Letter from Erastus Wright to Benjamin Franklin Butler, February 27, 1864
From Erastus Wright
Springfield, Illinois, 27th Feb. 1864
Maj. Gen. Butler
I am the man who, meditating on the bed, rose in the night, struck a light, and wrote you a long letter at the time you relieved suffering humanity at Old Point C., and honored God, who, according to the Book, says "that them that honor Me, I will honor." Hence not only your valuable life is continued, but the whole Nation has you in reverence and deserved honor. Your kind and noble heart responded at once, and then again 3 months after, many who saw it eulogized the sentiments contained.
In letting it pass under the eye of friends, it got lost or mislaid. It was appreciated by all, both Saints and Sinners. I felt the loss as I desired your autograph. Can I presume on your patience for a short letter?
My old neighbor "Honest Abe" knows all about me, for I am 65 past, 42 of which in this place (Springfield). A frail, erring man, raised a farmer, yet I love and fear God, and love His precious word, from which I always take my platform.
The 7th Chapter of Joshua will explain the long "Spell" on the army of the Potomac. We have the Achan at Washington, with all the men and means desired now 3 years, they cannot get a victory. Why are there not wise men enough to search the cause? A concise point.
"There is an accursed thing in the midst of Israel. Thou canst not stand before thine enemies until ye take away the accursed thing from among you."
Joshua feared God and obeyed Him. If Mr. Lincoln would do likewise, the smiles of Heaven would rest upon us within a month, and success attend all our movements. Did you know, General, that a certain head man at Washington sympathies were so strong towards the Rebels, that when in St. Louis he gave an old rebel a pass to take his "truck and plunder" through his lines down into Arkansas, together with 15 slaves; was this aiding Lincoln or Jeff Davis? This Nation is bleeding, and it is just, and ought to bleed, and will bleed until we put away the accursed thing. With my knowledge of the Will of God and His Holy Word, I would quickly cast overboard
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Halleck, Blair, Bates, and Seward, any or all who has sympathies with slavery.
The whole system is of the D--1. It certainly is antagonistic to the Spirit of Christ. The magnitude of the crime is indicated by the penalty. What is the penalty in America? Let the graves of half a million, the widows and orphans answer.
Dear General, did you know the secret of your late failure towards Richmond? Who inclined a spy to go ahead; who was slow to give any aid; who gave a cold apparently indifferent answer to your solicitations? General, a wise man searches out causes for all events. The whole system is opposed to the will of the Almighty, "Who is no respecter of persons," how can He consistently bless or approve? The case is clearly an issue with the Great God, our maker. Oh what presumption for puny man! Another abomination is the paying for slaves, to the man who has robbed him of 10 or 20 years wage already.
God's will is clearly expressed in the case of Pharaoh, a case in point. Take from the slave dealer or oppressor and give to the oppressed; see Exodus 12; 32, 35, 36, and 37 verses. This is God's will and this is justice. Paying a robber is Judas-like, a wicked precedent, an impeachment of the Divine Law, an abomination not found in the Bible of the most Godless Nation known.
Again, the Doctrine of "State Rights," is another "Humbug." As if a Corporation Law could over ride the State Law, the Constitution of the U. S., which Constitution was ordained to establish justice, and carries out the principal of the Dec. of Ind. It is consistent with itself if fairly interpreted and Legal construction given it. It is all right now.
The foundations of our Government are laid no firmer than the foundations of Justice and Humanity. And the Doctrine of "State Rights," to enslave its own citizens, is preposterous and one to be ignored by every American Citizen. The loyalty of Border State men that make Slavery paramount to the Government is a loyalty this Nation can better spare than keep. No peace until the magic word "Universal Emancipation" is uttered. So may be it. Amen.
Dear General, be so kind as to drop me a line to keep with my old friend Abraham's.
Yours truly, Erastus Wright
N. B. When this war is over, General, please take a trip out "to the Great West," to this richest part of the world, and come to my house and stay a week at least; see old Abe's stamping
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ground, and our noble Gov. Yates, who has the honor and credit of being the first Gov. who petitioned for Universal Emancipation. E. W.
Letter from Erastus Wright to Benjamin Franklin Butler, September 4, 1864
Springfield, Illinois, Sept. 4th, 1864
Dear Sir: Allow me to suggest a thought touching this long, protracted, and bloody war. The great wickedness of this nation has been, and is today Slavery. The plague is in the hearts of the people. The leprosy is there. The curse is not removed. The nation has got to put away the Achans. The 7th chapter of Joshua might be read as easy as to make 50 Parrott guns, and if heeded, would be ten times more efficient. If one Achan put a "spell" on the whole Army of Israel, God's chosen people, and with Joshua, a Godly man, as commander, what might we expect from a score of Achans not alone in the army but some in the Cabinet. I had a talk recently with my old neighbor Father Abraham. I stand by him yet, although many of his best friends have their feelings alienated and wounded by his sympathy with slavery, as though there was any goodness in so Godless a wretch as a slaveholder. The curse has to be put away; and, dear Genl., I say again, put away the accursed thing or we ought to bleed. Yea! the Nation ought to be destroyed. We have joined issue with God, our Maker. The colored man is a human being, and is as precious in the sight of God
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as you and I, has a right to his wife and children as much as Mr. Lincoln, or his Godless master that has robbed him not only of wages his whole life, but the children and wife that God gave him. Dear General, if "God is no respector of persons," what penalty would be justly due the nation or the inhuman monster that would do to your family or Gen. Grant's as we have to the friendless, crushed slave? The crime of the horse thief, the highway robber, is nothing to the crime of robbing you of an immortal soul that God gave you, no comparison.
We are bleeding as we richly deserve until we put away the Hellish thing and every sympathiser. There is no property in man.
Talk of compensating so Godless a wretch as a slave monger! It is an abomination. Since the move in Congress to that end, I laid the case before my God, and ardently desired its frustration. I wrote to many members who I am persuaded understand more of Law than Gospel, that the Divine Mind is clearly expressed in a case in point in Exodus 12th, 34 to 37. Where God directed the Children of Israel (slaves) to borrow of the Egyptians (masters) their jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment, which they did, and Spoiled the Egyptians (masters) as all the slaveholders in America ought to be spoiled, for God knew they ought not and never would return them. This is God's rule, and this is Justice. Away with Compensation; away with the thought of property in man. Cast overboard every slaveholder or sympathiser with the Hellish System, whether in the cabinet or in Command in the army. The nation would be a hundred per cent stronger without them than with them. Halleck, Blair, Scofield, and I could name several in the cabinet. I solemnly believe it would be a God-send if they could be removed.
I have, a number of times, heard it urged against volunteering. They object because of sympathisers with a system that God will curse, being kept in command.
Every reading man knows it is a Damning Sin -- hence it is repulsive to his feelings and against enlistment.
The change of commanders, McClellan or Fremont for Lincoln, will not alter the result: the Stain is in the heart of the Nation, and has got to be burnt out, until we shall not only be willing to "let the oppressed go free," but to define and plead their cause, not treat them with contempt like this skin-deep Christianity for the last 30 years; neither treat
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them as cotton bales as Gillmore is reported to have done at Fort Sumpter and brought disaster. Did not God see half that Regt. slaughtered, raw troops put in front? Sumpter is not taken yet. And let me say, dear General, as I keep the record a little, in every instance for the last 3½ years of this Day of Penalty, where kindness and mercy have been shown toward the Slaves, God's favor has been manifested, and in every instance of inhumanity His wrath. Is one of those slaves to blame for this Judgment of the Almighty: if not, let him be released and defended.
In the last 30 years, many in agony and torment have said in the words of the Prophet, "The Lord look upon it, and require it." The magnitude of the crime is indicated by the Penalty.
If our penalty is not enough, let us hold on to the accursed thing a while longer. General, in yours to me in 1861, dated at Old Point Comfort, many were the high commendations of those who perused it. Can I ask the favor of a short answer. Also that this letter may pass under the eye of Lt. Gen. Grant, whose interesting good Lady and family I had the pleasure of travelling with up from Cairo just after the battle of Fort Donaldson.
Yours truly, Erastus Wright
This letter, you say, too long for a Major General in command. I say, too much blood for slavery, slavery, slavery. Pleading for God's poor as he requires is honoring God, and God says, "them that honor me, I will honor." Hence the success of our noble General Butler.
I profess to be a Bible man, and am satisfied, if slavery is not entirely put away, this nation will be destroyed. It is a damning sin as high as Heaven and deep as Hell. If God has heard the cry of the poor and come for deliverance, who shall hinder. Remember old Pharaoh, whose track we are following, was Pharaoh, and all his host turned into Hell, not a man escaped. If his slavery (for he never took wife or child), mild as it was, received the penalty of death, what misery and torment has this whole Nation merited for that same sin in superlative degree? All written "For our instruction." E. W.