I had a long interview with Mr. Seward today at the State
Department. He set forth at great length the helpless condition in which the
President and the Cabinet found themselves when they began the conduct of
public affairs at Washington. The last cabinet had tampered with treason, and
had contained traitors; a miserable imbecility had encouraged the leaders of
the South to mature their plans, and had furnished them with the means of
carrying out their design. One Minister had purposely sent away the navy of the
United States to distant and scattered stations; another had purposely placed
the arms, ordnance, and munitions of war in undue proportions in the Southern
States, and had weakened the Federal Government so that they might easily fall
into the hands of the traitors and enable them to secure the war materiel of
the Union; a Minister had stolen the public funds for traitorous purposes — in
every port, in every department of the State, at home and abroad, on sea and by
land, men were placed who were engaged in this deep conspiracy — and when the
voice of the people declared Mr. Lincoln President of the United States, they
set to work as one man to destroy the Union under the most flimsy pretexts. The
President's duty was clearly defined by the Constitution. He had to guard what
he had, and to regain, if possible, what he had lost. He would not consent to
any dismemberment of the Union nor to the abandonment of one iota of Federal
property— nor could he do so if he desired.
These and many more topics were presented to me to show that
the Cabinet was not accountable for the temporizing policy of inaction, which
was forced upon them by circumstances, and that they would deal vigorously with
the Secession movement — as vigorously as Jackson did with nullification in
South Carolina, if they had the means. But what could they do when such a man
as Twiggs surrendered his trust and sacrificed the troops to a crowd of Texans;
or when naval and military officers resigned en masse, that they might
accept service in the rebel forces? All this excitement would come right in a
very short time — it was a brief madness, which would pass away when the people
had opportunity for reflection. Meantime the danger was that foreign powers
would be led to imagine the Federal Government was too weak to defend its
rights, and that the attempt to destroy the Union and to set up a Southern
Confederacy was successful. In other words, again, Mr. Seward fears that, in
this transition state between their forced inaction and the coup by
which they intend to strike down Secession, Great Britain may recognize the
Government established at Montgomery, and is ready, if needs be, to threaten
Great Britain with war as the consequence of such recognition. But he certainly
assumed the existence of strong Union sentiments in many of the seceded States,
as a basis for his remarks, and admitted that it would not become the spirit of
the American Government, or of the Federal system, to use armed force in
subjugating the Southern States against the will of the majority of the people.
Therefore if the majority desire Secession, Mr. Seward would let them have it —
but he cannot believe in anything so monstrous, for to him the Federal
Government and Constitution, as interpreted by his party, are divine,
heaven-born. He is fond of repeating that the Federal Government never yet
sacrificed any man's life on account of his political opinions; but if this
struggle goes on, it will sacrifice thousands — tens of thousands, to the idea
of a Federal Union. “Any attempt against us,” he said, “would revolt the good
men of the South, and arm all men in the North to defend their Government.”
But I had seen that day an assemblage of men doing a
goose-step march forth dressed in blue tunics and gray trousers, shakoes and
cross-belts, armed with musket and bayonet, cheering and hurrahing in the
square before the War Department, who were, I am told, the District of Columbia
volunteers and militia. They had indeed been visible in various forms parading,
marching, and trumpeting about the town with a poor imitation of French pas and
élan, but
they did not, to the eye of a soldier, give any appearance of military
efficiency, or to the eye of the anxious statesman any indication of the animus
pugnandi. Starved, washed-out creatures most of them, interpolated with
Irish and flat-footed, stumpy Germans. It was matter for wonderment that the
Foreign Minister of a nation which was in such imminent danger in its very
capital, and which, with its chief and his cabinet, was almost at the mercy of
the enemy, should hold the language I was aware he had transmitted to the most
powerful nations of Europe. Was it consciousness of the strength of a great
people, who would be united by the first apprehension of foreign interference,
or was it the peculiar emptiness of a bombast which is called Buncombe? In all
sincerity I think Mr. Seward meant it as it was written.
When I arrived at the hotel, I found our young artist
waiting for me, to entreat I would permit him to accompany me to the South. I
had been annoyed by a paragraph which had appeared in several papers, to the
effect that “The talented young artist, our gifted countryman, Mr. Deodore F.
Moses, was about to accompany Mr. &c. &c, in his tour through the
South.” I had informed the young gentleman that I could not sanction such an
announcement, whereupon he assured me he had not in any way authorized it, but
having mentioned incidentally to a person connected with the press that he was
going to travel southwards with me, the injudicious zeal of his friend had led
him to think he would do a service to the youth by making the most of the very
trifling circumstance.
I dined with Senator Douglas, where there was a large party,
among whom were Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. Smith, Secretary of
the Interior; Mr. Forsyth, Southern Commissioner; and several members of the
Senate and Congress. Mrs. Douglas did the honors of her house with grace and
charming good-nature. I observe a great tendency to abstract speculation and
theorizing among Americans, and their after-dinner conversation is apt to
become didactic and sententious. Few men speak better than Senator Douglas; his
words are well chosen, the flow of his ideas even and constant, his intellect
vigorous, and thoughts well cut, precise, and vigorous — he seems a man of
great ambition, and he told me he is engaged in preparing a sort of Zollverein
scheme for the North American continent, including Canada, which will fix
public attention everywhere, and may lead to a settlement of the Northern and
Southern controversies. For his mind, as for that of many Americans, the
aristocratic idea embodied in Russia is very seductive; and he dwelt with
pleasure on the courtesies he had received at the court of the Czar, implying
that he had been treated differently in England, and perhaps France. And yet,
had Mr. Douglas become President of the United States, his good-will towards Great
Britain might have been invaluable, and surely it had been cheaply purchased by
a little civility and attention to a distinguished citizen and statesman of the
Republic. Our Galleos very often care for none of these things.
SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and
South, p. 60-3
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