James E. Stewart to John Milton Binckley, October 26, 1865: Part II

[James Erskine Stewart at Luray, Virginia, to John Milton Binckley at Washington City, October 26, 1865, part 2]:

Federal power has encroached step by step till States Rights are gasping their last breath in the fatal . . . of consolidation. Johnson an old Democrat is fortuitously at the helm and is doing very well under the circumstances and we are cordially supporting his policy & hoping he may “Tylerize” the Black Republican before he gets through. But the recent elections in the North show considerable vitality yet in the Republicans. But I look for the storm of Revolution again, when it comes it will not come in the shape of secession (that is now resuscitate[?]) but it will come in the shape of Revolution which will sweep with the force of a tropical tornado the whole face of the country. Unless the democracy of thr country will force the . . . as a  . . . whole, as in days of yore, the fig is up.

We shall be quiet, patient, loyal, looking with intense anxiety to see how the Conservatives of the North with Johnson to lead, will fight the redoubtable Sumner and old clubfooted Thad. Stevens &c, but . . . we can do nothing for we are scarcely allowed unlimited suffrage but hope for better days. But we are poor, we have no money and no means at present of bringing it . . . The wolf is at our door in the shape of the tax gatherers had so soon as Congress and the Legislatures meet and adjourn, he will get his teeth and here more . . . than ever: How we are to pay the National & State taxes without a great sacrifice of the little property that is left us in the shape of real estate, Lord only knows.

The Yankee snobs who have . . . their hogsheads of Green Backs out of Government . . . . to buy  . . . soil. But as old Father Ritchie of blessed memory used to say, Nous Arrous [?]. Unless history is a great liar, the first revolution oe civil war in a Republic was never the last. Now Milton . . . there and ask old Mother what she thinks of it & to put it in her . . .

Well you have heard of us and us pleased that what you did hear of us . . . We have struggled along, and were quite prosperous in many respects and in others not so. We have lived and . . . things in the Confederacy dealt us a heavy blow. We lost a great deal. We had invested in Confederate Securities all of our negroes (12 valuable servants) but we have a  . . . which we purchased in 1862, for which we paid $6,000 in Confederate money (it was then yet pretty good) and it ought . . . if there was any money in the country, to sell for $5,000 in Green Backs and then we have land in Jefferson probably worth $5,000 more, and that is our own stock . . .

Had the war terminated favorably for us we would have been worth in our old age between 20 & 25,000$, but we did not grieve at our fate, we bear it as southern patriots generally do, with submission to the fate of war. My health is perfectly restored and saved, indeed robust. It began to improve the last year I was in Washington but as soon as I got back here and began to knock about in active life and the open air it improved rapidly. Now I can speak in court ot in the open air upon the hustings for 2 hours at a stretch without feeling any particular inconvenience from it. I tried it fully during the late canvas sometimes two or three times in a week and my speeches were highly complimented by both friends and foes. Indeed never at any time in my life did I speak with the vigor that I now do. We elected A.H.H. Stewart [Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart (1807-1891)] from our District by a large majority over one of the most notorious Tories in it.

My head however is very white and my dear wife is beginning to turn also, tho’ she enjoys good health, and if anything is more energetic and managing than when you knew her, which is saying . . . The children are as well. Alice is married to a clever, well educated young man and hope . . . had done well. Nettie is a very fine child, very smart and active and as for Fannie, she is even more lovely than when you knew her, a great comfort to us, has been wonderfully caressed & dressed by several and yet has not spoiled her in the least. She has rejected offers that many girls would have considered very advantageous but she is not troubled or in a hurry – the man that gets her will have to be of the right stripe. You would be astonished to see how energetic she is in every respect. But you know she she has excellent sense, is religiously inclined, and in fact, though she is my child, I must say, take her al in all – I know of no one who is so lovely a character. She still wears her long-flowing auburn-curls.

We are thinking seriously of selling out, and leaving here, as the country is so desolated and bare of money and poor prospects for practice. I want to settle in a larger and more flourishing place. Where there are more people, more business and more money, and where we may invest the residue of our means in more productive prosperity. I am trying to bring my plans to work . . . but do not know how soon I can effect my purpose. I hope however to do so before the Fall closes. Where I shall move to I know not, but wherever I go, you shall know it.

[Alice E. Stewart (1847-?), married Robert B. Jennings (1839-?) on September 12, 1865, in Page County, Virginia. 

Nettie Floyd Stewart (1861-1883); later married John William Borst (1858-1923).

Frances Fannie Elizabeth Glenn Stewart (1825-1913) – wife of Judge James Erskine Stewart (1814-1890), who served as law clerk with the US Department of the Interior, 1852-1861.

Frances “Fannie” Stewart (ca. 1845-?)]

Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription. Stewart wrote a torrent of tightly crowded, almost hieroglyphic words, many of them difficult to decipher. I added paragraph breaks for easier reading.  

Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.