Diary of Edward Bates: October 26, 1859

R. M. Field¹⁴ brot' to my office and introduced to me, his college mate, Judge Saml. Miller, of Rochester N. Y. He is retired from business – being rich, I suppose – and has been travelling thro' the Southern states, Cuba &c[.] He seems to be a warm politician, a whig, I suppose, as he claims special friendship with Govr. Hunt¹⁵ – He has served in the N. Y. Senate, and has been a Judge.

Says he is personally very friendly with Mr. Douglas, who is a relative of his wife.

Also, there was introduced to me today, Mr. Henry Livingston, editor of the Alta California.

I had an hours [sic] talk with him and find him a pleasant, intelligent man. Judge Miller (who casually met him in my office) says he knew him in his youth, that his father is a worthy citizen of Rochester, now fallen poor.

[Three clippings from the St. Louis Evening News : 1. “Gov. Wise¹⁶ and Old Brown”¹⁷ quoting at length from a Richmond speech in which Governor Wise characterized Brown; 2.”Pierce for President” predicting that the Pierce men will lie low until Douglas, Wise, Hunter,¹⁸ and Breckinridge⁶ have defeated each other and will then try to secure Pierce's nomination as a dark  horse; 3. “Gov. Wise Ahead” pointing out how fortunate the John Brown raid was for Governor Wise's aspirations for the nomination for President.]

_______________

¹⁴ Roswell M. Field : St. Louis lawyer who initiated and tried the Dred Scott case in the Circuit Court ; a staunch unionist who helped prevent Missouri's secession ; an authority on land-title disputes arising out of the conflicting claims under Spanish, French, and congressional grants prior to the organization of the State.

¹⁵ Washington Hunt: Whig governor of New York, 1850-1852 ; congressman, 1843-1849; supporter of the Compromise of 1850 ; chairman of the Whig National Convention in 1856; chairman of the Constitutional Union Convention which nominated Bell and Everett in 1860; McClellan Democrat in 1864 ; delegate to Johnson's National Union Convention in 1866.

¹⁶ Supra, April 28, 1859, note 38.

¹⁷ Supra, Oct. 25, 1859.

¹⁸  Rohert M. T. Hunter of Virginia : Democratic congressman, 1837-1861; Confederate secretary of State, 1861-1862; then Confederate senator, 1862-1865; representative of the Confederacy at the Hampton Roads Conference with Lincoln and Seward in 1865. He was a leading advocate of states' rights and a strong candidate for the nomination for the Presidency in the Democratic Convention at Charleston in 1860. He remained in the Senate in 1861 until Virginia seceded.

¹⁹ John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky: Democratic congressman, 1851-1855; vice-president of the U. S., 1857-1861; U. S. senator, 1861; candidate of the Southern Democracy for the Presidency in 1860 ; opponent of congressional action on slavery in the Territories. When the War came he believed in the abstract right of secession but opposed it in practice, and yet also opposed coercion of states to keep them in the Union. He tried to secure adoption of the Crittenden Compromise, but finally joined the Confederate Army, became brigadier-general, fought in Kentucky in 1861-1862, at Shiloh. Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, and Port Hudson in 1862, at Jackson, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge in 1863, and in southwest Virginia, at Cold Harbor, in the Shenandoah, and in Early's raid on Washington in 1864. In February, 1865, he was made Confederate secretary of War.

SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, The Diary of Edward Bates, 1859-1866, p. 51-2