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Virginia Democrats Divide over Personalities on the Eve of the Civil War
Virginia Democrats Divide over Personalities on the Eve of the Civil War
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Seddon John

Virginia Democrats Divide over Personalities on the Eve of the Civil War

 

JOHN SEDDON, Autograph Letter Signed, to John Letcher, August 31, 1858, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Marked “Private.” 3 pp., 7.75" x 10"  Expected folds; small hole affecting two words; minor water staining.

 

This fascinating letter by Virginia House of Delegates member John Seddon to U.S. Representative John Letcher concerns the fate of The South, a Richmond newspaper edited by Roger A. Pryor. Seddon hoped to rescue The South from its “pecuniary embarrassments” so that he and Letcher and other disaffected Democrats would have a newspaper to represent them against the Richmond Daily Enquirer, which supported current governor Henry A. Wise (1806-1876).

 

As the Whig Party disintegrated, Virginia Democrats divided internally into factions led by Governor Wise and U.S. Senator Robert M. T. Hunter (1809-1887), both of whom had aspirations for the Presidency in 1860. In 1854, Wise had announced his candidacy without consulting Hunter, and John Letcher refused to support Wise’s campaign. During the late 1850s, Wise began to court the slave-holding eastern portions of Virginia, while Hunter began to appeal to the western areas of the state.

 

The gubernatorial election of 1859 became a test of strength for control of the Virginia Democratic party, a contest “ten times more venomous than if they had a common enemy.” The Wise faction nominated Judge John W. Brockenbrough, a pro-slavery candidate originally from the eastern part of the state, while the Hunter faction supported Congressman John Letcher, who had strong support in the west. In 1847, Letcher had signed a pamphlet calling from the abolition of slavery in Virginia. He soon repudiated that position and defended slavery in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1850s, but his opponents within and outside the Democratic party used the issue to label him an abolitionist.

 

Governor Wise and the Richmond Daily Enquirer supported Brockenbrough and denounced Letcher. On March 28, 1857, journalist Roger A. Pryor began publishing The South, a daily newspaper in Richmond with the motto, “no subserviency but to the rights of the South and the principles of the Democratic party.” The Democratic gubernatorial primary campaign eventually led to bloodshed when O. Jennings Wise, the governor’s son and co-editor of the Enquirer shot pro-Letcher Congressman Sherrard Clemens in a duel. Despite Seddon’s efforts, The South ceased publication on November 19, 1858, six months before the gubernatorial election.

 

At the state Democratic convention at Petersburg in December 1858, Letcher won the nomination, and the Opposition Party hoped they might be able to defeat a divided Democratic party. However, on May 26, 1859, Letcher narrowly defeated the Opposition Party candidate and former Whig William L. Goggin.

 

Despite their differences in the gubernatorial election of 1859, Virginia Democrats rallied to the Confederacy in 1861. Letcher served as the state’s war governor, while Seddon, Pryor, and Wise all led troops as officers in the Confederate army. Hunter served as the Confederate Secretary of State from July 1861 to February 1862, then as a Confederate Senator and president pro tem of the Confederate Senate for the remainder of the war. Even Goggin donned a uniform as captain of the Home Guards for the Confederate army.

 

Excerpts:



“The friends of ‘the South newspaper’ propose raising the sum of $30000. to relieve Pryor of all pecuniary embarrassment incident to its publication. We want your district to subscribe $1000 of the amount.”

 

“I write direct to you because it is a delicate matter in the present state of rivalship between ‘the South’ & ‘Enquirer’ to open the proposition to any but a known friend to our cause. I thought you could with knowledge confide it only to known & firm friends. That part of the State rights party. Gov. Wise for selfish ends, has so distracted the Democracy that division & distrust have taken the place of harmony & confidence.”

 

“it will allow Pryor to devote his whole time & talents to the Editorial department of his paper. I need not enlarge upon the value of his services as an Editor in the present state of parties. They are felt by us al to be invaluable. We must sustain ‘the South’ or be without an organ to defend & enforce the principles of our cause now that the attack is so violent & intrigue is so rife in the factions of the Democracy ‘The South’ is needed as an antidote to the ‘Enquirer.’”

 

“I cannot conclude without assuring you that your interest has not suffered in this section from the cowardly & insidious attacks of the Enquirer. As one of your friends I have no fear of the result. My two counties will be in the convention to cast a unanimous vote for you. It will be a bright day when the present regime passes away. If it ever stands before the public again on trial an awful judgement awaits its active, mischievous head.”

 

 

John Seddon (1826-1863) was born in Fredericksburg, the younger brother of future Confederate Secretary of War James A. Seddon (1815-1880). John Seddon graduated from the University of Virginia and served as a lieutenant in the Mexican War. Returning to Virginia after the war, he married Mary Alexander Little in 1848. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1855 to 1861 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1860. He served as captain and then major in the 1st Virginia Battalion Infantry, from May 1861 to October 1862, when he resigned due to illness. He served in the Virginia legislature until his death in December 1863. In July 1864, the Union navy destroyed Seddon’s home, Snowden, in retribution for the Confederate destruction of U.S. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair’s Maryland home.

 

John Letcher (1813-1884) was born in Lexington, Virginia, and graduated from Washington Academy there. He studied law, gained admission to the bar, and opened a practice in Lexington in 1839. From 1840 to 1850, he edited the Valley Star newspaper.  From 1851 to 1859, he represented Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives. Elected governor in 1859, he served as governor from January 1, 1860 to January 1, 1864. As governor he discouraged secession but led the state out of the Union when the Virginia Secession Convention determined to secede. He appointed Robert E. Lee as commander in chief of Virginia’s army and navy forces in April 1861, but those forces were soon placed under Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s overall command. Defeated for a seat in the Second Confederate Congress, Letcher returned to Lexington, though Union troops had burned his house there. He resumed his law practice in Lexington and served in the Virginia General Assembly from 1875 to 1877.

 

Roger A. Pryor (1828-1919) was born near Petersburg, Virginia and graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1845 and from the University of Virginia law school in 1848. Admitted to the bar in 1849, he abandoned the law because of his ill health. In November 1848, he married Sara Agnes Rice, with whom he had seven children. He worked on newspapers in Virginia in the early 1850s before accepting a diplomatic post to Greece in 1854. When he returned in 1857, Pryor founded The South as a daily newspaper in Richmond. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from December 1859 to March 1861. Known as an eloquent advocate of slavery, states’ rights, and secession, Pryor served as a colonel and then brigadier general in the Confederate army before resigning in 1863. He reenlisted as a private and was captured in November 1864 as a suspected spy. He was released on parole by order of President Lincoln and returned to Virginia. After the war, he moved to New York City, where he opened a law practice and was active in Democratic politics. From 1890 to 1894, he served as judge of the New York Court of Common Pleas, and from 1894 to 1899, as a justice of the New York Supreme Court.

 

 

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