Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, January 10, 1903.
One Hundred Fifty-seventh New York Volunteers.
CAPTAIN SAXTON TO WRITE IT.
The Standard to Publish it in Serial Form, Beginning Very Soon. Organization of the Regiment When Mustered Out of the Service-Letter from Comrade Limebeck.
The Standard has made arrangements with Captain William Saxton, a former resident of Cincinnatus, now of Edgar, Neb., to publish in serial form certain war reminiscences which cover the period from 1861 to 1865. Captain Saxton enlisted in the One Hundred Fifty-seventh regiment, New York Volunteers, and was in command of Company C of that regiment when mustered out of the service at the close of the civil war. These letters virtually give a history of the regiment to which the writer belonged. The first two or three letters are devoted to the events leading up to the commencement of hostilities. Then comes the organization of the regiment, its advance to the front and a sketch of its career. There are about fifty letters in all, and it is our purpose to publish one each week. Captain Saxton writes in a purely personal way mentioning constantly names perfectly familiar to residents of this county, and many of whom are now living. His letters, we are assured, will be of large interest, not only to all his old comrades in that regiment and to their families; but to other veterans and to our readers generally.
These letters were first published in the Edgar, (Neb.,) Post and are reprinted from that paper by permission of its editor as well as with the approval of Captain Saxton....
By Captain Saxton of the 157th Regiment, N.Y. Vols.
EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE WAR.
Uncle Tom's Cabin. Capture of Solomon Northrup in Saratoga. Slavery Troubles in Kansas—John Brown Raid—Horace Greeley Speaks in Cincinnatus—The Election in 1860.
To the Editor of The Standard:
Sir—I well remember when Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's book, “Uncle Tom's Cabin," came out in 1852. My father procured a copy and read it aloud to our family, and although only 11 years old at the time, it made a profound impression upon my mind in regard to the slavery question. Father used to read and the tears would roll down his cheeks and he would choke up and would have to desist until his emotions subsided.
In 1853 another book was published which created a great deal of sensation in New York and the New England states, and wherever read. It was "Solomon Northrup or Twelve Years a Slave." This Solomon Northrup was a free born negro, or rather mulatto, and lived at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. In 1841, the year I was born, Solomon was kidnapped in the streets of Saratoga by two gentlemanly appearing men, was drugged, taken to Washington City, the capital of our boasted free country, and sold into slavery. He was taken up the Red river country in Louisiana and kept in slavery for twelve years, until finally he managed to get a letter to his friends in New York telling where he was, and they influenced the governor of that state, who sent a man to Louisiana and procured Northrup's release and brought him home. He had been whipped, run by dogs, once came near being hanged by an angry master, and suffered all the indignities of a slave for twelve long years.
Discussing the Incident.
We had a neighbor, a Mr. Greene, who came from Washington county, N. Y., and knew this Solomon Northrup, knew of his being kidnapped, or of his disappearance and when he, Northrup, came home, and his book came out, I used to have long talks with Mr. Greene about Northrup's captivity, and slavery in general. By the way, is it not a singular coincident that Solomon Northrup was actually taken up the Red river country in Louisiana, the very locality where Mrs. Stowe bad her fictitious "Uncle Tom" taken in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Solomon Northrup’s book created perhaps more excitement in regard to slavery in our locality than did "Uncle Tom's Cabin", because it was an actual occurrence and our neighbor, Mr. Greene, was acquainted with the circumstances.
Then came the stormy slavery troubles of Kansas in 1854 which lasted till 1859 when the present constitution was adopted. My father always took the weekly New York Tribune and I remember how anxiously we waited for the paper to come, that we might learn what was being done in Kansas. The neighbors used to gather in the evening, and listen to the news in The Tribune and discuss the slavery question. You see with what an antislavery atmosphere I was surrounded when a boy.
At School in Cincinnatus.
In the fall of 1858 I was sent to Cincinnatus academy to school, and my father removed to that town in 1859 and lived there till his death, a few years ago.
In October, 1859, John Brown made his celebrated attempt to free the slaves at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and although he failed and was hanged for the offence in December following, "His soul went marching on"' and it is a fact that the spirit of the misguided martyr had a tremendous influence in guiding the momentous events that were taking place.
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| Editor Horace Greeley spoke in Cincinnatus in 1860. |
In the fall 1860, during the exciting presidential campaign, when there were four candidates in the field, Lincoln, Douglas, Breckinridge and Bell, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, came to Cincinnatus and made a political speech in the Congregational church. It was customary to hold political meetings in either the Congregational or Methodist churches on account of the lack of a public hall. Mr. Greeley advocated the election of Mr. Lincoln because he thought he was right on the slavery question. Mr. Lincoln believed that slavery could legally exist only by law, and there was no law in regard to it in the territories and no power to enact one, that congress could not establish or legalize slavery anywhere, but was bound to prohibit or exclude it from every territory. Mr. Douglas believed that slavery in any territory should be determined by the white inhabitants or what was commonly known as "Squatter Sovereignty."
The Breckinridge party advocated that any man had a right to move into any territory, carry his slaves with him and be protected in his right to hold them by congress, irrespective of what laws the territorial legislature might enact.
Longs to Note.
I can see Mr. Greeley now, in imagination, just as he stood there in the church and talked to the people, with no pretense of oratory, but with mightily convincing words and manner. He talked of the Missouri compromise being broken, of the flooding of Kansas with Missouri border ruffians, of the determination of slave holders to force slavery into the territories, of Buchanan's favoring the purchase of Cuba so that slavery might have more room. As I went away from that church that night how I did wish that I was old enough to cast my vote for Lincoln.
On the (6th of November following, Lincoln received the popular vote of 1,857,610; Douglas received 1,294,574; Breckinridge, 850,082; Bell, 646,124.
Of the electoral votes Lincoln received 180; Douglas,120 ; Breckinridge,
72; Bell, 39. Total, 303.
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