Showing posts with label Elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elections. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Daniel Stewart to Senator Daniel S. Dickinson, October 27, 1851

BALTIMORE, Md., October 27, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR—I feel extremely anxious to obtain some authentic account as to the probable result of your State election in November. I believed it is destined to have an important influence upon the nomination of our candidate and the success of our national election. I feel assured that, if you can present a New York candidate for the Presidency, there will be a preference for him over any one now named; and if you were to be the man, I believe and say so, without any flattery, that you would be the first choice of Maryland. In all the discussions upon the subject which I hear, it is most gratifying to my feelings to realize the high position of confidence to which you have ascended in the affections of the Democratic party. I could pledge to you the electoral vote of our State, for, Whig as that has ever been, you would have strength enough to concentrate a triumphant vote in your support.

*          *          *          *          *

I remain, with the highest respect,

Your faithful friend,

DANIEL STEWART.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 467-8

Monday, February 12, 2024

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, March 17, 1866

This being St. Patrick's Day, considerable apprehensions were entertained by the Englishmen here that there would be more active demonstration by the Fenians. Sir Frederick Bruce did not hesitate to say to me on Thursday evening at the Marquis Montholon's party when I met him, that he had great anxiety and should feel relieved after Saturday. But the day has passed off peaceably. We have had no telegraphs of riot or disorder on the frontier or in Canada. There is less disturbance in our own country than is usual on this anniversary.

By special invitation from Secretary Seward himself, I went this evening to meet a Belgian delegation at his house. Mrs. Welles and Edgar went with me. McCulloch, Dennison, and Speed were similarly invited, as were others. I found we were after-dinner guests, appendages to the special party, called in to set off the Secretary's party. The evening was cold, fires low or out, and though the persons assembled put on the best face, it was an uncomfortable affair, and I for one in no very good humor, believing I had been uselessly put to inconvenience without cause.

Am having sharp questions and importunities in regard to the Connecticut election, and do not choose to answer them or to be mixed up in the contest, which has been badly shaped. The fault is as much here in Washington as elsewhere. Foreseeing the issues which the Radicals in Congress were forming, I suggested near the commencement of the session to the President, that unless the lines were sharply drawn, they would have him at disadvantage. We now see it in the result in New Hampshire, and similar consequences may be expected in Connecticut. General Hawley's sympathies and feelings are with the Radicals in the differences between the President and Congress, or rather with Congress than the President. English, on the other hand, is wholly with the President, and totally, earnestly opposed to the Congressional policy. The election of English would secure a friend to the President, but English and those who support him opposed his (the President's) election and most of them opposed the War. Hawley, while not in full accord with the President on present questions, and I am afraid not on the rights of the States, supported his election, and was an earnest soldier from the beginning of the War until the whole Rebel force surrendered and dispersed. While I think well of both candidates, I have a particular personal regard for Hawley now, as well as intimate party relations in the past.

The President and very many of his friends would be pleased to have English succeed. But they do not comprehend the whole circumstances, personal and political, for they cannot know them. It is not a personal question. The organization is a revival of ante-War differences. It commenced and has gone on under the old party banners. A stand for the Administration should have been made last autumn, but the nominations from Governor down have been made by parties as organized years ago. It is too late to change front, or get up a new arrangement. Such an issue should have commenced last December, and the President himself should have led in the fight by announcing the policy of his Administration and rallying his friends to its support. He would have had the State, the country, and Congress with him, but he hesitated, was reluctant to encounter those who elected him, and then postponed too long for us to begin in Connecticut, for this election takes place in three weeks.

As things are, I cannot take an active part in this contest. Were Hawley more emphatic and unequivocally with the President, I should enter earnestly, heartily, into the struggle, although I did not advise his nomination, or wish it to be made. I think, when elected, he will give the Administration fair support, but he is an ardent partisan. A doubt on the subject of his course paralyzes my zeal and efforts. I am unwilling to believe that Hawley dissembles.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 454-6

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, March 19, 1866

Allen of the Intelligencer called upon me to-day in reference to the Connecticut election. Says it is stated in the papers that I have written letters urging Hawley's election, yet Hawley is making speeches against the President. Told him I had written no letters of the purport indicated, had purposely abstained and intended to. Asked what statements and what papers he referred to, and doubted if Hawley had made speeches in opposition to the Administration. It would not be politic for him to do so. That English is in favor of the President's policy as distinguished from that of Stevens or Congress, is true. The Republicans of Connecticut thought they did a shrewd thing in passing one resolution in favor of the President and another in favor of Congress. This inconsistency, equivocation, or contradiction is now troublesome.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 456-7

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, March 20, 1866

Little of interest at the Cabinet meeting. After the others had left had a free talk with the President. He thinks, in view of the feeling manifested by Congress and the favorable reception of Stewart's resolutions for general amnesty, it will be well to delay the case of Semmes.

I read to him a letter received from General Hawley in regard to the election in Connecticut, and a letter from myself to Crofut, stating my views on present questions, and, believing General H. concurred in them, I wished him success, but not if he was opposed to them and the Administration.

The President approved my letter. Said Mr. English appeared to be a gentleman of character and friendly. Asked what had been his previous party course and whether I had seen a series of questions which were put to Hawley and Hawley's answer. I informed him that English had always been a Democrat, but patriotic, gentlemanly, and not extreme or ultra. Had given support to some important questions of ours during the War. The questions and answers I had seen, but knew not how correct.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 457

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, March 21, 1866

Collectors Babcock of New Haven and Smith of Bridgeport called on me this morning. They had just arrived, having come on in relation to the Connecticut election. English appears to have created an excitement, almost a panic, in regard to the wishes of the Administration. There is alarm on the part of the gentlemen and doubtless much at home which has impelled them to come here. English has represented to them that he had had a long interview on one or two occasions with the President, and that United States officers were to be turned out if they voted for Hawley. Babcock said three or four in his office had their resignations ready and he should tender his if that was exacted. They informed me that Cleveland, Postmaster at Hartford, had called, or was to participate in, a meeting favorable to English, and under the excitement Starkweather of Norwich, Chairman of the State Committee of the Republicans, had sent in his resignation as Postmaster. There is excitement and a party panic in that State. Both Babcock and Smith admitted and asserted that these troubles had their origin in the equivocal, ambiguous, and inconsequential resolutions of the Republican Convention, which spoke two voices, and made the party support antagonistic positions.

General Hawley and Mr. E. H. Owen came and spent more than an hour with me after the interview with B. and S. They had come to Washington impelled by the same causes as those of the other two gentlemen, but without preconcert. Much the same ground was reviewed and the same arguments used, and I told them their difficulties were the results in a great measure of the inconsistent attitude of the convention in indorsing both the President and the Radical majority in Congress, who were in direct antagonism; that no man could support the two honestly.

Hawley two or three times expressed a wish that I would write a letter indorsing him. This, had the issue been direct and fair, I could have done cheerfully, but I asked him what I could say. I was a supporter of the measures of the policy of the Administration; these measures and that policy had my earnest approval; I was advising to them, was identified with them. Of course I desired their success. If I knew that he was in favor of the Administration policy and opposed to the schemes of the Radicals who would defeat it, I could say something definite and positive, but unless that were the case I could do him no good. As things were, I should be compelled, while expressing my personal regard and belief that he would, if elected, be in accord with the Administration, [to say] that my understanding of his position was that his views coincided with those of the President, and particularly that he favored the early reëstablishment of the Union and of the Government in all its departments, that he recognized the rights of each and all of the States, was for the admission of loyal Senators and Representatives promptly, was against sectional division and the exclusion of any of the States. Both Hawley and Owen gave a hesitating but full assent at first; but Hawley thought the word confidence or belief would be better than understanding. Owen concurred, yet all of us saw the embarrassment, and I expressed again my doubts whether I could give any letter or written statement as things were without accompanying it with qualifications which would destroy its effect.

They left me at 1 P.M. to meet Senator Foster, who was to accompany them to the President, and they were to see me after the interview, which lasted over two hours. They expressed themselves satisfied with the views of the President and his course in regard to the election, his object being to sustain his own measures and policy and his preference being for those candidates of his own party who occupy that position. He had given Mr. English no letter and did not intend to take part with any candidates in a merely local election.

Hawley wished to know if I had read the Civil Rights Bill and whether I thought the President would veto it. I told him I had been through the bill, but had exchanged no opinions regarding it; that I thought it very centralizing and objectionable, and my impressions were the President would disapprove of it, though very reluctant to have further difficulty with Congress.

They left, I thought, better satisfied with the President than I was with the course of the Republicans in Connecticut.

In yesterday's Intelligencer was a leading editorial article in relation to myself and my position. The editor had called on me the preceding evening, and we had a conversation in relation to public affairs, the substance of which he has incorporated in his article. What he says regarding my course or stand in the Connecticut election is a little stronger than the actual conversation will warrant. I declined giving any letter or authorization of the use of my name, and informed him I did not wish to become mixed up with the election, which was in many respects unpleasant to me, in consequence of the ambiguous and equivocal course of the Republican Convention. An honest, open, fair expression of views on their part would have left me free to approve or condemn.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 457-60

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, March 24, 1866

The Intelligencer of this morning contains an adroit letter from Cleveland, the Hartford Postmaster, stating that he is openly supporting English for Governor, who is in favor of the measures, policy, veto, and speech of the President, and that he is opposing Hawley, who is opposed to them, and tendering his resignation if his course is disapproved. On this letter the President indorsed that his (C.'s) action in sustaining his (the President's) measures and policy is approved and the resignation is, therefore, not accepted.

This correspondence will be misconstrued and misunderstood, I have no doubt. The Democrats will claim that it is a committal for English, and the Republicans will acquiesce to some extent. Yet the disposition of the subject is highly creditable to the sagacity and tact of the President. I regret that he did not earlier and in some more conspicuous case take action.

I do not like the shape things are taking in Connecticut, and to some extent the position of the President is and will be misunderstood. He is, I think, not satisfied with the somewhat equivocal position of Hawley, and would now prefer that English should be the Union candidate. Herein he errs, as things are situated, for most of his friends are supporting Hawley and some of his bitterest opponents are supporting English. He should soon draw the line of demarcation. In the break-up of parties which I think is now upon us, not unlikely Hawley will plunge into centralism, for thither go almost all Radicals, including his old Abolition associates. The causes or circumstances which take him there will be likely to bring English into the President's support. Nevertheless, under the existing state of things, I should, unless something farther occurs between this and election, probably, on personal grounds, prefer Hawley. It is too late to effect a change of front with parties.

Senator Sumner came this P.M. as usual on Saturdays. He doubts the correctness of taking naval vessels for the French Exhibition. Grimes, with whom I have had some conversation, has contributed to Sumner's doubts. It is certainly a strange proceeding to require or expect the Navy to furnish four vessels with their crews for this carrying service without any appropriation of funds for that object. It is not a naval matter, enters not into our estimates, and we have no suitable vessels. The House is very loose and reckless, however, in its proceedings, and appears to be careless of current legislation. Specific appropriations they would misapply, and are, in fact, pressing and insisting that I shall divert funds appropriated by law for one purpose to another and different purpose. But this was not Sumner's trouble. He thought it bad economy, as it undoubtedly is. I said to him that if I was called to do this transportation without instructions, I would, as a matter of economy, sooner charter merchant ships than dismantle and attempt to convert and use naval vessels for the purpose.

I learn in confidence from Sumner that dispatches from our legation in France have reached the State Department which have not been brought before the Cabinet. Louis Napoleon has quarreled with his cousin, who was president of the commission of savants, and he has left Paris and resigned the presidency. Napoleon has appointed in his place, as president of the World's Congress of wise men and inventors, his son, now some eight or ten years of age. This Sumner thinks an insult or worse, and is disposed to give the whole thing a rebuff. I shall be glad to have him, but he will not attempt to move without first consulting Seward, and that gentleman has his heart so much in the interest of France, his friends are so engaged in the Exhibition, that he has held back this information and will set himself earnestly at work to overpersuade Sumner, who, as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, has seen the dispatches. He may succeed. Sumner was, however, very earnest and pleased with his own idea of hitting Louis Napoleon a blow.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 461-3

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, March 27, 1866

The proceedings of the Senate, though exciting, do not overshadow the interest felt in the Connecticut election. Although the President strives to be disinterested and indifferent between the candidates for Governor, I cannot be mistaken in the fact that he inclines favorably to English. I am sorry for this, because his friends, those who elected him, are almost all of them supporters of Hawley. Those who voted for him, those who have stood by his measures since called to administer the Government and are sincerely friendly to his policy are committed to Hawley and the ticket which he heads. True, Hawley on mere organized party grounds is himself inclining to Congress, and I am constrained to believe will eventually identify himself with the centralists. English will be the opposite. But these questions are not made controlling in this election, as they should have been at the beginning of the contest.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 465

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Diary of Gideon Welles: October 11, 1865

The elections in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Iowa come in favorable, though the vote and the majorities are reduced from the Presidential election. I am glad that the Union party has done well in Philadelphia, for if we had lost the city or given a small vote, there would have been a claim that it was in consequence of my circulars. As it is, I get no credit, but I escape censure for doing right.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 381

Sunday, March 12, 2023

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, January 19, 1866

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION                
OF THE MISSISSIPPI,        
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 19, 1866.

Dear Brother: The papers this morning announce your election by a strong vote, and settle that question. I am of course very glad, for it demonstrates not only your strength but that the people of Ohio approve your past. As to the future, of course in all things political you have far more knowledge than I, but I do believe that the extension of the election franchise is being pushed beyond the Rule of Right. All beings are entitled to the protection of the law, even “infants not born,” but because of such natural right it is not to be inferred they must vote. To vote implies an understanding almost equivalent to the ability to make laws. It is legislative — not natural Right. Instead of enlarging the privilege, we must gradually curtail it, in order to have stability and security. It was this popular clamor for supposed rights that carried the South into rebellion. No people were ever more unanimous than they, and though now they concede themselves vanquished, yet on this and kindred subjects they are as unanimous as ever.

To place or attempt to place the negro on a par with the whites will produce new convulsions. The country is in no condition to go on with such contests. Better pacify or acknowledge conditions than attempt new ones dangerous to the peace of the whole country. It will take ten years for the South to regain full prosperity with the negro free, and that should precede any new complication.

Affectionately, etc.,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 261-2

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 17, 1864

Bright and beautiful.

Still all quiet below, and reinforcements (details revoked) are not arriving—1000 per day.

The Northern news makes some doubt as to the result of the election in Pennsylvania.

From the Valley we have rumors of victory, etc.

A thrill of horror has been produced by a report that Gen. Butler has, for some time past, kept a number of his prisoners (Confederates) at work in his canal down the river, and supposing they were Federals, our batteries and gun-boats have been shelling our own men!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 309

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, August 1, 1865

 The President sends notice that there will be no Cabinet-meeting to-day. He went to Fortress Monroe on Sunday in a light river boat, and returned on Monday morning ill. He is reported quite indisposed to-day. As he takes no exercise and confines himself to his duties, his health must break down. Going down the river is a temporary relief from care and a beneficial change of atmosphere, but it gives no exercise. I admonish him frequently, but it has little effect.

The tone of sentiment and action of people of the South is injudicious and indiscreet in many respects. I know not if there is any remedy, but if not, other and serious disasters await them, — and us also perhaps, for if we are one people, dissension and wrong affect the whole.

The recent election in Richmond indicates a banding together of the Rebel element and a proscription of friends of the Union. This would be the natural tendency of things, perhaps, but there should be forbearance and kindness, in order to reinstate old fraternal feeling. Instead of this, the Rebels appear to be arrogant and offensively dictatorial. Perhaps there is exaggeration in this respect.

The military, it seems, have interfered and nullified the municipal election in Richmond, with the exception of a single officer. Why he alone should be retained, I do not understand. Nor am I informed, though I have little doubt, who directed and prompted this military squelching of a popular election. It was not a subject on which the Cabinet was informed. Such a step should not have been taken without deliberation, under good advisement, and with good reasons. There may have been such, for the Rebels have been foolish and insolent, and there was wanting a smart and stern rebuke rightly administered. If not right, the wicked may be benefited and their malpractices strengthened by the interference.

From various quarters we learn that the Rebels are organizing through the Southern States with a view to regaining political ascendency, and are pressing forward prominent Rebels for candidates in the approaching election. Graham in North Carolina, Etheridge in Tennessee, are types.

Seward and Speed are absent at Cape May. Dennison tells me that Stanton on Friday stated we had a military force of 42,000 on the Rio Grande. If so, this on the part of the military means war, and we are in no condition for war. I have not been entirely satisfied with Seward's management of the Mexican question. Our remonstrance or protest against French influence and dictation has been feeble and inefficient, but Stanton and Grant are, on the other hand, too belligerent.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 347-8

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Matthew Scott Cook, October 12, 1864

CAMP NEAR STRASBURG, VIRGINIA, October 12, 1864.

Dear UNCLE Scott:— I am much obliged for your letter announcing the arrival of the big boy and the welfare of his mother. I had been looking for news somewhat anxiously. I intended to have had a daughter, but I failed to see the new moon over my right shoulder. I am glad to hear he promises to be a good boy, as Aunt Phœbe writes Dr. Joe.

We had a quiet election here yesterday. My old brigade, Ohio voters, were unanimous the two veteran regiments voting as follows: Twenty-third — two hundred and sixty-six Union; Thirty-sixth — two hundred and fifty-nine ditto, and no Copperheads. The whole of Crook's Command stands fourteen hundred Union and two hundred Democrats in round numbers — three-fourths of the Democrats being in companies from Monroe and Crawford (counties).

Our campaign in the Valley is supposed to be ended. It winds up with a most signal cavalry victory. It is believed that the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps with Sheridan's splendid cavalry will join Grant and that Crook's hard-worked command will have the duty of guarding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in winter quarters. We hope this is correct. If so, I shall probably get home by Christmas for a good visit.

I am compelled to write this on the half sheet of your letter. Love to all.

Sincerely,
R. B. HAYES.
MATTHEW Scott Cook.
        Chillicothe, Ohio.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 524

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Saturday, October 15, 1864

Rebels still in front. Election said to be favorable. Captain Hastings I fear is worse. Mosby captures a railroad train. General Angus gets Mosby's artillery. Mosby gets three hundred thousand [dollars].

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 525

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, October 15, 1864

CAMP NEAR STRASBURG, VIRGINIA, October 15, 1864.

Dear UNCLE:— We are resting. Early, reinforced, came up a few days ago, evidently thinking a good part of our army had gone to Grant. Finding his mistake, he moved back to his old fortifications on Fisher's [Hill], and is now there digging and chopping like mad. What we are to do about it, I can't tell. It must be a serious business for the Rebels to feed an army there now.

I have not yet heard from the Ohio election. The two Ohio regiments in my old brigade (Twenty-third and Thirty-sixth Ohio) gave five hundred and fifteen votes for the Union state and county ticket, and none at all for the Democrats. People at home can't beat that!

Give my regards to Father Works and to Mr. and Mrs. Valette. My sympathies or congratulations, perhaps, should be given to Mr. Oscar Valette. I see he is drafted. Of course, his health will be reason enough not to go. Jim Webb was drafted; ill health excused him.

Sincerely,
R.
S. BIRCHARD

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 526

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Monday, October 17, 1864

My election [to Congress] reported. Seventeen [Republican] to two [Democratic] members of Congress in Ohio; sixteen to eight in Pennsylvania. Better than all, Governor Morton elected by a good majority in Indiana.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 526

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Tuesday, October 18, 1864

A letter from Stephenson congratulating me on my election by twenty-four hundred majority. [In the] First District, Eggleston has seventeen hundred majority. Still busy on entrenchments.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 527

Saturday, March 13, 2021

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, September 12, 1864

No news of special importance to-day. The election in Maine is eliciting comments. The opposition are expecting to make large gains, while the friends of the Administration are pretty confident they will maintain their majority of last year. Both parties evidently consider the result as indicative of the great result in the fall, and for this reason more than usual interest is manifested.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 141

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Jonathan Worth to Alfred G. Foster, July 31, 1861

ASHEBORO, July 31, '61.

I know not your views in relation to the re-election of the superior Court. my nephew as Clk. of the Supr. Court. It seems to me it is a matter of public interest beyond the mere duties of the office. He has been in office a very short time and has proved himself so good an officer as to give complete satisfaction both to the Court, the bar and the public.—He was the first to raise a Company of volunteers and enter the service. It has been urged on the stump by Bulla, his only competitor having the slightest chance of success, that Shubal ought not to be elected because his competitors are poor while his father is well off and he is getting a salary of $108 as Captain—and that while in service hc would have to employ a deputy, whereby he would in effect appoint the clerk instead of the people. It would be impossible that such arguments should carry with them any weight, but, there being no one to reply to them, they have taken a hold on the minds of many, and I much fear Bulla may beat him, if intelligent men are not active on the day of the election. As soon as the people understand what every man of any information knows, that no officer in time of war, who is fit to command men, can save a dollar of his salary, and that he always spends more, if he can command it—and that Sam. Jackson volunteered without pay to act as his deputy, and was so appointed and has so acted since Shubal left, it at once strikes every mind that his non-election would wear the appearance of a rebuke on him for becoming it soldier. He would necessarily feel that our people, not under arms, do not duly appreciate the sacrifices of those who encounter the discomforts of the camp and the hazards of the field. It would wear the appearance of showing the indifference if not the disapproval of taking up arms, when in fact I doubt whether there is in any County more unanimous than ours that there is now nothing else to be thought of, but resistance to the death to our Northern foes.—It is pretty certain that we have but begun to raise troops. We should not discourage others by showing ingratitude to those who have volunteered.

My object is to suggest, if you concur in that course, that some effort be made, on the day of the election, to make the voters understand the matter.

I have heard repeatedly, but cannot credit it, that Capt. Gray and perhaps some of his friends had in some way got the impression that Shubal and his friends, in their zeal to get up Shubal's Company, had improperly thrown difficulties in Capt. G.'s way of getting volunteers. I a certain that Shubal and his relatives have not said or done anything of the kind, and that there is not the slightest ground for any such impression, and I trust none such exists. If he had any suspicion of the sort I am sure he would have given us the opportunity to exculpate ourselves. Ever since I made up my mind that war was inevitable, I have done my best to get volunteers under any leader they might be willing to follow.

SOURCE: J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Editor, The Correspondence of Jonathan Worth, Volume 1, p. 156-7

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Governor Michael Hahn to Abraham Lincoln, March 3, 1865

STATE OF LOUISIANA, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,                       
New Orleans, March 3, 1865.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States:

DEAR SIR: On the 22d of February, 1864, I was elected governor of the State of Louisiana and on the 4th of March following I was inaugurated into office. On the 29th of March I received from you a letter or order, in the following words:

EXECUTIVE MANSION,               
Washington City, March --, 1864.
His Excellency MICHAEL HAHN,
Governor of Louisiana:

Until further orders you are hereby invested with all the powers heretofore exercised by the military governor of Louisiana.

A. LINCOLN.

I also received from the War Department certified copies of the commission and letter of instructions to Brigadier-General Shepley, formerly military governor of Louisiana, dated June 3, 1862. I have now resigned the office of governor of this State, to take effect this day, and I therefore respectfully notify you that from and after this day I shall cease to exercise any of the powers of military governor, with which you invested me by granting me these powers. I can safely say that nothing was done by me by virtue of these powers which did not meet the approval of the convention, the legislature, and loyal people of this State, and in which I would not have been sustained even without such military powers. I conclude this letter with a quotation from my message, delivered to the legislature on the 7th of October last:

The unsettled condition of the country, the absence or destruction of most of the public archives and various other causes have conspired to throw much difficulty in the way of a full organization of a State government. The want of a legislature and the sudden uprooting of many important yet unwise and illiberal laws and institutions by military orders, render it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the executive of the State to perform his duties satisfactorily and understandingly to the public, or to properly reconcile and harmonize the various conflicting rules of government and interests of the State. I was somewhat aided in this dilemma by the President of the United States, who shortly after my inauguration, invested me, without any solicitation or suggestion on my part, "with the powers exercised hitherto by the military governor of Louisiana." Fortunately, the harmony which has characterized the intercourse of the military and civil authorities of this State has rendered the exercise of any such powers by me almost unnecessary. The principal subjects upon which I have used these powers are, the appointment of public officers, the payment of money from the State treasury for Just and pressing purposes and after recommendation by proper officers, and the exercise of executive clemency.

I remain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
MICHAEL HAHN.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 48, Part 2 (Serial No. 101), p. 1064

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Proclamation of Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks, January 11, 1864

PROCLAMATION.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,                  
New Orleans, January 11, 1864.
 TO THE PEOPLE OF LOUISIANA:

I. In pursuance of authority vested in me by the President of the United States, and upon consultation with many representative men of different interests, being fully assured that more than a tenth of the population desire the earliest possible restoration of Louisiana to the Union, I invite the loyal citizens of the State qualified to vote in public affairs, as hereinafter prescribed, to assemble in the election precincts designated by law, or at such places as may hereafter be established, on the 22d day of February, 1864, to cast their votes for the election of State officers herein named, viz: Governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney-general, superintendent of public instruction, auditor of public accounts, who shall, when elected, for the time being, and until others are appointed by competent authority, constitute the civil government of the State, under the constitution and laws of Louisiana, except so much of the said constitution and laws as recognize, regulate, or relate to slavery, which, being inconsistent with the present condition of public affairs and plainly inapplicable to any class of persons now existing within its limits, must be suspended, and they are therefore and hereby declared to be inoperative and void. This proceeding is not intended to ignore the right of property existing prior to the rebellion, nor to preclude the claim for compensation of loyal citizens for losses sustained by enlistments or other authorized acts of the Government.

II. The oath of allegiance prescribed by the President's proclamation, with the condition affixed to the elective franchise by the constitution of Louisiana, will constitute the qualification of voters in this election. Officers elected by them will be duly installed in their offices on the 4th day of March, 1864.

III. The registration of voters, effected under the direction of the Military Governor and the several Union associations, not inconsistent with the proclamation, or other orders of the President, are confirmed and approved.

IV. In order that the organic law of the State may be made to conform to the will of the people, and harmonize with the spirit of the age, as well as to maintain and preserve the ancient landmarks of civil and religious liberty, an election of delegates to a convention for the revision of the constitution will be held on the first Monday of April, 1864. The basis of representation, the number of delegates, and the details of election will be announced in subsequent orders.

V. Arrangements will be made for the early election of members of Congress for the State.

VI. The fundamental law of the State is martial law. It is competent and just for the Government to surrender to the people, at the earliest possible moment, so much of military power as may be consistent with the success of military operation; to prepare the way by prompt and wise measures for the full restoration of the State to the Union and its power to the people; to restore their ancient and unsurpassed prosperity; to enlarge the scope of agricultural and commercial industry, and to extend and confirm the dominion of rational liberty. It is not within human power to accomplish these results without some sacrifice of individual prejudices and interests. Problems of state too complicate for the human mind have been solved by the national cannon. In great civil convulsions the agony of strife enters the souls of the innocent as well as the guilty. The Government is subject to the law of necessity, and must consult the condition of things rather than the preferences of men, and if so be that its purposes are just and its measures wise, it has the right to demand that questions of personal interest and opinion shall be subordinate to the public good. When the national existence is at stake and the liberties of the people in peril, faction is treason.

The methods herein proposed submit the whole question of government directly to the people. First, by the election of executive officers faithful to the Union, to be followed by a loyal representation in both Houses of Congress, and then by a convention which will confirm the action of the people and recognize the principles of freedom in the organic law. This is the wish of the President. The anniversary of Washington's birth is a fit day for the commencement of so grand a work. The immortal Father of his Country was never guided by a more just and benignant spirit than that of his successor in office, the President of the United States. In the hour of our trial let us heed his admonitions.

Louisiana in the opening of her history sealed the integrity of the Union by conferring upon its Government the Valley of the Mississippi. In the war for independence upon the sea she crowned a glorious struggle against the first maritime power of the world by a victory unsurpassed in the annals of war. Let her people now announce to the world the coming restoration of the Union, in which the ages that follow us have a deeper interest than our own, by the organization of a free government, and her fame will be immortal.

N. P. BANKS,                       
Major-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 4 (Serial No. 125), p. 22-3