The political tension of Lincoln's administration is reflected in the correspondence from White's old school friends, members of his family in Syracuse and other educators. Kept from his classroom by poor health in the fall of 1862, White sailed with his wife for England, in an effort to divert political support from the Confederacy to the Union. Publication in the United States of his letters to the American correspondent of the London Times, Sir William Howard Russell, led to White's election as state senator from New York's 22nd District. In a letter to Gerrit Smith on September 1, 1862, White detailed many of his thoughts on an ideal university. There was also a continuing flow of letters from members of the Michigan faculty and a number from former students, written on Civil War battlefields. Some writers in this period were George William Curtis, Davies, Fisher, Gilman, Wayne MacVeagh, William Osborn Stoddard, Tiffany and Anson Judd Upson.