Lamenting the Disappearance of History Along Georgetown Pike

Nearly every workday on my return trip from Washington, I take the Georgetown Pike through Langley. This road, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, retains a rural feel amidst the suburban sprawl of Northern Virginia. By and large, effective zoning and preservation-minded citizens have prevented the wholesale conversion of Georgetown Pike into just another two-lane highway outside of Washington.
 
A drive down the road sometimes feels like a trip back in time.  The countryside along the pike played host to Camp Pierpont, the quarters of the famed Pennsylvania Reserves during the first winter of the Civil War.  Union Gen. George McCall's old headquarters building still survives on a hill overlooking the road.  Other historic structures dot the landscape near the CIA.

Just over a rise by Langley High School sat a large, wooded piece of property to the southeast of the intersection of Georgetown Pike and Pine Hill Road.  (See map below.)  The sheer size of this undeveloped tract struck me as somewhat unusual in a place so close to the city.  I often drove past, wondering what stories that place could tell us about the boys in blue at Pierpont.  After all, their camp grounds and picket posts were scattered all around here.

One day, I saw the sign offering lots for sale.  I felt saddened to know that before long, this quiet and bucolic spot along Georgetown Pike in McLean would disappear forever.  Nothing would stop the builder's bulldozers from digging up the dirt and carrying away remains of the past.  I understand that not every inch of land can be preserved, and perhaps this particular plot would hardly garner the attention of most people.  Yet such undeveloped plots are rare in Northern Virginia, and likely hold clues about what happened here over 150 years ago.

Now, the woods are largely gone and the hills are muddy and barren.  The yellow excavator goes about its daily business among the felled trees and clumps of earth.  Perhaps a worker has uncovered a Minie ball or a metal cup and taken the find.  Or maybe relic hunters have already descended on the site when no one was looking.  I haven't heard of any serious efforts being undertaken to record what is found here.  The only shout out to the past was to name the plan after McLean's very own Confederate general, who apparently lived on this land after the Civil War.  For all we know, previous owners already discovered most of the artifacts while farming their fields.   

Such scenes have been repeated time and again around this area, and elsewhere.  Given competing priorities and the demands of modern living, we can't save every single parcel of land that witnessed the war.  And in this time of austerity, governments are hard pressed to find the resources required for serious archaeological studies.  However, that won't stop me from lamenting the disappearance of this vestige of McLean's past and wondering what we might have learned if we had been offered the chance to do so.



View Larger Map

A map showing the area of the new development, looking north.  This satellite photograph was taken prior to the recent development of the property.

Upcoming Civil War Lectures of the McLean Historical Society

As many readers know, I often attend meetings of the McLean Historical Society (MHS) and have even spoken to the group on a couple of occasions.  I recently had the honor of being chosen to serve on the MHS Board of Directors.  Needless to say, I am looking forward to greater involvement with an organization that has done so much to preserve our local history in this part of Northern Virginia.

Under the leadership of Paul Kohlenberger, the MHS has hosted some interesting lectures on Civil War-related subjects, ranging from the Battle of Lewinsville to John S. Mosby's operations in Fairfax.  This spring promises more of the same.  I'd like to inform readers about the following Civil War programs on the MHS calendar:

April 9  Mike Henry, the Fairfax County Park Authority's Director of Colvin Run Mill, will discuss the history of the mill during the Civil War.  (I've written briefly about Colvin Run Mill here.)

April 16  The MHS is sponsoring a special event featuring  Howard Coffin, a preeminent historian on Vermont and the Civil War.  Coffin will speak about soldiers from the Green Mountain State at Camp Griffn.  I've blogged extensively about the camp, which served as quarters for William F. "Baldy" Smith's division from October 1861 to March 1862.  The Vermont Brigade comprised a part of Smith's command.

June 11  Roger Mudd, a long-time McLean resident and award-winning journalist, is presenting a lecture entitled, "Where Exactly IS Ball's Hill?"  The talk will focus on the Civil War experiences of the Ball family.  Mudd now resides on land that once belonged to the Balls.  The lecture promises to offer a fascinating look at civilians impacted by the war in Northern Virginia.

All of these events start at 7:30 and are held at the McLean Community Center, 1234 Ingleside Avenue, McLean, Virginia.  If you live in the area, I'd encourage you to come to one or all of these events. And if you happen to be in town, please feel free to stop by.  I hope to see you there!

The Civil War and American Art at the Smithsonian

I recently had a chance to see "The Civil War and American Art" at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  My only regret is that I didn't spread the word sooner about this captivating exhibition that closes at the Smithsonian on April 28.  If you get to Washington between now and then, make sure to stop by the museum.  Once the exhibition leaves the nation's capital, it will travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and remain there from May 27 to September 2, 2013.

The exhibition traces the impact of the Civil War era on art in the United States.  The Smithsonian has assembled an impressive array of 75 paintings and photographs to tell the story.  Many of these works will be familiar to Civil War enthusiasts, but there is something more intimate and powerful about studying an original painting or photograph in person, no matter how many times you've seen that same image in print.

By the mid-nineteenth century, artists in the United States had long since discarded the European style of grandiose history painting, and landscapes dominated the American art scene.  Exhibition curator Eleanor Harvey carefully selected paintings to demonstrate the dramatic influence that the conflict had on artistic expression.  The visitor quickly realizes that a landscape painting often represents something more than a depiction of the natural world on canvas.  Symbolism abounds, and the museum helps us make sense of it all with the ample use of interpretive labels.

As sectional division threatened the Union, paintings like Martin Johnson Heade's Approaching Thunder Storm (1859) reflected the nation's anxiety and foreshadowed the fratricidal conflict to come.  Frederic Edwin Church, a preeminent artist of the era, painted the eruption of an Ecuadorean volcano in Cotopaxi during the war's second year.  His imagery evokes Frederick Douglass' 1861 description of slavery as a "moral volcano."  The thick smoke and red hues recall the violence and chaos of the battlefield, while the partially blue sky offers some distant hope of the Union's redemption through bloodshed. 

Martin Johnson Heade, Approaching Thunder Storm (1859) (courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Frederic Church, Cotopaxi (1862) (courtesy of About.com United States Travel).

As the struggle came to an end, artists contemplated the country's future in the aftermath of civil war.  Albert Bierstadt's Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California (1865) is verdant and alive with hope for a reunited nation.  The sun, hidden behind the rocks, beckons the country forward to a better, more serene place.  Likewise, the pilgrims in Church's Rainy Season in the Tropics (1866) move towards a distant, shining city under a magnificent double rainbow.  The entire painting elicits feelings of peace and healing.

Albert Bierstadt, Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California (1865) (courtesy of About.com United States Travel).  This stunning masterpiece was one of my favorites in the exhibition.

Frederic Church, Rainy Season in the Tropics (1866) (courtesy of Urban Paddle).

The war also stimulated art in other, more predictable ways as artists focused their attention on military subjects.  But unlike history painting, with its glorified depictions of battles and leaders, the artists of the Civil War era tended to take a lower-key and more realistic approach.  Paintings by Winslow Homer, such as Home, Sweet Home (c. 1863), portray soldiers in camp, killing the hours of boredom and thinking of loved ones far away.  Sanford Robinson Gifford painted soldiers overshadowed by their natural surroundings, as in Bivouac of the Seventh Regiment, Arlington Heights, Virginia (1861).  Southern artist Conrad Wise Chapman is also here, with his intimate paintings of Confederate-occupied Ft. Sumter.  (As a special treat, the museum is exhibiting his painting of the Confederate submarine, Hunley.)

Winslow Homer, Home, Sweet Home (about 1863) (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).  The only weak spot in the exhibition is the absence of drawings by sketch artists for the various newsweeklies.  The presence of so many of Homer's works helps to compensate for that shortcoming.  Homer was a sketch artist, and many of his paintings were based on his drawings from the field.

Sanford Robinson Gifford, Bivouac of the Seventh Regiment, Arlington Heights, Virginia (1861) (courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum).  I particularly liked this depiction of the 7th New York State Militia's camp on the outskirts of Washington.  The exhibition also features Gifford's paintings of the 7th New York in Washington, Baltimore, and Frederick.

Conrad Wise Chapman, The Flag of Sumter, October 20 1863 (1863-64) (courtesy of Artinfo).  Chapman painted this scene while serving with the Confederate Army in Charleston. 

The difficult issues of slavery and race relations also emerge as a major theme in Civil War-era painting. The curator has selected a multitude of thought-provoking canvases that cause us to reflect on the meaning of slavery and emancipation.  Two paintings in particular demonstrate the social revolution that the Civil War brought to the nation.  Eastman Johnson's The Old Mount Vernon (1857) shows the first President's estate as we almost never see it.  The slave quarters are there front and center, right behind Washington's famous home.  A lone African-American man sits in the doorway.  Johnson's painting, whether intentionally or not, reminds us that the promises of our Founding Fathers had yet to reach millions of enslaved Americans. In A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876), painted over a decade after Appomattox, Homer depicts the radically altered relations between former slaves and slave owners throughout the South.  The elderly white woman keeps her distance from three black women who belonged to her family before emancipation.  Tension fills the air.  The entire scene feels bitter and cold, seething with resentment.  Homer's canvass shows us a post-war America that is a world away from Church's rainbows and Bierstadt's Western landscape.  

Eastman Johnson, Old Mount Vernon (1857) (courtesy of Critical Explorers).

Winslow Homer, A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876) (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).

The exhibition gives a prominent spot to Civil War photography.  This relatively new art form captured the carnage and destruction of war in a way that paintings or drawings never could have done.  The curator has selected some of the best-known works by George Barnard, Alexander Gardner, Timothy H. O'Sullivan, and other famous photographers.  The bloated corpses at Antietam and Gettysburg, the Confederate dead scattered along the stone wall at Marye's Heights, the skeletal remains at Cold Harbor, the battlefields of the Atlanta Campaign, and the burned ruins of Columbia are all there.  The photographs remind us of the utter destruction that the war brought to the country.  We are just as shocked by these photographs today as were Americans of the Civil War generation.

Alexander Gardner, Confederate Dead, Antietam (Dunker Church in background) (Sept. 19, 1862)  (courtesy of Civil War Academy). 

George N. Barnard, Columbia, from the Capitol (1865) (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).

"The Civil War and American Art" deserves high praise.  The exhibition is a truly remarkable collection of paintings and photography.  No matter how many times you may have seen some of these images, you are certain to learn something new while walking through the galleries and studying the artwork.  We are left to ponder how the Civil War affected and transformed American art just as it did other aspects of American life and culture.

More Information & Sources

For more information about "The Civil War and American Art," including a slide show, picture album, webcasts, blog posts, and a calendar of events, visit the exhibition's website. 

Please note that because photography was not allowed in the exhibition galleries (and rightfully so), I have used images of the paintings and photographs reproduced elsewhere on the web.

The following sources were useful in compiling this post:

Howland Cotter, "American Eden, After the Fall," New York Times, Jan. 10, 2013; Eleanor Jones Harvey, "America's Moral Volcano," Disunion blog, Feb. 5, 2013; Philip Kennicott, "'The Civil War and American Art' Puts the Battle in the Background," Washington Post, Nov. 21, 2012; Smithsonian American Art Museum, "The Civil War and American Art": Teacher's Guide (2012).

A Walking Tour of Mosby's Raid on Fairfax

This week marks the 150th anniversary of John S. Mosby's famous raid on Fairfax Court House.  A couple years ago, I discussed the event and the impact it had on the defenses of Washington.  During the night of March 8, 1863, Mosby set out for Fairfax with twenty-nine men.  The group slipped through the Union lines and entered the town early on March 9.  Mosby hoped to bag his nemesis, Col. Percy Wyndham, but the Union cavalry officer had gone to Washington for the night.  Not one to leave empty-handed, Mosby located the headquarters of Gen. Edwin H. Stoughton, commander of a Union infantry brigade.  He boldly entered the home, woke the general from his drunken slumber, and arrested him.  Mosby and his fellow rangers also made off with two captains, 30 enlisted men, and 58 horses.   The daring raid behind enemy lines gave the Federals in Washington quite a fright and won Mosby the praise of Robert E. Lee and Jeb Stuart. 

The hapless Gen. Edwin Stoughton (courtesy of National Archives)

Several buildings that are associated with the raid survive to this day.  Late last summer, I stopped in Fairfax after a morning trip to Ox Hill Battlefield Park.  I found a parking spot near the courthouse and walked to the Mosby-related sites, which are all located within a few blocks of one another. 

The Fairfax Courthouse was my first stop.  This iconic structure, dating to 1800, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  During the raid, the courthouse square served as the rendez-vous spot for Mosby's men, who broke into squads to round up prisoners and horses around town.  The Union telegraph operator was captured as he slept in his tent on the square.

The Fairfax Courthouse. A Civil War Trails marker out front tells the story of the courthouse during the conflict.  Both Union and Confederate troops occupied the building at one time or another.  The trappings of a construction site detracted from an otherwise picture-perfect scene!

A few blocks away along Chain Bridge Road sits the Moore House (c. 1840).  In 1863, the building belonged to Thomas Murray.  Mosby believed that Wyndham was using Murray's house as his headquarters.  He and several of his men descended on the home, but they soon learned that their intelligence was faulty.  Murray informed Mosby that Wyndham was saying at Judge Henry Thomas' house on the other side of the courthouse.  Mosby sent a small group to the Thomas residence, but Wyndham had already left for Washington City.  The raiders consoled themselves with taking the Union officer's "fine wardrobe and several splendid horses that they found in the stables."  (Mosby, Belford's Monthly, 125.)

The Moore (Murray) House, where Mosby unsuccessfully sought Sir Percy Wyndham, the officer who had called him a horse thief.  According to a marker outside the home, Mosby retorted that "the only horses he had every stolen had Union troopers on their backs armed with two pistols and a saber."  After the war, the house belonged to R. Walton Moore, a Congressman and State Department counselor under President Franklin Roosevelt.  The building is now used for commercial purposes.

The highlight of any Mosby-related tour of Fairfax is the Dr.William Gunnell House.  Be aware that the building is tucked away on the grounds of the Truro Anglican Church, a short distance from the main strip; I almost walked right past it!  On the morning of March 9, Mosby learned from a captured guard that Stoughton was quartered at Gunnell's residence.  The commander and a few men rode out to the house, where they entered and mounted the staircase to Stoughton's bedroom.  Mosby described what happened next:

There were signs in the room of having been revelry in the house that night. Some uncorked champagne bottles furnished an explanation of the general's deep sleep. He had been entertaining a number of ladies from Washington in a style becoming a commanding general. The revelers had retired to rest just before our arrival with no suspicion of the danger that was hovering over them. The ladies had gone to spend the night at a citizen's house. . . . As, the general was not awakened by the noise we made in entering the room, I walked up to his bed and pulled off the covering. But even this did not arouse him. He was turned over on his side snoring like one of the seven sleepers. With such environments I could not afford to await his convenience or to stand on ceremony. So I just pulled up his shirt and gave him a spank. Its effect was electric. The brigadier rose from his pillow and in an authoritative tone inquired the meaning of this rude intrusion. He had not realized that we were not some of his staff. I leaned over and said to him: "General, did you ever hear of Mosby?" "Yes," he quickly answered, "have you caught him?" "No," I said, "I am Mosby—he has caught you." (Mosby, Belford's Monthly, 126-27.)

A couple of markers around the house commemorate the general's capture. 

The Dr. William P. Gunnell House (c. 1835).  Stoughton was sleeping in a bedroom on the left front side of the second floor.  The part of the home to the right of the front door was added after the war.  The William Gunnell House is now a private residence.

Historical marker describing the significance of the William Gunnell House to Mosby's raid on Fairfax Court House.  (See here for more information on the marker.)

Marker commemorating Mosby's raid on Fairfax and the capture of Stoughton.  The United Daughters of the Confederacy placed the marker here in 1937.  The marker makes the exaggerated claim that Mosby captured 100 prisoners and horses.  The spire of the Truro Church is visible in the background.  (See here for more information on the marker.)

Mosby and his men made their last stop at the Joshua Gunnell House.  At the time of the raid, Lt. Col. Robert Johnstone of the 5th N.Y. Cavalry was staying here with his wife.  As the Confederates approached the house, Johnstone threw open the window on the second floor and asked their affiliation.  The raiders laughed, and Mosby dispatched some men to search the house.  While Johnstone's wife kept the Rebels at bay, Johnstone slipped out the back door in his nightclothes and hid under the outhouse.  Unable to find the Union officer, the Confederates left town with their prisoners and horses in tow.  Mosby tells the remainder of the story best:

[Johnstone] lay there concealed and shivering with cold and fear until after daylight. He did not know for some time that we had gone, and he was afraid to come out of his hole to find out. His wife didn't know where he was. In squeezing himself under shelter he had torn off his shirt, and when he appeared before his wife next morning, as naked as when he was born and smelling a great deal worse, it is reported that she refused to embrace him before he had taken a bath.  (Mosby, Belford's Monthly, 128.)

As a result of this unfortunate episode, Johnstone earned the embarrassing nickname of "Outhouse Johnstone."

Joshua Gunnell house (c. 1830) (courtesy of Historical Marker Database).  The site is now dedicated to commercial use.

The Federal authorities wasted no time in rounding up citizens suspected of aiding Mosby.  Among those arrested was Antonia Ford, a young woman who lived with her father, Edward, close to the courthouse in what is today known as the Ford Building.  The Ford family had hosted Stoughton's sister, mother, and three of the general's aides.  Stoughton and Ford had also spent time together, and an anonymous letter to the New York Times even went so far as to allege a "very intimate" relationship between the two.  Ford and her father were arrested on charges of spying and sent to Old Capitol Prison in Washington.  Although Ford helped the Confederates during the First Manassas Campaign, her role in Mosby's raid is somewhat uncertain.  After the war, Mosby claimed that she was "as innocent as Abraham Lincoln."  Incidentally, Ford was arrested by Maj. Joseph C. Willard, the Union Provost Marshall in Fairfax and an owner of Willard's Hotel in Washington. Willard allegedly lobbied for her release from Old Capitol and married her several months later in March 1864.

The Ford Building (c. 1835) on Chain Bridge Road, where Antonia Ford resided in March 1863 (courtesy of Historical Marker Database).  According to the marker out front, a search of the house by Union authorities after the raid  "revealed an honorary aide-de-camp commission to Antonia from Gen. Jeb Stuart."  The structure currently houses offices.

The Fairfax Raid played no small part in shaping the legend of the Gray Ghost of the Confederacy.  Anyone with an interest in the Civil War, or Mosby in particular, should visit Old Town Fairfax and check out the sites related to the partisan commander's bold venture behind Union lines.

For More Information. . .

Lucky for us, Mosby liked writing about his wartime exploits in Northern Virginia.  I'd recommend that readers check out these two accounts of the Fairfax Raid by the Gray Ghost himself:

• The Memoirs of Col. John S. Mosby, pp. 168-87 (1917)
• "One of My War Adventures," in Belford's Monthly, Vol. 9, pp. 122-32 (1892).

Mosby certainly had a way of spinning a yarn!  Nothing can beat this first-hand description of the raid and Stoughton's ignominious capture.

The City of Fairfax has put together a map and description of the key historic sites in town, including the buildings connected to Mosby's Fairfax Raid.  You will find all of the relevant addresses here if you wish to follow my walking tour.

I also would like to mention two guidebooks that cover the Fairfax Raid, as well as a multitude of other Mosby sites across the region:

• Thomas J. Evans, James M. Moyer, & Virgil Carrington Jones published Mosby's Confederacy: A Guide to the Roads and Sites of Colonel John Singleton Mosby in 1991.  Although the maps and graphics could use an overhaul, this comprehensive work covers a range of well-known and more obscure locations connected to Mosby.
• Local historians Donald Hakenson and Chuck Mauro have just published A Tour Guide and History of Col. John S. Mosby's Combat Operations in Fairfax County, Virginia.  This book is a welcome addition to the body of work on the Civil War in Fairfax County.  Hakenson and Mauro take readers on a tour of Mosby-related sites all over the county.  An accompanying documentary, Mosby's Combat Operations in Fairfax County, Virginia, is also available.

Sesquicentennial Event

The City of Fairfax will be hosting an all-day event on Saturday, March 9 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Mosby's Fairfax Raid.  Aside from the requisite reenactment, the event will feature interpretive stops outside Mosby-related sites, as well as Mosby scholars symposium, book signing, and film screenings.  More information on this event can be found here.

Additional Sources

Aside from the information cited above, the following sources were useful in compiling this post:

James A. Ramage, Gray Ghost: The Life of Col. John Singleton Mosby (1999); Jeffry D. Wert, Mosby's Rangers (1991); Ashley M. Whitehead, Antonia Ford (1838-1871), in Encyclopedia Virginia.

February 2013: A Month of Acquisitions

Last month I made a few welcome additions to my ever-growing collection of antique books and newspapers related to the Civil War.  I am always on the lookout for intriguing acquisitions at a reasonable price, and February was a month of particularly notable discoveries.  I tend to gravitate towards publications with a Northern Virginia or Washington connection, although I am always open to purchasing books or papers on other interesting topics.

The on-line auction site eBay is an excellent starting point for finding original Civil War-era newspapers.  A few weeks ago I bid on, and won, a May 25, 1861 edition of Harper's Weekly.  This issue focuses heavily on the early days of the war in Washington.  In fact, I illustrated a two-part series on Union volunteers arriving in the nation's capital with prints from this edition of Harper's Weekly.  (See here and here.)   The front page features a dramatic engraving of the 11th New York Fire Zouaves fighting to extinguish flames that threatened to engulf the famed Willard's Hotel.  (The complete story can be found here.)  A few other prints depict the quartering of Federal troops in the U.S. Capitol and at the Treasury Department.  I also was drawn to a full-page illustration of the 79th New York on parade by Winslow Homer.  This regiment, which fought at Bull Run, was later commanded by Isaac Stevens and played at key role at Lewinsville, a local engagement near and dear to my heart.

Front cover of the May 25, 1861 issue of Harper's Weekly, showing "Willard's Hotel, Washington, Saved by the New York Fire Zouaves."  The paper noted that the soldiers "worked like heroes, performing wonderful feats of agility and bravery."  Their leader, Col. Elmer Ellsworth, was shot dead in Alexandria, Virginia by a secessionist the day before this issue appeared.

"The Seventy-Ninth Regiment (Highlanders) New York State Militia," Harper's Weekly, May 25, 1861.  The parade depicted here likely took place in New York City prior to the regiment's departure for Washington.

"Galleries Under the Senate Chamber, Converted into Granaries," Harper's Weekly, May 25, 1861.  

One evening last month I also spent some time browsing AbeBooks and ended up purchasing an 1881 first edition of John C. Ropes' The Army Under Pope for less than twenty dollars.  This slim book was part of a multi-volume series, Campaigns of the Civil War, published by Charles Scribner's Sons.  My copy, including a fold-out map, is in very good condition, with the exception of some minor shelf and edge wear.  Ropes, a lawyer and historian, founded the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts.  Incidentally, he was also a co-founder of the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray.  Ropes dedicated the book to his youngest brother Henry, a lieutenant in the 20th Massachusetts who fell at Gettysburg.

The Army Under Pope, which appeared less than 20 years after Second Manassas, offers a critical examination of John Pope's performance as commander of the short-lived Army of Virginia.  Ropes made use of official battle reports that were appearing in print for the first time.  The author defends Gen. Fitz John Porter, who was court-martialed and dismissed from the Union Army for his alleged failures at Second Bull Run.  In other passages that I've read, Ropes tackles the popular argument that Gen. George B. McClellan intentionally contributed to Pope's defeat. 

Of course, I don't purchase all of my books on-line.  One day in February I was browsing the shelves at my favorite bookstore, The Old Book Co. of McLean, when the owner alerted me to an 1860 first edition of Ezra B. Chase's Teachings of Patriots and Statesmen; or, the "Founders of the Republic" on Slavery.  I took one look and knew that I couldn't let this one get away.

The front cover of Teachings of Patriots and Statesmen, first edition, J.W. Bradley (publishers), Philadelphia, 1860.  I was particularly drawn to the gilt-embossed American eagle design.

At the outset, Chase informed readers that the was taking a non-controversial approach:

In compiling the following pages, I have not been influenced by partisan purposes; neither have I compiled them for the notoriety of having my name appended to a book. The country is sufficiently flooded already with partisan literature—books written for political advantage, or pecuniary gain, or both. To such authorship I do not aspire. If I have cherished an ambition in reference to this work, it has been an ambition to place before the people information upon the subject that is now agitating the country, upon which they can rely,—the views and opinions of those distinguished patriots and statesmen who formed the government, and whose intentions and principles should be heeded and carried out, if we would preserve it from disruption and decay. 

The book contains the text of various speeches and writings related to slavery, from the time of the Articles of Confederation through the 1860 election.  Chase covers such controversial issues as the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision.  He also quotes liberally from the Founding Fathers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.  Chase's book is a piece of history from a time when the nation was on the brink of war over slavery.  The copy at the Old Book Co. was in good condition, and the price was right, so I walked out the owner of this unique work.

I have no idea how many copies of Teachings of Patriots and Statesmen sold in 1860.  Presumably interest in such publications ran high as sectional tensions over slavery mounted.  Chase, a Democratic lawyer and former Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, became embroiled in controversy during the Civil War.  After losing an 1861 election for district attorney by a narrow margin attributable to the absentee soldiers' vote, Chase challenged the Pennsylvania law allowing for military voting before the state supreme court and won.  (See here.)  Chase was also arrested in 1862 for encouraging men to abstain from enlisting in the Union Army.  (See here.) 

All told, February was a better than expected month for acquisitions.  The discoveries that I made remind me why I enjoy the hobby of collecting antique books and newspapers.  Owning a tangible, written connection to the Civil War era brings the past alive on the paper before me in a way that a modern publication cannot do.  My only hope now is that I find a way to get more space, but I don't think a new home library is yet on the horizon!