Posted on 11/10/2020 5:52:39 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, 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.
Continued from October 29 (reply #9).
Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
Continued from November 8 (reply #32).
With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865, edited by Michael Burlingame
Continued from May 8 (reply #16).
James Lee McDonough, William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country, A Life
Home Letters of General Sherman, edited by M.A. DeWolfe Howe, 1909
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Reply #3 – Bruce Catton
#4 – David Donald’s Lincoln
#5 – Letters of Lincoln
#6 – John Nicolay papers
#7 – Jefferson Davis, American
#8 – William Tecumseh Sherman
#9 – Sherman’s Home Letters
#10 – George Templeton Strong.
NEW YORK, November 10, 1860
To A. Lincoln, President-elect:
You will not, I hope, find what I have to say in this letter intrusive or unreasonable. If you should, you will, of course, treat it as it deserves to be treated. I have no doubt that you receive frequent suggestions from various quarters respecting the selection of your Cabinet when you take the Executive chair. It is natural that your fellow-citizens who elected you to office should feel a strong interest in regard to the choice of those men who are to act as your advisers and your special assistants in the administration of affairs. The confidence of the people in the wisdom and the virtue of the Government depends in a good degree on that choice. You will therefore, I trust, most readily pardon a little zeal in this matter, even if it should go somewhat beyond the limits of a well-bred courtesy.
You have numerous friends in this quarter, and they are among the most enlightened and disinterested of the Republican party, who would be greatly pleased if your choice of a Secretary of State should fall on Mr. Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio. He is regarded as one of the noblest and truest of the great leaders of that party, as a man in all respects beyond reproach — which you know few men are. He is able, wise, practical, pure — no associate of bad men, nor likely to counsel their employment in any capacity. A Cabinet with such a man in its principal department, associated with others worthy to be his colleagues, would immediately command the public confidence. Of course, I do not expect you to make any reply to this letter. You will receive it as an expression of my sincere desire for the success of your administration.
SOURCE: Parke Godwin, A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, Volume 1, p. 150
Charleston, 10 November, 1860.
My dear Sue:
* * * I am surprised that you are so indifferent about returning, as not to have fixed any time yet. It is not a pleasant place to return to; nearly the last hope of safety is cut off by the last news from Georgia, implying the consent of the majority to follow Carolina. We shall be envied by posterity for the privilege that we have enjoyed of living under the benign rule of the United States. The Constitution is only two months older than I. My life will probably be prolonged till I am older than it is. I must write briefly, and have actually just turned a gentleman out of the office, because his business was not important enough to justify interruption. I saw little Addy Wednesday was a week, when I snatched a brief interval with our Cherry Hill and George Street friends in the car. Adieu.
YOUR PARENT.
SOURCE: James Petigru Carson, Life, Letters and Speeches of James Louis Petigru: The Union Man of South Carolina, p. 361
WARREN COUNTY, Missi., Nov. 10, 1860.
Dear Sir:—I had the honor to receive, last night, yours of the 27th ulto., and hasten to reply to the inquiries proprounded. Reports of the election leave little doubt that the event you anticipated has occurred, that electors have been chosen securing the election of Abraham Lincoln, and I will answer on that supposition.
My home is so isolated that I have had no intercourse with those who might have aided me in forming an opinion as to the effect produced on the mind of our people by the result of the recent election, and the impressions which I communicate are founded upon antecedent expressions.
1. I doubt not that the Gov'r of Missi. has convoked the Legislature to assemble within the present month, to decide upon the course which the State should adopt in the present emergency. Whether the Legislature will direct the call of a convention, of the State, or appoint delegates to a convention of such Southern States as may be willing to consult together for the adoption of a Southern plan of action, is doubtful.
2. If a convention, of the State, were assembled, the proposition to secede from the Union, independently of support from neighboring States, would probably fail.
3. If South Carolina should first secede, and she alone should take such action, the position of Missi. would not probably be changed by that fact. A powerful obstacle to the separate action of Missi. is the want of a port; from which follows the consequence that her trade being still conducted through the ports of the Union, her revenue would be diverted from her own support to that of a foreign government; and being geographically unconnected with South Carolina, an alliance with her would not vary that state of case.
4. The propriety of separate secession by So. Ca. depends so much upon collateral questions that I find it difficult to respond to your last enquiry, for the want of knowledge which would enable me to estimate the value of the elements involved in the issue, though exterior to your state. Georgia is necessary to connect you with Alabama and thus to make effectual the cooperation of Missi. If Georgia would be lost by immediate action, but could be gained by delay, it seems clear to me that you should wait. If the secession of So. Ca. should be followed by an attempt to coerce her back into the Union, that act of usurpation, folly and wickedness would enlist every true Southern man for her defence. If it were attempted to blockade her ports and destroy her trade, a like result would be produced, and the commercial world would probably be added to her allies. It is therefore probable that neither of those measures would be adopted by any administration, but that federal ships would be sent to collect the duties on imports outside of the bar; that the commercial nations would feel little interest in that; and the Southern States would have little power to counteract it.
The planting states have a common interest of such magnitude, that their union, sooner or later, for the protection of that interest is certain. United they will have ample power for their own protection, and their exports will make for them allies of all commercial and manufacturing powers.
The new states have a heterogeneous population, and will be slower and less unanimous than those in which there is less of the northern element in the body politic, but interest controls the policy of states, and finally all the planting communities must reach the same conclusion. My opinion is, therefore, as it has been, in favor of seeking to bring those states into cooperation before asking for a popular decision upon a new policy and relation to the nations of the earth. If So. Ca. should resolve to secede before that cooperation can be obtained, to go out leaving Georgia and Alabama and Louisiana in the Union, and without any reason to suppose they will follow her; there appears to me to be no advantage in waiting until the govt. has passed into hostile hands and men have become familiarized to that injurious and offensive perversion of the general government from the ends for which it was established. I have written with the freedom and carelessness of private correspondence, and regret that I could not give more precise information.
JEFFN DAVIS.
SOURCES: Lynda Lasswell Christ and Mary Seaton Dix, editors, The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Volume 6, pp. 368-71; The Vicksburg Harold, Vicksburg, Mississippi, March 3, 1867, p. 1; The Clarion, Jackson, Mississippi, March 7, 1867, p. 1.
About the Bruce Catton excerpt (reply #3) I should have mentioned, the letter from Thomas Drayton to Gov. Gist about the 10,000 smooth bore muskets was written on this date.
Wow professor, you have busy.
That’s a lot to absorb.
5.56mm
Been busy.
Sheesh.
5.56mm
It reminds me of Yamamoto's warning to the Japanese that if they attacked the US they would have to march all the way to Washington to win the war.
We have had some real stinkers in the last 100 years, but I am still of the opinion that our worst President was Buchanan. Not only did he do nothing to head off a civil war, actions taken during his administration deeply angered the North and rallied it to the Republican Party.
With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865, edited by Michael Burlingame
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
“People look and act as if they were almost too tired to feel at all interested ...”
Yeah, I get it.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
