In such a time of trial and stress as the present we are fairly entitled to gain what comfort we may from an examination of our past. The simple truth is that, with the possible exception of the Spanish War, we enter upon the present struggle with more of unanimity and resolution than has been the case with any other great war in our history. Of our unfortunate divisions and discords during the Revolution and the War of 1812 every schoolboy is informed. The North had little enthusiasm for the Mexican War and largely abstained from participation in it. The Civil War was a fratricidal contest, but the South eliminated from consideration, the people of the North were sadly divided in counsels and desires. That this was true of Wisconsin has been largely forgotten by our citizens. The present generation has forgotten, if indeed it was ever aware of, the fact that Wisconsin was the seat of a formidable copperhead sentiment during the war; that there was widespread opposition to the enforcement of the draft by the federal government; and that a largely attended mass meeting at the state capital in April, 1861, after the firing on Fort Sumter, laid on the table a resolution pledging support to President Lincoln. It is true the local paper declared, in the latter instance, that a majority of those present favored the resolution but were circumvented in their desire by the chairman of the meeting; but even so it is evident that there must have been a large element of opposition to have enabled him to carry through the maneuver. Notwithstanding the deliberation with which the recent legislature went about expressing its support of the national government, it requires no hardihood to affirm that no chairman of a public gathering, however traitorous his desire, could have prevented a Madison audience of 1917 from expressing its intention of standing behind the national government.
To touch for a moment upon another matter, the political ideals of the period preceding the Civil War were shockingly low in comparison with those of the present time. If there has been any graft in connection with the construction of our new $7,000,000 capitol, the public is as yet totally unconscious of the fact. Three-quarters of a century ago, on the contrary, we could not build even a forty-thousand-dollar capitol without a riot of mismanagement and dishonesty. The period of “Barstow and the balance,” and of the “forty thieves” signifies more than the addition of a picturesque phrase to our political annals. Instead of constituting a rare exception, the political morality which these phrases suggest was painfully commonplace in Wisconsin prior to the Civil War. It was only a few years before we entered upon that great struggle that a powerful corporation brazenly established a pay-counter at the capital and bought with paltry silver the entire state legislature, and even the governor himself. Idealists are by no means satisfied with the political standards and practices of our public men of the present day, but they are lily-white in comparison with the similar standards of the fifties in Wisconsin.
Or again, let us glance by way of comparison at the financial situation. The diary of Harvey Reid, published elsewhere in this magazine, affords an inkling, at least, of our deplorable financial condition in 1861. The national banking-system still lay in the womb of the future, while the treacherous “wild cats” flourished at the expense alike of private fortunes and public credit. With the first breath of war these institutions toppled in headlong ruin, notwithstanding that the state legislature, heedless of constitutional prohibitions, essayed vainly to prevent the crash. Within four days after the news of the firing on Fort Sumter, specie payments were suspended in Wisconsin; and the efforts of the government to float a war loan of $1,200,000 on the credit
of the state of Wisconsin in the summer of 1861 met with dismal and inglorious failure.
We do not remind the present generation of these things in any pharisaical attitude, but for the encouragement they afford to us at this time. The outstanding fact is that in the very face of such conditions as we have adverted to, Wisconsin girded herself for the task and played a noble part in the Civil War. We enter the present struggle immeasurably better prepared from almost every viewpoint than we did the one of old. If, as we believe, our people still retain a fair measure of pluck and ability, the record we are about to make should be correspondingly better than that of fifty years ago.
THE QUESTION BOX
The Wisconsin Historical Library has long maintained a bureau of historical information for the benefit of those who care to avail themselves of the service it offers. In “The Question Box” will be printed from time to time such queries, with the answers made to them, as possess sufficient general interest to render their publication worth while.
THE OLDEST CHURCH IN WISCONSIN
You will recall the little church in Ephraim where you gave us your historical address a few years ago. This church was built in 1857, dedicated in 1859, and has been in continuous use ever since.