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

Diary of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire: October 19, 1862

Ashland. — We are now snugly fixed in Ashland. Our mess consists of Bishop J. and family, Major J. and wife, Lieutenant J. J. and wife (our daughter,) Mrs. S. and daughter, of Chantilly, Mr. –––, myself, and our two young daughters — a goodly number for a cottage with eight small rooms; but we are very comfortable. All from one neighbourhood, all refugees, and none able to do better, we are determined to take every thing cheerfully. Many remarks are jestingly made suggestive of unpleasant collisions among so many families in one house; but we anticipate no evils of that kind; each has her own place, and her own duties to perform; the young married ladies of the establishment are by common consent to have the housekeeping troubles; their husbands are to be masters, with the onerous duties of caterers, treasurers, etc. We old ladies have promised to give our sage advice and experience, whenever it is desired. The girls will assist their sisters, with their nimble fingers, in cases of emergency; and the clerical gentlemen are to have their own way, and to do their own work without let or hindrance. All that is required of them is, that they shall be household chaplains, and that Mr. ––– shall have service every Sunday at the neglected village church. With these discreet regulations, we confidently expect a most pleasant and harmonious establishment. Our young gentlemen are officers stationed in Richmond. Mr. and themselves go in every morning in the cars, after an early breakfast, and return to dinner at five o'clock. Julia Johns and myself have free tickets to go on the cars to attend to our hospital duties. I go in twice a week for that purpose.

A dispatch just received from General Bragg, claiming a signal victory at Perryville; but in consequence of the arrival of large reinforcements to the enemy, he had fallen back to Cumberland Gap. These victories without permanent results do us no good, and so much blood is spilled. There seems to be a revolution going on at the North. Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania have given the Democrats a large majority for Congress! So may it be!

SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War, p. 168-9

Fitz Henry Warren to James S. Pike, February 2, 1860

Burlington, Iowa, February 2, 1860.

Particular Pike: The ills of a congested liver, brought on by attempting to decipher a letter of the First of the Tribunes, addressed to me from Galesburg, Ill., have been much assuaged by your comforting letter of the 29th of January. When I look at a bald head, I expect to find under its polished surface good sense. Horace is an exceptional case. I am glad you agree with me about Edward Bates. I have no doubt Blair is right about him (Bates). He is with us in sentiment and sympathy. But, in the language of Daniel the Dark, “What is all this worth” for a President? For a church-warden or a congregational deacon I should be for him, with both hands up. What business have we to nominate and elect a man President who has never been in political life, who has no taste for politics, and no personal knowledge of public men? If I had had any room for a favorable impression of his qualities beyond my slight acquaintance with him, Peter Parley's indorsement would finish it out. The paper was bad enough before, as the bank president said, “but with that indorsement it is not worth a d—n.” For God's sake let us look to life and not to resurrection for our success in '60. I go in for electing; but why go into the bowels of Niggerdom for a candidate? If you can carry Missiouri for Bates, you can carry Arkansas for him ; and you can lift yourself up by the waistband daily for ten years before you can do either. The King of Terrors has a large work to do in Missouri before any Republican candidate can touch bottom there. I pray to be spared the anguish of voting for any man who can get this electoral vote.

With regard to the governor, the slender chance he had has gone out with John Sherman. Possibly you know what we have gained by electing old Pennington; I don't. I would far rather have been beaten with E. than to have backed down from him. I am consoled somewhat that it was not Corwin.

Pitt Fessenden would make a President after my own heart. But he is too near the “open Polar sea.” Uncle Dan's telescope could not discern the North Star, and your feeble lens can hardly reach it. If he lived in Iowa, or Greeley's paradise of bullfrogs, Indiana, he might come in; but we can't go into the tall timber of Maine. The question now recurs on the original question, “Who are you (I) for?” I am for the man who can carry Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Indiana, with this reservation, that I will not go into cemetery or catacomb; the candidate must be alive, and able to walk at least from parlor to dining-room. I am willing to take the opinions of the delegates from those States on this point. But if the choice is to be between King Stork and King Log, count me in for the former. I had rather have a President who would take me by the nape of the neck and kick me down stairs, than to have one who would smile me out with the hypocritical leer of that greatest of all nuisances in the White House, Millard Fillmore.

Very truly,

Fitz henry Warren.

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. 483-4

Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Lyman to Elizabeth Russell Lyman, Friday, October 14, 1864

October 14, 1864

How shall I vote? I don't know that I shall be given the chance; but, if I am, I shall vote for the blue-blooded Abraham. It was with a feeling of depression that I heard the first rumors that the Dems had carried Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana; and when the truth came out, I felt glad. This proves to me that I look on the Mac party with misgiving. The soldiers' vote is an unexpected one; they are said to show five to one for the Administration, which tells me that they identify it with the support of the war; for the troops in their private thoughts make the thrashing of the Rebs a matter of pride, as well as of patriotism.

I venture to say that at no time during the war have the Rebel papers talked so desperately; they speak of the next month settling the question, and of arming the negroes. If they do this latter, the slavery candle will burn at both ends. I have no idea that the next month will settle it, though, of course, there is a chance for important movements during the autumn, as at other seasons of good weather. We must keep at them — that is the only way; no let up, no armistice. They perfectly hate what we are doing now, going a couple of miles and fortifying, then going two more and fortifying again; then making a sudden rush, taking a position and a lot of cannon, and again fortifying that. All these moves being a part of what we may call a throttling plan. Their struggles, though often apparently successful, do them thus far no good. They flank us on the Weldon railroad and brush off 2000 prisoners: no use! we hold the road. They flank us again at the Pegram house, and capture 1000 more: no use; we hold the Pegram position and add it to former acquisitions. Then they flank Butler and get eight of his guns; but they have to go back, and Benjamin remains in what General Halleck terms a “threatening attitude.”  . . . Yesterday, Loring, whom I saw over at General Parke's Headquarters, was speaking of the quaint ways of talking among soldiers. Their lines are at peace out there, and the soldiers don't fire; notwithstanding, some sharpshooters, with telescopic rifles, are posted here and there. As he rode along, he met two of these gentry coming with faces as of men who had labored in a good cause, without profit. “Hullo!” said L., “did you get good places out in front?” “Yes, fust-rate places: but no shooting, no shooting!” General Meade rode to Parke's on account of a statement from a deserter, that the enemy would attack our left. “If they do” quoth the General, proud of his engineering skill, “if they do, they’ll get into a nice hornet's nest.” It is funny to see two engineers, like Meade and Parke, ride along works and pleasantly discuss them. In their enthusiasm, they always personify redoubts as far as to give them eyes, and speak of their “looking” in sundry directions, meaning thereby that they can fire there. “Here is a nice swallow-tail lunette,” says Parke as if introducing a pâté de foie gras; “these two faces, you see, look down the two roads of approach, and here is a face that looks into that ravine: nothing could live in that ravine, nothing!” This last he emphasizes, as if the presence of life in the ravine aforesaid was a thing in the highest degree sinful, and this redoubt was virtuously bent on preserving the public morality. “Yes,” replies Father Meade, “that seems all right; now you want to slash out, about 300 yards further, and get a good field of fire so that the enemy's sharpshooters can't annoy your gunners.” The use of the word “annoy” is another military eccentricity. When half the men are killed or wounded by the enemy's riflemen, an officer will ride pleasantly in to the chief of artillery, and state that the battery is a good deal “annoyed” by sharpshooters, giving to the novice the impression that the sharpshooters complained of have been using provoking and impertinent language to the battery. To-day I was the sole companion of the General on his exercise ride, on which occasions, instead of riding behind him, I ride beside him, but keep as it were a little back of his horse's head. When we approach any body of troops, I fall entirely to the rear — strong on etiquette we are! For two or three days he has been in the best of humors and sits in the evening by the camp-fire before my tent, talking familiarly with all the aides; a rare thing with him. . . .

SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 244-5

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, August 22, 1862

The President tells me he has a list of the number of new recruits which have reached Washington under the late call. Over 18,000 have arrived in just one week. There is wonderful and increasing enthusiasm and determination to put down this Rebellion and sustain the integrity of the Union. It is confined to no class or party or description: rich and poor, the educated and ignorant, the gentle and refined as well as the stout, coarse, and athletic, the Democrats generally as well as the Republicans, are offering themselves to the country.

Governor Dennison and Judge Swayne¹ of Ohio, with others, are urging in person the establishment of a line of armed and armored steamers on the Ohio River. The plan has been elaborated with much care, and has been before presented and pressed with some zeal. Distrust, no doubt, in regard to army management leads these men to seek naval protection. The Blairs are quoted to me as favoring the movement, and Fox has given them encouragement. It has not found favor with me at any time. It is now brought to my attention in such a way that I am compelled to take it up. I find that great names and entire communities in Ohio and Indiana, led on by the authorities of those States, are engaged in it. I told the principal agent, who, with Governor D., had a long interview with me, that my judgment and convictions were against it, for: First: I had no faith that light-draft gunboats would be a safe and reliable means of frontier river-defense. They might be auxiliary and essential aids to the army, but they cannot carry heavy armament, are frail, and in low stages of the water, with high banks which overlook the river, would not be effective and could hardly take care of themselves, though in certain cases, and especially in high water, they might greatly aid the army. Secondly: As a matter of policy it would be injudicious and positively harmful to establish a frontier line between Ohio and Kentucky, making the river the military boundary, — it would be conceding too much. If a line of boats could assist in protecting the northern banks of the Ohio they could afford little security to the southern banks, where, as in Ohio, there is, except in localities, a majority for the Union. I added that I should be opposed to any plan which proposed to establish frontier lines, therein differing from some of our best army officers; that I thought neither Ohio nor Indiana could, on deliberate consideration, wish the line of separation from hostile forces should be the northern boundary of Kentucky. It appeared to me the true course was to make their interest in this war identical with that of Kentucky, and if there were to be a line of demarcation it should be as far south as the southern boundary of Tennessee, and not the banks of the Ohio. The gentlemen seemed to be impressed with these general views.

_______________

¹ Noah H. Swayne, of the United States Supreme Court.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 87-9

Proclamation of Oliver P. Morton, Governor of Indiana, April 16, 1861

PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR.

Whereas, An armed rebellion has been organized in certain States of this Union, having for its purpose the overthrow of the Government of the United States;

And WHEREAS, The authors and movers in this rebellion have seized, by violence, various forts and arsenals belonging to the United States, and otherwise plundered the Government of large amounts of money and valuable property;

And Whereas, Fort Sumter, a fortress belonging to the United States, the exclusive possession and jurisdiction over which were vested in the General Government by the Constitution of the United States, has been besieged by a large army, and assaulted by a destructive cannonade and reduced to submission, and the National flag hauled down and dishonored;

And Whereas, The President of the United States, in the exercise of the power vested in him by the Federal Constitution, has called upon the several States remaining true to their allegiance to aid him in the enforcement of the laws, the recovery of the National property, and the maintainance of the rightful authority of the United States;

Now, therefore, I, Oliver P. Morton, Governor of the State of Indiana, call upon the loyal and patriotic men of this State, to the number of six regiments, to organize themselves into military companies, and forthwith report the same to the Adjutant General, in order that they may be speedily mustered into the service of the United States. The details of the organization are set forth in the instructions of the Adjutant General, herewith published.

OLIVER P. MORTON, Governor.

Lewis Wallace, Adjutant General.

Indianapolis, April 16, 1861.

SOURCE: William H. H. Terrell, Indiana in the War of the Rebellion, p. 332

Oliver P. Morton, Governor of Indiana, to Abraham Lincoln, April 15, 1861

Executive Department Of Indiana,

Indianapolis, April 15,1861.

To Abraham Lincoln,

President of the United States:

On behalf of the State of Indiana, I tender to you, for the defence of the Nation and to uphold the authority of the Government, ten thousand men.

oliver P. Morton,

Governor of Indiana.

SOURCE: Indiana Republican State Central Committee, Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana: A Sketch of His Life and Public Services, p. 15

Politics in Indiana

At the election to be held in Indiana next October, Congressmen are to be chosen with minor State officers (Secretary, Treasurer, &c.,) and a Legislature upon which it will devolve to fill Mr. Wright’s seat in the Senate.  Some months since the Jesse D. Bright Democracy held a convention and nominated candidates, opening a canvass that was avowedly to give the expelled Senator a new lease of power. – Their disgusting fondness for a branded traitor, and their leniency toward the seceded States, has driven off many Democrats, and there are several old Democratic organs that refuse to support the ticket, while the ticket itself has begun to break up.  Hon. Milton B. Hopkins, nominated for Superintendent of Schools, withdraws his name with a very pointed letter of rebuke for the disloyal combination which is trying to steal the name of Democracy to serve treason in.  Mr. Hopkins but reflects the intentions of thousands of honest democrats who intend to vote against the concern. – Exchange paper.

The Indiana convention and platform got up last winter, was hailed by the Vallandigham press throughout the country and by the Mahony press of Iowa, as a glorious revival of the Democratic party.  It was followed up by the Vallandigham Congressional caucus, and the leading Mahony presses of Iowa, including Mahony’s Herald, the Davenport Democrat, defaulter Babbitt’s Council Bluffs Bugle, and Claggett’s Constitution, have enlisted in the scheme.  Dodge of Burlington, has also bestirred himself, and another of the same stripe of papers is about to be established in Burlington.

Bright, it will be remembered, was expelled from the Senate on the charge of treason, and our Bright, – Geo. W. Jones, – who seems now to be on a mission to reorganized the Mahonyites, was imprisoned on a similar charge in Fort Lafayette.  Will the Iowa traitor have any better success than he of Indiana? – Gate City

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 17, 1862, p. 2

Illinois now has 3,041 miles of railway . . .

. . . laid out and in operation, being 71 miles more than Ohio, which ranks next, having 2,970 miles.  The cost of building and equipping the railroads in Illinois is put down at $113,591,015.  Pennsylvania ranking next to Ohio, has 2,918 miles in operation, New York, next, 2,758, and Indiana, next to New York, has 2,159.  Massachusetts has 1,257 miles, which is less than Virginia and Georgia, the former of which has 1,729 and the latter 1,419 miles.  The entire extent of railroads in operation in all the Free States is 20,683, that of the slave states, 11,111 – total, 31,794.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 1, 1862, p. 1

Gov. Morton, now in Washington . . .

. . . has telegraphed to Indianapolis ordering clothing, blankets, and many other necessaries, to be sent to Indiana prisoners at Richmond, Va., Columbia, S. C., and Tuscaloosa, Ala.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 8, 1862, p. 2

From California

PHILADELPHIA, March 25. – The latest news from Arizona represents that the country is almost depopulated on account of secession and the hostility of the Indians.  Davis’ troops numbering 900 awaiting reinforcements are at Lubuc.  They propose taking Fort Youma in California, but most of the five regiments of California troops are at this time in the state and would be prepared to meet an invading enemy.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 29, 1862, p. 4

Senator Wright Of Indiana

The appointment of ex-Governor Wright, of Indiana, to succeed Mr. Bright in the Senate is a graceful compliment form a Republican Governor to the conservative sentiment of Indiana, and an acknowledgement that Republicanism has failed in its practical application to the administration of the Government – Dub. Herald.

Gov. Wright has about as much sympathy with the “conservative sentiment of Indiana,” as exhibited in the 8^th of January convention, as the Herald has with the cause of the Union; and the manner in which he has accepted the appointment is an acknowledgement of the patriotism of the Republican party, which, unlike its defunct adversary, can rise above mere party lines, and seek and find good and worthy men of all creeds and organizations, and place them where their services are needed, and where the country will be benefited.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Wednesday Morning, March 5, 1862, p. 2

The political campaign has opened in Indiana.

Ex-Senator Bright is ready for a vigorous campaign as the representative of the “peace” party.  Many of the Democratic journals refuse to recognize him.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 17, 1862, p. 3

A Mass Convention . . .

. . . of the Union men of Indiana has been called to meet at Indianapolis on the 18^th of June.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 10, 1862, p. 4