Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 15, 1863

After a fine rain all night, it cleared away beautifully this morning, cool, but not unseasonable. There is no news of importance. The Governor of Georgia recommends, in his message, that the Legislature instruct their representatives in Congress to vote for a repeal of the law allowing substitutes, and also to put the enrolling officers in the ranks, leaving the States to send conscripts to the army. The Georgia Legislature have passed a resolution, unanimously, asking the Secretary of War to revoke the appointments of all impressing agents in that State, and appoint none but civilians and citizens. I hope the Secretary will act upon this hint. But will he?

The papers contain the following:

“Arrived in Richmond, — Mrs. Todd, of Kentucky, the mother of Mrs. Lincoln, arrived in this city on the steamer Schultz, Thursday night, having come to City Point on a flag of truce boat. She goes South to visit her daughter, Mrs. Helm, widow of Surgeon-General Helm, who fell at Chickamauga. Mrs. Todd is about to take up her residence in the South, all her daughters being here, except the wife of Lincoln, who is in Washington, and Mrs. Kellogg, who is at present in Paris.”

“To The Poor. — C, Baumhard, 259 Main Street, between Seventh and Eighth, has received a large quantity of freshly-ground corn-meal, which he will sell to poor families at the following rates: one bushel, $16; half bushel, $8; one peck, $4; half peck, $2."

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 98-9

Lother J. Glenn to Howell Cobb, February 12, 1848

Mcdonough [ga.], Feby. 12, '48.

Dear Sir: . . . I may be mistaken, but such is the fierceness of the opposition of the Whigs to the Mexican war that I apprehend an increase of taxes for the purpose suggested by you, by the last Legislature, would not have gone down well with the people.

They (the Whigs in this county) are even making a “great to do” over the appropriations for bringing home the remains of Cols. McIntosh and Echols. I believe however with Mr. Brown, in the war meeting at New York, that there is a “just God” and that retributive justice will yet overtake them, though just here they seem confounded hard to “run down.”

You ask me to explain the vote in the Senate on the preamble to the Taylor resolutions. I will do it to the best of my recollection, remarking at the outset that I was not one of the “six” who voted against it. If I recollect aright, the Preamble set forth nothing but the military qualifications of Taylor, concluding with the declaration that he had “mind or intellect” enough to make a president. When the vote was about to be taken on the “preamble and resolutions” Mr. Forman (a Democratic Senator) called for a division of the preamble from the resolutions. I begged him to withdraw his call, in order that we might vote upon the whole. Refusing to do so, I thought at the time that I was compelled to vote for the Preamble, though the next morning he and myself, I recollect, expressed our regret that we had done so, and I moved a reconsideration of the whole action of the Senate upon the subject, which was lost by one vote, “Waters voting against it though he had promised me to vote for it. I regret that the resolutions did not pass the House, for then the Whigs of Georgia would have another obstacle in their way of going into a convention. It seems from the “signs of the times” that the contest in the Democratic Convention will lie between Cass and Woodbury. Between them it would be with me a difficult matter to decide. I have always admired the sternness of Mr. Woodbury in advocating the rights of the South, and believe there is no firmer or purer man. Since Genl. Cass's letter to Nicholson made its appearance, I confess much if not all of the doubt and suspicion that before rested upon my mind relative to his soundness on the “Wilmot Proviso” has been removed, and perhaps he would be stronger in the South than Mr. W. or any other Northern man. I am with you, however, in the support of the “nominee” of the convention, provided he be sound on the slavery question. I was much pleased with the “skeleton” of your speech, in the Intelligencer. You brought to light one vote in the house, which I have long wanted to see, and that was the amendment of the New York Member to confine Genl. Taylor in his operations to the east bank of the Rio Grande, or rather to bring him back to the “undisputed territory of the U. States” . . . .

P. S.—I have a serious notion of moving to Atlanta in the course of the present year. What think you of the step, so far as professional prospects are concerned?

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 95-6

Hopkins Holsey* To Howell Cobb, December 3, 1847

Athens [ga.], Dec. 3rd, 1847.

Dr. Sir: I drop you a few hastily penn'd lines this morning in acknowledgement of your various favors since you left us. You are too well aware of the distraction of an editor's attention, and even sometimes of his brain, to hold me to strict accountability as a correspondent. I beg you to be assured once for all that your communications are not only at all times welcomed, but the contents duly garnered in my recollection, to be rendered available at the proper time and opportunity. From the many valuable extracts and suggestions so kindly furnished me, selections were made for publication, but the thronging intelligence of the war, elections, and legislative proceedings, to say nothing of the new and mighty questions which are springing upon us, unavoidably postponed them. But the day is not far distant when we shall have need of them in full sway. You will have perceived from the papers the exciting questions of domestic policy which have just arisen among us. Among them none are more prominent than granting “liberal charters” to manufacturing companies, and the election of judges by the people. I think you will regret with me to see our friends, particularly of the press, divided upon this question or remaining silent upon it. The Banner, you will perceive, is yet fighting the battles of radical Democracy against the conservative tendencies of Whiggery, and I regret to say a portion of the so-styled Democracy, with what effect remains to be seen. You will have seen that the Augusta Constitutionalist has unfortunately taken ground in favor of the “liberal charters” recommended by Mr. Crawford in his last Message, and also against the Democratic measure of electing the judges by the people. On the side of the Banner this controversy shall be conducted with unalterable firmness, whilst at the same time it will endeavor to avoid any asperities which may close the door to conciliation. A course of this kind, backed by the general voice of the Democracy, may eventually succeed in winning erring friends back to the fold. When they find they can not lead the party they must necessarily fall back upon the party grounds, unless prevented by the harshness which is too apt to spring up in a controversy among friends. I am persuaded that the suggestions of Mr. Crawford are parcel of a design to quench the growing spirit of Democracy everywhere manifested throughout the Union, and particularly in Georgia. The object is to ride us down by the Massachusetts policy of incorporated wealth, under the false plea of “developing our resources.” What may be the result of this question at Milledgeville I am not prepared to give you a satisfactory solution. Your brother (Thomas), who spent some time [there] in the early part of the session, is quite confident that the legislature will not grant the charters without the principle upon which we insist, of individual responsibility. I hope it may be so. You will have seen that a call has been made by the Banner upon the party to stand firm, and also upon the Governor to protect us by his veto. A letter has also been addressed to our friend Jackson (of Walton) requesting him to see the Governor upon the subject and state the necessity, in case the legislature should give countenance to the scheme, of his preserving the party by his firmness. We have a great many Democrats interested in giving way to it, and it is possible, at least, that our hopes may have, at last, to rest upon our Governor. This scheme once riveted upon us we are down, done, and I fear forever. We have no hopes of carry[ing] the popular election of judges at this session of the legislature — not more than half of our own party in the Senate being in favor of it. But the subject will be pressed until the public mind is properly enlightened, when there can be but little doubt of its success. There is but little local news among us. The picture of things in general being pretty much as you left it with the exception of change in the seasons. The winter has been mild until within a few days — some snow and sleet. The papers notify us of your arrival in Washington, where you will soon be a participant in the opening drama. The whole country looks upon the ensuing session as one of the most stormy in our annals, but the developments of popular sentiment in the late elections are too plain to permit us to despair of the country. The House is one way and the people the other. Excuse these generalities. As I am desirous of knowing everything which transpires in Congress, will you do me the favor to call at once upon the editor of the Union and request him to send me his daily paper, we paying the difference if necessary.

P. S. — Please write frequently, unreservedly.

_______________

* Editor of the Southern Banner, Athens, Ga.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 89-91

Luther J. Glenn* to Howell Cobb, December 1, 1847

Milledgeville [ga.], December 1, 1847.

Dear Sir: After a four days’ discussion in the Senate on the Wilmot proviso and the war and the acquisition of Territory, the vote was taken last night. The Whigs took high ground against the war and denounced it as infamous and iniquitous. They also went against any further acquisition of territory, occupying pretty much the position of Mr. Clay in his Lexington speech. You will see that a resolution was introduced declaring that the people of Georgia will adhere to the Missouri Compromise line in the division of territory that may hereafter be acquired by the General Government. It was lost by a vote of 20 to 26. Of the twenty who voted for it, 18 are D. and 2 Whigs; of those who voted against it 21 are Whigs and 5 Democrats. I think the Democrats who voted against it, were the vote to be taken over, would record their votes in favor of it. As for the Whigs, they are right in a political point of view, in opposing it, if they desire to preserve the unity of the party North and South.

The Whigs I think will endeavour to nominate Genl. Taylor for the Presidency. One of them, to wit Clayton, asked me this morning if I would not vote for resolutions of that character.

The Legislature will hardly adjourn till after Christmas. I know it will not, if the business even now before it be acted upon. . . .

______________

* A Democrat of Athens, Ga., at this time a member of the Georgia legislature.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 89

Congressman Robert Toombs to Governor George W. Crawford, February 16, 1846

Washington, D. C, Ho. or Reps., Feb. 6, 1846.

Dear Crawford, I received your letter of the 31st ult. last night. Lest you may not receive the speech I first sent, I send you another by this mail. The authorities on the Galphin claim to [which] you refer I will consult in a few days. I think from your statement of the case it is “in pint.” This is a very bad body before which to argue such a question, but if it can be got through the Senate and is backed by a strong report in this House I think it could be got through without much difficulty. A majority report favourable would certainly settle it, but the committees of this House are very badly constituted for any just purpose. They [are] nearly as rabid against all sorts of claims as the Locos in the Georgia legislature. They have promised a good deal in the way of reform, and instead of honestly retrenching actual abuses, which they have neither the honesty or the firmness to do, they desire to retrench by defeating all sort of claims, honest as well as dishonest, against the government.

I suppose you have the defective receipts sent you by Mr. Stephens. You will perceive from the nature of the objections that it [is] impossible ever to settle with the government without legislation, and I am decidedly of opinion that a gross appropriation for a full settlement will be the very best we can do, if we can carry it. If you can get the Secretary of War to recommend or acquiesce in it, it can I think be carried, and I very much wish you could bring him to that point. Without it I see little or no chance of ever getting any considerable portion of the remaining claim, if indeed we can get anything more.

I am glad to hear from you that you will not be obliged “to stop” during your administration. I had supposed your only resource against such a calamity would be in the act of 1843 authorizing you to raise money to pay off that debt by new 6 per cents. You will probably recollect at that time I favoured that policy in any event. I don't care to pay that debt. I would much prefer letting it remain the 25 or 30 years, when I doubt not its interest and much of the principal can be paid from the road,¹ and the experience of the last five years is very conclusive that all railroads judiciously located will pay, and I think ours will be one of the very best in the South. I perceive from the newspapers that you are adopting the policy of raising the wind by means of the 6 per cents. If they are pressed gradually on the market they will rise, unless we have war.

I do not think a war in the least probable. Mr. Polk never dreamed of any other war than a war upon the Whigs. He is playing a low grog-shop politician's trick, nothing more. He would be as much surprised and astonished and frightened at getting into war with England as if the Devil were to rise up before him at his bidding. The Democratic Party had declared our title to “all Oregon” “clear and unquestionable.” Mr. Polk adopted and asserted the same thing in his inaugural speech. Both moves were political blunders. It became necessary to retrieve them. He was bound to offer 49°. He supposed as the British Gov[ernment] had refused that proposition when made with more advantageous additions than were embraced in his proposition that that Gov[ernment] would do so again. It was an affectation of moderation when he knew that it was the best we could ever get. He withdraws the proposition and begins his game of “bluster,” with the full conviction that the Whig Party, true to their fatality to blunders, would raise the shout of peace, peace, and which would make him, the vilest poltroon that ever disgraced our Government, the head of the war party. His party were already committed to him to 54° 40', they would stand by him, and he expected finally to be forced by the British Whigs and Southern Calhoun men to compromise; but he greatly hoped that he would not be forced even to this alternative until he had “all Oregon” on every Democratic banner in the Union for his “second heat.” I have not the least doubt but that he fully calculated that the “notice” would be rejected by a combination between the Whigs and Calhoun men of this Congress, and then he could have kept it open for a new presidential campaign. That these were the objects of the Administration I have not the least doubt. Hence I urged the Whigs to stand up and give him the power to give the notice whenever he thought proper, which would have “blocked” him. But they would save themselves and their party for the same reason that the lad did in scripture, “because” their friends “had much goods.” Wall street howled, old Gales was frightened into fits at the possibility of war, and the Whig press throughout the country screamed in piteous accents peace, peace, with the vain foolish hope of gaining popular confidence by their very fears, and like the magnetic needle, they expected to tremble into peace. Nothing could be more absurd. If we have peace they are disarmed, and whatever may be the terms of accommodation they will be stopped from uttering a word of complaint. If war comes, no people were ever foolish enough to trust its conduct to a “peace party,” for very good sufficient reasons. If the country should be beaten and dishonored they will be called upon to patch up a dishonorable peace, but in no other event.

There is another view of this question, purely sectional, which our people don't seem to understand. Some of our Southern papers seem to think we are very foolish to risk a war to secure anti-slave power. They look only at the surface of things. If we had control of the government and could control this question, I have not the least doubt that Calhoun is right in saying that his “masterly inactivity” policy is the only one which ever could acquire “all Oregon”. It can never be done in any other way except to give the notice and stand still, which would effect the same object rightfully; but notice and action never will secure all Oregon. Mark the prediction. Notice will force an early settlement. That settlement will be upon or near the basis of 49°, and therefore a loss of half the country. Now one of the strongest private reasons which governs me is that I don't [care] a fig about any of Oregon, and would gladly get ridd of the controversy by giving it all to anybody else but the British if I could with honor. The country is too large now, and I don't want a foot of Oregon or an acre of any other country, especially without “niggers.” These are some of my reasons for my course which don't appear in print.

I deeply regret that the Whigs, especially of the Senate, have given and will give a different direction to the question. If Polk wants war he can make it in spite of any let or hindrance from them. If he does not want [it], he will not need their aid to keep out of it; but they “gabble” and “chatter” about the peace of the country and the horrors of war as if they had any real power over either question. . . .

P. S. — We are still on Oregon. The question will be taken on Monday. “Notice” will pass this time, in what form is doubtful, but I think unqualified. Negotiations are undoubtedly renewed and are now pending on the subject.

_______________

¹ The Western & Atlantic Railroad.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 72-5

William B. Wofford* To Howell Cobb, December 14, 1845

MillEDGEvillE [ga.], 14th Decbr., 1845.

Dear Sir, I recd. yours of the 5th inst. by due course of mail. The President's views as expressed in his Message on all subjects is well received by his friends, and in fact it has sealed the lips of his political inimies.

The bill organising a Supream Court has passed and Judge Warner has bin nominated by our friends as the democratic candidate and the Whigs are pledged to elect him.

Much good feeling exists at this place with our friends and marke what I now tel you two years hence the Democratic Party in Georgia will stand erect. I am busy ingaged in preparing materiels for the campain of 1847. I compel the Feds² to vote on all important questions and there dishonest political course is pointed out to them all most every day in the Senate and I am certain it would gratify you to witness how they hang there heads and bear it without oping there mouths.

Fountain G. Moss is the gentleman that I wish appointed post master at Hollingsworth P. Off. in my neighbourhood the petition sent last year states the reson which makes it desirable to have Mr. Moss appointed in place of Mr. Wynn please have the business attended without fail.

I enclose you two dollars Send me the Washington Union and the balance I will pay you on site. I mean the weekley paper.

N. B. — Give my compliments to Colquitt and the balance of the delegation from Georgia excep Berrien and his people.

_______________

¹ A prominent Democratic politician of northeastern Georgia, at this time a member of the Georgia legislature.

² I. e. Whigs.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 69

Robert Toombs to Congressman Alexander H. Stephens, January 1, 1844

Washington [ga.], Jan. 1st, 1844¹

Dear Stephens, . . .  The session² passed off well. We succeeded in carrying everything but the Court³ — lost that in the Senate by three votes. When I was at Milledgeville I thought its passage would have injured the party⁴ but benefitted the country; but from the general regret expressed at its loss among the people since we adjourned, I am inclined to think it would have been popular with the people. The session is decidedly popular with all classes. The people are better pleased than they have been for many years with their legislature, and I begin to think our power in Georgia is tolerably firmly fixed. Our election for Congress took place to-day. I have not heard from all the precincts, but from what we have heard Wilkes will give a considerably increased majority to Clinch,⁵ say over 100 votes. I have no doubt of his election by at least four thousand. The Democrats made a false move on the Rail Road question,⁶ which I think will very seriously affect them in the Cherokee counties.⁷ They made a party question of its abandonment. The Whigs stood up well in the House and tolerably in the Senate. We had to gild the pill a little for them. But I have no doubt but that a large majority of the people are opposed to its abandonment, and since our adjournment I see some of the Democratic papers are inclined to claw off. Even the Columbus Times talks softly on the subject.

The congressional district bill is a fair one. We had to gerrymander a little in order to give the Democrats their third district — the first instance I expect of a party's ever doing that thing for the benefit their opponents. The Senatorial district bill looks strong but is in fact weak — we could have done much better with greater appearance of fairness but every Senator almost was fixing for himself. Crawford⁸ is much pleased and says we have left him the State government in such condition that if it is not satisfactorily administered it will be his fault. Write me as often as you can. It will give me pleasure to attend to any business for you.

_______________

¹ Erroneously dated Jan. 1, 1843, in the original.

² Of the State legislature.

³ A bill to establish a supreme court for the State of Georgia.

⁴ Whig.

⁵ Duncan L. Clinch, Whig candidate for Congress. He was elected in place of John Millen, deceased.

⁶ The question of completing or abandoning the Western & Atlantic Railroad, then under construction by the State of Georgia.

⁷ The northwestern portion of Georgia, recently vacated by the-Cherokee Indians.

⁸ George W. Crawford, then governor of Georgia.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 53-4