Posted on 09/22/2020 5:16:57 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.
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
Harper's always seems to have an ad or two for Saratoga Water. This is the first time I've seen an ad for Kentucky Bourbon along with an article about an upcoming horse race.
ML/NJ
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
Continued from September 18 (reply #5).
31. Attorney Rufus L. Miller lived in Keokuk, Iowa.
With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860-1865, edited by Michael Burlingame
BOSTON, September 24, 1860.
. . . We expect to remove to Boston for the winter in about three weeks. . . . My last visit to Boston was for the purpose of reading to a committee a pretty full outline of an Institute of Technology, to comprise a Society of Arts, an Industrial Museum, and a School of Industrial Science. My plan is very large, but is much liked, and I shall probably submit it, by request, to a meeting of leading persons in the course of a week or two, after which it will be printed in pamphlet form. The educational feature of the plan is what ought most to recommend it, and will, I think, be well appreciated. It provides for regular systematic teaching in Drawing and Design, Mathematics, general and applied Physics, Practical Chemistry, Geology and Mining, and would require at least five fully equipped professorships, besides laboratories, even at the beginning. It contemplates two classes of pupils, — those who go through a regular and continuous course of practical studies, and those who attend the lectures on Practical Science and Art. But I will not dilate on the plan now.
I wish, some day that you are enough at leisure, you would write Mr. Savage a few lines about your own doings, or any matter of local antiquarian interest that may turn up. I know he would be greatly pleased to hear from you. I have never known him more cheerful and happy, or more gentle and benevolent, than now. He seems to rejoice as much as we when a letter comes by steamer from you and Eliza.
You may tell friends in Scotland that the slavery extension doctrine will be effectually wiped out by this election. Mr. Andrew, whom you know, will be the next Governor, — an honest, fearless, clearheaded and humane man. Lincoln, by all reliable accounts, is a like character, with probably more decided intellectual power.
Some people are just now greatly exercised, as the Methodists say, with the expected visit of the Prince. Of course the long ears will show themselves on such occasions. But I trust the reception in Boston will be marked by self-respect, as well as courtesy to the symbolic guest. There has been much folly committed in Canada, and I fear there will be vastly more in New York.
Ticknor and Fields have just reprinted Tyndall's volume on the Glaciers. I shall take it to the country, and may be tempted to write a critique.
Ferguson, of the National Observatory, has lately discovered another asteroid.
SOURCE: Emma Savage Rogers & William T. Sedgwick, Life and Letters of William Barton Rogers, Volume 2, p. 41-2
. . . We expect to remove to Boston for the winter in about three weeks. . . . My last visit to Boston was for the purpose of reading to a committee a pretty full outline of an Institute of Technology, to comprise a Society of Arts, an Industrial Museum, and a School of Industrial Science. My plan is very large, but is much liked, and I shall probably submit it, by request, to a meeting of leading persons in the course of a week or two, after which it will be printed in pamphlet form. The educational feature of the plan is what ought most to recommend it, and will, I think, be well appreciated. It provides for regular systematic teaching in Drawing and Design, Mathematics, general and applied Physics, Practical Chemistry, Geology and Mining, and would require at least five fully equipped professorships, besides laboratories, even at the beginning. It contemplates two classes of pupils, — those who go through a regular and continuous course of practical studies, and those who attend the lectures on Practical Science and Art. But I will not dilate on the plan now.
. . .
William Barton Rogers
As a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the name William Barton Rogers rang a bell with me immediately. Recently an MIT archivist unearthed evidence that Rogers had possessed some slaves when he lived in Virginia years before he founded MIT. Source: https://news.mit.edu/2018/mit-class-explores-institutes-connections-slavery-0212
As my source link above points out, Brown University, Columbia University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, and Princeton University, among others, have published their own universities' connections to slavery.
I guess this means we have to cancel M.I.T.
Link to column 1. My red bold below.
Death of Prof. Wm. B. Rogers.— This eloquent and distinguished scientist, who was but a few weeks since on a visit to our city, dropped dead last Tuesday in Boston, Mass., whilst addressing the graduating class at the Massachusetts school of Technology.Thus was suddenly extinguished one of the brightest stars in the galaxy of learned scientists. He was born in Philadelphia in 1805. He filled the chair of natural philosophy and geology in the University of Virginia from 1835 to 1853, when he returned to Boston. During his residence in Virginia be organized the Geological State Survey, and remained at its head till it was discontinued in 1842. He also examined the mineral springs of Virginia, and analyzed their waters. After his removal to Boston he continued his scientific studies and publications, delivered lectures at various educational institutions, and from 1862 to 1868 was president of tbe Boston Institute of Technology. In 1875 he was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement Science.
He belonged to a family distinguished for talent. His father, Dr. P. K. Rogers, was professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at William and Mary College, Virginia, and was in 1827 succeeded by his son William Barton Rogers. An older son, James Blythe Rogers, was successively professor of chemistry in Washington Medical College, Baltimore, the Cincinnati Medical College, and the Franklin Medical School of Philadelphia. Henry Darwin Rogers, younger son, was professor of physical sciences at Dickinson College, Carlisle, and afterwards attained great eminence as a geologist. At the time of death he was regius professor of geology and natural history in the University of Glasgow, Scotland. Robert Empire Rogers, the fourth son, distinguished for scientific attainments, filled the chair of chemistry in the University of Virginia for eight years, and then succeeded his brother, William Barton Rogers, as professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania.
I never knew Rogers dropped dead addressing a graduating class. Many a student thought MIT would be the death of themselves.
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
25th.
I have just returned from seeing Mrs. Chambers at the Tremont House, having learned from Hillard, this morning, that they were in the city. . . . It did my heart good to hear of you both, and the children, from one who had so lately seen you. The Daguerreotypes sent by Eliza brought tears to my eyes. Dear little Edith, so like her thoughtful face, and the sweet, plump little baby in the arms of her pleasant-faced Scotch nurse. . . . Yours is beautiful and expressive, and shows you in portly health, but so marked by the expression of our dear father as I never saw you before. Oh, how these little things make me long to be with you, and that we might have years to spend together! . . .
In the last number of the “Edinburgh Journal” see an article on Ozone Observations by a Dr. Mitchell. What he says about the effect of wind, etc., I called especial attention to in the paper I contributed a year ago. I shall make out a summary of my observations at Sunny Hill for the past four or five summers and send you.
SOURCE: Emma Savage Rogers & William T. Sedgwick, Life and Letters of William Barton Rogers, Volume 2, p. 42
September 25th, 1860.
In answer to your question how you are to come, I should say, with your husband, if no other arrangement can be effected. If you don't meet with an opportunity of an escort to New York or farther, see if the doctor can't get you one to Springfield, upon the condition that you pay the expense. I don't want you to pass through Springfield alone, as you have to change cars there, and you might meet with some accident; but as visitors invite the doctor to make excursions with them, can't you invite him to make one with you to Springfield, and after he sees you on the right train, sit in the same car until you reach the depot in New York, where you may expect to find your esposo waiting for you? Be sure to write, and also telegraph, as I would rather go all the way to Round Hill than for you to come through Springfield alone. Your husband feels bright, and the light of his approaching little sunshine makes him still brighter. Whenever you write or telegraph for him, you may expect him to come for you in double-quick time.
SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 135-6
Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher
September 28th.
I expect to set off with your rockaway and "Bay," and you must not be left behind. You may expect to have your dinner sent from home, so that in our homeward drive you can eat your own dinner.
SOURCE: Mary Anna Jackson, Life and Letters of General Thomas J. Jackson (Stonewall Jackson), p. 136
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