I took to the Senate to-day the nomination of Schofield as
Major General. The President had previously spoken to some of the Senators
about it. He is anxious that Schofield should be confirmed so as to arrange
this Missouri matter promptly. I told Sherman, Wilson, Harris and Doolittle.
Senator Foote also agreed to do all he could to put the matter properly
through. But on the nomination being read in Executive Session, Howard of Michigan
objected to its consideration and it was postponed. Sherman and Doolittle tell me
it will certainly go through when it is regularly taken up.
Lane came up to the President about it, and told him this. Lane
is very anxious to have the Kansas part of the plan at once carried out.
Morgan says that Gratz Brown gave to Sumner to present to
the Senate the radical protest against Schoflied’s confirmation, and that Sumner
presented it to-day. The President sent for Sumner, but he was not at his
lodgings.
The President is very much disappointed at Brown. After
three interviews with him he understood that Brown would not oppose the
confirmation. It is rather a mean dodge to get Sumner to do it in his stead
The President to-night had a dream: — He was in a party of
plain people, and, as it became known who he was, they began to comment on his appearance.
One of them said: — “He is a very common-looking man.” The President replied: —
“The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of
them.”
SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and
Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 141-3; Michael Burlingame, Editor, Inside
Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 139-43.
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