Senator Doolittle
came yesterday. I told him I had seen the President on Saturday and learned
from him that he (D.) had been at the Mansion on Friday evening. I made known
to him the feelings of the President and that he was not prepared for an open
rupture, but Doolittle said that would not do. The President must act promptly.
We were losing by delay. Wanted to know how Dennison stood and asked me to go
with him and call on Dennison.
But the Governor was
not in, and we went on to the President's, whose carriage was standing at the
door. I said we must not deter the President from his ride, he took so little
exercise. Patterson, his son-in-law, we met at the top of the stairs, who told
us the President had company through the day, that Smythe had been there and it
was, he thought, definitely settled that S. should be Collector at New York.
Smythe, from what I hear of him, is better than some of the candidates, perhaps
better than any. It has occurred to me that certain New York gentlemen were
selecting for themselves, rather than the Administration.
Passing Montgomery
Blair's with a view of calling on his father, the former came to the door and
asked me in, while he sent for his father. As usual, the Judge was strong in
his opinions against Seward, Stanton, and others. He predicts another
revolution or rebellion as the inevitable consequence of measures now being
pursued. Says there will be two governments organized here in Washington.
Maynard of Tennessee
made a similar suggestion at my house two or three evenings since. He believes
that the Senators and Representatives of the next Congress will appear from all
the States, that those from the Rebel States will, with the Democratic Members
from the loyal States, constitute a majority, that they will organize and by
resolution dispense with the test oath and have things their own way. The
extreme and reprehensible course of the Radicals is undoubtedly hurrying on a
crisis, which will overwhelm them, if it does not embroil, perhaps subvert, the
government, but the South is too exhausted and the Northern Democrats too
timid, narrow-minded, and tired for such a step.
The Fenians are
reported to be gathering in some force at Eastport in Maine. The Winooski,
gunboat, was sent thither last week with orders to wait instructions. Seward
advised that no instructions should, for the present, be sent, but on Saturday
I forwarded general orders to preserve neutrality. This evening Seward called
at my house and wanted instructions sent by telegraph. Told him I had already
sent by mail, but would send a telegram also.
Sperry, Postmaster
at New Haven, was at my house last evening, and is very full of Connecticut
parties and Connecticut politics, with a professed desire to sustain the
Administration, and the usual wish to make the Party in Connecticut and the
Administration identical, a work which more distinguished men than he are
laboring in vain to effect, not only in that State but elsewhere. What is
irreconcilable cannot be made to harmonize. The organization, or those who
control the organization, of the Union Party, are studiously, designedly
opposed to the Administration, and it is their purpose to break it down,
provided they cannot control it and compel unconstitutional action. They have
no thought for the country, but are all for party. Sperry is for himself.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 483-5
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