The President tells me that Meade is at last after the enemy
and that Grant will attack to-morrow.
Went with Mrs. Ames to Gardiner’s gallery and were soon
joined by Nico and the President. We had a great many pictures taken. Some of
the Prest the best I have seen. Nico and I immortalised ourselves by
having ourselves done in group with the Prest.
In the evening Seward came in. He feels very easy and
confident now about affairs. He says New York is safe for the Presidential
election by a much larger majority, that the crowd that follows power have come
over; that the copperhead spirit is crushed and humbled. He says the Democrats
lost their leaders when Toombs and Davis and Breckinridge forsook them and went
south; that their new leaders, the Seymours, Vallandighams and Woods, are now
whipped and routed. So that they have nothing left. The Democratic leaders are
either ruined by the war, or have taken the right-about, and have saved
themselves from the ruin of their party by coming out on the right side. . . .
He told the Democratic party how they might have saved
themselves and their organisation, and with it the coming Presidential election
— by being more loyal and earnest in support of the administration than the
Republican party — which would not be hard, the Lord knows!
SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and
Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 118-9; For the whole diary entry see
Tyler Dennett, Editor, Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and
letters of John Hay, p. 117-8.
No comments:
Post a Comment