Thursday, December 25, 2014

John M. Forbes to William Cullen Bryant, August 24, 1861

Naushon, August 24,1861.

Yours of the 21st received. The objection which you suggest to Mr. H. is a very strong one. We need a man in the War Department who, when the right time comes, will not hesitate a moment to assail the weakest point of the enemy. Our Governor Andrew seemed to me to hit the nail on the head when he rebuked Butler for offering to put out any fire in the enemy's camp. The time has come when we can no longer afford to “make war with rose-water,” and it was a great mistake in Congress to limit the confiscation of property to that of rebels found in arms against us. All the property of open rebels should be forfeited the first week of the next Congress; this would enable us to proclaim emancipation in the border States with a fixed compensation for all valuable slaves belonging to loyal citizens, without a very large bill for Virginia.

I had hoped that H. was man enough to go in for such a measure and advocate it as a boon to the loyal citizens of Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and Delaware, putting it upon the ground of military necessity. If he is not up to this we don't want him; but it is not worth while to try to get rid of Cameron without at the same time making quite sure of a better man. You remember the old story of the trapped fox begging his friend the hawk not to drive off the half-sated swarm of flies only to give place to a new cloud of them — and hungry ones? I wish you would go a step further, and suggest a successor. Is there no one who could take Chase's place, and give him the War? I forget whether I suggested to you James Joy, of Detroit. He would do well for the War, better for the Interior, from his thorough knowledge of the West. Lincoln, Trumbull, Chandler, and all the Western men know him. He is the most able, decided, and plucky man that I know. How would Sherman do for the Treasury, and Chase for War?

As the matter stands now, the effort to displace Cameron will be coupled with one to put in H., and if the latter is not the right man, we had better rub along as we are, until the right man turns up. Governor Andrew has all the moral qualities; but he is perhaps too pronounced an anti-slavery man, and works too much upon details himself, not using other men. He would kill himself in the Cabinet. . . .

SOURCE: Sarah Forbes Hughes, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, Volume 1, p. 241-2

No comments: