Francis Amasa Walker to William Schouler, Adjutant General of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, May 31, 1861

. . . I believe I should make a reasonably good lieutenant; at any rate, I should like to try it, south of Mason and Dixon's Line.

SOURCE: James Phinney Munroe, A Life of Francis Amasa Walker, p. 32

Samuel Gridley Howe to Horace Mann, June 8, 1850

Boston, June 8th, 1850.

My Dear Mann:— . . . We depart on Wednesday next. I would I could say with a light heart, but I cannot; my heart is heavy and foreboding: its strings will break with my children tugging from this side the Atlantic.

To you, dear Mann, I know not how to say farewell. I never see you, seldom hear from you, and yet feel as though I was losing a very near and dear companion when I put the ocean between us. But I'll not think about it.

So at last you are down upon the Brazen Faced Thunderer;¹ woe be to him! Much is expected from you, by friends and foes. I overheard accidentally a pretty remark yesterday; one of the Thirty-one [schoolmasters], the leading spirit, was yesterday dining at Parker's near me; he did not see me, but I heard his remark in answer to some one who said, “Webster is down upon Mann, and there'll be a fight:” — “Well! I'll bet Daniel ’ll get worsted — that Horace Mann is a terrible fellow in a controversy.”

We are all so very anxious, we hold our breath; to-morrow morning I shall hear your MS. read, but no one else will, I presume, except William Schouler. I proposed to Sumner to have Downer, upon whose attachment to you I count as upon a natural law, and upon whose quickness of intellect I count as upon an axiom. But Sumner over-ruled.

I can hardly hope you will find time to write to me, but if you do I shall be glad.

Good-bye, God bless you,

Ever yours,

S. G. H.

_______________

¹ Daniel Webster.

SOURCE: Laura E. Richards, Editor, Letters and Journals of Samuel Gridley Howe, Volume 2, p. 311

William Schouler to James S. Pike, May 17, 1850

Boston, May 17, 1850.

My Dear Pike: I owe you two or three apologies for not having answered your last letter, but I have been so busy and had so many calls to receive and calls to make that my time has slipped by without counting it. I read all your letters in the Tribune, and they are number one, prime. They talk just as everybody talks here, and just as we want to have everybody talk in Washington.

Old Zach is at this moment the popular man in the country, and heaps of Freesoilers are going for him. They are (I mean the honest old Whig portion) delighted with him. If we act with wisdom we shall be like that man who takes

“the tide in his affairs

Which leads to fortune.”

If we were to follow the lead of the old Hunkerdom of Clay we should be led, as Byron says of the tide in the affairs of women, “God knows where.”

Why cannot you resume your correspondence with the Atlas? Dr. Brewer has left Washington, and we now have no one there. The Atlas will welcome you and give you verge and scope to your heart's content, and never once try to clip your plumage. You may call Locofocos Democrats, or vice versa. So, my dear fellow, spread yourself, and if there be any thing in my power to aid or assist you in accomplishing, draw upon me. Greely says so too; so do write — won't you? I shall not insist upon a too frequent correspondence; daily I should like, but tri, semi, or weekly will be gratifying. As the old fellow at the prayer-meeting, upon being asked if he would not make a short prayer, said, “He had no objection to making the prayer, but he'd be d if

he would be limited as to time.”

Every thing political is quiet just now. We hope to send you by the first week in June the Hon. Benjamin Thompson to take his seat in Congress from the Fourth District. Things look mighty nice there just now. I feel confident that Thompson will be chosen; and if he is chosen, you may rest assured that the popularity of old Zach will have done much towards it. Thompson is a very respectable man — “a human man;” not a great man, but a man of sense, and goes old Zach to the death.

I shall write you again next week. In the meantime I remain, yours very truly,

Wm. Schouler

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 70

William Schouler* to James S. Pike, April 25, 1850

House Of Representatives,

Boston, April 25, 1850.

My Dear Pike: You don't know how glad I was to receive your letter of the 20th inst. The spirit of the letter was in unison with my own feelings and with the feelings of all good Whigs in this quarter. The ways of Congress to some are “past finding out,” but they are now being discovered. I know that I do not overstate the fact when I tell you that our good old President is daily increasing in popular favor and regard, and Clay and Webster are decreasing in a like ratio.

We are determined here to stand by the administration, and no longer pay court to Hunkerdom anyhow. I have taken an unequivocal position, and I shall sink or swim with it. I find, however, that very little nerve is required to sustain this ground, for the people here are all of one accord. Even those who signed the letter to Mr. Webster, and were recalled by a certain speech to a “true sense of their constitutional duties,” do not find fault with me, with one or two exceptions, and they are the “born thralls of Cedric,” the Wambas and Gurths, for whom I care nothing, and who have little or no influence upon the popular mind because they are known, known even without the brass collar.

The Whig party in our State stand firm as a rock, and I have no doubt that we shall draw in a large part of the Freesoil party to the support of the administration. I don't know what we shall do in the Fourth District. The election takes place on the 29th of May. I think, however, that whoever the Whig Convention nominates will be elected. The Whig candidate, you know, has declined. He may be renominated again. His letter of declension was first-rate, and has added to his popularity, and may cause him to be put on the track again. It is possible that Hon. Samuel Hoar will receive the nomination; if so, he will certainly be elected, as the Freesoil men and Whigs can both elect him. I have known him for twenty years, and there is no better Whig living. He was opposed to General Taylor, but he has been satisfied with the old man, and he told me this forenoon that every thing which the administration had done since it came into power met with his hearty concurrence. He has had a seat alongside of me in the House for nearly four months, and I know of no better Whig anywhere. Still it is doubtful whether he will be nominated, or, if nominated, that he would accept to run against Palfrey. Nous verrons.

Your letters to the Courier are just the fodder, and I read them with great delight; they will do good.

I really hope that you will write me often. I like your letters hugely. Give my respects to the “honorable Truman,” and all other good and true Taylor men.

Yours truly,

Wm. Schoulbr.

_______________

* Editor of the Boston Atlas.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 42-3