Share and Retribution

Today's entry is from the New York Times, September, 29, 1861, written by an unidentified ardently pro Union man attacking the descendants of two of the country's most revered politicians, George Washington and Henry Clay.  These descendants were John A. Washington great nephew of George Washington and James B. Clay son of Henry Clay, both Confederates.

John A. Washington owned Mount Vernon and had sold it a couple of years prior to the outbreak of the war to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, thus saving it from a state of disrepair.  This group still oversees Mount Vernon today. Washington served as an aide-de-camp on the staff of General Robert E. Lee during the war.

James B. Clay was the son of Henry Clay.  The house that Clay originally built was deteriorating, so James B. Clay tore it down and built a new house, which still stands today.  James B. Clay also was  Kentuckian who sympathized with the Confederates, and was arrested and charged with treason.  He eventually ended up in Canada, where he died from tuberculosis.

SHARE AND RETRIBUTION.

JOHN A. WASHINGTON, as heir to the Father of his Country, became the owner of Mount Vernon, the spot of all others which the American people hold most sacred, for there lived and died the great WASHINGTON, and there his remains are entombed.


In Kentucky is another consecrated spot, a Mecca towards which the pilgrimages of American patriotism must always tend, for there lived HENRY CLAY, and there is his grave. His home, with its surroundings, and the tomb of the honored dead, passed into the hands of his son and heir, JAMES B. CLAY.


JOHN A. WASHINGTON made merchandise of his inheritance, speculating through its agency upon the patriotism of the American people, -- levying black mail upon their affection for the memory of his great ancestor! It was fit that such a man should be a traitor. Without treason against the Union, his mercenary soul would lack the rounded proportions of perfect degeneracy, and the dishonor and shame which he brought upon the name he bore would be incomplete. He therefore became a traitor.


JAMES B. CLAY tore away and bartered for money, even the beams of his father's house, fashioned into canes and snuff-boxes, making his slaves the vendors -- exacting from them a rigid accounting at night for their sale of the sacred relics during the day. It was fit that he, too, should be a traitor, that the gulf between his name and the fame of his illustrious father should be wide as eternity.


JOHN A. WASHINGTON was killed in an ignoble skirmish which his treason occasioned, but which even his cowardice could not enable him to shun.

JAMES B. CLAY, having been detected in his treason and arrested in his flight, is on his way to prison at Fort Lafayette, where he will remain to be pointed out among hundreds of other rebels as the man who was traitor to his name as well as to his country the least excusable and the meanest of them all.

John A Washington from findagrave.com

James B Clay from Henryclay.org

Something To Listen For

This entry is from then New York  Times, September 15, 1861

 

A Suggestion for Scouting Parties.

To the Editor of the New-York Times. Permit me, through your columns, to suggest an idea that, if adopted, may be useful to our skirmishers, who appear to have been so often, and in several instances fatally surprised by the enemy. If the Captain of each scouting party would carry with him an instrument similar to the stethoscope, only larger, (which could be easily constructed by a good instrument maker,) occasionally applying it to his ear and the ground -- he could detect at a great distance, I think, the existence of approaching cavalry, [???] the footsteps of infantry; and thus by being prepared might save lives that would otherwise be lost by the guerilla system of warfare inaugurated by our antagonists. F.A. VON MOSCHIZISKER. NEW-YORK, Sept. 5, 1861.

 Pleasontons Cavalry deployed as skirmishers, from Library of Congress Collection

Ordering the Return of Fugitive Slaves

Today's entry is from the New York Times, dated  Thursday September 12, 1861, and concern the order to return Fugitive Slaves to their masters.

There is much feeling there among leading men, caused by the action of Gen. McClellan in ordering the return of fugitive slaves, or, rather, their arrest in camps and imprisonment in jail to await the claim of their masters.  This is in contravention of the spirit of the letter addressed by the Secretary of War to Gen. Butler, for it constitutes our troops but an army of negro catchers.  It is directly in contradiction to the letter of Fremont's proclamation, which has been unanimously accepted by the people of the loyal States as a true interpretation of our relation to the slaveholders in rebellion against the Government.

From Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, Oct. 12, 1861,
from the Library of Congress Collection.

The caption on the illustration above from Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper reads, "LINCOLN -- "I'm sorry to have to drop you, Sambo, but this concern won't carry us both!"

Exiled Patriots, Fugitive Freemen

This entry is from the New York Times, August 28, 1861.

The citizens of East Tennessee were strongly opposed to secession.  42,000 men joined the ranks of the Union army, and most of them came from East Tennessee.

Fugitive Freemen.

The exodus of patriots from East Tennessee has fairly commenced.  . . . They, escaped from East Tennessee at night, and with their clothes barely, and, in some few cases, a trusty fire-lock; and in this sad plight took up their weary line of march, as many a poor negro slave has done before them, towards the North Star. The pitiable precession arrived at Danville, travel-stained, ragged and foot-sore; and were received by the hospitable citizens of that loyal Kentucky town, in silence and with profound emotion, but with prompt and earnest sympathy A general contribution of food was made, and a generous dinner was soon prepared and set in the Seminary grounds for the fugitives. It was an acceptable gift, and gladly partaken of, amid the on-looking of hundreds of citizens of the surrounding country, whom the novel scene had gathered together.

We can well believe the letters from Danville which say that the population of Kentucky through which the slow-moving caravan of fugitive freemen passed, had been excited to the highest pitch, and that a rage of honest resentment against the horrible despotism of JEFF DAVIS had seized all hearts. Surely, so incendiary a movement was never made in the South as this movement of exiled patriots out of it; and we greatly mistake the signs of the times, if it does not prove the fire-brand that will light the fires of civil war, down to the borders and on the soil of the State of Tennessee.

The detachment of fugitives whose arrival at Danville is thus noticed is but the vanguard of the movement from East Tennessee. Another band, almost as numerous, was reported to be close behind this first, and their arrival at Danville was expected next day. And as the cause of their flight is ineradicable, the stream will flow on till every Union family is banished, or till the edict of inexorable tyranny shall forbid their further flight, and keep them at home to be hunted. We have rumors of defection from their former loyalty of such men as BROWNLOW and Hon. T.A.R. NELSON, coming in tolerably well authenticated form. We hope to find the facts otherwise, but we cannot deny that these men have struggled along to this time in almost utter hopelessness. They have had reason to despair of the protection of the United States Government; for no sign [???] promise of relief has been held out to them while the bloodhounds of secession, encompassing them on every side, have been gnashing their teeth upon them.

If the Union men of East Tennessee had been succored in time we should have lost none of the gallant spirit whom despair has driven to surrender to treason, and at this day the men that are fleeing for their lives might have been holding the State of Tennessee steadfastly in the Union.

Union Soldier from East Tennessee, as found at www.civilwarphotogallery.com