The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1916-06-02
The OBSERVATORY
THE LIFE OF JOHN HAY

dent and would shape his own policies
and make his own decisions.
| came from the same region OF
New England as Gen. Butler, and an
older relative had been in school with
him in Maine, and | knew all about
his political course before the war,
and while my regiment was for while
under his command, and we must ac-
cord him the credit of standing by
the Union instead of going with his
former political associates, yet we all
knew he was careless of obligations
and most audacious in seeking what
he desired both before, during and
after the war Hay gives a letter
which Butler sent to Lincoln in Nov.
1861, which exactly Gifts in" with what
we used to know Of him. Butler writes
signed. Gen'l. Fremont must. Gen1
Scott has retired. have an ambition,
and trust laudable one, to be Ma
jor General of the United States Ar
my. He had gone South holding
that rank from Massachusetts. Has
anybody done more to deserve it? No
one will do more. May | rely upon
you. as you may have confidence in
me, to take this matter into considera-
ton? | will not disgrace the posi-
ton
But the revelations about McClel-
Ian are mostly what we expected after
the publishing of his own letters years
ago. His ability as an organizer is
fully accorded; but it is shown that
he never had any definite plan of cam
paign or was ever ready to use his
splendid army. We all knew that he
was early stung by the Presidential
bee in his bonnet, but | do not recall
to have ever seen it stated how it
happened. During the Fall Of 1864,
when Mcclellan was running for the
presidency against Lincoln the latter
told Hay a story that came to him
through Gov. Smith of Vermont who
was cousin of Gen. Badly" Smith
who had been McClellan's classmate
at West Point, and was intimate with
him and held high command under
him in 1862. 1t seems that one day
Fernando Wood and another promi-
nent politician [probably lIorato
Seymour came to the camp, had a
| long interview with Mcclellan, and
from that hour there seemed to be a
change iii the latter in his relations
with his most intimate friends, and
after while he revealed to Badly"
that those men had offered him the
expectation of being the, next Demo
cratic nominee for the Presidency,
and he outlined new ideas of the way
in which the war should be prosecut-
ed, which was as much as possible to
| conciliate the South, ETC. He had
i Late To th0ea
ing those views and read it to Gen
Smith, who then said to him: Cen
eral, do you not see that that looks like
treason, and that it will ruin you and
all of us?" Then Mcclellan de-
stroyed that letter but after the battle
of Antetam, the sane men came to
him again, renewed their offer and he
wrote them another letter accepting
it. And there is much more of the
same astounding character, one fact
being that several of McClellan's' gen.
erals either knowing or suspectine
something of the kind about that time
asked to be transferred to some Other
field of service; but instead Lincoln
set trap for Mcclellan, into which
he fell without knowing it, and was a
once removed. There was evidence
enough to have had him tried anc
condemned, as the English have beer
doing with the Irish rebels in ireland
but Lincoln preferred to do no more
than let the facts leak out, and if Nc
Clellan and his friends heard o it the,
did not dare demand an investigation
1t all shows the wise shrewdness o
the great President; and it all harmon
ICES with what we then knew, and nov
explains what was then the mystery
of it.
| Most amusing revelations are mad,