John Tyler to the people of Charles City, and the Other Counties and Cities Composing the Third Congressional District, October 21, 1861

To the people of Charles City, and the other counties and cities composing the Third Congressional District:

The resolutions adopted by the people of Charles City on Thursday last, expressive also, as I have reason to know, of the wishes of many citizens in other portions of this congressional district, are highly appreciated by me, and are entitled to a frank and candid reply. The times are full of peril and of profound interest. A government composed of States whose separate independence and sovereignty was acknowledged by the Treaty of Peace of 1783 (the said treaty being made with each State separately by name, and with all collectively), is now claimed, in opposition to the unobscured lights of history, to have been popular in its origin and altogether so in its construction and operation. This doctrine, as if to make it more flagitious, is asserted by the man who was elected to his high office by the votes of States as States, conferred by their several electoral colleges, and who wanted nearly a million of votes of the people to constitute a popular majority. This is doubtless done to impress the world with the belief that the Southern States have been and are guilty of a most base and infamous revolt, and at the same time to induce the misled masses of the Northern people to maintain in power the unprincipled Catalines who, for long years, for their own emolument, have stirred up the bitter waters of hatred and ill will on the part of the North against the South. That government, a mere agency of the States, whose territorial possessions, as if to indicate its true character, were limited to an area of but ten miles square, created by the States, each acting separately and for itself, is now, without the shadow of right, seized upon by States composing a section, and is made to war upon a part of its principals, who have quite as much right to annul it as others to perpetuate it.

If Virginia or her co-States have broken their compact or covenant, then let the offended or injured States avenge their wrong, not through the agency created by all for all, but in their character of sovereigns, through their own means and appliances. Massachusetts, forsooth, undertakes to preach to Virginia long homilies upon constitutional obligations, and sends her armies to enforce her teachings upon us. And even Rhode Island, of whom we had hoped better things, who stood out two years before she would give her assent to the agent government, now, under the lead of her wealthy manufacturing governor, who is still anxious, doubtless, to fill his coffers to further and greater repletion by high taxes on imports, sends the elite of her people with splendid batteries of artillery to crush out rebellion in Virginia. It looks rather unseemly that a State which, in 1812, did not believe that she could constitutionally send her militia beyond her State line to repel an invasion of other States by a foreign power, with whom the then United States were at war, should now, all of a sudden, come to the conclusion that there was no constitutional barrier in her way when the conquest and subjugation of a once sister State was the game on foot; or that another, who could not adopt the government, from extreme aversion to it, for two whole years, should so have fallen in love with it that she sends forth her armed brigands to assist in crushing the State which originated, but who has become heartily disgusted with it, because of its perversion from its original objects into an engine to be used by a majority section for the oppression of a minority. These demonstrations are accompanied, on the part of the agent government, by proceedings gross, tyrannical and revolting to all who have heretofore worshipped at the now desecrated shrine of public liberty.

It was once fondly believed that there were certain great principles which the Revolution in England of 1688, and our ever glorious Revolution of 1776, had canonized and rendered sacred; but we live to see the day when those principles are derided and trampled upon. In vain does the victim of oppression demand, in the language of our Bill of Rights and of the Constitution, a fair and impartial trial. In vain that he invokes the principles of Magna Charta, which are as dear to him as they were to any lordly baron at Runnymede or any Englishman since. In vain that he appeals to the judges and the courts. The venerable Chief-Justice,1

 in his attempt to restore the reign of the law and the Constitution, is mocked at, and his authority despised. A provost marshal usurps the place of the judge, and some unfledged general announces an irreversible decree of banishment or imprisonment. Equally vain that the citizen claims his house to be his castle. Armed men, without authority of law, arouse him from his slumbers at midnight, and hurry him away from home and family, to be immured in gloomy and distant dungeons; the freedom of speech and of the press, along with the freedom of elections, the guardians, as heretofore fondly supposed, of public freedom,—have been crushed out; legislatures are dispersed, their members consigned to prisons, and those citizens who have had the nerve to write or speak a word in opposition to such galling tyranny are to be found immured in modern bastiles, where no ray of light emanating from mind or conscience is permitted to enter.

Such is in brief the night of despotism which now holds its gloomy reign over all the North. Those very people who basely submit to a despotism so unrelenting and cruel invade our soil without a shadow of right, and declare it to be their purpose to force us back into a union which they have destroyed, under a Constitution which they have rendered a mockery and made a nullity. Dream they of the blood that flows in our veins, derived from a glorious ancestry, when they talk of subjecting us to the same tyranny to which they themselves are even now subjected? A renewal of their acquaintance with our history would instruct them to regard our subjugation as a day dream, and nothing more. That history will inform them that this noble old State, through nearly three centuries of existence, has in no instance yielded to force or coercion. Unless I overestimate the character of her people, they would sooner, to use the language of an Irish patriot, "raze every house, burn every blade of grass, and make the last entrenchments of liberty their graves," than submit to the wrong and oppression with which they are threatened. Formidable armies are sent to crush her proud spirit and to impose manacles on her free limbs. Through a great misapprehension, as I think, of their duty, but as they conceived, in a lofty spirit of honor, our naval officers resigned the ships which they commanded at the time of resigning their commissions into the hands of Northern officers, who carried them into Northern ports. Thus have we been deprived of our just proportion of a navy which our means assisted to build, and which is now to be used in efforts to ravage and plunder our coasts, and burn and destroy our cities. Surrounded thus and threatened thus, I hold it as an axiom that no man is at liberty to decline any position which the State or its people may, by their unsolicited suffrages, confer upon him. For myself, while I seek nothing and aspire to nothing. I will decline no service which Virginia, or any portion of her people, may require me to render. If, then, the people of this district shall elect me to Congress, I shall accept the station, and devote my best energies to a successful termination of the war, and to advance the permanent interests of this great, and, as I doubt not it is to be, victorious Confederacy of States, under whose parental sway I wish, for one, to live and die. If, however, either of my distinguished friends -for each of whom I entertain the highest regard—who have been announced as candidates shall be elected, I shall be quite content, and shall give to his useful and patriotic labors in the holy cause that engages us my most hearty applause and approval.

JOHN TYLER.

October 21, 1861.

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¹ Roger B. Taney.

SOURCES: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 662-3; “To the people of Charles City, and the other counties and cities composing the Third Congressional District,” Daily Richmond Whig, Richmond, Virginia, Friday Morning, October 25, 1861, p. 3; “To the people of Charles city and the other counties and cities composing the Third Congressional District,” The Daily Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia, October 29, 1861 a transcription of this article appears HERE, and states the date of this document is October 21, 1861; “The address of Mr. Tyler…” The Richmond Examiner, Richmond, Virginia, Tuesday, October 29, 1861, p. 1

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, June 13, 1864

June 13, 1864

Last night, at dark, the whole army was in motion for "Charles City" on the James River (there is no "city" there, but I believe a house and a barn). . . . This morning we were on our way by 5.30 and, making a cut across the woods, we soon came on Barlow's division of the 2d Corps going rapidly toward the river, close to which we found Hancock, sitting on the grass and waiting for his Corps. At this point the Chickahominy is nothing of a stream, but, as it is bordered by considerable flats, it suddenly widens, during heavy floods, to perhaps half a mile, the water being just deep enough to stop waggons. This was a great trouble McClellan had: we have met with no such obstacle. This river is characteristic; a good drawing of this very scene at Long's Bridge might pass as the incarnation of malaria and swamp fever. Fancy a wide ditch, partly choked with rotten logs, and full of brown, tepid, sickly-looking water, whose slow current would scarcely carry a straw along. From the banks of dark mould rises a black and luxuriant vegetation: cypresses of immense size, willow oaks, and swamp magnolias, remind you that you are within the limits of a sub-tropical climate, and so does the unhealthy and peculiar smell of decaying leaves and stagnant water. A great contrast to this landscape, so suggestive of silence and loneliness, was the rumbling and clatter of Barlow's batteries, as they passed over the resounding pontoon bridge. We clattered over too, as soon as the last of the regiments had passed (which was about 10.30), designing to follow in rear of this division.  . . . We kept on, on the flank of the column, admiring its excellent marching, a result partly due to the good spirits of the men, partly to the terror in which stragglers stand of Barlow. His provost guard is a study. They follow the column, with their bayonets fixed, and drive up the loiterers, with small ceremony. Of course their tempers do not improve with heat and hard marching. There was one thin, hard-featured fellow who was a perfect scourge. “Blank you! — you—“ (here insert any profane and extremely abusive expression, varied to suit the peculiar case) “get up, will you? By blank, I'll kill you if you don't go on, double-quick!” And he looked so much like carrying out his threat that the hitherto utterly prostrate party would skip like the young lamb. Occasionally you would see a fellow awaiting the charge with an air of calm superiority, and, when the guard approached, pull out the aegis of a “surgeon's pass.” The column marched so fast that I was sent forward to tell General Barlow to go more gently. I found that eccentric officer divested of his coat and seated in a cherry tree. “By Jove!” said a voice from the branches, “I knew I should not be here long before Meade's Staff would be up. How do you do, Theodore, won't you come up and take a few cherries?” However, I could not stay, and so kept on till we came, somewhat suddenly, on well-cultivated fields with good crops of wheat, oats, and clover. I was speculating on the reason of this when somebody said we were within a mile of James River! and just after, General Meade ordered me to ride down and see what sort of a position there was and how the land lay.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon that I caught the first sight of the water, as I cantered round the corner of a little grove. To appreciate such a sight you must pass five weeks in an almost unbroken wilderness, with no sights but weary, dusty troops, endless waggon-trains, convoys of poor wounded men, and hot, uncomfortable camps. Here was a noble river, a mile wide, with high green banks, studded with large plantation houses. In the distance, opposite, was Fort Powhatan, below which lay two steamers; and, what seemed strangest of all, not a Rebel soldier to be seen anywhere!  . . . There was a signal-man waving away with his flag to attract the attention of the steamers, to notify all concerned that the head of the Army of the Potomac had struck the James. We went to a field by the Tyler house for our camp — the birthplace of John Tyler, he of the big nose and small political principles — once Vice President, with Tippy-canoe and Tyler too. Nobody was there, save a lot of nigs, that were too funny; for there suddenly appeared among them one of our black servants, who had left that very place in McClellan's time. Such a “Lord a-a massy! is dat a-ar you? Wha-ar d'ge come from?” as never was heard, and great rejoicings over the distinguished traveller! What was more to the purpose, I got some green peas, a great coup; likewise milk, though “them a-ar infants” (meaning infantry) got the most of it.  . . . A pontoon bridge, 2000 feet long, was made in ten hours, and over this passed a train of waggons and artillery thirty-five miles long; more than half the infantry in the army and 3500 beef cattle; besides 4000 cavalry; all of which was chiefly accomplished within the space of forty-eight hours!¹ In civil life, if a bridge of this length were to be built over a river with a swift current and having a maximum depth of eighty-five feet, they would allow two or three months for the making of plans and collecting of materials. Then not less than a year to build it. This was a busy night on the river, messages going to City Point and Fort Monroe, and ferryboats and gunboats coming up as fast as possible to the neighborhood of Charles City. . . .

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¹ As before stated, these letters were written after the events described.

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 156