Showing posts with label Election Returns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Election Returns. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

The Vote of Tennessee

We have received the vote of all the counties in this State, official and reported which foote up as follows.

Bell
70,706
Breckenridge
66,440
Douglas
11,428

Bell’s plurality over Breckinridge is 4,266 and the majority against bell is 7,162.

— Published in The Daily News Journal, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, November 28, 1860, p. 2

Friday, October 20, 2017

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, October 15, 1863

News from the front vague and unsatisfactory. Our papers dwell on the masterly movements of Meade, and street rumor glorifies him, but I can get nothing to authenticate or justify this claim of wonderful strategy. Lee has made a demonstration, and our army has fallen back, — “changed its base,” they call it at the War Department; in the vernacular, retreated. This retreat may have been, and probably was, skillfully executed. It is well to make the most of it. It is claimed Meade has shown great tact in not permitting the enemy to outflank him. Perhaps so. I shall not controvert, if I doubt it. I would not decry our generals, nor speak my mind freely if unfavorably impressed concerning them, in public. Meade does the best he knows how; Halleck does nothing.

The election returns come in triumphantly for the Union. Woodward and Vallandigham, both Rebel sympathizers, have been defeated. General McClellan, whose reticence and caution have hitherto been well maintained, unwisely exposed himself. I am informed he refused to write a letter until assured by those in whom he had full trust that there was no doubt of Woodward's election. I doubt if his letter helped Woodward to one vote, but it has effectually killed McClellan.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 470-1

Thursday, July 6, 2017

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Tuesday, November 8, 1864

It has rained all day. Well, this is a great day in the States! Probably more depends on what it brings forth than any since Washington's time. As for myself, though, I have no fear but what all will come out right; am still in Vergennes, and have voted for Abraham Lincoln — my first vote. The city's vote is as follows:

Lincoln 310
McClellan 15

Good! This is as it should be.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 228

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Edmund B. Whitman: Order No. 2, October 19, 1857

(Order No. 2.)

Quartermaster's Department, Headquarters Kansas

Volunteers For The Pkotection Of Thk Ballot-box,

Lawrence, Oct. 19, 1857.

Whereas, On the 3d day of August an order was issued from this department requesting the appointment of company, brigade, and division quartermasters, and an immediate return to be made of the number and description of all arms available for the use of the respective companies; and whereas, said returns have been generally made: Now, therefore, in reply, and in explanation of the failure to furnish an entire supply for the deficiency, it is deemed proper to declare, that while no efforts were spared by this department, and by the entire staff, promptly to supply the necessary quota of arms, yet the unexpected obstacles which the great financial pressure threw in their way have prevented the anticipated success for the time being. It is, however, a cause for congratulation, that while the reports show a considerable deficiency, yet the entire armament is by no means insignificant.

The immense immigration of the past year, composed largely of those who deceived by official promises of protection had anticipated no occasion for personal defence, readily accounts for this deficiency. In our disappointment we may rejoice that the effect of the organization, with all its imperfections, has been in the highest degree satisfactory. The knowledge that an outraged people had at length banded themselves together, almost to a man, for the protection of the most sacred rights of freemen, and were ready to die in their defence, has most manifestly deterred an organized invasion. Voting lists ready manufactured and false returns have been made to supply its place; against this the organization could afford no protection.

It remains to be seen whether the people of Kansas will have any further use for this organization. It is always true that the surest way to prevent an evil is to be prepared to meet it, and three years' experience in the past should teach us not to indulge in any premature feelings of security and safety. In view of possible contingencies, this department hereby announces that it will still continue its exertions to furnish the means of protection and defence to all who may be destitute of them, and in all cases first to supply those localities most exposed to invasion and attack.

E. B. Whitman,
Quartermaster-General Kansas Volunteers.
Approved: J. H. Lane, Organizer.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 403-4

Friday, March 31, 2017

Diary of 1st Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Wednesday, September 14, 1864

Rather a gloomy day. It rained hard from 9 o'clock a. m. until about noon. Lieutenants Davis, Welch and Wheeler have gone on picket with a hundred men from our regiment. There was Company drill this afternoon. It rained so this forenoon that battalion drill was suspended; rained hard this evening, too. Election returns from Maine this evening show that State to be strongly Republican.

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 148

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, November 10, 1864

Headquarters Army Of Potomac
November 10, 1864

They have been singularly niggardly to us about election returns; but we have reliable intelligence to-night that Lincoln is re-elected, the coarse, honest, good-natured, tolerably able man! It is very well as it is; for the certainty of pushing this war to its righteous end must now swallow up all other considerations. I am still more content that there has been a powerful opposition to him, even from respectable men, an opposition strong enough to carry several states. This will caution him, or better, his party, to proceed cautiously and to make no fanatical experiments, such as we too often have seen, but to proceed firmly, and according to rule and law. Lincoln has some men of ability about him — pre-eminent, Mr. Seward, whom the ultras have thrown over, but whom I think the strong man of the cabinet. Mr. Fessenden is said to be a very superior person, and his face is certainly a bright one, very. There is another important advantage in keeping on as we are: the machine is in running order and it is always a drawback to change midst a season of public trial. And again we have done with Lincoln what the Rebels have successfully done with their generals, let him learn from his own misfortunes and mistakes; not a bad school for a sensible man. So you see, I am inclined to make the best of what I deem is the best, albeit not very good. . . .

Have you read an article from Fraser, in Littel’s, called “Concord Transcendentalists.” It is a singular production, rather entertaining some of it, and interspersed with the weakest, sweetened warm milk and water. The place where it says that Theodore Parker hid two slaves in his study, and nightly sat writing at the door of it, with several pistols and the gun that had belonged to his grandfather, would be a funny passage at any time, but, written so gravely in these war days, it is quite irresistible! If you see any number, in future, containing the tale of Tony Butler,1 you might send it to me, though it is no great matter. I have read a number or two, the last chapter being in this very number where the Transcends flourish. Which reminds me of what a West Point professor said, according to the solemn Duane. He was hearing a recitation in philosophy, and would fain illustrate how the body might slowly change, yet the individual remain the same. “Now,” said he, “if I have a knife and lose a blade and get it replaced, it is still the same knife.” “Well,” said a stupid-looking cadet, “and suppose you lose the other blades, one after another, and get them replaced, is it the same knife?” “Certainly,” replied the Professor. “And suppose the handle should get rather ricketty and you replaced that?” “Yes, it would be the same knife.” “Well, now,” cried the stupid one, suddenly brightening up amazingly, “suppose you took the old handle, and found the old blades, and put 'em all together, what would you call that, hey?” Poor Major Duane! he can't do much but talk and tell stories, for he is quite miserably yet and is not fit for duty, though he is improving. . . .

Last night, with a mild south wind, we had a singular example of the stopping of sound. Our batteries near the plank road, some three miles off, may usually be heard with perfect distinctness; not only the guns, but the explosion of the shells; and the replies of the Rebels also. At night we can see the shells going over, by the burning fuse, that looks like a flying spark. The deception is very singular in the dark, for, though the shell may be passing at the rate of 1200 feet a second, in the distance the fuse seems to go slowly and in a stately curve. This is because 1200 feet looks very small, three miles away, and the eye gets an idea of rapidity by the space travelled over in a given time. Well, last night, they opened a somewhat brisk discharge of mortar shells from both sides; but though we could see them go through the sky and burst below, not the faintest sound reached the ear! At other times these same guns will sound quite close to us. I could cite many such contrasts.

I rode forth with good Duke Humphrey, to see the dress-parade in the 9th Corps. That and the 5th, not being in the immediate presence of the enemy, have a good chance for drill. The 9th Corps, in particular, have gone into the evolutions to an alarming extent, an exercise which, like Wistar's balsam of wild cherry, can't do harm and may do good. Around General Parke's Headquarters there is a chronic beating of drums and fifing of fifes and playing of bands. We sat some time and watched the drilling; it was quite fun to see them double-quicking here, and marching there, and turning up in unexpected positions. At last the gallant Colonel McLaughlen, after many intricate manoeuvres, charged and took a sutler's tent, and the brigade was then marched to its quarters. As we returned, there was a nig brigade, having its dress parade in fine style. They looked extremely well and marched in good style. The band was a great feature. There was a man with the bass drum (the same I believe that so amused De Chanal) who felt a ruat-coelum-fiat-big-drum sentiment in his deepest heart! No man ever felt more that the success of great things lay in the whacking of that sheepskin with vigor and precision! Te-de-bung, de-de-bung, bung, bung! could be heard, far and near.  . . . The nigs are getting quite brisk at their evolutions. If their intellects don't work, the officers occasionally refresh them by applying the flats of their swords to their skins. There was a Swede here, who had passed General Casey's board for a negro commission. He was greatly enraged by a remark of the distinguished Casey, who asked him what Gustavus Adolphus did, meaning what great improvements he introduced in the art of war. To which the furriner replied: “He was commander-in-chief of the Swedish army.” “Oh, pooh!” said Casey, “that's nothing!” Which the Swede interpreted to mean that Gustavus was small potatoes, or that the Swedish army was so. Really, most foreign officers among us are but scapegraces from abroad. The other day the Belgian Minister Sanford sent a letter asking for promotion for private Guatineau, whose pa had rendered us great service by writing in the French press. The matter being referred to his commander, the reply was: “This man deserted to the enemy from the picket line.”
_______________

1 By Charles James Lever, and then running in Blackwood's Magazine.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 259-62

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Chicago Election

CHICAGO, April 15. – Sherman, democrat, was elected Mayor, today. The Democrats also elected their entire ticket. The majorities cannot be obtained before the lines close to-night.

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, April 19, 1862