Senator Salmon P. Chase to Edward L. Pierce, January 17, 1854

Washington, Jan’y 17, 1854.

My Dear Sir: I thank you for little note and for your kind appreciation of my wishes rather than my successes in serving you. I am glad you are in Cincinnati, for you are almost the only man in Ohio to whom I confidently look for a real appreciation and sympathy with my views and plans for the advancement of our great and noble cause. The notions of so many are contracted — their aspirations so low — their sympathies so phlegmatic — and what might else be in them noble and generous so turned awry, dwarfed and cramped by the incessant claims of mere business, or the debasing influences of party that I sometimes feel as if I hardly knew where to look for a genuine, whole man on whom I can confidently lean. May I not hope to find such a one in you?

And now with this preface I shall ask you, at once, for a little service. I want you to become acquainted with the conductors of the Times and the Columbian; ascertain their tendencies, and see whether they are not willing to render me some justice.

About everything I have done for Ohio and the West has been positively ignored. I, first, introduced a successful motion for Custom Houses including apartments for Post Office, Courts, etc. etc. The precedent which I established in the cases of Cincinnati & St. Louis has been followed at other points and now the West begins to receive some share of the Public Expenditures in these respects. I, first, introduced and carried through the Senate a proposition to cede to Ohio the Public Lands within her limits. It failed in the House, no Ohio member taking enough interest in it to secure for it even a fair hearing. Again I introduced the bill in a modified form last session. But the session being short and business crowded & the Committee reluctant, I did not get it through the Senate. I have again introduced the same measure this Session and shall I think get it through. I have a favorable report made yesterday. It now includes all the Lands in the Va. Mil. District, which, under an amendment which I had inserted in a Bill relating to Va. Mil. Scrip, were relieved from the trust in favor of Virginia. Again I introduced and carried through the propositions which have initiated the Pacific Railroad. I might go on; but I won't weary you. Who, in Ohio, knows what I have done? Never, it seems to me, has a man who was earnestly laboring to accomplish practical good, been more poorly sustained.

I confess it galls me to read such a paragraph as the following from the Chillicothe Advertiser of the 13th inst. [newspaper clipping] “We hope the Legislature of Ohio will elect a Democrat Senator who will give character and importance to the State in the United States Senate. It is undoubtedly useless to express such a hope, for we believe the men of that body to be men who will so act, without reference to personal feelings or outside appliances, as will, in their judgments, conduce, in the largest degree, to the honor of the State and the glory of the Democratic party.”

The implication that Ohio has not had a Democratic Senator, who gives character to the State, is in keeping with the course such persons have uniformly pursued towards me.

You know enough of my course and can inform yourself sufficiently in respect to it by examining the Columns of the Globe to form a correct opinion of such an estimate. I desire no comparisons with my predecessors; but I shrink from none.

Now if you can write a few articles and have place further in the Times and Columbian, they will be copied into friendly papers, and do something at least towards changing this current.

If you see Miss Chalfant, I pray you to assure her of my warm regard and kindest remembrances. Has her sister, Mrs. Marshall, returned from California? I hear so; but can hardly believe it.

Yours cordially,

[SALMON P. CHASE.]

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 252-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, December 19, 1863

There was a reception to-day from one to three at the President's. Went over for an hour. Several of the Cabinet, most of the foreign ministers, judges of the Supreme Court, and a gay assemblage of ladies, with some of the Russian officers, were present.

Told Grimes he must remain on the Naval Committee; that the country required it; that we could not dispense with his services. He says he cannot serve under a chairman whom he knows to be corrupt, indolent, faithless, worthless. He spoke of Hale in most disparaging terms as an unfit associate of honorable men, selfish and wicked, wholly regardless of the Navy or country. There is not, he says, a man in the Senate that does not know him to be an improper person to be on the committee, yet they had not the courage to do their duty and leave him off, — in other words cannot resist his appeals to be kept in the position in order to aid him in a reëlection.

Sent a letter to Wilkes this afternoon inquiring if he procured, assented to, or knew of, the publication of his letter of the 11th inst. He coolly returns a negative, which does not surprise me, though palpably untrue. I am prepared to receive any affirmation of a falsehood or denial of a truth from him, provided his personal interest can be thereby subserved. His letter of the 11th is equivocal and in some respects untrue.

Had a call from Senator Trumbull, who feels that the Senate ought not to continue Hale in the chairmanship of the Naval Committee, but says the Department will not suffer in consequence, for Hale is well understood, and I must have seen that the Senators as against him always sustain the Department. Fessenden also called with similar remarks and views. I avoided the expression of any opinion, or wish, as to the construction of the committee. If the question were open and I was consulted, I should not hesitate to give my views, but I do not care to be intrusive, to interfere with or complain of what the Senate does, or has done, in these matters. Senator Fessenden wants a portion of the prizes should be sent to Portland. Told him of difficulties. Portsmouth, Providence, New Haven, New Jersey have made similar applications. Whatever pecuniary benefit there might be to a few individuals in each locality, the true interest of the country could not be promoted by such an arrangement. Attorneys, marshals, and their set would have additional business, but to get it, a host of additional officers must be employed and paid at each place.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 490-1

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Senator Charles Sumner, April 28, 1851

Columbus, April 28, 1851.

My Dear Sumner, Laus Deo! From the bottom of my heart I congratulate you — no, not you but all friends of freedom everywhere upon your election to the Senate. Now, I feel as if I had a brother — colleague — one with whom I shall sympathize and be able fully to act. Hale, glorious and noble fellow as he is, is yet too much an offhand man himself to be patient of consultation — while Seward, though meaning to maintain his own position as an Antislavery man, means to maintain it in the Whig Party and only in the Whig Party. Wade, who has been elected to be my colleague, is not known to me personally. I am told he denounced [?] Fillmore, Webster & the Compromise before election. Since, he has written a letter proclaiming himself a Whig & only a Whig, claiming only toleration of differences of opinion in the Whig Party on the slavery questions. I think he will generally go with Seward. He is one of the original abolitionists and I do not believe he will be derelict to the Antislavery faith. None of these are to me as you are. I feel that you have larger broader views, and that you are willing to labor more systematically for the accomplishment of greater purposes.

In this state a large body of the democracy is prepared to throw off the slaveholders yoke. I anticipate a movement before long, and I hope the best effects from it. If we can only have a Free Democracy — Independent Democracy — in deed as well as in name the day of our country's redemption and the slave's deliverence will not be far off. But it must be made of sterner stuff than that portion of the New York Democracy which united with us at Buffalo and afterwards consented to the union with the Hunkers on the Baltimore Platform!

I hope we shall be inmates of the same house next winter. Last winter I had lodgings on the Northeast corner of C & 4½ streets & took my meals at a boarding house. I found this a good arrangement. If the house is still open you can get as good rooms in it as anywhere in Washington. In order to obtain a seat at all eligible in the Chamber it will be well to ascertain at once what seats are vacant, and get the best of them. This can be done best, perhaps, by a letter from Hale or Davis, as either may be most convenient to you, to the Secretary of the Senate. Write me soon.

Most sincerely yours

[Salomon P. Chase.]

P. S. Do you know that you are in my debt for a letter or two?

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 235-6

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Edward S. Hamlin, February 1851

Washington City, Feb. 1851.

My Dear Sir, I am in debt to you, but not absolutely insolvent. I have taken to be sure rather an unreasonable stay of execution, but I always meant to pay up at last. But you will have even now to take payment in depreciated currency and that you will say is half way to repudiation. I can only give you a very hurried and unsatisfactory letter for your good one.

The papers will shew you that agitation has not been entirely excluded from the Senate. Clay has himself been the arch agitator. For myself I thought it a good occasion to appear in the character of a friend to the progress of business, and the postponement of slavery discussions, which would interfere with it at this session. I was really anxious for the progress of business — for the fate of cheap postage and the harbor & river bill depended upon it. And besides I decided to show the country the hypocrisy of those pretences which always put the "other public interests" in competition with "freedom" but never in competition with slavery. You will see my speech and I hope approve of it. It had one capital effect. It brought out Rhett in an able speech vindicating the same views of the fugitive servant clause of the Constitution which I adopt. These southern ultras are altogether more honest than the southern doughfaces. They believe slavery to be right most of them and the rest believe it to be a necessity. They all agree in believing that in the present state of the races in the slave states slavery is best for both and indeed indispensable to the safety of both. They believing and holding also that the Constitution recognizes their right of property in slaves, their conclusions are natural enough. They avow them boldly and act upon them. The Compromisers on the other hand, generally, regard slavery as a temporary institution; but use it as a means of gaining and retaining political power.

It seems to me that the only course for us who believe in equal rights without limitations or exceptions, is to act together. We shall be ruined if we undertake to act with the Whigs. We cannot merge in the Old Line Democracy, so long as it cleaves to its alliance with the slave power, without being submerged. It seems to me that our true course, in the event, that the young men's Democratic Convention in May fail, as I fear they will fail, to take ground on the slavery questions which we can approve, is to call a Convention of Radical Democrats or Jeffersonian Democrats to meet in June or thereabouts and organize throughout the State. This course will bring Hunkerism to its senses.

All on the subject of the Presidency is much as it was when I last wrote you. Douglas is figuring, but he can't come it.

Write me at Cincinnati immediately on receiving this. I expect to be there on Friday night or Saturday morning of next week: and I hope to be able to spend a day or two in Columbus before the Legislature adjourns. I desire much to see our friends there.

Miller of the Toledo Republican writes me that he is about to sell out. I am sorry; but if he and Riley can be secured for the Columbus paper the cause may not lose by it. Under existing circumstances it is very important to have a paper of the right kind at the Capital.

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 232-4

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, December 14, 1850

Washington, Dec. 14, 1850.

My Dear Sumner: I should rejoice in the election of Giddings to the Senate but no man can tell who will be elected. Mr. G's friends in the Senate of Ohio acted badly in voting for and electing a National Fillmore Whig as Speaker in preference to and over a radical Free Soil Democrat. This has, of course, exasperated the Old Line.

I am delighted with your assurance that a Freesoiler will be elected from Massachusetts. But you have no right to take yourself out of the list from which a selection shall be made. Let there be a free choice and the result acquiesced in cheerfully. You cannot withdraw to more quiet pursuits whether elected to the Senate or not. Freedom has need of all and more than all her able champions. The struggle is but just begun. When you have elected a Senator he will need support and the cause will need that he should be supported.

I can't tell what will be done this session. If somebody better qualified does not anticipate me I mean to discuss the fugitive slave bill in full. I mean, also, as occasion shall offer, to express my views on other topics. I wish besides, to show that I can do something for Ohio and Western Interests.

I don't know what Seward will do. I have never been able to establish much sympathy between us. He is too much of a politician for me. It is said that he is disinclined to agitation and disposed to be gracious to his Fillmore co-partizans.

I believe nothing will be matured this winter as to Presidential candidates. The canvass seems somewhat active; but it is hard to find out what men are and who they are with. Parties are not cohesive enough for the practical purposes of Presidential patriots.

Yours cordially,

[SALMON P. CHASE.]

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 224

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, September 8, 1850

Washington, Sept. 8, 1850.

My Dear Sumner: Clouds and darkness are upon us at present. The slaveholders have succeeded beyond their wildest hopes twelve months ago. True some have demanded even more than they have obtained; but their extreme demand was necessary to secure the immense concession which has been made to them. Without it Executive Influence and Bribery would, perhaps availed nothing.

Well what now! I say with blind Milton, glorious child of Freedom, though blind,

“‘Bate no jot

Of heart or hope but still bear up and steer

Right onward.”

Rouse up in Massachusetts and quit you like men. God's providence has devolved political duties and responsibilities upon you, my friend, from which you must not shrink. Would that it might be so ordered that you could be placed in the Senate! It is your place and you ought to be in it. If the democrats would place you there, they might have the Governor and welcome — doubly welcome.

You talk of the humiliation of a small vote. The humiliation was not for you, but for those who preferred barbarism to Freedom. I had like experience once, being a candidate, under like circumstances in Cincinnati; with the difference that I was as far behind both candidates of the Hunkers as you were behind the foe — and farther — but I did not feel humbled at all.

I see Mr. Sewall is nominated in the Salem District. I am sorry that Pierpont declined. I hardly know a man whom I would go farther to support, and I should think him just the man to call out the enthusiasm of the people. I hope Sewall will be sustained by the strongest possible vote. “No more doubtful men”, should be added to our war-cry of “No more Slave States and no Slave Territory”.

Let me know how things go on in Massachusetts.

Yours ever,

[SALMON P. CHASE.]

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 219-20

Robert C. Grier to Edwin M. Stanton, January 13, 1862

Dear Stanton

As soon as I passed the door of the Senate Chamber I was informed of your nomination. It was a secret no longer. Senators had freely communicated the fact. I afterwards met Nelson, Clifford, and Catron at Catron's room. They were talking of your nomination. All agreed you should accept; that it would restore confidence in the nation; your antecedents being known to the President, he should ask no pledge, you should give none, and require none — at present — the great Democratic party of the North and conservative Whigs (now a large majority) would support, strengthen, and hold you up; that you are young strong, & can bear labor, can do great good, and in this crisis your country demands every sacrifice of individual comfort. You can gain great glory if there be success to our arms, and can only sink in the common ruin in case of defeat. I concur with them.

Yours truly,

R. C. Grier

Monday evening,

Jan. 13, 1862

SOURCE: Stanton, Edwin Mcmasters. Edwin McMasters Stanton Papers: Correspondence, 1831 to 1870; 1831, July 19-1862, Jan. 13. 1831. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mss41202001/, images 303 & 304, (Accessed September 20, 2017.)

Brigadier-General Charles P. Stone to Senator Charles Sumner, December 23, 1861

POOLESVILLE, MD., December 23, 1861.

Hon. CHARLES SUMNER, U. S. SENATE — Sir: — If the National Intelligencer newspaper of the —th inst. quotes you correctly, you have uttered, on the floor of the Senate, a falsehood and a slander.

Permit me to thank you for the speech in which you use my name. There can be no higher proof, in my opinion, that a soldier in the field is faithfully performing his duty, than the fact that while he is receiving the shot of the public enemy in front, he is receiving the vituperation of a well-known coward from a safe distance in the rear.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHARLES P. STONE.

SOURCE: The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces, Volume 5: 1867-’68, October 19, 1867, p. 142, 

The Crittenden Compromise, December 18, 1860

[in United States Senate, December 18, I860.]

A joint resolution (§ 50) proposing certain amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

Whereas, Serious and alarming dissensions have arisen between the Northern and Southern States concerning the rights and security of the rights of the slaveholding states, and especially the rights in the common territory of the United States; and

Whereas, It is eminently desirable and proper that these dissensions, which now threaten the very existence of this Union, should be permanently quieted and settled by constitutional provisions which shall do equal justice to all sections, and thereby restore to the people that peace and good-will which ought to prevail between all citizens of the United States; therefore,

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two thirds of both houses concurring), That the following articles he and are hereby proposed and submitted as Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of said Constitution, when ratified by conventions of three fourths of the several states:

Article 1. In all the territory of the United States now held, or hereafter acquired, situate north of latitude 36° 30', slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, is prohibited while such territory shall remain under territorial government. In all the territory south of said line of latitude slavery of the African race is hereby recognized as existing and shall not be interfered with by Congress, but shall be protected as property by all the departments of the territorial government during its continuance. And when any territory north or south of said line, within such boundaries as Congress may prescribe, shall contain the population requisite for a member of Congress according to the then federal ratio of representation of the people of the United States, it shall, if its form of government be republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, with or without slavery, as the constitution of such new state may provide.

Article 2. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery in places under its exclusive jurisdiction, and situate within the limits of states that permit the holding of slaves.

Article 3. Congress shall have no power to abolish slavery within the District of Columbia so long as it exists in the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland, or either, nor without the consent of the inhabitants, nor without just compensation first made to such owners of slaves as do not consent to such abolishment. Nor shall Congress at any time prohibit officers of the Federal Government, or members of Congress, whose duties require them to be in said district, from bringing with them their slaves, and holding them as such during the time their duties may require them to remain there, and afterwards taking them from the district.

ARTICLE 4. Congress shall have no power to prohibit or hinder the transportation of slaves from one state to another, or to a territory in which slaves are by law permitted to he held, whether that transportation be by land, navigable rivers, or by the sea.

Article 5. That in addition to the provisions of the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States, Congress shall have power to provide by law, and it shall he its duty so to provide, that the United States shall pay to the owner who shall apply for it the full value of his fugitive slave in all cases when the marshal or other officer whose duty it was to arrest said fugitive was prevented from so doing by violence or intimidation, or when, after arrest, said fugitive was rescued by force, and the owner thereby prevented and obstructed in the pursuit of his remedy for the recovery of his fugitive slave under the said clause of the Constitution, and the laws made in pursuance thereof. And in all such cases, when the United States shall pay for such fugitive, they shall have the right, in their own name, to sue the county in which said violence, intimidation, or rescue was committed, and to recover from it, with interest and damages, the amount paid by them for said fugitive slave. And the said county, after it has paid said amount to the United States, may, for its indemnity, sue and recover from the wrong-doers or rescuers by whom the owner was prevented from the recovery of his fugitive slave, in like manner ns the owner himself might have sued and recovered.

Article 6. No future amendment of the Constitution shall affect the five preceding articles; nor the third paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of said Constitution; and no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which shall authorize or give to Congress any power to abolish or interfere with slavery in any of the states by whose laws it is, or may be, allowed or permitted.

And Whereas, also, besides those causes of dissension embraced in the foregoing amendments proposed to the Constitution of the United States, there are others which come within the jurisdiction of Congress, and may be remedied by its legislative power; and

Whereas, It is the desire of Congress, as far as its power will extend, to remove all just cause for the popular discontent and agitation which now disturb the peace of the country and threaten the stability of its institutions; therefore,

1. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the laws now in force for the recovery of fugitive slaves are in strict pursuance of the plain and mandatory provisions of the Constitution, and have been sanctioned as valid and constitutional by the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States; that the slave-holding states are entitled to the faithful observance and execution of those laws, and that they ought not to be repealed or so modified or changed as to impair their efficiency; and that laws ought to be made for the punishment of those who attempt, by rescue of the slave or other illegal means, to hinder or defeat the due execution of said laws.

2. That all state laws which conflict with the fugitive-slave acts of Congress, or any other constitutional acts of Congress, or which, in their operation, impede, hinder, or delay the free course and due execution of any of said acts, are null and void by the plain provisions of the Constitution of the United States; yet those state laws, void as they are, have given color to practices, and led to consequences, which have obstructed the duo administration and execution of acts of Congress, and especially the acts for the delivery of fugitive slaves, and have thereby contributed much to the discord and commotion now prevailing. Congress, therefore, in the present perilous juncture, does not deem it improper respectfully and earnestly to recommend the repeal of those laws to the several states which have enacted them, or such legislative corrections or explanations of them as may prevent their being used or perverted to such mischievous purposes.

3. That the act of September 18, 1850, commonly called the Fugitive-slave Law, ought to be so amended as to make the fee of the commissioner, mentioned in the eighth section of the act, equal in amount in the cases decided by him, whether his decision be in favor of or against the claimant. And to avoid misconstruction, the last clause of the fifth section of said act, which authorizes the person holding a warrant for the arrest or detention of a fugitive slave to summon to his aid the posse comitatus, and which declares it to be the duty of all good citizens to assist him in its execution, ought to be so amended as to expressly limit the authority and duty to cases in which there shall be resistance, or danger of resistance, or rescue.

4. That the laws for the suppression of the African slave-trade, and especially those prohibiting the importation of slaves in the United States, ought to be made effectual, and ought to be thoroughly executed; and all further enactments necessary to those ends ought to be promptly made.

SOURCES: George Ticknor Curtis, Constitutional History of the United States from Their Declaration of Independence to the Close of Their Civil War, Volume 2 , p. 525-8 which sites as its source Congressional Globe, Part I., Second Session, Thirty-sixth Congress, p. 114, Dec. 18, 1860.

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, May 25, 1850

Washington May 25, 1850.

My Dear Sumner: Mrs. Chase and her sister, with two of my children are at Northampton. Her purpose in going their was to place herself under the care of Dr. Munde, but his establishment not being completed, she has taken quarters for the present at Round Hill in charge of Dr. Hill.

The Senate will adjourn next Monday for the purpose of giving an opportunity to clean up and put down the matting and will continue to adjourn from time to time till the second Monday thereafter.

Now from these premises what follows? Why, clearly, this; that Senator Chase will be in Massachusetts at Northampton on Saturday of next week if alive and well, and will not be much inclined to quit Massachusetts until the Saturday following.

Now, if Charles Sumner Esq. could but find it in his heart to meet the aforesaid Senator Chase at Northampton!

I thank you for your last kind note. I saw Rantoul here yesterday. He seemed to entertain no doubt of Palfrey's election.

Yours cordially,

[SALMON P. CHASE.]

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 211

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, April 4, 1850

Washington, Apl. 4, ’50.

My Dear Sumner: You will see my speech in the Intelligencer of to-day or the Union of tomorrow or the Era of next week. It does not touch some topics as fully as you would desire, but as a document for circulation, beneficial to our cause, I hope it may meet with your approval. It would do me good and our cause, I think, good if an edition in handsome Boston style could be got up in your city. Our Salem friends would help I suppose. Such an edition appearing here from Boston would have an effect on the Senate. About 20,000 pamphlet copies will be printed here, but you know we are taxed to death for speeches. Will not Punchard publish it in the Traveller?

Ever yours,

[SALMON P. CHASE.]

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 206

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, March 24, 1850

Washington, March 24, 1850.

My Dear Sumner: I thank you for your letter. It is not my purpose to go at all fully into the various questions presented by Mr. Clay's resolution now before the Senate. I limit myself to three propositions, mainly; 1. That the original policy of the Government was that of slavery restriction. 2. That under the Constitution Congress cannot establish or maintain slavery in territories. 3. That the original policy of the Government has been subverted and the Constitution violated for the extension of slavery, and the establishment of the political supremacy of the Slave Power. Having discussed these points I shall have no time to go into a full examination of the proposition in detail now before the Senate.

How I wish that someone occupied my place more able to satisfy the expectations of the Friends of Freedom, and the obligation of the Crisis! Never in my life did I so painfully feel my incompetency as now. May God help me.

I thank you for your suggestion, and promised documents. They have not yet come to hand.

Very faithfully yours,

[SALMON P. CHASE.]

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 205-6

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Edward S. Hamlin, February 18, 1850

Washington, Feb. 18, 1850.

My Dear Hamlin, Your last letter was very interesting to me. I regret that our friends in the Legislature do not purpose to act in concert with the Democrats in the Legislature in the elections. I regret it, because I do not see any thing in our present relations so different from those which existed last winter as to call for a different line of action. But to be sure it is now more necessary to preserve union among ourselves. Then, the Freesoilers elected as Whigs & Democrats respectively could not be expected to stand together as harmoniously as those elected last fall without concert with either of the old parties, all of whom now stand in the same position in which Morse & Townshend stood last winter, and I agree with you that action with either party is not so important as harmony among the Free Democrats.

Giddings is strongly of opinion that Hutchins should be nominated for Governor. In this I fully agree, provided that Wood is determined to remain mum, as all the information I get indicates that he will.

I should be glad to have Stanley Matthews elected Secretary of State; but if he cannot be nominated I hope Taylor may get it. Taylor has edited the Mirror with great discretion & perfect fidelity to the cause of Free Democracy. He has talent enough and sagacity enough to make a leading man; but his boiler will bear more steam than he puts on, except when something rouses him pretty thoroughly. I do hope that if Matthews cannot be made Secretary of State that his services may be secured as an Editor of the Standard. I will cheerfully do my part towards paying his salary, I wish we could have an equally competent man at the head of the Nonpareil. I would gladly, also, contribute liberally to pay his expenses. As to Matthews you may assess me according to your discretion: and why cannot you make up the amount needed in this way by just assigning to leading men in different parts of the State their respective quotas and telling them they must come forward with the dust?

Speaking of newspaper projects you may be interested in knowing that the Northern Democrats are talking seriously of establishing a Democratic Paper here in opposition to the Union. Bailey is also talking of issuing his Paper as a Daily. If he does not do so, I think the project of the Northern Democratic Daily & weekly will be pushed in earnest. I have offered to be one of fifty or if necessary one of twenty to make up $10,000 for the object. I believe the whole sum could be raised in a week. There is the strongest dissatisfaction felt in regard to the course of the Union.

Are you aware that Medary's correspondent “Oche” is also the correspondent of the Charleston Mercury? I am informed that such is the fact. I wonder that Medary continues his engagement with him, when he could have the services of men here who would contribute to spread a feeling conducive to the ascendancy of the Democratic Party in Ohio, rather than, by alienating the Antislavery wing contribute to its overthrow. Cant you talk to Medary on this subject, and advise me what he says and why he continues this man Wallace as his correspondent?

The signs here are favorable to freedom. The Doughfaces who voted against Root's resolution are getting thoroughly scared. Root had the floor today, & gave them, especially, Winthrop a terrible scathing. Mann, also, gave the slaveholders a talk on the frailties of dissolution, its modus operandi and certain consequences.

In the Senate it has become certain that California will be admitted with uncurtailed boundaries, which will give the deathblow to the Missouri Compromise Project; the Kentucky Senators, the Delaware Senators & Benton will vote for it and I know of no Northern Senator who will probably vote against it except Sturgeon. We would have passed Benton's proposition to instruct the Committee on Territories to report a bill for the admission of California unconnected with any other subject today, but for the wish expressed by Benton himself seconded by Webster that opportunity might be given to all for the expression of their views.

The Admission of California will be the forerunner, I think, of the defeat of the slaveholders this winter on all their important propositions. Little Clemens has the floor for next Tuesday when we shall have blood & thunder in quantity. The California question of course, for the present suspends all action on Clay's resolutions on which I meant & still mean, if an opportunity occurs to speak, and develop fully the views & principles of the Free Democracy.

Give my kindest regards to all our friends at Columbus. I shall send them in a few days the speeches of Berrien & Davis as I want them to be aware of the extreme Southern positions, the real positions in fact of the Slave Power.

I am glad to say that Mrs. Chase's health is improving Is Mrs. Hamlin with you this winter? I see some statements about your colleagues of the Board in the Senate debates. What is meant?

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 201-3

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

Salmon P. Chase to W. G. Kephart,* Winchester, Adams County, Ohio, May 8, 1849

June 19, [1849.]

My Dear Sir — On my return from Frankfort, Kentucky, day before yesterday, I found your note of the 7th inst. on my table. I shall not think it worth while to respond to the editorials of the Bee; but when a true & devoted friend to the sacred cause of Freedom asks my attention to any particular matter of accusation against me, I cannot hesitate about giving him all the satisfaction in my power. You write as if you feared some bad results to the cause of Free Democracy from the imputation of the Bee, implied rather than stated, that I changed or modified my opinions in regard to the Mexican war, for the sake of securing my election to the Senate. Neither this nor any other imputation alarms me. I have neither time nor inclination for replies to the attacks made on me by the partizans of Tay lorism. I prefer to let the acts of my life speak for me. If these witnesses are not believed, neither will any statement that I can make obtain credence. I do not therefore as a general rule take any notice of Newspaper aspersions. To you, however, a friend, I say distinctly that I neither retracted nor modified any old opinion, or adopted or expressed any new one, for the sake of securing my election. I abandon opinions when convinced that they are wrong and adopt opinions when satisfied that they are right, not otherwise. As to my opinions on the Mexican war I do not believe that a dozen members of the Legislature knew what they were. Certainly I was not interrogated at all in respect to them, nor can I recollect that I conversed with any member on that subject, until after my return from Washington, though it is by no means impossible that I may have done so. I have however expressed on various occasions my views on the subject in conversation both with friends and opponents, and these conversations may have been reported to members, though I have no knowledge of the fact. Of course there is not the slightest ground for the idea that I “stooped” to any insincerity or disguise for the sake of being Senator. I can say, I believe with truth, that the office has very little charm for me, except so far as it adds to my ability to promote the welfare of my country and advance the interests of the cause of Freedom.

I never took any active part in the controversy between the Whigs & Democrats in regard to the Mexican war. I was engaged in a different contest & on different questions. To me the question of slavery seemed paramount in importance to the question of the war: and I never thought it desirable to divide those who agreed in opposition to slavery, by raising disputes among them on the subject of the war. In fact this seemed to me the general policy of the Liberty men; and consequently we find no expression of opinion either in the Resolutions of the National Convention of 1847, or of any Convention in our own State on this matter. The Liberty men, generally, condemned the war, but some in one degree & some in another; and very few, to that degree, that they could not unite cordially with the Free Soil Democracy of New York, who generally sanctioned the war, in the support of the same national candidates; one of whom it is remarkable enough, sustained while the others opposed the Government in the prosecution of it. Holding the view which was thus acted on by the Liberty men generally I seldom referred to the war at all in any public addresses and, when I did, thought it best to abstain from any line of remark calculated to introduce division among ourselves. I had, however, my individual views on the subject, which I freely expressed, whenever the occasion seemed proper for it, in private talk. These views I have not held or expressed dogmatically, or with any absolute certainty that they were right exclusively, and that everybody who dissented from them was wrong. They were in substance the same as those expressed by Wilberforce in relation to the war of England against France in 1803 — a war in my judgment, the commencement of which was quite as indefensible as that of our war against Mexico “I strongly opposed this war” he remarked “differing from those with whom 1 commonly agreed, at a great cost of private feeling; but when once it had begun, I did not persist — in declaiming against its impolicy & mischiefs, because I knew that by so doing I should only injure my country.”

I was not in any position to make my views of any consequence; and in this respect my circumstances were very unlike those of Wilberforce, who was a prominent and influential member of Parliament. As a private citizen, however, though I did not approve the commencement of the war but on the contrary always regarded the pretension of Texas to the boundary of the Rio Grande as groundless, and the order of the President, that the troops should advance to that river as therefore unwarranted, I did not on the other hand, after the war was actually begun & had received the sanction of the Congress, think it my duty to oppose its vigorous prosecution, on the contrary it seemed to me, reasoning on actual facts & not on facts as I could have wished them to be, that this course was the only practicable road to a sure & permanent peace. In this I may have been wrong, and when convinced that I was, I shall fully admit it. I rejoice certainly that I was in no public position, which would constrain me, holding these views and unconvinced by argument against them to differ in action from those who felt themselves constrained by honest convictions of imperative duty uninfluenced by the spirit of opposition to the existing administration, to oppose all measures for the prosecution as well as the commencement of the war. Nor do I expect that any future circumstances will arise, the war being now terminated, in which I shall be compelled to differ from them. I might go farther in this subject, but I have said enough to shew you my exact position. In one thing we shall probably all agree that the result of the war has signally disappointed the anticipation of those who supported it as some doubtless did with a view to the extension of slavery. The acquisition of New Mexico & California, free from slavery, by their own laws, and the bold demand of the slaveholders that they shall be surrendered to its blight, has aroused a spirit of inquiry upon the whole subject of that terrible curse and the relations of the National Government to it, which can hardly fail to precipitate the downfall of the slave power & hasten the era of emancipation. Let me assure you, my dear sir, that I shall always receive the “reproofs of instruction” with respectful consideration. I am far from believing that I have attained correct views of every subject. I dare not say that I am exempt from even more than the ordinary bias of human nature in forming my judgments. But I can say that I desire to be right & pray that I may be kept from all error, & especially all error harmful to our beloved country or to the cause of Human Freedom & progress — Join me in these prayers & when you believe me wrong tell me so. If after all, in any particular, my course shall not meet your approbation, before you go beyond a simple condemnation of that particular action or line of action and think of withdrawing your confidence from me or inducing others to do so, consider whether you are warranted in so doing by the whole tenor of my life and the general character & scope of all my conduct. Having thus considered act as your sense of duty prompts you. I ask no more.

P. S. I shall be pleased to hear from you in answer to this.

_______________

* From letter-book 6, p. 91 (continued on 107).

SOURCE: Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 174-7

Diary of Gideon Welles: Monday, July 27, 1863

Had a strange letter from Senator John P. Hale, protesting against the appointment of Commodore Van Brunt to the command of the Portsmouth Navy Yard, because he and V. B. are not on friendly terms. He wishes me to become a party to a personal controversy and to do injustice to an officer for the reason that he and that officer are not in cordial relations. The pretensions and arrogance of Senators become amazing, and this man, or Senator, would carry his private personal disagreement into public official actions. Such are his ideas of propriety and Senatorial privilege and power that he would not only prostitute public duty to gratify his private resentment, but he would have the Department debased into an instrument to minister to his enmities.

I have never thought of appointing Van Brunt to that yard, but had I intended it, this protest could in no wise prevent or influence me. With more propriety, I could request the Senate not to make Hale Chairman of the Naval Committee, for in the entire period of my administration of the Navy Department, I have never received aid, encouragement, or assistance of any kind whatever from the Chairman of the Naval Committee of the Senate, but constant, pointed opposition, embarrassment, and petty annoyance, of which this hostility to Van Brunt is a specimen. But I have not, and shall not, ask the Senate to remove this nuisance out of their way and out of my way. They have witnessed his conduct and know his worthlessness in a business point of view; they know what is due to the country and to themselves, as well as to the Navy Department.

The Mexican Republic has been extinguished and an empire has risen on its ruins. But for this wicked rebellion in our country this calamity would not have occurred. Torn by factions, down-trodden by a scheming and designing priesthood, ignorant and vicious, the Mexicans are incapable of good government, and unable to enjoy rational freedom. But I don't expect an improvement of their condition under the sway of a ruler imposed upon them by Louis Napoleon.

The last arrivals bring us some inklings of the reception of the news that has begun to get across the Atlantic of our military operations. John Bull is unwilling to relinquish the hope of our national dismemberment. There is, on the part of the aristocracy of Great Britain, malignant and disgraceful hatred of our government and people. In every way that they could, and dare, they have sneakingly aided the Rebels. The tone of their journals shows a reluctance to believe that we have overcome the Rebels, or that we are secure in preserving the Union. The Battle of Gettysburg they will not admit to have been disastrous to Lee, and they represent it as of little importance compared with Vicksburg and Port Hudson, which they do not believe can be taken. Palmerston and Louis Napoleon are as much our enemies as Jeff Davis.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 384-5

Diary of John Hay: June 24, 1864

To-day a Resolution came from the Senate asking information about War and Treasury Orders concerning exportation of arms to Mexico. I did not like to act without consulting Seward, so took the papers to him, asking if it would be well to send copies to Secretaries of War and Treasury or not. He said, — “Yes! send the Resolution to the Secretary of War; a copy to the Secretary of the Treasury; asking reports from them, and then when the reports are in, ———

“Did you ever hear Webster's recipe for cooking a cod? He was a great fisherman and fond of cod. Some one once asking him the best way to prepare a cod for the table, he said: — ‘Denude your cod of his scales — cut him open carefully — put him in a pot of cold water — heat it until your fork can pass easily through the fish — take him out — spread good fresh butter over him liberally, — sprinkle salt on the butter — pepper on the salt — and — send for George Ashman and me.’”

“When the Reports are in, let me see them!”

He got up, stumped around the room enjoying his joke, then said: — “Our friends are very anxious to get into a war with France, using this Mexican business for that purpose. They don't consider that England and France would surely be together in that event. France has the whip hand of England completely. England got out of the Mexican business into which she had been deceived by France, by virtue of our having nothing to do with it. They have since been kept apart by good management; and our people are laboring to unite them again by making war on France. Worse than that, instead of doing something effective, if we must fight, they are for making mouths and shaking fists at France, warning and threatening and inducing her to prepare for our attack when it comes.”

Carpenter, the artist, who is painting the picture of the “Reading the Proclamation,” says that Seward protested earnestly against that act being taken as the central and crowning act of the administration. He says slavery was destroyed years ago; the formation of the Republican party destroyed slavery; the anti-slavery acts of this administration are merely incidental. Their great work is the preservation of the Union, and, in that, the saving of popular government for the world. The scene which should have been taken was the Cabinet Meeting in the Navy Department when it was resolved to relieve Fort Sumter. That was the significant act of the Administration: — the act which determined the fact that Republican institutions were worth fighting for. . . . .

SOURCES: Abstracted from Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 210-12. See Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete War Diary of John Hay, p. 211-2 for the full diary entry.

Diary of John Hay: Monday, December 23, 1863

I took to the Senate to-day the nomination of Schofield as Major General. The President had previously spoken to some of the Senators about it. He is anxious that Schofield should be confirmed so as to arrange this Missouri matter promptly. I told Sherman, Wilson, Harris and Doolittle. Senator Foote also agreed to do all he could to put the matter properly through. But on the nomination being read in Executive Session, Howard of Michigan objected to its consideration and it was postponed. Sherman and Doolittle tell me it will certainly go through when it is regularly taken up.

Lane came up to the President about it, and told him this. Lane is very anxious to have the Kansas part of the plan at once carried out.

Morgan says that Gratz Brown gave to Sumner to present to the Senate the radical protest against Schoflied’s confirmation, and that Sumner presented it to-day. The President sent for Sumner, but he was not at his lodgings.

The President is very much disappointed at Brown. After three interviews with him he understood that Brown would not oppose the confirmation. It is rather a mean dodge to get Sumner to do it in his stead

The President to-night had a dream: — He was in a party of plain people, and, as it became known who he was, they began to comment on his appearance. One of them said: — “He is a very common-looking man.” The President replied: — “The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them.”

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 141-3; Michael Burlingame, Editor, Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 139-43.

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: February 25, 1863

On the 18th inst. the enemy's battery on the opposite side of the Mississippi River opened on Vicksburg. The damage was not great; but the front of the town is considered untenable.

The Conscription bill has passed the United States Senate, which will empower the President to call for 3,000,000 men. “Will they come, when he does call for them?” That is to be seen. It may be aimed at France; and a war with the Emperor might rouse the Northern people again. Some of them, however, have had enough of war.

To-day I heard of my paper addressed to the President on the subject of an appeal to the people to send food to the army. He referred it to the Commissary-General, Col. Northrop, who sent it to the War Department, with an indorsement that as he had no acquaintance with that means of maintaining an army (the patriotic contributions of the people), he could not recommend the adoption of the plan. Red tape is mightier than patriotism still. There may be a change, however, for Gen. Lee approves the plan.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 264