Cambridge Sketches

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In the New York _Herald_ of December 20, 1860, there was the
following item: "Governor-elect Andrew, of Massachusetts, and George L.
Stearns have gone to Washington together, and it is said that the object
of their visit is to brace up weak-kneed Republicans." This was one
object of their journey, but they also went to survey the ground and see
what was the true state of affairs at the Capital. Stearns wrote from
Washington to the Bird Club: "The watchword here is 'Keep quiet,'" a
sentence full of significance for the interpretation of the policy
pursued by the Republican leaders that winter. Andrew returned with the
conviction that war was imminent and could not be prevented. His
celebrated order in regard to the equipment of the State militia followed
immediately, and after the bombardment of Fort Sumter this was looked
upon as a true prophecy. He foresaw the difficulty at Baltimore, and had
already chartered steamships to convey regiments to Washington, in case
there should be a general uprising in Maryland.

Both Sumner and Wilson opposed the appointment of General Butler to the
command of the Massachusetts Volunteers, and preferred Caleb Gushing, who
afterwards proved to be a more satisfactory member of the Republican
party than Butler; but, on the whole, Andrew would seem to have acted
judiciously. They were both bold, ingenious and quick-witted men, but it
is doubtful if Gushing possessed the dash and intrepidity which Butler
showed in dealing with the situation at Baltimore. That portion of his
military career was certainly a good success, and how far he should be
held responsible for the corrupt proceedings of his brother at New
Orleans I do not undertake to decide.

It is likely that Governor Andrew regretted his choice three weeks later,
when General Butler offered his services to the Governor of Maryland to
suppress a slave insurrection which never took place, and of which there
was no danger then or afterwards. A sharp correspondence followed between
the Governor and the General, in which the latter nearly reached the
point of insubordination. For excellent reasons this was not made public
at the time, and is little known at the present day; but General Butler
owed his prominence in the war wholly to Governor Andrew's appointment.

Another little-known incident was Andrew's action in regard to the
meeting in memory of John Brown, which was held on December 2, 1861, by
Wendell Phillips, F. B. Sanborn and others, who were mobbed exactly as
Garrison was mobbed thirty years earlier. The Mayor would do nothing to
protect them, and when Wendell Phillips went to seek assistance from
Andrew the latter declined to interfere. It would be a serious matter to
interfere with the Mayor, and he did not feel that the occasion demanded
it. Moreover he considered the celebration at that time to be prejudicial
to the harmony of the Union cause. Phillips was already very much
irritated and left the Governor's office in no friendly mood. Andrew
might have said to him: "You have been mobbed; what more do you want?
There is no more desirable honor than to be mobbed in a good cause."

Governor Andrew's appointments continued to be so favorable to the
Democrats that Martin F. Conway, the member of Congress from Kansas,
said: "The Governor has come into power with the help of his friends, and
he intends to retain it by conciliating his opponents." It certainly
looked like this; but no one who knew Andrew intimately would believe
that he acted from interested motives. Moreover it was wholly unnecessary
to conciliate them. It is customary in Massachusetts to give the Governor
three annual terms, and no more; but Andrew was re-elected four times,
and it seemed as if he might have had as many terms as Caius Marius had
consulships if he had only desired it.

His object evidently was to unite all classes and parties in a vigorous
support of the Union cause, and he could only do this by taking a number
of colonels and other commissioned officers from the Democratic ranks.
For company officers there was no better recommendation to him than for a
young man to be suspended, or expelled, from Harvard University. "Those
turbulent fellows," he said, "always make good fighters, and," he added
in a more serious tone, "some of them will not be greatly missed if they
do not return." The young aristocrat who was expelled for threatening to
tweak his professor's nose obtained a commission at once.

Another case of this sort was so pathetic that it deserves to be
commemorated. Sumner Paine (named after Charles Sumner), the finest
scholar in his class at Harvard, was suspended in June, 1863, for some
trifling folly and went directly to the Governor for a commission as
Lieutenant. Having an idea that the colored regiments were a particular
hobby with the Governor, he asked for a place in one of them; but Andrew
replied that the list was full; he could, however, give him a Lieutenancy
in the Twentieth Massachusetts, which was then in pursuit of General Lee.
Sumner Paine accepted this, and ten days later he was shot dead on the
field of Gettysburg. Governor Andrew felt very badly; for Paine was not
only a fine scholar but very handsome, and, what is rare among hard
students, full of energy and good spirits.

Governor Andrew tried a number of conclusions, as Shakespeare would call
them, with the National Government during the war, but the most serious
difficulty of this kind resulted from Secretary Stanton's arbitrary
reduction of the pay of colored soldiers from thirteen to eight dollars a
month. This, of course, was a breach of contract, and Governor Andrew
felt a personal responsibility in regard to it, so far as the
Massachusetts regiments were concerned.

He first protested against it to the Secretary of War; but, strange to
say, Stanton obtained a legal opinion in justification of his order from
William Whiting, the solicitor of the War Department. Governor Andrew
then appealed to President Lincoln, who referred the case to Attorney-
General Bates, and Bates, after examining the question, reported
adversely to Solicitor Whiting and notified President Lincoln that the
Government would be liable to an action for damages. The President
accordingly referred this report to Stanton, who paid no attention
whatever to it.

Meanwhile the Massachusetts Legislature had passed an act to make good
the deficiency of five dollars a month to the Massachusetts colored
regiments, but the private soldiers, with a magnanimity that should never
be forgotten, refused to accept from the State what they considered due
them from the National Government. At last Governor Andrew applied to
Congress for redress, declaring that if he did not live to see justice
done to his soldiers in this world he would carry his appeal "before the
Tribunal of Infinite Justice."

Thaddeus Stevens introduced a bill for the purpose June 4,1864, and after
waiting a whole year the colored soldiers received their dues. Andrew
declared in his message to Congress that this affair was a disgrace to
the National Government; and I fear we shall have to agree with him.
[Footnote: At this time there were not less than five thousand officers
drawing pay in the Union armies above the requisite proportion of one
officer to twenty-two privates.]

Sixty years ago Macaulay noticed the injurious effects on oratory of
newspaper publication. Parliamentary speeches were written to be read
rather than to be listened to. It was a peculiarity of Andrew, however,
that he wrote his letters and even his messages to the Legislature as if
he were making a speech. In conversation he was plain, sensible and
kindly.

He made no pretensions to oratory in his public addresses, but his
delivery was easy, clear, and emphatic. At times he spoke rather rapidly,
but not so much so as to create a confused impression. I never knew him
to make an _argumentum ad hominem_, nor to indulge in those
rhetorical tricks which even Webster and Everett were not wholly free
from. He convinced his hearers as much by the fairness of his manner as
by anything that he said.

The finest passage in his speeches, as we read them now, is his tribute
to Lincoln's character in his address to the Legislature, following upon
Lincoln's assassination. After describing him as the man who had added
"martyrdom itself to his other and scarcely less emphatic claims to human
veneration, gratitude and love," he continued thus: "I desire on this
grave occasion to record my sincere testimony to the unaffected
simplicity of his manly purpose, to the constancy with which he devoted
himself to his duty, to the grand fidelity with which he subordinated
himself to his country, to the clearness, robustness, and sagacity of his
understanding, to his sincere love of truth, his undeviating progress in
its faithful pursuit, and to the confidence which he could not fail to
inspire in the singular integrity of his virtues and the conspicuously
judicial quality of his intellect."

Could any closer and more comprehensive description be given of Andrew's
own character; and is there another statement so appreciative in the
various biographies of Lincoln?

The instances of his kindness and helpfulness were multitudinous, but
have now mostly lapsed into oblivion. During his five years in office it
seemed as if every distressed man, woman, and child came to the Governor
for assistance. William G. Russell, who declined the position of Chief
Justice, once said of him: "There was no better recommendation to
Andrew's favor than for a man to have been in the State's prison, if it
could only be shown that he had been there longer than he deserved."

Andrew considered the saving of a human soul more important than rescuing
a human life. That he was often foiled, deceived, and disappointed in
these reformatory attempts is perfectly true; but was it not better so
than never to have made them? For a long time he had charge of an
intemperate nephew, who even sold his overcoat to purchase drink; but the
Governor never deserted the fellow and cared for him as well as he could.

This is the more significant on account of Andrew's strong argument
against prohibitory legislation, which was the last important act of his
life.

In February, 1864, there was a military ball at Concord for the benefit
of the Thirty-second Massachusetts Regiment. Governor Andrew was present,
and seeing the son of an old friend sitting in a corner and looking much
neglected while his brother was dancing and having a fine time, the
Governor went to him, took him by the arm and marched several times
around the hall with him. He then went to Mrs. Hawthorne, inquired what
her husband was writing, and explained the battle of Gettysburg to her,
drawing a diagram of it on a letter which he took from his coat pocket.
Years afterwards Mrs. Hawthorne spoke of this as one of the pleasantest
interviews of her life.

He would come in late to dinner at the Bird Club, looking so full of
force that he seemed as much like a steam-engine as a man. They usually
applauded him, but he paid no attention to it. "Waiter, bring me some
minced fish with carrots and beets," he would say. His fish-dinner became
proverbial, but he complained that they could not serve it at fine hotels
in the way our grandmothers made it. He said it did not taste the same.

His private secretary states that Governor Andrew's favorite _sans
souci_ was to take a drive into the country with some friend, and
after he had passed the thickly settled suburbs to talk, laugh and jest
as young men do on a yachting excursion,--but his talk was always
refined. There was no recreation that Professor Francis J. Child liked
better than this.

Andrew's valedictory address on January 5, 1865, which was chiefly
concerned with the reconstruction of the Southern States, was little
understood at the time even by his friends; and in truth he did not make
out his scheme as clearly as he might have done. He considered negro
suffrage the first essential of reconstruction, but he did not believe in
enfranchising the colored people and disfranchising the whites. He
foresaw that this could only end in disaster; and he advised that the
rebellious States should remain under military government until the white
people of the South should rescind their acts of secession and adopt
negro suffrage of their own accord. There would have been certain
advantages in this over the plan that was afterwards adopted--that is,
Sumner's plan--but it included the danger that the Southern States might
have adopted universal suffrage and negro citizenship for the sake of
Congressional representation, and afterwards have converted it into a
dead letter, as it is at present. Andrew considered Lincoln's attempts at
reconstruction as premature, and therefore injudicious.

For nearly twenty-five years John A. Andrew was a parishioner of Rev.
James Freeman Clarke, who preached in Indiana Place Chapel. In 1848 Rev.
Mr. Clarke desired to exchange with Theodore Parker, but older members of
his parish strenuously opposed it. Andrew, then only twenty-seven years
old, came forward in support of his pastor, and argued the case
vigorously, not because he agreed with Parker's theological opinions, but
because he considered the opposition illiberal. After this both Andrew
and Clarke would seem to have become gradually more conservative, for
when the latter delivered a sermon or lecture in 1866 in opposition to
Emerson's philosophy, the ex-Governor printed a public letter requesting
him to repeat it. It is easy to trace the influence of James Freeman
Clarke in Governor Andrew's religious opinions and Andrew's influence on
Rev. Mr. Clarke's politics. Each was a firm believer in the other.

The movement to supersede Sumner with Andrew as United States Senator, in
1869, originated in what is called the Back Bay district. It was not
because they loved Andrew there, but because they hated Sumner, who
represented to their minds the loss of political power which they had
enjoyed from the foundation of the Republic until his election in 1850,
and have never recovered it since. Andrew's political record and his
democratic manners could hardly have been to their liking.

The Boston aristocracy counted for success on the support of the Grand
Army veterans, who were full of enthusiasm for Andrew; but it is not
probable that the ex-Governor would have been willing to lead a movement
which his best friends disapproved of, and which originated with the same
class of men who tried so hard to defeat him in 1862. Moreover, they
would have found a very sturdy opponent in Senator Wilson. It was Wilson
who had made Sumner a Senator, and for fifteen years they had fought side
by side without the shadow of a misunderstanding between them. Under such
conditions men cannot help feeling a strong affection for one another.
Besides this, Wilson would have been influenced by interested motives.
Sumner cared nothing for the minor Government offices--the classified
service--except so far as to assist occasionally some unfortunate person
who had been crowded out of the regular lines; and this afforded Wilson a
fine opportunity of extending his influence. If Andrew were chosen
Senator in the way that was anticipated Wilson knew well enough that this
patronage would have to be divided between them.

Andrew could not have replaced Sumner in the Senate. He lacked the
physical strength as well as the experience, and that extensive range of
legal and historical knowledge which so often disconcerted Sumner's
opponents. He had a genius for the executive, and the right position for
him would have been in President Grant's cabinet. That he would have been
offered such a place can hardly be doubted.

But Governor Andrew's span of life was over. He might have lived longer
if he had taken more physical exercise; but the great Civil War proved
more fatal to the statesmen who were engaged in it than to the generals
in the field. None of the great leaders of the Republican party lasted
very long after this.

Andrew's friends always felt that the man was greater than his position,
and that he really missed the opportunity to develop his ability to its
full extent. His position was not so difficult as that of Governor
Morgan, of New York, or Governor Morton, of Indiana; for he was supported
by one of the wealthiest and most patriotic of the States. It was his
clear insight into the political problems of his time and the
fearlessness with which he attacked them that gave him such influence
among his contemporaries, and made him felt as a moral force to the
utmost limits of the Union. No public man has ever left a more stainless
reputation, and we only regret that he was not as considerate of himself
as he was of others.

THE COLORED REGIMENTS

The first colored regiment in the Civil War was organized by General
Hunter at Beaufort, S. C., in May, 1862, without permission from the
Government; and some said, perhaps unjustly, that he was removed from his
command on that account. It was reorganized by General Saxton the
following August, and accepted by the Secretary of War a short time
afterwards. Rev. T. W. Higginson, who had led the attack on Boston Court
House in the attempt to rescue Anthony Burns, was commissioned as its
Colonel.

In August also George L. Stearns, being aware that Senator Sumner was
preparing a speech to be delivered at the Republican State convention,
went to his house on Hancock Street and urged that he should advocate in
it the general enlistment of colored troops; but Sumner said decisively,
"No, I do not consider it advisable to agitate that question until the
Proclamation of Emancipation has become a fact. Then we will take another
step in advance." At a town meeting held in Medford, in December, Mr.
Stearns made a speech on the same subject, and was hissed for his pains
by the same men who were afterwards saved from the conscription of 1863
by the negroes whom he recruited.

[Illustration: MAJOR GEORGE L. STEARNS]

Lewis Hayden, the colored janitor of the State House, always claimed the
credit of having suggested to Governor Andrew to organize a colored
regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. William S. Robinson, who was then
Clerk of the State Senate, supported Hayden in this; but he also remarked
that Representative Durfee, of New Bedford, proposed a bill in May, 1861,
for the organization of a colored regiment, and that it was only defeated
by six votes.

As soon as the Proclamation of Emancipation had been issued the Governor
went to Washington for a personal interview with the Secretary of War,
and returned with the desired permission. Mr. Stearns went with him and
obtained a commission for James Montgomery, who had defended the Kansas
border during Buchanan's administration, to be Colonel of another colored
regiment in South Carolina. Colonel Montgomery arrived at Beaufort about
the first of February.

Governor Andrew formed the skeleton of a regiment with Robert G. Shaw as
Colonel, but was able to obtain few recruits. There were plenty of sturdy
negroes about Boston, but they were earning higher wages than ever
before, and were equally afraid of what might happen to them if they were
captured by the Confederate forces. Colonel Hallowell says: "The Governor
counselled with certain leading colored men of Boston. He put the
question, Will your people enlist in my regiments? 'They will not,' was
the reply of all but Hayden. 'We have no objection to white officers, but
our self-respect demands that competent colored men shall be at least
eligible to promotion.'" By the last of February less than two companies
had been recruited, and the prospects of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts
did not look hopeful.

When Governor Andrew was in doubt he usually sent for Frank W. Bird and
George L. Stearns, but this time Mr. Stearns was before him. To the
Governor's question, "What is to done?" he replied, "If you will obtain
funds from the Legislature for their transportation, I will recruit you a
regiment among the black men of Ohio and Canada West. There are a great
many runaways in Canada, and those are the ones who will go back and
fight." "Very good," said the Governor; "go as soon as you can, and our
friend Bird will take care of the appropriation bill." A handsome
recruiting fund for incidental expenses had already been raised, to which
Mr. Stearns was, as usual, one of the largest subscribers.

He arrived at Buffalo, New York, the next day at noon, and went to a
colored barber to have his hair cut. He disclosed the object of his
mission, and the barber promised to bring some of his friends together to
discuss the matter that evening. The following evening Mr. Steams called
a meeting of the colored residents of Buffalo, and made an address to
them, urging the importance of the occasion, and the advantage it would
be to their brethren in slavery and to the future of the negro race, if
they were to become well-drilled and practiced soldiers. "When you have
rifles in your hands," he said, "your freedom will be secure." To the
objection that only white officers were being commissioned for the
colored regiments he replied: "See how public opinion changes; how
rapidly we move forward! Only three months ago I was hissed in a town
meeting for proposing the enlistment of colored troops; and now here we
are! I have no doubt that before six months a number of colored officers
will be commissioned." His speech was received with applause; but when he
asked, "Now who will volunteer?" there was a prolonged silence. At length
a sturdy-looking fellow arose and said: "I would enlist if I felt sure
that my wife and children would not suffer for it." "I will look after
your family," said Mr. Stearns, "and see that they want for nothing; but
it is a favor I cannot promise again." After this ten or twelve more
enrolled themselves, and having provided for their maintenance until they
could be transported to the camp at Readville, he went over to Niagara,
on the Canada side, to see what might be effected in that vicinity.

In less than a week he was again in Buffalo arranging a recruiting
bureau, with agencies in Canada and the Western States as far as St.
Louis--where there were a large number of refugees who had lately been
liberated by Grant's campaign at Vicksburg. Mr. Lucian B. Eaton, an old
lawyer and prominent politician of the city, accepted the agency there as
a work of patriotic devotion. Among Mr. Stearns's most successful agents
were the Langston brothers, colored scions of a noble Virginia family,--
both excellent men and influential among their people. All his agents
were required to write a letter to him every evening, giving an account
of their day's work, and every week to send him an account of their
expenses. Thus Mr. Stearns sat at his desk and directed their movements
by telegraph as easily as pieces on a chess-board. The appropriation for
transportation had already passed the Massachusetts Legislature, but
where this did not suffice to meet an emergency he drew freely on his own
resources.

By the last of April recruits were coming in at the rate of thirty or
forty a day, and Mr. Stearns telegraphed to the Governor: "I can fill up
another regiment for you in less than six weeks,"--a hint which resulted
in the Massachusetts Fifty-fifth, with Norwood P. Hallowell, a gallant
officer who had been wounded at Antietam, for its commander.

The Governor, however, appears to have suddenly changed his mind, for on
May 7th Mr. Stearns wrote to his wife:

"Yesterday at noon I learned from Governor Andrew by telegram that he did
not intend to raise another regiment. I was thunderstruck. My work for
three weeks would nearly, or quite, fall to the ground. I telegraphed in
reply: 'You told me to take all the men I could get without regard to
regiments. Have two hundred men on the way; what shall I do with them?'
The reply came simultaneously with your letter: 'Considering your
telegraph and Wild's advice, another regiment may proceed, expecting it
full in four weeks. Present want of troops will probably prevent my being
opposed.' I replied: 'I thank God for your telegram received this
morning. You shall have the men in four weeks.' Now all is right."

The Surgeon-General had detailed one Dr. Browne for duty at Buffalo to
examine Mr. Stearns's recruits, and if found fit for service by him there
was presumably no need of a second examination. This, however, did not
suit the medical examiner at Readville, who either from ill will or from
some unknown motive, insisted on rejecting every sixth man sent there
from the West. Thus there was entailed on Mr. Stearns an immense expense
which he had no funds to meet, and he was obliged to make a private loan
of ten thousand dollars without knowing in the least how or where he was
to be reimbursed.

Finally, on May 8, Mr. Stearns made a remonstrance against this abuse to
Governor Andrew in a letter in which he also gave this account of
himself:

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