David Ross Locke
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and early political commentator during and after the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
Biography
Locke was born in VestalVestal, New York
Vestal is a town within Broome County in the Southern Tier of New York, and lies between the Susquehanna River and the Pennsylvania border. As of the 2000 census, the population was 26,535, estimated to have grown to 27,369 in 2009....
, Broome County, New York
Broome County, New York
Broome County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 200,600. It was named in honor of John Broome, who was lieutenant governor in 1806 when Broome County was established. Its county seat is Binghamton, which is also its major city. The current...
, the son of Nathaniel Reed Locke and Hester Locke. He was apprenticed at age 12 to the newspaper, the Democrat in Cortland County, New York
Cortland County, New York
Cortland County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, named after Federico Van Cortlandt, president of the convention at Kingston that wrote the first New York State Constitution in 1777, and first lieutenant governor of the state. The county seat is Cortland...
. Following a seven-year apprenticeship, he tramped around until his next protracted stay, with the Pittsburgh Chronicle. Around 1855, Locke started, with others, the Plymouth, Ohio
Plymouth, Ohio
Plymouth is a village in Huron and Richland counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 1,852 at the 2000 census.The Richland County portion of Plymouth is part of the Mansfield Metropolitan Statistical Area, while the Huron County portion is part of the Norwalk Micropolitan Statistical...
Herald. On March 20, 1856, became the editor of the Bucyrus Journal. Locke was in Bucyrus
Bucyrus, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 13,224 people, 5,559 households, and 3,552 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,812.0 people per square mile . There were 5,955 housing units at an average density of 816.0 per square mile...
, when the Civil War broke out. During the war, he edited, and wrote for, the Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
newspaper the Toledo Blade, which he later purchased in 1867.
His work
Locke's most famous works, the "Nasby Letters," were written in the character of, and over the signature of "Rev. Petroleum V(esuvius) Nasby," a CopperheadCopperheads (politics)
The Copperheads were a vocal group of Democrats in the Northern United States who opposed the American Civil War, wanting an immediate peace settlement with the Confederates. Republicans started calling anti-war Democrats "Copperheads," likening them to the venomous snake...
and Democrat. They have been described as "The Civil War written in sulphuric acid."
Locke's fictional alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
, Nasby, loudly championed the cause of the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
from Secession onward, but did little to actively help it. After being conscripted into the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
he deserted to the Confederates, joining the fictional "Pelican Brigade." However, he found life in the Confederate Army "tite nippin" and soon deserted again. By the end of the Civil War he was back in civilian life.
The Nasby Letters, although written in the semi-literate spelling used by other humorists of the time, were a sophisticated work of ironic
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
fiction. They were consciously intended to rally support for the Union cause; "Nasby" himself was portrayed as a thoroughly detestable character—a supreme opportunist, bigoted, work-shy, often half-drunk, and willing to say or do anything to get a Postmaster
Postmaster
A postmaster is the head of an individual post office. Postmistress is not used anymore in the United States, as the "master" component of the word refers to a person of authority and has no gender quality...
's job. (Locke's own father had served as Postmaster of Virgil, New York
Virgil, New York
Virgil is a town in Cortland County, New York, United States. The population was 2,287 at the 2000 census. The name is from the Roman poet Virgil...
.) At the time the Letters were written, Postmasterships were political plums, offering a guaranteed federal salary for little or no real work. Until the glorious day when he received a "Post Orfis" from Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
Nasby worked, when he worked, most frequently as a preacher. His favorite Biblical texts, unsurprisingly, were the ones that were used by Southern ministers to "prove" that slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
was ordained by the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
loved the Nasby Letters, and quoted them frequently. He is quoted as saying, "...I intend to tell him if he will communicate his talent to me, I will swap places with him!"
After the Civil War, Nasby went on to comment on Reconstruction. He settled in several different places, most notably "Confedrit X Roads, wich is in the Stait of Kentucky", a fictional town full of idle, whiskey-loving, scrounging ex-Confederates, and a few hard-working, decent folk, who by an amazing coincidence were all strong Republicans. He travelled frequently, sometimes not entirely voluntarily (Nasby's habit of borrowing money he never repaid, and running up tabs at the local saloon
Bar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
often made him unpopular) and continued to comment on the issues of the day.
Locke discontinued the Nasby Letters a few years before his death, since the times had changed and Nasby was no longer topical. While the semi-literate spelling in which they are written has often discouraged modern readers, it can also be seen as a point of characterizing "Nasby."
Several collections of the Letters came out in book form, some illustrated by Thomas Nast
Thomas Nast
Thomas Nast was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist who is considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was the scourge of Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall machine...
, who was a friend and political ally of Locke.
Works by Locke
- The Nasby papers: letters and sermons containing the views on the topics of the day of Petroleum V. Nasby (1864)
- Divers views, opinions, and prophecies of yoors trooly Petroleum V. Nasby (1865)
- Swingin' Round the Cirkle (1866)
- Swingin' Round the Cirkle, or Andy's trip to the West, together with a life of its hero (1866)
- Ekkoes from Kentucky (1867)
- The impendin crisis uv the Dimocracy, bein a breef and concise statement uv the past experience, present condishun and fucher hopes uv the Dimokratic party; incloodin the most prominent reesons why evry Dimokrat who loves his party shood vote for Seemore and Blare, and agin Grant and Colfax (1868)
- http://books.google.com/books?id=0WkFAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=petroleum+%22david+ross+locke%22&ei=K1IQS-TNEJu-zgSr-OnsDA#v=onepage&q=&f=falseThe struggles (social, financial and political) of Petroleum V. Nasby ... embracing his trials and troubles, ups and downs, rejoicings and wailings, likewise his views of men and things; together with the lectures "Cussed be Canaan," "The struggles of a conservative with the woman question, " and "In search of a man of sin" ](1872)
- Eastern fruit on western dishes; The morals of Abou Ben Adhem (1875)
- Inflation at the cross roads being a history of the rise and fall of the Onlimited Trust and Confidence Company of Confedrit X roads, in a series of five letters (1875)
- A Paper City (1878)
- The Democratic John Bunyan being eleven dreams (1880)
- Hannah Jane(1881), a sentimental poem
- Nasby in exile: or, six months of travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel (1882)
- The demagogue, a political novel (1890)
- The Nasby letters. Being the original Nasby letters (1893)
- Petroleum V. Nasby on silver. (1896)
- Civil War Letters of Petroleum V. Nasby, compiled with an introduction by Harvey S. Ford (1962)