Senator Charles Sumner to John M. Forbes, December 28, 1862

Washington, 28th December, 1862.

My Dear Forbes, — Last evening I handed to the President a memorial from clergymen, calling on him to stand by his Proclamation, reading it to him aloud.

I then handed him your slip Audax, which he commenced reading.

Then a slip from a Boston paper, advertising a musical celebration in honor of the Proclamation, 1st January, with all the names, yours among the rest.

Then the unsigned address¹ from the electors, which he proceeded to read aloud.

I then read to him Mr. Chapman's letter, which I enforced by saying that he was now a very able judge of our Supreme Court,² once a Hunker, and not much of my way of thinking in times past.

I then proceeded to dwell on the importance and grandeur of the act, and how impatient we all are that it should be done in the way to enlist the most sympathy and to stifle opposition. On his account I urged that it should be a military decree, countersigned by the Secretary of War, and that it should have something in it showing that though an act of military necessity and just self-defense, it was also an act of justice and humanity, which must have the blessings of a benevolent God.

The President says that he could not stop the Proclamation if he would, and he would not if he could. Burnside was present at this remark.

I find Stanton unusually sanguine and confident. He says that he shall have 200,000 negroes under arms before June, holding the Mississippi River and garrisoning the ports, so that our white soldiers can go elsewhere. The President accepts this idea.

Let the music sound, and the day be celebrated.

_______________

¹ This was an address slightly different in form from that sent through Mr. Sedgwick. — Ed.

² Afterwards the chief justice. — Ed.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 352-3

John M. Forbes to Senator Charles Sumner, December 27, 1862

Boston, December 27, 1862.

My. Dear Mr. Sumner, — I had hoped to have sent you to-day communications to the President from the rest of our electors (except Mr. Morey, absent in Europe) all indorsing the Proclamation and begging for its enforcement; but the electors are so widely separated, from Nantucket to the Connecticut, that concert of action is difficult. Whittier will probably write a letter instead of signing with us.

May I ask of you the favor to present the letters already sent you, carefully including Judge Chapman's cordial assent.

I sincerely hope that you and others will have sufficient influence with the President to insure his giving us on 1st January such a Proclamation as will only need the “General Orders” of his subordinates to carry into effect not only emancipation but all the fruits thereof, in the perfect right to use the negro in every respect as a man, and consequently as a soldier, sailor, or laborer, wherever he can most effectually strike a blow against the enemy.

It seems to me very important that the ground of "military necessity" should be even more squarely taken than it was on 22d September. Many of our strongest Republicans, some even of our Lincoln electors, have constitutional scruples in regard to emancipation upon any other ground, and with them must be joined a large class of Democrats, and selfstyled “Conservatives,” whose support is highly desirable, and ought to be secured where it can be done without any sacrifice of principle.

I know that you and many others would like to have it done upon higher ground, but the main thing is to have it done strongly, and to have it so backed up by public opinion that it will strike the telling blow, at the rebellion and at slavery together, which we so much need.

I buy and eat my bread made from the flour raised by the hard-working farmer; it is certainly satisfactory that in so doing I am helping the farmer clothe his children, but my motive is self-preservation, not philanthropy or justice. Let the President free the slaves upon the same principle, and so state it that the masses of our people can easily understand it.

He will thus remove constitutional scruples from some, and will draw to himself the support of a very large class who do not want to expend their brothers and sons and money for the benefit of the negro, but who will be very glad to see Northern life and treasure saved by any practical measure, even if it does incidentally an act of justice and benevolence.

Now I would not by any means disclaim the higher motives, but where so much prejudice exists, I would eat my bread to sustain my life; I would take the one short, sure method of preserving the national life, — and say little about any other motive. . . .

Forgive me for writing so much, and for asking you to try to urge my poor ideas upon the President, but I feel strongly that we all need encouragement and hope; and a good strong Proclamation full of vigor, of freedom, and of democracy, would almost compensate us for the dreadful repulse of Fredericksburg.

Truly yours,

J. M. Forbes.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 349-51

Senator Charles Sumner to John M. Forbes, December 25, 1862

Washington, Xmas Day, 1862.

My Dear Forbes, — Your letter of 23d was on my table when I returned from an interview with the President, where much had been said about the Proclamation. He is now considering how to proclaim on 1st January. It will be done. He says of himself that he is hard to be moved from any position which he has taken. He let me know last evening of his plan to employ African troops to hold the Mississippi River, and also other posts in the warm climates, so that our white soldiers may be employed elsewhere. He seemed much in earnest.

I did not write at once on the receipt of your letter of 18th December, because it found me excessively occupied, and because I had been already assured by the President with regard to the Proclamation. I see no objection to printing the extract from Stephens¹ on the sheet with the Proclamation; and I like much the idea of distributing the Proclamation through the army. I have exhorted the President to put into the next Proclamation some sentiment of justice and humanity. He promised at once to consider it.

Why not send to all the hospitals, camps, posts? The more the better.

Ever yours,

Charles Summer.

­­­_______________

¹ “This stone (slavery), which was rejected by the first builders, is become the chief stone of the corner in our new edifice.” (Speech of Alex. H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States, delivered March 31,1861.)

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 348-9

Gerry W. Cochrane and John M. Forbes to Abraham Lincoln, December 24, 1862

December 24. 1862

To Abraham Lincoln

President of the United States

Washington

Sir.

The undersigned, as Electors performed two years ago the pleasant duty of certifying to your appointment to the Chief Magistracy of this country by the choice of the People.

Believing that the approaching new year brings with it a crisis in the life of the Nation, they beg leave to congratulate you upon your having begun the greatest act in American history; the emancipation of three millions of blacks and of five millions of whites from the power of an aristocratic class.

It is admitted upon all sides that the transfer of three millions of Slaves, from the productive force of the Rebels to that of the loyal States would instantly end the Rebellion; it follows that each Slave so transferred will proportionately contribute to that end.

It is only a question of time when emancipation must take place, and it is believed, that no time can occur, so safe from violence as when the Slaves have the Strength of the Union to rally behind, and when a large army of the Rebels can & ought to be thus withdrawn, from opposing the laws to the more fitting work of keeping order around their own homes. For these & other reasons the undersigned believe that Emancipation is the weapon which, efficiently used can not only strike at the heart of the Rebellion but lay the foundation for a true & permanent republic; a consummation even more beneficent to the moral & material interests of the people of the South, than to those of the North.

They therefore earnestly pray you to complete now your great work, by taking every possible measure to carry into practical effect the promise of your proclamation of 22d September, and especially by demanding of every person in the Military Naval & civil service of your government to obey strictly the regulations by which you will enforce your now settled policy.

They believe that by so doing you will place yourself among the great benefactors of your country & of the human race, and that you will live in future ages by the side of the Father of his Country – George Washington.

Respectfully Submitted

J. M Forbes}
}	Electors
Gerry. W. Cochrane}

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 347-8; This letter can be located amongst the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Congressman Charles B. Sedgwick to John M. Forbes, December 22, 1862

Washington, 22d December, 1862.

My Dear Mr. Forbes, — I have shown your letter (copy) to Mr. Fessenden to several conservative gentlemen of my acquaintance. They all agree in saying that it would be well to send on a strong delegation of clergy and laity to urge on the President. Some doubt his intention to issue the proclamation of 1st January; I do not. Many assert, more fear, that it will be essentially modified from what is promised. I do not fear this; but what I do fear is, that he will stop with the proclamation and take no active and vigorous measures to insure its efficacy. I say he will issue it, because it is his own offspring, which Seward tried hard to strangle at its birth, and failed to do it. If the President don't tell you all about it some time, I will, as I heard the story from the chief himself. Judge Kelly told me this evening he had just come from Stanton, who told him that the President and Burnside had been there but a little while before, and this subject coming up, the President said “that he could not stop the Proclamation if he would, and he would not if he could; that just as soon as the first of January dawned it would be issued.” So I cannot doubt that it will be issued. There are other facts within my knowledge which convince me that it will certainly go forth. Every conceivable influence has been brought to bear upon him to induce him to withhold or modify, — threats, entreaties, all sorts of humbugs, but he is firm as a mule.

Now if Banks can start from Mobile or New Orleans with a sufficient army, or send Butler, which will be equally well, perhaps, armed with this proclamation, and enlist every able-bodied, willing, loyal negro, as he progresses into the country, until he has 100,000 of them under arms, the great work will be accomplished. If Banks was sent South for some such purpose, the expedition is a sensible one; if not, it is pure strategy, and not worth, in the aggregate, so much as one of the rotten ships in which it was embarked. I say by all means come on and be here in force the last of this month. Be ready to shout Hallelujah on the morning of 1st January, and let the President know that he is to have sympathy and support. By all means, put him up to practical measures to make it successful. Tell him the world will pardon his crimes, and his stories even, if he only makes the proclamation a success, and that if he fails he will be gibbeted in history as a great, long-legged, awkward, country pettifogger, without brains or backbone.

We have had a nice row in the cabinet. The Senate had a secret caucus and resolved to get rid of the President's evil genius, Seward. Preston King, fearing Seward, loose, would endanger his prospects for senator, slipped out and told Seward all about it. Seward tendered his resignation Wednesday evening. By Thursday morning his friends began to pour in, to threaten the President if he accepted it. The world in general only found it out on Friday. Chase, like a good boy, on Saturday went out to bring little wandering Willie back. The telegraph is forbidden to carry the startling news to the country, except, now, to my Lord Thurlow¹and some others; and on Monday all goes “merry as a marriage bell” again. So the Senate is snubbed, Seward is more powerful than ever, Chase's radical friends are disgusted that he has been used to save Seward from his folly, and the great chasm into which the administration was to fall is bridged. Vive la Humbug!

_______________

¹ Thurlow Weed, editor of the Albany Journal, Mr. Seward's right-hand man. — Ed.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 344-6

Gustavus V. Fox to John M. Forbes, December 19, 1862

Navy Department, December 19, 1862.

Dear Sir, — I have yours of 17th inst. I fancy there can be no ironclads for the rebels put into the water before May. But they require strict watching and ample measures to guard against their coming over here. Mr. Seward is of the opinion that the English government are very anxious for us to come into their market for the purchase of vessels, that we may be put upon an equal footing with the South. The reclamations in the matter of the Alabama have disturbed them very much. With this view of the matter, Mr. Welles rather inclines to some doubt about making any purchases. I think you and Mr. Upton better come on after the holidays; it would be good to discuss that and other matters.

When a superintending Providence deprives us of all means of recruiting our armies, I believe we will call upon those who, at least, will, by their desertion, paralyze the rebels. The President remarked to me the other night that he was very anxious to have us take Sumter, and that he would man it with negroes. When the Nahant leaves, we shall have the number of ironclads fixed upon as the least number to go into Charleston. That vessel will not probably leave before the first of January.

There is a good deal of depression felt at the repulse at Fredericksburg, and the President is exceedingly disturbed; but it seems to me that, looking over the whole ground, the movements contemplated West, and the probability of getting possession of the remaining ports South, we should hardly deserve success if we allowed our faith to waver now. It is a matter of regret, however, that the whole military force of the country is not used to expel the enemy from Virginia.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 342-3

Gustavus V. Fox to John M. Forbes, December 9, 1862

Navy Department, December 9, 1862.

My Dear Sir, — I have your letter of the 3d inst. The matter of purchase of vessels fitting out in England has frequently been under discussion, and, as a matter of precaution, is expensive, as it would involve us in unlimited purchases without entirely curing the evil, since every steamer could not be obtained. There are but very few of the English steamers that escape our cruisers. I think it safe to say that not one in twenty has landed a cargo and returned safely to England.

The Kate, an iron steamer, has been the most successful, and she could not cross the ocean. She has just been lost at Wilmington by running into the obstructions at New Inlet. With regard to two ironclads (one at Glasgow and one at Liverpool), I think it very important to purchase them if they can be obtained for money. Mr. Welles favors the idea, and Mr. Seward simply urges it. If Mr. Upton could do this, I think it would be well to send him out. If you will talk the matter over with him, and it seems feasible, Mr. Upton had better come on. No one but Mr. Seward, Mr. Welles, and ourselves need know it. Their vessels fitting to run the blockade can be disposed of, but the ironclads (if rumors in regard to them be true) are a more serious matter, deserving of instant action at any price, since we have not a port North that can resist an ironclad of very moderate power.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 341-2

Gustavus V. Fox to John M. Forbes, November 22, 1862

Navy Department, November 22, 1862.

Dear Sir, — . . . As to our defenses, I believe this is about the truth. The Alabama can be kept out by our present forts. She is doing a better business, with less risk, than attacking Boston. No forts can keep out ironclads. We must have obstructions easily raised. There are no big guns to spare. Parties cannot make guns who are not experienced. We have started half a dozen new foundries in New England the last year, and got only one good gun. Any man for a year past, and now, who wishes a contract for big guns can have it. No one has ever been refused. As to ironclads it is the same. Every one is invited and has been, and no one capable of doing the work has been refused. So with marine engines. We will build a vessel for every party who will take an engine. Washington is reported to have said, “In peace, prepare for war.” We didn't, and here we are. It is of no use to sacrifice anybody; we are caught unprepared, and must pay for it. . . . We are building some wooden-bottom turret ships in the navy yards to carry four 15-inch guns. We fired the 15-inch gun at nine inches of iron. It did not penetrate, but it shook the whole affair nearly to pieces. We are in the hands of the contractors, who are doing all they can, but it is far short of public expectation. In the mean time, if harbor obstructions are not provided, our cities are not safe against ironclads.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 340-1

John M. Forbes to Joshua Bates, of Baring Bros. & Co., London., November 11, 1862

Boston, November 11, 1862.

My Dear Mr. Bates, — Nothing from you lately; and I suppose even your steady nerves and heart are shaken by our long supineness. We have awaked at last, and if we had only a William Pitt to put over our cabinet, we should be all right.

Mr. Chase, I hear, shows some signs of returning sanity by inquiring (outside of the clique who had his ear) as to his future course. Our friend Hooper has a good deal to answer for in leading him into the legal tender labyrinth; it will take wiser heads to guide him out. We are not quite lost yet, and if the report due next month shows that he has sounded the depths of the currency issue as a resource, and is coming back to sound principles of finance, we may, with large revenues from our tax bill (reported to be very large), and with some military vigor, still save ourselves from utter ruin, — financially, I mean.

Somehow or other, in spite of weak-kneed friends and open traitors at home, and a sharp enemy outside, we can and will keep the old ship together.

To fail now is to establish the most dangerous military government for our neighbors that the world ever saw. Five or six millions of whites despising labor, and having a black slave race to work for them, while they fight! If we disarm, with such a neighbor unconquered, and our so-called democracy ready to ally itself with them, we may as well give up our government at once and return to feudalism.

I hope you will give me the benefit of a hint now and then from your deep stores of financial experience, and am, with best regards to Mrs. Bates,

Yours, very truly,

J. M. Forbes.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 339-40

John M. Forbes to Senator William P. Fessenden, November 15, 1862

Boston, November 15, 1862.

My Dear Sir, — Your note received. I must differ from you about the President. He has been in the hands of a vacillating, undecided man like Seward!

With your decided opinions, if you were once in the cabinet, he and all the political aspirants there would form into line and march to your music. Even Chase would be glad to see some one else put at the head to take the responsibility. His opinions are firm enough, but he lacks your uncompromising directness of will. The only possible doubt is your health, and you may as well die at the head of the nation a few months hence, after saving it, as at the head of the Senate a few years hence, fighting the compromisers and rebels combined.

A prominent New York man ascribes, in a private letter, the late failure there¹ to Seward and his friends, and says the President ought to know and act upon it. He adds, “The accession of Mr.W. P. F. would delight me.” He [my correspondent] is a man who, perhaps, next to you, ought to be there himself, though known at the bar rather than in public life.

_______________

¹ Referring to the defeat of the Republican party in New York, and the election of Seymour, the Democratic candidate for governor. — ED.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 338

Senator William P. Fessenden to John M. Forbes, November 13, 1862

Portland, November 13, 1862.

My Dear Sir, — I have received your letter, and also the newspaper puff, for which I am probably indebted to you. McClellan's removal is a great step, but it should have been taken a year ago. There was no excuse for giving him the command of the army after his Yorktown campaign, and the President cannot defend himself for so doing. He knew his unfitness and admitted it. If it had not been proved before, the failure to win Antietam (for he did not win it), and to attack Lee on the day following, demonstrated either his incapacity or his treachery. Fear of offending the Democracy has been at the bottom of all our disasters. I am not clear that the result of the elections is not fortunate for the country, for it has taught the President that he has nothing to look for in that quarter, a fact which any sensible man might have seen. The only way to get the support of the Democracy is to show that you don't fear them. It is a mistake to suppose that you will gain anything of such people by conciliation, or by admitting them to your councils.

As to the cabinet, I have no belief that there will be any change. Seward will never yield his place willingly, and the President never will ask him to do so. But, whatever may happen, no man could be of much use in a cabinet office, for no man could carry out his own views. You cannot change the President's character or conduct, unfortunately; he remained long enough at Springfield, surrounded by toadies and office-seekers, to persuade himself that he was specially chosen by the Almighty for this great crisis, and well chosen. This conceit has never yet been beaten out of him, and until it is, no human wisdom can be of much avail. I see nothing for it but to let the ship of state drift along, hoping that the current of public opinion may bring it safely into port. For myself, I can only say that there is no political calamity I should look upon with so much dread as the being asked to share the responsibility of guiding it. I have neither the strength nor the wisdom requisite, and if I had, it would be useless. No, my friend, I can, perhaps, render my country some service where I am. In the cabinet I could no [sic] nothing, and no friend of mine should ever wish to see me there.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 336-8

William Cullen Bryant to John M. Forbes, October 16, 1862

Office Of The Evening Post,

New York, October 16, 1862.

My Dear Sir, — What your friend says of Grant may be the truth, so far as he is acquainted with his history. But I have friends who profess to be acquainted with him, and who declare that he is now a temperate man, and that it is a cruel wrong to speak of him as otherwise. I have in my drawer a batch of written testimonials to that effect. He reformed when he got or was put out of the army, and went into it again with a solemn promise of abstinence. One of my acquaintances has made it his special business to inquire concerning his habits, of the officers who have recently served with him or under him. None of them have seen him drunk, or seen him drink. Their general testimony is that he is a man remarkably insensible to danger, active, and adventurous.

Whether he drinks or not, he is certainly a fighting general, and a successful fighter, which is a great thing in these days.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 335-6

Governor John A. Andrew to John M. Forbes, September 13, 1862

Boston, September 13, 1862.

My Dear Sir, — I like your suggestions very much, but I venture to suggest: 1st, that having perused the report of the testimony . . . printed . . . by order of the Senate, I do not think any part of the disaster of Bull Run was due to Colonel M., and I think that on the weight of the evidence he was sick, but not intoxicated. . . .

2d, as to contractors. I think the department can do nothing in the direction you propose; Congress might. And I think General Meigs might properly be appealed to for an opinion. Stanton can know but little about the matter directly. And I think a part of the rage against him is due to the contractors who like a long war and were angry that Stanton tried to shorten it.

3d, as to skulkers and spies. Unless the Generalin-Chief is in earnest, these reforms are impossible. The department may fulminate regulations, but in vain, as long as imbecility, disobedience, evasion of duty, neglect of duty, coldness towards the cause itself, distinguish the General-in-Chief.

The department is powerless for reform while the army is led as it now is led and has been led hitherto. It can only give rules and orders, but it remains for the officers in command to enforce them. The President persists in retaining those who will not do what you and I think zeal and faithful service demand. The reform is only possible by a new commander in the field. Thus believing, I have not the heart to write of these details to the Secretary.

I am ever faithfully and most respectfully yours,

John A. Andrew.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 331-2

Memoranda of John M. Forbes: Minor Reforms Needed, September, 1862.

Minor Reforms Needed. September, 1862.

1st. Drunken officers. The public, rightly or wrongly, attribute part of the mischief at Bull Run to one, Colonel M., commanding the reserve. . . . If there be no time for courts-martial, why not quietly shelve every drunkard?

2d. Skulkers. The President found at Harrison's Bar half his army unaccounted for. The papers tell of crowds of stragglers helping to make panics in each battle. The enemy shoot their stragglers. We might at least drop, if not from a tree by a rope, at least from the army list, every skulking officer. . . . The inclosed cutting gives a hint of where the record can be found (the Marshall House and City Hotel, Alexandria) of the doings of 135 officers on Sunday, August 31, when our army was in its greatest peril. Why not call on each to account satisfactorily for his being there on that day? In short, why not have an efficient police system to correct this crying evil?

3d. Spies. The spies have thus far slain more than any other arm of the enemy. We hear of one, a famous guerilla, being condemned to die in Missouri; but it looks like a mere excuse for punishing other crimes. Several have been imprisoned, some compelled to take the oath!! but not one choked to death, — they probably being practised in swallowing hard oaths! We see accounts from Norfolk of three rebel mail carriers caught passing our lines “with private letters only, nothing of public interest,” and these will doubtless be leniently dealt with! Who can say what dangerous cipher those private letters carried? or whether the real object of their mission — a short military dispatch — was not swallowed or destroyed? . . . Shall we encourage spies and informers by continued leniency toward mail carriers from our lines to the enemy's? Washington thought it necessary to hang the noble André. Can it be doubted that the enemy destroy without any compunction any of our spies or “mail carriers”? We hang a man for the doubtful military crime of hauling down a flag, and we let pass free, or punish lightly, men who, by all military usages, and by the dictates of common sense, deserve the heaviest punishment. Half a dozen spies hanged would have saved as many thousand lives, and have given confidence to our own people and soldiers in the earnestness of their leaders, civil and military. It is not too late to begin.

4th. Robbers, in the shape of contractors, and of army officers receiving commissions [on purchases or sales for the government]; in short, the army worms of our military wheat. Of course, eternal vigilance is the only remedy for this disease. How would it do, as a sort of scarecrow at least, to insert a clause in each contract, that the contractor becomes by signing it subject to martial law, both as to his person and property? Without legislation it would not be binding, but many, nay, most of the new contracts will run beyond the meeting of the next Congress, when we may have a law for it, and by signing such a contract, agreeing to be amenable, the party could not complain that the law was ex post facto.

We who are paying taxes feel that the army contractors and the commission-receiving officers are eating us up. The soldier feels it in his bare feet and back, and sometimes in his empty stomach, and a hint from the Department would surely give us such a law during the first week of the session. The enemy does not tolerate drunken generals, stragglers, spies, or thieving contractors. Let us remember the old proverb, “Fas est et ab hoste doceri.”

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 328-31

John M. Forbes to William Curtis Noyes, August 12, 1862

Naushon Island, August 12,1862.

My Dear Sir, — Your favor of the 7th has been sent me here, where I am established for a month or two, with a chance to visit Boston only occasionally. I am very glad that my plan strikes you favorably. Governor Andrew made me a flying visit yesterday, and seems to like the idea much; he had already made use of the slips I sent him of the “aristocracy vs. popular government” by sending them to the recruiting stations.

I sincerely hope a thorough system may be inaugurated under your personal oversight in such a manner as will shut off any attempt to use it either for personal ambition (i. e. for lauding political or military aspirants), or even for pushing the views of our most extreme Republicans. To do its best work, it needs to be broader than any one set of men, even the best, belonging to our wing of the Republican party. In other words, its aim should not be anti-slavery, except incidentally, but should be “the vigorous prosecution of the war.” How would it do to style it “the committee of correspondence upon the vigorous prosecution of the war”?

Mr. George W. Curtis, who is here, and has considerable experience with the press, thinks there is some danger of jealousy from the press at the appearance of dictation there would be in my original plan of sending with each article a circular from the committee, suggesting its republication. If this be so, perhaps the best mode would be to have our organization complete, but informal; that is to say, not appearing before the public as a committee. The articles we wish to have republished would, in most cases, if well selected, be adopted in each State, either at the individual suggestion of our committeeman for that point, or they might be sent anonymously with a printed or written line, saying, for instance, that a “fellow-countryman calls your attention to the inclosed important article as valuable for circulation.”

One of the most important ends that could be gained by a judicious organization would be to sink and obliterate the old party names and prejudices, especially those connected with the name of democrat.

You and I have fought under the Whig banner; one of our strongest allies is Mr. Bryant, the leader of the only really Democratic party which ever existed. Yet we constantly find our best Republican journals even now fighting “Democracy.” It seems to me of vast importance to sink these old distinctions, and to put before the voting and fighting masses, in the strongest light, the real issue — of the war-Democratic or Republican [government], (whichever we may call the government of the people) vs. Aristocratic government; in other words, the people vs. a class. . . .

I give you a rough sketch of an organization, and am very truly yours,

J. M. Forbes

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 326-7

John M. Forbes to William Curtis Noyes, July 28, 1862

Boston, July 28,1862.

My Dear Sir, — Hardly a day passes that I do not see some article which ought to be republished in each of the loyal States: Evarts's letter, your New York resolutions, one day, something from the “Evening Post” or “Tribune,” another, something better from the rebels, proclaiming themselves “aristocrats and masters bound to rule us.”

It seems to me that we need a publishing committee with headquarters in New York, and a member at each principal point. When anything good comes out, it can always be copied without cost, and a quantity of slips struck off at insignificant expense. These should be sent with the indorsement of a member of the committee to each important newspaper. The chief cost would be in postage, and this might fairly be obviated to a large extent by calling upon members of Congress for franks for an object of such public interest. If you approve of the idea, perhaps you will talk with Mr. Bryant and other leading men, and act. I shall be away all summer, but I suggest for Boston James B. Thayer, a lawyer, brother of W. S. Thayer, formerly connected with the “Evening Post,” now consul-general to Egypt. Party and personal interests ought to be carefully kept out of it, and the vigorous prosecution of the war made its chief object. Such an article as I inclose would just now be of great value in raising recruits, and opening the eyes of the people to the real nature of the contest, aristocracy vs. popular government, and slave labor vs. free labor. It is pretty clear that your leaders are “marching on” in New York, and it is now mainly important to enlighten the working classes.

If they could see where the real support of the war lies, it is my belief that they would force the administration and the generals to fire into the enemy's powder magazine, and then we should soon come down to Mr. Seward's sixty days' duration of the war! Please return me the inclosed cutting, which I mean to make worth several recruits, and oblige,

Yours truly,

J. M. Forbes.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 324-5

Congressman Charles B. Sedgwick to John M. Forbes, June 28, 1862

Washington, 28th June, 1862.

My Dear Mr. Forbes, — Well, by Jove, if this isn't the luckiest escape I ever had! I have been swearing at myself the last fortnight for abusing you like a pickpocket, taking no notice of your friendly letters which by way of penance I have kept on my table where I should see them on coming in or going out, on lying down and rising up, expecting every day to hear that you had denied on ’Change having ever seen me, and now comes your letter offering an apology. Good! make it! it shall be accepted, although your last letter was abusive. The truth is I vowed never to write you until I had settled for you the inclosed account,¹ which you sent me just twenty-seven days ago. They tried to send it back, but I said no, I wanted it paid, and I have only just got it, although it appears to have been made out several days. Please sign it in all the places where you see room for your name and return it to me, and I will hand over the money to the Sanitary, if you still remain charitably inclined.

. . . I showed H. your letter about generals giving certificates to loyal blacks who had served the government, which would serve as manumission deeds to them and their families. It seemed to go through his feathers as a good practical idea, and he has taken the letter home to Ohio to consider of it and sit on it!

I have yet some hopes; I think the tone of Congress is improving, but very slowly. If Mallory don't succeed in hanging me, as he proposes, I may bring them up to something practical yet.

Grimes is crowding the principle of your suggestion in the Senate and says he shall pass it. There is a scriptural objection, however, to success; it is written that “you may bray an ass in a mortar, she will not be wise.” How would firing them out of Porter's mortar answer? After we have been whipped a few times, as we were on James Island, I think our ideas on the subject of natural allies will be improved. Do you see that your friend Fremont has been kicking out of the traces again? I fear J. has been putting him up to this folly. You will have to give him up as one of the impracticables, and go in for some more steady and less mercurial general.

About Naushon; I should like to swing a hammock under a beech in the forests there about 15th August and sleep for two weeks. I am tired out; we have pretty much reorganized the whole Navy Department. I have worked hard upon it and am fatigued. After making it all over new, would it not be well enough to give it a new head?  . . . After being home three or four weeks I want to come down to your kingdom by the sea to rest. I will bring my wife down to talk. Please let me know what time in the last half of August it will be convenient for you to see us.

I am very sorry for that reverse in Charleston. I shall try and make a row about it, but I suppose it will do no good until Richmond is taken. If you find money hard to be got let us know and we will get out another batch of greenbacks. The next bill will make provision for a large government paper-mill, and so we will save all the profits. With kind regards to Mrs. F. and the children.

_______________

¹ Of expenses incurred on the Ship Commission.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 320-2

John M. Forbes to Congressman Charles B. Sedgwick, June 27, 1862

Boston, June 27,1862.

My Dear Mr. Sedgwick, — I have not heard a word from you since I wrote you an abusive letter because you did not go far enough in your bill. I will take it all back if you are offended, and make the most abject apologies! What is the present market price of a senator? S. was rather dear at fifty, but I suppose he was rather high up on the committee!

When are you coming this way, and when will you and Mrs. Sedgwick give us a visit at Naushon? We shall go there some time next month.

I was sorry, but not surprised, to see that we had had a rebuff at Charleston.¹ When I returned from Port Royal, I wrote to Senator Wilson urging reinforcements and predicting disaster if we went without them. I don't think now our forces are safe on the Sea Islands, outside the guns of the navy, without reinforcements.

Very truly yours,

J. M. Forbes.

How beautifully easy you legislators have made money! How valuable your restriction to one hundred millions!

_______________

¹ Probably referring to a skirmish at Secessionville, S. C, in which the Union forces were defeated.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 318-9

John M. Forbes to Senator Charles Sumner, June 27, 1862

Boston, June 27, 1862.

My Dear Mr. Sumner, — The inclosed¹ will explain itself. If you don't object, you may think it worth sending to the “Evening Post,” with our names struck out! I do not see how the Senate can sit with a member who acknowledges such operations, unless a majority of the senators are rotten. Even then I should think the honest ones could stuff it down their throats. If you don't do something, the public verdict will be that you dare not denounce what has been a senatorial custom.  . . . Whoever it hits, Republican, Hunker, or pro-slavery Democrat, the knife ought to be applied, and all the sooner because the immediate sinner is a soidisant Republican.

_______________

¹ A squib in the form of a supposed letter from a business firm to Senator Sumner, referring to the acknowledged acceptance of a bribe by a United States senator, and frankly proposing to bribe Mr. Sumner into obtaining government contracts for them. — Ed.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 318-9

Diary of Laura M. Towne: April 17, 1862

Beaufort, S.C., April 17, 1862.

At Mrs. John Forbes',¹ formerly Mr. Tripp's house,— a modern built new building with expensive sea wall and other improvements. The wind blows freshly nearly all day and the tide rises over sandy, grassy flats on three sides of the house. These sands are full of fiddler-crab holes, and are at low tide the resort of negro children with tubs on their heads, crabbing. Soldiers, fishermen, and stragglers also come there, and we see not a little life. Boats frequently pass by, the negro rowers singing their refrains. One very pretty one this morning Moses told me was: —

“De bells done rang

An' we goin' home —

The bells in heaven are ringing.”

Every now and then they shout and change the monotony by several very quick notes, or three or four long-drawn-out ones. One man sings a few words and the chorus breaks in, sometimes with a shout or interjecttional notes. Another song was, “We're bound to go” — to heaven, I suppose. Another had a chorus of “Oh yes, ma'am,” at every five or six bars.

Yesterday Caroline² took us to her mother's house. They were expecting us and were neatly dressed, and elegantly furnished indeed was their room. It had straw matting and a mahogany bureau, besides other things that said plainly “massa's” house had contributed to the splendor, probably after the hasty retreat of “massa's” family. The two women there were both of the colored aristocracy, had lived in the best families, never did any work to speak of, longed for the young ladies and young “mas'rs” back again, because April was the month they used to come to Beaufort and have such gay times. But if their masters were to come back they wanted to go North with us. They begged us to stay, for “seemed like they couldn't be happy widout white ladies ‘roun’.” They hoped it would be healthy so that we could stay, but they thought it would not be so, because the city is not cleaned as it used to be. They would have gone with their masters, both of them, but they had relations whom they did not want to be parted from, “except by death,” who were not going. One of them had gone at first, but ran away and found her way back here, “by de direction of de Lord.” They were both nice women. In the quarters we afterward went to, we saw a dirty family and two horribly ugly old women. They had got a lesson from some one and said, “We got to keep clean or we'll all be sick.” They were not putting their lesson to use.

The little cook-house belonging to this fine mansion is dark and dirty, but nearly empty. Cut-glass tumbler and flower glass on the mantelpiece spoke of the spoliation. Caroline, who escorted us, walked a little distance behind, without bonnet or any outdoor garment. She, however, wore a silver thimble very ostentatiously and carried a little bit of embroidered curtain for a pocket handkerchief, holding it at the middle with her hand put daintily at her waist. We passed a soldier — they are at every corner — and he said something rather jeering. Caroline stepped up, grinning with delight, and told us he said, “There goes the Southern aristocracy with their nigger behind them.” She seemed to be prouder than ever after this. She is rather pretty, very intelligent and respectful, but not very industrious, I fancy.

The walk through the town was so painful, not only from the desertion and desolation, but more than that from the crowd of soldiery lounging, idling, growing desperate for amusement and occupation, till they resort to brutality for excitement. I saw a soldier beating a horse so that I think it possible he killed him. Others galloped past us in a most reckless, unconscionable manner; others stared and looked unfriendly; others gave us a civil military salute and a look as if they saw something from home gladly. There are two Pennsylvania regiments here now, I think. The artillery is encamped near here.

Besides soldiers the streets are full of the oddest negro children — dirty and ragged, but about the same as so many Irish in intelligence, I think, though their mode of speaking is not very intelligible.

The streets are lovely in all that nature does for them. The shade trees are fine, the wild flowers luxuriant, and the mocking-birds perfectly enchanting. They are so numerous and noisy that it is almost like being in a canary bird fancier's.

This morning we went — Mrs. Forbes, Mr. Philbrick,³ and I — to two of the schools. There are not many pupils now, as the General is sending all the negro women and children to the plantations to keep them away from the soldiers. They say that at Hilton Head the negroes are getting unmanageable from mixing with the soldiers, and this is to be prevented here. Women and children, some with babies, some with little toddling things hanging about them, were seated and busily at work. We saw in the school Mrs. Nicholson, Miss White, and Mr. Nichols, who was teaching the little darkies gymnastics and what various things were for, eyes, etc. He asked what ears were made for, and when they said, “To yer with,” he could not understand them at all. The women were given the clothes they make up for their children. I saw some very low-looking women who answered very intelligently, contrary to my expectations, and who were doing pretty good sewing.

There are several very light children at these schools, two with red hair, and one boy who has straight black hair and a head like Andrew Jackson, tall and not wide, but with the front remarkably developed so as to give it an overhanging look. Some, indeed most of them, were the real bullet-headed negroes.

In Miss White's school all of them knew their letters, and she was hearing a class spell words of one syllable.

I have seen little, but have had two talks with both Mr. Pierce⁴ and Mr. French,⁵ and have heard from Mrs. Forbes much of what has been going on as she sees it. Mr. Hooper⁶ also enlightens me a little, and Mr. Philbrick. They all say that the cotton agents have been a great trouble and promise still to be, but Mr. French says we have gained the victory there. There seems to me to be a great want of system, and most incongruous elements here. Some of the women are uneducated and coarse in their looks, but I should think some of them at least are earnest and hard workers. Perhaps they are better fitted for this work than people with more refinement, for it certainly takes great nerve to walk here among the soldiers and negroes and not be disgusted or shocked or pained so much as to give it all up.

The Boston and Washington ladies have all gone to the plantations on the islands near here, where I am also going, and that leaves Mr. French and the New York party for the mainland, or I mean for Beaufort and this island. . . .

I have felt all along that nothing could excuse me for leaving home, and work undone there, but doing more and better work here. Nothing can make amends to my friends for all the anxiety I shall cause them, for the publicity of a not pleasant kind I shall bring upon them, but really doing here what no one else could do as well. So I have set myself a hard task. I shall want Ellen's⁷ help. We shall be strong together — I shall be weak apart.

I think a rather too cautious spirit prevails — antislavery is to be kept in the background for fear of exciting the animosity of the army, and we are only here by military sufferance. But we have the odium of out-and-out abolitionists, why not take the credit? Why not be so confident and freely daring as to secure respect! It will never be done by an apologetic, insinuating way of going to work.

I wish they would all say out loud quietly, respectfully, firmly, “We have come to do anti-slavery work, and we think it noble work and we mean to do it earnestly.”

Instead of this, they do not even tell the slaves that they are free, and they lead them to suppose that if they do not do so and so, they may be returned to their masters. They keep in the background with the army the benevolence of their plans or the justice of them, and merely insist upon the immediate expediency, which I must say is not very apparent. If they do not take the  higher ground, their cause and reputation are lost. But the work will go on. May I help it!

_______________

¹ Mrs. John M. Forbes. Mr. Forbes had rented a house in Beaufort for a short time.

² A negro servant.

³ Edward S. Philbrick, of Brookline, Massachusetts, who had volunteered for service in the Sea Islands, and been given charge of three plantations.

⁴ Edward L. Pierce, the government agent.

⁵ Rev. Mansfield French.

⁶ Edward W. Hooper, later Treasurer of Harvard College.

⁷ Miss Ellen Murray.

Rupert Sargent Holland, Editor, Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne: Written from the Sea Islands of South Carolina 1862-1864, p. 3-9