Senator Robert M. T. Hunter to George N. Sanders,* May 9, 1851

LLOYDS, ESSEX [Co. Va.], May 9, 1851.

MY DEAR SIR: You will be surprised to hear that your letter has just reached me. The mail comes here from the North but twice a week and it is irregular at that. No man can appreciate such a compliment more highly than I do and I wish to act according to the advice of my friends but they differ as to this matter. The same mail which brought your letter brought also one from Douglass. Confidential it was but there are no secrets from you. He advises me to decline, but to visit New York without parade during the summer. In the same letter he speaks in the highest terms of the skill and judgment with which you manage affairs. He himself I think is one of the coolest observers even when he himself is concerned that I ever saw. For myself I do not mean or wish to be obstinate. You know what my opinion has been all along. But I suppose and hope I shall soon hear from you again. Your report of progress is encouraging beyond any expectations I have ever had. I think that Douglass will take well in this state.

P. S. If Bev[erly] Tucker is in New York when this reaches you please tell him I had intended writing him by this mail but upon considering [?] the day of his sailing I found the letter would probably not reach him. I regret this very much as it was an oversight on my part.

_______________

* This and the following letter are in the Library of Congress.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 127-8

Willis P. Bocock to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, February 13, 1851

RICHMOND, [Va.], 13th February 1851.

MY DEAR SIR: Permit me to introduce to your acquaintance my esteemed friend Col[onel] Fuqua, a member of the Convention of Virginia from my old county of Buckingham, and a good and true democrat and southerner. He is one of the signers of the "Ebony line" letter and to him I refer you for his views with this only remark that whatever he may say you cannot better satisfy him than by Strict adherence to the principles that should guide a V[irgini]a Senator. Tell him what I have said.

I have no doubt that the signatures procured to that paper are in the main attributable to the influence and popularity of Beverly Tucker and Kennedy. They were over here and gave a supper to that end. Besides that a friend of theirs Hon. Mr. Chilton of Fauquier presented and when necessary pressed it on the members of the Convention. His good nature, their facility and a general and growing desire in V[irgini]a for some plan to remove the free negroes accounts for the number of signatures. While it was in Chilton's hands and after it had been presented to me I spoke of it in [the] presence of one or two members of [the] Convention. One of them I remember said he had signed it thoughtlessly and would go and have his name taken off. I have not had an opportunity to converse extensively on the subject, but I am decidedly of opinion and will add such is Goode's opinion, that you and your colleague should act upon the lights before you without reference to these signatures unless the more deliberate wishes of the legislature should be communicated.

I hope after 4th March and when you have paid a short visit home and seen the State of progress on your farm, unexampled in your experience as a farmer, you will come over to see your friends here and make yourself very agreeable to members of the Convention, but ́especially to the members of the Legislature.

A message for T. S. Bocock if you see him. The Whigs of his district in Convention assembled have, without any other name being before them, nominated the Rev. John Early D. D. as the Whig Candidate for the district. Harvey Irving is furious on it, and opinions are various as to the strength of the nominee. It is rather a formidable move, but in my opinion not invincible.

Mr. Wise is attempting to make a platform for the democracy in Virginia. A meeting was called last night perhaps you saw or heard of the call in the Enquirer. It was well attended. Mr. Wise moved for a committee, and I understand read resolutions. The Committee was appointed to report to an adjourned meeting Monday night next. I learn I am one of the Committee, I did not remain till they were named. The resolutions which Wise read take the ground of attachment to the Union and the rights of the States &c, submission to what has been done and opposition to dissolution for that cause, compliment to Pennsylvania and a promise, the other democratic states concurring, to sustain such candidate for the presidency as she may name, with an invitation to her to designate a candidate. He is of opinion there is a design to put Cass on us again whom he wont vote for. [He] is I believe for Buchannan, believes a national Convention Nomination impracticable, and thinks the Whigs will beat us unless we take the platform of Union from them. What think you all? I wish I could hear from our friends in Washington on the subject in time. This movement makes little favor here as far as I can gather, and is not agreeable to my own notions.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 124-6

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 31, 1864

Bright. Tom's rations came in—worth $200— for a month.

Gen. Lee writes that it is necessary for the gun-boats to guard the river as far below Chaffin's Bluffs as possible, to prevent the enemy from throwing a force to the south bank in the rear of Gen. Pickett's lines; for then Gen. P. must withdraw his forces, and the abandonment of Petersburg will follow, “with its railroad connections, throwing the whole army back to the defense of Richmond. I should regard this as a great disaster, and as seriously endangering the safety of the city. We should not only lose a large section of country from which our position enables us to draw supplies, but the enemy would be brought nearer to the only remaining railway communication between Richmond and the South. It would make the tenure of the city depend upon our ability to hold this long line of communication against the largely superior force of the enemy, and I think would greatly diminish the prospects of successful defense.” He suggests that more men and small boats be put in the river to prevent the enemy from placing torpedoes in the rear of the iron-clads, when on duty down the river at night.

J. H. Reagan, Postmaster-General, has written a furious letter to the Secretary, complaining of incivility on the part of Mr. Wilson, Commissary Agent to issue beef in Richmond. Judge R. went there to draw the beef ration for Col. Lubbock, one of the President's aid-de-camps (late Governor of Texas). He says he is able-bodied and ought to be in the army. Mr. Wilson sends in certificates of two men who were present, contradicting the judge's statement of the language used by Mr. W. The Secretary has not yet acted in the case.

Beverly Tucker is in Canada, and has made a contract for the Confederate States Government with ——— & Co., of New York, to deliver bacon for cotton, pound for pound. It was made by authority of the Secretary of War, certified to by Hon. C. C. Clay and J. Thompson, both in Canada. The Secretary of the Treasury don't like it.

It is reported that after the success reported by Gen. Lee, Early was again defeated.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 319-20

George Mason Graham to Governor Thomas O. Moore, February 9, 1860

TYRONE PLANTATION, February 9, 1860.

MY DEAR SIR: Although well aware of all the troubles, perplexities, worriments and annoyances to which your new career of executive life subjects you in its outset, yet here is a matter, which with all my repugnance to be obtrusive, my sense of everything that is right will not allow me to refrain from inflicting on you.

You will see from the enclosed copy of a letter received last night, with some official communications from Major Sherman, and which I have risen at five o'clock this morning to copy, that we are in imminent danger of losing our irreplacable superintendent, the apprehension of which has kept me awake for more than half the night.

Although coming to me under the injunction implied by the mark “confidential,” I have felt that a higher duty required that I should communicate it to you in both of your official capacities, saying to you at the same time that I have no objection to your using it with the same discreet confidence among those you may desire to confer with. Particularly I would be glad that you would show it in this manner to Doctor Smith, Doctor Clarke, and Mr. Wise. I would also be gratified that you would confer with Colonel Bragg because he has known Major Sherman intimately for twenty years and understands his character and qualities better than I do.

I have seen enough, however, to satisfy me that we could not hope to get again exactly such another man for the position — one of so clear, quick, and decided a mind — such practised administrative and executive qualities – such experienced and varied knowledge of men, the world and its business, combined with such kindliness of heart and parental care and thoughtfulness. I have found fully realized in him all which General Gibson, Colonel J. P. Taylor (brother of the late president), and other gentlemen told me in Washington last September, when they said, in the words of Colonel Taylor, “if you hunted the whole army from one end of it to the other, you could not have found a man in it more admirably suited for the position in every respect than Sherman."

In this connection also I beg to ask your perusal of the enclosed letter from Major Buell, one of the assistant adjutants-general of the army, at present and for sometime past occupying the position of confidential military adviser to the secretary of war — I also beg to enclose you the first letter I ever received from Major Sherman, regretting that I have not also to send you his letter of application to the Board.

Now! What is to be done? I wish to be prepared for Mr. R—n's arrival, hoping that the accidents of travel and business may have delayed him long enough for me to hear from you in the meantime. Already too prolix, I will answer my own question in brief. Let us offer Major Sherman, if necessary to retain him, five thousand dollars a year, and as an excuse for doing so let us add to his duties those of treasurer and purser, which now he in reality discharges. And I assure you that the State of Louisiana will never have invested money that will pay a better interest. Many men may be capable to make laws for a nation, to govern a state, to preside on the bench, but I tell you a man competent to govern, control, instruct a large educational institution is of rare occurrence. And if we throw away this one there is but little likelihood that we can replace him. This is but fifteen hundred dollars more than he now receives, and whilst I am satisfied that no such idea as increased compensation, with such a view, has entered his mind, for he has repeatedly said “you pay your professors very liberally, and have a right to expect them to work” and I have never known a more unsordid and unselfish gentleman, yet I think that an assurance of that amount, with a comfortable house for his family, will decide him immovably against Mr. R.'s offers. Action in this matter either by the General Assembly, or by the Board of Supervisors, cannot be had immediately, but if you and Dr. Smith determine that it shall be done, there will be but little difficulty in effecting it, and in the event of such determination, let us three, you, Smith and I, guarantee to Major Sherman five thousand dollars a year for five years, conditioned of course, on the retention during that time of his health and efficiency.

It will not be this amount of money which will influence him so much, as the relief he will thereby experience from the apprehension which is becoming somewhat morbid with him, that occurring political events, and the position of his brother in the U.S. Congress, may or do conspire to affect his position and impair his usefulness here. This is the feeling which unless clearly and decidedly removed from his mind, will compel him to accept R.'s offer.

I heard authentically of this association, and its offers to Major Sherman, in Washington in September, with many of the names, of whom I only recollect now those of Rupell, the great Utah army contractor, Roelofson of Cincinnati, where two or three others of them reside, and Beverly Tucker, U.S. Consul at Liverpool. Professor Smith told me on his arrival here, that when Mr. Tucker came over to Paris to attend the obsequies of the late American Minister, he told him, Mr. S. of this association and its proportions, which comprise an interest also without capital on his part, in the business to Major S., remarking to him that he could well see therefore, that if our Sherman and their Sherman was one and the same man, he would not be able to retain him. Begging to hear from you in this matter after no more delay than may be absolutely necessary, for Mr. Roelofson may be here, and Major Sherman's decision made in a very few days (tho' I will interpose all the delays that I can).

[Endorsement on retained copy of the above letter] Wrote the Governor again on February eleventh of the arrival of Mr. Roelofson, and that although very urgent for the Major to make an immediate acceptance and go right off with him, I had obtained from him a delay of ten days within which the Major would give his answer. This was to enable me to hear from Baton Rouge, whither on fourteenth Major Sherman proceeded himself.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 155-8