To night, I was
taken by surprise in hearing that Mr. Cameron sec. of War, has resigned, and
goes to Russia, in lieu of Cash: M. Clay 26 — and that Edwin M.
Stanton 27 is to take his place. This was a street rumor in the
afternoon. At night, I was told by Senator Harris,28 that the
nominations had been actually made. Strange — not a hint of all this was heard
last friday, at C.[abinet] C.[ouncil] and stranger still, I have not been sent
for by the Prest. nor spoken to by any member. The thing, I learn, was much considered
saturday and sunday — Hay29 told the ladies at Eames’30 jocosely,
that the Cabinet had been sitting en permanence
— and Mr. E[ames] himself informed me that Mr. Seward had been with the Prest:
the whole of Sunday forenoon.
[Marginal Note.]
Upon reflection, it is not strange — When the question is of the retaining or
dismissing a member of the cabinet, the Prest. could not well lay the matter
before the cabinet — he must do that himself.
There is a rumor
in town, that Burnside31 has landed to attack Norfolk (proven
afterwards, as I expected at the time, false)[.]
_______________
26 Cassius M. Clay, Kentucky abolitionist,
editor, politician, had supported Lincoln In 1860 and expected to become
secretary of War, but was appointed minister to Russia instead, 1861-1862,
1S63-1869. He was now returning -with a brigadier-generalship to make room for
Cameron to be eased out of the Cabinet, but, when he got here, he refused to
fight until the Government abolished slavery in the seceded states, and so the next
year when Cameron tired of the post, he returned to Russia.
27 Able Pittsburgh lawyer who practiced
frequently before the U. S. Supreme Court; anti-slavery Democrat who believed
in protection of slavery in the South where It legally existed; Free-Soiler in
1848; attorney-general in Buchanan's Cabinet, 1S60-1861, where he vigorously
opposed the plan to abandon Fort Sumter ; bitter critic of Lincoln in 1860-1861;
secretary of War, 1862-1868; professed supporter of Lincoln; treacherous enemy of
Johnson. Bates shares Welles's distrust of Stanton even under Lincoln.
28 Supra, Jan. 4, 1862, note 11.
29 John M. Hay: poet; journalist; private
secretary to the President; later, ambassador to Great Britain, 1897-1898;
secretary of State, 1898-1905; historian of Lincoln.
30 Charles Eames: international lawyer;
commissioner to Hawaii, 1849; editor of the Nashville Union, in 1850, and the
Washington Union, 1850-1854 ; minister resident to Venezuela, 1854-1857; at
this time (1861-1867) counsel for the Navy Department and the captors in prize
cases and for the Treasury Department in cotton cases.
31 Supra, Nov. 29, 1861, note 97.
SOURCE: Howard K.
Beale, Editor, The Diary of Edward Bates,
1859-1866, p. 226-7
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