Letter signed Edward Bates, Attorney General’s Office, to Honorable H.R. Gamble, Norristown, Pennsylvania. Last evening I had the pleasure to see your friend and pastor, Reverend Dr. Halsey and his protégé, young Mr. McDonald. I will give him such aid as may be in my power, by bringing the matter fairly before the Secretary of War. I expect you will receive a letter from Gibson, along with this. He and I fully concur in the belief that your presence in the Missouri convention may be of great importance. Now, if ever, your great influence over the minds of our people ought to be exerted, for Missouri is, at this moment, in a very, very critical condition. The Civil Government of the State has ceased to act, and independent marauding parties are beginning to wage guerilla warfare after the manner of Mexico. My position here, you know, exposes me to the hazard of giving opinions upon all the knotty and hard questions. My official opinion upon the power of the President [vulgarly called the Habeas Corpus question] will doubtless expose me to the sharpest criticism, but I can’t help that. The President is a civil magistrate, and not a military chief. I have before me now, the scarcely less difficult question of the constitutionality of the retrocession of that part of the District of Columbia south of the Potomac. The organization of the government of Virginia in the West is the great movement of the day—the “spinal cord” of nationality…at once an example and fit instrument for the restoration of all the insurgent states. I take pride in the fact that I have had something to do with initiation and in the progress of that nation-saving operation. Individuals mentioned include Revered Dr. Halsey, McDonald, [Charles?] Gibson, President [Lincoln] and Secretary of War. Places mentioned include Missouri, Mexico, District of Columbia, Potomac and Virginia. (4 pages), 1861 July 16

Item — Box: 9, Folder: 4

Staff Only

Letter signed Edw. Bates [Edward Bates], Attorney General's Office, to H.R. Gamble, July 16, 1861

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Hamilton Rowan Gamble Papers consist of deeds, early land grants, surveys, a St. Louis court docket book (1816-1833), bills of sale, legal papers regarding land ownership and business agreements, letters pertaining to causes of the Civil War, letters regarding the raising of a state militia, correspondence with political and military leaders, account books and receipts. Papers pertaining to land cases include deeds from French and Spanish ownership of this area, such as a deed between Pierre Chouteau and his wife who sold land for $248 to Meriwether Lewis (box 1/folder 2); a land grant to Andrew Bowen from President James Monroe with the presidential seal (box 1/folder 5); notes on Doit Delany’s land between Creve Coeur Lake and the Missouri River, part of a land grant to Antoine Reynal by the Spanish government (box 6/folder 1); a copy of the land paper from May 23, 1772, signed by Laclede Liguest, et al., designating land granted in the name of the king (box 5/folder 3). Papers regarding slave cases in the courts of Missouri include an 1805 freedom suit by Celeste, an Indian woman, versus Madame Chevalier (box 1/folder 2). An 1827 case of Margrite versus Pierre Chouteau, Sr., explains that the plaintiff’s grandmother, an Indian, was taken in war by the French and possibly sold as a slave in 1769 (box 2/folder 5). Subsequent papers in the collection show that the case was dismissed in 1838 for want of jurisdiction (box 6/folder 6). Letters to and from Gamble from the years before and during the Civil War illuminate the issue of slavery and emancipation in a border state. A copy of a letter from Gamble in 1861 states his view of abolitionists (box 9/folder 13). A copy of an address at an 1862 meeting of loyal states in support of President Lincoln and emancipation bears a notation that Governor Gamble refused to sign it as governor of Missouri (box 10/folder 3). The original draft and copy of Gamble’s 1863 message before a party convention concerns emancipation for the state of Missouri (box 10/folder 7). Critical papers and letters between Gamble and President Abraham Lincoln cover such issues as: raising and paying for a state militia (box 9/folder 3); the situation in Missouri at the beginning of the Civil War (box 9/folder 8); and disagreements between Gamble and Union generals over who should be in control of the state militia (box 10). Collection includes several letters signed by President Lincoln (box 9/folder 12, box 10/folder 9). The collection includes official papers with government seals from 1824 when Gamble was appointed secretary of state of Missouri (box 2/folder 2), and from 1849 on a certificate admitting Gamble as an attorney and counselor of the U.S. Supreme Court (box 8/folder 5). Miscellaneous letters consist of one against gambling and playing roulette from “The Friends of Morality” (box 4/folder 6); plans for a 2nd Presbyterian Church on 5th Street, including drawings of the church interior (box 7/folder 1); and a letter soliciting donations to establish Linden Wood Female College (box 8/folder 9). Other letters and journal entries discuss treatments of diseases, e.g., cholera and neuralgia (box 8/folder 5). Receipts and account books show costs of clothing, household items, food, building materials and bills of sale for slaves to and from Gamble (box 2/folder 6; box 3/folder 7; box 5/folder 1, 5; box 7/folder 5; box 8/folders 4, 6, 11; box 9/folder 2). Letters written near the end of the Civil War, shortly before Gamble’s death, discuss the status of the provisional government (box 10/folder 7).