The subject of
Reconstruction was not discussed to-day in Cabinet. Seward, while the President
was engaged with some one, remarked on the publication which had been made of
our last meeting, saying that he concluded the report had been made by Stanton,
for the
papers had said it
was from a Cabinet Minister, and there was no interest felt as regarded any one
else but Stanton. There were, he remarked, some other indications. All this was
said playfully as he walked the room and took snuff. But I could see it was not
play for Stanton, whose countenance betrayed his vexation. Seward saw it also,
and when Stanton said that Seward was the only one who would do this,—draw up
and publish proceedings in Cabinet, the subject was dropped.
As we came out at
the close of the meeting, McCulloch said to me that he had hoped there would
have been some call for a decided expression from Stanton, for the newspapers
and many honest men were disputing in regard to the truth of the report of his
views in the Cabinet exposition, and he (McC.) thought it wrong that a Cabinet
Minister should occupy a false or an equivocal position on such a question, at
such a time. In all of which I concurred.
There is no doubt
that the Radicals are surprised and many of them incredulous at the enunciation
of Stanton's remarks and position in the Cabinet. I apprehend that no one was
more astounded at the publication than Stanton himself. It ended any double
course, if one had been pursued. Sumner has repeatedly assured me, most
emphatically, that Stanton was with him and opposed to the President's policy.
Others have said the same. These men were deceived and have been until now, and
they cannot believe they have been duped.
The President has
not been unaware of the conflicting statements in regard to Stanton, and for
this reason adopted the course of calling out the individual opinions of each
member of his Cabinet and then took the opportunity of throwing them in a
condensed form before the public. This gives the attitude and views of the
Administration and of each member of it on the subject of the report of the
Reconstruction Committee in advance of the debate in Congress, and prevents
misrepresentations and false assumptions in regard to them. It has been the
policy of the Radical leaders to claim that the Cabinet was divided, that
Stanton and others were with them, and hence their papers and orators have
eulogized and magnified Stanton into enormous proportions. All this has now
terminated. I did not understand Stanton as expressing himself quite so
decidedly as he is represented to have done in the report, though it appeared
to me he meant to be understood as represented. No doubt he dissembles. He said
he did not approve the Directory plans in many respects, and if he were
compelled to act upon them as now presented he should avow himself opposed; and
he thought Congress and the President not so far apart that they could not come
together.
I followed in direct
antagonism and objected unequivocally to the whole programme. I had no faith in
Constitutional amendments at this time, in the present existing state of
affairs, with eleven States unrepresented and without any voice in the
deliberations; nor could I admit that Congress could prescribe terms to the
States on which they should be permitted to enjoy their Constitutional right of
representation, or that Congress should usurp and take to itself the pardoning
power, which is a prerogative of the Executive, nor were they to prosecute and
punish the people without trial. I, therefore, antagonized Stanton purposely.
He saw and felt it. Hence I think he hardly committed himself so fully as
represented. But he does not deny it. Will he?
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, p. 499-501
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