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Day Seven of Lincoln’s 12-day odyssey was, mercifully, a day of rest. The previous week had been one of unrelieved motion, with extraordinary scenes in every place he visited. The largest crowds ever assembled in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cleveland and Buffalo! Even when he said nothing, the response was extraordinary. John Hay described the visit of a few seconds to Ashtabula, Ohio:
The train stopped; the crowd stared at the man of the hour for an instant, then burst into an irrepressible huzza, to the echo of which we rolled away, leaving every inhabitant of Ashtabula upon the platform, with his or her mouth open in a state of din-bewildered enthusiasm.But as he had seen the day before, in the wild mélée at Buffalo’s train station, there was an edge to this excitement. Americans were wound tight, especially as seven Southern states went well beyond secession to form a new government, to be inaugurated on Feb. 18.
Library of Congress Millard FillmoreThey were an odd couple. Though both were former Whigs, Fillmore was not much of a Republican, and in 1856 had run for president as a Know-Nothing, the party formed to counter the supposedly growing influence of foreigners. Lincoln, who had met with a German delegation the night before, would have little patience for most of Fillmore’s antediluvian positions. In 1855, he wrote a fascinating letter to his close friend Joshua Speed, denouncing the Know-Nothings:
Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we begin by declaring that “all men are created equal.” We now practically read it “all mean are created equal, except negroes. When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read, “all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics.” When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
One of the pastor’s children later added to the memory of that day: “Mr. Fillmore stood in his usual place … By his side stood a man, gaunt, sallow, who, with melancholy face, bent reverently at the sound of prayer. The minister spoke with solemn words; then coming from his pulpit, looked for a moment into the serious eyes of the visitor, while he pressed his hand. It was Abraham Lincoln passing on to the fulfillment of his stormy destiny.”
Lincoln returned to his hotel around 2 p.m. to find his sons Tad and Willie playing leapfrog with the son of the hotel owner. Decades later that lucky playmate, Edward Michael, recorded an unusual memory of the 16th president: “The two boys and I were playing leapfrog in a room of the hotel, when President Lincoln came in and joined in the game. He was a very friendly man. He didn’t act like a president.” Has a president ever received higher praise?
In the evening, Fillmore took Lincoln to a meeting at which an expert on Native Americans, John Beeson, spoke about their mistreatment. A group of Native Americans from a nearby reservation also performed music. Beeson was an Englishman who emigrated in 1832, finding a home in Illinois before walking to Oregon. During an outbreak of violence against the natives in 1856, he defended them and had to flee Oregon for his trouble.
One might have forgiven the many tribes that had been dislocated by the government if they had regarded the Civil War with indifference; in fact, Native Americans fought well, for both sides, particularly in the West. Three regiments of Cherokee, Creek and Seminole warriors fought for the Union; three regiments of Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek and Seminole fought for the Confederacy. When Lee surrendered, a Native American was there – Capt. Ely Parker, an aide to Grant and a Seneca, also known as Hasanoanda. The surrender documents were in his handwriting. There is a story that Lee mistook him for an African American, then tried to apologize, saying, “I am glad to see one real American here.” Parker answered, “We are all Americans, sir.”
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Browning also offered wise counsel about a conflict that was being fought in people’s minds well before they went to the battlefield: “in any conflict which may ensue between the government and the seceding States, it is very important that the traitors shall be the aggressors, and that they be kept constantly and palpably in the wrong.” On the eve of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis, that was a good reminder.
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Sources: John Hay, private scrapbook, from the collection of Robert and Joan Hoffman; William T. Coggeshall, “The Journeys of Abraham Lincoln”; Victor Searcher, “Lincoln’s Journey to Greatness”; Harold Holzer, “Lincoln, President-Elect”; Michael Burlingame, “Abraham Lincoln: A Life”; John Nicolay (ed. Michael Burlingame), “With Lincoln in the White House”; John Nicolay, “Some Incidents in Lincoln’s Journey from Springfield to Washington”; Henry Villard, “Memoirs of Henry Villard”; Henry Villard, “Lincoln on the Eve of ‘61”; Scott D. Trostel, “The Lincoln Inaugural Train” (forthcoming); John Fagant, “Abraham Lincoln in Western New York”” The Lincoln Log; buffaloah.com; “Native Americans in the Civil War” and “Union and Confederate Indians in the Civil War”; civilwarhome.com..
