Posted on 01/14/2020 5:03:07 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
Bleeding Kansas, Dred Scott, Lincoln-Douglas, Harpers Ferry, the election of 1860, secession all the events leading up to the Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts
First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.
Posting history, in reverse order
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.
SATURDAY EVE. I have been busy all day in taking measures for clothing, in drill, examining applications for leave to visit home for Sunday, etc., and now as the hour approaches to send off my mail, I have no time even to look over what I wrote last night. Smith and Boyd go to-day to visit some Doctor from Virginia to be absent till Monday thirty-nine Cadets present.
SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 122
Thanks for this, especially for the Collins story before it became a classic!
More than one of the three months of the short session of Congress has elapsed and no organization has been effected. Less than fifty working days remain; during which all the appropriation bills of this session and the Post-office Appropriation Bill of last session must be passed, Kansas must be admitted, and whatever measures are taken with regard to Mexico must be adopted. It is almost doubtful whether the business can be got through in the time that is left.
Hard to believe Congress used to waste time like that.
TYRONE PLANTATION, Sunday, 1:15 p.m., January 15, 1860.
DEAR SIR: Captain Jarreau has just left here, after bringing me yours of Friday night . I can well comprehend the pressure on your time, which keeps you constantly busy, and therefore makes you write hurriedly. I have more letters on hand now myself than I shall ever have time to answer. You were in this sort of hurry when you wrote me on the eleventh. . .
I entirely approve and authorize your suggestions in regard to approaches and enclosures. You will see where I formerly had the gate put, in the neighborhood of where [you] propose to put it now, with the express view to avoid injury to the front ground. Its removal to its present site was the work of more thoughtful heads that succeeded me.
In regard to the fencing, pine posts, whether sawed or split, will rot off very quick, the more lasting is the chinkapin, of which a good deal is generally to be found in the ravines and branch bottoms. If you cannot get it convenient to yourself the Pinewood's wagoners can get it for you, if they will. The gates I would move immediately. . .
Rest assured that I neither have made nor will make any use of Colonel Bragg's or your brother's letters to you that you could yourself object to, although you could not show them to those that I can. The only persons I have shown them to are Dr. Smith, Mr. Manning, Captain Elgee, and Mr. Halsey and Goodwin in my room at Mr. Fellows' on Thursday night, and I should now return them to you but that there is one other person I am desirous to show them to. I showed them to Mr. Halsey not as an editor, yet because he is an editor too, in order that he might in that capacity say nothing ignorantly, but principally from the estimation in which I hold him as a gentlemanly and right minded man, as far as the occupation, that of a hired partizan editor, he is engaged in, will permit. . .
I think the declaration of your brother in the House in one of the early days of the present session of Congress, and in the debate on the President's message in 1856, republished in the National Intelligencer of the twentieth ult. ought to be sufficient for any thinking, reflecting southern man, who has reason enough in him to admit of a difference of opinion between himself and other people.
Demagogical politicians and partizan editors make all the mischief. Since 1830-1833, I have always believed and never hesitate to express myself so on all occasions, that southern people of the above classes, many of them northern and eastern born, have had quite as much to do with producing the troubles of the country as any body else.
For yourself, my dear Sir, if I had never seen you at all, a knowledge of the facts that you had passed through the Military Academy, had served and resided in the south, and enjoyed the confidence and friendship of Colonel Bragg, was enough for me. The use that I desired to make of your letters was to forestall any apprehensions on the minds of others, not to remove any that I knew of. Am truly glad to learn from you that your own mind is quiet on this point.
SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 122-4
So, the bottom line is, I guess you’re an OK guy - for a Yankee?
Still, by year-end Cump could be wishing he had accepted that bank job in London.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
January 19. Mr. Ruggles reported by telegraph improving, but not strong enough to travel.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
COLUMBUS, Jany 20, 1860.
DEAR SUMNER, There are a few Republicans in the Legislature who think decided opposition especially of a practical character to slavery & its domination somewhat heretical, if not fanatical, and they do not like the idea that such a man as I am should be made Senator. They are few; but it has been feared that, if excited to factious action by disregarding altogether their wishes, they might be able, with the aid of the democrats, to defeat an election. I doubt whether they would do so in any event; but it was probably wisdom to give them no pretext. At least the majority thought it best to give them time; and accordingly the nomination was postponed to Feb. 1, when it will doubtless be made, & the election will follow very soon perhaps the next day. There are no indications of serious opposition. It gratifies me exceedingly that the true & earnest friends of our cause among whom I count you chief seem to desire so much my return to my old post. I confess however that I have myself little or no desire to return to it. I weary of political life & strife. Nothing but the clearly indicated will of the Republicans & especially of the most earnest & faithful among them would induce me to think of entering it again. Even that higher post to which you alluded would attract me less by its distinctions than it would repel by the apprehensions, which its responsibilities must awaken, of failure in effecting that elevation in tone, object, & action at home and abroad, which alone makes change of administration desirable. It would be a great thing indeed to reform administration at home; to infuse it with the spirit of liberty, justice, & equity; to enable our diplomacy to fill its posts with men whose hearts are sound as their heads; & by these means add dignity to national character & permanence to national institutions. But who, knowing himself & knowing the time, will dare to promise himself that he can do this?
My little Nettie has learned to admire you as much as her sister Kate. Your picture hangs in my dining room & in my library, and they think of you as a near friend.
SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 284-5
SEMINARY, Friday p.m., Jan. 20, 1860.
DEAR SIR: . . . I enclose herewith officially a letter received last night. You know how difficult it is to receive a cadet so far into the session. Indeed one class is kept confused by those arriving now. We have now forty-five. One great point to be arranged in the future is to devise some means whereby our classes will all start fair. I know fully that such a thing is impossible this term, and will receive all pay cadets come as they may but the state cadets should be held to a stricter compliance or they are not so welcome. There are now eight state cadets now present. This warm weather gives me good time to clean up and I regret that you cannot come out to see us. I want to have the road opened, trees trimmed, and grading done as far as possible by the time the trees begin to leaf. I use only the servants during the time they are not engaged in sweeping and carrying wood. I shall at the end of January pay Jarreau and all the professors, taking vouchers. I think I ought to charge for my services in November and December at $1,000 a year as superintendent little more than Jarreau received $83.33 per month, waiving all claims to pay as professor for that time. Will you approve it?
SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 132
January 20. Anxious about Mr. Ruggles at Lockport. A telegram from Jem, received just before dinnertime, announced that the physicians thought him improving slowly, which was satisfactory enough, but for the inference, strained perhaps, that Jem did not think so.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Oh, dear. I remember we were very concerned about Mr. Ruggles’s health a few years ago. I hope this isn’t It For Him.
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