Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, June 5, 1848

Cincinnati, June 5th 1848.

My Dear Sir: A long time has slipped by since I had the pleasure of hearing from you. I hope you have not erased my name from your list of correspondents.

I send you an article of mine, which I think states some important facts which ought to be much more generally known than they are. If you agree with me in thinking its statements important, will you take the trouble to get a place for it in the Boston Whig, with such a notice of it as will attract particular attention to them.

Our Independent State Convention will we expect be largely attended. Should the Whigs nominate Taylor or Scott we shall have probably a preponderance of Whigs, but should they nominate any other free state Candidate, not a military man, the majority will probably be democrats. I think the Country would go unanimously for M'Lean, but unanimously, for no other man.

The action of the New York Democracy is manful and noble. I hope for much good from it.

Very truly your friend,

[SALMON P. CHASE.]

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 132-3

John L. Motley to Mary Lothrop Motley, November 25, 1862

Vienna, 20 Favoriten Strasse, Wieden,

November 25, 1862.

Dearest Little Mary: We jog on here much as usual. We are fortunate in our pleasant house and garden, so that the external physical influences are not so gloomy as they were last winter; but in other respects we are rather dismal, being so far away from the center of all interest, our own beloved country. It is very probable that I shall not live to see the end of this great tragedy, which seems to have hardly passed its first act. But you may do so, and when you do, you will see a great commonwealth, the freest and the noblest that ever existed in history, purged of the foul disorder which has nearly eaten away its vitals. This war is a purifying process, but it seems that a whole generation of youths has to be sacrificed before we can even see the end.

When the news of the attempt of the French emperor to interfere in our affairs in favor of the slaveholders reaches America, I hope it may open the eyes of our people to the danger ever impending over them from abroad. You will see that this is distinctly intimated in the despatch of Drouyn de l'Huys. The party of peace is supposed to have triumphed, and of course peace to the Europeans means the dismemberment of the Republic and the establishment of the slaveholders' Confederacy. I consider the 25,000 majority in glorious Massachusetts after the proclamation as a greater monument of triumph in the onward march of civilization on our continent than anything that has yet happened. I have somewhat recovered from the spleen and despondency into which I was thrown by the first accounts of the elections in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. After all, when one makes an arithmetical calculation we see that the popular vote in the great States is very nearly balanced, and when we reflect that it was really a vote upon the Emancipation Proclamation, the progress is enormous. Two years hence there will be a popular majority for emancipation as large as there was for non-extension in 1860. This is true progress. Moreover, our majority in Massachusetts is almost equal to the Democratic majority in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania combined.

The President's proclamation was just in time. Had it been delayed it is possible that England would have accepted the invitation of France, and that invitation was in reality to recognize the slaveholders' Confederacy, and to make with it an alliance offensive and defensive. I am not exaggerating. The object is distinctly to unite all Europe against us, to impose peace, and to forcibly dismember our country. Nothing has saved us from this disaster thus far except the antislavery feeling in England, which throughout the country, although not so much in high places, is the predominant popular instinct in England which no statesman dares confront. Thank God, Sumner is reelected, or is sure of it, I suppose, and Sam Hooper, too. The “people” of Massachusetts have succeeded in electing five senators out of forty, thirty representatives out of a few hundred, and half a congressman.¹ If McClellan had been an abolitionist together with his military talents, which are certainly very respectable, he would have been a great man. This is a great political and social revolution, and not an ordinary war. Goodby, my darling. Your letters give us great pleasure. Mr. Sumner is a high-minded, pure-minded patriot, and his rejection by Massachusetts would be a misfortune and a disgrace. Mr. Hooper, too, is eminently qualified for his post, and I beg you to give him my most sincere congratulations at his reelection, which I at one time felt was rather doubtful.

Ever thine in storm and shine and brine,

Papagei.

_______________

¹ These senators and representatives were elected to the Legislature of the State by opponents of the national administration.

SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume 2, p. 294-6

Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas’ General Orders No. 71, September 5, 1861

General Orders No. 71

WAR DEPT., ADJT. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, September 5, 1861.

I. All persons having received authority to raise volunteer regiments, batteries, or companies, in the State of New York, will immediately report to His Excellency Governor Morgan, at Albany, the present state of their respective organizations. They and their commands are placed under the orders of Governor Morgan, who will reorganize them and prepare them for service in the manner he may judge most advantageous for the interests of the General Government.

II. All commissioned officers of regiments, batteries, or companies, now in service, raised in the State of New York independent of the State authorities, can receive commissions from the Governor of that State by reporting to the adjutant general thereof and filing in his office a duplicate of the muster-in rolls of their respective organizations.

By order:

 L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 1 (Serial No. 122), p. 483-4

Salmon P. Chase to William Cullen Bryant, December 13, 1862

washington, December 13, 1862

The kind and liberal appreciation which my public conduct has always received from the “Evening Post” makes me more than ordinarily solicitous to avoid its just censure. Of course, I was not a little pained to read the article entitled “The Financial Views of Mr. Chase.”

A public man, in times of terrible trial, must often adopt expedients, not inherently immoral, which he would, in a normal condition of things, avoid. This would, I think, justify my support of a national system of banking associations, even were the plan intrinsically defective. The support of the demand, which will be created by the enactment of the plan, for bonds, will enable the Government to borrow at reasonable rates. Without that support, I confess I see nothing less than the Serbonian bog before me for our finances. In the conflict of opinions concerning it, I almost despair.

The choice is narrow. National credit supported by the organization of capital under national law, or limitless issues of notes, and — what beyond? I don't wish to look at it, or to administer the finances with no other road than that open before me.

Is it quite right, when I am struggling with almost overwhelming difficulties; when — shall I be bold to say it? — after having achieved results which, at the outset, I thought impossible, I just reach the point where not to be sustained is, perhaps, to be utterly defeated; is it quite right to say of my “central idea” that it is impossible because gold is not of uniform value at Chicago and at New York? Who ever thought of value not being uniform because not capable of sustaining such a test? Why not take my language in its common-sense acceptation, that uniform value means that value which is practically uniform — paying travelling bills everywhere, and debts everywhere in the country, having everywhere substantially equal credit founded on equal security?

Again, is it quite right to say that no aid to the Treasury is to be expected from the plan when, in the very same article, a like plan in New York is said to have advanced the bonds of New York some ten per cent above other bonds? In the report I admit frankly that I do not expect from it direct aid in money; that is, no such direct aid as is afforded by issues of circulation, or by loans. Such aid can only come when bonds are paid for in coin or notes, and no necessity exists for retiring the notes to prevent inflation. But indirect aid is not less valuable than direct, and the indirect will be immediate and immense; and it will be derived from the imparting of that strength to national bonds which the similar New York plan imparts to New York bonds. It will facilitate immediate and future loans, and be of vast advantage to every interest.

I am obliged to prepare this letter very hurriedly, but you will get my ideas.

My country engages all my best earthly thoughts and affections. Most willingly will I sacrifice all for her. To serve her, my labors have been incessant. Must I fail for the want of concord among her most devoted lovers?

Most truly yours,

S. P. Chase.

SOURCE: Parke Godwin, A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, Volume 1, p. 185-6

Mark W. Delahay to Abraham Lincoln, May 13, 1860

Tremont House,

Gage, Bro. & Drake, Proprietors

Chicago, 10 P M May 13^th 1860

Hon A Lincoln

My Dear Sir

Since your Springfield friends have been fairly located matters have been looking up. I have taken to their quarters a number of the Iowa Delegates, some of the Minnesota and all the Kansas. I have taken “Cottenwood” into my Room, he is sound. Ross & Proctor of Kansas I think can be managed their prefference is Chase. But even with the Seward Delegates you are their 2nd Choice – Greely is here as a Proxie for Origon, and is telling a Crowd now around him that NY can be carried for Bates I think he is Calculated rather to injure Seward – Some of the N. J. men talk very well as I just learned from Col Ross – and so do some of the Mass men – they say they are for a success – I have induced the Penna Delegates to stop talking about their man as an ultum attim. They have mooted one thing, that would Kill them off and I have admonished them to abandon it, which was to call Ills Ind Penna & N. J. Delegates together to harmonize between you & Cameron, such a move would appear like a “Slate” and Seward is too potent here to attempt such a meeting, his friends would probably Slate us, if it were done – I have been up late & Early and am perfectly cool & hopeful –

Delahay

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

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: November 6, 1862

I believe the commissaries and quartermasters are cheating the government. The Quartermaster-General sent in a paper, to-day, saying he did not need the contributions of clothes tendered by the people of Petersburg, but still would pay for them. They were offered for nothing.

The Commissary-General to-day says there is not wheat enough in Virginia (when a good crop was raised) for Gen. Lee's army, and unless he has millions in money and cotton, the army must disband for want of food. I don't believe it.

There are 5000 negroes working on the fortifications near the city, and 2500 are to work on the Piedmont Railroad.

We are all hoping that New York and other States declared against the Republicans, at the elections in the United States, on Tuesday last. Such a communication would be regarded as the harbinger of peace. We are all weary of the war, but must and will fight on, for no other alternative remains. Everything, however, indicates that we are upon the eve of most interesting events. This is the time for England or France to come to the rescue, and enjoy a commercial monopoly for many years. I think the Secretary of War has abandoned the idea of trading cotton to the enemy. It might cost him his head.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 183

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: October 31, 1862

If it be not a Yankee electioneering trick to operate at the election in New York, on the fourth of November, the Northern correspondence with Europe looks very much like speedy intervention in our behalf.

Winder has really dismissed all his detectives excepting Cashmeyer, about the worst of them.

If we gain our independence by the valor of our people, or assisted by European intervention, I wonder whether President Davis will be regarded by the world as a second Washington? What will his own country say of him? I know not, of course; but I know what quite a number here say of him now. They say he is a small specimen of a statesman, and no military chieftain at all. And worse still, that he is a capricious tyrant, for lifting up Yankees and keeping down great Southern men. Wise, Floyd, etc. are kept in obscurity; while Pemberton, who commanded the Massachusetts troops, under Lincoln, in April, 1861, is made a lieutenant-general; G. W. Smith and Lovell, who were officeholders in New York, when the battle of Manassas was fought, are made major-generals, and the former put in command over Wise in Virginia, and all the generals in North Carolina. Ripley, another Northern general, was sent to South Carolina, and Winder, from Maryland, has been allowed to play the despot in Richmond and Petersburg. Washington was maligned.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 178

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

Boston, November 15, 1862.

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

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

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

_______________

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

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

Governor Horatio Seymour to Major-General John A. Dix, August 15, 1863

Executive Department, Albany, August 15,1863.

To Major-general John A. Dix, U.S.A.,

Commanding Department of the East:

Sir, — I have received the final answer of the President to my suggestions with regard to the draft in this State. I regret that he did not see fit to comply with my requests, as I am confident that a generous reliance upon the patriotism of the people to fill the thinned ranks of our armies by voluntary enlistments would hereafter, as it has heretofore, prove more effectual than any conscription. As I have fully expressed my views on this subject in my correspondence with the President, of which I send you a copy, it is not necessary to refer again to those topics.

I had hoped the same opportunity would be afforded New York that has been given to other States, of showing to the world that no compulsory process was needful to send from this State its full quota of men to re-enforce our armies. As you state in your letter that it is your duty to enforce the act of Congress, and as you apprehend its provisions may excite popular resistance, it is proposed you should know the position which will be held by the State authorities. Of course, under no circumstances can they perform duties expressly confided to others, nor can they undertake to relieve others from their proper responsibilities. But there can be no violations of good order, no riotous proceedings, no disturbances of the public peace, which are not infractions of the laws of the State, and those laws will be enforced under all circumstances. I shall take care that all the executive officers of this State perform their duties vigorously and thoroughly, and if need be the military power will be called into requisition.

As you are an officer of the general Government, and not of the State, it does not become me to make suggestions to you with regard to your action under a law of Congress. You will, of course, be governed by your instructions and your own views of duty; and it would be unbecoming in me to obtrude my opinions upon one who is charged with high responsibilities, and who is in no degree subject to my direction, or responsible to me for anything which he may do in accordance with his own judgment and in pursuance of his convictions of propriety.

Yours truly, etc.,

Horatio Seymour.

SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 82

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, October 8, 1862

Had a long interview with Governor Morgan on affairs in New York and the country. He says Wadsworth will be elected by an overwhelming majority; says the best arrangement would have been the nomination of Dix by the Democrats and then by the Republicans, so as to have had no contest. This was the scheme of Weed and Seward. Says a large majority of the convention was for renominating him (Morgan). I have little doubt that Weed and Seward could have made Morgan's nomination unanimous, but Weed intrigued deeper and lost. He greatly preferred Morgan to Wadsworth, but, trying to secure Dix, lost both. Morgan says Aspinwall, whom he met here yesterday, had seen and got from McClellan the general army order just published sustaining the Emancipation Proclamation. Has some speculation in regard to McClellan's prospects, designs, and expectations as to the Presidency; doubts if he wants it, but thinks he cannot avoid it, — all which is of the New York political bill of fare.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 162-3

Major-General John A. Dix to Governor Horatio Seymour, August 8, 1863

Head-quarters, Department of the East, New York City, August 8,1863.

His Excellency Horatio Seymour, Governor of the State of New York:

Sir, — I had the honor to receive on the evening of the 5th instant your letter of the 3d, in reply to mine of the 30th ultimo, informing me that you had made a communication to the President of the United States in relation to the draft in this State, and expressing your belief that his answer would relieve you and me from the painful questions growing out of an armed enforcement of the Conscription Act, etc.

Your Excellency promises to write me again on the subject when you shall have received the President's answer. It will afford me great pleasure to hear from you, and to receive an affirmative answer to the inquiry contained in my letter. But I owe it to my position as commander of this Military Department to anticipate his reply by some suggestions arising out of your answer to me.

You are, no doubt, aware that the draft has been nearly completed in the nine Western Districts, and that it has also been completed in several districts and is in successful progress in others in the central part of the State, under the orders of the Provost-marshal General. It is my duty now, as commanding officer of the troops in the service of the United States in the Department, if called on by the enrolling officers, to aid them in resisting forcible opposition to the execution of the law; and it was from an earnest desire to avoid the necessity of employing for the purpose any of my forces which have been placed here to garrison the forts and protect the public property, that I wished to see the draft enforced by the military power of the State in case of armed and organized resistance to it. But, holding such resistance to the paramount law of Congress to be disorganizing and revolutionary — leading, unless effectually suppressed, to the overthrow of the Government itself, to the success of the insurgents in the seceded States, and to universal anarchy — I designed, if your co-operation could not be relied on, to ask the general Government for a force which should be adequate to insure the execution of the law, and to meet any emergency growing out of it.

The act under which the draft is in progress was, as your Excellency is aware, passed to meet the difficulty of keeping up the army, through the system of volunteering, to the standard of force deemed necessary to suppress the insurrection. The service of every man capable of bearing arms is, in all countries — those specially in which power is responsible to the people—due to the Government when its existence is in peril. This service is the price of the protection which he receives, and of the safeguards with which the law surrounds him in the enjoyment of his property and life. The act authorizing the draft is entitled “An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces.” I regret that your Excellency should have characterized it as “the conscription act” — a phrase borrowed from a foreign system of enrolment, with odious features from which ours is wholly free, and originally applied to the law in question by those who desired to bring it into reproach and defeat its execution. I impute to your Excellency no such purpose. On the contrary, I assume it to have been altogether inadvertent. But I regret it, because there is danger that, in thus designating it and deprecating “an armed enforcement” of it, you may be understood to regard it as an obnoxious law, which ought not to be carried into execution, thus throwing the influence of your high position against the Government in a conflict for its existence.

The call which has been made for service is for one-fifth part of the arms-bearing population between twenty and thirty-five years of age, and of the unmarried between thirty-five and forty-five.

The insurgent authorities at Richmond have not only called into service heretofore the entire class between eighteen and thirty-five, but are now extending the enrolment to classes more advanced in age. The burden which the loyal States are called on to sustain is not, in proportion to population, one-tenth part as onerous as that which has been assumed by the seceded States. Shall not we, if necessary, be ready to do as much for the preservation of our political institutions as they are doing to overthrow and destroy them — as much for the cause of stable government as they for the cause of treason and for the disorganization of society on this continent? I say the disorganization of society, for no man of reflection can doubt where secession would end if a Southern Confederacy should be successfully established.

I cannot doubt that the people of this patriotic State, which you justly say has done so much for the country during the existing war, will respond to the call now made upon them. The alacrity and enthusiasm with which they have repeatedly rushed to arms for the support of the Government and the defence of the National flag from insult and degradation have exalted the character and given new vigor to the moral power of the State, and will inspire our descendants with magnanimous resolution for generations to come. This example of fidelity to all that is honorable and elevated in public duty must not be tarnished. The recent riots in this city, coupled as they were with the most atrocious and revolting crimes, have cast a shadow over it for the moment. But the promptitude with which the majesty of the law was vindicated, and the fearlessness with which a high judicial functionary is pronouncing judgment upon the guilty, have done and are doing much to efface what, under a different course of action, might have been an indelible stain upon the reputation of the city. It remains only for the people to vindicate themselves from reproach in the eyes of the country and the world by a cheerful acquiescence in the law. That it has defects is generally conceded. That it will involve cases of personal hardship is not disputed. War, when waged for self-defence, for the maintenance of great principles, and for the national life, is not exempt from the suffering inseparable from all conflicts which are decided by the shock of armies; and it is by our firmness and our patriotism in meeting all the calls of the country upon us that we achieve the victory, and prove ourselves worthy of it and the cause in which we toil and suffer.

Whatever defects the act authorizing the enrolment and draft may have, it is the law of the land, framed in good faith by the representatives of the people; and it must be presumed to be consistent with the provisions of the Constitution until pronounced to be in conflict with them by competent judicial tribunals. Those, therefore, who array themselves against it arc obnoxious to far severer censure than the ambitious and misguided men who are striving to subvert our Government, for the latter are acting by color of sanction under Legislatures and conventions of the people in the States they represent. Among us resistance to the law by those who claim and enjoy the protection of the Government has no semblance of justification, and becomes the very blackest of political crimes, not only because it is revolt against the constituted authorities of the country, but because it would be practically striking a blow for treason, and arousing to renewed efforts and new crimes those who are staggering to their fall under the resistless power of our recent victories.

In conclusion, I renew the expression of my anxiety to be assured by your Excellency at the earliest day practicable that the military power of the State will, in case of need, be employed to enforce the draft. I desire to receive the assurance because, under a mixed system of government like ours, it is best that resistance to the law should be put down by the authority of the State in which it occurs. I desire it also because I shall otherwise deem it my duty to call on the general Government for a force which shall not only be adequate to insure the execution of the law, but which shall enable me to carry out such decisive measures as shall leave their impress upon the mind of the country for years to come.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, yours,

John A. Dix, Major-general.

SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 78-81

Governor Horatio Seymour to Major-General John A. Dix, Monday, August 3, 1863

Albany, Monday, August 3,1863.

To Major-general John A. Dir, Commanding Eastern Department, etc.:

Sir,—I received your letter on Saturday. I have this day sent to the President of the United States a communication in relation to the draft in this State. I believe his answer will relieve you and me from the painful questions growing out of an armed enforcement of the conscription law in this patriotic State, which has contributed so largely and freely to the support of the National cause during the existing war. When I receive the President's answer I will write to you again upon the subject of your letter.

Truly yours, etc.,

Horatio Seymour.

SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 78

Major-General John A. Dix to Gov. Horatio Seymour, July 30, 1863

Head-quarters, Department of the East, New York City,

July 30, 1863.

His Excellency Horatio Seymour, Governor of the State of New York:

sir,—As the draft under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1863, for enrolling and calling out the National forces, will probably be resumed in this city at an early day, I am desirous of knowing whether the military power of the State may be relied on to enforce the execution of the law, in case of forcible resistance to it. I am very anxious that there should be perfect harmony of action between the Federal Government and that of the State of New York; and if, under your authority to see the laws faithfully executed, I can feel assured that the act referred to will be enforced, I need not ask the War Department to put at my disposal for the purpose troops in the service of the United States. I am the more unwilling to make such a request, as they could not be withdrawn in any considerable number from the field without prolonging the war and giving aid and encouragement to the enemies of the Union at the very moment when our successes promise, with a vigorous effort, the speedy suppression of the rebellion.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

John A. Dix, Major-general.

SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 77-8

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: June 12, 1865

Andy, made lord of all by the madman, Booth, says, “Destruction only to the wealthy classes.” Better teach the negroes to stand alone before you break up all they leaned on, O Yankees! After all, the number who possess over $20,000 are very few.

Andy has shattered some fond hopes. He denounces Northern men who came South to espouse our cause. They may not take the life-giving oath. My husband will remain quietly at home. He has done nothing that he had not a right to do, nor anything that he is ashamed of. He will not fly from his country, nor hide anywhere in it. These are his words. He has a huge volume of Macaulay, which seems to absorb him. Slily I slipped Silvio Pellico in his way. He looked at the title and moved it aside. “Oh,” said I, “I only wanted you to refresh your memory as to a prisoner's life and what a despotism can do to make its captives happy!”

Two weddings — in Camden, Ellen Douglas Ancrum to Mr. Lee, engineer and architect, a clever man, which is the best investment now. In Columbia, Sally Hampton and John Cheves Haskell, the bridegroom, a brave, one-armed soldier.

A wedding to be. Lou McCord's. And Mrs. McCord is going about frantically, looking for eggs “to mix and make into wedding-cake,” and finding none. She now drives the funniest little one-mule vehicle.

I have been ill since I last wrote in this journal. Serena 's letter came. She says they have been visited by bushwhackers, the roughs that always follow in the wake of an army. My sister Kate they forced back against the wall. She had Katie, the baby, in her arms, and Miller, the brave boy, clung to his mother, though he could do no more. They tried to pour brandy down her throat. They knocked Mary down with the butt end of a pistol, and Serena they struck with an open hand, leaving the mark on her cheek for weeks.

Mr. Christopher Hampton says in New York people have been simply intoxicated with the fumes of their own glory. Military prowess is a new wrinkle of delight to them. They are mad with pride that, ten to one, they could, after five years' hard fighting, prevail over us, handicapped, as we were, with a majority of aliens, quasi foes, and negro slaves whom they tried to seduce, shut up with us. They pay us the kind of respectful fear the British meted out to Napoleon when they sent him off with Sir Hudson Lowe to St. Helena, the lone rock by the sea, to eat his heart out where he could not alarm them more.

Of course, the Yankees know and say they were too many for us, and yet they would all the same prefer not to try us again. Would Wellington be willing to take the chances of Waterloo once more with Grouchy, Blucher, and all that left to haphazard? Wigfall said to old Cameron¹ in 1861, “Then you will a sutler be, and profit shall accrue.” Christopher Hampton says that in some inscrutable way in the world North, everybody “has contrived to amass fabulous wealth by this war.'”

There are two classes of vociferous sufferers in this community: 1. Those who say, “If people would only pay me what they owe me!” 2. Those who say, “If people would only let me alone. I can not pay them. I could stand it if I had anything with which to pay debts.”

Now we belong to both classes. Heavens! the sums people owe us and will not, or can not, pay, would settle all our debts ten times over and leave us in easy circumstances for life. But they will not pay. How can they?

We are shut in here, turned with our faces to a dead wall. No mails. A letter is sometimes brought by a man on horseback, traveling through the wilderness made by Sherman. All railroads have been destroyed and the bridges are gone. We are cut off from the world, here to eat out our hearts. Yet from my window I look out on many a gallant youth and maiden fair. The street is crowded and it is a gay sight. Camden is thronged with refugees from the low country, and here they disport themselves. They call the walk in front of Bloomsbury “the Boulevard.”

H. Lang tells us that poor Sandhill Milly Trimlin is dead, and that as a witch she had been denied Christian burial. Three times she was buried in consecrated ground in different churchyards, and three times she was dug up by a superstitious horde, who put her out of their holy ground. Where her poor, old, ill-used bones are lying now I do not know. I hope her soul is faring better than her body. She was a good, kind creature. Why supposed to be a witch? That H. Lang could not elucidate.

Everybody in our walk of life gave Milly a helping hand. She was a perfect specimen of the Sandhill “tackey” race, sometimes called “country crackers.” Her skin was yellow and leathery, even the whites of her eyes were bilious in color. She was stumpy, strong, and lean, hard-featured, horny-fisted. Never were people so aided in every way as these Sandhillers. Why do they remain Sandhillers from generation to generation? Why should Milly never have bettered her condition?

My grandmother lent a helping hand to her grandmother. My mother did her best for her mother, and I am sure the so-called witch could never complain of me. As long as I can remember, gangs of these Sandhill women traipsed in with baskets to be filled by charity, ready to carry away anything they could get. All are made on the same pattern, more or less alike. They were treated as friends and neighbors, not as beggars. They were asked in to take seats by the fire, and there they sat for hours, stony-eyed, silent, wearing out human endurance and politeness. But their husbands and sons, whom we never saw, were citizens and voters! When patience was at its last ebb, they would open their mouths and loudly demand whatever they had come to seek.

One called Judy Bradly, a one-eyed virago, who played the fiddle at all the Sandhill dances and fandangoes, made a deep impression on my youthful mind. Her list of requests was always rather long, and once my grandmother grew restive and actually hesitated. “Woman, do you mean to let me starve?” she cried furiously. My grandmother then attempted a meek lecture as to the duty of earning one's bread. Judy squared her arms akimbo and answered, “And pray, who made you a judge of the world? Lord, Lord, if I had 'er knowed I had ter stand all this jaw, I wouldn't a took your ole things,” but she did take them and came afterward again and again.

_______________

¹ Simon Cameron became Secretary of War in Lincoln's Administration, on March 4, 1861. On January 11, 1862, he resigned and was made Minister to Russia.

SOURCES: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 398-401

Captain Morris Miller to To the Commding Officers of New York and Massachusetts Regiments, April 20, 1861

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, April 20th, 1861

To the Commdg. Officers of New York and Massachusetts Regiments

Having been entrusted by General Scott with the arrangements for transporting your Regiments hence to Washington City, and it being impracticable to procure cars, I recommend that the troops remain on board the steamer until further orders can be received from General Scott.

Very Respectfully,

MORRIS MILLER,

Capt. and A. Qua. Master

SOURCE: Jessie Ames Marshall, Editor, Private and Official Correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler During the Period of the Civil War, Volume 1: April 1860 – June 1862, p. 18

Major-General John A. Dix to the Federal Union Central Committee, October 22, 1862

FORTRESS MONROE, Oct. 22, 1862.

My name, I see, is again used in connection with a political office, without my knowledge or consent. I shall remain at my post, doing all I can to sustain the Government in putting down the rebellion; and at a moment when the existence of the nation is hanging on a thread I cannot leave my duties here to be drawn into any party strife. Neither will I ever assent to any adjustment of the contest with the insurgent States which shall acknowledge their success.

The rebellion began in fraud, dishonor, and violence, and must end in submission to the Constitution and the laws. The Secession leaders have put the contest on grounds which would make success on their part indelible disgrace to us.

In my sphere of duty my intention is to carry on the war, without either violence to the Constitution or to the principles of justice and humanity, and to contend to the last to avert a triumph over all that is stable in government or honorable in political companionship.

My whole course through life has proved my devotion to democracy and conservative principles. No assurance should be needed that this faith is unchanged. But at a moment like this, unless all parties will rally round the Government in putting down the rebellion, leaving questions among ourselves to be settled when the national honor is vindicated and our existence as a nation secured, there can be nothing for us in the future but disaster and disgrace.

JOHN A. DIX.

SOURCES: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 51-2; “Letter from Gen. Dix to a Friend in New-York,” New York Times, October 26, 1862

Captain Morris Miller to the Commanding Officers of New York and Massachusetts Regiments, April 20, 1861

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, April 20th, 1861

To the Commd.g. Officers of New York

and Massachusetts Regiments

Having been entrusted by General Scott with the arrangements for transporting your Regiments hence to Washington City, and it being impracticable to procure cars, I recommend that the troops remain on board the steamer until further orders can be received from General Scott.

Very Respectfully,MORRIS MILLER,

Capt. and A. Qua. Master

SOURCE: Jessie Ames Marshall, Editor, Private and Official Correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler During the Period of the Civil War, Volume 1: April 1860 – June 1862, p. 17

Adjutant General’s Office of the State of New York, General Orders No. 33, May 8, 1861

General Head-quarters, State of New York,

Adjutant-general's Office, Albany, May 8,1861.

General Orders No. 33.

Under the provisions of the act of April 16,1861, and of General Order No. 13, issued pursuant thereto, John A. Dix, of New York, is hereby appointed a Major-general of the volunteer force called for from this State in compliance with the requisition of the President of the United States.

General Dix is, until farther orders, assigned to the command of the volunteer troops in and about the city of New York.

By order of the Commander-in-chief.

J. Meredith Read, Jr., Adjutant-general.

SOURCE: Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix, Volume 2, p. 16

Charlotte Cross Wigfall to Louise Wigfall, February 1863

February, 1863.

Your father has gone to introduce Burke (the scout) to Mr. Seddon. He wanted to know the Secretary of War and to tell him, I suppose, his impressions of his visit to New York. He spent a week there and has just got back!

SOURCE: Louise Wigfall Wright, A Southern Girl in ’61, p. 120

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, May 21, 1860

New York, May 21, 1861.

Pike: Your Maine delegation was a poor affair; I thought you had been at work preparing it for the great struggle; yet I suspect you left all the work for me, as everybody seems to do. Massachusetts also was right in Weed's hands, contrary to all reasonable expectation. I cannot understand this. It was all we could do to hold Vermont by the most desperate exertions; and I at some times despaired of it. The rest of New England was pretty sound, but part of New Jersey was somehow inclined to sin against light and knowledge. If you had seen the Pennsylvania delegation, and known how much money Weed had in hand, you would not have believed we could do so well as we did. Give Curtin thanks for that. Ohio looked very bad, yet turned out well, and Virginia had been regularly sold out; but the seller couldn't deliver. “We had to rain red-hot bolts on them, however, to keep the majority from going for Seward, who got eight votes here as it was. Indiana was our right bower, and Missouri above praise. It was a fearful week, such as I hope and trust I shall never see repeated. I think your absence lost us several votes.

But the deed is done, and the country breathes more freely. We shall beat the enemy fifty thousand in this State — can't take off a single man. New England stands like a rock, and the North-west is all ablaze. Pennsylvania and New Jersey are our pieces de resistance, but we shall carry them. I am almost worn out.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

James S. Pike, Esq., Somewhere.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 519-20