Senator John C. Calhoun to Duff Green, April 17, 1847*

Fort Hill 17th April 1847

MY DEAR SIR, The mistake, which I think you and the most of my friends make in reference to myself is, that you do not fully realize how completely I hold my own advancement subordinate to what I deem my duty to the Country. Even in the ardour of youthful aspiration, when the Presidency was an object of desire, I never could bring my mind to yield to a measure, or course of policy, which I thought wrong, to obtain that high office; much less can I now, when it is no longer to me an object of desire. Had I arrived at the Presidency by any other way, than an upright, and fearless discharge of what I conscienciously believed to be my duty, I would have been much more flexible, and under the influence of friends; but as it is, when I do not agree with any one portion, they have been too apt to suppose, that I had been influenced by those, with whom I happen to agree. You make this mistake as to my course in 1840. It may be, that the motives of those on the occassion, to which you refer, was such as you suppose; but, be that as it may, in making up my opinion, I had no consultation with them, nor had their opinion in relation to the subject to which you refer, the least influence with me. I am always happy to hear the opinion of my friends and often avail myself of their suggestions, in modifying my course; but rarely ever in taking it. I have said thus much, because, I think, you not infrequently fall into error, in attributing, what is the result of my deliberate judgement to the influence of others.

I entirely agree with you, that the Presidential election ought to be held in reserve, with the restriction, that no one of the old hunkers or their nominee by the Baltimore convention, shall get our support. I regard that portion of the party, as incurably corrupt. In their folly and profligacy they made the Mexican war, without seeing, that the successful general will ever be sure to turn the party, in this country, out of power, which makes a war. They began to see it, when it was too late, and hence their desire to have a Lieut General and to strike a blow at Genl Taylor during the last session. And hence, also, the sending of Genl Scott, in the hope of exciting their mutual Jealousy and dividing their political friends on the Presidential question. Indeed, the movements, on the part of both parties, have looked to that exclusively. It is to be hoped, that the very few, who look exclusively to the country, by taking an independent stand, and keeping in reserve their influence, may finally throw it, where something may be done to advance the publick good.

I am glad to learn, that you have closed a satisfactory arrangement, about your mountain property, and I hope that your expectation will be realized, but let me repeat my hope, expressed on a former occasion, that you will not engage in publishing a paper, unless you can see your way clearly. Your first duty is to your family.

My Charleston friends appear disposed to make an effort to raise the necessary funds to establish a paper for the support of the South, on a solid basis, provided the other Southern States will cooperate, or at least a part of them. But, I fear, that their attention is so much absorbed in the events of the Mexican war, and that they are so much entangled by their party connections, that nothing will be done.

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* Original lent by Mr. R. P. Maynard.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, pp. 727-8

 

Senator John C. Calhoun to Duff Green, June 10, 1847*

Fort Hill 10th June 1847

I received your two last letters, the one written at New York and the other after your return from Washington, in which you urge me to attend the Convention to be held in Chicago on the 4th July.¹

After giving the subject the most deliberat consideration, I cannot concur with you in opinion as to the expediency or propriety of my attending.

My opinions in reference to internal improvement, both in reference to the Lakes and the Mississippi, have been fully expressed in my remarks at Memphis and the report on the proceedings of the Memphis convention. I have seen no reason since to change, or modify my opinion on any point. If I were to go to the Chicago convention, it would only be to repeat them, and to expose myself to the attack of those, who may be disposed to go farther than I can go, with my views of the Constitution, aided and backed by all, who may be politically opposed to me; while I would expose myself to the imputation of the very motive you assign for my going, and would lose more weight with the South, than I could possibly gain in the West.

Such are the objections, which occur to me, regarding the subject in the light you do, in reference to myself and my political advancement. But political advancement has ceased to be for a long time any object to me, personally. I would accept the Presidency on no condition but to reform the Government and carry out the principles and policy with which I am identified; and I have no idea that it will ever be tendered me for that purpose. All that remains for me is, to finish my course with consistency and propriety, and that I can only do, by an honest and manful discharge of my duty, while I remain in publick life. I am thankful to my friends for the interest they take in my elevation to power. One of the strong motives I would have to accept should it come to me, in a manner I could accept, would be to serve those, who have stood by me through so many trying scenes. Their attachment to me, has been the result of a community of sentiment in reference to the principles and policy of the Government; and, as such, I have ever regarded it, as alike honorable to them and me. Many of them, you among the others, overestimate the chance of my elevation, by not taking the proper view of the nature of the difficulty in my way. It may all be summed up in one, that I am not in favour of the spoil's policy. They who seek them are for the present masters of the country; and so long, as they continue to be so, ever will resist successfully my elevation. Nothing but a reaction, which shall rouse the country to a sense of its danger, which may not occur, until too late, can ever elevate me to power. That such should be the case, I have no reason to complain. I selected my course with a full knowledge, that such would be the case; and so far from regretting it, I would do it over again, if it was in my option to choose. I am not disappointed, and have none of the feelings belonging to the disappointed. But, I must say, that I am occasionally mortified, at seeing how little I am understood by some of my oldest and most faithful friends, and you among them, as I infer from some of your remarks in your letter from N. York. It is a grave charge to say, a man is unmindful of his friends. If I know myself, I would rather injure myself than a friend; and have ever been more unmindful of myself, than of them. It is I, who head without hesitation, or dread of consequences every assault on our common principles, and, if I have been careless of them, I have been much more so of myself. It would be a much truer estimate of my character to say, when duty is concerned, I am not only regardless of friendship or enmity but of myself. As to the case of Morton, my impression is, that I neither took part, nor voted. When I saw how badly the democratick party was acting on the Wilmot proviso, I saw little choice between one, or another of the party, or between a democrat, or a Whig. Besides Williams, whom he turned out, gave a statement in his favour; and yet, it seems, this miserable affair, is the proof that I am not mindful of my friends. It had nothing to do with any friend. If he had been rejected it would have only made room for some other, equally objectionable.

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*  Original lent by Mr. R. P. Maynard.

¹ The Northwestern Harbor and River Convention.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, pp. 731-3

Senator John C. Calhoun to Duff Green,* November 9, 1847

Fort Hill 9th Nov 1847

DEAR SIR, I received by the last mail your note, with the Message from Mr Cameron; and will thank you to say to him, that I am obliged to him for his proposed arrangement, but that I had previously made another arrangement for the session.

I foresee a session of great distraction and confusion. The old party organization cannot much longer hold together. The want of sincerity and honesty on the part of both parties has confounded the country and the Government, and caused a state of things, from which it will be difficult to extricate ourselves. I confess, I do not see the end. My own course is clear and easy; to do my duty, without regard to consequences personal to myself. If our institutions are destined to be overthrown, I am resolved, that no share of the responsibility shall rest on me.

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* Original lent by Mr. R. P. Maynard.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, pp. 739-40

Senator John C. Calhoun to Duff Green,* November 13, 1847

Fort Hill 13th Novr 1847

MY DEAR SIR, I have received your last. It is my intention to be at Washington by the commencement of the session. The position of the country is very critical. Great caution and great firmness combined are necessary to extricate it from its present difficulties; and you will have to exercise them in an eminent degree to make your paper effective and successful. With them it may do much. Look to the country exclusively, avoid as much as possible personalities, either of praise or censure, and limit yourself to statements of facts, and calm and impartial discussion. I hope you have not taken a step, which will involve you in any pecuniary difficulties.

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* Original lent by Mr. R. P. Maynard.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p. 740

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: April 17, 1865

Bright and clear.

I add a few lines to my Diary. It was whispered, yesterday, that President Lincoln had been assassinated! I met Gen. Duff Green, in the afternoon, who assured me there could be no doubt of it. Still, supposing it might be an April hoax, I inquired at the headquarters of Gen. Ord, and was told it was true. I cautioned those I met to manifest no feeling, as the occurrence might be a calamity for the South; and possibly the Federal soldiers, supposing the deed to have been done by a Southern man, might become uncontrollable and perpetrate deeds of horror on the unarmed people.

After agreeing to meet Gen. Green this morning at the Provost Marshal's office, and unite with him in an attempt to procure the liberation of Capt. Warner, I returned home; and saw, on the way, Gen. Ord and his staff riding out toward Camp Lee, with no manifestations of excitement or grief on their countenances.

Upon going down town this morning, every one was speaking of the death of Lincoln, and the Whig was in mourning.

President Lincoln was killed by Booth (Jno. Wilkes), an actor. I suppose his purpose is to live in history as the slayer of a tyrant; thinking to make the leading character in a tragedy, and have his performance acted by others on the stage.

I see no grief on the faces of either officers or men of the Federal army.

R. A. Pryor and Judge W. T. Joynes have called a meeting in Petersburg, to lament the calamity entailed by the assassination.

I got passports to-day for myself and family to the Eastern Shore, taking no oath. We know not when we shall leave.

I never swore allegiance to the Confederate States Government, but was true to it.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 479-80

Senator John C. Calhoun to Abraham W. Venable,* August 1849

Fort Hill August 1849

MY DEAR SIR, I have read your letter with much interest, and congratulate you and the great cause on your triumphant success. Under all circumstances, it is a great victory for both; and shows what can be done by honesty and boldness in a good cause. Had the other republican members from the state acted with you, the party would have achieved a decided victory in the state in the election. Even as it is, much has been done to restore it to power. Your position is now a commanding one. You are placed by your course and victory at the head of the party in the state. North Carolina has long stood in need of an able, bold and honest man to take the lead in bring[ing] the state into her true position. You can do it.

I am glad to learn your health is good. Mine is as good as I could expect, and I trust sufficiently so to take me through the next session. It will be an eventful one. We must force the issue on the North, so as to know where we are to stand. The sooner it is done, the better for all concerned. I wish to board on Capitol Hill and near the capitol, and would be glad to have you of the Mess, and hope your arrangements will be made accordingly. I am busily engaged on my work, and hope to have it ready for the press before the commencement of the session; so that I can take it with me to Washington. I hear from Missouri, that Benton's days are numbered. Atcheson¹ and Green say, that he has as good a chance to be made Pope, as to be elected Senator.

My kind regards to your Son.

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* Original lent by Rev. S. T. Martin of Dublin, Va. Abraham W. Venable was member of Congress from North Carolina from 1847 to 1853.

¹ David R. Atchison, Senator from Missouri, 1843-1855. Benton was in fact defeated, after forty ballots.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p. 770

Senator John C. Calhoun to Duff Green,* August 4, 1849

Fort Hill 4th Augt 1849

MY DEAR SIR, You are right, as to the source, whence Benton draws his support. He has bribed the papers at the seat of Government by jobs at the publick expense; and the only way to put down the corruption is the one you indicate. An Independent Press at Washington has long been a desideratum, but it is difficult to establish, or to maintain such an one there, against the joint influence and power of the publick plunderers, who have got possession of the organs of publick opinion and the machinery of parties.

I am glad to learn that your contract promises so well and hope it will equal your most sanguine hopes. Should you succeed as well as you expect it will give you a commanding position.

With kind respects to Mrs Green and your family I remain

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* Original lent by Mr. R. P. Maynard.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p. 771

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 7, 1863

No news from any quarter, except the continued bombardment of the debris of Fort Sumter, and the killing and wounding of some 10 or 12 men there — but that is not news.

There is a pause, — a sort of holding of the breath of the people, as if some event of note was expected. The prices of food and fuel are far above the purses of all except speculators, and an explosion must happen soon, of some sort. People will not perish for food in the midst of plenty.

The press, a portion rather, praises the President for his carefulness in making a tour of the armies and ports south of us; but as he retained Gen. Bragg in command, how soon the tune would change if Bragg should meet with disaster!

Night before last some of the prisoners on Belle Isle (we have some 13,000 altogether in and near the city) were overheard by the guard to say they must escape immediately, or else it would be too late, as cannon were to be planted around them. Our authorities took the alarm, and increasing the guard, did plant cannon so as to rake them in every direction in the event of their breaking out of their prison bounds. It is suspected that this was a preconcerted affair, as a full division of the enemy has been sent to Newport News, probably to co-operate with the prisoners. Any attempt now must fail, unless, indeed, there should be a large number of Union sympathizers in the city to assist them.

Several weeks ago it was predicted in the Northern papers that Richmond would be taken in some mysterious manner, and that there was a plan for the prisoners of war to seize it by a coup de main, may be probable. But the scheme was impracticable. What may be the condition of the city, and the action of the people a few weeks hence, if relief be not afforded by the government, I am afraid to conjecture. The croakers say five millions of “greenbacks,” and cargoes of provisions, might be more effectual in expelling the Confederate Government and restoring that of the United States than all of Meade's army. And this, too, they allege, when there is abundance in the country. Many seem to place no value on the only money we have in circulation. The grasping farmers refuse to get out their grain, saying they have as much Confederate money as they want, and the government seems determined to permit the perishable tithes to perish rather than allow the famishing people to consume them. Surely, say the croakers, such a policy cannot achieve independence. No, it must be speedily changed, or else worse calamities await us than any we have experienced.

Old Gen. Duff Green, after making many fortunes and losing them, it seems, is to die poor at last, and he is now nearly eighty years old. Last year he made a large contract to furnish the government with iron, his works being in Tennessee, whence he has been driven by the enemy. And now he says the depreciation of the money will make the cost of producing the iron twice as much as he will get for it. And worse, he has bought a large lot of sugar which would have realized a large profit, but the commissary agent has impressed it, and will not pay him cost for it. All he can do is to get a small portion of it back for the consumption of his employees, provided he returns to Tennessee and fulfills his iron contract.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 91-2

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, April 11, 1864

John C. Rives, it is stated, died yesterday. He was a marked character, guileless, shrewd, simple-hearted, and sagacious, without pretension and without fear, generous and sincere, with a warm heart but no exterior graces. I first met him in the winter of 1829 in the office of Duff Green, where he was bookkeeper. In the winter of 1831, I think, we met at Georgetown at the house of Colonel Corcoran. F. P. Blair, whom I met on the same evening for the first time, had been out with Rives to try their rifles. They had first met a few days previous. Rives was then a clerk in the Fourth Auditor's office, — Amos Kendall. The latter passed the evening with us. Years later Rives and myself became well acquainted. He was first bookkeeper and then partner of Blair and made the fortunes of both.

In the House of Representatives a sharp and unpleasant discussion has been carried on, on a resolution introduced by the Speaker, Colfax, to expel Long, a Representative from Ohio, for some discreditable partisan remarks, made in a speech last Friday. There being an evening session, I went to the Capitol for the first time this session. Heard Orth, Kernan, Winter Davis, and one or two others. The latter was declamatory, eloquent, but the debate did not please me, nor the subject. Long I despise for his declarations, but Colfax is not judicious in his movement. Long went beyond the line of his party, and Colfax cannot make them responsible for Long's folly.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 8-9

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 12, 1863

To day we have no army news.

Mr. Richard Smith issued the first number of The Sentinel yesterday morning. Thus we have five daily morning papers, all on half sheets. The Sentinel has a biography of the President, and may aspire to be the “organ.”

John Mitchel, the Irishman, who was sentenced to a penal colony for disturbances in Ireland, some years ago, is now the leading editor of the Enquirer. He came hither from the North recently. His “compatriot,” Meagher, once lived in the South and advocated our “institutions.” He now commands a Federal brigade. What Mitchel will do finally, who knows? My friend R. Tyler, probably, had something to do with bringing him here. As a politician, however, he must know there is no Irish element in the Confederate States. I am sorry this Irish editor has been imported.

The resignation of Gen. Toombs is making some sensation in certain circles. He was among the foremost leaders of the rebellion. He was Secretary of State, and voluntarily resigned to enter the army. I know not precisely what his grievance is, unless it be the failure of the President to promote him to a higher position, which he may have deemed himself entitled to, from his genius, antecedents, wealth, etc. But it is probable he will cause some disturbance. Duff Green, who is everywhere in stormy times, told me to-day that Gen. Toombs would be elected Governor of Georgia this fall, and said there were intimations that Georgia might make peace with the United States! This would be death to the government — and destruction to Toombs. It must be a mistake. He cannot have any such design. If he had, it would be defeated by the people of Georgia, though they sighed for peace. Peace is what all most desire — but not without independence. Some there are, in all the States, who would go back into the Union, for the sake of repose and security. But a majority would not have peace on such terms.

Still, it behooves the President to be on his guard. He has enemies in the South, who hate him much.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 272-3