Lincoln and the Union Governors

The Union Triumphant

111 c h a p t e r s i x The Union Triumphant On January 19, 1864, in Harrisburg, Governor Andrew Curtin gave his second inaugural address. Speaking on a platform with the original Declaration of Independence beside him, he admonished Pennsylvanians and others in the Union states to “subordinate all things . . . for the preservation of our national life.” The governor reminded the people that Lincoln’s election in 1860, “in strict conformity with the constitution and the laws, though not the cause” of secession, “was deemed the fit occasion for an organized attempt to overthrow the whole fabric of our free institutions, and plunge a nation of thirty millions into hopeless anarchy.” The “grave offence” charged against Lincoln at the time, he reminded his audience , consisted only “in his avowed fidelity to the government and his determined purpose to fulfill his solemn covenant to maintain inviolate the union of the States.”1 “Three years of bloody, wasting war, and the horrible sacrifice of a quarter of a million lives attest [to] the desperation” of the rebel leaders’ “purpose to overthrow our liberties” and institutions, Curtin continued. “Our people,” he exclaimed, “have been sorely tried by disasters” in the war; “but in the midst of the deepest gloom they have stood with unfaltering devotion to the great cause of our common country.” God, in His “own good time,” will assert “His own avenging power.” Curtin abandoned any caution about proclaiming his support for emancipation. “As this war is now persisted in by the leaders of the rebellion, it has become evident that slavery and 112 | The Union Triumphant treason, the fountain stream of discord and death, must soon share a common grave,” he announced. Curtin steeled Pennsylvanians against any compromise with the rebels. A compromise peace, he warned, would give the rebellion “renewed existence, and enable it to plunge us into another causeless war. In the destruction of the military power of the rebellion, is alone the hope of peace” and the preservation “of our free institutions.”2 Governor John Brough of Ohio, in his inaugural address on January 11, expressed similar sentiments in rallying his people for a final push toward victory in the war. He reminded Buckeyes of what was at stake: the nation was “struggling for its existence—of freedom gasping for its vitality—of a good and beneficent government laboring to assert its supremacy over a rebellious and misguided portion of its people.” Echoing Lincoln’s opinion on the universal meaning of Union success in the war, Brough declared, “The restoration of our Government and Union will be potent in its influence, not only upon ourselves but the civilized world. It involves the question of man’s capacity for self-government, [and] whether a government resting solely upon its people, and controlled by delegated powers, possesses the elements of strength and unity to protect itself and assert its sovereignty in such an emergency as a great revolution or rebellion inaugurated among a portion of its own people for its destruction.”3 Brough gave powerful notice to Ohioans: “While this struggle continues, privations and sacrifices will continue with it.” Meanwhile, he declared, “we must alleviate, as much as practicable, the sufferings and bear with fortitude the burthens imposed upon us.” He specifically asked the Ohio legislature for a higher tax than Governor Tod had recommended, to aid the families of the state’s “soldiers and marines.” Brough also announced that the Union armies must be reinforced and increased by troops from Ohio and other states for the spring campaign. “Present events indicate very strongly that the end of the rebellion is rapidly approaching,” he told his people.4 Like Curtin, the Ohio governor insisted that peace and the restoration of the Union could occur only with the defeat of the rebel armies. But, he said, “it does not follow that the destruction of the military power of the South” would mean “the subjugation of the The Union Triumphant | 113 people.” The majority of Southerners, Brough predicted, would hail their deliverance from the rebel hierarchy. Reflecting Lincoln’s policy outlined in his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, issued one month earlier, the governor asserted, “The loyal people of the Southern States, be they few or many, can alone be entrusted with this great work of reorganization.”5 Other Republican governors also used their inaugural addresses or annual messages to their legislatures to rally the people...