Franklin: "Chapter L. The Emancipation Proclamation.," by Alexander K. McClure, 1905
Summary: McClure describes the difficulties which he overcame (with the help of Abraham Lincoln) in order to muster Pennsylvania troops for the Union cause. He also discusses his early opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation and describes the political fallout of the Proclamation for Republications across the country.
AT the time the draft was made in October, 1862, there was a decidedly improved loyal sentiment inspired in Pennsylvania, notwithstanding the disastrous defeat the Republican party suffered at the October election, when the entire Democratic State ticket was elected, with a majority of Democrats in the congressional delegation.
The effect of the Altoona conference and the aggressive attitude assumed by the loyal Governors of the North, demanding that our army should be made overwhelming in numbers, inspired confidence that military success would be achieved and the over-throw of the rebellion accomplished at an early day. The response of the Pennsylvania conscripts was generally very prompt, and Camp Curtin soon became thronged with an unorganized conscript mob. I was exceedingly anxious to get the men into the service because I expected my labors to cease as soon as they were mustered, but the military officers at Harrisburg who had charge of the mustering seemed to be much more interested in the contractors who supplied the camp than in speedily reinforcing the army, and when a thousand or more men were coming into camp each day the mustering officer organized two companies a day. I called upon him and made an earnest appeal for him to send off at least a regiment a day, as I would be able to supply him with that number of men for two weeks or more, but he treated my appeal not only with indifference but rather with contempt, and continued to muster but two companies a day. The result was that in a few days I had a mob of five or six thousand soldiers in camp without organization, restless and boisterous, and I telegraphed Secretary Stanton urging him to send me a mustering officer.
A new officer appeared on the following day and mustered a regiment himself, but the next morning he was relieved from duty and ordered elsewhere, by what authority I never knew, and the mustering was again reduced to two companies a day.
That process would have kept from five to ten thousand troops in camp for six weeks or two months, and as they were presumably in my immediate custody until they were mustered into the United States service, and as the government greatly needed the troops at the front, I decided to make a direct appeal to President Lincoln to have them promptly mustered.
I telegraphed the President that I would call upon him in Washington early the next morning, and met him according to appointment. I told him that I had given more than two months of labor, often day and night, and never less than fifteen hours out of the twenty-four, without compensation, to make the draft successful in Pennsylvania and furnish troops to the government; that there were then from five to six thousand troops in camp, and that they were accumulating much more rapidly than they were being mustered. I assured him that a regiment a day could be forwarded to the army from Harrisburg for two weeks or more; that if he would order a mustering officer to hasten their organization and forward them to the front, I would gladly remain until the work was completed, but that if the mustering could not be hastened I would abandon the work at once and go home.
Lincoln was much distressed at the Harrisburg situation. He knew that political influences had chosen the military officers assigned to duty at Harrisburg, as was common elsewhere throughout the State, and he knew that the summary removal of an officer would probably cause offense in a quarter that might later do him much harm. He said that the troops must be forwarded at once, and he would have it done, but he said he thought he had a better way of doing it than to remove any of the Harrisburg officers. I told him it mattered not how it was accomplished so that the work could be completed, the government get the troops and I relieved of further exacting and profitless labor. Without making any explanation he rang the bell and ordered his messenger to summon the adjutant general of the army. In a few minutes Adjutant General Thomas appeared, and the President asked him what was the rank of the senior officer on duty at Harrisburg. Adjutant General Thomas replied that he was a captain. The President then instructed the adjutant general to bring him at once a commission for me as assistant adjutant general of the United States volunteers with the rank of major, and the adjutant general took his leave.
As soon as he had left the room I said to the President that I could not consent to enter the military service, as I was not used to military orders, and could not comply with military regulations without serious inconvenience to myself. To which he replied that I need not worry about that, as he would have an order issued assigning me to report to Governor Curtin, that the commission would make me the ranking officer and commandant at Harrisburg, and he supposed that, being under Governor Curtin's orders, there would be no greater restraint in the military service than if I were not in it. He assured me also that no order would be issued assigning me to duty elsewhere, and that as soon as my work was completed at Harrisburg, and I desired to retire from the service, my resignation should be forwarded to him, and it would be promptly accepted. He insisted that I should continue to hold the commission after the troops were mustered until all the many complicated accounts relating to the draft could be settled between the State and the National government. He suggested that I should, on my return to Harrisburg, call upon the commandant there to muster me into the service, and he certainly believed that there would be no difficulty about having troops mustered thereafter.
I returned to Harrisburg the same evening, and the next morning requested the commandant to call at my office in the Capitol. He naturally supposed that I had taken the liberty to send for him to importune him further as to the mustering of the troops, and he came into the office in the most supercilious way and asked to know why I had sent for him. I handed him my commission, requesting him to muster me into the military service, and also handed him the order assigning me to duty at Harrisburg. His arrogant manner was at once transformed into pitiable obsequiousness, and he mustered me into the service.
After being mustered, I said to him, in the mildest way I could command, that I knew nothing about military regulations, and did not expect to interfere with him in any of the routine duties, but that there must be a regiment of troops mustered and forwarded to the army each day until Camp Curtin was empty. I told him that so far as I was concerned I had no desire to be known as the military commandant of the place, that I would wear no uniform nor attempt in any way to exploit myself as a military officer, and indeed very few of those connected with public affairs in Harrisburg ever knew that I was the commanding officer at the Capital.
I never had occasion to summon the captain for either suggestion or orders, and I do not recall that I ever had further conference with him. His duties outside of mustering were never interfered with, and the people of Harrisburg generally never knew that there was a change in the military commandant.
After the troops were all mustered and the regiments sent to the front, I found that I had on hand another very complicated and difficult task-that of gathering in, revising and tabulating the various accounts arising from the draft. It required more than a month of energetic effort to get the claims in any sort of shape, as they embraced the pay of the many hundreds of enumerators who had enrolled the districts of the State, and the many different expenses incurred in each county in making the draft, and after they were gotten into shape it required several months to get them advanced in Washington to the point of settlement.
The National departments were all overworked; the Treasury was in a condition that required the Secretary to pay as sparingly as possible, and final settlement was naturally delayed as long as possible.
After everything had been done that could be done beyond simply importuning the government to make payment, I resigned the office of assistant adjutant general, leaving to the proper State authorities the duty of finishing the work of obtaining money from the government.
My commission was issued October 27, 1862, but ante-dated September 5, and my resignation was accepted and I was discharged from the service February 27, 1863.
The political situation became very unpromising in 1862, not only because of the failure to prosecute the war successfully, but also because of the Emancipation Proclamation, for which the more conservative element of the Republican party in the State was not prepared.
The preliminary proclamation was issued on the 22nd of September, 1862, and from that day those who had intelligent understanding of the general political conditions had little hope of carrying any of the debatable Northern States at the fall election of that year.
The Republicans of New England and of the far West were fully up to the high-water anti-slavery mark, and ready to sustain the destruction of slavery by any practicable method.
While earnestly anti-slavery in conviction, I was very positive in opposition to the Emancipation Proclamation, and it was the only question that I very earnestly disputed with the President.
It was an open secret for some months before the proclamation was issued that an emancipation policy in some form was inevitable, and I was thoroughly convinced that the conservative Republican sentiment of the great Middle States would not sustain it. I could not see how it was possible for the adminis- tration to prosecute the war with the great Middle States against it, and in all of my visits to the President, when opportunity presented, I took occasion to admonish him as to the peril of such a movement.
I looked at the greatest of all the questions ever presented to the ruler of the Republic from the mere standpoint of political expediency, and I predicted that an Emancipation Proclamation would defeat the administration in all the great States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Lincoln did not dispute the assumption that political disaster was possible, and he was most carefully reticent as to any indication of his purpose.
I urged him to issue a military order as the constitutional commander of the armies of the Union, declaring that every slave brought within the Union lines should be forever free, and that slavery should be abolished in every rebellious State when brought within the control of our military authority.
I stated, what was indisputable, that the mere proclamation would not liberate a single slave, and that only by the success of the army could the proclamation be made effective. Lincoln had given the subject most anxious thought, but withheld his purpose from all, even the members of his cabinet, until he had decided to act.
The political disaster that I predicted was more than fulfilled. New York and New Jersey elected Democratic Governors, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were carried by the Democrats, and all of these great Middle States sent Democratic delegations to Congress, but the South was excluded from representation and New England and the far West saved the House to the Administration, and the Emancipation Proclamation, the sublimest act of any American ruler, was sustained by Congress, and finally heartily sustained by the people of the North.
Lincoln, in his careful consideration of the subject, admitted the force of political expediency that forbade an Emancipation Proclamation, but he realized the higher and holier duties of his position, and within a year thereafter I had learned how grandly he had faced all the arguments of expediency to give to human freedom its supreme achievement in the history of nations.
But for the extraordinary efforts made by the concerted action of the Governors of the North, resulting from the Altoona conference, and the inspiration given to the loyal cause by the retreat of Lee from Antietam, Pennsylvania would have voted largely Democratic.
The Union State convention met in Pennsylvania long before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, but it was generally believed that the issue must be met in that campaign. I attended the convention at Harrisburg as a delegate. It was an unusually able and thoroughly representative body, but all were shadowed with the cloud of defeat. The failure of the army, the enforcement of the draft, that then made even the most loyal of our people shudder, as it indicated a want of willingness on the part of the people to sustain the war, were important factors in aid of the Democratic party. Thomas E. Cochran, who was about closing a term as auditor general, and who was conspicuously fitted for the position alike in integrity and qualifications, was unanimously nominated for re-election, and Henry Souther, of Elk County, who was then serving as surveyor general by appointment, was chosen without opposition as the candidate for that office. Both were men of ripe experience in State affairs, having served with conspicuous credit in the State senate, and the ticket had all the strength that individual merit could give it. The platform of the convention heartily sustained the administration and the vigorous prosecution of the war.
The Democrats nominated Isaac Slenker, of Union, for auditor general, who had also served in the senate some years before, and James P. Barr, editor of the Pittsburg "Post," and one of the ablest of the Democratic leaders in Pennsylvania, for surveyor general.
The platform of the Democratic party was cautiously drawn to commend itself to the Republicans who were doubting or despairing in regard to the war, but it proclaimed absolute devotion to the Union of the States.
The Republicans thus started in the campaign fearfully handicapped at an election where a whole delegation to Congress was to be chosen and the Legislature then elected was to name a United States Senator.
After the Altoona conference there was some indication of the political tide turning in favor of the Republicans, but it was not strong enough to enable them to hold power in the State, and the Democratic State ticket was elected by about 4,000 majority.
The congressional delegation elected in 1860 contained seventeen Republicans, exclusive of Hendrick B. Wright, of Luzerne, and Joseph Bailey, of Perry, who were War Democrats, making nineteen of the twenty-five earnest supporters of the war; but the new delegation elected in 1862 contained eleven Republicans and thirteen Democrats.
Galusha A. Grow, speaker of the first War Congress, and who had been in Congress for ten years, was defeated by Charles Dennis. He was in a new district composed of Susquehanna and Luzerne instead of his own district of Susquehanna, Bradford and Wyoming, and he was overwhelmed by the Democratic vote of Luzerne County.
The Dauphin district, one of the strongest Republican districts of the State, was lost by 500, William H. Miller, of Dauphin, defeating John J. Patterson, ex-State representative from Juniata. Edward MacPherson, who had been twice elected in the Franklin district, was defeated by some 500 majority by General A.H. Coffroth, of Somerset; Archibald MacAllister of Blair defeated Steele Blair of the Blair district; and John L. Dawson, of Fayette, one of the ablest of the Democratic leaders, carried Covode's district, defeating Andrew Stewart.
Of the Congressmen elected by the Democrats Joseph Bailey, of Perry, was an out and out War Democrat, and James T. Hale, of Centre, was an Independent and thoroughly loyal Republican, making the delegation practically about even on the issue of supporting the administration.
The Democrats concentrated their efforts to a great extent upon the control of the Legislature, and the Republicans left no available means unemployed to save the house. They had the assured control of the senate, as the sweeping Republican majorities of several years before had left the senate nearly two-thirds Republican, but the Democrats were inspired by the confidence of victory, and their organization was then very compact and under the most skilled leadership. Every debatable legislative district was exhaustively contested by both parties, and the Republicans were greatly humiliated when the final returns presented a Democratic majority of one on joint ballot.
The Senate stood twenty-one Republicans to twelve Democrats, but the house had fifty-five Democrats to forty-five Republicans, giving the Democrats the control of the house by ten majority and the United States Senatorship by a single vote.
In several instances members of the house were lost by one of the two parties by less than half a score of votes. In Perry County John Magee, Democrat, afterwards member of Congress, was elected by majority over Amos Barnett, Republican, who later served ten years as president judge in the district. Both parties had so carefully watched the campaign in the closely-contested districts that there was no reasonable prospect of a contest on either side, and all quietly settled down to the fact that the Democrats had the Legislature and would have the Senator.
When the smoke of the battle cleared away and it was ascertained that the Republicans held control of the National House of Representatives, notwithstanding the defection in the great Middle States, the Republicans were very much encouraged for future battles, and the close of the year 1862 found our people and State in very much better condition to support the war, after having gone through many months of sore depression often verging on despair.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Alexander K. McClure, Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania, 1905, pages 552-562.
