ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
ity  of  his  opposition  to  the  war.  General  Or- 
der No.  38  furnished  him  a  most  inspiring  text 
for  assailing  the  Government,  and  he  availed 
himself  of  it  in  Democratic  meetings  through- 
out the  State.  A  rumor  of  his  violent  speeches 
came  to  the  ears  of  the  military  authorities  in 
Cincinnati,  and  an  officer  was  sent,  in  citizen's 
clothes,  to  attend  a  meeting  which  was  held 
at  Mount  Vernon,  Ohio,  where  Mr.  Vallandi- 
gham  and  other  prominent  Democrats  wr ere  the 
orators  of  the  day.  The  meeting  was  an  enthusi- 
astic one,  full  of  zeal  against  the  Government 
and  of  sympathy  with  the  South.  Mr.  Vallan- 
digham,  feeling  his  audience  thoroughly  in 
harmony  with  him,  spoke  with  unusual  fluency 
and  bitterness,  greatly  enjoying  the  applause 
of  his  hearers,  and  unconscious  of  the  presence 
of  the  unsympathizing  recorder,  who  leaned 
against  the  platform  a  few  feet  away  and  took 
down  some  of  his  most  malignant  periods.  He 
said  it  was  the  design  of  those  in  power  to  usurp 
a  despotism ;  that  it  was  not  their  intention 
to  effect  a  restoration  of  the  Union;  that  the 
Government  had  rejected  every  overture  of 
peace  from  the  South  and  every  proposition  of 
mediation  from  Europe ;  that  the  war  was  for 
the  liberation  of  the  blacks  and  the  enslave- 
ment of  the  whites;  that  General  Order  No. 
38  was  a  base  usurpation  of  arbitrary  power ; 
that  he  despised  it  and  spat  upon  it  and 
trampled  it  under  his  feet.  Speaking  of  the 
conscription  act,  he  said  the  people  were  not 
deserving  to  be  free  men  who  would  submit  to 
such  encroachment  on  their  liberties.  He  called 
the  President  "  King  Lincoln,"  and  advised 
the  people  to  come  up  together  at  the  ballot  box 
and  hurl  the  tyrant  from  his  throne.  The  audi- 
ence and  the  speaker  were  evidently  in  entire 
agreement.  The  crowd  wore  in  great  numbers 
the  distinctive  badges  of  "  Copperheads  "  and 
"  Butternuts,"  and  amid  cheers  which  Vallan- 
digham's  speech  elicited  the  witness  heard  a 
shout  that  "  Jeff  Davis  was  a  gentleman,  which 
was  more  than  Lincoln  was." 
The  officer  returned  to  Cincinnati  and  made 
his  report.  Three  days  later,  on  the  evening 
of  the  4th  of  May,  a  special  train  went  up  to 
Dayton,  with  a  company  of  the  115th  Ohio,  to 
arrest  Mr.  Vallandigham.  Reaching  Dayton 
they  went  at  once  to  his  house,  where  they  ar- 
rived shortly  before  daylight,  and  demanded 
admittance.  The  orator  appeared  at  an  upper 
window  and,  being  informed  of  their  business, 
.  .  .  and  with  it  .  .  .  the  change  of  our  present 
democratical  form  of  government  into  an  imperial  des- 
potism. ...  I  do  not  support  the  war ;  and  to-day  I 
bless  God  that  not  the  smell  of  so  much  as  one  drop  of 
its  blood  is  upon  my  garments.  .  .  .  Our  Southern 
brethren  were  to  be  whipped  back  into  love  and  fellow- 
ship at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  Oh,  monstrous  de- 
lusion !  .  .  .  Sir,  history  will  record  that  after  nearly 
six  thousand  years  of  folly  and  wickedness  in  every 
refused  to  allow  them  to  enter.  He  began 
shouting  in  a  loud  voice;  pistols  were  fired 
from  the  house ;  the  signals  were  taken  up  in 
the  town,  and,  according  to  some  preconcerted 
arrangement,  the  fire  bells  began  to  toll.  There 
was  evidently  no  time  to  be  lost.  The  soldiers 
forced  their  way  into  the  house ;  Vallandigham 
was  compelled  to  make  a  hasty  toilet,  and  was 
hurried  to  the  cars,  and  the  special  train  pulled 
out  of  the  station  before  any  considerable 
crowd  could  assemble.  Arriving  at  Cincinnati, 
Vallandigham  was  consigned  to  the  military 
prison  and  kept  in  close  confinement.  During 
the  day  he  contrived,  however,  to  issue  an  ad- 
dress to  the  Democracy  of  Ohio,  saying: 
I  am  here  in  a  military  bastilefor  no  other  offense 
than  my  political  opinions,  and  the  defense  of  them, 
and  of  the  rights  of  the  people,  and  of  your  consti- 
tutional liberties.  .  .  .  I  am  a  Democrat  —  for 
the  Constitution,  for  law,  for  the  Union,  for  liberty 
—  this  is  my  only  crime.  .  .  .  Meanwhile,  Demo- 
crats of  Ohio,  of  the  North-west,  of  the  United  States, 
be  firm,  be  true  to  your  principles,  to  the  Constitu- 
tion, to  the  Union,  and  all  will  yet  be  well.  .  .  . 
To  you,  to  the  whole  people,  to  Time,  I  appeal. 
While  he  was  issuing  these  fervid  words  his 
friends  in  Dayton  were  making  their  demon- 
stration in  another  fashion.  The  town  was 
filled  with  excitement  all  day.  Crowds  gathered 
on  the  streets  discussing  and  denouncing  the 
arrest.  Great  numbers  of  wagons  loaded  with 
rural  friends  and  adherents  of  the  agitator 
came  in  from  the  country  and,  the  excitement 
increasing  as  night  came  on,  a  crowd  of  several 
hundred  men  moved,  hooting  and  yelling,  to 
the  office  of  the  Republican  newspaper.  Some 
one  threw  a  brick  at  the  building,  then  a  vol- 
ley of  pistol  shots  was  fired,  and  the  excitement 
of  the  crowd  wreaked  itself  on  the  unoffending 
building,  which  was  first  sacked,  and  then  de- 
stroyed by  fire.  Later  in  the  night  a  company 
of  troops  arrived  from  Cincinnati,  and  before 
midnight  the  crowd  was  dispersed  and  order 
was  restored. 
Mr.  Vallandigham  was  promptly  tried  by  a 
military  commission,  convened  May  6  by  Gen- 
eral Burnside,  consisting  of  officers  of  his  staff 
and  of  the  Ohio  and  Kentucky  volunteers.  Mr. 
Vallandigham  made  no  individual  objection  to 
the  court,  but  protested  that  they  had  no  author- 
ity to  try  him ;  that  he  was  in  neither  the  land 
nor  naval  forces  of  the  United  States,  nor  in  the 
militia,  and  was  therefore  amenable  only  to  the 
form  and  administration  of  government,  theocratic, 
democratic,  monarchic,  oligarchic,  despotic,  and  mixed, 
it  was  reserved  to  American  statesmanship,  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  of  the  Christian  era,  to  try  the  grand 
experiment,  on  a  scale  the  most  costly  and  gigantic  in 
its  proportions,  of  creating  love  by  force  and  develop- 
ing fraternal  affection  by  war,  and  history  will  record, 
too,  on  the  same  page,  the  utter  disastrous  and  most 
bloody  failure  of  the  experiment."
VALLAND/G//AM. 
civil  courts.  This  protest  was,  of  course,  dis- 
regarded, and  his  trial  went  on.  It  was  proved 
that  he  made  the  speech  of  which  we  have  al- 
ready given  an  abstract.  He  called  as  witness 
in  his  defense  Mr.  S.  S.  Cox,  who  was  also  one 
of  the  orators  of  the  occasion,  and  who  tes- 
tified that  the  speech  of  Mr.  Vallandigham, 
though  couched  in  strong  language,  was  in  no 
respect  treasonable.  When  the  evidence  was 
all  in,  the  accused  entered  a  protest  against  the 
entire  proceeding,  repeating  the  terms  of  his 
original  protest,  and  adding  that  his  alleged  of- 
fense itself  was  not  known  to  the  Constitution 
nor  to  any  law  thereof.  "  It  is,"  he  said,  "  words 
spoken  to  the  people  of  Ohio,  in  an  open  and 
public  political  meeting,  lawfully  and  peace- 
ably assembled  under  the  Constitution  and 
upon  full  notice.  It  is  words  of  criticism  of  the 
public  policy  of  the  public  servants  of  the 
people,  by  which  policy  it  was  alleged  that  the 
welfare  of  the  country  was  not  promoted.  It 
was  an  appeal  to  the  people  to  change  that 
policy,  not  by  force,  but  by  free  elections  and 
the  ballot  box.  It  is  not  pretended  that  I  coun- 
seled disobedience  to  the  Constitution  or  re- 
sistance to  laws  and  lawful  authority.  I  never 
have.  Beyond  this  protest,  I  have  nothing  fur- 
ther to  submit."  There  were  no  speeches  either 
in  prosecution  or  in  defense.  When  the  court 
was  cleared  it  remained  in  deliberation  for  three 
hours  and  returned  a  decision  that  the  accused 
was  guilty  of  the  charge  of  "  publicly  express- 
ing, in  violation  of  General  Order  No.  38,  from 
Headquarters  Department  of  the  Ohio,  his  sym- 
pathy for  those  in  arms  against  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  declaring  disloyal 
sentiments  and  opinions,  with  the  object  and 
purpose  of  weakening  the  power  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  its  efforts  to  suppress  an  unlawful 
rebellion."  They  therefore  sentenced  him  to  be 
placed  in  close  confinement  in  some  fortress 
of  the  United  States,  to  be  designated  by  the 
commanding  officer  of  the  department,  there 
to  be  kept  during  the  continuance  of  the  war. 
General  Burnside  approved  the  finding  and  the 
sentence,  and  designated  Fort  Warren,  Boston 
Harbor,  as  the  place  of  confinement  in  accord- 
ance with  the  sentence. 
But  before  the  finding  of  the  commission 
was  made  public,  Mr.  George  E.  Pugh,  as 
counsel  for  Vallandigham,  applied  to  Judge 
Leavitt  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  sit- 
ting in  Cincinnati,  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 
On  the  nth  of  May  the  case  was  heard,  and 
extended  arguments  were  made  by  Mr.  Pugh 
in  favor  of  the  motion,  and  by  Mr.  Perry,  who 
appeared  on  behalf  of  General  Burnside, 
against  it.  But  the  most  noticeable  feature  of 
the  trial  was  a  written  address  from  General 
Burnside  himself,  presented  to  the  district  at- 
torney, in  which  he  explained  and  defended  his 
Vol.  XXXVIIL— 18. 
action.  He  began  by  saying  that  be  *ai  pro- 
hibited by  law  and  by  his  duty  from  cril 
ing  the  policy  of  the  Government ;  that  such 
abstention  from  injurious  criticism  was  binding 
on  every  one  in  the  service.  He  then  went  on 
to  say  : 
If  it  is  my  duty  and  the  duty  of  the  troop,  to 
avoid  saying  anything  that  would  weaken  the  army 
by  preventing  a  single  recruit  from  joining  the 
ranks,  by  bringing  the  laws  of  Congress  into  disre- 
pute, or  by  causing  dissatisfaction  in  the  ranks,  it 
is  equally  the  duty  of  every  citizen  in  the  depart- 
ment to  avoid  the  same  evil.  ...  If  I  were  to 
find  a  man  from  the  enemy's  country  distribut- 
ing in  my  camp  speeches  of  their  public  men  that 
tended  to  demoralize  the  troops,  or  to  destroy  their 
confidence  in  the  constituted  authorities  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, I  would  have  him  tried  and  hung,  if  found 
guilty,  and  all  the  rules  of  modern  warfare  would 
sustain  me.  Why  should  such  speeches  from  our 
own  public  men  be  allowed  ? 
He  even  went  so  far  as  to  disapprove  the  use 
of  party  names  and  party  epithets,  saving,  "  The 
simple  names  of  patriot  and  traitor  are  com- 
prehensive enough." 
If  the  people  [he  saidj  do  not  approve  the  policy 
of  the  Government  they  can  change  the  constitu- 
tional authorities  at  the  propertime  and  by  the  proper 
method.  Let  them  freely  discuss  the  policy  in  a 
proper  tone  ;  but  my  duty  requires  me  to  stop  license 
and  intemperate  discussion,  which  tend  to  weaken 
the  authority  of  the  Government  and  army:  whilst 
the  latter  is  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy  it  is  cow- 
ardly so  to  weaken  it.  .  .  .  There  is  no  fear  of  the 
people  losing  their  liberties  ;  we  all  know  that  to 
be  the  cry  of  demagogues,  and  none  but  the  igno- 
rant will  listen  to  it. 
Judge  Leavitt  denied  the  motion  for  habeas 
corpus  in  a  long  decision,  in  which  he  thor- 
oughly reviewed  the  legal  points  involved  in  the 
case.  The  essential  point  of  his  decision  was 
this  :  General  Burnside,  by  order  of  the  Presi- 
dent, had  been  appointed  to  the  military  super- 
vision of  the  Department  of  the  Ohio,  includ- 
ing, among  other  States,  the  State  of  Ohio. 
The  precise  extent  of  his  authority  was  not 
known  to  the  court,  but  it  might  properly  be 
assumed  that  the  President  had  clothed  him 
with  all  the  powers  necessary  to  the  efficient 
discharge  of  his  duties.  It  is  not  claimed  that 
in  time  of  war  the  President  is  above  the  Con- 
stitution. He  derives  his  power,  on  the  contrary, 
expressly  from  the  provision  of  that  instrument 
that  he  shall  be  commander-in-chief  of  the  arm\ 
and  navy.  The  Constitution  does  not  specify 
the  powers  he  may  rightfully  exercise  in  this 
character,  nor  are  they  defined  by  legislation. 
No  one  denies,  however,  that  the  President,  in 
this  character,  is  invested  with  very  high  powers, 
which  he  has  exercised,  as  commander-in-chief, 
from  time  to  time  during  the  present  rebellion.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
His  acts  in  this  capacity  must  be  limited  to 
such  as  are  deemed  essential  to  the  protection 
and  preservation  o\  the  Government  and  the 
Constitution.  And  in  deciding  what  he  may 
rightfully  do  under  this  power,  where  there  is 
no  express  legislative  declaration,  the  Presi- 
dent is  guided  solely  by  his  own  judgment,  and 
is  amenable  only  for  an  abuse  of  his  authority 
by  impeachment.  The  occasion  which  calls 
for  the  exercise  of  this  power  exists  only  from 
the  necessity  of  the  case;  and  when  the  neces- 
sitv  exists  there  is  a  clear  justification  of  the 
act.  The  judge  concludes  that  if  this  view  of 
the  power  of  the  President  is  correct,  it  implies 
the  right  to  arrest  persons  who,  by  their  mis- 
chievous acts  of  disloyalty,  impede  or  endanger 
the  military  operations  of  the  Government. 
And  if  the  necessity  exists,  I  see  no  reason  [he  said] 
why  the  power  does  not  attach  to  the  officer  in 
command  of  a  military  department.  The  President 
cannot  discharge  the  duties  in  person  ;  he,  there- 
fore, constitutes  an  agent  to  represent  him,  clothed 
with  the  necessary  power  for  the  efficient  supervis- 
ion of  the  military  interests  of  the  Government 
throughout  the  department.  .  .  .  In  the  exercise 
of  his  discretion  General  Burnside  issued  the  order 
(No.  5$)  which  has  been  brought  to  the  notice  of 
the  court. 
Judge  Leavitt  would  not  comment  on  that 
order,  but  only  referred  to  it  because  General 
Burnside  had  stated  his  motives  for  issuing 
it,  and  also  because  it  was  for  its  supposed 
violation  that  he  ordered  the  arrest  of  Mr. 
Vallandigham.  He  had  done  this  under  his 
responsibility  as  the  commanding  general  of 
the  department,  and  in  accordance  with  what 
he  supposed  to  be  the  power  vested  in  him 
by  the  appointment  of  the  President.  It  was 
virtually  an  act  of  the  Executive  Department 
under  the  power  vested  in  the  President  by 
the  Constitution,  and  the  court  therefore  re- 
fused to  annul  or  reverse  it. 
The  arrest,  trial,  and  sentence  of  Vallandi- 
gham took  the  President  somewhat  by  surprise, 
and  it  was  only  after  these  proceedings  were 
consummated  that  he  had  an  opportunity 
seriously  to  consider  the  case.  If  he  had  been 
consulted  before  any  proceedings  were  initi- 
ated there  is  reason  to  believe  he  would  not 
have  permitted  them; 1  but  finding  himself  in 
presence  of  an  accomplished  fact,  the  question 
now  given  him  to  consider  was,  whether  he 
should  approve  the  sentence  of  the  court,  or, 
by  annulling  it,  weaken  the  authority  of  the 
general  commanding  the  district,  and  greatly 
encourage  the  active  and  dangerous  secession 
element  in  the  West.  He  concluded  to  accept 
the  act  of  Burnside  as  within  his  discretion  as 
military  commander ;  but  as  the  imprisonment 
of  Vallandigham  in  the  North  would  have 
been  a  constant  source  of  irritation  and  po- 
litical discussion,  the  President  concluded  to 
modify  his  sentence  to  one  which  could  be 
immediately  and  finally  executed,  and  the 
execution  of  which  would  excite  far  less  sym- 
pathy with  the  prisoner,  and,  in  fact,  seriously 
damage  his  prestige  and  authority  among  his 
followers.  The  method  of  punishment  which 
he  chose  was  doubtless  suggested  by  a  para- 
graph in  Burnside's  Order  No.  38,  which  had 
mentioned,  as  a  form  of  punishment  for  the 
declaration  of  sympathies  with  the  enemy,  de- 
portation "  beyond  our  lines  into  those  of  their 
friends."  He  therefore  commuted  the  sentence 
of  Vallandigham,  and  directed  that  he  be 
sent  within  the  Confederate  lines.2  This  was 
done  about  a  fortnight  after  the  court-martial. 
Mr.  Vallandigham  was  sent  to  Tennessee, 
and,  on  the  25th  of  May,  was  escorted  by  a 
small  cavalry  force  to  the  Confederate  lines 
near  Murfreesboro'.  After  a  short  parley  with 
the  rebel  videttes,  who  made  no  objection  to 
receiving  the  prisoner,  he  was  delivered  into 
the  hands  of  a  single  private  soldier  of  an 
Alabama  regiment,  Mr.  Vallandigham  making 
a  formal  protest  to  the  effect  that  he  was  within 
the  Confederate  lines  by  force  and  against 
his  will,  and  that  he  surrendered  as  a  prisoner 
of  war. 
The  arrest  and  sentence  of  this  distin- 
guished Democrat  produced  a  profound  sen- 
sation throughout  the  country.  It  occasioned 
general  rejoicing  in  the  South.  The  Govern- 
ment in  Richmond  saw  in  it  a  promise  of 
counter-revolution  in  the  North,  and  some  of 
the  Confederate  generals  built  upon  it  the  rosi- 
est hopes  for  future  campaigns.  General  Beau- 
regard, writing  to  a  friend  in  Mobile,3  said  the 
Yankees,  by  sending  Vallandigham  into  Bragg's 
lines,  had  indicated  a  point  of  attack.  He  sug- 
gested that,  Hooker  being  disposed  of  for  the 
next  six  months  at  least,  Lee  should  act  on  the 
3  General  Burnside,  feeling,  after  the  trial,  that  his 
act  had  subjected  the  Administration  to  violent  attack, 
thought  proper  to  signify  to  the  President  that  his 
resignation  was  at  his  service  if  desired,  to  which  the 
President  answered  :  "  When  I  shall  wish  to  super- 
sede you  I  will  let  you  know.  All  the  Cabinet  re- 
gretted the  necessity  of  arresting,  for  instance,  Val- 
landigham, some  perhaps  doubting  there  was  a  real 
necessity  for  it;  but,  being  done,  all  were  for  seeing 
you  through  with  it."  [Lincoln  to  Burnside,  May  29, 
1863.    MS.] 
2  The  order  under  which  Vallandigham  was  sent 
South  was  dated  the  19th  of  May  and  transmitted  by 
telegraph  from  Washington  to  General  Burnside: 
"  The  President  directs  that,  without  delay,  you  send 
C.  L.  Vallandigham,  under  secure  guard,  to  the  head- 
quarters of  General  Rosecrans,  to  be  put  by  him  be- 
yond our  military  lines,  and  in  case  of  his  return 
within  our  lines,  he  be  arrested  and  kept  in  close  cus- 
tody for  the  term  specified  in  his  sentence."  [McPher- 
son,  "History  of  the  Rebellion,"  p.  162.] 
3  May  26,  1863.     War  Records,  Vol.  XIV.,  p.  955.
VA  LLANDIGHAM. 
defensive,  and  send  Bragg  30,000  men  to  take 
the  offensive  at  once.  Let  Bragg  —  or  some  bet- 
ter soldier  who  is  sufficiently  shadowed  forth 
in  parenthesis — "destroy  or  capture  (as  it  is 
done  in  Europe)  Rosecrans's  army;  then  march 
into  Kentucky;  raise  30,000  more  men  there 
and  in  Tennessee ;  then  get  into  Ohio  and 
call  upon  the  friends  of  Vallandigham  to  rise 
for  his  defense  and  support ;  then  call  upon 
Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Missouri  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  the  accursed  Yankee  nation ;  then  " 
—  his  plan  growing  more  and  more  magnifi- 
cent as  it  took  grandeur  and  color  under  his 
pen 
call upon the  whole    North-west  to 
join  in  the  movement,  form  a  Confederacy  of 
their  own,  and  join  us  by  a  treaty  of  alliance, 
defensive  and  offensive.  What  would  then 
become  of  the  North-east?"  demanded  the 
doughty  Creole.  "  How  long  would  it  take  us 
to  bring  it  back  to  its  senses  ?  "  The  feeling  in 
the  North,  if  less  exuberant  in  its  expression, 
was  equally  serious.  No  act  of  the  Govern- 
ment has  been  so  strongly  criticised,  and  none 
having  relation  to  the  rights  of  an  individual 
created  a  feeling  so  deep  and  so  widespread. 
No  further  legal  steps  were  taken  in  the  case, 
except  an  application  which  was  made  by  Val- 
landigham's  counsel  for  a  writ  of  certiorari  to 
bring  up  the  proceedings  of  the  military  com- 
mission for  review  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  This  motion  was  denied,  on  the 
evident  ground  that  no  such  writ  could  be 
issued  by  the  Supreme  Court  to  any  such  mili- 
tary commission,  as  the  court  had  no  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  proceedings  of  such  a  tribunal. 
But  in  the  Democratic  newspapers,  in  public 
meetings,  in  a  multitude  of  leading  articles  and 
pamphlets,  the  question  was  discussed  with  the 
greatest  earnestness  and  even  violence,  the  or- 
ators and  politicians  of  the  Democratic  party 
regarding  the  incident  as  the  most  valuable  bit 
of  political  capital  which  had  fallen  to  them 
during  the  year.  Even  some  of  the  most  loyal 
newspapers  of  the  North  joined  in  the  general  at- 
tack, saying  that  by  the  statutes  Vallandigham 
was  a  prisoner  of  state,  and  that  the  Secretary 
of  War  was  bound  to  report  him  as  such  to  the 
circuit  judge  of  the  district  in  which  his  sup- 
posed offenses  were  committed,  to  be  regularly 
tried  by  the  civil  tribunal.  But  the  principal 
criticism  was,  of  course,  confined  to  the  ranks 
of  the  opposition.  Their  newspapers  and  pub- 
lic men  vied  with  one  another  in  a  chorus  of 
condemnation.  To  a  meeting,  held  in  Albany 
on  the  1 6th  of  May,  Governor  Seymour  wrote: 
It  is  an  act  which  has  brought  dishonor  upon  our 
country  ;  it  is  full  of  danger  to  our  persons  and  our 
homes  ;  it  bears  upon  its  front  a  conscious  violation 
of  law  and  justice.  .  .  .  The  transaction  involved 
a  series  of  offenses  against  our  most  sacred  rights. 
It  interfered  with  the  freedom  of  speech  ;  it  violated 
our  rights  to  be  secure  in  our  homes  against  unrea- 
sonable searches  and  seizures  ;  it  pronounced 
tence  without  trial,  save  one  which  was  a  mockery  — 
which  insulted  as  well  as  wronged.  ...  If  this 
proceeding  is  approved  by  the  Government,  and 
sanctioned  by  the  people,  it  is  not  merely  a 
towards  revolution  —  it  is  revolution  ;  it  will  not  only 
lead  to  military  despotism,  it  establishes  military 
despotism.  .  .  .  If  it  is  upheld,  our  liberties  are 
overthrown.  .  .  .  The  action  of  the  Administra- 
tion will  determine,  in  the  minds  of  more  than  one- 
half  of  the  people  of  the  loyal  States,  whether  the 
war  is  waged  to  put  down  rebellion  at  the  South, 
or  destroy  free  institutions  at  the  North.  We  look 
for  its  decision  with  most  solemn  solicitude. 
The  meeting  to  which  Governor  Seymour 
sent  this  passionate  address  passed  a  series  of 
resolutions  insisting  upon  their  loyalty  and  the 
services  they  had  rendered  the  country,  but 
demanding  that  the  "  Administration  shall  be 
true  to  the  Constitution,  shall  recognize  and 
maintain  the  rights  of  the  States  and  the  liber- 
ties of  the  citizen,  shall  everywhere  outside  the 
lines  of  military  occupation  and  the  scenes  of 
insurrection  exert  all  its  powers  to  maintain 
the  supremacy  of  the  civil  over  military  law  "  ; 
and  in  view  of  these  principles  they  denounced 
"  the  recent  assumption  of  a  military  command- 
er to  seize  and  try  a  citizen  of  Ohio,  Clement 
L.  Vallandigham,  for  no  other  reason  than 
words  addressed  to  a  public  meeting  in  criticism 
of  the  military  orders  of  that  general . "  The  reso- 
lutions further  set  forth  that  such  an  assump- 
tion of  military  power  strikes  a  fatal  blow  at 
the  supremacy  of  law.  They  enumerated  the 
provisions  of  the  Constitution  defining  the  crime 
of  treason  and  the  defenses  to  which  those  ac- 
cused of  that  crime  are  entitled,  and  said  -  that 
these  safeguards  of  the  rights  of  the  citizen 
against  the  pretensions  of  arbitrary  power  were 
intended  more  especially  for  his  protection  in 
times  of  civil  commotion."  They  further  re- 
solved : 
That  in  the  election  of  Governor  Seymour  the 
people  of  this  State,  by  an  emphatic  majority,  de- 
clared their  condemnation  of  the  system  of  arbitrary 
arrests,  and  their  determination  to  stand  by  the 
Constitution.  And  that,  regarding  the  blow  struck 
at  a  citizen  of  Ohio  as  aimed  at  the  rights  of  every 
citizen  of  the  North,  they  denounce  it  as  against  the 
spirit  of  our  laws  and  Constitution,  and  most  ear- 
nestly call  upon  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  reverse  the  action  of  the  military  tribunal  which 
has  passed  a  cruel  and  unusual  punishment  upon 
the  party  arrested,  prohibited  in  terms  by  the  Con- 
stitution, and  to  restore  him  to  the  liberty  o\  which 
he  has  been  deprived. 
A  copy  of  these  resolutions  was  sent  to  the 
President  and  received  his  most  careful  con- 
sideration. He  answered  on  the  12th  of  June, 
in  a  letter  which  demands  the  close  perusal  of 
every  student  of  our  history.    He  accepted  in
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
the  beginning,  and  thanked  the  meeting  for,  the 
resolutions  expressing  the  purpose  of  sustaining 
the  cause  ot  the  Union  despite  the  folly  and 
wickedness  ot  any  administration.  He  re- 
ferred to  the  safeguards  of  the  Constitution 
for  the  defense  ot  persons  accused  of  treason, 
and  contended  that  these  provisions  of  the  Con- 
stitution had  no  application  to  the  case  in  hand. 
The  arrests  complained  of  were,  not  made  for 
the  technical  crime  of  treason.  He  then  pro- 
ceeded, in  language  so  terse  and  vigorous  that 
it  is  difficult  to  abridge  a  paragraph  without 
positive  mutilation,  to  describe  the  circum- 
stances under  which  this  rebellion  began,  and 
the  hopes  of  the  insurgents,  which  were  founded 
upon  the  inveterate  respect  of  the  American 
people  for  the  forms  of  law. 
Prior  to  my  installation  here  [he  said]  it  had  been 
inculcated  that  any  State  had  a  lawful  right  to  secede 
from  the  National  Union,  and  that  it  would  be  ex- 
pedient to  exercise  the  right  whenever  the  devo- 
tees of  the  doctrine  should  fail  to  elect  a  President 
to  their  own  liking.  I  was  elected  contrary  to  their 
liking;  and,  accordingly,  so  far  as  it  was  legally 
possible,  they  had  taken  seven  States  out  of  the 
Union,  had  seized  many  of  the  United  States  forts, 
and  had  fired  upon  the  United  States  flag,  all  before 
I  was  inaugurated,  and,  of  course,  before  I  had  done 
any  official  act  whatever.  The  rebellion  thus  begun 
soon  ran  into  the  present  civil  war;  and,  in  certain 
respects,  it  began  on  very  unequal  terms  between 
the  parties.  The  insurgents  had  been  preparing  for 
it  for  more  than  thirty  years,  while  the  Government 
had  taken  no  steps  to  resist  them.  The  former  had 
carefully  considered  all  the  means  which  could  be 
turned  to  their  account.  It  undoubtedly  was  a  well- 
pondered  reliance  with  them  that  in  their  own  un- 
restricted efforts  to  destroy  Union,  Constitution,  and 
law  all  together  the  Government  would,  in  a  great 
degree,  be  restrained  by  the  same  Constitution  and 
law  from  arresting  their  progress.  Their  sympa- 
thizers pervaded  all  departments  of  the  Government 
and  nearly  all  communities  of  the  people.  From 
this  material,  under  cover  of  "  liberty  of  speech," 
"liberty  of  the  press,"  and  " habeas  corpus,"  they 
hop^d  to  keep  on  foot  amongst  us  a  most  efficient 
corps  of  spies,  informers,  suppliers,  and  aiders  and 
abettors  of  their  cause  in  a  thousand  ways.  They 
knew  that  in  times  such  as  they  were  inaugurating, 
by  the  Constitution  itself,  the  "  habeas  corpus"  might 
be  suspended  ;  but  they  also  knew  they  had  friends 
who  would  make  a  question  as  to  who  was  to  sus- 
pend it;  meanwhile  their  spies  and  others  might 
remain  at  large  to  help  on  their  cause.  Or  if,  as  has 
happened,  the  Executive  should  suspend  the  writ, 
without  ruinous  waste  of  time,  instances  of  arresting 
innocent  persons  might  occur,  as  are  always  likely  to 
occur  in  such  cases,  and  then  a  clamor  could  be  raised 
in  regard  to  this,  which  might  be  at  least  of  some 
service  to  the  insurgent  cause.  It  needed  no  very 
keen  perception  to  discover  that  part  of  the  enemy's 
programme,  so  soon  as,  by  open  hostilities,  their  ma- 
ch:n-ry  was  fairly  put  in  motion.  Yet,  thoroughly 
imbued  with  a  reverence  for  the  guaranteed  rights 
of  individuals.  I  was  slow  to  adopt  the  strong  meas- 
ures which  by  degrees  I  have  been  forced  to  regard 
as  being  within  the  exceptions  of  the  Constitution, 
and  as  indispensable  to  the  public  safety.  Nothing 
is  better  known  to  history  than  that  courts  of  justice 
are  utterly  incompetent  to  such  cases.  Civil  courts  are 
organized  chiefly  for  trials  of  individuals,  or,  at  most, 
a  few  individuals  acting  in  concert,  and  this  in  quiet 
times  and  on  charges  of  crimes  well  defined  in  the 
law.  Even  in  times  of  peace  bands  of  horse-thieves 
and  robbers  frequently  grow  too  numerous  and 
powerful  for  the  ordinary  courts  of  justice.  But  what 
comparison  in  numbers  have  such  bands  ever  borne 
to  the  insurgent  sympathizers,  even  in  many  of  the 
loyal  States?  Again,  a  jury  too  frequently  has  at 
least  one  member  more  ready  to  hang  the  panel  than 
to  hang  the  traitor.  And  yet  again,  he  who  dissuades 
one  man  from  volunteering,  or  induces  one  soldier  to 
desert,  weakens  the  Union  cause  as  much  as  he  who 
kills  a  Union  soldier  in  battle.  Yet  this  dissuasion 
or  inducement  may  be  so  conducted  as  to  be  no 
defined  crime  of  which  any  civil  court  would  take 
cognizance. 
He  then  applied  to  the  case  in  hand  the 
clear  provision  of  the  Constitution  that  "  the 
privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not 
be  suspended  unless,  when  in  case  of  rebellion 
or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may  require  it," 
and  went  on  to  say : 
This  is  precisely  our  present  case  —  a  case  of  rebel- 
lion wherein  the  public  safety  does  require  the  suspen- 
sion. Indeed,  arrests  by  process  of  courts  and  arrests 
in  cases  of  rebellion  do  not  proceed  altogether  up- 
on the  same  basis.  The  former  is  directed  at  the 
small  percentage  of  ordinary  and  continuous  per- 
petration of  crime,  while  the  latter  is  directed  at 
sudden  and  extensive  uprisings  against  the  Gov- 
ernment, which,  at  most,  will  succeed  or  fail  in  no 
great  length  of  time.  In  the  latter  case  arrests  are 
made,  not  so  much  for  what  has  been  done  as  for 
what  probably  would  be  done.  The  latter  is  more 
for  the  preventive  and  less  for  the  vindictive  than 
the  former.  In  such  cases  the  purposes  of  men  are 
much  more  easily  understood  than  in  cases  of  ordi- 
nary crime.  The  man  who  stands  by  and  says 
nothing  when  the  peril  of  his  Government  is  dis- 
cussed cannot  be  misunderstood.  If  not  hindered, 
he  is  sure  to  help  the  enemy  ;  much  more  if  he  talks 
ambiguously  —  talks  for  his  country  with  tl  buts  " 
and  u  ifs  "  and  "  ands."  Of  how  little  value  the 
constitutional  provisions  I  have  quoted  will  be  ren- 
dered, if  arrests  shall  never  be  made  until  defined 
crimes  shall  have  been  committed,  may  be  illustrated 
by  a  few  notable  examples.  General  John  C.  Breck- 
inridge, General  Robert  E.  Lee,  General  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  General  John  B.  Magruder,  General  Will- 
iam B.  Preston,  General  Simon  B.  Buckner,  and  Com- 
modore Franklin  Buchanan,  now  occupying  the  very 
highest  places  in  the  rebel  war  service,  were  all 
within  the  power  of  the  Government  since  the  re- 
bellion began,  and  were  nearly  as  well  known  to 
be  traitors  then  as  now.  Unquestionably,  if  we  had 
seized  and  held  them,  the  insurgent  cause  would  be 
much  weaker.  But  no  one  of  them  had  then  com- 
mitted any  crime  defined  in  the  law.  Every  one  of 
them,  if  arrested,  would  have  been  discharged  on 
habeas  corpus  were  the  writ  allowed  to  operate.  In 
view  of  these  and  similar  cases,  I  think  the  time  not
VALLANDIGHAM. 
unlikely  to  come  when  I  shall  be  blamed  for  having 
made  too  few  arrests  rather  than  too  many. 
Referring  to  the  charge  made  in  the  resolu- 
tions that  Mr.  Vallandigham  was  arrested  for 
no  other  reason  than  words  addressed  to  pub- 
lic meetings  in  criticism  of  the  course  of  the 
Administration,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  : 
If  this  assertion  is  the  truth  and  the  whole 
truth, —  if  there  was  no  other  reason  for  the  arrest, — 
then  I  concede  that  the  arrest  was  wrong.  But 
[he  went  on]  Mr.  Vallandigham  was  not  arrested 
because  he  was  damaging  the  political  prospects  of 
the  Administration,  or  the  personal  interests  of  the 
commanding  general,  but  because  he  was  damaging 
the  army,  upon  the  existence  and  vigor  of  which  the 
life  of  the  nation  depends.  He  was  warring  upon 
the  military,  and  this  gave  the  military  constitutional 
jurisdiction  to  lay  hands  upon  him. 
If  it  could  be  shown  that  his  arrest  was 
made  on  mistake  of  fact,  the  President  would 
be  glad  to  correct  it.    But,  he  said  : 
Long  experience  has  shown  that  armies  cannot 
be  maintained^ unless  desertion  shall  be  punished 
by  the  severe  penalty  of  death.  The  case  requires, 
and  the  law  and  the  Constitution  sanction,  this  pun- 
ishment. Must  I  shoot  a  simple-minded  soldier  boy 
who  deserts,  while  I  must  not  touch  a  hair  of  a 
wily  agitator  who  induces  him  to  desert?  This  is 
none  the  less  injurious  when  effected  by  getting  a 
father,  or  brother,  or  friend  into  a  public  meeting, 
and  there  working  upon  his  feelings  until  he  is  per- 
suaded to  write  the  soldier  boy  that  he  is  fighting 
in  a  bad  cause,  for  a  wicked  Administration  of  a  con- 
temptible Government,  too  weak  to  arrest  and  pun- 
ish him  if  he  shall  desert.  I  think  that  in  such  a 
case  to  silence  the  agitator  and  to  save  the  boy  is  not 
only  constitutional,  but,  withal,  a  great  mercy. 
He  then  stated  clearly  his  belief  that  certain 
proceedings  are  constitutional  when,  in  case 
of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  re- 
quires them,  which  would  not  be  constitutional 
when,  in  absence  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the 
public  safety  does  not  require  them. 
The  Constitution  itself  [he  said]  makes  the  dis- 
tinction, and  I  can  no  more  be  persuaded  that  the 
Government  can  constitutionally  take  no  strong 
measure  in  time  of  rebellion,  because  it  can  be  shown 
that  the  same  could  not  be  lawfully  taken  in  time 
of  peace,  than  I  can  be  persuaded  that  a  particular 
drug  is  not  good  medicine  for  a  sick  man,  because 
it  car  be  shown  to  not  be  good  food  for  a  well  one. 
Nor  am  I  able  to  appreciate  the  danger  apprehended 
by  the  meeting  that  the  American  people  will,  by 
means  of  military  arrests  during  the  Rebellion,  lose 
the  right  of  public  discussion,  the  liberty  of  speech 
and  the  press,  the  law  of  evidence,  trial  by  jury, 
and  habeas  corpus,  throughout  the  indefinite  peace- 
ful future,  which  I  trust  lies  before  them,  any  more 
than  I  am  able  to  believe  that  a  man  could  contract 
so  strong  an  appetite  for  emetics,  during  temporary 
illness,  as  to  persist  in  feeding  upon  them  during 
the  remainder  of  his  healthful  life. 
The  President  parried  the  political  thrust  in 
the  resolutions  by  reminding  the  gentlemen  of 
Albany  that  although  they  addressed  bin 
"  Democrats,"  not  all  Democrats  were  of  their 
way  of  thinking. 
He  on  whose  discretionary  judgment  Mr.  Vallan- 
digham was  arrested  and  tried  is  a  Democrat,  hav- 
ing no  old  party  affinity  with  me  ;  and  the  judge 
who  rejected  the  constitutional  view  './pressed  in 
these  resolutions  by  refusing  to  discharge  Mr.  Val- 
landigham on  habeas  corpus  is  a  Democrat  of  better 
days  than  these,  having  received  his  judicial  mantle 
at  the  hands  of  President  Jackson.  And  still  more, 
of  all  those  Democrats  who  are  nobly  exposing  their 
lives  and  shedding  their  blood  on  the  battlefield,  I 
have  learned  that  many  approve  the  course  taken 
with  Mr.  Vallandigham,  while  I  have  not  heard  of 
a  single  one  condemning  it. 
The  President  fortified  his  argument  by  an 
incident  of  pertinent  history  especially  adapted 
to  touch  the  sympathies  of  Democrats  —  the 
arbitrary  arrests  made  by  General  Jackson  at 
New  Orleans;  his  defiance  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  and  his  imprisonment  of  the 
judge  who  had  issued  it.  Near  the  close  of 
this  strong  and  adroit  defense  of  the  action  of 
Burnside  the  President  made  a  remarkable 
admission  in  these  words  : 
And  yet  let  me  say  that  in  my  own  discretion  I 
do  not  know  whether  I  would  have  ordered  the 
arrest  of  Mr.  Vallandigham.  While  I  cannot  shift 
the  responsibility  from  myself,  I  hold  that,  as  a  gen- 
eral rule,  the  commander  in  the  field  is  the  better 
judge  of  the  necessity  in  any  particular  case.  .  .  . 
It  gave  me  pain  when  I  learned  that  Mr.  Vallandi- 
gham had  been  arrested, —  that  is,  I  was  pained  that 
there  should  have  seemed  to  be  a  necessity  for  ar- 
resting him, —  and  it  will  afford  me  great  pleasure 
to  discharge  him  so  soon  as  I  can,  by  any  means, 
believe  the  public  safety  will  not  suffer  by  it.  I 
further  say  that  as  the  war  progresses  it  appears 
to  me,  opinion  and  action,  which  were  in  great 
confusion  at  first,  take  shape  and  fall  into  more 
regular  channels,  so  that  the  necessity  for  strong 
dealing  with  them  gradually  decreases.  I  have 
every  reason  to  desire  that  it  should  cease  altogether, 
and  far  from  the  least  is  my  regard  for  the  opinions 
and  wishes  of  those  who,  like  the  meeting  at  Albany, 
declare  their  purpose  to  sustain  the  Government  in 
every  constitutional  and  lawful  measure  to  suppress 
the  rebellion.  Still  I  must  continue  to  do  so  much 
as  may  seem  to  be  required  by  the  public  safety. 
There  are  few  of  the  President's  state  papers 
which  produced  a  stronger  impression  upon 
the  public  mind  than  this.  Its  tone  of  candor 
and  courtesy,  which  did  not  conceal  his  stern 
and  resolute  purpose;  his  clear  statement  of 
the  needs  of  the  country  ;  his  terse  argument 
of  his  authority  under  the  Constitution  to  sus- 
pend the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  when,  in  case 
of  rebellion,  the  public  safety  required  it ;  his 
contrast  of  the  venial  crime  of  the  simple- 
minded  soldier  boy,  which  was  punished  by
*34 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
death,  with  the  deeper  guilt  of  the  wily  agi- 
tator, who  claimed  immunity  through  the  Con- 
stitution he  was  endeavoring  to  destroy;  the 
strong,  yet  humorous,  common  sense  of  his 
doubt  whether  a  permanent  taste  for  emetics 
could  be  contracted  during  a  fit  of  sickness — 
met  with  an  immediate  and  eager  apprecia- 
tion among  the  citizens  of  the  country,  and 
rendered  this  letter  remarkable  in  the  long 
scries  of  Mr  Lincoln's  political  writings.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  it  did  not  meet  with  equal 
approbation  in  all  quarters.  It  was  received 
by  the  politicians  of  New  York,  to  whom  it 
was  addressed,  with  the  gravest  displeasure. 
They  answered  in  an  angry  yet  forcible  paper, 
claiming  that  the  original  act  of  tyranny  by 
which  Mr.  Vallandigham  was  arrested  had 
been  aggravated  by  the  claim  of  despotic 
power  which  they  assumed  to  find  in  the  Pres- 
ident's letter.  They  wrote  with  so  much  heat 
and  feeling  that  they  hardly  paused  to  measure 
their  epithets ;  otherwise  they  would  scarcely 
have  been  guilty  of  the  impertinence  of  speak- 
ing to  the  President  of  his  "  pretensions  to 
more  than  legal  authority,"  and  of  criticising 
his  crystal-clear  statement  as  the  "  misty  and 
cloudy  forms  of  expression  "  in  which  these 
pretensions  are  set  forth.  But  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  rescue  either  of  these  letters  from  the 
oblivion  which  soon  overtook  them.  In  the 
words  of  Mr.  Lincoln  on  another  occasion, 
"  the  world  little  noted  nor  long  remembered 
them."  Their  first  letter  had  no  function  nor 
result  but  to  call  into  being  the  President's 
admirable  reply,  and  the  second  was  little 
more  than  a  cry  under  punishment. 
In  the  State  of  Ohio  the  arrest  of  Mr.  Val- 
landigham had  precipitated  an  issue  which  was 
in  its  solution  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the 
cause  of  the  Union.  When,  on  the  nth  of 
June,  the  Democratic  convention  of  the  State 
met  at  Columbus,  it  was  found  to  be  completely 
under  the  control  of  those  opposed  to  the  war, 
and  the  excitement  consequent  upon  Vallan- 
digham's  arrest  and  banishment  designated  him 
as  the  only  serious  candidate  for  the  office  of 
governor.  Nominating  him  by  acclamation 
was  the  readiest  and  most  practical  way  of 
signifying  their  disapproval  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  Government.  They  passed  a  series  of 
resolutions  affirming  their  devotion  to  the 
Union,  denouncing  the  arrest  and  banishment 
of  Vallandigham  as  a  forcible  violation  of  the 
Constitution  and  a  direct  insult  offered  to  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people  of  Ohio,  saying  that 
the  Democratic  party  was  fully  competent  to 
decide  whether  Mr.  Vallandigham  was  a  fit 
man  to  be  nominated  for  governor,  and  that 
the  attempt  to  deprive  them  of  that  right  by 
his  arrest  and  banishment  was  an  unmerited 
imputation  upon  their  intelligence  and  loyalty. 
They  therefore  called  upon  the  President  to 
restore  Mr.  Vallandigham  to  his  home  in  Ohio. 
The  committee  appointed  to  present  these 
resolutions  accompanied  them  with  a  long  let- 
ter signed  by  the  most  prominent  Democrats 
of  Ohio,  arguing,  upon  lines  similar  to  those 
followed  in  the  Albany  letter,  that  the  action 
of  the  Government  towards  Vallandigham  was 
illegal  and  unconstitutional;  that  it  had  created 
widespread  and  alarming  disaffection  among 
the  people  of  the  State ;  that  it  was  not  an  of- 
fense against  any  law  to  contend  that  the  war 
could  not  be  used  as  a  means  of  restoring  the 
Union,  or  that  a  war  directed  against  slavery 
would  inevitably  result  in  the  final  destruction 
of  both  the  Constitution  and  the  Union.  They 
took  up  the  President's  letter  to  the  Albany 
committee  and  insisted  that  Mr.  Vallandigham 
was  not  warring  upon  the  military ;  they  dis- 
agreed entirely  with  the  President  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus;  they  represented  the  President  as 
claiming  that  the  Constitution  is  different  in 
time  of  insurrection  or  invasion  from  what  it  is 
in  time  of  peace  or  public  security,  and  that 
he  had  the  right  to  engraft  limitations  or  ex- 
ceptions upon  these  constitutional  guarantees 
whenever,  in  his  judgment,  the  public  safety 
required  it.  Having  attributed  to  him  these 
absurd  pretensions,  they  proceeded  solemnly 
to  deny  them,  and  ask : 
If  an  indefinable  kind  of  constructive  treason  is  to 
be  introduced  and  engrafted  upon  the  Constitution 
unknown  to  the  laws  of  the  land  and  subject  to  the 
will  of  the  President  whenever  an  insurrection  or 
invasion  shall  occur  in  any  part  of  this  vast  coun- 
try, what  safety  or  security  will  be  left  for  the  lib- 
erties of  the  people? 
The  President  sent  a  reply  to  this  letter, 
briefer  than  the  one  he  had  devoted  to  Albany, 
and  not  so  full  in  its  discussion  of  the  consti- 
tutional question  at  issue.  For  his  views  in  this 
regard  he  referred  the  Ohio  committee  to  his 
Albany  letter.  He  simply  repudiated  the 
opinions  and  intentions  which  the  Ohio  com- 
mittee had  gratuitously  imputed  to  him.  But 
he  assumed  the  full  responsibility  for  the  exer- 
cise of  the  enormous  powers  which  he  believed 
the  Constitution,  under  the  circumstances,  con- 
ferred upon  him. 
You  ask,  in  substance,  whether  I  really  claim  that 
1  may  override  all  the  guaranteed  rights  of  individuals 
on  the  plea  of  conserving  the  public  safety  —  when 
I  may  choose  to  say  the  public  safety  requires  it. 
This  question,  divested  of  the  phraseology  calculated 
to  represent  me  as  struggling  for  an  arbitrary  per- 
sonal prerogative,  is  either  simply  a  question  who 
shall  decide,  or  an  affirmation  that  nobody  shall  de- 
cide, what  the  public  safety  does  require  in  cases  of 
rebellion  or  invasion.  The  Constitution  contem- 
plates the  question  as  likely  to  occur  for  decision,
VALLAXBIGHAM. 
but  it  does  not  expressly  declare  who  is  to  decide  it. 
By  nece>sary  implication ,  when  rebellion  or  invasion 
comes,  the  decision  is  to  be  made,  from  time  to 
time,  and  I  think  the  man  whom,  for  the  I 
the  people  have,  under  the  Constitution,  made  the 
commander-in-chief  of  their  army  ?.ni  navy,  is  the 
man  who  holds  the  power,  and  bears  the  responsi- 
bility of  making  it.  If  he  uses  the  power  justly, 
the  same  people  will  probably  justify  him  :  if  he 
abuses  it.  he  is  in  their  hands  to  be  dealt  w:th  by 
all  the  modes  they  have  reserved  to  themselves  in 
the  Constitution. 
He  disclaimed,  in  courteous  language,  any 
purpose  of  insult  to  Ohio  in  Mr.  Vallandi- 
ghani*s  case ;  and  referring  to  the  peremptory 
request  of  the  committee  that  Vallandigham 
should  be  released  from  his  sentence,  and  to 
the  further  claim  of  the  committee  that  the 
Democracy  of  Ohio  are  loyal  to  the  Union,  he 
proposed,  on  what  he  considered  very  easy 
conditions,  to  comply  with  their  request.  He 
offered  them  the  following  propositions  : 
i .   That  there  is  now  a  rebellion  in  the  United 
States,  the  ob;ect  and  tendency  of  which  is  to  de- 
stroy  the  National  Union,  and  that,  io  y:  arop 
an  army  and  navy  are  ::r..;:  :_tional  means :'::  sup- 
pressing that  rebellion. 
z.   That  no  one  of  you  will  do  anything  which, 
in  his  own  judgment,  will  tend  to  hinder  the  in- 
crease or  favor  the  decrease   ::  he-sen  :he  effit 
of  the  army  and  navy,  while  engaged  in  the  effort 
to  suppress  mat  rebellion  ;  and 
-.   That  each  of  you  will,  in  his  sphere,  do  all  he 
can  to  have  the  officers,  soldiers,  and  seanien  of  the 
army  and  navy,  whihe  engaged  in  the  effort  to  sup- 
.press  the    rebellion,  fed,   chii.  ^n/    otherwise 
7-:  vided  for  and  supported. 
If  the  committee,  or  a  majority  of  them,  would 
write  their  names  upon  the  back  of  the  Presi- 
dent's letter,  thus  committing  themselves  to 
these  propositions  and  to  nothing  else,  he  would 
then  publish  the  letter  and  the  names,  which 
publication  would  be.  within  itself,  a  revoca- 
tion of  Vallandigham's  sentence  litis  would 
leave  Mr.  Vallandigham  himself  absolutely 
unpledged:  the  President's  object  being  to  gain 
for  the  cause  of  the  Union  so  large  a  moral 
:  enforcement  from  this  clear  definition  of  the 
attitude  of  the  other  gentlemen  as  to  compen- 
sate for  any  damage  that  Mr.  Vallandigham 
could  possibly  do  on  his  return.  The  President 
concluded  this  letter  with  the  same  rrir.kr.ess 
that  he  used  in  that  to  Albar. 
said,  '-in  regard  to  Mr.  Vallandigham  and  all 
others,  I  must  hereafter,  as  her 
much  as  the  public  service  may  seem  I 
quire."    This    overture  of  the  President 
promptly  rejected   by  the  commits 
treated  it  as  an  evasion  on  his  part  of  the  ques- 
tions involved  in  the  case,  and  as  implying  not 
only  an  imputation  upon  their  own  sin' 
and  fidelity  as  citizens  of  the  Unite 
but  also  a  concession  of  the  legality  of  Mr. 
Vallandigham's  arrest  and  banishm^ 
Evidently  nothing  could  come  from  negoti- 
ations with  parties  whose  points  of  view  were 
so  far  apart  as  those  c:  idem  and  the 
Democratic  leaders  in  rk  and  Ohio. 
The  case  must  be  resolved  by  the  people  of 
-tate  whose  sovereignty  it  was  said  had  been 
violated,  and  the  issue  was  made  in  the  clearest 
possible  manner  by  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Val- 
landigham for  governor  of  Ohio.  The  con- 
vention which  nominated  him  determined  to 
leave  no  doubt  of  their  position,  not  only  de- 
nouncing the  action  of  General  Burnside  and 
the  President  but  expressing  their  deep  humili- 
ation and  regret  at  the  failure  of  Governor  Tod 
of  Ohio  to  protect  the  citizens  of  the  State  in 
the  enjoyment  and  exercise  of  their  constitu- 
tional rights.  The  Union  party,  meeting  at 
Columbus,  nominated  for  governor  John 
Brough.  a  war  Democrat,  and  adopted  a  brief 
platform  of  unqualified  devotion  to  the  Union, 
in  favor  of  a  most  vigorous  prosecution  of  the 
war.  and  the  laying  aside  of  personal  prefer  e 
and  prejudices,  and  pledging  hearty  support 
to  the  President.  Upon  this  issue  the  ca: 
proceeded  to  its  close.  Before  it  ended.  Mr. 
Vallandigham  himself  intervened  once  more — 
not  in  person,  indeed,  but  r.  horn  Can- 
ada. On  entering  the  rebel  lines  he  had  gone 
at  once  to  Richmond,  where  he  was  kindly  and 
courteously  received  by  the  Confederate  au- 
thorities, although  both  on  his  side  and  on  theirs 
the  forms  appropriate  to  the  fiction  that  he 
was  a  -  ::s?ner  of  war  were  carefully  observed.1 
a  conference  with  the  leading  men  of  the 
Confederate  Government,  he  went  south - 
and  arrived  or.  the  .:i  of  Tune  at  Bermuda 
in  a  vessel  called  the  Lady  Dams,  which  had 
run  the  blockade  at  Wilmington.  He  made 
onlv  a  brief  stav  in  Bermuda  and  then  took 
1  John  B.  Jones,  a  clerk  in  the  rebel  war  office, 
made  on  the  22d  of  Jure,  1S63,  the  following  entry  in 
his  diary :  ••'  To-day  I  saw  the  memorandum  of  Mr. 
Ould,  of  the  conversation  held  with  Mr.  Vallandigham, 
for  file  in  the  archives.  He  says  if  we  can  only  hold  ont 
this  year  that  the  peace  party  of  the  North  would 
sweep  the  Lincoln  dynasty  ont  of  political  existence. 
He  seems  to  have  thought  thatonr  cause  was  sinking, 
and  feared  we  would  submit,  which  would,  of  course, 
be  ruinous  to  his  party.  But  he  advises  strongly  against 
any  invasion  of  Pennsylvania,  for  that  would  unite  all 
parties  at  the  North,  and  so  strengthen  Lincoln's  hands 
that  he  would  be  able  to  crash  all  opposition  and 
trample  upon  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  people. 
Mr.  V.  said  nothing  to  indicate  that  either  he  or  the 
party  had  any  other  idea  than  that  the  Union  would  be 
reconstructed  under  Democratic  rule.  The  President 
[Davis]  indorse;:  with  his  own  pen  on  this  docu- 
ment that  in  regard  to  invasion  of  the  North  experi- 
ence proved  the  contrarv  of  what  Mr.  V. 
[Jones.  "A  Rebel  War  Clerk's  Diary,*?  Vol.  I.,  pp. 
35  "•  35**]
i36 
ABRA  HA  M  LINCOLN. 
passage  tor  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  where  he 
arrived  on  the  5th  of  July.  From  the  Cana- 
dian side  of  Niagara  Falls  he  issued  an  ad- 
dress to  the  people  of  Ohio,1  which  began  with 
this  clever  and  striking  exordium  : 
Arrested  and  confined  for  three  weeks  in  the 
United  States  a  prisoner  of  state,  banished  thence 
to  the  confederate  States,  and  there  held  as  an  alien 
enemy  and  prisoner  of  war,  though  on  parole,  fairly 
and  honorably  dealt  with,  and  given  leave  to  depart, 
an  act  possible  only  by  running  the  blockade  at  the 
hazard  of  being  tired  upon  by  ships  flying  the  flag 
of  my  own  country,  I  found  myself  first  a  freeman 
when  on  British  soil.  And  to-day,  under  protection  of 
the  British  flag.  I  am  here  to  enjoy  and,  in  part,  to 
exercise  the  privileges  and  rights  which  usurpers 
insolently  deny  me  at  home.  .  .  .  Sixweeksago, 
when  just  going  into  banishment  because  an  au- 
dacious but  most  cowardly  despotism  caused  it,  I 
addressed  you  as  a  fellow-citizen.  To-day,  and  from 
the  very  place  then  selected  by  me,  but  after  weari- 
some and  most  perilous  journeyings  for  more  than 
four  thousand  miles  by  land  and  upon  sea,  still  in 
exile,  though  almost  within  sight  of  my  native  State, 
I  greet  you  as  your  representative. 
He  thanked  and  congratulated  the  Demo- 
crats of  Ohio  upon  the  nominations  they  had 
made.  He  indorsed  their  platform,  which  he 
called  "  elegant  in  style,  admirable  in  senti- 
ment." He  claimed  that  his  arrest  was  the 
issue  before  the  country.  "  The  President,"  he 
said,  "  accepts  the  issue.  ...  In  time  of 
war  there  is  but  one  will  supreme — his  will; 
but  one  law  —  military  necessity,  and  he  the 
sole  judge."  He  was  convinced  that  the  war 
could  never  be  prosecuted  to  a  successful 
termination. 
If  this  civil  war  [he  said]  is  to  terminate  only  by 
the  subjugation  or  submission  of  the  Southern 
force  in  arms,  the  infant  of  to-day  will  not  see  the 
end  of  it.  .  .  .  Traveling  a  thousand  miles  or 
more,  through  nearly  one-half  of  the  Confederate 
States,  and  sojourning  for  a  time  at  widely  different 
points,  I  met  not  one  man,  woman,  or  child  who 
was  not  resolved  to  perish  rather  than  to  yield  to 
the  pressure  of  arms,  even  in  the  most  desperate 
extremity. 
He  announced,  therefore,  that  he  returned 
with  his  opinion  in  favor  of  peace  not  only  un- 
changed, but  confirmed  and  strengthened. 
1  "  Rebellion   Records,"  Vol.  VII.  Documents, pp. 
43s-  439- 
'^  "While  sojourning  at  Niagara  Falls,  Mr.  Vallandi- 
gham had  come  into  communication  with  a  person  who 
called  himself  William  Cornell  Jewett  of  Colorado, 
who  passed  his  time  writing  letters  to  the  newspapers 
and  to  public  men  in  favor  of  putting  an  end  to  the 
war  by  foreign  mediation.  After  the  result  of  the 
Ohio  election  had  convinced  Vallandigham  that  little 
was  to  be  expected  in  the  way  of  peace  from  the 
efforts  of  the  Democratic  party,  he  wrote  Jewett  a  let- 
ter strongly  favoring  an  immediate  acceptance  of  the 
mediation  of  France  in  the  controversy  between  the 
States.  He  said  :  "The  South  and  the  North  are  both 
But  nothing  availed.  Mr.  Vallandigham  was 
defeated  by  the  unprecedented  majority  of 
101,000  votes,  62,000  of  which  were  cast  in 
the  State  and  39,000  by  the  soldiers  in  the 
field,  to  whom  a  State  statute  had  given  the 
privilege  of  voting. 
In  view  of  this  overwhelming  defeat,  Mr.  Val- 
landigham thought  it  prudent  to  remain  dur- 
ing the  winter  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States.  He  was  in  constant  correspond- 
ence, however,  with  his  associates  and  ad- 
herents,2 and  demonstrations  were  made  from 
time  to  time  against  the  Government  for  its 
treatment  of  him.  On  the  29th  of  February, 
1864,  Mr.  Pendleton  of  Ohio  offered  a  resolu- 
tion in  the  House  of  Representatives  that  the 
arrest  and  banishment  of  Mr.  Vallandigham 
were  "  acts  of  mere  arbitrary  power  in  palpa- 
ble violation  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
the  United  States,"  which  was  rejected  by  a  strict 
party  vote,  47  Democrats  voting  in  favor  of 
it,  and  77  Union  members  voting  against  it, 
only  two  Democrats  voting  with  the  majority. 
Vallandigham's  course  in  opposition  to  the  war 
had  been  so  exasperating  to  the  Union  senti- 
ment of  the  country,  his  speeches  had  been  so 
full  of  vehement  malice,  that  even  those  who 
thought  his  original  arrest  an  unjustifiable 
stretch  of  military  power  felt  no  sympathy 
with  the  object  of  it  and  were  inclined  to  ac- 
quiesce in  the  President's  disposition  of  the  case. 
The  situation  was  not  without  a  humorous  ele- 
ment also,  to  which  the  American  mind  is  al- 
ways hospitable.  The  spectacle  of  this  furious 
agitator,  condemned  by  court-martial  to  a  long 
imprisonment  and  then  handed  over  by  the 
contemptuous  mercy  of  the  President  to  the 
care  and  keeping  of  his  friends  beyond  the 
Union  lines ;  his  frantic  protests  that  the  Con- 
federates were  not  his  friends,  but  that  he  was 
their  most  formidable  and  dreaded  enemy  ; 
the  friendly  receptions  and  attentions  he  met 
with  in  the  South  and  among  the  sympathizing 
British  officials  in  the  West  Indies  and  the 
Northern  provinces;  his  nomination  by  the 
Democratic  convention  of  his  State,  which  was 
forced  immediately  to  apply  to  the  President  to 
give  them  back  their  candidate  —  affected  the 
popular  mind  as  an  event  rather  ridiculous  than 
indebted  to  the  great  powers  of  Europe  for  having  so 
long  withheld  recognition  from  the  Confederate  States. 
The  South  has  proved  her  ability  to  maintain  herself 
by  her  own  strength  and  resources,  without  foreign 
aid,  moral  or  material;  and  the  North  and  West  — 
the  whole  country,  indeed  —  these  great  powers  have 
served  incalculably,  by  holding  back  a  solemn  proc- 
lamation to  the  world  that  the  Union  of  these  States 
was  finally  and  formally  dissolved.  They  have  left  to 
us  every  motive  and  every  chance  for  reunion.  .  .  . 
Foreign  recognition  now  of  the  Confederate  States 
could  avail  little  to  delay  or  prevent  final  reunion." 
(W.  C.  Jewett,  Letter  to  "Liverpool  Mercury,"  No- 
vember 4.)
THE   DEFEAT  OF   THE   PEACE    PARTY. 
serious,  and  the  constitutional  question  involved 
received  probably  less  attention  than  it  de- 
served. His  letters  from  Canada  aroused  little 
or  no  sympathy,  and  when,  in  June,  1864, 
he  returned  to  the  United  States,  the  Presi- 
dent declined  to  take  any  notice  of  his  pres- 
ence.1 
Emboldened  by  impunity,  Vallandigham  be- 
gan at  political  meetings  a  new  series  of  speeches 
more  violent  in  tone  than  those  which  had 
caused  his  arrest.  But  as  the  effect  of  them 
was  clearly  beneficial  to  the  Union  cause,  no 
means  were  taken  to  silence  him.  He  defied 
the  Government  and  the  army;  he  made  vague 
threats  that  in  case  he  was  arrested  the  persons 
and  property  of  those  instigating  such  a  pro- 
ceeding should  be  held  as  hostages.'2  He  was 
not  molested,  and  in  August  was  allowed  to 
take  a  prominent  part  in  the  National  Demo- 
cratic Convention  at  Chicago,  where  he  ren- 
dered valuable  service  to  the  Union  party 3  as 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Resolutions,  and 
offered  the  motion  that  the  nomination  of  Gen- 
eral McClellan  should  be  made  unanimous. 
THE  DEFEAT  OF  THE  PEACE  PARTY  AT  THE 
POLLS. 
The  reverses  sustained  by  the  Union  arms 
during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1862  had 
their  direct  effect  in  the  field  of  politics.  Every 
unsuccessful  movement,  and  especially  every 
defeat  of  the  National  forces,  increased  the 
strength  and  the  audacity  of  the  opposition  to 
the  Government  and  the  war.  There  were,  it 
is  true,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Democratic 
soldiers  in  the  ranks  fighting  to  uphold  the 
Union ;  and  as  a  result  of  this — because  men's 
sentiments  are  far  more  influenced  by  their  ac- 
tions than  their  actions  are  inspired  by  their 
sentiments  —  they  were  generally  induced  to 
take  the  Republican  view  of  public  affairs,  and 
by  degrees  to  unite  themselves  with  the  Re- 
publican party.  But  they  seemed  to  exert  no 
influence  whatever  upon  their  friends  and  re- 
1  When  Mr.  Lincoln  first  heard  of  Vallandigham 's 
return  he  wrote  a  joint  letter  to  Governor  Brough  and 
General  Heintzelman,  who  had  succeeded  Burnside  in 
command  of  the  department,  directing  them  to  "con- 
sult together  freely  ;  watch  Vallandigham  and  others 
closely,  and  upon  discovering  any  palpable  injury  or 
imminent  danger  to  the  military  proceeding  from  him, 
them,  or  any  of  them,  arrest  all  implicated ;  otherwise 
do  not  arrest  without  further  order.  Meanwhile  report 
the  signs  to  me  from  time  to  time."  But,  after  writing 
the  letter,  he  concluded  not  to  send  it.  [Unpublished 
MS.,  June  20,  1864.] 
He  was,  in  fact,  a  little  nonplused  by  Vallandigham's 
return.  He  had  seriously  thought  of  annulling  the  sen- 
tence of  exile,  but  had  been  too  much  occupied  with 
other  matters  to  do  it.  After  he  had  returned,  the  Pres- 
ident said  :  "  The  only  question  to  decide  was  whether 
he  could  afford  to  disregard  the  contempt  of  authority 
and  breach  of  discipline  displayed  in  Vallandigham's 
Vol.  XXXVIII.— 19. 
lations  at  home.  The  Democratic  party  re- 
mained as  solid  in  its  organization,  a  1  powerful 
in  its  resistance  to  the  Government,  as  1 
The  great  liberating  measure  of  the  President, 
the  proclamation  of  September,  had  its  influence 
also  in  exasperating  and  consolidating  the  op- 
position. This  act,  which  not  only  renders  his 
name  immortal,  but  glorifies  the  age  in  which 
he  lived,  contributed  to  the  defeat  of  his  party 
in  some  of  the  most  important  States  of  the 
Union.  In  the  autumn  of  1862  the  Democrats 
carried  New  York,  electing  Horatio  Seymour 
governor  over  that  patriotic  and  accomplished 
gentleman,  General  James  S.  Wadsworth  ;  the 
adjoining  State  of  New  Jersey  was  also  carried 
by  them.  There  were  heavy  losses  of  congress- 
men in  the  great  States  of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio, 
and  Indiana;  and  even  in  the  President's 
own  State  of  Illinois  the  opposition  inflicted 
upon  him  a  peculiarly  painful  defeat,  electing 
nine  of  his  opponents  and  only  four  of  his 
friends. 
The  Union  sentiment  was  still  sumciently 
powerful  throughout  the  North  to  elect  an  easy 
working  majority  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  the  Republican  predominance  in  the 
Senate  was,  of  course,  untouched ;  so  that  so 
far  as  legislation  was  concerned  there  was  no 
danger  that  the  Government  would  be  embar- 
rassed by  an  opposition  majority.  But  the 
losses  it  met  with  in  the  elections  were  none 
the  less  serious  and  discouraging.  A  war  dis- 
approved by  a  free  people  cannot  long  be  car- 
ried on  by  the  will  of  the  Government,  and  if 
the  ratio  of  losses  indicated  by  the  elections  of 
1862  had  continued  another  year  the  perma- 
nency of  the  Republic  would  have  been  gravely 
compromised.  But  the  intelligence  of  the 
American  people  gradually  acknowledged  the 
wisdom  and  accepted  the  leadership  of  the 
President,  and  moved  forward  to  the  advanced 
platform  upon  which  Mr.  Lincoln  had  placed 
himself.  The  right  of  suffrage  given  by  the 
State  legislatures  to  the  soldiers  in  the  field  re- 
enforced  the  voting  strength  of  the  Republicans 
action ;  otherwise,  it  could  not  but  result  in  benefit  to 
the  Union  cause  to  have  so  violent  and  indiscreet  a 
man  go  to  Chicago  as  a  firebrand  to  his  own  party.'" 
Fernando  Wood  had  told  him  that  he  could  do  nothing 
more  politic  than  to  bring  Vallandigham  back.  "  In 
that  case,"  he  said,  "  he  could  promise  him  two  Dem- 
ocratic candidates  for  the  Presidency  this  year.  These 
war  Democrats,"  said  Mr.  Wood,  "are  scoundrelly 
hypocrites  ;  they  want  to  oppose  you  and  favor  the  war 
at  once,  which  is  nonsense.  There  are  but  two  sides  in 
this  fight  —  yours  and  mine;  war  and  peace.  Yon  will 
succeed  while  the  war  lasts,  I  expect,  but  we  shall  suc- 
ceed when  the  war  is  over.  I  intend  to  keep  my  record 
clear  for  the  future." 
2  McPherson,  "History  of  the  Rebellion,"  p.  176. 
3  The  Illinois  Democrats  were  greatly  troubled  by 
Vallandigham's  apparition.  W.  R.  Morrison  said  to 
J.  H.,  June  18,  "  How  much  did  you  fellows  give 
Fernandy  Wood  for  importing  him  ?  "    [J.  H.,  Diary.  ]
i  18 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
at  home,  and  the  ballot  and  the  bullet  worked 
harmoniously  together.  Nevertheless,  in  the 
autumn  of  1862  Mr.  Lincoln  was  exposed  to 
the  bitterest  assaults  and  criticisms  from  every 
faction  in  the  country.  His  conservative  sup- 
porters reproached  him  with  having  yielded  to 
the  wishes  of  the  radicals ;  the  radicals  de- 
nounced him  for  being  hampered,  if  not  cor- 
rupted, by  the  influence  of  the  conservatives. 
On  one  side  he  was  assailed  by  a  clamor  for 
peace,  on  the  other  by  vehement  and  injurious 
demands  for  a  more  vigorous  prosecution  of 
the  war.  He  stood  unmoved  by  these  attacks, 
converging  upon  him  from  every  quarter,  and 
rarely  took  the  trouble  to  defend  himself  against 
tli em.  Coming  from  every  side,  the  pressure 
neutralized  itself,  like  that  of  the  atmosphere. 
To  one  friend  who  assailed  him  with  pecul- 
iar candor,  he  made  a  reply  which  may  answer 
as  a  sufficient  defense  to  all  the  radical  at- 
tacks which  were  so  rife  at  the  time. 
I  have  just  received  and  read  your  letter  of  the 
20th.  The  purport  of  it  is  that  we  lost  the  late 
elections,  and  the  Administration  is  failing  because 
the  war  is  unsuccessful,  and  that  I  must  not  flatter 
myself  that  I  am  not  justly  to  blame  for  it.  I  cer- 
tainly know  that  if  the  war  fails,  the  Administration 
fails,  and  that  I  will  be  blamed  for  it,  whether  I 
deserve  it  or  not.  And  I  ought  to  be  blamed,  if  I 
could  do  better.  You  think  I  could  do  better;  there- 
fore you  blame  me  already.  1  think  I  could  not  do 
better;  therefore  I  blame  you  for  blaming  me.  I 
understand  you  now  to  be  willing  to  accept  the 
help  of  men  who  are  not  Republicans,  provided 
they  have ' '  heart  in  it."  —  Agreed.  1  want  no  others. 
But  who  is  to  be  the  judge  of  hearts,  or  of  "  heart 
in  it"?  If  I  must  discard  my  own  judgment,  and 
take  yours,  I  must  also  take  that  of  others  ;  and  by 
the  time  I  should  reject  all  I  should  be  advised  to 
reject,  I  should  have  none  left,  Republicans  or 
others  —  not  even  yourself.  For  be  assured,  my  dear 
sir,  there  are  men  who  have  "  heart  in  it"  that 
think  you  are  performing  your  part  as  poorly  as 
you  think  I  am  performing  mine.  I  certainly  have 
been  dissatisfied  with  the  slowness  of  Buell  and 
McClellan  ;  but  before  I  relieved  them  I  had  great 
fears  I  should  not  find  successors  to  them  who  would 
do  better ;  and  I  am  sorry  to  add,  that  I  have  seen 
little  since  to  relieve  those  fears.  I  do  not  clearly 
see  the  prospect  of  any  more  rapid  movements.  I 
fear  we  shall  at  last  find  out  the  difficulty  is  in  our 
case  rather  than  in  particular  generals.  I  wish  to 
disparage  no  one — certainly  not  those  who  sym- 
pathize with  me  ;  but  I  must  say  I  need  success  more 
than  I  need  sympathy,  and  that  I  have  not  seen  the 
so  much  greater  evidence  of  getting  success  from  my 
sympathizers  than  from  those  who  are  denounced 
as  the  contrary.  It  does  seem  to  me  that  in  the  field 
the  two  classes  have  been  very  much  alike  in  what 
they  have  done  and  what  they  have  failed  to  do. 
In  sealing  their  faith  with  their  blood,  Baker,  and 
Lyon,  and  Bohlen,  and  Richardson,  Republicans, 
did  all  that  men  could  do;  but  did  they  any  more 
than  Kearney,  Stevens,  and  Reno,  and  Mansfield, 
none  of  whom  were  Republicans,  and  some  at  least 
of  whom  have  been  bitterly  and  repeatedly  de- 
nounced to  me  as  secession  sympathizers  ?  I  will 
not  perform  the  ungrateful  task  of  comparing  cases 
of  failure.  In  answer  to  your  question,  Has  it  not 
been  publicly  stated  in  the  newspapers,  and  appar- 
ently proved  as  a  fact,  that  from  the  commencement 
of  the  war  the  enemy  was  continually  supplied 
with  information  by  some  of  the  confidential  sub- 
ordinates of  as  important  an  officer  as  Adjutant- 
General  Thomas?  I  must  say  "No,"  as  far  as  my 
knowledge  extends.  And  I  add  that  if  you  can  give 
any  tangible  evidence  upon  the  subject,  1  will  thank 
you  to  come  to  this  city  and  do  so.1 
The  movements  for  peace  which  were  made 
at  this  period  on  both  sides  of  the  line  were 
feeble  and  without  result.  Mr.  Foote  of  Tennes- 
see introduced  a  resolution  in  the  Confederate 
House  of  Representatives  to  the  effect  "  that 
the  signal  success  with  which  Divine  Provi- 
dence has  so  continually  blessed  our  arms  for 
several  months  past  would  fully  justify  the  Con- 
federate Government  in  dispatching  a  commis- 
sioner or  commissioners  to  the  Government  at 
Washington  City,  empowered  to  propose  the 
terms  of  a  just  and  honorable  peace."  Mr. 
Hoit  of  Georgia  offered  as  a  substitute  a 
resolution  setting  forth  that  the  people  of  the 
Confederate  States  have  been  always  anxious 
for  peace,  and  that "  whenever  the  Government 
of  the  United  States  shall  manifest  alike  anxiety 
it  should  be  the  duty  of  the  President  of  the 
Confederate  States  to  appoint  commissioners 
to  treat  upon  the  subject."  But  both  resolution 
and  substitute  were  laid  on  the  table  by  a  large 
majority.  In  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
Mr.  Garrett  Davis  offered  a  resolution  2  recom- 
mending to  the  States  to  choose  delegates  to  a 
convention  to  be  held  at  Louisville,  Kentucky, 
to  take  into  consideration  the  condition  of  the 
United  States  and  the  proper  means  for  a  res- 
toration of  the  Union ;  this  was  laid  upon  the 
table.  Mr.  Vallandigham  also  offered  resolu- 
tions for  peace  in  the  House  of  Representatives; 
but  neither  in  the  North  nor  in  the  South  was 
there  at  that  time  a  party  sufficiently  powerful 
to  "bring  any  measures  for  peace  to  the  point 
of  legislation,  though  on  both  sides  there  was 
a  strong  current  of  agitation  for  the  termination 
of  the  war,  which,  being  regarded  and  treated 
as  treasonable,  was  easily  held  in  check. 
From  time  to  time  there  were  unauthorized 
attempts  of  individuals,  inspired  by  restlessness 
or  a  love  of  notoriety,  to  set  on  foot  amateur 
negotiations  for  peace.  One  of  the  most  active 
and  persistent  of  the  peace  politicians  of  the 
North  was  Fernando  Wood  of  New  York. 
He  held  a  unique  position  in  his  party.  While 
strongly  sympathizing  with  the  secessionists, 
and  openly  affiliating  with  them  in  public,  he 
1  Lincoln  to  Schurz,  Nov.  24,  1862.   MS. 
2  "Congressional  Globe,"  third  session  Thirty- 
seventh  Congress,  Part  I.,  p.  4,  Dec.  2,  1862.
THE   DEFEAT  OF   THE   PEACE    PARTY. 
nevertheless  tried  to  keep  up  a  sort  of  furtive 
confidential  relation  with  the  leading  members 
of  the  Government.  He  frequently  visited  the 
White  House,  the  State  Department,  and  the 
Treasury  Department,  but  emulated  the  dis- 
cretion of  Nicodemus  as  to  the  hour  of  his  visits. 
No  rebuffs  daunted  him ;  he  apparently  cared 
nothing  for  the  evident  distrust  with  which  his 
overtures  were  received.  He  kept  them  up  as 
long  as  the  war  lasted,  probably  in  the  hope 
that  the  time  might  come  for  him  to  play  a 
conspicuous  and  important  part  in  the  final 
negotiations  for  peace.  He  used  every  occasion 
to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  President.  He 
wrote,  congratulating  him  on  the  change  in  the 
War  Department  in  the  beginning  of  1862,  as 
indicating  the  President's  "  ability  to  govern, 
and  also  his  executive  power  and  will."  x  Later 
in  the  same  year  he  wrote  complaining  that 
the  radical  abolitionists  of  New  York  repre- 
sented him  as  hostile  to  the  Administration  and 
as  in  sympathy  with  the  States  in  rebellion 
against  the  Government.  He  denied  these 
charges,  and  begged  the  President  to  "  rely 
upon  his  support  in  his  efforts  to  maintain  the 
integrity  of  the  Union."  1  In  September,  after 
making  a  speech  furiously  denouncing  the 
Government  for  its  arbitrary  arrests,  he  wrote 
a  confidential  note  to  the  President,  making 
the  usual  explanation  that  he  had  been  incor- 
rectly reported  :  "  All  I  said  applied  to  those 
arrests  that  had  been  made  through  error  or 
misrepresentation,  and  exclusively  as  to  the  truly 
loyal."  In  November,  after  a  similar  tirade,  he 
wrote  to  Mr.  Seward,  with  a  striking  lack  of 
originality,  making  the  same  plea  of  an  incorrect 
report.  "  I  did  not,"  he  said,  "  utter  the  treason- 
able sentiments  reported."  Having  in  this  way, 
as  he  thought,  established  himself  in  the  con- 
fidence of  the  President,  he  wrote  him  a  letter 
on  the  8th  of  December,  1862,  pretending  that 
he  had  "reliable  and  truthful  authority  "  to  say 
that  the  Southern  States  would  send  represent- 
atives to  the  next  Congress  provided  that  a  full 
and  general  amnesty  should  permit  them  to  "do 
so,  no  guaranty  or  terms  being  asked  for  other 
than  the  amnesty  referred  to. 
As  an  humble  but  loyal  citizen  [he  said],  deeply 
impressed  with  the  great  necessity  of  restoring  the 
Union  of  these  States,  I  ask  your  immediate  attention 
to  this  subject.  The  magnitude  of  the  interests  at 
stake  warrant  some  executive  action  predicated  upon 
this  information,  if  it  be  only  to  ascertain  if  it  be 
grounded  upon  even  probable  foundation.  If  it  shall 
prove  groundless  no  harm  shall  have  been  done, 
provided  the  inquiry  be  made,  as  it  can  be,  with- 
out compromising  the  Government  or  injury  to  the 
cause  in  which  it  is  now  engaged.  If,  however,  it 
shall  prove  well  founded,  there  is  no  estimate  too 
high  to  place  upon  its  national  value. 
1  MS. 
2  McPherson,  "History  of  the  Rebellion,"  p.  296. 
The  immediate  object  of  his  letter  became 
evident  in  the  following  paragraph  : 
Now,  therefore,  Mr.  President,  I  suggest  that  gen- 
tlemen whose  former  political  and  social  relations 
with  the  leaders  of  the  Southern  revolt  [sic]  may  be 
allowed  to  hold  unofficial  correspondence  with  them 
on  this  subject  —  the  correspondence  to  be  submitted 
to  you.  It  may  be  thus  ascertained  what,  if  any, 
credence  may  be  given  to  these  statements,  and  also 
whether  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  present  struggle 
may  not  be  attainable.2 
The  President  answered  on  the  12th  of  De- 
cember. Referring  to  the  first  paragraph  above 
quoted,  he  said : 
I  strongly  suspect  your  information  will  prove 
to  be  groundless  ;  nevertheless,  I  thank  you  for  com- 
municating it  to  me.  Understanding  the  phrase 
in  the  paragraph  above  quoted,  "the  Southern 
States  would  send  representatives  to  the  next  Con- 
gress," to  be  substantially  the  same  as  that  the 
people  of  the  Southern  States  would  cease  resist- 
ance, and  would  re-inaugurate,  submit  to,  and  main- 
tain the  national  authority  within  the  limits  of 
such  States,  under  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  I  say  that  in  such  case  the  war  would  cease 
on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  and  that  if,  within  a 
reasonable  time,  "  a  full  and  general  amnesty  "  were 
necessary  to  such  end,  it  would  not  be  withheld.  I 
do  not  think  it  would  be  proper  now  for  me  to  com- 
municate this  formally  or  informally  to  the  people 
of  the  Southern  States.  My  belief  is  that  they  al- 
ready know  it ;  and  when  they  choose,  if  ever, 
they  can  communicate  with  me  unequivocally.  Nor 
do  I  think  it  proper  now  to  suspend  military  oper- 
ations to  try  any  experiment  of  negotiation.  I  should 
nevertheless  receive  with  great  pleasure  the  exact 
information  you  now  have,  and  also  such  other  as 
you  may  in  any  way  obtain.  Such  information 
might  be  more  valuable  before  the  1st  of  January 
than  afterwards. 
These  last  words  refer,  of  course,  to  the  im- 
pending proclamation  of  emancipation. 
Between  the  date  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  letter 
and  Mr.  Wood's  reply  came  the  frightful  car- 
nage at  Fredericksburg,  which  emboldened 
Mr.  Wood  to  say  that  the  President's  reply 
had  filled  him  with  profound  regret. 
It  declines  [he  saidj  what  I  had  conceived  to  be 
an  innocent  effort  to  ascertain  the  foundation  for 
information  in  my  possession  of  a  desire  in  the  South 
to  return  to  the  Union.  It  thus  appears  to  be  an 
indication  on  your  part  [sic]  to  continue  a  policy 
which,  in  my  judgment,  is  not  only  unwise,  but, 
in  the  opinion  of  many,  is  in  conflict  with  the  con- 
stitutional authority  vested  in  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. 
He  protested  earnestly  against  this  policy, 
and  felt  encouraged  to  renew  the  suggestions 
of  his  letter  of  the  8th. 
I  feel  [he  said]  that  military  operations  so  bloody 
and  exhausting  as  ours  must  sooner  or  later  be  sus- 
pended.    The  day  of  suspension  must  come.     The
4° 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
only  question  is  whether  it  shall  be  before  the  whole 
American  people,  North  and  South,  shall  be  in- 
volved in  general  ruin,  or  whether  it  shall  be  whilst 
there  is  remaining  sufficient  of  the  recuperative  ele- 
ment of  life  by  which  to  restore  our  once  happy, 
prosperous,  and  peaceful  American  Union. 
To  this  letter  the  President  made  no  reply. 
Other  volunteers  from  time  to  time  tendered 
their  services  in  the  same  field.  Mr.  Duff 
Green,  a  Virginia  politician,  wrote  to  the 
President  from  Richmond  as  early  as  the  20th 
o\  January,  asking  permission  to  visit  Wash- 
ington. He  said  that  if  he  could  see  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  converse  with  him  on  the  subject 
he  could  do  much  to  pave  the  way  for  an 
early  termination  of  the  war.  Receiving  no 
encouragement  from  Washington,  he  asked  the 
same  permission  from  Richmond,  but  this  re- 
quest came  to  nothing.  In  the  summer  of 
1863,  however,  an  effort  for  peace  negotia- 
tions was  made,  which  came  with  such  high 
sanction  and  involved  personages  of  such  indi- 
vidual and  political  importance  that  it  requires 
particular  mention. 
About  the  middle  of  June,  Mr.  Alexander 
H.  Stephens,  Vice-President  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  became  convinced  that  the  time 
was  auspicious  for  initiating  negotiations  for 
peace.  He  thought  he  saw  reasons  for  great 
encouragement  in  the  attitude  of  the  North ; 
the  great  gains  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the 
last  autumnal  elections,  the  pamphlet  of  Mr. 
George  Ticknor  Curtis  attacking  the  measures 
of  the  Administration,  a  public  meeting  in  favor 
of  peace  held  without  disturbance  in  the  city 
of  New  York  in  which  violent  speeches  were 
made  by  Mr.  Fernando  Wood  and  others,  and 
the  nomination  for  governor  of  Ohio  of  Val- 
landigham  are  all  mentioned  by  him 1  as  facts 
going  to  show  that  the  people  of  the  North 
were  wearying  of  the  war.  On  this  insufficient 
evidence  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Davis  proposing  that 
he  should  go  to  Washington,  ostensibly  to  ne- 
gotiate some  questions  involving  the  exchange 
of  prisoners,  but  saying  that  he  "  was  not  with- 
out hopes  that  indirectly  he  could  now  turn 
attention  to  a  general  adjustment,  upon  such 
basis  as  might  ultimately  be  acceptable  to  both 
parties,  and  stop  the  further  effusion  of  blood 
in  a  contest  so  irrational,  unchristian,  and  so 
inconsistent  with  all  recognized  American  prin- 
ciples." He  assured  Mr.  Davis  that  he  enter- 
tained but  one  idea  of  the  basis  of  final  adjust- 
ment—  the  recognition  of  the  sovereignty  of 
the  States,  and  the  right  of  each  in  its  sov- 
ereign capacity  to  determine  its  own  destiny. 
He  did  not  believe  the  Federal  Government 
was  yet  ripe  for  such  acknowledgment,  but 
he  did  believe  that  the  time  had  come  for  a 
l  Stephens,  "War  between  the  States,"  Vol.  II., 
P-  558- 
proper  presentation  of  the  question  to  the  au- 
thorities at  Washington.  "  While,  therefore," 
he  says,  "  a  mission  might  be  dispatched  on 
a  minor  point,  the  greater  one  could  possibly, 
with  prudence,  discretion,  and  skill,  be  opened 
to  view  and  brought  in  discussion,  in  a  way 
that  would  lead  eventually  to  successful  re- 
sults. This  would  depend  upon  many  circum- 
stances," he  adds  complacently,  "  but  no  little 
upon  the  character  and  efficiency  of  the  agent. 
...  So  feeling,  I  have  been  prompted  to  ad- 
dress you  these  lines."  Upon  the  receipt  of 
this  letter  Mr.  Davis  sent  a  telegram  request- 
ing his  Vice-President  to  go  immediately  to 
Richmond.  He  arrived  there  on  the  2 2d  of 
June ;  but  in  the  ten  days  which  had  elapsed 
since  his  letter  was  written  he  found  that 
changes  of  the  utmost  importance  had  taken 
place  in  the  military  situation.  On  the  one 
hand  the  Confederate  authorities  had  despaired 
of  the  condition  of  Pemberton  at  Vicksburg, 
and  expected  that  any  day  might  bring  them 
tidings  of  his  surrender,  but  on  the  other  hand 
they  were  anticipating  with  sanguine  enthusi- 
asm the  most  magnificent  results  from  Lee's 
invasion  of  Pennsylvania.  Mr.  Stephens,  in 
the  work  which  he  wrote  at  his  leisure  after 
the  war  was  ended,  represents  that  in  these 
changed  conditions  he  was  inclined  to  give  up 
his  mission,  thinking  that  no  good  could  result 
from  it,  as  the  movement  of  Lee  into  Penn- 
sylvania would  greatly  excite  the  war  spirit 
and  strengthen  the  war  party  —  a  view  of  the 
case  in  which  Mr.  Davis  positively  declined 
to  agree.  He  thought  Mr.  Lincoln  would  be 
more  likely  to  receive  a  commissioner  for  peace 
if  General  Lee's  army  was  actually  threatening 
Washington  than  if  it  was  lying  quietly  south 
of  the  Rappahannock.  The  Confederate  Cabi- 
net being  called  together,  they  agreed  with 
Mr.  Davis;  they  thought  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment might  be  best  approached  while  under 
the  threat  of  the  guns  of  Lee,  and  before  they 
should  receive  fresh  hope  and  encouragement 
from  the  surrender  of  Pemberton,  which  was 
now  considered  inevitable.  An  arrangement 
was  made  for  Stephens  to  proceed  by  land  on 
the  route  taken  by  Lee's  army,  and  to  commu- 
nicate with  the  Washington  authorities  from 
his  headquarters ; 2  but  excessive  rains  and 
the  badness  of  the  roads  caused  a  change  of 
route,  and  the  invalid  Vice-President  was  there- 
fore saved  a  most  distressing  journey,  from 
which  he  would  have  come  "  bootless  home 
and  weather-beaten  back."  Mr.  Mallory,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Confederate  Navy,  gave  him 
a  small  steamer,  and  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Robert  Ould  as  his  secretary,  he  steamed 
away  to  Fort  Monroe.  In  any  case  his  mission 
2  Stephens,  "War  between  the  States,"  Vol.   II., 
p.  566.
THE  DEFEAT  OF   THE   PEACE    PAHTY. 
141 
would  probably  have  been  fruitless,  but  he 
states  only  the  truth  when  he  claims  that  he 
arrived  at  an  unlucky  moment.  He  communi- 
cated with  Admiral  Lee  in  Hampton  Roads 
on  the  Fourth  of  July,  just  after  Lee's  march  to 
the  North  had  ended  in  disastrous  failure  at 
Gettysburg.  He  sent  the  admiral  a  letter  stat- 
ing that  he  was  "  bearer  of  a  communication 
in  writing  from  Jefferson  Davis,  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  the  Confederate  land  and  naval 
forces,  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy  of  the  United 
States,"  and  that  he  desired  to  proceed  directly 
to  Washington  in  his  own  steamer,  the  Torpedo. 
The  titles  by  which  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr. 
Davis  were  designated  in  this  note  had  been 
the  subject  of  anxious  consultation  in  Rich- 
mond. Stephens's  commission  from  the  Con- 
federate President  gave  Mr.  Lincoln  the  title 
above  quoted  to  avoid  the  necessity  of  claim- 
ing the  style  of  President  for  Mr.  Davis ;  but 
in  case  Mr.  Lincoln  should  stand  upon  his  dig- 
nity and  refuse  the  letter  addressed  to  him  as 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy, 
Mr.  Davis  had  prepared  for  Mr.  Stephens  a 
duplicate  letter  addressed  to  Mr.  Lincoln  as 
President  and  signed  by  Mr.  Davis  in  the  same 
style;  if  to  this  letter  objections  were  made, 
on  the  ground  that  Mr.  Davis  was  not  recog- 
nized to  be  President  of  the  Confederacy,  Mr. 
Stephens's  mission  was  then  to  be  at  an  end,  "  as 
such  conference,"  Mr.  Davis  said,  "  is  admis- 
sible only  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality." 
But  all  this  care,  foresight,  and  punctilio  went 
for  nothing.  As  soon  as  Mr.  Lincoln  received 
the  telegram  in  which  Admiral  Lee  announced 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  the  arrival  of  Mr. 
Stephens,  he  immediately  wrote  on  the  back 
of  the  dispatch  a  note  to  be  sent  by  Mr.  Welles 
to  Admiral  Lee,  in  which,  without  paying  any 
attention  whatever  to  the  style  of  Mr.  Stephens's 
application,  he  went  directly  to  the  heart  of 
the  matter.    This  draft  of  an  order  ran : 
You  will  not  permit  Mr.  Stephens  to  proceed  to 
Washington  or  to  pass  the  blockade.  He  does  not 
make  known  the  subjects  to  which  the  communi- 
cation in  writing  from  Mr.  Davis  relates,  which  he 
bears  and  seeks  to  deliver  in  person  to  the  Presi- 
dent, and  upon  which  he  desires  to  confer.  Those 
subjects  can  only  be  military,  or  not  military,  or 
partly  both.  Whatever  may  be  military  will  be 
readily  received  if  offered  through  the  well  under- 
stood military  channel.  Of  course  nothing  else  will 
be  received  by  the  President  when  offered,  as  in  this 
case,  in  terms  assuming  the  independence  of  the  so- 
called  Confederate  States,  and  anything  will  be  re- 
ceived and  carefully  considered  by  him  when  offered 
by  any  influential  person,  or  persons,  in  terms  not 
assuming  the  independence  of  the  so-called  Con- 
federate States. 1 
This  note  he  afterwards  evidently  considered 
as  entering  too  much  into  detail,  and  he  there- 
fore caused  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  send 
this  brief  reply  to  Admiral  Lee  ! 
The  request  of  A.  H.  Stephens  is  inadmissi!  lc. 
The  customary  agents  and  channels  are   adequate 
for  all  needful  communication  and  conferem; 
tween  the  United  States  forces  and  the  insur; 
Mr.  Stephens,  when  he  came  afterwards  to 
relate   the  history  of  this    abortive  mission,* 
frankly  admitted  that  his  ulterior  purpose  was 
not  so  much  to  act  upon   Mr.  Lincoln   and 
the  then  ruling  authorities  at  Washington  as 
through  them,  when  the  correspondence  should 
be  published,  upon  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  in  the  Northern  States,  who  were  be- 
coming, he  thought,  so  sensitively  alive  to  the 
great  danger  of  their  own  liberties.  He  wanted, 
he  said,  "  to  deeply  impress  the  growing  con- 
stitutional party  at  the  North  with  a  full  realiza- 
tion of  the  true  nature  and  ultimate  tendencies 
of  the  war";  to  show  them  "  that  the  surest  way 
to  maintain  their  liberties  was  to  allow  us  the 
separate  enjoyment  of  ours." 
Though  this  hope  was  baffled  by  the  rebuff 
which  Mr.  Stephens  received  at  Fort  Monroe, 
which  prevented  him  from  laying  before  his 
sympathizing  friends  of  the  North  his  view  of 
their  endangered  liberties  and  the  best  means 
of  preserving  them,  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
the  partisans  of  peace  at  the  North  lost  any- 
thing by  this  incident.  Certainly,  throughout 
the  whole  summer  of  1863,  they  fought  their 
losing  battle  with  a  courage  and  a  determina- 
tion equal  to  that  which  their  sympathizers 
were  displaying  in  the  South.  But  the  very 
energy  and  malice  with  which  they  carried  on 
the  contestroused  the  loyal  people  of  the  North 
to  still  greater  efforts  and  increased  the  dimen- 
sions of  their  ultimate  triumph.  The  election 
in  New  Hampshire,  the  first  which  took  place 
in  the  spring  of  1863,  while  it  brought  victory 
to  the  Republicans,  still  gave  painful  evidence 
of  the  bitter  hostility  of  the  Democratic  party 
to  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  Senator  Daniel 
Clark,  writing  to  Mr.  Lincoln,3  said : 
Scarcely  aDemocrat  supported  the  Administration. 
Almost  every  one  who  had  heretofore  avowed  him- 
self for  the  Union  and  the  country  turned  in  for 
peace  and  party.  Yet  we  have  beaten  them.  They 
have  retired  from  the  field.  The  two  houses  in  con- 
vention will  choose  a  Republican  governor,  and  Frank 
Pierce  in  retirement  will  not  have  beaten  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  office. 
There  were  after  this,  during  the  summer 
and  early  autumn,  moments  of  depression  and 
discouragement  in  which  it  seemed  that  the 
malignant  energy  displayed  by  the  opposition 
1  Lincoln,  autograph  IMS. 
2  Stephens,  "  War  between  the  States,"  Vol.  II., 
p.  561. 
3  March  13.  MS.
14- 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
could  not  be  without  disastrous  effect,  and  as 
the  day  of  election  drew  near  in  the  "  October 
States "  both  sides  felt  justified  in  renewing 
their  utmost  efforts.  In  Pennsylvania  the  contest 
presented  features  of  special  interest.  Andrew 
G.  Curtin,1  who.  as  governor  of  the  State,  had 
given  not  only  efficient  but  enthusiastic  sup- 
port to  the  war.  was  opposed  by  Judge  George 
W.  Woodward,  who,  as  one  of  the  Democratic 
justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  had 
just  aimed  a  blow  at  the  prosecution  of  the 
war  which  would  have  been  fatal  if  followed 
up  and  sustained  by  other  courts.  He  had  de- 
clared the  enrollment  law  unconstitutional,  and 
upon  the  record  thus  made  had  been  nomi- 
nated for  governor.  The  friends  of  Mr.  Curtin 
relied  on  the  war  spirit  to  carry  their  candi- 
date through,  and  towards  the  close  of  the 
campaign  they  claimed,  most  unjudiciously, 
that  General  McClellan,  whose  popularity 
was  still  great  among  the  Democrats  of  Penn- 
sylvania, was  in  favor  of  the  election  of  Curtin, 
with  whom  he  had  always  sustained  friendly 
personal  relations.  Just  on  the  eve  of  election 
this  matter  came  to  the  attention  of  McClel- 
lan. Desiring  to  keep  his  political  standing  with 
his  party  intact,  he  sought  an  interview  with 
Judge  Woodward  and  published  a  letter  de- 
claring that,  "  having  had  a  full  conversation 
with  the  judge,  he  found  that  their  views 
agreed,  and  that  he  regarded  his  election  as 
governor  of  Pennsylvania  called  for  by  the  in- 
terests of  the  nation."  2  But  even  this  dilatory 
reinforcement  of  the  peace  party  was  not 
enough  to  save  their  canvass ;  the  Republicans 
of  the  State  were  as  thoroughly  alive  to  the 
emergency  as  their  opponents,  and  the  vote 
polled  was  greater  by  many  thousands  than 
had  ever  been  cast  before.  Governor  Curtin 
was  reelected  by  a  majority  of  over  fifteen 
thousand,  and  Chief-Justice  Lowrie,  who  with 
Woodward  had  aimed  from  the  bench  the 
most  mischievous  blow  ever  dealt  at  the  en- 
rollment bill,  was  defeated  for  reelection  by 
Daniel  Agnew,  and  the  court,  thus  reconsti- 
tuted, reversed  its  previous  judgment. 
In  Ohio  the  content  was  marked  with  equal 
bitterness  and  enthusiasm.  The  Democrats, 
working  against  hope,  but  with  undaunted 
persistency  for  their  banished  candidate,  Val- 
landigham,  were  buried  under  the  portentous 
majority  of  one  hundred  thousand  votes.  This 
overwhelming  triumph  of  the  Union  party  in 
the  October  States  made  success  certain  in 
the  general  election  of  the  next  month.  The 
tide  had  turned,  and  the  current  now  swept 
steadily  onward  in  one  way.  The  great  State 
of  New  York,  which  had  been  shaken  to  its 
center  by  the  frightful  crimes  and  excitement 
incident  to  the  draft  riots,  now  witnessed  a 
great  popular  political  reaction ;  and  reversing 
the  majority  of  ten  thousand  given  to  Seymour 
in  1862,  the  Republican  State  ticket  was 
elected  by  thirty  thousand,  and  the  legislature 
also  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Unionists. 
The  success  of  the  year  which  was  dearest  to 
the  heart  of  the  President  was  that  attained  in 
Maryland.  The  second  passage  of  rebel  armies 
over  her  territory  seemed  at  last  to  have  purged 
the  secession  sentiment  from  that  State,  and 
four  Unionists  out  of  her  five  districts  were 
elected  to  Congress,  and  an  emancipation  State 
ticket  was  carried  by  twenty  thousand  majority. 
Throughout  the  West  the  Union  sentiment 
asserted  itself  with  irresistible  strength.  An  at- 
tempt marked  with  singular  boldness  and  en- 
ergy had  been  made  during  the  year  by  the 
leaders  of  the  peace  party  to  gain  control  of 
the  great  States  of  the  North-west,  which  for  a 
time  seemed  to  them  so  promising  that  the 
rebel  emissaries  in  Canada,  being  informed  of 
it,  gave  encouragement  to  their  principals  in 
Richmond  to  hope  for  the  formation  of  a 
North-western  Confederacy  in  opposition  to 
the  National  Government.  Meetings  were 
continually  held,  secret  societies  were  every- 
where active,  and  every  effort  was  made  in 
public  and  in  private  to  form  a  basis  of  organ- 
ized hostility  against  the  Government.  The 
culmination  of  this  important  and  dangerous 
movement  may  be  regarded  as  having  taken 
place  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  on  the  1 7th  of  June. 
A  great  mass  meeting,  enormous  in  numbers 
and  wild  with  enthusiasm,  under  the  presidency 
of  Senator  Richardson,  listened  during  all  a 
summer's  day  to  the  most  furious  and  vehe- 
ment oratory,  and  at  last  passed  resolutions 
demanding  nothing  less  than  submission  to  the 
South.  They  resolved  "  that  a  further  offen- 
sive prosecution  of  this  war  tends  to  subvert 
the  Constitution  and  the  Government,  and  en- 
tails upon  this  nation  all  the  disastrous  conse- 
1  To  show  how  the  political  emergency  overcame 
the  most  inveterate  personal  hostilities,  we  give  a 
characteristic  letter  which  Simon  Cameron  wrote  to 
Lincoln  September  18,  1863.  He  -aid  that  Curtin  would 
he  reelected,  and  that  all  his  friends  would  support  him, 
but  that  "if  the  result  were  to  operate  simply  on  his 
own  private  fortunes,  there  are  many  good  Republicans 
and  pious  Christ;an^  who  would  see  him  in     first. 
He  will  cheat  us  when  it  is  over,  and,  if  he  can,  sell  us 
to  our  enemies.  But  he  is  now,  by  one  of  those  ac- 
cidents which  sometimes  control  great  events,  the  rep- 
resentative of  the  loyalty  of  this  State,  and  his  defeat 
might  be  disastrous  to  the  country.  My  heart  is  too 
much  engaged  in  the  struggle  for  ending  the  rebellion 
to  allow  me  to  hesitate  at  even  the  support  of  Mr. 
Curtin." 
2  This  letter  of  McClellan  was  a  severe  disappoint- 
ment to  Curtin,  who  had  regarded  him  as  his  friend. 
A  friend  (now  Sir  John  Puleston,  M.  P.)  who  was  with 
him  when  the  newspaper  containing  McClellan's  letter 
was  received  said,  "  '  Et  tu,  Brute, /'  was  not  a  circum- 
stance to  it."    [J.  H.,  Diary.]
THE  DEFEAT  OF   THE  PEACE    /'ARTY. 
quences  of  misrule  and  anarchy  "  ;  that  they 
were  "  in  favor  of  peace  upon  a  basis  of  res- 
toration of  the  Union  "  ;  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  which  they  proposed  "  a  national 
convention  to  settle  upon  terms  of  peace,  which 
should  have  in  view  the  restoration  of  the 
Union  as  it  was,  and  the  securing  by  constitu- 
tional amendment  of  such  rights  of  the  several 
States  and  people  thereof  as  honor  and  justice 
demand." 
This  bold  challenge  was  accepted  by  the 
Republicans  with  equal  determination  and 
superior  means.  The  guns  of  Vicksburg  and 
of  Gettysburg  might  have  been  regarded  as 
sufficient  answer  to  the  resolutions  of  the  Spring- 
field mass  meeting,  but  the  Copperheads1  of 
that  State  only  clamored  the  louder  for  peace 
after  these  great  victories,  and  the  political  can- 
vass went  on  with  tenfold  vehemence  in  the 
tacit  truce  of  arms  that  followed  the  battles  of 
July.  The  Republicans  prepared  for  the  be- 
ginning of  September  the  greatest  mass  meet- 
ing of  the  campaign ;  and  to  give  especial  sig- 
nificance to  the  occasion,  it  was  to  take  place 
at  the  home  of  Lincoln,  on  the  very  spot  where 
defiant  treason  had  trumpeted  to  the  world  its 
challenge  in  June. 
It  was  the  ardent  wish  of  the  Illinois  Repub- 
licans that  Mr.  Lincoln  might  be  with  them  on 
this  important  day.  Mr.  James  C.  Conkling, 
chairman  of  the  committee  of  arrangements, 
wrote  urging  him  to  come  in  person. 
There  is  a  bad  element  [he  said]  in  this  State,  as 
well  as  others,  and  every  public  demonstration  in 
favor  of  law  and  order  and  constitutional  govern- 
ment will  have  a  favorable  influence.  The  impor- 
tance of  our  meeting,  therefore,  at  the  capital  of  a 
State  which  has  sent  so  many  soldiers  into  the  army, 
and  which  exercises  such  a  controlling  power  in  the 
West,  cannot  be  overestimated.2 
For  a  moment  the  President  cherished  the 
hope  of  going  to  Springfield  and  once  more  in 
his  life  renewing  the  sensation,  so  dear  to  poli- 
ticians, of  personal  contact  with  great  and 
enthusiastic  masses,  and  of  making  one  more 
speech  to  shouting  thousands  of  his  fellow- 
citizens.  The  temptation,  however,  only  lasted 
for  a  moment,  and  instead  of  going  he  wrote 
a  letter  which  was  read  amid  the  hushed  atten- 
tion of  an  immense  auditor}*,  and  passed  in  a 
moment  into  the  small  number  of  American 
political  classics.  The  meeting  was  an  enor- 
mous one  in  numbers  and  in  hot,  tumultuous 
feeling;  it  was  addressed  by  the  greatest  orators 
of  the  Republican  party;  speaking  went  on 
1  The  "peace  Democrats  "  of  the  Xorth  were  vari- 
ously nicknamed  "  Butternuts  "  and  "Copperheads." 
The  former  name  referred  to  the  domestic  dye  which 
gave  color  to  the  uniforms  of  the  Confederate  soldiers, 
and  the  latter  was  the  name  of  the  most  venomous 
snake  in  the  West.  In  each  case  the  nickname  was 
assumed   and   borne    with   bravado  bv  the  vounser 
continuously  at  many  stands  from  morning  until 
twilight.  The  speeches  were  marked  by  the  most 
advanced  and  unflinching  Republican  doc- 
trine; the  proclamation  of  emancipation,  the 
arming  of  negroes,  received  universal  adhesion, 
and  of  course  every  reference  to  Mr.  Lin' 
name  was  received  with  thunders  of  applause; 
but  with  all  these  features  of  the  highest  interest 
and  importance,  the  meeting  can  only  live  in 
the  memories  of  men  as  the  occasion  of  the 
letter  which  Mr.  Lincoln  wrote  to  its  chair- 
man : 
Your  letter,  inviting  me  to  attend  a  mass  meeting 
of  unconditional  Union  men,  to  be  held  at  the  capi- 
tal of  Illinois  on  the  3d  day  of  September,  has  been 
received.  It  would  be  very  agreeable  to  me  to  thus 
meet  my  old  friends  at  my  own  home,  but  I  cannot 
just  now  be  absent  from  here  so  long  as  a  visit  there 
would  require. 
The  meeting  is  to  be  of  all  those  who  maintain 
unconditional  devotion  to  the  Union,  and  I  am  sure 
my  old  political  friends  will  thank  me  for  tendering, 
as  I  do,  the  nation's  gratitude  to  those  other  noble 
men  whom  no  partisan  malice  or  partisan  hope  can 
make  false  to  the  nation's  life. 
There  are  those  who  are  dissatisfied  with  me. 
To  such  I  would  say  :  You  desire  peace,  and  you 
blame  me  that  we  do  not  have  it.  But  how  can  we 
attain  it  ?  There  are  but  three  conceivable  ways. 
First,  to  suppress  the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms. 
This  I  am  trying  to  do.  Are  you  for  it  ?  If  you  are, 
so  far  we  are  agreed.  If  you  are  not  for  it.  a  second 
way  is  to  give  up  the  Union.  I  am  against  this. 
Are  you  for  it  ?  If  you  are.  you  should  say  so  plainly. 
If  you  are  not  for  force,  nor  yet  for  dissolution,  there 
only  remains  some  imaginable  compromise. 
1  do  not  believe  any  compromise  embracing  the 
maintenance  of  the  Union  is  now  possible.  All  I 
learn  leads  to  a  directly  opposite  belief.  The  strength 
of  the  rebellion  is  its  military  —  its  army.  That 
army  dominates  all  the  country  and  all  the  people 
within  its  range.  Any  offer  of  terms  made  by  any 
man  or  men  within  that  range,  in  opposition  to 
that  army,  is  simply  nothing  for  the  present,  be- 
cause such  man  or  men  have  no  power  whatever  to 
enforce  their  side  of  a  compromise  if  one  were  made 
with  them. 
To  illustrate  :  Suppose  refugees  from  the  South 
and  peace-men  of  the  North  get  together  in  conven- 
tion and  frame  and  proclaim  a  compromise  em- 
bracing a  restoration  of  the  Union  ;  in  what  way  can 
that  compromise  be  used  to  keep  Lee's  army  out  of 
Pennsylvania?  Meade's  army  can  keep  Lee's  army 
out  of  Pennsylvania,  and  I  think  can  ultimately 
drive  it  out  oi  existence.  But  no  paper  compromise 
to  which  the  controllers  of  Lee's  army  are  not  agreed 
can  at  all  affect  that  army.  In  an  effort  at  such  com- 
promise we  should  waste  time  which  the  enemy 
would  improve  to  our  disadvantage,  and  that  would 
be  all. 
Democrats,  who  in  some  instances  wore  buttenv. 
breastpins,  and  in  others,  with  a  clever  return  upon 
their  opponents,  cut  the  copper  head  of  the  Go 
of  Liberty  from  the  old-fashioned  red  cent  and  bore  it 
as  their  cognizance. 
-  Conkling  to  Lincoln,  Aug.  21.   MS.
144 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
A  compromise,  to  be  effective,  must  be  made  either 
with  those  who  control  the  rebel  army,  or  with  the 
people  first  liberated  from  the  domination  of  that 
army  by  the  successes  of  our  own  army.  Now, 
allow  me  to  assure  you  that  no  word  or  intimation 
from  that  rebel  army,  or  from  any  of  the  men  con- 
trolling it.  in  relation  to  any  peace  compromise, 
has  ever  come  to  my  knowledge  or  belief.  All 
charges  and  insinuations  to  the  contrary  are  decep- 
tive and  groundless.  And  I  promise  you  that  if  any 
such  proposition  shall  hereafter  come,  it  shall  not 
be  rejected  and  kept  a  secret  from  you.  1  freely 
acknowledge  myself  the  servant  of  the  people  ac- 
cording to  the  bond  of  service, —  the  United  States 
Constitution. — and  that  as  such  I  am  responsible  to 
them. 
But,  to  be  plain,  you  are  dissatisfied  with  me 
about  the  negro.  Quite  likely  there  is  a  difference 
of  opinion  between  you  and  myself  upon  that  sub- 
ject. I  certainly  wish  all  men  could  be  free,  while 
I  suppose  you  do  not.  Yet  1  have  neither  adopted 
nor  proposed  any  measure  which  is  not  consistent 
with  even  vour  view,  provided  you  are  for  the  Union. 
I  suggested  compensated  emancipation,  to  which 
you  replied  you  wished  not  to  be  taxed  to  buy 
negroes.  But  I  had  not  asked  you  to  be  taxed  to 
buy  negroes,  except  in  such  way  as  to  save  you 
from  greater  taxation  to  save  the  Union  exclusively 
by  other  means. 
You  dislike  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and 
perhaps  would  have  it  retracted.  You  say  it  is  un- 
constitutional. 1  think  differently.  I  think  the  Con- 
stitution invests  its  commander-in-chief  with  the 
law  of  war  in  time  of  war.  The  most  that  can  be 
said  —  if  so  much  —  is  that  slaves  are  property.  Is 
there,  has  there  ever  been,  any  question  that  by 
the  law  of  war,  property,  both  of  enemies  and  friends, 
may  be  taken  when  needed?  And  is  it  not  needed 
whenever  taking  it  helps  us  or  hurts  the  enemy? 
Armies,  the  world  over,  destroy  enemies'  property 
when  thev  cannot  use  it,  and  even  destroy  their 
own  to  keep  it  from  the  enemy.  Civilized  belliger- 
ents do  all  in  their  power  to  help  themselves  or 
hurt  the  enemy,  except  a  few  things  regarded  as 
barbarous  or  cruel.  Among  the  exceptions  are  the 
massacre  of  vanquished  foes  and  non-combatants, 
male  and  female. 
But  the  proclamation,  as  law,  either  is  valid  or 
is  not  valid.  If  it  is  not  valid  it  needs  no  retraction. 
If  it  is  valid  it  cannot  be  retracted,  any  more  than 
the  dead  can  be  brought  to  life.  Some  of  you  pro- 
fess to  think  its  retraction  would  operate  favorably 
for  the  Union.  Why  better  after  the  retraction  than 
l)<:!or-j  the  issue  ?  There  was  more  than  a  year  and 
a  half  of  trial  to  suppress  the  rebellion  before  the 
proclamation  issued,  the  last  one  hundred  days  of 
which  passed  under  an  explicit  notice  that  it  was 
coming,  unless  averted  by  those  in  revolt  returning 
to  their  allegiance.  The  war  has  certainly  progressed 
as  favorably  for  us  since  the  issue  of  the  proclama- 
tion as  before. 
I  know,  as  fully  as  one  can  know  the  opinion 
of  others,  that  some  of  the  commanders  of  our 
armies  in  the  field,  who  have  given  us  our  most 
important  successes,  believe  the  emancipation  pol- 
icy and  the  use  of  the  colored  troops  constitute  the 
heaviest  blow  yet  dealt  to  the  rebellion,  and  that  at 
least  one  of  these  important  successes  could  not  have 
been  achieved  when  it  was  but  for  the  aid  of  black 
soldiers.  Among  the  commanders  holding  these 
views  are  some  who  have  never  had  any  affinity 
with  what  is  called  "  Abolitionism"  or  with  "  Re- 
publican party  politics,"  but  who  hold  them  purely 
as  military  opinions.  I  submit  these  opinions  as 
being  entitled  to  some  weight  against  the  objections 
often  urged  that  emancipation  and  arming  the  blacks 
are  unwise  as  military  measures,  and  were  not 
adopted  as  such  in  good  faith. 
You  say  you  will  not  fight  to  free  negroes. 
Some  of  them  seem  willing  to  fight  for  you — but 
no  matter.  Fight  you,  then,  exclusively  to  save  the 
Union.  I  issued  the  proclamation  on  purpose  to 
aid  you  in  saving  the  Union.  Whenever  you  shall 
have  conquered  all  resistance  to  the  Union,  if  I  shall 
urge  you  to  continue  fighting,  it  will  be  an  apt  time 
then  for  you  to  declare  you  will  not  fight  to  free 
negroes.  I  thought  that  in  your  struggle  for  the 
Union,  to  whatever  extent  the  negroes  should  cease 
helping  the  enemy,  to  that  extent  it  weakened  the 
enemy  in  his  resistance  to  you.  Do  you  think  differ- 
ently ?  I  thought  that  whatever  negroes  can  be  got 
to  do  as  soldiers  leaves  just  so  much  less  for  white 
soldiers  to  do  in  saving  the  Union.  Does  it  appear 
otherwise  to  you  ?  But  negroes,  like  other  people, 
act  upon  motives.  Why  should  they  do  anything 
for  us  if  we  will  do  nothing  for  them  ?  If  they  stake 
their  lives  for  us,  they  must  be  prompted  by  the 
strongest  motive,  even  the  promise  of  freedom.  And 
the  promise,  being  made,  must  be  kept. 
The  signs  look  better.  The  Father  of  Waters 
again  goes  unvexedto  the  sea.  Thanks  to  the  great 
North-west  for  it.  Nor  yet  wholly  to  them.  Three 
hundred  miles  up  they  met  New  England,  Empire, 
Keystone,  and  Jersey,  hewing  their  way  right  and 
left.  The  sunny  South,  too,  in  more  colors  than 
one,  also  lent  a  hand.  On  the  spot,  their  part  of  the 
history  was  jotted  down  in  black  and  white.  The 
job  was  a  great  national  one,  and  let  none  be  banned 
who  bore  an  honorable  part  in  it.  And  while  those 
who  have  cleared  the  great  river  may  well  be  proud, 
even  that  is  not  all.  It  is  hard  to  say  that  anything 
has  been  more  bravely  and  well  done  than  at  An- 
tietam,  Murfreesboro',  Gettysburg,  and  on  many 
fields  of  lesser  note.  Nor  must  Uncle  Sam's  web-feet 
be  forgotten.  At  all  the  watery  margins  they  have 
been  present.  Not  only  on  the  deep  sea,  the  broad 
bay,  and  the  rapid  river,  but  also  up  the  narrow, 
muddy  bayou  ;  and  wherever  the  ground  was  a 
little  damp,  they  have  been  and  made  their  tracks. 
Thanks  to  all.  For  the  great  Republic  —  for  the  prin- 
ciple it  lives  by  and  keeps  alive  —  for  man's  vast 
future  —  thanks  to  all. 
Peace  does  not  appear  so  distant  as  it  did.  I  hope 
it  will  come  soon,  and  come  to  stay  ;  and  so  come 
as  to  be  worth  the  keeping  in  all  future  time.  It 
will  then  have  been  proved  that  among  free  men 
there  can  be  no  successful  appeal  from  the  ballot  to 
the  bullet,  and  that  they  who  take  such  appeal  are 
sure  to  lose  their  case  and  pay  the  cost.  And  there 
will  be  some  black  men  who  can  remember  that  vvith 
silent  tongue,  and  clenched  teeth,  andsteady  eye,  and 
well-poised  bayonet  they  have  helped  mankind  on 
to  this  great  consummation  ;  while  I  fear  there  will 
be  some  white  ones  unable  to  forget  that  with  ma- 
lignant heart  and  deceitful  speech  they  strove  to 
hinder  it. 
Still  let  us  not  be  over  sanguine  of  a  speedy,  final 
triumph.    Let  us  be  quite  sober.     Let  us  diligently
TIM   DEFEAT  OE    TIM    PEACE    PAPPY. 
apply  the  means,  never  doubting  that  a  just  God, 
in  His  own  good  time,  will  give  us  the  rightful 
result.1 
Among  all  the  state  papers  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
from  his  nomination  to  his  death  this  letter  is 
unique.  It  may  be  called  his  last  stump  speech, 
the  only  one  made  during  his  Presidency.  We 
find  in  it  all  the  qualities  that  made  him  in  Il- 
linois the  incomparable  political  leader  of  his 
party  for  a  generation.  There  is  the  same  close, 
unerring  logic,  the  same  innate  perception  of 
political  conduct,  the  same  wit  and  sarcasm, 
the  same  touch  of  picturesque  eloquence, 
which  abounded  in  his  earlier  and  more  care- 
less oratory,  but  all  wonderfully  heightened, 
strengthened,  and  chastened  by  a  sense  of  im- 
mense responsibility.  In  this  letter,  which  the 
chairman  took  only  ten  minutes  to  read,  he  said 
more  than  all  the  orators  at  all  the  stands.  It 
was,  like  most  of  his  speeches,  addressed  prin- 
cipally to  his  opponents,  and  in  this  short  space 
he  appealed  successively  to  their  reason,  to  their 
sympathies,  and  to  their  fears.  By  a  succession  of 
unanswerable  syllogisms  he  showed  them  how 
untenable  was  their  position.  He  appealed  to 
their  generosity,  to  their  sense  of  duty,  to  their 
patriotism,  even  to  their  love  of  glory,  and  in 
the  end  he  held  out  to  them  with  dignified 
austerity  the  prospect  of  shame  and  self-re- 
proach which  lay  before  them  if  they  contin- 
ued their  hostility  to  the  sacred  cause  of 
humanity  and  nationality.  The  style  of  this 
letter  is  as  remarkable  as  its  matter;  each 
sentence,  like  a  trained  athlete,  is  divested  of 
every  superfluous  word  and  syllable,  yet  no- 
where is  there  a  word  lacking,  any  more  than 
a  word  too  much.  Modest  as  he  was,  he  knew 
the  value  of  his  own  work,  and  when  a  friend 
called  to  ask  him  if  he  was  going  to  Spring- 
field he  replied,  "  No,  I  shall  send  them  a  letter 
instead ;  and  it  will  be  a  rather  good  letter."  2 
The  Springfield  convention,  taking  up  the 
gauntlet  thrown  down  by  the  disloyal  mass  meet- 
ing of  June,  resolved  "  that  we  will  lay  aside 
all  party  questions  and  forget  all  party  preju- 
dices and  devote  ourselves  unreservedly  to  the 
1  Lincoln  to  James  C.  Conkling,  Aug.  26,  1863. 
2  Nothing  he  ever  uttered  had  a  more  instantane- 
ous success.  Mr.  Sumner  immediately  wrote  to  him  : 
"  Thanks  for  your  true  and  noble  letter.  It  is  a  histori- 
cal document.  The  case  is  admirably  stated,  so  that 
all  but  the  wicked  must  confess  its  force.  It  cannot  be 
answered."  Henry  Wilson  wrote  him:  "God  Almighty 
bless  you  for  your  noble,  patriotic,  and  Christian  letter. 
It  will  be  on  the  lips  and  in  the  hearts  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  this  day."  Among  the  letters  which  the 
President  most  appreciated  was  one  from  the  vener- 
able Josiah  Quincy,  then  ninety-one  years  of  age,  who 
wrote  :  "  Old  age  has  its  privileges,  which  I  hope  this 
letter  will  not  exceed ;  but  I  cannot  refrain  from  ex- 
pressing to  you  my  gratification  and  my  gratitude  for 
your  letter  to  the  Illinois  convention  —  happy,  timely, 
conclusive,  and  effective.  What  you  say  concerning 
emancipation,  your  proclamation,  and  your  course  of 
Vol.  XXXVIII.— 20. 
support  of  our  Government,  until  the  rebellion 
shall  be  finally  and  forever  crushed  "  :  thei 
solved  that  "  whatever  else  may  die,  the  Union 
shall  live  to  perpetuate  civil  liberty;  what 
else  may  perish,  the  Government  shall  survive- 
in  all  its  constitutional  integrity ;  whatever 
may  be  destroyed,  the  nation  shall  be  preserved 
in  its  territorial  unity;  and  to  this  end  we  pi- 
anew  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  sacred 
honor." :{ 
In  this  spirit  the  campaign  was  fought 
through  to  its  victorious  close,  and  on  the  night 
of  the  3d  of  November  the  President,  sitting 
in  the  War  Department,  had  the  pleasure  of 
learning  from  all  the  clicking  wires  about  him 
that  the  cause  of  nationality  and  freedom  was 
triumphant  from  one  end  of  the  Union  to  the 
other;  that  the  people  had  come  up  fully  abreast 
of  him  on  the  question  of  emancipation,  and 
that  the  nation  was  now  substantially  united 
in  the  resolute  purpose  to  prosecute  the  war  to 
its  legitimate  conclusion.  These  victories  at  the 
polls  made  sure  the  good  results  of  this  summer 
of  battles;  the  Administration  felt  itself  con- 
firmed anew  and  strengthened  for  the  work  be- 
fore it.  To  those  members  of  the  Administration 
who  had  formerly  acted  with  the  Democratic 
party  there  was  a  certain  sense  of  humiliation 
and  disappointment.  Mr.  Stanton  said,  "The 
disheartening  thing  in  the  affair  was  that  there 
seemed  to  be  no  patriotic  principle  left  in  the 
Democratic  party,  the  whole  organization  vot- 
ing solidly  against  the  country."4  Mr.  Seward, 
on  the  contrary,  came  back  from  Auburn,  where 
he  had  gone  home  to  vote,  in  the  highest  spirits. 
He  considered  the  political  attitude  of  New 
York  absolutely  safe  in  the  present  and  future. 
He  thought "  the  crowd  that  follows  power  had 
come  over  to  the  Republicans;  the  Democrats 
had  lost  their  leaders  when  Toombs  and  Davis 
and  Breckinridge  forsook  them  and  went  South ; 
the  inferior  Northern  Democrats  who  succeeded 
to  the  leadership  had  proved  their  incompe- 
tency; the  best  and  most  energetic  portion  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  party  were  now  voting 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  Republicans.5 
proceeding  in  relation  to  it  was  due  to  truth  and  to 
your  own  character,  shamefully  assailed  as  it  has  been. 
The  development  is  an  imperishable  monument  of  wis- 
dom and  virtue."  After  discussing  the  question  of 
emancipation, he  continued:  "  I  write  under  the  impres- 
sion that  the  victory  of  the  United  States  in  this  war  is 
inevitable  ;  compromise  is  impossible.  Peace  on  any 
other  basis  would  be  the  establishment  of  two  nations, 
each  hating  the  other,  both  military,  both  necessarily 
warlike,  their  territories  interlocked  with  a  tendency 
of  never-ceasing  hostility.  Can  we  leave  to  posterity 
a  more  cruel  inheritance,  or  one  more  hopeless  of  hap- 
piness and  prosperity?  "  Mr.  Lincoln  answered  this 
letter  in  a  tone  expressive  of  his  reverence  for  the  age 
and  illustrious  character  of  the  writer. 
3  "  History  of  Sangamon  County,"   p.  31  v 
1  I.  H.,  Diary,  Nov.  3.  MS. 
5  Ibid.,  Nov.  8.  MS.
[46 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
y*o  party,"  he  said,  "can  survive  an  oppo- 
sition to  a  war.  The  Revolutionary  heroes  were 
political  oracles  till  181:.  and  afterwards  the 
'soldiers  of  the  late  war'  succeeded  to  their 
honors.  But  we  are  hereafter  a  nation  of  sol- 
diers. These  people  will  be  trying  to  forget  years 
hence  that  they  ever  opposed  this  war.    I  had 
nry  affidavits  to  prove  I  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  Hartford  Convention.  Now  the  party 
that  gained  eminence  by  the  folly  of  the  Fed- 
eralists in  opposing  the  war  have  the  chalice 
commended  to  their  own  lips.  I  told  the  Demo- 
cratic leaders."  he  said,  with  his  habitual  sub- 
acid good  nature.  "  how  they  might  have  saved 
-elves  and  carried  the  next  Presidential 
election,  by  being  more  loyal  and  earnest  in 
support  of  the  Administration  than  the  Repub- 
lican party.  The  Lord  knows  that  would  not 
have  been  hard." 
Although  in  this  memorable  contest  the 
Republicans  presented  a  united  front  to  the 
c ommon  enemy,  within  their  own  organiza- 
tion there  were  those  bitter  differences  of 
opinion  which  always  arise  among  men  of 
strong  convictions.  The  President's  anteroom 
was  thronged  with  earnest  men  who  desired  to 
warn  him  in  person  against  the  machinations  of 
other  men  equally  earnest,  and  his  mail  was 
encumbered  by  letters  from  every  part  of  the 
country,  and  every  shade  of  faction,  filled  with 
similar  denunciations  and  warnings.  The  pure 
and  able  Senator  Dixon  of  Connecticut  wrote: 
"  The  heresies  of  Sumner  are  doing  immense 
harm  in  a  variety  of  ways.  If  his  doctrine 
prevails,  this  country  will  be  ruined.  I  do  hope 
you  and  Mr.  Seward  will  stand  firm."  From 
the  other  wing  of  the  party  came  the  most 
passionate  denunciations  of  Seward  and  those 
who  were  associated  with  him  in  the  popular 
mind;  and  after  the  election  Senator  Chandler 
of  Michigan,  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  the 
Republicans  who  had  by  this  time  assumed  to 
themselves  the  title  of  Radicals,  having  seen 
in  the  newspapers  a  paragraph  that  Mr.  Thurlow 
Weed  and  Governor  Morgan  had  been  in  con- 
sultation with  the  President  in  regard  to  his  mes- 
wrote  a  vehement  letter  to  the  President, 
telling  him  there  was  a  "patriotic  organization 
in  all  the  free  and  border  States,  containing  over 
one  million  voters,  every  man  of  whom  is  your 
!  upon  the  Radical  measures  of  your  Ad- 
ministration ;  but  there  is  not  a  Seward,  Weed, 
or  J'Jair  man  among  them.  How  are  these  men," 
iked,  "  to  be  of  service  to  you  in  any  way  ? 
are  a  millstone  about  your  neck.    You 
drop  them  and  they  are  politically  ended  for- 
.    Conservatives   and    traitors   are  buried 
her.  For  Cod's  sake  do  not  exhume  their 
remains    in    your    message.    They  will    smell 
3   Chandler  to  Lincoln,  Nov.  15,  1863.    MS. 
2  Lincoln  to  Chandler,  Nov.   20,  1863.    MS. 
worse  than  Lazarus  after  he  had  been  buried 
three  days."  *  There  was  no  man  slower  than 
Mr.  Lincoln  to  take  personal  offense  at  even 
the  most  indiscreet  advice  or  censure  ;  but  he 
answered  this  letter  of  Mr.  Chandler  in  a  tone 
of  unusual  dignity  and  severity.  "  I  have  seen," 
he  said,  "Governor  Morgan  and  Thurlow 
Weed  separately,  but  not  together,  within  the 
last  ten  days ;  but  neither  of  them  mentioned 
the  forthcoming  message,  or  said  anything,  so 
far  as  I  can  remember,  which  brought  the 
thought  of  the  message  to  my  mind.  I  am  very 
glad  the  elections  this  autumn  have  gone  favor- 
ably and  that  I  have  not  by  native  depravity, 
or  under  evil  influences,  done  anything  bad 
enough  to  prevent  the  good  result.  I  hope  to 
'stand  firm'  enough  to  not  go  backward,  and 
yet  not  go  forward  fast  enough  to  wreck  the 
country's  cause."  2 
In  the  month  of  October  Mr.  Hood,  the 
postmaster  at  Chattanooga,  wrote  to  the  Presi- 
dent a  letter  setting  forth  the  particulars  of  a 
scheme  which  Emerson  Etheridge,  Clerk  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  had  entered  into 
to  give  control  of  the  next  House  to  the  oppo- 
sition. Etheridge  was  a  member  of  Congress 
from  Tennessee  before  the  war,  and  his  sincere 
attachment  to  the  Union  in  the  face  of  much 
obloquy  and  persecution  at  home  had  endeared 
him  to  the  Republicans  in  Congress  and  caused 
him  to  be  given  the  post  of  Clerk  of  the  House; 
but  in  the  course  of  two  years  of  war  he  had 
become  separated  from  his  former  political 
affiliations  and  now  sympathized  with  the 
opposition.  Mr.  Hood,  who  wrote  apparently 
with  great  regret  as  a  personal  friend  of  Ether- 
idge, claimed  to  have  become  aware  of  Ether- 
idge's  intention  to  leave  off  the  rolls  of  the 
House  the  names  of  all  members  whose  certifi- 
cates did  not  bear  on  their  face  the  statement 
that  they  had  been  elected  "  according  to  the 
laws  of  the  State  or  of  the  United  States."  He 
based  this  action  upon  the  provisions  of  a  law 
which  had  been  hurriedly  passed  during  the 
last  day  of  the  Thirty-seventh  Congress.  At 
the  same  time  it  was  understood  that  he  had 
intimated  to  the  Democratic  members  what 
his  action  would  be,  so  as  to  allow  them  to 
provide  themselves  with  certificates  in  the  form 
required.  The  President,  on  the  receipt  of  this 
news,  put  himself  confidentially  in  communica- 
tion with  leading  Republicans  in  all  the  loyal 
States,  requesting  them,  without  publicity,  to 
have  prepared  duplicate  certificates  meeting 
the  objection  which  it  was  thought  that  Ether- 
idge would  raise  to  the  ordinary  ones.  This 
was  in  most  cases  attended  to,  but  not  in  all, 
so  that  when  the  members  began  to  arrive  in 
Washington  a  few  days  before  the  day  fixed 
for  the  opening  of  Congress,  a  general  impres- 
sion of  the  contemplated  action  of  Etheridge
THE   DEFEAT  OF    77/E   PEACE    PATTY. 
had  transpired  and  there  was  some  uneasiness 
in  regard  to  the  issue.  The  President  had  done 
what  he  could  to  meet  the  legal  requirements 
of  the  case;  but,  that  having  been  done,  he 
was  not  inclined  to  rely  exclusively  upon  moral 
force.  In  view  of  the  threatened  outrage  he 
sent  for  some  of  the  leading  members  of  Con- 
gress and  told  them  the  main  thing  was  to  be 
sure  that  all  the  Union  members  should  be 
present.  "  Then,"  he  said,  "  if  Mr.  Etheridge 
undertakes  revolutionary  proceedings,  let  him 
be  carried  out  on  a  chip,  and  let  our  men 
organize  the  House."1  This  practical  solution 
of  the  trouble  had  occurred  to  others,  and  the 
Rev.  Owen  Lovejoy,  disregarding  for  a  moment 
the  etiquette  of  his  sacred  calling,  announced 
that  he  was  quite  ready  himself  to  take  charge 
of  Etheridge,  and  was  confident  of  his  muscular 
superiority  to  the  Tennesseean. 
There  was  not  so  much  uncertainty  in  re- 
gard to  the  issue  as  to  prevent  an  animated 
contest  among  the  Republicans  for  the  caucus 
nomination  for  the  speakership.  The  promi- 
nent candidates  were  Mr.  Schuyler  Colfax  of 
Indiana  and  Mr.  Elihu  B.  Washburne  of  Illi- 
nois. Mr.  Cox  of  Ohio  was  the  principal  can- 
didate for  the  barren  honor  of  the  caucus 
nomination  among  the  Democrats;  though  for 
some  time  before  the  meeting  of  Congress  there 
was  a  good  deal  of  not  very  practical  talk  in 
regard  to  the  nomination  of  General  Frank  P. 
Blair  of  Missouri  as  a  compromise  candidate 
to  be  supported  by  the  Democrats  and  by  a 
few  of  the  so-called  Conservative  Republicans. 
General  Blair,  while  one  of  the  earliest  and 
ablest  Republicans  of  the  border  States,  one 
who  had  distinguished  himself  equally  in  poli- 
tics and  in  the  field  in  the  cause  of  freedom 
and  of  progress,  had,  through  the  vehemence 
of  the  factional  fight  which  had  so  long  been 
raging  in  Missouri,  been  gradually  forced, 
partly  by  the  denunciations  of  his  enemies, 
and  partly  by  his  own  combative  instincts,  into 
an  attitude  almost  of  hostility  to  the  Republi- 
can party  of  the  nation.  Mr.  Lincoln  saw  this 
with  great  regret.  He  had  a  high  personal  re- 
gard for  Blair,  and  deplored  the  predicament 
into  which  his  passionate  temper  and  the  as- 
saults of  his  enemies  were  gradually  crowding 
him.  In  the  autumn  of  1863  the  Postmaster- 
General,  in  conversation  with  the  President, 
said  that  his  brother  Frank  would  be  guided 
by  the  President's  wishes  as  to  whether  he 
should  continue  with  his  command  in  the  field 
or  take  the  seat  in  Congress  to  which  he  had 
been  elected  from  Missouri.  The  President 
answered  in  a  letter,  dated  2d  of  November, 
saying : 
Some  days  ago  I  understood  you  to  say  that  your 
brother,  General  Frank  Blair,  desired  to  be  guided 
by  my  wishes  as  to  whether  he  will  occupy  his  seat 
in  Congress  or  remain  in  the  field.  My  wish,  then, 
is  compounded  of  what  I  believe  will  be  best  for  the 
country  and  best  for  him  ;  and  it  is  that  he  will 
come  here,  put  his  military  commis. ion  in  my  hands, 
take  his  seat,  go  into  caucus  with  our  frienls,  abide 
the  nominations,  help  elect  the  nominees,  and  thus 
aid  to  organize  a  House  of  Representatives  which 
will  really  support  the  Government  in  the  war.  If  the 
result  shall  be  the  election  of  himself  as  Speaker,  let 
him  serve  in  that  position.  If  not,  let  him  retake 
his  commission  and  return  to  the  army.  For  the 
country  this  will  heal  a  dangerous  schism  ;  for  him 
it  will  relieve  from  a  dangerous  position.  By  a  mis- 
understanding, as  I  think,  he  is  in  danger  of  be- 
ing permanently  separated  from  thos<;  with  whom 
only  he  can  ever  have  a  real  sympathy — the  sin- 
cere opponents  of  slavery.  It  will  be  a  mistake  if 
he  shall  allow  the  provocations  offered  him  by  in- 
sincere time-servers  to  drive  him  from  the  house  of 
his  own  building.  He  is  young  yet.  He  has  abun- 
dant talent — quite  enough  to  occupy  all  his  time 
without  devoting  any  to  temper.  He  is  rising  in 
military  skill  and  usefulness.  His  recent  appoint- 
ment to  the  command  of  a  corps,  by  one  so  compe- 
tent to  judge  as  General  Sherman,  proves  this.  In 
that  line  he  can  serve  both  the  country  and  himself 
more  profitably  than  he  could  as  a  member  of  Con- 
gress upon  the  floor.  The  foregoing  is  what  I  would 
say  if  Frank  Blair  were  my  brother  instead  of  yours.2 
In  pursuance  of  this  letter  Blair  came  to 
Washington,  though  before  Congress  assem- 
bled his  candidacy  for  the  speakership  had 
passed  out  of  sight.  He  took  his  seat,  served 
for  some  months,  and  went  back  to  the  army 
in  command  of  a  corps,  as  the  President  had 
promised.  This  relinquishment  of  and  resto- 
ration to  a  high  command  in  the  army  occa- 
sioned much  feeling  and  a  violent  attack  upon 
the  President  on  the  part  of  the  Radical  Re- 
publicans, which  continued  even  after  he  had 
submitted  in  a  message  to  Congress  the  en- 
tire correspondence,  which  reflected  nothing 
but  credit  upon  all  parties. 
The  canvass  for  Speaker  closed  on  Saturday 
night,  the  5th  of  December,  Washburne  with- 
drawing from  the  field,  and  Colfax  being  nom- 
inated by  acclamation.  All  the  next  day  there 
was  great  excitement  at  the  hotels  frequented 
by  politicians  in  regard  to  Etheridge's  pro- 
posed course  of  action,  which  was  now  no 
longer  a  secret  to  any  one.  The  comments  he 
everywhere  heard  upon  his  conduct  had  its 
effect  upon  his  nerves,  and  he  began  to  talk  in  a 
complaining  and  apologetic  tone,  saying  he 
was  simply  obeying  the  law  and  there  was  no 
reason  why  Republicans  should  regard  him 
vindictively.  The  next  day,  when  the  House 
opened,  while  he  did  not  flinch  from  the  po- 
sition he  had  occupied,  he  did  nothing  arbi- 
trary or  revolutionary.  He  left  oft"  the  roll  the 
names  of  all  those  members  whose  certificates 
were  not,  in  his  opinion,  in  due  form,  but  readily 
1  J.  G.  N.,  MS.  Memoranda. 
a  MS.
i4S 
THE    WESTERN  SOLDIER. 
entertained  a  motion  to  restore  them.  This 
met  with  a  hot  protest  from  some  of  the  pro- 
slavery  members,  but  a  vote  was  taken  show- 
ing a  majority  of  twenty  for  the  Government. 
Mr.  Washburne  nominated  Mr.  Colfax,  and  he 
was  elected  by  the  same  majority  in  a  total 
vote  of  1S1,  the  Democratic  vote  being  scat- 
tered among  many  members,  Mr.  Cox  receiv- 
ing more  than  any  other. 
As  soon  as  Congress  came  together  Mr. 
Fernando  Wood  renewed  his  furtive  overtures 
with  the  Government  for  the  appointment  of 
peace  commissioners  from  what  he  called  his 
wing  of  the  Democratic  party,  making  no 
secret  of  his  belief  that  he  himself  was  the 
most  appropriate  choice  which  could  be  made 
for  such  a  function.  He  urged  the  President 
to  publish  some  sort  of  amnesty  for  the  North- 
ern sympathizers  with  the  rebellion  which 
would  include  Mr.  Vallandigham  and  permit 
him  to  return  to  the  country.  He  promised 
that  in  that  case  there  should  be  two  Demo- 
cratic candidates  in  the  field  at  the  next  Pres- 
idential election.  The  President  declined  his 
proposition,  but  he  would  not  take  no  for  an 
answer.  He  called  again  on  the  morning  of 
the  14th  of  December  and  the  President  re- 
fused to  see  him,  merely  sending  word  by  a 
servant  that  he  had  nothing  further  to  say  to 
him.1  Later  in  the  day  Mr.  Wood  offered,  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  a  resolution 
"  that  the  President  be  requested  to  appoint 
three  commissioners,  who  shall  be  empowered 
to  open  negotiations  with  the  authorities  at 
1  J.  G.  N..  MS.  Memoranda. 
Richmond  to  the  end  that  this  bloody,  destruc- 
tive, and  inhuman  war  shall  cease,  and  the 
Union  be  restored  upon  terms  of  equity,  fra- 
ternity, and  equality  under  the  Constitution." 
This  resolution  was  laid  upon  the  table  by  a 
party  vote,  and  Mr.  Green  Clay  Smith  of 
Kentucky  offered  resolutions  opposing  "  any 
armistice,  or  intervention,  or  mediation,  or 
proposition  for  peace  from  any  quarter  so  long 
as  there  shall  be  found  a  rebel  in  arms  against 
the  Government ;  and  we  ignore,"  the  reso- 
lutions continued,  "  all  party  names,  lines,  and 
issues,  and  recognize  but  two  parties  in  this 
war — patriots  and  traitors."  Second:  "That 
we  hold  it  to  be  the  duty  of  Congress  to  pass 
all  necessary  bills  to  supply  men  and  money, 
and  the  duty  of  the  people  to  render  every 
aid  in  their  power  to  the  constituted  author- 
ities of  the  Government  in  the  crushing  out  of 
the  rebellion  and  in  bringing  the  leaders  there- 
of to  condign  punishment."  The  third  resolu- 
tion tendered  the  thanks  of  Congress  to  the 
soldiers  in  the  field.  The  first  resolution  was 
passed  by  a  party  vote  of  ninety-three  to  sixty- 
five  ;  the  second  and  third  were  passed  unani- 
mously, with  the  exception  of  Mr.  B.  G. 
Harris  of  Maryland.  Several  times  during  the 
session  this  battle  of  resolutions  was  renewed, 
but  always  with  the  same  result ;  the  Demo- 
cratic party  constantly  favoring  negotiations 
for  peace  while  as  constantly  declaring  their 
devotion  to  the  Union,  and  the  Republicans 
repudiating  every  suggestion  of  negotiation  or 
compromise  so  long  as  the  enemies  of  the 
Republic  bore  arms  against  it. 
iM-[     ITT 
THE    WESTERN    SOLDIER. 
HEN  General  Sher- 
man said  to  General 
Grant,  "Your  belief  in 
victory  I  can  compare 
to  nothing  but  the  faith 
of  the  Christian  in  the 
Saviour,"  he  specified 
one  of  the  leading  characteristics  of  the  typical 
Western  soldier.  At  no  time,  from  Sumter  to 
Appomattox,  did  that  devoted  servant  of  the 
demands  of  courage  and  fortitude  doubt  the 
success  of  the  Union  cause.  It  was  a  part  of 
his  temperament,  of  his  philosophy,  to  look  for 
triumph.  Not  that  he  was  simply  a  good- 
humored  optimist,  unregardful  of  adverse  con- 
ditions, nor  yet  a  victim  of  blind  superstition, 
political  or  theological,  but  that  heredity  and 
experience  had  equipped  him  with  a  sense  of 
confidence  in  himself,  in  his  country,  and  in 
the  force  called  fortune  that  was  alike  heroic 
and  logical.  He  came  of  a  stock  that  had 
conquered  the  frontier  wilderness  through  a 
long  and  hard  discipline  of  toil,  vigilance,  and 
sacrifice,  and  in  so  doing  had  exalted  self-re- 
liance as  the  first  of  virtues.  His  idea  of  duty 
had  its  root  in  a  deep  growth  of  previous  en- 
durance, which  was  also  a  present  possession 
of  honor  and  practical  advantage.  The  past 
appealed  to  him  at  a  short  distance  and  in 
voices  that  were  personally  familiar;  the  Union 
meant  to  him  a  tangible  daily  blessing,  pur- 
chased for  him  by  the  direct  efforts  of  his  father 
and  grandfather  in  the  founding  of  new  States ; 
and  he  scorned  to  think  for  a  moment  that  he 
could  not  repeat  such  service  with  similar  re- 
sults upon  the  field  of  battle. 
In  the  beginning,  to  be  sure,  he  misjudged 
the  proportions  of  the  undertaking ;  but  when 
the  whole  truth  was  made  plain  to  him  it  only 
served  to  emphasize  his  loyalty  and  confirm
CAN  THE  EMPEROR  FORGET? 
RUMBLE  of  drums  in  the  flashing  and  crashing  of  battle, 
Rushing  of  horses,  with  foam  upon  nostrils  and  flanks; 
Clashing  of  bayonets,  striking  of  swords,  and  the  rattle 
Of  wrath  in  the  standing,  of  death  in  the  fast-falling  ranks. 
Trample  the  blood  in  the  turf  till  the  earth  is  afire, 
Burning  in  gore :  be  it  English  or  French,  it  is  blood. 
Profligate  waste  of  it,  spendthrift  contempt  of  it !  Dire 
The  flow  of  it,  thus  making  crimson  the  Waterloo  mud  ! 
"  Death  to  the  enemy !  V  Children  may  suffer  and  languish ; 
Wives  may  speak  softly  of  one  who  is  baring  his  heart. 
"  Death  to  the  enemy  !  Forward  !  "  No  thought  of  the  anguish 
Of  wounds,  with  the  cannon-wheels  pressing  their  red  sides  apart. 
What  of  the  Emperor  ?  Austerlitz,  Jena,  Marengo  ? 
Can  he  foresee  that  the  conquering  eagle  must  fall, 
Beating  his  wings  on  the  traitor  wind  ?  Forward  the  men  go  — 
"  Viva  Napoleon!  Death  to  the  enemy,  all!  " 
Falling  like  rain  come  the  bullets,  and  falling  like  flowers 
Drop  the  French  musketry,  rising  no  more  from  the  plain. 
See  the  firm  brow  of  Napoleon  :  massive  it  lowers. 
Shout  for  his  victory  !  Never,  ah,  never  again ! 
Back  from  the  mud  that  is  crimson,  and  back  from  the  corses 
That  lie  by  the  cannon  with  eyes  that  can  stare  at  the  sun 
Without  shrinking.    "  Awake  !  They  are  leaving  you,  dumb-gazing  forces  !  " 
Aye,  shout  in  their  ears,  but  they  move  not.   Their  battle  is  done. 
Done.  And  the  Emperor  ?  Exiled.  Napoleon  defeated  ? 
He  who  has  conquered  the  world  ?  Say  that  rather  the  sun 
Fell  from  his  course  and  was  chained  by  the  earth.  Fate  has  meted 
His  portion.    March  back  what  is  left  of  you,  soldiers  !  'T  is  done. 
Far  in  that  isle  he  is  ceaselessly  walking  his  prison, 
As  a  lion  his  cage,  who  is  thinking  of  night-dews  that  wet 
His  mane,  and  the  servient  sun  that  to  dry  it  had  risen. 
Monarch  then,  prisoner  now.    Can  the  lion  forget  ? 
Hark  to  the  guns,  that  are  greeting  with  long  detonation 
Him  who  is  back  from  the  stranger ;  is  home  again  —  home  ! 
"  Vive  l'Empereur  !  "  Hush  !  What  mean  you,  fool  ?  This  coronation 
Is  dust  crowned  with  dust,  and  the  sky  is  the  Invalides'  dome. 
"  Vive  l'Empereur !  "  Will  they  cease  in  their  idiot  babble  ? 
Never  more  "  Vive  l'Empereur !  "  Men,  he  lies  on  his  shield, 
Broad-browed  and  yellow.  Those  hands  are  so  white ;  did  they  dabble 
In  men's  blood  ?  And  hold, —  did  those  thin  lips  cry  "  Fire!  "  on  the  field  ? 
Hark  to  the  resonant  guns  !    Remember,  my  brothers, 
Thundering  Waterloo's  cannon  and  bright  bayonets  ! 
Oh,  how  they  rattled  !  To  him  they  were  once  as  a  mother's 
Lullaby.  "  Vive  l'Empereur  !  "    Silence.   Ah,  he  forgets  ! 
Louise  Morgan  Smith, 
277
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN:    A    HISTORY.1 
THE     POMEROY    CIRCULAR  — THE    CLEVELAND    CONVENTION  —  THE 
RESIGNATION    OF    CHASE. 
BY    JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND    JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
THE    POMEROY    CIRCULAR. 
IjEFORE  the  close  of  the  year 
1863  the  public  mind  became 
greatly  preoccupied  with  the 
subject  of  the  next  presidential 
election.  Though  the  general 
drift  of  opinion  was  altogether 
in  favor  of  intrusting  to  Mr.  Lincoln  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  work  which  he  had  thus  far 
so  well  conducted,  this  feeling  was  by  no  means 
unanimous.  It  will  seem  strange  to  future 
students  of  the  events  of  this  time  that  the 
opposition  in  the  Republican  party  to  Mr. 
Lincoln,  whose  name  will  stand  in  history  as 
the  liberator  of  the  slaves,  came  almost  entirely 
from  the  radical  antislavery  element.  The  ori- 
gins of  this  opposition  have  been  so  fully  stated 
in  other  portions  of  this  work,  that  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  set  them  forth  at  any  length  in  this 
place.    They  were  principally  the  action  of  the 
renomination  and  the  impossibility  of  prevent- 
ing it.  Mr.  Chase  alone  had  the  indiscretion 
to  encourage  the  overtures  of  the  malcontents, 
and  the  folly  to  imagine  that  he  could  lead 
them  to  success.  Pure  and  disinterested  as  he 
was,  and  devoted  with  all  his  energies  and 
powers  to  the  cause  of  the  country,  he  was  al- 
ways singularly  ignorant  of  the  current  of  pub- 
lic thought  and  absolutely  incapable  of  judging 
men  in  their  true  relations.  He  was  surrounded 
by  sycophants  who  constantly  assured  him  of 
his  OAvn  strength  with  the  people,  and  who 
convinced  him  at  last  that  all  manifestations 
to  the  contrary  were  the  result  of  mystifications 
set  on  foot  by  his  enemies.  He  regarded  him- 
self as  the  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln;  to  him  and 
to  others  he  made  strong  protestations  of 
friendly  feeling,  which  he  undoubtedly  thought 
were  sincere ;  but  he  held  so  poor  an  opinion 
of  the  President's  intellect  and  character  in 
comparison  with  his  own,  that  he  could  not 
President  in  regard  to  the  administration  of    believe  the  people  so  blind  as  deliberately  to 
affairs  in  Missouri ;  the  conflict  between  Gen 
eral  Fremont  and  the  Missouri  conservatives, 
and  between  General  Schofield  and  the  Mis- 
souri radicals;  the  retention  in  command  of 
various  generals,  who,  from  the  radical  point  of 
view,  had  "  no  heart  in  the  cause  " ;  the  delib- 
eration with  which  the  great  antislavery  acts  of 
the  President  were  performed;  and,  in  general, 
the  dissatisfaction  with  the  slow  progress  of 
the  war,  of  eager  and  ardent  spirits  imper- 
fectly informed  as  to  the  processes  of  the 
( jovernment  and  the  facts  of  the  situation.  At 
the  end  of  the  year  1863  and  the  beginning  of 
the  following  year  all  these  elements  of  discord 
were  seeking  a  rallying-point.  This  it  was  not 
to  find.  Every  one  sufficiently  acquainted 
with  practical  politics  to  note  the  drift  of  public 
opinion  saw  the  hopelessness  of  contending 
against  the  popularity  of  the  President.  There 
was  not  a  Republican  general  in  the  field,  of 
sufficient  prominence  to  be  thought  of,  who 
would  give  the  least  encouragement  for  the 
use  of  his  name  against  Mr.  Lincoln.  In  neither 
House  of  Congress  was  there  a  statesman  who 
for  a  moment  would  enter  into  such  a  contest; 
and  in  the  higher  circles  of  the  Administration 
there  was  only  one  man  so  short-sighted  as  not 
to  perceive  the  expediency  of  the  President's 
1  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1886. 
278 
prefer  the  President  to  himself.  In  November, 
1863,  he  wrote  to  his  son-in-law,  Governor 
Sprague  :  "  If  I  were  controlled  by  merely  per- 
sonal sentiments,  I  should  prefer  the  reelection 
of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  that  of  any  other  man ;  but 
I  doubt  the  expediency  of  reelecting  anybody, 
and  I  think  a  man  of  different  qualities  from 
those  the  President  has  will  be  needed  for  the 
next  four  years."  Of  course,  he  adds,  "  I  am 
not  anxious  to  be  regarded  as  that  man ;  and 
I  am  quite  willing  to  leave  that  question  to 
the  decision  of  those  who  agree  in  thinking 
that  some  such  man  should  be  chosen."  To 
another  he  wrote  early  in  December  :  "  I  have 
not  the  slightest  wish  to  press  any  claims  upon 
the  consideration  of  friends  or  the  public. 
There  is  certainly  a  purpose,  however,  to  use 
my  name,  and  I  do  not  feel  bound  to  object 
to  it."  2  He  never  admitted  to  himself  that  he 
had  any  personal  desire  for  the  place,  and  in 
this  letter  he  continued :  "  Were  the  post  in 
which  these  friends  desire  to  place  me  as  low 
as  it  is  high,  I  should  feel  bound  to  render  in 
it  all  the  service  possible  to  our  common  coun- 
try." Yet  he  always  felt  that  he  could  render 
better  service  in  the  higher  places  than  in  the 
lower,  and  when  it  was  once  in  contemplation 
2  Chase  to  Spencer,  Dec.  4,  1863. 
All  rights  reserved.
THE  POME  ROY  CIRCULAR 
to  offer  him  a  seat  on  the  Supreme  Bench  he 
distinctly  intimated  he  would  accept  no  place 
there  but  that  of  Chief-Justice.  There  never 
was  a  man  who  found  it  so  easy  to  delude 
himself.  He  believed  that  he  was  indifferent 
to  advancement  and  anxious  only  for  the  pub- 
lic good;  yet  in  the  midst  of  his  enormous 
labors  he  found  time  to  write  interminable  let- 
ters to  every  part  of  the  country,  all  protesting 
his  indifference  to  the  Presidency  but  indicat- 
ing his  willingness  to  accept  it,  and  painting 
pictures  so  dark  of  the  chaotic  state  of  affairs 
among  his  colleagues  that  the  irresistible  infer- 
ence was  that  only  he  could  save  the  country. 
For  instance,  he  wrote  to  the  editor  of  a  relig- 
ious newspaper,  saying : 
Had  there  been  here  an  Administration  in  the 
true  sense  of  the  word  —  a  President  conferring 
with  hi--  Cabinet  and  taking  their  united  judgments, 
and  with  their  aid  enforcing  activity,  economy,  and 
energy  in  all  departments  of  public  service  —  we 
could  have  spoken  boldly  and  defied  the  world. 
But  our  condition  here  has  always  been  very  differ- 
ent. I  preside  over  the  funnel  ;  everybody  else,  and 
especially  the  Secretaries  of  War  and  the  Navy,  over 
the  spigots  —  and  keep  them  well  open,  too.  Mr. 
Seward  conducts  the  foreign  relations  with  very 
little  let  or  help  from  anybody.  There  is  no  unity 
and  no  system,  except  so  far  as  it  is  departmental. 
There  is  progress,  but  it  is  slow  and  involuntary  ; 
just  what  is  coerced  by  the  irresistible  pressure  of 
the  vast  force  of  the  people.  How,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, can  anybody  announce  a  policy  which 
can  only  be  made  respectable  by  union,  wisdom, 
and  courage  ?! 
A  few  days  later  he  wrote  to  another : 
The  Administration  cannot  be  continued  as  it  is. 
There  is,  in  fact,  no  Administration,  properly  speak- 
ing. There  are  departments  and  there  is  a  President. 
The  latter  leaves  administration  substantially  to  the 
heads  of  the  former,  deciding  himself  comparatively 
few  questions.  These  heads  act  with  almost  abso- 
lute independence  of  each  other.2 
He  could  not  bring  himself  to  feel  that  the 
universal  demonstrations  in  favor  of  the  reelec- 
tion of  Mr.  Lincoln  were  genuine.  He  re- 
garded himself  all  the  while  as  the  serious 
candidate,  and  the  opposition  to  him  as  knav- 
ish and  insincere.  To  one  of  his  adherents  he 
wrote : 
It  is  impossible  to  reform  and  investigate  without 
stirring  up  slanderers  and  revilers,  both  among 
those  whose  wrong-doings  are  exposed  and  unright- 
eous profits  taken  away,  and  among  those,  too,  who 
think  they  see  a  good  chance  to  take  advantage  of 
clamor  to  the  injury  of  a  public  man,  who,  they 
fear,  stands  too  well  with  the  people.3 
To  another  adherent  in  Ohio  he  WTOte  : 
I  cannot  help  being  gratified  by  the  preference 
expressed  for  me  in  some  quarters,  for  tho  e  who 
express  it  are  generally  men  of  gt  I,  and 
high  character,  and  independent  judgment.  .  .  . 
They  think  there  will  be  a  change  in  the  current, 
which,  so  far  as  it  is  not  spontaneous,  is  chiefly 
managed  by  the  Blairs.4 
He  said  that  he  should  be  glad  to  have 
Ohio  decidedly  on  his  side,  and  that  if  Ohio 
should  express  a  preference  for  any  other  per- 
son he  would  not  allow  his  name  to  be  used. 
This  was  quite  an  unnecessary  engagement,  as 
no  candidate  could  possibly  be  nominated 
without  the  support  of  his  own  State. 
Indifferent  as  he  claimed  to  be  in  regard  to 
his  personal  prospects,  he  yet  wrote  on  the  6th 
of  February5  promising  to  try  to  find  a  place 
for  a  man  recommended  by  the  editor  of  the 
"  Evening  Post,"  and  complaining  with  some 
bitterness  that  that  paper  had  not  uttered  a  kind 
word  in  reference  to  him  for  some  months 
past.  There  was,  in  fact,  no  limit  to  these 
overtures  of  the  Secretary  in  every  direction 
which  he  thought  might  be  serviceable  to  him. 
A  few  days  after  the  death  of  Archbishop 
Hughes,  we  find  him  writing  to  Archbishop 
Purcell  of  Cincinnati,  reporting  the  efforts  which 
he  is  making  in  every  quarter  to  have  the 
Western  prelate  appointed  the  successor  of  the 
dead  archbishop.6  On  the  18th  of  January  he 
wrote  to  a  friend  of  his  in  Toledo,  Ohio,  Mr. 
James  C.  Hall,  formally  announcing  his  candi- 
dacy for  the  Presidency.  He  told  him  that  a 
committee  of  prominent  senators,  representa- 
tives, and  citizens  had  been  organized  to  pro- 
mote his  election ;  that  a  sub-committee  had 
conferred  with  him,  and  he  had  consented  to 
their  wishes.     He  then  went  on  to  say : 
If  1  know  my  own  heart,  I  desire  nothing  so  much 
as  the  suppression  of  this  rebellion  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  union,  order,  and  prosperity  on  sure 
and  safe  foundations;  and  I  should  despise  myself 
if  I  felt  capable  of  allowing  any  personal  objects  to 
influence  me  to  any  action  which  would  affect,  by 
one  jot  or  tittle,  injuriously,  the  accomplishment  of 
those  objects.  And  it  is  a  source  of  real  gratification 
to  believe  that  those  who  desire  my  nomination 
desire  it  on  public  grounds  alone,  and  will  not 
hesitate  in  any  matter  which  may  concern  me  to 
act  upon  such  grounds  and  on  such  grounds  only. 
He  added  that  he  desired  the  support  of 
Ohio,  and  that  if  he  did  not  receive  it  he  would 
cheerfully  acquiesce. 
All  through  the  winter  this  quasi-candidacy 
continued.  It  seemed  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  the  Secretarv  and  his  few  adherents,  though 
1  Chase  to  the  Rev.  J.  Leavitt,  Jan.  24,  1864.  War- 
den, "  Life  of  S.  P.  Chase,"  p.  562. 
2  Chase  to  Dickson,  Jan.  27,  1864.    Ibid.,  p.  564. 
3  Chase  to  Gilbert,  Jan.  30,  1864.    Ibid.,  p.  567. 
4  Chase   to  Flamen   Ball,  Feb.    2.  1S64.    Warden, 
"  Life  of  S.  P.  Chase,"  p.  570. 
5  Chase  to  Bailer.     Ibid.,  p.  571. 
6  Chase  to  Purcell,   Feb.  1,  1S64.    Ibid.,  p.  568.
28o 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
it  really  formed  an  imperceptible  eddy  beside 
the  vast  current  in  which  the  will  of  the  people 
was  sweeping  forward  to  its  purpose.  Being 
confined  exclusively  to  politicians,  it  had,  of 
course,  its  principal  manifestation  in  the  city 
ot  Washington.  It  played  its  little  part  in  the 
election  of  Speaker  oi  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives. An  attempt  was  made  to  identify  Mr. 
Colfax,  the  most  popular  candidate  for  that 
_.  with  the  adherents  of  Mr.  Chase;  but 
upon  hearing  of  this  he  at  once  sought  an 
audience  with  the  President  and  positively  re- 
pudiated any  such  connection.  When  Congress 
had  organized,  the  message  of  the  President 
w  as  received  with  an  enthusiasm  which  for  the 
moment  swept  out  of  sight  every  trace  of  oppos- 
ing opinion.  From  that  moment  there  was  no 
further  question  in  regard  to  the  Republican 
nomination. 
There  was  at  one  time  an  effort  on  the  part  of 
some  of  the  leading  spirits  in  the  Union  League, 
a  secret  Republican  organization  which  had 
been  very  zealous  and  effective  in  political  work 
throughout  the  Union,  to  commit  it  to  some 
measure  hostile  to  Mr.  Lincoln.  This  had 
alarmed  even  so  experienced  and  astute  an 
observer  as  Thurlow  Weed,  who  sent  to  Mr. 
Seward  in  the  autumn  of  1863  a  warning  that 
"  loyal  leagues,  into  which  Odd  Fellows  and 
Know  Nothings  rush,  are  fixing  to  control 
delegate  appointments  for  Mr.  Chase."  *  Mr. 
Seward  accepted  this  warning  somewhat  too 
readily,  induced  by  his  inveterate  anti-masonic 
prejudices ;  these  fears  had  no  substantial 
foundation.  Some  of  the  leaders  of  the  League, 
sympathizing  strongly  with  the  radicals  of 
Missouri,  had  indeed  from  time  to  time  made 
efforts  to  commit  the  order  against  the  Presi- 
dent; but  such  attempts  failed  there,  as  else- 
where, on  account  of  the  overwhelming  tide 
of  contrary  opinion,  and  when  the  principal 
chapter  of  the  order  met  in  Washington  on  the 
10th  of  December,  they  elected  a  list  of  officers 
who  were  almost  all  either  friends  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln or  men  of  sufficient  sagacity  not  to  oppose 
him. 
From  the  beginning  Mr.  Lincoln  had  been 
fully  aware  of  Mr.  Chase's  candidacy  and  of 
even  thing  that  was  done  for  its  promotion.  It 
was  impossible  for  him  to  remain  unconscious 
of  it;  and  although  he  discouraged  all  conver- 
sation on  the  subject  and  refused  to  read  letters 
relating  to  it.  he  could  not  entirely  shut  the  mat- 
ter out  from  his  cognizance.  He  had  his  own 
opinion  of  the  taste  and  judgment  displayed 
by  Mr.  Chase  in  his  criticisms  of  himself  and 
of  his  colleagues  in  the  Cabinet;  but  he  took 
no  notice  of  them. 
I  have  determined  [he  said]  to  shut  my  eyes,  so 
far  as  possible,  to  everything  of  the  sort.    Mr.  Chase 
1  MS. 
makes  a  good  Secretary,  and  I  shall  keep  him  where 
he  is.  If  he  becomes  President,  all  right.  I  hope 
we  may  never  have  a  worse  man.  I  have  observed 
with  regret  his  plan  of  strengthening  himself. 
Whenever  he  sees  that  an  important  matter  is 
troubling  me,  if  I  am  compelled  to  decide  in  a  way 
to  give  offense  to  a  man  of  some  influence,  he  al- 
ways ranges  himself  in  opposition  to  me  and  per- 
suades the  victim  that  he  has  been  hardly  dealt 
with,  and  that  he  would  have  arranged  it  very  dif- 
ferently. It  was  so  with  General  Fremont,  with 
General  Hunter  when  I  annulled  his  hasty  procla- 
mation, with  General  Butler  when  he  was  recalled 
from  New  Orleans,  with  these  Missouri  people  when 
they  called  the  other  day.  I  am  entirely  indifferent 
as  to  his  success  or  failure  in  these'schemes  so  long 
as  he  does  his  duty  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury 
Department.2 
When  Rosecrans  was  removed  from  the 
command  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland, 
Mr.  Chase  pursued  the  same  course.  His 
spiteful  comments  on  that  act  were  reported 
to  the  President,  who  simply  laughed  at  the 
zealous  friend  who  brought  him  the  news. 
When  told  that  such  tactics  might  give  Mr. 
Chase  the  nomination,  he  said  he  hoped  the 
country  would  never  do  worse.  He  regretted, 
however,  that  the  thing  had  begun,  because  al- 
though it  did  not  annoy  him,  his  friends  thought 
it  ought  to.  He  went  on  appointing  by  the  dozen 
Mr.  Clrase's  partisans  and  adherents  to  places 
in  the  Government.  He  knew  perfectly  what 
he  was  doing,  and  allowed  himself  the  luxury 
of  a  quiet  smile  as  he  signed  their  commissions. 
He  heard  more  of  such  gossip  than  was  amus- 
ing or  agreeable  to  him.  He  said  on  one  oc- 
casion, "  I  wish  they  would  stop  thrusting  that 
subject  of  the  Presidency  into  my  face.  I  do 
not  want  to  hear  anything  about  it." 
Of  course  one  reason  for  the  magnanimity 
with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  endured  this  rivalry  of 
his  able  and  ambitious  minister  of  finance  was 
his  consciousness  of  the  inequality  of  the  match 
between  them.  Although  his  renomination  was 
a  matter  in  regard  to  which  he  refused  to  con- 
verse much,  even  with  intimate  friends,  he  was 
perfectly  aware  of  the  drift  of  things.  In  capac- 
ity of  appreciating  popular  currents  and  in 
judgment  of  individual  character  Mr.  Chase 
was  as  a  child  beside  him;  and  he  allowed 
the  opposition  to  himself  in  his  own  Cabinet  to 
continue,  without  question  or  remark,  with  all 
the  more  patience  and  forbearance  because  he 
knew  how  feeble  it  was. 
The  movement  in  favor  of  Mr.  Chase  cul- 
minated in  the  month  of  February  in  a  secret 
circular  signed  by  Senator  Pomeroy  of  Kansas, 
and  widely  circulated  through  the  Union.  It 
is  admitted  by  Mr.  Chase's  sincerest  admirers 
that  the  weak  point  of  his  character  was  the 
incapacity  shown  in  his  judgment  of  men  and 
2  J.  H.,  Diary,   Oct.  16,  1863.
THE  POMEROY  CIRCULAR. 
2% 
his  choice  of  intimates;  and  in  no  instance 
was  this  defect  more  glaringly  exhibited  than 
in  the  selection  of  such  a  man  as  Senator  Pom- 
eroy  to  conduct  his  canvass  for  the  Presidency. 
The  two  Kansas  senators,  Lane  and  Pomeroy, 
hated  each  other  intensely,  and  as  long  as  they 
were  in  office  together  wrangled  persistently 
over  the  patronage  of  their  State.  The  Presi- 
dent once  wrote  to  Pomeroy,  after  declining  an 
interview  with  him : 
I  wish  you  and  Lane  would  make  a  sincere  effort 
to  get  out  of  the  mood  you  are  in.  It  does  neither 
of  you  any  good;  it  gives  you  the  means  of  tor- 
menting my  life  out  of  me,  and  nothing  else.1 
Each  thought  the  other  got  the  advantage 
of  him,  each  abused  the  President  roundly 
behind  his  back;  but  Lane,  being  the  more 
subtle  and  adroit  politician  of  the  two,  never 
allowed  himself  to  be  put  in  an  attitude  of  open 
hostility  to  the  Administration.  Pomeroy's 
resentment  drove  him  at  last  into  a  mood  of 
sullen  animosity  towards  the  President,  and  it 
was  under  his  weak  leadership  that  the  elements 
of  opposition  to  Mr.  Lincoln  at  last  came  to- 
gether. As  the  confidential  circular  issued  by 
the  committee  of  which  Pomeroy  was  the 
head  was  the  most  considerable  effort  made 
within  the  Republican  party  to  defeat  the 
renomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  we  give  the 
document,  to  show  upon  how  slender  a  founda- 
tion this  opposition  was  based. 
The  movements  recently  made  throughout  the 
country  to  secure  the  renomination  of  President 
Lincoln  render  necessary  counter-action  on  the 
part  of  those  unconditional  friends  of  the  Union 
who  differ  from  the  policy  of  the  Administration. 
So  long  as  no  efforts  were  made  to  forestall  the 
political  action  of  the  people,  it  was  both  wise  and 
patriotic  for  all  true  friends  of  the  Government  to 
devote  their  influence  to  the  suppression  of  the  re- 
bellion ;  but  when  it  becomes  evident  that  party 
and  the  machinery  of  official  influence  are  "being 
used  to  secure  the  perpetuation  of  the  present  Admin- 
istration, those  who  conscientiously  believe  that  the 
interests  of  the  country  and  of  freedom  demand  a 
change  in  favor  of  vigor  and  purity  and  nationality, 
have  no  choice  but  to  appeal  at  once  to  the  people 
before  it  is  too  late  to  secure  a  fair  discussion  of 
principles. 
Those  in  behalf  of  whom  this  appeal  is  made 
have  thoughtfully  surveyed  the  political  field,  and 
have  arrived  at  the  following  conclusions  :  First, 
that  even  were  the  reelection  of  Mr.  Lincoln  desir- 
able, it  is  practically  impossible  against  the  union  of 
influences  which  will  oppose  him.  Second,  that 
should  hebe  reelected,  his  manifest  tendency  towards 
compromises  and  temporary  expedients  of  policy 
will  become  stronger  during  a  second  term  than  it 
has  been  in  the  first,  and  the  cause  of  human 
liberty,  and  the  dignity  of  the  nation,  suffer  propor- 
tionately, while  the  war  may  continue  to  languish 
1  Lincoln  to  Pomeroy,  May  12,  1864.  MS. 
Vol.  XXXVIII.— 37. 
during  his  whole  Administration,  till  the  public 
debt  shall  become  a  burden  too  great  to  be  borne. 
Third,  that  the  patronage  of  the  Government  thro 
the  necessities  of  the  war  has  been  so  rapidly  in- 
creased, and  to  such  an  enormous  extent,  and  so 
loosely  placed,  as  to  render  the  application  of  the 
one-term  principle  absolutely  essential  to  the  certain 
safety  of  our  republican  institutions,  Fourth,  that 
we  find  united  in  Hon.  Salmon  P.  Chase  more 
of  the  qualities  needed  in  a  President  during  the 
next  four  years  than  are  combined  in  any  other 
available  candidate.  His  record  is  clear  and  unim- 
peachable, showing  him  to  be  a  statesman  of  rat- 
ability and  an  administrator  of  the  highest  order, 
while  his  private  character  furnishes  the  surest 
available  guarantee  of  economy  and  purity  in  the 
management  of  public  affairs.  Fifth,  that  the 
discussion  of  the  Presidential  question,  already  com- 
menced by  the  friends  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  has  d 
oped  a  popularity  and  strength  in  Mr.  Chase  unex- 
pected even  to  his  warmestadmirers;  and  while  we 
are  aware  that  its  strength  is  at  present  unorganized, 
and  in  no  condition  to  manifest  its  real  magnitude, 
we  are  satisfied  that  it  only  needs  a  systematic  and 
faithful  effort  to  develop  it  to  an  extent  sufficient  to 
overcome  all  opposing  obstacles.  For  these  reasons 
the  friends  of  Mr.  Chase  have  determined  on 
measures  which  shall  present  his  claims  fairly  and 
at  once  to  the  country.  A  central  organization  has 
been  effected,  which  already  has  its  connections  in 
all  the  States,  and  the  object  of  which  is  to  enable 
his  friends  everywhere  most  effectually  to  promote 
his  elevation  to  the  Presidency.  We  wish  the  hearty 
cooperation  of  all  those  who  are  in  favor  of  the 
speedy  restoration  of  the  Union  on  the  basis  of  uni- 
versal freedom,  and  who  desire  an  administration  of 
the  Government  during  the  first  period  of  its  new 
life  which  shall  to  the  fullest  extent  develop  the 
capacity  of  free  institutions,  enlarge  the  resources 
of  the  country,  diminish  the  burdens  of  taxation, 
elevate  the  standard  of  public  and  private  morality, 
vindicate  the  honor  of  the  Republic  before  the  world, 
and  in  all  things  make  our  American  nationality  the 
fairest  example  for  imitation  which  human  progress 
has  ever  achieved.  If  these  objects  meet  your  ap- 
proval, you  can  render  efficient  aid  by  exerting 
yourself  at  once  to  organize  your  section  of  the 
country,  and  by  corresponding  with  the  chairman 
of  the  National  Executive  Committee  for  the  pur- 
pose either  of  receiving  or  imparting  information. 
Of  this  circular,  sent  broadcast  over  the 
country,  many  copies  of  course  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  President's  friends,  and  they  soon 
began  to  come  to  the  Executive  Mansion. 
The  President,  who  was  absolutely  without 
curiosity  in  regard  to  attacks  upon  himself,  re- 
fused to  look  at  them,  and  they  accumulated 
unread  in  the  desk  of  his  secretary.  At  last, 
however,  the  circular  got  into  print,  and  it  ap- 
peared in  the  "National  Intelligencer"  of 
Washington  on  the  morning  of  the  2  2d  of  Feb- 
ruary. Mr.  Chase  at  once  wrote  to  the  President 
to  assure  him  that  he  had  no  knowledge  of  the 
existence  of  the  letter  before  seeing  it  in  print. 
He  gave  a  brief  account  of  the  solicitations  oi 
his  friends,  in  compliance  widi  which  he  had
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
consented  to  be  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency, 
adding,  with  his  usual  nobility  of  phrase  : 
I  have  never  wished  that  my  name  should  have 
a  moment's  thought  In  comparison  with  the  com- 
mon cause  of  enfranchisement  and  restoration,  or  be 
continued  before  the  public  a  moment  after  the  in- 
dication of  a  preference  by  the  friends  of  that  cause 
for  another.  I  have  thought  this  explanation  due 
to  you  as  well  as  to  myself.  If  there  is  anything  in 
my  action  or  position  which  in  your  judgment 
will  prejudice  the  public  interests  under  my  charge, 
I  beg  you  to  say  so.  I  do  not  wish  to  administer 
the  Treasury  Department  one  day  without  your  en- 
tire confidence.  For  yourself  I  cherish  sincere  respect 
and  esteem,  and,  permit  me  to  add,  affection.  Dif- 
ferences of  opinion  as  to  administrative  action  have 
not  changed  these  sentiments,  nor  have  they  been 
changed  by  assaults  upon  me  by  persons  who  pro- 
fess themselves  the  special  representatives  of  your 
views  and  policy.  You  are  not  responsible  for  acts 
not  your  own  ;  nor  will  you  hold  me  responsible 
except  for  what  I  do  or  say  myself.  Great  numbers 
now  desire  your  reelection.  Should  their  wishes  be 
fulfilled  by  the  suffrage  of  the  people,  I  hope  to 
carry  with  me  into  private  life  the  sentiments  I  now 
cherish,  whole  and  unimpaired. 
The  President  next  day  acknowledged  the 
receipt  of  this  letter,  and  promised  to  answer  it 
more  fully  when  he  could  find  time  to  do  so. 
The  next  week  he  wrote  at  greater  length : x 
I  would  have  taken  time  to  answer  yours  of  the 
22d  sooner,  only  that  I  did  not  suppose  any  evil  could 
result  from  the  delay,  especially  as,  by  a  note,  I 
promptly  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  yours,  and 
promised  a  fuller  answer.  Now,  on  consideration  I 
find  there  is  really  very  little  to  say.  My  knowl- 
edge of  Mr.  Pomeroy's  letter  having  been  made 
public  came  to  me  only  the  day  you  wrote,  but  I 
had,  in  spite  of  myself,  known  of  its  existence  sev- 
eral days  before.  I  have  not  yet  read  it,  and  I  think 
I  shall  not.  I  was  not  shocked  or  surprised  by  the 
appearance  of  the  letter,  because  I  had  had  knowl- 
edge of  Mr.  Pomeroy's  committee  and  of  secret 
issues  which,  I  supposed,  came  from  it  and  of  secret 
agents  who,  I  supposed,  were  sent  out  by  it,  for 
several  weeks.  I  have  known  just  as  little  of  these 
things  as  my  friends  have  allowed  me  to  know. 
They  bring  the  documents  to  me,  but  I  do  not  read 
them  ;  they  tell  me  what  they  think  fit  to  tell  me, 
but  I  do  not  inquire  for  more.  I  fully  concur  with 
you  that  neither  of  us  can  be  justly  held  responsible 
for  what  our  respective  friends  may  do  without  our 
instigation  or  countenance;  and  I  assure  you,  as  you 
have  assured  me,  that  no  assault  has  been  made 
upon  you  by  my  instigation  or  with  my  counte- 
nance. Whether  you  shall  remain  at  the  head  of  the 
Treasury  Department  is  a  question  which  I  do  not 
allow  mysdf  to  consider  from  any  standpoint  other 
than  myjudgmentof  the  public  service,  and,  in  that 
view,  I  do  not  perceive  occasion  for  a  change.2 
Before  the  President  wrote  this  letter  the 
candidacy  of  Mr.  Chase  had  already  passed 
completely  out  of  sight.  In  fact,  it  never  could 
have  been  said  to  exist  except  in  the  imagination 
of  Mr.  Chase  and  a  narrow  circle  of  adherents. 
He  was  by  no  means  the  choice  even  of  the 
great  body  of  the  radicals  who  were  discon- 
tented with  Mr.  Lincoln.  So  early  as  the  17th 
of  December,  1863,  Mr.  Medill,  the  editor  of 
the  "  Chicago  Tribune,"  who  represented  the 
most  vehement  Republican  sentiment  of  the 
North-west,  wrote: 
I  presume  it  is  true  that  Mr.  Chase's  friends  are 
working  for  his  nomination,  but  it  is  all  lost  labor; 
Old  Abe  has  the  inside  track  so  completely  that  he 
will  be  nominated  by  acclamation  when  the  con- 
vention meets.  .  .  .  The  people  will  say  to  Chase  : 
"  You  stick  to  finance  and  be  content  until  after 
1868";  and  to  Grant,  "Give  the  rebels  no  rest; 
put  them  through  ;  your  reward  will  come  in  due 
time"  ;  but  Uncle  Abe  must  be  allowed  to  boss  the 
reconstruction  of  the  Union. 
And  from  the  opening  of  the  year  1864  the 
feeling  in  favor  of  the  renomination  of  Lincoln 
grew  so  ardent  and  so  restless  that  it  was 
almost  impossible  for  the  most  discreet  of  the 
Republican  leaders  to  hold  the  manifestations 
of  the  popular  preference  in  check.  An  attempt 
was  made  by  the  Treasury  officials  in  Indiana 
to  prevent  the  State  convention  which  met  in 
February  from  declaring  for  Lincoln,  but  it  was 
all  in  vain.  Wherever  any  assembly  of  Repub- 
licans came  together  fresh  from  the  people 
the  only  struggle  was  as  to  who  should  get 
first  on  the  floor  to  demand  the  President's  re- 
nomination.  Mr.  Chase's  principal  hope  was, 
of  course,  founded  upon  the  adhesion  of  his 
friends  in  Ohio;  but  the  result  there,  as  else- 
where, proved  how  blind  he  was  to  the  course 
of  politics.  The  governor  of  the  State  wrote 
to  the  President 3  that  he  was  mortified  to  hear 
that  he  had  been  set  down  as  a  Chase  man. 
The  fact  that  Mr.  Chase  has  been  laboring,  for  the 
past  year  at  least,  with  an  eye  single  to  promoting 
his  own  selfish  purposes,  totally  regardless  of  the 
consequences  to  the  Government,  as  I  believe  has 
been  the  case,  is  alone  sufficient  to  induce  me  to 
oppose  him  ;  but  aside  from  this,  the  policy  inaugu- 
rated under  your  lead  must  be  maintained,  and  it 
would  be  suicidal  to  change  leaders  in  the  midst  of 
the  contest. 
This  is  only  a  specimen  of  dozens  of  letters 
which  came  from  the  leading  men  of  the  State, 
who  had  been  relied  upon  by  Mr.  Chase  to 
promote  his  canvass;  and  finally  the  feeling 
grew  so  strong  in  Ohio  that  although  no  au- 
1  Lincoln  to  Chase,  Feb.  29,  1864.    MS. 
2  After  this  correspondence  had  passed,  Mr.  Pom- 
eroy,  who,  whatever  his  defects  of  character,  did  not 
lack  courage,  rose  in  his  place  in  the  Senate  (March 
10),  reiterated  with  added  energy  his  criticisms  of  the 
President  and  his  eulogy  of  Mr.  Chase,  and  claimed 
that  the  latter  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  circular,  but 
had  been  "  drafted  into  the  service "  without  his 
consent. 
3  Tod  to  Lincoln,  Feb.  24,  1864.
THE    CLEVELAND    CONVENTION. 
thorized  convention  of  Republicans  was  to  prevent  his  renomination  by  the  Republican 
meet  at  that  time,  the  Union  members  of  the  convention  which  was  to  meet  at  Baltimore  in 
legislature  took jthe  matter  in  hand  and  gave,    June.    There  was  no  voice  of  opposition  to 
on  the  25th  of  February,  the  coup  de  grace  to 
the  Secretary's  candidacy.  They  held  a  full 
caucus,  and  nominated  Mr.  Lincoln  for  reelec- 
tion, at  the  demand,  as  they  said,  of  the  people 
and  the  soldiers  of  Ohio.  The  State  of  Rhode 
Island,  which  Mr.  Chase  had  expected  the  per- 
sonal influence  of  his  son-in-law,  Governor 
Spragueyto  secure  for  him,  also  made  haste  to 
range  itself  with  the  other  States  of  the  North ; 
and  as  more  than  a  month  before  the  great 
State  of  Pennsylvania  had  by  the  unanimous 
expression  of  the  Union  members  of  its  legis- 
lature declared  for  Lincoln,  the  Secretary  at 
last  concluded  that  the  contest  was  hopeless, 
and  wrote  another  letter  to  Mr.  Hall,  referring 
him  in  any  organized   Republic  Jbl>v 
except  in  Missouri,  and  even  there  the  large- 
majority  of  radical  Republicans  were  willing 
to  accept  the  universal  verdict  of  their  party ; 
but  there  were  a  few  earnest  spirits  scattered 
throughout  the  country  to  whom  opposition 
to  the  Administration  had  become  the  habit  of 
a  lifetime.  There  were  others  not  so  honest, 
who  had  personal  reasons  for  disliking  the 
President.  To  these  it  was  impossible  to  stand 
quietly  by  and  see  Mr.  Lincoln  made  his 
own  successor  without  one  last  effort  to 
prevent  it.  The  result  of  informal  consulta- 
tions among  them  was  the  publication  of  a 
number  of  independent  calls  for  a  mass  con- 
to  his  former  statement  that  should  his  friends    vention  of  the  people  to  meet  at  Cleveland, 
in  Ohio  manifest  a  preference  for  another  he 
would  acquiesce  in  that  decision,  and  adding : 
The  recent  action  of  the  Union  members  of  our 
legislature  indicates  such  a  preference.  It  becomes 
my  duty,  therefore, —  and  I  count  it  more  a  privi- 
lege than  a  duty, —  to  ask  that  no  further  consider- 
ation be  given  to  my  name.  It  was  never  more 
important  than  now  that  all  our  efforts  and  all  our 
energies  should  be  devoted  to  the  suppression  of  the 
rebellion,  and  to  the  restoration  of  order  and  pros- 
perity, on  solid  and  sure  foundations  of  union,  free- 
dom, and  impartial  justice;  and  I  earnestly  urge 
all  with  whom  my  counsels  may  have  weight  to 
allow  nothing  to  divide  them  while  this  great  work, 
in  comparison  with  which  persons  and  even  parties 
are  nothing,  remains  unaccomplished. 
In  the  closing  line  of  this  letter  occurs  the 
first  intimation  of  that  feeling  of  revolt  against 
the  Republican  party  which  afterwards  led  Mr. 
Chase  to  seek  the  nomination  of  the  Demo- 
crats. In  numerous  letters  written  during  the 
spring  he  reiterated  his  absolute  withdrawal 
from  the  contest,  but  indulged  in  sneers  and 
insinuations  against  the  President,  which  show 
how  deeply  he  was  wounded  by  his  discom- 
fiture.1 
THE    CLEVELAND    CONVENTION. 
Before  the  snows  melted,  it  had  become 
evident  to  the  most  narrow  and  malignant  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  opponents  that  nothing  could 
Ohio,  on  the  31st  of  May,  a  week  before  the 
assembling  of  the  Republican  convention  at 
Baltimore. 
The  two  centers  of  this  disaffection  were  in 
St.  Louis  and  New  York.  In  the  former  city 
it  was  composed  of  a  small  fraction  of  a  fac- 
tion. The  large  majority  of  those  radical  poli- 
ticians who  had  been  for  two  years  engaged 
in  the  bitter  struggle  with  Blair  and  his  asso- 
ciates still  retained  their  connection  with  the 
Republican  party,  and  had  no  intention  of 
breaking  off  their  relations  with  the  L'nion 
party  of  the  nation.  It  was  a  small  fraction 
of  their  number  which  issued  its  call  to  the 
disaffected  throughout  the  nation.  Harking 
back  to  the  original  cause  of  quarrel,  they  had 
attached  themselves  blindly  to  the  personal 
fortunes  of  General  Fremont ;  they  now  put 
themselves  in  communication  with  a  small  club 
of  like-minded  enthusiasts  in  New  York  called 
the  "  Central  Fremont  Club,"  and  invited  then- 
radical  fellow-citizens  to  meet  them  in  con- 
vention at  Cleveland.  They  made  no  pretense 
of  any  purpose  of  consultation  or  of  independ- 
ent individual  action.  The  object  stated  in 
their  call  was  "in  order  then  and  there  to  rec- 
ommend the  nomination  of  John  C.  Fremont 
for  the  Presidency  of  the  L'nited  States,  and 
to  assist  in  organizing  for  his  election."  They 
denounced  "  the  imbecile  and  vacillating  policy 
of  the   present    Administration    in    the    con- 
1  In  an  article  published  in  "  The  Galaxy,"  July,  1873, 
by  Mr.  J.  M.  Winchell,  whom  Mr.  Schuckers  in  his 
"  Life  of  Chase"  calls  the  author  of  the  Pomeroy  cir- 
cular (see  Schuckers'  "  Life  of  Chase,"  p.  500),  occurs 
this  singular  passage :  "  The  movement  in  favor  of 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Chase,  had  culmi- 
nated in  disaster ;  that  gentleman's  chief  supporters,  in- 
cluding his  senatorial  son-in-law,  having  manifested  a 
plentiful  lack  of  nerve  or  zeal,  when  the  critical  question 
became  public,  of  arraying  him  against  his  official  chief, 
and  made  haste  to  take  him  at  his  word  of  declination, 
diplomatically  spoken,  in  order  to  rouse  their  flagging 
spirits."  In  a  letter  of  the  7th  of  May  { Chase  to  Riddle, 
Warden,  p.  576)  Mr.  Chase  said:  -  I  am  trying  to  keep 
all  Presidential  aspiration  out  of  my  head.  I  fancy  that 
as  President  I  could  take  care  of  the  Treasury  better 
with  the  help  of  a  Secretary  than  I  can  as  Secretary 
without  the  help  of  a  President.  But  our  Ohio  folks 
don't  want  me  enough,  if  they  want  me  at  all,  to  make 
it  proper  for  me  to  allow  my  name  to  be  used.  I 
hope  the  time  is  not  distant  'when  I  can  honorably 
separate  myself  from  political  affairs  altogether,  leaving 
the  new  era  to  the  new  men  whom  God  may  raise  up 
for  it."
284 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
duct  of  the  war.  ...  its  treachery  to  justice, 
freedom,  and  genuine  democratic  principles 
in  its  plan  of  reconstruction,  whereby  the 
honor  and  dignity  of  the  nation  have  been 
sacrificed  to  conciliate  the  still  existing  and 
arrogant  slave  power  and  to  further  the  ends 
oi  an  unscrupulous  partisan  ambition  " ;  they 
demanded  the  immediate  extinction  of  slavery 
throughout  the  whole  United  States  by  con- 
gressional action,  the  absolute  equality  of  all 
men  before  the  law,  and  a  vigorous  execution 
of  the  laws  confiscating  the  property  of  the 
rebels.  This  circular  was  stronger  in  its  epi- 
thets than  in  its  signatures ;  the  names  of  the 
signers  were,  as  a  rule,  unknown  to  fame. 
One  column  was  headed  by  the  name  of  the 
Rev.  George  B.  Cheever,  another  by  the  ap- 
parently farcical  signature  of  "  Pantaleon  Can- 
didus."  Perhaps  the  most  important  name 
affixed  to  this  document  was  that  of  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton,  who  wrote  desiring  to 
sign  her  name  to  the  call,  "  taking  it  for  granted," 
she  said,  "that  you  use  'men'  in  its  largest 
sense."  She  informed  the  committee  that  they 
had  "  lifted  politics  into  the  sphere  of  mor- 
als and  religion,  and  made  it  the  duty  of  all 
true  men  and  women  to  unite  with  them  in 
building  up  the  New  Nation."  She  spelled 
"new  nation"  with  capital  letters,  and  gave 
occasion  for  a  malicious  accusation  that  her 
letter  was  merely  an  advertisement  of  a  radical 
Fremont  paper  of  that  name  which  was  then 
leading  a  precarious  existence  in  New  York. 
Mr.  Samuel  Bowles  inferred  from  her  letter 
that  the  convention  was  to  be  composed  of 
"the  gentler  sex  of  both  genders." 
Another  call  was  issued  by  the  People's 
Committee  of  St.  Louis,  though  signed  by 
individuals  from  several  other  States.  These 
gentlemen  felt  themselves 
impelled  on  their  own  responsibility  to  declare  to 
the  people  that  the  time  had  come  for  all  independent 
men,  jealous  of  their  liberties  and  of  the  national 
greatness,  to  confer  together  and  unite  to  resist  the 
swelling  invasion  of  an  open,  shameless,  and  unre- 
strained patronage  which  threatens  to  engulf  under 
its  destructive  wave  the  rights  of  the  people,  the 
liberty  and  dignity  of  the  nation  ; 
declaring  that  they  did  not  recognize  in  the 
Baltimore  convention  the  essential  conditions  of 
a  truly  national  convention  :  it  was  to  be  held, 
they  thought,  too  near  Washington  and  too  far 
from  the  center  of  the  country,  its  mode  of 
convocation  giving  no  guarantee  of  wise  or 
honest  deliberation.  This  circular  was  signed 
by  B.  Gratz  Brown  of  Missouri  and  by  a  num- 
ber of  old-time  abolitionists  in  the  East,  though 
its  principal  signers  were  from  the  ranks  of 
the  most  vehement  German  radicals  of  St. 
Louis.  Still  another  call  was  drawn  up  and 
issued  by  Lucius  Robinson,  Controller  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  The  terms  of  this  address 
were  properly  applicable  to  all  the  Adminis- 
tration Republicans.    It  called  upon  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  who  mean  to  uphold 
the  Union,  who  believe  that  the  rebellion  can  be 
suppressed  without  infringing  the  rights  of  indi- 
viduals or  of  States,  who  regard  the  extinction  of 
slavery  as  among  the  practical  effects  of  the  war  for 
the  Union,  and  favor  an  amendment  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  for  the  exclusion  of  slavery,  and  who 
demand  integrity  and  economy  in  the  administra- 
tion' of  government. 
The  signers  of  this  call  approached  the 
question  from  an  entirely  different  point  of 
view  from  that  of  the  radical  Germans  of 
St.  Louis.  In  their  view  Mr.  Lincoln,  instead 
of  being  a  craven  and  a  laggard,  was  going 
entirely  too  fast  and  too  far.  Their  favorite 
candidate  was  General  Grant.  Mr.  Wendell 
Phillips,  the  stormy  petrel  of  all  our  political 
disturbances,  found  enjoyment  even  in  this 
teapot  tempest.  He  strongly  approved  the 
convention  at  Cleveland,  and  constructed 
beforehand  a  brief  platform  for  it. 
Subdue  the  South  as  rapidly  as  possible.  The 
moment  territory  comes  under  our  flag  reconstruct 
States  thus :  confiscate  and  divide  the  lands  of 
rebels;  extend  the  right  of  suffrage  broadly  as  pos- 
sible to  whites  and  blacks  ;  let  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion prohibit  slavery  throughout  the  Union,  and 
forbid  the  States  to  make  any  distinction  among 
their  citizens  on  account  of  color  or  race.  * 
He  also  advised  the  nomination  "  for  the 
Presidency  of  a  statesman  and  a  patriot  " ;  by 
which  terms  he  intended  to  exclude  Mr.  Lin- 
coln. 
The  convention  might  have  met,  deliber- 
ated, and  adjourned  for  all  the  people  of  the 
United  States  cared  about  it,  had  it  not  been 
for  the  violent  and  enthusiastic  admiration  it 
excited  in  Democratic  newspapers  and  the  wide 
publicity  they  gave  to  its  proceedings.  They 
described  it  as  a  gathering  of  the  utmost  dig- 
nity and  importance ;  they  pretended  to  dis- 
cern in  it  a  distinct  line  of  cleavage  through 
the  middle  of  the  Republican  party.  For  sev- 
eral days  before  it  assembled  they  published 
imaginary  dispatches  from  Cleveland  repre- 
senting the  streets  and  hotels  as  crowded  with 
a  throng  of  earnest  patriots  determined  on  the 
destruction  of  the  tyrant  Lincoln.  The  papers 
of  Cleveland  tell  another  story.  There  was  no 
sign  of  political  upheaval  in  the  streets  or 
hotels  of  that  beautiful  and  thriving  city.  Up 
to  the  very  day  of  the  meeting  of  the  conven- 
tion there  was  no  place  provided  for  it,  and 
when  the  first  stragglers  began  to  arrive  they 
found  no  preparation  made  to  receive  them. 
All  the  public  halls  of  any  consequence  were 
1  Phillips  to  Stallo,  April  21.
THE   CLEVELAND   CONVENT/ON. 
engaged,  and  the  convention  at  last  took  shelter 
in  a  small  room  called  "  Chapin's  Hall."  Its 
utmost  capacity  was  five  or  six  hundred  per- 
sons, and  it  was  much  too  large  for  the  con- 
vention; delegates  and  spectators  together 
were  never  numerous  enough  to  fill  it.  The 
delegates  were  for  the  most  part  Germans  from 
St.  Louis.  They  held  a  preliminary  meeting 
the  night  before  the  convention  opened,  and 
passed  vigorous  and  loyal  resolutions  of  the 
usual  character.  To  the  resolution  that  the 
rebellion  must  be  put  down,  some  one  moved 
to  amend  by  adding  the  words,  "  with  God's 
assistance,"  which  was  voted  down  with  bois- 
terous demonstrations.  Non  tali  auxilio  was  the 
sentiment  of  these  materialist  Missourians. 
The  convention  met  at  10  o'clock  in  a  hall 
only  half  filled.  Hoping  for  later  arrivals,  they 
delayed  organization  until  nearly  noon.  The 
leaders  who  had  been  expected  to  give  char- 
acter and  direction  to  the  movement  did  not 
appear.  It  was  hoped  until  the  last  moment 
that  Mr.  Greeley  would  be  present,  though  he 
had  never  given  any  authority  for  such  an  ex- 
pectation. He  said,  in  answer  to  an  inquiry, 
that  "  the  only  convention  he  took  any  interest 
in  was  that  one  Grant  was  holding  before 
Richmond."  Mr.  Gratz  Brown,  the  real  head 
of  the  movement,-  was  also  absent.  Emil  Pre- 
torius  and  Mr.  Cheever,  who,  from  the  two  ex- 
tremities of  the  country,  had  talked  most  loudly 
in  favor  of  the  convention,  staid  away.  The 
only  persons  present  whose  names  were  at  all 
known  were  General  John  Cochrane  of  New 
York ;  Colonel  Moss,  a  noisy  politician  from 
Missouri;  Caspar  Butz  of  Illinois;  two  or  three 
of  the  old-school  abolitionists ;  and  several  (not 
the  weightiest)  members  of  the  staff  of  General 
Fremont.  The  delegates  from  the  German 
Workingmen's  Union  of  Chicago  were  dis- 
credited in  advance  by  the  publication  of  a 
card  from  the  majority  of  the  association  they 
pretended  to  represent,  declaring  their  inten- 
tion to  support  the  nominees  of  the  Baltimore 
convention.  Some  one  moved,  as  usual,  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  on  credentials; 
but  as  no  one  had  any  valid  credentials,  it  was 
resolved  instead  to  appoint  a  committee  to 
enroll  the  names  of  the  delegates.  No  action 
was  taken  even  upon  this  proposition,  because 
the  ?ct  of  enrollment  would  have  been  too  fatal 
a  confession  of  weakness.  The  committee  on 
organization  reported  the  name  of  General 
Cochrane  for  president  of  the  convention,  who 
made  a  discreet  and  moderate  speech.  He  was 
a  man  of  too  much  native  amiability  of  char- 
acter to  feel  personal  bitterness  towards  any 
one,  and  too  adroit  and  experienced  a  poli- 
tician to  commit  himself  irrevocably  against 
any  contingency.  He  had,  in  fact,  thrown  an 
anchor  to  windward  by  visiting  the  President 
before  the  convention  met  and  assuring  him 
of  his  continued  friendship.  A  delegate  from 
Iowa,  who  seemed  to  have  taken  the  conven- 
tion seriously,  then  offered  a  resolution  that  no 
member  of  it  should  hold,  or  apply  for,  office 
under  the  next  Administration  —  a  proposition 
which  was  incontinently  smothered.  While 
waiting  for  the  report  of  the  committee  on  the 
platform,  speeches  were  made  by  several  dele- 
gates. Mr.  Plumb  attacked  Mr.  Lincoln  as  a 
pro-slavery  politician.  Colonel  Moss  of  Mis- 
souri denounced  him  as  the  principal  obstacle 
to  freedom  in  America.  A  debate  now  arose 
on  the  proposition  of  the  committee  on  rules 
that  in  voting  for  President  the  vote  should 
be  by  States  according  to  their  representation 
in  Congress.  This  was  in  the  interest  of  the 
Grant  delegates  and  was  violently  opposed  by 
the  Missourians,  who  formed  a  large  majority 
of  the  convention,  and  had  come  for  no  pur- 
pose but  to  nominate  Fremont.  In  the  course 
of  this  debate  the  somewhat  dreary  proceedings 
were  enlivened  by  a  comic  incident.  A  mid- 
dle-aged man,  who  gave  his  name  as  Carr, 
addressed  the  chair,  saying  that  he  had  come 
from  Illinois  as  a  delegate  under  the  last  call 
and  did  not  want  to  be  favored  "  a  single  mite." 
His  ideas  not  flowing  readily,  he  repeated  this 
declaration  three  times  in  a  voice  continually 
rising  in  shrillness  with  his  excitement.  Some- 
thing in  his  tone  stirred  the  risibles  of  the 
convention,  and  loud  laughter  saluted  the 
Illinoisan.  As  soon  as  he  could  make  himself 
heard  he  cried  out,  ';  These  are  solemn  times." 
This  statement  was  greeted  with  another  laugh, 
and  the  delegate  now  shouted  at  the  top  of 
his  voice,  "  I  believe  there  is  a  God  who  holds 
the  universe  in  his  hands  as  you  would  hold 
an  egg."  This  comprehensive  scheme  of  theoc- 
racy was  too  much  for  the  Missouri  agnos- 
tics, and  the  convention  broke  out  in  a  tumult 
of  jeers  and  roars.  The  rural  delegate,  amazed 
at  the  reception  of  his  confession  of  faith,  and 
apparently  in  doubt  whether  he  had  not  stum- 
bled by  accident  into  a  lunatic  asylum,  paused, 
and  asked  the  chairman  in  a  tone  of  great 
seriousness  whether  he  believed  in  a  God.  The 
wildest  merriment  now  took  possession  of  the 
assembly,  in  the  midst  of  which  the  Illinois 
theist  solemnly  marched  down  the  aisle  and 
out  of  the  house,  shaking  from  his  feet  the 
dust  of  that  unbelieving  convention.  As  soon 
as  the  laughing  died  away  the  committee  on 
resolutions  reported  a  set  of  judicious  and, 
on  the  whole,  undeniable  propositions,  such  as, 
the  Union  must  and  shall  be  preserved,  the 
constitutional  laws  of  the  United  States  must 
be  obeyed,  the  rebellion  must  be  suppressed  by 
force  of  arms  and  without  compromise.  The 
platform  did  not  greatly  differ  from  that  of 
Baltimore,  except  that  it  spoke  in  favor  of  one