Senator James W. Grimes to Elizabeth S. Nealley Grimes, December 10, 1859

Washington, December 10, 1859.

One week of congressional life is over, and I think it to be the stupidest business I was ever engaged in. We have done nothing in the Senate but discuss “John Brown,” “the irrepressible conflict,” and “the impending crisis,” and no one can imagine where the discussion will stop. The House of Representatives is still unorganized, and daily some members come near to blows. The members on both sides are mostly armed with deadly weapons, and it is said that the friends of each are armed in the galleries. The Capitol resounds with the cry of dissolution, and the cry is echoed throughout the city. And all this is simply to coerce, to frighten the Republicans and others into giving the Democrats the organization of the House. They will not succeed.

I called on Mrs. Trumbull to-day. She is the only woman I have spoken with since I came here. I called on another, to whose party I was invited the other day, and did not go; but she was not at home. You cannot imagine how I dislike this fashionable formality. It is terribly annoying, and I think I shall repudiate the whole thing.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 121-2

Senator James W. Grimes to Elizabeth S. Nealley Grimes, November 30, 1859

Washington, November 30, 1859.

Everybody but me is busy about the organization of the House of Representatives. That, and the execution of John Brown day after to-morrow, are the only topics discussed.

I heard Wendell Phillips lecture on l'Ouverture at Philadelphia, to an immense and breathless audience.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 121

Senator James W. Grimes to Elizabeth S. Nealley Grimes, December 6, 1859

Senate Chamber, December 6th

This body was organized yesterday; Mason, of Virginia, immediately introduced Harper's Ferry resolutions, which are to be taken up, and discussed this morning on the assembling of the Senate. So you see the excitement is to be kept up upon the irrepressible conflict question.

Mr. Sumner appeared in his seat yesterday, looking in vigorous health. We expect to hear from him in a great speech during the session. There is an immense crowd of people here for one purpose and another, but I keep out of it pretty much. I am as retired here as ordinarily at home.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 121

Senator James W. Grimes to Elizabeth S. Nealley Grimes, November 24, 1859

Philadelphia, November 24, 1859.

I am safely in this beautiful city of brotherly love, and shall be compelled to remain here a week, to close up some old business that has been dangling on my hands for years.

From Galesburg to Wheaton I was in company with Dr. Blanchard. He wished to be kindly remembered to you, and expressed the hope that you would be led at no distant day to change your religious views, though, I believe, he seemed to entertain a faint hope that you was good enough to go to heaven with your present heterodox opinions. He uttered no word of reproach, remonstrance, or persuasion to me, for having no settled religious convictions; so you perceive that in the view of some of our orthodox friends it is a good deal more dangerous to believe too much than not to believe at all. But Dr. Blanchard is an able, honest, ultra, enthusiastic, and somewhat bigoted man — a great friend of ours, and I entertain great respect for him. We also had on board Mr. Lovejoy, member of Congress of Illinois, a talented and agreeable man. From Crestline, Ohio, to this place, I have been in company with Mr. Crittenden and his wife, who are on their way to Washington. Perhaps I have told you that Mrs. Crittenden, though a rather elderly lady, is one of the leaders of the ton in Washington, as she is in Kentucky, and as she used to be in St. Louis, when she was the wife and widow of General Ashley. She is a very kind, amiable lady, but there is so much precision and mock dignity about everything she says and does, that intercourse with her is not so pleasant as it would be if one could only persuade himself that her heart would come gushing out of her mouth once in a while.

SOURCE: William Salter, The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 120-1