Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-06
LINCOLN'S TRUST IN HIM.
His Early Recognition of the Mag
nitude of the Rebellion.
PEENSYLvANIA'S RESERVE CORPS.
Brushes With Secretary Stanton and Trou-
bic With Cameron.
TIE ORIGIN OF THE ORPHANS SCHOOLS
WRITTEN FOR THE prsPArCH.I

Andrew G. Curtin has written the most
brilliant chapters in the annals of the his
tory of our great civil conflict by his official
records as Governor of Pennsylvania. ]
am not unmindful, in paving this high
tribute to the great War Governor of the
Union, that there are many Pennsylvania
names which have become memorable for
their heroism in the struggle for the pre-
servation of our free Institutions Nor am
1 unmindful that Pennsylvania has within
her borders the great battlefield of the war,
and that the names of such Pennsylvania
heroes as Meade, Reynolds, and Hancock
are inseparably linked with the de-
cisive victory that gave assured safety and
unsullied freedom to the Union.
While Pennsylvania heroism was making
itself immortal on every battle field of the
war, the civil administration of the State
was more intimately involved with every
issue growing out of the war than that of
any other State of the Republic. Pennsyl-
vania was second only to New York in
population and physical power, and first of
all the States in the Importance of her posi-
tion and in moldlng the policy of the
States and their relations to the parent
Government Bordered by slave Common
wealths from her Eastern to her Western
lines, and more exposed than any of the
other loyal States of the Union to the perils
of war, her people were conservative to the
utmost limits of positive loyalty to the
Union.
All Eyes Were on Pennsylvania.
In January, 1861, when Curtin was inau-
gurated as Governor, not single Northern
State had officially defined its relations to
the Union, or its attitude as to the threat
ened Civil War, and any utterance from
State of such pre-eminent physical and
political power could not but make its i'm
preston on every State of the Union, North
and South. Few of the present day can
have any just appreciation of the excep-
tional delicacy and grave responsibility of
the position of the new Governor of Penn
sylvania- An ill-advised utterance from
him might have wantonIy inf1amed the war
spirit of the South or chilled the loyal
devotion of the North. He was called upon
TO define, in advance of all the other States,
the position of the North when confronted
by armed treason, and there were no pre-
cedents in our history to guide him in fore
casting the action of the most important
State of the North.
His inaugural address was prepared en-
tirely by himself before he came to the
State capital to assume his most responsible
trust Before he delivered it, he summoned
to his council number of the most intelli-
gent aud conslderate men of both parties in
the State, but after careful ana dispassion-
ate reflection upon every sentence of the
document, it was not substantially changed
In any particular, and the highest tribute
that history could pay to his statesmanship
is in the fact that the position of his great
State, and its relations. with the general
Government as defined in that address, were
accepted by every loyal State and vindicated
alike by the loyal judgment of the nation
and by the arbitrament of the sword.
What Curtin's Previous Record Was.
Curtin stood single among the public men
of Pennsylvania in 1860 as a popular leader
His strength was with the people rather
than in political invention. He had made
himself conspicuously known to his great
State by his services as Secretary of the
Commonwealth, when that officer was
charged with the control of the school
system. 1t was he who first organized
distinct department to extend and elevate
our schools, and he succeeded in greatly
liberalizing our educational system, and
starting it on the high way to its present
matchless advancement. AS early as 1874
he had made himself known as one of the
most eloquent stump speakers of the State,
and from that time until his nomination for
Governor in 1860, he was in the forefront of
every political contest, and was greeted with
boundless enthusiasm by his political follow
ers wherever he appeared
When the great battle of 1860 was to be
fought, Pennsylvania was accepted by all as
a doubtful State, and as her vote in October
would be the unerring finger board of ma
tIonal victory or defeat in November, it be-
came not only State but a national neces-
sity for the Republicans to nominate their
most available candidate to lead in that piv-
otal contest. The Republican people, almost
As with one voice, demanded the nomination
of Curtin, and there would have been no
other name presented to the Convention but
for the peculiar political complications
arising from General Cameron being a can
didate for President before the same Con-
vention, and bitterly hostile to Curtin. But
despite the peculiar power of Cameron as
an organizer and manager of political con-
ventions, he was finally compelled to assent
10 Curtin's nomination without being able
to obtain an earnestly united delegation in
his favor for President.
Curtin's Relations to Cameron.
The appointment of Cameron to the Lin
coin Cabinet was regarded by Curtin as un-
fortunate and would have made very
strained relations between Lincoln and Cur
tin had not both been singularlv generous
in all their impulses and actions But there |
never was shadow upon the relations of |
these two men. Although often disappoint- |
ed in the political action of the national ad- |
ministration and at times keenly erieyed |
because of political honors un- |
worthily conferred, or withheld from those
be deemed most worthy of them, he never |
for a moment lost sight of his paramount |
duty to give unfaltering support to the Gov |
srnment in the great struggle tor the main
Lenance of the Union.
The two men of the country who are dis |
tinctly upon record as having appreciated /
he magnitude of the war when 1t first be- |
ran, are General Sherman and Governor
Curtin. Sherman was judged lunatic and |
-eIfeyed of his command in Kentucky be- /
,ause he told the Government the exact |
ruth as to the magnitude of the Rebellion |
n the Southwest and the forces necessary
o overthrow it. Curtin proved his appre- /
,iation of the necessities of our imperiled |
Government by issuing his proclamation on
he 18th of April, 1861, calling % additional |
egiments of infantry and one of cavalry to
erve for three years or during the war, in /
edition to the quota furnished BY Penn