St. Louis, May 13,
1861.
MY DEAR FRIEND: I
have been intending for a long while to answer your last very kind letter. I
suppose you still receive papers from New Orleans and Virginia giving tolerably
fair versions of the events which are now passing all around us. We are now by
Declaration of the Confederate Congress and by act of our own constituted
authorities enemies, and I can not yet realize the fact. I know that I
individually would not do any human being a wrong, take from him a cent, or molest
any of his rights or property, and yet I admit fully the fact that Lincoln was
bound to call on the country to rally and save our constitution and government.
Had I responded to his call for volunteers I know that I would now be a
Major-general. But my feelings prompted me to forbear and the consequence is my
family and friends are almost cold to me, and they feel and say that I have
failed at the critical moment of my life. It may be I am but a chip on the whirling
tide of time destined to be cast on the shore as a worthless weed.
But I still think in
the hurly burly of strife, order and system must be generated, and grow and
strengthen till our people come out again a great and purified nation.
Lincoln is of right
our president and has the right to initiate the policy of our government during
his four years, and I believe him sincere in his repeated declarations that no
dismemberment shall be even thought of. The inevitable result is war, and an
invasive war.
I know that masses
of men are organizing and discipling to execute the orders of this government.
They are even now occupying the key points of our country; and when prepared
they will strike. Not in detached columns battling with an excited people, but
falling on exposed points. Already is Missouri humbled; I have witnessed it; my
personal friends here, many of them southern, admit that Missouri's fate is
sealed. There was a camp of about one thousand five hundred young men, who
though seemingly assembled by state authority were yet notoriously disaffected
to the government and were imprudent enough to receive into their camp a
quantity of the arms from Baton Rouge, brought up as common merchandise. This
justified the government forces here, regulars and militia, to surround and
capture the whole. For a time intense excitement prevailed, but again seeming
peace has come. The governor and state authorities are southern by birth and
feeling and may make some spasmodic efforts to move, but they will be instantly
overcome. Superior arms and numbers are the elements of war, and must prevail.
I cannot yet say if
Lincoln will await the action of his Congress in July. I think he will as to
any grand movement, but in the meantime Virginia, Louisiana, and Missouri, will
be held or threatened, I have no doubt a hundred thousand disciplined men will
be in Louisiana by Christmas next. The Mississippi River will be a grand
theater of war, but not till the present masses are well disciplined. It is
horrible to contemplate but it cannot be avoided.
No one now talks of
the negro. The integrity of the Union and the relative power of state and
general government are the issues in this war. Were it not for the physical
geography of the country it might be that people could consent to divide and
separate in peace.
But the Mississippi
is too grand an element to be divided, and all its extent must of necessity be
under one government. Excuse these generalisms — we have said them a thousand
times.
I was sorry to hear
from Dr. Smith that further disaffection had crept into your institution. I
fear for the present it will be swept by the common storm. ——— was not the man,
and it is well he has declined. Certainly there must be within reach, some good
man to manage so easy a machine. I think the machine should be kept together,
even on the smallest scale. Joe Miller writes me that the arms1 have
been sent off and therefore his occupation gone. I will write if he cannot stay
to return to his brother in Ohio and not go to California as he seems to think
about.
I am still here with
this road and my family living at 226 Locust St. No matter what happens I will
always consider you my personal friend, and you shall ever be welcome to my
roof. Should I be wrong in my conclusions of this terrible anarchy and should
you come to St. Louis, I know you will be pleased with the many objects of
interest hereabouts. Give to all the assurance of my
kindest remembrance
and accept for yourself my best wishes for your health and success in life.
1 Stored in the Seminary Arsenal. - ED.
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