Daniel S. Dickinson to the Citizens of New York, Kings, Queens, Richmond & Westchester Counties, June 1, 1850

WASHINGTON, June 1, 1850

GENTLEMEN—I have received, and perused with the most profound sensibility, your esteemed favor of a late date, inviting me to designate an early day when I will partake of a complimentary public dinner with my Democratic Republican fellow-citizens of the city of New York and the adjoining counties.

I trust I suitably appreciate the distinguished honor conferred by this communication, and, although I cannot describe, I will not seek to conceal the gratification experienced in its reception.

By the kind partiality of my Democratic fellow-citizens, it has been my fortune to have held a place in the national councils during a period more fruitful of interesting and extraordinary events than any which has marked the history of our government since the Revolutionary struggle; events which have transpired in rapid and startling succession, almost rivalling in grandeur the dreams of romance, conquering and subduing as well the opinions of the world as enemies upon the field of battle, and transferring within the control of free and happy institutions new States and Empires. But amid the most glorious fruition. that a beneficent Providence ever vouchsafed to man, the country has been painfully excited and unhappily divided, and communities and States, united in political and social bonds, rejoicing in the same sacred recollections, and upheld by a common destiny, have been arrayed against each other upon a subject which the prophectic vision of the Father of his Country discovered would create and foster sectional combinations, and against which he warned his countrymen, as a fearful element of evil. From the commencement of this unholy struggle, I determined, regardless of all personal considerations, to resist the tendency of sectionalism in any and every form; and the approbation of my humble efforts which you so delicately convey, assures me that I have but discharged a sacred duty. I early saw that the subject was surrounded with consequences of fearful import, and determined to meet the responsibilities which my station imposed, according to my own sense of duty, and leave my vindication to a just and generous people, when the war and din of excitement shall become exhausted, and truth and reason shall resume their empire. Upon the great questions which have formed so conspicuous a portion of our history, I have been associated and acted with some of the purest patriots of the land; and, though surrounded by difficulties, I have been sustained by confiding friends, and have neither faltered nor fled.

Those who will approve the course I have pursued may trace it with little effort, and those who would condemn will fortunately not be driven for proof to the inferences of circumstantial evidence.

The institutions under which we live are ours for enjoyment and preservation, and not for the performance of questionable or desperate experiments. We occupy but a point of space in the great current of time, and should transmit to our successors the rich heritage which we have received and hold in trust for others—strengthened and invigorated by the support of superadded numbers, and by the developments of man's capacity for self-government, which time and free institutions cannot fail to produce.

Should the political or social bonds which unite this glorious confederacy of States be permanently sundered, it might justly be denominated the second failure of man—more sinful than that of our common progenitor, because preceded by no temptation; and more fatal, because beyond the prospect of redemption. I have long regretted that I was denied the benefit of free social intercourse with my friends in the commercial emporium, by a remote residence and unceasing engagements; and I embrace the opportunity, which your kind invitation has

presented, to meet you as requested-proposing to do so on Monday, the 17th instant.

I am, gentlemen,
                With high consideration and regard,

Your friend and fellow-citizen,

D. S. DICKINSON.

To Messrs. CHARLES O'CONOR, CORNELIUS W. LAWRENCE, LEROY M. WILEY, FRANCIS B. CUTTING, ANDREW H. MICKLE, ROBERT H. MORRIS, WILLIAM M'MURRAY, and others.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 434-6

Isaac Toucey to George Douglas, Schuyler Livingston, Esqs., and others, Committee, &c., June 15, 1850

 NEW HAVEN, June 15, 1850.

GENTLEMEN—I acknowledge with great pleasure the invitation which you have done me the honor to extend to me, to be present at the public dinner to be given by the Democrats of New York, at Tammany Hall, on Monday, the 17th inst., to their distinguished Senator, the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson.

It would be out of place, even for those who have had the best opportunity of knowing intimately and appreciating most fully the extent and value of his services, to speak of them in terms of merited commendation, because they have been performed in the face of the whole country, on its most conspicuous theatre.

At the present crisis, full of difficulty and danger—the very crisis which the Father of his Country foresaw and foretold, and, in his farewell address to his countrymen, warned us to beware of—it is a source of the highest gratification to observe the strong "evidences of popular approval" manifested towards those who comprehend the interests of the whole country, and stand firm and faithful amidst all the clamors of faction.

I regret that my duties here will necessarily prevent me from being present on the occasion, and I beg you will accept the time-honored sentiment which I annex.

I am, gentlemen,
        With the highest respect,

Your fellow-citizen,

ISAAC TOUCEY.

The Union of the States—Not formed or upheld by force, but by concession and compromise, and a just regard to the interests of the whole country and every part of it.

To GEORGE DOUGLAS, SCHUYLER LIVINGSTON, Esqs., and others, Committee, &c.

SOURCE: John R. Dickinson, Editor, Speeches, Correspondence, Etc., of the Late Daniel S. Dickinson of New York, Vol. 2, p. 442

Diary of William Howard Russell: June 1, 1861

The respectable people of the city are menaced with two internal evils in consequence of the destitution caused by the stoppage of trade with the North and with Europe. The municipal authorities, for want of funds, threaten to close the city schools, and to disband the police; at the same time employers refuse to pay their workmen on the ground of inability. The British Consulate was thronged to-day by Irish, English, and Scotch, entreating to be sent North or to Europe. The stories told by some of these poor fellows were most pitiable, and were vouched for by facts and papers; but Mr. Mure has no funds at his disposal to enable him to comply with their prayers. Nothing remains for them but to enlist. For the third or fourth time I heard cases of British subjects being forcibly carried off to fill the ranks of so-called volunteer companies and regiments. In some instances they have been knocked down, bound, and confined in barracks, till in despair they consented to serve. Those who have friends aware of their condition were relieved by the interference of the Consul; but there are many, no doubt, thus coerced and placed in involuntary servitude without his knowledge. Mr. Mure has acted with energy, judgment, and success on these occasions; but I much wish he could have, from national sources, assisted the many distressed English subjects who thronged his office.

The great commercial community of New Orleans, which now feels the pressure of the blockade, depends on the interference of the European Powers next October. They have among them men who refuse to pay their debts to Northern houses, but they deny that they intend to repudiate, and promise to pay all who are not Black Republicans when the war is over. Repudiation is a word out of favor, as they feel the character of the Southern States and of Mr. Jefferson Davis himself has been much injured in Europe by the breach of honesty and honor of which they have been guilty; but I am assured on all sides that every State will eventually redeem all its obligations. Meantime, money here is fast vanishing. Bills on New York are worth nothing, and bills on England are at 18 per cent, discount from the par value of gold; but the people of this city will endure all this and much more to escape from the hated rule of the Yankees.

Through the present gloom come the rays of a glorious future, which shall see a grand slave confederacy enclosing the Gulf in its arms, and swelling to the shores of the Potomac and Chesapeake, with the entire control of the Mississippi and a monopoly of the great staples on which so much of the manufactures and commerce of England and France depend. They believe themselves, in fact, to be masters of the destiny of the world. Cotton is king — not alone king but czar; and coupled with the gratification and profit to be derived from this mighty agency, they look forward with intense satisfaction to the complete humiliation of their hated enemies in the New England States, to the destruction of their usurious rival New York, and to the impoverishment and ruin of the States which have excited their enmity by personal liberty bills, and have outraged and insulted them by harboring abolitionists and an anti-slavery press.

The abolitionists have said, “We will never rest till every slave is free in the United States.” Men of larger views than those have declared, “They will never rest from agitation until a man may as freely express his opinions, be they what they may, on slavery, or anything else, in the streets of Charleston or of New Orleans as in those of Boston or New York.” “Our rights are guaranteed by the Constitution,” exclaim the South. “The Constitution,” retorts Wendell Phillips, “is a league with the devil, — a covenant with hell.”

The doctrine of State Rights has been consistently advocated not only by Southern statesmen, but by the great party who have ever maintained there was danger to liberty in the establishment of a strong central Government; but the contending interests and opinions on both sides had hitherto been kept from open collision by artful compromises and by ingenious contrivances, which ceased with the election of Mr. Lincoln.

There was in the very corner-stone of the republican edifice a small fissure, which has been widening as the grand structure increased in height and weight. The early statesmen and authors of the Republic knew of its existence, but left to posterity the duty of dealing with it and guarding against its consequences. Washington himself was perfectly aware of the danger; and he looked forward to a duration of some sixty or seventy years only for the great fabric he contributed to erect. He was satisfied a crisis must come, when the States whom in his farewell address he warned against rivalry and faction would be unable to overcome the animosities excited by different interests, and the passions arising out of adverse institutions; and now that the separation has come, there is not, in the Constitution, or out of it, power to cement the broken fragments together.

It is remarkable that in New Orleans, as in New York, the opinion of the most wealthy and intelligent men in the community, so far as I can judge, regards universal suffrage as organized confiscation, legalized violence and corruption, a mortal disease in the body politic. The other night, as I sat in the club-house, I heard a discussion in reference to the operations, of the Thugs in this city, a band of native-born Americans, who at election times were wont deliberately to shoot down Irish and German voters occupying positions as leaders of their mobs. These Thugs were only suppressed by an armed vigilance committee, of which a physician who sat at table was one of the members.

Having made some purchases, and paid all my visits, I returned to prepare for my voyage up the Mississippi and visits to several planters on its banks — my first being to Governor Roman.

SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 249-52

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Lemuel A. Abbott: Sunday, January 3, 1864

Quite a comfortable day; no snow yet, but it looks likely to storm in a day or two; wrote to Pert*, and had our usual inspection this forenoon. Since dinner,

I have read “Washington's Farewell Address”, and the “Declaration of Independence”. This evening quite a number of recruits arrived for the regiment, but none for Company B. Capt. J. A. Salisbury has been in to call on Lieut. Stetson, and broken my camp chair. This is still more provoking than not to get a letter from home for chairs are not plentiful here. He is a big man.

_______________

* Miss P. A. Thomson, a cousin and many years a teacher in Goddard Seminary, Barre, Vt

SOURCE: Lemuel Abijah Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary, 1864, p. 2-3

The Observance of Washington’s Birth-day Recommended by the President

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19. – BY THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES – A PROCLAMATION. – It is recommended to the people of the United States that they assemble in their customary places for public solemnity, on the 22^nd day of February and celebrate the anniversary of the birth-day of the father of his country by causing to be read to them his farewell address.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 22, 1862, p. 3

Proclamation for the Observance of Washington’s Birthday

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19.

It is recommended by the President to the people of the United States, that they assemble in their customary places of public worship on the 22d day of February, inst., and celebrate the anniversary of the birthday of the Father of his Country, by causing to be read to them his Farewell Address.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, February 20, 1862, p. 1