INTRODUCTION
When it shall have been written in full, the narrative of the life of Gen. John C. Black will prove a rare inspiration to the American youth. It will be a picture of the shadows and the sunlight of life, at once a tale of youth struggling upward through labor; of support and education self-attained; of the life of the soldier in the ranks, in the camp and upon the battlefield; of the commander, loved and admired by those whom he gallantly and heroically led through the vicissitudes of war; of sounds suffering and menacing death; of slow recovery, restoration to friends, the triumphs of an indomitable will; of happy home; of successful professional life; of popular admiration and of preferment by party; of eager, efficient, just and patriotic discharge of important public trusts; of industry unflagging; of purity unwavering; of simplicity adorning every relation of life, and of whatsoever else in achievement, in honor, in duty to country, and to his fellow men, the future may yet have in reserve for him.
HIS ANCESTRY AND BIRTH.
Gen. John C. Black was born in Lexington, Miss., January 27, 1839. He is of Scotch-Irish descent. In order to avoid the vengeance of the Scotch persecutors, his Covenanter ancestors took refuge in Western Ireland early in the Seventeenth century. They emigrated to America about the middle of the Eighteenth century, and William Findlay, his great grandfather, was a member of the Revolutionary Congress.
His father, John Black, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1809. He received a collegiate education and became a minister of the Presbyterian church. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity when scarcely thirty-five years of age. His career, which gave great promise of eminence and of usefulness, was ended by death at the early age of thirty-seven years.
DEATH OF HIS PARENTS.
At the time of his death, he was pastor of the Fifth Presbyterian Church of Allegheny, PA, and his remains are interred in Allegheny Cemetery, near Pittsburgh. His sermons, some of which are extant, were characterized by progressive utterance touching the great moral dissension of the day. In the pulpit he was eloquent and impressive. His death was lamented by the whole Presbyterian Church of the United States.
The wife of the Rev. Dr. Black, and mother of the subject of this sketch, was Josephine L. Culbertson, born September 9, 1813. She was a descendant of the Culbertson family, prominent in the early annals of Pennsylvania. She was a woman of unusual brilliance of mind, and was the constant help and counsel of her husband in the work of his ministry. She survived her husband many years, and her remains are interred in Spring Hill Cemetery, Danville, a beautiful and progressive city of Eastern Illinois.
HIS EARLY LIFE.
The death of Rev. Dr. Black left his wife with a family of four children, the eldest of whom was John C., aged eight years. Soon after the death of her husband, Mrs. Black removed to Danville, Ill., then a village of Vermillion County. Here she was thrown upon her own resources and the aid which young John C. could render, for the support of herself and children. In him she found an eager assistant. Partaking of that spirit of independence and manliness with which many an Eastern lad has been inspired from the freedom of the Great West, he not only supported himself, but contributed, also, to the family maintenance. He eagerly turned his hand to whatever offered that might aid him in the duty which he felt resting upon him from the moment of his father’s death. No labor was too severe, no hardship excessive, which gave him means to lighten his mother’s burden, or to cheer the little hearth-circle in that then frontier home.
AN AMBITIOUS AND SELF-SUPPORTING STUDENT.
The common schools were attended by young Black as he could gain opportunity. But he felt, as he looked to the battle of life, an intense yearning for the higher and broader education, as a most useful and necessary weapon in its warfare. Even then he felt the inspiration which has swelled the breast of many a lad as he has contemplated the honors and the usefulness to which the young man of even ordinary mental capacity, may rise in American by well-directed and persistent effort, and by the exercise of unbending integrity.
Actuated by these promptings and sustained by a will power that has been a marked element in the success which as a legal advocate, as a soldier and as the executive head of a great bureau of the Government, he has since attained, he bent his energies to the high end of securing for himself a collegiate education. He husbanded carefully his hard earnings, and at the age of nineteen, entered Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind., then, as now, famed throughout the Union for the thoroughness of scholarship required by its standard, and for the hardiness, independence and breadth of manhood which its teachings inculcated. During his college course, he supported himself by his own efforts. His early vacations were devoted assiduously to any manual labor which he could procure, but after pursuing his college studies for a time, he engaged in teaching during vacations. While engaged in his studies in college, he performed such work out of hours of study as he could obtained. By close economy, he reduced his necessities to the lowest practical limit, holding everything as secondary to his determination to remain in college and to complete the course.
A SCOFFER PUNISHED.
Then, as now, there were young men born in more fortunate financial conditions than was John C. Black, and it was as convenient then as it is at the present time to such to sneer at those whom they regarded as their less fortunate fellows. There is a tradition in Wabash College to this day, of the manner in which one of this number came to grief. He had taken occasion to make some remarks touching young Black’s manner and necessity of supporting himself. Black, at heart proud and independent, resented the remarks, and gave the offender an intimation that they must not be repeated in form or in substance. The friendly warning was not heeded. One morning as Black was going about his work about one of the college buildings the taunts were repeated. Young Black laid aside, for a few minutes, his work, and it soon after became noised about the college that the offender, had been threshed, as he deserved to be, and that Black was the author of the punishment. The incident gave the young student popularity, and this, in turn, gave him great encouragement and assurance of sympathy in his laudable determination to work out his own destiny.
Though of necessity much of his time was occupied in earning means to defray the expense of self-maintenance, of tuition and of necessary books, the eager student did not permit his standing as a scholar to suffer in any degree. He devoted himself to his studies with an untiring persistency and ranked with the highest of his class. He manifested peculiar interest in the study of the higher mathematics, and was an ardent student of the languages. The study of the history of ancient Greece and Rome had a charming interest for him. He eagerly read all history, indeed, and was assiduous in his search for the works of writers upon the early tales and traditions of Ireland and Scotland. Many of his early essays and orations were devoted to the wrongs of the Irish people, and to indignant denunciation of the author is of their misfortunes. The conditions of the unhappy isle were then, as it had since many times been, the inspiration of his most incisive diction and impassioned eloquence.
AN APPEAL FOR IRELAND.
In his junior year, in December, 1860, he delivered before the public an oration upon “Ireland,” which, even at that age won him more than local fame. In the course of that oration, having graphically sketched the assault upon Turkey by the Russians, and the defense of the former by the allied powers of Europe, he said:
“But while the Christian world has mourned over the fall of Poland and gladdened at the deliverance of Turkey, a greater crime and deeper infamy have remained unchronicled. The hands of Poetry have woven the martyr’s deathless crown for the brows of fallen heroes, while the wrongs of Erin have passed unnoticed save by her suffering sons. For two hundred years she has worn a captive’s chains. There is scarce a hill-top in Ireland which has not been, at once, the fortress and the tomb of a struggling people’s liberty. There is not a valley wherein reposes not some patriot hero, or a mountain top which has not witnessed the vow of some Irish Tell, forgotten to renown because unsuccessful. The earth has drunk the blood of brave hearts, falling by the oppressor’s sword. The bodies of her slain have impeded the flow of her rivers, and the blood of slaughtered innocence – of wife, of mother, of maiden, has stained her immortal shamrock, once the emblem of Wit, Love, Genius – now alas! The dropping memorial of captivity and defeat! It is for this land, so sinned against, yet sinless, that I plead. Nor shall the appeal be for mercy, but for justice, for sympathy for the wronged, and condemnation for the oppressor.”
Having related the story of Ireland’s conquest by England, a conquest during which the invaders found only “the ashes of the homes and the bodies of the slain,” and having eulogized the loyalty of Ireland to England since the former’s subjugation, and her gifts to literature, he concluded:
“Yet for these matchless services in song, in eloquence, in arms, what reward has Ireland received? Insult and derision of her holiest feelings! Her liberties drowned in the blood of her people; her patriots led to the block; her sons driven into exile!
“She has given to us a President in the person of Jackson, and a Montgomery who, in the Revolution, led the fierce charge against Quebec’s frowning walls, and poured out his young heart’s blood in the holy name of Liberty. Today we owe to her the vast army which is breaking down the barriers of the wilderness and moving steadily westward, leaving in their wake the hut, the hamlet, the city and the palace.
“With such men to act; with such genius to guide; with such poetry and memories to inspire, what may not be hoped?
“The shamrock shall yet bloom in every valley and on every hilltop of Free Ireland! Her people shall yet come up through the Red Sea of Revolution to the promised land, though the cloud of war shall overshadow them by day and its flames light their wild journey by night. Some Miriam shall yet strike her timbrel and raise the glad song of deliverance.”
“Then, Erin, O Erin! Thy dearth shall be past, And the hope that lived through it shall blossom at last!”
As a student, as a debater, as an orator, young Black’s reputation in college was assured. His indomitable perseverance, and his marked ability won for him multitudes of friends. He was popular with his classmates and with his colleagues. He received frequent and gratifying commendations from his professors who predicted for him a career of marked distinction and usefulness. Their predictions have been fully verified, but they have been worked out in a manner widely varying from that which they had dressed or that which he had purposed.
THE BAPTISM OF BLOOD.
The late war began in all its fury soon after the inauguration of President Lincoln. The news of the firing of the first gun upon Fort Sumter and of its gallant though vain defense by Major Anderson, was scarce borne to West ere John C. Black, then a student in the Junior year, had enlisted as a private in the Montgomery Guards, an organization which was mustered into the service as Company I, Eleventh Indiana Zouaves, Col. Lew Wallace, later Major General, commanding. This regiment did gallant service in its three months’ campaign in West Virginia and in the Shenandoah valley.
At the expiration of the term of his enlistment, Black returned to his home in Danville, Ill., and at once recruited a company for the Thirty-seventh Illinois Regiment of Volunteers, for which regiment he became Major. The regiment went to the field in Missouri and Arkansas in September, 1861, and did constant and severe duty until the close of the war in 1865, participating in some of the fiercest battles of the department to which it was assigned. The bravery and gallantry which characterized the conduct of Major Black were speedily recognized. He was twice promoted for distinguished bravery and meritorious service; to Lieutenant-Colonel, June 9, 1862; Colonel, Feb. 1, 1863, and Brevet Brigadier-General, U.S. Volunteers, March 13, 1865, being at the youngest officers upon whom they have ever been bestowed. He was, besides, frequently named in complimentary orders from his superior officers. In every position in which he served, he bore himself with dignity; acquitted his duties with promptness, bravery, ability and manifested soldierly qualities which were the admiration and emulation as well of fellow officers as of the volunteer privates whom it was his ambition to serve, and whose interests and usefulness he sought to promote.
With his regiment, Gen. Black participated in thirteen battles and skirmishes and in two great sieges and always with bravery and honor.
THE RETURN OF PEACE.
He participated in the last battle of the late war, the siege of Mobile, and the storming of Fort Blakeley. Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered about 10 o’clock a.m. of the same day on which, at 5 p.m., Gen. Black successfully led his regiment against Fort Blakeley. The storming of the batteries occupied but a brief space of time. The struggle however, was fierce. The capture of the city of Mobile, of three thousand prisoners, and forty-two cannon was the result.
Peace had been declared, however, and Gen. Black was chivalrous towards a chivalrous foe, and from that moment became the champion of generous reconciliation.
During its service, Gen. Black’s regiment had traversed the country, from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, four times; had marched on foot about 6,000 miles; had journeyed by land and water conveyance about 10,000 miles; had been twice presented with silken banners by the people of Chicago, and had again and again decimated its ranks upon the field of battle.
Gen. Black endured with great fortitude the deprivations and vicissitudes of war. He was once erroneously reported as killed in battle, and upon that occasion a near relative transcribed and transmitted to his mother the following words uttered by Cato over the body of his son who had been slain in battle:
Thanks to the Gods! Thy boy has done his duty.
Welcome, my son! Then, sit him down, my friends,
Full in my sight, that I may view at leisure
The bloody corpse, and count those glorious wounds.
How beautiful is death when earned by virtue!
Who would not be that youth? What pity tis
That we can die but once to save our country!
Why sits that sadness upon your brow, my friends?
I should have blushed if Cato’s house had stood
Secure, and flourished in a civil war.
THE STORY OF HIS WOUNDS.
General Black, while in command of his regiment, was severely wounded in the right forearm at the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, March 7, 1862. The battle was a desperate one, the enemy being determined there to win or die; but the western volunteers were no less resolute, brave and determined, and many noble sons of Illinois that day fell never to rise again, and on that field.
“Sleep the sleep that knows no waking.”
One of the most furious attacks was made about 10 o’clock in the morning, and it was at this trying hour that General Black, while at the head of his regiment, received his wound. His arm was shattered and fell helpless at his side, but he did not leave his command. Taking a handkerchief from his pocket with his left hand, he gave it to one of his men and said, "Wind this around my arm." This was done in the very face of the enemy, and General Black, suffering the most intense pain, continued on that field under incessant fire until 6 o’clock in the evening, standing by his men, and encouraging them onward in the fierce conflict. The scene was an inspiring one, and the brave, self-sacrificing devotion of the hero leader contributed much in the achievement of the glorious result of that engagement.
General Black was again severely wounded at the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, December 7, 1862. A musket ball passed through his upper left arm, fracturing the humerus and lacerating the flesh. The wound necessitated the operation of excision, which was successfully performed, but which has in an almost total degree destroyed the use of the left arm.
For many years the wound in the right arm refused to heal, continually draining his health and undermining his physical constitution. His death from pyemia was imminent for several years, and the open wound entailed constant and severe suffering. It became apparent at length that if his life was to be spared, the operation of excision of the right elbow joint was imperative. This operation was performed in 1876, and was successful as there had been reason to hope that it might be. He retains limited use of the arm, and writes well and rapidly, though much writing fatigues the right hand. His wounds entail total manual disability.
No man could be more diffident or reserved than is General Black in speaking about his wounds. He never voluntarily alludes to them, even in the most casual way in private conversation or in public utterances. It is with the greatest difficulty that even a most intimate friend or acquaintance can obtain from him any statement concerning them or their origin. He shrinks from any act or any word which could savor in the least degree of any attempt to excite sympathy because of them, or to make them an object of attention or comment. And yet he bears the silent evidences of them in his maimed arms, in every act, whether in the performance of personal care or in extending a greeting of welcome to a friend – silent, indeed, yet how grandly eloquent!
FROM SOLIDER TO CIVILIAN.
After the close of the war, and on August 15th, 1865, Gen. Black resigned his commission as commander of volunteers, and returned to his home at Danville, Ill. He was now in the 27th year of his age and with great regret abandoned the purpose which he had long entertained of returning to Wabash college to complete his collegiate course. The trustees of that institution, however, have honored him with the degree of Master of Arts, as of the class of 1862, as a recognition of his standing as a student, of his successes as a soldier and commander, and of his distinction as advocate and civilian.
Gen. Black studied law at Chicago, Ill.; was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Illinois in 1867 and to that of the Supreme Court of the United States in 1869. He located at Danville, Ill., and rapidly rose to the position of one of the most able and eloquent lawyers of that State. Important and complicated litigation as entrusted to his care, and was conducted with an ability and success gratifying to his clientage and complimentary to himself. His rank among the lawyers of the Prairie State is very high, and he is recognized as the prince of her orators. Before juries, he was ever earnest, candid, and eloquent in urging and defending the rights of his clients by apt legal citation and forcible appeal. To opposing counsel, he was courteous and kind. To presiding officers, he was urbane always, though firm when he believed that the just rights of his clients were improperly imperiled. He was appreciative of just treatment and quick to detect personal injustice and wrong, though often silent under them. His conduct towards the young members of his profession was characterized only by kindness and encouragement.
BATTLING FOR DEMOCRACY.
Since the close of the war, Gen. Black has been a consistent and earnest Democrat. Scarcely a political campaign has followed in which he has not borne aloft the standard of the Democratic party and defended its principles bravely and eloquently in nearly every county of the State of Illinois. In addition to this work, he has participated in several campaigns in Indiana, his long residence at Crawfordsville in that State, and his education at Wabash College, rendering him a Hoosier by sympathy. He enjoys the entire confidence of the Democracy of these two great Commonwealths, and has a large acquaintance among their public men as has any man beside.
In 1866, the Democracy of the Seventh Illinois District nominated him for Congress against his wishes. He entered upon the campaign however, but against an insuperable majority, and conducted it with such ability and earnestness that his vote was much larger than that which the remainder of the ticket received.
In 1870, he was a delegate to the National Capital Convention at Cincinnati, his commission as such hearing the signature of John M. Palmer, Governor of Illinois, and now the Democratic nominee for election to that high office.
In 1872, he was the candidate for the Democracy of Illinois for Lieutenant Governor in the fusion movement of that period, and made an aggressive and brilliant campaign. Many of his speeches were among the most eloquent and forcible ever delivered from the stump.
In 1876, he consented to accept his party’s nomination for Congress in a district overwhelmingly Republican. He reduced the usual majority of several thousand to a few hundred, demonstrating at once his popularity with the people and his ability as a public orator.
THE SENATORIAL CONTEST OF 1879.
In 1879, the Democracy of Illinois made him their candidate for Senator against Gen. John A. Logan. He was placed in nomination by Hon. Robt. McKinlay, who, in the course of his remarks said:
“Mr. Speaker, such is his record as a soldier. A student at college, he entered the service as a private, throwing everything aside, leaving everything near and dear to him. As a soldier, as a citizen, as a pure and upright man, we are willing to compare his record with that of any other man. No spots checker the record of John C. Black. I defy any man to point to a tarnish upon it. He is a pure representative of the people of the State of Illinois. It is true he returned from the war with no army of retainers, and has remained in private life since the close of the war, but we recognize him, Mr. Speaker, as a representative of constitutional law and government. When the exigencies of war called for his services, he was ready to respond, and when the war was over, he returned to peaceful life and entered upon the study and practice of law, and he stands today the acknowledged head of the bar of this great State. He is a strict constructionist of the constitution, a believer in national rights, as opposed to the centralization of power. He is a scholar and a statesman of broad and extensive views. The State which has been represented by such men as Douglas and Trumbull, will suffer no disgrace by placing in the United States Senate such a man as John C. Black.”
Hon. O. B. Ficklin, in seconding the nomination of Gen. Black, said:
“Mr. Speaker, I rise to second the nomination of Gen. Black. I will say that I have no words of hatred to offer concerning the gentleman who has been nominated by the other side of the House. I have no desire to take from him any of the glory which justly belongs to him. As a soldier of the United Sates his record is noble; he fought bravely for the presentation and maintenance of the Government; but he is not the only man that did his duty. He is not alone entitled to all the glory that was won upon the gory battle field, where bloody sabres rose and fell. My friends on the other side seem to forget that Democrats stood side by side with Republicans in that fearful conflict; that they were just as brave and reliable, and that there are as many of them sleeping in Southern graves.
The Democratic party has lived and is co-equal with this Government, founded by Thomas Jefferson; it has lived and controlled this country in peace and in war, through more than three-fourths of its history, and, sir I may be permitted to say in the presence of my political friends and political opponents, will live so long as Republic liberty lives on this continent. (Great applause) We are told by those advocating the claims of Gen. Logan of his great military prowess; for that let him be honored; but all that has been said of Gen. Logan may be equally said of John Charles Black. He was a plumed warrior who on every battlefield met and fought the foe to the bitterest end of the steel. Sir, he bears the marks of his patriotism on his person, which he will carry with him to the grave. He has given evidence of it, which cannot be questioned, as you were told by my friend from Edgar. When the flag was first fired upon, Gen. Black at once dropped all and marched for the field, to face the smoke of the terrible conflict.
Now, sir, allow me to say that in presenting to you Gen. Black, we present a patriot, a soldier, a man whose robes are untarnished and are as white as the untrodden snow.
I only ask my Republican friends to vote for one whose life is without reproach, and whose garments are clean. We ask you to vote for one who is beloved in the great valley of the Wabash, where he lives, for every person who has ever trod its vales or drank from its waters loves Gen. John Charles Black.”
In further seconding Gen. Black’s nomination, Mr. Zink said:
“While I would not utter one word that would detract from the glory and credit due to the gentleman who has been nominated upon the other side, as a military man, yet I would say that we need more than a soldier in the United States senate. In presenting Gen. Black, we present a man whose military record is as clear and honorable as that of any man. He has not occupied prominent places since the war, but he has maintained his honor as a private citizen. He came home as he went out, a Democrat. He did not go out with a commission in his pocket; he had no epaulets upon his shoulders, but as a private, with his musket in his hand. There is perhaps no higher honor due to any of the grand men who went out to do battle for their country, than is due to that noble soldier and private, who stood firm amidst the conflict and who sought not glory because of its emolument, but who sought to do his duty only for the glory of that Union in which Democrats have always believed in and defended.
He rose upon his merits and since his retirement to private life, no act of John C. Black has attached dishonor to his name. He is known among men as a scholar. He is a splendid gentleman, a man whose name is a guarantee for honesty and purity. If he were in the United States Senate, he would be regarded by the dignified men of that body as the peer of any of them. The people of the State of Illinois cannot do themselves a greater honor than to lift John C. black to the position of United States Senator. We want more than a soldier in the United States Senate; we want a man who believes that under the constitution, properly construed, the country can be governed and every man enjoy his full and equal rights; we want a man who understands the signs of the times, and who, without regard to the emoluments of the office, will conduct himself with firmness and dignity. I say this, that as a soldier he is the peer of Logan, and that as a statesman, as a scholar, there is not over the broad State of Illinois has a superior either in the Republican or Democratic party.” (Applause)
Hon. Mr. Trusdell endorsed the nomination in an eloquent speech from which the following extract is made:
“Those who have preceded me in this discussion have the good fortune to enjoy an acquaintance with General Black more than myself; they have said what should be said concerning him. I regret Mr. Speaker, that we are here to perform a pre-arranged task. I am sorry that we could not come together in open session, and after a fair and honest deliberation on this question, vote for some man and elect him to that office, who would most fitly represent the interests of this great commonwealth. If this were possible, I would be willing to discuss questions which ought to be considered in our action here.
It is important, no matter who sends him, that we send a man who is above suspicion, and whom no one will dare to approach with a bribe or improper proposal; a man that will subordinate self to the welfare and desires of his constituency. We present you sir, such a man in the person of John C. Black. I do not say that you do not present such a man, but I say if you are in doubt pause now. We present a man who, upon the floor of Congress would never be as much as approached by any retainers or men desiring to propagate any unlawful scheme. Such a man is our candidate for the high office of United States Senator.”
Gen. Black received in this contest the entire Democratic vote of the Illinois Legislature.
In 1884 he was again compelled upon to accept a nomination for Congress in the Fifteenth Illinois District, and made so active and telling a campaign that, though Mr. Blaine’s majority in that district was more than 3,000, the majority of Gen. Black’s opponent was less than 500 votes.
CALLED TO HIGH PUBLIC OFFICE.
On March 6, 1885, President Cleveland, through Hon. L.Q.C. Lamar, tendered Gen. Black the Commissionership of the Bureau of pensions, and in due time Gen. Black signified his acceptance of the high trust. The selection was approved everywhere as a proper and fortunate one. Its announcement was received with peculiarly earnest approbation by the veterans for the late war as one which would redound in honor to the Administration, and dispel the many absurd and groundless fears to which the utterances of the opposition press had given life.
Gen. Black assumed the duties of the office of Commissioner of pensions March 17, 1885. That the opinions of his fitness of the position were well founded, was soon demonstrated. He purified and simplified the processes of the office. He organized many of its divisions, disbanded others and instituted new ones better adapted to the requirements of the service. He assumed that the pension laws had been enacted in a broad spirit of justice and liberality, and believed that the Bureau of Pensions should facility rather than retard the adjudication of claims for pension.
Acting in accordance with those convictions, he modified the rules of the offices as to the nature and amount of evidence required to establish claims and facilitated action in its various divisions. The result was speedily manifest. Claims were finally adjudicated with a celerity hitherto unknown in the history of the Bureau. Claimants were delighted with the change, and may who had become disheartened with the delays incident to former administrations of the office, took heart and brought their claims to final action, many of them receiving in their old age that relief and help to which they were entitled under the pension laws, and which their disabilities from wounds or injuries received, or disease contracted, in the services, rendered necessary to their maintenance and comfort. No public official has ever given greater satisfaction to the clientage of his bureau or department, and none has ever received more general or more gratifying assurance of the popular approbation of his conduct as an executive officer.
A PLEDGE REDEEMED.
When Gen. Black was a candidate for Congress in 1876, he wrote to a friend, in response to an inquiry touching his attitude towards the pension laws as they then existed, as follows: '
“I am aware of the injustices to which you refer, and, if elected, will do whatsoever I can to correct them; and while I shall strive to keep every proper safe-guard against fraudulent claims, I shall endeavor to remove vexatious and impractical obstacles to honest claims which often prevent the aid that should be extended to the invalid and deserving soldier and his heirs. I have felt that my comrades should, from their own feelings towards each other, know what my course will be towards them.”
These words, uttered in 1876, have been faithfully kept in 1885-88, but in the character of Commissioner of Pensions, not that of Representative in Congress. That they have been well kept, shows the honesty and sincerity of their author. They were not merely a sentiment; they were a conviction arrived at after mature deliberation, with a full knowledge of the evils which needed correction, and such as have been within his authority as an officer of the law, have been remedied. These facts have been recognized by the citizens and ex-soldiers in every part of the Union, and wherever the gallant soldier and soldiers’ friend may go, he receives an ovation from the people regardless of political lines or party prejudice.
By marked executive ability and the simplification of the rules of the Pension Office, Gen. Black has greatly increased the amount of work accomplished in that office, and has, at the same time, reduced the expense of its maintenance about $281,000 per annum.
THE RECORD IN FIGURES.
The following tables show the amount paid in pensions and the number of pension certificates issued each year since 1861 and demonstrate more forcibly than could any words the excellence and efficiency of the administration of the Pension Office under Gen. Black against whose exalted personal honor and integrity no one has ever breathed a suspicion:
[CHART OMITTED]
THE MAN AND THE DEMOCRACY.
As has been stated in this sketch, Gen. Black is admitted to be the leading political orator of Illinois, an advocate for rare legal knowledge and of matchless eloquence. He is large-brained, quick in conception, accurate in thought and happy in diction. He has a charming, yet commanding personal presence, and a fine physique. He has deep, blue, piercing eyes, which look out kindly from underneath a brow that is worthy of a sculptor, and which on occasion burn with a glow that, behind the citizen, reveals the born soldier and the leader. He has a voice that is clear, precise, sympathetic and strong. He is possessed of unusual ease and grace of gesture, and of that imperturbable self-possession which has ever characterized great orators. He is a charming conversationalist, a pleasant companion, a faithful friend, a formidable opponent and a helper in council.
Although he has made many political canvasses of Illinois, sometimes a candidate upon the urgent solicitation of his party, and two canvasses of Indiana, he never held public office until he became Commissioner of Pensions. If the present attitude in which he stands as the expressed choice of a very large proportion of the Democracy of the United States and of the veterans of all late wars, as well as of the more liberal membership of all other political parties, can be regarded as that of a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the office of Vice President of the United States, it is his first voluntary candidature for any public office from the party of his first choice, the party whose banner he has upheld for nearly a quarter of a century in a State overwhelmingly Republican, and where political preferment in the ranks of the opposition would have been easy and rapid had he loved personal interest more and principle less – the party to popularize whose administration of the National Government he has probably done as much as any other living man, has done it as a work of love for the sake of good government, of justice, of party, and of principle.
The whole course of his life, his public and frequent reiteration of the principles of his party, and his defense of and devotion to them; his popularity with the masses who love him for what he has conquered, for what he has done, and for what he is; his admiration for equitable, competent and conservative administration of the affairs of the people; his identification with the successes, defeats, issues and policy of the Democratic party; his enthusiasm and love for popular government everywhere, all unite to demonstrate his availability as a candidate who will render assurance of victory in the Ides of November doubly sure – whose selection for so high and honorable an office by the supreme authority in the Democratic party, will be endorsed by the people as has scarcely that of any other man in the history of the Republic.
This citizen and solider is known from the lakes to the gulf, from Maine to California. In nearly every home his name is a household word, and in every borough and school district it is pronounced in love and affection. The people of every Democratic State are ready to support him as they will scarcely support any other man. The rank and file of the Democracy are clamorous for his nomination. Already they stand elbow to elbow, ready and eager to flaunt his banner to the breeze, and under the great Prairie State is ready to wheel into the Democratic line. Other States of the great Northwest are ready to do likewise, and to make the victory of 1888 the proudest one in the history of the grand Democratic party.
Gen. Black is not identified with any local issues or any local dissension within the party lines. His principles are as broad as the Union – as broad as the Democratic Party, and if his party shall summon him as one of its standard bearers in this year 1888, he will respond, not as a leader of any faction, nor as the representative of any State or local issue, but as a man of the Democratic party, believing in its eternal principles of right, in its issues and in its men everywhere. His hands will hold aloft the banner of Democracy in its broadest sense, and his voice and his eloquence will rally about it the conquering Democratic hosts from every home, village and city, North, East, South and West.