Speech of Hon. J.B. Henderson, of Missouri, on the present condition of the country and the remedy for existing evils: delivered in the United States Senate, February 13 and 14, 1866.
(This volume is produced from digital images from the Corn...)
This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
The Cruise of the Tomas Barrera: The Narrative of a Scientific Expedition to Western Cuba and the Colorados Reefs, with Observations On the Geology, Fauna, and Flora of the Region
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Speech of Hon. J.B. Henderson, of Missouri, on emancipation in Missouri: delivered in the Senate of the United States, January 16, 1863.
(Originally published in 1863. 16 pages. This volume is pr...)
Originally published in 1863. 16 pages. This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
John Brooks Henderson was an American politician. He was a United States Senator
from Missouri from 1862 to 1869.
Background
John Henderson was born on November 16, 1826, in Danville, Virginia, United States. He was the son of James and Jane (Dawson) Henderson. In 1832 the family moved to Lincoln County, Missouri, where a few years later his father was accidentally killed. His mother died soon afterward and he went to live for some years on the farm of a minister where he worked to the advantage of both brain and brawn, acquiring rugged health and obtaining a firm grounding in his studies.
Education
John Henderson studied on his own and read law.
Career
Admitted to the bar in 1844, John Henderson began practice at Louisiana, the county-seat, rapidly built up a large practice, and, fortunate always in investments, accumulated a considerable property which developed ultimately into a large fortune. In politics he was an ardent Democrat and was elected to the legislature in 1848 and again in 1856. In both sessions he was prominent in railroad and banking legislation. During this period he was president of one of the branches of the state bank. He was defeated for Congress in 1850, 1858, and 1860, but he was judge of the court of common pleas for a short time and was offered a seat in the supreme court. In 1856 and in 1860 he was a presidential elector. Independent then as always, he opposed President Buchanan’s Kansas policy, and in 1860, supporting Douglas, he was a delegate to the Charleston and Baltimore conventions.
On January 17, 1862, Henderson was appointed United States senator to replace Trusten Polk. The following year he was elected for a full term. In the Senate, where he was next to the youngest member, Henderson quickly became prominent. He served on a number of important committees, including finance, foreign relations, and Indian affairs, and was responsible for much of the financial legislation of the war. He was greatly interested in the purchase of Alaska and aided Seward in arranging the terms. As chairman of the committee on Indian affairs he urged better treatment of the Indians, and in 1867, as chairman of the Indian peace commission, he concluded advantageous treaties, bringing peace with several tribes.
He was a severe critic of Johnson and voted for the Tenure of Office Act, but, alone of the regular Republican senators, voted against the bill forbidding the president to issue military orders except through the general in command of the army. From a sense of decency he would not vote for the resolution declaring Stanton’s removal illegal and during the progress of the trial of Johnson he was liberal with respect to the admission of evidence. He found it hard to reach a decision, harder still to vote against his party, and visibly wavered, even offering to resign that his successor might vote guilty. He voted “not guilty, ” defied the attempt of these managers to fasten corruption upon him, assuring the Senate that he had no appropriate epithets for Benjamin Franklin Butler’s report, and, if he had, could not, in justice to himself or to the Senate, use them, and filed an unanswerable defense on legal grounds for his votes. He was denounced, threatened, and burned in effigy by Missouri radicals, but more than any other of the recalcitrant Republicans he was forgiven by his party. He was, of course, not a candidate for reelection.
Returning to the law, Henderson began to practise in St. Louis. In 1870 he supported the Liberals, but in 1872 he was back in the fold and the party candidate for governor and in 1873, candidate for senator. In 1875 he was appointed special federal district attorney to investigate and prosecute the whiskey ring, but he was soon removed for a speech attacking General Babcock, which Grant thought reflected upon him as well. Henderson knew Grant well and had sought in 1867 and 1868 to guide him away from some of his undesirable political associates. He did not approve of Grant’s administration and supported him reluctantly in 1872. In 1876 and 1880 he was a determined opponent of the third-term movement. In 1884 he was president of the Republican national convention and was eager for the nomination of his friend and neighbor, General William Tecumseh Sherman.
In 1889 Henderson retired from practice and moved to Washington, the District of Columbia, where he spent the rest of his life. He was an interested delegate to the Pan-American Congress of 1889 and for many years, 1892-1911, a regent of the Smithsonian Institution. He wrote constantly for magazines and the press, preserved a lively interest in public affairs, entered into the social life of the capital with zest, entertaining a great deal, and grew gracefully to old age.
John Henderson was a state-rights Democrat, or at least so considered himself, but when the issue was drawn in 1861, he strongly opposed the secession of Missouri and was a Union delegate to the convention and one of the most influential forces in preserving the state to the Union. In the report of the commission appointed to receive the commissioner from Georgia he made a powerful argument for the Union, and his speech, made by request of the convention on March 5, was fiery and eloquent. The fall of Sumter and the call for troops changed his opinion as to coercion, and he raised a brigade of militia of which he became brigadier-general. Later he became a member of the Republican party.
Views
Quotations:
“Has it ever been supposed, by any member of this convention, that any man could be elected President of the United States who could so far disregard his duties under the Constitution and forget the obligation of his oath as to undertake the subjugation of the Southern States by military force? If so, this Government is at an end. ”
“Say to my friends that I am sworn to do impartial justice according to law and conscience, and I will try to do it like an honest man. ”
Personality
Until the end of his life Henderson was an omnivorous reader and a prodigious worker. Although he was a man of warm and affectionate nature, he had a gusty temper not infrequently aroused. In politics he was courageous and never hesitated to differ with his party. A touch of intellectual uncertainty in him is indicated by his frequently voting for measures he opposed in speech.
Connections
John Henderson married, in 1868, Mary Newton Foote, the daughter of Elisha Foote of New York.