Senator Trumbull called
on me today. Says he is and has been Johnsonian. Is not prepared to say the
Administration policy of Reconstruction is not the best that could be
suggested. As Trumbull is by nature censorious, — a faultfinder, — I was
prepared — to hear him censure. But he has about him some of the old
State-rights notions which form the basis of both his and my political
opinions.
He expressed a hope
that we had more regular Cabinet meetings and a more general submission of
important questions to the whole council than was the case under Mr. Lincoln's
administration. Trumbull and the Senators generally thought Seward too
meddlesome and presuming. The late President well understood and rightly
appreciated the character and abilities of Trumbull, and would not quarrel with
him, though he felt him to be ungenerous and exacting. They had been pretty
intimate, though of opposing parties, in Illinois, until circumstances and
events brought them to act together. In a competition for the seat of Senator,
Mr. Lincoln, though having three fourths of the votes of their combined
strength,1 when it was necessary they should have all to succeed in
choosing a Senator, finding that Trumbull would not give way, himself withdrew
and went for T., who was elected. The true traits of the two men were displayed
in that contest. Lincoln was self-sacrificing for the cause; Trumbull persisted
against great odds in enforcing his own pretensions. When L. was taken up and
made President, Trumbull always acted as though he thought himself a more fit
and proper man than Lincoln, whom he had crowded aside in the Senatorial
contest.
Preston King thinks
that D. D. T. Marshall had better be retained as storekeeper at Brooklyn for
the present, unless there is evidence of fraud or corruption. On these matters
K. is very decided and earnest and would spare no one who is guilty. I have
always found him correct as well as earnest. King is domiciled at the Executive
Mansion, and I am glad the President gives him so truly and fully his
confidence, and that he has such a faithful and competent adviser.
The President
permits himself to be overrun with visitors. I find the anteroom crowded
through the day by women and men seeking audience, often on frivolous and
comparatively unimportant subjects which belong properly to the Departments,
often by persons who have cases which have been investigated and passed upon by
the Secretaries or by the late President. This pressure will, if continued,
soon break down the President or any man. No one has sufficient physical
endurance to perform this labor, nor is it right.
1 On the first ballot Lincoln had 45 votes and
Trumbull 5.
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