? And, if not, should they

be included in the basis of representation? And, if so included,

should the three-fifths rule continue or should each man be a unit?

There was grave concern about the payment of the tremen-

dous national debt that had been contracted to save the Union and

serious apprehension on the subject of pensions for our soldiers

and the possible assumption, at some time in the future, of the

Confederate debt and the payment of claims for the liberation of

slaves that had been freed.

The peace of the country required a prompt and final settle-

ment of all these questions.

The policy of Andrew Johnson precluded any such settle-

ment, for his contention was that the States were not only inde-

structible, but that in every legal sense of the word, they were

still in the Union, and that no legislation of either a constitutional

or a statutory character was necessary to restore them to their

proper relations to the General Government.

Without waiting for Congress to take any action, he pro-

ceeded, by proclamation, to authorize the organization of pro-

vincial legislatures, and they in turn, selected United States Sena-

tors and provided for the election of Representatives in Congress.

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John A. Bingham.                   345

 

The extreme danger to which the country was subjected by

such a policy was forcibly illustrated when, as a result of it, Alex-

ander H. Stephens, late Vice-President of the so-called Southern

Confederacy, appeared in Washington at the opening of Congress

in December, 1865--only a few months after Appomattox--

with a commission to represent his State in the Senate of the

United States, and demanded a seat in that body.

If a full representation of the rebellious States was thus to

be allowed in the administration of the Government, the friends

of the Union might speedily lose control of it, and thus, by ballots,

the forces of secession would be enabled to accomplish what they

had failed to do with bullets.

It was soon manifest that there could not be any reconstruc-

tion of the Union without Congressional action and that to make

the settlement of the war final, it would be necessary to embody

it in the Constitution itself, where it would be placed beyond

repeal or modification except by the sovereign power of the people.

Thus the 14th Amendment became necessary.

Some of the admirers of Mr. Bingham have claimed for him

practically all the credit of drafting that amendment and securing

its adoption. That is more credit than he is entitled to receive.

The 1₄th Amendment was, of itself, a great instrument sec-

ond in importance and dignity to only the Constitution itself. It

was not struck off in a moment by the hand of any one man, or

as the product of any one mind. Many men contributed to it;

many events led up to it.

But while Mr. Bingham is not entitled to the credit of sole

authorship, he is entitled to the very high credit of being one of

the very first to recognize its necessity and to take the initial

steps that ultimately resulted in its adoption.

He introduced in the House a joint resolution providing for

such an addition to our organic law. The record does not dis-

close the exact language he employed, but enough is given to

show that as to its principal clauses, his language was practically

the same as that finally adopted.

This is especially true as to the franchise clause. For this

provision, he is, no doubt, entitled to more credit than any other

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346      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

man, and that is credit enough, for it is, indeed, credit of the

highest character.

The record shows, as might be expected, that other resolu-

tions similar to his and a number of forms of amendment were

introduced in both the House and the Senate, and that it was only

after consideration of all, by the proper committees, that, with

various changes, the amendment was finally adopted in the con-

solidated form in which it was ratified by the States.

It was a comprehensive instrument. It dealt with the public

debt to make it sacred; including pensions and obligations on

account of bounties to Union soldiers and provided against all

forms of denial or repudiation.

It prohibited the assumption by the United States or any

State of any and all debts contracted to aid the rebellion or for

payment for emancipated slaves.

It fixed the rule of eligibility to hold office for all who had

taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States

and had afterward participated in the rebellion.

It fixed the basis of representation according to the number

of authorized voters, but left it optional with each State to en-

franchise freemen or not; the sole disadvantage imposed if they

did not, being a corresponding curtailment of representation or

diminution of political power.

This and the provision defining citizenship of the United

States were the most important provisions of the amendment.

All others were temporary in character, while these were for all

time. These two--citizenship and suffrage--were the great

crucial points in the settlement of the differences that had led to

the war and of rights and demands that had grown out of that

great struggle.

The propriety of defining citizenship of the United States is

so manifest that it may be dismissed without comment, other than

that it is a matter of wonderment that the Constitution, as origin-

ally framed, should have omitted so important a clause.

The right of suffrage conferred upon the negro and the basis

of representation established by the amendment must be con-

sidered together.

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John A. Bingham.                  347

 

The old basis of representation was manifestly no longer ap-

propriate. The slaves were free and must be treated as free

men. If they were to be counted at all in determining the basis

of representation, they must be counted as men and not as chat-

tels. The sole question was whether or not they should be in-

cluded at all in the enumeration.

The conclusion reached was that they should not be included

unless given the right of suffrage; and that this right should be

conferred or not, at the option of each State.

Such was Mr. Bingham's provision, as originally proposed

by him, and such was the provision as it was incorporated into the

amendment as finally ratified and adopted. This was the sole

requirement as to the Negro imposed by the Government as a

condition precedent to the resumption by the rebellious States of

their full relations to the Government.

It left the whole subject of Negro suffrage in their own

hands, to deal with as they saw fit. They could give it or with-

hold it. If they saw fit to let the negroes vote, they could count

them in determining how many Representatives they should have

in Congress and how many votes they should have for President

and Vice-President in the electoral college. If they did not let

them vote, they could not include them in the basis of repre-

sentation.

That this was a generous proposition and a fair one to the

South does not admit of argument. It was prompted by a desire

to speedily restore the Union and was made in the belief that the

South would show its appreciation for the spirit of generosity and

good will involved, by a ready and cheerful acceptance.

This expectation was disappointed.

Emboldened by the attitude of President Andrew Johnson,

the provisional legislatures he had called into existence and which

were composed almost entirely of ex-Confederate officers and

soldiers, rejected the amendment by a practically unanimous vote

and with evidences of scorn, contempt and hostility.

They had come to believe that they would be allowed to re-

sume their relations to the National Government without any

terms or conditions whatever, as the President proposed, and

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348      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

that, so restored to all the sovereign rights of States in the Union,

they would keep themselves free to act without restraint or re-

striction of any kind.

It quickly developed that they had a program to practically

nullify emancipation by reducing the freedman to a worse con-

dition of slavery than that from which he had been released.

They inaugurated it by acts of legislation that provided heavy

fines of $50 or $100, and other such amounts, to be imposed on

all who might be found loitering without work, and, in default of

payment, hiring them out- selling them - for six months or a

year, or other period, as the case might be, to the highest bidder.

The poor Negro, just emancipated, had neither work nor

money. By refusing him employment, he was compelled to

"loiter," and having no money with which to pay his fine, he was

"hired" to the highest bidder, who had no interest in either his

health or his life beyond the term for which he was hired.

Truly his last estate was worse than his first.

Many similar statutes were passed, but perhaps the most in-

excusable was enacted in Louisiana, where, among others, it was

provided that every adult freedman should provide himself with

a comfortable home within twenty days after the passage of the

act, and, failing to do so, should be "hired" at public outcry to

the highest bidder for the period of one year.

Such legislation was barbarous, inexcusable and intolerable.

It meant that if allowed to have their own way about it, that

defeated confederates would bring to naught all that had been

accomplished.

It was, therefore, not a matter of choice but a matter of com-

pulsion that impelled Congress. It determined to abolish the

provisional legislatures, divide the South into military districts,

and organize State governments and legislatures composed of only

loyal Union men, and then submit anew the 14th Amendment

for ratification.

This proposition -- the famous Reconstruction Bill - excited

the most bitter, protracted, and the most important debate that

has ever occurred in the American Congress.

Mr. Bingham was at the very forefront in it all. From be-

ginning to end, he was untiring. His unwavering and masterful

• 18
 

John A. Bingham.                 349

 

support of the measure made him a conspicuous figure not only

in Congress, but before the whole nation.

The measure was passed. The Southern State governments

were reconstructed. The 14th Amendment was re-submitted,

ratified and adopted.

There has been much angry criticism of the Republican party

for this procedure, intensified by the unsatisfactory character of

the carpet-bag State governments and legislatures - as they were

called at the time -that were thus temporarily forced upon the

South, but it has been without just foundation.

The men who were responsible for the reconstruction meas-

ure and the carpet-bag governments were the men of the South,

who, misled by President Johnson, undertook to dictate the man-

ner of restoring the Union, and, in that behalf, to put in jeopardy

all the results of the war, including the liberty and freedom of

the unoffending blacks who were, in a special sense, the helpless

wards of the nation.

It was in the same spirit and for the same reason that the

15th Amendment followed, providing that neither the United

States nor any State should deny or abridge the right of any

citizen of the United States to vote on account of race, color, or

previous condition of servitude.

Had the 1₄th Amendment been adopted when first submitted,

as it should have been, there would not have been a 15th Amend-

ment, because it would have been impossible, with the Southern

States restored to the Union, as the 14th Amendment proposed,

thereafter to have secured for a 15th Amendment a ratification

by three-fourths of the States, and thus would the whole subject

of Negro suffrage have remained, as was originally intended.

under the control of the States, with the option to each State to

grant or refuse it, as it might prefer.

If, therefore, there was fault in providing for universal man-

hood suffrage, it must be laid at the door of the men who, reject-

ing the 1₄th Amendment and threatening to bring to naught all

the blood and treasure that had been expended, created a necessity

for the more drastic measures that were adopted.

But there was no fault.

• 19
 

350      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.   Both amendments were right. The perverse blindness and obduracy of the South were but the Providentially designed pre- cipitating causes necessary to excite the men upon whom rested the responsibilities of that hour to the fearless and unflinching performance of the full measure of their duty. To our finite minds, much less good has come from the 15th Amendment than we had a right to expect, but the time is coming when the legal status thus given the black man will be his prac- tically and universally recognized status in all the States of this

Union.

What is right will ultimately prevail. Until then the irrepressible conflict will continue. Human liberty and human equality involve principles of truth and justice that cannot be forever suppressed and disregarded. Efforts of such character, whether by State or individuals, will but call attention to the wrongs of denial and hasten the day of final triumph. These events mark an epoch in the world's history. The humblest part in such achievements is highly creditable; but to have been a moving and controlling cause and factor, an eloquent, uncompromising, and commanding leader and champion was the high privilege and imperishable honor of John A. Bingham. His work will stand as long as the Republic endures, and through all the years it remains it will bring rich blessings to millions.

• 20
 

John A. Bingham.                    351

 

His life drew gently to a close. His noontime was full of

storm and turbulence; his afternoon and evening full of quiet,

restful peace and beauty.

In Japan, as our Minister, he spent twelve years of great use-

fulness to his country. He opened the way for enlarged com-

mercial relations, and by his simple, straightforward American

manner, impressed a respect and regard for our civilization, of

which we are now reaping the reward.

Here, in his home, surrounded by family and friends, his last

days were spent awaiting the summons that, sooner or later, must

come to all.

This monument attests your esteem, your admiration, your

love, and your affection for your neighbor, your townsman, your

friend and your great Representative in that great crucial time

when our national existence and our free popular institutions were

put to the sore trial of blood and relentless civil war.

Through the wisdom and the statesmanship, of which he was

representative, and also a large part, we were saved from disso-

lution and made stronger in union than ever before.

The war with Spain demonstrated how well the great work

had been done.

From no section came more prompt or more patriotic response

than from the South. The ex-soldiers of the Union and the Con-

federate armies and their sons marched side by side to meet a

common enemy and win a common victory; and when our late

martyred President, in the midst of his great work, was struck

down by the assassin, our institutions sustained the shock without

a jar and the Government moved on without a tremor, none

mourning his loss to the nation more than the men who had

periled their lives for the stars and bars and the cause it repre-

sented.

Such tests as these show us the measure of our debt to the

men who saved this nation. They were not alone the gallant

soldiers and sailors who carried our flag to victory, but also the

men who, standing at the helm, guided the ship of State.

• 21