THE LIFE OF LYMAN TRUMBULL
Lyman Trumbull (signature)
THE LIFE OF LYMAN TRUMBULL
BY
HORACE WHITE
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1913
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY HORACE WHITE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published October 1913
PREFACE
A few years since, the widow of Lyman Trumbullrequested me to write a biography of her husband, whowas United States Senator from Illinois during the threesenatorial terms 1855-1873, or to recommend some suitableperson for the task. It had been a cause of surpriseand regret to me that the name of Trumbull had not yetfound a place in the swelling flood of biographical literaturethat embraces the Civil War period. Everybody,North or South, who stood on the same elevation withhim, everybody who exercised influence and filled thepublic eye in equal measure with him, had found his nichein the libraries of the nation, and such place in the heartsof the people as his merits warranted. Trumbull alonehad been neglected. I reflected upon the matter andcame to the conclusion that, although better writers thanmyself could be found for this kind of work, no one waslikely to be found who had been more intimate with himduring his whole senatorial career, or who had warmersympathy for his aims or higher admiration for his abilitiesand character. I reflected also that very soon therewould be no person living possessing these special qualifications.Accordingly I decided to undertake the work.
Mrs. Trumbull placed in my hands several thousandletters received by Trumbull, and a few written by him,during his public career. All these have been examined byme, and they are now in the Library of Congress. He wasnot in the habit of keeping copies of letters written byhimself unless he deemed them important, and such copieswere generally written out by his own hand, not taken in[vi]a copying-press. Other letters written by him have beensought with varying success in the hands of his correspondents,or their heirs, in various parts of the country,but nothing has been found in this way that can beconsidered of much importance.
During the Reconstruction era I had sustained thepolicy of Congress in opposition to that of AndrewJohnson, but had revolted at the carpetbaggery and misgovernmentwhich had ensued, and had abhorred the"Ku-Klux" bills and "Force" bills which the Unionparty for a long time continued to enact or threaten. Iwas not quite prepared to find, however, upon going overthe whole ground again, that I had been wrong from thebeginning, and that Andrew Johnson's policy, which wasLincoln's policy, was the true one, and ought never tohave been departed from. This is the conclusion towhich I have come, after much study, in the evening ofa long life. This does not mean that all of the doings andsayings of President Johnson were wise and good, butthat I believe him to have been an honest man, a truepatriot, and a worthy successor of Lincoln whose Reconstructionpolicy he followed. Lincoln himself could nothave carried that policy into effect without a fight, andmany persons familiar with the tempe