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Mrs. John A. Logan, Reminiscences of a Soldier's Wife: An Autobiography, Chapter 10: (search)
that it would take a much longer time than it really has taken to adjust political affairs in the late Confederate States. The tragedies of the early days of reconstruction are matters of history, and are not a part of my story. I make this digression to recall the chaos which confronted President Grant, who had had previously no sort of experience in legislative or executive affairs beyond those of a military character. Reports of outrages in almost every State south of the Mason and Dixon line, the evident wrong on both sides, and the responsibility for the protection of human life weighed heavily upon the chief executive. Grant appreciated that he was without power to issue orders as he had done when he was in command of a great army. All the winter of 1869-70 we were subject to daily startling reports of public scandals, defalcations, and high-handed outrages. The reckless extravagance practised during the war had so demoralized the money-making people of the country
John G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of Rebellion, Chapter 1: secession. (search)
the idol of the hour. The State commands was as despotic a formula as The king commands ; and the voter's personal judgment, the very basis and life-giving principle of republics, was obliterated between the dread of proscription and the blighting mildew of the doctrine of supreme State allegiance. Certain features of the struggle deserve special explanation. The irrepressible conflict between North and South, between freedom and slavery, was not confined to the two sides of Mason and Dixon's line; it found a certain expression even in the Cotton States themselves. Most of these States embrace territory of a radically different quality. Their southern and sea-coast front is a broad belt of seaislands, marshes, river-swamps, and low alluvial lands, exceedingly unhealthy from malarial fevers in the hot season, but of unsurpassed fertility, and possessing the picturesque aspects of an exuberant half-tropical vegetation. This is the region of the great cotton, rice, and sugar pl
John G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of Rebellion, Chapter 6: the call to arms. (search)
ot entertainnay, would not permit, a policy of subjugation. ExPresi-dent Franklin Pierce-Buchanan's predecessor-had given Jefferson Davis very broad confidential assurances on this head. Without discussing the question of right, wrote he, January 6, 1860, of abstract power to secede, I have never believed that actual disruption of the Union can occur without blood; and if, through the madness of Northern Abolitionism, that dire calamity must come, the fighting will not be along Mason's and Dixon's line merely. It [will] be within our own borders, in our own streets, between the two classes of citizens to whom I have referred. Those who defy law and scout constitutional obligations will, if we ever reach the arbitrament of arms, find occupation enough at home. As the oracle of another faction, Douglas had made an elaborate argument in the Senate to show that the President possessed no right of coercion; repeating the theory of Buchanan's message, that the army and navy and the m
John G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of Rebellion, Chapter 8: Washington. (search)
succession of disasters to the Union cause created a profound impression. Virginia's secession on the 17th; Harper's Ferry lost on the 18th; Baltimore in arms, and the North effectually cut off on the 19th; the Gosport Navy Yard sacrificed on the 20th--where would the tide of misfortune stop? Wavering Unionists found no great difficulty in forecasting the final success of rebellion; sanguine secessionists already in their visions saw the stars and stripes banished to the north of Mason and Dixon's line. Whatever the doubt, there was no other present resource but to rely largely upon the good faith and order of Washington City. The whole matter had been under the almost constant investigation of General Scott and his subordinates since January; and officers of earnestness and good judgment assured him that the local militia would stand by the Government and the flag. In that assurance fifteen companies of volunteers had, since the 9th of April, been enlisted, equipped, and arm
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 1, Chapter 11: the Black Hawk War. (search)
ion. There must have been many dramatic occurrences during this period, and the scene is peopled by the ghostly semblance of the men who have fought and died since that day. The Rev. Dr. Harsha, of Omaha, said: General Winfield Scott, when a young man, was stationed at Fort Snelling-at that day perhaps the remotest military outpost in the country. When the Black Hawk War was begun some Illinois militia companies proffered their services. Two lieutenants were sent by Scott to Dixon, Ill., to muster the new soldiers. One of these lieutenants was a very fascinating young man, of easy manners and affable disposition; the other was equally pleasant but extremely modest. On the morning when the muster was to take place, a tall, gawky, slab-sided, homely young man, dressed in a suit of blue jeans, presented himself to the lieutenants as the captain of the recruits, and was duly sworn in. The homely young man was Abraham Lincoln. The bashful lieutenant was he who afterwa
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events, Diary from December 17, 1860 - April 30, 1864 (ed. Frank Moore), 1862, September (search)
n of the latter, and the capture of a greater part of their horses.--(Doc. 205.) Colonel Bradley T. Johnson, having been appointed by Gen. Lee, Provost-Marshal of Frederick, Md., on his entrance into that city, issued a proclamation addressed to the people of Maryland, in which he told them that after sixteen months of oppression, more galling than the Austrian tyranny, the victorious army of the South brought freedom to their doors; that its standard waved from the Potomac to Mason and Dixon's line; that the men of Maryland had then the opportunity of working out their own redemption; and he called upon them to do their part, and to rise at once. He asked them to remember the cells of Fort McHenry, the dungeons of Forts La Fayette and Warren; the insults to their wives and daughters; the arrests, the midnight searches of their houses, and to rise at once in arms and strike for liberty and rights. General Lee, commanding the rebel army in Virginia, issued a proclamation fro
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 8: attitude of the Border Slave-labor States, and of the Free-labor States. (search)
sword of the Republic immovably in its scabbard, until the black crime should be consummated. An ex-President of the United States wrote to the man who afterward became chief leader of the conspirators, saying:--Without discussing the question of right — of abstract power to secede — I have never believed that actual disruption of the Union can occur without blood; and if, through the madness of Northern Abolitionists, that dire calamity must come, the fighting will not be along Mason and Dixon's line, merely. It will be within our own borders, in our own streets, between the two classes of citizens to whom I have referred. Those who defy law and scout constitutional obligations will, if we ever reach the arbitrament of arms, find occupation enough at home. --Extract of a Letter from Franklin Pierce to Jefferson Davis, January 6, 1860. After the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession was adopted, an ex-Governor of Illinois wrote to the same man, saying:--I am, in heart and soul
Charles Congdon, Tribune Essays: Leading Articles Contributing to the New York Tribune from 1857 to 1863. (ed. Horace Greeley), The perils of Pedagogy. (search)
olved, That the Committee of Schools and Colleges inquire into the expediency of reporting a bill, prohibiting School Commissioners throughout the Commonwealth from subscribing to any teacher, male or female, who hails from the North of Mason and Dixon's line, unless they shall have resided in the State of Virginia for at least ten successive years previous. The fact that Mr. Matthews should consider such a motion as this necessary to the salvation of the State, would seem to show that North why has the Governor of that State neglected her boys? What is a steam-packet running to France in comparison with well-educated girls? Was ever such fatuity? Where were the native, well-born, orthodox teachers hailing from south of Mason and Dixon's line --good, safe, responsible guides in petticoats or pantaloons, with sound Constitutional principles and proper views of the Christian religion? We have heretofore thought that a demand in the market indicated a dearth. But Gov. Wise kno
Owen Wister, Ulysses S. Grant, V. (search)
h him the Queen; John Bright and the Manchester men. But the rank and file of the aristocracy were full of virtuous rage at our presuming to be a great nation. No more than Grant does Jefferson Davis seem to have looked for a grave struggle. He and the few leaders, who took the South into Secession, managed to make it believe that one Southerner was equal to five Yankees. And Davis made a speech in which he announced that he was ready to drink every drop of blood shed south of Mason and Dixon's line. This line across our country was quite seriously thought by Secessionists to divide all Americans graphically into heroes and cowards. This tribal mania was very naturally heightened by the performances of Generals Butler and Schenck and the rout of Bull Run. In the East the Union cause looked dark enough, when light unexpectedly came from the West. General Grant stands the central figure in that light. To follow him, a survey of the country must be taken. Through the gallant
Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65: its Causes, Incidents, and Results: Intended to exhibit especially its moral and political phases with the drift and progress of American opinion respecting human slavery from 1776 to the close of the War for the Union. Volume I., Xiv. The Wilmot Proviso. (search)
e Territories, voted with his Whig colleague, Green Adams, and all the Whigs and all but four Messrs. Samuel A. Bridges of Pennsylvania, and William Kennon, jr., John K. Miller, and William Sawyer, of Ohio. Messrs. Chas. Brown, Chas. J. Ingersoll, and other such, did not vote. of the Democrats from the Free States, in the affirmative; while all the members present from the Slave States but Messrs. Adams and Buckner voted in the negative: so that the House divided very nearly on Mason and Dixon's line. But Mr. Buckner paid for his speech and vote on this occasion with his seat. He had succeeded in 1847, over his Democratic opponent, by 386 majority; he was thrown out in 1849 by 1140 majority. Mr. Adams did not stand for re-election. And the bill thus passed was not even considered in the Senate — a motion by Mr. Douglas (February 28), that it be taken up for reference, having been promptly voted down by 28 Nays to 25 Yeas. For the Pro-Slavery majority in that Senate had alre
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