Gilmer House, Baltimore [Md.], June 20th, 1860. Dear Uncle, I would have written to you before, but I could have given you no more information than what was contained in the Sun which I have been sending. The convention met at 5 o’clock this afternoon but as the committee on credentials were not ready to [...]
Crawfordville [Ga.], June 17th, 1860. Dear Smith, . . . What will be done at Baltimore tomorrow I can not even conjecture. I fear the rupture begun at Charleston will be complete. I cannot believe that the party will abandon the doctrine of non-intervention. The seceders seem to demand that as a condition of their [...]
Excerpt from a letter from President Buchanan to Robert Tyler, son of former President John Tyler Washington, June 13, 1860. …I have hardly time now to say my prayers. Should they succeed at Baltimore in rejecting the regular delegates from the seceding States, and admitting those who are bogus, then Douglas will or may be [...]
Washington, D. C, June 9th, 1860. Dear Stephens, … I observe the proceedings of the Milledgeville convention. I do not see but that both wings passed substantially the same resolutions, and why they split I can not tell except under it lies mere personal preferences for the Presidency. I am well satisfied that an explanation [...]
The Caning of Charles Sumner—May 1856 On June 4, 1860, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, after a long absence and silence, gave a long speech on the floor of the Senate during the debate a bill for the admission of Kansas as a free state, titled “The Barbarism of Slavery.” Four years earlier, on May [...]
From the N. O. Delta. Dixie’s Land. In the popular mythology of New York city, Dixie’s was the negro’s paradise on earth in times when slavery and the slave trade were both flourishing institutions in that quarter. Dixie (or Dixy, as the name was spelt in those unsophisticated days when fashionable novels had not turned [...]
In early May 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was in Decatur to attend the Illinois State Republican Convention a local photographer, Edward A. Barnwell, wanted to take a picture of “the biggest man” at the convention. After spotting Lincoln, Barnwell him to his People’s Ambrotype Gallery at 24 North Water Street to pose for this portrait. [...]
Addressed to Hon. Josiah H. Drummond, of Portland, Maine, shortly after the nomination of Mr. Lincoln at Chicago, this letter by Leonard Swett “describes the whole historical scene in graphic expressions worthy of perusal and preservation:” – (Lincoln’s campaign: or, the political revolution of 1860 By Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd, c 1896) Bloomington, Illinois, May 27, [...]
Washington, D. C, 26th May, 1860. Dear Stephens, … I will probably meet you in Milledgeville if I can with any convenience get off from here. You will see from my speech fully where we differ, tho’ I am perfectly prepared to accommodate the party difficulty when you [think] proper; tho’ I would never, never [...]
Washington City, 22 May, 1860. Dear Col., … I was extremely gratified at the result of your meeting in Macon and was happy to find your name among the delegates. It is the most important party convention that ever assembled in Ga. I intend if possible to be there myself. I shall be appointed a [...]
Display information from The Met: This photograph, made in Springfield, Illinois, on May 20, 1860, was the first portrait taken of Abraham Lincoln after he had received the nomination for president at the Republican National Convention in Chicago. It is one of five photographs taken by William Marsh for Marcus L. Ward, a delegate from [...]
Washington, D. C, May 16th, 1860. Dear Stephens, I recd, your letter this morning and I find myself quite surprised that while we so nearly, I may say exactly, agree in principle that we differ so widely in action. I agree with you that [what] we ought to demand is to call upon our Northern [...]
Washington, D. C, 12th May, 1860. Dear Stephens, I recd, your letter of the 8th inst. yesterday. It seems from yours that you had not recd, a letter I wrote you some week ago or more inclosing new brief in the Persons and Oliver case and giving you my action and views on the present [...]
Washington, D. G, May 10, 1860.[i] Gentlemen: Your letter of the 5th instant was duly received, and would have been before replied to but for the fact that I have signed an address containing my opinions somewhat at large upon the questions which you have submitted to me, and which address I expected would have [...]
Washington City, May 9, 1860.[i] Gentlemen: Your letter of the 5th inst. has just reached me. The limited time allowed for action induces me to comply with your request for a “prompt” answer, and I shall endeavor to make it equally ” candid.” I sympathise fully in your apprehensions for the future of our country. [...]
Crawfordville [Ga.], May 8th, 1860. Dear Smith, I got the book I requested you to buy for me, but no letter came with it. I am obliged to you for your attention to this matter. The book is different from what I expected to find it. I did not get back from Polk Court until [...]
Washington, D. C, May 7th, 1860. Dear Stephens, The late events in Charleston have created a great sensation here. The result of general consultation among the Southern Senators seems to be this—that admitting the propriety of the secession when it was done, that Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee having preferred an ultimatum which was sustained by [...]
Washington, D. C, May 5th, 1860. Dear Stephens, Your letter from Lexington was duly recd, and I had intended an earlier answer but could not lay my hands upon my scattered fragments of briefs in the Persons and Oliver cases until yesterday. We have been all excitement here until yesterday when we heard of the [...]
To Richard M. Corwine[1] PRIVATE Hon: R. M. Corwine Springfield, Ills. May 2. 1860. Dear Sir: Yours of the 30th. ult. is just received. After what you have said, it is perhaps proper I should post you, so far as I am able, as to the “lay of the land.” First then, I think the [...]
10. Mr. Hemphill to Mr. Floyd. Washington, April 26, 1860. Sir: I have the honor to transmit you an official letter from the Hon, E. W. Cave, secretary of state of Texas, showing that the frontier is now suffering the most deplorable evils from Indian hostilities, and that speedy relief should be extended by [...]
Washington, D. C, 20th Apl, 1860. Dear Stephens, . . . The city is pretty well vacated. All the scheming active politicians have “hied away” to Charleston to select an almoner for the Great Democratic party. The uncertainty of the result is even greater now than at any former period of the contest. Hunter cannot [...]
9. Colonel Lee to the Adjutant General. Headquarters Department of Texas, Fort Brown, April 17, 1860. Colonel: I have the honor to enclose a copy of a letter, (marked E.,) I addressed on the 12th instant to General J. Garcia, commander-in-chief of the line of the Bravo, with his reply, (marked F.) You will perceive [...]
8. Governor Houston to Mr. Floyd. Executive Department, Austin, April 14, 1860. Sir: Actuated by a sense of duty, as well as impelled by the helpless condition of our frontier people, I again address your department. Did the condition of things afford any hope that the shocking barbarities, which I have already reported to you, [...]
Crawfordville [Ga.], April 14th, 1860. Dear Smith, I got home last night from Hancock court and found your letter of the date I forget but the one about your correspondence with the Confederacy. I would advise you to write as requested. I do not know what the prospect for your pay will be; but he [...]
7. Colonel Lee to the Adjutant General. Headquarters Fort Brown, Texas, April 11, 1860. Colonel: I have the honor to report that I arrived here to-day, having descended the left bank of the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass. I found the frontier on the river quiet, and did not hear of the existence of any [...]