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CHAPTER VIII.
The Press
The church, the school-house,
and the local press be justly termed the "holy
trinity" under whose watchful eye civilization
is gradually lifted to a higher plane. While they are
of equal potency as civilizing agents, it is indeed
strange that the country newspapers should not be maintained
by the public, the same as the public school system.
Instead of these twin offspring sharing the same patrimony,
the press, like Ishmael, is an outcast from the parental
bosom.
While the country publisher
should be, and invariably is, the best and smartest
man in the community, he is permitted to exist merely
through sufferance. Nobody loves him, and yet through
his paper he is expected to love everybody. He is not
regarded as a fellow-creature, liable to error, or to
the periodical demand for alimentary sustenance. He
must be "without spot or wrinkle" in the eyes
of the exacting public. He is not an individual, but
an "institution." His real worth is never
realized until his form is locked in the chaste form
of death. Then his funeral is celebrated with great
festivity and pomp. The funeral procession is as long
as that of the wealthiest citizen in the village. His
rival publisher writes a lengthy obituary notice, extolling
his many virtues, praising his worth as a citizen, father,
husband, and friend, and winds up with a peroration
to the effect that the loss to the community, of the
late lamented, is one which time cannot fully repair.
To publish even a country newspaper requires a high
degree of talent, which in any other public channel
would command a handsome salary, but the unappreciative
public is insensible of the sacrifice.
The first paper established
in Monroe County was called the Albia Independent
Press. It was edited and published by A. C. Barnes,
the father of the present proprietor of the Albia
Union. The paper, which first made its appearance
October 10, 1854, was independent in its political views,
as it so stated. Yet it now and then exhibited a decided
leaning towards the new Abolitionist party, which had
not yet begun to gather to itself much popularity. In
the issue of the Independent Press of September
26, 1855, the publisher has this to say of slavery:
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"We have never deemed
it our calling or duty to say much about slavery, though
we have ever regarded it as an unavoidable evil to both
master and slave, in the original slave States. But
if slavery had not been extended and was not now being
extended over the limits where it was when the Union
was formed, we would probably scarcely ever speak or
think of it, and we have hoped long since that its agitation
would cease. When it had nearly ceased, after the passage
of the fugitive slave act, the patriots who had abhorred
some features of that act had smothered their feelings
of opposition and were quiet. Soon again pro-slavery
men opened afresh the agitation by their efforts to
extend the area of slavery. We did not object to the
slave-owner with a posse from a slave State taking the
fugitive slave back, but we do object to being made
a party to assist him by compulsory laws, and then again
a party to assist in procuring new slave territory,
and not allowed to desist nor not allowed to say one
word on pain of being called an abolitionist, and charged
with endangering the Union. Nor will we consent to being
gagged on any account. We would check fanaticism on
the subject of slavery as we would on every other subject,
and still preserve and defend the liberty of speech
and the rights of conscience."
In the same issue were the
minutes of the Agricultural Society. Jas. B. Turner,
E. P. Cone, and John Phillips were the committee to
award premiums on ox-bows made with in the county; Robt.
Saunders, E. M. Moore, and Jas. B. Turner were the committee
on jacks and mules; and Wm. Robinson, Hillah Hayes,
and Andrew Trussell the committee on stallions and brood-mares.
There was also a paragraph
giving a statement of the electoral vote for President
in the approaching election of 1856. The fifteen Southern
States showed 120 votes, and the Northern States 176
votes in the electoral college.
The Press hoisted
the standard of Frémont and Dayton, notwithstanding
its former non-partisan professions, and in the November
election the county gave Frémont 622 votes and
Buchanan 603.
In another issue is given
the schedule rates for hauling, as fixed by the Teamsters'
Association of Albia, as follows:
| River hauling, per hundred |
$1.50 |
| Hauling by the day |
3.00 |
| Hauling by the load, in town |
.30 |
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| Hauling from Phelps' mill |
$0.75 |
| Hauling from Babbs' mill |
.50 |
| Hauling from Easley's mill |
2.50 |
| Hauling from Soap Creek mill |
3.00 |
| Hauling from Bremen mill |
2.50 |
| Hauling from Blakesburg mill |
3.00 |
| Hauling from Judson's |
2.75 |
Another interesting communication
to the Press of July 2, 1856, is the report
of the Democratic convention of Urbana Township. Following
is the report, verbatim:
"The meeting was organized
by calling Lewis Arnold to the chair, and R. B. Arnold
acted as secretary. Our able and indefatigable prosecuting
attorney, T. B. Perry, being present, addressed the
meeting in defense of Democratic principles. He spoke
warmly of the action of the Democracy at Cincinnati,
and congratulated the Democratic party upon the nomination
of such men as Buchanan and Breckinridge. His remarks
were duly appreciated by all present.
"On motion, 15 delegates
were appointed to attend the convention at Albia; viz.,
George Reading, M. S. McAlister, G. R. Halliday, C.
O. Vancleve, Doster Noland, R. K. Stoops, Jas. Goodman,
W. T. Barnhill, Nimrod Martin, Jas. McIntrye, Joseph
Caldwell, John Hawk, Levi Herod, and Wm. Dale.
"Ordered, that where
delegates fail to attend, any delegate of the township
may act as a substitute, or the delegates present to
cast the full vote.
"On motion of Geo.
R. Robinson, Esq., a committee of five were appointed
to draft resolutions expressive of the sense of the
meeting. The chair appointed Geo. R. Robinson, John
Hawk, W. P. Wilson, R. B. Arnold, and Fountain Kennedy
said committee.
"The committee reported
the resolutions were appended, which were unanimously
adopted.
"Resolved,
That the proceedings of this meeting be published in
the Keokuk Weekly Times and the Albia Independent
Press.
"Whereas,
The present political excitement and the threatened
dismemberment of our glorious confederacy demand of
every friend of constitutional liberty an open and outspoken
expression of sentiments, expressive of the interest
felt in the perpetuation and extension of our incomparable
institutions, and thoroughly convinced as we are, and
ever have been, of the truth and justice of the Democratic
cause—cherishing, as we have ever done, an unwavering
faith
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in the honesty, integrity, and intelligence
of the American people—we have never entertained
a doubt of the final triumph and ultimate success of
the principles of the party.
"Resolved,
That we cordially endorse the action of the Democratic
national convention at Cincinnati—that we will
give 'a pull, a long pull, and a pull al together' for
the nominees of that convention.
"Resolved,
That in the persons of Jas. Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge,
of Kentucky, we have statesmen of the highest order,
tried and experienced in home and foreign policy, gentlemen
whose character cannot be reached by the foul shafts
of abolition calumny.
"Resolved,
That we deprecate all attempts to agitate the slavery
question or any other sectional issue which tends to
alienate the affections of the people, and draw one
section of the people against the other.
"Resolved,
That we approve most heartily the course of our talented
and energetic representatives in Congress, Messrs. Jones
and Hall, for so nobly sustaining Democratic principles
and securing Iowa the grant of land to aid the construction
of her railroads; and we feel a sense of humiliation
at the conduct, speeches, and sentiments of Messrs.
Harlan and company—exponents alike of the principle
of 'Sam' and 'Sambo.'
"Resolved,
That we duly appreciate the motives of the patriotic
Clay and Webster Whigs, who, like Preston and Marshall
of Kentucky, Toombs and Stephens of Georgia, and Benjamin
of Louisiana, and others, have joined the Democracy
and are battling for those principles on which the fathers
of the Republic based our social fabric.
"Resolved,
That we have no feeling of respect for those who affiliate
with that class of politicians who recognize a 'higher
law' and who recommend as a code of morals, 'Sharp's
rifles and the resistance of law unto a bloody
issue.'
"Resolved,
That we abide by the decision of the Albia convention
to be holden on the 5th of July, and hereby pledge a
hearty support to the nominees. Our motto is, 'Principles,
not Men.' In the language of Buchanan, 'Men
are but the creatures of a day. Principles are eternal.'
"The meeting
adjourned, cherishing the belief that the country and
State would give handsome majorities for the Democracy
in August and November.
"Lewis Arnold, Chairman.
R. B. Arnold, Secretary.
"Avery, Monroe Co., June 28, 1856.
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The Independent Press then
refutes a prevalent rumor that John C. Frémont
is a slave owner, by publishing some correspondence
between Daniel F. Miller, the Whig member of Congress
from the First District, of which Monroe County was
then a part, and Horace Greeley. Miller writes to Greeley
stating that the Democrats were making the charge that
Frémont owned twenty-three slaves held in servitude
in the South. He requests Greeley to ascertain from
Frémont whether the charge is true or not; and
Greeley replies in part as follows:
"Well, Friend Miller,—What
would you have us do in the premises? The report is
false—an inexcusable, unmitigated lie—we
have authority for so reporting it. * *
"Col. Frémont
is not a slave-holder; but suppose he were—what
of it? Do not you and I recognize the right to hold
slaves in slave States? Have we not repeatedly voted
for slave-holders whom we knew to be right on the great
issues at stake? Is it not quite likely that we may
do so again? Read the letter of Adam Beatty published
in your last, and say whether you would not far sooner
support him for President, avowed slave-holder as he
is, than any 'Dough-face' in America? Would you not
rather vote for Breckinridge than for Buchanan? * *
* But suppose you run this particular lie into the ground,
you will have accomplished nothing, while the spirit
which prompted its fabrication remains in existence.
Next day you will be told that Frémont is Catholic;
and, though this is as false as the other, it will be
easy for Hookem Snivey to assert that Peter Snooks told
him that he heard Frémont tell him he was Roman
Catholic, or saw him attending mass, or something to
that effect. Will you waste a week running down this
lie also, and then where are you?"
Among the display "ads"
is one which reads:
"Beef Hides Wanted.—I
will pay the highest price for any dry and green hides
delivered to my shop on the south side of the Square,
Albia. P. Morgan."
Morgan afterwards located
in Des Moines, and built the Morgan Hotel, for a long
time the largest hotel in the city.
Mr. Barnes, the publisher,
was a most exemplary and pious gentleman, and had such
a particular abhorrence to profanity that he states
in a paragraph that it shocks him to hear boys swearing
while playing on the streets. He
138
concludes the paragraph by stating that
it had been intimated to him that his own boys were
beginning to swear. He assures the public that if there
is any truth in the rumor, he will be sincerely thankful
for being informed of it, and that he will not be offended.
Evidently his friends were a little derelict in reporting
any appearing tendencies towards juvenile profanity
in the case of little Alpheus, or, at least it would
appear that the proper corrective had not been interposed
soon enough.
Mr. Barnes, in the issue
of the Press of October 17, 1855, administers
a little fatherly advice to T. B. Perry touching the
evil of the young attorney's ways. He reproves him on
two counts: one was for Mr. Perry's presumption in aspiring
to the county judgeship, and the other was for procuring
whisky "at the doggery kept near Bremen, with which
to promote his interests in the campaign just prior
to the August election." The kind-hearted editor
states that Mr. Perry is still a young man, and that
the opportunity is still open for him to live down his
youthful errors. He pardons his offense, but expresses
the fear that the young man is on the downward road.
This thrust had been provoked by Mr. Perry having alluded
to Mr. Barnes as a "Know-Nothing" in a speech
at a big Democratic rally at Albia.
Mr. Barnes conducted the
Press until the 17th of June, 1857, when it
suspended.
The Weekly Albia Republican
made its appearance November 5, 1857, under the management
of W. W. Barnes, a son of the pioneer journalist and
a senior brother of A. R. Barnes, the present proprietor
of the Albia Union, and C. E. Topping. After
running four months, Topping went to Michigan to visit
his relatives and obtain funds to pay for his interest
in the paper. He never returned; and Stephen R. Barnes
bought the interest of his brother W. W., and published
the sheet until 1859, when he sold the paper to Josiah
T. Young and T. B. Gray. Young called the paper the
Monroe County Sentinel.
The Republican
was uncompromising in its opposition to the extension
of human slavery. It made vehement assaults on Buchanan
and his tardiness or inaction with regard to checking
the rapidly advancing crisis of 1860-61. In one issue
the publisher calls upon Congress to impeach Buchanan.
The Sentinel, under
the management of Messrs. Young
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and Gray, was Democratic in politics.
Mr. Young at that time was a staunch supporter of Stephen
A. Douglas.
The Sentinel, in
critising Governor Kirkwood's inaugural address, makes
some disparaging comments on the Governor's recommendation
that a memorial be present to Congress praying for the
enactment of a homestead law.
The editor of the Sentinel
"touches up" his contemporary, the publisher
of the Blade, and a Republican, by the caustic
accusation that the latter openly and unblushingly denounces
the fugitive slave law, and holds that a citizen of
the North is under no moral or legal obligation to report
or intercept runaway negroes from the South. In speaking
further of this startling propaganda, the Sentinel
man tells his readers that it is whispered that there
are several men in Monroe County who entertain similar
views.
In the issue of the Sentinel
of December 8, 1860, Eli De Tar gushes forth in poetic
strain. The poem is entitled "Montgomery Taken
at Last." At the end of the poem the poet somewhat
mars the rapture of the song by a sordid allusion to
himself and the "Big Brick":
"Remember the place
in the Big Brick,
Where I'll sell cheap for cash,
But never on tick."
In the Sentinel
of May 25, 1861, is a leading editorial, called forth
by threats of mobbing the Sentinel office.
The publisher protests his loyalty to the Union, and
points out the grave consequences liable to ensue in
case the Sentinel office or its publishers
should be molested by a mob. Mr. Young by this time
had retired from the paper as editor, although he still
owned it.
In another issue is published
the proceedings of the Urbana Township Democracy in
a meeting assembled to discuss the war question. The
sense of the meeting was that the only feasible plan
of settling the momentous question was by peaceful diplomacy;
civil war was unjustifiable and inimical to constitutional
liberty as established by our forefathers, etc. While
the position taken by the Democracy of Urbana Township
at the time may have been located on the extreme limit
of the border line between pro and anti-slavery, their
public meetings and utterances do not indicate an approval
or indorsement of the secession movement then assuming
form in the Southern States. They
140
did not believe it was right for the South
to withdraw from the Union, and at the same time they
felt that it was usurpation of power for the North to
hold the South in bonds of union against its wishes.
In short, the Democratic party of 1860-61 persisted
in their entreaties to persuade the South to stay in,
if possible, but if not, then the Lincoln administration
at Washington should not hinder their withdrawal by
force of arms.
Later on, the sentiments
of the publishers of the Sentinel (J. T. Young
and J. H. Denslow, the latter having taken Mr. Gray's
place) seem to gradually modify in behalf of the expedient
of suppressing the Rebellion by force of arms. In the
issue of the Sentinel of September 28, 1861,
the paper says, in an editorial:
It is necessary to fight
for the country, and the hotter the war the sooner peace.
We have been, and are yet, in favor of using all proper
means for the restoration of the Union and preservation
of all our rights under the Constitution, but would
much rather that we could get along without a bloody
war. But the fortunes of war are upon us, and fight
we must!"
The Sentinel, however,
in commenting on a prevalent rumor that the President
and Cabinet had taken under advisement the question
of acknowledging the Southern Confederacy, makes this
remark: "Under existing circumstances, this is
the best thing the new Administration can do towards
settling our difficulties peaceably."
The columns of the Sentinel
from 1860 to 1861 are largely taken up with reports
of meetings called to discuss the war topic. They are
termed "Union meetings," and were participated
in by men of all parties. Fort Sumter had been fired
upon. Most of those in the North who had hitherto hoped
for a peaceful adjustment of the dispute, and who had
bitterly censured the President and his Cabinet, now
united on common grounds with those who had espoused
the cause of the North from the start. At one of these
meetings, April 27, 1861, the following resolutions
were adopted:
"Resolved,
That it becomes all good and loyal citizens to stand
by the stars and stripes and defend our glorious Union
against internal rebellion or other invasion.
"Resolved,
That any man in our midst who in any way
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encourages or supports secession or rebellion,
or gives aid and comforts thereto, is a traitor and
should be dealt with as such.
"T. B. Perry,
"T. B. Gray."
Hon. Josiah T. Young, Ex-Secretary
of State of Iowa.
(click on image for larger size)
It was during Mr. Young's
connections with the Sentinel that an editorial
appeared in its columns assuring Governor Pickens, of
South Carolina, whose State had lately adopted
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a secession ordinance, that if the North
attempted to apply coercive measures towards the Southern
States threatening secession, a fire in the rear would
roll up from the North to harass the invading Northern
army on its march down to the scene of conflict. This
utterance became known as his "fire-in-the-rear
speech," and in later years, when his political
views had become completely changed by his experience
and observation as a Union soldier, the allusion to
the expression bore with it a touch of humor.
This "fire-in-the-rear"
utterance is commonly confounded with a letter which
he wrote to Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, at
about the time that State was deliberating on the question
of going out of the Union; but, as will be seen from
a perusal of the letter itself, no such expression occurs.
Mr. Young was a Democrat,
and the tenor of his letter to Governor Pickens was
not unlike that of hundreds of other Democrats within
the county at that time.
Not long after, Mr. Young
enlisted in the Union army; he made a good soldier,
and endured the hardships of a
squalid prison-pen at Tyler, Texas. Whatever may
have been his position at one time concerning the issues
of the war, there was no ampler testimony of a citizen's
loyalty and devotion to the cause of human liberty than
that shown by the Union soldier who carried his musket
at his side by day and slept upon it at night.
The following is Mr. Young's
letter to Governor Pickens, copied verbatim:
"Albia, Iowa, Jan.
14, 1861.
"To His Excellency, Gov. Pickens,
Charleston, S. C.:
"Sir,—It is with
feelings that I cannot describe, that impress me at
the present moment, that I undertake to pen an epistle
to you.
"Pardon me for addressing
you, but I feel such an anxiety for the safety and perpetuity
of our common country and her institutions that I cannot
keep silent. The first thing I wish to mention is, that
not all the men in the North who voted for Mr. Lincoln
are abolitionists. Quite a number of persons within
my own knowledge voted the Republican ticket because
of their great dislike to the Administration at Washington.
They wished a change of men at the head of affairs,
at the same time never dreaming that by so voting they
were helping to precipitate the nation into evil
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commotion and confusion. Others voted
for Mr. Lincoln because of the free-farm plank in his
platform, not caring whether slavery was voted up or
down.
"So far, I have been
talking only of those who have voted the Republican
ticket. It is proper to say than in the young and thriving
state of Iowa there were at the last election nearly
sixty thousand votes cast in opposition to the sectional
views and narrow, contracted ideas of the Lincoln party.
In my opinion, there are at present more than six thousand
men in the State who, if the election should be held
to-morrow, would vote a conservative ticket as opposed
to fanaticism.
"The above statements
being facts, is it fair for South Carolina and other
States to break up the Union? Is it fair for us to pass
ordinances of secession—destroy this government,
the best ever made by human hands, and leave thousands
of true and loyal citizens in the old deserted edifice—citizens
always true to the Union, and all the rights of every
section of the country, who have stood by the old ship
of State through sunshine and through storm?
"You are, my dear sir,
taking the right tack to make enemies of those who were
your friends. You do not offer the poor boon offered
by the angels to Lot in Sodem. You do not give us a
chance to escape from the thralldom of Abolition, for
you desert us in Congress, at a time when the presence
of your representatives is absolutely necessary to prevent
our enemies from carrying on their measure of destruction
to the peace, happiness, and future well-being of the
whole country. Thousands and tens of thousands of the
people of the North are the friends of the South—have
contended for their rights in the common territories;
for the execution of the fugitive slave law as it is;
for the right of the slave-holders to hold their negroes
as property in the slave States; for the right of the
owner to carry his slave from one State to another,
passing through a free State with danger of losing his
property. Shall these friends of yours, who have adhered
to your fortunes, and to the Constitution and laws,
now be deserted by you and left to fight on amid the
bewildering gloom that now enshrouds our erstwhile happy
country? No! you will not leave us; you will seek redress
of all grievances in the Union under the Constitution.
There are more conservative men in the North, your friends,
than there are of you, all told. Yet you propose to
render us pow-
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