Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: March 2, 1865

Raining. No well-authenticated news; but by many it is believed Staunton is in the hands of the enemy, and Lynchburg menaced. Nevertheless, the government is sending a portion of the archives and stores to Lynchburg!

The clergymen are at work begging supplies for the soldiers; and they say the holding of Richmond and the success of the cause depend upon the success of their efforts, the government being null! A large per cent. of these preachers is of Northern birth and some of them may possibly betray the cause if they deem it desperate. This is the history of such men in the South so far. But the President trusts them, and we must trust the President.

Hon. Wm. C. Rives has resigned his seat in Congress. Alleged causes, ill health and great age-over 70.

The Negro bill still hangs fire in Congress.

Roger A. Pryor is to be exchanged. He was the guest of Forney in Washington, and had interviews with President Lincoln.

The government is impressing horses in the streets, to collect the tobacco preparatory for its destruction in the event of the city falling into the hands of the enemy. This fact is already known in the North and published in the papers there. A pretty passport and police system, truly!

I saw a paper to-day from Mr. Benjamin, saying it had been determined, in the event of burning the tobacco, to exempt that belonging to other governments—French and Austrian; but that belonging to foreign subjects is not to be spared. This he says is with the concurrence of the British Government. Tobacco is being moved from the city with all possible expedition.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 437-8

Muscoe R. H. Garnett* to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, February 5, 1856

RICHMOND, [VA.], February 5th, 1856.

MY DEAR UNCLE: The Kanawha River bill passed this morning, waiving the State's lien on the tolls, so as to authorise the Ja[me]s Riv[er] and Kan[awha] Co[mpany] to issue 7 per cent bonds ($320,000) to improve it according to Fisk's plans. I congratulate you on the result. There is a prospect of selling (through Latham to N[ew] Y[ork] parties) one half of the Old Dominion Co[mpany] at the rate of $150 per acre. This would net me about $2,000 for one-half of my interest therein; don't you think this would be a bad bargain for me?

My report is at last made; it kept me so closely at work I had no time to write you but the brief note of last week. Yet I have been attentive to your interests. Directly after closing that note, I had a long interview with Charles Irving; he is thoroughly and warmly with us, and we have (at Harvie's advice) taken him into our confidence. This exchange is very important, for it gives us a voice in the Examiner wing of the party. He has been making strenuous efforts on Hughes and Floyd. I learn that the former seems amenable to reason, and might, perhaps, be changed or rationalized, but for Floyd; but the ex-Governor is blind with resentment. He resents the late Senatorial election and thinks you interfered with Pierce against him. Irving says he said Douglas told him so, but this is confidential. Can it be true? Kenna is trying his hand on him, and though with little hope, does not despair. With Floyd, our affairs would be easy. Kenna is for you, as you know, but he is too much for a combination with Pierce; if I understand him aright, he wants us to indicate our willingness to vote for Pierce first, with a view of securing P[ierce]'s friends to you. Do you think Kenna reliable? Irving has sent an excellent leader to his paper coming out for you. He has gone up to Danville to secure that paper, and Clemens thinks he can get the Wheeling Argus to come out. The Dem[ocratic] Recorder has already closed. Mallory will get Irving's editorial favorably endorsed in Norfolk, and the Valley Democrat and Lexington Star must be made to follow suit. Banks promises to republish and endorse in his paper; but at first he hesitated on the plea that it was impolite to alarm the friends of Pierce by pushing you just now. I cannot but think that, as Meade says, Banks has an axe of his own to grind, and the hope of getting into the Union effects him. I don't think he will be worth anything to you, if he gets there, though I believe he really prefers you.

Harvie, Mallory and a few others have a consultation with me tomorrow night for purposes of organization. Harvie has written for Booker to come up and we are to have a frank talk with Wise. What do you think of asking the Convention on the 28th to endorse you? I fear the attempt may be very dangerous, but Mallory and Harvie are disposed, if we conclude we have the strength to carry. And there are some fair arguments in favor of it, other states are disposed to go for you, but are held back by the reports of division and weakness in Virginia. It is supposed here that our friends in Washington expect an expression of opinion by that Convention. Shall we attempt it, or shall we trust to quiet organization in the Districts, and such demonstrations of public opinion through the press, as we are arranging? This is a difficult question ahead of us. The members of the Legislature are much divided and very many undertermined. We have nobody who can efficiently work on the South well; we think Henry Edmundson could do much, if he would come down and spend a week here and be active. Cant he be persuaded to do so?

I deeply regret the Tucker business, both for its personal effects and for political reasons. Your friends here sustain you, but the Examiner has already opened its batteries and begins with a lie by saying that Forney is elected. Beverly [Tucker] himself has given colour to this charge by the assertion that Forney is still in the Union and that Stidell has pledges from the President that Forney shall be kept in. The affair cannot permanently injure except in that aspect, but if the President has cheated you, it may be very injurious. You owe it to yourself to see that Forney is excluded, and checkmate the fraud, if attempted.

_______________

* A Representative in Congress from Virginia, 1856-1861.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 178-9

Daniel Webster to Josiah Randall & Others, November 14, 1850

Boston, November 14, 1850.

GENTLEMEN,—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th of this month, inviting me, in behalf of the friends of the Constitution and the Union, without distinction of party, resident in the city and county of Philadelphia, to attend a public meeting in that city on the 21st instant. I most sincerely wish that it was in my power to attend that meeting. That great central city is not only full of the friends of the Constitution, but full, also, of recollections connected with its adoption, and other great events in our history. In Philadelphia the first revolutionary Congress assembled. In Philadelphia the Declaration of Independence was made. In Philadelphia the Constitution was formed, and received the signatures of Washington and his associates; and now, when there is a spirit abroad evidently laboring to effect the separation of the Union, and the subversion of the Constitution, Philadelphia, of all places, seems the fittest for the assembling together of the friends of that Constitution, and that Union, to pledge themselves to one another and to the country to the last extremity.

My public duties, gentlemen, require my immediate presence in Washington; and for that reason, and that alone, I must deny myself the pleasure of accepting your invitation.

I have the honor, gentlemen, to be, with great regard, your fellow-citizen and humble servant,

DANIEL WEBSTER.

TO JOSIAH RANDALL, ISAAC HAZLEHURST, ROBERT M. LEE, C. INGERSOLL, JNO. W. FORNEY, JOHN S. RIDDLE.

SOURCE: Fletcher Webster, Editor, The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, Vol. 2, p. 403-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, April 3, 1866

The proclamation announcing peace in all the Rebel States but Texas appeared in the National Republican this morning. I was at first a little startled by it, apprehending it would cause some difficulty with our volunteer officers, who, by law, ceased to act on the return of peace. This provision towards that class of officers was one of those headless moves of J. P. Hale, made in the spirit of a demagogue under professed apprehension that Mr. Lincoln, or whoever might be President, would use the Navy to make himself dictator. The proclamation does not include Texas; therefore the Rebellion is not declared wholly suppressed. When I spoke of the subject to-day in Cabinet, I found that none of the members had been apprised of the fact, except Seward, and he not until five o'clock the preceding evening, when he was compelled to send to Hunter, Chief Clerk, at Georgetown. A sudden determination seems to have influenced the President. He did not state his reasons, but it is obvious that the Radicals are taken by surprise and view it as checkmating some of their legislation.

The returns from Connecticut leave no doubt of the election of Hawley, though by a very small majority, some six or eight hundred. This is well,—better than a larger majority, and serves as a warning to the extremists. There is no denying that the policy of the President would have been sustained by a large majority of the people of Connecticut, were that the distinct issue. But this was avoided, yet Forney, in his Chronicle, asserts that the President is defeated, and his veto has been vetoed by the State. An idle falsehood. Mere partisanship will not control, and there has been much of it in this election. Each of the parties shirked the real, living issues, though the Democrats professed to respect them because the Republicans were divided upon the issues, and to press them destroyed or impaired that organization.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 473-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, February 23, 1866

The papers of this morning contain the reported speech of President Johnson yesterday. It is longer than the President should have delivered,—if he were right in addressing such a crowd. His remarks were earnest, honest, and strong. One or two interruptions which called out names I wish were omitted.

The Chronicle, Forney's paper, is scandalously abusive and personally indecent, false, and vindictive. An attempt is made, by innuendo, to give the impression that the President was excited by liquor. Count Gurowski, the grumbler, is around repeating the dirty scandal. Says the President had drunk too much bad whiskey to make a good speech. Eames tells me that Gurowski, who now lives with him, says that Stanton declared to him that he was opposed to the veto. Well, he did suggest that there might, he thought, be an improvement by one or two alterations, but as a whole he was understood to acquiesce and assent to the message. I doubted if he was sincere, for there was an ambiguity in what he said, yet, having said something, he could to his Radical friends aver he was opposed.

I told the President I was sorry he had permitted himself to be drawn into answering impertinent questions to a promiscuous crowd and that he should have given names of those whose course he disapproved. Not that his remarks were not true, but the President should not be catechized into declarations. Yet it is the manner and custom in the Southwest, and especially in Tennessee, to do this on the stump. Stanton patronizes Forney's Chronicle and proscribes the Intelligencer. Conversing with the President, I told him I thought this improper. He said he would bring the subject before us at the next meeting.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 439

Diary of Gideon Welles: January 27, 1866

My letter to the Naval Committee in relation to the contract of Paul S. Forbes for the Idaho has disturbed certain parties. It interposes pretty decisive objections against lobby intrigues and deviations from the contract. Certain party men wish to be considered economists, and yet would be glad to pay Forbes a few hundred thousand dollars more than the contract price. They would be glad to censure the Department, but find they cannot do this and occupy an economical position. Forbes acts stupidly. His vessel is likely to prove a failure. He cannot build her and complete her on his own offer. He has proved himself less sagacious and less capable than he had the reputation of being, or than he himself supposed he was, but yet makes no admission of error and failure.

Forney¹ and the Union Representatives of Philadelphia have appealed to me to reinstate Hoover, the Naval Constructor, whom they pronounce an honest man, etc., backed by a formidable list of names. I wrote Forney that Hoover had been guilty of accepting bribes and that I could not give him my confidence, and requested him to so inform his associates. He answers in an apologetic letter and promises to be more careful in future. I saw him at one of McCulloch's receptions, and told him the correspondence ought to be published in order to set the Department right. He assented and said he would publish it with his last letter if I had no objection. I assented and sent him the correspondence and after a day or two he writes that he has consulted with the Union Representatives and concluded the disclosure was not best. In reply, I state that if I rightly understand them, they wish to have the Philadelphia public remain ignorant of the facts, and continue to believe the Department oppressive. Differing with them, I ask a return of the correspondence.

_______________

¹ John W. Forney, Secretary of the Senate.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 418-9

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, August 19, 1865

I have a letter from Eames, who is at Long Branch, ill, and has been there for three weeks. He informs me that Senator Sumner wrote Mrs. E., with whom he corresponds, wishing that she and her husband would influence me to induce the President to change his policy. This letter Eames found on his arrival at Long Branch, and wrote Sumner he could not change me.

Sumner bewails the unanimity of the Cabinet; says there is unexampled unanimity in New England against the policy of the Administration; thinks I ought to resign; says Wade and Fessenden are intending to make vigorous opposition against it, etc., etc.

The proceedings of the political conventions in Maine and Pennsylvania leave no doubt in my mind that extensive operations are on foot for an organization hostile to the Administration in the Republican or Union party. The proceedings alluded to indicate the shape and character of this movement. It is the old radical anti-Lincoln movement of Wade and Winter Davis, with recruits.

That Stanton has a full understanding with these men styling themselves Radicals, I have no doubt. It is understood that the Cabinet unanimously support the policy of the President. No opposition has manifested itself that I am aware. At the beginning, Stanton declared himself in favor of negro suffrage, or rather in favor of allowing, by Federal authority, the negroes to vote in reorganizing the Rebel States. This was a reversal of his opinion of 1863 under Mr. Lincoln. I have no recollection of any disavowal of the position he took last spring, although he has acquiesced in the President's policy apparently, has certainly submitted to it without objection or remonstrance. The Radicals in the Pennsylvanian convention have passed a special resolution indorsing Mr. Stanton by name, but no other member of the Cabinet. Were there no understanding on a point made so prominent by the Radicals, such a resolution would scarcely have been adopted or drafted. Convention resolutions, especially in Pennsylvania, I count of little importance. A few intriguing managers usually prepare them, they are passed under the strain of party excitement, and the very men who voted for them will very likely go against them in two weeks. At this time, however, unusual activity has been made by Forney, Kelley, and others, and the resolution has particular significance.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 363-4

Diary of William Howard Russell: July 5, 1861

As the young gentleman of color, to whom I had given egregious ransom as well as an advance of wages, did not appear this morning, I was, after an abortive attempt to boil water for coffee and to get a piece of toast, compelled to go in next door, and avail myself of the hospitality of Captain Cecil Johnson, who was installed in the drawing-room of Madame Jost. In the forenoon, Mr. John Bigelow, whose acquaintance I made, much to my gratification in time gone by, on the margin of the Lake of Thun, found me out, and proffered his services; which, as the whilom editor of the “Evening Post” and as a leading Republican, he was in a position to render valuable and most effective; but he could not make a Bucephalus to order, and I have been running through the stables of Washington in vain, hoping to find something up to my weight — such flankless, screwy, shoulderless, catlike creatures were never seen — four of them would scarcely furnish ribs and legs enough to carry a man, but the owners thought that each of them was fit for Baron Rothschild; and then there was saddlery and equipments of all sorts to be got, which the influx of officers and the badness and dearness of the material put quite beyond one's reach. Mr. Bigelow was of opinion that the army would move at once; “But,” said I, “where is the transport — where the cavalry and guns?” “Oh,” replied he, “I suppose we have got everything that is required. I know nothing of these things, but I am told cavalry are no use in the wooded country towards Richmond.” I have not yet been able to go through the camps, but I doubt very much whether the material or commissariat of the grand army of the North is at all adequate to a campaign.

The presumption and ignorance of the New York journals would be ridiculous were they not so mischievous. They describe “this horde of battalion companies — unofficered, clad in all kinds of different uniform, diversely equipped, perfectly ignorant of the principles of military obedience and concerted action,” — for so I hear it described by United States officers themselves — as being "the greatest army the world ever saw; perfect in officers and discipline; unsurpassed in devotion and courage; furnished with every requisite; and destined on its first march to sweep into Richmond, and to obliterate from the Potomac to New Orleans every trace of rebellion.”

The Congress met to-day to hear the President's Message read. Somehow or other there is not such anxiety and eagerness to hear what Mr. Lincoln has to say as one could expect on such a momentous occasion. It would seem as if the forthcoming appeal to arms had overshadowed every other sentiment in the minds of the people. They are waiting for deeds, and care not for words. The confidence of the New York papers, and of the citizens, soldiers, and public speakers, contrast with the dubious and gloomy views of the military men; but of this Message itself there are some incidents independent of the occasion to render it curious, if not interesting. The President has, it is said, written much of it in his own fashion, which has been revised and altered by his Ministers; but he has written it again and repeated himself, and after many struggles a good deal of pure Lincolnism goes down to Congress.

At a little after half-past eleven I went down to the Capitol. Pennsylvania Avenue was thronged as before, but on approaching Capitol Hill, the crowd rather thinned away, as though they shunned, or had no curiosity to hear, the President's Message. One would have thought that, where every one who could get in was at liberty to attend the galleries in both Houses, there would have been an immense pressure from the inhabitants and strangers in the city, as well as from the citizen soldiers, of which such multitudes were in the street; but when I looked up from the floor of the Senate, I was astonished to see that the galleries were not more than three parts filled. There is always a ruinous look about an unfinished building when it is occupied and devoted to business. The Capitol is situated on a hill, one face of which is scraped by the road, and has the appearance of being formed of heaps of rubbish. Towards Pennsylvania Avenue the long frontage abuts on a lawn shaded by trees, through which walks and avenues lead to the many entrances under the porticoes and colonnades; the face which corresponds on the other side looks out on heaps of brick and mortar, cut stone, and a waste of marble blocks lying half buried in the earth and cumbering the ground, which, in the magnificent ideas of the founders and planners of the city, was to be occupied by stately streets. The cleverness of certain speculators in land prevented the execution of the original idea, which was to radiate all the main avenues of the city from the Capitol as a centre, the intermediate streets being formed by circles drawn at regularly increasing intervals from the Capitol, and intersected by the radii. The speculators purchased up the land on the side between the Navy Yard and the site of the Capitol; the result — the land is unoccupied, except by paltry houses, and the capitalists are ruined.

The Capitol would be best described by a series of photographs. Like the Great Republic itself, it is unfinished. It resembles it in another respect: it looks best at a distance; and, again, it is incongruous in its parts. The passages are so dark that artificial light is often required to enable one to find his way. The offices and bureaux of the committees are better than the chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives. All the encaustics and the white marble and stone staircases suffer from tobacco juice, though there is a liberal display of spittoons at every corner. The official messengers, doorkeepers, and porters wear no distinctive badge or dress. No policemen are on duty, as in our Houses of Parliament; no soldiery, gendarmerie, or sergens-de-ville in the precincts; the crowd wanders about the passages as it pleases, and shows the utmost propriety, never going where it ought not to intrude. There is a special gallery set apart for women; the reporters are commodiously placed in an ample gallery, above the Speaker's chair; the diplomatic circle have their gallery facing the reporters, and they are placed so low down in the somewhat depressed chamber, that every word can be heard from speakers in the remotest parts of the house very distinctly.

The seats of the members are disposed in a manner somewhat like those in the French Chambers. Instead of being in parallel rows to the walls, and at right angles to the Chairman's seat, the separate chairs and desks of the senators are arranged in semicircular rows. The space between the walls and the outer semicircle is called the floor of the house, and it is a high compliment to a stranger to introduce him within this privileged place. There are leather-cushioned seats and lounges put for the accommodation of those who may be introduced by senators, or to whom, as distinguished members of congress in former days, the permission is given to take their seats. Senators Sumner and Wilson introduced me to a chair, and made me acquainted with a number of senators before the business of the day began.

Mr. Sumner, as the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, is supposed to be viewed with some jealousy by Mr. Seward, on account of the disposition attributed to him to interfere in diplomatic questions; but if he does so, we shall have no reason to complain, as the Senator is most desirous of keeping the peace between the two countries, and of mollifying any little acerbities and irritations which may at present exist between them. Senator Wilson is a man who has risen from what would be considered in any country but a republic the lowest ranks of the people. He apprenticed himself to a poor shoemaker when he was twenty-two years of age, and when he was twenty-four years old he began to go to school, and devoted all his earnings to the improvement of education. He got on by degrees, till he set up as a master shoemaker and manufacturer, became a “major-general” of State militia; finally was made Senator of the United States, and is now “Chairman of the Committee of the Senate on Military Affairs.” He is a bluff man, of about fifty years of age, with a peculiar eye and complexion, and seems honest and vigorous. But is he not going ultra crepidam in such a post? At present he is much perplexed by the drunkenness which prevails among the troops, or rather by the desire of the men for spirits, as he has a New England mania on that point. One of the most remarkable-looking men in the House is Mr. Sumner. Mr. Breckinridge and he would probably be the first persons to excite the curiosity of a stranger, so far as to induce him to ask for their names. Save in height — and both are a good deal over six feet — there is no resemblance between the champion of States' Rights and the orator of the Black Republicans. The massive head, the great chin and jaw, and the penetrating eyes of Mr. Breckinridge convey the idea of a man of immense determination, courage, and sagacity. Mr. Sumner's features are indicative of a philosophical and poetical turn of thought, and one might easily conceive that he would be a great advocate, but an indifferent leader of a party.

It was a hot day; but there was no excuse for the slop-coats and light-colored clothing and felt wide-awakes worn by so many senators in such a place. They gave the meeting the aspect of a gathering of bakers or millers; nor did the constant use of the spittoons beside their desks, their reading of newspapers and writing letters during the dispatch of business, or the hurrying to and fro of the pages of the House between the seats, do anything but derogate from the dignity of the assemblage, and, according to European notions, violate the respect due to a Senate Chamber. The pages alluded to are smart boys, from twelve to fifteen years of age, who stand below the President's table, and are employed to go on errands and carry official messages by the members. They wear no particular uniform, and are dressed-as the taste or means of their parents dictate.

The House of Representatives exaggerates all the peculiarities I have observed in the Senate, but the debates are not regarded with so much interest as those of the Upper House; indeed, they are of far less importance. Strong-minded statesmen and officers — Presidents or Ministers — do not care much for the House of Representatives, so long as they are sure of the Senate; and, for the matter of that, a President like Jackson does not care much for Senate and House together. There are privileges attached to a seat in either branch of the Legislature, independent of the great fact that they receive mileage and are paid for their services, which may add some incentive to ambition. Thus the members can order whole tons of stationery for their use, not only when they are in session, but during the recess. Their frank covers parcels by mail, and it is said that Senators without a conscience have sent sewing-machines to their wives and pianos to their daughters as little parcels by post; I had almost forgotten that much the same abuses were in vogue in England some century ago.

The galleries were by no means full, and in that reserved for the diplomatic body the most notable person was M. Mercier, the Minister of France, who, fixing his intelligent and eager face between both hands, watched with keen scrutiny the attitude and conduct of the Senate. None of the members of the English Legation were present. After the lapse of an hour, Mr. Hay, the President's Secretary, made his appearance on the floor, and sent in the Message to the Clerk of the Senate, Mr. Forney, who proceeded to read it to the House. It was listened to in silence, scarcely broken except when some senator murmured “Good, that is so;” but in fact the general purport of it was already known to the supporters of the Ministry, and not a sound came from the galleries. Soon after Mr. Forney had finished, the galleries were cleared, and I returned up Pennsylvania Avenue, in which the crowds of soldiers around bar-rooms, oyster-shops, and restaurants, the groups of men in officers' uniform, and the clattering of disorderly mounted cavaliers in the dust, increased my apprehension that discipline was very little regarded, and that the army over the Potomac had not a very strong hand to keep it within bounds.

As I was walking over with Capt. Johnson to dine with Lord Lyons, I met General Scott leaving his office and walking with great difficulty between two aides-de-camp. He was dressed in a blue frock with gold lace shoulder straps, fastened round the waist by a yellow sash, and with large yellow lapels turned back over the chest in the old style, and moved with great difficulty along the pavement. “You see I am trying to hobble along, but it is hard for me to overcome my many infirmities. I regret I could not have the pleasure of granting you an interview to-day, but I shall cause it to be intimated to you when I may have the pleasure of seeing you; meantime I shall provide you with a pass and the necessary introductions to afford you all facilities with the army.”

After dinner I made a round of visits, and heard the diplomatists speaking of the Message; few, if any of them, in its favor. With the exception perhaps of Baron Gerolt, the Prussian Minister, there is not one member of the Legations who justifies the attempt of the Northern States to assert the supremacy of the Federal Government by the force of arms. Lord Lyons, indeed, in maintaining a judicious reticence, whenever he does speak gives utterance to sentiments becoming the representative of Great Britain at the court of a friendly Power, and the Minister of a people who have been protagonists to slavery for many a long year.

SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, Vol. 1, p. 383-8

The Pennsylvania Election.

Secretary Stanton sent to Col. Forney the following congratulatory letter about the result of the election in Pennsylvania:—

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14th, 1863.

To John W. Forney, Esq.

Thanks for your telegram.  All honor to the Keystone State!  She upheld the federal arch in July, and with steel and cannon-shot drove the invaders from her soil; and now, in October she has again rallied for the Union, and overwhelmed the foe at the ballot-box.

EDWIN M. STANTON.

— Published in The Liberator, Boston Massachusetts, Saturday October 24, 1863, p. 3

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Edward S. Hamlin, January 12, 1850

Parkeville, Near Woodbury N. J.  Jany 12, 1850.

My Dear Hamlin, I have had no fair chance to write to you for the last few days, having been living at a Hotel, while looking out for permanent rooms. I at last found quarters to my mind — that is as much to my mind as I could expect — and on Thursday had my things moved into them. Wood's room adjoins mine & Carter's is on the floor below, and we three are the sole inmates of the House. We are to take our meals at the [illegible], where there is a goodly lot of freesoil democrats. Wood is as true a man as I ever met with. Carter is as true as Wood in his purposes, but is not quite so clear in his action. We should have a first rate delegation, if we only had Brinkerhoff, in the place of John K. Miller: for [sic] he would keep Hoagland right and prevent any wavering among the rest.

The Senate adjourned on Thursday till Monday, and I came off immediately, without having taken possession of my new quarters, to see Mrs Chase, and, travelling all night, reached here yesterday morning, after 12. I found her still improving, and, though not out of danger, with a better prospect of recovery than heretofore. The Doctor is confident that there is as yet no lesion of the lungs, and thinks if the inflammation of the tubercles can be arrested before disorganization, a cure can be effected. He seems to be much encouraged, and I have great confidence in him.

You will see that I made a little speech on Monday. I dont know how the Reporters will dress it up, but if they do no better by it than they have done by the telegraphic abstract, it will not do me much credit. It was an offhand affair — intended, only, as first attempt on a small scale by way of feeling my way. It stirred up the Southerners wonderfully.

You will see that the slaveholders have achieved another triumph in the House in the election of a clerk. The Whigs gave the slaveholders a slaveholding speaker; and in return the slaveholders have given the Whigs a slaveholding clerk. The slaveholders who would have 2/3^d. rule at Baltimore, find at Washington that even a plurality rule will suffice. When will submission have an end? Evidently the northern men have been studying Hosey Biglow.

We begin to think its nater

      To take sarse and not be riled:—

Who'd expect to see a tater

      All on eend at bein' biled?

But perhaps I wrong them. I see that on the ballot for the slaveholding sergeant at arms only 88 voted for the caucus nominee. Some of them were, doubtless, men who were unwilling to drain the absolute dregs of the cup of humiliation. However there is one comfort and that not a small one in the election of Campbell. That ineffable doughface Forney is defeated, and that too by the votes of the very men for whose suffrages he degraded himself. The Southerners have kicked their own dog, and who had a better right to do it.

I see Wood is nominated. The Platform I have not yet seen: but the despatch to Disney which brought the news of Wood's nomination, predicted the adoption of the resolutions of ’47. As the despatch came from Lilley — one of our Hamilton Anti-proviso men — I hope it may turn out that a better platform was constructed. What will our Free Democracy now do? I am particularly solicitious to know their views. I trust nothing will be done precipitately or rashly. We must take a course which will secure the ascendency of our principles, and men who may be relied on for a staunch and fearless advocacy of them. The next Legislature will be more important to us than a Governor: and concert and harmony with the Old Line Democracy is necessary to secure the ascendancy of our principles and men in that body. I cannot help thinking that this session of Congress will go far make the whole Northern Democracy thoroughly anti slavery. If they can stand such insults as are daily heaped on them by their southern associates I am greatly mistaken.

P. S. I neglected to mention that some efforts are made to procure the rejection of Perry? (Columbus Postmaster) What do you think of him? My impressions and feelings are all favorable. If you think fit, it may not be amiss to suggest to him, the expediency of forwarding a representation of some influential Democrats & free Democrats endorsing him as fit and capable. No rejections will be made on mere grounds of difference in political views: but some will try to make opposition to the war a test of disqualification.

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 195-7

Senator bentonSalmon P. Chase to Edward S. Hamlin, December 17, 1849

Washington, Dec^r. 17, 1849.

My Dear Hamlin, I have just comedown from the Capitol. In the Senate we had a brief Executive Session — nothing done. Today we were to have elected Committees but the Old Line Caucus had not arranged matters to suit them, & the elections were put off till tomorrow. You know that in the Senate the Majority party selects in Caucus the majorities of such committees as they think fit so to organize & minorities on the others, & the minority party in caucus selects the balance. The committees thus selected have been hitherto adopted by common consent. What will be done tomorrow I cannot say. There was trouble yesterday between the friends of Benton & Calhoun in Caucus. I have not been invited to the Democratic Caucus. I do not think I should attend, as matters now stand, if I was: but it is not impossible that both Hale and I shall go in before the session closes. To a democratic Senator who spoke to me on the subject I answered that I thought that having been elected exclusively by Democratic & free democratic votes I ought to be invited; but whether I wd. attend or not I was not prepared to say. There was a discussion or conversation about inviting me; but of what character I dont know.

In the House they have been balloting, or rather voting for Speaker. Since the menaces of the Southern men the other day and their insolent proscription of every man, as unfit to receive their votes, except slavery extensionists the northern democrats have got their backs up and so many of them now refuse to vote for any extensionist that it seems impossible to elect any man whom the slaveholding democrats' will support, except by a coalition between these last, aided by the doughfaced democrats & the slaveholding Whigs. Rumors of such a coalition have been rife for a day or two; but the candidate of the extensionists, Lynn Boyd, has not yet received votes enough to enable those Southern Whigs who are willing to go for him, to effect his election. I am glad to be able to say that the Ohio delegation is firm on the side of the Free States, with two exceptions Miller & Hoagland. Until today I hoped that Col. Hoagland would abide with the body of the Ohio democrats; but he gave way today & voted for Boyd. This is the more to be regretted as Boyd was, as I hear, one of the foremost in clapping & applauding Toombs's insolent disunion speech the other day; and after he had closed his harrangue went to him & clapped him on the back in the most fraternizing manner.

Who, then, can be speaker? you will ask. To which I can only reply, I really cannot say. At present it seems as if the contest must be determined final by the Extensionists against the Anti Extensionists without reference to old party lines. An attempt was made today at a bargain between the Hunker Whigs & Hunker Democrats. A Kentucky member offered a resolution that Withrop should be Speaker; Forney, Clerk; & somebody, I can not say who, Sargeant at arms. The democrats voted almost unanimously to lay this resolution on the table — the Whigs, in great numbers, voted against this disposition of it. This looks well for those Hunkers who affect such a holy horror of bargains.

With these facts before you, you can form, better than I can, an idea of the probable shape of things in the future. To me it seems as if the process of reorganization was going on pretty rapidly in the northern democracy. I am much mistaken, if any candidate who will not take the ground assumed in my letter to Breslin, can obtain the support of the Democracy of the North or of the Country.

We are all looking with much interest to Ohio. Mr. Carter has received several letters urging him to be a candidate for Governor: but he will not consent except as a matter of necessity. He is a true man here, and so, above most, is Amos E. Wood. Judge Myers would be a very acceptable candidate to the Free Democracy:—  so, also, I should think would be Dimmock. My own regard for Dimmock is very strong. Judge Wood would encounter, I learn, some opposition from the friends of Tod, and his decisions in some slavery cases would be brought up against him especially with Beaver for an opponent. Still, in many respects, he wd. be a very strong man. After all it is chiefly important that the resolutions of the Convention should be of the right stamp & that the candidate should place himself unreservedly upon them.

As to the Free Democratic State Convention, — I think it desirable on many accounts that one should be held; and that it be known soon that one is to be held. I do not think it expedient to call it expressly to nominate, but rather to consider the expediency of nomination & promote, generally the cause of Free Democracy.

I have written to Pugh urging the adoption by the House, if the Senate is not organized, of resolutions sustaining their members in Congress. I think much good would be done by resolutions to this effect.

Resolved, That the determination evinced by many slave state members of Congress, claiming to be Whigs & Democrats, to support for the office of Speaker no known & decided opponent of Slavery Extension, and indeed no man who will not, in the exercise of his official powers, constitute the Committees of the House of Representatives so as to promote actively or by inaction the extension of slavery, is an affront & indignity to the whole people of the Free States, nearly unanimous in opposition to such extension.

Resolved, That we cordially approve of the conduct of those representatives from Ohio who have, since the manifestation of this determination on the part of members for the Slave States, steadily refused to vote for any Slavery Extensionists; and pledge to them, on behalf of the State of Ohio, an earnest support & adequate maintenance.

I give these resolutions merely as specimens. They are not so strong as I would introduce. Perhaps, indeed, it will be thought best to introduce a resolution appropriating a specific sum to be applied to the support of the members here in case the continued failure to organize the House shall leave them without other resources.

The bare introduction of such resolutions into our Legislature would have the happiest effect. Can't you help this thing forward? I dont want these sample resolutions used in any way except as mere specimens & suggestions.

So far as developments have yet been made the Administration has no settled policy. In the present state of the country I confess I do not much fear Cuban annexation.

Write me often.

[SALMON P. CHASE.]

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 189-92

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, July 29, 1863

A very busy day, though still far from well. Had a call from Colonel Forney. Some remarks which I made in relation to Rebel movements appeared to strike him with interest, and, as he left me, he said he should go at once and enter them for an editorial. This evening he sends me a note requesting me to read my article in his paper, the Chronicle, to-morrow morning.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 386

Diary of John Hay: November 8, 1864

The house has been still and almost deserted to-day. Everybody in Washington, not at home voting, seems ashamed of it and stays away from the President.

I was talking with him to-day. He said:— “It is a little singular that I, who am not a vindictive man, should have always been before the people for election in canvasses marked for their bitterness:— always but once. When I came to Congress it was a quiet time. But always besides that, the contests in which I have been prominent have been marked with great rancor. . . . .”

During the afternoon few despatches were received. At night, at seven o'clock, we started over to the War Department to spend the evening. Just as we started we received the first gun from Indianapolis showing a majority of 8,000 there, a gain of 1,500 over McClellan’s vote. The vote itself seemed an enormous one for a town of that size, and can only be accounted for by considering the great influx, since the war, of voting men from the country into the State centres where a great deal of army business is done. There was less significance in this vote on account of the October victory which had disheartened the enemy and destroyed their incentive to work.

The night was rainy, steamy and dark. We splashed through the grounds to the side door where a soaked and smoking sentinel was standing in his own vapor with his huddled-up frame covered with a rubber cloak. Inside, a half-dozen idle orderlies; up-stairs the clerks of the telegraph. As the President entered, they handed him a despatch from Forney claiming ten thousand Union majority in Pennsylvania. “Forney is a little excitable.” Another comes from Felton, Baltimore, giving 15,000 in the city, 5,000 in the State. “All Hail, Free Maryland. That is superb!” A message from Rice to Fox, followed instantly by one from Sumner to Lincoln, claiming Boston by 5,000, and Rice’s and Hooper’s elections by majorities of 4,000 apiece. A magnificent advance on the chilly dozens of 1862.

Eckert came in, shaking the rain from his cloak, with trousers very disreputably muddy. We sternly demanded an explanation. He had done it watching a fellow-being ahead, and chuckling at his uncertain footing. Which reminded the Tycoon of course. The President said:— “For such an awkward fellow, I am pretty surefooted. It used to take a pretty dexterous man to throw me. I remember, the evening of the day in 1858, that decided the contest for the Senate between Mr. Douglas and myself, was something like this, dark, rainy and gloomy. I had been reading the returns and had ascertained that we had lost the legislature, and started to go home. The path had been worn hog-backed, and was slippery. My foot slipped from under me, knocking the other one out of the way, but I recovered myself and lit square; and I said to myself: ‘It's a slip and not a fall?’”

The President sent over the first fruits to Mrs. Lincoln. He said, “She is more anxious than I.”

We went into the Secretary's room. Mr. Welles and Fox soon came in. They were especially happy over the election of Rice , regarding it as a great triumph for the Navy Department. Says Fox, “There are two fellows that have been specially malignant to us. Hale and Winter Davis, and retribution has come over them both.” “You have more of that feeling of personal resentment than I,” said Lincoln. “Perhaps I may have too little of it, but I never thought it paid. A man has not time to spend half his life in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him. It has seemed to me recently that Winter Davis was growing more sensible to his own true interests, and has ceased wasting his time by attacking me. I hope, for his own good, he has. He has been very malicious against me, but has only injured himself by it. His conduct has been very strange to me. I came here his friend, wishing to continue so. I had heard nothing but good of him; he was the cousin of my intimate friend Judge Davis. But he had scarcely been elected when I began to learn of his attacking me on all possible occasions. It is very much the same with Hickman. I was much disappointed that he failed to be my friend. But my greatest disappointment of all has been with Grimes. Before I came here I certainly expected to rely upon Grimes more than any other one man in the Senate. I like him very much. He is a great strong fellow. He is a valuable friend, a dangerous enemy. He carries too many guns not to be respected on any point of view. But he got wrong against me, I do not clearly know how, and has always been cool and almost hostile to me. I am glad he has always been the friend of the Navy, and generally of the Administration.”

. . . Towards midnight we had supper. The President went awkwardly and hospitably to work shovelling out the fried oysters. He was most agreeable and genial all the evening, in fact. . . . Capt. Thomas came up with a band about half past two, and made some music. The President answered from the window with rather unusual dignity and effect, and we came home.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 238-42; Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 243-6

John Hay to John G. Nicolay, October 13, 1864

Executive Mansion.

Washington, Oct. 13, 1864.

MY DEAR NICOLAY:

I suppose you are happy enough over the elections to do without letters. Here are two. I hope they are duns to remind you that you are mortal.

Indiana is simply glorious. The surprise of this good thing is its chief delight. Pennsylvania has done pretty well. We have a little majority on home vote as yet, and will get a fair vote from the soldiers, and do better in November. The wild estimates of Forney and Cameron, founded on no count or thorough canvass, are of course not fulfilled, but we did not expect them to be.

Judge Taney died last night. I have not heard anything this morning about the succession. It is a matter of the greatest personal importance that Mr. Lincoln has ever decided.

Winter Davis’ clique was badly scooped out in the mayoralty election at Baltimore yesterday. Chapman (regular Union) got nearly all the votes cast. . . .

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 237; Michael Burlingame, Editor, At Lincoln’s Side: John Hay’s Civil War Correspondence and Selected Writings, p. 97

Diary of John Hay, September 23, 1864

Senator Harlan thinks that Bennett’s support is so important, especially considered as to its bearing on the soldier vote, that it would pay to offer him a foreign mission for it, and so told me. Forney has also had a man talking to the cannie Scot who asked plumply, “Will I be a welcome visitor at the White House if I support Mr. Lincoln?” What a horrible question for a man to be able to ask! So thinks the President apparently. It is probable that Bennett will stay about as he is, thoroughly neutral, balancing carefully until the October elections, and will then declare for the side which he thinks will win. It is better in many respects to let him alone.

SOURCES: Abstracted from Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 221; Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 229-30

Diary of John Hay: January 9, 1864

Cameron has written to the President that the entire Union force of the Pa. Legislature, House and Senate, have subscribed a request that the President will allow himself to be re-elected, and that they intend visiting Washington to present it. He says: — “I have kept my promise.”

The indications all look that way. The loud Lincoln men, who are useful only as weather gauges to show the natural drift of things, are laboring hard to prove themselves the original friends of the President. Mark Delahay is talking about the Chase plot to ruin him and Lincoln. He says Pomeroy is to be at the head of the new Frémont party that is soon to be placed in commission; and much of this. On the other hand, Wayne MacVeagh, who dined with me to-day, says that the strugglers now seem to get ahead of each other in the nomination. The New Hampshire occurrence startled the Union League of Philad^a. They saw their thunder stolen from their own arsenals. They fear their own endorsement will be passée before long, and are now casting about to get some arrangement for putting him in nomination at once.

Wayne told a very funny story about Forney and Cameron in conversation about politics on the train. Forney bibulously insisting that if he had beaten Cameron for the Senate, there would have been no war.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 153-4; for the entire diary entry see Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letter of John Hay, p. 152-3.

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 17, 1862

A profound sensation has been produced in the outside world by the resignation of Mr. Randolph; and most of the people and the press seem inclined to denounce the President, for they know not what. In this matter the President is not to blame; but the Secretary has acted either a very foolish or a very desperate part. It appears that he wrote a note in reply to the last letter of the President, stating that as no discretion was allowed him in such matters as were referred to by the President, he begged respectfully to tender his resignation. The President responded, briefly, that inasmuch as the Secretary declined acting any longer as one of his constitutional advisers, and also declined a personal conference, no alternative remained but to accept his resignation.

Randolph's friends would make it appear that he resigned in consequence of being restricted in his action; but he knows very well that the latitude allowed him became less and less circumscribed; and that, hitherto, he was well content to operate within the prescribed limits. Therefore, if it was not a silly caprice, it was a deliberate purpose, to escape a cloud of odium he knew must sooner or later burst around him.

A letter from Gen. Magruder, dated 10th inst., at Jackson, Mississippi, intimates that we shall lose Holly Springs. He has also been in Mobile, and doubts whether that city can be successfully defended by Gen. Forney, whose liver is diseased, and memory impaired. He recommends that Brig.-Gen. Whiting be promoted, and assigned to the command in place of Forney, relieved.

A letter from Gen. Whiting, near Wilmington, dated 13th. inst., expresses serious apprehensions whether that place can be held against a determined attack, unless a supporting force of 10,000 men be sent there immediately. It is in the command of Major-Gen. G. A. Smith.

More propositions to ship cotton in exchange for the supplies needed by the country. The President has no objection to accepting them all, provided the cotton don't go to any of the enemy's ports. How can it be possible to avoid this liability, if the cotton be shipped from the Mississippi River?

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 190-1

David Wilmot to Abraham Lincoln, July 11, 1860

Towanda July 11th. 1860.

Hon. A. Lincoln.

Dear Sir:

Your note of the 4th inst reached me on the 9th.

I wrote you from Chicago, saying I should return home by way of Phila., and that if I observed or heard anything worthy of note, I would write you from that City. My stay in Phila. was more brief than I anticipated – one day only and as I learned nothing of interest, I did not write you.

Your note of the 22d of May was directed to me at Phila. and did not come to hand untill a few days since. I was thinking of writing you when I recd. your last favor.

I see nothing discouraging in the condition of affairs in this State: indeed to me everything looks hopeful and promising. From the day of your nomination, I have had but little doubt of our success in this State. Since the clear development of Mr Buchanan's policy, there has been an overwhelming majority of our people opposed to his Administration. I believed they would generally write in support of any of the prominent candidates before our Convention, except Govs. Seward & Chase. These gentlemen had occupied positions of such mark in the conflicts of the past ten years, that the Conservative & American elements in this State were irrevocably committed against them; but would support other men of equally advanced republican positions, but who had not been held up before them for years, in so unfavorable a light

The division of the democracy of this State is formidable, and I believe irreconcilable. Forney can be of much greater service in moving against a Coalition or Union, than he could possibly be in supporting our ticket. He stands now a recognized & influential leader of the Douglass forces; in the other contingency, he would have been denounced as a traitor, and his influence greatly weakened. At this time Douglass is in the ascendent in this State over Breckenridge, but the latter will gain from this time to the Election. There is no starch in the Northern democracy, and unless the weakened democrats of the North, & especially of Penna, the most servile of the race, shall see, as they will, that Breckenridge is to losing the South, they will flock by the thousands to his standard. They dare not seperate themselves from the South. They understand the danger of such a position, and that away from the South, there is no democratic party.

I cannot feel a doubt of the result. The confusion of Bable has fallen upon the counsels of the Enemies of Freedom. They are doomed through their great iniquities, and by the inexorable moral law of Heaven, to defeat, shame & humiliation. The moral and political power of the party of Slavery is broken, and no patched up arrangements of its leaders, were such a thing possible, can save it from its just doom. The Democracy must turn from its errors, and receive its virtue and strength at the formation of its principles, before it can have the power to retain another political victory. In truth all that remains of democracy in this country, is embodied in the Republican party

I have written you a long and I fear tedious letter

I hope to see you in the fall

very respectfully yours

D. Wilmot

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

Abraham Lincoln to Lyman Trumbull, November 28, 1859

Springfield, Nov. 28. 1859

Hon. L. Trumbull.

My dear Sir: Yours of the 23rd. is received. I agree with you entirely about the contemplated election of Forney. Nothing could be more short-sighted than to place so strong a man as Forney in position to keep Douglas on foot. I know nothing of Forney personally; but I would put no man in position to help our enemies in the point of our hardest strain.

There is nothing new here. I have written merely to give my view about this Forney business.

Yours as ever

A. LINCOLN

SOURCE: Roy P. Basler, Editor, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 3, p. 495

Lyman Trumbull to Abraham Lincoln, November 23, 1859

Washington, Nov. 23^d, 1859

Hon. A. Lincoln,

My Dear Sir,

Am obliged for the information in regard to the meeting of the National Committee. I confess myself disappointed at McClernand's majority – The truth is, that we have got about all we ever will from the old Whig element in central Ill. We must hereafter rely upon obtaining accessions from the young men & from the Democracy. About the hardest man on earth to get along with is an old Whig of pro-slavery proclivities. I reckon the Harpers Ferry affair damaged Palmer somewhat.

I met Cameron on the cars on my way here. He is in earnest about getting the Pa. delegation for himself, & I reckon will succeed. Nobody seems to say much about Read.

I passed a few days in New York City & there learned that the New York politicians were very much in favor of making Forney clk of the House, & that too without any assurance from him that he would act with the Republicans. The idea seemed to be that Forney could bring enough Anti Lecompton Democrats to act with the Republicans to give them the Speaker &c – When will the leading men of our party learn to pursue a straight forward course? Till they do, Republicanism can never have, & might never to have a permanent hold in the country. What consumate folly to bargain with half a dozen Douglasites & that the most active of them all to an important office, where he can wield a large influence in favor of his pet man, & to our prejudice. Douglas & his popular sovereignty humbug are the only things which now keep the great mass of Northern Repub Democrats from uniting with the Republicans at once. For my part, I believe it would be much better that the Democrats should organize the house by a bargain with Know Nothings, & anti-Lecomptonites, than that we should do it; but if the Republican members will go right along supporting no man for any of the offices who is not prepared to act with the Republican party, they being the strongest party in the house, will in the end succeed. If Forney or the South Americans will be of us & act with us, we ought to be liberal towards them; but it certainly cannot be our policy as a party to support any man, who will use the influence of his office to build up another party to our prejudice—

The Anti Lecomptonites & the South Americans will in my opinion in the end come to act with us, if we pursue a straight forward course without assailing them; but they will never do this, while the idea is held out that the Republican party will go to them.

Since commencing this letter, two Gentlemen residents of Washington have called upon me, stating, that one of them had been just been arrested for using language hostile to slavery – He had given bail for his appearance before a justice of the peace on Friday, & called to advise with me about the matter. What are we coming to? Excuse this long letter.

Truly Yours

Lyman Trumbull

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