Proceedings & Collections - NSHS - Vol. IV

TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS

GOVERNOR ALVIN SAUNDERS.

May 15, 1861 to Mar. 1, 1867.

   Gov. Alvin Saunders' claims Kentucky as his birthplace, and was born on the 12th of July, 1817. At twelve years of age he was taken by his parents to the State of Illinois, and in his 19th year united his destiny with the small village of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. With patience and luck he endured the vicissitudes of pioneer life, and as merchant's clerk and merchant, as postmaster and member of a constitutional convention, as representative of the people in the state senate and in the Chicago National Convention of 1860, which nominated Mr. Lincoln, he secured and held the implicit confidence of an honest, intelligent and patriotic community. Though of Virginia parentage and Kentucky birth, having developed an enthusiasm for "free speech, free soil, and free men," he was fully competent to stand guard on freedom's battlements during the stormy days of the Union.
   After discharging the duties of Governor for a term of four years, the circumstances attending the signing of his second commission were so peculiar that they are treasured up as a sacred remembrance.
   I saw Mr. Lincoln, who told me to return home, as it was all right and he would attend to the commission. I started for home in the morning, and in the evening of the same day he was killed. I telegraphed back to find out what had become of my commission, and learned that the room had not been opened. When it was opened the commission was found on the table, unfolded, with his signature attached.
   It was not signed by Mr. Seward. I have the commission in Mr. Lincoln's name, but the appointment was actually made out by Mr. Johnson.
   Gunnell Saunders, father of Alvin Saunders, was a native of Loudoun County, Va., who emigrated to Bourbon County Ky. when a young man, and thence to Fleming County. His ancestry was English and his wife, maiden name Mary Manzy, was a native of Culpepper County, Va., from French family. Alvin was one of five sons. Gunnell went to Springfield, Ill., about 1829.

NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Before he assumed the duties of Territorial Governor of Nebraska, May 15, 1861, ten states had passed ordinances of secession, Davis and Stephens elected president and vice-president of the Southern Confederacy, a call had been issued for 75,000 men at the north and for 32,000 at the south, Fort Sumter had been bombarded by the rebels and Massachusetts troops mobbed in Baltimore on their way to the city of Washington, and President Lincoln had ordered the blockade of southern ports.
Three days after Gov. Saunders' arrival he issued a proclamation for troops for three years' service, closing with the following emphatic language:

Efforts are being made to trample the stars and stripes, the emblem of our liberty, in the dust. Traitors are in the land busily trying to overthrow the Government of the United States, and information has been received that these same traitors are endeavoring to incite an invasion of our frontier by a savage foe. In view of these facts, I invoke the aid of every lover of his country and his home, to come promptly forward to sustain and protect the same.

His acts and messages reveal the fact that during the four years of devastating war, his thoughts were ever with the men who answered the calls for troops. Whether they were in camp, or in council chamber, their wants and domestic anxieties urged him to duty and called out his ready sympathy.
In his first message to the legislature, the Governor said:

Congress, at its last session, in providing means to be used in putting down rebellion in a number of Southern States of the Union, levied a direct tax on the people. The Constitution of the United States provides that direct taxes shall be levied by Congress in proportion to the population. The proportion assigned to Nebraska amounts to nineteen thousand three hundred and twelve dollars. This tax may be assessed and collected by officers to be appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, or may be Government. In the latter assumed by the Terriforial case, a deduction of 15 per cent, from the gross amount will be allowed the territory. I therefore recommend that you make the necessary provision for its collection by adding the gross amount to the tax levy for the coming year for

TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS

territorial purposes, or that you make such other provision for its payment as your wisdom may devise. Although the sum to be raised is comparatively large, we should not hesitate to bear our part of the burden. Each one should be willing to exert himself to the utmost to avert the danger which now threatens the Union. We would be unworthy descendants of the good and great men who pledged their property and their lives to secure our free institutions, if we hesitated to make any sacrifice necessary for their preservation.
The patriotism of those who assist our country now, when she is defending the Constitution and the Union against traitors and rebels, and who stand firmly by that flag, and those institutions, which have descended to us from the hands of Washington, will be held in grateful remembrance by the great and the good everywhere, and their names will descend with imperishable honor to posterity, for having aided in preserving to their country and the world, in its original integrity and vigor, the freest and best government on earth.

A committee to whom was referred the subject of the direct tax, reported that inasmuch as Congress allowed the Territory $20,000 per year, for legislative expenses, the legislature should not be convened during the next year, but the $20,000 should be diverted by the general government for the cancellation of the tax of $19,312.
And to show the necessity of this, they instanced the financial condition of the people, illustrating with Douglas County.

Douglas County has a mortgage debt of $800,000 hanging over her citizens, covering the majority of the real estate in the county and bearing interest at an enormous rate of from 2 to 10 per cent per month. The court records will show a judgment debt of several thousand dollars. The County has a debt of $50,000. So with the other counties throughout the Territory. Our Territorial debt is $50,000. Our taxes in every county in the Territory have been higher for three years than in any state in the Union.

Inasmuch as the progress of the Goverment, in the suppression of the rebellion, was the all absorbing question, his second message, in 1864, contained the following:

When you were last in session the rebels claimed all of the slave states and all of the territories south of Kansas and west to California, but the Union armies have

NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

been steadily driving them back from the loyal states and toward the interior from the coast, capturing fortifications and cities until now the stars and stripes float in triumph over at least two-thirds of the Territory then claimed by the insurgents. A few months more of vigorous and persistent effort on the part of the great armies and navies of the Republic, it would seem, will probably be sufficient to wipe out the last vestige of this gigantic rebellion, and establish the supremacy of the Constitution and the laws throughout the whole extent of all the states and territories of the Union.
It must be a source of profound gratification to you to know that the citizen soldiery of Nebraska, springing to arms from the peaceful pursuits of life at the call of the President, totally unaccustomed to the hardships and deprivations of the weary march and camp life, and to the exposure and dangers of protracted campaigns, have performed their part so nobly in every trial of endurance and courage.
A Nebraska soldier, whether called on by his country to confront the wily savages on the frontier, or the rebel hosts in battle array, has never shrunk from duty, quailed before danger, or turned his back on the foe.

After urging that all possible effort should be made for the comfort of the soldiers in the field, and of the sick and wounded, and of widows and orphans, and for allowing the soldiers to vote for state and national officers, he passed to the subject of monuments.

I also recommend that you make the necessary provision for keeping a correct record of the names of all who enlist in the military service of the territory, to be preserved among the public archives; and that the names of all who are. wounded or fall in battle should be inscribed on a roll of honor, to be carefully preserved for the inspection of future generations. I also suggest that justice to this class of our fellow citizens seems to me to require that a monument should be erected at the capitol, on which to inscribe the names, and preserve the memory of all from this territory who have fallen in their country's service since this rebellion commenced, or who have fallen during its continuance.

He further elucidated the steps leading up to emancipation, as a military necessity, and its influence at home and abroad on

TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS

the final result, and declared in favor of an immediate peace consequent upon a restored union. In his message of 1865, Governor Saunders made the following prediction:

This war for the preservation of our national life, although protracted through more than three years of bloody strife, is at length happily drawing to a close; and recent events would seem to indicate, with almost mathematical certainty, that the end cannot be far in the future. Slowly, but steadily and surely, the Union armies are exhausting the strength and resources of the rebel forces. Their lines are being rapidly contracted--their ranks decimated beyond the possibility of recuperation, and the spirit of the misguided masses has been broken. Our armies and navies almost encompass them, while one of our greatest generals, with his victorious columns, has marched through the very heart of the Empire State of the South, from the interior to the coast, and captured the most populous and important commercial city in the rebellious district, almost without opposition. The significant facts leave no room to doubt that at an early period the supremacy of the constitution and the laws will be restored in every portion of the country, thus establishing human liberty, alike in the South and in the North, and vindicating the capacity of the people for self government.

One year later he had the happiness to herald the consummation of the great work, in the following language of his annual message, of January, 1866:

Our flag, emblem of the unity, justice, power and glory of the nation, now floats in triumph over every part of the Republic. Every foot of our national territory has been preserved intact. The supremacy of the constitution and laws is acknowledged by all the inhabitants, but this great boon has been secured at a fearful cost of blood and treasure. Having thus passed through the Red Sea of disaster which menaced us, and for a time threatened to engulf and overwhelm the fair fabric of justice and liberty reared for us by our fathers, may we not hope that our glorious Union will be perpetual and dispense its blessings for all future time to the oppressed and downtrodden who may seek an asylum in this land of liberty and equal justice from the tyrannies of the old world.

When the question of emancipating slaves was discussed, as a

NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

military necessity, Governor Saunders held and expressed very decided views:

Look, if you please, at the effort put forth by the cunning politicians and traitors of our country, to prejudice the minds of the unwary against the President's proclamation emancipating the slaves in rebel districts. Thousands throughout the country had their minds thus prejudiced, and for the time being poisoned, against, the measure; and, yet, that very same measure has, perhaps, done more to give us strength, both at home and abroad, than any other adopted by the administration. And perhaps we ought not to close our eyes to the fact, while dwelling on this subject, that many of the best and wisest men in the country believe that if the slaves should all be liberated, during the progress of the war, it will be a just retribution on those who originated the rebellion; for there is a universal conviction among all classes, that slavery was, either directly or indirectly, the cause of the war, and that the guilty cause ought to be destroyed, and that without this, no lasting, permanent peace can possibly be secured. If it stands in the way of victory, of peace, of a restored and perpetual Union, let it die the death of the malefactor.

On the 25th of January, 1864, Governor Saunders had the supreme pleasure of placing his signature to a joint resolution of the Legislature complimented the territorial troops:

RESOLVED, That the thanks of the people of this territory are due, and are hereby tendered through their Legislative Assembly, to the brave men who have gone from our territory to battle for the preservation of our country. That we look with pride and satisfaction upon the record our soldiers have made since the war of the rebellion was inaugurated, and that their unsurpassed bravery on every field, from Fort Donelson, where the blood of Nebraska first mingled with the crimson tide of the brave of other states, who consecrated with their lives the first great victory of the war, down to the heroic defense of Cape Girardeau, where the sons of our territory, almost unaided, achieved one of the most brilliant and decisive victories that will adorn the annals of the present struggle, a record which commands the admiration of the world, and places it under a debt of gratitude to those brave men which we can never repay.

How thoroughly the Governor's patriotic efforts were supple-

TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS

mented by the women of the territory, appears from their contributions to the St. Louis Sanitary Fair of 1864, to the amount of $10,000, and to the Chicago Fair of 1865, to the amount of $25,000, where Mrs. Alvin Saunders and Mrs. 0. F. Davis were active participants. The sentiments of loyalty and patriotism proclaimed by the Governor were amply supplemented by the utterance of the Legislature of 1861-2:

RESOLVED, That, disavowing, as we do, the right of any state or states to nullify the federal law or secede from the federal Union, we regard such secession or nullification as treason against the United States, and believe it to be the first and holiest duty of the Government to uphold its laws and repress treason.

To a resolution of a republican member of the Legislature--"Resolved, that whenever an American Citizen unsheathes his sword and shoulders his musket, at his country's call, he should leave the spoilsman, the partisan and the politician in a nameless grave behind him," there came a democratic response: "That we hold rebels against our government to be outside the pale of its protection."
His messages furnish the land-marks of the Union Pacific railroad. In the first one, of December, 1861, we have the following:

A mere glance at the map of the country will convince every intelligent mind that the Platte Valley which passes through the heart, and runs nearly the entire length of Nebraska, is to furnish the route for the Great Central Railroad which is to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific States and Territories. Through Nebraska must pass, in a few years, not only the travel and trade between the Eastern and Western portion of our country, but also much of the trade. and travel between the Old and New World.

In his message in January, 1864, he thus congratulated the Legislature:

Congress passed a bill, at the first regular session after the inauguration of the present administration, providing for the construction of the Great Pacific Railway, commencing on the 100th meridian, within the Territory of Nebraska,

NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

thence westwardly to the Pacific coast, with three branches from the place of beginning eastward to the Missouri River. With these magnificent works successfully prosecuted, connecting directly with the great cities of the Atlantic and Pacific, with the benefits of the homestead act, of a virgin and fertile soil, of exhaustless salt springs, with a climate as salubrious as exists in the world-none can hesitate to predict for Nebraska gigantic strides in the attainment of wealth and power.

In January 1865, his declaration was:

It will be gratifying to you, and the people of the Territory to know that the work on the great Union Pacific Railroad, which is to pass through the entire length of Nebraska, is progressing at a very considerable rate. The work of grading, bridging, and preparing the ties, is progressing much more rapidly than had been anticipated by our most sanguine people. I feel fully authorized to say, that unless some unforeseen misfortune attends this great enterprise, more than fifty miles westward from Omaha will be in readiness for the cars before your next annual meeting.

In January, 1866, he reported fifty-five miles of track completed, and grading and bridging for niety-five (sic) miles, and predicted that 150 miles of the road would be ready for the cars within twelve months. But all speculations were to be exceeded during the year of 1866, since on the 11th of January, 1867, cars were running a distance of 293 miles from the initial point, and 262 miles of track were laid, in that year.
On the 2nd day of December, 1863, as one of the national Commissioners to locate the initial point of the road, with spade in hand to "break ground," the governor delivered the following address:

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen;
We have assembled here to-day for the purpose of inaugurating the greatest work of internal improvement ever projected by man, an improvement which is to unite with iron bands the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific, and to connect not only the great cities of the Atlantic with those of the Pacific Ocean, but to open the gateway of commerce for the nations of the earth. This gigantic enterprise,

TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS

which spans a continent, is destined to become the great thoroughfare not only for manufactured articles of our own New England, the agricultural staples of the valley of the Mississippi, and the gold and silver of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, but also the silk of the Indies, the manufactures of England and France, and the teas of China. It may indeed be appropriately termed the "Nation's Great ]Highway."
This, my fellow citizens, is no mere work of fancy, or fiction, but a substantial reality. The people, the great masses, have taken hold of it, and the work this day so auspiciously inaugurated, is destined to go steadily forward to completion. Whether viewed in the light of a prudential war measure or regarded in the light of a commercial enterprise, the Nation is so deeply interested in its speedy completion that it cannot fail.
The parties who participated here today in this initial step, represent the diversity of interests which are combined to push it forward to a complete consummation. You behold here the engineer, the mechanic, the laborer, the physician, the lawyer, the capitalist, the editor, the telegraph operator, all taking part in the exercises of this hour--and for such, throughout the whole country, is composed of backers of this great enterprise. I cannot close these brief remarks without expressing the gratitude which I feel to the President and the Congress of the United States for the good judgment which they have displayed in giving life to this magic work, and congratulating the people of the whole Union on its commencement and the cheering prospects of its early completion.

In advance of Congress, the Governor said in his message of 1861: "You should, in my opinion, urge Congress to enact a Homestead law at its next session." And in that of 1864, we have the following:

Among the many beneficent acts of legislation, passed by the Congress of the United States, since your last session, may be mentioned the "Homestead Bill." In fact, its success, so just to the settler, and so wise as a measure of national policy, seemed hopeless, while the reins of government were held by such men as controlled the administration preceding that of our present chief magistrate. The honor of the prompt passage of this great measure, is due to President Lincoln and his political friends in Congress.

NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

This question received special attention in all his messages, and after various efforts, congressional action was secured, and the transition made from the territory to a state, during the term of his incumbency. Without any exaggeration, his term of office included the most eventful period of our history, and no state or territory had a more faithful officer or devoted war governor than Nebraska. In the message of 1861 we read:

We are surrounded by tribes of Indians who are more or less tampered with by wicked men, and traitors of the Union; we are in the immediate vicinity of the battle fields of the rebellious states; the regular troops, who have been recently garrisoning our forts, are being rapidly withdrawn; large numbers of our best and bravest young men have been summoned from their homes to aid in fighting the battles of the Union; we have a long range of frontier settlements exposed to the tomahawks and scalping knives of savages. You should, therefore, urge upon Congress, in the strongest terms, the necessity of furnishing our people with the means of defending their homes and families.

The subject received attention in his official communication January 8, 1864:

True, Nebraska has no particular calls made for the services of her militia lately; nothing, however, but the liberality of the general government in supplying our wants with government troops has prevented it.

In 1865 his reference to the theme was as follows:

In the late call for troops to assist in protecting our frontier settlers from the savages, I found myself obliged to rely entirely upon the patriotism and liberality of the people in order to raise and equip a sufficient force to give proper relief to the suffering people.

It was recorded in the message of January 9, 1866, that:

The Indian War upon our Western border to which I adverted in my last annual message, still continues. It was hoped that with the close of the rebellion these troubles would cease; but this hope has proved groundless. Emboldened by success, the savage tribes who have committed these outrages upon the lives, and property of emigrants, and upon the Overland Stage line, and Pacific Telegraph,

TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS

have become exceedingly reckless and daring in their murderous forages; and outrages the most atrocious and wanton in their character are of frequent occurrence. Nothing will, in my judgment, give us peace upon the plains, but the employment of the most vigorous measures to hunt out and severely punish the authors of these outrages.

After Gov. Butler (of the State) had convened a Legislature on the 4th of July, 1866, for the election of United States Senator, Congress ordered the Territorial Governor (Alvin Saunders) to convene the Legislature for the purpose of adopting a "condition precedent" to the State's admission into the Union. Accordingly be issued his proclamation February 14th, 1867, and his message to the Legislature February 20th, 1867. Against the state legislature amending the provisions of the constitution, which as voted upon by the people recognized only white voters, the democrats entered their protest in a series of state resolutions in 1868; while at the same time there was not a unity of opinion among republicans on the questions of the right of the State to act, and the policy of extending the elective franchise to the people of color. Indeed, Governor Saunders, the very embodiment of national republicanism, said in his proclamation to the Legislature:

It no doubt would have been more satisfactory to you, as I frankly confess it would have been to me, if Congress had given the settlement of this question directly to the people of the Territory, instead of requiring of you, who were not particularly instructed on the subject, to take upon yourselves the whole responsibility of deciding this subject for them.

On the other question he affirmed:

The day, in my opinion, is not far distant when property qualifications, educational qualifications, and color qualifications, as precedent to the privilege of voting, will be known no more by the American people; but that intelligence and manhood will be the only qualifications necessary to entitle an American citizen to the privileges of an elector.

At this time the amendment to the United States Constitution had not passed, establishing impartial suffrage, but in 1870, two

NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

years later, the democratic platform read: "Resolved, that the Democracy of Nebraska accept the adoption of all amendments of the fundamental law of the land as a formal settlement of the questions disposed of thereby."
The State's admission, and the suffrage question both settled and out of the contest, in 1870 the republicans endorsed Grant's administration, commended congress for a reduction of the burdens of taxation and extended sympathy to Germany in her struggle with France; while the democrats resolved, "That all taxation, to be just, must be for a public purpose, equal, and uniform; that the national government has no right to levy a tax upon one individual to advance or promote the interest of another."
The condition, to which the state was to give assent, was, "That within the State of Nebraska there should be no denial of the elective franchise, by reason of color or race," except to untaxed Indians. This having been complied with, the state was formally admitted by the president's proclamation of March 1, 1867, when Governor Saunders was superseded by Governor David Butler. On retiring he indulged in a few parting words to a constituency that, in full, reciprocated his confidence and esteem.

TO THE PEOPLE OF NEBRASKA.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

OMAHA, NEBRASKA, March 27, 1867.

I have this day received official notice front the State Department at Washington, of the President's Proclamation announcing that the Legislature of Nebraska has accepted the conditions proposed by Congress, and declaring the fact that Nebraska is admitted as one of the independent states of the Union. The Governor elect under the state organization being now ready to take charge of the office, my duties as the Chief Executive of the Territory this day cease.
I take pleasure, before retiring from this office, in availing myself of this opportunity of returning my sincere thanks to the people of the Territory for their uniform kindness, and for the alacrity and promptness with which every official demand upon them has been honored, whether in war or in peace. No period of time of the same length since the

TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS

organization of our Government has been so eventful and full of interesting history as has been the six years I have been honored with an official connection with the people of Nebraska, and it gives me great pleasure to know that peace and general prosperity now prevail throughout our whole country, and especially to know that no country can truthfully boast of greater peace or more genuine prosperity than can Nebraska.
Especially do I feel proud of the financial condition of the Territory. Six years ago the debt of the Territory was fully two dollars for every man, woman and child in it, and the warrants of the treasury were selling at from twenty-five to thirty cents on the dollar. Now her paper is at par, and she is ready to pay every dollar of her indebtedness of whatever character, so that the new state can commence her career without a dollar of debt hanging over her. This condition of affairs, so far as my knowledge extends, is without a parallel in the history of new states, and gives cause for mutual and general congratulation. While our officers and people have been so attentive to the finances of our country, they have not been idle or wanting in other important particulars, for during the war Nebraska furnished as many troops as any other state or territory in proportion to its population, and no soldier from any quarter showed more valor or made a better record for bravery or true soldierly conduct than did those from Nebraska. So, viewing it from any standpoint, I feel proud that I have been permitted to occupy so conspicuous a position among a people so patriotic, prompt, and appreciative. With my best wishes for the prosperity of the whole people, of our new State, and for its great success, I am, etc.,

ALVIN SAUNDERS