Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-03-29
MR.. SEWARD AND THE SOUTH.
Further Evidence OF fhe Bargain for
the Presidency.

[Washing'on correspondence Cincinnati CARTEL
1t may be remembered the statement
was made that in NorsmbeF last in Ala
bama. a prominent Southern politician
stated that the leaders in the South had
concluded that they must carry the next
Presidential election; that to do SO they
must run Il Northern man, and n who
would be certain to carry New York that
his former cours regarding slavery was
perfectly immaterial, Proriisd he i7oald
giUs them pledges beforehand that they
had fixed on their man, and opened nego-
~tiations with him which looked very pro-
missing; and finally, that the man in ques-
ton was William II. Seward. The fol-
lowing facts. when added to this, give ad-
ditional significance to it:
In JlIy last, an ex-rebel officer Of note
in Western Tennessee, in friendly nve
sation upon Southern politics, and the
said TO a Union officer: ain three years
you will be the rebels and we viii be the
Government" In explanation, he said
that the South would have the next Presi-
dent; that the course of Mr.. Seward
through the wal had pleased them more
than that of any other high official il the
Government, and that he was also al
available man for the South
The same matter was presented during
the past summer in q more general form
in the conversation Of another rebel officer
snd politician on the cars south Of Nash
vile. The person speaking this time liv-
ing in q distant part of the State from the
officer first referred to.
In SeD5sha5er last one Of the leading
clergymen of the South, in conversation at
tho headquarters ofthe Freedmen's Bureau
in one of the principal cities of the South,
talked this whole matter over, except that
he did not assert that any arrangement
had been entered into to make 3fr. Seward
President. He, however, reviewed Mr.
Stewards whole course, and said that his
kindness to the South and his ~forbearance
had been a subject of common remark and
praise in private conversation from the
time of his interference with the re-
lief of Fort Sumter TO the close Of the
contest.
Before any publicity had been given TO
the statements of the first letter, the mat
ter Of Mr.. Seward for the next President
and the negotiations to secure It formed
the subject of n conversation at Char
lotte, North Carolina, in which the princi-
pal speaker was one of the prominent cit
liens of that State.
Here, then, are five conversations, all
agreeing with each other, held at widely
separated places, by men who were in no
way connected with each other, all of
these men of position and influence, and
all of whose names and associations could
be given if it were necessary to do so.
Those who reported the conversation are
men who do not even know that the
others have said a word upon the subject,
if, indeed, they have any acquaintance
whatever.
To copy the above with "reprobation >
and call it astuff." may satisfy the editor
of the Chicago Republican of its falsity.
It would be well if he could dispose of
some of his own attempts to secure politi-
cal preferment as easily. The only stuff
in any way connected with the matters
referred TO was the outrageous and indie
cent profanity of Mr.. Seward in his ex-
p%ressions concerning Mr.. johnson and
Congress.
REPEATING PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS.
There has been an attempt made to
throw discredit upon the reported state
ments of Mr.. Seward and to characterize
them as ~tattle." They were in no sense
t~attle, but were forced upon those who
heard them in the Secretary's place of
business, where the persons who heard
them were transacting business, and the
diseourtesy of the affair attaches wholly
to the party who obliged a Congressman
TO listen to an attack upon Congress, and
sneering references to the President, both
rendered obnoxious by the most violent
oaths. When such things occur in the
Office of the Secretary of State the country
has a right to know them, and a people |
whose moral sense is outraged BY such
things has a right to express its indigna-
ton. Too many matters of this kind are !
carefully covered up from public gaze.
But eve if conversations should be
withheld from the public, none can object
to the detail of a purely official transac-
ton with Mr.. Seward as Secretary of State.
A well known citizen, some two months
ago, took a recommendation TO him for a
certain Important position, signed by the
delegation from his own State and also by
most Of the Tennessee delegation. Mr.. |
Seward read it, and said "By God, sir, 1
wish you were from Tennessee; 1 would
you at oncs. 1 want to show the
Northern people that there is such a thing
rs a Southern State" Il. v. n. b.