Letter signed Hamilton Gamble, St. Louis, to Father [Gov. Gamble]. Contrary to my expectation I received instructions at Indianapolis to return home without coming to Iowa. Easton had returned from Kansas and Nebraska without having accomplished anything at the state offices. I do not know yet what duty I shall be assigned to. Gov. Hall is in Jefferson City and I expect to go up in the morning to see him. Everything has gone well at the house, the yard looks beautiful. Tell Mary her deer is well and runs loose about the yard. The Democrat abuses you as usual, and charges the horrible massacre at Lawrence to the sympathy of the Gamble Dynasty with the bushwackers, or to its invincibility. The Radicals lay hold of everything to make steam to run their convention which meets next week at Jefferson City. They ought to hold you responsible for the defeat of Burnside at Fredericksburg, and the burning of the Steamer Ruth, and the explosion of the boat load of ammunition at Vicksburg; if they would charge you with the robbery of the express office here, they would have made up the sum of your villainies. Schofield is making himself ridiculous by pandering to the Radicals. He has issued a bombastic order in reference to the Lawrence outrages and I think is preparing to cut loose from the Gamble Dynasty. He has no nerve. Your true friends do not speak out but when they do, it will be in a voice and tone which will astonish the contemptible puppies who bow before the Radical juggernot. Family news. Individuals mentioned include Easton, Gov. Hall, Mary, Burnside, Schofield. Subjects mentioned include Democrat, Gamble Dynasty, Steamboat “Ruth”, Radicals. Places mentioned include Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Lawrence, Vicksburg. (4 pages), 1863 Aug 26

Item — Box: 10, Folder: 11

Staff Only

Letter from Ham. Gamble, Head Quarters, State of Missouri, St. Louis, to Father [Governor Hamilton R. Gamble], August 26, 1863

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).