Diary of Edward Bates, April 27, 1859

Dined with F. P. Blair Jr²⁵ — the first [t]ime I was ever in his house — invited specially with Judge Jno. C. Richardson²⁶ and C Gibson,²⁷ to meet Mr. Schuyler Colfax²⁸ M.[ember of] C.[ongress] of Indiana.

The object of Messrs. Blair and Colfax, no doubt, was to have a confidential conference with me and a few of my known friends, so as to approximate the terms upon which the Republican party might adopt me as its candidate for the Presidency, and I and my friends might co-act with them, in federal politics, upon honorable relations.

Both those gentlemen are influential leaders of their party, and both declare that I am their first choice. They both say that Mr. Seward²⁹ cannot get the nomination of his party, perhaps not because he is not the acknowledged head of the party and entitled to the lead, but because the party is not quite strong enough to triumph alone; and his nomination therefore would ensure defeat.³⁰ Mr. Colfax is very anxious to consolidate the whole N.[orth] W.[est] so as to ensure what he considers the main point for which, as he understands it, his party contends — i. e. — that the U. S. shall not extend slavery into any country where they do not find it already established.

< To that I have no objection >

Mr. C.[olfax] is also a very warm friend of Mr. Blair, and is anxious to consolidate in Missouri, so as to put Mr. B.[lair] on a good footing with a majority in the State.

And, working for that end, Mr. Blair is eager to form a combination within the State, upon the precise question of slavery or no slavery in Missouri. This, undoubtedly, would be good policy for Mr. Blair personally, because it would strengthen the local free soil party (of which he is the acknowledged local head) with all the forces that I and my friends could influence. But I doubt whether it would be good policy for us to be come parties to such an organization. Such a course supposes affirmative action, i. e. the passage of a law for the prospective abolition of slavery; and it can hardly be necessary to incur the labor and encounter the prejudice incident to that course now, when it is plain to be seen that, by the irresistable [sic] force of circumstances, without any statute to help on the work, slavery will soon cease to exist in Missouri, for all practical and important purposes. This latter view, I think ought to be constantly inculcated, and kept before the public mind, by the press — It ought to be habitually mixed up (as it properly belongs to the subjects) with all our views and arguments on public economy — [,] Manufactures, mining, Commerce, handicraft-arts, and grain and cattle farming. This line of policy would aid and accelerate the drain of slaves from the State, which is, even now, rapidly going on, to supply the growing demand in the South.

Mr. Colfax, concurring with a good many Republican papers, is much put out by the first paragraph of my N.[ew] Y.[ork] letter,³¹ denouncing the agitation of the negro question. He seemed to think that it was a denunciation of the Rep[ublica]n. party, and would turn many against me.

I think otherwise; and that its effects will be good. It is chiefly the friends of Mr. Seward who make the objection, and they of course, would be astute in finding or making any plausible objection, to get a rival out of the way. If my letter had been universally acceptable to the Republicans, that fact alone might have destroyed my prospects in two frontier slave states, Md. and Mo., and so I would have no streng[t]h at all but the Republican party. As it is, all sensible Republicans know that it is the Southern democracy which was and is the first and chief and constant agitators [sic] of the question. And even now, such men as Blair and Colfax are fully satisfied of my true position, and the true meaning of the paragraph. And such papers as the Tribune³² of N. Y. and the Advertiser³³ of Boston, tho' they might wish it otherwise, are content with it as it is. While the Baltimore papers (Clipper³⁴ and Patriot) warmly accept it. Being true, I of course stand by it, as I must stand by all truth — Moreover, in cool policy, I am satisfied that it is best as it is.

_______________

²⁵ Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri: an ardent Freesoiler, congressman, 1857-1859 and 1861-1862; major-general in the Civil War; U. S. senator, 1871-1873; supporter of Bates for the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1860; advocate of Johnsonian moderation in Reconstruction.

²⁶ A close personal friend of Bates; judge of the Supreme Court of Missouri; opponent in 1860 of the sectionalism of both Lincoln and Breckinridge and advocate of Bell and Everett.

²⁷ Charles Gibson: a Virginia-born Whig leader of Missouri who had studied law under Bates; an ardent unionist in 1861; solicitor of the U. S. Court of Claims, 1861-1864; a loyal Lincoln man until 1864 when he broke with the President, resigned in a public letter of protest, and supported McClellan; later a Johnson Democrat. At this time he was Bates's political manager.

²⁸ Republican member of the House of Representatives from Indiana, 1855—1869; speaker of the House, 1863-1869; a Radical in Reconstruction politics; vice-president, 1869-1873. At this time he was apparently working for Bates's nomination for the Presidency.

²⁹ Infra, March 5, 1861, note 26.

³⁰ Conservatives who feared extremism on slavery would not have voted for Seward, and he had won the implacable hatred of the large Know-Nothing group, and of Greeley and the Tribune. See infra, Aug. 19, 1859.

³¹ See supra, 1-9.

³² New York Tribune, April 16, 1859.

³³ Boston Daily Advertiser, April 18, 1859.

³⁴ Baltimore Clipper, April 19, 1859.

SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, Annual Report of The American Historical Association For The Year 1930, Vol. 4, The Diary Of Edward Bates, pp. 11-12