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Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes

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Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes "•''j|f.,,H! , li.-tT ':-':;n: 1" ,-'.. ' ^. "tit''* **"' ^ /i^'^ ^ V 1 C^.S^' Park St, Church, Boston ...,??sss??^^^^ //t /0-L..^3-e^ f^id^/yiyyUiy.- ''m^n/a^av ^W>S/4(^?-<?^ v?A-w/ /d^S£ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant http://www.archive.org/details/lettersrecollect01forb LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS OP JOHN MURRAY FORBES EDITED BY HIS DAUGHTER SARAH FORBES HUGHES IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. L BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY ^t)e 0itaec?i&E ^lep^, Camiiritige 1899 COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY SARAH F. HUGHES ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PREFACE About twelve years ago my father put together in manuscript a couple of volumes of reminiscences of his life ; and these, together with a vast collec- tion of letters to him, press copies of letters from him, and other papers, he left in my charge, mainly that I might make selections from the whole and put them into more definite form for his grand- children. I am led to believe, however, that his life and character were exceptional enough to make some account of him of general interest. With the view of giving this to the public I have made extracts from such parts of his notes as seem to be to the purpose, and have selected from the letters and papers those which explain and give color to the scenes and events recalled. In a preliminary chap- ter I have given some general description of my father's habits and characteristics, such as may help a reader who did not know him the better to under- stand what follows. I publish these things as the record of an American citizen who, keeping himself iv PREFACE in the background, never stinted work, or money, or service of any sort, for the country he loved so well. I wish to return most grateful thanks to all the relatives, now surviving, of my father's correspond- ents, who have kindly permitted the use of letters written to him. Above all, I wish to record my deep obligation to Professor J. B. Thayer, to whom I am indebted for all legal notes ; and for endless kindness and help, in more ways than I can here enumerate, in the preparation of this work. S. F. H. Milton, July, 1899. CONTENTS OF VOLUME I CHAPTER I INTBODUCTIOIf Genealogical. — Anecdotes of ancestors. — Business and home habits. — Intense work in war time. — Ways of impressing ideas. — Warrington's pen portrait. — Ways of giving. — Petitioners. — Life at Naushon. — Business and other maxims. — Deer hunts. — Duck-shooting. — Freedom from accidents. — Romantic side of character. — Tastes. — Love of oratory. — 0. W. Holmes's poem on eightieth birthday 1 CHAPTER n SCHOOL DATS Birth in Bordeaux. — Childhood in Milton. — School at Andover, and Round Hill, Northampton. — Boy letters. — Opinion of Headmaster Cogswell. — Departure from school, aged fifteen 37 CHAPTER III FIRST VENTUBES Experiences of counting-house life in Boston. — Letters to his brother Thomas in China. — Death of this brother. — First voyage to China, aged seventeen. — Clerkship in Russell & Co., Canton. — Appointed confidential agent of Houqua. — Return to Boston, aged twenty. — Mar- riage to Sarah Hathaway in 1834 53 ; yi CONTENTS OF VOLUME I CHAPTER IV LIFB IN CHINA Return to China. — Partnership in Russell & Co. — Sick- ness and death of Handasyd Cabot. — Trip to Manila with Francis Hathaway. — Fire in Canton. — Letter to his brother Bennet on railroads. — Fancy ball given at Macao. — Offended Portuguese. — Voyage home in 1837 69 CHAPTER V TEN YEARS OP BUSINESS Financial crisis of 1837. — Storm weathered. — Trip to Farrandsville, Pennsylvania. — Rough traveling. — Let- ters from Houqua. — First hearing of Wendell Phillips. — Boston business. — Ships. — Instructions to captain of Acbar. — Tree-planting. — Horses. — Johnny Cra- paud : his epitaph. — Birth of twin daughters, 1838 ; of eldest son, William, 1840. — Death of brother-in-law, William Hathaway. — Accident on trial trip of schooner Ariel. — Views of safe expenditure by a merchant. — Growing interest in politics. — First interest in railroads, 1846. — Refusal to buy land in Chicago. — Relief for Irish famine. — Mount Savage blast-furnaces, etc. tedious business. — Practical joke 90 CHAPTER VI RAILROADS AND OTHER ENTERPRISES. SLAVERY Advice to commission merchant in San Francisco, June, 1849. — Opinion on expedition to Japan. — Letter from Florida, 1852. — Trip to England, 1855 ; letter from London. — Letters to Nassau Senior and Russell Sturgis. — Purchase of breadstufEs for Barings. — Exchange of letters with J. H. Cowper on strained relations between CONTENTS OF VOLUME I vii North and South. — Succession (1857) to Governor Swain at Naushon. — Decrease of mercantile and in- crease of railroad business. — Letter to George Ashburner on prospects of Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Kail- road 127 CHAPTER VII THE BUSINESS PANIC OF 1857. — THE IMPENDING POLITICAIi CRISIS William Sturgis on Naushon amusements. — Financial panic, September, 1857. — Trip to England for Michigan Central Railroad, accompanied by two daughters. — Loan obtained, and Barings reassured as to American credit. — Withdrawal from Whig party. — Letter to N. M. Beckwith, January, 1858, on political situation. — Advice to abolitionists, and to son at coUege. — Polit- ical turmoil. — John Brown a guest at Milton ; bis account of fighting in Kansas ; his death. — First elec- tion of Lincoln. — Letter to Nassau Senior. — Death of eldest daughter. — Letters from widow of Alexis de Tocqueville, and Charles Sumner 165 CHAPTER Vni THE BEGINNING OF WAR Peace Congress in Washington, February, 1861. — Plan for relief of Fort Sumter defeated. — Massachusetts' in- fluence. — Opening of war. — Southern press. — Help- ing Governor Andrew. — Rescue of merchant ship from Norfolk. — Part taken in dispatch of Massachusetts troops to the South. — Purchase of steamers for State, and instructions to captains in pursuit of Confederate pri- vateers. — Sundry letters on politics. — Wendell Phillips on the battle of Bull Run. — Navy bill. — Shipbrokers and their ways. — Letter from Assistant Secretary of the Navy 187 viii CONTENTS OF VOLUME I CHAPTER IX THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR Right of privateering upheld. — Exchange of letters with C F. Adams. — Sundry letters on political situation. — Iron plates for warships. — Correspondence with Nassau Senior (autumn 1861) on the war and Mason and SlideU 233 CHAPTER X THE SANITARY COMMISSION November, 1861, commission of eldest son in First Massa- chusetts Cavalry. — Funds sent to prisoners in the South. — Letter to Nassau Senior on the situation. — Action as to Sanitary Commission. — Correspondence with Dr. BeUows and F. L. Ohnsted 258 CHAPTER XI FINANCE IN WAR TIME Fight against legal tenders. — Correspondence with W. P. Fessenden and W. C. Bryant on finance. — Various work in war time. — Letters to Aspinwall, Beckwith, Clifford, Ripley, and Bryant 275 CHAPTER XII JOURNEY TO THE SOUTH Charter of vessels for Navy Department. — Ordered South by doctor. — Trip to Beaufort, South Carolina. — Letter home descriptive of passage. — Charger BiUy. — The " Gideonites." — Life in Beaufort with eldest son and his regiment. — Yacht Azalea. — General Hunter and enlistment of blacks. — Letter to Edward Atkinson on unfair treatment of the Educational Commission (Gideon- ites) 292 CONTENTS OF VOLUME I ix CHAPTER XIII THE PROSECUTION OF THE WAB Correspondence with Parke Godwin, C. B. Sedgwick, and Charles Sumner, June, 1862, on war matters. — Letter from Dr. De Wolf to Mrs. Forbes. — Beginning of the New England Loyal Publication Society. —Minor reforms needed. — Letter from Governor Andrew. — Difficulties in recruiting. — Appointment of General Grant. — Prelimi- nary proclamation of emancipation. — Correspondence with W. C. Bryant, W. P. Fessenden, and Joshua Bates on the situation. — Letters from Navy Department on fitting out of Confederate steamers in England. — Let- ter from C. B. Sedgwick, December, 1862, on state of feeling in "Washington. — Draft of electors' letter to President Lincoln.—Letters from Charles Sumner on proclamation of emancipation 314 ILLUSTRATIONS John M. Forbes Frontispiece From a miniature about 1832 by Chenery, an English min- iature painter of some note in China at that time. P^Be John M. Forbes 132 From a crayon by Seth Cheney made about 1851. John M. Forbes 160 From a bust by his granddaughter, Edith Forbes, made from daguerreotypes taken about 1856. "I said never was such force, good meaning, good sense, good action, combined with such domestic lovely behavior, such modesty and persistent preference for others. Wherever he moved he was the benefactor. It is of course that he should ride well, shoot well, sail well, keep house well, administer affairs well ; but he was the best talker, also, in the company : what with a perpetual practical wisdom, with an eye always to the working of the thing, what with the multitude and distinction of his facts (and one detected continu- ally that he had a hand in everything that has been done), and in the temperance with which he parried all offense and opened the eyes of the person he talked with without contradicting him. Yet I said to myself, How little this man suspects, with his sympathy for men and his respect for lettered and scientific people, that he is not likely, in any company, to meet a man superior to himself. And I think this is a good country that can bear such a creature as he is."— R. W. Emerson (of J. M. Forbes). — Letters and Social Aims, River- side edition, p. 100. See, also, Emerson in Concord, p. 121. LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS OF JOHN MURRAY FORBES CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION It is usual to give some account of a man's ances- tors when beginning the story of his life ; but in the present instance a memory of my father's feel- ing about the matter prevents my following such a precedent at any length.
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