William Schouler to James S. Pike, May 17, 1850

Boston, May 17, 1850.

My Dear Pike: I owe you two or three apologies for not having answered your last letter, but I have been so busy and had so many calls to receive and calls to make that my time has slipped by without counting it. I read all your letters in the Tribune, and they are number one, prime. They talk just as everybody talks here, and just as we want to have everybody talk in Washington.

Old Zach is at this moment the popular man in the country, and heaps of Freesoilers are going for him. They are (I mean the honest old Whig portion) delighted with him. If we act with wisdom we shall be like that man who takes

“the tide in his affairs

Which leads to fortune.”

If we were to follow the lead of the old Hunkerdom of Clay we should be led, as Byron says of the tide in the affairs of women, “God knows where.”

Why cannot you resume your correspondence with the Atlas? Dr. Brewer has left Washington, and we now have no one there. The Atlas will welcome you and give you verge and scope to your heart's content, and never once try to clip your plumage. You may call Locofocos Democrats, or vice versa. So, my dear fellow, spread yourself, and if there be any thing in my power to aid or assist you in accomplishing, draw upon me. Greely says so too; so do write — won't you? I shall not insist upon a too frequent correspondence; daily I should like, but tri, semi, or weekly will be gratifying. As the old fellow at the prayer-meeting, upon being asked if he would not make a short prayer, said, “He had no objection to making the prayer, but he'd be d if

he would be limited as to time.”

Every thing political is quiet just now. We hope to send you by the first week in June the Hon. Benjamin Thompson to take his seat in Congress from the Fourth District. Things look mighty nice there just now. I feel confident that Thompson will be chosen; and if he is chosen, you may rest assured that the popularity of old Zach will have done much towards it. Thompson is a very respectable man — “a human man;” not a great man, but a man of sense, and goes old Zach to the death.

I shall write you again next week. In the meantime I remain, yours very truly,

Wm. Schouler

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 70

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, May 16, 1850

New York, May 16, 1850.

Dear P.: I presume I confiscated your dollar — Swartwouted with it — absorbed it. I will repent and refund at the desk.

As to the editorship of the Republic, I beg to be excused. I shouldn't like to be called up to the big house after some cabinet flusteration and told, “York, you're not wanted.” No, sir, I thank ye! That wouldn't suit my amiable and modest disposition. It might tempt me to blaspheme, which I now studiously avoid.

What the deuce is the meaning of this row the lot of you are kicking up about the President's plan and Clay's Omnibus I can't conceive. I read all your letters most earnestly, but can't make out what you mean. The two schemes are six of one and half a dozen t'other; but if either is six and a half, I think it is Clay's; for that takes care of New-Mexico, which t'other don't. I mistrust you are very factious and selfish, some of you.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 62

Horace Greeley to Abraham Lincoln, July 29, 1861

New York, Monday, July 29, 1861.

Midnight.

Dear Sir:

This is my seventh sleepless night – yours too, doubtless – yet I think I shall not die, because I have no right to die. I must struggle to live , however, bitterly. But to business.

You are not considered a great man, and I am a hopelessly broken one. You are now undergoing a terrible ordeal, and God has thrown the gravest responsibility upon you. Do not fear to meet them.

Can the Rebels be beaten after all that has occurred, and in view of the actual disaster state of feeling caused by our late awful disaster? If they can – and it is your business to ascertain and decide – write me that such is your judgment, so that I may know and do my duty.

And if they cannot be beaten – if our recent disaster is fatal – do not fear to sacrifice yourself to your country. If the Rebels are not to be beaten – if that is your judgment in view of all the light you can get – then every drop of blood henceforth shed in this quarrel will be wantonly, wickedly shed, and the guilt will rest heavily on the soul of every promoter of the crime. I pray you to decide quickly, and let me know my duty.

If the Union is irrevocably gone, an Armistice for thirty, sixty, ninety, 120 days – better still, for a year – ought at once to be proposed with a view to a peaceful adjustment. Then Congress should call a National convention to meet at the earliest possible day. And there should be an immediate and mutual exchange or release of prisoners and a disbandment of forces.

I do not consider myself at present a judge of any thing but the public sentiment. That seems to me every where gathering and deepening against a prosecution of the war. The gloom in this city is funereal for our dead at Bull Run were many, and they lie unburied yet. On every brow sits sullen, scowling, black despair.

It would be easy to have Mr. Crittenden move any proposition that ought to be adopted, or to have it come from any proper quarter. The first point is to ascertain what is best that can be done – which is the measure of our duty – and do that very thing at the earliest moment.

This letter is written in the strictest confidence, and is for your eye alone. But you are at liberty to say to members of your Cabinet that you know I will second any move you may see fit to make. But do nothing timidly nor by halves.

Send me word what to do. I will live till I can hear it at all events. If it is best for the country and for mankind that we make peace with the Rebels at once and on their own terms, do not shrink even from that. But bear in mind the greatest truth – “Whoso would lose his life for my sake shall save it,” do the thing that is the highest right, and tell me how I am to second you.

Yours, in the depths of bitterness,

Horace Greeley

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

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, May 2, 1850

New York, May 2, 1850.

Friend Pike: I beg you not to be diffident. I know how common the fault is among Washington writers, and how hard to be overcome, but I beseech you, as Mrs. Chick would say, “to make an effort.” You don't know what may come of it.

Mr. Snow of ours will hand you this letter. He goes on to discover, with your help, that genius of an “inventive turn of mind,” who knows just what mansion great men retire to when they don't retire at all. Good boy, that — we must hire his imagination.

I like your letters, and if you won't call Foote and Butler “Democrats” in such sense as to imply that I am something else, I don't think I shall ever take liberties with your letters, except it may be the liberty of dissenting from some of their positions.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 50

Horace Greeley to Abraham Lincoln, May 19, 1861

New York, May 19, 1861.

Dear Sir:

The intelligence that the War for the Union is to be prosecuted with emphatic vigor, and that the traitors are to be thrown back from Washington in every direction causes general rejoicing here. We feel that the struggle thus prosecuted, cannot be of long duration. All are confident that the result will justify our fondest hopes.

The one drawback on the general satisfaction is the existence of wide-spread complaint and heart-burning with regard to the acceptance of this regiment and the rejection of that and the other.— These men have volunteered to defend the country on its own terms, they cannot be made to see why they should not be taken. The report that all who are efficient and ready are henceforth to be accepted, rejoices every loyal heart. I trust that report is well-founded; if it be not, I pray you to make it so at the earliest moment, and thereby gratify millions beside

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

Hon. A. Lincoln, Washington.

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

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, May 1, 1850

New York, May 1, 1850.

Dear Sir: There are serious objections to murder; some people are so fastidious as to object to burglary and arson, and my impression is that rape and highway robbery, however pleasant in the concrete, are not in the abstract strictly justifiable. I would not be positive, on these points, knowing how widely opinions differ on almost every phase of human conduct; but when you come to writing on both sides of a half sheet of paper, intended as copy in a daily newspaper office, there can be no mistake as to the atrocity of a crime whereat outraged human nature stands aghast with horror. I pray you think of this evermore, and write only on one side. Also, indorse your letters “Editor's Mail,” for fear they should somehow lie over at Washington or Baltimore till the morning mail, and so miss us by arriving here at midnight and remaining undistributed. These are small matters, but their consequence to us is not small.

Can't you guess out for us somebody who can fish out executive session and committee secrets like Harriman, Harvey, and Kingman? If you can, set him to telegraphing. Everybody, from Mother Eve's time down, has been especially anxious to know what ought not to be known, and we must get some of it into the Tribune or be voted dull, indolent, and behind the times. We have had it, but just now our channels of transmission are choked up.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 49-50

James E. Harvey to Abraham Lincoln, June 5, 1860

Private

Washington City,

June 5. 1860.

My dear Sir,

Your note of the 31st May, reached me a day or two since. I think your reserve in regard to private correspondence, eminently proper under present circumstances, and no personal or political friend ought to except to it.

My information from the interior of Pennsylvania is encouraging, and in Philadelphia we have silenced the Fillmore organ of '56, through the influence of which we were then betrayed. Consequently, the third ticket has now but one paper there, – the Evening Journal – of limited influence & character, & not of American antecedents, which is really the important point in our local politics. You are aware of Course, that the political organization of Pennsylvania supporting You, is not strictly Republican. To bring in the Americans, disaffected Democrats, & general elements of Opposition, we called it the People's Party, & in that name all our victories have been achieved & the State redeemed. The largest infusion is Republican in character, & that spring from our old Whig party. Of late, there has been an attempt in Philadelphia, to get a distinctive Republican organization, in anticipation of future results. Certain patriots suppose that prominence in this way now, may be serviceable hereafter. The only effect of that movement is to embarrass us with those, who hold the balance of power, & to a great extent the result in their hands. You will at once see the hazard of such an experiment, as introducing an element of discord among men, who have hitherto acted in concert & harmoniously. Our friends have however judiciously yielded, all that good policy might concede to these parties, and it now looks, as if we would work smoothly together.

There is a pause in Pennsylvania & New Jersey, which will continue until after the Baltimore nominations. Douglass has a strong hold on his party in both. But I am persuaded not only from observation, but from close contact with all the factions at Charleston, that nothing can now happen at Baltimore, which will seriously damage us. In the first place, I cannot see how Douglass is to obtain two thirds. That will depend upon the admission of bogus delegates from the South, which the New York vote will decide, & New York put the knife to his throat at Charleston. If nominated, the Cotton States will certainly run a separate ticket, which of itself would demoralize the party. If not nominated & an obnoxious platform be adopted, such as is now proposed & intended with the aid of New York, his friends assured me at Charleston – I mean the men authorized to speak – that they would quietly retire from the Convention. In either Contingency therefore, our prospect is not impaired.

Pennsylvania after all is to be the battle ground of this Contest. New Jersey breathes the same atmosphere & sympathizes with us. In order to reach the Commercial Classes, the North American has been obliged to address their reason & intelligence gradually, commending & illustrating Your Conservative Whig character & antecedents. This will serve to explain why we have not shouted as loudly as some others. Had we done so, our influence for good, would have been much neutralized. The state of the Tariff here is likely to aid us materially. Hunter & the controlling spirits of the Senate are disinclined to touch the House bill, & intend to adjourn if possible, after passing the appropriations – say about the 25. If they do, we will raise a storm about their ears, which will echo across your prairies. Our man Cameron, has not done all that we desired, but he will be constrained to do the rest. Let me say just here, there is a rivalry springing up between him & Curtin, our Candidate for Governor, which you would do well to ignore entirely. It will be bad enough by & by when we win. Let us know neither now. Seward is much cut down & has good sense enough to avoid Chase's bad taste & folly. The real & upright men who sustained him, are in grave earnest – I mean such as Spaulding who represents Buffalo. Greely writes me, that his quarrel is about ended, which ought never to have been begun, & that henceforth Webb & Co, will be allowed to splurge in peace. Laus Deo.

Very Truly

James E. Harvey

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

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, April 27, 1850

New York, April 27, 1850.

Friend Pike: Thank you for yours of yesterday, especially for your decision to draw on us for expenses. I prefer to have it that way. “Business is business,” and I want to hire you — that is, just as much of your time as you choose to sell me. The Tribune is able to pay, and I would rather pay you than owe you.

I don't care to use your letters for telegraphic despatches, á la Express; but you can often hear an inkling of the forthcoming Galphin report, the Compromise bill, the Committee on Old Bullion, etc., etc., which I will thank you to send by telegraph rather than the slower way. Bear in mind that expense is no object in the matter of early advices. I don't expect you to run round prying after such things, but they will fall in your way. Our Collector's confirmation or rejection is a matter of much interest here. Please indorse your letters conspicuously “Editors' Mail.”

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 48

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, April 28, 1850

New York, April 28, 1850.

Friend Pike: I have your first letter, and shall put it through, leads and all, though I am crowded for to-morrow. I only insist on one modification, that of not calling the Locofocos Democrats. First, because they are not; next, because they live on that name, and make more votes out of it than out of all the wisdom, talent, and patriotism they ever displayed; and lastly, because it deceives and misleads many of the ignorant and simple with regard to our character and the real questions which divide us. I pray you call me a sheep-thief if you have occasion, but don't call Foote, Dickinson & Co. “the Democratic party.” If you do, they may have a roast baby for breakfast every morning, with missionary steaks for dinner, and yet rule the country forever.

I shall suggest some demurrage to your points, but never mind. Send along more of each. But let us know sometimes what Congress, the Cabinet, etc., are about to do, as well as what they ought to do.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 49

Mark W. Delahay to Abraham Lincoln, May 13, 1860

Tremont House,

Gage, Bro. & Drake, Proprietors

Chicago, 10 P M May 13^th 1860

Hon A Lincoln

My Dear Sir

Since your Springfield friends have been fairly located matters have been looking up. I have taken to their quarters a number of the Iowa Delegates, some of the Minnesota and all the Kansas. I have taken “Cottenwood” into my Room, he is sound. Ross & Proctor of Kansas I think can be managed their prefference is Chase. But even with the Seward Delegates you are their 2nd Choice – Greely is here as a Proxie for Origon, and is telling a Crowd now around him that NY can be carried for Bates I think he is Calculated rather to injure Seward – Some of the N. J. men talk very well as I just learned from Col Ross – and so do some of the Mass men – they say they are for a success – I have induced the Penna Delegates to stop talking about their man as an ultum attim. They have mooted one thing, that would Kill them off and I have admonished them to abandon it, which was to call Ills Ind Penna & N. J. Delegates together to harmonize between you & Cameron, such a move would appear like a “Slate” and Seward is too potent here to attempt such a meeting, his friends would probably Slate us, if it were done – I have been up late & Early and am perfectly cool & hopeful –

Delahay

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

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, April 24, 1850

New York, April 24, 1850.

Dear Sir:

Will you write me some letters? You are writing such abominably bad ones for the Boston Courier that I fancy you are putting all your unreason into these, and can give me some of the pure juice. Try!

What I want is a daily letter (when there is any thing to say) on the doings of Congress, commenting on any thing spicy or interesting, and letting the readers make the right comments, rather than see that you are making them. Then I should like a dispatch in the evening, if any thing comes out, especially if any appointments shall have been acted on in executive. You know how to get them.

Well, are you ready to do me $10, $15, or $20 worth of work (you to value it) for a while, until it shall please you to come away or I can send some one on to Washington? If yes, please set about it and send me word. If not, condescend to say so. What I am after is news.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

James S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 41

Diary of Corporal Charles H. Lynch: August 25, 1864

Last night, under cover of darkness, a detail was made, about twenty men, ordered to advance and intrench, to try and dislodge the enemy's sharpshooters who were up in high trees and making trouble for us, shooting at the boys, by improving every chance they could get. When the opportunity came, our boys were to give them a volley. They did so, but did not harm the rebs. I heard them call out, as soon as our boys fired on them, “How are you Horace Greeley?” showing that no harm came to them. It made quite a laugh at the time. The rebs often called to us “How are you Horace Greeley? Does your mother know you are out?”

Late in the afternoon all firing ceased and everything became quiet. We could hear the enemy's drum corps and they could no doubt hear ours. Our boys and the Johnnies on the skirmish line entered into an agreement not to fire on one another. For proof they fixed bayonets on their guns, sticking them in the ground, butts up. Both sides could see. Agreements made at such times were kept. Both sides kept outside the earthworks. Sometimes the boys would meet between the lines, exchange tobacco for coffee. The rebs were always very anxious to get hold of New York papers. Night coming on, both sides would resume duty. A hard shower came late this afternoon.

SOURCE: Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary, 1862-1865, of Charles H. Lynch 18th Conn. Vol's, p. 116-7

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: June 1, 1865

The New York Herald quotes General Sherman as saying, “Columbia was burned by Hampton's sheer stupidity.'” But then who burned everything on the way in Sherman's march to Columbia, and in the line of march Sherman took after leaving Columbia? We came, for three days of travel, over a road that had been laid bare by Sherman's torches. Nothing but smoking ruins was left in Sherman's track. That I saw with my own eyes. No living thing was left, no house for man or beast. They who burned the countryside for a belt of forty miles, did they not also burn the town? To charge that to “Hampton's stupidity “ is merely an afterthought. This Herald announces that Jeff Davis will be hanged at once, not so much for treason as for his assassination of Lincoln. “Stanton, '” the Herald says, '”has all the papers in his hands to convict him.”

The Yankees here say, “The black man must go as the red man has gone; this is a white man's country.” The negroes want to run with the hare, but hunt with the hounds. They are charming in their professions to us, but declare that they are to be paid by these blessed Yankees in lands and mules for having been slaves. They were so faithful to us during the war, why should the Yankees reward them, to which the only reply is that it would be by way of punishing rebels.

Mrs. Adger¹ saw a Yankee soldier strike a woman, and she prayed God to take him in hand according to his deed. The soldier laughed in her face, swaggered off, stumbled down the steps, and then his revolver went off by the concussion and shot him dead.

The black ball is in motion. Mrs. de Saussure's cook shook the dust off her feet and departed from her kitchen to-day—free, she said. The washerwoman is packing to go.

Scipio Africanus, the Colonel's body-servant, is a soldierly looking black creature, fit to have delighted the eyes of old Frederick William of Prussia, who liked giants. We asked him how the Yankees came to leave him. “Oh, I told them marster couldn't do without me no how; and then I carried them some nice hams that they never could have found, they were hid so good.”

Eben dressed himself in his best and went at a run to meet his Yankee deliverers — so he said. At the gate he met a squad coming in. He had adorned himself with his watch and chain, like the cordage of a ship, with a handful of gaudy seals. He knew the Yankees came to rob white people, but he thought they came to save niggers. “Hand over that watch!” they said. Minus his fine watch and chain, Eben returned a sadder and a wiser man. He was soon in his shirt-sleeves, whistling at his knife-board. “Why? You here? Why did you come back so soon?” he was asked. “Well, I thought may be I better stay with ole marster that give me the watch, and not go with them that stole it.” The watch was the pride of his life. The iron had entered his soul.

Went up to my old house, “Kamschatka.” The Trapiers live there now. In those drawing-rooms where the children played Puss in Boots, where we have so often danced and sung, but never prayed before, Mr. Trapier held his prayer-meeting. I do not think I ever did as much weeping or as bitter in the same space of time. I let myself go; it did me good. I cried with a will. He prayed that we might have strength to stand up and bear our bitter disappointment, to look on our ruined homes and our desolated country and be strong. And he prayed for the man '”we elected to be our ruler and guide.” We knew that they had put him in a dungeon and in chains.² Men watch him day and night. By orders of Andy, the bloody-minded tailor, nobody above the rank of colonel can take the benefit of the amnesty oath, nobody who owns over twenty thousand dollars, or who has assisted the Confederates. And now, ye rich men, howl, for your misery has come upon you .You are beyond the outlaw, camping outside. Howell Cobb and R. M. T. Hunter have been arrested. Our turn will come next, maybe. A Damocles sword hanging over a house does not conduce to a pleasant life.

_______________

¹ Elizabeth K. Adger, wife of the Rev. John B. Adger, D. D., of Charleston, a distinguished Presbyterian divine, at one time a missionary to Smyrna where he translated the Bible into the Armenian tongue. He was afterward and before the war a professor in the Theological Seminary at Columbia. His wife was a woman of unusual judgment and intelligence, sharing her husband's many hardships and notable experiences in the East.

² Mr. Davis, while encamped near Irwinsville, Ga., had been captured on May 10th by a body of Federal cavalry under Lieutenant-Colonel Pritchard. He was taken to Fortress Monroe and confined there for two years, his release being effected on May 13, 1867, when he was admitted to bail in the sum of $100,000, the first name on his bail-bond being that of Horace Greeley.

SOURCES: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 396

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, August 13, 1860

New York, August 13, 1860.

Friend Pike: I very cheerfully contribute this $20 toward the Maine election fund, providing that you will see it honestly expended. I don't trust the average run of Maine politicians, who are thievish (even the priests) and beggarly (even the leading editors). They are a poor lot, and will swallow all the funds they can get hold of.

I did not know nor suspect what Dana's opinion was on the point in dispute, but I consider him a better judge than Old Buck or Cushing.

I shall be greatly disappointed as well as grieved if you lose your district. Think of Frank Blair, and be ashamed of your doubts and quickened in your works.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

James S. Pike, Esq., Calais, Maine.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 524

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, May 25, 1860

New York, May 25, 1860.

Pike, My Friend: Do you see how the heathen rage? How the whole weight of their wrath is poured out on my head? Will you tell me why Maine behaved so much worse at Chicago than any New-England State but Massachusetts? What meant that infernal vote from Massachusetts against us? I thought some of you Eastern folks would look to this. Just write me one letter to let me know what all this means.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 520

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, May 21, 1860

New York, May 21, 1861.

Pike: Your Maine delegation was a poor affair; I thought you had been at work preparing it for the great struggle; yet I suspect you left all the work for me, as everybody seems to do. Massachusetts also was right in Weed's hands, contrary to all reasonable expectation. I cannot understand this. It was all we could do to hold Vermont by the most desperate exertions; and I at some times despaired of it. The rest of New England was pretty sound, but part of New Jersey was somehow inclined to sin against light and knowledge. If you had seen the Pennsylvania delegation, and known how much money Weed had in hand, you would not have believed we could do so well as we did. Give Curtin thanks for that. Ohio looked very bad, yet turned out well, and Virginia had been regularly sold out; but the seller couldn't deliver. “We had to rain red-hot bolts on them, however, to keep the majority from going for Seward, who got eight votes here as it was. Indiana was our right bower, and Missouri above praise. It was a fearful week, such as I hope and trust I shall never see repeated. I think your absence lost us several votes.

But the deed is done, and the country breathes more freely. We shall beat the enemy fifty thousand in this State — can't take off a single man. New England stands like a rock, and the North-west is all ablaze. Pennsylvania and New Jersey are our pieces de resistance, but we shall carry them. I am almost worn out.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

James S. Pike, Esq., Somewhere.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 519-20

Count Adam Gurowski to James S. Pike, Wednesday May 12, 1860

21 West 22d Street, May 12, 1860.

My Dear Yankee: I am sorry not to be able to adopt your advice. I prefer not to publish it at all, as to do it by the help of Greeley and of the Tribune. I have my own personal feeling about it.

I am sorry to hear that you are so unwell as to be disabled to go to Chicago. What is the matter? You ought to have told me.

Good-by. The world will not be a bit better if I do not publish my book. After all, if it would be a Helper, help would have been found.

Mes amities à Madame.

Yours,

Gurowski.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 515

Count Adam Gurowski to James S. Pike, April 16, 1860

New York, Monday, April 16.

Dear Yankee: Congratulate Mr. Potter for me from the bottom of my heart.

What is the talk about code of honor? There is and never was such a codification in Europe among the genuine chivalry for these one thousand years, neither among nobles of any country of Europe. There is a kind of common law which every one knows, and a practice of details which is acquired in the same way as by a lawyer. I fought more than thirty duels, was second perhaps sixty times at least, and all with gentlemen and noblemen, and never heard of code of honor or absolute rule about weapons. If there is any code, rule, or common law about it, it is this: that cowards only refuse when a weapon magnifies danger. I assisted to duels, as second, when one of the combatants, pistols in hand, proposed to approach each other from ten paces (the original distance) to three. It was accepted. Old and hoary as I am, and never having really seen the use of a bowie-knife, I would accept it if I still should insist on my reputation as duellist. We Polish nobility, we fight generally with short, half-round Turkish swords. It makes ugly gashes, and I saw bowels come out once.

Mrs. Potter is a Spartan lady, and has a true gentleman for a husband. Greeley is an ass.

Yours,

Gurowski.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 513

Harvey B. Hurd to John Brown, April 1, 1857

Chicago, April 1, 1857.

Captain John Brown, Springfield, Mass.

At a meeting of the National Kansas Committee, held this day, it was

Resolved, That as according to the present state of the public feeling, evinced by the almost total cessation of contributions to the funds of the committee, it appears that the means of carrying on our operations will not be forthcoming from the usual sources; therefore, it is expedient to take immediate measures to settle the liabilities, and close the accounts of the committee, and to reduce the current expenses to the lowest possible point; and that the secretary be instructed to take measures accordingly.

Resolved, further, That the secretary be instructed to write to the members of the committee residing in other cities, — to Messrs. Greeley & McElrath, Hon. Gerrit Smith, and other prominent donors and friends, — setting forth the fact of the cessation of contributions as above stated, and the necessity we are under of closing our operations, unless immediately sustained by liberal contributions.

We are sorry to be obliged to come to the above conclusion, but are compelled to do so. There are several important undertakings now in hand, which we shall have to abandon, unless further means are forthcoming. The committee are at present out of money, and are compelled to decline sending you the five hundred dollars you speak of. They are sorry this has become the case, but it was unavoidable. I need not state to you all the reasons why. The country has stopped sending us contributions, and we have no means of replenishing our treasury. We shall need to have aid from some quarter to enable us to meet our present engagements.

I send you a copy of the list of articles selected for you by Mr. Arny. Our opinion is that some things have been selected that you do not need; such, for instance, as quilts, unless it is intended to supply the families of the company, and mits, which I suppose means ladies' mits. If he means mittens they would be useful.¹

Yours, etc.,

H. B. Hurd.

Secretary National Kansas Committee.

_______________

¹ Upon this is the following indorsement in the handwriting of John Brown: “H. B. Hurd. Needs no comment.”

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 367

Lydia Maria Child to Horace Greeley, November 10, 1859

SIR: I was much surprised to see my correspondence with Governor Wise published in your columns. As I have never given any person a copy, I presume you must have obtained it from Virginia. My proposal to go and nurse that brave and generous old man, who so willingly gives his life a sacrifice for God’s oppressed poor, originated in a very simple and unmeritorious impulse of kindness; I heard his friends inquiring, “Has he no wife, or sister, that can go to nurse him? We are trying to ascertain, for he needs some one.” My niece said she would go at once, if her health were strong enough to be trusted. I replied that my age and state of health rendered me a. more suitable person to go, and that I would go most gladly. I accordingly wrote to Captain Brown, and enclosed the letter to Governor Wise. My intention was to slip away quietly, without having the affair made public. I packed my trunk and collected a quantity of old linen for lint, and awaited tidings from Virginia. When Governor Wise answered, he suggested the “imprudence of trying any experiment upon the peace of a society already greatly excited,” &c. My husband and I took counsel together, and we both concluded that, as the noble old veteran was said to be fast recovering from his wounds, and as my presence might create a popular excitement unfavorable to such chance as the prisoner had for a fair trial, I had better wait until I received a reply from Captain Brown himself. Fearing to do him more harm than good by following my impulse, I waited for his own sanction. Meanwhile, his wife, said to be a brave-hearted Roman matron, worthy of such a mate, has gone to him, and I have received the following reply.

Respectfully yours,

L. MARIA CHILD.

BOSTON, Nov. 10, 1859.

SOURCE: The American Anti-Slavery Society, Correspondence between Lydia Maria Child and Gov. Wise and Mrs. Mason, of Virginia, p. 13