Month Ca/iotuuL State. A nchivei,
RateZgh, Month
Сало
Zina
Mf .P.265
Collection: SAMUEL HERVEY LAUGHLIN "DIARY"
1845
P.C
Physical Description: manuscript volume, bound in full leather, 181 pages,
octavo size.
Acquisition: Loaned for microfilming by Janet (Mrs. John E.) Tidwell of
Cary, N.C., July, 1989; original owned by Anabel Easley Tidwell of Tennessee.
A transcribed copy of the "diary", given by Janet Malone Tidwell of Cary, N.C.,
is shelved with the biographies/autobiographies and is available on the Search
Room bookshelves.
Description: Samuel Hervey Laugh lin of Tennessee (1796-1850) was an active
Democrat in Tennessee and national politics, editor of the Nashville Union
(sponsored by James K. Polk, Felix Grundy, John Catron, and others) from
1835 to 1837, senator in the Tennessee General Assembly from 1839 to 1845,
and an assiduous campaigner for the election of James 1C. Polk to the presidency
of the United States. Upon Polk's inauguration, Laughlin traveled to
Washington with Polk in expectation of appointment to an office in Polk's
administration. He was rewarded with the office of recorder in the General
Land Office.
Laughlin was an experienced diarist, having kept several during various
trips to Washington , to National Democratic Conventions, during sessions of-
the Tennessee General Assembly, and while journeying from Nashville to Wash¬
ington with President Polk. Upon arrival in Washington, he planned a new
diary, "the Introduction to which is a fair and compendious account of my life,
my family, connexions and adventures. A large portion of the book is taken
up with this autobiography. I intend, in that book, and one like it to be
marked No. 2, to take up my Diary on 1st May 1845, and continue it at least
while I remain in Washington. 1st May is my birthday." Whether or not
Laughlin continued his plan and prepared the second volume is uncertain, but
a search for such a continuation in 1916 failed to produce the second volume
containing the Washington journal part of the diary. All that survives of
this projected set is the first volume, bearing the title.:.
A Diary of Public events, and Notices of my Life and family —
and of my private transactions . . . from January 1st 1845
to _ _ , and Sketch of my. Life from Infancy,
by Samuel Hervey Laughlin.
