OFFICE ST. LOUIS
RAILROAD COMPANY, St. Louis, April 4, 1861.
MY DEAR FRIEND: I
promised you all to keep you advised of my whereabouts that we may interchange
from time to time the thoughts and feelings of respect and affection which I
feel assured still subsists between us. By the caption of this letter you will
see me in a rail road office, of which I am the president with a salary of two
thousand dollars. I have my entire family in a good house, 226 Locust St., with
plenty of room and a hearty welcome for friends who come to me from the four
quarters of the globe, and I will believe that you, or Smith, or the Doctor,1
yea Mr. St. Ange, may some summer come up to this great city, the heart of
North America, and see me and mine.
I acted with energy,
went to Washington, satisfied myself that Lincoln was organizing his administration
on pure party principles, concluded it was no place for me who profess to love
and venerate my whole country and not a mere fraction — and forthwith to
Lancaster, pulled up stakes, to Cincinnati, and embarked all hands, with
carpets, chairs, beds, kitchen utensils, even my household servants, and before
one month of my vacating my berth in Louisiana, I was living in St. Louis.
I see my way ahead
for one year and must trust to the future, and having an abundance of faith in
St. Louis with its vast fertile surrounding country, I feel no uneasiness. My
two eldest girls are in a Catholic school and this morning I put my boy Willy
in a public school, so that with the exception of some trifling articles of
furniture I am settled.
My duties here are
clearly within my comprehension, and indeed I think I can actually make myself
more than useful to the stockholders by giving personal attention, which
heretofore has devolved on hirelings. In politics I do not think I change with
country. On the negro question I am satisfied there is and was no cause for a
severance of the old Union, but will go further and say that I believe the
practice of slavery in the South is the mildest and best regulated system of
slavery in the world, now or heretofore. But, as there is an incongruity in
black and white labor, I do think in the new territories the line of separation
should be drawn before rather than after settlement. As to any guarantees I would
favor any approved by Rives, Bell, Crittenden and such men whose patriotism
cannot be questioned.
On the question of
secession however I am ultra. I believe in coercion and cannot comprehend how
any government can exist unless it defend its integrity. The mode and manner
may be regulated by policy and wisdom, but that any part of a people may carry
off a part of the common territory without consent or purchase I cannot
understand. Now I know as well as I can know anything uncertain that Louisiana
cannot belong to a string of Southern States. She must belong to a system
embracing the Valley States. It may be those Valley States may come to
Louisiana, but ultimately one way or another, the Valley of the Mississippi
must be under one system of government. Else quarrels, troubles, and
confusions, worse than war, will be continuous.
My brother John is
now senator, and quite a man among the Republicans, but he regards me as
erratic in politics. He nor politicians generally can understand the feelings
and opinions of one who thinks himself above parties, and looks upon the petty
machinery of party as disgusting. There are great numbers here who think like me,
and at the election here a few days ago the Black Republicans were beaten,
because the country expected of Mr. Lincoln a national and not a party
government. Had the Southern States borne patiently for four years, they could
have had a radical change in 1864 that might have lasted twenty years. Whereas
now, no man is wise enough to even guess at future combinations.
1 Dr. Clarke.—ED.
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