Record Data
Source citation
Wiggins, Sarah Woolfork, ed. The Journal of Josiah Gorgas: 1857-1878. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995.
Author (from)
Josiah Gorgas
Type
Diary
Date Certainty
Exact
Transcriber
Meghan Allen
Transcription date
Transcription
The following text is presented here in complete form, as true to the original written document as possible.
Feby 11 [1857]
Last night we went to hear the lecture of [the pastor of the Plymouth Church in N.Y.,] Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, familiarly called “Rifle Beecher,” from his recommending contributions of rifles to the free State Kansas emigrants. His subject was “the commonwealth,” in which he taught the insidious doctrines of the “higher law,” as advocated by the Abolitionists. The house was crowded, & the audience sympathetic. He is a man somewhat below the middle height with a bilious face, & long hair, eyes very prominent. His illustrations are the best part of his oratory & are sometimes exceedingly striking. As for example the comparison of governments in which a privileged class exists, to a stalk of wheat. The nobility is the wheat head, to which all the sustenance goes; the straw is the middling class that sustains the nobility, & the roots &c are the common people who furnish the vitality to all above, while themselves groveling in the earth, “and are ploughed in for a fresh crop.” Mr. Gilman dined with us before the lecture & went with us.
I had a letter from Mr. [Thomas Hart] Benton [former U.S. senator from Mo.] telling me that I would perhaps be sent to West Point to take charge of a new branch of instruction, designated as “Instruction in Ordnance & the Science of Gunnery.” Were the place South of Mason & Dixon’s line I might incline to go there; as it is I have no special desire to go there to turn teacher. Govr. & Mrs. Hamlin returned yesterday our call. He talks like the rest of the great men at Washington, & wished to know whether he had ever seen either of us at W., because of course he was introduced to so many persons at W. that he could not pretend to retain a recollection of, &c, &c. Mrs. H. is young & pretty, being the second Mrs. H. We propose to invite them to dinner with a few others, & Minnie declares it shall be a handsome dinner but vows she will not give it until she feels secure of the passage of the bill increasing my pay. A prudent resolution but I would not risk much on its being kept, especially as the dinner bill will not cost an overwhelming sum. A party was given last week at a Mr. [Joseph H.] Williams (speaker of the [Me.] Senate) & Minnie would I think like to have gone; but as they had not called here at all until two days before the party & as Mr. W.[illiams] is an arrant black republican, a species of man I detest, we sent a regret & luckily stayed at home, luckily because both the children have very bad colds, & Willie was threatened with the croup during the evening. In Congress they are discussing the bill to assist the laying of the Atlantic Submarine cable, the proposed reduction of the Tariff, and minor matters. From all sides we hear of the intense cold weather prevailing. Near Columbia, Tenn. 7 persons white & black were frozen to death. The telegraph brings the news of a great freshet at Troy & Albany, the greatest ever known. The investigation into the murder of Dr. Burdell in New York (a dentist) continues without elucidation as to who were the murders. The deed must have been committed about 11 o’clock in a house full of inmates, & in a very public street (Bond) a few steps out of Broadway. The weather has again become cold, & the mercury, from 46˚ above Saturday, stands now at 13˚ below, a great change. We sigh for the sunny days at Mt. Vernon, & cannot help thinking how we should be taking daily rides with the children in that mild climate.
Last night we went to hear the lecture of [the pastor of the Plymouth Church in N.Y.,] Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, familiarly called “Rifle Beecher,” from his recommending contributions of rifles to the free State Kansas emigrants. His subject was “the commonwealth,” in which he taught the insidious doctrines of the “higher law,” as advocated by the Abolitionists. The house was crowded, & the audience sympathetic. He is a man somewhat below the middle height with a bilious face, & long hair, eyes very prominent. His illustrations are the best part of his oratory & are sometimes exceedingly striking. As for example the comparison of governments in which a privileged class exists, to a stalk of wheat. The nobility is the wheat head, to which all the sustenance goes; the straw is the middling class that sustains the nobility, & the roots &c are the common people who furnish the vitality to all above, while themselves groveling in the earth, “and are ploughed in for a fresh crop.” Mr. Gilman dined with us before the lecture & went with us.
I had a letter from Mr. [Thomas Hart] Benton [former U.S. senator from Mo.] telling me that I would perhaps be sent to West Point to take charge of a new branch of instruction, designated as “Instruction in Ordnance & the Science of Gunnery.” Were the place South of Mason & Dixon’s line I might incline to go there; as it is I have no special desire to go there to turn teacher. Govr. & Mrs. Hamlin returned yesterday our call. He talks like the rest of the great men at Washington, & wished to know whether he had ever seen either of us at W., because of course he was introduced to so many persons at W. that he could not pretend to retain a recollection of, &c, &c. Mrs. H. is young & pretty, being the second Mrs. H. We propose to invite them to dinner with a few others, & Minnie declares it shall be a handsome dinner but vows she will not give it until she feels secure of the passage of the bill increasing my pay. A prudent resolution but I would not risk much on its being kept, especially as the dinner bill will not cost an overwhelming sum. A party was given last week at a Mr. [Joseph H.] Williams (speaker of the [Me.] Senate) & Minnie would I think like to have gone; but as they had not called here at all until two days before the party & as Mr. W.[illiams] is an arrant black republican, a species of man I detest, we sent a regret & luckily stayed at home, luckily because both the children have very bad colds, & Willie was threatened with the croup during the evening. In Congress they are discussing the bill to assist the laying of the Atlantic Submarine cable, the proposed reduction of the Tariff, and minor matters. From all sides we hear of the intense cold weather prevailing. Near Columbia, Tenn. 7 persons white & black were frozen to death. The telegraph brings the news of a great freshet at Troy & Albany, the greatest ever known. The investigation into the murder of Dr. Burdell in New York (a dentist) continues without elucidation as to who were the murders. The deed must have been committed about 11 o’clock in a house full of inmates, & in a very public street (Bond) a few steps out of Broadway. The weather has again become cold, & the mercury, from 46˚ above Saturday, stands now at 13˚ below, a great change. We sigh for the sunny days at Mt. Vernon, & cannot help thinking how we should be taking daily rides with the children in that mild climate.