Troops Called Out in “Buck Shot War” on December 5, 1838

Amid all the excitement of the first day of the “Buckshot” War, December 4, 1837, at the moment Governor Joseph Ritner had issued his proclamation calling upon the people to disperse the lawless element and to add further excitement, the State Arsenal was seized by friends of the Governor, where large quantities of powder and cartridges were stored. The proclamation and call for troops and the seizure of the arsenal filled the city of Harrisburg with intense alarm.

William Cochran, Sheriff of Dauphin County, issued a proclamation in which he stated that at no time had there been any riotous proceedings, nor any disturbances which rendered necessary his interposition as a civil officer to preserve peace.

The following day, December 5, the Governor made a requisition on Major General Robert Patterson, commanding the First Division Pennsylvania Militia to furnish sufficient of his command to “quell this insurrection.”

General Patterson obtained from the Frankford Arsenal a supply of the regular ammunition for infantry, which was then buckshot. About a hundred of General Patterson’s command arrived in Harrisburg, on Saturday night, December 8, and the next afternoon 800 troops arrived. They were paraded through the streets to the public grounds in front of the State Arsenal.

The general and his staff reported to the Governor. The door was locked and barred, and the general could not gain admittance until the Governor learned from a second-story window who was seeking an entrance.

854The Governor sent for his Cabinet, and five responded. They asked the General many questions, among others, if he would obey an order of the Speaker of the Senate, to which he replied in the negative. He said he had not come on a political mission, and anyway, would not sustain a party clearly in the wrong.

He was asked if he would obey an order from the Speaker of the House. He replied he would not, for two reasons: They had two Speakers, he did not know the right one, and he would not obey the regular Speaker anyway, as he had no right to give him an order. He said he would obey only the Governor, and then only when the Governor gave him an order he had a right to give.

General Patterson refused to help seat either Speaker. He said the House alone could do that. If ordered to fire, he would refuse to issue the order. Nor would he permit a single shot to be fired except in self-defense, if assailed by the rebels, or in the protection of public property. The conference ended abruptly.

The Governor had called upon Captain Sumner, then in command of the Carlisle Barracks, for troops, but he refused to send them to interfere in political troubles.

Governor Ritner also wrote to President Van Buren, laying before him a full account of the affair, requesting the President to take such measures as would protect the State against violence. The Governor named several Government officials who were active in the trouble.

The Governor’s party finding they could not get General Patterson to install them in power, his troops were ordered home and a requisition was made upon Major General Alexander, of the Eleventh Division of State Militia, a citizen of Carlisle, and an ultra-Whig in politics.

Out of three companies only sixty-seven men responded. The battalion, under the command of Colonel Willis Foulk, marched from Carlisle to Harrisburg, December 15, arriving on the following day.

There never had been occasion for soldiers and now as the Carlisle troops arrived the disturbance in the Legislature was nearing an end. The soldiers regarded the trip as a frolic.

On December 17 Messrs. Butler and Sturdevant, of Luzerne, and Montelius, of Union County, three legally elected Whig members, abandoned their Anti-Masonic associates and were sworn in as members of the “Hopkins House,” which gave it a legal quorum over and above the eight Democrats from Philadelphia whose rights the “Rump House” disputed.

Finally on December 27, Mr. Michler, of Northampton County, submitted a resolution which recognized that the House was now legally organized, and it was adopted, by the close vote of seventeen yeas to sixteen nays.

The committee called for in the resolution was named and waited on the Governor, informing him the Legislature was organized.

855With this reconciliation the returns were opened and read; the amendment to the Constitution was declared carried and the election of David R. Porter as Governor of the Commonwealth promulgated. However, the animosity still existed, and resulted in the appointment by both Houses of select committees to inquire into the causes of the disturbances and other matters.

Mr. Stevens, the ring leader, refused at first to be reconciled, and absented himself several months from the sessions of the House. It was not until May 8 that his colleague in the House announced that Mr. Stevens was now in his seat and ready to take the requisite qualifications.

Objection was made, and a resolution offered declaring that Mr. Stevens had “forfeited that right by act in violation of the laws of the land, by contempt to the House, and by the virtual resignation of his character as a representative.” Action was postponed.

On the following day Mr. Stevens again appeared, and, through his colleague, demanded that the oath be administered. This was on motion postponed by a vote of forty-eight to thirty. Two days afterward Mr. Stevens appeared a third time, but by a vote of fifty-three to thirty-three the question was postponed, and a committee appointed to examine whether he had not forfeited his right to a seat as a member.

On the 20th this committee reported that he was “not entitled” to his seat.

The House, however, by declaring his seat vacant, caused an election, when Mr. Stevens was again returned and appearing, was duly qualified.

Mr. Penrose, the Speaker of the Senate, issued a manifesto “To the People of the State,” explaining his participation in the proceedings of December 4.

Subsequently a number of pamphlets appeared, chiefly of the facetious class, which attempted to make a farce of what might have resulted in a very serious affair. One of these severely criticized Secretary Burrowes for withholding the correct and legal returns; Speaker Penrose for the violation of his duty; the six Senators who were denounced as traitors and the last paragraph was:

“Finally, if the leaders of the party who claimed to be ‘all the decency,’ and were the first to cry out mob, had behaved themselves honorably and honestly there would have been no ‘Buckshot War,’ and perhaps they would not have so soon been compelled to witness the 'Last Kick of Anti-Masonry.'”

The piper was now to pay and it took many years to heal the political sores. The Anti-Masonic crusade had come to an end, and from that date Masonry and Odd Fellowship, those “twin sisters of iniquity,” as Thaddeus Stevens designated them, thrived more than ever. The term “Buckshot War,” was a thorn in the side of its leaders.

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