Posted on 06/18/2019 6:39:24 AM PDT 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.
West Andover, Ohio. Borrowed John's old compass, and left my own, together with Gunley's book, with him at West Andover; also borrowed his small Jacob staff; also gave him for expenses fifteen dollars; write him, under cover to Horace Lindsley, West Andover. Henry C. Carpenter.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 519
How did Napoleon execute spies?
Wish we still executed spies.
5.56mm
For such a short paragraph, some interesting tidbits.
First, when they say "far west", they mean Minnesota!
Second, a state that would later vote for such quirky luminaries as Jessie Ventura and Ilhan Omar was even in 1859 looking for something new & exotic.
Third, ginseng is native to China, claimed to be cure-all for any disease, sort of like the political promises from some Minnesota politicians.
;-)
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
I send some papers by this mail.
COLUMBUS, June 20, 1859.
I mark last Saturday with a white stone, for it brought me, dear Sumner, the most welcome intelligence of your almost assured recovery. God grant that the happy auguries of the present may be fulfilled and that completely. What a terrible experience has been yours! How fiery the ordeal you have been summoned to pass! Let us be thankful that memory cannot renew the suffering, and that the retrospect, while it makes one shudder, also brings a sort of sense of present triumph. How strange it seems that the assassin was so soon & so fearfully summoned to his account; and that he in whose behalf, or rather in whose pretended behalf, the outrage was perpetrated, was compelled so speedily to follow, while God in his wisdom, after allowing you to suffer so fearfully, seems about to restore you to the theatre of your usefulness & fame. Do not think however that I imagine your sense of triumph has in it any touch of exultation over the melancholy fates of your assailant and his uncle. I am sure it has not. I am sure that had it been in your power to reverse the decrees of Heaven's Chancery against them your magnanimity would have prompted the reversal. Your triumph is higher & purer: it is over suffering, over wrong, over misrepresentation— and it is for the cause as well as for yourself.
We have, here in Ohio, engaged in a new battle. Our state election takes place next October, and the tickets of both parties are nominated and the platforms of both have been promulgated. Our Republican Platform takes distinct ground for the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act & against the extention of the five years term of naturalization. The occasion of the first was supplied by the recent trials at Cleveland — prosecutions against some of our best citizens for the alleged rescue of a Fugitive Slave, and the refusal of our own Supreme Court to set them free on Habeas Corpus, on the ground that the act is unwarranted by the Constitution — the occasion of the second was furnished by the two years amendment in Massachusetts which raised such a clamor among the naturalized citizens, and gave rise to such a torrent of accusations against the Republican Party that our Convention found itself obliged to speak out plainly & decidedly. I am glad of it, though great offence is given for the present to some whom I would gladly conciliate at any expense short of the sacrifice of our principles.
Of course I am not a candidate for reelection as Governor. It is generally supposed that if we carry the State Legislature — a result not quite certain — that I shall be reelected to the Senate; and there is a very general disposition in Ohio and several other States to press my nomination for the Presidency as a Western man & on the whole the most available candidate. Our friend Seward will also be urged strongly from New York, and I presume that my friends, if they find that my nomination cannot be carried, will generally go for him as a second choice. His friends will probably make me, also, their second choice if he cannot be nominated. Of course I cannot claim to be indifferent when a position which will afford so grand an opportunity for renovation of admn [administration?] at home & of policy abroad, is thus brought within the possibility of attainment, but I am certain that I would not imperil the triumph of our cause for the sake of securing the opportunity to myself rather than to another.
I presume you will see our friend Bailey. The prayers of thousands follow him abroad. I earnestly pray that he may find the great blessings of health & strength which he seeks. We are now — he & I — both turned of fifty & no longer young. My general health yet remains apparently unbroken but I feel & observe symptoms which admonish me that my hold on life is not so strong as it was. Kate thinks she must send a few lines.
Good bye—May God bless you.
Affectionately,
[SALMON P. CHASE.]
SOURCE: Diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902, Vol. 2, p. 280-1
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Interesting comments from loyal Republican, Salmon Chase.
The, ahem, "tea leaves", tell me he will not become president in 1860 but will become Lincoln's Secretary of Treasury and strongly support his mission to resupply Fort Sumter.
Ohio Governor Chase"s letter here to Senator Sumner may help explain why Secretary Chase will be so eager, when the time comes, to send the U.S. Navy to Charleston.
But in those distant years beyond Fort Sumter my, ahem, tea leaves say Chase becomes even stranger, appointed to the Supreme Court, flipping to the Democrat party, running for President as a Democrat and even pronouncing judgement that Confederates could not be tried for treason because, after all, he opined, "secession is not treason".
Now wait just a cotton Pickens minute, what are these here "tea leaves" anyway?
I don't think they're tea at all, must be some mind bending illegal leaves, because no true history could turn out so crazy... could it?
;-)
Boosters are trying to organize a town where I live and call it Denver, but they didn't realize the fellow was no longer Governor of Kansas. There's talk of trying to organize another Territory around the Denver and Pikes Peak region, but I doubt anything will come of it. Once the gold plays out not much grows out here, although hemp seems to do well.
As a racing nut, including especially its history, it has long been known that Kentucky was considered “west” well into this...oops...last century. Common story was Man O’War partly would not go to the KY Derby because it was too far away....to the west. Trust me, it is in the old racing papers at least up to the ‘40s.
Gave J. H. Kagi fifty dollars for expenses at Cleveland.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 519
Saw this name and immediately thought it had to be a Japanese (name written 加木), but in 1859 there would have been practically no Japanese in the US: Townsend Harris had just signed the American-Japanese treaty the year before, and the first Japanese envoy from the Shogun didn't come to the US until 1860 (cf. here).
Turns out his name was Kagey, and (SPOILER ALERT) he dies at Harper's Ferry.
That’s an interesting little orthographic glitch!
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
Wrote wife and children, and enclosed five dollars. Also wrote J. Henrie Kagi to inquire at Bedford for letters. If none found, he will wait.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 520
AKRON, OHIO, June 23, 1859.
DEAR WIFE AND CHILDREN, ALL, — My best wish for you all is that you may truly love God and his commandments. We found all well at West Andover, and all middling well here. I have the ague some yet. I sent a calf-skin from Troy by express., directed to Watson Brown, North Elba, to go by stage from Westport. I now enclose five dollars to help you further about getting up a good loom. We start for the Ohio River to-day. Write me under cover to John at West Andover, for the present. The frost has been far more destructive in Western New York and in Ohio than it was in Essex County. Farmers here are mowing the finest-looking wheat I ever saw, for fodder only. Jason has been quite a sufferer. May God abundantly bless and keep you all!
JOHN BROWN.
SOURCE: Franklin B. Sanborn, The Life and Letters of John Brown, p. 526
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