Senator Truman Smith to James S. Pike, August 22, 1850

Washington City, August 26, 1850.

Dear Sir: Pursuant to order, I this morning went at the Hon. Corwin, Pike in hand, and I have to say there will not, in my opinion, be the slightest difficulty in regard to the matter to which you refer. I will write you again in two or three days. Push ahead! Smite down the Philistines.

I am, Hon. Pike, ever yours,

Truman Smith.

P.S. — I will send you a few copies of my recent speech on that novel topic the negro question! Perhaps they may do good.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 86

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, August 22, 1850

New York, August 22, 1850.

Dear Pike: I hope you'll go to Congress, and in due season to heaven, but the look is not so good as I could wish. However, go ahead, and you will be certain to land somewhere. . . .

If you can manage to handle your adversary as venomously as you did the Compromise, you will at least make him sorry he ever encountered you.

Luck to you, and don't forget to telegraph me the first news of your election.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 85

Israel Washburn Jr. to James S. Pike, June 24, 1850

Washington, June 24, 1850.

Dear Pike: I could not obtain for you any good account of the reciprocity treaty in its details, and therefore sent you nothing in reference to it.

I see that the Maine Hunkers have nominated Albion K. Parris for Governor. They passed no resolutions in the convention approving Nebraska or the Administration. This shows the feeling of Maine upon the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.

Suppose you inquire in the Tribune, ’an you've a mind to, whether Governor Parris is for or against the repeal, for or against acquiescence, and whether, when in Washington, a few weeks ago, he spoke of the measure approvingly, and took credit to himself for discouraging a meeting of the citizens of Portland to protest against it.

Don't you think that the North ought to acquiesce in the Mississippi Compromise repeal? Why should she keep up a perpetual row on this slave question? Why should not Northern Whigs go for acquiescence, a free-trade tariff, and Millard Fillmore?

The address lately issued troubles our weak-backs greatly. They don't like to stand it, and don't dare disavow it. The address came not a moment too soon. Some of our Whigs were hoping to be allowed to slide quietly and silently into acquiescence. Let them wriggle.

In haste, yours ever truly,

I. Washburn, Jr.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 85

Eliza Bancroft Davis to James S. Pike, June 19, 1850

Washington, June 19, 1850.

. . . Thanks for your hint about the Boston letter; but Childs need not expect to catch old birds with chaff; just tell him so, and tell him not to be so indefinite. The Chicopee folks send it with a construction of their own. They say it means, “Vote for Taylor's plan!!” Will Childs indorse that? or will he expound it to mean, Give to the South all they ask? There is no medium, and it is melancholy to see that by votes from Free States they are getting all they want. The Omnibus will go through the Senate. Bridges are being built to enable men to cross the gulf, and the report to-day is that there can be no doubt. Mr. Davis almost wishes Jefferson Davis’s amendment may be adopted, that the Northern men may be effectually cornered. The tariff still slumbers, but probably that will be brought to bear in the House. Mr. Badger says there can be no Southern vote for a tariff if this bill is defeated. I hope we are not quite ready to sell soul and body too for cotton.

We often wish for your good company. Mrs. Grinnell desires her regard, and the gentlemen would too if they were hear; but I write without delay, after reading your letter, fearing I may fall into my old habit of waiting a more convenient season, till finally I am ashamed to do it at all.

With great regard,

Your friend,

E. Davis

I have opened my letter to say to you that Mr. Dayton has just come in from the Senate quite in spirits. He says he told Clay he wished to go home a day or two, and asked him what would be done to-morrow. “My God,” says Clay, “don't ask me. Who can tell for tomorrow. I wish I could be well out of this matter. Woe to the day I ever touched it.” Berrien offered an amendment which has offended him, and he said so. “I am not a school-boy to be lectured,” says Berrien. “I am too old for that, sir.” “Aha!” says Dayton, “I have thought so too, but you must take your turn.” The bridges are caving in, and the hope is our folks still keep a majority, notwithstanding absenteeism. Borland and Bradbury have decamped, but it is said the rest will not be coaxed even by Clay. So much for to-day. Wednesday, 4 o'clock.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 84

Charles A. Dana to James S. Pike, May 29, 1850

New York, May 29, 1850.

Greatest And Best Of Pikes: I have long desired and designed to write you a letter, and no doubt you have long expected it; but with me the idea is easy, the execution difficult. In fact, I intend to petition the extra session of our legislature, now about to be held, for an elongation of the days and a second pair of hands in order to come a little nearer what I want to do.

First and foremost, a thousand thanks for your articles, especially that which I headed “Wanted a Candidate,” and that on “Prospects of Disunion.” They were great and good, and stirred up the animals, which you as well as I recognize as one of the great ends of life. The fact is that between you and me we have bothered the Silver Greys most infernally, and probably shall do so again.

I suppose you are swearing at the non-appearance of your response on the banking business; but I have had it in type ever since it got here, with some most sound, conservative, and elegant remarks from the able pen of one of the first writers in the country attached, and that every night on leaving the office I have regularly ordered that that article shall go in on the editorial page, but that hitherto it has been constantly and persistently and pertinaciously crowded out by other things. However, I live in hope of printing it to-morrow. The article on Webster was postponed in consequence of the Buffalo speech, but it will hit 'em hard in a day or two. That on the Halifax Railroad I shortened in order to get it in right off, and besides, it is rather late in the day for such a radical sheet as the Trib. to say by way of programme that it is going to keep in the golden mean betwixt red and white. The thing is good to do perhaps, but I don't exactly like to say it along with the Rochester knocking, and the No-Petticoat Movement. And so you'll forgive the liberty I took with your Mss. . . . There's no other man I know of whom I should like so well to come in as an associate in the toils, glories, and profits of this newspaper, which I reckon to be at the beginning of its career. I hope we can fetch it about. You will understand that I don't say this by way of compliment. What I am after is the interest of the paper.

Yours ever truly,

C. A. Dana.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 83

William Schouler to James S. Pike, May 17, 1850

Boston, May 17, 1850.

My Dear Pike: I owe you two or three apologies for not having answered your last letter, but I have been so busy and had so many calls to receive and calls to make that my time has slipped by without counting it. I read all your letters in the Tribune, and they are number one, prime. They talk just as everybody talks here, and just as we want to have everybody talk in Washington.

Old Zach is at this moment the popular man in the country, and heaps of Freesoilers are going for him. They are (I mean the honest old Whig portion) delighted with him. If we act with wisdom we shall be like that man who takes

“the tide in his affairs

Which leads to fortune.”

If we were to follow the lead of the old Hunkerdom of Clay we should be led, as Byron says of the tide in the affairs of women, “God knows where.”

Why cannot you resume your correspondence with the Atlas? Dr. Brewer has left Washington, and we now have no one there. The Atlas will welcome you and give you verge and scope to your heart's content, and never once try to clip your plumage. You may call Locofocos Democrats, or vice versa. So, my dear fellow, spread yourself, and if there be any thing in my power to aid or assist you in accomplishing, draw upon me. Greely says so too; so do write — won't you? I shall not insist upon a too frequent correspondence; daily I should like, but tri, semi, or weekly will be gratifying. As the old fellow at the prayer-meeting, upon being asked if he would not make a short prayer, said, “He had no objection to making the prayer, but he'd be d if

he would be limited as to time.”

Every thing political is quiet just now. We hope to send you by the first week in June the Hon. Benjamin Thompson to take his seat in Congress from the Fourth District. Things look mighty nice there just now. I feel confident that Thompson will be chosen; and if he is chosen, you may rest assured that the popularity of old Zach will have done much towards it. Thompson is a very respectable man — “a human man;” not a great man, but a man of sense, and goes old Zach to the death.

I shall write you again next week. In the meantime I remain, yours very truly,

Wm. Schouler

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 70

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, May 16, 1850

New York, May 16, 1850.

Dear P.: I presume I confiscated your dollar — Swartwouted with it — absorbed it. I will repent and refund at the desk.

As to the editorship of the Republic, I beg to be excused. I shouldn't like to be called up to the big house after some cabinet flusteration and told, “York, you're not wanted.” No, sir, I thank ye! That wouldn't suit my amiable and modest disposition. It might tempt me to blaspheme, which I now studiously avoid.

What the deuce is the meaning of this row the lot of you are kicking up about the President's plan and Clay's Omnibus I can't conceive. I read all your letters most earnestly, but can't make out what you mean. The two schemes are six of one and half a dozen t'other; but if either is six and a half, I think it is Clay's; for that takes care of New-Mexico, which t'other don't. I mistrust you are very factious and selfish, some of you.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 62

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, May 2, 1850

New York, May 2, 1850.

Friend Pike: I beg you not to be diffident. I know how common the fault is among Washington writers, and how hard to be overcome, but I beseech you, as Mrs. Chick would say, “to make an effort.” You don't know what may come of it.

Mr. Snow of ours will hand you this letter. He goes on to discover, with your help, that genius of an “inventive turn of mind,” who knows just what mansion great men retire to when they don't retire at all. Good boy, that — we must hire his imagination.

I like your letters, and if you won't call Foote and Butler “Democrats” in such sense as to imply that I am something else, I don't think I shall ever take liberties with your letters, except it may be the liberty of dissenting from some of their positions.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 50

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, May 1, 1850

New York, May 1, 1850.

Dear Sir: There are serious objections to murder; some people are so fastidious as to object to burglary and arson, and my impression is that rape and highway robbery, however pleasant in the concrete, are not in the abstract strictly justifiable. I would not be positive, on these points, knowing how widely opinions differ on almost every phase of human conduct; but when you come to writing on both sides of a half sheet of paper, intended as copy in a daily newspaper office, there can be no mistake as to the atrocity of a crime whereat outraged human nature stands aghast with horror. I pray you think of this evermore, and write only on one side. Also, indorse your letters “Editor's Mail,” for fear they should somehow lie over at Washington or Baltimore till the morning mail, and so miss us by arriving here at midnight and remaining undistributed. These are small matters, but their consequence to us is not small.

Can't you guess out for us somebody who can fish out executive session and committee secrets like Harriman, Harvey, and Kingman? If you can, set him to telegraphing. Everybody, from Mother Eve's time down, has been especially anxious to know what ought not to be known, and we must get some of it into the Tribune or be voted dull, indolent, and behind the times. We have had it, but just now our channels of transmission are choked up.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 49-50

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, April 27, 1850

New York, April 27, 1850.

Friend Pike: Thank you for yours of yesterday, especially for your decision to draw on us for expenses. I prefer to have it that way. “Business is business,” and I want to hire you — that is, just as much of your time as you choose to sell me. The Tribune is able to pay, and I would rather pay you than owe you.

I don't care to use your letters for telegraphic despatches, á la Express; but you can often hear an inkling of the forthcoming Galphin report, the Compromise bill, the Committee on Old Bullion, etc., etc., which I will thank you to send by telegraph rather than the slower way. Bear in mind that expense is no object in the matter of early advices. I don't expect you to run round prying after such things, but they will fall in your way. Our Collector's confirmation or rejection is a matter of much interest here. Please indorse your letters conspicuously “Editors' Mail.”

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 48

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, April 28, 1850

New York, April 28, 1850.

Friend Pike: I have your first letter, and shall put it through, leads and all, though I am crowded for to-morrow. I only insist on one modification, that of not calling the Locofocos Democrats. First, because they are not; next, because they live on that name, and make more votes out of it than out of all the wisdom, talent, and patriotism they ever displayed; and lastly, because it deceives and misleads many of the ignorant and simple with regard to our character and the real questions which divide us. I pray you call me a sheep-thief if you have occasion, but don't call Foote, Dickinson & Co. “the Democratic party.” If you do, they may have a roast baby for breakfast every morning, with missionary steaks for dinner, and yet rule the country forever.

I shall suggest some demurrage to your points, but never mind. Send along more of each. But let us know sometimes what Congress, the Cabinet, etc., are about to do, as well as what they ought to do.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 49

William Schouler* to James S. Pike, April 25, 1850

House Of Representatives,

Boston, April 25, 1850.

My Dear Pike: You don't know how glad I was to receive your letter of the 20th inst. The spirit of the letter was in unison with my own feelings and with the feelings of all good Whigs in this quarter. The ways of Congress to some are “past finding out,” but they are now being discovered. I know that I do not overstate the fact when I tell you that our good old President is daily increasing in popular favor and regard, and Clay and Webster are decreasing in a like ratio.

We are determined here to stand by the administration, and no longer pay court to Hunkerdom anyhow. I have taken an unequivocal position, and I shall sink or swim with it. I find, however, that very little nerve is required to sustain this ground, for the people here are all of one accord. Even those who signed the letter to Mr. Webster, and were recalled by a certain speech to a “true sense of their constitutional duties,” do not find fault with me, with one or two exceptions, and they are the “born thralls of Cedric,” the Wambas and Gurths, for whom I care nothing, and who have little or no influence upon the popular mind because they are known, known even without the brass collar.

The Whig party in our State stand firm as a rock, and I have no doubt that we shall draw in a large part of the Freesoil party to the support of the administration. I don't know what we shall do in the Fourth District. The election takes place on the 29th of May. I think, however, that whoever the Whig Convention nominates will be elected. The Whig candidate, you know, has declined. He may be renominated again. His letter of declension was first-rate, and has added to his popularity, and may cause him to be put on the track again. It is possible that Hon. Samuel Hoar will receive the nomination; if so, he will certainly be elected, as the Freesoil men and Whigs can both elect him. I have known him for twenty years, and there is no better Whig living. He was opposed to General Taylor, but he has been satisfied with the old man, and he told me this forenoon that every thing which the administration had done since it came into power met with his hearty concurrence. He has had a seat alongside of me in the House for nearly four months, and I know of no better Whig anywhere. Still it is doubtful whether he will be nominated, or, if nominated, that he would accept to run against Palfrey. Nous verrons.

Your letters to the Courier are just the fodder, and I read them with great delight; they will do good.

I really hope that you will write me often. I like your letters hugely. Give my respects to the “honorable Truman,” and all other good and true Taylor men.

Yours truly,

Wm. Schoulbr.

_______________

* Editor of the Boston Atlas.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 42-3

Horace Greeley to James S. Pike, April 24, 1850

New York, April 24, 1850.

Dear Sir:

Will you write me some letters? You are writing such abominably bad ones for the Boston Courier that I fancy you are putting all your unreason into these, and can give me some of the pure juice. Try!

What I want is a daily letter (when there is any thing to say) on the doings of Congress, commenting on any thing spicy or interesting, and letting the readers make the right comments, rather than see that you are making them. Then I should like a dispatch in the evening, if any thing comes out, especially if any appointments shall have been acted on in executive. You know how to get them.

Well, are you ready to do me $10, $15, or $20 worth of work (you to value it) for a while, until it shall please you to come away or I can send some one on to Washington? If yes, please set about it and send me word. If not, condescend to say so. What I am after is news.

Yours,

Horace Greeley.

James S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 41

Samuel Kettell* to James S. Pike, April 25, 1850

Boston, April 25, 1850.

My Dear Sir: Nothing objectionable in your last. T’other one has made quite a fortune for itself as far as publicity goes. You will see by the accompanying Albany paper how it is relished in certain quarters. The sweetness of the praise bestowed upon you by one critic is tempered by a drop of acid from the galipot of another. On the whole, you may congratulate yourself highly on the success of that scratch; none but a sharp one could have caused so much rubbing. I could send you many other copies of the letter and the comment thereon, but suppose you have already seen abundance of them.

You and I have but one opinion of the charlatanry and egoism of Clay. It is a portentous humbug that has ridden the Whig party like a nightmare. I would as soon buy real estate in the tail of a comet as I would invest political capital in his principles.

My hope and trust is that you may never be hampered in the free expression of your thoughts through the columns of the Courier. The reputation which you have gained for it is great. I wish the independence of a public journal were a means of making it profitable, but I am ashamed for our enlightened public to say that the dullest, stupidest, most unideaed and slavish of all printed sheets are the very ones most certain of success in money matters. People are very eager to read what they will not pay for. I know that by abundant experience.

I am now awaiting with the utmost impatience the result of the negotiations which I mentioned to you, and which will decide whether I am to stay in or go out of the concern. Whatever happens, I shall always feel the great obligations we have been under to you, and always be ready to do what I can to requite them.

Yours truly,

S. Kettell.

J. S. Pike, Esq,

______________

* The editor of the Boston Courier.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 40-1

Samuel Kettell* to James S. Pike, April 22, 1850

Boston, April 22, 1850.

My Dear Sir: I return your letter, agreeably to your request. It went sadly against my grain to withhold it from the press, for no one can like it better than I do. If I were not hampered by business obligations in this particular matter, there should be no impediment to the swing of your broad ax in the Courier; nothing is better relished here.

I hope the matters in question will be all arranged before many days, when you shall hear from me again. At present you may have the satisfaction of knowing that what you have done will tend to great good. I should be most happy to see satisfaction of another sort added to this.

Yours truly,

S. Kettell.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

______________

* The editor of the Boston Courier.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 32

Henry Carter* to James S. Pike, April 17, 1850

Portland, April 17, 1850.

Friend Pike: I have been rather old Hunkerish in my feelings in times past, but I am not at all proud of the present position of Clay and Webster!

If the Senate tack that long tail to California, I hope the House will cut it off or defeat the whole  — if they have to call the yeas and nays for it. I should go in for a row before I would submit to it.

Very truly, your friend,

H. Carter.

_______________

* Editor of the Portland Advertiser.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 27

Samuel Kettell to James S. Pike, April 15, 1850

Boston, April 15, 1850.

My Dear Sir: I am quite as fully persuaded as yourself that political matters are in a most critical state. It's more the pity that honest men like you and me have not the power to make everybody obey us in marching straight ahead out of these troubles. I, for one, cannot have my own way in the matter, as you will see by what follows. You know the Courier has taken the side of Webster in the California and Proviso question. I have not space to tell the whole story, but the thing is done and we must stand upon it. You have spoken very freely upon all political subjects through our columns, and I wish to God things were so that nothing would lie in the way of your exertions in the same career. But what can we do? The matter has got beyond the limit of speculative opinions and assumed a practical shape. We have now a real job to do in sustaining Dan, and it is impossible to get ahead if we pull down with one hand what we build up with the other. People are quoting your letters against us, and making capital out of them for t'other side. Just look at the newspapers. Small causes we don't mind, but this is cutting our own throat.

I feel this embarrassment the more sensibly when I reflect on the obligation we are under to you for your long-continued and valuable labor in the service of the Courier. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than the ability to make you some recompense for the same, but Heaven knows I am as void of the pecuniary as of the political appliances and means to do such things. In short, there are such influences gathered round me that I must crave a very liberal forbearance from you in explaining how much I cannot do just now. I heartily wish all party politics at the devil.

In plain English, the political train of the Courier must run for the present on a single track. Don't think hard of me for saying I cannot publish your letters against old Dan. The truth is, a negotiation is now on foot for the transfer of the proprietorship of the Courier, which will place it under new management, and in this conjuncture I am restricted by business obligations from printing political matters of a certain character. This is confidential between ourselves; no one knows it but the parties concerned.

When I am free to fight on my own hook, I hope you and I may go shoulder to shoulder. Till then I must trust to your candor and good sense to put the right construction on my behavior, and, with a thousand thanks for your past services, I remain,

Yours truly,

S. Kettell.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

_______________

*Editor of The Boston Courier.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 26

Fitz Henry Warren to James S. Pike, December 16, 1860

Burlington, Iowa, December 16, 1860.

James Pike: I am fructified in spirit to see “J. S. P.” again at the foot of a Washington letter. How are you, and where have you been? I should have written to you a long time ago, but I have been busy all the season “crying in the wilderness,” and to some purpose, too, for we have done a large business in Iowa as well as in the “inductive” State of Maine.

Being at a safe distance from South Carolina and Georgia, I look on very calmly. Several gentlemen are to be killed before my turn comes. Oh for an hour of Old Hickory or Old Zach! Are we to have turbulent times? I do not exactly see the end, for I am ignorant what the new Administration is to be. Let Abraham put in Corwin for Secretary of Treasury; Pennington, Secretary of the Interior ; and Colfax, Postmaster-General, and we shall have a lovely time. That committee, with C. for chairman, will have an illustrious labor and parturiate a generation of mice.

Give me a letter occasionally, with a history of the green-room rehearsals and other items.

Who is to be senator from Maine?

Very truly, your friend,

Fitz-henry Warren.

James S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 526

Senator William P. Fessenden to James S. Pike, September 12, 1860

Portland, September 12, 1860.

My Dear Sir: All yours received. We are covered all over with glory. I congratulate you and Fred, and everybody else in general and particular.

I was anxious about Fred's election on many accounts. The intelligence I received was not flattering, particularly from Hancock. His nomination was said to be not satisfactory in Bucksport and vicinity, on account of some local feeling, and as they pressed me very strongly to come down and see if I could allay it, I took boat Friday night, and spoke there on Saturday, doing what I could outside by coaxing and swearing. Tuck writes me to-day, giving the vote, and says that I did them good service in various ways. At any rate, the vote is satisfactory. Fred leads, I see, instead of falling behind.

I went to Bangor on Sunday, was taken sick, and had to send for a doctor, but got home on Monday in season to vote, and then went to bed, where I lay until this morning. I am up to-day, and hope to be out again to-morrow, if the weather will allow.

The truth is, I was not in a condition to take any part in the campaign, but nobody would believe it. Our great success must cure me, however, if there is a spark of vitality left.

Now, let other States do their duty, and the rascals are wiped out.

Yours, as always,

W. P. Fessenden.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 525-6

Senator William P. Fessenden to James S. Pike, September 2, 1860

Portland, September 2, 1860.

My Dear Pike: I have been absent all the week, and on my return find your letter of the 29th. My opinions coincide somewhat with yours, though I can hardly believe . . . so much of a scoundrel as to wish your district lost. The State Committee have not, I am informed, sent one dollar to this district. They offered us Burlingame for one evening, and the chairman of our District Committee says we shall have to pay him. When B. was here on his way to Belfast, he said that he had no engagements after that week, and agreed to speak at several places in this vicinity the week following. I urged him to do so, at the request of committees. Soon after, Stevens and Blaine loaded me down with letters and telegrams, complaining that he was taken out of their hands, and that he was needed in your district, saying, moreover, that you and Fred complained of neglect, and that the district was in danger. This was the first intimation I had of any danger in the First, or that it had not been taken care of, and I immediately wrote and telegraphed my willingness and advice that he should go to you at once, as we could get along without him. He is with you, and, I hope, is doing good service.

We are having a terrible fight here, and until Blaine wrote me about Burlingame, I supposed, as did we all, that our district was the battleground, and that yours was all right. My brother Sam writes that the Third is safe beyond a peradventure. He has fought his own battle, with the exception of a few speeches from outsiders.

Yours always truly,

W. P. Fessenden.

J. S. Pike, Esq.

SOURCE: James Shepherd Pike, First Blows of the Civil War: The Ten Years of Preliminary Conflict in the United States from 1850 to 1860, p. 525