Posted on 01/31/2004 11:18:21 AM PST by GOPcapitalist
Lincoln certainly delegated one item of high political importance to Lamon, that of telling the governor of South Carolina that Fort Sumter would be evacuated.
Maybe.
I'm not so sure that Sumter didn't become the event it was until after the war was over. The Star of the West was fired upon in Charleston Harbor four months before, but few remember.
And I have to admit that I didn't go over Eros' post with a fine tooth comb. I thought it was interesting and added something to the discussion about the supposed Taney arrest. If you have better information, please bring it forward.
ML/NJ
That's one of the usenet discussions over the Lieber document that came to light after Hummel and Adams et al wrote about the account. There are several pieces of information within it that are also questionable at best. Among them:
But there is no record, as far as I can tell, that Lincoln ever consulted Lamon on a decision of high political importance, much less that he entrusted Lamon with such a decision.
This is about as false as they get. Lamon was extremely close to Lincoln as a friend, advisor, and personal bodyguard. They were friends back in Illinois and used to try cases together before Lincoln was President. After Lamon and Lincoln arrived in D.C. Lincoln appointed him federal marshall and also continuously employed him as a political agent. In fact, this is the reason that Lamon wasn't at Ford's Theater to stop the assassination. A few days earlier Lincoln had sent him on a political mission to Richmond to serve as his agent in the reorganization of the Virginia government now that the war was over. Lamon did that sort of stuff for Lincoln all the time so it is not at all unusual that Lincoln would have used him for the Taney warrant.
Nor does the author's question about the Lamon paper's date discredit it. As I previously noted, Lamon spent a great deal of time in the later years of his life writing down and recording his personal recollections of Lincoln in preparation for a book on that subject. He died with before completion of the project in the 1890's and his daughter accumulated the finished portions of it into a book that was published around 1900. Lamon's notes and recollections on Lincoln encompass a period from roughly 1866 to Lamon's death, and only a small portion of them made it into the biography edited by his daughter (subsequent editions of it, for example, have included appendixes with new passages). It is highly likely if not certain that the habeas corpus document was one such item composed by Lamon.
Nor is it the least bit unusual that he would not have quoted the arrest warrant itself - arrest warrants are entirely boring legalistic documents that normally use a standard form and have very little literary significance in themselves. Contrast that with a court ruling, which is a formal legal argument and is unique onto itself. Lamon was a lawyer and knew this distinction.
In short, the entirity of the usenet piece's argument rests upon conjecture and speculation regarding the person of Ward Hill Lamon. Unfortunately the author of that piece knows extremely little about the life, person, or activities of Ward Hill Lamon during and after the Lincoln administration. As we now learn the very same aspects he questions were entirely consistent with what Lamon is known to have been doing in the years that followed the assassination, viz.: assembling passages with his own recollections of Lincoln for an eventual biography.
I agree. I was referring to Jabez L.M. Curry.
You must not know your history then. Jabez L.M. Curry was one of the preeminant university scholars in 19th century America. To cite him as a scholarly source on tariff policy is perfectly valid. He was also a congressman from Alabama and the University of Virginia's school of education is named after him. His likeness is in the United States Capitol's statuary hall: http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/nsh/curry.htm
Correct. Lamon was one of Lincoln's most trusted agents throughout the war. When Lincoln had something of high importance that needed personal attention he went to Lamon. That also included sending Lamon to Richmond in 1865 to reorganize the Virginia government, which is why Lamon wasn't at Ford's Theater.
Thanks for the education. I haven't been down to UVa since October! And I never would have made the connection.
ML/NJ
Exports certainly enter into the balance of payments between countries and the value of a currency. Senator Wigfall of Texas had a good take on the situation on the floor of the Senate on Feb 7, 1861 (Congressional Globe, pg 789):
"How will it be with New England? Where will their revenue come from? From your custom-houses? What do you export? You have been telling us here for the last quarter of a century, that you cannot manufacture even for the home market under the tariffs which we have given you. When this tariff ceases to operate in your favor, and you have to pay for coming into our market, what will you expect to export?"
Raising tariffs on imported goods allowed Northern manufactured goods to compete with foreign ones. Earnings from the sales of cotton were then spent, in part, on Northern manufactured goods, thereby transferring some of the wealth of the South to the North.
Notice of Summons?????
OK, Glendower.
[ml/nj] Maybe.
From South Carolina Governor Pickens:
In a very few days after, another confidential agent, Colonel Lamon, was sent by the President, who informed me that he had come to try and arrange for the removal of the garrison, and, when he returned from the fort, asked if a war vessel could not be allowed to remove them. I replied, that no war vessel could be allowed to enter the harbor on any terms. He said he believed Major Anderson preferred an ordinary steamer, and I agreed that the garrison might be thus removed. He said he hoped to return in a very few days for that purpose.
There are references to this effort of Lamon's and Lincoln's in the Official Records, i.e., documents written before the attack on Fort Sumter, such as a letter from General Beauregard to Major Anderson referring to it.
I'm not so sure that Sumter didn't become the event it was until after the war was over.
A unique response, if I've ever heard one.
A unique response, if I've ever heard one.
Okay, smartie.
Tell me why no one remembers, or doesn't want to remember, the Star of the West. It carried Union troops and supplies for Fort Sumter. The folks in South Carolina didn't like this and fired upon the ship when it entered Charleston Harbor on January 9, 1861. Certainly this was a hostile act. Your beloved "Fort Sumter," whatever it was had not been completed or occupied at the time of Lincoln's election. The event everyone wants us to remember occurred on April 12, 1861. Why do they want us to forget what happened before?
ML/NJ
Because what happened before wasn't used by a yankee president as an excuse to launch the bloodiest war of invasion in the history of the North American continent.
Open you eyes. I think I'm on your side.
Why do you think "Honest Abe" didn't want all those Yankees to "Remember the Star"?
ML/NJ
Doesn't look like your summons is working very well, Glendower.
You mean you don't remember the Federal troops who charged civilian laborers with bayonets inside Fort Sumter on December 26, 1860 or the Federal troops who fought and overpowered a ship captain and took his schooner to Fort Sumter that same evening? Those kind of hostile acts? Not hostile I guess unless you were on the receiving end.
I have somewhere, but can't find at the moment, contemporary Southern newspaper reaction to The Star of the West incident that called it war. But none of the above stuck with the general populace as the beginning of the war.
There was a picket ship posted outside the Charleston bar which warned off The Star of the West, but the Star continued on into the harbor despite the warning. The South Carolinians then fired a shot in front of The Star of the West as a warning to stop, but it did not stop, so shooting continued. The Star of the West, which was filled with troops and munitions in spite of President Buchannan's agreement with South Carolinians not to change the situation in the harbor, was hit at least twice before turning around and leaving. It scraped bottom on the Charleston bar several times as it left.
Afterwards, the Federal sloop of war Brooklyn appeared and reportedly drove off a ship trying to enter the port. At least, that is what the old newspapers say.
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