Chicago, May 15, 1860.
SOURCE: “Members of the Press,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 4, col. 5
Chicago, May 15, 1860.
SOURCE: “Members of the Press,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 4, col. 5
WEST NEWTON, Nov. 15, 1850.
MY DEAR MR. AND MRS.
COMBE,—I received your brief note from London, dated Sept. 15; and afterwards
your letter from Edinburgh of Sept. 29. The letter gave me what I must call an
unlawful pleasure: for it fully acquitted me of what my own conscience had long
told me I was guilty of; namely, neglect of you. Mary has often said to me,
"Now, my dear, you must write to Mr. Combe;" and I had as often
replied, "Yes, I must and will." But, like all other promises, these
were made under the tacit and implied condition of possibility. But the
possibility never came; and, before I get through, I must tell you why. I have
received a copy of the Annual Report of your school; which Mary and I read
together, as we always do every thing that comes from your pen. Your Life of
Dr. Combe was sent here before I came home. Mary began to read it, but put it
off that we might read it together. Since I came home, we have begun it, and
advanced nearly half way in it; but other engagements of one kind and another
have interrupted. I find it very minute in its details; so much so, perhaps, as
to be objectionable to the general reader: but to me, who know the subject and
the writer, and who have such a deep personal interest in every thing they have
said or done, it never loses its interest. I should as soon complain of an
absent friend for giving me all the incidents of his fortune, when, the more of
each twenty-four hours he describes, the better. I like to read his letters. I
delight, and profit too, in reading a book which never departs from the
phrenological dialect, and refers every thing to phrenological principles. It
is like a review of a delightful study.
When first offered
the nomination for Congress, I had serious doubts about accepting it: but I was
in my twelfth year as Secretary of the Board of Education; and, while acting in
an official capacity, I was under the trammels of neutrality between all sects
and parties. It was just at the crisis when the destiny of our new Territory of
about six hundred thousand square miles in extent was about to be determined.
All of human history that I ever knew respecting the contest for political and
religious freedom, and my own twelve-years' struggle to imbue the public mind
with an understanding not merely of the law but of the spirit of religious
liberty, had so magnified in my mind the importance of free institutions, and
so intensified my horror of all forms of slavery, that even the importance of
education itself seemed for a moment to be eclipsed.
Besides, my fidelity
to principles had made some enemies, who, to thwart me, would resist progress,
but who, if I were out of the way, would be disarmed, and would co-operate
where they had combated. . . . The commencement of the session in December last
was full of excitement. We voted three weeks before we succeeded in making
choice of a Speaker; the issue being between freedom and slavery, modified by
its bearing upon the next Presidential election. In the Senate there were three
men, Clay, Webster, and Cass, each one of whom had staked body, reputation, and
soul on being the next President. In 1848, Gen. Cass had surrendered all that
he could think of, as principle, for the sake of winning the Southern vote.
Clay had just been returned to the Senate, and Webster had been thrown into the
background, partly for his mighty advocacy of freedom, and partly because he
had no skill in flattering the people. Clay devised a plan of indirect
opposition to the policy of Gen. Taylor, which, should it be unsuccessful,
would hardly injure its originator, but, if crowned with success, would place
him high and conspicuous above the President himself.
Up to this time, at
least ostensibly, Webster had maintained his integrity. But he supposed his
final hour had come. Cass as a Democrat, and Clay as a Whig, had offered to
immolate freedom to win the South. Webster must do more than either, or abandon
hope. He consented to treachery, and, to make his reward sure, proposed to do
more villanies than were asked of him. His 7th
of March speech was an abandonment of all he had ever said in defence of
the great principles of freedom. It was a surrender of the great interests of
freedom in the new Territories then in issue, and it was wanton impiety against
the very cause of liberty. We were not merely amazed, but astounded by it. He
artfully connected the pecuniary interests of the North with this treachery to
freedom. Our manufacturing interests were in a deplorable condition. He told
the manufacturers, that, if they would surrender freedom, they could have a
tariff. This assurance was repeated in a thousand covert forms. It brought out
the whole force of Mammon. One of the Boston newspapers, the "Daily
Advertiser," whose whole circulation was among the wealthy and
aristocratic, took ground in his defence at once. Another of them, the
"Courier," sold itself immediately for mere money to him and to his
friends; and such an overbearing and threatening tone was assumed by his whole
pretorian guard, that every other paper in the city, however clamorous it had
been for freedom before (except the "Liberator"), was silenced. The
press in Boston, for the last six months, had been very much in the condition
of the press of Paris.
I came home to visit
my family in April on account of ill health in it, and staid a month. The
public mind had not recovered from its shock; and Mr. Webster's "retainers,"
as the "Advertiser" unluckily called them, were active in fastening
their views upon the re-awakened consciousness of the public. I conversed with
many very prominent individuals. I found they agreed with me fully in regard to
Mr. Webster's treachery, and in private would speak freely, but in public would
not commit themselves to a word. This was grievous, and reminded me of what you
used to say so often, — that our people have not confidence enough in truth. I
was invited by a respectable portion of my constituents to address them. I
wrote them a letter instead. In that letter, I reviewed the course of the
leading men,—Cass, Clay, and Webster. I pointed out Mr. Webster's
inconsistencies and enormities in as searching a manner as I could, but in a
very respectful tone. He and his friends swore vengeance against me at once.
When I returned to
Washington, he cut me. He indulged in offensive remarks in private intercourse.
In a letter written to some citizens who sought to uphold his course, he put in
the most arrogant sneer that his talent could devise, and published it. That
gave me a chance to review his letter, and to discuss the question of trial by
jury for alleged fugitives. In another letter, he made another assault upon me.
This, too, I answered. Just at this moment, Gen. Taylor died. The
Vice-President, a weak and irresolute-minded man, succeeded. Mr. Webster was
appointed Secretary of State; and he thus became omnipotent, and almost
omnipresent. The cause of freedom was doomed. Thousands saw what the event
would be, and rushed to the conclusion. Three-fifths of all the Whig presses
went over in a day. The word of command went forth to annihilate me; and, if it
was not done, it was for no want of good will or effort on the part of the
hired executioners. From having been complimented on all sides, I was
misrepresented, maligned, travestied, on all sides. Not a single Whig paper in
Boston defended me. Most of them had an article or more against me every day.
The convention to nominate my successor was packed by fraudulent means, and I
was thrown overboard. . . . To bring the odium theologicum to crush me, an
evangelical was taken as my opponent. I took the stump, and put the matter to
my constituents face to face.
The election took
place last Monday, and I have beaten them all by a handsome majority. This is
something of a personal triumph, therefore; but, as a triumph of principle, it
is of infinitely more value. Nothing can exceed the elation of my friends, or
the mortification of my enemies. The latter feel like a man who has committed
some roguery, and failed of obtaining his purpose in doing it.
SOURCE: Mary Tyler
Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 335-9
Fort Hill 4th Augt
1849
MY DEAR SIR, You are
right, as to the source, whence Benton draws his support. He has bribed the
papers at the seat of Government by jobs at the publick expense; and the only
way to put down the corruption is the one you indicate. An Independent Press at
Washington has long been a desideratum, but it is difficult to establish, or to
maintain such an one there, against the joint influence and power of the
publick plunderers, who have got possession of the organs of publick opinion
and the machinery of parties.
I am glad to learn
that your contract promises so well and hope it will equal your most sanguine
hopes. Should you succeed as well as you expect it will give you a commanding
position.
With kind respects
to Mrs Green and your family I remain
* Original lent by
Mr. R. P. Maynard.
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. 771
The extremists are
angry and violent because the President follows his own convictions, and their
operations through the press are prolific in manufacturing scandal against him.
No harm will come of it, if he is prudent and firm. The leaders had flattered
themselves that they had more than two thirds of each house, and could,
therefore, carry all their measures over any veto. The President says there has
been a design to attempt impeachment if he did not yield to them. I am inclined
to believe this has been talked of among the leaders, but they would not press
a majority of their own number into the movement.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 439-40
Bright and frosty.
From the United
States papers we learn that a great victory is claimed over Gen. Early, with
the capture of forty-three guns!
It is also stated
that a party of "Copperheads” (Democrats), who had taken refuge in Canada,
have made a raid into Vermont, and robbed some of the banks of their specie.
The fact that Mr.
McRae, who, with Mr. Henley (local forces), fell into the hands of the enemy a
few miles below the city, was permitted to return within our own lines with a
passport (without restrictions, etc.) from Gen. Butler, has not been mentioned
by any of the newspapers, gives rise to many conjectures. Some say that
"somebody" prohibited the publication; others, that the press has
long been misrepresenting the conduct of the enemy; there being policy in
keeping alive the animosities of the army and the people.
The poor clerks in
the trenches are in a demoralized condition. It is announced that the Secretary
of War has resolved to send them all to Camp Lee, for medical examination:
those that have proved their ability to bear arms (in defense of the
city) are to be removed from office, and
put in the army. One-half of them will desert to the enemy, and injure the
cause. About one hundred of them were appointed before the enactment of the
act of Conscription, under the express guarantee of the Constitution that they
should not be molested during life. If the President removes these, mostly
refugees with families dependent upon their salaries, it will be a plain
violation of the Constitution; and the victims cannot be relied on for their
loyalty to the government. If the government wastes precious time in such small
matters, while events of magnitude demand attention, the cause is fast reaching
a hopeless condition. The able-bodied money-changer, speculator, and
extortioner is still seen in the street; and their number is legion.
The generals in the
field are sending back the poor, sickly recruits ordered out by the Medical Board: the able-bodied rich men escape by bribery and corruption; and the
hearty officers acting adjutant-generals, quartermasters, and
commissaries-ride their sleek horses through the city every afternoon. This,
while the cause is perishing for want of men and horses!
If press at Baltimore does not fully understand that we are not responsible for event of last night, explain to the morning papers and Mr. Alexander Fulton, that it was an exceptionable case and that the parties were specifically telegraphed about from Ohio to commanding officers as “suspicious,” by detectives employed by State authorities of Virginia.
W. P. SMITH.
SOURCE: B. H. Richardson, Annapolis, Maryland, Publisher, Correspondence Relating to the Insurrection at Harper's Ferry, 17th October, 1859, p. 68
Wrote a letter to
Paul S. Forbes in relation to his engine and the trial of the Algonquin. The
letter is an answer to one from him, written evidently by his lawyer and
prompter, Dickerson, designedly insolent and intended to provoke retort.
But I have contrived
to keep cool and, I think, to place them in the wrong, although they have
control of the New York press and correspondents, who make aggravated assaults
without any knowledge of the facts. Here and there silly editors, wholly
ignorant of the subject, also assume to speak oracularly, and doubtless the
public become in some degree prejudiced. In due time there will be correction,
the truth will come out, but to some extent the slander will long remain to
taint the minds of many.
I send you New York papers by morning train to-morrow. Our agents at Wheeling, Benwood and Moundsville have all made full and diligent inquiry, and report by telegraph to-night, that so far they have seen nothing of suspicious men, or other indications of a gathering to rescue the prisoners.
W. P. SMITH.
The date admonishes me of passing time and accumulating years. Our country is still in the great struggle for national unity and national life; but progress has been made during the year that has just terminated, and it seems to me the Rebellion is not far from its close. The years that I have been here have been oppressive, wearisome, and exhaustive, but I have labored willingly, if sometimes sadly, in the cause of my country and of mankind.
What mischief has the press performed and is still doing in the Rebel States by stimulating the people to crime by appeals to their manhood, to their courage, to all that they hold dear, to prosecute the war against the most benignant government that a people ever had! Violent misrepresentation and abuse, such as first led them to rebel, are still continued. The suppression for a period of the Rebel press in Richmond, Charleston, and one or two other points would do more than armies in putting an end to this unnatural war.
Mr. Solicitor Chandler, who has charge of the cases of fraud at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, made a report and spent some time with me this morning.
1 M. F. Merritt of Connecticut, a personal friend of Secretary Welles.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 218-9
The Senate have since commencement of the session labored over the question of continuing or displacing Hale from the position of Chairman of the Naval Committee. He has been, without cause or reason, a constant and vindictive opponent of the Department, at times annoying and almost embarrassing its action. I have forborne any controversy with him, and, in my acts and recommendations, have generally been sustained by Congress and the country. One year ago, at the commencement of this Congress, it appeared to me that the Senate owed to itself, not less than the Department and the country, the duty of substituting another for this factious and unworthy man. As they did not do it then, I scarcely expected they would do it now. He then appealed to them feelingly, and implored them to help him because his election was pending. Some of them thought the lesson had been instructive and would prove useful, as they assured me, and therefore voted for him. His conduct disappointed them but did not me.
This year he is not present, but went to Halifax the week before the session commenced, and from there writes a beseeching letter, begging to serve out the few weeks that remain of his Senatorial life on the Naval Committee. Sumner, who too often permits his personal sympathies to overrule public duty in matters of this kind, labored hard, I am told, for Hale. Action was postponed from day to day to gather strength, but a last attempt to retain him was made this morning and he received but seven votes. I have avoided, properly, introducing the subject to any Senator while the question was pending, and to three or four who have spoken to me, I have been cool and reserved. Yet, not unlikely, Hale will be violent and abusive towards me. Perhaps not; he is uncertain and unreliable. I feel indifferent. His career is about closed. It has never been useful or wholesome. He has no constructive ability; can attack and try to pull down, but is unable to successfully defend and build up.
The Members of Congress and the press, with scarcely an exception, are complimentary to my report. Even the New York Times and Herald commend it. But the Times of to-day has a captious, faultfinding article. It is dissatisfied, because, in stating facts, I mention that the Navy has been always ready to coöperate with the army at Wilmington, was ready and waited at Mobile, Texas, etc., etc. This the Times denounces as attacking the War Department or army. If to tell the truth is so construed, I cannot help it. For a long time the Times has been profuse in its censures of the Navy Department in regard to Wilmington. Mr. Seward, knowingly, was guilty of the same injustice in his speech delivered to the crowd from his parlor window the week of the election. These men do not wish the truth disclosed. They cannot romance and falsify me as they have done in this respect.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 193-4
Bright sunshine all day, but cool.
Gen. Bragg received a dispatch to day from Gen. Hoke, of Plymouth, N. C., stating that he had (yesterday) stormed Plymouth, taking 1600 prisoners, 25 cannon, stores, etc. etc. This put the city in as good spirits as possible.
But the excitement from Hoke's victory was supplanted by an excitement of another kind. A report was circulated and believed that the President resolved yesterday to remove the government to South Carolina or Alabama; and the commotion was very great. The President's salary is insufficient to meet his housekeeping expenditures; and Mrs. D. has become, very naturally, somewhat indignant at the conduct of the extortioners, and, of course, the President himself partook of the indignation.
At 2 P.M. to-day the President's papers came in. Among them was one from the Commissary. General, stating that the present management of railroad transportation would not suffice to subsist the army. This had been referred to Gen. Bragg yesterday (who seems to rank the Secretary of War), and he made an elaborate indorsement thereon. He recommended that all passenger trains be discontinued, except one daily, and on this that government agents, soldiers, etc. have preference; that arrangements be made at once to hasten on the freight trains (taking military possession of the roads) without breaking bulk; and finally to reduce consumers here as much as possible by a reduction of civil officers, etc. etc. in the departments—that is, sending to other places such as can perform their duties at distant points. On this the President indorsed a reference to the Secretary of War, requiring his opinion in writing, etc. Since then, the President and cabinet have been in consultation, and we shall probably know the result to-morrow.
If the departments are sent South, it will cause a prodigious outburst from the press here, and may have a bad, blundering effect on the army in Virginia, composed mostly of Virginians; and Gen. Bragg will have to bear the brunt of it, although the government will be solely responsible.
Gov. Vance recommended the suspension of conscription in the eastern counties of North Carolina the .other day. was referred by the Secretary to the President, by the President to Gen. B. (who is a native of North Carolina), and, seeing what was desired, Gen. B. recommended that the conscription be proceeded with. This may cause Gov. V. to be defeated at the election, and Gen. B. will be roundly abused. He will be unpopular still.
A cold rain all day; wind from northwest.
Mr. Ould and Capt. Hatch, agents of exchange (of prisoners), have returned from a conference with Gen. Butler, at Fortress Monroe, and it is announced that arrangements have been made for an immediate resumption of the exchange of prisoners on the old footing. Thus has the government abandoned the ground so proudly assumed—of non-intercourse with Butler, and the press. is firing away at it for negotiating with the “Beast” and outlaw. But our men in captivity are in favor of a speedy exchange, no matter with whom the agreement is made.
Forrest has destroyed Paducah, Ky.
There is a little quarrel in progress between the Secretaries of War and the Treasury. Some days ago the Postmaster-General got from the President an order that his clerks should be detailed for the use of the department until further orders. The Secretary of the Treasury made an application to the Secretary of War for a similar detail, but it was refused. Mr. Memminger appealed, with some acerbity, to the President, and the President indorsed on the paper that the proper rule would be for the Secretary of War to detail as desired by heads of departments. Nevertheless, the clerks were detailed but for thirty days, to report at the Camp of Instruction, if the detail were not renewed. To-day Mr. Memminger addresses a note to Mr. Seddon, inquiring if it was his purpose to hold his clerks liable to perform military duty after the expiration of the thirty days, and declaring that the incertitude and inconvenience of constantly applying for renewal of details, deranged and obstructed the business of his department. I know not yet what answer Mr. S. made, but doubtless a breach exists through which one or both may pass out of the cabinet. The truth is, that all clerks constitutionally appointed are legally exempt, and it is the boldest tyranny to enroll them as conscripts. But Mr. Memminger has no scruples on that head. All of them desire to retain in “soft places” their own relatives and friends, feeling but little sympathy for others whose refugee families are dependent on their salaries.
On Saturday, the cavalry battalion for local defense, accepted last summer by the President, were notified on parade that 20 days would be allowed them to choose their companies in the army, and if the choice were not made, they would be assigned to companies. They protested against this as despotic, but there is no remedy.
The complaints in regard to recruiting are severe and prolonged. They come in numbers. It seems to be taken for granted that we can open a rendezvous in every county. I have no doubt that the rendezvous are overcrowded and that abuses are practiced in consequence. The impending draft for the army indirectly benefits the Navy, or induces persons to enter it. Their doing so relieves them and their localities from the draft. Hence the crowd and competition. Then come in the enormous bounties from the State and municipal authorities over which naval officers have no control, and which lead to bounty-jumping and corruption.
Admiral Porter came by order. Says he prefers remaining in his present command. In a long interview our interchange of opinion concerning men and naval matters was on the whole satisfactory.
General McClellan was to-day nominated as the candidate of the so-called Democratic party. It has for some days been evident that it was a foregone conclusion and the best and only nomination the opposition could make. The preliminary arrangements have been made with tact and skill, and there will probably be liberality, judgment, and sense exhibited in launching and supporting the nominee, which it would become the Union men to imitate. That factious, narrow, faultfinding illiberality of radicals in Congress which has disgraced the press ostensibly of the Administration party, particularly the press of New York City, has given strength to their opponents. McClellan will be supported by War Democrats and Peace Democrats, by men of every shade and opinion; all discordant elements will be made to harmonize, and all differences will be suppressed. Whether certain Republican leaders in Congress, who have been assailing and deceiving the Administration, and the faultfinding journals of New York have, or will, become conscious of their folly, we shall soon know. They have done all that was in their power to destroy confidence in the President and injure those with whom they were associated. If, therefore, the reëlection of Mr. Lincoln is not defeated, it will not be owing to them.
In some respects I think the President, though usually shrewd and sensible, has mismanaged. His mistakes, I think, are attributable to Mr. Seward almost exclusively. It has been a misfortune to retain Stanton and Halleck. He might have brought McClellan into the place of the latter, and Blair had once effected the arrangement, but Seward defeated it. As I have not been in the close confidence of the President in his party personal selections and movements, I am left to judge of many things, as are all the Cabinet except Mr. Seward and to some extent Mr. Stanton, who is in the Seward interest. It has seemed to me a great misfortune that the President should have been so much under the influence of these men, but New York State is a power and Seward makes the most of it. I have regretted that the President should have yielded so much to Greeley in many things and treated him with so much consideration. Chase and Wade, though not in accord, have by their ambition and disappointments done harm, and, in less degree, the same may be said of Mr. Sumner. Others of less note might be named. Most of them will now cease grumbling, go to work to retrieve their folly so far as they can. Possibly the New York editors may be perverse a few weeks longer, sufficiently so to give that city overwhelmingly to the opposition, and perhaps lose the State.
Seward will, unintentionally, help them by over-refined intrigues and assumptions and blunders. It has sometimes seemed to me that he was almost in complicity with his enemies, and that they were using him. I am not certain that the latter is not true.
It is an infirmity of the President that he permits the little newsmongers to come around him and be intimate, and in this he is encouraged by Seward, who does the same, and even courts the corrupt and the vicious, which the President does not. He has great inquisitiveness. Likes to hear all the political gossip as much as Seward. But the President is honest, sincere, and confiding, — traits which are not so prominent in some by whom he is surrounded.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 129-31
Bright and pleasant—dusty. But one rain during the winter.
The “associated press” publishes an unofficial dispatch, giving almost incredible accounts of Gen. Forrest's defeat of Grierson's cavalry, 10,000 strong, with only 2000. It is said the enemy were cut up and routed, losing all his guns, etc.
Sugar is $20 per pound; new bacon, $8; and chickens, $12 per pair. Soon we look for a money panic, when a few hundred millions of the paper money is funded, and as many more collected by the tax collectors. Congress struck the speculators a hard blow. One man, eager to invest his money, gave $100,000 for a house and lot, and he now pays $5000 tax on it; the interest is $6000 more—$11,000 total. His next door neighbor, who bought his house in 1860 for $10,000, similar in every respect, pays $500 tax (valued at date of sale), interest $600; total, $1100 per annum. The speculator pays $10,000 per annum more than his patriotic neighbor, who refused to sell his house for $100,000.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 159-60