Category: Antebellum (1840-1861)

Dickinson College Professor and the ‘Know Nothing’ Party in Cumberland County

A new political movement born out of New York and Philadelphia spread across the country, emerging in Cumberland County in 1854, shaping its politics for more than two years. Spurred by anti-Catholic and anti-immigration sentiment, the Know Nothing party grew to significant prominence if only for a short period during the mid 1850s. Reverend Otis H. Tiffany was Dickinson College’s professor of mathematics and president of the Know Nothing State Council. Tiffany, a prominent leader and adamant speaker for the Know Nothing party, gave a public lecture at Carlisle Union Fire Hall on November 16, 1854 on the Protestant origins of American freedoms and on the dangers of the vast immigration and rapid naturalization of foreigners. Tiffany commented, “No foreigner is competent to discharge the duties of an American until he ceases to be identified with the land which gave him birth.”

Much of the sources on the Know Nothings in Cumberland County are derived from local newspapers such as the Carlisle American, Carlisle Herald, Shippensburg News and American Volunteer. During this time, Tiffany and several other professors at Dickinson College had been active in the Know-Nothing movement. While most of the papers were supportive, the American Volunteer was the most negative, commonly criticizing the party and the involvement of Tiffany and others from Dickinson College. On August 23, 1857 with the Know Nothing movement nearly dissolved, the Volunteer cited the negative effects brought on by the faculty “by their constant dabbling in politics…But we gained our point which was to drive them from their Know-Nothing lodges to their duties in the College.”

While unsuccessful in sustaining the Know Nothing movement in Cumberland County, Tiffany was and remained a respected leader throughout the community. In Alexander Kelly McClure‘s Old Time Notes of Pennsylvania, he comments on the merits of Tiffany. McClure, a prominent Pennsylvania politician and journalist, regarded Tiffany as the ablest of all the Know-Nothing leaders.

“The one who stood out most conspicuous as an active politician and consistent Christian gentleman was Dr. Tiffany, who, as I have stated, accomplished the union of the opposition forces at the conference in 1855. He was not only a man of unusual eloquence, but a sagacious leader in Church and State, and always commanded the respect of all who came in contact with him, whether supporting or opposing him.”

The Election of 1860

During the Election of 1860, the divided feelings did not stop the election of a new president. The election had several candidates, but the contest was actually between Douglas and Lincoln in the North and West and between Breckinridge and Bell in the South. Many thought the race would be very competitive, but Lincoln ended up dominating. In Cumberland County, Lincoln had an overwhelming victory.  The more rural areas such as Hopewell and Fairfield that were mainly farmers, Lincoln won in a significant majority. In urban areas such as the Carlisle District and Newville, the race between the Republicans and Democrats was closer. The chart below gives the reported majority from the different districts in the county. The first column gives the total votes for Lincoln in the district. The second column shows the total of votes for Read, who is the elector for the districts. The third column gives the total votes for Bell, only prevalent in the more urban districts. Most of the rural districts only have votes for Lincoln, allowing him to have no competition in rural areas of Pennsylvania.

 Districts     Lincoln. Read’s Ticket Bell.
Carlisle Distict     886 907 74
Newville     453 570 21
Upper Allen     33    
Lower Allen     103    
East Pennsboro     96    
Plainfield     83   1
Penn Town     14    
Hampden     19    
Hopewell     20    
Mechanisburg     130    
North Cumberland     32    
Monroe     117    
Shippensburg District     70    
Leesburg     27    
Jacksonville       22  
Middlesex       3  
Silver Spring       169  
           
           
TOTAL:     2083 1671 96
           

(Carlisle American, 7 November 1860.)

In the race for Governor, the majority of people in Pennsylvania voted for Andrew Gregg Curtin, a former Dickinsonian, in the election. This proved that the state had gone Republican by not less than 75, 000 Republicans state wide.  Cumberland County followed the Pennsylvania results, as Lincoln/Hamlin received 40 percent of the popular vote.

Nationally, Lincoln received a total of 180 electoral votes, while the other candidates combined won 123.  Breckinridge thought that he had some support in Pennsylvania, but Cumberland County did not support this assertion.  

The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana from the Library of Congress provides images from the election such as political cartoons, newspaper articles, candidate’s addresses and Republican and Democrat tickets.  The Library of Congress has a great teacher resource on the Election of 1860. HarpWeek also provides cartoons from the election from Harper’s Weekly and other weekly journals. The

McClintock Riot – June 2, 1847

The McClintock Riot took place on June 2, 1847 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania after two slave owners from Maryland arrived with plans to capture three fugitive slaves. After breaking into a house in Carlisle, the two men were arrested. Local authorities also placed the fugitive slaves in custody. The Pennsylvania legislature, however, passed a law in early March 1847 that made it illegal for state officials to help anyone trying to catch fugitive slaves. After Professor John McClintock told Judge Samuel Hepburn about the new law, Hepburn “pronounced them illegally in custody.” A riot occurred as the fugitive slaves left the courthouse. While two  fugitive  slaves escaped,  one was forced to return to Maryland. Professor McClintock denied that he was responsible for what happened:

“All that I did was to try to do my duty to the laws of the land. But the slavecatchers have spread abroad the report that I incited the riot, and have sworn to it, and I am under bail to appear at August court.”

Several other letters and newspaper articles related to this even are also available on House Divided.

The Stevens & Smith Historic Site

Thaddeus Stevens, one of the most powerful and controversial congressmen of the nineteenth century is the central figure of a large restoration project conducted by the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Stevens was an adamant opponent of slavery and helped runaway slaves escape, even going so far as to employ spies to watch for slave-catchers.  He was also a leading attorney in several fugitive slave cases, most notably the Christiana Treason Trial (1851). Stevens also shared his home with Lydia Hamilton Smith, a mixed race woman who managed his household affairs and also proved to be an enormously successful businesswoman herself.

The Stevens & Smith Historic site is a $20 million educational and interpretive complex, integrating the restored 19th century properties of Stevens and Smith located in historic downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania featuring an original cistern discovered in 2003 believed by historians and archeologists to have been used by Stevens and Smith as a hiding place for escaping slaves along the Underground Railroad. A cistern is an underground storage tank used for holding water.

The planning for the Stevens & Smith Historic site overcame several obstacles before its approval, specifically the original plans for a new downtown convention center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania calling for the demolition of the historic sites previously owned and managed by Stevens and Smith. The Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County possessed protective easements on the properties and were successful in developing a strategy for the preservation of Stevens’ Lancaster city law office and residence from the antebellum period within the new Lancaster County Convention Center.

For more information check out the Stevens & Smith Historic Site online for a full overview and updates on the project. The site also features a video on the story of Stevens & Smith and images of the proposed historical site.  Fergus Bordewich’s article, “Thaddeus Stevens and James Buchanan – How Their Historic Rivalry Shaped America” is a great source for historical background on Stevens’ and Smith’s contributions and connections to the abolitionist movement in Lancaster.  Further information can be found on the Thaddeus Stevens Society website including an overview of the archeological dig of the cistern conducted outside Stevens’ residence and law office. The address for the site is located at 45-47 South Queen Street Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Huntington Friends Meeting House and William and Phebe Wright

Huntington Friends Meeting was established in 1746 by the Quakers.  The Quakers hired free African Americans to aid the “freedom seekers” or escaping African Americans. Many Huntington Quakers worked to oppose slavery using their connections with African Americans and other Quakers, including William Wright and Phebe Wright.  From 1820 until 1840, the Wrights lived two miles north of Yellow Hill in York Springs, another refuge for freedom seekers. According to Hallowed Grounds, William and Phebe Wright were buried adjacent to the meeting house as well as their son William Wierman Wright. Their son used his advanced engineering skills to repair railways and bridges to mark Sherman’s march through the South. He later served as Sherman’s Chief Engineer and this allowed Wright to be well-known  in the field of engineering.

The fugitives seeking safety at the Wright’s home in York Springs were taught to read and write and employed. One of these fugitives was James Pembroke, also known as James W. C. Pennington, who gives firsthand accounts of his time with the Wrights in The Fugitive Blacksmith or, Events in the History of James W. C. Pennington, Pastor of a Presbyterian Church, New York, Formerly a Slave in the State of Maryland, United States. Another dependable account is by William Still, a prominent abolitionist in Philadelphia. His book, The Underground Railroad, describes William and Phebe Wright as one of the leading abolitionists of Central Pennsylvania. Still describes the good works of Wright:

He was an “active member of the old Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and at the time of the emancipation of the slaves in this state was often engaged in lawsuits with slave-holders to compel them to release their bondmen, according to the requirements of the law. William Wright grew up under the influence of the teachings of these relatives. Joined to this, his location caused him to take an extraordinary interest in Underground Rail Road affairs.”

“The Wright Family” in Immigration of the Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania 1682-1750 with Their Early History in Ireland, shows the history of the Wright Family. Reconstructing the Past: Puzzle of the Lost Community at Yellow Hill by Debra McCauslin is an excellent source that discusses the major places in Pennsylvania that were stops in the Underground Railroad.

Today you can visit the Huntington Burial Ground and the operating Quaker meetinghouse. It is located at 300 Quaker Church Rd, York Springs, PA 17372. For directions see Google Maps.

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