The President sends notice that there will be no Cabinet-meeting to-day. He went to Fortress Monroe on Sunday in a light river boat, and returned on Monday morning ill. He is reported quite indisposed to-day. As he takes no exercise and confines himself to his duties, his health must break down. Going down the river is a temporary relief from care and a beneficial change of atmosphere, but it gives no exercise. I admonish him frequently, but it has little effect.
The tone of
sentiment and action of people of the South is injudicious and indiscreet in
many respects. I know not if there is any remedy, but if not, other and serious
disasters await them, — and us also perhaps, for if we are one people,
dissension and wrong affect the whole.
The recent election
in Richmond indicates a banding together of the Rebel element and a
proscription of friends of the Union. This would be the natural tendency of
things, perhaps, but there should be forbearance and kindness, in order to
reinstate old fraternal feeling. Instead of this, the Rebels appear to be
arrogant and offensively dictatorial. Perhaps there is exaggeration in this
respect.
The military, it
seems, have interfered and nullified the municipal election in Richmond, with
the exception of a single officer. Why he alone should be retained, I do not
understand. Nor am I informed, though I have little doubt, who directed and
prompted this military squelching of a popular election. It was not a subject
on which the Cabinet was informed. Such a step should not have been taken
without deliberation, under good advisement, and with good reasons. There may
have been such, for the Rebels have been foolish and insolent, and there was
wanting a smart and stern rebuke rightly administered. If not right, the wicked
may be benefited and their malpractices strengthened by the interference.
From various
quarters we learn that the Rebels are organizing through the Southern States
with a view to regaining political ascendency, and are pressing forward
prominent Rebels for candidates in the approaching election. Graham in North
Carolina, Etheridge in Tennessee, are types.
Seward and Speed are
absent at Cape May. Dennison tells me that Stanton on Friday stated we had a
military force of 42,000 on the Rio Grande. If so, this on the part of the
military means war, and we are in no condition for war. I have not been
entirely satisfied with Seward's management of the Mexican question. Our
remonstrance or protest against French influence and dictation has been feeble
and inefficient, but Stanton and Grant are, on the other hand, too belligerent.
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