Showing posts with label Virginia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virginia. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 17, 2023

John Tyler to Robert Tyler, November 10, 1860

SHERWOOD FOREST, November 10, 1860.

So all is over, and Lincoln elected. South Carolina will secede. What other States will do remains to be seen. Virginia will abide developments. The Bellites will seek to divide parties into Unionists and the reverse. We shall see the result. It is said that Rives is offered the premiership. He will only take it upon satisfactory assurances being given, I am sure. For myself, I rest in quiet, and shall do so unless I see that my poor opinions have due weight. In the meantime confidence between man and man is giving way, and soon gold and silver will be hoarded by those who are fortunate enough to have them.

Love to all.
Your affectionate father,
J. TYLER.

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 563

Sunday, April 16, 2023

Dr. Spencer G. Welch to Cordelia Strother Welch, October 20, 1863

Camp near Rappahannock River,
Culpeper County, Va.,
October 20, 1863.

This is the first chance I have had to write to you since we started on our autumn campaign. We have succeeded in maneuvering Meade entirely out of Virginia, as you must have already learned. The infantry did not have much fighting to do at any time on the entire trip, but the cavalry fought a large part of the time. Two North Carolina brigades became engaged with the enemy late one afternoon near Bristow Station, and our side got rather the worst of it. It was all due to the miserable management of General Hill or General Heth, or possibly both of them. The next morning the Yankees were gone, as they did not dare give battle to General Lee.

We have had a pretty hard time of it for the last few days on account of so much rain. It made the marching extremely disagreeable, but I stood the trip well, and enjoyed the best of health. To-day the weather has cleared and it is bright and pleasant.

We have destroyed the railroad between Manassas and this place, so the Yankees cannot advance by that route again this winter, and I am sure the Army of Virginia will do no more fighting this year. Some part of it is sure to be sent somewhere soon, and our corps might go to Tennessee after resting a few days, or it might possibly be sent to General Bragg.

The part of Virginia through which we have marched has been totally devastated. It is now nothing but one vast track of desolation, without a fence or a planted field of any kind. I do not understand how the people exist, yet they do actually continue to live there. They are intensely hostile to the Yankees, and there is certainly no submission in them. If the people at home, who know nothing of the war, but who are always critcising the bad management of our general, could see these lofty-minded Virginians, who have lost everything but their proud spirit, they surely would hush and try to do something for their country.

SOURCE: Dr. Spencer G. Welch, A Confederate Surgeon's Letters to His Wife, p. 80-2

Monday, April 10, 2023

John Tyler to Robert Tyler, December 6, 1859

SHERWOOD FOREST, December 6, 1859.

DEAR ROBERT: Your letter of the 28th November is before me. I was far from inferring from your previous letter making any application to me for pecuniary aid. No such inference was deducible from your letter. I meant only to express the opinion that the law profession opened more widely the door to preferment than any other pursuit, and, in doing so, mentioned the regret I felt that I had it not in my power to place you on a footing of perfect independence, so as to enable you to devote your whole time to your office. It is a regret I sincerely felt, but of course I knew that you too well appreciated my true condition to even hint at such a thing. Under such circumstances I am desirous to see you placed in such a situation under the government which will ensure your future independence. I care but little what it is, so it ensures that end.

A chase after political preferment ends in nothing but fatigue to the spirits and exhaustion of mind. Even at the highest, it is attended with little more than traduction and slander. In the present condition of public affairs, this remark becomes more emphatic. A day may destroy everything. Virginia is arming to the teeth—more than fifty thousand stand of arms already distributed, and the demand for more daily increasing. Party is silent, and has no voice. But one sentiment pervades the country: security in the Union, or separation. An indiscreet move in any direction may produce results deeply to be deplored. I fear the debates in Congress, and above all the Speaker's election. If excitement prevails in Congress, it will add fuel to the flame which already burns so terrifically. I hope there is conservatism enough in the country to speak peace, and that, after all, good may come out of evil. Wise's energy receives unqualified approval.

Your father,
JOHN TYLER.

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 555

Saturday, March 11, 2023

William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, April 25, 1861

OFFICE ST. LOUIS RAILROAD COMPANY, St. Louis, April 25, 1861.

DEAR BROTHER: Virginia's secession influences some six millions of people. No use in arguing about it at all, but all the Virginians, or all who trace their lineage back, will feel like obeying her dictates and example. As a state, she has been proud, boastful, and we may say over-bearing; but, on the other hand, she, by her governors and authority, has done everything to draw her native-born back to their state.

I can not yet but think that it was a fatal mistake in Mr. Lincoln not to tie to his administration by some kind of link, the border states. Now it is too late, and sooner or later Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas will be in arms against us. It is barely possible that Missouri may yet be neutral.

It is pretty nearly determined to divert the half million set aside for the July interest for arming the state.1 All the bankers but one have consented, and the governor and legislature are strongly secession. I understand to-day the orders at the custom house are to refuse clearance to steamboats to seceding states. All the heavy trade with groceries and provisions is with the South, and this order at once takes all life from St. Louis. Merchants heretofore for peace, and even for backing the administration will now fall off, relax in their exertions, and the result will possibly be secession, and then free states against slave – the horrible array so long dreaded. I know Frank Blair desired this plain, square issue. It may be that sooner or later it is inevitable, but I cannot bring myself to think so. On the necessity of maintaining a government and that government the old constitutional one, I have never wavered, but I do recoil from a war, when the negro is the only question. I am informed that McClellan is appointed to command the Ohio militia — a most excellent appointment; a better officer could not be found.
_______________

1 Missouri. — ED.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 380-1

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Diary of Gideon Welles: Between May 3 & 8, 1865

The calls upon the President by associations claiming to represent States and municipalities are becoming less. To some extent they may have been useful in the peculiar condition of public affairs by inspiring confidence, and in giving the President an opportunity to enunciate his opinions in the absence of any inaugural, but they have been annoying at times, obstructions to business, and were becoming irksome. The President was not displeased with these manifestations and has borne himself well through a period which has been trying and arduous, and is gathering to himself the good wishes of the country.

I called up the subject of free communication through the coast to all vessels having regular clearance, but was told the President and Secretary of the Treasury were endeavoring to make a satisfactory arrangement which should be in conformity, with the act of July 2, 1864. It is obvious that the intention of that act was to place the Treasury above, or independent of, the President, — one of Chase's demonstrations, and his hand is in this movement.

A proclamation, or order, that those who were taken plundering our commerce should be punished, and that forbearance to put in execution the proclamation of the 19th of April, 1861, would not longer be exercised, was opposed by Stanton and Speed. Others failed to sustain me, except McCulloch, who gave me partial support. Stanton considers it his special province to guard Seward's policy as it has been, not being aware that Seward has changed.  The subject of reëstablishing the Federal authority, and of a reorganization of the State governments in the insurrectionary region was discussed. The Secretary of War was requested to send copies of the modified plan to each head of Department, and a special Cabinet-meeting was ordered on Monday, the 8th, to consider the subject.

At the Cabinet-meeting the plan of asserting the Federal authority and of establishing the State government in Virginia was fully considered. Stanton's project with several radical amendments presented by me was adopted. I was surprised and gratified with the alacrity and cheerfulness he exhibited, and the readiness with which he adopted and assented to most of my amendments. In one instance he became a little pugnacious, Speed and Dennison having dissented. Two of my recommendations were not adopted, and as no other one presented amendments, I cared not to appear fastidious, but am nevertheless satisfied I was right. The session was long, over four hours.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 300-1

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Diary of Gideon Welles: Sunday, April 16, 1865

The President and Cabinet met by agreement at 10 A.M. at the Treasury. The President was half an hour behind time. Stanton was more than an hour late. He brought with him papers, and had many suggestions relative to the measure before the Cabinet at our last meeting with President Lincoln. The general policy of the treatment of the Rebels and the Rebel States was discussed. President Johnson is not disposed to treat treason lightly, and the chief Rebels he would punish with exemplary severity.

Stanton has divided his original plan and made the reestablishing of State government applicable to North Carolina, leaving Virginia, which has a loyal government and governor, to arrange that matter of election to which I had excepted, but elaborating it for North Carolina and the other States.

Being at the War Department Sunday evening, I was detained conversing with Stanton. Finally Senator Sumner came in. He was soon followed by Gooch and Dawes of Massachusetts and some two or three others. One or more general officers also came in. Stanton took from his table, in answer to an inquiry from Sumner, his document which had been submitted to the Cabinet and which was still a Cabinet measure.

It was evident the gentlemen were there by appointment, and I considered myself an intruder or out of place. If so, Stanton did not know how to get rid of me, and it seemed awkward for me to leave. The others doubtless supposed I was there by arrangement; perhaps I was, but I felt embarrassed and was very glad, after he had read to them his first programme for Virginia, and had got about half through with the other, when Sumner demanded to know what provision was made for the colored man to vote. A line was brought me at this time by the messenger, which gave me an opportunity to leave.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 290-1

Sunday, January 9, 2022

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 [1862].

Hon. Eli Thayer’s scheme for colonization by armed men of Southern States meets with much favor by the President, Secretary of war and others.  It has been discussed several times in Cabinet meetings, and will probably soon receive formal official sanction.

The project contemplates an expedition of 10,000 colonists enlisted for 6 months and supplies with transportation, subsistence, arms and a guard by the government, whose business it shall be to hold, occupy and possess the public lands of Florida and other lands belonging to rebels, and seized under the law of the last session of Congress for non-payment of direct tax.

Mr. Thayer promises, if allowed to carry out his plan entire, to bring Florida into the Union as a free State by the first February next.  Texas and Virginia are already talked of as States to be subjected to the same process.

This, like the proclamation of this morning, will be another step in the path of a more vigorous policy which the Administration, in its proclamation of freedom, advertised that it should henceforth pursue.

Surgeon General Hammond has returned from the battle-field of Antietam, where he has been stopping at McClellan’s headquarters.  He thinks the whole number of Union killed will come within 1,200, and from a careful inspection of hospitals and lists of those brought off, judges that the wounded will not exceed 6,000.  Maj. Davis, Assistant Inspector General, informed him that he himself had caused to be buried 3,000 of the rebel dead left on the field from which he estimates their wounded to be at least 10,000.

S[u]rgeon General Hammond saw, as a part of the fruits of our victory, twenty-seven standards, which we captured from the rebel regiments, and also reports among our spoils twenty or thirty thousand small arms, mostly those left by the enemy along the line of their retreat.

A man signing himself R. P. Noble communicated to this evening’s Star a statement, which he professes to make on direct information, that Col. Ford did not evacuate Maryland Heights until he had received the fourth and peremptory order from Col. Miles to do so—and besides, his long range ammunition has been exhausted.  He asks a suspension of opinion.

SOURCES:  The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, Saturday, October 18, 1862, p. 2, the right side of the article was caught be the seam of the bound newspaper volume and torn on the right side of the column leaving only an average of about 3 to 4 words per line. I was able to do a search on Newspapers.com and found the same article in the Muscatine Weekly Journal, Muscatine Iowa, Friday, October 3, 1862 p. 1. It is this article that I have here transcribed.

Monday, December 13, 2021

John W. Garrett to Governor Thomas H. Hicks, October 21, 1859

October 21st, 1859.
To His Excellency,
        Thomas H. Hicks,
                Governor of Maryland:

Sir: — I have just received from His Excellency, Henry A. Wise, Governor of Virginia, a letter having reference to the late outrages at Harper's Ferry, in which he states that he has organized an armed police guard to patrol the Virginia border, to protect persons and property, and to keep watch ways to and from the Ferry, expressing at the same time the opinion, that some guard ought to be provided on the Maryland side, and saying that he leaves it to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company to suggest the necessary steps to the Governor of Maryland.

I cannot respond to Governor Wise's letter better than by communicating to your Excellency, the steps which he has deemed necessary as the executive of our sister State. Looking to the now well ascertained purpose of the leaders of the late outbreak, it is seen at once that both Virginia and Maryland have the same motives for action irrespective of those which prompt to the supression of riot and disorder. And when your Excellency bears in mind the fact that the bed of the Potomac, and of course the bridge of this company which crosses it are within the limits of Maryland, and that this company is altogether powerless as a conservator of the peace, I feel confident that the suggestion of Gov. Wise will receive from your Excellency the consideration that it certainly deserves.

Any aid which this company may be able to afford your Excellency on this occasion will be promptly and very cheerfully rendered.

I have the honor to be,                        
With great respect,                
Your very ob't serv't,        
J. W. GARRETT, Pres't.

SOURCE: B. H. Richardson, Annapolis, Maryland, Publisher, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, 17th October, 1859, p. 29-30

Thursday, July 16, 2020

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: February 5, 1862

THE EXPEDITION MOVES.

The clink of the windlass is heard on all the boats, hoisting up their anchors, so here we go for a trip up the sound, probably for Roanoke island. This island holds the Albemarle sound and all that part of North Carolina lying on it, and also Southeast Virginia. It is quite an important point, and we learn is strongly fortified. Our fleet consists of about seventy sail of all kinds and makes an imposing appearance. The gunboats, under command of Commodore Goldsborough, take the advance, the transports and other craft following. After a few hours sail, the low, pine-covered shore of the old North state presented itself to view. We were in sight of the shore all day and not a house was to be seen or any visible signs of life, excepting huge columns of smoke rising above the tree-tops. These were probably signal fires, as they could be seen along the shore as far as the eye could reach. We sailed today to within ten miles of the light-house at the western end of the Pamlico sound, the entrance to Croatan sound, in which is situated the coveted island. Here we dropped anchor for the night, the gunboats forming a picket guard, and extending themselves nearly to the light-house. The island can be seen through a glass, and tomorrow I expect we shall get a nearer view.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 31-2

Thursday, March 12, 2020

Jefferson Davis to the People of the Confederate States of America

DANVILLE, VA., April 4, 1865.

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA:

The general-in-chief of our army has found it necessary to make such movements of the troops as to uncover the capital and thus involve the withdrawal of the Government from the city of Richmond.

It would be unwise, even were it possible, to conceal the great moral as well as material injury to our cause that must result from the occupation of Richmond by the enemy. It is equally unwise and unworthy of us, as patriots engaged in a most sacred cause, to allow our energies to falter, our spirits to grow faint, or our efforts to become relaxed under reverses, however calamitous. While it has been to us a source of national pride that for four years of unequaled warfare we have been able, in close proximity to the center of the enemy's power, to maintain the seat of our chosen government free from the pollution of his presence; while the memories of the heroic dead who have freely given their lives to its defense must ever remain enshrined in our hearts; while the preservation of the capital, which is usually regarded as the evidence to mankind of separate national existence, was an object very dear to us, it is also true, and should not be forgotten, that the loss which we have suffered is not without compensation. For many months the largest and finest army of the Confederacy, under the command of a leader whose presence inspires equal confidence in the troops and the people, has been greatly trammeled by the necessity of keeping constant watch over the approaches to the capital, and has thus been forced to forego more than one opportunity for promising enterprise. The hopes and confidence of the enemy have been constantly excited by the belief that their possession of Richmond would be the signal for our submission to their rule, and relieve them from the burden of war, as their failing resources admonish them must be abandoned if not speedily brought to a successful close. It is for us, my countrymen, to show by our bearing under reverses how wretched has been the self-deception of those who have believed us less able to endure misfortune with fortitude than to encounter danger with courage. We have now entered upon a new phase of a struggle, the memory of which is to endure for all ages and to shed an increasing luster upon our country.

Relieved from the necessity of guarding cities and particular points, important but not vital to our defense, with an army free to move from point to point and strike in detail the detachments and garrisons of the enemy, operating on the interior of our own country, where supplies are more accessible, and where the foe will be far removed from his own base and cut off from all succor in case of reverse, nothing is now needed to render our triumph certain but the exhibition of our own unquenchable resolve. Let us but will it, and we are free; and who, in the light of the past, dare doubt your purpose in the future?

Animated by the confidence in your spirit and fortitude, which never yet has faded me, I announce to you, fellow-countrymen, that it is my purpose to maintain your cause with my whole heart and soul; that I will never consent to abandon to the enemy one foot of the soil of any one of the States of the Confederacy; that Virginia, noble State, whose ancient renown has been eclipsed by her still more glorious recent history; whose bosom has been bared to receive the main shock of this war; whose sons and daughters have exhibited heroism so sublime as to render her illustrious in all times to come; that Virginia with the help of her people, and by the blessing of Providence, shall be held and defended, and no peace ever be made with the infamous invaders of her homes by the sacrifice of any of her rights or territory. If by stress of numbers we should ever be compelled to a temporary withdrawal from her limits, or those of any other border State, again and again will we return, until the baffled and exhausted enemy shall abandon in despair his endless and impossible task of making slaves of a people resolved to be free.

Let us not, then, despond, my countrymen, but relying on the never-failing mercies and protecting care of our God, let us meet the foe with fresh defiance, with unconquered and unconquerable hearts.

JEFF'N DAVIS.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 46, Part 3 (Serial No. 97), p. 1382-3

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Diary of Corporal David L. Day: January 11, 1862

As I look out on the Old Dominion, the Mother of presidents, statesmen and heroes, my mind is filled with historical reminiscences of its past greatness and glory. Alas! that Virginia, a state that bore such a proud record in the history of our country, a state that has done so much and sacrificed so much to gain our independence and establish our government, should now be sunk in the mire and slough of rebellion.

There is no appearance of leaving here today; many of the officers are going ashore to look around, and the boys are amusing themselves as best they can. Many and various are the speculations and conjectures as to our destination. Some think we are to make an attack on Yorktown, others that Norfolk is the point of attack. Some prophesy that we shall go up the James river, others that we are going far down the coast. I have not bothered myself much about it, but conclude we shall fetch up somewhere. As one looks on “old glory” proudly waving over the frowning battlements of Fortress Monroe and the rip raps, he would naturally conclude that this part of Virginia had not passed the ordinance of secession. Fortress Monroe is built of granite and earthworks, and is calculated, I believe, to mount some 400 or 500 guns. It is the largest and strongest fort on the coast and the only complete work in this country; hence it is called a fortress. The rip raps is an unfinished work, built on an artificial island, and situated about a mile east of Fortress Monroe. When completed, it will be a powerful work, and all vessels going to Norfolk or up the James river will have to pass between the two forts.

Looking west we can see the ruins of Hampton, burned last fall by order of Gen. Magruder. Speaking of Magruder reminds me of an anecdote I have somewhere read of him. While serving in Mexico, he ranked as captain of infantry in the regular army. While there he was in the habit of spreeing it pretty hard, and early one morning, after he had been out on a pretty rough time, his regiment received orders to march. By some strange oversight, the captain failed to replenish his canteen, and in a little while he began to experience an intolerable thirst. In this dilemma he called on one of his privates, whom he supposed might have something, and asked him what he had in his canteen. He was told that it contained a certain kind of Mexican liquor, of which the captain was very fond. After taking a pretty good bumper, he said, “Private Jones, you will hereafter rank as corporal, and be obeyed and respected as such.” After a while, his thirst again coming on, he goes and calls for some more of the liquor. This time he about found the bottom of the canteen, and thanking the corporal for his politeness, said to him, “Corporal Jones, you will hereafter rank as sergeant, and be obeyed and respected as such.” And, as the story went, if the canteen had held out a while longer, private Jones might have ranked as brigadier general.

SOURCE: David L. Day, My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Volunteer Infantry, p. 19-20

Monday, May 13, 2019

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 12, 1863

No accounts of any fighting, but plenty of battles looked for.

A. A. Little writes to the Secretary of War from Fredericksburg, that the attempt to remove the iron from the Aquia Railroad by the government having failed, now is the time for private enterprise to effect it. If the Secretary “will say the word,” it can be done. He says the iron is worth “millions, its weight in gold!” Will Mr. Seddon let it be saved? Yes, indeed.

Mr. Heyliger, agent at Nassau, writes on the 3d instant (just a week ago), that he is shipping bacon by every steamer (three or four per week), leather, percussion caps, and a large amount of quartermaster's stores. But the supply of lead and saltpeter is exhausted, and he hopes the agents in Europe will soon send more. About one in every four steamers is captured by the enemy. We can afford that.

The President sent over to-day, for the perusal of the Secretary of War, a long letter from Gen. Howell Cobb, dated at Atlanta, on the 7th instant. He had just returned from a visit to Bragg's army, and reports that there is a better feeling among the officers for Gen. Bragg, who is regaining their confidence. However, he says it is to be wished that more cordiality subsisted between Generals Bragg and ———, his ——— in command. He thinks Generals B—— and C—— might be relieved without detriment to the service, if they cannot be reconciled to Bragg. He hints at some important movement, and suggests co-operation from Virginia by a demonstration in East Tennessee.

It is generally believed that France has followed the example of England, by seizing our rams. Thus the whole world seems combined against us. And Mr. Seward has made a speech, breathing fire and destruction unless we submit to Lincoln as our President. He says he was fairly elected President for four years of the whole United States, and there can be no peace until he is President of all the States, to which he is justly entitled. A war for the President!

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 95-6

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: December 3, 1863

The recent victory of Grant near Chattanooga seems to be very complete. We have not heard from Burnside, besieged in Knoxville by Longstreet, since the 24th or 25th. We have some apprehensions, but hope that he has been relieved by Grant's success. Meade has pushed into the heart of eastern Virginia after Lee. I fear the result. The Army of the Potomac has been as unlucky on Virginia soil as the army of Lee on our soil.

Company B left today for home, over three-fourths, fifty-four, having enlisted as veteran volunteers. Companies A, E, and F are likely to follow suit.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 445-6

Monday, February 18, 2019

Nathaniel Peabody Rogers: Constitutionality of Slavery, September 8, 1838

The second “unprovided-for difficulty” of the Keene Sentinel, in the way of the anti-slavery movement is, that “slaves are property.” We deny that they are property, or that they can be made so. We will not argue this, for it is self-evident. A man cannot be a subject of human ownership; neither can he be the owner of humanity. There is a clear and eternal incompetancy on both sides, — on the one to own man, and on the other to be owned by man. A man cannot alienate his right to liberty and to himself, — still less can it be taken from him. He cannot part with his duty to be free — his obligation to liberty, any more than his right. He is under obligation to God and humanity and his own immortality, to retain his manhood and to exercise it. He cannot become the property of another, any more than he can part with his human nature. It would be utterly repugnant to all the purposes of his creation. He is bound to perform a part, which is totally incompatible with his being owned by any body but himself; which requires that he keep himself free. He can't be property, any more than he can be a horse, or a literal ass. We commend our brethren of the Sentinel to the eighth Psalm, as a divine authority touching the nature and destination of man. He can't be property — he can't be appropriated. His mighty nature cannot be coped by the grasp of ownership. Can the Messrs. Sentinel be appropriated? We put it sternly to them, in behalf of their, and our own, and the slave's common nature, — for we feel that it is all outraged by their terrible allegation. Can the editors of the Sentinel become property? the goods and chattels, rights and hereditaments of an owner? If they can't, no man can. If any man can, they can. Can the Hon. Mr. Prentiss, with all his interesting qualities and relations, by any diabolical jugglery, be converted into a slave, so as to belong to one of his fallen, depraved fellow-men? Can he suppose the idea? Is he susceptible of this transmutation? He is, if any body is. Can he be transferred, by virtue of a few cries and raps of a glib-tongued auctioneer? Could a pedler sell him, from his tin cart? Could he knock him off, bag and baggage, to the boldest bidder? Let us try it. No disrespect to our esteemed senior. — We test his allegation, that a man is property. If one man can be, any man can — himself, or his stately townsman, Major-General Wilson, who would most oddly become the auction platform. If a man can be property, he can be sold. If any man can be, every man can — Mr. Prentiss, Gen. Wilson, Rev. Mr. Barstow — every man. Let us try to vendue the Sentinel. Advertise him, if you please, in the Keene paper. On the day, produce him — bring him on — let his personal symmetries be examined and descanted on — his sacred person handled by the sacrilegious man-jockey, — let him be ordered to shift positions, and assume attitudes, and display to the callous multitude his form and proportions — his points, as the horse-jockey would say. How would all this comport with the high sense of personal honor, wont to be entertained by the Sentinel? How would he not encounter a thousand deaths rather than submit to it? How his proud spirit, instinct with manhood, would burst and soar away from the scene! Who bids? an able-bodied, capable, fine, healthy, submissive, contented Boy, about fifty — sound wind and limb — sold positively for no fault — a field hand — come of real stock, — faithful, can trust him with gold untold — will nobody start him? — shall we have a bid? — will nobody bid for the boy? Now we demand of our respected brother, whose honor is as sacred in our regard as in his own, what he thinks of the chattelism of a slave, — for we indignantly lay it down as an immovable principle that the Hon. John Prentiss is as legitimate a subject of property and of sale, as any the lowest of his race.

We dispose of the position that “slaves are property,” by utterly and indignantly denying the possibility of it. We will rescue our brethren of the Sentinel from the imputation of this murderous idea, by erasing the semicolon after “property,” and making but one sentence of the second “difficulty,” turning it into an opinion that “slaves are property by the constitution and the laws;” throwing the infamy on to the old framers of the constitution, and all of us who have lived under it, with power to amend or nullify it. It would sink the whole of us. Constitution and laws! Is the Sentinel of opinion that a constitution could be framed by men, or by existences in the shape of men, that, instead of protecting human liberty and rights, should annihilate them? A constitution to enslave men! What would you say of a British constitution, that enslaved a British subject? Would you not scout the idea of it — of the British possibility of it? and can it be done here, and was it done here by revolutionary sages, who could not brook the restraints of British liberty? A constitution, that should provide for the enslavement of a man, would be a legal abortion. The bare engrossing of it would nullify it. It would perish by spontaneous annulment and nullification. It could not survive its ordination — nor could its infamous framers. We deny that an enslaved man is property by the constitution, and we might deny that any man can be enslaved under our constitution, and consequently, that he could be chattelized, if a slave were admitted to be property. Things may be appropriated — persons may not. They are self-evidently not susceptible of appropriation or ownership. By the constitution every body is spoken of as a person — no mention is made of human things. If a slave is alluded to, in that instrument, as a possible existence in point of fact, it is under the name of person. “Three fifths of all other Persons” — “migration or importation of persons— “no person held to service.” These are the only instances in it where allusion is made to slaves, — and it no more, in those allusions, sanctions enslaving, than it does “piracies and felonies on the high seas,” which it also expressly recognizes, as they say of slavery. So it says “person,” where it solemnly asserts that “no person can be deprived of liberty or property, but by due process of law.” This clause prohibits the slightest approaches to enslaving, or holding in slavery, which is continued enslaving. No person's property can be taken from him; not his life even; infinitely less his Liberty, without due legal process. It is idle to say, that the framers of the constitution, or. those who adopted it and acted under it, did not mean to save the colored man from slavery, by this clause. In law they are to be held to mean so, because they said so. The intent of the framers is now to be gathered from what they said in the instrument itself — not their colloquies at the time or before or after — but what they put down in imperishable black and white. It is what they inscribed on the parchment for all time, that they legally intended, and there we are to go to get at their intent. If the words are obscure and ambiguous, we may gather their intent by aid of concomitant circumstances, &c. But there is no ambiguity here. The clearest words and best understood and most trimly defined of any we have, here set forth the essential doctrine, (without which a community of thieves and pirates could scarcely be kept together,) that life, liberty and property are sacred. Enslave man and leave him these three, and you may do it, maugre this clause of the constitution. However, you must leave him, by virtue of other clauses, a few other incidentals, such as compulsory process for calling in all witnesses for him, of whatever color; the inviolate right to be secure in person, house, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures; right of trial by jury in all cases over twenty dollars' value; the free exercise of religion, of speech, of the press, of peaceable assembly and of petition; the civil rights of republican government, which is guarantied to him in every state in this Union; the privileges and immunities of citizens in every state; in short, you must allow him a string of franchises, enumerated accidentally in that part of the old compact, called the preamble, viz., justice, domestic tranquillity, common defence, general welfare, and, finally, the blessings of liberty to himself and to his posterity; — moreover you may add, in repetition, — for in securing these breath-of-life sort of rights, people run a little into superfluity of words — you may add the unsuspendible privilege of habeas corpus — the old writ of liberty; — and perfect exemption from all attainder, or enslaving a man's children on his account. We will mention one more — that is the uninfringible right to keep and bear arms. All these and many other rights and immunities, "too numerous to be mentioned,” are secured to him by adamantine provisions in the constitution, and if you can chattelize him under them, so that Austin Woolfolk can trade in him, at your capital, or Wade Hampton or the American Board, can buy him and use him up in their service, or Doctor Ezra Styles Ely speculate in his soul and body, then your doctrine, Messrs. Sentinel, is sound, that he is recognized as property by the constitution.

We claim some exceptions, however, in case we cannot overthrow slavery in the slave states, by force of the national constitution. We cannot allow you to enslave any body in old Virginia. Look at her law paramount in our caption, declaring the Birth-Right, Inalienable Liberty Of All Men. In Maryland the right is constitutionally set forth a little stronger. You must not enslave a man in Maryland, — and we can't allow you to lay a finger on his liberties in the district of Columbia, because the constitutions of Virginia and Maryland are still paramount law there, by congressional adoption, at the acceptance of the cessions. And if he runs away from the district or a territory, or either of those two states, we can't allow you to arrest him and send him back.

We ask our legal friends, who think lightly of this “fanaticism,” to look into this constitutional and legal matter of slaveholding. We would like especially, that some of the neighbors of the Sentinel would give some exposition, during the coming convention, of the lawfulness of enslaving people in this country. We ask the Keene lawyers how this is. We want “the opinion of the court.”

For ourselves we venture the opinion, in light of what glimmerings of law scintillate about our vision, that holding a man in slavery is a violation of the law of this land, and of every part of it, not excepting our gory-fingered sister Arkansas, or our carnage-dripping sister Alabama, the haunt of christian enterprise from New England and the worn-out slave states in the north. A constitution that can avail to protect republican liberty to a single member of this community, inviolably secures it to every man, and condemns and prohibits slavery. It cannot otherwise be. Slavery is a mere matter of fact — in the face of the constitution — in the face of each state constitution — in the face of every court of justice which soundly administers the law of any state — in face of every thing, but a tyrant public sentiment, and a diabolical American practice.

The enslaved of the country are as much entitled to their liberty as any of us, by the law as it is. They have a right to throw off all violation of it by force, if they cannot otherwise. Nay, it is their duty to do so, if they can, — for it is not injury merely, that they are submitting to — not wrongs. They are rendered incapable of suffering injury — incompetent to endure wrong. The accursed system, that preys upon them, makes things of them — exterminates their very natures. This they may not submit to. They ought to prevent it, at every expense. They ought to resist it, as the Christian should the devil, for it wars upon the nature of man, and devours his immortality. If they could heave off the system by an instantaneous and universal effort, they ought to do it Individually we wish they could do it, and that they would do it. We may be wrong in this opinion — but we entertain it. If our white brethren at the South were slaves, we should wish them instantaneous deliverance by insurrection, if this would bring it to them. We wish our colored brethren the same. We do not value the bodily lives of the present white generation there a straw, compared to the horrible thraldom, in which they hold the colored people, and we value their lives as highly as we do the colored people's. But insurrection can't effect it. It must be done by the abolitionists. They must annihilate the system by force of their principles, and as fast as possible. And they must increase their speed. Men will have to groan and pant in absolute brutality, with their high and eternal natures bound down and strangled amid the folds of this enslaving devil, until we throw it off. To the work then, and Heaven abandon the tardy! If you wish to save your white brethren and yourselves, we commend you to this work, in sharp earnest We tell you, once for all, there is no time to be Inst!

There is no end to the theme — there must be to this article. We deny the truth and existence of the Sentinel's two difficulties, and if, in fact, they both existed, our movement “provides for them.” The people collectively have the power to declare slavery a crime in the slave states. Congress has the power to do what amounts to the same thing — by direct action. They can declare it criminal in the capital, and how long would it be esteemed innocent elsewhere? They can punish enslaving in the district, and the man-traffic between the states as piracy. Lex talionis would enslave the perpetrators — but that would be devilish, and ought not to be inflicted. But if hanging is lawful in any case, it is in this.

If the people collectively and Congress have no legal power over the slavery of the slave states, abolitionists have the power, ample and adequate, and they will “provide for the difficulty.”

The constitution and the laws do not recognize the slaves as property. We call for the proof. The Sentinel avers it. Let them point us to the spot where. And could they do this, the abolitionists have the power (consult rule of three for the time it will take) to change and redeem both the constitution and the laws, and transmute this property back again to humanity.

SOURCE: Collection from the Miscellaneous Writings of Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, Second Edition, p. 15-21 which states it was published in the Herald of Freedom of September 8, 1838.

Saturday, February 2, 2019

John L. Motley to Ann Lothrop Motley, May 12, 1863


Vienna, May 12, 1863.

My Dearest Mother: Since Easter brought an end to the Lenten entertainments which succeeded the carnival, there has been absolutely nothing going on in the social world. To-morrow there is a ceremony at the chapel of the imperial palace, the presentation of the cardinal's hat by the emperor to our colleague here, the internuncio, who has just been cardinalized by the Pope. I wish it had taken place yesterday, for then I might have a topic for my letter, besides having got through the bore of witnessing it.

There is much talk about war in Europe, but I can hardly believe it will come to blows. I don't exactly see how France or England is to get any benefit from the war. The Crimean War was different. Without it, it is probable that Russia would have got Constantinople, which England, of course, can never stand. France would like to fight Prussia and get the Rhine provinces, but England couldn't stand that, nor Austria either, much as she hates Prussia. So it would seem difficult to get up a war. As for Austria's going into such a shindy, the idea is ridiculous. To go to war to gain a province is conceivable; to do so expressly to lose one is not the disinterested fashion of European potentates. As for the Poles, nothing will satisfy them but complete independence, and in this object I don't believe that France or England means to aid them. So there will be guerrilla fighting all summer. Blood will flow in Poland, and ink in all the European cabinets very profusely, and the result will be that Russia will end by reducing the Poles to submission. At least this is the way things look now; but “on the other hand,” as Editor Clapp used to say, there is such a thing as drift, and kings and politicians don't govern the world, but move with the current, so that the war may really come before the summer is over, for the political question (to use the diplomatic jargon) is quite insoluble, as the diplomatic correspondence has already proved. There, I have given you politics enough for this little letter, and now I have only to say how much love we all send to you and the governor. I hope this summer will bring warmth and comfort and health to you. Give my love to my little Mary. Our news from America is to April 29, and things look bright on the Mississippi. I hope to hear good accounts from Hooker, but Virginia seems a fatal place for us.

Good-by, my dearest mother.
Ever your affectionate son,
J. L. M.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume 2, p. 330-2

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Journal of Amos A. Lawrence, November 22, 1859


Rain-storm. The excitement in Virginia is very great; the fear of insurrection and all kinds of fear.

SOURCE: William Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence: With Extracts from His Diary and Correspondence, p. 133

Friday, January 18, 2019

Journal of Amos A. Lawrence, November 5, 1859

Old Brown convicted. He made a brief speech that was worthy of the best of the early reformers. To-day I was told that his wife was in Boston, and I went with Dr. Webb to the American House to see her. She appears well. She is a large, strong woman, good-looking, and when young she must have been handsome. She feels the loss of her two sons and the critical situation of her husband very much. She says that it is a matter of religious conviction with her husband; that he would make the same attempt again if set free. I admire the old man; but considering that three persons were killed by his party, I do not see how he can escape death, even had the occurrence been in a free State. He will be lauded by the abolitionists as a martyred hero, and he does resemble that. His death will hasten the removal of slaves from Virginia.

SOURCE: William Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence: With Extracts from His Diary and Correspondence, p. 132

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 25, 1863

We have nothing new this morning; but letters to the department from North and South Carolina indicate that while the troops in Virginia are almost perishing for food, the farmers are anxious to deliver the tithes, but the quartermaster and commissary agents are negligent or designedly remiss in their duty. The consequence will be the loss of the greater portion of these supplies, and the enhancement of the price of the remainder in the hands of the monopolists and speculators.

The Southern Express Co. has monopolized the railroads, delivering cotton for speculators, who send it to the United States, while the Confederate States cannot place enough money in Europe to pay for the supplies needed for the army.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2p. 82

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, September 11, 1863

Camp White, September 11, 1863.

Dearest: — Glad to get letters both from you and Mother last night. Bless the boys, how they must enjoy their first family visit to their new home! I would be as happy as any of them to be there.

We hear good news from Burnside in Tennessee. If true it makes it more desirable that you should come here soon. If he moves along the railroad into southwestern Virginia, we are likely to push forward to cooperate, in which case we shall probably get too far into Dixie for our families to winter with us. I will notify you if anything occurs to make it imprudent for you to be here a couple of weeks hence. This is the month in which the Rebels can come into the valley with the least difficulty on the score of supplies, but I don't think they will come. If there is a probability of it, I will telegraph Uncle Scott in time to stop your coming, or have Captain Zimmerman stop you at Gallipolis. I do not decide against the boys coming, but as you will be compelled to come to Gallipolis by railroad and stage (steamers don't run on the Ohio now) and will perhaps only remain a fortnight or so, it will perhaps be as well not to bring them. If after you reach here it turns out that we shall winter in the valley, I shall send for Mother Webb and all the boys and keep house, or you can go back after them. In that case you can rent the house, or if you prefer to winter at Fremont or in Chillicothe, in case you can't do so here, you may rent the house at once.

My reason for wanting you to come here as soon as you are through visiting at Fremont, is, that perhaps we shall be ordered forward as soon as east Tennessee is firmly in our possession. I think, however, the chances are in favor of our wintering on the Kanawha.

Get me a lot of silk handkerchiefs and about three or four pair stockings, not very heavy, but so-so. You can get them at Fremont and do it before you forget.

Mrs. Comly is greatly pleased with the prospect of your coming so soon. Mrs. Ellen is expected soon. She is supposed to be on some sandbar between here and Cincinnati on the Ohio, praying for a rise of water. Mrs. Barrett is the only other officer's wife now here and she talks of going home in a fortnight. . . .

Let me know by telegraph when you will be at Gallipolis and the doctor or some one will come there after you.

Since writing we have further news of gratifying successes in east Tennessee. If all continues to go well there, it increases the chances of a forward movement here, and furnishes additional reason for you to come on soon before it is too late. — Love to all.

Affectionately,
R.

P. S. — You may get me a good pair of gloves — citizens’, not gauntlets — warm.

Mrs. Hayes,
Fremont, Ohio.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 434-5

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, January 27, 1857

Worcester, January 27, 1857

I send you my speech at our Convention. You asked if I was led into it. It was entirely my doing, from beginning to end; nobody else would have dared to do it, because I knew of nobody at first who would take part with me, except the Garrisonians who were Disunionists before, but I found several rather influential persons, and the whole thing has succeeded better than we expected.

A nice pamphlet report will soon appear. I am surprised that you should not see the weakness of Theodore Parker's idea of preserving the Union for the slaves, when everybody admits that but for the Union, ten would escape where one now does, and slavery be soon abolished in the Northern Slave States. Last week Colonel Benton was here, and when he said these things as arguments against Disunion, everybody applauded, much to his surprise. They say his speech did more than our Convention.

I had a note from Mr. Sumner the other day, who thinks that Virginia will secede, first or last, and take all the States except perhaps Maryland, which can only be held by force. If it were not for the necessity of keeping Washington and the Mississippi, it would be well to have it so, but since those must be kept, it is hard to predict the end. I think however that you need feel no anxiety in Brattleboro'; I don't think the battering-rams (of which the old lady in the Revolutionary times, according to Rose Terry, was so afraid, her only ideas of warfare being based on the Old Testament and Josephus) will get so far. And I think there is more danger of compromise than war, at any rate.

I don't know whether you are aware of an impression which exists in many minds, but which I cannot attach any weight to, as yet, that the seceding States will prefer to abolish slavery, under the direction of England and France, rather than come under Yankee domination again. Wendell Phillips thinks this and says the Fremonts are very confident of it. If they made such a bargain, I think it would end the war and separate us and I don't think it would be so formidable a result, certainly. Even as a matter of Union, it would lead to ultimate reconstruction, for nothing but slavery can ever keep us permanently apart. And the slaves may be better off if emancipated by their masters than by us. Still I don't believe there is any chance of it.

Nothing could have happened better fitted to create enthusiasm than to begin the war by such a distinct overt act from the Southern Confederacy — and by a great disappointment. When you consider that such a man as Mr. Ripley firmly expected to see fighting in the streets of New York with the friends of the South there, and that the New York Mayor advocated annexation to the Southern Confederacy, the unanimous enthusiasm there is astonishing, compelling Bennett [of the "New York Herald"] to turn his editorials to the Northern side, for personal safety. Nothing else has been so remarkable as this.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 78-80