George Mason Graham to William T. Sherman, September 7, 1859

Willard's Hotel, Washington, Sept. 7, 1859.

Dear SIR: On arriving here night before last I had the pleasure to receive from Mr. Richard Smith your two favors of the 15th and 20th of August, and Major Buell, with whom I have not been able to meet until this morning at breakfast, has shown me yours to him of the 4th inst. which he was in the act of opening when I joined him, and from which he has allowed me to take a memorandum of the dates of your proposed movements. The information contained in your letter to Buell has been of considerable relief to me, for whilst it would be very gratifying to me to meet with you I did not see any good commensurate with the expense, time, risk, and trouble to yourself, to result from your coming all the way here merely to confer with me when it was not in my power to specify any particular day when I would be in the city, as the business which brings me here lies down in Virginia, whither I go tomorrow morning, if the violent cold under which I am now suffering shall permit, and the consummation of it is contingent on the action of a half dozen others than myself.

I had desired very much, if it suited your convenience, that you could visit and see into the interior life of the school at Lexington, Virginia, where everything would be shown to you with the most cordial frankness by Col. Smith, who has taken the warmest and most earnest interest in our effort, and who writes to me of you, sir, in very high terms of congratulatory appreciation, and where one of your classmates, Major Gilham, is a member of the Academic Board.

In the event that this will not be practicable to you, as I infer from the programme laid down in your note to Major Buell it will not be, I shall write to Col. Smith asking him to give us all necessary information of details not contained in the “Rules and Regulations” the preparation of the code of which for our school is confined to the joint action of “the faculty” and “A Committee consisting of Messrs. Manning, Graham, and Whittington.” I would rather have had the Board adopt for the present the code of the Virginia school, because under the Governor's resolution, about which he did not confer with me beforehand, it cannot well be done until on or about the 1st of January, when it ought to be done in advance. I do not see therefore that we can do otherwise than adopt, at first, the code of that school. I have no apprehension but that whatever you, Mr. Manning and myself may agree upon, will be acceptable to all the rest.

In regard to “furnishing” the building there will not be much trouble. My idea will be for each cadet to furnish his own requisites in the way of room furniture, as at West Point. There will then be nothing to furnish but the class-rooms, the kitchen and mess hall as I believe I mentioned to you before, the statement in the Governor's advertisement that “furnished apartments would be provided in the building for the professors,” was an error of our not very clear-headed secretary. The intention of the Board was simply to apprize all interested that there were no separate dwellings for the professors. . .

I met with Mr. F. W. Smith¹ in Richmond and travelled with him to this place. He is about sailing for Europe to be back the 1st of December. All my anticipations of him fully realized. I cannot close without mentioning that in a visit to the convent in Georgetown yesterday my sister (Mary Bernard) poured out her joy on learning (to do which she enquired with great eagerness) that the superintendent of our school was the husband of that “one of all the girls who have passed through our hands here that I believed I loved best and was the most deeply interested in.”²

In regard to “authority and control,” although it is not yet exactly so, I hope the next session of the legislature will place our school on precisely the same footing as the Virginia school, making the superintendent the commanding officer of the corps of cadets, giving to him and the other members of the Academic Board, rank in the State's military organization.

_______________

¹ The newly elected commandant of cadets and professor of chemistry. — Ed.

² Mrs. Sherman was educated in a Georgetown, D.C., convent in which General Graham's sister was a teacher and later Mother Superior. — Ed.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 34-7

David Davis to Abraham Lincoln, Sunday Evening, August 5, 1860

Harrisburg, Pa

=Sunday Evening—

Augt 5, 1860

Dear Lincoln

— I reached Fort Wayne about 12 oclk Thursday night, & met Mr Williams at the Depot having previously Telegraphed him to meet me there– He went on with me to the next station & we talked over Indiana politics pretty thoroughly= The Breckenridge movement headed by Bright & Fitch he says, is in Earnest, & the State will go for you, no matter what the result of the October Election may be– He thinks Col. Lane will be elected, but of this he is not so entirely hopeful– The Breckenridge men have not put up a State Ticket, as you know in Indiana-- Mr Williams thinks that the naming of the Breckenridge Electoral Ticket in Indiana (a movement more formidable than in Illinios) will so far demoralize the party – as to increase greatly our chances for carrying the State in October–

Friday at 3 oclk reached Pittsburg, and remained over until 9 at night – I saw Mr Erret & Mr Williams of the Gazette– Genl Purviance not at home– Everything in Pittsburg and that region of the State, is just as we could desire it.—

The Republican vote will be immensely increased, in the West & Northwest—

– I found the opinion there as to the Central Committee pretty much as we had received it from others– I also ascertained that a meeting was appointed of some 18, or 20 of our friends – to meet in Phild. Tuesday Evening. Which I intend to attend– I expected to go to Baltimore tonight, but finding that Col Curtin will be in an adjoining County to night-morrow, I have concluded to stay & go & see him– This deranges my plans somewhat– I spent the entire day of yesterday – with Genl Cameron, & my interview has been pleasant & eminently satisfactory– He is certainly a genial, pleasant, and kind hearted man, & many prejudices that I have heretofore entertained have been removed—

– I found him, exceedingly anxious to have your views on the subject of the tariff, & that he wanted them so as to be able to assure the people of the State that they were Satisfactory to him.

Pennsylvania has been deceived so often on the subject of the Tariff, that it is not surprising that they are fearful & sensitive about it—

I explained to him, that what your views had been all your life, & that if you had entertained other views when you embarked in life that you would have had Douglas's position in the State & that the reason your speeches were not published, was, that there were no reporters in those days

I then took out your notes, and commenced reading them, stating that you wished me to present them to him– He requested me to leave them with him, & he would hand them to me at Phild– I have seen him to day, & he says he has read the notes carefully and they are abundantly satisfactory to him– Genl Cameron, says, that there is not a shadow of doubt of your carrying Pennsylvania – that you will carry it by a large majority – that Curtin will be elected – that the Bell movement amounts to nothing in the State, and that outside of Philadelphia it is literally nothing– He says that there is a lack of confidence with McClure, but that they will get along with that harmoniously

Genl Cameron also says that they do not want any money in the state – that they can raise all they need – but that if money is furnished that the amount will be magnified, & parties in the State will be jealous if they dont get some

He has also a pride not to receive money – thinks it humiliating that Pa. should receive money from NY. & Boston– He advised agt our receiving any in Illinois from abroad– more hereafter

yr frd

D Davis —

SOURCE: Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.