12/15/1848 - We Lost!

Dec 15, 1848

Dear Reader,

                               The Whigs are in --- Our Democrats are out.

                             Meet your next President and Vice-President.

         

     

                   Zachary Taylor                                              Millard Fillmore

 Mr. Taylor, "Old Rough and Ready"  and Mr. Fillmore will be sworn in next March.  I guess it will be after that that we will finally find out what Mr. Taylor stands for.  He certainly didn't have much to say on matters while on the stump. But that House of Representatives member from Illinois, Mr. Lincoln, had a lot to say on slavery and is credited with bringing many electoral votes to Mr. Taylor's side. He might be a fella to heed come the next elections.

    

Sunday suppers have been rather quiet affairs since the results were announced.  Father is in a bad mood and not able to speak of the election without growing agitated. His musings on the matters of state have boiled down to this practiced speech: 

   

"Our Democrats worry about the plans these Whigs have for the economy. Their practices favor  big business, big manufacturing,  the railroad robber barons, and those damned protective tariffs.  The results will certainly lead to the rise of a bunch of bluenose aristocratic snobs.. Our party believes in the common man--the man of average wealth, who holds an honest city occupation or, as a farmer, lives on the land raising food for the nation. We must prevail in the elections to come!

    

Mother has been quiet as well.  She does not want to upset Father in any way and isn't quite sure how he would view her increasing interest in poetry.  She and my sister, Fannie, have had their heads together over a letter sent to Mother by her old schoolteacher, Mrs. Avery, who has discovered the works of a Mr. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  The piece she has copied, which was published earlier this year is called "Evangeline".  The letter is rather long but apparently the whole poem is much longer.  Mother has not felt it necessary to share with me.  This is perhaps for the best as she and Fannie are in tears every time they read to one another. 

I'm sure I will sometime in future meet a woman who I will be able to understand....

Your Dedicated Corespondent,

Chauncey Sherman Seckner

To read the full text of "Evangeline", Click Here

Zachary Taylor                    Millard Fillmore

Mr. Taylor, "Old Rough and Ready" will take office next March.

11/07/1848 - Presidential Election 1848

             The name of this song is "OH! SUSANNA" by Stephen Foster from 1848.  American Folk Music.

Tuesday, November 7, 1848

Dear Reader,

Went into Winfield today to cast my vote for president. For the first time, all 30 states have voted on the same day so it may take a long time to count all the results.

            Presidential politics have been all the talk for the past couple months. But we had to put a stop to the topic at the (Masonic) Winfield Lodge last month as things got a bit too heated. Thought some of the men were going to come to blows.

            As part of the business of the meeting, we took up a collection for Mrs. Clapsaddle. She was recently left alone when her young husband was killed in a hunting accident. Mother, in her usual anxiety to get me married, has suggested I make my existence known to the grieving widow as she has over 200 acres of rich bottom land and a herd of healthy Holsteins. Such is the case, but she also has a brood of three young-uns under the age of five.

            We concluded the meeting with the induction of Josiah Eckler who having reached his 18th birthday and asked to be admitted to the Lodge. He is now an apprentice as he got 100% favorable vote by the members.

            After the meeting, his brother, Martin, told me of watching an outdoor Whig rally over in Utica. He said most of the speakers for (Zachery) Taylor were awfully dull except for one - the homeliest man he'd ever laid eyes on - a Mr. Abraham Lincoln.

            In the end, I believe that most of the farmers in the valley will have, as usual, voted for the Democratic Party and our candidate, Mr. Lewis Cass.

            They say President Polk has failed in health in the past few months. The war with Mexico hurt our party and must have ruined his health as well. But in the end - his war left us with thousands of additional acres of territory for our nation. But he also left us with the vexing question of whether that territory will be slave or free.

            Our party has been dangerously split on this issue; many of our members have left us to join the new third party that formed for the main purpose of keeping the new lands free of slavery.

            This past June, they held their convention in Utica and nominated our eighth past president Mr. (Martin) Van Buren as their candidate. I fear that Mr. Van Buren's Free Soil Party has taken votes from our Democratic party and given the Whigs a way into the White House.

            Mother has become more bold in speaking of things other than my marriage prospects at the supper table. This past Sunday she opined that if she, "as a mere woman", were allowed to vote, she would put her mark on Mr. Van Buren's column to "rid our blessed nation from the horrible scourge of slavery."

            Father rolled his eyes and later lectured me on the "obvious single-mindedness of women which made any attempt to let them vote dangerous to the very fabric of the nation."

            I have not given too much thought to the slavery issue. There are very few men in the surrounding counties who are slave owners and I don't know we should be telling the southern farmers how to do their business. I will have to study on the subject as I believe it will continue to well up in future elections.

Your Devoted Correspondent,

Chauncey Sherman Seckner