A craving, uneasy feeling pervaded the community through the
day. No intelligence from any quarter received, yet a conviction pervades
everywhere that much is being done. I was at the War Department at 9 P.M. The
President and Stanton were anxiously waiting intelligence.
I met Blair as I came from the Department, who wished me to
go to his house. A letter from Governor Morgan asking me to name the month to
which I would postpone the Union National Convention, if I desired a
postponement, was received and answered by me this evening. It was a singular
document and surprised me. I spoke of it to Blair, who said he had seen the
circular last week. This gave me even greater surprise, for Morgan has
frequently consulted and interchanged views with me, both of us concurring
against postponement. It was discussed by us at our last interview.
Blair, as well as myself, was puzzled, but we both were
willing to believe that no mischief was intended. The course of Thurlow Weed
and some New York politicians has been singular. Blair took from his pocket a
letter from Barlow of New York, a Copperhead leader, with whom, he informs me,
he has corresponded for some weeks past. Barlow is thick with General
McClellan, and Blair, who has clung also to McC., not giving him up until his
Woodward letter betrayed his weakness and his ambition, still thought he might
have military service, provided he gave up his political aspirations. It was
this feeling that had led to the correspondence.
I do not admire the idea of corresponding with such a man as
Barlow, who is an intense partisan, and Blair himself would distrust almost any
one who should be in political communication with him. Blair had written Barlow
that he would try to get McC. an appointment to the army, giving up party
politics. Barlow replied that no party can give up their principles, and quotes
a letter which he says was written by a distinguished member of Mr. Lincoln’s
Cabinet last September, urging the organization of a conservative party on the
basis of the Crittenden compromise. This extract shocks Blair. He says it must
have been written by Seward. I incline to the same opinion, though Usher
crossed my mind, and I so remarked to Blair. Last September U.’s position was
more equivocal than Seward’s, and he might have written such a letter without
black perfidy. Seward could not.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 —
December 31, 1866, p. 28-9
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