Month: February 2018

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The Election of 1860 and Slave Prices

Alexandria Gazette, November 2, 1860 [Four Days before Lincoln’s election]

The Valley Star, a Democratic paper, say:

“Virginia is already having a foretaste of what is to come. We understood from reliable authority that No. 1 negroes have already fallen more than 25 percent, and second and third rate hands from 30 to 50 percent.

What has produced this sudden decline? Does not every man see at a glance it is the cry of disunion raised by these cotton planters, producing a feeling of uncertainty — a want of confidence in the holders of slave property.

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Virginia on Secession

[From the Richmond Enquirer of December 10, 1806]

“On Thursday last the Electors of Virginia dined together at the Swan Tavern, in this city. The Madison Corresponding Committee and the Governor of Virginia were their guests. These gentlemen, coming from different parts of the State, and bringing with them the sentiments of the people, many of them distinguished Whigs of the Revolution, assembled in harmony and unity to interchange the emotions of friendship at this interesting crisis of our public affairs. Everything was conducted in the most orderly and dignified manner. It was all ‘the feast of reason and the flow of soul.’

“Spencer Roane, Esq., one of the Judges of the Court of Appeals, and Chairman of the Electoral College, presided. Robert Taylor, Esq., of Orange, Speaker of the Senate, acted as Vice President. After an elegant; and plentiful dinner the cloth was removed and the following toasts and volunteers were drunk.”

Omitting the preceding “sentiments,” the following was the 14th “regular toast” on this occasion:

“The Union of States: the majority must govern: it is treason to secede.”

Reprinted: Alexandria Gazette, Volume 61, Number 261, 1 November 1860

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Military Ardor

Alexandria Gazette, November 2, 1860 [Four days before Lincoln’s election]

For the last three or four days there has been manifested an evident increase in the military ardor of our Volunteer companies. The armories are open nightly, the drills are gone through regularly, and the steady heavy tramp indicates to those outside, extraordinarily well filled ranks.

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Ohio Congressman Proposes to Prohibit Confederate Monuments – May 24, 1890

Alexandria Gazette, p.2

And so an Ohio republican Congressman thinks the exhibition of Confederate flags and the erection of Confederate monuments in the South must be prohibited, and is consulting his colleagues about the advisablllity of introducing a resolution to that effect in the U.S. House of Representatives. If he shall, it will probably be adopted, and be followed by another, prohibiting Dixey[sp.] and other southern songs from being sung, and gray cloth from being worn, throughout the limits of the South. Well, the South has stood worse things. After awhile restrictions will be put upon northern democracy. When judges are removed because their decisions are not in accord with the policy of the President, and when U.S. vessels are sent to take possession of southern towns, and their marines to search southern homes, nothing else that may be done under a republican form of government can be surprising. It is what the republicans don’t do that evokes the emotion of surprise.

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Alexandria Monument Honors Murderer

An additional name, that of James W. Jackson, was added to the east side of the Alexandria Confederate Monument in 1900. Jackson, a civilian, was actually Alexandria’s first Civil War casualty, dying before any of the soldiers with whose names his is inscribed. An ardent secessionist, Jackson was the innkeeper of the Marshall House Hotel. In April 1861, he had hoisted Alexandria’s first Confederate flag over his establishment and vowed to blow to bits any Yankee who interfered with it. On the morning of May 24, 1861, as 24-year-old Colonel Elmer Ellsworth of the 11th New York Infantry marched through the occupied town, he noticed the flag. With a detail of comrades, he left the column, entered the hotel, climbed the stairs, and tore it down. True to his word, Jackson shot Ellsworth dead, only to be killed himself by another Zouave. It was said that Ellworth’s and Jackson’s blood ran together down the steps. Today a bronze plaque on the southeast corner of Pitt and King Streets, just a few blocks from the Confederate statue, marks the spot where both men died.

Testament to Union: Civil War Monuments in Washington, Part 3, page 178
by: Kathryn Allamong Jacobs