Showing posts with label Election of 1868. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Election of 1868. Show all posts

Saturday, March 30, 2024

Governor Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, November 11, 1868

COLUMBUS, November 11, 1868.

DEAR UNCLE:—We are jogging along as usual a little more to do than heretofore. The Legislature meeting soon and various matters overlooked claiming attention.

I spent the election day [at Cincinnati] looking at Mr. Probasco's fine pictures, statuary, library, and house. The house is much the finest I ever was in. He has a few pictures of all peoples-English, German, French, Italian, Asiatic, etc. He prefers French art to any other.

We hope to spend Thanksgiving with you and shall do so if not prevented by something I don't now foresee. Grant's election was a happy thing. He seems to behave admirably. The effect South and everywhere seems good.

Sincerely,
R. B. HAYES.
S. BIRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 56

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Governor Rutherford B. Hayes to Lucy Webb Hayes, Saturday, May 23, 1868

FREMONT, OHIO, May 23, Saturday, 1868.

MY DARLING:— Came from Chicago this morning. Had a fine time.

All well here. Young Mrs. Wade came over with me—vexed of course with the doings of a few Ohio anti-Waders, but took it well. The Convention [National Republican] with that exception was a great success. Mrs. Lane sends her regards. She was full of praises of you; the old Senator, ditto.

Affectionately,
R. B. H.
MRS. HAYES.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 52-3

Diary of Governor Rutherford B. Hayes, July 9, 1868

Horatio Seymour nominated because: —

1. He was more distinctly and decidedly committed against the Greenback theory of Mr. Pendleton and the Western Democracy than any other man before that convention.

2. He was by his record more completely identified with the peace party than any man except Mr. Pendleton.

3. He is for a reconstruction of the South which will be agreeable to the Rebels, and opposes the reconstruction which gives safety and power to the loyal.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 53-4

Governor Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, July 14, 1868

COLUMBUS, July 14, 1868.
DEAR UNCLE:

Joel Bryan's wife, son, and daughter were here this morning. Had a pleasant time with them. The son, Guy, is a fine, excellent young man of twenty-six years sensible, intelligent, etc. The old friends are all prosperous. Negro business in that county works well—no fuss or trouble. The young man is a Democrat and was at New York [National Democratic Convention], but is free from bigotry and nonsense; takes cheerful and sensible views of things.

I go to Cincinnati tomorrow to stay a few days. Yes, hurrah for Seymour and Blair! The thing is a wet blanket here to our Democrats. The prospect has certainly improved for us.

Sincerely,
R. B. HAYES.
S. BIRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 54

Governor Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, November 3, 1868

COLUMBUS, November 3, 1868.

DEAR UNCLE: Platt heard my talk about the taxes for ditches and roads on your Wood County lands with the greatest good humor. He laughed about it; said he rather thought the lands might about as well be given up, but would leave all that to you and Doctor Rawson. He seemed to regard the big figures I gave him as a good joke. There will be no trouble or feeling with him.

Judge Matthews staid with us during the session of the Electoral College. His daughter Bella, the eldest and favorite, aged seventeen, died suddenly while he was here.

Lucy has gone down to Glendale. We got home in five hours from Fremont by way of Monroeville and Clyde. The quickest time I ever made. All well.

Sincerely,
R. B. HAYES.
S. BIRCHARD.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 3, p. 55

Friday, August 18, 2023

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, Thursday June 11, 1868

FORT UNION, NEW MEXICO, June 11, 1868, Thursday.

Dear Brother: I have now been in New Mexico three weeks along with Col. Tappan, peace commissioner, for the purpose of seeing the Navajos, and making some permanent disposition of them. By a debate in the Senate I see you have a pretty good idea of their former history. These Indians seem to have acquired from the old Spaniards a pretty good knowledge of farming, rearing sheep, cattle, and goats, and of making their own clothing by weaving blankets and cloth. They were formerly a numerous tribe, occupying the vast region between New Mexico and the Colorado of the West, and had among them a class of warriors who made an easy living by stealing of the New Mexicans and occasionally killing. . . .

We found 7200 Indians there, seemingly abject and disheartened. They have been there four years. The first year they were maintained by the army at a cost of about $700,000, and made a small crop. The second year the cost was about $500,000, and the crop was small. Last year the crop was an utter failure, though all the officers say they labored hard and faithfully. This year they would not work because they said it was useless. The cost has been diminished to about 12 cents per head a day, which for 7000 Indians makes over $300,000, and this is as low as possible, being only a pound of corn, and a pound of beef with a little salt per day.

Now this was the state of facts, and we could see no time in the future when this could be amended. The scarcity of wood, the foul character of water, which is salty and full of alkali, and their utter despair, made it certain that we would have to move them or they would scatter and be a perfect nuisance. So of course we concluded to move them. After debating all the country at our option, we have chosen a small part of their old country, which is as far out of the way of the whites and of our future probable wants as possible, and have agreed to move them there forthwith, and have made a treaty which will save the heavy cost of their maintenance and give as much probability of their resuming their habits of industry as the case admits of. . . .

Of course I have noticed Grant's acceptance. I take it for granted he will be elected, and I must come to Washington. I shall not, however, commit myself to this promotion till he is not only elected but until he vacates and I am appointed and confirmed. . . .

Yours affectionately,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 318-9

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, July 1868

[ST. LOUIS, July 1868]

Of course Grant will be elected. I have just travelled with him for two weeks, and the curiosity to see him exhausted his and my patience. He is now cachéd down at his ranch eleven miles below the city. . . .

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 320

Senator John Sherman to Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman, September 1868

[PHILADELPHIA, September 1868.]

Grant will surely be elected. If not, we shall have the devil to pay, and shall have to fight all our old political issues over again. All indications are now in favor of the overwhelming defeat of Seymour on account of the rebel and Copperhead stand of the New York convention. . .

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 320-1

Senator John Sherman to Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman, 1868

[Washington.]

I resume at once the canvass, and am working very hard. The election of Grant seems our only salvation from serious trouble.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 321

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, September 23, 1868

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,        
Sept. 23, 1868.
Dear Brother:

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

The Indian War on the plains need simply amount to this. We have now selected and provided reservations for all, off the great roads. All who cling to their old hunting grounds are hostile and will remain so till killed off. We will have a sort of predatory war for years, every now and then be shocked by the indiscriminate murder of travellers and settlers, but the country is so large, and the advantage of the Indians so great, that we cannot make a single war and end it. From the nature of things we must take chances and clean out Indians as we encounter them.

Our troops are now scattered and have daily chases and skirmishes, sometimes getting the best and sometimes the worst, but the Indians have this great advantage, they can steal fresh horses when they need them and drop the jaded ones. We must operate each man to his own horse, and cannot renew except by purchase in a distant and cheap market.

I will keep things thus, and when winter starves their ponies they will want a truce and shan't have it, unless the civil influence compels me again as it did last winter.

If Grant is elected, that old Indian system will be broken up, and then with the annuities which are ample expended in connection with and in subordination to military movements, will soon bring the whole matter within easy control. Then there are $134,000 appropriated for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, all of whom are at war, and yet the Indian Bureau contend they are forced by law to invest it in shoes, stockings, blankets, and dry goods for these very Indians. They don't want any of these things, but if it could be put in corn, salt, and cattle, we could detach half the hostiles and get them down on the Canadian, two hundred miles south of the Kansas road.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

Grant is still at Galena, and I doubt if he will get to Washington till the November election is over. I have written to him to come down here to the Fair which begins October 5, but the Democrats are so strong and demonstrative here that I think he is a little turned against St. Louis. . . .

Yours affectionately,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 321-2

Senator John Sherman to Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman, October 14, 1868

[MANSFIELD, OHIO, October 14, 1868.]

The October election is now over, but I do not yet know precise results. I write, supposing that the Republicans have carried Ohio and Pennsylvania and perhaps Indiana. Grant is much stronger than our State or Congress ticket, and will get thousands of floating and Democratic votes. I regard his election as a foregone conclusion. This canvass has been very severe upon me and I shall now take a rest. If you would like to join me, we can go to the Lake1 and have some fine sport hunting and fishing. This relaxation will do us both good.

_______________

1 Lake Erie.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 322-3

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, October 30, 1868

[ST. LOUIS, Mo., October 30, 1868]

The election is so near at hand that further speculations are unnecessary. I have written to Grant that I can readily adjust my interests to his plans; but if he has none fixed, I prefer he should go on and exercise his office of Commander in Chief till the last moment, stepping from one office to the other on the 4th of March next, and calling me there at the last moment. I have told him I don't want to be in Washington till I can assume the command and exercise the positive duties of Commander in Chief. . . .

Yours affectionately,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 323

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, November 23, 1868

ST. LOUIS, Mo., Nov. 23, 1868.
Dear Brother:

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

I know that Grant esteems you highly and will respect anything you may ask. He may offer you the Treasury Department, but I think not. He will think you more valuable in the Senate, as the Governor of Ohio and the Legislature would fill your vacancy with a Democrat.

Don't approach Grant in person if you want anything. Put it in plain writing so emphatic that he will know you are in earnest and not yielding to personal importunity.

Yours affectionately,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 323-4

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, March 14, 1868

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,        
ST. LOUIS, March 14, 1868.

Dear Brother: I don't know what Grant means by his silence in the midst of the very great indications of his receiving the nomination in May. Doubtless he intends to hold aloof from the expression of any opinion, till the actual nomination is made, when, if he accepts with a strong Radical platform, I shall be surprised. My notion is that he thinks that the Democrats ought not to succeed to power, and that he would be willing to stand a sacrifice rather than see that result. . . . I notice that you Republicans have divided on some of the side questions on impeachment, and am glad you concede to the President the largest limits in his defence that are offered. I don't see what the Republicans can gain by shoving matters to an extent that looks like a foregone conclusion.

No matter what men may think of Mr. Johnson, his office is one that ought to have a pretty wide latitude of opinion. Nevertheless the trial is one that will be closely and sternly criticised by all the civilized world. . . .

Your brother,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 314-5

Saturday, May 13, 2023

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, after October 11, 1867

I have always talked kindly to the President, and advised Grant to do so. I do think that it is best for all hands that his administration be allowed to run out its course without threatened or attempted violence. Whoever begins violent proceedings will lose in the long run. Johnson is not a man of action, but of theory, and so long as your party is in doubt as to the true mode of procedure, it would be at great risk that an attempt be made to displease the President by a simple Law of Congress. This is as much as I have ever said to anybody. I have never by word or inference given anybody the right to class me in opposition to or in support of Congress. On the contrary, I told Mr. Johnson that from the nature of things he could not dispense with a Congress to make laws and appropriate money, and suggested to him to receive and make overtures to such men as Fessenden, Trumbull, Sherman, Morgan, and Morton, who, though differing with him in abstract views of Constitutional Law and Practice, were not destructive. That if the Congressional plan of reconstruction succeeded, he could do nothing, and if it failed or led to confusion, the future developed results in his favor, etc.; and that is pretty much all I have ever said or done. At the meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee on the 13th inst., I will be forced to speak, if here, and though I can confine myself purely to the military events of the past, I can make the opportunity of stating that in no event will I be drawn into the complications of the civil politics of this country.

If Congress could meet and confine itself to current and committee business, I feel certain that everything will work along quietly till the nominations are made, and a new Presidential election will likely settle the principle if negroes are to be voters in the States without the consent of the whites. This is more a question of prejudice than principle, but a voter has as much right to his prejudices as to his vote.

Yours affectionately,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 297-8

Saturday, September 7, 2019

Gerrit Smith: Destroy Not Man's Faith In Man!, June 12, 1862

DESTROY NOT MAN'S FAITH IN MAN!
ACCEPT THE RIGHT MAN, WHICHEVER PARTY NOMINATES HIM!

A people are demoralized by being trained to the ready entertainment of charges of corruption against those, whom they select to be their rulers, teachers and exemplars. For, when they can easily suspect such ones of baseness and crime, their faith in man is destroyed. It scarcely need be added that, when they have no longer faith in man, they will be quick to acquiesce in the application of a very low standard of morality to their leaders, and a still lower one to themselves. I say a still lower one, inasmuch as they will, naturally, expect a less degree of moral worth in the masses than in the individual, who is, here and there, selected from the masses on account of his superior wisdom and virtue. How much better it would be to persuade the people that it is their duty to hold sacred the reputation of those, whom they elevate to posts of honor! For how much more like would they, then, be to elevate those only, whose reputation is worthy to be held sacred! Moreover, what could be more elevating to themselves than such carefulness in selecting their guides and representatives!

I have been led to make these remarks by seeing the recent calumnious and contemptuous treatment of the Chief Justice and such Senators as Mr. Fessenden and Mr. Trumbull. The flood-gates of defamation were opened upon Mr. Fessenden and Mr. Trumbull, because they voted for the acquittal of the President. I wish they had voted for his conviction. For, although I had not, previously, taken much interest in the proposition to impeach him, nevertheless, after reading those parts of his last Annual Message in which he traduces the colored citizens of our country, I was quite willing to have him removed from office. Were Victoria to take such an outrageous liberty with the Irish or Scotch or Welsh, she would quickly be relieved of her crown. I do not forget that insulting the negro is an American usage. But not with impunity should the President of the whole American people insult, in his official capacity, any of the races, which make up that people — least of all the race, which is, already, the most deeply wronged of them all. This gross violation of the perfect impartiality, which should ever mark the administration of the President's high Office — this ineffable meanness of assailing the persecuted and weak, whom he might rather have consoled and cheered, should not have been overlooked, but should have been promptly and sternly rebuked. How petty the President's affair with Mr. Stanton, compared with his unrelenting wicked war upon these black millions, to whose magnanimous forgiveness of our measureless wrongs against them, and to whose brave help of our Cause we were so largely indebted for its success!

I said that I wish Mr. Fessenden and Mr. Trumbull had voted for the conviction of the President. Nevertheless, in the light of their life-long uprightness, I have not the least reason to doubt that they voted honestly. Nay, in the light of their eminent wisdom, I am bound to pause and inquire of my candid judgment whether they did not vote wisely as well as honestly.

This clamor against the Chief Justice was not, as is pretended, occasioned by his conduct in the Impeachment Trial. That this conduct was wise and impartial, scarcely one intelligent man can doubt. This clamor proceeded from the purpose of preventing his nomination to the Presidency. It is said that he desires to be President. But a desire for this high Office is not, necessarily, culpable. Instead of being prompted in all instances by selfishness, it may in some instances be born of a high patriotism and a disinterested philanthropy. For one, I should rejoice to see the Chief Justice in the Presidency; — and I say this, after a-many-years intimate acquaintance with him — after much personal observation of the workings of his head and heart. I, however, expect to vote for Grant and Colfax. I like them both; and, in the main, I like the platform on which they stand. Nevertheless, if contrary to my expectations, the Democrats shall have the wisdom to nominate the Chief Justice, and along with him a gentleman of similar views and spirit — a gentleman honest both toward the Nation's creditors and toward the negro — I shall prefer to vote for the Democratic Candidates. And why, in the case of such nomination by the Democrats, should not every Republican be willing, nay glad, to sustain the nomination? If the Democrats, at last sick and ashamed, as I have no doubt tens of thousands of them are, of ministering to the mean spirit of caste — prating for “a white man's government,” and defying the sentiment of the civilized world — shall give up their nonsense and wickedness, and nominate for office such men as Republicans have been eager to honor — how wanting in magnanimity and in devotion to truth, and how enslaved to Party, would Republicans show themselves to be, were they not to welcome this overture, and generously respond to these concessions!

By all means should the Republicans let, ay and help, the Democratic Party succeed at the coming Election, provided only that its candidates be the representatives of a real and righteous, instead of a cutaneous and spurious, Democracy. That success would bring to an end this too-long-continued War between Republicans and Democrats. That success would turn us all into Republicans and all into Democrats. The old and absorbing issues about Slavery and its incidents would, then, have passed away. The “everlasting negro,” having gained his rights, would then have sunk out of sight. Doubtless, new Parties would, ere long, be formed. But they would be formed with reference to new questions or, more generally, to old ones, which, by reason of the engrossing interest in the Slavery Battle, have been compelled to wait very long, and with very great detriment to the public weal, for their due share of the public attention.

And, then too, when the quarrel between the Republican and Democratic Parties had ended, Peace between the North and the South would speedily come. Hitherto, the Republican Party has been so anxious to keep a bad Party out of power, that it has not been in a mood to use or study all the means for producing Peace between the North and South. It should, immediately on the surrender of the South, have inculcated on the North the duty of penitently confessing her share of the responsibility for the War—a share as great as the South's, since the responsibility of the North for Slavery, out of which the War grew, was as great as the South's. Quickly would the South have followed this example of penitent confession. And, then, the two would have rivalled each other in expressions of mutual forgiveness and mutual love. Amongst these expressions would have been the avowal of the North to charge no one with Treason, and to open wide the door for the return of every exile, who had not, by some mean or murderous violation of the laws of war, shut himself out of the pale of humanity. And amongst these expressions would have been the joyful consent of the North to let fifty or a hundred millions go from the National Treasury toward helping her War-impoverished sister rise up out of her desolations. The heart of the South would, now, have been won; and she would have manifested the fact by tendering to the North a carte blanche — feeling no fear that there would be any designed injustice in the terms of “Reconstruction,” which her forgiving and generous foe should write upon it. Yes, there would, then, have been Peace between the North and the South — a true and loving and enduring Peace. Ashamed of their past, they would unitedly and cordially have entered upon the work of making a future for our country as innocent and as happy as that past had been guilty and sorrowful. It is not, now, too late to have, by such means, such a Peace. We should, surely, have it, were there to be, at the coming Election, that oneness between Republicans and Democrats, which good sense and good feeling call for.

Is it said that the money, which in loans or (preferably) gifts to the South, I ask to have used in effecting this Peace would make the Peace cost too much? I answer that it would be returned tenfold. The improvement in our National credit, resulting from such a Peace, would, very soon, enable our Government to borrow at an interest of four per cent. Comparatively small, then, would be our taxes, and, by the way, comparatively small, then, would be the temptation to cheat the Nation's creditors.

Peterboro JUNE 12 1868.
G. S.
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SOURCES: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 266-7; Smith, Gerrit. Destroy not man's faith in man! Accept the right man, whichever party nominates him! ... G. S. Peterboro. Peterboro, 1868. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.12703100/