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
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
In Senate all day
SOURCE: The Diary of
Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 529
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
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
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
Attending the Senate
SOURCE: The Diary of
Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 530
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.
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
In Senate
SOURCE: The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, Vol. 1, p. 532
[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
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
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.
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
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
[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.
SOURCE: Edward L.
Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 250
My aim, while
attending to all the duties of my post, will be to do something to secure a
hearing for our cause; and I wish in advance to bespeak the counsels of our
friends, though I feel that in the last moment much must be left to my own
personal discretion. As a stranger to the Senate and to all legislative bodies,
I regard it to be my first duty to understand the body in which I have a seat
before rushing into its contests.
SOURCE: Edward L.
Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 252
WASHINGTON, November
1, 1851.
DEAR COOMBS [sic],—I received your kind and friendly
letter, for which I thank you. My position in respect to the senatorial
election is just this, no more, no less: At the instance of some friends in
Kentucky, I consented to their presenting my name as a candidate if they
thought proper to do so upon the meeting of the legislature and upon a survey
of all the circumstances. I thought I might go thus far without presumption or
giving just cause of offense, and yet I confess that I felt some reluctance to
do even that, because it might cross or conflict with the hopes and wishes of
good friends and cause some dissatisfaction on their part. Yet, having yielded
my seat in the Senate to obey the wishes of the Whigs of Kentucky in becoming,
at their bidding, a candidate for the office of governor, it seemed to me that
I might naturally and reasonably indulge the desire of being restored to my
former position; yet I did not make myself a candidate,—I left that to the
discretion and the will of others. From what I hear, I suppose they have
presented me as a candidate. I therefore desire to be elected; it is the
situation most agreeable to me, and a re-election would be felt as a great
honor. Still, I want nothing that cannot be freely awarded to me; I am not to
be regarded as a disturber of the party. Disturbance already existed so far as
it could be produced by the conflicting pretensions or claims of many
candidates, each one of whom is, to say the least, as chargeable as I am with
causing any controversy. But enough of this. I desire, of course, not to be
beaten, and I thankfully accept your proffered services and friendship. I hope
that you will go to Frankfort and take such part in the contest as you deem
proper. I never felt less like controversy. Wounded as I have been, I naturally
turn away from the battle like a bleeding soldier. My friends must act for me.
SOURCE: Ann Mary
Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With
Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 2, p. 19-20
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 1851.
DEAR ORLANDO,—Before
this can reach you, the senatorial question will have been disposed of, and, as
I anticipate, by a postponement. Some few letters, and particularly two
received from Morehead, lead me to that conclusion. Such a result is not the
most gratifying to me, but I can bear it calmly and patiently.
I shall feel some
curiosity and interest to know the course of some individuals in respect to
this election, and will thank you for the information. The course of Judge
Robertson and of Mr. Dixon does not much surprise me, though, as I am informed,
they have displayed a sort of personally hostile opposition to me, for which I
never gave either of them cause.
I understand that my
old friend Ben Hardin speaks kindly of me, but opposes my election. I confess
that in this I have been disappointed and mortified. He and I are
cotemporaries. We have been long associated, and have stood together as friends
through many years. The path which remains for us to travel is not very long,
and I regret that he has found it necessary to part from me on this occasion. I
do not mean to complain of him, but only to express my regret. My feelings and
my memory suggest to me much more on this subject; but I will only add that I
think if Hardin had considered it in all its points of view, his judgment, as
well as his friendly feelings, I doubt not, would have decided him to take
sides with me rather than with my opponents. There is not the least unkindness
towards him mingled with the regret I feel on this occasion, and, as the matter
will all be over before this reaches you, I am willing he should know. Indeed,
I wish you would inform him how I feel and what I have here written in regard
to him.
What part does our
Frankfort senator and representative take? Farewell.
P.S. To my good
friends, and better never were, give a hearty shake of the hand from me.
SOURCE: Ann Mary
Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With
Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 2, p. 20-1
WASHINGTON, December
5, 1851.
MY DEAR SIR,—You and
other friends have been so remiss in writing to me that I have been, and am
still, to a great extent, ignorant of the proceedings and incidents of the late
attempts made in the Kentucky legislature to elect a senator to the Congress of
the United States. This, however, I do not complain of. I am, perhaps,
fortunate, in that it has saved me from some portion of those unpleasant
feelings which are unavoidable in such contests. I have learned enough,
however, to give me uneasiness and pain. The use which my friends have thought
proper to make of my name seems to have been a cause of disturbance and
controversy among the Whigs. I owe to them too many obligations for favors and
honors received in times past to be willing now to be an obstacle in their way
or to be a cause of dissension among them. If it will restore harmony and give
them satisfaction, I hope that those of them who have desired my election will
yield at once and withdraw my name from the contest. So far as I am concerned, I
will be a willing sacrifice to the reunion of the Whigs. Honorable and
desirable as it would be to me to be restored to a seat in the Senate, my
ambition is not so selfish as to make me seek it through discord and alienation
among my Whig friends. I prefer the good opinion of Kentucky to any office, and
I would not excite the ill will of any considerable number of Kentuckians by
any strife or contention for office with political friends. I do not see that
the mere presentation of my name as a candidate ought to have produced any
excitement against me, or among Whigs. I think I have not deserved this, and
that there are few who will not agree with me when the passions excited by the
contest are past. Still, we must look to the fact, and act upon it accordingly.
For my part, I can say that I want no office which is not freely and willingly
bestowed, and that I want no contest in which I am to conquer, or be conquered,
by my friends. I would rather yield to them than fight them. By the first
course, harmony might be restored among them for their own and the country's
good; in the latter, nothing but discord and division could be the result. I am
averse to be placed in any situation where I could, with any propriety, be
regarded as the cause of such evils. I do not mean by this that I would feel
bound or willing to yield to a competitor, however worthy, simply upon the
ground that he preferred the place for himself, or that his friends preferred
it for him. To ask such a submission would be illiberal, and to grant it would
be unmanly. Such differences among friends of the same party ought to be
settled in a generous and friendly spirit and leave no ill feeling behind. In
such settlements, my aim would be not to be outdone in liberality and
concession. I should dislike exceedingly to be engaged in any personal or
illiberal struggle, and sooner than an election, which ought to be made, should
be postponed, I would for the public interest and for harmony prefer to retire
from the contest. There might be some mortification attending such a course;
but this would be relieved by considering that it was done from motives
honorable, friendly, and patriotic. I have served Kentucky a long time; I have
served her faithfully, and, I hope, with no discredit to her; but I have no
wish to intrude myself upon her for reluctant favors. When my services cease to
be acceptable to her, to hold office under her would no longer be an object of
ambition for me.
SOURCE: Ann Mary
Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With
Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 2, p. 22-4
WASHINGTON, December 8, 1851.
MY DEAR SIR,—I
received to-day your letter of the 3d inst. You know precisely how much and how
little I have had to do in the presentation of myself as a candidate for the
Senate of the United States. I think I may say that it has been the action of
my friends; and since the contest began, I have looked passively upon it. I had
left it to my friends,—friends deserving all my confidence,—and there I will,
as you advise, leave it. It would be ungrateful as well as unjust in me now to
thwart or cross them in the midway of a controversy, in which, for my sake,
they have involved themselves, and about which I really know so little. I know
that whatever they have done has been done in sincerity of friendship for me,
and I will abide by it to the last. As they pitch the battle so let it be
fought.
But in this contest
it is always to be remembered that you are contending against friends, who, by
accident or circumstances, have been made opponents for the present, and to
whom a liberal and generous treatment is due. You, who are upon the ground, well
know how to distinguish between such opponents and those who prove themselves
to be enemies. I wish that all of you who are supporting me will remember,
also, that you are not supporting an exacting friend, but one who would not be
outdone in liberality, generosity, or conciliation; one who would rather suffer
anything himself than see his generous friends involved in difficulties or
perils on his account. I hope that they will act accordingly in this matter.
But whatever they shall do or determine, that will I abide by, that will I
maintain as right, and go to all honorable extremity with them in defending and
making good.
I wrote to Mr. T. F.
Marshall before the receipt of your letter, and before I read his letter in the
Louisville Journal. I wrote upon the information of his course derived from the
newspapers.
Somehow or other I
cannot be a man of words on such occasions, but my whole heart is full almost
to bursting at acts of free and manly friendship and devotion. I love Tom
Marshall. Oh, if he will be but true to himself, how I would strive for his
advancement! How I would love to strive for it!
I was touched to the
heart, too, at what you tell me about my old friend (for such I may now call
him) Ben Hardin. I felt like breaking at the root when I heard that he was
against me, for in the days of our youth—of our growth—we were together, and
have passed thus far through life in more of amity and good will than falls to
the lot of most men occupying our position. Upon reading what you wrote me my
eyes were not dry. Time gives a sort of sacredness to the feelings that arise
from old associations and friendships. I wish I could live long enough, or had
the means of repaying, Orlando [Brown], all the debts Ï owe my friends. But
therein I am a bankrupt indeed.
Do give my grateful
regards to my friends Caldwell and Cunningham, and to all the friends that in
my absence have stood by me; my heart is full of thankfulness. And I really
hope and believe that many of those who have taken part against me have been
influenced to do so by circumstances that do not affect their good opinion and
kind feelings towards me. I bear no ill will to them.
SOURCE: Ann Mary
Butler Crittenden Coleman, Editor, The Life of John J. Crittenden: With
Selections from His Correspondence and Speeches, Vol. 2, p. 24-5
If our friends
decide to risk themselves in that ship, I trust we may get a full consideration
for the risk; and the only full consideration that we can receive is in securing
your services in the Senate. If anything can be done with that iron and marble
body, you may do it. You know how hopeless I think the task, and every time I
come here my notions become more rigid.
SOURCES: Edward L.
Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 233