(CONNECTICUT) Andrews Charles B Diary of a future governor

Sale 2432 - Lot 147

Price Realized: $ 750

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Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(CONNECTICUT.) Andrews, Charles B. Diary of a future governor. [368] manuscript pages. 16mo, original cloth, minor wear; internally clean and legible; signed by the author on front free endpaper. Kent, CT, January to December 1862

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Charles Bartlett Andrews (1834-1902) was a Massachusetts native and Amherst graduate who began his law career in Kent, CT in 1861. This diary covers the first full year of his small-town independent practice. Business was generally very slow--he sometimes went an entire week without earning a cent of income, making him less selective about his customers than he wished: "Alden Swift employed me as his general lawyer. I charged him $10, for the old cuss will be in my office half the time, and I had as lief a rutting sow was in here" (11 July). He soon found himself in debt. On 2 July, he noted that "I took a pair of shoes from Austin St. John's store without asking anybody's leave." Though the Civil War was raging at its fiercest, and he sometimes was called upon to administer oaths to recruits, he made little mention of war news. On 22 December he wrote "News of a great change in the cabinet. . . . I have lost most of my interest in public affairs." Being a young man, he did closely follow developments on the proposed draft announced for Connecticut on 5 August, noting with relief four days later that "volunteering is quite successful here, our quota is filled." His social life was recorded with more gusto: "Quite a row in the bar room this evening. One Dwight Hallock got a little rum into him and was full of fight. He was severely handled in the proceeding and taken up stairs by the constable" (3 September). He also recorded his flirtations with several local girls, though he noted on one occasion that he had "no more intention of marrying than of cutting off my right hand" (31 May). After one visit to a young lady, he noted, "I begin to think my conscience is dead" (13 September). On 10 December, he "consulted with Dr. Pratt as to the best remedy for the clap and kindred diseases"--presumably on behalf of a friend. One girl he mentioned frequently was Mary Carter; the two were later married in 1866, and she died 7 months later. Andrews served as governor from 1879 to 1881, and then as the state's chief justice from 1889 to 1901.