Joseph Green Cogswell to George Ticknor, April 29, 1861

NEW YORK, April 29, 1861

. . . The humiliating condition to which Southern insolence and ruffianism have reduced us has preyed upon me greatly. I never wished to be young again until now, and, old as I am, I would have volunteered with any adequate number to go down and force a way through Baltimore, by laying it in ruins, if it could have been done in no other way. It was no disgrace to have the lawful authority of the country fallen upon by a mob, for that might happen under the strongest government. It is an indelible one to have allowed the mob to keep up the obstruction for days, between every part of the country and the capital of it. If it is not soon wiped out I shall be ashamed to own that I am an American.

The course which has been pursued by the South has changed all my feelings towards them. If they had taken the ground, that they had a right to secede if such was the clear and express will of the people, and maintained the right like honest men, I, for one, would have said, “Go, you shall have what fairly belongs to you” — but to buccaneers I would give no answer except from the mouth of the cannon.¹

Out of all this evil great good will come. The Northern States will be more united, the principle of unlicensed democracy will be checked, our vainglorious boasting will be silenced, and the practical acknowledgment that Cotton is King will no more be heard. I firmly believe that the substantial and permanent prosperity of the North was secured by the first gun that was fired at Fort Sumpter, and the rapid decline of the South will date from the same event. I rejoice to find that Massachusetts has come up so nobly to the rescue

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1 In connection with this strong expression of feeling, it is pleasant to be allowed to present the testimony of a lady whose relations with different parts of the country, as well as her high standing in society, and refined estimate of the demands of good breeding, entitle her words to be accepted and highly valued. In a note written after Mr. Cogswell's death, Mrs. Gilpin of Philadelphia speaks of “His information on all subjects of conversation so correct and extended, and his manners so mild and unobtrusive, with great delicacy of feeling for others. This,” she goes on to say, “I particularly observed during the war, as he was often my guest during that unfortunate period, when, from the peculiarity of my own position, Southern ladies and gentlemen were often with us.  No word ever escaped his lips to wound the feelings of any, and at the same time he was known to be firm in his own opinion. He avoided argument or heated discussion on the merits of the war question, and gave to all around him a beautiful example of forbearance, with the most kindly feeling for those whom I knew he thought in the wrong.”

SOURCE: Anna Eliot Ticknor, Editor, Life of Joseph Green Cogswell as Sketched in His Letters, p. 286-7

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: April 12, 1861

To-day I beheld the first secession flag that had met my vision. It was at Polecat Station, Caroline County, and it was greeted with enthusiasm by all but the two or three Yankees in the train. One of these, named Tupps, had been questioned so closely, and his presence and nativity had become so well known, that he became alarmed for his safety, although no one menaced him. He could not sit still a moment, nor keep silence. He had been speculating in North Carolina the year before, and left some property there, which, of course, he must save, if needs be, at the risk of his life. But he cared nothing for slavery, and would never bear arms against the South, if she saw fit to “set up Government business for herself.” He rather guessed war was a speculation that wouldn't pay. His volubility increased with his perturbation, and then he drank excessively and sang Dixie. When we reached Richmond, he was beastly drunk.

Arrived at the Exchange Hotel, Richmond. A storm rages above, and below in the minds of men; but the commotion of the elements above attracts less attention than the tempest of excitement agitating the human breast. The news-boys are rushing in all directions with extras announcing the bombardment of Fort Sumter! This is the irrevocable blow! Every reflecting mind here should know that the only alternatives now are successful revolution or abject subjugation. But they do not lack for the want of information of the state of public sentiment in the North. It is in vain that the laggards are assured by persons just from the North, that the Republican leaders now composing the cabinet at Washington were prepared to hail the event at Charleston as the most auspicious that could have happened for the accomplishment of their designs; and that their purpose is the extinction of slavery, at least in the border States; the confiscation of the estates of rebels to reimburse the Federal Government for the expenses of the war which had been deliberately resolved on; and to gratify the cupidity of the “Wide-Awakes,” and to give employment to foreign mercenaries.

But it is not doubtful which course the current of feeling is rapidly taking. Even in this hitherto Union city, secession demonstrations are prevalent; and the very men who two days ago upheld Gov. Letcher in his conservatism, are now stricken dumb amid the popular clamor for immediate action. I am now resolved to remain in Richmond for a season.

After tea I called upon Gov. Wise, who occupied lodgings at the same hotel. He was worn out, and prostrated by a distressing cough which threatened pneumonia. But ever and anon his eagle eye assumed its wonted brilliancy. He was surrounded by a number of his devoted friends, who listened with rapt attention to his surpassing eloquence. A test question, indicative of the purpose of the Convention to adjourn without action, had that day been carried by a decided majority. The governor once rose from his recumbent position on the sofa and said, whatever the majority of Union men in the Convention might do, or leave undone, Virginia must array herself on one side or the other. She must fight either Lincoln or Davis. If the latter, he would renounce her, and tender his sword and his life to the Southern Confederacy. And although it was apparent that his physique was reduced, as he said, to a mere “bag of bones,” yet it was evident that his spirit yet struggled with all its native fire and animation.

Soon after President Tyler came in. I had not seen him for several years, and was surprised to find him, under the weight of so many years, unchanged in activity and energy of body and mind. He was quite as ardent in his advocacy of prompt State action as Wise. Having recently abandoned the presidency of the Peace Congress at Washington, in despair of obtaining concessions or guarantees of safety from the rampant powers then in the ascendency, he nevertheless believed, as did a majority of the statesmen of the South, that, even then, in the event of the secession of all the Southern States, presenting thus a united front, no war of great magnitude would ensue. I know better, from my residence in the North, and from the confessions of the Republicans with whom I have been thrown in contact; but I will not dissent voluntarily from the opinions of such statesmen. I can only, when my opinion is desired, intimate my conviction that a great war of the sections might have been averted, if the South had made an adequate coup d'etat before the inauguration of Lincoln, and while the Democratic party everywhere was yet writhing under the sting and mortification of defeat. Then the arm of the Republican party would have been paralyzed, for the attitude of the Democratic party would at least have been a menacing one; but now, the Government has been suffered to fall into the possession of the enemy, the sword and the purse have been seized, and it is too late to dream of peace — in or out of the Union. Submission will be dishonor. Secession can only be death, which is preferable.

Gov. Wise, smiling, rose again and walked to a corner of the room where I had noticed a bright musket with a sword-bayonet attached. He took it up and criticised the sword as inferior to the knife. Our men would require long drilling to become expert with the former, like the French Zouaves; but they instinctively knew how to wield the bowie-knife. The conversation turning upon the probable deficiency of a supply of improved arms in the South, if a great war should ensue, the governor said, with one of his inevitable expressions of feeling, that it was not the improved arm, but the improved man, which would win the day. Let brave men advance with flint locks and old-fashioned bayonets, on the popinjays of the Northern cities — advance on, and on, under the fire, reckless of the slain, and he would answer for it with his life, that the Yankees would break and run. But, in the event of the Convention adjourning without decisive action, he apprehended the first conflict would be with Virginians — the Union men of Virginia. He evidently despaired, under repeated defeats, of seeing an ordinance of secession passed immediately, and would have preferred “resistance” to “secession.”

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 16-18

Charles Eliot Norton to Arthur H. Clough, May 27, 1861

Shady Hill, 27 May, 1861.

. . . My last letter to you was written a day or two before the fall of Fort Sumter. Since then I have wished over and over again that you were here, that you might have seen and taken part in the magnificent popular movement of these days.

As events have turned out nothing could have been more fortunate than the bombardment of the fort, and the lowering of the national flag before the force of a rebellious State. The guns of South Carolina battered down a great deal more than the walls of the fort, — party divisions and prejudices, personal interests, private or social differences, all fell before them. The whole Northern people was heartily united, and there was but one feeling and one will among them all. It was not that their passions were aroused, or that they were seized with the sudden contagion of a short-lived popular excitement, — but all their self-respect, their intelligent and conservative love of order, government, and law, all their instinctive love of liberty, and their sense of responsibility for the safety of the blessings of freedom and of popular government, were stirred to their very depth. The question at issue was put so plainly by the Charleston guns that no man in the Free States could hesitate as to the answer. . . .

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 234

Arthur H. Clough to Charles Eliot Norton, July 4, 1861

London: July 4, 1861.

On coming back from abroad ten days ago I received two letters from you, one of which I had received by copy from my wife at Athens. Many thanks for them; they were very interesting, and I hope you will not be discouraged by my brief acknowledgments from writing further. I am still invalided, and am to go abroad again the day after to-morrow. I have achieved a good deal already, having seen Athens and Constantinople. I was half-tempted to come over to pay you the visit you so kindly proposed, but I should have had to return early in September, and I hope some year to spend a September on your side. I have just made a call on a former acquaintance in America, Miss E. H., of Concord, who brought me a letter from Emerson moreover. She tells me that in New England, she believes, people do not expect that the Southern States will ever be brought back into the Union, and that it is not the object simply to make them return; it being indeed hardly possible that the States, North and South, should ever again live together in union, but that the war is rather in vindication of the North and its rights, which have been trampled upon by the South. Is this true, in your judgment? Certainly it does seem hardly conceivable that South Carolina should ever return. On what terms then would the North be willing to make peace, and what conditions would it require in limine before entering upon the question of separation?

As for the feeling here, you must always expect statesmen to be cold in their language, and the newspapers impertinent and often brutal. Beyond this, I think people here had been led to suppose at the outset that the Northern feeling was strong against civil war, (and so it was I suppose,) and that the principle of separation was conceded; the indignation being merely at the mode adopted for obtaining it. And the attack on Fort Sumter which caused so sudden a revulsion of feeling with you was naturally attended with no such change here. But coexisting with all this, I believe there is a great amount of strong feeling in favour of the North.

Technically we are wrong, I suppose, and as a matter of feeling, we are guilty of an outrage in recognising the South as a belligerent power, but as a matter of convenience between your government and ours, I suppose the thing is best as it is.

Miss H. will take to Emerson four photographs of Rowse's picture of me; one for you: it may be better than nothing.

My nervous energy is pretty well spent for to-day, so I must come to a stop. I have leave till November, and by that time I hope I shall be strong again for another good spell of work.

Lord Campbell's death is rather the characteristic death of the English political man. In the cabinet, on the bench, and at a dinner party, busy, animated, and full of effort to-day, and in the early morning a vessel has burst. It is a wonder they last so long. I shall resign if it proves much of a strain to me to go on at this official work. Farewell.

SOURCE: Arthur Hugh Clough, Letters and Remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, p. 316-7

Diary of Josephine Shaw Lowell: April 12, 1862

A year ago today the first shot was fired at Fort Sumter. One year of war! and here we are with 700,000 men under arms, great battles fought and to be fought! George was counting over this evening, what we had accomplished this year in Freedom's cause, and he named the following five great steps: 1st, The Government of the United States has entered into a treaty with England for the more effectual repression of the slave trade. 2d, This year has witnessed the first capital punishment of a slave trader. 3d, Steps have been taken for facilitating general emancipation. 4th, Slavery is abolished in the District of Columbia (a thing which has been petitioned for since Mother was 23 years old and which only the war had power to accomplish). 5th, Negroes are permitted to carry mail bags. Ten common years might have effected that, not to speak of what makes such things possible, — the great revulsion in public feeling on the questions of freedom and slavery. It is exactly like a revival — a direct work of God, so wonderful are some of the conversions.

SOURCE: William Rhinelander Stewart, The Philanthropic Work of Josephine Shaw Lowell, p. 24

Special Message of Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood to the Legislature of Iowa, May 15, 1861

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:

The Constitution requires that I shall state to you the purpose for which you have been convened in Extraordinary Session.

When, a little more than a year ago, your regular session closed, the whole country was in the enjoyment of peace and prosperity. At home, life, liberty and property were secure, and abroad the title of an American citizen was claimed with pride, and a full assurance that it was a sure guaranty of respect and protection to all who could make good the claim. To-day civil war is upon us, and a wide-spread conspiracy against the General Government, which we now know has been maturing for years, has been developed, and the whole country is filled with the din of arms. On the one hand, and from one section of the country, men who should be loyal citizens, if benefits conferred by a government should make men loyal to it, are mustering in armed bands with the intent to dissolve the Union and destroy our government, and on the other hand, partially from the same section, and as one man, from the other, our loyal people are rallying around our Union and our government, and pledging for their maintenance what our fathers so freely periled to secure for them — life, fortune and honor.

In this emergency Iowa must not and does not occupy a doubtful position. For the Union as our fathers formed it, and for the government they founded so wisely and so well, the people of Iowa are ready to pledge every fighting man in the State and every dollar of her money and credit; and I have called you together in extraordinary session for the purpose of enabling them to make that pledge formal and effective.

Those who, to gratify their mad ambition, have brought upon the country this great evil, seek to disguise their true intent, to cover their true purpose. They say they do not desire to destroy our Government, but that it has become hostile to them, and they only wish to peacefully withdraw themselves from it, which they claim the right to do whenever, in their judgment, their interest or safety may require such action. Many loyal men, deceived by their professions and not perceiving that “peaceful secession” was destructive alike of the Constitution and Union, were unwilling that any coercive measures should be used to bring them back to a sense of their duty. How are the facts? Our government is based on these great central, controlling ideas. The people are the only true source of power. In the exercise of their power, they have created our present form of government, retaining in their own hands its management and control. They have honesty enough to desire, and intelligence enough to discern, the right, and if at any time they should, by reason of excitement or passion, misdirect the action of government and do wrong to any portion of themselves, their honesty and their intelligence can be surely relied upon to correct such wrongs. These are the fundamental ideas of our form of government, and when any section of our country or any portion of our people, alleging that wrongs have been done them, declare they cannot and will not rely upon the honesty and intelligence of our people to right such wrongs, but will right their wrongs in their own way and by their own hands, they strike a blew which, if not arrested, will crumble the fabric of our government into ruins.

Has the Government been hostile to them? At the time this unnatural rebellion commenced there was not on the statute books of the United States a single law that had not been dictated or assented to by their Representatives. The recent election, of the result of which they so loudly complain, had placed in the Presidential chair a person opposed to their policy upon one important question, but had left them in possession of two other independent and co-ordinate branches of the Government, so that it was utterly impossible any injury could result to them from the election of a President who was not their choice. Under these circumstances, without waiting to see what would be the disposition of the newly elected President, without trusting to Congress and the Judiciary yet under their control, without waiting for an appeal to the honesty and intelligence of the people to right any wrongs that might be attempted against them, they rebelled against the Government, and sought to destroy it by arms. They have seized by force the forts, arsenals, ships and treasure, and have set at defiance the laws and officers of the United States, and they have sought to set up within the Union another and independent government. They have for months past been levying troops, building forts and gathering munitions of war, with intent to make war upon our Government, if it should attempt to perform its lawful functions, and after months of preparation, have attacked with overwhelming numbers and captured the troops of the United States, holding a fort of the United States and have, so far as in them lies, dishonored that proud flag, which throughout the world is the emblem of the power, the honor and the glory of our nation.

What in the meantime has been the action of our Government towards these misguided men? The history of the world cannot show equal moderation and forbearance by any government towards a portion of its people in rebellion against its laws. For months some of these men were allowed to hold high positions in the Cabinet, and used their official power only to betray the government of which they were the sworn and trusted servants. For months many of them were allowed to retain their seats in both branches of Congress, and used their positions to defeat the enactment of wholesome laws necessary for the protection of the government. For months many of them were permitted to hold high command in the army and navy, and used their position to betray and dishonor the flag they had sworn to protect and defend. For months the government yielded, step by step, and had used only words of kindness and good-will. But forbearance, moderation and kindness were regarded only as evidences of weakness, imbecility and cowardice, until at last the crowning outrage at Fort Sumter convinced all men that further forbearance had indeed ceased to be a virtue, and would make those charged with the safety of the government as criminal as those who were seeking to destroy it. At last the Government has spoken, and has called the loyal men of the country to rally to its support, and the answer has been such as to show the world the strength of a government founded on the love of a free people.

On the 15th day of April last the President issued his Proclamation, calling upon the loyal States for aid to enforce the laws. On the 25th day of the same month, I received from the Secretary of War a requisition on this State dated on the 15th, calling for one regiment of troops. Having been before advised by telegraph that such requisition had been issued, I felt well assured that I would be carrying out your will and the will of the people of the State, in responding to the call as promptly as possible. I therefore did not wait the receipt of the formal requisition, but proceeded at once to take such steps as seemed to me best adapted to speedily effect that object. I was met at the outset by two difficulties. There were not any funds under my control to meet the necessary expenses, nor was there any efficient military law under which to operate. Your action only could furnish these aids in a legal way, and yet to await your action would involve great, perhaps dangerous, delay.

The first difficulty was obviated by the patriotic action of the chartered Banks and citizens of the State, who promptly placed at my disposal all the money I might need, and I determined, although without authority of law, to accept their offer, trusting that you would legalize my acts. One difficulty thus avoided, I trusted, as the result shows, safely, to the patriotism of the people for the removal of the other, and on the 17th day of April issued my Proclamation calling for the requisite number of troops.

The telegraphic dispatch of the Secretary of War informed me that it would be sufficient if the troops required of this State were in rendezvous at Keokuk, by the 20th inst. The prompt and patriotic action of the people enabled me to place them there in uniform on the 8th, twelve days in advance of the time fixed, and they would have been there a week sooner had not the action of the mob at Baltimore cut off all communication with the seat of Government, and left me without any instructions for two weeks. I recommend that you make suitable appropriations, covering expenses thus incurred.

Tenders of troops were made altogether beyond the amount required, and learning from the newspapers and other sources, that an other requisition would probably be made on this State, I took the responsibility of ordering into quarters, in the respective counties where raised, enough companies to form a second regiment in anticipation of such requisition, that they might acquire the necessary discipline and drill. The second requisition has not yet reached me, but I am expecting it daily, and am prepared to respond to it promptly when made.

The officers and men composing the first regiment were in quarters for some time before being mustered into the service of the United States, and those called out in anticipation of a second requisition, will have been in quarters a considerable time before they will be called into service, if at all. It is but just that provision be made for payment-of the men who have thus promptly and patriotically stepped forth in defense of the country, for the time lost by them before being actually received by the United States, and I recommend that you make the necessary appropriations for that purpose.

In addition to the two regiments thus accepted by me, I have already received tenders of companies enough to make up five regiments more, and I have been strongly urged by them, and by many other good citizens, to accept the whole, and place them in quarters at the expense of the State. In view of the facts that all I had done was without authority of law, and the further fact that you, the lawmaking power of the State, was so soon to assemble, I did not feel justified in so doing, but have recommended in all cases that all such companies should if possible keep up their organization, and should devote as much of their time as possible to the drill without interfering materially with their ordinary business, thus keeping in reserve a large organized and partially drilled force, to meet emergencies.

In several localities patriotic citizens have at their own expense furnished subsistence for companies thus organized, and not accepted, and they have been in quarters drilling daily. Whether any of the expenses thus incurred shall be paid by the State, or whether any compensation shall be made to the men for the time thus spent in quarters, is peculiarly within your province to determine.

In addition to the passage of laws legalizing what has thus far been done, and providing for expenses thus far incurred, it will be your duty carefully to examine what further the State should do to meet present necessities, and future contingencies.

In my judgment there are two objects which in your deliberation your should keep steadily in view, and which I recommend to your serious consideration, viz: the protection of our State against invasion and the prompt supply to the General Government of any further aid it may require.

Our State is supposed by many to be exposed to attack, on two sides — our Southern and Western borders — on the South by reckless men from Missouri; on the West by Indians. Missouri is unfortunately strongly infected with the heresy of secession, which is hurrying so many of the Southern States to ruin. What may be the ultimate result in that State, we do not know. Should she unfortunately attempt to dissolve her connection with the Union, serious trouble may, and probably will, spring up along our Southern border. Even in that event I can hardly anticipate an armed invasion by regular military forces from that State. Surrounded as she is by Kansas, Illinois and Iowa such invasion by her would be sheer madness, and it seems to me we are guarded against such danger if not by her calm judgment and her neighborly good will, at least by her instinct of self-preservation. But lawless, reckless men within her limits may take advantage of the unsettled condition of public affairs to organize a system of border warfare, for the purpose of plunder, and it is your duty to properly guard against this danger.

The known facts that the troops have wholly or in a great part been withdrawn from the forts in the territories west of us, and the restraint of their presence thus removed from the Indian tribes on our border, that the Indians have received, probably highly-colored statements in regard to the war now upon us, and that since the massacre at Spirit Lake in our State, some years since, which went wholly unpunished, they have shown an aggressive disposition, coupled with the probability that they may be tampered with by bad men, render it, in my judgment, matter of imperative necessity that proper measures be taken to guard against danger from that quarter.

I have already done what I could, with the limited means at my command, to furnish arms on both borders.

Two modes for the protection of the State and furnishing further aid, if needed, to the General Government, suggest themselves to me. One is the mustering into the service of the State, arming, equipping and placing in camp to acquire discipline and drill, a number of regiments of volunteers. The advantages of this are, that we would have at hand a disciplined force, ready to meet any emergency, State or National. The disadvantages are its expense, and its insufficiency, by reason of the great extent of our border, to protect our frontier against the lawless bands to which we are exposed. The other plan is to organize along our Southern and Western frontier, arm and equip but not muster into active service, a sufficient force of minute men, who may be called upon at any moment to meet any emergency that may arise at any point. This will be the more effective plan for home protection, but will not place the State in position to render such effective aid to the General Government. Which, if either, of these plans, or whether a combination of both, or whether something wholly distinct from either shall be adopted, I leave for your wisdom to decide.

It will be necessary that you enact a military law, authorizing, among other things, the formation of a military staff under which I can have the assistance and advice of such officers as compose it, in raising, arming, equipping and supporting such further troops as you may direct to be raised for the use of the State or as may be required by the United States.

It will also be necessary to use the credit of the State to raise means to meet the extraordinary expenses incurred, and to be incurred. You have the power to do this under that provision of the Constitution which authorizes without a vote of the people the contracting of a debt “to repel invasion” or to “defend the State in war.”

In most or all of the counties in which companies have thus far been accepted, the Board of Supervisors or public spirited citizens have raised means for the support of the families of volunteers who have left families dependent on them for support. This action is eminently praiseworthy and yet its operation is partial and unequal. It is scarcely to be presumed that companies will be received from all the counties of the State, or equally from those counties from which they may be received, and it seems to me much more equitable and just that the expense be borne by the State, and the burden thus equally distributed among our people.

The procuring of a liberal supply of arms for the use of the State, is a matter that I earnestly recommend to your early and serious consideration. The last four weeks have taught us a lesson which I trust we may never forget, that during peace is the proper time to prepare for war.

I feel assured the State can readily raise the means necessary to place her in a position consistent alike with her honor and her safety. Her territory of great extent and unsurpassed fertility, inviting and constantly receiving a desirable immigration, her population of near three quarters of a million of intelligent, industrious, energetic and liberty-loving people, her rapid past, and prospective growth, her present financial condition, having a debt of only about one quarter of a million of dollars, unite to make her bonds among the most desirable investments that our country affords.

The people of Iowa, your constituents and mine, remembering that money is the sinews of war, will consider alike criminal a mistaken parsimony which stops short of doing whatever is necessary for the honor and safety of the State and a wild extravagance which would unnecessarily squander the public treasure.

Our revenue law is, in my judgment, defective in some particulars, requiring, perhaps, some unnecessary expense and not being sufficiently stringent to compel the prompt payment of taxes. At all times, and more especially at a time like this, every good citizen should cheerfully contribute his share of the public burdens, and those who are not disposed to do so should feel the force of stringent laws insuring the performance of that duty. A failure to pay taxes promptly compels the State to use her warrants instead of cash, to carry on the operations of the government, and adds to the expense of the State, not only the increased prices she is compelled to pay for articles purchased for her use over and above the prices at which she could buy for cash, but also the interest upon the warrants issued until the same are paid.

I earnestly recommend a careful examination and a full use of your Constitutional powers to punish the men, if any there be, in our State who may feel disposed to furnish aid in any way to those who are or may be in rebellion against the United States or engaged in acts of hostility to this State.

The great haste in which, amidst the pressure of other duties, I have been compelled to prepare this message, renders it very probable that I may have overlooked some subjects that you may deem of importance in the present emergency. When convened in extra session, your powers of legislation have the same scope and limit as at your regular sessions, and I feel confident your wisdom and foresight will supply all such omissions.

Permit me in conclusion to express the hope that what you do, may be done promptly, calmly and thoroughly. Let us take no counsel from passion, nor give way to excitement. Let us look our situation boldly and squarely in the face, and address ourselves to and do our duty like men who believe that while we hold to our father's faith and tread in our father's steps, the God of our fathers will stand by us in the time of our trial as He stood by them in the time of theirs.

SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD.

SOURCE: Henry Warren Lathrop, The Life and Times of Samuel J. Kirkwood, Iowa's War Governor, p. 120-7

Diary of Corydon E. Fuller: Saturday, April 13, 1861

The news must thrill the heart of the mighty North, and arouse a. spirit of desperate resistance to the hordes of the secessionists. If war must be, may it be quick and terrible, and may traitors learn that the arm of the government is not yet powerless in the vindication of National honor and of the glory of the old flag.

SOURCE: Corydon Eustathius Fuller, Reminiscences of James A. Garfield: With Notes Preliminary and Collateral, p. 308