Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-25
\ sTROKE OF DIPLOMACY.
An Unwritten Chapter of the Late Re.
beliiOn.

An Unwritten Chapter of the Late Re
beIlion.
Samuel Nelson, Judge Of the United
States Supreme Court and a lifelong
Democrat, probably did as much for the
Federal cause during the war, says the
Graphic, as any man of his standing not
commanding in the field, and perhaps
more than some of those. But at a GER
tain period OF the great struggle the strain
began to be severely felt. Enthusiasm
ran low. Volunteering almost ceased.
Even money lost its attraction. and the
large bOuntIes offered failed to ill the
ranks Of the armies almost decimated bV
desertiOn, disease and casualties. 1t was
in this dark time that Congress
sought to come to the rescue bv
passing the cOnscription law authorizing
the drafting of all able-bodied citizens un-
der the age of forty. This act was uni
yersally offensive, and its enforcement
still more so. An effort was made to test
its legality. and some persons in Philadel-
phIa procured habeaS corpus from Judge
Cadwallader for drafted man. so as to
have the legality Of the drafting tested. The
Judge declared the law TO be void as I'M
constitutional. His decision when made
public created universal alarm: then a
-
McCandless, of West Pennsylvania. He
took the same legal view, but without an
nounclng his decision communicated it to
the President, Mr.. Lincoln. who at once
sent for Mr.. w. H Seward, the Secretary
of State, to whom he said ''What are
We to do? We are crippled already bv
the decision of Judge CadWalader, and
should the concurrence of Judge Nc
Candies be made public the cOnscrip-
ton law will prove a dead letter. the
draft viii be stopped, the reinforcement
OF our armies must cease and our cause
viii be endangered. What. then, can
we do to keep this Pennsylvania decision
from publication and to destroy the effect
of the one already ann0uncedF The Sec
rotary replied, There is but one man in
the United States equal to this emer-
gency, and that is Samuel Nelson. of the
Supreme Court
The President-''Send for him. them
Seward-"That can't be safely done. for
whatever he does must be done in absO-
lutte secrecy and without any one know
ing what he is trying to accomplish. or
that he is trying to accomplish it. Here
we are surrounded by spies and detec-
tiyes,sand if l send for him he will be
watched and followed, his business
Guessed at, possibly discovered, and thus
he viii be deprived of the ability or op-
pOTtunity to aid us"
The PTesident-"We then, 90 at once
and see him yourself"
Seward-"That will be worse, for the
same spies will follow and watch me-"
The President-'-You seem to be more
fertile in suggesting difficulties than
means to overcome them. You must get
the interview"
This broke off the audience, bat a day
or two afterwards the Secretary of State
invited the whole diplomatic corps on an
excursion to visit the lakes of Central
New York. He conducted them to Canaan
daigua, Seneca, OwascO, Salina and OF
segO, thence to CoOperstOwn, the residence
of Judge Nelson, and while the foreign
guests were being there entertained Mr..
Seward had the desired interview, the
result Of which was that the opinion OF
Judge Cadwallader fell still-born AM, that
OF MeCandless never saw the light. How
this result was accomplished is probably
reserved for the pen of a much later his
torian, but in spite of Fontenelle's pro-
found remark, L'histoire-c'estde DIES fables
Convenues," the little story has the merit
Of being strictly true.