Edwin M. Stanton to Simon Cameron, June 15, 1863 – 7:30 p.m.

WAR DEPARTMENT, June 15, 1863 — 7.30 p.m.

Hon. SIMON CAMERON, Harrisburg:

The President has referred your telegram to me for answer. No one can tell how long the present emergency for troops in Pennsylvania may continue. The present movement is but the execution of Jeff. Davis' original plan to make Pennsylvania and the loyal States the theater of war. The rebels are encouraged by the hope of assistance and encouragement held out to them by opposition to the war and resistance to the enrollment in Pennsylvania. The law has fixed the period for which troops shall be called. If the emergency is over before that time, they can be discharged; but as human foresight cannot say how long it may take to drive out the rebels, especially if they should find aid and comfort in Pennsylvania, the President thinks he must obey the law.

EDWIN M. STANTON.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 27, Part 3 (Serial No. 45), p. 141-2

Edwin M. Stanton to Governor Horatio Seymour, June 27, 1863

War Department, Washington City,

June 27th, 1863.

Dear Sir: I cannot forbear expressing to you the deep obligation I feel for the prompt and cordial support you have given the Government in the present emergency. The energy and patriotism you have exhibited I may be permitted personally and officially to acknowledge, without arrogating any personal claims on my part, to such service, or any service whatever.

I shall be happy always to be esteemed your friend.

Edwin M. Stanton.

His Excellency Horatio Seymour.

SOURCE: James D. McCabe, The Life and Public Services of Horatio Seymour, p. 66

Charles A. Dana to Edwin M. Stanton, June 14, 1863 – 8 a.m.

BEHIND VICKSBURG, June 14, 1863 — 8 a.m.,

VIA MEMPHIS, June 17 — Noon.

(Received 7 p.m.)

All the indications point to the speedy surrender of this place. Deserters who came out yesterday say that the Tennessee and Georgia regiments have determined to stack their arms within three days and refuse to continue the defense on the ground that it is useless, and that it is impossible to fight on the rations they receive. All the deserters are worn out and hungry, and say the whole garrison are in the same condition; besides, the defense has for several days been conducted with extraordinary feebleness, which must be due either to the deficiency of ammunition, or exhaustion and depression in the garrison, or to their retirement to an inner line of defense. The first and third of these causes no doubt operate to some extent, but the second we suppose to be the most influential. These deserters also say that fully one-third of the garrison are in hospital, and that officers, as well as men, have begun to despair of relief from Johnston. The troops of General Herron got into position yesterday. The advance of the Ninth Army Corps is also believed by General Grant to have arrived at Young's Point, though he has no positive report, and does not expect one till it has its place as a part of the besieging force on the south of the city, whither he has sent orders for it to proceed. After the arrival there of this corps, General Herron is to move to the right of General Lauman, and occupy that portion of the lines which is now held by Hovey's division, which McClernand will then station as a reserve to support the other divisions of his corps. All of W. S. Smith's division are now at Haynes' Bluff, where I saw them yesterday working upon the intrenchments with admirable zeal. The fortifications there for an army of 25,000 troops will be in a condition for practical use by the 16th instant. It is a stronger defensive position even than Vicksburg. The distance hence to Drumgould's Bluff is 11 miles, to Haynes' Bluff 14. Drumgould's, on which the rebels placed their most elaborate works, is an isolated mamelon. Snyder's and Haynes' Bluffs are connected by a ridge, though flanks on the river side are separated by two ravines and a bayou slope. Snyder's commands the lower, Haynes' the upper bend of the Yazoo. Snyder' Bluff is now being fortified. When the works there are completed, they will be extended around Haynes' also. They will then form an intrenched camp for 50,000 troops. From Joe Johnston there is no news since my last dispatch, except that which merely confirms its principal contents. He has made no new movements in this quarter.

Sebastian, Senator from Arkansas, has determined to claim his seat in the next Congress. With the fall of Vicksburg, he says that all west of the Mississippi is emancipated from the Confederacy, and that Arkansas can be brought back into the Union. He has taken no part in the war.

Please inform me by telegraph whether you wish me to go to General Rosecrans after the fall of Vicksburg, or whether you have any other orders for me. I should like to go home for a short time.

C. A. DANA.

Hon. E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 1 (Serial No. 36), p. 98-9

Charles A. Dana to Edwin M. Stanton, June 29, 1863 – 9 a.m.

NEAR VICKSBURG; June 29, 1863 — 9 a.m.,

VIA MEMPHIS, July 1 — 10 p.m.

(Received July 4 — 8 p.m.)

Two separate parties of deserters from Vicksburg agree in the statement that the provisions of the place are near the point of total exhaustion; that rations have now been reduced lower than ever; that extreme dissatisfaction exists among the garrison, and that it is agreed on all hands that the city will be surrendered on Saturday, July 4, if, indeed, it can hold on so long as that. Col. C. R. Woods, who holds our extreme right on the Mississippi, has got out five of the thirteen guns of the sunken gunboat Cincinnati, and this morning opens three of them from batteries on the bluff. The others, including those still in the vessel, he will place as rapidly as possible in a battery he has constructed on the river half a mile in the rear of his lines. Though this battery has no guns on it, yet the enemy has been firing its heaviest ordnance at it for several days past, and has done to the embrasures some little damage, easily repairable. It commands the whole face of the town. On McPherson's front a new mine is now nearly completed, and will at furthest be ready to spring at daylight to morrow. It is intended to destroy internal rifle-pits with which the rebels still hold the fort whose bastion was overthrown by McPherson's former mine. If successful, it will give us complete possession of that fort, as the narrowness of the ridge on which it stands and the abruptness of the ravine behind it made it impossible that it should be defended by any third line in the rear of that now being undermined. The new line in Sherman's front will probably not be ready so soon, but the engineer's morning report has not been made. No news from Joe Johnston.

C. A. DANA.

Hon. E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 24, Part 1 (Serial No. 36), p. 112

Major-General Henry W. Halleck to Major-General William S. Rosecrans, June 16, 1863 – 2 p.m.

WAR DEPARTMENT,

Washington, June 16, 1863 — 2 p.m.

Major-General ROSECRANS,

Murfreesborough, Tenn.:

Is it your intention to make an immediate movement forward? A definite answer, yes or no, is required.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 23, Part 1 (Serial No. 34), p. 10

Major-General William S. Rosecrans to Major-General Henry W. Halleck, June 16, 1863 – 6:30 p.m.

MURFREESBOROUGH, TENN.,

June 16, 1863 — 6.30 p.m.

Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK,  General-in-Chief:

In reply to your inquiry, if immediate means to-night or to-morrow, no. If it means as soon as all things are ready, say five days, yes.

W. S. ROSECRANS,

Major-general.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 23, Part 1 (Serial No. 34), p. 10

Abraham Lincoln to Major-General Darius Couch, June 24, 1863 – 8:55 a.m.

WASHINGTON, June 24, 1863 — 8.55 a.m.

Major-General COUCH,

Harrisburg, Pa.:

Have you any reports of the enemy moving into Pennsylvania? And, if any, what?

A. LINCOLN.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 27, Part 3 (Serial No. 45), p. 295

John H. Hill to William Still, March 8, 1854

TORONTO, March 8th, 1854.

MY DEAR FRIEND STILL:—We will once more truble you opon this great cause of freedom, as we know that you are a man, that are never fatuged in Such a glorious cause. Sir, what I wish to Say is this. Mr. Forman has Received a letter from his wife dated the 29th ult. She States to him that She was Ready at any time, and that Everything was Right with her, and she hoped that he would lose no time in sending for her for she was Ready and awaiting for him. Well friend Still, we learnt that Mr. Minkens could not bring her the account of her child. We are very sorry to hear Such News, however, you will please to read this letter with care, as we have learnt that Minkens Cannot do what we wishes to be done; we perpose another way. There is a white man that Sale from Richmond to Boston, that man are very Safe, he will bring F's wife with her child. So you will do us a favour will take it upon yourself to transcribe from this letter what we shall write. I. E. this there is a Colored gen. that workes on the basin in R—d this man's name is Esue Foster, he can tell Mrs. forman all about this Saleor. So you can place the letter in the hands of M. to take to forman’s wife, She can read it for herself. She will find Foster at ladlum’s warehouse on the Basin, and when you write call my name to him and he will trust it. this foster are a member of the old Baptist Church. When you have done all you can do let us know what you have done, if you hears anything of my uncle let me know.

SOURCES: William Still, The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters &c., p. 196

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Charles Sumner, February 26, 1851

Washington City, Feb. 26, 1851.

My Dear Sumner, I have long desired to write you, but have postponed it from day to day in the hope that I might be able to congratulate you on your election. I suppose another attempt has been made today, but the past has discouraged me. The treachery of the rascals who have hitherto defeated you is probably too deep to be repented of. But there will be a glorious issue to go to the people upon. The Free Democracy and the Old Line Democracy will now be drawn into closer sympathy. I think this approximation is needed. Your old style for our organization of the Free Democracy, rather than Free Soil, you know, was always most acceptable to me. In fact I should not myself be willing to fight in a mere free soil party at the present time. I should be too uncertain whither it would drift. We must soon grapple with the great question of emancipation. It will not be long before the gentlemen who are always for compromise, will be ready for some scheme of emancipation by which the masters will be indemnified. Capital in mills and shops and stocks and capital in men women & children will ally themselves together and propose a grand national debt for raising the means of compensation. To be safe we must place ourselves on the ground of the separation of the Genl. Government from slavery leaving all questions of slavery within states to the states themselves. This is the democratic view, and harmonizes with the original policy of the Government.

But why talk to you of these things, when you know all about them? Let me hear from you. I shall leave on Tuesday morning or evening for Cincinnati.

Yours ever,

[SALMON P. CHASE.]

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 234

Diary of Gideon Welles: Thursday, October 15, 1863

News from the front vague and unsatisfactory. Our papers dwell on the masterly movements of Meade, and street rumor glorifies him, but I can get nothing to authenticate or justify this claim of wonderful strategy. Lee has made a demonstration, and our army has fallen back, — “changed its base,” they call it at the War Department; in the vernacular, retreated. This retreat may have been, and probably was, skillfully executed. It is well to make the most of it. It is claimed Meade has shown great tact in not permitting the enemy to outflank him. Perhaps so. I shall not controvert, if I doubt it. I would not decry our generals, nor speak my mind freely if unfavorably impressed concerning them, in public. Meade does the best he knows how; Halleck does nothing.

The election returns come in triumphantly for the Union. Woodward and Vallandigham, both Rebel sympathizers, have been defeated. General McClellan, whose reticence and caution have hitherto been well maintained, unwisely exposed himself. I am informed he refused to write a letter until assured by those in whom he had full trust that there was no doubt of Woodward's election. I doubt if his letter helped Woodward to one vote, but it has effectually killed McClellan.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 470-1

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Saturday, March 28, 1863

Rain all night. Yesterday, a clear, cold morning; a white frost; cloudy and hazy all day; rain at night.

P. M. Rode with Dr. Webb, Lieutenant McKinley, and a dragoon out on road to Coal Forks as far as Davis Creek, thence down the creek to the Guyandotte Pike (river road), thence home. Crossed the creek seven times; water deep and bottom miry.

Today a fight between four hundred Jenkins' or Floyd's men and two hundred and seventy-five Thirteenth Virginia [men] at Hurricane Bridge. Rebels repulsed. Our loss three killed and six wounded, one mortally. Floyd's men coming into Logan, Boone, Wayne, Cabell, and Putnam [Counties], reporting Floyd dismissed and his troops disbanded. The troops from being state troops refuse to go into Confederate service but seem willing to fight the Yankees on their own hook.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 398

Diary of 1st Sergeant John L. Ransom: July 19, 1864

There is no such thing as delicacy here. Nine out of ten would as soon eat with a corpse for a table as any other way. In the middle of last night I was awakened by being kicked by a dying man. He was soon dead. In his struggles he had floundered clear into our bed Got up and moved the body off a few feet, and again went to sleep to dream of the hideous sights. I can never get used to it as some do. Often wake most scared to death, and shuddering from head to foot. Almost dread to go to sleep on this account. I am getting worse and worse, and prison ditto.

SOURCE: John L. Ransom, Andersonville Diary, p. 88

Captain William Thompson Lusk to Elizabeth Adams Lusk, September 18, 1862

Address:

Capt. W. T. Lusk, A. A. A. Gen.

1st. Brig. 1st. Div. 9th. A. C.

Washington, D. C.

(To be forwarded)

Sept. 18th, 1862.

My dearest Mother:

After the battle of South Mountain, as we were being pushed on to this point (near Sharpsburg), unable to write myself, the Chaplain of the 79th kindly promised to inform you of my safety. Yesterday there was another fierce battle in which I took an active part, but he who lends a pitying ear to the prayers of the widow and the fatherless, vouchsafed to spare me in the time of danger. To-morrow I suppose there will be another battle, so to-night, though it is late, I write you hurriedly. Our successes in Maryland have been signal. We have been cheered for the bloodshed of the past few days by the sight of a retreating foe. God grant us such victories as may speedily end the war. All wish for peace, and so are willing to fight with desperation. Our division has done splendidly so far.

I long to hear from home. Your letter of the 25th of August, telling me that I was an unsuccessful candidate for position in the 18th Conn., is the last news I have received from home. Well, my fate is the fate of thousands. Those of us who have borne all the dangers and privations of the past, have no pretensions in comparison with such as can control a few votes in a country parish. I have taken part now in seven grand battles, and over a half dozen smaller engagements, have been constantly in service for fifteen months, have received the most gratifying expression of the esteem of my superior officers, but promotion is not the result of service according to our present system. In my old position as Acting Asst. Adjt.-General to the Division, with a change of Generals, I was superseded by a private of the 7th Regiment of New-York, who received a Commission from the President. This is perfectly right, as each General must choose his own Adjutant and form his own staff. Of the fifteen months I have held a Commission, fourteen months I have held acting appointments, that is, have had the labor and responsibility of various positions without the emolument. I am now Acting A. A. General to the first Brigade of this division, the regular pay of which position is between $160 and $170 per month. Holding only an acting appointment I receive $120.00. There is not much encouragement in this, but still I am content to be of any assistance, or to do my duty in any position which may be allotted me. I fear my old friends who hoped for much, feel more distressed than I do. I saw Charley Farnsworth in Washington. He feels that he has done much, and has received only neglect in return. His wound troubles him still, and I think he is not sorry to make it a pretext for quitting a service where there is no glory, no recognition of service to promote and foster a soldier's pride. Charley is a fine fellow, and his parents may feel proud of him.

I have had those two bad teeth of mine extracted. Tried a Regimental Surgeon first. Surgeon breaks one of them off, and I decline to have the experiment repeated — suffer all sorts of agony for about a month. At Frederick find a regular dentist who feels confident that he can draw any tooth. I let him try first the one not already partially operated upon. Dentist puts on the forceps and crushes in one side, then cuts the gum, tries again — pleasantly assures me he can do it, and crunch goes the old tooth again. Dentist grows radiant and tells how he extracted twelve from one lady the day before, and is more confident than ever that he can do it; puts on his forceps and by a succession of wrenches breaks the crown of the tooth, lays it complacently on a sheet of paper, and says that is just what he most ardently desired; makes another effort, smashes the root, and with the face of an angel, tells me it's all right — that now he can do it. Here human endurance failed. I objected to any further torture, took chloroform, sank into a state of insensibility, recovered minus two teeth, and all right.

Good-bye, dear, darling mother, keep up good heart. God is merciful as well as just. Love to all the dear ones.

Affec'y.,

Will.

SOURCE: William Chittenden Lusk, Editor, War Letters of William Thompson Lusk, p. 199-202

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: August 9, 1863

No news from the armies.

Mrs. ex-President Tyler, who has already been permitted to visit her native State, New York, once or twice during the war — and indeed her plantation has been within the enemy's lines — has applied for passage in a government steamer (the Lee) to Nassau, and to take with her "a few bales of cotton." I suppose it will be "allowed."

We have fine hot August weather now, and I hope my tomatoes will mature, and thus save me two dollars per day. My potatoes have, so far, failed; but as they are still green, perhaps they may produce a crop later in the season. The lima beans, trailed on the fence, promise an abundant crop; and the cabbages and peppers look well. Every inch of the ground is in cultivation — even the ash-heap, covered all over with tomato-vines.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 9

Captain Charles Wright Wills: June 4, 1863

Middleton, Tenn., June 4, 1863.

We made another little change yesterday. The regiment is now guarding the M. C. & R. R. from Grand Junction to Pocahontas. We are in detachments of two companies each. H Company is with mine. We marched 23 miles to make this point yesterday, and arrived at 10 o'clock p. m. We only made four miles after dark, and the road was so horrible and the woods so thick we had much difficulty in finding it at all. We occupy the depot and have strengthened it by a revetment of fascines, so that we consider ourselves perfectly safe if attacked by even ten times our number of infantry. Artillery would scoop us. This little town had when the war commenced some 40 houses; now it boasts of not more than 12 or 15, though a number of extra chimneys add so much to the picturesqueness of the scene, that I can excuse the houses for "going out." This country has literally been scraped, swept and scoured. The guerrillas first ran the Union men off, and then when we came here the Unionists returned, took up arms and drove out all the secesh families. You can hear of murders being committed in every neighborhood by either one party or the other. It will take at least 8,000 years for this people alone to make this country what Illinois is now, on the average, and at least 1,000 to bring it up to the standard of poor, God-forsaken Lewistown township. I have never been so comfortably situated in the army, except when with Colonel Mizner, as I am now. The boys have rigged up nice bunks in the depot wareroom, which are dry and comfortable, have good water, light guard duty, and the citizens bring in to us their extra vegetables, etc., and trade them for our surplus rations. The boys give one pound of coffee for two dozen eggs, or two pounds of butter; sell them bacon for 15 cents per pound, etc. Two very fine elderly ladies pleading for a horse to-day, told stories of tremendous length about how "Union" their husbands were prior to their deaths. I'd almost rather give up my head than have two women of their age begging of me for anything that way. I have the telegraph room for myself and have fixed it up nicely. I know well enough that it is too good to last long and shall resign it without a sigh, and if ordered to Vicksburg, with a cheer. I fixed up our last camp as well as I could in hopes that my pains would bring us marching orders, and we got them, but the direction was wrong. This is so much better that it must surely win. Maybe you don't know that there is a superstition (almost) among soldiers that arranging a camp particularly nice and comfortable brings marching orders.

SOURCE: Charles Wright Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 177-9

Franklin B. Sanborn to John Brown, July 27, 1859

[July 27, 1859.]

Dear Friend, — Yours of the 18th has been received and communicated. S. G. Howe has sent you fifty dollars in a draft on New York, and I am expecting to get more from other sources (perhaps some here), and will make up to you the three hundred dollars, if I can, as soon as I can; but I can give nothing myself just now, being already in debt. I hear with great pleasure what you say of the success of the business, and hope nothing will occur to thwart it. Your son John was in Boston a week or two since. I tried to find him, but did not; and being away from Concord, he did not come to see me. He saw S. G. Howe, George L. Stearns, Wendell Phillips, Francis Jackson, etc.; and everybody liked him. I am very sorry I could not see him. All your Boston friends are well. Theodore Parker is in Switzerland, much better, it is thought, than when he left home. Henry Sterns, of Springfield, is dead.

SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 534-5

Diary of 2nd Lieutenant Luman Harris Tenney: December 5, 1863

A damp cloudy day. Sent out for meat and wheat. All failed save the butchers. Some talk of moving. Played checkers with Ordnance Sergt. Got badly beaten. Went to bed early with orders to be ready to march at 7 A. M. the next morning. All quiet.

SOURCE: Frances Andrews Tenney, War Diary Of Luman Harris Tenney, p. 100

John H. Hill to William Still, December 29, 1853

TORONTO, December 29th, 1853.

MY DEAR FRIEND:— It affords me a good deel of Pleasure to say that my wife and the Children have arrived safe in this City. But my wife had very bad luck. She lost her money and the money that was belonging to the children, the whole amount was 35 dollars. She had to go to the Niagara falls and Telegraph to me come after her. She got to the falls on Sat'dy and I went after her on Monday. We saw each other once again after so long an Abstance, you may know what sort of matting it was, joyful times of corst. My wife are well Satisfied here, and she was well Pleased during her stay in your city. My Trip to the falls cost Ten Eighty Seven and half. The things that friend Brown Shiped to me by the Express costed $24¼. So you can see fiting out a house Niagara falls and the cost for bringing my things to this place, have got me out of money, but for all I am a free man.

The weather are very cold at Present, the snow continue to fall though not as deep here as it is in Boston. The people haves their own Amousements, the weather as it is now, they don't care for the snow nor ice, but they are going from Ten A. M. until Twelve P. M., the hous that we have open don't take well because we don't Sell Spirits, which we are trying to avoid if we can.

Mr. Still, I hold in my hand A letter from a friend of South, who calls me to promise that I made to him before I left. My dear Sir, this letter have made my heart Bleed, since I Received it, he also desires of me to remember him to his beloved Brethren and then to Pray for him and his dear friends who are in Slavery. I shall Present his letter to the churches of this city. I forward to your care for Mrs. Moore, a few weeks ago. Mrs. Hill sends her love to your wife and yourself.

Please to write, I Sincerely hope that our friends from Petersburg have reached your city before this letter is dated. I must close by saying, that I Sir, remain humble and obedient Servant,

J. H. H.

SOURCES: William Still, The Underground Railroad: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters &c., p. 195-6

Senator Salmon P. Chase to Edward S. Hamlin, February 1851

Washington City, Feb. 1851.

My Dear Sir, I am in debt to you, but not absolutely insolvent. I have taken to be sure rather an unreasonable stay of execution, but I always meant to pay up at last. But you will have even now to take payment in depreciated currency and that you will say is half way to repudiation. I can only give you a very hurried and unsatisfactory letter for your good one.

The papers will shew you that agitation has not been entirely excluded from the Senate. Clay has himself been the arch agitator. For myself I thought it a good occasion to appear in the character of a friend to the progress of business, and the postponement of slavery discussions, which would interfere with it at this session. I was really anxious for the progress of business — for the fate of cheap postage and the harbor & river bill depended upon it. And besides I decided to show the country the hypocrisy of those pretences which always put the "other public interests" in competition with "freedom" but never in competition with slavery. You will see my speech and I hope approve of it. It had one capital effect. It brought out Rhett in an able speech vindicating the same views of the fugitive servant clause of the Constitution which I adopt. These southern ultras are altogether more honest than the southern doughfaces. They believe slavery to be right most of them and the rest believe it to be a necessity. They all agree in believing that in the present state of the races in the slave states slavery is best for both and indeed indispensable to the safety of both. They believing and holding also that the Constitution recognizes their right of property in slaves, their conclusions are natural enough. They avow them boldly and act upon them. The Compromisers on the other hand, generally, regard slavery as a temporary institution; but use it as a means of gaining and retaining political power.

It seems to me that the only course for us who believe in equal rights without limitations or exceptions, is to act together. We shall be ruined if we undertake to act with the Whigs. We cannot merge in the Old Line Democracy, so long as it cleaves to its alliance with the slave power, without being submerged. It seems to me that our true course, in the event, that the young men's Democratic Convention in May fail, as I fear they will fail, to take ground on the slavery questions which we can approve, is to call a Convention of Radical Democrats or Jeffersonian Democrats to meet in June or thereabouts and organize throughout the State. This course will bring Hunkerism to its senses.

All on the subject of the Presidency is much as it was when I last wrote you. Douglas is figuring, but he can't come it.

Write me at Cincinnati immediately on receiving this. I expect to be there on Friday night or Saturday morning of next week: and I hope to be able to spend a day or two in Columbus before the Legislature adjourns. I desire much to see our friends there.

Miller of the Toledo Republican writes me that he is about to sell out. I am sorry; but if he and Riley can be secured for the Columbus paper the cause may not lose by it. Under existing circumstances it is very important to have a paper of the right kind at the Capital.

SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 232-4

Diary of Gideon Welles: Wednesday, October 14, 1863

The election returns from Pennsylvania and Ohio are cheering in their results. The loyal and patriotic sentiment is strongly in the ascendant in both States, and the defeat of Vallandigham is emphatic. I stopped in to see and congratulate the President, who is in good spirits and greatly relieved from the depression of yesterday. He told me he had more anxiety in regard to the election results of yesterday than he had in 1860 when he was chosen. He could not, he said, have believed four years ago, that one genuine American would, or could be induced to, vote for such a man as Vallandigham, yet he has been made the candidate of a large party, their representative man, and has received a vote that is a discredit to the country. The President showed a good deal of emotion as he dwelt on this subject, and his regrets were sincere.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30, 1864, p. 470