St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-07-12
MCCLURE VS.. NICOLAY
The Editor and the Secretary
Historian Have One More
Tilt.
Lincoln'S Intimate ScopnS the
knowledge Of Lincoln's
Clerk,
While the Latter MarShalS
His Weightiest Points in
Reply.
a Very Pretty Fight as 1t
Now Stands, With a Chance
to Grow.

PHILADELPHIA. July 1.-THE Times
publishes the following under the cap
ton, spanked and Dismissed"
To John q. Nieolay: The public will
be greatly surprised that such an I'M
dignified and quibbling letter as yours,
and addressed to me, could come from
one who claims to be the chosen biOg-
rapher of Abraham Lincoln. 1t must
so generally offend the dispassionate
opinion OF decent men that answer to it
is eXcuSable. but only to expose several
severely strained new falSehOOdS You
present, either directly or by the sup
preston of the vital parts of truth.
Had you known anything about the in
side political movements in the White
house in 1864, you would have known
that my letter to Lincoln, quoted in
your defense, was written because of a
suddenly developed effort in this
state to divide the lines drawn
by the then bitter Cameron and
Curtin facti0nal war for and against
Lincoln. The Cameron followers
claimed to be the special supporters of
Lincoln, and attempted to drive Curtin
and the state administration into hos
tility to the president My justly as
Sumed devotion to Curtin was the pre-
text for declaring me as either re-
strained in my support Of Lincoln, or
likely TO be in the opposition. The mo-
ment saw the statement in print wrote
the letter you quote 70 dismiss from
Lineoln's mind all apprehension about
either open or passive opposition from
Curtin'S friends. Had you stated these
facts you would have peen truthful. As
you possibly did not know of them, you
may be excused for not stating them;
but your ignorance can be no excuse for
the entirely false construction you put
upon my letter. Equally, indeed even
More FIagranIly False.
is your statement of only a minor part
of the truth about the action of the
Pennsylvania delegation at Baltimore in
1864. You say that Gen. Cameron cast
the solid vote of the state for Hamlin.
Had you told the whole truth, ignorant
as yGu seem TO be OF the force OF inpOr-
tant political facts, yOu would have
known that your assumption that JOnn-
son had no votes in the delegation was
untrue. Had you desired to be truth
full, you would have added that Gen.
Cameron cast the solid vote of the dele
cation for Johnson before the close of
the first ballot. Were you ignorant of
this fact, or have you deliberately at
tempted 10 so suppress the truth as to
proclaim a palpaOle falSehOOd? The
Pennsylvania delegation was personally
harmonious, although divided on vice
president. In the Pennsylvania caucus
an informal vote put Johnson in the
lead, with Hamlin second and Dickinson
third. Cameron knew Hamlin'S nominal
ton was utterly hopeless and he ac-
copied the result without special grief.
He urged a solid vote as a just cOmpli-
ment to Hamlin and it was given with
the knowledge that it could not help
Hamlin, and that solid vote for John
son would follow. The solid vote for
Johnson was the only vital vote cast for
vice president, and that record, ac-
cesSible 10 every school boy, you STU
diOusly suppress to excuse a falsehOOd.
l was dOubly elected delegate to the
Baltimore convention, having been first
unanimously chosen as 4 district dele
gate, without the fOrmalitY of a confer
eHce, and when district delegate l was
one of two delegates elected at large on
the first ballot by the state convention.
What | did or did not, or how important
1
the convention, is an issue that have not
raised or invited. | stated the simple fact
that Lincoln had sent for me. had urged
me to support johnson, and that | had
done so. Had Lincoln chosen to cOntide
his wishes to another than myself, l
would not have initiated his secretary
and charged him with deceit and false
hood because he did not tell me all his
purposes.
EEe Did Not Trust You
with what you probably would not have
understood had he told you, but that is
no reason why you should accuse him
of deceit. intrigue and writing a DELHI
crate lie" He wrote you the exact truth
in the only paper you have as the basis
of your ineXcusable miscOnceptiOn of
his language. In it he says that SWEET
is unQuestionably all right" and the
only thing he could have been right
about in the matter WAS in his active OPP
position to Hamlin's denomination.
Your history is quite right IN quoting
Lincoln, but be cannot be justly held
responsible for the want of COM
biOgrapherS more than quarter
Of a century after his death.
For answer to your unidentified and !
unmanly efforts to belittle my relations |
with Lincoln [ refer you to your more |
discreet photographer, Mr.. Hay. He |
refused to sustain your Interpretation |
OF LincOln's note on the vice presi- !
dency. He added that the dispute is a
question of veracity between YOU and
me, and he speaks Of me as ''eVidently
armed with his enviable record Of close
intimacy with our illustriOus Lincoln"
One of you is lying on this point Is it
Nh. Hay or is it you? Had you sought
The truth as an honest biographer you
could have obtained it without offensive
disputatiOn, not only from me, so far as
| knew it. but from such living wit
nesses as Charles \. Dana and Murat !
Halstead and from the recorded testi- /
mony of Gen. Cameron, Col. FOrney |
and others who knew much of Lincoln /
and but little Of you. Instead of seek /
ing the trnth you flung your ignorance |
and egOtism, with OstentatiOus hide !
cency, upon the beTeaved household of /
the yet untombed Hamlin, and. when |
brought to bay by those better Informed /
than yourself, you resent in the tone |
and terms Of the ward heeler in wharf |
rat district battling for cOnstabulary |
hOnOrS. | think ii safe to say that the |
public judgment will be that it would |
have been we'll for both Limcoln's men, |
DRY and for the country had such a
biOgrapher been drowned when a pup. |
Dismissed.