John Tyler to Robert Tyler, November 23, 1859

SHERWOOD FOREST, November 23, 1859.

MY DEAR ROBERT: I scarcely know what reply to give to your last letter. If I had the means to make you independent pecuniarily of the world, the sun would not go down before it would be done; but I am as hard put up, to use a vulgar phrase, as any one. For two years past my crops have failed, and I have had, and still have, a whip and spur concern to keep me on the track. Were it otherwise, I should unhesitatingly say to you neither mission abroad nor paymastership at home, but onward with your profession, which ultimately leads to emolument and position. I am ambitious, and I acknowledge it, not for myself, except to leave behind me a respected and honored name, but for my children. I would live again in them. I would have them make a figure in the world, and thus hand down a name which for two generations, to say nothing of a third, has won confidence and repute.

I think that your devotion to the President ought long since to have received his endorsement. It comes now at a late hour. Doubtless he has supposed that he could not do otherwise. You have now to decide what you had best do. There is one word that decides the matter—independence. Will the paymastership give you peace, quiet, independence? Is it better than your present office and profession? If so, take it. If not, reject it. Give up politics, by which no man profits other than a knave; retrench, as far as retrenchment be practicable, and wait for political preferment to reach you at its own gait. I estimate you unjustly if it do not come at some day or other. It may find you as well in a paymastership as in a mission abroad. Decide the whole question for yourself, and, whatever the decision, I shall be satisfied.

For myself I care for nothing, hope for nothing, seek for nothing. My confidence alone is in the Great Being who has made us, and still preserves us a nation. Wise has obviously gained in public esteem hereabouts. How things are to result time will disclose.

Your father,

JOHN TYLER.

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 554-5

John Tyler to Robert Tyler, December 6, 1859

SHERWOOD FOREST, December 6, 1859.

DEAR ROBERT: Your letter of the 28th November is before me. I was far from inferring from your previous letter making any application to me for pecuniary aid. No such inference was deducible from your letter. I meant only to express the opinion that the law profession opened more widely the door to preferment than any other pursuit, and, in doing so, mentioned the regret I felt that I had it not in my power to place you on a footing of perfect independence, so as to enable you to devote your whole time to your office. It is a regret I sincerely felt, but of course I knew that you too well appreciated my true condition to even hint at such a thing. Under such circumstances I am desirous to see you placed in such a situation under the government which will ensure your future independence. I care but little what it is, so it ensures that end.

A chase after political preferment ends in nothing but fatigue to the spirits and exhaustion of mind. Even at the highest, it is attended with little more than traduction and slander. In the present condition of public affairs, this remark becomes more emphatic. A day may destroy everything. Virginia is arming to the teeth—more than fifty thousand stand of arms already distributed, and the demand for more daily increasing. Party is silent, and has no voice. But one sentiment pervades the country: security in the Union, or separation. An indiscreet move in any direction may produce results deeply to be deplored. I fear the debates in Congress, and above all the Speaker's election. If excitement prevails in Congress, it will add fuel to the flame which already burns so terrifically. I hope there is conservatism enough in the country to speak peace, and that, after all, good may come out of evil. Wise's energy receives unqualified approval.

Your father,

JOHN TYLER.

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 555

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 2, 1861

A slight solace to one's anxieties about home is found in the circumstances brought by successive steamers during the week. 1. The proposition of Mr. Crittenden, or "The Border States," seems growing into favour. 2. There was a large minority on the question of secession before next 4th of March in the Georgia Convention. 3. The Alabama members of Congress have been instructed not to quit, but to wait further advices. 4. The South Carolina Commissioner, Colonel Hayne, has suspended his demand for the evacuation of Fort Sumter. 5. Charleston is suffering greatly from want of supplies. 6. Major Anderson is universally applauded. 7. Virginia has adopted as satisfactory the compromise of Crittenden. 8. Financial affairs are improving; the United States stock rose one per cent.

There would seem to be a most extraordinary departure from the chivalric honour in public life which has heretofore characterized Southern gentlemen in the disloyal treachery with which Cobb, Floyd, Thomson, Thomas, and Trescott have pursued secession in the very penetralia of Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet. Nothing can relieve them from the charge of deceit and treachery but their having apprised the President, on entering his counsels, that, instead of recognizing as paramount their allegiance to the Union, they were governed by "a higher law" of duty to Georgia, Virginia, Mississippi, Maryland, and South Carolina respectively.

Persigny, recently appointed to the Ministry of the Interior in Paris, made a popularity-seeking plunge at his outset in relaxing restrictions on the Press. Suddenly he has turned a corner; giving, three days ago, an "avertissement" to the Courrier de Dimanche, and arbitrarily ordering the offensive writer, Ganeseo, out of the Kingdom! He says that Ganeseo is a foreigner, and cannot be allowed to criticise the principle of the Imperial Government.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 432-3

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 6, 1861

Parliament was opened yesterday by the Queen in person. The military parade, turnout of royal equipages, and assemblage of Peers, Peeresses, Bishops, and Judges, were unusually imposing. The speech was fuller and clearer than common. The paragraph devoted to the United States was uttered as if really felt, though I certainly did not do what some of the newspapers allege,—nod my head with an expression of misgiving as to a “satisfactory adjustment."

"Serious differences have arisen among the States of the North American Union. It is impossible for me not to look with great concern upon any events which can affect the happiness and welfare of a people nearly allied to my subjects by descent, and closely connected with them by the most intimate and friendly relations. My heartfelt wish is that these differences may be susceptible of a satisfactory adjustment.

"The interest which I take in the well-being of the people of the United States cannot but be increased by the kind and cordial reception given by them to the Prince of Wales during his recent visit to the continent of America."

Went to the Commons at eight o'clock, and witnessed the first scene of what I cannot but regard, for the existing government, as an inauspicious breach, on reform, between Lord John Russell and Mr. Bright. The motion was to amend the reply to the speech by a clause as to the omission of that topic. Forty-six, in a thin house, voted for it.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 433-4

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 12, 1861

Yesterday's news from home a shade more promising. The President's message to Congress on the mediatorial propositions from Virginia is calmly and judiciously written. It looks to that State for the preservation of the Union. The Convention of the Border States, free as well as slave, assembled on the 30th of January, and we ought now to have its first movements. There will be a collection of distinguished men at it,—Rives, Tyler, Reverdy Johnson, etc. I fear, however, they are rather effete celebrities than fit for the moment.

A curious sort of intermediate public counsel, not employed by either plaintiff or defendant, but seeming to act and argue as a Judge-Advocate at a Court-Martial, has addressed an admirable argument to the Bench in 'Betsey Bonaparte's" case at Paris. He seems a representative "pro bono publico." His name is Duvignaux. Another singular feature of this trial was in allowing a presumptuous American called Gould to intrude his written notions as to what was general opinion about the marriage of Jerome and Betsey with our eminent lawyers in 1803! How completely this could have been exploded by the production of my father's written and elaborate view of the whole matter given to old Mr. Paterson at the time! I have the rough draft among his relics.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 434

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 14, 1861

At about ten o'clock P.M., of the 13th instant, Gaeta, in which the young Neapolitan King Francis II. has long and bravely stood a siege, capitulated to the Sardinians under Cialdini. So passes into the shade of exile another dethroned Bourbon!

A levée to-day at St. James's Palace. I presented, in the general circle, Colonel Schaffner, of Kentucky, the indefatigable explorer of a northern route for a submarine electric cable, from the highest point of Scotland to France, thence to Ireland, thence to Greenland, and thence, finally, to Labrador. This plan of four stepping-points, instead of one vast leap, has its advantages. It may realize the old phrase, “the longest way round is the shortest way home."

I dined yesterday with Mr. Croskey, meeting a company of most interesting gentlemen, about twenty in number: Admiral Fitzroy, Mr. Dutton, Mr. Scofield, Sir Edward Beecher, Mr. Rae, Dr. Shaw, Captain Peacock, etc.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 434-5

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 16, 1861

Another pamphlet in Paris by La Guéronnière-i.e., by, or with the approval of, the Emperor has appeared. It narrows the temporal power and estate of the Pope to nothing, but keeps the French force in Rome for the safety of his person. Its title is "France, Rome, and Italy."

The Duke of Buckingham's historical notices of the reigns of William IV. and Victoria, and the autobiography, letters, etc., of Mrs. Piozzi, have been my reading for some days. The former is very superficial, a mere skimming of Hansard and the newspapers; the latter, by A. Hayward, Esq., Q.C., is full and entertaining. Both published since January 1, 1861. Hayward takes occasion to give a hit at Macaulay's style of writing history, which is worthy of extraction, as undoubtedly just: "Action, action, action, says the orator; effect, effect, effect, says the historian. Give Archimedes a place to stand on, and he would move the world. Give Talleyrand a line of a man's handwriting, and he would engage to ruin him. Give Lord Macaulay a hint, a fancy, an insulated fact or phrase, a scrap of a journal, or the tag-end of a song, and on it, by the abused prerogative of genius, he would construct a theory of national or personal character, which should confer undying glory or inflict indelible disgrace."

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 435-6

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 17, 1861

Mr. Reuter sends me a telegram from Queenstown of the American news. 1. The conference invited by Virginia met on the 4th, and re-assembled with closed doors on the 5th at Washington. 2. Slidell and Benjamin have withdrawn. 3. A truce between Lieutenant Slemmer and State forces at Pensacola Navy-Yard, followed by surrender to latter. 4. North Carolina resolves unanimously to go with the other slave States if adjustment fail. 5. United States revenue cutter Lewis Cass treacherously surrendered to Alabama. 6. Fifty thousand people starving in Kansas. 7. Secession of Texas definitive. 8. The President has refused to surrender Fort Sumter on Colonel Hayne's demand; an attack expected. 9. Attempt on Fort Pickens abandoned. No blood yet spilt.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 436

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 20, 1861

The day before yesterday the "Parliament of Italy" opened its first session at Turin. A great consummation! giving the noblest immortality to Victor Emmanuel and Cavour. The 18th of February must be marked with a white stone.

A levée at St. James's Palace. Anxious to receive my mail from home, I remained but five minutes after passing the Queen. Lord Clyde particularly cordial.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 436

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 21, 1861

Dined with Mr. Thomas Baring. Mr. Holland, son of Sir Henry, and his wife, daughter of Sir Charles Trevelyan, Mr. Coolidge, Count Straleski, etc., were at table. The habeas corpus issued by the Queen's Bench, to Canada, for the fugitive Anderson, discussed and its correctness negatived. I, of course, abstained.

At eleven o'clock went to Miss Coutts's. Spent quite an interesting half-hour there. The desire to catch up some news as to the progress of our Revolution gives me an eager entourage in every salon.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 436-7

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 22, 1861

Just finished the Duke of Buckingham's two volumes on the “Courts and Cabinets of William IV and Victoria.” There is a curious note by the Marquis of L., which says that about 1845, "in a conversation at the drawing-room with Lord John Russell, Lord L. asked him what he seriously looked to in the present state of parties in the opposition, if Sir Robert Peel, in disgust, was forced to throw up the government. Lord J. replied, he looked only to an American Constitution for England." I make another extract, as it is one which harmonizes with my own judgment, and, coming from so stern a Tory as Buckingham, is probably just. "No fair critic of public men can deny that Lord Palmerston is a statesman of extraordinary resources. Indeed, his experience, his tact, his judgment, his inexhaustible good humour, and rare political sagacity, have maintained his party in power when blunders of every kind have most severely tried the patience of the nation."

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 437

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 23, 1861

Dined to-day at Moreria's, the Brazilian Minister, and went late to the Premier's.

It is rumoured, though doubted, that at Savannah a mob has tarred and feathered Mr. Molyneux, the British Consul. What's the exciting cause of this proceeding? Have all our Southern friends "eaten of the insane root"?

The arrest and imprisonment in the Mazas jail of Mires, the great Jew speculator and railroad contractor, is producing an immense sensation in Paris. It is supposed that, to avoid disgrace, one of his confederates in frauds and embezzlement, named Richemont, was led to commit suicide, and that he himself contemplates purchasing his own security by threatening to disclose facts which must involve many high personages. The case reminds one of Law and his South-sea bubble.

Gave notice of my intention to quit my present residence at the expiration of the year, March 24th. By that time I shall be ready for recall, and trust it may not be delayed.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 437-8

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 28, 1861

On Monday evening last went with Julia and Sophie to hear M. du Chaillu lecture at the Royal Geographical Society in Burlington House. The gathering, ladies as well as gentlemen, was very large. The walls were hung with portraits of scientific celebrities. Sir Roderick Murchison, in the absence of Lord Ashburton, presided. M. du Chaillu was successful in describing his various conflicts with gorillas, and in conveying a clear idea of the country over which these beasts are "Lords." He was highly complimented in a delightful address from Professor Owen, who eloquently portrayed the resemblances and differences of the human and gorilla skeletons.

On Tuesday, the 26th, took a family dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Bates. Professor Owen, who is temporarily staying there, and young Victor Van de Weyer, with us four, made a party of six guests. The only poor dinner I ever ate at Mr. Bates's.

On Wednesday evening went first to Lady Stanley of Alderley, and second to the Duke of Somerset's, at the Admiralty. Not more than twenty minutes at either.

No promising news from home until this morning.

By the arrival of the Anglo-Saxon at Londonderry, a telegram announces the fact that the Committee of the Peace Convention had reported a plan for adjustment, made up of Crittenden's, Guthrie's, and the Border States' proposal. If this be approved, the great body of the Union may be saved; with a reasonable prospect of reattracting the eight States which have seceded, and are now embodied as "The Confederated States of America." General Jefferson Davis and A. H. Stephens were inaugurated as President and Vice-President on the 18th instant. Query: Were they chosen by popular election, or by the Convention only at Montgomery? Perhaps they are provisional only, and for a limited time.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 438-9

Diary of Private Louis Leon: August 1, 1863

Resumed our march at 4 this morning, and got to Orange Court House, fourteen miles. It is a very hot day, and there were several men fell dead on the road from sunstroke. We rested here until the 4th.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 43

Diary of Private Louis Leon: August 4, 1863

Left our camp, marched three miles, one mile on the south side of town.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 44

Diary of Private Louis Leon: August 11, 1863

Nothing up to to-day. This, I suppose, is to be our regular camp, as we have commenced to drill again.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 44

Diary of Private Louis Leon: August 12, 1863

We had a very severe storm to-day, which killed two men and hurt several of our brigade. It tore up trees and played smash in general.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 44

Diary of Private Louis Leon: August 23, 1863

They have commenced to give furloughs, one to every two companies.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 44

Diary of Private Louis Leon: August 24, 1863

Was on guard this morning, but Sergeant Hugh Reid sent for me, and detailed me, with some men out of every regiment in our brigade, to hunt deserters. Si Wolf and myself, out of our company. We left camp at 3 this evening, marched two miles up the railroad, and took the cars to Gordonsville. Got there at 4. It is a small place, but one of importance, as all our supplies for the army from Richmond come from this station.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 44

Diary of Private Louis Leon: August 25, 1863

Took the cars at 5 A.M. and got to Keswick, a depot on the Stanton road. We left here after staying one hour, and took our posts in the woods. As we are about twenty men, with one lieutenant in command, we made no camp, but stayed about here and reported every time there was any news about deserters. Wolf and myself went out in the country to houses that we were told harbored deserters. We passed ourselves off as such, and were well received, and got some valuable information. They told us that the deserters were in the woods.

We then returned to our companions, and got well soaked, as it was raining very hard. Stayed in a barn all night.

SOURCE: Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, p. 44-5