Athens [Ga.], Dec. 15/60. Dear Brother, By all means come directly to Athens or else send me a list of appointments for you to speak in the following counties—Franklin, Banks, Habersham-, Union, Lumpkin, Forsyth, Hall and Gwinnett. We have trouble above here, and no one but yourself can quell it. Have you seen my letter [...]

Mrs. Jacob Thompson[i] to Mrs. Howell Cobb. Washington City, Dec. 15/60. My Dear Mrs. Cobb, … I did not see Gov. Cobb after you left. Mr. Thompson went to see him every day and often invited him to take dinner with us but he never could spare the time. His resignation created great excitement here. [...]

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT OF ALABAMA Montgomery, December 14, 1860. Whereas, the election of Abraham Lincoln, a Black Republican, to the Presidency of the United States, by a purely sectional vote, and by a party whose leading and publicly avowed object is the destruction of the institution of slavery as it exists in the slaveholding states, and [...]

William Henry Trescot to Howell Cobb. Washington [D. C], Decem, 14, 1860. Dear Sir: I have no time to tell all that has happened here. I write to say that if you hope to do any good in Columbia, recommend the following plan which I cannot argue but which will explain itself. It has the [...]

Washington, December 13th. At the request of Hon. Reuben Davis of Mississippi, member of the Committee of States, the Southern members of Congress assembled at his rooms to-night and adjourned at eleven o’clock, at which the following declaration was made and signed by those present. It had already been presented to the Committee of Thirty-three: [...]

Robert Toombs to E. B. Pullin and Others.[i] Washington, Ga. Dec. 13, 1860. Gentlemen: Your letter of the 10th. inst., inviting me on behalf of the citizens of Danburg and its vicinity to address you at an early day, was received yesterday. I regret very much that my public duties deprive me of the pleasure [...]

Washington City, 10 Dec, 1860. My Dear Wife, As you have already learned through the telegraph, I have resigned my office and am again a private citizen. The President and myself part in the most friendly spirit. We both see and feel the necessity and both regret that it should be so. I shall leave [...]

Washington, 10 December, 1860. My Dear Sir: I have received your communication of Saturday evening resigning the position of Secretary of the Treasury which you have held since the commencement of my administration. Whilst I deeply regret that you have determined to separate yourself from us at the present critical moment, yet I admit that [...]

  Howell Cobb to James Buchanan.[i] Washington City, Dec. 8, 1860. My Dear Sir: A sense of duty to the State of Georgia requires me to take a step which makes it proper that I should no longer continue to be a member of your Cabinet. In the troubles of the country consequent upon the [...]

I am providing background information for authors of the civil war era material that I will be posting as I blog my way through the civil war 160 years later.  They will all be listed on the Authors page, accessible on the menu at the top of every page.  Each listed author will also include [...]

[COPY.] Columbia, December 7, 1860. [STRICTLY   CONFIDENTIAL.] My Dear Sir: With a sincere desire to prevent a collision of force, I have thought proper to address you directly and truthfully on points of deep and immediate interest. I am authentically informed that the forts in Charleston harbor are now being thoroughly prepared to turn, [...]

The Charleston Mercury, December 7, 1860 At one o’clock yesterday, Messrs. E. LAFITTE & CO. erected a handsome flagstaff, twenty-five feet high on the roof of their office, Savannah Packet wharf, and unfurled a banner at its summit which has been universally admired. The flag has a plain white ground—something like the Hayne and Meeting [...]

Washington City, 7 Dec, 1860. My Dear Wife, … I put a printed copy of my address to the people of Georgia in Judge Black’s[i] hand to be handed to the President. Whether I remain here after its publication to the world will soon be decided. I suppose I cannot; but I hope to part [...]

Executive Office, Columbia, S. C, November 29, 1860. Mr. Wm. Henry Trescot. Dear Sir: Although South Carolina is determined to secede from the Federal Union very soon after her Convention meets, yet the desire of her constituted authorities is, not to do anything that will bring on a collision before the ordinance of secession has [...]

Alexander H. Stephens to J. Henly Smith. Crawfordville [Ga.], Nov. 21st, 1860. Dear Smith, I got home yesterday from Milledgeville after an absence of ten days. I was expecting a letter from you and some papers but found none. I wrote to you soon after our election before I left home. I am anxious to [...]

Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1860 A dispatch from Springfield, Ill, speaking of Lincoln’s visit to the polls to vote on Tuesday, says: “Mr. Lincoln advanced as rapidly as possible to the voting table, and handed in his ticket, upon which, it is hardly necessary to say, all the names were Republicans. The only alteration [...]

Crawfordville [Ga.], Nov. 8th, 1860. Dear Smith, I got home Sunday night last—was here at the election. Taliaferro County did well; but the State I fear has gone for Breckinridge by the popular vote. The old Eighth is all right, I feel confident. I have just heard that Judge Andrews[i] has been elected to fill [...]

The ‘Lincoln column,’ first monolith raised, Nov. 1860, Presidential election, being S. column of connecting corridor says the caption of this image in Benjamin Brown French’s album of photographs related to the construction of the capitol and other public buildings. French was the Public Commissioner of Buildings in Washington, D.C. under Franklin Pierce but was [...]

George Caleb Bingham – Canvassing for a Vote “George Caleb Bingham1 was active in Missouri politics for most of his adult life. Canvassing for a Vote reflects his full faith in the democratic system, even as he recognized its shortcomings. Set in the artist’s hometown of Arrow Rock, Missouri, the composition shows a politician and [...]

Washington, October 24, 1860. Hon. John B. Floyd, Secretary of War: Sir : Being about to furnish the President with some statistics in reference to the unprecedented drought which has afflicted Kansas Territory for more than fourteen months, I have to request that you will favor me with replies to the following queries, viz: 1st. [...]

Linton Stephens to his brother, Alexander H. Stephens JACKSON, TENN., SUNDAY, October 21, 1860. DEAR BROTHER—You may be surprised to learn that I am in Tennessee, but you have possibly heard already that I had gone to Illinois. I got Judge Wright and Bob Sims both to fill my place in Murray, and started from [...]

Washington D.C. Octr. 16, 1860 To James Buchanan President of the U.S.A. Sir: Having just returned from the Territory of Kansas, where I have been an eyewitness to the deplorable and starving condition of that scorched and famine stricken land, I come to implore of the Executive as an act of clemency in behalf of [...]

Westfield, Chatauqua Co. NY Oct 15, 1860 Hon. A. B. Lincoln Dear Sir,. My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin’s.   I am a little girl only eleven years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you [...]

Alexander H. Stephens to J. Henly Smith. Crawfordville [Ga.], Oct. 13th, 1860. Dear Smith, I got back from Hancock court this evening and found your letter of the 8th Inst. The news of the elections in Pa., Ohio and Indiana reached me at Sparta. I was not much disappointed though greatly saddened by the result. [...]