From Thomas Claiborne Sr., 20 August 1849
Nashville 20th August 1849
My Dear Son
Colo. B. F. Cheatham1 will be the bearer of this letter as far as San Francisco, Calafornia, he being with sundry of his acquaintances and Bro. Soldiers, bound to the gold pl[illegible] of that wonderful country. Your very short letter from Ft. Laramie to your Mother dated the 30th. June was received in a much shorter time than I had any Idea it could be brought, notwithstanding that it had a very narrow chance of <illegible> being destroyed by fire at the Wharf at St. Louis, for the Steam Boat that brought it down from Ft. Independence was destroyed by fire before her Cargo and the Mail was delivered so that the whole Cargo and most of the Mail was utterly destroyed and your letter was fortunately among the portion saved yet it was very severely scorched.2 We were all pleased to hear of your health, and progress so far, and we cordially and sincerely wish that you may continue to be the object of a kind providence and of one thing we are sure that if you will endeavor to deserve and seek for it in the means appointed, that you will not fail to receive and to enjoy it.
In the multitude of occurrences that have happened here since your absence and which no doubt you would naturally feel more or less interested in the recital I know not where to begin—yet I will endeavor to give you some at least of the most Prominent. First then Mr. Polk late President died here on the 15th. June of his old complaint a chronic Diarrhea,3 an Event which has called forth universal regret on the part of his personal and political friends, as well as an almost universal notice of respect and esteem of his personal and moral worth by his former most cruel and vindictive political adversaries, divers Ulogies have been pronounced on his memory and character by some of the most eminent men of the Country, such as Woodburry, Dallas, Judge Legrand of Baltimore Mr. Senator Foote of Mississippi, and divers others whose names I cannot now remember.4 The present administration andor Taylor has proven itself to be the most wrecklessly persecuting of any other that this nation has ever seen, and when we consider the voluntary pledges made before the election not only by Genl. Taylor himself but also by his Whig friends for him, there would seem to be no apology for him or them. Removals from Office for mere Opinions sake, and it would seem more particularly to be the determination of those at the head of affairs to remove every man who had any hand in the atchievements in the Mexican War. Our Foreign Ministers are I think every one removed except And. J Donelson, who in fact seems now to have no Court with whom to carry on correspondence—he having been sent to the German Confederate Government, which is now extinct.5 Our Ministers to England France, Spain & Russia in Europe are all superceded, as well as all the South American States Genl. Lane the Gov. of Oregon is superced by a man named Marshall of Indiana Colo. Weller the Commissioner to run the boundary with Mexico is superceded by Fremont Benton’s Son in Law and Benton’s other Son in Law Jones is sent out to Calafornia with dispatches these two last appointments are generally believed to be the reward of Benton’s betrayal of the Democracy of Missouri he being now a Free Soil man in the broadest latitude of that term.6 Such in deed has been the madness of this cruel and faithless administration that the Democracy are now fully impressed with their folly in aiding to elect Taylor and the consequent prostration of their principles that like a roaring Lion when beyed in his Den, they have arisen on their Majesty determined to curb the mad career of these political madmen and the result so far has been that Tennessee has elected Genl. Trousdale for Govr. over the Whig N. S. Brown, Andrew Ewing to Congress instead of W. Barrow late member who however had been compelled to leave the field by his brother Whig Genl. Cullom of Smith County, and who was so confident of his Whig strength in the District to taunt and challenge the democracy to bring out opposition to him after he had forced Barrow ungloriously to leave the field.7 This District thus for the present is redeemed, the Democrats also have the Legislature on joint vote. So much for Tennessee. Indiana has done better the Democrats there have every member of Congress but one, and the Legislature, and even Kentucky has been shaken from center to circumference and in fact we shall have both Houses of Congress. With this small touch I must leave politicks, or I may not have room to say any thing on any other subject
Our town has suffered very greatly with cholera since you left many very many deaths have been altogether at one or other extremity of the town, much the greatest mortality has existed between Broad Street & the Grave Yard very few deaths have occurred in the other part of the town. Henry’s little Son John had a sivere attack at our house, but got well, our boy John Brown and his Mother Diana were both siverely and Tennessee slightly attacked, but all recovered, our town is now and has been for sometime clear of the disease how long it may continue there is no telling for it has disappeared before several times, and returned again. Lebanon has suffered even more than we have in proportion to population, the disease is still there and all its population that would have left the place, and it is the same case with Gattalin
John came up and spent the month of June with us, and left about the 3rd. July for the White Sulpher Springs in Virginia where he now is, he will return to N Orleans in the next month. Our family are all enjoying good health at this time, Sally has written to you by this same conveyance8 Mr. Ramage has gone on a visit to the Saltworks and may possibly settle there his Wife & children are now with us. Bro Ferguson sends to you his regards and would be glad to hear from you, Your Mother and all the family without exception desire to be remembered to you black as well as white, Old Aunt [K]izzy is yet alive and as well as when you left, I shall write you again some time next month by Capt [Bradforte]9 if I live so long and now may Gods blessings rest on you & if we never meet more in this world which I think is much more than probable may we meet in another & better world is the prayer of yr. Father
Th: Claiborne
[Endorsed] Ansd. 28th Dec 1849
1. Col. B. F. Cheatham (1821-1886) was from Nashville, and after serving in the Mexican War he went to California for several years. See “Gen. B. F. Cheatham” [Obituary], New York Times, 5 September 1886, 7.↩
2. The steamboat White Cloud set fire in St. Louis on 19 May 1849. See Federal Writers’ Project, Missouri: A Guide to the “Show Me” State (Missouri State Highway Department, 1941), 302.↩
3. James K. Polk served one term as president of the United States, from 1845 to 1849. After leaving office he returned home to Nashville via New Orleans, where it is believed he may have contracted cholera. Sam W. Haynes, James K. Polk and the Expansionist Impulse (New York: Longman, 1997), 191.↩
4. Levi Woodbury’s political positions included governor of New Hampshire, U.S. Senator, and at the time of Polk’s death Justice of the Supreme Court; see Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, 1003. George Mifflin Dallas of Pennsylvania held a number of political offices during his career, in particular Vice President of the United States under Polk; see Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, 243. In 1849 John Carroll LeGrand was a judge in the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Maryland; see “John Carroll LeGrand (1814-1861),” Biographical Series, Maryland State Archives; accessed 24 April 2008; available from http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/001600/001623/html/msa01623.html. Henry Stuart Foote also served in a number of high political offices, including U.S. senator from Mississippi from 1847-52; see Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, 332.↩
5. Andrew Jackson Donelson of Tennessee served as diplomat to Prussia from 1846-48 and to Germany 1848-49. See Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, 275.↩
6. General Joseph Lane was appointed by President Polk to be the first territorial governor of Oregon. He served from 1849-50 before serving as U.S. Congressman from 1851-59 and Senator 1859-61; see Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, 526. It is unclear who the Marshall of Indiana is who Thomas Claiborne, Sr., mentions. John B. Weller was a U.S. commissioner to Mexico in 1849, and later became a U.S. senator for California and governor of California; see Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, 968. John C. Frémont was a famed Army explorer of the West. In 1849 he served as Commissioner to run the boundary line between Mexico and the U.S., then served as U.S. senator from 1850-51. His father-in-law was Thomas Hart Benton, a U.S. senator from Missouri for thirty years; see Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, 341, 84-85. Benton’s other son-in-law was William Carey Jones, who became a lawyer in California; see “Obituary Notes,” New York Times, 13 December 1895, 2.↩
7. General William Trousdale served as governor of Tennessee from 1849-1851; see Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, 921. Trousdale beat the Whig governor Neill Smith Brown, who served one term from 1847-1849, in the election of 1849; see “Governor’s Information: Governor Neill Smith Brown,” National Governor’s Association, 1908-2008; available from http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=22924b696bf08010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD; accessed 29 April 2008. Democrat Andrew Ewing served one term in Congress; see Burton W. Folsom, III, “The Politics of Elites: Prominence and Party in Davidson County, Tennessee, 1835-1861,” Journal of Southern History 39 (August 1973): 367. Washington Barrow served one term in Congress; see “Barrow, Washington, (1807-1866),” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; available from http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000185v; accessed 29 April 2008. William Cullom served the in Tennessee General Assembly from 1843-47, and in Congress from 1851-55; see “Cullom, William, (1810-1896),” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; available from http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000974; accessed 29 April 2008.↩
8. Sally was Thomas Claiborne’s sister.
9. Unidentifiable.