Author: Emilie E. Palmer
Date: 17 January 1861
Location: Emilie E. Palmer 1859 Diary, Record Group 19/2, Oberlin College Archives
Document Type: Autograph Document
Introduction:
A major component of Palmer’s entries are commitments to faith and descriptions of Church meetings and prayers. However, as Civil War threatens, they become melancholic in tone. She notes that civil war seems “inevitable,” and one can imagine the fear she and other Americans must have felt at the prospect of the Union falling apart, less than a century after independence from Britain. Palmer also expresses her frustration with President Buchanan for failing to preserve the Union.
Document Text:
January 17
Strange things are happening in these days. Since Lincoln’s election1 the clouds which have so long hung over our national horizon have been deepening until now they seem ready to burst upon us. South Carolina has seceded2 and others use threatenings. Civil war seems inevitable. The movements in the South are closely watched. Buchannan [sic]3 does worse than nothing. (Is a traitor.)
Last week was observed as the worlds [sic] concert of prayer.
Transcribed by Frances Casey
1Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th President of the United States, was elected on 6 November 1860. (“American President: Abraham Lincoln,” Miller Center: University of Virginia, Web address, accessed 1 July 2015).
220 December 1860 South Carolina became the first state to declare its secession.
3James Buchanan (1791-1868), 15th President of the United States, served from 1857 to 1861. Buchanan was known to have Southern sympathies; during his presidency, he defended slavery and state’s rights. Buchanan did nothing to block the secession of South Carolina (which occurred after Lincoln’s election), maintaining that he lacked the legal power to stop it. (“American President: James Buchanan,” Miller Center: University of Virginia, Web address, accessed 1 July 2015).
