[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, Harper’s 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.

Link to previous Harper’s Weekly thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

A page is missing from my pdf version of this week’s Harper’s Weekly. So there is no Lounger and no article accompanying the illustrations on pages 5 and 6.

Apre – 1-2
The Ohio “Holy Stone” – 1-3
Editorials – 4
Massacre of Maronite Christians – 5
The City of Damascus, Syria – 6
A Day’s Ride: A Life’s Romance, by Charles Lever. Ch. V – 7-8
How it Feels to Be Hanged – 8-9
Domestic Intelligence – 9
Foreign News – 10-11
Devon and Durham Cows – 11, 13
The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins, The Narrative of Isidor Ottavio Baldassare Fosco, etc. – 11, 14-15
Grand Finale of the Fireworks in Honor of the Prince of Wales and the Successful of the Victoria Bridge, Montreal, Canada East, by G.A. Lilliendahl, Esq., of New York, August 1860 – 12
Old King Hake – 15
Snail Eating – 16
Voiceless Verse – 16
The City of Ottawa – 16-17
Captain Brand of the Schooner “Centipede,” by Lieut. Henry A. Wise, U.S.N. (Harry Gringo). Chapter XLIX-L, Conclusion – 16, 18-20
Virtuous Indignation – 20
Young America Rising at the Ballot-Box and Strangling the Serpents Disunion and Secession – 21

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from August 31 (reply #7).

Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Senator William P. Fessenden to James S. Pike, September 2, 1860

PORTLAND, September 2, 1860.

MY DEAR PIKE: I have been absent all the week, and on my return find your letter of the 29th. My opinions coincide somewhat with yours, though I can hardly believe . . . so much of a scoundrel as to wish your district lost. The State Committee have not, I am informed, sent one dollar to this district. They offered us Burlingame for one evening, and the chairman of our District Committee says we shall have to pay him. When B. was here on his way to Belfast, he said that he had no engagements after that week, and agreed to speak at several places in this vicinity the week following. I urged him to do so, at the request of committees. Soon after, Stevens and Blaine loaded me down with letters and telegrams, complaining that he was taken out of their hands, and that he was needed in your district, saying, moreover, that you and Fred complained of neglect, and that the district was in danger. This was the first intimation I had of any danger in the First, or that it had not been taken care of, and I immediately wrote and telegraphed my willingness and advice that he should go to you at once, as we could get along without him. He is with you, and, I hope, is doing good service.

We are having a terrible fight here, and until Blaine wrote me about Burlingame, I supposed, as did we all, that our district was the battleground, and that yours was all right. My brother Sam writes that the Third is safe beyond a peradventure. He has fought his own battle, with the exception of a few speeches from outsiders.

Yours always truly,

W. P. FESSENDEN.

J. S. PIKE, Esq.

First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 525

civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from August 16 (reply #9).

The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas