The President sent
me a note this A.M. to call upon him this evening at eight. Although under the
doctor's care and ordered to remain perfectly quiet, I rode over at the time.
Doolittle called and went with me. Seward soon came in, followed by McCulloch,
Cowan, Browning, and Randall. We went into the library, where the proposed call
for a national convention was finished up. Seward, who, with Weed and Raymond,
drew up or arranged this call which Doolittle fathers, now suggested two or
three verbal alterations, most of which were adopted. It is intended that these
"suggestions" shall cover up Weed's tracks.
In all that was said
and done Seward fully agreed. He intends to keep within the movement, which has
become a New York scheme, in order to control it. His belief is that the
Republicans, of New York at least, will respond promptly to the call and make
the President's cause, which he means shall be his and the old Whigs', their
own. How this is to be done, and the course of the Senators and Representatives
of that State be sustained by the Administration, he does not disclose. The
Democrats, who in their way are the chief supporters of the President's
measures, are snubbed. I perceive Seward is satisfied with both the President's
and his and Weed's positions. The President, I think, is aware of this
discrepancy, yet tries to believe all is right.
Seward remarked that
McCulloch and myself had been uneasy because there had not been an earlier
demonstration made and the President's policy distinctly stated, but he had
been satisfied it was best to delay. I said that by the delay many of our
friends had got committed against us, particularly on those Constitutional
changes, — men whom we could by a plain, frank course have kept with us. He
said they would come right, but we must give Congress an opportunity to show
its hand. They had had seven months and had done nothing that they were
satisfied with themselves. We have done nothing which it was our duty to have
done, and are we and sound principles benefited by the Seward policy of delay?
Throughout the
preliminary proceeding of this call there was a disinclination to make the
proposed Constitutional changes an issue, yet it is the real question. This
shirking from an open, honest course I can trace chiefly to Seward, though others
have become complicated with him. Even the President himself has incautiously
and without sufficient consideration used some expression in relation to the
basis of representation which embarrasses him; and so of Doolittle and some
others. Seward's confidants are fully committed, and hence he and they cannot
act freely; consequently the great and important question is omitted in the
call, which should have made the invasion of organic law prominent above all
other points. He also, whilst conforming to the President's policy, strives to
preserve Stanton as an ally, who intrigues with the Radicals.
This movement is an
important one, and it has annoyed and pained me that there should have been a
sacrifice of principle to gratify any one. If it proves a failure, which I do
not mean to anticipate, it will be mainly attributable to the intrigues by
which Seward and Weed have been brought into it and finally controlled or
shaped proceedings. The intrigue has been cunningly and artfully managed by
them. They have mainly shaped the call, although it is in all respects not what
they wished. The President, I think, flatters himself that he has arranged to
bring them in, whereas the truth is, he would have found it difficult to keep
them out. Their aim and purpose are to remain with the old Republican
organization, of which the Radicals, or old Whigs, have possession, but which,
by the assistance of the President's patronage and the hocus-pocus of New York
politics, Seward and Weed will work into their own schemes in that State. I am
apprehensive that this movement in the cause of the Administration will by
their intrigues and deceptions be made secondary to their purpose.
SOURCE: Gideon
Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and
Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 — December 31, 1866, pp. 538-40
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