Diary of George Templeton Strong, Saturday, June 16, 1860

From early morning (or at least from the earliest hour of which I am personally-cognizant) the town was all agog about the Japanese ambassadors. Streets were already swarming as I went downtown. Hardly an omnibus but was filled full. Every other person, at least, was manifestly a rustic or a stranger. Flags everywhere. Small detachments of our valiant militia marching, grim and sweaty, to their respective positions. Dragoons, hussars, and lancers, by twos and threes, trotting about with looks of intense uneasiness. The whole aspect of things indicated some great event at hand.

I left Wall Street at about two-thirty, intending merely to walk uptown and observe the humors of the dense crowd that lined both sides of Broadway, for I was so sick of talk about the Japanese that I vowed that I would not see them. But I met young Dudley Field, who kindly insisted on my taking advantage of certain eligible windows in his office on Broadway. There I found his sister, Miss Jenny, Miss Laura Belden, Judge Sutherland and Judge Leonard, Gerard, and one or two more, with strawberries and ice cream, and so forth, and saw all the show to great advantage.

Quite an imposing turnout of horse, foot, and artillery. Ditto of aldermen in barouches and yellow kids, trying to look like gentlemen. The first-chop Japanese sat in their carriage like bronze statues, aristocratically calm and indifferent. The subordinates grinned, and wagged their ugly heads, and waved their fans to the ladies in the windows. Every window in Broadway was full of them. The most striking object was the crowd that closed in and followed the procession. Broadway was densely filled, sidewalks and trottoir both, for many blocks, and mostly with roughs. Bat the police kept good order. I made my way uptown through side streets with difficulty, for they were thronged with currents of sightseers flowing off from the great central canal, and of loafers, slinging along with the characteristic loaferine trot to get ahead of the procession and have another look at the Japs. . . .

Two old fools, Samuel Neill and Tom Bryan, have been making themselves ridiculous by going to North Carolina in this weather and fighting a duel. The former, they say, has a bullet hole through the arm. They got into a squabble “late at e’en, drinking the wine” at the Union Club, over the weighty question of Garibaldi’s nationality. One said he was a Scotchman, and the other said he wasn’t, and they punched each other’s heads without being able to settle it that way. Garibaldi, by-the-by, holds his own. Success to him, filibuster as he is. There are limits even to conservatism.

Professor Dwight has been heard at length in our Law School appeal by the Court of Appeals, which held a special evening session for that purpose. Judge Denio and O’Conor and others say it was a very able argument. . . .

Was at the Savings Bank Thursday afternoon, taking Hamilton Fish’s place as attending trustee. His daughter. Miss Sarah, has just married one Sidney Webster, and the Governor had to do the honors of the wedding reception.

There is talk of the Democrats nominating Judge Nelson. I’d gladly vote for him, especially so against “Abe,” whose friends seem to rest his claims to high office chiefly on the fact that he split rails when he was a boy. I am tired of this shameless clap-trap. The log-cabin hard-cider craze of 1840 seemed spontaneous. This hurrah about rails and railsplitters seems a deliberate attempt to manufacture the same kind of furor by appealing to the shallowest prejudices of the lowest class. It ought to fail, and I hope it may; but unless the Democrats put up a strong man, it will succeed.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, pp. 32-3

Diary of George Templeton Strong, June 21, 1860

This evening with Mr. Ruggles to Dr. Gilman’s, Thirteenth Street, to meet sundry of the professors of our Medical College and consider whether any kind of scientific post-graduate course can be evolved out of nothing by concerted action between Columbia College and this, its new ally. President King and Torrey were there, and the Medical College was represented by Gilman, Parker, Delafield, Clark, Dalton, and other medicine men, generally of high caste. We talked the matter over and agreed to meet again a fortnight hence. Something may come of it, but my expectations are moderate. The Medical College building, at the comer of Twenty-third and Fourth Avenue, is convenient and accessible, but we want men of larger calibre than Joy, McCulloh, Dr. Delafield, and Dr. Parker. . .¹³

The Democratic Baltimore Convention is still sitting, and none the easier for sitting. The great old Democratic Party is in articulo mortis; its convention is abolishing of itself, and just on the eve of suicide by dismemberment and disintegration, after the manner of certain star-fishes (vide Gosse). If Douglas be nominated, a Southern limb drops off. If any other man is nominated, a Northwestern ray or arm secedes. Southern swashbucklers demand an ultra-nigger platform that would cost the party every Northern state; unless it be adopted, they will depart to put on their war paint and—whet their scalping knives. The worst temper prevails; delegates punch each other and produce revolvers. In short, a wasps’ nest divided against itself is a pastoral symphony compared to this Witenagemot. Its session has abounded thus far in scandalous, shameful brutalities and indecencies that disgrace the whole country and illustrate the terrible pace at which we seem traveling down hill toward sheer barbarism and savagery.

The Convention has made little progress yet—has not even succeeded in defining its own identity. Its throes and gripings have thus far been on the question whether certain chivalric delegations that seceded at Charleston shall be received back digested and assimilated, or rejected as foreign matter. The New York delegation seems to hold the balance of power. After Douglas, Dickinson and Horatio Seymour are talked of; I could vote for the latter. There is a Nelson movement, too, silent as yet, but growing.¹⁴ But the elements of the Convention are in unstable combination, and it is likely to decompose with an explosion like chloride of nitrogen, or disintegrate like a Prince Rupert’s drop, on the slightest provocation before it nominates anybody. And, if one half of its bullies and blackguards and Southern gentlemen will make free use of their revolvers on the other half, during the general reaction and melee that is like to accompany the act of decomposition, and will then get themselves decently hanged for homicide, the country will be safe; and millions yet unborn will bless the day when the Baltimore Convention of 1860 exploded and the Democratic Party ceased to exist.

If there were a real ruler now to march into this congregation of politic knaves and hang a dozen of the worst cases, with their bowie knives round their necks, and set the rest to hard labor on public works for a term of years!!! What a subject he would be for a biography by Carlyle! But there is no such luck. Whatever may be the result of this Convention, the Democracy has disgraced itself and damaged itself beyond cure. I half expect that Republicanism and Abe Lincoln will sweep every vestige of that party out of existence.

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¹³ Willard Parker (1800-1884), for whom the Willard Parker Hospital for Infectious Diseases in New York is named, had studied in Europe and held chairs of anatomy and surgery in several medical schools in this country before he joined the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons as professor of principles and practice of surgery (1839-1870). Edward Delafield (1794—1875), ophthalmologist and surgeon, founded the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1818. He occupied the chair of obstetrics and diseases of women in the College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1825 to 1838, and was president of the College from 1858 to 1875. Alonzo Clark (1807-1887) held the chair of physiology and pathology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1848 to 1855, when he became professor of pathology and practical medicine in the same school. John Call Dalton (1825—1889) was the first physician in America to devote himself exclusively to experimental physiology and related sciences. His studies with Claude Bernard in Paris turned his ambition from practice to teaching, and he introduced the experimental method in teaching of physiology, thus opening a new era in medical education. He occupied the chair of physiology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons 1855-1883, and served as president 1884-1889.

¹⁴ Strong’s unwillingness to vote for the politician Daniel S. Dickinson (1800-1866) is understandable. The movement for Justice Samuel Nelson of the Supreme Court (1792-1873) developed no strength.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, pp. 34-6

Diary of George Templeton Strong, June 23, 1860

Mr. Ruggles came in this evening and reports that the rump of the Convention has nominated Douglas. Afterwards came Walter Cutting, very kindly offering me tickets for the grand ball Monday night in honor of the Japanese embassy. Tickets are in great demand and hardly to be got by any one who has not an uncle or a confederate in the City Councils. It will be a showy and lavish entertainment, but neither Ellie nor I care to assist. Have encountered attaches of the embassy twice, looking over books and buying largely at Appleton's new store. They seem intelligent and observant, talk in soft oriental whispers, and contrive to make themselves understood by Kernot and Allen and the other salesmen. Books on the industrial arts, geographies, atlases, and high-colored lithograph illustrations interest them especially. They buy largely, also, of children’s books, and say "new language—child’s book— very good.’’

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 36

Diary of George Templeton Strong, May 11, 1860

. . . Stopped at Law School on my way down, with Mr. Ruggles, and conferred a little with the graduating class. The young men have expressed the wish to have a sermon preached to them before their Commencement (the 23d instant) on the duties of their profession; very becoming and graceful, especially as it is quite spontaneous. Hawks was applied to, but after nibbling a little at the invitation, declined it. He is lazy, and it may be, too, that he himself was aware that the subject demanded heavier metal than his smooth, wordy rhetoric. So the class instructed us to apply to Vinton, and we called at Trinity Church after service. Vinton sees plainly enough that it is an opening not to be despised, and accepts readily. . . . Afterwards with Lewis Rutherfurd and William Betts, about degrees to be conferred at this Law Commencement. We propose to LL.D. Judges Ingraham, Woodruff, and Daly, who have consented to act as a committee to examine the essays and examination papers and award the prizes. Vivat the Law School! I hope to make a great deal out of it.

The Baltimore Convention of conservative fogies and fossils nominates Bell for President and Edward Everett for Vice-President. Not of much practical importance probably, but I for one am tired of talk about niggers and feel much inclined to vote for anybody who promises to ignore that subject.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, pp. 25-6

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