LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| PAGE. | |
|---|---|
| Steel Portrait of Zachariah Chandler, | [Frontispiece]. |
| The Chandler Homestead at Bedford, N. H., | [33] |
| The Birthplace of Zachariah Chandler, | [35] |
| The Entry of the Birth of Zachariah Chandler in the Family Bible, | [37] |
| The School House at Bedford, N. H., | [39] |
| The Chandler Block (Detroit), | [49] |
| Detroit in 1834, | [65] |
| Fac-Simile of the "Temperance Ticket" of 1852 in Michigan, | [86] |
| The First Republican State Convention—("Under the Oaks" at Jackson, Mich., July 6, 1854), | [111] |
| The National Capitol at Washington, | [127] |
| The Ship Canal at the St. Clair Flats, | [173] |
| Portrait of Senator Chandler in 1862, | [217] |
| Portrait of the Late James M. Edmunds, | [315] |
| The Interior Department at Washington, | [341] |
| The Cabinet of President Grant—1876-'77—(From a Sketch by Mrs. C. Adele Fassett), | [347] |
| The Office of the Secretary of the Interior, | [353] |
| Plat of the Marsh Farm, | [361] |
| The "Big Ditch" of the Marsh Farm, | [363] |
| The Main House at the Marsh Farm, | [365] |
| The Large Barn at the Marsh Farm, | [367] |
| Mr. Chandler's Residence at Washington, | [369] |
| Mr. Chandler's Residence at Detroit, | [371] |
| The State Capitol of Michigan, | [377] |
| Senator Chandler Denouncing the Eulogies upon Jeff. Davis in the Senate Chamber at 3 a. m. of Monday, March 3, 1879, | [381] |
| The Grand Pacific Hotel at Chicago, | [389] |
| Profile Bust of Zachariah Chandler—(A sketch from Leonard W. Volk's Plaster Cast), | [391] |
| The Tribute of Gen. U. S. Grant (fac-simile), | [393] |
ZACHARIAH CHANDLER.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND.
the valley of the Merrimack, fifty miles northwest from Boston, is the New Hampshire town of Bedford. It is a community of thrifty farms, with striking characteristics, and almost a century and a half of entertaining history. Simplicity of manners and sturdiness of character prevail among its people to-day, and the vigor of the stock of its original settlers, the loftiness of their traditions, and the puritanism of its civilization have made it a nursery of strong men.
King Philip's War ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the New England provinces. The subjugation of the savages was only accomplished when one in twenty of the men among the colonists had fallen and a like proportion of their families was houseless, and it left behind it what was in those days a heavy debt. More than half a century elapsed before there was any substantial recognition of the claims of the survivors of that war and their descendants. It was not until 1732, after numerous petitions and prolonged discussion, that "the Great and General Court of Massachusetts" granted land enough for two townships "to the soldiers who had served in King Philip's or the Narragansett War and to their surviving heirs-at-law." This grant was subsequently enlarged to seven townships, as appears from the following record of proceedings in "the Great and General Court or Assembly for His Majestie's Province of the Massachusetts Bay," under date of April 26, 1733: