The Semi-Colon Club was a regular informal gathering of Cincinnati writers and literary enthusiasts including Lyman, Catherine, and Harriet Beecher, Eliza and Calvin Stowe, Dr. Daniel Drake, and Elizabeth Blackwell. Among its other notables was Salmon P. Chase who became Lincoln’s Secretary of Treasury and future Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Salmon Portland Chase was born in 1808 in Cornish, New Hampshire. Chase lived from 1820 to 1824 in Ohio with his uncle, Bishop Philander Chase, a leading figure in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the West. He was graduated from Dartmouth College Law School in 1826 and established a prominent legal practice in Cincinnati, where he is remembered as an advocate for escaped slaves. He defended many escapees in court charged under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 as well as other that aided and abetted their getaway. Chase was later dubbed the "Attorney General for Fugitive Slaves”. In 1847 he argued on behalf of John Van Zandt before the U.S. Supreme Court. The case challenged the constitutionality of the fugitive slave laws. Van Zandt served as a “conductor” in the Underground Railroad in Evendale, Ohio. Van Zandt was sued by a slaveholder and was party to Jones v. Van Zandt. Chase contended that when an enslaved person leaves the jurisdiction of a state where slavery is legal, he ceases to be a slave. In this, and similar cases, the court ruled against against Van Zandt, upholding the right and obligation of government to protect slavery. Van Zandt was financially and emotionally ruined by the decision and died later that year. It is widely held that Van Zandt was the basis for the character of Van Trompe in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Chase left the Whig Party in 1841 to lead Ohio's Liberty Party. In 1848 he helped establish the Free Soil Party and won election to the U.S. Senate a year later. He opposed the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and helped establish the Republican Party. After leaving the Senate, Chase served as the Governor of Ohio from 1856 to 1860. In 1860 Chase sought the Republican presidential nomination but lost the party’s candidacy to Abraham Lincoln. He served as Lincoln’s Secretary of Treasury from 1861 to 1864 tasked with ensuring that the Union was well-financed during the Civil War. He is credited with changing the phrase on U.S. currency from ”In God is our Trust,"to "In God We Trust". He resigned from the Cabinet to fill the Supreme Court vacancy following Chief Justice Roger Taney's death. Chase served as Chief Justice from 1864 to his death in 1873. He presided over the Senate trial of President Andrew Johnson during the impeachment proceedings of 1868. Despite his nomination to the court, Chase continued to pursue the presidency. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1868 and the Liberal Republican nomination in 1872. Chase died of a stroke in New York City on May 7, 1873. He was first interred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and re-interred in October 1886 in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. His birthplace in New Hampshire was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975. A portrait of Chase appeared on the United States $10,000 bill, the largest denomination of U.S. currency to publicly circulate. The bill was last printed in 1945. References 1) https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Salmon_P._Chase 2) 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_P._Chase 3) ”New York Times". 15 November 1852. Some Account of Mrs Beecher Stowe and Her Family, by an Alabama Man About the author: Dr. Nicholas Andreadis is a volunteer at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House. He was a professor and dean at Western Michigan University prior to moving to Cincinnati.
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The first half of the nineteenth century America saw the development and expansion of a variety of Protestant denominations characterized by differing theological tenets, practices, and organizational structures. It was a time of evangelism, conversion, and activism with the core message that salvation is achieved by living a virtuous life. This period would be remembered in history as the Second Great Awakening. Reaching its zenith between 1820 and 1850 this movement expressed a theology by which every person could be saved through repentance and conversion. The aim of the Second Great Awakening was to remedy the evils of society and creation of a better world. Such activism was extremely important to the orderly development of the expanding American west and local churches saw their role in society as focal points for a variety of social reforms. This was especially true on the Kentucky and Ohio frontier and one of its major champions was Lyman Beecher. Beecher was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1775 to David Beecher, a blacksmith, and Esther Hawley Lyman. His ancestry can be dated to 1637 Massachusetts. At age eighteen he entered Yale College and was graduated in 1797. Under the tutelage of Timothy Dwight of the Yale Divinity School, Lyman was ordained as minister in 1799. His first assignment was at the Presbyterian church at East Hampton, Long Island. He married Roxana Foote and together they started one of the most prominent families of the nineteenth century. In 1810 the Beechers moved to Litchfield, Connecticut where he served as minister for 16 years. Of significant concern to New Englanders was slavery and The Second Great Awakening catalyzed the abolitionist movement. Of equal importance were excessive indulgences and in particular alcohol. Reverend Beecher resolved to take a stand against it and in 1826 he delivered and published six sermons on intemperance. He was convinced that,” “Intemperance is the sin of our land, and, with our boundless prosperity, is coming in upon us like a flood; and if anything shall defeat the hopes of the world, which hand upon our experiment of civil liberty, it is that river of fire which is rolling through the land, destroying the vital air and extending around an atmosphere of death.” These published sermons were sent throughout the United States, sold well in England, and burnished his reputation as an influential preacher. In 1826 Beecher was called to Boston's Hanover Church. In the meantime events were happening in the West. On February 11, 1829, the Ohio Legislature passed “An Act to Incorporate the Lane Seminary in the County of Hamilton” with 23 trustees headed by Rev. Joshua Wilson. The institution existed in name only however, without professors, students, money or buildings. By September 1830 the viability of the proposed seminary was doubtful so the trustees looked to the East for support. Franklin Vail, an agent of the American Education Society, offered that he could secure $20,000 from Lewis and Arthur Tappan if Lyman Beecher could be persuaded to leave Boston for Cincinnati. As a result On October 22,1830 the Board elected Lyman Beecher President and Professor of Theology though it took two years of negotiations before Beecher was to receive release from his Boston position. The Lane Seminary was tied to its indigenous western Presbyterians comprised, mostly of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who would constitute the heart of the “old school”. The seminary also consisted of New York manual labor enthusiasts and New England evangelical traditionalists, so-called “new school” Presbyterians. It wouldn’t be long before these cultures collided with serious implications for Beecher and the seminary. But that would come later. In 1830 Lyman Beecher had his eyes on the enormous opportunity waiting for him in the Queen City and the burgeoning American west. About the author: Dr. Nicholas Andreadis is a volunteer at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House. He was a professor and dean at Western Michigan University prior to moving to Cincinnati. Sources: Scott, Donald: Evangelism, Revivalism, and the Second Great Awakening Khan Academy: The Second Great Awakening Parts 1-3 Wikipedia: Lyman Beecher. Beecher, Lyman: Six Sermons on Intemperance This post continues a series discussing some of the United States's pressing political issues leading up to the Civil War, when the impact of Harriet Beecher Stowe's writing was also being felt across the country. This installment discusses the abolitionist work of Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet's younger brother who had studied at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati and pastored in Indianapolis before moving to New York. CLICK HERE to read previous installments. The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 called for popular sovereignty, whether the Kansas Territory would allow or prohibit slavery, and thus enter the Union as a slave state or a free state would be left up to the people living there. Both pro- and anti-slavery supporters tried to lure settlers to Kansas in order to sway their decision one way or the other. Missouri entered the Union as a slave state in 1821 and many of its citizens held pro-slavery views. Some of them crossed into Kansas claiming to be residents in an attempt to influence the decision. The seven year conflict was characterized by electoral fraud, raids, and murders carried out in Kansas and neighboring Missouri by pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" and anti-slavery "Free-Staters." The antagonism between sides verged on civil war, and the period became known as "Bleeding Kansas.” Henry Ward Beecher was preacher and passionate abolitionist. His Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, NY, along with the New England Immigrant Aid Society, founded in Boston, raised money to send rifles to help the anti-slavery settlers protect themselves from the Border Ruffians. These became known as Beecher’s Bibles after Henry Ward stated that trying to teach slave owners the errors of their ways was like reading “the Bible to Buffaloes.” On March 30, 1855, the Kansas Territory elected its first territorial legislature who would decide whether the territory would allow slavery. Border Ruffians from Missouri again streamed into the territory to vote, and pro-slavery delegates were elected to 37 of the 39 seats. Questions about electoral fraud resulted in a subsequent special election in May but the pro-slavery camp again prevailed with an 29–10 advantage. Congress sent a three-man special committee to the Kansas Territory in 1856 in response to the disputed votes and rising tension, The committee report concluded that had the March election been limited to "actual settlers" it would have elected a “free-state” legislature. The report also stated that the legislature actually seated "was an illegally constituted body, and had no power to pass valid laws”. Nevertheless, the pro-slavery legislature residing in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, began passing laws favorable to slaveholders. In August, anti-slavery residents met to formally reject the pro-slavery laws passed by what they called the "Bogus Legislature". They quickly elected their own Free-State delegates to a separate legislature based in Topeka and drafted the first territorial constitution, the Topeka Constitution. The federal government under the administration of President Franklin Pierce refused to recognize the Free-State legislature. In a message to Congress on January 24, 1856, Pierce declared the Topeka government insurrectionist in its stand against pro-slavery territorial officials. These “rival” constitutions were the first of several written by pro and anti slavery legislators who considered the opponent’s constitutions illegitimate. Violent conflict across eastern Kansas lasted for several years most notably the sacking of Lawrence Kansas and the presence of a strident abolitionist named John Brown. The hostilities continued until a new territorial governor, John W. Geary, took office and managed to prevail upon both sides for peace. Ultimately, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state in January, 1861, following the departure of Southern legislators from Congress during the secession crisis. Throughout the Civil War Union control of Kansas was never seriously threatened. Sources: The War Before the War by Andrew Delbanco (2018) Penguin Press https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/kansas-territory/14701 About the author:
Dr. Nicholas Andreadis is a volunteer at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House. He was a professor and dean at Western Michigan University prior to moving to Cincinnati. The Louisiana Purchase was by far the largest territorial gain in United States history, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. After Louisiana became a state the Purchase was renamed the Missouri Territory by Congress in June 1812. This sparked a debate in Washington as to whether the Missouri Territory would be free or slave. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s brother, Henry Ward described it as, “The whole nation lies spread out like a gambler’s table”.
During the 1840s there was a push to organize the Kansas and Nebraska territories as part of a plan to build a transcontinental railroad. The question of whether the rail line should pass through northern free territory or southern slave territory was hotly debated. It became clear that no progress on the railroad could be made unless the limits on slavery articulated in the Missouri Compromise could be removed. Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas proposed a bill that offered residents of the Kansas and Nebraska territories a choice as to whether they would permit or reject slavery on their soil. The fine details of the bill led Northerners and Southerners to find self interested reasons to deny its passage. Moved by the immorality of slavery and angered by the Compromise of 1850, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. When it was published as a two-volume work in 1852 it proved to be extremely popular in England. In May, 1853, during a visit to England, Stowe was presented with a petition signed by over a half million British women. This petition was titled, "An Affectionate and Christian Address of Many Thousands of Women of Great Britain and Ireland to Their Sisters the Women of the United States of America.” The women of Britain hoped the petition would rouse women in the United States to the anti-slavery cause. In response, Stowe promised to establish a committee of women in America to generate support for abolition. The effort proved unsuccessful as Stowe had no strong connections to either established women's organizations or anti-slavery groups. However in March, 1854, Stowe published “An Appeal to the Women of the Free States of America on the Present Crisis in Our Country.” She urged women to petition, organize, and pray to prevent slavery in the nascent states of the Missouri Territory. (see reference below for this publication) After much debate, The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed by Congress on May 30, 1854, and signed by President Franklin Pierce. It divided the region along the 40th parallel, with Kansas to the South and Nebraska to the North. It did allow people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. President Pierce and Senator Douglas hoped that, “Popular Sovereignty” would help bring an end to the national debate over slavery, but the Kansas–Nebraska Act outraged many Northerners, giving rise to the anti-slavery Republican Party. After passage of the act, pro- and anti-slavery elements flooded into Kansas with the goal of establishing a population that would vote for or against slavery. The result was a series of armed conflicts known as "Bleeding Kansas". Sources: Harriet Beecher Stowe: A life by Joan Hedrick published 1994 by Oxford University press https://www.accessible-archives.com/2012/03/an-appeal-to-the-women-of-the-free-states-of-america/ https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/kansas.html About the author: Dr. Nicholas Andreadis is a volunteer at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House. He was a professor and dean at Western Michigan University prior to moving to Cincinnati. The nineteenth century saw the number of states admitted to the Union increase and along with them a number of measures affecting slavery. Debates over how to deal with slavery in new states and territories generated new laws and challenges to personal freedom. In 1803 Congress approved President Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase from France virtually doubling the nation’s size. In 1807, Congress banned the importation of slaves into the United States although this resulted in an increase in domestic slave trading in the South. In 1812, Louisiana became the first state created from the Louisiana Purchase entering the Union as a slave state. Pro- and anti-slavery passions were inflamed and skillful diplomacy and compromise were essential. For only a short while they prevailed. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was an effort to preserve the balance of power between pro- and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress. In 1820 Maine entered the Union as the 12th “free” state joining Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The eleven slaveholding states were Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. In 1821, Missouri entered the Union as the nation’s 24th state and the 12th slave-holding state, thus maintaining the balance of slave and free states. An essential element of this compromise was the amendment authored by Senator Jesse B. Thomas of Illinois: "And be it further enacted, That in all that territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, excepting only such part thereof as is included within the limits of the State contemplated by this act (Missouri), slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be and is hereby forever prohibited: Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same from whom labor and service is lawfully claimed in any other State or Territory of the United States, such a fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.” With the exception of Missouri, the proposed amendment established Arkansas’s northern border as the northern limit for slavery to be legal in the western territories. The 16th United States Congress passed the legislation on March 3, 1820, and President James Monroe signed it three days later. Lyman Beecher, Harriet’s father, achieved some degree of notoriety as he publicly preached against slavery in reply to the compromise. As a youngster Harriet overhead conversations about the compromise in her household. After Missouri's admission to the Union in 1821, no other states were admitted until 1836 when Arkansas became a slave state, followed by Michigan in 1837 as a free state. In the 1840s, Florida and Texas were admitted as slave states, and Wisconsin and Iowa as free states. The Missouri Compromise was effectively repealed in 1854 by The Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed the people of Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether they would enter the union as a free or slave state. In 1857, the antislavery provision of the compromise was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in the infamous Dred Scott versus Sanford case. Sources:
About the author:
Dr. Nicholas Andreadis is a volunteer at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House. He was a professor and dean at Western Michigan University prior to moving to Cincinnati. Prior to the American Revolution there was no provision to compel any North American colony to capture and return fugitive slaves from another colony. English court decisions and opinions came down on both sides of the issue. Some clarity was achieved with the 1772 decision in Somerset versus Stewart. Charles Stewart purchased the enslaved James Somerset in the colonial city of Boston. Stewart brought Somerset to England in 1769 but two years later Somerset escaped. He was recaptured and Stewart had him imprisoned on the ship Ann and Mary and directed that Somerset be sold to a plantation. Somerset's three godparents filed a writ of habeas corpus before the Court of the King’s Bench, which had to determine whether his imprisonment was lawful. The court narrowly held that, “ A master could not seize a slave in England and detain him preparatory to sending him out of the realm to be sold and that habeas corpus was a constitutional right available to slaves to forestall such seizure, deportation and sale because they were not chattel, or mere property, they were servants and thus persons invested with certain (but certainly limited) constitutional protections”. The Somerset judgment did not affect the colonies directly but the Somerset precedent was a warning to American slaveholders. On September 9, 1776, the Continental Congress formally declared the name of the new nation to be the “United States of America”. The Continental Congress had little interest in addressing either the slave trade or fugitive slaves. The Northwest Ordinance adopted in 1787 provided a method for admitting new states to the Union, subsequently Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan. Article 6 of the Ordinance declared that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the territory. However, it clearly stated that any person escaping into the territory from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original states may be lawfully returned to the person claiming his or her labor or service. Thus the language of the ordinance prohibited slavery but also contained a clear fugitive slave clause as well. In autumn 1787 The Articles of Confederation evolved into the Constitution. The status of slavery in the United States was a major impediment to ratification and resulted in the first of many debates and constitutional compromises. What emerged from their deliberations was the Fugitive Slave Clause in Article IV, Section 2: No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. Consistent with this constitutional clause, Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Law in 1793. The following is an example of how the FSA was implemented: A slave-owner or his agent could reclaim an alleged fugitive either by arrest on the spot or by securing a warrant beforehand. The case for removal would be heard by a federal judge or a court-appointed federal commissioner, who would be paid ten-dollars if a certificate of removal was issued, or five-dollars if the claim was denied. Slave testimony was prohibited, no jury was seated, the verdict could not be appealed, and other courts or magistrates were barred from postponing or overriding an order to remand the defendant into the custody of the claimant. The commissioner could authorize special deputies, or a citizen’s posse to accompany the fugitive’s return if the claimant feared an attempt to liberate the fugitive during the return. Stiff penalties of up to $500 fine were mandated for anyone aiding the escape of a fugitive or interfering with his/her return. Not surprisedly anti-slavery advocates denounced the 1793 law as a “kidnapping machine.” The law was affirmed and strengthened in 1850, angering many Northerners including Harriet Beecher Stowe. References:
About the author:
Dr. Nicholas Andreadis is a volunteer at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House. He was a professor and dean at Western Michigan University prior to moving to Cincinnati. |
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