Diary of Edward Bates, Tuesday, July 19, 1859

Attended the funeral of Mrs. Asa Wilgus from Christ's Church to Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Very hot and dusty, but a brisk breese.

See hack 6. pages. — This evening I recd, the National Intelligencer of the 16th. July, which contains a long extract from a recent letter of Mr. Cass,³¹ Secy, of State, to our Minister at Berlin,³² about the liability of naturalized citizens to compulsory service in the army of their native country, if they go back voluntarily.

In this letter Mr. Cass abandons the ground taken in his letters to LeCle[r]c³³ (a frenchman at Memphis) and Hoffer³⁴ (a German at Cinc[inna]ti.). He now holds the equality in this respect, of native and naturalised Citizens; but does it in a confused and clumsy way, as if the change in his opinion had been wrought rather by fear of the consequences, than conviction of the right.

I was grieved to see the Nat:[ional] Intel:[ligencer] support Mr. Cass' first view, and now in its comments³⁵ on his last letter (which is open to the sharpest criticism) refusing to turn with Mr. C[ass].

I have prepared a long letter (Private) to Mr. Jas. C. Welling,³⁶ assistant editor of the Nat:[ional] Intel[ligence]r., giving my views on the subject and placing the question, I think, on impregnable grounds.

Note³⁷ — Mr. Welling answered me in a very friendly letter of 5 sheets — making a very good argument, I think against our naturalization laws, but (these laws being in force) no argument at all against our duty to protect the citizanes [sic] we have made.

I have replied in the most friendly spirit, but, I think, clinching the argument on my side[.]

["KENTUCKY TO BE STRUCK FROM THE ROLL OF SOUTHERN STATES. — The Charleston Mercury says that 'if the recent meetings for the reception of Senator CRITTENDEN in Kentucky, are a reflex of the feelings and opinions of the people of that State, she may as well be stricken from the roll of Southern States.'

 

"Very well; let Kentucky be stricken from the roll of the Southern States, and let the rest of the slaveholding States that will not learn political lessons from the South Carolina Gamaliels, be stricken out too. But how much of the South will then be left?"]

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³¹ Supra, June 8, 1859, note 83.

³² These instructions to the American Minister to Prussia Joseph A. Wright, July 8, 1859, may be found in the archives of the State Department.

³³ See supra, June 8, 1859.

³⁴ Secretary of State Cass to Mr. Hoffer of Cincinnati, June 14, 1859, in the archives of the State Department.

³⁵ July 16, 1859.

³⁶ Supra, June 20, 1859, note 3.

³⁷ Inserted later.

SOURCE: Howard K. Beale, Editor, Annual Report of The American Historical Association For The Year 1930, Vol. 4, The Diary Of Edward Bates, pp. 33-4