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Monday 23rd May, 1859.
. . . . . . . .
Went to Quindaro where I
met Charles Robinson. The cool villainy of this man would be
incredible did I not witness such repeated evidences of it. About
thirty months ago he left with me $700 to buy a piece of land for
him and I gave him a receipt for the money. The land belonged to
Isaac W. Zane and lies in Missouri opposite Quindaro; the price
was $1400 and he required $800 in hand; this I paid him advancing
$100 of my own money and gave my note for the remaining $600
payable in one year, Robinson being absent. I had therefore to
secure myself by taking the Bond for a deed in my own name. To-day
when I saw him in the Q. Co's office his man Chapin presented the
bond to me with an assignment written on the back of it which he
requested me to sign - this assignment conveyed all my right to
Robinson and authorized Zane to make him a deed, Robinson
remarking at the same time that he would take up my note and close
up the whole business, but said nothing of the $700 receipt or the
$100 advanced! When I mentioned these things he said he had given
me credit on the books and probably destroyed my receipt! but the
books were examined and no credit [had been] given! His
design was evidently to get the title to the land perfected to
have me pay the note of $600 and when time should favor, present
my receipt and compel me or my estate to pay it also! The $100 he
seemed to consider already safe in his pocket!
After the repeated acts of treachery
and ingratitude of which he is guilty this proposition would seem
more like a premeditated insult than the trap of a cunning
scoundrel. Yet this is his peculiar plan of operations - he
assumes that people will regard him as above suspicion; pretends
great ignorance and simplicity in business; to entrust the care of
his affairs to others who have no character to sustain nor
reputation to lose; he is in fact a perfect confidence man with a
more than ordinary amount of cunning.
Tuesday 7th June, 1859
. . . . . . . .
Attended the Election for two
Delegates to the convention to frame a State constitution. I voted
for one free State man and one Democrat because I knew the other
professedly free State man W. Y. Roberts was dishonest and
has heretofore abused and betrayed the confidence
reposed in him. I believe a government is safer in the
hands of a good man professing bad principles than in the hands of
a bad man professing good principles, because the former will
endeavor to have good results flowing from his administration
while the latter expects his name and profession to paliate and
cover up his corrupt and tyranical government. Besides I would
prefer at this moment, the Democrats should form the Constitution
in which they will be compelled to yield much to the proslavery
party which will make their constitution so objectionable that the
people will vote it down, and then we will remain in our
Territorial condition a year or two longer which I most devoutly
desire for we are not only not able to support a State government,
but the demagogues who now lead the Republican party, would
doubtless get all the offices of trust and profit, which would
involve us in debts and difficulties for years to come. In two or
three years more these men will sink to their proper level and
honest men may be found to manage our public affairs.
Sunday 12th June, 1859.
. . . . . . . .
A pleasant Sabbath day, family at
church, I at home until near evening I rode down to William
Walker's but he was not at home. Saw a strange assemblage of
Germans from the neighboring towns, near Mr ----
Stewart's (the gardener) men, women and children making merry they
had a drum, a brass band, a bar for the sale of lager beer, and
sang and danced till night. They said they were celebrating in the
old Country style, this particular sunday probably in honor of
some good old Saint. . . .
Friday 17th June, 1859
. . . . . . . .
Mrs Guthrie and her
sister Margaret rode to the payment and I walked, a distance of 3
1/2 miles. Apparently but few Wyandots were present, as they were
lost in the multitude of whites most of whom had claims on
Indians. Some honest and many I believe utterly dishonest. It is
alleged by the Indians themselves that they have paid the same
debts several times but have received no credits nor took
receipts. Some of them however having learned the value of
receipts demanded them on making full payments and in a few
instances; have disconcerted and disappointed their creditors by
exhibiting their re-
ceipts when dunned; others have unfortunately lost them,
and these and those having none were threatened with a lawsuit (of
which they are much afraid) unless they should satisfy the demands
against them. If the Indians are to be believed, thousands of
dollars are thus fraudulently obtained. Will a just retribution
overtake these dishonest creditors?
Wednesday 29th June, 1859.
. . . . . . . .
Met C. Robinson with whom I had
some plain talk about the management of the Quindaro Co's affairs
and about his own acts. He is a thorough villain, cool,
calculating, heartless, ungrateful and audacious.
Thursday 25th August, 1859.
. . . . . . . .
Went to Quindaro in the evening
and received two letters, one from Isaac Strohm my brotherinlaw;
the other from Chas. W. Wingard of Lockhaven Chester County,
Pennsylvania; the former enclosing one from Mrs Anna
Guthrie, my stepmother announcing the illness of my father who it
seems attained his seventy-fifth year on the 19th day of this
month. Strange that I should never have heard his age before!
These letters are coldly formal and convey no intimation that my
revered father has mentioned my name on his sick bed, or in any
way evinced a desire to see me. Yet I know he can not dislike me,
nor can I think otherwise than that my presence would be agreeable
to him. I ought to be there and I do most earnestly desire to
attend him in his last sickness, but I have not the money to carry
me thither. I know the worst construction would be placed upon my
hasty visit by the expectant friends who surround him, and this
would be a sad drawback upon the satisfaction I would otherwise
feel in a faithful discharge of my filial duties. My father is one
of the best men I ever knew - I should say the best; strictly
honest in all his dealings, and honorable in all his feelings. The
uppermost traits in his character are properly alluded to by
Mr Strohm, who says "His ruling traits for kindnesses,
desire for the hospitable treatment of the visitors at his house,
and reluctance to appear troublesome, are strongly shown in his
deportment now." I do pray to God that he may live many years in
perfect health of body and mind not only on his own
account but on mine for I wish to have it in my power to
smooth and gladden his future years with the means of a free
exercise of his benevolence and munificence. No man ever enjoyed
the performance of a good act more than be.
Monday 12th September, 1869.
. . . . . . . .
Started early and entered the
Mississippi river 10 O'clock A. M. passing St. Charles at 1/4 past
8 O'clock A. M. I never pass St. Charles without looking at the
"Convent of the Sacred Heart" with mingled feelings of interest
and indignation for it was the home for two years of my little
girls Abalura and Norsona. As their education had been almost
entirely neglected I was anxious that their studies should be
confined to the common branches of a good English education. But
the ladies wished to give them lessons in music and drawing and I
was surprised [to] find charges for these studies. I again
forbade it but the ladies were very importunate and had the
children write letters urging me to give my consent to have them
take lessons in music and drawing. And when Mrs Guthrie visited
her children they obtained her consent and thus the useful
branches of their education were much neglected and they returned
home very little improved in intellectual culture. Their bills for
clothing were also enormous, and I afterwards learned that the
nuns induced them to give up their clothing when the least sullied
and sometimes on the pretext that it had become too small for
them. This clothing was either sold or given to the poor so that
these nuns enjoy a fine reputation in St. Charles for their large
charities. People little know and indeed as little care, that they
rob their pupils or rather their wards that they may indulge their
display of liberality. Strange that these people having abjured
the vanities of the world should be so avaricious and so ambitious
of securing the approbation of the outside world. They knew that
they were deceiving me in relation to my children's studies and
best interests and in regard to the expense incurred for
clothing.
Tuesday 13th September, 1859.
. . . . . . . .
Left Dayton at 1/2 past 10
O'clock A. M. and arrived at my father's at 11 A. M. finding my
father improved in health for which I thank God with devout
gratitude. But my father did not know me and
when told who I was he said "Why Abelard you look old!"
Alas he little knew what agony of mind the Kansas swindlers had
given me! and how cares and troubles multiply the tracks of time!
Friday 16th September 1869.
Pa seemed very restless last
night and I overheard him from my room complaining that he was
very unhappy ending with the words "I fear, I fear, I fear."
"Grandmother" his second wife, replied very calmly "I did not know
it, my dear. I thought you were very happy." He was silent. What
was the cause of his uneasiness I could not imagine as he talks to
me very little - never about his condition either of body or
mind.
Jim [his brother, or half
brother, James Andrews] told me some strange things about this
"Grandma" who it seems is a very shrewd selfish woman. Shortly
after her marriage with Pa he went to Dayton at a time when the
waters were very much swollen by recent rains and he was not able
to return the same night, a very unusual thing with him; she was
very much alarmed at his absence and feared he had been drowned
and had left no will; and immediately on his return she
insisted on his making a will in view of the uncertainity of life.
He yielded to her wishes, and it was supposed all was
satisfactory. But in his recent illness when his life was
dispaired of she prevailed on him to make another will by which
she is made his sole heir! So far as I am concerned I care not a
cent; but there are others who are entitled to kindly
remembrances, they have loved and served him well; but God who
orders all things right will not permit the consummation of this
wrong.
Saturday 17th September, 1859.
. . . . . . . .
Heard the distinguished Abraham
Lincoln of Illinois make a speech on the slavery question. He is
an able clear headed man, but not an agreeable speaker. His
speeches appear to better advantage in print than in their
delivery. . . .
Monday 19th September, 1859.
. . . . . . . .
I stay to-night at the "City
Hotel" kept by Wm Atkinson When I wanted to go to my
room he looked at his register for my name and
then said "There had been a person of that name in Dayton
a few years ago he was a dark looking fellow a lawyer, had gone
North married a Squaw emigrated to Nebraska was a member of
Congress &c. He seemed never to suspect that he might be
talking to and about the same individual and he was
rattling along with my history at a rate and with such a mixture
of truth and falsehood I was constrained to make my bow in the
midst of his interesting revelations.
Saturday 14th January, 1860.
. . . . . . . .
This morning I discovered that
George had taken the bark of from one of the finest linden trees
in my park, to bottom an old chair with. I have not lately been so
hurt and irritated and I told him I had rather he had burnt all
the chairs I had than have killed that fine tree. The thing has
oppressed my mind all day even when I was not thinking about it, I
felt that there was something that distressed me without
being able at the moment to remember it. I had, too, repeatedly
told him not to touch a tree in that grove. How little above the
brute is a man who will wantonly disfigure any of God's glorious
handiwork!
Friday 16th February, 1860.
. . . . . . . .
Rec'd a letter from my sister
Eloisa informing me of the death of our sister Eliza Stevens. This
news most painful and unexpected fills my whole soul with the
saddest thoughts. I saw her but a few months ago in excellent
health and spirits looking forward to years of serene enjoyment
and these alas! had but commenced when the dread summons came and
life with all its promised joys was exchanged for the silence and
gloom of the grave. Ah what an exchange! The gloom of the grave
extends even to me and my heart is heavy and my soul is sick with
its dampness and darkness and the powers of the mind are subject
to the emotions of the heart. I am without thought and my whole
being seems lost in a vague, indefinite and inexplicable feeling
of profound sadness, not only embracing the death of my dear
sister, but her whole life, for alas! that life brings up its
mournful history and strews its joyless memories around her grave!
Adieu my sister always beloved and as long to be mourned.
Monday January 6th 1862.
[Mr. Guthrie was in
Washington City at that time.]
. . . . . . . .
Had some conversation with F. P.
Stanton who is contesting Genl. Lane's right to a seat in the
Senate. Mr Stanton assures me he has [an] understanding
with Gov. Robinson whereby his action as Senator would be
governed, and will feel himself at full liberty to take care of
the interests of other sections of the State than those in which
Robinson is especially interested, and to persons opposed to
Robinson. Should Lane leave the Senate I would certainly prefer
Stanton to any of those now spoken of for the succession. . .
.
Wednesday January 8th, 1862.
. . . . . . . .
Listened awhile to a debate in
the Senate on the contested case between Lane and Stanton. It is
one in which an honest difference of opinion may be entertained,
but with the facts as I understand them I should vote for the
admission of Stanton to the seat, otherwise the provision of the
Constitution designed to guard against executive influence with
members of Congress by making the acceptance of office under the
Executive a disqualification for a Seat in the Senate
[-----]. True General Lane's appointment was not
authorized by law, but that instead of favoring his cause should
weaken it, because the president might find frequent occasion for
gratifying the ambition of Senators by these marks of favor
Called to see Mr Dawes, chairman of
the Committee of Elections to which my claim for mileage and per
diem as delegate from Nebraska was refered and he encouraged me to
hope for success saying the Committee thought favorably of the
claim but wanted to be prepared to defend it before the house. . .
.
Thursday 9th [January 1862]
. . . . . . . .
Spent 2 or 3 hours with Col. Sims
formerly of Missouri but now of Kansas. I urged upon him (he has
much influence with Missouri members of Congress) to get the
members of Congress from Missouri & Kentucky to meet and
devise some means whereby we may be able to restore peace to the
country. Kentucky and Missouri at this time control the
administration; and if their delegations in Congress should
agree upon some practicable decisive plan of action, I
have no doubt it would be successful. But I am convinced that any
scheme to receive the necessary support of the people at large
must look to the ultimate extinction of slavery.
Friday 10th January, 1862.
Mr Pomeroy told me
Mr Dawes of the House had expressed an opinion to him
adverse to my claim for mileage and per diem. This is very
different from what he led me to believe when I called to see him
two or three evenings back. There in a want of manliness, of honor
and justice in eastern men that will always run counter to the
better qualities of the western heart. And even the Republican
party as such are constrained by the same narrowness of views
which transcends its action defeats its objects, and disappoints
the country. I have performed an important service for my country
and now the very men who are reaping the rich fruits of that
service hesitate to pay me the usual wages for it!
Heard Dr. Cheever, of New York,
deliver a lecture in the Smithsonian Institution on the subject of
slavery and our duties and relations to it. It was a terrible
denunciation of the policy of the administration and military men;
yet its truthfulness could hardly be controverted. His views of
our duty under the constitution were in some respects new to me
but were maintained with much ingenuity if not ability. He
advocated the immediate abolition of slavery and the conquest of
the rebellious States. I would have prefered the gradual
emancipation of the slaves but the terrible alternative forced
upon us by the rebellion of either losing the Territory altogether
or of liberating the slaves and thereby undoing that worthless and
even dangerous [-----] which has at the same time been the
cause and the sinews of the war. The French assembly in their
first declaration, to intimidate the German princes said, "That it
was not with fire and sword they meant to attack their territories
but by what would be more dreadful to them the introduction
of liberty." See Edmund Burke's works vol. 4, page 52. This would
to some extent overturn the social order, but I do not think this
evil could be of long duration. The amalgamation of the races; the
absorption of the African by the Anglo-Saxon or rather the white
race would probably be more rapid than now as a much larger white
population would
soon fill those States; whites from all the States and
all countries who now and for many years were afraid to seek homes
in the South because of the savage despotism that everywhere
prevailed there.
This morning I handed Senator
Pomeroy of Kansas a resolution which I wished him to introduce
into the Senate, but which he probably will not do; it is
this:
Resolved, that the Committee
on the Judiciary be directed to enquire into the expediency of
making provision by law for the payment annually for a period of
twenty years an amount of money equal to ten dollars per capita of
the slave population as shown by the census of 1860, to such of
the so called slave States in proportion to the number of slaves
contained in each, as shall establish a system of emancipation
whereby slavery shall cease to exist within twenty years.
But on further reflection I think
this bounty should only be given to the loyal States even though
but nominally so. As for the others I now think the abolition of
the system should be immediate and unconditional, both as a means
of stopping the war and as a punishment for the rebellion. And I
think the slaves should be armed and permitted to take apart in
the conflict. If we do not use more vigorous means to put down the
rebellion the new government it has set up will be recognized by
the European powers, which they are all anxious to do because the
principles of our government like those of the French revolution
are penetrating into every nation of Europe and undermining the
thrones of their rulers. The continuance of our present form of
government with its territorial integrity, will finally overthrow
the monarchies of Europe. We should not deceive ourselves by their
pretended sympathy or friendship. They will attack us as soon as
they have prepared the public mind of Europe for it and are fully
apprised of our own impotency, which is not yet fully
demonstrated.
Saturday 11th January 1862
. . . . . . . .
In the Library of Congress I
examined a volume of the Washington Union and discovered my old
circular when first sent as delegate from Nebraska (now Kansas) It
is in the Union of 18th January 1853 part 1st
Sunday 12th January 1862
In my room all day reading and
writing a pamphlet on the subject
10
of our present troubles and dangers; I feel well pleased
with it so far, and think it contains at least as much good sense
as, I find in most of the speeches in Congress.
Monday 13th January 1862
. . . . . . . .
Discovered that all my papers
refered by Genl. Lane to the Com. on Indian Affairs had been
refered to sub committees. Lane had assured me he would have them
refered to himself and fairly examined but he deceived me in this
as in everything else. He has treated me with the grossest
ingratitude and injustice. His duplicity has greatly endangered
the loss of my claims. Yet people are crazy with adulation of this
insincere, egotistical, ungrateful demagogue for that is his true
character.
Thursday 16th January 1862
. . . . . . . .
Genl. Lane advised me to get
Mr Samuel V. Niles an Attorney to attend to my
business. This would not have been necessary had he attended to
his business as Senator or redeemed his promises as friend.
Mr Niles, I believe was his Attorney in the Jenkins
contested land claim, and he probably pays him by giving him other
business. I went to see Mr Niles and left my papers
with him and he is to have them examined by morning and give his
opinion of the case.
Saturday 18th January 1862
. . . . . . . .
Went with Genl. Lane, Maj. Abbot
& Mr Niles to the Indian Office and heard Mr
Niles read the statements of Abbott and Matthew King in
explanation of the part they took in the Clark & Hall swindle
among the Shawnees; also the argument of Mr Niles in
defence of Maj. Abbott. The papers were prepared with skill and
ability and may save Maj. Abbott from removal, but I fear the case
will not stop there and that Maj. Abbott will be ruined in the
end. The Shawnees were evidently swindled out of about $18,000 by
Clark & Hall, which Maj. Abbott as Indian Agent should have
prevented. I have hitherto regarded Maj. Abbott as an honest man
and I have no doubt he was imposed on by this Clark who is
represented as a great rogue. I sincerely hope Maj. Abbott will be
able to escape
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