Diary of George Templeton Strong, April 17, 1860

After an apology for a dinner, I went to [Arnold] Guyot’s lecture at the Law School. Well attended and very hot; lecture original and interesting. Thereafter discoursed with Guyot, whom I like, and General Scott, the most urbane of conquerors. Curious it is to observe the keen, sensitive interest with which he listens to every whisper about nominations for the coming presidential campaign.

The Charleston Convention will nominate Douglas, I think. Then comes the sanhedrim of the undeveloped Third Party. It is not at all unlikely Scott may be its nominee. In that case, it is possible the Republican Convention may adopt him. I wish things might take that course, but hardly hope it. Neither Douglas nor Hunter nor Banks suits me.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 22

Diary of George Templeton Strong, April 23, 1860

No news of any action by the Democratic Charleston Convention. Douglas, the little giant, said to be losing ground.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 23

Diary of George Templeton Strong, April 26, 1860

No Democratic nominee from Charleston, yet. Two to one on Douglas, I say.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 23

Diary of George Templeton Strong, April 27, 1860

Little or nothing to record. Fine Day. Rumor this afternoon of schism in the Charleston Convention, certain Southern delegations of pyrophagi seceding. Not impossible, nor unlikely if the Convention refused to put the ultra proslavery plank of a slave Code for the territories into its platform, and so throw away all chances of carrying any one Northern state. But I hope it’s untrue, and that this congregation of profligate wire-pullers will mature its plans for the next campaign without any open rupture. For if disunion tendencies within the Democratic party are stronger than the cohesive power of public plunder and can disintegrate the party itself, it’s a bad sign for our national unity.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 24

Diary of George Templeton Strong, Monday, April 30, 1860

Everybody talks of the great Heenan and Sayers prize fight in England—the “international” fight—and of the American champion’s unfair treatment. It occupies a much larger share of attention than the doings of the Charleston Convention, the results of which may be so momentous.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 24

Diary of George Templeton Strong, Tuesday, May 1, 1860

Some eight Southern delegations have seceded from the Charleston Convention. It refused to make a slave code for the territories an article of faith, and hence this schism. So the great National Democratic party is disintegrated and dead; broken up, like so many other organizations, by these pernicious niggers. It is a bad sign.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, pp. 24-5

Diary of George Templeton Strong, May 3, 1860

. . . The Democratic Convention has dissolved and dispersed without nominating anybody. It is to assemble again at Baltimore in June.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 25

The Yankee Delegates at Charleston.

Col. Forney is particularly down on the New England delegations at Charleston. The following is from his “Occasional” correspondence:

“Of all the delegates to the Charleston Convention, those who may be said to have covered themselves with, especial infamy are the parasites who represented some of the New England States, and particularly those who spoke for the Administration from Massachusetts. I am not one who distrusts the New England character, but it is a fact which candor compels me to state, that, with but few exceptions, the Yankee politicians are the most untrustworthy and dishonest. There are few Franklin Pierces in New England, and the course of the New Hampshire delegation at Charleston is probably the surest index of his own feelings in the great contest now going on. Though General Pierce is by no means the personal friend of Judge Douglas, I had the pleasure of hearing him declare, more than a year ago, that it was in vain to deny that the Democratic party of New England preferred the “Little Giant” to all other men for the Presidency.

What is to be the course of Whitney, Swift, Wright, Cushing, Butler, an others, from Massachusetts, who assisted the fire-eaters of the South in their war upon Douglas, notwithstanding that most of them had, before their departure for Charleston, took occasion to express the kindest feelings for Douglas—Mr. Whitney himself assuring the gallant Senator from Illinois that he would be found battling bravely for him to the bitter end, although he held an official position? A few weeks will answer the question. I forbear any allusion to the recreant delegates from Connecticut, being content to leave them to their constituents. The Southern people cannot have been blind to all these facts. They must have seen that if Judge Douglas is defeated at Baltimore on the 18th of June, it will be by the most open bribery and the most unblushing treachery. They must admit that if the North had been fairly represented, all the efforts of the Secessionists, would have been in vain, and at this time the whole Democratic party would have been rallied in solid column under his victorious banner.

SOURCE: “The Yankee Delegates at Charleston,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 6

Short Of Money.

The New York Herald wickedly insinuates that the reason why the Charleston convention adjourned so soon was because the delegates had not money enough to pay their board any longer; so that they had no alternative except to leave or run the risk of being sent to jail for debt—the laws on this subject being very strict at Charleston.

SOURCE: “Short Of Money,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 2-3.

All Sorts Of Paragraphs.

The Jackson (Ill.) Journal says the severe frost of Thursday night has destroyed the prospect of the fruit in the vicinity. The farmers say that nearly all their apples, peaches and cherries are destroyed. This destruction of the fruit together with the entire loss of the fruit crop will be a serious calamity to Morgan county.

The Charleston correspondent of the Philadelphia Press says that during the excitement occasioned by the withdrawal of the cotton states from the democratic convention, Senator Bigler visited the Kentucky delegation and urged them to withdraw also promising that if they would do so a portion of the Pennsylvania delegation would do the same.

A destructive fire occurred at Nebraska city, N. T., last Saturday afternoon, consuming nearly all the business portion of the town, consisting of forty-two prominent houses, including the post office, with considerable mail matter, and the government land office, with nearly all its papers; also the Nickals House. Loss estimated at $150,000; insurance $75,000, mostly in Hartford and St. Louis companies.

A man named Rorke murdered his wife in the town of Norway, Racine county, Wisconsin, last week. He beat her to death while excited with liquor. He has not been arrested.

The Pennsylvania railroad company have lighted one of their cars with gas, and are preparing to introduce it generally.

A correspondent of the New York Herald writing concerning the expected execution of Rev. Mr. Harden, says he will probably make a confession implicating others.

The Massachusetts commissioners now believe that unless some spread of the cattle contagion unknown to them has occurred, they have got the disease at North Brookfield and vicinity entirely under control.

The keeper of a drinking saloon in Keokuk, Iowa, last week, pushed the wife of one of his customers (who had come to take her husband away) out of doors, throwing her down six or eight steps, tearing the skin and flesh from her forehead till it hung over her eyes and injuring her terribly.

COMING TO AMERICA.—Master Albert Edward, a promising young man of eighteen years, and heir to the English throne, is intending to visit America the present season. We hope Americans will be Americans; treat the young man with cordial hospitality, but not enter upon any obsequious ovations to him, as if he were a divinity.

In North Carolina the contest for governor is turning strangely upon the negro, who is the political pivot there as well as at the north. The question is whether he shall be taxed upon his value as property, or as a personal poll. The democrats are in favor of the latter proposition.

The bill for organizing new territories, reported in the House of Representatives by Mr. Grow, provides that, whereas slavery has no legal existence in the said territories, “nothing herein contained shall be so construed to authorize or permit its existence therein.”

Two professional well-diggers, while digging a well near Dayton, Ohio, last week were buried by the caving in of the sides at the depth of sixty-four feet, and could not be extricated. They leave wives and three children respectively.

SOURCE: “All Sorts Of Paragraphs,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 4.

The Douglas meeting . . .

. . . held at New Orleans last week, to endorse the action of those who stayed in the Douglasite convention, and denounce the seceders, is described by the Delta as a fizzle. It says there were hardly enough people present to organize a territory under Douglas’ doctrine of squatter sovereignty, which we believe is about one hundred and fifty. It was a “muss meeting” in the open air. Speeches were made by Messrs. Morse, Heisland, Hahn, and Clack.

Hon. Mr. Morse said that if Stephen A. Douglas was not elected the next president, William H. Seward would be—a sentiment which may be safely commended to the consideration of the weak-kneed republicans.

SOURCE: “The Douglas meeting,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 6.

Mr. Caleb Cushing.

This gentleman has returned from Charleston in a very bad odor. The Boston Herald, a democratic organ, asks, “who had the baseness to vote for C. Cushing as a nominee for the Presidency?” who, it proceeds further in no mild style, to characterize as “a puling suckling of democracy,” and “a man appraised from the slough of political chicanery.” This is a painful domestic broil.

SOURCE: “Mr. Caleb Cushing,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 1.

Not To Be Called Back.

The Philadelphia Press, with other Douglas papers, objects to any movement for calling back the seceders [sic] from the Charleston Convention, on the occasion of the adjourned meeting at Baltimore. The Press says the seceders will not dishonor themselves by returning while their alleged cause of secession remains; the majority who refuse to adopt the slave-code policy will not dishonor themselves by changing their votes for such a purpose; and finally as the seceders withdrew, as their withdrawal was accepted and the convention requested their states to elect new delegates, the convention will not allow them to come back to disturb its proceedings.

SOURCE: “Not To Be Called Back,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 3.

Politics in Alabama.

MOBILE, Ala., May 14.—Thirty-five leading and prominent gentlemen of Mobile sign a call for a state Convention, to meet at Selina on the 4th of June to select delegates to Baltimore. It is signed by Gov. Winston, Mr. Forsyth, Dr. Nott, Mr. LeBaron, Judge Makinstry, and others.

SOURCE: “Politics in Alabama,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May 15, 1860, p. 4, col. 7

Douglas In The South.

The Cincinnati Commercial calls attention to the fact that in all the balloting at Charleston, Mr. Douglas received but 11 1-2 votes from the entire Southern States, and to the other and next important fact that had the balloting continued until doomsday, he would have received no more. This will be only funeral consolation to the boasting friends of the Little Giant; but the truth of history must be vindicated.

SOURCE: “Douglas In The South,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Monday, May 14, 1860, p. 2, col. 2

The Baltimoreans.

The stupid absurdity of the professed Union savers, who met at Baltimore the other day to nominate a candidate for President, and another for Vice President, upon a single plan—the Constitution and the Union—will be apparent to the dullest dunce, when he remembers that every man in this country, save only a few ultra Abolitionists of the North and a handful of intense fanatics in the South, can endorse the platform which the Booby Brookeses laid down; because all political parties in the United States are loud in their devotions to the Constitution and the Union, and the vaunts the ultraists of either extreme in this matter, pass for just as much as the outcry of the National Constitutional Union Old Line Whigs and Know Nothings, who ventilated their patriotism at Baltimore. Whenever the Republicans declare their sentiments they will exalt the Constitution and the Union. The seceders from the Charleston Convention will do the same thing; and the Douglasites will follow the example. Here, then, we shall have four parties in the field, with the Constitution and the Union as a basis of each. Wherein the Baltimoreans are entitled to any preferences over either, we have not the wit to see. That in shirking the responsibility of declaring themselves upon the living issues of the day, they exhibit a degree of cowardice which breeds distrust of the purity of their intentions, all can well understand.

SOURCE: “The Baltimoreans,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Monday, May 14, 1860, p. 2, col. 2

John Tyler to Robert Tyler, January 19, 1860

SHERWOOD FOREST, January 19, 1860.

MY DEAR ROBERT: To-day the General Assembly give a complimentary dinner to Gov. Wise, and I have been invited to it, but decline attending. My letter is full of professions of friendship for the Governor, which I sincerely feel, but I say nothing political. If you ask me whether I approve of the Governor's political views in toto, my answer would be in the negative. I have regretted his opposition in the main to Mr. Buchanan. I think, on the contrary, that the President has acquitted himself well in his high office, and if re-nominated I should go to the polls and vote for him with alacrity; but my friendship for Wise is almost indestructible. It had its beginning in times of great trouble, and he was faithful. His election to the presidency is equivalent to an endorsement of my administration by the country, and therefore as well as for my confidence in him, his election would be gratifying to I think he will carry the electoral vote of Virginia in the convention; but even if he and Douglas should be inclined to break up the convention, of which I should entirely disapprove, my belief is that neither will be permitted to do it, even by their supporters. The condition of the country is altogether too critical for this. Some man will be nominated without a platform, which at most is a useless thing. We had in 1839-'40 far greater dissentions at Harrisburg, and a platform would have scattered us to the winds. Mr. Grey, the gentleman to whom I wrote a letter in reply to one from him requesting my opinion relative to the Staten Island resolutions, has asked for permission to publish my letter, and I have granted it. He says that he had shown the letter to the leading men of New York, who urged its publication. You will therefore see it by the time this reaches you. It is brief but pointed. You refer to my expenditures. They have been large for me, and by reason of the failure of the wheat crop for two years have been embarrassing. Julia desired an investment of some money I had of hers in a lot near Hampton; and this carried with it expenditures for new buildings, furniture, etc., all of which, of course, will form a unit, and come out of her fund. I had used some of her fund, and have had to replace it. Thus the expenditure has been large. I hope to work through it in a year or two. At all times my expenses are larger than I could wish them, but they cannot be otherwise. It is a shame to the country that an ex-President, who is obliged to keep an open house, should not receive a pension, when every man who has but shouldered a musket in war is pensioned. He is commander-in-chief (of the Army and Navy).

[The rest of this letter is lost.]

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 557

John Tyler to Colonel John S. Cunningham, May 30, 1860

SHERWOOD FOREST, May 30, 1860.

MY DEAR SIR: I owe you many thanks for your kind recollection of me at all times, and more especially of late for your regular remittance of the daily proceedings of the convention at Charleston. The times are so much out of joint as to have excited even with me, secluded as I am from the political world, an extraordinary degree of interest. I have regarded the Democratic party for many years as the only true Conservative party, eschewing sectionalism, and spreading, not only in name, but in policy, over the whole country. The severance which took place at Charleston filled me with apprehension and regret. I hope it may be able to unite at Baltimore, and, standing upon a sound platform, be able to challenge the support of the wise and good and patriotic of the land.

I have been for ten days at our Villa near Old Point, pressing forward preparations for the reception of my family. I return to-morrow for the same reason. My own health has been bad during the winter, and Mrs. Tyler is full of complainings. The refreshing sea breezes will, I doubt not, have a restorative influence.

With best wishes for your health and happiness,

I am truly and sincerely yours,

JOHN TYLER.

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 558

James Buchanan to Robert Tyler, June 13, 1860

WASHINGTON, 13th June, 1860.

MY DEAR SIR: Do you wish me to place the letter of Captain Maddox to yourself on file? Also that of Mr. Iverson to him?

I am sure that you will think I ought occasionally to make an appointment according to my own wishes and judgment. I know the officers of the marine corps tolerably well, and I intend to exercise this privilege upon the present occasion. Although S—— has not yet been removed, nor is it yet ascertained that he will be a defaulter, yet the applications are already numerous for his place. Your friend M—— will never be behind in this race.

I return Mr. Campbell's letter according to your request. Immediately upon its receipt I spoke to the Secretary of War upon the subject, and he informed me that the rule as to the length of time a surgeon should remain at West Point had been changed, and that Dr. Campbell was the first whom this change had affected. He gave me strong reasons for the change, which I have not time to repeat. His successor, Dr. Hammond, has seen much hard service in New Mexico and our remote frontiers. So says Gov. Floyd, who informs me it is too late to recall Dr. Hammond's appointment. I am sorry I did not know the facts in time. I believe the service of a surgeon at West Point has been reduced to two years.

I have hardly time now to say my prayers. Should they succeed at Baltimore in rejecting the regular delegates from the seceding States and admitting those who are "bogus," then Douglas will or may be nominated. In that event the unity and strength of the Democratic party is annihilated and Lincoln elected. This is not the worst. The Democratic party will be divided and sectionalized, and that too on the slavery issue. Everything looks bad, not only for the party, but for the country. The information from New York is not very encouraging.

In haste, always sincerely your friend,

JAMES BUCHANAN.

P. S. — I hope you will be to see us ere long and stop at my house if you like the entertainment.

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 558-9

John Tyler to Robert Tyler, July 22, 1860

VILLA MARGARET,¹ July 22, 1860.

MY DEAR ROBERT: . . . We begin to have more numerous calls by visitors to this region, and I become daily better informed of the status of public opinion. The effort is making in Virginia to concentrate the Democratic vote by running the same ticket for Breckenridge and Douglas, the electors to cast their vote according to the sense of the majority. Breckenridge would lead the ticket by a large majority, and the Democratic ascendency would be secure. Without some such arrangement, the divisions in the Democratic ranks may, and most probably will, lead to conferring on the Bell ticket the plurality vote. I find with many a positive aversion to Douglas,—so great that they denounce all fraternity with him, while similar feelings are ascribed to very many Douglas men. I have much doubt whether any harmony of action can be brought about. There were for the Southrons at Charleston but two courses to pursue, and they adopted neither. The first was to press the nomination of some one whose name would have constituted a platform in itself, or universally to have seceded and proceeded at once to the declaration of their platform and the nomination of candidates. My own feelings ran strongly in favor of Lane, and Bayard of Delaware; the first as the pioneer of the West, the last as coterminous in more than mere residence with New Jersey and Pennsylvania. By splitting up at Charleston they lost the prestige of victory; in other words, they played the game badly by throwing away their trump card.

The consequences of Lincoln's election I cannot foretell. Neither Virginia, nor North Carolina, nor Maryland (to which you may add Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri) will secede for that. My apprehension, however, is that South Carolina and others of the cotton States will do so, and any attempt to coerce such seceding States will most probably be resisted by all the South. When such an issue comes, then comes also the end of the Confederacy. I know the value of the Roman maxim "never to despair of the Republic,” but confess to the gloom which overspreads and enshrouds the country. I can now do nothing more than fold my arms and pray for deliverance of the country from the evils which beset it. Does not every day render the difficulties which assail a confederacy of States in the selection of their chief magistrate more and more conspicuous?

The President, in his late speech, has acquitted himself well. You did right to preserve silence. He has been uniformly polite to you, and for that I thank him; but he is altogether your debtor. No one has been so true to him or rendered him greater service. Heretofore he could not have spared you from your position in Pennsylvania; but now his political days are numbered, and his sand nearly run. He might now reciprocate by rendering you service. Will he volunteer to do it? or, having squeezed the orange, will he throw the rind away? Nous verrons. I may do him injustice in regarding him as a mere politician without heart. I hope I am mistaken.

On Thursday next I propose going to Sherwood Forest, where I may remain for some weeks. Give my devoted affection to all your family.

Your father,

JOHN TYLER.

_______________

¹ Mr. Tyler's summer residence at Hampton, Virginia.

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 559-60