“For the development of the plans of office work, the urging to completion the list of geographical positions, and the increased rapidity of publication, the Coast Survey is indebted mainly to the zeal and industry, guided by knowledge and intelligence, of Brevet-Major Isaac I. Stevens, of the corps of engineers, in acknowledging which, in connection with the remarks on the speedy completion of the results of the survey, I feel that I am doing simply an act of justice.
“Every department of the office has, under his able supervision, continued to improve, and has filled the full measure required by the increasing number, amount, and variety of results returned by the field work of the coast. It is due to Major Stevens to acknowledge the promptness which is secured in the publication of results, and the maturing of a system by which sketches and preliminary work of charts are made in every case to precede the more finished work, furnishing valuable results to the navigator as soon as obtained by the survey.
“The rapid execution of the engraved charts of the Western coast reconnoissance is a proof of the perfection of this organization, and of the zeal of those who administer it. Three well-executed sheets of reconnoissance were engraved and ready for publication within twenty working days after the beginning of the engraving.”
During Captain Humphreys’s illness the work had fallen greatly in arrears; many of the employees had become careless and idle, some of them dissipated; and great disorder and confusion prevailed. It was common report that the Coast Survey was the worst-conducted office in Washington. Major Stevens set himself to correct this state of things with a vigor, at times a severity, that admitted no delay and brooked no opposition. Strict punctuality, prompt compliance with orders, and complete and exact performance of duty, he required and exacted with military discipline. There was great discontent and indignation among the old officers and employees, and no little ridicule at the idea of the young major enforcing army rule in a scientific institution. Even the professor feared he was carrying it too far, and rather pettishly remarked, “Since Major Stevens took hold, there has been a continual jingling of bells all over the building, but I suppose it won’t do to interfere with these army officers.” It seems that Major Stevens had caused bells to be placed in the various offices with wires running to his own room, so that he could summon his subordinates without delay when he wished to see them.
But the new assistant pursued the course he had marked out unswervingly, without fear and without favor. He summarily dismissed several of the worst offenders. Others he degraded in pay or position. He made himself master of every branch and detail of that great institution. The old computers, engravers, draughtsmen, topographers, and others, who had passed years in the office, were astonished to find that the new chief fully understood their technical work, and was watching, criticising, and directing it with expert skill and judgment. As usual, he took a warm interest in the men under his charge, ever ready to encourage and reward the deserving, and to assist them in their personal affairs. He caused one of the messengers, who had lost both arms in an explosion, to learn to write with his foot, and gave him copying to do to eke out his scanty pay. One of the higher employees was addicted to periodical attacks of intemperance utterly beyond his power to resist, but otherwise was a respectable and useful man. Major Stevens quietly told this gentleman to come to him whenever he felt one of these attacks coming on too strong for him to withstand, and he should have a leave of absence for a few days, enough to have, and recover from, his spree, and on this footing he continued on the survey for years.
Under his firm, masterful, and exacting but generous treatment the outraged feelings of the office soon changed. They could not but respect a chief who, if he required good and full work, appreciated and acknowledged it; and their respect changed to admiration, and finally to affection, when they saw how he was building up the efficiency and reputation of the office, and realized that his strict rule was characterized by justice and impartiality, and tempered by the kindness of a warm-hearted and generous man. Professor Bache found in his new assistant not only relief from the cares of the office and of administration, but one whose ideas in most subjects agreed with his own, and whose strong, bright, and well-instructed mind could travel with his own through other fields. A warm and generous friendship grew up between them, which lasted unbroken during life.
The task he had undertaken at the Coast Survey made this a very laborious winter for Major Stevens, but one that gratified his ambition for public service. He met many of his brother officers, “the men of Mexico,” and discussed with them the questions of army reorganization, fortifications, etc. He also made the acquaintance of members of Congress, and freely impressed upon them his views of these measures. General Shields was now a senator from Illinois, and was always ready to adopt and advocate the ideas of the young major of engineers, and was glad of his aid in preparing his reports and bills. Always and emphatically a national man, believing that the preservation of the Union was essential to liberty and national existence, Major Stevens took great interest in the compromise measures so ably carried through by Henry Clay, in support of which Webster delivered his noted 7th of March speech, and fully approved the measures of these great statesmen to allay sectional strife and preserve the Union.
The plans and hopes of the Southern leaders were cruelly disappointed by the action of California, which adopted a free constitution, and knocked at the doors of Congress for admission as a free State. Consequently they refused her admission unless additional safeguards were thrown around the “peculiar institution,” as slavery was termed; and many of the fire-eaters openly advocated disunion as the only means of preserving it against the free ideas of the North, and the preponderating increase of free States. For a time the difference seemed irreconcilable, and disunion and civil war imminent; but at length, by the wise counsels of Clay, Webster, and the more broad-minded men of both sides, a compromise was effected, and California entered the Union a free State.
The old Puritan in Andover, in his abhorrence of slavery, condemned all compromise, and writes the son he so much loved and admired a pathetic and reproachful letter, marked, too, by a sublime faith in the ultimate triumph of right:—
Dear Son,—I have been confined to the house since the 22d of last November, but am now very well, excepting a weak leg. I have thought much of my daughters during my sickness, especially of the two youngest, who were ever ready to wait upon me by night or day.... I was sorry you should so much commend D. Webster’s speech, and thought no man could commend it who was opposed to slavery. I do think Webster to be a demagogue; that he is so lost to every good principle as to court slaveholders’ approbation, and vote shame on the descendants of the men of ’7.