Washington's
Birthday. Advantage is taken of it by those who sustain the late veto to
assemble and give expression to their feelings, for there is quite as much of
feeling, partisan feeling, as of honest opinion in what is done and said on
this subject. The leading Radicals, on the other hand, are precipitating
themselves into monstrous error and showing their incapacity to govern or even
organize a permanent party. Only want of sagacity on the part of their
opponents, the Democrats, prevents them from slipping into the shoes which the
Radicals are abandoning. It is complained that the President treats the Rebels
and the Copperheads kindly. It is not strange that he does so, for kindness
begets kindness. They treat him respectfully, while the Radical leaders are
arrogant, presuming, and dictatorial. They assume that the legislative branch of the Government is absolute, that the other
departments, and especially the executive, are subordinate. Stevens and his
secret joint committee or directory have taken into their hands the government
and the administration of affairs. It is an incipient conspiracy. Congress, in
both branches, or the majority of Congress, are but puppets in the hands of the
Directory and do little but sanction and obey the orders of that committee.
To-day both branches
of Congress have adjourned and there are funeral solemnities at the Capitol in
memoriam of the late Henry Winter Davis, a private citizen, who died in
Baltimore two or three months since, but who had been a conspicuous actor among
the Radicals. He possessed genius, a graceful elocution, and erratic ability of
a certain kind, but was an uneasy spirit, an unsafe and undesirable man,
without useful talents for his country or mankind. Having figured as a leader
with Thad Stevens, Wade, and others, in their intrigues, extraordinary honors
are now paid him. A programme, copied almost literally from that of the 12th in
memory of Mr. Lincoln, is sent out. Orders to commemorate this distinguished
"Plug Ugly" and "Dead Rabbit" are issued. President and
Cabinet, judges, foreign ministers, and other officials have seats assigned
them in the Hall of the Representatives for the occasion. The whole is a
burlesque, which partakes of the ridiculous more than the solemn, intended to
belittle the memory of Lincoln and his policy as much as to exalt Davis, who
opposed it. I would not go, could not go without a feeling of degradation. I
yesterday suggested to the President my view of the whole proceedings, that
they were in derogation of the late President and the Administration. The
Radicals wished Davis to be considered the equal or superior of Lincoln.
There was a large
gathering of the citizens to-day at the theatre to approve the veto, and they
subsequently went to the Executive Mansion, where the President addressed them
in quite a long speech for the occasion.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 437-8
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