The Lincoln Administration Seeks An Investigation Into the Loyalty of the Owner of Weapons Seized in Nebraska In January 1862

Acquired from the descendants of Governor Alvin Saunders and has never before been offered for sale

In the 1850s, Senator Stephen A. Douglas had his eyes set on organizing the vast Nebraska Territory to build a transcontinental railroad.  Both the Southern and Northern states competed for the terminus, which Douglas wanted to run through the North.  To placate the South and get Southern Senators to vote his way, he stepped right into the quagmire of the North-South dispute over slavery, and guided through Congress the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This split the territory into two – Kansas and Nebraska, repealed the Missouri Compromise, and opened the new territories to the possibility of slavery using Douglas’ doctrine of Popular Sovereignty (which held that local residents would decide on whether they wanted slavery or not).

Passage of this act roused Lincoln, who after years outside the political arena re-entered political life in 1854 as a direct result.  He was aghast at the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, against popular sovereignty with regard to slavery, and of course against slavery itself. This cemented his rivalry with Douglas, and would lead to Lincoln’s being drafted for public office.  But in 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the law of the land, and the government set about organizing both territories.  In Kansas, this led to a series of violent confrontations between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces, in fact a war of sorts. Many consider it the proving ground for the Civil War. In Nebraska, the first territorial governor took his seat in 1854, in what ended up being a line of interim governors and short-serving officials until 1861.

After Lincoln was inaugurated, he thought it important to put into the position of Governor of Nebraska a political ally.  Alvin Saunders was a staunch Republican who had attended the convention where Lincoln was nominated, and campaigned for Lincoln’s election, helping to deliver his native Iowa.  Previously a state senator who had helped draft the Iowa Constitution, Saunders was a logical man for Lincoln to trust for this important position.  On March 27, 1861, Saunders took his post as Territorial Governor of Nebraska. Shortly thereafter, Phineas Hitchcock took his place as United States Marshal for the District of Nebraska.

Anti-secession feelings ran strong in the fledgling Nebraska Territory. Seward County was originally called Greene County, after a popular U.S. Army general from Missouri. But after General Greene joined the Confederacy, the county was renamed Seward for William H. Seward, the Union Secretary of State.

In January of 1862, with the war ramping up, Hitchcock uncovered a privately held stash of hundreds of pounds of powder and other ammunition.  On February 7, he wrote Secretary of State William Seward to inform him of this, noting, “The claimant of this property is unable to give any satisfactory account of himself, nor any reference to a loyal man… I have corresponded somewhat with the United States Marshal of Iowa in regard to this and other matters.  He informs me that he received instructions from your department some time ago in regard to such cases, and also wrote me that in his judgment ought to arrest the claimant of the property.  Not having had any instructions I feel at a loss as to my duty in the premises…”

When this letter was received by the State Department, Seward forwarded it to Secretary of War Stanton, who addressed a letter to the Governor of the Territory, Saunders.

Letter Signed, War Department letterhead, February 19, 1862, to “His Excellency Alvin Saunders, Governor of Nebraska, Omaha.” “Governor, Herewith, I transmit a copy of a letter [included here] addressed to the Secretary of State by Mr. Phineas W. Hitchcock, United States Marshal for the District of Nebraska, relative to a quantity of powder and percussion caps which he has seized.  Will you have the kindness to cause inquiries to be made as to the loyalty of the owner and also as to the probable destination and intended use of the property at the time of its seizure, and report to this department what proceedings, if any, ought to be adopted in the premises? Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War.”

These pieces were acquired from the Saunders descendants and has never before been offered for sale.