Author: Emilie E. Palmer
Date: 18 April 1861
Location: Emilie E. Palmer 1859 Diary, Record Group 19/2, Oberlin College Archives
Document Type: Autograph Document
Introduction:
Palmer begins by detailing her summer plans to travel to Pittsfield, Ohio, where she will teach. Her writing then turns towards the Civil War, which has just begun. She writes about the President Lincoln’s plea to the secessionists not to break away from the North and ends the entry with a hopeful air, asserting, “the right will triumph.”
Throughout her diary, she sometimes questioned the steadfastness of her religious beliefs, however she reaffirms her commitment to faith by asserting that God will end the Civil War. This is the last entry in Palmer’s first diary, and it is fitting that she ends her diary with a positive outlook on the world. After she finished her own words, she concluded the diary by copying four lines of Philip James Bailey’s ten-line poem, “We live in deeds not years; in thoughts not breaths” into her diary.1 In this deontological interpretation of life and morality, Palmer affirms her faith in secular art.
Document Text:
April 18th
Next Tuesday I am to leave home again to spend the summer in Pittsfield.2 When I shall return I do not know. My present plan is to go from there to [Kingsville] and spend one year there at a school. I anticipate a pleasant time. I wrote a letter to Julia3 last week.
Cordie came home last Friday in the rain was completely soaked and tired out acted like a baby, she returns next Tuesday.
War has began and battle has been fought, and fort [illegible].4
The President5 has issued a proclamation6calling for seventy five7 men to quell the secessionists, more than 200,000 [illegible]. Where the end will be we know not. I wish I was a man [illegible] know. Our Father is at the helm and “[illegible]” the storm clouds hover and the waves clash wildly, and [illegible] the “ship of state” be saved from the rocks. [Illegible] surely we know [that] eventually the right will triumph.
Transcribed by Hannah Cohen
1Full poem text: We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; / In feelings, not in figures on a dial. / We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives / Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. / And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest: / Lives in one hour more than in years do some / Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins. / Life’s but a means unto an end; that end, Beginning, mean, and end to all things—God. / The dead have all the glory of the world. (Phillip James Bailey, “We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths.” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, Web address, 02 July 2015).
2Pittsfield, Ohio is a township in Lorain County, Ohio, also where Oberlin, Ohio is located.
3Likely Julia Loomis, the only Julia who graduated Oberlin College in 1860. Loomis is referred to in the majority of Palmer’s entries, as it appears they were very close friends. It is likely that Loomis is a relative of Julius Fitch Loomis, and introduced the couple.
4The first battle of the Civil War at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, from 12 April 1861 to 14 April 1861.
5Abraham Lincoln was President of the United States from 4 March 1861 to 15 April 1865.
6Referring to the 80th proclamation made by President Abraham Lincoln on 15 April 1861 detailing the organization of 75, 000 men to stop the secessionists and ordering the Senate and House of Representatives to convene on 4 July 1861 to discuss secessionist movement. (Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation 80 – Calling Forth the Militia and Convening an Extra Session of Congress, The American Presidency Project, Web address, accessed 17 March 2015. [Original Source: Proclamation 80 – Calling Forth the Militia and Convening an Extra Session of Congress, 15 April 1861]).
7Likely meant or misunderstood the figure 75,000.
