We very much regret to hear of the impaired health of your father. Christy feels quite sad; but we both hope to hear of his speedy recovery. The weather is very cold, and there is no prospect of a break-up. Try and persuade your father and Gen. Jones to stop with us a day or two on their way home. Give to both of them our highest regards. IX. MRS. CHRISTIANA DODGE (HENRY) TO MRS. CHRISTIANA CLARKE1 (JAMES). Washington, February 19th, 1850 *** Your father's health is improving; a bad cold gave him a backset, but he is getting better of that and gains. This climate is very changeable; bad colds prevail very much. Give my love to Mr. Clarke and the children and kiss them all for me. Your father joins me in love to you all. God in his mercy bless you, my dear daughter, is the constant prayer of Your affectionate Mother. X. JULIUS F. TALLANT TO A. C. DODGE, WASHINGTON, D. C. Burlington, August 7, 1850 It was almost the last request of our departed friend, Gov. Clarke, that I should write you, and give a full account of the mournful occurrences of the last month. Extreme mental excitement consequent upon overexertion, day and night, among those stricken down with the scourge which has raged so awfully among us, and the fact that nearly every person considering himself a friend, near or remote, of the family, appeared to have flooded you with letters, has prevented me from doing this before. At this late date, it is useless to recall all the deprivations that have befallen the Governor's family. I was with him during the greater part of his illness until he was insensible. Mr. Coolbaugh will visit you, in Washington, according to a promise he made before he left here, and will communicate to you verbally all the particulars. Until he returns, everything will be left in statu quo. What shall be done with the Gazette now?-is a question which every member of our party is asking. Could you not send us a 1 Mrs. Clarke died July 14th, and Mr. Clarke July 28th, 1850, of epidemic cholera.-Iowa Historical Record, IV. 11, good man from Washington to take charge of it, strong-minded enough to steer clear of cliques, and clear-headed and intelligent? I have been doing all that has been done for the paper since Mr. Clarke's death, except one article, but I can never do it justice, following as I do a business which requires my undivided attention, and a laborious county office on top of it, to say nothing of the exertions all of our citizens have been compelled to make among the sick and dying, in the most sultry and oppressive weather ever felt, for the last month. When Mr. Clarke was taken ill, he engaged Judge Webber to take charge of the paper, but when the epidemic appeared, the Judge left town and has not returned yet. We will try to get along somehow till Mr. Coolbaugh comes back, and do what we can for the paper. The Democratic ticket has been again dragged through, despite the bolting of the grocery keepers, and the Catholics, both Irish and German. We may now consider our county as permanently. Democratic. We lost heavily by the California emigration, and felt very apprehensive that the Whigs would have a majority. We are happy to say that the epidemic has left us entirely now. It has left, but in its track is many a desolate household, many a mourning widow and weeping orphans. Heaven it is to be hoped, will find friends for those in need, and there are many such. As a body our citizens have behaved admirably, many devoting themselves entirely to the sick, regardless of fear of infection. Their nobility of mind has not been unrewarded; not a man of those who thus offered themselves as voluntary victims of its wrath, has suffered. Our friend Carpenter (Anthony W.) has been truly a ministering angel in this dread hour. A Township trustee, and as such called on by all whom poverty had rendered incapable of assisting themselves, day after day he devoted himself to alleviating their sufferings and ministering to their wants. XI. ROBERT E. LEE, BREVET COLONEL TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEERS, TO A. C. DODGE. Honble A. C. Dodge Senator of Iowa Washington City D. C. Fort Carroll 15 Dec. 1851. Dear Sir: I have had the honour to receive your letter of the 12th Inst. in reference to the practicability of improving the navigation of the Mississippi river at the Des Moines and Rock River Rapids. You are aware that the Act of Congress under which I operated in the years 1837 and 1838, confined the application of the App'n to the bed of the river. I therefore in my examinations did not look beyond it. At the Des Moines Rapids but two plans seemed worth considering. One was to build a continuous wall in the bed of the river, from the foot to the head of the Rapids, along the Iowa shore and at a sufficient distance to form with it, an ample canal for the passage of Steamboats, with a lock at each extremity. The other, to improve the natural channel of the river, by opening a passage through the reefs that separated one basin from the other, and thus form a continuous channel through their whole extent. The first if completed would be certain in its results, and afford a sure communication at low water through the Rapids. But of no advantage in an incomplete state; would cost much time and money, and had it been adopted, would to the present time, as experience now shows, been of no advantage. The second I considered equally practicable; affording more speedy relief to the Commerce of the Country, which was labouring under the greatest disadvantages; and by operating at the worst passes first, would produce with the means then available, a general benefit which would be felt at mean stages of water, as well as at the lowest. This plan was accordingly recommended. Similar considerations influenced me in reference to the improvement of the Rock River Rapids. I did not then think, nor had I any reason to apprehend afterwards, that the water above the Rapids would be sensibly diminished, if care was taken in opening the main channel, to stop up with the stone excavated the minor ones. The effect would be to unite in one channel the water that flows through many, and which the two seasons that I was on the Rapids, even at the low stages of the river appeared ample for the purposes of navigation. You can judge better than I can which system of improvement is better adapted to the present state of the country. Whether its Commerce and development can wait for the perfection of one, or would be more advanced by the progressive improvement of the other. Believing it to be a question of great moment not only to the great country of the Upper Mississippi, but to the country at large, I have taken the liberty to give you the reasons that governed me in the matter; that in resuming the subject, you might examine it in its different bearings, and adopt that plan best calculated to promote its success. With my earnest wishes that such may be the result of your efforts I remain very resptYour Obt. Servt. R. E. LEE, XII. ENOS LOWE TO GEORGE W. JONES, U. S. SENATE. Enos Lowe, M. D., was born in Guilford, N. C., May 5, 1804; came to Indiana, where he was elected to the State legislature; removed to Burlington, Iowa, 1837, and was second postmaster of the town, then in Wisconsin Territory. He was a member of the First Constitutional Convention of Iowa, 1844, and of the Second, and its President, 1846. He was Receiver of the Land Office at Iowa City and Council Bluffs, and afterwards one of the founders of Omaha, Nebraska, where he died, Feb. 12, 1880. T. S. Parvin paid a just tribute to his life and character in Iowa Historical Record, VIII, 289-296. Esteemed Friend Burlington, January 9th, 1853. Carrying the mails on Sunday years ago troubled the consciences of some persons, and they petitioned Congress to pass a law to stop them on that day. These petitions were referred to a Committee, of which Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, was Chairman, who made a report adverse to the prayer of the petitioners. This report was unanswerable, and so satisfactory that the question has not been disturbed since. And so esteemed was this production by many acquaintances of mine, of undoubted piety, as to be considered worthy a place beside the Declaration of Independence in an ornamental frame. In short, I understand it to be the settled policy of the Government that the transmission of mail matter is not to be retarded on any day-that the transmission of intelligence to the people is to be facilitated, not delayed, and that the regulations of the post office should be in accordance with this design. Notwithstanding we receive the Eastern mail at about 8 o'clock A. M., on Sundays, we are not permitted a sight at its contents until 4 o'clock P. M. under a petty rule of Fitz Henry Warren or somebody else, who delights in a display of his official power, thereby frustrating the object in a great degree of sending us the mail thus early. When I was postmaster here under Amos Kendall, the rule gov erning the case of "mails arriving on Sunday" required the office to be kept open one hour after such mail was opened. This rule is in conformity with the rule and contract which brought us the mail on Sunday. But the present rule leaves us in almost as bad a condition as if the mail was detained in Illinois over Sunday. It matters not to us whether the mail is in this or some other office, if it is withheld from us. The P. Master should be required to open & distribute the mail as soon as it arrives on Sundays as well as any other days, and to open the office as soon as it is done, and keep it open one hour. Can this regulation be procured now?-if not, if there is virtue in a change of administration, may we not look for it soon after the 4th of March. IOWA AND THE FIRST NOMINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By F. I. HERRIOTT, Professor of Economics, Political and Social Science, Drake University. 1. First Expressions-1856-1857. Forecasting the Presidential fates is an inveterate habit of Americans, particularly of editors and politicians. The quadrennial election is no sooner over than some venture upon predictions or suggestions as to candidates for the ensuing Presidential contest. The practice was vigorous in the fifties. The returns showing Buchanan's triumph in 1856 had hardly been certified before the N. Y. Herald ran up Fremont's name as the best candidate for the Republicans in 1860. It asserted that the opponents of the Slavocrats could "only hope" for success "under the name of Fremont;"" that his nomination would signify the popular overthrow of the oligarchical rule of politicians "who care for no earthly thing but the spoils;'2 and after pointing out that he had excelled Jackson and Harrison in popularity it declared that "in every direction the Fremont papers are running up his name for 1860." 113 After quoting his eastern contemporary Mr. J. B. Howell, Editor of The Gate City of Keokuk closed an editorial (November 11) with the prediction that the next president "will be John Charles Fremont! Look over the field calmly and considerately, and, answer, Why not?" On the same date Mr. John Mahin said in the Muscatine Daily Journal: "We would rather run his name to our mast head today for the 1 N. Y. Herald, Nov. 8, 1856. 2. Ib., Nov. 9. 3. Ib., Nov. 12. Before 1860 the management of The Herald suffered a radical change, Seward and John Brown causing it to become a violent opponent of the Republican party. |