Henry A. Wise’s Anecdote about John Tyler and Colonel John Brown Baldwin

His (Baldwin's) politics differed widely from Mr. Tyler's. Mr. Tyler from his youth up was a Democrat of the order of Jefferson, whilst Judge Baldwin had educated his son in the ultra school of Alexander Hamilton. He abided not any school or schoolmen of Democracy; was opposed to secession; was for peace, or prevention of war, on almost any terms; made a speech for which he was crowned by a Boston woman with flowery wreaths as the champion of the Union in the convention; and uttered sentiments and arguments which bound him, it was thought, on principle, to unite himself with the Northern cause against his native valley land of Virginia. He especially opposed Mr. Tyler's views on the report of the Commissioners of Virginia respecting the results of the Peace Conference at Washington. His Whig prejudices, indeed, against Mr. Tyler, for long-past bitterness of his party, for reason of his Bank vetoes and other matters of difference, kept him aloof from his society. He had avoided personal contact with him. But at last the ladies of the two houses met at the hotel where they messed and brought them together. Mr. Tyler had observed Colonel Baldwin's avoidance of him, if not his aversion to him; and one morning he walked up to him, and drew a paper from his bosom and asked him to read it. It was a letter to Mr. Tyler from Colonel Baldwin's father, written late in life. It proved that Judge Briscoe G. Baldwin knew, loved and honored John Tyler, and it subdued the son's aversion, and made him honor and respect the man of whom his honored father was proud to be a friend.

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, pp. 669-70

Diary of Edward Bates, April 28, 1859

I have just recd, a late number of the "Constitution" (the Washington Union, with a new name³⁵ and a new Editor³⁶ — the old having sunk into imbecility and odium) in which I find that I and my N. York letter are honored with a long Editorial leader,³⁷ particularly dull and inconclusive.

The Nat:[ional] Intel[ligence]r of Apl. 23d., by way of offset, gives a letter of Gov: Wise³⁸ to a friend³⁹ in Alabama, which it says, is far more sweeping than my letter is, in its denunciations of the Administration.

And truly Mr. Wise's letter is far more general and bitter in its condemnation than any writing that I have seen, since Buchanan's accession — I preserve the paper for future use.

I do not see how to reconcile that letter of Mr. Wise with his recent letter⁴⁰ pledging his support to Mr. Letcher,⁴¹ for Govr. of Va. on condition that he supports the Administration [.]

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³⁵ The Constitution, first issued April 13, 1859; it had previously been called the Union.

³⁶ George W. Bowman.

³⁷ April 19, 1859.

³⁸ Henry A. Wise of Virginia: Democratic congressman, 1833-1844; governor, 1856-1860; opponent of secession until it became inevitable; brigadier-general in the Confederate Army.

³⁹ David Hubbard of Alabama: states' rights Democratic congressman, 1839-1841 and 1849-1851; Confederate congressman, 1861-1863.

⁴⁰ Henry A. Wise to a Democratic elector for one of the Senatorial districts of the State, March 21, 1859, Daily National Intelligencer, April 15, 1859.

⁴¹ John Letcher of Virginia: Democratic congressman, 1851-1859; governor, 1860-1864; a leader in the Washington Peace Convention of 1861; opponent of secession until it came.

SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, Annual Report of The American Historical Association For The Year 1930, Vol. 4, The Diary Of Edward Bates, pp. 12-13

Diary of Edward Bates, Saturday, April 29, 1859

This is the anniversary of my arrival in St Louis, 45 years ago — Apl. 29, 1814. Then, I was a ruddy youth, of 20, now I am a swarthy old man of 65, with a grey beard, and a head beginning to grow bald. In that lapse of time, I have witnessed mighty changes in population, locomotion, commerce and the arts; and the change is still going on, with a growing impetus. And every year adds to the relative importance of the Central position of St Louis. Already, it is the focal point of the great Valley, and, in course of time, will become the seat of Empire in North America. I will soon sink into oblivion, but St Louis — the village in which I studied law — will become the seat of wealth and power — the ruling city of the continent. "Slavery, Ethnologically Considered "

The New York Saturday Press of Feb 19. 1859, contains a curious and very interesting essay⁴² read by Thomas Embank (Feb 8. 1859) before the New York Ethnological Society.

This paper is the most suggestive of any thing I have read for a long time — It suggests the causes of and the necessity for diversities of races of men — As savage and untaught Peoples cannot have that sort of powers which comes of Knowledge, art, Science, they can use little else than their own animate forces; whereas, all the great forces of Nature are inanimate.

The author surmises that the Earth could not produce food enough to sustain life in the multitude necessary to do the work by their bodily strength — animate force — that is now actually done by machinery — inanimate force — the power of dead matter put in motion and kept at work, by mind, by knowledge.

He thinks that steam, and electricity and other motors yet to be found out, and their various applications by inventive art, will change the character of labor, and increase its amount incalculably — The slave, he thinks, will become an overseer — that is, instead of doing a little work himself, he will direct steam &c how to do a great deal.

. . .⁴³

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⁴² Later published as Inorganic Forces Ordained to Supersede Human Slavery, William Everdell & Sons, N. Y., 1860.

⁴³ An entry in red ink in which Bates secures a town lot for his son. Woodson, as a fee for past legal service.

SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, Annual Report of The American Historical Association For The Year 1930, Vol. 4, The Diary Of Edward Bates, p. 13

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel John Beatty, September 19, 1861

Reached camp yesterday at noon. My recruits arrived to-day.

The enemy was here in my absence in strength and majesty, and repeated, with a slight variation, the grand exploit of the King of France, by

"Marching up the hill with twenty thousand men,

And straightway marching down again."

There was lively skirmishing for a few days, and hot work expected; but, for reasons unknown to us, the enemy retired precipitately.

On Sunday morning last fifty men of the Sixth Ohio, when on picket, were surprised and captured. My friend, Lieutenant Merrill, fell into the hands of the enemy, and is now probably on his way to Castle Pinckney. Further than this our rebellious friends did us no damage. Our men, at this point, killed Colonel Washington, wounded a few others, and further than this inflicted but little injury upon the enemy. The country people near whom the rebels encamped say they got to fighting among themselves. The North Carolinians were determined to go home, and regiments from other States claimed that their term of service had expired, and wanted to leave. I am glad they did, and trust they may go home, hang up their guns, and go to work like sensible people, for then I could do the same.

SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 67-8

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel John Beatty, September 23, 1861

This afternoon I rode by a mountain path to a log cabin in which a half dozen wounded Tennesseeans are lying. One poor fellow had his leg amputated yesterday, and was very feeble. One had been struck by a ball on the head and a buckshot in the lungs. Two boys were but slightly wounded, and were in good spirits. To one of these-a jovial, pleasant boy—Dr. Seyes said, good humoredly: "You need have no fears of dying from a gunshot; you are too big a devil, and were born to be hung." Colonel Marrow sought to question this same fellow in regard to the strength of the enemy, when the boy said: "Are you a commissioned officer?" "Yes," replied Marrow. "Then," returned he," you ought to know that a private soldier don't know anything."

In returning to camp, we followed a path which led to a place where a regiment of the rebels had encamped one night. They had evidently become panic-stricken and left in hot haste. The woods were strewn with knapsacks, blankets, and canteens.

The ride was a pleasant one. The path, first wild and rugged, finally led to a charming little valley, through which Beckey's creek hurries down to the river. Leaving this, we traveled up the side of a ravine, through which a little stream fretted and fumed, and dashed into spray against slimy rocks, and then gathered itself up for another charge, and so pushed gallantly on toward the valley and the sunshine.

What a glorious scene! The sky filled with stars; the rising moon; two mountain walls so high, apparently, that one might step from them into heaven; the rapid river, the thousand white tents dotting the valley, the camp fires, the shadowy forms of soldiers; in short, just enough of heaven and earth visible to put one's fancy on the gallop. The boys are in groups about their fires. The voice of the troubadour is heard. It is a pleasant song that he sings, and I catch part of it.

"The minstrel 's returned from the war,

      With spirits as buoyant as air,

 And thus on the tuneful guitar

      He sings in the bower of the fair:

 The noise of the battle is over;

     The bugle no more calls to arms;

A soldier no more, but a lover,

     I kneel to the power of thy charms.

Sweet lady, dear lady, I'm thine;

     I bend to the magic of beauty,

Though the banner and helmet are mine,

     Yet love calls the soldier to duty."

SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 68-9

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel John Beatty, September 24, 1861

Our Indiana friends are providing for the winter by laying in a stock of household furniture at very much less than its original cost, and without even consulting the owners. It is probable that our Ohio boys steal occasionally, but they certainly do not prosecute the business openly and courageously.

SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 69-70

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel John Beatty, September 26, 1861

The Thirteenth Indiana, Sixth Ohio, and two pieces of artillery went up the valley at noon, to feel the enemy. It rained during the afternoon, and since nightfall has poured down in torrents. The poor fellows who are now trudging along in the darkness and storm, will think, doubtless, of home and warm beds. It requires a pure article of patriotism, and a large quantity of it, to make one oblivious for months at a time of all the comforts of civil life.

This is the day designated by the President for fasting and prayer. Parson Strong held service in the regiment, and the Rev. Mr. Reed, of Zanesville, Ohio, delivered a very eloquent exhortation. I trust the supplications of the Church and the people may have effect, and bring that Higher Power to our assistance which hitherto has apparently not been with our arms especially.

SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 70

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel John Beatty, September 27, 1861

To-night almost the entire valley is inundated. Many tents are waist high in water, and where others stood this morning the water is ten feet deep. Two men of the Sixth Ohio are reported drowned. The water got around them before they became aware of it, and in endeavoring to escape they were swept down the stream and lost. The river seems to stretch from the base of one mountain to the other, and the whole valley is one wild scene of excitement. Wherever a spot of dry ground can be found, huge log fires are burning, and men by the dozen are grouped around them, anxiously watching the water and discussing the situation. Tents have been hastily pitched on the hills, and camp fires, each with its group of men, are blazing in many places along the side of the mountain. The rain has fallen steadily all day.

SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, pp. 70-1

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel John Beatty, September 28, 1861

The Thirteenth Indiana and Sixth Ohio returned. The reconnoissance was unsuccessful, the weather being unfavorable.

SOURCE: John Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 71

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Saturday, May 3, 1862

It was reported in camps about sundown that the Federals were tearing up the railroad about five miles west of Burnsville. A squad of us mounted and rode out in that direction far enough to learn that the Federals were surely there. As we did not wish to attack about eleven hundred in the dark, we went back to camps. We then moved our camps about two miles from Burnsville, on the Jacinto road, where we remained the rest of the night.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 167

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Sunday, May 4, 1862

The battalion went back to the railroad, and after learning that the Federals had gone back and were encamped about six miles north of the railroad, we turned south, going through Jacinto, the county seat of Tishamingo, and went into camps two miles from town, in an old sage field. Jacinto is nine miles from Burnsville.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 167

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Monday, May 5, 1862

After cooking three days' rations, we struck tents and loaded our wagons. The wagons were sent to Booneville, twelve miles from Jacinto, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. McNairy moved his men back to Jacinto, and quartered them in the various unoccupied houses. Allison's Company had splendid quarters in the court-house. Two scouts were sent out, one to Burnsville, the other to Glendale, six miles west of the former place, on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. Found no Federals. We remained at Jacinto for some days, scouting and picketing.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p. 167

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Monday, May 12, 1862

There was a great deal of talk and excitement in the battalion about reorganizing for three years, or during the war, under a new law that the Confederate Congress had lately passed, known as the "conscript law." The expiration of our enlistment, twelve months, was now near at hand, and the question was, Shall we re-enlist or quit and go home?

As our company had a number of acquaintances in Colonel E. S. Smith's Regiment of cavalry, which was then thought to be in Tennessee, north of the Tennessee River, not far from Chattanooga, and as we were wanting to get back nearer home, Captain Allison sent M. W. McKnight and B. A. Hancock to Corinth to take a petition to General Beal. In said petition we requested the transfer of our company to the above named regiment. General Beal seemed to be favorable to our petition, but said that he would have to wait until he could find out the condition of Smith's Regiment before he could grant our request. In the meantime, however, we learned that Smith's Regiment was "bursted up," so that was the end of our petition.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, pp. 167-8

Diary of Private Richard R. Hancock: Wednesday, May 14, 1862

McNairy's Battalion re-enlisted "for three years or during the war," and reorganized. Companies A and B were consolidated, also Companies C and D. Therefore Allison's Company, not being consolidated with any other, became Company C in place of E. So our battalion was thus reduced to three companies.

As the commissioned officers (T. M. Allison, Captain; N. W. Summer, First Lieutenant; George Alexander and M. V. Wilson, Second Lieutenants) of our company resigned and went home. We elected a new set of officers. The election resulted as follows:

Moses W. McKnight, Captain; H. L. W. Turney, First Lieutenant; Sam Dennis and Dr. J. S. Harrison, Second Lieutenants.

The election of non-commissioned officers of Company C was postponed.

Company A elected George H. Morton, Captain; N. Oswell, First Lieutenant; T. C. Atkinson, Second Lieutenant, and Anderson H. French, Third Lieutenant.

Company B elected William Parrish, Captain; T. B. Underwood, First Lieutenant; G. W. Smithson, Second Lieutenant, and S. B. Wall, Third Lieutenant.

Lieutenant-Colonel F. N. McNairy resigned, and a few days after, bidding us farewell, returned to Tennessee and was killed at Dover, Tennessee, in January, 1863, being temporarily on General Forrest's staff at that time.

General Beal sent Colonel Bradfute to take charge of the three companies to which our battalion was now reduced, from the reorganization at Jacinto to the time of consolidation with the Seventh Battalion, at Fulton, June 12th.

As the Second Tennessee Cavalry, of which the First Battalion formed a part, surrendered May 10th, 1865, we liked only four days serving out the term of our reenlistment-three years.

SOURCE: Richard R. Hancock, Hancock's Diary: Or, A History of the Second Tennessee Confederate Cavalry, p9. 168-9

Diary of George Templeton Strong, Friday, March 2, 1860

Stopped at Barnum’s on my way downtown to see the much advertised nondescript, the "What-is-it.”¹ Some say it’s an advanced chimpanzee, others that it’s a cross between nigger and baboon. But it seems to me clearly an idiotic negro dwarf, raised, perhaps, in Alabama or Virginia. The showman’s story of its capture (with three other specimens that died) by a party in pursuit of the gorilla on the western coast of Africa is probably bosh. The creature’s look and action when playing with his keeper are those of a nigger boy. But his anatomical details are fearfully simian, and he’s a great fact for Darwin.

_______________

¹ This “What-is-it.”—shortly to be viewed by the Prince of Wales—became the most famous circus freak in America. Often called "the missing link," he was really a Negro of distorted frame and cone-shaped head named William H. Johnson, who survived until 1926.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 12

Diary of George Templeton Strong, March 3, 1860

George Anthon called in Wall Street, and before going uptown, we stopped at Barnum’s. The "What-is-it?” is palpably a little nigger and not a good-looking one. There are other animals in the establishment much more interesting; for example, a grand grizzly bear from California, a big sea lion, a very intelligent and attractive marbled or mottled seal (phoca vitulina?), a pair of sociable kangaroos, and (in the happy family cage) an armadillo, a curious spotted rodent said to be Australian, two fine owls, and so forth.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, pp. 12-13

Diary of George Templeton Strong, Sunday, March 4, 1860

. . . Church this morning. Higby preached. Not up to his average. Mr. Derby and Hoffman sat with us. Talked to Professor Lieber who came home with us. In correspondence with him for a day or two past. He’s a troublesome subject. His sensibilities are lacerated because he fears he "is to be a mere adjunct of Dwight’s” in the Law School, and he intends to decline all further share in its duties. Sorry to lose him. But he ought to see that the school cannot be established and will not win students unless training in practically useful and profitable knowledge (such knowledge of the Revised Statutes and Wendell and Cowen and Hill as it is Dwight’s office to impart) be its prominent feature. Lieber’s political philosophy and spirit of laws and Nairne’s legal ethics must be gradually worked into the system. If we make them essential and obligatory portions of the course at once, we shall simply frighten students away and dwarf or destroy the school, as a yearling baby would be stunted or killed by a diet of beef and madeira. . . .

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 13

Diary of George Templeton Strong, March 6, 1860

. . . Looking further into Darwin’s Origin of Species this evening. Though people who don’t like its conclusions generally speak of it as profound and as a formidable attack on received notions, I timidly incline to think it a shallow book, though laboriously and honestly written.

Darwin cannot understand why Omnipotent Power and Wisdom should have created so many thousand various types of organic life, allied to each other by various complex relations and differing in points of detail for which we can assign no reason. He wants to shew that the original creative act was on the smallest scale and produced only some one organism of the humblest rank but capable of development into the fauna and flora of the earth, from moss to oak and from monad to man, under his law of progress and natural selection. To him, as to the physicists of the last one hundred years, the notion of a supernatural creative power is repugnant and offen¬ sive. He wants to account for the wonderful, magnificent harmonies and relations of the varied species of life that exist on earth by reducing the original agency of supernatural power in their creation to a minimum. This feeling sticks out at page 483, where he asks triumphantly. Do people “really believe that . . . certain elemental atoms have been commanded suddenly to flash into living tissues?” (That passage is the keynote of the whole book.)

I must say I find it just as easy to answer that question in the affirmative as to admit that certain elemental atoms of lime, silex, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and so forth are daily and hourly “commanded to flash into” organic wood fibre, cellulose, parenchyma, and so on. The latter miracle is being performed on the largest scale this minute wherever vegetation is in progress; the former seems to occur only at long intervals. I can see no other distinction between them. One is familiar to our senses, the other is proved by deduction. They are a priori equally credible, or incredible, whichever Mr. Darwin pleases. The inorganic world has its own internal harmonies and relations quite as distinct and unmistakeable as the organic. But no law of progressive development can be inferred from them. Mr. Darwin would not venture to maintain that iodine and bromine are developments of chlorine or vice versa, that some one little dirty, obscure or obsolete element was parent and progenitor of osmium, iridium, ruthenium, and all the rest of the platinum group. Very possible that these so-called elements may be hereafter decomposed and proved to be composite, but we have no right to assume that they will be, and until analysis reduces the inorganic world to a series of compounds of only two primal entities, it will testify against Darwin’s theory.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, pp. 13-4

Diary of George Templeton Strong, Monday, April 2, 1860

To Trinity Church vestry meeting tonight. As I railroaded homeward at ten, there was much people in and around the Tribune office, waiting, no doubt, for returns of today’s Connecticut election; the first gun fired in the presidential campaign. . . .

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 19

Diary of George Templeton Strong, April 17, 1860

After an apology for a dinner, I went to [Arnold] Guyot’s lecture at the Law School. Well attended and very hot; lecture original and interesting. Thereafter discoursed with Guyot, whom I like, and General Scott, the most urbane of conquerors. Curious it is to observe the keen, sensitive interest with which he listens to every whisper about nominations for the coming presidential campaign.

The Charleston Convention will nominate Douglas, I think. Then comes the sanhedrim of the undeveloped Third Party. It is not at all unlikely Scott may be its nominee. In that case, it is possible the Republican Convention may adopt him. I wish things might take that course, but hardly hope it. Neither Douglas nor Hunter nor Banks suits me.

SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 22