Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 16, 1864

General good spirits prevail since Northern arrivals show that the House of Representatives at Washington has passed a resolution that 1,000,000 men, including members of Congress under 50, volunteer to deliver the prisoners of war out of our hands. This produces a general smile, as indicative of the exhaustion of the available military force of the United States —and all believe it to be the merest bravado and unmitigated humbug. Every preparation will be made by the Confederate States Government for the most stupendous campaign of the war.

There are indications of disorganization (political) in North Carolina—but it is too late. The Confederate States Executive is too strong, so long as Congress remains obedient, for any formidable demonstration of that character to occur in any of the States. We shall probably have martial law everywhere.

I bought some garden seeds to-day, fresh from New York! This people are too improvident, even to sow their own seeds.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 129-30

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, May 24, 1864

Nothing especial at the Cabinet. The condition and position of the armies canvassed. Chase was not present. He seldom attends of late.

Seward urges the departure of the Niagara. I have no doubt that Sanford, our Minister at Belgium, one of Seward's pets, who is now here, has been instrumental in urging this matter. He wants a public vessel to carry him abroad, and has cajoled Seward . . . to effect this object. I do not like to be bamboozled, as Colonel Benton says, by such fellows as Sanford.

There are, however, some reasons to influence action.

Seward sent to my house on Saturday evening a bundle of dispatches from Mr. Dayton, and also from Mr. Bigelow, our consul at Paris, relative to the conduct and feelings of the French Government. That breaking through the blockade for tobacco looks mischievous, and one or more vessels ought doubtless to appear in European waters.

Bigelow, in his confidential dispatch, tells Seward that it was not judicious to have explained to the French Government in regard to the resolution of our House of Representatives that they would maintain the Monroe Doctrine.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 38-9

Thomas W. Gilmer* to Congressman Robert M. T. Hunter, March 11, 1840

Richmond, [va.], March 11th, 1840.

Dear Hunter: I have frequently during the winter desired to write to you and to receive a letter from you, as one watchman likes occasionally to hail and to hear from another in a dark night. I hope that nothing has occurred or will ever occur to interrupt for a moment that perfect and confidential familiarity which has so long subsisted between us. From all that I learn of you through the medium (a bad one, I confess) of the newspapers, I take it for granted that we are now as nearly together in politics as we were when I saw you last summer. Nothing that has happened here or at Washington, I presume, can have shaken your steadfastness or mine in the great principles to which we have both given evidence of our attachment. But let this be as it may, though you are (without design on your part) the speaker of the H[ouse] of R[epresentatives] and though I in like manner have been appointed with the executive of Virginia, you are still Bob Hunter and I am as I always was your humble servant. We can never forget the Friar Tuck scene of the Expunging winter here, nor should either of us desire its oblivion. I suppose the labors of your station have allowed you very little time for correspondence and though I shall not be more respectful than the governor of New Jersey was to you, I venture to drop you a line, to say that I hope we may occasionally interchange a thought and a word. Is there any hope that parties will ever come back to the good old lines of honest differences of opinion as to principles. For until parties do so, there is really little or no hope that the government (in any hands) will. Are we always to see the millions of freemen in our country, marshalled as the mere clansmen of ambitious aspirants for the presidency? Many, I know, indulge the hope that after November next, there will be some more definite and durable organization of political parties. I confess, however, that I see little prospect for it. The radical fault is with the press and that I fear is past remedy. I am, however, on the outposts and can see but little of the chess board. You are at the fountain head, and I have only to ask that when you have time and can communicate any intelligence which you think would do good, that you may drop me a line, not that I would have you write as a letter writer from Washington, but that you may speak as one friend should speak to another about matters of the highest public concern. We have been grasping our way onward; so far together. I shall sink the partisan of course in my new vocation here. Indeed I have been little of one for some years past. The grease has been scarcely worth the candle. If you don't find time sooner, writer to me in the dry days.

_______________

* Governor of Virginia, 1840-1841; a Whig Representative in Congress, 1841-1843; a Democratic Representative in Congress. 1843-1844; appointed Secretary of the Navy, Feb. 15, 1844, and served until his death on the Princeton, Feb. 28, 1844.

SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916 in Two Volumes, Volume II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter 1826-1876, p. 33-4

Samuel Gridley Howe to Senator Charles Sumner, July 5, 1853

July 5, 1853.

My Dear Sumner: — You well know what a babe I am in politics, and how little versed in the tactics of party; my views therefore can be nothing worth to you; my instinct, however, and my friendly interest will not be disregarded. You are in what merchants call a crisis; and you can come out of it not only with great credit to yourself (that is a small matter), but in a way to promote the honour and the dignity, and therefore the efficiency of our party.

The leaders at the House and elsewhere — the managers —  pooh-pooh at you — they say you are counted as nothing — have little influence, and will have but little; that you will go to Washington, make one or two brilliant speeches and there will be the end of you. Well! as far as you are interested personally—as far as those who love you best are interested — so be it; the leaders in the Convention are misrepresenting our party. We are a party of principle; they are for expediency; we go into the Convention to amend the principles of right, with a view to the good of the whole people, and future generations of people; they go to potter and tinker, with a view to local interests, local prejudices, and party interests. We ought to be represented by statesmen; we are represented by mere politicians.

Now you, and you alone among them, are able to be the exponent and defender of the principles and the morals of the Free-soil party — of the free Democracy. Depend upon it, that party is sound at the core, and it will answer from the heart and from the conscience to an appeal from you, in a way that will astonish those who imagine that they are not only the leaders but the owners of the party. The great mass of our party would say amen to any declaration like this — let our basis of representation be respect for man, as man, and not as villager, townsman or city man; let other things be considered duly, but let no considerations of expediency, no thought of how the coming elections may be affected, no regard for temporary effect, induce us to violate a plain rule of right. All men are equal as well as free, and let us not ask what advantages or what disadvantages of wealth or position a man may have; as poverty shall not disfranchise him, so wealth shall not.

I have read most of what our side has said upon this matter of electoral basis, and (I am sorry to say) I have not read what the other side has said; nevertheless I have an instinct arising from my faith in a broad principle, that tells me our side is further from the right than the other is. But I will do no more now than strive to strengthen what your instinct must tell you—that the great mass of our party will rise up and support you in any declaration of adhesion to a great principle of right, though it should cost us what of apparent political discomfiture and rout might follow. I see danger to you only in your calculating too nicely upon the manner of being most useful in your day and generation. Remember, you are part not only of this but of other days and generations. . . .

Ever thine,

s. G. h.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 391-3

Diary of Gideon Welles: Friday, April 15, 1864

Chase and Blair were neither of them at the Cabinet-meeting to-day, nor was Stanton. Seward takes upon himself the French tobacco question. He wishes me to procure some one to investigate and report on the facts of the case of the Sir William Peel. I told him I thought Charles Eames as good a counsellor on prize matters as any lawyer whom I knew, and if referred to me I should give the case to Eames.

The gold panic has subsided, or rather abated. Chase is in New York. It is curious to see the speculator's conjectures and remarks on the expedients and subterfuges that are resorted to. Gold is truth. Its paper substitute is a fiction, sustained by public confidence in part because there is a belief that it will ultimately bring gold, but it has no intrinsic value and the great increase in quantity is undermining confidence.

The House passed a resolution of censure on Long for his weak and reprehensible speech. It is a pity the subject was taken up at all. No good has come of it, but I hope no harm. Lurking treason may feel a little strengthened by the failure to expel.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 12

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, April 11, 1864

John C. Rives, it is stated, died yesterday. He was a marked character, guileless, shrewd, simple-hearted, and sagacious, without pretension and without fear, generous and sincere, with a warm heart but no exterior graces. I first met him in the winter of 1829 in the office of Duff Green, where he was bookkeeper. In the winter of 1831, I think, we met at Georgetown at the house of Colonel Corcoran. F. P. Blair, whom I met on the same evening for the first time, had been out with Rives to try their rifles. They had first met a few days previous. Rives was then a clerk in the Fourth Auditor's office, — Amos Kendall. The latter passed the evening with us. Years later Rives and myself became well acquainted. He was first bookkeeper and then partner of Blair and made the fortunes of both.

In the House of Representatives a sharp and unpleasant discussion has been carried on, on a resolution introduced by the Speaker, Colfax, to expel Long, a Representative from Ohio, for some discreditable partisan remarks, made in a speech last Friday. There being an evening session, I went to the Capitol for the first time this session. Heard Orth, Kernan, Winter Davis, and one or two others. The latter was declamatory, eloquent, but the debate did not please me, nor the subject. Long I despise for his declarations, but Colfax is not judicious in his movement. Long went beyond the line of his party, and Colfax cannot make them responsible for Long's folly.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 8-9

Diary of Gideon Welles: Tuesday, March 1, 1864

Very little of importance to-day at the Cabinet. Neither Chase nor Blair was present. Gen. F. Blair made, I am told, a severe speech against Chase, in the House on Saturday. It is unfortunate that these assaults should be made on political friends, or those who should be friends. I shall be sorry if, under the existing circumstances, Chase should be a candidate for President. If he asks my opinion I shall advise him not to enter the field; but I do not expect that he will ask my advice, he probably knows my opinions. Some of his training measures do not strike me favorably, but I am sorry General Blair should assail them with such acrimony. There is, however, a feeling of partisanship in St. Louis and Missouri that is unsparing. Chase has, I have thought unnecessarily and unwisely, identified himself with the radical element there, the enemies of Blair.

Old Mr. Blair called on me on Sunday evening to look to the interests of Acting Rear-Admiral Lee, his son-inlaw, who is uneasy lest he shall not obtain promotion. I told Mr. B. that L. could not have the vote of thanks with the President's recommendation without some marked event to justify it. That the higher appointments must be kept open to induce and stimulate our heroes. That Lee was doing his duty well, and, should there be no others to have earned the great distinction when the war is over, he would be among those who would compete for the prize.

Judge Edmunds and Senator Lane called on me on Monday morning for funds. Showed me two papers, one with Seward's name for $500. On another was Blair's (Postmaster-General) and Secretary Usher, each for $500, with some other names for like amount. Told them I disapproved of these levies on men in office, but would take the subject into consideration; I was not, however, prepared to act. Something should, perhaps, be contributed by men when great principles are involved, but these large individual subscriptions are not in all respects right or proper. Much of the money is wasted or absorbed by the electioneers. I shall soon be called upon by Connecticut men to contribute to their election, and I cannot afford to comply with all the demands that are made for party, nor do I like the hands in all cases which the money is to pass into.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 533-4

Amos A. Lawrence to Charles L. Robinson, August 10, 1855

Boston, August 10, 1855.

My Dear Sir, — From Mr. Abbott who has just arrived here from your neighborhood, I infer that the spirit of the settlers has been raised so high that they are ready to repudiate the present legislature altogether, and to resist its requirements. In this, you will have the good-will and assistance of the citizens of the free States at least.

But many are willing to go farther, and to resist the United States government, if it should interfere. For this I can see no apology; nor can there ever be good cause for resisting an administration chosen by ourselves. However wrong in our opinion, there never can be good reason for resisting our own government, unless it attempts to destroy the power of the people through the elections, that is, to take away the power of creating a new administration every four years. But I do not believe the present administration will attempt to impose the Missouri code upon the citizens of Kansas.

There is another reason of a more prudential kind, viz.: that whoever does this is sure of defeat. We are a law-abiding people, and we will sustain our own government “right or wrong.” Any movement aimed at the government destroys at once the moral force of the party or organization which favors it. Already the present administration is rendered powerless by the House of Representatives, and soon will come the time to vote for a new one. The people will never resist or attempt to destroy it in any other way.

Yours very truly,

A. A. L.

SOURCE: William Lawrence, Life of Amos A. Lawrence: With Extracts from His Diary and Correspondence, p. 99-101

Howell Cobb to Mary Ann Cobb Lamar Howell, June 14, 1846

Washington City, 14th June, 1846.

My Dear Wife, . . . Most unexpectedly to me I received a note on Sunday morning from Genl. Harden¹ announcing his arrival in the city. The General is in good health and fine spirits. He is determined to have an office if one is to be had, and I am determined to render him all the aid in my power to carry out his wishes. Mr. Polk's feelings are of the kindest character towards him, and [he] has expressed to me his determination to provide for him at the very earliest time when an appointment shall offer itself. I do hope that our efforts may be successful. Certainly no applicant for office stands in greater need than our old friend in whose cause my feelings are so deeply enlisted.

Today in the House we succeeded in taking up the tariff bill by a majority of about thirty, and shall be engaged in its discussion for the next two weeks or more. As I have been honored with the chair during this debate I shall not have the same time to devote to my letters and business as heretofore. As you know, much of my writing was done at my desk in the House. So you must not complain if my letters should not reach you as punctually as heretofore.

What will be done with this vexed question of the tariff I am not able to say. Many indulge a strong hope and belief that we shall be able to pass such a bill as will give satisfaction to the country. I am not so sanguine myself. The course pursued by the Southern democracy about Oregon has had the effect of alienating the good feelings of many of our northern and western democrats and thereby rendering the harmonious and united action of the party more difficult than it would have been had all the South stood square up upon that great question as some of us did. I fear the effect that is likely to be produced in the success of the democratic party by the unfortunate collisions which have arisen during the present session. Conscious of having fully and faithfully performed my own duty, I have no personal responsibility resting upon my shoulders which I am not willing and prepared fully to shoulder . . .

I have been engaged pretty much during today in getting letters for Mr. Gardner of the Constitutionalist, who has involved himself in a quarrel with his neighbours of [the] Chronicle and Sentinel² about the charge of Mr. Wise pulling Mr. Polk's nose. All an infamous lie; but at the same time, as Gardner seemed to attach some importance to the proof, I have promised it for him; and if the editors of the Chronicle and Sentinel have any sense of shame left they will blush upon its perusal.

_______________

¹ Edward J. Harden. See footnote 1, p. 87 infra.

² The Constitutionalist and the Chronicle and Sentinel were the two leading newspapers of Augusta, Ga.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 81-2

J. W. Burney to Congressman Howell Cobb, January 31, 1845

Monticello [ga.,] 31st Jany., 1845.

Dear Sir: Many of our citizens had assembled at the Post office this morning to hear the Texas news. When we saw the measure had passed the H. of R., and that Messrs. Stephens and Clinch had voted with the rest of our delegation there was a general exclamation of “well done good and faithful servant”. Our Whig friends joined in the expression of their joy. I beg you to tender to Mr. Stephens (to whom I am not known) my sincere thanks for this vote. The question is vital to us. His superior love of country to party entitles him to great credit. Can it be that Judge Berrien¹ will not pursue a like course? Now is the time for him to show himself to be above party influence. Do all, all work to carry this great question through the Senate. We are satisfied here with the Resolutions as they passed the House, tho we would have preferred the Missouri Compromise being stricken out. But concessions must be made, and the people of Georgia will agree to any thing reasonable on the subject to get the country.

I have troubled you too much already, but felt as if it was my duty to say this much.

We shall now look with great anxiety to the other end of the Capitol for favorable action.

_______________

¹ John McPherson Berrien, Senator from Georgia, 1825-1829, Attorney General in Jackson's Cabinet, 1820-1831; Senator again (as a Whig), 1841-1852.

SOURCE: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, Editor, The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1911, Volume 2: The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb, p. 62

Edwin M. Stanton to Congressman Galusha A. Grow, June 14, 1862

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington City, D.C., June 14, 1862.

Hon. GALUSHA A. GROW,

Speaker of the House of Representatives:

SIR: A resolution of the House of Representatives has been received, which passed the 9th instant, to the following effect:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to inform this House if General Hunter, of the Department of South Carolina, has organized a regiment of South Carolina volunteers for the defense of the Union composed of black men (fugitive slaves) and appointed the colonel and other officers to command them.

2. Was he authorized by the Department to organize and muster into the Army of the United States as soldiers the fugitive or captive slaves?

3. Has he been furnished with clothing, uniforms, &c., for such force?

4. Has he been furnished, by order of the Department of War, with arms to be placed in the hands of those slaves?

5. To report any orders given said Hunter and correspondence between him and the Department.

In answer to the foregoing resolution I have the honor to inform the House—

First. That this Department has no official information whether General Hunter, of the Department of South Carolina, has or has not organized a regiment of South Carolina volunteers for the defense of the Union composed of black men (fugitive slaves) and appointed the colonel and other officers to command them. In order to ascertain whether he has done so or not a copy of the House resolution has been transmitted to General Hunter, with instructions to make immediate report thereon.

Second. General Hunter was not authorized by the Department to organize and muster into the Army of the United States the fugitive or captive slaves.

Third. General Hunter, upon his requisition as commander of the South, has been furnished with clothing and arms for the force under his command without instructions as to how they should be used.

Fourth. He has not been furnished, by order of the Department of War, with arms to be placed in the hands of “those slaves.”

Fifth. In respect to so much of said resolution as directs the Secretary “to report to the House any orders given said Hunter and correspondence between him and the Department,” the President instructs me to answer that the report at this time of the orders given to and correspondence between General Hunter and this Department would, in his opinion, be improper and incompatible with the public welfare.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

EDWIN M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III, Volume 2 (Serial No. 123), p. 147-8

Robert Mallory in the United States House of Representatives, July 5, 1862

I shall redeem my implied pledge to the House not to take up much of their time upon this matter.  I merely wish to put myself right in regard to a statement made to my venerable colleague [Charles A. Wickliffe] who just addressed the house.

I cordially concur in most of the sentiments expressed by my colleague in regard to this letter of General Hunter, which a few days since was read from the Clark’s desk.  Neither he nor any other man can condemn in severe terms than I do the whole spirit of that letter and its whole style.  No man can disapprove more strongly the system of arming slaves, which that general has sought to inaugurate in the South, as shown by his letter to the Secretary of War.  I believe, as my colleague does, and as I hope many gentlemen of the Republican party in this House believe, that it is contrary to the rules that should govern a civilized nation in conducting a war.

I shrink from arming the slave, using him to shoot down white men, knowing his depraved nature as I do.  I would as soon think of enlisting the Indian, and of arming him with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to be let loose upon our rebellious countrymen, as to arm the negro in this contest.

But I recollect, and I shall continue to do as long as I live, the scene which occurred in this Hall when that memorable letter was read at the Clerk’s desk.  Many things have been said here, many statements have gone the rounds of the public press about the indecorum and disorder which prevail in this Hall, that, in my opinion were calumnies upon the character of this House; but none of them can overdraw the picture which was presented here the other day when that letter was read.  The scene was one of which I think this House should forever be ashamed.

We were here in the consideration of questions the most solemn and grave that ever claimed their attention of an American Congress.  Grave consideration, calm and deliberate reflection, should have characterized the proceedings of this body on that occasion.  But, sir, when that letter was read at the Clerk’s desk, a spectator in the gallery would have supposed we were witnessing the performance of a buffoon or of a low farce actor upon the stage.  And the reading of the letter on that occasion, containing, as it did, sentiments calculated to shock humanity, written in a style showing the contempt of the writer for this House, was received with loud applause and boisterous manifestations of approbation by the Republican members of the House.  I never witnessed a scene more deeply mortifying.  I shall not lose the memory of it while I live.  It was a scene, in my opinion, disgraceful to the American Congress.

SOURCE: United States. Congress. The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress, book, 1862; Washington D.C.. (digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30813/: accessed October 2, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, Digital Library, digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department., July 5, 1862, p. 3,124-5

A Word to Messrs. Wickliffe and Mallory — What The Forefathers Thought of the Military Capacity of the Blacks.

It is perhaps too much to expect of our enlightened Congressmen that they shall inform themselves of what their predecessors in the National Legislature thought and said on subjects they are now discussing. If they would take this trouble, however, it would often, certainly, save a great deal of time that might be otherwise better employed. For instance, the House of Representatives consumed the best part of Saturday last in debating the military capacity of the Blacks. Now, this whole question was thoroughly discussed in the very first Congress held in 1790; and if the honorable members had taken the pains to consult their files of GALES & SEATON, they might have saved themselves a good deal of pulmonary exercitation, without leaving the country any less wise than it was before. The using of the Blacks is a question of practical policy which may or may not be adopted, as exigencies shall demand; but speculations on the military capacity of the negroes are abstractions that can lead to nothing. Meanwhile, we commend to Messrs. WICKLIFFE, MALLORY & Co., who think “negroes are naturally afraid of guns,” and that “one shot from a cannon would disperse thirty thousand of them,” the views of another Southern member some seventy-two years ago. Mr. SMITH, member from South Carolina, in the House of Representatives 1790, in the course of an elaborate debate on the question, said:

"Negroes, it was said, would not fight; but he would ask whether it was owing to their being black, or to their being slaves? If to their being black, then emancipating them would not remedy the evil, for they would still remain black; If it was owing to their being slaves, he denied the position; for it was an undeniable truth that in many countries slaves made excellent soldiers. * * Had experience proved that the negroes would not make good soldiers? He did not assert that they would, but they had never been tried. Discipline was everything; white militia made but indifferent soldiers before they were disciplined. It was well known that, according to the present art of war, a soldier was a mere machine, and he did not see why a black machine was not as good as a white one; and in one respect the black troops would have the advantage — in appearing more horrible in the eyes of the enemy.”

SOURCE: The New York Times, New York, New York, Monday, July 7, 1862, p. 4

Resolution of the United States House of Representatives, July 22, 1861

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,

In the House of Representatives, July 22, 1861.

On motion of Mr. Wickliffe:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be requested to inform this House whether the Southern Confederacy (so called) or any State thereof has in their military service any Indians; and if so, what number and what tribes, and also whether they have in said service any negroes.

Attest:

EM. ETHERIDGE, Clerk.

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. 340

Andrew Johnson in the United States House of Representatives, June 5, 1860

My position is, that Congress has no power to interfere with the subject of slavery; that it is an institution local in its character and peculiar to the States where it exists, and no other power has the right to control it.

SOURCE: Frank Moore, Speeches of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, p. xvi

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, January 28, 1850

Washington, Jan. 28, '50.

My Dear Sumner: You ask for a word of cheer. The response must come from a sad heart. I have just heard the tidings of the death of a beloved sister, than whose a sweeter, kinder, more affectionate heart never yearned towards a brother. You may remember that when I was in Boston last fall I went up to New Hampshire to see her. Little thought I it was our last meeting on earth. But God has so willed it — would that I could say more truly from the heart God's will be done!

My wife, too, is still very ill; but I hope is mending slowly. I fear, however, her constitution will never recover wholly from the shock it has sustained.

What a vale of misery this world is! To me it has been emphatically so. Death has pursued me incessantly ever since I was twenty-five. My path has been — how terribly true it is — through the region of his shadow. Sometimes I feel as if I could give up — as if I must give up. And then after all I rise and press on. Have you ever experienced these feelings? I should faint certainly if I did not believe that God in mercy as well as wisdom orders all things well, and will not suffer those who trust in Him through Christ to be utterly cast down.

There is much commotion here, and some feel discouraged. Our cause is just and it will triumph; no matter how the territorial issue may be decided. I still think the Proviso will pass the House, and I think that it will pass the Senate. The South seems determined to insist on territorial government being instituted; and I do not see how the question can be avoided. If it comes fully to a vote I shall believe we shall carry it until the result shall teach me the contrary.

Cordially your friend,

[Salmon P. Chase.]

P. S. You must go to wah, all hands, in Palfrey's district.

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 200

Senator bentonSalmon P. Chase to Edward S. Hamlin, December 17, 1849

Washington, Dec^r. 17, 1849.

My Dear Hamlin, I have just comedown from the Capitol. In the Senate we had a brief Executive Session — nothing done. Today we were to have elected Committees but the Old Line Caucus had not arranged matters to suit them, & the elections were put off till tomorrow. You know that in the Senate the Majority party selects in Caucus the majorities of such committees as they think fit so to organize & minorities on the others, & the minority party in caucus selects the balance. The committees thus selected have been hitherto adopted by common consent. What will be done tomorrow I cannot say. There was trouble yesterday between the friends of Benton & Calhoun in Caucus. I have not been invited to the Democratic Caucus. I do not think I should attend, as matters now stand, if I was: but it is not impossible that both Hale and I shall go in before the session closes. To a democratic Senator who spoke to me on the subject I answered that I thought that having been elected exclusively by Democratic & free democratic votes I ought to be invited; but whether I wd. attend or not I was not prepared to say. There was a discussion or conversation about inviting me; but of what character I dont know.

In the House they have been balloting, or rather voting for Speaker. Since the menaces of the Southern men the other day and their insolent proscription of every man, as unfit to receive their votes, except slavery extensionists the northern democrats have got their backs up and so many of them now refuse to vote for any extensionist that it seems impossible to elect any man whom the slaveholding democrats' will support, except by a coalition between these last, aided by the doughfaced democrats & the slaveholding Whigs. Rumors of such a coalition have been rife for a day or two; but the candidate of the extensionists, Lynn Boyd, has not yet received votes enough to enable those Southern Whigs who are willing to go for him, to effect his election. I am glad to be able to say that the Ohio delegation is firm on the side of the Free States, with two exceptions Miller & Hoagland. Until today I hoped that Col. Hoagland would abide with the body of the Ohio democrats; but he gave way today & voted for Boyd. This is the more to be regretted as Boyd was, as I hear, one of the foremost in clapping & applauding Toombs's insolent disunion speech the other day; and after he had closed his harrangue went to him & clapped him on the back in the most fraternizing manner.

Who, then, can be speaker? you will ask. To which I can only reply, I really cannot say. At present it seems as if the contest must be determined final by the Extensionists against the Anti Extensionists without reference to old party lines. An attempt was made today at a bargain between the Hunker Whigs & Hunker Democrats. A Kentucky member offered a resolution that Withrop should be Speaker; Forney, Clerk; & somebody, I can not say who, Sargeant at arms. The democrats voted almost unanimously to lay this resolution on the table — the Whigs, in great numbers, voted against this disposition of it. This looks well for those Hunkers who affect such a holy horror of bargains.

With these facts before you, you can form, better than I can, an idea of the probable shape of things in the future. To me it seems as if the process of reorganization was going on pretty rapidly in the northern democracy. I am much mistaken, if any candidate who will not take the ground assumed in my letter to Breslin, can obtain the support of the Democracy of the North or of the Country.

We are all looking with much interest to Ohio. Mr. Carter has received several letters urging him to be a candidate for Governor: but he will not consent except as a matter of necessity. He is a true man here, and so, above most, is Amos E. Wood. Judge Myers would be a very acceptable candidate to the Free Democracy:—  so, also, I should think would be Dimmock. My own regard for Dimmock is very strong. Judge Wood would encounter, I learn, some opposition from the friends of Tod, and his decisions in some slavery cases would be brought up against him especially with Beaver for an opponent. Still, in many respects, he wd. be a very strong man. After all it is chiefly important that the resolutions of the Convention should be of the right stamp & that the candidate should place himself unreservedly upon them.

As to the Free Democratic State Convention, — I think it desirable on many accounts that one should be held; and that it be known soon that one is to be held. I do not think it expedient to call it expressly to nominate, but rather to consider the expediency of nomination & promote, generally the cause of Free Democracy.

I have written to Pugh urging the adoption by the House, if the Senate is not organized, of resolutions sustaining their members in Congress. I think much good would be done by resolutions to this effect.

Resolved, That the determination evinced by many slave state members of Congress, claiming to be Whigs & Democrats, to support for the office of Speaker no known & decided opponent of Slavery Extension, and indeed no man who will not, in the exercise of his official powers, constitute the Committees of the House of Representatives so as to promote actively or by inaction the extension of slavery, is an affront & indignity to the whole people of the Free States, nearly unanimous in opposition to such extension.

Resolved, That we cordially approve of the conduct of those representatives from Ohio who have, since the manifestation of this determination on the part of members for the Slave States, steadily refused to vote for any Slavery Extensionists; and pledge to them, on behalf of the State of Ohio, an earnest support & adequate maintenance.

I give these resolutions merely as specimens. They are not so strong as I would introduce. Perhaps, indeed, it will be thought best to introduce a resolution appropriating a specific sum to be applied to the support of the members here in case the continued failure to organize the House shall leave them without other resources.

The bare introduction of such resolutions into our Legislature would have the happiest effect. Can't you help this thing forward? I dont want these sample resolutions used in any way except as mere specimens & suggestions.

So far as developments have yet been made the Administration has no settled policy. In the present state of the country I confess I do not much fear Cuban annexation.

Write me often.

[SALMON P. CHASE.]

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 189-92

Anthony Burns

BURNS, Anthony, fugitive slave, b. in Virginia about 1830; d. in St. Catharines, Canada, 27 July, 1862. He effected his escape from slavery in Virginia, and was at work in Boston in the winter of 1853-'4. On 23 May, 1854, the U. S. house of representatives passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill repealing the Missouri compromise, and permitting the extension of negro slavery, which had been restricted since 1820. The news caused great indignation throughout the free states, especially in Boston, where the anti-slavery party had its headquarters. Just at this crisis Burns was arrested by U. S. Marshal Watson Freeman, under the provisions of the fugitive-slave act, on a warrant sworn out by Charles F. Suttle. He was confined in the Boston court-house under a strong guard, and on 25 May was taken before U. S. Commissioner Loring for examination. Through the efforts of Wendell Phillips and Theodore Parker, an adjournment was secured to 27 May, and in the mean time a mass-meeting was called at Faneuil hall, and the U. S. marshal summoned a large posse of extra deputies, who were armed and stationed in and about the court-house to guard against an expected attempt at the rescue of Burns. The meeting at Faneuil hall was addressed by the most prominent men of Boston, and could hardly be restrained from adjourning in a body to storm the court-house. While this assembly was in session, a premature attempt to rescue Burns was made under the leadership of Thomas W. Higginson. A door of the courthouse was battered in, one of the deputies was killed in the fight, and Col. Higginson and others of the assailants were wounded. A call for re-enforcements was sent to Faneuil hall, but in the confusion it never reached the chairman. On the next day the examination was held before Commissioner Loring, Richard H. Dana and Charles M. Ellis appearing for the prisoner. The evidence showed that Burns was amenable under the law, and his surrender to his master was ordered. When the decision was made known, many houses were draped in black, and the state of popular feeling was such that the government directed that the prisoner be sent to Virginia on board the revenue cutter “Morris.” He was escorted to the wharf by a strong guard, through streets packed with excited crowds. At the wharf the tumult seemed about to culminate in riot, when the Rev. Daniel Foster (who was killed in action early in the civil war) exclaimed, “Let us pray!” and silence fell upon the multitude, who stood with uncovered heads, while Burns was hurried on board the cutter. A more impressively dramatic ending, or one more characteristic of an excited but law-abiding and God-fearing New England community, could hardly be conceived for this famous case. Burns afterward studied at Oberlin college, and eventually became a Baptist minister, and settled in Canada, where, during the closing years of his life, he presided over a congregation of his own color. See “Anthony Burns, A History,” by C. E. Stevens (Boston, 1854).

SOURCE: James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, Editors, Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography, Volume 1, p. 460

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: February 8, 1863

From intelligence received yesterday evening, it is probable the Alabama, Harriet Lane, and Florida have met off the West Indies, and turned upon the U. S. steamer Brooklyn. The account says a large steamer was seen on fire, and three others were delivering broadsides into her. The United States press thought the burning steamer was the Florida.

From Charleston or Savannah we shall soon have stirring news. They may overpower our forces, but our power there will be completely exhausted before resistance ceases. There will be no more “giving up,” as with New Orleans, Norfolk, etc. Yet there is a feverish anxiety regarding Vicksburg. Pemberton permitted one iron-clad gun-boat to pass, and all our boats below are now at its mercy.

The House of Representatives, at Washington, has passed the “negro soldier bill.” This will prove a “Pandora's Box,” and the Federals may rue the day that such a measure was adopted.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 256

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, March 5, 1863

Went on the evening of the 3d inst. to the Capitol. Spent most of the time until eleven o'clock in the President's room. It is my first visit to the Capitol since the session commenced. Was for half an hour on the floor of the House. Thirty-four years ago spent the night of the 3d of March on the floor of the Representatives' Chamber. It was in the old Representatives’ Hall. Andrew Stevenson was Speaker. I first saw Henry Clay that night. He came from the President's room to the House about ten. It was to him the scene of old triumphs, and friends crowded around him.

I subsequently went into the Senate Chamber, a much larger but less pleasant room than the old one, which I first visited in the last days of the second Adams. If the present room is larger, the Senators seemed smaller. My first impressions were doubtless more reverential than those of later times.

The deportment of the Members in both houses was calm and in favorable contrast with what I have ever seen of the closing hours of any session, and I have witnessed many. There was nothing boisterous, and but little that was factious. It was nearly midnight when we left. On the morning of the 4th I was at the Capitol, from ten till twelve. All passed off harmoniously.

The recent dispatches of Consul Morse at London, and information from other sources, render it necessary measures should be taken to prevent the Rebels from getting a considerable naval force afloat.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 244-5