Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, August 15, 1865

Seward read a letter in relation to St. Domingo matters, to which I for some cause did not give that attention which its importance demanded. After he had read it Stanton suggested that one expression was too strong, he thought. Seward appealed to me. I asked to have the passage reread, and concurred with Stanton that more cautious language should be used.

Stanton says there is to be a large reduction of the force which is moving against the Indians; that by the 1st of October the force will be about 6000; that large supplies have gone on, but they can be diverted or deflected to New Mexico and other points, so that they will not be lost.

This whole proceeding is anything but commendable in the War Department. Stanton professes not to have been informed on the subject, and yet takes credit for doing something in the direction of reduction. When questioned, however, he gets behind Grant or Pope or some military officer. An army of twenty-two thousand and a winter campaign, which he said would cost certainly not less than fifty million and very likely eighty or one hundred million, are arranged, a great Indian war is upon us, but the Secretary of War is, or professes to be, wholly ignorant in regard to it, and of course every member of the Administration is uninformed. If Stanton is as ignorant as he professes, it is disgraceful and ominous, and it is not less so if he is not ignorant. There are some things which make me suspicious that he is not as uninformed and ignorant as he pretends. This matter of supplies, so ruinously expensive, is popular on the frontiers, with Lane and others in Kansas. I have seen enough of Stanton to know that he is reckless of the public money in fortifying himself personally. These great contracts for supplies and transportation must have been known to him. How far Grant, whom he does not like, has acted independently of him is a question.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 360-1

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, September 16, 1864

At the Cabinet nothing of interest. Seward and Fessenden were early there and left. Judge Otto,¹ who was present in the place of Usher, presented a paper for the removal of Charles L. Lines, a land officer in Kansas, stating he was a troublesome man and an opponent of the Administration. It is not usual for me to volunteer remarks touching the appointments of another Department, but I could not forbear saying this statement if correct was extraordinary, — that Lines was an old Whig, we had been old opponents in Connecticut, — that he, in earnest zeal, went early to Kansas, had made sacrifices of domestic comfort, had lost one or two sons there, and I should be surprised if he was not a friend of the President. Otto said he knew nothing on the subject. It was a question in which Senator Jim Lane took an interest and had been submitted by Mr. Edmunds.² The President said he was sorry Lane had come here just at this time, for he would want him (the President) to adopt all his personal quarrels. For the present, and until he knew more, he declined to interfere.

Acting Admiral Bailey has come here, and dislikes, I presume, his orders to the Portsmouth Navy Yard, — would have preferred his command of the East Gulf Squadron. I had supposed he desired and would be gratified with the change. But prize money is a great stimulant.

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¹ William T. Otto, Assistant Secretary of the Interior.

² James M. Edmunds, Commissioner of the General Land Office.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 147-8

Thomas Wentworth Higginson to a Member of the Dabney Family, October 9, 1856

Steamboat Cataract

aground on a bank in the Missouri River

October 9, 1856

I know you would enjoy going to Kansas, for it is as genuine a sensation as we expect it to be; things and people are very real there. It is precisely like waking up some morning and stepping out on the Battle of Bunker Hill; one learns in a single day more about Greeks and Romans and English Puritans and Scotch Jacobites, and Hungarians and all heroic peoples, than any course of history can teach. The same process is producing the same results before your eyes, and what is most striking the same persons whom you saw a year ago in Boston, indolent and timid, are here transformed to heroes. Perhaps this brings down the dignity of our courage a little, showing it to be the child of circumstances, but still one sees great differences of temperament in Kansas as elsewhere. What struck me most was the unconscious buoyancy of the people. Living in the midst of danger, they recognize it as the normal condition of existence, and talk of it in the sort of way that sailors do. In the intervals of dinner (if dinner there be), they talk over the last fight as if it were a picnic. In fact it was plain that the excitement had become a necessary stimulus to them, and during the partial peace which existed while I was there, they confessed that they missed something. Women complained that there wasn't much to talk about. At Lawrence, when the evening drum beat to call out the guard (of United States troops, placed there by Governor Geary, for protection) somebody would always exclaim, “That sounds good!” And the patience is about as remarkable as the courage. People would describe their way of living, sick wife and children perhaps . . . and always end, “But we shall live or die in Kansas.” Of course there are exceptions; but the more men sacrifice there, the more they seem to love the country. The difficulty is, that there is not much left to sacrifice; everybody has grown poor. I hope nothing from Governor Geary; he means well and has energy of will, but no energy of character; he can take efficient single steps, but not carry out any systematic plan of action. . . . I have less hope that Kansas will be a free State than before I came here. Before this last interference of Governor Geary, the Kansas men under General Lane (who is a very remarkable man) had driven out the Missourians in all directions; but it is their policy not to resist the United States Government, and the Missourians are always ready to take the slightest advantage which that affords them. After the Presidential election the invaders will make a desperate effort; their success is certain if Buchanan is elected, and probably if Fremont is.

. . . On board I have thus far met no annoyance, though there is a company of young Virginians and Carolinians returning to their homes; they are of the race of “poor white folks,” commonly. My copy of “Dred” occasions some remarks. I trust your father will feel a becoming reverence when I say that I am a General in the Kansas Army, having been immediately presented with a commission to that effect by the redoubtable “Jim Lane” himself, the “Marion” of the age. I keep it as a valuable autograph, or to be used on my next visit to Kansas.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 142-4

Martin F. Conway to George L. Stearns, August 18, 1861

An attack by the Southern force is daily expected on Fort Scott, which has been made the depot recently of large supplies of provisions. The place is but poorly defended, and will probably fall into the hands of the enemy. We have not arms enough. The Government has been too slow. Our military is in a very backward state. Lane is at work, doing his best to hasten their organization. He is now on his way to Fort Scott. Many persons charge Governor Robinson with having thrown obstacles in the way of the organization of Lane's brigade, which I think quite likely.*

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* Appendix A.

SOURCE: Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 256

George L. Stearns to Mary Hall Stearns, June 18, 1861

All my work prospers. The Governor is anxious to get rid of the slaves, and I expect will facilitate their exodus.

Collamore has left for Kansas with authority to raise and fully equip three regiments, which equipment is so much extra. They do not grant it to others.

Blair wants me to go to Fort Munroe and see Butler about it. This will take three days more, and then for our dear home.

Jim Lane means to be in New Orleans by December.

SOURCE: Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 251

George L. Stearns to Mary Elizabeth Preston Stearns, May 16, 1861

[May 16, 1861.]

Yesterday afternoon, in furtherance of my plans, I went to Silver Spring to see old Mr. Blair. He received me very cordially, and, talking about the war, I asked him, “What news from Missouri?” He told me that he was afraid his son Frank had gone to Jefferson City with troops, and there was danger that the Missourians would rise and be too strong for them, but he hoped to hear that Jim Lane had gone to Arkansas with two regiments of Kansas troops to make a diversion. When I told him that no troops had been equipped in Kansas, and Jim Lane was sick at Altoona, Pennsylvania, on his way to Washington, he said something should be done immediately and we must go to the President. I then laid before him the requests of Collamore and also of Stewart, for regiments, and we agreed to meet at ten to-morrow and see what could be done.

SOURCE: Preston Stearns, The Life and Public Services of George Luther Stearns, p. 248-9

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: August 27, 1863

There is trouble in the Conscription Bureau. Col. Preston, the new superintendent, finds it no bed of roses, made for him by Lieut.-Col. Lay — the lieutenant-colonel being absent in North Carolina, sent thither to compose the discontents; which may complicate matters further, for they don't want Virginians to meddle with North Carolina matters. However, the people he is sent to are supposed to be disloyal. Gen. Pillow has applied to have Georgia in the jurisdiction of his Bureau of Conscription, and the Governors of Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee unite in the request; also Generals Johnston and Bragg. Gen. Pillow already has Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, etc.—a much larger jurisdiction than the bureau here. Col. Preston, of course, protests against all this, and I believe the Secretary sympathizes with him.

Prof. G. M. Richardson, of the Georgia Military Institute, sends some interesting statistics. That State has furnished the army 80,000, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years. Still, the average number of men in each county between sixteen and eighteen and forty-five and sixty is 462, and there are 132 counties: total, 60,984. He deducts 30 per cent, for the infirm, etc. (18,689), leaving 42,689 men able to bear arms still at home. Thus, after putting some 500,000 in the field (if we could put them there), there would yet remain a reserve for home defense against raids, etc. in the Confederate States, of not less than 250,000 men.

Gen. Winder sent to the Secretary of War to-day for authority to appoint a clerk to attend exclusively to the mails to and from the United States — under Gen. Winder's sole direction.

Major Quantrel, a Missouri guerrilla chief, has dashed into Lawrence, Kansas, and burnt the city — killing and wounding 180. He had Gen. Jim Lane, but he escaped.

Gen. Floyd is dead; some attribute his decease to ill treatment by the government.

I saw Mr. Hunter yesterday, bronzed, but bright. He is a little thinner, which improves his appearance.

Gen. Lee is in town—looking well. When he returns, I think the fall campaign will open briskly.

A dispatch received to-day says that on Tuesday evening another assault on Battery Wagner was in progress — but as yet we have no result.

Lieut. Wood captured a third gun-boat in the Rappahannock, having eight guns.

The prisoners here selected to die, in retaliation for Burnside's execution of our officers taken while recruiting in Kentucky, will not be executed.

Nor will the officers taken on Morris Island, serving with the negroes, suffer death in accordance with the act of Congress and the President's proclamation. The Secretary referred the matter to the President for instruction, and the President invited the advice of the Secretary. The Secretary advised that they be held indefinitely, without being brought to trial, and in this the President acquiesces.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 24-6

Speech of Senator Charles Sumner in the United States Senate, December 18, 1861

Some days ago I called the attention of the Senate to abuses in Missouri with reference to fugitive slaves. Since then I have received a great many communications from that State showing very great interest in the question, some of them in the nature of protest against the system which has been adopted there. One of these purports to come from a slave owner, himself educated in a slave State, and he speaks with great bitterness of the indignity that has been put upon the Army there, and of the injury that it has done to the cause of the Union. Another letter from another person contains a passage which I shall read:

“I wish to say in addition that I have lived twenty-four years in Missouri, that I know the people well, have served them in various offices, and let me assure you it is nonsense to try to save Missouri to the Union and the institution of slavery also. We must give up one or the other. Slavery ought to fall and Missouri be saved. Frémont's army struck terror into the secessionists. He made them feel it by taking their goods and chattels. Let our armies proclaim freedom to the slaves of the secessionists, and the rebellion will soon close. We can take care of the free negroes at a future day. Give General Lane ten thousand men, and he would establish peace in Missouri in thirty days.”

But, sir, my especial object now is not to call attention to this abuse in Missouri, but to call attention to this abuse here near at home. Brigadier General Stone, the well-known commander at Ball's Bluff, is now adding to his achievements there by engaging ably and actively in the work of surrendering fugitive slaves. He does this, sir, most successfully. He is victorious when the simple question is whether a fugitive slave shall be surrendered to a rebel.

Sir, besides my general interest in this question, besides my interest in the honor of the national Army, I have a special interest at this moment because Brigadier General Stone has seen fit to impose this vile and unconstitutional duty upon Massachusetts troops. The Governor of my State has charged me with a communication to the Secretary of War on this subject, complaining of this outrage, treating it as an indignity to the men, and as an act unworthy of our national flag. I agree with the Governor of Massachusetts; and when I call attention to this abuse now, I make myself his representative, as also the representative of my own opinions.

But there are others besides the Governor of Massachusetts who complain. There are two German companies in one of the Massachusetts regiments who, when they enlisted, entered into the public service with the positive understanding that they should not be put to any such discreditable and unconstitutional service. Sir, they complain, and with them their own immediate fellow-citizens at home, the German population generally throughout the country.

Nor is this all. The complaint extends to other quarters. I have here a letter from a citizen of Philadelphia, from which I shall read a short extract. The writer says:

“I have but one son, and he fought at Ball's Bluff, in the California regiment, where his bravery brought him into notice. He escaped, wounded, after dark. He protests against being made to return fugitive slaves, and if ordered to that duty will refuse obedience and take the consequences. I ask, sir, shall our sons, who are offering their lives for the preservation of our institutions, be degraded to slave-catchers for any persons, loyal or disloyal? If such is the policy of the Government, I shall urge my son to shed no more blood for its preservation.”

With these communications which I have received, some of an official character and others of a private character, I have felt that I should not do my duty if I did not call the attention of the Senate to this outrage. It must be arrested. I am glad to know that my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, promises us at once a bill to meet this grievance. It ought to be introduced promptly, and to be passed at once. Our troops ought to be saved from this shame.

SOURCE: John C. Rives, The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, p. 130

Diary of John Hay: May 13, 1864

. . . . Jim Lane came into my room this morning and said the President must now chiefly guard against assassination. I pooh-poohed him, and said that while every prominent man was more or less exposed to the attacks of maniacs, no foresight could guard against them. He replied by saying that he had, by his caution and vigilance, prevented his own assassination when a reward of a hundred thousand dollars had been offered for his head. . . . .

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 194; see Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 195-6 for the full diary entry.

James H. Lane to John Brown, October 30, 1857

Falls City, Oct. 30, 1857.

Dear Sir, — By great sacrifice we have raised, and send by Mr. Tidd, one hundred and fifty dollars. I trust this money will be used to get the guns to Kansas, or as near as possible. If you can get them to this point, we will try to get them on in some way. The probability is Kansas will never need the guns. One thing is certain: if they are to do her any good, it will be in the next few days. Let nothing interfere in bringing them on.

Yours,

J. H. Lane.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 405

Edmund B. Whitman to John Brown, October 24, 1857

Lawrence, Oct. 24, 1857.

My Dear Friend,—Your first two messengers are sick at Tecumseh. I helped them start back with the information that you should soon hear from me, but they were taken sick on their way. Mr. Tidd has been waiting some time for me to receive remittances from the East; but as the crisis approaches I feel in a hurry to get him off. You are wanted here a week from Tuesday. I will wait no longer, but by great personal exertion have raised on my personal responsibility one hundred and fifty dollars. General Lane will send teams from Falls City, so that you may get your goods all in. Leave none behind if you can help it. Come direct to this place and see me before you make any disposition of your plunder, except to keep it safe. Make the Tabor people wait for what you owe them. They must. Make the money I send answer to get here, and I hope by that time to have more for you. Mr. Tidd will explain all.

Very truly yours,

E. B. Whitman.¹

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¹ Indorsed by Brown: “Received at Tabor, Nov. 1.”

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 404

Edmund B. Whitman: Order No. 2, October 19, 1857

(Order No. 2.)

Quartermaster's Department, Headquarters Kansas

Volunteers For The Pkotection Of Thk Ballot-box,

Lawrence, Oct. 19, 1857.

Whereas, On the 3d day of August an order was issued from this department requesting the appointment of company, brigade, and division quartermasters, and an immediate return to be made of the number and description of all arms available for the use of the respective companies; and whereas, said returns have been generally made: Now, therefore, in reply, and in explanation of the failure to furnish an entire supply for the deficiency, it is deemed proper to declare, that while no efforts were spared by this department, and by the entire staff, promptly to supply the necessary quota of arms, yet the unexpected obstacles which the great financial pressure threw in their way have prevented the anticipated success for the time being. It is, however, a cause for congratulation, that while the reports show a considerable deficiency, yet the entire armament is by no means insignificant.

The immense immigration of the past year, composed largely of those who deceived by official promises of protection had anticipated no occasion for personal defence, readily accounts for this deficiency. In our disappointment we may rejoice that the effect of the organization, with all its imperfections, has been in the highest degree satisfactory. The knowledge that an outraged people had at length banded themselves together, almost to a man, for the protection of the most sacred rights of freemen, and were ready to die in their defence, has most manifestly deterred an organized invasion. Voting lists ready manufactured and false returns have been made to supply its place; against this the organization could afford no protection.

It remains to be seen whether the people of Kansas will have any further use for this organization. It is always true that the surest way to prevent an evil is to be prepared to meet it, and three years' experience in the past should teach us not to indulge in any premature feelings of security and safety. In view of possible contingencies, this department hereby announces that it will still continue its exertions to furnish the means of protection and defence to all who may be destitute of them, and in all cases first to supply those localities most exposed to invasion and attack.

E. B. Whitman,

Quartermaster-General Kansas Volunteers.

Approved: J. H. Lane, Organizer.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 403-4

John Brown to Edmund B. Whitman, October 5, 1857

Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, Oct. 5, 1857.

E. B. Whitman, Esq.

Dear Sir, — Please send me by Mr. Charles P. Tidd what money you have for me, — not papers. He is the second man I have sent in order to get the means of taking me through. General Lane sent a man who got here without any team, with but fifty dollars of Lane's money (as he said), which I returned to him, and wanted me to start right off, with only four days’ time to load up and drive through before this bogus election day, — which my state of health and the very wet weather rendered it impossible to do in time; and I did not think it right to start from here under such circumstances. Do try to make me up the money, all in good shape, before Mr. Tidd returns, and also write me everything you know about the aspect of things in Kansas. Please furnish Mr. Tidd with a horse to take him to Osawatomie, and greatly oblige me. The fifty dollars Lane sent was only about enough to pay up my board bill here, with all I had on hand. I need not say my disappointments have been extreme.

Your friend,

John Brown.

P. S. Before any teams are now sent, I want to hear further from Kansas.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 402-3

John Brown to James H. Lane, September 30, 1857

Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, Sept. 30, 1857.

General James H. Lane.

My Dear Sir, — Your favor from Falls City by Mr. Jamison is just received; also fifty dollars sent by him, which I also return by same hand, as I find it will be next to impossible in my poor state of health to go through on such very short notice, four days only remaining to get ready, load up, and go through. I think, considering all the uncertainties of the case, want of teams, etc., that I should do wrong to set out. I am disappointed in the extreme.

Very respectfully your friend,

John Brown.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 402

James H. Lane to John Brown, September 29, 1857

Falls City, Sept. 29, 1857.

Dear General, — I send you Mr. Jamison (quartermaster-general second division), to assist you in getting your articles into Kansas in time. Mr. Whitman wrote us a week ago he would be at Wyandotte yesterday, and that he was supplied with the things; but he had not arrived when I left. It is all-important to Kansas that your things should be in at the earliest possible moment, and that you should he much nearer at hand than you are. I send you all the money I have (fifty dollars), and General Jamison has some more. We want every gun and all the ammunition. I do not know that we will have to use them, but I do know we should be prepared. I send you ten true men. You can rely upon the General; and what he tells you comes from me.

Yours ever,

J. H. Lane.

To General John Brown, Tabor.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 402

John Brown to James H. Lane, September 16, 1857

Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, Sept. 16, 1857.

General James H. Lane.

My Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 7th inst. is received. I had previously written you expressive of my strong desire to see yon. I suppose you have my letter before this. As to the job of work you inquire about, I suppose that three good teams, with well covered wagons, and ten really ingenious, industrious (not gassy) men, with about one hundred and fifty dollars in cash, could bring it about in the course of eight or ten days.

Very respectfully your friend,

John Brown.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 401

James H. Lane to John Brown, September 7, 1857

(Private.)

Lawrence, Sept. 7, 1857.

Sir, — We are earnestly engaged in perfecting an organization for the protection of the ballot-box at the October election (first Monday). Whitman and Abbot have been East after money and arms for a mouth past; they write encouragingly, and will be hack in a few days. We want you, with all the materials you have. I see no objection to your coming into Kansas publicly. I can furnish you just such a force as you may deem necessary for your protection here and after your arrival. I went up to see you, but failed. Now what is wanted is this: write me concisely what transportation you require, how much money, and the number of men needed to escort you into the Territory safely; and if you desire it I will come up with them.

Yours respectfully,

J. H. Lane.

To Captain John Brown, Tabor.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 401

John Brown to Franklin B. Sanborn, October 1, 1857

Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, Oct. I, 1857.

F. B. Sanborn, Concord, Mass.

My Dear Sir, — Two days since I received your very kind letter of the 14th September; also one from James Hunnewell, Esq., saying he had sent me $72.68 through P. T. Jackson, Esq., of Boston; for both which I am very glad.¹ I cannot express my gratitude for your earnest and early attention to my wants and those of my family. I regret that Mr. Hunnewell did not at once send me either a check or a draft on New York or Boston, as it will probably be one month or more before I can realize it; and I have not the means of paying my board bill here, not having as yet received anything from Mr. Whitman toward a balance of five hundred dollars, nor heard from him. If I get the money from Mr. Hunnewell and Mr. Whitman, it will answer my present wants, except the secret service I wrote you about. I have all the aims I am likely to need, but am destitute of saddle-bags or knapsacks, holsters and belts; have only a few blankets, no shovels or spades, no mattocks, but three or four adzes (ought to have been one hundred), and am nearly destitute of cooking utensils. The greater part of what I have just named I must do without till another spring, at any rate. I found here one brass field-piece complete, and one damaged gun-carriage, with some ammunition suitable for it; some seventy to seventy-five old damaged United States rifles and muskets, one dozen old sabres, some powder and lead (enough for present use; weight not known), — I suppose sent by National Committee. Also one dozen boxes and barrels of clothing, boots, etc., with three hand gristmills, sent to Nebraska City, from same source. I also got from Dr. Jesse Bowen, of Iowa City, one old wagon, which broke down with a light load on the way; also nine full-rigged tents, three sets tent-poles (additional), eleven pairs blankets, and three axes, sent there by National Committee. Also from Mr. Hurd I got an order for fifty dollars' worth of tents, wagon-covering, ropes, etc., at Chicago, which was paid me. I find one hundred and ninety-four carbines, about thirty-three hundred ball cartridges, all the primers, but no iron ladles. This, I believe, with the teams and wagon I purchased, will give you a pretty good idea of the stuff I have. I had a gun and pair of pistols given me by Dr. Howe, and some three or four guns made for experiment by Mr. Thayer (a little cannon and carriage is one of them), and one nice rifle by the manufacturing company at Worcester.² I had also a few revolvers, common guns, and sabres left on hand, that I took on with me in 1855. While waiting here I and my son have been trying to learn a little of the arts of peace from Colonel F., who is still with us. That is the school I alluded to.

Before I reached here, I had written particularly to friends in Kansas, saying that I wanted help to meet me here, and to wait for me should I be detained on the way. I also arranged with Mr. Whitman in regard to it in Chicago. He sent one man with one hundred and fifty dollars; forty of it he kept, and went immediately back. From that time I send you copies of some of the correspondence between Kansas and me, as rather essential to give you a correct idea of things in connection with my statements yet to be made. When I got on here I immediately wrote Mr. Whitman and several others what was my situation and wants. He (Mr. Whitman) has not written me at all since what 1 send. Others have written, as you will see. I wrote the man Mr. Whitman sent me, among the rest, but get no word from him since what I now send.

As to the policy of voting on Monday next, I think Lane hit his mark at the convention of Grasshopper's, if never before; I mean “An escape into the filthy sluice of a prison.” I had not been able to learn by papers or otherwise distinctly what course had been taken in Kansas till within a few days; and probably the less I have to say, the better.

I omitted above to say that I paid out five hundred and fifty dollars on a contract for one thousand superior pikes, as a cheap but effectual weapon to place in the hands of entirely unskilful and unpractised men, which will not easily get out of order, and require no ammunition. They will cost, handles and all complete, a little short of one dollar each. That contract I have not been able to fulfil; and wise military men may ridicule the idea; but “I take the whole responsibility of that job,” — so that I can only get them.

On hearing that Lane had come into Nebraska, I at once sent a young man with a line, saying I had been hurt, and was exceedingly anxious to see him early in September. To this he sent me no reply, unless Redpath's letter be one. I am now so far recovered from my hurt as to be able to do a little; and foggy as it is, “we do not give up the ship.” I will not say that Kansas, watered by the tears and blood of my children, shall yet be free or I fall. I intend at once to put the supplies I have in a secure place, and then to put myself and such as may go with me where we may get more speedy communications, and can wait until we know better how to act than we now do. 1 send this whole package to you, thinking Concord a less offensive name just now than Boston at this end of the route. I wish the whole conveyed to my friend Stearns and other friends, as old Brown's last report.

Until further advised, I wish all communications addressed to Jonas Jones, Esq., Tabor, Fremont County, Iowa, outwardly; and I hope you will all write often.

I had forgotten to say, that day before yesterday one single man, with no team at all, came from Lane to have me start at once for Kansas, as you will see by copies. Ho said he had left ten fine fellows about thirty miles back. The names he gave me were all strange to me, as well as himself. Tabor folks (some of them) speak slightingly of him, notwithstanding that he too is a general.

_______________

¹ This note explains the source and object of this seasonable contribution.

² These are the arms mentioned in Eli Thayer's letters.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 398-401

Diary of John Hay: Monday, December 23, 1863

I took to the Senate to-day the nomination of Schofield as Major General. The President had previously spoken to some of the Senators about it. He is anxious that Schofield should be confirmed so as to arrange this Missouri matter promptly. I told Sherman, Wilson, Harris and Doolittle. Senator Foote also agreed to do all he could to put the matter properly through. But on the nomination being read in Executive Session, Howard of Michigan objected to its consideration and it was postponed. Sherman and Doolittle tell me it will certainly go through when it is regularly taken up.

Lane came up to the President about it, and told him this. Lane is very anxious to have the Kansas part of the plan at once carried out.

Morgan says that Gratz Brown gave to Sumner to present to the Senate the radical protest against Schoflied’s confirmation, and that Sumner presented it to-day. The President sent for Sumner, but he was not at his lodgings.

The President is very much disappointed at Brown. After three interviews with him he understood that Brown would not oppose the confirmation. It is rather a mean dodge to get Sumner to do it in his stead

The President to-night had a dream: — He was in a party of plain people, and, as it became known who he was, they began to comment on his appearance. One of them said: — “He is a very common-looking man.” The President replied: — “The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them.”

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 141-3; Michael Burlingame, Editor, Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 139-43.

Diary of John Hay: April 29, 1861

Going into Nicolay’s room this morning, Carl Schurz and Jim Lane were sitting. Jim was at the window, filling his soul with gall by steady telescopic contemplation of a secession flag impudently flaunting over a roof in Alexandria. “Let me tell you,” said he to the elegant Teuton, “we have got to whip these scoundrels like hell, Cairl Schurz.  They did a good thing stoning our men at Baltimore and shooting away the flag at Sumter. It has set the great North a howling for blood, and they'll have it.”

“I heard," said Schurz, "you preached a sermon to your men yesterday."

“No, sir! this is no time for preaching. When I went to Mexico there were four preachers in my regiment. In less than a week I issued orders for them all to stop preaching and go to playing cards. In a month or so, they were the biggest devils and best fighters I had.”

An hour afterward Carl Schurz told me he was going home to arm his clansmen for the wars. He has obtained three months’ leave of absence from his diplomatic duties, and permission to raise a cavalry regiment. I doubt the propriety of the movement. He will make a wonderful land pirate; bold, quick, brilliant and reckless. He will be hard to control and difficult to direct. Still, we shall see. He is a wonderful man.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 26-7; Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, p. 13-4; Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors; Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 13-4