Diary of Margaret Junkin Preston: Tuesday, May 12, 1863

Last night I sat at this desk writing a letter to General Jackson, urging him to come up and stay with us, as soon as his wound would permit him to move. I went down stairs this morning early, with the letter in my hand, and was met by the overwhelming news that Jackson was dead! A telegram had been sent to Colonel Smith by a courier from Staunton. Doubt was soon thrown upon this by the arrival of some one from Richmond, who said he had left when the telegram did, and there was no such rumor in Richmond. So, between alternate hope and fear, the day passed. It was saddened by the bringing home of General Paxton's remains, and by his funeral. At five this evening the startling confirmation comes — Jackson is indeed dead! My heart overflows with sorrow. The grief in this community is intense; everybody is in tears. What a release from his weary two years' warfare! To be released into the blessedness and peace of heaven!  . . . How fearful the loss to the Confederacy! The people made an idol of him, and God has rebuked them. No more ready soul has ascended to the throne than was his. Never have I known a holier man. Never have I seen a human being as thoroughly governed by duty. He lived only to please God; his daily life was a daily offering up of himself. All his letters to Mr. F. and to me since the war began, have breathed the spirit of a saint. In his last letter to me he spoke of our precious Ellie, and of the blessedness of being with her in heaven. And now he has rejoined her, and together they unite in ascribing praises to Him who has redeemed them by his blood. Oh, the havoc death is making! The beautiful sky and the rich, perfumed spring air seemed darkened by oppressive sorrow. Who thinks or speaks of victory? The word is scarcely ever heard. Alas! Alas! When is the end to be?

SOURCE: Elizabeth Preston Allan, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston, p. 164-5

Abraham Lincoln’s Message to Congress, March 6, 1862

March 6, 1862.

Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows:

Resolved, That the United States ought to cooperate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.

If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance that the States and people immediately interested should be at once distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject it. The Federal Government would find its highest interest in such a measure, as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this Government will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave States north of such part will then say, “The Union for which we have struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern section.'” To deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebellion, and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it as to all the States initiating it. The point is not that all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation; but that while the offer is equally made to all, the more northern shall by such initiation make it certain to the more southern that in no event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed confederacy. I say “initiation” because, in my judgment, gradual and not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or pecuniary view any member of Congress with the census tables and Treasury reports before him can readily see for himself how very soon the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation, all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition on the part of the General Government sets up no claim of a right by Federal authority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it does, the absolute control of the subject in each case to the State and its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of perfectly free choice with them.

In the annual message last December I thought fit to say '”the Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means must be employed.” I said this not hastily, but deliberately. War has been made and continues to be an indispensable means to this end. A practical reacknowledgment of the national authority would render the war unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resistance continues, the war must also continue; and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which may attend and all the ruin which may follow it. Such as may seem indispensable or may obviously promise great efficiency toward ending the struggle must and will come.

The proposition now made (though an offer only), I hope it may be esteemed no offense to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tendered would not be of more value to the States and private persons concerned than are the institution and property in it in the present aspect of affairs.

While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would be merely initiatory, and not within itself a practical measure, it is recommended in the hope that it would soon lead to important practical results. In full view of my great responsibility to my God and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

SOURCE: James D. Richardson, Editor, A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Volume 8, p. 3269-70

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw, July 24, 1863

Centreville, July 24, 1863.

I must protest against your theory and Mr. Smalley's,¹ though I know the danger of opposing a newspaper: historically, I am sure it is not probable the war will end yet, by victories or otherwise; speculatively, I believe it is not desirable it should end yet; our opinions as to what the war was for are not distinct enough, our convictions of what it has done, are not settled enough — i. e. I do not see that we are ripe for peace, I do not read that nations are wont to ripen so quickly, — I do not feel in myself that either people is prepared to stop here and give up, — ergo, I look for a long war still. But I cannot assent to your Jewish doctrine that it is not desirable this chosen people should have peace yet, or victories yet, and therefore, it will not have them: that seems to me to be arrogating too much for ourselves. I agree with George² that when a nation, or a man, has to learn a thing, it is clutched by the throat and held down till it does learn it: but I object that not all nations, and not all men, do have to learn things. It is only the favoured nations and the favoured individuals that are selected for education, — most fall untaught. Why may not we? Why may not we fall by victory? May it not be the South that is being taught? May it not be some future nation, for whose profit our incapacity to learn is to be made conspicuous? No, I object entirely to your theory. Many nations fail, that one may become great; ours will fail, unless we gird up our loins and do honest and humble day's work, without trying to do the thing by the job or to get a great nation made by any patent process. It is not safe to say that we shall not have victories till we are ready for them; we shall have victories, and whether or no we are ready for them depends upon ourselves: if we are not ready, we shall fail, — voila tout. If you ask, What if we do fail? I have nothing to say; I'm an optimist (if the word can be used with that meaning) as well as yourself. I shouldn't cry over a nation or two, more or less, gone under. I find I haven't half stated my case, so if you answer, you must expect a great deal more cogent reply. Am I not an arrogant reasoner?

_______________

¹ George Washington Smalley, a graduate of Yale, and lawyer by profession, was the war-correspondent of the New York Tribune. He was for a time on General Fremont's Staff. He was correspondent for the same journal in the Austro-Prussian war, and then in London established the European edition of the Tribune. Still later, he was connected with the London Times.

² George William Curtis, good citizen, patriot, writer, and orator, had married Miss Shaw's older sister.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 280-1, 429-30

Diary of Judith W. McGuire: June 2, 1862

The battle continued yesterday near the field of the day before. We gained the day! For this victory we are most thankful. The enemy were repulsed with fearful loss; but our loss was great. The wounded were brought until a late hour last night, and to-day the hospitals have been crowded with ladies, offering their services to nurse, and the streets are filled with servants darting about, with waiters covered with snowy napkins, carrying refreshments of all kinds to the wounded. Many of the sick, wounded, and weary are in private houses. The roar of the cannon has ceased. Can we hope that the enemy will now retire? General Pettigrew is missing — it is thought captured. So many others “missing,” never, never to be found! Oh, Lord, how long! How long are we to be a prey to the most heartless of foes? Thousands are slain, and yet we seem no nearer the end than when we began!!

SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee, During the War, p. 119

John Lothrop Motley to Mary Benjamin Motley, Monday, July 28, 1861

Nahant, July 28, 1861.

My Dearest Mary: I have not written to Forster, because I have taken it for granted that he sees my letters to you, and I could only write the same facts and the same conclusions to other correspondents. Nevertheless, I wish very much to write a line to him and to Milnes, and especially to Lord de Grey, and shall certainly do so within a very short time. I was delighted to hear of young Ridley's triumphs, and sincerely sympathize in the joy of Lord and Lady Wensleydale, to whom pray give my kindest remembrance and congratulations. I am very much obliged to Lord John Russell for his kindness in sending me a copy of his note to Mr. Everett. I have thought very often of writing myself to Lord John, and have abstained because I knew that his time was so thoroughly occupied as to leave him little leisure for unofficial correspondence, and because I knew also that his despatches from Washington and his conversations with Mr. Adams must place him entirely in possession of all the facts of this great argument, and I have not the vanity to suppose that any commentary which I could make would alter the conclusion of a mind so powerful and experienced as his.

“If on the 4th of March,” he says to Mr. Everett, “you had allowed the Confederate States to go out from among you, you could have prevented the extension of slavery and confined it to the slave-holding States.” But, unfortunately, had this permission been given, there would have been no “you” left. The existence of this government consists in its unity. Once admit the principle of secession, and it has ceased to be; there is no authority then left either to prevent the extension of slavery, or to protect the life or property of a single individual on our share of the continent. Permit the destruction of the great law which has been supreme ever since we were a nation, and any other law may be violated at will. We have no government but this one, since we were dependent and then insurgent colonies. Take away that, and you take away our all. This is not merely the most logical of theories, but the most unquestionable of facts. This great struggle is one between law and anarchy. The slaveholders mutiny against all government on this continent, because it has been irrevocably decided no further to extend slavery. Peaceful acquiescence in the withdrawal of the seven cotton States would have been followed by the secession of the remaining eight slave States, and probably by the border free States. Pennsylvania would have set up for itself. There would probably have been an attempt at a Western Confederacy, and the city of New York had already announced its intention of organizing itself into a free town, and was studying the constitutions of Frankfort and Hamburg.

In short, we had our choice to submit at once to dismemberment and national extinction at the command of the slavery oligarchy which has governed us for forty years, or to fight for our life. The war forced upon us by the slaveholders has at last been accepted, and it is amazing to me that its inevitable character and the absolute justice of our cause do not carry conviction to every unprejudiced mind. Those, of course, who believe with the Confederates that slavery is a blessing, and the most fitting corner-stone of a political edifice, will sympathize with their cause. But those who believe it to be a curse should, I think, sympathize with us, who, while circumscribing its limits and dethroning it as a political power, are endeavoring to maintain the empire of the American Constitution and the English common law over this great continent. This movement in which we now engage, and which Jefferson Davis thinks so ridiculous, is to me one of the most noble spectacles which I remember in history. Twenty millions of people have turned out as a great posse comitatus to enforce the laws over a mob of two or three millions, — not more, — led on by two or three dozen accomplished, daring, and reckless desperados. This is the way history will record this transaction, be the issue what it may; and if we had been so base as to consent to our national death without striking a blow, our epitaph would have been more inglorious than I hope it may prove to be.

Don't be too much cast down about Bull Run. In a military point of view it is of no very great significance. We have lost, perhaps, at the utmost, 1000 men, 2000 muskets, and a dozen cannon or so. There was a panic, it is true, and we feel ashamed, awfully mortified; but our men had fought four or five hours without flinching, against concealed batteries, at the cannon's mouth, under a blazing July Virginia sun, taking battery after battery, till they were exhausted with thirst, and their tongues were hanging out of their mouths. It was physically impossible for these advanced troops to fight longer, and the reserves were never brought up. So far I only say what is undisputed. The blame for the transaction cannot be fairly assigned till we get official accounts. As for the affair itself, the defeat was a foregone conclusion. If you read again the earlier part of my last letter, you will see that I anticipated, as did we all, that the grand attack on Manassas was to be made with McClellan's column, Patterson's and McDowell's combined. This would have given about 125,000 men. Instead of this, McDowell's advance with some 50,000 men, not onethird part of which were engaged, while the rebels had 100,000 within immediate reach of the scene of action. You will also see by the revelations made in Congress and in the New York “Times” that this has been purely a politician's battle. It is in a political point of view, not a military, that the recent disaster is most deplorable. The rebellion has of course gained credit by this repulse of our troops.

As for the Civil War, nothing could have averted it. It is the result of the forty years' aggression of the slavery power. Lincoln's election was a vote by a majority of every free State that slavery should go no further, and then the South dissolved the Union. Suppose we had acknowledged the Confederacy, there would have been war all the same. Whether we are called two confederacies or one, the question of slavery in the Territories has got to be settled by war, and so has the possession of the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Even on the impossible theory that the United States continued to exist as a government after submitting without a struggle to dismemberment, still it would be obliged to fight for the rights of its four or five million of tonnage to navigate American waters.

In brief, the period has arrived for us, as it has often arrived for other commonwealths in history, when we must fight for national existence, or agree to be extinguished peaceably. I am not very desponding, although the present is gloomy. Perhaps the day will come ere long when we shall all of us, not absolutely incapacitated by age or sickness, be obliged to shoulder our rifles as privates in the ranks. At present there seems no lack of men. The reverse of last Sunday has excited the enthusiasm afresh, and the government receives new regiments faster than it can provide for them. As I am not fit to be an officer, being utterly without military talent or training, and as it is now decided that such responsible offices shall not be conferred except upon those who can bear an examination by competent military authorities, I am obliged to regret my want of early education in the only pursuit which is now useful. As to going abroad and immersing myself again in the sixteenth century, it is simply an impossibility. I can think of nothing but American affairs, and should be almost ashamed if it were otherwise.

A grim winter is before us. Gather your rosebuds while you may, is my advice to you, and engage your passages not before October. But having said this, I give you carte blanche, and let me know your decision when made. The war is to be a long one. We have no idea of giving in, and no doubt of ultimate triumph. Our disaster is nothing; our disgrace is great, and it must be long before it can be retrieved, because General Scott will now be free to pursue the deliberate plan which he had marked out when he was compelled by outside pressure to precipitate his raw levies against an overwhelming superiority of rebels in a fortified position.

A few days ago I went over to Quincy by appointment to dine with old Mr. Quincy. The dinner was very pleasant. Edmund was there, and very agreeable, with Professor Gould, and Mr. Waterston, and the ladies. The old gentleman, now in his ninetieth year, is straight as an arrow, with thirty-two beautiful teeth, every one his own, and was as genial and cordial as possible. He talked most agreeably on all the topics of the day, and after dinner discussed the political question in all its bearings with much acumen and with plenty of interesting historical reminiscences. He was much pleased with the messages I delivered to him from Lord Lyndhurst, and desired in return that I should transmit his most cordial and respectful regards. Please add mine to his, as well as to Lady Lyndhurst. when you have the privilege of seeing them. I was very sorry not to be able to accept young Mr. Adams's offered hospitality, but I had made arrangements to return to Nahant that night. Pray give my best regards to Mr. and Mrs. Adams. Last Saturday I went to Cambridge and visited Longfellow. He was in bed, with both hands tied up; but his burns are recovering, and his face will not be scarred, and he will not lose the use of either hand. He was serene and resigned, but dreaded going down-stairs into the desolate house. His children were going in and out of the room. He spoke of his wife, and narrated the whole tragedy very gently, and without any paroxysms of grief, although it was obvious that he felt himself a changed man. Holmes came in. We talked of general matters, and Longfellow was interested to listen to and speak of the news of the day and of the all-absorbing topic of the war.

The weather has been almost cloudless for the seven weeks that I have been at home — one blaze of sunshine. But the drought is getting to be alarming. It has hardly rained a drop since the first week in June. Fortunately, the charm seems now broken, and to-day there have been some refreshing showers, with a prospect of more. I dined on Saturday with Holmes. He is as charming, witty, and sympathetic as ever. I wish I could send you something better than this, but unless I should go to Washington again I don't see what I can write now that is worth reading. To-morrow I dine here with Wharton, who is unchanged, and desires his remembrances to you; and next day I dine with Lowell at Cambridge, where I hope to find Hawthorne, Holmes, and others. . . .

P. S.  Tell Tom Brown, with my kindest regards, that every one is reading him here with delight, and the dedication is especially grateful to our feelings. The Boston edition (I wish he had the copyright) has an uncommonly good likeness of him.

As for Wadsworth, I heard from several sources of his energy and pluck. Wharton has been in my room since I began this note. He had a letter from his sister, in which she says John Vennes, a servant (an Englishman) of theirs, who enlisted in the Sixty-ninth New York, had written to say that his master was the bravest of the brave, and that he was very proud of him as he saw him without his hat, and revolver in hand, riding about and encouraging the troops at the last moment to make a stand. I had a letter from Colonel Gordon the other day. He is at Harper's Ferry, and not at all discouraged by the results of the battle, in which of course he had no part. He says: “Our late check, it seems to me, is almost a victory. From seven to four did our brave troops face that deadly fire of artillery and infantry delivered from breastworks and hidden embrasures. Over and over again did they roll back the greatly outnumbering columns of the enemy, until at last, when a foolish panic seized them, they left the enemy in such a condition that he could not pursue them more than a mile and a half; so that one entire battery, which they might have had for the taking, was left all night on the field and finally returned to us again. Many such victories would depopulate the South, and from the victors there is no sound of joy. In Charleston, Virginia, at Harper's Ferry, and at Martinsburg they mourn the loss of many of their sons. Fewer in numbers, we were more than their match, and will meet them again.'”

In estimating the importance of this affair as to its bearings on the future, it should, I think, be never forgotten that the panic, whatever was its mysterious cause, was not the result of any overpowering onset of the enemy. It did not begin with the troops engaged.

Here we are not discouraged. The three months' men are nearly all of them going back again. Congress has voted 500,000 men and 5,000,000 of dollars; has put on an income tax of three per cent., besides raising twenty or thirty millions extra on tea, coffee, sugar, and other hitherto untaxed articles; and government securities are now as high in the market as they were before the late battle. . . .

J. L. M.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume 2, p. 191-8

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

New York, January 13, 1862.

My Dear Sir, — I see that the financial question is pressing, and before I turn my face eastward I cannot help repeating some of the suggestions which I have already made, the soundness of which is chiefly the discussion here, where so many are opposed to them.

1st. Taxation for interest and current ordinary expenses; on this all agree now, but many will oppose if you once get into the “irredeemable gulf.”

2d. Your main reliance for carrying on the government must be upon selling your long bonds at the best prices they will bring after a fixed policy has been announced, and of course using proper judgment as to the time and manner of bringing them forward.

3d. Avail of short loans, exchequer bills, or emission of small notes for currency, under the advice of experts in whichever manner or form promises to give greatest relief temporarily; but it will be a fatal error to rely upon it as your chief dependence. It is limited in amount and liable to great mischief the moment it is pushed beyond a certain and very moderate amount.

4th. Make this currency, or short paper, or demand paper, in whatever shape you put it, as good as possible by providing for its being received by government for all dues, by fixing a mode of its redemption, and by making it fundable at a good rate of interest. Raise it all you can, so as to make it good, and cause it to be received by all classes voluntarily in payment of debts already existing, but avoid making it a legal tender unless you want to see it depreciate. To make it a legal tender will be to give notice to capitalists to get their capital out of the country as fast as possible, and to foreign capitalists to keep from sending money here, and to sacrifice what available stocks they have, government included, as early as possible before the depreciation has got very bad.

5th. Finally, avoid pledging anything but the faith of the government for your debt.

It will be urged to pledge your revenues, or certain specified parts of them. If this pledge covers all your issues, past, present, and future, it amounts to nothing. If confined to the present debt and to certain specified loans it will be urged upon you by those who hold the present loan and wish it secured, and who wish to see the war ended, even at the cost of disunion or submission, whenever the loan now authorized is expended.

If our policy is to be war until we succeed, whether it cost us five hundred millions or five thousand millions (about England's debt), let us have no pledge of our revenue. Even if the loan was sure to be limited, it would be unworthy the dignity of government to pawn our revenue for it, like a Mexican or South American state, and would defeat its object if that object really was to raise the public credit.

We are rich and strong, and it only requires strong action and wise measures of finance at this crisis to carry us through.

Most respectfully and truly yours,

J. M. Forbes.

I fear the interest of the banks in keeping up for a little while the price of the long bonds (1881) may influence them to other and temporary expedients. If you follow their advice you will soon see them slipping out of their long bonds at the best prices they can get.

If one doubted about the true policy, the opposition to it of the “Herald,” the organ of the seceders, should turn the scales. It goes for irredeemable currency and for short expedients. It wants to see the war short — and disgraceful!   J. M. F.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 277-9

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw, July 9, 1863

July 9th (?).

What glorious news about Vicksburg! — and I am particularly glad to have that and Gettysburg come so near the 4th of July — a year ago on that day Jimmy died in a farmhouse on the battlefield of Glendale. The little fellow was very happy, — he thought the war would soon be over, that everything was going right, and that everybody was as high-minded and courageous as himself. For Mother's sake, I wish you had known him, — he was a good son and a pure and wise lover of his Country, — with Father and Mother, I shall never fill his place, nor in the Commonwealth either, I fear.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 275

1st Lieutenant Charles Fessenden Morse, September 18, 1861

September 18, 1861.

I had the pleasantest time, yesterday, that I have had this long while. General Lander's Brigade, including the Twentieth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, was on the march from Washington to Poolsville; they were to pass within about two miles of our camp, so Captain Curtis and I got permission to go off and see them. It was the first time I had left camp except for picket or other duty, since I left Camp Andrew; it seemed very much of a holiday. We met the Twentieth after about three-quarters of an hour's march. I tell you we were glad to see so many good fellows; at least a dozen of them were intimate friends; Charley Pierson, the Adjutant, Bill Bartlett, Caspar Crowninshield, John Putnam, Harry Tremlett, and lots of others. They were all looking well, dusty and sunburnt. Captain Schmidt seemed very glad to see me; he was very unchanged. After walking a mile or two with them, we returned to camp well pleased with our visit. Poolsville, where they are now encamped, is seven miles from us.

I have just made me a delicious cup of black coffee; it will keep me awake the rest of the night, I think, as it is now near one. I have been on court-martial for the last two or three days; Rufus Choate was Judge Advocate. The way we put cases through would have astonished a police court.

Captain Curtis went on to Washington, to-night, to rectify an error in the date of pay roll; he will be back some time to-morrow or next day. General McClellan is going to review General Banks' division Tuesday. It will be a great sight, if they can find a good place for it; fifteen thousand troops marching company front. Ellis has been made brigade commissary, a regular staff appointment. Sedgwick has received an appointment on some staff with the rank of major. Lieutenant Howard and Tom Robeson have been made signal officers, and are detached. Copeland has gone on to Banks' staff, and there is some talk of making Charley Horton or Steve Perkins ordnance officers of this division, so you see our roster of officers is quite reduced. If anybody is wanted for any purpose in this division, our regiment is sure to be called on to supply him; it is complimentary to us, to be sure, but it makes it rather hard for the rest. You asked me, in a letter some time ago, if I was trying to get a commission in the regular army. Not a bit of it! I shall try for one some of these days, likely, but not till I have seen some service. I should not care for anything less than a captaincy in the regular army, and it will be a good while before I can expect that. I suppose you notice by my talk that I don't think we have a short war before us; the more I think of it, the more I think it will be a long one. I saw a list of Tom Stevenson's officers, the other day. There are several very good companies, Bob Clark's, Bob Steve's and some others.

Captain Robert Williams, General Banks' Assistant Adjutant-General, has got a furlough from the regular army, and is going to take command of the cavalry regiment now raising in Massachusetts; rather singular that he, a Virginian, should be the Colonel of a regiment raised to fight his own State. He is a very fine officer, and I should think would be much liked; his present rank is that of captain.

You will hardly believe it when I tell you that the men of our regiment look better now as regards their rifles, accoutrements and dress, than they did at Camp Andrew. At dress parades and inspections, we insist on every man having his shoes and belts shining bright with blacking, also on every button and bit of brass about their firelock being polished, and, if on drawing the rammer from the barrel, there is enough rust or dirt on it to soil a white glove, the man who owns it is obliged to clean it (the rifle), immediately after parade, to the satisfaction of his officer. Their clothes are considerably worn, but the general effect is far better than ever before. We have earned the name of the “stuck up” Massachusetts Regiment, which amuses us considerably. Others think we cannot get along well with our men, as they never see them sitting around in our tents smoking and joking with us and enjoying themselves generally, as they are allowed to do in some regiments. We let them think so.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 22-4

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to Josephine Shaw, June 18, 1863

Camp Brightwood, June 18, 1863.

Sumner talked a great deal about the black troops, — about the President's views and Stanton's intention of having 200,000 in the field by the end of summer, which I thought rather wild, considering the total number of arms-bearing blacks in the South to be 360,000; Fremont wrote in the same way. Sumner had some excellent ideas on the probable duration of the war, — he thinks it ought to be a very long war yet. He does not find in history any record of such great changes as we expect to see, having been brought about except with long wars and great suffering. I think his ideas excellent because they agree with mine. What should we do with a peace, until events have shaped out a policy which a majority of people at the North will recognize as the necessary one for a successful reorganization of the Southern territory and Southern institutions? What two men agree about such a policy now? What one man has any clear, practical ideas on the subject at all? — not Charles Sumner certainly. If black armies can be organized on a large scale and made to fight, the question of slavery and the disposition of the slaves becomes comparatively easy of solution: but our whole Constitution, and perhaps our whole form of government, has, it seems to me, to be remodelled, — and that cannot be done until a new generation, better educated in such things than the present, takes hold of it. How many years it took to form our present Constitution.

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 260-1

Major Rutherford B. Hayes to Sardis Birchard, October 27, 1861

Sunday morning before breakfast,

Tompkins' Farm, Three Miles From Gauley Bridge,

October 27, 1861.

Dear Uncle: — It is a bright October morning. Ever since the great storms a month ago, we have had weather almost exactly such as we have at the same season in Ohio — occasional rainy days, but much very fine weather. We are still waiting events. Our winter's work or destination yet unknown. Decided events near Washington will determine our course. We shall wait those events several weeks yet before going into winter quarters. If things remain there without any events, we shall about half, I conjecture, build huts here and hereabouts, and the rest go to Ohio, and stay there, or go to Kentucky or Missouri as required. I hope and expect to be of the half that leaves here. But great events near Washington are expected by the powers that be, and it looks, as you see, some like it.

I have been occupied the whole week trying cases before a court-martial. Some painful things, but on the whole, an agreeable time. While the regiment is in camp doing nothing, this business is not bad for a change.

The paymasters are here at last, making the men very happy with their pretty government notes and gold. The larger part is taken (seven-eighths) in paper on account of the bother in carrying six months' pay in gold. Each regiment will send home a very large proportion of their pay — one-half to three-fifths.

The death of Colonel Baker is a national calamity, but on the whole, the war wears a favorable look. Lucy says you are getting ready to shelter us when driven from Cincinnati. All right, but if we are forced to leave Cincinnati, I think we can't stop short of the Canada line. There is no danger. These Rebels will go under sooner or later. I know that great battles are matters of accident largely. A defeat near Washington is possible, and would be disastrous enough, but the Southern soldiers are not the mettle to carry on a long and doubtful war. If they can get a success by a dash or an ambuscade, they do it well enough, but for steady work, such as finally determines all great wars, our men are far superior to them. With equal generalship and advantages, there is a perfect certainty as to the result of a campaign. Our men here attack parties, not guerrillas merely, but uniformed soldiers from North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, etc., of two or three times their number with entire confidence that the enemy will run, and they do. They cut us up in ambuscades sometimes, and with stratagems of all sorts. This sort of things delays, but it will not prevent, success if our people at home will pay the taxes and not tire of it. Breakfast is ready.

Sincerely,

R. B. Hayes.

P. S. — You hear a great deal of the suffering of soldiers. It is much exaggerated. A great many lies are told. The sick do suffer. A camp and camp hospitals are necessarily awful places for sickness, but well men, for the most part, fare well — very well. Since I have kept house alone as judge-advocate, my orderly and clerk furnish soldiers' rations and nothing else. It is good living. In the camp of the regiment we fare worse than the rest, because the soldiers are enterprising and get things our lazy darkies don't.

Warm bedding and clothing will be greatly needed in the winter, and by troops guarding mountain passes. The supply should be greater than the Government furnishes. Sewing Societies, etc., etc., may do much good. The Government is doing its duty well. The allowance is ample for average service; but winter weather in mountains requires more than will perhaps be allowed.

S. Birchard.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 122-4

Speech of John Bright [Extract]: August 1, 1861

I think that, just now, if you can find a man who on questions of great state policy agrees with us, at the same time having a deep personal interest in this great cotton question, and having paid so much attention to it as Mr. Cheetham has, — I think there is a double reason why he should receive the votes and have the confidence of this division of the county. (Cheers) Now, is this cotton question a great question Or not? I met a spinner to-day, — he does not live in Rochdale, though I met him here, — and I asked him what he thought about it; and he said, “Well, I think cotton will come somehow.” (Laughter.) And I find that there is that kind of answer to be had from three out of four of all the spinners that you ask. They know that in past times, when cotton has risen fifty or eighty per cent, or some extravagant rise, something has come, — the rate of interest has been raised, or there has been a commercial panic from some cause or other, and down the price has gone ; and when everybody said, “There would be no cotton at Christmas,” there proved a very considerable stock at Christmas. And so they say now.

I don’t in the least deny that it will be so; all I assert is, that this particular case is new, that we have never had a war in the United States between different sections of that country, affecting the production of cotton before; and it is not fair, or Wise, but rather childish than otherwise, to argue from past events, which were not a bit like this, of the event which is now passing before our eyes. They say, “It is quite true there is a civil war in America, but it will blow over: there will be a compromise; or the English government will break the blockade.” Now recollect what breaking the blockade means. It means a war with the United States; and I don’t think that it would be cheap to break the blockade at the cost of a war with the United States. I think that the cost of a war with the United States would give probably half wages, for a very considerable time, to those persons in Lancashire who would be out of work if there was no cotton, to say nothing at all of the manifest injustice and wrong against all international law, that a legal and effective blockade should be interfered with by another country.

It is not exactly the business of this meeting, but my opinion is, that the safety of the product on which this county depends rests far more on the success of the Washington government than upon its failure; and I believe nothing could be more monstrous than for us, who are not very averse to war ourselves, to set up for critics, carping, cavilling critics, of what the Washington government is doing. I saw a letter the other day from an Englishman, resident for twenty-five years in Philadelphia, a merchant there, and a very prosperous merchant. He said, “I prefer the institutions of this country (the , United States) very much to yours in England”; but he says also, “If it be once admitted that here we have no country and no government, but that any portion of these United States can break off from the central government whenever it pleases, then it is time for me to pack up what I have, and to go somewhere where there is a country and a government”

Well, that is the pith of this question. Do you suppose that, if Lancashire and Yorkshire thought that they would break off from the United Kingdom, those newspapers which are now preaching every kind of moderation to the government of Washington would advise the government in London to allow these two counties to set up a special government for themselves? When the people in Ireland wished to secede, was it proposed in London that they should be allowed to secede peaceably? Nothing of the kind. I am not going to defend what is taking place in a country that is well able to defend itself. But I advise you, and I advise the people of England, to abstain from applying to the United States doctrines and principles which we never apply to our own case. At any rate, they have never fought “for the balance of power ” in Europe. They have never fought to keep up a decaying empire. They have never squandered the money of their people in such phantom expeditions as we have been engaged in. And now at this moment, when you are told that they are going to be ruined by their vast expenditure, the sum that they are now going. To raise in the great emergency of this grievous war is no greater than what we raise every year during a time of peace. (Loud cheers.) They say that they are not going to liberate slaves. No; the object of the Washington government is to maintain their own Constitution, and to act legally, as it permits and requires.

No man is more in favor of peace than I am; no man has denounced war more than I have, probably, in this country; few men, in their public life, have suffered more obloquy — I had almost said, more indignity — in consequence of it. But I cannot, for the life of me, see, upon any of those principles upon which states are governed now, —— I say nothing of the literal word of the New Testament, — I cannot see how the state of affairs in America, with regard to the United States government, could have been different from what it is at this moment. We had a heptarchy in this country, and it was thought to be a good thing to get rid of it, and to have a united nation. If the thirty-three or thirty-four States of the American Union can break off whenever they like, I can see nothing but disaster and confusion throughout the whole of that continent. I say that the war, be it successful or not, be it Christian or not, be it wise or not, is a war to sustain the government and to sustain the authority of a great nation; and that the people of England, if they are true to their own sympathies, to their own history, and to their own great act of 1834, to which reference has already been made, will have no sympathy with those who wish to build up a great empire on the perpetual bondage of millions of their fellow-men. (Loud cheers.)

SOURCE: John Bright Moore, Speeches of John Bright, M.P., on the American Question, p. 1-7

John M. Forbes to Nassau W. Senior, December 10, 1861

Boston, December 10,1861.

My Dear Me. Senior, — I have yours of the 20th ulto. I shall read with much interest your article upon the nature of our government, and am glad you came to the same conclusion which everybody here long since arrived at except Calhoun and his gang of conspirators.

I don't blame Lord Russell for being puzzled at any question which you say has two sides to it; but I do blame him for jumping at his conclusions in such hot haste that he could not await the arrival of our new minister, whose explanation might have given him some light.

You don't blame the doctor (Medico) when, called to a serious case, he happens to take the dark view of it, and sentences the patient to “dissolution;” but you do think him a blunderer if he hastens to tell the victim that he has only to make his arrangements for his funeral!

Louis Napoleon, by quietly holding back his opinions and then uttering them covered up with sugared words, puts himself, with the masses of our people, where England was a few months since, our natural ally! Of course it is an enormous humbug, and thinking men are not gulled by it, but none the less [the situation] operates to inflame the old animosities that had grown out of two wars and that had been just forgotten.

Another thing must not be forgotten. The French press has not the chance, even when it has the will, to do the mischief that yours and ours has. We hardly read anything from the French papers; they still less read American papers, and this makes the grand difference between our situation as relating to the two countries.

You read our New York “Herald” edited by a renegade Scotchman . . . and you take it for the representative of American journalism! The “Herald” is really the organ of the seceders, it was so openly until after Sumter surrendered; and only came over nominally to the Northern side under the terrors of mob law. It has since served its masters still better by sowing the seeds of dissension between us and England.

We, with perhaps equal blindness, permit the “Times” and half a dozen other papers to stand for “England.” I look for a grand paper duello upon the Trent question, and shall be relieved if it goes no further. Should the questions assume a warlike aspect, we shall only be driven the sooner to our last desperate resort, emancipation. We are now only divided into two parties at the North, viz.: those who would use the negro when we can see no other way of conquering; and secondly, those who would use the negro at once, wherever he can be used to strengthen us or weaken the enemy! The logic of events has been from day to day settling this question, and if our talking men in Congress can only be patient or self-denying in the outpouring of patriotic words, we shall go on fast enough. . . .

You cannot believe we shall subjugate ten millions of people. Nor I; but classify these ten millions and all is changed. At least two are avowed loyalists in the border States; four more are blacks ready to help us when we will let them; three more are poor whites whose interests are clearly with us and against their would-be masters. How long will it be before the avowals of their masters, aided by the suffering of the war, will open their eyes?

This leaves one million, of all ages and sexes, who, through owning slaves and connection with slaveholders, may think they have a class interest in the success of the rebellion. This class we can crush out— or what will be left of them after the war debt of the rebels reaches its proper value — whenever we can divide the four million of poor whites, by an operation upon their eyes!

But if I underrate the difficulty, the necessity for doing it now is all the greater! If hard now, how much harder will it be after we shall have, as you desire, permitted them to separate. Now they have no manufactures, no foreign alliances, no warlike stores except what they stole from us, and these rapidly diminishing. They have missed their first spring in which lies the strength of a conspiracy; while our cold Anglo-Saxon blood is just getting roused from the lethargy of a long peace and of overmuch prosperity. We are just ready to begin to fight. We all feel that what is now a war between the people and a small class would, after a separation, become a war of sections. As for peace, nobody believes it possible; a truce we might have, to give them time to gather breath! It is only a question between war to the end now and a chronic state of war with two standing armies, two navies, two corps of diplomatists seeking alliances in every court in Europe, to end in another death struggle. There is no peace for us, unless we either conquer the arrogant slave-owner classes who have so long ruled us and bullied you, or permit them by a compromise to continue and extend their combination with our baser class and to drag us into a grand slave empire which shall absorb the West Indies and Mexico and Central America.

A bold stand at the polls by the North in 1850 would have given us the victory peacefully; now we must fight for it, or yield to the basest faction that ever ruled a country. Better a ten years' war than this; but it will not be a long war.

The conspirators counted upon an early success in arms and a division of the North. Foiled in this, their only hope is in foreign intervention. I have no doubt what you tell me is true of Louis Napoleon, still less that he secretly gave the rebels hopes of aid, nor that they have construed your course to favor them. Had you squarely taken the same ground that we did towards your Canadian rebels, this hope would have been extinguished; and now, if you want cotton, if you want trade, if you want to pave the way to a real alliance with the only free nation besides yourselves on the globe, you ought to help us in all legitimate ways. You should encourage our loan, you should sharpen your police to detect the outfit of hostile vessels, you should hold the Nashville strictly accountable for her acts of pillage and destruction, giving her the experience of a long trial in your courts, if only to discourage other pirates from being their own judges of what property they may appropriate.

Do this and the war will be short. Four months ago an offer from you to do what we should have readily done when your Indian empire was threatened, had it seemed necessary or proper, would have ended the war before this, — namely, to throw open to us for purchase your armories and your ironclad shipyards. We might not have accepted the offer, but it would have destroyed the rebels' last hope. I don't complain of your not doing it, but simply indicate what for the sake of both countries I wish might have been your policy!

As for the Sault Ste. Marie, the pine lands must wait for the prairie farmers to build again; but the developments in our mineral lands are said to be magnificent, and to promise results next summer.

Very truly yours,

J. M. Forbes.

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 253-7

Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins to Mary Emeline Hurlburt Rawlins, February 6, 1864

Nashville, February 6, 1864.

. . . This is the second anniversary of the fall of Fort Henry. How little I dreamed then the war would continue this long. But so it is, and no clear sight is yet had of its close. No break in the blood-bearing clouds of war reveals to us the sky of Peace beyond. In faith and patriotism we are still strong and hope ere long to welcome the return of peace, and join our wives and children in their happy homes and enjoy with them the remainder of our days, the fruits of our toil and suffering in the cause of right and liberty, as did our fathers after the successful termination of the War of Independence. . . .

SOURCE: James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins, p. 395-6

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 26, 1861 – Second Entry

The President is sick to-day — having a chill, I believe. Adjutant-General Cooper was in, comparing notes with the Secretary as to the number of regiments in the field. The Secretary has a most astonishing memory, and could easily number the forces without referring to his notes. The amount is not large, it is true; but, from the eagerness to volunteer, I believe if we had the arms there might soon be organized an army of three or four hundred thousand men. And yet it would seem that no one dreams of armies of such magnitude. Wait till we sleep a little longer! A great many separate companies are accepted; all indeed that offer for three years or the war, provided they have arms—even double-barreled shot-guns and hunting rifles. What a deal of annoyance and labor it will be to organize these into battalions, regiments, brigades, and divisions! And then comes the appointment of staff and field officers. This will be labor for the President. But he works incessantly, sick or well.

We have an agent in Europe purchasing arms. This was well thought on. And Capt. Huse is thought to be a good selection. It will be impossible for Lincoln to keep all our ports hermetically sealed. Hitherto improvident, it is to be hoped the South will now go to work upon her own resources. We have plunged into the sea of revolution, and must, unaided, sink or swim. The Yankees say they are going to subdue us in six months. What fools!

I tasted green corn to-day, and, although very fond of it, I touched it lightly, because it seemed so much out of season. The country around is beautiful, and the birds are singing as merrily as if we were about to enter upon a perennial Sabbath-day, instead of a desolating war. But the gunpowder will be used to destroy the destroyer, man, and why should not the birds sing! The china-trees are beautiful, and abundant about the dwellings.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 44

Diary of Corporal Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, March 31, 1864

I went to a party this evening, given in honor of the veterans, over at Mr. Hatch's, on Yankee Street.¹ There were not many present, but all enjoyed themselves. I found a new road to travel, a mile from this place — if all goes well. Things are very quiet in this settlement, but almost every young man here is thinking of returning with us to help bring the war to a close. It does us good to see the loyal sentiment among the people at home. The general belief at home is that the war cannot last more than a year longer.

_______________

¹Yankee Street was the name given to an adjoining neighborhood. — A. G. D.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 177

Major-General George G. Meade to Henry A. Cram,* December 11, 1864

Headquarters Army Of The Potomac, December 11, 1864.

I fear you good people confine your efforts to suppress the Rebellion too much to speechifying, voting, and other very safe and easy modes of showing firm determination never to yield; but the essential element to success, namely, turning out to fight, don't seem to be so popular. You will have to stop filling quotas without adding to your armies before you can expect to finish the war. Do you know that the last loud call for five hundred thousand men has produced just one hundred and twenty thousand? Of these only about sixty thousand were sent to the field, and the share of my army, one of the largest in the field, was not over fifteen thousand; and of this number the greater part were worthless foreigners, who are daily deserting to the enemy. These are sad facts. I remember you were struck last winter with my telling the Councils of Philadelphia that this army, of whose fighting qualities there seemed to be a doubt, had lost, from official records, from April, 1862, to December, 1863, one hundred thousand, killed and wounded. I have now an official document before me in manuscript, being my report of the campaign from the Rapidan to the 1st of November, and it has a list of casualties showing the enormous number of ninety thousand men, killed, wounded and missing. All this is strictly confidential, as I would be condemned for telling the truth; but when people talk to me of ending the war, I must tell them what war is and its requirements; because you can then see how much prospect there is of finishing it, by forming your own judgment of the adaptation of the means to the end. No, my good friend, this war is not going to be ended till we destroy the armies of the Confederation; and in executing this work we shall have to expend yet millions of treasure and vast numbers of lives. Nothing is gained by postponing the exigencies which must be met. The people must make up their minds not only that the war shall be carried on, they must not only subscribe and cheerfully pay money to any extent, but they must themselves turn out, shoulder their muskets and come to the army, determined to fight the thing out. When I see that spirit, the men coming, and doing the fighting, then I will begin to guess when the war will be closed. Undoubtedly, the South is becoming exhausted; its calmly discussing the expediency of freeing and arming the slaves is positive evidence of its exhaustion and desperation; but unless we take advantage of this by increasing our armies and striking telling blows, it can prolong such a contest as we are now carrying on indefinitely.

I thank you for your kind congratulations on my appointment as major general in the regular army. If confirmed by the Senate, it places me fourth in rank in the army — Grant, Halleck and Sherman only being my seniors. Putting me ahead of Sheridan, from the popular position that officer now holds, may create opposition in the Senate; but it is well known my appointment was recommended by the lieutenant general, commanding, approved and determined on by the President, when Sheridan was my subordinate, commanding my cavalry, and before he had an opportunity of distinguishing himself, as he has since done. No injustice, therefore, has been done him, though when his appointment was announced in the theatrical manner it was, and mine not made, I felt called on to ask an explanation, which resulted in a disavowal to do me injustice, and the appointing me with a date which caused me to rank, as it was originally intended I should. So that, what ought to have been an acceptable compliment, became eventually a simple act of justice due to my remonstrance. Still, I ought to be and am satisfied and gratified, because I think it quite probable we are both of us placed far beyond our merits. I am afraid you will tire of so much personality and think I am greatly demoralized.

_______________

* Brother-in-law of Mrs. Meade.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 250-2

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: May 17, 1861

Was introduced to the President to-day. He was overwhelmed with papers, and retained a number in his left hand, probably of more importance than the rest. He received me with urbanity, and while he read the papers I had given him, as I had never seen him before, I endeavored to scrutinize his features, as one would naturally do, for the purpose of forming a vague estimate of the character and capabilities of the man destined to perform the leading part in a revolution which must occupy a large space in the world's history. His stature is tall, nearly six feet; his frame is very slight and seemingly frail; but when he throws back his shoulders he is as straight as an Indian chief. The features of his face are distinctly marked with character; and no one gazing at his profile would doubt for a moment that he beheld more than an ordinary man. His face is handsome, and his thin lip often basks a pleasant smile. There is nothing sinister or repulsive in his manners or appearance; and if there are no special indications of great grasp of intellectual power on his forehead and on his sharply defined nose and chin, neither is there any evidence of weakness, or that he could be easily moved from any settled purpose. I think he has a clear perception of matters demanding his cognizance, and a nice discrimination of details. As a politician he attaches the utmost importance to consistency—and here I differ with him. I think that to be consistent as a politician, is to change with the circumstances of the case. When Calhoun and Webster first met in Congress, the first advocated a protective tariff and the last opposed it. This was told me by Mr. Webster himself, in 1842, when he was Secretary of State; and it was confirmed by Mr. Calhoun in 1844, then Secretary of State himself. Statesmen are the physicians of the public weal; and what doctor hesitates to vary his remedies with the new phases of disease?

When the President had completed the reading of my papers, and during the perusal I observed him make several emphatic nods, he asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted employment with my pen, perhaps only temporary employment. I thought the correspondence of the Secretary of War would increase in volume, and another assistant besides Major Tyler would be required in his office. He smiled and shook his head, saying that such work would be only temporary indeed; which I construed to mean that even he did not then suppose the war was to assume colossal proportions.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 35-6

Charles Eliot Norton to George William Curtis, August 24, 1861

Newport, 24 August, 1861.

. . . I do not agree with you that the war is likely to be short. Its issue may soon become certain, but it will be long before we can lay down our arms. Nor am I ready yet to share in any gloomy prognostications. I believe the people will save the country and the government in spite of all the weakness and mismanagement and corruption at Washington. Nor am I afraid of the effect of another defeat, — if another should come. It will indeed bring to the surface an immense show of cowardice, and meanness; but we have no right yet to believe that the temper of our people is so low that it will not rise with the trial and [sic] of calamity. I bate nothing of heart or hope, and I grieve to think that you should ever feel out of heart or despondent. We have not yet more than begun to rouse ourselves; we are just bracing to the work; but we are setting to it at last in earnest.

The practical matter to be attended to at this moment seems to me to be the change in the Cabinet. A change must be made, — and it will be made, if not by the pressure now brought to bear, then by a popular revolution. We shall have public meetings of a kind to enforce their resolves in the course of a few days, if Cameron, Welles and Smith are not removed, or the best reason given for retaining them. Mr. Seward ought to understand that it is not safe for him that they should any longer remain in the Cabinet. If another reverse were to come and they still there, the whole Cabinet would have to go; — and then let Mr. Lincoln himself look out for a Committee of Safety. . . .

Let me hear from you again soon, — and above all do not begin to doubt our final success.

If the fortunes of war go against us, if all our domestic scoundrels give aid to the cause of the rebels, — we still shall not fail, and the issue will be even better than our hopes.

Most affectionately

Yours,

Charles E. N.

SOURCE: Sara Norton and  M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton, Volume 1, p. 241-2

Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Mead, September 25, 1864

Headquarters Army of The Potomac, September 25, 1864.

To-day we had a visit from Mr. Secretary Seward and Mr. Congressman Washburn. I had some little talk with Mr. Seward, who told me that at the North and at the South, and everywhere abroad, there was a strong conviction the war would soon terminate, and, said he, when so many people, influenced in such different ways, all unite in one conviction, there must be reason to believe peace is at hand. He did not tell me on what he founded his hopes, nor did I ask.

Sheridan's defeat of Early will prove a severe blow to the rebs, and will, I think, compel them to do something pretty soon to retrieve their lost prestige. There have been rumors they were going to evacuate Petersburg, and I should not be surprised if they did contract their lines and draw in nearer Richmond. I never did see what was their object in defending Petersburg, except to check us; it had no other influence, because, if we were able to take Richmond, we could take Petersburg; and after taking the one when resisted, the other would be more easily captured.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 230

George William Curtis to Charles Eliot Norton, June 18, 1862

18th June, '62.

What a resplendent summer! How densely rich and blooming! I am out all I can be. This moment A. darts in and out again, asking,”What's your hat on for?” I've just been pruning and quiddling, and feeling of the ground with the roots of the Virginia creeper (no allusion to McClellan), and of the air with the white blossom sprays of the deutzia. I am grand in my square foot principality! My patch to me a kingdom is, and that elm tree! (do you remember it ?) my prime minister.

Colonel Raasloff waits to see what Congress will do about his St. Croix proposition. I have written to him that it seems to me we want our Southern laborers where they are, but we want them free, and, until they are so, I should cry godspeed to any man who wanted to escape as a free man to another country. Consequently I shall work all the harder upon public opinion to hasten the day of their freedom. It is better they should be a “free rural population” in their native land, which wants their labor, than in another country, isn't it?

Colonel Raasloff says, and this is entre nous, that he saw Sumner the day before; and when the colonel said that the war would be long, the Senator was evidently “delighted,” which R. says he was sorry to observe. He says that Speaker Grow told him that Congress would not adjourn before the middle of July, or certainly until Richmond was taken, adding, “The army is encamped before Richmond, and we are encamped behind the army.” Fortunately for us all, Mr. Lincoln is wiser than Mr. Sumner. He is very wise.

SOURCE: Edward Cary, George William Curtis, p. 155-6