traversed eastern Michigan, and there made the acquaintance
of what were called " wet prairies," by which I had not been
fascinated. But the prairies of Illinois are of another order ;
and, though by no means that dead, unbroken level which
248 RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE.
many suppose tliem, but cut up by brook-beds, sloughs, and
roads, which were merely wagon-tracks in a deep, black soil,
wore a generally delightful aspect. Forests were less frequent
than seemed desirable ; but " openings," or scattered trees,
were never out of sight ; and the small and scanty settlements
were usually surrounded by promising fields of wheat and
Indian corn. I presume we did not see one human habitation
where a traveller over our route would now see fifty ; while
the average value or cost of the rude cabins we passed would
hardly exceed $ 200, where that of the present houses would
reach at least $ 2,000. Teamsters conveying grain to Chicago,
or returning with lumber, we frequently met ; yet inns were
decidedly scarce ; since few teamsters could afford to pay
money for food or shelter, while the great mass stopped for rest
or meals under almost any tree, turned out their horses to
graze, or fed them from their wagons, while they ate of the
substantial, wholesome food they had brought from home. I
was told that a load of wheat taken sixty miles to Chicago in
those days just about paid for a return load of fence-boards,
leaving the farmer who made the exchange little or nothing
where's\dth to pay tavern-bills. Few of the early pioneers of
Illinois took thither more than a fair wagon-load of worldly
gear and $100 in money; many lacked the $100, and had
but half a load of household stuff in the wagon, the other
half being composed of wife and children ; yet all found some-
how enough to eat, and did not suffer intolerably from cold :
and now those children enjoy comforts and may revel in lux-
iiries which their parents scarcely aspired to. Do they realize
and fitly honor the self-forgetting courage and devotion to
wliich they are so deeply indebted ?
Milwaukee was then a smart but struggling country village,
consisting of some three to four hundred new houses clus-
tered about a steamboat-landing at the mouth of a shallow,
crooked creek. "Wisconsin had then less than One Hundred
Thousand inhabitants, which the twenty subsequent years
CHICAGO. — THE PRAIRIES. 249
have increased to nearly or quite One ]\Iillion. Sheboygan
was then relatively of far greater consequence and promise
than now; but, going back thence a dozen miles inland to
visit my father's brother, Leonard, I was traversing the wil-
derness within two miles from the steamboat-landing, and I
travelled under the shade of the primitive forest through most
of the succeeding ten miles. But the soil was generally good,
and the timber excellent, being largely composed of Hickory,
Elm, and other valuable trees ; while the clearings, though
new and small, were full of promise, not only in their thick-
set, veh'et grass, and their springing grain, but in their wealth
of rugged, actiA'e, coarsely clad, but intelligent, vigorous chil-
dren. "Wisconsin has scarcely been surpassed by any State
in her subsequent growth in population, production, and
wealth ; and I predict that the close of this century will see
her the home of Three jNIillions of people as energetic, indus-
trious, worthy, and happy, as any on earth.
At that time, no mile of railroad terminated in Chicago,
and barely one line (the Michigan Central) pointed directly
at that young city. Even this one proposed to stop at New
Buffalo (mouth of St. Joseph's Eiver), its passengers reaching
thence its present proper terminus by steamboat in Summer,
and by stage-coach in Winter. Of course, they soon saw
reason to change their plans ; and New Buffalo, deserted,
became one of our many American victims of blighted hopes.
Yet, after years of desolation, her denizens have discovered
that their district is admirably adapted to peach-cultiu'e ; the
cold, northwest winds of later Autumn and Winter reaching
them softened by passing over the adjacent lake, and so leav-
ing her fruit-buds unbhghted by their shrivelling breath.
Landing here from Chicago, I took stage to Kalamazoo, or
thereabout, where we met a just-completed section of the
j\Iichigan Central, on which I was brought to Detroit, and
thence came homeward by steamboat to Buffalo, railroad to
Albany, and steamboat to this city.
XXX.
THE GREAT SENATORS. — THE COMPROMISE OF 1850.
OUR great triumvirate — Clay, Webster, Calhoun — last
appeared together in public life in the" Senate of
1849 - 50 : the two former figuring conspicuously in the de-
bates which preluded and resulted in what was termed the
Compromise of that year, — Mr. Calhoun dying as they had
fairly opened, and Messrs. Clay and Webster not long after
their close. This chapter is, therefore, in some sort, my hum-
ble tribute to their genius and their just renown.
I best knew and loved Henry Clay : he was by nature
genial, cordial, courteous, gracious, magnetic, winning. Wlien
General Glascock, of Georgia, took his seat in Congress as a
Representative, a mutual friend asked, " General, may I intro-
duce you to Henry Clay ? " " ~No, sir ! " was the stern re-
sponse ; " I am his adversary, and choose not to subject my-
self to his fascination." I think it would have been hard to
constitute for three or four years a legislative body whereof
Mr. Clay was a member, and not more than four sevenths
were his pledged, implacable opponents, whereof he would
not have been the master-spirit, and the author and inspirer
of most of its measures, after the first or second year.
Mr. Webster was colder, graver, sterner, in his general bear-
ing ; though he could unbend and be sunny and blithe in his
intercourse with those admitted to his intimacy. There were
few gayer or more valued associates on a fishing or sailing
party. His mental calibre was much the larger; I judge
that he had read and studied more ; though neither could boast
much erudition, nor even intense application. I believe each
THE GREAT SENATORS. 251
was about thirty years in Congress, where ]\Ir. Clay identified
his name with the origin or success of at least half a dozen
important measures to every one thus blended with ]Mr. Web-
ster's. Though Webster's was far the more massive intellect,
INIr. Clay as a legislator evinced far the greater creative, con-
structive power. I once sat in the Senate Chamber when
IVIr. Douglas, who had just been transferred from the House,
rose, to move forward a bill in which he was interested.
" We have no such practice in the Senate, sir," said ]Mr. Web-
ster, in his deep, solemn voice, fixing his eye on the mover,
but without rising from his seat. Mr. Douglas at once varied
his motion, seeking to achieve his end in a somewhat different
way. " That is not the way we do business in the Senate,
sir," rejoined Mr. Webster, still more decisively and sternly.
" The Little Giant " was a bold, ready man, not easily over-
awed or disconcerted ; but, if he did not quiver under the eye
and voice of Webster, then my eyesight deceived me, — and I
was very near him.
Mr. Calhoun was a tall, spare, earnest, evidently thoughtful
man, with stiff, iron-gray hair, which reminded you of Jack-
son's al:)out the time of his accession to the Presidency. He
was eminently a logician, — terse, A^gorous, relentless. He
courted the society of clever, aspiring young men who inchned
to fall into his views, and exerted great influence over them.
As he had almndoned the political faith which I distinguish
and cherish as Xational while I was yet a school-boy, I
never met him at all intimately ; yet once, while I was con-
nected with mining on Lake Superior, I called on him, as on
other leading members of Congress, to explain the effect of
the absurd policy then in vogue, of keeping mineral lands out
of market, and attempting to collect a percentage of the
mineral as rent accruing to the Government. He received
me courteously, and I took care to make my statement as
compact and perspicuous as I could, showing him that, even
in the Lead region, where the system had attained its full
development, the Treasury did not receive enough rent to
pay the salaries of the officers employed in collecting it.
252 RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE.
" Enough/' said Mr. Calhoun ; " you are clearly right. I will
vote to give away these lands, rather than perpetuate this
vicious system." "We only ask, Mr. Calhoun," I rejoined,
" that Congress fix on the lands whatever price it may deem
just, and sell them at that price to those lawfully in posses-
sion ; tliey failing to purchase, then to whomsoever will buy
them." "That plan will have my hearty support," he re-
sponded ; and it did. When the question came at length to
be taken, I believe there was no vote in either House against
selling the mineral lands.
Mr. Clay had failed to be chosen President in 1844, in part
because he tried to reconcile to his support those whose views
on the Texas question conflicted with his. General Taylor,
on the other hand, had succeeded in 1848, while saying very
little as to the pending questions affecting Slavery, or even
seeming to care that adverse opinions should he conciliated.
There was an anecdote current in the canvass to this effect :
A planter ^\Tote Old Zack, saying, " I have worked hard all
my life, and the net product is a plantation with one hundred
negroes, — slaves. Before I vote, I want to know how you
stand on tlie Slavery question." " The General at once re-
sponded : " Sir, I too have worked faithfully these many years,
and the net product remaining to me is a plantation with three
hundred negroes. Yours truly." The planter was satisfied.
The National Convention which nominated General Taylor
had laid on the table a resolve approving, if not demanding,
the exclusion of Slavery from the Territories ; and this prob-
alily lost us the votes of Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa.
On the other hand, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas all
voted, by small majorities, for Cass : Jefferson Davis, though
a son-in-law of General Taylor, declining, on political or
Slavery grounds, to support him. Had he been clearly under-
stood to be for or against the so-called Wilmot Proviso, he
would have both gained and lost votes ; but I judge that,
with reference to success, his silence was wisdom.
THE GREAT SENATORS. 253
Being elected and inaugurated, lie called to his cabinet
Messrs. Clayton of Delaware, Crittenden of Kentucky, Ewing
of Ohio, Meredith of Pennsylvania, G. W. Crawford of Geor-
gia, Ballard Preston of Virginia, CoUamer of Vermont, and
lieverdy Johnson of Maryland, and proceeded to deal cau-
tiously with the grave questions impending. It was soon
evident to keen-sighted observers, that the new Administration
aimed to tide over the breakers just ahead by securing the
newly acquired Territories practically to free labor, through
a quiet discouragement of the transfer of slaves thereto, and
tlie speedy transformation of each Territory into a State.
Dissension and division on the WiLniot Proviso Avere thus to
be avoided by achieving expeditiously the end whereto that
Proviso was but a means. Thus, California was rapidly meta-
morphosed mto a free State even before she had been pro-
Aided with a regular Territorial organization ; while yet the
Administration could fairly protest with Macbeth, —
" Thou canst not say / did it ! Never shake
Those gory locks at me ! "
The pro-Slavery interest soon felt that it was being under-
mined and circumvented. In the elections for Congress, next
after General Taylor's inauguration, the South, which had
given liim both a popular and an electoral majority, chose
but twenty-nine Eepresentatives to support, with sixty-two
to oppose, his Administration.
At the North, the new Administration was likewise dis-
trusted by the more zealous champions of Pree Soil, though
with less reason. In the election of 1849, the Democrats of
Vermont united with the Abolitionists in framing and sup-
porting a common State ticket, on an unequivocally Free-Soil
platform, with the watchword, " Free Democracy " ; and, as
the coalescing parties had outnumbered the Whigs in the
preceding vote for President, the prospect looked squally. I
was invited by the Whigs to canvass their State, and did so ;
beginning at Brattleborough in the southeast, passing up to
Montpelier and across to Burlington, thence down by Eutland
to Bennington. One anecdote of this trip is characteristic of
the times, and will bear reviving :
254 RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE.
As, when previously asked by friends in the State what
they should do for me, I had stipulated for a committee of
thirteen to let me alone, and persuade others to do so, I en-
joyed unusual exemption from bother, and, after speaking one
rainy afternoon at some town in Orange County (Royalton, as
I recollect), I took the cars, and was soon borne to Montpelier,
where I was to speak the next day. The rain poured heavily,
and I made my way solus from the railway station to a hotel,
where I obtained a room, and sat down in it to my solitary
reflections. I must here explain that two brothers, Ver-
monters, named respectively Charles G. and E. G. Eastman,
then edited the Democratic State organs at Montpelier and
at Nashville respectively. The Vermont Eastman, being in
league with the Abolitionists, labored day by day to prove
that the Taylor Administration was managing to secure the
new Territories to Slavery; while the Tennessee Eastman,
seeking capital for his party on the other tack, as strenuously
insisted that that same Administration was doing its utmost
to exclude Slavery from those same Territories. As The Tri-
bune exchanged mth both these candid journalists, I had
recently taken a leading article from each, cut it into para-
graphs, copied first from one charging the Administration as
aforesaid, and then, simply premising, "Now we will hear
what t' other Eastman has to say on this point," I would
quote the exact opposite from the Tennessee or the Vermont
brother, as the case might be. So, having seated myself in
my room in the hotel at Montpelier, which I had never
before been near, and where I knew no one, I looked drear-
ily out at the furious rain for half an hour, and was about
falling asleep in utter desperation, when my door opened,
and a tall, sturdy mountaineer, unannounced, walked in.
" Good afternoon, Mr. Greeley," was his cordial salutation.
" Good afternoon," I less cordially responded ; " though I do
not happen to know you." " Not know me ? " he incredu-
lously asked : " why, I am t' other Eastman."
When Congress met in December following, and Howell
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 255
Cobb, [Dem.] of Georgia, had, after a long struggle, been
chosen Speaker,* because the distinctively Free-Soil members
would not support Wiuthrop, the A\Tiig candidate. General
Taylor, in Ms Annual ]\Iessage (abeady published during the
long struggle for Speaker), avowed that he desired and ex-
pected the early admission of botli California and New Mex-
ico as States, under such constitutions as their people should
see fit to frame, — which constitutions, it was abeady notori-
oiLs, would forbid Slavery.
Mr. Clay soon submitted f to the Senate his plan for a com-
prehensive settlement of all the mooted questions regarding
Slavery. It contemplated : 1. Tlie prompt admission of Cali-
fornia as a State, under her anti-Slavery Constitution ; 2.
The organization of the remaining Territories, without al-
lusion to Slavery ; 3. Tlie limitation of Texas to a defined
Northern boimdary, ignoring — or rather buying off — her
claim to nearly all New Mexico ; 4. Paying her a sum (after-
ward fixed at S 10,000,000) for consenting to the limitation
aforesaid ; 5. No aliolition of Slavery in the District of Co-
lumbia ; 6. Exclusion by law of the trafiic in slaves from said
District ; 7. A denial of the right of any State to obstruct or
embarrass the traffic in slaves between other States, or their
removal from one to another. As the second of these propo-
sitions has an abiding significance, in view of the Nebraska
bill afterward avowedly based thereon, I quote it verbatim : —
" 2. Resolved, That as Slavery does not exist by law [in,] and is
not Hkely to be introduced into, any of the ten-itories acquired by
the United States ft-om the republic of Mexico, it is inexpedient
for Congress to provide by law either for its introduction into, or
[its] exclusion from, any part of the said territory, and that appro-
priate territorial governments ought to be established by Congress
in all the said territories not assigned as within the boundaries of
the proposed State of California, without the adoption of any re-
striction or condition on the subject of Slavery."
* Under the plurality rule: Cobb, 102; Winthrop, 99; scattering (mainly
Free-Soil), 20.
t February 13, 1850.
256 liECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE.
The gist of tliis proposition, as I apprehend it, is, that
Slavery had not then a legal existence in the newly acquired
Territories. In other words : Mr. Clay (in opposition to Mr.
Calhoun and his followers, who maintained that the Federal
Constitution necessarily became the fundamental law of any
region acquired by the United States, and thus legalized Slav-
ery in that region, and every part of it,) held, with the Free-
Soil party, that Slavery must be cstahllshcd by positive law
in any Territory, before it could be legal therein. I felt that
â– we could afford to accept this as a basis of adjustment, espe-
cially when we gained therewith the instant admission of
California as a Free State, and the extrusion of slaveholding
Texas from nearly all New Mexico, whereof she claimed eveiy
acre lying eastward of the Eio Grande del Norte. Mr. Clay's
proffer seemed to me candid and fair to the North, so far as
it related to tlie newly acquired territories. I do personally
know that Mr. Clay himself regarded it as a capitulation on
the part of the South, wherein she merely stipulated for the
honors of war. And it was instantly assailed by Senators Jef-
ferson Davis and Henry S. Foote of Mississippi, James M.
Mason of Virginia, William E. King of Alabama, S. U.
Downs of Louisiana, and A. P. Butler of South Carolina, as
proposing to the South a surrender at discretion. They all
repelled the suggestion that SlaA-ery could not legally exist in
a Territory till expressly established there by law, affirming
the opposite or Calhoun doctrine. Mr. Clay met them frankly
and squarely ; replying to Mr. Jefferson Davis as follows : —
" I am extremely sorry to hear the Senator from Mississippi say
that he requires, first, the extension of the Missom-i Compromise
line to the Pacific ; and, also, that he is not satisfied with that,
but requires, if I understand him correctly, a positive provision for
the admission of Slavery south of that line. And now, sir, coming
from a Slave State, as I do, I owe it to myself, I owe it to the
truth, I owe it to the subject, to state that no earthly power could
induce me to vote for a specific measure for the introduction of
Slavery where it had not before existed, either south or north of
that line. Coming, as I do, from a Slave State, it is my solemn,
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 257
deliberate, and well-matured determination that no power — no
earthly power — shall compel me to vote for the positive introduc-
tion of Slaver}^, either south or north of that line. Sir, while you
reproach, and justly, too, our British ancestors for the introduction
of this institution upon the continent of America, I am, for one,
unwilling that the posterity of the present inhabitants of California
and New Mexico shall reproach us for doing just what we reproach
Great Britain for doing to us. If the citizens of those Territories
choose to establish Slavery, I am for admitting them with such
provisions in their constitutions ; but then it will be their own
work, and not oiu-s ; and their posterity will have to reproach
them, and not us, for fonuing constitutions allowing the institution
of Slavery to exist among them. These are my views, sir, and I
choose to express them ; and I care not how extensively and uni-
versally they are known. The honorable Senator from Virginia
(Mr. Masou) has expressed his opinion that Slavery exists in these
Territories ; and I have no doubt that opinion is sincerely and hon-
estly entertained by him ; and I woidd say, with equal sincerity
and honesty, that / believe that Slavery nowhere exists within any
portion of the teiTitory acquired by us from Mexico. He holds a
directly contrary opinion to mine, as he has a perfect right to do ;
and we will not quarrel about the difference of opinion."
The deljate thus inaugurated was prosecuted at great lengtli.
]\Ir. Webster, in the course of it, startling the country by an
elaborate speech,* wherein lie took ground against what were
termed Slavery agitation and agitators ; against the asserted
right of legislatures to instruct senators ; against legislation
,to exclude Slavery from Federal Territories, &c., &c. In so
doing he said : —
" Now, as to California and New Mexico, T hold Slavery to be
excluded from those Territories by a law even superior to that
which admits and sanctions it in Texas, — I mean the law of Na-
ture, — of physical geography, — the law of the formation of the
earth. That law settles forever, with a strength beyond all terms
of human enactment, that Slavery cannot exist in California or
New Mexico. ... I will say further, that, if a resolution or a bill
were before us, to provide a Teiritorial goveniment for New Mexico,
* March 7, 1850.
17
258 RECOLLECTIONS OF A BUSY LIFE.
I would not vote to put any prohibition into it whatever. Such a
proliibition would be idle as it respects any effect it would have on
the Teiritory ; and I would not take pains uselessly to reaffirm an
ordinance of Nature, nor to reenact the will of God. I would put
in no Wilmot Proviso for the mere purpose of a taunt or a reproach.
I woidd put into it no evidence of the votes of a superior power,
exercised for no purpose but to wound the pride of the citizens of
the Southern States."
I cannot here follow the great debate tlirougli the wear}'
months in wliicli the Senators and Eepresentatives of Cali-
fornia awaited permission to take the seats to which they had
been chosen. The compromise or adjustment proposed by
Mr. Clay was assailed from either side, — by zealous anti-
Slavery men like Hale, Chase, and Seward ; by zealous, ag-
gressive ^jro-Slavery men like Calhoun, Jeff. Davis, Mason,
and Butler, — while it was sustained by the more moderate
members of either great party. A grand committee of thir-
teen, whereof Mr. Clay was chairman, was raised on the
subject, wherefrom the chairman reported* his plan, modi-
fied so as to be less objectionable to pro-Slavery men : the
vital assertion that Slavery had then no legal existence in
the new territories being omitted. In the progress of the
debate, further modifications of the plan were made, — all
tending in the same direction ; and the sudden death of
General Taylor,f allowing the Presidency to devolve on Air.
Fillmore, powerfully aided the triumph of the Compromise,
which had, a few days before, seemed all but hopeless. Ulti-
mately, bills admitting California, organizing New Mexico and
Utah as Temtories, fixing the northern boundary of Texas,
and giving her $10,000,000 for consenting thereto, providing
more effectually for the recovery of fugitive slaves, and pro-
hibiting the bringing of slaves into the Federal district for
sale, were severally 2:)assed, — though with very diverse sujiport,
— and became laws of the land : thus, it was fondly, but most
mistakenly, calculated, putting an end to SlaA'ery agitation,
and ushering in a long era of fraternity and domestic peace.
* May 18. t July 11.
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 259
Meantime, Mr. Calhoun had died, Marcli 31, 1850, at Wash-
ington, where Mr. Clay likewise died, June 29, 1852. Mr.
AVebster survived his great compeer less than four months ;
d}dng at his home in Marshfield, Mass., October 24th of tliat
year. These three left no statesmen among us who were
their equals in general ability or in power to fix the attention
of the country. We still read speeches in Congress, though
generally quite satisfied with telegraphic summaries of their
contents, but we no longer impatiently await, eagerly enjoy,