Reply to letter from McIlvane dated August 13, 1861; God seems to be punishing us for our sins - complicity with slaveryhttps://digital.kenyon.edu/mcilvaine_letters/1066/thumbnail.jp

Chase, Salmon P

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Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative ExchangeCharles Pettit McIlvaine Letters Archives8-26-1861Letter to C. P. McIlvaineSalmon P. ChaseFollow this and additional works at: https://digital.kenyon.edu/mcilvaine_lettersThis Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Archives at Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Charles Pettit McIlvaine Letters by an authorized administrator of Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and CreativeExchange. For more information, please contact noltj@kenyon.edu.Recommended CitationChase, Salmon P., "Letter to C. P. McIlvaine" (1861). Charles Pettit McIlvaine Letters. 66.https://digital.kenyon.edu/mcilvaine_letters/66August r86r { 89} TO CHARLES P. MCILVAINE letter on letterhead stationery. Mss. q16g RM, Cincinnati Historical Society (micro 16:0726) . Treasury Department Aug 26 1861 ._Bishop, e days have passed since I recd. your kind note and the very in-g letter of Dr. Andrews which I return as requested. I was very painful to read the statements of the good Doctor who andoubtedly perfect faith in them. We who know the utter falsity of of them cannot be expected to put much faith in any except be vouches for from personal observation Certainly war is a dreadful evil, and doubtless its incidents are often appalling and distressing. Would that the infatuated men who deceived the Southern States to their views had thought of it in ! Even now the good Doctor himself is contributing to the same ed delusion in which the War had its origin. His talk of miracles is of a piece with the assurances given by the disunionists that if Slave States did not secede Lincoln would send among them his ido_ns to let their slaves loose, ravish their women, & burn their Uings. What a terrible responsibility is that of these deceivers. Most earnestly do I wish for Peace: but how can there be peace when Government hears daily the most piteous cries for support & relief the Union men of Tennessee, Kentucky & Virginia; and when we that but for the war despotism which suppresses utterance in the er states the same cries would come from nearly [every] county th of the Potomac & the Ohio? I wish you ed. read the letters now on my table from those states: mid especially from the two first. They are heartrending. Would the Slavery Despotism allow the people of Tenn. and Va. to exercise their own free will in the matter? Look at Missouri! 2 The truth is that God seems to be punishing for our sins- Among die greatest [is] I believe that of Complicity with Slavery. But I must stop Faithfully & affectionately Yours s p CHASE l. Mcllvaine's correspondence of August 13 included a letter from "an Episcopal Ccrgyman of high standing in Shepardstown Va." that evidently described the first battle of Bull Run from a perspective critical of Federal forces. Mcilvaine to Chase, Aug . . 13 , 1861 (Chase Papers, Hist. Soc. of Pa.). :t. Despite an overwhelming show of pro-Union support at a convention earlier in dae year, Missouri secessionists led by Claiborne fox Jackson had repeatedly tried to align ~le with the Confederacy. William E . .Parrish, Turbulent Partnership: Missouri and the • 1861-1865 (Columbia, Mo., 1g63). 1-47. i::-,..o~ 71..e. Pape.r.s <?(;: saJ~ri f_d. . J"c>h" AJ•'vf-r' ' ·~ .. ; .. ·; .. t; t I j l -, . \ :. > .::, Ke.11-l-,on ·. I~+ ::y{-_ei±L_LJ_ f'_i u_ers_ i1y ___ P_re_.s .... s,_1_q_~----= 

Letter to C. P. McIlvaine

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Letter to C. P. McIlvaine

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