Franklin County: "The Border War Claims," by A. K. McClure, 1905
Summary: McClure describes his efforts as a member of the Pennsylvania legislature to secure relief for Chambersburg after the town was burned in McCausland's raid. He explains that corruption delayed and then greatly detracted from the relief which finally came, and bemoans that corruption was so much a part of this period of Pennsylvanian history.
James McDowell Sharpe and the Author Elected to the House to Secure Appropriation for the Desolated Town-How William H. Kemble Became State Treasurer-Debate on the Amendment to the Constitution Abolishing Slavery Forced Sharpe and the Author to Participate-Sharpe's Admirable Speech-Why the Relief Bill Failed-How the Appropriation of Half a Million Dollars Was Passed a Year Later.
THE McCausland raid that destroyed the beautiful town of Chambersburg was the last visitation the people of that section had from the opposing armies of our civil war. General Patterson's army, the first to march against the South in the Shenandoah Valley, in the early spring of 1861, encamped on my farm at Chambersburg, and made that his base for a week or more. That occupation saved me the trouble of harvesting luxuriant fields of clover and timothy, as all the fields in grass were occupied by the army and the crops destroyed. In 1862 General Stuart made the first great raid of the war around McClellan's army after the battle of Antietam, and spent the night in Chambersburg, as I have already fully described, leaving me minus ten horses. His raid was followed by what were always the most destructive military movements in our valley, with the single exception of the burning of Chambersburg, the invasion of the militia or emergency men, suddenly called out to protect the border, pitched together into companies and regiments without discipline, and hurriedly marched away without quartermaster or commissary resources. They practically lived on the country, and they were necessarily very costly visitors.
In 1863 two-thirds of Lee's army had its base in Chambersburg for nearly a week, and Ewell's corps of over 20,000 men followed all previous military forces by camping on some 200 acres of level ground on my farm, with railroad on one side and water on the other. Lee's army, however, was under the strictest discipline, and Ewell's entire corps, or most of it, was on the farm for a week; and the officers occupied my residence, but they did much less damage than a single regiment of New York volunteers encamped on the same place, who were the first to reach Chambersburg after the battle of Gettysburg. The middle fences had then been destroyed by both armies, and the only crop that I was enabled to gather from the farm during the war was a bountiful harvest in 1864, that was entirely destroyed in the barn a few weeks after its harvesting.
The people of Chambersburg were left in a most destitute condition by the destruction of the town on the 30th of July, 1864. Nearly or quite two-thirds of the population were entirely homeless, without means and without the occupations which afforded them a livelihood. The people of the State responded very generously in sending supplies, but with more than 2,000 people entirely homeless and breadless there was often want in many family circles. I had a large corn and potato crop that had escaped the vengeance of McCausland, and as rapidly as these crops matured sufficiently for family use they were delivered from day to day to the sufferers until the last pound had gone, beyond a scant allowance for my own household. Unfortunately, we were then in the high tide of war inflation, when a dollar of current money bought no more, than two-thirds its face value in labor or neces-saries of life, but the business men who had means or credit hastily began the reconstruction of their homes and business places, costing them quite double what the properties commanded when many were forced to sell by the revulsion that followed.
The people were inspired by the hope that the Legislature would come to their relief to a very generous extent, and, as I have explained in a former chapter, J. McDowell Sharpe, who stood at the front of the Chambersburg bar, and myself had been elected to the house and charged with the responsible duty of obtaining relief for our people who were struggling in the ashes of their desolated homes. Sharpe and I, of course, had but a single purpose in shaping our legislative actions, and that was to successfully perform the paramount duty of obtaining relief for our neighbors. At the meeting of the Legislature on the first Tuesday of January, 1865, we agreed that we must subordinate all political efforts to the exceptionally grave duty imposed upon us; that we would take no part in political disputation; that our attitude on all legislative questions should be governed by the advantage we could command for the passage of the relief bill. The house was largely Republican, and of course Sharpe, being the leading Democrat of the body, was voiceless in shaping its organization; but Olmsted, of Potter, was made speaker without a contest by the Republican friends of the border claim giving him a united support. He was a man of the highest character, and all we asked of him was an entirely fair committee to pass upon our important measure, to which he readily assented and fulfilled his promise. He was not asked to pledge himself to support the bill, as such a proposition would have been offensive to one of his delicate appreciation of official pride, but we had the assurance of absolute fairness, and hoped to have him with us when the struggle came, although his constituents were very generally against us.
Before the Legislature met distant portions of the State, which were at no time imperiled by the Civil War, were inflamed to a considerable degree against our relief bill by the united efforts of demagogues and lobbyists. It must be remembered that at that day the sum of $500,000 to be taken from the treasury for appropriation outside of the ordinary expenses of the State was a startling proposition, and candidates for the Legislature in very many of the districts openly pledged themselves against what they called the border raid bill, to secure their election in doubtful districts, or to assure their renominations where elections were not doubtful. The entire northern tier of counties, then almost wholly agricultural, and where extreme frugality was the rule of the every-day lives of the people, were appalled by the proposition to take half a million dollars from the treasury of the State. Their farms were then taxed to support the Commonwealth, and $500,000 at that time seemed to be a vastly greater sum than $5,000,000 would seem to-day.
Pittsburg was then in the violent throes of the railroad repudiation struggle that convulsed the people of Allegheny for many years, and their legislators had little sympathy with their brethren from the southern border, because their revolutionary movement had commanded little sympathy or support from any portion of the State east of the Alleghenies. Thus, a large portion of the members of the Legislature appeared at Harrisburg strongly prejudiced against any important border relief bill because of political or local interests, and the professional lobbyists of the State, who then embraced a number of able and unscrupulous men, aided systematically in prejudicing legislators against our measure, hoping to obtain a large corruption fund to be used by them in securing votes for the bill, with large profits to the lobbyists themselves. When we appeared at Harrisburg to inaugurate the struggle for the relief of Chambersburg, we were amazed to learn that a decided majority of the house was not only not in sympathy with us, but positively against us, and many of the members very aggressively so.
It was this condition that brought into political prominence William H. Kemble, as he was made State treasurer by a combination between his Philadelphia friends and the organized supporters of the relief bill. I had known Kemble in a casual way for several years, but never had opportunity to know him beyond the flippant surface that he so often maintained, hiding his very strong natural abilities from all but those who knew him most intimately. We had some twenty Republican members of the house who immediately represented the border people, or who were sufficiently interested in the work of furnishing relief, to make them cordially co-operate with any movement deemed necessary to promote the passage of a liberal appropriation. Philadelphia representatives were nearly all Republican, and they had been thoroughly organized to make battle for the election of Kemble as State treasurer. His competitor was Dr. Gross, of Allegheny, who had served several sessions in the house, was a man of the highest character, of admitted ability, and universally respected by all who knew him. Under ordinary circumstances he would have been nominated for State treasurer, and would have filled the office with great credit, but the proposition came to us to give the support of the Republican representatives of Philadelphia for the border relief bill if we would unite with them to make Kemble State treasurer.
The proposition was first made to me by ex-Representative Thorne, with whom I had served in the house some years, and who was a devoted personal friend. He came to Chambersburg and made the proposition that a combination be made between the border and Philadelphia Republicans to make Kemble treasurer and to pass the relief bill. I was greatly surprised when he named Kemble as his candidate, as I had only the merest superficial knowledge of the man, and when he first told me that the Philadelphians were unitedly and earnestly for him, and that we could not expect a general or cordial support for our relief bill from Philadelphia without the border people supporting him, my answer was: "Well, if you people can stand it, I can," and the combination was made and carried out with absolute fidelity on both sides. But for this alliance with Philadelphia the Chambersburg relief bill never would have been permitted to appear even on the house calendar.
I learned to know Kemble better after he came into the office of State treasurer, and to appreciate his exceptionally great qualities. He was at times impulsive and indiscreet, but he discharged his official duties with great fidelity, and he started the important tax reform relieving the farmers of the State entirely from taxation for State purposes and imposing it upon the then rapidly developing corporations. He became a recognized leader not only in State politics, but in finance, and was the chief author of the pecuniary success attained by our various city passenger railways. He was the best equipped man in passenger railway business not only in Philadelphia, but in any other section of the country, and he was unfaltering in his fidelity to personal or political friendships. He was twice re-elected State treasurer by the Legislature, and left the office at the expiration of three years with the credit of the State fully restored, and our general financial condition immeasurably improved.
Never did two men more earnestly struggle for the relief of their constituents than did Sharpe and myself at that session of the Legislature, but before a month of the session had passed it became obvious to us that success was not within the range of possibility. The measure was assailed by a large number of the rural newspapers, and the powerfully organized lobbyists who then clustered about legislative sessions were aggressively hostile because there was nothing in it for them. Sharpe and I made every combination within range to aid or hinder legislation if thereby there was a promise made for our single cause. Political disputation ran high in both senate and house, but we were stubbornly silent. As Sharpe was altogether the ablest member of the Democratic minority, his political friends complained somewhat that he was never heard in the political scraps that so often happened in which he would have been their ablest champion. Finally we reached the proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States for the abolishment of slavery, and the debate on it was altogether the most embittered of the session. Just when it was at the high-water mark of partisan frenzy, the Democrats demanded that Sharpe should be heard, and I had been also urged to participate in the debate on the other side. I saw that the Democrats, where we had our largest support for the relief bill outside of Philadelphia members, were determined to have Sharpe speak, and I passed over to his seat and proposed that I would take the floor in support of the anti-slavery amendment, and that he should follow; that we would both deliver dignified addresses which would not be likely to call out violent interruption or criticism, and that after the delivery of the speeches we would then resume our attitude of absolute refusal to participate in political discussion. It soon became known that Sharpe and I had taken a temporary release from our bondage on political discussion, and, as the subject had already crowded the house with interested spectators, the senate soon adjourned for want of a quorum, and the Governor and heads of departments and senators crowded into the hail. Sharpe's speech, although entirely spontaneous, was the ablest political address I ever heard him deliver, and his friends were greatly gratified. He was thoroughly familiar with the subject, as he had discussed the question very fully time and again on the stump, and he rose to the highest measure of his great ability on the sudden inspiration of a party call that he knew demanded of him an argument fully worthy of himself. He was one of the few members of the bar who presented the uncommon quality of perfectly blending all the attributes of a great lawyer with all the attributes of a brilliant advocate, and he was one of the gentlest and most lovable of men.
Hopeless as was the position of the Chambersburg measure, we could only struggle to the end, although it was during the last month of the session, simply the struggle of despair, and the Legislature finally adjourned without any appropriation whatever for the relief of the impoverished people of the burned town. While the leading men of Chambersburg were fully advised of the progress of the battle, and knew that the defeat of the bill was inevitable, the majority of the people in their extreme necessities, struggling like the drowning man grasping at the straw, hoped even against hope that they would not be entirely abandoned by the State, and when the Legislature finally adjourned without even seriously considering the relief measure their disappointment was as terrible as it was general. Sharpe and I were in constant intercourse with the leading men of the town, and they knew long before the session ended that $500,000 could not be taken from the treasury of the State, even for the most deserving charity, without passing through the slimy embrace of a powerful and unscrupulous lobby. There were many conferences after the adjournment of the Legislature between the active citizens of the town, which Sharpe and I attended, and we both stated frankly that the appropriation that was absolutely indispensable to Chambersburg could not be obtained by any combination of personal or political interests, and that it could be accomplished only by yielding to corruption that was then largely asserting its mastery in Pennsylvania politics, and especially in legislation; and it was finally definitely decided to organize a movement at once to obtain the appropriation from the succeeding Legislature, and a dozen or more of those who had sustained the heaviest losses, and who, as a rule, could best afford to dispense with relief, should give their entire portion of the appropriation to promote its passage. The result was that new men were sent to the Legislature, and the battle for the relief of Chambersburg was made outside of the legislative halls. The measure passed both branches of the Legislature and was approved by Governor Curtin, and thus half a million came at last to the relief of the long-despairing sufferers of Chambersburg, less a considerable sum that was filched from them by lobby extortion and Legislative venality.
A number of the heaviest losers did not receive one dollar, and I not only received no part of mine, which was the largest claim in the entire list, but in a severe emergency in the progress of the conflict I gave $2,500 in addition, not a dollar of which was ever repaid, or expected to be repaid; but with all these resources, we were unable to meet the ever-increasing demand of organized corruption. Finally I presented the matter to Colonel Scott, then vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who was a native of Franklin County, and had great affection for the people of the desolated town. He understood the situation at a glance, knew the forces which surrounded and the obstacles which confronted it, and he gave a peremptory order to his representative at Harrisburg to pass the Chambersburg relief bill under any and all circumstances. But for his timely and most generous interposition and substantial aid, the relief bill would not have reached final passage. Beyond half a dozen men, who participated in the inner movements of the struggle, the people of Chambersburg received the liberal appropriation of the State without ever having heard the name of Colonel Scott mentioned as their chief benefactor.
I should not have given any part of the inner story of the passage of the Chambersburg relief bill, but for the fact that it seems to be a necessity to maintain the truth of history, and in some future chapter I must discuss the question of corruption in Pennsylvania politics, especially in Pennsylvania legislation. I have given the facts in relation to the relief bill because it was an imperious necessity that the relief should be obtained, and a like imperious necessity that some should assume the responsibility of submitting to the demands of corruptionists to give success to a measure that was a naked charity. I served in nine sessions of the two branches of the Legislature, covering a period of sixteen years, and during the time that Legislative venality reached its high-water mark. I do not mean that Pennsylvania politics are any less corrupt now than they were then, but I think it is due to truth to say that the general individual venality in legislation these days does not approach the measure of venality that obtained during a portion of the time in which I served in the Legislature.
There was then no such thing known as the power of party leaders to pass or defeat measures of legislation which were not political, and venality became so general because of the vast power of the Legislature to promote individual and corrupt interests by special legislation under the old Constitution. Private legislation was practically ended by the Constitution of 1874, and petty venality that had become so general under the former Constitution was largely dethroned. Now, measures of individual profit are scaled on an immense basis; they are passed or defeated in our Pennsylvania Legislature largely or wholly as party leaders command, and the petty Legislative speculations of a few hundreds of dollars which were common in early times have now given way to colossal speculations by political leaders, and a small portion of the profits is gradually filtered down to the followers to enable them to keep their positions. It is a sorry chapter to appear in the annals of our great Commonwealth, but the history of our political, industrial and financial achievements would be incomplete with its omission.
Bibliographic Information: Source copy consulted: Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania, Vol. II, Ch. LXVII, p. 170-180
