Andrew Johnson's Circle Trip

Andrew Johnson’s

Circle Trip

Philip Rose

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© Copyright 2011 Philip Rose.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America.

isbn: 978-1-4669-0221-3 (sc)

isbn: 978-1-4669-0222-0 (hc)

isbn: 978-1-4669-0223-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011919433

Trafford rev. 10/25/2011

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Epilog

Aftermath

References

Introduction

On the evening of a reception and a speech in Chicago on May 1, 1861 Stephen Arnold Stephens complained that he was not feeling well, and he thought that a rest before his return to Washington would make the trip easier. He seemed to have a chest cold at first, but a fever set in and a physician was called. On May 10 he was deprived of the use of his arms by a severe and painful attack of inflammatory rheumatism. For a while he rallied and on May 19th he was allowed to leave his room briefly to go outside and get some fresh air.

The next day his condition worsened and his physicians were hurriedly summoned. There was some fear that he would die. Douglas’s Washington physician, Dr. Thomas Miller, arrived accompanied by his wife’s mother and brother. Daniel P. Rhodes, a cousin from Cleveland, also arrived.

Douglas’s illness was diagnosed as acute rheumatism. The rheumatism assumed a typhoid character according to Dr. Miller and was further complicated by an ulcerated sore throat. Torpor of the liver and constipation were soon added to the other symptoms.

Bulletins describing Douglas’s condition were published in Chicago daily. On May 31st he rallied in the morning but by that afternoon a bloody flux had set in and he declined rapidly.

On June 2nd he was rational and at his wife Adele’s request he was visited by Roman Catholic Bishop James Duggan, who asked him if he had ever been baptized. Douglas replied, No, sir, never! When the Bishop asked him further if he desired to have Mass said, he responded, No thank you; when I do I will communicate with you freely.

Early on the morning of June 3, 1861 his physicians conferred and agreed that the end was at hand. Shortly after sunrise, as he was propped up upon his pillow he suddenly uttered the words, Death! Oh God, Death! Death!

Moving close to him and placing her arm around his neck Adele asked him if he had any message for his sons. Tell them, he weakly replied, to obey the laws and support the Constitution of the United States. He then lapsed into unconsciousness. Four hours later at 9:05 AM Douglas died—he was only 48 years old.

Later in the day the bell in the court house began to toll. The next day flags were lowered to half-mast, and black drapery appeared on store fronts. In Canandaigua, New York, Douglas’s mother was overwhelmed with grief. The news was immediately telegraphed to President Lincoln.

Douglas’s body was laid in state in nearby Bryan Hall. The Chicago Light Guard was posted as a guard of honor. Adele had expressed the wish that her husband be buried in Washington where their infant daughter lay. From Springfield Governor Yates, with Lyman Trumbull, McClernand, Koerner and several others wired the mayor of Chicago that Douglas’s remains ought not to be taken from the state. A permanent committee was formed to wait on the members of Douglas’s family. One of the members, William A. Richardson had an earnest talk with Adele and later reported that she had acquiesced to the desire to bury Douglas in Illinois.

Douglas’s funeral was scheduled for Friday June 7, 1861 in order to allow his sons time to reach Chicago from their Georgetown school. Sixty-four pallbearers preceded the ornate hearse, which was followed by a carriage carrying members of the family. Four thousand people marched from the Bryan House to Douglas’s lakeshore property, just south of the city limits, as church bells tolled and gun salutes were fired.

Bishop Duggan delivered a brief eulogy. Douglas’s last resting place was a temporary brick tomb at his Oakenwald estate overlooking Lake Michigan. It was the site where he had hoped to erect a permanent residence some day.

The New York Times of June 15, 1861 reported the following:

The Douglas Fund

Homestead for the Senator’s Family

To the People of the United States, and more particularly

to the People of Illinois:

Stephen A. Douglas is dead! He has fallen at the meridian of life. For twenty-five years he has served the public honorably and without personal profit. For nearly twenty years he devoted his time, his abilities and his labors to his state and his country. He served both state and country from a love of both, and not from a hope of pecuniary profit. For the last four years he gave up his time and all other interests to his country, and, to the utter exclusion of all business pursuits, devoted everything, and at last his life, to the salvation of the Republic, the integrity of the Union, and the maintenance of the Constitution. In the contest for these sacred and patriotic objects he has fallen in the very prime of life; but not until he had rendered incalculable benefits to the American people.

Fellow countrymen! While thus laboring for your interests and the interests of your posterity, his own means were lost. He died not only poor, but has left to his wife and children a legacy of debt. The only unencumbered piece of land—a small tract, less than three acres—of which he has ever possessed, was, when he died, the property of his widow. At the request of the people of Illinois, coming up to her even in the hour of her sorrow, she surrendered his remains to the state, and with them gave that piece of land for his interment, asking of the people only that she might be allowed to reside near the grave in which he reposes. She has thus given to the people of Illinois all that was left of Douglas. This lot, in which now rest his ashes, is in the center of that beautiful grove known as his long chosen and favorite home. The surrounding portion of the tract is covered with mortgages. His children, his widow and his countrymen, to approach his grave must do so by permission of the sheriff, his creditors and strangers. Will the nation he has served forget Douglas in the tomb? Will the Republic prove ungrateful? Will the American people, whom he has served so long and so faithfully, suffer his widow and his orphans to be turned from the home he loved, the soil he defended, to seek elsewhere, and from strangers, a shelter and a support? Shall they be shut out from the sight of his tomb, and denied the melancholy satisfaction of being near his grave? Shall the wife and children of Douglas go forth homeless, houseless wanderers from the state of Illinois?

We propose to the American people, and particularly to the people of Illinois, to raise by voluntary contributions, a fund, to be administered by William A. Richardson, William B. Ogden, John T. Stewart, Zadee Casey, David Davis, Thomas Drummond, and John D. Caton, for the redemption of so much of the property as will furnish his widow with a suitable home at Cottage Grove; or, if such selection should, by such trustees, hereafter be deemed inadvisable, to the purchase of a suitable home for them in the state of Illinois; and also to be invested for the support of the widow, and the education of the children of Stephen A. Douglas.

The Honorable John D. Caton, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois, will act as receiver of this fund, to whom all subscriptions from states, counties, corporations, societies, committees and individuals will be remitted. His address is Ottawa, Illinois.

The Honorable Thomas Drummond, Judge of the United States Court for the Northern District of Illinois, will act as Treasurer.

We commend the proposition, fellow countrymen, to your earnest and immediate consideration.

Richard Yates                                    J. Y. Scammon

W. A. Richardson                              David A. Gage

William B. Ogden                             Samuel S. Marshal

Robert Smith                                    O. B. Ficklin

J. H. Woodworth                               Jesse K. Dubois

T. H. Campbell                              Lewis D. Erwin

John D. Caton                                R. E. Goodell

Samuel K. Casey

The Chicago Republican, of Tuesday, April 17, 1866 reported the following communication from the Douglas Monument Association: "The Board of Trustees of the Douglas Monument Association, having determined to commence the erection of this public tribute to the memory of STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS at an early day, lately addressed a letter to the Honorable William H. Seward, Secretary of State, inviting him to deliver the oration upon the occasion. It is designed that the ceremony shall take place in the month of May or June next, upon the grounds recently purchased by the State of Illinois. The letter of invitation is as follows:

To the Honorable Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington:

SIR: The undersigned, the Board of Trustees of the Douglas Monument Association, would most respectfully invite you to be present and deliver the oration on the occasion of laying the cornerstone of the proposed monument in honor of the late Senator Douglas.

Profoundly appreciating your eminent abilities as an orator, statesman and patriot, and also your personal acquaintance with Mr. Douglas, being contemporaneous in the Senate of the United States for so long a period, it is earnestly hoped that your public duties and health will permit you to accept the invitation hereby respectfully tendered.

It is the intention to lay the cornerstone in the city of Chicago, on the ground recently purchased by the State of Illinois, some time during the month of May or June next.

The trustees would be pleased, however, to conform to your own convenience, as to the precise day, should you consent to confer upon them, and the object, the honor of your presence.

James Duggan                              John B. Turner

William B. Ogden                        Thomas B. Bryan

David A. Gage                             William C. Goudy

John L. Wilson                             Samuel W. Fuller

William A. Richardson                William Barry

Samuel H. Treat                           John M. Douglass

James C. Allen                             F. C. Sherman

John D. Caton                              John Dement

Leonard W. Volk, Secretary

Chicago, March 22, 1866

To which Secretary Seward returned the following answer:

Department of State

Washington, April 1, 1866

To the Right Reverend James Duggan. D. D., and others, Chicago, Illinois:

GENTLEMEN: I have received your kind letter of the 22nd ult. It informs me of the purpose of the Douglas Monument Association to lay, in the month of May or June next, the cornerstone of the proposed monument in honor of the late Senator Douglas, and that the association has been pleased to invite me to deliver the oration on that occasion. In reply, I may inform you that I should consider it an agreeable duty to accept this invitation, which does not exaggerate the regard in which I hold the memory of Stephen A. Douglas. The last of his days in Washington were employed in consultations with President Lincoln and myself in organizing the resistance to disunion. Unless two events, which are now mentioned, should concur hereafter, I could not expect to be able to assume the proposed duty at a time so early as May or June. First, my returning health must become more distinctly established; second, official duties must become less exacting. At present I am prevented, therefore, from making a promise which depends so materially upon the future for its realization.

Believe me to be, gentlemen, your very obedient servant,

WILLIAM H. SEWARD

It was learned on Friday, August 10, 1866 that the president and Secretary Seward would attend the Douglas Monument ceremonies at Chicago, going by way of New York City. President Johnson designed this trip to salvage what was left of his prestige and try to influence the mid-term election. We learn that President Johnson will start on August 28th for Chicago. The party will leave in the morning and arrive in Philadelphia on the same afternoon. The president will stay over in Philadelphia until the next morning and will depart for New York so as to arrive in the city at noon and remain there until the next morning. The party will then go to Saratoga and thence to Chicago so as to arrive on September 5th. The Planning Commission has dubbed the trip The Swing Around the Circle.

The Committee on Arrangements for laying the cornerstone of the Douglas Monument announced that the ceremonies would take place on the 6th of September. Secretary Seward telegraphed the committee that the president and the Cabinet would be present and many other distinguished persons would be expected to attend. An amateur musical concert will be given at the Chicago Opera House on the 5th or 6th and the Masonic Fraternity will arrange to supply the thousands who will be present with refreshments in the grove. The cornerstone will be laid on the 6th, and we learn that General Dix will deliver the key address. In the evening a banquet will be given to the president and guests.

By Saturday, August 18th, The president had received between five and six hundred applications from people desirous of accompanying him on his trip to Chicago. A large number of applications come by letter daily and some of the parties have applied in person at the White House. None of them succeeded in getting an invitation, however. One or more cars will be provided for Mr. Johnson and the members of his Cabinet. The trains run two or three times a day on the route to be traveled and anyone who desires to follow the Presidential party can do so by paying the normal railroad fare.

President Johnson will be accompanied by Secretary Seward, Secretary Welles and Governor Randall. Of the president’s household only Senator Patterson and Mrs. Patterson will go. Mrs. Welles will accompany her husband. General Grant, Admiral Farragut and other military and naval officers, numbering about 60, will also go.

At Philadelphia the party are to be entertained at the Continental Hotel, where they will remain from Tuesday afternoon until Wednesday morning. They will leave at 8:00 AM and arrive at noon in New York City. There they will be put up at Delmonico’s. A government boat will be provided at New York to convey the party to West Point where a military review will take place and a collation served. The party will then proceed to Albany remaining all night at the Delevan House. At Auburn the president will be the guest of Mr. Seward, the balance of the party to be provided by the citizens. While at Auburn they will make an excursion to Lake Owasco. At Niagara Falls they will be put up at the Cataract House where they remain during Sunday. On Monday they go to Buffalo with a grand reception. At Detroit the party will be put up at the Russell House and remain during the night of the 5th of September and thence they will proceed to Chicago.

The newspapers on Monday, August 20th, say that General Grant and his Chief of Staff General Rawlins have also decided to accompany the president on his trip to Chicago. It is also understood that Secretary McCulloch and Attorney-General Henry Stanbery will accompany the party as far as New York, and then return to Washington.

On Monday the day before the president’s scheduled departure from Washington the New York Times reported that New York is Ready! The preparations for the reception of the president on his visit to New York City tomorrow are completed. The governor’s room in City Hall have been gaily decorated with bunting for the reception day, and the space in front of the building will be kept clear by the police. All corporation offices will be closed, and business generally will be suspended, in order to allow all who desire an opportunity of paying their respect to the president.

On the arrival of the president in the governor’s room an address will be delivered by Mayor Hoffman. According to the official program, a public reception by the president is not contemplated. After the president reviews the military from the balcony of City Hall, the procession will reform and proceed up Broadway, to 23rd Street, through 23rd Street to Fifth Avenue and thence to 14th Street. Rooms have been engaged for members of the presidential suite at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, but the president himself and the more prominent of his guests will remain at Delmonico’s, a superb hotel at the corner of 14th Street and Fifth Avenue. Three elegant apartments on the first floor above the entrance have been reserved for Mr. Johnson. These rooms are commodious, elegantly furnished, carpeted in a most costly and tasteful style, and are decorated with all that culture could suggest and money procure. The apartments, which front on 14th Street, open out to a large balcony from which the president will appear in response to the serenade that will be tendered him.

The welcoming subscribers will meet at the mayor’s office at City Hall on Wednesday morning at 10:00 AM and receive badges. They will be taken by carriage to a special steamer at Pier #1, North River, in which they will proceed to Jersey City to await the president. The Chairman will officially welcome him and the subscribers will escort the presidential party on board the boat where each gentleman will be given a special introduction to members of the president’s entourage. On the steamer’s arrival at the city the subscribers will again enter the carriages and proceed with the president to City Hall, and after the public reception they will proceed with the procession parting with the presidential party at Delmonico’s.

All the subscribers are expected to act as a reception committee at the dinner, and do everything which will make the occasion agreeable. The dinner committee will organize the seating arrangements. The ladies committee will provide for the ladies of the presidential party and will consist of Mr. Henry Clews, Mr. W. R. Garrison and Mr. Arthur Leary. The following notice has been sent to each of the subscribers to the Johnson entertainment:

New York, August 27th, 1866

DEAR SIR: The subscribers to the entertainment proposed to His Excellency President Johnson, in honor of his visit to our city, will meet at the mayor’s office on Wednesday morning, the 29th instant, at 10 o’clock precisely, and from thence proceed to Jersey City to receive and escort the president and suite to the City Hall, and afterwards to Delmonico’s.

It will be the general duty of all to receive and introduce the guests at dinner, and on Thursday morning, the 30th instant, the subscribers will again meet at Delmonico’s at 7 o’clock, to escort the president to the steamboat.

Very respectfully yours,

A. T. Stewart, Chairman

The following is a copy of the special invitation to the presidential dinner:

New York, August 25th, 1866

DEAR SIR: The pleasure of your company is requested at a dinner to be given by the citizens of New York to his excellency President Johnson, in honor of his visit to our city on Wednesday evening, the 29th instant, at half past 6 o’clock, at Delmonico’s, corner of Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street.

Very respectfully yours,

C. K, Garrison, Chairman

So far as it is known, the following is a list of those who will accompany the president on the excursion:

Secretary of State and ladies.

Secretary of the Navy and wife.

Postmaster General.

General Grant.

Admiral Farragut and wife.

Senator and Mrs. Patterson.

Colonels Moore and Morrow from the President’s Office.

Marshal Gooding of the District of Columbia.

His deputy Colonel O’Beirne.

L. A. Gobright, Reporter for the Associated Press.

W. W. Warden.

Major General Meade.

Mexican Minister Matais Romero.

A few others, in a last minute selection.

The First Division (military) under the command of Major General Charles W. Sandford will act as an escort to the presidential party. They will parade in New York on August 29th for the reception of the president of the United States. The Division will form at 11:00 AM on Broadway, in the vicinity of Battery Place. The Cavalry Brigade will also form on Broadway, at the same hour. The First Regiment of Artillery will fire the presidential salute from the Battery upon his landing. The line of march will be up