CINCINNATI, April 25, 1861. DEAR UNCLE: We are glad to hear from you often. I have written almost daily, and am surprised you do not hear from me more regularly. Your letters reach me in good time. The point of interest here now is as to Kentucky. Her Legislature meets on the 6th of May. [...]
The following statement in Hayes’s handwriting, evidently prepared about this time, shows what plans the citizens of Cincinnati were making to defend the city against possible attack from Kentucky. To be ready on the day that Kentucky secedes to take possession of the hills on the Kentucky side which command Cincinnati, or the approaches to [...]
CINCINNATI, April 23, 1861. DEAR UNCLE:—No doubt the accounts sent abroad as to the danger we are in from Kentucky are much exaggerated. Kentucky is in no condition to go out immediately. If the war goes on, as I think it ought, it is probable that she will leave us, and that we shall be [...]
CINCINNATI, April 20, 1860 [1861]. DEAR UNCLE:—. . . I have joined a volunteer home company to learn drill. It is chiefly composed of the Literary Club. Includes Stephenson, Meline, John Groesbeck, Judge James, McLaughlin, Beard, and most of my cronies. We wish to learn how to “eyes right and left,” if nothing more. A [...]
COLUMBUS, April 19, 1861. DEAR UNCLE:–I came up last night to help Dr. James Webb get a place as surgeon, and for other purposes not war- like. The doctor left for the East as assistant surgeon of [the] Second Regiment with the soldiers this morning. I shall return home on [the] next train. At the [...]
CINCINNATI, April 15, 1861. DEAR UNCLE:–. . . We are all for war. The few dissentients have to run like quarter-horses. A great change for two weeks to produce. As the Dutchman said, “What a beeples.” Poor Anderson! What a chance he threw away. The Government may overlook or even whitewash it, but the people [...]
CINCINNATI, April 10, 1861. DEAR UNCLE:—You spoke too late. I am again settled in a respectable practice. I tried a case today and shall try another tomorrow. Mr. Hassaurek, the German who gets the highest office, viz., nine thousand feet above the sea at Quito, leaves a good German practice. I have taken it with [...]
CINCINNATI, April 2, 1861. DEAR UNCLE:–Before this reaches you, you will no doubt learn that the Union-saving avalanche has overtaken us, and that my little potato patch went down with the rest. To prevent a general break-up of the Fusion, both wings agreed as far as possible, to vote an open ticket without scratching. By [...]
CINCINNATI, March 29, 1861. DEAR UNCLE:–I have received your favor, and suspect you are more anxious that I should be re-elected than the occasion calls for. I philosophize in this way: I have got out of the office pretty much all the good there is in it–reputation and experience. If I quit it now, I [...]
CINCINNATI, March 17, 1861. DEAR UNCLE:–I received yours of the 13th yesterday. I shall not come out for three or four weeks, perhaps not so soon. It is not yet possible to guess how the [city] election will go, but the chances are decidedly against our side. The Democrats and Know-nothings have united and will [...]
CINCINNATI, February 15, 1861. DEAR UNCLE:–. . . The reception given to the President-elect here was most impressive. He rode in an open carriage, standing erect with head uncovered, and bowing his acknowledgments to greetings showered upon him. There was a lack of comfort in the arrangements, but the simplicity, the homely character of all [...]
CINCINNATI, February 13, 1861. DEAR UNCLE:–We are all well. Mother is in better health; went to church Sunday, and was able to enjoy the Lincoln reception yesterday. The great procession and crowd could be seen well from our windows and steps, and all had a good view of the President. He is in good health; [...]
January 27, 1861.—Six States have “seceded.” Let them go. If the Union is now dissolved it does not prove that the experiment of popular government is a failure. In all the free States, and in a majority if not in all of the slaveholding States, popular government has been sucessful. But the experiment of uniting [...]
CINCINNATI, January 12, 1861. DEAR UNCLE:–I will write oftener hereafter. I have some work, the days are short, and the state of the country is a never-ending topic which all you meet must discuss, greatly to the interruption of regular habits. I rather enjoy the excitement, and am fond of speculating about it. We are [...]
January 4, 1861.–South Carolina has passed a secession ordinance, and Federal laws are set at naught in the State. Overt acts enough have been committed. Forts and arsenal taken, a revenue cutter seized, and Major Anderson besieged in Fort Sumter. Other cotton States are about to follow. Disunion and civil war are at hand; and [...]
November 6, 1860.—Election day. Had a birthday feast in honor of Birch’s 7th birthday (Sunday 4th) today. Aunty and Uncle Warren both present. Boys delighted with their presents. The Southern States are uneasy at the prospect of Lincoln’s election today. The ultra South threatens disunion, and it now looks as if South Carolina and possibly [...]
CINCINNATI, September 30, 1860. DEAR UNCLE:–. . . . I have made a few little speeches in the country townships, and shall make a few more. I cannot get up much interest in the contest. A wholesome contempt for Douglas, on account of his recent demagoguery, is the chief feeling I have. I am not [...]
June 24, 1860.— Yesterday the Democrats put in nomination two tickets at Baltimore. Douglas and Fitzpatrick were nominated by the Northern wing and Breckinridge and Lane by the Southern. Lincoln and Hamlin, nominated by the Republican party, and Bell and Everett, candidates of the “Union” party, have been in the field several weeks. Four tickets [...]
June ——, 1860. —A spring of storms; wind prodigious, rains unprecedented. May 21, a wind swept over Ohio and Kentucky, about one hundred miles wide by three hundred long, at the rate of eighty to one hundred miles an hour, unroofing houses in Louisville, Lexington, Cincinnati, Xenia, Chillicothe, Portsmouth, Marietta. Probably twenty lives lost in [...]
CINCINNATI, May 23, 1860. DEAR UNCLE: — We are all very well; have escaped the hurricane and floods without injury. Mother Webb was on a railroad train going to Lexington the afternoon of the great blow — the train ran over a tree causing alarm, but no injury to passengers. — [...]
CINCINNATI, May 11, 1860. DEAR UNCLE – Our delegates have left for Chicago. After Chase, they will prefer Wade, Fremont, or some such candidate—anyone named before Seward. Sincerely, R. B. HAYES. S. BIRCHARD.
1859 CINCINNATI, September 10, 1859. DEAR GUY:–It is a long while since I have heard from you or written to you. I have thought of you often, as often as ever, and take as great an interest as ever in you and yours. We are sorry not to have seen you and your wife before [...]
CINCINNATI, December 17, 1858. DEAR UNCLE: – I had heard from Mother of your illness, and am glad you are getting well. The weather is now fine and I hope we shall see you next week. As to our boys, I agree that it is very desirable to bring them up in the country as [...]
CINCINNATI, December 9, 1858. DEAR UNCLE:–I am in my new office (City Solicitor’s office) and, seeing I was elected only last night, begin to feel much at home. The berth is a good one. Salary three thousand five hundred dollars per year and duties agreeable. I am well spoken of by all the papers. The [...]
CINCINNATI, October 4, 1858. DEAR LUCY:–This is my birthday. The only unusual celebration will be an address to the good people of Walnut Hills tonight. We are having a most prodigious political excitement. The like has not been seen within the memory of the oldest inhabitant. Meetings, torchlight processions, cannonading, bonfires, singing, and illuminations every [...]