A Stephen Douglas Delegate Puts His Southern Family In Their Place

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A good early war-date letter, 4pp. 4to., written by New York businessman John T. Savage, Jr., New York, May 25, 1861, to his Southern (most likely North Carolina) sister, in small part: "…I was mortified beyond measure to think that treasonable misrepresentations of the enemies of the country were taken as true; and that you and others who are patriotic…if they knew that…the great mass of the northern people…[will] in all their integrity…the great chart of our liberties. We are the friends of the Government because we know that the government is administrated with rigid regard to the rights of all the states-no aggression will be permitted and we have no fear that they will be attempted. The Government knows…that if they were to dare to attempt to put into execution any of the theories of the Abolitionists that they would be as summarily put down as will be the Southron who attempt to destroy the unity of this great nation…I expect to see blood, riot and carnage throughout this once happy land…you, nor any one you know, has ever experienced a real grievance at the hands of our government…the most loud-mouthed abolitionist we have had at the north…dare not repeat the treason he has been uttering because…his insane ravings against the south are…indebted for this terrible calamity…but for the newspapers, the soldiers marching…with the rat tat of the drum…we would not know…anything unusual was transpiring…we have no unusual excitement…I feel some anxiety about the border states…we will put down abolitionists so low that the last trumpet shall not resurrect them…I have a son John Y. No. 3 in the war. He is a member of Col. Ellsworth's Regiment…I will never require an asylum from you for my southern sympathies for here in New York we have more liberty and happiness than you can ever have South with your present chiefs…I suppose I may be charged with living here so long that I have most my love of home and the place of my birth, but I assure you I cherish it…I was a member of the Democratic Convention at Charleston and had long talks with the North Carolinians there…we agreed upon general principles…they were more fearful of losing political power at home than upon establishing a homogenous party…their moral courage was below par…John T. Savage, Jr." Light soiling, else VG

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