Trying to get an image of the times

What was the United States like in 1857? In 1857 James Buchanan was president. There was a Democratic majority in the House and in the Senate. In March of 1857, there was a ruling by the Supreme Court (Dred Scott vs. Sanford) that any people brought to the U.S. as slaves and their descendants, whether they were slaves or not, could not become an American citizen. This decision was overruled by the 14th amendment by a case in 1873.
In 1857, there was an economic panic. This was begun by the failure of New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Co. Grain prices plunged and manufactured goods piled up in warehouses. Also, at this time, a ship carrying 30,000 pounds of gold that was on its way to the San Francisco mint sunk. An economic depression which lasted until 1858 enveloped our country. On December 8, 1857 James Buchanan gave his State of the Union Address in which he states, “In the midst of unsurpassed plenty in all the productions of agriculture and in all the elements of national wealth, we find our manufactures suspended, our public works retarded, our private enterprises of different kinds abandoned, and thousands of useful laborers thrown out of employment and reduced to want. The revenue of the Government, which is chiefly derived from duties on imports from abroad, has been greatly reduced, whilst the appropriations made by Congress at its last session for the current fiscal year are very large in amount.”
There were 31 States in the U. S. These states had not yet joined the Union: Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii. Many of you reading this blog will remember when Alaska and Hawaii entered the Union in 1959.
In 1857, John O’Donnell was stationed at Fort Davis, TX. Fort Davis was a supply post and a communications link with San Antonio. It was their duty to protect the travelers from the Apaches and Comanches. I wonder what it was like living in the desert in those years.
”In 1857 James Birch won a Federal contract for carrying the mail between San Antonio and San Diego, Calif. At first using wagons, the company soon had coaches providing semimonthly service to the Pacific.” [http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hh/38/hh38f.htm]
Fort Davis will be my first military post to visit. John O’Donnell was station there in 1857. The other posts that I will be visiting will be: Ft. Laramie (WY), Ft. Sedgwick (Julesberg, CO), Ft. Fetterman (Douglas, WY), and Ft. Fred Steele (Rawlins, WY).
It’s now 17 days and counting!