LETTERS OF GEORGE CALEB BINGHAM 45
LETTERS OF GEORGE CALEB BINGHAM
TO JAMES S. ROLLINS
EDITED BY C. B. ROLLINS
PART V
letters: January 22, 1862—November 21, 1871
Treasurers Office1 Jefferson City Jan. 22. 1862
Maj. J. S. Rollins
My dear Sir
I wrote to you a few days ago, and also to Gen T. L.
Price2 in order to get your combined assistance in procuring
Horace the position of Cadet at West Point. I have just
heard from Horace to day and he seems even more anxious
than I had supposed to obtain the place. I wish you, therefore, to bring all the influence, you can, to bear upon Gen.
Price, so as to induce him to nominate Horace to the Secretary of War for the place to be filled from his District.
I think if Horace obtains the position, it will te a stimulant
to an elevated ambition, which may greatly contribute to
his mental development. If Gen. Price shall have been committed to some one else before my letter reached him, it may
perhaps still be possible to get Horace in, if my impression
be correct that the President may appoint two cadets from
the State at large.
1Bingham was appointed state treasurer by Governor Gamble in 1862
and held office from 1862 to 1865. He made a conspicuously honest and efficient
treasurer. In June, 1861, when Governor Jackson, knowing that Lyon and Blair
were on his heels, fled with a majority of the State officers, the archives of the
State and the State Seal, to Neosho, Newton county, Missouri, the State
was left without an executive. Hamilton R. Gamble, a lifelong Whig and anti-
slavery man, was made provisional governor by the State Convention on
July 31, 1861, and served until his death on January 31, 1864.
2Thomas Lawson Price (1809-1870), railroad builder, congressman. He
established the first stage line between St. Louis and Jefferson City, 1838, and
was the first mayor of Jefferson City (1839-1842). Lieutenant governor during
Austin A. King's administration, brigadier general of volunteers, 1861-1862,
and served in Congress from January, 1862 to March, 1863.
