Sunday, April 30, 2023

Diary of Gideon Welles: Saturday, December 16, 1865

Senator Sumner called again this evening. He is almost beside himself on the policy of the Administration, which he denounces with great bitterness. The President had no business to move, he says, without the consent and direction of Congress. I asked him if the Southern States were to have no postmasters, no revenue officers, no marshals, etc. I said to him: "There are two lines of policy before us. One is harsh, cold, distant, defiant; the other kind, conciliatory, and inviting. Which," said I, "will soonest make us a united people?" He hesitated and gave me no direct answer, but said the President's course was putting everything back. This I told him was a general assertion; that conciliation, not persecution, was our policy, and therein we totally disagreed with him.

It was not right to accuse him, he said, of a persecuting spirit. He had advised clemency, had taken ground against the execution of Jefferson Davis, and asked if I was opposed to his being hung. I told him that I was not prepared to say that I was, and while he was so charitable towards Davis, he was very different toward all others South, though a large portion of the people were opposed to secession. I stated to him the views of General Grant, who had found the people disposed to acquiesce and become good citizens, that he found those who had been most earnest and active in the Rebellion were the most frank and thorough in their conversion. Governor McGrath admitted his error, was satisfied slavery was a curse, had no wish for its restoration; but Governor Aiken, who has been passively loyal during the whole years of the war, was wanting some apprentice system, introduction of coolies, or some process for legal organized labor. While McGrath had made great advances, Aiken had made none. Sumner wanted to know what Grant's opinion was worth as compared with Chase's. I valued it highly, for it seemed to me practical common sense from a man of no political knowledge or aspiration, while Chase theorized and had great political ambition.

Sumner closed up with a violent denunciation of the provisional governors, especially Perry and Parsons, and said that a majority of Congress was determined to overturn the President's policy.

SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 397-8

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