Repentance “in front of God and everybody” is rare in American politics. In recent times, Alabama Governor George Wallace renounced his segregationist, white supremacist ways in the late 1970s. He humbled himself and asked many African-Americans to forgive him.[i]
A hundred years earlier, a popular Iowan’s racial stridency (and unbending attitude toward state’s rights) took him to a place where most Hawkeyes couldn’t go. This is his story.
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Cyrus Franklin stepped onto the tree stump and looked out at the anxious faces of his supporters. They were his people, and they shared a bond. Knowing his pedigree – Mexican War veteran, attorney, and student of Roman history – they elected him twice to the Iowa General Assembly. They even indulged his quirky taste in clothes.
They waited for Franklin to address the topic on everyone’s mind: Fort Sumter, the seceded States, and what President Lincoln would do. And so Franklin, in March 1860, began with gentle words.
He asked God to let his words be a balm for “the wounds of our government.” But he quickly said Lincoln was like the Roman traitor, Cataline, who “set one portion of his countrymen to war upon another section.”[ii]
A Lawyer’s Perspective
Secession was legal, Franklin said, because two Northern states had already enacted “personal liberty bills” (which violated the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850). In practical terms, secession was legal the moment that “six sovereign states” withdrew from the Union.
Franklin raised the question: Would the United States government try to conquer the seceded states?
Race and the American Experiment
Harkening back to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Franklin said:
“It was a white men’s government that was formed — and such it shall remain, or I will perish in rebellion against it. To attempt to equalize the two races is a base insult to the plainest law of God.”
Criticizing Lincoln
Pivoting to the present, Franklin said:
“Mr. Lincoln, the President elect, has, in a speech at Indianapolis, clearly indicated his purpose to send his northern forces — you and me — to the south to recover the lost domain. This will be hopeless disunion, the bloodiest civil war.”
Franklin continued, “We know that in the depths of our hearts we want them back again.” But, he claimed, “The men in pow[er] are doing all they can to cut off all hope of their return … ‘War! Bloody War!’ … is the cry of Mr. Lincoln and his supporters.”
Franklin asked, “Now, my countrymen, what are we to do?”
Teetering on the Edge of Insurrection
Like Julius Caesar, Franklin quickly approached his personal Rubicon. He predicted that Lincoln would send troops to “cut our brothers’ and our fathers’ throats.” Franklin suggested that once Governor Kirkwood established a military training camp, Iowans could seize “the munitions of war.”
Franklin, the State’s Rights Democrat, declared himself in favor of secession. He said:
“I will support their cause with my property and my life if need be. You do well to respond that you do likewise. Your honest and brave hearts could not do less.”
With a softer tone, he said, “Let us if it be possible, avoid this bitter cup.” Franklin gave a charge to his listeners: Tell your Republican loved ones to beg the Lincoln administration to avoid war. Then he said:
“Remind him [your friend or brother], in honest love, and with unflinching integrity that whilst you will do everything in your power to save the effusion of blood, yet if he remains deaf to your prayers, he must expect your blood as his trophy, instead of the blood of the men in the Southern States.”
One can only imagine the stunned silence of the audience.
The War Begins
In less than a month, South Carolinians fired upon Fort Sumter on April 12. Nine days later, the Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier called for “War! War! War!,” and someone burned down Franklin’s house and law library.[iii] He was in Memphis, Missouri at the time.
He reportedly told friends that people burned his house and drove him out of Iowa for supporting secession.[iv] The Keokuk Daily Gate City commented that Franklin was “a lying incendiary.”[v]
Within three months, Franklin was appointed Captain of the Missouri State Guard, and he later became Colonel of the 2nd N.E. Missouri Cavalry (Confederate).[vi]
After the War
In southeast Iowa, people never forgot “traitor” Franklin and his infamous speech. When the war finally ended, he moved to Tennessee. However, Franklin – “the meanest kind of guerilla and bushwhacker in Northern Missouri” – made a short visit to Ottumwa.
The Daily Gate City editor said Franklin “ought to stretch hemp [be hanged].” The editor concluded that Franklin had served the Confederacy out of “pure, original, unblended cussedness.”[vii]
Unexpected Turnabout
Fast-forward six years. Franklin, the man who stood for insurrection and white supremacy, wrote to the Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier describing a political change of heart. The Courier compared this to the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.[viii]
The Courier said Franklin had “stood by the lost cause of democracy [the Democratic Party] and secessionism, in the forum and field, as long as there was any hope for that cause.” However, similar to former Confederate General James Longstreet, Franklin “is disposed to submit to the inevitable,” that is, the consequences of a Union victory.[ix]
Simply put, the Civil War settled the question of secession and state’s rights. The national government reigned supreme.
Going further, Franklin affirmed the Ku Klux Klan Act, enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment.[x] This Act –signed into law on April 20, 1871 — stated that former slaves were entitled to “any of the rights, privileges, or immunities, or protection, named in the Constitution.”[xi]
Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
Franklin saved his richest praise for President Ulysses S. Grant: “[At] Vicksburg, Wilderness, Petersburg, or Appomattox, the Lord has been with the man; and whether in camp or cabinet, the hearts of the people turn to him.”
Comparing Grant to George Washington, Franklin said: “Any man who can read the history of those two men and fail to see the finger of God, has a religion which I do not envy … Next year, if God wills, when I take the stump, I will add a thousand reasons.”[xii]
Questions, Questions
Many Iowans doubted Franklin’s sincerity. One skeptic was Franklin’s old acquaintance, former Union General John M. Hedrick. Gen. Hedrick wrote Franklin’s obituary (12 years later) and said that Franklin “directly went back to his vomit” (that is, his secessionist ways).[xiii] However, I have seen no evidence that Franklin ever recanted his political “conversion.”
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Thank you for reading my blog. Please leave any comments or questions below.
[i] Rob Weatherby, “Sudbury Faith: George Wallace a Racist who Repented,” Sudbury Star, August 2, 2020, viewed online at https://www.thesudburystar.com/news/local-news/sudbury-faith-george-wallace-a-racist-who-repented on 11/12/2025
[ii] “Speech of Captain Cyrus Franklin, delivered AT A UNION MEETING, at Floris [?], Davis County, Iowa,” Ottumwa Weekly Democratic Union, March 21, 1861, p. 1, cols. 2-5.
[iii] “Dwelling Burned,”Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier, April 24, 1861, p. 3, col. 1.
[iv] Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier, May 8, 1861, p. 2, col. 1.
[v] “MR. EDITOR,” Daily Gate City (Keokuk, Iowa), May 7, 1861, p. 3, col. 2.
[vi] Cyrus Franklin, Compiled Confederate Service Record, National Archives, available on Fold3.com .
[vii] Daily Gate City (Keokuk, Iowa), June 6, 1866, p. 4, col. 2.
[viii] Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier (Iowa), October 6, 1871, p. 2, col. 2.
[ix] “FRANKLIN’S LETTER,” Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier (Iowa), October 19, 1871, p. 2, col.1.
[x] “ANOTHER ___ OF ___ CONVERTED – LETTER FROM CYRUS FRANKLIN,” Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier , October 19, 1871, p. 2, col. 2.
[xi] “The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871,” The U.S. House of Representatives “History, Art & Archives,” https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/hh_1871_04_20_KKK_Act/ .
[xii] “ANOTHER ___ OF ___ CONVERTED – LETTER FROM CYRUS FRANKLIN,” Ottumwa Semi-Weekly Courier , October 19, 1871, p. 2, col. 2.
[xiii] J.M. Hedrick, “Cyrus Franklin,” Ottumwa Weekly Courier, February 18, 1885.
Kathleen Parsons
5 Jan 2026Thank you! It is always good to gain insight on why the Confederates followed their conviction despite future retribution to themselves or their relations.