Posted on 11/17/2020 6:12:45 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.
Minor water damage, or something, marred the bottom corners of 2 pages. It shows up as missing text on pages 6 and 7 of my rearranged magazine.
Guiseppe Garibaldi – 1-3
Editorials – 3
Ruin – 3
The Lounger – 3-4
Humors of the Day – 4, 6
The Harbor of Charleston – 5-6
Barlow Brothers’ Books – 6-8
Domestic Intelligence – 8-9
Foreign News – 9-10
The Sexton’s Story – 10
The American Turf-Portraits of Favorite Horses – 11, 19
Suffolk and Essex Pigs – 12, 19-20
Under the Snow, in Two Portions: Portion the Second – 13-15
The Two Beauties of the Camberwell Assemblies, 1778 – 15-16
The Conservatory – 16, 18
Training Day in the Country-Autumn of 1860 – 17, 19
A Day’s Ride: A Life’s Romance, by Charles Lever. Ch. XVIII-XIX – 18-19
The Next Dance – 21
Candor – 22
Continued from November 15 (reply #31).
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
FORT WISE, BIG TIMBERS,
November 17, 1860.
My dear sister:
We have to-day been astonished by the receipt of another mail, and with the prospect of still another in about two weeks' time. I was disappointed in not receiving any letter from you. I am afraid that my complaining of our wanting mail facilities will discourage you from writing. When spring opens I hope, as emigration sets in, we shall have a mail at least weekly. We have had a delightful fall, dry, warm, and pleasant. To-day there is a drizzling rain, the first that we have had since reaching the post, over two months since. This is the character of all falls in this vicinity, although north and east of us they have had severe snowstorms and much cold weather. Our soldiers' quarters, and all the buildings except officers' quarters, are so far completed that they can be occupied, and two weeks more would enable us to finish all. This has relieved me very much, for I anticipated many difficulties which we have overcome, and am now at ease in regard to the comfort of the men for the winter. The last mail brought a complimentary letter from the Secretary of War, extolling our energy and perseverance. I had particularly written to Washington “that if Providence had not favoured us more than the Department there would have been intense suffering here this winter.”
The hostile Indians sent in a runner some time since, asking to come in and have a talk. I granted it, and last Sunday six or eight of the chiefs came in, suing for peace. I sent their talk to Washington, recommending that terms be granted them; what the result will be cannot be known for several weeks. I do not know what excitement can be got up now that the Prince is gone and the election over. The subject of politics loses all its savour before getting out here. It is never mentioned except when the papers come in, and then a short topic. All concede Lincoln's election, and think any change will improve upon the present one.
We have several daily papers within two hundred miles of us which get much later news than we do. I see them occasionally. With much love to Philo's family.
JOHN SEDGWICK.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major-General, Volume 2, p. 26-7
I have to make sure to get my copy of Harpers Weekly when they start serials of works by Thackeray, Dickens and George Eliot. Given Adam Bede was Eliot’s first novel so she was not quite a household name like Thackeray and Dickens that is probably why the notice does not use her pen name.
I have high expectations of Great Expectations, pun intended.
Since FR made the great migration to a new location there has been a bug in the system that prevents us from using embedded links, like the one’s I use for continued from . . ., civilwarnotebook posting history, and previous NY Times and Harper’s Weekly. Below I pasted the links to the previous George Strong entry and the letter in today’s two posts. Hopefully the glitch will be corrected soon.
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3904291/posts#31
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2015/05/major-john-sedgwick-to-his-sister.html
Hi.
The illustrations in Harper’s Weekly are damn good. Photography was coming soon, but how much were illustrators paid at the time?
Well for the NY area?
5.56mm
I don’t know what illustrators were paid in 1860. I imagine the Harper’s Weekly illustrators were at the top of the field for that category. But you got me curious about the coming of photographs in periodicals. Photography has been around for years but there are technical hurdles to overcome before they can be mass produced in newspapers and magazines. Mathew Brady photos are frequently reproduced by wood cut in Harper’s. Notably, the portrait of Lincoln that graced the cover of the November 11 issue was from a Brady photograph from last February when Lincoln was in town to speak at Cooper-Union. I think I will go to the Times Machine and look at different years to see when pics first appear.
Continued from November 16 (reply #34).
With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865, edited by Michael Burlingame
Continued from November 7 (reply #27).
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Milton Pa. Nov. 19. 1860
Hon Abraham Lincoln
Dear Sir
For reasons that you will appreciate, I have not written to you since your nomination & election as President of the U. States. As Governor of this Commonwealth, I experienced to the full, the annoyance of an overwhelming correspondence, & sympathising with you I have forborne to write, unwilling to add to your troubles. Now that the battle is over & the smoke cleared away, permit an old friend, to congratulate you & the Country on your triumphant election. Your nomination & election I regard as the triumph of the great conservative sentiment of the Nation – as National in its character & object; & designed, I humbly hope, to promote the peace, the honor and the prosperity of our beloved Country. As a National & conservative man, I heartily endorsed your nomination & labored in this State & New Jersey for your election. We have triumphed; ultraism & sectionalism have been rebuked; and now, my ardent aspirations are, that your administration may be eminently successful & honorable, alike to yourself & the Nation.
As you have now turned Cabinet Maker I have no doubt you have the offer of many Journeymen, to aid you in that business. In what I am going to say, I have no selfish object to promote – my only desire is the success of your Administration. It seems to be generally conceded that Pennsylvania, if she desires it, will be represented in your Cabinet. This I think would be right; and therefore, without attempting to control your free action in the premises, permit me to suggest the name of my friend, and our distinguished citizen Gen. Simon Cameron as a proper person to fill the office of Secretary of the Treasury. No man in our State is better qualified for that place – the appointment of no man would give greater satisfaction to our Citizens & more fully identify your Administration with the protective policy of the Country. Gen Cameron's tariff record is full & complete, & his selection for that place would give an assurance to Pennsylvania that would be of incalculable advantage to our party & your administration. He would be a safe Counselor – conservative – National & true to all the great interests of the Country. I know not whether he would accept the place, if offered to him, as I have had no communication with him on the subject; but as a Pennsylvanian, – as your personal & political friend, I hope you may, if consistent with your views of public policy, tender to him that place.
You will need, my dear Sir, all the wisdom – prudence & calm counsel that you can command. Ultra men should have no place in your cabinet– you will discard all such – your country & your whole country will be the object of your solicitude, & may your administration in its vigor, conservatism & nationality allay all excitement, restore peace & bring abundant prosperity to our Country.
Remember me kindly to Mrs Lincoln,
SOURCE: Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
31 Hertford Street,
November 19, 1860.
MY DEAREST MOTHER: Your kind letter of 22d October reached me a few days ago, and gave me, as your letters always do, very great pleasure. As to the governor, he seems to grow younger every day, and I am sure that I should not have been up to dancing all night till five o'clock, and then getting to breakfast in the country by 8:30.
The Prince of Wales has returned, after a passage of twenty-eight days, safe and sound. I met him at dinner at Oxford just before he sailed, as I think I mentioned to you. I am told that the queen is much pleased with the enthusiasm created in America by his visit. I am sure that she has reason to be, and all good Englishmen rejoice in it. It was certainly a magnificent demonstration of the genuine and hearty good feeling that exists between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, and I read the long accounts given in the “Times” by the special correspondent of his reception in New York and Boston with the greatest pleasure.
I am very sorry that I cannot exchange congratulations with the governor on the subject of the Presidential election.1 The account has this instant reached us by telegraph, and although I have felt little doubt as to the result for months past, and Tom will tell you that I said so at Keir, yet, as I was so intensely anxious for the success of the Republican cause, I was on tenterhooks till I actually knew the result. I rejoice in the triumph at last of freedom over slavery more than I can express. Thank God, it can no longer be said, after the great verdict just pronounced, that the common law of my country is slavery, and that the American flag carries slavery with it wherever it goes. . . . To change the subject, you will be pleased to hear that Mr. Murray had his annual trade-sale dinner last Thursday (15th). This is given by him in the City to the principal London booksellers, and after a three-o'clock dinner he offers them his new publications. You will be glad to know that my volumes2 quite took the lead, and that he disposed at once of about 3000 copies. As he only intended to publish 2000, you may suppose that he was agreeably disappointed. He has now increased his edition to 4000, and expects to sell the whole. After that he will sell a smaller and cheaper edition. The work is, however, not yet published, nor will it be for several weeks. I am very glad to hear that you are pleased with the opening pages. The volumes have cost me quite as much labor as the other work; but alas! I have no William of Orange for a hero. I hope the governor will be pleased with them.
J. L. M.
1 The first election of Lincoln.
2 The first two volumes of the “History of the United Netherlands.”
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition, Volume 2, p. 106-7
My sources for the previous two letters -
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2016/08/james-pollock-to-abraham-lincoln.html
https://civilwarnotebook.blogspot.com/2014/12/john-lothrop-motley-to-anna-lothrop.html
Continued from November 15 (reply #27).
David Herbert Donald, Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
The last paragraph is just as relevant today as when it was written.
Broad Street, November 20, 1860.
My dear Sister:
Poor Beasley! Who would have thought that he would earn a name in history as a secession victim. But these things all are awful foreboding of what is to come when the passions of the mob are let loose and the truth is our gentlemen are little distinguished in a mob from the rabble. * * *
I am very busy with the code and still backward.
SOURCE: James Petigru Carson, Life, Letters and Speeches of James Louis Petigru: The Union Man of South Carolina, p. 362
COLUMBUS Nov. 10, [I860]
MY DEAR FRIEND, There is no one whom I would more willingly “entrust with my views and feelings” on any subject than yourself. No man, in my belief, better deserves the confidence of the true friends of the cause which has just triumphed so gloriously through the election of Mr. Lincoln.
Your “apprehensions” that I “do not desire the place” you speak of, are well founded. I appreciate beyond my capacity of expression, the sentiments of regard and confidence which Mr. Lincoln has expressed towards me. To manifest, in some measure, that appreciation by an honest, faithful and unselfish support of his administration is among my most cherished wishes. One wish only more occupies my heart — that his administration by its fidelity to the principles of the great and noble party which has elected him may ensure the permanence and permanent ascendancy of the organization and thereby the welfare and happiness of the country.
It would be most agreeable to me to render what help I may to the attainment of these ends in a station absolutely private. My duty to my brother Republicans of Ohio, however, requires me to take the part they have assigned me, and, as one of the Senators from this State to labor for the advancement of the cause they love. I have no political objects or aspirations beyond the simple performance of that duty.
Besides this, I know I have not the sort of ability necessary to fill the position you refer to, as it ought to be filled. The best I could do would be a mere approximation to what I think ought to be done.
My wish, therefore, is to make no change of position; but to give to Mr. Lincoln, in the place my State has directed me to take, whatever aid a true personal friend and faithful supporter of the common cause can give, in carrying on the government.
Such are my views and feelings candidly expressed. I can not, therefore say that I will take an administrative “post if offered under circumstances entirely agreeable.” Such an offer would, however, doubtless, impose on me the duty of carefully considering, with the advice of judicious friends the question of duty, and I should not, 1 hope permit any considerations purely personal to prevent me from taking that course which public obligations might seem to require.
* From letter-book 7, pp. 71-72. George Gilman Fogg, 1815-1881; editor Manchester (N. H.) Independent Democrat, 1854-1861; member of Republican national committee, 1856-1864; United States minister to Switzerland, 1861-1865; United States Senator, 1866-1867.
SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 290-1
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