Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Diary of John Hay, September 24, 1864

This morning I asked the President if the report of the resignation of Blair were true. He said it was.

“Has Dennison been appointed to succeed him?”

“I have telegraphed to him to-day — have as yet received no answer.”

“What is Mr. Blair going to do?”

“He is going up to Maryland to make speeches. If he will devote himself to the success of the national cause without exhibiting bad temper towards his opponents, he can set the Blair family up again.”

“Winter Davis is taking the stump also. I doubt if his advocacy of you will be hearty enough to be effective.”

“If he and the rest can succeed in carrying the State for emancipation, I shall be very willing to lose the electoral vote.”

SOURCES: Abstracted from Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 221-2; Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 230

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