great cause of offense to any candid and liberal friend, even though he may differ with me in opinion. I have thus explained to you my situation, and the cause and state of my feelings on this occasion, and now leave the subject to you, with every confidence in your justice and liberality.

What I have said in relation to Mr. Douglas, may be regarded as applying in all material respects to Mr. Harris, your present representative in Congress.

In the effort to make myself perfectly understood, I have made this letter long and tedious. Excuse it, and believe me to be very truly and respectfully yours, etc.,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

(A. Lincoln to J. J. Crittenden.)

Hon. J. J. CRITTENDEN.

J. J. CRITTENDEN.

SPRINGFIELD, Nov. 4, 1858.

MY DEAR SIR,-Yours of the 29th was taken from the office by my law-partner, and in the confusion consequent upon the recent election was handed to me only this moment. I am sorry the allusion made in the Missouri Republican to the private correspondence between yourself and me has given you any pain. It gave me scarcely a thought, perhaps for the reason that, being away from home, I did not see it till only two days before the election. It never occurred to me to cast any blame upon you. I have been told that the correspondence has been alluded to in the Missouri Republican several times; but I only saw one of the allusions made, in which it was stated, as I remember, that a gentleman of St. Louis had seen a copy of your letter to me. As I have given no copy nor ever shown the original, of course I inferred he had seen it in your hands; but it did not occur to me to blame you for showing what you had written yourself. It was not said that the gentleman had seen a copy or the original of my letter to you.

The emotions of defeat at the close of a struggle in which I felt more than a merely selfish interest, and to which defeat the use of your name contributed largely, are fresh upon me; but even in this mood I cannot for a moment suspect you of anything dishonorable.

Your obedient servant,

(J. J. Crittenden to T. Lyle Dickey.)

A. LINCOLN.

FRANKFORT, August 1, 1858.

MY DEAR SIR,-I received some days ago your letter of the 19th of last month, in which you state the substance of a conversation between us in relation to Judge Douglas, said to

have taken place in April last at the city of Washington. You ask if your statement is correct, and you ask my permission to speak of it privately and publicly, as occasion may prompt you. I remember the conversation to which you allude and the substance of it; it occurred at Washington during the last session of Congress, and most probably in April.

Your statement of that conversation corresponds substantially with my recollections of it. As you state in your letter, I did in that conversation speak of Senator Douglas in high and warm terms. I said that the people of Illinois little knew how much they really owed him; that he had had the courage and patriotism to take an elevated, just, and independent position on the Lecompton question at the sacrifice of interesting social relations, as well as old party ties, and in defiance of the power and patronage of an angry administration, supported by a dominant party disbursing a revenue of some eighty millions a year; that for this noble conduct he had been almost overwhelmed with denunciations; that the attacks made upon him in the debates of the Senate were frequent, personal, and fierce; that throughout the entire session he must have felt the consciousness that he was in daily danger of being so assailed in debate as to force him into altercations and quarrels that might in their consequences involve the loss of honor or of life. Notwithstanding all this he had kept his course firmly and steadily throughout the whole struggle-had borne himself gallantly. I thought there was a heroism in his course calling not only for approbation but applause.

In the above statement I have rather confined myself to those particulars of our conversation suggested by your letter than attempted to detail the whole of it; the above, however, contains the substance of what passed, and whatever else was said was in accordance with it. This conversation with you, sir, formed but a part of many others of a like character which I held on the same subject. I often expressed my high opinion of the conduct of Judge Douglas on the Lecompton question. I expressed it frequently, fully, and openly, and was careless who might hear or repeat it. Under these circumstances, I do not feel that it would become me to object, or that I have, indeed, any right to object, to your repeating our conversation when I have myself so frequently and so publicly declared the whole substance of it. I have thus answered your letter, as I felt myself bound to do.

I must add, however, that I do not wish to be an officious intermeddler in your elections, or even to appear to be so. I therefore hope and request that whenever you have occasion to speak on the subject of this letter, you will do me the justice to

explain and to acquit me of any such voluntary intermeddling, or of the presumption of seeking to obtrude myself or my sentiments upon the attention of the people of Illinois.

T. LYLE DICKEY.

I am, sir, with great respect, yours,

J. J. CRITTENDEN.

(In Senate, December 23, 1858. Bill for the Relief of Jane Turnbull.) Mr. Crittenden.-Mr. President, we are about entering upon the holidays, and I wish to do so with a good and cheerful spirit; to do a good deed beforehand, I move to take up the bill for the relief of Jane Turnbull. I ask that this bill may be passed. It requires the Secretary of the Interior to place the name of Jane Turnbull, widow of the late Colonel William Turnbull, of the army of the United States, on the pensionroll, at the rate of fifty dollars per month during her natural life. It is necessary that I should make a brief statement of the case as it appears on file. William Turnbull entered the army in 1819; he died in 1857. Never during that whole period of his career in the army did Colonel Turnbull ask for leave of absence, except on account of sickness or inability to perform his duties. Belonging to the most scientific department of the army,-the topographical engineers, he served everywhere; he served in Mexico; was twice brevetted for services there; he died of rheumatism of the heart, induced by exposure there. Though a man of remarkable strength, very athletic, and of fine constitution, it was his fate to suffer exceedingly from exposure to the climate while serving in Mexico. In talking to General Scott the first day I saw him after the death of Colonel Turnbull, he told me, with that passionate sort of grief with which he always seemed to regard the death of this gentleman, "I killed him, sir!" "How was that, general?" "At the siege of Vera Cruz, a terrible norther blowing upon us the whole time, I sent him out to service. All day he was exposed to a storm of cold wind from the north and to clouds of sand; he got back to my quarters at night, after having served the whole day, unable to get off his horse. All that could be done for him was done; but he never finally recovered from that shock." It is certified by his physician that he was afterwards sent upon the northern frontier to superintend some works of the government. This aided the shock his constitution had received in Mexico; he came back time after time with this rheumatism of the heart; he was at last recalled and sent South, and died at Wilmington, North Carolina. Colonel Turnbull died in his bed, alone, and has left a family for whom this provision is asked.

Surely, so far as the merits of the father can entitle the family to a compensation, his services for over thirty years-services of the most arduous character, exposing him in every climate, and particularly in our war with Mexico-ought to secure them. this small allowance. This family are abundantly justified in appealing to the liberality of Congress. Such a family of children has hardly been left by any officer who has died in our service. He had a large family, and they are in utter want,all his pay was necessary to support them during his life. To be in Colonel Turnbull's house, as I have been, and many other senators have been, and see the beautiful economy by which the expenses of a large family were brought within the compass of small means, was an affecting sight, even in his lifetime. He has left a wife, who well deserved such a husband, destitute, with nothing but a naked house.

A word more in explanation. There was no written report from the committee. I presume that the matter was not properly attended to by those who had it in charge for Mrs. Turnbull. A statement in writing was furnished by General Scott; he brought me the paper voluntarily, and then held the conversation I have reported in regard to Colonel Turnbull and the origin of the disease with which he died. This business commenced in the other House, and there the paper was lost. I gave General Scott notice, and requested the committee to summon him as a witness. I wanted to have him before them that they might examine him. General Scott was notified, and attended, but the committee did not meet on that day.

General Scott attributes the origin of Colonel Turnbull's death to his being frozen and exhausted at Vera Cruz in the manner I have stated. The service at the North afterwards, on the water's edge, and in that climate, was co-operative with the exposure occurring in Mexico. He died of disease contracted in the line of his duty. I think it is a plain case made out of a man dying from disease contracted in the public service.*

* Speeches of this character, not political, but going to show Mr. Crittenden's kindness of heart, and the zeal and sensibility with which he served his friends, I have thought best to insert in his Life, and not to publish in the volume containing his speeches in the Senate and House of Representatives, which it is my wish to have published at some future time. I have also deemed it advisable to publish in this volume some of his speeches to popular assemblies.

CHAPTER X.

1859-1860.

In Senate, January 4, 1859-Removal to the new Senate-chamber-Speech of Mr. Crittenden-Letters from Letcher-In Senate-Commodore Paulding-William Walker's Expedition to Nicaragua-In Senate-Brig General ArmstrongLetcher to Crittenden-Cuba-Crittenden to Mrs. Coleman-James F. Simmons to Crittenden-In Senate, 1860-Slavery Question-General Scott to Crittenden-Letters of Amos A. Lawrence, General Scott, J. P. Kennedy, F. P. Blair— In Senate, 1860-Thaddeus Hyatt.

(In Senate, January 4, 1859. Removal to the new Senate-chamber.)

R. CRITTENDEN.-Mr. President, I hope I may be indulged in a few words of parting from this chamber. This is to be the last day of our session here, and this place which has known us so long will know us no more as a Senate. The parting seems to me to be solemn, and full of eventful recollections.

Many associations, both pleasant and proud, bind us and our hearts to this place. We cannot but feel its influence,-I, perhaps, Mr. President, most deeply, as my lot has been to serve in this body more years than any member now present. We cannot leave this chamber without some feeling of sacred sadness, it has been the scene of great events. Here questions of American constitutions and laws have been debated, questions of peace and war decided, questions of empire occupied the attention of great minds. This was the grand theatre upon which these things have been enacted. Surely this hall is consecrated!

Great men have been actors here. The illustrious dead who have in time past distinguished this body, rise naturally on this occasion to our view. I speak but of what I myself have seen, and but partially of that, when I say that within these walls I have seen men whose fame is not surpassed, and whose power and ability and patriotism are not surpassed, by any Grecian or Roman name. I have seen Clay and Webster, Calhoun and Benton, Leigh and Wright and Clayton (last though not least), mingling together in this body at one time, and uniting their counsels for the benefit of their country.