December 11, 1861 (Tuesday): "...Our Rulers Are Crazy"

Major General Samuel R. Curtis

                                        SAINT LOUIS, December 11, 1861.

General S. R. CURTIS.

   DEAR SIR:  As an honest man I would seriously object to taking this oath because that every man that takes it can’t avoid perjury for he can’t support the Government and uphold and sustain the Constitution at the same time.

   It does appear to me an unsophisticated individual that our rulers are crazy, and you among the rest if this oath is prescribed by you.  You all seem to overlook several facts that are apparent to all the world.  First of them though not least is that there no longer exists any union of all the States and that there is really less Union feeling in the hearts of the Northern people than in the Southern people.  The next and still more prominent fact is that it is impossible to perpetuate or create a union by force.  Union don’t mean war and war don’t mean union.  The more war the less union.  But why reason with crazy men?

NAOMI.

[Inclosure]

Official Records, Series Series II., Vol. 2, Part 1, Page 149.

Curtis was in charge of a camp of instruction in Saint Louis and later would command the Department of Missouri.  At this point in the war in Missouri it was difficult to tell friend from foe, and loyalty oaths were often administered to sort the question out.  At this distance it is difficult to tell whether the writer is a wit, or in his words "an unsophisticated individual" with a gift for turning a phrase.