OCRed data provided
for searching only. december 1873
ing else was talked in public. Such a thing as a black Republican was unknown in Balto. at that time, or if known as such, dared not speak out in public Ü The very air was lurid with rebellion Ü equalling Charleston S.C. Ü Long before that period in the Freemont & Buchanan Canvass a very highly respectable Episcopal Cler‚gyman, Harry B. Goodwin of Charles County, & by the way, Lucket's Pastor when a boy, declared to me, that if Freemont was elected, he should never live to reach Washington, that if the South did not rise to act, he, individually, would put a bullet through his heart, that he would consider it his duty as a Christian to save his Country from nigger rule Ü And Goodwin too, was a Northern Man, married a Chs. Co. Lady, & even freed some ‚fty Slaves & sent them, under my care, to Liberia Ü Nor was he more crazy than Mr Calhoun with whom he was some‚what intimate Ü ¿Why was Ferrandina & others not molested?î Simply because, they had only talked as most others talked & as there was no chance for action, their talk subsided, & there was nothing to apprehend from them. It might as well & better be asked why were not the Southern Editors, who urged the ¿assassina‚tion of the Tyrantî punished, or the fellow who offered to do it for a certain sum? or Mr Southern7 of St. Marys Co. who shot down a sergeant for coming on his place for his Negroes? I cannot but think Mr Lamon has treated this matter too lightly, considering how the Mass. troops were treated by our people not rabble, soon after. Not knowing Mr Lamon's address, I pitched this at you Ü & you may pitch it at him, or into the ‚re, as you see ‚t Ü but I must express my obligation to you & him for a pattern biography, scarcely second to Boswells Johnson Ü
very respectfully Ü
James Hall.
LC: HW3094¬95
468. James H. Matheny (WHH interview)1
Spring‚eld Decr 9. 1873.
Mr Matheny told me that he said that he understood that up to the time Lin‚coln left Spring‚eld Ills in 1860 that he was a con‚rmed in‚del, but that after he got to Washington and associating with religious People that he believes that Mr Lincoln [thought?] became a Christian Ü Knows nothing of Mr Lincolns inves‚tigations into the Subject of Christianity Ü He Ü M Ü says he told Reed & Melvin2 the histories of this Ü Reed Ü Melvin & Matheney were talking about the home of the [illegible] Ü Reed wrote the letter which I signed3 Ü Matheny
7. Probably John H. Sothoron, who killed a white army lieutenant who was recruiting blacks along the Patuxent River in Maryland.
1.
Marginal note: Mr Matheny told me in this conversation that he told Mr _____ ? This is apparently an un‚nished version of the marginal inscription given in p. 583, note 4.
2.
Rev. James A. Reed and Samuel H. Melvin. Reed engaged in a public controversy in 1873 with WHH over AL's religion. See Donald, 272¬82.
3.
Refers to a statement Matheny gave Reed, recanting some of the testimony he had given WHH on AL's religious beliefs. See Ñ472.
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