by Alan Sewell
He smiled inwardly at those happy memories and about the triumphs of his life since then. He had come out to Illinois at the age of twenty-two, an unknown bumpkin from Vermont. Five years later he became the youngest person ever to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court. He had gone on to Washington as a Congressman and then a Senator, his name etched in the national memory of the great political debates over slavery, transcontinental railroads, and western homesteads. At each step he had grown in maturity and judgment.
It had taken longer than he expected to accustom himself to the role of Chief Executive of the nation, but day by day his understanding increased of what was expected of a President. The President had to take control of all issues coming under his purview before they took control of him. He therefore called the Cabinet Meeting to order with a tone of confident authority. He turned again to McClellan to make the opening statement.
“Mac, please bring us up to date on events transpiring in Indiana.”
McClellan again sat behind a stack of telegrams. “Mr. President, I will read first from the telegrams sent by Harney via the Delphi Telegraph office:
“On the afternoon of May 11 General Harney detrained at Delphi with two companies totaling 180 men. He reports that on the day previous Ellsworth’s men, reinforced by Michigan and Indiana Abolitionists, assaulted the slave party they had run aground on the Tippecanoe River near its juncture with the Wabash. They succeeded in liberating the Negroes held captive after killing the entire slave party of twenty-one men.”
That got the Cabinet’s attention. They sat bolt upright and looked at McClellan incredulously.
“It was a battle to the death!” exclaimed Horatio Seymour.
“It was for the slave party,” replied McClellan. “Ellsworth’s militia company also suffered severely. Twenty-nine of their fifty-five men were shot. Thirteen were killed outright or have since died of their wounds.” A mist appeared in McClellan’s eye and his voice cracked. “I, I very much regret to say that Elmer Ellsworth was killed while leading the assault.” He composed himself. “The Abolitionists from Michigan and Indiana also lost five men killed and a half dozen wounded. Some of their wounded aren’t expected to live.”
“Damn,” said Douglas, slamming down his pen. “Ellsworth was an excellent young man and a good American. I am very much afraid that his death will make him a martyr among the Republicans. It will inflame them to opposition against this government as few other things would have.”
“I regret to report that it already has,” McClellan informed him. “I have a report concerning the deaths of three slavers who left the main body the day their boat was run aground. They’re the ones who reached the telegraph office at Lafayette and got off the telegram to Yancey. These three men were captured by Abolitionists yesterday evening. After learning of Ellsworth’s death, the Abolitionists summarily executed them.”
Douglas shook his head and slammed down his fist again. “Damn it to hell! That news is going to incite the slave holders to a wrathful vengeance. What’s going on in Delphi now?”
McClellan shuffled his stack of telegrams. “The last message received from Harney is that he is engaged in a standoff with the Free State men. Harney’s men have taken control of the railroad station and the telegraph office. The Free State men are blocking their entry to the doctor’s house where the Negroes are recovering. The survivors of Ellsworth’s company have remained in Delphi in defiance of Harney’s orders. The Indiana and Michigan Abolitionist posses have also refused Harney’s orders to leave town. They are being reinforced by the Wide Awake organizations from the surrounding counties in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Several thousand Wide Awakes are reported in the vicinity of Delphi. Frederick Douglass is there too and is no doubt adding fuel to the fire.”
Postmaster General Andrew Johnson showed a look of utter disgust. He said to Douglas, “You should order Harney to shoot that mischievous old goat straight away. That would be the one happy outcome of this fiasco.”
Douglas rolled his eyes. He would have ordered Harney to shoot Fred Douglass in a heartbeat if he had thought that Douglass’ demise would tamp down the situation. But the last thing the country needed right now was another martyr. Douglas motioned for McClellan to continue with his report.
“Harney has ordered another company of about a hundred men to Indianapolis and another company of similar composition to New Albany. I presume he intends to use the men in Indy to guard the slave court proceedings. He has ordered the men in New Albany to secure the Ohio River crossings against militias from the Slave States trying to make their way to Delphi. I have released the men at Newport Barracks across from Cincinnati to his authority as he requested yesterday. They are guarding the Ohio River crossings in that vicinity.”
“Mac, you’d best assume direct command of all the men except those in Harney’s immediate company at Delphi,” advised Davis. “Harney is surrounded and won’t be issuing any further orders to anybody outside Delphi.”
“Do we have any reports of Slave State militia men trying to enter Indiana?” Douglas asked.
“No reports of anything like that so far,” McClellan answered. “But we have had some reports of trouble in the Northwest.”
“What are those?”
“Clashes are reported between the Wide Awakes and our United Invincibles in Illinois at Joliet and Springfield. At Joliet some Wide Awakes were attempting to load an old courthouse cannon into a train bound for Delphi via Chicago. Their neighbors dumped the cannon into the Des Plaines River. At Springfield one of our Invincibles shot and killed a Wide Awake man in a barroom brawl. Mr. Lincoln happened to be making a speech to the Republicans at the time. The crowd rushed into town when they heard about the barroom shootout. No word yet if anybody else has been hurt.”
“You can always count on somebody getting shot in the Springfield bars,” said Douglas. “There’s a lot of riff-raff in that town. Most of them are our voters!” The Cabinet laughed. Despite being a well-heeled state capital, Springfield, like every other frontier town in the West, had more than its share of roughnecks.
“There’s also a spat going on in Detroit between some Irishmen and Republicans in the downtown bars,” continued McClellan. “Only insults and fisticuffs have been thrown so far, but where the Irish are involved anything can happen.”
“Isn’t that the truth!” agreed Douglas. “At least the Irish will be on our side if we have to call out the militia to restore order in the Abolitionist cities.”
“The Irish have saved our necks in a couple of campaigns in New York City,” remarked Seymour. “They’re good people to have on your side, whether it’s a fight in a political campaign or around a bar.”
McClellan read deeper into the sheaf of telegrams. “This one arrived less than an hour ago. It reports unrest in and around St. Louis. The Missouri State Militia got into a shouting match with the German Wide Awakes in the city center. With Harney gone to Indiana the Jefferson Barracks are commanded by Captain Nathaniel Lyon. He’s an Abolitionist fanatic, and a little nuts, too, from what I’ve heard. One of the lieutenants reported that Lyon is demanding that Governor Claiborne Jackson withdraw his militiamen to a distance of twenty miles outside St. Louis.”
“Relieve that man of command at once and have him report here to me personally,” Douglas ordered. “Have men ready to place him under arrest if need be. The last thing we need is for the Abolitionists in the military to get in league with the Abolitionists in the government. That would be a recipe for treason.”
“Do you think they’d try to organize themselves into a separate government?” asked Seymour incredulously.
“They’re capable of it,” replied Douglas.
“They’re perfectly capable of appealing to the British for protection, too,” added Jefferson Davis.
“Do you think the British would negotiate with them?” Seymour asked. “It would involve them in a war with the rest of us if they do.”
“We don’t have any idea what
the Brits might do,” answered Douglas. “Can’t deny that there are a lot of people in New England who would prefer a union with Britain to a union with Slave States. Britain would jump at the chance to provide the Canadas with direct access to the sea through Boston. So we have to anticipate there’ll be collusion between them and our Free State Abolitionists.”
“Let New England go, then,” suggested Davis. “Most of those people are never going to be happy in a Confederate Union with Slave States. Let them go back to the British Empire if that’s what they want. Let Upstate New York go too. Let all the Abolitionist country around the Great Lakes go if that’s what they want. Why not divide the country? There’s enough land on this continent for all of us. Better to divide it than to fight over it.”
“Oh, no, Jeff, you’re wrong about that!” said Andrew Johnson in dismay. “We shouldn’t give up any territory to the British. We should be trying to get them off of our continent. They’d like nothing more than to divide and conquer us.”
Douglas leaned forward. “Andy’s right about that. Even in New England we won thirty-five to forty percent of the votes. We don’t have any right to abandon those people to another sovereignty. The Confederate Union is sovereign over every inch of our territory. We are sovereign over all the territory, over all of the people, for all time!”
Davis fidgeted. “We at the South hold the view that the states are the people’s sovereign instruments of government. I don’t think I’d like being told that Mississippi had to remain in the Union contrary to the wishes of her people. I would rather be inclined to go to war to vindicate Mississippi’s sovereignty.”
Johnson leaned forward too and looked Davis in the eye. “Jeff, you know that nobody is more loyal to the South than us ‘Tennessee Volunteers.’ No President did more for the South than ‘Old Hickory.’ I don’t need to tell you about how Andy Jackson felt towards Nullifiers and Dis-unionists! And don’t forget how Thomas Jefferson and James Madison dealt with the New England Nullifiers back during the War of 1812. No, Jeff, this talk of Secession is not part of our Southern tradition.”
Douglas became animated. “Secession isn’t part of any American’s tradition! The Republicans and Abolitionists have deluded themselves into thinking that they own the Free States and can do with them whatever they please, including setting them up as their own country! Well, I’ve got news for them: the Free State cities are booming with workingmen who vote for us. In time our voters could well be the majority in the Free States. So don’t let the Republicans tell you that everybody in the Free States is an Abolitionist who wants to leave the Confederate Union. They’re our states as much as theirs.”
“If we hold the nation together now the Free States will assimilate with us in principle,” commented Alexander Stephens.
Davis was intrigued. “That would augur well for maintaining the Confederate Union under our Democracy, wouldn’t it? Not just now but for all future generations.”
Douglas slammed down his fist, startling them all: “Yes! That’s exactly it, Jeff! We have got to hold this country together now. If we do, it’ll leave the door wide open for our party to recover its strength in the North. Can you imagine how strong we’ll be with the Slave State vote in the South and the workingman’s vote in the North?” Douglas showed the beatific smile of a ward heeler passing out pre-marked ballots and silver dollars on Election Day.
“Then we’d best prepare to suppress a full-blown insurrection in the Free States if it comes to that,” Davis warned. “Maybe this will peter out, but let’s make our preparations in case it doesn’t.”
Douglas looked around and noticed that McClellan and Andy Johnson were nodding in stern agreement. Even mild-mannered Horatio Seymour looked determined. Douglas rapped his thumbs on the table then said, “Damn right! Mac, find out what other Regular Army units we can repost to Indiana. And we’d best advise the Southern Governors that orders to assemble their militias in New Orleans are hereby revoked. Tell them to hold in place at the state capitals until we find out if they’ll be needed in the Free States before they go off to Mexico.”
20
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, May 23, 1861
Robert E. Lee knocked and then stepped through the open door into Superintendent William Tecumseh Sherman’s office at the Louisiana Military Academy in Baton Rouge.
“I am Robert E. Lee,” he said extending his hand in greeting. “Braxton Bragg, Dick Taylor, and Governor Moore have asked me on call on you, if you would be agreeable to receiving me.”
“I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Marse’ Robert!” said Cump, using the affectionately respectful salutation that men who knew Lee well were prone to using. Sherman had never met Lee, their paths never having crossed during decades of Army service. But Sherman felt that he knew Lee well enough by reputation to greet him in that familiar manner. “This is an honor as overdue as it is unexpected.”
“The honor is entirely mine,” replied Lee. “Your reputation in the Army and now as Superintendent of this Academy commends you. That is why I have been asked to talk to you, providing that you will have no reluctance in speaking about your views on the insurrection spreading through the North. Of course I will understand if you wish to keep your thoughts private.”
Cump opened his palms as if to show he had nothing to hide. “I will be pleased to discuss my views with you. My opinions on the situation are no secret.”
The men sat down.
“I am on my way to Washington City to be commissioned General of the Army of the Confederate Union,” Lee explained. “General Scott has retired. I am to take his place.”
“My heartfelt congratulations,” replied Sherman. “Douglas has chosen wisely. I highly respect General Scott, of course, but no man can be expected to stay in that post forever. Douglas was wise to make this change at the outset of his administration.”
Lee smiled. “Thank you, sir. I have come to discuss with you your possible role in restoring the National Authority to the disaffected states. I understand that Governor Moore has offered you command of the Louisiana State Militia. The Governor tells me that you have declined his offer, preferring instead to return to Ohio and accept command of its militia, now being trained to aid in the establishment of a separate national sovereignty.”
Cump laughed. “Well, I must tell you that this rumor of my being offered command of the Ohio Free State Militia is a complete fabrication. Even if it were tendered, I could not at this moment decide whether to accept it. Before deciding on any course I must return to Ohio and get a view of the situation there first hand. I owe it to my family to discuss the situation with them before deciding on my course. To tell you the truth I am much more inclined to stay out of it than to become an active participant for either side. I am thinking of returning to San Francisco and opening a law office.”
“Yes,” acknowledged Lee, “I fully understand. If Virginia had found itself to be in such a state of disaffection against the general government, it would vex me terribly to have to decide whether to draw my sword to vindicate its sovereignty. My father had to make that decision when he accepted Washington’s commission to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion. His Anti-Federalist friends never forgave him for suppressing what they believed was a justified refusal to pay an unconstitutional tax. They withdrew his credit, forcing him into debtors’ prison. Later on he was beaten nearly to death by an Anti-Federalist mob in Baltimore. The setting of friend against friend can never have a satisfactory outcome, not even for the side that prevails.”
Sherman leaned back. “You know, I’ve been thinking about that too. Acts of bad faith from too many people on both sides of the Ohio have heated this country to the boiling point. Every time things start to settle down there’s a John Brown or a Bill Yancey come along to stir them up again. I love this country, but maybe it is inevitable that we have to split it up. I don’t know. Maybe my mind will become clear on the subject when I go to Ohio. I will advise you of my decision as soon as it is made.”
“General Lee, thank you for your counsel. I will carry your words in my heart when I go to Ohio.” Sherman walked Lee outside to his waiting coach, congratulating him again and wishing him well in his endeavors. Sherman returned to his office and closed the door. Lee’s visit had persuaded him of only one thing --- that he would not be going to San Francisco to avoid taking sides in the war. Lee had sought him out because his military reputation destined him to take part in this war. For which side he would figure out later.
21
Springfield, Illinois, June 1, 1861
Abraham Lincoln waited for his son Robert, returning from prep school in New Hampshire, to detrain at the Springfield railroad station. Mr. Lincoln had arrived in a melancholy mood deepened by the late afternoon wind blowing occasional rain showers from a dismal overcast sky. Then his spirits lifted when he saw the magnificent new incarnation of the Free State Flag flying over the station.
Like everything else in the Republic of Free America, the early versions of the flag had been put together in a slapdash manner. Many rival variants had proliferated, none particularly inspiring. But this latest incarnation was bold and strikingly beautiful with its dark blue canton expanded to cover the entire left half of the flag and the big gold star centered on the blue with nineteen white stars for each of the Free States surrounding it. Provisional President Fremont had designed the flag. Fremont was absurdly pompous, but the man did have style! And Lincoln knew all too well that style, as well as substance, was a quality most vital to successfully launching a new nation.
