Civil War Miscellaneous
1861 Civil War “Calhoun’s Dream of Secession” Poem
April 3, 1861-Dated Civil War Poem, “Calhoun’s Dream of Secession,” from Waverly Magazine, Very Fine.
This period three-page manuscript in brown ink reproduces poetry or music lyrics, copied from The Waverly Magazine by “Charles H. Domingys” in 1861. The manuscript is fastened with metal brackets at the top, features lined paper measuring 12” x 7.5”, with seven stanzas of the poem carefully written on two pages with the last lines and initials on the third page. The pages are generally clean and legible, with very little staining. A typical stanza reads:

“Even his patriotic fire had on its alter died.

And now he’d fain conceive a plan the Union to Divide.

No memory now of days agone his callous feelings stirs,

He Seized his pen to write a word would draw down angel’s tears,

Line after line across the sheet the baneful words were penned,

Till there embodied in his work, he saw disunion stand,

It only needed now his name to end the midnight deed,

And Stamp the mark upon his brow that shows a traitor’s meed...”
The Waverley Magazine was published by Moses A. Dow, of Boston, MA, from 1850 until his death in 1886. Dow published the works of schoolgirls and other young writers; by one account he would print nearly anything that was offered to him free. The magazine enjoyed a wide circulation among young people of scanty education and immature taste in the factory towns of New England and throughout the western states. It continued to appear until 1908.