This gentleman has
returned from Charleston in a very bad odor. The Boston Herald, a democratic
organ, asks, “who had the baseness to vote for C. Cushing as a nominee for the
Presidency?” who, it proceeds further in no mild style, to characterize as “a
puling suckling of democracy,” and “a man appraised from the slough of
political chicanery.” This is a painful domestic broil.
SOURCE: “Mr. Caleb Cushing,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 1.
[WHEELING, VA.?], May 24th, 1856.
* A Democratic Representative in Congress from Virginia, 1851-1852.
1 A Representative in Congress from Kentucky, 1835-1837 and 1839-1855; twice elected Speaker of the House, 1851-1855.
2Thomas Jefferson Rusk, a Senator in Congress from Texas, 1845-1857.
SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 195
WASHINGTON, [D. C.], June 9th, 1856.
DEAR HUNTER: I presume you have heard ere this of the action of the Cincinnati Convention and its utter abandonment of most of the great cardinal principles of the Democratic party.
I have never before despaired of the Republic but I confess that since ascertaining the nominee and reading the platform and addendum, I have but little hope for the future. The constitutional party have been basely sold for the contemptible consideration of office, and what is most humiliating our hitherto honored state seems to have taken the lead in the treacherous proceeding. It is true some of our friends resisted. But in my judgment they should never have yielded but rather have withdrawn with a protest. From all I can learn, there was a perfect understanding between the friends of Mr. Buchanan and the Internal Improvement men and Fillibusters that if elected he should favor all their wild and unconstitutional measures. That Virginia should have contributed to such a result is too bad to think about.
I returned on Saturday but deferred writing till today that I might inform you whether the Senate would do any business of importance this week and I learn that nothing will be done for a fortnight except making speeches for home consumption.
Judge Butler has the floor for Thursday next, in reply to Sumners abusive tirade. The Judge is still alone Messrs. Mason and Goode being still absent.
But few of the members of the convention have returned. I have seen but one, Houston of Alabama. He is quite as much dissatisfied with their proceedings as I am.
SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 196
RICHMOND, [VA.], June 11th, 1856.
* A Representative in Congress from Virginia, 1859-1861; editor of the Richmond South, 1857-1859.
SOURCE: Charles Henry Ambler, Editor, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1916, in Two Volumes, Vol. II, Correspondence of Robert M. T. Hunter (1826-1876), p. 196
The Philadelphia
Press, with other Douglas papers, objects to any movement for calling back the
seceders [sic] from the Charleston
Convention, on the occasion of the adjourned meeting at Baltimore. The Press
says the seceders will not dishonor themselves by returning while their alleged
cause of secession remains; the majority who refuse to adopt the slave-code
policy will not dishonor themselves by changing their votes for such a purpose;
and finally as the seceders withdrew, as their withdrawal was accepted and the
convention requested their states to elect new delegates, the convention will
not allow them to come back to disturb its proceedings.
SOURCE: “Not To Be Called Back,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 3.
A Washington
correspondent gives the following extract of some remarks made by the Hon.
Benjamin F. Wade, of Ohio, at a gathering of some southern gentlemen in
Washington, recently: You ask me what the north will do in case the south
should attempt to dissolve the Union on the election of a republican president.
Gentlemen, I have no fears that the South will attempt anything of the kind. In
such an event, however, I will frankly tell you what I would do if I had the
disunionists to deal with. With Cassius M. Clay to act with me, I would take up
my line of march and make my appearance among the disunionists with an armed
force that would make no child’s play of the matter, and I would not return to
the seat of government until I had strung up every disunionist in the land,
wherever he might be found—either north or south—and quarters would be shown to
no individual nor state until they had repented in sackcloth and ashes. That is
what I would do with the disunionist, so help me God!
Mr. Wade also
expressed his views on home protection as follows:—I heartily concur with the gentleman
from Pennsylvania in saying that we should have a protective measure of some
kind. The more I think of the matter, the more am I convinced that we must
inaugurate some protective system, in order to save us from bankruptcy and
ruin. That there should be a change of some kind in this respect, none ought to
dispute. The most prosperous days of this republic were, when we were living
under a protective system. Not only does the Iron interest of Pennsylvania and
New Jersey require protection, but also are the manufacturing interests of
every kind, throughout the county crying aloud for a national shield to our
home industry which ought to be headed.
There is a great
army of earnest men in Chicago to-day, brought together from all parts of the
country by a common impulse and for a common purpose. Every free state in the
Union, and several of the slave states are largely represented and by men who
belong to the very best, because the most intelligent and liberal, class of
citizens in their respective states.
If any one has
settled into the belief that the nominee of the Chicago convention cannot be
elected, we think the presence of this earnest multitude, representing the
hosts of freemen, and reflecting all sections, ought to dispel the illusion.
Never before has a
national convention been attended by more of the representative men of the people,
and never has such a firm, determined purpose been exhibited to wrest the
government from hands that have proved unworthy of the trust of a great people.—Chicago Journal, 15th.
SOURCE: “The Delegates,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 5.
The eyes of the
whole nation are turned upon Chicago to-day, and every truly patriotic heart
beats in sympathy with the grand movement there to be inaugurated. For eight
long, disastrous years has the country been misgoverned, its true interests
sacrificed to the selfish schemes and peculations of the most corrupt and
diabolical cabal that ever grasped the reins of an enlightened government.
Every day, almost every hour, brings to light some ignoble act, more infamous
that the last, till it seems the lowest possible depth has been reached. Is it
strange that the people should begin to enquire earnestly when and where these
things are to end? Nay, is it not passing strange that they have so long and so
patiently borne with this crushing weight of corruption? But it has been
endured, and today have come together, from all parts of the country, from almost
every state in the Union, good and patriotic men, who see and appreciate the
perilous condition in which the country is placed, to deliberate up[on] the
best means to extricate it from this condition, to devise measures to stop the
downward progress of the government, to stimulate the people to unite in
hauling from power the men who have disgraced their positions and made the name
of a republican government a reproach and a by word to all nations, and to join
in placing men in their stead who will rule in accordance with the principles
of freedom, justice and honesty. It is no wonder that this great movement
should constitute the all-absorbing theme of conversation and enquiry. It is no
wonder that the people have become thoroughly aroused; that they are looking
with fixed earnestness at the means that are to disembarrass the government and
disenthrall the nation; that are to displace the unfaithful servants who are
wasting the substance of the public treasury for selfish gains and party
favoritism, and to secure a return to the first principles of our republican
government.
May the
deliberations of the Chicago convention, commenced to-day, be characterized by
that intelligence, harmony, moderation and foresight which we have a right to
expect from men chosen for such a purpose, to promote such a good cause. May
nothing occur to check the good feeling and enthusiasm with which the delegates
and attendants upon the convention have come together, and may no result
transpire to dampen the ardor with which the people are prepared to enter the
canvass.
SOURCE: “The Delegates,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16, 1860, p. 2, col. 1.
AUGUSTA, GA., May
13.—At a Democratic meeting at Atlanta on Saturday, the postmaster defended the
Charleston Secessionists and denounced Douglas as a traitor to the Democracy
and the South.
B. C. Yancy made a
lengthy and similar speech.
The National
Baltimore Democracy was defended by Col. Gaskell. The meeting adjourned for a
week.
SOURCE: “The Georgia
Democracy,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May
15, 1860, p. 4, col. 7
MOBILE, Ala., May
14.—Thirty-five leading and prominent gentlemen of Mobile sign a call for a
state Convention, to meet at Selina on the 4th of June to select delegates to
Baltimore. It is signed by Gov. Winston, Mr. Forsyth, Dr. Nott, Mr. LeBaron,
Judge Makinstry, and others.
SOURCE: “Politics in
Alabama,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May
15, 1860, p. 4, col. 7
The greatest musical
treat of the season comes off this evening at Metropolitan Hall. The “Musical
Union,” which recently gave the “Haymakers” with so much success in this city,
is again out with a rich programme, embracing some of the choicest gems of
song. Among the prominent performers on this occasion, we notice the names of
Mrs. THOMAS, one of our best Sopranos; Mrs. Mattison, the finest Contralto in
the Northwest; De Passio, whose Baritone is not excelled, and well-known and popular Basso, J. G. Lumbard, and H.
Johnson, which, together with the choral strength of the Society, and the
orchestra of the Light Guard Band, the whole under the direction of J. G. Gird,
conductor, make up an entertainment rarely equaled in musical efforts.
SOURCE: “Musical Union
Concert,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May
15, 1860, p. 4, col. 2
First and foremost,
a Republican tenant for the White House from March 4th, 1861, will be nominated
in a few days.
Incident to the
gathering the above has brought hither of delegates, diverse evening
entertainments are on the programme of the week.
This, Tuesday evening, the Chicago Musical Union offer a first class musical attraction more definitely referred to
elsewhere. Tonight, also, the Hooley & Campbell Minstrel troupe, and
admirable corps, give the opening of their series at Kingsbury Hall. At
McVicker’s Theater also an excellent bill is offered.
To-morrow, Wednesday
evening, will be made memorable to our music lovers and strangers from abroad
by the noble instrumental Concert at Metropolitan Hall, by “GILMORE’S BOSTON
BAND.” It will be one of the events of the week, and Metropolitan Hall should
have no vacant seats, as it will have none.
SOURCE: “Events of
the Week,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May
15, 1860, p. 4, col. 2
The Great Wigwam was
the scene of a large and impressive religious gathering on Sunday afternoon.
After singing, in which the whole audience joined, a prayer was made by Rev. Z.
M. Humphrey, and a psalm read by Rev. J. E. Roy. Another hymn was then sung,
and Rev. Henry Cox followed in a discourse upon Human Influence; its basis and
usefulness, and the necessity of a thorough dependence upon the word of God.
The sermon was founded upon the text from Joshua, ch. 3, v. 17. After the
doxology and a benediction from Rev. W. W. Everts, the vast congregation was dismissed.
It is to be
regretted that one of the Sunday services of Rev. Mr. Guiness could not have
been delivered in the Wigwam, and thus have accommodated the crowds that would
have pressed to hear this celebrated clergyman.
SOURCE: “Sunday Services in the Wigwam,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday,
May 15, 1860, p. 4, col. 2
The people of
Aurora, Indiana had quite an exciting time a few days ago over a couple of
slaves who had been seized without warrants by some white men and taken to jail
at Lawrenceburg, where, having no legal commitment, the jailer refused to
receive them. They were taken back to Aurora, where they were so abused by
their captors that the citizens became indignant, and the negroes were let go.
They had not got beyond the town limits, however, before they were followed and
set upon by a mob, against whom they fought manfully until overpowered, but at
last beaten down, they were bound and horribly beaten with brass knuckles.
There master arrived soon after from Boone county, Kentucky, and expressed the
deepest indignation at the way his slaves had been treated by the mob. He
declared that he would rather they had escaped entirely than have been so
abused.—Indianapolis Journal.
SOURCES: “Outrage on Runaway Slaves,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May 15, 1860, p. 3, col. 3, the article appearing at the bottom of the page was cut off when microfilmed; “Outrage on Runaway Slaves,” Janesville Weekly Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, Wednesday, May 16,1860, p. 3, col. 4.
In presenting
ABRAHAM LINCOLN to the National Republican Convention, as a candidate for the
Presidency, were are actuated not by our great love and esteem for the man, by
any open or secret hostility to any other of the eminent gentlemen named for
that high office, nor by a feeling of State pride or Western sectionalism, but
by a profound and well matured conviction that his unexceptionable record, his
position between the extremes of opinion in the party, his spotless character
as a citizen and his acknowledge ability as a statesman, will, in the
approaching canvass, give him an advantage before the people which no other
candidate can claim. We are not disposed to deny that Mr. SEWARD, is the
question of availability being set aside, the first choice of perhaps a
majority of the rank and file of the party; that Gen. CAMERON has claims upon
Pennsylvania which his friends will not willingly have overlooked; that the
statesman like qualities, inflexible honesty and marked executive ability of
SALMON P. CHASE entitle him to a high place in Republican esteem; that Mr.
BATES’ pure life and noble aims justly command the confidence of troops of
friends; that the chivalric WADE has extorted the admiration of the North and
West; that FESSENDEN, for his gallant service but be gratefully remembers; and
that JOHN McLEAN, whose life is without a stain and whose love of country has
never been challenged, must be remembered as a strong and unexceptional man.
But Illinois claims that Mr. LINCOLN, though without the ripe experience of
SEWARD, the age and maturity of BATES and McLEAN, or the fire of FESSENDEN and
WADE, has the rare and happy combination of qualities which, as a candidate, enables him to outrank
either.
I. By his own
motion, he is not a candidate. He has never sought, directly or indirectly, for
the first or second place on the ticket. The movement in his favor is
spontaneous. It has sprung up suddenly and with great strength, its roots being
in the conviction that he is the man to reconcile all difference in our ranks,
to conciliate all the now jarring elements, and to lead forward to certain
victory. Having never entered into the field, he has put forth no personal
effort for success, and he has never made, even by implication, a pledge of any
sort by which his action, if he is President, will be influenced for any man,
any measure, any policy. He will enter upon the contest with no clogs, no
embarrassment; and this fact is a guaranty of a glorious triumph.
II. In all the
fundamentals of Republicanism, he is radical up to the limit to which the
party, with due respect for the rights of the South, proposes to go. But nature
has given him that wise conservatism which has made his action and his
expressed opinions so conform to the most mature sentiment of the country on
the question of slavery, that no living man can put his finger on one of his
speeches or any one of his public acts as a State legislator or as a member of
Congress, to which valid objection can be raised. His avoidance of extremes has
not been the result of ambition which measures words or regulates acts but the natural
consequence of an equable nature and in mental constitution that is never off
its balance. While no one doubts the strength of his attachments to the
Republican cause, or doubts that he is a representative man, all who know him
see that he occupies the happy mean between that alleged radicalism which binds
the older Anti-Slavery men to Mr. Seward, and that conservatism which dictates
the support of Judge Bates. Seward men, Bates men, Cameron men and Chase men
can all accept him as their second choice, and be sure that in him they have
the nearest approach to what they most admire in their respective favorites,
which any possible compromise will enable them to obtain.
III. Mr. LINCOLN has
no new record to make. Originally a Whig, though early a recruit of the great Republican
party, he has nothing to explain for the satisfaction of New Jersey,
Pennsylvania or the West. His opinions and votes on the Tariff will be
acceptable to all sections except the extreme South, where Republicanism
expects no support. Committed within proper limitations set up by economy and
constitutional obligation to the improvement of rivers and harbors, to that
most beneficent measure, the Homestead bill, and to the speedy construction of
the Pacific Railroad, he need write no letters to soften down old asperities,
growing out of these questions which must inevitably play their part in the
canvas before us. He is all that Pennsylvania and the West have a right to
demand.
IV. He is a Southern
man by birth and education, who has never departed from the principles which he
learned from the statesmen of the period in which he first saw the light. A
Kentuckian, animated by the hopes that bring the Kentucky delegation here, a
Western man, to whom sectionalism is unknown, he is that candidate around whom
all opponents of the extension of Human Slavery, North and South, can rally.
V. Mr. LINCOLN is a
man of the people. For his position, he is not indebted to family influence,
the partiality of friends or the arts of the politician. All his early life a
laborer in the field, in the saw-mill, as a boatman on the Wabash, Ohio, and
Mississippi, as a farmer in Illinois, he has that sympathy with the men who
toil and vote that will make him
strong. Later a valiant soldier in the Black Hawk war, a student in a law
office, bonding his great powers to overcome the defects of early training;
then a legislator, and at last a brilliant advocate, in the highest courts, and
a popular leader in the great movement of the age, there is enough of romance
and poetry in life to fill all the land with shouting and song. Honest Old Abe!
Himself an outgrowth of free institutions, he would die in the effort to
preserve to others, unimpaired, the inestimable blessings by which he has been
made a man.
VI. Without a stain
of Know-Nothingism on his skirts, he is acceptable to the mass of the American
party who, this year, will be compelled to choose between the candidate of
Chicago and the nominee of Baltimore. The experience of two years has proved
their error and his wisdom. They want the chance to retrieve the blunders of
the past. Endeared by his manly defence of the principles of the Declaration
of Independence to the citizen of foreign birth, he could command the warm
support of every one of them from whom, in any contingency, a Republican vote
can be expected.
VII. Mr. LINCOLN is
an honest man. We know that the adage “Praise overmuch is censure in disguise”
is true; and we know, too, that it is the disgrace of the age that in the
popular mind, politics and chicane, office and faithlessness go hand in hand.
We run great risk then in saying of Mr. Lincoln what truth inexorably demands,—that
in his life of 51 years, there is no act of a public or private character, of
which his most malignant enemy can say “this is dishonest,” “this is mean.”
With his record, partizanship [sic] has
done its worst and the result we have stated. His escutcheon is without a blemish.
VIII. After saying
so much, we need not add that Mr. LINCOLN can be elected, if placed before the people with the approbation of the
Convention to meet tomorrow. In New England, where Republicanism pure and
simple is demanded, and where he has lately electrified the people by his eloquence,
his name would be a tower of strength. New York who clings with an ardent
embrace to that great statesman, her first choice, would not refuse to adopt
Mr. LINCOLN as a standard bearer worthy of the holy cause. Pennsylvania,
satisfied with his views in regard to the present necessity of fostering domestic
interests, and the constitutional moderation of his opinions upon slavery,
would come heartily into his support.
The West is the
child of the East, and aside from her local pride in one of the noblest of her
sons, she would not fail by her plaudits to exalt and intensify the enthusiasm
which the nomination of Honest Old Abe would be sure to excite. The West has no
rivalry with the East except in the patriotic endeavor to do the most for the
Republican cause. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin desire
no triumph in which the East does not share—no victory over which the East may
not honestly exult. In a contest for Lincoln, they will fight with zeal and
hope that has never before animated the Republican hosts.
We present our
candidate, then, not as the rival of this man or that, not because the West has
claims which she must urge; not because of a distinctive policy which she would
see enforced; not because he is the first choice of a majority; but because he
is that honest man, that representative Republican, that people’s candidate,
whose life, position, record, are so many guarantys [sic] of success—because he is that patriot in whose hands the
interests of the government may be safely confided. Nominated, he would, we
believe, be triumphantly elected; but if another, in the wisdom of the
Convention, is preferred we can pledge him to labor, as an honest and effective
as any that he ever done for himself, for the man of the Convention’s choice.
SOURCE: “President
Making,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May 15,
1860, p. 2, col. 1-2
To the Editors Press
and Tribune:
These are President
making days. I presume there are very few men in these United States, who have
not for the last few months, been trying their hands at it. I am among the
number, and I beg to give you my conclusions on the subject. I am afraid of
extremes. My father was a Revolutionist, a red-hot Whig,—ardent and, I guess,
oftentimes a little fast. He used to often caution me to look out; to be
careful and avoid extremes. Now I think pretty well of Senator Seward, but I am
afraid he is a little on the extremes. He is quite a young man yet. He is doing
very good service where he is, and we may want to send him as our Minister to
England. I guess we had better take someone else this time.
I think firstrate of
our own Lincoln. Why he is a real Harry Clay of a fellow. I love him. He too,
however, is quite young yet. He will if he lives, be much better known four our
eight years hence. I hope to live and see him President; but I think it will be
best to have him serve us four years as Attorney General, and then, or four
years after that, try him for President.
Gov. CHASE of Ohio,
has ardent admirers, not only in that state, but through all the free States.
He is an able man. I guess a very good man; but his record does not all of it
suit me. He clung rather too long to Locofoco Democracy. He, too, is yet a
quite a young man and can well afford a little longer probation. I am by no
means sure he is not a little on extremes on the slavery question. I think he
is a good man, but I am not in favor of giving him the first post yet.
My deliberate first
choice for President is Thomas Corwin of Ohio. You can’t better it I believe.
He will avoid extremes and is highly conservative. He has had a few lies told
about him, in relation to his being a little fond of money. It is all nonsense.
If we get no worse “Galphim” to take care of our strong box, I shall be glad.
He cannot be beat. I propose Gov. Banks as Vice President with him. As my
second choice, I propose Edward Bates of Missouri, and Gov. Banks as Vice President.
The country will be safe under the administration of either of those gentlemen.
REPUBLICAN WHIG
DEMOCRAT.
SOURCE: “President
Making,” The Press and Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Tuesday, May 15,
1860, p. 2, col. 7
Left Camp College
Hill again and arrived at Goodlettsville on the 5th and took breakfast, making
a march of 12 miles.
SOURCE: Adam S.
Johnston, The Soldier Boy's Diary Book, p. 20
Left. Goodlettsville
and arrived at Tire Spring camp, making the third time in this camp and our
third march and counter-march over this ground, and encamped for the night,
making a march of 9½ miles.
SOURCE: Adam S.
Johnston, The Soldier Boy's Diary Book, p. 20
Left Camp Tire
Spring and arrived the same day at Franklin and encamped for the night, making
a march of 22 miles.
SOURCE: Adam S.
Johnston, The Soldier Boy's Diary Book, p. 20
Left Franklin camp,
and arrived the same day at Bowling Green, encamping for the night, making a
march of 21 miles.
SOURCE: Adam S.
Johnston, The Soldier Boy's Diary Book, p. 20
