DEAR TOM: I have
received one or two Leavenworth papers reminding me of the place, which I have
read with interest, and I see that you and McCook1 are still at
work. I hope business goes prosperously; I suppose the Democratic Party does
not love Kansas or its memory, and that some pretext will be sought out and
found to keep her out of the Union till after the presidential election. The
adjournment of the Convention in Charleston without a platform or nomination
looks like a break up of the Democratic Party, and I have my fears of the
consequences.
I know that our
general government has not the moral or physical power to subdue a rebellion,
and should one be attempted by Alabama, South Carolina or other extreme states
I fear the consequences. Of course I would advocate the policy of force, for if
a state may at its pleasure withdraw, leaving a gap in the seacoast or
frontier, the government would not be worth preserving.
People here are
somewhat troubled, they regard the Republican Party as hostile to their
paramount interests, and their politicians might stir them up to resistance in
the case of the election of an extreme Republican. I hope that party will [not]
nominate Seward, but take up some man as McLean or Bates, who though Republicans
are moderate men. I suppose your political success being based on the
Republican success you will go in heart and hand to sustain the Chicago
nominee, be he whom he may. John is of course committed beyond hope. That the
physical and political power remains with the North is now manifest, but I hope
that moderate counsels will prevail until that fact be more fixed and conceded.
I am getting along
here very well, we have sixty-two cadets. Vacation is fixed for August 20 to
November 1. I think I shall go for Ellen in September and return in October. I
have just contracted for a good house to be built by October 15. Our
institution is acting up to the expectations of the most sanguine, and the
belief is that next year we will have one hundred fifty a number about as great
as we can accommodate.
Thus far with the
exception of a couple of weeks in April our weather is cool and pleasant. I
still wear woolen clothes and sleep under a pair of blankets, but this is
unusual and the crops, sugar, cotton, and corn are very backward. . .
_______________
1 Ewing and McCook were former law partners of
Sherman. – ED.
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