Trumbull received his quota of abuse and vilification for his vote against impeachment from small-minded newspapers and local politicians. To these it seemed an infernal shame that he had still five years to serve in the Senate before they could turn him out. The only reply he ever made in writing, so far as I know, was in a letter dated May 20 to Gustave Koerner, which the latter caused to be published in the Belleville Advocate, reiterating in brief the views expressed in his opinion as a member of the court.
Fessenden's unexpired term was shorter than Trumbull's. He was read out of the party rather prematurely. In the autumn following his vote on impeachment, George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, made his appearance as a stump speaker in Maine supporting the Democratic policy of "paying the bonds in greenbacks." This was a new issue in the East, and a rather puzzling one everywhere. Pendleton had been a candidate for the presidency in the national convention on that platform, but had fallen somewhat short of a nomination. Fessenden was the only man within reach able to meet him and expose his fallacies on the stump. The party was in danger of losing the state. It was obliged to call for the Senator's help. He responded favorably, took the field and routed the Greenbackers completely. This was his last victory. He had been in poor health for some years. Overwork and over-anxiety as chairman of the Finance Committee during the War, and later as Secretary of the Treasury, had told upon a feeble frame. He died September 2, 1869, and with him passed away the most clairvoyant mind, joined to the most sterling character, that the state of Maine ever contributed to the national councils. Whether, if his life and health had been spared, he could have been reëlected to the Senate, is doubtful. Gideon Welles was informed that he had not a friend in the Maine legislature. When his death was announced in the Senate, Trumbull said of him:
As a debater engaged in the current business of legislation the Senate has not had his equal in my time. No man could detect a sophistry or perceive a scheme or a job quicker than he, and none possessed the power to expose it more effectually. He was a practical, matter-of-fact man utterly abhorring all show, pretension, and humbug.... But I did not rise so much to speak of the great abilities and noble traits of character which have made Mr. Fessenden's death to be felt as a national calamity, as of the personal loss which I myself feel at his departure. Only three others are now left who were here when I came to the Senate, and there is but one who came with me. There has been no one here since I came to whom I oftener went for counsel and whose opinions I have been accustomed more to respect than those of our departed friend. There were occasions during our fourteen years of service together when we differed about minor matters and had controversies, for the time unpleasant, but I never lost my respect for him, nor do I believe that he ever did for me. He was my friend more closely, perhaps, the last year or two than ever before. Like other Senators I shall miss him in the daily transactions of this chamber, and perhaps more than any other shall miss him as the one person from whom I most frequently sought advice. I am not one of those, however, who believe that constitutional liberty, our free institutions, or the progress of the age depend upon any one individual. When the great and good Lincoln was stricken down, I did not believe that the Government would fail, or liberty perish. Though his loss may have subjected the country to many trials it would not otherwise have had, still our Government stands and liberty survives. Another has taken Mr. Fessenden's place; others will soon occupy ours, to discharge their duties better, perhaps, than we have done, and he among us to-day will be fortunate, indeed, if, when his work on earth is done, he shall leave behind him a life so pure and useful, a reputation so unsullied, a patriotism so ardent, and a statesmanship so conspicuous as William Pitt Fessenden.[112]
Grimes had a stroke of paralysis while the impeachment trial was in progress, and it was feared that he could not be in his seat when the time for voting came, but he rallied sufficiently to be carried into the Senate Chamber and to rise upon his feet when his name was called. When he learned the nature of his malady he announced that he would not be a candidate for reëlection. Thus he was taken out of the reach of party vengeance, but though as pure as ice, he did not escape calumny.
John B. Henderson died while this book was passing through the press. He was the only one of the Seven Traitors whom the Republican party publicly and formally forgave. He lost his seat in the Senate as he expected, and he retired to private life as a lawyer in the city of St. Louis. Twelve years passed. Two presidential lustrums of Grant and one of Hayes had erased from the hearts of men the burning sensations of impeachment. In 1884, a convention assembled in Chicago to nominate a candidate of the Republican party for the presidency. I happened to be there. On the second day of its sitting, the Committee on Permanent Organization reported the name of John B. Henderson, of Missouri, for permanent chairman. The assembled multitude knew at once the significance of the nomination and gave cheer after cheer of applause and approval. It was the signal that all was forgiven on both sides. Which side most needed forgiveness was not asked.
In August, 1868, all the sorrows of Trumbull's public life were submerged and belittled by a domestic affliction. His wife, Julia Jayne Trumbull, died on the 16th of that month, at her home in Washington City, in the forty-fifth year of her age, and was buried in the cemetery of her native place, Springfield, Illinois. She was the mother of six children, all boys, three of whom were living at the time of her death.
FOOTNOTES:
[103] On the 3d of August, 1868, shortly after his acquittal, Johnson wrote a letter to Benjamin C. Truman, his former secretary, which gives his estimate of Grant and throws some new light on the politics of the time. There is nothing to show which of the Blairs was referred to as giving him advice as to the make-up of his Cabinet, but it was probably Montgomery. He says:
"I may have erred in not carrying out Mr. Blair's request by putting into my Cabinet Morton, Andrew, and Greeley. I do not say I should have done so had I my career to go over again, for it would have been hard to have put out Seward and Welles, who had served satisfactorily under the greatest man of all. Morton would have been a tower of strength, however, and so would Andrew. No senator would have dared to vote for impeachment with those two men in my Cabinet. Grant was untrue. He meant well for the first two years, and much that I did that was denounced was through his advice. He was the strongest man of all in the support of my policy for a long while and did the best he could for nearly two years in strengthening my hands against the adversaries of constitutional government. But Grant saw the radical handwriting on the wall and heeded it. I did not see it, or, if seeing it, did not heed it. Grant did the proper thing to save Grant, but it pretty nearly ruined me. I might have done the same thing under the same circumstances. At any rate, most men would.... Grant had come out of the war the greatest of all. It is true that the rebels were on their last legs and that the Southern ports were pretty effectually blockaded, and that Grant was furnished with all the men that were needed, or could be spared, after he took command of the Army of the Potomac. But Grant helped more than any one else to bring about this condition. His great victories at Donelson, Vicksburg, and Missionary Ridge all contributed to Appomattox." (Century Magazine, January, 1913.)