Union and Secession

Just as the Civil War was beginning, Samuel Chew and Mary Johnson Brown were planning their wedding. In the following letter to Eliza M. Mason (married to VA Senator James Murray Mason), Samuel Chew laments that the Masons will not be able to attend his marriage. "I expect to be married on the 20th of June. The mails between you and us, I fear, close tomorrow, and I cannot let the last opportunity of asking you to my wedding pass...though I cannot hope to see you on that occasion. Would to God that our unhappy Country could by that time be in such Peace and tranquility as to allow you...to be with me."

Later in the letter, his focus shifts to the national events that separated their family: "The whole country is full of military ardor. The genius of our People changed in four days from a plodding--moneymaking race to warriors.... Would...that we could hope for 'a more perfect Union.' ... It were good for neither section that one should be victorious and the other broken. The Power of the one must be as fatal to itself as would its misfortunes be to the vanquished....God forbid our Nation this Great Calamity." (Samuel Chew to Eliza M. Mason, May 30, 1861)





In a letter earlier in May of 1861, Henry B. Chew recounts the effects of regional conflicts in Maryland:
"I hardly need tell you of the utter impossibility every where existing in the collection of money Either in way of rent or of other debts owing--Such a financial crisis never before existed, and God only knows when it will terminate." This line rings eerily familiar in 2008, as the stock market dips lower and the Great Depression is invoked almost daily.

Given the financial situation, Henry advises his son that the planned wedding should be modest, and their expenditures minimal.

"My mind is relieved by what you say of the time of your wedding + that my suggestions are likely to be carried out, to avoid expenditure of every dollar that can be saved...at this time of such financial embarrassment. We shall with pleasure welcome dear Mary to Epsom and do the best we can under existing circumstances to render her visit a happy one, although I cannot now have the house so re-furbished as I intended....[I]t cannot be expected that we can have any large festive entertainment at Epsom." (May 16, 1861)



In another letter, closer to the wedding date, Henry B. Chew writes again to Samuel about the financial crisis and his thoughts about the upcoming wedding:
"I am confident that Mr. Brown has good sence enough to understand our true position + to appreciate the correctness of my strenuous advice as to our endeavoring to avoid the expenditure of every dollar that can in any decent manner be saved, on account of the universal distress in the pecuniary relations of all...and considering the uncertainty of the period when peace + prosperity will be restored to our land + nation....I also think Mr. Brown will concur with me in saying you + Mary should not have your happiness interfered with or diminished by any possible thought of postponement of your marriage...nor by your being advised to forego the display + expense of such a fashionable + festive marriage as might have been anticipated at any other time." (June 6, 1861)

As I read through these letters, especially in the context of our current financial situation in this country and throughout the world, I am reminded that people have weathered these fears and uncertainties before. While we may need to pare down to the basics, history shows that we can rebound from these difficulties if we remain flexible.

Notes of discontent

Benjamin Chew III, like several of his family members, kept many notes that are difficult to decipher and categorize. It's hard to know where the two notes below fit into the rest of "Bad Ben's" papers or if they may be related in some way. They do share a tone of discontent. Benjamin III seems to have spent much of his time dissatisfied with one (if not many) issues. Often, his discontent was related to family matters, particularly the protracted arguments he had with his brothers and other family over the settlement of his father's estate.

The first note appears to refer to Chew v. Chew, the suit between Benjamin III, Katherine (Banning) Chew, and the other executors of Benjamin Chew, Jr. over the settlement of Benjamin Jr.'s estate. It reads, in part:

8 July 1860

B Chew is before the Court again; the opposite parties let him have no rest. They grasp at every thing - not content with endeavoring to seize all his property they try to get what belongs to the estate of his dead brother... they attempt to pillage the living and plunder the dead.

The second note appears to refer to Civil War tensions. It is unclear whether Benjamin III penned the information contained in this note himself, or if he may have copied it from some other source. The quoted lines at the top come from a passage near the end of Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805), with a slight discprepancy in the first line. A list of "Leaders in Treason" follows, including several politicians who supported secession and the Confederacy. Among them are Benjamin III's brother-in-law James Murray Mason, who was one of Benjamin Jr.'s executors and who worked with his brothers Henry Banning Chew and William White Chew to have him removed as an executor. James Murray Mason served in the United States House of Representative and Senate before the Civil War and in the Confederate government during the war. Others listed are John Slidell, a politician who served in the Louisiana legislature and U.S. House of Representatives and William Yancey, who served in the Alabama and U.S. legislatures. Both men also worked for the Confederate government after secession and Slidell was involved in the Trent Affair with Mason in November 1861.

This note reminds me how directly the Chew family was involved with many of the "movers and shakers" of their time.