Monday, April 21, 2014

IT APPEARS HARRY REID AND CHINA STRUCK A DEAL

IT APPEARS HARRY REID AND CHINA STRUCK A DEAL WHICH IS ACTUALLY [I BELIEVE AND ALL INDICATIONS CONTAINED HEREIN LEAD THAT WAY] IS THE OLD SILVER & GOLD MINES, THE MICRO ALLUVIAL  GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM AND PLATINATE GROUPES, IRIDIUM, BERIDIUM, 7 STRATEGIC RARE EARTHS..  PROVEN IN VARIOUS ASSAY REPORTS.  THIS BEING THE CASE WHY HAS THE UTILIZATION OF THESE MINERALS BEEN USED TO PAY THE 'ALLEGED DEBT?" [VKD]

Full text of "Abraham Lincoln and the statehood of Nevada .."

 
Abraham I



Lincoln and the Statehood of Nevada 
 
 
 
LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL 
 
the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
 
 
(Reprinted from AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION JOURNAL, March and April, 1940) 
 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE STATEHOOD OF NEVADA 
 
 
On Close Division of Public Opinion in 1864 a New Free State was Important — Decision to 
Admit Nevada — Great Hopes for Future Expansion — New Constitution Telegraphed to Wash- 
ington in Time to Proclaim State and Have its Vote Cast in Presidential Election. 
 
By F. Lauriston Bullard 
 
Editorial Writer, Boston Herald 
 
 
 
ON the wall of the Assembly Chamber in the capitol of the State of Nevada there hangs a portrait 
of Abraham Lincoln. Its acquisition was authorized by the Legislature in connection with the 

celebration of the semi-centennial of Nevada's statehood. 
The unveiling took place on March 14, 1915. The painting was placed above the Speaker's chair in 

the room occupied by the popular branch of the Legislature in commemoration of the events that 

brought about the admission of Nevada to the Union, and, as the Governor said, "to inspire 

legislators to give to the people the best that is in them." The anniversary of Nevada's accession

(October 31, 1864) is observed annually as a holiday with more or less formality, and last year was 

celebrated with the pageantry of a Diamond Jubilee. 
 
"Nevada or a Million Men" 
 
That the admission of the Silver State was considered a necessity for the consummation of the 

policies of the Civil War President is well known, but several important aspects of the situation 

at the time are hardly known at all. "Easier to admit Nevada than to raise another million men," 

is the familiar explanation of Lincoln's policy, this on the authority of the account given to the 

public in 1898 by Charles A. Dana. The purpose of this article is to bring forward certain neglected 

phases of the story and to indicate that the Dana account may not in all respects be accurate. 
 
During about half of the decade of the 1850's Carson County, in the western part of the Territory of 

Utah, was occupied only by several groups of Mormons, and emigrants bound for California hurried 

through what seemed to them a Valley of Death littered as was the trail by skeletons of cattle and men. 

When a clash between the United States and the Mormon authorities became imminent in 1857, about a 

thousand Zionists at the call of Brigham Young abandoned promptly the properties in the Valley which 

their labor had made valuable and hastened back to Salt Lake. The discovery of the Comstock Lode 

precipitated a wild rush for a new El Dorado. On the second day before he quit the Presidency, James 

Buchanan signed the Act which transformed Carson County into the Territory of Nevada. In fewer than four

years the Territory was advanced to Statehood. The census of 1860 gave Nevada a population of only 

6,857. During the debate in Congress of the Enabling Act for Nevada's admission the population was 

estimated all the way from 30,000 to 45,000. Statehood must mean the addition of two Senators and one 

Representative to the National Legislature. The Apportionment Act in force at that time established a 

population ratio of 127,381 for each member of Congress. In all the succeeding 75 years Nevada never 

has attained that population. 
 
But in the middle 60's everybody assumed that Nevada was destined to become a populous and wealthy 
State. The frenzied speculation of the wildcat era was subsiding, but sane observers in conservative 

publications declared that a mighty commonwealth had been founded on the plateau between the Rockies 

and the Sierras and predicted that the stream of bullion which would issue from its mines would pay 

the nation's war debt. Senator Latham of California insisted that even by the time the Territory had 

qualified for admission the population would exceed 100,000, whereas the Golden State had come in with 

a population no larger. 

The eastern newspapers were commenting on the great progress the Territory had made in four years. The 
New York Times stressed "the vast multitudes of emigrants" who were pouring into the region. The New 
York Herald foresaw a "future for the new State" that would be as prosperous as its beginning. Greeley's 
Tribune described in glowing terms the prospects of the coming State, and indicated that its mines might 
pay not only the interest on the national debt but "the entire debt . . . within the present generation." The 

Secretary of the Interior in his report for 1864 conceived that the production of the silver regions 

"must soon reach a magnitude unprecedented in the history of mining operations." Bishop Matthew Simpson 

indulged in gaudy rhetoric to describe the value of the Nevada mines — "the more the mines are worked 

the richer they yield." Observers believed also that once the Pacific Railroad should have spanned the 

Continent silver would not be the only valuable export of the new State. Agriculture must always be 

limited, but several minerals would supplement silver when the mines became more readily accessible and 

freight rates receded to a reasonable level. 
 
Nevada Desired Statehood 
 
The people of Nevada wanted to enter the Union. Three months before Congress passed an Enabling Act 
they voted four to one for Statehood. During the territorial years a little body of troops organized in 

that distant region kept open the sole means of communication between the East and the Pacific coast. 

For that valuable war service the Territory borrowed money at the rate of \ l / 2 per cent, per month and incurred a debt for 
which the State was not reimbursed until 1929. The government at Washington under all normal conditions 
would have delayed action. Nobody foresaw, however, that Nevada would provide the nation with a unique 
case of arrested development. Nevertheless, even though the future had been clearly disclosed to the

Administration, Statehood would have been authorized without delay. The Administration was looking for 

additional loyal States. Congress passed Enabling Acts for Colorado and Nebraska, territories which also 

fell far short 
 
 
This portrait of Abraham Lincoln hangs above the Speaker's Chair in the Assembly Chamber in the State 
House at Carson City. 
 
It was painted by Charles W. Shean, New York City, and authorized by the Nevada Legislature at the time 
of the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Statehood. 
 
Thus Nevada emphasizes Lincoln's connection with the admission of the State at a critical time in the 
Civil War. 
 
of the apportionment population. To expedite the admission of Nevada its constitution was telegraphed 

entire from Carson City to Washington a few days before the national election of 1864. The people of 

the Territory probably understood only in part the reasons for the hurry. 
 
Prior to the organization of the territorial government midway of 1861 there was little government or 
none in Carson County. Conditions in that portion of Utah were hopelessly chaotic. During one period 

three governments are said to have tried simultaneously to function. The discovery of the Comstock on

June 12, 1859, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, about twenty miles from the California boundary, 

made confusion worse confounded. In a short time Virginia City multiplied from nothing to a hurly-burly 

of 10,000 miners. San Francisco was the centre of the orgy of speculation that followed. A government 

report states that 3000 silver companies were organized in the California city and that 30,000 persons 

bought stock in them. "The amount of business done in Virginia City was twice as great as in any other 

town of equal size in the United States. It provided more silver in a year than any other mining district

of equal size ever did." Other silver ledges were soon uncovered and other little camps became wild and 

unruly towns. 
 
Terry and Stewart; Mark Twain 
 
Within two days of each other there arrived in Carson City two men who represented opposing ideas of 
what should be the destiny of that region. Judge David S. Terry, born in Kentucky, had resigned as 

Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court shortly before his duel with Senator David Broderick. 

He came to Virginia City, according to the not too reliable charge of a San Francisco newspaper, "at 

the request of Jefferson Davis from whom he had received a commission to be territorial governor of 

Nevada in case it became sympathetic with the southern cause." In 1863 he joined the Confederate army 

and fought at Chickamauga. William M. Stewart, who was to become one of Nevada's first Senators, born 

in New York, was an ardent Unionist. After ten years in California he established a law office in Nevada and became a specialist in 
mining law. He spent four years in vindicating the interests of the original claimants to the Comstock. 

In that turbulent period he rode the storm, with Terry as his usual opponent until the outbreak of the 

war. 
 
The organization of Carson County as the Territory of Nevada was expected to end what was plainly 
an impossible situation. There was an interval of eighteen weeks between the President's approval of the 

bill creating the new Territory and the arrival of its first and only Governor. James W. Nye doubtless 

owed plus appointment to his friend, the Secretary of State. 

The younger Charles Francis Adams, who traveled with him and Seward on a campaign tour in the Middle 
West in 1860, described Nye as an able stump speaker and politician, well adapted for the life of the 

mining camps, and "a character!" In his annual message of 1862 President Lincoln referred to Nevada as 

a region in which "the Federal officers" on their arrival there "found existing the leaven of treason," 

a condition with which Nye was amply equipped to deal. As Secretary for the Territory, another Cabinet 

member, Attorney General Bates, obtained the appointment of one Orion Clemens, who in turn named as his 

secretary his brother, Sam, whom the world knows as Mark Twain. 

During more than two years of the three years and four months that Nevada remained a Territory the 
question of Statehood was agitated. In 1862 the Territorial Legislature passed a bill for a referendum 

vote, and for the election of delegates for a constitutional convention in case Statehood should win. 

In a total vote of 8162 only 1502 were recorded in opposition. 



Late in December of that year Representative James M. Ashley introduced in Congress a bill providing 

for the admission of Nevada. Precisely in the same form he offered on the same day bills in behalf of 

Colorado, Nebraska, and Utah, and a bill for a temporary government for Idaho. These measures encountered

long delay in the House, but the Senate passed the Nevada Act in March, 1863. Nevada duly elected the 

convention delegates and they spent about six weeks towards the end of the year in drafting a 

constitution. And then, for reasons which will appear, in January, 1864, the people rejected it by 
a four-to-one vote, 8851 to 2157. 
 
Territory Faithful to Union 
 
Meantime in more ways than one the Territory was demonstrating its fidelity to the Union. The people 
always have been proud of what Nevada did for the Sanitary Commission, the Red Cross of Civil War days. 
Its per capita contributions were larger that those of any other State or Territory, despite the fact 

that there was a good deal of secession sentiment in Carson City and Virginia City. Nevada's greatest 

service was the keeping open of the Overland Trail. The Federal Government early in 1861 withdrew all 

troops from the Pacific coast, except one regiment of infantry and three batteries of artillery. 

The blockade and other activities at sea reduced heavily the roundabout services between the coasts via 

Panama. The Southern Trail, through Texas. Arizona and New Mexico, was in the hands of 
the Confederacy. Only the Overland was left. The daily mail service over that route between the Missouri

River and Sacramento remained as a vital link of communication. This was the covered wagon trail. 

Moreover, its discontinuance might have meant the shutting down of the mines. Those mines, during the 

war and the years immediately following, produced for the government $500,000,000. 
 
In this situation three separate demands came from Washington for the Territory to equip and mount, 

subsist and pay, a body of troops for the policing of several hundreds of miles of a trail which was 

exposed to the raids of bandits and Indians. Nevada kept the Overland open. About 1 ISO men were

recruited for three year service and many besides volunteered for home guard duty. They kept that vast 

region in touch with the East. The Territory borrowed the money to pay these troops and the State 

assumed the debt. This constituted a reimbursement claim, the justice of which was conceded for years by

the Congressional committees that examined it, but which was not finally allowed and paid until ten years

ago. The State then received approximately $595,000, of which only $110,000 represented the original 

principal. 
 
From this record the great majority of the people derived great satisfaction. They had suppressed 

secession, kept the Overland clear, and contributed handsomely for humanitarian funds. When the 

transcontinental telegraph line closed the last gap and completed the line from coast to coast the 

Territorial Legislature sent a message to President Lincoln declaring that "the last-born of the Nation 

will be the last to desert the flag." 
 
Mining Titles Doubtful 
 
One reason for seeking statehood seldom appears in the record. Many mine owners were none too sure of 
the legality of their titles. The mining policy of the Federal government was still unsettled. There 

was no national mining code. Large sums were available for the development of the industry if and when 

investors could be sure that their property rights would withstand challenge in the courts. Law suits, 

next to silver, were Nevada's biggest crop, and a most profitable source of revenue for lawyers. Judges 

who received relatively minute salaries were sitting in cases involving rights worth millions of dollars. Dr. Mack, the historian of 

Nevada, states that the territorial judiciary was "corrupt," that many of the judges were "susceptible 

to outside influences." Amidst a mania for the organization of corporations, Mark Twain is suspected of 

the authorship of the quip in a San Francisco newspaper that "if two men sit down here to play cards 

they incorporate the game." The people believed that condition could not be corrected under the 

territorial system. They considered representation in Washington on a parity with the other States to be 

essential for their protection. Mining questions during that time were under active debate in Congress. 
 
Why then did the people reject the Constitution which their representatives had prepared? The man 
responsible beyond all others for its rejection was none other than William M. Stewart. He served in the 

convention as chairman of the judiciary committee. Certain taxation clauses he considered obnoxious, and

when his amendment for their rectification was rejected by the convention he unlimbered all his 

formidable artillery against the projected Constitution. He rang all the changes on the charge that it 

would "tax the poor miner out of existence." It would kill the mining industry because it would tax the 

miner's shafts and drifts and bedrock tunnels whether these were productive or not. At least one 

historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft, pronounces this a "pretext," but without stating his reasons. 
 
Abraham Lincoln and Nevada, 1864 
 
A second attempt to qualify for statehood was more successful. It was more than a movement by local 

initiative. It was instigated also from Washington. The party in power needed Nevada. The president 

wanted its aid for achieving an amendment to the Federal Constitution that should end the existence of 

slavery beyond all argument or cavil. Congress having passed a statehood act, Governor Nye called 

another convention to meet on July 4. The taxation clauses were omitted. 

Stewart mobilized all his powers to procure the adoption of this instrument, and the people did ratify it in 
early September. 
 
In this story of the relations between Abraham Lincoln and Nevada, 1864 is the crucial year. The sequence

of events is of the first importance for understanding what happened. A paragraph of dates should 
be useful. 



In that year Nevada voted five times. On January 19 the people rejected one Constitution and on 
September 7 they accepted another. They chose the delegates for the second convention ; they elected 

certain territorial officers, and in turn they elected the officers who would take over the affairs of 

the new state. Meantime the other half of the drama was under way in Washington. Ashley in the House had 

offered a resolution for an abolition amendment on December 14, 1863. 

Abolition amendments were proposed in the Senate on January 11, 1864, and the Committee on the Judiciary 

reported what became the Thirteenth Amendment on February 1. On February 24 the Senate passed a bill for 
Nevada's admission providing that a constitution should be submitted to the people on October 11. 

The House passed this bill on March 17 and Lincoln signed it four days later. The abolition amendment 

passed the Senate, 38 to 6, on April 8. 



In May both Houses passed an amendment to the Nevada Enabling Act changing the date for the people to 

vote on their proposed Constitution from October 1 1 to September 7. 



Lincoln added his signature to this bill on May 21. On June 15 the House failed to muster the necessary 

two-thirds vote for a suspension of the rules in behalf of the abolition amendment and the Ashley motion

for reconsideration was allowed to lie on the Speaker's desk. 



In July the Nevada convention met, and the people duly adopted the new Constitution in September. 

The Enabling Act contained an emergency provision that the Constitution should be submitted to the 

President, and that he thereupon should proclaim Nevada a State. That proclamation he issued on 

October 31. The Presidential election followed on November 8. Ashley called up his reconsideration

motion on January 31, 1865, and that day the abolition amendment passed the House 119 to 56 — a margin of three votes. One of those was cast 
by the new Representative from Nevada. 
 
 
 
WAR JHBMJl*»W*' r - aOfcJLu**' <$>■ ^trg telegraph
 
Sheets from telegram transmitting constitution of Nevada, October, 1864. Telegram to Seward above, right, 
 
first sheet at left ; below, sheet prohibiting slavery. 
 
 passed the House 119 to 56 to 56 — a margin of three votes. One of those was cast 
by the new Representative from Nevada. 
 
Fear That South Might Again Have Balance 
of Power 
 
Throughout the war the President was pondering the problem of the reconstruction of the Union after the 
victory at arms should have been won. Midway of the conflict Congress began to give serious attention to 

the question. A deadlock developed between the executive and legislative branches of the government. 

Lincoln, with all his magnanimity, could not forget that he was the titular head of a political party. 

As a practical politician he must have contemplated the possibility that when the votes of the 

reconstructed Southern States should be combined with the votes of the Northern antiwar Democrats the 

control of Congress might go to the men who had fought to destroy the Union or had used their influence 

to hobble the policies of the Administration. 



With the abolition of slavery the three-fifths rule in the Constitution would become merely a matter 

of historical interest, and the South would stand to increase its power in Congress unless the basis of 

representation should be altered or the power of the North should be increased. The leaders of the 

dominant party in Congress would see to it that the President should be reminded of these matters. New 

and loyal States became a primary consideration. Every new State would mean two more Senators and at 

least one Representative. 



West Virginia having been admitted, the party strategists scanned the mountains and the prairies in 
quest of communities that might be organized for statehood. Three Territories offered possibilities. 

On the day that the Enabling Act for Nevada was approved the President signed a similar bill for 

Colorado to qualify, and four weeks later the Nebraska bill was approved. The party in power had 

considered also the possibility of adding Utah, New Mexico, and Montana to the Union. 
 
In view of the criticisms often made of the admis- sion of Nevada it may be noted that at the time 
Colorado had a population no larger. The Centennial State had to wait until 1876 for admission. The 
people rejected one Constitution and Andrew Johnson twice vetoed a statehood bill based on another. 

During the debate Charles Sumner declared that instead of an apportionment population there were not 

more than 25,000 in the Territory. As to Nebraska, the people voted against becoming a State in 1864, 

and in 1866 a majority of only 100 in a vote of 8000 approved a Constitution. This time Congress 

admitted a State over a Presidential veto. At that time Nebraska could not satisfy the apportionment 

qualification. For that matter, Idaho did not attain that representation basis until ten years after 

admission, and Wyoming entered the Union in 1890 with only a third of the apportionment ratio and never 

yet has satisfied that requirement. 
 
Nevada and Lincoln's Second Term 
 
These States did not come into the Union under emergency conditions. Nevada did. The vote of at 
least one additional state was believed to be necessary for the abolition of slavery, and Congress 

hurried forward its admission in order to make sure of three more electoral votes for Lincoln's second 

term. 
 
Each House twice debated the Nevada bill. In the thirty-seventh Congress the Senate passed it and again 
in the thirty-eighth Congress, but the measure failed of passage the first lime in the House. In the 

upper chamber in 1863 "Ben" Wade insisted that the criterion for the admission of a State ought to be the rapidity 
of the increase of its population and not the present population. "I am credibly informed by the 

Commissioner of the General Land Office," he said, "that Nevada's population cannot be less at this time 

than 45,000, and increasing with unexampled rapidity." A motion to prescribe a population of 65,000 

having been rejected, the bill was passed 24 to 16. The "Yeas" included such familiar names as Harlan, 

the two Lanes, Morrill, Sumner, Wilmot, and Wilson of Massachusetts. On that same day the House refused 

to suspend the rules so that the Nevada and Colorado bills might be taken from the table. 
 
The Senate in the first session of the new Congress had no trouble in passing the bill again. Wade 

reported it from the Committee on Territories on Feb. 16, and it came up for passage eight days 

thereafter. The measure required that the Nevada constitutional convention should provide "by an 

ordinance irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of the State: 



First, that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the State otherwise than in the punishment 

of crime. . . 



Second, that perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and no inhabitant of the State 

shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship ; and 



Third, that the people . . . agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to 
the unappropriated public lands lying within the Territory, and that the same shall be and remain at the

sole and entire disposition of the United States." 



A Constitution having been adopted by a majority of legal voters was to be certified, with a copy 

thereof, to the President, and thereupon it would "be the duty of the President of the United States to 

issue his proclamation declaring the State to be admitted into the Union 
. . . without any further action whatever on the part of Congress." There was very little debate. 



The Congressional Globe simply states that the bill was passed. In the House on March 17 this bill was 

read in extenso. Ashley intimated that the measure needed no explanation further than to say that 

"it passed the Senate two years ago and again unanimously at this session." And again the Globe records 

simply that the bill "passed." 
 
No Record Vote on Statehood Bill in Senate 
 
That word "unanimously" is important. A recent Lincoln biographer has said that neither House was 
willing to have a record Yea and Nay vote taken, that "whether through clerical inattention or by 

official arrangement" these votes were not recorded. That the bill was "engrossed, read a third time, 

and passed" is all we know. But it does not necessarily follow that the members of the two Houses wished

to dodge publicity. Nobody in either House asked for the Yeas and Nays. In both Houses there were those 

opposed to, or not entirely satisfied with, the policy represented by the bill. Yet, on Ashley's 

authority, the Senate had "unanimously" endorsed the bill, and Ashley certainly was confident of its 

acceptance by the House. Nobody challenged him. He had the votes. It would be interesting to know how 

that vote stood, of course, if only because a minority of 48 had been unwilling to allow the bill to 

come before the House twelve months before. 
 
Decidedly one would like to have exact information about that vote, because the President himself is 

represented to have instigated log-rolling methods and to have authorized pledges of patronage to make 

sure the bill should not fail. The testimony of Charles A. 



1 >ana on this point is generally accepted. His story first came to the attention of the general public 

in 1898 while his "Recollections" were running in McClnre's Magazine. 

In the same year they appeared in book form. We now know that these "Recollections" were prepared by 
a ghost writer, none other than Ida M. Tarbell. The distinguished editor of The Sun did not want to take 
the time and trouble to do the job himself. Miss Tarbell got her material in a long scries of conferences. 
Dana was to see the proofs. His death occurred in October, 1897, so that he lived to scan only a single 
chapter. He had told this story, however, in precisely the same words, in a lecture at New Haven in 1896. 
This address was copyrighted in his name. His son allowed it to be published in a limited edition in 1899. 
 
Charles A. Dana's Account of Vote in House 
 
Dana describes what he recalls as having taken place "in March, 1864" when the question of Nevada's 

statehood "finally came up in the House of Representatives." Dana then was Assistant Secretary of War 

with an office on the third story of the War Department building which the President visited at times. 

On this occasion the President expressed his anxiety "about this vote" which was "going to be close" and 

must be taken "next week." Dana cited as Democrats who could be counted on James E. English, of 

Connecticut, and "Sunset" Cox, of Ohio. Not enough. More Democratic votes must be had. The President 

named three Democrats with whom he wanted Dana to "deal." Dana did not name them. But with the distinct 

authorization of the President he was to promise two men from New York and one from New Jersey whatever 

they might want, no matter what it might be. Dana quotes the President as saying: "Here is the 

alternative: that we carry this vote, or be compelled to raise another million and I don't know how 

manv more men, and fight nobody knows how long. 



It is a question of three votes, or new armies." Dana "saw" the three men. They were "afraid of their 

party." Two of them wanted "internal revenue collectors' appointments," whether for themselves or for 

constituents is not clear. The third wanted for a friend "a very important appointment about the custom 

house of New York." 

Dana gave them his word. They voted "right." Among other details in this comprehensive account Dana 
records that the custom house appointment was delayed until Andrew Johnson assumed the Presidency and 

that he refused to fulfill "the sacred promise" his predecessor had made. 
 
This episode was reported by Mr. Dana first to an historical organization as an example of Lincoln's 
"supreme political skill." What records Mr. Dana had we do not know. It has been assumed always that 
a man in his position, with his years of experience as a writer and editor, must be accepted as a 

competent authority even though he relied on memory alone. Yet the more carefully one examines the 

situation, and the more he studies accessible records, the more difficult he finds it to accept in 

every respect the Dana account. 

Incidentally, that was anything but an example of "supreme political skill." It was commonplace, the 
ordinary practice of politicians in office. Lincoln is described as doing what governors and presidents 
always have done ; he used the appointive power to accomplish his purposes. What necessity could there 
have been for buying Democratic votes? The full membership of the House then was 183, of whom the 
dominant party, sometimes called Republicans and often Unionists, could count upon more than 100. 

Schuyler Colfax was elected Speaker by a vote of 101 to 81, which is described by James G. Blaine as 

representing "the distinctive Republican strength in the House." He adds that "on issues directlv 

relating: to the war the Chief Justice Taney administering oath of office to Lincoln as President. 



(From Chief Justice Taney home. 
Frederick, Md.) 
 
 
 
Administration was stronger than these figures indicate, being always able to command the support" of 

several others to whom he alludes. The admission of Nevada was a party policy, yet the Dana account 

depicts the clear Republican majority in the House as seriously at odds over what everybody knew was an 

important party and Administration measure. 
 
Lincoln's "Million Men" 
 
What about that additional "million" men? Did the President for once indulge in hyperbole? At no time 
did the grand total of Union troops number a million. The total enlistments, which must have included 

many re-enlistments, for the four years of the war fell somewhat short of three millions. 



On New Year's Day of 1864 there were in the service 860,737 men. One year later the number reached 

959,460. These totals include both regulars and volunteers, and are divided almost equally between 

soldiers present and absentees. 

The President presumably was indicating his view that the addition of Nevada would be of great value 

for its moral effect and for its implications as to the destruction of slavery. 
 
And what about other witnesses ? Nobody else has tales to tell about the purchase of Democratic votes 

for the Nevada bill, but there are several who relate stories similar to Dana's in connection with the 

adoption of the resolution for the abolition amendment to the Constitution. For the passage of that 

resolution a majority would not be enough. It must have two-thirds in both Senate and House. 
 
Three Votes Needed for Abolition Amendment 
 
Congressman A. G. Riddle, of Ohio, published his "Recollections of War Times" in 1895. He relates that 
the votes of two or three Democrats in the House were "absolutely necessary" to get the measure through, and 
that Mr. Ashley reported "in confidence" their acqui- sition. A certain member would "largely augment 

his chances" for a job he coveted by voting for "the abolishing amendment." Another Democrat would ensure

in like manner his success for a contested seat in the next House. It was necessary also "to secure the 
absence of one Democrat from the House on the day of the vote." Riddle intimates that his absence was to 
be rewarded by the postponement until the next Congress of a bill which "a railroad in Pennsylvania" 
objected to, he being an attorney for the road. Riddle says that he "cannot vouch for the means employed to 
secure the Democrats," but that the two in question voted for the amendment, and that "the railroad

lawyer was taken so ill that day that he could not be carried into the House." 
 
To be considered also is the modicum of evidence offered by Congressman George W. Julian, of Indiana, 
whose "Political Recollections" appeared in 1884. He alludes to the solemnity of the spectacle "pending 

the roll-call" on the amendment, and says: "The success of the measure had been considered very doubtful," 
and depended upon certain negotiations the result of which was not fully assured and the particulars of 

which never reached the public. 
 
Definite and emphatic in his testimony is a third member of the House, John B. Alley, of Massachusetts. 
He contributed an article to the volume of "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln" which was edited by Allen 
Thorndike Rice, and published in 1888. According to this Congressman the President sent for two members 

of the House and said that the two votes lacking to make the two-thirds required "must be procured." 
 
 
CHARLES A. DANA, 1819-1897 
Assistant Secretary of War, 1863-1865. Editor of The 
Sun (N. Y.) for 30 years. (Picture from James Har- 
rison Wilson, Charles A. Dana. Harper's. 1907.) 
 
When asked how that could be done, Lincoln is reported to have said : "I am President of the United 

States, clothed with great power. The abolition of slavery by constitutional provision settles the fate 

for all coming time not only of the millions now in bondage, but of unborn millions to come — a measure 

of such importance that those two votes must be procured. I leave it to you to determine how it shall be 

done ; but remember that I am President of the United States, clothed with immense power, and I expect 

you to procure those votes." This witness concludes his statement thus : "These gentlemen understood the 

significance of the remark. The votes were procured, the constitutional amendment was passed and slavery 

was abolished forever." 
 
"Log-Rolling" Used? 
 
The historian Rhodes nowhere discusses this matter at length. He was aided in the preparation of his 
account of the adoption of the amendment by a son of Representative Ashley. Conceding that many of the 
Democrats "acted according to real convictions," and expressing the opinion that no money was used, he 
says that "others" of the Democrats "were won over by a process of log-rolling." In estimating the value 
of the Dana account it should be noted that he was in Washington in all probability when both the Nevada 
vote and the amendment vote were taken. The Official Records of the War .show that Dana was in his office 
on March 2 and 15 in 1864 and on ten non-consecutive days in January, 1865. 
 
On the face of the record the necessity for using the powers of the President to buy votes for the

admission of Nevada does not appear. It certainly does appear to have been necessary to use the powers of

the Executive to ensure the adoption of the resolution for the Thirteenth Amendment. The actual sentiment of the 
House on the statehood question was not disclosed by the adverse vote of March 3, 1863. On that last day 
of the thirty-seventh Congress the Administration lacked ten votes of the two-thirds required to suspend 
the rules. Elihu Washburne wanted to have taken from the Speaker's table the bills for the organization 
of both Nevada and Colorado. Yallandigham objected and demanded the Yeas and Nays. As of December 
1, 1862, the membership of that Congress was: Republicans 100, Democrats 44, Unionists 30, with three 
vacancies. The vote on Washburne's motion was 65 to 48. Among the many not voting were several 
Republicans. In the melee of a final session many curious things happen. One risks little if he assumes 
that on the straight issue of Nevada's statehood the Administration would have won. 
 
Difficulty in Securing Necessary Two-Thirds Vote 
 
At all times there were grave doubts if the abolition resolution could be put through the House. On June 
15, 1864, it was defeated 93 to 65, with 23 not voting — 13 short of the requisite two-thirds. After the 

election of the following November the Administration had no doubt of what the result would be if action

should be put over until the thirty-ninth Congress should convene. 

In his annual message the President dealt with the issue. For the first time the voice of the people had 
been heard thereom The new House which would take office in March, 1865, would surely pass the 
 
 
Lincoln and Douglas at Galesburg 
 
 
 
amendment. Why then "should not the present House, which had failed to adopt it at the previous session, 
now act upon it favorably ? . . . Why not agree that the sooner the better?" The vote was taken on the 

last day of January, 1865. The amendment carried 119 to 5b, with eight not voting, a bare margin of three

votes. 

Little wonder that the floor and the galleries were swept with a storm of cheers. Recorded as voting Yea 

were 1 1 Democrats from the non-slave States. Of the two mentioned by Dana, and said by him to have been 

reckoned as "sure" by Lincoln, English voted Yea and Cox Nay. Of the abstainers six had voted Nay, and 
only two had abstained, in the vote of the preceding June. 
 
Nevada's Votes Desired for November, 1864, 
Election 
 
While it may not have been necessary to employ log rolling methods to bring Nevada into the Union, the 
President and many party leaders were determined that the new State should be admitted before the 

November election and they depended on its lone Representative, Henry G. Worthington, for one of the 

votes needed for the passage of the abolition resolution. The eastern newspapers make the reasons for 

haste abundantly clear. The New York World on the day Nevada was proclaimed a State declared that the 

President was counting on the three additional electoral votes to which the new member of the family 

would be entitled. The New York Herald expressed similar opinions. The Boston Transcript said : 

"There can be no doubt how the three electoral votes of the new State will be cast." 



During that black summer of 1864 Abraham Lincoln for once lost confidence in his own destiny. 

Assuming that he could not be returned for a second term, he had every member of his Cabinet sign a 

paper, which, as they learned weeks later, contained his pledge to cooperate with his successful opponent

for the saving of the Union. Even as late as mid-October his defeatist mood came back at intervals. One 

evening in the War Department telegraph office he wrote out in his own hand and from memory an estimate 

of the prospective electoral vote. He allowed McClellan 114 electors and the Administration 117. He did 

not count Nevada although the arrangements for its admission had been completed. Major Eckert added the 

new State's three votes to the President's total. 
 
For Nevada to be admitted in time it was necessary to modify the Enabling Act and to use extraordinary 
means to get the Constitution of the new State to Washington. Congress thoughtfully provided for both 
contingencies. The date for the popular vote on the proposed Constitution had been set too late in the 

Act. Governor Nye forwarded a memorial to the national capital suggesting that this vote be set forward 

four weeks, so that the voters might pass on the Constitution on the day that Nevada would elect county 

and territorial officers. Between this date and the Presidential election there would be an interval of 

two months. The poll must be canvassed by the Governor, the United States District Attorney, and the 

Territorial Chief Justice, and certified to the President in Washington together with a copy of the 

Constitution. Also the new State must organize the districts for the national election. 
 
Constitution Telegraphed to Washington 
 
To complete the process of admission, resort was had to the wire. The trip from Carson City to Wash- 
ington was no easy journey in those days. On Dec. 15 the first State Legislature elected William M. 

Stewart and James W. Nye as Nevada's Senators. They traveled by way of Panama and took the oath of office 
in the Senate Chamber on Feb. 1, the day after the adoption in the House of the abolition amendment. 
Worthington, elected earlier, came across the prairies to railhead, and was sworn into office on Dec. 21. Both 
Secretary of the Navy Welles and Attorney General Bates record in their Diaries that on Sept. 30 Seward, 

the Secretary of State, produced at a Cabinet meeting a telegram from Governor Nye announcing the 

adoption of the Constitution, and urged that the President accept this notice as sufficient warrant 
for the issuance of the proclamation of admission. Other members of the Cabinet deprecated this idea and 
Lincoln adhered to the letter of the law. The terms of the Act could be fulfilled only by using the Over- 
land Telegraph line, which had been completed a couple of years before. 
 
That despatch is on file in the National Archives. It covers 175 pages and embodies about 15,000 words. 
Another copy was forwarded by Overland Mail and express riders, and a third by the roundabout ocean 
trip from San Francisco. On March 3, 1865, the Legislature appropriated for payment of the telegraph bill 
$3416.77. Two Morse operators tapped-out that immense message by the dot-and-dash system. One was Frank 

Bell, the district manager at the time of the California State Telegraph Company. Me was appointed 
Lieutenant Governor in 1889 and succeeded to the Governorship on the death of the incumbent. All day 
long on Oct. 26 he bent over his key. The message was relayed at Chicago and Philadelphia and was re- 
ceived in Washington on Oct. 28. The President issued his proclamation on the last day of that month. 
Nevada duly cast her electoral vote for Lincoln and Johnson on the Union ticket. 
 
Nevada Ratifies 13th Amendment 
 
For the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, the ratification of Nevada also was considered imperative. 
With 36 States, 27 ratifications would be necessary, and there was apprehension that the amendment might 
fail unless Nevada could be counted upon. The day after the House passed the resolution Illinois ratified 
the amendment, two more States ratified next day, and three others the third day. Nevada was swift but 

distance was against her. 



Carson City acted on Feb. 16, providing the fifteenth ratification. By Dec. 9 the reaquired number of 

States had acted, among them eight former members of the Confederacy. Before the turn 
 
Lincoln's first portrait, aged 37. Taken when he began riding the circuit. Reprinted from March, 1937, 

issue of the Journal. 
 
Of the year three more States had ratified, including one more Confederate State. 
 
The "Battle Born" State 
 
For three reasons the admission of Nevada was promoted by President Lincoln, and all three were war 
measures : to ensure the adoption of the abolition resolution in Congress, to obtain a precious cluster 

of votes for the President in the Electoral College, and to supply one more ratification for the 

abolition amendment. 

With excellent reason did Bancroft long ago, and the Federal Judge of the District of Nevada, Frank H. 
Norcross, recently, with scores of others between, pronounce Nevada "the Battle-Born State." 
 
Source:  http://archive.org/stream/abrahamlincolnst00bull/abrahamlincolnst00bull_djvu.txt
 
■KBBHPva 
Lj ay lord far 060 
 
Inc.. 
MANUFACTURERS 
=; Syracuse, N.Y. — 
fH Stockton, Calif. £ 
 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA 
973 7L63BB87A COD 1 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN ANO THE STATEHOOD OF NEV 
3 0112 031785063 
 
 

 

No comments: