LETTERS: Dewey-Schuyler Correspondence, with Commonplace Book.
Elisa Schuyler and Orville Dewey
Correspondence 1847-1863
And related material
An archive of correspondence between Elisa Hamilton Shuyler, the granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton, and Orville Dewey (1794-1882), the Unitarian minister and writer, from 1847 through 1863. There are forty-six autograph letters between the friends – 31 from Schuyler to Dewey, and 14 from Dewey to Schuyler. Also included is one letter from Elisa’s husband, George Schuyler, written during his wife’s illness; and one letter from Angelica Hamilton, written after the death of Elisa’s aunt, Mrs. Philip Schuyler; both addressed to Dewey. The Schuyler-Hamilton families became connected though marriage when Alexander Hamilton married General Philip Schuyler’s daughter, Elizabeth.
The letters are written on various kinds of stationery or plain paper, often several pages in length, creased to fit into an envelope, or have the rusted imprint of a paperclip in the left-hand corner. Schuyler and Dewey faithfully dated their letters and indicated the towns they were writing from; over the course of their correspondence each wrote from several locations. Typed transcriptions accompany the majority of the letters. Dewey’s letter from December 22, 1862, includes a small newspaper clipping regarding the death of Joseph Bridgham Curtis at the Battle of Fredericksburgh.
Boxed together with:
Schuyler, Elisa. Commonplace Book of Elisa Hamilton Schuyler. N.p [New York] 1833-1857.
8vo.; first leaf chipped at upper right corner; plain wrappers, partially bound with string; several leaves disbound; holograph in ink, recto and verso; annotations in red and blue pencil throughout; edgeworn.
Schuyler’s commonplace book, containing biblical history and interpretation; American Indian vocabulary; lists of books to read, Italian poetry; French quotations from Albertine Necker de Saussure’s L’Education Progressive on women’s education; American history, politics, and religion (including her thoughts on sermons preached by Dewey and others); and her family history – especially regarding Aaron Burr, who killed her grandfather – and childhood memories.
Boxed together with:
Dewey, Orville. An Address Delivered Under the Old Elm Tree in Sheffield. With some remarks on the great political question of the day. New York: C.S. Francis & Co., 1856.
8vo.; plain wrappers, sewn; printed in black; covers spotted and slightly browned; creased.
First edition of this anti-slavery tract. A presentation copy, inscribed in pencil on the title page to Schuyler: With kind regards from O.D. Below this inscription is Schuyler’s signature, in ink.
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Schuyler and Dewey’s correspondence begins in 1847, but it is clear from their informal tone that they had long been acquainted; in fact, Dewey’s first letter begins, “Friend Elisa” (October 17, 1847), and refers to an elder “Mrs. Schuyler” in it, Elisa’s aunt, Mrs. Philip Schuyler. Both correspondents write affectionate, lively and intelligent letters, in which they discuss a range of topics including personal feelings and updates, gossip, current events, politics and religion, and plans to get together. It is remarkable that their letters are deeply intellectual, and their exchange of ideas is probing and analytical, especially in the letters regarding politics, slavery, religion and spiritualism.
On politics and slavery:
Shuyler and Dewey frequently discuss current events, especially the interconnectedness of politics, slavery and religion. Schuyler writes;
You know how little I sympathize with the idea of emancipation in the present condition of the black race; therefore the present desperate excitement and outrages of the slave power, with the united front and manly but conservative resistance of the North, give me the first promise of a way of escape in the future. It is idle to speak of this as a temporary excitement. Everyone will submit after the election, be it what it may – but the slave has too much life to yield without another struggle, and the North is now standing upon the real foundation of our national existence – the worth of man and individual freedom. Where is the large man for this present noble conflict? The man of religious faith and trust in God and his works, which this Union has yet to do, and can only do by being true to its principles. I do not fear for the Union while the North is noble, nor while the South has slaves. (August 19, 1856)
It appears that this letter responds to Dewey’s Address (1856), or perhaps provoked him to send it. Dewey vehemently chastises the slave system, declaring that if he had “influence and power” he would tell Southerners: “You are in the wrong; you certainly are in the wrong; your judgment is wrong, your course is wrong; the moment you left the toleration for the espousal of this system of human slavery, you lost the sympathy of all men; you cannot legitimate the system to our human conscience and feeling; you cannot make it honored and praiseworthy to buy and sell men; no no, you cannot; the whole civilized world is against you” (Address, 21). In an 1855 letter to Schuyler, he recounts an episode he witnessed in Wilmington that affected him greatly: “as for the ‘peculiar instituion’ here, what can one see in a few days that will help him at all to judge? I saw at Wilmington a young slave carried along a board, and said to a by-stander, ‘What is the matter?’ ‘I don’t know,’ was the reply, ‘his eyes look too pert to be sick.’ And sure enough, he was a fugitive slave, caught and brought back, and who had cut his throat. His eyes were bright indeed, and so were mine, I guess.”
Dewey served as a Unitarian pastor in towns in Massachusetts, Albany, N.Y. and Washington D.C.; he also worked on behalf of the poor, and opposed both slavery and abolitionism. His collected works were published in three volumes in 1847.
On the Civil War:
In the later letters, Schuyler and Dewey frequently talk about the War; Philip Schuyler, her brother, was First Lieutenant in the 14th regiment under Colonel Stone. In a letter from June 21, 1861, she writes with astonishing insight:
Happily we scarcely know what we have undertaken in this struggle for the Union; the magnitude of the contest is hidden from those who are clamorous for men enough to end the war in six months. Who would have believed that we should see, on our soil, the desperate resistance of an aristocracy, brace and reckless enough to ruin their country, in defense of their privileges. For this, in S[outh] C[arolina] is now their avowed and acknowledged position. They intend to rule as an oligarchy. The young men go into the Army as a profession, “For through the army in their future government is the road to power and place”. The true and natural instinct of a slaveholding community is for a strong government. They require it, strange enough, not for protection against their slaves, but against the lawlessness and putrage of the lower white class.
A letter from Dewey, two years later, shares the same astuteness and strong anti-war opinions as Schuyler’s:
But I don’t feel satisfied with Banks’ assaulting Port Hudson as he did on the 27th. I can’t agree to driving Infantry upon batteries in that way. It availed nothing. Charles says he felt that it did not, and could not, avail, as he stood under that fire thru’ hours, within (he tho’t) a hundred yards; it seemed to him a miracle that they were not all killed; 33 per cent of their Regiment, he says, were killed or wounded….It seems to me that our affairs were never at such a crisis before, at once of difficulty and hope. And what are we to think of the slowness of the Pennsylvanians? And what is Hooker about? What does it mean that he should let the army slip by him, and cross the Patomac undisturbed? Still I hope for a favorable result. (June 29, 1863).
Schuyler’s next letter to Dewey, sent a little over a week later, begins, “We have been screaming ourselves hoarse over the victories – what a relief!” (July 10, 1863).
The rest of Dewey and Schuyler’s letters about the Civil War show how aware, opinionated and affected they were about the events surrounding it. Before the War started, Schuyler wrote to Dewey with an account of tensions brewing in the South, explaining that Southerners feared agitation among their slaves, which was caused by the Abolitionists. She writes that she hoped the South would succeed peacefully, but added that people in Kentucky, for example, were determined to stay in the Union. Later, only twelve days after Fort Sumter was shelled, Schuyler writes Dewey to inform him that General Wool’s headquarters had been established in her town, and her husband and her brother had been appointed as aides. She realizes from that early date that the war will test American’s limits: “we scarcely know what we have undertaken in this struggle for the Union; the magnitude of the contest is hidden from those who are clamorous for men enough to end the war in six months” (April 24, 1861).
On December 19, 1862, Schuyler informs Dewey that a family friend of hers was shot dead while he was mounted on his horse, and includes a newspaper clipping announcing the death. Dewey responds by likening death to releasing prisoners, and criticizes how affected citizens are by winning and losing: “How completely we are turned about by successes and failure! If the assault had succeeded, then nothing but praise” (December 22, 1862).
On June 15, 1863, Schuyler also writes about the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry; another family friends, Susie Shaw, updated her with news about her brother Robert in Hilton Head – Colonel Robert Gould Shaw – who led this all-black regiment. Schuyler wrote about Shaw’s satisfaction with his regiment; alas, he was killed soon after this letter was written during an attack on Fort Wagner in South Carolina. She also writes about the French influence in the South and how she thinks a French occupation there would improve the situation regarding slavery: “It puts a stronger barrier than any force of ours against filibustering or the introduction of slave labor there…the last resort of the Southern Army and Slavocracy” (June 29, 1863). On this point, however, Dewey disagrees with her: “I don’t want any Napoleonic ideas here.”
On religion:
When Dewey was in college at Williams he had a religious awakening that inspired him to become a preacher; he later enrolled at the Andover Theological Seminary. He was influenced by the Unitarian teachings of William Ellery Channing, and soon after leaving Andover he was appointed Channing’s assistant at the Federal Street Church in Boston. His sermons and writings were popular, and thoughts on Unitarianism often surfaced in his correspondence with Schuyler. In reference to clergyman Henry Bellows:
But tho’ extremists may do good to the general cause, they don’t do good to themselves, and for myself I want, – for my mind’s healthiness, I want – whole truths and not fractions. I want the true view of the present age; of mental liberty – Protestantism – Unitarianism – the foremost stride in this great world movement; but the “Discourse” does not give the whole and true view. This Bellows knows, and intimates as much. Why then not say – “The movement of free Christendom for these three centuries, as in the order of time, it is the last, so in the order of ideas and tendencies it is the grandest that the world has ever seen; that I admit; but there are dangers, and these I wish to point out.” Then he would have carried us all along with him. Now, I think, he hurts his own cause – i.e. the reaction he desires to see from ultra-protestant tendencies. (September 14, 1859)
Schuyler is often philosophic about life and death and how they relate to religion: “I want you to write to me what you have been thinking about Life, -- not this Life, or the future life, -- but Life in itself…independent of time or place, of life or death…What a dim & faint shadow must our derived life be of that original self existence which we can only conceive of in rare flashes of consciousness; for dreamy abstractions & self-negation never bring me so fully into the Presence, as the fullness of a Personal lilfe, -- in the sense of active and [ ] thoughts, feelings, interests, & hopes” (September 27, 1857).
On spirits:
Schuyler expresses an interest in hearing Dewey’s upcoming lectures: “I am very glad to hear of your lectures and of the subject of them. You have of late given your thoughts so much more to the application of Christianity than to its facts, that it is well to strike Mother Earth against and to rise stronger and fresher. I want to see what you have said very much. All this excitement and eagerness after spiritual insight, should be met by facts of Christianity, and I hope you are looking into these matters.” She continues by relating an experience she had with a spiritual medium:
The communications, in the shape of written prayers or sermons, (one may call them) were of a different character. Those I have heard were devotional, poetical, Unitarian in their views, and formed upon Swedenborg’s ideas and writings – but so commonplace that it is difficult to keep your countenance when your friend asks you to wonder at this message from the unseen world. However, we have seen in our own rooms, our heavy dining table move round under our fingers, while we all sat perfectly still; – and the same table, a very heavy one, with Louisa and George on top of it, lifted up on one side, so that George, who was under the table, put two pamphlets under one of the legs…I suppose this is an old story to you; it was to me too, but I did not believe it, then, – now I do, and it is very interesting and engrossing. What is all this? Why should matter obey some weak, sickly, or young organization, without reference to any spiritual endowments, or even strong will? Are scientific men looking into it at Washington? (February 5, 1853)
Dewey relates a similar experience in his response, but takes a skeptical view: “I have witnessed here the same astonishing things that you have, with regard to tables. I declare I could about as easily believe that spirits moved them as anything else. As it is, I am just bemazed, and believe nothing. Would it not startle you if a spirit should say to you, ‘Eliza, I have found myself!’ Oh! that one clouded, doubting spirit could speak to us?” (February 14, 1853). Schuyler also connects the spiritual world with the technological one:
The Atlantic Telegraph!...Is this not a great day to live, to see the old and the new world joined together according to God’s laws, and following out, step by step, His teachings. Thinking of it spiritually, may we not feel it to be one of those great days to our race, too full of meaning to be comprehended by us. We cannot trace it, but this common, quick, human pulse of heart, will, and thought throbbing us under the ocean, between two continents, is too significant of God’s will and purpose, to be frustrated or long delayed. (August 6, 1858)
Schuyler on her aunt’s health:
Schuyler was occupied for many months with the care of her invalid aunt, which she tells Dewey about in several communications. He, clearly, had knowledge of Schuyler’s aunt and helped his friend get through a stressful period with words of spiritual encouragement. Schuyler writes of her distress:
I had no conceptions of the trials of chronic disease, or its severe discipline. With acute illness, one is entirely withdrawn from life and there is no conflict, – but to be only on the outer circle within which every one else is so lustily treading, to have almost every source of pleasure changed to weariness, one can scarcely tell why, and see no end of sleepless night and restless days, – I do not know of any affliction from God which weighs so heavily on the sufferer. (September 4, 1851)
We are watching and waiting here, – grateful that there is no pain or suffering now, and I think scarcely a consciousness of discomfort. Lethargy is creeping over her brain, and there is no longer any intercourse possible, beyond that of recognition and an occasional expression of satisfaction, or that she is “comfortable”. I never understood before now how entirely, even now, we are united through our spirits – that our intercourse is spiritual while in this body to an extent we do not realize in health. (March 8, 1852)
Dewey’s consolation:
I am writing you, dear friend – (such sad hours take holy privileges) far after midnight – having risen from a sleepless bed, and it seems as if it were a fit time to write to you in your sad and solemn watch, – a time covered with earthly shadows, but drawing on to the breaking of day. I often think of what immense interest hereafter will be the retrospect of this life; and of nothing, I believe, shall we have a more tender memory, – of nothing shall we commune together with a sublimer joy, than our sorrows, – and above all such sorrows as you are now experiencing. (March 23, 1852)
From the same letter, Dewey on Margaret Fuller whose life he was reading:
The life of Margaret Fuller is indeed a very touching story, one of a sort of tragic interest. Reading it amidst these Washington scenes, I could not help thinking of the extreme of existence at which her life experience lay. She and her friends plunging into the depths of the soul – seeking after spiritual development – sorrowing or rejoicing over the relations of heart to heart; while here, all thought and interest and anxiety are turned to a visible and outward empire: there are all subjective and transcendental here all objective and materialistic: here, “who shall be President” is the question. There, “What is wisdom?”
In closing, Dewey adds a postscript: “Louisa says I have not properly answered your question. What I said in the sermon you probably refer to, was that the South was so involved with Slavery that it could not immediately extricate itself; but that, in the meantime, it should do its duty. But I please nobody, unless it be ‘the fit and the few’. The Anti-Slavery people, Man, Hale, Sumner, etc. avoid the Church as they would a pestilence.” Louisa was Dewey’s wife, whom he married in 1820. Other letters are more lighthearted and gossipy, and are about mutual friends, travel and other personal updates.
The Schuyler-Dewey correspondence ends abruptly on November 26, 1863; the last letter in the collection is written by Schuyler’s husband, George, to Dewey, explaining that his wife had been felled by an illness that left her too weak to tend to her own correspondence; she died soon after.
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David M. Robinson. "Dewey, Orville"; http://www.anb.org/articles/08/08-00376.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.
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