CABINET  CHANGES. 
Americans  impudently  and  dishonestly  arro- 
gated to  themselves  the  title  of  unconditional 
loyalty,  when  the  whole  spirit  of  their  faction 
was  contempt  of  and  opposition  to  the  law. 
"While  the  present  state  of  things  continues  in 
Missouri  there  is  no  need  of  a  court ;  so  says 
Judge  Treat,  and  I  agree  with  him."  Consid- 
ering the  subject  of  a  successor  to  Mr.  Hates, 
the  President,  his  mind  still  hampered  by  the 
consideration  of  locality,  weighed  for  several 
days  the  names  of  all  the  leading  men  of  Mis- 
souri who  were  in  any  way  fitted  for  the  place, 
but  found  good  reasons  for  rejecting  them  all. 
One  of  his  secretaries  said  to  him,  "  Why  con- 
fine yourself  to  Missouri  ?  Why  not  go  to  the 
adjoining  State  and  take  Judge  Holt  ?  "  The 
President  looked  up  with  some  surprise  and  said : 
"  Why,  that  would  be  an  excellent  appointment. 
I.  question  if  I  could  do  better.  I  had  always 
intended,  though  I  had  never  mentioned  it  to 
any  one,  that  if  a  vacancy  should  occur  on 
the  Supreme  Bench  in  any  Southern  district  I 
would  appoint  him ;  but  giving  him  a  place 
in  the  Cabinet  would  not  hinder  that." 
Mr.  Bates  tendered  his  resignation  at  last  on 
the  24th  of  November. 
Heretofore  [he  said],  it  has  not  been  compatible 
with  my  ideas  of  duty  to  the  public  and  fidelity  to 
you  to  leave  my  post  of  service  for  any  private 
considerations,  however  urgent.  Then  the  fate  of 
the  nation  hung  in  doubt  and  gloom  ;  even  your 
own  fate,  as  identified  with  that  of  the  nation,  was 
a  source  of  much  anxiety.  Now,  on  the  contrary,  the 
affairs  of  the  Government  display  a  brighter  aspect; 
and  to  you,  as  head  and  leader  of  the  Government, 
all  the  honor  and  good  fortune  that  we  hoped  for 
has  come.  And  it  seems  to  me,  under  these  altered 
circumstances,  that  the  time  has  come  when  I  may, 
without  dereliction  of  duty,  ask  leave  to  retire  to 
private  life.  In  tendering  the  resignation  of  my 
office  of  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States 
(which  I  now  do)  I  gladly  seize  the  occasion  to  re- 
peat the  expression  of  my  gratitude,  not  only  for 
your  good  opinion  which  led  to  my  appointment, 
but  also  for  your  uniform  and  unvarying  courtesy 
and  kindness  during  the  whole  time  in  which  we 
have  been  associated  in  the  public  service.  The 
memory  of  that  kindness  and  personal  favor  I  shall 
bear  with  me  into  private  life,  and  hope  to  retain  it 
in  my  heart  as  long  as  I  live.  Pray  let  my  resig- 
nation take  effect  on  the  last  day  of  November. 
A  few  days  before  the  end  of  November  the 
President  offered  the  place  of  Attorney- General 
to  Joseph  Holt j  but  Mr.  Holt,  with  that  mod- 
esty and  conscientiousness  which  formed  the 
most  striking  trait  of  his  noble  character,  be- 
lieved that  the  length  of  time  which  had  elapsed 
since  he  had  retired  from  active  service  at  the 
bar  had  rendered  him  unfit  for  the  preparation 
and  presentation  of  cases  in  an  adequate  man- 
ner before  the  Supreme  Court,  and  therefore 
declined  the  appointment.    The  President  was 
not  at.  first  Inclined 
reason  for  declination ;  b  it  on   the 
November   Mr.    Holt  ..ally 
reiter.-itin 
After  the  mo  ij  1  have 
not  been  ab 
to  at  our  last  in1  ^inclined 
me  to  accept,  a  1  they  must  now 
spectfully  to  decline,  the appointmei 
terms  at  once  50 
ment.    In  view  of  all  the 
fied  that  I  can  serve  you  better  in  the  position  which 
I  now  hold  at  your  h 
one  to  which  I  have  been  invited.    I  I... 
this  conclusion  with  -luctance  an 
but  having  readied  it,an  1  with 
no  other  course  is  open  to  me  than  that  which  has 
been  taken.  I  beg  you  will  be  issuredthat  lam 
shall  ever   be  most  grateful  for  this  distingui 
token  of  your  confidence  and  good-will.    In  it  I  can- 
not fail  to  find   renewed  -hful 
and  zealous  performance  of  the                  ities  with 
which  you  have  already  charge  1  me. 
Failing  to  secure  Mr.  Holt,  the  mind  of  the 
President  turned  naturally  enough  to  another 
Kentuckian,  Mr.  Jame     3  and 
accomplished  lawyer,  a  man  of  high  profes- 
sional and  social  standing  in  his  S  I  the 
brother  of  the   most  intimate  friend   of  the 
President's  youth,  Joshua  F.  Speed.    Mr.  I 
warmly  recommended  Mr.  Speed.    He  said: 
I  can  recall  no  public  man  in  the  State,  of  un- 
compromising loyalty,  who  unites  in  the  sam 
gree  the  qualifications  of  professional  attainmc 
fervent  devotion  to  the  Union  and  to  the  principles 
of  your  administration,  and  spotless  pu: 
sonal  character.    To  these  he  ad   —  V>uld 
deem  indispensable — a  warm  ana  h  .ship 
for  yourself,  personally  and  officially. 
Soon  after  the  opening  of  the  new  year  Mr. 
Fessenden  was  again  elected  to  the  Senate  :: 
Maine,  and  resigned  his  off:  -  y  o\ 
the  Treasury.    In  his  letter  mation  he 
said: 
I  carry  with  me  great  a 
your  personal  character  at  policy  v. 
has  marked  your  admin ist  lent 
at  a  period  requiring  the  m  si 
and  the  highest  intellectual 
a  place  so  "exalted  as  yours.  All 
gratulate  you  upon  the  greatly 
our  national  affairs,  to  which,  . 
result  of  our  prolonged  si  gg 
now,  as  I  sincerely  belie\  - .  5  one 
can    claim   to   have  so  lai  -   the 
chosen  Chief  Magistral  pie. 
The  place  thus  vacated  i 
wide  and  spirited  compe  recommenda- 
tions. The  principal  bankers  -    joined 
in  recommending  Hugh  McCulloch  of  In- 
diana, who  had  made  a  rem  able 
official  record  as  Comptroller  of  the  Cum
692 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
in  the  supervision  of  the  national  banks  ;  Gov- 
ernor Morgan  was  strongly  presented  by  nearly 
the  entire  State  of  New  York,  though  a  few  of 
the  so-called  radicals  of  that  State  joined  with 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  New  England 
in  recommending  Governor  Andrew,  whose 
splendid  executive  qualities  no  less  than  his 
fiery  zeal  and  patriotism  had  endeared  him  to 
the  earnest  antislavery  people  throughout  the 
country.  Both  branches  of  the  Maine  legisla- 
ture recommended  ex- Vice-President  Hamlin 
to  take  the  place  vacated  by  his  distinguished 
colleague.  Mr.  Jay  Gooke,  who  was  carrying 
on  with  such  remarkable  success  at  that  time 
the  great  funding  operations  of  the  Treasury 
Department,  reenforced  with  his  recommen- 
dation the  demand  of  the  Western  politicians 
and  bankers  for  Mr.  McCulloch.  Mr.  Mont- 
gomery Blair,  who  still  retained  his  friendly 
and  confidential  relations  with  the  President, 
wrote  to  him  on  the  2 2d  of  February,  saying 
that  Mr.  Hamlin  did  not  wish  his  claim  to  be 
appointed  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  urged 
upon  the  President;  that  Mr.  Morgan  positively 
refused  the  appointment.  He  supplemented 
these  two  important  bits  of  information  with 
the  characteristic  and  irrelevant  suggestion 
that  Mr.  Seward  should  leave  the  Cabinet,  that 
Sumner  should  take  his  place,  and  that  Gov- 
ernor Andrew  might  then  succeed  Sumner  in 
the  Senate.  He  also  added  that  it  would  be 
a  good  thing  to  encourage  Garibaldi  to  drive 
the  French  from  Mexico.  The  President  con- 
cluded to  nominate  Governor  Morgan,  who 
declined  the  honor.  Mr.  McCulloch  was  then 
appointed ;  upon  which  Mr.  Usher,  on  the  8th 
of  March,  desiring,  as  he  said,  to  relieve  the 
President  from  any  possible  embarrassment 
which  might  arise  from  the  fact  that  two  mem- 
bers of  the  Cabinet  were  from  the  same  State, 
resigned  his  place  as  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 
The  President  indorsed  the  resignation,  "  Ac- 
cepted, to  take  effect  May  15,  1865."  Before 
that  date  should  arrive  tremendous  changes 
were  to  take  place  in  the  Government  of  the 
United  States. 
LINCOLN    REELECTED. 
From  the  moment  the  Democratic  conven- 
tion named  its  candidates  the  stars  in  their 
courses  seemed  to  fight  against  them.  During 
the  very  hours  when  the  streets  of  Chicago 
were  blazing  with  torches,  and  the  air  was 
filled  with  the  perfervid  rhetoric  of  the  peace 
men  rejoicing  over  their  work,  Hood  was  pre- 
paring for  the  evacuation  of  Atlanta ;  and  the 
1  The  Rev.  Dr.  Thompson,  calling  on  the  Presi- 
dent soon  after  this,  congratulated  him  on  the  im- 
proved aspect  of  politics,  and  asked  him  whether  he 
attributed  it  in  greater  part  to  the  Chicago  platform  or 
same  newspapers  which  laid  before  their  readers 
the  craven  utterances  of  the  Vallandigham  plat- 
form announced  the  entry  of  Sherman  into  the 
great  manufacturing  metropolis  of  Georgia — 
so  close  together  came  bane  and  antidote. 
The  convention  had  declared  the  war  was  a 
failure,  and  demanded  that  the  Government 
should  sue  for  terms  of  peace.  Lincoln's  reply 
three  days  afterwards  was  a  proclamation  an- 
nouncing to  the  country  "  the  signal  successes 
that  Divine  Providence  has  recently  vouch- 
safed "  the  people  at  Mobile  and  Atlanta,  and 
calling  for  "  devout  acknowledgment  to  the 
Supreme  Being  in  whose  hands  are  the  destinies 
of  nations."  He  also  tendered,  by  proclama- 
tion, the  national  thanks  to  Farragut,  Canby, 
and  Granger,  and  to  General  Sherman  and  the 
gallant  officers  and  soldiers  of  their  respective 
commands,  and  ordered  that  national  salutes 
of  one  hundred  guns  should  be  fired  on  suc- 
cessive days  from  ail  the  arsenals  and  navy 
yards  in  the  United  States  in  honor  of  these 
glorious  victories.  Thus,  amid  the  prayers  and 
thanksgivings  of  a  grateful  people,  and  the 
thunder  and  smoke  of  great  guns  uttering  from 
their  iron  throats  the  general  joy,  the  presi- 
dential campaign  began.  The  darkest  hour 
had  come  just  before  the  dawn,  and  the  light 
broadened  on  the  political  campaign  from  be- 
ginning to  end.1 
One  of  the  earliest  speeches  of  the  autumn 
was  made  by  Mr.  Seward  at  his  home  in 
Auburn,  New  York.2  He  spoke  avowredly 
without  authority  from  the  President,  yet,  as 
well  from  his  intimacy  with  Mr.  Lincoln  as 
from  his  commanding  place  in  the  Administra- 
tion, his  speech  demanded  and  received  great 
attention.   He  said : 
While  the  rebels  continue  to  wage  war  against 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  the  military 
measures  affecting  slavery,  which  have  been  adopted 
from  necessity  to  bring  the  war  to  a  speedy  and 
successful  end,  will  be  continued,  except  so  far  as 
practical  experience  shall  show  that  they  can  be 
modified  advantageously,  with  a  view  to  the  same 
end.  When  the  insurgents  shall  have  disbanded 
their  armies  and  laid  down  their  arms  the  war  will 
instantly  cease ;  and  all  the  war  measures  then  ex- 
isting, including  those  which  affect  slavery,  will 
cease  also  ;  and  all  the  moral,  economical,  and  politi- 
cal questions,  as  well  questions  affecting  slavery  as 
others,  which  shall  then  be  existing  between  indi- 
viduals and  States  and  the  Federal  Government, 
whether  they  arose  before  the  civil  war  began,  or 
whelher  they  grew -out  it,  will,  by  force  of  the  Con- 
stitution, pass  over  to  the  arbitrament  of  courts  of 
law  and  to  the  councils  of  legislation. 
Referring  to  the  Chicago  declaration  in  favor 
of  the  immediate  cessation  of  hostilities,  and 
to  the  victory  at  Atlanta.    "  I  should  say  the  victory," 
Mr.  Lincoln  answered ;  "  at  least,  I  should  prefer  to 
have  that  repeated." 
2  September  3,  1864.
LINCOLN  REELECTED. 
the  paralyzing  effect  on  the  action  of  the  Gov- 
ernment which  would  follow  the  success  of 
the  Democrats  upon  such  a  platform,  he  asked, 
in  that  contingency,  "Who  can  vouch  for  the 
safety  of  the  country  against  the  rebels  during 
the  interval  which  must  elapse  before  the  new 
Administration  can  constitutionally  come  into 
power?" 1  The  opposition  journalists  immedi- 
ately seized  upon  this  as  a  threat  that  the  Ad- 
ministration was  determined  to  keep  itself  in 
power  whatever  might  be  the  verdict  of  the 
people,  and  this  clamor  went  on  until  the 
President,  as  we  shall  show,  put  an  effectual 
quietus  upon  it. 
Mr.  Lincoln  himself  took  little  part  in  the 
contest.  He  was  forced,  from  time  to  time,  to 
assist  with  his  presence  charitable  demonstra- 
tions in  favor  of  the  sick  and  wounded  soldiers ; 
and  being  always  obliged  on  these  occasions 
to  say  a  few  words,  he  acquitted  himself  of 
these  necessary  tasks  with  dignity  and  discre- 
tion. He  made  no  personal  reference  to  his 
opponents,  and  spoke  of  his  enemies  North 
and  South  with  unfailing  charity  and  modera- 
tion. Regiments  of  soldiers  returning  to  their 
homes  after  their  term  of  service  was  over 
sometimes  called  upon  him,  and  in  brief  and 
pithy  speeches  he  thanked  them  for  calling, 
and  always  added  a  word  or  two  of  wise  or 
witty  political  thought.  Speaking  to  an  Ohio 
regiment,  he  defined  in  one  phrase  the  essential 
character  of  our  republican  government  with 
more  accuracy  and  clearness  than  ever  Jeffer- 
son had  done: 
I  wish  it  might  be  more  generally  and  univer- 
sally understood  what  the  country  is  now  engaged 
in.  We  have,  as  all  will  agree,  a  free  government, 
where  every  man  has  a  right  to  be  equal  with 
every  other  man.  In  this  great  struggle  this  form 
of  government,  and  every  form  of  human  rights, 
is  endangered  if  our  enemies  succeed.  .  .  .  There 
is  involved  in  this  struggle  the  question  whether 
your  children  and  my  children  shall  enjoy  the  privi- 
leges we  have  enjoyed.  .  .  .  When  you  return 
to  your  homes,  rise  up  to  the  height  of  a  generation 
of  men  worthy  of  a  free  government,  and  we  will 
carry  out  the  great  work  we  have  commenced. 
To  another  regiment  he  said : 
I  happen,  temporarily,  to  occupy  this  house.  I 
am  a  living  witness  that  any  one  of  your  children 
may  look  to  come  here  as  my  father's  child  has 
done.  It  is  in  order  that  each  one  of  you  may  have, 
through  this  free  government  which  we  have  en- 
joyed, an  open  field  and  a  fair  chance  for  your 
industry,  enterprise,    and   intelligence  —  that  you 
l  Ten  days  later,  when  Mr.  Seward  had  returned 
to  Washington,  he  said,  in  answer  to  a  serenade :  "  The 
Democracy  of  Chicago,  after  waiting  six  weeks  to  see 
whether  this  war  for  the  Union  is  to  succeed  or  fail, 
finally  concluded  that  it  would  fail,  and  therefore  went 
in  for  a  nomination  and  platform  to  make  it  a  sure 
thing  by  a  cessation  of  hostilities  and  an  abandonment 
of  the  'contest.  At  Baltimore,  on  the  contrary,  we 
Vol.  XXXVIII.— 91. 
may  all  have  equal  privile  w,i|, 
all  its  desirable  human   aspiration!  —  it  is  fol 
that  the  struggle    should   DC    n 
may  not  lose  our  birthright.    .    .    .    The  nal 
worth   fighting  for  to  secure  su  h    im   inestimable 
jewel. 
Jicing  invited  to  attend  a  Union  m 
ing  at  Buffalo,  the  President  at  first  t;. 
writing  a  letter,  and  we  find  among  b 
the  following  fragment  in  his  own  mat 
Yours  inviting  me  to  attend  a  Union  mass  1 
ing  at  Buffalo  is  received.   Much  i,  I 
peace,  and  no  man  desires  p. -ace  more  ardently  than 
I.    Still  I  am  yet  unprepared  to  give  up  the  Union 
for  a  peace  which,  so  achieved,  could    not  be  of 
much  duration.    The  preservation  of  our  Union  was 
not  the  sole  avowed  object  for  which  the  war  wa> 
commenced.     It  was  commenced  for  precisely  the 
reverse  object  —  to  destroy  our  Union.    The  insur- 
gents commenced  it  by  firing  upon  the  Star 
West  and  on  Fort  Sumter,  and  by  other  sitnila' 
It  is  true,   however,    that    the  Administration    ac- 
cepted the  war  thus  commenced  for  the  sole  avowed 
object  of  preserving  our  Union  ;  and  it  is  not 
that   it  has  since  been,  or  will    be,  prosecuted  by 
this  Administration  for  any  other  object.    In  declar- 
ing this  I  only  declare  what  I  can  know,  and  do 
know,  to  be  true,  and  what  no  other  man  can  know 
to  be  false. 
In  taking  the  various  steps  which  have  led  to 
my  present  position  in  relation  to  the  war.  the 
public  interest  and  my  private  interest  have  been 
perfectly  parallel,  because  in  no  other  way  could  I 
serve  myself  so  well  as  by  truly  serving  the  Union. 
The  whole  field  has  been  open  to  me  where  to 
choose.  No  place-hunting  necessity  has  been  upon 
me  urging  me  to  seek  a  position  of  antagonism  to 
some  other  man,  irrespective  of  whether  such  posi- 
tion might  be  favorable  or  unfavorable  to  the  Union. 
Of  course,  I  may  err  in  judgment ;  but  my  present 
position  in  reference  to  the  rebellion  is  the  result 
of  my  best  judgment,  and,  according  to  that 
judgment,  it  is  the  only  position  upon  which 
executive  can  or  could  save  the  Union.    Any  sub- 
stantial departure  from  it  insures  the  success  oi  th.- 
rebellion.     An  armistice — a  cessation  oi  hostilities 
—  is  the  end  of  the   struggle,  and  the  insurgents 
would   be    in    peaceable  possession  oi  all   that   ha> 
been  struggled  for.   Any  different  policy  in  reg.i'd  to 
the  colored  man  deprives  us  of  his  help,  and  : 
more  than  we  can  bear.    We  cannot  spare  the  hun- 
dred and  forty  or  fifty  thousand  now  serving  us  as 
soldiers,  seamen,  and  laborers.     This  is  not  a  . 
tion  of  sentiment  or  taste,  but  one  of  physical  : 
which   may  be  measured  and   estimated  as  h 
power  and  steam-power  are  measured  and  estimated. 
Keep  it,  and  you  cm  save  the  Union.  Throw  it  away, 
and  the  Union  goes  with  it.    Nor  is  it  r 
any  administration  to  retain  the  services  oi  these 
determined   that   there  should  be   no   such   thing 
failure,  and  therefore  we  went  in  to  save  the   I 
by  battle  to  the  last.     Sherman   and  Farragut   havi 
knocked  the  bottom  out  oi  the  Chicago  nominal 
and  the  elections   in  Vermont  and  Maine  prove  the 
Baltimore  nominations  stanch  and  sound.     The  > 
is  thus  squarely  made  up  —  McOellan  and  disunion, 
or  Lincoln  and  Union."
0  0  I 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
people  with  the  express  or  implied  understanding 
that  upon  the  first  convenient  occasion  they  are  to  be 
slaved.    It  cannot  be,  and  it  ought  not  to  be. 
After  he  had  written  thus  far  he  seems  to 
have  changed  his  mind  as  to  the  good  taste 
or  the  expediency  of  aiding  even  thus  for  in 
his  own  canvass.  He  therefore  laid  his  letter 
aside  and  wrote  a  brief  note  :  declining  to  ad- 
dress the  meeting,  on  the  ground,  first,  that  it 
would  be  a  breach  of  precedent,  and,  secondly, 
that  if  he  once  began  to  write  letters  it  would 
be  difficult  to  discriminate  between  meetings 
having  equal  claims. 
Although  the  dignity  and  self-control  with 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  held  himself  aloof  from 
the  work  of  the  canvass  has  been  generally 
acknowledged,  there  is  one  incident  of  the 
campaign  which  was  the  object  of  severe  crit- 
icism at  the  time.  Governor  Johnson,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  request  of  the  State  conven- 
tion of  Tennessee,  had  issued  a  proclamation2 
specifying  the  manner  in  which  the  vote  for 
presidential  electors  should  be  taken,  the  quali- 
fication of  voters,  and  the  oath  which  they 
should  be  required  to  take.  The  Democratic 
candidates  on  the  electoral  ticket  of  that  State, 
regarding  themselves  aggrieved  by  these  re- 
quirements of  the  convention  and  the  governor, 
united  in  a  protest  against  this  proceeding,  and 
one  of  their  number,  a  Mr.  Lellyet,  was  sent 
to  present  the  protest  in  person.3  In  the  ac- 
count of  his  interview  with  the  President,  which 
he  published  in  the  newspapers,  Mr.  Lellyet 
said  that  the  President  told  him  "  he  would 
manage  his  side  of  this  contest  in  his  own  way, 
and  the  friends  of  General  McClellan  could 
manage  their  side  in  theirs."  It  is  not  impos- 
sible that,  in  a  moment  of  irritation  at  the  pres- 
entation of  a  petition  which  was  in  itself  an 
insinuation  that  he  was  making  a  selfish  and  cor- 
rupt use  of  his  power,  the  President  may  have 
treated  Mr.  Lellyet  with  scant  courtesy ;  but  he 
took  the  protest,  nevertheless,  and  told  him  he 
would  answer  it  at  his  convenience.  There  is 
certainly  nothing  of  malice  or  of  petulance  in  the 
grave  and  serious  tone  of  the  reply  which  the 
President  sent  a  few  days  later  to  the  McClellan 
electors  of  Tennessee.  He  informed  them  that 
he  had  had  no  communication  whatever  with 
:rnor  Johnson  on  the  subject  of  his  proc- 
lamation; that  he  had  given  to  the  subject 
such  consideration  as  was  in  his  power  in  the 
midst  of  so  many  pressing  public  duties. 
My  conclusion  is  [he  said]  that  I  can  have  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  matter,  either  to  sustain  the  plan 
as  the  convention  and  Governor  Johnson  have  in- 
itia  ed  it,  or  to  revoke  or  modify  it  as  you  demand. 
By  the  Constitution  and  laws  the  President  ischarged 
l  Lincoln  to  Schermerhorn,  Sept.  12,  1864.    MS. 
-  Sept.  30,  1864.  '*  Oct.  16,  1864. 
4  Lincoln  to  William  B.  Campbell  etal.,  Oct.  22, 1864. 
with  no  duty  in  the  conduct  of  a  presidential  elec- 
tion in  any  State;  nor  do  I,  in  this  case,  perceive 
any  military  reason  for  his  interference  in  the 
matter. 
The  movement  set  on  foot  by  the  convention 
and  Governor  Johnson  does  not,  as  seems  to  be  as- 
sumed by  you,  emanate  from  the  National  Executive. 
In  no  proper  sense  can  it  be  considered  other  than 
as  an  independent  movement  of  at  least  a  portion 
of  the  loyal  people  of  Tennessee. 
I  do  not  perceive  in  the  plan  any  menace  of  vio- 
lence or  coercion  towards  any  one.  Governor  John- 
son, like  any  other  loyal  citizen  of  Tennessee,  has 
the  right  to  favor  any  political  plan  he  chooses, 
and,  as  military  governor,  it  is  his  duty  to  keep  the 
peace  among  and  for  the  loyal  people  of  the  State. 
I  cannot  discern  that  by  this  plan  he  purposes  any 
more. 
But  you  object  to  the  plan.  Leaving  it  alone  will 
be  your  perfect  security  against  it.  Do  as  you  please 
on  your  own  account,  peacefully  and  loyally,  and 
Governor  Johnson  will  not  molest  you,  but  will 
protect  you  against  violence  so  far  as  in  his  power. 
I  presume  the  conducting  of  a  presidential  elec- 
tion in  Tennessee  in  strict  accordance  with  the  old 
code  of  the  State  is  not  now  a  possibility. 
It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  if  any  election 
shall  be  held,  and  any  vote  shall  be  cast  in  the 
State  of  Tennessee  for  President  and  Vice-President 
of  the  United  States,  it  will  belong  not  to  the  mili- 
tary agents,  nor  yet  to  the  Executive  Department, 
but  exclusively  to  another  department  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, to  determine  whether  they  are  entitled  to 
be  counted  in  conformity  v/ith  the  Constitution  and 
laws  of  the  United  States.  Except  it  be  to  give  pro- 
tection against  violence,  I  decline  to  interfere  in  any 
way  with  any  presidential  election.4 
The  McClellan  electors  thereupon  withdrew 
from  the  contest ;  Lincoln  and  Johnson  elec- 
tors were  chosen,  but  their  votes  were  not 
counted  by  Congress. 
The  most  important  utterance  of  the  Presi- 
dent during  the  campaign  was  a  speech  which 
he  made  on  the  evening  of  the  19th  of  October, 
in  which  he  referred  to  the  construction  which 
had  been  placed  on  the  remarks  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  State  at  Auburn,  already  quoted.  He 
thought  the  distorted  and  unjust  conclusions 
which  had  been  drawn  from  Seward's  re- 
marks had  gone  far  enough  and  that  the  time 
had  come  to  put  an  end  to  them,  and  he  seized, 
for  that  purpose,  the  occasion  of  a  serenade 
from  a  party  of  loyal  Marylanders  who  were 
celebrating  in  Washington  the  victory  which 
the  party  of  emancipation  had  gained  in  the 
elections  in  their  State.  He  said  a  few  words 
of  congratulation  upon  that  auspicious  event, 
and  then  added : 
A  word  upon  another  subject.  Something  said 
by  the  Secretary  of  State,  in  his  recent  speech  at 
Auburn,  has  been  construed  by  some  into  a  threat 
that  if  I  shall  be  beaten  at  the  election  I  will,  be- 
tween then  and  the  end  of  my  constitutional  term, 
do  what  I  may  be  able  to  ruin  the  Government. 
Others  regard  the  fact  that  the  Chicago  convention
LINCOLN  REELECTED. 
adjourned,  not  sine  die,  but  to  meet  again,  if  called 
to  do  so  by  a  particular  individual,  as  the  intima- 
tion of  a  purpose  that  if  their  nominee  shall  be 
elected  he  will  at  once  seize  control  of  the  Govern- 
ment. I  hope  the  good  people  will  permit  them- 
selves to  suffer  no  uneasiness  on  either  point. 
I  am  struggling  to  maintain  government,  not  to 
overthrow  it.  lam  struggling  especially  to  prevent 
others  from  overthrowing  it.  I  therefore  say  that 
if  I  shall  live  I  shall  remain  President  until  the  4th 
of  next  March  ;  and  that  whoever  shall  be  constitu- 
tionally elected  therefor,  in  November,  shall  be  duly 
installed  as  President  on  the  4th  of  March  ;  and 
that,  in  the  interval,  I  shall  do  my  utmost  that 
whoever  is  to  hold  the  helm  for  the  next  voyage 
shall  start  with  the  best  possible  chance  to  save  the 
ship. 
This  is  due  to  the  people  both  on  principle  and 
under  the  Constitution.  Their  will,  constitutionally 
expressed,  is  the  ultimate  law  for  all.  If  they  should 
deliberately  resolve  to  have  immediate  peace,  even 
at  the  loss  of  their  country  and  their  liberty,  I 
know  not  the  power  or  the  right  to  resist  them.  It 
is  their  own  business,  and  they  must  do  as  they 
please  with  their  own.  I  believe,  however,  they 
are  still  resolved  to  preserve  their  country  and  their 
liberty;  and  in  this,  in  office  or  out  of  it,  I  am  re- 
solved to  stand  by  them.1 
During  the  progress  of  the  campaign  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  frequently  called  upon  to  assist 
his  friends,  to  oppose  his  enemies,  and  to  exer- 
cise his  powerful  influence  in  appeasing  dis- 
cords in  different  States  and  districts.  He  in- 
terfered as  little  as  possible,  and  always  in  the 
interests  of  the  party  at  large,  rather  than  in 
those  of  individuals.  He  took  no  account  of  the 
personal  attitude  of  candidates  towards  himself. 
In  the  case  of  those  who  were  among  his  inti- 
mate friends  he  would  go  no  further  than  to 
demand  that  Government  officers  should  not 
work  against  them.  When  Mr.  Arnold  of 
Chicago,  who  had  incurred  the  hostility  of  Mr. 
Scripps,  the  postmaster  at  that  place,  com- 
plained of  the  opposition  of  that  official  and 
called  upon  the  President  to  put  a  stop  to  it, 
the  President  would  do  nothing  more  than  to 
order  the  offending  postmaster  to  content  him- 
self with  the  exercise  of  his  own  rights  as  a 
citizen  and  a  voter  and  to  allow  his  subordinates 
to  do  the  same.  The  postmaster  answered,  as 
was  natural,  that  this  was  precisely  what  he 
had  been  doing,  and  that  this  was  the  source 
of  Mr.  Arnold's  complaint ;  that  the  congress- 
man wanted  his  active  official  assistance,  and 
would  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less.  Although 
Arnold  was  an  intimate  and  valued  friend  of 
the  President,  he  declined  to  exercise  any 
further  pressure  upon  the  postmaster,  and  Mr. 
Arnold  soon  afterwards  withdrew  from  the 
contest.   After  candidates  had  been  regularly 
1  Autograph  MS. 
2  Lincoln  to  Ward  Hunt,  Aug.  16,  1864.   MS. 
3  June  20,  1864.   MS. 
and  fairly  Dominated,  the  Pre  idem  I 
hesitation  in  doing  .-ill  in  hi,  power  to  concili- 
ate hostilities  and  to  unite  the  party  in  support 
of  them.    He  tolerated  in    I 
tious  or  malicious  opposition  on  the  part  of 
his  office-holders,  and  he  laid  hi 
heavily  upon  those  injudicious  frier.- 
own  who  attempted  to  defeat  the  1  m  of 
Republican  congressmen  who  had   not 
especially   friendly  to   him.     A    large  number 
of  the  leading  Republicans  in  R 
ling's  district  had  declared  their  intention  to 
oppose  him.    Mr.  Conkling's  friends  appealed 
to  the  President,  claiming  that  the  Repub: 
opposition  to  him  had  its  ri.^e  and  origin  arnon^ 
friends  of  the  Secretary  of  State.     I 
dent  commended  their  complaint  to  the  atten- 
tion of  Mr.  Seward,  and  answered  for  him 
"  I  am  for  the  regular  nominee  in  all  cases,  and 
no  one  could  be  more  satisfactory  to  me  as  the 
nominee  in  that  district   than    Sir.   |  Roscoe] 
Conkling.    I  do  not  mean  to  say  there  are  not 
others  as  good  as  he  in  the  district,  but  I  think 
I  know  him  to  be  at  least  good  enough.''  - 
ing  informed  of  some  hostility  on  the  part  of 
the  custom-house  officials  in  New  York  against 
Frederick  A.  Conkling,  he  wrote  similar  ad- 
monitions to  them.    The  postmaster  of  Phila- 
delphia being  accused  of  interference  again>t 
William  D.  Kelley,  the  President  sent  for  him, 
and  following  his  custom  in  grave  matters,  he 
read  to  him  a  reprimand  which  he  had  com- 
mitted to  paper  in  the  following  words : 
Complaint  is  made  to  me  that  you  are  using  your 
official  power  to  defeatjudge  Kellev's  renomination 
to  Congress.  I  am  well  satisfied  with  Judge  Kelley 
as  a  member  of  Congress,  and  I  do  not  know  that 
the  man  who  might  supplant  him  would  be  as  satis- 
factory ;  but  the  correct  principle,  I  think,  is  that  all 
our  friends  should  have  absolute  freedom  of  choice 
among  our  friends.  My  wish,  therefore,  is  that  you 
will  do  just  as  you  think  fit  with  your  own  suffrage 
in  the  case,  and  not  constrain  any  of  your  subordi- 
nates to  do  other  than  as  he  thinks  tit  with  his. 
This  is  precisely  the  rule  I  inculcated  and  adhered 
to  on  my  part  when  a  certain  other  nomination  now 
recently  made  was  being  canvassed  ft 
The  reform  of  the  civil  service  had  not  at 
that  time  been  formulated  by  its  friends,  nor 
even  adopted  in  principle  by  the  country  at 
large,  yet  it  would  be  difficult  even  in  the  light 
of  this  day  to  improve  upon  this  statement  of 
its  essential  principle  as  applied  to  the  conduct 
of  office-holders.  The  postmaster,  of  course, 
promised  exact  obedience:  but  later  in  the 
summer  the  President  was  informed,  on  au- 
thority that  he  credited,  that  of  the  two  or 
three  hundred  employees  in  the  post-office 
not  one  of  them  was  openly  in  favor  of  the  re- 
nomination  of  Judge  Kelley.     Upon  learning
696 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
this,  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  to  an  influential  friend 
in  Philadelphia,  stating  these  facts  and  adding: 
This,  if  true,  is  not  accidental..  Left  to  their  free 
choice,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  large  number 
of  them,  probably  as  much  or  more  than  half,  would 
be  for  Kelley.  And  if  they  are  for  him  and  are  not 
lined  they  can  put  it  beyond  question  by  pub- 
licly saying  so.  Please  tell  the  postmaster  he  must 
find  a  way  to  relieve  me  from  the  suspicion  that  he 
is  not  keeping  his  promise  to  me  in  good  faith.1 
The  postmaster  felt  at  last  the  hand  of  iron 
under  the  velvet  glove,  and  Kelley  was  renom- 
inated and  reelected,  as  he  has  been  ever 
since  —  to  the  honor  and  advantage  of  his  dis- 
trict and  State. 
The  summer  was  full  of  brief  panics  and 
flurries  among  the  politicians,  and  they  were 
continually  rushing  to  Mr.  Lincoln  to  urge 
him  to  action  or  inaction  in  the  interests  of  the 
canvass.  We  believe  there  is  no  instance  in 
which  he  yielded  to  these  solicitations.  A  mat- 
ter of  especial  difficulty  was  the  draft  for  half 
a  million  of  men  which  had  been  issued  on  the 
1 8th  of  July.  Leading  Republicans  all  over 
the  country,  fearing  the  effect  of  the  draft  upon 
the  elections,  begged  the  President  to  withdraw 
the  call  or  suspend  operations  under  it.  Mr. 
Cameron,  so  late  as  the  19th  of  October,  after 
the  State  elections  had  been  secured,  advised 
against  the  draft  in  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Chase 
on  the  same  day  telegraphed  from  Ohio,  which 
had  been  carried  triumphantly  by  the  Repub- 
licans a  few  days  before,  recommending  the 
suspension  of  the  draft  for  three  weeks  — 
Chief -Justice  Taney  having  died  a  week  be- 
fore. Judge  Johnston  of  Ohio  reports  that  he 
was  with  the  President  when  a  committee  came 
from  Ohio  to  request  him  to  suspend  the  draft 
until  after  the  elections,  and  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
quietly  answered,  "What  is  the  Presidency 
worth  to  me  if  I  have  no  country  ?  "  But  these 
solicitations  were  not  all  in  the  same  direc- 
tion. General  Sherman  telegraphed  from  the 
field,  "If  the  President  modifies  the  draft  to 
the  extent  of  one  man,  or  wavers  in  its  execu- 
tion, he  is  gone  forever;  the  army  would  vote 
against  him."  The  politicians  and  the  general 
probably  exaggerated  in  equal  measure;  the 
army  would  not  have  rejected  him  if  he  had 
seen  fit  to  suspend  the  draft;  and  the  people 
stood  by  him  in  his  refusal  to  do  it.  He  went 
so  far  in  compliance  with  the  earnest  request 
of  the  Union  people  in  Indiana  as  to  write  to 
Sherman  expressing  his  sense  of  the  importance 
of  allowing  as  many  of  the  Indiana  soldiers  as 
possible  to  go  home  to  vote.  Most  of  the  other 
States  which  voted  in  October  allowed  their 
soldiers  to  vote  in  the  field.     Indiana  had  not 
1  Lincoln  to  McMichael,  Aug.  5,  1864.    MS. 
2  Lincoln  to  Sherman,  Sept.  19,  1864.    MS. 
:;   Lincoln  to  Rosecrans,  Sept.  26,  1864.    MS. 
passed  the  necessary  legislation  for  this  pur- 
pose. The  draft  was  steadily  proceeding  in 
that  State,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  the  leading 
men  there,  was  endangering  the  success  of  the 
Union  party  in  the  elections.  "  Anything  you 
can  safely  do,"  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote,  "  to  let 
her  soldiers,  or  any  part  of  them,  go  home  and 
vote  at  the  State  election  will  be  greatly  in 
point.  They  need  not  remain  for  the  presi- 
dential elections,  but  may  return  to  you  at 
once."2  He  was  careful,  however,  not  to  urge 
General  Sherman  to  any  course  of  action  which 
he  might  consider  injurious.  "This  is,"  he 
added,  "  in  no  sense  an  order,  but  is  merely  in- 
tended to  impress  you  with  the  importance,  to 
the  army  itself,  of  your  doing  all  you  safely 
can,  yourself  being  the  judge  of  what  you  can 
safely  do."  There  were  also  reports  from  Mis- 
souri that  Rosecrans  was  inclined  to  deny  the 
soldiers  the  right  of  attending  the  elections,  on 
the  assumed  ground  that  they  would  get  drunk 
and  make  disturbance.  The  President,  on  be- 
ing informed  of  this,  quoted  to  Rosecrans  the 
following  words  from  the  letter  which  he  had 
written  to  Schofield:  "'At  elections  see  that 
those,  and  only  those,  are  allowed  to  vote  who 
are  entitled  to  do  so  by  the  laws  of  Missouri, 
including  as  of  those  laws  the  restrictions  laid 
by  the  Missouri  convention  upon  those  who 
may  have  participated  in  the  rebellion.'  This," 
said  Lincoln,  "  I  thought  right  then  and  think 
right  now,  and  I  may  add  I  do  not  remember 
that  either  party  complained  after  the  election 
of  General  Schofield's  action  under  it.  Wher- 
ever the  law  allows  soldiers  to  vote,  their  offi- 
cers must  also  allow  it."  3 
The  opposition  to  Mr.  Lincoln  within  the 
ranks  of  his  own  party  did  not  entirely  die 
away,  even  after  the  Chicago  nomination  and 
the  changed  political  prospect  which  imme- 
diately followed  it.  So  late  as  the  20th  of  Sep- 
tember Thurlow  Weed  wrote  to  Mr.  Seward  that 
The  conspiracy  against  Mr.  Lincoln  collapsed  on 
Monday  last.  It  was  equally  formidable  and  vicious, 
embracing  a  larger  number  of  leading  men  than  I 
had  supposed  possible.  Knowing  that  I  was  not 
satisfied  with  the  President,  they  came  to  me  for 
cooperation  ;  but  my  objection  to  Mr.  Lincoln  is 
that  he  has  done  too  much  for  those  who  now  seek 
to  drive  him  out  of  the  field.  Their  last  meeting 
was  early  last  week  at  the  house  of  Dudley  Field, 
which  was  attended  by  Greeley,  George  Wilkes, 
Tilton,  Opdyke,  Noyes,  and  twenty-five  others  of 
the  same  stripe. 
He  also  stated  that  a  circular  had  been  sent 
to  leading  Republicans  in  other  States  inquir- 
ing as  to  the  feasibility  of  making  another 
nomination  for  President  at  that  time ;  that  the 
malcontents,  finding  themselves  in  solitude,  had 
concluded  to  break  up  operations  and  try  to 
control  the  regular  State  convention.
LINCOLN   REELECTED. 
After  every  semblance  of  open  hostility  had 
disappeared  everywhere  else  in  the  country  the 
fire  of  faction  still  kept  it  alive  in  Missouri.  A 
singular  state  of  things  existed  there.  The  radi- 
cal party  had  almost  entirely  absorbed  the 
Union  sentiment  of  the  State;  the  conserva- 
tive party,  the  President's  friends,  had  almost 
ceased  to  exist.  The  incumbents  of  the  Gov- 
ernment offices,  a  few  of  the  intimate  personal 
friends  of  Blair,  still  stood  out  against  the 
radicals;  and  so  long  as  this  attitude  was  main- 
tained the  radicals,  while  working  vigorously 
for  their  State  and  local  tickets,  refused  to 
avow  themselves  in  favor  of  Lincoln.  So  far 
as  can  be  ascertained  the  only  reason  for  this 
absurd  position  was  that  the  "  Clay  Banks,"  as 
the  conservatives  were  called,  wished  the  radi- 
cals to  declare  for  Lincoln  as  a  pretext  by  which 
they  could  join  the  vast  majority  of  their  party, 
and  the  radicals  spitefully  refused  to  allow 
them  this  accommodation.  Mr.  Fletcher,  the 
radical  candidate  for  governor,  refused  dur- 
ing the  greater  part  of  the  campaign  to  make 
any  public  statement  that  he  would  vote  for 
Lincoln.  His  reason  for  this,  privately  given, 
was  that  he  feared  such  an  announcement 
would  alienate  from  his  support  a  large  num- 
ber of  the  more  furious  anti- Lincoln  Germans. 
At  last,  however,  he  concluded  to  declare  for 
the  regular  Republican  presidential  ticket,  and 
a  meeting  was  appointed  for  the  purpose ;  but, 
to  the  astonishment  of  the  moderate  Union 
men,  he  went  no  further  at  this  meeting  than 
to  say  he  would  not  vote  for  McClellan,  and 
in  explanation  of  this  singular  performance  he 
told  the  President's  private  secretary 1  that  he 
had  found  at  the  hotel  where  his  speech  was 
made  a  letter  of  the  "  Clay  Bank  "  committee 
offering  their  support  on  condition  of  his  declar- 
ing for  Lincoln,  and  that  he  would  not  be 
coerced  into  it.  The  President  sent  messages 
to  the  moderate  Unionists  expressing  his  desire 
that  the  absurd  and  futile  quarrel  should  come 
to  an  end,  and  they,  to  do  them  justice,  desired 
nothing  more.  The  only  condition  of  their 
support  which  they  made  was  that  candidates 
should  declare  themselves  for  Lincoln,  which 
they  in  turn  would  have  been  willing  to  do  if 
it  were  not  that  the  "  Clay  Banks"  requested  it. 
So  far  as  practical  results  went  the  party  was 
united  enough  [Mr.  Nicolay  reported]  ;  it  seems 
to  be  well  understood  that,  with  the  exception 
of  very  few  impracticables,  the  Union  men  will 
cast  their  votes  for  you,  for  the  radical  congress- 
men, for  the  emancipation  candidates,  for  the  State 
legislature  and  the  State  convention,  so  that  in 
practice  nearly  everybody  is  right  and  united,  while 
in  profession  everybody  is  wrong  or  at  cross  pur- 
poses. 
This  was  surmised  while  the  clatter  of  fac- 
tious righting  was  going  on,  and  was  abundantly 
proved  by  the-  result   While  the  radii  ai  <  andi- 
date  for  governor  only  claimed  that 
be  elected  by  a  majorit) 
claim  by  many  of  hi,  party  v. 
sanguine,  when  the 
found  that  Lincoln  had  earned  the  Stat 
the  immense  majority  of  forty  thou  and. 
The  electoral  co 
firing  in  Vermont  and  M 
continued  in  what  might  be  called  I 
guard  fighting  in  October,  1:1  th 
of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and    In        .   .        I  the 
final  battle  all    along   the    line    took    plai 
November.    Vermont  and  Maim  rried 
by  good  Republican  majorities,  tin:  can 
in  the  latter  State  having  :  by 
James  G.  Blaine  with  a  dash  and  energy  which 
gave  a  presage  of  his  future  career.    Before  the 
October  elections  came  on,  auguries  of  Repub- 
lican success  had  become  so  significant  and 
universal  that  there  was  little  doubt  in  the 
informed  political  circles  of  the  result.    The 
President,  however,  was  too  old  a  politician  to 
be  sure  of  anything  until  the  votes  were  counted, 
and  it  was  not  without  some  natural  trepida- 
tion that  on  the  evening  of  the  1  ith  of 
he  walked  over  to  the  War  Department  to  get 
from  the  telegraphic  instruments  th 
intimations  of  the  course  of  the  con: 
first  dispatch  he  received  contained  the  wel- 
come intelligence  of  the  election  of  Rutlu: 
B.  Hayes  and  his  Republican  colleague  from 
the  hard-fought  Cincinnati  districts.  X  ext  came 
dispatches  announcing  a  Republican  maj 
in  Philadelphia  and  indicating  a  similar  : 
in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.    The  news  con- 
tinued very  much  in  the  same  strain  during 
the  evening,  and  the  President  in  the  lull  of 
dispatches  read  aloud  to  Stanton  and   Dana 
selected  chapters  of  the  Nasby  papers.    A 
votes  of  the  soldiers  in  the  different  camps  in 
the  vicinity  of  Washington  began  to  be  reported 
they  were  found  to  be  nearly  unanimous  in 
favor  of  the  Republican  candidate,  the  propor- 
tion among  Western  troops  being  generally  that 
often  to  one:  among  the  Eastern  troops,  al- 
though there  was  everywhere  a  majoril 
was  not  so  large.     Carver  Hospital,  by  which 
Lincoln  and  Stanton  passe/:  1  on  their 
way  to  the  country,  gave  the 
tion  vote  reported  —  about  one  out  of  three. 
Lincoln   turned   to    the    Seen 
"That  's  hard  on  us.  Stanton !    They  know  us 
better  than  the  others."    Th<  - 
work  was  of  enormous  importance.    Indiana 
indicated  a    gain  of  thirty  thousand   in  two 
years.    Governor  Morton  and  the  entire  Re- 
publican ticket  were  elected  by  twenty  thou- 
sand majority,  with  the  gain  of  f 
men.    Pennsylvania,  whose  representatives  in 
1  Nicolay  to  Lincoln.  Oct.  iS.  1S04.    MS.
69$> 
ABRAHAM  L1XC0LN. 
Congress  had  been  equally  divided,  now 
changed  their  proportion  to  fifteen  against  nine, 
and  made  her  legislature  strongly  Republican 
in  both  branches,  with  popular  majorities  rang- 
ing from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand.  The  Union- 
ists  carried  Ohio  by  a  majority  of  over  fifty-four 
thousand  and  effected  a  complete  revolution 
in  her  representation  in  Congress ;  for  while 
in  1862  she  had  elected  fourteen  Democrats 
and  five  Republicans,  she  now  sent  to  Wash- 
ington seventeen  Republicans  and  two  Demo- 
crats. But  the  success  of  the  day  which  lay 
nearest  to  the  heart  of  the  President  was  the 
adoption  in  Maryland  of  the  new  State  con- 
stitution abolishing  slavery  forever  on  her  soil. 
The  majority  was  a  very  slender  one,  the  vote 
of  the  soldiers  in  the  field  being  necessary  to 
save  emancipation ;  but  it  served,  and  the 
next  month  the  Union  majority  was  greatly  in- 
creased. 
It  would  seem  strange  that  after  this  deci- 
sive victory  there  should  have  been  any  room 
left  for  hope  or  confidence  on  the  side  of  the 
opposition  or  for  anxiety  and  panic  among 
Republican  politicians ;  but  alternating  fits  of 
confidence  and  despondency  are  inseparable 
from  all  long-continued  political  campaigns, 
and  even  after  these  overwhelming  successes 
we  find  the  Democratic  speeches  and  papers 
full  of  boasting,  and  the  private  correspond- 
ence of  the  most  experienced  Republican 
leaders  full  of  tremor  and  apprehension.  The 
President,  however,  had  passed  through  his 
moment  of  despondency,  and  from  this  time 
to  the  end  entertained  no  shadow  of  doubt  of 
the  result.  Mr.  Washburne  wrote  to  him  on 
the  17th  of  October  from  Galena:  "It  is  no 
use  to  deceive  ourselves  about  this  State. 
Everything  is  at  sixes  and  sevens;  no  head  or 
tail  to  anything.  There  is  imminent  danger 
of  our  losing  the  State '; ;  and  more  in  the  same 
strain.  The  President  laid  away  the  letter, 
writing  on  the  envelope  the  single  word,  "  Stam- 
peded." Ten  days  later  Washburne  had  re- 
covered his  spirits,  and  wrote,  "John  Logan 
is  carrying  everything  before  him  in  Egypt." 
Earlier  in  the  campaign  Mr.  Washburne,  de- 
siring to  do  all  in  his  power  to  forward  the 
Union  cause,  had  written  to  Grant  asking 
permission  to  print  a  letter  from  him  in  favor 
of  Lincoln.  Grant  replied  that  he  had  no 
objection  to  this,  but  he  thought  that  "  for  the 
President  to  answer  all  the  charges  the  oppo- 
sition would  bring  against  him  would  be  like 
setting  a  maiden  to  work  to  prove  her  chastity." 
A  friend  of  Mr.  Seward  communicated  to  him 
about  the  same  time  an  astonishing  mare's 
nest,  in  which  he  claimed  to  have  discovered 
that  the  opposition  policy  for  the  presidential 
campaign  would  be  to  abstain  from  voting. 
The    Secretary   submitted    this   letter    to   the 
President.  To  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  his  life-long 
observation  of  politics,  this  idea  of  abstention 
from  voting  seemed  more  amusing  than  threat- 
ening. He  returned  the  letter  to  the  Secretary 
with  this  indorsement :  "  More  likely  to  ab- 
stain from  stopping  when  once  they  get  at  it." 
As  the  time  drew  near  for  the  election  in 
November  a  flight  of  rumors  of  intended  se- 
cessionist demonstrations  in  the  principal 
States  of  the  North  covered  the  land.  The 
points  of  danger  which  were  most  clearly  indi- 
cated were  the  cities  of  Chicago  and  New 
York.  We  have  related  in  another  place  the 
efficient  measures  taken  to  prevent  any  out- 
break in  Chicago,  with  the  arrest  and  punish- 
ment of  the  conspirators.  The  precautionary 
measures  in  other  States  prevented  any  attempt 
at  disorder.  To  preserve  the  public  peace  in 
the  city  of  New  York  and  to  secure  the  guar- 
antee of  a  fair  and  orderly  election  there,  Gen- 
eral Butler  was  sent  with  a  considerable  force 
of  troops  to  that  city.  He  issued  an  order  on 
the  5th  of  November  declaring  that  troops 
had  been  detailed  for  duty  in  that  district 
sufficient  to  preserve  the  peace  of  the  United 
States,  to  protect  public  property,  to  prevent 
disorder,  and  to  insure  calm  and  quiet.  He 
referred  to  the  charge  made  by  the  opposition 
that  the  presence  of  Union  troops  might  possi- 
bly have  an  effect  upon  the  free  exercise  of 
the  duty  of  voting  at  the  ensuing  election.  He 
hotly  repudiated  this  accusation. 
The  armies  of  the  United  States  [he  said]  are 
ministers  of  good  and  not  of  evil.  .  .  .  Those 
who  fear  them  are  accused  by  their  own  consciences. 
Let  every  citizen  having  the  right  to  vote  act  ac- 
cording to  the  inspiration  of  his  own  judgment 
freely.  He  will  be  protected  in  that  right  by  the 
whole  power  of  the  Government  if  it  shall  become 
necessary. 
He  denounced  energetically  the  crime  of 
fraudulent  voting,  but  did  not  assume  to  him- 
self the  duty  of  separating  the  tares  from  the 
wheat.  He  simply  warned  the  evil-intentioned 
that  fraudulent  voting  would  be  detected  and 
punished  after  the  election  was  over.  Gov- 
ernor Seymour  had  been,  as  usual,  much  ex- 
ercised for  fear  of  executive  usurpation  at  the 
polls,  and  had  issued  a  proclamation  on  the  2d 
of  November  urging  the  avoidance  of  all  meas- 
ures which  would  tend  to  strife  or  disorder.  He 
called  upon  sheriffs  of  counties  to  take  care  that 
every  voter  should  have  a  free  ballot  in  the 
manner  secured  to  him  by  the  constitutional 
laws,  and  to  exercise  the  full  force  of  the  law 
and  call  forth,  if  need  be,  the  power  of  their 
districts  against  the  interference  of  the  military 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  polling-places. 
There  was  by  no  means  a  unanimous  agree- 
ment among  even  the  supporters  of  the  Ad- 
ministration as  to  the  expediency  of  sending
LINGO  L  N   R  E  A  L  A  C  7  ED. 
General  Butler  to  New  York  at  tin's  time.  The 
action  was  taken  by  Mr.  Stanton  on  his  own 
responsibility.  Thurlow  Weed  disapproved  of 
it,  and  up  to  the  day  of  election  thought,  on 
the  whole,  the  proceeding  was  injurious,  in  spite 
of  Butler's  admirable  general  order;  but  Butler 
acted  under  the  circumstances  with  remark- 
able judgment  and  discretion.  He  devoted 
the  days  which  elapsed  between  his  arrival  and 
the  election  to  making  himself  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  the  city,  with  its  police  arrange- 
ments, and  the  means  at  his  disposal  to  preserve 
order.  Every  hour  was  occupied  with  a  care- 
ful study  of  maps,  of  police  arrangements,  of 
telegraphic  communication  between  his  head- 
quarters and  every  region  of  the  city,  and  in 
consultations  with  general  officers,  the  creation 
of  an  improvised  engineer  department,  and  the 
planning  of  a  system  of  barricades  in  case  of 
a  widespread  insurrection.  But  the  object  to 
which  he  gave  special  attention,  and  in  which  he 
most  thoroughly  succeeded,  was  the  avoidance 
of  any  pretext  for  any  charge  of  interference 
with  the  rights  of  citizens  at  the  polls.  On  the 
morning  of  the  8th  of  November,  although  the 
city  was  absolutely  in  the  hands  of  the  disci- 
plined military  force  which  had  been  sent  to 
guard  it,  not  a  soldier  was  visible  to  the  thou- 
sands of  voters  who  thronged  the  streets ;  but 
everybody  knew  that  they  were  there,  and  the 
result  was,  as  Butler  telegraphed  to  Lincoln  at 
noon  on  election  day,  "  the  quietest  city  ever 
seen." 
To  Mr.  Lincoln  this  was  one  of  the  most 
solemn  days  of  his  life.  Assured  of  his  personal 
success,  and  devoutly  confident  that  the  day 
of  peace  and  the  reestablishment  of  the  Union 
was  not  far  off,  he  felt  no  elation  and  no  sense 
of  triumph  over  his  opponents.  His  mind 
seemed  filled  with  mingled  feelings  of  deep  and 
humble  gratitude  to  the  vast  majority  of  his 
fellow-citizens  who  were  this  day  testifying  to 
him  their  heartfelt  confidence  and  affection,  and 
of  a  keen  and  somewhat  surprised  regret  that 
he  should  be  an  object  in  so  many  quarters  of 
so  bitter  and  vindictive  an  opposition.  He  said 
to  one  of  his  secretaries  :  "  It  is  singular  that 
I,  who  am  not  a  vindictive  man,  should  always, 
except  once,  have  been  before  the  people  for 
election  in  canvasses  marked  for  their  bitter- 
ness. When  I  came  to  Congress  it  was  a  quiet 
time;  but  always,  except  that,  the  contests 
in  which  I  have  been  prominent  have  been 
marked  with  great  rancor."1 
In  the  evening  he  went  over,  as  was  his  cus- 
tom, to  the  War  Department.  The  night  was 
rainy  and  dark.  As  he  entered  the  telegraph 
room  he  was  handed  a  dispatch  from  Mr. 
Forney  claiming  10,000  Union  majority  in 
Philadelphia.  The  figures  were  so  for  above 
his  estimate  that  he  said,  "  Forney  is  a  little  ex- 
»1< ."   h  mom 
from  Mr.  Felton  m  B 
city,  5000  in  the 
land  : "   A  moment  aft  r  1 
from   Bo         annoin*  h 
Hooper  and  Mr.  i 
each.   The  President,  1  |  this 
was  not  a  clerii  a]  error  for  400,  but  t. 
figures  were  soon  confirmed    M      . 
wards,  in  speaking  of  th 
ties  in  district  i  where  there 
charge  made  of  irregularity  at  the  poll 
an  explanation  made  bj 
with  no  irreverent  intentio. 
must  have  stuffed  the  ballol 
The  entrance  of  General  Eckert,  who  came 
in  covered  with  mud  from  a  fall  in  a  g  the 
street,  reminded  the  1'resident  of  ar. 
of  his  defeat  by  Douglas.    He  sa  i 
an    awkward  fellow,  1  am  pretty 
It  used  to  take  a  rather  dexterous  man  to  throw 
me.    I  remember  the  evening  of  the  day  in 
1858  that  decided  the  contest  for  the  Senate 
between  Mr.  Douglas  and  myself  was  some- 
thing like  this  —  dark,  raining,  and  gloomy.    I 
had  been  reading  the  returns  and  had  a 
tained  that  we  had  lost  the  legislature,  and 
started  to  go  home.    The  path  had  been  worn 
hog-backed  and  was  slippery.    Both  my  feet 
slipped  from  under  me,  but  I  recovered  m 
and  lit  clear ;  and  I  said  to  myself, '  I 
and  not  a  fall.'  " 
Mr.    Fox,   the  Assistant    Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  indulged  in  some  not  unnatural  exul- 
tation over  the  complete  effacement  of  H 
Winter  Davis  from   Maryland  politics.     Mr. 
Davis  had  assailed  the  navy  with  a  peculiarly 
malicious  opposition  for  two  years  for  no  1 
that  Mr.  Fox  could  assign  except  that  he 
a  brother-in-law  of  Montgomery  Blair.    The 
President  would  not  agree  with  him.  u  You ' 
more  of  that    feeling  of  personal  resents 
than  I,"  he  said.   "  Perhaps  I  have  too  little  o\ 
it;  but  I  never  thought  it  paid.    A  man 
no  time  to  spend  half  his  life  in  quarrel-, 
any  man  ceases  to  attack  me  1  never  remem- 
ber the  past  against  him."   Ail  the  evening  the 
dispatches  kept  the  same  tenor  of  *  i 
success — in  almost  all  cases  above  the  estims 
The  October  States  showed  increased  majori- 
ties, and  long  before  midnight  the  in 
were  that  the  State  o(  New  York  had  cast  her 
ponderous  vote    for    Lincoln,  and  made   the 
verdict  of  the  North  almost  unanimous  in  his 
favor,  leaving  General  McClellan  but  21  t 
toral  votes,  derived  from  New  Jersey,  1 
and  Kentucky.  2 1 2  being  cast  for  Lincoln 
Johnson. 
It  was  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  the 
President  left  the  War   Department    At  the 
1  J.  II.,  Diary.
;oc 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
door  he  met  a  party  of  serenaders  with  a  brass 
band  who  saluted  him  with  music  and  cheers, 
and,  in  the  American  fashion,  demanded  a 
speech.  He  made  a  brief  response,  saying  that 
he  did  not  pretend  that  those  who  had  thought 
the  best  interests  oi  the  nation  were  to  be  sub- 
served by  the  support  of  the  present  Administra- 
tion embraced  all  the  patriotism  and  loyalty 
of  the  country.    He  continued: 
I  do  believe,  and  I  trust  without  personal  interest, 
that  the  welfare  of  the  country  does  require  that 
such  support  and  indorsement  be  given. 
I  earnestly  believe  that  the  consequence  of  this 
day's  work  (if  it  be  as  you  assume,  and  as  now 
seems  probable)  will  be  to  the  lasting  advantage,  if 
not  to  the  very  salvation,  of  the  country.  I  cannot 
at  this  hour  say  what  has  been  the  result  of  the 
election.  But,  whatever  it  may  be,  I  have  no  de- 
si  re  to  modify  this  opinion,  that  all  who  have  labored 
to-day  in  behalf  of  the  Union  organization  have 
wrought  for  the  best  interest  of  their  country  and 
the  world,  not  only  for  the  present,  but  for  all  fu- 
ture ages. 
I  am  thankful  to  God  for  this  approval  of  the 
people;  but,  while  deeply  grateful  for  this  mark  of 
their  confidence  in  me,  if  I  know  my  heart,  my 
gratitude  is  free  from  any  taint  of  personal  triumph. 
I  do  not  impugn  the  motives  of  any  one  opposed 
to  me.  It  is  no  pleasure  to  me  to  triumph  over  any 
one  ;  but  I  give  thanks  to  the  Almighty  for  this 
evidence  of  the  people's  resolution  to  stand  by  free 
government  and  the  rights  of  humanity. 
For  several  days  the  torrent  of  congratula- 
tions came  pouring  in.  Frank  Blair  wrote  from 
Georgia,  where  he  was  leading  an  army  corps 
under  Sherman  to  the  sea :  "  The  vote  in  this 
army  to-day  is  almost  unanimous  for  Lincoln. 
Give  Uncle  Abe  my  compliments  and  congrat- 
ulations." Grant  paused  for  a  moment  in  his 
labors  in  the  investment  of  Richmond  to  ex- 
press his  sense  of  the  vast  importance  and 
significance  of  the  election.  He  thought  a  tre- 
mendous crisis  in  the  history  of  the  country 
had  been  met  and  triumphantly  passed  by  the 
quiet  and  orderly  conduct  of  the  American 
people  on  the  8th  of  November. 
The  manner  in  which  the  President  received 
these  tumultuous  demonstrations  of  good-will 
was  so  characteristic  that  it  seems  to  us  worthy 
of  special  attention.  He  was  absolutely  free 
from  elation  or  self-congratulation.  He  seemed 
to  deprecate  his  own  triumph  and  to  sympathize 
rather  with  the  beaten  than  the  victorious  party. 
He  received  notice  that  on  the  night  of  the  ioth 
of  November  the  various  Republican  clubs  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  would  serenade  him. 
Not  wishing  to  speak  extempore  on  an  occa- 
sion where  his  words  would  receive  so  wide  a 
publication,  he  sat  down  and  hastily  wrote  a 
speech  which,  while  it  has  not  received  the 
world-wide  fame  of  certain  other  of  his  utter- 
ances, is  one  of  the  weightiest  and  wisest  of  all 
his  discourses.  He  read  it  at  the  window  which 
opens  on  the  north  portico  of  the  Executive 
Mansion,  a  secretary  standing  beside  him 
lighting  the  page  with  a  candle.  "  Not  very 
graceful,"  he  said,  "  but  I  am  growing  old 
enough  not  to  care  much  for  the  manner  of 
doing  things."  1  There  was  certainly  never  an 
equal  compliment  paid  to  a  serenading  crowd. 
The  inmost  philosophy  of  republican  govern- 
ment was  in  the  President's  little  speech. 
It  has  long  been  a  grave  question  [he  said] 
whether  any  government  not  too  strong  for  the  lib- 
erties of  its  people  can  be  strong  enough  to  main- 
tain its  existence  in  great  emergencies.  On  this 
point  the  present  rebellion  has  brought  our  repub- 
lic to  a  severe  test,  and  a  presidential  election  oc- 
curring in  regular  course  during  the  rebellion  has 
added  not  a  little  to  the  strain.  If  the  loyal  people 
united  were  put  to  the  utmost  of  their  strength  by 
the  rebellion,  must  they  not  fail  when  divided  and 
partially  paralyzed  by  a  political  war  among  them- 
selves ?  But  the  election  was  a  necessity.  We  cannot 
have  a  free  government  without  elections;  and  if 
the  rebellion  could  force  us  to  forego  or  postpone 
a  national  election,  it  might  fairly  claim  to  have 
already  conquered  and  ruined  us.  The  strife  of  the 
election  is  but  human  nature  practically  applied  to 
the  facts  of  the  case.  What  has  occurred  in  this 
case  must  ever  recur  in  similar  cases.  Human  na- 
ture will  not  change.  In  any  future  great  national 
trial,  compared  with  the  men  who  have  passed 
through  this,  we  shall  have  as  weak  and  as  strong, 
as  silly  and  as  wise,  as  bad  and  as  good.  Let  us, 
therefore,  study  the  incidents  of  this  as  philosophy 
to  learn  wisdom  from,  and  none  of  them  as  wrongs 
to  be  revenged.  But  the  election,  along  with  its  in- 
cidental and  undesired  strife,  has  done  good,  too. 
It  has  demonstrated  that  a  people's  government  can 
sustain  a  national  election  in  the  midst  of  a  great 
civil  war.  Until  now,  it  has  not  been  known  to  the 
world  that  this  was  a  possibility.  It  shows,  also, 
how  sound  and  how  strong  we  still  are.  It  shows 
that,  even  among  candidates  of  the  same  party,  he 
who  is  most  devoted  to  the  Union  and  most  op- 
posed to  treason  can  receive  most  of  the  people's 
vote.  It  shows,  also,  to  an  extent  yet  unknown, 
that  we  have  more  men  now  than  we  had  when  the 
war  began.  Gold  is  good  in  its  place;  but  living, 
brave,  patriotic  men  are  better  than  gold. 
But  the  rebellion  continues  ;  and,  now  that  the 
election  is  over,  may  not  all  having  a  common  in- 
terest reunite  in  a  common  effort  to  save  our  com- 
mon country?  For  my  own  part,  I  have  striven  and 
shall  strive  to  avoid  placing  any  obstacle  in  the 
way.  So  long  as  I  have  been  here,  I  have  not  will- 
ingly planted  a  thorn  in  any  man's  bosom.  While 
I  am  duly  sensible  to  the  high  compliment  of  a  re- 
election, and  duly  grateful,  as  I  trust,  to  Almighty 
God  for  having  directed  my  countrymen  to  a  right 
conclusion,  as  I  think,  for  their  own  good,  it  adds 
nothing  to  my  satisfaction  that  any  other  man  may 
be  disappointed  or  pained  by  the  result. 
May  I  ask  those  who  have  not  differed  with  me 
to  join  with  me  in  this  same  spirit  towards  those 
who  have?  And  now  let  me  close  by  asking  three 
1  J.  H.,  Diary.
L  IN  COL  N    R  A  A  A  E  C 1 A  J). 
hearty  cheers  for  our  brave  soldiers  and  seamen,  and 
their  gallant  and  skillful  commanders.1 
In  this  lofty  and  magnanimous  spirit  he- 
received  all  the  addresses  of  congratulation 
that  came  in  upon  him  in  these  (lays.  To  a 
delegation  from  Maryland  who  ascribed  it  to 
his  rare  discretion  that  Maryland  was  then 
a  free  State  he  replied  with  deep  appreciation 
of  their  courtesy,  and  he  added :  "  Those 
who  differ  from  and  oppose  us  will  yet  see 
that  defeat  was  better  for  their  own  good  than 
if  they  had  been  successful."  He  not  only 
had  no  feeling  of  malicious  triumph  himself, 
he  had  no  patience  with  it  in  others.  When 
Mr.  Raymond,  who  represented  his  special 
friends  in  New  York,  wrote  a  letter  breathing 
fire  and  vengeance  against  the  officials  of  the 
custom-house,  who,  he  said,  had  come  near 
defeating  him  in  the  race  for  Congress,  the 
President  merely  observed  that  it  was  "  the 
spirit  of  such  letters  as  that  which  created 
the  factious  malignity  of  which  Mr.  Raymond 
complained."  To  all  those  who  begged  for  a 
rigorous  and  exemplary  course  of  punishment 
for  political  derelictions  in  the  late  canvass  his 
favorite  expression  was,  "  I  am  in  favor  of 
short  statutes  of  limitation  in  politics."  He 
rejected  peremptorily  some  suggestions  of 
General  Butler  and  the  War  Department 
having  in  view  the  punishment  of  flagrant 
offenders  in  New  York :  "  We  must  not  sully 
victory  with  harshness."  His  thoughtful  and 
chivalrous  consideration  for  the  beaten  party 
did  not,  however,  prevent  him  from  feeling 
the  deepest  gratitude  for  those  who  had  la- 
bored on  his  side.  He  felt  that  the  humblest 
citizen  who  had  done  his  duty  had  claims 
upon  him.  Hearing  that  Deacon  John  Phil- 
lips of  Sturbridge,  Massachusetts,  a  man  who 
had  already  completed  his  104th  year,  and 
had  voted  at  every  presidential  election  since 
the  foundation  of  the  Government,  had  taken 
the  pains  to  go  to  the  polls  to  vote  for  him, 
the  President  wrote  him  a  grateful  letter  of 
thanks. 
The  example  [he  said]  of  such  devotion  to  civic 
duties  in  one  whose  days  have  already  been  ex- 
tended an  average  life-time  beyond  the  Psalmist's 
limit  cannot  but  be  valuable  and  fruitful.  It  is  not 
for  myself  only,  but  for  the  country  which  you 
have  in  your  sphere  served  so  long  and  so  well, 
thai  I  thank  you. 
The  venerable  man,  who  had  attained  his 
majority  in  the  midst  of  the  war  of  the  Revo- 
lution, and  who  had  arrived  at  middle  age 
before  this  century  opened,  answered  in  a 
note  which  greatly  pleased  and  moved  the 
President,  as  coming  from  one  of  the  oldest 
men  living  on  the  earth. 
1  Autograph  MS. 
Vol.  XXXVIII.— 92. 
I  feel  thai  1  have  no  detlra  to  live  [he  axi)  bui 
lusion  of  ■ 
the  power  of  God  d 
the  nations.    I   believe,  i>y  the  heJ|  you 
will  finish  Hi':  first,  iai> 
lishing  universal  freedom  and  1 
Union.    That  the  God  <>\  mei  y  will  i  le 
this  great  work,  and  through   life,  is    tflc   | 
your  unworthy  servant, 
There  is  one  phrase  of  the  Pfl 
of  the   10th  of  November  which    ire 
quoted  which  is  singularly  illustrative, 
of  the   quick   apprehension    with   which 
seized  upon  facts  of  importance,  but 
the  accuracy  and  method   widi  whi< 
certained  and  established  them.    Within  a 
hours  after  the  voting  had  closed  lie  Wi  -  able 
to  say  that  the  election  had  shown  that  u 
have  more   men   now  than  we  had  when  the 
war  began."    A  great  bundle  of  papers  which 
lies  before  us  as  we  write,  tilled  with  telegram^ 
from  every  quarter  annotated  in  his  own  • 
handwriting,    with   a   mass   of   figures   which 
would  have  dismayed  an  ordinal  \  .ant. 
shows  the  importanee  which   he  attach', 
this  fact  and  the  industry  with  which  he  in 
tigated  it.    In  his  message  to  G     . 
weeks  later  he  elaborated  this  statement 
the  utmost  care.    He  showed  from  the  - 
parative  votes  in  i860  and  in  1864  a  net  in- 
crease of  votes   during  the  three   years   and 
a  half  of  war  of  145,551.    The  aecomplished 
statisticians  of ''The  Tribune''  almanac  in  the 
following  month,  after  the  closest  study  of  the 
official  returns,  expressed  their  surprise  ••  at  the 
singular  accuracy  of  the  President's  figui 
An  extract  from  his  annual  message  to  Con- 
gress gives  the  best  summing  up  of  the  results 
of  the  election  that  has  ever  been  written. 
The  purpose  of  the  people  within  the  I 
to  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  Union  was  1 
more  firm  nor  more  nearly  unanimous  than  now. 
The   extraordinary  calmness  and  good  order  with 
which  the  millions  of  voters  met  and  mingl 
the  polls  give  strong  assurance  of  this.    Not  only 
all  those  who  supported  the  Union  ticket  so  called, 
but   a  great  majority  of  the  opposing    p 
may  be  fairly  claimed  to  entertain  and  to  he  actuated 
by  the  same  purpose.  It  is  an  unanswerable  argument 
to  this  effect,  that  no  candidate  for  any  office  what- 
ever, high  or  low.  has  ventured  to  seek  votes  on 
the  avowal  that  he  was  for  giving  up  the  Union. 
There  have  been  much  impugning 
much  heated  controversy  .is  to  the    proper  m 
and  best  mode  of  advancing  the  L'r.    n  <      se ;  but 
on  the  distinct  issue  of  Union  or  no  Union  the  pol- 
iticians   have  shown    their   instinctive    kn        I    - 
that  there  is  no  diversity  among    the   people.     In 
affording  the  people  the  fair  opportunity  of  she 
one  to  another  and  to  the  world  this  firmness  and 
unanimity  of  purpose,  the  election  has  been  of 
value  to  the  national  cause. 
On  the  day  of  election  General  McClellan
f02 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
resigned  his  commission  in  the  army,  and  the 
place  thus  made  vacant  was  filled  by  the  ap- 
pointment of  General  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  a  fit 
type  and  illustration  of  the  turn  in  the  tide  of 
affairs,  which  was  to  sweep  from  that  time 
rapidly  onward  to  the  great  and  decisive 
national  triumph. 
CHASE    AS    CHIEF-JUSTICE. 
Chief-Justice  Taney  died  on  the  12th  day 
o(  October.  1S64,  during  the  public  rejoicings 
that  hailed  the  success  of  the  Union  party  at 
the  autumnal  elections.  He  was  a  man  of 
amiable  character,  of  blameless  life,  of  great 
learning,  of  stainless  integrity;  yet  such  is  the 
un discriminating  cruelty  with  which  public 
opinion  executes  its  decrees,  that  this  aged  and 
upright  judge  was  borne  to  his  grave  with  few 
expressions  of  regret,  and  even  with  a  feeling 
not  wholly  suppressed  that  his  removal  formed 
a  part  of  the  good  news  which  the  autumn  had 
brought  to  the  upholders  of  the  Union.  Toil- 
some and  irreproachable  as  his  life  had  been, 
so  far  as  purity  of  intentions  were  concerned, 
it  was  marked  by  one  of  those  mistakes  which 
are  never  forgiven.  In  a  critical  hour  of  history 
he  had  made  a  decision  contrary  to  the  spirit 
of  the  age,  contrary  to  the  best  hopes  and  as- 
pirations of  the  nation  at  large.  Before  he  had 
assumed  the  grave  responsibilities  of  Chief-Jus- 
tice he  had  not  been  insensible  to  those  emotions 
and  sympathies  which  animated  the  majority 
of  his  countrymen  in  later  years.  So  early  as 
181 8  he  had  spoken  of  slavery  as  a  blot  on  our 
national  character,  and  expressed  the  confident 
hope  that  it  would  effectually  though  gradu- 
ally be  wiped  away.  "Until  it  shall  be  ac- 
complished, until  the  time  shall  come  when  we 
can  point  without  a  blush  to  the  language 
held  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,"  he 
said,  "every  friend  of  humanity  will  seek  to 
lighten  the  galling  chain  of  slavery  and  better 
to  the  utmost  of  his  power  the  wretched  con- 
dition of  the  slave."  But  when  he  assumed 
public  office  he  became  a  part  of  the  machin- 
ery of  his  party.  He  accepted  its  tenets  and 
carried  them  unflinchingly  to  their  logical  re- 
sult, so  that  to  a  mind  so  upright  and  straight- 
forward in  its  operations  there  seemed  nothing 
revolting  in  the  enunciation  of  the  dismal  and 
inhuman  propositions  of  the  Dred  Scott  decis- 
ion. His  whole  life  was  therefore  read  in  the 
light  of  that  one  act,  and  when  he  died,  the 
nation  he  had  so  faithfully  served  according 
to  his  lights  looked  upon  his  death  as  the  re- 
moval of  a  barrier  to  human  progress.  The 
general  feeling  found  expression  in  the  grim 
and  profane  witticism  of  Senator  Wade,  uttered 
some  months  before,  when  it  seemed  likely 
that  the  Chief -Justice  would  survive  the  ad- 
ministration of  Mr.  Lincoln :  "  No  man  ever 
prayed  as  I  did  that  Taney  might  outlive 
James  Buchanan's  term,  and  now  I  am  afraid 
I  have  overdone  it." 
The  friends  of  Mr.  Chase  immediately 
claimed  that  the  place  thus  vacated  belonged 
to  him.  They  not  only  insisted  that  he  was  best 
fitted  of  all  the  public  men  in  the  country  for 
the  duties  of  that  high  office ;  that  the  great 
issues  of  the  war  would  be  safest  in  his  hands ; 
that  the  rights  of  the  freedmen  would  be  most 
secure  with  an  ardent  and  consistent  abolition- 
ist ;  that  the  national  currency  would  be  best 
cared  for  by  its  parent;  they  also  claimed  that 
the  place  had  been  promised  him  by  the  Presi- 
dent, and  this  claim,  though  not  wholly  true, 
was  not  without  foundation.  Several  times 
during  the  last  year  or  two  the  President  had 
intimated  in  conversation  with  various  friends 
of  Mr.  Chase  that  he  thought  favorably  of  ap- 
pointing him  Chief-Justice  if  a  vacancy  should 
occur.  These  expressions  had  been  faithfully 
reported  to  the  Secretary,  and  promptly  entered 
by  him  in  his  diary  at  the  time.1  When  Mr. 
Curtin  was  a  candidate  for  reelection  as  gov- 
ernor of  Pennsylvania,  John  Covode  came  to 
Mr.  Chase  and  told  him  if  Curtin  was  elected 
governor  he  would  shape  matters  in  Pennsyl- 
vania so  as  to  secure  its  delegates  in  the  presi- 
dential convention,  but  that  the  majority  of  the 
loyal  men  in  Pennsylvania  preferred  Mr.  Chase. 
Mr.  Chase  replied  that  no  speculations  as  to 
Governor  Curtin's  future  course  could  excuse 
the  loyal  men  from  supporting  him  now; 
that  the  future  must  take  care  of  itself;  that  he, 
Mr.  Chase,  was  not  anxious  for  the  Presidency; 
that  there  was  but  one  position  in  the  Gov- 
ernment which  he  would  really  like  to  have, 
if  it  were  possible  to  have  it  without  any  sacri- 
fice of  principle  or  public  interest,  and  that 
was  the  chief-justiceship.  At  this  Mr.  Covode 
expressed  himself  satisfied,  and  went  away  re- 
solved to  permit  the  renomination  of  Curtin, 
which,  it  may  be  said  in  passing,  he  could 
have  done  nothing  to  prevent.  Mr.  Chase's 
eyes  seemed  pretty  constantly  fixed  upon  the 
bench  in  the  intervals  of  his  presidential  aspi- 
rations. For  a  few  days  after  his  resignation 
his  feelings  against  the  President  were  of  such 
bitterness  that  he  seems  to  have  given  up 
that  prospect.  He  was  on  the  verge  of  open 
revolt  from  the  party  with  which  he  had  been 
so  long  associated.  In  his  diary  of  the  6th  of 
July  he  says : 
Pomeroy  says  he  means  to  go  on  a  buffalo  hunt 
and  then  to  Europe.  He  cannot  support  Lincoln, 
but  won't  desert  his  principles.  I  am  much  of  the 
same  sentiments,  though  not  willing  now  to  de- 
cide what  duty  may  demand  next  fall.  Pomeroy  re- 
marked thaton  the  news  of  my  resignation  reaching 
1  August  30,  1863.
CHASE  AS   CHIEF-JUSTICE. 
the  Senate,  several  of  the  Democratic  senators  came     was,  of  COUIBC,  ab  olutcly  and  unouctionablv 
to    him  and  said,    «  We  Ml  go  with   you   now  for     honest,  but  that  VirtUC  LSI  in  public 
Chase."  This  meant  nothing  but  a  vehement  de- 
sire to  overthrow  the  existing  Administration,  but 
might  mean  much  if  the  Democrats  would  only 
cut  loose  from  slavery,  and  go  for  freedom  and  the 
protection  of  labor  by  a  national  currency.  If  they 
would  do  that  I  would  cheerfully  go  for  any  man 
they  might  nominate. 
A  few  days  later  he  wrote  recounting  his 
efforts  for  the  public  good,  and  added : 
My  efforts  were  stoutly  resisted  outside,  and  had 
not  earnest  sympathy  inside  of  the  Administration. 
They  were  steadily  prevailing,  however,  when  a 
sense  of  duty  to  myself  and  the  country  also  com- 
pelled me  to  resign. 
men  that  one  should  celebrate  it  .:. 
He  passed  the  heat  of  the  mid  .inmner    in  the 
White  Mountains.  During  bit  ab 
of  bitter  and   sullen   comment   ton 
Pre  ident  and  hi  i  at  <><  iate     □  the  I   ibinet 
continued,-  but  after  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  and 
the  evident  respon  e  of  the  count]  Chi- 
cago nomination.,,  his  tone  underwent  a  sud- 
den change.  He  announced  himself  at  last  in 
favor  of  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  In  his 
diary  of  the  17th  of  September,  after  he  had 
returned  to  Washington,  he  said: 
I  have  seen  the  President  twice.    .    .    .   Hi-,  man- 
ner was  cordial  and  so  were  his  words;  and  I  hear 
A  few  malignant  opponents  of  Mr.  Lincoln    of  nothing  but  good-will  from  him.  But  he  is  not 
still  continued  to  write  to  Mr.  Chase  and  keep    at  a11  demonstrative,  either  in  speech  or  man 
alive  in  his  mind  the  fancy  of  a  possible  nomi-    feel  that  '  do  not  kll0w  him-  a,ul  '  found  no  actl0n 
nation  to  the  Presidency.   His  weakness  before    °n  tw'^at  he  ^  or  doe!'  :      '  li  jf  my  convic! 
.t  i     i      ]  i  11      1  1  -ii      that  the  cause  1  love  ana  the  genera   interests  ot  the 
the  people  had  been  signally  shown  by  an  il  •    C0Lllltry  will  be  best  promo^d  by  hls  ;cclectioilf 
and  I  have  resolved  to  join  my  efforts  to  those  of 
almost  the  whole  body  of  my  friends  in 
He  continues  in  his  usual  tone  of  self-por- 
traiture : 
I  have  been  told  that  the    President   said  he  and 
I    could  not  get   along  together   in    the    Cabinet. 
Doubtless  there  was  a  difference  of  tempera 
and  on  some  points  of  judgment  1  may  have 
too   earnest   and   eager,  while    I    thought   him  not 
earnest  enough  and  too  slow.    On  some  occasions, 
indeed,  I  found  that  it  was  so.    But  1  never  dc 
anything  else  than  his  complete  success,  and  never 
indulged   a  personal  feeling  incompatible  with  ab- 
solute fidelity  to  his  administration. 
He  repeats  over  and  again  in  his  letters  and 
diaries  that  he  never  really  desired  the  Pi 
dency  ;  that  he  seized  the  first  opportunity 
withdrawing  from  the  canvass.  From  Wash- 
ington he  went  to  Ohio,  where  he  brought  him- 
self at  last  to  make  an  open  declaration  of  his 
preference  for  Mr.  Lincoln  as  against  McClel- 
lan  ;  he  voted  for  the  Republican  ticket  at  the 
election  in  October,  and  sent  a  telegram  to  the 
President  that  the  result  was  -  all  right  in  Ohio 
and  Indiana." 
The  death  of  Chief- Justice  Taney  occurred 
immediately  afterwards,  and  the  canvass  for  a 
successor  on  the  part  of  the  friends  of  Mr. 
Chase  began  without  a  moment's  delay.  Mr. 
Sumner  was  particularly  ardent  and  pressing. 
"A  Chief-Justice  is  needed."  he  wrote  to  the 
President,  "  whose  position  on  the  slavery 
question  is  already  fixed  and  will  not  need 
argument  of  counsel  to  convert  him."   A  m  ss 
judged  attempt  to  secure  him  the  nomination 
for  Congress  in  Cincinnati,  but  in  spite  of  this 
he  still  responded  readily  to  suggestions  from 
factious  partisans.  To  one  writing  from  Mich- 
igan he  replied  that  he  was  now  a  private  cit- 
izen and  expected  to  remain  such. 
No  one  [he  said]  has  been  authorized  to  use  my 
name  in  any  political  connection,  except  that  I  said 
I  should  not  feel  at  liberty  to  refuse  my  services  to 
the  citizens  of  my  congressional  district  if  spon- 
taneously and  unanimously  demanded.  I  think  now 
that  1  erred  in  saying  this  ;  but  it  seemed  right  at 
the  time.  No  such  movement  as  the  one  you  sug- 
gest seems  to  me  expedient  so  far  as  I  am  concerned. 
Whether  it  would  be  expedient  or  patriotic  in  refer- 
ence to  some  other  name,  I  am  not  able  to  judge.  I 
see  only,  as  all  see,  that  there  is  a  deplorable  lack 
of  harmony,  caused  chiefly,  in  my  judgment,  by  the 
injudicious  course  of  some  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  chief  ad- 
visers, and  his  own  action  on  their  advice.1 
Even  to  comparative  strangers  he  could  not 
write  without  speaking  slightingly  of  the  Pres- 
ident. To  one  he  said :  "  I  fear  our  good 
President  is  so  anxious  for  the  restoration  of 
the  Union  that  he  will  not  care  sufficiently 
about  the  basis  of  representation."  To  another, 
with  a  singular  and  unusual  lack  of  dignity, 
he  said :  "  Some  seem  to  think  that  a  man 
who  has  handled  millions  must  be  rich,  and 
so  I  should  be  if  I  could  have  retained  for 
myself  even  one  per  cent,  of  what  I  saved  to 
the  people ;  but  I  would  not  exchange  the 
consciousness  of  having  kept  my  hands  free 
from  the  touch  of  one  cent  of  public  treasure 
for  all  the  riches  in  the  world."    Mr.  Chase 
1  Chase  to  Charles  S.  May,  August  3r,  1S64. 
2  Samuel  Bowles  wrote  September  4,  1864  :  "  Do 
you  notice  that  the  Antislavery  Standard '  and  the 
'  Liberator,'  the  representatives  of  the  old  abolitionists, 
are  both  earnest  for  Lincoln  ?  Yet  a  new  crop  of  rad- 
icals have  sprang  up,  who  are  resisting  the  President 
and  making  mischief.    Chase   is   going;  around,   ped- 
dling his  griefs  in  private  ears  and  sowing  dissal 
tion  about  Lincoln.    Oh.  how  little  great  men  can  be  !  " 
['•  Life  and  Times  of  Samuel  Bowles,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  413.]
704 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
of  solicitations  of  the  same  character  came  in 
upon  the  President,  and  they  were  reenforced 
inside  the  Cabinet  by  the  earnest  influence  of 
Mr.  Fessenden  and  Mr.  Stanton;  and  although 
these  and  other  friends  of  Mr.  Chase  were  so 
strongly  encouraged  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  response 
that  they  had  no  hesitation  in  assuring  him  that 
he  would  without  doubt  be  made  Chief-Justice, 
the  President  gave  no  decided  intimation  of 
his  purpose.  It  is  altogether  probable  that  he 
intended  from  the  first  to  appoint  him,  but  he 
resolved  at  the  same  time  to  say  nothing  about 
it  until  he  was  ready  to  act.  He  said  to  his 
secretary.  "  I  shall  be  very  '  shut  pan '  about 
this  matter."  When  one  da)?-  his  secretary 
brought  him  a  letter  from  Mr.  Chase  in  Ohio, 
he  said,  "  What  is  it  about  ?  "  "  Simply  a  kind 
and  friendly  letter,"  the  secretary  answered. 
Mr.  Lincoln,  without  reading  it,  replied,  with 
his  shrewd  smile,  "  File  it  with  his  other  rec- 
ommendations." 
So  reticent  was  Mr.  Lincoln  in  regard  to  his 
purpose  that  the  enemies  of  Mr.  Chase,  who 
were  especially  abundant  and  active  in  Ohio, 
endeavored  to  prevent  his  nomination  by  the 
presentation  of  strong  and  numerously  signed 
protests  against  it.  The  President  received 
them  not  too  affably,  and  while  he  listened  re- 
spectfully to  all  they  had  to  say  in  regard  to 
the  merits  of  the  case,  he  sternly  checked  them 
when  they  began  to  repeat  instances  of  Mr. 
Chase's  personal  hostility  to  himself.  He  treated 
with  the  same  contempt  a  more  serious  state- 
ment which  he  received  from  New  York  that 
Mr.  Cisco,  who  had  personally  declared  for 
McClellan,  gave  as  his  reason  for  such  a  course 
that  Secretary  Chase  had  told  him  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  incompetent  and  unfit  for  the 
position  he  held,  though  he  added  that  Mr. 
Chase  on  his  return  to  Washington  had  informed 
him  that  he  then  considered  it  his  public  duty 
to  support  Mr.  Lincoln  for  the  Presidency. 
Strangely  enough  from  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment itself  came  an  earnest  protest  against  the 
late  Secretary.  The  venerable  Judge  Lewis, 
Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  protested 
that  he  was  not  a  man  of  large  legal  or  finan- 
cial knowledge;  that  his  selfishness  had  gradu- 
ally narrowed  and  contracted  his  views  of 
things  in  general ;  that  he  was  amazingly  igno- 
rant of  men;  that  it  was  the  opinion  in  the 
department  that  he  really  desired  towards  the 
end  of  his  term  of  office  to  injure  and  as  far  as 
possible  to  destroy  the  influence  and  popu- 
larity of  the  Administration.  By  his  constant 
denunciation  of  the  extravagance  of  disburse- 
ments, and  his  tone  of  malevolent  comment 
against  every  act  of  the  President,  he  clearly 
indicated  his  desire  to  excite  popular  discon- 
tent and  grumbling  against  the  Government. 
Judge  Lewis  said  that  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  sycophants  the  entire  department  was  re- 
lieved by  the  change.  Even  Mr.  Field,  for  whose 
sake  he  gave  up  his  place,  expressed  himself 
as  gratified  by  it.  To  all  these  representations 
Mr.  Lincoln  made  no  reply.  He  was  equally 
silent  as  to  the  merits  of  other  distinguished 
jurists  whose  names  were  mentioned  to  him. 
He  had  the  highest  esteem  and  regard  for  Mr. 
Evarts ;  he  had  great  confidence  in  the  legal 
learning  and  weight  of  character  of  Judge 
Swayne ;  he  had  a  feeling  of  hearty  friendship 
for  Mr.  Montgomery  Blair,  and  although  he 
had  thought  proper  in  the  preceding  autumn 
to  ask  for  his  resignation,  the  intimate  and  even 
affectionate  relations  which  he  maintained 
towards  the  ex-Postmaster-General  encour- 
aged him  and  his  friends  to  believe  that  he 
would  receive  the  appointment.  The  late  Vice- 
President  Wilson,  shortly  before  his  death,1  said 
that  Blair  met  him  one  day  near  the  War  De- 
partment and  solicited  his  good  word,  saying 
that  Chase  would  certainly  not  be  nominated. 
Wilson  was  startled  by  Blair's  confident  tone 
and  went  at  once  to  the  President,  to  whom 
he  reiterated  the  arguments  already  used  in 
favor  of  Mr.  Chase's  nomination,  saying  that 
the  President  could  well  afford  to  overlook  the 
harsh  and  indecorous  things  which  Chase  had 
said  of  him  during  the  summer.  "  Oh  !  as  to 
that,"  replied  Lincoln,  "  I  care  nothing.  Of 
Mr.  Chase's  ability  and  of  his  soundness  on 
the  general  issues  of  the  war  there  is,  of  course, 
no  question.  I  have  only  one  doubt  about  his 
appointment.  He  is  a  man  of  unbounded 
ambition,  and  has  been  working  all  his  life  to 
become  President.  That  he  can  never  be;  and 
I  fear  that  if  I  make  him  Chief -Justice  he  will 
simply  become  more  restless  and  uneasy  and 
neglect  the  place  in  his  strife  and  intrigue  to 
make  himself  President.  If  I  were  sure  that 
he  would  go  on  the  bench  and  give  up  his 
aspirations  and  do  nothing  but  make  himself 
a  great  judge,  I  would  not  hesitate  a  moment." 
So  strong  was  this  impression  upon  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's mind  that  he  half  formed  the  intention 
of  sending  for  Mr.  Chase  and  saying  frankly 
to  him  that  the  way  was  open  to  him  to  be- 
come the  greatest  Chief -Justice  the  Supreme 
Court  had  ever  had  if  he  would  dismiss  at 
once  and  forever  the  subject  of  the  Presidency 
from  his  mind.  But  speaking  on  the  subject 
with  Senator  Sumner,  he  saw  in  a  moment's 
conversation  how  liable  to  misconstruction  and 
misapprehension  such  action  would  be.  In 
his  eagerness  to  do  what  he  thought  best  for 
the  interests  of  both  Mr.  Chase  and  the  coun- 
try, he  lost  sight  for  an  instant  of  the  construc- 
tion which  Mr.  Chase  would  inevitably  place 
upon  such  a  proposition  coming  from  his  twice- 
successful  rival.  Convinced  as  he  was  of  Chase's 
1  April,  1874.    Conversation  with  J.  G.  N.
CHASE  AS   CHIEF-JUSTICE 
great  powers,  and  hoping  rather  against  his 
own  convictions  that  once  upon  the  bench  he 
would  see  in  what  direction  his  best  prospects 
of  usefulness  and  fame  rested,  he  concluded 
to  take  all  risks,  and  on  the  6th  of  December 
nominated  him  to  the  Senate  for  Chief-J  ustice. 
He  communicated  his  intention  to  no  one,  and 
wrote  out  the  nomination  in  full  with  his  own 
hand.  It  was  confirmed  at  once  without  refer- 
ence to  a  committee.  Mr.  Chase  on  reaching 
home  the  night  of  the  same  day  was  saluted 
at  his  door  under  his  new  title  by  his  daugh- 
ter, Mrs.  Sprague.  He  at  once  sent  the  Presi- 
dent a  note,  saying: 
Before  I  sleep  I  must  thank  you  for  this  mark  of 
your'  confidence,  and  especially  for  the  manner  in 
which  the  nomination  was  made.  I  will  never  for- 
get either,  and  trust  you  will  never  regret  either. 
Be  assured  that  1  prize  your  confidence  and  good- 
will more  than  any  nomination  to  office. 
The  appointment  was  received  with  the 
greatest  satisfaction  throughout  the  Union. 
Although  the  name  of  Mr.  Chase  had  been 
especially  pressed  upon  the  President  by  the 
public  men  who  represented  the  most  advanced 
antislavery  sentiment  of  the  North,  the  ap- 
pointment when  once  made  met  with  little 
opposition  from  any  quarter.  Mr.  Chase,  in  a 
long  life  of  political  prominence  and  constant 
controversy,  had  won  the  universal  respect  of 
the  country,  not  only  for  his  abilities,  but  also 
for  his  courage,  his  integrity,  and  a  certain  solid 
weight  of  character  of  which  his  great  head  and 
massive  person  seemed  a  fitting  embodiment. 
He  had  placed  his  portrait  on  the  lower  de- 
nominations of  the  legal-tender  notes,  saying 
with  his  customary  heavy  pleasantry,  "I  had 
put  the  President's  head  on  the  higher  priced 
notes,  and  my  own,  as  was  becoming,  on  the 
smaller  ones."  His  handsome  face  and  features 
had  thus  become  more  familiar  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people  than  those  of  any  other  man  in  America; 
and  though  neither  then  nor  at  any  other  period 
of  his  life  did  he  become  what  could  be  called 
universally  popular,  the  image  of  him  became 
fixed  in  the  general  instinct  as  a  person  of  seri- 
ous importance  in  the  national  life.  The  people 
who  gave  themselves  the  trouble  to  reason 
about  the  matter  said  it  was  impossible  that 
an  original  abolitionist  should  be  untrue  to 
the  principles  of  freedom,  or  that  the  father 
of  the  national  currency  should  ever  disown 
his  own  offspring;  while  those  who  thought 
and  spoke  on  impulse  took  it  for  granted 
that  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Chase  should  never 
for  any  length  of  time  be  out  of  the  highest 
employment. 
After  all,  the  fears  of  the  President  in  regard 
to  the  Chief -J  ustice  were  better  founded  than 
his  hopes.    Mr.  Chase  took  his  place  on  the 
bench  with  .• 
whole  duly  in  I 
undoubted  powers  and  hi    pi  > 
try  to  making  nun  iel(  a  woi 
the  great  juri  ' .  r  ho  before  h  m  h    I  ilk  u 
the  bench,  but  Ik.-  could   i 
political  affair  ■  of  the  i 
I  le  still   con  sidered   1. 
counteract  the  m 
Pre  iident  ton  <  iliation  and  . 
(.<>n  itruction.    His  i  light 
in  hi;  letters  and  diaries  <  otitis  .  the 
hour  he  took  his  pla<  e  on   tl 
the  fighting  had  ended  around  Richmond, and 
on  the  capitulation  of  Pee  the  fabr 
Southern   Confederacy   had  fallen  about  the 
ears  of  its  framers  lit.  .  the 
Chief-Justice  felt  himself  called  or.  I 
at  once  to  the  front,  and  he  wrol  Balti- 
more to  the  President : 
I  am  very  anxious  about  the  future,   and   most 
about  the  principle-,  which  are  to  govern  recon- 
struction, for  as  these  principle-  arc  sound  or  un- 
sound so  will  be  the  work  and  it  You 
have  no  time  to  read  a  long  letter  nor  have  I  time 
to  write  one,  so  1  will  be  brief.  And  first  as  to 
Virginia.  1 
He  advised  the  President  to  stand  by  the 
Peirpoint  government.    As  to  the  other  - 
States,  he  suggested  the  enrollment  of  the  loyal 
citizens  without  regard  to  complexion. 
This,   you   know   [he   said],  has   long  been   my 
opinion.   .   .    .  The  application  of  this  principle  to 
Louisiana  is  made  somewhat  difficult  by  the  <•  | 
ization  which  has  already  taken  place,  but  h 
the  Constitution  authorize  lature  to  extend 
the  right  of  suffrage.    .    .    .   What   reaches   me  of 
the  condition  of  things  in  Louisiana  impresses  me 
strongly  with  the  belief  that  th 
of  the  greatest  benefit  to  the  whole  population. 
He   advised,  as    to    Arkansas,  an  amend- 
ment of  the  Constitution,  or  a  new  com 
tion,  the  members  to  be  elected  by  the  '. 
citizens,    without    distinction    o\    color.    • 
all  the   other   States,"  he   said.  "th< 
principle  may  be  easily  applied.*'    He  cl 
by  saving  :    "  1   most   respectfully,  but    most 
earnestly,   commend   these  your 
attention.    God  gives  you  a  gre  and 
a    great    opportunity.      May    he    guide 
in  die  use  o\  them.'"'    Put   the   -  the 
President   delivered    from   a   win  "  the 
White   House  that  final  speech.  I 
which   he  had  prepared  without  waiting 
the  instructions  of  the  Chief-Justice,  and  the 
day  after  Mr.  Chase  wrote  again  from    B 
more  reviewing  the  record  ot  both,  reminding 
the  President  of  his  former  errors  from  which 
Mr.  Chase  had  tried  to  save  him.  dis     ss     g 
1  Chase  to  Lincoln,  April  II,  iS   J
•o6 
ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 
in  full  the  Louisiana  case,  of  which  the  Presi- 
dent had  made  so  masterly  and  luminous  a 
presentation  in  his  speech,  insinuating  that  if 
the  President  were  only  as  well  informed  as 
he  was  he  would  see  things  very  differently.1  Al- 
most before  the  ink  was  dry  on  this  unasked 
and  superfluous  sermon  the  President  was 
dead.  The  Chief-Justice,  writing  to  a  friend  in 
Ohio,  said  :  "  The  schemes  of  politicians  will 
now  adjust  themselves  to  the  new  conditions. 
I  want  no  part  in  them."-  He  retained  his 
attitude  at  the  head  of  the  extreme  Republi- 
cans until  about  the  time  of  the  impeachment 
of  Andrew  Johnson.  Over  this  famous  trial 
he  presided  with  the  greatest  dignity  and  im- 
partiality ;  with  a  knowledge  of  law  which 
was  never  at  fault,  and  with  a  courage  which 
rose  superior  to  all  the  threats  and  all  the  en- 
treaties of  his  friends.  But  his  action  during 
the  trial  and  its  result  alienated  him  at  once 
from  the  great  body  of  those  who  had  been 
his  strongest  supporters,  while  it  created  a 
momentary  appearance  of  popularity  among 
his  life-long  opponents.  His  friends  began  to 
persuade  him,  and  he  began  to  think,  that  he 
might  be  the  candidate  of  the  Democratic 
party  for  the  Presidency.  He  commenced 
writing  voluminous  letters  to  leading  Demo- 
crats expressing  his  indifference  to  the  nomi- 
nation, but  at  the  same  time  saying  he  had 
always  been  a  Democrat,  was  a  Democrat  still, 
and  that  the  course  which  the  Democracy 
ought  to  adopt  would  be  to  embrace  true 
Democratic  principles  and  declare  for  universal 
suffrage  in  the  reconstruction  of  the  Union. 
He  did  not  flinch  for  an  instant  from  his  posi- 
tion on  this  important  question.  He  said  :  "  I 
believe  I  could  refuse  the  throne  of  the  world 
if  it  were  offered  me  at  the  price  of  abandoning 
the  cause  of  equal  rights  and  exact  justice  to 
all  men."3  Following  his  inveterate  habit  of 
taking  a  subjective  view  of  the  world  of  poli- 
tics, he  thought  it  possible  that  the  Democratic 
party  might  be  converted  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye  by  virtue  of  his  broad  and  liberal  views. 
He  cherished  this  pleasant  delusion  for  several 
months.  Whenever  an  obscure  politician  called 
upon  him  or  wrote  to  him  from  some  remote 
corner  of  the  country,  expressing  a  desire  that 
he  should  be  the  Democratic  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  he  would  say,  "  Such  indications 
.  .  .  afford  ground  for  hope  that  a  change  is 
going  on  in  the  views  and  policy  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  which  warrants  good  hopes  for  the 
future."4    There  was  for  a  moment  a  vague 
impression  among  the  leading  Democrats  that 
as  it  was  hopeless  to  make  a  campaign  with 
one  of  their  own  party  against  the  overwhelm- 
ing popularity  of  General  Grant,  it  might  be 
worth  while  to  try  the  experiment  of  nominat- 
ing the  Chief -Justice  with  the  hope  of  diverting 
a  portion  of  the  Republican  vote,  and  a  corre- 
spondence took  place  between  August  Belmont 
and  Mr.  Chase  in  relation  to  that  subject.  Mr. 
Chase  wrote  \ 
For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  I  have  been, 
in  my  political  views  and  sentiments,  a  Democrat,  and 
I  still  think  that  upon  questionsof  finance,  commerce, 
and  administration  generally,  the  old  Democratic 
principles  afford  the  best  guidance.5 
But  he  stoutly  asserted,  even  in  the  face  of 
this  temptation,  his  belief  in  universal  suffrage, 
though  he  coupled  it  with  universal  amnesty, 
and  said : 
If  the  white  citizens  hitherto  prominent  in  affairs 
will  simp'iy  recognize  their  [the  negroes']  right  of 
suffrage,  and  assure  them  against  future  attempts  to 
take  it  from  them,  I  am  sure  that  those  citizens  will 
be  welcomed  back  to  their  old  lead  with  joy  and 
acclamation,  .  .  .  and  a  majority,  if  not  all,  the 
Southern  States  may  be  carried  for  the  Democratic 
candidates  at  the  next  election. 
He  repeated  this  sanguine  statement  in  his 
correspondence  with  other  leading  Demo- 
crats, but  the  negotiation  came  to  nothing; 
the  Democratic  convention  met  in  New  York, 
and  Mr.  Chase's  name,  mentioned  by  acci- 
dent, gained  a  roar  of  cheers  from  the  assem- 
bly and  one-half  of  one  vote  from  a  California 
delegate.  He  professed  his  entire  indifference 
to  the  result,  and  took  no  further  interest  in 
the  canvass.  An  injudicious  Republican  poli- 
tician in  New  York  asked  him  to  address  a 
Grant  meeting.  He  declined,  of  course,  stat- 
ing that  he  could  not  unreservedly  support  the 
Republican  ticket,  and  that  this  was  not  the 
time  for  discrimination  in  a  public  address. 
"  The  action  of  the  two  parties  has  obliged  me 
to  resume  with  my  old  faith  my  old  position, 
.  .  .  that  of  Democrat,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
free  and  independent."  When  his  old  enemy, 
General  Blair,  came  to  the  front  in  the  progress 
of  the  canvass  and  rather  overshadowed  the 
more  conservative  Seymour,  the  Chief -Justice 
intimated  6  that  men  of  his  way  of  thinking 
would  be  constrained  to  the  support  of  Gen- 
eral Grant. 
But  if  the  political  attitude  of  Mr.  Chase  in 
his  later  years  was  a  subject   of  amazement 
1  "  I  most  earnestly  wish  you  could  have  read  the 
New  Orleans  papers  for  the  past  few  months.  Your 
duties  have  not  allowed  it.  I  have  read  them  a  good 
deal ;  quite  enough  to  be  certain  that  if  you  had  read 
what  I  have  your  feelings  of  humanity  and  justice 
would  not  let  you  rest  till  all  loyalists  are  made  equal 
in  the  right  of  self-protection  by  suffrage."    [Chase  to 
Lincoln,  April  12,  1865.] 
2  Chase  to  Ashley,  April  16,  1865. 
'•'  Chase  to  Barney,  May  29,  1868.  4  ibid. 
5  Chase  to  Belmont,  May  30,  1868. 
G   In aletter toCol. Brownof Kentucky,Sept. 29,1868.
TO   GEORGE   KENNAN.  7o7 
and  sorrow  to  his  ardent  supporters,  his  de  was  the  impres  ion  in 
cisionsupon  the  bench  were  a  no  less  startling  of  the  United  Sta 
surprise  to  those  who  had  insisted  upon  his  perfect  integrity,  the  high  < 
appointment  as  the  surest  means  ofconserv-  patriotism  of  this  man,  1     I 
ing  all  the  victories  of  the  war.    He  who  had  out  by  his  tirelc 
sustained  Mr.  Stanton  in  his  most  energetic  fare,  he  was  mourned  and 
and  daring  acts  during  the  war  now  declared  of  all  errorsand  infirn 
such   acts   illegal;  he   who   had   continually  Although  his  appoint] 
criticized,  not  always  loyally,  the  conduct  of  plished  .'ill  the  good  which  Mr.  I 
the  President  for  what  he  considered  his  weak  for  when  he  made  it.  if  <  am*  ■'  I 
reverence  for  the  rights  of  States,  now  became  take.    Mr.  Chase  had  i 
the    earnest    champion   of  State    rights;  and  public.    He   was  entitled  rd   the 
finally  the  man  to  whose  personal  solicitations  Republic  could  give  him;  and 
a  majority  of  Congress  had  yielded  in  passing  in  giving  to  his  most  powerful  an<: 
the  legal-tender  act,  without  which  he  said  tinguished   rival   the  'iich  i 
that  the  war  could  not  have  been  successfully  President  ever  has  it  in  his  power 
carried  on,  from  his  place  on  the  bench  de-  gave  an  exemplar}-  proof  of  the  magnanimity 
clared  the  act  unconstitutional.     But  so  firm  and  generosity  of  his  own  spirit. 
bflffl 
LIFE. 
I  
AM  o'er-weary  picturing  the  strife ; 
This  is  a  solemn  fate  —  to  ride  to  death 
Lashed  through  the  hurrying  fatal  lists  of  life, 
Strengthless  to  cease,  begging  for  one  short  breath, 
Yet  spurned  for  answer  by  a  Power  that  thrusts 
Its  spurs  into  the  soul.    Upon  the  brow 
Stand  beads  of  blood ;  the  very  javelin  rusts 
From  tears ;  the  drooping  form  can  scarce  but  bow 
To  earth.    "  One  moment,  Power,  one  resting-spacc. 
Have  mercy!  "   "  On,  on,  on  !  "  the  stern  reply. 
I  urge, "  I  once  have  triumphed,  is  not  grace 
For  victory  ?  "   "  Have  on !   Thy  grace  am  I ! " 
"  Is  there  no  pause,  no  rest,  however  brief?" 
"  On  to  the  fight !    Thy  death  is  thy  relief." 
Louise  M 
TO    GEORGE    KENNAX. 
UNFLINCHING  Dante  of  a  later  day. 
Thou  who  hast  wandered  through  the  realms  oi  pain 
And  seen  with  aching  breast  and  whirling  brain 
Woes  which  thou  wert  unable  to  allay, 
What  frightful  visions  hast  thou  brought  away: 
Of  torments,  passions,  agonies,  struggles  vain 
To  break  the  prison  walls,  to  rend  the  chain  — 
Of  hopeless  hearts  too  desperate  to  pray  ! 
Men  are  the  devils  of  that  pitiless  hell ! 
Men  guard  the  labyrinth  of  that  ninefold  curse  ! 
Marvel  of  marvels'!    Thou  hast  lived  to  tell. 
In  prose  more  sorrowful  than  Dante's  verse, 
Of  pangs  more  grievous,  sufferings  more  fell. 
Than  Dante  or  his  master  dared  rehearse ! 
Nmthaa  Haskell  i
THE  PHARAOH  OF  THE  EXODUS,  AND  HIS  SON, 
IN    THE    LIGHT    OF    THEIR    MONUMENTS. 
ONLY  in   its   later   i 
c 
3.     PRINCE    KHAMUS,    DECEASED. 
IFROM     LEPSIUS'S      "DENKMALER. 
book 
does    the    Bible   distin- 
guish   the  different    rulers 
of  Egypt  by  their  proper 
names.     The  word  "  Pha- 
raoh "  was  a  title  rather  than 
a  personal  appellation,  and 
was  borne  by  the  reigning 
king,  each  one  in  turn  down 
the  long  line  of  sovereigns. 
A   change   of   Pharaohs 
silently  occurs  in  the  bibli- 
cal story  between  the  second 
and  the  third  chapters  of 
the  Book  of  Exodus.   In 
Chapter  II.  we  read: 
Now  when  Pharaoh  heard 
this  thing,  he  sought  to  slay 
Moses.    (Ver.  i  5.) 
And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  course  of  those  many 
days,  that  the  king  of  Egypt  died  :  and  the  children 
of  Israel  sighed  by  reason  of  the  bondage,  and  they 
cried,  and  their  cry  came  up  unto  God  by  reason  of 
the  bondage.    (Ver.  23.) 
From  which  it  is  clear  that  one  Pharaoh  had 
passed  off  the  stage  —  the  one  who  is  commonly 
known  as  the  "  Pharaoh  of  the  Oppression." 
But  in  Chapter  III.  we  read  how  God  called 
unto  Moses  out  of  the  midst  of  the  burning 
bush,  and  said : 
Come  now,  therefore,  and  I  will  send  thee  unto 
Pharaoh,  that  thou  mayest  bring  forth  my  people 
the  children  of  Israel  out  of  Egypt.    (Ver.  10.) 
From  this  it  is  equally  clear  that  another 
Pharaoh  had  entered  upon  the  scene  —  the  one 
who  is  commonly  known  as  the  "  Pharaoh  of 
the  Exodus."  Everybody  being  acquainted 
with  the  peculiar  names  of  such  great  per- 
sonages, the  writer  of  the  Book  of  Exodus 
phrased  his  recital  after  the  manner  of  that 
modern  monarchic  formula,  "  The  King  is 
dead  !    Long  live  the  King  !  " 
Not  long  ago  we  were  astounded  to  see 
the  tomb  open  and  give  up,  among  its  treas- 
ures, the  first  of  these  two  sovereigns,  the 
person,  carefully  embalmed,  of  the  Pharaoh  of 
the  Oppression  —  to  behold  his  imperishable 
features  after  so  long  a  time  restored  to  view, 
and  to  find  how  remarkably  faithful  those 
portrait-statues  were  which  his  artists  had 
carved  when  he  was  in  the  bloom  of  youth 
or  in  the  prime  of  manhood.    Nor,  perhaps, 
have  we  forgotten  how  the  monuments  stand 
ready  to  unlock  the  mystery  in  regard  to  that 
daughter  of  his  who  saved  the  life  of  the 
foundling  Moses. 
And  still,  if  we  were  to  choose  between  the 
Pharaoh  of  the  Oppression  and  the  Pharaoh 
of  the  Exodus,  or  were  asked,  "  Out  of  the 
several  Pharaohs  mentioned  in  the  Bible, 
which  one  above  all  others  would  you  most 
wish  to  learn  more  about,  in  fact,  whatever 
the  archaeology  of  Egypt  can  teach  us?  "  with 
scarcely  a  moment's  hesitation  we  would  an- 
swer, "  The  Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus."  That 
one  who  replied,  "  Who  is  the  Lord,  that  I 
should  hearken  unto  his  voice  to  let  Israel  go  ?  " ; 
that  one  who  required  straw  as  well  as  bricks 
of  the  already  burdened  and  groaning  Hebrews; 
that  one  before  whom  the  contest  by  en- 
chantments took  place,  until  the  magicians 
gave  up,  exclaiming,  "This  is  the  finger  of 
God  " ;  that  one  who  recalled  his  consent  the 
instant  the  evils  were  removed ;  that  one  who, 
under  all  the  signs  and  wonders  and  plagues 
of  Jehovah,  hardened  his  heart  up  to  the  very 
entrance  of  death  into  his  dwelling  to  lay  low 
his  cherished  first-born  son,  the  heir  to  the 
throne ;  that  one  who  repented  having  thrust 
out  the  bondsmen,  and  pursued  after  them, 
and  overtook  them  encamping  by  the  sea; 
that  one,  in  fine,  upon  whose  hosts  the  sea 
returned  to  its  flow,  till  there  remained  not 
so  much  as  one  of  them. 
Do,  then,  the  antiquities  of  Egypt  really  and 
in  like  manner  illustrate  the  Pharaoh  of  the 
Exodus  ?  Did  he  cause  statues  to  be  made 
of  himself  which  show  just  how  he  looked  ? 
Have  the  inscriptions  anything  to  tell  us  about 
his  history  also  ?  Do  his  monuments  bear  out 
the  many  particulars  of  the  biblical  relation 
concerning  his  resistance  to  the  God  of  Israel, 
and  his  disastrous  defeat  ?  Do  they  clear  up 
the  mystery  of  his  first-born  son,  who  was  smit- 
ten on  that  fatal  midnight  when  the  Lord  passed 
through  the  land  and  entered  at  every  door 
whose  posts  were  not  sprinkled  with  blood  ? 
These  are  natural  questions,  which  we  are 
eager  to  have  answered  in  detail.  Why  not 
make  a  second  search  among  the  monuments? 
Many  households  among  us  are  accustomed 
to  go  to  a  painter  or  a  photographer  once  in 
a  while,  or  even  every  year,  to  put  on  record 
both  faces  and  numbers  of  the  family  group. 
This  custom,  however,  prevailed  in  the  days  of 
Rameses  as  well  as  in  our  own.    He  intended
BASH-BALL  —  FOR    'III I:    SPECTATOR 
verse  of  this.  The  "  rise  "  and  "  drop,"  which 
had  probably  existed  for  some  time  previous, 
then  took  on  definite  names  and  became  com- 
bined with  the  other  curves.  The  most  logical 
explanation  of  the  curvature  of  a  ball  depends 
upon  the  supposition  of  the  compression  of  the 
air  just  in  front  of  the  ball  and  a  corresponding 
rarefaction  immediately  behind  it,  so  that  the 
ball  by  its  friction  is  deflected  from  its  true 
course.  When  the  curves  were  mastered,  the 
tendency  of  the  pitchers  was  to  bring  the  hand 
up  above  the  hip  in  order  to  get  more  of  a 
twist  to  the  ball  and  thereby  assist  the  curve. 
The  'difficulty  experienced  by  umpires  in  con- 
trolling this  tendency  led  to  the  adoption  of  a 
rule  allowing  the  pitcher  to  deliver  the  ball 
from  any  point  below  the  shoulder.  This  rule 
prevailed  for  a  time,  but  no  sooner  were  the 
pitchers  allowed  this  leeway  than  they  began 
to  make  the  umpire's  task  equally  difficult 
again  by  getting  their  delivery  just  a  trifle 
higher  than  the  law  allowed.  In  order  to  put 
an  end  to  the  eternal  field  discussions  upon 
this  point  a  rule  was  passed  permitting  the 
pitcher  to  throw  the  ball  in  any  way  he  saw 
fit,  and  this  rule  has  met  with  comparatively 
good  success.  The  pitcher,  who  had  formerly 
been  placed  forty-five  feet  from  the  batsman, 
was  relegated  to  a  fifty-foot  distance.  Even 
then,  by  taking  advantage  of  a  step  or  two  be- 
hind his  line,  he  acquired  so  much  speed  that 
it  became  necessary  to  fix  his  position  more 
definitely,  and  to-day  he  is  even  bound  to  the 
extent  of  the  exact  position  of  his  feet  when 
delivering  the  ball.  In  spite  of  all  these  re- 
strictions, such  is  the  growing  skill  of  pitchers 
that  the  problem  is  constantly  under  discussion 
how  to  legislate  in  favor  of  the  batsman. 
The  rest  of  the  fielding  has  kept  some  meas- 
ure of  progress  with  the  pitching,  the  catcher's 
position  exhibiting  the  highest  development. 
This  development  is  fortunately  accompanied 
by  numerous  safeguards  against  the  shocks  of 
the  increased  speed  of  the  ball.  The  first 
catchers  who  came  up  under  the  bat  were  wont 
to  wear  a  small  piece  of  rubber  in  the  mouth 
as  a  protection  to  the  teeth  from  foul  tips.  It 
was  not  long  before  an  inventive  genius  designed 
a  wire  mask  which  buckled  about  the  head, 
and,  while  allowing  perfect  freedom  and  sight, 
rendered  the  catcher  safe  from  any  chance  ball 
striking    his    face.     '1  he 
next   step   was    the 
of  a   large   breast] 
extending  quite    to    I  he- 
legs.    This  is  made  of 
rubber,  and  inflate  i 
as    to    make    a    yielding 
cushion.      The    gl 
which  the  catchers  have- 
worn  ever  since  the  days 
of  the  rubber  mouth- 
piece have  also  under- 
gone radical  chai 
and  are  to-day  so  heavily 
made  as  thoroughly  to 
protect  both  hands,  leav- 
ing free  only  the  fingers 
of  the  right  hand. 
Outside  the  battery,  in  ti, 
perfect  fielding,  the  strongest  factor  is  team 
play.    Plenty  of  men  can  be  found  who  can 
perform  the  ordinary  duties  of  ba>emen  and 
fielders,  but  the  problem  is  to  secure  men  for 
these  positions  who  are  strong  batsmen  and 
who  harmonize  well  with  one  another.    The 
usual  merits  for  the  individual  positions  are  :  in 
a  first  baseman,  ability  to  catch  bad  thro . 
in  a  second  baseman,  an  especial  capaci: 
covering  a  large  amount  of  ground  ;  in  a  third 
baseman,  rapidity  in  fielding  ground  ball- 
to  first.    A  third  baseman  must  rea  >ver  hi:: 
quickly  and  have  a  strong  throw.  A  short- 
should  be  an  accurate  thrower,  and  a  man  of 
brains  sufficient  to  take  advantage  of  oppor- 
tunities for  double  plays  and  fielding  out  ad- 
vanced runners.    The  outfielders  must 
not  only  in  covering  ground,  but  also  in  return- 
ing balls  to  the  diamond. 
Base-ball  is  a  game  for  the  people.  The  ma- 
terials are  inexpensive,  and  all  that  is  want! 
a  field.  If  one  may  judge  from  what  one  sees 
by  the  way,  it  is  more  difficult  to  say  what  will 
not  answer  for  a  ball-field  than  what  will ;  for  in 
spite  of  carts,  cabs,  and  police,  r.  >  too 
small  or  too  crowded  for  Young  America  to 
make  a  ball-field  of  it.  With  its  eager  y 
followers  evervwhere  and  with  many  men 
growing  into  the  prime  of  life  who  have  enj 
it  most  heartily  in  their  younger  days,  it  is 
to  say  that  as  a  sport,  and  as.  par  excelk 
the  American  sport,  it  is  sure  of  a  long  life. 
STOPPING     A     GKOTNDEK. 
Vol.  XXXVIII.— i  io.
ABRAHAM     LINCOLN:     A    HISTORY.1 
BLAIR'S    MEXICAN     PROJECT  — THE    HAMPTON    ROADS 
CONFERENCE  — THE    XIIITH    AMENDMENT. 
BV    JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND    JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
BLAIR'S    MEXICAN    PROJECT. 
I^SSs^Wa^^^'HE  triumphant  reelection 
I  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  Novem- 
ber,  1864,  greatly  simpli- 
fied the  political  conditions 
as  well  as  the  military  pros- 
pects of  the  country.  De- 
cisive popular  majorities 
had  pointedly  rebuked  the 
individuals  who  proclaimed,  and  the  party 
which  had  resolved,  that  the  war  was  a  failure. 
The  verdict  of  the  ballot-box  not  only  decided 
the  continuance  of  a  war  administration  and  a 
war  policy,  but  renewed  the  assurance  of  a  pub- 
lic sentiment  to  sustain  its  prosecution.  When 
Congress  convened  on  the  6th  of  December,and 
the  President  transmitted  to  that  body  his  an- 
nual message,  he  included  in  his  comprehensive 
review  of  public  affairs  a  temperate  but  strong 
and  terse  statement  of  this  fact  and  its  potent  sig- 
nificance. Inspired  by  this  majestic  manifes- 
tation of  the  popular  will  to  preserve  the  Union 
r.nd  maintain  the  Constitution,  he  was  able  to 
speak  of  the  future  with  hope  and  confidence. 
But,  with  characteristic  prudence  and  good 
taste,  he  uttered  no  word  of  boasting  and  in- 
dulged in  no  syllable  of  acrimony;  on  the  con- 
trary, in  terms  of  fatherly  kindness,  he  again 
offered  the  rebellious  States  the  generous  con- 
ditions he  had  previously  tendered  them  by 
various  acts  and  declarations,  and  specifically 
in  his  amnesty  proclamation  of  December  8, 
1863.  The  statement  of  the  whole  situation 
with  its  alternative  issues  was  so  admirably 
compressed  into  the  closing  paragraphs  of  his 
message  as  to  leave  no  room  for  ignorance  or 
misunderstanding. 
The  national  resources,  then  [he  said],  are  un- 
exhausted, and,  as  we  believe,  inexhaustible.  The 
public  purpose  to  reestablish  and  maintain  the  na- 
tional authority  is  unchanged,  and,  as  we  believe, 
unchangeable.  The  manner  of  continuing  the  effort 
remains  to  choose.  On  careful  consideration  of  all 
the  evidence  accessible,  it  seems  to  me  that  no  at- 
tempt at  negotiation  with  the  insurgent  leader  could 
result  in  any  good.   He  would  accept  nothing  short 
of  severance  of  the  Union —  precisely  what  we  will 
not  and  cannot  give.  His  declarations  to  this  effect 
are  explicit  and  oft-repeated.  He  does  not  attempt 
to  deceive  us.  He  affords  us  no  excuse  to  deceive 
ourselves.  He  cannot  voluntarily  re-acceptthe  Union; 
we  cannot  voluntarily  yield  it.  Between  him  and 
us  the  issue  is  distinct,  simple,  and  inflexible.  It  is 
an  issue  which  can  only  be  tried  by  war,  and  de- 
cided by  victory.  If  we  yield,  we  are  beaten  ;  if  the 
Southern  people  fail  him,  he  is  beaten.  Either  way, 
it  would  be  the  victory  and  defeat  following  war. 
What  is  true,  however,  of  him  who  heads  the  in- 
surgent cause  is  not  necessarily  true  of  those  who 
follow.  Although  he  cannot  re-accept  the  Union, 
they  can.  Some  of  them,  we  know,  already  desire 
peace  and  reunion.  The  number  of  such  may 
increase.  They  can,  at  any  moment,  have  peace 
simply  by  laying  down  their  arms,  and  submitting 
to  the  national  authority  under  the  Constitution. 
After  so  much,  the  Government  could  not,  if  it 
would,  maintain  war  against  them.  The  loyal  people 
would  not  sustain  or  allow  it.  If  questions  should 
remain,  we  would  adjust  them  by  the  peaceful  means 
of  legislation,  conference,  courts,  and  votes,  oper- 
ating only  in  constitutional  and  lav/ful  channels. 
Some  certain,  and  other  possible,  questions  are,  and 
would  be,  beyond  the  Executive  power  to  adjust; 
as,  for  instance,  the  admission  of  members  into 
Congress,  and  whatever  might  require  the  appro- 
priation of  money.  The  Executive  power  itself  would 
be  greatly  diminished  by  the  cessation  of  actual 
war.  Pardons  and  remissions  of  forfeitures,  how- 
ever, would  still  be  within  Executive  control.  In 
what  spirit  and  temper  this  control  would  be  exer- 
cised can  be  fairly  judged  of  by  the  past.  A  year 
ago  general  pardon  and  amnesty,  upon  specified 
terms,  were  offered  to  all,  except  certain  designated 
classes;  and  it  was,  at  the  same  time,  made  known 
that  the  excepted  classes  were  still  within  contem- 
plation of  special  clemency.  .  .  .  In  presenting  the 
abandonment  of  armed  resistance  to  the  national 
authority,  on  the  part  of  the  insurgents,  as  the  only 
indispensable  condition  to  ending  the  war  on  the 
part  of  the  Government,  I  retract  nothing  hereto- 
fore said  as  to  slavery.  I  repeat  the  declaration  made 
a  year  ago,  that  il  While  I  remain  in  my  present 
position  I  shall  not  attempt  to  retract  or  modify  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation,  nor  shall  I  return  to 
slavery  any  person  who  is  free  by  the  terms  of  that 
proclamation,  or  by  any  of  the  acts  of  Congress." 
If  the  people  should,  by  whatever  mode  or  means, 
make  it  an  Executive  duty  to  reenslave  such  per- 
sons, another,  and  not  I,  must  be  their  instrument 
1  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1 1 
All  rights  reserved.
BLAIR'S  MEXICAN  PR0JEC1 
to  perform  it.  In  stating  a  single  condition  of  peace, 
1  mean  simply  to  say  that  the  war  will  cease  on  the 
part  of  the  Government  whenever  it  shall  have 
ceased  on  the  part  of  those  who  began  it.1 
The  country  was  about  to  enter  upon  the 
HEADQyAftTOS  AtMB 
Jin  i  rson  Davis,  President,  etc., 
My   dear  Sir:    The  fa  En  the  inclosed 
note  may  serve  to  an   Wtl  ifiq  
. 
of  my  visit,  which,  if  allowed  by  .  .1  not 
fifth  year  of  actual  war;  but  at  length  all  the    communicate  fully  to  any  one   but 
indications  were  pointing  unmistakably  to  a 
speedy  collapse  of  the  rebellion.  This  fore- 
shadowed disaster  to  the  Confederate  armies 
gave  rise  to  another  volunteer  peace  project 
and  negotiation,  which,  from  the  boldness  of 
its  animating  thought  and  the  official  promi- 
nence of  its  actors,  assumes  a  special  historical 
importance. 
The  veteran  politician  Francis  P.  Blair, 
senior,  who  as  a  young  journalist,  thirty-five 
years  before,  had  helped  President  Jackson 
throttle  the  South  Carolina  nullification ;  who, 
from  his  long  political  and  personal  experience 
at  Washington,  perhaps  knew  better  than  almost 
any  one  else  the  individual  characters  and  tem- 
pers of  Southern  leaders;  and  who,  moreover, 
was  ambitious  to  crown  his  remarkable  career 
with  another  dazzling  chapter  of  political  in- 
trigue, conceived  that  the  time  had  arrived 
when  he  might  perhaps  take  up  the  role  of  a 
successful  mediator  between  the  North  and  the 
South.  He  gave  various  hints  of  his  desire  to 
President  Lincoln,  but  received  neither  en- 
couragement nor  opportunity  to  unfold  his 
plans.  "Come  to  me  after  Savannah  falls," 
was  Lincoln's  evasive  reply;  and  when,  on  the 
2 2d  of  December,  Sherman  announced  the 
surrender  of  that  city  as  a  national  Christmas 
gift,  Mr.  Blair  hastened  to  put  his  design  into 
execution.  Three  days  after  Christmas  the 
President  gave  him  a  simple  card  bearing  the 
words; 
Allow  the  bearer,  F.  P.  Blair,  Sr.,  to   pass   our 
th 
lines,  go  sout 
December  2< 
and  return. 
1864.2 
A.  Lincoln. 
With  this  single  credential  he  went  to  the 
camp  of  General  Grant,  from  which  he  for- 
warded, by  the  usual  flags  of  truce,  the  follow- 
ing letters  to  Jefferson  Davis  at  Richmond : 
Headquarters  Armies  of  the  United  States, 
December  30,  1864. 
Jefferson  Davis,  President,  etc.,  etc. 
My  dear  Sir  :  The  loss  of  some  papers  of  impor- 
tance (title  papers),  which  I  suppose  may  have  been 
taken  by  some  persons  who  had  access  to  my  house 
when  Genl.  Early's  army  were  in  possession  of  my 
place,  induces  me  to  ask  the  privilege  of  visiting 
Richmond  and  beg  the  favor  of  you  to  facilitate  my 
inquiries  in  regard  to  them. 
Your  mo.  ob.  st. 
F.  P.  Blair.3 
mam   purpose  I  have  in  leeing  you  is  to  explain 
the  views  I  entertain  in  .- 
affairs  pi  our  country,  and  to  nibi 
sideration  idea,  which  in  my<  |  .  may  turn 
to  good  and  possibly  bring  to  practical  results  —  that 
may  not  only  repair  all  the  ruin 
upon  the  nation,  but  contribute  to  promol  •  the  wel- 
fare of  other  nations  that  have  suffered  from  it.    In 
candor  I  must  say  to  you  in  ail  vane    thai  I      me  to 
you  wholly  unaccredited  except  in  so  far  as  I  may 
be  by  having  permission  to  pass  our  lines  a 
offer  to  you  my  own  suggestions  —  suggestions  which 
I    have   submitted   to  no  one  in  author. ty  on  this 
side  the  lines,  and  will  not,  without  1 
with  you  may  lead  me  to  suppose  they  may  1 
something  practicable.    With  the  hope  of  such  r 
if  allowed,  1  will  confidentially  unbosom  my  heart 
frankly  and  without  reserve.   You  will  of  course  hold 
in  reserve  all  that  is  not  proper  to  be  said  to  one 
coming,  as  I  do,  merely  as  a  private  citizen  and  ad- 
dressing one  clothed  with  the  highest  responsibili- 
ties.   Unless  the  great  interests  now  at  stake  induce 
you  to  attribute  more  importance  to  my  application 
than  it  would  otherwise  command  I  could  not  ex- 
pect that  you  would  invite  the  intrusion.    I  venture 
however  to  submit  the  matter  to  your  judgment. 
Your  most  obedient  servant, 
F.  P.  Blair* 
Mr.  Davis  returned  a  reply  with  permission 
to  make  the  visit;  but  by  some  mischa: 
did  not  reach  Mr.  Blair  till  after  his  patience 
had  become  exhausted  by  waiting  and  he  had 
returned  to  "Washington.     Proceeding  then  to 
Richmond  he  was  received  by  Jefferson  i 
in  a  confidential  interview  on  the  1  2  th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1865,5  which  he  so  thoroughly  1 
in  a  written  report  that  it  is  quoted  in  full : 
';I  introduced  the  subject  to  Mr.  Davis 
giving  him  an  account  of  the  mode  in  which  I 
obtained  leave  to  go  through  the  lines,  telling 
him  that  the  President    stopped  me  when   I 
told  him  'I  had  kindly  relations  with  Mr.  1 
and  at  the  proper  time  I  iv_ 
towards  peace,'  and  said.  '  Come  to  me  when 
Savannah    falls'  —  how    after    that  t 
shunned  an  interview   with  me.  until   1 
ceivedhe  did  not  wish  to  hear  me.  but 
I  should  go  without  explanation  of  my  o'. 
I  then  told  Mr.  Davis  that  1  wanted 
if  he  thought  fit  to   communicate  it.  whether 
he    had    any    commitments    with     Euro] 
powers  which  would  control  his  conduct  in 
making  arrangements  with  the  Government  of 
the   United  States.    He  said  in  the  most  de- 
1  Message,  Dec.  6,  1S64. 
2  MS. 
3  Unpublished  MS. 
-l   Unpublished  MS. 
6   Davis,  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederal 
ernment,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  012.
840 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
cisive  manner  that  there  were  none,  that  he 
had  no  commitments  ;  and  expressed  himself 
with  some  vehemence  that  he  was  absolutely 
free  and  would  die  a  freeman  in  all  respects. 
This  is  pretty  mueh  his  language;  it  was  his 
sentiment  and  manner  certainly.  I  told  him 
that  that  was  an  all-important  point  for  if  it 
were  otherwise  1  would  not  have  another  word 
to  saw  1  then  prefaced  the  reading  of  the 
paper  —  which  I  had  intended  to  embody  in  a 
letter  to  him.  or  present  in  some  form  if  I  could 
not  reach  him.  or  if  I  were  prevented  from 
seeing  him  personally  —  by  saying  that  it  was 
somewhat  after  the  manner  of  an  editorial  and 
was  not  of  a  diplomatic  character,  and  that  I 
was  like  a  shoemaker  who  sticks  to  his  last,  and 
could  not  change  my  mode  of  expressing  my 
thoughts ;  moreover,  I  had  become  an  old 
man,  and  what  I  was  about  to  submit  to  him 
might  be  the  dreams  of  an  old  man,  but  that 
I  depended  upon  his  practical  good  sense  to 
assure  me  whether  they  were  dreams  that  could 
be  realized  or  not ;  that  I  had  no  doubt  that 
he  would  deal  with  me  with  the  utmost  frank- 
ness, and  give  me  credit  for  the  like  candor; 
that  he  knew  that  every  drop  of  my  blood  and 
that  of  my  children  flowed  from  a  Southern 
source;  that  I  loved  my  whole  country,  but 
could  not  help  feeling  the  force  of  the  affec- 
tions which  my  native  instincts,  enforced  by 
habit,  had  attached  me  to  the  South.  He 
replied  that  he  gave  me  his  full  confidence, 
knew  that  I  was  an  earnest  man,  and  believed 
I  was  an  honest  man,  and  said  he  reciprocated 
the  attachment  which  I  had  expressed  for  him 
and  his  family ;  that  he  was  under  great  ob- 
ligations to  my  family  for  kindnesses  rendered  to 
his,  that  he  would  never  forget  them,  and  that 
even  when  dying  they  would  be  remembered 
in  his  prayers.    I  then  read  the  paper  to  him.1 
"  '  Suggestions  submitted  to  Jeffei'son  Davis, 
President,  etc.,  etc. 
" 1  The  amnesty  Tjroclamation  of  President 
Lincoln  in  connection  with  his  last  message 
to  Congress,  referring  to  the  termination  of 
the  rebellion,  presents  a  basis  on  which  I  think 
permanent  peace  and  union  between  the  war- 
ring sections  of  our  country  may  be  reestab- 
lished. The  amnesty  offered  would  doubtless 
be  enlarged  to  secure  these  objects  and  made 
to  embrace  all  who  sincerely  desired  to  renew 
and  confirm  their  allegiance  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  by  the  extinction  of 
the  institution  which  originated  the  war  against 
the  National  Republic.  The  proposition  of 
the  message  is, that  the  wTar  should  be  no  longer 
waged  by  the  United  States  against  those  who 
began  it,  after  it  had  been  relinquished  by 
1    Unpublished  MS. 
them,  with  the  designs  it  was  meant  to  accom- 
plish. This,  simply  as  the  first  step  to  peace, 
is  a  proposal  of  an  armistice,  that,  with  proper 
conditions  arranged  to  accommodate  it  to  the 
feelings,  the  wishes,  the  interests  of  all  con- 
cerned, might  facilitate  a  restoration  of  perfect 
harmony  among  the  parties  to  the  war  and  lead 
on  again  the  prosperity  which  has  been  so 
unhappily  interrupted. 
"  '  Slavery  no  longer  remains  an  insurmount- 
able obstruction  to  pacification.  You  propose  to 
use  the  slaves  in  some  mode  to  conquer  a  peace 
for  the  South.  If  this  race  be  employed  to  secure 
the  independence  of  the  Southern  States  by  risk- 
ing their  lives  in  the  service,  the  achievement 
is  certainly  to  be  crowned  with  their  deliver- 
ance from  bondage.  But  why  should  blacks 
or  whites,  the  slaves  or  the  free,  be  offered  as 
victims  to  slaughter  to  acquire  freedom  and 
independence,  when  both  objects  are  now 
attainable  without  such  sacrifice  ?  The  white 
race  of  the  South  for  almost  a  century  have 
justly  considered  themselves,  both  as  individuals 
and  States,  free  and  independent.  If  that 
proud  eminence  can  again  be  reached,  with 
the  addition  of  all  the  material  prosperity  which 
has  distinguished  the  free  States,  without  mak- 
ing hecatombs  of  either  whites  or  blacks,  merely 
by  the  manumission  of  the  latter,  why  should 
the  atonement  by  blood  be  further  insisted  on  ? 
Slavery,  "the  cause  of  all  our  woes,"  is  admitted 
now  on  all  sides  to  be  doomed.  As  an  institu- 
tion all  the  world  condemns  it. 
"  '  This  expiation  made,  what  remains  to  dis- 
tract our  country  ?  It  now  seems  a  free-will 
offering  on  the  part  of  the  South  as  essential 
to  its  own  safety.  Being  made,  nothing  but 
military  force  can  keep  the  North  and  South 
asunder.  The  people  are  one  people,  speak  a 
common  language,  are  educated  in  the  same 
common  law,  are  brought  up  in  one  common 
habitude, —  the  growth  of  republican  repre- 
sentative institutions, —  all  fixed  in  freeholds 
rooted  in  the  soil  of  a  great  luxuriant  continent 
bound  as  one  body  by  backbone  mountains, 
pervaded  in  every  member  with  gigantic  streams 
running  in  every  direction  to  give  animation 
and  strength  like  arteries  and  veins  in  the  hu- 
man system.  Such  an  embodiment,  in  such  a 
country,  cannot  be  divided.  The  instruction 
of  all  ages  appealing  to  the  intelligence  of  the 
race  brings  conviction  that  union  is  strength  — 
strength  to  build  up  the  grandeur  of  the  Re- 
public ;  strength  essential  to  secure  the  peace, 
the  safety,  the  prosperity  and  glory  of  a  great 
Republic.  At  the  birth  of  the  Government  the 
necessities  of  commerce  and  the  influence  of 
social  relations  among  a  people  of  the  same 
origin  overcame  the  repugnance  generated 
between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States  by 
the  presence  of  negro  slavery  in  the  latter,  and
BLAIR'S   MEXICAN   PROJECT. 
84 ! 
brought  them  together  as  one  people  under  a 
general  government  in  spite  of  the  revolting 
principle  of  slavery  incorporated  into  the  free- 
system,  which  made  liberty  its  essential  element. 
Now  that  the  ingredient,  adverse  to  union, 
which  produced  disruption  is  removed,  there 
is  nothing  left  to  counteract  the  powerful  at- 
traction that  even  as  colonies  brought  our 
people  together  as  a  nation  and  which  still 
resists  victoriously  the  frenzy  of  revolution. 
The  instincts  of  kindred,  the  bonds  of  com- 
merce delineated  on  our  maps,  rivers,  railroads, 
canals,  which  mark  its  transit,  are  circulating 
the  life's  blood  of  a  gigantic  race  which  claims 
the  continent  for  its  pedestal.  The  love  of  liberty 
nurtured  by  popular  institutions,  so  dear  to  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  makes  its  attachments  in- 
destructible on  this  continent.  We  see  them 
coming  together  again,  after  momentary  rup- 
ture, along  the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi,  upon  the 
Gulf,  the  Potomac,  and  gradually  in  the  interior 
wherever  defense  is  assured  from  the  military 
power  that  at  first  overthrew  the  Government. 
It  is  now  plain  to  every  sense  that  nothing 
but  the  interposition  of  the  soldiery  of  foreign 
tyrannies  can  prevent  all  the  States  from  re- 
suming their  places  in  the  Union,  casting  from 
them  the  demon  of  discord.  The  few  States 
remaining  in  arms  that  made  the  war  for  slav- 
ery as  the  sine  qua  non  now  propose  to  sur- 
render it,  and  even  the  independence  which 
was  coveted  to  support  it,  as  a  price  for  for- 
eign aid. 
"  '  Slavery  abandoned,  the  issue  is  changed, 
and  war  against  the  Union  becomes  a  war  for 
monarchy ;  and  the  cry  for  independence  of  a 
government  that  assured  the  independence  of 
the  Southern  States  of  all'  foreign  powers  and 
their  equality  in  the  Union,  is  converted  into 
an  appeal  for  succor  to  European  potentates, 
to  whom  they  offer,  in  return,  homage  as  de- 
pendencies !  And  this  is  the  price  they  propose 
to  pay  for  success  in  breaking  up  the  National 
Government!  But  will  the  people  who  have 
consented  to  wage  this  war  for  an  institution 
once  considered  a  property,  now  that  they 
have  abandoned  it,  continue  the  war  to  enslave 
themselves  ?  Would  they  abandon  slavery  to 
commend  themselves  to  the  protection  of 
European  monarchies,  and  thus  escape  the 
embrace  of  that  national  Republic  as  a  part  of 
which  they  have  enjoyed  almost  a  century  of 
prosperity  and  renown?  The  whole  aspect 
of  the  controversy  upon  this  view  is  changed. 
The  patriarchal  domestic  institution  given  up 
and  the  idea  of  independence  and  '  being  let 
alone  '  in  happy  isolation  surrendered  to  ob- 
tain the  boon  of  foreign  protection  under  the 
rule  of  monarchy  !  The  most  modern  exempli- 
fication of  this  programme  for  discontented 
republican  States  defeating  their  popular  in- 
stitution   by   intestine  'ound  in 
tli<:  French  emperor's   ". 
imilian,  sent  to  pre  <  ribe  for  th 
Certainly  a  better  <  hou     tor  .-.-.  rio 
under  the  au  ;pi<  es  of   | 
could  not  hav<-  been  m 
house  of  Hapsbtn 
aline  of  an<  estors  ■ 
the   very   innate    instincl     1 
which  has  manacled   the  Intl.-  repubft 
Italy  and  the  little  principalitiC 
and  subjected  them  to  th.;  will  oft. 
for   more   than   a    thou  and 
blessing  of  Heaven,  the  great  An*  pub- 
lic will  foil  this  design  of  the  central  despotism 
of  Europe  to  destroy  all  that  remain*  oi  li 
on  the  civilized  continents  of  the  earth.  Great 
Britain's  jealousy  and  apprehension  of  her  an- 
cient enemy,  and  the  ambition  oi 
ing  to  the  South  for  aggrandizement,  will  unite 
in  arresting  the  strides  to  power  <  ;  this  new 
Holy  Alliance  in  the  heart  of  Europe.  England, 
for  her  wars  in  Europe,  draws  her  armies  from 
India  and  America.  She  will  never  1  <m-ent  to 
see  France,  which  is  a  laboratory  ofsol< 
add  to  her  means  of  creating  armies  by  mak- 
ing military  colonies  of  Mexico  and  the  South- 
ern States  of  this  Union  for  the  purpose. 
" '  The  design  of  Louis  Napoleon  in  reference 
to  conquest  on  this  continent  is  not  left  to  con- 
jecture. With  extraordinary  frankness  he  made 
a  public   declaration   that   his  object  was  to 
make  the  Latin  race  supreme  in  the  -outhern 
section  of  the  North  American  continent.  This 
is  a  Napoleonic  idea.  The  great  Napoleon,  in 
a  letter  or  one  of  his  dictations  at  St.  Helena, 
states  that  it  had  been  his  purpose  t<;  eml 
an  army  of  negroes  in  San  Domingo,  to  be 
landed  in  the  slave  States  with  French  support 
to  instigate  the  blacks  there  to  insurrection,  and 
through  revolution  effect  conquest.  Loin-  N 
poleon  saw  revolution  involving  the 
of  races  and  sections  on  the  question  of  sla 
made  to  his  hand,  when  he  instantly  rec 
to  his  uncle's  ideas  of  establishing  color.: 
create  commerce  and  a  navy  tor  France  and 
to  breed  the  material   for  armies  to  maintain 
his  European  empire.    The  moment  he  per- 
ceived our  frenzied  people  engaged  in  pa 
trating  a  national  suicide  he  invaded  Mej 
to  take  up  a  position  on  the  southern  flank  of 
this  Republic,  to  avail  himself  of  hs 
tions  as  well  as  those  01  Mexico,  to  give  1 
to  the  darling  scheme  o\  the  Bonapartisl 
nasty  to  make  for  the  Latin  race  in  all  our 
regions  on  the  Gulf  a  seat  of  power  under  the 
auspices  of  France.   His  phrase  ••  Supreme 
the  Latin  race  "  was  to  conciliate  to  his  object 
the  whole  Spanish  as  well  as  the  French  and 
the  mixed  populations  which  originally  founded 
and  built  up  the  colonies  that  introdi
^ 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
ilization  around  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  on  the 
streams  of  its  wilderness  interior.  Jefferson 
Davis  is  the  fortunate  man  who  now  holds  the 
commanding  position  to  encounter  this  for- 
midable scheme  of  conquest,  and  whose  fiat 
can  at  the  same  time  deliver  his  country  from 
the  bloody  agony  now  covering  it  in  mourn- 
ing. He  can  drive  Maximilian  from  his  Amer- 
ican throne,  and  baffle  the  designs  of  Napoleon 
to  subject  our  Southern  people  to  the  "  Latin 
race."  With  a  breath  he  can  blow  away  all  pre- 
tense for  proscription,  conscription,  or  confis- 
cation in  the  Southern  States,  restore  their  fields 
to  luxuriant  cultivation,  their  ports  to  the  com- 
merce of  the  world,  their  constitutions  and  their 
rights  under  them  as  essentially  a  part  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  to  that  strong 
guaranty  under  which  they  flourished  for  nearly 
a  century  not  only  as  equals,  but  down  to  the 
hour  of  conflict  the  prevalent  power  on  the 
continent.  All  this  may  be  achieved  by  means 
which,  so  far  from  subjecting  the  weaker  sec- 
tion of  our  Republic  to  humiliation  or  those 
asserting  its  cause  by  secession  to  dishonor, 
will  add  to  the  glory  of  both. 
" '  To  accomplish  this  great  good  for  our 
common  country  President  Lincoln  has  opened 
the  way  in  his  amnesty  proclamation  and  the 
message  which  looks  to  armistice.  Suppose 
the  first  enlarged  to  embrace  all  engaged  in 
the  war;  suppose  secret  preliminaries  to  armis- 
tice enable  President  Davis  to  transfer  such 
portions  of  his  army  as  he  may  deem  proper 
for  his  purpose  to  Texas,  held  out  to  it  as  the 
land  of  promise ;  suppose  this  force  on  the 
banks  of  the  Rio  Grande,  armed,  equipped, 
and  provided,  and  Juarez  propitiated  and  ral- 
lying the  Liberals  of  Mexico  to  give  it  welcome 
and  support  —  could  it  not  enter  Mexico  in  full 
confidence  of  expelling  the  invaders,  who,  taking 
advantage  of  the  distractions  of  our  own  Re- 
public, have  overthrown  that  of  Mexico  and 
established  a  foreign  despotism  to  rule  that 
land  and  spread  its  power  over  ours  ?  I  know 
Romero,  the  able,  patriotic  minister  who  repre- 
sents the  Republic  of  Mexico  near  our  Govern- 
ment. He  is  intimate  with  my  son  M  ontgomery, 
who  is  persuaded  that  he  could  induce  Juarez 
to  devolve  all  the  power  he  can  command  on 
President  Davis  —  a  dictatorship,  if  necessary 
—  to  restore  the  rights  of  Mexico  and  her 
veopleand  provide  for  the  stability  of  its  gov- 
ernment. With  such  hopes  inspiring  and  a 
veteran  army  of  invincibles  to  rally  on,  such  a 
force  of  Mexicans  might  be  embodied  as  would 
make  the  conquest  of  the  country  the  work  of 
its  own  people  under  able  leading.  But  if  more 
force  were  wanted  than  these  Mexican  recruits 
and  the  army  of  the  South  would  supply,  would 
not  multitudes  of  the  army  of  the  North,  offi- 
cers and  men,  be  found  ready  to  embark  in  an 
enterprise  vital  to  the  interests  of  our  whole 
Republic  ?  The  Republican  party  has  staked 
itself  on  the  assertion  of  the  Monroe  doctrine 
proposed  by  Canning  and  sanctioned  by  a 
British  cabinet.  The  Democrats  of  the  North 
have  proclaimed  their  adhesion  to  it,  and  I 
doubt  not  from  the  spirit  exhibited  by  the  Con- 
gress now  in  session,  however  unwilling  to  de- 
clare war,  it  would  countenance  all  legitimate 
efforts  short  of  such  result  to  restore  the  Mexi- 
can Republic.  I  think  I  could  venture  to 
pledge  my  son  General  Blair,  now  command- 
ing a  corps  against  the  Confederacy,  to  resign 
his  commission,  expatriate  himself,  and  join  all 
the  force  he  could  draw  to  the  standard  borne 
on  a  crusade  for  the  expulsion  of  the  European 
despotism  now  threatening  our  confines.  There 
is  no  cause  so  dear  to  the  soul  of  American 
patriotism  as  that  which  embodies  resistance 
to  the  intrusion  of  a  foreign  tyranny.  Its  infancy, 
nurtured  in  the  sternest  trials  of  a  war  against 
dictation  from  potentates  of  another  hemi- 
sphere, has  grown  to  a  manhood  that  will  never 
permit  its  approaches.  He  who  expels  the 
Bonaparte-Hapsburg  dynasty  from  our  south- 
ern flank,  which  General  Jackson  in  one  of 
his  letters  warned  me  was  the  vulnerable  point 
through  wdrich  foreign  invasion  would  come, 
will  ally  his  name  with  those  of  Washington 
and  Jackson  as  a  defender  of  the  liberty  of 
the  country.  If  in  delivering  Mexico  he  should 
model  its  States  in  form  and  principle  to  adapt 
them  to  our  Union  and  add  a  new  Southern 
constellation  to  its  benignant  sky  while  round- 
ing off  our  possession  on  the  continent  at  the 
Isthmus,  and  opening  the  way  to  blending  the 
waters  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific,  thus  em- 
bracing our  Republic  in  the  arms  of  the  ocean, 
he  would  complete  the  wrork  of  Jefferson,  who 
first  set  one  foot  of  our  colossal  govern- 
ment on  the  Pacific  by  a  stride  from  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  Such  achievement  would  be  more 
highly  appreciated  in  the  South,  inasmuch  as 
it  wrould  restore  the  equipoise  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  States — if  indeed  such 
sectional  distinctions  could  be  recognized  after 
the  peculiar  institution  which  created  them  had 
ceased  to  exist.' " 
It  is  of  course  possible  that  the  hard  mental 
processes  in  political  metaphysics  through 
which  Jefferson  Davis  had  forced  his  intellect 
in  pursuing  the  ambitious  hallucinations  which 
led  him  from  loyalty  to  treason,  had  blighted 
all  generous  sentiment  and  healthy  imagina- 
tion. But  if  his  heart  was  yet  capable  of  a 
single  patriotic  memory  and  impulse,  strange 
emotions  must  have  troubled  him  as  he  sat 
listening  to  the  reading  of  this  paper  by  the 
man  who  had  been  the  familiar  friend,  the 
trusted  adviser,  it  might  almost  be  said  the  con- 
fidential voice,  of  Andrew  Jackson.    It  was  as
BLAIR'S   MEXICAN   PROJEi  7. 
though  the  ghost  of  the  great  President  had 
come  from  his  grave  in  Tennessee  to  draw  him 
a  sad  and  solemn  picture  of  the  ruin  and  shame- 
to  which  he  was  bringing,  and  had  almost 
brought,  the  American  Republic,  especially 
"  his  people  "  of  the  Southern  States — nation 
ality  squandered,  slavery  doomed,  and  his  Con- 
federacy a  supplicant  for  life  at  the  hands  of 
European  despotisms.  If  he  did  not  correctly 
realize  the  scene  and  hour  in  all  its  impres- 
siveness,  he  seems  at  least  to  have  tacitly 
acknowledged  that  his  sanguinary  adventure 
in  statesmanship  was  moribund,  and  that  it 
was  high  time  to  listen  earnestly  to  any  scheme 
which  might  give  hope  of  averting  from  himself 
and  his  adherents  the  catastrophe  to  whose  near 
approach  he  could  no  longer  shut  his  eyes.  Mr. 
Blair's  report  thus  narrates  the  remainder  of 
the  interview : 
"  I  then  said  to  him,  '  There  is  my  problem, 
Mr.  Davis;  do  you  think  it  possible  to  be 
solved  ?  '  After  consideration  he  said, '  I  think 
so.'  I  then  said,  '  You  see  that  I  make  the 
great  point  of  this  matter  that  the  war  is  no 
longer  made  for  slavery,  but  monarchy.  You 
know  that  if  the  war  is  kept  up  and  the  Union 
divided,  armies  must  be  kept  afoot  on  both 
sides,  and  this  state  of  things  has  never  con- 
tinued long  without  resulting  in  monarchy  on 
one  side  or  the  other,  and  on  both  generally.' 
He  assented  to  this,  and  with  great  emphasis 
remarked  that  he  was  like  Lucius  Junius  Bru- 
tus, and  uttered  the  sentiment  ascribed  to  him 
in  Shakspere,  without  exactly  quoting  it : 
There  was  a  Brutus  once  that  would  have  brooked 
The  eternal  devil  to  keep  his  state  in  Rome 
As  easily  as  a  king. 
Then  he  said  that  he  was  thoroughly  for  popu- 
lar government,  that  this  feeling  had  been 
born  and  bred  in  him.  Touching  the  pro- 
ject, he  said,  of  bringing  the  sections  together 
again,  the  great  difficulty  was  the  excessive  vin- 
dictiveness  produced  by  outrages  perpetrated 
in  the  invaded  States  during  the  war.  He 
said  reconcilement  must  depend,  he  thought, 
upon  time  and  events,  which  he  hoped  would 
restore  better  feelings,  but  that  he  was  certain 
that  no  circumstance  would  have  a  greater 
effect  than  to  see  the  arms  of  our  countrymen 
from  the  North  and  the  South  united  in  a  war 
upon  a  foreign  power  assailing  principles  of 
government  common  to  both  sections  and 
threatening  their  destruction.  And  he  said  he 
was  convinced  that  all  the  powers  of  Europe 
felt  it  their  interest  that  our  people  in  this 
quarrel  should  exhaust  all  their  energies  in 
destroying  each  other,  and  thus  make  them  a 
prey  to  the  potentates  of  Europe,  who  felt  that 
the  destruction  of  our  Government  was  neces- 
sary to  the  maintenance  of  the  monarchical 
principles  on  which  then  ±    I 
told  him   that    1    v.  •    finding 
him  holding  tl. 
country,  if  impressed  with  tfa  ;ght 
it  might  be  universally,  wout 
happy  unity.    He  said  I  with 
what  reluctance  he  had  rat  of  the 
Union;  that  he  labored  to  the  1  Dt  to 
avoid  it;  that  he  had  followed  the  old 
longer  and  with  more  devotion  than  anytl 
else  on  earth;   that  at  Bull  Run  when  he 
the  (lag  he  supposed  il  own  har  _ 
on  the  staff, —  they  were  more  alike  then  I 
now, —  and  when  the  flag  of  the  Unit 
unfurled  itself  in  the  breeze  he  Ban  it  with  a 
sigh,  but  he  had  to  choose  between  it  and  his 
own,  and  lie  had  to  look  to  it  as  that  of  an 
enemy.    He  felt  now  that  it  was  laid  up,  but 
the  circumstances  to  which  he  had 
might  restore  it  and  reconcilement  1 
With  regard  to  Mexico,  if  the  foreign  j 
was  driven  out,  it  would  have  to  depend  on 
the  events  there  to  make  it  possible  to  ( '-nnect 
that  country  with  this  and  restore  the  equi- 
poise to  which  I  looked;  nobody  could  (t  r 
how  things  would  shape  themselves. 
"In  relation  to  the  vindictiveness  produced 
by  the  war,  I  said  I  thought  he  was  mistaken 
in  supposing  it  would  be  attended  with  g 
difficulty  in  producing  reconcilement  between 
the  States  and  people;  I  told  him  I  had  spent 
four  hours  on  the  picket  line  and  perceived  that 
kind  feeling  existed,  instead  of  estrangement, 
between  the  men  on  both  sides  who  stood  armed 
to  shoot  each  other.    There  was  nothing  to 
prevent  the  immediate  indulgence  of  h 
feelings  if  they  felt  them.    But  they  manifc 
a  friendly  feeling.    A  Boston  Captain  Deacon, 
who  carried  me  through  the  line-  to  deliver 
me  over  to  Captain  Davis  of  South  Carolina, 
drew  his  bottle  from  his  bag  and  proposed  to 
drink  his  health.    They  drank  together  with 
mutual  good-will  and  gave  each  other  their 
hands.    This  spirit  of  magnanimity  exists  in  the 
soldiery  on  both  sides.    It  is  only  the  polip 
and  those  who  profit,  or  hope  to  profit,  by  the 
disasters  of  the  war  who  indulge  in  acrimony. 
Mr.  Davis  said  that  what  I  remarked,  was  very 
just  in  the  main.    He  admitted  that  it  wj 
the  most  part  the  people  at  home,  who  bnx 
over  the  disasters  of  the  war.  who  indulged  in 
bitterness. 
"  Touching  the  matter  of  arrangement  for 
reconcilement  proposed  by  me.  he  remarked 
that  all  depended   upon   well-founded  confi- 
dence, and,  looking  at  me  with  very  signifi- 
cant expression,  he  said.  'What,  Mr. 
you  think  of  Mr.  Seward?'    I  replied: 
Seward  is  a  very  pleasant  companion  :  h< 
good  social  feelings,  but  I  have  no  doubt  that 
where  his  ambition    is    concerned  his  selfish
S44 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
feelings  prevail  over  all  principle.  I  have  no 
doubt  he  would  betray  any  man,  no  matter 
what  his  obligations  to  him,  if  he  stood  in  the 
way  of  his  selhsh  and  ambitious  schemes.  But,' 
1  said,  ■  this  matter,  if  entered  upon  at  all, 
must  be  with  Mr.  Lincoln  himself.  The  trans- 
action is  a  military  transaction,  and  depends 
entirely  upon  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  our 
armies.  If  he  goes  into  it  he  will  certainly 
consider  it  as  the  affair  of  the  military  head  of 
the  Government  Now  I  know  that  Mr.  Lin- 
coln is  capable  of  great  personal  sacrifices  —  of 
sacrificing  the  strongest  feelings  of  his  heart,  of 
sacrificing  a  friend  when  he  thinks  it  necessary 
for  the  good  of  the  country ;  and  you  may  rely 
upon  it,  if  he  plights  his  faith  to  any  man  in  a 
transaction  for  which  he  is  responsible  as  an 
officer  or  a  man,  he  will  maintain  his  word 
inviolably.'  Mr.  Davis  said  he  was  glad  to 
hear  me  say  so.  He  did  not  know  Mr.  Lincoln; 
but  he  was  sure  I  did,  and  therefore  my 
declaration  gave  him  the  highest  satisfaction. 
As  to  Mr.  Seward,  he  had  no  confidence  in 
him  himself,  and  he  did  not  know  any  man  or 
party  in  the  South  that  had  any. 
"  In  relation  to  the  mode  of  effecting  the 
object  about  which  we  had  been  talking,  he 
said  we  ought  soon  to  have  some  understand- 
ing, because  things  to  be  done  or  omitted  wall 
depend  upon  it ;  that  he  was  willing  to  appoint 
persons  to  have  conferences,  without  regard  to 
forms;  that  there  must  be  some  medium  of 
communication ;  that  he  would  appoint  a  per- 
son or  persons  who  could  be  implicitly  relied 
on  by  Mr.  Lincoln ;  that  he  had  on  a  former 
occasion  indicated  Judge  Campbell,  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  as  a  person  who  could  be 
relied  on.  I  told  him  he  was  a  person  in  whom 
I  had  unbounded  confidence,  both  as  regarded 
talents  and  fidelity. 
"In  reply  to  some  remarks  that  I  made 
as  to  the  fame  he  would  acquire  in  relieving 
the  country  from  all  its  disasters,  restoring  its 
harmony,  and  extending  its  dominion  to  the 
Isthmus,  he  said  what  his  name  might  be  in 
history  he  cared  not.  If  he  could  restore  the 
prosperity  and  happiness  of  his  country,  that 
was  the  end  and  aim  of  his  being.  For  him- 
self, death  would  end  his  cares,  and  that  was 
very  easy  to  be  accomplished. 
"  The  next  day  after  my  first  interview  he 
sent  me  a  note,  saying  he  thought  I  might 
desire  to  have  something  in  writing  in  regard 
to  his  conclusion,  and  therefore  he  made  a 
brief  statement  which  I  brought  away."1 
The  substantial  accuracy  of  Mr.  Blair's  re- 
1  Unpublished  MS. 
2  Davis,  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment," Vol.  II.,  p.  612  et  seq. 
3  "  House  Journal,"  2d  Session  38th  Congress, 
p.  229. 
port  is  confirmed  by  the  memorandum  of  the 
same  interview  which  Jefferson  Davis  wrote 
at  the  time  and  has  since  printed.2  In  this  con- 
versation the  rebel  leader  took  little  pains  to 
disguise  his  entire  willingness  to  enter  upon 
the  wild  scheme  of  military  conquest  and  an- 
nexation which  could  easily  be  read  between 
the  lines  of  a  political  crusade  to  rescue  the 
Monroe  doctrine  from  its  present  peril.  If  Mr. 
Blair  felt  elated  at  having  so  quickly  made  a 
convert  of  the  Confederate  President,  he  was 
still  further  gratified  at  discovering  yet  more 
favorable  symptoms  in  his  official  surrounding 
at  Richmond.  In  the  three  or  four  days  he  spent 
at  the  rebel  capital  he  found  nearly  every  prom- 
inent personage  convinced  of  the  hopeless  con- 
dition of  the  rebellion,  and  even  eager  to  seize 
upon  any  contrivance  to  help  them  out  of  their 
direful  prospects.  The  letter  which  he  bore 
from  Jefferson  Davis  to  be  shown  to  President 
Lincoln  was  in  the  following  language : 
Richmond,  Virginia,  January  12,  1865. 
F.  P.  Blair,  Esq. 
Sir  :  I  have  deemed  it  proper,  and  probably 
desirable  to  you,  to  give  you,  in  this  form,  the  sub- 
stance of  remarks  made  by  me,  to  be  repeated  by 
you  to  President  Lincoln,  etc.,  etc.  I  have  no  dis- 
position to  find  obstacles  in  forms,  and  am  willing 
now,  as  heretofore,  to  enter  into  negotiations  for  the 
restoration  of  peace  ;  and  am  ready  to  send  a  com- 
mission whenever  I  have  reason  to  suppose  it  will 
be  received,  or  to  receive  a  commission,  if  the  United 
States  Government  shall  choose  to  send  one.  That, 
notwithstanding  the  rejection  of  our  former  offers, 
I  would,  if  you  could  promise  that  a  commissioner, 
minister,  or  other  agent  would  be  received,  appoint 
one  immediately,  and  renew  the  effort  to  enter  into 
conference,  with  a  view  to  secure  peace  to  the  two 
countries.  Yours,  etc., 
Jefferson  Davis.3 
But  the  Government  councils  at  Washington 
were  not  ruled  by  the  spirit  of  political  adven- 
ture. Abraham  Lincoln  had  a  loftier  concep- 
tion of  patriotic  duty  and  a  higher  idea!  of 
national  ethics.  The  proposal  to  divert  his 
nation,  "conceived  in  Liberty,"  from  its  grand 
task  of  preserving  for  humanity  "  government 
of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people," 
and  degrade  its  heroic  struggle  and  sacrifice 
to  the  low  level  of  a  joint  filibustering  foray, 
which,  instead  of  crowning  his  work  of  eman- 
cipation, might  perhaps  eventuate  in  a  renewal, 
extension,  and  perpetuation  of  slavery,  did  not 
receive  from  him  an  instant's  consideration. 
Llis  whole  interest  in  Mr.  Blair's  mission  was 
in  the  despondency  of  the  rebel  leaders  which 
it  disclosed,  and  the  possibility  of  bringing 
them  to  an  acknowledgment  of  their  despair 
and  the  abandonment  of  their  resistance.  His 
only  response  to  the  overture  thus  half  officially 
brought  to  his  notice  was  to  open  the  door 
of  negotiation  a  little  wider  than  he  had  done
BLAIR'S  MEXICAN  PROJECT. 
before,  but  for  the  specific  and  exclusive  objects    a  di  npati  h  laying  he  had  not  tv.  •  uioas 
of  union  and  peace.  As  an  answer  to  J  efferson 
Davis's  note  he  therefore  wrote  Mr.  Jilair  the 
following : 
Washington,  January  18,   1865. 
F.  P.  Blair,  Esq. 
Sir:  You  having  shown  me  Mr.  Davis's  letter  to 
you  of  the  12th  instant,  you  may  say  to  him  that 
I  have  constantly  been,  am  now,  and  shall  con- 
tinue ready  to  receive  any  agent  whom  he,  or  any 
other  influential  person  now  resisting  the  national 
authority,  may  informally  send  to  me,  with  the 
view  of  securing  peace  to  the  people  of  our  one 
common  country. 
Yours,  etc.,  A.  Lincoln.1 
With  this  note  Mr.  Blair  returned  to  Rich- 
mond, giving  Mr.  Davis  such  feeble  excuses 
as  he  could  hastily  frame  why  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  rejected  his  overture  for  a  joint  invasion 
of  Mexico,2  alleging  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
embarrassed  by  radical  politicians  and  could 
not  use  "  political  agencies."  Mr.  Blair  then, 
but  again  without  authority,  proposed  a  new 
project,  namely,  that  Grant  '  d  Lee  should 
enter  into  negotiations,  the  scope  and  object 
of  which,  however,  he  seems  to  have  left  alto- 
gether vague.  The  simple  truth  is  evident  that 
Mr.  Blair  was,  as  best  he  might,  covering  his 
retreat  from  an  abortive  intrigue.  He  soon  re- 
ported to  Davis  that  military  negotiation  was 
out  of  the  question. 
Jefferson  Davis  therefore  had  only  two  al- 
ternatives before  him  —  either  to  repeat  his 
stubborn  ultimatum  of  separation  and  inde- 
pendence, or  frankly  to  accept  Lincoln's  ulti- 
matum of  reunion.  The  principal  Richmond 
authorities  knew,  and  some  of  them  had  tacitly 
admitted,  that  their  Confederacy  was  nearly  in 
collapse.  Vice-President  Stephens,  in  a  secret 
speech  to  the  rebel  Senate,  had  pointed  out 
that  "we  could  not  match  our  opponents  in 
numbers,  and  should  not  attempt  to  cope  with 
them  in  direct  physical  power,"  and  advocated 
a  Fabian  policy  which  involved  the  abandon- 
ment of  Richmond.3  Judge  Campbell,  rebel 
Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  had  collected 
facts  and  figures,  which  a  few  weeks  later  he 
embodied  in  a  formal  report,  showing  the 
South  to  be  in  practical  exhaustion.4    Lee  sent 
1  "  House  Journal,"  2d  Session  38th  Congress,  p. 
229. 
2  "  He  [Blair]  then  unfolded  to  me  [writes  Davis]  the 
embarrassment  of  Mr.  Lincoln  on  account  of  the  ex- 
treme men,  in  Congress  and  elsewhere,  who  wished  to 
drive  him  into  harsher  measures  than  he  was  inclined 
to  adopt ;  whence  it  would  not  be  feasible  for  him  to 
enter  into  any  arrangement  with  us  by  the  use  of  po- 
litical agencies  ;  that  if  anything  beneficial  could  be 
effected  it  must  be  done  without  the  intervention  of 
the  politicians.  He  therefore  suggested  that  Generals 
Lee  and  Grant  might  enter  into  an  arrangement  by 
which  hostilities  would  be  suspended,  and  a  way  paved 
for  the  restoration  of  peace.    I  responded  that  I  would 
Vol.  XXXVIIL— hi. 
for   In':,   army.8    Richmond  irai   ihi 
panic  atrumon  oi  on    Plom  i 
ing  .-it  a  thou  and  dollan  a  band  in  I 
ate  currency.    'I  he  v.<  ent  I 
had    closed    the-    I  j  
li    which 
blockade   runners  could    bring    I 
supplies.    Governor   Bi 
refusing  to  obey  orders  from  Richmond  and 
characterizing  then 
potic."8    Under  such  circur  nam 
cry  of  independence   would  not    I  any- 
body;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  W9B  it    :• 
possible  to  remain  silent.     Mr.  Blair' 
to  Richmond  had  created  general  inn 
friends  plied  him  with  eager  questions  and  laid 
his  truthful  answers  <  on<    rnmg  their  gloomy 
prospects  solemnly  to  heart.     I 
secret    consultation     with     Davis     tr 
When    Mr.    Blair    came  a  second    time   and 
held   a  second   secret   consultation   with   the 
rebel  President  wonder   and    rumor 
fever  heat. 
Impelled  to  take  action.  Mr.  Davis  had 
the  courage  to  be  frank.    He  called,  fir    . 
President  Stephens,  and  afterward  his  cal  >ii 
a  discussion  of  the  project.  A  peace  commj 
of  three  was  appointed,  consisting  of  Alexander 
H.  Stephens,  Vice-President;  R.  M.  T.  Hunter, 
senator  and  ex-Secretary  of  State  ;  and  John  A. 
Campbell,  Assistant  Secretary  of  War — all  of 
them  convinced  that  the  rebellion  was  h«  >\ 
and  yet  unwilling  to  admit  the  logical  c 
quencesand  necessities.  The  drafting  of  instruc- 
tions for  the  guidance  of  the  commissi 
a  difficult  problem,  since  the  explicit  condition 
prescribed  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  note  was  th 
would  only  receive  an  agent  sent  him  M  with 
the  view  of  securing  peace  to  the  peopl 
our  one  common  country."     The  astute   Mr. 
Benjamin,  rebel  Secretary  of  State,  in  ord 
make  the  instructions  "as  vague  and  general 
as  possible,"  proposed  the  simple  direction  to 
confer  "upon  the  subject  to  which  it  relal 
His  action  and  language  were  broad  enough 
to  carry  the  inference  that  in  his  secret 
he  too  was  sick  of  rebellion  and  ready  to  : 
terms.    Whether  it  was  so  meant  or  no:, 
chief  refused  to  receive  the  delicate  suggest 
willingly  intrust  to  General  Let 
was  indicated."    [Davis,  "  Rise  an  I  Fall  of  the 
federate  Government,"  Vol.  II..  pp.  010.  617.] 
3  Stephens,  -War  between    the  Si  EL, 
pp.  587-589. 
4  See  :>  Open  Letters  "  of  this  number  oi 
zine,  for  a  letter  from  Judge  Campbell  to  Ju    g 
entitled,   "  A  View  of  the^  Confederacy  from  the   In- 
side. "—En  itor. 
5  J.  P.  Tones.  -  A  Rebel  War  Clerk's  Dial 
IT.,  p.  384, 
6  Ibid.,  p.  395. 
7  Benjamin    to    Davis,  May    17,1877         -    .hern 
Historical  Papers,"  Vol.  IV..  pp.  212-^14.
840 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
With  the  ruin  and  defeat  of  the  Confederate 
cause  staring  him  full  in  the  face  Davis  could 
bring  himself  neither  to  a  dignified  refusal 
nor  to  a  resigned  acceptance  of  the  form  of 
•iation  as  Mr.  Lincoln  had  tendered  it. 
Even  in  this  gulf  of  war  and  destitution  into 
which  he  had  led  his  people  he  could  not 
nity  of  masquerading  as  a  cham- 
pion. He  was  unwilling,  says  Mr.  Benjamin, 
to  appear  to  betray  his  trust  as  Confederate 
President  "  You  thought,  from  regard  to  your 
personal  honor,  that  your  language  ought  to 
be  such  as  to  render  impossible  any  malignant 
comment  on  your  actions."1  But  if  so,  why 
not  adopt  the  heroic  alternative  and  refuse  to 
negotiate  ?  Why  resort  to  the  yet  more  humili- 
ating absurdity  of  sending  a  commission  on 
terms  which  he  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  had  point- 
edly rejected?2  With  greater  sacrifice  of  per- 
sonal dignity  the  Confederate  President  adopted 
the  devious  alternative  —  a  continuation  of  the 
narrow,  unmanly,  pettifogging  misrepresenta- 
tion with  which  Southern  leaders  had  deluded 
the  Southern  people.  Instead  of  Mr.  Benja- 
min's phraseology,  Jefferson  Davis  wrote  the  fol- 
lowing instruction  to  the  commissioners,  which 
carried  a  palpable  contradiction  on  its  face  : 
Richmond,  January  28,  1865. 
In  conformity  with  the  letter  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  of 
which  the  foregoing  is  a  copy,  you  are  requested  to 
proceed  to  Washington  City  for  informal  conference 
with  him  upon  the  issues  involved  in  the  existing 
war,  and  for  the  purpose  of  securing  peace  to  the 
two  countries.  Your  obedient  servant, 
Jefferson  Davis.3 
THE  HAMPTON  ROADS  CONFERENCE. 
With  this  double-meaning  credential  the 
commissioners  presented  themselves  at  the 
Union  lines  near  Richmond  on  the  evening 
of  January  29,  1865,  and,  instead  of  frankly 
showing  their  authority,  asked  admission  "  in 
accordance  with  an  understanding  claimed  to 
exist  with  Lieutenant- General  Grant,  on  their 
way  to  Washington  as  peace  commissioners."4 
The  application  being  telegraphed  to  Wash- 
ington, Mr.  Stanton  answered  that  no  one 
should  be  admitted  under  such  character  or 
profession  until  the  President's  instructions 
were  received."'  Mr.  Lincoln,  being  apprised 
of   the   application,    promptly    dispatched    a 
l  Benjamin  to  Davis,  May  1 7,  1877.  "  Southern  His- 
torical Papers,"  Vol.  IV.,  p.  213. 
^  [INDORSEMEN1  BY  MR.  LINCOLN.] 
"  To-day  [January  28]  Mr.  Blair  tells  me  that  on  the 
2ist  instant  he  delivered  to  Mr.  Davis  the  original,  of 
which  the  within  is  a  copy,  and  left  it  with  him;  that 
at  the  time  of  delivering  it  Mr.  Davis  read  it  over  twice 
in  Mr.  Blair's  presence,  at  the  close  of  which  he  (Mr. 
Blair)  remarked  that  the  part  about  'our  one  common 
country  ;  related  to  the  part  of  Mr.  Davis's  letter  about 
special  messenger  with  written  directions  to 
admit  the  commissioners  under  safe  conduct 
if  they  would  say  in  writing  that  they  came  for 
the  purpose  of  an  informal  conference  on  the 
basis  of  his  note  of  January  18  to  Mr.  Blair, 
l>  with  a  view  of  securing  peace  to  the  people 
of  our  one  common  country."0  Before  this 
messenger  arrived,  however,  the  commission- 
ers reconsidered  the  form  of  their  application 
and  addressed  a  new  one  to  General  Grant, 
asking  permission  "to  proceed  to  Washing- 
ton to  hold  a  conference  with  President  Lin- 
coln upon  the  subject  of  the  existing  war,  and 
with  a  view  of  ascertaining  upon  what  terms 
it  may  be  terminated,  in  pursuance  of  the 
course  indicated  by  him  in  his  letter  to  Mr. 
Blair  of  January  18,  1865. "7 
Pursuant  to  this  request,  they  were  provi- 
sionally conveyed  to  Grant's  headquarters.  One 
of  them  records  with  evident  surprise  the  un- 
ostentatious surroundings  of  the  General-in- 
Chief. 
I  was  instantly  struck  with  the  great  simplicity 
and  perfect  naturalness  of  his  manners,  and  the 
entire  absence  of  everything  like  affectation,  show, 
or  even  the  usual  military  air  or  mien  of  men  in 
his  position.  He  was  plainly  attired,  sitting  in  a 
log-cabin,  busily  writing  on  a  small  table,  by  a 
kerosene  lamp.  It  was  night  when  we  arrived. 
There  was  nothing  in  his  appearance  or  surround- 
ings which  indicated  his  official  rank.  There  were 
neither  guards  nor  aids  about  him.  .  .  .  He  fur- 
nished us  with  comfortable  quarters  on  board  one 
of  his  dispatch  boats.  The  more  I  becameacquainted 
with  him,  the  more  I  became  thoroughly  impressed 
with  the  very  extraordinary  combination  of  rare 
elements  of  character  which  he  exhibited.  During 
the  time  he  met  us  frequently  and  conversed  freely 
upon  various  subjects,  not  much  upon  our  mission. 
I  saw,  however,  very  clearly  that  he  was  very  anxious 
for  the  proposed  conference  to  take  place.8 
The  commissioners'  note  to  Grant  had  been 
a  substantial  compliance  with  the  requirements 
of  President  Lincoln;  and  so  accepting  it,  he, 
on  the  31st  of  January,  sent  Secretary  Seward 
to  meet  them,  giving  him  for  this  purpose  the 
following  written  instructions : 
Executive  Mansion,  • 
Washington,  January  31,  1865. 
Hon.  William  H.  Seward,  Secretary  of  State  : 
You  will  proceed  to  Fortress  Monroe,  Virginia, 
there  to  meet  and  informally  confer  with  Messrs. 
'  the  two  countries,'  to  which  Mr.  Davis  replied  that 
he  so  understood  it.  A.  Lincoln." 
["  House  Journal, "2d  Session  38th  Congress, p.  229.] 
3  "Southern  Historical  Papers,"  Vol.  IV.,  p.  214. 
4  Wilcox  to  Parke,  Jan.  29, 1865.  "  House  Journal," 
2d  Session  38th  Congress,  p.  230. 
•r>  Stanton  toOrd,  Jan.  29,1865,10P.M.   Ibid., p.  230. 
6  Lincoln  to  Eckert,  Jan.  30',  1865.    Ihid.,  p.  231. 
7  Ibid.,  p.  252. 
8  Stephens,  "War  between  the  States,"   Vol.  II., 
P-  597-
THE  HAMPTON  ROADS  CONFERENCE. 
Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Campbell,  on  the  basis  of  my 
letter  to  F.  P.  Blair,  Esq.,  of  January  iH,  1865,  a 
copy  of  which  you  have.  You  will  make  known 
to  them  that  three  things  are  indispensable,  to  wit : 
First,  the  restoration  of  the  national  authority 
throughout  all  the  States.  Second,  no  receding  by 
the  Executive  of  the  United  States  on  the  slavery 
question  from  the  position  assumed  thereon  in  the 
late  annual  message  to  Congress,  and  in  preceding 
documents.  Third,  no  cessation  of  hostilities  short 
of  an  end  of  the  war,  and  the  disbanding  of  all  forces 
hostile  to  the  Government.  You  will  inform  them 
that  all  propositions  of  theirs,  not  inconsistent  with 
the  above,  will  be  considered  and  passed  upon  in  a 
spirit  of  sincere  liberality.  You  will  hear  all  they 
may  choose  to  say,  and  report  to  me.  You  will  not 
assume  to  definitely  consummate  anything. 
Yours,  etc., 
Abraham  Lincoln.1 
Mr.  Seward  started  on  the  morning  of  Feb- 
ruary 1,  and  simultaneously  with  his  departure 
the  President  repeated  to  General  Grant  the 
monition  which  the  Secretary  of  War  had  al- 
ready sent  him  two  days  before  through  the 
special  messenger,  "  Let  nothing  which  is  trans- 
piring change,  hinder,  or  delay  your  military 
movements  or  plans."2  Grant  responded  to 
the  order,  promising  that  no  armistice  should 
ensue,  adding,  "  The  troops  are  kept  in  readi- 
ness to  move  at  the  shortest  notice,  if  occa- 
sion should  justify  it."  3  The  special  messenger, 
Major  Thomas  J.  Eckert,  arrived  while  Sir. 
Seward  was  yet  on  his  way.  On  informing  the 
commissioners  of  the  President's  exact  re- 
quirement, they  replied  by  presenting  Jefferson 
Davis's  instruction.  This  was  receding  from 
the  terms  contained  in  their  note  to  Grant, 
and  Major  Eckert  promptly  notified  them  that 
they  could  not  proceed  further  unless  they  com- 
plied strictly  with  President  Lincoln's  terms. 
Thus  at  half-past  nine  on  the  night  of  February 
1  the  mission  of  Stephens,  Hunter,  and  Camp- 
bell was  practically  at  an  end.  It  was  never 
explained  why  they  took  this  course,  for  the 
next  day  they  again  changed  their  minds.  The 
only  conjecture  which  seems  plausible  is  that 
they  hoped  to  persuade  General  Grant  to  take 
some  extraordinary  and  dictatorial  step.  One 
of  them  hints  as  much  in  a  newspaper  article 
written  long  after  the  war.  "  We  had  tried," 
he  wrote,  "  to  intimate  to  General  Grant,  before 
we  reached  Old  Point,  that  a  settlement  gener- 
ally satisfactory  to  both  sides  could  be  more 
easily  effected  through  him  and  General  Lee 
by  an  armistice  than  in  any  other  way.  The 
attempt  was  in  vain."4  The  general  had  indeed 
1  "  House  Journal,"  2d  Session  38th  Congress,  p. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  233 
3  Ibid.,  p. 
Vol.   III., 
"  Southern  Historical  Papers, 
House  Journal,"  2d  Session  38th  Congress 
(April,  1877) 
•5 
Ibid. P-  235- 
listened  to  thcrn,  with  great  interest; 
theii  1  rt  him  I 
ably  indulged  in  stron 
ance  than  they  fdt    About  an  I  *  the 
commissioners  refused  Major  I  •.ma- 
lum Genera]  Grant  tel< 
to  Secretary  Stanton,  from 
that  at  least  two  ot    tl  had 
declared  to  him  their  pi 
restore  peai  e  and  union." 
try  i ,  \>.  ■ 
Hon.  Edwin  M.   Stanton. 
Now  that  the   interview  between 
under  his  written   instructions,   an  I    "  :  hens 
and  party  has  ended,  1  will  stal 
not  officially,  to  become  a  mat  hat  I 
am    convinced,    upon    conversation    with    M 
Stephens  and  Hunter,  that  their  intentions  are  good 
and  their  desire  sincere  to  restore  peace  and  ui 
I  have  not  felt  myself  at  liberty  to  ex| 
of  my  own,  or  to  account  for  my  This 
has  placed  me  in  an  awkward  position,  which  I  could 
have  avoided  by  not  seeing  them  in  the  first  instance. 
I  fear  now  their  going  back  without  any  expression 
from  any  one  in  authority  will  have  a  bad  influence. 
At  the  same  time  I  recognize  the  difficulties  in  ihe 
way  of  receiving  these  informal  commission 
this  time,  and  do  not  know  what  to  recommend. 
I  am  sorry,  however,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  cannot  have 
an  interview  with  the  two  named  in  this  dispatch, 
if  not  all  three  now  within  our  lines.  Their  letter 
to  me  was  all  that  the  President's  instruction- 
templated  to  secure  their  safe  conduct,  if  they  had 
used  the  same  language  to  Major  Eckert. 
U.  S.  Grant.  Lieut.-Gen 
On  the  morning  of  February  2.    I 
Lincoln  went  to  the  War  Department,  and, 
reading  Major  Eckert's  report,  was  about  to 
recall  Mr.  Seward  by  telegraph, 
dispatch  was  placed  in  his  hind-.  The  commu- 
nication served  to  change  his  pin- 
ing not  to  neglect  the  indications  of  sincerity 
here  described,  he  immediately  telegraphed  in 
reply,  "  Say  to  the  gentlemen  I  will  meet  them 
personally  at  Fortress  Mom 
get  there.''6    The  commissioners  by  this 
had  decided  to  accept  Mr.  Lincoln's  terms, 
which  they  did  in  writing  to  both  Major  E 
and   General  Grant,  and  thereupon  wei 
once  conveyed  from  General  I 
quarters  at  City  Point  to  F 
Mr.  Lincoln  joined  Secret         S  I  on  the 
same  night. 
On  the  morning  of 
rebel  commissioners  were  conducted 
the  River  Queen,  lying  at  anchor  n 
Monroe,  where  President  Lincoln  and  S 
tarv  Seward  awaited  them  :   and  in  ti 
of  that  steamer  an  informal  conference  of  four 
hours'  duration  ensued.  It  was 
hand  that  no  writing  or  memorandum  should 
be  made  at  the  time,  so  that  the  record  of  the 
interview  remains  only  in  the  sej  -      -         ^unts 
-    ;.  the
84* 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
which  each  of  the  rebel  commissioners  after- 
ward wrote  out  from  memory,  neither  Mr. 
Seward  nor  President  Lincoln  ever  having 
made  any  report  in  detail.  Former  personal 
acquaintance  made  the  beginning  easy  and 
cordial,  through  pleasant  reminiscences  of  the 
past  and  mutual  inquiries  after  friends.  In  a 
careful  analysis  ot  these  reports,  thus  furnished 
by  the  Confederates  themselves,  the  first  strik- 
ing feature  is  the  difference  of  intention  be- 
tween the  parties.  It  is  apparent  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  went,  honestly  and  frankly  in  all 
friendliness,  to  offer  them  the  best  terms  he 
could  to  secure  peace  and  reunion,  but  to  abate 
no  jot  of  official  duty  and  personal  dignity; 
while  the  main  thought  of  the  commissioners 
was  to  evade  the  express  condition  on  which 
they  had  been  admitted  to  conference ;  to  seek 
to  postpone  the  vital  issue;  and  to  propose  an 
armistice,  by  debating  a  mere  juggling  expe- 
dient, against  which  they  had  in  a  private  agree- 
ment with  one  another  already  committed 
themselves. 
Mr.  Stephens  began  the  discussion  by  ask- 
ing whether  there  was  no  way  of  restoring  the 
harmony  and  happiness  of  former  days;  to 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  "  There  was  but 
one  way  that  he  knew  of,  and  that  was,  for 
those  who  were  resisting  the  law s  of  the  Union 
to  cease  that  resistance."  Mr.  Stephens  re- 
joined that  they  had  been  induced  to  believe 
that  both  parties  might  for  a  while  leave  their 
present  strife  in  abeyance  and  occupy  them- 
selves with  some  continental  question  till  their 
anger  should  cool  and  accommodation  be- 
come possible. 
Here  Mr.  Lincoln  interposed  promptly  and 
frankly :  "  I  suppose  you  refer  to  something 
that  Mr.  Blair  has  said.  Now  it  is  proper  to 
state  at  the  beginning  that  whatever  he  said 
was  of  his  own  accord,  and  without  the  least 
authority  from  me.  When  he  applied  for  a 
passport  to  go  to  Richmond,  with  certain  ideas 
which  he  wished  to  make  known  to  me,  I  told 
him  flatly  that  I  did  not  want  to  hear  them. 
If  he  desired  to  go  to  Richmond  of  his  own 
accord,  I  would  give  him  a  passport;  but  he 
had  no  authority  to  speak  for  me  in  any  way 
whatever.  When  he  returned  and  brought  me 
Mr.  Davis's  letter,  I  gave  him  the  one  to  which 
you  alluded  in  your  application  for  leave  to 
cro  >s  the  lines.  I  was  always  willing  to  hear 
propositions  for  peace  on  the  conditions  of  this 
letter,  and  on  no  other.  The  restoration  of  the 
Union  is  a  si?ie  qua  ?ion  with  me,  and  hence 
my  instructions  that  no  conference  was  to  be 
held  except  upon  that  basis." 
Despite  this  express  disavowal  Mr.  Stephens 
persisted  in  believing  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
come  with  ulterior  designs,  and  went  on  at 
considerable  length  to  elaborate  his  idea  of  a 
joint  Mexican  expedition,  to  be  undertaken 
during  an  armistice  and  without  a  prior  pledge 
of  ultimate  reunion.  Such  an  expedition,  he 
argued,  would  establish  the  "  right  of  self- 
government  to  all  peoples  on  this  continent 
against  the  dominion  or  control  of  any  European 
power."  Establishing  this  principle  of  the  right 
of  peoples  to  self-government  would  necessarily 
also  establish,  by  logical  sequence,  the  right 
of  States  to  self-government ;  and,  present  pas- 
sions being  cooled,  there  would  ensue  "  an 
Ocean-bound  Federal  Republic,  under  the 
operation  of  this  Continental  Regulator — the 
ultimate  absolute  sovereignty  of  each  State." 
His  idea  was  that  "  All  the  States  might  rea- 
sonably be  expected,  very  soon,  to  return,  of 
their  own  accord,  to  their  former  relations  to 
the  Union,  just  as  they  came  together  at  first 
by  their  own  consent,  and  for  their  mutual 
interests.  Others,  too,  would  continue  to  join 
it  in  the  future,  as  they  had  in  the  past.  This 
great  law  of  the  system  would  effect  the  same 
certain  results  in  its  organization  as  the  law 
of  gravitation  in  the  material  world."1 
Mr.  Stephens  does  not  seem  to  have  real- 
ized how  comically  absurd  was  his  effort  to 
convert  President  Lincoln  to  the  doctrine  of 
secession  by  this  very  transparent  bit  of  cun- 
ning, and  the  others  listened  with  considerate 
and  patient  gravity.  Mr.  Seward  at  length 
punctured  the  bubble  with  a  few  well-directed 
sentences,  when  Mr.  Hunter  also  intervened 
to  express  his  entire  dissent  from  Mr.  Stephens's 
proposal.  "  In  this  view,"  reports  Mr.  Stephens 
naively,  "  he  expressed  the  joint  opinion  of  the 
commissioners ;  indeed,  we  had  determined 
not  to  enter  into  any  agreement  that  would 
require  the  Confederate  arms  to  join  in  any 
invasion  of  Mexico."2  But  the  rebel  Vice- 
President  fails  to  record  why,  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, he  had  opened  this  useless  branch 
of  the  discussion. 
At  this  stage  President  Lincoln  brought 
back  the  conversation  pointedly  to  the  original 
object  of  the  conference  : 
He  repeated  that  he  could  not  entertain  a  propo- 
sition for  an  armistice  on  any  terms  while  the 
great  and  vital  question  of  reunion  was  undisposed 
of.  That  was  the  first  question  to  be  settled.  He 
could  enter  into  no  treaty,  convention,  or  stipula- 
tion, or  agreement  with  the  Confederate  States, 
jointly  or  separately,  upon  that  or  any  other  subject, 
but  upon  the  basis  first  settled  that  the  Union  was 
to  be  restored.  Any  such  agreement,  or  stipula- 
tion, would  be  a  quasi  recognition  of  the  States  then 
in  arms  against  the  National  Government,  as  a  sepa- 
rate power.    That  he  never  could  do.3 
1  Stephens,  "  War  between  the  States,"  Vol.  II.,  pp. 
600-604. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  608. 
3  Stephens,  "  War  between  the  States,"  Vol.  II., 
p.  608.
Til  A    IMM/>T()N   ROADS    CONFER1    .<  / 
This  branch  of  the  discussion  [also  reports  Judge 
Campbell]  was  closed  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  answered 
that  it  could  not  be  entertained  ;  that  there  could  be 
no  war  without  the  consent  of  Congress,  and  no 
treaty  without  the  consent  of  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States;  that  he  could  make  no  treaty  witli 
the  Confederate  States,  because  that  would  be  a 
recognition  of  those  States,  and  that  this  could  not 
be  done  under  any  circumstances;  that  unless  a 
settlement  were  made  there  would  be  danger  that 
the  quarrel  would  break  out  in  the  midst  of  the 
joint  operations;  that  one  party  might  unite  with 
the  common  enemy  to  destroy  the  other;  that  he 
was  determined  to  do  nothing  to  suspend  the  opera- 
tions for  bringing  the  existing  struggle  to  a  close 
to  attain  any  collateral  end.  Mr.  Lincoln  in  this 
part  of  the  conversation  admitted  that  he  had  power 
to  make  a  military  convention,  and  that  his  arrange- 
ments under  that  might  extend  to  settle  several  of 
the  points  mentioned,  but  others  it  could  not.1 
The  sophistical  theory  of  secession  as  a  con- 
servative principle,  and  the  filibustering  bait 
of  a  joint  expedition  to  steal  Mexico  under 
guise  of  enforcing  the  Monroe  doctrine,  being 
thus  effectually  cleared  away,  the  discussion  at 
length  turned  to  the  only  reasonable  inquiry 
which  remained.  Judge  Campbell  asked  how 
restoration  could  be  brought  about  if  the  Con- 
federate States  would  consent,  mentioning 
important  questions,  such  as  the  disbandment 
of  the  army,  confiscation  acts  on  both  sides, 
the  effect  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
representation  in  Congress,  the  division  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  so  on,  which  would  inevitably  arise 
and  require  immediate  adjustment.  On  these 
various  topics  much  conversation  ensued, 
which,  even  as  briefly  reported,  is  too  long  to 
be  quoted  entire.  It  will  be  more  useful  to 
condense,  under  specific  headings,  the  substan- 
tial declarations  and  offers  which  the  commis- 
sioners report  Mr.  Lincoln  to  have  made. 
I.  Reconstruction. — The  shortest  way 
the  insurgents  could  effect  this,  he  said,  was  "  by 
disbanding  their  armies  and  permitting  the 
national  authorities  to  resume  their  functions." 
Mr.  Seward  called  attention  to  that  phrase  of 
his  annual  message  where  he  had  declared, 
"  In  stating  a  single  condition  of  peace,  I  mean 
simply  to  say  that  the  war  will  cease  on  the 
part  of  the  Government  whenever  it  shall  have 
ceased  on  the  part  of  those  who  began  it."  As 
to  the  rebel  States  being  admitted  to  represen- 
tation in  Congress,  "  Mr.  Lincoln  very  promptly 
replied  that  his  own  individual  opinion  was 
they  ought  to  be.  He  also  thought  they  would 
be ;  but  he  could  not  enter  into  any  stipulation 
upon  the  subject.  His  own  opinion  was  that 
when  the  resistance  ceased  and  the  national 
authority  was  recognized  the  States  would  be 
immediately  restored  to  their  practical  relations 
to  the  Union." 
II.  Co 
said   that  50  i 
other  penal   i 
forcemenl  wa    left  • 
that  poin  .-  (u\\ 
and  explicit,  and  on  hi 
liance  might  be  plat  ed    i 
the  power  of  the  Exe<  uth 
liberality."-  u As  to  all 
Campbell's  report,  ••  invoh 
erty,  the  <  owl     «  ould 
that  Congress  would    no  doubt 
making  restitution   of  I 
by  indemnity,  after  the  ; 
excited  by  the  wai  had  beet,  i 
III.  The  Emancipai  ion    l' 
—  "  Mr.  Lincoln  said  that  was  a  judi< 
tion.    How  the  courts  would 
not  know,  and  could  give  n< 
opinion  was,  that  as  the  proclamatii  i 
war  measure,  and  would  hai 
its  being  an  exercise   of  the    n 
soon  as  the  war  ceased  it  would  be  \n<- 
tive  for  the  future.    It  would  be  held  to  apply 
only  to   such   slaves   as  had  come  under 
operation  while  it  was  in  active  i 
was  his  individual  opinion,  but  the  courts  m 
decide  the  other  way,  and  hold  that  it  d 
ually  emancipated  all  the  slaves  in  the  St 
to  which  it  applied  at  the  time.    So  far  a 
was  concerned,  he  should  leave  it  to  the  i 
to  decide.  He  never  would  change  or  m< 
the  terms  of  the  proclamation  in  the  slightest 
particular." 
At  another  point  in  the  conversar 
said  it  was  not  his  intention  in  the  beginning 
to  interfere  with  slavery  in  the  States :  that  he 
never  would  have  done  it  if  he  had  not  been 
compelled  by  necessity  to  do  it  to  maintain 
the  Union;   that  the  subject  presented  many 
difficult  and  perplexing  questions  to  him  :  that 
he  had  hesitated  for  some  time,  and  had  re- 
sorted to  this  measure  only  w  en  to 
it  by  public  necessity  :  that  he  had  been  in 
favor  of  the  General  Government  prohil 
the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  Territories,  but 
did  not  think  that  that  Government  |    — 
power  over  the  subject  in  the  S 
as  a  war  measure:   and  that  he  had 
himself  been  in  favor  of  emancipation,  but  not 
immediate  emancipation,  even  by  th<    S 
Many  evils  attending  this  appeared  to  him." 
Recurring  once  more  to  the  subject  of  eman- 
cipation, "  He  went  on  to  say  that  he  would 
be  willing  to  be  taxed  to  remunen  3  uth- 
1  Campbell  in  "Southern   Ma  -.ber, 
1S74.  p.  101. 
a  Stephens,  "War  between         -  Vol.    II.. 
pp.  000,  612.  and  017. 
8   Campbell   in   '  Southern  Mag  v.ber, 
1S74,  p.  192.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
era  people  for  their  slaves.  He  believed  the 
people  of  the  North  were  as  responsible  for 
slavery  as  the  people  of  the  South  ;  and  if  the 
war  should  then  eease.  with  the  voluntary  ab- 
olition of  slavery  by  the  States,  he  should  be 
in  favor,  individually,  oi  the  Government  pay- 
ing a  lair  indemnity  for  the  loss  to  the  owners, 
lie  said  he  believed  this  feeling  had  an  exten- 
sive existence  at  the  North.  He  knew  some 
who  were  in  favor  of  an  appropriation  as  high 
as  four  hundred  millions  of  dollars  for  this  pur- 
pose. I  could  mention  persons,  said  he,  whose 
names  would  astonish  you,  who  are  willing  to 
do  this  if  the  war  shall  now  cease  without  fur- 
ther expense,  and  with  the  abolition  of  slavery 
as  stated.  But  on  this  subject,  he  said,  he  could 
give  no  assurance  —  enter  into  no  stipulation. 
He  barely  expressed  his  own  feelings  and 
views,  and  what  he  believed  to  be  the  views 
of  others  upon  the  subject/' 
IV.  The  Division  of  Virginia. —  "Mr. 
Lincoln  said  he  could  only  give  an  individual 
opinion,  which  was,  that  Western  Virginia 
would  be  continued  to  be  recognized  as  a 
separate  State  in  the  Union." 
V.  The  XIIIth  Amendment. —  Mr.  Sew- 
ard brought  to  the  notice  of  the  commissioners 
one  topic  which  to  them  was  new;  namely,  that 
only  a  few  days  before,  on  the  31st  of  January, 
Congress  had  passed  the  XIIIth  Amendment 
to  the  Constitution,  which,  when  ratified  by 
three-fourths  of  the  States,  would  effect  an 
immediate  abolition  of  slavery  throughout  the 
entire  Union.  The  reports  of  the  commission- 
ers represent  Mr.  Seward  as  saying  that  if  the 
South  would  submit  and  agree  to  immediate 
restoration,  the  restored  States  might  yet  defeat 
the  ratification  of  this  amendment,  intimating 
that  Congress  had  passed  it  "  under  the  pre- 
dominance of  revolutionary  passion,"  which 
would  abate  on  the  cessation  of  the  war.  It  may 
well  be  doubted  whether  Mr.  Seward  stated 
the  case  as  strongly  as  the  commissioners  inti- 
mate, since  he  himself,  like  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
his  entire  cabinet,  had  favored  the  measure. 
It  is  probable  that  the  commissioners  allowed 
their  own  feelings  and  wishes  to  color  too 
strongly  the  hypothesis  he  stated,  and  to  inter- 
pret as  a  probability  what  he  mentioned  as  only 
among  the  possible  events  of  the  future. 
It  will  be  seen  that  in  what  he  said  upon 
these  various  propositions  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
always  extremely  careful  to  discriminate  be- 
tween what  he  was  under  the  Constitution 
authorized  to  do  as  Executive,  and  what  would 
devolve  upon  coordinate  branches  of  the  Gov- 
ernment under  their  own  powers  and  limitations. 
With  the  utmost  circumspection  he  pointed  out 
the  distinctions  between  his  personal  opinions 
and  wishes  and  his  official  authority.  More  es- 
pecially, however,  did  he  repeat  and  emphasize 
the  declaration  that  he  would  do  none  of  the 
things  mentioned  or  promised  without  a  pre- 
vious pledge  of  reunion  and  cessation  of  resist- 
ance. "  Even  in  case  the  Confederate  States 
should  entertain  the  proposition  of  a  return  to 
the  Union,"  says  Mr.  Stephens's  narrative,  "  he 
persisted  in  asserting  that  he  could  not  enter 
into  any  agreement  upon  this  subject  [recon- 
struction], or  upon  any  other  matters  of  that 
sort,  with  parties  in  arms^against  the  Govern- 
ment." Mr.  Hunter  interposed,  and  in  illustra- 
tion of  the  propriety  of  the  Executive  entering 
into  agreements  with  persons  in  arms  against  the 
acknowledged  rightful  public  authority  referred 
to  repeated  instances  of  this  character  between 
Charles  I.  of  England  and  the  people  in  arms 
against  him.  Mr.  Lincoln  in  reply  to  this  said : 
"  I  do  not  profess  to  be  posted  in  history.  On 
all  such  matters  I  will  turn  you  over  to  Seward. 
All  I  distinctly  recollect  about  the  case  of 
Charles  I.  is  that  he  lost  his  head."  The 
pertinent  retort  reduced  Mr.  Hunter  to  his  last 
rhetorical  resource  —  a  wail  of  protest,  in  the 
very  worst  tone  of  sectional  egotism,  that  the 
Confederate  States -and  their  people  were  by 
these  terms  forced  to  unconditional  surrender 
and  submission.  To  this  Mr.  Seward  replied 
with  patience  and  dignity  "  That  no  words 
like  unconditional  submission  had  been  used, 
or  any  importing  or  justly  implying  degrada- 
tion, or  humiliation  even,  to  the  people  of  the 
Confederate  States.  .  .  .  Nor  did  he  think 
that  in  yielding  to  the  execution  of  the  laws 
under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
with  all  its  guarantees  and  securities  for  personal 
and  political  rights,  as  they  might  be  declared 
to  be  by  the  courts,  could  be  properly  con- 
sidered as  unconditional  submission  to  con- 
querors, or  as  having  anything  humiliating  in 
it.  The  Southern  people  and  the  Southern 
States  would  be  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  with  all  their  rights  secured 
thereby,  in  the  same  way,  and  through  the 
same  instrumentalities,  as  the  similar  rights  of 
the  people  of  the  other  States  were." 
The  reader  will  recall  that  in  his  last  annual 
message  President  Lincoln  declared  his  belief, 
based  "on  careful  consideration  of  all  the  evi- 
dence accessible,"  that  it  was  useless  to  attempt 
to  negotiate  with  Jefferson  Davis,  but  that  the 
prospect  would  be  better  with  his  followers. 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  evidently  gone  to  Fort  Mon- 
roe in  hope  of  making  some  direct  impres- 
sion upon  Stephens  and  Hunter,  whom  Grant 
represented  as  having  such  good  intentions 
"  to  restore  peace  and  union."  He  did  not  neg- 
lect to  try  this  joint  of  the  rebel  commission- 
ers' armor.  Seizing  the  proper  opportunity, 
he  pressed  upon  Stephens  the  suggestion  of 
separate  State  action  to  bring  about  a  cessation 
of  hostilities.    Addressing  him,  he  said :