Congressman Horace Mann, June 29, 1852

WASHINGTON, June 29, 1852.

Mr. Clay is dead: he expired between eleven and twelve o'clock this morning. . . . Probably no public man ever had more ardent or more numerous friends. He was a man of great nobleness of heart. He has impressed his mind upon the policy of the country; an impress, however, which is becoming fainter every year. On the slavery question, he has always been far in advance of the people among whom he lived. Had he belonged to the North, he would have become an antislavery man, and not a treacherous or perfidious one like Mr. Webster. He has lived to see Webster die a moral death, and Webster sees him die a natural one. I have no doubt, such has been the secret hostility between them, that each is rejoiced at the fortune of the other. Rivals for public favor for so many years, their competition is now at an end. Both have failed in the supreme object of their ambition. Would that all politicians and all men would learn a lesson from so instructive an example!

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 371-2

Congressman Horace Mann to Mr. Combe, July 1, 1852

WASHINGTON, July 1, 1852.

MY DEAR MR. COMBE, — . . . My friend Henry Barnard, Esq., who for many years was Secretary of the Board of Education, either in Connecticut or in Rhode Island, is about to visit England and Scotland, partly on account of his health, and partly to see your schools. You have always been partial enough to affix a higher value to my services on the subject of education than I could honestly claim or fairly expect. If you will put double all the credit you have ever given to me, and pass it to Mr. Barnard's account, you will hardly do his extraordinary services more than justice. His mind is full of wisdom, and his life has been full of devotion on this subject.

You will have learned, before receiving this, the event of our party Presidential nomination. What an awful moral has been derived from the fate of those who have been false to freedom! Every one of those Northern men, who, for the last half-dozen years, have devoted themselves to slavery, have been set aside; and those men who suffered and indirectly promoted all the atrocities of the Mexican war, though against all their own professions, did, by that very dereliction from duty, raise up two warriors to come in and pluck away the honors they had forfeited their integrity to obtain. Was it not a just retribution?

There is all the difference between the candidates that there is between a hero and his valet de chambre. Scott, too, is an antislavery man. Pierce will be the merest tool of slavery.

The Democratic Convention was almost in toto a proslavery body, and the ultra proslavery portion of it prevailed in the selection of Pierce. In the Whig Convention, the antislavery element prevailed; so that, though the contest is implicated with other matters, and its real issues are somewhat obscured, yet, if Scott is elected, it will be a great antislavery triumph. It was the first time that the antislavery element ever prevailed in any national convention.

Mrs. Mann and the children have gone home. I live here alone, and, of course, forlorn. I hear from them every day, and they are well. With kindest regards to yourself and Mrs. Combe,

I remain, as ever, yours truly,

HORACE MANN.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 372-3

Congressman Horace Mann, July 8, 1852

JULY 8, 1852.

I see by the telegraphic report, that at a meeting of the Native-American party at Trenton, N. J., this week, Mr. Webster was nominated for the Presidency. This makes his position supremely ridiculous. It is an insignificant party, founded on the narrow basis of being born in America or out of it. If Mr. Webster does not notice it, there stands the nomination to show his power. If he declines it, everybody will laugh at him.

SOURCE: Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 373

Diary of Musician David Lane, October 1, 1863

We have pitched our tents in rear of our guns and still occupy the same position. Our trap was set for a band of guerillas who have been operating a few miles south of us. Our cavalry—sent out to drive them in—encountered them yesterday, killed several, took a few prisoners, and are in pursuit of the remainder. We busy ourselves by arresting everything and everybody that comes our way. Citizens are all taken before Acting Brigadier General Leisure, who asks them all sorts of questions, gathering, in this way, much valuable information—administers the Oath of Allegiance, grants protection papers, etc. Deserters are constantly coming in, mostly from Bragg's army. I saw two North Carolinians last evening.

They say Beauregard and Longstreet are at Chattanooga—also that the Rebels burned Charleston and evacuated. We are kept very close, no man-not even officers' cooks-being allowed to cross over to the city. From the best information I can get, I conclude Bragg has sent a force to operate on Rosa's rear, threatening this place in their course. Nine bushwhackers were brought in last night and were taken to headquarters.

These wretches are being hunted from their hiding places in the mountains with untiring zeal by the Home Guards.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, pp. 99-100

Diary of Musician David Lane, October 2, 1863

Knoxville, Tenn.  We are shut out from all intercourse with the rest of the world. Even Dame Rumor has retired behind the scenes, exhausted, doubtless, by the herculean efforts she has put forth the last few days. By the last and only mail we have had since we came here, we received a bundle of Detroit Tribunes, dated September 15th. Since then the silence of isolation has enveloped us. There is a tiny sheet published daily at Knoxville. It is silent on all except local subjects, and nearly so on them. I notice, in yesterday's edition, a convention has been held by the people of this county to nominate delegates to a state convention, to be held at Nashville, for the purpose of nominating a state ticket. The delegates pledge themselves to support no candidate who is not truly loyal. Thus, while politicians and demagogues are wrangling over "reconstruction and territorial admission," the people are solving the most difficult problem by the most simple process.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 101

Diary of Musician David Lane, October 3, 1863

Our trap is sprung at last. For three long, weary days and sleepless nights we patiently awaited the coming of that "flanking column" which we were to capture or annihilate. First they were reported crossing at Tennessee Ford, twenty miles below, thirty thousand strong, to sweep the "Northern vandals" from this fair valley and open up a way for supplies to reach Richmond. Next their advance had reached Marysville, fourteen miles from this place. Citizens came flocking in all day Thursday, telling sickening tales of outrage perpetrated by their "advance" on unoffending "Union people." Some reported them four hundred strong, others fifteen or twenty thousand.

Yesterday it was reported ten thousand of our cavalry had gone out to reconnoitre. They visited the Ford no "raid" had been there—Rocksville; no cavalry had been there to Loudon; no guerillas had been there. A council of war was held, and they decided to return by the way of Marysville. There the enemy had been seen. Cautiously they advanced to beleaguer the devoted town. A short distance from the town a halt was called and scouts sent out to reconnoitre. They found the city "occupied" by a force of eight bushwackers. These were captured "without the loss of a man on our side."

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, pp. 101-2

Diary of Musician David Lane, October 7, 1863

Colonel Luce is going home again, on furlough, to recruit. He takes with him three officers of the line and ten Sergeants—one from each company. They are to be gone sixty days. If enlisting is "played out," as many claim, sending men from active service for the purpose of soliciting enlistments is the height of folly. Perhaps there is so little for us to do just now, we may as well be in Michigan as Tennessee. If that is so, why not send all of us home?

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 102

Diary of Musician David Lane, October 9, 1863

At daylight yesterday we were ordered to be ready to march at 9 o'clock. It had been rumored for several days the Rebels had possession of Greenville, seventy-five miles up the valley, and that our forces were falling back toward Morristown. The Second Brigade was sent that way last week. Monday the First Brigade of the First Division moved forward to Morristown and was followed on Wednesday by the Second. Today the Third Brigade follows.

The Second and Twentieth Michigan Infantry and the One Hundredth Pennsylvania have gone, and we are momentarily expecting the train which is to take us. General Wilcox has arrived with five thousand new troops, and is at Morristown. We have, also, a heavy force of mounted infantry and cavalry at Greenville. The Rebels are reported eight thousand strong. The intention is to lure them on to near Bulls Gap, and, while the mounted men work around the mountains to their rear, we close in on them in front and grind them between us.

Burnside went to the front today, from which I infer there is work to be done. This line of railroad is of the utmost importance to Virginia Rebels. They cannot safely winter there without it, and they will make a desperate effort to regain control of it.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, p. 103

Diary of Musician David Lane, October 12, 1863

We left Knoxville at 9 a. m. of Saturday and arrived within ten miles of Greenville about sundown. The hills and valleys were covered with troops, those in front in line of battle. Artillery and musketry could be heard about two miles in front, and we were told there had been skirmishing in front nearly all day. It was nearly dark, and our brigade, being in front, we marched about half a mile and encamped for the night. Before it was fairly light the next morning we joined our brigade, which was in the extreme front, supporting a battery. Every preparation had been made for a "big fight," and our boys awaited the attack with eager anticipation. Skirmishers were thrown out to ascertain the position of their infantry, that our batteries might open the ball by a salute at sunrise. Our skirmishers soon returned—they had found no enemy. Instantly away dashed a regiment of cavalry in hot pursuit, followed by the First Division—the Seventeenth in advance. We did some fast marching for about two hours, when we halted for two mounted brigades to pass. Here we learned the Rebels passed through Greenville about daylight, and were some ten miles ahead, making the best time possible. But Foster's cavalry had been sent around to intercept them should they retreat.

He was expected to cross the river at a ferry fifteen miles above Greenville and intercept them in a ravine about five miles beyond. But the ferry boats had been destroyed, and he was compelled to go several miles to a ford, which caused so much delay he did not arrive in time. We followed several miles and gave up the pursuit.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, pp. 103-4

Diary of Musician David Lane, October 14, 1863

Our part in this expedition is done, and we are on our way back to Knoxville. Wilcox's "baby brigade," as our boys call them, and the Twenty-third Corps, together with cavalry and mounted infantry, are following up the retreating Rebels. I have not learned the result of the fight, and probably will not for some days to come. Over a hundred of their dead are buried at Blue Springs, where our forces first overtook them, and as far as I went which was fifteen miles—every house was filled with their wounded.

I saw some were from Lee's army. One Lieutenant said he remembered seeing our regiment at Fredericksburg. He had stood picket opposite our boys several times. There was a brigade from the Rappahannock. Their force, he said, was about eight thousand, all mounted. The facts in the case were about as follows: Burnside had cleared his department of armed Rebels and had advanced into Virginia as far as Salt Town, where the Rebels had extensive salt works, strongly fortified. Before he could concentrate sufficient force to destroy these works, word came that Rosa was in danger—that Burnside was to hold himself in readiness to reinforce him at a minute's notice. In order to do this he must withdraw all his forces from the northeast and concentrate them near Knoxville.

The Rebels followed up as he fell back, and occupied the positions he had driven them from.

Before Burnside reached Morristown, word came from Rosa that he was safe inside his fortifications and was being rapidly reinforced by Grant. This left Burnside free to do over again what had been undone, but through no fault of his.

It was a touching sight to witness the joy of these much-abused people at our return. Men who had fled to the bush as the Rebels advanced, and dare not, for their lives, appear, came flocking in and were welcomed with tears and shouts of joy by wives and children. Their gratitude was unbounded.

As I witnessed the delight of these people and listened to their tales of suffering, I felt more than ever that I was engaged in a just and holy cause, and my heart was strengthened to do and dare for human liberty.

SOURCE: David Lane, A Soldier's Diary: The Story of a Volunteer, 1862-1865, pp. 105-6

Wendell Phillips to Senator Charles Sumner, April 27, 1852

I have never, my dear friend, ceased one moment to trust you. Passing over the whole State this winter, lecturing sometimes four nights in the week, I have been asked scores of times by Free Soilers as well as our folks, “Do you put entire trust in C. S.?” Theodore Parker tells me he has met the same questioning many times. My answer has always been the expression, the frank, cordial expression, of most entire confidence in you. I have then dwelt on the expediency of getting acquainted with your audience before speaking; obtaining a point d'appui by showing a knowledge of, and interest in, other questions, etc., — adding that I knew you were acting in concert with, and by advice of, all the prominent friends of antislavery in Washington. This I learned from your letters, but did not say so, as they were marked “confidential,” and I did not wish to compromise you. Last week there was a resolution offered at the Dedham meeting declaring your course inexplicable. I opposed it; went over your whole reform life. “A man of more rightful expectations than any of his age in New England spoke what peace address July 4. Perhaps he did not know then all he was sacrificing; the proof of his true devotion was, that, finding the sacrifice possibly greater than he anticipated, he stood by his position, — never retreated an inch; on the contrary, advanced to the prison discipline struggle, and to a more prominent and radical position on antislavery, etc. Such a man has earned the right to be trusted, even while we do not understand his whole ground or all his reasons. Some men the more radical among his party, I think — expect more from him than he has ever promised; but I believe Charles Sumner will fulfil every promise he has ever made, every expectation he has ever given any one ground for entertaining. I think his course at Washington impolitic and wrong;¹ but that matters not. He has used, I doubt not, his best discretion, and the best advice at hand. He has his way of doing things; he did not suit us wholly while here; it's no surprise to me that his course should not wholly suit us now. I shall trust him at least till the end of the session, and listen then to his explanations.” If you shall always have ten such friends as I have been, your political life will be a happy one, and your fame (were it Sodom) as a fulfiller of all your pledges will be saved."²

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¹ Sumner felt hurt at this phrase in the speech; but Phillips claimed that being addressed to dissatisfied persons it was in the connection judicious, and not open to objection as unfriendly.

² Theodore Parker, though deeply regretting that Sumner delayed his speech so long, nevertheless expressed publicly no distrust of him, and made an apology for his silence at a meeting, July 5, [1852] in Abington. His very cordial and frank letters to Sumner himself rather imply a fear that his fibre was not quite so strong as it should be, and needed to be stiffened.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 285-6

John A. Andrew to Senator Charles Sumner, June 2, 1852

When by the circumstances a speech is an act for liberty, then I trust that you will make it. But when by speaking you feel that you would only drown your own testimony by the sound of your own voice, then it is not such as I am who desire you to break your silence.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 286

Joshua Leavitt to Senator Charles Sumner, June 11, 1852

I like your course, and especially that it is yours, and not any other man's. I told you at the outset to take time, act deliberately, so as to have nothing to take back, and not be in a hurry, and let croakers croak.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 286

John W. Browne to Senator Charles Sumner, June 18, 1852

Don't let the unjust and ill-considered words said here about your tardiness to speak on this subject press you to speak one moment earlier than your nature and instincts are ready to the utmost to do their own spontaneous work, and upon their own occasion. Take your time, by the force of your own nature, in your own methods; you will have all your strength in effort, and not otherwise. Don't let hasty requirements of those who are eager for your speech move you to utterance one moment prematurely, as your season takes its own procession. Don't speak upon the pressure of any opinion. William Bowditch authorizes me to say that this is his view of the matter also.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 287

Richard Henry Dana Jr. to Senator Charles Sumner, August 9, 1852

We have perfect faith in your course. We believe that if you had been permitted to speak,¹ a better day for the speech could not have been selected than the time you took. If you had spoken, all would have said so. It was just at the right interval between the settlement of the policy of the old parties and the opening of our own. A speech before the conventions of the old parties would have been reckoning without your host. There are some men who think that nothing is doing unless there is a gun firing or a bell ringing. There are superficial persons in whom is no depth of root; they are easily offended. The work we have to do is a long one; there is no pending question. Patience and judgment and preparation are as necessary as zeal, and more rare.

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¹ A reference to the Senate's refusal to hear him, July 28.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 287

Nathaniel P. Banks Jr. to Senator Charles Sumner, August 9, 1852

If the people of Massachusetts who now distrust you could have heard your voice in the Senate, and witnessed the attention you received, they would leave everything to you, knowing that your course would be for the best.

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[BLOG EDITOR’S NOTE: Charles Sumner delivered his eulogy for former United States Senator Robert Rantoul Jr. on the floor of the United States Senate on August 9, 1852, two days after Rantoul’s death.]

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 287

Henry Wilson to Senator Charles Sumner, June 29, 1852

You must not let the session close without speaking. Should you do so, you would be openly denounced by nine tenths of our people. They say they are daily tormented about your silence by the Whigs all over the State, and many of them think you will not speak at all.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 288

John Jay to Senator Charles Sumner, July 5, 1852

I know too well the strength and depth of your antislavery principles, and have been too recently assured of your anxiety to utter your full views touching the Fugitive law to the Senate and the country, to attribute your delay in doing so to any other reason than your belief that an expedient occasion has not yet arrived. Others, however, who confound you with common politicians, attribute your silence to the Southern atmosphere of the Capitol, and profess to believe either that your opinions have become essentially modified, or that you are fearful of encountering the intellectual power of the defenders of Compromise, and incurring the odium and contempt with which the chivalry look down upon an abolitionist. I need not tell you, my dear Sumner, how warmly and indignantly I have repelled, and will continue to repel, all such insinuations against your honor and your integrity, and how confidently I have told your defamers to wait a little while for the promised speech that would silence their croakings, and awaken the country anew with strains of eloquence like those uttered by you in Faneuil Hall. Mr. Webster's awful treachery and shameless apostasy have so weakened the confidence of the people in the power of individuals to hold fast to unpopular truths that the meanness of such lesser traitors as Stanton and John Van Buren has excited no surprise.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 288

Senator Charles Sumner to John Jay, July 8, 1852

I thank you for your watchful friendship. Had I imagined the impatience of friends, I would have anticipated their most sanguine desires. But, with the absolute mens conscia recti, knowing the completeness of my devotion to the cause, I have let time proceed in the full conviction that at last I shall be understood. I fear nothing. I am under no influences which can interfere with this great duty. From the time I first came here I determined to speak on slavery some time at the end of June or in July, and not before, unless pressed by some practical question. No such question has occurred, and I have been left to my original purposes. My time has now come. I wish I could speak this week; but I cannot. For some time I have not been well; I have lost strength, and owing to this circumstance I have not made the preparation necessary. I am now at work, and to this devote myself whenever out of the Senate. Amidst these heats I am doing as well as I can. Your appeal and the interest expressed by others in my speech fill me with a painful conviction of my utter inability to do what is expected. But I shall try to do my duty. As to the responsibilities of standing alone, and as to any answers to me, to all these I am absolutely indifferent, — of this be assured. But when I speak, I wish to speak completely.

SOURCE: Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. 3, p. 289

Diary of Private William S. White, August 6, 1862

Our Parrot gun was ordered to the south side of the James River about a week since, and we, as yet, have heard nothing from it. The Second Company Howitzers left at the same time, and placed in the Third Company's charge their Rifled Howitzer. A few days since we exchanged one of our little brass boat-howitzers for another ten-pound Parrot gun, and our battery has been much strengthened by it. At 2 o'clock this morning we received orders to start by daylight for Malvern Hill, to which place the enemy have advanced in large force, driving the few troops we had there before them. We are not attached to any brigade, and are held as a reserve. Many artillery companies attached to brigades are passing us on the road, and I suppose they are to have the first show. However, I shall not grumble at that, for we had our share in the fighting around Richmond, though I do not think our small guns accomplished much.

SOURCE: William S. White, A Diary of the War; or What I Saw of It, pp. 125-6