John P. Hale and the Politics of Abolition [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9780674433243, 9780674433236

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JOHN P. HALE A N D T H E P O L I T I C S OF ABOLITION

Matthen·

Brady,

National

Archives,

Washington,

D.C.

JOHN P. HALE A N D THE POLITICS OF ABOLITION

Richard H. Sewell

H A R V A R D U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts ~ ι 965 ~

© Copyright 1965 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved

Distributed in Great Britain by Oxford University Press, London Publication of this book has been aided by a grant from the Ford Foundation

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 65-13849

TO M Y M O T H E R AND F A T H E R

Preface

T

H E antislavery crusade brought John P. Hale both triumph and

tragedy. Although conviction, not self-interest, carried him into

the abolitionist camp, without the national crisis over slavery Hale would doubtless have passed his life as a lackluster politician from

N e w Hampshire. His special talents perfectly suited the needs of political antislavery in its early phase; moderate yet firm in his abolitionism, he battled with skill, wit, and determination against great odds. In so doing, he heartened antislavery advocates and won a respected place at their head. Yet, ironically, as the antislavery movement grew stronger, Hale's position in it weakened. T h e very qualities which made him an admirable minority spokesman prevented his giving constructive leadership to a party in power. Ever distrustful of partisanship and compromise, schooled in the arts of opposition, Hale inevitably lost prominence to more malleable, politically ambitious men. W e l l before the war against slavery had been won, therefore, Hale found himself shouldered aside, left to brood over disappointments and defeats. A t the time of his death in 1873 he had already passed from the public's eye, and by the close of the century Thomas Wentworth Higginson (concerned, no doubt, with the permanence of his own fame as an abolitionist) regretted that "there is scarcely an American under thirty who is familiar with the name of John P. Hale, whom Garrison called 'the Abdiel of N e w Hampshire.'" Historians have acquiesced in Hale's eclipse. Until now there has been no more complete biography of this once-influential senator than William A . Robinson's brief sketch in the Dictionary of American Biography. If they mention him at all, textbooks and mono-

viii

PREFACE

graphs seldom say more of Hale than that he was the woefully unsuccessful Free Democratic candidate for President in 1852 or that he once so enraged Senator Henry S. Foote that the excitable Mississippian promised him a lynching if ever he came to the South. While recognizing the exaggeration in Garrison's appellation (Garrison himself often applied less flattering parallels), I have tried to restore Hale to his proper standing among nineteenth-century politicians and reformers. In many ways he is sui generis. His political independence, his seeming indifference to social status, his broad wit—even his indolence—set him apart from most other antislavery politicians. Yet for all his uniqueness, Hale is representative of those abolitionists who sought to destroy slavery with political weapons, without doing violence to the Constitution. As such, his life assumes a larger dimension. Since political abolitionism meant attacking a fundamentally moral issue with legalistic weapons, its advocates drew fire not only from Southerners and their "doughfaced" Northern allies, but also from within the antislavery movement itself. During the 1840's and 1850's abolitionists of the Garrisonian stripe often denounced antislavery congressmen for their moderation and accused them of compromising with the devil slavery. Free Soil and Republican politicians insisted, however, that they had compromised only to the extent of accepting the work of the Founding Fathers and of maintaining the dialogue with the Slave Power. Only the South's refusal to do as much—to work within the Constitution for redress of grievances, to accept the decision of the ballot-box—disrupted the dialogue and brought Civil War. Such was Hale's position. Less vitriolic than Garrison, less brilliant than Sumner, less astute than Lincoln, he nonetheless distinguished himself as a pioneer abolitionist whose reasonableness and good humor tempered but did not blunt his attacks on slavery. Ann Arbor, Michigan October 29, 1964

Richard H. Sewell

Acknowledgments This book would never have been written without the encouragement and assistance of many persons. It is a pleasure to acknowledge my debt to some of them here. Three busy historians generously took time from their own studies to read and criticize my entire manuscript: Frank Freidel, Harvard University, shared with me his special knowledge of political biography and gave encouragement when it meant most; Frank O. Gatell, University of Maryland, a model critic, improved this book in many ways; and Richard H. Brown, Northern Illinois University, labored (I hope with some success) to enlarge my point of view. For the errors and shortcomings that remain, I have only myself to blame. I am grateful as well to William R. Taylor, University of Wisconsin; Thomas Stirton, Long Island University; Tilden Edelstein, Simmons College; and Arthur Kaledin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; all of whom read parts of the manuscript and offered helpful criticism. Special thanks go to Philip N. Guyol, formerly director of the New Hampshire Historical Society, and to his assistant, Marcel L. Pittet, who did everything within their power to make my research trips to Concord pleasant and profitable. Rodney Armstrong, librarian of Phillips Exeter Academy, graciously helped me to reconstruct the Exeter of Hale's day. I am indebted to John Parker Hale Chandler, Jr. of Warner, New Hampshire, for permission to quote from his great-grandfather's letters. Finally, I thank the Adams Manuscript Trust for allowing me to quote from the Diary and Papers of Charles Francis Adams, and the editor of The New England Quarterly for permission to reproduce material in Chapter VI which originally appeared in that journal. R. H. S.

CONTENTS Chapter Chapter

I ~ Beginnings II ~ Political Apprenticeship

13

Chapter

III

Chapter

IV - The "Hale Storm"

52

Chapter

V ~ Fruits of Coalition

68

Chapter

Democratic Congressman

ι

VI ~ A Reluctant Candidate

36

86

Chapter VII ~ "The Place of an Ishmaelite"

105

Chapter VIII ~ Crisis and Compromise

123

Chapter

144

Chapter Chapter

IX ~ Law, Lyceums, and Free Soil X ~ The Coming of the Civil War XI ~ Radical Republican

Chapter XII ~ An American in Spain

163 191 224

A Note on Sources

237

Manuscripts Cited

240

Notes

243

Index

283

J O H N P. HALE AND THE POLITICS ABOLITION

OF

CHAPTER

I

Beginnings N the afternoon of May 5, 1853, nearly 1500 men and women

O

crowded into Boston's cavernous Fitchburg Railroad depot to

pay tribute to John Parker Hale, lately United States senator from N e w Hampshire and Free Democratic candidate for President. Promptly at 2 : 1 5 the portly and jocular guest of honor entered and, as the band struck up a rousing tune, mounted a raised platform in company with the master of ceremonies, John G . Palfrey. A m o n g those on hand on this festive occasion were distinguished representatives of nearly every shade of antislavery belief: William Lloyd Garrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Charles Sumner, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Samuel Gridley Howe, Joshua Leavitt, Henry Wilson, and Charles

Francis Adams. After a short prayer, Francis Underwood presented the first of many ice-water toasts: Our Guest, John P. Hale—In the House of Representatives, party could not command his allegiance in the commission of national iniquity. In the Senate, the insolence of majorities could never awe him to silence. As an advocate, he has added to the jurist the merit of successful resistance to executive and judicial tyranny. As the champion of the principles of the Free Democracy— "Our hearts leap forth to answer And echo back his words, As leaps the warrior's when he sees the flash of kindred swords." Hale's modest denigration of his own "poor efforts" in no way stemmed the flood of praise which followed. Cassius M. Clay, the colorful Kentucky abolitionist, spoke of Hale as "the great leader" of the

2 ~

J O H N P. H A L E

antislavery crusade, and Horace Mann pointed approvingly to his humanitarian reform of naval punishments. Even Garrison, warmed by this grand display of antislavery feeling, unbent enough to declare that whatever "may be our peculiar views as to the best measures to be adopted . . . [to free the slave] one thing is true here— we are all 'Hale fellowsV " It was 9 o'clock before the last of the cheers died away and the guests stepped into the soft spring night.1 The celebration at Boston marked the high point of Hale's career as an antislavery advocate, a career which took its color and flavor from family influences as well as from the course of events in antebellum America. Like so many other abolitionists, Hale came from old New England stock. Robert Hale, an intelligent and publicspirited blacksmith who crossed the Atlantic in 1632 as part of the Great Migration, was the first to bear the family name to the New World. Settling initially in Boston, he soon moved to Charlestown. His eldest son, John, graduated in 1657 from Harvard College, entered the ministry soon after, and went to Beverly, Massachusetts, as minister of the new First Church. Later John Hale won modest fame as chaplain in Sir William Phips' expedition against Canada (for which his heirs received 300 acres in Methuen) and as an instigator of the witch trials of 1692.2 Subsequent generations moved first to Newburyport; then to Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and finally back to Gloucester, Massachusetts, where John P. Hale's grandfather Samuel was born in 1745, the eldest of six children. Like his great-grandfather, Samuel had the advantage of a Harvard education, but unlike him he chose to enter the law rather than the ministry. After his graduation from Harvard in 1766, Samuel Hale moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he began practicing a few years later. He sat for many years in the colonial assembly, and in 1772 the Crown appointed him to the Superior Court of New Hampshire. An outspoken defender of royal authority in America, he watched with alarm the colonists' bold defiance of king and Parliament. Once hostilities broke out, Samuel left his home in Portsmouth and sought British

BEGINNINGS

142-143 Indian Stream dispute, 19 Ingersoll, Charles J., 49 Isabella II, Queen of Spain, 225-226, 281 Ivcrson, Alfred, 186 Jackson, Andrew, io, 11, 18, 39-40, 4 7 48 Jackson, Thomas J. "Stonewall," 195 Jackson, William, 103 James, Francis, 43 Jay, John, 151, 195 Jenness, Benning W., 82 Johnson, Andrew, 107, 207, 223, 228 Johnson, James H., 57, 67 Johnson, Reverdy, 106, 215 Julian, George W., 124, 147-148, 150 Kansas: slavery crisis in, 163-176; rejects Lecompton Constitution, 176 Kansas-Nebraska Act, 154-160, 163, 174 Keene, Laura, 222 King, Leicester, 94 King, Preston, 39, 97, 100, 186, 250 King, William R., 127 Kinsley, Edward V., 228 Kittredge, George W., 18, 155 Know-Nothing party, 157-162, 164, 177 LaBranche, Alcee, 39 Lamon, Ward, 222 Lane, Charles, 26 Lane, James H., 163 Latham, Milton S., 158 Leavitt, Joshua, 1, 89-90, 100, 111; and right of petition, 43; presses for Hale's nomination, 92-93; objections to Van Buren, 97; and Free Soil party, 101, 103-104; on Free Democratic party, 268 Lecompton Constitution, 173-176, 179 Lee, Robert E., 182, 195 Lemoyne, Francis J., 147 Levy, Uriah P., 1 5 1 , 265 Lewis, Samuel, 89, 95, 99-100, 103-104, 145, 147 Liberty League, 92-93, 98, 100, 258

~

287

Liberty party, 104, 145, 148; in N.H., 27-28, 35, 81-82; backs Hale's Texas stand, 64, 67, 76; prefers Hale as Presidential candidate, 88-92; Buffalo convention of 1847, 92-94; merges with Free Soil party, 98-103 Lincoln, Abraham, 107, 176, 188, 191, 194-195, 199, 220; nominated for President, 185; initial war measures, 1 9 1 - 1 9 2 ; and emancipation, 208; favors colonization of Negroes, 2 1 1 ; relations with Hale, 2 2 1 - 2 2 2 Lincoln, Mary, 199 Lisovski, Admiral, 214 Long, J. C., 139 Longfellow, Henry W., 6 Lord, Nathan, 19 Loring, Ellis Gray, 86 Louis-Philippe, King of France, 1 1 3 Lovejoy, Elijah P., 1 1 4 Lovejoy, Owen, 103 Lyceums, 1 5 3 - 1 5 4 McClellan, George В., 2 1 2 - 2 1 3 McClelland, Robert, 37-38 McFarland, Asa, 65, 82 Mackintosh, James, 153 McLean, John, 95, 102, 173 Madison, Dolly, 115 Maine Liquor Law, 143 Mangum, Willie P., 106-107, 1 0 9 Mann, Horace, 2 Marsh, George P., 278 Marston, Gilman, 193, 219-220, 234 Marston, W. Α., ioo Mason, James M., 128, 132, 138-139, 164 Mason, Jeremiah, 3, 8 Mason, John Y., 137 Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, 64 Metcalf, Ralph, 158, 160 Mexican War, 83-85, 87-88, 90, 108109 Morgan, Caroline, 201 Morgan, Edwin D., 221 Morgan, George D., 199-206, 277-278 Morris, Thomas, 108 Missouri Compromise, 154, 159, 1 7 1 , 173, 189, 271 Morrison, George W., 1 5 5 - 1 5 6 Moulton, Mace, 57-67

288

INDEX

Nashua & Concord Railroad, 22 Nashua & Lowell Railroad, 2 1 National Era, 1 1 4 Native American party, see Know-Nothing party Navy, United States: home squadron, 4 1 ; abolition of flogging in, 1 3 7 - 1 3 9 ; controversy over purchase of Civil War vessels, 199-206 Negroes: N.H. attitude toward, 30; during Civil War, 208; Hale's attitude toward, 209-211 Nesmith, George W., 66, 179 New England Emigrant Aid Company, 167 New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society, 28 New Hampshire Soldiers' Aid Society, 194 Nicholas, Commodore, 139 Norfolk Navy Yard, surrender of, 200 Norris, Moses, Jr., 26, 44, 46, 5 1 , 55, 57, 67, 78, 155, 269 Noyes, Jefferson, 72 Ordway, Nehemiah, 218, 231 Oregon Bill, 1 1 9 - 1 2 1 , 123, 130 Packard, Alpheus S., 6 Palfrey, John G., 1 , 89, 99, 106, 108, h i , 1 1 4 , 144, 148, 263 Palmerston, Lord, Hale's opinion of, 225 Panama Conference of 1826, 52 Parker, John, 3 Parker, Theodore, 1 , 86, 108, 132, 153, 168-169, 183; condemns Webster, 129; fugitive slaves, 1 4 1 ; Anthony Burns case, 1 5 2 - 1 5 3 Parkman, John, 33-34, 44, 1 1 8 , 1 5 1 , 234 Pearl affair, 1 1 3 - 1 1 8 Perkins, Jared, 156 Perry, Horatio J., 224, 2 2 7 - 2 3 1 Personal Liberty Law, in N.H., 83-84 Peucinian Society, 6-7 Peverly, James, 60, 70, 72, 74, 82 Phillips, Stephen C., 100 Phillips, Wendell, 94, 129, 152 Phillips Exeter Academy, 4-5 Pierce, Andrew, Jr., 247

Pierce, Franklin, 10, 16, 25, 26, 61, 68, 75, 150, 1 5 5 - 1 5 6 , 164, 198, 230; at Bowdoin College, 6-7; exposes Hale to Jacksonianism, 12; and election of 1840, 2 0 - 2 1 ; leads Radical Democrats, 22; on right of petition, 46; punishes Hale's "insubordination," 55-57, 59, 2 5 1 ; debates Hale, 72-73; drags drunks to polls, 77-78; and election of 1852, 144-145, 148-149; Kansas policy attacked by Hale, 1 6 5 168; snubs Hale, 166 Pierce, Thomas W., 247 Pike, James, 158, 160 Pillsbury, Parker, 29, 35 Plumer, William, Jr., h i , 256 Polk, James K., 50, 54, 68-69, 73, 84; 1844 campaign, 48-49; on Mexican War, 1 0 9 - 1 1 0 Quincy, Josiah, 153 Railroad issue in N.H., 20-23, 61 Randolph, John, 129 Reding, John R., 26, 44, 46, 5 1 , 59, 251 Reeder, Andrew H., 163, 167 Republican party: organized in N.H., 1 5 6 - 1 5 7 ; 1856 campaign, 1 7 2 - 1 7 3 ; wins control in N.H., 177; victories in 1858 elections, 179; i860 campaign, 184-185; in secession crisis, 186-187; controls Civil War Congress, 196-197; and emancipation, 2 0 7 - 2 1 3 ; 1864 campaign, 2 1 3 Rhett, Robert В., 180 Right of petition, 42-47, 54 Riley, Patrick, 141 Riot Bill, 1 1 4 - 1 1 7 Robinson, Charles, 163 Rochester (N.H.) Society for the Suppression of Intemperance, 1 5 Rollins, Edward H., 218 Romilly, Samuel, 153 Roosevelt, James J., 1 5 1 Rogers, Nathaniel P., 29, 35 Ruffin, Edmund, 180 Rusk, Thomas S., 263 Russell, Lord John, 225

INDEX Sanborn, Franklin В., 182, 273 Sayres, Edward, 113-114 Scott, Winfield, 108, I i i , 144, 1 4 8 149, 200 Secession crisis, 185-190 Secret Six, 182 Sedgwick, Theodore, 59, 252 Seward, William H., 125, 135, 139, 164, 170, 172, 185, 188, 221, 226-229, 231, 273; on Compromise of 1850, 127, 129, 136; and John Brown's raid, 182; in secession crisis, 274 Sherman, William Т., 213 Sickles, Daniel E., 230-231 Simpson, Henry Y., 18 Slade, William, 43 Slavery: and the Slave trade, 42, 84, 88, 122, 126-127, I 3 2 > 140; in the territories, 83, 93, 112, 1 1 9 - 1 2 3 , 1 2 5 - 1 3 2 , 135-136, 154. 163. 167, 169, 173-176, 184; in the District of Columbia, 42, 83-84, 93, 115, 1 1 8 119, 211 Slidell, John, 164, 166, 174, 180 Smith, Caleb, 107 Smith, Franklin W., 221 Smith, Gerrit, 98, 147-148; and Liberty party, 92-94, 258 Soule, Pierre, 136 "Southern Address," 122, 263 Spooner, Lysander, 93 Stanton, Edwin M., 215, 220 Stanton, Henry В., 89, ioo, 108; and Liberty party, 92-93; and Free Soil party, 101-104 Starr, Peter, Jr., 150-152 Steele, John, 56-57, 61, 75, 82 Stephens, Alexander, 39, 107, 263 Storrs, George, 32, 133 Stuart, Charles E., 271 Sturge, Joseph, 85 Sumner, Charles, 1, 86, 89, 96, 111, 118, 144, 164, 169, 197, 220; opposes Liberty nomination of Hale, 90; opposes Taylor, 97; praises Hale, 109, i n , 134; and Free Democratic party, 145, 147; caned by Brooks, 168-170; and John Brown's raid, 182; criticized by Hale for vituperation, 184; heads Foreign Relations Committee, 196; on

289

Reconstruction, 223; on Washington Peace Conference, 274 Taney, Roger В., 173, 175 Tappan, Lewis, 90, 101, 129, 148; urges Hale to accept Liberty nomination, 9293; and Liberty party, 93, 98-99, 103-104; and Free Soil party, 260 Tappan, Mason W., 156, 158-162, 1 7 6 180, 218-219, 234 Taylor, Zachary, 84, i n , 125, 135; Whig candidate, 94, 97, 104; on Compromise of 1850, 125, 127, 132, 135; Conscience Whigs' objections to, 94, 259 Temperance movement, in N.H., 1 5 - 1 7 Ten Regiment Bill, 109-111 Test Act, in N.H., 158 Texas, annexation of, 47-51, 73-75, 8384, 87; boundary dispute, 126, 132, 136 Thirteenth Amendment, 2 1 2 - 2 1 3 Thompson, George, 29 Thompson, Jacob, 174 Thoreau, Henry, 153, 183 Tilden, Samuel J., 100 Toombs, Robert, 107, 164 Trist, Nicholas, 109, m - 1 1 2 Trumbull, Lyman, 170, 186, 197, 2 1 6 217 Tuck, Amos, 80, 91, 107, 143, 146, 156, 178-179, 219-220, 274-275; and right of petition, 44-45; on annexation of Texas, 54; supports Hale's break from Democrats, 56, 60-62, б7> 7 1 , 77, 81, 252; elected to Congress, 87, 256; on Liberty party, 90, 92 Tyler, John, 24, 26, 37; and annexation of Texas, 47, 49, 69 Underwood, Francis, 1 Upham, Nathaniel G., 18 Upshur, Abel P., 48, 53, n o Van Buren, John, 97 Van Buren, Martin, 20, 21, 52, 57, 73, 149-150, 189, 260; and annexation of Texas, 47-48; Free Soil nomination, 95, 97-104; backs Pierce in 1852, 145

2 9 0 "χ

INDEX

Varney, John R., 224, 280 Wade, Benjamin, 164, 1 8 1 , 186, 197, 223 Wakarusa War, 163 Walker, Lyman, 24 Walker, Robert J., 47 Washburne, Elihu, 173 Washington, D.C., 1 1 3 - 1 1 4 ; Hale's impressions of, 36-38; description of, in 1847, 105-106; during Civil War, 193; see also District of Columbia Washington Peace Conference, 188-189, 274-275 Webster, Daniel, 3, 8, 2 1 , 47, 106, 125, 1 3 3 , 1 3 5 ; views attacked by Hale, 130, 1 3 3 ; on Compromise of 1850, 1 2 7 - 1 2 9 , 130, 1 3 2 , 264 Weed, Thurlow, 148 Weld, Theodore, 43 Welles, Gideon, 192, 2 3 1 , 278; early relations with Hale, 193; quarrels with Hale, 197-207, 216, 218, 220222 Wells, John S., 156, 179, 269 Westcott, James D., 1 1 6 , 263 Wetmore, Nathaniel D., 69 Wetmore, Robert C., 69-71, 77 Whig party: 1840 campaign, 2 0 - 2 1 ; and right of petition, 43; and annexation of Texas, 47, 49-50; alliance with Independent Democrats in N.H., 59, 63-67, 86-87, 1 4 2 - 1 4 3 ; splits on slavery issue, 94-97; and Mexican War, iio-iii; 1852 campaign, 144-146, 148-149

Whitman, Walt, 148 Whittier, John G., 46, 70, 97, 109; mobbed in Concord, N.H., 29; praises Hale's Texas stand, 64-65; celebrates Hale's triumph in verse, 7 8 80; and Liberty party, 89, 91-92, 258-259 Wigfall, Louis Т., 186 Wiggins, John H., 34, 36 Wilyes, John, 1 1 1 Wilkins, Frederick (Shadrach), 1 4 0 142, 266 Willey, Austin, 90, 146-147 Williams, Jared, 78, 81, 155, 269 Wilmot, David, 85, 88, 106-107, 172 Wilmot Proviso, 88, 90-91, 1 1 2 , 1 2 1 , 1 2 7 - 1 3 0 ; 263 Wilson, Henry, 1 , 1 4 7 - 1 4 8 , 158, 169, 170, 172, 196, 203, 2 1 2 , 273 Wilson, James, 87, 256 Winthrop, Robert C., 39, 49-50, 127 Wise, Henry, 36 Woodbury, John, 57, 62, 67-69, 75-78 Woodbury, Levi, 10, 25, 52, 56, 57, 82; befriends Hale, 37; denounces Hale's Texas stand, 54-55, 75 Woodman, Charles W., 19 Woodman, Jeremiah H., 8-9, 1 1 Woolsey, Theodore D., 105 Workingmen's party, 1 2 Wright, Silas, 90-92 Yale College, 105 Yancey, William L., 180 Young, Aaron, 2 1 7 Yulee, David L., 139