Jefferson Davis to A. McWillie and others, August 19, 1847

(From Vicksburg Sentinel, September 29, 1847.)

Brierfield, Warren co., Miss.,        

August 19th, 1847.

Gentlemen:—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your most gratifying letter of the 16th ult., conveying to me the information that my esteemed friends of the 2nd Mississippi Riflemen unanimously offer to elect me their regimental leader.

The honorable post you offer has every thing to commend it to me; it is the free gift of Mississippians; it invites me to field service in a region where the energy and health of the troops will not be impaired by the climate, and it assures me of being in the column of the general in whom I have unmeasured confidence.

Your proposition under all the circumstances which attend it, is an honor of which the highest reputation might well be proud, and for which I feel more grateful than I have power to express. In declining a station so honorable, so acceptable to my tastes, feelings and associations, and offered in a manner so highly complimentarily, I have three reasons to submit to you in justification of my decision:

1st. I have not so far recovered from my wound as to be able to travel immediately; the probable date of your advance admits of no delay in one who would join you in your present position, and the anticipated character of your movement, in the event of an advance, renders it doubtful whether an individual could join you on the march.

II. Before the receipt of your letter I had accepted a commission to fill a vacancy in our Representation in the U. S. Senate.

III. I have held that vacancies occurring in the field afford opportunities to reward merit among yourselves, and that policy dictates, and esprit du corps demands, that promotions should thus be made. I feel that your kindness has made me an exception to a rule, and that I best show myself worthy of your generosity by declining to take advantage of it.

Though I shall not be with you to share the glory, it is permitted me to hope that at no distant day the fortune of war will give you an opportunity to fulfill the expectations of you, so early and confidently announced by myself, in common with your many friends and admirers.

To you alone now is Mississippi's standard confided. Rent and blood-stained it may be; but in your hands, can never be dishonored. It may droop with the cypress, but will be crowned with the laurel.

For yourselves, gentlemen, please receive my sincere thanks, for the grateful terms in which you have conveyed the flattering wishes of my friends and fellow citizens of the 2nd Mississippi Rifles, to whom I pray you make my acknowledgements acceptable.

With assurances of the deep interest I will always feel in your prosperity and fame, and with the hope that under the blessing of peace we may be early reunited at home. I am very cordially,

Your friend and ob't serv't.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

Messrs. Capt. A. McWillie, Lieut. E. Dowsing, Lieut. F. Amyx, Lieut. A. J. Trussell, committee 2nd       Mississippi Rifles.

SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, pp. 99-100

Lewis E. Harvie to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, June 16, 1856

RICHMOND, [VA.], June 16th, 1856.

MY DEAR HUNTER: On my way back from Cincinnati I called to see you in Washington. I had much to say to you not only of the past but the future. I have thought much since we met last and now that I can look back calmly at all that has occurred I write the result of my reflections not without the hope that you may be somewhat influenced by them. You have heard and know how utterly Bright and Douglas disappointed our expectations and how false and hollow were their professions. That they were fair as long as it was their interest and false as soon as that bond was broken. And you must have come to the conclusion that the Presidency is not to be won simply by combinations and arrangements with men and that least of all are men seeking high place influenced by gratitude. It is only necessary to look to Wise to come to that conclusion. Even with the help of friends, such as few men have had, the battle has been lost. I am now coming to the object of my letter which is to urge upon you to adopt a different line of policy altogether from what you have heretofore pursued and which to some extent I know to be somewhat foreign to your tastes and nature. I want you my dear friend, to discard altogether, if possible, all thought of the Presidency from your mind, at all events so far as to be uninfluenced by it in your future course in the Senate. I want you to put yourself at the head of the South and where you ought to stand and strike hard and heavy and frequent blows and that at once.

The South has no leader and sadly wants one. It is a post that has been waiting your acceptance since Mr Calhoun's death. It is your duty to fill it and your interest too. Men say you are too timid, overcautious, that you wish nothing and thus it is that you have lost friends, power and influence. You must launch out into the sea of strife, your safety requiring it, your hope of renown depends on it, your own interest and that of the country demands it, and your 'ability to pay the just debts that you owe to Messrs. Wise, Bright, and Douglas and Co. is dependent on it. Leave the dull routine of your former Senatorial life, wean yourself from your Committee and throw yourself into the patriotick current and be as you ought to be the champion of the South in the Senate of the U[nited] States and you will have the power to control and make presidents. You can earn more true glory in the Senate, you can be more useful to the country, and wield a more powerful influence over the destinies of your race than in the Presidential chair. In addition to this I am confident that the course I recommend is the only one to lead to the Presidency. That must be won by you if at all, unsought. I have written to you more freely than any one else will, my dear friend, because perhaps I have been more enlisted in what has concerned you and your promotion. I know I write however, what all your true friends feel and while these are my decided convictions and therefore communicated, at the same time they are the opinions of all your friends with whom I have conversed and have been for years. Of such men as Seddon and Mr Old, whom you know I think the wisest, as he is the fairest, man that I have ever known. In order to take the position you are entitled to and ought to occupy you ought to launch out and strike so as to make your position, your own peculiar property and give us a Hunter platform to stand on, in order to keep down the huckstering traders who have so foully betrayed you at home and abroad. Write to me upon the receipt of this and let us hereafter keep up a more uninterrupted correspondence. I will only add that your friends in Cincinnati did all that could be done and like me look to the Senate for a justification of their confidence.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 199-8

Lewis E. Harvie to Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, November 23, 1856

(Confidential.)

[AMELIA CO., VA.], November 23, 1856.

DEAR HUNTER: I was in Richmond yesterday and saw Pryor who has heard from Washington that there is some effort being made there to get him selected as one of the two coeditors of the organ of the new administration at Washington. His circumstances and possibly his ambition would prompt him to desire this place earnestly tho' he says he is making no effort to get it. Dr. Garnett has written to him that he should urge Wise to apply to Buchanan for it on behalf of Pryor. On the other hand Beverly Tucker is struggling for it and says that Wise is committed to him. Thus much for that. I also found that Pryor thought that Wise would urge the offer of Secretary of State to be made to you and thought if so you ought to accept it. Reed [?] had heard Beverly Tucker say that Wise would turn you out of the Senate when the election came on. Now Pryor is a true man and true to you and moreover is under some obligations to some of your friends that he feels and wont disregard, but if he were to be the Editor of such a paper, you being of the Cabinet, would be what of all things he would desire and I am writing to you to warn and guard you in case such an offer be again and any advice he may offer by letter or otherwise. If it be made it will of course be for one of two reasons either because they know you will not accept it and thus get for Wise and his President the credit of having made the offer, or to create a vacancy in the Senate for Wise.

Now it is so clear to me that you ought not to go into the Cabinet and that you ought to remain in the Senate that I can scarcely think there is any occasion for writing. This Administration can't stand, at the end of four years; at all events there must be another and a fiercer struggle than has just taken place and you ought to be in the Senate preparing yourself and the country for it, sustaining the administration in all measures calculated to secure our rights, leading the Southern men and forming and wielding them in a solid and compact mass. You can and will have more power in the Senate than if President. It is expected, it is conceded that you must take the lead and it is not in the power of any party or partizans to arrest your career. So confident do I feel of this, so clear does it seem to me that I should think you mad if not criminal if you were to doubt or hesitate. I write strongly because I feel so. There is no necessity for the sacrifice there is no propriety in it. Your acceptance of this offer if made would be laid to the account of timidity or mere love of place and in either case your power and usefulness would be lost. Don't then entertain any such idea for a moment. If the offer that I just spoke of be made to Pryor, his poverty will make him accept it and the power that he is exerting thro' the Enquirer will be lost to him and that will be a great loss to us, but nevertheless you are invincible in the State and those who assail you will find it to be so. I think he will write to you and it is as well that you have some knowledge of his views beforehand. Of course all of this letter in regard to him is strictly confidential.

Present my warmest congratulations to Garnett and say to him that I am not only rejoiced at his success but proud of it. I don't doubt but that his Excellency [Wise] will write to him to the same effect and possibly that he secured his nomination and election. I wish you would sometimes write to me without my forcing you to do so in answer to my letters and tell me what is in the wind. I should like to see you before you go to Washington but if not I will see you then.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), pp. 202-3

Senator John C. Calhoun to Thomas G. Clemson, December 10, 1847

Washington 10th Dec 1847

MY DEAR SIR, . . . I have not been here long enough to form an opinion, what course parties will take during the session. The Whigs have a small, but appearantly decided majority in the House, and the Democrats a large, but not a very reliable majority in the Senate. The session will be an eventful one. It will be difficult for either of the old parties to hold together. I anticipate much confusion and distraction. I send a copy of the Message. It is very long, very undignified and full of false assumptions. You will see that things have progressed to a point, where it is difficult to advance or retreat; but I will write you more fully on political subjects hereafter.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, pp. 740-1

Governor Albert G. Brown to Colonel Jefferson Davis, August 10, 1847

(From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Letter Book of Governor Brown.)

Executive Chamber        

Jackson Mi. 10th August 1847

Col Jeff Davis
        Warrenton Mi.

Sir

I have the honor to enclose you a commission as U. States Senator to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of the late General Speight.¹ The people have experienced deep and sincere regret in the mournful event, which deprived them of a faithful friend and long tried public servant. In this feeling I have participated to the fullest extent. The event has given us all an opportunity which we embrace with melancholy pleasure of testifying our high appreciation of your valuable services as a member of the twenty-ninth Congress, and your more valuable and distinguished services at the head of the 1st Miss. Regt in Mexico. The people will never cease to remember with pride and gratitude that to you, Sir, and the brave Mississippians under your command, is our State indebted for honors as imperishable as the soil on which you won them; honors, which shall last as long as chivalry is respected or valor has a place in the hearts of men. They expect me to offer you this commission, and it gives me sincere personal pleasure to gratify that expectation. It is the tribute which a grateful people speaking through their representative pays to heroic deeds of disinterested patriotism. In returning to the arena of politics you may have it in your power to counsel your Government in regard to a people whom you have aided in conquering whose weaknesses & follies you have learned to appreciate from personal observation, and to whom I am sure you are willing to give an honorable peace whenever they and their rulers shall have the good sense to accept it.

Very Respectfully

Your ob't serv't

A. G. Brown

_______________

¹ Jesse Speight, 1795-1847. Born in Greene County, N. C. Congressman from that State. U. S. Senator from Mississippi Dec. 1, 1845 to May 1, 1847, the date of his death.

SOURCE: Dunbar Rowland, Editor, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist: His Letters, Papers and Speeches, Volume 1, pp. 92-3

Senator John C. Calhoun to Andrew Pickens Calhoun, February 23, 1848

Senate Chamber 23d Feb. 1848

MY DEAR ANDREW, The treaty with Mexico has just been laid before the Senate, and read. It will be warmly opposed, but I think it will be approved by the body. It will be a fortunate deliverance, if it should be. A sudden impulse in that case, would be given to commerce, accompanied by a rise of price in our great staple so soon as it is known in England.

The Slave question will soon come up, and be the subject of deep agitation. The South will be in the crisis of its fate. If it yields now, all will be lost.

I enclose a speech by Mr Yulee on his amendment to Mr Dickenson resolutions. They express substantially my views. Indeed, (in confidence), he is one of the members of our mess and has conversed with me freely on the principles, which control the question involved; but the execution is all his own. Love to all.

SOURCE: J. Franklin Jameson, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1899, Volume II, Calhoun’s Correspondence: Fourth Annual Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Correspondence of John C. Calhoun, p. 744

Diary of Senator Orville Hickman Browning, Monday, February 3, 1862

Snowing—Senate went into executive session at 1 P. M and continued till 5.

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 528

Diary of Senator Orville Hickman Browning, Thursday, February 6, 1862

In Senate all day

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 529

Diary of Senator Orville Hickman Browning, Monday, February 10, 1862

In Senate until after 4 P. M. Lieut M. D. Hardin called to see me at night.

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 529

Diary of Senator Orville Hickman Browning, Tuesday, February 11, 1862

In Senate until late. After tea went with Sheffield to the Presidents—Genl. McClellan came in whilst there. He said but little. Does not seem to me big enough for his position

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 529

Diary of Senator Orville Hickman Browning, Wednesday, February 12, 1862

In Senate until after 7 P. M.

The bill making Treasury notes a tender under consideration. Collamer made a powerful speech against both the constitutionality and expediency

I cannot believe that Congress has power to make any thing but gold and silver a tender in payment of debts, and if it had I believe it would injure the credit of the Country to do so, and I shall therefore feel constrained to vote against the bill

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 529-30

Diary of Senator Orville Hickman Browning, Wednesday, February 19, 1862

Attending the Senate

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 530

Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, Wednesday, February 5, 1862

This has been a bright and pleasant day, the first in a long time. M. this morning stood at 20. The snow has mostly thawed off in the streets. G W Prentice went home yesterday. Mr Bright was Expelled from the U.S. Senate today by a vote of 32 to14, a deserved disgrace for disloyalty. No news today, but hourly expect from the “Burnside Expedition” and also from the West.

SOURCE: Horatio Nelson Taft, The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865. Volume 1, January 1,1861-April 11, 1862, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington D. C.

Diary of Senator Orville Hickman Browning, Saturday, February 22, 1862

At 1 O'clock P. M. the Senate proceeded to the Hall of the House, where Washingtons Farewell address was read in the presence of both Houses by Col. Forney, Secy of the Senate. *The Senate then returned to its chamber, and was in session till 4. P. M.

At night I returned to the Presidents and again sat up part of the night with his little son

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 531

Diary of Senator Orville Hickman Browning, Friday, February 28, 1862

In Senate

SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 532

Senator John Sherman to General William T. Sherman, January 16, 1885

[January 16, 1885.]

. . . My re-election to the Senate for the fifth time is unprecedented in the history of Ohio, and for this I am indebted to the difficulty of selecting from among younger men of equal claims and calibre. . . .

I also feel that it is the highest point of my political life, for if I live to the end of my term I shall be seventy years old. I have had enough of the contentions of political life and wish now to take a tranquil and moderate course, which, indeed, is the best for the country, now that we have no great, exciting questions to decide. The view expressed in my speech (a well-printed copy of which I will try to send you) is my sincere view of the situation. The dangers before us are election frauds and labor difficulties. These will be local at the beginning, but may involve the whole country.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 366-7

General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, after January 16, 1885

I have received your letter of the 16th, and somehow felt unusually gratified that you had been elected senator for the fifth time in the State of Ohio. This is a great honor, and I feel my full share of satisfaction. I believe the Senate of the United States to be the equal in intellectual capacity of any deliberative body on earth….

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 367

Senator Charles Sumner to George Sumner, April 29, 1851

I send you papers which will show the close of the long contest here in Massachusetts. The New York “Tribune” of Friday, April 25, candidly states the states the position I have occupied.  Never was any contest in our country of any kind so protracted; never did any, except a Presidential contest, excite so much interest. The ardor and determination of the opposition to me has not been less flattering than the constant and enthusiastic support which I have received. The latter is particularly enhanced by the circumstance, well known, that I did not in any way seek the post, but expressly asked to be excused. In truth, I did not desire it. And now that the victory is won, my former dislike and indifference to it have lost none of their strength. From the bottom of my heart I say that I do not wish to be senator.¹ The honors of the post have no attraction for me; and I feel a pang at the thought that I now bid farewell to that life of quiet study, with the employment of my pen, which I had hoped to pursue. At this moment, could another person faithful to our cause be chosen in my place, I would resign. I am humbled by the importance attached to the election. Throughout Massachusetts, and even in other States, there have been bonfires, firings of cannon, ringing of bells, public meetings, and all forms of joy, to celebrate the event. As I read of these I felt my inability to meet the expectations aroused. Again, I wish I was not in the place. I am met constantly by joyful faces, but I have no joy; my heart is heavy. Never did I need sympathy and friendly succor more than now, when most of the world regards me as a most fortunate man, with a prospect of peculiar brilliancy.

The antislavery cause in Massachusetts is destined shortly to a complete and absolute triumph. The Boston set, chiefly from State Street, are profoundly ignorant of the real sentiment of the Commonwealth. I know it thoroughly. They remind me of the Bourbons and their friends. I long to commune with you on these things, and to draw from your treasures of experience and study.

_______________

¹ The same avowal was made in letters to several friends, written in reply to congratulations.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 246-7

Senator Charles Sumner to John Bigelow, May 2, 1851

I would not affect a feeling which I have not, nor have I any temptation to do it; but I should not be frank if I did not say to you that I have no personal joy in this election. Now that the office is in my hands, I feel more than ever a distaste for its duties and struggles as compared with other spheres. Every heart knoweth its own secret, and mine has never been in the Senate of the United States, nor is it there yet. Most painfully do I feel my inability to meet the importance which has been given to this election and the expectation of enthusiastic friends. But more than this, I am impressed by the thought that I now embark on a career which promises to last for six years, if not indefinitely, and which takes from me all opportunity of study and meditation to which I had hoped to devote myself. I do not wish to be a politician.

Nothing but Boutwell's half-Hunkerism prevents us from consolidating a permanent party in Massachusetts, not by coalition, but by fusion of all who are truly liberal, humane, and democratic. He is in our way. He has tried to please Hunkers and Free Soilers. We can get along very well without the Hunkers, and should be happy to leave Hallett and Co. to commune with the men of State Street. The latter have been infinitely disturbed by the recent election. For the first time they are represented in the Senate by one over whom they have no influence, who is entirely independent, and is a “bachelor!” It was said among them at first that real estate had gone down twenty-five per cent!

I regret the present state of things in New York [the absorption of the Barnburners by the Democratic party, because it seems to interfere with those influences which were gradually bringing the liberal and antislavery men of both the old parties together. Your politics will never be in a natural state till this occurs.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 247-8

George Stillman Hillard to Senator Charles Sumner, April 25, 1851

[Court Street, April 25, 1851.]

MY DEAR SUMNER, — I cannot congratulate you on your election, because, with my political connections, that would be insincere; but I can and do say that I am glad that the lot has fallen upon you, since it must needs fall on one of your party. So far as your elevation shall prove a source of increased happiness and usefulness to you, I shall rejoice in it. No one will watch with more interest your career than I shall, or be more pleased with any accession to your solid and enduring reputation. I shall always judge of your sayings and doings in a candid and just spirit. You have now before you a noble career. May you walk in it with a statesman's steps, and more than gratify the good wishes of your friends, and more than disappoint the ill wishes of your enemies.

Yours faithfully,

G. S. H.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 250