The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-09
/ LINCOLN AND THE
NEGRO INsURREcTI0N.
BY JAMES R. GILMORE,

rection, providing you do not in any way
connect his name with it.'
Before the arrival of this reply from the
President, l received another letter from
General Garfield, in which he said:
1.-The negro scheme of which we talked
has been pressed upon us again, and the
letter asserts that five out of our nine de-
partment commanders have approved it.
Another letter, received yesterday, SAYS
one more department has gone into it, and
that the scheme is being rapidly and thor
oughly perfected, and the blow will GER
tainly be struck
Ihls last letter convinced me that no
time was to be lost, and after comforting
again with Messrs. Greeley and Gay, de-
clded to go on to Washington. to show Mr..
Lincoln the necessity for prompt action,
and to gain from him such other facts as
would be prudent to make public.
The President read the two letters of
Garneld in his quiet, thoughtful way, and
then moving his one leg from where it
dangled across the other, he said, en-
phatically: THAT Garfield is a trump
there is no discount upon that?"
Not being in mood to listen to eulogy
upon Garfield, or any one else, hastily
assented, and was about to ask him what
he had done about the negro project, when
he went on: do you know, that job of his
on the Big Sandy was the neatest thing
that has been done in the war. It's some-
"And to have split rails" 1 reioined,
laughing.
Yes" he answered; land I'll bet Gar
field has done that"
II don't know about his having done it,
but his mother has. She told me so her
SELF
as that so2'' he said, smiling. "That
accounts for Garfield; he had a good
mother"
Then, subsiding into serious mood, he
added: Now, about that negro business.
AS Garfield says, it is bad every way, and
we can't afford it. think I have put my
foot upon it,"
"And are you disposed to give me any
inside facts for publication in the Tribune2
might suppress the names of the six de-
partment commanders, if you thought it
advisable"
'Ive been thinking on that subject. 1
guess we had better say nothing whatever
Just yet. You see, l have scotched the
snake, not actually killed it. When it is
dead will be time enough to preach it's
funeral sermon"
And you will let me know when you
are ready for the sermon?"
He promised to do SO, and soon the in
terview ended.
l do not assert that this projected insur-
rection was not, what Mr.. Lincoln at first
surmised it might be, hoax. l simply
affirm that Generals Rosecrans and Gar
it to be a real danger, which threatened
the South with all the horrors of San Do
mingo. But, whether the danger was real
or not, the action of the President and of
the others who had connection with this
projected instruction has the same char
acter of genuine human kindness toward
the South.
All know that the instruction did not
take place, and l have always doubted if
the conspiracy was so widespread and uni
versal as it was supposed to be by the sub
ordinate leader who wrote fhe letters to
Rosecrans.
The uprising was fixed for the 1st of
August, and serious outbreaks occurred
among the blacks in Georgia and Alabama
in September. May not those have been
the work of subordinate leaders who, mad
dened at the miscarriage of the main do
sign. were determined to carry out their
part of the program me at all hazards?
Mr.. Lincoln was disinclined to talk about
the part he took in the affair. The last he
said to me upon the subject was a short
time before his death, when he said:
'Some time when l have little leisure
| will tell you the whole of that story"
The assassin's bullet cut short the story.
Copyright, 1895, by 8. s. Mcclure, limited.