Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847-1865 Part 27

[O] This prophecy was certainly fulfilled.

I need not tell you that it is lonesome here--on account of your absence. This is my last court here and no lawyer is practising here who was practising here when I held my first court. This is emphatically a world of change.

Your friend as ever, DAVID DAVIS.

WAs.h.i.+NGTON, D. C., June 4, 1861.

COLONEL LAMON:

MY DEAR SIR,--I would be obliged to you to procure for me that Presidential interview as soon as practicable. I do not wish to trouble you, but I am in a considerable hurry. I wish to say some things to the President about matters in North Carolina. There are some Union men there yet.

Respectfully yours, CHAS. HENRY FOSTER.

BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS, August 25, 1861.

COL. WARD H. LAMON:

DEAR HILL,--We are making great preparations for war in this State, and will have twenty thousand men in camp, besides those already in Missouri, in a very short time. There is a universal demand for the removal of Mr. Cameron, and I think after all, the sooner it is done the better. Mr. Lincoln certainly has no idea of the universal disposition of the whole people on this subject. I feel that Cameron wants to render the war unpopular by mismanagement, for they all know that if this war is successfully prosecuted that all the scoundrels cannot keep Mr. Lincoln from being re-elected President.

Do tell Mr. Lincoln this thing, tell him also that he has the confidence of all parties, except the traitors....

I know Lincoln well enough to know that he will make no mistakes, if he will consult his own will and act up to it bravely and without hesitation. It is the best time in the world to be President, but he must be all President. Halfway measures will only now tend to our ruin and disgrace.

I fear Trumbull is a rascal,--the idea of his being unprepared in the Senate to vote for the resolution approving the act of the President, has killed him off. I will bet you a bottle of wine that he sees the day he will want to exchange that little speech....

I am perhaps too impatient, and I am besides under some personal obligations to Mr. Cameron, but in this fight I care nothing about obligations of friends.h.i.+p in opposition to the welfare of the country. No one man nor any number of men can in my estimation be allowed for one moment to stand in the way of good government.

Excuse me for all this and believe me in everything. I am,

Your friend, W. A. HANNA.

The city is full of soldiers and we are all marching left foot foremost.

W. H. H.

WILLARD'S HOTEL, 7 P. M. Aug. 30, 1861.

DEAR SIR,--General Scott notified me that if I would make an arrangement with the President to receive the Fort Sumter Garrison at some definite time, he would be most happy to be present at the reception. My men are at leisure either to-morrow or Monday, or in fact any time during the next week. Will you have the kindness to arrange it and let me know the result? I will call at this hotel for your answer.

Yours very truly, A. DOUBLEDAY.

TO COL. WARD H. LAMON.

FORT LAFAYETTE, Oct. 24, 1861.

MY DEAR SIR,--It is nearly _three months_ since I have been seized and held as a close prisoner by the Government of the United States. No charge ever has--none can be--preferred against me,--and yet I am robbed of my liberty--separated from my family and home, and have been subjected to irreparable pecuniary loss. Is it possible that your friend Mr. Lincoln can permit such acts to be done in his name and under his administration? It is not possible for me to give you in a brief letter a just view of my relations to the Government or of its conduct to me, but I ask you to get the President in company with yourself to examine my correspondence with the War and State Departments, commencing on the nineteenth of September. After their perusal I think you will agree with me, that no man has ever within the limits of the United States been more unjustly deprived of his liberty. In truth, the President and yourself will reach the conclusion that the _honor_ and _good faith_ of the Government demand my release.

Yours truly, CHAS. J. FAULKNER.

In 1862 Hawkins Taylor wrote:--

Thinking back to the Presidential Campaign I cannot help but think how _strange_ things have turned. I was an original Lincoln man, worked for him before, at, and in the State Convention for the nomination of Delegates to the Chicago Convention. Grimes scouted the idea of such a country lawyer being President. When the Chicago Convention came off Colonel Warren, knowing that I was scarce of funds and knowing my anxiety for the nomination of Mr. Lincoln, sent me a ticket to Chicago and back. I pledged a watch that cost me $128 for money to pay expenses there and to our State Convention.

Colonel Warren also went to Chicago, and to _my own certain knowledge, rendered most important services to Mr. Lincoln_. At the State Convention he was put at the head of the electoral ticket, canva.s.sed the entire state, made more than _one hundred speeches_, spent his money by the hundreds. While Grimes made two or three speeches, _grumbled_ privately at the nomination, d.a.m.ned the President upon all occasions since he took his seat. Yet Grimes has controlled the entire patronage of the State of Iowa to the exclusion of Colonel Warren and all his friends. How can Mr.

Lincoln expect friends in Iowa under this state of things?

ILLINOIS, Feb. 12, 1862.

... By the bye I do not care how soon you come back to Illinois provided always that I should hate for Hale Grimes & Co. to have their way in driving off every one who does not believe in negro stealing.... Yet I feel a good deal like they profess to feel. I should be glad to see the poor negroes free and provided for, but the abolition leaders seem to me to entertain more hatred to the owners than love for the negroes, and to be willing to sacrifice Whites, Negroes, Country and Const.i.tution to the gratification of their ambition and malignity.

I feel very glad at the progress the war is now making as I do hope the present prospect of speedy success will enable Lincoln and other conservative Republicans and Democrats to set at defiance the ravings of the abolitionists and universal confiscation men. If their mouths can be stopped I have now good hope that the union can soon be restored and that a few months will bring daylight out of the troubles of the Country....

Yours respectfully, S. T. LOGAN.

OFFICE CHIEF QUARTER-MASTER DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 8, 1862.

DEAR HILL,--I have given both our Representatives from here letters of introduction to you. Messrs. Flanders and Hahn. You will find Flanders old enough to take care of himself, but I desire that you be especially attentive to Hahn as I want him to defend Mr.

Lincoln. He is very popular here and has very considerable influence and can do Mr. Lincoln a great deal of good. See that he falls into the right hands,--men who support the policy of the administration. Both men are now right and I depend on our friends to keep them right. Let me hear from you.

As ever your friend, J. WILSON SHAFFER.

Quietly say to Lincoln to cultivate these men as they both desire to find out what he wants and they will do it.

J. W. S.

12 NORTH A STREET, Feb. 26, 1863.

MY DEAR SIR,--Mr. J. N. Carpenter, who is a pay-master in the Navy, has always borne and does now bear the character of a truthfully upright and veracious man. I am requested to say this of him to you and I give my testimony accordingly without knowing what the object may be of getting it. He is a member of the true church which believes in the ancient gospel, and you are related by marriage to the same establishment. If you can do any good for Mr.

C. you will recollect that it is done unto them of the household of faith and you will no doubt do it with the more alacrity when you remember that Satan also takes care of his own.

I am most respectfully yours, &c., HON. W. H. LAMON. J. S. BLACK.

DECATUR, ILL., March 24, 1863.

COLONEL WARD,--Received a letter yesterday from Judge Davis who informs me that you and Swett joined him heartily in efforts to secure my promotion, that this was all done without my knowledge or encouragement, from pure motives of personal attachment and kind old remembrances. Allow me, Sir, to thank you kindly for this disinterested and zealous effort to benefit and honor me. I did not deserve the honor. I will try to do my best, however, and save my friends and self from disgrace. I learn you are prospering and are unchangeably the same. I hope some day to meet you again when our Country will allow us all once more to feel happy and at rest.

I go to the field to-day, although I am far from well....

Do not forget to remember me to the President cordially. May G.o.d spare his life many years yet. I hope he never despairs or falters under his heavy burden.

Most respectfully Your friend, R. J. OGLESBY.