A letter to the new president on Major Anderson and Fort Sumter. War Department, March 5, 1861. Sir,–I have the honor to submit for your consideration several letters with inclosures received on yesterday from Major Anderson and Captain Forster of the Corps of Engineers, which are of a most important and unexpected character. Why they [...]
Hon. A. G. Jenkins, Member of Congress from Virginia, informed why a Route Agent in his District was removed. Post-office Department, February 22, 1861. Dear Sir,–Your letter of the 20th inst. is received, requesting ” distinct and specific answers” to the following interrogatories,–viz.: 1. What are the grounds of the removal of Thomas J. West, [...]
From Horatio King’s diary: February 19.–In Cabinet to-day the principal matter presented was an inquiry from Major Anderson, in charge of Fort Sumter, at Charleston, what he should do in the event of the floating battery understood to have been constructed at Charleston being towed toward the fort with the evident purpose of attack. The [...]
The Presidents reply to Senator Slidell’s query on Major Beauregard being relieved of command at West Point. Washington, January 29, 1861. My Dear Sir,–With every sentiment of personal friendship and regard, I am obliged to say, in answer to your note of Sunday, that I have full confidence in the Secretary of War, and his [...]
Post-office Department, January 28,1861. Sir,–In answer to your letter of the 24th instant, asking if you have the right, “under existing relations,” to frank and distribute certain public documents, I have the honor to state that the theory of the administration is that the relations of South Carolina to the general Government have been in [...]
Washington, January 27,1861. MY Dear Sir,—I have seen in the Star, and heard from other parties, that Major Beauregard, who had been ordered to West Point as Superintendent of the Military Academy, and had entered on the discharge of his duties there, had been relieved from his command. May I take the liberty of asking [...]
Honorable John D. Ashmore, Member of Congress from South Carolina, asks if he has the Right to the Franking Privilege, now that South Carolina has passed an Ordinance of Secession. Anderson, S. C., Jan. 24, 1861. My Dear Sir,–I have in my possession some one thousand to twelve hundred volumes of ” public documents,” being [...]
P. O. Dept., Jan’y 21, 1861. My Dear Sir,–Yours of the 19th inst. is received. I presume I shall continue to act as P. M. G., as I have been doing since the 1st inst. I do not anticipate that any appointment will be sent to the Senate at least for the present. I cannot [...]
(Confidential.) New York, Jan. 8,1861. My Dear Sir,–Why is money to very large amounts being transferred to Washington? It may be all right, but it is unusual. Nearly a million of dollars has been sent on in specie within the last week. I write you in confidence. Are these transfers made by order of the [...]
(Private.) New York, Jan. 3, 1861. My Dear Sir,–I have been so pressed with outside business during the last ten days (trying to save the Union) that I have been unable to write to you. The first time we began to breathe freely was when Mr. Holt took Governor Floyd’s place in the War Department. [...]
Governor Hicks, on the 3d of January, issued an address to the people of Maryland, in which he said:I have been repeatedly warned by persons having the opportunity to know, and who are entitled to the highest confidence, that the secession leaders in Washington have resolved that the Border States, and especially Maryland, shall be [...]
Washington, Dec. 30,1860. My Dear Sir,—I rejoice to learn that the disunionists failed yesterday in their impudent and insulting demand that the administration should remove Major Anderson or otherwise degrade him. It is every day becoming more and more apparent that they are determined, as far as lies in their power, to make use of [...]
(Confidential.) P. O. Dept., Dec. 28, 1860. My Dear Sir,—I feel as though we were on the verge of civil war, and I should not be surprised if this city is under the military control of the disunionists in less than one month! There can be no doubt that the Cabinet is divided, and rumor [...]
(Private.) Washington, 22d December, 1860. My Dear Sir,—I have received your favor of the 20th inst, and rejoice to learn the change of public sentiment in your city. Still secession is far in advance of reaction, and several of the cotton States will be out of the Union before anything can be done to check [...]
Washington, Dec. 14, 1860. My Dear Sir,—It may seem presumptuous in me, an humble subordinate, to address you on great matters of state, but my apology, if any is necessary, must be that I am an American citizen, with all that ardent love for my country and its government which should ever animate the true [...]
(Private.) P. O. Dept., Appt. Office, Dec. 12, 1860. My Dear Sir,—Your note of yesterday is received. It is becoming every day more and more apparent that there is quite a large party at the South who, traitors at heart, are resolved on effecting a dissolution of the Union, even though the North were to [...]
Concord, N. H., Dec. 6,1860. My Dear Sir,–Your letter of November 30 I found here on my return from Hillsboro yesterday, and also several northern papers containing my letter to Secretary Thompson. Since the action of the Vermont Legislature upon the report of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, declaring the ‘personal liberty [...]
Letter to Horatio King from an ex-President Andover, Mass., November 28,1860. My Dear Sir,—I have received your kind, earnest letter, and participate strongly in your apprehensions. To my vision the political horizon shuts down close and darkly. It may be that light is to break ‘through somewhere, but I do not discern the quarter whence [...]
P. O. Dept., Appt. Office, November 27, 1860. My Dear Sir,—Our chief clerk, Mr. Clements, and myself had an hour with the President last evening, and our interview was most satisfactory. Mr. C. has just returned from Tennessee, and brings good news from that State to the effect that nearly everybody there is opposed to [...]
(Unofficial.) P. O., New York, November 27, 1860. My Dear Sir,—It is impossible for me to leave here at this moment, and I have an insuperable repugnance to a visit to Washington. On receipt of your letter I sat down to write to the President, but constant interruptions prevented me from finishing it. Besides I [...]
Lowell, Mass., Nov. 26, 1860. My Dear Sir,—Your letter was received at Concord on Saturday, and I should have answered it while there if I could have found a little interval of leisure. I am here to-day on business, and can therefore do scarcely more than to thank you; but let so much, at least, [...]
(Confidential.) P. O. Dept., November 25,1860. My Dear Sir,—I have good reason to believe that the President is beset by secessionists, who are almost exclusively occupying his attention; and it is important that the true friends of the Union should do all in their power to strengthen his hands. Why will you not either write [...]
Washington, November 25,1860. My Dear Sir,—I would call and report to you what I know of the feelings of your friends whom I met recently in a flying visit to my native State, but that I know you are much occupied. May I not, therefore, be allowed to say to you briefly, in writing, that [...]
(Confidential.) P. O. Department, Appt. Office, November 23, 1860. My Dear Sir,—Your private note of yesterday is received. I have shown it to the Postmaster-General. I am told both the President and Mr. Cobb are under a good deal of excitement. I have no doubt the friends of the President are determined to know whether [...]
(Private) New York, November 22, 1860. My Dear Sir,—. . . We have divers reports of disagreements in the Cabinet in regard to the disunion movements in the South. I hear nothing from Cobb in reply to my letter. There is a great fallacy at the basis of all the secession movements. It is this, [...]